Good evening. I call this meeting to order at 6:21 p.m. Directors present tonight are Director Kenberg, Director Deferred Defrades, and myself, meaning we have a quorum. Thank you to our interpreter Rodrigo. Would you please share the interpretation
instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the interpretation section? The first business in order is the approval of the agenda. Directors, are there any proposed changes to the agenda? Um, can I have a motion to approve the
agenda as presented? I move that we approve the agenda as presented. I second. All in favor say I. I. I. Motion pass. Our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by superintendent Dr. Anthony.
Okay, it's midepptember, so that means things are incredibly busy between homecomings and field trips and um assessment windows. It's a really busy time in our schools, but a couple critical um celebrations tonight. Want to thank the Aspen Community Foundation.
We were awarded this week over $20,000 in support of Roaring Fork School District early childhood education families. This is the first time that we've partnered with ACF around early childhood. Um, we're really grateful for this investment in support. Want to congratulate again Rodrigo Andrade for
his leadership on the grant application. So, he's two for two. Um, and Lori Bramau and her team and the work they do in early childhood. And in addition with that team, we had a visit this past week from the Bule Foundation. and in particular would like to um share
appreciation for Paulina Lopez, the director at Crystal River Elementary School's preschool program, and Enzorbano, the director at Riverview Schools early childhood program. They hosted the site visit by Bu Foundation and just did a phenomenal job showcasing our preschool programs, program
philosophy, curriculum, routines, and of course, our darling kids. Um so, thanks to the early childhood team. They have a all day training scheduled this Friday. So, it is a day where um in our early childhood strategic plan, we worked
really hard to really professionalize the work and make sure there were days when our entire early childhood staff could huddle to um do professional development. That'll be this Friday. Want to also uh celebrate the high school deans of culture, school counselors, and especially high school
student leaders who attended the youth celebrating diversity workshop in Denver on Saturday. This training is a key initiative that's in service to strategic priority number one, students first. The students engaged in workshops led by Denver University professors and students on a couple of key topics. How
to form a club and recruit members. Um how to manage and navigate conflict resolution and transparent group decision-making, how to structure meetings to ensure equitable voice, and how to engage all opinions with civility in a polarized world. So, sounds like a pretty powerful agenda. Our Royan Fork
School District teams met uh teams of students and staff working towards similar goals from across Colorado and beyond. And the teams also had time to begin crafting action plans specific to each school in order to meet common goals again all along to strategic priority number one. And we will find
time this year to have the students share their work with the board of education and some of the work they've been doing related to this training. Um want to also we've been talking a lot about student data and district performance frameworks. We'll we'll summarize some of that tonight, but do
want to lift up a small but incredibly meaningful piece of our district performance data that was tucked quietly into reports this year. And that is student dropout rates. Um reducing student dropout rates can only achieved by building relationships, helping students and families access targeted
resources and helping students see that they belong, that they can do this, and that we have their back. It is deep, quiet, and long-term impactful work. It's led in our schools by family leaison from the family resource center from school by school counselors deans of culture school administrators from
office teams and teachers who have built trusting relationships with students and the teams work carefully with families and community members to wrap uh wrap around students who keep them connected, engaged and supported. because our district performance framework doesn't show year-to-year. The
board and probably community did not see that this year in every single category of student subgroups, we've reduced the number of students dropping out. So, just wanted to lift that up and and share congratulations, especially to our Warren Fork School District students who are staying engaged and hanging in there
and to the teams of staff, families, and partners supporting them. Um, it's important to remember that every student has a story and often the numbers we use to measure our success don't reflect the very meaningful, transformative, and life-changing work that happens every day in Warren Fork schools. And then
also just want to celebrate that October 2nd is National Custodian Day. Our 42 member custodial team is a key part of achieving operations department's missions to create the conditions for students to thrive every day. Head custodians like Dean Black at CRS and
Michael Stapleton at GSES have been part of their school's positive culture for years, interacting with students while keeping the school clean. Custodial directors Lissa Vaneka, um, Wanuka, and supervisor Diego Diaz Treyos set the highest standards for this team and provide the leadership necessary to
clean over a million square feet every day. So, happy uh, National Custodian Day. That's all I got. Thank you. The next business in order is the superintendent report including RFS strategic plan year one final report and
PCG special education program review each We're going to start with a quick summary of our strategic plan year one and a final report of that. Um, we talked a little bit about this during the work session. Uh, want to just remind the board and the community that
the 2425 school year last year was the very first year of implementation for our new 5-year strategic plan. This plan builds on a decadesl long foundation of community-based strategic planning in the roaring force schools that was set first in 2014 and it levels up from
there. The current plan strengthens accountability, transparency through tight initiatives and and action plans. We began the work in 2324 with a comprehensive external assessment of district strengths and growth areas. We conducted a robust root cause analysis
around our challenges and growth areas and we developed research-based priorities and initiatives to address those issues. We've been through one year of implementation are continuing to improve. So just want to lift up a couple of the positive outcomes we saw in this first year. We launched a strategic plan data dashboard. We saw
steady overall academic growth for our students often in most cases outpacing the state averages for growth in most in uh assessments. We improved school performance ratings for most schools and the district as a whole. And then we had a number of successful student staff
family engagement initiatives um as evidenced by very high positive feedback reported on key family and staff surveys. There were a lot of successes this year and the district also identified areas needing improvement. The implementation of some of our strategic initiatives last year was
slowed by financial challenges and uh critical turnover on some leadership teams. This affected operational excellence and thriving team initiatives. Some of our rigorous instruction for all initiatives needed timeline adjustments to asssure that we had alignment and clarity and that we were moving slow to be able to move fast
with some of the initiatives related to creating engaging and rigorous learning environments. And then despite strong student academic growth as the board really dug into last at our last meeting, we recognize that overall student achievement is still lagging and significant gaps remain between student
subgroups. As we look ahead to 2526 in year two, a couple of uh things we're going to be really focusing on as a district. We've been talking about these. We're going to continue to implement our year 2 initiatives which we've tightened up and adjusted. You know, we we added attendance back in
order to really strengthen that and re-engage with some of our attendance priorities. Um we're going to continue to implement that plan with Fidelity advancing uh our initiatives. We're going to continue to elevate and even though it's one of our strategic priorities, we're going to keep talking about it that we're elevating effective and rigorous instruction for all
students. And we're going to continue to navigate financial challenges which we anticipate while we keep our key priorities in place. Uh how we're going to do this um and build on our momentum is by continuing to cultivate a culture of data and working with a sense of
urgency and efficacy which is our firm belief that our student staff and leaders are the right people and they're capable of the challenging work ahead. We're building momentum in the right direction and delighted to submit this annual report. It's the first of at least another four. So we'll shift over
to our second topic. Can I get a clicker? You Good evening. Thank you. Um I'm excited to uh be here with my colleague, special education director Patrick McGinty and
myself to share a little bit about our special education program review. In 2425 school year, we launched an RFP process uh to conduct this external comprehensive review for us on our special education programs and we landed
on public consulting group based on their submitted artifacts and their examples of work with other districts in this in this uh realm. And PCG conducted this review between December 2024 and July 2025. This report was shared via uh
staff and community newsletters in September and we had several stakeholders that engage in discussions about it as well. Um and we have scheduled dates for further engagement um uh upcoming. But you can see here just the big categories themselves. And I'm not going to go into detail because
we have shared off both the full report and the executive summary as well as a detailed staff memo here. Um, but you can see around document review, stakeholder input, observations, and quant data analysis. And what I'd say is that this was a really good opportunity to have an
external group do such a thorough and comprehensive review of our programming to get valuable feedback from uh key stakeholders and information um in a way that um they were able to share the information differently because it did not include RFS staff within uh focus
groups or um even looking at survey data. And so um and then observing with an objective eye across many classrooms the key things uh that are in the findings here um were affirming of some of the things we feel are strengths and
reinforcing some areas that we know we need to work on. I'm not going to go read through each slide but you can see them here. And also just illuminated some new things like um not new things but things for us that such as the rigor of our SSN programs. Um, and so what I
wanted to actually have us focus on, and I'll pass this over, is uh, just focusing on our next steps. Um, just I'm going to go back and forth a little bit here. These slides are a little bit out of order, but PCG did have 21 recommendations for us. Um, across the
these two slides, which um, when you look at this slide, there's a sort of recommendations roadmap, and one of those says three to five year timeline for full implementation for all of these recommendations. Our initial plan is actually on a 1 to threeyear timeline, actually three-year timeline. And so
today, what we wanted to highlight were some of the next steps that we are focusing on for this year um uh in response to the opportunities for improvement outlined by PCG. Right? So these are kind of divided into
the domains uh and uh some of what uh we learned. Um in the learning environment, we're really focusing on high lever practices from the council for exceptional children and really bringing that to uh to life here in our district. Um we see that uh really embedded in a
lot of our teacher prep programs. And so we're going to just reinforce and maybe introduce to some of our staff that weren't exposed to high leverage practices. So that's a huge uh process that or program that we're working on right now through PD through our ERWs. Um we're also talking about uh and
working on high expectations. Um this is kind of a shared opportunity. So our principles are getting a lot of understanding on how they can manage programs and maintain high expectations at the school level. We hear our principles um really hungry for um opportunities so that they can manage their programs and understand what high
expectations are. So, we're giving a quite a bit of PD through our um our leadership council meetings. Three, I think 90 or four 90 uh 90-minute uh PDs this year um to work on high expectations and some shared ownership um of students with disabilities and the
outcomes for those kiddos. Um again this kind of highlights again under uh leadership not only at the principal level to make sure that um our principles understand how they can manage the programs answer questions and really take uh responsibility at the school level but also at the district
level. how we're seeing um special ed students uh students with special needs um embedded in our strategic initiatives and that we're having that more shared um shared approach to uh making sure that the students with outcomes or that the outcomes for students um are not just in the special ed department that
they're across uh the all the domains and all the departments. Probably one of the biggest highlights that uh we're going to focus on this year is really uh leveraging our families and hearing very strongly from our families that they would like to have an influence and a a seat at the
table. We're going to create a a special education advisory council through the family resource center and uh we've got a lot of great guidance on how to create that so that can uh sustain just beyond uh one or two years and have it be a part of our community and part of our district. Um, so we're really excited to
get that started. Um, this year, um, we're also using a new translation system, which I think can help, uh, get documents translated into, uh, native language very easily. It's a little bit of an AI system with our IEP, uh, software, which is really great. We should be able to get things translated
in seconds versus months. So, we're hoping that'll give the materials in native language to families so that they can engage even more robustly at the IEP meetings. um our human capital. We're still looking at uh the high leverage practices and focusing on specially
designed instruction. Also a little bit about um I call it the um the budget season and really thinking about how we can have rigorous learning for all and thinking about um how we're allocating how we're sharing our opportunities with principles so that we can get impact input from our uh teachers and
principles at the school level um when we're coming into those allocations for the next school year. Um, and again, you see there that we're really focusing on sped programming and uh what leadership uh what leaders can do to help support and coach their staff and understanding
what high uh high quality instruction looks like. Oh, we already did that. Um I think uh one of the uh the pieces here, this came from PCG and um Stacy highlighted this once already, but um you know they're saying a three to fiveyear timeline for
this full implementation. We're going to shoot for a three-year timeline. um and that we've kind of looked at these uh pieces and we're going to uh provide some uh key perform key performance indicators on these pieces especially for year one so that um we can track
those a little bit more uh robustly and have those um shared with our community. Each board member will now have two minutes to share comments or ask questions. begin. Thank you all for being here tonight and thank you for the updates. Um I was
excited to see our annual update on the strategic plan. And as I mentioned in the work session, I think that's a great tool and annual check-in for us to have and to begin to familiarize community with and utilize in a way that engages parents with accountability with this
robust plan that we have in place. Um I don't have any questions on that one. Um, a couple of things on the uh sped report which we also spent about an hour in work session on just so public knows we've we've already done a deep dive into this. Um, and thinking
about, we talked a lot about how the board wanted to see kind of an accountability timeline with those 21 points. And in thinking through it, uh, in the last however long it's been, half an hour, I think it would be great if we capped this year off with a because we've you've identified all these
immediate steps that you're working on right now that are in progress. So even if we were to cap the year off with like this is where we are with the in progress ones and this is our plan for the next 3 years. I think that be might be a good way to ensure that the board maintains that that touchstone of
accountability and um have a check-in before we get into a more normal cadence next year because I feel like if it comes back next year without that it might feel um like it's been too long of a time and the board might miss a significant chunk of what's been done.
Um, and of course open to push back. I was just thinking through if that might that would make sense to me as a board member. Um, and then I had a question about if we are partnering at all with Boseies. I know they've had a shift in leadership and I was talking to another
regional board member um about the desire to have a partnership with Boseies again around special education services and I'm wondering if that's going anywhere. And then so we, you know, we we separated and became our own AU from the Boseies quite
a few years ago. Um, and you know, I would say that we are still super engaged as a both as a Colorado River Boseies member. When topics of special education come up, it really they really only pertain to those districts that are in the Boseies. But I will say that like in terms of very high level strategy and
concerns and questions um we are part of that conversation because we're not you know the challenges that we often face in terms of hiring and recruitment and um costs specific to special education are not unique to us and we share them with those those schools and with the Boseies and so I mean we're still at the
table we're still part of those conversations we're not directly involved in any of the service delivery models um but we have been part of grappling with what it means to be doing highquality special education in this valley where we are struggling to recruit and retain um highquality
special educators. So I would say from high level at least from the like Bosey's board the superintendent advisory council we're super involved in those. I don't know if there's anything more other than I mean being good partners and good neighbors as our kids and families move up and down the district. It's certainly I know that you
know um our special education leadership works carefully with leadership in the Boseies and our other schools but anything you want to add? I mean just historically the Boseies was providing our our speech pathology related providers and things like that and we moved away from that even before
I got here. So um we've had uh those folks under our own umbrella for a long time. And so right uh so when we when we left most recently we had aiology teacher of the visually impaired and some very unique um pro uh providers
that were um provided by the Boseies. They had a hard time providing those in the last couple years. So we are fortunate enough to have hired those folks out on our own. And so that's kind of the luxury of the Boseies. definitely part partner with them with the Yampa school and uh the rebound program and so
we're deeply involved with them in that and they do provide that um piece of our continuum for our um special ed programming. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Um appreciate the deep dive and work session. Thank you for that. um just
going to bring forward I think the things that I got from that conversation that I think are important and that was supporting the staff as they work towards creating um more continuity and expectations for IEP programs and rigor in all the buildings throughout the district and then also making sure that
the interface piece with parents is as as accessible, transparent and again consistent as possible uh with an emphasis on translation services for those families who already would have trouble accessing regular day-to-day activities at the school sometimes
because of language barriers and then I mean even for me the mountain of paperwork involved sometimes in having a kid receiving services um it's intimidating and so just really prioritizing the empathy with folks on the outside
not only of the language but of the system um as we as we think about where our resources are going to go in such a short time because it's it's a big goal in one to three years even um with just the emphasis on safety and security and accessibility for those families. So again, appreciate the work you're doing
and the work from the outside consultant. I think that was a critical piece of this as well. Okay. Um I just want to echo some of the uh from my colleague. I think one thing I want to make is that um team will be getting back to us with some survey
questions that they have. So we the board will be receiving a followup um on that. Um and then also just the conversation I agree with director Colbert of having that um strategic plan like model for the board to have you
know who owns the the um the recommendation um and what department and the timeline when that will be reached. Um and I I really appreciate the commitment from this team to work towards a one to three year
um uh model of really trying working with that urgency that was expressed to us. I think that's important. Um and I appreciate that commitment from our team of saying like we we really see the urgency and we want to commit to this faster. So thank you for that. Um and
then on the strategic plan um again I appreciate the the um the letter. I think it was important to at least be able to put into words what we're hoping the community or some of our stakeholders will read from that. I
would love to maybe in future have a conversation as a board of like what we hope our community sees or how it engages with the strategic plan because I do think there is an opportunity here for us to be really intentional with um
what you know a a kindergarten mom learns about how to engage now with the strategic plan so that three years out she knows what we're working on. And so, um, I think that would be really important for us to to maybe even during
CAD see if there's another school district that maybe has something we could engage with. You know, sometimes school boards like to carry the strategic plan. But I just I think that would be a helpful conversation for us to have.
Thank you, team. Um, we have five minutes probably discussion. Does anyone have any followup questions or it feels like we're moving quickly, but also because so much of what was covered in the strategic plan was included in that deep dive of data that we did in the previous session as well. So, I
think the board's super comfortable with it just for those of you who are wondering why we might have moved quickly through that tonight. Thank you. Thank you for all the work on this. At this time, we welcome members of the public sign up to address the board. We
have three speakers signed up tonight. The board allows 45 minutes for public comment. Respect the time of all who are present. Speakers are to limit their remarks to three minutes or less. Reminder to all speakers to uphold our procedures for public comment. We ask you to be thoughtful and constructive with your comments and thank you in
advance during your feedback. Members of the public who wish to share their views with the board may always do so in writing at any time. For this evening's public comment, we received Darl Ring. Our first speaker tonight is Alex Sanchez. Good evening members of the board,
staff, and community. Um, as you know, I'm Alex Sanchez. I'm the president CEO Obosas Unidas. I'm also proud graduate of all three schools in Basalt. I'm here to speak about our first report card for the Roaring Fork School District. First, I want to recognize the dedicated
educators, staff, and families who show up every day for students. We know this district has people who care deeply about children and the work and work on their behalf. What I'm about to share is not a measure of effort or people. It is an evaluation of the effectiveness of
strategies, systems, and outcomes of this district. We're also not evaluating how the district serves white students. For many white families, their experiences and student outcomes may be exceptional, and that is fine. But that is not the reality for Latino students
who now make up more than half of the student population. We must be honest about this fact. Today, Bos Sonita's released our first accountability report card for the Royan Fork School District. The overall grade is a Dminus. Here's
why. Quality of education. Latino students remain nearly 40 points behind white peers in ELA, math, and science. Among the widest gaps in Colorado, human capital. Leadership at both the school and district level does not reflect the
student population. Parent power. Latino parents are consulted but excluded from real decisions with no intentional investments in preparing them for leadership roles. on governance and leadership. For more than 15 years, this district has adopted plans and
aspirational policies. Yet, without enforcement or accountability, the gaps persist decade after decade. The Roaring Fork School District has never been held accountable for its results. From now on, progress must be measured by
outcomes, not promises or good intentions. Our community refuses to accept the status quo. This Dminus is a call to action. If you choose to make changes, if you choose urgency and accountability, together we can finally
deliver the highquality education that every child in this district deserves. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Maya Al. Okay. Um Maria did Alvarez
High School. [Music] Uh, good evening. My name is Maria Alvarez. I I'm the mother of a child in high school and I work in the community as a
health nutritionist. hunger at school. Um today in Colorado, um at least two out of five families have a hard time to bring food to the table. And for many students, uh, the school lunch is the only nutritional food they
have throughout the day. If we take away this program, there's probably a lot of kids is going to have difficulty um having this meal a day. I think kids are already worried about the homework and school activities they
have to do um to add this on top of it. So I am here um as you probably know about the propositions LL and MM that it's for the November election. The LL is to keep the funds that were approved um in 2022 when this
proposition was approved. an MM which is intended to get more funds and to ensure that the program is healthy. It will require that we get local products and that
the school staff gets paid more. It's an incredible program. It already helps more than six00 kids in Colorado. people that make more than 300,000 a year so it wouldn't affect um low-income
families. So I'm here to ask for your support this going to the capital in their school. language check. Our next speaker is Jonathan Shaw.
Hi, good evening board and district leaders. My name is John Shaw and I'd like to tell you a little bit about my experience moving to the Roaring Fork Valley and becoming a parent of students uh in the school district and the husband of a woman who's a first grade teacher at Glenwood Springs Elementary
School. Um, prior to being here, we were in Greley, Colorado, where I worked in the University of Northern Colorado in the school of teacher education, coordinating graduate programmings for about 15 years. And so, I think I've had a fair share of insights on education and was a elementary school teacher in
Denver public for about seven years. As we've arrived in the Roaring Fork Valley about three years ago, I just want to say I feel like I've landed in my dream uh dream district. It's been a wonderful opportunity for us um to learn, grow, and be part of the community. And I see
how hard all of our educators are working in the area. Um getting a chance to have my at the time second and fifth graders be submerged in bilingual immersion at Riverview Elementary School with Principal Adam Bolic. Um again was something beyond um any thoughts that I
would have had uh for our family as we um made a transition to this beautiful place. um we were supported, we were um submerged in in great learning and really made part of the community which we really appreciated. Um simultaneously
my wife transitioned from the Weld 6 District online teaching to Glennwood Springs Elementary and it's been a fantastic experience for her. She's learned a ton. She loves being part of the community and working with the students up and down the area from from
Rifle up into Glenwood Springs. Um, so just wanted to take a few moments while I was here to say thank you all for your work. We appreciate all you're doing. Next business in order is approval of the consent agenda which includes routine personnel amendments from our
previous board meeting and policies JR A/JRC and BBA. Directors, are there any items that you would like to pull off the consent agenda for separate discussion and vote? Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?
I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. I second. You call. Director Kmer. Hi. Director Ramirez. The next business in order is presentation from CMC Matt Inesi PhD
president of Pull Rock Mountain College regarding the ballot initiative 7C and I can interject for just a second while Matt's getting settled. We have a couple of speakers tonight who are here because there are so many ballot initiatives that are related to education. So we wanted to make sure
that the board is aware of these initiatives and in some cases that the board is hearing from staff a recommendation to consider resolutions in support of some of these. So the next series of speakers are all really focused on education related ballot initiatives. So thanks to all those
folks who are here. Thanks for that madame superintendent and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to approach you. Um, I believe this was in your packet and I was told we have three minutes and this will take more than three minutes to go through that. So, I'm going to stick to
Oh, I'll just ask. Well, maybe not. Um, what's that? It's coming our way. That's okay. Thank you. Let me um you know our story a little bit. Let me come back to Although, let me show you this in case
you didn't know that. That automotive picture right there is yours. to your automotive program. Okay. Um, so what's happening right now? I'll come back to these if you wish here in just a minute, but just let me get to the question. So
here's the question. So we are here um potentially to seek your endorsement if that's um something that uh the board chooses to do. We understand if you're not able to do that, recognizing that my board um typically is in a similar situation and doesn't take positions um within the uh their own tax district.
Um and also I'm joined by Steve Scadran um who's vice president and campus dean of our Aspen and Carbondale campuses. Um but earlier this year our board has decided to uh go to the ballot. Um this is not a new question. It's actually the
same question that was asked effectively in 2018. So in 2018 we approached um the CMC tax district which includes a very very large um uh area. So, it's about it's 11 school districts um covering all
or some of seven different counties across the mountain region. Um and at that time, what we had asked for was the ability to simply float our mill levy um to correct for adjustments that were being made by the by Gallagher in and state uh calculation that was negatively
impacting the college. Uh that measure passed overwhelmingly. passed 71% um so in our district and so we were working within that uh comfortably for the last several years um in fact over the last two tax cycles uh we were the
largest tax district in the whole state of Colorado to return or refund taxes we refunded nearly $50 million back to the taxpayers um across our district. Unfortunately, um when we lowered our mill levy to create the refund, um the
general assembly decided that they were going to create a new property tax um in the middle of that. And part of that new property tax policy caps um property um taxes at the 2023 level, which was one of our refund years. And so we had given
back $25 million in that year. It was great. Um and the result now is that uh the new ceiling for us is actually uh about a full mill um below our approved mill levy um by this by our district. So what we're doing here with this question
7C um and you'll see that it says without imposing any new tax and without exceeding the limit approved by voters in 2018 shall Colorado Mountain College be able to wave the 5.25 25 property tax limit, which is the new limit that they've imposed um through the
legislation passed through the special session last year for um investments for 10 years for investments in expanded skilled trades. Um training nurses, firefighters, and first responders and housing solutions uh for local talent. Um just a moment about those uh reasons
why we prioritize those. Um a big part of that is concurrent enrollment. So, CMC today, uh, 42% of our enrolled students, we have 14,000 enrolled students, 42% of them are concurrent enrollment students, um, throughout all of the districts that we work with. Um,
many of those students, um, are enrolled in skilled trades types of programming, um, which is terrific. Uh, the programming we do here in the Roaring Fork School District, including the automotive program, um, are terrific. Uh, they're full with weight lists, um, and which is exactly what we want. One
of the challenges, however, is if they graduate and they've not yet finished a certificate um or an associates degree, they often can't come back um because the facilities that we work with are often in high schools. And so, one of our um goals is to expand opportunities
for skilled trades, not only so that those high school students can complete their credentials, many of them do, some don't, but also so we can train the local adult workforce um in those same uh skills. We can do it in certain areas. We can't do it in every area. The
other thing I'll just mention about um skilled trades, you know, the wages um that are involved in these. Um the other challenge for us with these is as anybody who does skilled trades is that these are not um inexpensive opportunities. Um they're high-cost programs. They require specialized
facilities and more and more specialized faculty um which are harder and harder to come by um because they too are enjoying very high wages. um uh as a result of their skills. And so part of what this measure would allow us to do is retain uh the kind of talent and the
kinds of program capacity um to serve what our communities actually need. Let me finish with one uh point and then we'll open it up to anything you would like to ask us. Um the last point would be more about um seeking solutions for our local it says local talent here, but
CMC over 90% of our graduates are local students. These are we try to um our our purpose um is to educate and train and retain um people in good jobs in these communities. And so a lot of what we're doing is trying to complement all the
things that you're doing in the school district to keep the pe to train people for good jobs to stay here and to give them the opportunities to flourish uh once they graduate. Unfortunately, we've seen that um our male population um like many colleges like ours. We're not
unique, but the male population is students going into college has actually been declining um over the last several years. And it's it's across every demographic. This is not there's no the way to just pull it out and say it's one group. It's across the board. Um and yet skilled trades is not one of those
areas. And we are we see that we have tremendous amount of interest um among our young men um in these kinds of programs as well as in first responder firefighting and other types of programs that we train often with youth. And so our goal here is to try to both um adapt to the reality um of what we're seeing
in our marketplace and also make sure that uh that the instruction that we offer meets the needs of the communities here. So I'll stop there. U there's no fiscal impact. Um the uh handout you have in front of you is actually the official Taber notice. Um, there is no budget table because there is no fiscal
impact. This is a request for authority for the Colorado Mountain College Board to continue to use the mill levy that was approved in 2018. And that's it. Thank you so much. Um, we consider I have this new access as chair that
throws me out of the agenda every single time. I need to go right back to my um we will now um have give each board member two minutes to ask any questions or comments. Director Bloomberg. Um
a point of clarification either for staff or chair. This isn't on our agenda as an action item this evening. So, I'm assuming we're just hearing this tonight and having time as a board to determine if we want to take action or take a stance and then we will bring it back if
we decide to do that. Okay. Okay. Um, thank you for the presentation. This is super helpful and um, we're very grateful for our partnership with CMC and the work that you all do with our students and our communities. I think we all have touch points with it and see the real impact that it has. Um, can you
explain a little more? I know we flew through flew through some of the slides, but finance is so complicated for so many and it's difficult for people to understand the way that mills are assessed. And so when you're saying this is not a new tax, can you explain that a little more so that the general public
can understand a little better what you're saying? Yeah. Can we speak freely, Madam Chair? Is that okay? Okay. Um, so it's a great question. So, in 2018, um, the Colorado Mountain College Board requested the
authority again to float its mill levy to quote correct for any losses that were happening because of the Gallagher formula. That resulted in just an adjustment in the mill levy amount. Um when the property valuations increased
dramatically in 2020 and 2021 as we all saw and paid for um our board chose to lower its mill levy from the amount that had been approved which is 4.24. So just to use real numbers 4.24 is the official mill levy that's been approved by our
district. Um we only needed three mills in that year because of the increase in property values. we only needed three mills to cover the budget um for what we had in that year. So my board chose to reduce
the mills from 4.24 to three and then the next year there was a little bit of changes in the valuation and the mill levy went from 3 to 3.24. So if you see there's about a single mill difference. That may not sound like
a lot. to a typical household it's 20 $30 kind of you know math and depends on the valuation of the home of course across our district um that number could be as much as say $20 million
$25 million and so as we think about the investments for say skilled trades facilities or expanding buyer science which are things that we're looking at um those require like an an an initial infusion of capital. We can do debt. Um
but for a small college like us carrying a lot of debt is it is definitely um a headwind that we would prefer to avoid if we already have the authority given by our taxpayers to sort of work within that 4.24 amount. Thank you.
Yeah, it's helpful. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for your time tonight. Um I just wanted to say I'm in full support of of us drafting a resolution. Um, I think my biggest reasoning behind that is that some of our priorities
identified within our strategic plan h directly have to do with workforce development from students who are from our district and from diverse backgrounds. And I know that the work that CMC does is what we're relying on to accomplish that. And so I think there's a very clear overlap in our
priorities um to support this work that you're doing and especially focused on skilled trades and um and the future of mountain towns. rural communities are getting hit hard with the shifts at school budget formulas at the state level and we just want to make sure that we are keeping the local support that we
can and I so I just am already voicing as our board finds time to do it we are I am personally going to try to get that resolution in front of us sooner rather than later. So thanks for that and I'm glad you brought up the um school finance questions. Um, I used to have to write
the school finance act once upon a time. So, I recognize how complicated and challenging and next year is going to be tough. Um, and you know that one of the things I would just encourage maybe you and even as you talk about it um to your neighbors and I live in Basalt by the way, so I'm one of your neighbors um in
in the area for many of you. Um, we receive so we receive the funding for for between tuition, we get a little bit of state funding and then we get our local property taxes. We put that into our faculty and our staff and our um uh equipment uh that your districts get to
use on a per student basis. And this is not exactly equivalent. I know it gets a little wonky, but just kind of follow the logic. We spend per student um approximately call it 17 to $18,000 a year per student here. We charge you if
you were to have a full-time student come to my college, we would charge the equivalent of about $3,000. So we we spend five times as much money on your students than you do. And so as you think about the budget constraints that you're facing often to I hope that you
will continue to look to CMC for us to try to help fill some of those opportunities um so that we can um help supplement um or supplant um some of the losses in other areas because those are things that we can do at a very
discounted rate so that um we can help you still achieve the goals that you have um in ways that you know obviously it's going to be mo mostly at the secondary level but obviously ways that we can help you um approach those budget concerns and still have a high quality um education for all students.
I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you guys both. Actually, don't know if you wanted to Steve, anything to add? Nothing to add. Thank you. Um you know, we appreciate being a partner CNC. Um we appreciate um not
just you know the automotive um department that we just um collaborated on but all of the work that's yet to come. And so we appreciate so much you taking the time today to share this with our team. Um and we will have further conversations as as a board um to make
that decision. Um but we more than anything want to express our gratitude and appreciation for TMC as a partner um because it it has made a difference as you know for our community our valley but especially for our students. Yeah.
Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thanks. Thank you. Chair. May I make a motion? I make a motion to amend our agenda so that item 9.1 is no longer an action item, but a discussion item, seeing as we don't have a quorum for voting here
tonight since you're personally invested in the matter. Uh, yes, I second that motion. [Music] Um, Jonathan, can we call for a vote for that, please? On the table is a motion to amend item 9.1 from an action item to
a discussion item only and we'll move the action to next board meeting. Got it. Director Drades I. Director Kenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Um so I I want to go ahead and and um state really quick the shift that we
just did as a board. I have to abstain from voting on the next item. And so it is really important for us to do things right. And so we are going to um wait for the rest of the board to take action on the following item at next meeting
which actually if we as a board have further discussion and would like to add the CNC initiative um to that meeting that would could go on a consent agenda. Um but I want to apologize for this. We did not flag it up until this moment.
But thank you and thank you to our team for being willing to be flexible tonight. Okay, our next uh business in order. Sorry. Um is the discussion for ballot initiative 7A
with Rob? Hi, me just get my computer open. Feels like I'm back for a visit about every year. It is great to be back in this room um on a less frequent basis than I used to be. Um thank you for um taking
some time in your agenda to hear about um ballot initiative 7A. Um I just want to make sure I understood that you can't vote tonight because um President Ramirez is has a conflict of interest. So, I'm still going to ask you to
endorse um and pass a resolution and then you'll do that later if you so choose. So, I'm really asking three things of the board. First is that that you approve a resolution um endorsing 7A. Second, that you um uh approve
distribution of educational materials which site pros and cons that are allowable within the school district to educate families about this important issue for their children. And third, that you consider individual endorsements. And I invite the staff as
well um to consider endorsing this as educators and concerned people in the community about our children. Um please go to the next slide. So um Rolling Fork schools was a charter member of the CC Coalition, the Confluence Early
Childhood Education Coalition, which started to coalesce in 2016 and formalized in 2017. The notion was early childhood providers, all the school districts from Parachute to Aspen and um a lot of other interested nonprofits and
um foundations were concerned about the access to affordable um child care and education for children in in the region. Um and so we started working on a way to provide access to kids to and families for early child care and education. um
and um ultimately found the path to 7A, which I want to just give you a little um background on tonight. I feel like I'm um giving you information you already know, but I think it's worth emphasizing, especially for any listeners, that um with all due respect
to my colleagues from CMC, early childhood is much more important. Those first five years are the most crucial developmental years when 90% of brain development happens for all of us. As a former high school educator, if I'd really known, I would have been an early childhood educator
um probably from the outset. But nonetheless, um the benefits include that kids who have access to highquality preschool are better prepared for kindergarten. They read earlier. They live healthier lives. They have better development skill. They have better developed social skills meaning like um
uh self-management, self-regulation, um establishing uh constructive relationships. Um standing establishing u stronger family relationships. They're more likely to graduate from high school and college over the course of their lifetimes. They earn higher wages and
they're less likely to participate in the justice system. Um so the benefits are are innumerable. Um next slide. Oh, I can do this, can't I? Or we don't know. I'll just Is that okay if I just ask you to do it? Thanks. So, the
problem is that in our region, um, we are short on on on spots. There are only about 44% of the spots needed for for kids aged 0 to 5 um for early care and education. And those that are available are extremely expensive. A
family with two kids in preschool is spending about 35% of their income on um on on tuition. Um average tuition for Aspen to Parachute is in the 17 or $18,000 range. So if you imagine having two children, you're paying like a
college tuition for your kids to be in preschool. Um the economic impacts we um we know are one more back please, Jonathan. Um there I think the next one is economic is it not?
Oh okay I have a different slide. I'll just skip that one. But anyway economic impacts are phenomenal. Um one thing that um we think we know from uh uh Nobel laurate economist James Hexman Hecman is that the return on investment
for early childhood is probably 13% per year. Meaning that um it interests or benefits acrew over the course of the lifetime. So that a dollar spent on early childhood has a return of about seven or eight dollars. Um and and those
are in in savings for things like special education or remedial education um uh criminal justice system and and so forth. Um you I having um decided every year on a school calendar, you know how interdependent our region is and
whenever you try to make a calendar that just works for Roaring Fork, you run into our neighbors where many of our teachers live or some of our family have families have kids in two schools. Well, that's exactly the same for early childhood as so many families maybe live
in um in in in Western Garfield, work in in in Roaring Fork or live here and work in Aspen and sometimes they enroll their kids closer to home. Sometimes they transport their kids to where they work. And so there was no way for us to envision a quality network of early
childhood that didn't really stretch from Aspen um all the way to Parachute. So that's part of our design here. Again, I feel like I'm you already know this. Um, next slide, please. So, what what we had to do to create this
regional approach is actually pass a law in 2019. Our local Cong uh Senator Bob Ranken ran it before the Senate and then it was approved in the House. Um, that allows us to create a special taxing district for early child. This is a first of of its kind. This would be the
first of its kind in the state of Colorado, but it runs very similarly to a school district. that is it's governed by a board um who has oversight over budget and staff and and strategic direction and so forth and and as I mentioned the region would be for this
special district Aspen to parachute um pretty much the um Garfield 16 RE2 Roaring Fork and Aspen School District footprints. Next slide please. So um this would be a funding stream not a
direct program. Um what we don't need is more providers or maybe we do need more providers but we don't need another next layer of bureaucracy. So the notion here is to keep it lean and use this as a funding stream for really three purposes. First and most importantly is tuition subsidies or tuition assistance
to families. This is where we hope over time the bulk of the funding would go um to make child care more affordable for families. Um but in order to do that we have to invest in capacity. Um because there's such a shortage um depending on the region depending on the area within
this broader region um there might need to be different kinds of investments either directly in teacher salaries or in some startup investments to or expansion investments to help um providers expand. Um but then also there's a confusing environment of
funding streams. The universal preschool is not really universal. It's 15 hours typically for four-year-olds. Um there's carter preschool program which is um passed through school districts. There's um the Aspen has a funding source. And
our notion is that we help parents identify and navigate these different providers and the different funding streams and layer them so that they're eligible for whatever they can get. Um and then so to do that we want to set up a portal that allows parents to um better be better educated about the
funding opportunities and the enrollment opportunities available. We've set a target of no more than 5% going to administration and evaluation. Evaluation is super expensive. Administration is really just staff and and a little bit of back office support.
But we would like to see 95% of the funding going into these other three areas. So, um, what we're asking of our taxpayers is to approve a 0.25% sales tax. Um, and, um, then the
district would be run by a five member board, um, structured so that there are five director districts. Um, you all have have tinkered with the director districts within the Roaring Fork school. So, you know, try to keep them balanced and um represented like uh
coherent around um around uh like municipal boundaries and things like that. So, and then it'll be up to the board moving forward to make adjustments over time and make sure they stay balanced and and that there's some in integrity to the districts. Um so um one
of the things different from the school district is that we set it up so that um the director would be elected only by the electors who reside in the same district. And that was partly to protect this notion of voice in in the process to make sure that everybody felt they
had ownership and there was no region that that had more preference or or more say in and how the district was governed. So, I think that's pretty much my summary. And again, I'm asking for an endorsement or or a resolution endorsing 7A from the board, which I understand
you can't do tonight. Um, for your individual endorsements, which you certainly can do at any time, and then to distribute educational materials to the to the um families and staff in the school district. Thank you. We'll now have two minutes
discussion for each board member and five minutes of open discussion. I am going to reduce myself from discussion and just let my colleagues know. Um I think it's important for us as a school district to maintain as much um transparency on why um we do some of the
things you do. Um I because of my um so dual role possibility of a dual role with um this uh district I want to make sure that it's implemented that the rest of my colleagues are here
for a vote on this matter. Do you want to explicitly explain why you're refusing because I don't think we've made it clear yet that you're on the ball. I want to be clear that I um MF from the question director.
Uh thank you. Thank you for being here tonight and for taking the time uh to present to our board and boards and municipalities up and down the valley. Um I'm a full supporter of this initiative. I have publicly endorsed already. I have provided quotes. I have
been recorded. Um I am doing outreach to preschools in San Antonio currently. So that director voice is included. Um I have a couple of you know I I think that this could be an amazing opportunity for our valley. I think that
if done right that this will impact kids and the innumerable and immeasurable ways that you described. Um, I was a lawyer who shifted careers to go into early childhood because I understand deeply the impact that early childhood has. Um, and also because I knew that I
wanted multiple kids and I knew how expensive it was to have children in child care. And so instead of doing that, I bought a child care center and ran one to have my kids in it. Um, which is not accessible to everyone. Obviously, it's not around that everyone can take. Everyone doesn't have that
director certificate in their back pocket. Um, but so just to say I've already publicly endorsed this campaign. I do have uh, you know, a lot of questions about it. I want to ensure that there is director voice at the table if this were to pass. And I think
that it's important that everyone in the early childhood community remember that. One of the things that I consistently fight for is that the primarily women who are in our classrooms and in our centers have voice in these decisions because I think so often they are excluded from the table. Um, and I
consistently hear that from them directly and the frustration that comes with that. Uh, so I want to say that very publicly that I think that that is a necessary piece. I think that there have been some missteps and they haven't been included and brought along all the way. And I think that right now is a critical time to continue to bring them
along, which is why I am volunteering and helping um to do that work and ensure that outreach is done to every center director because these are the people that are on the ground and that can really tell us what they need in terms of staffing, what their families need. Um so I could go on about this all
night, but I'll leave it at that. Um sure. I just had a couple questions. Um you know, in transparency, I've also been participating in supporting this program in the background. um doing some local outreach. Big fan. Um my personal story is I was a teacher and then I had
three kids and I had to step away from the classroom because I would have had to pay for the privilege of leaving my house to continue my professional work in the classroom and it was not ever what I thought I would do. It's obviously led me on a different path. Um
but it was a really hard decision and I do miss that sometimes. All that to say, um I am extremely proud of our region for being a state leader in finding this type of solution and my questions are just so that I can better
communicate and that those listening might understand. Um can you explain just real quick the timeline and election process for directors and is that on the ballot at the same time? There will be um as a voter you'll see two questions. One is shall there be a tax and the formation of a special
district and that's combined in one question. Um, and then the second is you'll have an opportunity to vote on the director for your district. And depending on your district, um, like I know district three, which is Carbondale, there's only a single candidate. So that that person's running
unopposed. And I think that's true of district 5, which is Aspen region, but the others have two or three people running. So you'll you'll be able to vote on that person within your district. Okay, good to know. Um, and then I'm interested in the approach to um,
regional equity for distribution of these funds. You had those different categories and how the money is going to be distributed. And I mean, just to be candid, we all understand that Aspen carries an enormous weight when it comes to property taxes within this identified region. Um, and so I'm I'm wondering how
you all have approached making sure that those funds are or just your thoughts on that in general. Well, I can share some thoughts, but the the the the challenge is that this will be up to the board. And so, to Director Colberg's point, it's very important that the board be elected who is really attending to
equity. And there's what's called a service plan, which is essentially the blueprint, which um we submitted to get county commissioner approval and to give better guidance to the board and to the voters about what what this thing would look like. Um and the concept there's
nowhere in the concept that says money in equals money out. So it it's it's about you know where is the need the greatest but what has not been established for example is um what will be the the fees the the subsidy rate or the you know adjustments for you know
based on income and things like that and that'll be up to the board to determine. I have my own strong opinions that this should be heavily weighted towards need. Um, and that the majority of the funding should just go to tuition subsidies and let families, you know, determine what's
be best for their children. But again, that's going to be the board's um decision making out of the gate. Okay, that's good to know. And on that note, you said you had a blueprint for counties. Um, which counties have I know Garfield has approved the back. Yeah.
In order to create a special district, we needed to get approval from all three counties commissioners. And so that's what they that's what they approved is the the um the service plan. Um, and so it was actually unanimous for both for all three for Garfield, Eagle, and Pick
and County Commissioners in in their vote, which then allowed us to put it on the ballot. And have you all approached local city councils and towns about this already? Yes, we talked to Carbonale last night, in fact, and they have endorsed. We've met with um Glenwood. I personally know the ones I met with. Um I'm not sure
where we are in terms of the lineup, but we're trying to meet with all seven or eight municipalities um during this like this time window right now that we're in. Excellent. Um yeah, I appreciate that. And just echoing Director Kenberg's um
discussion and point about including those voices most impacted. I really appreciated that and the work you're doing for that. Yeah. And I want to emphasize I'm working as a volunteer to get this thing passed and then it's going to have a life of its own. I think the the the merits are are self-evident as an educator. I can't think of a
better thing to be spending my time on. I have no um I have no influence other than my voice um in in seeing how this thing eventuates. But um I like I can just say personally I I I think it's worth it and there's going to be the
need for the community to stay vigilant and involved to make sure that it's responsive to not just providers but families. Appreciate your time. Thank you. We have five minutes for open discussion if anybody would like to add anything to that.
The only thing that I would do is echo the point you just made that it's going to be incredibly important for community to be involved. This is going to be reliant on board members stepping up and everyone keeping their eye on the ball and moving it forward. So, it's an exciting prospect and thank you for all
your work getting it here. So much for your time. Thank you. So, just for my clarification, it's going to be on the next agenda. Will you think it'll be a consent agenda item or do you think you'll put it? That's what you'll start with, you think, or you
don't know yet? I think the the board will let me know. Oh, the superintendent will let you know. I'm not sure if we want to add it to the consent agenda with the other item. I think we will hopefully let you know by tomorrow. Do you feel comfortable giving guidance to
staff tonight about um educating your community, which doesn't normally take board action, but I it felt um I felt uncomfortable just asking staff to educate the community about something that the board wasn't leaning positively toward.
Maybe superintendent, could you clarify which policy we're working under um as we do that if give you direction? Sure. We're we're pretty limited in what we, you know, as as school district staff, what we can share in terms of um
campaign information. Um, we can certainly share neutral information about ballot initiatives that impact education, which we will do, but using our normal channels, we can certainly share the kinds of information we typically do, which is where the board
lies in support of specific ballot initiatives, which will be our is our intent um once the board does take action. So that is, you know, we have been kind of withholding um much information with our community about this, waiting for for board action
because it'll shift how we talk about the initiative. Does that make sense? It doesn't require uh official board action. I mean, can we find a consensus conversation so we don't have to wait? I know these these issues and and outreach is super critical. Yeah, that's right.
I'm sorry. I get sure we stay on track too, Donna, too. So I think what I'm understanding is individually as board members were able to lend support share with community um you know do do um
volunteer um outreach all of that um I would I think out of preference for our policies and procedures um we're going to wait for a board vote on this issue before we send something out to our districts at
community stating that we are supporting this. Is that right? Yeah. I mean I the other material could I just give you because I just reviewed your board policy so maybe it's fresh for me and I put a paragraph in the in in the memo that your board
policy KHC which regulates what what non-curricular materials can be distributed. Um they need to be of interest um they need to align with or support the district's mission and they need to be of high interest to staff, students and parents. And so clearly
this, you know, in my reading is both um aligned with the mission, the educational mission and is of high interest to students, staff and parents. Um and then of course it has to be, you know, it can't be an like vote yes or something like that. And so I've given
you all one that our legal council said works as a neutral representation that presents both pros and cons. um you may want to review it internally and not just take our word for it, but there's actually a sample brochure that could be printed two-sided English and Spanish um
already there for you. And I think in the interest of timing that would certainly put something in the board update. If anyone is opposed, they could reach out. If not, I'm comfortable with us moving forward with sharing the neutral documentation.
Okay. The next business in order is the approval of resolutions with support for propositions LLM and sorry I wanted to see who have
sorry I was looking for your name here hi you ready for me Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Got a little lost in the transition there. Um, good evening everyone. Uh, nice to see you. Um, we have uh Erica
Cvantes from Hunger-Free Colorado on Zoom um to share a similar kind of overview of Propositions LL and MM which are related to the Healthy School Meals for All program. Um, and I think Jonathan is going to share his screen
for the slides. Um, and so Erica, we'll just kind of flip through the slides on our end. I think we figured out that that might be easier. Um, but I'll hand it off to you for a brief presentation and there is a resolution if the board is inclined to pass one. But I'm sorry, I need to clarify. Do we need to do motion support?
Mhm. Okay. So, can I have a motion to approve the resolution in support of propositions LL and MM? I move that the board approve the resolution of support of propositions LL and MM as presented. Do I have a second? I second. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay, Erica, I'll just hand it off to
you. Thank you so much folks. Can everybody hear me? Y sounds great. Okay, great. Um well, first off, just thank you so much for uh the time and attention to this topic tonight. Um going to go through um these slides
relatively quickly. Um we're going to go over some background and then a little bit of what to expect for the 2025 2026 school year and then really what to expect beyond that. Um this set of slides is anformational um an
educational set of slides. So for some background um as you all may remember back in 20122 Colorado was the third state to pass uh an initiative that offered free school meals for all public school students. And in the first year we had 100% of all eligible districts
opt in to participate into the program. Um and really the first phase of the program was to provide free school uh lunches for every student in all of those um districts that opted in. And so
um with that first phase, we saw an immense increase of participation with 30% in breakfast and lunch and uh really families being able to save uh money with about 1,300 per child um just in
meal costs. So, some more of the facts. Um, because of the Healthy School Meals for All program, we've been able to provide 600,000 free nutritious meals to public stu students in Colorado every day. Um, and as I mentioned in the first year,
um, there was an immense increase in participation, um, from students using the program now that the food was free. Uh I think it's also important to note um that hunger has been a prevalent issue in our communities in Colorado and
often impacts uh rural communities at you know disproportionate rates. Um next slide. And as you all may know, our state budget uh has been in a challenging place uh the last few years, but in
combination with the amount of students participating with on the school lunch program um with that increase and the cost of food and inflation. Um really we were looking at a higher cost for the program than was originally estimated.
And so that essentially made us have to go pursue, uh, potential revenue solutions. So, uh, yeah, earlier last year, we were able to essentially refer Propositions LL and MM to the ballot, uh, for this
November. And, uh, they each do something differently. So, because of Taber or the taxpayer bill of rights here in Colorado, it's a specific um economic system that allows us to um have to go back to voters and just ask
for their permission on how uh funds related to taxing uh individuals in our state are used. Um because of that uh we do have to ask voters uh if we can retain the funds that the program has generated so far or if those funds uh
are refunded to the households that are making over $300,000 or more. And I just mentioned that because that's the way the program is funded. It uh puts a limit on tax deductibles for uh households earning over $300,000. And then Proposition MM um next slide
please. um is really asking to raise the additional funding needed uh to ensure that we don't just have uh free school lunch for students, but that we are actually moving towards uh more from scratch uh locally sourced options with uh boosts in compensation for the um
workers that are cooking these meals. And so, um, basically, uh, Prop MM is using the same funding mechanism as Prop F to raise additional, uh, funds, um, that once again are only imposed on households
that make $300,000 or more. Uh we really want to emphasize that because we know that uh many people um in Colorado uh are expectant of a taper check sometimes and we just want to emphasize that um for these propositions uh this uh refund
would only be applicable to these households that make over $300,000. um households that uh are below um that uh total earnings for the year uh are not impacted whatsoever um by the funding mechanism of the program.
And then lastly, pro uh MM is also um allowing for some of the overflow funding um that is being raised through the healthy school meals for all program to be um given to uh some of the SNAP cuts that our state has experienced
because of some of the federal um budget cuts. And so, um, as you all can imagine, Hunger-Free Colorado, uh, has been doing this work with a wide variety of of partners and coalition members. And something we heard from the
coalition was that we really wanted to protect the full healthy school meals for all program before any of the overflow could be used to um try to bridge the gap between some of those um, SNAP cuts that the state is experiencing. Uh but of course that
won't solve the entire SNAP cut problem. And this slide is particularly important for um the impact that this could have on school districts. So if both Prop LL and MM pass, uh we're looking at taking two steps forward with being able to continue to offer free school lunch for
all students, improve the quality of the meals, um and continue to uh implement the rest of the pieces of Proposition FF that were paused due to lack of funding. Um, if Prop LLM do not pass in November, uh, many schools in our state will have
to go back to actually charging students for the meals starting this January. And so, something that's really important to note here is that when the legislature um when this bill to refer these ballot initiatives was moving its way through the legislature, um, it very they very
much said, you know, let's let voters decide the fate of this program. And so that's part of why these initiatives are on this November's ballot um and why there is only sufficient funding to keep free school meals going beyond this January. If only LL passes, uh we're
able to continue um to have sufficient funding to offer free school meals for the rest of the school year without interruption. Um but again from what we've heard from um you know everyone that is touched by this program, we really want to go beyond just the free
meals aspect and start to work on investing in our local farmers and having some of those other pieces um that the communities have been excited to see and schools as well of course. And as my last slide, if you all just generally want to learn more, feel free
to um look up our page at hungrycol.org where we have some more specific information on the healthy school meals for all program. Um, thank you once again and I hope you will uh deeply consider this issue tonight. Yeah, that's I mean um our food food and
nutrition services director Octavio Ma he provided a fact sheet about specific to our schools and how they would be affected. So um I'm happy to answer any questions about the local impacts as well. Thank you. Okay, we have two minutes of um
discussion. Um I just realized I've been starting only. Sure. Um I don't have anything on this. I'm in full support of both LL and MM. I think that feeding our kids is baseline and we need to continue to do everything that we can to make sure that that's
happening. So I fully support passing a resolution in support of this tonight. Um, yeah, not to get personal again, but I'm gonna for just a minute. Um, some of these programs kicked off through COVID funding and the restructuring of getting food into the hands of people that
needed it. Um, and there were distribution centers throughout the district and one was in the three-mile uh, mobile home park. And at the time, me and my family needed to show up and get extra food from them. And it helped my family a tremendous amount. Um,
like I said, getting personal twice in a row here. Um, so I'm really in support of these propositions. I just cannot I would struggle to understand how to be proud of our state if we do not prioritize feeding our students. Our
public schools create a safe space. Our students cannot learn and grow without the food to do it. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm in all in. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I just want to say thank
you um to our team to um you know all of our leadership that has um not only supported um like tapping into utilizing this and making sure that we were promoting it when we had leadership here that needed
to hear our story. Um this has been really important for me to be a part of um as um not just a board member but as a parent and I really appreciate the time that everyone has taken new faces on the team um that I didn't get to meet
when this first became a bill but um this is something that I think as a rural school district we are um such a good model of not only how to utilize it
but how it does benefit our students and our our schools and with the funding um strains that we're having right now like I cannot imagine the impact. I I did want to just make sure I mention this from the staff memo. Again, thank you to
the team for putting this together. Um but I wanted to state a couple of of this from the staff memo. Um, our high schools, charter schools, and Carbondale Middle School did not meet the threshold to qualify for CP funding. Therefore, if
POP LL and MN fail on the November ballot, these schools will lose state funding for healthy school meals for all starting January 2026. These schools will begin charging students for meals unless they qualify for free and reduced eligibility. This
represents a revenue loss of approximately 30,000 per month or 150,000 for the remainder of school year 2526. Um, this is incredibly important. I also won my support to this and I appreciate the time and commitment from everybody
who worked together. I wanted to thank Maria Houd who is a parent um who left unfortunately. I was texting her come back. Um but um it it's because of community leaders like her, parents like her who um have kept this at the core of
the district and conversation and I really appreciated her leadership and um making sure we were part of the conversation and that we were not only utilizing it but actually sharing it to um you know the state that we were a a
beneficiary beneficiary of it. So, thank you again team. Um, we have five minutes for open discussion if there are any further questions or comments. Mr. Miner to all folks out in the community that are our healthy schools and healthy kids benefit all of the jobs
and the values that we hold as a community, not to mention property values. It's just it's such an incredible investment in the actual humans and the children that are in our community. I don't know. I'm I'm just going to wrap it up, but One other plug. Everybody check your voter registration.
Be prepared to vote on all these very important initiatives this fall. Okay. Are there any? No. Okay. Can you call for a vote? Director Freddy's. Hi. Director Coenberg. Hi. Director Romez.
Thank you so much. I Ben Chief Was you like for us to read the resolution? Uh, would you like to read the resolution? The one that you just voted for. I don't think my answer. Okay. I mean, it's a model resolution that
Hunger-Free Colorado provided for us. So, I think you've got made a resounding endorsement. Thank you. Thank you so much, Steve. And I'll stay here because the next one is is also representing. That's okay.
Don't worry, I won't get a motion about buses. Good. The next business in order is approval of a resolution approving the use of charter buses to transport district students to and from school activity. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution approving the use of
charter buses to transport district students to and from school activity? I move that the board approve the resolution approving the use of charter buses to transport district students to and from school activities as presented. I second.
Um, follow up. Were you going to say a couple things or I I'm happy to. I mean, I think the memo summarizes it, but just for the public's information. Um, we continue to have a pretty um, you know, we have a bus driver shortage and bus and school districts across the state and across
the country have experienced that since COVID. People just didn't really come back and and want to drive buses. And so, we continue to recruit. Um, we continue to try to pay competitively. Um, but it's a hard job to get people to to do. And so, um, we also have a few of our long-term drivers out on extended
medical leave for a variety of reasons right now. And it really puts us in a crunch when there's a lot of sports. This is the big week actually tomorrow and the next day. Um, especially with lots of different sports going on as well as um, you know, the Basalt schools do their experiential ed where everybody goes somewhere from Basalt High School.
Um, that that is really pushes us to our max. Um, and other schools have field trips as well. So, we've learned um our transportation director, Sheri Martinez, has learned in consultation with um people at the Colorado Department of Education that we really need to have a resolution in place um to charter
outside companies to run a trip. So, we don't plan to use this unless it's absolutely necessary, but we just need to have the authority in place from the board. Um so, it it's a last resort before we cancel a trip. Director Colbert, I don't have any comments on this. I
think it's smart to have this in place in case we need it. So, thank you for bringing it and being proactive about it. Same. Thank you so much to our team for saying this through the flag and for bringing it forward to the boards. Um, any further discussion comments?
No. Can I call Director Defres? Hi, Director Coberg. Hi, Director Ramirez. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next business in order is a presentation from the district
accountability committee with register cashi. Thank you. Perfect. Hi, thank you all for having me. My name is Bridget Durkash. I'm the chair of the district accountability committee. And so our goals tonight are to give you a little bit of an update on
the DAC and to go over our suggestions for the uh unified improvement plan. Um, our suggestions this year for the unified improvement plan are really looking at our website and um, our
strategic plan and sort of the steps that the school district is taking for year two and looking at it from a committee of areas that we had questions and reasons why those questions were important. And so that's sort of what I'm going to walk you through today. But first, I want to share a little bit
about the DAC. Oh, and I'm not moving it on my screen. So, here we go. A little bit about the deck. We're tiny right now, but we are growing. Um, there's four members. Um, Allison Hargarten has students at Soprus um, elementary
school. She is a school psychologist previously and now is working in the field of early childhood education. Elizabeth Cochril Taylor, she has four students who've either gone through the district or are currently in the district at Roy Fork High School. Basalt High School, Basalt Middle School, and
Basalt Elementary School. Um, and then Amy Westervelt who has students um enrolled at Crystal River Elementary School and myself, I have a students at Glenwood Springs Elementary School. So, although we're a small group, we do have
a reach sort of at schools across the valley. You can see up here though that we're missing some really key components of the DAC. We don't have representation from charter schools. Um and so that's something that we're actively working on at the moment. We're also working on
recruiting teachers and administrators to be a part of our committee. So um more to come throughout this school year of how the DAC is growing and um really working to support the school district. So our um purpose for feedback this year
um is a it's a part of our job as the DAC to provide feedback regularly and on an annual basis. Last year you might remember that we did not provide feedback until the spring. And so we're working really hard to um really provide that in a more timely fashion this year.
Our goals are to ensure that community priorities are reflected in the um UIP and that there's just more clear understanding for all of the family members that are trying to understand the stuff. Um it's nice having a committee that is small and new because
we really are coming at this with a learner's mind and trying to understand which may reflect um the community's um engagement as well in areas that they may have questions. Um so our first recommendation
is around um early learning. So the UIP mentions prek or preschool through kindergarten attendance tracking but it lacks details on school readiness. Um there's limited information that we were able to find on metrics for toddlers and
preschool age children including social emotional and language development. Um when we were looking at this, we thought that this could really help really addressing successful students throughout this their the whole their whole trajectory through life. Um
thinking specifically about the preschool to prison pipeline and thinking about the measures that were already presented today. I just think that this is something that goes in alignment with that. Um, families from underserved backgrounds may face barriers to highquality early childhood
education, which I know as a community is something we're already addressing. The opportunities here are to use readiness metrics to inform targeted intervention before kindergarten. And so, this would be something that we could bring into preschools that are associated with the district, but also
as a community could look at larger. So increasing transparency for families um really to see how the district is preparing students from the very start. Our next area was looking at the student first belonging and safety area of the
strategic plan. Um our observations are that uh sorry I was on the wrong side. Um we really had more questions on this area um and are posing those to you all. We were interested in where families can
find the comm or where families in the community can see the district investing in social emotional support staff. Um we were interested in roles like school psychologists, counselors, social workers to see if those were adequately sourced across schools to provide
universal support and not just through the special ed related services. Um, we were also curious about what social emotional learning screeners are being piloted across the schools. Um, do we have personnel and supports in place to follow up with students who need those
additional um, help? And these were areas that we had questions on thinking about community members just being able to access this um, from the website and especially on the strategic plan and the dashboard that's currently out there. are there easy ways for for parents to
sort of look this information up. We just thought that the increased visibility of staffing for social emotional initiatives for families um could really support families in understanding how their students are being served and if they need help as a as an area to be able to access access
those resources. It also ensures consistency across social emotional supports for all schools um and not just specific schools and then strengthening referral networks with our community partners. So trying to make sure that um if we're not able to provide those,
there's so many organizations in the valley that are and so making sure those referrals are there and again just creating more access for families um having that visible. Um the next spot we were looking at was students first looking at the discipline
um and behavior and looking at the discipline matrix. And again, we really just had more questions than than anything. And some of those big questions were um how is the district collecting and incorporating teacher and family feedback on the new discipline
matrix? Um and the reason for that is just knowing that inclusive feedback ensures that the system is fair and effective and really reflective of the community reducing disproportionate discipline and improving trust between families and schools. Um we also were
looking at some of the um implementation of evidence-based practices. So looking at positive behavioral intervention supports in elementary schools and restorative practices in our middle schools and high schools. And we're just curious about what that looks like. And again, those were areas that we thought,
oh, this could be reflected. We know that these are things are happening, but how can we reflect that um so families have more access to it? So the opportunities and in questions here are just to improve clarity and accessibility of discipline frameworks for families with the goal of supporting
parents engagement and understanding. Um ensuring consistent training and implementation across the district to improve equity and effectiveness and gathering ongoing feedback from staff and families to ensure that the system is responsive and continuously improving.
rigorous learning and outcome metrics. Um on here we just noticed that graduate the graduation rate um 89.7% in 2003 to 2004 is not pred um predominantly featured in the strategic plan
dashboard. Um, and so we thought that this could be an outcome metric that reflects overall student success and making it more visible to families in the community to monitor long-term achievement and identify early gaps. And then the next one was around
coaching, rigorous learning with the coaching and instruction. Um our questions really were uh stemming from early childhood back and there's some really specific and strategic coaching models that are used and so our main question was what is the
coaching model that's adopted for teachers and administrators and then how is that uh how is that feedback on coaching platform collected and again we know that this is already happening but just curious of can we have more visibility and clarity on this um so
that yeah so that there's just more clear communication. We know that effective coaching, which is something that's already being um implemented by the district, um improves instruction quality and supports teachers growth. Um but feedback loops really ensure that the systems responsive and aligned with
classroom needs. And so wanting to make sure that those things are there. So what could curricula Oh, and then the next part on this is around curriculum transparency. This is something else that we weren't able to see on the district website and wondering if there is a way to um be able to look at okay
my student is in third grade what is the math curriculum that they're learning or high school what is that and again this doesn't it's already something that's being done but just having more transparency around it um was one of the areas that we were looking at. Transparency allows families to engage
in the child's learning. It reinforces learning at home and it supports equity and access to rigorous content. And then the last part on here was around data transparency. Um, so what we were really looking at here, it was this was an interesting
conversation, but we were curious if there was a way to add a prof a proficiency bell curve showing the bottom, middle, and top thirds of students across subjects and grade levels. Um, right now there's just sort of one point that you're seeing where students are at, just the average. And
why we thought this would be helpful is it would help educators, families, and communities see the full distribution of student performance, not just the average or subgroup comparisons, providing a more nuanced understanding of growth and opportunities for all students. Um,
may which might be overlooked through traditional subgroup subgrouping reporting. Um we're just curious on where students fall on that proficiency spectrum and sort of allowing students prioritize resources support um
addressing both struggling and high achieving learners. And the consideration here is just incorporating proficiency bell curves into the district data dashboard so families can easily access and understand student performance trends. Um and then this last slide I have here
is just a re summary of the recommendations. Um so those really are to expand early learning readiness metrics. Um increase transparency in social emotional staffing and investments, collect and share feedback on discipline, social emotional
screeners and coaching systems. Improve dashboard visibility of graduation rates and subgroup proficiency data and make curriculum access easier for families. Again, I think the thing that we all wanted to stress from the district accountability committee is we know that these things are already happening, but if there's a way to just have more
transparency about them, the dashboard is so amazing to be able to look at data on the school websites. And these were just some of the areas that we found when we were looking at it that we had questions. And that's the presentation for today. Thank you so much.
Okay, we have two minutes for board members to ask questions. Der Cooper. Sure. Thank you so much for being here and for all the work that you all are doing and helping to build the DACK up and get new members in. And um I know it's not an easy lift. I think this is a great presentation and it's different
than some of the formats we've seen in the past. And kind of what you ended with is really what I kept coming back to as you were presenting is this is a lot of opportunities on how we can communicate with our families. Um cuz even being back in this re-election
cycle, that's primarily what you hear is that people feel like they don't know. And so, how can we make it easier for them to know what's going on? So, I think this this really highlights that for me. Um cuz when you're in it, you forget that. Like, you often times
forget that it is not super easy to navigate the website and find all of these things and log on to CD and see, you know, achievement data and all that stuff. Um, so I really appreciate the way that you guys approached this and came at it because I think that there
are some very specific things that that we could take from this and some easy fixes to address some of the concerns. Um, so thank you. Thank you for all the work you're doing and let us know how we can support you to increase membership. It's an ongoing
battle. We're going to get there this year. We're gonna get there. That's right. Director. Um, yeah, echoing director Kenberg. Uh, and I was just interested too in
where we might see alignment in the efforts around curriculum development and continuity and the interest in more transparency into what the kids have access to at different grades. I know right now that isn't easy to find unless you know how to ask your teacher
specifically for curriculum. And I'm I'm sometimes torn as a former educator where if you'd asked me what curriculum are you using like I would have told you kind of but was that what we're doing today? Maybe not. Um so I'm I'm interested in in staff's
continue. You don't have to weigh in now but just kind of considering like what what is the the method forward for better transparency there because I think that does build a lot more parent trust when parents just know what's being covered. I mean, I understand that can also invite some controversy and
some discussion around like zooming in maybe a little more and and I think as we move forward in the current climate, I think that's a good point. If it costs us not a lot to be a little bit more
upfront about the content, does that gain us the trust and the understanding? And so I don't know that I have a solution going forward, but I really appreciated that point specifically um that you brought that up. So thank you. Thank you. Um I just want to say thank you. It's a
lot to volunteer time, be part of the um I really appreciate it. I am excited you're here. I look forward to meeting Alan Ben and Amy and um look forward to our continued collaboration moving forward. Um, we really do as a board
appreciate um that the district accountability committee is autonomous of the district so that we can have accountability and transparency as where needed and as much as possible. Um, because it it does help us the district
here, you know, have the the ears to the, you know, schools ground um to really understand what some of the concerns are coming up. So, we really appreciate your time and your commitment and being part of this team. Um, and we look forward to working with you moving forward.
Thank you. Um, we have five minutes for open discussion if anybody have further questions or comments. What can we do for you guys that would help support your work? What's not being done? You know, we feel really supported
right now. We're doing a lot of outreach at the moment and we're excited because we do have potentially five people that are interested in joining the deck and we haven't even done like our big lifts yet. We've been doing some really strategic outreach. Um but that's really
exciting. So our goal is to grow the deck from 4 to 12 this year and then that will help us just be so much more effective. Um, right now we're just sort of doing the bare minimum and struggling to sort of do that where if we have more people then we can be really in touch
with the Sachs at each of the different schools um and have more attendance at the board meetings and just sort of be a more effective uh committee. So getting you have access to all the information regarding the meetings. Yes, we do. Yeah, it's been we've had
really great support and our website just got updated. It looks great. We're getting there. Yes. Like, wow, this is great. When is your next meeting? Sorry. Our next meeting, I'd have to double
check. Um, I think it's October. Let's see. And director, is it the third? Yeah, the I'm like, it's And now we I should be able to easily just go to the website because it's right on my listed on
there. the 13th. Tuesday the 14th. Thank you. Yeah, perfect. Any other questions? Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. The next business in order is
discussion on policies B, BIE, KD, KLG, and regulation KLG-R. Not going to lie, that shocked me a little bit. Can't escape policies. Now policies commission.
Um, that's okay. I don't think I have anything on these policies. I was just looking back through them to see if there was anything that needed to be followed up on. Um, and I don't believe that there was.
We've had particularly light policy committees the last couple of weeks. Um, but the BIE just reflects uh a slight shift and aligns our our
language to statute which I think was important and Oh, KDB increases the fees. That was easy. KLG and KLG-R are more substantive and might require some discussion. We did make some
significant changes to both and ran them by legal counsel um to ensure that we were compliant and also stayed within the values and norms of our district. So, I don't have anything
specific on any of them. Yeah, same. I have appreciated that it's been light policies as I get warmed up on policy committee. I cannot keep up with you guys yet. I'm working on it fast. Um, so I don't have a lot to add after sitting out on the discussion.
Again, just appreciate the thoroughess of staff and uh um strong foundation laid over the last few years of this work. So, thank you. Um,
I don't believe I have any questions. Sorry. Um, any questions? Thank you. Oh. Um, we have five minutes like add. Thank you. The next business in order is board
updates and appreciation. Okay. Um, updates and appreciations. Updates. Said policy committee has been light. As you all know, I'm running for reelection, so that will begin to take up more of my
time this fall. Um, or getting close to kind of go time for all of that. Um, I don't think I have any other updates. I handed off the DAC to director after So, I think that's that's it there. Um,
for appreciations, I wanted to give a shout out to our food services who are here tonight. I think that I've heard resoundingly from my community that they've been very happy with changes to menus in our schools. So, kids have been happy, parents are happy, which I think is awesome and really speaks to the work
that they're doing. Um, they're listening, they're making changes, they're adjusting, which is awesome. And then also to the teachers, staff, parents, and to be BEF who are all supporting all of the outdoor education adventures. Over the last few weeks, I've watched buses of kids unload at the
end of some weeks of kids and parents who are dirty and tired and um it looks like they had a great time, but they also look dead exhausted. Um, but I know these are formative experiences for the kids and that a lot
of growing and changing and all of those good things happen and so I'm grateful that our community, our staff, our families, everybody gets around these experiences for the kids and signs up to do the dirty work. So, thank you to all
of them. Um, and that's that's all I've got. Thank you, Dr. Depy. Yes, I don't think I have a lot of updates. I think we covered most of the discussion around labor management committee last time,
keeping up with policy committee. Um, I am reaching out to just say hello to the school accountability committees at some point in the next few months. um the for the schools I represent and am looking
forward to going to to Rivers tomorrow night for their big celebration. Um and I want to appreciate the crew teachers at Glenwood Springs Middle School. They're really doing a great job. I know I bring this up every year, but it's
because they keep doing it. Um of putting that true essence of crew into into play. They have the multi- uh grade level crew that stays the same throughout all three years that your student is there. And my student had sixth grade with Miss Alop and he is
back seventh grade with Miss Alop as his crew teacher. And even just his reflections on, wow, it feels different to walk into a seventh grade classroom when you're a seventh grader and starting to build that like understanding and empathy of what it's like to be in these different grade levels because he has that home base and that continuing relationship. He's doing
cross country and she's the coach and he almost didn't want to go and she wasn't going to be here. Um, so there's a lot of effort going into those relationships and he's also up at Dinosaur National Monument camping right now. Uh, he's on the second wave. The first wave I heard got pretty wet. So definitely appreciate
all those teachers who are drying out and uh the extra effort that goes into making those programs accessible to all the students in the grade and not making it only sort of accessible to a few. Thank you. Um I want to just give an
update um on two things. I was able thank you to CMC um for hosting the consulate forum with the consulates of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico. Um it was really important not only to be there as a representative of
the district and our students and families but to also um be part of that networking group. I think there are a lot of leaders in our community, a lot of um alumni of Brooks School District who hold um um amazing leadership
positions in their organizations. And so it was really good to um be there and to hear some of that updates that I think are important at a moment, especially like this where there's so many changes coming into effect. Um, I also want to say thank you and also
um update that we director after and I were able to go to the fall fet for summit 54 um which is like their fundraiser and a big event just um thanking a lot of their donors and as actually asking a lot of people um but it was really
really great um superintendent was there to share some of our um growth and appreciation. I think it was just really important for us to be there with one of our partners. Um I would encourage any of our partners who wants the board or the superintendent to be at an event to
please invite us. We would like to be invited. Um um it's I think it's important for us to be there especially as some of our partners are asking um for support um as board members to be there and lend our support to these
organizations that give their time their energies that volunteer um that create programming for our students whether it's during school hours or after school. So thank you to Summit 54. Thank you to Terry Kaine. Um and thank you to our team for being there and showing up
and my appreciation um tonight I so just to echo I remembered right now that director Kulenberg was sharing my kiddo um so my husband is from and so um um you know typically I can speak because
that is my um but my kiddo um came home um last Friday. I um I was just so excited because they had booas at school and it was the best day of her life. I cannot express to you how
like it was like her high. We do highs and lows. She was it was like her her high, her rose, her like it was the whole bang and I was so grateful. Um because it meant so much to her. So I mean my my kiddo seven um I hope she's
in bed but really doubt it. Um, but to have your kiddo um feel I I think not only represented but also like to be excited about lunch is really cool. So, thank you to our team. Thank you to um
to our our our lunch ladies, our school um meals crew. Um I really really as a parent appreciate your dedication to um to our our students meals. Um, and then I just want to plug that tomorrow night,
um, my kiddo's school, Two Rivers Community School, is hosting their Hispanic Heritage, um, festival. And so from 5:30 to 7:30, they will have mariachi and sumba and traditional uh, Latin food. So if anyone
has time, please come join us at Two Rivers um to celebrate um all the amazing things about our heritage. And that is that is it. Okay. If there's no further
business and there's no objection, the meeting will be adjourned at 8:19