e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e yeah we're all here all right good evening I call this meeting to order at 6:15 pm tonight we have present directors titler defrates after Ramirez
and myself me we have a quorum thank you to our interpreter astred would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the interpretation function thank you the first business in order is the approval of the agenda directors are there any proposed changes to the
agenda seeing none do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented I move we approve the agenda as presented is there a second a second all in favor say I I I all opposed say no motion passes our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by
our superintendent Dr Anna Cole good good evening couple of updates and celebrations want to um thank the Carbondale Education Foundation who Last Friday Night hosted the first ever Carbondale public Educators happy hour
um there was a great turnout from CS CMS Bridges roran Fork High School carandale community school and Ross monu so lots of um many thanks to Carbondale Education Foundation for hosting such a generous event for teachers as the board remember one of our strategic priorities
is thriving team and these kind of Partnerships really help our staff feel valued for the work they do for students families and the community um so big thanks to CF there um delighted to celebrate um William feny a senior at glwood Springs High
School who is a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship program so congratulations to William it'll be fun to watch um and see how that goes for him um additionally want to really thank um as as again the board is aware we have a strategic priority related to
student- centered Partnerships and that work is really making sure that our schools are accessible and places where parents and families and students feel safe and feel that they can be connected so just really want to shout out Riverview School that has gone above and beyond the administration student and
family support staff at Riverview are working really hard this week to wrap um wrap around and support students and families in some difficult situations so really want to thank that team for their professionalism in their big hearts and really committing to building trusting uh safe relationships with
families and then finally um want to thank uh a team of our from our counseling team led by um director of student Family Services Kelly Medina who went with some counseling team leaders Ted parenti from basalt high school Lindsay celik from Carbondale Middle
School who attended last week's Colorado School of Public Health's pride and public health Summit to ensure that our practices and programs our line to support the overall health and well-being of our lgbtq plus students and staff this work is aligned to our students first strategic priority that
commits to making sure that our schools are safe and inclusive schools for all students thanks thank you the next business in order is the superintendent report including a finance update and a 2526 budget forecast from Dr Cole and chief Shakin
so we really wanted to take tonight superintendent report um to check in with the board with the community on where we are with finances and to forecast for the first time this year publicly kind of what we're looking at for our budget for the 2526 fiscal year
um a couple of things that we want to take some time to look at and restamp is that this board is definitely aware and most of our community members are aware that we have been um experiencing a number of s significant financial issues and challenges that were really precipitated by concerns around our
self-insurance plan and so tonight what we really want to do is talk through um kind of a real kind of have a a final assessment of what happened what our internal errors were what the step are taken to address those looking at some
of the external challenges that further complicated our financial issues in 23 24 our current year and are influencing the 2526 budget um you know we'll summarize some of the revisions that the board approved last uh at our last meeting in the supplemental budget and
then we'll look ahead at 2526 but we really see this moment as as a time to um pause and assess and look back at what happened and get very clear on all the pieces that led to the financial challenges um and how we're going to
make sure they don't happen again so one of the really important things that that we established and wanted to make sure that we shared as because it really is the the kind of um the Cornerstone of the work and the solutions that we've tried to find is that when we started to recognize that
we had some pretty significant financial issues we established in partnership with the Board of Education with our interpace bargaining representative leadership teams from classified certified and admin admin IBB um we identified core values and priorities that we wanted to make sure that we
honored as we moved through some of the hard decisions that we knew we would have um certainly as you're going to see as we look ahead at 25 26 we're not um I think we feel like we're almost ready to to turn the corner on what we might have called a real pronounced financial
crisis and are ready to now just move into to some pretty tough Financial challenges that are going to be our reality for the for the for foreseeable future um and so these values and priorities were really important for us addressing um kind of the very emergent and Urgent issues that we were facing
but I think they're really important as we continue this work ahead and so just wanted to lift those up and they're in the board packet um they have we committed to to really looking at these values and priorities before every meeting every decision and making sure that they were present and in front of
us and I think we did a pretty good job with that so let's let's take a look we know that this board has been working hard to approve supplemental budgets Chief Shakin has done an astounding job helping us find a way out of these challenges and actually even be able to
see what the challenges are um and we wanted to really answer the question completely what happened why did it happen and how are you going to make sure this does not happen again so that's the intent of these next couple slides so here's I think the the
components of of where we had errors over the last I would say 12 to 18 months I think one of the pieces and we've talked about this a lot this fall was that our leadership underestimated the cost of a self- insurance plan when
we had many well-intentioned folks trying to address Rising uh health care costs thought that this would be a good option for us um and it's really clear that despite our best intentions we underestimated the financial risk of a self- insurance plan and frankly we
underestimated what it was going to take in terms of skills and capacity to have the team in place to manage a self insurance plan additionally and this is a piece that the board has become very much so aware of and I know is really important to our board is that our finance team
was reconciling the cost of self- insurance reconciling is kind of just like balancing your books on a delayed schedule and so for the entire first year of our self insurance plan we didn't have consistent eyes on what we were spending it's a massive
error additionally not just it beyond the self-insurance costs we were not our finance team was not reconciling just general 23 24 books regularly the board tonight is getting second quarter financial statements it's robust it's thorough we're incredibly grateful for chief Shak coin's leadership on this
hustle on this but this is the kind of Optics on our finances that we did not have as a board of education as a leadership team in the 23 24 um school year that's a massive error that should have been a massive red flag for
us additionally one of the decisions that was made about this time last year because we weren't looking at the cost of Self insurance we did not increase or reset the insurance premiums based on Rising costs so our costs were going up
but we didn't see that because we hadn't balanced our books and so instead of resetting insurance premiums to move up with rising cost we didn't and instead we thought we were we were kind of flush and we invested a lot of money in salaries that was a big
error additionally um and this is more of a systemic issue that that and we're still anyway we'll talk about what we're doing next but districtwide one of the things that we've really learned is that that budget managers and there's all kinds of people across the district who manage budgets everything from a teacher
who's a Content team leader that has a budget of $6,000 $8,000 for professional development to a school principal managing their budget to Chief Shakin to me that has you know every body that's responsible for a budget did did not have consistent training expectations or
the skills and understood the responsibility of what they needed to do to manage their budgets massive systems error there um additionally I would the last spring our former staff and the finance team um signed 2425 health
insurance contracts without a deep analysis of the changing terms and so when we talk about increasing risk that was in the contracts um um they were signed and executed without thorough oversight or analysis that's another key internal error additionally and I think the board
the board knows we've talked about this a lot that our former staff um from the finance team our leadership including myself our board we had a very Rush development and approval of the 2425 budget we were up against the wire we know we have to get budgets adopted by June 30th we had to call a special
meeting for the board um you all didn't have eyes on it in advance you know here we are in February we're going to give you the first forecast for 2526 that's what we should be doing we weren't looking at that budget until April far too late um and so some of the some of the
outcomes of that Rush development that we've you know kind of through this Fric analysis that Chief chaoin has led since she got here in late August um some of the implications of that Rush development of the budget meant that there were some significant errors in the 2425 budget that we've been
untangling some of those key errors were that we overstated um we thought we overstated enrollment and enrollment is so essential to our budget because it's really the key piece of our Revenue we overestimated how many students would show up in August um and it it had
massive implications because we staffed our schools and our programs based on a higher number of students than who actually showed up and so we received we are receiving less revenue from the state because we have less kids but we didn't plan on that we plan to spend more um additionally one of the
challenges was that we overstated the M Levy Revenue um and interest income those were miscalculated and then as the board is aware and the community members who have been tracking board meetings are aware the the 2425 budget omitted key recurring expenses and you can see some
of the ones that we've been solving for chief Shakin caught a bunch of these right away if the board remembers we Chief shoin brought the first supplemental budget in front of you fix some of these things in September and then we caught a lot more of them up in the supplemental budget that was passed
on the 29th okay so those were that's kind of you know that the intent of that was really to answer the question what happened where were the mistakes um and one of the pieces that I want to name is that all of these items one through seven occurred under my leadership so
these pieces happened while I was in the role of superintendent and so I just want to name that like ultimately it's my responsibility to bring to the board an appropriate budget and we did not and so I just want to make sure that the board hears this that the community hears this that this is what you expect
from your superintendent and I fell short here and I'm so sorry that we've been in this place I'm so grateful for all the staff for the board for chief Shakin who have leaned in and rolled up their sleeves to try to fix this um but really do to take ultimate
responsibility for these errors and for making sure that we fix them and don't get here again and I have complete confidence that we're going to come out on the other side much stronger much clearer much more strategic much more able to make better decisions about our budgets to support students and our
strategic priorities um we still have a long way to go to get there um this is a really important piece of the work is recognizing what where we went wrong so how are we going to address these errors and what's being done so a couple of really key things number one
the like the contract execution those processes have already been changed changed internally we've got new internal practices to ensure ensure the contract review is thorough the executive team has developed a new risk assessment protocol during our meetings to make sure that if anybody's about to make any decisions that might um have
some sort of risk Financial um resource risk to the district that we pause and we make sure we're doing appropriate and thorough analysis that's already been done that's a new process that's happening um we've talked a lot about the capacity skills of our finance team
we have added a budget analyst to support the more than a 100 school program department and Grant budgets that make up our district annual budget um that it's taking some time to get that person up to speed and hired um but that's going to be a really important
and meaningful role that we've increased that capacity and as um the board is aware that was a budget neutral decision we had an unfilled position from this fall we reallocated that FTE to this position so it adds some muscle to Christy's team
um without having um a negative impact on our our overall budget additionally um Chief choin has really LED and stepped up around the accountability practice for finance teams so we're working to develop
finalize and adhere to a budget and finance uh calendar that will make sure that we have regular accurate trans transparent accounting and budgeting practices the board is seeing that tonight with the quarter two financials of you know we know that quarter 1 you just got quarter one about a month ago
so we're not up to the speed that we want to be at but we're making incredible progress under Chief chak coin's leadership um additionally another piece of accountability you got part one of this um at the January 29th meeting when we get our annual audit instead of you just hearing from staff
of how we're going to respond to the the pushes and recommendations on the audit the board actually received a formal response letter from Chief Shakin an action plan tonight you'll hear that from Chief flat from the HR side of things so that's another component of the
accountability um additionally we're really working on training for you know when we spoke to the needs of budget managers to better understand responsibility and oversight that is work that's going to really be rolling out as we get into this spring through next summer in the next two years um to
make sure that all of our teams you know we have layers upon layers of oversight for budgets we have to make sure folks know what their job is and what they need to do to work work at the right level of accountability so lots of training coming up in the next two years and then finally we talked a
little bit about calendars but we're really working towards finalizing for the board look for that in upcoming board meetings a budget calendar to make sure that our budgets have time that we have the time to look at what's coming up in the 2526 budget talk about it talk about priorities look at what's
happening at the state and federal levels look at what's happening with our students and outcomes and needs and priorities um and that work kcks off tonight with a a forecast and about like six slides from now um what what made
what has made this very difficult is that we have these internal uh issues that I spoke to but at the same time the world around us is presenting additional challenges that comp further complicate what we're trying to address and so some of the external challenges
that are continuing to make our financial work difficult include declining enrollment you know the board and the community that's watching the board meetings has has um seen Shannon bingham's demographers report that came in October um or actually I think November to the board that that really indicated I think for the first time for
a lot of us um the realization that we are declining enrollment school district and although there's going to be bumps and some fluctuations our general District's total enrollment is going to decline over the next 10 years that is very different than anything we have
ever as the Roaring Fork schools assumed or anticipated and it's going to going to change a lot of how we think about Finance additionally um the cost of Health Care in our region across the state nationally healthcare costs are skyrocketing um our neighboring
districts and other um public entities who work with CBT who is the health insurance manag care provider we are now have returned to are seeing and actually I can update this number because we met with CBT earlier this week um in the Roaring Fork Valley um organizations
that work with C CBT are seeing anywhere from 16.5 to 22% increases on their health insurance for this next next fiscal year um that is beyond that's bigger than us um that is what's happening across this region there's a
lot of concerns about the governor's um proposed School Finance Budget Finance act um and a lot of this is happening right now in the state legislature of trying to figure out what the what what our leg legislature is going to appropriate to school and under what
formulas um so lots of concerns we're tracking what's happening and we are trying to forecast 2526 budgets based on our best guess of where this might land but it's subject to change and we know that the state of Colorado is experiencing pretty significant deficits I think the question for us is to what
extent is that going to impact school funding and we don't know the answer yet um and I would also add one of the things that's very different and I know folks often think of you know look at the way we are Staffing and supporting our finance team and our do and say oh my gosh 20 years ago you had half the
team or a smaller team maybe I wasn't here 20 years ago so I don't actually know the size of the team 20 years ago but one thing I know for sure is that the complexity of school Finance just in the last three to five years has intensified significantly um the the complexity around the state and federal
grants that we utilize the state funding formulas um you know this is the first year the roing fork schools have ever had to be in the state Loan program all all of these require additional monitoring and Reporting far beyond anything our finance team has experienced in the last I would say 3 to
20 years so that world is changing in terms of what we need to do to be able to um appropriately and accurately share our finances and then finally I think especially recently um there's been a lot of confusion around recent executive orders at the federal level and there's
very we're we're very uncertain um about how decisions made at the federal level are going to impact Ed the education funding we get from the federal government um it's not the majority of our funding but it's a a really significant component most of that money goes to special populations
students with disabilities English language Learners um and those programs that are critical to our mission and critical to who we are as a Roy Fork School District so we're very concerned about that monitoring and tracking it so similar strategies to address
these we're we're going to have a very conservative approach as we had into to 2526 you're going to hear Christie and I talk about that tonight um we're going to try to as much as possible underestimate enrollment we're going to continue over the next couple years to really continue to ask the question are
our teams and departments and Staffing um allocations and um are we the right size as a district that's that's experiencing declining enrollment we really have to Grapple with that that is going to be those are going to be conversations we're going to have to have um in terms of health care cost um
you know I'm I'm working carefully with our neighboring school districts and so the Aspen to parachute um for public school districts are starting to work together to see if there's other options that that we might be able to or Creative Solutions we might be able to find if we collaborate so stay tuned on
that that's a work in progress um and then in terms of the kind of state finance formula complexity and complexity of the of the the job um we've already talked about things increasing Finance team capacity help to support the finance team accountability
and then continued refinement um and really cleaning up the budget development process that we're kicking off tonight and then in terms of the federal funding concerns we're monitoring we're Consulting with Partners we're working with the Colorado Department of Education we're not alone there's 188 school districts across state of Colorado thousands across the
country who receive federal funding um to do some of the most critical work that we do to support students with special needs English language Learners school districts across country are monitoring this very closely so um so that's kind of where we where we got to and so in terms of the
resolutions uh last month on January 29th the board approved a a supplemental budget for the current school year it addressed shortfalls it addressed the emissions it addressed um the additional expenses from the self- insurance plan it addressed all the issues that we had
because we overestimated student enrollment the things that were missed it was really the the kind of our solution to the current year issues and the way we did that as the board remembers is that were there were savings within especially district office departments that were identified
by District leaders some substantial work in reducing um budgets in looking at how we could use natural attrition to to um possibly not replace positions that were open um we we moved forward
with a careful use of General reserves and then savings from the Meadowwood staff housing project were really the key strategies to address that deficit that you all approved in the supplemental budget um we were you know I mean we're still
monitor we're still in the 2425 fiscal year we're still following up on claims from the Self insurance plan that you know medical services that were provided up until New Year's that we haven't received bills for yet so we're still monitoring it uh monitoring this year's budget but we're really proud that the
plan the supplemental plan that the board addressed had limited impacts to students teachers and staff that they were really minimized in the solutions we didn't have to make um o Staffing Cuts we didn't have to do a reduction in in force to get where we needed to go we
didn't have to dip below our our minimum fund balance and get into rainy day reserves and we really believe that the plan we brought resolved the self- insurance health issues so that we can really close that door and move past that into a whole new set of challenges around health insurance but these are
are challenges that we're sharing with our neighbors that we're sharing with our our region okay shall we look ahead sound good okay Christie's gonna take us into the new year okay thanks Dr Cole um so an update on
the 25 26 budget um for next year oops am I supposed to oops one oops sorry okay there we go okay sorry um user
error okay so um so we were forecasting with 2526 given some of the challenges that Dr Cole was talking about for 2425 that was discovered as well as the Self insurance is how that turns into a recurring cost into the future for
2526 that we were looking at starting with a significant shortfall for 2526 and some of the key challenges for the 2526 budget that we've been working on is the continuing declines in student enrollment from this school year into future years we were using the
demographers estimate uh for that to start our budget off and then shifts in per people funding from the state of Colorado and possibly at this Federal level so we've got a lot of of variation potential at those and and even at the state level looking at our total program
funding we still have this variation of 600,000 plus or minus so we've got a little bit of uncertainty been at our state level accounting for recurring budget items missed in 2425 that um those items we have incorporated into the initial 2526
estimate um and found solutions for which we're really um excited about um to this point and looking at the increasing cost of health insurance in our region as well um that is in addition to what we were solving for on
a recurring basis that we solved for one time as we were moving from a self- insurance plan back into a CBT like a premium based plan so a little bit different now okay so the big picture on 2526
general fund revenues I have been able to do a fairly Deep dive on general fund revenues and just to summarize that we believe we're going to be close to a million dollars um under where we were at for 2425 budget to start at 2526 on our revenues and the good news is that
we are getting additional funding from the state estimating it about 2.6 million right now and like I said it could be plus or minus 600,000 based upon some of the choices out there we're seeing um there's a 1.88% increase um in the student uh uh per pupil operating
Revenue which is called PPR it's short for PPR uh no averaging of the student CS per loss of enrollment in 2526 so that is a reduction because as Dr Cole said that we are declining enrollment school district and then 10% of the
phase in of the new house bill formula that would be the new atrisk formula and they're looking at potentially moving that up to 18% but they haven't done that yet so we're still maintaining that 10% and that's what I was talking about there's there's a couple of of different
options the legislature still kind of messed around with at this point that we're not sure which way they're going to go and so looking at the 2425 Roaring Fork School District uh student count reduction 995,000 so what unfortunately
we're going to need to do because we over budgeted the number of students because we were thinking we're going to grow students we actually declined in students that we have to back those out of our 2526 budget and in addition our demographers report is showing us that
we have another 75 reduction in students so then we have two reductions and that's why you usually wouldn't see that unless you are off on your prior year projection for the meaning for 2425 um we also are needing to make
still up for um some of the overstatement of mevy Revenue um so that'll be about 71,000 that's that's going to be lowered in our our Revenue budget and then there's other net which include interest earnings this is a big hit with 633 th000 because when you look
at reducing your cash and I mean that that's how you have receive your interest earnings so that is roughly 13 million at what we usually receive in our interest interest earnings um monthly and annually so 633 th000 and then plus
specific ownership taxes we've seen some declines on our specific ownership taxes for this year that were wondering if it's going to continue in the future and that's the best um information that I have right now is a $250,000 estimated decline for
2526 okay then looking into estimated expense increases we're still at the big picture level we haven't yet uh provided the schools their budgets yet and got into the real nitty detail but for right now we see a couple things that are going to be increasing for our budget
one is the 2425 continuing recuring budget misses we want to make sure that we're incorporating those in our budget um for the 25 26 estimated additional insurance at 1 and A5 million it's a Target obviously because we still have our IBB interest based bargaining that's
still working on that but that's what we're estimating in the budget right now as a Target and then 1.3 million for the cost of a step uh so and that there could be some other inflationary items that are unknown You' you're always going to have some things that such as
utility costs that are that are going to need to increase that are not yet included in those um estimated expense increases we're going to get more information as we move forward so the total current recurring loss before Cuts is 5.6 million and now that's based upon
the revenues net revenues and net expense increases so there's two different ways to look at this so as when we go on to our next slide okay so this is the other way to look at it is if you on the left looked at all the projected losses and gaps
Revenue expenses then it would total $8.1 million in deficits that we have found solutions for and then over to the right is all the plans to address those at 1 8.1 million so we're excited that we do have a plan for this year um or
for next year 25 26 um for all of those items and we've talked about most of them uh so I think we're we're good to continue on that um so then we I'll pass the mic back to Dr
Cole um a couple of things that uh in case there were questions around what are we specifically doing to reduce some of the expenses where we making reductions we paused on rehiring some of the positions that were unfilled um we are going to plan to spend down um some
available actually I would say kind of rollover funding or reserves from some of our teams that are feeling like they can spend down their their balances there's some restructuring and adjustments happening in early childhood we've reduced some discretionary budgets um and these are pieces that really
helped us get to that 1.8 million of savings within the district office and again this is just a first glance of 25 5 26 as we we continue to bring you more drafts and plans you'll see more of the specifics around these so this is just a very highlevel glance at what we're
we're going to be baking into that 25 26 budget and so where this leaves us right now and this was really important that as Chief Shakin mentioned we're trying to get into the school-based budgets we're we're we're working furiously to get that to happen because we know that schools are really anxious to get moving
on Staffing to make sure they know where their um staff is for heading into next year what's really important about this first what we would say like rough draft for 2526 is that we were quite concerned anticipating that we had about $8
million that we had to make up and we're are cautiously optimistic about our plan to make up that difference um and we'll explain why there's a lot of C like Capital C caution around this um but but what was so important about getting this
far before we got to school base budgets is that what you did not see in that plan was any systemwide cuts to Staffing um you did not see us uh recommending a reduction in force downsizing departments um Staffing levels um and
this was really important to us when we talk to staff about priorities job security is number one and so any sort of system wide cutting of staff is something that we really wanted to avoid at all costs um maybe not all cost we'll
see what happens in the next four months but um where we are now is that we feel comfortable pausing and saying we don't need to move to that level of cuts for 25 26 um what also is is um has been it has
been kind of reassuring is that we are moving forward with pretty much the same allocation Frameworks of Staffing and the way we allocate FTE to schools we have taken a more conservative interpretation of school resource alloc Frameworks um but we haven't changed
Staffing levels or Staffing ratios for schools that was a really critical piece when we heard from the board and the community that we didn't want to see cuts that impacted kids well the most important thing um for our students are the humans that are in front of them every day and so it was really important to us that we maintain the Staffing and
Staffing ratios that we have now you did see in the in the the savings about 15 FTE full-time equivalents not 15 indiv idual roles a lot of these are fractional that's our estimate of the adjustment that is happening to Staffing
across our schools based on declining student enrollment so every year when we look at enrollment fluctuations and we look at the way we're allocating FTE and positions to schools there's a little bit of movement so schools that are increasing enrollment will see increases
in their staff allocations and when schools dip they see a reduction this is very normal for our schools to go through this um and it was important that we could look at that based on our enrollment projections because knowing that we're declining knows we know that there'll be a
um I guess a a similar reduction in staff because of declining enrollment what's been what's been hard and the work of our school leaders is they're doing everything possible and we think we're going to be able to do that to address those reductions through
attrition which is um retirement resignation or non-renewals and so kind of just natural e and flow of teachers um if if you all remember typically our new teacher orientation is somewhere between like 50 to 70 new teachers so an
attrition of about 15 districtwide we believe that even if there's shifting because which we always often we'll have a bubble grade where suddenly we need another teacher in third grade and then when those kids move up we don't need that many teachers in third grade those kinds of adjustments absolutely will happen like they always do um but we're
hoping that that overall reduction total teacher ft is going to be addressed through attrition so more on that to come as we get through the school budgets and we really look at that impact um and as the board is aware that especially for our certified teachers and the collaborative bargaining contract that we have um we have a
commitment to making sure that we move through displacement processes for teachers who find that their positions are no longer there we have really strong commitments and our policies in the contract to take care of those teachers and make sure that we find them a home in the district um we don't think we're going to have right now we're
hoping that there are no none of those scenarios but we need to get through the school budgets to see where where the classes move um the other thing that you did not see as any significant other than what we kind of addressed internally reductions to school budgets that was really important to us too we
heard that from the community we don't want to impact schools and their resources highlights of what you did see is that that right now that the what we would call the cost of living adjustment or steps and lanes are preserved for 2526 which means that in this current um
forecast in this first round of our 2526 we are trying to prioritize the ability for staff to get an additional year of experience which typically means for classified staff a 1.8% increase of their salary and for certified staff that's usually maybe closer to 2% but it
depends on the salary schedule um so that was really important to us that staff we seeing we um some sort of an adjustment there we know that that does not match inflation um and that were coming up short there but it felt like a priority that we really wanted to budget for and what
this also means is that our salary schedules those complex spreadsheets would not change this year into next they would just hold for another year although we're really hoping and we have budgeted to make sure that staff get um their years of experience acknowledge
through through the steps and Lanes okay so where we go next this is the first step in 2526 budget we we have resolve the 2425 budget of course we're still in it we of course we won't shut that door until the audit for the 2425 budget almost you know 10 months from
now um but and we really believe that we've we've pretty much closed that door on self-insurance unless we get unexpected claims through June 30th but we're monitoring that so here's where we go next as we're starting to lean into 25 26 so the finance team working with the board and our employees we're going
to continue to look at areas that we can reduce expenses in alignment with all of our priorities um we're continue to monitor State education budgets and action at the federal level we're going to continue to monitor student enrollment we're watching Trends and consider staffing needs at schools we're
going to keep our community and our board updated on our forecast we're going to keep coming back to you with here's what we've learned here's how we're tightening it up um and as the board knows our Target is that of course by June we're going to have this budget approved and we want you to be just um Chief shaquin likes to say that we want
to be just tired of her talking about the budget because we're so familiar we're going to get there um and then I think I've talked a lot about this but as a district I think we need to come out on the other side of these budget challenges with a very different identity of that of one of a school
district that's experiencing declining enrollment it's going to change how we think about budget and finance we're going to have to be much more conservative um it is we we can't get into the situation that we did this year where we have more staff than we have
funding for um because of the the way that we take care of our staff we cannot reduce staff really midyear if enrollment is lower so we have to be conservative with the way we think about that we're going to have to and the board heard a lot about this last at the 29th meeting we've Gonna have to really
think about our fund balance and how to reasonably bring that back up so we have more of a buffer and our budgets don't have to be so tight um in the meantime our budgets and our accounting have to be accurate and tight because we have very little buffer um as I've mentioned and this is work that's really going to
happen and I would really like this work to happen over the next six to eight months so that when we get into budget season next year we already have done the work but we're going to continue to review school and Department um resource allocation framework Staffing levels aligned to strategic priorities and student needs we're going to keep these
conversations going because we're going to have to figure out how to right siiz our district um in including central office departments as as Chief Shakin mentioned our IBB salary compensation teams are still working around around the our health insurance advisory committee
still working on that we're working to make sure that employees are coming along with us and understand where we are with 2425 25 26 um and then I think we we have to do the work together with our staff to really understand what it means for us to collaborate to bargain
so that we can support well staffed well-resourced schools where our students can Thrive even though we're in a declining enrollment School kind of context we know we can do it we've got the right people to make those decisions we just have to keep keep at it okay so big takeaways we have plans
to to resolve the 2425 and 2526 projected projected deficits and overages they will not we believe right now require additional systemwide Staffing Cuts that's a big deal um we believe you know the only reduction in positions is in alignment with declining
enrollment um we're we're really planning right now that staff can anticipate a step or a movement AC cross a lane and can anticipate that the salary schedules will will hold for next year we're going to continue to monitor track and report changes to our budget
um over the next four months and then I think that big takeaway is that we are a declining enrollment district and these conversations and the need to continually find Solutions is not going away it's going to be our work that was a lot thank you yeah we'll jump into board
comments and questions director defres uh thank you for all the work into the this process as always it is I like the moment where you identified um we're turning the corner from dealing with a crisis to dealing with a series of challenges uh that we'll be facing going
forward so that was that was a helpful way of Framing and just the the work that you've done to get us this far um I just want to acknowledge that that has been a tremendous lift um I was wondering I have one dumb question uh what are specific ownership taxes you
said s so specific ownership taxes uh thank you those are uh licensing fees uh that you that for license plates and all those fees are accumulated at the counties and then distributed to all of the local governments based upon I believe the
milab oh okay thank you and then I had a question um I forget which slide it was on but it was when you were looking at ways that we have reduced expenditures uh so 16 I think 25 26 strategies to
reduce expenses um could you give me an example of one of the special projects that is non-renewed and then maybe also an example of what type of discretionary budget cuts have been made in various departments I don't need an exhaustive
list but just like a contextual example um special projects would include things like our Equity audit um like the special education program review our our costs that we um budgeted for this year that won't continue next year so those big examples of that and then in terms
of discretionary budgets we definitely looked at um everything from like the superintendent budget um to we the um I would say the Family Resource Center Early Childhood had a big um was able to look at their discretionary budgets and feel like they could take reductions
there um a lot of our departments in terms of the work of Chief bomul and um kind of custodial and transportation they continue to look at some of their discretionary budgets and see if they can make adjust adjustments there so it's really that kind of additional funding the nice to have but not always
a musthave and and those leaders really saying hey we can do with less I know that we um reduced our con or custodial contracts as part of this um have school building leadership and teachers been expressing that they're
managing that okay or is that is that one of those cuts that actually did kind of hurt at first absolutely hurt because it was a pretty quick reduction and it was quite lovely to have the contracted Services because we've been short in custodial for a long time and we've had vacant positions and we've
really struggled and um so the contracted Services were great to have and so it was a real adjustment I think when that support stopped and it took some time for us to kind of reconfigure where um our our staff custodians were
at different times of day took some hard conversations with leaders around kind of pressure points and what the custodian schedule were custodians schedules were um I would say at this point it we've hit a uh I think a more functional level that feels more reasonable in terms of everybody's
workload um could it be easier absolutely um but I don't think we're hearing the kinds of concerns and complaints that we did say the first week or two after it happened thanks it's not good for now thank you director titler thank you for all of your work I had a couple
questions the first question I had is on like I think it's page 18 of it it says that um we will be doing our new budget it says late summer but is where it says late summer is that really June 30th we are still finalizing a budget calendar
for you all we're hoping by our next probably at the latest the March 12th meeting to have a proposed budget that's working backwards we know the board is really reluctant to have a second June meeting um and we're trying to figure out how far we can get um with the 2526
budget so but when you say late summer that's before June 30th oh yes sorry yeah I'm sorry that was a little funny wording because late summer didn't seem like June 30th and so I just wanted to check in late June is probably better than late yes okay um on page 13 of the
budgets the one where you said expenses and what how we recovering them it said the 500,000 one time from F FRC that not going to be recurring right so do we have any thoughts on like how to fill in that recurring part of that and secondly
the where said $1.3 million in do savings is that recurring great question I would say and then I'd love to hear Chief your thoughts on that too right now those are like sticky notes that are on our computer saying we're gonna have to solve for this in 26 27 um so as of now
those are not recurring right right okay and then that phas in of the new HB 24448 formula like it says like 10% and it might go up to 18% is like does it eventually go to 100% or like what is
that yeah that's a great question I what what it does is is that I I believe that it's it it depends on the number of years that they're going to take for this phas in and I don't know the exact percentage for which year or whatever but I know that the the one is on a slower schedule for phasing that in at
10% and other one is 18% where it's going to be phased in over like SE six years so there's two options around that right now and so we're a much slower phase in and then the the quicker phase in which would be the 18% those are the two that I'm aware
of great and then finally just as a comment I would like to say thank you for the core values and priorities that we're looking at and I especially want to call out number one and number two that number one is that we're looking to avoid impacts to student academic growth
and achievement that is why we're here is a school is to support our students and secondly I really like that it's front and center that we're centering the needs of students with families whose income is below Pro poverty level
emerging bilingual students and students with disabilities and so I'm glad that we are calling that out as that is a focus and a priority for us so thank you thank you director after yeah thanks for the presentation
um couple comments and questions Dr Cole you said in your presentation that I think you made a point of saying that many of the internal errors happened under your watch and I get that and your humble leadership is always something I appreciate but I did just want to point
out that a lot happened under your watch in your role as a first year interm superintendent when there's a lot of other stuff going on at the same time and um so you know given that many of those internal errors happen then it's
also true that many of them were years in the making and also predated your leadership and so while I appreciate the sentiment and you owning it because I think that's what a leader does um I did just want to point out from my perspective for the community what's
important is how we move on and I've really appreciated how you've LED in moving on from these not focusing on what what happened in the past and I think your um your transparent communication your building of the team and the systems and processes around you
um and around around all of us has been really instrumental as well as your you know really leading with Integrity throughout this whole process so I just didn't want to let that moment pass um because well I appreciate you owning it and I think that's really important and
that's what a leader does I think the way you've moved on with it is why you're able to sit here and tell us that as this moment in time we're not expecting major cuts to schools to Student Services um to really much at all and I really appreciate that so that's
all thank you director Ramirez I'll Echo the sentiment from director after of um the expectation of the leader of the district being able to take accountability for um for that and I think for us as a board As Leaders as
well and I've said this before we also have an accountability here um um not just in approving and like director after said but this this was ears in the making right this is this is literally three separate superintendents in the
making um but one of the things I did want to mention um that wasn't part of your um uh slide for addressing the challenges um was the work you've done
to create operational excellence within your team um because I do think that that has been a commitment from you as a superintendent I think from the board as well um has been a commitment that we have all felt was really important moving forward not just to bring on a
CFO that um we could work towards trust with um but also that we are simultaneously in this learning of how can we do this right and so I really appreciate that commitment from both of you um at being
transparent at um leading with Integrity um I think it's really important for all of us um who are now on the other side of having fixed this problem um just being able to say like we learned from it and so I do appreciate that
commitment from our team from our executive team from everyone who gave from their budgets to help problem solve um I think that it really um I think that that is like a building
block for the district and where we're going forward and how we're going to do things different which I think is really important for us to acknowledge that things have to be done differently um I oh well look at [Laughter]
that thank you um I know sorry superintendent I mean Echo those sentiments and the the few things that I had noted are along the same lines I think that
sitting in this position now in February and having a presentation on our budget for 25 26 feels right and feels really good and the work that you all have done to get us here in less than a year is pretty remarkable and really does speak
to um the shifts in the way that things are operating within the district which hopefully prevents this from happening again in the future right um and I just specifically want to applaud your work Chief shaquin because I think having this budget now at this I know it's a
very early early phas of of the 2526 budget but having it to look at and understanding that we as a board you as a staff don't have to engage in months of town halls talking about cutting things that do impact our students on a daily basis that do impact our staff on
a daily basis that is incredible and it's not where we thought we were going to be a few months ago um and I part of me can't believe it and part of me just wants to stand up and Round of Applause um because it's remarkable and I think that we're unique
with even within surrounding districts that we have gotten to this point where we're feeling like we've started to solve for this we understand it's going to be challenging this is by no means to end but as director de said shifting from crisis management to understanding that we're entering challenging times
pretty pretty incredible um so just thank you both for your hard work your leadership your ability to bring people together to make this happen um and we'll now have five minutes of open comment on superintendent's report
before we dive into Q2 financials uh director kenberg has us on one today so um I just wanted to mention um in looking at the 2526 budget um when we're thinking of like
big picture and the forecast currently we're working with that one point five for insurance right so I just wanted to make sure that that was referenced because I do think should
that change this whole forecast will change and I think that's important for us to acknowledge in this moment um because I do think like when we're talking about savings when we're talking about what's already what we're already
thinking we're allocating um or preserving like that will all shift if we need to find more and so I just wanted to make sure that was stated okay my last comment that I had written down is not really directed to you all
but I think that broader um to the community is that the importance of community engagement which I've written about in my community newsletters um but this is the district review of the budget the board is reviewing the budget
for the entire system but they opportunities for people to be involved in reviewing School budgets through school accountability committees um and I just wanted to acknowledge that and encourage the community to get involved at school levels because that is where this starts and then it feeds up to the
larger system and it's a super important piece of the process um so just wanted to give that a plug and I'll just piggy back on that and add that the district accountability meeting will be happening next Tuesday here at 6:30 for anyone
who's interested that looks at the district and superintendent Cole will be there to share a little bit from the budget Summit um but I do think it's important that as much as possible if Community is available to please attend any of those meetings engage and engage
you okay we will move on the next business in order is CFO update and Q2 financials from Chief Shakin and each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions um do you have a presentation
prepared for this or do you want to jump into questions we're prepared to jump in yes that would be just fine and so the public knows the board spent an hour ahead of the meeting in work session on the same topic so we'll go ahead and jump straight into questions director titler I would just like to start by by
thanking you chief chakin for the hour that you spent with us earlier tonight and your preparedness for that and your the corporately financials and it just made everything very clear and easy to look at and also
appreciate the questions that we did have that you are very open to our questions and coming and being able to come back to us with questions um answers to our questions so thank you for your openness there I only
did have one more question that I would sort of had lingering from earlier tonight when you look at the housing fund it says and that's down on page 13 it says it starts with an 18 million dollar budget can you tell me
where like that beginning fund balance comes for housing I'm unclear about that yeah the housing fund um it the a lot of the beginning fund balance and the housing fund I don't have it separated out is from all of the assets that list
that are listed for our housing fund which includes all of our employee housing so that's the vast majority and that's not a depreciation on those um units and so the ending where that depreciation amount which is the big
part is just that's where it's less from having that whole file correct yeah okay yeah and this a last thing again just thank you for all the work that you have done since coming in really digging in
being somebody that we can count on somebody who has had this experience has just been very influential and very needed in our districts and just again want to say thank you for the expertise that you bring and the point of view that you bring and the clarity so thank
you thank you director after thanks um I think I'm losing my voice here live um there there's so many things about school finance that are completely perplexing to me so I was hoping
to I'm hoping you could explain um the timeline of when we'll be approving the 2526 budget in the context of when of when we understand from the state um if the governor's budget has been
approved can you kind of walk me through that because there's so many unknowns in the slides and in the budget um uh that in terms of inputs coming from the state um so can you just talk through that timing a little bit I don't understand how we're supposed to
function without that information I'll do my best I can't promise that I'm exactly factual in the moment I'll will get you back with you if there's anything I say that needs action okay um but but my understanding of the legislative process is that can really
go into May um as far as when we actually and for sure know but usually we have a pretty good indication from when from my past history of working with the leg State Legislature before in previous fin or Finance roles uh school districts is that usually you have a
pretty good indication by April um and before then it can kind of fluctuate and and the ground kind of turns and moves underneath you just a little bit but within plus or minus of 600,000 right now is is pretty average of where you would imagine you you should be at this
time of year okay that's helpful um and then another question is on the Federal funding piece um uh we talked about it a bit in the work session but I know it's on a lot of people's minds right now uh in terms of federal funding suddenly as of the last couple of weeks being um
zeroed out for a lot of Civil Society organizations um and the potential for that to happen at the uh Department of Education level too what's the dollar value how much money do we get from the feds that's a great question we have um
a lot of different Federal sources and and I don't obviously have them all um at the ready right in my mind but I can tell you as far as the general fund impact is um 1.2 million roughly in idea funding and then we've got about another
400,000 in Medicaid funding um on our general fund and then plus we have other federal dollars through our free red reduced lunch program um on our food service fund um that you could look up in the ques and see what we estimate on that and then also um through our
designated purpose grants fund is our other we get uh title allocations is the big one we get and that's definitely definitely I would say approximately 800,000 is um in total title title funds so it's a big number
there and there's other smaller federal grants also okay thanks um one second um could you I think this is a fair game question for
this session but um can you say a little bit more about what the new budget analyst is going to be doing and be really specific about it um and how um with that how how and why that position is really important to the um smooth
functioning of the Financial finance team going forward yeah no thank you for that um since my tenure here I know it's really important um to mitigate any administrative costes why why we made sure that that wasn't going to be an
impact to the the district as a whole and trying to find other ways to cover that position over time and so that was the first part of this that when when I came in and and started seeing some holes and gaps in um in the processes that were resultant in some of the
things that happened um that we want to make sure that we do not repeat and and so what I heard from the board when I was first hired and from the superintendent is definitely this very unified message is that we can't have
this happen again and so um looking at all the processes and some of the holes that we have around um some of our grants that we are having a really hard time reconciling our grants on a regular basis we um with our quarterly reporting
um looking at making sure those are reconciled and even moving some of those reconciliations to monthly some of our um gaps with payroll and um human resources reconciliations of benefits for employees um those are the gaps that we
need to cover and then plus some of our issues around our chart of accounts with the the way things are being coded and that there's not enough time intensity to be able to um make sure with our chart of accounts that we are closing
accounts regularly um every year so that people AR charging stuff to the wrong account um those are the kind of roles on the back end that that positioner really going to help with on the front end it it's going to help us to shore up um some of our reporting to the board um
working with schools also and answering all their questions making sure is one of the things that uh Dr Cole had said a couple times in the presentation is that people are not well trained in their budgets and it's really an important
point that people are trained on those budgets and they have all the tools tools and resources necessary so that they are tracking their budgets we need redundancy in a good Financial system to make sure that we are not going to have something that is slipping through the
cracks and big measure and that's what we didn't have before and some of that was because of a lack of Staffing and resources in the finance department and some of it was just having to reshore up some of the duties and U making sure
that we had a Reconciliation schedules that we could we could manage so it was there was a couple of of issues and and so when I was looking at that I just I was really thoughtful about the importance of you know making sure that we get there first of all and and the
only way that I believe we can get there is really with this budget analyst position thanks so any other questions okay director Ramirez um I I just wanted to comment for the public that we did um have some questions that the CFO was
come back to us with regarding some the salaries salary questions in here um I did also just want to make sure to um ask again even though I know that for some of the ones we asked during the work session you said you were going to
follow up yes but um in instruction purchase Services was one of them yes the first and in instructional support there was a gap in where from um comparative to the
23 budget that was different and then I had a question onto one on operations maintenance um and I didn't see it in the comments but um it was a we went to zero and it
was was 163 for 23 school year so I'm assuming we purchased something um but I just thought it would be good for us to know what that one is um can you I'm sorry because I don't have it right in front of me can you share with me exactly other expenditures
under operations and maintenance yeah other expenditures oh other expend oh okay and also other other oh other other okay I see yes the program other
yes okay okay um and and I'll just share too from our work session one of the things we did talk talk about was you know our CFO is currently learning our budget and how we code and how we um have these different
uh line items and we as a board are also in this process of going through these um but I do appreciate your commitment to make this easier for all of us uh regardless of who is sitting up here or who is um our CFO that this is a easy
transition for any leader coming in um and that it's it's prepared for and easily digestible um for anyone who has to deal with our District budget because it is a lot of work and we really appreciate your commitment to making
this accessible for everyone in our district okay thank you director defres um I I appreciate the thoroughness of the questioning and the time you took with us during the work session again um for those of you listening or interested I just want to
direct you to to the website under about us and the financial section there's a specific button for these issues surrounding this year and the second quarterly financial statement is available and it's takes a minute but once you look at it it makes a lot of
sense and I just really appreciate that because one thing that as board members we we came to the year with was um what are we asking the right questions and how do we know what to ask and so for example with this one the quarterly the second quarterly you explained that about half of the amount should be spent
if it's on track we have the next year the previous year right behind it to compare it to to see any of those major red flag deviations and that's really helped us put our oversight to good use looking for the big problems without being distracted maybe a little bit but
some not too much by the minua um as we all kind of work together to rightsize our role in this process and so I just appreciate that um how accessible it is and um and the time that your staff has taken to compile that thanks thank
you um Echo the thanks again this is great to have this and this is a true Deep dive into our second quarter financials so it's great my only question stems around um accessing the funds to the state Loan program I know we're accessing less that we anticipated
which is great um and this kind of relates back to the superintendent report next year are we expecting that a greater percentage of our total program funding is coming from local sources versus state or are we about the same as where we were this year and I I can't
remember the exact percentage but I feel like it was like 55 45 or somewhere around there yeah we're we're actually looking at a little bit of an increase at the state level um potentially but not very much very very close to even okay so we'll be about the same next
year 25 26 this year okay yeah great I don't have any other questions right now so we'll open it up for five minutes of board questions comments discussion seeing none thank you chiefin yeah can I just make one more comment yeah um I just wanted to um thank the staff uh for
the finance department um this is all new processes and procedures for them and um and they met the goal so I'm very happy about that and that was with um with some staffing changes we've got going on too so yeah Kos to them yeah
thank you at this time we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board there is one speaker signed up tonight the board allots 45 minutes for public comment to respect the time of all who are present speakers are asked to limit their remarks to three minutes or less a reminder to speakers to uphold our procedures for public comment we ask
that you be thoughtful and constructive with your comments and thank you in advance for sharing your feedback members of the public who wish to share their views with this board may always do so in writing at any time for this evening's public comment we received two written comments our first Speaker
tonight is Kya Gonzalez um good evening me good evening members of the board uh superintendent and team uh my name is kadya Gonzalez and I am a parent organizer foras as mentioned in Pre previous Board
of Education meetings wases unidas uh has consistently had a presence in this room demanding that this District create the necessary change that will ensure the success of our Latino students we have demanded the same plans and will continue to demand them until
they become a reality I want to touch on the importance of ensuring that these demands have a detailed plan presented to the community and that the necessary funds are associated with them them to ensure the proper development and
implementation of these plans it is unclear what money has been allocated to eliminating the achievement Gap nor have we or the community been shown a detailed plan outlining how the achievement Gap will eliminate will be eliminated providing a timeline of when
this process will take place and conclude real dollars need to be backing each of these plans and it needs to be made clear to the community that this board and this Administration will prioritize this work we cannot know if your District's priority is to eliminate the achievement Gap if no work is being
presented to the community our community has shared with us that they don't see any change happening and they're worried that the change won't come you it to those families and their students to ensure this change happens you wait to those families to demonstrate that this
District not only cares about the change in their revenue but also cares about making a change in the education of our Latino students Brown students in the for school district should not be punished for the district's mismanagement of funds thank you thank
you the next business order is the approval of the consent agenda which includes routine Personnel minutes from our previous board meeting policies JB JF and regulation jk- directors are there any items that you would like to pull from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and
vote hearing none do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I move that the board approve the consent agenda as presented there a second a second can you please call the vote director after I director defrates I director kenberg I
director Ramirez hi director tidler I motion passes the next businessman order is discussion on policies ebba and ebbb each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask
questions we'll begin with director a thanks on um which one is it I I didn't have a lot on these these look fine to me um I guess my only um comment is that I agreed with the com
some of the commentary and the comments that um the policy on prevent uh ebba on prevention of disease and infection infections and trans infection transmission and handling body fluids
seemed um unusually vague and so if that's the intention fine um but if there was cross references to anything that a staff person could follow to be helpful in this situation um that might be a good
idea but other than that I didn't have any comments on either of the policies great oh you did oh thanks oh I see that now thanks John director Ramirez I didn't have any
questions on either of these policies director fres um yeah no no questions director titler um just similar to what um director after was talking about I was just curious also she had made a comment
um if we does that what you say you added um yeah and does it say along with the regulation what the um what the procedures
are yes I saw the link but when I click it I didn't see the procedures refresh we GL will happen if you don't have to okay so it is there Bes when I clicked I somehow didn't see it there and maybe it just came up for me okay
did yeah okay it's very detailed okay maybe I didn't see it with the link actually and I was just clicking the web link that you put in but that's it thank you I don't have anything further on these either I appreciate that our
concerns from policy committee were addressed and things look good um so we'll move to five minutes of open discussion if anyone has anything on these policies all right thank you madam chair I am so sorry I want to make a
motion to amend our agenda before all these people leave and we don't have anyone here to hear our resolution oh are leaving never mind I don't think we have okay I feel we should just move as okay
the next business in order is an HR response to the audit letter from Chief plat each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we'll begin with director Ramirez um I didn't have any questions I
appreciate um that there was a clear sorry I'm like rewinding now because I was over here trying to make a motion um I wanted to just appreciate the memo and the thoroughness of the memo I appreciated um the commitment for your
guys' change of protocol um I I think that this um opportunity for our teams to have a response to the audit letter um and for us to make this a process I think this was really important and so I
appreciate just being able to read your response letter read um the the protocol that you you guys are working on and also um just have this become a norm I feel like this is really important and
so um thank you for your work on this absolutely director de fredes um I'm looking at the second part the audit letter and then sorry this one's about
uh reconciliation of benefits to employee premiums sorry I had a question about this and I didn't write it down and now I can't remember hold on you can come back if you want yeah Sor director sinks I would just like to um Echo what director
Ramirez said and say thank you for the thoroughness of the letter the format of it and how you took the recommendations and particularly addressed them so thank you director after yeah um in the audit
in the full audit um I know these are the or these were the questions that came up from the auditor does the auditor audit all HR processes or just the ones that are directly related to to finance or what's what's the scope of
the audit when it comes to HR uh on this portion on record retention they will ask for random records of random employees and this is where we f we had we failed to provide one document for an
employee so on reccord retention okay um but in general in general are they are they like digging deep into HR processes during the audit or is it no it's a financial audit so the records this record in particular was related to a
payroll record okay and that is why it's it's part of Finance but also part of HR it is a deduction that was made from an employee but the actual signature was not presented I see okay that's that
context is helpful thank you yes um I don't have any other questions about the this thanks Dr de fres J um my question was uh it's about the processes um reconciling health insurance benefits and premiums and it says uh you're
working with a consultant these processes will be completed written out no latest then February 28th is that something that comes to the board or is that just remains internal at that point each reconciliation you mean no just uh the process that you're writing out it's not it's not a statute required
regulation but you can certainly ask for it as a followup yeah and so if it was February 28th you guys are well into it almost finished is that correct yes okay thanks I just want to Echo the things
for responding robustly to what was laid out in the audit um this is again a new process for us and for you all and so taking the time to do it is is very helpful and it really helps I think from where I'm sitting to understand utility
of the audit seeing that things have changed and there have been some actionable steps taken to make things better so thank you for taking the time I don't have any specific questions um so we'll have five minutes of open board discussion or time for additional questions if anyone has
anything gu just a followup the training that you guys are having it has it already been done or it will be done by the end of the month will be done by the end month thank you great thank you yeah we appreciate it all right the next business in order
is action on approval of the board resolution honoring black and African-American history month to I have a motion to approve the board resolution honoring black and African-American history month I move that the board approve the board resolution honoring black and
African-American history month is there a second I second we'll now move to two minutes of discussion for each board member beginning with director def's right yeah get my checklist um thank you for staff and
board who put this together I appreciate that we can take the time to do this uh tonight and I don't have any other questions or comments Dr Tyler also say thank you to the people who put this together and just also just uh make
sure that I think it's important as a board and as a district that we are continuing to celebrate our diversity of a district and for us to
recognize history and how history has formed where we are today and I feel like it's important for us to have these types of um resolutions um to see the achievements
that we have made and that the role that different um ethnicities and cultures have helped to create that in our society thank you director after yeah I want to Echo the thanks for
um putting this on the agenda and for the team that put it together and uh emphasize the line about two-thirds of the way down the document where it says we believe our diversity is a strength and I believe that to be true in this
district and in this country despite other people in the news saying otherwise specifically today thank you director Ramirez want I appreciate uh director kenberg on her for her work on updating
this document and um and to our team team for bringing it Forward again I think it's always important for us to celebrate um not just um black and African American history but to honor the American Heroes that have paved um
the way for this nation and I think this Valley the diversity of this Valley the um the country as a whole I think it's just ever more so important for us to continue um not just as a board but
as a school district um and as parents and community members to talk about um all of the strength and all of the progress and just all of the the history that our
country holds and um I just really appreciate that we were able to bring this back and to make it into a resolution um as a commitment from this board and for our district so thank you um I don't have much to add beyond what
you all said but I just one I you know I just firmly believe in the same line that you called out direct after that our diversity is a strength um and the more that we celebrate it as adults the more students will celebrate it in themselves and I think that just a small but important step that we can take this
aboard any other comments I would just like to say that recognizing that yes we're having this resolution is black and African American history month but just to not let it be lost that we're
celebrating it this month but it's something that we celebrate Beyond this month and that we celebrate throughout the year and it's not just this month that we're celebrating it but this is our I don't want to say excuse but our time to be able to say that we are doing that but just to recognize that it's
beyond just this month any other comments any intervening to amend being none can you please call the vote director after hi director depres I director kenberg I director Ramirez I
director Tyler I motion passes would you like me to read the resolution yeah please Board of Education resolution honoring black and African-American history month whereas the month of February is set aside each year to honor celebrate and remember the struggles
achievements sacrifices contributions black and African-Americans made on behalf of the United States of America and the world and whereas the recognition of black and African-American history month is an opportune time to salute the achievements of the past gain insight into the present Inspire progress for
the future and teach our students about American heroes of color and whereas we celebrate the diversity of black and African American people in the Roaring Fork school districts our nation and the black diaspora whether they self-identify as African Afric African-American afro Latino afro
Caribbean or black and whereas in educating the children in the Roaring Fork schools it is appropriate that all children learn about reflect upon and cherish the contributions that black and African-Americans both past and present have made to our nation in the Realms of the Arts business civil rights education
entertainment military music law literature politics religion science and much more and whereas we believe our diversity is a strength where our students diverse ethnicities and cultures create Rich educational and cultural experiences for the entire
School community and whereas we remain committed to serving inspiring and promoting Student Success while improving student equity and access to high quality education now therefore be it resolved that the Roaring Fork School Board of Directors do hereby resolve February to be black and
African-American history month in the Roaring Fork schools and strongly encourage staff and Community to reflect on the rich history and teaching of black and African-Americans and bear witness to the progress and achievements they have made in our country the next business in order is
discussion on future agenda items and board tracker requests do we have any for this week okay we don't have any for this week so we'll move on the next business in order is updates and appreciations we'll begin with director titler um first thing I want to talk
about is we met as a bosis board and hired the next executive director uh bosis um Le so welcome to lean hanhart and we look forward to the great work that he will do for our Bose's
District I would also like to thank there all the different directors from the different bosies school districts who participated in that day and the days leading up to that and the time that they gave for that committee also want to talk
about excuse me um had a meeting with the housing committee and is that committee we talked about rental rates and how those rates are set and how incomes are looked at and that was something that we decided sort of from
talking to other board members that we wanted to have some more talk about and some more um input in and so we talked about doing this as a future board agenda but now I see that it's coming as a work session so we will have time to
have that discussion as a board about what that housing rates and income and how that is looked at and so I want to thank um chief bomo for all the work that he did ahead of time for putting
together lots of diagrams and charts and just doing a lot of research into different ways in which different entities are structuring that and so we look forward to the work with him and
then as far as just um appreciations there's a couple I want to give first of all I want to give a shout out and say thank you to sko I know that they are having lots of students of ours going up to their mountains and doing ski I saw
in the paper that um gshs had their emerging bilingual go ski up there I I know that eighth grade at Carbono Middle School was just up there I know several other classes are getting ready to go up there and so I just think it's really great that they're able to do that and
support us in that way and be able to have that part of our environment and then jumping back a little bit now I realize I um just on the housing front I also want to say thank you to Habitat for Humanity and and chief bom for the work that was put into the um new
apartments down in Glenwood where there's ownership possibilities happening that there's some contracts that have been already put down for of our 10 spots it looks like there's nine contracts ready to maybe move forward for those T of
those 10 housing possibilities that we had there and so that's just really exciting for our staff to be able to get some ownership opportunities and finally I just want to um say I've been in the schools a couple times this last week
subbing and it's really inspiring to see the community that is built on the schools when there's a difficult time in a school where there's which happens very I mean more often than not you see that there's
people who need support and just the way that the school Community rallies around it's its teachers and its staff is really remarkable and very um inspiring so thank you to the staff for that
strong bond that you make and how you really support and help each other out thank you director after great thanks um just a couple updates uh we had our finance committee meeting on Monday and got a preview of
some of the topics we talked about here tonight so thanks to the team for having that thorough discussion and thanks to our DC member Brian snow for always joining and having great uh questions and commentary um just a quick update that our next board meeting is not in the
regularly schedule time right it's on the it's on it's a week from tomorrow um right on the 20th okay um so in case anyone uh has their calendar marked for the usual time it's actually a week early and that's to accommodate um I know I have some work travel coming up
and I think there's another board member who can be there as well so thank you all for accommodating that schedule um um there's a Dak meeting next Tuesday night and it sounds like they're doing a little recruiting drive so 6:30 someone already mentioned it here but if folks
are interested uh I really encourage you to go it's a nice way to be involved um at this important moment in time and then I wanted to uh Kenny's mention of sko reminded me to shout out uh my thanks to Mar Madson the PE teacher at CS who's done such an
amazing job this winter getting kids out on Nordic skis and on ice skates and to the CSP PTO um that is helping lace up the skis and the uh lace up the ski boots uh and the ice skates for um for PE every day it's a really cool um it's a really cool
thing about the school that they do every year so thanks Marty what's it thank you director Ramirez yeah um I just wanted to mention a couple meetings I've had in the last two weeks um we met for Ur with the city
of Lenwood and um there was also a policy committee thank you to our team for rescheduling just because I was out of town due to the nsba summit and um like director after me mentioned we had
Finance so thank you to our team or um for just being flexible with us I know that we move our schedules a lot and so it's we appreciate just um your flexibility and making sure that one of
us can attend some of these meetings um I just wanted to mention a couple things I had a call today with our state demographer um as a followup from our previous conversations um we wanted to jump on a call just to make sure that
meeting with her was the right um option and would provide us the right input that we were looking for or like followup and that it would be meaningful um do think that after speaking with her that um it would be helpful for us to
have a work session with her but I wanted to make sure I followed up with the team and we'll include that in a board tracker request uh with her contact information so we could reach out um and then I also just wanted to mention that I did submit today the
scenario planning we talked about during the work session earlier this morning um I think that it's important that we start having those conversations and so I wanted to make sure that um I mentioned those two and then I just was going to mention
the nsba summit um this is the second year that we go and um join um casby the Colorado Schoolboard Association and um as the federal relations Network delega you know get to go and advocate for Rural
Colorado there were a couple of things obviously we met with the the entire Colorado delegation um that Federal delegation and so we did meet with Congressman herd um and just shared you know obviously that we want idea funding
to continue um that we are against um our Public School System becoming a voucher program um for School meals for all students and then shared some of our struggles here at home which include insurance and include housing and
include budget cuts and that we really wanted to make sure that um public school systems are um prioritized and kept top of mind and um that our students who will be the future Workforce of every economy in the state
need to be advocated for and so you know hopefully um we see that it worked in a couple of weeks months hopefully um but I do think that um it was really important for the entire State and all of us who were able to represent the
different parts of the state to be there to really push on our delegation to advocate for us and so I appreciate casby and um the federal relation networks committee's time and effort in making sure we met with every single
representative it's a lot of work that goes on to planning that and um being able to show up and meet with the Senators and meet with the um representatives and the congressman look I think it it just in a time like this it is so
incredibly important that we're part of these conversations and so I'm I just wanted to share that out with our community thanks thanks Dr Fredy uh yeah quick celebration I got to go to the
spell abration with lettery Outreach uh last Friday which was a fantastic event that raises money for local nonprofits been around about 30 years and they work with adult uh to overcome challenges to literacy whether it's second language acquisition or just um want to be able
to feel more fluent in their world um it was it was really well attended very enthusiastic and um as somebody who does events for work I could tell all of the time that went into making sure that worked so big appreciation there um updates uh the Labor Relations Committee
or was it management we s it's management Labor Management committee uh met on February 4th as a reminder this committee is designed to focus on the implementation of the of the contract with rfca it's not a part of the on it's
not necessarily a part of the ongoing IBB process although there's occasionally some overlap mostly it's looking at as Master contract stands and as it's being implemented um what are teacher leaders hearing about that and is it being implemented consistently this conversation centered around the
use of paid time off and looked at it from a couple different angles focusing on on wanting to clarify for teachers in an as professional and consistent manner as possible exactly when and how they can request time because there's been some variations in buildings um by
different building leadership so discovering whether we have the opportunity of building a um a calendar that can be used or clarifying definitions around um all kinds of different PTO and when is it an emergency and making sure
that building leaders are being consistent in how they use those that phrasing so that we find teachers um being treated the same way as other professionals who can decide how to use their time without burdening building leadership teams who then have to fill impossible numbers of gaps and therefore
impact student learning so recognizing that it is a very difficult line to walk um I've been on the casby Labor uh sorry legislative Review Committee legislative labor got it legislative Review Committee and
I don't have a lot to report because a lot of the bills are still moving through various committees um I think the cell phone bill is interesting there's a a bill on the floor from representative lucans to require school districts to implement
cell phone policies and I I think she's going for she initially introduced a bill that has directive language requiring it and I think that there's push back on that to allow for more local control sh changing a shell to a May is an amendment request currently um
so we'll keep our eyes on that obviously we have one on the books already so I I believe as it's written currently we'd be in compliance um and then ongoing discussions around school funding uh no no updates there for a while still I just want to say one more or
were you done yes one more thing that I forgot I want to say thank you to all the participants who have participated in participants participating in the IBB meetings that we've been having there's been a large turnout of Staff who have
been at weekly meetings and I know it's a big timeout out of their day and I also want to thank um both Dr Cole and chief Shakin for all the time that they put into the IBB budget Summit and the document that was created there that has
been a guide for where budgets are at this point and with the big job of not only like looking at this year coming up but having to reconcile three different budget years and put that all into where we're going to the Future and so thank
you for all that participation I have one more sorry it's really important I wanted to thank the School nurses because this has been like a crazy couple weeks from what I hear in terms of sickness at the schools and
everywhere especially with influenza A um which has hit our community hard so thank you you all to the school nurses um even the one who called me and asked me why my child was in school thought you were going to thank them for um teaching Health classes over
the last few weeks call that we well into the middle of um all right everybody good um for updates I have been a bit out of the loop so thank you all for stepping up and
stepping in for me while I was out um but I on the health insurance um advisory committee I think the update is that there's still more work to be done to get in alignment and to figure out how
to make the both and happen if possible um and if not how to get to a place where we can move forward and keep everyone happy um so I there's not much to report out of that committee at the moment I think it's still well into its work um
um policy committee go on um for other appreciations I wanted to specifically shout out the work that's being done around kindergarten enrollment currently um I'm more familiar with the work at BS but I
know it's happening across our schools as our schools Gear Up We're enrolling our next littl L Learners into our kindergarten classrooms in the fall I think that there's a lot being done by front office staff and parent volunteers and everyone else getting people in for tours and getting them them going um oh
one other update I had is I just applied for just to let you all know I just applied for a scholarship to attend local progress as National convening in Chicago this summer which is a convening of local elected leaders and so they have they do have a school board
contingent but that's open now and if anybody's interested they do offer a full scholarship travel and everything else so School Partners just open that yeah and Schoolboard Partners just open open up for their convening too and they also offer scholarships and that's the way that both director Ramirez and I
have attended most professional development is by accessing that scholarship money so if anybody's interested I can share that with you um and then my last thank you is for all of our guest teachers because of the influenza A that is going around and all
of the other reasons that we need guest teachers in our buildings I just went through the process to get to become a guest teacher and I am grateful for the plus guest teachers that are on our roles and filling in in her classrooms day in and day out um and just wanted to
give them a special shout out because going through orientation today and planning for what could happen in those classrooms makes you realize that you have some some Brave adults stepping in that might be outside of their comfort zone so I'm very appreciative of all of
them all right so the next business in order is an executive session pursuant to CRS section 24-6 424 f to discuss Personnel matters specifically the superintendent's annual review inviting Dr Cole to join do I have a motion to
move into executive session I move that the Board of Education move into executive session pursuant to CRS section 24-6 424 F to discuss personal matters specifically the superintendent's annual
review inviting Dr Cole to join is there a second a second all in favor say I I the time is 800m the board will now move into executive session upon conclusion of executive session we will return to this room to
close out the meeting e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e the time is 9:56 p.m. and the board has returned from executive session if there is no further business and no objection this meeting will be adjourned