Yep. >> Good evening. I call this meeting to order. Oops. Good evening. May I call this meeting to order at 5:02 p.m. Uh, present tonight are directors Koulenberg, Director Ramirez, uh, myself, Director Defrightes, and is Tammy online right
now or we will we and Director Nmo will be joining us for executive se for executive session. Um, which means we have a quorum. Excuse me. I I think we should wait for her to get online so that we note her presence at our general meeting or opening before
we go into executive session. >> Thanks. don't want there to be any confusion about which directors are here. I >> think she's just on a different link right now. Are you texting her? Okay. I'll remind her.
Good job. >> Yeah, we are waiting on Director NMO to join us in the public meeting. She will be on in just a minute. She'll be joining hybrid via Zoom. Mhm.
Great. And director NMO has joined us via Zoom. So once again, we have Director Kenberg, Director Ramirez, Director Defrdes, and Director NMO present, which means we have a quorum. The first business in order is the approval of the agenda. Directors, are
there any proposed changes to the agenda? I would like to make a proposal that we shift item 11.1 from an action item to a discussion item and not take a vote on it this evening. >> Do I have a second? >> Yep. >> All in favor say I.
>> I. I. >> All opposed? Motion passes. >> Director Nimbo, is your mic working? Can you say I if you approve the motion to change the agenda? >> I Yeah, I said I can. >> We cannot hear you, >> Director NMO.
>> I >> cannot hear you. >> Oh, I'm not on mute. Um, >> can she give us a physical thumbs up? We are seeing a thumbs up and we have a vote of the next business in order is an executive session for a student
expulsion hearing per CRS section 24-6-424H discussion of individual students where public disclosure would adversely affect the person or persons involved inviting Dr. Anicole Dr. Stacy Park, board attorney Brent Casease, the Appalent, his mother, and their family
representative. Rodrigo Andrade will also join as an interpreter. Do I have two revisions, >> please? >> Joel Hathaway, executive director of schools, and we have an interpretation team that'll be joining. Claudia Paul is leading that team. Sorry.
>> I would make sure to denote those in a motion. >> Thank you. Do I have a motion to move into executive session? I move that the board of education move into executive session for a student expulsion appeal hearing per CRS section 24-6424H discussion of individual students where public disclosure would adversely affect
the person or persons involved inviting Dr. Anna Cole Dr. Stacy Park, Joel Hathaway, board attorney Brent Casease, the appellent, his mother, their family representative, and a translation team led by Claudia. >> Paul,
>> do I have a second? I excellent. The board will now move into executive session. The time is 5:07 p.m. doesn't see. Hi.
>> You need to turn off your camera. >> I thought I just did. >> Did I? >> And then the microphone is not working in the Zoom for some odd reason. So, you're going to need to check that. >> I know. I don't know what else to do other than I mean, it's on, you know. I
don't I don't know what else. It's not muted. Um, yeah. So, if it's not working, I can just bow out. I mean, I can listen in, but I or maybe I can just watch as a >> Yeah, you can call me and I can
>> put my phone up to the microphone or something, but >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't Yeah. And I'm not very So, you say to turn off my camera and like >> it's I know. And when I'm
>> He can't hear you. Is it going to be kind of how we're set up? >> I mean, I can take a picture and show you. And when I hover over it, it says turn on camera. >> What's going to happen is your interpreter. >> So, I think this is so weird. You have Tammy.
>> Thank you. It is 7:15 p.m. and the board has returned from executive session. The next business in order is action on the expulsion appeal hearing and I will now entertain motions. >> I make a motion to affirm the decision
of the superintendent with the respect to the expulsion of a student through the end of the 2526 school year. >> I second the motion. We will now have two minutes of discussion for each board member and five minutes of open discussion. Director Ramirez, would you like to
provide comments? >> I just I think as a as a board member, it's really important to share that um we care deeply about each and every one of our students. I think it is
incredibly important to us that we have policies that are not only effective, but are helpful. and we have such a high regard for each one of our students um and our staff. And I think in um moments like this, it's
really hard to come to terms sometimes that we um we expect so much of our of our scholars to be um following policy and following um
all of the expectations we place on them. and at times it it feels like you know we do a disservice to them um by not expecting the same from adults. So I think that for me um this one was really
hard and I think that I just wanted to share that I think at the end of the day every student in our schools in our school district um matters and we don't have bad kids at the Roy School District. We have great
kids. We have really great kids. And um and we need to do better. And that's it. >> Tammy, do you have any comments? Director NMO, sorry. >> No. >> No. Can you hear me? I don't.
>> Director, are you there? Can you come on camera? Um, >> can you check your mic, please? >> Um, I'm still muted. I can't hear you. >> Yeah, there's no audio here.
>> Dang it. I don't know what to do. I'm here. >> Hold on. If there are no further comments, >> I'd like to make a short >> no comment. No comment. >> No comment. Thank you, Director. No, director. >> Make a brief comment. Um,
we're often faced with the hardest decision when they arrive at this level. Um, and this has felt the heaviest for me of any decision that I've taken in this seat. We carry the responsibility of not just
thinking about any single student in any scenario, but all over 5,000 students. Um, so I echo director Ramirez's comments about the difficulty about this, about the duty that we owe to our students and families. I think that we need to learn
from this scenario all around and push ourselves to grow um for this student and the many others that we'll serve. Um I guess I just wanted to sorry
and I just wanted to share those oh god those those brief comments because this has been uh incredibly difficult. >> Are there any inter intervening motions to amend? >> Would you call the vote please? Dr.
Freddy's >> I >> Dr. Kenberg I >> um one second. >> She's indicating >> because you you have uh >> No. Can you hear me? >> You're blurring on.
She says no. >> She indicates no. >> Director Ramirez. I The motion is upheld. Before we move on, I'd like to make um a direction to staff
that the board discussed uh and gained consensus around recognizing what we clearly heard from the family and advocates this evening. Um the board believes it is essential to continue to offer support to the
student and family to ensure educational services as deemed appropriate by the district. at least once a week checking in with the family to ensure a timely transfer of all relevant documents to help with enrollment in another school
opportunity. Our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our superintendent Hey, good evening. We're gonna have a bunch of big topics and clunky transitions tonight. Um, last
Friday was our first snow day of the school year. So, I want to thank Rick Sorenson and our grounds crew who were out monitoring road conditions and clearing parking lots at 2 a.m. ensuring we were doing everything reasonably possible to keep our schools safe and open. Thank you so much to this
dedicated team for their professionalism and hard work when everyone else was warm in bed on Friday. I want to remind the community that this is the final weekend for the production of the musical Newsies at Glowen Springs High School. Want to make sure everyone is aware that the show is on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday matinea. There are students from all three of our traditional high schools participating in the show. We are also approaching the end of the third quarter. Uh the week of March 9th is dedicated to parent teacher conferences. These are critical conversations for parents and families
and we want to thank students, staff, teachers, and families in advance for prioritizing these meetings. Also want to there's just a lot going on in the district right now. Want to thank all the interested bargaining representatives who've attended or reviewed the recording of our staff interestpace bargaining financial summit
from Tuesday afternoon. Our IBB labor relations teams are deep in the collaborative problem- solving process around issues and interests that will ensure Roaring Fork School staff thrive ultimately leading to better outcomes for students. This works t takes a great deal of time and attention and we're
really grateful for the collaborative process. Also, I want to thank the student leaders at all of our high schools who have been um who continue to meet with Dr. Park, our executive director of schools, Joel Hathaway, and me um dedicating their lunch times about
quarterly as part of their student superintendent advisory councils. These quarterly meetings at every high school are great opportunities for us to hear directly from students what's on their minds, what their concerns are, and their recommendations to make the district stronger. Lately, we've been
talking a lot about some draft upcoming cell phone personal device policies that will come before the board in early April. And students have been um incredibly engaged, thoughtful, curious, and have brought um really great concerns and questions to the conversation that we'll be sure to share
with the board and community when we jump into that policy. And then finally, I want to recognize that we have folks here tonight, which is great. And so want to recognize the community members who are in attendance this evening and were patient um as we had adjustments in our time um for the
the formal meeting to start and for public comment to start. There are often topics that come up in the board's public forums that create strong engagement from our community. Tonight we have a number of those topics that will be lifted up. I am grateful for the
participation, engagement, and recommendations folks will share during public comment and through written comments and the shared commitment that we all have to strengthening our schools and communities even when we don't necessarily agree on how we're doing it. It is by coming together to discuss
issues thoughtfully and respectfully that we show our children how we can work across differences and our small communities to move forward smarter, stronger, and better together, even when it isn't easy. So, thank you. That's all.
>> Thank you. The next business in order is a mid-year strategic plan update presentation from Dr. Cole and a presentation on the Panorama student survey data from Dr. Park, after which each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions.
Okay, we we may also have executive director of schools Joel Hathaway join us. So, we'll we'll keep rolling. Um, tonight are delighted to bring forward to the board a strategic mid strategic plan midyear update. We're in our second year of our strategic plan halfway
through this year. Our memo really provides a detailed explanation of where we are in terms of the implementation of our strategic priorities. So, I won't go into a ton of those um details, but we also have data that we collect in terms
of outcomes and monitoring our plan that are updated and available either in real time or it kind of at midyear. So, wanted to bring those to the board and highlight those for the community. Um we are there's five key uh focus areas for our strategic plan. Students
first, rigorous learning for all, operational excellence and student- centered partnerships and then thriving teams. So we organize a lot of our new work, new initiatives around these um priorities and then monitor them consistently and regularly to make sure that we're investing in the right things
to drive student outcomes. A couple of components, these are screenshots from our data dashboard. If you go on to our website under about us, look for our strategic plan, there's a link to our data dashboard that will um update a lot of this data in real time.
And some of the things we're looking at right now in terms of student first, we're tracking, you know, our theory of action here is really that when students um feel seen and centered and a sense of belonging in school, their attendance will be stronger and they'll be more ready to learn. So, we continue to track
attendance. We're we're our goal for this year is 92.5% average daily attendance, working towards a 95% attendance. We're doing pretty well at our elementary and middle schools. Um high schools are slipping a bit and some of our middle schools as well, but certainly um we have attendance teams in
all our schools that are wrapping around kids and families to really develop those interventions that we need to make sure they're supported. Um, I see director Hathaway is getting right in here, so I'm gonna let him jump in on this slide as as well.
So, sorry. >> So, sorry. >> Did you guys start anything in? I didn't talk about anything. Okay, apologies. I highlight a few things on this slide. Um, part of this metric for priority one
students. First is about ISS and OSS incidents. I'm like huffing and puffing, so I just ran up here. You can see ISS and OSS incidents are higher than last year.
and significantly reduced from the 23 24 baseline and still unclear to meet 10% reductions that are needed in the goal is that other assess numbers this year
Hispanic students represent about 56% of the incidents assigned which is very close to a match in overall all district demographics and brings us very close to the goal of
a lack of disparity in that category. It seems not the case right now for ISS members, just to be clear, is out of school suspension and ISS is in school suspension is trending upwards. Is that still this slide?
It is. things turned valid the grades. There's also a caution around some of the longitudinal data here. Some questions were changed through PM and Dr. Park will be speaking on panama later in the presentation
that we've made in response to this data throughout this year in particular in the second half of the year. These include check-ins with all school leaders for all students that have four or state
level incidents that result in ISS or OSS. And we want to be sure that each one of these students has a behavior support plan that's had family other interventions. So, I check in with every school leader when a student hits
that category. And it's a report that I run about every two weeks. And with attendance, I'm not sure where Dr. Cole got on it, but you've seen that this year we are trending just
slightly above where we want to be, but it is also like decreasing as the months go on. And so the payments there have been doing strategies with the attendance secretaries at schools where Kevin and I run trainings for attendance
secretaries specifically around attendance and with school deans. Those are the folks that are um prim attendance team meetings at schools. >> Thank you. So I'm going to talk a little bit about our metrics that we're
tracking for rigorous learning for all. This is actually a lagging report for the end of the 2425 school year. And this is where we're tracking participation in advanced coursework which includes advanced placement courses and concurrent enrollment um courses for college credit. And
specifically our goals is to achieve par uh by gender and by race. And so, um, what you can see is that we're exceeding participation for white students and female students, but four points lower for Hispanic students and seven points lower than the, um, representative
percentage for male students. Um, this is a somewhat newer report that we are monitoring and we so I know it's February, but this is for last year. Um, this is a report that we'll update annually um, in the fall with the other
end of year um, measures. Um for our in-ear measures that includes our dibbles assess dibbles and lectura which we administer three times per year beginning, middle and end. Um and uh NWA which is the beginning sorry Dibbles and Lectura is the elementary assessment. Uh
and then NMWA is taken three times a year for 2 through 9th grade and uh sorry 1 through 9th grade in varying um subjects depending on the grade but second through 9th grade all take reading and math three times a year. Um
a note about uh you know if you look comparatively to beginning of year last year and beginning of year this year there's uh it's lower this year um in terms of percentage of students who are achieving the proficient or projected to achieve the proficient benchmark. A
couple of things um contributing to that. Uh NWA has updated their linking study as it connects directly to the Colorado measures of academic success and um the RIT scores that uh indicate a
projected profic uh projected to score proficient levels is higher and that is just that is just a fact but it is higher than it was last year which was linked to the 2020 study. So every 5 years they update and and um and update
the metrics there. Um it's still uh uh it's mixed in terms of whether we are hitting um percentage desired percentage of students at grade level uh for our subgroups as well. Um off between about two percentage points to six percentage
points at this point of year depending on this year. Um a couple of bright spots in the schools are uh so in math um and Carbell Community and Two Rivers. And then for reading, Basau Elementary, Soapers Elementary, Two Rivers, CS, CMS, and CCS. Um, comparatively
um schools have in the midyear uh right after our winter break met with their uh teams to discuss and plan interventions and adjust in response to this data. um additional information if folks are interested if you again go to our
website to uh look for our strategic plan and link to the data dashboard there's a ton more information there but just wanted to really lift up for the board and community the kind of midyear data that helps us course correct and and monitor progress on the implementation of our plans. So, I think
in summary, and again, there's a lot more detail in the memo and the board packet in this slide deck. Um, most of our our initiatives are on track in terms of the inputs that we're we're pushing to try to move some of these student outcomes um and metrics to
monitor the the progress on this plan. Most are on track, a couple on pause because of uh leadership transitions. We're seeing outcomes midyear around discipline, belonging, and attendance holding steady against targets with some uh strong points um bright spots and
also areas that we're trying to course correct and address midyear. Uh Dr. Park talked about student achievement midyear lagging and and how we're trying to use that data to really make sure we really leverage these next four months with students um and that we have responses
for the the measures of student learning that we have at this this midway point of the year. And as I mentioned earlier, um really looking forward to those conversations with parents starting the week of March 9th to share a lot of this data with them um and look at how we can make the most of the remainder of the school year. Also wanted to share with
the board and community the alignment of my superintendent goals um in that uh continual continuous improvement commitment to the board to our community. These are goals that were established by the board in partnership with me um and in alignment with our
strategic plans. So, um, a couple of updates. We've we've begun the hiring process for, um, what will be a budget and, um, full-time equivalent neutral shift to have a halftime public information officer. We've reallocated
some roles, streamline some, um, some scopes of work to be able to uh, loosen up some funding and FTE to get a a public information officer hired for senior leadership. Additionally, another priority is really around accountability for our culturally and linguistically
diverse education programs serving emerging bilingual students. Those CLLD program reviews happen at every school and that is what is it's happening right now. So, working the CLLDE leadership team, Dr. Park, um Joel Hathaway are working with leadership teams and CLLD
teams to really assess current programs and outcomes for students and develop uh improvement plans for our schools. We'll report back to the board on those when they're rolling up together. Um, there was a goal additionally from the board around really strengthening our labor relations and and the investments we
make to ensure that our staff are thriving. We are right in the heart of interestbased bargaining season. continuing continuing to reflect on our calendar for labor relations. Um and you know expect that we'll have some shifts
to that calendar heading into 2728 to kind of strengthen um the ability for those teams to make real-time decisions with concrete information. Uh finally we actually not finally there's two more. Um one of the nice aligned areas of our strategic plan and
superintendent goals are around staff recruitment and retention. really wanting to um a push here to really focus on strategic priority number four uh thriving team to make sure that we are recruiting um our own amazing students to who are interested in
education professional pathways that we're also um supporting uh professional staff who are not certified who would like to be educators to access teacher training programs. Um, so just want to update the board that we've been invited to apply for funding for a professional
pipeline navigator position from the Gates Family Foundation. So, um, we've submitted that application and look forward to hearing about that in the next coming months. And then finally, we heard that a goal around eliminating the achievement gap. This is really the core of our strategic
plan. Our mid-year student achieve a achievement data, as you heard, is lagging. and we're working right now with teams to review and respond and provide supports for students to catch up by the time we get to those spring assessments. Um there's a continual uh process for the board and supporting my
continuous professional development. At this time is really working through alternative lensure programs. Um last year I completed an administrative lensure program. This year I'm in a principal lensure program. It's ongoing. My goal is still to finish the work by the end of the year. I will be honest,
I'm not making the progress that I would want to see with my own kids in programs like this, but I will get it done by the end of the year. Um, so want to also highlight and hand this over to Dr. Park for just a brief summary of our current year student
perception data. There's a lot here, but we'll just hit some highlights. Thank you. Um, so this is our annual student perception survey. It's administered by Panorama. And like Dr. Nicole was saying there are a lot of slides in here, but I'm I'm going to flip through a lot of
them. And I actually realize there's animation, too. So, if this is PDF, it's going to go faster. If it's not, bear with me. Thank you. Um, this matters because um belonging is one of the metrics that we monitor, but it's not just belonging. We as our schools actually do care about the broader and
deeper student experience at schools. So even though in our strategic plan there's one there is specific question about the overall category of of belonging um there's a much deeper dive that our schools um get into. Um a couple key things about this year that was different. Panorama as a
platform has updated the survey items. Um the survey was administered in December and that is typical for our district. Um questions were updated and districts could choose whether to go with the updated questions this year. um all districts who use Panorama would be required to transition next year because
they'll um sunset the old set of questions. Um the questions were uh updated. It's clearer. Some questions were changed. Some category titles may have been changed to better capture the category. The caveat here is that I think that all of us um naturally compare uh um previous years to this
year's apples to apples, but I do want to um communicate that they're not exactly apples to apples questions. So that's just my caution about that. Um this year third through eighth grades completed both the survey about school and survey about teacher. Uh for the first time this year high schools completed only survey about school
except for um Bridges High School who also completed both. Um and this is because our high schools administered the tripod 7C's survey. It's also a student perception survey about teachers this spring. We didn't want them to have to complete. We're trying it out this
year. you've seen this slide I tal um you know a little bit where we want to make sure that we have a reliable tool that is actionable and that we're getting um good information from our students. Um this is a survey that is externally conducted. Um a little bit about the
I'll talk actually about the randomization but this is so we can get as uh confidential and reliable and consistent data as possible and which is why we work with Panorama. Um these are just the categories but a couple of things in terms of the uh
response rates. Our response rates this year are lower than they have been in the past. We did have less kids um especially um at the high school level taking the specific survey about the teacher um because they took a different survey. Um there is a point at the bottom right. It says most metrics are
lower than last year but again that's just for illustration but it would should not be taken as um again a direct comparison. um they uh with most schools above 80% participation for the student about school less schools less than half
actually had above 80% participation on the student about teacher survey. Um trying to dig into what what happened differently this year. Um in the randomization part um students were not required to complete surveys on more
than two of their teachers. So, uh, as a middle school te as a middle school student, I might have five or six different teachers. Um, they were, uh, they're randomly assigned two of the teachers. So, not every teacher had every single student in their class because that would require kids to
complete many, many surveys. So, um, oh, it is okay, it's animated. Bear with me for a second. Um, many of the slides look like this, but what I want to point out is that these are the summary slides on the right hand side where it says
last year and it has that blue color. Um, that is what I put in over the report because there's actually nothing there when you look at our portal because we're starting at a baseline this year. So, that's just that's just FYI if you're curious. Oh my god. Sorry. Hold on. Okay, let me do this.
So, you can read some of the uh sort of summary there. I'm going to actually go to here it is. Okay. Um in terms of overall strength, this is again for third through fifth grade for the school survey and the generally positive relationships with adults um and
engaging school experiences and that was pretty consistent across the schools um and there were supportive feelings of safety and belonging. There's an opportunity to really strengthen the consistency of learning experiences and this aligns actually with um the work that our for our strategic plan when a
tune came and did sort of analysis in observations in the classrooms. This was very similar. Kids are happy and cared for and the uh rigor is not yet consistent. And so it's it's helpful to hear um and see um uh similar experiences. What's not helpful is we
want to actually improve that. And so we're we really do focus on making sure that students can feel like I have a rigorous experience. I have good connection. Um the things that I'm learning are relevant. Sixth through 12th grade, all of them, six through 12th graders who took this
survey have the same survey. Sorry. And these are just you can read all that in the slides. Um uh there's a lot of value or the one of the category titles changed from grit to perseverance. Um and still there's a lot
of students our students consistently do value their own academic success as we know all the students want to be successful. They do uh generally get good support from adults and there's um strong foundation for engaging in school. Um there's an opportunity both it varied um but the again peer
belonging is one of the areas that we uh have identified and pulled out because we want to make sure that that is still something strong. Um, a lot of kids want to know how is what I'm learning today relevant to my real life outside of school and that is a natural and important question and that is um something consistently want to make sure
kids are experiencing. Survey is about teacher again positive student relationships instructional rigor and opportunity to strengthen. Um and then again as a reminder the only 9th through 12th grade students who completed this specific
survey about teacher was from Bridges High School. Um the rest of the 6th through 12th grade students who completed were from our middle schools. Again meaningful support here from teachers, strong relationships. Um and then similarly as it was for third through fifth grade uh an opportunity to
continue strengthen instructional rigor norms and engagement. Um so the uh all of the schools um presented or discussed their individual school survey results uh in the month of January. Um a couple just in the first
week of February. Teachers have their individual results and have engaged in um unpacking conversations with their uh principal or assistant principal um and setting goals for uh depending on the results that they got. you know, thank you. Um, I was just
checking in with Director NMO. She said she will text me if she has questions or wants to add something to the conversation. Happy to convey that or pick up the call since our audio is just not working this evening. Um, otherwise, uh, let's begin with Director Ramirez. You have two minutes for questions. >> Sorry, I'm not ready yet. Can I direct?
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um, thank you for highlighting all this, for making sure we made the connections to the data dashboard. I don't have specific questions. We went over those in work session. Um I wanted to call out linking the superintendent goals and
thank you Dr. Cole for doing that. I think that's something that I've been pushing for for years. And so to now have that alignment and be able to publicly share that these are the goals that the board is providing for the superintendent to work on, I think is a really important accountability piece for us as a board and for the community.
Um, and so I'm happy that those made it into this slideshow and I'm grateful for the progress being made on them and I'm I'm hopeful we can get in the cadence of continuing to do that. Thanks. >> Ready? >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, okay. So, I I
missed the work session because I was driving over here. So, I apologize for that team. Um, I wanted to follow up on one of the PD conversations that we were having having earlier today. I just wanted to clarify because I missed that part of the conversation. Um, but just
for clarification, when we were saying we're going to complete uh lenture, did we mean end of school year or end of 2026? >> That's a really good question. In my head, the completing the principal lensure program is end of school year. >> Okay.
>> And then it all rolls up into the CDE lensure program. So that's probably closer to end of 2026. Does that make sense? Yeah, but we're sticking to the goals set by the board that August >> will have. Okay, >> none of those deadlines have changed.
>> Thank you so much. Um, so I I did want to ask just because of the the surveys. I'm glad that they were updated. I think that's long overdue. We've used the same surveys. Um, how many schools actually utilize the new surveys? >> All of them. We have to opt in as a full
district or none of like >> Oh, okay. Sorry. Do you need schools nationally? >> No, I guess when I >> Oh, the tripod. >> Yeah. >> Um, four schools. >> Okay. So, next year everybody's going to use it. >> Not necessarily. We've actually had and
we've been in sort of this pilot phase for 2 years. Um, we piloted last year with an elementary school, middle school, and um, two high schools. And so this year, the high schools all opted to take it, which is why we actually didn't require the high schools specifically to take the other part of the survey. only
one middle school took it this the tripod serving that was CMS um and no elementary schools and that was just some learnings from the from the pilot last year >> and what is the reasoning for us not having like all of the schools utilize that >> we wanted to see first if it is a more
informative tool and in what way the cost is a lot higher than Panorama um uh for one survey um and um we didn't get much positive feedback from the elementary school that piloted last from both the teachers and the leaders on the
effectiveness and so it didn't feel like a um thing to force on schools this year. >> Okay. Um I mean I would love to continue to get updates on that. I think it's important for us to know um especially since we're utilizing these results for other things within the school district.
Um I also wanted to know um uh oh retention rates for staff. We had set that as a goal. Have we updated the number on um what our disparity is between our two subgroups and staff? Like I know that that's been a
conversation that we've had in the past and I noticed it on the slide. >> Okay, Chief Brockman, jump in as needed. There's a link right there. Um I'm not sure when we last updated that data that is on the dashboard. The retention data
for the dashboard is updated annually at the end of each academic or fiscal year and it does have a breakdown of demographics. >> Oh, so it'll be updated in August and the board will receive a or I'm sorry, June. >> Um I think probably after the fiscal
year is over. So more like August. >> Okay. And the board will get it up its annual update. It'll it'll probably be lumped into our annual strategic plan update because then that'll be that big lump of data that comes >> once a year. Okay. So, yeah, you'll definitely we'll definitely have that updated for you on the next strategic
plan update. >> Okay. Thank you. And then um on that uh grow your own program that we have um we were saying we applied for a grant. Do you guys share more information on that? >> Sure. We asked for some funds from the
Gates Family Foundation and I think our vision is really that we have someone who can in a culturally responsive manner sit side by side with our current employees and do some recruitment with our high school students to help folks
navigate um the application process and how to be a working professional or maybe even a working parent while you're going to school to become a teacher. We're interested in exploring apprenticeship programs and um some opportunities for potentially concurrent
enrollment or our high school students who are interested in coming back to work for us. >> So that is for high schoolers as well. Is that a conversation we're continuing to have with CMC as a partner or >> It is a conversation that we have um with Miss Qualman at CMC and our
partners there. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, just going back to attendance real quick. I was wondering if you could sketch out how do we get support from other community groups who are also
working with similar populations like Stone or Stepping Stones or other groups that kind of have systems set up to do that relational building family outreach because I know our our family resource center carries a lot as well but I don't know if we're utilizing other community resources
I would say generally through family meetings CMP meetings that are um that are arranged through the family resource center and they bring in all of the community partners that you mentioned as are applicable for um that particular
student situation and often it is attendance. >> Okay. And then just a quick note, I I heard briefly, you know, a number of the scoring mechanisms, the RIT scores and then some of the shifting questions on the panorama survey. Um, how do we make
sure that our long-term goals with the strategic plan are still relevant and like how can we build on those when the metric is changing? >> It's a great question. Um, we take that into consideration. Um I don't know that the I don't know that
our academic goals would change very much. Like what I would say is it's not so dramatic that it's like actually it's 90% of kids are not you know I think it's slightly enough. I think it is more accurate there. Um so I don't know that I would necessarily change academic goals. I think for the the student
perception survey goals and belonging I do want to see two years first. I think even right now comparison to the national norm is only for the districts that opt into the new survey and it's not all of them. And so um this is also why it's a bit challenging to to know
like for this year and compared to last year what are we looking at and once we have two years I think we can reassess do we need to adjust course increase goals or um adjust them to be attainable. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think it's just the board's consistent consensus that we have astronomical goals lined up with the
strategic plan and it's just another thing that makes it a little bit more complicated for that like continuity and accountability that we really value. Um so I'm I'm glad to hear that it's not a huge shift. Um and then I just wanted to name my appreciation for the strong relationships in those early grades and
throughout our school district. They know classroom teachers are such a huge support and connection to both students and families and those relational pieces is the foundation of how our classrooms work and I just wanted to name and appreciate the professionals who make that happen because we can all sit up
here and make our policies and that's not the ones that are reaching the students and so they're doing the work dayto-day and the fact that that's the return that we get is is really encouraging and I hope that that value is conveyed to them and our appreciation for the day-to-day work that they do. We'll now have five minutes for open
discussion. >> Yeah, I wanted to follow up on rigor. Can you guys define what we are defining as a district for rigor? >> Do you need do you like >> like when we're talking about um you know that we see that students need more
rigor in classroom? What are we defining that? it would be are students um are they getting grade level content or better and are they held accountable to demonstrate understanding grade level content? >> Thank you. Um and to to that point I know we're having a lot of budget
related questions and how are we assuring um as we're starting to talk about you know our budget season that the schools are receiving the right allocations for the needs of their students and the needs of their schools. We'll be having conversations around
that. We are you we've we've done so much work internally on the budgets and addressing um pressures around declining enrollment lately and our focus has really been um where can we make reductions and cuts in our budgets as
far as possible away from our schools as we can. Um, and so to this point, we have not um really shifted our like staffing ratios, our studenttoteer ratios when we staff our schools. Um, because we're really trying to preserve
those high quality, comprehensive learning experiences that kids have in the classroom. Um, and so I'd say right now we're trying to really kind of really focus on making sure that our our classrooms are supported, that there's a high quality teacher in every classroom,
that they're getting coached for continuous improvement. Um, but those I appreciate you naming it because those pressures are real in terms of us being able to sustain these comprehensive learning environments where um, kids have access to all the amazing things that we want them to have as part of a
holistic education. You know, I would say that the things that we've really leaned in on and especially around that rigorous learning for all um priority are really around highquality coaching and making sure that our principles are able to get in classrooms as uh
instructional experts um and that they're doing that regularly to support teachers um really strengthening our use of data and using these mid-year assessments. I mean, I'll be honest, 3 to 5 years ago, we could not have done a mid-year achievement, student
achievement and data assessment update for you because we weren't consistently doing mid-year assessments at all our schools. We we didn't have that kind of data culture that would really have these checkpoints midyear. And so, those are some of the things that we're trying to do to maintain that um rigor and accountability and quality in
classrooms, but I would say right now our budget pressures haven't compromised. >> Yeah. And and I guess I would just add to that because you know I do think it's important. I understand that we are obviously trying to um protect our each and every school as much as possible
with their FTEES. Um I think you know just again great I'm glad that we're doing midyear reports. I think it's really important. Um I also think it's important for the board to be aware that we are lagging with those targets. we've
shifted to be a district that cares about data, that cares about making sure that we're, you know, reviewing this stuff. And I think all of that is important work and we should be doing all of that work. We should also be adjusting. And so I just want to make sure that as we continue to have these
conversations around budget that we're not losing focus on the fact that all of our schools have different needs depending on their student populations. And I think we need to be really strategic as we move forward because we can be in the cycle forever of hitting
lagging or you know if we're not giving each and every school what they need to be successful. So just wanted to make sure I looked around on that. Thank you team. Appreciate that. And it it also made me want to mention one additional component that is different and that this board has really driven and what the community will does not see is that
the next two months of this board of education schedules this leadership team schedules and our every single one of our schools the board will conduct conducts two school visits every year. Those kick off you all know it's on your calendar. Um this is a big lift for a
board of education that instead of having kind of schools come and do a presentation here, board members actually get into classrooms, they get into schools. So what you can expect at those midyear, well the second board um visit to schools is looking at that midyear data with school leaders,
learning from the schools, what their needs are, what their strengths are. Um, and so I just want to lift up that that important role that the board will continue to play in terms of accountability and just as you're saying, Director Ramire, is making sure that we're meeting schools where they're at and helping them grow further because often it's it's different for the
different populations our schools serve. >> All right, as we move on to our next agenda item, I just wanted to remind members of the public that all of these resources are available in our agenda online. If you couldn't see slides or if you'd like to see memos from staff or some budget notes that come after public comment, it is all and always available
to you and we encourage you to dive in and see what it is that we're up to uh dayto-day. At this time, we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board. There are 11 speakers signed up tonight. The board lots 45 minute for 45 minutes for public comment. To respect
the time of all who are present, speakers are to limit their remarks to three minutes or less. Reminder to all speakers to uphold our procedures for public comment. We ask you to be thoughtful and constructive with your comments and thank you in advance for sharing your feedback. Members of the public who wish to share their views
with the board may also do so in writing at any time. For this evening's public comment, we received 27 written comments which are also linked in our public agenda. Our first speaker is Caitlyn Hawk. Thank Thank you. >> Um, can you guys hear me? Okay. Sorry, I
don't love public speaking. Um, so the early childhood program's vision statement says that all families have access to highquality affordable early childhood education. A statement that I supported creating with our leadership team. I ask you guys to consider whether
this proposed tuition increase reflects that commitment. I currently have one child in the infant program and one in the toddler program at the Basalt preschool, which is also where I work. The current monthly tuition is $3,657. If this increase passes, that number
rises to $4,735. My monthly take-home as an early childhood special education teacher before taxes is only $5,127. Under these proposed rates, nearly my entire paycheck goes back to the district for child care.
This past year has been incredibly difficult for our family. Our daughter needed a major surgery at just two months old. My husband was out of work for six months. And when I returned from maternity leave, I was notified that I owed over $9,000 to pay back from my leave. For the last
four months, I've only been living on $1,500 per paycheck. I've been so grateful for the support through the staff sliding scale and CCAP. However, once I'm back to a full paycheck and my husband is working full-time, I worry we no longer will qualify for these
supports and will be expected to absorb the full proposed tuition amount. On paper, the daily increase from $90 to $118 may not seem drastic, but when you look at the monthly total, nearly $4,700 for two children, it becomes
unsustainable. Many of the families impacted by this increase are district employees and students that I work with every day. If we value recruitment, retention, and support of our educators, we must ensure that our staff can afford the very programs that we serve. I respectfully
urge you not to pass this increase in its current form. Please consider the real impact of the families who just dedicate their careers to this district. Thank you. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Nicholas Thompson. Is he he's not online? Thank you. Please let me know if anyone sees him return to the room. Our next speaker is Amelia Echelman. I'm Amelia Echerman. Um, I have lived in this valley for
almost 70 of my years. Um, I've I'm 70 years old about and I've lived here most of my life. I have raised six children in this valley. all praise God are still here
and I have nine grandchildren in this valley also. Um I've homeschooled quite a few children and during co I homeschooled five of them uh the five of uh school age ones. Um, I've also been part of the school
district having taught English in the middle school for a while and also taking on the STEM class um in the valley which means it's sorry I'm a little nervous um which is science, technology, engineering and math. Um so
in the portion of my science teaching I it's computerized or it's hands-on but um for high school I taught the reproduction and sex head class. Um, upon watching some of the videos and reading some of the, um, paperwork
pertaining to these three Rs, um, I won't touch upon, uh, how parents have been notified on this because I've actually watched the video with, uh, Tanner and Lindsay, and I think she's going to deal with some of that. Um, I'm
trusting she is. Um, but I had some real concerns about the readings and the um diagrams and the things that they're proposing for kindergarten. Um, when our state is already saying that this
curriculum should be for fifth graders, but our valley is going with a much younger age of children. When I read things such as, and this is, now I'm not making this up, by the way, it's it's in the paperwork, that the elast elasticity
of a vagina can have the penetration of a penis. So, it be that is I mean, come on, kindergarteners, guys. Really, seriously, it's it's sickening. Um, I'm a Christian woman. I love the Lord Jesus and I know where he stands in this
sort of thing also because he says we all have to stand before the throne of God to give our testimony of what we've done good and bad. Um I feel like you guys need to re-evaluate this entire curriculum. Cancel it. If Aspen can say
they don't want it, I think we as a down valley group should also say we don't want it. Um, I know that in the scripture it says it's better for you to put a millstone around your neck and throw you as into the sea than to corrupt a child. And I see this as a
corruption of children. And I see it also as basically as grooming. And I hate to say that, but it's the truth. I mean, really take a look at this through a parent or a grandparent's eyes and read the curriculum. We don't need it in our school. Not now. Maybe when they're
older, but not now. Thank you. Thank you. Up next is Tanner Gianetti. check. Before I get started, just a quick show of hands. Who's in here in opposition of this three arts curriculum? Raise your hand.
Thank you. I've now spent more than two months speaking with this board, the superintendent and issuing public comments at these meetings requesting the district to resend this three hours understanding our bodies curriculum at the elementary level. I'm presenting the
facts the curriculum has received in my experience with the school board. I do not agree that this is age appropriate. I strongly believe that political bias should not be in public education regardless of the party influence and parental rights are absolutely being infringed upon here. Broader gender
theory is exactly as it reads. It's a broader theoretical discussion discussion of gender. That's not anatomy orology. It's sociology and psychology and has direct ties to this radical and doctrine of this woke ideology. Now
present the vulva slide and reference the detail of this anatomical drawing. Discuss the sensitivity of a clitoris, the standard depth of a vagina canal. Then tell the second grade class that most girls have this, but not all girls. Being a girl doesn't have or don't have
a vagina. This is not age appropriate anatomy. This is politically charged rhetoric. And to be clear, this is grooming. Now, confront a parent who's appalled by this curriculum and tell them that they should have signed the opt- out form. You know, the one that was mixed into
the child's take-home folder just shuffled in with ABC worksheets and crayon pictures. But we received an e copy, too. Yeah. Amidst an entire month's happenings for the entire school, there was a small section labeled health curriculums with
hyperlinks. Again, no special call to attention or independent email sent with the lesson plan or context spelled out. This discrete rollout strategy is in direct violation of the district's notice protocol as a detailed sub
substantive outline of the topics and materials were not delivered to the parents. I received a physical copy of the curriculum with the opt out form. Yes. No teachers resource guide or presentation slides were included. The electronic copy of this curriculum
included the teachers resource guide. Why didn't the hard copy include this? Why didn't I receive the presentation slides? I had to specifically request these from the district nurse. Therefore, a substantive outline of the
topics and materials was not provided. The district did not provide meaningful and transparent notice to the parents. That is a fact. The district is infringing on parental rights here. And now people are becoming aware of the
curriculum and understanding its true nature. And the vast majority of this community is logged in and in opposition as they were in 2023. Based on the public record comments during adoption discussions in 2023, there is approximately an 80% opposition
rating. This was pushed through. This is wrong. I'm asking you to put politics aside and rightfully remove this curriculum from elementary schools. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Jamie Gosha. Hi. Uh, my name is Jamie Gosha and I
live in Glenn Springs. Both of my children attended RE1 schools in Carbondale and Glennwood from 2008 to 2024. I've been an early childhood educator in the valley for over 25 years and taught at CRS for five. First, I'd like to talk about the contentious and
completely inappropriate health curriculum you've rolled out called rights, respect, and responsibility. This curriculum is sexually explicit and not based on truth, biology, morality, or any semblance of concern for protecting the innocence and well-being
of all of our K through 12 students, but especially those in elementary school. Introducing sexual ideology and materials to kids before they are developmentally ready for it is confusing and damaging to a child. Not to mention that it is a form of grooming
that is abhorrent. The curriculum was created by a group called Advocates for Youth, which according to their website is devoted to promoting progressive ideology and recruiting and training adolescence to become, and I quote, reproductive justice advocates, whatever
that means. I encourage everyone to go to their website and do a deep dive about this group. The this curriculum is social justice indoctrination and progressive ideology, not biology, not science, not
truth. It needs to be removed from R1 schools immediately. Parents are the ultimate authority on their own children and are entitled to the three Rs, too. Rights, the right to choose how their child is educated. respect for the beliefs and values with which they
choose to raise their families and responsibility for the health, safety, and well-being of their children. So, parents, when this district violates your three Rs by ignoring your concerns, you must make another choice for your child. Children don't have the luxury of time that we do. They only get one
childhood, and they deserve to have one full of joy and wonder and innocence. This district has taken great care over the last several years to prioritize literally everything other than student learning and academic achievement. As evidenced in the superintendent's
abysmal report, about half of all of our students don't feel a sense of belonging in our schools despite the stated number one priority of students first. Your priority number two of rigorous learning for all is laughable with measures like 15% yes 15%
mastery in mathematics with no improvement from the beginning of the year to now and 35% mastery in reading. That means that the schools that we pay for to educate our community's children have managed to fail so miserably that eight out of 10 students aren't
proficient at math and two out of three aren't proficient at reading. How does how is that even possible? Like, how is that even possible? And you all have the audacity to try to put another mail levby override on the ballot and ask voters and taxpayers to give you more money for this failed experiment. My
god, you've got no shame. >> Thank you. The bottom line is the Greenport School District cannot give your child a high quality education. They will not meet their 2year, 5year, 10 year goals. for proficiency, but you can bet they
will still be high-fiving themselves at every minute over some insignificant data points while your kids still can't read, do migrious time disconnected, and feeling bad about themselves in a joyless prison they call school. If you aren't in a place where I
appreciate your comments, you very much pull your kids from the school district, opt them out of everything that isn't core academics. Our kids deserve so much better than this. Up next we have Margaret Senior. My apologies if I mispronounced the last name.
>> Hi, my name is Peggy Senor and I've lived in Carbondale for 10 years. I have three grandchildren enrolled in the Roaring Fork School District. I attend school events, basketball, football, and baseball games. I volunteer at the CR to help with the labels of love. I donate
money to fundraisers and I've been hired to be a guest teacher. I believe that respect for our school boards, teachers, bus drivers, and all the support staff who are entrusted with the education and care of our children is essential to creating a positive
learning environment. When I was a kid, I was taught to respect my elders. My parents did not allow me to speak in a negative manner to or about any of my teachers. I was taught to get along and get along means that when we are in conflict, we come
together and we find a good solution. Complaining accomplishes nothing. Our children need us to work together as a team. Parents, educators, and everyone involved in the school system should set an example of teamwork and problem solving.
What we are doing is witnessed by our children. If any of us thinks we can hide our opinions, complaints, solutions or whatever from our kid kids, they are seriously wrong. Unfortunately, children overhear so much that adults are trying to keep from their ears.
Recently, I saw a posting on Facebook where a paper entitled quote teachers resources, body parts, and functions and quote was posted. It states that quote, "It is up to each teacher to determine the amount and detail of information to share with their students in ways that
are age appropriate. This sheet is for the teachers use only and is not to be distributed to the students." End quote. Regardless of the statement, it was represented in the post that this is the exact information being shared with our kids. I don't know the exact content of
any of the education being provided. Also, it's pointed out that opt out forms are provided both in the children's take-home packets and online. And although provided in two places, the teachers and others involved are being accused of hiding the opt- out paperwork. I don't think there's
anything further from the truth. I find accusing the school system of hiding information from the parents to be insulting to the integrity of the school system and I hope we will have a more positive attitude toward all the people so invested in our kids. There is also an accusation that parental rights are
being violated and I'm not convinced. An opt out option is provided for parents who do not want their children to participate and this form is readily available. The case may be that the parents need to be more dedicated to reading all the information sent home with their children. If parents have
questions after reading the information, teachers and staff at the schools are more than willing to answer questions and address concerns. And I'm proud to tell you that I have a 10-year-old grandchild who reads two 500page books
every week and he is excelling in every in every subject that he takes and the only subject that he ever feels um really that is >> thank you >> Harford is um what is it I can't remember but anyway I hate public speaking but thanks
>> thank you >> our next speaker is Parkin. All right. Uh, hello. My name is Parker Slanic. I'm a fourth generation rancher here in the valley and proud father of two young men of your school district, age five and seven.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak again tonight on the understanding our bodies curriculum that this district has chosen to implement at its own direction. I'd like to point out that the state of Colorado does not mandate this curriculum. We have talking we have been
talking for weeks and spreading awareness to a lot of parents all over the district. Um, sorry. We have uh I lost my spot here. We've been talking for weeks and spreading awareness to a lot of parents all over the district. We have had more
encounters with parents who have had no idea this was even going on in the schools in this district until we have brought it to their intention. This proves to me that you have not done your job in rolling this curriculum out and communicating effectively. We as parents are also now receiving all the documentation that is being taught in
this program. My wife and I had to request the specific lesson plan and slideshow that was taught in the class. When we finally received it, we were disgusted and appalled with what we saw. When we passed this among the parents who only received the lesson plan that you sent out, not including the PowerPoint, they are also disgusted and
cannot believe what is actually being taught. If I had a projector tonight, I would put it up and make you teach me the lesson. If I am reading and understanding the parental infringement laws in the state of Colorado correctly, and I'm not a lawyer, you have not provided the
adequate information to the parents to even begin teaching this curriculum and are opening up yourself for legal recourse. You're stealing innocence in an already cruel world. I'm worried about all the children's futures within this district and disgusted with this leadership. If
you are so-called leaders, then do what is right for these young kids. use common sense and pull the understanding our bodies curriculum now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Josh Anderson. Um, first off, yeah, thank I really
appreciate this process and I just think it's so important that we speak respectfully of to each other. Um, my name is Josh Anderson. Uh I'm actually a teacher and also a parent of students enrolled in the Basalt preschool program
and I'm here tonight to urge you to reconsider the proposed increase uh to the preschool tuition rates. So first regarding the Bassalt location, the district's acquisition of growing years preschool was a massive shift. Um this
was a fully functional program serving many families with reasonable tuition. uh Superintendent Kohl's stated rationale for bringing it into the district was to create highquality inclusive classrooms and I think that is a deeply worthy goal. Um but it was
always going to require an investment. The financial outlook may have shifted since that commitment was made but the commitment remains to abandon it now actively harms the Basalt community. This proposal to drastically ratchet up tuition is the exact opposite of
inclusive for families already struggling to afford care. Second, let's look at the numbers. This proposal stands to increase district revenues by about $300,000. As a math teacher, I love to think about the scale of things, and it's essential to look at it in this
case. 300 thou $300,000 sounds like a big number, and it is a massive number for the roughly 50 families who will be primarily shouldering this burden. For a family with two kids in childare, this could mean an impossible $10,000 annual increase. But when compared to the
Roaring Fork School District's budget, which is on the scale of hund00 million, it's really a drop in the bucket. In fact, in the financial presentation in a moment, there's a line item for um utility savings because it was a warm
winter that are $300,000. If that $300,000 were put toward staff salaries, for instance, it would represent less than a.5% increase. After the 22.35% that goes toward parent and Medicare, a starting teacher in the Ring Fork School District would see only
about $19 more in their monthly paycheck. I'm a teacher and I'm a fierce proponent of increasing teacher salaries. But $19 a month is not a life-changing amount of money. a $10,000 annual tuition hike is lifealtering and devastating um as an expense for
families with children currently enrolled in the preschool. Finally, while this expense may be mitigated somewhat by the passage of Measure 7A, there's still far too much uncertainty. It feels reckless um to push through a massive tuition hike before we have clarity on how 7A
will actually impact childare costs. So, please uphold your commitment to truly inclusive early childhood education. I urge you to vote no on this proposal or at the very least delay this decision until the impact of 7A is fully understood. Thanks for your time.
>> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Angela Rooting. Three years ago, I addressed the board with concerns about declining academic performance in our schools and the time and resources being diverted from core subjects to the 3RS curriculum. I also shared my concerns that the opt-out
system was ineffective and the portions of the 3RS curriculum were not age appropriate. Now 3 years after the curriculum's implementation, I am concerned to see that so many parents still do not know what material is being taught to their children. This lack of
transparency has weaken trust between the families and the district. At the same time, academic scores remain well below where they should be and the optout system re continues to fall short. In 2023, 883 parents signed a petition urging the district not to
adopt the three arts curriculum. Families with the means to do so are leaving the district for homeschooling private schools or relocating the valley altogether. The ruling for community elected each of you to serve as the voice of the parents. However, it feels as though those concerns are not being
heard. The decline in enrollment is noticeable and the academic success of every student should be the district's top priority. Due to the lack of transparency, I would like to use my remaining time to read word for word specific elements outlined in the three
arts curriculum that many parents find concerning. Quote, "A person with a vulva has three holes between their legs and a very sensitive little area at the top called the clitoris. Grade kindergarten. Quote, the vagina has
great elasticity and can adjust to the size of the penis. Second grade. quote, "An unofficial tradition at their school is something called senior sendoff, in which graduating seniors compete to see who they can have sex with,
to see who can have sex with the youngest student they can find at the same school, grade 12." A video about sexing is shown on YouTube. The host says that if both parties consent to it, quote, "Sexing is just another aspect of
normal human sexual behavior." Grade 10. quote sex, which is which is contact between one person's mouth and another person's genitals. Anal sex, which is a person's which is when a person's penis goes inside of a person's anus. That is in
grade six. There's a assertive communication worksheet that says, "Why don't you just have oral sex? You can't get STDs from it." Grade seven. Um, quote, "Ask students, when do you think someone is ready to have sex? either oral, vaginal, or anal. Grade
nine. There's a cross word puzzle. Clue for clitoris. Quote, "My only function is that I feel very sensitive when I'm touched." Grade seven. Quote, "Condoms can make sex last longer." Grade 8.
Quote, "No risk for STDs, including mutual masturbations and solo masturbation, grade seven. I have over 30 pages of examples outlining the harmful elements in this comprehensive sex ed education curriculum. If you
would like to review the full document, I would be happy to share with you. Thank you. >> Even based on the few examples presented, I believe there's is sufficient cause to reconsider and rem remove this curriculum from our schools in order to protect the safety and
well-being of our children. Thank you. Our next speaker is John Eaton. J from false prophets. They come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are fierce wolves. By their fruit you will
recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree does not bear good fruit was cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus,
by their fruit, you will recognize them. In 2013, we were in 80% competency level. Now, we're below 50%. And we can see it all over the place. The kids aren't ready to contribute to society. You're not doing a good job. Not only
that, the costs have gone through the roof. I summarize that this is because your focus is on a woke DEI political agenda and not the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and history. You're teaching what to think, not how to
think. This is what I would do as a coach. I would go back in history and find out that two or three years that the test scores were the best. say like 2004, 2005 for example, and then I would go back 12 years to when they were in kindergarten and use that curriculum and go forward from there. I would go back
to what works. I would call on and question the board of education members back then and ask them their opinion. Something has to change here. You can't ask for money when your record shows your curriculum is going in the wrong direction.
Why should we give you more money when you are failing miserably? And why in God's world does a 5-year-old need to know about a clitoris is the very sensitive part of a woman or that the male penis doesn't have a bone in it?
It's beyond me that you think this is reasonable. What good is it to teach a 5-year-old that the depth what the depth is of a vagina canal? This is sick. The only logical reason comes to mind
that you guys are doing this is that you're grilling them to be abused by adults. I have asked police officers and this type of that this type of curriculum attracts pedophilers and they said absolutely the news of your incompetence is circulating and spreading like wildfire.
parents are hearing about it and seeing this is really a bad thing and you guys you have to change. Thanks. >> Our next speaker is James Stanberry. >> Is there a James Stanberry in the house? Thank you all very much for your time
this evening. We appreciate public engagement in any form. Again, feel free to review public comments in the agenda on our website. The next business in order is the approval of the consent agenda, which includes routine personnel, minutes from our previous board meeting, and the
approval of policies AE, GBK, GC, and GDBA, and repeal of policies GDI and GDJ. Also included is a resolution supporting the grant application for a grant from the Garfield County Min Federal Mineral Lease District and the completion of the Glenwood Springs
Middle School playground. Directors, are there any items that you would like to pull off the consent agenda for a separate discussion vote? I would like to pull policy AE and the resolution supporting the grant application. Is there a second? You don't need a second for that.
>> Okay. move that a board the board approve the consent agenda agenda with the removal of policy AE and the grant >> resolution. >> Yep. >> And do I have a second for the approval of the amended consent agenda?
>> Second call to vote. >> Director >> I. >> Director >> I. >> Director New >> I. Can you hear me? Give me a thumbs up. Director Nemo, she says thumbs up. I
>> director. >> I We will now have two minutes to dis uh share comments or ask questions about those items pulled for a separate vote. Let Do you want to start with AE? >> Yeah, please. >> Thank you. Director Ramirez, do you want to share your thoughts on that? I think
we had a few short very quick additions. Yeah. So, um, when I was reviewing this, uh, policy, I still had some concerns in regards to responsibility and where that falls. You know, I'm appreciate that we updated the title. Um, I think uh, the
second sentence consistent with this responsibility and as required by law, the board will um, that is missing some sort of accountability measure. So, I would suggest that we include the word annually adopt and maintain an
accountability program. Um, and then on the second paragraph, in accordance with state law, the board will appoint a district accountability. Um, no, I'm so sorry. Hold on. Uh, the district accountability school
committees will have prior and did you describe by law? Um there was I think the only thing that I felt was also missing was the responsibility for the SAC yeah the school accountability committee. So uh it's actually that
third sentence in purple. The superintendent will ensure that the DAC and SAC establishes an annual calendar which is posted. >> I've added those two additions. >> Yeah. I should say DAC and Sachs. They're sack at every school.
>> Got it. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Establish an annual calendar which is posted. Yeah. >> That's it. >> Okay. >> I'm fine with all of this. >> Then I believe AE will be on the consent
agenda once again next meeting or should we act on it now? Is there a way to >> I make a motion to approve a >> I second a motion. >> Call. Is that with modifications or as written? >> I make a motion to approve AE with the
modifications as just described and updated within the document. >> I second director Kenberg's motion. >> Please call a vote. >> Director defe >> I. >> Director >> I. >> Director.
>> Thumbs up. Director Williams. Hi. >> Motion passes. And then the next agenda, next item pulled from the consent agenda was the resolution recognizing the grant for the completion of the Glowman Springs Middle School playground. And I believe director Ramirez felt like that
>> noted a required a little bit more note and appreciation for the amount of work that staff put into that. Did you want to share comments as well? >> Yeah. Um, so you know, I think partially too uh you know, I have to add a knowledge serving as a a commissioner of the parks and rack of just this conversation. and I thank the team for
you guys' efforts to make sure that we are um being proactive and updating our playgrounds and you know working with the cities um to update all of that. I I did have one question just because of
conversations that I've had that I wanted to make sure we were in the right purview. Um on section four um it says the project site is owned by RFSD and will be owned RFSD will continue to maintain the Glenn Springs Middle School playground. I just wanted
to make sure um if we have a signed IGA, does that still mean that like if we relinquished similar to the playground next to Soprus or this park space next to Soprus, does that mean that we're still maintaining
it if we're not putting our funds towards it? I just want to make sure we're not boxing ourselves into that. I know it's just a resolution, too, but >> no, you know, I'm and I'm not completely sure what that looks like. Like, we definitely have agreements with the city
of Glenwood Springs. So, let me get back to you on the specifics of what that looks like. Am I correct? that your concerns are kind of like who concerns are around somebody not managing and taking care of the >> No, I think I think I just want to make
sure that if it should say rather and will appropriate funds, it should say will ensure appropriate fund like because >> that's appropriate as a funds. It's a verb, not a >> Yeah, it commits. It definitely commits us to up like keeping, you know,
investing in the annual maintenance of the playground. >> And I just wanted to make sure if we give that to somebody else to hold, does that still mean that we're >> But it's fine. I just that was just a question that it flagged for me when I was reading that. >> Do you understand what I'm saying?
>> I think so. >> Are are you directors? Are you talking about Soas Elementary or Glowman Springs? >> No. So, Glowman Springs, so similar to Sopras, so Doras has that green park space, right? That is managed by the city. >> And so, we are in conversations with the
IGA right now that we're having >> um with Glenn Springs Middle School wanting to update. And so from what I have heard, which again this is a different hat, but um in conversations with the city, we are
possibly considering that the city will now manage that space, that hill space and all that. So I just want to make sure that we're not saying that we're going to put the funds because they're going to be city funds, not our money. >> Does that make sense?
>> Into the middle school. Yeah, I think it does because you're right. at the SOPra site, we're in conversations with the city about who owns, who's managing, who gets use, and um and it's actually really cool work that we're doing with the city and like really considering how we use our public facilities, whether
they're green spaces or buildings, um because we share that commitment with the city of Glenwood Springs that these facilities ought to be used. Um let me get back to you on where what the like the ownership of the site. I mean, my understanding in reading this is that
this is slightly different than the soap site in that we're going to continue to own the site. We're going to continue to manage and and upkeep the playground and fields. Okay. >> Whereas, you're right, like so we're looking at some different agreements there. So, that's my understanding. Let
me just confirm that I'm right and I'll let you all know and update if there's additional context to that. Does that work? >> Yeah. I just just for the sake of wanting to make sure that we didn't have to have specific language on those, but >> it is a resolution in support and I'm in
all in support. So, thank you for that. >> I would entertain a motion to support the resolution in support of this action. >> I may u make a motion to approve the resolution supporting the grant application for a grant from the Garfield County Federal Mineral Leads District of the completion of the Glow
Springs Middle School playground. >> I second the motion. Please call the vote. >> Director Defrades. Hi. >> Director K. >> Hi. >> Director. >> Director Ramirez. >> Hi. >> Director Nemo indicated in the
affirmative. >> Um, our next business in order is a second quarter financials presentation from Chief Shcoin. This is also building on work we did in our work session. Dr. Nicole, did you want to begin with a presentation or begin with board questions?
>> Let's just jump into board questions because I am a far cry from Chief Shcoin on this. >> Yes, absolutely. And I'm doing my best just bringing additional questions back to her to follow up with. >> Do you need me to bring it up then? >> No, for the next one. I just >> Okay,
>> I am going to hand this over to Director Kenberg to start then. Um I don't have any specific questions on this. We spent about 40 minutes in work session and Chief Shuin was able to answer all of our line item questions during that time. Um I would note that we're on
track with our um revenues and expenditures and we are getting a second quarter financial statement um which is great because this is much closer to the cycle that we should be on. So, um I was grateful to
see those shifts and understood why we were where we were were in terms of salaries. So, nothing specific. >> Director Nemo, please weigh in if you have questions you'd like me to ask for the group uh via text for the moment. Director Ramirez, questions. Um, so I
wasn't able to um join in the work session, which is super unfortunate because I feel like I love listening to Christy talk about. Um, but we did have our our check-ins. Um, you know, I think the biggest thing that I I just wanted
to reiterate, you know, I appreciate the thoroughess. I think it's really important that we are a bud that we are a board that is not only staying up to date on our finances but and being involved and getting you know our quarterly updates and everything. Um I
also think you know there's a lot of conversation right now around our finances like you know we've been in this in this place in a long time and so as much as possible that we can continue to have conversations on our finances
and the realities of our finances I think are really important. I think it's just uh especially as we're talking about them alone, especially as we're talking about um student achievement and closing the achievement gap. I just think we need to
continue to have regular conversations around the budget. So, I thank the team for its concerted effort to make sure that we got this. I know that was a tight schedule. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to note I had a quick question. The very first
page says quarter 1. That is supposed to say quarter two. >> It should say quarter two. >> The date is right. As of December 31st, 20125. I just making sure I was reading that right. >> 100% should say quarter 2 >> because what our our chief mastery of finance has done is for those of you
looking at this for the first time again available in the public agenda, the percent of budget if we're halfway through the year should be on or around about halfway. Um, there are some notable exceptions. Of course, the way the property taxes are collected in our district and throughout the state means
that we don't have much of those yet. Um, I just wanted to note again that that is a statemandated process and timing. Um, and it continues to put our public schools in a bind because we need to bridge the gap from the money that we're spending before we have the money from the state. You can see there 1.4%
has been received so far. Um, so that continues to be a challenge. I also really appreciate just how simple it is and how thorough and how laid out um that members of the public can engage with it to the level where they identify if we have savings here, why can't we
spend it somewhere else? That to me says that these financial statements are accessible in the way that the board needs them to be accessible and we really appreciate that. Need five minutes of open discussion. Thank you. Our
next item is not for action. We removed it from taking a vote. Um but it is a discussion around the pre kindergarten tuition for 2627. Looking at the staff memo and the early
childhood tuition proposal, we can enter two minutes of discussion from each board member and then five minutes of open discussion. Is it okay director to phrase if I frame the slide deck real quick? Slides. Is
that all right? Um you know this is this is coming up for the board and not a second conversation. The first after we brought kind of just a pretty raw numbers for the first memo to the board. Y'all asked for more information, more context. So we're coming back um with a
little bit more here on early childhood tuition. from public, you know, comments and written comments this week that this is hitting really hard for a lot of families and a lot of staff. Um, and I I want to name that this is really hard and it is very sticky and this has been a conversation that our community has been in around the cost of early
childhood for the last couple years. Um, and as we've talked about tonight and we continue to talk about the district is facing significant financial pressures because of declining enrollment which impacts us and is impacting school districts across the state, school districts across the country. Um the
instability at the state uh legislature is dynamic. I mean even if you talked to me at 8 o'clock this morning versus right now, the news is very different on what's happening with the joint budget uh committee and what's going on with school finance. And um so there are incredible pressures on our budgets and
uh this board is is absolutely correct that the the push for more financial accountability has resulted because of our leadership and Chief Shaquoin and really remarkable learning for all of us and accessibility to the budget. And given the pressures we're under, we are
looking at and scrutinizing every investment and really trying to reckon with what is core. I think to exactly what director Ramirez you spoke to in earlier conversations which is our our students and their outcomes. Um and so we're scrutinizing all of those things. This is one piece that's coming early
because we like to get these decisions made um early in the budget cycle as people are enrolling for early childhood now. So want to bring the board and community a little bit more information about this proposal where it came from and why. Um really again want to applaud
and thank Chief Shcoin because three years ago and many of you remember this we couldn't even see our early childhood budget distinct from um K12. So we couldn't actually even see to what extent we were subsidizing these programs. Um as mentioned tonight and
earlier the passing of 7A and the confluence early childhood um special tax district provides some real opportunities. I think it can be a gamecher for families um if it does what it has said it's going to do and what people really rallied around to support from Aspen to parachute. So I think
that's a really important component of why we feel like this is an a reasonable tuition proposal at this time. Um and I also want to state before we get too deep into this is that we retain our commitment um through these processes
that we will in not let inability to pay for preschool become a barrier to access for our target student populations. And so that has been since we really overhauled early childhood a couple years ago and did a strategic plan that has always been our goal. We went
through some pretty dramatic increases in early tuition or early childhood tuition in the beginning. With that commitment, we've honored it. We continue to and we continue to go through iterations of how to best make sure that works and that we're leveraging all the blended funding streams possible. Um especially in a
time when we're we're pressed in K12 education, which is what which kind of leads us to this proposal. So, a couple of things I want to highlight. There's two big things that are different here that the board is seeing. One is that those and this has been highlighted by by families and staff is that the the
proposed rates demonstrate a posted increase of anywhere from 2 to 30% over the current year. Um and it also proposes shifting this kind of automatic application of a staff sliding scale into a more nuanced comprehensive staff
tuition assistance program that would be managed by the family resource center um of the Roaring Fork schools. If just in terms of context and how many kids and families and how are we using blended funding already, we're really talking about infant and toddler
programs. This is some current data on the number of kids enrolled, the number um the types of uh blended funding that we use to support kids and families because very few families are actually paying full posted tuition in our infant
and childhood classrooms. um because of our leveraging of these these programs and the numbers matter and I think it's important that we look at as we've talked about kind of scrutinizing every expenditure. This is this is the current
picture and I think that um I I absolutely understand the impact of tuition costs on families. um which is why we work so hard to make sure that we're leveraging blended funding and that we don't let tuition be a barrier
to access. And it's also important to look at the way um our revenue and expenditures do not work for infant and and toddler classrooms. What this shows right now is the maximum revenue that we could pull with current tuition if every
infant room and toddler room was full every single day, which they're not because kids turn different ages and have to move rooms and then we got to fill spaces. um and if we're receiving 100% full tuition, which we're not because of all of the um blended funding streams we use and that we don't let uh
tuition be a barrier to access. So even if we were getting maximum revenue right now um and had all our classrooms full, we wouldn't even be able to pay for the salaries of the two and a half teachers that are in those classrooms. Um we are currently so this is this doesn't even
include materials, coaching, oversight, support staff. um central operations. This shows what we are investing as a district into every classroom and infant and toddlers. Um and then when you add our district sliding scale contribution, we're looking at about 340 $350,000 a
year for these classrooms. Um you know, and for the rooms that are serving a very small number of students and families. Um and that's a pretty substantial investment. uh when we look at how our numbers are working together
under the current financial pressures. So just really want folks to see the math here. I absolutely get the push. I am incredibly frustrated with the way we fund early childhood education or don't in this country. I'm I'm cautiously optimistic about 7A and the way our
community has risen up to support um what is needed here. But this is our current reality and I think it's important that we see it and look at it. Um, this would be the proposed adjustments if we shifted tuition in terms of what the maximum revenue could happen. If everybody was paying tuition,
which I don't think would would happen with our commitments, and if we were 100% full all the time, we would just barely break even to be able to pay salaries. Um but then you know assuming we're still doing a district tuition assistance program, we would still be
investing um conservatively at least 50 grand a year in in supporting that. So finally, I just want to say that the other the other piece that we're proposing is that we transition from this automatic staff sliding scale to more of a staff tuition assistance program. What this would do would ensure
that staff who would like to work with our early childhood team will make sure that they're leveraging every type of um financial assistance possible. You know, when folks get to work with our family liaison um and do a comprehensive assessment of resources available, folks
often learn that they're um eligible for other supports and funding systems. And so we'd really like to make this tuition assistance drive through that process versus an automatic scholarship. So what we still anticipate will be in place next year is this um one-to-one support
and coaching from the early childhood family leaison. And you can see all the types of resources and services that team helps um families access. Uh we want to continue using the childcare assist Colorado childcare assistance program. We're keeping an eye on that at the federal level. Of course, as the
board knows, that's been um in in there's been some instability in that over the last couple months. Um we're really delighted to continue to work with Eagle County and Early Head Start in our toddler rooms. We're able to um really serve our target population in toddler rooms because of the support of
the Early Head Start program. Uh and then we still anticipate that we would be shifting to the Roaring Fork School's tuition assistance program. And so really don't anticipate that most of our staff would be paying full tuition. Um you know what we would recommend that we set instead of kind of a general uh
sliding scale is that we really align with the US Department of Health and Human Services definition of affordable um child care which is somewhere between that 7 to 10% of a total family household income as a target for what where tuition would be set through this
process. And then we are anticipating additional scholarship funding for families from 7A. And as was mentioned by speakers tonight, um we're not sure what that's going to look like, but I know there's a lot of pressure on that group to deliver and a lot of enthusiasm for the work. The tuition schedules that
we're recommending are linked on this last page with some updates. Um thank you guys for the close read on this. This is some of the data has been corrected in this ECE at a glance based on our conversation last month. So delighted to open up to conversation. I know the board has decided not to take
action tonight. So really looking forward to um how we can make sure because I know you you all care deeply about what we're hearing from our community. You care deeply about early childhood education, how we can work forward with this proposal or a version um that tries to balance our many
interests around this program. >> Director Coolenberg, would you like to open? Yeah. Um, you know, I brought up concerns at our last meeting and we're hearing them now from the community. I I understand that infant and toddler
rooms cost more. I also understand that that's why you have preschool rooms to offset those costs and that's why you use the business model that you do. Um, and by expanding our preschool programs, we are taking those kids that are supporting infant and toddler care
programs in our community away from those other centers, which is making it them hard, making it making it harder for them to maintain their infant and toddler care because their prek and preschool rooms are not fully booked. And I'm hearing like I hear that from providers, right? We see that we see providers advertising rooms for three
and four-year-olds because we've expanded that care. Um, and that upsets the early childhood ecosystem a lot. And it's great that we have UPK funding. It is not, it makes sense at first glance that
we would expand our our preschool, but the unintended impact is that we're impacting infant and toddler programs at other centers because they can't balance their budget for the reasons that you're identifying here. Infant and toddler cares have never been able to stand alone and operate in the black. And
that's in the best case scenario, right? When they're not like we have all these in kind services that we provide. Um, so I just wanted to say that because I think that's really important for us to consider as a district as we move forward. If we're going to expand our preschool programs, we have to simultaneously attend to infant and
toddler care needs or we're devastating the care infrastructure and ecosystem outside of our own programming. Um, and then we're doing more harm than good for our greater community. And I want us to be cautious about that. Um,
specific questions. How many infants are we putting in a room? >> We put in eight. Math isn't mathing in the slides. Like eight infants. Eight infants at last year's tuition times 9 months is
134 grand, not 128. And then the toddler numbers are way off. So 1786, 10 toddlers. What's your standard? 10 is standard in a toddler room once you're over 12 months. And if you multiply 1786, which
was this year's tuition, times 10 times 9, you're at 160 grand in revenue if we're fully booked. >> So, and that's in that slide where we're saying we're paying full tuition. So, again, like >> I appreciate the deeper dive. I just think if we're cutting this critical
program that our staff are relying on, and I understand that classified staff ranked this at the bottom, but I think that's the wrong piece person or wrong people to ask, right? We need to be asking the people they're hiring because this is a recruitment and retention benefit. And so, how pivotal is this to the people that are trying to hire for
these positions? Cuz that's where we value it as a board, I think. Um, and not necessarily the employees, but the people trying to fill these positions. Um, >> can we hear from other directors? Come back to >> Yeah. Yeah. I have one I have a couple more questions. >> Okay. Start with you from
>> Sorry. Director Ramirez, what are your thoughts? >> Yeah, you know, it it's funny team because we've had this conversation around DC a lot and and I feel like I have been the stickler to say like why don't we have a budget a
line item for this and and I'm so glad we do. It is so necessary. It has been so necessary. And you know, one of the things that I think is extra frustrating is um we made such a concerted effort to
expand and to like almost promote our programs, our ECE, our infant and toddler. I feel like as a board member, it's been such a big thing about like, you know, like we we do it best and I've respected that, you know. we have made a
concerted effort as a team to invest in it. And so to now be in this position where we're having this conversation about um cutting this and you know and very justly getting push back from staff
who do utilize it and also family members who do utilize it who rely who find it easier to drop off your kid in the infant room and then you know your kiddo at school. like that ease, that ability I think has been a benefit for
so many of us that have utilized the program. And so I think it's really hard to try to reconcile, you know, the the place we find ourselves in, the realization that we're finding ourselves in, and also, you know, trying to
justify like the what we're trying to do here, the peace meal that we're trying to do here. Um, so you know, I I say I say that to say that I I think it's going to be really important for the team as you guys go
back after this discussion to really think through like the impact that the board has sort of shared with you guys in regards to like the feasibility, staff, um, uh, retention, you know, all
of those things and and take that into consideration and come back to the team because it I know that there is a solution here. I just think that unfortunately this solution we it came too late for us to actually be able to
to feel like we were on board with it. >> Sorry. Go ahead. >> No, please. Uh Director NMO, do you have anything you want to send my way? >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'm just elevating my colleagues comments. I think the recruitment retention piece speaks to me on this one
where if we are talking about >> how important it is to keep professionals in the classroom to help them gain that experience. This is one of the most vulnerable times in any teacher's life. >> So it's never going to stack up by the numbers and yet we are in a season where
we are going to have to make incredibly difficult cuts. And I think this the direction to the staff is to help us find the middle ground between those two very very tangible realities. We can't lose staff just because they want to start a family. And if you're a new mom
trying to juggle a teacher's workload, infant care is a make or break and we we lose enough of those young families to a lack of housing already, lots of other reasons. I believe what I'm hearing from my colleagues on the board is that there is a willingness to invest in this in
the same way that we would re invest in teachers in other ways. And so that middle ground that we kind of been talking about all week, it's a huge lift. I I recognize the amount of time staff has put into bringing these proposals, the thoughtfulness they've gone through. And I I am I am sorry to
to push it back to them again, but I know that the professionalism and the creative problem solving and the commitment that we see again and again from your staff will will come through here and and I really appreciate that time. Uh now five minutes of open discussion. >> I just had a couple other questions.
When we on slide Oh, did I see numbers? Three. So, we're saying about 20% of infants and toddlers are getting full tuition scholarships. Does that mean that we're paying for those for that tuition with our allocation with our general fund allocation or are those dollars coming from somewhere else?
>> Sorry, that is unclear. That means those families are paying full tuition. >> Okay. So, 20% are paying full tuition, not receiving full tuition scholarships. Correct. >> Got it. >> Okay. Um, and then, um, I've asked this question the past few years, and I saw it a bunch in
comment tonight. Why aren't we still requiring full-time enrollment? Because I understand the need to increase tuition. And I also understand the reality of parents, especially in those young years, they bend over backwards and do whatever they can to access FFN care, to split
their schedules, to make child care accessible on the days they need it, which is often not 5 days a week. And I also don't think that developmentally a that's appropriate for infants and it's not what is ideal for most families. Um, and I know I pushed on this before and
it came up a lot in the comments tonight and so I wanted to push on it again. Yeah, it's, you know, it's a tricky question. I would say we recognize that we don't have capacity to serve every early childhood need
that's out there or style of program. And you know, these are eight classrooms, 64 kids, and for the most part, they're full. So, when we talk about our target population and recognizing that we're not we're not
trying to be everything to everyone, um we can't that what who we've prioritized and the board said it themselves is um well, students with disabilities is always our number one priority, >> but not for zero to three, right?
I mean I would still say if we have prioritize we would be prioritizing we don't have IFSPs over Jenn okay to get them access into programs so I'd say students with disabilities are always our number one then we have a list of prior of priorities around students from
families whose income is beneath the federal poverty level emerging bilingual students and staff kids and when we um the majority of those that target population needs full-time care we can fill the classrooms with that And so we haven't moved into part-time options. We
don't really have this like I think the rooms we have open right now feels hard to sustain because of staffing. um because we have incredibly high staff turnover in as you know in early childhood classrooms. Um and so I don't
know that you know we're not we're not um it feels like to serve that population in this way it keeps it simple for us and um it's about right at what we can manage. Okay. >> I just wanted to note that director Numo
dropped a comment into the chat here. She says, "We need to look at all the ways to save money. Given the many different options for saving money to the community, give the many different options for saving money to community. We can't just cut this."
Um I um Sorry, are you done? I just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. Okay. I also wanted to follow up on the staff tuition assistance program. Um, you know, I know we're talking about readjusting from the sliding scale to a
one-on-one supported coaching with the F FRC member. Um, can you please share more of that cuz I think >> Yeah, sure. You know, we've our F FRC has been around over 25 years and for as long as I've been in the district has always worked with staff. Um, and we
have a lot of um that can be kind of awkward to, you know, we have a family leison on every school. We have early childhood leaison in every community. Um, and it can be a little awkward for staff to work directly with a liaison that's a colleague. And so when staff
are um connecting with the FRC, we often have them work with a family leaison or a program director that's not in their building or not in their community just to protect confidentiality and have those conversations a little distant from the people you're working with every day. Um so we have a lot of set established practices for staff to work
directly with the F FRC and have for a long time. Um what typically happens for families who are working whether it's staff or any family working with the F FRC is they do really a comprehensive assessment of family needs and goals and barriers and opportunities. Um it's an evidence-based tool and and practice
that we follow families on their goals and needs and whatever they want to work on is what we want to work on. Um and so if it's in this kind of realm where it's it's probably focused on for the purpose of this conversation um early childhood care funding resources. What a family
leaison will do is really work with a family to identify eligibility for a variety of programs. Um everything from you know looking at where you live to where you work. We cover three counties which all have different funding streams for early childhood. So everything from
kids first early head start you know kids first is a pitkin program early head starts an eagle program depending on where you live depending on where you work your eligibility differs so family leaison especially um early childhood family lison are trained in really helping families navigate all of those
systems and then they also work with you know if we get to a point where we say this is what it looks like a family can pay and that leazison are going that's not making any sense like you know we're not hitting targets on tuition assistance or they're not eligible for XYZ reasons, we need to find something
else. Um, then the F FRC, and we currently do this, um, will basically tell the early childhood program, here's what this family can afford for early childhood tuition. And that might range from 25 bucks a month to 1,700. Um, but
that process really looks at everything. and and as many staff members and families work with the F FRC thinking maybe I'm coming in to talk about early childhood, they might identify that there are health care services that they might qualify for programs like TANIF or
WIC um that are also beneficial that can help take the pressure off of finances. Does that answer your question? >> Yeah, Madam Chair, can I request two more minutes please so we can finish questions? Um I wanted to follow up on that. So um we have early childhood family leaison then that are separate
from school leaison. >> We do and they they're kind of split by community. So we would if an early childhood family lays on is working like they're kind of basalt based and Glenwood based and Carbondale based um you know we would have if somebody doesn't want to work you know if
somebody's an early childhood teacher in basalt and works regularly with their family liaison um but doesn't want to work to talk about their own family we would pair them with another leazison from Glenwood or something >> are we using a metric to assess the effectiveness of the system that we're
utilizing right now for >> for for ECE >> for ECE, >> you know, >> for families. >> I mean, I would say the biggest metric would be like, are we serving our target population? Do you like do families actually have access to our programs? And I would say when we look at our ECE
at a glance and the demographics of the kids in our classrooms, I would say for the most part, we we feel like families are the the the families we are designed to target are for the most part finding us. Um, you know, again, we're not everything to everybody and so we work
in partnership with a lot of other programs and refer and um consult with private providers. We work very closely with Valley Settlement's busito program, which is much more of a part-time care program. We work closely with mini college. We work closely um with a
variety of programs to make sure the parents kind of have what they need. Um, and so, you know, I would say for the most part, I do think we're we're we're getting to the target populations we want to serve. It's interesting like we see some of our programs um fill up
really quickly. Like some of programs are dominated by staff kids and then others have open spaces for more of community. So, it's not consistent per community. Um yeah, I think my to
the heart of my question is really I I think it would be really important for us as a district to really consider the effectiveness of having um three ECE liaison holding this work for
teachers and staff and community and that process itself um you know I don't know that we've ever had feed feedback from community. I hear you on the fact that like we are serving a population that we're looking for, but I also think that there's an experience
that has like that's where belonging and all of those initial um connection points starts with families and you know I think for me as a board member being in community sometimes I hear how invasive those experiences can
be and I understand that we want clarity and we want to make sure that we are understanding and we're getting all the correct information. But I also think that there is an experience, a customer service survey experience that we have
not tracked. And so I just I think that's something that we need to consider, especially as we're having a lot of conversations around ECE right now on transitioning and what this is going to look like in the future. I think we need to also consider are is is the way that we're doing it thus far
effective? Thank you. I think there's a lot to carry forward. Dr. Cole, what do you think is a reasonable timeline for this proposal to come back to the board? Um well we only have one March meeting and folks um you know you're you're hearing it
you're feeling it in the urgency of public comments that this is this is pretty um this is a lot of this is costs a lot for families and we have in the past few years really struggled to get clarity on to be honest what people are
actually paying for tuition until August it's September sometimes with tuition agreements um just because of the complexity of all these blended funding streams and try like trying to help somebody apply for CCAP and then go for early Head Start can take a long time. So there is some urgency to get this
wrapped up. So I would love to have something back to you by March 11th. Um I will be virtual that night, but we can certainly work to refine I mean what I'm what I'm hearing certainly is some concerns and clarity still about the numbers. So, I need to look at that again and just look again, director
Coolenberg, on where where we were coming up with those numbers and make sure that's correct. I do know there's been some confusion about the Basalt versus the other program rates and I want to make sure I'm using the right ones. Um, the BALT program is open more days, so it costs more. Um, so I want to clean that up. But what I'm hearing you
name is that generally speaking, where we have landed with tuition rates for infants and toddlers is too high. you would not like to reduce our subsidies for these programs at this time. Um,
so try I mean I hear middle ground, but I'm like where does that go? hearing also that there's potential to increase potentially reduce the increases for infant and toddlers, lift them up at prek um to offset that so we're not creating disequilibrium across the kind
of ecosystem of going well move your kids over there at preschool cuz it's cheaper. So I hear that too. So, I'm thinking that that's what I'm going to come back with is a revised tuition schedule that might see less increase at infant and toddler, more at preschool, but nothing going to this degree of
savings. >> And I think perhaps one of our check-in calls with you and I and the superintendent to look at that proposal ahead of the next meeting too might help get into the nitty-gritty there. >> Yeah. And the only other thing that I would add to that is I would encourage your team to look at the way the rates
are balanced again with preschool versus infant toddler, especially part-time versus full-time preschool. When you're breaking down your rate day rates, the cheapest day rate is a part-time preschooler. And in the average program, your price increases if you're part-time. And so I feel like we're
doing the opposite in some ways of what the rest of the industry is doing. Um, and especially by not increasing like that rate is $68 a day, which is incredibly low >> based on comps for for preschool programs, right? They're more in the 80
to $90 range and our full-time rate is closer to that, but like there's room where we could shift some of those dollars and that's going to have less impact on families with UPK subsidies. So, I would just encourage kind of look to look at that balance.
>> Well, thank you all so much. That's a lot. >> Yeah. >> And it's been a lot this evening. >> It has. And I will say I I mean I will also name that I know I don't I don't actually think we're out of time on this. Okay. >> And director Kenberg and I were remembering we've done this in May with
monthsly child education. So >> like let's get it right. This is going to be a hard budgeting season. We got a lot more dollars to talk about. Um let's get it right. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate that very much. The next business in order is board
updates and appreciations. And I would like to note that Director NMO has left the virtual meeting. She had to go to bed. She is on East Coast time right now, so it is a late night. >> Um, let's begin updates and appreciations with Director Ramirez. If you're ready,
>> um, hey team, thanks for um, adjusting tonight. I almost didn't make it. And I, my appreciation tonight is for Director Nemo who jumped on last minute. I had promised her that she didn't have to jump on tonight cuz we would all we
would have quorum and then I sick. So, um thank you to Director NMO and then um I don't have any updates. I've again just reiterate that I appreciate the team's um effort to make sure that we're
having more consistent financial conversations. I think it's important that we continue to do that throughout this process as we're in budgeting season. And yeah, that's it. Thanks, Director Coolingberg.
>> Not many updates. The week ahead will be a busier one for me with health insurance committee coming back online um and some school visits and policy committee all next week. It'll be a busy week. Um, I
my appreciations are for early childhood staff and teams. This is very complex from the top to bottom. I know it's hard and it's we're not the only system grappling with it. So, I'm grateful that we take the time to look at it thoughtfully and consider it and
um are careful. Small friend bug on me. That's good. Is that good luck? Um, so that's my first appreciation. The second is um maybe I did this one last time. Did I do one school, one book last time for Mr. Waller who dressed up in a
giant hamster costume? So they announced the one school, one book by Mr. Waller putting himself in a hamster costume and rolling out in a giant blow up hamster ball. Um cuz they're reading the world according to Humphrey the hamster. Um and also the school has adopted a
hamster which goes from classroom to classroom. So, uh, a special thanks to Mr. Waller and to all of our administrators that make these things extra memorable for our kids because guarantee that my kids will never forget the time their principal dressed up like a hamstarter.
Um, as far as reports, I don't have a ton. Um, a lot of, as Dr. Cole mentioned, a lot of action in the JBC joint budget committee at the General Assembly. Um, no specific a I guess no actions yet, but a lot of talk um that
can be very impactful to us. Again, the specific ownership tax has not died as quickly as we continue to hope it will, the idea of it. Um, and there's quite a few other variables. Um, so be keeping a close eye on that. And
I just wanted to appreciate the flexibility shown by by staff tonight and by the public that showed up to comment and was patient with uh the rest of our agenda determined to be heard and seen and we really appreciate that. It's it's hard to walk into a room and have
to wait and have to manage waiting. And uh I think it I was just really just appreciative of the respect that was shown by the participants and then also the staff um as we continue to deal with these difficult conversations. And I think if uh there is no objection,
we will adjourn this meeting. It is 9:19