##VIDEO ID:JLb21EaFOM8## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e sorry yeah nice up okay okay I'm not gonna use the go it's kind of weird okay good evening everyone I call this meeting to order at 6:18 PM um thank you to our interpreter Joselyn would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the interpretation function thank you present tonight we have director after director TI and myself meaning we have a quorum and director defres and director defres is joining us VI Zoom the first business in order is the approval of the agenda directors are there any proposed changes to the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented or with amendments um propose and thought the consent agenda is later correct yeah I make a I make a motion to approve the agenda as presented have a second I second all in favor say I I I our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our superintendent Dr Anna Cole good evening um uh the month of January is designated a Schoolboard recognition month to honor these individuals who go above and beyond for all of Colorado schools and their students um our schools all collaborated on some really fun school spirit for you so we are really excited it's super random in sizes and swag but you're are going to love it and um so we expect to see you with your school spirit all around town um it's we just know you're goingon to enjoy it so we are so grateful for the leadership and advocacy of directors kenberg Ramirez titler after and defrates the investment of your time energy and expertise in supporting the Roaring Fork schools is significant and we are so grateful so super happy to celebrate you this month um also want to celebrate today and thank our partners at Colorado Mountain College first off for my very Snappy vest that they told me I had to wear at a board meeting so I'm wearing it at a board meeting um and also thanks to our H crew that make it nice and warm and comfortable in here so I'm gonna take it off um but uh big thanks to team CMC for the Partnerships we have in so many different areas concurrent enrollment for our students teacher education Career and Technical education this afternoon um director of mirz was there as we celebrated the grand opening of the automotive tech center in Glenwood Springs at our op Center on 27th Street um we currently in partnership with CMC have over 48 students from five high schools so all three of our Roaring Fork um traditional schools from Bridges our alternative education campus from mea High School all um coming together in um from those high schools are all now engaged over 48 students in Hands-On Workforce Development coursework and automotive technology um students are earning college credits and valuable skills and this work is is a result of a really unique partnership with CMC where Roaring Fork School District brought facilities to the table facilities improvements to the table um brought some uh funding for the courses CMC is bringing the instructor the curriculum some of the technology if you haven't been to the space um you should go because it is beautiful we got to be there today um and uh our students are so psyched to be be part of this work and so a real celebration so many thanks to Colorado Mountain College and then finally want to really um appreciate tonight in over the last few months our leaders at balt Middle School Glennwood Springs Middle School Carbondale middle school and Glenwood Springs Elementary have worked in uh collaboration with the Family Resource Center to offer parent education nights um to help families navigate the changing Dynamics related to changes at the federal level last night we had over a hundred families attend an education opportunity at Glenn Springs Elementary School and we are so grateful for the collaboration between the Family Resource Center School leaders and local partners and nonprofits um that truly demonstrates our commitment to ensuring students and families have access to all the support needed to thrive in a in a dynamic World um so a big thanks to the Family Resource Center and school leaderships for building relationships building trust with families and ensuring that our schools are safe and inclusive learning spaces for all this work has is deeply aligned to strategic priority number four student centered Partnerships and is critical to our mission so tons of thanks for the leadership of the F FRC um and that's it for tonight thank you the next business in order is the superintendent report including a fund balance presentation from Dr Cole Chief choin and Anthony Singh RBC Capital markets administrator of the education load program and revenue anticipation notes pan each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions well I'll um I'll introduce this a little bit and then I'm going to step way back um as we've been working really hard to address some of our fiscal challenges that have shown up in the 23 24 fiscal year 24 25 fiscal year and we are working through as we're projecting into 2526 um one of the potential solutions to addressing some of our challenges is using our fund balance and we've done that before and fund balance again is our reserves um and we have limits of where that fund balance and reserves needs to stick based on board policy and state statute and we're going to talk more about this but generally um you know and in our board policy there's language that says that we can dip below our fund balance limit set by the board as a rainy day fund and as we have worked to bring proposals and are working tonight the board is is going to really look at a supplemental budget proposal which is kind of our proposed resolution to the current fiscal year challenges um what you're not going to see in our recommendations is any solution that involves dipping below our minimum fund balance as set by the board policy and as set by by State Statute and that's really important um and it is a a position that our leadership team is taking that we do not want to dip below that and the purpose of tonight's superintendent report is really to explain the why of that and why you are not going to see that as part of our recommended Solutions and it has a lot to do with some of the unintended impacts of having a low fund balance and so we're really delighted to have Chief Shakin here to explain that and Anthony Singh here to explain that um and and to really help our Board of Education and our community understand why we don't believe that this is a strategy that we should be using to resolve our current issues um so what we're going to do is we'll have Chief Shakin and Anthony Singh really talk through the slide deck and then we'll have the time as we always do for questions and discussion I'm actually gonna trade you said that you're a little okay sound good there we go okay um okay uh thank you I um we're I'm just really grateful to have um Anthony here tonight and and really um he can just talk a little bit about his role if he'd like to um I can just kind of summarize it um with uh RBC Capital right and um what he does is he oversees and reviews all of the state Loan program information and all the spread sheets brought in and he's the expert on all this stuff and so we're really excited to have him here because he has a lot lot of extensive experience around State loev program around cash flows around uh even just looking at fund balances and how um rating agencies worked uh work even about the financial health of the organization and so he has in it specific to school districts so we're really excited um to have you here so we're really appreciative is there anything else you want to add about your background or is that about good okay y some perfect perfect okay so we'll just uh Jump Right In oh did it did I do oopsy day oh there we go I gota go this one wrong this okay okay um so uh superintendent Cole had already talked a little bit about what our current fund balance is and uh funds balance policy is and to summarize it it's in the yellow is that we have a fund balance policy that states that it's 10% of the district's current year fiscal year adopted general fund revenues um plus um and that's of course excluding allocations to the Charter School fund and then adding in the emergency Reserve required by the Colorado Constitution which is taxpayers Bill of Rights which is also dubbed as Taber okay there's other parts of this fund balance policy but that's really the heart of what the minimum fund balance policy currently is okay um so then we could get into a little bit what is the district's current minimum fund balance and so I just followed that exact calculation that is in the board policy so 96.4 million 96.5 million in budgeted general fund revenues plus your early childhood education revenues um because that's now in a separate fund but it's still really part of the general fund but we now separate that into two different funds um but technically because it's it's it's fund 19 so it's still in that 10 to 19 range it's still considered oper ational funds um so that's why we added that in and then plus historically when the fund balance policy was enacted that was included in the general fund so there's two reasons there why that's in there um subtracting out the charter school allocation which was specifically excluded um to get to the total revenues for the 10% calculation of 92 million and so they you take 10% of that which is kind of easy math 9.2 million then you add in the Taber balance uh as of June 3024 um for what that what balance was at that point in time which is our best estimate of what it is currently um and that's our minimum fund balance calculation for current which is through June 30 of 2025 of 12.11 million okay um so so you know I just just to note that's it's a little different than what it was in the budget of 12.55 million but this is the exact calculation um I think that it was just kind of shortcut it or simplified in in the 2425 budget okay um then what is the district's current fund balance that's the next question that I would ask is I if I was a board member um or whoever in the public um where are we at um we know what our Target is now or not you know like our targeted minimum and where is the district sitting um so the general fund balance in the audit was4 million 58,000 and that includes the 2.9 Million in Taber plus the unassigned amount of the fund balances there's a not at the bottom which is committed and assigned fund Ms are for carryovers those are for schools um for their allocations to make sure that those are specifically earmarked and that we're not going to count th those for the ability for the district to use for any purposes because we want to make sure that we're setting those aside properly and that's why I put that footnote there so people can understand the difference in our audits between those different types of fund balance okay and the reasons for it even okay so you look at um we are expecting to use um some fund balance for a self insurance issue for this year uh 900,000 and that's an addition to the 1 million that we used in the prior year then we have an expected use of fund balance um of 588,000 to help offset some of the things that we've had um and issues this year that we'll go through in the supplemental budget later but that's just kind of the summary of what that looks like currently so the estimated fund balance that we have right now um is roughly 12.56 million 12.5 7 million um is our estimated uh fund balances June 3025 and that once again is for Taber restricted and unassigned only that doesn't include our carryovers okay just to make sure that you know that those are denoted separately okay um looking at cash flow uh this is just some of the history of where we've come with cash flow and this is kind of where Anthony's part of the conversation comes in is um where do we where are we at how we get here kind of question so for 2324 we had no cash flow needed um we had an available cash flow balance that was reduced by 23.9 million between the end of the fiscal years okay and you can look at the audited financial statements to find that information um and then looking at the fund balance um so that's your cash balance so I just I'm trying to show a correlation between cash balance and fund balance and there's a very specific correlation here so in that played true also so in 24 FY 24 because when you look at the fund balance reduction that was 21.8 million and so there's a very strong cor correlation between the two there's only a not a strong correlation if you have additional debt or something else that has U affected it besides just your fund balance change okay but generally those are going to be very strongly correlated um so then for 2425 uh State Cash Loan in uh increase from $0 to an estimated of 15 million for 2425 that's how I started talking to Anthony on a regular basis is that wow that's that's a big increase between years originally we thought it was going to be seven and a half million and and so there's a couple of causations of why that happened first of all is you're looking at the property tax increase between 22 2022 and 2023 um that's when we saw our large increase in assess valuation so so that actually wasn't that was only part of the story of why we have to borrow now so our cash flow really started to deteriorate in that year partially because of that because of that seasonality um in 22 23 but then we also started using that cash um for 2324 and then into 2425 um and for for items that were planned already um that we're going to go into next okay um so actually I'm going to pass this to anony first before I go into that um and have him talk a little bit about um what what the generalities are of what they look at um with the fund balance and how that um affects the the fiscal health of the organization absolutely and uh thank you guys for having me again tonight um so to kind of summarize the way I first describe it to people school districts get paid effectively three times a year um outside of State share Equalization which used to come in every single month um now it's coming in every nine months um if you're a locally funded School District um which a lot of Resort communities are uh you get paid in March May and June of every single year and so that fund balance that you carry over every single year you start you know paying salaries and benefits in July you have to float all the way until March right so if your starting fund balance gets lower and lower and lower what you're trying to do now is you're trying to float effectively nine months um until you get your first real paycheck right so like if I would to budget that um out for like myself um you know imagining I get paid three times a year I would want substantial reserves on the side in case anything popped up um and what's been happening over the state or in the state over the last handful of years is taking your total program funding which is how um schools get funded in the state you know it goes through its iterations every single year um if you just hold that constant right and you take your breakdown of your state share which is what the state picks up and then your property tax funding so if your assess value goes up that shifts most of the onus on the districts right so um then and more importantly those three payments get larger and larger and larger your state share goes down so instead of receiving you know a steady paycheck from on the state every single month um you can be that it's reduced down and down and down um and the district now is receiving about a third of its total program funding um in state share and two-thirds from property taxes so what happens is if that starting balance gets lower um you need to what how it's transpired reach out to the state the state offers an interest free Loan program which The District participates in you know many many other school districts across the state do um but it's becoming a a larger program every single year just because every single district is going through effectively the same thing right expenses um stay flat if not increased due to salary pressures or what have you um and revenues are generally the same um so what happens is those loans get larger and larger and larger um and if your starting balance gets smaller um don't want to steal chrisy Thunder but your your loan goes up pretty precipitously very it goes up very very quickly um it's not just like a one toone increase it's right like if my starting balance goes down to start the year off in July U my loan goes up a dollar um it goes up considerably because you have to float a lot longer um with just less money so that any question questions as far as that's got it thanks Anthony um so so when we were talking with Anthony I've been talking about like well so what does that look like as far as what you would want to see um for fiscal health and for cash flow situation in this District's case and in most District's case um as far as a percent um in available cash compared to the total expenses and really what his Benchmark is is 20% that really shows that they have adequate cash to cover you know and and that they're not dipping so low we're not dipping so low in our fun balance that we're going to end up at the negative in the in the at the end of the year so so there there is a kind of a benchmark that they use for that and and just to give you an idea of where we're currently at it's 22% um the plan reduction um in fund balance for 2425 uh an estimated right now um is is that we it would bring us down to about 15% so it's below that so it starts to get a little bit in the orange Zone you know with that um and the cash flow um and and the next point that on this slide is really what Anthony was talking about with the use of the state Loan program multiplies and not adds to the increasing loan amount because of the compounding effect of lower lower cash balances month over month so in December you think you're going to be at like last year you're at a positive 3 million you know and then the next year you're at like zero well then in January between years then it goes down pretty significantly each year depending like because then it starts to compound itself because you have more months that you have to borrow so you get into a deeper hole if you will is kind of what I'm trying to explain and so when we're looking at this there's a very complicated spreadsheet that we don't want you know to have to explain publicly because it is very complicated but but basically it's it's a good spreadsheet and and it's it put into place um for for a very good reason to make sure to check these kind of things uh from cash flow perspective as well as fund balance and fiscal Health that that spreadsheet showing that like given what we're anticipating we're going to decrease in our cash flow balance that it looks like we're going to go from 15 million to an estimated 35 million and so then that gets Us close to one of the top borrowers in the state um just because we're we're just getting close on our minimum fund balance so it it just really um that's what Anthony keeps calling me every month about are we sure you're going to go down and additional 13 million for the next year I'm like I've checked it three or four times you know and we've confirmed it multiple times this information um and we've had all these different conversations but um but that's kind of our discussion that we've had um pretty much twice a month now is what and making sure that we're not missing anything because this when it gets into cash flow like this I mean that's when you got to make sure that you've got enough cash to pay your payroll so we have to get really tight on that spreadsheet to make sure it's accurate and there isn't any surprise because it's really hard to determine a timing so then it becomes a timing issue of when we receive a grant from the state versus when we have to pay our payroll versus when we have a big contract that we're paying for um something in our capital projects fund all of those things start to matter and that's why this work becomes pretty depthful pretty quickly um and making sure that we're still um meeting the mark that we still need to meet um in a low cash flow environment okay um so other considerations with fund balance uh so um fund balance is the only thing that protects the district from the needed uh from the need of immediate layoffs or Cuts in certain situations and those situations do occur so like Black Swan events is something that nobody ever wants to talk about but um but definitely um those things do happen um the state does have M your Cuts if there's something that happens un like catastrophic um that would be very unfortunate but those things do happen or in the district um those things can happen is that you have something happen on a capital side or something like that that that is immediate and it needs um to be resolved with finances um self- Insurance uh issue um so if we wouldn't have had any cash flow balance or cash fund balance what would we have done to have to show up that 1.9 million um budget errors and omissions um those things I mean in a human system um those things do happen um and and especially when you have transitions between people or uh in the situations that we've seen sometimes there it just happens um we try to minimize that as much as possible but um it's going to take a year for me to discover all the errors in the budget and the missions and some of the the challenges that were facing State reductions and lower student count that's something that we really try to capture um we have a demographer and uh uh that we're working with that has really tried to capture that and make sure that we've got all of the relevant information but there's things that happen with that that can lower our student count um even below an estimate that we see as conservative because we don't want to be too conservative right um unforeseeable expense emergencies um so those things happen impacts of uh being a high level cash flow Bower on the organization uh staff time lack of flexibility potential um substantial cut if the state Loan program changes uh that is something that the legislature can change and so they can increase um our interest rate that they're going to charge us they can do other things with that so we just have to be thoughtful on that as we're moving into the state Loan program in a big way less recurring interests I did some calculations on that and it's 115,000 in the supplemental budget for 2425 but it's going to be closer to plus 600,000 630,000 is my estimate for 25 26 is what we're going to lose in uh interest earnings so because we had a 25 budget of $997,000 almost a million dollars so that takes 23ds of that away uh lower Bond rating potentially and higher borrowing costs uh and less flexibility for district needs once the fund balance is spent spent um Anthony because this is really a place of your expertise could you speak a little bit more to bond rating and higher borrowing costs and some of the impacts there absolutely um so one half of our b or my business I guess um is administering the Loan program on behalf of the state probably takes up most of my time but uh considering there's like 30 to 40 districts the other half of it um is working with districts on General obligation bonds um certificates of participation different financing needs to help school districts so obviously with the most recent election it's been a very very busy last few months um but what we've been doing and we actually had one this morning um are rating calls with rating agencies and while they don't necessarily see that districts participate in the cash flow Loan program um because if you think about it the loan is taken out and repaid within you know a certain fiscal year so there's really no um impact on your financial statements they do see your fund balance um and fund balance as Christy pointed out is not exactly the same as cash balance but for all intents and purposes they're very very close um and more and more frequently we've seen um rating agencies pay very close attention to fund balance because on most districts across the state outside of you know kind of random little occurrences um they are declining um for the exact reason that we laid out um revenues just can't keep up with expenses no matter how you slice it whether that's um you know the issue to a cop that they you know have no recurring revenue for or pupil counts going down or whatever else or blacks one events as we mentioned like you know roofs coming down or floods or whatever that has to get paid out of your general fund right you don't have Bond money set aside for that um so during those conversations um most most of it um revolves around that fund balance and if they do see a steady decline year-over year in your guys or not particularly you guys but in just a fund balance um it is a point of concern um and certainly uh when you add in all of the other states obligations between pensions and what have you um it really starts to make these ratios that we see look out of whack um so it is something to be um cognizant of um if the district you know has any future financing needs whether it be a goo Bond or a cop or what have you um because it does certainly come into um the conversation then and it's hard to quantify how much exactly um it impacts you know specific rates um that a district would get but it is certainly higher a lower Bond rating it's a higher rate all for all intents and purposes even with the state intercept program which most districts use um so it is something to be aware of um but not you know an immediate need or an immediate concern you thanks Anthony um we go to the next slide uh so this is the staff recommendation uh for for myself and the superintendent um is that we do not alter our District's fund balance policy and we do not utilize fund balance below the minimum to resolve current budget issues as much as we can uh there's going to be things that are going to come up that might hit us out of left field but really to work hard uh to try to mitigate those things um as we've been doing through the supplemental budget and other things uh throughout this whole this whole school year really pretty much since I've been here um so that's our recommendation and that's why uh and looking at potential next steps uh is taking time to look at the 2526 budget once approved uh any additional losses uncovered uh reasonable fund balance for deferred maintenance for Capital items that's something we really haven't talked about we have we are anticipating a zero balance in our capital reserve account and so we have nothing saved for either xan events that were discussed if the you know floods are H having forbid any of those things happen um and our deferred maintenance which are things that we know are going to happen but that we have to save up for over time and a great example is roofs because roofs are millions of dollars on on for example high school and we don't really have anything saved for that right now so it's that's something that we just need to consider as we're moving forward um so and then looking how we can slowly increase the district fund balance back over time um I know Shana pen when she was here she did have a fairly uh good fund balance that she had built throughout that time but it takes a while and because you know it's it's definitely something that you have to look closely and make sure that it's not coming at the impact to kids or or students or staff and and how to balance that very carefully and that's why I would recommend a different a new conversation around this and then um reviewing the existing fund Ms policy um and if you would Anthony had suggested using expenses as a back Benchmark he sees a lot I've I've done that also just to look at the Benchmark and see what the board and the superintendent obviously feels comfortable with um looking into the future now uh and then reducing the financial risk of the organization um just continuing the conversation I think that that really everybody understanding the impacts of our fund balance is critical to the organization it's once again an education uh of the entire organization and understanding it and then within that education then we can get to our best solution moving forward okay are there any questions thank you so much directors we will now have five minutes for sorry each board member will now have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we'll begin with director def fredes hi all can you hear me okay hello is that all right if I talk like this you can hear me yes great thanks um thank you for that presentation and uh the memo was very helpful to follow along with and refer to um I really don't have any questions about the content so thank you director after great thanks thanks for coming out and traveling to visit us um we appreciate your expertise here tonight um and thank you also chrisy and Anna um can you just explain again the Taber balance part we need to keep 3% set aside for Taber what what four will we ever um have to pay that back to taxpayers for example or what's the what's the purpose there that is a really great question thank you um that was part of what was passed um quite a while ago a couple decades ago with the taxpayers Bill of Rights is that they require a 3% minimum fund balance um for all school districts and so that is considered something that um is is not movable I mean so at least we have to have that 3% and the district has chosen on top of that to to have an additional 10% so so that is always going to be there in our fun balance regardless of any decision moving forward because of that legislation and um the Bill of Rights I think that was passed by the voters is that right yeah okay yeah um and part of the the program that we administer on behalf of the state and it ranges anywhere from like 800 million to over a billion dollars annually for all school districts um it's obviously interest free to schools um but it is not interest free to the state to issue the debt um you know in more over the last handful of years since Co it's more and more expensive so it's a very real expense to the state um all that said uh what we do is we through the spreadsheet that's very complicated uh we require districts to spend down all of their available um general fund cash before they you know reach out to a loan you can think of it effectively as a bridge loan um that a business would use um so that's a short-term financing like that um and right off the top we take out fund Bal or take out the table Reserve um so in a very very dire situation um that taper Reserve should still always be there and should never be touched um because for our purposes you know once you spend down all of your cash you still have that taper Reserve locked away in a bank somewhere hopefully generating interest um and then you can you know go ahead and apply for a loan thanks um what are the risks of the state Loan program not remaining solvent or not being improved in this year or future years I don't and I don't want to speak well on behalf of like the legislature itself um but this program has existed for the last 20 some odd years okay um in effectively the same manner um we've been very adamant in its Administration we've been working um with the state on it since its Inception um there's never been a school district that's default because of how closely we watch it that said um as districts go from borrowing zero to quickly borrowing um over a handful of years and we can kind of see how it'll play out which is why I'm obviously here tonight to explain it to you guys or help explain it um we do monitor it very closely we only allow districts to borrow up to a certain amount um which is 70% generally of whatever you guys are going to collect in your property tax in um for the for the entire year um reason being is that if you're only going to see you know call it $100 million we wouldn't allow you to take out a loan more than 70 million um just so the district will have you know money on the side in addition to um you know sometimes we get these spreadsheets back and we're going to borrow more than we're going to receive and like well how are you going to repay that um I don't foresee a situation where the state would stop administering this program um they've actually enacted the shift last year um the change of leg legislature to shift those Equalization of those State share payments from 12 months to nine months um and for most borrowers that has had a noble impact not for you know the very very large ones like Denver and Cherry Creek Etc um but anybody that's on the cusp having nine uh equal dispersements versus 12 has helped out considerably especially this year um for reasons we won't necessarily get into but um State share increased dramatically for pretty much every single District across the state um from the month of December going into January once they started TR up every single value U between people count assess value so I just have one more question for you that's okay um it seems like you have a lot of experience working with districts across the state uh including those with declining enrollment so just wonder for if you could share your assessment on how from your perspective how dire our situation is um compared to others you've worked with yeah I I wouldn't say it's necessarily more dire in terms of people count um but what happens with people count and they're trying to adjust for this because again every single year they're making changes to the school Finance uh formula um we really think about it in terms of your total program funding so lower people lower people count shrinks that pie how that Pi is comprised um is largely how kind of we interact um with districts as far as like how much you need to borrow um so if that pie is shrinking it becomes more and more difficult um without you know somehow cutting expenses or increasing revenues so those are really the two ways you kind of get out of this situation um or any situation across the state and again it's not unique um there are a lot of District to call us and say hey we can't make payroll next week and that that that's a big problem um we're well in advance of that you know you know have um all of our bases covered um so it's not extremely Dire from that situation um but I will say that we do see these again occur going from zero borrowing to 15 million to an anticipated you know 30 to $40 million next year um that's when we start to right now would say it's yellow flag um next year it would be more of a red flag because you can't continue to do that um pretty much have a one to twoe Runway of spending down fund balance like that and then after that um then it's really you know you need to it's there are no really Alternatives other than increasing revenues or decreasing expenses the only way you increase revenues are increase pup count uh pass a mill of the override um and then you know decreasing expenses there a handful of ways to do that but we won't need to get into those thanks a lot director titler Anthony thank you for being here appreciate that my first question is can you explain explain the bullet on the cash flow and fund balance that has the two big bullets that where it says our estimated cash need to borrow increases from 15 million to 35 million I thought we were talking that we were going to be borrowing 15 million is that 35 million for a future year and why would it be more in the future year yeah absolutely um and I think Christy laid this out pretty well um so Z dollars last year you guys spent down fund balance um and again fund balance and cash balance aren't necessarily the same you don't pay salaries and benefits and that's what I largely care about um is we make sure salaries and benefits get paid that's the most important thing and that comes from your cash um your fund balance doesn't always exactly translate to your cash you know there's timings of Grants um there's a handful of other things but whatever is in your bank account is how you're going to pay um whatever your expenses are for that month um so if you spend that down every year um your starting cash balance is lower regardless of whatever happens to your fund balance because it can be you know random unassigned stuff there can be bonds thrown in there um whatever but your cash balance is lower year-over-year so what happens is again if that shift from the state share um to locally funded which has been the case generally across since covid um continues to occur uh the district is now more responsible for paying those or I guess backtrack so your expenses stay the exact same year-over year um and your source of Revenue now is just deferred until March so instead of you know having enough fund balance on hand to float a little bit longer say you can um wait all the way until January and take out a loan which is the situation that we're in now now you're having to borrow in November and by nature of this program we already require your um operating or general um general fund balance or general operating money to be zero um if you're already at zero in November now you have to float December January February and then wait until March um again just keeping everything else the same um so you have to now borrow for four or five months versus just the one to two months um which is more typical for districts generally the cash flow low point for districts is right before um you know you think you get most of your property taxes which is January and February if districts start coming to us in December and then November and then October um the earlier it gets the longer you have to float and the higher your borrowing gets I mean 35 million would put you like three or four in the state which coming from zero to your or last year um would be a very substantial increase and that would probably warrant intention from um the state as well it doesn't necessarily come back to the district but we similar to those rating conversations we have rating conversations on behalf of the state um for these notes that we sell you know the how the uh cash flow Lo program gets funded and they do pay attention to the largest borrowers in the program in anybody that's popped up New year-over Year um because it'll show you like we show them a table it's like how much did they borrow last year how much are they borrowing this year um and what percentage of the program are they so if you borrow of zero and then you pop up it's like wait a minute like you know we'll flag it and we'll need to call it out it doesn't it's not more than a two-minute conversation but um it does get called out by the state and um treasury is aware of it thank you for that explanation I'm still not quite understanding though why from 15 million to 35 million is is it that the expectation that because we're expecting that our property taxes are going to continue to take a bigger amount or why are we going from 15 to 35 yeah so I I guess operationally like um I think specifically how we came up with that number from 15 to 35 um what we yeah I can explain it you can feel free to add in um what we did is we took the anticipated um spend down this year um in your guys' cash balance and just plug that back into the start of the spreadsheet so saying your revenues and consist revenues and expenses are the exact same as they are this year if you just start with a different cash balance your B your borrowing amount then goes from 15 million to 35 million um keeping everything else consistent obviously that's not the case because there's going to be you know budgetary adjustments and what have you um but if you did the exact same thing as this year as you did uh or I guess the exact same thing in 20 fiscal year 25 26 as you did in 20425 um that's how we came up with the 35 million and it wasn't needed 35 million this year because of um because we're looking at um reducing our cash flow balance by 13 million from for this year for this year and most of that and I you know is the restricted and unrestricted amount so that is a lot of the metalwood the finish of that completion of that project was like you know roughly 10 million and then and then spending that fund balance down to zero on our capital projects fund all those are pretty impactful on our cash flow balance as well as some of the the items that we're showing um that $3 million deficit um that you'll see in the supplemental budget so that generally is how we got to the $13 million number and that was what we were having to confirm back and forth is he were saying are you sure you're going to spend another 13 million in fund balance or in cash flow and I was like let me check on that and so then I just kept just diving into the spreadsheet for hours just to make sure that that all of the um numbers were scrubbed accurately and really discovered it was around that capital projects issue and then some of the other things we were seeing on our general fund balance that we are going to discuss further on our supplemental budget okay thank you when you talk about a lower Bond rating or higher borrowing costs is that for future borrowing or current borrowing like if we have a cop right now is that going to affect the cop that we currently have so are a little bit interesting because we don't in the state of Colorado Bond monies is from like a general obligation you know you pass in November or effectively walled off um you can't touch that money you can't pay salaries and benefits for it we get that question all the time um that's its own thing completely separate cops however are funded from your general fund so for all intents and purposes whether it's in one account or another that money is fungible um meaning you know you can transfer it back and forth between to pay a cop to pay salaries and Ben benefits or whatever else you need to pay for out of the general fund um and mostly um I would say it's for anticipated future borrowing um so not what's outstanding however uh rating agencies do annual or periodic Credit reviews where they do look at your guys' audit year-over year and will see you know a spend down and a fund balance whether that warrants a downgrade um not exactly sure but it's unlikely highly unlikely um but that being said it is something probably um pop up and I would assume you guys probably get you know um messages from Moody's or S&P or whoever rated your guys' last cop issuance with that exact thing um so they do annual credit checks um for the exact same reason so that they will see that but um you know those bonds are already issued um even if they do get downgraded you already have a fixed rate that you're paying for them so the rate wouldn't change uh the rating could potentially change rate wouldn't change rate won't change no okay thank you and then my last question I have is just at the very end of these slides where the last bullet it says reduce the Financial Risk to the organization and I'm sorry right above that review existing fund balance policy use expenses as a benchmark can you explain what it means to use expenses as a benchmark and how that has to do with the fund balance policy yeah um so it's just a little bit interesting when I when Christy first showed me the fund the district's fund balance um and good on you guys for having one that's in you know in writing a lot of districts don't even have that um but if you think about it in terms of okay just say your total expenses are $100 million and your total revenues are $50 million if your fund balance policy is based off of those revenues and you just use the 10% you only need $5 million in reserves however um if you keep if your expenses are so much higher um really like that's the more important part so got it thank you yeah no problem well thank you again on behalf of the board for being with us here today um I had a couple comments I think um obviously we're not voting on this tonight this is just for our information and for The public's information um I do think that um just in conversations we've been having as a team um I feel like as a board member I have voice that I believe we should increase our fund balance number in our policy I think that um us taking out the loan this year and through conversations we had with Paul that there were significant concerns from um from those of us that spoke with him about the possibility that should the program the state Loan program um close as it did in I think the last recession 2008 um that we would sort of be left with this debt and so um you know I first and foremost I wanted to make sure that I stress that I hope that our board and our district is eventually at a place where we can increase that number and that expectation of what our fund balance looks like um I also um had a suggestion and I'm not sure if this is something that we would ask um of our CFO um but I do Wonder uh chrisy if your recommendation couldn't be made um to the board in a for a formal vote for a set time of how long you want us to keep this fund balance um because right now you know it's obviously a discussion and it you guys left it open to basically just saying this year or next year um but just thinking of the district and the forward Fe ing goals that we have um and also the debt that we have as of today like I do Wonder should this be something that we codify um and that we say like we are committed for the next five years to maintain this fun balance because as we all know we have transitions in our team and things could change thank you for that uh director Ramirez um I think that the best timeline to to do that in my best assumption right now looking forward into things is to get through this fiscal budget year for 25 26 then we really then first of all I'm fully trained on all of our you know the the programs we use and things like that um and understand depthly all of the intricacies of the budget um so that we can include all of those kind of things in that conversation so my best estimate would be someone in the first quarter or the second quarter of next fiscal year would be a really great time to have that discussion before the next budget cycle before the 26 27 budget cycle correct okay um I mean I I don't disagree I understand the time restraints that we have and capacity as well um again I just want to make sure I state that recommendation to the team because I do think that just of the moment that we're in um you know having a safety net for us I think would be really important um I did have just one question on the state loan what is you know I know that we approved it and I know that we had this conversation at our last board meeting but what is the timeline for our repayment yeah um actually in the resolution and doesn't always happen exactly this way but those funds when you do receive your first substantial property tax payment in March technically proba resolution they're due uh the following business day it doesn't always happen that way right banks are Clos the weekend whatever um so assuming it's sometime within the next week um because if you think about it from the state's perspective um the longer the money is Lent out to districts um the more it costs them right if it just sits in their account and they collect interest on it it's not a big deal but we do need to spend that money so by all intensive purposes like the money is there to spend for people um but it should be within um one business stay and then should the property taxes not be sufficient to cover um the amount of the loan um it's all it's all broken out in the spreadsheet you would just go to repay whatever amount you're able to and then you just pay it back with the May payment um so March May and June are the big property tax months if you can't repay it all in March you're pay it in May if you can't repay it in May pay it in June but if we get to June then we're probably you know a little bit more involved in it last year all their loans were repaid by May and what are are there fees associated with this if it's not uh if there's no repayment well if I'm assuming that the team is supposed to reach out to you to let you know yeah the amount they can pay uh yeah so we on a ongoing basis which is a lot of christe's time um and my time with this uh we monitor your monthly revenues and expenditures um and then have it forecasted out based on like the last handful of years of collection so we have a general idea of how much you're going to get in March um if those numbers are sub substantially different right like a major taxpayer or something like is is beeding their taxes or whatever which happens somewhat frequently and like think like oil and gas districts for example um then it does start to get delayed but we do monitor it extremely extremely closely so um if it comes down to you know us talking to the County Treasurer to see how much fund or how much money was deposited and I think that is public information um we do go to that extent um sometimes to track down this money um sometimes for various reasons the County Treasurer doesn't send payment and we've had that happen before as well um for example like an audit not being filed or something else um you know then the state gets involved um to try to figure out the like where the funds are um but as far as fees there aren't any fees um and then like I said in the history of this program through the great financial crisis through uh the dotc com bubble of 2001 um every single loan has been repaid in a timely manner from every single District that's participated okay thank you again for being here with us today welcome okay we are now going to have five minutes for open discussion if board members have anything else to add I don't no let see assum she doesn't okay thank you so much thank you thank you no one nobody okay okay at this time we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board there are zero speakers sign up tonight the board allots 45 minutes for public comment to respect the the time of all who are present speakers are to limit their remarks to 3 minutes or less um members of the public who wish to share their views with the board may always do so in writing at any time for this evening's public comment we w we receive zero written comments okay the next business in order is the approval of the consent agenda which includes routine Personnel minutes from our previous board meeting and policies jlc D GB a LBD and regulations jkb a-r and lb d-r directors are there any items that you would like to pull off the Cent agenda for a separate discussion and vote I would like to please pull off LBD and lbdr please do I have a second I can second it you want to Second it sure okay call for a vote please director hi director dees are you there yes I I okay thank you um director Ramirez I and director titler I okay we will now open we'll have uh two minutes for each board member to discuss LBD and lb d-r can director titler would you like to start yes please in LBD in the first paragraph it says that the Board of Education believes that the district in Charter School enrollment should represent the communities they serve and that students should have Equitable access to resources and services and I know it is something that we had discussion with with Charter Schools when we had their contracts about representing the demographics of our community and our district and being that as a district we are 58% Latino in our districts and at ccs currently it's only 30% Latino and at Two Rivers it's only 35% Latino and I feel like that is something that we need to have as a continued conversation and I know there's some feedback you can give um Dr Cole about State Statute and what is allowed or not allowed in contracts but I feel like we need to continue to bring up this issue that we have two charter schools in our district and those two Charter Schools do not match our District's demographics yeah this you know it's been a a real priority of this board that the charter schools that we authorize are serving a student population that that reflects the student population that we have as a district and um and that's that's been that was a really important piece of the contract um process is to rivers became a charter school as CCS was reauthorized three years ago um and you know to be honest in our work and not honest but it's just it's just who they are as schools Carbondale community school and Two Rivers Community School also share that desire um their leadership their boards uh are really focused and really truly believe that their schools and their programs and their models are going to best serve the the diversity of students at the Roaring Fork schools pools and serves and so I don't think that there's misalignment in the priority and and in the commitment to trying to do that work I think the sticky piece comes in in actually to how far do they go and how far can they go in terms of getting the demographics to match both ccs and trcs have lotteries for application um that waight students of color um students from families experiencing um or students from families with uh incomes below the federal poverty level and emerging bilingual students are weighted much higher in their lotteries and to really ensure that when student students in those special populations apply they get admitted and so part of the challenge then would say well then it must be the applications that they're we're not getting a diverse enough set of applications and I think that's been a hard piece for the schools I don't think that there's misalignment in the goals and priorities with the with the charters I think um the devil's kind of in the details of how this works out and um and as we got into this work and we working on you know updating the policy because of some State Statute timelines that we needed to review this issue came up again and raised a lot of great questions for the board for admin a couple things we learned is that if we're going to you know any sort of real expectations requirements the strength for us is really in our contract not necessarily our policy um these policies really lay out the process of how applications should happen how new schools that want to get started would come to us and so I do think and the and the recommendation and again as we've dug in with legal councel on this um they have advised us that if if we're going to really have strength in that expectation the place for that is the contract um as the board's aware we the our Charter contracts are up for renewal in the 26 27 school year so we'll actually start that process next year and I think that what we'll hear and conversations with our Charter leaders which we've been hearing at our school visits this year is that they are they share that priority and um I think they're struggling to develop an application pool that reflects the diversity of the community that would then result in an incoming class that better reflects the diversity of the community so I think that's a sticky piece that we need to work on um you know the the further recommendation from legal council also stated that there's limits to what we can legally require and set up some sort of um penalty or like there's we're Limited in in the extent to which we can require this um what we can require in our recommendations from legal was that we can um expect that we we can I'm going to read some language from our lawyer so I don't get it wrong that we can safely consider whether any of the charter schools practices have the effect of excluding students based on socioeconomic family or language background and so that where where we could really lean in is making sure that our Charters say and here's recommended language does like the charter schools do not establish undo barriers to students applying for enrollment such as mandated testing that would have the effect of excluding students based on so socioeconomic family or language background prior academic performance special education status or parental involvement so the the recommendation is that we talk about reducing barriers not necessarily holding to the to the the demographic mix I'll pause there for questions I guess my follow-up question to that would be when speaking to the school leaders at the charter schools what kind of response have they given to you of about things that they are trying to understand that yes that they want this to match what kind of things are happening to get us in that place yeah you know the the weighted Lottery is a key lever um because it ensures in a lot of ways that um students of color students from low socioeconomic um families with low socioeconomic status are are going to have a direct shot into placement um that's a big piece that they our Charters don't necessarily have to have a weighted Lottery but they they do and so I think that's a that's a commitment um I think I I don't know offhand but we can certainly reach out to them in terms of the like Outreach communication recruitment what are what's what's happening in that realm because I don't know the specifics about that but we could certainly ask what they're doing again to try to get an application pool that's more diverse so that their placements become more diverse that would be great if you could come back to us with that information because it's great that the lotteries are weighted but if they're not getting the applying to help with the weighted lotteries then that's not is not going to pan out yep so I would like to hear back on how often how regularly what kind of things are being done to do that thank you yeah director after um yeah thanks I wasn't sure which um policies you wanted to bring up for discussion so I didn't look at these ones again since last time or two weeks ago but I agree with the sentiment from director Tyler on um the desire to have these publicly funded schools represent the makeup of the constituency um whole cloth and it's disappointing that they don't I also understand that these are um policies required that have to be um completed and approved by the end of next month I think by the end of February so I understand what you're saying that the the teeth of trying to hold the charter schools to a standard that isn't currently in a contract or in a written expectation that they've agreed to it seems like that we're like a year ahead of that process now um and so we should be ready for that discussion when it comes up but the the legal counsel or the legal advice you just read is interesting in that context too and maybe a bit of a wrinkle um and I you know just a reminder that those the two charter schools in our district have separate boards and so I don't even know what what we're allowed to do given that they don't even really report to us in the same way so um good food for thought but I am wondering if we're going to approve this policy tonight well it's on the agenda to be voted on okay so after we discuss it we'll okay or vote on it sorry yeah director fredes yeah thanks um I think I shared my comments when this policy was discussed last week and from my understanding it seems like the appropriate time to address this with the charter schools and their boards is during the contract process um I'm a little hesitant to ask for further reporting from staff right now I think that the timeline of that information is better connected to the discussion of the contracts knowing that we'll need a lot of lead time and we definitely don't want to lead it to the last minute leave it to the last minute but um I I would be comfortable waiting until staff feels like it's the appropriate time to do that work and and guide the conversation along can I comment sure um I I appreciate that director Freddy's I'll be honest the lift for me knowing the priority that the school leaders at ccs and trcs have around this topic um the lift for me is just asking them to give us a quick update on what they're Outreach efforts look like for this year and especially as we head into like kindergarten enrollment and I know um because they do care about this they would would probably frankly welcome the chance to share with with this board what they're up to and what they're working on so I don't um I don't think it's too big of a lift and really it's just me I'll reach out for a question they'll send me an email update I'll pass it on to the board thanks that's helpful yeah um I'll just share you know obviously this is something that has been brought up many times we've had many conversations around the contract the charter renewal the charter contract what was omitted was the conversations we had um I think you know I agree that it I do think that we need to as proactively as possible start having conversations on um what we're hoping for the charter Charter renewal process to look like and um the conversations that I think need to be Tak taking place with the boards and with the leadership um of our district Charter Schools um and I also think that you know I understand director titler your concerns on the policies but you know I do think that I agree that these policies are more for the process of having District Charters and then we have the contracted itself which I do think should carry the commitment from all of us as part involved to say this is what we want to collectively work towards um at in our partnership um and so I I do think again that it's important for us as a board to restate that this is important to us that we want to work on this and that we want to bring all of the partners involved forward sooner rather than later um and um and I think I just want to stress that I I know it's the contract years 26 27 the vote on that should happen with the board that exists not be pushed over to the next board yeah you know I'm not exactly sure on how the timing works in my head it was always the like okay we have to 26 27 is year it's up so I want to make sure that we start it next year and do the works of revision and revising and language and you know all the kind of contract renot negotiations because I yeah let's I'll I'll double check on that timing of when that happens so oh because that's an election year so I think we need to be very that's a really good point to push the V at that timeline totally get it yes because that conversation needs to take place coming yes let's make sure that we have that timelined out for the early you know to finish the work by the early fall of 26 27 school year so that's what I'm hearing right yes okay got it we ready for a vote I just like that we have that followup five minutes right yes I would like to also ask if we can get some kind of demographics of has there been change over these last three years since we had the contracts put in place because to my understanding there hasn't been a change in the percentage of demographics or maybe have but my understanding is if it has it's been minimal we should all be able to pull that data right off of school view on cde's website um so maybe let's yeah we should be able to look at that demographic history for and for the schools and I just would like to make like a little bit of an analogy as teachers when we're trained in teachers they say it's not enough that you taught it it has to like you can't say oh I taught that but they didn't get it well if that's the case as a teacher you're supposed to say well you need to teach it in a different way then and so I don't feel like saying we're trying to get our demographics up is enough because yes I understand you're trying but if it's not happening something different has to happen in that sense and so I believe there needs to be if it's not working and they're unable to raise those demog graphics and they need to try something else that they haven't done yet for vote please I think we need do we have a motion to approve oh yes I guess we should make a motion can I get a motion to approve policies go back to which ones we pulled policy LBD and regulation M lb d-r regulation I make a motion to vote on LBD and lbdr have a second second director after I director def fres I director rire I director titler I pass thank you okay the next business in order is first read and discussion on policies JB JF and regulation IB c-r and a second read a regulation J k-r each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we will begin with director Dees sorry can you come back to me I'm having trouble with background noise sure direct after sure thanks um I don't have any questions about JB on JF this is the one on admission and denial of admission I added a few um questions I'll just talk voice over them here um I'm trying to understand when the board would ever make the decision to deny a student admission where it says denial of admission under the second heading the Board of Education or the superintendent may deny admission to the schools of the district in accordance with applicable law is that meant as like a macro statement it's meant um well one the the board it's a board policy but actually in practice what happens is is if there is a denial of admission it is typically treated in the same process as you might have an expulsion meaning there's a hearing there's a whole process and everything and then they have the opportunity to appeal in which case it would come to the board that timeline is the same okay the way I interpreted it was that we would deny it admission to like a new student um okay and then my other question on this one is um I put a comment in but why are only so where it refers to mckin vento that's the students experiencing homelessness the way this reads is that to me was that um students experiencing homelessness would be able to enroll immediately why would we not allow anyone to enroll immediately if they so choose um sometimes we would uh require birth certificates proof of address um immunization records for children prior to admission um and we have I think some board policies and practices around that those things need to be in place and for students experiencing homelessness um they don't have to produce those things we just get them enrolled right away and so um there is not that kind of uh there's just not that kind of delay for those sorts of pieces like the immunization expectations are waved um for kid Faith effort to contact District yes sorry sorry St I there's a good faith effort for something like imization and it's in ilbc I think it's not that one actually but it's the one on immunizations but for a student experiencing homelessness they could enroll right away and wouldn't be prevented from enrolling because they had not yet produced IM immunization paperwork for example we still make an attempt to get it from the previous District in which they attended but we would deny admission to another to a student who is you know comfortably housed need to produce that and so when they produce that then they can start and typically it's within a couple days and and we do I mean we have strengthened practices and about um requiring proof of address for students to enter school and so um you know that that could be a piece especially if if a student is applying for um admission out of District in a school that's at capacity that we might say hey you know what we really need to see the proof of address that you've moved into the district um because the third grade it this school that you're looking for is actually closed to out of District or opt-in students right now um and so we would delay in those cases and sometimes even deny admission if we're at a capacity Max for say students out a district um but for students experiencing homelessness again there's no delay no expectation of a proof like proof of address in those cases um is Bridges an exception to this policy this policy or this what do you mean um my understanding was that students can matriculate into Bridges um on more of an ongoing basis as as they choose is that not right within the district there's uh for Bridges and there on the hexter so every six weeks they have the rolling admission at the six week Mark are you talking about out of District admission uh no I'm talking about students who no who would be in District they can just no I'm talking about students who would be in District and maybe go to Bridges unenroll reenroll yes they they can unenroll and reenroll I don't even understand your question if you can repeat it okay maybe I'm I'll move on because I actually the policy does apply to Bridges this would be for all the schools in the district okay but then I guess I was confused because Anna you were saying that a a student might we require proof of address for specific grade or class it would be so a student who lives within the attendance zone of the school is guaranteed a spot in that school at any time of year and so in order to so if it's you know past the registration date or after October count or whatnot and a student let's say comes in December or January what not and said we live in the area I live in the attendance Zone they are asked to produce proof that they indeed live in the attendance Zone in those cases whether a grade level is at capacity doesn't matter because they are guaranteed a spot but let's imagine it yes and so we asked for proof of that because if the student actually is not living within the attendance Zone which includes living out of district and there is not a requirement for the school to take the student at that time when they can deny admission okay thank you sorry I was being confusing um I blew all my time on this policy and do have questions about the read just I have two extra minutes okay thank you um sorry I'm just regarding ibcr it looks like this is the regulation but had a policy we had the I'm assuming we have the legal policy in place and what we were lacking according to the staff memo was this regulation is that right yes okay um can you just clarify who's the responsible teacher or staff person for identifying when a student should be on a read plan and I'm partly wondering out of personal experience because of my own children I didn't know this really was a thing until I read it this weekend and I was thinking why wasn't my kid on a read plan I feel like something was missed maybe and so I'm wondering where that like notification is or the decision to put someone on a read plan is and that's not it's not made explicit in this policy so students who are designated as having a significant reading deficiency based on our read after approve assessments which are the dibles in English and then nidel I'm sorry leura in Spanish um are those identified as those required to have a read plan and so all the students who fall below um making a um sufficient growth or um reading at grade level would be identified as needing a read plan that communication um the teachers create the read plans and the school does is responsible for communicating to the parents of the students who have been identified as needing a re plan that they are in fact on a re plan um typically happens in the conferences uh in the fall conference that occurs there's also the March conference that timing because October and March are before and after the midyear uh middle of year re um assessment window that communication often happens before then okay um and does it usually happen in your experience is it usually happening in kindergart it says kindergarten 1 second or third um in my discussions with kindergarten teachers it seemed like there was a general sense that kindergarten is a little too early to do this we wait and see how things go in first and second grade the kindergarten beginning of your assessment is typically TS gold which is the sort of the kindergarten Readiness that is also done in ECE the um mid year or sorry end of year I think is when they have the Dibbles and leura assessment the kindergarten first and second grade uh the read is identify that all kids should be reading a grade level by third grade however we do have kids who are older than third grade who are on read plans because they have not yet um been identified as a reader on grade level do you know how many kids in the district are on read plans I have a Tracker I can pull that up but I can try to pull that up um yeah is it like hundreds dozens if you don't more than dozens more than dozens okay that's all for now thanks tler I also have questions about ilbc the early literacy and reading comprehension and specifically my questions have to do with um how are emerging bilingual students are identified and I'm hearing right now being said that like we use Lector or but there are many of our schools who don't teach in Spanish particularly and so how are those students being identified when they're not being taught in Spanish are they just being tested in Spanish and expecting that that will tell us if they're needing a read plan and if so what is being done for those students it's good question so all of the students are tested in their L1 their first language and then their second language um if they are and in some case sorry all the students are tested in English and then if English is not their first language they um are tested in Spanish or the Spanish literacy um I think the first part of your question um uh part of the deliberation process is intended to identify whether a delay in in Reading is due to a language difference or a learning difference and so um the uh coupled with I think some of the questions in kindergarten and how early is too early to identify that there is a significant reading deficiency present um those factors are taken into account when identifying whether a student has a significant reading deficiency or not um in terms of the instruction for Spanish or within Spanish for literacy um you're right I mean our dual language and our biliteracy schools do have intentional Spanish language development um the Stu the schools that don't do have English language development for the students um that's part of the that's part of actually the consideration when we thinking about whether a student is demonstrating um a a significant reading deficiency in their primary language um and to identify how to get them the supports that's intended to be written also into um the replan in terms of the supports that the student would need I appreciate that um however in this policy there is only one line in the entire policy that talks about a second language learner and the only line that talks about it is in the student promotion or retention say and the student is if the student is identified as an English language learner and the student significant if reading deficiency is due primarily to the students's language skill then a written notification to parents will not be required and that is the only thing in the entire policy that talks about a students second language skills and so this whole plan this whole policy is about reading comprehension there is no mention within the policy at all about uh students reading comprehension or their language skills and which are of that is the cause of this need for a read fan uh I appreciate that feedback I think we can make that explicit in here and I guess I also just question a little bit um what is the like I understand the idea behind the read plan and is to say if we're having struggling readers then we need to do something specific for those readers and so my question is what how are we um holding up the end of the read plan for these second language Learners who are struggling in their reading what what are we doing in R plan our Lance for these Learners so it depends on the school um we had started using a uh A literacy intervention for Spanish um as well this this year um I think started actually exploring them last year as um one measure to support students who are not fluent in Reading in their primary language and is that being end on at all schools no this is not being done at all schools um it but it is something where we do recognize that there is a need so what are we doing at the schools where it's not being done and there's a need I mean for um it depends on the grade level I think for um older students there's Spanish language development um and um especially it's when we have our students who are a little older who are struggling to read in their in Spanish um Spanish language development is an intentional way that there's an intervention provided um literacy based yield um sorry literacy based units also to support um that language development um the really the vention that we were looking at in Spanish was for the F mic awareness and phonics and decoding um in Spanish to support um there it is an area where we um have identified some intentional um continued attention on having really strong resources to support students is necessary and again I guess I would just ask the question are we doing that at all schools for like um Spanish language development you saying that was one of the things is that being done at all schools yes as part of supporting our um in our CDE programming and when is that being done like for example if a child has obviously is being pulled out for English language ELD English language development um for a period of their day if they're multilingual learner merging bilingual when is then when is this like native Spanish development given to that child it's a different period of the day so but they're not um what I guess what I'm thinking about is the um in our high schools for example there's an intentional sld class El class El SLA so um it's part of their built in as part of the schedule and what about at the elementary school the elementary school um in some cases it's during the intervention time um where stud students are they're getting a math intervention literacy intervention um I need to pull the Stu the the school's individual schedules to see exactly when all the interventions happen um that is a um we recognize is we don't want students missing core content um to attend an intervention I well I'll pass into our five minute time thank you director defres um I appreciate the comments of my fellow board members and the thoroughness that the policy committee's obviously put into these um doctor or sorry director after specifically and ask some of my questions so I don't actually have a lot to add to these it was interesting to hear the discussion around the read plans um yeah so thanks that's all I have Okay so will just um I did have a a question jk- R is that not the policy we said that you guys were going to go through and clean up during policy committee that's JKR jk- R the regulation it's on the agenda for second read I mean there's I don't remember exactly where we were in whether this was coming back to policy committee there's been significant work on this um yeah so I would just ask that we bring this back to policy committee I I remember having a conversation that this wasn't in the cleanest version that we wanted to go through and so we was that jih student intervie jih we pulled because Katherine wasn't there do you I mean I'm I'm scanning our comments and I'm not clear on what is still unresolved I think that there was a conversation but I couldn't remember if it was this policy that this wasn't ready to be read yet definitely you guys were not ready for us to review it no we definitely feel that way about jih I think with this one we feel like the majority at least in the current iteration that most of the questions had been resolved but happy to tackle or bring it back to policy committee if there's something we still need to work on okay well let's just bring it back to policy Committee just in case I don't know why I flagged it in my brain right now I was like oh it's on the agenda um and then the only thing I'll add on JB um I did add a line regarding accountability that a board update will be given after new board members on are onboarded I thought it made sense and I just wanted to make sure I shared that with the board um and I think that was it on the additions from policy committee is that sound right I don't think we I think we went through these pretty quickly right okay I guess we'll now we'll open it up to five minutes for board discussion Dr tler I still have a couple questions when we're talking about um the read act and it says that under state law the student this is in the communication with students parent Guardian it says number six under state law the student qualifies for and the district is required to provide targeted scientifically based or evidence-based interventions to remediate the student specific diagnosed reading skills or deficiencies and if we're talking about when we look at uh emergent bilingual learner and we're trying to identify if it is a reading deficiency or if it is a language deficiency I am still curious to know how are we meeting then and targeting the diagnosed reading skill deficiencies of a Spanish-speaking non-english-speaking student at all of our different schools and how is that being targeted as the read plan is designated to and so I would like it if possible if you could come back with some kind of um update for us on how at the different schools this is being addressed specifically to reading intervention and not a language issue for our B emerging bilingual Learners so you're specifically literacy development in Spanish or are um that's what I'm understanding that this is asking for because of it's saying that it's supposed to be a reading the plan is supposed to be based upon reading and if we're saying we're trying to decide if it's a language issue or if it's a reading issue and if it's a language issue and then they're still not having the reading that and they're not on Target in their Spanish literacy and it's a language issue for them to do it in English then how are we targeting their reading deficiency through the read act I I think I understand your question I would say if we determine that it the delay or student outcomes as measured through um Dibbles and lectura are below what we would expect um and we suspect that it has to do with a student's fluency in English and they're in a program that is like we would still be I mean my I'm looking at the components of the read plan that state that you know what we would be the deliberation process is separate from the read plan right so that's a different component that happens prior to the development of a read plan so if we we recognize that it's a language deficiency then we want to give that we notify parents and we want to give them time student time to develop language skills in English which we believe will happen through the continu continuation of their education in their program and so if we get to the point where we feel like okay they have they have sufficient language skills they should be reading on track um then you know the components and I'm I'm just trying to get are you looking for examples of number three like you want the specific operational strategies because it you know number three the component is what's the instructional programming and interventions student will receive in Reading um what are the educational services and a daily literacy is that I guess I'm just trying to and I guess the whole my understanding of this read Act is like for students who are reading below grade level they should be receiving literacy instruction intervention so if a student is still learning English and don't have the capacity per say maybe to be reading on grade level in English are we going to be trying to still follow through with this read act of giving them the literacy instruction that they need to be on level in their reading in Spanish I mean the first thing would be I mean they would they would have intervention for English as well but that's still not the read act which was the read Act is about them being able to read right and being able to have that reading ability yes the read Act is about their ability to read the assess the react approved assessments are typically in English we do provide the one we do give the one in Spanish because we have a number of students whose L1 is Spanish and it is important I think to see is this is this uh um are they literate in their primary language I think that's the most important that's one of the most important things that we're trying to figure out um and so I think I mean no one would disagree that providing reading intervention so that student can develop strong literacy skills in their primary languages is important correct but are we doing that then well because or we're not doing that because we don't have the capacity or we don't have the instructors or we don't have the time or why wouldn't we then be making sure that we are doing that we are I think what you're asking for is a summary what exactly is the programming that is at every school in terms of the interventions we have lots of interventions that are happening um the uh and we recognize that you know if we're in a space where the majority of a grade or a large percentage of the grade is not reading at grade level it's what we want to look at is what's the quality of our core instruction for literacy um I mean this is something for sure that um I can share in terms of the different things schools are doing we have many Educators who are trained in literacy interventions who are pulling the students um there are variety of them because some are intended to address phonic some are intended to address comprehension some are intended to address fluency some are intended so that's what I mean I mean we have a range of them Wilson seps um sorry I'm blanking on the name of the Spanish one but um I think it correct me if I'm wrong it's fair to say that every school is driving their read plans and measurements around ensuring that a student is reading on grade level in English 100% happening at all of our schools interventions are happening and when we develop read plans AR around a student strengths and gaps we are absolutely take into account whether they are an emerging bilingual brain and how we can use that when we're identifying strategies um Stacey am I correct to say that the clarity that we're looked at I think you're asking for director titler is do we have the same consistent level of commitment to say we are meeting all the expectations of the read plan for students whose L1 is Spanish in Spanish are we following the read plan to make sure that at third grade any child with an L1 of Spanish is reading on grade level like are we is that what you're at are we as cons and I think you're that's much what I'm asking but where it's a little different what I'm asking is the idea behind the read plan is to have children reading on level at third grade and I would say and English right and if they're unable because of their language needs to be able to do that in English are we as a district saying we're going to use their capabilities and their strengths which is their Advanced literacy skills in Spanish compared to their English and using that as a positive to increase their reading skills which we know then transfer over to English I I would say and check me Dr Park um when our when our teachers are reflecting on student student outcomes if we let's say see a second grader who's new to us and comes in and we're testing them using lectura because we need a Spanish literacy test fluent in Spanish and we find out that their liter literacy skills are absolutely on point for second grade right but they are drastically behind the Dibbles because their language skills in English are are not there um then our determination would would say yes like they're they're not hitting the benchmarks of a read plan because of a language a lack of English at this stage um and so parents would get a notification and then the interventions that a teacher would be veloping for this student in particular would say they already have an understanding of phonics they already have an understanding of fluency so our strategies are going to be how do we help that student apply the skills and and strategies that they're already using to decode and read and span over to English whereas it's very different for a child who comes in without the phonic you know if we're talking about a student who comes in same student but doesn't have that literacy they're not reading at a second grade level in Spanish our interventions then are going to be about fic it's not I agree that's a very different thing yeah I think my concern is more of children who are coming in kindergarten and don't speak English they're NEP and they don't have the skills to per se learn to read in English at that point but they do have the background to be able to learn to read in Spanish at that point and are we doing that child a disservice if we're waiting for their English skills to develop enough to be able to read on level whereas we could be teaching them to read on level as they come in as kindergarteners and so in the same way that you were saying about your second grade student that comes in and all the skills that transfer they have built those skills I'm so sorry I need to move us on because this has taken way more time than allotted um but should there be any more space for conversation or questions please use the board tracker okay thank you okay the next business in order is a presentation from Brian snow and Bridget derkash from the district accountability Community um did we didn't need to take action on any of those policies no no perfect hello and good evening um my name is Brian snow and I am the um current co-chair of the district accountability committee this is my colleague and fellow Dak member Bridget derkash um thank you for having us this evening we appreciate uh the opportunity to be here um just as a quick reminder um the Dak is tasked with reviewing um school performance analyzing budgets and providing input on um educational priorities for the district um we're also the liaison between the school accountability committees um and this board um one of the important roles of the deck is to review and advise each school year this board on on the uip um so that's what we're here to do tonight um real quick before we jump into that um just wanted to make a quick plug for the dec um we are currently in the midst of a recruiting Drive um we're actively looking for new folks to to join our group recently we've had some letters to the editor printed in some of the local newspapers you might have seen that um got some interestes through that which is great um we're also working to reach out directly to um district teachers and staff over the next couple of weeks um as we need expertise um from our our staff and teachers um but if anyone in attendance um at this meeting or watching on YouTube or anybody on the board who um knows of anybody who might be interested in joining the deck um we have a very easy um email it's royan Fork Dak RF schools.com I know it's also on um District websit we have um a page um on on there specific the deck um we would love to chat about what we do and um how we can leverage you know experience and um expertise of our great Community to join a group so um anyway I'm going to um turn it over um to Bridget she has only been on the deck for a couple of months um but has jumped in with both feet and done and amazing job and we're very lucky to have her um so I'm gonna pass it off fine right um well thank you for letting us present with you or present to you tonight um our goal is to give you a little bit of background information which you all probably already know but just in case anyone is um listening online they are able to look at that um review some of the highle components of the uip that we're really addressing in our feedback and then giving an overview of recommendations talking about aligning strategies with the root causes that are already identified and then finally some targeted um recommendations to the board so um the school district um the sorry the unified Improvement plans are important tools that help the school district hold accountability to their Improvement our role in that is really creating a feedback loop so there's continuous um information and conversation about how we can improve and just being able to see this from different points of view Ro Fork School District's accountability committee the Dak is required to advise um its local school board concerning preparation of the annual um submission of the uip and you all um had this ready for us to look at in October and we were supposed to provide feedback much sooner and so we know that this is really um delayed in that process but that is something that um we're we're doing now and hopeful for next year to do much earlier um so the high Lev components of the uip um are very small on this screen right here them in front of us also it's really showing is student performance priorities and then the next column over is the root causes and then the final column is the major Improvement strategies and so what we're our recommend ations are really looking at um a aligning the root causes and the major Improvement strategies um to provide feedback on how those could be more holistic and maybe more targeted in their alignment so the overview that we have here is that the major Improvement strategies identified um root causes well the current Improvement strategies offer really valuable initiatives and and I want to talk a little bit about some of the work that has already been done um that is really Val valuable and that we really see um we also see that there is um a sort of misalignment or perhaps um some a Missing Link in the identified root causes and the strategies that have been identified particularly around attendance and I'll jump back really quickly this is again hard to see but if we zoom in into it one of the um student performance priorities is student attendance and when we look at the root causes we we're seeing inconsistent feeling of sense of belonging across students time it takes for lasting culture change and then some of the identified major improve Improvement strategies were around reinforcing uh attendance expectations and so although that is an important component it's missing some um possible other steps that we would just like to see highlight Ed and this is really interesting because the school district is doing a lot of this work already which we'll talk about through the presentation but being able to identify that in the uip I think would be helpful for our community to really see the steps that are being taken where right now um I don't know if if the wider Community is able to see that so the other areas on this sort of overview that we wanted to talk about are really the importance of the partnership with caregivers and families um we know that caregivers and families especially in middle school and Elementary School are what is um really influencing student attendance and then as students get older into high school it's really their own sense of belonging their sense of agency in the school um and so wanting to really address that partnership with students and families at a young age to create a cultural shift around um attendance as a priority um by fostering that strong collaboration with families then we can really create more of a shared commitment that goes beyond reinforcing those expectations that we're seeing in the root causes and then we want to see more of that actively addressing that students s of belonging we know that our Educators have a really deep understanding of their Community they know the most effective ways to really reach out we're already seeing that um Dr Cole talked about the beginning of this um steps that are being taken by um schools by the Family Resource Center and having huge um huge amounts of attendance in different events um such as the event that happened last night at Glon Springs Elementary School um and we want to just really see are there ways that the district can support those initiatives are there ways that we can strengthen and sustain those efforts um and I do think that since covid there has been a push out of family um and we're now needing to do a little bit more active work to bring them back into our schools so our recommendations are really around uh mental health and wellness family engagement through the DAC and the um sack student engagement through um to create more of that agency and sense of belonging and then supporting teacher and school initiatives to meet those goals um so in the Gap that we saw was really around these three root causes that were addressed uh inconsistent feelings of sense of belonging student cultural challenges and Lasting oh I forgot to change the slide lasting cultural changes um and so these are the root causes that were highlighted in the uip so some strategies uh to address root causes um one of the big strategies that we talked about in as a DEC is um wh School Wellness really improves attendance and that starts with healthy teachers um fostering a positive learning environment so for example uh role modeling teachers who prioritize physical health and mental well-being set a positive example for students that promotes a culture of self-care and Wellness um when teachers are healthy both physically and mentally there is a consistent presence they're more likely to have fewer sick days ensuring sta stability and continuity in the classroom and then that consistency helps build trust and engagement um and can act um positively impact student attendance um they are also more likely to have more energy and be more engaged in the school right so teachers who are feeling physically and mentally well deliver really engaging lesson plans we have amazing teachers in our Valley and we want to make sure that we can really keep them um but those lessons that creativity that teachers are bringing that's what motivates students to attend school regular regularly um but this is more than just addressing teachers right this is also addressing healthy students we know that healthy students are more likely to be at school as well um so to reduce um absenteeism uh students with access to both physical and health uh physical health supports um and mental health supports are less likely to miss school due to being sick or um having different emotional challenges that would um that would create barriers um there's increased learning uh outcomes as well healthy students focus better they can actively participate in school and that again reinforces the value of attendance and then sense of belonging as well when teachers and staff create those supportive environments students feel really valued and more likely to attend and I do want to acknowledge that we see this in our district teachers are doing this this is already happening um and how can we really again highlight that in our uips so that the larger Community knows about it there is a feedback loop in how does performance and mental and physical wellness um how are how are those related and we really would love to see those highlighted um overall we just know that whole school Wellness improves attendance um collaboration with Wellness initiatives programs that promote health for both teachers and students such as mindfulness trainings fitness challenges access to counseling those all create a culture of Wellness in the schools um and then also improved relationships when teachers and students are both well interactions are more positive um and we see that um increasing a student sense a belonging and their motivation to attend so that is one of our sort of areas another area is Building Bridges um partners and caregivers um and families to support uh attendance and for us we really see this as a step that we can supports take with the DAC oh I didn't do it again sorry thanks um but we really want to see that um growing parent engagement through the DAC and the sack participation it creates shared ownership and engagement and when we have um that vision of what we want to see for our schools we have more people engaged and involved then we're more likely to have uh trust and strength more and we're more likely to see those positive School changes um so again this is addressing those barriers through understanding those root C causes and those tailored strategies and then um our next one and our last one on here is really um cultivating connection um and this is strategies to enhance student sense of belonging um so what we talked about in this area is um really visible leadership support and commitment ensuring that District leadership is publicly prioritizing a sense of belonging um and support staff initiatives in this area again we're seeing these initiatives being taken at all the schools how can we really highlight that and use more positive reinforcement um feedback mechanisms regularly soliciting input from teachers and administration about what um resources they need to enhance that sense of belonging I think this is happening as well but it's something that maybe the wider um Community doesn't know about um and then recognizing um recognition and incentives is a big piece so celebrating those efforts um rewarding teachers and administrators who are implementing um Innovative practice and supporting belonging thinking about basalt high school they were gave a survey to all of their students and are really setting goals to challenge themselves how can we make sure all of our ninth and tth graders are feeling like they have coping skills feeling like they can really get through um more of distress tolerance periods and they set a goal to see if they could create change by the end of the semester and so what are ways that we can really recognize those pieces um and then tools this goes with data efforts too but student surveys if we know the students that aren't feeling like a sense of belonging then we can have more targeted interventions Behavior attendance data um belonging Frameworks Distributing evidence-based Frameworks again we already are doing that but bringing more awareness to it I know that last year there's new toolkits that were introduced into the district and parents have been really engaged but we're seeing those efforts in schools like Carbondale Community School at glwood Springs Elementary School where they're bringing parents together for parent coffee chats or for discussions and and input on struggles that they may be seeing um as well um and then belonging uh belonging Frameworks so oh sorry I already talked about that the last piece that I just wanted to say is um for student sense of belonging um other ways to really engage students and to have that highlighted in the uip um how are what are ways that they can be um engaged in higher levels in their school that they can be student um ambassadors peer mentors advisory uh student advisory committees what are ways that we can really pull on that student leadership to enhance their sense of belonging in their school and um get them to help um students as well is there anything with that okay okay that's all I have thank you so much each board member will now have two minutes to share comments or questions we'll begin with director def frees hi thank you I'm trying to get some video working but we'll see how that goes um okay uh thank you for being here tonight and for all of the work that you do on the district accountability commit um it's so important to have you all engaging um and being the liaison between the board and the school and the community um I just really appreciate your work and I know that it is a a commitment to show up for these conversations again and again um I was interested in your strategies specifically around whole school Wellness um two things and I I don't know if maybe you know you you all obviously thought thought about all of these things so much but with healthy teachers and then healthy students in the district obviously we struggle with um providing compensation that balances cost of living for teachers and housing issues and then around students mental health um accessibility is becoming harder to bridge funding gaps between I I don't mean to put you on the spot but those two things kind of stuck out and I would just love if you have other thoughts of things that the district hasn't said or done or those conversations that you're like man I wish someone would just hear me if I said this are there specifics around those that you wanted to offer more perspective on yeah you know it's it is a challenge right for funding initiatives around those pieces and I think keeping what the goal of all of this is to create a culture of Wellness in the school and so what that means is that these do not have to be these major initiatives they could be small pieces um creating more active activity within the schools um most of uh my information and knowledge is coming from globin Springs Elementary School but they do a lot of teacher Wellness activities they have um different prizes that they're giving they have different challenges that they're doing to sort of create Wellness within their school culture and I'm wondering what are ways that the district could support that are there many grants that could be offered that are that are small but could support those efforts um that could really offset I do think um removing barriers to mental health is a huge piece and it's something that I could talk at length about um because I do work with the Aspen Hope Center I'm um the director of the school-based mental health program and so I do think that is a huge priority but I also think that being able to um lean into our Family Resource Centers to be able ble to connect to communitybased um Services looking at uh organizations like Pathfinders for grief and loss we have a a mind Springs um Mountain Family there's a lot of organizations that are offering these services but what are ways that we can remove those barriers and keep that as a priority for the school district um I think that's important but I do think there are some small steps that can be taken um within the school level and initiatives that um staff and administration can take on to um increase um the idea of wellness and then also leaning into our cruise that we have to start the day I know that is something that's really strong specifically in the elementary school but how do we continue crew as we get into Middle School and High School my kids are young so this could already be happening and I'm just not as aware thank you uh and then one question question if I'm a new parent or Community member interested in participating in the DAC could you maybe just describe or paint a quick picture so that I will know personally when I pitch it to people to join uh what would they experience walking in the first time um sure so the dck is is unique in that um you know I I think a lot of folks when they hear um about how to um participate in the community and the school they obviously know what the school board does and they have a a personal connection to their schools right so the sack is where they go to help um either raise money or um you know work on programming or whatever their um focus is at the school level the DAC is kind of a unique kind of in between space right and um we we've we've struggled to find and I think a good way to explain what our role is um and I I think that has led to right now a lack of of folks um luckily we've we've sort of grown um and we've increased our membership but we're we're looking for more people who are wanting to think about it at a a larger level um the district level whether that's from a budget standpoint if that's your focus if or mental health Focus or whatever it may be it's um more of a you know strategic level higher level um but also the connection between the the schools the individual sacks and the district so it's a kind of a unique place um that I think the one thing that we have talked a little bit about as a group is how to Market ourselves a little bit better um and it's still something we're working on if that makes sense um I think from a individual person's perspective we ask that um you know you at least serve um two years um we have meetings we used to do meetings every month but now we're more on um every other month Cadence um throughout the school um school year um and it's kind of a unique thing in that there are some satory requirements in terms of um membership so we have uh parents we also have um teachers and um administrators and then um a Community member so we kind of mix um folks across the Spectrum but um we're always looking for really looking for teachers and administrators folks that have um educational backgrounds hopefully that answered your question thank you it did direct after great thanks for being here tonight uh and for presenting appreciate it and for your participation on the deck and your leadership can you talk a little bit how about how the school accountability committees are going are are you all involved in those at all um I think you're okay good you nodding um so I'd be curious um your perception of how it's going um as a in general for the school of accountability committees these days it's a great question so um that is one of the things that I think that we um need to do a better job of is to um reinforce a the connection between the Dak and the sack and the board that kind of through line there um the Dak historically has um sort of dropped the ball when it comes to um making that connection we've talked about um getting back to that with a very with honestly only three of us um it's little challenging to to manage all of that that we're doing um that being said the number of um schools that have an established sack with um again you know the statutory requirement of the the head of the sack and um you know actually meeting and and meeting all the requirements has grown um we the last time I looked it was around 50% Dr Cole might know better than I we'd love to get that up to you know 100% that's required but similar to the de where this has taken some time to to kind of get um U moving um that's more of a 2025 or yeah 25 26 goal okay back um we'd love to get that to 100% if we can get it over three quarters I think we're doing pretty well great thanks I think that's a big piece too in the the recommendations that parent engagement overall seems to be down um on um just as like a new newcomer coming into this um sort of it having this expectation of oh like everyone's involved we're doing all these different pieces but really having the realization that across the District of like 50% it seems really low and the DC has really low engagement and so that's one of the areas that we really want to see as a priority is how do we re-engage Families how do we bring families back into the school community and I think both with covid where people were really pushed out for you know good reasons to keep us healthy but also with school safety it's really hard as a parent to feel that sense of connection we're able to text um and email but having more ownership and it um with with the school I'm I my perspective is that that is down and it's something that I'd love to see more involvement with and like like Brian said that's one of our goals um it's to increase um participation in the deck but also in the saxs thanks thanks for being here Dr tit Bridget and Brian thank you for being here um first of all I heard you say with the three of us those have basically your meetings been three people um well I say I should say we are now up to four with Bridget but uh yes um it has been a struggle the last probably probably year um and and some of that is term term limits folks that are rolling off because they're they' put their time in um and it's also I think a struggle with again explaining what we do and and marketing ourselves that's something that we've worked on quite a bit this is the whole um push that we've made um this month and and moving into next month to to get ourselves out there um great thank you for your time and your volunteerism first of all um you I did see your letter to the editor so that's great I'm glad you did that did you also send a letter out in Spanish to the Spanish-speaking newspapers I that I don't think that we did and that is a great idea I will okay and do you know Kia Gonzalez who is sitting behind you in the white sweater I do not maybe to maybe all should like touch base at the end of this meeting and see if she can help you find some representation too fantastic have to stay till the very end if you then you have your meetings if somebody were to come who was Spanish speaking is there any kind of translation that's available at your meetings historically we have done that um and that was one of the big pushes um when we had a larger membership was a to diversify from a location geography standpoint we're very balt heavy unfortunately right now so we've been trying to get folks um from and luckily somebody from our our Glennwood um representation um but um it not only geography um but are different languages as well so Spanish speaking um also struggle right now it's it's at this point we are looking for bodies um and once we have gotten a good group to attend meetings and to to continue the forward we're g we would like to expand the net as much as possible right now it's if you're interested come on down so it's a it's a longer term process and I think that the folks that joined recently anticipated um but I think that's true of of lots of other organizations in the valley it's um it's going to be a a little bit of a longer term project than we had hoped so and lastly I would like to say I appreciate your strategies to address root causes they sound like great ideas I think they're very big picture and it's maybe hard for the input that you've given for the district maybe to take that and say how can it be handled by the district and maybe if as possible like to get like specifics could the district do this and like maybe have like break it into some kind of like actionable Parts might be helpful we could definitely do that I think we have some specific strategies but then really is that a place to give really specific one appreciate it and Bridget your lens on the knowing our school so well in your connection to what's happening especially around social emotional well-being and um I really appreciated the push around hey a lot of these things are happening and either stamp that there's some align with the uip and that this is actually a deliberate initiative um to build that intentionality and awareness um I just really appreciate that push in your depth of understanding of what's happening because I think that those are good like um I think that you know your language around bridging and making those connections of like either lift up what's working because it is happening in a lot of pockets and then make that broader um or just draw that that deeper connection so I just really appreciate it that think you know and it was a good push of like oh yeah no that you're right A lot of these things are happening a lot of them are because of initiatives and we didn't dial them all in in the uip yeah and I I do really think that that feedback Le to The Wider Community people will say oh that's why we're doing that that's why the district is doing these things because it does have a bigger impact and I think that's a piece that's missing thank you um so thanks just Echo the thanks from the board for um being volunteer for your participation um I think you guys know at least Brian who's been there you know this board has cared very deeply to have not only a DAC that exists and a separate autonomous from our executive team and from The District in itself but also that we've tried at least in spirit to try to get our sacks going um I guess in this moment I would just like to offer the recommendation to you guys and to the team um you know I know that historically we've tried to get information out on when saxs are meeting and have tried to gather the information from staff I know that not too long ago there was a board tracker request with that information has that been shared with the DC those dates for the upcoming sack meetings with the schools I think we did to okay do you Brian know what doc what sack you know Sarah the other co-chair she's she's kind of the sack expert she unfortunately couldn't join us tonight um I'll make note of that to see if we have that has been updated yeah um I know if you it in the path I'm not sure where it's at now but yeah I think it would be good for our teams to get in communication on if we could send that out to the community like if you your kid who goes to Glennwood Springs High School you should know when that sack is um and if you have multiple kids in the school district then these are the dates where you can go to a sack this is the date for the deck meeting like you know I do think historically we've tried to get people to attend we've tried to figure out how we could promote it's it's been a learning curve I think for everybody um it's definitely taken it it has felt uphill um and you know I I think to director titler point we did have a conversation when Chris bercker was still here with us um regarding trans uh interpretation services and there was a conversation that we didn't have a budget allocated for that and so I think moving forward just when we think for us as a board when we're thinking of budgeting for 2526 and the goals that we might have for the DAC I think we need to have that top of mind as well that you know we currently the Dak does not have a budget that alloc for it um so I just wanted to you know again re reiterate the thanks for your time for being volunteers for the roing fork school district and for all the work that you guys have done and we appreciate um your recommendations so thank you so much thank you so much appreciate it thanks the next business in order is a CFO update including response to audit board letter recommendations from Chief Shakin thank you director Ramirez um we're just going to go ahead and uh defer to the board for any questions that you may have on this item um I'm sure you guys have red it and um we're here to answer your questions both me and Catherine together shortly okay thank you so much director defres thank you sorry to just be a disembodied voice this evening um Christie thank you so much for putting in so much work and um I just want to appreciate that and I know that you're doing everything you can to work on building additional capacity and bringing a lot of these accountability measures that we're putting in place online as as you can going forward and I really appreciate that and and we understand that the timeline you're working with um is reflective of what staff is really capable of doing it and that's something that's really important to us we value you all here and we want to make sure that you can stay for the Long Haul so thanks um I had a couple of questions um we've gotten a few of the quarterly financial statements already and I'm just wondering if you could speak to whether the team you feel like the team currently has this maybe is more of a a Katherine question um if you they have the capacity to deliver those quarterly financial statements um just like you've been doing how are we feeling there um thank you I'm I'm gonna just go ahead and defer to Katherine and then we'll just kind of just bounce back and forth on answering that one um yes I feel like thanks for the question and yes I do feel like we're going to be able to get all of the quarterly in a timely manner and um we've really shored up our accounting procedures and systems with chrisy here and um we've set some very strict deadlines for ourselves we're going to have the second quarter by next week and every quarter we're going to have them to you but say yes we are working hard on we've a lot of Staff turnover as you know and so we're working really hard to um fix some of the holes um and having another um a budget analyst added to our team is going to really help with um some of the holes in our system have were being a little underst staffed and turn over so thanks yeah it's a huge priority of the board um to start having those regular quarterly financial reporting um available to us especially with reconciliation of expenses um I'm wondering how is your team how would you describe um I don't know urgency perhaps or severity of those issues uh to you right now sity which severity of which issues sorry of making sure that the financial statements and um that that the board I mean I just want to make sure I think it's the board's you know responsibility to make it very clear we we've had misalignment in the past on these and as a new board member I take full responsibility for that not knowing what I don't know um but just I'm wondering um how is your how does your team feel about where this new reporting or or more consistent reporting Falls I guess on on a priority level for you I think it's our highest priority right now we're really pushing to get everything reconciled um through December 31st and we've been working on that above all else besides getting people paid but you know it's it's been our highest priority besides anything else that accidentally gets in the way so thanks those are my questions director after great thanks thanks for being here Katherine um the and Christie we've seen you for several hours already so um so I read through this several times thanks for the thoroughness of their responses I really appreciate it it's a nice Improvement for for me to read um over the the last one I saw my first year on the board so I really do appreciate the responses um is there any I don't have any questions about the specifics I just wondered if you wanted to lift anything up from this for the public that might be listening or to share um any parts of this that you are proud or excited about or anything you think it's important for the public to to know but I don't have any specific questions um I think um the one I'm a true financial analyst geek and so I think the one that I'm the most excited about are the corly financial statements I think that that's going to provide the board um the most information and myself um in looking at the financials and making sure that we're tracking on budget and we can track and make sure that we um find any situations or issues earlier in that process and the reconciliation processes and Shoring those up to those timelines um I think those are the big ones that I'm uh excited about um especially you know in managing the budget as well um that would be the one I would be lifting up the most um the other ones are a lot of process issues that we're just going to have to get deep and making sure on segregation of Duties and things like that and that's just really trying to head off anything that could be a material misstatement in the future and so that's that's very important um for us to just look at and and um just like Katherine had just stated with that additional budget analyst position um on the staff then we're going to be able to just kind of shore those duties up and make sure that we have a proper segregation on a lot of those some are going to take more time than others but um but we're going to continue to work on those uh and the timelines allotted um in the response so great thank you Dr tler thank you both for being here um I would just like to Echo that I appreciate how your responses to the auditor's letter the thoroughness of your responses and it's nice to have those known that they're all being addressed so um my really only questions I have and it sort of maybe is a same question I had last time that I thought maybe we were going to be able to get a response to and if not maybe I can write it in a board tracker or something but in looking at the quarterly last quarterly um Financial I had asked about the increases in purchase services for instruction and also for um um salaries for instructional support and why those like the instructional support salaries had doubled this year and why the purchase services for instruction had gone up so much do you know the reasons behind those um thank you for that question and for the reminder on that I think um just given the timelines on everything my apologies for not getting back to you on that um our response is I'm going to try to include that response in our next quarter since we're so close to that we're one board meeting away if that's okay we can watch that and then just have a response ready for that next board meeting perfect do you want me to write you to remind you of what those areas are if you wouldn't mind that would be super helpful okay do you okay Anna's got it okay super I I appreciate it thank you thank you yeah okay um so thank you team for being here and for also your time on this response um as um director after mention the thoroughness is appreciate thank you for um taking the time I think that this is a good Cadence for us to get into and not only having a um response letter but I appreciate your um I I appreciate the professionalism in this letter because I think this is like a place where we can move off of like moving forward this is the expectation and I appreciate that this is a very like good quality um uh document um I did notice that there were a couple of different items that you guys put a date for June 30th so am I um is the expectation that you guys will be presenting to the board as a follow-up on these items yes we're gonna um and and the challenge is like making sure we're continuing to move forward on the budget and then we need to getting a new position for the budget analyst position and then Shoring up between all of the you know the staff and having some conversation around how that's all going to far it out will'll probably take through the rest of this fiscal year but um we will make sure to have a response with the board and just update you on our progress okay and when you say update us on the progress are you going to are you saying like at one meeting you're going to go through all these gen June 30 timelines or you're going to update us as you guys complete them I think it would make more sense for us to do this um after kind of after the budget in one spot so that it's not like oh yeah which one did we still need to do right I mean we'll just we'll make sure to get that on the calendar for June how does that sound so um that that was one of the reasons why I was flagged because we typically try not to meet um as a board and which is historically why we got in into this late budgeting season um and so I just wanted to flag that because I you know I I understand you guys setting a deadline because you guys are working yeah which is expected um but the board in itself tends to have uh the last of our meetings at towards the end of May it's June 11th I think yeah and I think we have one meeting in June right one meeting you you know we um Christine and I have been working to try to build out a a back do some backwards planning from the budget the final budget adoption and we'll try to have an update for the board as soon as possible on that um given some of the challenges that we are um feeling in terms of capacity right now we may need to come to you with a like knowing now that those extra two weeks might make a big difference so we'll let's kind of keep that TBD but we might need that time um in our initial kind of rough cut of how are the next few weeks and months going to go it it looked pretty aggressive for us to try to get that done by that June 11th but let's um let's Circle back on that we're going to do everything we can to try to do that too we also realize and recognize that we don't want a b Rush budget process either so that's the challenge is to meet both of those and still have that early June we just want to make sure when we're talking to the board that that is that we can meet that so that's that's our challenge right now and just like screwing and digging a tunnel yeah so and and I do think if the update needs to be pushed to the board retreat that's fine but I you know I do think and I'm glad I brought it up because for for us as a board that was huge part of a our conversation last year of the fact that for two years now we have extended ourselves past um the time that we as a board had typically been meeting um I did um also just have a question so I am assuming that um the response regarding HR will be brought to the board at the next board meeting okay and um in regards to our accounts um so one also thank you for just the commitment for quarterly financials you know as my colleagues have shared there uh for us as a board it's obviously very important that moving forward that also becomes part of practice and process that we're able to um receive those and I think the board is committed to putting that into policy as well um just so that way there is an understanding that that is the expectation moving forward um there was a a response from the finance team about the three to five years for implementation for um the segregation of Duties and so I just wanted to have you guys maybe share a little bit more of that like that's a huge lift yeah um would you like to okay we'll tag we'll tag team we'll tag team that one um so this has been on the board letter um audit letter for quite some time for the school district um we recognize the the importance of segregation of Duties and we also understand that um all the activity accounts are like they there's all these separate bank statements and then there's actually for the um actual numbers that are put in the system it's in a separate company if you will with NIV that then has to be imported into our database for our other IV for our for our audit and so there's just a lot of process around that and that people are really used to that process too so that would require a complete overhaul to really get to it to piece that out which really would be a longer term solution but I'm really appreciative of Katherine and Crystal our accounts payable um manager because they have come up with some interim solutions that will help to mitigate those segregation to Duty issues and one of them is that Crystal has agreed uh to look at the reports monthly to make sure that there aren't any red flags if you will for those particular um accounts and um and just make sure that if if there are that there's followup on that um and so that's a really good um good like I guess what there's a there's a there's an auditing term I'm looking for um that that helps to shore up the segregation of Duties this and then the other thing um is that I'm grateful for for Katherine and Crystal who are already starting to work on a document of the dos and don'ts and starting to work with the financial Specialists about what they should be paying through their activity funds and things like that and what they shouldn't be and so as we get more training and then we watch and monitor those accounts closer through crystals review monthly that's going to help with that process in the inter until we can get to a longer term solution did you have anything else to add um I'll just say that yes just like chrisy said that comment has been on our board letter um since the beginning of time because every school has had their own checking account and um every school manages their own finances which are their activity funds which come from student fees and other collections of receip seats that they get at the schools and so each School manages their own and that those are their activity funds and so the um and it's just been kind of ignored or pushed down the road so the reason we're saying three to five years is because it is a massive it would require a massive overhaul of our systems um but we are working in the meantime Crystal and I are going to be working like just really trying better with these of like how can we oversee these it's hard because it's decentralized and so um how can we have better oversite and so that's where we came up with the idea of just having a monthly um review of each school's um checking accounts and reviewing those with the finance specialists at each location and so until we can uh until we can CH like really tackle that big overhaul of figuring out how to how to redo every school's financial system we are we're coming up with some good Shoring up efforts thank you um I wanted to move us into five minutes of discussion and then I also just had a followup um I not sure if the question director Tyler asked earlier was in regards to the budget um on the on the on the m but I kind of also remembered right now that there was a ask regarding okay so yeah okay I just wanted to make sure because that I think I had also followed up to say I wanted to know the general and Grant fund and I don't believe those are on the supplemental budget so I thought I answered that one we let's look on the board tracker I thought I answered that one so let's just check that one later okay any other board members have any more questions no no no thank you thank you for the late night Catherine okay thank you so much thank you okay good night the next business in order is action on the 2425 supplemental budget do I have a motion to approve the 2425 supplemental budget I make a motion that the board approved the 2425 supplemental budget as presented do I have a second have a second each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we will begin with director def frees uh thank you I feel pretty confident in the briefing I've gotten about this information as well as the thorness and Clarity of the staff memo um I know that it was covered in a work session previously and I just really appreciate the time and effort that it it has taken to approach this supplemental budget with um Clarity of purpose and compassion if those are strange things to put next to each other but with the idea always being minimal impact on students and families and schools and um so I just don't I don't have questions thank you director after great thanks um for anyone listening just FYI we had a two-hour work session on this and dug into um essentially every line item that you can see in the um uh Easter egg colored document that's in the um in the agenda so thanks for your time Christy earlier um and Dr Cole for going through that with us in such detail um I did just want to see if do you want to say a couple things for the public about what this is and why we're doing it I think it's maybe Germain for folks to know this is a budget um supplement for 2425 uh I ideally we pass this approve this um by the end of this month and then we can kind of um hopefully move on to be talking about 25 26 in short order but do you want to say anything yeah thanks director after for that I think well the thing that I would say there there's a couple of significant points in regards to the supplemental budget uh this is our second supplemental budget for this year and both of those are working to shore up our 2425 uh budget and finances to assure that we're not going to spend below our minimum fund balance and to make sure that it's a reasonable plan moving forward so that um we we've um found some some budget omissions and and how we're resolving for those and we believe this supplemental budget does that we can't confirm that that's going to be everything we're going to find we we still have to go through the 25 26 uh process for the budgeting process which is going to be great because then we'll be able to really look through every single little thing but um but for now this is really uh our best view um after reviewing the finances for a couple months to shore up our finances and also moving forward to make sure that we have a better process for the board to understand finances in the middle of the year um and look at quarterly financials and really get deep on budget questions and information in the middle of the year um in the future as well so I think that it really checks all the boxes with where we want to move going forward also great thank you I don't have anything else director titler I would just like to um Echo director after about how we went through this budget line by line and in doing so we found out where the holes were in how the budget was originally done and what was either an a mission an error or an overage and broke it down in those three categories and then also broke it down by whether the amount was a recurring amount or not and that was very helpful for understanding and giving a better idea of where there was oversight and where we had holes to fill and so I appreciate the diligence in which you have looked at our 2425 budget and and the assurance that you think at least up until this point that you have found pretty much everything that's there so just thank you for your work with that okay thank you I'll Echo the thanks of um gratitude for my colleagues and then I'll just also mention uh thanks to our facilities team and chief Ben bonf for their work uh for that team's work in helping us with this um you know I think that obviously this board um has been very intentional in these last couple of months to um dig deep with you at the hel on the budget and to ask questions and to try to understand um uh as much as possible um our finances and we've appreciated one your willingness to answer questions to share information with us to make it as reible as possible uh for us like in layman's terms um and also just to make it accessible for us um because I I do think that this has been a huge pivot from our Norm um you know I have appreciated hearing the team um Echo our sentiment that we don't want to rush the budget this year that we want to be very intentional um to ask questions to have time with it to be able to digest really um what is happening and you know I'll Echo this um as much as possible but you know even us being able to have a finance committee has really helped um in having some of these initial discussions and asking some these questions and so just thank you to you and the team um the entire Finance for your guys's uh work on finding all of the um the spaces and the gaps and also the emissions and the errors because it does mean a lot to us that we're thorough and um that we're really intentional and having a good budget and being very clear with that so thank you guys for your work for all of the teams that participated and for everyone who was able to find some money someone uh for this budget okay um we already have a first and second right yep we there's no vote on this on the supplemental budget oh does anybody need extra time for discussion sure I just want to name and we'll um we're moving we're moving deliberately and thoughtfully and things sometimes often also happen quickly and you know we just a few moments ago kind of closed the door on the 2324 audit from the finance perspective we're still going to hear from HR but we literally four minutes ago wrapped the 2324 audit hearing from from um Chief chaoin and kathern Proctor all the action steps all the accountability measures that we're going to take to address that we are now um you know I think this is a this is a big deal this is the plan that's going to resolve the the challenges that we've uncovered in the 2425 fiscal year so this is the resolution and so I just want to name that what we're solving here for is a number of issues right some caused by our own our kind of derail into self-insurance that cost more than we expected some of this is due to enrollment being down and us overestimating the number of kids we were going to have a lot of this has to do with our 2425 budget being rushed and having Inc you know kind of incorrect assessments on on our M Levy Revenue um there were errors and emissions in that budget and this supplemental is really our our our effort at this moment mid year to just fix it and resolve it and I'm so um grateful as you mentioned director Ramirez of all the department heads that really worked hard to resolve this I mean we heard from the board and the finance committee and our our staff as we headed into this that the most important priorities were minimizing impacts to students and so before we were going to come to the community with really hard decisions for this year that might impact kids we wanted to make sure we did everything possible we're not going to have to come to the community with really tough choices on this year next year we're still working on but but that's a that's a huge Testament to the collaboration of our teams I think there's a lot in terms of the department heads who've been creative and resilient and collaborative in Solutions a lot has to do with the board's conservative approach to budgeting meow wood right there were a lot of savings in that in the collaboration with contractors and all of the professionalism around Meadowwood that resulted in contingency contingency savings that are really helping us right now um you know we talked a lot about fund balance tonight but man if we were at minimum right now we would have no ability to utilize the reserves to help us get out of this and so um and then there were available contingency and real savings and um expenditure reductions that that Chief chaoin helped us find and so this is a this is exciting it's hard there's a lot of hard work ahead we we're ready to move on into getting our heads into 25 26 but all fall we've been saying we have to solve for 23 24 and once we get that we're going to wrap our heads around 24 25 and then we're going to start talking about 25 26 that's where we're at and it's it's it's a testament to Chief Shin's leadership her tenacity her persistence um to help us move along in this direction and find these resolutions so I'm really proud of the budget that is before you today um and all the learning that so many of us have had through this process so just a little bit to add and I guess I would just like to add this being a supplemental budget it's not like supplementing things that we wanted to add to the budget it's supplementing things that we're missing from the budget and so think that we are already doing that we have to pay for because we're already doing them we're not supplementing by saying oh let's add these new things and so I just want to make that clear that supplemental means things that were omitted errors overages not new things you could cover hi director I hi tidler hi the next business in order is action on the 2324 assurances for financial accreditation do I have a motion to approve the 2324 assurances for financial accreditation I move that the board approv the 2023 24 assurances for financial accreditation as presented do I have a second I second each board member will now have two minutes to share comments or ask questions we'll begin with director defres I don't have any questions about this item thank you director after I don't have any questions or comments director titler I also I'm good at from the memo and the paperwork it seems like these are logistical steps that we need to go through I did have just a question um at the end we put a section that we're requesting that each internal Charter School complete these forms and send them is there a timeline that you guys are asking the charter schools to turn those into you byce so I think we're all set um I need to get right so I didn't realize so I just remind great good okay anybody else need time for discussion no no please call for I'm sorry I thought you were gonna add something Chief Landon no nope okay sorry okay vote uh director RoR hi director fres I director Rems hi director tidler I thank you the next business in order is future agenda topics board tracker requests we don't do we have any board tracker request items Jonathan just left so okay so the next business in order is board updates and appreciations we will begin with director defres uh thank you all and appreciate the late night so I will keep this as short as I can um I'm gonna do a simple appreciation for all the classroom teachers who take time to give me updates on my specific children with their mind apps I know that's not easy I'm thinking especially of the Middle School teachers at Glennwood Springs Middle School because they all have upwards of 80 kids to see every day and sixth grade and so the fact that they'll reach out to me and share concerns and celebrations about my child is very meaningful and um and very helpful to feel connected so I appreciate that a lot um updates I have been on the Colorado Association of school boards uh resolutions committee uh looking at legislation in the state and budget conversations in Colorado and I'm definitely learning a lot drinking from the fire hose at the moment um so more to come on that going forward and um I just want to name that the last few days have been a challenge for a lot of people in our country with uh conflicting and chaotic messaging um around whether where and how they can feel safe and secure and I just want to reiterate that Roaring Fork schools has policies in place and educational Outreach in place and support systems in place to welcome and protect all of our students regardless of who they are or where they came from or what level they're learning or what language they speak and that that is not something that is going to change and I want to also appreciate um administrative staff for communicating clearly about safety protocols with our staff and schools um to make sure that students can just feel safe because if you don't feel safe you can't learn and our business is and always will be learning and success for those students so thanks director after yeah um not much to add to that but thank you um Dr Cole for spending some a little extra time on the finances with the board this week that was appreciated um and thanks to the many hundreds of community members who filled out the superintendent evaluation survey that is also very appreciated um quick reminder to my board colleagues to um fill out the superintendent evaluation um and send back to me to uh compile by Friday morning please and um thanks again to our um Finance team for all the extra long hours and extra diligence on the financial situation that's IT director titler um echoing director after I would like to say a special thanks to Chief Shakin and her team and especially I know you Chief Shakin has spent hours Beyond hours beyond what a normal person works or could consider working in these last months and just want to recognize and thank you for all those hours and I think that same goes for you Dr Cole I know your hours have been super long and burning was the midnight candle or whatever that is but thank you for the extra time and keeping a positive attitude and and a good face about yourselves in all the work that you're doing so thank you for that um as far as my on my committees I tomorrow morning am going down to um work going down to bosies for interviews for the executive director and we'll be involved with that all day for hopefully hiring a new executive director for bosies on the housing front we had a housing committee meeting yesterday at that meeting we talked about recalibration of rent and how it is in the policy for the housing committee to do that on an every year basis but that has not been done for many years so we are going to be looking at recalibrating rents for incomes that are currently happening then make sure that is done every couple years and then there's ongoing discussion about rent tables and how those rent tables should look and what those earnings should be based on and so that will be for future discussion and then last week met with IBB and want to thank everybody who took time out of their days to make sub plans to come and participate and be part of that group and then also for that group who is um committed to meeting every Thursday until the benefits can be figured out and come to an agreement on how that works and that kicks off on January the 30th this Thursday with a budget Summit thank you um I will just uh share an appreciation for our um Team regarding the CMC automotive technology Center Grand Opening um it was really great to see a lot of our staff there um who had a hand in um making that project come to fruition and so I appreciate um the hard work and also just this the ability for our team to give up the space um I really look forward to the success of that program um on Tuesday there was a IBB leaders Insurance committee conversation um that I got to sit in uh for director kenberg and I think we're on schedule for that followup um recommendation coming to the board by the end of February um and then like director tlor mentioned we have the um IBB budget Summit tomorrow um starting at 4:30 to 6:20 and I have a Ur meeting Glennwood which no idea how it happened but um so uh I look forward to that conversation because um we have not been able to participate very much in those and um it is a mandatory meeting or a not mandatory it's a what is the word they we're happy to that we're included I guess um and then I just wanted to add that we're or I I will be um heading over to nsba advocacy um this weekend which I'm just looking on my calendar um but I look forward to those conversations um that will be taking place I was very excited when um Matt Cook or the um person at casby mentioned mentioned that we were going to be meeting with our CD3 person which has never happened in the history of us being there so I look forward to bringing back some information on that conversation for our next board meeting okay there is no further business and there is no objection the meeting will be adjourned it it was 9:15 p.m.