g to order. Thank you for joining the Board of Education this evening. Please mute your cell phones as we begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, and this meeting is now
called to order at 6:10 p.m. For those attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on a TV, in the boardroom and in the lobby to access the live captions in a language other
than English on your own device, please scan the QR code on the screen or on the table near the entrance and select the language of your choice. The live stream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube. For links
to these live streams, please visit the Board of Education page of the PSU website or CTV On Demand on YouTube. Alright, next we're going to do the
Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me in reciting.
Thank you. Okay. Approval of agenda. Would any board members like to make changes to the agenda? Seeing none, we'll keep going along. Next, we have recognitions and
reports. Brian, I believe we have some introductions. Yes. Thank you very much. Good evening everybody. It's great to be in community with everyone tonight. We look forward to celebrating student excellence with our State Spelling Bee winner and our
Scholastic winners. And we also look forward to celebrating our incredible partnership with the Health District of Northern Larimer County. Leading tonight's celebration is John Cope, our Executive Director of
Communications. Welcome, John. Good evening, President Zamora, Superintendent Kingsley, board directors and everyone joining us tonight. This evening, we're proud to celebrate our incredible school district. Our
first recognition is for Nikhil Ghanta, for winning his fourth district spelling Bee and becoming our state Spelling Bee champion, here to introduce
Nikhil. Thanks. Here to introduce Nikhil and his accomplishments is Kayla Nelson.
Good evening. Members of the board superintendent and guest. Tonight we have the distinct honor of recognizing a student who has turned the art of spelling into a PSD legacy.
Please join me in recognizing Nicole Gunther Schrader from Kennard Core Village Middle School to say Nicole is a champion is an understatement.
This past January, he secured the PSD Spelling Bee title for a fourth consecutive year, but he didn't stop there. Earlier this month, in a grueling test
of endurance and intellect that lasted 55 rounds, Nicole correctly spelled Amaxophobia
to be named the Colorado State Spelling Bee Champion.
An extraordinary achievement deserves extraordinary recognition. As Nicole prepares to travel to Washington, DC this May to to represent Colorado in the Scripps
National Spelling Bee. We are thrilled to celebrate his hard work and dedication. Here is your district trophy and please help me congratulate again as
we have reached this amazing milestone.
Thank you. Got it. Okay. Okay. Congratulations again to Nicole on his hard
work. Our next recognition of the night is for our Scholastic Art Awards winners. These winners are from Fort Collins High School, Rocky Mountain High School, fossil Ridge High School, and Poudre High School.
Awards varied from gold to silver, and here to speak about the numerous award winners is
Alison Alter. Good evening. I'm here tonight to recognize our state Scholastic Art and writing Award winners and their
teachers, the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is our nation's longest running and most prestigious recognition program for visual art students. Dating back to
1923. The awards have a notable history with previous winners, including a teenaged Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Sylvia
Plath, Stephen King, Amanda Gorman, Ken Burns, and Robert Redford, just to name a few. So our winners are in good company. Tonight's winners Are here with
us will be recognized. We're recognized at the state level ceremony in Denver and had their artwork displayed at the Denver Art Museum and galleries throughout the city. Throughout the month of March. We have
both teachers and student artists to recognize tonight. So if you could please join me
at the podium. If you are award winner or art teacher. PTSD is
consistently among the top award winning districts in our state. This year's winners include two honorable mentions, five individual Silver Keys and one silver portfolio, including
Alta Clayton, who is here tonight. Seven individual gold keys and three gold key portfolios, including Wade Faulkner, who is here with us
tonight, the best of 11th grade in the entire state of Colorado. Sierra Wheeler of Fort Collins High School and the American Vision Award nominee, one of five honored in the state.
Megan Barber of Fort Collins High School. So congratulations
to all of our artists. And I'd also like to recognize the
teachers who are with us here tonight. John Michael Willard from Fort Collins High School, Missy Wolf from Rocky Mountain High School, and Chelsea Ermer
from Fossil Ridge High School. These teachers instruct and impact and inspire our students to think critically, to challenge themselves creatively,
and to put their unique perspectives out into the world. So thank you for all you do. Thank you, and congratulations to our artists. And also thank you to the families here who are here tonight, who continue
to celebrate and support the
visual arts and PSD. Thanks.
Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. You can't. Our
final recognition is for the Health District of Northern Larimer County. I'd like to invite senior Executive Director of Student Services Liz Davis to share more
information about this recognition. Great. Thank you
John. Great to be here. So thank you, superintendent Kingsley, PSC Board of Education. Good to see everybody. And PSD cabinet.
Great to see everybody tonight. So a little table setting and context. About three and a half years ago PSD made a commitment
to work more closely alongside community partners, recognizing that our students and families are best supported when we work together towards shared goals.
Around this time, PSD was also awarded a $9.75 million federal grant that launched a mental and behavioral health workforce development training program
for interns and fellows to support students and families in our schools. When that funding was unexpectedly cut in
2025, we faced a gap in support not only for the interns and fellows, but also direct support for our students and our families at our schools. And that's where the health
District of Northern Larimer County stepped up to help. Through our shared work and collaboration, building a streamlined referral process, we discovered a natural
alignment of our goals. Thanks to the health district staff and board of directors, we were able to secure $403,000 to fill the funding gaps and continue
to support the innovative training program, not only this spring, but into next school year. Public schools, as we
know, don't operate in silos. They are deeply woven into the fabric of our community. This partnership embodies the zeitgeist of our time, the
growing recognition that the most pressing challenges facing our students and families are best solved when organizations align their goals and braid
resources together. From 2023 to December 2025, there were 2500 referrals to our interns
and fellows, totaling 19,140 student contacts. Right, Holly? Yes. Okay. So today interns and fellows are active in 19 of our
school sites, and five fellows have been hired directly into our school programs. So I know I'm reading, trying to talk
fast, but I do want to extend my sincere gratitude to Holly Rivas, who coordinates and manages this program. So thank
you, Holly. So I also want to say thank you to the entire health district staff and board. And thanks to Allison Williams, Vice President of Strategy and
Impact. Rebecca Tull, senior partnerships director. Erin Hottenstein, president of the board of directors. And Brian Ferrans, executive director with the Health District of
Northern Larimer County. So I'll invite Erin and Brian to say a few words, and I just want to say thank you so much.
Okay. Thank you. Liz. I just want to say I think incredible things are possible when we work together as a community. And the synergy between the
health district and the school district, I think is a really special example of that. And I hope to see even more of that going forward in the future. And I am just really deeply
grateful for the partnership and the impact that it's having on our kids and young adults. It's really meaningful to me, and I'm so glad we're doing it.
And I just want to reiterate, say thank you again for the recognition. We're super grateful for the partnership. I inherited this partnership and can take no credit for it. I've
been in my role for a month now, but coming from some health partners and being part of the Longview Crisis Facility and seeing the the the high need in our community around adolescent
services and mental health care only affirms the need for these services and the expansion and sustainability of them. So we're super grateful to be a small piece of that for the
district. So thanks again. Thanks. Congratulations once again to our honorees. We're proud to celebrate you as you
represent the very best of Poudre School District. At this time, I'd like to invite our honorees, board directors, and
Superintendent Kingsley to the front for a group photo. On the
center front and center. Superstar. Yes, sir. Yes, I'm
sure the important. To show off those awards.
Congratulations.
Thank you for all your hard work you're doing. Doing a great job. Thank you. All right. We're going to move along to
our action items. So first we have a resolution in support of the week of the Exceptional child. Can I get a motion please? I move that the board approve the resolution in support of the week of the Exceptional Child, April 12th through 16, 2026. Thank you.
Kevin, can I get a second? Thank you Andrew. All right. Brian. Yeah. Aren't we off to a great start tonight? I just want to just need to say that out loud. I'm feeling pretty good. Adrenaline is flowing.
Let's keep it. Let's keep it going here. Joining us this evening to introduce the students who will speak to the resolution are Ainsley Garnett is Multicat teacher at Conard Middle School and Cathy Bowles,
teacher of the deaf at McGraw Elementary School. Welcome both.
Okay. Good evening, and thank you so much for the invitation to be here tonight. It's truly an honor to introduce one of our exceptional canard Mustangs. In my 18 years at canard, I've had the privilege of working
with many students, but Gil is definitely a standout. He is funny, caring, deeply loyal, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. Whether he's being a
musician, a big brother, a son, or a friend, he brings warmth and authenticity to every space that he enters. His smile is contagious and he has a way to light up an entire room. Gil
has made tremendous growth being with us at canard, but I would also say that he's made a huge impact on us. He reminds us to be present here, reminds us to choose kindness, and he
reminds us that people might forget what you say or what you've done, but they never forget how you made them feel. So our students, staff and community are better because of Gil, and we are extremely
fortunate to call him a canard Mustang. So, ladies and gentlemen, Gil Aiden. Hi
everyone. My name is Gil Aiden, and I want to share what life on the spectrum can feel like and what really helps at school.
A few things that make me me are that I'm autistic, I'm Jewish, and I moved to the United States from Israel when I was five. I feel like I'm unique because I've been through a lot and I've learned
more about who I am over time. For me, autism means my brain works in different ways. Sometimes I get stuck thinking about one thing and it can stay on my mind like it's on repeat.
That can make school and social situations harder. Sometimes I feel like people ignore me or think I'm annoying, so I mask. Masking means I try really hard to act in a way that makes
people think I'm funny, just so I won't stand out. But it doesn't always work and they can be exhausting. But autism is not only challenges. I'm successful with creativity. I
play the drums, I rap, I build skyscrapers and mansions out with Lego and like to research things and go deep into topics. I feel proud of myself when I create something, and it works.
Like making a grilled cheese, cooking an omelet, or building something that turns out the way I imagined. I also feel proud of myself when I'm loyal to my friends, because being a good friend matters to me. I'm
not doing this alone. There are people who help me and make school feel possible. My parents helped me by supporting what I like and caring about me. When I say I've had a bad day,
Miss Garnett supports me by telling me what she sees in me and pointing out the good things I do, which helps me see myself more clearly. Mr. Latuda
helps me feel happier when times get hard. Miss Bates supports me by creating an environment where I can calm down when I'm overwhelmed, so I can, so I can come back ready
for school. Services matter because they help students like me actually learn and belong. Not just to get through the day when the school listens to kids on the spectrum and pays
attention to what triggers and what helps us, it becomes easier to stay calm, do our work, and be ourselves. The most important thing is feeling
understood, because when I feel understood, I don't need a mask as much. And I can focus on learning, building real connections. Thank you for
listening. Hey. Come here. Mr. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us tonight. My name is Kathy Boles, a teacher for
the deaf and hard of hearing at McGraw. This has been 33 years in the making. 28 of those in Poudre School District. So, so
grateful and honored to be here. Obviously with many kids in my 33 years of teaching, many have made an impression on me. Few
like this one here tonight. I've been lucky to have Kendall as a student for only one year. Soon she'll be in middle
schooler and I'll be sad. Literacy for deaf and hard of hearing kids involve a lot of very important factors. Early
language exposure, lots of support from home, specific and explicit direct instruction in English, and sometimes ASL like
in her case. And so I'm just very happy to know that she has all these things in place for her. Thank you mom, for your support and for using her
language. I'm going to let her introduce herself, and I'm so honored to be able to congratulate and recognize Kendall. So I'm going to voice a little bit over her signing.
So you know what she's saying, Jenny. My name. Hi, my name is
Kendall Bump. I'm in fifth grade at McGraw IB World School and I am deaf. I am new this
year and we celebrate Deaf Awareness Month month in September and in Miss Bowles class she helps all the deaf
and hard of hearing kids. Create a Google slideshow. About our hearing differences
and what we need in the classroom. I work really hard on my speech with Miss Libby Cravens and. And on my goals
with Mrs. Bowles, my interpreter, Mrs. Gomez, gives me access to all of my learning in class. I have good friends who are deaf as well and
hearing friends that sign with me. I love it here. My buckets
full are. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for being here. Do any board members have something that they would like to share? The moment, or is
your bucket just full to do you have. Yeah. I'm just grateful for your courage, for both of you, for, for doing things that that for most of us in this
room probably were a lot easier. And I just am absolutely amazed by you. Well said. I appreciate how much joy you brought here.
Like you're sharing your story, you're sharing the things that make learning challenging, but also easier through what your teachers have done and your classmates are done and how you have shown up. And I just can't
tell you how amazing it is that your positive attitude and the amount of learning that you're actually allowing everyone around you to do is amazing. Thank you for being part of PSD.
Do you have anything that you would? I know I can't help it. Ansley and Cathy. First I wanted to say thank you both for being such great ambassadors for our school
system and your respective school communities, especially our amazing students. Gil I we are all impressed by your maturity, your multi-talented
nature of who you are. But what resonated most with me about what you said is being a good friend matters to you. So thank you for sharing as much about your character as much as you
did your intelligence. And Kendall, I want to say on behalf of all of us, thank you for coming to our school district because you make it stronger because you're here.
We're so proud of you. Welcome home. I just want to echo one thing and say thank you to the students. Thank you to the
teachers and the support, and thank you to the families for sharing your students with us. This is a perfect reflection, I believe, of who we are as PSD, and that we are a very strong community together, but it
takes a community for us to shine as bright as we do. So thank you so much. Please stick
around. We'll want a photo. Jill, can you please call the vote? Carla. I Conor Duffy I,
Kevin I Scott Schoenberger a doctor. Andrew Spain a Jessica Zamora I motion passes six zero.
All right. Can I get a motion for our next resolution, please? I move that the board approve a resolution in support of National Arab American Heritage Month, April 2026. Thank you.
Connor. Kevin, thank you for the second. And, Brian, I'll let you take it away. Thank you. Tonight we look forward to hearing about the National Arab American Heritage Month
resolution from Mohamed Mahmoud, father of a Dunn Elementary School student. Welcome, Muhammad. Thank you everyone.
Thank you for having us here today and good evening everyone. My name is Muhammad. I am the father of Anas. When our family
moved from Egypt to Fort Collins so that like I and my wife could advance our studies at Colorado State University,
Anas was only three years old. Watching him growing up here really brings us joy as his
parents. We are deeply grateful to our school district and the wonderful staff at Don. Thank
you for. Fostering an environment where children don't have to hide their roots, but instead they are encouraged
to share them and celebrate them and feel deeply proud of who they really are. Today,
it's my honor to present to you a very special third grader who has worked very hard to share
with you his story today. So please welcome my son Anas.
Assalamu alaikum. That means peace be upon you in Arabic. Good evening, teachers, respected guests and everyone here today. My name is Ines and I'm in third grade and I am so
honored to stand before you today to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month. I was born in Egypt, but I have been growing up here in America since I was three years old. My
family moved moved to Fort Collins so my dad could get his PhD at Colorado State University. And now my mom just started her PhD there too. I'm
so proud to be an Arab-American Muslim. Egypt is an incredible place. When I visit, I get to see the Great Pyramids of Giza in the new Grand Egyptian
Museum. Did you know it is the largest museum in the world dedicated to just one single civilization? I also love seeing the beautiful Nile River and the tall Cairo Tower, and
looking at how the whole city of Cairo lights up at night. But honestly, the best parts about Egypt for me are eating my absolute favorite food koshari and getting to spend
time with my big family here at home. I'm also very proud of my Muslim community. My big memories are big celebrations and all the fun gatherings we
have at the Islamic Center. This year was actually a huge milestone for me. I fasted the entire month of Ramadan for the very first time. I want to say a very special thank you to my
school. Dunn Elementary for giving me the chance to share my to share my culture and traditions with my classmates every year, whether I'm doing a
presentation about Ramadan or just talking about my heritage, my friends and teachers at Dunn always make me feel happy and
included. But outside of my heritage, I'm just a regular kid. I recently started playing flag football in an after school program and I love it. I
also play tennis and I'm a big fan of watching anime like Pokemon, and you can usually find me just running around and playing in my front yard. If there's one thing I want you to
remember today, it is this. Being an Arab American Muslim kid feels like having a double superpower. My first superpower is being a kid who loves playing flag football, watching
Pokemon, and hanging out with my friends. My second superpower is my rich heritage, my beautiful traditions, and the deep history of my family. Having both of these superpowers makes me exactly
who I am. I believe that when all students are encouraged to share their own unique superpowers, it makes our schools better, stronger, and a lot more fun. I want to thank
everyone in Poudre Poudre School District for recognizing Arab American Heritage Month. It makes students like me feel incredibly welcome and proud to belong here. And so thank you
so much for listening to my story and Happy Arab American
Heritage Month. Wow. Yeah. I think there's like a collective hush of amazingness just observing you. Thank you so
much for being here. I feel like I just learned so much about your heritage, so much about like that. You're proud, you're so proud and it's amazing. And I love that you feel like your identity is
included. And I love that your family feels like they belong. And that's all we ever want in PSD, is that you guys all feel collectively like you belong and you do, and we're so much better for having you with us.
Thank you for sharing. And I also agree. Thank you for sharing your superpowers. I'm going to lock that away. Does anyone else have anything they would like to share? Please?
Honest. I am so proud of you and I'm so proud to be your superintendent. I remember meeting you last week on the playground at Dunn Elementary School. You remember that, right? Well, you were so nice
to me, and I was so proud of you for just the way that you showed up, not just as a Dunn elementary School student, but how you represented your family, your broader school community. You made me feel like I had a
superpower as a superintendent. So thank you for representing all of everybody that you share identities with, as well as our broader districts. We couldn't
be more proud of you. Job well done tonight. Jill. Can you
call the vote? Carla. I Conor Duffy, I. Kevin. Hi. Scott. Schoenbaum a doctor. Andrew Spain. Hi. Jessica Zamora, I
motion passes six zero. All right. We have another resolution. Can I get a motion for 5.3? I move that the board
approve a resolution in support of national bilingual Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month, April 2026. Thank you very much, Andrew. Can I get a second? Thank you Connor. All
right. So joining us this evening to introduce the students who will speak to the resolution is Rose Whitney l d
teacher at Harris bilingual. Welcome, Rose. Good evening. My
name is Rose Whitney. I teach English language development at Harris Bilingual Elementary School, where Spanish and English are rigorously taught in kindergarten through fifth grade. Tonight you will hear
from two of my amazing third grade students, Eli Morris and Azucena Galvan Salazar. These
students are fantastic examples of multilingualism. They can read, write, speak, and even be funny in two languages, which if you've ever tried to speak
another language, you know that's incredibly difficult. I'm incredibly proud of them and can't wait for you to hear
what they've prepared. Eli will go first, followed by Azucena.
Futbol en mi Casa, mi mama, miss Hermanos en espanol con mi papa inglés. También en espanol. Me gusta estar en una escuela
bilingual porque puedo aprender a dos idiomas. En dos idiomas porque puedo hablar con las personas y hacer mas amigos con
muchos ninos. Hi, my name is Eli. I'm in third grade and I like playing soccer at home. I talk with my mom and my brother
and sister in Spanish and with my dad in English. I also talk with my grandpa in Spanish. I like being in a bilingual school because I can learn in
both my languages. I feel proud to speak two languages because I can speak with more people
and make more friends. Hello, my name is Susana. I am in third grade at Harris Bilingual Immersion School. I speak both
English and Spanish and I really love being bilingual. Being bilingual is special because I can talk to more people. I can understand my. When she tells me stories in Spanish and I can help my
friends who speak Spanish too, I can help them translate or with sounds of words. Speaking to languages also helps my brain grow. It helps me think
in new ways, solve problems, and learn more. I also help my dad speak English too. Also, I think it's important for schools to help kids learn more than one language. It makes our
school a place where everyone feels included and we can all share our culture and help each other. No one gets left out. Thank you for letting me share why it was important. I love
being able to speak two languages and help more. Kids
can learn another language too. I love how both of you named that. You got to grow your relationships with so many more
people and grow your community, because you're able to speak more than one language. I think that's an amazing asset that I wish I had. So thank you for sharing that and letting us in on your experience. And thanks
for being PSU students. Does anyone else have anything they would like to share in English or Spanish? Seeing none yet, please just briefly, members of
the board over the last couple of weeks and in the next couple of weeks into the future, you've been having numerous community engagement sessions about all things our district. And one piece of recurring
feedback that many of you have shared with me is how many community advocates there are that are voicing their expression of the power of bilingualism in this district's
history, past, present, and future. And I think no. Susanna, Eli, and Rose are symbolic of the power of that and how you represented your school
community, your family, and our entire district. So congratulations to all of you. We're really, really proud of
you. All right. Jill, can you call the vote, please? Carla Bey's I Conor Duffy, I Kevin I
Scott Schoenbaum a doctor. Andrew Spain, I Jessica Zamora, I motion passes six zero. Thank you. Can all of our resolution
guests please come up and have us share a picture with us? Oh, we have one. I'm so sorry I almost missed. I did change the page already. Can I get a motion for the last resolution?
I move the board, approve a resolution in support of National Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 19th through the 25th, 2026. Thank you very much. Can I get a second? Thank you
Andrew. All right. Thank you. Joining us this evening to speak to the resolution is Don Fite, volunteer in partnership
coordinator. Welcome, Don. Good evening, members of the board. Mr. Kinsley, thank you for having us here this evening. My name is Don Fite. I serve as the volunteer and partnership
coordinator for Poudre School District. Next week is Volunteer Appreciation Week. So I want to welcome everyone in appreciating those volunteers as they come into the buildings, celebrate the incredible volunteers that come in those
buildings and make everything happen. Our volunteers are embedded into the fabric of PSD. They support everything from nursing, nutrition, athletics, early childhood, our language,
culture and equity departments. And that's just to name a few. This community members bring specialized expertise that enriches our entire classrooms. They provide opportunities for
our students that simply would not be there if they were not there in those classrooms with them. To put their impact into perspective, we currently have 14,381 registered volunteers
this year alone. They have contributed over 91,000 hours, and that's just as of today, which is amazing. That represents thousands of moments
where students felt supported and teachers felt like they were a little less overwhelmed because of these volunteers. That is staggering to me, and I deeply appreciate all of the
investment that they put into our children. To speak more on this impact, I want to make sure that I invite Pam Murphy here. She is one of our registered volunteers that comes in to not only the
schools and volunteers, but she also volunteers at many events that we hold within PSD. So please welcome Pam Murphy.
Thank you everybody. Superintendent Kingsley, board members and Don, thank you so much for including me today. I thought I'd just share a couple quick reasons why I volunteer
as a retired educator. I knew that I would miss being around students and, and my colleagues and in general, just being part of a learning environment because learning doesn't stop.
So volunteering has allowed me to continue that and more. The good news, I get to see a lot of my old students and colleagues. The great news I don't have to test or grade
volunteering has also allowed me to engage in the bigger community at such things as Stem events, career fairs, and like the high school hiring
fair, the joy that I get from volunteering is seeing these students so engaged in a lot of community outreach, not just in the classroom, which I think is so important. So I hope that I
speak on behalf of most of the volunteers. When I say that, I really think it's a win win for all of us, because I think as volunteers, we benefit as much as the school district. Thank
you. All right, so one last thing I want to say as we lead into next week, please join us in thanking these volunteers as you see them into our schools. Many of you that are sitting
here tonight are volunteers. So I personally thank you from PSD. We couldn't do this without you. You're the backbone of support for our students and our staff. So we greatly appreciate that
and PSD and thank you for your time having me here this evening and God bless. Thanks
for being here. My quick calculation says it's about 60 hours per volunteer, and I know that's going to fluctuate a lot, but that's a week and a half of just pure love going into our
schools. And I just want to say thank you so much for modeling for our community and for our students, how we do this together and how we make each other better. And we're not actually even expecting anything from it. We just want
to make it better. And I so appreciate you continuing to give your time to us, even though I, and I like that you don't have to grade, you get the time off. Does anyone else have anything they would like
to share for volunteers? Yeah, please I do. This is going to be for you, but also a summary comment for all of our recognized guests and our resolutions. Sometimes I wish
you could see what it looks like from our vantage up here. When I came into the board meeting tonight, like many of you probably came with a lot of baggage from my work life, from
turning on the news and constantly getting bad news after bad news and seeing the world fall apart. I really wish that in those moments, I remembered this feeling and
this view that I have because it really fills my cup. And what I mean by that is this if you're ever doubting where we are as a country, or that we're falling apart, or that the world is falling apart, I'd
invite you to come to a Poudre School District Board of Education meeting every other Tuesday night. I think there's more America in this room tonight than I'll ever see on TV or any news updates. Tonight.
We got to celebrate our students excellence. We got to celebrate our students diversity. We got to celebrate volunteerism. We got to celebrate our partnerships with our community partners to make
our district and our community more healthy. And I just think that it's just an amazing thing to be able to celebrate all these things in one room in one night, and I wish we could go
home after this. I know we have business to do, but I just want to say a personal thank you to everyone who's here, even law enforcement. Sorry you were in my comments and I forgot you. Also, thank you for being here. Every board meeting, keeping us
safe. I appreciate your efforts. So I just want to say thank you to everyone who came tonight for different reasons, but we're all here together in this celebrating this one moment. And I think that's a really beautiful thing. So from this volunteer board, thank you for
your volunteerism. Thank you for the work that you do to make our district better. And thank you, everyone, for being here tonight and making this special. Thank you. Thank you
for that sentiment. Kevin. Jill, can you please call the vote? Carla. I Conor Duffy I Kevin I
Scott Schoenbaum a doctor. Andrew Spain I Jessica Zamora I motion passes six zero. All
right. Now we'd love to take a picture with you all.
Students up front. No. Please, please.
123. No.
All right. We'll keep rolling. But thank you all so much for being here. We really appreciate you coming. The next item on our agenda is our superintendent report. We're. Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the Board
of Education and to the community. Thank you. I honestly not sure if I even need remarks tonight. I think just the recognitions and celebrations somewhat, not so
much. They completely speak for themselves. I don't know if I've ever been more proud to be the superintendent of this incredible school district, members of the community, not only just good evening. I just
want to say thank you for being here. The energy in this room for the last 12 hours has been just unbelievable. At 7 a.m. this morning, this room was filled with cabinet members,
board leadership, mayors of Fort Collins, the town of Timnath, the town of Wellington, city managers, town managers, county commissioners, all working thoughtfully together
in partnership with our comprehensive planning Committee to identify thoughtful ways of reimagining the next chapter in our district's history. So I want to thank members of the board not only for engaging the
community, but I want to also say thanks. Special thanks to our board leadership for engaging thoughtfully with other elected leaders across our community in service of building trust. I also want to say a huge thanks to Doctor
Tracy Guile, our Lead Assistant Superintendent, and Brett Hansen for your work as co-chairs of our comprehensive planning committee. The work that you're doing in partnership with other cabinet members and navigating us
through incredibly complex change is something that we're all collectively proud of. It is reducing the emotion in some ways to allow people to show up in a space to be authentically
collaborative and ideate about what might come next. So I just want to say thank you for your incredible leadership. I've had an incredible two weeks of engaging the community. I've
been across 11 schools. They've been in the midst of state testing over the past two weeks, and I continue to be incredibly impressed with the focus on our
humanity. There have been many places where I've visited across the country where testing feels like a very high stakes environment. We take it seriously, but in a very healthy way, in partnership with our families and our
students. So to see joy in the midst of celebration amongst many of our schools, I just wanted you to know there's a lot of really, really good things that are happening. And I know we'll see the rewards on those incredible student
outcomes in the weeks and months ahead. I think we have an incredibly productive meeting scheduled here tonight. You will see our second finance update from the state and how it ties into our district
budget process. As we as we have recently shared with our broader community, we will continue to regularly share updates on providing budget information that we are receiving from the state and
how we are believing in real time. It is impacting our school district, and you will see that tonight. As a reminder, again, most of the upcoming board meetings, you are going
to continue to see a series of budget updates. So I would ask any members of the community who are either here in person or watching online. Please stay tuned to the multi, you know,
preliminary proposed and hopefully approved by the end of the year presentations that have to do with the really important work brought before our board regarding balancing our school district budget tonight, we'll also the board
will hear a brief update on a reduction in force process that was presented at a previous board meeting. As has already been shared with the board and licensed staff in our districts, we have discontinued the rift
process at this time, and I'm so grateful. Collectively, the HR department and partnership with the Reduction in Force Committee was able to find creative solutions to achieve
that incredibly hard effort and hard work. And I want to share that. Last week was Assistant Principals Week across the country. And so I'll close by just sharing a brief video that was put together by our
communications team, by celebrating all of our assistant principals who are doing incredible work within the respective school communities across SWD. Congrats to all of our
assistant principals. Oh, hi. Welcome in. Welcome to leisure. Come on in. Hi, I'm Dina Cox, assistant principal here at Leisure Middle School. Thank
you so much for having us. How long have you been in your role? I've been here for four years in this building and as an assistant principal, so it's a great place to be. I'm glad you're here. Let me introduce
you to some kids at Snack Shack. Let's get you something to eat. What can I get you? Let's do some Skittles. All right. We'll take some Skittles. Thanks. Awesome. Yeah. Is there
something students would be surprised to know about you? I think students are always surprised when they find out that I play an instrument. I can play the piano, the guitar and the accordion, but let's go
say hi to percussion. I don't play the drums, but these kids do. Hey, percussion. Good morning. Glad to see you guys.
Hey. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Thanks. You two one. Awesome. One one something students like you do all day.
That's completely. They probably think I just roam the hall all day long. Oh, I know
those cameras are heavy. Tell us about a proud moment you've had so far this year. I love this question. I am so proud to be a part of this community here at leisure. This is an
amazing place that our parents and our staff and our students have worked to build, and this year in particular is a really special, proud moment, both as a mom and as an administrator, because I have a fifth grader
who will be here next year. And so as our middle schools do in the district, we do a lot of different things to prep our fifth graders to be ready. My own fifth grader has had many opportunities to come and be here in the in the building.
And so seeing her embraced by this community has been just really rewarding and amazing. And so that's a really proud moment for me. Tell us why you do what you do. I have just
always wanted to make a difference. It's just something that I need in my life to have that sense of fulfillment. I found making a difference. When I went into teaching, I then,
as I furthered my career, I found that I can make even a bigger difference in administration, where I can now expand that difference into activities and clubs and academics. And I get to hang
out with educators who also have the same passion of just wanting to make a difference in kids lives. And so I do this for that sense of fulfillment. And yeah, it's a pretty amazing
job, I love it. Awesome. Oh thank you. Awesome. Oh, I'm so glad you came in to visit us at leisure. Hey, Emma. Jean. There you go. But I think I've got a
job to do, so thanks for coming to visit Leisure middle school.
Come see us anytime. By. That was amazing. All right, next up we have community comment. This
is opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who register to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board.
All right. Welcome. First up, we have Chris Lindsay. Oh, we're going to have you on this
one. Sorry. No. It's okay. No. You're great. Totally okay.
Still little piggy. There it is. Awesome. Thank you so much for setting this up for me. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Chris Lindsay and
I'm a school counselor at Rocky Mountain High School. I want to start by saying thank you to Director Director Schoenberg for attending negotiations. I attended part of the day on
March 31st, and would just like to share my experience about shared decision making and the lack of shared decision making at the district level and the need for a change. So I've seen
shared decision making fail in instances of curriculum, graduation requirements, class registration, concurrent enrollment, Icap, and more. I'm happy to share specific examples, but in a different
setting. These decisions come directly from the district at the district level and have had a negative impact on students and significantly increased school based staff workload
that could have been avoided. Educators who are in schools working directly with students are either not consulted at all or asked for feedback under the falsehood that it will be taken
into account just to have it be discarded. While our admin at Rocky continue to respect us in decision making, I have failed to see shared decisions from the district. It is crucial to
have the voices of those educators working directly with students, those who understand what goes on in schools on a day to day basis, when making
decisions that directly impact those students, I ask that Poudre School District implement a robust and more comprehensive shared decision making model, such as the one
proposed by PE between district employees and those working in the schools, so we may collaborate effectively and better serve our students. PTSD is full of amazing staff and
amazing people. Let's collaborate more. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for being here. I just okay,
next up we have Cassandra Moore. Welcome. So I'm here to respectfully request that Poudre School District
reconsider its search and interrogation policies to afford Fort Collins youth the same rights that they would have in our neighboring districts. I urge the board to
move forward towards a more collaborative approach with parents, rather than the current approach. As it stands now, Poudre school district permits, permits physical searches of students and allows
law enforcement to interrogate students without parental notification. Neighboring districts, including Thompson Valley, Weld, weld, RT. Four, and Windsor, Johnstown, Milliken, Greeley, Evans and
Saint Vrain Valley all have written policies requiring parental notification as soon as reasonably possible. When students are searched by district staff, they also require parents to be present
for law enforcement interviews or interrogations. Baldari four and Windsor goes a step further and notifies parents prior to searching students whenever possible. We teach our children
that consent must be free and voluntary. Yet Poudre School district policy creates an environment where children are pressured, even coerced by threats and intimidation to consent to searches, including
by having uniform law enforcement present and under threat of disciplinary action if they do not consent. Students with disabilities and those who have experienced
trauma are no exception. Even though these students often have difficulty advocating for themselves and have disabilities that mean that they may have significantly different responses to these searches and interrogations
than typically developing children. Yet the district actively prevents them from having the support and guidance of their parents. I'd like to
share my experience with the board. My child was pulled out of class in the middle of the school day and questioned by the Dean of students and a school resource officer. My child has documented
disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, as well as a history of trauma. They were asked for consent to search their body and their belongings by the Dean of students. While uniform law enforcement was in
the room and informed that refusal to provide consent would result in disciplinary action. There was no attempt by the district to ascertain whether they were fully able to
comprehend the significance of consenting to such a search. Poudre school district did not involve mental health providers to offer guidance or support, given their autism diagnosis or their history of trauma, they
were instructed to remove their sweatshirt, socks and shoes, turn their pockets inside out, remove their belt and lift their shirt. Then the dean of students searched their
backpack and sent them back to class. My child later informed me of the search, not the dean nor the nor the school resource officer. I attempted to obtain details of the situation by
contacting my child's school by telephone, but calls went unanswered. I was only able to get details of what occurred after going to the school in person. At that point, the school day had ended and staff
still had not made any attempt to notify me that my student had, that my child had been searched in loco parentis is the legal doctrine that permits schools to perform searches without probable cause, as they
are empowered to act in place of a parent. As a parent, the decisions that I make are based on what is in the best interest of my child. Your time has expired. Can you? Are you able
to wrap up? Yes. I respectfully ask the district to consider how this policy is in the best interest of our children. Why are the children in our school district afforded fewer rights
than in neighboring school districts? I implore you to consider the detriment of this policy to our children and embrace a united approach that involves working alongside parents to provide the best
environment for our children. Thank you. Next, we have you have to tell me how to pronounce it correctly. Say say
right Sai. Thank you Sai right. Hi. I'm just going to say that I'm going to be speaking French and I don't want to give you like language whiplash. So this
is just me how I am. And as an LGBTQ plus student in PSG. Bonjour. Je suis content. Je
suis junior. Je suis la. Pour vous parlez moi et pour partager. His experience on a Polaris. Share. I did say in
French. Hello, my name is Sai and I'm happy to be here. My pronouns are she her. I'm a junior at Polaris Expeditionary School. I'm here tonight to tell you a little about myself and share my experiences as a queer student at Polaris, and
how it means to me that I and many others have a safe space at school because of my amazing French teacher, Shauna Anderson, I am able to speak French at a proficient level and pursue my dreams as an interior designer.
Studying in Paris from my time as a high school student at Polaris, I've learned that my assumptions of people just aren't true. I've had my own first opinions of people that I wasn't so sure about. But once I get to know them, sit down
and have lunch. I realized how alike we are and those people turn out to be some of my closest friends. Today. Polaris is a safe space for me and many of my fellow Lgbtqia+ peers. I foster connections with every
one of my teachers, counselors, parents, and administration. I wake up every morning excited to come to school and see my friends members of the board. I want to thank you for your display of of understanding and
support to most of the students in Poudre School District. Thank you and have a good night.
Thank you. All right. Next up we have Tom Greggs. Welcome.
Good evening, District Directors, Superintendent Kingsley, community members. I feel like I might as well almost throw this out. It's
it's great, actually, that I can say that. I'm heartened to hear that there will be no reduction in force this year. But I did come to make a
statement that's basically repetitious in some ways. Last I heard, we were facing a potential budget cuts of somewhere between 6 and $17
million, and. Superintendent Kingsley, March 24th. Summary of the timeline at that point. And again tonight, I just want to emphasize that we must not
panic in our budget decisions. This is not the time to make cuts we're going to regret later. Why aren't we turning this into an opportunity to
build a structure that will enable the district to be responsive to uncertain circumstances like these, if not quickly enough to fully address the present situation to everyone's liking right now,
at least for the period beyond it. If you ask me, this is more than a good idea. It's essential to a public school
system in a small d democratic society. In my frequent attendance support meetings over the last year, I've observed that we each have our own perspectives on this matter.
My own is quite diverse. I've been a parent, a scholar in the field of education, who spent my career teaching teachers and activists for strong public schools at the state level and for the last six years as a
substitute teacher in many different pre K through 12 local settings and a volunteer extensively in Poudre school district. One thing I've
noticed throughout everything I have read, seen and heard about schools and education policy is that everyone, each of us, including board members, educators, parents, all the
while offering invaluable expertise and support is also limited by these perspectives in various ways. It is not easy to adopt a system wide approach
and maintain a clear connection to the very human endeavor that is teaching and learning. Yet such an approach is critical, and all these perspectives are
important. Focusing on some of the most important individual budget cuts that former PSG board member M.L. Johnson suggested that your March 24th meeting is an essential aspect
of accomplishing this. We must hear from everybody that is affected. We must build a structure that ensures that. That is the kind of communication we have both ways
going into the future. Thank you very much. Thank you Tom.
Next, we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. Thank you for the
opportunity. My comments tonight are directed to the members of the Long Range Planning Committee and those in our PSC community, continuing to seek information regarding equity data in our district. On
October 31st, 2025, I met with Doctor Duane Schmitz, SDS, previous Chief Executive Officer Officer, and his office for nearly two hours as a result of some data gathering, a question asking I was doing
around the graduation rates of disabled students in our district. Specifically, I was trying to learn if there were any correlations with students with IEPs and their ethnicity with regard to law enforcement referral. And Dwayne was
insistent that this information was available on the district's website, and I was struggling to locate it. He generously offered to show me how to find it. Upon engaging the website on his computer in his office, he was able to find the data
that I was unable to locate on the public facing website, and so I asked him to log out and access it as I could see it as a member of the public and the information was missing
entirely, he couldn't find it. And the data was called the Equity Insights dashboard. And the light bulb came on for Dwayne. In that moment, he told me that he remembered that the district had intentionally removed the information during
the George Floyd protests, as the Board of Education was concerned how the public would use the information. And he allowed me one search in his access to the dashboard. We searched for how many students in the district had IEPs, had
law enforcement referral and were Hispanic, and the percentage was 84%. And I was allowed no further searches that day for the data. So in case anyone is interested in Cori requesting these
interactions, Doctor Schmitz and I exchanged emails on October 30th 1st of November first about the issue on election night, November 4th. In this Board of Education meeting, I made public comments regarding the missing dashboard
and requested that the information be reinstated on December 12th. I sent that information explaining the situation to our two new school board members who were elected, and I received no reply. And
again, on January 27th, 2026, I addressed the missing dashboard for equity information in my public comments in this boardroom. So recently on social media, I learned that there will be an equity presentation in May for the
long range planning committee, and I wanted those members to know that this Board of Education has long been aware that the public is seeking more equity data, and that those figures are intentionally being withheld from those who are asking. There is obviously
something there worth being deceptive about. So I hope as a committee, you would be willing to share with the rest of us what our board of elected members might be failing to consider themselves or provide. In the most recent survey issued to the community about
long range planning, equity wasn't even a multiple choice option. So it's clear to me, after asking for six months that equity is a concept isn't going to be a consideration when it comes to school
consolidation. Equity is an afterthought in nearly everything we do here at PSD. Besides resolutions, and if we were ever given access to that information, I think the data would speak to that. I hope the board and the long range
planning Committee will insist on the transparency of the Equity Insights dashboard being reinstated for everyone in the public, not just the selected
few. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Last we have Anna
libido. Welcome. Sorry. I usually use paper and I'm having to use my phone. So sorry about that. Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening. I filled out a survey this afternoon for the Comprehensive Planning Committee, and I appreciate that. It was concise yet had some room to weigh in on personal priorities and gave
room to write and priorities for criteria considerations. As we were striving to have thoughtful conversations around potential consolidation criteria, I want to say out loud and reiterate that
prioritizing equitable considerations was a significant concern of many involved in the last round of consolidation talks. When considering equity, it can be an admittedly uncomfortable
conversation, especially for those recognizing they are speaking from a place of privilege. However, I think there is concern building that perhaps the community's idea of equity may not align with the
district's idea of equity based on the types of questions being asked or the absence of questions we feel should be asked early and proactively. This round of consolidation talks. If we aren't having the
conversations out loud, I'm afraid we are at risk of finding ourselves in a similar situation to the last round. 11th hour shock or outrage of what is considered a viable
solution. I want to make sure that I take this opportunity to voice my concerns about the various groups of students in PSD whom we know are more likely to struggle academically than peers than peers, in
contrast to those in our comparison districts. And even more concerning in comparison to state averages, ELL students free and reduced lunch students. IEP 504 students. Secondary
students on read plans. And that's not an exhaustive list. We have data. Many individual students check more than one box on that list. So how can we take something like
consolidation that by nature is disruptive and use it to bring relief to struggling students? When determining criteria, please include equity guardrails that will not set these students back even
further. Please authorize creativity that will lead to thoughtful, efficient, and effective means to better outcomes. For example, intentionality intentionally preserving a handful of smaller
schools that are resource heavy and discoverable for students and families desperate to close. Learning gaps that have developed for any number of reasons, your community needs to hear district leadership say
out loud that reducing negative outcomes for struggling students is, in fact, important. In these considerations. The academic outcomes do indeed matter. If students graduate
from PSD unable to read, write, or participate meaningfully with math to be able to function in the world around
them. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have board topics and committee reports. This agenda item is an opportunity for board members to provide an update on committee work or
speak to board topics. Do any board members have something that they would like to report? Quick recap from legislative
session and it will tie in with the budget. The long awaited long bill was introduced. I believe it got through the House late Sunday night and has
moved over to the Senate. Hopefully that will be resolved by the end of the week and then they will move on to one that's even more important for us. That's the School Finance Act.
That one was introduced very early on, and from our call on Friday, it is anticipated that that should get through as well.
And that will be very good news for us. After that, there are a myriad of other bills that are stacked up that will impact us,
but I would say not in a material way. Thank you. Others, please. Yeah. Just missed my chance. But I wanted to
recognize the the student Advisory Committee. Representatives that that joined us for the first part of our meeting tonight. They got a good chance to witness how
things work here and get a feel for what we do in terms of our resolutions and then how our meetings work. We're really excited about the the committee. They're very engaged students
from all around the district that are giving us a valuable voice as we consider a whole myriad of things. The other thing I wanted to mention is
several of us were at the the center for Family Outreach Breakfast last week. It's one of our our really valuable community partners that help with with kids that are
struggling with addiction and other issues in their lives. And it's really a amazing partnership. The center's led by Lori Cliff, who is just a
treasure for this community. And so it was great to be able to go there and support that. So thank everybody who was able to join. And that's it. Thanks.
Thanks, Connor. Thanks, Scott, for your updates. This is typically my plug for our Board of engagement sessions. We have Doctor Hootan. Are you still. I can't see you. I presume you're
over there. Hi. Hi. If I get any of these dates wrong or locations, please just jump in and correct me. We do have one this Thursday at both Rice Elementary and Bamford
Elementary. So in sort of different geographic vectors of PSD. That's Thursday night, 530 to 7. And that is what I'm going to call our regular board of engagement sessions. So
that's sort of the unscripted, informal come to us to have a dialog about topics that are on your mind, etc. Then we have a series, we've already started these, but we've got our next several, what I'd call our
specific board of engagement sessions. This is centered around the Comprehensive Planning Committee's work and some focused feedback loops. Our first one was at Rocky Mountain High School two weeks
ago. It's almost a blur. Two weeks ago, right? That was April 2nd. Our next one is going to be this Saturday, April 18th, from 10 a.m. to
noon, and that will be at Fossil Ridge High School Media Center. All these will be in our our high school media center. So April 18th this Saturday, ten to noon Fossil
Ridge. Next one will be April 22nd, 530 to 730 at Wellington Middle High School. Excuse me, in the Commons or the media center. After that will be April 25th, ten to noon. Again,
that's a Saturday session at Teignmouth Middle High School Media Center and then rounding out on April 30th from 530 to 730 at Fort Collins High School Media Center. Doctor, who are
these on the website? I believe under the board, the Board of Education website portion of the PSD. Okay, so if you missed any of those in my quick recitation, you can find them
there. We really, really encourage folks to attend one or many of those specific sessions to get really good feedback. Doctor Spain and I also attended an CSU engagement
session this past Thursday night, which was great because it also included some of the students from the education schools and some faculty, as well as some other community members that came and discussed all things consolidation,
budgetary, things like that. So that was a great conversation. So I guess my plug is there's plenty of opportunities if you can't make it to a board meeting to give me a comment. If you if you can't send an
email, there's plenty of times to sit down with the board and with our district staff and have some really targeted engagement around some really important topics. I also want to thank President Zamora for her leadership this morning, as
well as Superintendent Kingsley Tracy and others. It was a very full room here 12 hours ago, almost exactly on the dot. A lot of our cabinet were here as well. So thank you for being here early and being here late.
This was the first, I think, of this kind of city county PSD liaison committee, where it was such a large assemblage of our of our city's planners, dedicated professionals that
were all kind of talking about our process that we're, that we're undertaking here and we're going through and we're getting close to getting a recommendation on criteria from the comprehensive planning committee. So that work in
earnest is picking up. And then the process of sort of what to do in between them prior to a board resolution or board vote come October, is going to need a lot of smart and dedicated people. And we had that in
droves today. I was very encouraged by that conversation. Thanks again for President Moore and her leadership. And I think we're picking up some steam and moving in the right direction about wrapping our arms around these problems as a
community and not just as a board. And that feels it feels good. Others. Okay, I can oh, please. Oh, one last thing. I
think a lot of people were really impressed with some of the kids we recognized earlier. And John just shared this with me. If anybody's interested in
seeing the artwork that won the myriad of awards, go to PSD schools.org/news/25 state level awards. You can find that on
our website. And I just was looking and there's a lot of images there, plus a link to all of the, the winning pieces of art. Thank you. Now I will
look that up. I appreciate it because I would want to I don't have a ton to share. Just was recently at the Comprehensive Planning Committee. They've shared out their criteria for
folks. We've obviously been hearing a lot about that equity conversation, which is happening. It was slated to happen at their previous meeting, but they're they're really being very thoughtful in their process and thoughtful
with how they're talking about the criteria and the things they're considering and not wanting to rush that. So it did get pushed to their next meeting, which I appreciated. I know it's a little challenging
for our community because they want that information now, and I think that committee is incredibly intentional with wanting to make sure that information is they they collectively have buy in from
the committee. They have discussed it. They have truly vetted it as that committee before they put it out there. So while I understand that some of our community would really like it now, I also appreciate
the process that's taking place. And just one other shout out, because I really liked the shout outs for our center for Family Outreach. We also had the chance to do the Humanity
Habitat for humanity. Thank you. I was thinking houses for humanity. I was like, that's not it. Habitat for humanity and getting to walk the houses that our students are building out at Poudre High School. So it was really beautiful. It was
a fun celebration because they built on the stage in the moment, which I feel like is a lot of pressure on them. So they did amazing. They just went with it. They were very well planned. So I'm really
appreciating our engagement sessions as well. I think those are becoming really fruitful. I encourage people to come and talk to us. We are we are taking active notes, but we also do have a survey in those
meetings. We encourage you to come first before we share it out, just because we think the community conversation is really important, to make sure that we have a shared understanding of both the challenges and a shared understanding of what our
community collectively needs. And so we're not just siloing and spinning because I feel like the last time around we two years ago, there was just a lot of individual feelings and people working individually and working from their own
framework. If we do this together, we truly need to do it together. So that's what I have. Yes, please. There was one more I forgot because I probably won't get the chance to do this. Presuming consent
stays consent more or less. I did want to thank Headmaster Anderson, his colleagues, and Ridgeview for their thorough, timely application. Look forward to continued partnership for years to come, and thank you for providing such an excellent choice for
our students. But thank you especially for being here tonight. Just enough time to take a drink of water. All right. If there's anything else
from our board. Okay, then we will move right along to our consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull an item from consent? I would like to pull the meeting minutes from
March 10th, 2026, including consent item 9.2. Okay. Would anyone else like to pull anything from consent? Okay, wait, I will reassign that. 9.2 March 10th, 2026 Meeting to
Action item 10.2. Now, would anyone else like to pull anything else from consent? All right. Can I get a motion for the items remaining on consent? I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended
actions for the items remaining on the consent agenda. Thank you. Andrew. Can I get a second? Thank you. Kevin. Jill, will you please call the vote? Carla
Bey's I Conor Duffy I Kevin a Scott Schoenberger a doctor. Andrew Spain a Jessica Zamora. I motion passes six zero. All
right. We'll move along. So next we'll have our action items. Our first action item is the Fort Collins High School tennis court replacement. Can I
get a motion? I move that the board approve expenditures for the tennis tennis court replacement project in excess
of $250,000, and authorize staff to execute a contract for $549,541 with Renner to provide construction services. All
right. Can I get a second? Thank you. Connor. All right, Brian, I believe we have a presentation. Yeah. Here to provide a brief update on the Fort Collins High School tennis court replacement is our CFO,
Dave Montoya. Welcome, Dave. Thank you. Tonight, we are kind of following on the heels of the summer project report that we gave out at the last board meeting, so got a handful of
construction projects that are going to be creeping in toward the end here tonight, we are asking the board to approve the Fort Collins High School tennis court replacement. This tennis court was installed back in
1995. I believe that's when the building actually came online. Fort Collins High School. And typically what you would expect of a tennis court is a typical
life of anywhere from 20 to 25 years. Obviously, we're at 31 years. If you do that math, about two years ago, we we attempted to do some temporary repairs, and this was prior to
us having the debt free levy. Those repairs, repairs went away, but they are now failing. And it is the recommendation of the outdoor services as well as the athletics departments, that this is one of the higher
priority projects that we would be doing in this arena. The other one that will be coming later is the French field, one that will be coming at a future board meeting. But these are, again, just a handful of things
that we're finishing up on here. Really, the the idea here is that we've tried to repair this multiple times. It's to the point where the repairs are no longer sticking. The most recent one was done two years
ago. And it's it's already starting to fail. So it's time to replace this tennis court. We are planning on doing this work this summer and the the project is awarded to Renner,
and we're asking for approval tonight. Thank you for that summary. Is there any discussion? Feeling good. Okay, well, I really appreciate the short presentation. I really
appreciate you taking the time, knowing that we're trying to be very thoughtful with our money and appreciating to know how we're spending our debt free. Mil so thank you very much. It's always appreciated from the CFO as well. Thanks. Thank
you. All right. Well, then if there's no discussion, then we'll call the vote. Thanks, Jo. Carla. Baz. Hi, Conor. Duffy. Hi, Kevin. Hi. Scott.
Schoenbaum. Hi, doctor. Andrew. Spain. Hi. Jessica Zamora, I motion passes six zero. Thanks. All right. Next we have the
meeting minutes from March 10th, 2026. Can I get a motion? I move that the board approve the updated meeting minutes from March 10th, 2026 that were
provided via email to the board and correct a typographical error in item 10.3. IFB 20 6-580003. District Firewall
services renewal from a vote of 6-2 to a vote of 6-1. Great. Can I get a second. Thank you Kevin and Jill can you please
call the vote? Carla B's hi Conor Duffy. Hi, Kevin. Hi. Scott. Schoenbaum. Hi, doctor. Andrew Spain. Hi Jessica Zamora
I motion passes six zero. All right. Next we have our informational reports and discussion items. First up we have the reduction in force update. Yes. Thank you. Joining us this evening to provide the
reduction in force update is our chief of staff Doctor Lauren Hutton. Welcome Lauren. Superintendent Kingsley, board directors, thank you for the opportunity to provide a very
brief update on the reduction in force. As has already been mentioned this evening, the district has formally discontinued the reduction in force process that the board authorized in its February
meetings. This means that we have successfully been able to find placements for all of our continuing contract teachers for the next school year. I do want to thank the HR team for all of their work, our
principals and department leaders for their work to help find placements for all of these individuals and the Reef Committee as well, which had representation from PE as well as Pace. So it was a group
effort to land us where we are today. I also want to acknowledge that this outcome, while positive, is not necessarily positive for everyone in our system. There is significant job loss that is
coming with the budget reductions that we are facing, with approximately 250 individuals being impacted for next year. And I do want to acknowledge that that has a big impact in our schools and our buildings and our community,
and for those individuals and their families as well. So that is the update we have for this evening. Thank you very much, Lauren, and I appreciate the sentiment about the the happy
that the rift does not have to take place, but also acknowledging that this is still a very hard time. It does not mean that it is all positive, but I very much appreciate that you guys were able to work so hard to place
our continuing educators for the betterment, betterment of our system. Is there any other commentary from the board or
questions? Just one quick question. I mentioned it before. As we go forward with this. If there is an acute need for any
of the teachers who are probationary that do need that, we would like to have come back. Do we have a process in place for that, or is that just like an open application process? Now there is a process in place
in the employee agreement which we would follow. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other commentary or questions, we'll move on to our next
informational report budget update. Thank you. So tonight we're looking forward to hearing the budget update from our budget director, Brian Gustafson, and our CFO, Dave
Montoya. Welcome, Brian and Dave. Good evening. Thanks for
having me again. This. All right. Part two of our spring budget series. Last time a few weeks ago, we talked about the economic forecast. And I'll
build off of that a little bit and give you an idea of where things stand right now in our planning as we prepare a preliminary budget at the end of this month. And as we as we
get going here, I'll, I'll point out that tonight we're going to talk about some updates, some initial modeling, and I'll just let you know
right up front. Hey, not much has changed as far as the School Finance Act. It is it is proceeding as we thought it would, I guess three weeks ago.
As it is written with one minor change. But really it's it's going through, as Director Duffy mentioned earlier, it's going through the process in the long bill, and then it's
likely to be heard in front of the education committee next Monday. And we expect that those things will happen, hopefully without changes. But we'll see. And I'll talk about
what what some of those items are in the School Finance Act, but we anticipate that the numbers we've received so far are the numbers that we'll see at the end. And that's how we're we're building our
preliminary budget plan. So we'll talk a little bit about that here. I'll put some more detail behind that and we'll prepare for the preliminary budget presentation in just a
couple of weeks. As we discussed last time, the School Finance Act as it is designed or was designed and then debated and potentially altered,
is really coming in where we thought it would As the School Finance Act was developed. It's it's based on inflation, a 2.3% inflation rate, and that's
generating about $217 additional per pupil revenue to the base funding level, the foundation funding level for all. Now, we're going to be in a unique situation and that
this per pupil rate seems to matter less to us as far as a driver of the School Finance Act than the total program funding. And I'll talk about that more. The one difference
that we're seeing for next year, and we talked about this a few weeks ago in the proposal that came with the economic forecast, is that this will be over a six year phase in as opposed to
seven. Okay. We'll see another 15% implemented next year. This will be based for us on three years of funded pupil count averaging this year. As a reminder, we're averaging off
of four years of funded pupil counts. We were previously under five and next year we will be down to a three year averaging again, as we expected
to see in the 2024 School Finance Act. One item that I will come back to a little bit later is that there will not be a change to the hold harmless provision in the School Finance
Act next year, and I'll explain that a little bit more. That was one of those items, as we discussed previously, that we thought could come and go. It could be, it could be, it could
be out. And it was maybe one of those mechanisms that would be utilized to help balance the budget at the state level. But that's not the case so far at least. And another one of those
items, the specific ownership tax sweep that we've discussed previously, is not in the School Finance Act for next year. As it stands right now.
Again, that is now kind of looming on the horizon, potentially in fiscal year 28. And the rumors are potential phase in. We have a lot to learn there, but we've
definitely got to keep that in mind as we're preparing not only for the future, but this budget for next year. So refreshing. On the budget
planning challenges that that we're experiencing, even with a level of funding next year that will match this year's level of funding, we still are working to align the budget to
declining enrollment. And we talked about this last time. We're still working to align the budget and address budget challenges of open seats within the district. The third bullet
there is is something we touched on last time as well to balance this budget at the state level, the forecast that was selected by the Joint Budget Committee has a lot of
one time solution money in the in the state budget. And so items like using reserves at the state level. Hey, those things are going to impact
funding obviously for next year. But but the curiosity is what future impacts do using reserves and one time solutions, one time dollars at the state
level have on districts throughout the state. So that's something we'll continue to monitor. And when when we see the actual numbers, we haven't seen any different numbers
still then we got in January. But when we see different numbers, then hopefully we've seen all the mechanisms that can be pulled this year and have some confidence in moving
forward. The fourth bullet there is certainly a challenge as we're planning the budget, and that's this transition from the 1994 School Finance Act to the 2024 School Finance Act.
And this overlap. And as this moves to year two of implementation, we've got hold harmless provisions. We've got phase in dollars. And I'm going
to try and highlight that a little bit here in a few minutes, what that looks like. But really it's going to be interesting to navigate not only next year, but but three
years after that and potentially beyond. Lastly, it's always important to note that there could be reductions to other programs throughout the state, and that might mean
grant programs. We don't anticipate seeing a lot of those statewide grant programs that impact us right now, but we've got to keep our ears open for those kinds of things. Post.
Well, I guess items like the TI rep program, those those sort of programs are being hit with budget challenges and saw all these potential sort of
auxiliary programs are are up for discussion at the state level and things that we'll keep our eyes on. So some preliminary assumptions and
we've touched on this, but we do know that we're building a budget based on 654 fewer FTE and FTE means. That's a
reflection of the amount of time a student spends in an instructional setting. So 654 fewer students in our schools next year. And as we deployed the student based budgets to
the schools in late February, early March, we built those budgets around 654 fewer students. Additionally, as we talked about averaging earlier,
hey, we're moving to a three year average. We're losing the benefit of some of the averaging that's that's helped us navigate declining enrollment. And that really accelerates our pupil count
loss. As we knock off a year in the average, we're actually going to have a funded pupil count projection of about 762 fewer funded pupils. So we
still have that in the mechanism as well. And after fiscal year 27, that fund that averaging will move to a two year average and then be phased
out officially. So just illustrating that a little bit differently, I've got a couple a couple charts here on the left, the funded pupil count we've seen declining over a
period of years. And then we see expected declines continue through fiscal year 26, 27 and beyond. As we update enrollment projections this spring, we'll
modify these these numbers and get adjusted funded. Pupil count figures, you know, make those available and work with those in our forecasting. Additionally, on the right side
of the screen, we have a chart that illustrates the inverse, the per pupil rate that continues to climb. Now this is changing. And that this used to be really tied to the rate of
inflation. But now we have the dynamic of the rate of inflation impacting this, as well as a phase in of a new school finance act. So while we
may hear a lot about changing funded or per pupil rates at a lot of districts, our rate might look entirely different because for a while here we're going to be funded at a a set
dollar amount, and then we'll back into that rate because we're a hold harmless district. That means the new formula wasn't as beneficial to us as the old formula to start. So
we're funded at a higher level as we implement the new formula. So again, I'm going to show you a little bit more of that. But just know that we have some
offset of declining enrollment with the per pupil rate, but not enough to, to address not only fewer students, but the
loss of averaging as well. So an example, and this is an example with the exception of the the circle that's up there. So I'll talk about the chart that's on the screen. And we'll
just we'll we'll go column by column. The first column. We've got fiscal year 24 and 25 a funded pupil count. This is
actual of 28,849 students in 2425, our per pupil rate was $10,778.26. That generated
$310,000,310.9 million of total program funding. The total program makes up three quarters of our revenue. Okay, so we're focused heavily on the general fund and heavily on total
program. As we talk about the School Finance Act in our next presentation, as we get into the preliminary budget, we'll talk about additional revenue sources like where we see our mill levy overrides other items.
But right now we're focused primarily on this total program. Fast forward to the next column to the right there shaded fiscal year 2526. That's this
year, our funded pupil count down about a percent to 28,548.6 students, an increase
of per pupil funding to 11,367 point and $0.40. However, that was not a set rate that generated our total program
because of the overlap of school finance acts. A it was established in our formula for this year that our total program would be 324.5 million,
regardless of where the per pupil rate was falling for other districts. Okay. To implement the new the new act, that was the amount established, and we won't go below
approximately that amount. Okay. Now there are some caveats to this. Hold harmless. The hold harmless includes all the schools in the district, an amount that encompasses all the schools, charter schools,
charter school, institute, schools, our schools. But when you peel out the charter school Institute schools that. 320 4.5 was the amount determined for our district. So when you
divide that by the 28,548 students, that's where we get the per pupil rate. We used to work at the opposite direction, but now we're going backwards a little bit with this hold.
Harmless. I'll jump over a couple columns to fiscal year 27 and have circled the funded pupil count projection next
year of 27,786. And again, the hold harmless provision says we're not going to drop below
either our set hold harmless amount or the phased in 2024 School Finance Act amount, whichever is greater. Okay, so in this example, I've just put in the exact same amount. Now
that could change based on charters. Again, because this does include district charters. But if we peel out charter School Institute making assumption that that's the same
withholding for those schools. Just for this illustration, I've put in a total program that matches this year, because that's how we're planning right now is total program matching
this year. That would then back us into a PPR. That's about 2.7% higher. And probably not coincidentally, it matches our
drop in enrollment. So that's the design of this overlap and implementation of the new School Finance Act is phase one out. While we phase one in hey what we see then is really no
new revenue, but we don't see the loss of revenue. That would come with eliminating averaging right of way. The the interesting part of this is
that gets set. And then we look at our charter schools and their enrollments. Those schools are submitting their budgets. Actually this week, they're in the process of doing those, finalizing those right now or at least preliminary
budgets. So we're getting starting to get an idea of those enrollment projections. Right now. We're just looking at the enrollment change that
we've seen recently, about 2%. Hey, if in this example, if our district charters increased enrollment by 2%, that would
cost or remove from this total program amount of about $1.8 million, right? So we're flat funded, our hold harmless funding, but still potentially losing depending on what
happens with the charter schools. Hey, charters might be increasing, other district schools may be decreasing. So we'll be learning more between now and our preliminary budget
about those funded pupil counts. I'm going to pause right there. That's a lot of information on one slide and see what questions you have just on the
count. And the total program idea. Questions. Yeah, please. Got along those lines with that
reporting coming in from the charters, when will you be able to report to the board what their numbers are showing? I should have that by the next meeting. Okay, thanks. Other
questions? It's a lot to take in. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so we're just going to focus on one column here. And don't
don't be overwhelmed by by numbers. But what I want to illustrate with the chart that's on the screen is that over a sequence of years, we're moving from a funding
allocation to a funding calculation, plus hold harmless amounts that equal that funding allocation. Right? So as we're phasing one Finance Act in, we've got additional layers to
have to think about in our in our calculation. Now these layers we're approaching right now as some one time dollars supported by what, what we
believe is one time funding now coming into the School Finance Act with what we're seeing so far in the legislative process, some of the assumptions here
again, is we've got a hold harmless base amount that's established this year and next year, fiscal years 26 and 27, that starts with all public schools in the district. As I
mentioned, a in this example. And I'm going to show you a chart that also has this same same stuff, to look at it a little differently. Next, we are factoring in changes in the
funded pupil count, averaging over the next few years to eliminate that just for now, building in 2% charter enrollment growth. And just for
the sake of trying to make sure it's, it's still on the, the forefront of our minds is trying to estimate what would a specific ownership tax sweep look like if it came in starting in fiscal year 28, we
bounced some of this information off our budget design team last week, and this was some of the feedback that seemed to come through, as you know. Is that in there or is this in there? And so we're trying to build some of these
things in. The trouble with doing that is we have a lot of variables. There are so many moving parts. And so these estimates will be wrong. That's the budget guy, right?
Disclaimer it's always right. All this stuff will change. But these will be wrong. But at least we're starting to try and illustrate and think about how future planning or future thinking is going to impact our
present day planning. So let's just focus right in the middle of that table on fiscal year 27. Just look at that column, the funding allocation. If it were
the same next year, which it should be close as it is this year, that'd be just about $324.5 million of that. The actual formula to calculate
pupils based on the pupils we have and the School Finance Act, that's that's currently rolling, that would calculate out to about $317.5 million. So
there's a gap. And this hold harmless idea is what's filling that gap this current year and next year and a little bit beyond. Hey, truly, the gap is
either the the greater or the total phased in amount or the established amount. But what I'm going to try and illustrate is sort of what part of it is kind of phased in and what part
is truly hold harmless. That's not in a formula. When we look at this, again, we're just going to focus right in the middle fiscal year 27. We'll
stay just just locked in on that. We've got a that gold line up above. That's our actual funding allocation for fiscal years. 2526 and what we
expect 27 and beyond to look like. So that's that's what we're going to be seeing in the state share reports that we get monthly. Below that line, we've
got the columns that represent the actual formula formula calculations for each year, the dark portions of those. And we're just sticking to fiscal year 27 A, it comes up short of
that gold line. So the formula has to and then be modified with a hold harmless amount to bridge the gap. Part of that, as I'm trying to quantify here
with a little bit of a lighter shaded amount, is the what if the new School Finance Act was being phased in for us at the rate. The 30% rate, but our gap
exceeds that. So there are additional dollars that have to be funded to the district to get us to that gold line. It happened this year. It's going to happen next year. And then
potentially in various forms the following years until the old act is phased out and the new one is phased in the formula, the calculation
changes in fiscal year 28. So it's hard to, to to really illustrate. Okay. And we also have to think about the specific ownership tax impacts. But the real the takeaway is
there's a gap. And the question that we pose to our budget design team and that we're working on now is, what do we do with that revenue? How do we reflect that revenue as we build our budget for fiscal
year 27? That's a good spot to to pause again as you're digesting some of that information and thinking about
the visuals on the screen. Brian, thank you for your continued leadership in this space. I got a clarifying question regarding this particular graphic, just to
create clarity for members of the public. When you look at fiscal year 30, when that yellow line meets that bar graph, that is a full
implementation of the school new school finance formula. That is not an indication visually that public education in the state of Colorado would be fully funded. Correct?
Correct. And a caveat there would be that that year, we're still not up to the full implementation. But with the current formula as it is, we would potentially be caught up
to the formula by that time. But if, if and the the goal line above it is is wavy and inaccurate, that's still below.
The current level of funding. And again, this does factor in averaging. It does have an estimate, a rough estimate for specific ownership tax sweeps. So this could be wildly
different, but it would not be a complete full funding situation. Other questions. So
to bring it back to where we talked about at the beginning, fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27 should look very similar when it comes to our total revenue, minus some variances in in charter funding. And then
changes that we look at with regards to our our Mil levies, other sources of revenue like investment income, those kinds of things, categorical funding.
And those are the things that we'll put into our preliminary budget in a couple of weeks for you all to review in that preliminary budget, we will illustrate the gap between what
will be our fiscal year 27 revenue projection versus our current year of expenditures with some of the big drivers that we may know. Hopefully by that time, we have pretty good idea of like, what should we
expect with utility cost increases and insurance premium increases and estimate for fuel increases, those those big drivers be represented there, but not a lot. Other than that,
we won't really reflect changes in compensation as the negotiations process would still be ongoing. But that's the next step here is to take the information talked about
today, put it into a budget document to let you see that, as was mentioned earlier, the School Finance Act is moving, finally, finally moving. We
don't see any new details. The advice we received last week is use the numbers from January and keep building your stuff. So that's what we're doing. And
until we hear otherwise and or see otherwise, we know that the preliminary budget will be in your hands by April 28th, and the legislative session has to
end May 13th. And we should see everything resolved by that time. Okay. Proposed budget will have to May 26th and then
budget for adoption before June 30th. Just real quickly, some of the things that I like to reference as I'm going through these and trying to think about information, and I highly
recommend, if you haven't already hit some of these resources, check them out. Especially the first one is the Legislative School Finance Handbook. It's about 78 pages.
That's really cleanly written. It's pretty clear. And example of what you find in that is below there with just illustrations of how the formula works. Okay, step by step foundation funding plus at
risk. And it really does a nice job of piecing things together, talking about hold harmless, all these things that we try and squeeze into a handful of minutes at the podium here, but
it could be really helpful to read through some of that. So with that, I'll take whatever other questions you have.
Thanks, Brian. Just to take a quick step back to last meeting, you presented two budget forecasts that were introduced and were going to be given over
to the Joint Budget Committee. One was legislative counsel, the other one was O. S BP. Those were vastly different. To
my understanding. The Joint Budget Committee took the SBP budget in there. And that one was, I'll say, is more optimistic about the budget
situation in there. It had some large ticket reductions that they were counting on to come to fruition, to be able to use
in the School Finance Act. Now, your guess is as good as mine about whether or not those things come to fruition or not. But have we ever seen a point
where they approve a school finance Act and give us a budget number, but then things don't come to fruition? Have they ever clawed back money in
a fiscal year? Because we've already kind of started setting our budgets out here locally. And I'm wondering, you know, just hypothetically, December
or January of next year, they say, hey, everybody, you got to cough up a couple million dollars back to the state because these big ticket items didn't come to fruition. While highly irregular, it has
occurred previously. Not while I've been here. Dave has experienced that here. I experienced that at a different district where there was a mid-year rescission based on a
an incredibly different economic situation than what was presented in the springtime. Do you want to talk to that a little bit for Poudre school district that happened? The one that stands out in my mind was
during the Great Recession. And I want to say, if memory serves me right, it was about a 3 or $4 million hit in the middle of the year that we weren't expecting of, which is a real
challenge. And that was in those dollar terms back then, much bigger terms. Now, if you were to inflate that for the change of inflation and things like that. But it has happened
and I, I think there's a possibility it could happen again next year too, if as to your point, Director Duffy, if all the things that are outlined in the governor's
proposal and the OSP forecast, if they don't come to fruition, we may have a situation where we're having to reduce budgets mid-year. It has happened.
Other questions. Thank you. Connor. Please. I would dare say I'm probably struggling to
formulate some of my questions. And that tells me I've got a lot of self-education still to do because you go two slides back, for instance, or three,
we've been telling everyone in the district, expect the 6 million to $17 million shortfall, 26 to 27 there by that graph is a million. So
that graph doesn't help because it sends a very different message from what we've been saying. I understand that there's lots of nuances because of shifts and things like this, but I that's I'm not even sure
what question to ask because it's visually very, very different from what I would have expected. I recognize I'm also hearing different terms and some of the phase out and phase in of different things
that I'm, I think I'm going to have to learn a lot more about to fully understand exactly what you're describing as well. Plus needing to understand things like, where are we going
to start putting funds back into our reserves, which we have already said, as I understand it, that they are very down towards the low end of things, which is a very poor position for us to be be in,
especially when we have a state that is balanced as budget on short term fixes, that that can is going to come back and hurt
us if we're not ready for it. So I think there's a lot of things that I need to learn for myself. And I well, let's look
at that. Let's look at the fiscal year 26 or something like that. Because I'm, I'm not sure where to ask all the questions because I'm getting even terms thrown at me tonight that I don't think I've heard before. So it's difficult to
know what to ask. Let's look at that fiscal year 26 bar. And maybe this will help start that a little bit. Hey, we have a base level that's shaded dark.
That would be our our funding level without the intersection of two school finance acts. If we. Well, let's, let's just
stay with that. So we've got a new school finance act coming on board that is being phased in at a various rate or a varied rate annually, about 15% annually. That's what the next
little chunk, the lighter shade right above the dark, represents, above that a striped section is another hold harmless amount that gets us to
an amount that was established for us this year, that we would not go below in the district because of the intersection of two school finance acts. Initially in the fall when
there was talk about, gosh, what's going to happen with the budget fiscal year 27, there was discussion of eliminating that hold harmless, take that striped box out. So now we've
got a little bit of a gap and that drops. Okay. Moving from 26 to 27, there was additional talk of eliminating or
modifying that. Next, that middle shaded the light shaded box that fades in, pausing the phase in or pausing the implementation that goes out. Then there was also talk about
what is the state going to do to balance $1 billion budget shortfall. There could be a sweep of specific ownership tax, not neither of those. None of
those have occurred, but those are all three levers that were really concerning in October and November. Additionally, an item that was discussed was a
reimplementation of a budget stabilization factor, a fourth mechanism that would have impacted funding from this year to next. So the initial
thoughts were looking from 26 to 27. You take out those shaded and striped areas above the dark blue line, and then we start to have a budget
stabilization factor or other items. And that's where we start to get into some of those thoughts about drastic reductions. Fortunately, those are still in. But the reality
is, is they're phasing out, they're going away. And we start to see that in fiscal year 28, as the current act moves that I know that's it's
complicated. It's a lot. But that's the the quick answer to your question. Thank you. I just want to add, because I think Director Spain, what you
said was pretty much on target is talking about the can that the state's kicking and to be focusing on that. But what I really want to add is just in my experience and you've been doing this for a long time too,
Brian. It doesn't get much more complicated than having two school finance acts running at the same time. With all the levers that were being discussed at the legislature with a $1.4 billion shortfall
that turned into an OSB forecast that isn't as as, as terrible. And so it is a very complicated budget situation.
This year, I was sitting here thinking, what could make it more complicated? Maybe if they threw a third finance formula on there, I don't know. I'm being ridiculous there because there is so much going on in
this formula right now that it we're having a really hard time keeping track of it. But I think we're doing a really good job of trying to peel back the layers so that you can understand the complexities as
well as the changing dynamics that were happening at the state. I remember earlier in the phase, I remember talking about this because I've had the experience before that we're going to feel like budget cycle
that's going to be up, it's going to be down, it's going to be up, it's going to be down. And I'm not quite sure where it's going to land this year. That's exactly what came to fruition. They've they've taken a bunch of one time money at
the state level to try to balance the budget. We're seeing the impacts right here, and we're not taking the reductions that we were thinking about earlier. But those of us that are in this are also understanding that
this hasn't gone away, and it may be coming back just as quickly next year. And that's a very hard puzzle to solve right now. But we are doing it. And to the the question about
reserves. So in the current year, fiscal year 26, a significant portion of those items above the dark shaded column we worked on last year and put into reserves and
called it available for funding uncertainties, knowing that this challenge was coming so that some sort of similar strategy is probably what we
will recommend going forward as well. Looking at fiscal year 27 and 28, these these items that span the gap between that goal line and then what the funding
should actually be, we're we're looking at those as one time dollars. And it's really hard to build recurring compensation or recurring expenditures on, on whatever on one time dollars.
And so we're going to have to work hard on making sure some of these gap dollars, these hold harmless dollars are going
towards reestablishing reserves. You made a comment that made me think that they are changing the phasing in funding formula
year to year, or is that something that is a consistent thing from the old one into the 2024 act? What what are we looking at? The the phase in
from the 94 to 24 is going at a rate of 15% per year, but it was initially six years, then it was seven years, and now it's back to six years. So that percent has been altered, the
annual percent. And then there was discussion of it pausing them that. So making modifications to the act. And so that that's what makes it extremely confusing as well.
But right now it's set to implement at 15% a year. However, that still is not enough. And that new finance act that that 15% additional
implementation to get us up to the hold harmless level that's been set for our district. For this dark blue, which formula
is that? Because it wouldn't be the 1994 and it isn't the 2024 by itself. So what is the dark blue actually representative of? That's representative. The per
pupil rate times the number of pupils with averaging. There's just too many questions in my
head that I can't put together. So. Okay. We are doing these in series definitely. And and we're having to do it in, I
think, spoonful bites as we go through it. We're also very happy to sit down with people and go through this in more detail as needed. It is very complicated, right? I think I would just like to make a
comment on this particular slide because I think, Andrew, I feel you, the old Finance Act, when it was just it was the same year over year, even with
the budget stabilization, it was complicated, but it was understandable. And now trying to do two at once is. Thank you. I can't really quite imagine having to try and predict all
of the pieces, plus the extra budget challenges at our state and trying to fit that into this. But I think one thing that I, I do think it's important to point out is our
fiscal year $26 amount pretty much matches our fiscal year 30. And we absolutely know, if nothing else, definitively that the cost today will not be the same as our costs four years
from now. So even with this shift, we still have a challenge coming. Once the new formula is fully implemented. And knowing that the last two
years and please correct me if I'm wrong, our state has balanced their budget with one time dollars broadly. Not entirely perhaps, but broadly. Okay. And that is not
sustainable. There's a point where our state will have to actually budget balance their budget fully, and there won't be reserves to fill it in. And I'm I'm terrified at the very
least nervous, if not terrified of what that means for next year or the year after. So I feel like we're trying to or you're trying to and you're explaining it as well as you possibly can have two formulas
that are also shifting with a state budget that has also had unexpected challenges in the last couple of years and trying to predict as much as you possibly can so that we have a stable district into the future.
Talk about building the plane while you're flying it. So I really appreciate the work you're doing. I'm trying to wrap my head around it as best as I can as well. And I it's
incredibly hard and I'm not, I see like, okay, for next year, we're we're okay. It's not as bad as we anticipated. And that feels okay. But I'm not seeing the end in sight and I'm not
seeing, you know, light at the end of the tunnel just yet. So I really appreciate that work. And I think I would encourage any of us to have a sit down and try to understand this as best as we possibly could. Are
there any other questions or comments though, in the meantime? Yes, please. And for those who the throngs of people, again, who are watching online, anybody who tries to follow
this and wrap your head around it for, you know, even next year, I'd say take a pause. And the reason why is because it's going to drastically change again, it has for the last four
years. And those numbers, you know, the 6 to $17 million that we were projecting just four months ago has drastically changed some of those big ticket items that I was talking
about in my earlier comment. Those are going to drastically change next year, so they won't be able to use those in the calculation. It is extremely
complex, but as soon as you get a semblance of what's going to happen, it changes again. And I think one of the best things to know right now is that next
year, it seems, barring some of this potential for Rescissions, we should be okay for next year. With the exception of the Rescissions, I think are the
the piece. Yeah, yeah. And I don't want this to come off as professional whining, but I don't really care for that answer. I mean, not not directed at you, but we'll wait and see and we may be okay next
year. We got a budget for schools. We have to do that a year in advance. So I can't quite say I'm glad or I have a feel good about that sunny
disposition with where we are. And I'd like to get off this merry go round. And again, this is maybe a bigger conversation for later, but I'm, I'm also looking internally about maybe examining how we budget for our schools internally. Is there
something we should be doing differently? Should we be doing a site based budgeting model with the volatility that we're going to experience every single year, or should we do something else? I know that's that's not something we're
going to solve this budget cycle, but I'm getting kind of tired of having the same conversation and blaming Denver and the whims of change and never really proactively do anything and just reacting to it. That's my professional
whining because I think it's very difficult for our principals and for our staff to understand when they're going to have jobs, when it's going to be dire straits. And what are we doing as the student
enrollment does it inhale and exhale and inhale, not knowing how much money we're going to have next year. So that's my whining. I, I wish we could get
clear direction from the state at times. And it's frustrating. And yes, I agree with what you're saying. It doesn't feel good. I appreciate the
conversation and I think. I'm trying to figure out how to process this too, is I almost feel like this is intentionally confusing in terms of how this
is playing out, in terms of the landscape shifting locally at the state level and federal level. And that's not me trying to drive any kind of conspiracy theories, but using one time dollars to address recurring needs, we all know is not
modeling fiscal stewardship. And so as that is happening in the state, I think something to be mindful of the presentation that happened just previous to this, we are having to modify
our current budget going into next year by over 250 positions as a result of declining enrollment. And so while we're monitoring instability at the state level, there's instability at the local level
in terms of there simply just being fewer kids in our school district. And we're continuing to monitor changes that are constantly being projected, put in front of us, taken away at
the federal level too. So I just, I want a huge kudos to our finance team for working thoughtfully with our labor groups, for working with our school and district level
leaders to help navigate this level of uncertainty. But the line of questioning that's coming from this dais is appropriate because as people are borrowing from para and
borrowing from reserves and moving money from affordable housing at the state to figure out ways, those are not long term solutions. Those are solutions that other elected leaders are inheriting in a
year that will have to be solved in local agencies, state agencies are signaling mid-year revisions. But as we continue to project worst case scenarios, because we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,
it becomes really difficult for local leaders like yourselves and us to explain this to the members of our general public as we're continuing to navigate the uncertainty that's
happening at the state and federal level. So I just I share that with you as context to be kind and gentle with all of ourselves as we process these ever changing kind of winds, there are headwinds that
are coming our way. I think we are really well prepared in terms of our agility to be right sizing our system, to navigate really difficult
decisions. But I, you know, this level of uncertainty, this is going to be a new normal for a little bit. One last thing. I don't like to assign tasks
without taking some ownership of it, but there are some things in the legislature that are winding its way and may have a drastic impact that can
improve. So it is not all doom and gloom. And I think the task that we would probably be well advised for the legislative committee to do a deeper dive on how that would impact, and maybe audit committee can give
some projections on that, because there are some things out there that can move the needle and that I think everybody on this board and in our community would support.
I'm not sure if this is what you're referencing, but I'm assuming there may be some alignment there. But I want to just shout out it's not there's a lot hard to hear. It's hard to understand. But I also do
want to give some kudos to our state and our particularly our teachers for going after the cut the ropes. I mean, that's what I have it called for now. And I know it's not doesn't
have the official ballot title, but there are people that are striving to solidify parts of our budget, to reserve it specifically for education, so that we can have some level of
control. Will it fill our whole budget? Absolutely not. There's there's nothing that is going to be on a ballot for next year that would solve this entirely and would make it so that we're not dependent on the state legislature for giving us
funding. But there are pieces that should be on there that can give us some stability, or at least parts of stability. So I really appreciate the work that's being done to get that on the ballot, and to provide us as voters with the
opportunity to provide ourselves with some level of stability. So we have to cut the ropes and the potential graduated income tax. Everyone can have their research it, educate yourselves, determine how you would prefer to engage
in that space. But there are some options for how we can at least get some control. But I really appreciate this. And again, I do not envy the work ahead of you this year or next.
Are there any other questions or comments at this time? Okay. Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you. All right.
Moving along into our agenda, we have board forecasting. This agenda item is for board members to make suggestions for something to be considered at a future prioritization meeting, which will be happening in June.
So if there's anything that you guys would like to add as a for our consideration this time. Okay. Yeah, please. I was
waiting for others. So we heard I'm going to start with a charge that I'm going to ask about numbers. There's been a pervasive theme in our
community engagement sessions. We've been asked and we've sort of made an overt commitment to our community during this process for what we call brutal
transparency. Our community can handle it. They expect it. We need to be able to equip people that are going to our schools and working in our schools to understand the numbers behind
some of the decisions that are being made. I think that, again, credit to the comprehensive planning committee, that's what they're driving at. But the request I heard it tonight and a community comment. I've heard
a version of it. And at the state Board of Directors hearing that we attended on Thursday, and I heard this morning from our mayor and from council members about being
honest with the numbers of compositions in our schools and making that publicly available. The more I learn about this equity index or the Equity Insight dashboard, I would like
an update on that. As far as is that something that we can put on our schools? And I was thinking about this in the choose PSD campaign that we have. I wonder if we can have a snapshot of our school's
composition of students that are, for lack of better terms, on free and reduced lunch or higher concentrations of poverty. What are those numbers? What are the numbers of students with special ed per school? And I think our
community ought to have a robust access point to all those composition of minority students per school. And I would include all PSD schools,
all PSD schools in that, because I think those numbers are important as, as people are trying to understand migratory patterns for school choice, as people are trying to understand
the potential for consolidation and the sort of breathing cycle of our of our district that we're going through, I think we need to have numbers. And so I'd like to at least start with
a conversation or a topic of conversation of what we can do as a district to post all of our numbers. And if those breakdowns are even available. I know we get a lot of them from our D 1.0 report, but I
think that should be equally accessible to the community. And then I had a sort of pie in the sky one. I'm shifting gears a bit, but somewhat related. Superintendent Kingsley and I
had a nice moment about a year and a half ago, two years ago, and we were talking about transportation transformation. I don't even know if you remember what I'm referring to.
The same spirit of equity and offering things to students based on what they need, not just what's, you know, fair and equal to everyone. As we're starting to talk about
transformational ideas with our community partners and our elected leaders about what our community is going to look like, I know transportation and bell schedule tweaks seems it's next and it's kind of down the road,
but I think we should start laying the seeds now, at least in some of our conversations about what that would look like. And is it possible for us to reimagine transportation of school choice so that students that would like to avail
themselves of school choice, but can't otherwise afford it, could somehow qualify for transportation to a school that is a a school choice. That's something that I'm very interested in. It was on my priority list that we talked
about in our board meeting. Again, a lot of times the urgent will drown out the important, but to me, that is still very near and dear to my heart and very important. So those are my two things. Thank
you. Please, Scott. Yeah. Second, Kevin's statement about the. Equity dashboard, it's pretty concerning to me that
what we heard tonight, and I'm pretty frustrated with that. I understand it was a different time when the board the past board decided to do that, but they had three years between
that board and us to to remedy that, and they didn't. And so I think it's up to us to really embrace the transparency we've talked about. I think this
board in particular is focused on that, especially as we come up to these hard decisions, we need to be as transparent to the community as possible. Even the hard stuff, the stuff that
doesn't make us look good, that will build trust in the process. And I think it's super important that we that we do that. So I'd second that
transportation. Also a big passion for me. I understand the complexities of what Kevin's asking for, but I also understand what that could mean to a whole host of people. So
if we can find a an elegant solution on that, I would be all in favor. So that's all I have. Thanks. Any other
suggestions at this time? I'm going to suggest somewhere along the line we probably should have a very. Probably
lengthy conversation about how we're going to achieve and improve local control related to finances for us. Speaking
like Kevin's comment, you know, we're constantly reacting to what what is happening elsewhere. You know, Connor brings his information that
things may get better, they may get worse. Those things are out of our control. What can we control fiscally with how we budget, how we project, how we watch our metrics, how we share
those with the community. So we have that ongoing conversation and prevent as much as possible the future Cliff's. So we are consistently and proactively
addressing our fiscal situation with what we can control, and also recognizing that it can absorb the things that are beyond our control within reason. I mean, we can't have
an infinite reserve, I understand that, but we have to be able to be there because I currently find myself very frustrated that I'm struggling to understand a one year budget picture while simultaneously
being asked to make decisions that are impacting almost 300 people so far, with those who aren't coming back next year and potentially closing schools, that could be a forever type of
thing. And that really stresses me out. And I think we really need to engage into that. So it supports, as best as possible our decision making process. So we're doing the right thing at the right time, with the right
vision of the future in an imperfect world. I am encouraged, Andrew, and I don't know if you've seen this or heard about it yet, but Doctor
Ziegler shared with me that at the Comprehensive Planning Committee that she did see the beginnings of a dashboard and that they would have a more
comprehensive explanation of how the budget was working. I hope that we keep that dashboard in perpetuity and keep our public informed of how our dollars are coming in and
how they're being spent, and to piggyback on what Kevin and Scott were saying about just, I think how everything that we're
dealing with right now is being framed, I'm not sure that the narrative is coming out the way that we all feel about it. I think what we're really talking
about is making sure that we have healthy schools and hearing that 250 jobs have been eliminated immediately says to me, well, it's unhealthy for
our community at large and our educators and Ace and Pace employees, but also our kids. I mean, that to me says that kids are now they have less
resources in the same amount of schools. And I think that we're not doing a good job of framing the the discussion that we're having. That way. It always there's always a dollar sign
instead of a kid with human beings around them. This is my diagram of each person being attached to a resource and a
slash through the circles of those people as we eliminate jobs, as we separate them, sending, you know, an art teacher to one school, 20%,
another 40 and another 20, and dividing their time and attention. I mean, I can't imagine as an integrated. Our, our is professionals and how
challenging that must be to divide your attention and care for students. If you're moving from school to school. And I
just that all seems so challenging. And so, yeah, I just, I ask that we maybe talk about how we talk about it. That's what I'm hearing too. In
our community listening sessions, people are really frustrated because the dollars aren't making sense. I think we need to start talking about what it means in the actual
space and how kids are not getting access to these things that we're having to take away because of dollars, but what that actually looks like and
what it feels like because it's, we're spreading ourselves so thin. Yeah. Is there anything
else at the moment? Okay, I appreciate that. All right. We'll move right along. Next we have our executive session. Can
I get a motion? I move the board enter into executive session to develop strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to the 2026 2027 collective Bargaining Agreement or employment
contracts, as authorized by CRS, section 20 4-6-4024E3. Individuals invited to join the board in executive session or Superintendent Brian Kingsley, chief of staff doctor Lauren Hutton, lead assistant
superintendent Doctor Tracy Gao, chief finance officer Dave Montoya and general counsel, Autumn Aspen. Thank you. Can I get a second? Thank you, Connor and Jill, will you please call
the vote? Carla. I Conor Duffy, I. Kevin. Hi. Scott. Schoenberger. Hi, doctor. Andrew. Spain. Hi. Jessica
Zamora, I motion passes six zero. All right. We will now convene in closed session. This is the last agenda item before adjournment. At the conclusion of the executive session, we will adjourn the meeting. The adjournment. Adjournment will