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She takes me out like Christmas. Yeah. All right. We're going to
get started here in just a second. No. Go ahead. Please.
Joel. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you for joining the Board of Education this evening.
Please mute your cell phones as we begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, January 13th, 2026, and this meeting is now called to order at 5:40 p.m. For those
attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on a TV, in the boardroom and in the lobby to access the live captions in a language other than English on your own device, please scan
the QR code on the screen or on the table near the entrance and select the language of your choice. The live stream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube. For links to these live streams,
please visit the Board of Education page of the PSD website or PSD TV on demand on YouTube. All right. Please join
me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Thank you. Moving right along. Would any board members like to make any changes to our agenda? Okay.
Seeing none, we. Sorry. Thank you. All right. Next we have recognitions and reports. Brian, I believe you have some introductions. Yes. Thank you. Good evening everyone. This evening. We're excited to
recognize community partners as well as student athletes. Leading the celebration is John Cope, our executive director of communications. Welcome, John. Good evening, President Zamora,
Superintendent Kingsley, board directors and everyone joining us tonight. This evening, we're proud to celebrate an incredible group of students and an outstanding partnership. Our first recognition is for the partnership between the
United Way of Larimer County and PSD, for the work to make the district's teen parenting program a long time success. Here to introduce representatives from the United
Way is Melissa Schaefer, leader of our Teen Parenting program.
Good evening, Mr. Kingsley. And board. My name is Melissa Schaefer, and I run the Poudre School District Teen Parent Program with support from our mental health specialist, Jenny Fuentes, and student Services.
Our program just celebrated its 50th anniversary serving and supporting teen parents in our district. We're located at Rocky Mountain High School along with our on site childcare. The Alliance program,
a branch of Young People's Learning Center. Child care is the number one barrier teen parents face when trying to stay in school and have access to their education. In February
of 2024, we were notified that our funding source to cover child care tuition for teen parents through the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program was on an immediate freeze, leaving no funding for child
care for our teen parents. Jenny and I immediately reached out to basically everyone we knew and tried to secure funding. The United Way was the top of our list. Through ongoing conversations and
dedicated staff at the United Way, we are proud to formally report to the Board of Education on the successful completion of a recent initiative to support the district's teen parents and their children. This started
with a generous family foundation donation of $75,000 and a match request to the community. Within a short period of time, the community rallied for another $75,000 to
bring the total raised by the United Way to $150,000 to go directly towards child care tuition for teen parents a huge success. We're deeply grateful for the United Way, and their
commitment to our partnership. It is my pleasure to introduce Kelsey and Cecilia. Hi everyone.
Thank you for having us and thank you for that kind introduction. Melissa. My name is Kelsey Diaz. I use she her pronouns and I'm the acting CEO of United Way of Larimer County.
And I'm Cecilia Reynolds. She her I'm the director of community impact at United way of Larimer County. At United Way of Larimer County. We have one powerful priority a future
where each and every child has the opportunity to thrive. And we advance that priority by investing in four building blocks of lifelong success family financial stability,
kindergarten readiness, reading at grade level, and high school graduation. So you can imagine when we got the call that there were teen parents who couldn't attend school for lack of child
care, we knew we had to act. This touched all of our priorities, from high school graduation for the teen parents to kindergarten readiness for their babies, to the future financial stability of the
whole family. And the community really stepped up. As Melissa said, a generous private family foundation offered a $75,000 match, and in less than four
weeks, we were able to secure the full $150,000. And I'm excited to share that many teen parents are back in the classroom now. We are so
grateful for our partnership with PTSD, and I know many people in this room also spread the word, maybe contributed themselves to this effort. So thank you so much. Together, we
really can build a future where each and every child has the opportunity to thrive. Thank
you. Thank you. If you wouldn't mind staying towards the end of our recognitions, we just have a couple so we can take a group picture. Thank you again to the
United Way of Larimer County. Our final recognition of the night is our very own Wellington High School football team for winning the two a state football title here to introduce the team and speak to
this amazing accomplishment, this Hilary Bartling, athletic director at Wellington Middle High School. Good evening.
Thank you so much for having us tonight. Like he said, my name is Hilary Bartling, athletic director at Wellington Middle High School. In December of 2021, we hired coach Travis Peoples to be the head football coach at a school that did not
yet exist. He immediately started hiring his assistant coaches and started hosting workouts at what was formerly Wellington Middle School. We had no weight room to speak of and it was challenging to say
the least. The group of young men before you were in elementary and middle school at that time, and they were not able to participate in those workouts until the end of May, their eighth grade year. Coach peoples made a bold statement in his first introductory
meeting with students and parents, claiming that we would make a run at the state title over the next four years. This team and their coaches put in countless hours practicing and perfecting their craft. Last year, we came up a little short
and ended the season as runner ups, but this year, all that hard work came to fruition, with the state championship coming home to Wellington for
the first time since 1954. Thank you so much to the school board, our superintendent, cabinet members, for their support on this journey. Thank you so much to the players and coaches for all their hard work.
We are so proud of our Wellington Eagles. I'm going to hand it over to Coach Peoples. I think four years ago it was a cornfield or some kind of crop,
and I appreciate you guys building the school. It was easy for me to come in with this group of kids here. Hard work and blood, sweat and tears. The amount of work that these kids put in over at Wellington, I'm sure it happens all across
Poudre school district has been unreal. They've been leaders in the community. They're leaders in the classroom, our administration all the way down to our custodians support us. We support them. We're a great small town. I know you know
where we're at, and I'm just really proud of these kids, of what we've accomplished. A year ago, you saw maybe we didn't win it, maybe in a fashion that we could have just, you know, drag our heels a little bit and
been off that, you know, we didn't win it. But they went back to work for 12 months with a great attitude. And every single one of these kids I love, every single one of these kids I think has a great future no
matter what they do. Military go and get a job. A lot of them are going off to college. We have a great graduating class, about 11 or 12, and really the younger group has another goal next year to win the state championship again. But I want
to recognize all these kids right here. Matter of fact, every kid in our program for the amount of work they put in, it's not easy. We go 12 months out of the year, they play other sports. They do other
things, require to do homework, sit in the front of the class, do great in school, but they also excel in the weight room. They also excel in summers that you don't see 5 to 8 every night running in the heat, going and playing other teams.
We go away to camp and we a lot of things that's above and beyond, and I think that's what propelled where we are to our excellence. And if they take what they learned in football and they use that the rest of their life, this group of kids
right here will make Poudre school districts very, very proud. But I'm proud of them. And thank you guys for supporting us. And we hope to be back another time. And Tanner said he's not speaking. He's not. Step up. Tanner. Everybody knows Tanner gray.
That's Tanner gray. He's known all around. And I don't mean to point just one guy out, but he was our captain and our leader. He's heading off to Nevada football on a full scholarship, and we have other guys going on
to do great things. But he was our captain leader, and I like to embarrass him a little bit. But all these kids are great and appreciate you guys, and thank you for letting me come
up here and talk. Thanks, coach. Congratulations once again to our honorees. We're proud to celebrate you as you represent the very best of Poudre School District. At this time, I'd like to invite our honorees, board directors, and
Superintendent Kingsley to the
front for a group photo.
All right. We'll continue on with our agenda. Thank you so much for being here, y'all. Next, we have our action items and we have a resolution in support of
Martin Luther King Junior Day. Can I get a motion? I move that the board approve a resolution in support of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January
19th, 2026. Thank you. Connor, can I get a second? Thank you. Kevin and Brian. I believe we have guests. Yes we do. Joining us this evening to speak to Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Day is John Miller, the
fourth hour director of the Black African American Cultural Center at Colorado State
University. Welcome, John. Yeah. Okay. Is this better? All right. Okay, so one more time. And now
that we have the mics. Good afternoon everybody. Like they said I am John Miller the fourth. I am the director of the Black Cultural Center at Colorado State University. I'm excited to be here tonight.
Thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much for the intention. Thank you so much for the effort. I'm here to speak to you a couple of minutes about our celebration on Monday as we honor the life
and legacy of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. We will be joined in Lory Student Center from ten to from 10 a.m. to one. We are doing things slightly different this year
for folks that may know. We have been snowed out for the last two years. So. So this year we're going to do a little bit of experimenting in. Our entire program is inside. So we
are going from we have about 45 minutes of a program, really short, really sweet, really kind of get to the point, really get us a good foundational education, really hear some performances from the
community, and then we will move into a little bit, a little bit over two hours of exploration of everything. So you can sign up. You can do a little capoeira if you want to,
which is like a Brazilian martial arts has this like liberation component to it. This kind of spiritual component to it really kind of move your body. We have a day
of service thinking with Hobart bound. We have our our libraries. We have the historic Preservation Department is really going to do a pop up. And we've also created a
virtual tour. So in place of the tour, in place of the actual march, we are doing a virtual tour in which you you can follow. You can engage in a couple of ways, either one, you
can do it completely virtually. We have about 18 locations across Fort Collins that deal with civil rights education. So you can do it right there on your phone, your computer, your laptop. We've also designated about a mile long tour or a
mile long march that you can do. And we've we've chosen a mile because it is it is about the same length of the march. So feel free. You can find that on
our website. We have everything from letter writing rooms to literary rooms, to another mural project, to a quiet space exploring the power of storytelling. As you can tell, we have a lot of different options for you for for
different ages, for different people who are at different levels of wanting to explore Doctor King's legacy. So I just say this to welcome you, welcome you to the space. And
again, if you would like to learn more information, feel free to reach out. Or I or, you know, websites, emails. Sorry it's been a long day y'all. But
yeah, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. And that was like, I'm really excited now. Like I'm like, I can bring the kids and they can pick choose
their adventure. It's awesome. Do we have any other comments or from the board? No. All right. Well please, John, I just want to say thank you for
representing not just the university, but everything that represents Doctor Martin Luther King in celebration of this really, really important day and work. Members of the board, members of the community, I'm
so honored to be participating in the event at CSU on Monday, and we'll be speaking at the event at 10 a.m. and couldn't be more honored to not only be our superintendent, but to be in partnership with so many
leaders in our community, celebrating such an incredible human being. So I just again want to say thank you for being here and representing all of us. Thank you for those remarks,
Angela. I think we can call the vote. Carla Bass. I, Conor
Duffy, I Kevin I Jessica Zamora, I Karen de Ziegler I motion passes five zero. Thank you
very much. All right. Next we will have the superintendent report. Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the Board of Education and to the community. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.
Welcome back to the start of a second semester. We hope everybody had a restful break as we continue to have these incredible celebrations. I just so honored to be associated not just with this school district,
but with all of its partners. The significance the United Way made just 2 to 3 years ago of completely realigning their entire mission and vision to focusing solely on youth
services, was transformational for the children in our school system, and really prioritizing place based investments to make sure that dollars and resources from our community are going to exactly where the need is. And
I think tonight's celebration of that work is bigger than our teen parents. But I just want to just celebrate the work of the United Way. Joy Sullivan, who is sailing at sea right now
with many other members of the CSU faculty, is the leader of the United Way, in partnership with Kelsey and Cecilia and many others. And I just want to thank our staff for all the work that we're doing behind
the scenes to continue to provide resources from our community to students who need them most over the break. It was interesting. I had an opportunity to go to the barbershop, and as I was listening to the conversation
in the barbershop, they were all talking about the quarterback of Wellington Middle High. Tanner, who you saw here tonight, was the tallest guy in the room. And Tanner's got a full ride, I believe, to the University of
Nevada to play football there. But just hearing the buzz and the energy that has sparked across not just the town of Wellington, but all of Fort Collins and our broader community about the work that
they're doing, I really think that is significant. In terms of the leadership you saw from the coach, as well as their principal and all the faculty and staff members. And I remember speaking to the then mayor of the town of Wellington
when we opened that school. His entire speech, when we did the ribbon cutting was about Friday Night Lights. And so to see that vision come full circle is really, really puts a smile on
my face. You know, over the holidays, I'm going to share something that I normally don't do. It's kind of out of protocol, but I just think it's really important that over the holidays, PSD lost a superhero,
and I want to just take a brief moment to pay respects and a tribute to one of our bus drivers for 27 years, Daniel Abraham Reardon, who his
students at Stove Prairie Elementary School know him as Dan. Dan, the bus driver man lost a battle with cancer but served this community, his
family, our students, the people in our mountain communities for 27 years. And I've seen Dan around. I didn't know him well. But I will tell you one thing that I learned about him over the holidays
that just stuck with me as I'm in my 28th year in education. It's for the first 26 years as a proud employee of PSD. He
never missed one day of work, not one day of work. And so to his devoted wife Sharon, and extended family and the entire Mountain School community who's continuing to figure out creative ways, there's an
incredible memorial service for Dan at Timberline Church on Monday that unfortunately conflicts with the same ceremony that's at CSU to honor Doctor Martin Luther King. But I know that there will be many
members of the PSD community. They're expecting over a thousand people. And when you think about some of the things that happen in this school system on a daily basis, many instances it starts with a
smile and a face, like Dan, Dan, the bus driver man. And today, at the state level, they released a new data point. It's embargoed. It was embargoed for quite some time that for the
second consecutive year, PSD has its highest graduation rate in its district history. It's now at 89%. I believe that,
yeah, we should give. Now. We still have work to do, and that work is still in front of us. And we're and we're dialed in from our strategic plan to the work that's happening in our schools. But let's not get lost
that it's it's it's our teachers, it's our bus drivers, it's our cafeteria workers. It's our principals who are holding the line and trying to create, you know, just creative
solutions to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all students as partnership with our parents and our nonprofit community. So just a special tribute to Dan, but also a celebration of a lot of our
success each and every one of the opportunities that I have to address the community. At our board meetings, we show a quick win video, and I want to pivot to that right now because we have an exciting launch to
tell, help, tell our story as a district in a new and unique way. We're starting our own podcast called The District, and so pay special attention to this incredible highlight video
that invites everybody to know what's happening and what to expect in the months and weeks to come. Thanks, John. That's a large piece of why this podcast exists to answer culture war
questions. Yeah, we give kids some content, but we want them to know how to apply it and to think for themselves and to think critically about it, not tell them what to think. You know, I think having a general curiosity of what's happening
in our schools means people are invested in what is happening with their children. Literacy is the key to the kingdom. That's what gives students the choices, helping realize that because there is a laptop
involved in education, does not mean all of education should come through the laptop. Pretty excited about it. I know all the board members are going to
want to be a part of it. There's only one couch, so we'll be figuring out different ways to compete for different topics and discussions. But I really want to thank the creativity of our communications team for thinking of just unique ways
for us to take over Spotify in the next six months. Just really, really excited about that. You know, there's something that's not on our agenda tonight that I just want to briefly acknowledge as I send out a message to the
entire community earlier today about our declining enrollment. I want to thank our partners at the Colorado and for also publishing an article on Monday of last week to continue to educate our community around
some of the challenges that we're facing as a result of their just simply being fewer children of school age in our respective community. We anticipate that while our enrollment this current school
year has declined by approximately 500 students, again, as we've recently heard from our state demographers, we know that they're not projecting any rebound in the near future. And so we're going
to continue to need to wrestle with that work and what that means, and what are the implications for our school system together. And that was the the purpose and the importance of my communications
to the community today. This, we know, will impact our budget as well as our services that we can provide. And we're going to continue to keep our community updated around how to stay
involved, to better understand and have voice in what these impacts look like throughout the spring and the years to come. We know that we have a comprehensive planning committee already in place, and
I'm excited that at our next board meeting, they will have the opportunity to provide their first formal update to the Board of Education. So I'm asking everybody in the community to please stay tuned
for that upcoming presentation and the discussion. That will be equally as important to focus on following that this evening. The main topic on our agenda, as everyone knows, is the review of policy changes
which will be presented by our general counsel. I really want to sincerely thank our General Counsel's Office and partnership with the Board of Education to build a first of its kind system to ensure that
we're reviewing all of our district policies within a four year span. And tonight is the start of implementing that process. So we are going deep on policy tonight. We will not be doing that every meeting,
but we have a cadence that's now in place over the year, the next several years where we will continue to make sure that every single one of our policies are fresh, that they respect the interests, the
mindsets and the values of this community and our school system and our Board of Education. And as our community continues to engage, and I want to say again, we have a vehicle for community members to provide us feedback
on that process prior to coming to community comment. And I think even through some of the discussion tonight, you will see how some of that feedback we've already been able to be responsive to in real time, in
service of the conversation tonight. So everybody please know that your collective input makes us better, makes us stronger. And I'm really glad to see you for another year. So thank you everybody. Thank you
so much for that. Superintendent Kingsley. Next we have community comment. This is an opportunity for public comment or the opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who register
to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the
board. A little hot. There we go. Ready? Thank you. All right. First up we have Amanda Kramer. Thank you and welcome. Today I dropped my seven year old son
off at school late again. Don't worry. We were just participating in our one of seven therapies that we do outside of school every week. I loaded him into his wheelchair
and I brought him into the classroom. Two students in the in the hallway said, Hi James. And as we walked in, his home classroom teacher said, Hi James, glad you're here. Please
join us in the circle. The students had not made quite enough room in the circle for him and and the teacher kindly reminded them that everyone needs to space in the circle, and the students immediately
made space for James to feel included. This is what inclusion looks like at Warner Elementary and first grade. As you can see by this short
snippet of James's day, he is a joy most of the time to have in class. But this joy is not only shared by James, but it is all the other students and staff in
the building. On the rare occasion when James does arrive at school on time, the kids fight over who gets to play with James. This warms my mama
heart so much. You can see James wants to be like every other seven year old boy. You bet he. If he was able, he would be rolling, running around on the playground
playing chase with all the other kids. You bet he would be making fart jokes in the cafeteria with everyone else. However, the staff that he has is able to make these these
wishes a reality for James. Maybe not the fart jokes. Not sure. This is James's fourth school in the district. As a former base camp manager, I
understand that every school has its own personality, but I can. I can honestly say that the delight in his presence and the willingness to accommodate James has been shared by every
staff member that we have engaged with as a mom. There are days that I wake up and I say, here we go again, James. But when I bring James to school, the staff always say,
Hi James, how are you? So glad you're here. While in preschool, there was no response from James, but he was nonverbal at the time. But now when staff greet him, James says, good,
how are you? As you can see, James wants to be just like every other seven year old, but oftentimes he is more polite. Last year, we had to make a
difficult medical decision before we made this decision for James. He would go to school angry, in pain and oftentimes bleeding. The staff of the school never once
questioned us as to why we were bringing him to school. They were always glad to see him and they were always there to support us. Yesterday, James made it a point to tell his ILS teacher, Miss Russell, that she
was better than mom. Miss Russell's response was that we are all a team and we are all working together, including you James. The support that we receive is overwhelming. We are
thankful for. I have three lines. Can I finish? Okay? We are thankful for the support that we receive from PTSD, but I cannot wait to see James walk
across the graduation stage in 2034, with the help and support of the amazing work that is done in PTSD every day. Thank
you very much. All right. Next we have Arthur Lampkin. Welcome.
Good evening. My name is Arthur. I'm a senior at Fossil Ridge High School. I use he pronouns. I was here sometime last year.
I recognized some of you, and it's nice to see some new faces. I spoke in support of the resolution to support
Transgender Day of Visibility. And now I'm back. And I just wanted to say thank you. You passed that resolution unanimously, and I have felt
that support at every turn as a student in as an LGBTQ+ student in Poudre School district, I know as politicians and policymakers, you all get
criticized quite often, and that's very important for the civic process. But I, I don't know how often you get praised,
and I am just here to remind you that even though you're doing a very good job, and I am very grateful for the supportive environment that
I've been in as a queer student in this particular school district, because there are so many thousands of kids all across the country who just really do not get that and suffer as a result of it.
Please don't let it slip your mind. Please be thinking of the LGBTQ plus kids and teenagers in your district and include them in your policies and stand
up for them when an incident does arise. Because homophobia and transphobia haven't gone away, even if they are not as much of a problem necessarily in Poudre school district as
they are in other places. So please continue to keep supporting us. And I'm here with PFLAG, and we and many other organizations are more than happy to provide education,
resources and support. If you have any questions or need any kind of guidance, you are not in this alone. So thank you
very much and good night. Thank you. Arthur. Oh it's okay. All good. All right. Next we have
Laura Mcwatters. Welcome. Thank you.
There we go. Okay. Can we excuse me? Thank you. My name is Laura Mcwatters. I'm a Fort Collins resident of 40 years, and I've been aware of my being transgender ever since I was ten, in fifth grade, and after
struggling through so much that was wrong in the best encyclopedias of my of the day, ten years old and I was not in any library or textbook, there was no GSA's, no supportive
teachers, no counselors, no school policies, no safe spaces, no shelters, no PFLAG. Yet without the slightest mention in school and only cruel whispers elsewhere, LGBTQ and
transgender students were there. I was there, each of us alone and suffering as quietly as we could to escape notice each and every one of us considered if we could withstand the hate and
bullying until life someday might get better. Some of us didn't make it, and all of us who are still here have scars, some physical and some mental are being visibly represented.
Included and supported. Means transgender and LGBTQ youth are harassed and assaulted less. We we experience less anxiety and depression. We have higher attendance rates. We learn and
test better. We are happier and safer. We experience much lower rates of suicide ideation and attempts. For some of us, our schools become our only safe space, a counterpoint to our
homeless rates of being several times higher. In a paper. I cite studies for all that, but tonight I'm going to simply say that supporting transgender and LGBTQ students is recognizing
we exist. We always have, and we are part of the range of human experience. And we are not only just as deserving as every other student, we are also just as vulnerable and
fragile. Support and inclusion starts and lives and dies right here with you. This board, Poudre School District School District has done so much and
but it must continue and there is yet much to do. Thank you for the trans Day of Visibility proclamations. Your support needs to come early and not in just the later grades. It needs
to be outgoing. And in these days, the terrifying headlines. Your support must be loud and visible to all of our students. None of that happened for me or so many like me in any school.
There was no support for any transgender LGBTQ student then, and in too many places, that's still the way it is now. So I'm here tonight to fight here now for every inch of respect and
rights and support our students have earned and deserve. And I'm here to make sure no transgender or LGBTQ student has to fight to simply live through these years, as the
generations before them did, as my generation did. I asked this board and this community to do so much better. Now we need you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Next we have Danae Lawrence.
Welcome. I had originally signed up to speak about the lack of transparency with your legislative committee, but I
saw the assault on disabled students in the red line, changes in the bullying policy of G, d and I decided that was more important tonight by removing language to seat an IEP team to ensure that Fape
wasn't impacted following the report of bullying. For a student with a disability, you're hurting a population your statistics show is already hurting, and you aren't doing your job. Protecting these students. By allowing this change. In Colorado, we have
codified many of the protected classes in state statutes to a national rights dissolve. There's this assurance that state law might uphold civil rights, but that is not the case with disability. Transgender students got an
extra level of protection with House Bill 25 1312 last year, but students with disabilities haven't received that level of protection yet. In real time, the Department of Education is offloading special education to
who knows where. At this hour, the Office of Civil Rights is done. It's cooked. I have two open Office of Civil Rights Investigations with the district for bullying, specifically the oldest open
from March of 2023, and my son graduates in 127 days and will never see the validation or the justice he deserved for their ruling. The bullying continues today and we've received no resolution in the district for
three years. There is nowhere to go. If you have a 504. The state doesn't handle 504 complaints. If you have an IEP, you might be able to use the state complaint system, but they find in favor of school
districts 89% of the time, and parents don't win due process complaints in this state. Those are just the facts. So please educate yourself. If you were exit surveying families in the district, you might learn how
many students with disabilities leave because of bullying. But PSC chooses to intentionally ignore those statistics. On November 4th, you had a lengthy presentation about declining graduation rates for students with disabilities, and no
conclusion was reached. And part two is supposedly coming sometime. Yet we take actions like this to diminish the current district protections under for those same under identified students whose outcomes suck, and we have no
idea why. So this makes no sense to me. And if I'm being honest with you, the district isn't meeting the current policy anyway, which might contribute to your declining outcomes and is likely why you're proposing to eliminate
the language. I dare you to go back and ask how many of the 11 Zanella victims got an IEP meeting following his arrest in May of 2023? Because I know the answer is none. In my civil rights complaint, the district
never set the team to discuss the impact my son to my son, but should have. So this policy change, as I see it, is about covering the district's butt and further hurting disabled children. Nothing else explains
why the board made inquiry into the Integrated Services Department would make a change to wound the very kids you vow to help. You didn't give the committee a chance to review this policy and get their feedback. Although your policy
committee reviewed it months ago. This is shameful work in my opinion, and it lacks integrity, and it's a blow to a community that felt after November that maybe we were starting to get somewhere with the board. This is a real time
example of why people don't trust you. They don't believe what you say because your actions speak louder than words.
Thank you. Thank you. We now have Bridget Azoff. Is that Sabrina? Oh, I'm so sorry, Sabrina. You're next, I missed
it, thank you. Every new appointment to this board makes standing here easier. It's been less than six months that this board is no longer primarily made up of members who are
mismanaging this district. When my daughter was being abused today, only one of those board members is left. And I've heard repeatedly that that board member wants change. I welcome and applaud that. Tonight I
want to give you a history lesson and some advice that I don't think that your predecessors ever got. In the 1800s, there was a doctor named Semmelweis. He spent years
studying ways to protect women from deadly postpartum infections. In 1847, he told doctors his radical solution they should wash their hands and change their clothes between patients. Now, to us,
that's obvious, but this was 1847. They didn't have germ theory yet. Back then, people thought infections were from bad air and that dirty surgical gowns showed you were good at keeping busy. So he couldn't explain why that would work.
But he knew midwives did those things and fewer women died in their care. But this offended his coworkers. They were doctors, after all. Professionals, rich people, important people. The only
thing more offensive than the suggestion that maternal mortality rate was their fault was the idea that it was because they were dirty. And even though under his new standards, maternal mortality
fell from 18% to 2%, they pushed back, laughed at him, called him a crackpot. And in 1865, Semmelweis was committed to an asylum where he goes, he got abused by staff, got an
infection and died that same year. Joseph Lister, inspired by Semmelweis work, demonstrated that bacteria cause infections and started working on what evolved into modern aseptic surgical
technique. And yes, that is the guy that Listerine is named after and why I'm telling you this. Speaking from my own experiences on this side of the room, you'll hear private responses to public comments,
condemnations, retaliations, arguably slanders. You will hear that public commenters are uncivilized liars, radicals, harassers, troublemakers trying to burn this district to the
ground. And when you hear these things, my advice is threefold one. Remember that people don't come here and broadcast their condemnations of this district on YouTube, because it sounds like a fun way to spend a Tuesday night. They come here
because something matters to them. Two remember that even if the laws of the universe were different and Semmelweis had been wrong about handwashing, his goal was to do right by the people in his care, and that
motivation deserved respect. So when you disagree with someone's solutions, at least show the respect that is due to their motives. Three remember that Semmelweis got called a crackpot by professionals whose
heads were too far up their own butts to see that he had a point. So when your advisors condemn public commenters, you have a responsibility to step back from the egos, demand the
data, and use it. Thank you. Thank you Sabrina. And again, I apologize for missing your name. All right. Now we have Bridget
Assaf. Is that how you pronounce it? Thank you.
Hello. My name is Bridget. I'm a parent at Liberty Common School. I first want to start by acknowledging this board's
commitment to educational excellence. Having the Special Education Advisory Council demonstrates your dedication to ensuring all students receive
appropriate support. The expertise matters. Tonight, I'd like to share some thoughts on special education using three
principles. Common knowledge, common virtue, and common sense. Common knowledge teaches us that we that when independent
evaluations identify deficits in foundational skills, investigation is warranted. This establishes a. This is established best practice in
the field. Common virtue teaches us that civil rights protect individuals. Federal law requires individual assessment, evaluating each child's unique needs, rather
than applying blanket policies about who qualifies for services. Common sense helps us understand what threshold
really means. If a student answered only 12% of questions correctly on a test, what grade
would they receive? They'd fail. Yet we're told children performing in the 12th percentile. Answering correctly
less often than 88% of their peers are performing adequately enough not to warrant investigation. Ida requires
that schools document parent input and a prior in a prior written notice. It. It requires
that evaluation decisions come after considering all data, not before. These aren't suggestions. They're legal requirements designed to
protect children's civil rights. Your Special Education Advisory Council members are specifically charged with ensuring Ida compliance across
all district schools, including authorized charter schools. That's a very important oversight function. I appreciate the board's
expertise and commitment to all the students. Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you.
Next we have Stephanie Watson. Louis, welcome. Good evening. Board. Good evening, Mr.
Kingsley. And good evening to everyone else. My name is Stephanie Watson. Louis, I have three children in the PSD school district to go to
Liberty and one goes to Weber. We have been challenged with a lot with Liberty Common School. My son, the eldest, he's
actually graduating this year. Last year actually. Or was it this year received the president of the United States Excellence Award for Academic
Achievement. And this is a child who initially came into liberty with a severe dyslexia diagnosis. We are super proud
of the success of the support of the Asrt team at Liberty to get him to where he needs to be.
I am absolutely excited to say that my middle child, who has not been accepted to Liberty because he has a disability, is
actually faring very well at Weber this year. He's enjoying his teachers, he's enjoying the community. He's navigating a very large school on his own,
without support from anyone. He is taking all gen ed classes with appropriate supports to support him as well as he's being pulled for speech and
he's being pulled for math and for reading supports, which he's doing phenomenal as well. That being said, we have asked
Liberty to accommodate our child with a disability, and their response was that one, they couldn't afford a para. And then the second response
was that they have never, in their 25 plus years, modified their education, which to me is an Ida issue that I think the
board needs to be looking into. To say that you've never modified a child's education is to say that you were cherry picking kids to choose whatever
child you choose to pick to be a student. My son, my eldest son snuck in. We got lucky. My middle kid, not so much. Four
years ago. They didn't even stop to have a meeting with us. They sent Aaron. They sent someone to come to us to tell us that he would not fit
because he had a disability. And here we are again in the same situation. I believe that liberty can accommodate my child. I believe that they need
to stop the discrimination, and I believe it needs to stop now. Thank you, thank you. All right.
Next we have Eric Sutherland. Welcome. Eric Sutherland in
Fort Collins. Just a reminder to you and perhaps even a reminder to myself, the allegations of overcollection of taxation in the tens of millions of dollars that I've
leveled at the district came only after my attempts to address the obnoxious, nauseating fraud associated
with the diversion again, of tens of millions of dollars. By municipalities here in Fort
Collins. Timothy, unlawful, wrongful. And all one has to do is tune in to public comment here in the district, which I do on a weekly basis, to hear what my neighbors have to say
always interests me to understand the monumental task of educating young people in our community. The difficulty of doing the same, and the
resources required. If there's people out there that do not see the wisdom of applying our tax dollars, taken, voluntary or otherwise, to support this
work, they need to be called out in their community, and this district just wouldn't do it. Quite the opposite. Those people like myself who have come forward saying this is
just isn't right. It requires action, have been villainized. And so what are you going to do now? You've got this enormous allegation against you and it's too late to cut it back. I've
already circulated it to enough people in the community that it's going to go someplace. You got to sue me again. Libel and
slander the way Sandra Spicer, Dave Montoya did ten years ago. What you're going to do is go into secret session to discuss it. I don't think that's the
right idea. Everything here is public. How much taxes I and everybody else pay, my allegation, everything's public. So why not make the district's response to that allegation
part of a public process? Cowardice? That's the reason. Only explanation I can come up with. You know, you're asking students to follow the policies
that you're setting. Now, why don't you guys follow the policies that have been prescribed for you? It's as easy to understand Tabor subsection three as it is to
understand any line item in the policies that you're reviewing, that you ask students to follow. That allegation wouldn't be here if you had stepped up and
done the right thing. Thanks.
Thank you. Now we have Alyssa
Brown. Welcome. Hi. My name is
Alyssa Brown. I will. Happened in seventh grade when my son was physically pinned between a door by staff members. After that, I am standing before you
today to address the serious wrongdoings that certain individuals within the school district allowed to occur to my son. The most recent and severe trauma happened in seventh grade, when my son was
physically pinned between a door by staff members. After that incident, his arms and legs had visible bruises. This was not an isolated incident.
It was one of multiple traumatic experiences my son endured while attending schools within PTSD. Since that incident, my son has been unable to attend school. He is
now in eighth grade and still does not have a safe or appropriate educational placement. The individual.
Responsible within ASD did not provide an environment where my son could learn without fear of physical or emotional harm. Numerous medical providers, mental health professionals and
educational specialists have evaluated my son. All of them independently concluded that he requires a residential school setting in order to receive an education safely and appropriately. These
recommendations are documented and they are consistent. Despite this, certain individuals within ASD continue to assert control over where my son attends school and are
asking me to trust the same system in which he was harmed. PTSD schools have stated that they are unable to meet my son's needs, but they are still fighting us. On what the team
surrounding Connor and myself feels is best for him. One specific residential program has been identified and recommended as appropriate for my son's needs. I cannot do that. The pattern of decisions
made by those individuals shows that my son's safety, his needs, and his right to an appropriate education have not been adequately protected. Trust cannot be requested without
accountability. My son deserves access to an education that does not traumatize him. He deserves to be placed in a setting recommended by professionals, not one chosen for administrative convenience
or cost. I am asking this body to acknowledge the harm that has occurred, to recognize the professional recommendations that have been made, and to ensure that my son is placed in a residential setting where his
safety, dignity and right to an education are respected. If you want, I can also thank you guys
for this. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Jim Brooks.
Welcome. Good evening. I'm Jim Brooks. I'm a citizen first. First I just want to say thanks
to the school board for being our friends and our neighbors and our neighbors. Because just because of the way the election
process works, right? You come from all over the district and you are friends because you volunteer for an extremely difficult, sometimes impossible
job. And that is ensuring that PSD provides an awesome education for our kids today and also way into the future. And that is tough. My daughter and son in law live outside of
PSD. But even so, they're chasing my granddaughter into one of our PSD neighborhood schools and that was not a
choice that they made lightly. They made that choice because of PSD excellence. This is an amazing board. The voters chose
wisely in November, and there's nobody that I would trust more with the tough decisions that are coming than this group. You're smart, you're committed,
and you really you're some of the finest people in Fort Collins, Timnath and Wellington. So I'm deeply grateful for your service. And I just want to say
thanks again for being such good neighbors. Thanks again for being such good friends.
Thank you Jim. All right. That concludes our community comment for the evening. Next 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 speak to board topics. Do any board members have something they would like to report? Go ahead. Briefly, I want to thank
all the schools who have recently invited board directors to come visit. I've had the opportunity to visit a couple schools, visited
Ridgeview back in the fall, and President Zamora and I visited Liberty Comm in the campus last week as they kicked off their second semester. So I wanted to thank the leadership, looking
forward to continued collaboration and partnership in years to come. And also just a request to send more invitations from schools. Just a practical tip, which I find
helpful is if principals or leaders want to reach out to us with days that would work for them and times and give a couple that's really helpful so that we're not scrambling on our own calendars to try to reach out to you. So if you
could make the first attempt, it'd be helpful because there's a lot more of you than there are of us. We want to get inside every school, and the last plug I'll make is that it is. I think I'll make an Ice
statement. It's my favorite part of this job is when we get to go into a school, into a classroom and see the magic happen. I miss that from my days teaching, but it's it's it's a really good reminder of
why we do this work and the work that's ahead of us. So please keep those invitations coming. We've got a busy school year, so the more frequent you can, you can get in front of us
and ask us to come in. We I'd really appreciate it. So make the first move, please. Are there any others? Yeah. Go ahead. Just update for legislative committee. As we
all know, this week will kick off the state legislative session that will reach into sometime into May. We're going to be hosting the same format
of calls that we have in January and February. We're going to do it twice a month. If something comes up that is very pressing, we can always
schedule a quick meeting. Those are open to the public as well as as they've always been. And if you have any questions, comments pertaining to
legislation that you've heard from your local representatives or heard in the news, please email us and and we can run those down for you. Thank you. Great. I'm trying to look up
the listening sessions that are upcoming. Does anyone have those readily available in their heads or I can look it up right? I should have done this before. I apologize, I just
wanted to remind folks and usually someone's really good about making sure we do it.
That's a good call out also. Very much. Lauren. February 17th. What school? Laurel and
Laurel I think I did. We already do Eyestone I think. Yeah. So Laurel, they start at 530 and go to about seven. We've had a really good turnout so far, and we'd love to see anybody who would love to come
chat with us and bring a topic. All right. Is there anything else anyone would like to share? Okay. Seeing none. We'll keep moving on. Oh, sorry. Oh. Go ahead. If Scott were here, he'd
probably want me to remind everyone that the final showing of Screenagers is scheduled for Wednesday, January 28th at 6 p.m. at Rocky Mountain High School. So please put that on your calendar as final
screening of Screenagers. Bring your own popcorn. Thank you Kevin. That's also a good call out. All right, now we'll move on to our consent agenda. Agenda? Only one. Would any
board members like to pull anything from consent? Okay. Seeing none, can I get a motion? I move the board, approve, and adopt the recommended actions
for the items on the consent agenda. Second. Thank you. Connor and Jill. Carla Bates I Conor Duffy, I Kevin Havelka, I
Jessica Zamora, I Karen de Ziegler I. Motion passes five zero. Thank you very much. And next we move on to our informational reports and discussion items. And I believe
we have an introduction. Yes. Tonight we look forward to hearing about policy revisions from our general counsel.
Autumn. Aspen. Welcome. Autumn. All right. Good evening everyone. Tonight I'll be presenting seven policies for a
first reading. And I think this is probably the most I presented in one meeting. So we'll try to get through it all in a good amount of time. And then just for reference, the policies will come back to the board on January 27th for a
second reading. As I've done in the past, the policies that I go through tonight, I'll highlight a few of the proposed changes for each policy. But the full policy red lines with all the proposed changes are in
the board packet for anyone to review. And what is different this year than in past the updates I've done, as was referenced before in Superintendent Kingsley's remarks tonight is this year. The legal department has implemented, with support of
the board through the Board Policy Review Committee, a new process to review all the district policies on a four year cycle. And this won't just happen once, but the intent is to continue this on every policy will not go more than
four years without being reviewed. So once we get through the first four years, we'll just start right back at the beginning again. So I want to spend the first part of this presentation to go over that process a little bit, because
it is new this year. I'm not going forward. Okay. So for the agenda tonight, like I mentioned, I'll first go through the policy review process and then highlights the work done with the Policy Review Committee, which is a
part of the process. And then we'll go through the first reading of the policies and highlight some of the changes within each policy. And then there's room for conversation, discussion. Any feedback from the board on any additional changes you'd like to see to
come back for the second reading? And then I'll also just forecast the next round of policy updates that should come to the board sometime in the spring. So as far as the policy
review process, the legal department this year has started that process, as I mentioned, to do all the policies on a four year cycle. And this applies to all of the district policies, which I think there's over 180 policies.
So it's about 45 policies a year. So it's a a lot of policy work that we'll be seeing with the board. But I think it's really good work to do. This does not include the policies that are the board policies
like the district ends or the board governance policies. That has a different review process. This one is just focusing on those district policies. And then the policies that come to the board for review are the ones that are specifically reviewed and approved by the
board under the policy governance process that the district has, some of the district policies are reviewed and approved by the superintendent, and those will not be the ones that are brought to the board. But I
think that there's around 113 policies that are ones that were reviewed and approved by the board, so over half of them will be coming to the board as part of this process. With this process, the legal departments,
which includes me and then the assistant legal counsel and paralegal, will review the policies. First, do some initial redlines based on any changes to state law. And then we're also working to standardize our policies for
consistency and also to make the policies a little bit clearer, easier to read, as well as making it more of a similar format so that somebody can look at a policy and know where to find either definitions or other parts to
make them a little bit more consistent throughout all the policies. As part of this initial red line, we also seek some feedback from our district staff, who are the ones who work most regularly with those
policies, and then take that initial red line and present those to the Policy review Committee for feedback. And that committee I'll talk about in the next slide. After that, the policies go to cabinet for
review and then are posted on the district website for community feedback, and then are presented to the board for two readings. The part about community feedback is also new this year, so I want to just
highlight that for a minute. As part of this process, we're ensuring that all of our policies with the the red lines are posted on the district web page, on the policies web page of the main district website,
with a place for anyone in the public to submit a response via a survey, if they have any feedback on any or all of the policies that are up for review. So right now we have all seven of our policies that are before
the board for consideration on the district website, and that survey will be open and available for feedback through January 19th, which then also leaves time for any of those changes based on feedback
received from the community to be brought to the board in a second reading. And I'll make sure to highlight any changes between what we're presenting now and any changes that come back to the January 27th
meeting. So another part of the policy review process is the Policy Review Committee. This committee is newly formed this year, and they meet about once
a month and review 3 to 5 policies each meeting. This is an advisory committee. So they aren't making any decisions on policy changes, but through their feedback that is then brought to these policy updates for the board to review and
then make the final determinations on any policy updates. And like I mentioned, the Policy Review Committee will review all the district policies that go to the board for review and approval, and they'll do this on the same four year cycle. I also just
wanted to note that we'll have some policies that are reviewed out of cycle, and those could be based on any changes to district practice or if there are any changes to the law that would require a policy to be changed sooner out of the cycle.
That is the four year cycle. The membership within the committee is on the the on the PowerPoint, but it includes two board members general counsel, assistant legal counsel,
paralegal, and then representatives from Ace, pace and PE, the senior executive director of Student Services and the Assistant Director of Student Services, the lead assistant superintendent and
then a representative from Dabcc and CCE. As I mentioned, it's a four year timeline, and because this is the first year, I just wanted to put this slide and review for everyone to see
of the time that we have anticipated for reviewing all of the district policies. So this year we are reviewing all of the student policies. Those are the policies in our policy outlook or book. And then next
school year we're reviewing the staff policies, community policies and policies. And then for the 2728 school year, we'll review the policies, foundations, policies and general policies. And then the
last year of the cycle will be reviewing the finance policy, support services policies and the facilities policies. And then once that year is over, the intent is for the 2930 school year to start back with
the student policies. So we're keeping a fresh look at all the policies and moving forward. Tonight, as I mentioned, we're reviewing seven policies and
these are the policies we're reviewing. And as I go through each policy, feel free to ask questions as I'm going. Or you can also ask questions or provide feedback at the end as well. And before getting into
the specific feedback for each and changes for each policy, I wanted to provide a little bit of the feedback we saw from the committee and elevate some of the common themes and feedback. That was more than just one of
the policies, but kind of just that could be used throughout all of our policies and some of those there's a lot of great feedback from the community, but some of those include looking into whether we could do a standalone definitions
policy for terms that are used in a lot of our policies as a way to not only make sure that all the definitions are consistent throughout our policies, and if a term is defined, then it is the same in other policies as well. But
also if a definition does change, we're not having to go change it in several different policies or having conflicting definitions. So we're looking into the feasibility of doing that. And similarly the committee has also recommended
if we have an index that would have common terms that are used in policies, and to be able to cross-reference where those terms are in all of our policies. So, for example, if somebody did want to see whether all the policies that
contain bullying, there would be an index that would have that as a key term, and then that would cross-reference to all the policies that contain that or describe bullying in there. So we're looking into getting that done. Some other
feedback that is more for all the policies. As part of the work with the committee, we've noticed that there's not a consistent reference to whether it's either a parent, parent, guardian parent, guardian caregiver, and we'd like to
standardize that in our policies. So the recommendation through that committee work is to refer throughout as parent caregiver, and then also define that consistently so that it would encompass all the
different roles that somebody could play and act as a as a parent for student, whether that's also guardian and legal guardian. Some of the other feedback was to also just kind of generally provide clarity
and be more explicit in our policies wherever we can. Some of that is including being more specific on responsibilities for enforcement. So trying to move away where we can from language that may state more
aspirational statements like the district will endeavor to and if possible, identify their specific role or specific department who is in charge of enforcing that part of the
policy or that section, and then also to remove language for potential bias and enforcement. So if there is language that isn't clear, it could be interpreted other ways, trying to get as clear and
explicit as we can with that language. So there isn't enforcement that's different at different sites or departments or schools. And then another piece of feedback is whenever we can with our policies, if we're able to organize policies
to include sections identifying specific rights or obligations based on whether it's student, parent staff, community members, caregivers, to make sure that if somebody is looking for where their rights are, if they
want to identify the part of the policy that applies most to them, to be able to have a more consistent pattern in that they could find that part of the policy. First policy I'll go
through is the Jica student dress policy. And this is essentially our dress code that says what a student can and cannot wear at school or at school district activities and events. So just to highlight a
few of the changes in there and if there's any questions throughout, just please interrupt me as well. We revised the section on what is mandatory and Unallowable dress. And the intent behind this change is to attempt to remove
any potential bias that's in there now related to enforcement and gender, ensuring that it is as inclusive as we can make. The dress code policy also, based on a change in Colorado law that occurred recently, we've
added a section on graduation attire. The new law states that students are permitted to wear recognized objects of cultural or religious significance at graduation, so make sure that that language is included in our dress code policy. Also,
with the guidance for how that will be implemented at school graduations. And finally, in this policy, we revised the enforcement section both to include a process of what may happen if a student potentially
violates the dress code policy during a graduation ceremony, and then also the enforcement section for violating dress code policy at any other times
as well. Next policy is gisd on threat assessments. This policy covers the district's authority to conduct behavioral threat assessments. So one of the main
changes we've done in this policy and this policy is also, I should note, not very old. It was adopted in 2023. So it's pretty new policy. But one of the changes that was recommended and that we've put in here is proposed revision is
to revise it from threat assessments to behavioral threat assessments, to make it clear that the policy is really focused on those on the threat assessments done based on student behavior or conduct, and it's not relating to any of
the other potential threat assessments or reviews that are done. The changes also clarify the purpose of behavioral threat assessments. And also the attempt was to be more explicit and clear with the
role of parents or caregivers in the threat assessment process. Next policy we'll go through and address is the Gisd
Bullying Prevention and Education Policy. This policy addresses prevention, intervention and response to bullying in alignment with the state's model policy. One thing I'll note, just context, is in
2022, the state the CDC developed a model policy and that policy has been updated most recently in 2025. And the law requires that our district policy incorporates approaches,
policies and practices outlined in the model policy. We still do have discretion to make the policy our own and make it fit for how our district addresses bullying prevention and education. But just note that there's some things in there
that we have to make sure we're still aligned with the state. Some of the proposed changes in this policy is a revised definition of bullying and cyberbullying, which is to better align with the state
model policy definition. And also based on some feedback, we added a definition for teasing, and part of the reason for adding this is the committee has some feedback that it's not always clear if it's if it's
bullying, if it's teasing conflict, harassment, discrimination. So to the extent we can, the policy tries to distinguish between those. And it's not to say that any one of those categories would not be reviewed or investigated,
but it is just could name and explicitly define what each of those categories means in our policies. The section on prevention and intervention has also been reorganized. That
list is mostly taken from the model policy, so we didn't make a lot of changes to the actual list in there, but those goals and priorities were reorganized so that it does show more clearly which ones are most
applicable or relevant to students, staff and then also parents or families. So for example, there's a goal in there on training. And that would be under the employee category. Another change is
that we revise the investigation section to align with our process in ACR one, which is the policy that defines the process for
investigating harassment or discrimination allegations. And one thing I also did want to raise for this policy is that the original redline did propose removing language from the investigation response section that was specific to
steps taken. If a student is supported with an IEP or 504. Part of the reason for that, I think, is because it is in federal law. But we did receive some good feedback, both prior to the meeting and at the
meeting about the importance of keeping that language in. So I would say that for the the second reading, I proposed to bring the policy back to the board with changes to make sure that that language stays in there and also review it for
clarity and make sure it is clear and understandable so that employees know what that language means and what the process is to follow it. The
next policy is JIC on secret societies and gang activity. This policy prohibits secret societies and gangs in schools and at school district. Activities and events. Some of
the feedback from the committee originally questioned whether this is a policy that the district needs to have, so I just wanted to also highlight that this is a policy that the law requires. We have under Colorado law, school districts
have to have a policy related to gang related activities as part of a school safety plan. So it is the policy we need to have. But some of the changes we made in this policy as a recommendation is to add a
definition for secret societies. The policy as it currently is defined only includes a definition for gangs, but not secret societies. So want to make sure that we define both of those. And then also we added a statement in the policy
that district employees must not infer that a student is a member of a secret society or a gang solely because of ethnic background, race, color, religion, socioeconomic status, or other protected classes.
Some of the feedback from the Policy Review Committee said that the policy could be perceived in a biased way because, first of all, because the one gang was defined but not secret society, and then
also a concern with how the policy could be enforced. So provided both of those edits in there as a way to address those concerns. And policy. JIC this
is the policy on student conduct involving weapons, and prohibits weapons on school grounds and at school or district activities events, and lays out the protocol if a weapon is used or threatened to
be used. One of the main changes here is in our policy as it currently sits, there's a little bit of, I think, confusion in the language because the policy addresses knives have a blade length of
3.5in or longer, and also addresses knives of any length. So to revise that policy and provide some more clarity, the policy now just refers to a knife of any length as a potential grounds for suspension or expulsion. I
think also, considering the other facts that are involved in that student's possession or threatened use of that knife. Also, under Colorado law, there is a requirement that a policy addresses a section for the
process of a student is requesting to possess a firearm on school grounds. So we did add that section in there to make sure that it is clear what
that process is. And we also one new section that has been added is a section about surrendering weapons if they're accidentally brought by a student, this section would not apply to a student who
accidentally brings a firearm, because under law that is a mandatory one year expulsion. But if a student accidentally brought like a pocket knife or something to school, the policy then allows for a process to surrender that once they're
aware of it to an administrator in a way, to not then receive a disciplinary consequence to ensure that then they have a way to make sure that that knife or other weapon is not on
school grounds in the student's possession. Policy is the policy that covers responsibilities and obligations for students who park and drive vehicles on
district property. This policy, we didn't do a lot of substantive changes to it. More of the changes were really for clarity and to make sure that the policy was updated just with language, because the policy was last updated, I
think, in 2004. So it was due for a review, but I will also elevate that. We did receive some comments from members of the public on a request to add
in there. If a student is driving irresponsibly or dangerously in a school parking lot, that that could also result in the privilege of having a parking pass or being able to park on school grounds. So I wanted to bring that
feedback here because it's not yet included in the policy, and board could consider it either here and I can bring some language back and review that as well for the second reading.
And then on to the last policy. This is policy, JT, on youth student suicide prevention. And this lays out groundwork for policies and procedures around student suicide prevention, including requirements of
district staff and mental health school service providers. Some of the feedback here and the changes that we proposed is to add a specific reference to the district protocols on suicide prevention and suicide
risk screening. So that has been added to the policy. And we've also moved the resources up to the beginning. So it's easier to have anybody's reading the policy to see those sooner, because it's at the top
of the policy. We've also added a reference specific to suicide risk screenings, and then also clarified the section about sharing mental health resources within the community. So just
to forecast before we go to any other questions or feedback, the next round of policies we anticipate bringing to the board are on the screen here. They're all student policies. Aside from there's one policy that we're probably bringing
back in the next one, and that's would be a new policy, KB and family engagement. And then there could be some other policies brought back as well. But I think that will happen in sometime in the spring for a
board meeting. And then with that I'll turn it over for any questions or feedback from the board. Thank you. Autumn, are there any initial questions? Go
ahead. First of all, I want to say thank you for the work. I know you gave a lot of credit to a lot of other people, and certainly they were involved. But this, I believe, is your brainchild and your unbelievable undertaking to do
this task, which is tedious, thorough and well done. So I just want to say thank you for undertaking this and for doing this. My question was with the last one, the only the question
about the youth suicide prevention, and not so much the policy of the red lines, but are you aware of or can anyone speak to the kind of training that PSD employees receive in
suicidal prevention now? And if that's not a fair question, I can circle back, but I would like an answer the next the next meeting. I don't have the I don't want to talk out of
turn. I have the specifics. I can get that. Okay. So annually we provide QPR training for all staff. So QPR is a protocol for
recognizing and responding to warning signs indicating that someone might be at risk for suicidal ideation. And then there's a protocol and a process that is part of that
training as well, about then how to respond and how to do a warm handoff to our mental health specialist in the system.
Are there initial questions? Go for? Just quickly on the on the parking update? I know that
since it's last been updated we've had an expansion of schools. Do we have specific language in there pertaining to specific schools? I just know
that it's harder to park at some schools than others. And I was wondering if we're getting to that level of detail in our district wide policy, or if you just if your intent is to keep
it still high level. The policy currently doesn't go into any detail about specific schools, if that's something we could always look into. But right now it is more higher level just to make sure it applies the same
to any of the schools in there without calling out some that could then also have changes in the future. On that same policy, do we have any other policies that would address dangerous
driving now? I mean, that seems like something that would be endangering other students, that it would live in multiple places if we're adding it. I don't know offhand if there's
specific language on driving dangerously. I think that conduct could fall under grounds for discipline or discipline consequence just based on risking safety or other concerns for staff or
other students, so it could fall under other policies. I don't know if it's specifically referenced as dangerous driving in any other policy, like just more looking for like clarity
or maybe pointing to those other policies when we outline the dangerous driving could cause another policy to be triggered. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to give these guys a
minute to think because I have one other question. Is there a place for the board to see the feedback that's submitted online, just so we get a sense of what you're seeing before we attend these as well? Yeah, I
think that's something that we can share. I've got I've got the feedback so I can find a way to get that to the board so you can see it. And then I'm also just for reference in the board packet. I did include a
summary in there with proposed changes. And also for each policy, the feedback that was provided by the committee and then whether we weren't able to take some of that feedback. So that's in the board packet for
the committee work. But I can find a way to get that to the board for the public feedback as well. Yeah, I just think that would be valuable. I mean, one thing for folks to send us emails, which is another great
method, but not duplicating would be nice and making sure that we're aware of the same things that you're reading. And so we understand where some of those changes or last minute changes may be coming from would be helpful. But thank you
very much. Let's see. And then I think the one other thing I just wanted to kind of touch base with everyone, since you did mention keeping that IEP 504 piece and just saying if anyone had any thoughts or
opinions on that specifically since you called it out, I will just start with I would be in favor of keeping it. I'm always
in favor of naming, of naming things. If this is going to be a district wide policy, being leery of interpretation at the individual site level and whatnot. So I think where we
can name stuff at this overall level specifically would be most ideal across all of our policies. Thank you. That's
helpful. Okay. Are there any other questions generally outside of that? All right. I don't see any at the moment, but we will have a second
reading if you have questions between now and then. Please make sure you bring them up to Autumn and bring them to our next meeting so that we can make sure we have all of the information on the table before
we take a vote. Thank you very much, Autumn. Thank you. And then also, just to remind everyone, for anyone who's watching, maybe listening in that the the survey for the policies before they go to second reading is open on our
website until January 19th. So please provide your feedback there so we can take a look at it and make any other changes before their final. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right.
With that we are next. Oh next item is 11.0. Board for forecasting. This will be an ongoing item on our agenda is
we are not actually going to take on new items at this time. But we just kind of wanted to throw it out there and start describing it so we could keep it in our minds as we go forward through the rest of our
meetings for the year. We do have a retreat coming up on the 22nd, where the board will be going through a process of prioritizing the things that we've already named in one of
our sessions last year now. And but this will be a placeholder for as you're going out into the community, as you're hearing things, if there is a topic that comes up that you
believe we should discuss in the future, we have basically a parking lot for that information to be considered at a later date. So the Kevin,
myself and you were at that one too, right? Yes. All went to a session at Casb where Boulder, Boulder School, Boulder Valley. I don't know why I can't get
things straight today. I know it's just not quite there yet, but we went to their session and they really described this process of of having board directors name the things that are percolating in the
community, making a long list of all of those items, and then every six months having a retreat where they dedicate time to really hone in on what are the most pressing needs of our community for the short
term, long term, getting a sense of how much time and effort those items may take to address, and then as a collective grappling with where do we want to put our resources
and attention? Because we all we know that when we go out to the community, everyone has a really great idea. We'd like to do all of the things, but we know we also don't have the time or resources to do all of
the things, and especially not all of them well. So trying to really focus our attention and resources to doing those things well. So again, this will be something that in the future for ongoing board meetings, this will be a place to name
those ideas so that the public knows what we're thinking, we know what we're thinking and is percolating as well as our staff. So and then, Kevin, I think you had an idea for our retreat as well that you wanted to share. Sure. So I appreciate
the tee up and the session we we went to at Casb was really illuminating in a lot of ways, because I think we're as a district, we're kind of scratching the surface of a lot of that as it is, but those
have been on the board, and those who are newer to the board will appreciate that things come up that we have to deal with, that we have to address, that are emergent in nature, that are urgent. And a
lot of times that urgent work will drown out the important work. And so what Boulder Valley's process is, which I think we all really appreciate, is that it not only gives the governance team an opportunity
to dive into these priorities, you know, that we're thinking about that, are informed by what we're hearing from our community members, from our schools, from our leaders, you know, from each other, but also
then we have to do the important work of prioritizing when we're going to do things. And so the other benefit to that is one district staff that also did some I did the math.
There are 8760 hours in a calendar year and 8784 in a leap year, which equates to 525,600 minutes. So the point is, is that we all have the
same amount of time. How we're going to spend that time is really important that we can give them some direction as to what they're going to do. And then if we have a lofty pie in the sky idea and we need to
have staff kind of push us back and say how much of their energy and effort that's going to take and how much resource allocation that's going to take, that's a good time to have that conversation instead of everyone just spinning their wheels. Ideating about all the
things we would love. So the task, and I think this is the long lead up to the work we're going to do at our retreat, is we're going to wrestle with these items that we've all sort of come up with, and we've all
identified, and there's nothing but important things on this list. Right. So what I like to kind of frame this as is zoom out as far as you know, how I'm trying to view the work of what
we're doing. And and it's also the best gift we can give to Brian, as well as our superintendent to call the play and execute. So imagine for a moment we don't have to answer right now. But one way of
framing it is imagine you are designing an ideal school in our district. You don't know the the age of the child that's going to go to that school. So it could be transferring in
from a different district, could be coming from Denver or somewhere else. It could be a pre-K person rolling into our kindergartens. We don't know the socioeconomic background of that student. We don't know the
language spoken at home with that student. We don't know the gender identity of that student. We don't know the skin color of that student. We don't know anything about this student. Now plop them into any one of
our neighborhood schools and design a system where they have an equitable chance of success, regardless of any of those factors. For me, that's how I frame the work ahead of us as far as how we're going to
prioritize the system of schools that we really ought to be striving for. So with that, you know, I'm looking forward to really good, robust conversations at our retreat to
talk about what we think that system of schools ought to look like, what where we are, where we're falling short, what we can achieve, and, you know, the next six months ahead of us is going to be really critical to
getting the ball move down the field on some of those. Thank you very much. So we'll invite your ideas next time. All right.
At this point we are going to move on to executive session. So can I get a motion. I move the board enter executive session for the following purposes one. To confer with an
attorney for the board to receive legal advice on specific legal questions relating to CRS. Section 39.51 28 CRS. Section 3125 107
Colorado Constitution article ten, section 20, and related statutes as authorized by CRS. Section 24 64024B and two. To develop the strategy of the school district for
negotiations relating to the 2026 2027 Collective Bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by CRS. Section 24 640243 individuals invited to join the board in
executive session or Superintendent Brian Kingsley, Chief of staff doctor Lauren Hutton, lead assistant superintendent. Doctor Tracy Gayle, chief financial chief finance officer Dave Montoya, attorney Kim Crawford, and
general counsel Autumn Aspen. Can I get a second? Thank you. Connor. All right, Jill, can you please call the vote? Karla?
I Conor Duffy, hi. Kevin. I Jessica zamora, I doctor Karen de Ziegler I can you also call Scott? Yeah. Scott. Joan Bauer
I motion passes six zero. Thank you. Jill. Sorry you had a plan. All right. We will now convene in closed session. This is the last agenda item before adjournment. At this at the
conclusion of the executive session, we will adjourn the I cannot speak. Adjourn the
meeting, and the adjournment will be recorded.