Alright. We're gonna go ahead and get this meeting started. It is 05:31PM on August 26, and welcome to our Board of Education, meeting this evening. Please go ahead and mute your cell phones or anything else that might be for buzz. Today is Tuesday, August 26. For those attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on the TV in the boardroom 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 livestream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube.
For links to these livestreams, please visit the Board of Education page of the PSD website or PSD TTV on demand on YouTube. So we will go ahead to, the approval of the agenda. Would any board members like to make changes to the agenda? Okay. I see none. We will move on. All right. So I'll move on to the superintendent report. So superintendent Kingsley will make remarks to the Board of Education and to the community. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. It's great to be with all of you tonight. My intended remarks tonight are not just for those who are in the room or watching online, but for really our entire community.
The start of every school year, as we all know, brings excitement, energy, and possibility, and we're so grateful to see that our students are back in our classrooms, reconnecting with friends, meeting with new teachers, and continuing journeys of growth and discovery. But this year, however, the joy of a new beginning has come with real challenges too. And I believe that it's important to take some more time right now to share important information about how we are responding to the challenges that we're facing. I don't believe this is a time for brief messages or quick sound bites.
We have already faced several days of extreme heat, leading to early dismissals at most of our schools. We know this has disrupted schedules and has been very difficult for our families. These decisions are never made lightly. I want our community to know that we have 32 PSD schools that do not yet have air conditioning. While swamp coolers and other temporary heat mitigation measures provide some relief, they simply cannot keep up during extended stretches of hot weather. Guided by our district's heat protocols, we determined early release was necessary to protect the
health and the safety of our students and result of the temperatures, we did not have to to use them, but this year, unfortunately, we've had to use them many, many times. Our heat protocols are available on our website and have been shared with our families and staff via email and social media to make sure that we are transparent with
our community about how these decisions are made. We want you to know two things. One, we hear you. These schedule changes cause frustration, especially for working families. And two, we're taking action, but it's gonna take several years to install air conditioning across 32 school buildings. Because construction must happen in just eleven weeks, eleven, during the summer and older buildings require significant upgrades to accommodate air conditioning, installation in all of our schools that need
AC, well, it's just gonna take time. Thanks to the voter approved twenty twenty four mill levy override, funding is now in place to do this work, and it's already begun with the installation of air conditioning at Beatty and O'Day Elementary School this summer. We are already making progress. It is going to take time, but it really is happening. Alongside questions about heat, I have, as the superintendent, also heard concerns about our school calendar. Some have asked why PSD doesn't begin school later in August or after Labor Day.
This is an important question, and I wanna be transparent. Building a school district calendar is complex. We must meet state instructional time requirements while aligning with partners in higher education, so our high school students can take concurrent enrollment courses and remain on track for graduation. Our calendar must also consider national AP and IB exam schedules and a variety of other factors. Recently, the state changed how districts must report instructional minutes, revealing that PSD elementary schools
are falling short on the number of minutes required. We have convened as a district an action team to address this. Their work may impact bell schedules and the length of the school day in future years, which in turn affects the calendar. While this work is being completed by the action team this fall, the calendar committee's efforts are on a temporary are temporarily on pause. But please know we are still committed to exploring options for future calendars, including staggered
starts and ends by grade level. Please know though that a staggered start and end to the school year comes with its own challenges. However, we will continue to explore this option. The action team will present an update at the October 7 Board of Education meeting, which the public is welcome to attend either, in person or watch online. And I also wanna take a moment to sincerely thank the calendar committee, not just for their hard work, but for their openness to the community's feedback, and I look forward to the resumption of their efforts really soon.
In addition to extreme weather and the challenges that we need to address with our instructional time and calendar, our district has also faced deeply troubling news in recent days. The arrest of a former employee on very serious charges, as well as an incident at one of our middle schools that resulted in a student injury, weigh heavily on us all. These situations are heartbreaking, and my heart goes out specifically to those who have been impacted the most and their families.
Please know that our school district, PSD, will always act quickly to protect our students, communicate openly when serious incidents occur, and provide support for those who need it. The safety and the well-being of every student and staff member is and always will be our highest priority. I share all of this I share all of this because I believe trust comes with honesty. We cannot and will not pretend that these challenges don't exist.
They do. But what defines us as a community is how we face them, and we must face them together. And even in this difficult start, there is so much to celebrate. Just this week, we received our latest CMASS PSAT and SAT results. And once again, PSD students are outperforming their peers across Colorado by wide margins. Our students are achieving at rates 12 to 21 percentage points above the state average in CMAST subjects, and 14 to 20 points higher on college readiness benchmarks in the
PSAT and SAT. Simply put, our students are excelling. Our staff are pouring their hearts into teaching, and we appreciate the partnership we have with our families every step of the way. These results, they don't happen by accident. They reflect the tireless dedication of our educators, the resilience of our students, and the support of our families who believe in the power of public education. In the weeks ahead, we will share more, including our latest graduation rates, which we expect to set a new record high.
Yes. The start of this school year has been difficult, but it has also reminded me why I'm really proud to be a part of this district and this community. We don't run from challenges. We face them. We care for one another. We lift up what is good, and we work tirelessly on what needs to improve. I wanna thank everyone for your patience, your partnership, and most importantly, your trust. Together, we will navigate these challenges and ensure that PSD remains one of the best
places in the nation for students to learn and to grow. I wanna thank you for allowing me the time to read that statement tonight. Thank you very much. It was well said. And we will move to, community comment right now. So community comment. Apologies, I need to have those on before we start reading. Welcome to the community comment section of the board meeting. The board desires to hear the viewpoints of all stakeholders, including students, employees, parents, guardians, and community members. Public comment is designed to address issues, not personalities or personnel matters.
Please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district and appropriate for a K-twelve audience. Please note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during community comment. Our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with the description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker. Further, even if some remarks may be factually inaccurate, we generally choose not to respond to correct the record here because formal board meetings are not the time or place for back and forth dialogue. As we begin this community comment session, let us model for our entire community how to listen and how to interact respectfully even with those with whom we disagree, for
we all have the students' best interests at heart. So this opportunity for public comments is from members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up, and each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board. So first up, we have Jared Evans. Welcome. Thank you. Next up, we have Tori Pappas. Welcome. There we go. Hi. I'm Tori, mom of two. My oldest is a second grader at Beatty Elementary. I support maintaining access to community comment at both business meetings and work sessions.
I understand the need to address meeting length. Reducing community comment just doesn't feel like the right move to me. Obviously, I'm here a lot, so I like it but for other reasons too. Let's I think we should look to our Colorado State Board of Education as an example to follow. They recently added the ability for remote comment and this is something that I and others have been asking for at these meetings, many times before. When CASB was here in March, I don't recall them suggesting to reduce access to
community comment to help address the meeting length. And I also don't feel like listening sessions are an appropriate substitute. Those are great and I totally support them, but they aren't the same. They don't feel the same to me at least. I look at the list of listening sessions and my school isn't on it and nor was it on it last year when you all had listening sessions. So, I've heard how comfortable these listening sessions can feel and, you know when they're when they're happening at your own school and I just wonder what happens when there
are no listening sessions at your school. What happens to the issues that are important to those families? Like are we just supposed to wait? When you vote tonight, please consider doing it in a way that maintains community comment or you can add remote comment, you can do anything I think to increase access, but with everything that's happening around us that's out of our control, it feels like the right move to lean into increasing access. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you. Next up, we have Sabrina Herrick.
Welcome. I want to start out tonight by thanking Jim Brokish for two things. First, the August 12 meeting was the first time Jim has said words directly to me in the two and a half years I've been coming here. So thank you for finally acknowledging I exist. Second, last meeting, I suggested this board wants to cut public comments to silence people who are outing embarrassing situations about this district. Thank you, Jim, for admitting this is in fact your motivation. I do also have a question for you. You made it clear in your inaccurate public call out last meeting that you think we're disrespectful. The ADA section five zero four and IDEA protect both our children's rights to an
education and our advocacy for such. Could you please point out which of those states that the only protected advocacy is emotionally blowing the board until they get around to caring about human rights? And if none of them say that, can you please clarify how many years you expect parents to tolerate blatant systemic disrespect to their children's humanity and right to education? On to a more recent situation, which I promise right now I will address with all the due the respect the situation is due. First off, thank you for finally acknowledging of sex crime arrest. That's a step in the right direction because in the last five years, we've had
so many PSD staff arrested for child sex crimes. I can no longer count them on one hand, and this is the first proactive acknowledgment I've heard. The problem is back in March, a different employee was arrested for child sex crimes. Shortly thereafter, Kingsley had a listening session where I asked him what PSD is doing to protect children from sex crimes by staff. He ended his response with, but we have to consider that this is an issue of personal responsibility. In the moment, I was stunned into silence, but I later told several of you about it. Now feels like a good moment to revisit it. You see, an ex employee who worked with this most recent accused rapist shared some
thoughts about her on FCPD's Facebook page. Two of two of you already received a screenshot, but to paraphrase, they said staff had concerns for years but couldn't prove it, and staff that tried to report concerns faced threats of civil action and or loss of licensure. Meanwhile, nine news reports that she was arrested based on a confession and that PSDSROs had done a safe to tell investigation that resulted in new action in no action. So what do you think we should be doing right now? Should we be assessing if our efforts to empower victims to speak up are actually empowering? Should we be assessing why our staff feel they'll lose their livelihood if they report
suspected child rapist in their midst? Should we be assessing the efficacy of the Safe two Tell investigation process? Should we demonstrate to the public that PSD takes child rape seriously by proactively stance? Look good by doing good, y'all. Thank you. Next up, we have Chris Fierro. Welcome. Hello, everyone. Let me start by saying thank you, for that call of empathy. I think that's what we need most of the time. Those six first six days of school were pretty hard for a lot of people,
including staff who had to, you know, reformat, juggle, coaches had to reschedule practices. Everything was up in the air. Still, empathy is really not enough. We need change. Let's be honest. Climate change isn't just coming. It's already here. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the past decade has been the hottest on record. This year alone, Colorado experienced multiple days nearing or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in August, which used to be rare, and these patterns are only intensifying. We must adapt. The community generously passed four a to help fund air conditioning.
Thank you. But retrofitting 32 schools will take likely twenty to thirty years. We do not have that kind of time. Every summer will get hotter. Every delay risks the health of more students and staff. A straightforward step we can take right now is to adjust the calendar. Many states start school at the August or September. Why are we beginning school earlier and earlier in August during the peak of dangerous heat? Since 2020, the school year has started earlier each subsequent year. As this board has said before, we can't keep kicking the can down the road.
Yes. A calendar change may impact our relationship with Front Range, but change won't come unless we're willing to push for it. We can partner with Thompson as they also had to release early due to heat. We do also have alternatives for concurrent enrollment besides Front Range. There's AIMS and there's also CU Succeed. And we could rework the high school schedule to support AP and college coursework in other ways. We need the calendar to work for the 85 to 90% of PSD students not taking concurrent enrollment classes or AP classes. I'm a concurrent enrollment teacher.
I teach AP as well, and there are solutions. K? We can fix the calendar and make sure that our students are accessing higher education. Other states have figured it out. We just need to look to them. Let's show our students and our community that we value their well-being. Let's lead with empathy. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Anna Labetta. Welcome. Thank you. Alright. Give me a minute. Alright. Good evening. Suffice it to say that my family has had a medically complex couple of weeks since the last board meeting, and we've had to spend some time at the hospital
recently. And every time I would walk to the cafeteria at PBH, I would pass a UCHealth campaign sign that said, I need clarity. Three words that mean everybody stops and listens no matter what is what the sign said. So with that said, I wanna give this a shot. I need clarity. It was said multiple times at the last meeting that the district's current results that we see aren't random, that they are in fact by design. This was said in the context of celebrating the gains that we have made across the district in a number of areas. However, it was also said as a side note that the same of areas.
However, it was also said as a side note that the same in the same part of the presentation that the graduation rate of students in the district supported by IEPs has once again fallen. As a parent of a child on an IEP who has experienced incredible difficulties on account of how our district approaches special education, I can tell you that the statistic will not change without this board taking special education concerns seriously. The report to the board two weeks ago said this, the four year graduation rates of students supported with an IEP are lower than like peers statewide for each of
the last five years. PSD graduation rate gaps between students supported with an IEP and PSD overall are substantially larger than the respective statewide gaps and substantially larger than the respective gaps among Colorado districts, most like PSD, in size and student characteristics. As a concerned parent, I need clarity. Is this an intentional outcome? If not, why is this data okay with the board, and why has this trend remained ongoing in our district for five consecutive years without an aggressive effort to change
the trajectory of this data. I'm asking the board to consider the optics to recognize that the district data is consistent with the uncomfortable messages that you have heard on repeat from myself and a handful of others over the past few years. What is your plan as a board to meaningfully disrupt this pro disproportionality for students served on IEPs? Even with the knowledge that this particular group is sliding more, this year's UIP deliverables focus on tier one gen ed measures that will be available to all students. There does not appear to be an intentional focus on students on IEPs.
If the messages coming from us are not palatable, I'm asking the board to consider initiating a third party disabilities audit on the basis of this data To dig deeply and find out why our IEP kids are sliding further off the charts while our comparison district kids are showing steady growth. Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you. Next up, we have Kim Carlson. Welcome. Hi there. I'm Kim Carlson. I'm a teacher at Linton Elementary and I have a daughter who goes to Lincoln and I'm actually just here to say, thank you to Dave and Trudy who work
in facilities and to Superintendent Kingsley and the cabinet and the board, for implementing the heat protocol. I know it was a lot of work and I know the community wasn't maybe thrilled with it but as a teacher in one of the really hot schools and having a daughter who is in a school with air conditioning but not the gym, it was so appreciated to have those early release days. I noticed my students were way less dysregulated because they weren't sitting in the heat
for the last two hours. So thank you very much, it was a truly collaborative effort and I appreciate being heard and I know there's a lot of other elementary school teachers out there who feel the same way. After years of talking about it, we truly feel heard and respected. So thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Sawyer Green. Welcome. Good evening, board. My name is Sawyer Green. I'm a current senior at Rocky Mountain High School. Today I've come to talk to you about really two things. One is school of choice.
The second is this act of taking away public comments. I understand it. It's hard to have these happen every single every other Tuesday in every month. I get it. It takes a lot out of you guys for the public comments. But out of the out of the PhD while in fire training program, I was one I was in the first class of that. The thing they taught us to do in that class was to communicate, to communicate, and to communicate. The fact that you guys are getting rid of it not only harms the community,
but also harms students. You make it incredibly hard for students to be in this room already for having it being at 05:30PM on a weekday. But again, you're now gonna take away. Now again to the actual main part of my speech. I want to talk about school of choice. You guys say there is school of choice in this district. On the conventional level, on the surface level, there is school of choice. On the deeper level of it, there is not. I'm a I go to Rocky Mountain High School, so I'm not able to do
the Future Farmers of America program at Pouda High School right there. But, again, I'm going into when I go off to college, I'm gonna go into an agricultural education major. So I'm not allowed to get scholarships for it, but on the National Technical Honor Society level, I'm the only one in my school with agricultural education that qualified me for the National Technical Honor Society. The other debate is, should I go to Rocky Mountain High School where I'm about
to get academic hall American within the first three tournaments of the year for speech and debate? I am top 30 in the state for it. Do I sacrifice getting an academic hall American to wear a Future Farmers American jacket that my great grandfather wore, that my grandfather wore, my grandfather was the national treasurer for the FFA? It is unjust, unfair that I Not able to compete and do the same activities at Pouda High School, and yet I qualify in the National Technical Honors Society scale, on the national scale for agricultural
education through the Futures Lab. Then you went ahead and took that program away. Also, took away the Natural Resource Management program at Futures Lab because not enough kids were interested in it. So that's what I leave here today is you guys say this school of choice, I disagree. You guys have made my college more expensive. Thank you. Thank you. And next up, we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. This past summer, PST voluntarily entered into an agreement with the Office of Civil Rights regarding the violation of my son's rights at the National Honor Society ceremony last fall.
The agreement states, quote, please be advised that the district must not harass, coerce, intimidate, discriminate, or otherwise retaliate against an individual because that individual asserts a right or a privilege under a law in enforced by OCR, end quote. And you did just that at the last board meeting on August 12. What you fail to understand as directors is that advocating for disabled students is a federal protected activity. The ADA, the Rehab Act, and IDEA all protect parents of disabled students who make public comments in this place. And last meeting's display was meant to shame, humiliate, discriminate, and certainly to coerce those
parents. Those actions violate the agreement that you made with OCR and I hope they will soon be investigating this board for retaliation. Why the district would choose to escalate in a situation where you're clearly wrong is anyone's guess. Holding a grudge for ten months over a three minute public comment is both petty and narcissistic. What's so totally offensive about the four a comment at last October is that regardless of the mill levy passage, this district had a legal obligation to ensure that special needs students, including those with dyslexia, receive their services. It's uneducated and it's a liability to be spouting off to parents that they need
to pass a ballot measure to pay for this district's already legally liable requirements. It was ignorant then and it continues to be an ignorance on display today. A word of advice with the male dominated board that we have here, consider that shaming mothers trying to get help for their children looked and felt patriarchal and misogynistic. Several women in the community reached out to me. For me, it was a four year overdue Scooby Doo moment that I desperately needed. The mask came off and suddenly I knew that why we had made no progress with special education. When the board liaison for SEAC feels like that about special needs parents that he's
never spoken with, there is certainly a correlation to the continued declining graduation data. I have received the message loud and clear from this board that disabled students aren't a population worth protecting and that you'll do nothing to help regardless of how many public comments are made. The district's own data isn't enough to compel you to act. Every one of the individuals named in that meeting last two weeks ago has been approachable and would be available for any discussion that you guys have cared to have. The lack of fiduciary responsibility shown by this board and its harassment of protected parents is astonishing given PSD's financial status.
Before you start demanding respect, maybe you should consider whether you model it. I really don't care what you do with public comment at this point. For me, all hope is lost. It's clear that you aren't listening by your own willful choice. If public comments are ineffective, then that is more an indictment of you than it is for the people presenting them. A vote to reduce public comment tonight is a vote to silence a protected class and supports my claim of retaliation and discrimination with the office Thank you.
Thank you. And thank you all for taking time to share your thoughts during the community comment tonight. We appreciate your engagement and the feedback that you provide and look forward to further discussions at our next engagement sessions, which will be on nineeighteen, at 05:30 at both Olander and Werner. So we hope to see you there. And from that, we will move on to board topics and committee reports. This agenda item is an opportunity for board members to provide an update on committee work or to speak to board topics. Do any board members have something to report?
Jim. Yeah, I'd like to go ahead. I need to apologize for my comments at the last board meeting. I was trying to make a point about committee community comment and I did it very poorly. So first, I apologize for naming names, which as a board member was not appropriate for me to do. Second, although I told the story exactly as I remembered it, I got something definitely wrong at least one thing. I said two community commenters related that I had bullied a constituent. That was not correct. Taylor Runwin said none of that, and I apologize specifically to Taylor.
I am sorry for not remembering that correctly. It won't happen again. Let me go on to a different item. My wife and I have been planning September trip to Europe for over a year, so I'm gonna miss the first September and the September communication session. And I'm really sorry to miss those. Thanks to Jess for covering DAB and Kevin for covering SEAC. Thank you, Jim. And if I can go ahead and just, similarly apologize to the public. I should have stopped names being named at the last meeting, and I apologize for not doing so. And I will do better.
Thank you. Others? Comments? Yes. Board reports. Go ahead. I just wanted to clarify that even though we have listening sessions at a select number of schools for each of them, anyone in the community is welcome to come to any of those listening sessions at any time. It does not have to be at your home school. The goal was to try and spread them out around PSD to ensure that all of the feeders were, getting targeted at some point. So we were at least landing in each part of our community, but they are open to everyone. Alright. Go ahead. Scott. Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to follow-up on what Brian had said earlier regarding, the deeply disturbing
news of the recent arrest of a former PSD staff member. Many in the community have reminded us that just in the last few years, we've had six or seven of these situations. These are very sensitive topics, and I don't take that lightly. But someone I deeply respect reminded me today that silence is complicity. And for that reason, I cannot stay silent. I want the public to know that the superintendent administration, we in the board of education are taking this very seriously and are already taking several steps to help prevent these situations in the future. I wanna be clear.
The vast, vast majority of teachers and staff in this district are incredible people. They are professionals that take the responsibility of educating our children very seriously. And believe me, this breaks all of their hearts and our hearts. I won't let these incidents sully their reputation or that of this district. I'm asking the PSD administration and the BOE to continue to step up. We need to start by looking in the mirror at our own policies. We need to redefine student and staff boundaries. We need to strengthen the vetting during and after hiring and enhance our efforts to
foster a culture that encourages students, staff, and parents to report any appropriate relationships through our safe to tell program as well as other avenues. I just wanted to reassure the community that we're paying attention and giving this very serious situation the consideration it warrants. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. Others? Go ahead, Kevin. Thank you. I'm gonna give this a go. My voice doesn't sound great tonight, so I'll be briefer than normal. Don't all applaud at once. I wanted to to thank superintendent Kingsley for addressing three important topics that I wanted
to cover, and he did an excellent job. So I'm not gonna rehash what he's already said. But we have received an overwhelming amount of community, feedback, given the early release PSD calendar. And I think the missing ingredient or one of the missing parts of that discussion, which I think you you hit on, superintendent Kingsley, was the CDE requirement that's gonna have a slight wrinkle on how we calibrate or or or count our instructional time moving forward. So the the big topic that I wanted to to state is that these three things are all interwoven.
And, I stand by the decision that was made, which is a killer decision at the beginning beginning of any school year, to have to announce an early release, excuse me, before the start of school. That's tough. We do have a heat protocol that was gamed out last year. It went through an iterative process. It went through a lot of people to talk through how it would work. I'm a family that's affected negatively by an early release because we have to scramble for childcare. We have to figure out our own days, which are now thrown into whack. So I I empathize with everyone's frustrations.
I I felt them, intensely. That said, the safety of our students, the safety of our staff has to be our our number one priority in making those decisions. And so while it's not perfect, I think the implementation, at least this year, and giving people as much notice they could, you know, the weekend not feeling great, but better than the day before. And we'll continue to get better at that. We'll continue to tighten up our messaging. One feedback I think that I I heard, which I think is well placed, is that, the messaging was that we'll reevaluate on Wednesday what the forecast will look like
to determine whether there's gonna be an early release on Friday. I think that I I know it was there because I read it, but I think it got lost in the weeds with some folks who had already secured childcare for the following Friday. And so that was another frustration that they'd already secured it. They had to pay for it. And so, just to be super clear with it is absolutely set for the early release for these days. We will reevaluate Wednesday to the extent we can, make a termination on Friday. So I thank you for your leadership in that, and that was the right I believe that was the right call. And thank you for our our staff and our our our teachers who have said the same. Moving on to the PC calendar.
We've also I wanna address this publicly as well because we've heard a lot of feedback, rightfully so, on moving the calendar and some of the things that go along with that. Because to get a reprieve from those early days, I I believe that when we when I was I was trying to look for it, I couldn't find it off the off the grass of my my fingers right now. But the notion that if we just if we just move the calendar back two weeks, we'll be a complete reprieve from everything is also, I think, misleading. Last year, anecdotally, I'll be but last year, some of our hottest weeks were actually in September. And so just moving the calendar, that one fix won't alleviate everything.
I think it's I think it's prudent. I think we should stay at it. I think we need to con continue talking about the reprieve for those 32 schools that aren't gonna get AC anytime soon. We are gonna get an update on that tonight, so I'm encouraged to hear some of the work that's already been done this summer and some of the work that we've got on the agenda. And, again, I I credit Dave and his team for being aggressive in that. But some of the other intricacies about the calendar that that I've been learning about too, which I think are important, we hear a lot about how, you know, our graduating with options or our front range participants are what's driving the entire show on
that. And that that's that's not entirely true. To unpack that, I asked and please someone Julie, correct me if I'm wrong in this, but I I asked for the numbers on that about how many of our twenty twenty four grads participated in not just Front Range, but other participating programs. And I was amazed to hear that it was close to 40% of the graduating class. Between IB, AP, and concurrent enrollment. Yeah. About 40. So what that translates to then is that students in our in our footprint who are able to get a head start on college to make it more affordable, to
make it more accessible within their own school year. And that's something that I think we've worked really hard to accomplish, and I don't wanna sacrifice that. I don't think it's an either or. I think it's a both and, and we need to be thoughtful about that. But just to suggest that Front Range is dictating our calendar, I don't think that's accurate. I think we can continue working with our partners to see what concessions can be made. I think that's appropriate. I also think that for students that are gonna travel independently to those those partners, maybe we could explore allowing them to start their school year two weeks before to take advantage of those if they're gonna independently transport, which won't affect our our calendar.
So I think there's some some ideas that we need to we need to be thoughtful of. The other thing that I was impressed to learn yet again is that there's no with a with a school district of our geographic sprawl and our size, there is no quick and easy button to press to fix anything. That that I've learned the hard way in in the work that we've done together. The calendar committee is a is a incredible group of thoughtful, hardworking people that have put forward some really good suggestions. And there is gonna be no scenario just to to be candid with our community.
There's no scenario for big seismic change in which not everyone is gonna be is gonna be happy about it. Or there's gonna be I don't like the word winners and losers, but there will be some gains and some losses in convenience and logistics to anyone. But to to shift the calendar in a certain way also requires us to reevaluate the logistical, I I don't wanna use the word nightmare, but the logistical challenges of transportation for schools that start at different times, for schools that end at different times,
that are geographically not clustered with those start times and end times. I know we've been doing a lot of work to try to standardize some of that as well. And then the big wrinkle and this this isn't an excuse to our community. It's just I think I think we owe it to you to include you in the thinking of some of the the facets of this conversation so that we have informed feedback when we go back to you and say, here's what we've come up with with our with our possibilities. Please weigh in and tell us what we're missing and how we can make this slightly better. One other thought on the counterargument, because I do wanna talk about CD requirements just briefly, is that, there is there is an understanding or there there's some data that
suggested that if you misalign, high schools with middle schools and elementary schools, that the siblings who have younger siblings at the elementary and middle schools will simply not attend those days. And I thought, that sounds anecdotal. Show me the data. Tracy, I think you were the one that showed me the data. Where were you? Oh, she left. Okay. The days when high school last year did not align on a professional development day, so it was a non student day with middle school and elementary schools, the attendance at high school was down across the footprint something like 17%.
Not quite a quarter, but a sizable enough where I think, alright, back to the drawing board. So I'm not a wild fan of that that sort of disjointed calendar. That said, I think we need to we still need to think aggressively and be a little bit bold about trying something to get a reprieve because the heat's not going away. And, the the aggressive rollout, I I think the McKinstry, report had done a very sophisticated analysis. I think Dave has has talked about this, May touch on it tonight, is that the projected rollout for all of our schools was gonna be something like, on an
aggressive side with no problems, around seven to ten years, I think, total. Less? More? Maybe a little bit more. Maybe a little bit more. Just this is in 2023, so they they changed. But that that's if everything goes well. And so we'll talk about the update tonight. I'm I'm encouraged to hear that. But, this is a problem confronting us now if I circle a landing for this plane. And so we do need to be thinking about it now, but there is no one change that's gonna be one size fits all for everything. So I'd I I think we owe it to our community to talk a little bit about the complexity without being hypnotized by that complexity and make some tough decisions once we get feedback, especially about our our heat being too too much.
And then the last thing I'll say is that there are also these surprises that we get. When the CDE requirement, and just, again, for the the community's, education, we as a board voted, I think it was the June 17 or the mid June meeting, to essentially, give us a waiver for a year before those requirements were to go into effect. That is because, as you can imagine, snapping that kind of requirement on schools that are that are in compliance with that, that are technically not based on the language, is incredibly disruptive to staff as they're being asked to either do away with recess
altogether, which I'm not a fan from a policy standpoint, or to ask folks to work longer with no pay or to force that into our negotiations. And that's what we negotiate this year, and I'm not a fan of that either. So I think we need to be thoughtful this this year, work in partnership, but I think we can't make any huge change until we at least know where the ground is gonna set beneath our feet on the instructional time. I'm also interested too in in what are their other possibilities at least going to the CD and asking for an additional waiver, asking for more time if we need it. I think that's appropriate because I think, again, of the system of our size and
scale and scope, that that was, not great news to receive at the end of last year, that that we have to navigate. So, anyway, I just wanna add a little bit more gloss on that, and I really appreciate superintendent Kingsley taking the time to talk about the myriad of factors that that are all interwoven. They're all interconnected, and we're we've got our eyes on all of it. Of course, we need feedback from our partners and our community to to understand that. But I think we all are better when we have come from a place of informed, transparency. And I think that's the message I took from your from your comments. So I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Others? Any comments? Okay. I'm just gonna add in, in the words of Nate, ditto to all of that has been said. I think, you know, one of the things that we struggle with most is the other nuances of these things. They're very complex. If you pull a lever over here, something changes over here. And we have to be aware of that. And so this is something that when you look at, as a calendar, maybe there's an easy solution if we just move everything back and that's unfortunately not the case. It switches all kinds of levers over that you're not actually seeing.
So there's very much a complexity and a nuance to all of this and we are looking at those and we are studying those to see what it is that we can go ahead and do. I would also just like to to, end on a on a positive note as well, and that was last evening. We went to the Transitions Pathway Center grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony, and that was absolutely amazing. It was, they took the building, that was what was it before? The partnership center. Thank you. I cannot remember.
And it has been transformed for those students. And it kitchen, the fact that they will now have two kitchens to learn in, to, to use. It's, everything is mobile. It's it's just fantastic. And, you know, those the kids that are in there, are getting what they deserve in there. It's it's absolutely beautiful, and I'm so excited for them to be able to start learning. Yesterday was their first day, in the in the, the new building, and it was
just it was incredible to see. So I just wanted to say thank you, to all of those who just worked so hard this summer to make sure that that happened and that it opened on time and that everything is just a a beautiful place for the for the kids to be. So thank you. Next up, if we're done with board topics of committee? Okay. Fantastic. We'll move on to consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull anything from consent? Okay. Seeing none, can I get a motion? Go ahead, Connor. I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on
the consent agenda. Can I get a second? Thank you, Jessica. Jill, will you please call the vote? Jim Brokisch. Hi. Kristen Draper. Hi. Connor Duffy. Hi. Kevin Havelda. Hi. Scott Schoenbauer. Aye. Andrew Spain. Aye. Jessica Zamora. Aye. Motion passes seven-zero. All right. Thank you. Moving on to seven point zero, action item 7.1, board consideration of revisions to board policy, GP 3.13, public participation at school board meetings, second reading. Can I get a motion? Go ahead, Connor. I move that the board approve the revisions to board policy GP 3.13
as presented. Can I get a second? Thank you, Jen. Alright. And any discussion? Connor, go ahead. Yeah. Just for clarity for the community, tonight, I'm not going to be supporting this, motion, just because I think that we need a little more time and a broader discussion around what we're going to do with our working sessions. I articulated that point, maybe not very well last meeting, but I think that we need to revamp these meetings so that we get to discussion topics a lot sooner so that we can have a much better discourse on the things that are gonna
be coming in front of the board. So this evening, I will not be supporting this one. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Kevin. Can I ask a point of oh, sorry? Go ahead, Jen. Yes. I just had a quick question, a point of order. Because it's coming for a second read, our board member is able to make revisions or suggest revisions by motion, not the the current, but add a motion for a different language on something on a on a on a second read for an action item, or would this have to be folded into a first read with revisions and then to a subsequent? You could do a motion to amend the original motion and include changes there to
the policy so you could fold in other changes today. If there's a lot of substantive changes, it may be easier for the board to consider over two more readings. But you could do that, through a motion to amend the original motion and then add the proposed change in that motion to amend. Thank you. K. Go ahead, Jim. So I've got some comments here. I want community comment, but what I really want is more conversation. What I want is more communication. And anytime one of the parties is in listen only mode, it's just half the communication puzzle. My observation is that in the community comments communication sessions that we tested out last
year at the schools, Both the board and the community have been open to discussing issues, exchanging views, learning from each other. I think those have been pretty great. So here's the thing. The problems we face together are complex and generally have many facets. And it's too easy just to focus on one facet. After my comments last week, the parent of a child with a disability reached out for me and asked for a one on one conversation. We had coffee for over an hour and I came away with a much deeper understanding of where parents of children with disabilities are coming from.
I learned things I did not understand before. So I'm not proud of my comments from last week. The part that I'm most disappointed with myself about is that I fell into the trap of oversimplifying a very complex issue. I felt unfairly attacked and told my side of the story to show why, but I what I didn't do was cover all the complexities of where others in the story were coming from that brought us to that point. I didn't give the benefit of the doubt.
I didn't give sufficient grace. When the conversation is one way only, it was easy for me to fall into that trap. So for me, I think the proposal of replacing one of the two community comment sessions a month with a communication session is actually a good one. I think it fosters strong two way dialogue that brings us closer to solving the complex problems that we face. Thank you, Jim. Others? Go ahead, Andrew. I find myself coming to this discussion with probably some similar and also different viewpoints
from other board members. I get concerned every time I hear things that are are are negative. And so when I hear that there's supposedly teachers that were worried about their job, that worries me. I don't know if it's true or not. When when people feel disenfranchised or disempowered or worried for their job and there's there's certainly plenty of other things, that that even having listened in on on board meetings, I I know, Brian, you've made a point. We have to earn trust. That that's incredibly important, and we have an ongoing effort for that.
No matter if we think we have everybody's trust, we have to keep it. And I'm I'm I'm gonna have to be definitely on the side of more listening rather than less for now. I I I that's where I find myself. And I actually, very much appreciate Connor's efforts in in providing some additional structure, to these sorts of things. I I think there's some great opportunities. I I know we've talked about other opportunities for for additional written communication or digital
communication, things like that that could be shared with the community as to how the board and the district, in fact, communicates and for what purposes through each venue. Community comment always I mean, it certainly isn't always fun when it when it's when we know people can, you know, bring different things. I mean, I wasn't here for the guy showing the book. That must have been a very interesting day for you all. Probably not constructive, but there's a lot of times when I I think I can appreciate that I have to just listen.
I think that that that's value there, for example. But just as much as value in having those great two way conversations and listening sessions, coffees. I I mean, I'm I'm gonna look forward to all the coffee I can have with people because I'm an old medic, so I'm gonna enjoy that. Right? And so I think there's there's a lot of opportunities for us to expand right now until we've earned that higher level of trust. And then perhaps we can have another conversation to say, how do we balance time a little bit better as we as we've learned more and and and done better? And and build into things like what you know, know, again, I know Connor's made
some additional suggestions, and I'm sure there's many others from, that that we can engage so that the community can hear what we're doing and how we're working to engage to build that trust to to get the points across, be it the heat issue, the the light starts, any of it. Thank you. Others? Go ahead, Scott. I'll be brief this time. I will say ditto to what Andrew just said. I thought that was well said. I also wanted to commend, Connor for putting together some reform ideas. I'm all in favor of of looking at that and taking some extra time to
to flesh this out. So I, I appreciate you putting that forward. It's a good discussion point. And, I also am curious about, the remote comments that people have talked about. I think that might be something that could really help, you know, single parents and others that might not be able to come to these meetings. So, just wanted to put that out there. Thank you. Okay. Jess, go for it. So after last meeting I mean, before last meeting and after last meeting, I've given this topic a lot of thought because I've had lots of conversations with folks.
And what I grapple with is that we have these competing goals, right? We both deeply wanna listen to our community. We also wanna ensure that when we're meeting together, we can thoroughly discuss all of our topics. So I'm still trying to wrap my head around how we do all of these things and do them well. And I think one thing I was reminded of last week is that my lens is often very different and having been in this role for four years, my my my lens has grown in a way that not everyone has the opportunity to.
So I continue to trust that our board will offer these opportunities that are above and beyond our policy. I trust that our community will continue to elect directors who will continue that work as well, that nobody's going to allow us to simply only have community comment once a month. However, I also realized that that policy is the only promise that our community has. It's the only obligation to listening to our community that we have. And the possibility that our community could encounter a board, but at some point restricts
community engagement to only community comment brings me great pause all by itself, and especially if we reduce it to only once a month. And so on the one hand, I do agree that our listening sessions are the avenue for having both the two way dialogue and continuing community comment once a month allows for both options. We continue to read all of the emails. We take phone calls. We have meetings with, really, generally, whoever asks for them as much as humanly possible. Right?
And if our community can only depend on the promises in our policy, I struggle to restrict it. Oh, sorry. I had one last thought. The thing that so, Scott, last time you brought in the idea of just moving community comment to later in that meeting because I also still do want to ensure that we are using our time with our student representative when that happens, that we're using that as effectively as possible. And if we have 45 of community comment, that's a fourth of their time spent on that. Now it could be valuable for them to listen to, and the whole point of
them coming is to give us feedback. So I would like to while it's not a policy shift, I would like to know where we collectively come out on that idea so that we're kind of getting both pieces of that puzzle. Thank you. Alright. And I just wanted to just thank everyone for the awesome discussion on this. It's been really great. You know, one of the things that, Connor has brought to our attention is ways that we could tighten up the meeting. And we have, tried to implement that in this meeting, so that we are having two discussion items.
And we actually if you check on your little notes here, we do have time limits next to this. So not that we're we're we're this is our first foray into this, so we're not quite there yet. I was just adding up the minutes, and we're not quite on on point yet. But it is there are ways that we are, also, trying to tighten up those meetings so we can have that that time with our student, when they are here. And if we were to go ahead and move the the community comment later, just to keep in mind that that is not a policy change. What we're looking at for policy change is is yay or nay on that.
And the other thing I just wanted to do is remind everyone that over the years that we have added just a huge number of engagement sessions for direct ways of engagement for directors to meet with the community. We have each director visits at least seven or eight schools a year. We have regular communications and meetings with staff associations, so that staff voice is heard, liaisons to various committees that people are on, active listening during community comment, community engagement sessions, over the years to increase dialogue. I know we had them prior to COVID, and then during COVID, we we did
not do them, and we're, bringing those back. And I have found those to be, truly insightful and being able to talk to somebody. I know that we stay for an hour and a half, and I have not ever left before three hours, after those, so I find them very enriching. You know, individual meeting with community members, group meetings with community members, the reading and responding to email. And then, of course, we've had multiple additional community engagement sessions for sort of our big ticket items, so, you know, our strategic plan, school consolidation conversations, four a mill
levy conversations. So because I wanna engage with the community and dig deep into the hows and whys of each community member's stories and concerns, I will still vote to replace the community comments, during a work session with community dialogue session as I value that open communication over a one way commentary. So with that, I believe everybody has had, a chance to speak. Go ahead, Kevin. Just briefly. Appreciate it. I've said what need to be said at the last meeting, and I echo a lot of the comments. And I appreciate the board's, consideration on this topic.
To the extent I can't always do it, but I try to for the board is sometimes I like to my own perspective, I think it's helpful if I zoom out. And so while I don't believe it was the intent of anyone on this board or anyone in this room to restrict, the exchange of ideas or the democratic process, I am concerned that even it could be construed as the appearance that that's the case. And at a time when I believe that our democracy is under attack, I want no part in anything that could even be perceived as adding to that restriction on
democracy. And it's it's messy, but it's what we've got and it's worth fighting for and it's worth protecting and so with that I will be voting no for the policy. Okay. Thank you. So just to clarify, a yes vote is to amend the policy and a no vote is to not amend the policy. Correct. Just wanted to make that clear. So, with that, I think we will go ahead and, call the vote. Sorry. No. It Why don't you clarify just a little more? Is it, a yes vote is to delete one of the Yes.
Sorry. Apologies. A yes vote is to amend the policy so that they would, we it was it is the removal of community comment for once a month. Does that does that make sense? K. We all we all understand. Yes. Thank you. So, Jill, we can go ahead and call the vote. Jim Brokish? Hi. Kristen Draper? Hi. Connor Duffy? No. Kevin Havelda? Nay. Scott Schoenbauer? No. Andrew Spain? Nay. Jessica Zamora? No. Motion fails, two five. Thank you. Alright. We're gonna move on to 7.2,
legislative priorities and proposed resolutions. Can I get a motion? Thank you, Connor. I move that the Board of Education and the Poudre School District Board of Education legislative priorities and proposed resolutions. Can I get a second? Anyone? Andrew. Thank you. Alright. And let's go ahead and have some discussion. We've got the, the resolutions from CASB up on the board or they're coming up on the board, I should say. And the other thing that, I just wanted to point out and, Jill, if we can go to page 10 on that, on the new one.
Oh, is that on the new one? I'm sorry. Sorry. I had sent a new one to, Jill. If we could make that a little bit bigger, that'd be great. This is the actual draft that CASB has sent for the delegate meeting. And the reason I wanted to have this one up here is it also has their priorities and, bill ideas for 2026. So there are two things here happening here. There are resolutions that CASB is going to be talking about at the delegate meeting on, the ninth sorry, the September. But they also have these, priorities and bill ideas.
And I thought it was important for people to be able to read, in particular, the finance ones Because some of these are not resolutions, but they are, finance platforms that they will be, be supporting. And is it possible to make that slightly bigger? Sorry, let's see if I can I'll pull it up and I'll read it from here. Okay. So for the proposals, for the 26 platform, excuse me here. Get that up there. So it says CASB believes the state must prioritize and provide Colorado's public schools with
adequate, equitable, reliable, and sustainable funding. Colorado must ensure the funding needed to meet today's future educational needs of every Colorado public school student. And so CASB members are committed to advocating with legislators to accomplish the following. And just keep in mind, these are not the resolutions. These are just things that they are advocating for every day. Ensure the use of public monies for k 12 education does not include vouchers for k 12 private schools. Increase total pupil spending to get to the national average as a minimum. Increase, sorry. Modify aspects of TABOR that represent a barrier to full funding of k 12 education.
Fully fund Individuals with Disabilities Act or the IDEA, ensure budget stabilization factor is not reinstated, commit to into SB 23,287, the adequacy study recommendations, Ensure adequate and sustainable funding for public education capital improvements including options like BEST. Ensure adequate and sustainable K-twelve funding levels and, equitable distribution of the School Finance Act. Adopt the School Finance Act before the long bill adoption, evaluate grant programs and fully fund effective grant programs via SFA, and protect the state education fund and accelerate growth
of the Multi General Permanent Fund. So there's several more. If you scroll down there, you'll see student exat and staff safety access and local governance and accountability. Those are all part of their platforms, and then there are the resolutions that will be being discussed. So I just wanted to make sure that everybody had seen those as well, as we're talking about it because I think, otherwise, people might be wondering where, the resolutions for, you know, the equitable funding or the vouchers or, any any of those questions might pop up. So with that, did we have anybody who wanted to lead off the discussion on
these resolutions? Can I start with a question? Absolutely. Again, point of clarification, we're we're being asked to vote on the resolutions as presented in mass, right, not individuals one or off? Correct. Okay. Can can we not everyone volunteer at once, Connor. Can someone give us a primer as to how, these, resolutions were put forward at least to among others that were not included in the ones we're being asked to vote for tonight. Yeah. So in general, CASB has a legislative committee and that goes through that process and
they take ideas from school districts, from from teachers, from a lot of people, a lot of constituent stakeholders, and then they put the list together. I would say this is the second year in a row that I think that the the platform is always aspirational, but I think a lot of the resolutions in the last two years have been very aspirational. And what ends up happening is it's, it's just the starting point for the legislative session, and they I'm trying to think, I believe maybe only one of them got
passed in some form or worked its way into an actual bill that was approved and signed by the governor this year. So Yep. So here's the question I've got is, so are other school districts also being asked to approve this exact menu of resolutions at their board meetings, or is this one tailored specifically to PST? That's what I'm kind of No. The platform's for everybody, but I'm not sure that every single school district, you know, has a formal approval of it. Did you have a question, Andrew?
I I think the only one that you and I talked about at the CASB meeting that we had concerns about was the one related to the board member from outside the district as long as there was a connection through a family member to being in the district, which is something that small school districts need. But my only question is a process one because I wouldn't want to inadvertently send a message to CASB saying, hey, we're in favor of this. And I don't want to do it on a promise of, oh, we'll look into that. I don't think that's appropriate either.
So how do we and that's assuming we all would agree, of course, but if we were all to say we don't like that for PSD, do we send this back saying we approve all of these except for this one? And and that We can do that and say that there's an yeah. We would like to see an amendment. And I believe that was number nine, if I'm not mistaken. And there's a way to go ahead and and submit amendments for that. Yeah. So you can amend it amend it with CASB, and try to massage the actual language that they'll come up with. The other thing on that specific one, we wouldn't be the only district that, has
reservations with that, and I think there'd be probably even louder voices than us, in that conversation. I guess I'm just asking if if we are to approve this, can we have, even, like, if the friendly amendment to say that our vote on it would be we approve all this except for, and then, again, it it perhaps this is something I I don't know who I need to ask about. Yeah. This is a he's he's getting exact because I'm, can I hijack for a second? Absolutely. And I maybe as a suggestion, maybe we can go through each resolution and just say if there's any question or comment or because some of these I had a
few and some I had absolutely I was ambivalent, and I was gonna defer to what you guys thought. But I am a little bit concerned with signaling and en masse or one fell swoop. We agree with all this when I I've got reservations about one or two as well. Yeah. The other thing we could do is just take those one or two that we're, concerned about and have those discussions because I think they're, I think most of us have the same concern on on number nine for sure. If if we could bring that one up. I don't know if there's a a way to go ahead and do that for people. And that one is, no, it wasn't 9.
Which one was that? 8. Maybe 8. Okay. Thank you. It was eight. So eight, was brought by Edison School District, proposed legislation allowing one at large out of district candidate to be appointed or elected to occupy a seat on the board, the district board of education in the district which an immediate family member is enrolled as a student. And to tell you the truth, this was one of those that both Andrew and I at that CASB meeting, we were concerned about, others in the room were concerned about, and CASB said there's no way this is gonna actually go through without an amendment to say that you would have to have, it was I I can't remember
what the numbers were, but very it was for very rural school districts. Districts. They were using the example of one of the counties where they had, they had looked at everybody who was eligible to be on the school board in the district, and it was fewer than 40 people. And so they decided this was one of the ways that they could combat that. And the larger school districts, along with some of the the smaller school districts as well, were very concerned that this could, you know, be a problem. So CASB itself, at that meeting on Thursday, suggested that there was gonna be an
amendment to it as well. And so I would suggest that if we wanna make an amendment and suggest that it'd be, you know, for schools smaller than x or with fewer than 50 people who are eligible to be on the school board or something to that effect. I think that would be a wise decision. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm not trying to be difficult. I was just looking at our proposed motion language. I move that the board approve the Poudre School District Board of Education legislative priorities and propose resolutions. So I'm not maybe I'm just not a politician. I'm not wild about saying that I'm gonna vote in favor of something with, oh,
yeah. But down the road, I'm gonna caveat an amendment. So We can but we can make an amendment now. Can? Yeah. Can we can we isolate maybe the resolutions that we are was that a way to do it too? Okay. Yep. We can go ahead and I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be persuasive. No. No. Absolutely. No. We gotta do it the right way. And we can say, you know, we wanna, we can have somebody make a motion to amend, that we will adopt with an amendment to resolution number eight, 2B. Yeah. Were there other concerns for other resolutions on there? Go ahead, Scott. On the earlier, we were looking at one talking about, evaluating grant programs and fully
funding effective grant programs via s SFA. What is SFA? I believe that's School Finance Act. State state money. Okay. How likely is that to actually have given the state's issues? I I think some of this stuff is pie in the sky Yeah. But it's still worth advocating for. We wanna ask what we want, what we need, whether we think we're gonna get it or not. But okay. I I think you're right to understand that I think the spirit of that is aspirational with the looming budget situation at the state and federal level.
But I do think the spirit of it resonates because a lot of really important work that happens across the state is continuing to be funded on grant cycles without any kind of real permanent solution to ensure that important work is sustainable in any school system, not just PSD. So it's a fair question. Go ahead, Kevin. Let me jump down, to get this thing this train moving. I'm gonna speak, in favor of resolutions nine and ten in our packet. And my thinking being is building off of something that, I think Scott and Connor
were alluding to is that, especially in the context of the special session that we're finding ourselves in and the incredible, state deficit that we're, that we're looking down the barrel, I think maybe a shift in our priorities is to nonmonetary yet very meaningful, and impactful resolutions might be more of where we get a value in this legislative session. So resolution nine submitted by Saint Brain School Districts. It it was a resolution in which CASB sports legislation that restores local control over oh, excuse me. That was not nine. I was I jumped ahead.
I apologize. I was at I was at ten. Excuse me. Saint Brains. That was the same it was I'm on resolution 10. Bear with me. GASB sports legislation that establishes nonpartisan elections for members of the Colorado State Board of Education. I liked that one, and that was married with the other one I was trying to find. I apologize. I think Number seven. Number seven from Durango. Thank you very much. From Durango School District, which is a resolution honoring local control, a new charter school application appeals to the state board of direction. CASB supports limiting the role of the state board of education and new charter school
appeals to determining whether the chartering authority's decision was arbitrary and capricious. So the state board being the the quasi or really the judiciary entity that will hear the appeal, based on a local board of education, I e, us, our determination whether a new charter will either get its charter or not in very high level layman's terms. I do like that idea. I think that those two should go in in hand in hand and that the state board being a fairly partisan board in historically, without disparaging anyone on that board by any means. But, you'll typically get appeals from various school districts that are gonna be decided along
party lines and not what's the unique specific circumstances, from each individual school district. So I'd I'd like to put our energy towards, those two. Whether they get traction or not remains to be seen. But, I still I think the policy is is sound. And I'll just jump in and say, I think the aspirational ones, yes. They we all know that they are aspirational, and it's extremely important that we keep reminding our legislators of just how important education is. And if the best that we end up doing is keeping the status quo, we have definitely won, because I think we have to be very concerned of what's gonna
happen both in the special session and then throughout next year. So I think really keeping this, even though that we know that we are probably not going to get to a national average as a minimum this year. It's something to keep our sights towards and make sure that our legislators understand by just reading that. That means we're below the national average, and that should worry our Colorado legislators that we fund our students at below the national average. So to me, these things, yes, aspirational. Yes, a reminder for our legislators of just how important education is.
And there's some real good policy changes that can be made as well. So I think there's there's, a yes to all three. And, I would propose that we just amend, we we make an amendment to change, resolution Number eight. Number eight. Mhmm. And say, you know, I don't know what the number could be, but for those who have fewer than something in a school district. Con, do you have an idea on that one? Well, Jill, I'll defer to you, but I was just gonna read the motion in again with an amendment on it, if that's palatable to everybody.
So it's Actually, let's go ahead and we need to make an amendment. Yeah. If you can guide us on this. You can make an amendment, to the original motion, and then the board will vote on the amendment and then the original motion after. So there'll be two different votes. So first, you can move to amend your original motion to do x y z and then vote on that, and then there could be the other motion. The other the other thought, Connor, before you get going, is we could also make a motion to amend and just isolate the resolutions we know we're in support of, leave that one off, and then keep that for an amended amended language.
Or if we don't vote on amended language for eight, for instance, it doesn't signal that we don't support it. We're just not gonna make a a a board approval of that. Does that make sense? I think so. There's two options. Or you could just amend to to remove number eight. Okay. That might be the simplest. Okay. I'd like to enter a a motion. I move to, amend, the Poudre School District's Board of Education legislative priorities to exclude resolution number eight as presented in our packet. I'll second. Jim seconds. Thank you.
Alright. Well, so take a vote on the amendment now. Mhmm. Correct. You can do a discussion first if needed and then take a vote on the amendment. Any discussion needed on that? That? Okay. I think we did. So taking a vote on the amendment. Jim Brokish? Aye. Kristen Draper? Aye. Hunter Duffy? Aye. Kevin Havela? Aye. Scott Schoenbauer? Aye. Andrew Spain. Aye. Jessica Zamora. Aye. Motion passes seven zero. Okay. And now, correct me if I'm wrong, but we have to take a vote on the original motion, which if we already voted aye for the, amendment, we cannot do
both. Is that correct? Now the original motion as amended to remove number eight is on the table for discussion and then a vote. Okay. I have another one I'd like to discuss. Okay. Let's do that then. Or have curiosities about. So if we go to number two, it's from Harrison School District, resolution ensuring full public school funding in the event of voucher implementation implementation. I I would argue I agree with the sentiment of this one. What makes me concerned about the way it's worded is it seems like it almost assumes that vouchers are inevitable and it tries to say that state of Colorado will
not what's the word I'm looking for? Use vouchers until we're fully funded, and I don't know if we have a line in the sand for what fully funded is. We just did an adequacy study that told us multiple different things. So I'm a little concerned that we approve a resolution that even though the current door is open for a voucher implementation, it almost, in some ways, reads like it would encourage it as long as we get money. And I could easily see somebody saying, you are fully funded according to me, and
therefore, vouchers are fine. And that doesn't sit well with me. So I think I I agree with the sentiment behind it, but I don't like the wording. And I don't but I didn't know if anybody else had thoughts on how they were reading it or maybe I'm misinterpreting. Well, I'll just jump in as I I think that, it opposes any legislation that establish or expands a voucher program unless it includes provisions to fully and permanently fund public schools at or above Current levels adjusted annually for inflation and enrollment change. So I think the idea there is to whatever if vouchers come in, that it
is not removed from the current education fund as part of education. And no state has entered vouchers and been successful in keeping their funding model. So a resolution is like, this is what we want. And then if vouchers I just wish this was a stronger resolution in opposition to vouchers for the foreseeable future until the state of Colorado figures out public school funding in the first place. Can I jump in on that point? I'm gonna be lawyerly again just for a moment.
I read the exact same sentence you did, president Draper, as a what I call condition precedent. So you're not gonna allow for a voucher mechanism unless and until it includes, provisions to fully and permanently fund public schools at or above current levels, adjusting annually for inflation enrollment. So I I don't I don't see them as separate and distinct. I see them as as before and then. So that's why I don't have as much I agree with everything you said, but I don't have as much concern based on how this is is directed. Because the truth is, if we're talking behind the sky, I don't think, one, either
of those scenarios will actually ever come to fruition. But I do think it's worth sometimes having the argument to have the argument is how you get some noise. Go ahead, Scott. Jesse made me think a little bit, which is takes a bit. But I actually really appreciate what you had to say there because if you do read it, mister lawyer, at current is almost like a backdoor to at current, meaning right now, that maybe I'm not thinking this right, but if they funded fully there,
then vouchers they would support vouchers, and that could be ushered in at the 2025 level, but, like, down the road in 2028 or something like that if if there's a different legislature. I don't know if I'm misreading that. When when they're saying at current, are they meaning at the point when this is being talked about or at the time? The next line says adjusted annually for inflation and the enrollment changes, But we also haven't got a determination with how enrollment will impact our funding for the long term
future either. So Yeah. It's a little squishy for me. I'm not I'm not sure I'm a fan of the wording on that, but thank you for that. I think some of the comments, from the legislative committee on that was, if I recall correctly, was setting a floor on funding, which is the current level and then that inflation factor on there would increase over time indefinitely. So we would be So, we would be funded at the same level going forward excluding decline in enrollment. I have some issues on what you consider decline in enrollment.
They've got some things in averaging on here. But I think setting that floor, if you could like, these are aspirations. If we could set that floor and get inflation factor on it, I'd take that all day. Yeah. About other discussions? Alright. Does anyone wanna make an amendment? Okay. Seeing none, I'm gonna call a vote. Jim Brokesh. Hi. Kristen Draper. Hi. Connor Duffy. Hi. Kevin Havela. Hi. Scott Schoenbauer. No. Andrew Spain. Aye. Jessica Zamora. Aye. Motion passes six one.
Alright. Thank you. Well, that was fun. Let's go ahead now and jump into something completely different. So we've got eight point o informational reports and discussion items. So 8.1 is GPA and class rank policy change. And we should have a couple of special guests for this. One very special guest Wonderful. And joining us this evening to present the GPA class rank policy change is doctor Julie Chaplin, one of our, fearless assistant superintendents. Welcome, doctor Chaplin. Hi. Good evening. Thank you so much for allowing me to, talk with you.
I plan to keep this very short and sweet. So, if you'll just oblige me, I'm going to discuss the communications plan, and actions that have already transpired related to the change to the grade point average and class ranking process and superintendent policy made, at the end of last school year. So just to ground us in those changes, this impacts the current ninth grade class, which is the class graduating class of 2029.
Those students will now see a cumulative GPA, which is unweighted on their transcript. We have removed what the was unique to PSD was this adjusted cumulative p g or GPA that was only used in our district and none other districts around us or through the nation. And we also will report, however, a weighted GPA that is on a five point GPA scale, and that is used for our courses, that receive AP credit, IB credit,
or concurrent enrollment, post secondary credit. Those will all be listed. In addition, class ranks have adjusted from a specific, individual rank out of the total of number of students in that class to a decile rank, meaning that students are ranked either in the top ten, twenty, thirty, forty, 50%. We do not anticipate reporting beyond 50%. However, as you'll see in my later discussion, we're still going to have conversations about
the exact transcript, prior to this graduating class. These changes were made for several reasons, one of those being, transparency and consistency. So when students are filling out scholarship applications, college applications, when counselors are filling out those applications for college enrollment, they're all using the same terminology, GPA, and that is similar as what's reported around the nation. So even those colleges who are receiving our student transcripts don't have to decipher the
PSD code that we made up in our district, literally. And so, that will also allow us by having a decile rank of a top 10% of students as opposed to a valedictorian or salutatorian allow for recognition of a broader range of students. And I will talk a little bit further about that, as well. This also helps us with our, really, four major areas of coherence. That is, again, alignment, not only within our district and how things are reported, but
across districts within the front range, across the state, and across the nation. Then access, so consistency in grade point, GPA reporting, as I had said, helps us and helps our students when other, post secondary institutions are looking at them and trying to compare our Poudre School District students to a Thompson school student or to a student from across the nation. And it also helps reduce, some of the concerns for AP courses, that we see
in our district, when we have the GPA bump that was previous to this and, the valedictorian salutatorian. There was is heavy participation in outside vendors, that families enroll their students in at a fee, to complete additional AP courses in because they can't take any more. Literally, their schedules are full, can't take anymore, but they can pay outside providers. And so that becomes an equity access issue only for those who can afford that
to continually add to their grade point average to get to that number one or number two spot, and, do historically see students actively monitoring that and enrolling in courses even very close a week or two prior to graduation to complete something to get that little bump up. So, we also, also want to be really tight in alignment with rigor. We offer, really high level, high quality advanced options for students, both in our schools
and in our concurrent enrollment providers. And so we want to also make sure that the choices they are making are not simply choices just for a GPA bonus, but they are choices that are in line with their individual career and academic plans and their post secondary outcomes. And so we have seen in some cases where students may have not chosen courses that would align with their post secondary goals, for reasons, to just continually add to
their GPA. Environment, you know, we we workshopped this with, students around the district. So this was something that we did go through several feedback loops last spring. The counselors did. They met with, students in the district, the student accountability committee, and the feedback from students, was a a resounding support from them, in the, improvement of mental health for students in these highly competitive, mentalities that they engage in and how, how much pressure
they can put on themselves, as well as potentially others around them putting pressure on them. And then also, having them, again, have a wider scope of recognition, as I said, by recognizing more students. And when we look at a decile, our friend and data expert, Doctor. Duane Schmitz, when he looks at slicing our top 10 GPAs, they are hundreds of percentage points difference in most cases. I'll I'll make that generalization, but I think that's fairly true.
And so even within a top 10%, we're not talking about a wide range or difference in those GPAs at that decile level. Alright. So, following the board presentation last June, the board policy was officially revised and posted on the website prior to July. District emails went out to two groups. The first group was, to the families of these ninth grade students, current ninth grade students, informing them of the change, because they are the ones impacted, in their graduation
year. And then there was also another communication that went out separately to our current families in tenth through twelfth grade just to let them know of the change and highlight that this did not apply to their students. The district's website, was also this information was updated, again, not only in the policy section of the website, but we had we do have a back to school website, and this information is on there. And this was also, linked in the back to school newsletter that came out before school started on August 7.
So, we are going to continue this messaging in working with our communications department. Every fall, the district, sends out the high school planning guide, which summarizes all things high school and planning wise for career, post secondary education. It will have industry certification information, work related inter information, career technical information, as well as all of the graduation requirements. And this clarity will also be in that for the graduation class of 2029.
Then as we move into January through February, that is when students in high school and our, current eighth graders begin selecting their courses for the following school year. They do that very early. So, they will start in those conversations, and students have individualized meetings with their counselors. So, specifically, the students in ninth grade and eighth grade counselors will discuss this and make sure they are aware as well in a one on one conversation, and that
they're talking with them about their course selections in alignment again with their, four year plan in their individualized career and academic plans, which are annually updated, and aligned, throughout the their high school career and even starting in before high school. And then, we will continue conversations throughout this year and potentially beyond, most likely beyond with counselors and high school leaders as we think about how the 2029 graduation celebrations
and their ceremonies, their recognitions, how they will shift, what that will look like, as we've moved from a Val Sal to potentially recognizing, a a decile. And there's many conversations around those as to, potentially, do we look at a summa, magna, cum laude type situation that recognizes a potential, maybe one to 5%, 10 to fifteen, twenty to 30? That's a pretty typical, process throughout the nation and in post secondary institutions, definitely.
And then also how we will report on transcripts. And so as we've heard, some feedback from others asking for, us to consider possibilities of reporting, potentially something beyond a 10% or a, a decile. That's something we will continue to discuss with counselors, and our high school leaders, and we will have to involve our, our our folks over in information technology into this discussion as well as all of that generates, not seamlessly, unless we all are on
the same page in what gets reported and how how that gets, factored into with their grades on their transcripts. So those are the highlights, and I would also say that, doctor Schmitz, myself, we have in the back of the room, which some of you may be able to see, we have Beth Green. She is our lead counselor, and we also have Liz Davis, senior executive director of student services. So the four of us have been a tag team of, support for specific questions
that have come through, and are happy to continue to work together to address those, as we go and as as certain pieces come forward, that need attention. So having said that, thank you. Less than ten minutes, y'all. What do you think? Alright. Now it's your turn. Questions. Can you keep it within ten? Now here's the thing. And go. Just teasing. But anyway Thank you so much. That was that was fantastic and and great work. So comments, I got a comment.
Yeah. Thank you for that, succinct presentation. It was good. You had fifteen minutes, so you can talk about anything now. You got more time for questions. That's what that means. So I I'm a fan of the the summa, magna, cum laude, designations. What's just because we've gotten feedback from people that are frustrated that Mhmm. We don't have the val, sal, you know, traditional thing, I'm always a fan of pursuing excellence and and encouraging our kids to do that.
So I feel like this would be a good a good way to do it. What's the negative of of that? What would be the counterargument to having the recognition? I don't know that I really can see one that would be a negative. In a ceremony where we're not wanting people to sit for multiple hours, I think we will need to be mindful about the public recognition of that and have conversations about are there visual ways to recognize that and to being able to, to have
students say and report summa, magna, or cum laude. Other questions? Go ahead, Jess. Now, because Scott was so rude. No. No, I really first wanted to just say, I really appreciate that this is coming from counselors because I think some of the, feedback that we've gotten is wondering even where this idea came from and why and how it's, you know, impacting students. And I feel like the counselors are the ones who would know best, both for college applications as well as within our schools. So I really appreciate that the experts are leading this charge.
The other thing I wanna say is, you know, I appreciate that this there's this idea of, like, we're recognizing students for more than just an academic point. Right? And it's really only two people typically, unless there's a tie, which is rare. And we do such every school does such a good job in their own way of recognizing students with their passion passions and interests rather than a number. So I love that we're going this way. I still think that, you know, if we're doing the cum laude, we're still gonna honor the students who whose passion is academics.
We're still doing that. We're just doing it in a different way. So I just wanted to really just say thank you for this work. Where are the people? Thank you for this work. And I appreciate that this came forth and just giving us the update. Yeah. Thanks. Other questions or comments? Go ahead, Connor. So I know Scott's been a big champion of this about CTE and kind of hands on actual work knowledge, have we considered, adding CTE courses maybe and dual internships
in this weighted GPA classification? Great question. Many of our CTE courses, and in fact, in the district career tech center, they've worked to align I believe almost all of them receive concurrent enrollment now, so they do factor into those courses. I will be open to having conversations with the director of career and innovation, Tanya Alcaraz. When we know more from the legislature about the big three changes, which is no more free year of college after this year with a cent and focusing on work
based learning, getting credits for college while with us for free. And then the third is the did I say industry certifications? It's work based learning industry certifications and and concurrent enrollment credits. Those are the three. So as we learn more about that, we may have more conversations about do these work based learning courses and job tied experiences have a place that lives in this area as well. So Oh, that's fantastic.
Thank you. Go ahead, Kevin. The last time this was presented, I exploded with my nerd like excitement for this topic, so I'll I'll try to temper my enthusiasm for tonight's discussion. But I I will say, I'm a big fan to be a part of a district that's focused on this this kind of work to, to to look at the the top end of our student graduates and examine closely what we can do to be more fair, more equitable, while also not in any way sacrificing or compromising our
academic integrity, and that we're we're we're one of the leaders of the state, as you pointed out. The question I had, and I wonder if you could touch on this a bit, is what role did student voices play in some of the feedback that you got, and how is that amplified in the process that you've got so far? Sure. Absolutely. So, informally, we have had the reason counselors are coming forward is because of their years of working directly with students, and working directly with students who have shared their feedback and their their stress, their anxiety, their frustration.
So that is an informal anecdotal process. But formally, in what in our feedback loops, in addition to going to special education advisory committee, district student equity coalition, was a group. The student, accountability committee was a formal group that was presented to. And then, the EDAC committee as well, I believe, was also presented to for this information with counselors, if I remember correctly. And if I misspoke on that, I apologize.
But yes. So they were formally presented, and we gathered feedback, from them, and that was the feedback that was included. It was very positive. And, as a side note, we have representatives from high schools across the district. So students from across the district are a part of the student accountability committee. There, I would say, based on the makeup, also is a right now, last year's, we're probably a high correlation with some of these high achieving students that are looking at these recognitions and engaging in, some of this coursework, and they themselves experiencing the
anxiety and stress. So I think they could share their stories, as well when it was presented. Yep. And I would say one other side note that I think, may come a little bit, I think, with what you were saying, Jess, is we're thinking about, some of this may being seen as taking away something from, or a motivating factor for students that has come up. And, we actually, when we see students that feel they have no hope, that's when we see motivation lost.
And so if their only target is for a one or a two spot, and that's their only hope is one or two spots, and we open up the opportunity for them to be recognized academically for their scholarship in more areas, we're going you can you're going to see students who may have not thought about it before think, wow, I'm that close to a top 10% recognition. Or if we do the summa magna cum, right, they're going to be able to monitor and and and have some targets beyond just those two spots, that may have
more room for growth, that acknowledges, some of their work and dedication throughout their four year career and not necessarily just a real race at the end. So, okay? And Julie, really quickly, this last part on here about, transcript reporting Mhmm. Prior to 2029, it says, And I guess, after that, are students allowed to, and maybe confidentially ask to have their actual class rank reported on their college admissions?
So that is a complication with how we track, how we report, and we cannot guarantee right now with the, information technology systems that we have, it wouldn't be just a simple, we can track top 10 by decile and at the same time top track individually student rank one by one by one. So it is more than likely not possible for a parent to call and say,
but I wanna know if they are number one or number two. That possibility of doing that along with a decile ranking in this reporting process in the system, they they don't align with how those are calculated and reported. So it's a good question. And my colleague, Bud Hunt, if he had anything else to add, I think it would just I I would just speak for him, and I think that's something we
have to explore further. But on the cursory look, that is not an easy just easy button yes. There we go. Thank you. Are there questions or comments? Alright. And I'll just wrap up by saying thank you so much. This is fantastic. I I love the work. Again, like like you had said, Kevin, I just love the the idea of of, this district supporting the whole child and being sure that we are recognizing the academic work and making sure that this is not just for one or two people, that it's an equity issue, and we are we are looking at that.
So thank you so much for all the work that you have done, that you are doing, and that, I I love the fact that we are gonna be communicating this out for the next four years as well and saying, hey. Just a reminder. So thank you for all of that and the planning that goes into it. Yeah. Absolutely. And just to put credit where credit is due, I get to be the voice tonight in our new efficiency reporting system, but all the credit goes to our counselors and our schools. So thank you. Thank you, counselors and schools. Alright. Thank you so much. Did did you have something you wanted to say, Brian? Just keep it rolling.
Alright. Let's keep it rolling. Alright. Eight point two. We we might actually end on time here. Summer construction update. Tonight, we look oh, sorry. I'm gonna steal your line there. You're welcome to. You're welcome to. I just as we tee up, our chief finance officer, Dave Montoya, I just wanna lead again and say thank you to our voters. The the comprehensive report that you're about to see would not be possible without the passing of the 2024, mill levy override that is really just transformational for our system in a lot of different ways.
And as we continue to calibrate around this work, both past, present, and future, I do wanna continue to remind our public while and I shared this in my opening remarks. While the twenty twenty four mill levy override provides us funding to be able to install air conditioning across our schools, Many of us who were around the table at the time remember a couple of years ago, when we hired the McKinstry, the engineering firm to do an audit of our deferred maintenance. We have a billion over a billion dollars of total need. And so installing air conditioning is a priority.
But what we will continue to have to wrestle with as a governance team is around how much funding is available to invest in that over a period of time while also tending to the other, pocket we're talking about hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars. But I'm just so proud of the staff who worked around the clock project managed to make sure that we were able to open all of our schools successfully. At the start of the school year, we've learned a lot, through this work as a result of really not being able to take on this amount of work ever in in an eleven week period.
So just really proud of Dave's leadership, the work he's doing with so many thought partners across the district, and I'd like for you to kinda share your story, Dave. Great. Thank you. Thank you, superintendent Kingsley. And, and again, I'm gonna I'm gonna say it twice because I think it's really important. This presentation would not be possible at all without the election the debt free mill levy of November 2024. For those of us that were involved in that prior to the election, the the situation was pretty dire. We had some remaining bond funds from our 2016 bond that we were holding on
to to say if something breaks, that's how we're fixing it. Beyond that, we don't have money to do much else. So, so this whole presentation is really a result of the, the the generosity of our voters as well as the hard work in putting that together and getting it, getting it to the point where the voters could vote on it. So I'm gonna hit a couple, I'm gonna hit a couple high points here, of some projects that we've completed. There's a couple that aren't on the slides that I'll just kinda ad lib it on the way in. But let's just start out with some of the some of the things that are more visible on the outside.
And so, and I'm not gonna go through all the pictures. We do have a video and a couple slides here that I think will will really emphasize the work that was done. But starting off with playgrounds, we did a number of playgrounds and there's actually more playgrounds that are listed on this slide. But these are the the large renovations of playgrounds that we did. And so we had full replacements at Shepherdson, PGA, Stowe Prairie. We also had significant upgrades at Tevelli and Bennett and, and again, some other smaller upgrades and maintenance, to some other playgrounds. On the bottom left of this slide, you're gonna see a concrete pumper and what
looks to be a tennis court and that's exactly what it is. It's I am sorry. I am sorry. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, coming back to the slide here, the outdoor playgrounds, that I just talked through there. And then looking at the picture on the lower left is a concrete pumper and, it looks like it's pumping onto something that's tennis court. That's what it is. So that was a tennis court, a replacement that we did over at Bolt, and, pleased to say that that is now complete. That was one of the projects that was kinda dragging at the finish line. We were waiting to get some epoxy paint to to make sure that the paint
that goes on there is gonna stay on there. There was a misorder earlier, but we got that straightened out and, and I'm pleased to say that we're we're moving forward with that one. We did a lot of programmatic moves this year. And some of these were things that we had tried to do a number of years and just couldn't quite get them put together, and I'm really pleased to say that we had some really good success with some of these programmatic moves. And this was really a concerted effort within three different things that were happening here. One was the alliance program of which is like the the day care that takes care of our our teen parents that are that are in high school.
They moved over to Community Connections at Rocky Mountain High School and that was a big renovation. I I have personally have not gotten in there yet, but the people that have been there have said it's it's amazing and and the work that was done is is high quality. So we're excited for that. Some of us joined the ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday for the transition programs. That was a great event. And and, again, I I won't restate what was said, but, the the the excitement and what that's gonna bring to our to our students is just it it's off the charts. We're so excited about being able to do that. And then kind of a smaller piece, but part of these moves was that PGA,
Poudre Global Academy, they were actually in the partnership building, kind of spread across two different buildings, and so the idea here was get them back into their building at PGA and do some work there. And so we're pleased that all three of those happened, and we were actually able to make them all happen together, of which is Oh, I am sorry. I will try to get Would you mind? I'll I'll do it. Just I'm gonna I Yeah. I'm not used to not being at the podium, so Okay. So, so the the programmatic moves, again, the three of them, they went hand in
hand, and I'm really pleased that those those went off, in the way that they did. And then kind of a bigger one, that for those of us that have been on this journey with the the advanced manufacturing career tech center, futures lab, whatever we wanna call it, we actually got this project done this this summer and that is the career tech center up at Poudre High School. It's an advanced manufacturing lab, and it it's really exciting. I got to go over there when we handed that over to the teachers. They're, I think, exciting. I got to go over there when we handed that over to the teachers. There I think there are two CNC lathes, two or maybe it's two CNC mills,
one lathe, pretty big machines that came from Woodward. Pretty amazing. It's gonna be really exciting. I gotta work on machines like that when I was in college, so it's really exciting to see that that's actually happening over here. And then the other thing that I really got excited about was the just the plethora of welding booths and everything else that's gonna go into that advanced manufacturing. So it's really exciting to see that come together. And I believe we have an event on September 10 where we're gonna be doing a grand opening of that. So we're excited for that to come. Still backwards. Okay. So the next slide here is, some of our more building specific items and then
there's there's some other things that aren't even on the slide that are maybe a little least glamorous that I do wanna mention. So we did some, HVAC and, building automation, projects this summer and, these were really probably some of the the first two are really some highlights of things that we're really trying to accomplish this summer and that was fully air conditioning both O'Day and Beatty. O'Day, both of these projects came right up to the finish line. And and I wanna just take a minute to pause and thank our project managers, the staff, the custodial staff, everybody, teachers.
Teachers were in there on the weekends helping to get school ready because this this came right down to the wire, but, I'm really pleased to see that the team really pulled together as a district and we were able to get, get students back in those buildings. O'Day was, functioning with the air conditioning at that point. But, as I think many of you know, Beatty did not quite meet the rate, the rate of functioning at the day of opening of school. But we are moving toward that. And just a brief update, we're hoping to have RTUs one, two, and three, flowing and working by the end of the week.
We've already done soft startups of those. So they're they're kind of balancing controls and adjustments and and doing the final pieces of that. And then our hope is by the end of next week, maybe a little earlier, we'll have rooftops units three, four, and four, five, and six running. So that would be the all six rooftop units would be fully functional by the end of next week. So that's, that's been a a sprint to get that done. And, again, we're gonna have a slides on lessons learned, but, these projects were massive. And the the intensity of the projects was was a lot and the time period
that we had to do them was very short. So that is something we'll come back to. Another big project that happened this this summer was Fort Collins High School. We did a, building automation system replacement. So this is where we go in and replace the controls from oh, sorry. Oh, I'm still in there. I thought I was off the slide. Okay. We're still on the right slide. So, boy. Okay. So, so the building automation system, is is is very intensive because you gotta go through the entire building to replace all those controls that that that actually run the building.
But some some knowledge that we heard right after the start of school was that air felt like it was moving better and that it was cooler and so that's exactly what we were trying to accomplish with that. And I look forward to following up even more to make sure that that's exactly what's happening there. But, early early, words, tends to, sound like that that is actually a success and working. We did a number of fire alarm system replacements. These are pretty big projects as well. And we can see we've done three schools, PCA, Blevins, Lincoln, and Putnam. These are kind of the we're starting to get down into the least glamorous projects.
You know? Fire alarm systems, they're extremely important, but I don't think anybody comes in and looks at them when they walk in the building unless they're fire people. Right? So so fire alarm systems are extremely important for the safety of our students and we're glad that we actually have funding to replace these. These are the kind of systems that without the debt free mill levy, we would have run into some real significant problems. If we had safety systems that started failing, we would be in a lot of trouble, quite frankly, if we did not have the the the voters generosity for the debt free mill levy.
This allows us to be proactive and stay ahead of some of those things, and and we're gonna continue to do more fire alarm system replacements as we move forward. Roofing is another, project that, we did do one roofing project. We did design a number of roofs, but we did actually just implement one this year and that is over at PCA. So that's right across the street here and it was nice to be able to look out the window and actually see that project come together, over time. So so really happy about that. And then two two other projects that aren't on this slide, there were two flooring
projects done. I believe it was at Trout and Warner. The carpet looks fantastic when you walk through those buildings. I was able to visit both of those sites on the first day of school, and and it was just amazing. So so really pleased with that. Again, we learned that those are very big projects and I'm gonna describe that in a second here. So we'll have to be thinking about those a little differently as we go forward. And then probably the least glamorous on all of this list is we did do, four boiler replacements as well. And so those are things that are important for the building, but nobody really ever sees that or feels the the boiler as it's as it's working.
Right? So we're really pleased with that. I'm gonna ask Matt to queue up a video for me. And and what we're gonna do is move away from the slides and the and the pictures I had and actually show something that shows how this work was being done. And again, the the video team does such a great job with those. I've I've always enjoyed watching those throughout my years here at Poudre School District and this last year actually being more even more involved partner in in some of the work that was being done. It's it's really it's nice to see and it's it's enjoyable. So, glad that we were able to to be able to get that film in
front of you and kinda walk through, some of the projects that were happening. The, so just some highlights over the summer. We established some strong working relationships with some new contractors. That was that was good. And I would say, continued relationships with existing contractors that we've been using for many years. So, the amount of work that we're gonna be done doing is gonna require multiple contractors and and that's very important for us. Continued strong cross departmental collaboration. So, one of the things that we're learning and that one of the things that we are really trying to lean into is leaning into the experts that we have
in the district. We have a number of experts whether it be in plumbing, HVAC, controls, structural, all these different areas, electrical, plumbing. The the the staff that we have, especially the department leads and the staff in there are extremely knowledgeable in in our buildings. When you think about an HVAC unit and we have a a department person that takes care of all the HVAC units, got 54 plus sites plus others, There's multiple systems. They're all different and somehow these people maintain them. They keep them running and it's pretty amazing actually.
So, really leaning into that expertise, I think, is gonna help us, plan even better projects as we as we start to flex that muscle more. The majority of the projects were completed on on time for students. I do wanna just call out that the the tennis court did drag out in Beatty. I'd give you an update on that, and that should be complete next week. So, lessons learned coming into some things that were learned. Yes, I will. Thank you for reminding me. Okay. So, lessons learned. The red zone schools, red zone, what red zone means is the school is empty
while the project's taking place. And so the the lesson learned here is that the sooner we can identify what those red zone schools are, the quicker the instructional program has to respond to that and to actually, in collaboration, make sure that we can vacate that building when we're doing work. And if we're not able to vacate that building, then we will move that project to another time and take up another project that will work in that time. So, so that's something that, that is very important and and something that, as we go through the next couple slides, we're gonna start thinking about what those red zone
schools look like and where they are. There were a number of large projects that we did, and kind of the lesson learned here is that in an eleven week period, that's not a lot of time to do a project. And when you think about eleven weeks, just just think about this with me, you have a week to move, like, a big HVAC, project. You're gonna have to take all the desks, the furniture, everything out, load it up into storage boxes. That's gonna take a week. It's gonna take a week to bring it back in and clean up. And we should we should be leaving ourselves a buffer for unforeseen events of which
in this short window is hard to do but we should be thinking of it about at least a week and that doesn't even sound like enough. If you do that math real quick, 11 becomes eight and that's two months of window that we have to do this work. And so what we are doing is really leaning into understanding that is the window that we have to do the work and working with our designers and and, and contractors to actually scope work that fits within those time frames so that we're not in this time crunch of trying to do too much too fast. Part of that is beginning designs earlier.
We, we've already begun a lot of work on this and, and and are moving forward quickly on this. And one of the things that happened last year is that we did not have the election the the results of the election. So some of the designs, even though we jump started some of them, some of them couldn't be fully implemented as far as the design work until we actually had the answer from the election. We have a little bit more grace of time. We don't have to wait for November for that, so we're moving quickly in that direction. And then kind of I've kinda thread this out through the the presentation, but working
on scope clarity is is gonna be another important thing. That's where we're leaning into those trade professionals that we have to make sure that we understand the scope. Many of you in your in your other careers probably know this as well as I do and I remember this from even auditing. The more time you spend in planning, the better off you're gonna be with how successful you are on the end. And so that's really what this is about. It's it's about planning and clearly defining scopes, so that when we do take these documents out to bid, that the contractors know exactly what they're working with and and
can actually bid on those. So, those were some highlights of lessons learned. Now I'm gonna kinda move into, so that's the summer of of twenty five. Now I'm gonna move into, just a preview of what is coming so that, so that we can at least get our minds around some of the some of the items. We've talked a lot about, tonight about air conditioning. I'm just not I'm not moving my slides, am I? I am gonna give it to Julie. I am gonna give it to Julie. Okay. I only have a couple more slides. So alright. So air conditioning priority plan.
So, our initial idea around this, and and there's really three bullet points that we're focusing on that lead us to the next round of schools. And and the first one's kind of a yeah. That makes sense. Implementation of mechanical cooling at sites that don't have it or don't have tempered cooling. So so that's just one filter there. That's a pretty obvious one. The second one is really gonna be leading us into our next phase and that's prioritizing schools with large student populations and higher occupant densities. And when you start thinking about what that means, it's really talking about schools like
middle schools. We are also gonna be prioritizing schools that typically run hotter. And so kind of looking at these three basic criteria, two schools really filtered up to the top as the as, really the candidates for the next large push for air conditioning and that's Weber and Lasher. So we're gonna be moving forward with starting the design. I'm gonna talk about that in the next slide. But, but that's really, where those two schools come from is that it's really that second bullet that's really driving that, as well as the third bullet and the first
bullet, obviously. Again, like, O'Day and Beatty were elementary schools. They're small. These are very big schools. So even trying to do that in the summer is not feasible or even rational. So when we're working with our design professionals, we will be working again to phase these in over multiple years, multiple years, understanding that limited window of wait eight weeks that we're trying to target and working with the contractor and the designer to make sure we're fitting work that can fit within that eight week, within that eight week window. So kind of an update on where we're at with Weber and Lesher.
We currently have a solicitation out for a design build, contract. And what that basically means is you bring your contractor and your designer in early in the process. And the efficiency and what what you're hoping to gain is that they can talk to each other as well as talking to the owner for your school district and come up with a joint plan earlier that is more thought out. Typically, what you would do is you bring design, you complete the design, you put those those plans out for a bid and then you would cap have contractors bid on them. By doing this, we save, two steps of a solicitation by bringing in a design
build firm build firm in early. What they will do, it's very similar to a CMGC process that we've used in the past here, for our big builds, where at some point during that process we would need to come back to the board of education to say, okay, here's our design, our contractors have gone out to to bid this, and here is what the cost or the the the GMP, of that project would be. And and so that's kind of the approach we're taking. The update on this is that the solicitation closes at the end of the week. We do plan on award very, awarding very rapidly, most likely though the week of,
of September 8. I wanna take a second and just maybe take a little rabbit trail to talk about some heat mitigation strategies because it it felt like it fit right here in the presentation. We also just knowing that and we we we've said this a couple times tonight, air conditioning isn't gonna happen immediately. It's gonna take us time, it's gonna take planning, and it's gonna take phasing. So we also want to be trying heat mitigation strategies where we can because, as we heard in public comment tonight, and I I I agree with it, the heat's not gonna go away. We need to we need to learn how to to manage this.
So we did try something this summer and we tried putting some window film over at Putnam. The results were mixed on that. It worked at a certain point, but then when the day got to a certain threshold, really, about 93, 95, any benefit of having that that, that that window tinting kinda disappeared. So so that's something that we we're not ruling it out yet, but, it wasn't probably the the the favorite mitigation strategy at least at Putnam. We are gonna try it over at Polaris and at Boltz to see if we
have some different different, results there. So not just, you know, not just quitting there, but we're gonna try it again. The neat thing about this is we can run data from last year and this year with and without window film, match up days that are similar in temperature and see is there a change in in the classroom temperature. It's not hard evaluation. So that's that's work we're gonna be doing. Obviously, when we're putting window film in October and November, those are our cooler months. Yes. But we wanna keep moving on projects as well too. So that's that's why we're doing that. Heard a little bit about, some of the successful things that are also happening happening
with heat mitigation strategies. We purchased 500 portable air coolers and this was a really big effort. I appreciate, Trudy Trimbath and the team kinda putting this together, bringing in 500 units while everybody's gone, getting the boxes torn down, getting them assembled, getting them distributed back out to the sites is a is a pretty big feat and, and we did it. And we are hearing really good good information around those those units. They're they seem to be working, and so that was that was actually a really
good sign and, I think we're gonna continue we're we're actually ordering more where some sites are saying, hey, I still could use a couple more. We're we're ordering a couple more of those. But that that one is fairly successful, I would say, at least in what we're hearing right now, from from the results of those. We're also doing another, heat mitigation tactic or strategy and, we we just kinda started dipping into this one. The Delaney models, when you go into those schools like Johnson, Linton, Warner, you look up and they have the skylights or, I forgot what they call them.
I call them skylights. And they're they're the windows that are up in the the ceilings. And and those windows let a lot of light and heat in. And so I know we've tried these in the past, but we're taking another swing at it. It's taking kind of a low cost approach to is there a way to use some heat, resistant material that doesn't let the heat through, newer technologies and trying to put those in front of those skylights to see if they will cut some of the heat down. We're just starting that work, so I I don't really have an update as to how successful that is, but we're gonna continue doing that. It wasn't a high cost, it's just taking a little time to do it.
And then we mentioned earlier, and and superintendent Kinsley mentioned in his in his openings, we've also implemented the the PSD heat protocols for early release as far as mitigating tech strategies. Coming up into '26, I wanted to give you a preview of some projects that we're thinking about. I will put a caveat here that we're still in design phase, we're still phasing things, and some may move in and some may move out, but this is at least our current thinking right now. Fort Collins High School, there is a very large parking lot project that is that is overdue over there.
This will most likely be a base project project as well. We'll probably do front half one one year and then the other back half the other year. That way the whole building doesn't need to come offline when we're doing that. Athletics, we were gonna try to fit this project in last or this summer. It did not happen '25. It is going to happen '26 and that is a track and field replacement at French. This was a good good one. We're trying to move pretty quick on this and then I think most of the people involved including athletics and others realized we need to slow down a little bit
and get a really good plan for what we want with this replacement And so we're taking that time so that we can do it next summer. I'm excited about that to happen. And then some major civil projects and civil just means, like, moving concrete, asphalt or kinda stuff outside. Irish, Elementary and Polaris both have some fairly major, concrete and asphalt things that we need to tend to. So these are all currently in the state of civil engineering review right now and, and moving forward to design. Upcoming mechanical projects that we're thinking about, Fort Collins High School and Bennett Elementary are
up for emergency generator replacement. We've already ordered those and, we'll we'll install them when we can. If we can do it over a break, that'd be great. But those are already kind of moving in. McGraw Elementary, we are gonna do a boiler replacement on that. Remember, we just did four of those this summer. We're getting pretty good at how to do boilers. So we're gonna get even better as we keep moving through forward with this because I I suspect we'll be doing boilers every year. And so McGraw will be getting a boiler and we're just entering design scope for that. We did the four fire alarm replacements this summer.
We're gonna we're targeting two next year. The solicitation has already closed. I don't think we've selected the vendor yet, but those would be at Bolton CLP Middle School where we'd be focusing those fire alarm replacements. Fossil Ridge High School, just like the Fort Collins High School project, the building automation system, we are planning on doing that as at Fossil Ridge High School as well. Lesson learned from this summer, we're gonna phase that and, again, focus on how much can we get done in that eight week window. Maybe a little bit longer in eight weeks. I don't know that we're moving as much stuff like we did in elementary for
an HVAC project, but you get the idea. We're gonna we're not gonna try to do the whole thing if that's not reasonable or rational to do that. Thank you. And so upcoming building projects, we have a number of things that we're, looking at, Bolts, Blevins, and Harris, some flooring replacements. Any of these projects, when you think about like flooring or HVAC or fire alarms, they're really big projects and what they require us to do is move a lot of stuff. Gotta move books, you gotta move media centers, you gotta get desks, you gotta get
chairs, all that stuff out of there. So we are going to look at the potential of phasing multiple projects at once so that we can fit within those windows and not have these mad scrambles of trying to move things in and out really fast in that in that one to two two week period that I talked about out of the twelve weeks that takes to just move things around. Trout, we are gonna be looking at exterior door replacements over there. We're kind of going into design review there. I didn't mention in the slides earlier, but we got done with some fairly large door projects again this summer too. Crews had a very large door project that we got done this summer that has
taken us a while to get there and so we're really pleased about that and we're going to continue working on our exterior doors moving forward. Again, this is what the debt free mill levy was I do. We have roof replacements that are that are planned. The good news is we actually have completed the design on these. So so we're pretty far ahead on that. But when you look at Poudre High School and you think about Poudre High School right to the right of or right toward the right of me up here over to the south, that is an enormous building. It is very big. There's multiple pieces of that building that were built this time, added on this time,
and it there's a lot. So when you think about a Poudre High School, that will definitely be a phased project. That may take up to three years, maybe even four, depending on how complex and the timing of that is. But we will also be doing other roofs as well, Shepherdson, Irish, and Harris. There's there's a lot of roof attention that need that's that's needed in this district so we're trying to move forward with it as quickly as we can. I know there's more roofs that need to be, tended to beyond the ones that I'm talking about today but these are the ones that are the high priorities. Okay. And then next slide.
So kind of rounding it out, here. I wanted to also talk about just take one second to talk about some other things that aren't project oriented but are very much in line with some other things that the debt free Malavi is supporting. And when you think about it, I talked about a lot of big projects. Right? There's also a lot of small stuff that's happening, like small water heater breaks. Okay. That's maybe a couple thousand bucks. That's not gonna be a big project. That's gonna be something our trades people deal with. And so when we think about some of the money that went to the trades to do this, we we started our new ticketing system April 1 and at that
point or at the time of this this slide was created, we actually had 4,800 work orders since that time when that system was turned on. Good news is we've completed about 85% of those and and I don't have statistics in the past. I just know that that seems like a really good completion number to me based on what I've heard through the through my years at the at the district. This is this is really important and and it's actually a a change of direction how we're doing things. In the past, I think a lot of these requests would come in and the answer was we don't have money, we can't do it.
So so really pleased about that. Again, we're seeing some really good movement there. We did 200 plus preventative maintenance, work orders. So those are things that aren't necessarily glamorous again but you're gonna go replace filters or replace a bearing. I'm making some of this up. But these are the things that make those machines go longer. And, again, our our, our trades people are very knowledgeable in how to make a system that is only supposed to run for, like, let's say, ten years. Somehow they magically make that thing work for twenty five years. And so so this is what we're talking about is that preventative maintenance where they
know where to put the preventative maintenance and hopefully that allows us to have equipment longer. We did also take in about 88 project requests, last year. About 55 of those were complete. These are smaller projects. They're they're they're smaller things like I I wanna move some cabinets from here to here. It's not I wanna do an addition on my building. That's those are those are different projects. These are the smaller ones. And we did have a number of those come through, and we'll continue to work on on some of those, as we go forward. Some of them are complex. Some of them have budget requirements, but we're working through those as well.
So that really, I think, wraps it up. We talked through the summer, what happened in the '5. Talked about a little bit about lessons learned. We talked about where we're going in the future and kind of where we're out in process with some of these projects, that are coming up. And then also touched on some of the other things that the debt free mill levy is doing that really might not be making our radar, and that's really those preventative maintenance and those work order items. So with that, I can pause and take any questions that you might have. Alright. Thank you, Dave. And team, I think this is it's incredible work, and I'm exhausted listening to the
list of what you did this summer. So I cannot imagine how y'all are feeling actually having done the work. It is very impressive. It's gonna be exciting too. It's gonna be exciting to see, that we can actually do this work now, that requests can be fulfilled. And, I see you smiling over there, so I know that this is feeling good for you, isn't it? Yeah. So any questions, comments? Good. Okay. I've got a couple. So if I need to stop between, that's fine. I think if I recall correctly during the McKinsey report, one of the thoughts was
as we need roof replacements, we would also potentially get efficiencies by doing AC at the same time. Am I remembering incorrectly? No. You're not. That that is true, and and that is work that we will be needing to do with these air conditioning projects. Some of them interrelate a lot. Right? And so a a better example might be, and this is one that we are doing, like, when you're tearing the roof doesn't come off the building, but the ceiling on the inside has to come out. Right? And so you can expose everything up there. And so so when that ceiling comes down, we are we are able to start
working on we're able to tie other projects in there. So, like, lighting is something that is also in the McKinstry report that makes a lot of sense when you got all the ceiling tiles down and all that to to replace the lighting and and you'll see that at Beatty when we're over there. Roofs will work with our designers and determine is there some synergy that we get by joining those projects? And if so, absolutely. Yeah. It's Gonna keep going. Can you also I had some questions with this, that were asked of me during our heat days, and there seemed to be some confusion about how costly and how
difficult AC installation was. So first, can you give us a range of how much it costs to install air conditioning on our buildings? And two, about how long it would take it has taken over the summer to install a unit at Beatty or the unit at O'Day. If I recall correctly, it's between 5 and 11,000,000 depending on the school. And to look and see where exactly where our projects came in on. But that's that's where my mind was going is really, we have it on the whiteboard too. Probably about $6,000,000 on smaller projects, and it could go up to $12,000,000 on more
intense projects like the middle schools. We're we also found that the McKinstry report had they had an approach to air conditioning in that report, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best approach to air conditioning that building as well. And so that was something else that we that we learned during our day in Beatty is that, even though McKinstry outlined this is how we would do it, when we got in and started working with the designers in our trades, we actually modified that a little bit and actually came in under cost. So so I I think those are good ranges for us to think about.
I think also as we start getting into these next middle schools in the next couple months, we'll really have an a better idea of what that upper range is for for a large middle school project. Thank you. Okay. And then sorry. I hate to just keep telling you air conditioning. So we ordered 500 coolers. Can you tell us that means 500 classrooms now have something that didn't have it before. How many classrooms do we have that are not air conditioned? I don't know that number right now, but I'd have to get that to you. Right. And ask beforehand. I apologize. Thank you for that question. The the goal of that project in installing those portable coolers was to place them
in every single room that had no cooling unit. I do think it's really important to to the public to state that these cooling units are not air conditioning. It is a mitigation factor that we are trying to just bring the temperature down. But as this heat persists and it gets extreme, their ability to be effective is diminished. So I think that's really important. But we wanted to make sure that there was something in every non air conditioning classroom if the school building thought that was important.
Yeah. And I would say that 500 is probably the lower limit because there were some of those units that were in place already, and so it would be 500 plus classrooms. Did you have another? Or do you want somebody else to go? Scott's looking eager. Yes. Exactly. Dave, thank you for the presentation. A couple of things just made me just think of this. With the, the 500 cooling units, are we measuring the the overall building temperatures like we were in past years? We we've got plenty of photos of people doing it on their own thermometers in
in rooms. Are we keeping track of how effective those are? Yeah. Yeah. We we're just like with the window tint and everything else, we're we're trying to run comparative data to see how did they do what were the temperatures last year, similar temperatures. Do Do we see a drop in temperatures here? Not all classrooms have temperature monitors, so it varies to site to site as whether we actually have a a temperature thermometer in that classroom or in that zone. Sometimes it differs. But yeah. Okay. Yeah. It just makes me think, like, the outside temperature being 95, that's what kicks in
the, the heat day. But maybe we should be thinking about the inside temperature in those schools because it's a different, set of mitigation that we have now compared to when we put that, in place. I don't know. That's maybe down the road. I think our hope is that we're gonna find that they they cool the rooms. And then I guess the question is how much? Yep. Is it is it enough to take the edge off, or is it enough to say, hey. We're actually changing the environment here. I I don't think it's probably that. I think it's probably closer to the other one, but I the data will tell.
We're gonna need to look at it. Okay. Couple other things. How confident are you that we'll get the two middle schools done next summer given that they're bigger projects? So I we cannot get the middle schools done in one summer. They're gonna have to be phased over multiple schools. Oh, okay. And, again, that goes back to that eight week window. To be able to move an entire middle school out, furniture, everything, books, media center, clean that whole thing out, take the ceilings down, start working on it. And then to be able to move them back in in eight weeks, that's not even feasible.
No. So that's where we're gonna be working with our design professionals to say how much work is feasible in eight weeks and to not overcapacity ourselves so that we have the room to be nimble where we need to and not put our teachers and other staff into a situation where we're trying to do a mad scramble at the last minute. Okay. Scott, can I just add them? Sorry. Yeah. Go for it. Piece to build off of what Dave is saying there. I I'm really grateful that Dave is articulating lessons learned around scope. Right? Another part of that same story, multiple things true at the same time, is our
financial capacity to take on these projects too. And I really appreciate Director Zamora asking that question around how much do they cost. So if we have an elementary school project that's costing $6,000,000, the debt free mill levy was transformational, but it's not an infinite amount of liquid cash that we can tap into. It's about $23,000,000 a year. So as we take on these larger projects, middle schools in particular, that potentially could be double, you know, tens a little over $10,000,000 a project. And I am not an expert in that.
But I want us to also just have that context because that means punting on other really important deferred maintenance. Some of it's safety related doors, fire alarms, full like, those types of things. So there's a there's a cost impact, not just scope of work within the eleven weeks that I think is an important part of the story. Yeah. I can do that. I would actually oh, go ahead. Just to add on to that, for the public's information and understanding, getting $22,500,000 out
the door in in six months isn't something that we've done. Alright? So this is and and the good thing about the debt free mill levy, and thank you to the voters for that, is this is the first year for into perpetuity. So the learning curve, we're going to get better and better and better and better at that. And hopefully, we will start to also get preferred suppliers. I mean that's kind of how it works in industry. You kind of set the groundwork the first couple of years and then it becomes a lot more efficient.
And I think that when we get going a little bit more, we will be able to balance the larger projects with some of the time, right? So we've got a long queue of projects, time. Alright? So we've got we've got a long queue of projects that have been put on the back burner for multiple, multiple years. And we'll get to them. I I was gonna build on what Brian was talking about because I really think
it comes down to in my mind now three different things. We have time that we have to deal with and when I'm talking about time, I'm talking about time of work. We have budget. So we're gonna have competing interests around deferred maintenance. We just talked about the billion dollars and that the fact that we hadn't been keeping up with that and that's gonna have to be balanced in the budget with nuance around air conditioning. And then the last one and and probably I don't know which one of these are dominant. I think the time is a big one as as well as budget, but contractors. Do we have enough suppliers to do the work?
Right? And I'm not as worried about that. I think once the word gets out and if we're doing correct planning where people can see projects, potentially, they can staff up in a year or two to get ready for those projects. But I I don't think that that's I I don't I think there's a lot of work that can be done on all of these to to make it work better. I've got some ideas on budget. We we have a little bit of bond money left that I think we could inject to help do some of these projects. It's not gonna get everything done but it'll maybe start. But there's there's I think that's really the three variables that we're working with is
contractors, budget, the competing interests there and then the time that we have to do the scope. Dave, really quick on number two. On budget, I hear 500, air conditioning units, two HVAC units, we're going to have to do middle schools, high schools, so on and so forth. What have we budgeted for the increase in our utilities cost? Because we all know our utility bills go up in the summertime and it's directly linked to AC. So have we kind of educated, especially, the new schools that you're gonna be getting
a much bigger electricity bill coming in? I know it's taken care of at the at the district level. But it all at the end of the day, it's all coming out of the same pot. Yeah? Yeah. So, I do think we'll need to monitor utilities to see how these changed, like, thinking about those portable air conditioning units that we did. We intentionally got ones, and and I'm glad that they they are working as well as they are, but we intentionally got ones that don't run on compressors. And so, hopefully, the energy usage is a little bit lower there. But, yeah, if you're plugging 500 of those things in across the district, there will
be a noticeable change in your meter. Our utility budget, I I don't remember how much we increased it for this budget cycle. I wanna say 700,000, but I don't know that it fully anticipated all of that. So we'll have to look at that a little closer. You said one last one last question. So just doing the rough math, if we're only doing two per year, this could take fifteen plus years, could be seventeen years. Right. I I think we need to factor that in. I mean, we always are saying, hey. It's gonna take several years, people.
But I think it's a lot longer than that, and I think, you know, most of us will be retired by then. So I I think we need to keep that in mind when we're talking about other mitigation things that we can do, the calendar, all those things because this is a generation that we're talking about before we're really where we wanna be. So if I'm assessing this correctly. No. I I think you're right, especially when we're talking about large schools like middle schools. I mean, those are gonna be big hurdles to get over. We're gonna be pushing the design team and the contracting team to really once we
get done with, Weber and Lesher, what's the next phase that fits in like a puzzle piece with the phases that we've created in it? I'm not saying that we're going here, but it might be that we fill in with an elementary school because that makes sense and we have the capacity to do that. But really focusing on those two middle schools first to really understand the the breadth and complexity of a very large school. We'll define our kind of our upper limits of budget. It'll also define our upper limits on time. And then I think when we start to build those phases out, we'll know what puzzle pieces might fit in and and actually join to to work better.
And my goal would be to hopefully start adding more schools as we get better about this, kind of to your point, Connor. I would I'd be kind of amiss to to think that in five years, we're only doing two schools a summer. Because if we can come up that learning curve, you know, it goes three schools and then maybe four schools and maybe five schools. I I think we can get it done faster than that. Yeah. I I would agree that there's capacity to do that. I think the the challenges we're gonna have to balance out with the competing in needs of deferred maintenance. So, like, even if we could do it all at once, we're gonna have a
budget constraint on how much we can do. Go ahead, Kevin. I wanna offer some thoughts, and I've got some specific questions. But, something that Brian said kinda triggered this thought as far as we're gonna make tough decisions as a governance team as far as allocation. And correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm I'm I'm gonna, again, try to take a step back. In kinda how I'm viewing this work is that, one, I'm very excited. I really appreciate the update. I was looking forward to this for a while. We got some skin in the game now. We're we're making it work, and I credit your team for their aggressive approach, but also thoughtful, etcetera. I guess my my point is, as a as a governance team from the board,
it's not my purview to question or criticize the operational management side of the house. However, it is my job to scrutinize big ticket expenditures, and so I think those two are kinda go hand in hand. So if everything's going swimmingly, ideally, you won't hear from us. Right? But it is our job to kind of jump in when we think things are going wrong. Or let's say a subcontract subcontractor went AWOL, and now we've got a massive change order that the board's having to approve, and we've got litigation and things like that. So I guess my my questions, at least that's the lens I'm looking at this as far as the value add that how I'm gonna approach this.
So, again, just take my questions with that lens as appropriately. I'd like to avoid problems, and so I wanna be thoughtful of of some mitigation that we're doing to avoid some issues. So some of the things that jumped out at me that I thought were that I'd like to talk about. So, again, this is no criticism. This is just where I'm thinking some problems may could arise and what we're doing to address them is that we a ten week window where I heard you say timelines are very short, taking things right down to the wire, and, also, we're establishing strong relationships with new contractors, which is on slide five of the presentation.
So I guess first question is this. When we're reviewing RFPs, how much of an audit or investigation are we doing into the insurance premiums of the vendors and bidders? Are there thresholds that we're looking at that were that will disqualify some or others or, you know, how does that work? Are you talking about the insurance limits that the Yeah. That the vendor would cover? Yes. So we work with our risk management department for all big solicitations. They determine what the limits of or what the insurance requirements would be. And, and we should not be proceeding with any contracts unless we have that certificate
of insurance on on file. Perfect. Alright. That's that's helpful. I appreciate I I thought that was some of the answer, but I'd like to hear. I appreciate that. Each project may have a different level of insurance depending on its its complexity. Like Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. There's also products out there like rectification insurance, which is a a different beast, but it's it's helpful for big scale projects. The other thing that I heard and I and I understand why we were essentially doing this in the summer. We're doing this when there's no bodies in the building, so that that's in in in nature of the compressed timeline. One concern I've got, though, is with a con a pre compressed timeline, we're also
likely gonna be see seeing a premium in some of the the work that contractors are bidding on. And I'm thinking, well, if you want this done in ten weeks, it's gonna require an on average, you know, six hours a a day of overtime for our staff. It's gonna require, you know, us dropping, etcetera. So I'd like I did appreciate you addressing that at least in part that the more we get into a cadence with certain contractors, they'll know they'll anticipate what our needs are. They can plan ahead of time. And I understand this summer was just wild and different. But I wanna be mindful of that too because that's how things can add up.
I'm assuming process for change orders would still need board approval, for anything exceeding its $250,000 threshold. And I guess the the comment slash question there is that I hope the contractors are well aware of working with a public entity that they're gonna get some more public scrutiny if they're asking for a change order. They can't just slip by the desk of the the the owner. Yeah. Our change order policy, does allow for change orders and there's a certain threshold where I believe it's over 10%. I'm looking over it on them to confirm that. If it goes over 10%, then that would require more reporting out.
But there is some flexibility to do some change orders, just because there are often change orders that are that happen. But, again, it's that 10% limit that would require more more work on it. Okay. And then last question, this is a random one I thought of tonight, but I have to ask it. I'm not a tax person, not a tax lawyer, but I am very interested in exploring to the extent there are they still exist any kind of tax credits for high efficiency units like heat pumps, things like that. Are we taking advantage of that before they sunset? What's the the Yeah.
Connor's saying shaking his head. No. He's We're we're we're gonna be we're gonna be looking at anything we can, but I think those are starting to not be as available. But but we're not we're also looking at other things too. You know, in the past, we've had people come for community comment, talk about things like energy performance contracts and and other financing mechanisms. We're gonna we're gonna look at all the different tools that are available and determine which ones make sense for us to use and and how they would be how would they would fit the projects when when appropriate. The other the other thing I'd say on that, yes, some of the tax incentives
were residential to commercial to public buildings are are quickly fading away. But there's still other monies available out there. They're a little more difficult to to get after and I think that those, are probably suit our needs a little bit better. So and I and I wouldn't put it all the way on the back burner because things can change again. This isn't the first time that this has happened, by the way. And this is where Jim comes in and talks about the great work that the audit committee does on construction.
I was I was prompting you to say something. But also one of the things that I I don't think, probably the public is aware of it is the audit committee does, do a lot of look backs. They did a very, very good look back on the 2016, bond for the new high schools and addition on on Zach. And that work, has it's kind of ongoing, and it's it's it's really good. Other other thoughts? Andrew. I wanna appreciate what you and your in fact, the whole district are doing.
And and this is this is where I have a little bit of fun first because right off the bat, I'd I'd love to see us get to this with not just what you're doing, but the entire board because the can can stop here when you're when you've been dealing with deferred maintenance for so long. And I think, actually, there's a lot of things that the board has had to deal with and hasn't been able to do what they want, the superintendent probably and and the staff. And so this is just a great example of how we're flipping the district into the can stops here. And so I'm channeling a little inner Harry Truman, little Missouri, take take whatever you
want. It's all good there. But you and I have talked a little bit about some of the opportunities that you've had to work with students, actually, on some of the work. And I, a, just want to encourage that because when you when you started listing all the different projects that you're going through, I see such amazing opportunities for those who want to learn about architecture, project management, planning with businesses, even prioritization matrices and things like that actually are really cool things for for students to learn, let alone
the individual CTE related activities that are obviously going on within each project. And so I think that's some really good opportunities there. But even when you started measuring or talking about measuring heat, transfer and and some of those things like that with the different things, it prompted ideas like working with CSU students, for example. And it's like, what happens if we actually put in the window units for solar? And what does that change for for temperature inside? And then turn into a dual efficiency kind of concept. And then, you know, things like PhD students probably look at all that kind of
stuff as well and what amazing energy we have in this district to actually tap into all those things. And then finally, I had one thought. It's like, how many of our buildings are gonna actually become LEED certified, potentially, if we wanted to gain into that? Whole different level. I understand that, and then I'm sure there's costs and all those things like that. But, again, it could be one of those things that we could lead into or lean into, excuse me, long term for the district and and against sort of show others what what we're capable of doing here in this district.
Yeah. I I think, one, just coming back to the students. Anytime we can have interaction with our students and they can learn something from what we're doing, I think that's great. And, in fact, I think, putting that in the maybe even an evaluation criteria of an RFP, it'd be maybe a small weight, but are you gonna be able to help with it and do something with our students Would be something that would be maybe something that we'd wanna start to focus on a little bit more. As far as the LEED certification, we haven't talked specifically about whether that's the direction
we wanna go or not. I think we need to go back and with the team and have some more conversation. That's not to say that we're not looking for energy efficiency if we don't go that direction. And and to your point, there's a cost to getting LEED certified as well. So, do we want do we want the recognition or do we want the inner I mean, I think you can have the the savings and maybe not have the recognition with the cost, but let me go back and talk about it. Certainly, I wouldn't call it a high priority. It's sort of a way down. I'd I'd much rather be partnering with the community and students and things like that before we're worried about spending money on LEED certification.
But at the same time, if there's ways to maximize things again, the multiple things all at once Yeah. It could actually, of course, work to our benefit if we determine that way. We also during the heat, work, we also worked, Treaty Trim Bath worked with some folks over at CSU. I don't know if they were students doing the work or not. I think maybe I think they're professors, but I'm sure they had students involved in that. So so there's connections there, I'm sure, as well. Thank you. Certainly wanna encourage that. Just keep it up. Other thoughts or questions? Alright.
Well, I just I I do have just a a couple I just wanna, throw out there. First of all, I just have to ask because I'm a geek, new tracking system working well. Yeah. The as far as this, the ServiceNow, the work order system? Yeah. Yeah. I think for the work order piece of it, it is. We're continuing to advance more into that system for other parts that we need to build out more, but work orders were priority one. Yeah. I know that that's, you know, for for the teachers and staff in the buildings when something breaks and they need it fixed, you know, nothing else matters.
So Right. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. Couple questions on, just the the video that you've got there. Do we have that on the website? And do we have on the website too, like, a look what we accomplished this summer? I don't believe so. List of I don't believe so, but I'm looking at John. I'm sure we can work together to come up with something. The video is not online right now, but it will be. And we have been updating the the middle website. We will continue to do so. Perfect. Thank you. I just think it's important for people to see what what's happening, and maybe even if we had, to your point, Jess, if we had, you know, rounded costs of
so people understand that, you know, air conditioning in Beatty was this many millions, and, you know, just for for their, edification. So, and then the last question I have, and this is I'm just throwing this out there. I had thrown it out there years ago, when we were talking, about air conditioning. And considering the fact that we do have schools that are not maxed out as far as, people in the buildings, is it at all possible can we think about
an out of the box you know where I'm going with this, Dave. Yeah. Of, yeah, of being able to take a school offline for a year or six months. And so we could have a semester plus or maybe two semesters worth of, you know, work to be done while we take a school. Yeah. So, you know, exactly. You do some cohabitation for a semester. We get you know, maybe if we have an an empty school that that becomes the stage school and so we move one school into that building for a year
and then well, that you know, their building gets redone and then they can move back and then next year another school gets staged in there. Just a just a thought so that the money's not infinite, so I understand that that, you know, we'd have to work with budget on that as well. But it might be a way to keep costs down as far as, you know, overtime and, timing wise so we don't have to squish it all into Yeah. Eight, actually, you know, eleven actually, eight weeks. Yeah. When you get to the you know, I I mentioned time, budget, and contractors.
Right? You're you're talking about time, work time. And to your point, earlier, when you're compressing it in such a short window, that definitely is probably coming from a cost from your general contractors that are doing that because they're having to put more people on the job, it's more intense, and the stakes are higher because your deadlines are tighter. If we can expand that expand that window of time, that allows us to do a lot more planning and a lot more maybe potentially moving a lot quicker. There's complications to that. We have been talking about it.
So it's not something that we haven't been talking about at least at the leadership level. Others other, tactics that have worked, I I wasn't here when this was done but I guess at one time at Poudre High School, we actually worked the schedule so those students got out, like, in March into March, I think. And so we had April, May, June, July to actually do work. And so there there can be work done on a schedule in a different way too. But I think we need to explore all those options, because to be able to get through this in a in a reasonable amount of time, we're gonna have to
we're gonna have to start poking at those variables of time. I'm gonna work on budget and see what kind of plans we can get there and then contractors, but time is probably the one of the biggest obstacles that I see right now. Okay. Thank you. I've just I'm glad to hear that, you know, that's, a you know, still thinking about it for sure. I know that there's multiple complications with that and, all kinds of things, but just having that out of the box thinking for how we can, you know, make that time seem longer, is great. With that, anybody else have any other questions?
Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation, but thank you more importantly for the work. I know that this has been, quite the summer for y'all, and a lot of learning being done, a lot of building, a lot of fixing, a lot of new, everything, you know, and I I just can't thank you enough for all the work that you have that you're doing. And and I wanna thank I wanna thank the board and our voters again. Absolutely. The the voters. Without without the voters, we we would not be having this presentation, and this district
would be in a whole lot different situation right now than what we're doing right in this moment. So Absolutely. I'm really excited about that. And I'm I'm looking for time for us to celebrate some of this too as as a staff. It's been so fast paced and intense that, we need to celebrate a little bit too because we did a lot of work this summer. And I think that was what was so special yesterday too about the transitions pathways, building. It was just it was a celebration for the for the students, but it was also a celebration for you all to to say, look what we did. And it was truly amazing.
So thank you. Alright. And, with that, the meeting, believe it or not, is now adjourned at 08:20PM. Have a great night, folks. Yeah?