It is now 2:00 PM on February 10th, 2026. And, um, we'll convene the, um, district 60 Board of Education special board meeting or work session at this time. And I'll ask our secretary to call the role Director Farrell here. Director Barra. Here. Director Mays here. Director Pen Nuncio here, director Tebow Here with five present and no absences. Um, we have a Quorum to proceed. And, um, the first item on our agenda is
to resolve ourselves into, uh, executive session. And so I'm going to be reading into the record some very important information regarding our issues that we'll be taking up. Um, and so I will do that now. Uh, I do want to clarify, uh, on the record that the Board of of Education has issues to discuss in executive session as follows, to confer with the school district's attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice pursuant to CRS section 24 dash six dash 4 0 2
B, small B on the following, specific legal issues or questions, the board's authority, obligations and remedies under the Chavez HTA K through 12 Preparatory Academy Charter School contract. The Colorado Charter Schools Act State Board of Education Rules, the Colorado Nonprofit Corporation's Code and Colorado Court precedent to oversee, finalize, and enforce the district's winding up of the affairs of the closeout protocol concerning the former Chavez,
worked at K through 12 Preparatory Academy, CHPA to ensure that CHPA meets its financial legal distribution and reporting obligations. Do I have a motion to go into executive session for the previously stated purposes? So moved. It is moved by Director Farrell that we, uh, proceed into executive session pursuant to, um, what I have stated. Is there a second to the motion? Second. Second by, uh, director Mayes. Is there any discussion on the matter? Uh, comments?
We will need a two thirds vote of our quorum to then move into and convene into executive session. Any discussion? Hearing, no discussion will ask the secretary to call the role Director Farrell Aye. Director Barr Aye. Director Mayes Aye. Director Pen Nuncio. Aye. Director Tepo Aye. With five aye votes and No. No votes. The two thirds requirement has been met of the quorum present and we will now, um, resolve ourselves into, um, the executive session. And joining us will be all board members,
our superintendent, uh, Dr. Barbara Kimsey, um, the attorney for the district. Um, Richard Bump, and I also believe our Chief financial officer will be joining us as well. Lana Nims. Okay. Anyone else? Those will be the individuals that will, um, be in the executive session. So we'll, um, recess or adjourn into executive session and we'll be reconvening here in open session once we're completed with that. Is there anything else we need to announce? Alright, thank you. We'll be right back then.
Thank you all for your patience. Um, the District 60 Board has, uh, adjourned its executive session. We're now reconvening our work session special meeting at, uh, 2:43 PM on February 10th, 2026. And we'll now, uh, move through our agenda. And the first item, uh, on our agenda as a reconvene board is the Pple Pledge of Allegiance. Will you please stand and we'll join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America And two Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, now we're moving on to corrections and modifications to our agenda. Does the superintendent or any board member have any suggested corrections or modifications to our agenda at this time? Seeing none. Uh, we'll move on to the next item, which is the adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Move by Director Mays. Second.
Second. Second by director. Uh, pen Nuncio. Um, thank you. Is there any discussion on the adoption of the agenda? Hearing none will ask the secretary to call the role Director. Faroh aye. Directory Barr. Aye. Director Mays Aye. Director Pen Nuncio. Aye. Director Tebow Aye. With, uh, five votes with five I votes and no, no votes. Um, the adoption, the agenda is adopted as, um, presented in our board materials and as published. The next item, the next item on the agenda is our work
session, and the first item on that, uh, is the Hope Online Learning Academy co-op, uh, presentation. Um, so Dr. Kim Kimsey, do you have, um, guests here that would like to join us at the table for that presentation as well as your, um, team? Thank you so much, president Tebow. Yes, we do. Uh, I'd like to introduce Ms. Omar, uh, from Hope, uh, online along with her team. I'll let her do introductions and at this time we will turn it over to her for a short presentation
and then the opportunity for the board, uh, to ask any questions. That's great. You've got the microphones operational and everything. I hope so. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm Heather O'Mara. I am the CEO and Founder of Hope, and I'm going to ask Kristen and Selena each introduce themselves. Good afternoon. I am Kristen Holmes, a proud product of District 60, myself. And, uh, please just work with Hope as the executive Director of Curriculum and instruction. Thank You. My name is Selena aka and I am director of site support and I've been with Hope since 2006 and have been able to work here in Pueblo for 20 years now.
Alright. Thank you for joining us. And, um, why don't you give your presentation. Great, Thanks. And I'll try to be brief. So the first thing I'm going to do is just show you a video that describes hope in our history, probably more succinctly than I would do it. Oops. Hold the play button. Okay. At Hope Education is more than just learning. It's about finding your place, believing in yourself, and building a future full of possibilities. Hope started in 2004 with a mission to serve students in the state of Colorado in a community supported environment and access to online education
and the support of amazing mentors and partners to help them in their journey. Hope is a nonprofit free public charter school of the Douglas County School District. Serving students around Colorado Hope has helped underserved populations since 2005, serving as a pioneer in providing individualized lessons paired with in-person support from experienced teachers and mentors. 93% of Hope students qualify as high risk by Colorado State standards. People Come to hope because they belong. They feel like they belong here, and they found a home. And once somebody feels like they belong someplace,
they can start to believe in themselves and believe what they can be. Once they believe in themselves, they can envision what they can Become. On average, more than 85% of students are involved in extracurricular sports and activities through Hope. Each school year. Special events like prom, athletics, field trips and clubs are uncommon among other online schools. I like hope because they took us to a whole mind. That's the cool part. I like hope because they always give us new activities and things to do here. Meet new people. Yeah, I like this, the hiking and the scenery.
My favorite part about it is meeting new people and of course the hike. And, uh, Yeah. Our students have two pathways towards graduation. With Core 24 students complete a diverse selection of core and elective courses, totaling 24 credits, equipping them with the essential skills to thrive in college and the workforce. Our Workforce readiness pathway is a great option for students who are significantly by behind in high school credits. Pope offers an alternative path to success by supporting them in demonstrating their competencies through the Work Keys National Career Readiness Certificate,
an industry recognized credential that certifies essential work skills. So at Hope, as you heard, our mission is at Hope. You belong. You believe and you become. And we have four academic pillars. We start with affiliation because we know students have to affiliate or belong, and then they'll attend. And once they begin attending school, they'll achieve. And once they start to achieve, they'll aspire and be able to do great things. Um, a lot of times people ask us about what our model is and how we provide core instruction and do we provide multilingual support? Do we provide emotional, um, ESS support? How do we provide, um, mental health support?
So if you have any more questions about that, I'm happy to address that. But we do provide a comprehensive education for all of our students, whether they're attend in-person or they attend remotely. Um, but our model from the beginning is community centered blended learning. And that means we have in-person sites where students attend daily. We have drop-in sites where students attend as needed, sometimes just once a month. And we have hybrid sites, which are, are pretty flexible depending on what those students' needs are. Um, with our community partners, um, we serve 1300 students from around Colorado, really, um, from Greeley to Pueblo and as far west as Grand Junction.
And we've been in Pueblo since actually the beginning, since 2005. Um, when we were founded in 2005, 2006, we had 1,589 students at 40 sites, and one of them was located here in Pueblo, serving just 15 students back then. And in 2008, we entered into our first agreement to decline MOU. Um, and that included the requirement that Hope provide annual updates to the superintendent, which we've done since 2008. That agreement to decline, MOU is renewed for five years periods, both in 20 11, 20 16, and 2021. The current agreement is expiring,
so we're here asking for another renewal. Um, with that, I'm going to ask Selena to talk about Alpha and Beta are two site learning sites here in Pueblo. So I've had the privilege of working with, um, many community partners here in Pueblo. And, um, we've been able to go anywhere from CSU Pueblo Trio program all the way through. We have, we work with the probation program, have a big old list of 'em that we do, and we provide, um, CIOs, derasa, we do Catholic charities, we have, um, workforce program, generations network program.
There's just a lot. And I think over the years, one of the biggest things that I have always tried to do is build those community partnerships through, um, whether it's with the schools, um, whether it's with the counselors, with the community advocates, um, with any of the department of, um, human services for kids who are in foster care. 'cause sometimes they bounce around from home to home and, um, excuse me. And just building that relationship with them to know that our kids can come to a site and they feel safe and it's a safe and nurturing environment for them. And we have mentors there. We have online teachers that can provide, um,
for the students in every subject. And so I think just having the, being able to have that certificate. I've had that certificate on my wall since 2008 when we originally got the MLU at D 60. And so, um, it's just been a privilege to be able to partner with D 60 all these years and be able to, um, still continue doing it. Thanks, Lina. And you'll see Alpha Learning Academy has 135 students in sixth to 12th grade. And if I do it the right way, sorry, I think it's upside Down. Oh, that doesn't help if I hold the remote upside down.
Sorry about that. And Beta Online has 114 students in grades nine through 12. The statistics about the demographics of our students that were in the video are about hope overall. Um, you'll see that the statistics here in Pueblo are very similar to Hope overall, notably, actually probably is at Alpha. 20% of our students at Alpha are ESS or special education students, And we are an A EC. Um, so we're an alternative education campus, which means more than 90% of our students qualify at one
of the high risk standards in the state of Colorado, both in 2025 and 2024. We received a performance rating on the A-E-C-S-P-F. The next slides are actually all about, um, very specific information to the Pueblo sites graduation rates as compared to Hope and some other state and local assessment data information that was specifically requested by Dr. Kimsey that I know she provided for you last week. Um, and we'd be happy to go over it or we happy to just open it to questions. I know your time is limited, which would you prefer?
Are there any questions to this point by any of the directors, director Ibarra? Not necessarily a question, but I do have a business relationship with learning sites for this charter. Therefore, I would like to recuse myself from voting or participating in any decision making processes. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, director Ibarra, uh, do any of the board members, um, wish to comment on that or can we consider, at least for the record, a consensus that, um, director Ibarra is faced with a conflict
of interest under our, our Rules of District 60, as well as perhaps statutory provisions, um, which would, which would not allow you to vote on anything that would come before us, or, um, influence a vote, participate in influencing a vote, if that's your understanding. Uh, are there any thoughts on the board Director Farrell, just for Clarification's sake, we're not taking action on this today, correct? That's correct. This Is an informational presentation. Right? I just wanna be sure
that there's a consensus on the board recognizing director of Barr's, um, conflict of interest Director Mays on, uh, I don't know what, if you go back a couple of slides, one more. That one, Uh, it it's, it's me. It's not you folks. I'm just confused by this because when I see the phrase agreement to decline, MOU, it almost seems like, what does that mean? Agreement to decline?
It's actually what is, what does that actually mean? Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Um, it's actually statutory language. So in the statute, and I might look at the attorney to help, um, it says that the, based on the MOU, that a school district could either enter into an MOU decline to an enter into an MOU or negotiated amended MOU. And back in 2008, um, when Hope entered into MOUs with probably about 15 different school districts, I don't remember the attorney, there was one attorney who decided that it was gonna be an agreement to decline MOU
that contained some standard terms that required us to share a lot of certain information about enrollment and making sure that the school district was clear. But what hope's role was the, where the learning site was located, but also make it clear in that agreement that in this example, Pueblo School District had no responsibility for the students that were enrolled. So that's where the phrase agreement to decline, MOU came out. I think currently we have standard MOUs with some school districts. We have amended MOUs and we have agreements to decline it. It's just probably, historically we've called it agreement
to decline, but it's an agreement. It's just different than the standard MOU. Does it mean we have no legal responsibility to you at all? Yes. Is that what it is? And, uh, I don't know. She pointed at you. I thought maybe you had said, The reason I pointed him is I probably shouldn't say that. You have no legal, my understanding of the agreement is that you have no legal responsibility. And there's some specific language in there that says that the students are the students and the oversight of hope are the responsibility of the Douglas County School District. I feel like it's my, it's, I'm it's okay for me to say that. It's Douglas County's responsibility.
It's probably your attorney's responsibility to say it creates no obligation for you. And I probably spoke too soon. Is our relationship the fact that these kids are in District 60 jurisdiction? Is that what what it amounts to? Yeah, the, what the statute says, and I'm not gonna remember the, I can tell you almost what page of the book. It's CRS 22 dash one 10, I think something like that. It says that it's the Online Education Act, and it says if we have a learning center, which is a defined term in statute, if we have a learning center that's located in the boundaries of a school district, we have to seek an MOU with that school district.
And so that's what, and that act was passed in 2007. So the first MOUs were entered into in 2008. Hope is the only online school in the state. And, you know, there's many multi-district online schools that actually has MOUs with the school districts in which we have sites to support our students. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions from any other board members to anyone? I have, you know, maybe a couple of clarifying questions from, uh, director Mays, um, as I read the statute, just to sort of make clear in my mind, um, we as a board could actually
engage in negotiations with you to enter into an MOU, which then sort of, um, says, and I'll be kind of, um, maybe lay terminology here, but which basically kind of says that, um, you know, we're kind of in partnership and we're working together toward, you know, a goal where what you are presenting to us today is a part of the statute that says we can decline to kinda do that. In other words, you're kind of going your way, we're going our way, but you're kind of allowed
to get into our jurisdiction. Is that sort of a fair kind of way to, to state this as far as you're concerned? I'm not sure, and I'm not, it's not that I'm not trying to answer. I think if we look, if I think about the amended MOUs that we've signed with school dis other school districts, it has language in there that continues to say those students are the responsibility of Douglas County because all of the performance and assessment results get rolled up into Douglas County School District mm-hmm. And not into Pueblo. So I'm not, I think the reason we're proposing an agreement
to decline MOU is because that's the agreement we've had for 18 years. I'm not opposed to, as we work together on this mm-hmm. We consider Pueblo 60 has been a partner since we started 20 years ago. Sure. We're happy to share any information and any pieces. So if, if changing the title of the agreement or changing different parts of that agreement to recognize that partnership, I'm, I'm happy to do that. It's, I was really, we're kind of looking at what that precedent was from the beginning. So if there's something in particular that you'd like to add that talks about what that partnership is
or what additional information you'd like us to share with you, I'm happy to do that. Yeah. It, it's kind of confusing to read that statute. Um, I've read it a couple of times and, and essentially, um, in the part that, um, I think is relevant to what you're presenting today, it's, uh, 22 dash 30.7 dash one 11 numerical. I'm gonna say one subparagraph, I it says, notwithstanding any provision of this section, which is the online section to the contrary, a school district
and a multi-district online school may mutually agree in writing to decline to enter into a memorandum of understanding. Right. And that's kind of where we are. That's where we, that's where we are. That's Where we are. And so then our job as a school board, the way I read the statute is to determine if what you're suggesting, whether it's been done in the past or not, whether you're suggesting today or what you're suggesting today under that law, says the school district must reasonably determine that the multi-district online school is contrary
to the best interests of the pupils parents community or school district to not enter into a memorandum of understanding. But it also seems to say, in my view of it, that, um, that kind of standard or criteria can be used to enter into the, um, the other kind of agreement to that, that you're asking us to enter into. So I'm, I'm interested in, in, in basically your testimony and your presentation, talking about the best interests of our pupils, our parents, our community, and our school district.
And I think that's what you, you've tried to do here today with your presentation. Um, but what if we don't approve this? What happens? There's, um, one, there's a, there was a standard MOU that was submitted that technically, according to law state statute became effective on January 25th. Um, so that's one statute. We have a standard MOU that's related to Alpha that's technically in place because of a 45 day deadline. That's not my intention. My intention is to create and continue the partnership and the relationship that we've had. So I guess my question would be, what information do you need?
Because the statute, and I I don't have it in front of me, so I'm gonna try to do it from my memory, I've worked on it for too many years, is that it's, the decision has to be that hope is contrary to the best interest of the pupil students and community. And I think if you look at the data that we can present about our graduation rates, our, um, local assessments and our state assessments, and frankly at a strategy session, we, you know, not a work session, but in public comment, we could be happy to produce many testimonies of students from the public area
who will talk about the impact and the positive impact that hope has made on their students. I don't believe hope is not never, it's never been my intentions for hope to be the largest, um, online school in the state of Colorado. We've stayed actually pretty flat in that, um, my goal is to be the best and provide the best option for students that we can serve the best way. And that's what we've tried, always tried to do. So I think if you asked me to present additional evidence that hope is actually in the best interest, and it's not contrary, that's what I would do. Well, I, I I think what you've tr what you've presented today is your attempt to do that.
If, if I'm not mistaken, It was a, I mean, frankly, it was a very first attempt. I, my understanding was that we were here to, that you had a lot of data and we were gonna answer any questions based on the data. I, when I saw the agenda yesterday and it said that we were going to do a presentation, I put it together pretty quickly. Um, if, if I had been aware that you wanted us to present a lot of data on, you know, from a community testimony perspective and things like that, we definitely would do that. We're prepared to do that on the 24th. So, aside from that, can you just summarize then, how many children in our district are involved
with your, your project? 249 students? 249 in grades six through 12 primarily. And I'm gonna do this off to head, I would bet 55 to 60 of those students are in grades 12 or 13 more than that. So it's approximately 35% are in grades 12 Through 13, right? Yes. And I think that's in your presentation. Yeah. I just didn't add those numbers up. So if, um, I mean, we all know that District 60 is a declining enrollment district. Um, so the students that you have
could theoretically be part of our district, uh, online program. Isn't that a fair statement? I think, I mean, I, it's, it's whatever the parents' choice is. I think they could be part of the D 60 online program. They could be part of any of the other online programs in the state. And we are the one other online program in the state, one program in the state that actually does seek agreements with D 60 and others. But yes, they could be part of D 60. Are these the same kind of agreements you have with the other districts that you, that you've presented here today? It's very sim it's similar. I'd have to go through, I mean, I think this is probably most similar.
If I think of Denver Public Schools Agreement, it's very similar to this. They call it an amended, MOU. There's some additional documentation that's included related to building safety certificates and things like that. Um, in Jeff Co Boulder and Mesa 51, we have just the standard MOU, which was submitted. I'm trying to do it from memory, sorry. Um, so it's, it's similar. I, and I think, I don't think there's anything that's much different. I'd have to go through the grid of all the different school districts in which we're located, But the agreements are the declining of the memorandum of
Understanding. I think the agreements are decline. We have with one other school district. Okay. But I think the other school districts, I know DPS, we have the amended MOU Brighton, we have an amended MOU is what they, or no, I'm sorry, I, I'd have to get back to you exactly. I I can, we have, the agreements are mixed, the line, it's mixed and I, the terms, I think any of the agreements, if you're in the amended MOU or the agreements to decline mm-hmm. That includes the obligation to do annual updates, which we've always provided about what the enrollment is and the students.
It also has some additional information about record sharing. Uh, I will, I provide annual updates to any, all of the school districts in which we have an agreement with. Oh, that's good. Regardless of that, because I think that's the right thing to do. So why are you asking for five years of, of which I know has been done in the past, but is it just because it's been done in the past or is there some rationale behind the five years? I think it creates some stability for students that are interested in enrolling. I think that given our longevity in the district, I think that that's something we've done. But I think it, the fir initial agreement was three years,
and that aligned with what the standard MOU time was. The additional agreements were five years. And I think that was done in concert with a lot of districts with the understanding that hope wasn't here to try to take all of the students. We weren't. It was really how we wanted to partner with districts, and it seemed to mm-hmm. Create a relationship. If you wanted to propose a three year agreement or shorter, I'd be happy to do that. There was one school district where we had a five year agreement, actually a one year agreement that had four year automatic renewals unless there was a notice term. Mm-hmm.
Okay. No, I'm, I'm just trying to explore this very odd statute. It's written in very odd terms. Um, it's almost approving a negative in a sense. Well, I think that's how the chart, I think the, not cont the agreements to decline is a strange word, but the contrary, not contrary to the best interests. That's actually was aligned to what the charter school statute said about denying, um, approving and denying charter school statutes. Is that where that, that's where that came from. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other questions by the board based on my questions or otherwise? Uh, director Farrell, I'm looking at the, um, I believe this is the data you sent to Dr.
Kimsey, and I'm just trying to understand this enrollment data, you have two columns there. One is labeled count and one is October. Is that like a current snapshot in time versus the October count? Or what's the difference in those two columns? It was, the difference in that is how many were included. I believe it's a difference of just a couple. Yeah. Is it by year? Is that last year and this year? Yes, this is, so the, the column that has the 213 total just going, it's just the way it was cut off. Yeah. So the, the first column that has, um, alpha at 108
was our 2020 4 25 school year enrollment. And the 114 is the 25 26. Um, and I believe Both of those are based on the October account for those years. Okay. Thank you. And then the, the then next side over, um, table would be what, where we, um, this is total, that includes students outside of District 60. Right. So that would be 70 as well as both sides serve, uh, students in the valley and surrounding areas. So that's why a little discrepancy.
So we wanted to really make it clear. Yeah. And, and I appreciate the, the difference in the, the reporting there, the students who re reside in D 60 and the total number of students. I was just confused on the count versus Sorry that, that got cut off. That helps. Thank you. PS unpredictable. Any other questions by the directors? Well, there's no other questions. We want to thank you for being here today and making this presentation. Um, it will be on a future, um, board agenda for action. We're just taking the information today in our work session. So for clarification, do you anticipate it will be on the agenda for the 24th meeting? Well, I'll be meeting with the superintendent. Okay.
To make that determination. Um, I don't know. There's a host of things we deal with, but, um, I imagine we'll get it done as soon as possible so that we all can move forward one way or the other. Sorry, That was what was on my calendar, so I just wanted to, if it's, I just, if it changes, I just wanna make sure I Know. Yeah, we'll let you know if it changes. Great. Okay. Anything else? Thank you very much. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Mm-hmm. Thank You all. Okay, so now we're gonna move to the next item, um, under our work session agenda. And that would be mid-year data report. Superintendent Kimsey. Um, why don't you introduce your team for that?
Absolutely. President Tebow and board directors, it is my pleasure to introduce, um, uh, Mr. Ted Johnson, assistant superintendent of, um, teaching and learning, and, um, part of his team, Ms. Ura, executive director of elementary education, Ms. IMEs, executive director of secondary education. They'll be presenting middle of the year data along with our very proud graduation data. Thank you for, um, coming and, uh, we'll let you proceed any way you wish. Just be aware that
we'll have some flexibility in this presentation. If any board member would like to just interrupt you with a question, please, um, don't take it that we're trying to cut you off. We're just clarifying things as we go along. So, Mr. Johnson, go ahead. Thank you. Um, and good afternoon, president Tebow, superintendent Kimsey and members of the board. Um, uh, earlier this year, we had the opportunity to share initial results from our beginning of the year baseline assessments using our newly adopted resources, which are all part of our updated assessment system,
and are designed to provide more actionable information for teachers and for school leaders. This afternoon, we'll be sharing an update with our middle of the year assessment results. Uh, so after a brief review of our assessment system, uh, each of our executive directors for elementary and secondary ed will share data regarding how our students performed. And then at the conclusion of our presentation, we'll share how we are using this information to support teaching and learning throughout our district. So, just as a reminder, uh, assessments, uh, and the results that they provide serve multiple purposes
across our organization and are used by different stakeholders in different ways. Most importantly, assessment results inform instructional decision making and allow us to make appropriate adjustments to the teaching and learning process at the classroom and school level. This may include reteaching a concept that students struggle with or providing targeted small group instruction aligned to specific student needs. At the district level assessment data may prompt adjustments to curriculum scope and sequence to address common areas of challenge or guide the selection of additional instructional strategies
or materials to support teachers in ensuring student mastery. Additionally, these results help us to identify where additional resources and supports may be needed to better support, uh, schools and improve student outcomes. Uh, we've shared this chart with the board before, and it highlights the various assessment tools used at each level of our assessment system along with their intended purpose. Each column represents a different way assessment data is used to support teaching and learning. So in that first, uh, kind of column is the screener assessments, and these are administered three times a year.
They provide baseline data at the beginning of the year and allow us to measure student growth over time as students, uh, take the middle and end of year benchmarks, um, throughout the year. Um, now that we are in our middle of the year assessments, you'll be able to see some of that growth data today that we weren't able to share with you back in October. Uh, diagnostic assessments, which is the next column, help us to better understand student strengths and areas of need. These assessments provide detailed information at the individual student level, and can also be analyzed at the classroom,
school and district levels. You'll note that dibels, uh, is one of our assessments, and it also fulfills requirements of the READ Act. The fourth type of assessment listed there are our benchmark assessments, and these are administered quarterly. These are aligned to our scope and sequence and indicate whether students are meeting the rigor of the standards taught within each quarter. The quarterly benchmark assessments, or qba, as we call them, are administered in key content areas each quarter, um, and they're developed by our teaching and learning team. And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about those
and their results with you. So you can see in this chart, it shows which grade levels participate in each quarterly content area benchmark. Um, these are aligned to the scope and sequence for each grade level and content, and provide regular and check-ins on student learning, which can give teachers and leaders timely information to adjust instruction as standards are taught throughout the year. Uh, in your board materials, you have kind of a one page document that outlines the percentage of students at mastery at each grade level, and content for those, um, for those subjects.
Um, mastery is those, is the percentage of those students that have achieved a score of 70% or higher, um, in ELA Math, science and social studies, um, during the first and second quarter. One thing I do wanna point out is that different standards are taught at different times throughout the year. And so this is not a major, um, like unlike some of our other assessments that we can use for growth, it's really about how did the students do on those standards in that quarter. The other thing I'd just like to mention about our qba is
that, um, we haven't administered state assessments like CMAs or PSAT this year, so we don't really have a way to say this correlates to that at this point. We'll need to get some, some stated data assessment data, um, before we can do that. Um, but what we, what I would say is that what we are seeing in the results, um, kind of eyeballing it looks pretty similar to what we've seen on some of our previous state assessments. So we feel pretty good about, uh, about the alignment in terms of, of what those results mean. Um, when looking at our data for the second quarter, um,
we can see a, a few things here. Um, for example, uh, on the second page, if we look at our middle school data for second quarter, particularly at our seventh and eighth grade level, um, we're seeing mastery, um, really low. Uh, students, um, in general in ELA and math are in the 10%, uh, of, of the students showing mastery or less than that. Um, the, the struggles with middle school are nothing new. Um, this has been a, and remains a concern and a challenge for us. Um, and so it's something that we, we continue to,
to look at and we'll talk about some of the things that we're doing, um, towards the end of the presentation. Um, the page that you have shows just the overall mastery of students. Um, but our school principals and teachers, they can dig into the data much more deeply. Um, they can look at an individual class or even an individual student result. They can even do an item analysis, look at the questions, look at how students are answering those questions, and pinpoint precisely where students may have had success, where they may be struggling, or even where they might have a misconception in relation
to a standard that was taught. Um, after we administered this, uh, in the first quarter back in October, we, uh, developed and introduced to our principals a data review protocol, um, that supported conversations that they had with teachers where they could really focus on those standards, um, those key standards and identify those high impact reteaching opportunities. So what are those, those power standards that we really want kids to master? And what opportunities could they design to reintroduce or reteach those to students? Uh, as we've built out these quarterly benchmark
assessments, um, we continue to refine them based on feedback from teachers and leaders. Uh, we do a survey after each assessment to get feedback on how it went, uh, if there were any issues or questions or concerns. Uh, after the first quarter, we also had focus groups. So we had about four or five groups come in and talk to us about the assessments and what they liked, what they didn't like, what adjustments we needed to, um, make to that. Um, that could be overall, uh, feedback on the assessments. It could be related to a specific, uh, example, uh,
or a specific question. And so our team really remains committed to supporting, um, the development of quarterly benchmark assessments as we go, um, utilizing that feedback. And, and we believe that as these kind of become more common and more, uh, in place with, uh, our staff and more familiar to our staff, um, they'll support educators further, um, in helping students to meet the rigor of the standards on the assessment. So this might be a good poit to see if you have questions about the qba. Um, before I turn it over to Ms. Ura, any
questions up to this point? No questions. Okay. Well, with that, I'm happy to, uh, introduce Ms. Kim ura, who will walk you through some of our elementary results. Okay. Well thank you and good afternoon. Um, I will be presenting the middle of the year data update for our elementary grades On this slide. These are the mid-year DIBELS data in grades three through kindergarten through third, and dibels, as we mentioned at the beginning of the year, is our dynamic indicator of basic early litter literacy skills.
It's our primary tool that we use to assess foundational reading skills. And this assessment is administered three times a year, beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year. The data before you represents composite scores, which is a combination of subsets for each grade level during the middle of the year. Our kindergarten students are assessed on letter naming, phonemic awareness decoding, and nonsense word fluency. While in first grade, the focus is on decoding, which involves nonsense word fluency and word reading fluency
and early oral reading fluency with comprehension. For second grade, it is oral reading, fluency with comprehension and third grade oral reading fluency with comprehension. I'm going to notate the colors that you see before you. These colors are the over overall students reading proficiency and risk level status. And the risk level status. They are identified by the following, the blue indicates above benchmark, and that indicates a very low risk of reading, um, failure.
Typically, 90 to 90, 90% of our students are able to meet their reading goals if they're in the blue, so to speak. The green is at benchmark, which indicates a low risk or an 80 to 90% chance of reading difficulty. The yellow indicates below benchmark or strategic, also indicating some risk, which is 40 to 60% of not meeting future goals. The intensive, which would be the red that you see, is
where we see the, the urgency with reading failure. So students in that intensive color, those are the students that we, we really need to give attention to as our kindergarten data shows. The most growth has been with our kindergarten team. If you see beginning of the year where it says BOY to MOY, you see the re reduction in percentage of intensive students. So the reds are decreasing and an increase in the percentage of at
or above benchmark, meaning the blues and greens are increasing. That's the traject trajectory we want to see, uh, throughout midyear. And then at the end of the year, we hope to continue that trajectory. While at the kindergarten level, we see the most success in the development of the foundational early literacy skills. The same cannot be said for our grades first through third. This date, data, as you see, is very flat. Again, looking at beginning of the year to midyear, uh, this is indicating that we are not seeing the expected growth in those
foundational literacy skills during this critical window. Again, the critical window being teaching students how to read because once they hit fourth grade, fifth grade, they are transitioning into reading to learn. Um, and so the students without that strong literacy foundation will continue to face barriers throughout their literacy development. Any questions on dibel? Questions from the board? No questions. Okay. Our next slide brings us to elementary, uh, reading with a star assessment.
So we use a star assessment to monitor student progress three times a year, again, beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year. And at the elementary level, the star reading is administered for our fourth through fifth grade students. The graph on the right compares proficiency at the beginning of the year, which is shown in, um, sorry. The graph to the left shows the beginning of the year, which is blue to the middle of the year, which is the orange. That's the proficiency. The graph on the right shows
students performing above or at grade level, um, in the, For both grade levels. So again, I'm gonna direct you to the proficiency. Let me re revisit that. The proficiency level with the blue is the beginning of the year. Then it increases to the, uh, orange, which is middle of the year. Again, that trajectory is where we want to see that beginning of the year, middle of the year. And then end of the year, we would hope to continue to see that improving. Um, we do, we don't see some improvements, um, as the rate is still at a low end,
28% is what our fourth graders are showing. As you see, uh, the orange, although the trajectory is increased, it is still at a very low proficiency. Um, with our fourth grader truly being our targeted group at this time, that that is a group that we are aware of that is a, a priority group. The second graph, which is the graph to the right, the green shows student growth using student growth percentiles. The percentiles is, which compare students to peers who began the year in the similar achievement levels.
So as you see for fourth grade, that percentage is around 50%. And to make one year's worth of growth, students need to make that 50% in addition to that gap that they started with. So about half of our fourth and fifth grade students look like they are on track to make one year worth of growth in reading. Our next, uh, slide is our star math, and just as in reading, we use star math to monitor student progress from
kindergarten through fifth grade. You may notice that kindergarten does not appear on the graph of proficiency because kindergarten is not, uh, proficiency normed in the state of Colorado. However, as a district, we are still able to track student growth in kindergarten, um, throughout the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Overall, elementary math proficiency remains an area of concern across the district, again, with fourth grade as an identified, uh, focus. So again, we were looking at the graphs to the left,
the orange and blue. Okay, any questions on our star data for math or reading Questions? There are no questions, so. Okay, proceed. Now I will turn it over to Ms. IMEs who will share our middle school data. Thank you. Thank you, and good afternoon. Um, on these next couple of slides, I'll provide an update for secondary, uh, uh, level middle of year data. Uh, flip the slide. Do you wanna flip the slide? Oh, there we go. Okay. Our, um, secondary uses star reading to monitor and track progress, similar to the elementary school, um,
and grade six through nine. As with elementary school, the graph on the left with the blue and the orange columns shows the beginning of the year and middle of year proficiency rates. Beginning of year is shown in blue and middle of year in orange. As you can see in the graph, our reading proficiency at the secondary level shows a decline, um, and the number of students demonstrating proficiency from beginning of the year to the middle of the year. Our students' growth percentile show showed, shown on the right side of the slide in the green, um, also shows less than an ideal growth data.
Um, remember that 50th percentile is, uh, demonstrates one year growth. Um, and this would be the minimum of what we're looking for. Our middle school uses IXL to track student progress in math. This includes topics ranging from numerical expression and ratios to pre-algebra, algebra readiness, and geometry fundamentals. This middle of year assessment gives us an indication of how students will perform on summative state assessments later this spring. Looking at the chart, the area in the dark green represents percentages of students who are above grade level.
Um, light green is on grade level and yellow is below grade level, and red is far below grade level. As you can see, middle school math continues to remain one of our district's area of challenge. Currently, our analysis indicates that there are a significant number of students at each grade level that are struggling with a variety of math concepts. These include geometry, expressions, equations, and statistics and probability, just to name a few. EDA is a new assessment and instructional tool currently being implemented at the high school level. EDA is aligned to algebra one, algebra two,
and geometry courses, allowing educators to monitor individual student progress by standard. With alignment to PSAT and SAT practice from a district perspective, we're still determining which reports best support, um, district level data analysis. However, from a classroom and teacher perspective, EDA has proven to be a valuable tool for tool for tracking, uh, student progress. As implementation continues, we are recognizing the potential need for an additional tool to monitor student growth longitudinally.
Um, we are encouraged by early results. However, uh, district wide proficiency in these specific math courses has increased by approximately seven to 9% since the beginning of the school year. For example, if proficiency was 40% at the beginning of the year, it would now be approximately 47 to 49% in classrooms implementing EDA with high fidelity proficiency gains are closer to 17%. Additionally, classrooms implementing EDA with high fidelity saw a higher level of mastery on the quarter
two benchmark assessments. Um, I'm now gonna turn it back over to Mr. Johnson to talk about some of the support that we're providing for our students, um, and our schools who are, um, who are, um, showing some gaps in learning. Can we first see if there's any questions from the board? None. So go ahead. I apologize. I'm not sure why that formatted so tiny for you, but I'm gonna tell you what's on that slide so I, you can, can, uh, see that. Um, and I do wanna apologize. I think we may have gotten our signals crossed, so we don't have real detailed data on our graduation rates, um, for this presentation,
but we'll be happy to bring that forward to you. Um, I do believe in some of the, the data we shared in the previous presentation. You'll see, um, our overall graduation rate for the district is up around 88.9%, which is a significant increase. Um, but we certainly would love to, to give you, um, more information about those and, and specific to, um, to schools and that kind of thing. So we'll be sure to bring that that forward. Um, so as we shared, when we looked at data back at the beginning of the year, um, what we hit seeing was kind of that trend of, of things being flat, really not changing
or moving, um, uh, very much. Um, but just as schools analyze their data and plan for adjustments to instruction, um, our team is also hard at work developing and implementing strategies to support our educators. Uh, in addition to the data analysis protocol I mentioned, uh, earlier in the presentation, there's a number of other strategies and things we've been doing. Uh, so for example, in December, uh, we took an advantage of an opportunity called Fearless Coaching, um, that was designed primarily for our stream, uh, magnet schools, uh, coaches and administrators,
but they had several spaces available. So we were able to include, um, many other coaches and district administrators, or I'm sorry, school administrators from throughout the district to participate. Um, that fearless coaching, uh, approach, it provides guidance to coaches and principals on how to more effectively engage in the coaching process. Um, how to have those reflective conversations, um, based on observation of teachers and, and the practices and strategies they're, they're trying. And so we, we were excited to share that with them. Um, Ms. Kura shared the DIBELS data
and seeing some of the, um, the, uh, lack of movement at the midyear benchmark for our, our first, second, and third graders. Um, so they, they immediately adjusted, um, some of our January professional development to make sure that we were going over that data with teachers. And then really looking at our CKLA resource and identifying what are those activities and those strategies within the resource that are the most effective, that have the highest impact, and really trying to help our educators, um, narrow down the focus of some of that instruction to really concentrate on those, those, uh,
foundational skills. Um, our district cons, uh, content specialists in ELA and math, we don't have many, but they are also getting out to schools that we identified or prioritized for some support. Um, that's based on both our beginning and our midyear data. Uh, we also have opportunities to engage with our leaders during the year, um, through level, uh, specific meetings as well as through our, uh, PK 12 meetings. Um, and so, uh, during those meetings, our principals have an opportunity to learn more about program implementation, more about the strategies that they ought to be seeing in the classroom,
and kind of how to, to effectively, uh, see that and follow that. Um, we've been meeting during level meetings with our middle school leaders. Um, we're looking at potentially, um, uh, piloting a new, uh, instructional resource for math. Um, the, the resource we're looking at is one that, uh, uh, provides more opportunities for collaboration and, and, and engaging together as students develop that concept, uh, conceptual understanding. And so we think that might be something that really, um, helps with our, our math. Um, we're also getting prepared for our state assessments
that will come up in April. Uh, our teaching and learning team is, um, pushing out what we're calling focus guides for ELA and math. Um, they highlight the power standards that are gonna show up on those state assessments. And the guides are really designed not only to help, um, identify what those standards are, but also indicate where those are coming up in the resource, um, what those instructional activities that are high leverage can be, um, within that resource. And then we're also providing some additional guidance and support, um, that's tied to writing practice. We know a big part of the CMAs assessment
or those constructed responses. And so we're giving them some suggestions on how they can leverage, um, what they're reading in their, in their classes, um, and, and respond to that in writing. Uh, we also work with, uh, consultants. We work with two partner partner math consulting at the elementary level. They're doing a lot, uh, uh, with regard to strengthening, uh, our implementation of small group instruction. Um, and then at the middle level, they're also looking at just best practice implementation, um, in mathematics overall. Um, we continue to use attuned, uh, partners at, um,
at Pueblo Academy of Arts. Um, and many of our coaches from other middle schools go over and work with attuned and kind of look at that ELA instruction. Um, and then, then most recently, and lastly, what I'd like to share is that each of our, our school supervisors, um, have identified one or two sites that of, of the schools that we supervise. Um, and we're gonna be providing and have started to provide additional intensive support over the next several weeks. So we kind of identified a, a focus in the data, uh, talk to the leaders about that. And, um, uh, rather than kind of the interim site visits
where we, we talk about, well, we gotta do this and then move forward, we're saying, Hey, let's go over, let's roll up our sleeves with you. Let's plan something out and let's really get that solid and established, um, to try to make some movement, uh, there. Um, and that's based on, on what we're seeing in this mid-year data. Um, the, the implementation of this assessment system. It's new to us this year. We had used some other things, um, kind of during, we adopted, during COD and then moved into new, new tools. Um, it's a very challenging task. It's a, there's a lot of data, a lot of different reports and things to look at. Um, but it really does have the power
to transform instruction. Um, I talked about that assessment philosophy and the, and the most important part of the data is what our educators a, are able to do with it. How they're able to look at it and say, Hey, I'm noticing this, so I'm gonna change what I'm doing in my classroom, um, in my instruction to, to hit that. And so, um, we still cont continuing to figure out our, our previous assessment system I think was really good at looking at that district level lens. These are tools that are a little more complicated with that, but we'll continue to, to kind of figure out which, uh, reports and which data, uh, is the best to,
to kind of report out with. Um, but we're really excited to, for this, this work. Um, we like the collaborative nature of the qba. Um, and so, um, we'll be, we'll be back to report again towards the end of the year. Um, but I'd be happy, uh, as my team would to answer any questions that you may have. Any questions, uh, comments? The only thing I'll ask is if you could put the slide back on for, um, the benchmarks, the elementary quarterly benchmarks. I, I don't know where that was in your presentation. Uh, I have it as a, a separate, you just have the data.
Yeah, I have, I have the data here. This is the slide we used to, to Show, which, yeah, I think it's on that, on that sheet that you showed Uhhuh front and back Uhhuh. Um, so we've got it on our, um, You have a one pager? Yeah, we actually have it on our, uh, whatever you call it here that they give us on the computer. Oh, okay. So I'm looking at it and I'm, I'm trying to get sort of a, a mindset on sort of what, what overall are the trends here? Um, and what was interesting, uh, I noticed that, for example, um, on the elementary quarterly benchmark
for kindergarten, ELA and kindergarten math, those scores are just really good in quarter two, uh, on the percentage of mastery. I mean, there's a reason they're, they're hitting that hard. Yeah. Well, one of the things that we noticed too, it just, in, in full transparency when we did this, the thing we have to remember for the first quarter is that's the first time those little, little fellows and, and, and people had seen an assessment like this. And so, you know, they're, they're still learning to spell their name and tie their shoes and that kind of thing. And so, um, we did a couple things there based on the feedback we
heard in our focus groups. Um, one, we took out some of the technology enhanced items, which was, which required the manipulation of things. Um, there were some also some things where kids were having to move and scroll up and down with their screens that seemed, um, cumbersome. Um, and then we also offered in the second quarter, the, the chance to do a paper pencil version of the assessment. And so I, I would say yes, they are learning and, um, we are trying to make adjustments and be responsive to, to what we're hearing. Um, second grade's, another example, our ELA,
you see a big increase there. And, and the feedback we overwhelmingly got was just that, that that first round of assessments was, was maybe tougher than even the third grade assessment. So, um, we had to make some adjustments and, and we'll continue to do that. Well, what I, I'm sorry. Um, I'll, I'll yield to Superintendent Kimsey on this. No, go ahead. Well, I just wanted to, to say that, um, it's pretty impressive to me. It tells me that these youngsters are, they, they know how to learn. They know how to, um, perceive, um, whether the sensation is with their hands or their eyes
or their ears or whatever. They just are very teachable, it seems to me. And then along the way, um, our kids grow up and it's just more difficult when you get into middle school and, you know, there has to be some interest in high school and so on. So, but I mean, to me, this is really, um, exciting information that our youngsters at the very early age, just right out of, right out of preschool, all, all that's making a difference. And if we could just keep, you know, working on that, um, I, I think it's just impressive. I really appreciate the, the, the data that you've provided.
Dr. Kimsey, please, Just a quick note. I, I, and I know Mr. Johnson has shared this, the team has shared this, but as a reminder, this is the first year for a comprehensive district-wide assessment system. So all of it has to be taken in context and in the vernacular with a grain of salt, uh, because we haven't established that baseline yet. This is the baseline year for this. Um, and these are new assessments. And with that come hiccups and all the things that, that come with new, um,
and our teachers have done an amazing job of doing what they can to implement this. The other thing I wanna point out is, while the star IXL, um, dibels, those are, um, assessments meant to show, you know, whether students are growing, whether they're mastering, um, you know, at grade level air, um, criteria, the benchmark assessments are referenced according to what kids have been taught, right?
So you can't really compare how a kid does in quarter one to quarter two, quarter three, quarter four. They are not, um, they are not, what's the word I'm looking for? Uh, Yeah, they're, they're not, um, comprehensive or Cumulative. Yeah, they're not cumulative. Thank you. Yeah. You might see some Standards In one and others In three. So, so, so just remembering that too. And again, these are built by our own team. Um, and there are still some hiccups there. Like that's why the focus groups after every administration, um,
because we're looking at our scope and sequence, our alignment, alignment to standards. So again, it's a baseline year. Um, and I just wanna commend the team for the hard work. This has been a very heavy lift, and Ms. Den back there has worked so hard on all of this as well. Um, so thank you to her and thank you to all of our teachers and principals and assistant principals. 'cause it really is a heavy, heavy lift, and they're doing their absolute best, uh, this first year
to, to implement this and then to learn how to use the data to drive the every single day instruction. Thank you for letting me speak. Oh, perfect. That was well said. Thank you. Any discussion or questions from the board? I think you've, you, you're winding down your, your presentation. So we thank you so much for being here and all your work. Um, and we'll just move on to the next item on the agenda. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Uh, and that next item on the agenda is a proposed exten discussion. I guess it's an informational item, proposed extension of 2023, uh,
2026 Pueblo District number 60, strategic plan. So Superintendent Kimsey, uh, the floor is yours. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to introduce Mr. Dero, our assistant superintendent of human resources that's going to discuss this. Um, as we know, our strategic plan should end this spring. Um, however, with right sizing and all of the community engagement and the things that go with that, we are respectfully requesting that the board consider just a one year extension, so that next year we can do
that robust community engagement for an update to the plan. So, my honor, to introduce Mr. Dero. Thanks, superintendent Kimsey, uh, president Tebow, members of the board. Um, as Dr. Kimsey stated, um, we are looking at a strategic plan, um, extension into next school year. Just for the one, it's my pleasure to present to you an update to our strategic plan. Uh, due to the current initiatives we are undertaking as a district, we're seeking to extend our current strategic plan for one additional year until the conclusion of the 26 27 school year. A few of our key initiatives are listed here, including,
right, serving several new curriculum initiatives, new assessments, which you've just heard all about. Uh, a focus on standardizing and enhancing our MTSS or multi-tiered systems of support for, uh, systems across all of our schools. Our continued focus on literacy through our present powerful and empowered by reading campaign and the implementation of our new Panorama data analytics platform. This is just a reminder of our mission, vision, and core values contained in our strategic plan, which would continue through our extension. Next, I'm gonna briefly take you through our current strategic plan goals
and how our current new initiatives align to each one as we seek to extend the plan for an additional year Goal. One is a student is student academic success. Here are some highlights of things we have completed or are in the process of implementing. I'm not gonna read 'em all. Yes, we have those on our computer. So here are some of the highlights of initiatives, um, that would continue to the, into the proposed extension, including our new assessment system. Wait a minute, The slides are off. Um, I'll read you this slide.
Uh, provide equality instruction and educational programming that meets the academic needs of each student, including the new assessment system, new curriculum, right? Serving and MTSS focus. Goal two is a community engagement, and here are some of the highlights. This one is also incorrect, so I'm gonna read this one to you as well. Let me just share for some if, if technology could please look, whatever we're seeing is not what was uploaded, so if you guys could maybe help us problem solve. But yeah, Mr. Dero, just keep reading. I'm Just gonna keep going. We're In powder by reading. That's
right. So imagine with me, imagine we're going back to the old school that it's just, it's just words. Um, goal two is, goal two is the slide would say community engagement is to increase engagement and confidence of internal and external stakeholders via coherent communications plan, strong partnerships and transparency. Some of the things that we're working on currently would be communications focused on skills and dispositions of learners. Our Back to School Bash, which was our first annual this year, and we hope to continue with the future. And our superintendent's Student Advisory Council, which, uh, Dr.
Kimsey has just resurrected for Goal three. Um, safe and positive culture. Here are some of those highlights that we continue to work on, and I'm going to read the one that's not there. Um, as for us, our current initiatives for safe and positive culture would be to foster an environment that promotes a safe and positive culture that honors and exemplifies our district core values. Some of those initiatives we are currently implementing are our multi-tiered system of supports and be, of course, our present powerful and empowered by reading campaign for quality staff. Here are some of our highlights,
And here are the, here are the ones that's not there. Um, recruiting and retaining high quality staff through the implementation of our teacher degree apprentice pathway, which is a new this year. Um, continuing with our Benefits boost video series. And the big work for the next six months is gonna be our right sizing, right serving, I'm sorry, staff transition process as that we're beginning to work on now for Goal five, which is budget and sustainable funding. Here are some of those highlights as well. And the one that should read next would be to prepare and submit a balanced budget that supports the district mission and vision and allows for full
and implementation of the district's strategic plan. Um, one of the priorities is to review and publish our district's priorities, including right serving aligned to the district budget. And our request of the board, if you followed all that without those slides, is that we would approve this strategic plan one year extension from 25 to 2027 at the business meeting at later this month. So if you have any questions about any of those parts that I had to read, please feel free to ask. Super. Well, that was well done. Uh, director cio. Thank you, president Tebow.
I probably could kind of figure this out, but would you mind elaborating on when you talk about implementing the portrait of a graduate, exactly what that is? Um, do you want to take that one? Okay. So, so, um, we have a lot of, um, a lot of systems in our state and across the country develop what's called a, a portrait of a graduate, and it kind of identifies some of the skills and dispositions that, um, we think a graduate ought to have. And so, um, that was actually our executive director, um, Mr. Andy Burns that led that, uh, he convened a task force.
Um, and they spent, um, a great deal of time kind of brainstorming what some of those might be. Did a, a pretty large, um, survey of those kinds of things. Um, uh, sought consensus, met with principals, met with, um, uh, the district accountability committee, got all of their input, and then they developed this, this portrait of a, a graduate, um, I believe it's published on our website. Um, but it, it outlines kind of this is what we would like to see for someone when they, when they graduate our District. It was something the district created wasn't a
Yes. Something. Okay. Yeah. And it was completed, um, I think the year I was coming immediately prior to my arrival. Correct. And it's kind of a nationwide initiative. A lot of districts are doing that across the country. So Director Farrell, Thank you. And, and thank you for the presentation on this. Um, it, the, the district's doing a lot of ambitious things, which I appreciate. That's one of the reasons you're asking for this extension. Mm-hmm. Um, but a strategic plan in itself is ambitious.
Correct. Is it reasonable to go through that process next year? Do you, are you're only asking for one year extension? Correct. Would two years be better? Do we feel confident that we can do it next year? That's a great question. Uh, director Farrell, um, giving us two years would be wonderful. Um, 'cause truly the goals, um, and objectives in the plan, I don't see those truly changing. Um, however, I do feel like we wouldn't say we could do it next year if
we didn't feel like we could. Uh, I think we can. Um, and, and however, if the board really feels like, you know what, let's take a break. Let's, let's let it go too. I'm fine with going too as well. Thank you for that. I, I just know it's, it's a lot on top of the lot that we're already doing. Um, so that, that was my question. And I, I think I agree with you, Dr. Kimsey, that the work doesn't really change based on what the strategic plan is. Some of the, some of the, uh, methods might,
but our, our goal always remains the same. So, that, that was my question. Thank you. Any other questions? Her comments? Seeing none will, uh, adjourn that portion of our work session and we'll be taking this up for action, uh, in, in the future. Um, as I said before, the superintendent and I will meet on the agenda, determine, um, what that looks like for the next business meeting. So now we're on number four, second quarterly, fiscal year 20 25, 26 financial statement report.
Uh, superintendent Kimsey, Uh, thank you President Tebow. And I'm sorry for the more casual look now, but the heater is on overdrive. Um, so with that said, it's my distinct pleasure and honor to introduce Ms. Lana Hans, chief Financial Officer, who will present to you our quarter two financials. Good afternoon, president Tebow, Superintendent. Good afternoon, McKinsey. Members of the board, we get to go through the second quarter financial statements in this hot room. The first fund that we're going to look at is fund 10,
our general operating, and please understand, the beginning reserves are the audited reserves from the prior year since our audit is not done. These are, it's an old number. Okay. Um, we have unaudited revenues of 94 million plus, um, leading us to, uh, beginning unaudited reserves and revenues of 122 million plus, we have allocations to our charter school and transfers to the other funds that would be athletics and insurance. That leaves us to, um, a total reserve of 116 million.
And from that, we can subtract 146 million of expenditures that we know of as of today. And that leaves us with an unaudited ending reserve of negative 30 million. Not to worry, we have six more months to go. Um, also this Pueblo County had a oopie in their property tax system. Hmm. And we didn't receive the money for December until, um, last week. So it's not in the December finances, and it's really wasn't a lot, um,
because property taxes are not that high of a collection. Um, in the month of January or December, either one, it was 698,000 for, um, the general fund and 363,000 for capital projects. So, in the grand scheme of things, um, as reported here, we would still be upside down. We, any questions on fund 10? The, the, uh, property tax, the, the, uh, real estate property taxes that you're referring to, they're not due until, um, in total April 30th
or the first half, February 28th and the second half June t is that right? Well, in, in a, in a relatively, um, timely world, the problem is, is that people pay 'em all throughout the year. So, you know, yes, our biggest collection months are February and April into May. Um, we don't see it usually this early. Most of this is probably specific ownership tax, which also brings up other conversations Right. At some point. So, okay. Thank you. Okie dokie. Yes.
Any other questions on that? No other questions. Okay. Um, I know that the writing on this little, this little slide here is itty bitty. However, this is the, the, um, graph showing what is school-based instruction versus district to schools instruction and support custodial and other things that are not in the classroom. So the great big red pie is, um, our school-based instruction and support and maintenance at the school. So this is everything and everybody that's paid
at the school level and things that are paid for at the school level, but not necessarily by each school. Okay. So you can see that that's 76% of our budget is school based at this point in time with the district to schools, meaning from the district admin out to the schools is another 7.6%. Um, so there's a lot of money still being spent at the classroom site, which is appropriate. Um, I kind of like this screen or this, uh, graph. It's a little bit different than, uh, the ones
that we've previously looked at. Gives you a better perspective, I think, of what's going on. Does anybody have any questions on that? It's, it's really itty bitty. Um, sorry. Questions? No questions. No questions. Okay. Cool. Onto fund 17, which is our athletic fund. Um, beginning reserves 763,000 plus unaudited revenues at 516,000 plus leaves us with a unaudited reserve in revenue of 1.2 million. Uh, fund 10 is putting 1.3 million in.
And remember, that's the first six months of the year. So we have total reserves. And on unaudited revenues at 2.5 million, our current expenditures are 2.2 million, leaving us a ending fund reserve of 361,000. Okay. Yeah. Fund 18, which is our insurance fund. Um, you can see that there's no money. No, I'm kidding. Um, the revenues are $53. Um, the reason for that is fund 18 lives off of transfers from, um, our general fund.
Okay. So it's, it's really Okay. We actually have a total reserves and unaudited funding and transfers of $3.1 million. And right now our unaudited expenditures are 2.6, leaving us ending reserves of 545,000. Any questions on that? We will continue to transfer money in from fund 10. So that will actually raise the fund balance back up to where we think it's going to end up. There's no questions. No questions. Okie dokie. Fund, uh, 21, which is child nutrition.
Uh, once again, our beginning rev, uh, reserves are $10 million. Unaudited revenues of 4.3 leave gives us unaudited reserves and revenues of $14 million plus. And we have unaudited expenditures at 9.2, leaving us unaudited ending reserves of 5.1. Pretty straightforward. Any questions? No questions. Okay. Uh, grant funds, as you know, we always begin with zero. Um, and so we have no beginning reserves. Federal, state, and local incomes, you can see them
as projected, leaves us with the $15.9 million in income. We have $14.2 million, um, so far in expenditures, um, with right now are ending unaudited reserves is 1.7. Remember, it will always be, uh, adjusted to zero at the end of the year. Okay. Any questions on that? No. Fund 23 beginning reserves is 2.9 million. Unaudited revenues 1.2 totaling that, that's 4.1 million.
Currently, unaudited expenditures are 994,000, leaving us an unaudited ending reserve of 3.1 million. Remember, those are student raised funds, so it is what it is. Okay. Oopsie button. Pushing fund 27, um, is our education foundation. This is their second quarter. Uh, they start out with $232,000 in reserves. Currently, we have, uh, revenues of 52,000 beginning reserves and revenues of 285,000. We expect them to spend 52,000 with ending, uh,
audited reserves. I'm sorry, excuse me. Unaudited ending reserves of 232,000. Okay. Fund 31, which is our debt service. We have $18.7 million in the beginning reserve. Once again, the monies that come into here, um, are slow because this is all property tax. So right now our unaudited revenues are $1.9 million, leaving us with a beginning unaudited revenue. And, uh, reserves of 20.6 million. We have expended 13.7 million. That was our first bond payments. They happened in December.
Uh, leaving us with an unaudited ending reserve of 6.9. We will have another batch of, uh, bond payments that hit in June. Okay. And by then, we'll have property tax revenue. Um, the bond fund fund 41, um, we have beginning reserves of 10.4. Um, again, don't freak out. The revenues are small. This is almost all interest of 296,000, and we expect to spend 10.5 million, um, the remainder of this year, leaving us with a fund balance of 219,000.
And that's real. As we go on and we get closer to the end of June, those numbers will change. Um, because we know that Ron Collie, the budget has been increased and the expenditures are going to go past June. So different picture in fund 41. Got it. Okay. Fund 43 is capital projects. Beginning reserves are 32 million unaudited revenues of 1.2. Most of that is specific ownership tax. So we have a total of anted revenues and rev, sorry, anted reserves and revenues at 33.2 million.
We have spent 8.6 million, leaving us with an unaudited ending reserve of 24.6 million. Okay. Fund 64. Uh, we began with 2 million. We have unaudited revenues of 590,000. Most of that is truly transfers from fund 10, um, because we do fund the workers' comp, and that's part of this fund. Okay. Um, we have unaudited expenditures of 1.2 with an estimated un unaudited ending reserve of 1.4. And that's all. Folks. Any questions?
Any questions from the board? The only question I have is if, uh, we're able to meet with the Denver Broncos and get some of the $32 million that Russell Wilson's contract has expired. Can, can we do that and put it in our athletic fund? Uh, you think they're gonna share? I don't know. I think with your leadership they might. You're pretty persuasive. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. They would just laugh. Okay. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Thanks. Appreciate it. Okay. Now we're gonna move on to the next item on the work session. And that would be item number five, which is our, um,
school district 60 Pueblo School District 60 Rights serving plan update. Um, superintendent Kimsey. Thank you, uh, president Tebow and board directors. It's my honor and pleasure to introduce part of our cabinet team that's going to provide us with an update today. I want to emphasize that, um, implementation of our right serving, uh, plan and initiative is truly a collaborative effort. Uh, not just with the people you see in front of us, but with other members of our cabinet team.
Um, we actually met in retreat this past Thursday, uh, to begin hashing through some things. There were meetings prior to that. There have been meetings after that. This team is working super, super hard. It is a very, very heavy lift. Uh, and then for the teams that they represent. Um, and so I just wanna commend the team for their very hard work. I think we're on the wrong side. There we go. For their very hard work, uh, in implementation. So, with that said, I'd like to introduce our first speaker,
who is me, sorry. Uh, our implementation part of what we did in our retreat on Thursday was to determine our big buckets, if you will, for implementation planning, and assign team leads. So our action team as follows. So, for student family support, Mr. Johnson leads that team for staff support, of course, uh, Mr. Dero leads that team preschool, Ms. Ura Hyde Park, pre-collegiate, middle Ms. Es.
Uh, and that includes also the D 60 online move, uh, instructional programming, Mr. Shon, uh, ESS, Dr. Cevi, um, community Schools, Mr. Burns who, uh, can't be with us today. Um, communications, Mr. Sprouse, uh, budget, Ms. Hans, and of course, facilities Mr. Coulter. So with that, I will now turn it over, uh, to Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Dr. Kimsey. Um, so support for students
and families is the first step in implementing a right serving plan. Uh, we've been able to draw on some previous experience to design an approach to school mergers that prioritizes our students and our families. Um, and that process begins with a notification letter to families, um, that should go out in the next week or so. Um, it indicates to the students, um, their automatic new enrollment at, at their new, uh, new school, uh, for the coming year, along with some information, some general information about next steps. Um, this year, the letter's also going to include information about our, uh, school showcase,
our district school showcase that takes place, uh, on February 28th, as well as information about the new pre-collegiate Hyde Park Middle School. Um, we send the letter out, uh, it's two-sided in English and in Spanish, uh, so that, um, families can, can access that information. Uh, it also includes contact information, uh, for a number of folks. So if they have additional questions, they know who to follow up with. Um, the coordinators are ESS coordinators in the ESS department. Also conduct direct outreach, outreach to families at impacted schools.
So students with an IEP, uh, get contacted, um, to make sure their questions are answered, that their needs are addressed, um, as well. And then the, the emerging Schools form collaborative committees. Um, and these committees, uh, include, uh, staff from both schools and they meet to discuss the needs and interests of the students. Um, they plan for logistics and then they work on co co communication out, um, so that we have consistent messaging. Um, these committees also are tasked with organizing events for students as well as families
to take place during the fourth quarter. So typically, uh, we have opportunities for students to visit, um, their new schools as part of kind of like a field trip experience and, and do something, uh, special. Usually involves a lot of teamwork and collaboration. Um, and then, uh, the schools will also host, um, some family events so families can kind of get, get over, see the new school, meet the staff there, um, uh, and, and just kind of help, help, uh, go out of our way to make, uh, students and families feel welcome. Um, and then the last thing I would just like to share from,
from this perspective is we really have come to view the process of merging two schools, not just as an event that happens once or twice at the end of the year, but it is an ongoing process, uh, over the course of the following school year. And so, um, we'll commit to working with our schools to think about how, how that merger and that connection is going and what else we can do, um, so that there's lots of opportunities to, um, to, um, support those families moving into a new school site. Thanks, Mr. Johnson. Uh, here are some of the key items that we've been work begun work on related to staff support.
Uh, we've completed our preliminary staffing conversations for both our merging schools and for the rest of the schools in our district. Uh, we've also been meeting individually with principals for their annual probationary teacher meetings. And during those meetings, we've been offering them a chance to ask questions related to right sizing, as well as reminding them to assemble their school-based hiring committees for some of the process work that's gonna happen in the near future. Um, some of our next steps include meeting with staff direct of the directly affected schools to update them on the process where we are. At this point, we'll also then begin to staff our,
our merging schools first, followed by the rest of the district so that we can create places for our staff to transition to this year. We're also changing our annual hiring fair to more of an internal hiring fair to kind of support the transition process. And, um, what we really wanna focus on is really a customer service approach in this next few months to try to get our staff a soft place to land. In regards to our preschool, uh, planning. So far, we have been looking at detailing the logistics of the Bradford and Heritage sites, which will encompass staffing,
which will also include facilities. Um, using some of those resources as far as preschool site or rooms that have already been established at Bradford is going to make that a little bit easier. We've also been identifying licenses with where we can place preschool. That's usually a long process. We have to identify, uh, previous sites, and then we have to identify new sites in classrooms. So that process has already began to take place. Um, it involves, uh, fire department to come in.
Chris, uh, Coulter and his team have been out to measure rooms give those, uh, those, uh, statistics or those numbers into fire department and the state for licensure. So we've had a, a start on that. The other piece is identifying, um, the other additional sites throughout our district that will still hold preschool. So again, we're having the up to eight sites at Bradford as our hub up to five sites at Heritage, and then an additional eight schools we've identified, um,
that we will potentially have more preschools. So that'll be in addition. Um, another piece to that is the implementation of the facilities and playgrounds. As mentioned in a previous board meeting, we had funding that, um, aligns directly to improving playground areas. And if we like to say just improving the, the beautification of a preschool site or upgrading that site, we have monies to start doing that. But that all takes planning. And Darlene, Bermuda and her team, um, our early childhood specialists have been working on
what those ideas could look like. So we're starting to put out, um, not bids, but uh, quotes for playground equipment. And that has been something that, um, we're getting the ball rolling because all of that's gonna take time and we're, I feel like we're on a good path moving forward for our preschool. The staffing, it would be the last piece as doc. Uh, Mr. Dero mentioned the staffing of preschool, uh, certified e or not certified ECE classified teachers will be the next piece that we would work on with hr.
Um, opening the Hyde Park pre-collegiate middle school on Pueblo West side represents a significant milestone for our district, and I'm super excited about this. As we look towards our August launch, our focus is centered on three critical pillars. Um, academic alignment, operational synergy, and communication as facilities undertake the process of ensuring that the school is ready to be occupied. Um, our initial focus will be to work with the school and district leadership to finalize our pre-collegiate framework. Um, this includes identifying and securing staff
and resources and, uh, providing the professional development needed to open and operate a high functioning collegiate environment from the day. From day one. We'll also implement a plan for moving D 60 online to Hyde Park, um, campus, and ensuring the technology infrastructure is in place to support the needs of both schools. Um, and finally, communication to both neighborhoods and families in our community regarding the new pre-collegiate school is also essential to our success. This will ensure that our families fully understand the
unique benefits of the pre-collegiate model and the choice enrollment processes process as we move, uh, to establish Hyde Park, um, as a premier destination for middle school excellence in our community, we will be actively marketing the new Hyde Park pre-collegiate middle school, um, in a Variety of ways in the Next coming weeks. Alright, thank you Marcy. Um, I'm excited about this. So, from an instructional standpoint, uh, we're designing stream aligned project learning, project based learning models with clear expectations for teaching and learning.
And so some next steps, that means developing a shared vision and early PBL experiences for staff, followed by a sequence professional learning and coaching plan to build capacity, ensure consistent high quality instruction as we move toward launching. Uh, additionally, we will be working alongside building leadership teams to ensure that building structures and systems also support the instructional shift. As I shared, um, Mr. Burns can't be with us, so I'm gonna share about our community school's progress so far. Um, we have already begun work on the survey
development for, uh, needs assessment for each of the three, um, community services hubs. Um, we've begun collaboration, uh, with local nonprofits and health providers to identify potential partners. We continue to do that. In fact, I have a meeting tomorrow with one. Um, and then we are continuing to grow our partnership with CDE. As I had shared with the board, uh, Colorado Department of Education really believes this is a powerful tool for Pueblo to use
to increase our student achievement actually. So, um, and they approached us. So we are working on that partnership and potential grant funding from them, uh, that will supplement what we're, what we're already doing. Um, so we are, we're looking forward to being able to share more as this grows. Uh, but that's just kind of where we are with community schools. As you can probably imagine, the communications department will play a significant role in nearly every aspect of the right serving plan implementation. We're actively developing both internal and external communications to keep our staff, families
and community informed. Over the past two weeks, our team is focused on identifying advertising opportunities to promote our online and preschool offerings as well as Hyde Park. We're also supporting the upcoming school showcase through social media posts, graphic design, CTE, promotional reels, and the creation of a district-wide booklet highlighting the unique programs available at each of our campuses. In preparation for the reopening of Hyde Park, we researched the school's history and learned that its former mascot was at one time the stars. As a nod to this legacy, we're developing a new logo
to support the school during its relaunch. Once the school reopens, the school community will have the option to retain this logo or begin a new branding development process of their own. In addition, a dedicated website is being developed for the new middle school to showcase its strong pre-collegiate pathway and op and the opportunities available to our students. Okay. Everybody wants to know where the money is, right? Um, so we have been, uh, working with facilities, um, trying to establish what our budget is going to be. Um, we also did have a win the state inspector, uh,
approved of the electrical, uh, changes and whatever you call 'em, where they, uh, replaced everything that was vandalized. And so that was done, you know, on January 26th, I believe. And so it's ready to go. Now, it's just a matter of, we have to get all of the rest of the electrical looked at. So, and, you know, all the appropriate, um, electrical outlets and, and all the wires and jazz that they need. The HVAC is of utmost importance as well as the roof. And so we have numerous, uh, RFPs out already,
and they are due back on February 16th. So once we work through that process, they'll be ready to go. Um, we've also worked on the enrollment and staffing models, uh, using the cohort survival. Um, unfortunately that, uh, model always, um, decreases our enrollment. So we had to find a, a happy medium because currently, actually D 60 is up 800 kids from our October one count. So that, that's interesting. So we're still working on that,
but we are using the model to staff within reason, um, and working with HR. And, um, next year's enrollment is scheduled to be down 750. I'm gonna bet that we're not. And so I think, I think things are looking up. And that's it from, I guess, um, budget and facilities. We've got a lot of work to do. And of course I have to control Chris. No, I'm kidding. That's all I have. That's great. Any questions? Uh, director Mays, uh, Mr.
Hans again, uh, where are we getting the money from for these upgrades and everything? Out in the backyard? No, I'm kidding. Oh, yeah. Um, we have, we have revenues in capital projects. Besides that, we are also going to transfer money out of fund 10 this year into capital projects. You approve that as part of the amended budget process. Um, so that is a go. We also have funds remaining from the closure of the Colorado Preschool Program, um, which can only be used exclusively for
FFF and e for preschool. So furniture, fixtures, equipment, all that kind of jazz. Um, so the new preschool centers will be, um, buffed and puffed and be really cute and all that jazz. So that's where the money comes from. Any other questions? Any discussion or comments? I, one thing, uh, Dr. Kimsey, Very quickly, 'cause I know it's hot in here, um, I do wanna let the board know postcards will be going out to the entire county, um, shortly, uh,
advertising our showcase. That's on February 28th. And of course we encourage the board to stop by if you would like to do that. I know we're all very busy people on Saturdays, but we would love to see you there at PCC. Um, so our communications team is doing a good job of a comprehensive marketing strategy for everything we've got moving forward. In addition, some of that staffing conversation with the leadership team has been around the recommendations that we're, we are providing to the board later today for,
uh, administrators. Okay. Well done. Um, thank you all very much. I just have one question. What high school students are those on the screen? Where did they go to high school? Yeah. Yeah. 40 years ago. It looks great. Good job team. Thank you so much. We'll move on now to the action items on our agenda. The action item that is first is the administrative leadership appointment and reassignments. And, um, before we have a motion with respect to this, uh, I'm just gonna recognize Superintendent Kimsey to sort
of go over it and then we can deal with the motion. Um, it's somewhat out of order, but I think that's the better approach. Uh, superintendent Kimsey. Thank you President Tebow and directors, uh, it's my honor and pleasure to present to you, uh, these leadership, uh, reassignments and appointments, uh, for your consideration. Um, and of course, normally they would be here, but guess what? It's a school day. So, uh, first one would be Mr. Jonathan Den, who is currently the principal at Beah Heights
Elementary, becoming our administrator on special assignment for community schools. Second would be Ms. Michelle Padilla, who is currently the proud principal at Bradford Elementary, becoming the administrator on special assignment for preschool. Next we have Ms. Gar Angela Garcia, the proud principal at Bessemer Academy, uh, then being reassigned to become the administrator on special assignment for D 60 online. And finally, we are recommending Ms. Stephanie, mark, who is currently the principal at D 60
online, become the principal at Hyde Park Pre-Collegiate Middle School. We are recommending those to the board for consideration. And if I understand correctly, they're all effective August 3rd, 2026. Correct. Is there a motion, um, by any member of the board to approve the superintendent's recommendation for administrative appointments and reassignments as presented on our board materials? Uh, director Mays, uh, I would so move that and, and I would, uh, like to just state, uh,
that the individuals that have been presented to us have been, uh, very valuable and productive, uh, folks that have been dedicated to District 60 for an extended period of time. And I think, uh, relying on their expertise and their love for kids and everything that I think this, uh, transition is, is going to be very, very seamless. And I, uh, appreciate the opportunity, Dr. Kimsey, to be able to, uh, recommend that these folks, uh,
be, uh, assigned as you've found necessary. Is there a second? Second, second by, uh, director Farrell? Is there any further discussion or, um, comments by any board member? Hearing none will ask the secretary to call the role on the, the motion Director Farrell aye. Director Barr Aye. Director Mayes aye. Director Peno Aye. Director Tebow. Aye. That motion passes by five ayes and no nos and, uh, is declared adopted. Next we're gonna move on to item two on the action, uh, agenda.
And this is a 2020 5 26 corrected appropriations resolution and corresponding corrected resolution authorizing the use of a portion of the beginning fund balance. Um, I guess Dr. Kimsey, I'll turn it over to you so you can have your team report on this and then we'll see where the board goes with it. Uh, thank you President Tebow. Um, I will defer to Ms. Hans, um, for just some very brief background. Well, to begin with, um, the corrected appropriations resolution, um, if I don't have it in front of me,
unfortunately, um, there was a, a mathematical error, um, where thank you, where the ending amount didn't, didn't tie to, um, the details by $200,000. So somewhere in there, my fat finger, even though I had this done in Excel when I trans translated it to the document, guess what? So I had to change that. The numbers are fine. Nothing changed as far as the appropriations by fund. It is just that there was a, a math error
on the appropriations resolution. Just so you know, Mr. Bump and I, neither one of 'em could use a ca a calculator. We got a different number every time we did it, so, Okay. Anyway. And with respect to the correct resolution authorizing the use of the beginning fund balance, Mm. Well, unfortunately, as you remember, I did decreased the mill, uh, levy for, um, the bond funds, which in effect caused us to need to use beginning fund balance in, in paying the debt for the current year.
So that hasn't happened ever. Um, not that that's an excuse, but I didn't include it in the appropriations, uh, the use of beginning fund balance. So, Very good. Um, is there a motion by the board to adopt the, the fiscal year 20 25, 26 corrected appropriations resolution and the corresponding corrected resolution authorizing the use of a portion of beginning fund balance as presented in our board materials today? So moved by, uh, director Mays. Is there a second? Second.
Second by Director Farrell. Is there any discussion or amendments with respect to this motion? Hearing none will have our secretary call the role Director Farrell aye. Director Ibarra Aye. Director Mayes. Aye. Director Peno. Director Tibo Aye. Aye. With five votes with five I votes and no, no votes. Um, that motion is adopted or is passed and declared adopted. The next item on our agenda is adjournment. Is there a motion for us to adjourn? Seeing that there's no other business? So moved. Moved by Director Farrell. Is there a second?
Second by Director Mays. Any discussion? Hearing none Will have the secretary Call the role Director Farrell Aye. Directory Barra Aye. Director Mays Aye. Director Pen Nuncio. Aye. Director Tebow. Aye. We stand adjourned.