All right. Good evening everyone, and welcome to the June 24th, 2025 meeting of the D 60 Board of Education. I would now like to call the meeting to order. The time is 6:00 PM Ms. Patron, would you please call the role Mr. Cisneros? Here. Dr. De Niro? Here, judge May. Here. Mrs. Peno? Here. Mr. Kibo here, if you would please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, I pledge allegiance to provide of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Before we adopt the agenda, does Superintendent Kimsey or a board member have any recommendations for modifications or corrections to the agenda at this time? Director Cisneros? Yes. Thank you. Um, yeah, I have, uh, an amendment to the agenda. I'd like to propose a motion, um, at this time I move to amend the agenda to move the item concerning, uh, item two under corrections and modification, or item two under citizens, uh, statements to move, uh, the issue concerning, uh,
political charter school application from the citizen statement section to the action items section. So that, um, so that the board may consider and act on a request to waive the statutory charter school application timeline in accordance with CRS 22 dash 30.5 dash 1 0 7. And thank you, Director CNOs, if I'm clear, are you asking to move the whole, uh, citizen statement to there, or are you asking to have an action item with that?
I Just to simply make that an action item for discussion so that the board has the option to take action. Okay. Um, like I said to, to waive the statutory, uh, timeline tonight if they, if we choose to do so. So, Okay. So Director Cisneros, uh, would like to add, uh, an action item regarding the charter school to the action or add the charter school an action item to the charter school section, uh, um, on the agenda. So I guess I need a mo, I need a motion now.
Yes. Okay. May I have a second? Um, I'll second it for discussion purposes. Is there any discussion? Alright, Would you, oh, I'm sorry. Director Tebow. Well, this is a complicated, um, situation for me because first of all, in our policies, there is not a distinction between citizen statements and public comments. And so I don't know how that, how that ever got, um, I'm confused.
But if you look at the, um, policy BEDB, it tells us what our agenda format is. And item number six is citizen statements. But there is never, and has never been, according to this particular policy that was revised in December, December 19th, 2013, there's never been an item for public comment. But when you read another policy, which is, um, policy BEDH, it speaks in terms of allowing the public to participate
during our business meeting, which, which we are in, we're in a business meeting only as indicated in that policy that there's no right for any member of the public to have a presentation on the agenda. And so when you read this policy, BEDH, it seems to speak in terms of allowing, um, citizen comments from the public, not citizen statements. So that's the first thing that is confusing to me, is that,
um, I'm not so sure there is such a thing as a citizen statement that's appropriately, You know, our, on our agenda unless we interpret that to be public comment. And secondly, in order to change the agenda like this by adding something to an action item, I think our policies are clear, then we need a unanimous vote to do that. So, um, I think as a matter of, um,
protocol and to clear the matter, I think the chair needs to rule on, at the very least what kind of vote requirement exists relative to this request because it's an action item. And I might also say, without getting even more confused, that the statute, the way I read it, does not even allow us to, um, act on this particular matter, even if it is considered
by this board tonight, because there was never an application filed for a charter school within the timeframe, February 1st, April 1st. And so my interpretation of the statute is that if you don't request an extension in that time period, you have waived and given that up. And also to make matters even more confusing, even if that is not the case, it seems to me that if the statute is clear that the board may refer any waivers to the State Board of Education
for consideration, I don't think we can unilaterally do that. Even though our policy might indicate that perhaps we can attempt to do that. It seems to me that, um, At least the policy that I've read is somewhat outdated with respect to the statute. So, um, I think we've got all these things that are really making it very difficult for me first to even have an informational session concerning this potential charter school application. And secondly, to act on it if, if the board chooses
to act on it, I don't think it's properly before the board. And I might add that if you look closely at the policy for adding charter schools, it is clear that an intent is part of the application. It is not in and of itself separate from the application. So this is quite confusing. And I think another thing that we have to be very careful about is there could be other entities out there who are desirous of having a potential charter school, um, at, at this location. And by doing what we're doing in action, in moving this
to an action item, or even considering it as an informational item, it seems to me we're we're blocking those people from having an e equal opportunity to, to participate in, in, um, attempting to establish their, their charter school. I think we should sit back and say to ourselves, have we learned anything about how technical this is with how we have dealt with, um, the chavis HTA situation? Because I think we dealt with the Chavis HTA situation correctly,
because we did it in a very methodical, judgmental way following the statute, clearly, uh, which was upheld by the State Board of Education. But if we just start changing our agenda and having hearings and informational sessions when we're not supposed to have them, I think we're barking down a trail, a litigious trail that's going to not benefit the community or any of the students, um, that are part of the, uh, closure of the Chave Orta School.
So, I mean, that's a lot to say, but you can see how complicated it is and how it complicated it could be. And I would, I would offer at this time a substitute motion to remove item two 6.0 citizens comment information concerning a potential charter school application from our agenda. Totally. And not hear it, not move it around and deal with this according to the statute and the laws that we have passed in terms of policy.
And that would be my substitute motion that I would offer. Um, at this time. How Have we have a motion on the floor already? Um, uh, director Cisneros? That would have to be seconded. My substitute can take. She seconded it that, So it's, mine needs to be seconded. Right. But we already have one on the floor, so we can't have Another, it doesn't matter. I I can offer a substitute which controls the main motion. If I get a second. You have a second. Alright. We refer to counsel, please. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't sound like an amendment to a motion.
It sounds like another motion. So there's already a motion on the floor, so you'd need to move through that. And then onto the, the alternative motion. Well, I would just like to object to that because I think procedurally, if I offer a substitute motion and it's seconded, it takes priority of a previous motion. And if you want me to couch it in terms of an amendment, well, you can argue that it is an amendment and it would then take priority as long as my second would agree to that. I think we need to work on that first before we work on adjusting the agenda. But if the ruling is from the chair, I'll accept the ruling,
but I'll object to it. And if, if I understand it correctly, the first motion from Director Cisneros is to add an action item to the agenda, uh, which requires the unanimous approval. Correct. And then your motion is to remove an item. And that does not require, uh, unanimous, because under our procedure, only adding something right to the agenda. Mm-hmm. So I think we could, my motion could pass on a majority vote. My understanding of adding something to the agenda was two thirds vote No, it's unanimous per your policy. Mm-hmm. Director may Mayes, Uh, well, I, I, I think Mr.
TiVo has set, set this very succinctly, and I'm going to ask Ms. Barber, uh, 'cause that's my understanding as well, in order to add an action item to the agenda and requires con unanimous consent of this board, that being the case, uh, if there is even one vote that disagrees with what Mr. Ros is requesting, that dies, there's no need for an amended motion at that point in time. More importantly, uh, you know, there's a certain individual around the state of Colorado that, that loves to sue school boards because they don't follow the open meetings law.
Uh, he, he's done very well with that. He's, it's been a very nuclear practice. There has not been a proper notice for what Mr. Cisneros is suggesting tonight. There is not a public notice that an, uh, action item was gonna be on the agenda. And, uh, that, uh, what the, the purpose of the, uh, uh, agenda item was, let, let me read what, uh, citizen statement 6.02 said. Here's what it says on the agenda information concerning a potential charter school application,
which really leads me to my next point. We're doling with, uh, windmills now jousting with windmills. There is no application before this board to discuss. It's a non entity. It's a, a non-factor. And as a matter of fact, Mr. Tebow alluded to this. I do intend to have another motion concerning the modification of the agenda that specifically addresses, uh, uh, some issues that I think are important in terms of
the discussion that's gonna take place relative to that particular issue. But this board is not in a position at this point in time because of faulty notice, uh, because of our old policies, uh, to take up this particular motion that Mr. Cisneros is proffer and perhaps the quickest way, if in fact, it's the ruling that it takes unanimous consent to amend the agenda, is to proceed to a vote. I will tell you right now, I'm gonna vote no. So that's not gonna be unanimous. That kills it right then and there. Uh, we have some important stuff to discuss, uh,
but I don't think we should do, we should be playing around games with, with things that, uh, uh, are of no significance, at least at this point in time with regard to any application, whether it's Mr. Morale's application or anybody else's application. Uh, of course we need to do our due diligence and take that into consideration. But I, I agree wholeheartedly with the what Mr. Tebow's saying this matter, the, the motion is not properly before this board. And if it is properly before this board, uh, and the reason I say it's not properly before this board is
because of public notice, the lack of public notice that's required by the Colorado, uh, open meetings law, uh, that, uh, it's, it's going to fail for a lack of the vote required by our policies. Thank you. Director Mays. Other comments? Director Cisneros. Uh, just to be clear, the, um, superintendent Kimsey, we have received an intent to apply for an application from this charter, correct? There is an intent document that was submitted, yes, but no application.
Any other discussion? Alright. Uh, would you please call the vote, Ms. Patron? We voting, we're voting on, we're Mr. Um, director Cisneros has on the floor the motion to add an action item. So does the chair recognize my objection to the fact that we're voting on that Motion? I recognize it, but I'm gonna go ahead and just go ahead and take the vote. Uh, the motion on Board. Well, are you ruling that my motion is inappropriate? Well, because there's already a motion on the table is why it's inappropriate. There's a motion on the table, so we can't, we already talked about that with legal,
but there's a motion on the table, so we have to address that motion first. Alright. I, I'll accept your ruling, but I object to it. Thank you. Director Tebow, would you please call the vote Ms. Patron? Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. Dero? Aye. Judge Mays? No. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Tebow? No. So the motion fails, is that correct? Counsel? Okay. Alright. Are there any other corrections or modifications to the agenda? Is my motion still on the table even though you ruled it
out of order at the previous point? Director Tebow, you wanna, you have a motion you would like to make now? Go ahead and make it again. Well, I make the motion. Well, can you, and it's been seconded and it's to remove Item. Well, I don't think it, we, I don't think we can make it at that time, director Tebow, because we already had a motion on the table. I understand that, but my motion's still alive. You just ruled that it wasn't appropriate to take it up at that time. That, that's what I'm saying. And now is the appropriate time for you to make your motion? Would you like to make a motion? Well, I, I, I, I'll restate it. You that Would be great. Thank you. It would just be that Item two under, well, let's see, where are we here?
I think it's 6.0 citizen statement Item two, be removed from the agenda, and that requires only a majority vote. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion, uh, director de Niro? Yes. Um, you know, I I believe that we've had other motions, um, to adjust our agenda before, and we didn't have a majority, but I'm going to let that go. And I still think it should be,
this particular item is, um, should be on the agenda, uh, whether since it cannot be on an action item, it's still on a citizen statement. And I am, I'm, I'm gonna vote yes on that because I'm in favor of, of hearing that. Dr. Mays, We received the following correspondence from Mr. Bar, quote, our intent, and we've already determined that it's not gonna be on the regular agenda. And I, regardless of what Dr. De Niro said, it's been a voted on and it's been, uh, ruled on that.
Uh, it failed as an item here, as an action item because of the reasons we set here. Here's, here's what, uh, Mr. Lla communicated to, uh, D 60. Our intent quote, our intent is to present this project as a formal agenda item, not at a citizens' comment, so that the board may receive a full briefing, ask clarifying questions and consider any forthcoming action, including a potential waiver of the standard application timeline
as allowed under CRS 22 dash 30.507 2.5. Such a statement suggests to me that the request is tantamount to an official hearing. To that extent, the public should have been provided notice of the depth of discussion rather than referring to the agenda item as citizen statement. Mr. Raa himself rejects the classification of this as a citizen statement. Now, I'm not suggesting that because he rejects it, he believes it should be removed from
the agenda today, but he's the one that said it is not a citizen statement. Mr. Barus specifically rejects his presentation as citizen statement. Furthermore, the D 60 School Board has a responsibility to thoroughly vet the application, which has not been provided because there is not one, we have no issue before this court concerning an application for a charter school. The process for seeking charter school authorization is specifically addressed in statute and policy
and governs the process to be followed. There is no provision in law or policy which provides for the deviation, Mr. Morales suggests, nor should one be permitted, absent appropriate modification of law and or policy. Rather, Mr. Morales should avail himself of the process required by law. And for those reasons, I believe, and I will vote with Mr. Tebow, that item 6.02 under citizen comment, be removed from the agenda as being improperly before this board,
because there is no such discussion or agenda item that is addressing an application for a charter school. Thank you. Director Mays. Director de Niro. Um, director Mays, what date was that email that you were reading? I don't know. It's You got it. I got It right. But I think that was a, a, I, i, it, it, well, I don't know. I don't know what you're gonna say about it. I can't tell you the date. That's all I can tell you. I think that is, that's what Mr. Ella himself said. I think that was an older email
from our last board meeting. I, I, I'm sorry. I did, did we receive a modification of that incident? I believe so. We did. I believe so. Oh, okay. So I would ask if we could, there's a, there's been a, um, motion in a second. Do you, is there any more discussion? Do we vote ready? I'm gonna ask that. Is there any more discussion? Sure, sure. Dr. Tebow, Right, and in my earlier comments, I referred to policy BEDH and BEDH Dash R.
If you read those, it talks about public participation at board meetings. And I think one of the things that we have to understand, and I think the public has to understand this, is this is an official business meeting under law. There is no requirement for any kind of public participation, but this board has undertaken a policy to allow it. And I think we have to follow that to the letter, because if we don't follow it to the letter with respect to one group or person, how are others going to be dealt with fairly?
And we've decided that there are, there is appropriate time set aside for public comments for three minutes. And that's what those policies talk about. Those policies don't talk about citizen statements where you can dialogue on potential matters. They have to sort of be matters that are actual, they have actuality to them. Again, what if there's another entity out there that wishes to file an application for a charter school?
I think we have to treat all potential entities. There has not been a compliance with the timeframe to file an application. And that is critical at this point. I don't even know why we're talking about it right now. The, the time to file an application is between February 1st and April 1st of next year. When that's done and the intent is part of that application, the board can take the matter up at that time. And I'm more than willing to listen to what is to be presented along with anyone else who wants to make a presentation.
But we're violating our public comment policy by allowing this. And now are we going to allow anybody to come before the board at our business meetings and say, well, we have a citizen statement to offer of some potentiality. We want to be able to speak more than three minutes. Let them have their three minutes tonight and let's move on. And so I really think we need to vote yes on this just for the whole integrity of the whole comment process that we have developed as a board. And if, if the board is willing to vary from that,
then I think that that precedent is going to follow us. Um, in the last year and a half that I've been on the board, I don't remember there being any citizen statements, you know, rendered there always public comments. Uh, and if there was a citizen statement, it was something that had actuality to it. And, um, someone from the public was, was offering something concrete. Um, so I'm, I'm urging that we vote in favor of my motion and take this up, either as a public comment or just, you know, if they're not willing
to make public comments, lay it over to another time when we have our, you know, February 1st, uh, application process. In in motion. Thank you. Director Tebow. Director De Niro. Yes, I, um, we did have public, we did have a citizen statement. And it was Mr. Ken Lane. He spoke on a citizen statement. Is, is that correct? Uh, the Superintendent Kimsey, Okay. So we did have a citizen statement. It was Ken Lane.
Uh, it wasn't a public comment. And secondly, um, I know Mr. Bump is not here, and Ms. Barber is sitting in Mr. Mr. Bump, uh, gave us quite a bit of information regarding the waiver that, um, the board could, could utilize a waiver for a charter application. Can you review that, uh, information for us, Ms. Barber? Well, I mean, I, The, the statute does have some ambiguity around that, I would say. 'cause when you read that provision, um, it talks about, um,
the availability of a waiver. It seems to imply that's really a waiver you would ask the state for, in terms of having a different policy that's different from the statute about the window that February to April window, you guys selected March 1st as your deadline. Um, there is a sentence in there about waiving other deadlines. Um, and I've just, I've never seen this come up where somebody's seeking to waive, um, the actual window itself. Um, and that seems like not the intent of the statute,
but I think the wording's ambiguous enough that it kind of falls back on you all as a policy matter. Typically, an extension is once you're already in the application process, you need beyond the 90 days to negotiate the contract, the parties agree and you take a little extra time. So that's the, the typical extension in a charter applicant process, not the actually submitting an application outside the board's window. Director Mays One. We have an issue before the board right now that I really would like to have clarified.
One of the, uh, and this was addressed in the state board hearing on the CHIPA appeal, and that was making allegations that were not substantiated. Uh, my recollection is, is that a board member, uh, Ghar, uh, showed a very much a displeasure with the fact that people would say things and then not back 'em up. Now, I brought up this statement by Mr. Barella. I don't think anybody's denying that statement was made.
Apparently there's some confusion as to whether he, uh, redacted or, or went back on that and now has a different statement. If that's a case, I'd like to have it. I'd like to know where it is. Let's have it right out here. That's a credibility issue, and I think it's very, very important. We're gonna be deciding very important issues relative to any charter school applications. And so if there is something out there that came subsequent to Mr. Morale's statement, uh, I, I'd like to know about it because I don't recall getting it.
Any other comments from the board? I, excuse me. I Okay, I was Asking that question. Do you want me to just Yeah, and we may not be able to find that, but we Yes, please. Thank you. Okay. At work, this is why we're way ahead of the ball game. We have no application before us, and we're talking about processes that direct exactly what the process should be in terms of a charter school application. So we talked about waiver CRS 22 dash two dash one 17 D says
it further provides that any application submitted by a school district for a waiver that has a funded pupil account as determined by Article 54, which is his public school finance Act of title, 22 of 3000 or more pupils shall demonstrate that the application has the consent of a majority of appropriate accountability committee. A majority of affected licensed administrators, and the majority of the teachers of the affected school or district, I don't know, is
are those parties, are those entities prepared to step forward tonight and say we've had a meeting on something that does not even exist at this point in time. And yes, we have a majority of votes on all of those that's included in the waiver statute. I, I, I'm going to, maybe I'm gonna harp on this, but we went through an awful lot with that appeal. There were a lot of things said, a lot of miscommunication, a lot of misinformation, and a lot of facts that were not true. And if there's one thing I learned from that, it's that
at least as far as I'm concerned, we're gonna dot every I and cross every t in anything that comes before this board concerning a charter school application. I, I, I, at least I learned my lesson in, in going through that hearing. So you can't just parse out one part of the statute and say, okay, well what about this waiver? It says, yeah, well, I just read you something else about waiver. The statute in order to approve a charter school application requires accountability committee meetings. It requires public notice hearings throughout the community.
Those are the processes that are set forth in the statute. And by the way, I think adopted by our policies as well. So getting up here and trying to short circuit something, you, you, you know, you go back and read the statute 30.5, what does it say? It says that the process should take 18 months For the time you filed your application until the time the application is ruled on. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that's because you need 18 months to plan what you're going to do for the next school year. The next application that will properly be
before this board by any applicant for charter school authorization, cannot be filed until February 1st, 2026. That's the earliest. The timelines, the timeframes, they've all elapsed. If you are going to request an extension of timeframes, it needs to be done within the period of time that you're talking about. Otherwise, why have timelines? If you could come back three years later and say, by the way, I wanna get an extension on that thing I missed four months ago. So there's a process for this.
We should follow the process and get it right and not be subject to attack, especially on these things as a notice of public meetings and the whole bit passing up deadline, re doing all of these things. So I think based on Mr. Tebow's, uh, motion, again, that 6.02 should be removed entirely from the agenda at this point in time is because there is no issue before this court, this, this, uh, board to discuss.
Thank you, Director Tebow. First, I, I want to thank Director De Niro for reminding me of the fact that Ken Lane came forward and it, it probably was, um, under a citizen statement, but I think it also proves the point that I'm arguing. As I recall his presentation, it was a concrete request to name, um, Either a gym or a, uh, room, I think the Mel Spence gym or room.
And there had been a process that had been undertaken according to our policies and, um, good, good protocol to come forward and say, this is something that, um, the board should undertake pursuant to our policies. Um, that's not the same as what we're facing tonight. Um, so I still don't know of any, um, citizen statement that, that relates to some potentiality and not actuality. And the other thing I'll just again, reinforce that February 1st to April 1st is when the statute says charter
school applications have to be filed, that time has passed, it's in the future. I'm willing to look at any charter school application on its merits during that timeframe. I don't think you can waive anything unless you've requested a waiver in that timeline. You can't let timelines pass and then go and say, ah, I wanna waive something that I didn't, you know, follow in terms of, um, what the statute says. And I think our policies that we have reinforce that concept that any waivers have to be made prior to any kind
of deadline for filing for a charter school. Let's follow our policies. Let's follow the law. Let's follow good protocol. Let's give everybody a chance to present their best efforts to have a charter school. We as a board can listen to it and act on it. A yes vote. An I vote on my motion, removes this from the agenda and keeps us on track to deal with the proper, uh, procedure to, to, um, consider this charter school
application that is a potential and may not even appear on our future agendas. Who knows? Director De Niro. Uh, thank you President. Uh, Peno. I believe that in the, uh, citizen statement in that policy, I don't have the policy in front of me, but I believe that there is an indication that the superintendent and the president, um, agree to have a, to have that citizen statement on the agenda. And, um, our superintendent did, um,
indicate to the individual that the presentation was, was going to be placed on the board bo uh, board of Education business meeting agenda for 6 24 25. That being said, I also going to, going to go back to the citizen statement, uh, whether Mr. Ken Lane had what you say, a concrete item or not, the fact that there was a citizen statement, uh, he had asked for a citizen statement and that was granted. Um, this particular item on the agenda on a citizen
statement was also granted. Um, so I, I don't, I don't see the issue here. The other thing I, I, I still think with Mr. Um, bump indicating that, um, it would be a high level decision on the fact of the board, but there was an opportunity to have a waiver, but that motion is, uh, for an action item is passed. Um, we are now, I believe, on Mr. Tebow's motion. Is that correct? That is correct. And if you would review, uh, what a yes means
and what a no means, I'd appreciate it. Director Tebow, if I, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, would you like to repeat your motion just so we get it? We're very clear on what we're voting for one. Well, uh, my motion is to remove from our agenda 6.0 citizen statement item two information concerning a potential charter school application. And if you vote for my motion, you're voting yes to remove it. And I would also just add that, um, our rules, our policies clearly set out that the president of our board
and the superintendent can put items on the agenda, but that does not necessarily mean that the board has to accept those items as they are put on the agenda agenda. For the most part, we do, because there's no real policy question that underlies, uh, some of the things that are done. This one has tremendous, tremendous policy considerations. And if you read those policies that I'm talking about, public participation Director de Niro, it, it doesn't say anything in there about,
because the president of the board and the superintendent had put it on there that it somehow absolves, um, or translates public comment into a citizen's statement. Look at our board, uh, policies. There is no item public comments. The item is citizens' statements and all it talks about is the three minute public comment. Did you Look down below? I've read that. And you can't, you can't. I hope, point out to me in, in that, in that policy where it says that there is a citizen statement that allows
anybody to bring up any kind of potentiality, I told you earlier in my argument, it says there is no right for any member of the public to have a presentation on the agenda. That's what it says. So I urge and I vote on it so that we can get busy with the rest of our agenda. That's just you vote. Alright, I think we're ready for the vote. Um, Ms. Peton, would you please call the vote? Mr. Cisneros? No. Dr. De Niro? No. Judge Mays? Yes. Mrs. Pen? Nuncio? No. Mr. Tibo Aye.
Alright, we are now on to 3.0 adoption of the agenda. Um, may I have a motion please? So moved. Is there a second? I second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda for the June 24th, 2025 regular meeting of the D 60 Board of Education. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call the vote Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mayes? No. Mrs.
Benzi Aye. Mr. Tebow? No. So the agenda has been accepted. We'll now move on to public hearing on the proposed budget. Um, I will go ahead and ask you, uh, Mr. Sprouse, did we have any, do we have any, um, call in comments or written comments for or in-person comments for the proposed budget for 2025? 2026? Thank you, Madam President. No, we did not receive any, uh, comments in any fashion. Alright, so then I will go ahead and close the, uh, comment section for the proposed budget
of 20 25, 20 26. That means we'll move on to public comments. Uh, Mr. Sprouse, uh, are there any recorded comments this evening from the public? We did not receive any recorded, uh, public comments either. Thank you. Okay, Thank you. And then, Mr. Sprouse, did we receive any, oh, actually we do. I have 'em right here this evening. We actually have three citizens signed up to share public comment. At this time, the board invites Mr. Michael Mays to the board or to the microphone. He will be speaking about the PEA contract.
Good evening, Mr. Mays. And, uh, welcome. And as a reminder, you'll have three minutes to speak in front of you there as a box with three lights. When the light turns green, you'll have, um, three minutes. When the light turns yellow, you will have one minute remaining. And when the light turns red, your time is up. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, superintendent Kimsey, president Peno, and members of the board. Tonight you are poised to vote on the ratification of the current revisions to the negotiated agreement between this school board
and the Pueblo Education Association. The members of PEA have completed our ratification vote with 97% voting in favor of our tentative agreements, which include a five year contract extension. We have a very specific reason for seeking this extension. There are forces outside District 60 who are making a concerted effort to weaken teachers unions and take away our voice. We must remain vigilant against individuals and organizations who are, who have no vested interest in the success of our school district and only desire to sow the seeds of discontent and division.
We need to focus on the real issues that impact the health and performance of our students and educators every day. I'm currently part of the district's right sizing committee. The recommendations of this committee will have a long lasting impact on our school district and our community. As part of our work, we have been examining the critical data on the health of our district. What this data shows is that we have funding issues, we have attendance issues, we have facilities issues, and we have declining enrollment. We all know that difficult decisions are going to have to be made. These are what weigh most heavily on our educators minds.
Yet unscrupulous groups are manufacturing crisis where none exist. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted by what these people want us to believe our actual problems. When we shift our focus away from the critical issues facing this district, we are jeopardizing the viability of school District 60 and the future of Pueblo. This contract extension will not infringe on the management rights of the administration, nor will it prevent us from negotiating changes to the contract. What it will bring is stability and security. Our association's aim is to be a partner with this board in administration in addressing the real
and critical issues before us. We have built a strong level of trust and cooperation with this administration over the last few years, and we wish for this trust and cooperation to continue growing in the years to come. If we continue to work together, we can overcome any obstacle. We urge the board to approve the extension of our agreement as well as our other tentative agreements, ensuring the continued stability of our relationship and allowing us to focus on addressing the critical issues facing us all. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mays. I would now like to call to the microphone Teresa Martinez
and she will be, uh, speaking, um, about chipa. Good evening and welcome to Ms. Martinez. Good evening. I have been with Chavez K 12 Preparatory Academy since 2009. During my time at chipa, I have worked across all campuses, graduated many students, and many families. It is no secret that education is changing right now in front of me. Our two members of a group whose goal is to try to get kids out of the public school system, that is what the Pueblo community voted for. It was their choice. It's no secret.
Enrollment has declined in District 60 by over 12% since the pandemic. It's no secret that enrollment is continuing to decline because of low birth rates. Students are enrolling in homeschool programs, online programs, and moving to district 70, but that is their choice. A few of the core values of District 60 is that they believe that the success of every student is the most important commitment. The second one is we must act with integrity, celebrate diversity, and promote equity. A third is each individual must be treated with dignity and respect. And the fourth, the social and emotional wellbeing of the students is as important
as their academic needs. Unfortunately, the students at CHPA have learned that the values of District 60 do not apply to them. An invitation was sent for graduation accepted, and on the day of the ceremony, after things were in place, it was respectfully declined. Students' achievements were not celebrated by the district. But that is not anything new. Our students have never been recognized by the district State Champions College credits, PCC degrees. I would go over the numbers, but it's very clear that the successes of the students at CHPA are not important here. The core values mentioned do not apply to all. In May a former student passed away. We knew that this was going to heavily affect the students.
We reached out to the district for crisis management and we were told that the district did not provide support for charter schools and we were on our own. One would think as our authorizer chip should have been provided with support. I must have missed the part where we pick and choose when we are going to provide support to the students. The core values do not apply to all. At the admissions night last week, there were seven schools from District 60 present that did not seem like school of choice. That appeared more like school of your choice. My heart breaks for the students, the high schoolers, the juniors who must go to a different school of for their senior senior year. The freshmen who will start all over the middle schoolers
who are already at the age of being confused and trying to find themselves. And now they're being uprooted. The littles at the elementary going to a new school, and fingers crossed they don't end up at a school that is on the list to be right sized, to be traumatized all over again. Should things have been handled differently? Absolutely. Accountability should have been taken on both sides. But the history between these two entities is long and it has never been good or positive. It's unfortunate that this time the kids got caught in the middle, no different than a bad divorce. This year was gross and disheartening. What a shame. The adults involved allowed egos to get in the way,
and the kids are the ones who are affected the most. To hear parents say they don't want our kids is devastating. No child should ever feel like they're not wanted. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Martinez. I would now like to call to the microphone Ms. Barb Clemente, and she will be speaking on charter schools and chipa. Good evening and welcome. Thank you. Um, superintendent Ken, uh, Kimsey, present Panzi and members of the board. I'm here tonight with questions. I appreciate the, uh, conversation that's already taken place, um, and the points that have been made regarding the possible
charter school application. Um, as you might imagine, um, the, uh, the item on today's agenda and the item, um, the, the explanation for your executive summary, uh, executive session at the last meeting, uh, certainly piqued my interest about all this. And a Cora request that I submitted brought many things to light that I'd like to add to the previous conversation. Um, It's interesting that the,
the board, the state board hearing finished on a Thursday night at 5:00 PM and on Monday morning, Mr. Ella had an email in your queue asking to be heard with a new charter school application. He said that he had one, an application ready to go and requested the, uh, statutory timelines be waived. Where did that come from? Was, has he been working on this? With whom? Is this a packaged plan that came from other places? Is it a purchased plan? Uh, there's, it raises lots and lots of questions.
Um, additionally, there there were several, um, emails between Mr. Vala, uh, and Mr. Cisneros asking for this item to be, to be heard. It was interesting to me as, uh, a student and a teacher of writing as I looked at those emails that it did, did not appear to be the same as other me emails I had seen either from Mr. Cisneros or from Mr. Um, Varela. They, I was struck by similarities in toned tenor phraseology.
And interestingly, those all seemed very similar to another letter that I spoke with you about recently, which we know had been authored by Mr. Brad Miller. What's happening here is Mr. Varela or Mr. Ciara's in touch with Brad Miller who wrote those emails. Who is Mr. Miller being paid? Who's paying him? How, why is he even involved? Or is he involved in District 60? And what is his concern and connection to our district? And so I'm back again to ask
what personal agendas are at play on this board? What special consideration is being given and to whom? I'm told that Mr. Cisneros and Mr. Varela are related. I don't know. But is there a conflict of interest here? Is any applicant being, uh, given preference? Certainly, um, it's important to consider your next steps. State law requires 18 months of preparatory work before a charter school is opened for good reason. Please bring your work into the light of day so that we can all see how
and why your decisions are being made. Thank you for your time today. Thank you Ms. Ett. Okay, next up is 4.0 gifts to schools. Do we have any gifts to schools this evening? Uh, superintendent Kimsey. We do, uh, we, I am, uh, very proud to announce, uh, that a total in the amount of $3,663 and 49 cents, um, has been, uh, is in your board Materials for Gifts to schools. Uh, $500, uh, comes from the Pueblo Centennial High School Foundation
to the Centennial High School Vocal Music Program. We're also thankful for Pueblo Centennial High School Foundation donating $500 to the Centennial High School football program. In addition, Sunwest Credit Union donated $200 to Parkview Elementary School in recognition of a 2025 Colorado teacher of the Teacher Award recipient. Um, Pueblo Centennial High School Foundation Incorporated donated $1,200 to the Centennial High School Football program.
The Colorado Restaurant Foundation donated $963 and 49 cents to the East High School Catering Club. And finally, American Legion Post two donated $300 to the Centennial High School Journalism Program. So the Board of Education is asked to approve and graciously accept these gifts to schools this evening. Thank you Superintendent Kimmey. And again, thank you to these groups for their generosity and support of D 60 students. May I have a motion please?
I move that the Board of Education approves and graciously accepts the gifts to schools as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mayes Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio. Aye. Mr. Cbo? Aye. Moving on to 5.0 recognition. Superintendent Kinsey, do we have any recognitions this evening? We certainly do. President Pen Nuncio. At this time I would like to invite, um, Ms.
Ellie Neil to the, to the microphone to help with the recognition of, um, Jordan Cunningham, uh, for his efforts and winning his race. So Ms. Nail, Thank you. Good evening. Um, Dr. Kimey, president Pro Nuncio, members of the board, um, we were here last year introducing you to a very fast female student athlete, and now we're gonna introduce you to a very fast male student athlete. I'm gonna invite Coach Tony Valdez up to speak a little bit and introduce you to Jordan.
And if you would like to, when we present the patches, come up to the front so you can meet 'em. That would be great. Thank you. Madam President, superintendent Kimsey, esteemed members of the board. I'm here to recognize Mr. Jordan Cunningham as a state champion in Colorado. Class four, a 200 meter dash. This is a, a story that is very, very, very special. So as most state champions, you know, it's an honor. It's something that doesn't come around very often. Most state champions can come up and they can be one of the top seeds in this case in track and field. If you're a top seed, you're in lanes five or four or six. Jordan Cunningham, he snuck into the state meet. Okay?
He was, they're only gonna take the top 18 and he was actually 19 or 20. So a couple of young men, they did not get submitted for whatever reason. And Jordan, by the good Lord up above, was able to get in there. And so he gets into the meet and he's got a quiet confidence about him. And he ran a great race and he qualified for the finals in lane nine, which is unheard of. And so we're all very excited. This is Thursday and we're, we're pumped up. Jordan's also compete in some relays and he's just, like I said, he's got a quiet confidence about him. He, he believes in himself. He's a loving family. He loves his little sister,
his cousins, his grandma, his mom. And he's just telling me, he's like, coach, I can do it. I can do it. And so we get there for Saturday and he's in lane nine, like I said, and he runs the race of his life. He breaks 22 seconds with a time of 2177. He crosses a line with his hand up in the air and, and it just forever changed his trajectory. And I'm so, I'm super, super proud. And we get down to close after the finish and I, I grab him and I hug him and he looks at me and I know he is probably laughing hearing the story again for the fifth or sixth time, but he goes, coach, why is your heart beating so fast? And so it, I go, Jordan, you don't know what you just did young man.
Your life has forever changed. And what I really love about this story is the marriage between academics and athletics. 'cause I know he's gonna take his academics to the next level as well. And God willing, he'll be running for a college track team here in a couple years. So I would like to present Mr. Jordan Cunningham, Coach Jordan. Kelly, if you want to come on over here Yes. Get a quick group photo. Yeah. If you guys can get up and the three of you have you come up here in the middle, you switch there. Just need to make sure I see everybody. And now, Dr.
Dero, can I have? Yeah. Alright, Here we go. 1, 2 0 1, 2 3. Alright, Well congratulations again, Jordan. I know he heading. Oh, he's still there. Congratulations. Boy, you are fast. That is amazing. That's just so amazing. Alright, we are now onto 6.0 citizen statements. Dr. Kimey, do we have, is everything okay? Uh, do we have any citizen statements this evening? Yes. President p Nuncio. Our first is from, um, Mr. Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority,
and he's going to present information to the board on the DI Drive Urban Renewal Plan. Mr. Pacheco, Good evening, jury Pacheco, executive Director of the Public Urban Renewal Authority. I'm here this evening for a quick update on a project we call the Dillon Drive, proposed Urban Renewal project area. There are two pages from an impact report that, oh, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry, sorry. Two sheets. All righty. I'll try to be as brief as I can be. Uh, we've been working on this project for approximately two
and a half years, and we're now at a point to present the project as proposed to the city council for their consideration. As part of this process, we're obligated to meet and confer and discuss impacts, uh, potentially to the school district. Uh, should the portion of the, of the tax increment that would otherwise be allocated to the school district goes to the authority for, for the urban renewal improvements. The, um, this sheet shows you a map of the property that we're talking about,
which is generally located to the southeast of the north side Walmart in the lowland area, referred to as the Graco site. That Graco site was excavated and Dillon Drive was built as an elevated roadway through that section. What the applicant's proposing to do is come back and backfill that site to put those properties back into productive use. Right now they're in a regulatory floodplain, so there is really no taxable value coming out of those properties. What they're proposing are a series of commercial improvements that are listed in this table.
What they're estimating is approximately 104,000 square feet of improvements. Those are broken down in a co in a variety of, of commercial projects. Uh, let's see. Beginning at the top, you know, an a 12,000 square foot inline retail building, another 9,000 square foot inline retail building a com, a convenience store at 4,000 square feet, a tire shop at 11,000 square feet, a drive up coffee shop, a quick serve restaurant, which would be more like a Dunking Donuts or something along those lines of 3000 square feet.
A three, three to four story medical office building. That's one of the largest improvements on the site. A car wash, a second con, a single use convenience store and a 27,000 square foot, hopefully new to the market retailer or, um, new to the market grocer. There are several rumors out there that it would, could potentially be a new to the market grocer. Uh, along the lines of like, um, trying to go after like a Trader Joe's or something that would be new to the market as opposed to something, you know, something we do not have in the market as part of the analysis.
We are a consultant, do the tax estimate calculations. Those are all provided in here. And as you're aware, the school district has two mill levy, mill mill levies, one associated with the general fund of the district and the other as part of your debt servicing for school construction. In the past, the, the district has allowed the use of the general, the general property tax piece as part of this tax increment program, while the re authority would transfer back to the school district on an annual basis, that portion
that would've been associated with the school construction mill levy. So, um, I'm just here to answer any questions that you may have with that. We, our attorney will be sending the district attorney our standard format. Um, the last time we had an arrangement like this, it was the same, you know, 50 50 or, uh, arrangement. But, um, that's for you all to consider. There is no residential on the project. Although, uh, I have had conversations with the Urban Renewal Authority Board that when we're doing impact assessment, even though you have a commercial project that does not
create housing on site, it still has a demand for, you know, the people that would generally work at these types of businesses. Um, you know, that they would need affordable types of housing. So as part of this plan, a small percentage of whatever the authority collects, we would allocate towards affordable housing in the community. If there are any other, um, activities, programs that the district would like us to support, uh, in the event that there are surplus proceeds generated in the district,
uh, I offer that to you. The, the library district, for example, in our agreement with them, it says that if there is surplus revenue, that they have identified some categories that we would sequester hold those monies aside and then make them a apprise them of the monies being available. And then we would expend those funds on their behalf at their direction at the time of their choosing. We could have a situ similar situation for the district if that's the way you would like to either receive the funding or some, some time during the 25 year life of the project.
If there is surplus revenue, we have a, a mechanism to give that back to the, to the school district. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you for that report. Mr. Pacheco, are there questions from the board Director? Tebow, Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. And, um, I think you know how I'll be voting on this. I, I'm not a supporter of, uh, tax increment financing and, um, I, I didn't vote for the last project that you, that you brought before us. And this particular concrete project, you know, has the same
philosophical and practical concerns on my part. And, but I do want to, um, congratulate you on your efforts to make Pueblo a better place. And so I'd like to just make a few comments mm-hmm. For the record. Mm-hmm. One is that I think what what is important to me is that under our urban renewal law, which is found in our Colorado statutes, the urban renewal law itself, I think was adopted in, uh, maybe 2015, somewhere in that area. That's What a major amendment in 15,
Right? It's, it's sort of the new thing. And it, it essentially, um, allows municipalities to sort of empower you to come up with what I'll just call a plan to help communities. And I, I totally appreciate that. I, I really think that my cursory reading of the statute, uh, tells me that, you know, it's important for you to recognize your relationship with the municipality city of Pueblo, but you're a leader and it's important for the city of Pueblo, at least in my view, to allow you to lead.
And this is part of your concrete efforts to lead, is to appear before our board and city council and the county commissioners, et cetera. Um, where I have difficulty first philosophically, is that, um, tax increment financing really does in my view, benefit, um, a developer who decides kind of what type of retail, uh, businesses are going to take place. So, for example, in the material that I've read that you presented, um, you know, say there's a tire shop
where you're suggesting, well, I might be, um, engaging another tire shop nearby. And I always wonder how this kind of an arrangement, uh, puts my tire shop at sort of a disadvantage compared to the new tire shop. Okay. So philosophically I'm not sure that I've, that I've really settled in on on, um, that kind of philosophy where we're sort of helping some businesses, but maybe existing businesses don't get that benefit.
But that's philosophy. On the practical side, as I've told you and we've had occasion to break bread and talk, um, I'm really concerned about the fact that the state is not giving us the kind of funding that we're supposed to receive this year. It was flat. We didn't receive any more money, um, than we had received in the prior year. And in actuality, if you really study it deeply, we're getting less. And so we're not, we're not anywhere near some
of the projections that the handouts talk about in terms of local property tax revenue. Um, we're way down on that, and we're not assured that we're going to get any backfill money from the state if it's even possible these days. I don't know of any statute that says that, um, the school district gets a specific appropriation from the legislature. I think it's all within that formula of state, uh, finance versus local finance and the percentages and all that balance. And I know you're not asking for really anything other than sort of the state, you know,
share is, is basically, as I understand this, but the state share is so unpredictable now. And looking at this forecast of June, um, that was just put out by the state legislature, uh, and the office of, uh, state planning and, but budgeting we're in for another tough year and next fiscal year. Um, I I'm just concerned about using over 25 years, $8 million. I was concerned about this with the, um, hotel on, And that's been an absolute disappointment, Elizabeth, I personally vouched for that project and it hasn't happened.
Yeah. And I'm very upset about that. Well, I mean, it, it had some $3 million in 25 years. And so, you know, for us, if you just average it out, maybe a half a million dollars a year means a lot. I, I argued here vociferously for an early childhood program that we were running short of money on, and it, every attempt I made to try to come up with creativity just, you know, was rejected, um, by the board. And you know, there, there's, they made that decision. And I live with it. But it, it's hard for me
to say, you know, take our money. And as I've told you, I I'm trying to pitch to this community that you can't have a great city without a great school district. And it's kind of backward in my mind. I think there should be more money given to us instead of us giving to you. This is my problem with it. And I'd have no problem with your leadership. In fact, I take the position, as I said early on, that, um, you were, you were engaged to do this and you're doing it. And sometimes I wonder if the city, as I watch some of their proceedings, is trying to encumber you from doing what you're supposed to do. But that's another subject for a different day.
I just can't, um, I can't see, you know, the reality of this and your information does clearly say that, um, there is no guarantee that there'll be any residential improvement. Correct. And, and, and that's where we get our money. Property tax. We don't get any sales tax money. We get ownership taxes and things like that. But what's interesting to me is that, um, we had a demographer give a, a report to us the other day, and, you know, certain retail jobs, which you might consider to be minimum wage jobs or somewhere in that area, um, are different than, you know,
people coming in to our community and buying, you know, grand houses where they pay higher property taxes. A lot of people that come in with, with lower wages, rent, um, we may not see a lot of revenue. And, um, it's interesting to note that birth rates are down. Um, people are only buying a certain kind of, uh, housing. Uh, the demography is not just in Pueblo, it's statewide. Mm-hmm. So you've got your work cut out for you. And I wish I could join you in this kind of an approach, but I just can't, and I wanna let you know that
because I totally, um, respect and, um, support what you are trying to accomplish in making Pueblo better with your innovative, creative ways of planning. Which frankly, I don't know that any other entity, even the city council has any plan out there. Um, and so I appreciate that. Um, but I just have to be honest with you, honest with the public, honest with my board members. And so that's all I'm going to say. And I wish you well, and I hope this works out better than the hotel. I, I agree. I, Uh, thank you
for coming and listening to me. If, If I may, uh, and I don't wanna go too far down a rabbit hole, but early in my career working with the Douglas County School District, we were always building new schools. And so, even for me as an urban planner background, trying to come to grips with a situation in public Colorado that is unsimilar to any of the top 20 municipalities in the state of Colorado, they don't have the problem that we have. And rightly or wrongly, this community has built up silos. And, you know, the school district just deals
with the school, and the rest of us are focused on our own things. But we're trying to break down some of those barriers to understand the effects of cumulative impacts of urban renewal, how to use urban renewal judiciously. Um, what is the role of, like, the, have some sales tax fund and things like that, and how do they work together? Should they work together? I am very aware of, uh, what they call cannibalization. So you, you mentioned the issue of a tire shop and then bringing another tire shop. Well, a new to the market usually has a cannibalization rate of 30%.
And I don't, we haven't built up a, a sophisticated enough system to objectively and fairly evaluate some of these proposals. We don't have the luxury of the depth of experience. So we're trying to bring these things online and trying to make it to the policymaker and the decision maker's attention, give them the information. I will be the first person to, to go on record as saying not every project should be subsidized. It shouldn't, and that there are projects like a commercial project like this that would be regular ordinary public improvements that sh
um, I've told our board, at least, uh, on a few occasions, that those normal improvements should not be subsidized. It should be extraordinary. And in this particular case, they have to bore under I 20, under, um, Colorado 47 mixing utility connections. And I think that stuff's very intuitive, that it's, it is expensive and they've undertaken a lot of risk. I guess what I'm saying is, um, you're not gonna hear from the Urban Renewal Authority staff, at least, that they, they absolutely critically need all of the money
to make the project work. So I think it's fair for you to consider, you know, maybe allocating one portion of the mill levy and not the other, or a combination of the two, or something that makes business sense for you. Um, because I'm gonna come out and say it, if there is a time such as the EZ Project where we would request that the school district bear a pretty heavy burden on this stuff, on projects like that, that are that level, then, you know, we would come to you and request the full amount.
And in a lot of cases like that, Mr. Shaw would be sitting right next to me. But that's not the case with this particular project. I think we all need to look at it critically. We don't wanna give them a competitive advantage. We just wanna level the playing field and benefit the community. Now, if you look at this economic impact, the city, once this is stabilized is $691,000 in sales tax revenues. So it's a no-brainer for the city and the county to do urban renewal. The folks that, it's a little bit different discussion when you look at purely through the, through the eyes
of the school district and the library district and some of our water districts. So I just wanna say that we're listening to you and we are open to teasing out, you know, something that is fair, transparent, and, you know, 'cause everybody constantly comes to our office and we've approved as a community through the city, several of these districts over the last few years. Um, we could, we should not be using urban renewal as the only tool, I guess is my point. Well, and I, I just appreciate that. And if you want to bring Mr. Shaw with you have him bring
that checkbook for the half cent sales tax, which I think there's a fun balance of, I was checking it, you know, after we met around 110 million, $110 million, I wish that we could use some of that money. So bring in with the checkbook. I I think there's a, an opening to have a, a broader conversation about how to economic, how to address the common economic problem in our city and the things that are impairing growth, you admit. I'll just bring up one last thing. As part of the tour, you saw many houses that had caught fire have been abandoned in disrepair.
One of the things that we've noticed is that we're creating new tax generating properties, but those are being discounted by properties coming off the tax rolls, by buildings catching fire, by going into foreclosure. And when you see it on the level that we're seeing it in some of these neighborhoods, the property tax val, the property value loss is of significant concern more than just we're trying to go out and chase new tax revenue. We're losing revenue consistently. And that affects all the property tax folks that anybody.
And so that is, in my opinion, the bigger some of the things that I've observed that we need to start getting ahead of Director de Niro. Mr. Pacheco, thank you for your time and for your interest in, um, the city. I know that, um, sitting on the pure board, I have learned quite a bit from you on the whole town and what's happening and the growth that is, um, generated by the, uh, Pueblo Urban renewal. And you indicated, um, just a few minutes ago, the ho the homes that were burnt on the east side,
and I think there's some projects maybe on the south side, possibly mm-hmm. Uh, down the tour on Paul Boulevard Yeah. On the tour. And, you know, we, we can't forget that in those particular areas, not only do they help the community in aesthetics, they also have the potential of housing children, uh, that will attend our schools. And even though that they're, they're limited number, um, it's, it's just refreshing to see that, um, you have really gone
after those to change the atmosphere, uh, especially on the east side and to, um, help those families that, uh, could get into affordable housing. Um, so, you know, thank you for that, uh, on this di Drive Urban Renewal Plan. Yes, ma'am. I know that you have a, for the audience, he has a little blue area and, um, it says State Highway. Is that 47 87? Yes. 47. And that is the highway. That's the highway that goes right in front of the college.
It's Highway 50 B or C as it goes by CSU Pueblo, and then curves around and then connects to Highway 50 and continues to Pueblo West. It's that, I'm trying to visualize North of the, right, north of the mall, the Pueblo Mall, Dylan, on the southeast corner is the Goodwill. On the southwest corner is the Pueblo Mall across. They've just put a bunch of dirt earth and fill there, and it's just a dirt. Is that by Colorado Tire? Yes, I adjacent to it immediately. So there's, there's two actually lots.
There's the Colorado Tire, there's a whole area that they're redoing. It's that area. And then across, It's everywhere where you've seen dirt Raised Be, be raised. Yes. Okay. All right. Um, I know that there had been rumor that a Costco was going to be coming That site's too small. Yeah. And I, and I know, but you talked about cannibalize, that'll cannibalize a lot of stores to have a Costco. I, I, as an anecdote, why community cooperation is important there? Once years ago when the Walmart in Pueblo West was built,
Dave Galley was city manager, and it was a $1 million hit to the city's sales tax by leakage by folks going to the new store in Pueblo West, the new Walmart in Pueblo West. So those are the things that the city should be aware of, is these leakage situations. Um, blend is another example. If there's, they're building multiple buildings, you know, just east of Salt Creek, well, that's not in the city limits. Okay. So they're intercepting all that sales tax before it even reaches the city limit at Salt Creek. Okay. Now, will we vote on this at, uh, another
meeting or is It, there'll be an agreement that will, a tax increment sharing agreement is what it's called. Um, Mr. Bump and Mr. Benedetti have worked on him in the past. We'll have Mr. Benedetti forward that to Mr. Bump to circulate back to you. So it would, the earliest would be August? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Is that with your timeline? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Other questions for Mr. Pacheco? Thank you for all you do. Well, again, thank you so much for your presentation. It's nice to see you again. Thank you. Alright, up next we have, um, oh, actually,
superintendent Kinzie. Do we have another, um, citizen statement this evening? We do. Uh, at this time I invite Mr. Steven rela to the microphone, who is, uh, planning to provide information to the board concerning a potential charter school application. Alright. Can you guys hear me okay? Alright. Thank you Madam President and thank you Superintendent Kimsey and members of the board. We appreciate you allowing us to speak today. One of the things we wanna talk about, I have here, my board chair for the or, uh, board that we've incorporated for the charter is if, if it gets approved through the process, uh,
Mr. James Salazar. But one of the things why we came to this decision to try to create this or develop this organization was we've noticed that in the West side, it's an area that always serves underserved Members of our community tend to be lower income Hispanic and tend to be forgotten left behind. So one of the biggest things we wanted to do is we came up with an idea, Mr. Salazar, both of his kids graduated from school there. We put together a board of Hispanic leaders in our community, and we said, how do we keep fighting for that area on the West side Hyde Park? So we said, you know what, let's work with, let's find an EMO, an external manager,
and let's find somebody to help us get this going, to protect that community. And one of the things we were able to do was develop this kind of a charter board and then present to you guys an LOI letter of intent. The LOI is in your guys' policy that says it's the first step in actually applying for a charter, which we've had submitted. It says, after 30 days of submitting the LOI to you guys, we will have the ability to submit a full charter. So we did that, I think 20 some days ago now. So we're still in that window. Uh, Madam President, I, I hate to interrupt, but I I want to clarify something. It was just said, okay. Director
Tebo. Yeah. And I do apologize. I know that you're, that that's okay that you want to No, no problem. Keep your train of thought. But, um, the way I read the policy, the letter of intent is not, um, separate from the application process. In other words, one of the things that I was trying to get across earlier is that your application includes many things, including the letter of intent. So you've got a letter of intent before us, but no application. So I know that perhaps we differ on that, of course, you know, um, interpretation perhaps, but I don't see this as any way
moving your application forward unless the rest of the information is attached to it. So you might want to kind of address that if you want to. No, Of course. No, as Definitely, you know, continue with your train of thought. Yeah, no, no worries. So definitely, so the way we've interpreted your policy was that the LOI would be placed first, then after 30 days, there's a wait period. We can then proceed and provide you guys with the full application, which we're ready to do at any time. We're just waiting for those 30 days. So that was part of our request, um, in the initial emails that Director Mays was, uh, mentioning, is
that we would be able to have a waiver under the statute. And, uh, if you'd like, I could kind of clarify that a little bit to you. Um, so the part of the statute that we're actually, and I put this in an email as well to Director Kimsey and the rest of the board members a while back, is we were referencing CRS 22, 30 0.507, 2.5, and 2.5, which that one is, is that states, it's a mutual agreement between the district and the charter. So if we're requesting a waiver, and then the board votes with the simple majority and approves the waiver, then the waiver can happen. And then the areas of the waiver that it would be approving would be the 15 calendar days
to determination of, of competency, the 90 days for the board decision and the timeframes related to public hearings. So it'd be a full waiver. And that is a able under statute. So now what your lawyer was referencing is actually something that I remember we talked a little bit about when I used to be on the State Board of Education, and it was how do we protect charters? So if a district was to say, we unanimously or un unilaterally want to actually change the timeline for a charter to make it harder for them to apply, then what has to happen is you guys would have to hold a meeting, then send that to the State Board of Education,
then the State Board of Education would render a decision saying, yes, you can waive that timeline, or no, you're not gonna be able to waive that timeline. So we made it very clear that was the area we were referencing. And, and one of the reasons why, um, that we reference that was because we, oh, I, I think what, what your misunderstanding is that, um, there's other interpretations about when you can apply for a waiver. And of course, we've already decided as a board, we're not gonna make that decision tonight. But it's always good for you to realize what has been said by the board and maybe try to persuade me at least,
or others, uh, of sage are, are concerns. But the waiver, in my view, has to be filed between February 1st and April 1st, not at any time. It's not an open-ended request for a waiver. And the waiver is something that we, in our discretion, you know, can ask the Board of Education to entertain. It's a requirement. That's what the statute says to me. You seem to be presenting, um, your side of the case by saying, you know, we're gonna just, um, have a waiver anytime we want, and we're gonna file an application anytime we want.
That is not what the law says. And so, you know, I, I hate to interrupt you, but you know, I've been in a lot of legal proceedings and appellate proceedings and judges spent a lot of time asking questions because I don't want you wasting your time here telling us something that I totally disagree with. I'd rather hear you tell me, you know, that there's a better way to do it within the framework of the statute so that I can have some ability to entertain your application, you know, when you decide to file it. Um, I, I really wished that we were able
to just have the application and have this discussion, but unfortunately, you're going way off. What I'm trying to, I, the record is being made, and I think some, something needs to be said about the differences, you know, of our opinion. So I'm, I'm sorry, but that's just kind of how things, but I think as A board, we need to allow our guests to make their presentation and hear it in full, and then we can open it up to questions. I think it's unfair to them, they, they brought a presentation, we should allow them to present and then ask questions. I think that's, that's polite and courteous to our guests. Madam,
Madam President, every time we meet as a board, whether it's the budget presentation or any presentation, we've gone along and asked questions along the way. I, I I think it's, you know, important that we don't get misinformation that might be different from what we as a board are contemplating. So, you know, this goes back to the very issue that we talked about and resolved, is this is the problem with these potentialities. And, you know, I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep asking questions until you rule me out of order, and then I'm gonna object to that. Well, I think sometimes the reports
that we have from staff, it's a little bit different than a citizen statement. But, uh, anyway, Mr. Vela, would you like to continue? Please? Thank you, Madam Chair and, and thank you Director Tebo. Those are really good questions. Um, one of the things that, um, director Tebo does bring up is, is when he's talking about the statue, that was just our, our interpretation. Like he has his interpretation, um, and it is pretty clear, but one of the things why we decided to do this was because we seen a need. We seen what happened. I was able to watch the State Board of Education meeting, and we heard the, the decision they rendered
that was not to hear their appeal. And we seen these kids in the community that represent, reflect us. And so Mr. Salazar and all of us decided that it was time to do something too often. You know, one of the things we see when it comes to schools of choice is that often those kids get left behind. And I've seen the mission of Cesar Chavez and I remembered fighting for civil rights, and it reminded me of that. Right now, today, one of the biggest issues we're seeing in education is choice and choice is a civil rights, uh, um, issue of our generation. And we see it, you see, the west side only has one or two ways to go in and out of it. There's gonna be no school there.
Now that this school is closed, those kids lose out. And there are kids. I remember when I stood before you guys, it was a couple years ago, may being on the board of Chip Up ask, well, you, you is Irv being on the west side, is daddy freed on the west side? So there are two schools on the west side In the Hyde Park community area. Well, On the west side, there are two schools out there, Correct. In, in Hyde Park, the village, the Creek, all that area. The, there's no schools over there right now. You guys used to have one, what was it called? The old one that closed there. And, and after that closed
that became an educational desert. So one of our biggest things is with those buildings being built, we wanted to continue and allow the ability for students in that area to have education, academics, and have access to education. Dr. Kimsey, do we have any schools on the west side? We do. We have Irving, we have Morton, and we have Netty s Freed, and we have the open campus at this time, Hyde Park Elementary, that the district still maintains. Am I allowed to go on? I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead, Mr. No worries. So in, in the Hyde Park in the Lower West Side, there's no current schools right now except for chipa,
which was serving our students. And one of the biggest things that we're seeing is having the ability to give those children access. One of the biggest things we had in that area was when CHIPA was there, it provided by Lip Lako Rico, it provided, uh, Chicano studies for that community. And it also had concurrent enrollment, which the district does offer concurrent enrollment. So when we came to the decision to do this, we wanted to see the make sure that these kids had access. And I think one of the biggest things we forget sometimes, especially today, I've noticed that when we're bringing this presentation is we forget about the kids. And we put our own personal biases first. And one of the things that we wanted to do was
how do we get it to where we're putting the students first? We're looking at the kids in that community, we're focusing on them in that area, and we're fighting for it. And that was our opportunity. So when we presented this to the board and we sent numerous emails over the time, our emails were requesting a waiver under the timeline, and we followed your guys' policy with the LOI was that we would be able to present to you guys under an action item, which, uh, director Mays had mentioned, which was true in an email. And then I think after we spoke with, um, or sent an email with Director Kimsey, we were able to come today. But this school that we're gonna be able to put there is gonna be huge. It's not gonna be competition to the district.
It's gonna be an opportunity for us to work together, grow together. It's gonna be a way for us to find more access in that area as it develops. Especially right now with the district right sizing, we can actually make sure that kids in that area have an opportunity through us to be able to provide those services to education. And that was one of the biggest things we wanted to see. Our external manager that we're working with, they're a great group of folks. They've worked with numerous schools that have been in turnaround status in the past. One of the things we're doing with them is they're gonna be helping us out with maintaining the buildings and taking them over. They've already started the process on speaking
with the bond holders to make sure that we can take those buildings over and assume it. And assuming that we start this year, we have the ability to get kids in there. One of the main reasons why we requested a waiver of the timeline was because we felt that these kids would not have a break in educational services. We wanted to make sure that they had the ability to continue education from the day that their school closed this may until the opening in August. Now, we understand with the waiver of the timeline, it could put us back a little bit. We could have a later start date, but we're okay with that. We could make that up. We're aware of it. We understand that enrollment can be low,
and we're able to work through that because we know that we could extend the year a little bit. Um, so one of the biggest things that we are talking about today with you guys is this School of Excellence that we want to build out there. We want it to be a partnership. Yes, we're gonna continue the application. No, we're not gonna stop today. And we, we wanna just keep going with this. So if there's any questions from board members, please ask us. Thank you, Mr. Barella. Uh, director Tebow. Okay. I'll let you get through. Thank you. I appreciate that. I was trying to be, I was trying to be fast. I knew you were excited. Yeah, I'm just excited here tonight. So, um, and, and you, you, you know me.
I mean, I of course, of course. This is just, this is just me. Oh, definitely. And I, I, I, I want to be sure we're doing things right. And one of the things I want you to do is kind of take a look in the rear view mirror. Um, you know, I could have taken the position that I'm not even gonna talk to you because I don't think it's a proper agenda item. But since you're here, I'm gonna talk with you about this and have this discussion. If we look in the mirror, I think people need to understand in this community that this board went through a very rigorous, uh, process in terms of determining whether
to non-renew, uh, Chave wta, uh, charter school contract. And that process yielded a, um, a vote that says we're not gonna renew, if I'm not mistaken. And I can be corrected by the, our secretary of the board if the vote was unanimous. And then the appeal occurred. And there was a process whereby our attorney and others were communicating with us about a settlement agreement to allow an agreement to be made to,
to allow Chavis WTA to seek out a new, a different authorizer. And that settlement agreement, I thought was a good one. And I thought it was, um, a proper, um, protocol to allow at least the Chava WTA School to, to go out and see if they could find a new authorizer, because I, like you, believe that it's very important to have a community there in Hyde Park. The school didn't work out. We didn't non we, we, we, we voted to non-renew.
That's just the way it was. But I wanted to see some kind of a settlement where both parties, you know, it's kind of like the ceasefire here that we're reading about in the news. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. The settlement agreement didn't work. This board voted three to two, did not have that. I was one of the ones that voted to have that settlement agreement to allow those kids at least the opportunity to have a new authorizer, because I think it's that important. But the board did not do that. So now we have to go into the phase under the statute of closing the school. You know, what I'm concerned about is that, um,
our obligation is to take care of those children now and not think about what might be, but what is, and get those children in District 60, or if they choose to go to district 70 or homeschooling or wherever else, but to take care of those kids. And one of the things that I think is premature about what you're attempting to do is that these kids are gonna then be displaced one more time if you are successful with the charter application. And I don't wanna render judgment prejudge anything,
but, you know, I'm not a charter school supporter. So you're gonna have to really persuade me that this is going to, you know, work as one board member. And as you've seen tonight, get out voted all the time. But the, the problem here is if you're going to take a look at these children, what is really best, you know, wouldn't it be best to, to work with them in district 60 70 and their other choices at this point and not necessarily rush into a charter school situation? 'cause you're seeming to tell me that you want to get this done right away or as soon as possible right away.
And my view is come back in February with a complete application and I'll do my best to analyze it and to render a fair decision on it, even with some preconceived notions that I have about charter schools. You're very cons. You're very persuasive person. Um, do your magic and then get your charter school. But keep in mind that I think the kids can be deter, detrimentally impacted by this. Yo-yo. Uh, that's what, that's kind of where I'm concerned right now. And what concerns me about the potentiality is that
false hope and, and that, and that's kind of what has been going on with the, the current chavista. So, um, I mean, we know each other and we've talked a lot about different things and maybe we don't agree nine outta 10 times, but, um, I think we need to respect the process. I think you have your work cut out for you. One thing I heard tonight that was nice is that you're out there trying to get these groups together to do it. I'm concerned about one group and your intent, uh, I don't know a whole lot about it, but Excel schools, you know, I've read some things about
that and I'm not quite so sure I'm with their philosophy. So you should know that going in. But, um, you know, thanks for letting me do what I do and, um, I appreciate that you do what you do. But to me right now, this is just pie in the sky. Well, thank you Director Tebow. Uh, I'll tell you one of the things that I think you make a great, great statement was you were trying to find an option for those kids. And you got voted out three to two. And I think it's really important to know that tonight you had that chance. We can do this. We're that group.
We're who you're looking for. We're that external manager. We're the people that could come in. We're that new board that could save those kids. If we put everything aside. I think this was our opportunity and the opportunity hasn't died. One of the things you guys can still do, saying after tonight, you're still convinced or compelled the board within 24 hours can make a special meeting and need three board members. And you could show up in 24 hours and we can hear the meeting and that's all it takes. Or within 72 hours, the president of the board can send an email and she can say, guys, I think it's important that we have something for these kids in the west side.
And I want to hear Mr. Rao's presentation and make it an action item in a special meeting. If you can make it, you can make it. Policy says you only need three members to be there and you can give these kids a chance. This is your opportunity tonight to make this decision. Your own policy. Say it. And that's amazing. Also, the statue allows you guys to waive this process to give us the ability to make sure that there's continuity. I'm a clinical social worker. My wife's a psych nurse practitioner. One of the biggest things we talk about in the medical field is continuity of care. Making sure that patient has the same provider,
has the same consistency because their health is more important than anything. But we forget that education is part of health. Biocycle social. That's what we're seeing right now where we have teens that are committing suicide 'cause they're missing it and we're missing it as adults because we get too stuck in all this mumbo jumbo that we don't do what's right for kids. Not saying that you're not, but now's our opportunity to do that. Now is our opportunity to say we can put a school in the west side or down in the lower West side that can have an opportunity to create choice for children, to give families
what they've always had to keep going with Chicano studies to continue on with Ballet Flo to make sure there is no yo-yo director. Tepo, what you said is amazing. I'm with you. We don't want a yo-yo, we don't wanna see that happen. I remember direct, uh, Dr. Kimsey, your superintendent, when I watched her at the board meeting, say, I'm not against charters. Uh, it was the State Board of Ed meeting. I'm thinking that's amazing to have a superintendent that is not against charters. That's great to see that kind of impact we can make. And the ability that you guys have as a board. You have the statute that stands with you.
It says that you can waive the timeline. You have the ability to call a meeting either tonight, 24 hours special meeting tomorrow, we could show up, three members can be there and we can vote on it. Or all of you guys, you have 72 hours in an email. We have that ability to make change in our community. I remember when I stood right here before you and we were hearing the last chipa, and I was the board, uh, vice president at the time of chipa. And I said the comment was made, I think it was from, uh, director, uh, Clemente at the time, that she felt we were failing kids in that area. And I said, nobody's failing kids in the west side.
Nobody's failing kids at chipa. I said, what's going on is these are all of our kids. They're not just CHIP'S kids, they're all D sixties kids. And right now, if you mentioned earlier, director Tebow, the kids can go to 70, they can go to here, they can go to there. We don't want our kids to go to 70. I want our kids to stay in D 60. I want our kids to be able to partner with you guys to grow up to say that they were part of D 60, they were part of the greatest school district in the state of Colorado. And have that ability to create pride. I don't wanna see you guys lose the per pupil funding
because if they're going to 70, if 50% of those kids go to district 70, all that money that you guys are gonna get is gonna go right over to 70. You lose the funds. Why not keep it here? You're our authorizer. You waive the timeline. You give us the ability to put these kids in a seat. You put the burden on us. We'll make sure that you guys have the same agreement. Or even better, if you waive the timeline, we'll pay an application fee. We're not worried. We'll make sure we compensate people to come in to help us get this done. That's commitment. That's the future. That's progress.
That's moving Pueblo forward. That's fighting for, when I was a kid, I remember I used to hear Viva la Those words meant something to me. And I'm seeing the opportunity right now for us to continue that fight. When I heard, um, uh, I think it was, uh, uh, there was a public comment that was made. They were the statement about questioning my, my writing. They seem to record my emails, mine and another board members. I've been questioned my whole life for being Hispanic because I have a master's degree in clinical social work. Doesn't mean that I was just given a degree. I worked for it. And to hear that kind of questioning,
that's what these kids feel today. They feel left behind. We have the ability to continue fighting for them, to allow them to get pushed aside. It's sad. We've been marginalized as Latinos way too often. I I just, I hope you guys hear this cry, this plea because we owe these students that it's our opportunity. We're not competition. I'm not saying I want to compete. I'm saying I wanna create a resource. I'm 40 years old. Four of my kids go to District 60. I have a son at Central. My daughter goes a goodnight. My son goes a goodnight.
My next son's gonna be at Central next year. My buy-in is this community. I believe in us. We have that ability. We have that opportunity. It doesn't have to be competition. Allow us to be a partner. Use your authority, waive it. Call a special meeting. At least hear us. We'll bring an application if you were today to say, Hey, you know what? We have the ability to call a special meeting in 72 hours. I'll make sure we write it. Uh, write it in 72 hours. I'll stay up for 72 hours and show up and present it to you. Let you pick it apart. But give me the opportunity. Too often do we see people in our community get the door
shut before it's even open? So I'm asking you to hold that door open. Give us an opportunity you could deny us then, but at least give us a chance. Uh, lemme go to Director Mays first. Mr. Tebow, This is exactly why it was unfortunate that this issue came before the board tonight. There is a lot that goes into determining whether or not a a school is going to be given a charter authorization. It it's a tremendous, and I'm not about to sit here and say, okay, let's just do this in six months.
And that's it. Uh, it's interesting, uh, Mr. Tebow talked about the three to two votes. It was interesting that vote the way it went down. It's interesting the way the vote went down tonight to allow you folks the opportunity to be heard at, in my opinion, and illegally called meeting to discuss policy that was not noticed here tonight. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Barella, you and Mr. Salazar were on the board
of Chavez Huerta at the same time, were you not? Yes, we were. Okay. And both of you resigned before your terms were up, did you not? No. My term was up in November and I was done in November. I didn't, I didn't seek reappointment Because in November you have to notify them if you wanna be on the board again. That's right. You didn't come to that meeting to tell us that, did you? No. No, I didn't. No, I sent the Ms. Salazar, uh, was on that board as well, right? Yes, I was. Okay. And and he retired, resigned from the board as well. Yeah, I got out about two or 30. Yeah. Okay. That was during a period of time that, uh, that, that CHIPA was going through. And I, and I'm not gonna get into this because I've got a lot of questions that I want
to ask at some point in time, because we're gonna be talking about governance. We're gonna be talking about how you run a charter school. We're gonna be talking about some of the problems that we just, we just experienced going through this appeal process, uh, and, and some of the, uh, uh, mistakes that were made. And I'm not here to say, well, let's cure this. No, let's don't cure it. Let's get it right the first time. That's what my position is. Let's don't cure anything. Let's get it right the first time. We've heard a lot of stuff that's gone on since the chip appeal. I've heard, uh, Mr.
Segura on two separate occasions, one said I was denied. Uh, I was not given the opportunity to respond by because of a technicality. I don't know if you guys remember that. Go back and read the, the transcript. No, the fact of the matter is, is that Mr. Segura did not, was not allowed to testify at that because he didn't follow the rules. The rules were that both sides had 20 minutes to give a presentation and they had the authority to designate three witnesses that were going to testify. And if your name wasn't on the list, you don't testify
their initial list. Dr. Roman, Steven Trujillo, and the Ybe Abacus person. Alright? Someplace along the line, Steven, uh, uh, Dr. Roman was replaced by Dennis Flores. Uh, the other two remain the same. What's interesting, what is interesting about that whole process is that the CEO of Chavez Huerta did not list himself as a witness to defend his school. And it wasn't because of a technicality because by the way, those folks also, uh, well,
we'll talk to Phil Weiser, we'll talk to the governor, we'll talk to all of these things. Well, Phil Weiser was there through his representatives on the state board. You know, you served on that board. State Attorney General represents him. The State attorney Rental Attorney General is the one that told Mr. Segura, you can't testify because you didn't sign up no tech. It wasn't a technicality. It was a refusal to follow the rules. And so, as I go through this process, and, and I'm, I'm comfortable quite frankly, even having this pro this, this discussion now because this discussion belongs at another time when the
issues before the board, uh, and we could talk about all of those things, but I have great concerns about this. I have great concerns when I hear that there isn't a school on the west side, and we got five schools on the west side. You know, I, uh, uh, the, the misrepresentations that were made in that appeal, and I don't know, you, you know, the board, you know, the state board members, you know, Kathy Gebhart, you know, plum, you know, uh, you know, all of them. They were very critical about what happened. And one of the things they were most critical about is
that why would you folks make representations and allegations against these people and then not provide us until of evidence to prove it. I'm not, I don't wanna be part of that process. Again, I don't wanna be part of a process where people decide that they're going to bend the truth about what we're, what we are and what we are. And so I'm not interested in curing any defects. I'm interested in making sure the system's done right. The statute provides the process, it provides the process that goes on here. And I, I, I understand this business about, well, if three
of the board members do this, well, if three of the board members I understand what, what's going on here. The fact of the matter is, is this board going to be honest to its commitment to the kids and do the right thing it whatever decision it makes? And it may be that at the end of the 18 months that the statute says we ought to be taking to get this done, that your school gets charter authorization. It may be that way, but it shouldn't be that way until there is a thorough betting of everything that's going to go into that school, including the couple of the questions that Mr.
Tebow just asked as well, and who's going to be involved in it. All of those are legitimate questions. I mean, the statute provides for that. So again, my initial reaction tonight was to not have any conversation with you because I don't think this meeting is properly held. But you said anybody have any questions? Anybody have anything to say? I have questions. I had something to say and I'll continue to do that. But I'm going to insist that this board assume its responsibility to do a thorough job embedding any application that comes before this board.
And I, I really have a particular problem that we're even having this discussion because to me, it presents an appearance of impropriety that there is nothing in the statute that provides, by the way, if the charter school of potential charter school applicant wants to be before the board, they they can do, there's nothing in the statute that provides that. And, and to the extent that there are may be other charter school applicants out there, they're going, well, wait a minute, is that preferential treatment? Is that what's just going on?
And somebody got a a leg up on this process by violating the law? Yeah, we'll see. But I, I think the point is, is the statute has a process. That's what works. Thank you Director Mays. And that's what we're requesting is per the statute to follow the process and have the ability to waive the timeline. Yeah, I understand what you're saying. That, and that's our question. And and I I appreciate your comments, director Mays. There are, Are you familiar with that statute I read that talks about the, uh, the, the, uh, entities that need
to give, uh, their majority vote, uh, before a a waiver can even be discussed? Are you familiar with that? Say it again. The statute, which one were you referencing? Yeah, the statute I was referencing earlier that says that, uh, you have to have the permission majority, uh, concern of if, if you have a school over 3000 people, a majority of the affected licensed administrators accountability committee, and a majority of the teachers of the affected school district. And I guess the point being is, is let, let's assume we go down this fast track thing.
That would be a terrible mistake. Uh, and if we do that, every board member that allows that to happen should be recalled. That's for sure. But how, how, how do you, how do you convene the accountability committee affected licensed administrators and teachers of the affected school or district at this time? You gotta have a meeting. The, uh, uh, before the board can even decide what it's going to do with an application, it has to be processed
by the district accountability committee. And, and we're totally aware Of that. You, you could talk about 24 hours, 42 hours, 72 hours. Uh, and I know what you're saying. We're asking for all of that to be waived. In other words, give us a rubber stamp. We, we ought, we're, we're we, we promise you we're gonna be fine. All that. Just give us a rubber stamp. Don't worry about process. Well, there will still be process. 'cause we would still have to have a hearing in front of you guys. All you're wa is those timelines. I still get together. I know What I'm waving, Mr. And then once the application's in, you guys could still vote. No. I mean, yeah. What I, what I'm suggesting, and I'm suggesting this to all of you people that are out there, if you get any feeling
that this BO is about to short circuit the application process for any charter school application, you should be up in arms. That's all there is to it. You should be up in arms because it It, As we heard, because it's about the kids, of course it's about the kids. That's why. And that, that's why a a as, as one of the board members said up there, what's worse than denying your appeal right now is to let you go, to start a school and then have to close it.
That's, that's the death march. So this is serious stuff. You pulling the, pulling the trigger on it within a matter of days or weeks or months. This thing, the statute, the statute itself says 18 months before the charter school is set to open. That's the process that should be followed before a school is open. I understand waivers. We're, we're arguing, uh, uh, technicalities here. But I I, I will tell you, and I will tell you right now, one, we don't have anything to decide
because there's nothing before us. And if anybody thinks, unless they have a very compelling argument to me that we should be waiving time limits. Now that ain't gonna happen. Now I realize I'm one of five members, I know how to count. I know three, two, I know what's going on. But it's, it's going to, it's going to, as far as I'm concerned, this process is gonna run its course the way the statute, uh, contemplates. That's why this statute was brand new back starting in 2025, because they did not want to mess around with,
with, uh, uh, rubber stamping things. They wanted it to be a thorough process. And as far as I'm concerned, that's what I'm going to do on this board. Thank you. Well, Director Mays, thank you. And one of the things, I'll tell you what the statute, 'cause I was around on the state board around the time when a lot of this came in, is that statute, when the legislature pushed it through, it wasn't meant to be weaponized against charters. 2.5 was actually put in place to protect charters. So it wasn't meant for a district to use it as a sword to say, well, we're gonna stop rubber stamping. It was actually a way to make sure that some districts
that didn't like charters would say, well, wait a minute, we're only gonna give you a month to get everything in. Knowing that how daunting the tasks are, and then that charter can never get approved because they didn't have the funding, the resources, or the wherewithal to actually push it out. So when that was actually put into place, it was an agreement, not bipartisan to say, we wanna make sure that charters have the ability to go into place and they have a proper timeline. They have the ability to apply. They're not being forced to move faster than normal. And then that's why they put in 2.5. 2.5 gives the ability for us as a charter to say,
we would like to be waived of that timeline. Because guess what? Not only do we have the tenacity, we have the want, the hunger, and we're ready to fight to get a charter opened up in a month. And we're saying, are you guys willing to stand with us for the kids? So it's not against the kids. It's a situation of for the children, Hey, we're ready to go. If you guys give us the opportunity, you open the door. That's all we're asking. Hear us. Give us an opportunity, give us a chance. Not for me, not for JA James, not for the old chipa, but for the kids, for our community. And I know you, you believe tonight was illegal. This wouldn't be the first time
that I was told I was somewhere because I was illegal. But let me tell you something. I'm here to fight for these kids no matter what. And when somebody told me that before, I told them, it doesn't matter whether I'm illegal or legal, I'm here to fight for my community. And we have that opportunity together to fight for our communities. Director De Niro. Well, this has been an inter invigorating conversation to say the least. Um, I wanna thank you for your, you, what you, uh, brought forward. Um, and I guess I would say that I look forward to hearing more in your application when
it is available during the time of, uh, what is it, February, February 1st to April 1st February 1st to April 1st. Um, I also wanna ask you a question. There was an allegation that in not an allegation, that it was inferred that your group might be somewhere in concert with a Mr. Brad Miller. Are you involved? Is this, is he, is that individual in your organization, your Excel organization?
No. So Mr. Brad Miller is not in our organization. He's not paid by myself, the board, or any of us. Now, Brad Miller, years ago when we were all on the CHIPA board, which we all know, he was the board president at the time, and he's currently the, or being the board lawyer, and he's currently the board lawyer for D 70. So I don't know where that's coming from. And it's like, director May said, sometimes you get people that just try to create misinformation to make it a political issue. But this isn't a political issue for us, and we're not working with anybody in that sense of, of area. Our whole mission here tonight is to request a waiver.
And I, and I appreciate your comment with hearing us in February, but I'll tell you, we are still looking to be heard. You could hear us in August. You can hear us anytime. You guys have that ability as a board, your chair and your superintendent under the statute have the ability to add us to the agenda as an action item. You guys can create a special meeting with a 72 hour notice to hear us as an action item. All we're asking for is to give us the opportunity to present and vote, vote it down. You don't have to vote. Yes. By allowing us on the in front of you guys isn't a yes vote.
But by not allowing us, you're removing our due process. As citizens, we all live here in Pueblo. Our ability to present something that we believe can be great, that can be instrumental, that can be a part of the team that can help grow as being, is being denied before we even have an opportunity to show you what we could do. And that's all we're asking. And I, I already said, wait, I am still, it's still my time. Thank, um, you know, in that state board meeting that we sat through
and listened to, um, and we heard, well, we didn't hear, we heard information from the Assistant Attorney General. We've heard information so-called from the governor. We've heard information from some council members. And their, their, their concerns seem to be the buildings the best grant, the 32 or $43 million that, um, was spent to build those buildings.
Um, and they forget about the kids. They just, I mean, it, it, it was interesting there, there, it seemed to me, and this is my own opinion that they were so interested in the buildings. But, um, and I know that those buildings are not of concern to the district because they're, they're, that debt is not ours. And because we're right sizing, I don't believe, and I'm not gonna speak for the board, I'm just going to think out loud, is that since we're right sizing,
we wouldn't want to take on that debt. Um, how do you think that you're, I mean, that's a lot of money. I, you are gonna write an application and then you're going to take those buildings and chip, I mean, I remember Chip needed 800 kids and the state board member said, what do you need to have in order to say solvent? And the accountant said, seven 80. And I thought the state board's
job was gonna drop when she said, 20 students. You're saying 20 students. So, you know, that's confusing to me then how your organization is going to try to bring in a school and have that debt. I mean, who's taking that debt? Thank, thank you, uh, director Janero, Dr. Niro for asking that question. One of the most important things that having an EMO and external manager like X Excel is we don't work for them. There was a question earlier from one of the groups that said they've seen some questionable stuff, questionable stuff with Excel on the internet or somewhere.
They would actually work for our board and they would work for us. And part of that is, is they're willing to take on the debt. They've already talked about that. They said that this is so important, the CEO of the organization. He travels the country and he does this. He finds these schools that he can help these communities that are at risk and he believes in, in education. Um, and one of the things that they've already started the process, which is really nice and and unique to this, is they've already been proactive. They've called the underwriter, um, the statement for them right here, the underwriters looking
forward to a proposal. The un they've already talked about a short term plan, how they're gonna fund this. They're already aware. We've met with them as a board and as myself, the charter organizer, to talk about how much the cost is. And they said it to them when it comes to educating and protecting kids and educational rights, they're in, they're ready to fight with us and they'll cover the cost of it. They understand that within the first year that our, our enrollment might be lower, and you are right. It isn't 800 kids. We would have to be up to about 900 ish around there to be back at operating with the per pupil funding.
But they understand that, that to them, they said there's not the profit they're looking to make. It's serving kids in a community that need it. And having them as an external manager is so important, important to partner with us because they have that ability to do that. So that gives us the ability to do our application, come in front of you guys once we're approved. The other really cool thing about having them as an EMO is they work with us because they have other schools they partner with. They can bring in like special services to help us provide special ed services for kids via telehealth or tele, uh, educational services.
Until we can hire special ed teachers. They also help us with the process of hiring teachers, making sure they're highly qualified per the statute, making sure they're licensed. These are things that this group will work with to help us and they're committed. Um, the actually what's really cool is their team flew in today because they wanted to show solidarity with us. They were here to say, we're gonna stand with you guys one way or another, because this means so much to them. The Pueblo community, Are they here? They are here. Can you, can you introduce 'em at, is it out okay to introduce him tonight? Yep.
So we have our CEO, Mr. Rom Packard back there is for Excel. And then we have, um, uh, Mary as the vp, Gifford, and then we have Mr. Scott. And, and all of them have come from education. Mary was on the state board and, um, Arizona, uh, Mr. Uh, Scott right here was a superintendent for years. So they bring a lot of background to help us with this process. So it's not just a bunch of guys from Pueblo trying to do something without external support. We understand that we need the help. Dr. Kimsey, I would like to clarify.
Excel is for profit, correct? Yes. Yes, they are. They are for profit. Thank you. But that doesn't mean they're profiting off of what we're doing. They have the ability to do philanthropy like they're offering with us here. Director Tebow, I, I'm gonna yield to Director Mays, but reserve my time. I thank you. Director Mays, Are you familiar with banning Lewis Ranch Academy? Yes, I am. Is, uh, is that one of the schools that's, uh, supported by Xcel? Yes, I would assume so. Okay. Do you happen to know who the lawyers are for, uh,
banning Lewis Ranch Academy? I have no clue who their board hired. Okay. I, I suggest you look it up. Okay. And we will see if there's anything common in those things. And the, uh, when you talk about an external management group, there, there are, and our policies provided that we have to be very careful about that because we have to make a determination as to whether or not these folks, venture capitalists are, uh, in, in, in fact, uh, have any conflicts of interest in in running our schools. And we've had, we've had a poor experience with
external management folks. Uh, they grab the money and they run, and we, we sit here holding the things that they did not accomplish. So, uh, can you tell us what other schools in the state of Colorado that excel, uh, presently, uh, supports? I wouldn't know that right now, director Mayes, but one of the things I can tell you is I don't know who they're, you mentioned the lawyers for Benning Lewis, and one of the things I remember being on the state Board of Education, there was a lot of, uh, boards that had the same lawyer, for example.
I think it's, uh, your guys' group represents around a hundred districts. Sure. Maybe a little bit less. There's a few others that represent another 52. It, it's a, it's a small market of board lawyers. So depending on who, who, who hires for what they need or the needs for their district or their charter. One of the things I'll tell you with them, I, I, I couldn't tell you, uh, your policy, which you made a statement about with the venture capitalists, but I do know that we did vet them. We did meet with them and we liked them. There was others that we could have reached out to. There was others that we could have talked to. Um, and this was one that was really willing to come in
that had the ability to take over the buildings and help support our mission. And that's why we worked with them when working with them also doesn't mean that they're dictating how we run our policy. They're dictating how, how we, uh, administer academics or what curriculums we're purchasing, working with them. They're gonna be helping manage that and helping on the back end with hiring, um, manage the buildings and on the back end, help us hire staff, maintain staff. And I do understand that there's a lot of districts that work with external managers. Um, a lot of schools that are in turnaround status work
with external managers. There's a lot of different ones that are out there that they, that partner with different districts for different reasons. And one of the reasons with what we're here is with chipa, we know the needs of that area, and we know that Excel has the ability to do that. Also, like with any district, like, you know, wherever you're going, you could read the negative, but there's a lot of positive. And one of the things we've read about with Excel is they've helped schools like chipa get out of where they were at and actually turn around and become, uh, schools of success. I would love to look at Banning Lewis. I think they're one of our top performers in the state.
I I'm not saying that they are the ones that did that, but if they're working with some of these schools, maybe they can help us take this from a different approach and, and bring some good stuff here to Pueblo with some supports Are, are you aware that, uh, and maybe this needs to be researched. Are you familiar at all with any financial problems of banning Lewis, uh, ranch Academy had within the last five years that were subject to scrutiny? I, I have no, no awareness of that at all. Director Tebow, thank you. I'll, I'll reengage my time. And I will say this, that, um,
this discussion is quite troubling to me because you talk about no due process. You talk about not having, uh, fair opportunities and all these things, and that just simply is not the case. And the real world tells us to go to the statute. Here's the statute, and it says, for applications beginning in 2025, a Board of Education would, um, it has to be filed with the Board of Education during the period beginning February 1st
and ending April 1st 18 months before the school is set to open. That is the law. That is the law. And then you are jumping over to another part of the law that says, well, wait a minute. The local board and the charter applicant may jointly waive or extend the timelines set forth that I just read. But to me, it means you have to ex, you have to create that waiver within that period February one to April 1st. You can't do it before or after.
It has to be within that period because the intent of the law is the 18 months, as has been pointed out time and again by Director Mays throughout the evening. It also says that if you do waive within that period of time or seek waiver, it may go to the State Board of Education, which means we as a board may seek the waiver, or we may not seek the waiver. But if we seek the waiver, it has to be approved by the Board of Education. I don't see how you think you are going to satisfy
this statute by an accelerated process that you consider to be, you know, not fitting within your situation. And what I'm wondering is, when we were debating whether we should have a new authorizer of Chavez hta, you should have stood up and said, we want to offer this group as an authorized, um, charter school. And, you know, maybe the vote would've changed from three to two to unanimous. I, I don't know. But it seems like there's some backdoor going on here and not following the statute correctly.
And I'll guarantee you this, if anybody's watching this, and if anybody's listening to this, I can almost with certainty, predict, since you have a potential application, I can have a potential outcome that there's gonna be litigation over this thing and it's gonna really be ugly. And so, for the sake of the children, I would suggest that you line up with whatever charter schools want to be a part of this. And as bad as it is, come to us in February, February 1st, and let us do hard work. You do your work and let us try
to figure this out in a timely way that the statute anticipates this is not really going well for anybody. Um, and your whole goal is going to be diminished greatly if you continue to, you know, push this. And I, for one, you know, don't think it's appropriate to have any kind of a meeting that is contrary to the statute. That's my opinion, and that's where I'm gonna end it tonight. Thank you, director Tebo. I'd like to respond, if you don't mind, that, that
that's exactly why we're requesting a meeting for you guys to have the ability to vote, because your interpretation of the statute differs very much from the interpretation and how I'm reading it, that it is written and how our group is reading it, which I, I mean, we, we both respectfully understand. I think Director De Niro mentioned earlier during comment that your lawyer might have said something about that you could waive it. So after hearing that as a citizen, when I talked due process, I'm not meaning due process in the sense of I'm trying to come through a back door.
I'm coming, I've been straightforward with you guys coming in the front door, sending emails, letting you guys know that I want a meeting. What we're looking for is you guys to hold the vote. Now, the due process is, what I'm asking is, you're right. Why don't we have a discussion where we could have a lawyer, you could have your lawyer here, Mr. Bump, and we can have the ability to review and say, yes, this is what the statute reads, this is what it doesn't read. That's what we're asking. Having the meeting doesn't mean you're approving us. Having the meeting gives us the ability to actually sit here and have a civilized debate to say, this is
what the statute reads. Because I, I mean, the statue you're bringing up, I didn't have enough time to even look at it and, and see what you're talking about. I mean, anything you say, I can say, yeah, that that sounds right. But what I'm looking for is an opportunity to stand in front of you guys in the right time with some time to actually say like, here's what the statute reads, here's what our waiver request is. And your lawyer can advise you guys and say, yes. And I, I don't know, director De Niro mentioned that earlier. I'm not privy to your emails. And if, if he said that it is waivable, and then why not give us that opportunity?
Somebody, he's saying it's waivable. I believe it's waivable. You're not believing it's waivable. Give us a chance to have a meeting as an action item to where you can vote no. And they can vote yes, or they can vote no or however it goes, but just give us that opportunity. That's the due process we're asking for. Give us, we're coming before you. Now you mentioned earlier, other charters could come too, or this might not be fair to other charters. We're not trying to bypass any other charter. We're the only ones coming before you saying, this is what we'd like to do. Give us an opportunity. That's all we're asking.
And you guys have that ability as a board. You guys have the ability to add it to the agenda. In August, you have the ability within a 24 hour notice, you have the ability within a 72 hour notice, that's all we're asking for. Then at that meeting, you can vote no. But right now, we're, we don't have that fair opportunity to actually present a strong case to say, this is what the statute says. You're a lawyer, you've been the DA before. We've had conversations before. You know what it's like to be in my position. I mean, I don't have an opportunity right now to actually defend a fair case. And I'm not a lawyer. I'm a social
worker. I fight for people. I I, I'm going to one, one last, one last comment. Ms. Pen. Nuncio. I resent being told that we're not being fair. I resent that the statute provides the process to follow and to suggest that we're not being fair because we're not doing what you want us to do. Tonight is an insult. Well, you're not allowing a vote. If you allow to vote, then we, it could have been done. Thank you. I appreciate, and that's our presentation. Thank you President Peno. Thank you. Board members and thank you Dr. Kimsey.
Thank you, Mr. Barella and Mr. Salazar and the team that, uh, is here representing, uh, your, your board. Thank you very much for being here this evening. All right. We'll move on to 7.0 communications and board comments. Does Superintendent Kimsey or a board member have any communications or comments this evening? Director Tebow? Yes, I do. Um, and maybe for the first time tonight, we'll talk about some exciting things that are going on in the district. Um, and I just wanted to mention two things. First, a a lot of individuals in the audience
and in the community don't realize, um, and, and maybe they do realize the tremendous amount of events that this dis that this district presents on behalf of our students during May. Um, several, uh, academic awards, assemblies, graduations, um, recognitions, different things like that. And I just want to tell you that, um, being a board member in May is just a real, um, nice thing to, to be able to participate in all these,
these events and the focus being congratulating our, our students for their great achievement, um, throughout the year, the academic year, and throughout their academic years if they're graduating. And I congratulate all who are involved in organizing that and all the students and parents that, um, are so proud and have every right to be proud. The other thing is I also want to congratulate our, our staff. And I don't just mean the administrative staff in this building, but staff in all the different schools.
Uh, I've made it a point over the two years to visit various schools. You know, I see principals and teachers, but I also see parents. I see, um, janitors that smile, that stay after school to help kids, uh, food service workers, and of course, smiles on all the kids in the schools. Most of the kids, in fact, you might say all the kids really want to be in school, and they really appreciate how they're being treated. And that comes from leadership, from the superintendent all the way down. There are issues and problems here and there, um,
but I just think it's really important to congratulate everyone on a great school year. Um, it would be nice if we could now just everybody kind of settle back and let July pass before we start getting into our August debates. Um, it's sometimes good to just reflect and say to ourselves, you know, let's pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. And I'm here to give all of you that pat on the back. Uh, thank you all of the, the staff and,
and those who work so hard to make the district, um, what it is. Very good things going on. And sometimes we just don't take time to notice. Thank you madam President. Well said. Mr. Tebow. Other comments from the board? I, All right, next up is 9.0 reports. Superintendent Kimsey. Do we have any reports this evening? President Pen Nuncio? We have a couple of reports. The first will be presented by Mr. Whiting, director of Human Resources, who is going to present to you information on the use of the C Leave Bank
for the 24 25 school year. Mr. Whiting. Thank you, president or superintendent Kimsey, president Pen, members of the board. As usual, it is your pleasure to be able to listen to me when I get to come and give a presentation like this. Um, sick Leave Bank is something that's been around now for 20 or about 15 years. It was started in 2011. It's a way for members or employees to be able to donate a day and in times of an emergency or a serious medical issue to be able to get up to 30 days of additional paid leave to help cover that.
Um, it's a great program that was negotiated long ago, um, and, and it continues to run very well. Um, so far this year. Uh, we started the year with about 500 days. For, for the previous eight years, there had been a moratorium. We hadn't required any donations to be a member because we started to get a little bit lower. We asked for donations this year for any members who wanted to be part of the Sick Leave Bank. 579 employees chose to sign up for the Sick Leave Bank again, and were members this year.
Um, we ended up with a total of 1,129 days. Um, in, in this case this year, there were 25 requests for usage or, or time that people needed. Of those 25 requests, 23 were approved, and a total of 219 days were granted. As of May 13th. There are currently 910 days remaining in the Sick Leave Bank. Um, the Sick Leave Bank Board recommends that we, again, declare a moratorium this year. What that means is that anybody
who is a member this year wouldn't have to donate again to be a member next year, but any new members would. Um, and, and we'll carry on and see how that ends up. And we would reevaluate that at the end of this following year. Um, later on in an action item, on, on the consent agenda, I guess, is where it's at. Um, it approves one of the duties of the board is to approve members of the Sick Leave Bank Board. Those, those board members are determined by, um, both the administration here in the district
and also by leadership in the various associations. And, and that will be a, a part later in the consent agenda. But are there any questions? Perfect. I guess there are no questions. Well, thank you Mr. Writing. We appreciate that report and that update, and we'll be voting on that later. Thank you. Superintendent Kimsey, do you have another report? We do, do President Pen Nuncio. It's my honor and pleasure to introduce Ms. Hans, our Chief Financial Officer, who will be presenting to you the, um, proposed budget
for the 20 25 26 school year. Good evening. Um, president Pen, nuncio, superintendent Kimsey, and members of the board. You get to listen to this again. Um, we have a choice. We can either go through the PowerPoint, um, page by page, or we can go through the book page by page. The shortest way is to skip half of these pages. Um, but anyway, I, I'm being funny. Um, this is the second and final draft of the FY 25 26 proposed budget.
It includes all the resolutions, appropriations, and other information necessary for you to adopt all of the resolutions. Um, the student fee schedule, the salary schedules, and everything associated with the budget. So, um, my assumptions haven't changed. Um, life insurance is a percent of salary and that calculation, um, takes a lot to do. However, the average is about $50 a paycheck. So those of you that were interested in what,
how much life costs, that's about how much it costs. The more you make, the more you get. Um, that's a nice deal. Um, so the assumptions are as listed. We've already been through the fund. 10 FY, 25, 24, 25 estimated reserves. And remember, these are estimated a lot of things can happen between now and then. Um, things like goods and services not being complete, um, purchase orders not being entered in time. Um, a lot of things affect this balance
and will affect the ending fund, the ending reserves. Um, and like we've said in the, uh, several times here, um, truly the more we save right now, the better off. We are in FY 25, 26, So FY 25 26, um, we are still in a better position. Um, we will have ending reserves of over $6 million. I predict that will be, um, much better when we start looking in January. But right now, this is the best guess.
And you know me, I'm chicken little, so I like to put lots of expenses in the budget so the budget is balanced and fund 10 if everything shakes out, will look like this next year. Anybody have any questions about that? Okay, good deal. We'll skip over fund 17. Actually, nothing has changed. Um, I left these predictions just as is. So once again, we will have fund 10 contributions, going to fund 17 athletics of about 2.6 million.
We will end up with about estimated reserves of 2 270 9,000 if it all works out right. So that's where athletics is ending right now. Does anybody have any questions about that? No. Okay. Insurance reserve. Um, one of the things that you will be voting on tonight on your consent agenda is the approval of the Colorado School District self-insurance pool, uh, insurance coverage for FY 25 26.
In the grand scheme of things, it, it went up about $92,000. But you, when you consider how much we've got going on, um, that's not that bad. Um, we've had much larger increases in the past, and so that's the only thing I can really say about fund 18. Um, and we still will end up with about $930,000 in reserves. Okay. Okay. Child nutrition, I didn't change anything here either. Um, we still have a healthy estimated ending reserves despite what Dana tries to do.
Um, she just keeps doing better. So hopefully we can get some of that money spent this year. And keep in mind, this is funding from USDA, uh, as well as some other state agencies. So it remains here for the purpose of child nutrition. Only questions? Nope. Okay. Um, grants stays exactly the same. We never have reserves and we never have ending reserves. It's income in expenditures out and they net to zero. So this is boring. So this one looks just the same.
You have any questions on fund 22 Uhuh? Okay. Fund 23 student activities, as we discussed last time, um, it, it's staying the same. I haven't changed a thing. So when we do budget for student raised funds, we allow them to spend money that they currently earn, rather than run it through the ending reserves, we budget it as if they had already, they've made it. So if they, um, um, uh, fundraise and do really well, then they have more money
to spend in the current year. So that's why the funding, the funding reserves is down to 5 54 for this current year. Um, those are district held funds and we keep them so that the students will always have some funding at some point in time. Anything about that? Okay. Guys are easy Fund 27. Um, same difference. It's budgeted in the same fashion as student activity funds because everything's fundraised. And when we budget for the next upcoming year,
we budget all their income, um, and previous reserves so that they can spend, um, they are getting really close to, um, the ending reserve balance of 16,853. And that's as low as we're gonna let 'em go. So that is that. Anybody, any questions on education foundation? Okay. Debt service, it's the same. I haven't changed anything. I will tell you that I intend to decrease the mill levy in December, um,
because we do not need to grow our ending reserves. The only purpose in the, in the world here for these funds is to pay debt. And so it doesn't do us any good to keep, uh, growing ending reserves. So, oops. Oh, man. We skipped over a whole bunch. Any questions on debt? Nope. Okay. The bond fund, we're really trying, um, in this next year to get down to what we have currently estimated for arbitrage. So that means that we will spend it down and close the fund.
So, um, that will be a good day. It's been a long time coming, you know, this will be six years that we've been dealing with the bond, and it's done a lot of good, so everybody should be proud Of what they've accomplished. Um, next is capital projects. I didn't change this one either, and so it looks very much like the other one, just exactly the same as a matter of fact. And so, um, we should end up with estimated ending reserves of about 18 million, which is sort of the sweet spot.
We don't want to go any further. Um, decrease the fund balance any more than that. So this next year we're going to try to hold it. Um, so going forward, hopefully we can begin transferring money back into this fund from Fund 10 and, uh, continue to support all the projects that are needed, but that's next year. Any questions on capital projects? Nope. Okay. Um, fund 64 is our, um, risk management fund.
This is where we do, um, um, self-funded workers' comp and also dental. And, uh, just dental out of this, uh, fund and like the other ones, uh, FY 24 25 hasn't changed. 25 26 didn't either, but I'm estimating ending reserves at $1.5 million. So, does anybody have any questions on that information? Okay. Do you have any questions on the student fee schedules, um, that have been
provided to you? No. Okay. Well, if you don't have any questions, that's the end of that story. Short and sweet. Oh, no. Oh, director Tebow. Thank you. Um, I wanted to leave all my questions for the end here, uh, about two hours of questions. No, just easy. Um, first, thank you for doing this, and I, what I wanna say is that, um, for those of you here and listening and the community, I, I think it's important to realize
that preparing a budget isn't something that's done just, um, as a scheduled event. Preparing a budget is a year-round process. There's always adjustments to be made of projected revenue and expenditures. There's, um, a time where we'll even amend this budget, um, and so on. And, and so I wanted to let the community know that we have had a lot of prior public hearings on this budget. And so, because maybe we're not asking questions or interrupting you and all that, we've done that in prior public meetings.
We've engaged with you about, uh, questions and things like that. In fact, I know that, um, I can't speak for all the board, but I know I've had several meetings with, um, our superintendent and you as our chief financial officer about specific things that I was concerned about and answers were given that were satisfactory to me. And, um, so it's not a situation where you're just rattling off a bunch of numbers and we're half asleep because we've been
arguing so hard tonight. We just need a nap. But what, what we've done is we've done a lot of work along the way. And so I don't really have anything really new to say to you. I've said it all along the way. Um, but I do wanna say a couple of other things. Um, I want to say this, as a board member, I see a, a role as, uh, three important things. Um, selecting a superintendent, um, setting policy and preparing a budget. I mean, those are the things that we really need to focus on as board members.
And I regard the budget as the most important policy document that we work on. It's not only a technical process, to me, it is a process that reflects choices about what kind of services will be delivered to our students and what our citizens are entitled to as members of our district and community. The role of our school board, as I see it in establishing a budget, is to ensure that our district is responsive to our strategic plan and the values, beliefs and priorities of our community. And I think this does the best job we can do in achieving
that, although I am critical not about how you budgeted, but how, as I've said before, and I'll keep saying again how the state legislature and the governor are not properly funding schools. And we did not get properly funded under this last legislative session. We were flat and even negatively impacted by that promised money that never showed up. And that impacts things like the early childhood education that I argued so hard for that's not in here,
but I'm hopeful that it will find its way back in for the types of, you know, teachers and equipment and books and things that we need to educate our children. You don't control that. You control only the fact that, um, you know, we get, we get the revenue and we have the expense, and you work with that. Although I'm sure that at times, you know, you try to make a call to somebody and say, Hey, we need some help down here. I know that I do that. I know that other people do that on the board. I know that everybody tries, but sometimes we try
and they're deaf ears. So for me, I just want the public to know this is not just, like I say, a scheduled event where you just happen to pop up a budget for us tonight, and we just didn't ask any questions and we just rubber stamped it. It's been an evolving hard work for all of us concerned, and others in the community have had a chance to look at it and comment on it. And, um, I've received several comments about different things, and I take them to heart, but we can only do so much with what we have. And so, um, you know, I know that as a father
of 15 children, that, you know, it takes money to, um, to take care of the needs of a family, and you have to sometimes be very prudent about how you spend your money, um, even though maybe you're working over time, two jobs or whatever it takes, you know, to make things work. But, um, that's the message that I wanted to give because it's important, I think, for our community to know that it is a very important document that that seems to meet the standards that I have put on, um, to,
to be able to vote for a budget. Thank you. Thank you. Director Tebo. Director de Niro. I'll be really short. I don't have a script to read from, but I just wanna personally thank, uh, Lana and Ms. Nehouse. Is that how you say your last name? Knee hands? Yeah, like your knee and your hand. Okay. Thank you very much. I got reprimanded one time for not saying somebody's name correctly, and I thought I had been saying it correctly, but, um, knee hands, I'll remember that. But, um, wanna thank you for taking the role on, from Mr.
Horner last year and being robust and very, um, engaging with the, uh, the budget and always being available to board members, uh, to, sorry, he, yeah, I was giving you accolades, so I'm sorry. Um, um, always being available to board members at any time, and I, and I appreciate that. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
And I can't believe it's been a year that, that's pretty scary. Um, anyway, so your job now though is to approve the budget, uh, and all of the resolutions, et cetera, on the consent agenda, please. Okay. All right. Thank you, Ms. Hans for that report. We really appreciate it, as always. Thank you. Welcome. All right. We're now onto 11.0 approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion please? I have a motion, Yeah, I'll move, I'll move that. Uh, we approve agenda items on a consent agenda, items two through, uh, 33 through 33.
Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing None, please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. Dero? Aye. Judge Mays? Aye. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. We are now on to 12.0 action items. The first action item is administrative leadership appointments and reassignments. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Kinsey. Thank you President Pen Nuncio. And it is my pleasure to recommend to the Board of Education, uh, the appointment effective August 4th, 2025
of Bethany Trent, who is currently serving as the Dean of students at Heaton Middle School and promoting her to assistant principal at Heaton Middle School. Um, so I respectfully request that the board approve that recommendation. Alright, so may, may I have a, okay, do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please call a vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye.
Well, congratulations Ms. Trent. We're so excited for you. Would you like to say anything this evening? But we'd love you to come to the microphone. Congratulations. Thank you. Good evening. I'm sorry I'm losing my voice. Um, Mrs. Panzi, Dr. Kenzie, members of the board, I just wanna say how grateful I am, um, for this opportunity. I look forward to next school year and also wanna extend thanks to the Heaton community, um, for supporting me in this adventure. So thank you so much. Congratulations again. It's wonderful. Alright, our next action item is the Pueblo Education
Association Memorandums of Understanding. May I have a motion please? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Oh, uh, director de Niro. I, uh, let me just find it here. Let me go back to my, on the, um, just a minute. Okay. Stop on the MOUs. Um, can you tell me which if, are there any that are new? I know that there were seven or eight. Are they are usually we just, they're annual. Are there any new ones?
They are annual. Um, there were modifications to several. Um, one of the additions that you guys have before you of course, is the contract extension. That's part of the, of, of Right. But just the MOUs? Um, no really we just added, um, some things to workload and changed some things around that we have had historically that we, So there's not an additional MOU from last year. There's nothing new. Okay. Alright. And then, um, you know, I, in the future, maybe could you have the, your names typed in on the bottom because I, I think that's E Eric Dero.
It's absolutely me and it's absolutely Mike Mace every, yeah, it's been every Year. So And so is there, can we have their names typed in above their signatures? Certainly Next Week. We certainly can. That's, that's not a problem because I, I, I know that I thought that that was your, your signature. I've never seen your signature before. It's almost like, I believe it's there every Year. Every single year for the last 10 years. So, Um, um, and I, I Do, um, one thing I do want to correct Dr. That we did add one thing about the performance evaluation. There was a slight, um, part that is new if Article 16, that's not an MOU, but that's new in there as well.
It's a language change and it's also included in that packet. Okay. And then, um, let me go Back. I am still, I'm my, my computer just kind of, I, I think the five year, uh, extension, um, you know, I I I'm really pleased with that. I think probably this, are we the only district that has the five year? I, I've seen three and two and I, I don't know currently who has the five year agreement or not. I'm sure people have done in the past, but I don't think we, we Haven't done
It. No. Right. I don't think Yeah, correct because That, I think that really, um, helps everybody on both sides. Thank you. Other comments from the board? Alright, scene none. Would you please call the vote Ms. Patron? Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mayes? Aye. Mrs. Pen? Nuncio. Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. All right. All right. The next action item is gonna be a combination, um, of both, um, uh, number three and number four we're, I'm going to combine those together. Um, so may I have a motion please?
If that's too hard, we can keep them separate. But if we can make a motion to combine number three and four on the action items because the, uh, expulsions the recommendation is exactly the same for both of those. So moved. Oh, what you have to say? You have to say that would I Director, dear, would you like to make the motion? I, I move that the Board of education expels student 1 4 9 7 5 8 and 1 5 5 4 8 6 as presented in the June 24th, 2025 board materials. Does that cover everything? We don't. Okay. On the 45 days.
Alright, is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call a vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Kibo Aye. Our next action item is the resolution approving salary schedule for fiscal year 2025. 2026. May I have a motion please? I moved at the board. I move that the Board of Education adopts resolution approving salary schedules
for fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. Dero Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Cio? Aye. Mr. Tebow Aye. The next action item is the resolution authorizing the use of a portion of beginning fund balance for fiscal year 2025. 2026. May I have a motion please?
I move that the Board of Education adopts the resolution authorizing the use of a portion of beginning fund balance for fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion Senior Noam, please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. Dero Aye. Judge Mahe Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio. Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. Our next action item is the resolution
authorizing interfund borrowing for fiscal year 2025. 2026. May I have a motion please? I move that the Board of Education adopts the student fees, resolution and fee schedule. Is That the right one? Yeah. Effective July Fir. Is it Interfund borrowing. Oh, sorry, I scroll down too fast. I move that the Board of Education adopts a resolution authorizing inter fund borrowing for fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 as presented in the June 24th, 2025 board material. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion please call the vote. Ms. Patron.
Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. The next action item is the student fees resolution for the fiscal year 2025. 2026 full year. May I have a motion please? I move that the Board of Education adopts a student fees resolution and fee schedule effective July 1st, 2025 as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? See none.
Please call a vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno Aye. Mr. Tebow Aye. Our next one is appropriations resolution for fiscal year 2025. 2026. May I have a motion please? I move that the Board of Education adopts the fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 proposed budget as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion please call the vote.
Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. Dero Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. Alright, our final action item this evening is adoption of the fiscal year 20 25, 20 26. Proposed budget. May I have a motion please? I move that the Board of Education adopts the fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 proposed budget as presented in the June 24th, 2025 Board materials. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? CNM Please call a vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr.
Dero Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen? Aye. Mr. Tebo? Aye. Alright, we're on to 13.0 Board discussion and recommendations for future agendas. Does a board director have anything they would like to discuss and or make recommendations for items to be included in a future agenda? Director Tebow. Thank you. Um, I, I just want to underscore the fact that, um, in reviewing the various legislative bills that have an impact on our district, I counted, uh,
somewhere 24 maybe, you know, two dozen or so many of which require certain policies to be adopted or adjusted. And we've received some memo to that effect or information from the CASB organization dealing with, um, some that have to be done by, for example, September 1st. Others that have other deadlines, um, others we have a little more time, you know, to work on. And I, I just wanna be sure that, um, and I'm, I'm, I'm sure that this is the case that we're,
we're trying to, um, work on all those, some of which I have particular interest in and will you'll be pointing out in, in the future for us to take, take up at a, um, a board meeting. Um, but I've also brought this up before and I looked at the CASB leadership workbook and they actually have a, um, process where we can un engage for auditing of our different policies. And we have a tremendous number of policies. Um, but I'm finding that sometimes at least the ones
that I have, some dates aren't correct and some information isn't updated and maybe there's time for us to start talking about engaging CASB with, uh, their offer of having an audit of our different policies or developing a policy kind of review process. Um, it's an overwhelming effort I know, but I think sometimes it, it's, it's valuable to at least maybe take 'em in chunks dealing
with the most important ones that are, um, before us. And the other thing I brought up before is, uh, unrelated to policy, but it's the fact that we are commemorating our 250th year anniversary of the United States Constitution and the hundred and 50th year anniversary of anniversary of our Colorado constitution in 2026. And I'm hopeful that, um, some efforts being made for we as a board and as a district to join in those commemorations. Um, especially given the, you know, the situation
that we have in our country and in state today, uh, relative to certain things that are going on that some people would argue, um, may not square with our constitution. So it'd be a great thing to commemorate, honor and learn about our constitutions. And perhaps at a future board meeting we can discuss how the board can help with that. And that's my basically two suggestions. Thank you Director Tebow. Any other board members? Alright, we will now finish the evening
with 14.0 announcements and upcoming events. July 3rd through the fourth is a district holiday, the 4th of July, uh, and on July 17th, 2025 at 6:00 PM summer school graduation will be happening at South High School. And with that, if there's no further businesses this evening, may I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs.
Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tevo Aye, thank you for joining us this evening. Safe travels home.