##VIDEO ID:DarRf_AT3no## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good yeah good evening I call this meeting to order at 6:48 pm tonight we have present directors titler defres Ramirez after and myself meaning we have a quorum thank you to our interpreter AST would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the interpretation function thank you the first business in order is the approval of the agenda directors are there any proposed changes to the agenda not yet no seeing none do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented I make a motion to approve the agenda as presented is there speak up I make to approve the agenda as presented is there a second I second all in favor say I I all opposed say no motion passes our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our superintendent Dr Anna Cole okay good evening we are well into the second semester and there are so many um really exciting things to celebrate this week um want to extend some thanks to our tech tech team Brandon bodet Mike cumins Tina Chesire Allen debec um for really supporting the installation and testing of a Verizon small cell network uh cell network at Riverview K8 School we've really struggled with connectivity at Riverview School in terms of cell phone um we have um so what we have now we've got a new provided a strong cellular connectivity to all Verizon customers and very strong emergency calling signal for anyone with any other carrier so in terms of school safety and the safety of our you know our staff's ability to use their phones that has been a significant Improvement we've also updated settings on our Wi-Fi network to enable easier connection for Wi-Fi calling which provides another um stronger option regardless of the carrier our team really listened this this became an issue because of the voice of our Riverview staff um who really shared concerns about communication and potential emergency situ situations over the last year um uh Chief Operating Officer Ben bomul really worked hard to explo explore every option to enhance coverage and so a big thanks to Verizon who also really leaned in um and was the only carrier willing to work with us on a solution so lots of thanks there in that that effort towards safety and connectivity at Riverview um also want to celebrate tonight Amalia sparhawk who's an 11th grader at Roaring Fork High School who's actually leaving us for a semester because she's been selected to participate in the prestigious US Senate page program in Washington DC she was nominated by the office of us uh Senator John Hickenlooper to do this work only 30 students across the country get to do this um have this position Molly is actually going to be living in Washington DC and working on the floor of the Senate it's a highly competitive program um bring students from all across the country to DC so they experience working in the US Senate helping deliver correspondence and materials within the capital and Senate buildings preparing the chamber for Senate sessions working on the senate floor where they assist roll call votes support senators and staff during debates and carry bills and amendments to the desk so we are so proud of Molly um we will miss her this semester in her leadership at Fork but can't wait to hear about her experience when she returns um also want to celebrate and make sure the public is aware that we have launched our um comprehensive program review of The Roaring Fork School District's um special education program so the public Consulting Group is the firm that's running this program review we are hosting right now a series of focus groups uh in they're really targeted for parent and guardians of students with individualized educational PL so that's who has been um invited explicitly to these focus group sessions there's some upcoming virtual Focus dates next week um that families of students with IEP should keep an eye out for there will also be surveys as part of this process so just want folks to keep an eye out for those um want to really appreciate and celebrate the Family Resource Center of the RO Fork schools their annual report was released last week and some of the highlights include an increase of almost over 200 families that were served in the the year-over-year um work of the family leaz on team their work strengthens the family framework IT addresses protective factors um about over 50% of families achieve their goals and economic self-sufficiency and health through their work with the family Liaisons um family leison also partnered with families to increase access to Child Care Mental Health and food security um ongoing challenges that the team anticipates is supporting families with health coverage and access to primary care provider their annual report is available online if folks want to dig in a little bit more we're really lucky I think in the commitment that we've had to the Family Resource Center and the way that team has stepped up uh to support families um through this work also want to celebrate that classes have started at the CMC Roaring Fork School District automotive technology Center so we have four sections um of courses running with 12 students each we have every um every one of our high schools is sending students to the automotive tech center for classes students are getting hands-on experience supported by online module ual in Industry standard automotive technology students will earn college credits towards cmc's Associates and applied trades and they'll be eligible to test for industry certificates uh the grand opening of the center is scheduled for January 29th at 3 so lots of thanks to Matt ganeshi Jim Jones clay Allison from CMC for their collaboration and the Roaring Fork School District team led by Eric Willis and Mitch Foss to really transform that space into a uh automotive tech education center so can't wait for folks to come to the opening and see the space and then finally um another celebration this week uh for Glenwood Springs Middle School science teacher Autumn Rivera and former Glennwood Springs High School physics teacher Linda Flor who were recognized this week with the presidential award for excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching this is the highest award K12 Math and Science teachers can receive from the federal government nominees complete a rigorous application process to demonstrate deep content knowledge and an ability to adapt to a broad range of Learners and teaching environments a panel of distinguished mathematicians scientists and Educators at the state and National levels assess the nominations before recommending awardees to the White House Office of Science and Technology policy there were only six teachers um from Colorado that were awarded this presidential award uh teachers are selected based on their distinction in the classroom and dedication to improving stem education so we just want to really congratulate AUM and Linda who we miss for demonstrating excellence in teaching and we're so grateful for their service commitment and inspiration that's it thank you our next agenda item is the superintendent report which includes a superintendent coaching PD evaluation update presentation from Dr Cole each board member will have two minutes to share comments and ask questions at the end okay so um we're headed into the annual superintendent evaluation season uh our community will receive the community feedback survey starting this Friday um and so just wanted to provide the board today in um anticipation of that Community feedback with just some updates around um the evaluation last year where we are some of the goals that I've set you know the the contract that uh that the Board of Education enters into with superintendent to me really feels like a contract with the community you all kind of the community and our kids you represent our students you represent our community you create this contract so it felt um like this report needed to be somewhat public so that folks knew um kind of where the evaluation and feedback um for my work has been what I'm working on uh strategically in terms of goals and so that that could kind of frame the evaluation that's coming next so just um want to give some updates around this so we'll talk a little bit about last year's evaluation some additional evaluation and feedback that we um leaned into this year an update on goals um some updates on coaching and coursework those were all components of the contract um my contract for this year and then next steps so last year the community and the Board of Education participated in a superintendent evaluation um you can see the the six indicators that the board lifts up and evaluates the superintendent on um you can see the strengths and growth areas from that evaluation um another another piece that we did this year in in my work uh in commitment to coaching was we started we also added another layer of feedback and utilized from Schoolboard partners and promise 54 developed a 360 degree feedback report you can see the domains and the competency areas that were measured all of my direct reports um provided feedback on this the Board of Education provided feedback and then leaders across the district both School leaders and um Department operational leaders provided feedback on this pretty robust survey so you can see there as well some of the strengths and growth areas from that 360 review that happened this fall um together uh from last year's evaluation those that 360 degree feedback three key goals that I'm working on this year and you can see here the alignment um of each of these goals to the the uh Board of Education and Community evaluation and the 360 evaluation I also would highlight that this first goal which is really around strengthening District Communications is also aligned to strategic priority number three around operational excellence and our district strategic priority number four student centered Partnerships so this is work that we're really doing in kind of this year of transition around communication systems that will that one of the pieces I'm working on is to end the year with a more robust plan of how we're going to manage and work on District Communications broadly second goal um you can see the alignment there it's also aligned to our strategic plan um priority number three of operational excellence is to really strengthen EV valuation coaching plans for senior leadership um that then is trickling into departments and teams especially in our non-certified world we don't necessarily have a a comprehensive consistent District coaching evaluation process for non-certified staff um so that's that's another plan that's aligned to feedback from evaluations and the 360 and our strategic plan and then finally the third goal is really around data in strengthening a kind of a comprehensive look at how we're going to be using data looking at our current state where we need to head and and really the use of data to drive student well-being and achievement that's um tightly aligned to strategic priority number two rigorous learning for all as well as strategic priority 3 operational excellence so um actually just overviewed the goals give you a ton of updates everything I would say Goals one and two are on track the work is continuing um a lot of the the pieces are in place I think this goal in particular is one that's a little bit on delay um a a key component of pushing the data work is is visibility accessibility and transparency around our data and we have been working in development with to develop a um a data dashboard for our strategic plan it's just been delayed due to complexity we anticipate that'll be out in the next probably six to eight weeks and look forward to launching that um with the board and the community so I would say that's the only goal that right now feels a little delayed in terms of work being on track as the board is aware and the community may not be some of the expectations in my contract were around um attaining an administrative license so some updates here of the programs I'm in working towards that and also to um have a uh formal coaching uh partner and so you can see that I've started working with Tom Gregory um on specifically around topics of school finance and then um really that goal number two and team management and operations so would love to oh sorry next steps so here's where we go the community feedback survey as I mentioned is going to open up through the 17th through the 27th so families um community members will receive notice of that in their emails and updates and then there'll be a a self-reflection from me that gets to the board I think some of these dates we reviewed this a little bit during work sessions so some of these dates are a little extended um the board director board directors will be working on evaluations in February and we're actually shooting for a public sharing of that the second meeting in February so I'll adjust these um in terms of the deadlines that we confirmed earlier this evening thank you director Ramirez would you mind kicking us off sure um so I I did thank you Anna for thank you superintendent Cole for um this report um this update I did just have a question on goal number one there was a work delayed by focus on financial challenges communication and a plan to focus on High level Communications planning this spring can you just share a little bit more about what your hope is for this goal specifically when it comes to District coms for sure you know a lot of it has to do with Staffing um we're toward a Pio right now we we wanted to pause wanted to step back a bit um we have goals to really clarify what our strategies are and levers around District communication you know we have a website we have a community newsletter we um that's that's probably about it we have board meetings public meetings we have a a kind of a very you know folks can find collections of meetings online that sort of thing it doesn't I don't know that we have a comprehensive plan or theory of action around that and so the real goal here is to to have a plan that includes you know how do we know we're being successful in terms of District Communications um what would be the key performance metrics indicators that the work is working um and how are we going to staff this and appropriately fund the work around Communications we did a lot of work a couple years ago on really pushing and making sure that bilingual Communications were a priority for us as a district and that was really good work um in ensuring that everything that we push out as a school as schools and as a district comes out Bally and I think now it's time to step back even a little higher um that's great that that is our Norm now and I think now it's to the point of you know how asking that question and coming up with an answer for you of how should we be communicating as a district with our schools what does that look like what are we taking responsibility for um how are we making sure that there's two-way channels for that um all the while I think keeping in mind that and and trying not to overwork this because I think one of the really important things about communication and what we hear from families all the time and when we talk to them about District Communications is um is that for our families to hear from the Roaring Fork schools as a district matters on occasion I mean big Financial issues that are going to impact kids and families folks want to hear about that but for the most part what we've heard and what I've heard in this District working with families for eight years now is that the most important communication that families want with our schools is going to be with their teacher and with their school and so I do think a a piece of this work needs to talk about how we as a district are going to facilitate and support those Communications if our biggest goal is to strengthen student achievement and well-being there's very little that a District's going to communicate that directly impacts that but there's a lot that a teacher and a parent can do together um in terms of communication to really Drive student achievement so this is an important goal and we need to have a plan we need to have a theory of action and tight goals around how we're communting as a communicating as a district um but we also can't lose sight of the fact that the most important communication that we need to support as a district is between a teacher and a family so to that point for the your theory of changeing what you hope to accomplish when do you expect for you guys to have similar to like the bilingual Communications plan yeah you know this the goal for this I think the timeline and I can double check that and get that back to you is by the end of the year to have kind of this plan of here's the district communication channels this is what we're going to do this is a Cadence this is you know this is going to be the Staffing model as we move forward this is how we're going to measure it and then you know some of those parts about communicating with families I think is work that's happening in the Strategic plan we have an initiative under um strategic priority the partnering um student centered Partnerships that is really developing a Family Partnership toolkit and that that work that the Family Resource Center is leading and actually um the team worked got some amazing feedback this week from the family advisory Council on the first draft of that toolkit really focuses on articulating the best practices for school and teacher-based partnership and communication with families um so that work will happen at the end of the year I think um I'm trying to remember that initiative timeline and then this goal will be reported on at the end of the school year okay as well so there kind of two things moving in terms of communication but specific to this school we're talking about the end of this school year got it yep okay thank you director deedes uh sure so just following up on the conversation around the communications plan we had a Communications committee kind of dropped off the map there for a little while um and then I know bringing on the contractor they got diverted to support with financial um Communications yeah so the timeline is you said a plan by the end of the year and that might involve a contractor it might involve bringing committee you're going to look at Staffing yep and go from there you got it okay thanks sorry I just had to make sure I heard that yeah no and then um you talked about in goal number two the data dashboard uh just the complexity of it was massive which is not super surprising to hear um where do you feel like we are as far as providing resources for developing that right now um you know we we contracted this work out to and and I so that it feels I I think we've got the right contractor I think it's the right scope of work um we've allocated funding to get that dashboard up and running I think it's a good question in terms of I think the question I'm sitting with is continuity of that and um it's one thing to get the dashboard up and and there's a lot of components that are going to be automated in that that some that information and data depending on the Cadence of when we receive it right attendance data we get daily Cass reporting we get once a year um but a lot of that input is going to be um automated but there are chunks of data that needs to push into that dashboard that are manual calculations and I think that's where it's taken some time for us is to pull some of those other data pieces that don't exist elsewhere um and so I think that for the development and launch of that project we have adequately um allocated resources to it I think we really need to think about 25 26 and what it's going to cost to sustain it um to keep that going I think that's it's one of the things as we're you know as I'm I'm watching um the team try to pull this together and it is a lot of work to get the input is what's it going to take to maintain that I think is a question that we need to Grapple with in the 2526 budget and then once it once that's up and running do you feel like that informs the actual implementation of the the goal a little bit which is the data culture plan um growth areas commitments values I mean I think the idea a with the data dashboard was that it puts everything in one place but it needs to be nimble enough that it's actually informing the decisions and the resource allocation that we make so they're all data Justified is that where you know that the data dashboard the determination for what's included on that dashboard and what isn't is it's all determined by the Strategic plan and the measur measurable outcomes that we've named for that strategic plan so it's very much so tied to that I think that when I think of a data culture plan it's a little it's even more than that it's how do you know it's looking at how do we use data across our departments and teams um to support student well-being and achievement a piece of that is this dashboard and I think a lot of additional pieces are how do we regularly use data when we're um coaching with teachers I think a lot of the work that um Dr Park has led really is about building more of a data culture within um our kind of teaching and learning world I think there are also components where we need to look at how our operational teams are using data to drive Service delivery to create better conditions for kids and kids and teachers um so I think it's a more comprehensive look at how we use data holistically but that dashboard is definitely a big piece of it okay thanks director Tyler I would like to just start by saying I'm excited about us having a data culture plan coming aboard it seems like there's many times when we're ask a question question where the answers we don't have the data on that and so I think that's very important that we do move forward with that to have that that data culture plan in place for us to be able to access so I'm excited about that I would like to ask you just a quick question about your coaching with Tom Gregory can you say like how many times you met what your schedule is what you're hoping I understand School Finance Management like what is how has that been so far for you and what do you how do you view it thanks for the question to to be honest it's been clunky um The Hope was that we would be able I would be able to work through promise 54s coaching um service line to pair like match with a coach and their process starts with the 360 which I was really excited about with the I mean there's some beautiful alignment between that 360 feedback tool and the board's goals for this role um the the feedback that process the the report that came out of it I found really helpful and insightful um uh and it really aligned to some of the other things but deepened I think the way the domains and competencies were set up and so what was what what was supposed to happen next was that we used that feedback that then promise 54 would match my growth areas to their Suite of coaches as it turned out um that I would say maybe because of their own um systems and structures their bench was not very deep and they didn't have someone with superintendent experience to be a coach and that to me felt pretty essential and so there was a bit of a pivot when all of that was said and done and kind of they said well this is who we've got and we kind of went back and forth with um me really looking for someone who had been in the space and been a superintendent before and they couldn't do that and so I actually ended up leaning more heavily on the um University of Colorado Colorado Colorado Springs um administrative licensure program to help me find somebody um and and so I was working with some of the the instructors in that program just saying look this is what I'm looking for and as the fall emerged and finance became a really key issue um in addition to the goals that I had and especially around I think kind of the organizational leadership the the team management goals um I kind of LED with that like I I need somebody who's been a superintendent ideally in Colorado um and I would love to work with somebody who has deep experience in school finance and someone who um can speak to kind of organizational leadership and support and so so Tom and I have really just been meeting about monthly for about the last three months um and that work will continue um through this year and I think it to me it feels like maybe this summer I'll pause and evaluate what whether that that's kind of worth the time and investment um especially I think as we go through this evaluative cycle as we make it through these goals and the work emerges for for next year where I'm at um so I I don't know it's a good question it's been clunky to get started um and I'm not convinced yet on the coaching value ad um but have really uh found the conversations and work with Tom thus far to be really insightful and helpful um he was a CFO um for a 20 before he was a superintendent so that depth of knowledge on school finances is deep and that's been helpful so if you feel like you're getting to a point where it's not a value ad for yourself will you come to us will you yeah let us know that so we can see how we can support you in finding that match for yourself for sure I will yep okay yeah it um time is of a lot is high value so I I do have high expectations for the work and don't to waste my time or Tom's time um yeah okay thank you director offer thanks for this um can you just explain I wasn't I wasn't clear on why you're doing working toward the principal licensure license lure um to get the administrative license in the state of Colorado you've got to stack it on top of a principal licensure I have neither so need to do both of them okay and then I'm curious if you think these are still the right goals for you to be working on at this moment in time which isn't a suggestion that you pivot by any means but because they're agreed upon but what's your reflection on if these are the right things to be focusing on at this moment in time um it the last five six months have been very focused on finance for good reason um and yet we need to make sure that we're still moving and we have a really I think high value strategic plan as a district that needs to move and we need to make progress um there is incredible work being done every day in our schools that has nothing to do with Finance um we need to address our financial issues um build better systems and and you know I believe that we really need to get back and I want to get back to be working and focusing on the goals that we've set forth in the Strategic plan um that I believe that this board has tasked me with in the position um and so I think that there's and and it you know we didn't have to talk about these goals in this forum um I think this is a really important accountability space um and I I cont I think one of the many complications with the finance challenges is the air time that it's taking up for this board for our school leaders for our staff um in trying to fix it we have to fix we have to solve these problems um and so I think that it's I appreciated the accountability um required or process of putting these goals together and tightening up that alignment and to see that the goals are are well aligned to feedback from the 360 um to feedback from last year's um board evaluation and Community feedback to see that there is tight alignment to the Strategic plan feel feels like this is the right work um and I you know yes it's absolutely been clunky and delayed in getting it going but it feels important to me that we still need to move this District in a different direction um and I I want us to um stay disciplined and work with Fidelity to the goals set out in the Strategic plan um and so I I do feel like these are the the right goals and I I do feel like we I want to still be accountable to them thank yeah um you actually just answered a lot of what I was going to ask about response to director after's question so I just wanted to just say how much I appreciate your willingness to engage in this process openly and in a public forum your willingness to jump in and identify goals because that is a new piece this year of the superintendent evaluation process that we've been building out over the last three years um and the Fidelity with which you you have aligned your work to these goals updated them kept in contact with me about them and the board about them um it's just very much appreciated and I think I wanted to publicly state that for the community because as a board this is one of our primary tasks is evaluating the superintendent and um having you on board while we get there to a place that the board feels good about and you and staff and hopefully Community feels good about is important and saying that I don't mean that we're there yet so I expect that we'll Circle back after this evaluation process and figure out what worked and what didn't but um just thank you for this and thank you for your willingness to put this out there in a superintendent report thanks anybody else have anything on superintendent S I just wanted to follow up on the data dashboard conversation that we were having um so what is the timeline for that I think we're shooting for four to six weeks to have that ready to launch and we're going to try to time that with the midyear strategic Plan update um it's nearly built I mean we can see mockups of it but there's a couple final pieces that we're trying to pull together and then it'll go live on the website there's an internal version of it and an external version so in the next couple weeks we'd hope to have it done before the new year um and it's just taking longer it's just more complex than I think we had anticipated do you know how much money we allocated for that dashboard I don't know off hand do you know 60 45 to 60,000 I pretty sure when we initially it was 60 I'm almost certain like way back when so wasn't this initially part of the lap it's it I don't know if it was part of the lap but I do know it was part of the Strategic plan initiatives that this was a component of um and I actually think in the 2425 budget under the like strategic initiative Investments and but I can double check on the final cost and get that back to you okay that be great man um if you could also you know I think it's important for us as much as possible to have like timelines just to know did we get here did we meet the mark so you know I know four to six weeks is rough but it'd be great to know if you guys can come up with the date you guys are evening for yep thank you I just wanted to peek you back off what director titler was saying about coaching um recognizing as you did that your time is really valuable just to reiterate if it's not working let us know how we can help and find you someone to help walk beside you and offer Insight that you might not be getting from other places support um maybe even how they solved a problem that you don't have to figure out on your own all those things that mentorship can do but when you're in it and everything's moving so fast it's so hard to find on your own and we recognize that so please reach out thank you thank you thanks at this time we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board there are three speakers signed up tonight the board allots 45 minutes for public comment to respect the time of all who are present speakers are asked 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 so that the board may always do so in writing at any time for this evening's public comment we received zero written comments our first Speaker tonight is Caitlyn Cy hello everyone good evening thank you so much for all that you do for our community and thanks for having me tonight um my name is Caitlyn Cy and I live in Glennwood and I have two Glennwood Springs Elementary School Le my son's in kindergarten and my daughter's in second grade and um I think like so many of us um especially parents we've um really been tuning into the national and Regional conversation around phones and schools um and there's a lot there's some popular books that have come out recently like the anxious generation of course I'm sure you've all heard about probably read um and just a lot of conversation around this and so actually I last fall I decided to get together with some parents parents and Glen kind of had like a little focus group and we read this book and um we were all really kind of inspired to take some action and so um I actually am just presenting a petition that I started to the board tonight um called phone free rfsd and um it's um we have about 400 signatures right now um and these are of course just plain Jane parents like myself but also um Educators teachers in the district Physicians mental health professionals um people grandparents um people who are invested in in seeing something like this kind of be established at a at a district level um for something some kind of policy that we can work together to develop and Implement um that we can rely on for years to come decades to come um as personal technology will surely change um and and involve over the years so um if I have time I was just going to read the petition if that's okay and um and then I don't know if I'm allowed to like give it to you or if I can send you a link or um okay as the national and Regional conversation around smartphones in schools continues to grow we feel that the Roy Fork School District should adopt an official phone-free policy for the long-term betterment of our students K12 educations and well-being current research has revealed that students benefit immensely from the sustained absence of smartphones throughout the entire duration of the school day studies show that without the constant mental pull of their smartphones students ability to focus is dramatically improved between classes and at lunch students in phone-free schools are also better equipped to develop critical social skills without phones vying for their attention our students in the roing fork School District deserve the very best learning conditions that we as a community can offer and this means giving them the chance to go phone free during their school days as soon as possible uh Roar Fork School District would not be the first in Colorado or the nation to adopt a phone-free policy we encourage the community and the school board to review the I'm sure you have the Aspen high school phone policy Colorado Springs d11 phone policy and policy Trends in some of Colorado's largest districts you can wrap up okay yeah um we recognize that thoughtful attention to the way in which a district level policy is enacted may take a great deal of discussion among District stakeholders um Colorado attorney general Phil weiser's recent announcement about grants of up to $50,000 for school districts that help students reduce phone news during school day incentivizes a phone- free policy adoption further we call on our school community and board to take necessary steps toward phone free education now to protect our students learning experiences for generations to come um but this was also presented in Spanish as well so um and again I don't I don't want this to seem like a criticism or critique of anything that schools are doing or the district is doing I think really it's I mean I see it as like 400 votes of confidence that we that we can really come together to bring about this this type of um change for our students and our teachers and our teachers who are tired with having to deal with phones as well so thanks so much thank you thank you yeah thanks our next speaker is Jill Pitcock hello those of you who know me will be very happy that I to know that I've written this down otherwise I'll go Rogue on you so um I'd like to um say good evening Madam chair and members of the board my name is Jill petcock I am first and foremost a mother of two children two not children anymore young men who uh actually graduated out of glood Springs High School and they're in college and doing great so that's my first responsibility but I'm actually here tonight as the executive director for the Arc of the central mountains The Arc of the central mountain is an organization that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout their lifetime um much of our advocacy work is involved with schoolage children special education things like that um in reviewing your proposed policy jkba which is um disciplinary removal from classroom which you will I'll be discussing later um we have found an item that we would like to have you continue or ask you to continue to review as you are looking at these policies um again as part of our work we advocate for the rights of students with disabilities in the educational settings 504 plans protect these rights to the Americans with Disabilities Act or Ada as do individualized education plans which is an IEP which most of you know under the individuals with disabilities Education Act The Arc of the central Mountain serves four counties six school districts in total we are seeing a disturbing Trend toward removal from classrooms and abbreviated school days based on a number of factors but most often it is related to behaviors of students with disabilities the Roaring Fork School District also falls into this trend um you're not alone but you're certainly the district certainly is falling into that as well um again later in the meeting you'll be discussing the disciplinary removal from classroom in reading some of the markup comments I'm happy to see the inclusion of language which protects the rights of students with disabilities specifically being supported by an IEP again you will be reviewing that language but we want to express the importance of the following things when students with disabilities exhibit ongoing behaviors a functional behavioral assessment should be performed from the assessment findings a behavioral intervention plan is created it resembles the behavioral me the behavior Matrix referenced and implemented by the district this enables the IEP team including the individual and their family parents to determine proactive strategies to identify antecedents or triggers which could lead to a more escalated behavior and gives the school team the tools needed to deescalate the student the bip or the behavioral intervention plan gradually increases the remedies and may include removal from the classroom I bring this to your attention because of because if students with disabilities are have a behavioral intervention plan then they are already part of an individualized Behavior discipline M Matrix of their own if this sounds familiar it is because this policy already exists in JK Asis 2 discipline of students with disabilities and regulations my ask is this please add language to the proposed policy jkba disciplinary removal from classroom which specifically refers to the existing policy jk2 additionally add jk2 as a cross reference at the end of the policy which you will see in all of your policies list and you may think it's redundant but this is really important because it gets lost in if there is a disciplinary issue it gets not everybody understands that a child a student has a disability or is on IEP so that's why we bring it to your attention and we thank you first and foremost for the language that's being provided but drive it home thank you thank you our last speaker is Kia Gonzalez good evening members of the board and happy New Year to everyone um my name is KES and I am the parent organizer for VAs um with the New Year upon us our demands are remain the same we demand that the district develops three plans with representative input from nothing PS a plan to eliminate the academic Gap present in our schools a plan to transform and increase parental engagement we plan for the district to recruit higher and retain teachers that reflect the student population an acceptable that in the year 2025 there social dis between the level of quality education are the new students receive we must do better we must commit to doing better the commitment from the Waring for school district to develop these plans should be highlighted through a public placing communication targeted to Reacher Spanish speaking parents and families and thank you for your time thank you the next business order is the approval of the consent agenda which which includes routine Personnel minutes from our previous board meeting policies jfab jic CB and jkba Regulation jfb e-r and exhibit jlc d-e directors are there any items that you would like to pull off of the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote I would like to please pull off JCB for discussion anything else yeah I'd like to pull jkba for separate disc session thank you do I have a motion to approve routine Personnel minutes from our previous board meetings policies jfab regulations jfab e-r and exhibit JL cd- e which are the remaining items I make a motion to approve routine Personnel meeting minutes and policies JL CDE jfab e and JF a b e r and exhibit jlc and exhibit Oh I thought I said that J and exhibit JL CD is there a second second can you please call the vote director after hi hi hi hi tidler motion passes the next business in order will be a discussion on jic CB graduation regelia we'll start with you director Tyler I would like to just continue our conversation when last we talked there was questions about the line of what cultural does not include and in the clean markup the that were added to it including hate speech political affiliation and extreme disruption was pulled from the final up and I thought we had last left it as a discussion and I asked if it came through policy committee and it was not talked about from when I'm hearing in policy committee so I'm curious as to why those parts of the um policy were taken out and where that discussion came from and how that came about great questions um you're you're correct that didn't go back through policy commit this past week I would say where we landed was there was a couple of of actions yep um a couple of actions where we landed one we were waiting on a consult um and didn't hear anything back from from the Bose's team who had been instrumental in helping push the state statutes so there was no followup there um we did and actually maybe Stacey you can speak to that I would say that the high level the yeah I mean I would say that where we landed high level was the staff recommendation was there seems to be a lack of agreement in from this board on that and so what we wanted to do was provide you with a final staff recommendation where our inclination because there wasn't agreement and clear direction from the board was to really rely on the state statute language and so what you see there presented as the kind of the staff recommendation um without that consensus is is pretty much word for word the state statute and our take was um this this um policy pretty much stamps our current practice this will not transform radically anything that we do differently at graduations our district has um had practices that are very much so in line with the intent of this policy and so we where we landed was feeling that because there was going to be no significant change in action with the way our schools operate in terms of graduation with the newness of this and the lack of clear um consensus from the board we ought to just rely on the state statute language super open to push back on that um but I think it's going to take more board discussion consensus on the language you would like differently I guess I hear your where you're coming from and that makes some sense to me I understand that there's not always going to be clear consensus from the board but I think that's why we have an odd number of people also sitting on the board and when we can't come to a 5 Zer opinion or agreement it's where we are as a majority and so I would have thought that would have been the route that we would go in this case but maybe other people feel otherwise about that Dr after I like the changes so I don't really have any other comments director so I agree with director Tyler I think that especially because board policies are BS we should be able to have these conversations during either a meeting or policy committee and be able to come to a consensus as a team um I appreciate though that you guys wanted to um for expediency sake wanted to provide us with the conversion that um you felt that the entire board would agree to and I feel like we do but I also feel like this was a decision that we had to make as a board to make sure that we wanted this version um I will say that I did speak with repres sentive alasco who um was the um the bill sponsor and you know she did mention that given the current times political climate like she felt that it aligned to adding hate speech political affiliation and extreme durur ruption aligned with uh what their intention was with the creation of the bill in general and so um you know I feel like unfortunately at policy committee we weren't able to go through through this bill but um I do think that just given given where our country is in this moment and I don't know what it will look like a year two three four five years from now um I think that it serves the school district to as clearly as possible make sure that we set parameters for our expectations especially when it comes to um to what we want to give leadership um at the schools like Clarity on like this is this we agree with this we don't This falls under this and I I think the risk is just too high for us not to include it so I would be fine adding these back in um you know again I I don't disagree with the language that exists right now I think that that's what the bill States um but I also I also think it doesn't hurt us to be proactive let's ra Downes thanks um I appreciate the observation on process that um the larger change was put on a consent agenda thanks for identifying that to bring it to a final discussion because it's ultimately the board decision um I do agree with staff here on leaning on the statute language I believe at the state level um it's quate and clear like you said it doesn't significantly adjust how we currently operate and I think that seeing as we are also faced with a lot of other big issues um I think in my mind it's a I have a strong recommendation to take this new staff clean version and move forward knowing that if this year's graduation season brings unique opportunities to address it again we can revisit it this is not locked in stone forever but I do think that this evening we need to be finished with the conversation so I at the end of conversation will be moving to take this version thanks um I I'm with director tler and director Ramirez on this I think that we should add in the additional language I think that our goal with this policy is to take decisions such as these which could be very difficult to make from the seat of a principal who is directly involved with families uh not out of their hands but to take that blame off of them so I'm just imagining a situation of a principal having a very uncomfortable conversation with the family about political affiliation or something that they're determining isn't appropriate for graduation and I would rather them have something to lean on and to pass that blame onto the board than to have to take that on I think the chance of it happening is greater than of it not happening at this moment in time any other comments from the board neither I do I so I just want to clarify so we were not able our team was not able to follow up with boses boses didn't have any feedback for us they had reached out to some of their legislative folks who didn't have time to so they didn't I mean we checked they just didn't have any they weren't able to issue a comment on it and there was nothing else from casby and I believe guidance from Council was to take statute statute language last time all right statute language is always the minimum is with the addition of that line and is not limited to ex sorry what if you look in the clean version the comment from Council be um was to he said what we could do is include it excludes but is not limited to excluding sorry it cultural does not include then we added that line and is not limited to excluding object related etc etc um and that left some flexibility to have that conversation I hear what you're saying director kenberg in uh do we want to have school leaders have that argument or can they point to something direct there but the suggestion from Council was in order to Pro have it be a little bit more open it's to include that line it's not limited to ex and I think the question there was how long do we want to it's not from a standpoint of how long is this list but are there are likely other circumstances will come up so I think the question is um in six months or in eight months or in 12 months we uh I think just have to decide what else will we include in there or will we leave it as not to I guess I feel like when we talk about the the terms that are here that we are talking about things that we've included in other areas like hate speech is something that we've defined very strongly in ADB as something that we stand for same with disruption in general when we were talking about classroom behavior and all of that and the fact that having this policy does open up for people to interpret in a way that hasn't been interpreted before is like oh there can be some self-expression in ways and I think with a political climate that is becoming more and more Frau in our society I think that is something that I feel that we want to make sure that our graduation ceremonies stay away away from and so I think it is important for it to be there and again I think my argument is just that protected um qualities are covered well here and politics is not one of those and that to add the language there probably invites more focus on that issue um I do think that this adequately gives our school leaders clear Direction on how to respond to parent concerns politics does fall under cultural the definition of cultural in this case and so again I would stay with this version and I I just want to challenge you on that like where would Christian nationalism fall in does that not fall under Creed which is specifically listed as something that is cultural so if you have someone that says they're a Christian Nationalist and that's their Creed and so it's protected and they can wear regalia related to Christian nationalism like but does that fall specifically under politics and therefore be excluded I mean political is just as vague as the rest of them I think just adding the word there provides controversy though but I I think it's not our job to as board members to like be afraid of the controversy our policies are going to create I think it's our job to protect students and so when I think of you know becoming a first becoming a board member the first year and now now it becoming part of our duty as a board member to attend graduations and like going and seeing these kids the one thing that I think of the most moving forward is like I would hate for their special day to be like just trashed like that is their day to celebrate free of their accomplishment and any way I can as a board member make sure that that is not a concern for them the administrators parents families I want to ensure that success of that special day and like that's why this this bill and why this policy for us is so important is because we wanted to make sure that kids were allowed to celebrate and I just why I support it 100% for exactly the reasons you just identified and that's why I think when I think of parameters I do feel like this if like just thinking of all of these kids like what are we if if it were to happen and I know and I hate to live in Wood ifs but let's say graduation happens and we have some sort of political thing happening at a graduation are we going to have an administrator be able to tell that student you need to put that away that is not by the verbiage in here currently that's clear I have a question that might clarify things um I'm just trying to understand if the board is is disagreeing that political affiliation hate speed disruption falls under cultural or not and in the old vers or the version at the top we did add a line in blue that says during roaring for school graduation ceremony students may not wear objects related to hate speech political affiliation or cause extreme disruption and I wonder if as a as a sort of compromise that line could be put in there it is not referencing a category of culture but is just stating it clear this is not allow as a in a ceremony like this um and then actually leave the last pair gra as recommended in the clean version would that be acceptable I think that would be a good I don't think so I mean that would still for me that would mean we'd be banning political speech at graduation specifically calling out political speech of graduation right with your change yep to keep the blue in there which blue so on the markup there's the blue that was taken out of the clean version students and students may not yeah I my feeling is that we arbitrarily added political affiliation and to a a concise and specific statute that works really well without it and I don't want it I I'm not going to vote for it if it says political affiliation is banned in any section I feel like everyone has their position and we just need to call a vote I agree I agree but what are we voting on are we voting on is there is there an intervening motion to amend the clean version of JCB to include that line or is the intervening motion to add the three items to the list in the bottom paragraph I personally would prefer adding the line me too what can I make a motion to vote on the clean version sure the clean version as it is in I mean you make it you can make a motion to vote on the version right now that's not what I want to make a motion on the the version that's presented is the clean version that was what it is presented to make any alterations to the clean version there would have to be a motion to amend it okay so I make a motion to vote on the clean version that does not have the blue text that I'm looking at in theb is presented yeah is there a second I second call the vote hi Noor no motion pass or Mo motion does not pass so I make a motion to amend policy JCB uh and to include the language during Roaring Fork School District graduation ceremonies students may not one we objects related to hate speech political affiliation or cause extreme disruption and that means we would be taking out that the that inclusion on the last paragraph portion um the clean version to be clear you would add a paragraph under during Roaring Fork School District graduation ceremony student students May the paragraph would say during R corg School District graduation ceremonies students may not is there a second I second please call the vote no no hi director hi director tler hi motion passes yeah I know I just the formatting on the next business in order is a discussion and vote on policy jkba dispinar removal from classrooms who pulled this one I did okay would like to start um I think in light of the public comment on this policy jkba um I was hoping if appropriate that staff could respond to that I did out a line right after the public comment that's referencing JK asterisk D2 I had the reference at the bottom of jkba in jkba d r I think and then sorry let me I was trying to write the can you write the in the graduation okay um all let give me a second in jkba dasr which I think most board directors are not in because I only see two people in there um in the second paragraph starting with a student who engages add did the line at the end of that paragraph it says discipline of students with disabilities must align to the Board of Education policy to sor we're not approving jkba dasr we're only approving jkba sorry I also added that JK I added the comment to add in reference JK asteris D2 to the cross references at the bottom and I haven't had an opportunity yet to of jkba yes okay director after do you have any other questions or comments on this one um Dr Park could you just walk us through the significance of the change I added the reference at the bottom where it says cross references yeah I know but I need to add I have not had an opportunity to add a very similar line to what I just added in the regulation to the policy but the line will say something very similar with your discipline of students or disabilities must align to Board of Ed policy jk-2 a discipline of students with disabilities regulation okay is your is your sense that that satisfies the feedback from stakeholders from what I understood in the comment yes um it and it is a standard practice we do reference it but I do think the push to explicitly name it in the policy is a good one and so um we put that explicitly there okay um the description that she was saying in terms of the steps I do think is adequately outlined in JK asteris D2 and so I wouldn't rewrite everything she said into the JK policy but I would explicitly put in a reference to that regulation thanks for the thank you for the quick Work Director Ramirez um I would just ask um uh Dr part that we maybe bold it like I was I was thinking of some of the past policies where we have done that like just to make sure that that is something that is like a statement piece so I see it in jkb a-r and I'm I don't I know you're going to put it into JK uh ba I just did oh thank you yes perfect I just think that would be helpful um and then it is yeah I just wanted to make sure that was also added to the bottom because I don't see on huh mine's not I don't see it in mine yet it's in the cross reference at the bottom off it's in the markup oh got it can we add it to the clean just so we know exactly what we're voting on sure Jonathan thank you for yeah can you do that sorry I have the mark up but yeah oh you did okay great right did you have this L okay sorry I just went make sure yeah so the only two Anna on it it's the policy I can take that back out you're confused about the policy versation dris do have anything else no that's that was I just wanted to make sure Dr I think as long as markups adequately reflect what was identified by public comment tonight I support IT director titler I'm good I just deleted some extra periods in the clean version um and yeah I see the addition of the cross reference okay now I see the line above too to clarify uh I believe Jonathan's correct that jkba d r was already approved was just approved and so I can remove the line that I had added five minutes ago I did not list jkba a-r as approved because that's not listed in the briefing notes at the top okay it's in review okay oh that's right because okay so it is there the regulation as well in the reference at the bottom okay yes and I just did that is there a motion to approve jkba oh as amended so sorry one more thing so JKR is that connected to this or not JKR is connected to JK jkba sorry which jk- R and I see we're using jk-2 are they they're not the same thing okay no they're different J I just wanted to make sure we didn't need to add that language there thank you that's it I make a motion to approve JK wait is it both of them J kba jkba as amended as amended is there a second I second please call the vote director ior I director kenberg I director Ramirez hi director Tyler I motion passes the next business and order is a fiscal year 24 Financial audit presentation from Paul bakus to mcmah and Associates and chief Shakin ah yes so will hi again thank you both for being here would you like you okay I wasn't sure if he was getting some stuff ready so I was just kind of waiting for that for a moment but um so we've got here uh with us tonight Paul bakas uh from McMahon Associates and he's going to present the audit and provided a very high level overview of that um for you guys to answer questions and and to discuss I'm just more here just just as a facilitator right now it's really his show yeah so the public knows we received this presentation in work session so it will probably be brief here and we can jump into questions I will do my best brevity is not my strong suit but um my name is Paul vakas uh CPA um thank you for meeting with me in the work session and going into a little more detail um I really have uh two things to kind of cover um we we did complete the audit uh we had five CPAs out on site um going through your books and we went into a lot of detail about what that entails during the work session um the two things that I would cover are um you have a financial statement audit um in your packet and and it will soon be available on the uh District's website under the fiscal transparency assuming you accept it um and for those of you that maybe are not uh used to looking at financial statement audits um I view a good financial statement audit as like a good novel but come to the conclusion that not everyone else does um there's really two things I'll point out in here the financial statement audit is covered by an independent aits report that's our report that the financial statements are accurate and can be relied upon by all the parties that use it uh the one area that uh popped out on this year's financial statement audit is uh the general fund fund balance um and I'm looking at page C5 the general fund is the primary fund that uh the operations of the district um fall under and that District started the year with 27 uh million right here 27 million 044 in last year 10 million of that fund balance was used so that drops you down to 16.8 million I think you're all probably aware of this that is still above your minimum Finance uh minimum fund balance policy but you are getting close um very close to that balance by um reducing that 10 million this year um we went through a number of reasons why um but really primarily it's health insurance and capital projects are the two main reasons for the district so you'll have to watch that going forward in future budgets uh overall the you know the district's books and records were um were sufficient to provide the the unmodified opinion on the financial statements but we do have some recommendations that uh you have in your board packet and so I'll just go through those um it's a separate board letter that has certain items that we have to communicate as independent Auditors to you the governing board um the first starts with qualitative aspects of accounting policies that just means there's no accounting policies that change how your financial statements look from last year to this year the second part is what estimates do you have in there you'll see there's a list of uh five bullet points those estimates are all pretty standard for uh districts we audit I don't know 30 different PES and school districts and church schools and uh you'd see those in in virtually everyone um so there's not really any area of concern there um difficulties encounter in performing the audit uh your team uploaded you know 300 different documents that we went through and uh spent time on then we pulled another $100 documents in to help verify the financial statements that part went well corrected and uncorrected misstatements which is on page two of the letter is referring to what journal entries were required in order to get an unmodified opinion on the financial statements um we did have to move AB Bose's expense from fiscal year 25 to 24 because it needs to be charged in the fiscal year uh that the service was provided so that's uh that actually reduced your general fund balance by about 800,000 from from when we received the financial statements to the final audit no disagreeance with management um your staff did sign a management representation letter but we do have some recommendations that I would bring to you to consider and I I believe your Finance team intends to respond in writing to these at some point um you have two areas where you have improve incompatible duties so one of the areas that we look for is making sure that no one individual has access to a full transaction cycle meaning they can process a transaction from start to finish um and you do have some incompatible duties on activity funds which is fairly common for districts but um to the extent you can segregate those duties uh the better it is for the district and then accounts payable um you did have some turnover in your accounts payable clerk but uh we'd like to segregate some of their duties so that uh they can't process a transaction all the way through um there was two duplicate payments that were noticed um one of which was caught by the district and well maybe both of them were I don't do you know if the second one was just one yeah um so the first one was caught by the district and solved prior to uh the audit the second one was um discovered by the audit and I'm sure you guys are working on getting a credit for that but Christy can cover that at the in the letter that she'll provide um the district does have your software will highlight when a payment is double paid but the field that it uses to check that is basically the invoice number and so if the invoice isn't entered the exact same way every time it won't catch those so uh um I'd recommend some training for the AP clerk on just making sure that invoice gets entered consistently the same way every time if you have a dash or a DOT or something like that it throws it off um budget uh it's we had quite a lengthy discussion um in the work session but uh it's important that you and I guess anybody that uses the audit knows that um the audit looks backwards so we prepare financial statements we're historians so to speak um we don't look at the budget and uh we don't look at prospective financial information which is common for CPAs we're actually really limited on on uh certifying any prospective financial information um in looking at the general or at the budget for fiscal year 24 um there were four funds that were over budget um the general fund food service and housing fund all exceeded budget and the reason that we do look at that is because that's what you as a board of directors or Board of Education authorized to spend so um we're not looking at the budget saying are these numbers do they look reasonable or correct or anything we peely look at the total that you authorize to spend out of the fund and say did they spend less than that um those funds are over budget it was also worth noting that the housing the budget didn't include the housing Fund in it um 2024 was first year of having sorry not housing fund Self Insurance Fund um self- Insurance Fund in it it's worth noting that was the first year that you had that um Board of educations are required to receive quarterly financial reporting from management um and those reports are required to be uploaded under the fiscal transparency portion of your website um last year you received one quarterly report so um you should try to get caught up on those or at least um put them out there and and moving forward I think you know you as a board of education deserve to get quarterly Financial reports so um make sure your staff is is providing that um Financial results uh our job isn't necessarily to discuss uh you know Financial results in either a positive or negative manner it's to make sure that you have accurate information that the finan that the audit report is correct and you everyone can draw their own conclusion from that but um you do have a fund balance policy um that requires you not to go below a certain amount um 10% in this case plus the 3% required tabber Reserve um it's worth noting that that $10 million reduction and fund balance did did utilize 35% of your available fund balance so um you're going to get closer to that uh minimum fund balance policy and that's going to require you to spend some time looking at uh looking at budgets and things like that to make drop below that um the car out Department education does look at every district embosses and charter school in the state and they run certain financial ratios so they take our audited financial statements and then they'll look at um how much money the district districts have or bosies have for fund balance how much of the fund balance did you use I'm I'm fairely certain you'll trigger uh uh one of their ratio analysis or maybe two um because of that $10 million draw down on fund balance so uh I would guess there'll be in communication on that and then the last is uh Human Resources we were missing uh when we ran some testing we were missing some w4s and uh other employee documents um that authorized deductions and things like that um none of the deductions appeared wrong they all appear appeared reasonable and correct correct but maybe the record retention or paper retention was not quite what it should be and when I say paper I mean electronic also um and then uh it would be good if we had a Reconciliation between um employee benefit premiums to the financial statement software we were able to reconcile that and kind of get where we needed to be but that would be a process that we'd like to make sure the district is doing so I know um I know you guys are aware of kind of the district's financial situation um I can tell you that you're not alone uh districts misery loves company um districts have really been struggling with the drop off of vesser and things like that and then um you've had a fair amount of turnover in the finance team so all that's kind of creating some Financial challenges that you have but uh at least heading into fiscal year 24 you have really good fund balances and um and this year and next year I think are probably challenging years but but you'll just want to keep your eye on the finances and I know it's nice when everything runs in the background you can focus on student education but uh it's not always the case so so this report goes to uh a bunch of different parties SEC uh Colorado state auditor Department of Education federal government um insurance companies things like that and so normally there would be a motion to accept the financial or the audited financial statements and then we pull draft off it and start filing it with all the parties that need it we don't currently have this as an action item is that something that needs to happen no yeah you don't formally have to but um I'm G to assume I can start filing this okay um so we go around and each board member will have two minutes ask questions and provide comments director Dees sure well thanks for being here and putting in so much time with us this evening uh patience and Clarity in your explanations are appreciated especially highlighting your role as an auditor um for me it was helpful as the look back as the historian of what's been done over the past year and the year that we're discussing ended June 30th of the summer and so um just keeping that in mind I think a lot of our community is really concerned around the budget decisions um but it was helpful to kind of in our work session hash out that when we talk about the audit we are not discussing the budget decisions that we have in front of us um so I guess kind of on that just my one question is if you could clarify in your own words what doesn't the it tell us about the district's financial situation like if anything about the future um you know I I mean you have to keep in mind you're you're dealing with June 30th 2024 financial information here um and really last year that fiscal year was a tough year financially um you know health insurance and I guess some capital and things like that um the problem is you're trying to project out you know salary benefits all those type of things what you're going to spend and that's a a look forward projection you know I'm not trying to equivocate we just don't look at budgets and CPAs can't do prospective financial information so um that's something that you have to kind of develop internally and uh develop a comfort level and um you know I'm sure there are places that maybe look at that like gfoa or asbo but uh the audit wouldn't do that so so then as a board member what are some components of like a high functioning Financial system that we should be looking for going forward I know we've made some changes that likely will be referenced here but if if you can just share with us what do those components look like um when I've sat on boards um I you know I like to get written comments back from Management on how they're going to address the financial statement comments that the auditor brings I like the audits to be timely um so you did file an extension the district did file an extension um ideally this would be done by November 30th um and uh but sometimes things happen uh so I think you know timely audits um comments back from your your Finance team on any concerns developed in the audit and then in the audit actually looking at the ending fund balances and what changed in fund balances and how did that change in fund balance compared to what your expectations were that were developed in the budget thanks director Tyler just to piggyback off that last comment first of all thank you for your time this evening about the written comments identified in the audit we just had a discussion also in our work session that next board meeting we will have a written response to those from our district so we are expecting that just of course you know that Chief Shakin but just for anybody who might be listening to it that we have had that discussion and that is in the works I also would like to just comment a couple of things when you mentioned about capital and the $10 million that was money the vast majority was spent and planned for payment for metalwood and so that wasn't something that was unexpected of that money having a different ending fund balance at the end of this year versus what we had expected so that was an expected amount and had been planned for also would like to add that through this audit um Paul was looking for fraud in our district and there was no cases of fraud found of any sense everything was on the up and ups and anything that was having hard time budget wise had to do with budget decisions that we made including Self insurance so that was not something that anybody needs to worry about from the audit that there was any type of fraud within our system and then my other my question is and I don't know which of the two of you can answer this and maybe it's more of you Chief chin that part about missing the Bose expense that was put in the wrong fiscal year other than switching where it comes from does that cause any problems in our yearly budgets um it's it's one of those issues that it's it's a cut off issue so it can affect um the future Year's budget let's say for example that that 800,000 roughly would have not gotten caught by the Auditors that would have left us over budget this year in those accounts as we were paying for bosis and we would have had to discover that later so what we're going to have to do as a team is really work on a plan to make sure all those cut off issues are completed properly and there are double checks in our system of reverified are very large but that is not making our next fiscal year $800,000 short that's cor because we actually moved that back um they made they made the journal entry that's why he was saying we had to do a journal entry to correct that but we it was corrected thank you and lastly I just want to appreciate the fact of mentioning that Financial quarter Le are an important part of the process and thank you for getting us our most recent Financial quarterly that we'll be talking about dror after thank you um Christine maybe you could just walk us through a little bit of the timeline for responding to the audit letter sure thank you uh director after what we're going to look to do is um respond for that respond to that at the next board meeting on January 29th um we already have a Google doc going um that we're coordinating with the human resources department and everybody that is working that works on those particular pieces of work to make sure that their comments are getting in that and then we're going to uh look at that as a team starting early next week so that gets into the next uh the next board meeting okay um thanks and then Paul you mentioned in our work session that um the note in the letter about the activity funds and how the segregation of Duties around the activity fund is a um a common and also complex situation for us in particular maybe for all districts can you just speak to that briefly yeah um yeah activity funds are by Nature fairly decentralized um so they're always a bit of a challenge um it's really a offset between kind of efficiency and great internal controls um and so to the extent you can split them up the better um there is some recommendations that I'll talk with chrisy about that you guys could consider um but ultimately you don't want one person to have access to kind of mle transaction cycle now the activity funds are not large in comparison to The District in total but it's still important dollars okay so thank you director Ramirez um thank you Paul by the way just for first of all being here I think this might be the first time that you guys are actually here in person am I wrong I know there's look I know there's a lot of concerns over 20 you know 25 26 budgets and you kind of tack on 24 results and so it just seemed like it would makes sense to do this in person versus over Zoom yeah well I appreciate just to like meet you and to like have this relationship just because you know you do do something so important for us um I did have an a question a follow-up question from our work session regarding uh training um so I just wanted to ask um Christie if you could share uh what your guys's expectations are um for uh getting on to the timeline for quarterly financials and also for training for staff thank you um this is what we're looking to do so um we have uh and this is going to be part of the response to the letter that we're going to discuss uh further the next board meeting but what we've done is we've created a very detailed list of all the deadlines and all of the uh reconciliations that need to be completed and by when and by who so we're getting very specific so that people understand exactly what deadlines are and then we're going beyond that to say well what are the roadblocks to getting these financial statements and sometimes that relates to other departments getting us the information and so then that also those deadlines are also in there for those other departments so I'm working with uh like with the second level managers to say okay this is what we're going to need to do in order to shore this up for the board and we I've got a lot a great response a lot of support um districtwide for doing that but it's just a matter that sometimes you got to get that deep and and as far as the training around that um there are uh some of our finance staff that really don't have the training for the reconciliations they should be completing and so what that's resulted in is either the CFO is doing these reconciliations or the com controller and really that then makes us less available and efficient and effective in our positions so we're trying to kind of move that around and jockey that around so that we can make sure that everybody is a part of these deadlines um and the other part of that is too is is there's a program called cell sense within the IV system and which is our accounting software and what that does is it automates the financial statements and so what I did actually over break um over Christmas break and that was um created this big report that you're going to see you know we're going to talk about here pretty soon and um so that it's now automated now what now that I've created that big system now what I need to do is train the staff on how to do that system so that I can get the report so I'm not the one running the report so I can become more effective in my position in working with the board and and in other areas in the budget um so that's basically what we're looking to do and what is the timeline for that training oh thank you well it's it's tight on this team um we actually are looking at our first um try at this being our second quarter financials for December 31st what we're looking to do is that they have the deadline is January 31st and then we're going to be reporting the second quarter financials on February the first board meeting in February we're going to try to use that as like that month and a half after quarter end as how we're going to report here forward and so this is our first trial run we're just I'm just like because I came back from break and I'm like okay we're all in here's what we're looking to do so everybody's aware and we've got um some Consultants that are helping with that training um to shore the staff up which I'm really excited about I think it's a really great opportunity for the team um to to Really Build and Grow um together and which is exciting as a new CFO to see so I like the work thank you so just to be clear it'll be happening basically within the next two months yeah within the next month the next yeah a month from now you'll be getting the second quarter financials great thank you so much I did have some questions uh on the duplicate payments uh Christine was the 8,000 expense for Food Supplies did we receive rep payment for that um I'll have to follow up to see if we I think we did um but that's just from memory so I just have to make double check okay yeah but I'll double check on that um and then uh for the budget the general fund Food Service fund Grant fund and housing fund exponential is exceeded I would like for um your guys's response letter and I'm not sure I don't believe you have that with you now um but I would love to know what we exceeded those by oh okay um because it doesn't say here I'm not sure what they were for but I feel like that's important for us to know sure um and I did want to ask so is our um there was a section here on the board of education reporting and the quarterly is our is our current quarterly statement up on our website uh the first quarter financials we uh I I did send that to Christina I didn't check if she had posted it yet but I know it's on the docket to do if it isn't completed as of now okay so it would be helpful just I mean I think those are some really quick fixes for us to be able to do yeah um and you know like I echo my colleagues you know on the sentiment not just the thanks to our team um and to our auditor to uh give us the time and like engaging this much you know uh thank you PA being willing to take our phone calls I think we as a team have collectively dug in to figure out how we can be better prepared moving forward and what we need to do as board members to prepare future boards um and you know as has been echoed already uh the quarterly financials is obviously something that we as a board are committed to making sure is part of process the response letter is something that I think collectively we as a district are committed to making sure happens and then obviously our process as a board whether it's through our positions or even our policies or handbooks um just making sure that we we're in line and that we're doing best practices is really important for us and we just appreciate your time to explain to us too that you're really on the back end making sure we're doing things correct and that we need to be more proactive with our team to make sure everything is good moving forward so thank you yeah I think the finance committee is a good Mo too oh yes on the finance committee thank you started with you um just want to Echo the thanks for being here for going through all of this in up with us for helping both of you to get us back on track um Chief Shakin very grateful for your leadership and everything that you are putting into this role in this team uh I don't have any further questions beyond what we went over in work session so we'll have five minutes if anybody has anything else and then we'll move into quarterly Financial after this anything else on the audit thank you then we're going to start uh getting this filed with all the parties that need it and if any other questions come up don't hesitate to reach out thank you sorry can I ask a quick question does that mean we will make a motion and take action on the audit when we have the response letter written we don't have to yeah we always have sply that's why I asked again not 100% on that you want this after I'm doing the next business and order is the CFO update from oh sorry over the next business and order is a q12 2425 Financial presentation from Chief Shakin okay one moment we're pulling it up what's that um is this one the staff M was the first no quarterly Financial sorry quarterly financialist yeah thank you sorry oh the first one oh just just do the poorly financials is fine yeah yeah thank you guys um I can start talking about it um a little bit I'm I'm really excited about these corly financial statements I get excited about this is like we were uh we were going to doing round robin um with the health insurance committee and they were asking well what's your positive what's your bright spot I'm like I get to you know present corly financial statements I'm so excited and people are just like whatever but I mean really that's what it's I mean this is really cool I mean I'm really excited it's it's it's a new format um I've done a lot of work around it um to make sure that number one that it tells the information that you guys need um number two it does that efficiently so that it is relevant information and it's not going to be Isis by analysis you know looking at really the small minutia but instead it's it's really establishing where our financial you know fiscal health is as a whole and that's what I'm trying to do is create that picture and I I'm I'm trying to highlight the points that are not going well too and the points that are going well you know some of the celebrations I love celebrations but we also have to talk about the things that are challenges right and I think that this is a very balanced Financial State statement and looking at both those challenges and some of the bright spots cuz now we are starting to see some of those bright spots come to path pass as well and we could talk a little bit about both so so that's the exciting part about this and also that it's automated I'm like really excited about that too so we're not having to input all this information into the future and I'm really hopeful for the staff that this will provide a good um just Benchmark of of a direction for those f Financial uh statements for uh um from what director Ramirez was saying um that's really the hope is this is the this is establishing where we're going to go from here um so I did put in the memo a couple the first bright spot and I'm not going to put the memo up on on here that's fine we'll we'll just talk through that a little bit um the memo is was talking a lot about Meadowwood uh savings uh that that project I just want to congratulate everybody that was a part of that project that project came in $3 million under budget uh 1 and A5 million of that was already um earmarked in 23 24 as part of our audit and then another 1.5 here in the first quarter for 24 25 so so that was a really great thing I mean that real super positive bright spot um the other part of this that are going to be a little bit more challenging is that we've seen a couple holes in our budget for 2425 I know we've already discussed a little bit uh and completed a supplemental budget regarding some of these holes but um what this is going to start to go through is some of the other things that we're we're having challenges with in a little bit more detail than you've seen it before okay so if you go to the uh second page yeah thank you and you we're going to talk through the revenue discussion first there's a couple CLE things that I I have to really be careful about because we're talking about um number one part of the financial issue is the self-insurance fund and and how we're going to meet th those those obligations and then the other part is is some of the other fiscal situations we have with the all the rest of our financial information so um I try to separate that as much as I can um in the next couple pages but when we're looking at the the revenue um some of the overage we've seen um compared to budget is in the mevy override um as I noted to the board earlier there was an error in the the way it was calculated that is resulting in an $830,000 deficit um on the positive we uh found some abatement Mill funding that we were able to Mill for the abatement for the bond fund and for also our mevy override to make sure to get those taxes back so that helped to offset some of that that reduction um Equalization we've been talking a lot thought about the reduction in student count we actually estimated growth of students I think it was around 35 kids and it actually we had a decline and so that actually reduced the amount of um funding by 721 th000 it was for 77 student reduction uh we are planning to see um some atrisk numbers um come in a little bit to the red but it's not in the hundreds of thousands so I did not incorporate it in in this report um I just received some information from the state so I'll be able to get that to you in the second quarter financial report on what that's going to look like um we we've already talked about met metalwood savings we are utilizing the remainder of the secure rural schools funds uh from the prior year a half a million dollars to help with the self-insurance issue and what that's going to do is it's going to help to pay for the the Monies to keep the rates the same for employees through through the remainder of the year given all the changes in that insurance plan that's how we're we're Shoring that up and trying to make that or actually complete that um financially we had an Alpa increase there e- rate um benefit um interest earnings are on the on the downfall because as your cash declines um as you use fund balance um you know it's it's just going to be that way for the next couple years I can tell you and then we've got um mineral lease Revenue came in a little bit low um so the total known Reven variance is 780,000 2.4 million of that is going to be used to offset health insurance so there's $1.6 million um that is just related to our um operations other operations so um if we go into expenditures okay now we're going to go into a sorry okay um we're going to go into a lot more detail on expenditures at the next board meeting uh we have a lot of information around some of the overages we've seen on expenditures um and we're going to do complete another supplemental budget or request that from the board at the next meeting um but for right now um there's just three items we've got the 3.3 million for the health insurance overages for this year anticipated we've got the net overages after the 2425 budget cuts we've been talking about that being over $25 million and we've moved it down to $813,000 we''ve been pretty um successful with um thanks to the executive leadership team and and other um leadership within the district and moving that down from a pretty high point um at the start of the year um we have some attrition savings we're estimating at 750 which help offset some of that so the over budget is not yet appropriated is 3.4 million roughly we already have the supplemental budget of 5,497 that we've that the board had approved so we're at 3.86 million in expense variance estimated so what I like to do um this is a part of the report moving forward is to make sure you guys know what that means for your fund balance okay where is that going to put us as far as our minimum fund balance and when you look at the budgeted reduction of fund balance that was 2,190 we now have a projected reduction of fund balance of 5,2 71 so that difference is another $3 million in the whole okay um so that means that taking the 16.2 million and fund balance that that Paul had just reported on subtracting out that 5.27 one million and you're you're below your minimum fund balance if nothing else was to to change at this point in time okay um the estimated minimum fund balance is 12.1 um and that would put you at 11 so we've got a little bit of room but not a lot and doesn't allow for any error and we still have a lot of budgets to look through um we think we've captured all the big picture issues but I can't promise that there isn't going to be something else out there so um when you go into the next page what I'm going to start to do is break that down is what does all that mean um so we've got a couple of issues is the first in this um I don't know light orange color is how to pay for the overages for 2425 um there's the health insurance issue um for 900,000 is going to be a deficit that we know that we're going to utilize fund balance for that was part of that solution then the reduction due to onetime cost is 2,190 that was in the original budget we're not trying to solve for that okay that's why I'm taking that one away the one we still have to look at resolving right now is the $2.2 million we're looking to resolve that as part of the report and supplemental budget that's going to go to the board January 29th and that's going to be very detailed to your request and I think it's a great request we want to give you all that detail we want you guys to delve into it um but but we're we're going to have that solved for shortly just to remind everybody uh We've reported on this quite a bit on how we're looking at paying for the self- insurance loss but that's what that looks like right now I have it separated out in the notes and whe whether it's hit in 24 fiscal year 24 or fiscal year 25 because now it matters because it gets really confusing when it's part of two fiscal years so that's what I try to do is is try to separate it out for you guys so you guys could could tie the numbers out and see where where things are actually coming from okay um if you go down further uh the operation operating cash balances now we're part of the state Loan program I think it's important for the board to understand how how much we've borrowed and now these reports are in aars we're a bit late in getting this one too um but but we're going to be more timely moving forward but right as of this point um the available State loan is 15 million and we haven't we hadn't borrowed anything as of end of September okay um as we spend down that fund balance um and that cash is permanently spent um we're going to see that in the following year we're going to be taking State loan monies out earlier so we just have to really thoughtful about that and the use of fund balance um as well um into the Future Okay um so I'm GNA stop and take any do you want me to go through the whole thing or do you want me to take questions on the general fund specific I think are we ready to move into Bo questions or would you guys like to get into the I'm ready for questions but okay director tayor we're beginning with you this round so I know probably have more than two minutes worth of questions but so if I can have some extra time or if I can come back around again I guess my first question well first of all thank you Chief shaken um my first question I have is you said that we were able to get the original estimate of $2.5 million that we were owing and down to $813,000 can you say how we reduced $1.7 million we can do that um we're going to have that detail I think it's going to be a lot easier to go through when we provide that detail to you that's what you were saying that we'll see in the supplemental budget correct yep can you just give a were there any big items but never mind I'm happy waiting on that okay okay that's fine I still am a little confused on the first page that has the the first page of our um Revenue mhm when and it comes that known variance after the health insurance office at that $1.6 million is what we still then have as income at that point that those are overages that means that we're under our Revenue estimate by $1.6 million under budget that means it's not a good thing so we're minus $1.6 million in that sense that's correct yeah okay and and we've got to make sure we keep aside that self- insurance piece just to make sure that we're not double counting it somewhere okay and then my big questions I came are on just your quarterly budget there and I'm curious in instruction which I guess is on page five it says that for purchased services in instruction we went from last year $1.9 million to this year $3.2 million why did we go up $1.3 million and purchase services that is a great question um I can I don't have the answer to that right now um why those particular those purchase Services had increased um the only thing I could say is that it what it might have to do with and this is this is thinking is that there the change in uh moving some of those uh the monies that we used to pay through erer into the general fund um for things like um special ed which were contracted Services um that was I know that was one thing in there but I can't um account for that full can you bring that back on the next meeting also absolutely what about the one that's the next line below about why salaries for Support Services student Support Services increased by $800,000 from 2.6 to 3.4 million where is I'm sorry where is that let's just right below instructions on the next um header of student Support Services stud salaries increased from 2.6 million to $3.4 million in this budget okay okay so you'll get back you're saying you'll get back again yes I I mean I'd have to and then again the next one on that is instructional support salaries we like doubled our instructional support from the previous year to this year I was thinking that could have been the learning acceleration plan by thought that was the year prior to that so I'm curious why that doubled okay and then my other question is on page seven um which page sorry page seven the summary of significant items follows and I said the Early Childhood fund there's approximately $300,000 in expenses that need to be recorded recoded into this fund from the general fund what happened there and what is that this is this is part of the problem we still trying to solve for is that our Char of accounts we really haven't had a good system I don't know this accounts I'm sorry missed that are Charter chart of accounts yeah chart of accounts is your accounting system like how you're coding things and like the controls around how people are able to put money into like and charge money to a specific account we have not um like like not deleted accounts but inactivated accounts when we've moved them to a new fund and so what's happened is that some of the as some of the other processes are moving with these people requesting Staffing and stuff they put them in all accounts again and that that's been a recurring problem that I've seen that has happened at this District over time that we're going to have to work on solving for and that's why I noted it in there because I think it's important to understand that there is still a lot of work to do in cleaning up our chart of accounts so um and that includes just making sure that we're inactivating accounts as soon as we make these movements and that's one thing the budget analyst position is going to help with so is this $300,000 then going to be taken out of like this is another deficit to the general fund no I I would say that this actually just needs to be transferred to the the um ECE fund and so actually it's a little bit of a betterment to the general fund it's not a I mean not a material one as a far as a percentage basis but that's the way it would move it would move to um our early childhood because that that's what it should be coded to I guess maybe you can explain that more so I can understand because they're expenses right but I'm not understanding if we're taking $300,000 out of the general fund how we don't have $300,000 Less in the general fund because they expenses that came out of general fund and they could should have come out of the Early Childhood fund so it'll be a300 $300,000 gain for the general fund out of the Early Childhood fund yeah they those expenses were charged incorrectly to the general fund they should have been our early childhood fund so when we when we move those expenses into the Early Childhood fund then that will show higher expenses in our early childhood fund and then it will reduce our expenses in our general fund yeah okay thank you yeah you bet director after thank you can you um I don't know if you remember the details exactly but finance committee we talked about the process for the supplemental budget going forward and I thought it would be useful for folks here to hear about that um so in my recollection and Anna might remember or have this ritten down too um our next board meeting is on the 29th of this month you're gonna um you're the packet we get for that meeting on the Friday before will have the supplemental budget and it will have some useful characterization of the changes that are being suggested and then we'll meet on the 29th and it and we might need to meet again later that week to in order to pass the supplemental budget because we speculate that we might want extra time to discuss possible changes right we're we're planning tentatively to dedicate the work session to make sure folks are clear on it but yes we're aware that that deadline for the supplemental budget of January 31st um we're right up against that and want to make sure that there's time baked in for that supplemental budget um so that y'all have time to look at those reallocations you know in that proposal of how we're going to address that deficit okay that's right so our current thinking is we'll do that in a work session and then we'll have questions answered and um presumably pass the supplemental budget the night of the 29th because we have to by the 31st right and if it feels like during that work session that we're just not going to be able to take action on it there's more information needed or you know details that we can't provide that that evening then we can talk at work session about scheduling additional time for a vote within the next you know two days okay um okay thanks I didn't have any extra questions in addition to the finance committee meeting and the work session today and this presentation director Ramirez thanks um director uh I'm sorry um what was the um there was a line item here that I had asked you to highlight do you remember during fin oh um thank you what was it again um oh shoot and I wrote it down too I'm so sorry it's okay I was going through it trying to also remember there's something in there it was an explanation you gave to us regarding I don't that's you remember I'm looking at the notes from finance committee oh I'm not I'm not remembering it now um was it the debt interest in fee payments that's where I was thinking I was thinking was it interest earnings or was it I mean it's a big number yeah a big change yeah um that expent that interest and fee payments the interest and fee payments was that on like which page was that you were thinking it was on the sorry there's no number sorry about that oh know me too let's see which fund it says a bond Redemption fund oh um Bond Redemption fund trying to think I'm sorry I'm drawing a blank with it um because there's nothing really in our bond Redemption fund that that is concerning to us because we've got I mean we haven't even really paid our first payment or anything um but was it was it around that abatement number I wish I remembered I just know it was a I shoot well if you think about it and I'll go back to my notes and I'll I'll scour notes and see if we can incorporate that in the next meeting okay thank you um so one of the things I did have a question is you know as I was going through here I did notice that there were big differences on some of our accounts compared to the 23 24 I'm assuming that that's probably because you that's what we're using to fill gaps but I feel like if it's not then I would love to know at our next board meeting uh one example is the rule sustainability funds it's marked out at zero last year was million um which I know is one of the things that we just mentioned but I think that you know if it's a big enough change it should be mentioned at our upcoming meeting especially since we there's so many numbers to go through yeah I'm sorry were you gonna say something k no um and then there there were a couple things like purchase services and supplies materials and capital outlay that were different that were like different and the amounts like instructional support went from 196 to 3 note that you're comparing q1 to fiscal year 23 24 so there are going to be a major differences when we're comparing one quarter to a full year right just like oh I see what you're saying so it's not gonna be yeah I mean it's just not going to be app yeah to a year and I think that this is really great because um because I think what we're trying to do is is like ask questions around our budget right because we got to really understand our budget more thoroughly moving forward right and then also we're asking questions about those differences around our budget and I think that what I would look at um looking at budget versus actual is is is there anything coming in on on expenditures above that 25% um that would be one thing I'd look at I would definitely look at you know comparisons sometimes if you're looking Apples to Apples and seeing if there's something a lot of times you'll see a payment that comes in one quarter versus another quarter that can make some difference I mean because you want to stay out of the weeds a little bit on those those timing differences but if you see something that is is a you know is an overage that's definitely something to ask about okay so to start to focus us yeah to that point so then if if I'm comparing the budget for 2023 here to our current revised budget quarter one is it supposed to be under or is it because it's the 2023 24 the entire year budget right it's the 2324 entire year budget correct yes and so for example on the instructional support purchase Services that's 354 so we're P we've spent 354 in quarter 1 no we that's what our budget is for the entire year is 350 before right and then we spent 225,000 but that would be a good example of one that's over 25% spent for the year and there's there's reasons why that can happen for example a lot of our um contracts for the the entire year are paid up front you know sometimes because when you see something that like last year it was 105% it was actually over budget by the first quarter um so there there's possibility that things are being paid up front on that um so yeah that it's really hard to dis discern but that's why I mean I think that as we look at these corly financials more frequently we're going to see those kind of patterns throw out and and that I'll be able to actually that's what I try to do in the letter for the first time is like for general fund and then for some of the other funds is just tell you guys what to look for and um and then we dig into things as we see those weird anomalies and then if we find two or three of them just to stay in a really high level that that is really helpful CU then we keep getting deeper and deeper with the financials without like this paralysis by analysis kind of thing going too yeah so I think for me it would I one I think it's going to be really important for us to have this sheet to know what you guys used because I I think um one like I feel like this is may possibly the first time we as a Bard are also like looking at the budget with like yeah just more intensely just to be like okay what what are we looking at here and making sure that um one that we're actually budgeting correctly but two that there's also like a budgeting process here that is sustainable for the district recognizing that we're going to have to be tighter moving forward just in general because of declining enrollment so I personally would appreciate just knowing you know especially for line items like that where there I'm sure there's a reasoning behind it um but you know those are the types of things that I I'm going to question like why what what happened why are we so close to already meeting that budget when we've already exceeded last year's budget okay okay thank you director de fredes yeah Chief coin this is great thank you for taking the time to teach me how to read it just listening to you walk us through it tonight it's already been very Illuminating um and I appreciate the direction to board to stay at those high levels and look for anomalies and hold us accountable in that way um so that we can be respectful of your time moving forward as well um I one question is on the page with The Orange Box the to resolve amount I'm just wondering process-wise and maybe this is better timed with your next presentation um how have staff and District leadership been involved in bringing forward solutions to closing that Gap and maybe that's more of a Dr Cole question as well sure um you know a big component of this would be part of that that supplemental budget I would say that's been a big focus of our last six to eight weeks is really trying to identify in I would say our non-school departments so a lot of the do departments a lot of our operational teams how we can reduce expenditures immediately in the 20 that would impact the deficit for 2425 and also in the 2526 budget um there's been some pretty significant work done in terms of um evaluating Staffing levels uh particularly you'll see in like transportation and maintenance there are a bunch of unfilled positions that the leaders have really said hey you know what we can manage without this to Savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars um so and we'll be able to detail these these specifics for you um it's been it's significant and I'm I'm really grateful for the leaders whove done some really hard work with their discretionary budgets looking at their Staffing levels um you that's the work that we really wanted to um be able to say confidently that we've done everything possible before pushing on any school-based budgets or uh curriculum instruction budgets um that that we wanted to make sure every other department had really scrubbed tight um prior to starting to talk about additional um budget adjustments and so you know we're I think we're still kind of refining those pieces um we really feel like that supplemental budget deadline is kind of Our Moment certainly for 24 to 25 to be able to stamp this is how we're going to do it this year um you know we I would say we've we've done a pretty solid work in the immediate budget and I think we've done really strong work in internally um looking ahead at 25 26 uh so I'm I'm really grateful for those leaders and we will be able to detail that for you I think some of those pieces there's still some um components that we need to analyze with those budgets to see how far we can go um but that's the work we definitely wanted to have done before we started talking about school school-based funding thank you thank you for your work on this and for systematizing the process so that quarterly financials will be less burdensome in the future on the team my only question is around the comparisons because you said I noticed pretty quickly we're comparing q1 to a full fiscal year which doesn't tell us that much and so I'm curious if in future years the comparison will be q1 to q1 Q2 to Q2 Q3 to Q3 I feel like that would be more useful for the board in identifying anomalies than a q1 I thought it was to the full year because we didn't have for q1 yeah so so the interesting thing I think I understand what you're saying is because the first part of the page two and three are really looking at an entire year of what we're estimating for the full year oh yeah this is actually for just quarter one the EXP through September 30th so those percentages and those percentages do align yeah got it and then the budget is based upon a full year yeah okay I was confused the print page that we're looking at that last column was cut off yeah oh yeah it's fine this is our first ones we're working through so I totally get it no that's helpful and I appreciate like you said I I very much appreciate that it will be more efficient moving forward for your team and getting through this um in the interest of time for the board we're at nine o'clock and we have a number ofen items left do we want five more minutes on this or are we ready to move on to the CFO update I would just like to say one more thing and that's it's a difficult position I think as a board because here we are ready to move on we're out of time and if we do have questions like where do those questions come from and it just seems like as much as we're tasked with looking at the budget and asking questions about the budget it really seems like our time is always curtailed in being able to do that and we don't have enough time to go into it in depth and I just think that's something that needs to be looked at in the fure future I totally agree director Tyler and I think you know in a in a perfect world which we're heading towards y'all we're g to get there um these quarterly financials are going to be timely the policy committee will be staggered so policy committees will be able to dig deep we will be be um looking at these consistently a lot of those anomalies that that Chief sha coin's talking about are going to resolve um you know I think there there there have been moments already where we've leaned on finance team and we've said hey Finance to the entire board hey Finance team is working on some pretty messy stuff if you want to jump in you should jump in um policy committees done the same thing so I I absolutely hear what you're saying and I I think we have the right systems as we move forward to create more space in between the right like I mean if we were looking at this in early November um we would probably have the time and space to dig in a little more and as you heard from Chief chaoin like you're going to get quarter two in about a month so it's going to feel like they're stacking but I think when we start to hit a system it will start to feel more routine where we'll know hey this is this is the policy committee or this is the finance committee that's dealing with quarterly financials if board members want to drop in and really dig deep let's do it there um you know our intention tonight was to have a long we knew we needed a longer work session to do quarterly financials and audit we took more time on audit I think we all had really great learning we won't need that much time on audit next year so I I totally hear you I do think the systems we have in place will eventually um settle and we'll have the time I think we're baking the right systems and the right teams um I think the work that christe's doing is building the right processes we're going to have the right tools I think right now we're just feeling stacked y anything else on this NOP let's move on the next business and order is a CFO update from Chief chaoin and I'm going to jump into board member comments and question questions under the assumption that everyone has read the update um I have starting with director after if you're ready for that um we went through this in great detail in finance committee so I don't have any questions director rire I'm just trying to think if there was anything I needed to restate from finance committee I don't know why I can't see it on my agenda right now sorry um I guess not there yeah come back to me please I'm sorry Dr defres uh We've covered so many of these subjects already tonight I just wanted to direct public that's listening uh this is probably the best way to jump into the summary of where we are if you have not been involved in the conversation significantly and chief Shakin you've obviously put time into translating the work you do every day and that your staff does every day into a digestible format which I appreciate so um this is just a great reference point for people who want to take the Pulse of this conversation who are coming in from the outside my one question is could you just uh one more time describe the the position that you all are hiring for and the role that they will have an expanding capacity and expertise for you all yeah um the budget and financial analyst position U what that would look to do is to SHP those processes for the budget situation so that we can get deep with you know first of all educating people and making sure people have what they need um when they're budgeting and when they're doing looking at their budget versus actual to make sure that we've got multiple eyes in the financial statements and the financial information so we can look at those problems and see things happen happening that are going to be potentially problematic earlier in the sit in the system um as I as director titler had talked about with the chart of accounts is making sure to do additional maintenance around our chart of accounts to make sure that it really tightens up that that particular system and then also to help us um to get our audit reports completed earlier um just helping the team with completing different reconciliations and making sure that we are self- sustaining as a team are some of the the roles that I see that person doing um also maybe taking some things off of me such as the state Loan program that has been added this year that is an additional duty that is very timec consuming especially as we're getting to be so tight as the as the auditor was saying because of our use of fund balance that you know that person would be helping to shore up some of that time so we could really monitor those things more closely and our cash flow to make sure that we're you know we're doing everything correctly thank you Dr Tyler I guess the one question I still have and I'm not sure if it's related to this one or the one before but about the the health insurance issue which is the top of it on the update can you talk about where if we've arrived at a place of what will be the cost for health insurance for staff I know you talked about they won't pay more this year and by this year we're talking about through June correct correct and then as far as beyond June has there been discussions about what that's looking like for Budget year yeah 2526 yet or where's that conversation at who is involved in that conversation who are the players do you want to take that or do you want okay we're both we're both nodding we're like the so decisions around the um when we are looking and projecting deficits for 25 26 we know that the the any CBT plan um is if we fund it similarly to the way we have been funding which is covering the cost of a base plan 100% for the employee it if we continue that commitment um even the the most inexpensive plan that CBT offers will be an additional $1.5 million for the cost of that investment so we have been uh forecasting the budget deficit for 2526 with at least that one point with that 1.5 additional expense um the team that is working on that is the health insurance advisory committee which is um a uh contractually obligated um commitment from us with our Collective uh collaborative bargaining agreement is if you remember we committed to working with certified classified and admin IBB to make recommendations to the board about health insurance benefits or benefits for employees so that team is weighing um the options through CBT understanding that anything beyond that most inexpensive plan is going to make our 25 the 25 26 deficit that we have to cut larger um that team is made up of representatives from each of those IBB groups who are part of the benefits Committees of those IBB teams so there are um the teams requested four members from each IBB group uh director kenberg is representing the board of education on that team uh Chief Shakin Chief Platt and I um are there uh from the admin team we are meeting kind of right now about every two weeks we met Tuesday night um we are currently developing some materials that the team requested uh to help conversations with employees every uh IBB group has done a health insurance benefit survey with employees that they're using to guide conversations um the goal of that group is to come up with a recommendation or potentially a series of recommendations for the board the Board of Education and for admin to bake into the 2526 um budgeting process and the determinations we need to make I don't know if Chief Shakin or director cronberg you have anything to add but that is it's definitely a big big committee big work really hard work um and as part of that decision making you say the offer the lowest Plan offered by CBT would be that extra $1.5 million they weren't able to give another plan that could be less at this time no you know so much depends upon our usage our rates are based on usage um I I will name that every um local school district from Aspen to parachute all of our neighbors use CBT and they are all even our um some some of our larger Charters are in the uh small school or small employer pool with CBT they're all experiencing anywhere between a 10 to 20% rate increase um from CBT so it's not unexpected and I don't I don't think it's out of bounds of what our neighboring districts are experiencing um we know that our usage rates are high because of our self- insurance path um so there's a chance that if our um use shifts in 25 26 that 26 27 might bring other um quotes and rates um there's some conversations with CBT about different types of plans um that they might be able to offer but nothing that would uh reduce that cost for 2526 okay thank you director Ramirez do you have anything yeah I think the only me thing I'll mention that we did talk about during F Finance uh committee was that I did reach out to the state grapher and they uh reached back out to us and we're happy to hold a work session or zoom in with the board to talk about um their findings just when it pertains to each separate County um and I don't have anything else to add aside from that on any of these I think I agree with director um Dees that this is an important memo for anyone who is interested to know um what is happening with the finances of our district and I appreciate the thoroughness um that director Chini always Chief Chini keep excuse me um always has for um the CFO stuff I I appreciate that you like it so much uh and I would just Echo the sentiments I think this is a great starting point for the community I think as to the health insurance those meetings are recorded and posted on YouTube so if anybody is interested in that conversation those are available publicly but but I appreciate the continued updates on on finances and having this standing update gets helpful in the overall progress the district thank you thank you okay next business and order is re wait I to skip one 11 the next business and order is a review of policies J LCD GB I a LBD and regulations jk- R jkb a-r and lb d-r each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we'll begin with jire um the so policy committee went through these I think the LBD was the only one that I wasn't able to be present for um I am going through comments right now I don't believe I had any additions to this for that we had to follow up on is that correct no okay then I think I'm good thank you thank you director defres uh similar my questions were related mostly to LBD um I was interested in director after's comment on the side related to uh is there any there's is there any conflict between this policy and and the I guess outline of their Charter but I've I've skimmed them and I I didn't spot any so I'm assuming that there's there's no overlap uh I think the one question in general that I had and this may not be something that we can address in policy but something that might be a consideration in contracts moving forward is and maybe I'm missing it sorry if this is a dumb question reporting out on demographics of enrollment in our Charter Schools as they reflect the the nature of our communities is there is that addressed in their contracts or in this policy as far as we know not in this policy it is addressed um in I I believe we'd have to look at the exact language and can make sure to share that and get that back in front of everybody in an update um there is language that is strives in the charter in the contracts to nudge the charters towards um a reflective demographic um makeup that that reflects the community and the school the district there isn't any sort of um it's very difficult I don't even know if it's possible to mandate that require that create some sort of conditional issues around on that um and I think typically what we've done is ask the charters to update us as they've done on the one-on ones on kind of how they're managing that tracking that paying attention and trying to invest in Outreach and communication to shift those um to be more reflective but yeah it doesn't these policies don't really address it they're really more about process and how we work you know how the the charter school um authorization process works for us and really the only reason it's coming before you all is because of the timeline shift in terms of Statute um so thank you director Tyler I had the same question and I put that in as a comment that Dr that um director defrates just added asked about and from your response director Co is there is that not possible like is it illegal to put that in there can we not add that to the policy that they will reflect our school makeup is that not like is it a legal task for that I don't I mean I think it would need to be articulated in the the charter contract you know I think it's one of those compon I mean I think if we go back to thinking about the way we establish the contract with um our teachers union and we talked about where does what trumps like policy or the contract I think just case that contract is going to Trump what we write in policy um you know we're we're two year we've got two more years on our current Charter contracts and so next year we'll begin the work of kind of starting to figure out how are we going to go through that process um with Charter renewals and I think that's probably the best space for those conversations of you know how do we support the charter schools the charter school leadership that is I mean I would name director after director defres who are really representing our two charters know that the leaders in both those schools are committed to that the the spirit of that I think the technical how gets hard for independent small schools um and not independent but small charter schools to to do that work I mean I think that they're deeply committed to it as leaders and I think it's a matter of then how do we support that to happen on the ground and I think that's a conversation we'll need to have as we get into the charter renewal process um and one that I know that we're having every time we we meet with our charter schools and there's still not a re so the fact that the contract with Trump the policy is that reason not to have it in policy still to say that this is something that we expect something that we want something that we value um it's a great question I mean we we could we could take that back to to policy committee to look at how that might be done um I will say the the review of these of this policy and regulation were limited to the timelines that was the statutory update was the timeline had changed in statute so policy committee did not get into a broad conversation about the rest of the content of this policy it was limited to getting us in line with State Statute in terms of enshrining those those timelines in these policies so and so would it come about to do that again at a different time or is it still a possibility to have that conversation even if that wasn't the initial attent intent we could I just don't think that at this moment staff has contemplated that nor his policy committee so I don't know that this is the moment where we could have that okay is that something that we could look at bringing back up in the second read then or I would say it's either it's either that or it would be a recommendation to actually bring this policy forward um full review for for a yeah for a full review beyond the the statutory requirements I think we would have to I mean I would want us to involve our charter schools in that conversation and our charter schools boards and communities as we do with other policies when we involve stakeholder groups that's an expectation we put on staff and I don't know that on this timeline that is possible and I'm fine with not being on that timeline then so in order to do that do we need to make some kind of resolution now or some kind of or do we just ask that it gets brought up at policy committee or Jonathan can you make note to add that to our list of policies too I'm back too yes well and just correct me if I'm wrong would that not be part of the oh the last moment in our board meetings where it is the um future agenda topics is that where that proposal would happen on the board tracker you could submit it through the board tracker and we would pull it up then yeah got it okay and then just bringing up to the same question that was alluded to with the contracts that we had with the our Charter Schools I know we had this discussion when we were talking with the charter schools was it part of that contract or was it never in the contract about demographics and was it just conversation or do we know that I'm not gonna I don't want to guess without looking at it but I'll make sure that we um get that Charter contract both of the charter contracts and the board update this week and let's all dig in okay thank you yeah um actually I had some questions I'm about other on too um when was the last time that the disciplinary Matrix was updated okay okay thank you my last question is on jkb um I still have a question about when students are leaving the classroom and I put in a comment about is it expected when the student is to leave the classroom for example like a a brain break and I know like that happens at least at some schools where is that now one time that they've left the classroom and now if they do that a second time now does there need to be that whole write up in a plan associated with that k um my question concerns um line a on page I don't know what I um so if you look if you look on page two I'm sorry what on on kb- R page two section 2 jkb jkb d r uhhuh the one you just asked about section two student breaks C we add of the line teachers should work with school leaders and student support teams to document breaks for students who require a break more than once a week to inform future planning steps we want to give some guidance but understand that there's a difference between a student being asked to take a break every hour every day multiple times but if it's at least more than once a week regularly for multiple weeks it's probably a good Cadence to monitor it and then use that to determine further planning steps which might vary I is just pointing to language which is in letter B of the next page section three top of the page where it says in the r the student is removed from the classroom the student must be given the opportunity to um I'm sorry the student will be returned to class as soon as reason possible the teacher School principal I'm not sure that that's the one sorry that's the one you there's where it is that plan will be developed after the second removal of the student from class and I think of my experience at least at Carbondale Middle School where students are they're sent on a green yellow red card and they can be sent with cards out of this classroom to refocus basically and it seems like at least that in carbon Middle School that would be happening on a much more regular basis where than this policy would be now that if that's happened twice they now need to have a plan developed after that removal and at least for that school I think that would be a big change in how their behavior plan exists at this pointor I think I would draw your your attention to in section two would be the circumstances that you're describing like a teacher gives a card to a student to go wasn't talking about errands though yeah or to go you know you need to time section three is is when when there's more of an emergency situation where a teacher has to request a school leader class so it's in that circumstance where that formal removal I think what you're asking is if uh uh if then the on the red card let's say a student is removed or needs to go to the refocus room and it's the remainder of the period and let's imagine it's about 45 minutes or so that that is that should be recorded as a as an in school suspension because they're missing the a majority of that period in the cases in which they are removed to go to the refocus room for I'm actually not I I don't know all the details of how go for 20 minutes and come back right I what I'm hearing you ask is is that considered a break or is that considered a removal and if we're thinking about time that might be an area ofation that that this was part of our discussion we looked at this before in section two that that student break is defined as a short time of about 10 to 15 minutes section three is a situation where the teacher has to request that a school year come and a student from class because of like this more extreme disruption or un behavior and then then there's this other category that's going to be longer than class period which we're consider ISS which falls under its own policy so I think correct me if I'm wrong but I think that your concern I understand now that might be more in section two yeah that you're you're thinking about a situation that would involve section two and applying it to se thank you director yeah um I took your advice and I put comments in the document and I hope that was useful for you guys because I appreciated the um not back and forth but I appreciated the responses so that answered most of my questions um and I did still have some questions outstanding on the um the charter school um policy which I've a lot of which have been answered here so um so I feel satisfied with the discussion I don't have any else to add I don't have anything else to add on these I will note that in which one was it lbdr there were some there were some optional casby text that looks like was left in and and Jonathan had flagged it and I believe the he had just deleted the opt the word optional but I I suggested deleting the sentence after the word optional also because I believe that both of those things were meant to be deleted but other than that I got my questions answered during policy committee and I'm happy with where these are so we'll have five minutes if anyone has anything else on these policies I just I thought those were optional like I was reading that wasn't that part of how an application an applicant would submit um information to the district and so I thought that was not optional policy text but rather optional for the applicant you might be right let's check on that I just did it so I didn't read it in depth I just read the first couple it yeah I just had one one question on LBD on that last sentence and again I wasn't present for the conversation on this but I do agree with director titler that this should come back before the board for us to be able to work on this um but the last sentence or the last two sentences the period for which a new District Charter may be approved is five academic years um should we provide Clarity on that to say um because I guess I'm kind of confused like the period for which a new District Charter like if the charter Waldorf wanted to apply are we they're considered new even though they've existed if it's a right if it's a if it's a new chart it could be an old school but if they became a charter then it would be considered a new District Charter and so then yeah that that initial approval contract would be in existence for five years does that make sense so I guess any any new I I think that's all it's saying is that any new Charter gets five years and then once you renew the charter there's more freedom to how how long that renewal is set okay so I mean I get now what this line is supposed to say but I do think like it could use some word wordsmithing from the team because it I don't know that that's well and the funny thing is it's may be approved right so it's even negotiable like we could we could take a new Charter and say we have some concerns here we're just going to do the charter for two years because it may be approved to five um the statute now says when a local Board of Education approves a new Charter application the charter is authorized for a period of at least four years oh at least four so that's how we gotta align that that's not aligned statute the laws of 2022 let's change that language double yeah I mean double check it that's just on a quick Google search on fine law okay anything else on these I do have one more question is there this new idea of making comments and getting feedback that way and having less time than needed during policy board time is there a time where you all feel like you would need our comments by in order to get that response it um yes especially if you're gonna expect it um I mean I think I would expect it because that would be the reason to do it in the document ahead of time versus doing it during this time well you could use your time to reiterate those questions if it doesn't get answered but just still is there like a expected time where you feel like if if that is the idea do you guys get the emails of policy committee like when we policy no and that's I mean you know we're still we say this is still a work in progress in terms of our timing I think um I would say if the expectation is that the board me board members are going to enter comments our team needs at the very least I would say if the expectation is that we've responded at at least like a week that there's a response board members should enter comments to give staff a heads up to give other board members a heads up of what you're questioning about so that it can just move the conversation along we've never tied ourselves to a timeline of other board members entering comments because that it gets very difficult to figure out a timeline and it's not realistic okay and I was just I guess trying to maybe have the wrong idea of yeah how that was supposed to be done it's for you so you know where they are for staff so they can easily see what you're talking about so you're not having to say like lkb paragraph six line three like it's just okay more efficient to get there and we definitely you can see weren't consistent like if somebody was able to respond they responded there were plenty of comments y'all made that we were yeah definitely looked at them tonight to go oh this is what we're gonna talk about that help clarify thank you yeah anything else on these okay we're not taking action on these tonight so we're good thank you the next business order is action on EC tuition rates do I have a motion to approve the EC tuition rates okay I make a motion to approve the EC tuition rates is there a second I'm second we'll now have two minutes discussion for each board member and then we'll take v a vote We Begin we'll begin with director defrates this time I think uh we had a end up discussion around this the end of last year and moving forward is there anything substantive that I should ask about because these just look like rates that have been updated to reflect the reality that we're facing they are yeah and they're they're actually not changed at all over last year we did not increase rates this year director Tyler I just had a question on the pass through funding of $1.5 million can you tell me what this 1.5 million doll is and where it comes from for Early Childhood yes it's a pass through from the general fund to support and actually I want to correct it because it's 1.25 I keep saying 1.5 Chrissy keeps correcting me is that a decrease from the budget that we approved for this year we approved a budget with a supplement of 1.5 million for ECE the budget we approved for 2425 was with a supplement of 1.5 million I'm almost positive let's double check that might be why it's in my head um so what this is really interesting and it actually has a connection to the next board topic but um 2425 is the first year that we put ECE in its own budget for years the rowing Fork schools has shored up early childhood and um it it is not a program that sustains itself on its tuition and revenue basis and so that funding goes to salaries um I would say it goes to salaries the the ECE budget for materials is quite small in the bulk of what we pay salaries and benefits and so that money assists um and supports the cost of PC team primarily so basically the district is supporting our ECE at the tune of $1.5 million you got it in addition to all the inine costs all the um indirect services is you know if this were a standalone program it could not stand financially that's where I guess I'm confused then because when I look at tuition funding sources on that pie chart I don't see where the school funding part is part of that you're on the am I correct you're on the like ECE out a glance yes and so at that part on the page with the pie chart on the second page it talks about the tuition funding sources and I don't see our $1.5 million included in that yeah I mean I think I think what we were trying to cover here is how we paid how tuition is covered um I would say tuition like that's if we were to Define what do we count as tuition and how is that broken down that pie chart shows how tuition is broken down but tuition doesn't cover um it's not the sole Revenue source for the program so chart would be $ 3.68 s million if it were uh yes if we included that R rfsd pass through in the sped child fine funding as Revenue right the pie chart's really just supposed to break down when we look at that prek tuition Revenue where what makes up the bulk of that and Val is like label what's the idea of pass through funding like um pass through from the general fund to keep the program running okay and was that in this I was maybe I Mis look for that is that in this quarterly Financial presentation the 1.5 million would be in there somewhere there is a there is a breakdown of the quarterly financials for the Early Childhood fund um I'm not sure if it show I think it might show the 300,000 which is the first quarter or something like that of the the past like the the first quarterly component of the past through as Revenue in quarter one and what is that under which part of the budget it's at the end of the quarterly financials you'll see all the in like the um designated purpose funds the uh Cap Construction fund all the isolated funds or in you know kind of independent funds and there should be an early childhood fund page I'm not sure which page it is but oh yes I see that that's pretty cool right I'm just saying that was not our reality a little bit ago that we could say hey just turn to the quarterly Financial page of just saying thank you Christie thank you director after um I appreciate the at a glance document thank you to whoever put that together that's nice um and I don't have any further questions I sorry one thing we have to we every year we will be we have to approve ECE rates because we're charging a fee basically you have to approve any fee that we charge anybody at any time okay so we do student fees okay got it Sports Athletics sorry got it thank you I don't have any questions director Ramirez is this um document at a glance front facing yeah that's what it's been used for um and we've kind of tried to update it every year for folks that come you know just kind of like a quick fact sheet um we use this for the legislative tour we handed it out there just as a as a quick highlight um a snapshot of the program I just recommend that you guys update your contact information at the bottom um I think that would be important um so I you know how long have we we had the EC program I mean I know it's been a long time right yeah I don't as long as I've been here that's eight years probably longer you know we've I I think the statutory requirement to provide Educational Services for students with disabilities ages 3 to 21 is is part of why districts have Early Childhood programs um so I you know I think ECE has it's obviously something that like as a former prek teacher like I care deeply that we have this program and not only that but supporting it but I also have often been worried at how much money we're investing into ECE from the general fund because it's I I feel and I may have perceived this wrong that at one point in time this program was going to become self-sustaining and that it was going to actually like be a program that with tuition with whatever that it was going to like be its own which I for some reason remember that that is sort of where we started pushing on it having its own budget I could be wrong I'm glad that it has its own budget but I also still carry that concern that like it doesn't seem like it's a program that has been able to overcome like all of the changes there's been a lot of struggle within the program so you know I feel like I have a duty as a board member to go back through my notes to like see what the past conversation has been on this um but I don't have a recollection of this becoming pass through funding and um and I do remember that we said like oh we're going to supplement this program because it needs to support to you know but eventually it's going to become a program that is self-sustaining and so you know I do think that that is still a concern that I carry you know I app appreciate that we're not increasing uh tuition um you know I think as much as we can do that as possible especially for our staff it's really important and so I appreciate that as a whole but I still carry this concern as a board member that like it this program just doesn't it it I don't know where the future is when I think of ECE programming because it it doesn't feel like we're going to be out ever out of place um where this program can sustain itself and if I'm wrong on that I would appreciate the team come back to me yeah you know I I think your recollection of the maybe the murkiness of it is accurate as you know in my former role supporting Early Childhood it was incredibly frustrating that I couldn't see it like I couldn't see the budget I couldn't which also meant that we couldn't ask for funding because we couldn't see if we could provide no budget summary for the program um and we knew that the the district was standing and up but we couldn't get we couldn't figure out how because it was all just baked into the general fund so um to to try to understand what our contributions were to Early Childhood prior to 2425 would require line by line going through and trying to figure out what was the name of that teacher find her in the salaries find out where her her funding was coded put that into the you know build a new budget and so it has I I share that concern um and I feel like as conversations happen locally and regionally around Early Childhood funding um I feel great urgency for us to get this budget tight because I want our community to see the investment that the Roaring Fork schools has made in this and that we are leveraging everything like we're doing Early Head Start we're doing CCAP we're doing all the things um we're the only program that doesn't expel kids we're the only programs that serve students with disabilities in our service area um we're also the only program that holds spots open and doesn't fill so that if a student with disability moves in or gets identified we can immediately place them um we lose money on that over and over and over again we you know we make sure that our employees have health care um we have certain benefits that I think um in this student population that we are privileged to serve and that we prioritize um there are different needs in term you know we have low ratios most classrooms because of the dynamic needs of the students we have we have to staff Early Childhood special Educators and you know we're we're trying to really adjust that you'll see some of the savings for 25 26 has to do with some innovative ways that we're grappling with that based on what we've learned over the last couple years it's going to save like 200 $250,000 in the program um but we're still spending $200 $250,000 on Early Childhood special Educators and what we get from state and federal government for preschool special education is about $40 $50,000 a year so that's an investment that we make as a district to serve the students that we care deeply about and so I'm I'm with you and I think it'll be really interesting to watch this budget in the next couple years um as we tighten it up and and frankly I think as we push in regionally um to really stamp and I feel like we have an obligation to really stamp in the conversation that's happening around potential um ballot initiatives and early childhood to really stamp what makes us different as school districts um the kids that and families that we serve that other folks don't um the way we hold spots for um special populations and end up losing money I I think there's a lot of work here so I just share your concerns and um I share I mean I deeply feel committed that if we are going to see the outcomes we want to see for our students and particularly our students of color and emerging bilingual students um we have to do everything possible to work with families to make sure that families have access to high quality early childhood education before kindergarten um and I think right now the only organizations really stepping up in that space to make sure that low-income families have consistent access to early childhood education in the valley um are us in the busito program um occasionally folks are offering scholarships but I don't think um because of how hard Early Childhood is to fund there aren't programs that say we'll take everybody regardless of a barrier to pay in the way that we do and the way that buo does so it's it's an interesting conversation but we're paying for it k12's paying for it the general fund is paying for it yeah and I think my biggest thing is just as a board member I understand that and I also think like yes is important for us right these are all our kids but are we being a good partner with the rest of the valley um in not only like uplifting ECE as a whole but also I think like I I question if like our commitment to just be like everybody come is not going to cause a bigger issue for us in the long run with the quality that we're able to provide for every student and so I just again I appreciate and I look forward to seeing this Budget moving forward because it is a concern of mine of how much money we are putting into this account every year or what I thought was supplemental is now being considered pass through so that's it sorry no sorry I how I a lot of questions on this but um I'm going to limit it so do we have an idea of what it's going to take to stand up this program next year is this going to be another infusion of 1.2 1.5 two like do we have any idea of where it is next year because that impacts my thoughts on tuition rates because if we're already having to infuse this much cash why are we not increasing tuition at least at inflation rates or coer rates to continue to support this program that is in the red um I I don't know that that's fiscally responsible for us to approve tuition rates that are not increasing as nice it is as nice as it is for families and as much as we value that we also have to think of the whole system and that to me would seem shortsighted of us as a board to not consider um so it's hard it's hard for me to say right now like put my stamp of approval on these tuition rates when we don't know the amount of money that it's going to cost us to stand this program up next year when we're in this financial crunch and crisis that's a fair push um you know we we will we know for sure that in the restructuring of the Early Childhood special Educators we're anticipating anywhere from a 200 to $250,000 savings um you know that's part of what Chief Shakin mentioned in that internal do2 million that we're starting to reduce um so that's you know that'll reduce that that contribution significant are we reallocating that to cover these recurring expenses that we need to cover or are we going to reduce the Early Childhood fund by that amount because I think those are two different things if we're using that to cover our overages then we're necessarily taking that out of this fund right well it won't be part of the transfer over so that funding will stay in our general but like General funds quarter of a million um savings wise so it's not savings that's sitting in an ECE um it'll just reduce the general fund transfer to ECE which means then we get to use it for other things in the general fund um but are we anticipating having to increase our contribution you know it's a good question I mean there's a ton of moving parts and pieces to this um it the program doesn't really run on it if the the tuition would cover our costs we haven't really built it that way um so few families pay full tuition in our preschool program um that and and we could pull those numbers to actually see how many people actually are paying tuition because it's small um well you can see from the pie chart right what what percent or what kind of chunk of it comes from the full tuition um yeah we we do not have a lot of 100% tuition paying families in the program but I I mean that's a consideration and I would say our urgency in bringing this to you is that preschool enrollment is open for us internally right now um we could certainly and so we felt it's an obligation to post rates I mean we could certainly say and we can still post these are last year's rates they are subject to more discussion by the board and that's fine like if we felt like hey we want to see a more flushed out budget before we do this I guess I would just want to manage expectations that I don't think a significant even a a small I don't think that a tuition increase based on the limited number of families who actually pay tuition is going to have that much of an offset but we haven't flushed that out um and it's a it's a budget that's messy um it's hard to project our projections for this year on Early Childhood were incredibly limited by our inability to to hire staff so we have you know we were ready we had the is ready to fill every classroom that we were able to get into and we've got a bunch of empty ones because we can't hire um you know we've weit lists at CES gses um and we have empty classrooms and we just have no teachers so I'm worried about you know the scale and scope of this plan of course with the demographic studies I think we need to reduce what we're looking at for Early Childhood um I think certainly as a team we're anticipating that the size and scope of this program is going to going to shrink um so I mean we could wait to see a tighter budget on it I I if the rest of the board's comfortable voting on it I'm fine voting on it I just wanted to point out for me that's it's difficult for me to tie myself to this rate without knowing what additional funding this program is going to need I too would like to have further discussion on rates and and associated with that I guess a question I have with this $1.5 million that we're supplementing or 1.25 I'm not sure which one we're looking that um what percentage of that money is going towards the School District staff tuition rates and what percentage of that is going towards the non staff rates and and as I look at what the staff rates are paying I'm looking at somebody who's making $121,000 is still only paying 80% which seems like perhaps maybe a lot of money to be making and not being paying full child care and what is our rates because like when I look at the preschool rates for staff it looks like it comes out about $75 if you're paying 100% per day for the extended day um toddler and is that what is that rate compared to rates in our Valley and if that is comparable then maybe that 80% is okay but if that's already less than what they're paying comparable then maybe that's something we need to look at well let's just make a determination tonight on if we're goingon to vote on this or not because we need to move forward like I feel like we could spend a lot of time on this and I do have a lot of questions but it's almost 10 o'clock and you still have other agenda items so like I said I'm comfortable voting on it and approving it tonight if that's what the board has prepared to do I would like to postpone the voting on it uh I'm comfortable voting on uh tuition rats because I know that this is the season for it but I do feel like I have a lot of questions still and I do think you know because of the current board and some of the changes you guys have have had an ECE I do feel like we need to update like some of the concerns we've had in the past of like what you know families who have said that like they they're expected to attend every day or you you know and can't miss a date why don't you can you put that in the board tracker sorry I'm really trying to move us along yeah and so I I do think it would be helpful to us and the only other thing Anna that I wanted to bring up is you know I hear you on like us and the busito but the busito is a nonprofit that receives a lot of money for their programming we are not the busito I will say too I mean I work at a private preschool and we have two kids that are on IPS in my classroom so it's not limited to the Roy for school district that has every child that's on an IEP they receive either allart services so they're coming into our programs for speech or other services but that's also something that I think we need to consider we can't carry it all if we don't have funding for it we can't carry it all we need to be partners so okay there's a motion on the table there's a motion on the table so do we want to vote on it I'm happy to vote okay what was that everyone's ready to vote on it request okay any any intervening motions to amend can you please call the vote director after hi director depres I director kenberg I director Ramirez I director titler n motion passes the next business and order is discussion regarding future agenda topics and board tracker requests Are there specific there are two I know of one I don't have the other one listed on our agenda um oh I just have two that I want to bring to you okay yeah um tracker request followup and clarification um so two tracker requests let's start with number two it's related to Early Childhood director Ramirez asked for the last five years of Investments and I'm sorry I'm looking for my notes investments in early childhood that is just going to take a ton of time for all the reasons I explained um I really feel um that I can't ask Finance team to work on that and so just wanted to pressure test that with you all whether I um that is a directive from the board um but I I really don't know that we can pull that off this year yeah and I think I said rough estimate is that a is that on the board tracker even that I don't know how we would pull it that you know it was so the costs for ECE historically were baked into the general fund and I don't even know how we would estimate where to pull those out because they weren't L items that's crazy so hoping you're comfortable with putting questions about ECE in the tracker we'll bake an update that can address some of those other ones but hoping we can maybe drop that request for now I mean I'm fine dropping it for now but I think eventually we're gonna have to figure that out honestly like I feel as a board member like we have a responsibility to know how much money we've invested into this program from I don't know in five years was asking for like a little bit of time because EC has existed longer than that um so you know I do think like eventually it would be helpful to the board to even have like two years back at least I mean I said five years because that's how long I've been a board member yeah I I just don't know how we would eventually it would be helpful to know like how much have the Early Childhood fund it's GNA be easier I know to identify it yeah it's gonna be way easier to track moving forward it's the going back that I don't know um whether that Serv us or feels like weth St time so just need direction from you all if that's something that needs to stay on the list I think in light of the Season that we're in agree I don't think it needs to happen does not need we'll push it we'll push it okay um the other one director titler requested information around newly immigrated students and specific data I think it was kind of part of that conversation around Iha um similarly I think need to hear that's a pretty extensive data dive I don't disagree that there is additional data we need to be looking at around our um newly immigrated students around um our I don't disagree that we need to be looking at a lot of this data I think the urgency around this is some clarification that we would like from the board um if we had a directive from the board this would be this is at least um probably 30 to 40 hours of Staff time I think we could get to it by the end end of April um I would like to propose that we integrate some of this data pool with conversations around Iha we work on clarifying um some of the the specific requests um because it sounds like from our read that the key question was for students who enter Roaring Fork School District to kindergarden and are you know kind of classified as as having limited or no English proficiency the key questions seem to be like how long are they in our program correct how what happens when they exit what happens to the student you know what is an okay amount of time to be in the program what is concern considered too long um how are we tracking that data what are the scores upon exit as compared to peers so those are all things that I think we could we could pull in that conversation with ihba so what I'd like to propose is that in my plan that I'll start with policy committee on how we can tackle continuing to work on HBA with a robust process that we also talk about some data that needs to happen in parallel and build some timelines with that so wanting to see if the board would support that kind of addressing some of those data requests through that process and and giving us some time for it I think this data is Central to conversations that return to our desks in a lot of different lights and a lot of priorities um but I am so in no way are we saying we don't need this information I'm sensitive to the weight that staff is carrying right now though so I would take your direction Dr Cole on a reasonable timeline um but recognizing that at least for me uh this is like you said it's a a critical part of framing how we approach that Gap and and move forward with it I feel I'm okay if we about timeline and when this can happen I do feel it is pertinent information for us to do these are most atrisk students in a certain sense they're coming to us as never ever coming to school for the first time not knowing how to learn in a school system where they're not understanding the language and I'm think it's very important when we're being asked to address the achievement Gap we're having and here we have bis who's come for the 20th time in a row to one of our meetings and has made the same demand of the achievement Gap as one of their issues of how are we addressing it and I feel like this is a group of students who other than their one hour of erl that they get in their daily life they're not being addressed and that's I think compared to students who come in as high schoolers who are new high school students and they're getting programming that goes beyond just their elll time they're getting these newcomer classes and they're getting that instruction that we're not affording to these kindergarten NEP students in the same way and I feel like it's important for us to look at systematically what is happening and when is that exiting happening and I think that's very important information and I think it's important information to also the part that I think was missed from your summary at the beginning was how is that compared to what's happened in at balt Elementary School for students who have gone through a K4 program where they have been able to receive bilingual education and comp comping how these NEP students are doing in those two circumstances just to see what are we able to do for those students and is that something that is helping these students in a way that students who aren't receiving that are getting and so I feel like this is data that is pertinent to Us closing this achievement gap for us looking at how we can do com um programming that is best for our students and I think I understand we are a difficult time right now with budgets and with staff and with what we can give with our people but I think it's also something that we need to keep in mind that if we look at our last six years of growth percentiles for our El population they've never reached 50 percentile in growth in the last 6 years and so we do need to be doing something different than what we're doing now and what is that data set looking like that so we're not just continuously dropping further and further and further behind which so as a response can we get a timeline of when essentially in response to Ken's request can you indicate what you just said here tonight about aligning it and figuring out how when yeah when it's best to address it sure I mean I guess I would like to revise the specific requests some of the components um and I don't disagree that there's some you know yeah let's look at what how kids are doing program to program we have two dual language programs um so I think that would be interesting to look at um so I guess what I'm asking for is the ability to revise the request and set a reasonable timeline that we could we could tackle that um and looking for clarity because if the board believes that nope as written we want that data pulled my timeline is going to be saying end of April is what it's going to take to get that data in that form if it's not connected if we C if we can't I think having a revised request and a timeline would be helpful for the board that we could understand your position better in terms of what is feasible and reasonable that healthy staff yeah is is important and understanding the benefit of having the data and also weighing that against the the burden that that is and the complication specifically is we're looking at historical data students who started with us enroll in US continuously started in kindergarten this different than the oneof was the current number longterm Learners in a school that very and so that um the multiple layers of it they take longer and we got we talked about ping the data for there we're looking at K2 how you know how long so do you think the board update you could provide I mean I could do either the revised scope and timeline and then if we feel like we need to bring it back for another discussion at a board meeting we could do that sure I was I was initially proposing to do it in concert with the plan around ihpa but we could separate the two and I know at least at Bal elementary school I know it's been only like three years that they've been fully that my fourth grader has been in it since kindergarten hasn't been in the entire school at that time has it no the older grades were not and so I know it hasn't been entire school and I know prior to that maybe only like third or half of the classes were doing it but I know that they have I believe in Infinite Campus they at least have teacher names of who were the teachers that can go back far enough that they could decide who was in bilingual at that point or not hence the need to happen until April yes I understand that wrapped into ihpa sorry whatever the letters are would be most effective in my mind since data should be driving our decisions in that way separating them doesn't necessarily seem effective I mean I I don't disagree but I also don't necessarily agree because I think for me at least ihba is one thing that I think we want to get done and I think the data will help us but I also think we as a school district should strive to have that data moving forward and so I don't you know I get what you're saying what you're saying I think that's fine I think if you provide it in the board update to let us know what you think is doable for you in a shorter timeline and what isn't and what's going to take you to April I think that's important for us to know but I also think like if you can get something us sooner than that where we just go through it ourselves it's like I don't I think ihba has its timeline that we're going to go through and I feel like that's more um connected to getting an update from Amy on what programming is I what I what I heard in our conversation around ihba and where I think there was a lot of overlap and shared interest between staff and director tytler's proposal was around accountability and metrics and so what I was hoping to do is bring together this data request as a revised hey this is the kind of data I think we should be asking for an ihpa this is the kind of thing I think we should bake into the policy to say when we're reporting on data this is the kind of metrics the board wants to see as an accountability metric so that was my thought of bringing them together was that it could be an Exemplar for the board to say oh yeah this is the right question this is the right kind of data and this is the right level for us to say if you remember when we did ADB the board proposed post here's some kinds of the metrics you could be sharing with us um for Dei impact impact statements and so I was kind of thinking along the same lines that there could be a way that I think given what director titler is coming after here that I think would align with what staff would say are the kind of data practices we need to have more consistently that then you could stamp into ihba got it so that was thinking feel like we're in agreement sorry I want to say something yeah um I I guess my respective is I feel like you understand where the board's trying to get to in terms of ultimate outcomes and if there's a if you have the data between now and April or a few months later that helps us get there and we can incorporate that somehow into ihba I think that's fine I think I think we're all moving toward the same goal here and you can help direct us or push back in terms of what is actually feasible but I do think we all have the same ultimate goal in mind good so just as a recap or if you want to do the recap I'm happy for you to recap but I'm understanding that there will in the board update be some kind of response to what you feel like the data request can be done what you can do as far as data at this point and how and when and how that could be given and how it could interface with the request of ihpa yeah I think so I I'm not gonna say this Friday's update but maybe by next week okay yeah um in the interest of time are we good here I think we're good here unless any board member has any other updates or well that's we have updates and appreciations next I'm going to propose that we skip that tonight and that we move forward for to the next item is everybody comfortable with that yeah the next business in order is an executive session pursuant to executed pursuant to section 24-6 4024a CRS discuss discussion of options for the potential sale of School District Real Property interests including prioritizing properties for the purpose of obtaining valuations inviting superintendent Co Chief Bon and chief Shakin do I have a motion to move into executive session I move that the Board of Education move into executive session pursuant to Executive session section 24-6 424 a CRS discussion of options for the potential sale of the school district real property interest including prioritizing properties for the purpose of obtaining valuations inviting superintendent Cole Chief bonak and chief Shakin is there a second I second all in favor say I board one I'll move into executive session inviting superintendent Cole Chief Bon and chief chaquin the time is 10:11 p.m. upon e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e no objection this meeting will be okay if there is no further business and no objection this meeting will be adjourned it is 10:36 pm