Good evening. This is a regular board meeting for Tuesday, 01/13/2026. The board is meeting at the educational services center, 24951 East Highway 50, Pueblo, Colorado. The time is 6PM, and I call the regular board meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all. Thank you. Item three point o two, welcome to all visitors and members of the community, that are joining us this evening. Item three point o three, approve the regular board meeting. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the regular board meeting as presented. Okay. So adding that as a discussion item for tonight's meeting. Okay. So do I have a motion to amend tonight's agenda? So you need a second for the amendment. Right? No. I need a motion to amend. So moved. Okay. And a second? I second.
Okay. So then we'll vote. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. BG Wilson? Aye. Motion carried. Alright. Thank you. The motion carries. Gifts item four point o one. I would like to invite mister Tim Yates to the podium. I I think you first have to accept the board meeting as amended. Yeah. Sorry. I missed the slide. Amended. Yes. Since we amended it. Okay. So do we have a motion to accept the amended agenda for the board meeting? I need to accept it.
It's okay. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. AJ Wilson? Aye. Motion carried. Okay. So gifts. Mister Yates? Yes. I'd like to present gifts to you all from VACDL, which is Pueblo Chemical Depot destruction plant. As they're closing down, they're clearing out the warehouse and equipment they find that we might be able to use in the district. They are gifting that to us. And in this donation, they've gifted us three Microsoft Surface tablet goes, pens, cases, and
docking stations to go with those. They also gifted us six thirty two inch televisions, seven twenty one point five inch computer screens, and 13 HP mini computers for a total value of $19,450. Alright. Thank you. Our next item of gifts is item four point o two. I'd like to invite Ian Watson to the podium. Evening, board and superintendent. Tonight, I'm presenting a donation that goes back.
The story behind this donation goes back actually to October, of last year. The for the first time since 1999, the Thunderbolt March event qualified as a finalist band at the one a, state competition. On the screens is a picture of our very small, 21 member marching band, with students from both Craver and Roy High School ranging from sixth through twelfth grade. Standing next to our much larger competitors. We are really grateful. This is our first time at finals, and it was my first time at finals.
These kids really worked hard, despite everything. And, the story behind this donation, we were contacted a few weeks after, this by a Pueblo County band parent who had watched our band and performed, and they noticed we didn't have a marching band banner, with us on the field. So they offered to buy us a brand new marching band banner that we will be, showcasing at the Blossom Parade on May 2. Thank you. I know you I'm not going anywhere. I I'm not going anywhere. I when I saw Ian and by the way, you can tell I know you
well. I've watched the band program. Well, I knew it's way back in the day and then many, many, many years with no marching band. And Ian has done incredible things with that band. And I'm not just saying that to make him feel good. I I've judged the band several times. And, Alright.
Item four point o three, acceptance the gifts. The chair will entertain a motion to accept the gifts. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Anne Bennett. Aye. Mark Emery. Yes. Michelle Erickson. Aye. AJ Wilson. Aye. Motion carried. Next item is, the good news item five point o one. I'd like to invite Kate Pacheck from PCEA spot to do the PCEA spotlight. So we just like to, recognize some of our staff. It's a PCA spotlight. Susie came up with the idea, and it they are nominated by other staff members.
Before I read off what their nomination said, this first one, I have to say, when you're in education long enough, people come back around and you see them again and again. And so this first one, she's not here, but, she was nominated at her school. And before I ever start started teaching, I spent time in her classroom because she taught and was partners with my mom. And so I would be there, and she was one of my first influences as a teacher. So, anyway, it they just people come back around, and those relationships are so wonderful
to see. So the first one is our certified Carrie Rodarmel. Her last name is different. But, with thirty years of teaching at not at Vineland. Thirty years of teaching, she's now at Vineland Elementary. Carrie's career stands as a true testament to her dedication, compassion, and deep love for children. Generations of students have found comfort, stability, and encouragement in her classroom shaped by her steady and humble presence. Her commitment to students goes far beyond academics. She creates a space where children feel safe, valued, and understood.
Her classroom is filled with joy, creativity, and connection. She brings a unique and fun approach to teaching that leaves a lasting impression on her students. Even years later, former students continue to return to her classroom just to say hello and share a hug. A powerful reflection of the meaningful relationships she builds and the trust she earns. So and then our other one is not able to be here either tonight. She's been sick, but her ARs are here. So she is from LPE. She is a paraprofessional at LPE, Renee French.
Renee has shown tireless dedication to supporting ESS students consistently going above and beyond to ensure their success. She brings patience, compassion, and commitment to every interaction, especially when working with students who have behavior goals or require additional support. Even while navigating recent health challenges, Renee continues to give her best every day for her students and colleagues. Her students and colleagues. Her flexibility and willingness to support others truly set her apart. She's always ready to step up to help any staff member in need and adapts
to meet students where they are. On multiple occasions, she has provided unwavering compassion and encouragement to students who struggle in traditional classroom settings, helping them feel safe, understood, and capable of success. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Kate. Item six point o one, information from the board and the superintendents. And we'll just start with mister DiPietro and work our way around. Well, good evening everyone.
Just, wanna give a quick shout out to mister Bumgardner, our athletic coordinator and, all of our, admin staff at County and Pueblo West High School and then all of our, principals across our district. We had our Canvas Community Classic last week at, CSU Pueblo. It's one of two events that we put on with the sponsorship of Canvas Credit Union in conjunction with partnership with CSU Pueblo. It was this year was our annual basketball game, and it drew a huge crowd. If you were there about three quarters of the arena was filled.
It stayed filled and people came, they stayed, it was a wonderful event. All of our, schools recognized both students and staff, for the outstanding work, that they do in our district. And so it's a great event. It does go it does take a lot of work from a lot of different people but, I think that's just one of the really positive things when you go to those types of events. So I did I just wanted to say what a great event it was. We're we're very thrilled to have our partnership with, Canvas Credit Union. This is our second year now with them.
They are big, in sponsoring, school districts across the state and of course our partnership with CSU Club, it impacts our community in just a great way and so just wanted to say that was a wonderful event and I congratulate all who were involved. Thank you. Well, I I echo what you said, it was a great event, and and mister Baumgartner did put a tremendous amount of work into it. And so, I appreciate all of his hard work and effort in making that happen. Right before Christmas, I received literally this was maybe two hours before we were ready
to go home. I received this, little plaque and it says, in the year 2025, a time capsule is to be opened by the districts and the administrative staff. Location and directions are inside this frame. I had no idea. So it says it's located it gives me a map of this administrative building, and it says it's located above ceiling over closet in West Conference Room. Well, we had closed up that ceiling, quite some time ago, and so we got
a ladder and we made Ryan Manbridge climb up into the ceiling to get the time capsule. And so after I cleaned all the hantavirus off of it, I have a time capsule capsule from 2000 and I will open it and I will lay out all of its contents, tomorrow for everyone to see. They can come by. They can take a look at all of the contents that were in this, bucket. And there are some interesting things inside of it.
I I personally didn't even, get swallowed on there. Situation. Alright. It might be asbestos too. We don't know. Thanks, Paul. But I thought some of the things that are in it are, for instance, you know, a can of Coke, an old Pepsi bottle. So I have the thing under the cap, you know, the the trivia that you used to do. What is it? Monopoly game? The not. The not. But there's pictures. There's there's documents. There are, a penny.
There's a penny. This this was a blast from the past. That won't be an EHS version. The penny is going up. Yeah. That won't be in the EHS version. The penny pour out the ship. What do we have? Yeah. Can you just pop it in? Oh, yeah. Yep. There's there's a lot of interesting stuff in here. So I will take it all out and I will lay it out for everybody to see. I'll put it out on the table. It was it was kind of a cool little Christmas gift, after we got it all cleaned up. But we'll get it we'll get it out for the whole public to see because it there are some interesting things inside here as well as pictures.
So missus Rhine Yeah. Who made the time capsule? Yeah. That's a great question. I don't know. Judging from, the stuff that's in it, it had to be, someone in administration made it. That's fun. But anyway, I thought it was kinda neat. It was a neat gift to get, right before we went on break, and I I just plan to let everybody see what all is in it. So it's got some neat stuff in it. That's great. Yep. Alright. Thank you. Hey, Dave. I'm just wondering if I know all the stuff that's in there.
I think you might. I think that BHS stumped some people so I think you might. I didn't see an eight track. Yeah? Alright. I think that's cool. I don't have anything tonight. That's it. Tonight? Okay. I don't either. So we'll move on to mister Murray. Okay. I don't mean to be repetitious but, the Canvas event was pretty cool. So many aspects. Now, mister Watson and I know what it's like to spend time at basketball games, Hundreds of basketball games. And I in my career at county, there's a lot of basketball games.
But going into the gym, there's something special about it. It has been sixteen years since I was at a high school game. But Adam did a great job, but the cool thing is recognizing staff and students of our schools. And I thought, and Kate, you're doing a wonderful job, Dan. My wife was recognized. Michelle was recognized last year as a teacher. And, it's really special to the recipients and nervous walking out there last year, but,
thank you for the to the district and mister Baumgartner for putting that together. And congratulations to the teams. Okay. I just want to say, I was there as well and I thought it was great. It's always fun to see those rivalries, the rivalry between county and west. And mostly just to see the kids' better friends have an opportunity to be together in the same gym. That was really exciting. And then I also wanted to say, as a board member, I'm really grateful. We had some great professional development this past Friday, and I thought it was, served us well and helped us to better under you know, Amy, I'm a brand new
board member, so to better understand my role. And, so I'm grateful for that. And I think just lots of positive things happening, and so Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Moving on, item 7.01, presentation of the maintenance agreement between school district seventy and Pueblo County, Colorado. We're gonna hear from mister Abe Armendariz. Thank you for having us. My name is Abe Armendariz. I'm the parks operations manager for Pueblo County and this is my deputy director of
parks and recreation, Amanda Hobson. What we're looking at is extending or continuing a maintenance agreement that's been long standing between Pueblo County and District seventy with, going all the way back to the nineteen seventies with the land use grant that actually helped develops all of the the Mesa area schools. So realistically, the only significant change that we've had from previous agreements that we've had, this is a typically a two year agreement, is there has been Runyon Sports Complex
as a stand alone agency apart from Pueblo County Parks and Recreation within Pueblo County. They are still under Pueblo County, but we operate under two separate funding sources, two different staffing levels. So, Golarraga Field and Baxter Elementary would be under the responsibility of the Runyon Sports Complex team, whereas North Mesa, South Mesa Pleasant View, the trails that are adjacent to those, would fall and remain under the parks and recreation maintenance agreement.
I don't know if anybody has any questions or if they had an opportunity to look at any of the maintenance agreement, but it's pretty lined out, very clear that, Pueblo County parts and recreation maintains the tables, the trash, and then as request as needed with, the maintenance team with district seventy, you've got fertilizer, chemical applications, and any other applicable needs that they have. Oh, and then the recreational opportunities that we offer the county to county residents through utilizing the assets such as the pool, the track, and PV just to continue recreation
opportunities for the community. Mhmm. Okay. Very good. Any questions? Alright. Thank you. I appreciate it. Item seven point o two, presentation of the 2025 financial audit. We're gonna be hearing from mister Chris Banta tonight. Thank you for having me. I really, appreciate getting the opportunity to be here. My name is Chris Banta. I was the audit manager, for the audit for this year.
And so I was, very intimately involved with the audit, and, I'm happy to present to you guys tonight. We, perfect, have the presentation on the board. This is meant to be a fairly high level overview of the audit. And so if there are questions from the board, more than happy to, answer them as we go. Otherwise, I'm gonna hit the high level points, and then we'll let you guys move on. Item number one, we we were on-site for our interim work in late June where we tested controls and compliance and from there, designed our audit procedures based on those
tests. Field work over the majority of the audit, was done in early October here on-site. And overall, in our opinion, the financial condition of the district is strong and the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects. And we issued an unmodified or clean opinion, which means that it went as anticipated, and we gave it our stamp of approval. Item number two, the financial statements that we provide to the board, is really two sets of financial statements. There's your government wide set of financial statement, which is your full accrual, financial statements.
And then there is the fund financial statements, which is on the modified accrual basis of accounting. Big differences there. On the government wide, you're seeing all of the, items like capital assets, long term debt, deferred inflows, and outflows. Whereas the fund financial statements, you're seeing, really what you're budgeting and comparing to day to day. So we always like to just point out that if you're trying to compare the two, there are some very large differences and and that's what those differences are. Okay? Looking at item three for the statement of net position, we're just showing, the very
summarized totals between '20 five and twenty four here. And I would point out that cash and investments are up by about $6,400,000 Capital assets are down by about $7,300,000 as depreciation exceeded capital outlays, and that liabilities are down by about $17,000,000 The unfunded portion of the net pension and OPEB liabilities went down by about $4,000,000. And, the long term debt otherwise was paid by the debt service agreements that the
district has, and we saw no changes there. Net position as a whole was up by about $6,000,000. Alright. When we look at item number four, we like to show a quick comparison of ratio of fund balance to expense. And when we're looking at that, we're showing 36%, of fund balance to expenditure as compared to 26.9 from the year prior, which is a good increase. And we also look at the approximate number of days of expenditure covered by fund balance. We like to see that between ninety days and a hundred and twenty days.
For 2025, that increased from ninety seven, days in twenty four to a hundred and thirty two days in, '25, which is a very good, positive change as well. And we would say that's a very healthy, analytic to look at. When we're looking at item number five, looking at long term debt and kinda digging down into what the district's long term debt is, the two main portions of long term debt for the district are the general obligation bonds and the notes payable. And those, as I mentioned, were paid by the debt service schedules and those can
the detail of those can be found in the notes of the financial statements. Looking at item number six, changes in fund balance. The general fund and, sub funds, were up by $10,700,000 Overall, revenue was up by 7% and expenses were up by 4%. Grant activities was down by about, dollars 6,000,000, and that was, largely due to, ESSER funds being wrapped up, in FY twenty four. Debt service fund balance was up by about $4,000,000 as tax collections exceeded the debt
service payments. And the capital project fund balance was down $2,600,000 with 4,400,000.0 spent on capital projects. Okay. Looking at item number seven, internal controls. One of the things that we do, is a single audit or compliance audit and we'll deal with that in the federal award. But as a part of that, we look at internal controls and evaluate and say, hey. What are the district's processes as a whole? And, do we feel that it is, reflecting a, proper use and proper controls over the district's financial resources? We did this is my third year being the manager of this audit.
Our first year auditing was when we were first brought on as the auditors for the district, and we had, I I have to go back and look. We had a number of findings that first year. The second year, the financial team, really worked hard, and we were able to, work that down to one finding for last year. And then this year, we were able to get that one finding completely off. So we were able to issue, reports without any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, which is fantastic. So when we're looking at internal controls, we're we're feeling really good about it, going
forward here. Looking at item eight, federal awards, we did not have any, compliance issues that were noted in our single audit testing. And so from our from our perspective, we were able to issue clean reports for the single audit as well. I really wanna point out the strong work that Jamie did this year. It is I've I've worked in a number of audits, managed a number of audits where there's been changes in management, and it can go one of two ways, either fairly smoothly, or it can be a complete train wreck. And Jamie was able to step in, step up, and lead his team very well,
to where we were able to issue reports in roughly the same time frame as last year, which from an audit perspective is, that's that's really good. So thank you very much for, your work on this and making it a smooth transition. We also wanna throw out a thanks to the rest of the, finance team. We all we understand that it's not a one man effort, and it's it's that entire group of people that makes this, go smoothly. So, thank you for having us. Does the board have any questions? I think so. Thank you so much. Perfect. Alright. You guys have a pleasant evening.
You too. Thank you. Alright. Thanks for joining. Alright. Item seven point o three, presentation of Pueblo West High School junior ROTC trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, 01/30/2026 through 02/01/2026. And we'll be hearing from first sergeant Jonathan Lemaster. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for having me. I'm seeking your approval to take 32 cadets down to Albuquerque, New Mexico to compete in the Cibola skills meet from thirty January to January.
We will be taking both our armed and unarmed team, our color guard, a male and female Raider team. We will be staying at the, the Hilton Garden about seven minutes from the, Seebola High School where we're gonna be competing. The total cost for the, students will be $50. That'll help cover hotel and meals. Myself and Colonel Yemen will be driving two minibuses. So if we see you on the road, we'll we'll honk. But, it's about five hours from where we're at now, and we are super excited to compete down there. We competed there two years ago and, we had a lot of success.
We'll be taking 12 males and 20 females. Pinning your questions. That's all I have. Any questions? Okay. Yes, sir. What will they be doing? Drill? We'll be doing, drill and raider. Raider is physical fitness. So we'll be, pulling sleds, running, a track with a rifle, a lot of physical, strenuous stuff on the kids for the the radar portion. Days. I'm sorry, sir? How many days is the activity? Sir, we're gonna go from the, it's really the travel day. We'll be be there on the thirtieth. We'll compete on the thirty first, and then we'll drive back on the first.
Well, good luck. Yes, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Sergeant major. Hello, sergeant major. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Item seven point o four, presentation of the Pueblo County High School Junior ROTC trip to Sandy, Utah, 02/04/2026 through 02/08/2026. And we're gonna hear from, sergeant major Arnold Lewis. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Ryan, and happy New Year to everybody. This is the time of year 2026 that, the rifle team starts traveling all over
the country. We finished second in the state of Colorado, and now the kids, shot a match, which helped them to go to Utah this this year. The match is funded by the United States government, so everything is paid. Five star hotel, feed them three meals a day. All they gotta do to go to sleep, wake up, and shoot two hours, and then we go out and look around and sight see. Then the next day is two days of shooting. And the next day, we sight see, and then they have a war program at the end of the third day, and we bring them back home.
I'll be driving the school, school vehicle down there, and mister Knox, who's my assistant coach, he'll drive his vehicle down and help carry equipment. And, score from the fourth through the eighth. And, any questions? Sounds like a blast. Pardon me, sir? Sounds like a blast. It's always a blast. Even if I should So I'm sorry. Can So I'm sorry. Can you say how many students are you taking? Oh, I'm taking seven students. Yeah. Five five shooters, one manager, and, mister Knox and myself. Very nice. Thank you. Good luck. Alright. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you. As a matter of fact, we participate.
We was the rest of regional champ national championship. So we the top 32 teams in the Western Regional got selected to go to this match. And we finished in tenth place. So May I mention one more? Congratulations. The county rifle team is a perennial champion. They are phenomenal. They've even been a national champion. Absolutely. So I wanna congratulate you for all your hard work, sergeant. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item seven point o five, presentation of the revisions to hourly substitute rates effective 01/01/2026.
We're gonna hear from Stephanie Russell. Good evening, madam president, members of the board. In 01/01/2026, the Colorado minimum wage, did increase to $15.16 an hour. In December, I did present hourly sub rates to increase to that minimum wage, to the $15.16 an hour. However, these positions were not part of that, request, so we wanna bring those so that we actually have, these hourly positions at minimum wage as well for for translator,
bus monitor, hearing and vision screening, subscreeners for their hourly rate, and they would be substitutes. It would be retroactive to January 1. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Item seven point o six, presentation of the world language curriculum recommendation, doctor Anthony Martinez. Doctor. Martinez, you have the floor. Thank you, madam president. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, tonight I'm coming to recommend adoption of the Intra Culturas, levels one through four world language curriculum, that's for Spanish.
On September 26, our world language teachers met to review four curriculum options to support our Seal of Biliteracy program. The Seal of Biliteracy program was approved in 2025 for this year, and the teachers selected the Wayside Publishing's Entreculturas one through four and Triangulo Apreciado for the AP course. When a when a student reaches year three or year four of their foreign language or their Spanish study, they can sit for the AP test. If If they score a three on that AP test then they're honored at the
end of their graduate or during during graduation with the seal of biliteracy. And that's a state seal that we had to apply for and so this curriculum supports students achieving that goal. If the students decide not to sit for that AP test or take that AP pathway, they can continue their Spanish language study in the level three and level four of the Spanish language curriculum, and this will give students different options to continue their study if that's a pathway they choose to go. Alright. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Item seven point o seven presentation of the RFP for phone systems.
Monroe Robinson will be So I'll I'll go ahead and start. Okay. Monroe gives us a difficult thing. Last July, we made our last payment on our phone system lease. Okay. That system is seven years old because we had that lease for seven years. Her current phone system is dying and requires tender care every once in a while to get it up and running. And so we went out for an RFP, got a phone system. We had fourteen fourteen or 15 vendors respond.
Then Monroe and I were tasked with narrowing that down to one, and we're bringing you the RFP for RingCentral. Mhmm. If you have any questions, we're Questions? I guess, Tim, so that is for the entire district. Yeah. It's it's about a total of 300 phones throughout the entire district. So replacing out phones in all buildings? Yes. And how long would this one be for? This lease is four year. Four year? Any other questions? So even though it's a four year contract, we haven't done this for a long time. So typically, you would just continue with the same provider?
Yeah. And what we what we did over the last fifteen years is we have the same provider. And because of money funding, sometimes some for seven years, we changed equipment in the backroom. The next seven years, we change all the handsets that everybody had, and now it's just coming through. Everything's starting to fail, so we need to get this hopefully, this gets approved. Our phone system is Yes. And this new system will be as well. So if the Internet goes out, you're out of luck.
Mhmm. Correct. You could use your radio, though or yourself or yourself. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, item seven point o eight, this will be the discussion regarding an RFP for attorney. Thank you, ma'am. Mhmm. Our community is enough. Just went through an event which was perceived as a conflict of interest. Our attorney has an agenda. The districts that employ them are in are in turmoil.
I don't want this for our district. Value with yeah. So that we I apologize for not turning that on. We would like to, request an RFP to make sure that we're looking at all of the law firms, that specialize in education and that we are fiscally responsible. We want to be transparent with our constituents and make sure that we're serving our community, our students, and, to the best of our ability and, looking at our you know, that is part of our responsibility is fiscal responsibility taking care of our budget
so, we are requesting that an RFP, be issued. I know personally I've been very satisfied with the law firm. I think, you know, when you compare law firms, you gotta look at what they specialize in, and I know they've specialized in, education. And our last attorney did not. And that worries me because if some education is a very specific, skill set. And I think if we don't have someone that specializes in that, it's gonna be
very difficult knowing if we're walking down the right path or if we're possibly gonna have a lawsuit down the future that could cost us more than attorney fees as well. So I think in comparing, we need to look, you know, make sure they are qualified to handle the education requirements as well. So that's that's kinda my advice. I think we've gotten a lot of good input from their law firm, and I think they've done a great job. My my feeling, and I believe Michelle's feeling is there's definitely a political leaning, a
religious leaning to mister Miller's advice. And, as evidenced by schools established and approved by our district here, our school board, our school board president resigned last last last meeting. And, what I'd like I'd like to propose is, as I mentioned before, a clean slate so our so our community can look at us as seeing that we're doing
our best to handle the situation by presenting the RFP. So, you know, I I'm embarrassed when I hear comments and a myriad of phone calls, about the behavior of our school of our school board president and, it appears, and it may not be true, there's collusion between mister Miller and the former president.
So, that's why I wanna start with a clean slate and, let us do our best for our for our public. Mosai Merkin. Go ahead, Anne. You mentioned in executive session a bond that mister Miller was involved with, helping it complete the bond and saving the district some money. Can you speak to that again? Yeah. So, when we're going through the bond, they would issue, an MOU to get, you know, the services done.
And by the recommendation of of mister Miller, he recommended that we found, a management group. And so we did, and they saved us, quite a significant amount even just in that first MOU that was was done. So I think different advice like that from someone who, you know, even though they're not completely local, he's been involved with education and kinda knows what to look for with some of that to help with some of those financial aspects as well.
So besides that recommendation, why do you feel so supportive about this attorney that within the minds of someone who many of our public is questioning? I think he's done a good job as far as giving us sound advice, as far as giving us, you know, one way or another as far as policies go, okay, if we go down this road, we're gonna run into these issues. If we go down that road, we're gonna run into other issues. And kind of allowing us to weigh those opportunities on which direction we wanna go.
And so I think that's a valuable opportunity is giving those choices and, you know, notifying us of the consequences or the, you know, the pros and cons of each decision because that's that's kind of the world we live in as there's pros and cons to every decision we make. But as a new board, in requesting an RFP which is, request a request for proposal. We live in a world of acronyms, so I wanna make sure that we all request for proposal that we give, all law firms that specialize in education the opportunity
to apply, and then we can evaluate which law firm would serve us best. And I mean, most certainly it's it's it's offering, an opportunity to us as a board and a new board the opportunity to look at what, law firms can provide for us. Of course, we want great legal advice. We need it. It's imperative. But we wanna make sure that we're doing it, with the interest of our community, our, and and and cost.
Like, we've talked a lot about, like, I mean, when you, you know, cost is a big part of it and I recognize that legal fees are legal fees whether, you know, per hour. But, I think by requesting this, we are as, Mark mentioned, we're establishing our expectation and we're looking for a firm that will fulfill those expectations, agreed by all of
us. Right? So Yes. I'm sure. I'm sorry. Go ahead. That's okay. I would, what specific things are you looking for? What kinds of things would you want to be included in that? What criteria would you want another law firm to bring forward? Because it sounds to me like you you're bringing forward two different issues. One is the financial aspect. That's fairly easy to just compare hourly rates among firms. And then the other one, you mentioned, public perception.
But I think they are the same end because when you are looking at, Madam President, I think that when you are looking at a firm and how much they charge whether they're, I mean, for example, and and I mentioned I mentioned this, but, you know, if if a law firm is charging, mileage to come to our meetings, and there were a law firm available here here in in closer to us in Pueblo perhaps, clearly mileage wouldn't be as expensive. And if you're looking at the bottom line, and you're and you're talking money, then,
I mean, I think we can look at it from that perspective that it's not just I mean, it's we want someone that's excellent in providing, guidance to our district. So our law firm, provides both legal, advice to us as a school board but also to our district. And so I think it's really important that we look at a person, a firm financially and also their area of expertise in education and also, you know, making sure that, they, their firm represents our district well, like our district, like what we think
is, you know, like looking at our mission of our district. And so I think those are things that, you know, in in my understanding of what an RFP is, we put the RFP together and we can, list what we're looking for Mhmm. In a law firm. So do you have specific ideas of what you would want included in that? Well, I think that's something we'd we'd have to think about. That's putting us on the spot. What we have now, is our attorney is infamous. He is well known throughout the state as causing issues in so many school districts.
And and if you'd like me to enumerate those school districts, I can easily do that. I would just rather go, and I'm gonna say it a third time, with a clean slate for someone who's well qualified, but without the baggage that he possesses throughout school boards, throughout our state. I mean, we he was in the news all the time, and not in a good way. And so, I I would like us to look good to our public.
I would like us to make good decisions. And I'm sure there are, there are, attorneys that can do a wonderful professional job that that that don't have this baggage. Mhmm. Yeah. I I we must be talking to different people, Mark, because, the feedback I've gotten regarding mister Miller has all been not all, mostly been very positive. And what I'm hearing is that he commands a high level of respect. While I can appreciate what you're saying about starting clean with the new slate, there's
also something to be said with having somebody that knows some of the history. Know, you know, somebody that you've been working with. In my own business, I'm always hesitant. I'm a general contractor. I'm always hesitant to change my subcontractors because there's always a learning curve with that when I change my, not employees, but the people that, you know, that I hire to do work for me. And so I think that changing also can bring its own set of problems, maybe
unforeseen problems. I'm not opposed to evaluating the financial aspect. I think we do have a responsibility to be financially sound, financially responsible to the district of taxpayer money. I'm a strong fiscal conservative, so I support, you know, looking at that and evaluating that. But, I yeah. That those are my feelings, mister Miller. I've heard I've heard a lot of really good things. And in my limited interaction with him, he's been very knowledgeable, very thorough, very careful
to say to not offer opinions, to just offer options. And I've appreciated that. The legal things that we've paid for have changed. And so I think and and we've, you know, I think we need to keep that in mind as well and compare more apples to apples in hourly rates instead of just the total amount that's been spent. Because if you look at that, you know, COVID's changed a lot, you know, and, you know, the kids that are getting in trouble and going to truancy courts or the the core requests and different things like that, people don't realize have to go
through the attorneys are are increasing because of different situations. And I think people need to realize that and break it down into looking at some of those hourly rates instead of just going, well, your last attorney cost this much. Why is this one so much more? But I I don't think that's what I am asking. No. I'm I know. I just want the general public to understand that as well. I I understand. Okay. So, AJ, I I understand that we're, as far as cost goes, I mean, that's one determining factor. But if I'm not mistaken prior to, attorney Miller's representation, we did have local representation.
Perko per we had attorney Perko for, a short time. But prior to that, we had a law firm that was here for quite some time. And so I think there is longevity and people that did specialize in education right here in our own backyard. And I think staying local or looking local or at least opening it up to look at who's out there and willing to represent us is a good thing. To say, we we may get the representation without the reputation. I understand that. Yeah. I guess for me, Michelle, it kind of, again, just referencing my business, you know,
I I get multiple bids. Whenever I need to hire a subcontractor, I get multiple bids and I evaluate them. And it sounds to me like that's just, you know, that's what you're suggesting and I can, appreciate the the responsibility in that approach. Any further discussion? So, yes. So it doesn't hurt anything to do in RFP if mister Miller is the best candidate. Well, then he remains. Sure. At least we have an option. And we won't have lines of people waiting to complain.
I mean At least we've tried. Yeah. I think there's value. There's not just value, there's integrity in in taking a hard look at it and evaluating it and being able to answer to our constituents and say, I hear what you're saying. I appreciate your concerns. This is what we did to address them. This was the outcome. And I I think I I can appreciate that there's there's integrity in that. Mhmm. Thank you. By the way, you can see we're at two to two here. And age and I made it clear to AJ and Ann that I love them
no matter what. I mean, they're nice people. I just wanna let you know that we are not at each other's throats. And I think we'll get along well, but we have our own feelings and that's what our representative government is all about. So so where do we go from there, madam president? So if we have no, this is just discussion. So we I apologize. I wanna make sure that we're doing this on the up and up. I don't think that we can take action on it tonight, but we can put
it as an action item on our next meeting to create the RFP. Because tonight, it's just a discussion item. So on our next meeting, we can put it as an action item to vote on requesting the RFP. And thank you for letting me add another item to the agenda. You're welcome. Yeah. I think Mark brings up a good point though. Just because we may not agree on everything doesn't mean we can't have a civil conversation. For sure. And at the end of the day, we may disagree but we can still be civil and be friends. Right. So I appreciate that. That. Thank you, Adjie.
Yeah. Yeah. Dialogue, it only benefits this. I just I'm sorry. It's been very lost in society. So Now let's have a big kumbaya. Yeah. It is I think dialogue's important. You know, I think when we are able to dialogue, we, we were just talking about this earlier. We challenge each other's, viewpoints. We learn. We grow. It helps prevent us from making assumptions about each other, about where the other person is coming from, what the other person thinks. So, I appreciate the the discussion.
So no further discussion, we will move on to, item eight point o one, open form. Did we have any? I don't see anything. Okay. So, we're gonna move on then. Item nine point o one, approval of consent agenda items. So you just ask for a motion. Yeah. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented having been reviewed by the board. So moved. And a second? Second. Go ahead. Yeah. Perfect. Ann Bennett?
Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. AJ Wilson? Aye. Motion carried. Item 10 o one. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes. You're good. Future meetings and announcements. The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 01/27/2026 at the Educational Services Center, 24951 East Highway 50 Pueblo, Colorado beginning at 6PM. Item 11 o one, adjourn the meeting. The chair will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. I move to adjourn the meeting. And second?
Second. Okay. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. AJ Wilson? Aye. Motion carried. It is 06:54PM. Alright. Meeting is adjourned.