##VIDEO ID:https://www.facebook.com/100042941775370/videos/1124460942428259## Okay. Welcome back. Alright. So we need a motion regarding the resolution 20 twenty-four Yeah, did we already do it once No, this is a book on the resolution specifically. You already, yes. I moved to approve resolution 20 twenty-four resolution to deny charter school application. By Montrose Classical Academy. Do I have a second? Uh second. Okay, do I have any discussion? Think I will just state that the there is a great deal of work that went into the application. There are lots of details in this resolution and that I hope that the MCA board takes this as constructive criticism. Um and constructive feedback. And that they consider all the information that's in the resolution which is very detailed. Um and potentially work on a new application. Um that takes those things into consideration and that's just those are just my thought any further discussion? And I'm not opposed to a charter but a charter that's complete. That I think has the ability for sustainability over the long term. As we're going into uncharted times. For the discussion. Okay, We're voting on a motion to approve resolution twenty twenty, 20, 20, twenty-four, resolution to deny charter school application by Montrose Classical Academy. Missus Balak, come here. Mister Bush. Aye. Mister Fishering votes aye. Missus Hubde. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valerio. Nay. Mister West. Aye. Thank you. Alright. On to our childhood centre update. Questions about that. Yeah, it's just informational. It's just informational. Yeah. No questions? Okay. It all looks pretty straightforward. Are there house things going over there? How was that? Child child wise and to get a numbers and. Yeah, I don't know what their enrollment is. I think it is key information here. Mm hmm. Um I think it's slightly down from last year. Um is that correct, Jess? Yes, it's it's down. Yeah. 47 students for next year. Yeah. Yeah. They're two hundred and seventy-six. How much? Two hundred and seventy-six. Is there anyone? No, it's probably on that next report that you're going to talk about. When I visited Pete yesterday, they indicated that their preschool peak was down. They have kindergarten. They cast kindergarten. They don't preschool. Maybe I misunderstood it. Preschool it outer ranges down. And I said peak when I'm in outer range. Oh yeah. And that's actually yes. Outer range. Yes. Good. I would suggest going down arrangement. Make sure it's the coldest day you can find to go over there. And it's snowing. Okay. Any other questions about the early childhood centre update? Thank you. Um enrollment report. Yes, so enrollment as of December 5th is five thousand nine hundred and 78 students. Uh that is two down from last month and 76 down from this time last year. For enrollment. Um I am noticing you know we've had the demographer tell us that that the the birth rates in our county are really low and I'm seeing the impacts in preschool and kindergarten. Um with our decrease declining enrollment and that's where it's hit the most. And so that FT that number is not an easy just a person. It's been a month lead enrollment. We we sometimes refer to butts and seats. Yeah. And that's what they're talking about going to, right? On funding is just the. Well, they're just talking about going to the current year. Yeah, current year. Last year, averaging. No averages. Mm hmm. Right. Okay. Sorry. Any other questions about the enrollment Thank you. Okay. Yeah, wait. You take a look at the Montrose High School. Look at that big ninth grade class. That's a big class. Little bubble going through. Unfortunately, those classes whittle down as they go through high school. But then they get absorbed into Vista Black Canyon and places. How many do we just never see again? I don't know. I wouldn't have that number out of that right now. Okay, any other questions about the enrollment pool? Okay. Okay. And now, we have a meeting schedule for twenty twenty-five. So, now we know when we're going to be spending time together, you guys? Put them on your calendars. Lori, put that on. Same pattern as always. 630. Nothing changed really on on Tuesdays. No I don't see anything with. Lots of regular business meetings in June. Okay? Alright. Motion to agent. Did you approve the resolution? The resolution. Yup, I wasn't in here. Oh, oh yeah. Oh. Sorry. Do we? Well, that's good, isn't it? You did? So, we did. Um who made the motion? And second advice. Secondary. Alice. And the role cover. And Sorry about that word. We didn't want to see if there was butts in the seats. Good thing we don't have to count for October count. Okay. Alright. So, now, can I have a motion for Jeff? Okay. Perfect. Any discussion? Okay. Vote again a motion to adjourn. Mrs. Falak. Aye. Mister Bush. Aye. Missus Fisher and Bones. Aye. Missus Huffy. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valerio. Aye. Mister West. Aye. Merry Christmas everybody. So yeah you just want we have to do something special or a gift more than two or three of us are going to be the Able Tree Farm. No. Because it's not. You're it's socializing events ##VIDEO ID:https://www.facebook.com/100042941775370/videos/1301645404195417## I. Of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One and justice for all. And I have emotional the agenda please. I need to accept the agenda as presented. Okay? Any discussion? Alright. We are voting on a motion to approve the agenda as presented and this is about it. Hi. Mister Bush. Hi. Missus Fishering votes I. Missus Hubde. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valerio. Aye. Mister West. Aye. Thank you. Alright. Uh student spotlight please. Good evening, board of directors. I've set a timer for 15 minutes. So, I don't do this too much too much but we have a number of really great celebrations this month of our students and our staff members. Uh to begin, we're going to invite up Officer Travis Booth, one of our SROs and our friends from Lancosta Police Department and Braxton who's a student we're recognizing for the SRO Citizenship Award. So, Officer Booth and Braxton, if you'd like to come on up, mom and dad, if you want to come, you can come too. And we will leave the podium to you guys. So, come stand next to me, Rex. You'll be right here and then officer both is going to take the microphone. So, after you offer officer the coulter, you're right, you're right. I'm going to hurry. I I can say a lot about Braxton to be honest with you. But he wants to get to his church choir. And we're missing. And so he was he was hoping that we'd be done by six, right? So we're going to hurry and get it through. Um Braxton has been at the high school for about a year and a half. Sorry. I see a lot of kids coming through the school doors up in an SRO roughly 18 years and then law enforcement 28 and I haven't seen a lot of kids like Braxton To be honest with you. Yes. Wow. So when Braxton got to the high school is the first thing he did is how I met him because he came up to me and said hi. Um I thank you for keeping us safe. And I haven't seen do that. And he didn't just do it once. It seems like I get it all the time and I appreciate that. But I think the thing that's stands out the most is always got a smile on his face. You know. Yeah. He's kind caring. To other kids and I can guarantee everybody in this room hasn't had times and days. That they don't feel like being at work. Or at school or that. You don't ever see it on Braxton's Braxton space huh? Yes. He doesn't let us know. He lets us know that he's happy all the time. And I appreciate but I think the real thing that has stood out maybe nominating is I've never seen a a kid do this in the 18 years I've been an SRO and that is a shortly after school began his first year his freshman year he started grabbing the trash can and lunch and even though mister Robert he would help mister Robert would roll it around and he'd throw the trash in that other kid would leave on the tables to make a heart Mister Robert He never misses a day unless he's gone or sick. And I I appreciate it. So, Braxton, I wanted you to be nominated for this citizenship award and I appreciate the person you are and I'm a better person because I know you. Alright, here we go. Three, two, one. A very good home's picture. That was. There are two things here. I was I shouldn't have had to myself. Here we go. Three, two. Oh, that's ridiculous. There you go. Alright. Good job, Bryce. Good job, mom and dad. Thank you. Thank you, Braxton. Thank you, Braxton. Thanks, officer. Yeah, good. Thank you, officer Bear. Okay, in addition, we have many other student celebrations that I will get through quickly. We'd like to send a big congratulations to Olathe High School students, Marley Finski and Rebecca Taylor and Montrose High School student, Joel Potts, for making it in the Colorado Allstate Choir to make it into this choir. These students had to compete with approximately sixteen 00, the very best singers from schools the state. We also don't want to forget Kelsey Buddy at Olathe Middle School who got into the middle school state choir as well as Rylan Combs and Ella Sayles. Um there'll be a ton of celebrations that we forget but we want to include those for sure. Also, at Montrose High School, Luke Gann got into the Allstate Jazz Band which is highly selective. Uh congratulations to Montres High School Football on their second place four A State finish. Uh we appreciate phenomenal community send off for our kids on Friday morning before the team left for Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins is what I meant to say. Uh on December sixth, you can check out on our homepage and our Facebook, a really great celebratory video. Um we had farmers with combines lining Townsend. We had folks with poster boards that they made. Uh DMEA had the flag with their bucket trucks that the the guys passed under away to the game. It was just such a phenomenal, wonderful example of how our community supports our kids and another reason our hearts well. Uh congratulations also to Career Pathway students who are present to receive the Student Achievement High School Award that you board members were able to see at the 20twenty-four Colorado Association School Hoards Convention this past weekend. Montres High School student Briley Baines, Olathe High School student, Brock Facet, and Pete Virtual Academy student Spencer Leggett Proudly showcase their work and I'm told they presented to an audience of close to 1, 500 Casme members. Uh so, that can make you nervous, a great job, and great work for those students. At this time, we're going to invite up mister Lehman from Pomona Elementary School for the Altrusa Award for this is December, right? For December. So, mister Layman, if you'd like to bring Miss Rudy up. Um as always going to remind folks, we're thankful to Altrusa for their support of our staff and our school district. Uh in addition to a certificate, each Altrusa teacher gets a check for $50 that Altrusa says you have to spend on yourself in in your classroom if you choose or go out to dinner or do whatever you want. Okay. So, as you got your nomination or I have it, you have. I have it. I have. I do have. Always carry a spare. Awesome. Awesome. So, this is Tina Rudy and then, come on and everyone knows her as miss Tina. Yeah. Um we have the needs special education program at Pomona and Christina works with our primary students, K1 and 2 and if you don't know about the effective needs program, it is some of the most challenging students that we deal with in the district and miss Tina deals and and works in her classroom with grace, patience, and just does some amazing work. So, miss Tina is an amazing teacher, does incredible work with some of the toughest students in Montrose County School District. Every day, she models for her students what it means to be kind, caring, patient, and reliable. Her students rely to develop the social emotional skills needed to be successful in school and life and miss Tina delivers every day. Tina is an integral part to our team and AN program at Pomona and we're lucky to have her serving her students and community and Tina's been with us for this is year six. Awesome. So. Congratulations miss Tina. Alright. So, we'll give you your certificates. Okay. We also appreciate it. Perfect. Three, two, one. Good job. Awesome. Thank you. Let's hope you have this opportunity to work with her. She did me. Alright, thank you Miss Tina. Up next, we're going to have missus Hessey from Olathe Elementary School along with missus Carey. And hearing. We're now in. We're going to go off scripts. Okay, go off the grid. I don't know if that's good. Alright, I'm I'm Jennifer Hessey, principal at Olathe Elementary and it is easy, easy, easy for me to nominate Melissa Carey, missus Carey, who is a brand-new teacher to Olathe, came to us, new from Salida, and one of the best hires we could have ever brought into Montrose School District. I am beyond excited to have her. So, I do have a script here and I definitely want to make sure Melissa gets a copy of this because it talks about how wonderful she but rather than read through all that. I just want to talk a little bit about why I think she is nominated, why she should be nominated for this award. She came to our school and decided it was something passionate to her to do every single month an outreach project with her kids and I think this just exemplifies what teaching is all about, not just the academics but that outreach, that piece of building the whole child and so one of her events that she did was she worked with the local coffee house in San Juan and she got all the coffee sleeves from the coffee house and she brought them to the school and not just her class asked every kid in the entire school to write a positive message on those sleeves and so it just said, you're beautiful, be kind, and so then, took them back to the coffee shop and for the next month, everybody who bought a coffee had a nice message. So, that was just one of them. Right now, she is collecting blankets and teddy bears for not Haven House. Uh Dolphin House for the house and so is collecting those and then she and her students will take those out. So, I think this is just above and beyond teaching but on top of that, her grades and her academics. Um she's rocking it. We just got our doubles results and she's growing kids too. So, that is why Melissa is the apple of your sister. Go ahead I'll take your script. Alright. And then you take the certificate. Okay. Perfect. And miss Karen, you want to do a plug for the nineteenth? Um yes, on the nineteenth, we're going to put our hope packages because we're doing hope for the holidays for the Dolphin House for kids that are experiencing trauma. We're collecting hats, gloves, stuffies, and blankets and we're going to put them together and we're hoping to give kids some hope for the holidays that they can't get through trauma and are going to be okay and we'll take it to the Dolphin House then. Can folks recap what they elementary school if they want to. Yeah, high school. And then what's the deadline? The 18th is when we're going to put them all together and the nineteenth is when we're delivering them. And we'll the pickup will be on our Facebook page on Friday. But if you want to contribute, you have until dinner. And if people just want to drop them off at the front office, we're collecting them there and then we get them to miss Carrie's kids. Cool. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay, moving on. We have some wonderful things going on and. Um and you guys exist. Thank you. Um had almost forgot to say that for our celebrations, you're more than welcome to stay for the whole meeting but you absolutely dismiss when you're finished if you choose. Uh so, moving on. Do we have donations? We have no donations. So, we have wonderful things going on throughout Montrose County School District. Um as a preview, our all-state middle school and high school choir recognized students may visit us in January for some some music and they're they're talking about coming to present to you guys the song that got them into the Allstate Choir. So, we'll have that to look forward to. Uh in January and thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks. Alright. Uh Board Advisory committee updates. We just had our dad but that's going to come up Charter school stuff. Yeah. Superintendent's report. Let's have the enrollment report please and October count. Yes. So, as you said, we're going to be talking about October count. The official count day. Alright, I'm told that I can't be heard so I have to have a special microphone. So, hopefully, I'm going to feel like I'm yelling but so, the official count day was October 1st this year. CDE has many criteria that determine the FTE which is full-time equivalent of students that receive funding. This this is different than the student enrollment report that I report on each month. So, this is the funded people count now. Um October account information gets submitted to CDE mid November which choose up the district's funding each year. The specific details are on the agenda in the executive sessions section because the data is not finalized until January 15th. So you have it on your agenda in that section. Um CDE released new funding runs Friday showing total pupil counts and other funding factors based on what they know so far from all of the October counts from all of the districts including at-risk funding. So have some information some of the financial impact. Um looking at the first page of the October count data that the state has shared in total and again, I apologize that I can't project it but it's on your agenda. Um the blue numbers are the enrollment numbers and the green numbers are the preliminary October count funded pupil count numbers. Uh the takeaways from this information are for twenty-four twenty-five MCSD's preliminary October FDE count is five thousand six hundred and seventy-one. FTEs. This total is into the five-year averaging in the state funding formula for fiscal year 25 and the average total funded people count is calculated and so you've heard me talk about that averaging and it helps because it looks at the last five years not just the current year. So, MCSD is funded pupil count is down eighty-3. 5 FTEs compared to the budget. Um the budget was 5thousand7. 5, 7 48 point 5 funded pupils but after the five-year averaging, the district's funded pupil count is down to a total, down a total of thirty-six point five funded pupil counts. So, that is that is estimated about four and twenty thousand. Um less in revenue and all of this October count that I'm talking about is is just revenue. Not the whole picture, not the expense side but just the the revenue that the state choose up. Um other physical impacts affected by this year's October count and true up our at risk funding which is the free and reduced status. It's down 280 pupils decreasing that percentage of students on free and reduced status from 60% that we saw last year to 56percent. Um which equivalates about $450, 000 less than at-risk voting. Um EL funding is down fiftytwo thousand and due to the change in factors in the funding formula such as at risk the per pupil fund amount has decreased $83 per student from $11, 548 dollarsto 11, 400 465 per student. And so those factors adjust that for people. Um some categorical funding is coming in higher at about two hundred and 000 higher. That will help offset the decrease in revenue. Um there are also some one time funds. Um I like I said I just got this information to look at yesterday and so it's all relatively new but there's some one time funds such as like interest revenue, specific ownership tax, technology recit program where he turns in the old devices and we get money from that. A vaping settlement. So, there's some one-time money that's going to offset that decrease in revenue but this is an example of why we've been saving and why we keep, you know, our fund balance at a at at the level that we do for times like this if we need to use it more than what we budgeted and so kind of moving on to some of the other pages. Uh the second page shows comparison over time. Both student enrollment and funded pupil counts. Um the pink one shows the enrollment numbers and the blue line shows the preliminary October count funded numbers. Kinda reminder that the preschool funded students are no longer part of the state funding formulas, effective last year. So, to make it easier, it shows the data without pre K and with pre K on the on the some takeaways from this information is that the overall student enrollment is 4seven students lower than last October count and the funded pupil count is nineteen students lower than last year. Just comparing it to last year instead of budget. The next pages shows through enrollment, FDE count, and preschool count over time along with various student demographics for your information. and moving on to the last two pages in in that document. It shows the with free reduced meal eligibility information. So, some takeaways here as as I mentioned, the percentage of free and reduced students decreased from 60 to 56 and and in talking with the foods food service admin that processes this data, the main contributing factors that that were found are the paper applications processed were down 7%. So, we had less people filling out the the paper application. Um Medicaid Direct Certifications that don't require paper application They're just an automatic download. They were down by 190 students. And that's just a download of of Medicaid information. And but the biggest difference was more of the applications that were processed came in resulting in a paid status. When they were a free and reduced status last year. Um because their income was over the the limit. And so that was two hundred and eighty-six students. Where the the staffs changed to paid instead of free and reduced. So that's what's contributed to the at risk funding going down. We are also looking at and checking the data for any discrepancies that could potentially be identified just because it is a shift from what we've seen. Um but the percentage of at risk usually hovered between fifty-two, 54%. Last year, we saw a spike to 60% and so one of the things identified in that was the Medicaid certifications were new that they would would automatically download but from the factors I just talked about were down back down to 56% but if you look historically, that's pretty much the pocket that we've been in historically except for last year. There are many factors that go into total program funding from the state beyond the funded pupil count. Um as soon as the districts submit the mill levy certification that we're asking you to approve tonight to CDE next week is the deadline. Um then they will approve the final October count true update showing the impact of of this year's October count for NCSD. Um and I'll go over more information at the February Board Meeting because that's when I'll be presenting the second quarter financials. And can also add this this data to the agenda. What do you have? When does the audit start? When does the audit launch? Next month. Or you're getting presented the audit tonight. The results of the audit. I just want to see. They're going to start again. They gotta start again pretty soon. They started queuing and they and then you go to the public. Accept it in December. Basically. What what do you think the people think it's going to be? Is it simply eleven thousand six? Well no it it it was 11, 548 and it went down $83 from the October count per pupil. How's that going to that frame reduce going to impact the free lunches, our free breakfast for our kiddos at the elementary home? It doesn't. So, there's a there's a funding piece, the at-risk funding but healthy meals for all which is a separate legislature. Um everybody will continue to eat free but we try to get the message out that filling out this information is is crucial to some funding regardless of everybody still eating free. Um there is also in the works at the state level a different way to approach this data rather than those forms are are hard. Every district has a hard time getting people to fill out the forms and so at more automated ways that's supposed to be in effect for next year. Um that that won't rely on the paper forms. So hopefully that will help is totally impact the the lunch program then for the kids. Yeah. This year or not? No. No. It will impact the lunch program. Everybody will still remain eating for three. How long this year? Yeah. The the issue is this less incentive for families to fill in the form because everybody gets anyway. And so. So we've seen the impact of of people. They don't necessarily fill in the form anymore because there isn't to be a good reasoner for that would cause that. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. But it won't affect the lunch program or the free meals. Although there are some discussions at the state level about how to fund that program. Yes. Yes. Right. Um and then also discussions at the state level about potentially mixing the averaging. Yes. The governor's proposal is proposing that they take the five year averaging out. Mm hmm. Um all districts are not happy with that. Um because remember we have that budget stabilization factor this year. It's gone to zero. Um and we were you know wondering if they were going to reimplement this. So, that's not being reimplemented but taking out that five-year averaging is kind of a backdoor way of reducing our funding without reimplementing the legislative factor. So, that's his proposal. It has to go through everything until we have a school finance act in May. Um you know, we're hoping that that doesn't go through or it's at least phased in versus taking it out all at once and there's already discussions at all levels about that. If you our eyes on that. We have some percentages on that so we'll talk about it. Yes, every district loses money if that comes out all at once and so we've seen those projections so every district is is asking to be phased in at least. It also creates a much bumpier and less predictable budget from year to year. Mm hmm. As we know of enrollment kind of fluctuates by. Yeah and you can see the impacts that you're having that five-year average for us this year. Yeah. Yeah and there are some districts that will be much more adversely affected than even though I mean especially someone that's bigger. Pretty much. Yeah. So definitely something to keep in mind. Okay. Any other questions about that? So, let's move on to community input. Uh the board welcomes comments from our community members and has dedicated this portion of the agenda to providing an opportunity for the community to present positive comments, concerns, or complaints to the board. The board typically does not engage in discussion or provide an immediate response to the input but will ask district staff to respond at an appropriate time. The board is committed to providing a safe environment where all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect and expects all speakers to exercise their speech rights responsibly. Please also recognize that students often attend or view our meetings. Speaker remarks therefore should be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Speakers will be heard in the order they signed up and comments are limited to 3 minutes. Disruptive speakers may be asked to leave at the board president's discretion. Please stand and approach the podium when your name is called. After being recog advised, please state your name for the record. Okay, Forrest Faulkner. Forrest Falconer. Is Mela. Newton's first law an object in motion stays in motion until met with an opposing force. The greater the momentum, the more difficult it is to stop a moving object. MCA has momentum. It's Montrose Classical Academy. The Undeniable Parent Support, a proven curriculum, doubt after doubt, rebutted with facts. how about giving MCA the benefit of a doubt for once. And your own district accountability accountability committee recommending to approve an overwhelming 10 to three. Stand up please. So, let me make a proposal. You, the MCSD Board help be the fuel that gets MCA going. We want to be accepted as a part of your school family. Do not be the opposing force, unite with us, with parents, and our kids to bring an invaluable choice to Montrose. A denial will leave us no choice but to appeal with the state board and be a huge waste of taxpayer resources. An option none of us wants. Um ironically has been one of the main opposing points. I will never stop advocating for my kids. Uh so will. So I ask, will you dwell in the weeds of nitpicking, hypotheticals? Will your decision be based on the number of eyes dotted and Ts crossed in a 300 page application? Or will you listen to the voices of your community and your own district accountability committee? And approve this charter. Our kids are to bear witness of your decision and that will affect the very outcome of their lives. And she made his son, do you want to say anything or? That was the time was her idea. What does it say? Do you remember what it says? No. Four year old at 7 o'clock. I appreciate your time. Um that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Catherine Shaman. Good evening. I'm Catherine Sharman AKA Aubrey. Secretary of the founding board for the Montrose Classical Academy. Of all those who came up to the microphone to give comment on this charter effort on October 22nd. Over 60% spoke in favor of the school. Most were parents. Who wanted for their children now in this generation. We heard from homeschooling parents who have decided to homeschool solely because there is not enough there's not a school in Yes, even given all the options to which they would send their children. A retired woman who came from a very poor background in Mexico insisted that the fact she could go to school in a uniform and not be judged at all by her family's income, was the very reason that she moved onto a highly successful career in the world of aviation. A young woman was ever grateful that she stumbled upon the experience of teaching in a classical school. And several parents of children with special needs, noted that their children began to thrive only in a classical school setting. Former students who struggled with learning disabilities have been greatly helped in a charter school environment and a pharmacist told of the steady increase he has seen in prescriptions for antidepressants and ADHD drugs for children caused in part by the inundation of technology and classrooms. Also, among the supporters who spoke was a Montrose High School graduate who struggled to graduate from college despite having taken AP courses here. In February of twenty twenty-three, different subject, David Lucy and op designer became curious about the success of classical charter schools. He found that students attending a classical charter started in an economically disadvantaged borough of New York City. We're reading at 90%. The reading proficiency and their math skills were in 90%. And they were pretty much 90% economically disadvantaged as well. It's kind of confusing to explain that but that's the case. Um and he said I hope that this these kind of statistics will put to rest any questions over whether more charters should be allowed. By and large I have seen a genuine lack of openness and curiosity among those opposed to MCA. I've spoken with many people one on one. Some have been very fair wanting to listen. Wanting to hear about classical education because they didn't know. But by and most of them have not. Um they don't want to know what it's about. They want to don't want to know what's different. They just assume that it isn't different. And from the earliest rules of debate, establish in the Mada in ancient Greece, one should always acknowledge the the other side's best argument instead of operating on ignorant assumptions and rumors. In the Montrose Press' coverage of the public comment meeting on the twenty-second, there was no mention of the thought provoking speech given by Doctor Amy Shiffrin. John Brown. Good evening. I'm John Brown. I'd like to thank Miss Emis for her presentation. Unfortunately, I didn't hear a single word of it. You need to do something about your ability to speak to the public as well as yourselves. Microphones would be very appropriate so that all of the public can hear. I have a hearing disability and it's very difficult even when you called my name. I only knew because I was third in line. I'm here to talk about the MCA I am a parent I'm a grandparent. I'm a great grandparent. And I'm a great great grandparent. I have four generations. That are either in school, going to be in school, or have been in school in the Montrose area. The MCA is a perfect opportunity for our for my family of the, of, of age, so that they can go on to bigger and better things in our future. I have one grandson who was greatly helped by the Vista Charter School. All I can see is that there is something very special in the charter schools that are lacking in the the standard public schools. Uh I'm a victim of government schools. I was grew up in the military. My father was in and I went to overseas, went to government schools. You didn't have any choices. When you got choices like we've got here, we need to have as many choices as we can for our children. And the only way we're going to get that done is to have the MCA in here. The Montrose Classic Academy is a prime opportunity to get us back into speaking and talking and writing in what we used to call the three Rs. Reading, writing, and arithmetic. And we need to get back to those basics. And we need to be on a such a level that we can reach down to the students level. And reach them when they have a learning disability. Or something some other problem that will help them in the future to get over those. So we need the MCA. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sarah Field. Hi, Sarah Field. Merry Christmas. Nice to see you all. I am in favor of MCA. I am currently homeschooling my children. We are giving them the classical education. Some of which I do not understand because I did not receive the classical a classical education like Latin. That's a little weird sometimes but I'm getting it and I'm getting there and all the the collections and plurals. We're working on it. Uh but I am appreciating when say for instance, Elon Musk Musk posted something at the end of one of his phrases. He posted a box of of the Poplier and I handed it to my teenager and I said, what do you think this means? And she's like, It's probably voice of something keep people, people voice. She didn't know exactly what it said but she figured it out pretty close. And these are the kind of things I want her to learn how to do is the learning of how to learn. And being able to figure it out without having to Google everything because I feel like I outsource my brain half the time to Google. And I I hate that. I I hate I hope my kids don't end up. Well who knows? Before we know we might be wearing one in our head you know. Um but I did mention some things that got left out earlier. On October 22nd, over 60% of the people here spoke in favor of MCA. Yay. And over 60% of the people in Montrose voted in favor of Amendment eighty, protecting the school choice. Um, educators and parents have a right and a responsibility to participate in the educational institutions which serve them. This is what parents are doing and is my sincere hope that you, the school board, elect to serve the community, will listen. So, I'm hoping that guys will find it and find a way to let it go through. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh Rita Ravez. Hello and thank you all for listening to us again with such patience. Could you please restate your name? Thank you. Rita Rives. Thank you. So, I was just thinking and noticing how over the past few months, all the parents and community members that have spoken here regarding MCA. There's many different opinions on the topic but I think we all have one thing in common. Which is that we all feel really strongly about our kids' education. Our own children and the children in our community. That's one thing that brings us all together here. Um and also I believe that in America, something that many of us value is the freedom of choice and also the appreciation of diversity. So, I think that applies to schools as well. And I don't believe that one size fits all for kids. Personally, with my own kids, homeschooling, I noticed that each of them needs something a little bit different and that's really helped them to thrive. The ability that I've been able to do that for them. Um I personally really like the sound of the curriculum that MCA is proposing and I would really love that for my kids. I see it as as offering something that I can't offer them. I want them to have more than I can give them. I want them to be taught from different perspectives with different teaching styles and to me what Montrose Classical Academy is offering is very high you to me personally I also believe that it could benefit other kids that maybe are not flourishing in this public school system as well as many homeschoolers that aren't comfortable with the school system and maybe the mothers are struggling with homeschooling as well. Um Also, again, I I feel really strongly about kids and families that don't have financial means. I think that in America, you know, we love having lots of choices. I think it's great. We have lots of choices and I think those kids should have choices. I I I don't know how to put that into words so well, but I just feel really strongly that kids If we want to be the best country that we can be, that those kids should have options to to grow to their fullest potential. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Appreciate that. Okay. Uh so we are now moving onto the consent agenda. Are there any items to be called? Okay? Can I have a motion on the consent agenda please? And will we accept the consent agenda as representative? Do I have a second? I seconded. Discussion. Okay, we are voting on a motion to participate consent agenda as presented. Missus Bawick. Hi. Mister Bush. Thank you. Missus Fishering votes. Aye. Missus Hufty. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Vilario. Aye. Mister West. Aye. Thank you. Okay. Uh now onto the certification of mill levies for property tax year 20 twenty-four. And I'm texting the auditor to let him know he's up next. That's okay. So just wanted to let everybody know I'm not trying to be on my phone. So yes we are asking for you to approve the mill levy certification that gets turned into CDE to set the property taxes. Um so we are recommending I just said that. Approval and certification for property tax year 2000 twenty-fourfor taxes to be collected in two thousand twenty-five. As a reminder the mill levy is a tax rate. That is applied to the value of a property. One mill is $1 per one thousand of a property's assessed value and is calculated is used to calculate the amount of property tax owed. So assessed taxable values are based on a percentage of the actual market value and determined by the county assessors in Montrose, Uray, and Gunnison Counties. The residential assessment rate is 6. 7% for 2000twenty-four with a property value exemption of fifty-five thousand. That's the same as it was. I'm sorry. This is an important mushroom. I need to be able to concentrate. So, those rates are the same as they were in two thousand twenty-3. That hasn't changed. With the 6. 7 and the 55, 000 exemption rate. So, on the agenda, you will see If you don't mind, let me project it. You'll see the resolution. It's about to come up. He's must be behind because I'm clicked on it. Let me try to doing the maybe. You tested this beforehand. Okay. It's a little bit slow to respond here but we'll get it. That noise is allowed. Sorry for the delay guys. Um so, on the agenda, there is a resolution. It's resolution 19 2000 twenty-four showing the total mills of twenty-eight point three three eight along with the the dollar value of 23 million eight hundred thousand eight hundred and nine dollars. Two point two nine that so that's the amount that we collected. The 23 million will be collected. The total mills will be set at twenty-eight point three three eight. Um twenty-six point 039. Our general fund mills that will collect $21 million dollars as you can see on the resolution. And two point 29 two are non general fund mills to collect 1. 9 million to make the district's current bond. So that's why it's a non non general fund. Um to kind of give it context the total program funding for MCSD is 65. 5 million. Uh 37% comes from local taxes. Which what we're approving tonight for the mills. And 63% comes from state funds. Uh and then also there is so that's a resolution to be asked recommending to approve tonight and then CDE has a a template that determines these numbers. So I wanted to go through. Let me see if I can make this bigger here. So, CDE's template, all districts are required to use to calculate the mills and submit to CDE by the 16th of December. So, the timing of the board meeting was perfect because we have to get it to them by the 16th for 2025 property taxes. The first column from the left is last year's certification and I know it's pretty small. Um and the second column is the estimate of based on August 25th when the counties are required to submit preliminary, assessed property values in August. The third column is what we're asking for approval to certify tonight. So, on the screen here, it shows the gross assist values for all three counties and then there is a TIF tax incremental financing. Um so I'm I'm right here in this third column of 15 million. Um so what that is is that is the agreement that we have with the Colorado Outdoors. Um it's I think about a 25 year agreement. Uh that we have with them that they they don't contribute to the to the property taxes. And so that's based on their assessed value. And so then then there's a net assessed evaluation and that next number here is 65000. That's what's considered pass due. On property and so then this section here is when it gets into the mills. So, if you remember back in June of two thousand twenty-one, 8 House Bill 21, 1164 required districts to be at a minimum of twenty-seven mills and so we were asked to increase one mill per year over the over five years to get to that twenty-seven mills. So, we have a credit of 1. 033 mils left. So, we have one more year of increasing that one mill to get to twenty-seven. So, that's why set at twenty-five point 967 mills for the general fund. Um and then down below here there is a point sevennine abatement. So we have to set that included in the mill to collect the past due property taxes. And then so that brings the total general fund to twenty-six point oh four six. And then the next section is for the bond. And that's the the 2. 29 mils to collect the 1. nine million to make the the bond payment. And so down down here at the bottom, the total mills like I like I've spoken to were requesting is 28. 338 mils to collect just over $23 million dollars. On the resolution and in the narrative on the agenda, there's a breakdown of the mills in comparison to last year. So, last year certified for $2000twenty-four was twenty-seven point four oh five and for 2025, a total of twenty-eight point three three eight. Um and then the net assessed values last year 8hundred and10 million dollars compared to 8 andthirty7 million for 2000 twenty-four. So that was an increase of 3. 4%. Between last year and this year on the the property tax values. Remember, they reassess on odd years and so they'll reassess again next year. Um so, that's all I have for you. What questions do you have before voting on this recommendation? So, on the bond redemption fund, two point two nine. Is that right? That added to the total zero point at twenty-six oh four six. Uh huh. Is that right? And I gave you said two twenty-eight point three three eight. Yes. How far can we go? Is there going to be a state limit on the bond home mills? No. Um each district goes out to the voters to to set the meals for Evons. We were required by state statute to come up to twenty-seven. Yeah. And for the general fund specifically because of an misinterpretation from CDEs several years ago. The details which we could have another work session on but we have had one in the past. Merrily will explain that to people but it would take like an hour and a half right now. So, yeah. If the if the board needs a recap on exactly what happened there, we can. And we had CBE present that that time is explained kind of what happened. Yeah. A lot of districts were in that same boat of having to bring up their general thumbnails to twenty-seven. Yeah. So, we hope another mill next year and then the huh. In our and then we won't see that annual increase of that one now. It was just a legislative misinterpretation but it Simply as possible. Yeah. Um any other questions about that? Okay. Uh can I have a motion? I moved to approve and certified the mail levy for the property tax year 20 twenty-four and resolution 19 dash 20twenty-four certified property tax mills authorized by Colorado Statues for 20twenty-four through 2025. Can I have a second? Check. Alright. We're voting on a motion to approve and certify the male levy for the property tax year 20 twenty-four and resolution 19 dash 20 twenty-four certified property Taxmills authorized by Colorado Statutes for 20twenty-four2025. I I apologise. Was there any discussion? Okay. Missus Pollock. Aye. Mister Bush. Aye. Missus Fishering votes aye. Missus Abdi. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valario. Aye. Missus Mister West. Aye. Thank you. Auditor's report. Yes. So while Brian gets Paul connected to give our audit presentation. Thank you. Um I just want to take the opportunity. Um Margie Wickham is invaluable. She wasn't being able to be here tonight but she's invaluable in her audit process. She used to be an auditor and she just brings a lot of expert resources and knowledge to the district and so I just want to thank her for all of her involvement in this audit as well and I think it has Paula Martin. Are you ready, Paul? We're ready for you. Alright. All our pants. Um first, thank you for allowing me to attend the Romaldi. Um because of Casby. In virtually every district in the state is their and so this is my this school board meeting this week. Um so it's a little crazy. But my name's Paul Bacchus. I'm a CPA partner with McManus Associates. Um we're a firm primarily out of a couple other office locations. And we're a bit unusual. We don't do any income tax work. Um all we do is financial statements. And we audits around probably 20 or 30 different school districts and charter schools and you name it And this is our second year I believe with Montrose is that? Yes. Family? Yes. Uh huh. Second and third. Um they start turning together now. But what I'd like to do is just briefly walk you through kind of the financial statement all about the results and then answer any questions. So am going to try and share my screen that maybe if Ryan can make me a presenter then I can do that. The, there we go. Thank you. I kind of, you know, some auditors like the rare PowerPoints and everything but I kind of assume you guys would like to see what is actually happening behind the scenes and on the varnished views. So, this is actually our are on at work for mantras. Just to give you a quick idea, you'll get a feel for this. It's not necessary that you, I guess, be able to read every single thing but there's planning fieldwork and recording and so, when we do planning, really what you guys have hired us for and we work for the board is to make sure that you guys have good intro controls, adequate personnel, adequate processes to produce financial statements that are materially correct and then, we also helped prepare a financial report for you. That report's in your pocket. Um but the reason it's so long is it's not just for the Board of Education or even the electorate. It's also going to be available for volleyball holders, ASCC, the federal government, the state governments, there's a lot of different parties that use it. And how do we make sure that you guys can produce accurate financial information and that the report that goes on is it. First, we kind of, we have to plan it. So, the planning part is, let me expand here. Kind of the highlights of that are uploading all your data. So, we upload all your financial data. This each one of these is an item that we requested from your team and they uploaded it to a website called a website that we have called Weston for you guys. Um we then run reports and look for trends, changes, comparisons to budget, comparisons to prior year. Uh what we think the numbers should be and then we're looking for anything that's different. And probably the biggest part of planning is understanding the internal controls. So you can see these are all the different areas that we look at activity funds. So we actually you know went out. Um we've looked at you know all your school or at least the significant ones. How does money come in? How does money go out? Capital assets and capital projects, cash disbursements, procurement, you know, procurements, purchasing policies, but you know, it can be checks going out, credit cards, anything like that. Cash your seats, food service, journal entries, IT, payroll, which is a big one because that's the majority of your operating expenses, which is true for every district. Transportation, and then we use a database analytics software called Teammate Analytics where we'll just pull all the transactions we kind of bury it up so even though it's the second time occurred for me you'll always have somebody new on your audit team but as an example this is where we hold all your credit card transactions and then we did some data mining on it so and as an example, we maybe will look for unusual vendors. So, a vendor with, let me see what we got here. So, any duplicate ones or words and phrases on credit cards or checks. So, you can see we looked at, you know, Gif, Venmo, Square, PayPal, you know, we look for alcohol and all kinds of items. We'll look at aids. If it's a weekend date, it's likely going to be a higher-risk credit card transaction and then, we'll look at those. We do the same thing with cash disbursements. So, we can take your payroll register and compare the addresses of employees to the addresses of vendors. There's just kind of all kinds of dating you can mine now. Um I'm old enough to remember when you used to do random sampling and those days are kind of going now. Uh and so each of these is a workpaper and you know this was done by Natalie and reviewed by Tasha. Uh Once we're done with the planning stage, we move into the fieldwork stage and the fieldwork stage is about really verifying numbers on your financial statements. So, we follow a balance sheet approach. So, we kind of go down your balance sheet counts and we're going to look at cash and investments first. So, you can see if you have a account with BMO, and that account says that you have let's just take a look at this one. Um you know, X dollars in it. We can actually verify that that's the amount. This is actually a zero balance account but you can see the dollars rolling through there and that's because you guys work to earn interest on any available resources but then, we'll go through all the outstanding checks. We'll make sure it's reconciled but the goal is if you have X dollars in the bank that we know it's in the bank, it makes it's being reconciled regularly. It follows your investment policy. It follows you know, it's insured by FBIC or another thing called public deposit protection act. There's your investment policy right here. And so we'll go through and make sure we comply with that. Um but really in Wilson Bank Confirms out. Here's all your bank confirms. But really the goal is if your financial statement say you have X dollars in the bank. We won an LMS in the bank available for you to use as intended. We go through receivables. So, you know, that can be property taxes from the county. It can be grants from CBE or the federal government or someone else. Uh you know, it could be anyone that owes the district money. So, we're going to go through and give you follow up on anything that's outstanding. When money comes in, does it get coded in the correct account? Does it get this is the first day of voting get get credit for it. Um are the accounts being handled appropriately? If you look at your revenue statements, you'll see this is AR and revenues. You know, if you look at revenues is what's in the property tax, really? Property taxes and non-activity fees or some other revenue source. So, we're looking at kind of all those type of items. Uh we go through some other, you know, food service secretary, some other people, current assets. We go through all your capital assets and you purchase an asset at or dispose of an asset. We want to know, you know, was it handled appropriately? Do you have a listing of all your assets? Are you tracking them? Are they insured? Um are they being depreciated correctly? Um all those items to go through all your accounts payable and expenditures. Um you know, what what stuff be timely? I just, you know, if I see, if we see interest in late fees and we have, you know, whole team of five CPAs that are looking at this. Um you know, I want to see stuff paid on time. I don't want to see interest like these. We want to make sure if an expense goes out, it's budgeted for. It's reasonable and appropriate for the taxpayer to pay. Is it coded correctly? It's not, you know, we don't have utilities in an expense account or anything like that. Payroll is, at least for school districts is a big area because, you know, every district is, you know, 85 to 90 percent of your operating expenses related to payroll. Um and so, we're going through all your payroll procedures. So, here's kind of, you know, the way you approve for salary we have all your employers policies in here that we look through. We want to make sure you as the Board of Education approved a policy that payroll is being processed that way. And then we go through and make sure that you file the correct reports with Cara, with IRS, with Colorado Department of Revenue, and there's also a whole section that we go through on worry with that. Um you know, every district almost or almost every district, actually every district that I know has some obligation bonds outstanding relating to, you know, buildings they've built or projects that you've completed. You guys aren't any different. Think of that as like a mortgage on your house but when those were issue There was a lot of promises made. So, this this statement was sent out to everybody that purchased the school district bond and it had a lot of promises in there and so we we go through that and make sure that you guys have followed us through what you promised when that debt was issued. We go through your leases. We go through your technology agreements. We go through equity which is you know, did you start this year with where you ended last year? Um we don't have transactions in between the areas. Uh do we have the correct for Tabor Reserve. Do we have the correct canal sign? Uh we go through insurance. Um there's UF ballot questions. We want to make sure we comply with ballot questions or or following through what we promised the electorate we would do. Um we do testing journal injuries. We do a lot of testing on compliance with state statues. You know, just making sure that that we're following inflictable statues. And then another big chunk of this is single audit which is all the federal grants that you receive. So, it's like a kind of mini haunted in here. So, you know, when I when we look through the district, you know, we, your team uploaded a lot of these and then, we pull a lot from other sources that, you know, there was 500 different work papers that were scanned in and I don't know how many more we look at. Um that help verify your team can produce accurate financial information and the financial statements are accurate. You know, it's not to say we don't have a type of viewer there. Um I'm actually a bit of a typo magnet because if I was looking at the numbers but but those parties that need the financial statements, whether it's, you know, volleyballers, SEC, whoever it is, they can rely on that, know that the work has been done behind the opinion and then, once all that done and each of these is a note where somebody reviewed a workpaper and you can see, you know, it's like this would be a new one from Tasha and Mike saying, hey, you know, does this need to be looked at or does this need to be considered and then once they clear it, it it runs a red line through it and then, we have notes for next year of things that we want to look at. So, you know, ballot question, whatever is. We'll want to make sure that we address it next year if we see something that in this year that might be applicable to next year. Um so all those items are reviewed, signed off, and then the financial statements are prepared. And I'm not going to go through a lot of and we kind of go we send a draft to your team and along with any journal entries and things like that. But I'm not going to go through a lot of detail in it but I will just point out couple items. The, you know, as I mentioned, it's, you know, like it's a painfully longer report but that's because it's not just for you, the Board of Education. It's, you know, for all those other parties. The entire report is covered by an independent auditors opinion. So, you would have received an Email from someone on our team, either myself or probably Tasha. Um this is me right here but when we're doing the audit saying, hey, Board of Education. If you have any concerns, let us know and I just want to encourage you guys to always feel free to Gentiles. Um it really is a kind of team atmosphere where we work for you guys. We know what we have to do. We know what we have to get done but we do want to address any concerns that. Any concerns the Board of Education has. Um so this independent auditor's report is our opinion that the financial statements are correct. Uh materially correct and all those parties can use them. And we've done the work behind it to to approve that. Um There's a management discussion and analysis in here which is kind of your finance team's disclosure to all those parties of kind of what happened during the year. What are the financial highlights? Um there's just a lot of information in here but be aware that there's kind of two sets of financial statements in this report. One is modified cruel which is how you budget and and plan your expenditures during the year and the other is full of rule which includes some things the Board of Education doesn't have control over Lake Perra. Um that's all kind of determined at state level. You can opt out or kind of change anything. So, like these numbers in here include Paris so they're going to look a little different than probably what you're used to in your quarterly financial report. Um there's some charts and graphs but really section B is probably where you'd want to be if if you don't love the financial statements. Um I feel sorry for you guys if you you don't because it's like a great novel. Um everything that happened. Uh I will just point out on page C that, you know, the district has really good, responsible, fun balances, you know, I know your team is always wants to put, you know, every dollar to work on the education that you can, but you don't want to go too far down that route, where you're spending dollars that you don't have, and your finance team is, is really good at kind of analyzing those balances, and it's, you, you're going to see the next some of the funds and some of these dollars that came out during COVID. Uh districts about kind of have increasing revenues the last four or five years and I think you're going to see that switch to where you know you're just not going to get those user funds and a lot of those additional funding sources and that's where you really want to have a good finance team that can kind of manage those revenue changes. Um So, overall, the both the results of the year and the fund balances look, you know, perfectly reasonable and prudent balances to me and they don't start to use, you know, as too high where you're barting money or too low where if you have a negative surprise, it it's not on a crisis. I think you're kind of in that sweet spot. Um there's a lot of additional information in here. I'm not going to go into it in any level of detail unless you really want us to. There is so a letter in your pocket and it has certain things that we as independent auditors have to communicate to you. And unfortunately we don't get our right in plain English. Um we have to I call it nerd parent language. Or actually my wife calls it that. But you know this is what we have what we're trying to communicate to you is what accounting policy change during the year. Sometimes we haven't implemented a new standard that changes how the financial statements will look. Um or maybe the financial results didn't have any of those this last year. Um so it's you know they're very comparable to to last year and the previous years. Um the second part of this is what's hard to estimate items in your financial statements. Um you know sometimes you have environmental liability, legal liability. You guys really don't anything like that, your financial statements. Yours are very consistent with what I would expect for most districts. Um the biggest estimates in here relate to really the Para. And Pera is think that like Social Security for public employees but the the numbers that are in here are all come from Pera and then we take those numbers and apply basically calculate a proportional amount that goes on your district from Pera and so we take their actuary and all the reports and put them on your financial statements and but it is a big estimate that the numbers can swing pretty significantly and then the other one is just you know, help self-insurance claims but that's not anything unusual. Um no, difficulties encountered performing the audit. Uh one of the things, you know, monitor. I try not to say anything nice. Um but one of the things I really enjoy about working with your district is they're on top of kind of the timing, providing the information that's needed to be done. Um you know, you'd be shocked at how many districts are filing for extensions. We're doing this in February. It it just you know, I don't think it's best practice. You guys are not that way. Your your team's contacting us before I even think about school districts and you know, and they like, hey, we need to get on schedule. Um we need this to, we need to know what our lists are and everything and and I I really appreciate that. This is I think the most critical thing I would bring to your attention. Um so that I kind of divide this into two ways to look at it. Um one is the financial statements itself and you have this opinion in here that I I said is an unmodified opinion and it means that hey, you can use these financial statements user in their materially correct and a lot of people refer to this as a clean opinion. In really every district is getting this or well, nearly every district is getting this because if we get the financial information from your financing and we know notice something's wrong. We posted a journal entry and we fix it. Um and I have, you know, we have districts where we're posting, you know, 20, 30 disc journal injuries and when we're done, the numbers are correct but they weren't correct when they when we started and the reason that's concerning is it would tell you that hey, we had to post a bunch of journal entries the the quarterly financials wouldn't be correct. That's not the case for you guys. We do not have any significant entries at all. I don't I don't even know if we had any but if we did, they were you know, trivial Um if they're, if we have material entries, we put them in here. So, that is where you want your finance scheme to be. That's where we want our clients to be but that isn't where everyone So, this is really critical, I think, to, to, you know, it's not unusual to have material journal entries but if you have a lot of honor to certain accounts, it it can be concerning that you guys are in the sweet spot of not having anything at all. Um no disagreements of managements, the only thing that popped up and honestly, we we looked at 500 work papers. So, you know, it's hard to find things on your district because I think you have a really high-performing finance team but in two thousand nineteen, there was this change in in how certain employees had to be treated for Pera. Um there was a couple just you know, single digit, few employees that got put in as if they were post 2 thousand nineteen and so it calculates Medicare just a little differently and we're talking, you know, pennies on the dollar but I have to have something for you. So, your team, once we pointed that out, hey, you should look at this. They went through and kind of looked at every employee and gave us a list and I was like, okay, there's nothing significant there. It wouldn't, when we first saw we were in Sherwood, you know, where it was going to end up but it really was not anything significant. That's really the only thing that I have to bring to your attention and even that is really done anything significant. So, I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you have. Um I wish they were all this easy but enjoy it. Well, thanks. Does anyone have any questions for Paul? Sounds like your department did an amazing job. It's definitely a team effort. It's a lot of work. Okay. Any questions? Okay and Paul, thank you. Your team that we worked with especially Tasha that your your contact for us is is been really a pleasure to work with. Just really on top of things. If we have any questions, she's on it right away. Um so, yeah, you have an excellent team as well. Thank you. It's always nice to hear. But if you ever don't experience that, let me know. I will. Thank you, Paul. Okay. Thank you, Paul. Thank you very much. Um so, I think I'm not sure if this is an action item but at some point before your end, you'll want to do a resolution or motion to accept the audit and then let us know and we'll get it filed with the state auditor and then your financing will have some stuff for probably the board president to sign and get it filed with CDs. They will be taking a vote tonight. Anything. To to accept it. Yeah. Promise. We're on it. Yeah. I entered my sneaker off and eavesdrop. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. Uh so, without prompting, do I have a motion? I live to accept the audited financial statements for 2023 through 20 twenty-four. Great. Do I have a second? Sure. Do I have any discussion? We are voting on a motion to accept the audited financial statements for twenty twenty-three, 20twenty-four. Uh Missus Balak, hi. Mister Bush. Aye. Missus Fishering votes aye. Missus Hubde. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valario. Aye. Mister West. Thank you. Okay. On now to recommendation to purchase producers property. Great. So, as the board knows, we have been considering the purchase of the coop property just to the north of us and mister Pavlich has been working with the coop and has a couple of things to share with you and then, we are looking forward to this game action item tonight. Thank you. I just was going to hit on kind of three points. One, you know, we continue to have facilities needs throughout the district. We got a plan for the future. Um with the sale, the Brown Ranch property last year I think actually earlier this year but last school year, it provides us some opportunity to acquire any other adjacent properties. This property is adjacent to two district properties. The district campus here where we have early childhood students out of range campus and the district campus and it's just across the road from our Montrose High School property and so it gives us some flexibility for the future and so that's why we have it on the agenda today and so this would allow the superintendent or her designate to proceed with that purchase. Yes, ma'am. Should we vote for it? Um okay. Questions, mister Pavlich. Anything come up on the surveys and anything when they went through this? That's you know, that will, that's where we'll go from here. Okay. So, yeah, this signs the the intent and then, we have a 90-day window here where we'll be moving through all the required surveys to make sure that there's not something there we don't think is there. They'll be doing an environmental study of the property. Yes, ma'am. Phase one and 2. Just for the public health, it's a property. It's Oh my goodness. It's three and a half acres. Yeah. Three and a half acres. Yeah so to be clear the should we go forth with an intent to purchase there'll be studies done of the property to ensure that we're not purchasing something that we don't know has all sorts of right and legals gone through the contract to make sure we are protected and have the ability of something pops up that we could you know we'll be back to board to to to share We can make decision based on that. Great. Any other questions from Mister Pavich? Or Doctor Stevenson for the matter? Okay. Uh can I have a motion? Um go ahead. The Board of Education authorized superintendent or her designate to purchase the producers co-op property located at six forty-four and 500 South Rio Grande Avenue in the mountain four hundred thousand dollars. Have a second and second that. Do you have any discussion? Voting on a motion to that the Board of Education authorized the superintendent or her designee to purchase the producer's property located at 6forty4 and 500 South Rio Grande Avenue in the amount of 400, 000. Missus Balak, hi. Mister Bush. Hi. Missus Fishering votes I. Missus Hubde. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valerio. Aye. Mister West. Aye. Thank you. Okay? And now on to the chopspool. Okay. Do I have a motion? I moved to the Board of education, adopt a resolution, denying the charter applications submitted by Montgomery High School Academy to open a charter school for twenty-five, 26 school year based on the findings and reasons outlined in the charter review process. Do I have a second? A second now. Okay. Discussion. I wanted, can I? Yep, this is your moment. No, I don't want. Okay. Um first of all, I want to acknowledge the significant effort and dedication into the application and the work that the folks have done. I have spent endless hours reviewing the application, listening to arguments against and for, meeting with individuals reading endless Emails, researching, and then I dive deeper into Colorado lawn statue that Lebanon's charter schools and that's kind of where I think I got stuck a little bit. Um we talked about innovation and I don't feel that the charter school meets the requirement of innovation in regards to modern strategies to prepare for ever evolving world. And then the thing closest to my heart is those special populations. And I just believe they're missing details about NTSS. I believe the equitable access for all. Um there's a lot of federal law and state law and mandates in our charter schools. And in the staff. And so that's why I landed on that position. Other discussion. I'll start. Ehm I went to a lot of public meetings. All of them. Only missed about two or three of them and at those meetings there there was a lot of pros and cons that were discussed in those public meetings and I appreciated having the books so that I could see your primary sources that you were going to use. And then they kind of went away and then you had the poster board with kind of talking about the core knowledge sequence and that was helpful and then you added the movies to your public meetings. Um and then we received your application on September twenty-fourth at which gave district a week to kind of go over and make their recommendations. Hand it back to you and then you you change some things and got that back to us and I appreciate all the work that you did with that. Um and then we met October 8th and we did the timeline and the process of what we were going to do to go forth with the application and on the 2-1st the board agreed to let MCA go through with that process and I think we mainly did that because of all the work that you had put into that. Uh application. Um we felt like it was important to hear Your thoughts on your application. So, we went ahead and we went and forced with that and then, I appreciate the night that the MCA board came and we drilled them with a lot of questions and that had to be hard on the MCA board but we got a lot of information from that. You answered a lot of our questions. So, thank you for doing that. November 4th, we have the DAC meeting. The first DAC meeting and I appreciate the parents that came and that meeting was good because the parents talked more at that one. We went over the rubrics. Uh we discussed your application. Uh and then we were assigned homework where we had a week and we were supposed to fill out the rubrics. Uh study your application and then we had to send them back in and meet O'Kooley who's our president of Daft compiled all of that information for us. And and then she got that back to us for our second meeting which was December the fourth I believe and on that meeting we we did vote. There wasn't as much discussion at that one. We had people that were viewing that one and so I think that made it harder for parents to talk when you've got people looking at you. Um I might say that there were three members of the DAC. Group that did not show up at that meeting. I don't know if they got to vote. Or yeah. I I assume they did not get to vote if they did not show up to the meeting. So you can ask for a point of information if you would like. Point of information. Oh point of information. Yeah their feedback was forwarded to the board but they were not included in the actual vote of that evening. Because they did not show up. Okay. Thank you. I wanted to know that. Uh and then let's see. Dad meeting. We turned in the rubric. November 12. Um that was a meeting where we discussed. Should we get the Katsa external reviewer? To review the application and we kind of went ahead with that even though we had some doubts about is it going to be fair ed or bias but we thought it was important to get that external reviewer thing. So, say thank you Nisha for doing that because that information was actually very helpful for me anyway. Okay. Uh November 19th, we had that community meeting. Everybody got up and they talked and had comments from both sides. I appreciate people that got up and talked because that's not an easy thing for them to do. And and express their feelings on that. So I do appreciate the people that did that. Um I appreciate all the letters to the editors, the Montrose Mirror, The Daily Press, that's helpful for me to read your information. Some of the people are here that wrote those letters. The emails. We got lots of emails from people which also help to make the decisions. Um let's see. Anything else here? Tucking Oh, I don't know what that is. Okay, Uh so, I have a lot of information I put it all in a book so that I can refer back but the thing that really helped was the very last step and that was we had to write concerns or conditions for if what we wanted to how we wanted to vote and and hand them to the lawyer. And for me that was really good because I was reflecting on your application and looking at what was in the application and from that I was you know in the beginning I was going to go for approving it with conditions. But when I started writing down all of the conditions it a big list and I thought this is a lot of things that you would have to fix in order for your school to go through. So, because of that, I that's why I'm kind of thinking the way I'm going to vote is there's just too many conditions to fix and things like the kids that I value most are like my ELLs, the special ed kits, the the that that risk cost the kids and partner kits that I work with and I there was things in there that I felt weren't addressed and I really care about those gifts. So, I think I said enough. Just to clarify, Alice. Uh huh. Um so, board members were asked to individually contact the lawyer with potential items for anyone of the three resolutions. Right. Just to be clear. Right. We would not contacting each other with. Oh, no. Yes. No. I just want to make sure superintendent and the lawyers. So, they could be in Yeah. Depending on. But they they just get right in. In fact it took two days to do that. And this is just a lot. So anyway. Sorry. Thank you for your choice. Thank you for your thoughts. I just want to talk a little bit about we talked about opportunity and at risk kids and special populations and and those types of things. Um I am not convinced that there is an issue with that with the charter school. Uh there's conjecture, there's assumptions, there's There's a lot of hey, these people aren't going to be serviced or you're not going to be able to reach them or they're going to be left out. The only way that I can see that we absolutely make sure that noone is left out is that we discriminate. And then we find out exactly what where they are in this special populations or what is specifically at risk. And by doing that we've eliminated the opportunity for everybody. By saying hey we're now going to discriminate. We're going to be discriminating entity. And I think that's the opposite of what we're trying to do as a community, as, you know, getting away from, you know, a long history of discriminating. And so, we're trying to open it up for everybody. Um, and I think that has to do with our district here. And, and everyone in society, we're trying to make things better. So, I see the deaths, what the MCA was trying to do. Uh, they have a a blind admission. Uh, so that everybody has a chance to get in there. And people would have to look at it individually. It's like, is this what I want for my family? And to even apply in the first place. Is this is this type of a school learning curriculum what I want for my family? If it's not, then, they wouldn't apply. Uh no matter where you are in life. If it is, then, they would apply and I think one of the concerns was also are they going to have enough people that are even interested. So, it's kind of like you you can't have it both ways, are you? Is there not enough People or all these people are going to get left out. Um I honestly believe a lot of people, a lot of kids would be given opportunity here. What I've seen a lot with the people who have spoken, the letters we've gotten, the emails, we've read all those emails, is there seems to be somewhat of an ideological difference possibly and but honestly, I don't think there really is. I think everybody, I think someone came up and they talked about, we we want everybody to be served and both sides, wants to take care of the children. We want to take care of the children. So, they're trying to find the best way to do that. Uh I really don't think they're that far apart. Now, the one common denominator was also brought up is how is this going to affect the Machos County School District financially. Okay. I agree with Doctor Stevenson that we really can't take that to consideration. Um because that's out of the the realm of whether or not the MCA is functional within themselves. Not to you know I kind of call the term we have a legally defined conflict of interest. Um as the Montrose County School District. It's legal. But if we are at it as how it will affect our budget and yeah it is a conflict of interest. Now, it's legal. We're not doing anything wrong. If we decide to go that way, but we can't make a decision on that or from that direction. So, I would say looking at it, I did read all the different things. I read what the Dak had to say and what the reviewers had to say and I don't think we're that far far off. And Giving them an opportunity to to work on this with conditions and that's generally the direction that I would have gone. and that I will go. Um but I think everybody's put in a a lot of ton of work. And one of the things that the Casby Conference this week. And this is not something new to me because I believed it from the beginning. Um but the concept of we should be listening to the community. Uh the community have voted for us and asked us to be here to look after what's best for the community and I think that's what we're here for and we're taking care of the school district. What we're representing the community. Because if we didn't need a board then we would just the community would just hire superintendent. And then that would be it. Uh but they've asked the board from all different areas in the community and from different backgrounds or whatever. To represent the community We're not just represent the school district. We're here to be a part and to help it function and to make policy decisions. But that is my sense and that's where I come from. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Um this has been quite a learning process Um been doing this for about 100 days now. And you know, as a parent, you have to separate, I have to separate a little bit, being the parent and a board member but just to speak as a parent, with my own children, I've always, every year said like it depends on what my children needs because I know for myself what what my child needs and what's best for my child and the more options that I've had, the better. Um because every year is different for them and my kids have been in private school. They've been in charter schools. They've been in public schools Um and so, looking at this, I really wanted to make sure, you know, what is what is it that I'm supposed to be looking at as a board member, you know, putting that to the side and not and not trying to have bias or and the objective and you know, you've all heard me say that I've done the Katsa Bootcamp often and copy passages for the to know is Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers and it was recommended by Doctor Stevenson to the Dac that we review the CASA Boot Camp and to the main points statutory that we have to look at for a charter school is one is unique to our district and two, does it serve diverse populations? So, with looking at this, when I was hearing and reading through the two hundredand ninety-three page the application and then just looking over everything to see what what is really different in our community that would be different than our district schools. Um number one, the classical curriculum is different. Um we have had CPLA in our schools but this is the full array of CLA and the full approach of the classical model. So, that is different and not offered in our community. Singapore math is also different than what we offer in our community. The other point excuse me my my mouth's already dry. Um is Would this be an equitable option for students with different socioeconomic backgrounds? Um and the diversity. And when looking at this obviously there there cannot be any discrimination that has to be done in a very fair way and that's what I I've read that MCA would like to do. And and plans to do to get their students. What was really standing out to me though reaching diverse populations was the discussion when some people had brought up the foster care students. And you know, foster care is very, very difficult and the students in foster care don't always have the chance to be home schooled or don't always have the chance to go to private school and sometimes, they have had so much going on in their lives that sometimes they need a fresh start and this would be an opportunity for them to have a fresh start start and to have quality education. Um and I say quality education because I do believe that our our districts have quality education and I'm just saying, I see from their application that this is also quality education in addition to our schools. And so that area I see as being a way of meeting our students. Um and the diverse populations. But also the uniforms is attractive. Um I think to low socioeconomic students because I mean I see it with my own kids. I've heard it. You know it's gotta be the best shoes, the best clothes, and when you eliminate that then you can focus on what's important. Like the three Rs, reading writing Um also, the low technology environment also stood out to me. Cursive also is going to be offered and that's different in the district. Latin is going to be offered as well and coming from a medical background. I see the value of Latin and I also had a child that learned Latin and it helped him with other languages and so that is different than what is being offered. So, those are the those are big things that show to me that it's different. Um then, looking at mirror of the application. So, that's super important because we have to have a merit. We have to make sure that the mirror of the application would be successful from what we can see to serve the diverse populations, to serve different people in our community, and to serve them well. And what I saw through all of our meetings is first with the interview, Archer's Classical Academy is really putting people around them to succeed And so they had their education service provider, Minga, who is assisting them. They've had reached out to Liberty Commons and Fort Collins to surround them with help. And I I think that is excuse me. Strength because they they haven't gone through this process and they are showing that they are getting all the different avenues of collaboration to succeed and to have quality education for students. And then when we had the community input, there was an overwhelming support of from the community that wants Montrose Classical Academy. Um I did watch it remotely and there were 27 people that I counted. They were in favor. And even in Emails, there's been an overwhelming amount of Emails that have shown support for Montrose Classical Academy and then, when the Dak I wasn't there at that meeting but ten in favor for approval and three in favor of denial. That's overwhelming to have a DAC recommend approval or recommend to the board for approval and then lastly, the Capsa review and I was hoping that the Casa review would have been with us earlier in this process but it came Friday and it was really awesome to see because I really appreciate the staff and their review and there were similar things in that Kaxar review that the district staff did. So, that was awesome to see and what stood out to me with the council review Um grab my notes. I can just say it. Um with a cancer review, there was only one recommendation from the Capsa reviewer for conditions and then there were seven milestones and to me, there there wasn't a condition to not open it, to not go through with this process. There was a condition to be put in approval, a recommend for approval. Um if the board recommended for approval and the CAFSA, just to be clear, didn't say that they recommended to approve or deny. They just put in there that there was a condition and then seven milestones and in learning process, the reason that I would go with approval with conditions is because it's normal to have many milestones. Um it's normal to have a couple high-level conditions and an approval such as getting the facility figured out or enrollment and then it's normal to have multiple milestones and benchmarks and to me, I could see our district collaborating, collaborating so well as the authorizer of Montrose Classical Academy in you know, tightening up certain things that were noticed by the staff were noticed by CAXM or you know, questioned by but I see Montrose Classical Academy surrounding themselves with the support they need to truly serve students and serve them well and that's why I would vote for approval with conditions. Thank you Nisha. Um I have contemplated this back and forth for months. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. I got this nice your page application here. Um I've been meeting with people personally for and against since the summer. And what it came down to, a lot of the concerns that I had were also conceived by the DAC committee and the CACSA review and our district staff and it just came down to there was more concerns than I had that I just could not could not support it at this time. So, that's basically where I stand. I mean, I've I've dwelled over it for a while but that forfeit. That's my final standing is I just found too many things that were of concern to me that I don't think recovered in this application. Then we have to comment. You don't have to. I just want to make sure. Okay, I'm hungry with Mister Bush but the amount of comments that were out there having looked back to the Rubik's and we got previously some of that situation with the rubrics. Still some goals that haven't on them battle with that. I might take some time to do because can't expect to do that in one year. But again it's what's one of those things that there's probably and I think the number that I finally reached was about eighty5 pains that could probably be corrected on the whole statement of these presentations. So that's where I'm at. So I I'm I'm very conflicted about the decision here. Um For the record, I really do appreciate the massive amount of work that went into the application that we that we did get from MCA. I appreciate the board's diligence in that. Uh I appreciate Niche's desire to make sure that the application was reviewed in a fair manner. Um I have not appreciated the fairly constant inference that there's bias on the board against MCA. Um that has been very concerning to me because that's definitely the direction that that feedback has been coming. Um needless to say I was really happy that the board agreed to include a CAXA review and I do think that that was useful. Um especially useful in providing yeah highlights of areas of our application that were not fully developed. Um some areas that were mostly developed, some fully developed areas, some mostly developed areas, some harshly developed areas, some of those partially developed areas are areas that other board members have already highlighted as as areas where they have concern. Um I don't find it helpful when board members use income correct perceptions of what's happening in the district like for example that cursive is not being taught when in fact it is. I have a child who is actually learning cursive right now. So that it's that's really really unhelpful. Um when we're not using actual facts. Um about our district. About what's happening in our buildings to make decisions about an application like this which is a really really important decision. Um I have many concerns about the special populations. I have special concerns about the viability of the budget. Um I'm extremely concerned that we don't have a budget that I that I feel is fully formed and could indicate to the Board of Education that this is a viable option economically. Um that being said, I recognize that there's a great deal of local support for this and I think it's really important to own that, recognize it, see it. Um and take that feedback for what that is. That's really really important for the Board of Education to you here. Um regardless of what happens with with this specific application. Um also the teaching of Lassen is in no way innovative. Um I was taught Latin or someone attempted to teach me Latin. It's been absolutely zero use to me. It's not innovative. Uh wearing uniforms is not innovative. I also wear uniform to school too. And when I approach the subject when I was running for school board of our local schools wearing school uniforms for exactly the reasons that this board is opposing that this school wears uniforms. Um it I was basically told to sit down, shut off, and put my hands under my butt because that was absolutely ridiculous thing to suggest in an arriving public school system. Um although I agree with the very reasons that this board is suggesting school unit forms are a good idea. I don't disagree with you. But they're not innovative community has been not in favour of school uniforms in any way, shape, or form from the feedback I've been given. So the the latching onto that as a as a reason to say yes latching onto Latin as a reason to say yes. Latching on to a classical a classical curriculum as a reason to say yes. So these are not innovative solutions to education in any way, shape, or form. But I do recognize that there is support for it. Um and I, for that reason, would have been willing to consider approval with conditions, but the conditions depending on how this vote would be stringent and extensive. And I'm not. 100% certain that the board would actually be able to meet with those conditions. But I would be in favor of giving them the opportunity to, to try. To see if we can get to fully developed for a budget fully developed for facility plan that meets with regulations, fully developed for how will we meet the needs of those special populations. Um but but I I have to say that that I have some serious misgivings about the application Um But I would've I I would have personally been willing to consider with with conditions. Um that said we make the decision as a board. And the resolution comes from the board too. So however the spoke goes. When we meet with a lawyer to discuss the resolution following the vote. This is how the board will be moving forward. So there's nothing like that it. Um and as I said I'm very conflicted. I completely recognise the hundred and something families that are interested in this option. Um I think it's also worth board members understanding that the families that are not interested in this option aren't signing. There's no like sign up against. You just I'm just I'm just not signing my kid up. Right? That's how you vote no as a parent for that. And so it's important to note that going to have the parents who are you're not going to have as many parents who are not in favour of this option, come and tell us they're not in favor of the option, they're just not going to involve the kids. That's how that's going to go. We're not hearing their voices because they don't feel any need to come and tell us. But with that said, there are almost 200 families who are interested. And I think that's really important feedback for us to take Regardless of how this vote goes. Um and regardless of how this vote goes I want the MCA board to know and the parents to know that if it doesn't go in your favour this evening then come back with a more complete application. Right? You've heard the very detailed reasons why the board may vote one way or the other. So you know what you have to work with. Not one board member here is making a decision because they don't care about the kids and they don't care about your opinions or your needs and what you want for your kids education. They're voting based on how they think they need to vote to make good decisions for the district as a whole. And I think that's really important factor in this. And so however this goes. I need you to hear that. And understand that we're open and listening. And that not one single one of us is closed off to that discussion. Not one of us. Does anybody have any further comment or discussion? I, I, you know, and I, I just like to piggyback that fully developed or more developed category. I wish there would have been in that castle review more fully developed. Areas around the curriculum and the special populations in the building that probably was part of my decision. It was a big unfortunately, because I really had hoped Yeah. And then when I started looking at statue of law. Anything further? Wanna make sure absolutely sure everybody's had the opportunity to say what they want to say. In that case, I'm going to call a vote. So, we are voting on a motion to deny the Classical Academy charter school application. Okay? Everybody clear on what the bow down? Missus Bollock. No. Mister Bush. Aye. Missus Fishering votes no. Missus Hubty. Aye. Missus Murphy. Aye. Mister Valerio. Aye. Mister West. Aye. There we go. Okay. So, now, the board will need to, we have to make this, we have to make a resolution, and we need to meet with our lawyer in order to ensure that that resolution meets with all the legal ramifications that it has to do that. Um so, the board will be going into executive session to receive legal advice. Um And you are absolutely welcome to come back after we are finished with that. Uh we don't have a time limit for how long that could take but hopefully it won't do too long. Um and the live stream stream will come back. Um once we're done. So Thank you for being here everybody. I appreciate it.