Alright. Good evening, and welcome to the December meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask that you stand and join the team of 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. Hey. May I have a motion to approve the regular board meeting? So moved. I second. John Christianson. Yay. Kathy Holland. Aye. Anne Och. Yay. AJ Wilson. Yay. Motion carried.
Okay. Our first order of business is to Madam president, could I interrupt here, please? I don't feel that I said what I needed to say last week or last time, and I would like to read something really quick. Okay. I guarantee it's less than three minutes, and it's very short. And I just want to the stakeholders, to the families, to the teachers, to the administration, and to the staff of d seventy, and congratulations to the new board members. I would like to express my appreciation for the bold confidence that you gave me
over four years ago. It's been such an honor to serve on the d seventy school board and with such distinguished board members. While campaigning, my very first act of service representing children and parents was seeing a four year old boy and asking him if he was in preschool. Grandmother told me that he they had submitted all the paperwork, but nothing had happened. He was lost in the system. And on a late Thursday afternoon, I was able to talk to miss Cindy Kaysling. And by next Wednesday, this little boy was enrolled in preschool. One and that's what it was still containing. I wasn't even a board member yet. One of my last joys was in mister Stragenix reading class when a young girl
who was very initially very hesitant about reading out loud asked, can I read two pages, please? Please? What a joy that was. And she's just a special little girl. There were trials, errors, positives, and negatives. Each was a learning experience, and I've learned some unforgettable lessons. A dear friend mentioned to me that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or for a lifetime. And I know I've made some lifetime friends here, and I'm very fortunate. And I've definitely, learned so much and appreciate my time spent among so many learned
individuals. Thank you for the opportunity to excuse myself because I have another event. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Wanna say anything or are you okay. Thanks. It's been a hell of a ride. Alright. Yeah. Okay. So we'll begin. So the first item is to swear in the new board members. Board director of District 3, Michelle Erickson. Director of District 4, Mark Emery.
And director of District 5, Anne Bennett. Once the directors have been sworn in, they will take their seat at the board table and sign confidentiality affidavits. So if I can have the three new board members, just come up to the podium and I'll go ahead and read the of the state, as a public official,
each Board member must pledge to uphold the Colorado and The United States Constitution and carry out the responsibilities of the office to the best of the Board's ability. Do you, Michelle Erickson, Mark Emery, and Anne Bennett solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of The United States and the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and that you will faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge the duties as a school board member for District 3, District We're good?
Okay. If you may come take your seat and take a more time. I have new ones, but they're not here yet. And, Anne, I had notarized and signed all the confidentiality right before the meeting. Okay. Just try to take things. Perfect. Thank you. I don't know. Wherever you want. Okay. So our first our excuse me. Our next, item, we are going to elect the board president with a secret ballot vote. I'm gonna go ahead and open the nominations. We do not need a second. It is not required on this. So I now open nominations in the order, for the office of the president.
And I would like to nominate Anne Bennett. Do I hear any other nominations? I'd like to nominate Michelle Iverson. Okay. Seeing no other nominations for the office of president, it is now closed. And we will now hold the election for office of president by secret ballot. And you should have the board president ballot in front of you. And we're gonna give these to you right now. Correct. You can pick them up. I have a three to two vote with Anne Bennett as the board president, and you'll resume. You'll take over board president and take on the next nomination for vice president.
Okay. Thank you. Alright. We can switch seats if you'd like. I'm okay. You're okay. If you have lines. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Okay. Okay. Alright. We'll now take nominations for board vice president with a secret ballot. Nominations are now in order for the office of vice president with no second required. I would like to nominate AJ Wilson for vice president. Are there any other nominations? I would like to nominate Mark Emery. Okay. So we have AJ Wilson and Mark Emery. So go ahead and take your form and go ahead and cast your vote.
Sorry. I have a three to two vote with AJ Wilson as vice president. Okay. AJ as vice president. Congratulations. Our next item is the appointment of the board Okay. And our next item is the appointment of the board secretary. Sorry. Sorry. No. You're fine. You're good. So is AJ, Anne Bennett? Here. Yes. You'll see I or yep. I. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. Anne Och? Yay. AJ Wilson? Yay. Motion carried. Yes. Motion carried.
Okay. So our next, item is the appointment of the board treasurer. Can I have a motion to approve Kimberly Raine as board treasurer? I second. Okay. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Anne Och? Yes. AJ Wilson? Yes. Motion carried. Okay. The first gift item is a donation to Vineland Middle School, missus Long. Hi, guys. Congratulations to our new board members. My name is Katie Long, and I serve as the halftime school counselor at Vineland Middle School. I'm here tonight to accept a donation from Minnequah Works Credit Union.
Part of this gift will support our student of the month program at Vineland Middle School, allowing us to provide meaningful recognition to students nominated by their teachers for their hard work and character. The remaining funds were awarded to a proposal from missus Gorham, the PE teacher, and myself to build an outdoor permanent gaga pit at Vineland Middle School. This new space will increase opportunities for physical activity and give teachers another option for movement based brain breaks that will help our students reset and stay engaged throughout the
day. So we just wanna say thank you to Minnequal Works Credit Union, for investing in our students and their wellness. Thank you, Katie. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Thank you. Thank you. Our next, gift item are donations to Pueblo County High School, and we're gonna be received by missus Garmando. I'd like to congratulate the new board members. Welcome aboard. I'm Laura Gordamando. I'm the academy coordinator at Pueblo County High School, and I'm here to, have you guys accept several gift items. The first on our list is a donation for $3,262.39
to Pueblo County High School Football, which, provided a charter bus for our boys' football team to go to state playoffs. The next donation was $2,500 for our FFA, nationals trip, and I'd like to just take a moment. For those of you who don't know, our, ag girls competed in livestock judging team at nationals in Indianapolis in October, and we placed ninth in the nation. Ninth in the nation is a huge honor.
State was a huge honor for us because we don't remember the last time that that ever happened. But our girls competed against kids that have full time judges for their livestock team, and we have our our adviser who split in all different directions. Our top the top five in the nation have multiple, full time coaches. So for us to place ninth was amazing. We will be, presenting them with a banner coming up in the next month or
two, and we would love to see you guys there when we do present that banner. Miss Wardlaw, who are the members of the team? Well, of course you would ask that, and I don't have that all of it in my mind at the moment. But we have five girls that compete. Great. Yes. We have a donation of $1,281.40, from La Totecco Foods for, two spirit buses that took up a bunch of our students to attend the playoffs. We had a donation of $750 to Pueblo County High, boys basketball, team to, from
Southern Colorado Clinic. Another $750, donation to our boys basketball team from the Rocky Mountain Development Group. A donation of $750, for boys basketball from TNT Electric and a donation of $500 for for our Pueblo County cheer team who will be competing in nationals at the January. I'm I'm sorry to be I'm so interested. How did they get all these donations? You know what? Here's here's the deal. Like, we have we our kids our kids are little fundraising maniacs, first of all.
But we have a huge support net network that, like, if I were to list all the people that actually helped with our FFA girls, like, just because it wasn't monetary, we had ranchers that let our girls go out to their swine and their sheep and all hours of the night, like, 09:00 at night going out to judge the steers. I mean, our community is amazing. We had at at t minus six hours, we had a phone call to doctor Leonie and Fowler to give the girls some confidence.
I mean, it's just amazing that the the donations, whether it's time or money that our community provides. Thank you. Yep. Absolutely. Good job. Thank you. The next item is a donation to Pueblo West High School, JROTC, first sergeant Lemaster. Good evening. My name is first sergeant John Lemaster. We had $13.30 donated to us from, Eagles, which we can't thank them enough. We partnered with them, on a fundraising, on a on a fundraiser.
We did a, car wash at the D 70 online simultaneously, had a poker tournament with Eagles. We were able to, to, to raise money, for our archery team. All that $13.30, has already been spent, for three d targets and arrows. This is our second year, standing up a archery team. Yeah. Thank you. And thank, Eagles enough. That's great. Thank you. The next item is a donation to Pueblo West High School dance. Mister Weimer? Hi. I wanna congratulate the board members Thank you.
Again tonight. My name is Brian Weimer. I'm assistant principal of Pueblo West High School. And on behalf of the Pueblo West High School and the dance team, we'd like to extend our sincere gratitude to Cyclone Car Wash for their generous $500 donation. Their support will help defray the cost the travel cost for our team as we prepare to compete at nationals. We truly appreciate their commitment to our students and their continued support of our community. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. Thanks. The next items are donations to Craver Middle School and Rye Elementary School. Mister Baum Gardner.
Yes. Hi, and welcome and congratulations. Thank you. Before I begin, I do wanna make kind of a little bit of a statement. What Laura made, right now you guys are and gals are coming in to see a lot of, support from the county. I'll tell you this. Across our entire district, we have outpouring support from the mountain to west. It's out here in the county for all of our activities, athletics, and as well as within our schools. So, we can't thank our community enough for all the things that they that they do. And, yes, I'm here, asking for, your grace in the Craigborough Middle School.
They received a JR storage, donation of a thousand dollars. Jody put this in elementary vocabulary, so I will be able to read it to all of you. It says here, the contribution will help fund new picnic tables, update some recess equipment, custom Craver backdrop, enhancing both student recreation and school spirit along with some achievement recognition. We're also grateful that JR Storage Containers, the investment that they have put into Craver Middle School, and the community it serves. Can I continue? Alright. Yes. Alright. So also to Craver, the Valley Backpacks donated $690.33.
These contributions from this Valley Backpack group, helps provide essential school supplies, folders, pencils, notebooks, and much needed classroom items to ensure students are equipped for success. The Valley Backpack organization, is proud to help meet the needs of our local learners and strengthen our school communities. I could also say that same message is gonna go for the elementary donation that was brought in, as well as the belly backpacks. And they got 1p more. Not sure why, but, maybe it was just that extra cost of that another eraser
attached to that pencil. So Yeah. Questions? Awesome. Thank you. Can I have a motion to accept the gifts as presented? May I president may may I make a statement first? Sure. I'd like to say how much I appreciate, first of all, the donations being presented and us getting to hear about the great things that are happening in our school district. We truly have the best students and best teachers. So thank you. Thank you, sponsors. Thank you, principals. We appreciate it. Thank you for that, Mark. So can I have a motion to accept the gifts as presented?
So moved. I second. Okay. And so So Anne Bennett? Hi. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Yes. Anne Och? Yay. AJ Wilson? Yay. Motion carried. Next is information from the board and superintendents. Let's start with, oh, sorry. I missed one. Our good news item is the PCEA employee spotlight, Kate Paycheck. Hello, George. Welcome to new members. I'm the Pueblo County Education Association president. Over there.
She developed this last year, came up with an idea for member for staff recognizing staff, and so we have now started doing that. So I have two member nominated sorry, staff members who were nominated by fellow PCA members. So first, I have Brenda Veronica Manzanares. Did I say that? I did? Oh, yay. And this is what her staff had to say. Brenda demonstrates remarkable leadership and dedication as a paraprofessional at Vineland Elementary.
Consistently note her ability to consistently note her ability to anticipate needs and adapt to new challenges with grace. Brenda consistently goes above and beyond to help students thrive. Her professionalism, reliability, and genuine care shine through in everything she does, whether she's offering extra encouragement, supporting classroom routines, or stepping in to help wherever she's needed.
Her commitment to ensuring students feel seen and success makes her a truly valued member of the Vineland Elementary team. Brenda exemplifies district seventy and our PCA mission by showing dedication to high standards of service, collaboration, and student centered support. She uplifts those around her with her positive attitude and unwavering commitment to doing what's best for students and staff alike. Brenda's kindness and bright spirit make her ray of sunshine in her school community.
Thank you. Thank you so much. And then, our next spotlight goes to Lindsay Jarbo. Lindsay is known for she's a teacher at Rye Elementary. Lindsay is known for genuine care, patience, enthusiasm, and creativity. She brings an extraordinary level of passion to her work, creating a classroom culture where students feel supported, respected, and empowered. Her colleagues and students consistently benefit from the steady encouragement and kindness she models every day. Lindsay has built a unique and effective system of classroom responsibilities that teaches students accountability,
teamwork, and ownership of their learning environment. Each week, students choose meaningful roles such as lunch counter, cal calendar leader, mail sorting and delivery, feeding the class pet, tech helper, paper passer, and more. Through these responsibilities, Lindsey helps students develop confidence, independence, and pride in their contributions. Many forter former students continue to speak highly of her class, noting they felt well prepared and confident thanks to her guidance. Lindsay exemplifies district seventy and PCA through her resilience, dedication, and commitment to fostering a
supportive community. She serves as a positive example for students, colleagues, and families by consistently demonstrating strength of character, professionalism, and a belief in every child's potential. Her ongoing impact evident in years of well prepared and confident students reflects the heart of what we stand for. Are you guys are you guys judges? But I thought you might have been ever fake. You look so young. Those are two of my daughters. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Next is information from the board and superintendents.
Let's start with mister DiPietro and go around to the board members. Again, I'd like to also welcome, the new board members, to, the district. And not much to report today, other than I I do have a kind of an advertisement that mister Dylka at Public County High School kinda put a plug in today that they are having their winter fest, performances next Monday and Tuesday. And so he said that if you're looking for a good holiday show to, head out to public county high school. I think he even makes a cameo appearance, in that as well.
So, Is he the Grinch? I think he plays an elf. Okay. Yes. Outside of that, just wanna wish all of our District 70 families a merry Christmas and a happy holiday season, and hopefully our, staff can get some much needed rest, over the the two week break. I know we just came off of, Thanksgiving, but this is definitely a busy time of year. So hopefully, they, all can get a break and all of our kids have a a great, holiday season. Well, welcome. It's nice to see, all of you. It's nice to see some of you back.
And we appreciate the service that you'll be giving our district and our kids. So thank you. Thank you from our our our community members. We appreciate you. And we appreciate the work that that you guys are continuing to do. So thank you. I'd also like to mention that, our our PCEA and and Jen has been they've been working very hard to create a mentor program for our classified and our, focus is on care pros and custodians.
And so they're looking to create a mentorship program for that. And to do that, it sometimes takes a little bit of money. And so they were able to secure a $15,000 professional excellence grant, and they just found out that they received that today. They did a presentation in Washington, D. C. In October. And so, we're excited. That mentorship program. And its its goal is to help us to support our our parapros, our custodial staff, and retain them by giving them the training that they actually need in order to do their jobs. So we're excited to begin that program as soon as possible.
So congratulations on receiving the grant. And I'd also like to say that I hope that everybody had a happy Thanksgiving and I hope that, we have a great holiday break. It can be a hard time for a lot of people and so I just try to keep all of our little kids in our hearts and in our thoughts because sometimes it's a tough time and we just hope for the best for everybody. I would like to congratulate you all for coming on to the board and they say this is a thankless job so let me be the first to say thank you. It's it's exciting and I'm excited to kind of be able to brainstorm with you
guys and get some new ideas and see what we can do to improve the district for these kids. Great. Thank you. Thank you all. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to serve our community. I represent Rye and some of the Mesa, but, just really looking forward to working with you all and to serving our kids, our families, and our community. I'd just like to welcome you guys and, I look forward to working with you and, hope that everybody has a great holiday season, and our teachers and staff and
students can get some rest. Well, it's wonderful to be back. I I am so excited. I walked through the door and as the board meeting was starting, as, Des Oech called it to order, I remembered all these board members that were sitting right here, and I swore them in. And it's wonderful to be back amongst the group to help. Our students are wonderful teachers, and, I I think we can continue the success and the excellence in District 70.
Well said, Mark. Well, again, thank you so much, for being here this evening. I am very excited to serve, on, the school board, and to work on behalf of our students, our staff, and our community. I think we just have I mean, we I'm so proud to be, a, you know, to be part of district seventy. This is something that I mean, I've had the opportunity to teach in district seventy for, many decades and have really enjoyed it.
And I feel like this is my opportunity to give back and to share, as you mentioned, new ideas and, work work forward and work for, just a a really positive experience for our students and for our, amazing teachers as you mentioned, several of you. And just really excited. And I'm ready to get to work. So it's gonna be it's gonna be a really, it's a wonderful opportunity to to give back. So and by the way, that's what I've always taught my students.
So I'm ready to do it myself. So Thank you. Okay. Up for discussion, item seven point o one is a presentation in the Pueblo West High School Junior ROTC rifle team rifle team trip by first sergeant Lemaster. Hello again, board members. I'm requesting your approval to take five, cadets to Santa Utah to compete at the JROTC air rifle regional championships from April.
The cadets will miss two days of school and will coordinate ahead of time for any missed work. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Express in South Jordan. All expenses are paid for by US Cadet Command. There will be no out of pocket expenses to the cadets. We do encourage them to bring a little bit of spending money for snacks and, souvenirs. You know how high school kids could eat. Pending your questions, that's that's all I have. First sergeant, what is the competition? It's a, air rifle competition, sir. So is it a regional competition? Regional championships. Yes, sir. World championships.
Yes, sir. Congratulations. Thank you. And of the students that you're taking, how many are juniors, seniors? I'll tell you male and female. I'm sitting in for, first sergeant Gilcher. We are taking, three males, one of which is a freshman. I know that. So he's a first year shooter. And then two females that are seniors and two juniors. So it all came off. May I ask another question? Yes, sir. How much do those rifles cost? Sir, I'm signed for 15 of them and I have no idea. We were just watching how it's made and they showed how they made those.
And they're so cool. Yes, sir. We just received, they're the new Crossman, I think 15 and, they shoot well. But we just still practice with the old Crossman. That's awesome. So That's it. Yeah. We're super excited. Getting your questions, that's all I have. Any questions? That's cool. That's cool. They're very cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great evening. Item 7O2 is a presentation of the Swallows Charter Academy annual report by mister Hawkins. Well, good evening, members of the board. Congratulations to our new board members.
My name is Matt Hawken. I'm the principal of Swallows Charter Academy. I've been there for about fourteen years now. It's crazy to say out loud. But, I'm grateful to be here just to give you a quick annual report of what we've been up to at Swallows Charter Academy for the last year just to report that to the board. So first and foremost, we wanna say that we, we are excited to receive the performance rating for both our k eight and for our our high school, for the both of those schools. We received those banners just a few weeks ago, and we're excited to put those up in our gymnasium. That that goes all the credit goes to our teachers and our support staff and everything that they do, within the walls of of of our school. Our athletics, we are excited to bring home a a state champion, Haley Pearson, who
won the two a state long jump title last season. So now we have two banners in our in our rafters for our for our athletics. So, you know, we're getting things going. We're we're hoping for three this year. So, we're we're excited for our athletics department. As far as our our academics go, when we looked at our data for last year, we noticed a need for, an improvement in our writing across the board through our k 12, and so, we looked at our curriculum Step Up to Writing that we've been using for many years. We realized we needed to kind of revamp that, and, we were actually able to
fly out a step up to riding trainer to do a full day training for our, staff from kindergarten to twelfth grade to to align what's been going on, between each grade level. And so we are seeing lots of great things from our teachers, and hopefully hoping that that will make some, a good difference in the writing within our school. We are we're also able to, send one of our staff members to a train the trainer, for Step Up to Writing, so we have somebody on staff that can help our teachers as we as we implement writing, and and kind of raise the rigor of our writing, across our school.
As far as our early college program, back back in May, we were able to graduate 35, 34 high school seniors. And of those 34 seniors, seven of them seven of them, received associate's degrees, eight of them received, professional certificates for the trades. And as a whole, they, were able to earn 2,025 college credits, which we are, very proud of for them. Currently, we have, 82 of our high school students that are attending CSU Pueblo, 45 that are attending Pueblo Community College, and one student that's at Intellatech. We also are able to have many more students, take online college, courses on campus
as well as, some of our staff are able to teach for, college credit on campus as well. So lots of opportunities for kids to receive early college. As far as on our enrollment, we currently stand at 890, full time k 12 students. 705 of those are k eight, and a 185 of those are, grades nine through 12. We maintain a strong wait list at nearly every grade level, and we were able to lift our caps of our high school enrollment a few years ago, so we've been able to see the the largest high school enrollment we've had with a 185.
So we're hoping that that will, help spill over into our early college programs and more early college that that are ready for it. As far as our staffing, we are currently, fully staffed with over 70 employees, and we were able to welcome a, new board member to our parent board, Jennifer Reese, and we're grateful for her and we're grateful for all board members that that give up your time and and and serve, for on our students behalf. The big thing we've been working on is our facilities development with of our new preschool. We're able to, purchase the land across the street from Swallows Charter Academy to build
a new preschool. We were hoping to break ground last month when we've had a few hurdles in the way, we are working with the county on road, curb, and and gutter requirements, as well as we've put in a out a solicitation to purchase water rights, which is a pretty tricky thing as I have learned as the water rights and who thought? I don't know. I but, we are working on that. We're we're getting close to an agreement on that. So we are hoping, to be able to break ground, by this May and to open the, preschool by August 2027. As far as financially, we have, obviously, we've, successfully refinance our current bonds to fund
our preschool project, and we currently maintain a hundred and eighty five days of cash on hand. And we are, 10 students over our projected enrollment, for this year. So that's gives has given us a pretty healthy, budget outlook. And, we just wanna say we're grateful for the partnership that we have with District seventy. We're going on thirty years that we've been working with District seventy. We're so grateful for the partnership that we have with you. I'm grateful for many other many faces in this room that have helped me along the way, and we hope to continue that relationship, and just know that SCA stands ready if the there's anything that distributes.
So thank you so much. If anybody has any questions or I had the opportunity a few years ago to, Doctor Compton gave me a tour of the school. It was impressive then, and it sounds like it's even more impressive now. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. We we hope to expand and and, but, you know, we couldn't do it with a great relationship with with the district, so we appreciate all of your support as well. We couldn't do what we do. So alright. Thank you. Thank you. Item seven point o three is a presentation of the revisions to the registered behavior
technician job description, and missus Russell. Good evening. Welcome, members. Good evening, madam president, members of the board. Tonight, I'm presenting a revision to a job description for a registered behavior technician. Our current job description is from 2018 and, needed some some updating in format and details. So I'm presenting to you all tonight. This is a position that does require an associate's degree. We would prefer a bachelor's degree for the position. It also requires the registered behavior technician certification and ongoing supervision from a board certified
behavior analyst. I did work with the director of exceptional student services to update all of the essential functions to align with the registered behavior technician daily job duties. So that is the revision to the job description presented to you. Any questions? Any questions? Alright. Thank you. Item seven point o four is a oh, did that one. Item 7.5 is a presentation of the memo, restricted fund balance operating reserve. What was the first time? Seven four. I'm so sorry. Presentation of the revisions to the twenty five twenty twenty twenty six student special services,
salary schedule with Mr. Wagner. Thank you. Good evening board. Congratulations to the new members. I look really look forward to working with all of you in the future. We have some exciting things ahead. I'd also like to thank Swallows. It can be hard for districts to work with charters, and they're they're always super easy to work with. So thank you for that. You should have the memo in front of you, as far as it's the $25.26 special student services salary schedule. So we added the column on the right for the registered behavior special or registered behavior technicians. They currently were in the specialist assistant athletic trainer column.
But based on the new qualifications that miss Russell just presented, we added that column. So that's what this change is about. Okay. Any questions? Okay. So again, from mister Wagner, item seven point o five is a presentation of the memo restricted fund balance operating reserve. Okay. And again, the memo is in front of you. This has actually been board policy. It's just never shown on our books. So just to make our audit more transparent, I'd like to add this as a restricted fund balance on our financial statements just so it shows.
So it actually is board policy and we're not changing anything. All we're doing is showing it on our financial statements as restricted. And it does match the state the constitution says with TABOR, we have to have a 3%, dollar amount on there. So this is exactly the same as TABOR. So it'll show twice TABOR and then the board policy. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. I am eight point o one is open forum. Do we have any comments this evening? We have two comments. I don't know. And we have Hannah McDowell Do you have a piece of paper for the board
to go along with my speech? This is, thank you, Chris. This is all based on forward costs. Yep. Good evening, and welcome new board members. I'm Chris Sutton. Like many in this room, I have been a part of this D 70 community for decades and have a vested interest in the success of our school district. Not only do I want my children to excel, but I want all children and all students in our neighborhoods throughout our communities to succeed. Because the correlation between the prosperity of education and the society is well known, the
importance of public education cannot be understated. Unfortunately, as you likely well know, our district continues to struggle with adequate funding. Because of this, fiscal responsibility is a necessity. Wasting money and resources on cultural, partisan, or hidden agendas only serves to hurt our students. Please ensure focus on our students and teachers. Also, I ask that you take no offense when I echo a request I made years ago. I ask that you all serve with transparency, integrity, and accountability. I ask you stay in your lane and focus on the needs of the roughly 10,000 students you serve. I also ask you to evaluate your legal counsel and the financial burden tied to
Brad Miller. Years ago, after the new board was elected, legal counsel was fired and Brad Miller was hired in their in their place. After only four months, mister Miller had, and his law firm build the district for about $40,000, which was more than had been the the entire year prior. In 2022, I created the millimeter hoping to bring attention to this matter. Using the graphic, I predicted that with this new attorney, the district would pay over a $100,000 in legal fees by the end of that year. Today, I present to you an updated millimeter. As you can see, my prediction was accurate. Brad Miller and his firm have charged this district an average of over a $100,000
a year. How much of that was so that Brad Miller could push his personal agenda? How much of that cost was due to bad legal counsel or counsel? What cost is his new board willing to incur on behalf of Brad Miller and his agenda? Will Brad Miller continue to profit off of this district while pushing his anti public education agenda? Will any of you be signing a secret six figured salaried contract in an apparent quid pro quo? Will you be putting the needs of the roughly 10,000 students ahead of your own personal agendas? These are questions I ask you to reflect upon. And with that, I truly want to share my optimism and hope that you will,
sir all serve productive and successful terms. I wish you all luck. Thank you. I have serious concerns about the lack of conflicts of interest surrounding an MOU that District seventy Board approved back in June. The MOU allowed ER BOCES to place a school called Riverstone Academy within our boundaries. According to recent news articles, there's an email that suggests Riverstone was created because a group called ADF asked Brad Miller to help them initiate a case to test legal boundaries around using taxpayer money to fund religious education. Mister Miller is the lawyer for both d seventy and ER BOCES.
The article said mister Miller sent the email to our board detailing this background on June 4 and that board president Anne Och replied just four minutes later. At the next board meeting, the MOU was introduced and read aloud. Neither the board members nor the language of the MOU itself mentioned the religious nature of the school or its true purpose of initiating a lawsuit. Two weeks later at the following board meeting, all members voted to approve the MOU with no further discussion. Now I think the lack of transparency and ethics and how this MOU was created and handled are a problem. I think that mister Miller representing and being paid by everyone involved while working to
advocate for a third party is a problem. But wait, there's more. Because in the midst of all this, Ms. Och was also offered a full time job with a 6 figure salary working at E. R. BOCES. And that job offer came from the supervisor of that position, Trevor Miller, son of Brad Miller. Let me recap the timeline. June 4, Brad Miller emails the board about the MOU and the reason for it. June 9, Anne Och accepts a job with ER BOCES. June 10, the board introduced the MOU that says nothing about the background of it. June 24, the whole board votes to approve the MOU. Now, not only did miss Och not recuse herself from voting on a matter involving
her new employer, she also never disclosed any conflict of interest. In fact, when the press caught wind, a reporter reached out to the board and miss Och claimed she hadn't even interviewed for the position until after the vote. But the vote was on June 24, and she signed her contract on June 9. She also suggested she had no prior knowledge of the controversy Riverstone would create, claiming she didn't think religious curriculum made the school a religious school. And later, when asked about that email she'd gotten from mister Miller, she deflected, noting, I don't get paid for this position. This is an elected position. I make my vote depending on what I feel is right.
Shame on all involved for using their positions to quietly sneak this controversy into our community. Not to advocate for d 70, but on behalf of a completely outside group. I ask the new board to look closely into mister Miller. Seriously, just Google him and consider his motives and impact on our district. And miss Och, your lack of transparency and misleading statements are beyond disappointing. Your constituents should not have to learn about a serious conflict of interest from a news article months after the fact. But you're right, this isn't a paid position. So I'm asking you to enter conflict of interest now, resign from this board, and
just take your salary with ER BOCES. And as always, I ask that all our board members commit to transparency and accountability and integrity while representing District 70. I also have a packet with, all documentation and evidence for all claims in my speech that I'd like to give you. I'd like to respond. I'd like to respond. Please do. First off, I didn't start with the ARBOCES until July 1. Secondly, I have to work for a living and this had nothing to do with Riverstone. I don't work with Riverstone. I didn't even know about Riverstone being one of the programs.
So I would just like to say that you know what? You're getting your wish come true because I was planning on resigning anyway. Thank you. I'm done. I'm out here. Obviously, I'm new to the board, but I would like to say as somebody that has been a member of the community and, has been on the outside that, I'd like to thank Anne for her service. She's done a phenomenal job. And I think that, she really, along with all of the board members, really do
deserve, just some some compassion for the difficulty in the role that they've they've walked through. Going forward, I will say that I am happy to hear from the community, but I won't tolerate personal attacks. Obviously, you do have a right to to bring forth your your, your concerns. So moving on. Item nine point o one is the approval of the tentative agreement between PCEA and
district seventy regarding a horizontal movement article 16 dash two, sixteen dash nine, and seventeen dash three with missus Russell. Yes. I would recommend that the board approve the tentative agreement on horizontal movement as previously presented. So moved. Do I have a second? I second. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. AJ Wilson? Yes. Motion carried. Okay. Item 9.02 is approval of the tentative agreement between PCEA and District seventy regarding classified, valuations, article
14 dash five. Missus Russell missus Russell, excuse me. So I I would recommend that the board approve the tentative agreement regarding classified evaluations as previously presented. So moved. Second. Oh, I'm sorry. Do I have a motion to approve the agreement? So And then Mark? Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson? Aye. AJ Wilson? Yes. Motion carried. Alright. Yes. Item 10 is approval of the consent agenda items. Is there a motion to approve these items? So moved. Second. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes.
Michelle Erickson? Yes. AJ Wilson? Yes. Motion carried. Item 10 o when the next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 13. Consent agenda. Sorry. Sorry. It's alright. So the next item will be consent agenda. That's what we just did. I must have had three on there. Oh, so it's the MOU that we need to do. Number three. 9 o 3. On the. Sorry. I was like, I missed something. Oh, I 9 o 3. 9 o 3. Yep. Item nine point o three is approval of the MOU between PCEA and district seventy
regarding literacy testing days. Missus Russell? I would recommend that the board approve the MOU regarding literacy testing days as previously approved at MOU regarding whether the testing days has previously presented. So, miss Russell, does this mean the testing days will come back to to the elementary school teachers? We will continue discussion after feedback from our teachers and make a decision what that looks like for next school year for the calendar year. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the MOU? So moved. Awesome. Anne Bennett? Aye. Mark Emery? Yes. Michelle Erickson. Yes. Agent Wilson. Yes. Motion carried. Okay. That's 10.01.
The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 01/13/2026 at the Educational Services Center. 24951 East Highway 50 Pueblo, Colorado beginning at 6PM. Our regular board meeting is now adjourned.