The November 11th, 2025, regular meeting of the D 60 Board of Education. I would now like to call the meeting to order. The time is six o'clock. Ms. Patron, would you please call the role Mr. Cisneros? Here. Dr. De Niro? Here. Judge Mays. Here. Mrs. Pen Nuncio. Here. Mr. Tebow here. And at this time, would everyone please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance To the eye of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation and the God invisible with liberty and justice crop.
All right. Before we adopt the agenda, does Superintendent Kimsey or a board member have any recommendations for corrections or modifications to the agenda at this time? All right. Seeing none, we'll move to 3.0 adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion please? I move that the Board of Education adopts the agenda for November 11th, 2025 as presented in board materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio.
Aye. Mr. Tebo? Aye. We will now move on to public comments. Mr. Sprouse, are there any recorded comments this evening? Thank you President Pen Nuncio. We did not receive any recorded comments for this evening's meeting. Thank you Mr. Sprouse. This evening we have two citizens signed up to share a public comment, and at this time, the board would like to invite Ms. Michelle Morgan, uh, to the microphone where, um, she will be discussing extending the para contract for five years. Good evening and welcome. Thank you Dr. Kimsey.
President Pen Nunzio, members of the board. My name is Michelle Morgan and I am a proud paraprofessional and the treasurer of the Pueblo Paraprofessional Education Association. I am here at night to ask that you vote in favor of extending our contract for five years, extending the contract with continue to foster the good relationship between the district and the union. The contract extension would mean continued job security for the 170 plus currently employed paraprofessionals at District 60. Many of our members also work two jobs, and this being the primary job for many of them, it means they would not have to worry about whether
or not they still had a stable job at the district. It would also mean that they would not have to worry about the continued attacks on education as well as the attacks on unions. And as we have proven time after time, Pueblo is a union town. Paraprofessionals work tirelessly with some of our highest needs students in the district, and that number does not show any signs of slowing down. That number continues to grow. In addition to those numbers growing, we are seeing more students suffering educationally, emotionally, and socially. Paras are the heartbeat of the school. The lifeline simply put, schools would not function without us.
I will ask again that you if vote in favor of extending our contract another five years to guarantee some stability and security in an otherwise chaotic world. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Morgan. I would now like to invite Ms. Rhonda Padilla to the microphone and she will also be discussing, um, the P-E-A-P-P-E-A contract extension. Good evening and welcome to you as well. Thank you. Good evening, superintendent Kinzie, president Peno and members of the Board of Education. My name is Rhonda Padilla and I am the president of PPA Public Paraprofessional
Education Association. I am here in support of the five-year extension for the para paraprofessional contract. There is a high level of trust between the district and the paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals trust that the district will do the best for us and the five year contract extension is the best for us. Paraprofessionals have always been an important part of the special education department. The role of the paraprofessional is to help the students with special needs meet their needs and goals, but they do not stop there. The paraprofessionals also help other general
education students if needed. The five year contract provides stability and security for paraprofessionals in a time where there is so much turmoil and insecurity in public education. The contract between the district and the paraprofessionals is one of the longest and first negotiated ESP agreements in the state of Colorado. It has been in place for over 50 years. It is also one of the strongest agreements and we would like to keep improving for both the paraprofessionals and the district. While there has been a decline in enrollment
around the district, there has not been a decline in the need for paraprofessionals to help in all the classrooms around the districts. Our members have done their part and PPA has ratified to ask for the five year extension. Now we are asking you to do your part and vote yes to continue with a strong level of trust that we have all built and allow for the five year extension. Thank you all for your time and support. Thank you Ms. Padilla. Next up is 4.0 Gifts to schools. Dr. Kimsey, do we have any gifts to schools this evening? Good evening, president Pen Nuncio and board.
It's my honor to share the following gifts to schools, uh, for the board's consideration for approval. The Pueblo South High School Alumni Foundation donated $529 to South High School to fund Sports Istic. I can never say that for games scored by hoops, I failed that. Um, the Pueblo South High School Alumni Foundation donated $1,125 to the South High School band program for meals.
During state competition, Joel and Sandra Lundquist donated $1,113 to the East High School Wrestling Program Villas at Park West one and two donated $1,106 to the East High School Wrestling Program. And finally, Anthony Nolton, D-D-S-L-L-C, donated $1,138 to the East High School Wrestling Program. This totals $5,011 and we are asking that the board approves these gifts
and accepts these gifts to schools. Thank you Dr. Kimsey. And thank you again to these groups and individuals who so generously support District 60 and our students we're very appreciative. Thank you again. May I have a motion please? I will, uh, move that the board approve and graciously accept the gifts as presented Tonight's Board of Materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mayes Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio.
Aye. Mr. Tebo? Aye. All right. We'll move on to 7.0 communications and board comments. Does Superintendent Kimsey or board member have any communications or comments to share this evening? Director De Niro? Yes, thank you, president Zi. I had the opportunity, uh, to visit, uh, four schools and I, again, it was just electrifying to see the kids in action and the teachers in the classrooms and all the things that are going on, especially during Halloween. I had, I went to two schools for the Halloween, um, parade,
and that was so much fun. Early, early in the morning when it was very cold, we had the, uh, Halloween parade outside of, uh, Besser and then, um, and then went to another school in the afternoon, which was South Park, and they had a dance for, um, this, the kids. And I thought, how do you do a dance with K one and two? Well, you do line dances, and it was like pe I think, for them. So it was really a lot of fun and, and, um, it, it was so nice
to be back in the schools among the kids. So, um, I think Dr. Kimsey for giving us, uh, that opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Director De Niro, other directors director Tebow. Thank you. I just wanted to be sure that, um, tonight we extend our, our thanks, um, to all the veterans who have served our country. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, director Tebow. Any other comments from the board? Director Mays? I was fortunate, uh, enough this morning to attend the, uh, initial J-R-O-T-C, uh, memorial, uh,
in honor of the veterans. Uh, and, uh, it was very well done, very well coordinated, and it was nice to see, uh, uh, so many people there to, uh, be recognized for the, their service to the, the community and to our, uh, wonderful country. So that was a real pleasure. Very nice. Thank you. Other comments? Alright, the next up is, uh, 8.0 special resolutions, and we have just one resolution this evening and Director De Niro will be reading it for us. Director De Niro. Yes, thank you.
2025 National Special Education Day proclamation, whereas the inherent dignity and worth of every individual are fundamental principles that guide our nation. And whereas recognizing and celebrating the unique abilities and potential of individual individuals with disabilities is crucial for fostering an inclusive society. And whereas December 2nd marks a day of reflection and action dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of special education and the rights of individuals with disabilities, and whereas the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
IDEA signed into law on December 2nd, 1975, has been a cornerstone in ensuring that all children with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate public education. And whereas National Special Education Day serves as an opportunity to honor the contributions of educators, parents, advocates, and all those who work tirelessly to empower individuals with disabilities to reach their full potential. And whereas through the tireless efforts of many Progress continues to be made towards creating an inclusive
and equitable educational environment for individuals of all of abilities. And now therefore, it be, be it resolved that the Pueblo School District Number 60 Board of Education does hereby proclaim December 2nd, 2025 as National Special Education Day. On this day, let us reaffirm our commitment to promoting awareness under understanding and acceptance of individuals with disabilities. Let us recognize and celebrate the achievements of those who champion the cause of special education and advocate for the rights and dignity of every person.
I move that the Board of Educ Board of Education proclaims December 2nd, 2025 as National Special Education Day as presented in the November 11th, 2025 board materials. Thank you. Director De Niro. Do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please call the vote. Ms. Patone Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mayes Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio. Aye. Mr. Kibo? Aye. All right. Next up on the agenda is 9.0 reports. Superintendent Kimsey, do we have any reports this evening?
We do. President Pen, nuncio and board directors. Our first report will be presented, uh, and it's my honor to introduce, um, our Executive Director of Student Support Services, Mr. Andy Burns. He will present to you the Pupil Count report. Thank you Dr. Kimsey, and good evening President Pen Nuncio and members of the board. Tonight I'm pleased to share the 20 25 20 26 Pupil Count report. This report includes enrollment figures for all D 60 school schools, including the two PSAS schools.
Please note that the data for the current 25 26 school year showing an estimated total of 13,323 students is a preliminary figure and is typically finalized in December each year. The current estimate shows a continuation of declining enrollment since the 20 14 20 15 school year. The estimated total enrollment has fallen by 4,637 students, which is an overall decline of 25.8%. More immediately, the reduction
of 766 students from the 24 25 count to the current year's figure of 13,323 students represents an estimated decrease of 5.4%. As you look at this chart here, the related school level data gives us some additional context pointing to where the bulk of the decline is occurring. We'll first look at the elementary figures, which is in the blue figure, the highest figure there. This level is a primary driver of our overall enrollment decline. The pre-K five level has dropped by an estimated 3,310 students since the 20 14 20 15
school year, resulting in a 34.4% decrease. Middle school is designated by the red line on the bottom. This level has seen a long-term drop of 25%. And then the last category is the high school group grades nine through 12, which is the green line, and the high school level has shown the lowest overall long-term decline at 9% since the 20 14 20 15 school year. In summary, the estimated 25 26 pupil count is 13,323 students and we're down 5.4% from last year
and 25.8% from 2014 2015. Thank you for that report. Mr. Burns, are there questions from the board for Mr. Burns? Director De Niro? I I just have one question. You are, you're giving the declines in percent from last year to this year. What are, what does that mean in actual numbers from the, uh, pupil population from last year to this year? Uh, by school or by the district? District? Just By District. So you can see the figures there on, you know, it's a little small there. I can read them, but, uh, uh,
for the elementary group, we had No total district. Oh, total district is the previous slide. 14,000 0 8 9 down this year to 13 three. Two three. And do we have any, um, do we have any information on where kids, did they just go outta state? Did they go to other schools That we do? We could share that information with the board. Other questions from the board? Uh, director May, oh, sorry, Mr. Director Thibo. Alright, thank you. Um, I, I was just curious
as you share information with us, if there could be, um, some explanation about where students go after the elementary years into the middle school years. I, I, I see that as sort of a critical point where, um, you know, if we could get those middle school numbers up, it seems as though something rebounds into the high school years slightly anyway. Um, not quite sure about the elementary decline, but I think there's an issue relative to the middle school retaining our students at the middle school level.
So perhaps you could give us some data on that, uh, or, you know, some recommendations, conclusions, whatever. Thank you. Director De Niro. Could you, could you do the other transition year from nine, uh, from, um, eighth to ninth also with that? Yes. Thank you. Director Mays. I guess my, my question similar to Mr. Tebows, and that is, it seems to me that once we, we get through the middle school, we, we have them elementary, then we have a problem with middle, then once we get from middle out to high school, we, we remain pretty steady. Uh, uh, what, what if any conclusions are we able
to draw from that or, uh, are we able to, uh, learn what it is that, uh, that happens after elementary school and into the higher, higher grades? Yes, I think it's multifactorial and, um, both as a Department of Student Services team and as a larger cabinet team, we've started to look at that information and so I think over the coming months we're able to share some of our findings with the board. Um, presently there's about 4,000 students that choose a different, uh, uh, school aside from a D 60 school.
Um, about half of them are attending an online school. Uh, and so that's interesting to see. Do you, do you have a figure as to how many actually leave the, leave the district, leave the city, perhaps? Uh, uh, is that a significant number or, Yes. I don't wanna hazard a guess, but that is information that, uh, we have. Um, when there is a, uh, request for a, a file to be sent to another district, so we might not have 100% of the information, for example, a student going to a private school, we're going out of state. We might not have that information. Um, but, uh, both the state
and our department does a pretty good job of, uh, keeping track of that information for the students that we are familiar with. And so, uh, that's something that we can certainly share with the board. And with regard to the, uh, online schools, uh, is it safe to say that all or the vast majority of 'em start their programs in the sixth grade? I don't know that off the top of my head. I would hate to hazard a guess. Thank you. Any other questions from the board for Mr. Burns? Well, thank you again, Mr. Burns for that update. We appreciate it. Super Kimsey.
I believe we have one more report this evening. We do, and it's a pretty big one. Um, and it's actually gonna answer some of your questions, so give us a second to get ourselves organized and get the slides pulled up and we will begin. Thank you. So the directors are gonna note you don't have the slides in front of you yet. This is a, um, and you can blame me. It's one of my teacher tricks. So, so that you'll listen to what we all have
to say at the very end. We will provide those to you though. So are we ready Team? Looks like we are. Okay. Okay. So good evening, president p Nuncio and board directors, I have the honor this evening of introducing our recommendation plan presentation for ride sizing our district to the board for its consideration. As the board is aware, we have engaged our community in a conversation around how we can strategically adjust to the realities
and needs in our community in order for our district to become the high performing destination district that empowers our students to reach their fullest potential. Unlike many districts that undertake this type of process, as I've shared before, we chose to approach it differently. We chose to meaningfully engage our entire community in the development of our recommendation plan to the board. Our focus has been upon ensuring a coherent plan that is interconnected across the district,
and that focuses upon our goal of enhancing innovative programming while optimizing our resources. These resources include our facilities, staff, and community partners. We also chose to conduct this work ourselves. Instead of hiring an outside consulting firm for facilitating meetings, we as a district committed ourselves to listening to our community and using their insight, ideas, and input to develop this plan. In fact, the title of this presentation,
one Voice Collective Action Becoming a Destination District represents the culmination of 10 and a half months of deep collaborative engagement with our community and staff through multiple meetings and conversations, large and small. After gathering all of that input and those ideas, this plan we are sharing this evening was finally developed on Thursday, October 30th, 2025. In this actual room, in our day long cabinet retreat, again,
we as a cabinet used all of the input, insight, and ideas our community has shared with us throughout this robust process, along with all of the, the data that is available to us. This plan reflects our collective vision for our district and our community. And again, we are honored to share it with you this evening. To begin this process, cabinet met for a day long retreat this past January to define our process goal. In addition to designing the steps in our process, as you can see, our goal includes three
key priorities in order to ensure a bright, powerful, and sustainable future for our students and our district. Those priorities include enhancing innovative and effective programs, optimizing our budgetary resources, and reducing our instructional reliance on some of our aging facilities. This goal has served as the foundation for every meeting and every conversation we have had in addition to every decision we have made. After establishing our goal for this process, our next task
involved developing a decision framework that would further ground and guide our work. In the final development of a recommendation plan, we started with our board policy, FCB dash R that outlines criteria for consideration. We took that to our principals first, who then prioritize those criteria for consideration. Those are listed in the middle of this chart and include prioritizing, sustainable enrollment, community uni, utilization of facilities, and the condition of facilities.
At this point, principals also grouped six schools into six or grouped schools into six distinct groupings for option consideration. And those were the groupings of schools used throughout the initial input and idea gathering community engagement process to further develop our decision framework. We then asked all stakeholders in our first round of community meetings in March and during principles and assistant principals and deans meetings to determine the values
and contextual factors that should frame our decisions in this process. From all of that input, our superintendent's advisory steering committee then developed to the final decision framework that you see here on the screen. Based upon our rigorous engagement with our stakeholders, the committee determined that D 60 values thriving schools that serve students and families that provide opportunities for all that ensure safety and equity of access that provide adequate resources
with responsible use of taxpayer funds and that stand by our staff who serve our students. In addition, the committee identified the contextual factors needed to be considered in these decisions, including programming, enrollment, facilities, long-term considerations, and boundaries in neighborhoods. This stakeholder created framework has served to frame all of our engagement and decisions through the rest of this 10 and a half month process. I will now turn over our presentation
to our very esteemed cabinet members who have each played an integral part in developing this re recommended plan. Just as Mr. Brus presented earlier, the graphic on the left illustrates our enrollment decline over time, beginning in 2020. The graph on the right shows our total staff and total administrators across that same time period. What's Clear from the comparison is that while our student population has decreased significantly, our staffing levels have not declined at a similar rate. As we know, the majority of our budget is allocated
to personnel as it should be, but because our funding is based on student enrollment, our revenue has declined with fewer students. But our staffing has not reduced proportionately and has remained relatively flat. And as you can see, um, by the graph here, the overwhelming majority of our expenditures are related to salaries and benefits, and that is 84.8% of our budget. Last year, we spent over $136 million on, on salaries and benefits. So you can see that, um, we do have,
uh, an issue if we continue to, uh, spend at this rate. Now let's take a minute to, uh, a moment to walk through this 10 and a half month journey and review what has taken place along the way. You'll likely recognize this timeline graphic. We've shared it at each of our right sizing engagement opportunities tonight. We find ourselves at the end of that timeline, and I want to highlight the key milestones that have been brought us to this point. Back in January and February, we began with our first cabinet retreat where we designed the overall right sizing process and developed the project timeline.
Following that, we met with principals, assistant principals, and deans to gather their input. Their feedback helped shape our decision framework and informed how we organized the school groupings and surfaced initial potential options for right sizing. In March, we launched round one of the community meetings where we presented the draft decision framework and discussed potential options. These sessions provided valuable community input to guide our next steps. In the spring and summer Through April, June and August, we formed and convened the Superintendent's Advisory Steering Committee, which met several times
throughout the spring and summer. The committee played a central role in finalizing the decision framework, narrowing potential options, and reviewing feedback from our community survey. In August, we released that district wide community survey to collect feedback from a broader audience. The results of this survey helped the steering committee and cabinet refine and narrow the potential options even further. In September and October, we reconvened the advisory steering committee for a final time and met again with our principals to review any additional ideas or potential options before moving forward. We also held a second round
of community meetings in all four quadrants of the district to share survey results and gather one final round of input from our stakeholders. Finally, the cabinet held a second retreat where we brought together all of the data collected over the past 10 and a half months. We carefully analyzed every piece of feedback and every potential option that emerged from our stakeholders, staff, and community. From that analysis, we developed the strategic recommendation plan. We're presenting to you tonight a plan that aligns with a community created decision framework meets our stated goal for right sizing
and serves as a strong foundation for our vision of becoming a high performing destination district. Over the last 10 and a half months, Pueblo School District 60 has remained firmly committed to ensuring that our right sizing process has. It was inclusive, transparent, and informed by the voices of those we serve. From the very beginning, we made it a priority to meaningfully engage our students, families, staff, and community members along every step of the way. In the last 10 and a half months, we've held 10 community meetings attended by hundreds
of stakeholders in each quadrant. In total, we were able to have conversations with more than 900 stakeholders. Through this process, we held a meeting with the superintendent's Student Advisory Council and conducted a community-wide survey with nearly 1400 respondents. We also facilitated four advisory steering committee meetings with 35 stakeholders that reflect the diversity of our district and community serving on that committee. In addition to providing avenues for public input, individuals were also able to send emails where we collected several ideas
and input through our right sizing email address. We've had over 7,900 visits to our right sizing website that contains transparent information about our process, along with data used by our community and stakeholders to guide input, ideas and decisions. We also sent press releases and wrote our own stories that helped track coverage from media outlets earning more than 10 stories shared throughout Southern Colorado by news outlets such as the Pueblo Chieftain, KOAA News, 5K RDO News, 13 KK TV 11 News,
and KXRM Fox 21 News. We also produced three informative videos about our process and plan development, the last of which will be shared with our stakeholders tomorrow. Based on the extensive stakeholder ideas and feedback that we've gathered for nearly a year, our team developed a set of comprehensive actions that aligned to the values and contextual factors presented in our right sizing framework. Our goal has been to transform the challenges of declining enrollment into actionable opportunities that will support our vision of becoming a destination district.
Tonight. We'll begin by describing each of the opportunities listed here, and then we will highlight what this looks like in each quadrant throughout our community. One of the things that we heard throughout this process, and that is reflected in our right sizing values, is the importance of strengthening community engagement and creating access to support services for our students and their families. With that in mind, we are recommending the establishment of community school resource centers that can serve as an anchor for our neighborhood schools. One of the great things about the community school's approach is that it allows us to intentionally identify
and draw on the unique strengths of our neighborhood communities. Something we also find in the framework by creating a place for people to come together and to collaborate. The community school's approach also allows us to identify both individual and common needs, and then to provide a hub of aligned resources and supports. This may include things like access to healthcare services, afterschool programming, adult educating, education tutoring, and much more. As you can see here, we plan to create community schools ensuring adherence to the research-based best practices
that the community schools exhibit. According to the Coalition for Community Schools, integrated systems of support school staff, and community partners systematically coordinate health and social services, academic and non-academic supports and enrichment opportunities in a manner that fosters student wellbeing, expanded and enriched learning opportunities. Access to before, after, and summer opportunities to explore passions, apply academic content and build knowledge, powerful student and family engagement, active family
and student participation in the school community to shape priorities and programming, collaborative leadership and shared power and voice. Families, students, teachers, principals, and community partners make decisions together through formal and informal structures. Rigorous community connected classroom instruction curriculum that connects content and skills to students', identities, cultures and experiences, and students engaging in inquiry, inquiry based learning that addresses issues they care about in the world around them. A culture of belonging, safety, and care, welcoming places that foster caring
and trusting relationships. We plan to partner with the community at identified sites and to conduct extensive outreach with local agencies and organizations to identify neighborhood assets and needs and to provide a compendium of services and supports. Here you can see a graphic that shows how each of those characteristics are centered around ensuring that all students flourish in thriving school communities. This research based work, when done well and with fidelity, will significantly improve not only student achievement, but also student and staff wellbeing, along with the wellbeing
of the surrounding neighborhood and community. In fact, the Colorado Department of Education is behind this work as a research-based best practice for implementation and may have additional funds available for districts undertaking this work beginning in the 20 26, 20 27 school year, our first year of implementation of our revived and refocused efforts in this area, We are recommending a comprehensive plan to expand preschool programming to include preschool centers with full day 4-year-old programming. This proposed plan is based on a strategic new beginning
for early education. Key elements of this plan include access to full day preschool by providing opportunities for qualifying four year olds to attend full day programs, upgrade classrooms by modernizing learning spaces to foster creativity, focus, and collaboration, develop dynamic outdoor playgrounds that actively encourage physical activity, exploration, and discovery through play. This is not just an upgrade, it's a new beginning for early education in our community.
Thank you, Kim. As you may already know, the stream approach represents the heart of how we prepare students for the future by integrating science, technology, reading and research, engineering, the arts and mathematics in a way that connects classroom learning to real world application. Through project based learning, rightsizing gives us an incredible opportunity to expand equitable access to this kind of innovative learning under a shared stream vision. More students will engage in hands-on project-based experiences through interdisciplinary projects and encourage them to design, build, create, and problem solve.
This approach nurtures the very skills our learners will need to thrive in the modern workforce, which are creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Further, it also supports the growth of our teachers, giving them opportunities to collaborate, share best practices, and engage in professional learning that elevates instruction across multiple schools in the district. Ultimately, the mergers and the stream model are not just about facilities, they're about the future. They position public school District 60 to lead the way in innovative student-centered education and ensure that every child, regardless of their starting point, has access to the kind of learning
that opens doors to college careers and beyond. This plan includes supporting our middle level learning by establishing a new pre-collegiate themed middle school, which will provide immediate equitable access to quality education for our students. Increasing engagement centered on rigorous academic pathways, college readiness, and the ability to earn high school credits in middle school. The plan also includes expanding D 60 online programming to allow virtual students to seamlessly integrate into middle school activities, such
as athletics clubs, electives, and enhancing social emotional development and expanding their educational experience. We also recommend realigning middle school boundaries to ensure a cohesive geographic distribution of our student body. The next component of our discussion tonight will look at the strategic future of D 60 online in Paragon. Currently, both schools operate under a single district designation. This designation limits our growth potential by capping out of district enrollment at just 10 students per school, we are submitted to, we will be submitting, uh,
an opportunity to expand options to incorporate a multi-district designation for both schools to expand beyond D 60. Doing so will allow us to build upon the powerful online programming at both schools. The opportunity to right-size schools helps ensure that special education staff are distributed more effectively, aligning personnel resources with student needs by balancing enrollment and program capacity across our schools. In turn, this leads to a reduction of inefficiencies, improves caseload equity, and enhances the overall quality
and consistency of supports and services for all students. With an individual learning plan or an IEP, the right sizing leads to educator work that allows for more planning access to more adaptive materials, assistive technology and instructional resources in areas where they are needed most. Collaboration of specially designed instruction, delivery and progress monitoring that is based on the unique needs of each scholar begins to improve. In summary, the right sizing leads to a more strategic match
between staffing student needs and instructional delivery that is provided with fidelity intensity and impact. And for those students who qualify for special transportation as outlined in their IEP, the ESS department will ensure that that happens. Thank you, Sandy. In the East Quadrant, our focus and recommendation is creating stronger, more sustainable schools that offer powerful learning opportunities for every child. Starting with the merger of Bradford and Parkview on the Parkview campus, this merger unites two proud school communities into one
stream focused elementary campus that gives every student access to rich hands-on learning and science technology, reading and research, engineering, the arts and mathematics for Bradford families. This means expanded opportunities where students will benefit from access to an innovation lab, integrated project based learning and collaboration with peers in a dynamic learning environment built around curiosity and creativity. At the same time, the Bradford Campus will continue to serve as a vital role in our community. It will become a vibrant preschool center, which include a classrooms for full day programming
with opportunities to expand, ensuring our youngest learners start strong, as well as a neighborhood resource hub, which will be a place where families can connect with services, supports, and one another. This plan reflects our commitment to not just right sizing, but right serving, using our facilities, programs, and partnerships to better meet the needs of students and families by strengthening stream programming and creating dedicated spaces for early learning and community connection. The East Quadrant plan sets the tone for what's possible across the district with innovative programs and sites that truly anchor their neighborhoods
In the central quadrant, we have a few recommendations. First, the recommendation is to merge Bessemer and Colombian on the Colombian campus. We envision the merger of Bessemer and Colombian as an opportunity to blend the strengths, traditions, and cultures of two school communities. Together on the Columbian campus, our educators will be able to collaborate more closely. Our students will gain exciting new opportunities through a robust stream program, and students will gain, pardon me, our families will enjoy a continued sense of connection and belonging as we bring students together
on the Colombian campus. We're also reimagining the Bessemer campus as a cornerstone for community partnerships. The Bessemer site will evolve into a true neighborhood hub, a welcoming space that connects families with essential educational and social resources. It will remain full of life and purpose, serving as a place where families can access support, connect with district services, and strengthen community ties. The Community School's resource center at Bessemer will coordinate family supports health and wellness initiatives and partnerships with local agencies, ensuring each
and every child and family has access to the wraparound resources they need to thrive By housing our child Find and exceptional student services or ESS offices on this campus. We are centralizing critical early identification and support services. Families will have one convenient, accessible location to get the help and guidance that their children need. We're also expanding Heritage Elementary to include a dedicated preschool center by adding at least five full day 4-year-old programs, giving our youngest learners a support, a strong support,
and creating a central, easily accessible option for our families right in the middle of our city. Together, these efforts form a bold and interconnected vision for the central quadrant. One that honors our history, aligns our resources, and builds innovative pathways for the future. By bringing our strengths together, we're not just reorganizing schools, we're redefining opportunities for each child and family that we serve. The right sizing process has shown that our South quadrant, like other quadrants, is significantly impacted by declining enrollment. To address this, we recommend merging the student
populations of Bah Heights and Highland Park onto the Highland Park Camp campus. This merger offers a critical opportunity to expand the curriculum into full stream programming. We can immediately leverage Highland Park's existing strong STEM foundation. Incorporating enhanced stream programming in our South Quadrant is expected to have a transformative impact on student outcomes by addressing common academic challenges and utilizing unique community assets. The BAH Heights campus presents a vital opportunity
to be repurposed as a dedicated professional development hub for staff training. This utilization will centrally support the ongoing training needs of our entire district. This strategic approach ensures efficiency while simultaneously creating new pathways for advanced student learning and staff support In the North Quadrant. Our recommendation is transforming the Hyde Park campus into a middle school with pre-collegiate programming, which will offer our middle school students the opportunity to participate in challenging middle school coursework
that prepares them to be successful in more advanced high school coursework, while building essential skills that are crucial for success in high school and college. The plan is to open the school up with sixth grade students in the 26th 27th school year, and then add the seventh and eighth grade during subsequent years moving D 60 online from a high school campus to the middle school ca setting at Hyde Park will offer virtual opport or virtual students to critical benefits. First, it would provide age appropriate resources.
The staff and students at D 60 online will gain more access to middle school specific resources. And then secondly, it would give access to middle school level programming integration. Moving D 60 online from South High School to this new middle school locate new middle school located on the Hyde Park campus creates essential opportunities for middle school participation. Online students can seamlessly engage in age appropriate electives, intramural sports clubs and performances that are often inaccessible for them at a high school environment.
Creating a neighborhood community school and resource center will help our families to feel connected and supported as we develop this new thriving community. Finally, the successful implementation of this plan will require a review and proposal for revised middle school attendance boundaries, Support students attending merge schools, and prevent students from having to cross highways. We will offer transportation to affected areas, including students living in the current Bradford Attendance area to Parkview and students living in the current ELL Heights attendance
area to Highland Park. We will continue to offer transportation services to students who qualify for transportation in accordance with the 60 board policy. Echo, echo Alpha, that being EE, a. As we have worked to develop this plan, we have used the demographer's report along with exploring all of the neighborhoods and open spaces within our D 60 boundaries. As you will note here, Pueblo has several areas where development will bring or continue to bring families with school-aged children
to certain neighborhoods. Though this may not be a net gain in population of school-aged children, having schools in neighborhoods that are growing remains a necessary strategy for the growth of our district. In addition, we have carefully crafted this holistic plan to ensure that we continue to value all of our neighborhoods and our district by not creating blight and by not creating school deserts anywhere in our city. Our goal continues to be to retract all
of our students living in our D 60 boundaries back to D 60 schools, as is reflected in the timeline for this process. Our next steps include additional opportunities to engage with the board around our, your questions in December and early January with the request for the board to approve our recommendation by its January 20, 26 business meeting. We welcome your questions this evening, and we encourage the board to understand that some of tonight's questions may further inform our December
presentation to the board. Furthermore, we are holding space on our calendars for two by two meetings with interested board directors in December. I would also like to encourage the board and the community to view this plan holistically as we have strategically created a plan that will serve the entire community in addition to the individual neighborhoods within our community. In other words, removing or adjusting individual components of this plan would affect other components
and their potential impact and positive impact upon our district and our community. We're sending a video to all of our stakeholders and community members tomorrow morning to ensure that all are informed of the plan we have developed from their insight, input, and ideas. We will continue to engage with community and stakeholders moving forward. Once this plan is approved. Our meaningful engagement with our stakeholders and community will actually intensify as we continue
to be committed to ensuring transparent communication while helping our students, families, staff, and community make transitions and informed decisions about their next steps. In conclusion, president Pen Nuncio and board directors, as you have heard this evening, this plan reflects broad community and stakeholder input while adhering to our agreed upon decision framework and to accomplishing our goal to strengthen educational opportunities for our students
by enhancing innovative programs and optimizing our budgetary facility resources. I would like to personally thank every person who has contributed to this plan, either through attending one or more of our community meetings, serving on the advisory steering committee, responding to our survey, sending thoughts through email, and or having individual conversations with me and with other members of our team. I would also like to take a moment to personally thank
from the bottom of my heart, every one of our cabinet members, they, these individuals you've heard from tonight represent the absolute best of our community. They have sacrificed their time to ensure that our community was an integral part of the development of this plan. Our cabinet members have had tough conversations with each other and with me, and have pushed each other to ensure that the plan we present to our board
and community will absolutely ensure the success of our students and district. In short, this recommended plan shifts our focus from simply right sizing our district to right serving our students and community, building upon our programming and instructional strengths and infusing wraparound community resources where they ha will have the greatest positive impact on behalf of our entire district.
I respectfully submit and recommend this plan to the D 60 Board of Education for its review and consideration for final approval in January, and we'll take your questions. Thank you, Dr. Kimsey, and to the entire cabinet. That's a lot of information and a lot of months and months of work. Questions from the board Director Cisneros? Yes, thank you. Um, thank you all for that presentation. I know this has been a lot of work over many, many months, uh, and something that we've all been anticipating. So, um, I actually have several questions.
Um, I guess I will just kind of start one by one instead of like asking them all. Um, I'm sure some of the other board members might have similar questions that, uh, maybe I can cover and, um, some of the public that might be listening as well. Um, I know the overall goal of this right sizing program is to make the, the district more, you know, fiscally responsible, uh, utilize our facilities more responsibly and just adjust to the, um, declining enrollment
that we've seen, uh, in, uh, Mr. Burns' first presentation. So, I guess my first question is just in plain English, like what is the overall goal of our right sizing program? Like, what, what do we want to achieve at the end of this? So we want our district to be positioned to have a sustainable future, which includes three, um, sets of merging schools, right? That is going to definitely help us utilize our resources in a more efficient manner, uh,
while also providing us with the opportunity to infuse community support in some of the places where it's needed most in our community. The, the goal is for us to take what we have and use it more efficiently and effectively to best serve our students without gutting our district, because our goal is to eventually grow. Alright, thank you. Um, my next question, um, in one of the first slides, we saw that, uh, about, I think it was 84% of the annual budget, um,
about $136 million is on salary and benefits. Um, do we have any numbers, you know, the, the three merges, the three school merges that we saw in this presentation here tonight. Do we have any numbers on how much money that would save us, potentially any estimates or anything like that? Do we have anything like that to show? Um, 'cause I know we want to save money, that's a big part of this, but also, like you said, uh, superintendent Kenzie just make the, the district overall more efficient in, in multiple ways.
But is there any, is there any forecast for how much money that would possibly save us by doing these three merges? So, that's a great question and some may also have the question will, will the, the facilities are staying open, so I want to ensure that the board directors understand this. We actually, the closing of the building doesn't save us that much money. It really doesn't. The savings come from how we utilize our staff, and that's why Ms. Hans, did I say it right? Um, she, she emphasized the amount of our budget
that is spent on staff by more efficiently using staff. We will be fiscally responsible. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that actually was part of another question I had. The cost of keeping those merged schools open as, as resource centers or, you know, different types of hubs. Um, so thank you for covering that. Um, and I'll just have one more question 'cause I want to give more time to the other board members. Um, the schools that potentially would be merging. Is there any plan for what's gonna happen with that staff from those schools that will be,
that will have students move from them? So there is a general plan. We usually plan for students, I mean staff to follow students, right? Um, there are a lot of moving pieces to this plan. So can we give you specifics at this time? No. Um, Mr. Dero, do you want to add to that? I mean, I think that's, right now we're in the general place because for one, you haven't approved it yet and there's a lot of variables. As, as Dr. Kimsey stated, unfortunately, we do have some experience with this and we have gone through this before. And his, you know, as she said historically, when staff on,
we want our staff to follow students, A lot of times staff wants to follow students, and for the most part, the majority of that has been able to take place with past school closures and mergers. All right. Thank you so much. Um, that's all I have for right now. Thank you. Other questions from the board Director Tebow? Yeah. Everybody's waiting for me to ask a question and, um, I'm gonna surprise everybody and, and, and not ask, uh, hardly any kind of question, but sort of make a statement. Um, and I just want everyone to know, including those who are listening in and all who participate in making our district so successful
that, um, I have purposefully stayed away from any community meetings or any engagement in terms of how this particular recommendation came to be. I did not want people to think that I, in some way was influencing any, um, decision that was being made. I wanted it to be something that came from the very root of our community. And, um, as a board member, I take this responsibility very seriously in terms of reviewing it in a fair and impartial way for the benefit
of the entire district and our students. And that's how I'm going to, um, review and analyze and think about this material that's been presented. It's a lot to unpack. Uh, I don't want any questions that I ask to give the wrong impression because I think I want to ask the, the right questions once I have a little better handle on the recommendations. But I will say this, um, I just really appreciate the almost one year of effort that's gone into it under the leadership of our superintendent and the great work of the cabinet
and everybody that's involved in the district, um, and all the participants, whether they're parents or, um, citizens that are just interested in the success of public education. I just really feel that, um, something needs to be done and I'm totally encouraged by the concept that we're not just dealing with right sizing, but right serving. I think that's really an important aspect of what's been presented tonight. That makes me, um, very excited about, uh, digging in and trying to be, um, constructive in my comments
and questions as we go through this very difficult process. Um, and so no questions, just that comment and a, a big thank you to all involved. Thank you. Director Tebow. Director Mays, That's a lot. And I, uh, along, uh, share with Mr. Tebow, I, I did not, uh, attend any of the community meetings and quite frankly, for the same reasons he was talking about, I didn't want to be in a position where I was getting a little bit of information, a little bit more information,
a little bit more information, starting to make decisions. You don't like a jury trial. They say wait till all the evidence is in before you really start deciding what did or didn't happen. Uh, and, and I, I, I preface everything with those remarks because, uh, I'm wondering, uh, superintendent Kimsey if, uh, uh, we aren't going to have yet a second meeting for the board to discuss this, and, uh, I know you have a a timeline for this, but, you know, we're getting this essentially
for the first time tonight. Uh, I, it it's a lot to, uh, to consume. Uh, I honestly believe that two by twos are really gonna be very helpful in the process. Uh, i, I know each of us probably has different types of questions that we want answered, uh, different interests in where we're going with these things. So, uh, I understand the policy in terms of what we have to do in order to close schools. And I know that decision has to be made by the end of the school year.
Now I realize that having said that, we can't wait till the last day of school and said, oh, by the way, here we are. And I, I know that the process that the cabinet has gone through and, uh, my sincere thanks to the community involved, but it was great to hear all of the numbers of people that were involved and giving input back and forth and all that sort of thing during the process. Uh, so I, uh, I I very appreciative of that. I, I mean, I, I very much understand how complex this is
and, and all the moving parts. There's an emotional part to it as well. So I am going to relish the opportunity to, uh, dig deeper into this, uh, be, uh, participatory in the two by twos, uh, and have even more questions answered at that time. Uh, the, I I will say that, uh, right off the bat, one of the things, and this is not just because we've gone through this process now, uh, I've always, I've always had concerns about, uh,
uh, integrating middle school students with high school students and that sort of thing. And so I'm kind of interested to see how that all bears out and, and what we're going to do with that as well. Uh, and, and having said that, uh, I, I shouldn't be taken as a sign that somehow or another I'm opposed to either one or both of those processes. I just have some concerns. And how would, how would those things be, be answered? And I'm sure the work that, uh, your staff has done has the answers for, for those questions. I do have a, a couple of questions.
So that I'd like to ask is, you, you mentioned that closing, closing buildings doesn't mean that it actually say, are we going to actually vacate a building or any buildings? No, we are not. Okay. So we have how many? 30 now We currently have 29, 20 plus this building. So at the end of facility, this particular school year mm-hmm. We will have 29 buildings plus this building. Correct. Okay. So that's not going to change. Nope. You mentioned that, uh, uh, neighborhood
community school resource hubs. Can you paint me a little picture of what that looks like? What does that mean? I mean, we've got, this school's going to merge with this school, but this school here, over here is going to be a community service, uh, resource hub or some, what does that mean? What, what, What, sure. So when we're talking about those resource hubs, so let's take the east side, for example. Okay. Um, that resource hub will serve all of the East Side. It's also very close to Parkview, right? Where we're merging all of the students.
It will, and of course, the Bradford Campus. We're also proposing a preschool center there, but it will also offer everything from, and it's based on the needs of the community. So there may be language classes, there may be adult ed, GED classes, uh, continuing education classes, um, out of school time. So before, after school care for, for families that need it, uh, at low or reduced cost or no cost, depending. Um, it may have, um, laundry services.
It may have a computer lab for people to come in and get that workforce development. So what we do is we partner with all these different agencies in our community. Places like Pueblo Food Project with, um, Southern Colorado, um, Catholic Charities with all of these other groups that are interested in partnering with US Wellness Center, uh, so that we can provide physical health, mental health services. Um, so we are basically offering the space and we enter into an MOU with them resource hubs.
So community schools often are open from like 6:00 AM in the morning. They're usually active from like early 6:00 AM through, you know, nine o'clock at night with different activities and things, depending on the needs of the community. Okay. And you mentioned MOUs, which obviously our attorney's gonna make sure that those things are all taken care of. But, uh, am I correct to say, and I, I think you mentioned this, that while we will be, for lack of a better word, uh, the landlords of these particular buildings, the hubs, the resource hubs,
it will be their responsibility to, uh, staff, whatever we're going, whatever we're doing. And, and as you indicated, it will be very flexible 'cause it could start early in the morning and go late into the evening as opposed to closing at four o'clock or five o'clock or something like that. But then again, uh, back to it again, we won't have the responsibility for that other than providing the space. So we would provide the space, we probably will. All of that would have to be developed through the MOU. Um, it's, it's still our space,
so we're maintaining the space, right. Um, usually when you establish a community school, you have a community school coordinator who helps coordinate all of those outside partners that come in and provide services at different points in the day and all of that. Um, and so we envision being able to do that, um, because of our concentration in merging where we can merge to then be able to provide those resources. And once again, what, what is, uh, the core plan in terms
of addressing the middle school issues? So with middle school, we already know, uh, there are a couple of things that cause our families to choose to educate their students elsewhere. For middle school, there are perceptions, notice I'm using the word perceptions. So perceptions of a lack of safety. That's often a concern going from a smaller elementary to a larger secondary middle school, especially a traditional one. Um, 'cause if you notice, our K eights tend
to be pretty stable, right? It's our traditional middles. Um, so there is that perception of safety, the perception that that bigger school's not gonna be able to attend to the individual needs of the student. And the perception that there isn't the rigor that needs to be there for students to be high school ready and then college ready. Those are all perceptions. Um, so one of the things that we were looking at, number one, there is a school desert somewhat
for middle schools right now. We have freed it's choice only, right? Um, but on the northwest, in that North quadrant, we don't really have a neighborhood middle school option. So what families do on that Western side is they tend to opt to go to district 70, to be honest. And or we have a lot of families that are choosing to educate their kids online. And we can send the district those numbers. We've got those. I'm looking at Andy. Um, it's thousands of students,
thousands of students who choose to educate, be educated online. That's one of the reasons for the multi-district designation for both middle D 60 online and for Dutch Clark Dig Digital, we're trying to retract those and we believe we have a much stronger program than they're going. I know we have a stronger program than they will find anywhere else. Um, so back to the question on the west side, we have families that choose to attend, uh, D 70 schools. Uh, so we're going to work on retracting them back to us.
Um, and if you've noticed, if you drive around that western part in the city, there's things being built. The cottage homes that we had the picture of in the slides, um, there is a lot of activity on that western side, and though it's not a net gain of students, it's where the students are. And if I'm a parent living over there, then I want a neighborhood school, middle school for my child to attend by starting a school that has a very rigorous, the idea with this, um,
middle school, pre-collegiate, middle school is to set kids up to be able to earn high school credit before they leave middle school. So they're really taking those very advanced courses, um, in high school, should they choose to. We do see it as a ne neighborhood school. If you look at our middle school boundaries, one of the pictures we chose to include in the presentation is actually when our communities were looking at those boundaries. We have middle school boundaries. Well, we have a couple elementary ones that will blow your mind if you actually look at 'em.
But our middle school boundaries really need some help because when we closed roncalli and everything else, you know, it was on an emergency basis and everybody was just trying to get kids into school. And we need to realign all that to go with neighborhoods. What, what is the definition of a multi-district designation? That means we can accept students from any district, not just D 60. Right now, we're limited to no more than 10 students from out of district. Normally in a regular brick and mortar school, we can take as many out
of district kids as we want. But for online, the state has a different rule and you can, unless you have that designation, you can only take up to 10 students outside of your district. And how, how does, how do you market something like that? Oh, we, we, we will market, we have, uh, two very strong principles that are really about capturing kids. So, uh, my last question. I think, uh, a lot of concentration on middle schools, which I really applaud. Are we going to be doing this, uh,
full court press on middle schools internally or internally and externally? Are we going to engage other partners in terms of, of how we might, uh, be able to address the, the middle school issues that we have? Oh, absolutely. So, uh, part of this middle school process and reimagining this, this middle school offering is exploring different curricula and offerings that we could have. Um, the, I attended the community schools conference in Denver on this past Friday with two people sitting in the audience,
uh, and Colorado Department of Education is very interested in D 60 doing this. We will also have that community school over there on the west to serve our North Quadrant and our West families. Um, and that can really change the entire outlook of a school. And you mentioned CDE is excited about what D Sixty's doing. They are very excited. Are they, they actually came to talk to me, ask them. I didn't go find them. Uh, are they gonna throw some money in Mr. Tebow's? Big talk.
They're talking about getting us some money. They sure did. They said we'll know by April. Thank you. Other questions, director De Niro? Yes, thank you. Wow, that is a, a lot to inhale, but I wanna congratulate you and your team because it is a re-imagining reinventing the, the, the school district, um, as we know it. You know, in years past, I think in 2011, we had a list of seven or nine schools that we were looking at to close.
And that's what we've always done in this district, is you just find out who doesn't have the population, and you close it and you absorb and you don't do anything else. Well, this plan of yours is really looking at the entire district as a whole and bringing in that community schools concept that, you know, again, we have tried in this district, you, we've kind of piecemealed it. You started, I think Risley had it for a while, and then Bula Heights had it for a while. Uh, and I think Baca was involved in it for a while,
but it wasn't a holistic approach, uh, for the district. The other thing I'll have to say is the idea of, uh, preschool centers that goes back, uh, again, the district looked at and tried and talked about it for many, many years, uh, and we just didn't have that next step. But, um, this is a, a, a plan that's very, um, I would say aggressive in, in trying to pull this off in one year. And, um, I wish you all well and the best of luck
because I think this is gonna be in betterment of the school district itself. The other thing that I really, really, um, want to compliment you all for is putting in that high school credit option for middle school. Again, uh, years ago we tried to do, um, promotion policy and work on something to give middle school students a reason to go to school, because right now you can fail everything sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and you're not gonna get
socially demoted. You're gonna get promoted because that's, that's what we've always done. Um, so this gives middle schools an, uh, an opportunity to have a chance and to have a reason, not just for friends, uh, to be in, in the middle school. And I, I would bet that you'll have less issues in middle school by having something attainable for them. But, uh, congratulations. I wish you all the best and that's a lot of hard work and go team.
All right. Other questions for the team or Superintendent? Kimsey. Well, thank you again to all of you and to your entire committee, your steering committees, everyone. Superintendent Kimsey, we appreciate it so much. Alright. All right. Yeah. We're now on to 11.0 approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion please? So moved. Second. Is there any discussion, uh, director de Niro? Yes. Uh, let me just really quick get to
the, um, agenda because I kind of synced out. I don't wanna pull anything off of it, but I do wanna comment on item seven, para Public Paraprofessionals Education Association, PPEA memorandum of understanding, extension of negotiated agreement. You know, I wanna tell and talk to the, the parapros personally in that you do so much for our kids in this, in this school district. And, you know, I I wanna personally thank you.
I think that when negotiations come up, that you should not ask to be part of the, um, the always that percentages are the same in every group because that's, that's not equitable to you all. Uh, you work very, very hard. I'm not saying that other, other, uh, groups don't. But, um, you take care of some of our, our, our, our students that have the most in need. Um, I applaud you
and, um, keep up the good work. I'm going to, to approve and vote yes on all the consent agendas and thank you for the invitation. Thank you, director De Niro. Any further discussion? Say none. Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen? Aye. Mr. TiVo? Aye. Yay. All right. We are now on to 13.0 board discussion and recommendations for future agendas. Does the board director have anything they would like to discuss or make recommendations for items to be included
in the next board meeting or a future agenda? All right. Looks like we don't have any. We will then move on to 14.0 announcements and upcoming events On November 13th, 2025 at 11:00 AM The 2025 Spark of the heart of Pueblo luncheon will take place at Pueblo Community College and our superintendent Kimsey is going to be the, the keynote speaker. Uh, November 24th through 28th, 2025 will be Thanksgiving break on December 2nd, 2025 at 5:30 PM There will be a special
school board meeting at the administrative services center in the Arapaho room on December 9th, 2025. There will be a regular school board meeting at the administrative services center in the Arapaho room and December 22nd, 2025 through January 2nd, 2026 will be winter break. And with that, if there's no further business this evening, may I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please call a vote Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Excuse me, Dr. Dero.
Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno Aye. Mr. TiVo Aye, thanks for being here this evening. Have a good night.