Hi. Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the October 14th, 2025 special meeting of the Board of Education. I would like to now call the meeting to order the time is 2:00 PM Ms. Patron, would you please call the role Mr. Cisneros? Dr. De Niro. Here, judge Mays. Here. Mrs. Pen Nuncio. Here. Mr. Tebo here. And if you now you would now stand with me and say the Pledge of Allegiance Of United States of America to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice fraud.
Alright, Before we adopt the agenda, does Superintendent Kimsey or a board member have any recommendations for corrections or modifications to the agenda at this time? All right. Excuse me. Scene none. We'll move on to 3.0 adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion, please? So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved in, seconded to adopt, uh, the agenda for the October 14th, 2025 special meeting of the D 60 Board of Education as presented in the board materials. Is there any discussion? See none. Please call the vote. Ms.
Patone. Dr. Dero Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio. Aye. Mr. Tepo? Aye. We'll begin the afternoon with a public hearing. The purpose of this public hearing is to provide the community the opportunity to give input on the 20 25 20 26 Unified School improvement plans for priority for priority improvement in turnaround schools. Mr. Sprouse, do we have any recorded comments in regard to the unified school improvement plans?
Madam President, we did not receive any recorded comments for today's meeting. And do we have any, um, in-person, in person, individuals here to speak this afternoon? I, I haven't seen anyone that's signed up or, or in the audience, but certainly if they are. Okay. Alright, perfect. I think we're okay. Thank you very much. We will now then move on to our work session. Superintendent Kimsey, do we have any work session updates this afternoon? Good afternoon, president Pen Nuncio. We absolutely do. It's my honor and pleasure to first introduce, uh, Mr. Dalton Sprouse, our director of communications and,
and community engagement, who will, um, update the board on our, what are You Reading campaign? Mr. Sprouse? Man, rookie mistake here. I didn't turn on the mic. Good afternoon. Uh, Madam President, superintendent, and, uh, members of the board. So glad to be here today. You know, last year our school district adopted the tagline, present and Powerful, be Present, be Powerful, a reminder of how critical it is for students to be in school on time, all day, every day. That message continues to guide our work as remain
as we remain deeply committed to supporting consistent attendance across all our schools. This year, we've built upon that foundation with a renewed and intentional focus on literacy. Our updated slogan is Present, powerful and empowered by Reading. We know that strong reading skills are the heart of a student success, not just in the classroom, but throughout all of life. Reading touches every content area. It's found in math, science, history, CTE, and even music. That's why it's so important for all of our students from our youngest learners in elementary
to our high schoolers, that they're equipped with the tools that they need to become confident and capable readers. While this campaign is still in its early stages, we are fully committed to making it a central focus for the rest of the school year to beyond on. So what are you re what are you reading? Is it Junie b Jones? How about Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Or maybe something a little spookier for the season, like Goosebumps. Do comic books count? Yep, sure do. How about cute stories about pets? Or maybe you wanna learn a little bit more about animals,
like why elephants have trunks? How about sports magazines or fashion and beauty tips? Those count too. You can read some of the best poetry out there, or realistic fiction novels and self-help and professional development books are also a popular choice. The fact is reading is not only a great way for kids to improve their vocabulary, but it also helps them develop emotional maturity for kids of any age. It is important that we find things to read that peak our interest, but still challenge us. So we continue to love to read throughout our lives.
So here's what some of our scholars are reading. You may have noticed that we've started rolling out a new campaign on social media. The goal of this campaign isn't just to ask what are you reading, but to encourage people to reflect on their own reading habits and make reading a part of their everyday lives from student athletes and cheerleaders to local leaders. And yes, even a few Denver Broncos. We've been excited to feature a wide range of voices and share these posts with our community. And we're just getting started. We look forward to creating many more throughout the school year. Each person featured in the campaign was asked a few simple
but meaningful questions. What are you reading now? What were some of your favorite books that you enjoyed as a kid? And what advice would you give to elementary students to keep them engaged in reading? Our hope is that our younger students see these role models talking about books, and that they'll begin to view reading as something fun, relatable, and even cool. After all, reading is something that we all do, so we might as well enjoy it to take the campaign a step further. Many of our social media posts will be turned into posters that will be shared in our elementary schools. So posters featuring centennial
or central students like these will be shared with their feeder schools, and the same will happen with the other high schools in our district. Each poster will feature a campaign branding along with students' responses to these, uh, to the three campaign questions. The conversations will be displayed in a fun text message style giving, giving the posters a modern relatable look that speaks to how our students communicate. Often today. We know that our high school athletes and cheerleaders are often seen as local celebrities, and we wanted to harness that influence in a positive way. The goal is for our younger students to see these posters
and say, wow, when I get to high school, I wanna be just like her, or I wanna be just like him. We want them to feel inspired and see themselves reflected in those images. We are truly excited to start getting these posters into our schools and look forward to creating many more as the campaign continues to grow. We're proud to be strengthening our partnerships with the Pueblo City County Library District as we continue to work to enhance our connected program, which currently gives, uh, every D 60 student free access to the incredible resources available to them. At the library, students are not only able to check out books, but they can also access the library's
digital resources and tools. In addition, we're working with books, again, bookstore, a spinoff of the library to identify, um, additional opportunities where we can offer free books as incentives for student attendance. This secondhand store is willing to provide an inventory of books for us to share with our students, and we hope to offer these programs at our upcoming school and district activities. We're also excited to announce a new partnership with Analog Books and Records, a downtown local business connected to Solar Rose. Co copy in collaboration with owner Mike Hart,
cop Analog will soon have a feature, uh, that they're gonna call the D 60 spotlight. This will give students the opportunity to purchase their own books that they're reading in school. Students can simply show their ID card and receive the books at a discounted price. This partnership not only supports local businesses or a local business, but more importantly, enc. It encourages students to develop a lifelong love and passion for reading. All of these partnerships are helping us show students that reading can be fun, social, and an adventure waiting to happen. We're also partnering with the Library District this year
with their All Pueblo Reeds campaign. This year, several of our high school students will be reading The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocum, while elementary students will be reading the music Inside Us by James Howe and illustrated by Jack Wong. Both selections are engaging and deeply meaningful. Not only will our students have the opportunity to gauge, engage with this rich content and powerful stories in these books, but many will also get a chance to meet the author or illustrator in person. Two students from each of our five high schools have been invited to attend the book Lovers Ball on October 24th,
where Brandon Slocum will serve as the keynote speaker. He'll also be visiting Central High School earlier that week for more personal student interaction. Oops. Jack Wong of the music inside us has already visited South Park and Bradford Elementary Schools, where younger students were able to, uh, have the opportunity to meet the illustrator of that wonderful book. And speaking of author visits, we're also working to, uh, to bring even more authors directly into our schools and to inspire and engage our students. Earlier this year, Christie QuTech, a local author
and former teacher, generously donated a copy of her book, A Bushel and a Peck of Pueblo's Best to Every Elementary School in D 60. Her work celebrates the unique culture and community spirit of Pueblo, and we're grateful for her support and literacy in our schools. Her support of literacy in our schools. In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, students at Bach Elementary also had the opportunity to meet with an author. Her name was Graciela Tero Soro and an accomplished Air Force pilot, um, turned award-winning author and storyteller Graciela has, uh, used her platform
to champion education for Latino youth. And in 2014, she was recognized by the White House as the champion of change for her advocacy. These kinds of author visits provide powerful real life connection that helps students see what's possible when they build strong literacy skills. They get to hear personal stories, ask questions, and they get to feel seen. And that impact is lasting As part of this campaign. D 60 is proudly partnering with our CTE programs at Centennial and East High School to design, build, and sustain a network of free many libraries across our community.
These student built libraries will help promote literacy by providing free access to diverse reading materials, while also connecting directly with students' career pathways. The project integrates design thinking, real world problem solving and key skills from both construction and manufacturing programs. While our manufacturing students are responsible for building the libraries, we're also engaging with our business and marketing students to help design the graphics. They'll also develop outreach strategies and manage advertising efforts, all using the mini libraries, uh, and making sure that they're both eye-catching
and sustainable over time. Although this phase of the What Are You Reading Campaign is still in its early stages, we're incredibly excited to see the creative collaboration of our students come to life. As I said earlier, D 60 has built on our commitment of being present and powerful by introducing a renewed focus on literacy present, powerful and empowered. By reading from the youngest learners to high school students, we are dedicated to ensuring that every scholar develops strong reading skills, skills that impact success across all content areas and in life. Beyond the classroom, through creative campaigns,
social marketing, uh, social media, uh, spotlights and inspiring partnerships with local businesses, libraries, and authors. We are showing students that reading can be fun, social, and meaningful. From poster campaigns featuring student athletes to many libraries built by our CTE students, we are connecting reading with real world experiences, um, in community engagement, author visits, book giveaways and interactive literacy programs provide students with opportunities to see themselves reflected in the stories, explore new worlds, and build a lifelong love of reading.
By empowering our students with the tools support and inspiration to read, we're not only fostering academic growth, but also also nurturing, confident, curious, and engaged learners who are ready to thrive in school and beyond. Our challenge and invitation is simple. Let's encourage every student, staff member and community member to look themselves in the mirror and ask one simple question, what are you reading? Thank you. Thank you so much Mr. Sprouse. That, uh, that just sounds so much fun. And there, there sounds like a lot of fun and there's so many components to that campaign,
so many pieces I wasn't even aware of yet. So thank you so much. Thank you. Are there questions from the board for Mr. Sprouse? Director Tebow? Thank you. I just can't help but comment on this. It's like a softball thing thrown at me so I can hit it over the fence. Um, to me this is just absolutely outstanding. Um, I especially appreciate the notion, um, and the leadership of our superintendent and administrative staff that this is the key to lifelong learning. Absolutely. This is the key to, for individuals to,
you know, to have success in life basically. Um, but I want to impart three real quick stories. Um, I have a daughter that lives in Castle Rock and when she graduated from Arizona State University, she started a nonprofit corporation that it, that has, um, been in Colorado as well. And it's, um, called Read to Me. And so when mothers go into the hospital to deliver their babies, um, she has a care package for them, which includes what you would think when, you know, a family has a baby, but also books to read.
And she was very, um, dedicated to the task and still is dedicated to the task of, uh, believing that, um, when a families hold each other and read together, it's, it's really the start. Um, even in their infancy after birth. Um, secondly, I thought I'd bring to you my answer of what I'm reading and it says, um, Papa doesn't do anything by Jimmy Fallon. And that, that's my 4-year-old granddaughter who I watch every day.
And she bought me this book and she said, um, she asked me, why don't you do anything? And so we read this together, but unfortunately at the end of the book it says, from the looks of it, Papa doesn't really do much of anything and it's true, but Papa would do anything, anything for you. Oh. So, you know, that's kind of, um, a little nugget there to treasure. And lastly, on a little more serious note, one of my sons, um, I think it was my, I think it was my third son, but I get mixed up sometimes about how many sons I have.
But he, he had trouble reading in elementary school and we would go to McDonald's on the south side every morning, um, about 5:00 AM And he would ask me, 'cause I would read different things and, and I'd ask him to come with me and we'd read. And one of the things that uh, impressed me is he said, well, what should I be reading? And I, I told him, just anything that is of interest to you. Yes. And so when I saw, uh, Taylor Swift on the screen, I thought, you know, that is, that's real popular now. Yeah. And a lot of individuals want to read about her or with her, along with her.
And so he read sports, he read a lot of football and soccer and things like that. Mm-hmm. And he used to take a ruler and kind of read down. Yep. Um, and then we put him in a Title one program in the summer, I believe it was title one for, um, improving reading. And he just one day just blossomed. And now he's a, um, well, he's a Phoenix police officer assigned to the FBI in Phoenix, so he knows how to read. Yeah. And so I just wanted to impart those stories because, you know, for people like me who are
in elective office, we, we sometimes are accused of just talking about things and not doing things. And these are the things that I think every family can relate to. There's got to be somebody in your life that a story can be told like this. Mm-hmm. And I just wanted to impart three. I won't go through all the kids or all the grandkids 'cause we would stay here till midnight. Yeah. But thank you for doing this. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, director Tebow. Any other comments from the board? All right. Thank you again Mr. Sprouse. We appreciate it.
Superintendent Kimsey, do we have any more reports this afternoon? We do. And thank you again Mr. Sprouse, for helping us be present, powerful and empowered by reading. Um, our next report will be, uh, led by our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Mr. Ted Johnson, um, with assistance from our executive director of elementary schools, uh, or elementary education, Ms. Ura and our Executive Director of Secondary Education in CTE Ms. IMEs. Uh, and they are going to share with us, uh,
the beginning of the year local assessment data report. And I would like to remind the board, and they will too, that this is baseline data. This is the first year for this consistent comprehensive, um, approach to beginning, midyear and end of year assessment so that we can use that data to drive instruction. And I just like to say how proud I am of this team, the entire cabinet, because we've asked them to do a lot this year
with these assessments and all of our principals, assistant principals and teachers who are working so hard to implement this with fidelity. So with that said, it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Johnson, Ms. Cura and Ms. Es. Thank you, uh, Dr. Kimsey. And, uh, good afternoon, president Pen Nuncio and members of the board. Um, if you'll recall, in September, we had the opportunity to share with you the results of last Spring State assessments. Um, and from that presentation, you may remember that one of our action steps was to revise and enhance our assessment system, including the use of new,
a new set of assessment tools and resources with the goal of providing more actionable data for teachers and leaders to use. Uh, this afternoon we'd like to share with you, uh, the initial or kind of baseline results that have come from these new resources. Uh, we'll provide you with an overview of each of our assessment tools, their purpose, and how our students performed at the beginning of the year. Uh, these assessment results do give us a baseline set of data that we can use. And as the year progresses, we can see updated results to evaluate the progress that our students are making. The goal in looking at this data throughout the year, um,
will, uh, be to focus upon seeing growth. And so, in other words, you'll see a lot of different colored bands, um, in some of the, the graphs that we show you today. And what we wanna see over time is fewer students in those red and yellow bands and more students falling into those higher bands, which are typically green and then sometimes blue. Um, so we will, we'll get started with that. Uh, assessments and their results serve many different purposes throughout our organization, and they're used by different stakeholders in different ways. Most importantly, the results are used
to make appropriate adjustments to the teaching and learning process. So at the classroom and school level, this may mean reteaching a concept or an idea that was, um, missed, uh, by students, or it could mean organizing a small group, uh, instruction, uh, activity, uh, that's tailored to the unique and specific needs of a student or a group of students. And at the district level, uh, this may mean adjusting the scope and sequence to focus on a common challenge or weakness for students that comes from the data, or providing teachers with additional effective instructional strategies to ensure
that students master certain concepts and skills. Uh, these assessment results can also help us to identify the need for additional resources and supports that a particular school or schools may need to be more successful. So this chart that you see here, uh, shows or highlights the different assessments we have within each level, as well as their intended purpose. Each of the columns to the right represents how assessments are used for these different purposes. For example, screener assessments, uh, which you see in that first kind of, uh, column are given three times per year.
And they provide us with a set of baseline data that we can use. They allow us to measure that growth over time. And that's a lot of the data that you're going to see today is that beginning of the year screener data. Uh, next we have diagnostic assessments. These allow us to identify, uh, student's strengths as well as their challenges. Um, they're able to usually to drill down to the individual student analysis, um, all the way up to kind of overall district level results. You'll also know, uh, DIBELS eight listed there, uh, fulfills one of the requirements, which is to have a, uh, an assessment that's approved, uh, by the Read Act.
And then the fourth type of assessment are the quarterly benchmark assessments. They're administered, uh, uh, the end of every nine weeks. They are aligned to our scope and sequence, and they provide an indication as to whether or not students are meeting the rigor of the standards being taught within each unit. Um, they are used in key content areas and are being developed by our TNL team. And, um, as I mentioned, a previous presentation. Um, as we administer each of those, there will be an opportunity, um, for educators to provide us feedback, uh, in terms of, uh, how they went, what things they noted in order to, um,
refine and improve them. So with that kind of high level background, I'd like to turn it over to Ms. Kim Kura, who serves as our, as our executive director of elementary education. And she's going to share some of the results, um, from the elementary data. Good afternoon, president Pen Nuncio, super, superintendent Kimsey, and members of the board. I will be presenting the beginning of the year data for our elementary students. To start off, we have our grades, kindergarten through third. We use DIBELS eight. DIBELS is the dynamic indicator
of basic early literacy skills, and it's our primary tool to assess foundational reading skills. DIBELS provides us a clear diagnostic lens of early literacy development, allowing teachers to precisely target instruction based on the science of reading. The assessment measures different skills by grade level, which are combined into a composite score for the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year for our kindergarten students. The assessment focuses on letter naming, phonemic awareness, and decoding with nonsense word fluency.
In first grade, the focus is on decoding, which involves nonsense word fluency and word reading fluency and early oral reading fluency with comprehension For grades second through third, the focus is on oral reading, fluency and comprehension. The beginning of the year, DIBELS data shows a high percentage of students starting at well below benchmark. And this is typical of a universal screener and definitely confirms our priority in reading. The data then drives our instructional actions. We implement intentional progress monitoring
and then target the instruction for all of our at-risk students. We should see students move along this proficiency level and definitely demonstrate the growth by mid and end of year, um, assessments. And one of our examples of how uh, teachers can support the gaps in the early literacy skills is by utilizing a program called Boost, which is based on the science of reading. And it is an adaptive technology piece that is a, um, it's in, it's within our, uh, resource CKLA.
And so teachers can utilize that from kindergarten all the way up until fifth grade. And it helps tailor the instruction based on individual student needs. And the goal is to fill those literacy gaps. The next assessment tool we have is STAR reading, which we administer to our fourth through ninth grade students. And I will be highlighting what we have received for our benchmark data for elementary fourth through fifth grade. What it does is it provides real-time insight into our students' current current reading skill.
It's administered at the start of the year to establish a baseline of student proficiency. The data then helps us understand where each of our students are performing relative to grade level expectations. It identifies students who are on track as well as those who may need additional support or enrichment. This baseline allows us to set personalized learning goals and monitor growth throughout the year. Unlike the literacy screeners, STAR focuses on the higher level literacy skills for reading to learn. It provides data that can be categor categorized into two
main domains, the first being vocabulary and foundational skills, and the second being advanced comprehension and text analysis. On this slide, we see that we have an overall reading proficiency for our fourth and fifth grade. Fourth is on the left, and fifth grade is on the right. The data indicates that a significant number of our fourth and fifth grade students began this year, either below grade level expectation or in need of immediate support. When we see these, this information,
we notice there's definitely potential gaps for our intermediate students. Again, our new reading resource, CKLA provides ample opportunity for our students to engage in comprehension and vocabulary instruction by utilizing the effective strategy strategies within the resource. Our next graph is reflective of our star math assessment for elementary grades first through fifth, and it measures the student's math achievement across four domains. The first being numbers and operations, the second algebra, third, geometry
and measurement, and last data analysis, statistics and probability. The data indicates that students continue to have a gap in their conceptual understanding of math. We've continued to implement the math framework from two partner, which promotes the use of conceptual learning as well as the use of manipulatives. In addition to our math specialists, they support with planning and internalizing literacy. I'm sorry, internalizing lesson planning in math. I dunno if that's our last one. Um, with that said, we will continue
with our secondary piece, and I'll hand it over to Ms. Marcy IMEs. Thank you, Kim. I had to learn how to use the microphone all over again. Um, good afternoon, board President, pen Nuncio, Dr. Kinzie and members of the board. This afternoon, I will be presenting our secondary level, uh, data beginning year assessment with the beginning year assessment data. I'll start off with the middle school ELA data similar to what you saw in elementary star data. Our middle school report demonstrates proficiency in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. As you can see here.
Um, middle school reading data indicates that this needs to be a continued focus for our district, which it is, and particularly in the seventh grade level, where less than 40% of our students meet or exceed expectations. If we drill down, uh, to the standard level, we find that overall for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade level, analyzing informational text for structure and organization to make meaning as well as using vocabulary and context to make meaning of unfamiliar words are identified as our biggest, uh, gaps.
To address our gaps or focus to address this, our district is utilizing, uh, reading in the content area, professional development to provide our educators with best practices in direct and indirect vocabulary strategies to support a stronger acquisition of key academic vocabulary. Some examples include graphic organizers such as the FREYER model, uh, morphological analysis, like root words and that sort of thing. Uh, semantic mapping. How do I use new words with, uh, no, with known vocabulary terms,
discussing nuances within the vocabulary, using context clues, and then using, uh, the authentic integration of academic language throughout each lesson that's been taught. Um, our next slide here, uh, indicates our middle school math, uh, data. Our middle school uses IXL to track student progress in math. This includes topics ranging from numerical expressions and ratios to pre-algebra, algebra, readiness, and geometrical foundations. As a reminder, this is the beginning of the year assessment,
and the standards addressed at each grade level have not yet been taught, but it does give us an idea of where we are beginning. Looking at the chart, the area in the dark green represents percentage of students who are above grade level. Uh, light green is on grade level, yellow is below grade level, and then the red is far below grade level. So you can see we have a lot of work to do. Um, our beginning of the year data aligns with the results that we see on our state assessment. Currently, our analysis indicates that there aren't any notable strengths in
terms of student performance. As a significant number of students at each grade level are struggling with a variety of math concepts and skills. These include geometry concepts, expressions and equations, and statistical and probability, just to name a few. As a district, um, our math specialist is supporting middle school math teachers in using this data to identify specific skill gaps and leverage their instruction to reteach the skill gap within their daily instruction as they continue to move forward throughout the curriculum. This aligns with our tier one analysis gap.
We are also using two partner to strengthen small group instruction in the classroom. Um, Our ninth grade ELA data demonstrates that 32%, um, of our ninth graders, uh, or ninth grade students met or exceeded expectations. And then again, if we drill down to the standard level, we find that there's a need to focus on teaching our students to write well developed arguments and informative, explanatory text. Uh, other gaps include analyzing the development of the central idea and analyzing the impact of word choice. Again, we're using reading in the content area,
instructional strategies to address and support reading and writing in all content areas. For an example, if a student, uh, are writing and science or social studies, it usually is to argue, persuade, or explain a concept or process. Uh, this provides more opportunities for students to practice and get feedback on their writing. And finally, we wanna tell you, uh, and we're excited about to tell you about eed. A EDA is a new assessment tool being used in our high schools. ED is aligned to the algebra one, algebra two, and geometry courses.
Educators can see the individual student progress related to each standard. From a district lens, we're still trying to figure out exactly what reports best display overall growth over time. But from a teacher lens, this tool is extremely useful to track student progress. As an example, if you focus on the geometry standard that is in the far left on my side, far left, uh, um, bottom left corner of the screen, we know that many of our students have not yet mastered this, uh, standard. The area in the green, the little small greens, uh,
represent, um, students who are proficient on that standard. In other words, if they took the P-S-A-T-S-A-T assessment today, those students would've mastered that standard and would be proficient on that standard. Uh, the area in yellow represents our students who, um, need a little bit more practice with that standard, uh, time and practice. And the area in red represents those students who need intervention on this particular standard. This quarter, we've been, uh, focused on supporting teachers and implementing EDA. Um, and our math specialist has been working
with our high school math teachers to identify high priority standards per quarter. And then to use e DIA data to understand where our gaps are and how to use EED a to support student learning, either through daily assignments, homework, direct instruction, and quizzes. Um, our focus for this quarter is lifting the algebra skills that are taught in our algebra and geometry classes to ensure that we're building a strong foundation. And then specifically in geometry and area of focus is knowing precise definition of angle, circle and lines.
Um, at this time, I'll turn it back to Mr. Johnson. Thank you. Um, Ms. Ames. Um, a lot of information. We are gonna give you all a quiz since we're talking about assessment. Just, just kidding. Um, it is a lot of information and we are continuing to learn and utilize these new assessment tools. Um, this is kind of our first kind of go at, at sharing local data with you all. Um, it's our intention to come back, um, after the new year and, and provide you with an update on some of these. And so over time, we'll all kind of get more familiar with these, these resources and the data and what it means.
Um, that said, this is the conclusion of our presentation and we'd be happy to, uh, respond to any questions that you might have. Are there questions? Well, first of all, thank you so much to all three of you for that report. That was excellent. A lot of new information. Director Mayes. Okay, we're gonna have a show up here on age. Uh, there's no question about it, but, uh, maybe you could help me understand this. Okay. The, uh, as I was going, as we, as you were going through your presentation, it appeared to me that you were telling me that kids are engaged in
geometry now in the middle schools. Uh, it, it, it did I hear that right? 'cause uh, I, my recollection is, is I think I was a sophomore in, in high school before under, and I still don't know what a hypotenuse is, but I might learn one of these days, I, I, I, is that, am I accurate in that or are we really advanced to that stage now where, uh, they're learning three or four grades earlier than the old man would've learned? So our standards are, um, aligned to all the way from kindergarten to high school, really
that dibble that dabble in concepts in geometry. And so for our eighth grade students, they also, um, they also work with those geometry standards as well, so that by the time they get to those geometry courses, it's not, uh, it's not starting new or fresh. It's starting from building the building, uh, the foundational, um, understanding of geometrical processes and geometrical concepts, and then building on that to that deeper level that you are used to taking at high school level. I wish they would've done that with me. So I didn't have to go out a cold in this in my sophomore
year, which I'm still trying to figure out what that's all about and everything. The, uh, uh, with regard to the evaluation, as you go through, this is the beginning of year. We'll have middle of year, and then I, but end of, end of year, what are the processes that you'll be using for those students that are having a difficult time mastering concepts in whatever field we're talking about? So I think we look at that in a couple ways, kind of from a district lens. We kind of look and say, are we seeing trends, uh, across a grade level or a content area?
Are there some things kind of systemically that we need to adjust, uh, you know, providing more resource resources or lessons around a certain concept saying, Hey, here's something we're seeing kind of across the board that students are struggling with, um, or a significant number are struggling with. So here's some, some other ways to approach that. Um, and then more specifically, uh, each school can kind of drill down with this data and look at, Hey, in this particular class, what are we seeing? Oh, here's a group of students that really haven't mastered or, or are struggling with this concept.
What kinds of of additional support can we provide them? That might be pulling a small group of students for some, uh, some, uh, additional instruction during math? Uh, I think we might have talked a little bit about this last time. It could be something like that. It could be providing an afterschool, um, support. Um, so we're, we're able to look at the data, um, kind of in different ways. Um, and we will certainly look at it one way and then collaborate with schools. And they might look at something more, more specific to, to the unique needs of the students in their school. So, uh, at the, at the end of the year, I'm assuming
that there will be some sort of benchmark saying, this was our target, uh, at, at the end of the year. And for those students that have not met that now we're expecting them to go into yet another level of learning, uh, for lack of a better word. Okay. Uh, will those students then be reached, receive additional support for, uh, again, for lack of a better word, to catch up before they get into that next level or, uh, during the summer school or something like that? How, how do we, how do we address the situation
of keeping these, these students from just getting further and further behind? Uh, and can we, uh, I mean, I guess that's where we're at, at it, so, uh, I don't know. Do You, yeah. I, I mean, I think the intention is certainly, um, uh, to do that, to reduce the number of those students that, that we have, um, so that we continue to provide more, um, um, support and intervention for them. I think the answer is yes. I think we can do that for students, um, uh, with the proper supports. Um, certainly by the time they get to high school, um,
where they start earning credits, um, you know, there, there tends to be more opportunities around credit recovery and, and some, uh, different, different, um, things that they can do through summer programming to kind of catch up as you mentioned. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Other questions? Dr. De Niro? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Just, um, a couple questions. Your star, let me start with dibels. How long have we used DIBELS in the district? We used it prior to this year, but this is our first year with DIBELS eight as a
district wide, uh, usage. So other, uh, does that mean that individual schools have used DIBELS Individually? Schools that were in a, an ELAP grant were, um, expected to use dibels. So that was a handful of schools, and I would say out of our 18, maybe three, and then it was dwindled to maybe one, and they've been using it for a few years. Yeah. I guess I recall that the term DIBELS had been used, uh, historically in the district. Yeah.
I, I would, I would guess it probably goes back 20 years when we first started using it. Mm-hmm. Um, historically, if you, uh, remember I think it was around 2020 we had that, uh, COVID pandemic thing that happened. And, um, DIBELS was a really difficult assessment to utilize during that time, um, because of all the, the face-to-face and how it's administered. And, and so at that time as a district, we adopted a different tool. Um, we listened to a lot of feedback over the last couple of years, um, from, uh, principals and teachers that really wanted to get back to using that.
And so that was part of our process in identifying and using it again. Thank you. I think that goes to the, you know, use of an assessment that's consistent, you know, throughout the years in, in the whole district. Um, and then, um, star, I know as a district we're implement, it sounds like we're implementing that district wide, but that's another, uh, assessment that has been on and off and on and off again, uh, historically. Yeah. And it has a lot of different type.
There's a star kind of as a compendium of a lot of different ones. One that, that, um, that was u utilized a lot in our district was the accelerated reader kind of program that use, that's, that's a star kind of product and component. Yeah. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Um, again, the consistency for assessments for teachers and for students, and even for parents to understand, um, the assessments and the data. Um, IXL is new this year? No, that is not, that's actually when we continued to use, um, uh, at the middle level.
Okay. And then I noticed that, uh, on the IXL, the six to eight, the comment was made that, um, the red was, you know, larger than the rest because the standards possibly haven't been taught yet. So that kind of leads me to, um, the question of scoping in sequence before the assessment, and how do you get as much as you can in before the assessments? Yeah, so, so if we think about the, the, the benchmark assessment, kind of measuring everything now,
what, what do we want kids to know and be able to do by the end of eighth grade, say? And so as time goes on, when we see that middle benchmark, we'll see progress towards proficiency, we'll see that that number of kids that is read reducing because they will have, uh, been exposed and learn more of those standards. And then the same thing by the end of the year. So it's really a tool designed to measure growth, uh, over time. Um, then we have, we have, uh, as I mentioned in that chart, some of the other assessments that will let us do a little more, um, uh, be a little more responsive.
Uh, Dr. Kimsey, If I may, um, I'd like to share. So yes, DIBELS was used previously, but it had fallen off. It wasn't consistent. So our goal was to make it consistent. STAR was used, I think, by a couple of schools here and there, but not, and the star that we're using is different from ar. That's, that's a different, different thing. So I wanna make sure we're really clear. Uh, what you're seeing here is screener data. And so it doesn't really, we are going
to give these same assessments, be begin, beginning, middle, and end of the year, and they will test all of those standards. The benchmark assessments, which are also new this year, will actually be aligned with pacing. So, for example, the quarter one benchmark will only test skills and concepts that we taught in quarter one according to our enhanced scope and sequence. These assessments you're seeing here are not tied to pacing, and we don't want them to be.
So the math is naturally gonna show more red than the reading, because as we know, reading is a spiraling skill, whereas math is very sequential. Um, and so that explains some of it. However, judge Mays, all of you are right in saying we are very, and we, we admit that you've seen the CMAs data. We have a lot of work to do. Um, these assessments are gonna help us target that work very strategically and help us as a district provide those supports to schools, uh, principals and teachers
so they can better address those gaps. And our job with MTSS is to identify even down to the individual student level, okay, here are the gaps, let me get you into some intervention to try to meet those gaps. Um, and so it's, it's a systemic process. Are we perfect at it? No, but we're going to get better as the year progresses. Okay. Thank you. I have a couple more questions, um, that you mentioned. Um, director May's, uh, question regarding
how do we catch him up? Um, I was at a, um, conference just a couple days ago, and the question regarding, you know, the third grade, um, assessments and the state assessments, and I was curious to hear that, um, some states are now really looking at the third grade as a to for better words, they draw a line in the sand, and that if they didn't have the skills
and, um, the comprehension for reading that at the legislation level at the state level, they said you have to do interventions before, um, you, you move on. And, um, they showed some data of states having, for example, 67% of their third grade population, um, below grade level. And when they implemented the state, um, regulation, um, throughout the years, it really dropped. Uh, but again, that, you know, that takes money.
Um, anytime you do any interventions, you have to have more, you know, funding support, um, to hire. So is that something, um, Dr. Kimsey that, you know, how do you feel about states that do those kinds of things to help students? So I come from Texas, and when I was a baby teacher in the eighties, that was state law. Uh, and what occurred, if you look at Texas data, um, seemed to improve, but that's because people got to where, let me say this the best way.
I can't, they basically got to where they taught to the test better. Could the kids really read better? Not necessarily. And as a high school English teacher, I can attest to that. Um, so mandating that a student must go to intervention or pass a certain benchmark, while I understand and can agree with the basic philosophy that we shouldn't move kids on until they're ready, the research is also very, very clear that retaining students actually results in increased dropout rates, um,
and decreased achievement rates. Um, and so we have to be really careful with that balance. Um, as a high school administrator, I would much prefer to get that student early on so that I could provide those interventions and really try to get them caught up in the state I'm coming from. They had to pass all the equivalents of CMAs in order to graduate, including the reading, writing, uh, algebra one, uh, geometry, um, earth science there.
They had to pass them all. Uh, but it allowed us that time if a student, so that that third grade level is the key level, as we all know. That's when that flip happens between learning to read, reading to learn, um, and students start becoming more and more frustrated, but holding them back, the research is very clear, um, that that doesn't result in increased student achievement. Well, and I guess I don't suggest,
because I understand the research that we hold 'em back, but how do we, you know, I know in high school, um, this particular district, years ago, we used to try to give them reading interventions at the high school level, and then it was in place of an, uh, elective, and then there was an issue with that. And so it just seems to me that, you know, legislation wise, we should be able to support, again, that goes back to funding, um, in the early grades. And, you know, we can have grant after grant
after grant, something has to be stabilized within the funding to support reading. If, if that's what we wanna do, you know, as a focus, um, that you don't just have all these things going on. But, um, that's my two, 2 cents. Um, and I, I think with the, it is spiraling curriculum, you're right. Um, but thank you all for the interesting, um, conversation about your assessments and your data. It's always intriguing to me. Um, that's, that's what I've always liked to look at and,
and see what's what and how we can improve it and how we can improve it collectively, uh, you know, together as a district. And I think one of the first things is that we have consistent assessments, um, district-wide, not, you know, as we heard earlier that we had some schools using this and some schools using that. So thank you Dr. Kimsey, for your leadership in that area. And thank you all here for your leadership and especially at the building levels, uh, because that's, um, that's where it's really hard to try
to balance everything and run a building and, and have teachers in the classroom and still, um, have all the things that happen in the classroom, you know, from the moment to moment to day to day, to to month and month. Thank you, director Tebow. Thank you. I, I wasn't gonna really say anything about this. Um, but since we've been talking about the third grade reading, uh, benchmark issue, I, I just have to, um, make sure that, um,
the board understands my position on this. Uh, I tend to align with our superintendent on this reasoning in the early 19, uh, nineties and maybe late 1980s, not the 19 hundreds, um, But the 1990s and the 1980s, um, I had the, the privilege to vote against legislation that would mandate, um, that if, uh, there was not a successful, uh, reader at third grade, that they would somehow be held back or somehow punished. This is really an origin
of why we have charter schools in Colorado, um, in a partisan way. Members of the legislature who oppose public education as a, um, as a theme for educating our children wanted to attack teachers for the fact that students weren't, um, performing at a certain level that they thought they should be performing. And it generated standards, assessments, charter schools, and the whole thing. Um, it was the wrong way to go, in my opinion, then it's the wrong way to go, in my opinion now.
Um, so I just wanted to be clear on the record that, um, you know, I, I think our superintendent has the right, um, uh, direction in, in this, uh, situation. Um, I also wanted to, to say, since I decided to say that, that, um, It seems to me that what we're doing here is helpful from a district point of view. I don't really see this as something the state is mandating us to do. I see this as something that the district is experimenting
with and creating and is doing, um, a very fine job of it. And I think that's one of the keys that, that drives local control of public education. I think districts and our local boards, um, have to assess what our students need and provide the resources for them to accomplish those needs. Uh, I might be misinterpreting this, but I'm interpreting it as sort of, um, something that helps, uh, from our district's point of view to have students improve in their ability to, to do reading and math
and the, the basic, um, uh, subjects and curriculum that, uh, the board has indicated in the past that, that our students should, uh, undertake. And if I'm wrong in that, please correct me. But, um, that has impressed me and I appreciate that. Thank you. Director Tebow. Director Maye, uh, during your, your, uh, conversation with us, you used the word pacing. Can you tell me what pacing, what that means, please? Sure. Pacing is basically where we say, okay, these are our standards.
These are the concepts and skills that we're going to teach, right? And these are the weeks that they're going to be taught. Uh, and so for example, uh, first week of school I might be teaching main idea, then I might move on to inferencing. If I'm an English language arts teacher, then I might move on to making sure students know how to use context clues. Those specific skills are the ones in my pacing that we as a district design, that enhance scope and sequence that has the pacing that tells teachers in
what order to teach and, and about generally the amount of time to spend on concepts and skills so that students will progress all the way through and get to through the standards by the end of the school year. So, so that takes a great deal of fidelity on the class from the classroom teacher and, and the school administration? I would think so. Uh, and, and, and I, I agree with Mr. TiVo. There's a reason why we talk about local control. Mm-hmm. And that is because our educators here know best
what our kids need and they're gonna deliver that service to 'em along with the administration. So what, what is it that we do do, do we have periodic reviews about where are we on pacing? Are we doing this? And if, uh, I, I don't wanna be punitive about this, but, but just let me ask the question. Alright. If you find that someplace along the line somebody has dropped the ball, how do we address that other, uh, and I'm not so much interested in punishing anybody
for it, but mm-hmm. What ends up happening if we don't meet those benchmarks is the students suffer. Uh, I think that's the final result of what happens. So what do we do to make sure that we're going to stay on schedule, I guess with our pacing? That's a great question. So our principals, our assistant principals, our teacher leaders, they help us with that work. Um, and I will share, um, as a principal, sometimes my teacher and I used to have the conversation all the time.
You might get off pacing some, you are the professional. Sometimes as a teacher, if I taught a skill and everybody in my class bombed it, I'm not ready to move on. I need to take this opportunity to go back and reteach and make sure my kids got it. I didn't have an interventionist for pullouts. And so the, the conversation is that our principals and assistant principals, I can say, 'cause I've been in schools, are in classrooms, they are partnering with teachers,
they're having conversations with teachers. They're having conversations with grade level teams where that is the conversation, okay, we've taught these concepts and skills so far, we see that these students are still, um, struggling with them. Let's work on our intervention plan. Let's work on what we need to do to get them caught up while we continue to move forward. Which is what Ms. Im said when she shared that, you know, we're gonna pull the kids out, but we've gotta keep moving forward with the curriculum. So that is the job
of the instructional leaders in the school to help monitor that. And because our educators are professionals, they use their professional judgment all day every day. They, you know, as a principal, they could tell me, Barbara, this, can you talk to the district because this pacing for this skill, it's too short and I don't have time to get through it. And I would then engage with the equivalent of Ted and Alicia and, uh, Janelle and all our other specialists and say, Hey, this is what my teachers are reporting
and ask them to come out, talk to my folks, uh, and we could figure out what was going on. Um, and so it truly is an instructional leadership, um, function for us to do that. And we are committed to doing that, especially this year. We have really reemphasized being in classrooms every single day, partnering with our teachers, sitting in on common planning times so that we can have those conversations around pacing and student mastery of concepts and skills. Does that answer the question? Yes, it does. Okay. Thank you.
Director De Niro. Yes. Thank you again. Um, that prompts a couple other questions. I think you have increased, um, walkthroughs with principals and collaborations with teachers, um, and not as a gotcha, but, and then, and AWAI an opportunity to, um, assist each other. I'm gonna go back to, you know, funding and I listened again to some information regarding the SPED funding at the national level
in its depletion of funding and how, how will that affect us in instruction and our SPED students in assessments, et cetera. So we have a wonderful executive director of exceptional student services with Dr. Cevi. And we also have a wonderful Chief Fin Financial Officer I idea IDEA has never paid for the education of our students with, uh, special needs. We have supplemented that since forever, I assume
with fund 10, with general fund dollars. And we will continue to do that. You're right, there is quite a bit of consternation on the part of all superintendents, I think across the nation around a lot of this. Uh, but we in District 60 are figuring out how to continue to provide those services to our students, uh, with Dr. G's help. So, uh, you can rest assured we will take care of our kids. Great news. Thank you. Other questions from the board? Alright.
Again, thank you so much to all three of you. Great information. We appreciate it. Alright, well now move on to 11.0, uh, approval of the consent agenda. Yep. Director Tebow. Thank you. Um, I'm gonna request that we remove items five, six, and seven from the consent agenda for separate votes. And then I do have a comment on item four briefly. Uh, but I'm not asking that it be removed. I just wanna make a comment about it as we, uh, vote on the consent agenda. Okay, great. We can do that at the request of director Tebow. Items five, six,
and seven are now removed from the consent agenda and move to agenda item 11.1 where they will be discussed and voted on separately. Do I have a motion director? Tebow? Well, yes, I'd approve. Um, I, I'd move that the board approved consent agenda items two, three, and four and, um, as I said, I'll just make a comment if there's a second on item four. Alright, do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Director Tebow. Thank you. I just want to, um, compliment, um,
our secretary of the board and our superintendent, um, for working with me on this. Um, item four. I have to admit that I have a lot of trouble reading kinds of reports like this on the computer. So, um, I did the best I could and they provided me with, um, a handout. And one of the things that I, um, misunderstood really at the beginning of the process was that this is merely a submission. And I think, uh, uh, superintendent indicated that to me, uh, clearly and helped me out in that regard.
Um, I also wanted to, to mention that the material that I did get to read, uh, in more detail that was handed out to me. Um, I was very impressed with, um, the information that, uh, five schools gave. Bradford Heaton, Netty Freed Parkview School of Discovery and Risley School of Exploration because in their description they talked about a lot about the, um, the demographics of the students, um, those percentages that, uh, qualify for free
and reduced lunches, um, minority population and so on. That really helps me as a board member understand the, um, sort of what's could be argued the driving force in many instances as to why these, uh, schools may be in the situation they're in and what a plan, um, might look like surrounding that. So I just want to thank again, the superintendent and the secretary of the board, Jerry, for always being there to, to do, um, these, these helpful, um, discussions and help me get information.
Um, I'm gonna spend a little more time on this as, as the days go by and the weeks go by. Um, but, um, I, I found it useful and especially those that that gave, um, you know, demographics. I think that's really important and part of a description of, of, of the improvement plan. And, and that's all I wanted to say. Thank you for letting me do that. Is there any further debate or discussion, uh, on the consent agenda? Items two through four? Seeing none, please call a vote. Ms. Patron, I think we got a, didn't we have a second?
Yes, Mr. Mays did a second. Dr. DeNiro Aye. Judge Mays? Aye. Mrs. Penzu? Aye. Mr. Kibo? Aye. Alright, we're now on to 11.1. Consent agenda items that we are gonna discuss, uh, individually, um, vote on and discuss individually. We'll start with item number five, which, um, is the repeal of board policy. A CE three may have a motion, please. I would so move. Is there a second? I'll second. Is there any discussion on
item number five? Director Tebow. Thank you. And briefly, I made my, um, arguments when we did this on a temporary basis last meeting. I don't intend to read a speech again or talk at length, um, but I did wanna make one comment. Um, I really appreciate, um, Dalton Sprouse's emails. Uh, with regard to correspondence and media activity. I don't get to see a lot of media that, um, we have become acquainted with in the past and Pueblo, you know, the chief and so on. But the media that I do, uh, come in contact with, um,
news channels and others, um, I felt that, um, there's a, there's a, a phrase in journalism called, uh, bearing the lead story. I just felt that the story really wasn't, um, presented to the community in a way that, um, really demonstrated, uh, one of my major concerns. And that was just simply that, uh, I believe, um, our district is being bullied by the Trump administration in their so-called Office of Civil Rights to do something that we could do on our own with local control. If we chose to bring it forward
and debate, I wouldn't support it then I'm not gonna support it now. Um, I gave my reasons. I just think that it's, uh, more than just an adjustment. I think, uh, districts around the country, governments around the country are being bullied and I'm not gonna be part of that. And I would just wanted everybody to know I'm voting no on five, six and seven because of that. Further comments from the board Director Mays, Uh, I, I, I certainly, uh, have an understanding of why Mr. Tebel feels the way he does about, uh, the Trump administration and that's much of the way they've operated, uh,
throughout his tenure. What, uh, The reason I'm gonna vote yes on those is because I think the modifications that were made protect all of our students and it includes all of our students. And therefore, regardless of the pressure that's being put on by the federal government, I am convinced that, uh, we are going in the right direction based on the recommendations that were made to this board. And it's a practical matter, it makes sense to
adopt, uh, five, six, and seven without admitting in any way, shape, or form that somehow or another, I, I'll speak for myself, I can't speak for any, anybody else is being bullied by anybody. I believe that's the intent. But I believe that we, in discussing this with our legal counsel and our superintendent, have reached a, a point where I am comfortable that we are going to be protecting our students and our staff
and our school district, and we continue to exercise the local control over that particular issue. So, uh, uh, while I don't deny that there is a lot of pressure, I think Dr. Dr. De Niro brought up the, the situation about sped. I don't know if she was talking specifically about what's happened the last couple days, but apparently now some of our most vulnerable students are gonna be hurt because, uh, somebody
wants to save a buck to give to the billionaires. And so I could understand that, but, uh, I would encourage my colleagues on this board. Uh, I I'm gonna lose out to you. I know that 'cause you've already told me, but, uh, to adopt five, six, and seven. Thank you. Thank you. Director Mays, director De Niro. Thank you, uh, president Panzi on the recommendation of our legal counsel and our superintendent. Um, I too will be voting yes on five, six, and seven. Thank you. Alright,
any further discussion on item number five? Only we have a motion on the floor to adopt, uh, that policy director Tebo. Oh, I, I I thought we'd, yeah, I think we're doing 'em separately. I know it takes a little long, but, alright, great. Thank you. Uh, go ahead and call the vote Ms. Patron. Uh, this is just for uh, item number five. Dr. De Niro. Aye. Dr. Mays? Yes. Mrs. Penzu? Yes. Mr. Tebo? No. Alright. We'll now move on to item number six and I will read that entire uh, board policy,
new board policy JRD student privacy and accommodation and current policy a CE three guidelines regarding the support of students who are transgender and gender nonconforming permanent approval on second reading. May I have a motion please? So moved. Second. Is there a second? Is there any discussion on this? Um, on item number six is seeing none, please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Dr. Ro Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tebo? No. All right. The last um,
item we will discuss separately is item number seven, board policies JB equal educational opportunities, JF admission and denial of admission JFBA intra district uh, choice slash open enrollment and JFBB inter-district choice open enrollment temporary approval on first readings. May I have a motion please? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion on item number seven? Seeing none please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Dr. Dero Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tebo? No.
Alright. And with that, if there's no further business from the board this afternoon, uh, do I have a motion to adjourn? So is there, is there, may I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Could I vote no on this too? No, I'm just Teasing. Alright. Please call a vote Ms. Patron. Dr. Di Aye Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Peno Aye. Mr. Tibo Aye, thank you and have a great rest of the day.