Good evening. I call this meeting to order at 6:20 p.m. Tonight we have present Director Defrdes, Director Titler, Director After, Director Ramirez, and myself. meaning we have a quorum. Thank you to our interpreter, Astrid. Astrid, would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the
interpretation function. Thank you. The first business in order is the approval of the agenda. Directors, are there any proposed changes to the agenda? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? I move we approve the agenda as
presented. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion passes. Our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our superintendent Dr. Anna Cole. All right. Good evening. It's um miday and
so it means that there is about a thousand things happening across district. So, want to So, want to um right now a little better. Let's echo me. Okay. So want to really share some
appreciation for all the awards nights, the music recital, the state championship matches and games, the sports awards banquetss, the field trips and adventures and overnight trips, the passage presentations um that are
happening throughout this month um at all of our schools. There's so many things going on. This work is aligned with our strategic priority students first, which is focusing on belonging and well-being. And so want to really appreciate all the the many things happening at all our schools uh this time of year to help students feel seen,
included, and valued in their school communities and to really celebrate the learning and the work that has happened throughout this school year. Um so many thanks to our teachers, our staff, our principles, our parent volunteers who are making these things happen. It's these are long days and it's a lot of
extra work uh to make these celebrations and events and ceremonies possible. Um, and also really want to thank the our classroom teachers and staff who are also keeping our students focused and engaged and and really still maintaining high quality learning environments as we
finish out the end of the school year. Lots going on and still lots of learning. Um, also want to thank we had a a wrap up earlier this week from Mountain Family Health Center, their end of the year wrap-up with the school-based health center and uh this work is aligned to strategic priority
number four, student- centered partnerships. And it was really um very exciting to walk into a space and for the Mountain Family Health C Center's wrap up of the schoolbased health center impact from the school year having Aspen Hope Center there. And so want to just
thank um all the partners who are really working and have worked with us this year to ensure that students have access to resources at school that eliminate barriers to learning. Um and those partners really again shouting out Mountain Family Health Center and the schoolbased health center, the Aspen
Hope Center, groups like uh Pathfinders who have worked really hard to make sure students are healthy, happy, and ready to learn. Um also want to thank director of student family services Kelly Medina who really oversees all of those health partnerships um health and well-being
partnerships. Um along those lines, want to uh share some celebrations for the Basalt Elementary School early childhood team. This has been a tough year at uh in Bees's ECE. We merged two programs this year which kind of doubled the size
of kids that we're serving and staff and we've struggled throughout the year to hire a director. But want to share with the board and community that um in a follow-up health inspection just a few weeks ago, the Basalt early childhood team received really high marks and celebrations on their growth around
compliance, teamwork, and the inspectors really called out the increased awareness and understanding across all staff members around regulations that create safe early childhood education environments. This is a real testament to the hard work of the Basalt early childhood
education team and the leaders who have stepped in to collaborate and support that team in a year when we really struggled to to hire a director. So, want to thank Lori Brumau, um all the Roaring Fork School District early childhood directors who are supporting and crossovering um our early childhood
special educators who are providing additional supports. uh Juliana Treyos Largo who's one of the teachers at BEES who's really stepped up as a leader this year and of course the Bassal Elementary School leadership team for helping out over at the preschool. Want to also celebrate our
finance team. The board just got to spend some time with our quarterly financials. So want to thank Katherine Proctor, Crystal Manubon, and Austren Leverett for their work getting the quarterly financials completed uh this year on time each quarter. want to welcome Michelle Gray uh who's new to
payroll and she and Maria Farerafhino for a successful payroll transition. Michelle has been learning so much very quickly. And then a big thanks to Laura Quinn Livven for holding two jobs as she starts uh her new role as budget analyst and make sure that that Michelle's up to speed. So, a lot of work in the finance
team onboarding new staff and making sure we're getting the more consistent work done aligned to strategic priority number three, operational excellence. um want to share with the board and community the news we announced today that um we have a an interim so
elementary school admin team ready and in place to take us through next year. Carrie Hassel, a current AP will be our interim principal and Sam Hawk, a current teacher, will be moving to an interim AP to guide so um into next year. As the board is aware, before we
meet again, we will graduate a whole bunch of seniors. So looking forward to May 22nd which is um our ready for the world graduation. May 23rd Bridges High School graduation and then on Saturday the 24th all of our high schools graduation is that weekend. So by the
time we meet again our class of 25 will be off. And then finally this week we'll be recognizing um you know there's always a lot of retirements at this time of year but the Roaring Forest School District tends to um kind of celebrate and really call out folks who retire
after spending over 15 years in the district. And so we will this week um formally say good like lose over 240 years of experience as we send off some of our retirees who've been with us for over 15 years. I just want to make sure
that we acknowledge this crew of folks who have really dedicated their professional careers to the Roaring Fork schools. Um, so really grateful for the work of Danny Stone at CR, Daisy Fogle, Fogalsong also from CR, Cindy Pittinger,
Glowwood Springs High School, Brian Coer at Glowwood Springs High School. Uh, from the Glowwood Springs Elementary School ECE team, Alli Ransom and Cindy Frail from Basalt Elementary School, Marine Hinkle from a custodian at Glowwood Springs High School, Maria Chavez de Contreres from our grounds
crew, Ramon Rosales from Glowman Springs Middle School, Blake Risner. And then from our food services team, Michelle Hammond and Olivia Shakon. So really grateful for that service. Um you know 15 is our cutoff and the majority of those folks served us over 20 years. So
a big thanks to that crew. Thank you. Thank you. The next business in order is a presentation from Dr. Cole on the district's 2425 equity impact statement and a 2425 IBB wrap-up. So there's there's two parts to the
superintendent report and the first will be just me and the second will be a much more fun crew. Um so as the board is aware last year we um the board made a really strong commitment to meeting goals around equity, diversity, inclusion and
anti-discrimination in the Roaring Fork schools. and the board passed um policy ADB which um was new for us and it came from some really deep work with our students with our families with partners
to develop this policy. Um this is a commitment that we will do the work needed um to make sure that we achieve the goals set out in this policy defined by and I want to really you know make again clear how we in the roaring force
schools define equity. It's a word that right now especially in the broader political context is being defined a lot of different ways. Um, but here in our schools, when we talk about a deep commitment to equity, what we're talking about is that all people are held to high expectations and have access to opportunities that reflect their needs,
identities, and experiences. Um, this policy really states that equity will be achieved in Roaring Fork schools when there are no identifiable differences and outcomes and experiences for any population subgroup. We define educational equity as meaning differentiating resource
allocation within budgetary limitations to meet the needs of students who need more support and opportunities to succeed academically. Our focus is on mitigating and eliminating barriers for students that are within our control and then teaching, supporting, and helping students overcome barriers that are
outside of our control. This is a this is a pretty big commitment. This is big work. This is bigger than our fiveyear strategic plan. this work is going to take us into the decades to achieve this. Um, and this was a this was a pretty significant commitment on behalf of the board that will extend beyond all
of your terms, my tenure, um, all of those pieces. And an important part of this policy is that it requires that the superintendent provide an annual update to the board on goals outlined in the policy and and articulate really the progress we're making towards that very
big goal of achieving educational equity with no um no difference in our outcomes. And so the way the board organized the goals is into these 10 area areas that need to be reported on. The detail on our progress is in the memo. It's in the board packet. I just
wanted to lift up a couple of things from um the equity impact statement this year. And I think the the biggest theme that I want to mention is that what's really exciting about this work is that we h are are shifting to making this
commitment to ensuring equitable outcomes for all students is deeply integrated into our strategic plan, into the day-to-day work we do. It is not a siloed initiative. It's not a a one-off kind of box checked work, but it's highly integrated into many of the other
systems that we're creating. And so there's a lot of duplication and and for example, some of the things I'm going to highlight tonight with some of the things that we're going to highlight on the 28th when we update you on the strategic plan. So, a couple of things that to highlight and again notice that as we're we're
looking at those 10 goals and some of the work that's happened this year to really move towards this bigger goal of educational equity and equitable outcomes for all our students, um there's a lot of work that's happened around student well-being and achievement. So, we've ended this this year um with a universal lesson plan
template that centers our emerging bilingual students and is meant for all to really help all grades, all content areas center our majority population, which is our emerging bilingual students and make sure that the way we design lessons is set up to support emerging bilingual students. We also know that we
needed to strengthen the way we do intervention. And so when our when our instruction that's that's being delivered to all students isn't getting the outcomes that we want, how are we making sure that every student has the appropriate interventions? We do that work through a system called multi-tered
systems of support. And this year um we have finished the year with a really robust toolkit for structuring multi-tered systems of support so that there's fidelity and accountability around the way we offer interventions. we have really strengthened, you know,
our theory of action is that when schools feel safe and kids feel seen and welcome, um that they're more ready to learn. This year, we were also able to finalize school culture and climate plans, um with fidelity that are aligned to our discipline matrix, um and that
often also have some accountability around data. Uh that's all work that's new this year and aligned to these goals around um equity, around equitable outcomes. We had our students led as we really lean into looking at student representation and equitable
representation of students across activities and leadership groups. Our students developed um at our high schools a student representative leadership survey that was administered across all our high schools. And so our students are working through that data. Now that's something we've never done before. Um, we also formalized our
student and superintendent advisory council so that there is a direct line of communication between student leaders and the superintendent, assistant superintendent and executive director of schools. We also created and and rolled out new career and technical education pathways this year and have a bunch more
on the list for next year um in terms of our commitments to post-secary uh success and career pathways. So all of this work not only is aligned to the goals set out in policy ADB, but also aligned very tightly with our strategic initiatives around student first, our
priorities around students first and rigorous learning for all. So a lot of tight alignment between what you all set out in policy ADB and the work that we're implementing with rigor these next four years from the strategic plan. We also, as the board knows that um
something we've never done in the Roaring Fork schools is really make the data that is going to hold us accountable to the goals and objectives in our strategic plan um really visible. There's a goal around uh racial around data transparency and racial equity
analysis that is much more transparent than it's ever been in our district because of the launch of the D data dashboard that you all saw in the last couple months. Um we've done a ton of work with Chief Shcoin's leadership strengthening financial transparency and equity focused decision-making. We as we
went through um even a very unexpected uh financial set of financial crises and challenges this year. One of the first things we did was align all the work that we would do to make decisions around um some having an equity focused decision-making process that guided us
over the last 10 months of how we made those decisions moving forward in navigating the financial crisis. Um, we are finishing this year with a family partnership toolkit that's highly informed by our our families and our students that's really going to lay out best practices for how our schools need
to partner with families in support of their students education. That's new work. We haven't had anything this clear and direct before in the school district. And then as the board's been quite um an integral part, we have revised many of our policies with an
equity lens with a lot of engagement with our students, with our families um around safe haven, around dress code. Tonight we'll be looking at policies on searches and so a lot of work on policies using that equity lens. And then finally, in terms we, you know, we know that there's a lot in terms of
workforce recruitment and retention tied to our equity goals. and we know we need to recruit and retain a staff who reflects the diversity of our students. Um, this year we formalized and I can't wait to have the teams come up to present to you. We formalized our classified and admin IB processes. Um,
really taking some of the learnings that we've had from a really successful over two decades with certified IBB to formalize a process so that classified staff and admin have a seat at the table and feel represented. Um, we worked with Promise 54 this year in that goal to
have a staff reflect the diversity of our kids. We have a concrete workforce recruitment and retention plan that we're looking forward to as we go through a chief of HR transition that our new chief of HR takes that plan and then helps us really build a staff who reflects the diversity of our kids and
community. And this year, our equity steering committee um implemented a series of professional developments that are really aligned to the goals in policy ADB and were able to reach all staff. uh starting with actually a really um I would say critical and
essential kind of cornerstone professional development that was called the uh policy ADB close read that made sure that all our staff are aware of this policy and these very significant commitments that the board has made to ensuring that we are on track and accountable for really achieving those
goals around uh equitable outcomes for students. So lots of work there. where we'll go next and what the board will see on the 28th is a lot of the next steps integrated into next year's strategic plan initiatives. I talked about recruitment and retention. We'll see more about that. We need to continue
clarification around school fund funding and budget transparency still a ways to go. Um we'll kind of have part one of the strategic plan year one update on the 28th and then we'll kind of finish that next fall when we get our student
achievement data. That's when we'll also refine strategic plans and UIPs. Um the equity steering committee as we remember we heard from the equity audit this year um is going to do some work strengthening communication and planning for 25 26 year professional development.
Um one of the other pushes we also heard from the equity audit this year was to push to have a staff annual culture and climate survey. So we're anticipating baking that into the next four years of the strategic plan. We're looking forward to the implementation and training for schools and staff around
the family partnership toolkit and then looking forward to updating and monitoring the data dashboard for year 2 metrics. So, a ton of work um aligned to policy ADB and really motivated by policy ADB that takes us on those steps of that much bigger plan um beyond the
strategic plan to really hit the our goals around equitable outcomes for students. Okay. Shall we shift? Um, we got a big crew that's going to come up for part two of this and then we will have time for questions. So, we'd love for our certified admin and classified reps to
join me. Um, and grab some chairs, y'all. Okay. So, what our plan is to um provide some updates for the board on the work that happened with our three um teams that are really focused on labor relations. And so really want to have
the teams take the mic and explain some of the the the work that we focused on this year, the interestes, the interests, the outcomes, um any lessons learned. Delighted to have this team work with the board and that you can hear from folks directly. Um and we'll talk about some lessons that we learned holistically where we need to go next.
We don't have any necessarily concrete actions beyond the health insurance action that we'll talk about later tonight. So, sometimes this this um this moment during a board meeting includes actions for all of you, but this tonight is really an FYI and updates. I'm good. Okay. Christy Helms represents
classified IBB and is program manager for the family resource center. Hi. So, I'm here with Jean and we are part of the classified IBB and we're proud to say that it continued well this year. We faced some challenges in the past to keep this group active, but now we have
a dedicated classified leadership IBB team and um we're just eager to have classified staff participate and hear their voice through this process. The interests that we discussed this year were salaries and then the classified
team communication, engagement and culture and of course health insurance. And our goal was to establish a strong foundational formal process for classified staff. We began to address salaries and the health insurance benefits. And we agreed that classified
teams need to hold team meetings and regular check-ins. The classified staff team consists of many diverse groups. And so, um, we surveyed them, got all of their feedback, and we were just excited that we kept the process going this year
and that it will continue on to next. Okay. For certified IBB, we have Nina, Asha, Asher, and Autumn. Um, so similarly, we were focused a lot on um salary and health benefits. That was our second interest, creating a
competitive full package. Um, our first interest was more around this strengthening consistency and continuity of learning for students as we support adult personal and professional needs. Um, we're working through how do we do
IB now that we have the CBC. Um, and so I think this was a cool learning experience for a lot of us. that first interest. There is very laid out PTO policies and um agreements in the contract and we didn't want to touch
this touch that since we're on a three-year um cycle cycle. Thank you. Um, so it was cool to see the group come together, work together on sub shortages are still issues. Teachers and leaving the classroom is
still an issue, but what are ways that we can do it outside of the contract that are more agreements that will make the process better for everyone involved, including subs, guest teachers, admin, um, people who are there. So recommendations came out of
that um for human resources, building leadership teams and the achievement and culture and equity for students teams. Um and there were a lot of cool and creative ideas that that team was able to come up with. Yeah. For example, um having like a set lesson plan at each
school for guest teachers. Right now many schools like each teacher just has their own lesson plan. So having like a standardized template that will help really advertising um creating like a QR code on a sticker that all staff can have and if you're at some conference and someone's like hey I'm interested in subbing you can be like sign up right
now and we'll have all that. So trying to just make it a lot easier to be a guest teacher. We have such amazing guest teachers already in our district and we're so grateful for them. So just trying to make it more supportive of their um and I'm sure we'll talk about health insurance as well. Um, but we're really
thankful to Christy Shcoin for all of her hard work on our salary schedules and our finance just so that we were able to maintain our steps and lanes and provide that with teachers even though it was a financially difficult year for us. So, I appreciate the IBB work. Yeah.
And our our um we were able to give staff members their steps and lanes, which is great. Um, we weren't able to reach an agreement that we felt like was where we wanted to be. And so we're going to continue working on that piece through the summer into no into the fall and into November looking at if we can't
give staff at least a cost of living increase, are there other ways maybe we can pay them in time? Maybe there's other ways we can get creative to still sort of support them as things get more expensive as um housing becomes more expensive. How can we still keep our
teachers here um moving forward? a little bit to kind of summarize the work. Yeah. So, Heather How um I am part of the ASUS team, the academic culture and equity for students. Um I am one member
on the admin IB. Um it consists of group of leaders, building leaders, and then I'm the representative from from the ASUS team. Um so this year um our three big bucket um of areas that we were working in around this work boundaries
and this was really important um because leaders have many many roles and responsibilities. So we went through a process that we had um a form that we completed and said like what is it within that realm but things that are outside of that. So like if you have
don't have a financial secretary and that building leader is having to take on that role and responsibility as well or the drama director um that is above and beyond right so we were able to identify what those were um and that they would be able to
um receive like a stipen if it was something in addition to that but just really um co-created that guidance um to consider roles and responsibilities for school leaders. Um the next one was around salary and budgets and since we know that was the big topic this year
but really worked on that communication piece and so collectively really um you know I think making sure voice of teachers and what what is coming up what's that communication and just collectively um kept refining that to try to hit the right mark with that
communication um but also just making sure that um we were supporting that the the decisions and where where could there be cuts. Um with that we also represented um part of the group with the health
insurance advisory committee um and that felt really important too um to be able to be a partnership in that and so that was great. Um and then the last one was scheduling. Um so we're really committed to make sure we're thinking about um
what professional development is happening um in during the school day so that it is not impacting teachers and impacting students um when they are out of the classroom. So really utilizing and thinking about ways that we can um
all all the way from new teacher orientation at the beginning of the year throughout the year, but really utilizing the um district er um our PD days that are set aside um and just making sure that we're ensuring that um teachers are in the classroom with
students, prioritize that work. So in in a couple other things that I think we all learned together this year and so there's there's still some unresolved challenges and as the board is aware this was a really unique um kind of new era and new phase in terms of labor relations. So some of the new
pieces we had a health insurance advisory committee with representation from these three teams that work together to make the recommendations. You approved initially the three plans that that this the health insurance advisory committee was recommending that the board offer next year. Tonight there'll be an action in front of you to
recommend the employer employee contributions to those plans. That that what's so interesting this year was having that committee having the collaborative bargaining contract with certified in place and having three formal IBB teams really created new dynamics and I think left us with real
opportunities and also a ton of questions. How do these groups interact? how do they overlap? Where are decisions made? How do we navigate very different interests from employee groups sometimes and sometimes very aligned? Um so I think that that's work that we're still grappling with and need to flush out in
terms of timelines and decision points. Um there was certainly I think as we are celebrating that we have representation for these groups. I think we also recognize that there are some employee full-time employee groups that still don't quite know which team they fit in. Um, and so we we're still grappling with
that too with some of the kind of um some of the special employee groups that are going, "Hey, wait, you missed me somewhere." And trying to figure out where everybody fits. Um, you know, and I would name that we we really leaned heavily on the strengths and what we've learned with over two decades of certified um interest-based bargaining
as really our anchor in this district since in the 2000s. We've done that work and we had a lot of processes and tools and formulas that we've used in certified IBB that are actually in a world in which we are in declining enrollment and school finance formulas
are different than they were a decade ago, two decade ago have kind of become moot or inapplicable in the current situation. And so I mean this was a year where we were trying to dig out of financial holes, but some of the formulas we've used in the past to
really make sure that folks felt that we were being clear and transparent and fair with funding don't really work in a declining enrollment um context. And so we don't know where to go from there. And so that is work that we need to we have a committee that's going to be working on this summer to answer the question, how do we ensure we are fairly
transparently investing in staff salaries and benefits? um and how do we invest responsibly when we have uncertain financial futures when we're looking at declining enrollment. So that is still something that we are collectively grappling with and hoping to to come up with some proposed solutions to that moving forward. And
then I think this has also raised questions as we've developed this year into consistency. These teams work similarly, but also there's some differences. And so we have questions about process and why different um representation looks different, where the board participates, when things are
public and when they're not. So we're still grappling with some of those questions as well. I would say there's also been some really key lessons learned that I want us to stamp as a district. Um, one of the really interesting things that a new consultant pushed us to think about in terms of the
the way we structure all of these teams and it's codified in the CBC is that we have a leadership team for each of these these employee groups. And so the folks that sit in front of you also support and serve on those part in part on those teams in addition to the formal IBB
negotiating and bargaining processes. And what we learned, especially in a year where we had a very dynamic environment around health insurance and self- insurance and had to make decisions fast and really needed staff input was that that that monthly
leadership team really strengthens communication and the ability to implement agreements from IBB. Um, you've heard us all year talk about with classified IBB, we call it 4x4 team. With certified, it's called the labor management committee. Um, and with admin
IB, we call it the 4x3 team. These teams meet monthly. They make sure we're implementing things correctly. They help us course correct. They help us kind of raise flags when things aren't working really well and help us make decisions quickly. And that has been so key when we need to get staff input on on
different issues and topics. It has been a a really critical structure to be able to do that quickly. Um, so yeah, kind of reiterating what I just said. It's these leadership teams really strengthen and facilitate staff communication, input and engagement with decision making in
real time. Um, you know, I think one of the things we learned especially with the certified IBB team is that when we collaborate on issues beyond the Roaring Fork schools, we can have a really positive impact. Um, you know, we know that the as a state passed the school funding formula, it wasn't as bad as it
could have been and as it initially was when the governor put out his first draft. Um, and I think a lot of that has to do with the pressure that that we saw collective action from like the no more cuts action that happened in March that RFCA really reached out and said, "Hey, can we do this together?" We the board
was supportive, administration was supportive, and you know, I think our presence and engagement there had an impact on where the school finance formula ended. Um, and so we need to remember, and I think that was an aha for all of us, especially during really hard moments this year, um, to remember
that yes, we are absolutely trying to do the right thing with all the funding we get. We also need to make sure that it's not acceptable, that this is all we get from the state and the federal government. Um, and so that collaboration was really critical. I think a lesson learned from this year. Um, I think that something that the
board really uh reiterated last year when you updated the H policies and really affirmed interested bargaining as the way we do labor relations as opposed to traditional negotiation and traditional um uh bargaining is that relationships remain the foundation. And
as hard as this year was, all of our teams emerged with either stronger relationships or new relationships. Um, and that I think was a win that's going to stretch beyond I think maybe some of the more tangible outcomey things that we really had hoped to achieve. So I think that's
really critical that we we can celebrate that. And then I think finally um this work matters. It is a massive investment. The amount of hours that this team and these bigger teams have put into this work is significant. Um it's also key to driving student outcomes. We know that thriving team is
a key strategic priority. We know that if our our staff are supported and happy and healthy and engaged that we're they're going to be able to better serve students and better meet the needs of our kids. And so just want to still link all of this work back to that priority around a thriving team because that's
really what we're looking for in outcomes because we know that's going to drive student outcomes. Lots of folks you can ask questions to. So happy to open this up for discussion. Thank you. Um, so we'll now have two minutes each to ask questions on both the topics from the
superintendent report. Director Nefr, are you? Sure. Great. Thanks. Um, so jumping back to the beginning of your report, just I'll move around hopefully quickly. The equity impact statement. Um, could you talk a little bit about how much the priorities there and the
definitions we use are based in uh, datadriven educational best practices? Um, could you just talk a little bit about that? Sure. You know, I I think what's really important about the commitments that are in ADB is that we're talking about having all of our students achieving and meeting the goals
and standards with no disperate outcomes by student subgroup. Um, and so that, you know, our definition is really ensuring that we're doing right by every single kid that walks in our buildings. Um, and yes, we in education look and disagregate data by different groups to
try to understand trends and patterns. We're working at scale. If we were teaching small schools of 20 kids, we could do an indivi individualized plan for every kid. But we do we do disagregate our our groups of students around language ability, around um ability, disability, around um all the
different subgroups that we look at because it helps us develop interventions for groups. Um, and so I think that, you know, a key piece of this is us being able to better see where our kids are at to be able to monitor and manage um, our interventions
and our supports to see if we're gaining traction to to really move the needle for our students. And so I do I think that those pieces around the data, around the evidence are really key. And and I'll name that, you know, this is like my I don't know eth or ninth year in the district. we've never had this
kind of um I would say rigorous awareness and transparency around our student data and if you can't see it you can't address it um and so I think that as we move through the next four years of really working with that data dashboard which is very public facing
but I can tell you that the work that is happening in our classrooms with our teachers looking at their own classroom data with our school leaders with our departments um looking across school to school is far more rigorous than we've ever had as a district. And I think that's that's it's a huge piece is
having that data to drive those outcomes for kids. Does that answer your question? Yeah. And also I was just kind of thinking about at the national level studies that that show pieces of what we've included in these goals, you know, having your um the the community makeup reflected in staffing and whatnot. Um
there's irrefutable evidence that that improves student outcome. So, I just appreciate the amount of time that I know the team put into framing that with a solid foundation. So, um, one note about consultants, I think it's been
covered. Um, we mentioned the Promise 54 and I have I guess we don't really need to go back to it, but I think we we discovered that our staff does a lot of good work and that sometimes the consultants that we bring in are helpful up to a point. Would you maybe share
just a lesson learned around that this year? Yeah, you know, I think there were there were components of I would say the work with Promise 54 that we were disappointed in in terms of as you all remember our discussions around um input on and some of the feedback and some of the focus group sessions that we wanted
a little more. Um, I think there were still really meaningful pushes from the work that we got from Promise 54, especially especially um the staff recruitment and retention pushes. Um, you know, that that we contracted with
Promise 54 in large part because of their strengths around recruiting and retaining diverse staff. And so we knew that that was going to be their strongest point. And I think that's the strongest deliverable that we got from the work with Promise 54. Um, we can't
wait to better support the human resources team to really level up. I mean, I think we've we've had a human resources team in this district for for a long time. I don't know that they've ever been this tightly aligned to a strategic goal or chunk of work. And so,
we're actually asking more from human resources. We're asking for the basic human resources kind of work, but now through all these components, we're asking for um leadership and talent development, recruitment, retention so that we can get to the student outcomes we need. And and that was a push where
we did not have internally the skills, the experience to know what the right next steps were to to get to those recruitment and retention goals. And we really needed them to come in and help us with that. it was grounded in our input from staff. It was grounded in
this context. Um so I think there were you know there's components of that when we use consultants um that we really want to play to you know the their expertise filling gaps that we have as a small district. Um and then I think also being strong in what we know about our
own ability to get input from folks. You know like we knew that wasn't tracking well. We knew we could do better. um we could have leaned in more there. Yeah, a lot of actions being taken on that front. Appreciate that. Um moving to the IBB um interestbased bargaining to try not
to throw around our our TLAs too much. Um I think I just wanted to say an appreciation for all the teams. The process commitment is arduous. the the consensusbased process is is a lot of work and it's based in relationship but it's
unearthed priorities and solutions that would definitely not have found air with the just standard give and take and I think some of the things that really stood out to me were um focusing on the improvements around creating like a a more streamlined and effective guest
teacher structure recognizing that our district absolutely needs all the help it can get and the creative solutions there are are fantastic. Um I was wondering if you could just remind me that one has more to come right in the fall or where did we land there? I'm
sorry. No, we made our recommendations for the guest teachers. The one that's still to come is surrounding salary um and compensation just because we weren't ready to have we we aren't sure fully what the budget
is. Um and so our hope is that through next fall, I think we scheduled the date by November, we would have um some sort of retroactive something that we can give to teachers. Um but this would be for
this year's bargaining but extending into next year. Got it. So it would be the salary one. Okay. And then with the admin um group, I I just want to recognize we have had a lot of principal turnover, losing some fantastic people for a lot of reasons, some moving to
different places, which is fantastic, too. But I just wanted to thank you all for putting in the time and identifying those key pieces um around the work boundaries necessary to take on those heavy leadership roles um and honoring their time and commitment. So, thank you,
Director Titler. I would like to start by thanking IBB for all the three groups for the time and the effort that you gave this year. I know it was a lot of time away from everything else that you do and so I just want to say thank you for your time and appreciate the process. Um my first question I have is
for you Dr. Cole. It says that as part of ADB and having this equitable access for student achievement that we're developing a comprehensive lesson plan template that centers emerging bilingual students and students with disabilities. Can you tell a little bit about how this will be rolled out? Will how will
teachers be responsible for this lesson planning? Will lesson plans need to be turned in? Who will be checking those lesson plans? Those types of questions. Um I actually wish Amy Fairbanks was here because she's leading that task force, but she can you can come on up. But I can speak really um broadly to it.
We're in the process this spring of having I think there are 25 teachers who have been piloting and testing it out. This is the after five or six months already of development. But do you want to chime in because I know you know the plan. Hi. Your question was what's the
roll out look like? um more the roll out but more just the question is like will teachers be having to turn in lesson plans and who would they turn them into and who would be checking those lesson plans and what is the time ask of teachers for doing that
don't know the details about that yet we're still at the collection stage of the feedback from the teachers who are giving it a try and then we're planning the roll out for professional development for the fall but that's a detail I I don't know the answer to And has there not been like a time
commitment or how like of those 25 teachers that tested it? It's it's in the strategic initiative like the priority 2.5 is giving us five years to roll that out. So we're just at the beginning stages right now. Okay. I just want to add it's I think
it's important especially for this to get the teachers to try it out to give us the feedback to and answer the questions. what is possible, what is helpful, how is this helping you internalize the key parts of a lesson and plan ahead of time. And the key thing there is that when teachers are internalizing, I mean, we have a lot of
curriculum that's already in place. The idea is not that they're taking stuff from the given curriculum, copying it over here, like that would not be a good use of time, but actually um understanding from teachers. How is this kind of template helping you as you think about and internalize the key parts of the lesson um and then better serve the students in front of you?
Okay, we're also collecting feedback on um how well did this lesson design help students use their full linguistic repertoire to comprehend the context and engage in in complex uh academic tasks. So that's one of the questions that
we're asking the teachers who are implementing it to give us feedback on and that'll also inform our professional development and roll out. It does it does also include considerations for students with disabilities and accommodations. Again,
we want um students on ALP students in um previously there were multiple different lesson plans. I feel I failed on you. Sorry. You're doing a great job. Previously, there were multiple different lesson plan templates which proved to be confusing for teachers. They're asking, should I use this one?
Do I use this one? When do I use this? And so that is one of the intents as well um as we're planning for for instruction. Thanks, Phil. You're welcome. Um I also have a question about the data dashboard. When we look at that, if we're looking at the in-ear
measures and annual measures, like I mentioned last time, six years in a row, our medium growth percentile has gone down for Latino students less than the 50th percentile. Six years running. When I look at the in-ear measures from our
NWA in-y-ear measures, beginning year to middle of the year, the rate for achievement for the Latino students has gone down. So, what are the changes that we're implementing this year that we think is giving us that forwardness? So,
if we're looking at math, it's down a couple percentages points. In reading is down a couple percent points. What is it that's not working and what do we need to change? Um to be honest that wasn't the topic that we prepared to address tonight but
we can get back to that. You know we haven't had the end of year inear metrics yet. Those are hopefully going to be updated by the 28th and at that point we can talk more about those when we update strategic plan. Okay. Okay. And just another question on that, maybe you can be looking at that as we go to
end of the year too. Is if we're looking at the achieving mastery in reading, it says the 5-year objective is to be 56% with no differences in subgroups. Right now, our Anglo are at
99%. So, how are we shooting at 56% and having no differences in subgroups? All great questions for when we talk about the strategic plan, which will be the 28th. But I think it's is within what we're talking about being that we are
talking about ADB and the equity impact statement and number one being equitable access for student achievement. Yep. And that's why we talked in the updates said that we would be talking more about the actual metrics and the
strategic plan when we when we come to the 28th to really look at like what are the lessons learned? What are we seeing in the trends in the data? Where do we go from? Go from here. I look forward to that on the 28th. Thank you, director. After
Great. Thank you. Um, thanks to everyone who put so much time and effort into all the different parts of the IBB this year. Um so I have heard anecdotally, purely anecdotally from teachers um who seem
relatively satisfied with the health insurance um the final health insurance decision. Is that I don't want to open too much of a can of worms, but I would like um if you're willing like an authentic assessment if you think that is true in the experience you've been
having um speaking to teachers uh across schools since that has happened. Um, sorry. Um, I think it has been a roller coaster experience this year of where we thought we were going to be and then we're how bad we thought it was
going to be and then so there's been a lot of ups and downs and um ideally we would want it more than we have. Like we, you know, we have a plan. It's not as good of a plan as we have right now. Like teachers next year are getting um less insurance for more money. Like it's
it will you know co-pays are going up, all of that. But we are able to offer a free plan that has a an actual co-pay, which we didn't think we were going to be able to do a month ago. So, I think we're happy that we have that ability to do that. Um, it's not perfect. I know
teachers who have had to leave the district already because they can't afford themselves and their kids on this plan. It's a 1200 or $12,000 pay cut for them. They can't they can't do it. So, I think it's not perfect. We definitely have a long way to go, but it's it's better than where we thought we were
going to be a month ago. Yeah, I would echo what Autumn just said. It's there's a silver lining, though, and I think that silver lining really is that Z plan. I think when we look at our comparative districts, there's not a lot of other districts
near us um who have that. I talked to other representatives in other districts and they're shocked that we have a Z plan. Um, so the fact that we were able to keep that and work with the team to maintain that I think is huge. It's not where we want it. And I think it goes to
a bigger conversation that we had in the health committee um about it's not just us. It's all of our surrounding districts and what pressure do we need to start putting on the legislature? What pressure do we
need to come together? And I know Dr. Cole has done a lot of work with other superintendents up and down the valley. Um, and I think next year we're going to take this momentum and these wonderful people that we got to collaborate with to really dig deeper into some better
health insurance options cuz it's it's not where we want it to be. There's good things about it, but it's not perfect. I don't Anyone else? Yeah. I wonder if anyone else besides teachers, are there other um insights on to how the rest of the
staff are feeling about insurance? I think with our classified staff, very similar. We were excited that we were still offered a free plan, but when we surveyed a lot of our staff, what was important to them at the end of the day, classified staff just wanted to make
sure that they still had a job and insurance was second. So just ensuring that they were still going to be employed by the Roaring Forks School District was their top priority because they were scared of that positions were going to be cut. So when we asked our
staff, you know, what is important to you? A lot of them said, do I still have a job next year? So insurance was a top priority, but making sure that they still had a job was number one for them. Thanks for that. Um I uh my final
question is just is there anything that any of the groups haven't been asked up here yet or would like to share um that's on your mind since you've got the microphone about the process or the outcomes. Committed to passing the whole thing.
Okay. Um I think um this is my 12th year on IBB and it has been really some process to be a part of. I really enjoyed the health insurance committee that had the administration and and classified. I loved that we're elevating specifically the classified voices because they're so crucial in our
district and that had not happened yet. And so I'm grateful for that time and and for the feedback that she just shared like that was really helpful for us to hear because that was not feedback that we had heard five or six years ago. So opening that story has been really great. it is coming with its own sort of
like okay like now what does this look like and how do we move forward with that so we're in the process of figuring that out of like does classified or sorry certified IBV still made up of admin and teachers should that just be like how does that all work so we're in the process of just figuring out what
that'll look like but I think we've started a really good foundation and I'm excited to move forward with that couple of things I would say is, you know, I'd been part of the IBB process many years ago and the IBB process then was they said, "Yeah, we'll
give it to you." But we never got it. And I feel that, you know, there was tons of things that we found out uh of different benefits, so to speak, that went across all of the classified groups. There were some that were just
specific to different groups, but I feel that with the work we did this year has given us a good foundation that I I finally feel and trust that we're going to have a be able to go forward with IBB and it's not going to be the same. Oh,
yeah, we're going to have IBB, but you you don't get anything out of it. You know, you can ask for it, but it never comes. So, I'm real glad that whoever brought this forward and reinstated IBB and I'm glad for Dr. Cole's leadership
through this and and the consultants we've had and I think that um you know it was a learning year for a lot of us. But I think next year is going to be a lot better for the IBB process and for
the groups. Great. Thanks, Jean. Thanks, everyone. Director Ramirez. So, I'll just continue on this conversation. Um, I'll echo gratitude um from my colleagues, from the board. Thank you guys for your dedication for volunteering. Thank you to all the teams
who met, had the extra teams, went did the extra things. Um, we really appreciate it. And you know, I'll echo um Jean's sentiments that I think this was not just a growing year for all of us, but also like a commitment year, right? Like this was a real year that we
were like, we're going to dig in. We're going to try this out. We're going to commit to it. We're going to commit to equity for all of our staff. And I really appreciate that everybody really jumped in to do that. And then I also want to give gratitude for Megan Talbet because I saw your guys' note um for her
commitment and service to certify IBB. Does anybody know how long she's been? Wow. 22 years. Wow. So um just a shout out to her um for all of her time that she gives endlessly um to the
school district. Um I wanted to just comment on your final certified IBB recommendations list. I love it. Thank you for taking the time to do that. I think it's a great document for the other teams to look at and to consider.
I mean like just the recommendations to HR to aces to BLT to um the technology department. Um, I just I think that's a really great idea for us to commit towards the end of IBB to
say like, "By the way, these are some of the recommendations we're sending forward to the board um that we might want to tackle in the upcoming year or if there is turnover within the IBB leadership that we have a document that says this is where we left off." So, I
just wanted to make sure I elevated that as an opportunity maybe for admin and classified to, you know, look it over and see if that's something that they want to consider as well. Um, okay, shifting over to the
ADB. Sorry, I'm out of time. Okay, I'll do my five minutes of the Go ahead. So, we're we're running behind. We are. Um, I too I'm super grateful for everybody's commitment to this process. I think this has been something that
since I've gotten on the board. I've really wanted and pushed for that we expanded the IBP process to different employee groups. And so seeing it come to fruition, seeing it happen this year, seeing these recommendations come before the board seems like a huge step um in the right direction. So thank you all
for your participation, your engagement on all fronts. I think that this is this year and will be in the future super impactful for our district and employees. So, I'm just super grateful for all of that work. Um, I don't have any additional specific questions. Um,
but I'm also very happy that we are where we are in health insurance and I'm grateful, Nina, that you called out that this is a statewide problem. Uh, and I would encourage if anybody here, anybody within the district there's anything that we can do to advocate with our state legislators. I know this year our
session is done, but if there's anything that comes up, please don't hesitate to reach out to any members of the board so that we can use these seats and our voices to advocate in that way. Now, I'll move to our five minutes. Okay, I'm going to jump in. Um, so for
the equity steering committee and Dr. Do we know is there representation from all communities, parents and students? You know, it's it's really a staff group. So that we the policy ADB name means a couple of key groups and one the equity advisory council is kind of our staff,
parent, student group that yes does have representation from all of our three communities. Equity steering committee is a staff team and so it's really made up of teachers and leaders and department heads um who are developing uh professional development doing instructional tools. So slightly
different in terms of the makeup of those groups, but the EAC absolutely has great representation. We finally got Glenwood in this year um and had some really strong students and parents coming in from Glenwood to join the group this year. So it feels really good to be able to say that. Great. Thank
you. I I remembered one of those I forgot there was multiple. Um and then um you did mention a student representative leadership survey. Do we have access to that those results yet? Uh send us that question. And right now most of the data has been students are
analyzing it and so we can definitely get them to report to you in the fall. Um if you send us that question, I'm not really sure where the current data is, but we can dig in. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions or
comments on the superintendent report? I would just like to say that being that we're bringing up equitable access and student achievement, we have a big turnout tonight from a group of parents and community members who are here tonight pressing for that.
I guess I would just like to ask some kind of response from the district of what kind of commitment is being made to this group. What are the changes that the district is looking
to make that will impact those students? And what are those commitments that we're going to be able to give to this group who is here tonight, who has been here multiple times and in a way that is going to impact the
learning for this this group who is 40 points behind in our learning. And how is it that what are those changes that are going to be rolled out? if it can be more specific and more
detailed and something beyond. I appreciate all of the great work we're doing with our teaching and our supporting teachers and moving forward to be the best teachers that we are and that is important that we continue to do this.
How are we going to make changes that address students who come to us with a different need, a language need? So, and what is that thing that we're going to do to address the language gap that students
come to our school with and arrive with outside of EL classes? Where is that? what is it that we're providing in the rest of the day for those students who have that language deficiency and I
think that's a answer that needs to be given to this group and I would love to come yeah you know I would say the most this the simplest answer is that um a couple things one it's not as simple as a language gap
there are many contributing factors to why we see the disperate outcomes for students um and we know in educational research shows. It's all kinds of things. It's language, it's ability, it's poverty, it's um access to resources, it's school facilities, it's staff, it's quality, it's
representation. Um it's complex. There's no silver bullet. And I would say two two key answers in terms of like what are we doing to address the achievement gap that we're seeing in our data? And I would say two things. one for the next 5 years, we're dedicated to to carrying
out a strategic plan that if you recall was based on um an evaluation, a third party evaluation of our district by Attuned Education Partners that said, you know, when when they came in and assessed our classrooms and they looked at our data, and this was what, three
years ago that Attuned came um and they said, "There's a ton of strengths here and and really where you need to to focus to better serve all your students is ensuring that your classrooms are providing rigorous education that's meeting the the level of the content
standards and meeting the curriculum the the the rigor of the curriculum that that those pieces were in place and so I want to name that we're not trying to make something up right we contracted with attuned because what they do is help schools and districts address the
achievement gap so when they named for us that the biggest most glaring thing that we need to tackle was the academic rigor in our classrooms. That's not it wasn't about finding a program solve. It wasn't about teaching in a different language. It was about how do we make
sure that every kid is highly engaged and challenged to to the best of their ability and supported in every classroom every day. And so I would say that then when we started to do a root cause analysis of why is that not happening and this is all the strategic plan development work that we did two years
ago. We grounded all of that analysis in evidence-based research and the result of which was the five priorities that you see in our strategic plan. So we believe really strongly that it's not one thing and there's not one silver bullet and that we have to be tackling.
I mean we didn't make up these five priorities because they were cute or they were fun or they sounded flashy. They we went back to the research and that's why we brought attuned education partners in because they brought us the research to say, you know, representative staff are going to push student educational outcomes somewhere
in that 8 to 12%. um better partnerships with families focused on the academic achievement of students, not on showing up at meetings, not on coming to big district meetings, but having critical conversations between a teacher and their parent and a
parent about that child's academic success is going to drive academic outcomes. That is how we structured these five strategies was to absolutely address that achievement gap. So what we're going to do, I mean the plan to to do this is to do this plan with fidelity
and accountability. And I would say more broadly, are we going to eliminate the achievement gap in five years? No. Which is why last year this board made a commitment through policy ADB recognizing that we have to go deeper than a plan that stands on the wall for
5 years. That we need to go deeper than a resolution that can get lost in a year. that we need to go further than hiring a superintendent who talks about this and we need to stamp it in our policy that this organization is committed to educational equity because
that policy is going to outlast this plan all of you all of us and is going to sit there and say we're not done until we've hit educational equity. That's the commitment. And so the way that we live that is the commitment that this board has stated for this
organization that's going to last more than five years. It's going to be 10 years, 20 years until we can hit that. Um and so I actually think the answer is and now you know I I can say that like yes, do we need to get better in telling the story? Are people hearing it? Um but
the answer to what are you doing is the this plan and that policy and the fidelity to which we implement execute to those would be the other answer. Thank you. Thank you all. The next business in order is a CFO
update quarterly financials from Chief Shakcoin. Each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions and we'll begin with director Titler if you're prepared. I'm um Chief Shakoin, thank you for meeting with us
today in our work session and thank you for presenting at uh this past Monday at finance committee and I feel like your putting together our quarterly financials in a very straightforward
easy to understand way has been very helpful and I don't have any further questions at this time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you director Taylor. director after great thanks for the update earlier in the work session as well as in the finance committee meeting. I just wanted to
um give voice to one of the items in your CFO update which is on the um revenues are approximately 361k higher than anticipated. Um, and then also current estimates for claims in the
self- insurance fund are going to be seeing an overage of about 700,000. I thought, um, you might want a moment just to explain to the public what's going on there. Yeah. Um, so this is just the summary of the third quarter financial report that
we reviewed in more detail in the work session just for reference. And in the uh CFO update is I just gave an executive narrative summary of that. And so in that update, what um I'm saying about the revenues being 361,000 higher
is what I do is quarterly. We don't just put together the financials. We actually we look through them and see well is there something that's tracking a little better that we have have some favorable potential favorable variance. And so there was a couple of items in there
including um interest earnings and um specific ownership tax and some other revenues that we thought we could adjust a little bit higher. Um and that so that's the first paragraph you see there on the screen and the second paragraph under the quarterly financial statements
is that um we have a positive variance is offset by about 710,000 that we believe will be over in addition to the overages we've already reported to the board on um self- insurance overage and that's just based upon um the current estimates from uh
Lucent um on what where those costs are going to be coming in and we We're hopeful that it's going to be better than that. Um there's some things that that warrant that hope is number one is that our claims um have to be submitted by June 30th. And so we're hoping that
the reason why it's higher is people are actually seeing that deadline and they're bringing the claims in earlier. So that could u be one of the reasons, but we're faring that out with our actuary. And then um and there's there's some a couple other things is we may if
they it does come in that high that we may have um some potential um reimbursement from our stop-loss carrier um to help offset that. That was not included in this report. So it's kind of a worst case is what we're saying and that's our hopeful worst case right now
that we're faring out more. U but when you net those two numbers the 361 minus the 710 that's where you get the 349,000 unfavorable. The good news is is there like I told the board um during the work session is there wasn't a lot of um
information on or like numbers on the um executive summary that we had in the quarterly financial. That means that that we don't have very many other adjustments that I really believe are worthy of noting at this point. So that was a really good thing is that I believe we've captured all of those
changes that we were looking at uh for January 29th um in our supplemental budget. Um so anyway, and it looks like we'll be right over our um minimum fund balance based upon these estimates. So
that's good news, too. So, excuse me. The only other thing I'd note is that these are all still estimates, but that's why we keep that's the need for the quarterly financials because things continue to change. um if you look at $100,000 on an $80
million budget, that's a very very very small percent under like 2% or something like that. So that's why we continue to update and monitor. Right. Thanks. Um and then I have a question about tax uh collection and revenue for the school
district. If it's it's not in the memo, am I okay to ask a generic question? Um I know in Garfield County folks got property owners, homeowners got their um tax assessment from Gar Garfield County the last couple weeks and I've gotten a couple questions because I think people were a little surprised to see um
generically speaking that the a lot of assessments went up even though it feels like the economy is wobbling a bit. Can you just say for the folks listening like what it means for their taxes when they're prop for the school district when we see an increase in property
evaluations? That's what that's a wonderful question. Um uh there's a couple of different funding streams when it comes to property tax because there's different mill levies. Um if everybody knows on their um
property tax form, you have your bond mill levby which is just to repay all of the bonded bonded debt from approved voter um bonds from the past. Now what happens with that is that we just need a set dollar amount. So when your
assessment goes up then generally um it it what'll happen is the mill levy rate will go down but your taxes will remain about the same on your bond fund. Um when you look at the um total program funding um for our general fund um that
is kind of consolidated into part of our per pupil revenue funding from the state. And so there's three funding sources and I'm hope I'm not getting too complicated here but there's the the property tax specific ownership tax and then there's the state equalization back
backfill and so the reason why that is all gerine to that question is because the state requires us to set a specific meal rate similar to our bond fund. So it's not that it's based upon a specific
dollar amount like our bond redemption fund um for our bonds. It's more set on a milly rate. So when your assessment goes up then pretty much taxes also follow that and go up that same percent because your mill levy rate is going to
stay the same. So it doesn't oscillate I guess. So, um, so generally I would say that would mean that your your taxes would increase by relatively about the same percentage as it relates to the school district item specifically. The the thing the
third part is it's it's a pretty involved question so I I don't I want to make sure I'm answering it for people though is related to um your the the mil levy override numbers that we have many
mill levy overrides and so those are also set on a set dollar similar to our bonds and so those are just going to go up probably in around the same percentage as the assessed valuation. So, because yeah, that's how basically
it works. Thanks, Christie. I need I need a whiteboard. I surprised you with that one, but I have been hearing I Yeah, I think a lot of people were surprised to see their Yeah. Uh and so I I anticipate questions coming toward us about what
what it means for the school district that their property taxes sorry that their property valuations went up. I don't have any other questions. Thanks for the thoroughess, director. Thank you. And I apologize for missing finance committee on Monday, but I I'm glad we
have running notes and um was able to check in for updates. Um I did want to um just have you take a moment to talk about the technology mill fund. Um and then actually why don't you go ahead and talk about that really quick? Yeah. Um
so what our technology mill fund is is that and this is past history. one of our millie overrides that we just talked about. Um there's 388,000 that's set set aside specifically for technology and that dollar amount doesn't change but and we set up a separate fund and that
we um account for that 388,000. And so what's happened over time with the tech mill fund is that at first they had some carryover in that fund. Um and that now we've been
spending that money down. Um because as that number has been 388,000, the same number for many years now, obviously costs go up. And so so we're going to eventually um in the 2627 budget need to
kind of recalibrate the costs between TechMill and General Fund Mill in the future um because of those increases in costs that are called recurring because that means they're going to happen year-over-year. So we're using up a lot of our carryover and um and we
anticipate that that carryover will be pretty close to gone for 26 27. So I hope that that helps from a financial basis. Did that answer your question? Yeah, I mean I I think what is important for us as a board and for our CFO and
the community to be aware of is that this is something we will need to deal with in the coming year for the following budget. Um, and I think as much as we can when it comes to transparency and conversations, especially being that we're a declining enrollment school district, um, we need
to start thinking of these things ahead of time and start having these conversations. So, I appreciate and wanted to make sure I pointed that out and I appreciate that you listed the significant items for us um, and this quarterly financial. I also wanted to
um, ask for more information on the early childhood fund. We didn't really get to get to this on the work session, but I wanted to ask um the process of anal analys analyzing the needs for the program. Um what does that entail right
now? Mhm. Um I this this is a fund that has that we need to do some more work on um admittedly and this is one of the reasons and I I've given a lot of reasons I think over the past maybe a
couple of months about the need for a budget analyst but but I really believe that this is one of the reasons for that is because we really need to delve into this fund in additional detail and really far this stuff out. Anna and I are going to be talking about that over the next couple of weeks. um as we're
looking at the 2526 budget and we're going to have more information for the board, but we really hope that um going into the future, this is something that we can monitor more closely. This is something that we have not been able to do well this year. And does that entail?
I guess I'm just trying to see like what does that mean? Are you guys looking at staffing? Are you guys looking at supplemental money? Great question. Uh we're looking at all of it. So, one of the hardest parts of that budget is the revenue because there's many many
revenue streams and we just want to see where our revenue stream being our first year doing this uh running this fund where our revenue revenue streams are coming in. Um that's one big area of analysis that we're going to dive into. Uh the other one that we've already done
quite a bit of work on is the staffing um and just what are adequate staffing levels for that fund and and how that um relates to the the available revenue because there is a um a fund balance transfer from the general fund. So the general fund does supplement that bud
that budget to some level. So it's it's just really um very tied to our general fund and it's really important that we do watch that. So, so that's those are a couple of very big picture examples of what we're looking to dive into and obviously non- salary too which is a
smaller part of that budget. Okay. Thank you. Um and then I just wanted to note that we did add an additional um finance committee meeting. So I appreciate that. I think we need to be talking about the budget as much as possible before it comes to a board vote. So thank
you Brad. No questions. Thanks for the memo and the time in the work session. I also don't have any follow-up questions. I really appreciate the time in the work session and the clarity in the presentation of the quarterly financials. Good. Thank you.
Thank you. At this time, we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board. There are five speakers signed up tonight. The board allotss 45 minutes for public comment. To respect the time of all who are present, speakers are asked to limit their remarks to three minutes or less. A reminder to all speakers to uphold our procedures for public comment. We ask
that you be thoughtful and constructive with your comments and thank you in advance for sharing your feedback. Members of the public who wish to share their views with the board may always do so in writing at any time. For this evening's public comment, we received zero written comments. Our first speaker
tonight is Autumn Rivera. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak with you today. I just wanted to take some time to update you um as the district uh very graciously gives me five flex days to go out and do some advocacy work. I just
feel like it's uh responsible to update you on what I've done with those days. So um this year I have been really busy. Um I've listed kind of some different pieces. Um, I was able to co-author a chapter in a textbook on um, Hispanic perspectives on student support and community focus and we talked really
about the power of storytelling in our classrooms. Um, it was very exciting to have that book come out. Um, I was given the presidential award for ex for excellence in math and science teaching which was very exciting. It was something I actually applied for the year before I applied for the teacher of the year and that's how long we've been
waiting for the results. So, it was kind of funny to have it come back and I'm actually very grateful I was able to get that award because um that program has now been cut. So, unfortunately, that is not something that is funded anymore. Um I keynoted a couple different places at the Colorado Association of Middle Level
Education, their conference. I've did um some speeches at the uh the 2022 NSTOY virtual conference and then have done some different panels specifically with the board on science education. Um I was um I'll I guess I'll say for the um
boards and um membership I have just been still working with the nationalmies in two different places. This is a national organization um nationalmies of science engineering and math. I am on their collaborative um on advancing science teaching and learning in KTEL's steering committee. So that's focusing
on national science education and what that looks like. It's made up of 20 different educator or 20 different people in professors in science education, educational research. I'm one of three teachers on that committee and also was just appointed to the board on science education. It's a national um
board. I'm the only teacher on that board, which is surprising that there's only one teacher, but I'm there and I'm excited to do it. Um and looking forward, I'm continuing to do work with the national board and on Castle K12 to look at science education. Um, I'm going to be uh doing some work in Florida for
the National Network of State Science Teachers. Um, I presented at South by Southwest as well. And so just continuing in that piece and trying to just share like what it's like to be a rural teacher in Colorado. So, thank you for supporting that. Thank you. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Jill Pitcock. Hi everybody. Uh my name is Jill Pitcock and I serve as the executive director for the Ark of the Central Mountains. We support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families across their lifespan. Tonight I'm here representing families whose children attend schools in the Roaring
Fork school district. And as we approach the end of the school year, I'd like to offer a brief end of the year review highlighting a few key concerns raised by families we serve this year. I'm going to start with talking about special education program. the the
special education program audit. Um at the start of the school year, an audit uh of the school district special education program was conducted. As a part of the process, members of the community were invited to complete a survey. While we understand some community partners participated, the Ark of the Central Mountains was not
included as a community partner to be able to give information. Another story. Um at that time, participants were informed that the survey results would be shared. To date, no one we've spoken to um or spoken with who completed the survey received a followup and so we
would certainly like to know what the current status is on this report. We meaning the community. Um let's see. Language equity and access and special education seems to be very appropriate for this evening. We continue to see significant gaps in
language access and equity especially for Spanish-sp speakaking families. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEIDA guarantees parents the right to meaningfully participate in their child's IEP process. Without access to key documents in their native language,
that participation is neither meaningful nor equitable. At minimum, we believe the following documents must be translated into Spanish prior to the IEP meeting. Progress reports documenting data from the previous year's IEP goals. Evaluation reports that define a student's present levels. a critical
component on the IEP. If you've ever participated in an IEP meeting, you know how complex the jargon field language can be, even more native for native even for native native English speakers. I'm having a problem saying that um to expect parents to contribute meaningfully without language access is
unrealistic and unjust. We have been in meetings where school staff have served as interpreter and omitted information as well as liaison put in situations where they have verbalized to us our staff that is as they don't feel comfortable interpreting in situations in which the ark has provided language
services in an advocate role to our parents. We also urge the district to evaluate the effectiveness of the current language line services used during meetings. In our experience, this tool has proven insufficient for fostering genuine understanding and participation. Um, finally, upcoming
public comment from um my director of operations and outreach, Marbel. Lastly, I encourage you to listen closely to the public comment that Marbel is about to share. Uh, her message highlights serious concerns involving some of the district's most vulnerable students. Her words are important, an important call
to action, and an opportunity to strengthen best practice moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Marabella Burkhead. Hi, good evening. My name is Mar Lore and I'm here on behalf of the Arctic Central Mountains. We have been
supporting a few families whose children are enrolled in the SSN program significant support needs at Glman Springs High School. In the past two weeks, a handful of families, most of whom are monolingual Spanish speakers, receive unexpected letters from the school notifying them that their children would not be offered enrollment
for the upcoming school year. The recent cited was program over capacity with priority being given to IND district students. The letter referenced policy JFB-R which covers intra intra district choice and open enrollment and mentions the family's right to appeal. While the
letter did include a link to the policy, it did not explain the appeal process within the body of the letter instead itself. Instead, the only direct guidance offered to families was a note stating they could request a meeting to discuss a matter by emailing their vice principal. For families who do not speak English and who are already navigating a
complex and often inaccessible education system, this is simply not adequate. Without explicit accessible guidance, these families had no meaningful way of knowing that an actual appeal process existed and how to initiate it. One mother did try to pursue this quote appeal. She described the experience as
deeply disappointing and shared that it was clear the decision had already been made prior to the meeting. She felt the interaction to be performative. She also expressed her frustration that conversations about incoming students, especially those with significant support needs, were only happening in May. While she understands that staffing
is a challenge, she believes the district had time to plan and could have taken a more proactive approach to both recruitment and communication to families. Let's be clear about who these students are. These are children with disabilities. These are students who have been part of the district since preschool. These are students who depend
on consistency, relationships, and support in order to succeed. And yes, these are Latino students from Spanish-sp speakaking households. While we understand that this decision may be technically aligned with policy, let us be absolutely clear, this is by no means best practice. These families who are
engaged in in their schools and contribute significantly to our community were informed with fewer than two weeks left in the school year that their children would not need would not would need to transition to new districts. That's not disruptive. That's destabilizing. These are some of the
most vulnerable learners in your care and the way the situation has been handled is not equitable, not inclusive and not acceptable. We urge you to look closely at this process not only through the lens of compliance but through the lens of equity, dignity and responsibility. Our families deserve clear communication, authentic
engagement, and real opportunities to advocate for their children, especially when life altering decisions are being made. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Katya Gonzalez. My name is Kate Gonzalez and I work for
Bosia Deas Montanas as a parent organizer. I am here today to communicate our disappointment in the district's inability to address our request for three different plans to tackle the district's chronic failure in meeting
the academic needs of the majority of the Latino students. Earlier today, we communicated to Dr. Nicole that we are cancelling our regularly scheduled meetings with her because we have been meeting for more than a year yet we have seen no tangible
results are of substantial commitments from these meetings as we have communicated to Dr. Cole and this board repeatedly, the plans and processes that we have been demanding from the district are entirely separate from the district historically
ineffective strategic plans past and current. We are not asking for updates to existing plans, but rather for the initiation of comprehensive engagement process that involve internal and
external stakeholders to identify solutions, strategies, expertise gaps, and funding to once and all for all address three key areas of the district. We remain willing to meet with the district leadership when they are
ready to get to work. Until then, Bose Sunidas will pursue the systematic changes we are seeking using all available tools at our disposal. Passing new state laws to hold school districts accountable. Requesting state board of
education intervention. Using the courts to enforce state and federal laws. Electing or unelecting board members. Organizing parents to demand accountability. And if needed, supporting parents with their par with
their constitutional rights to create their own schools that meet the needs of their students. This work cannot be done in isolation and it will require sustained effort and collaboration from all stakeholders. Above all, it requires a
superintendent and an administration that has the urgency and the vision to eliminate and not to reduce the systematic inequities that have persisted for far too long in the Roaring Fork School District. All students deserve nothing less with
than what the district's mission promises, a quality education for all students. Thank you. Our final speaker is Mary Groom. Good evening. I'm a special education
teacher at Crystal River Elementary School in their significant support needs program and I'm proud to say my two children attend CR. Tonight, I'm speaking as a parent to express my deep gratitude for Amy Brockman's role in bringing music back to our school after
one year pause in programming. Miss Brockman participated professionally and compassionately in many conversations in both public and private settings. Some, maybe all of these conversations were hard ones, and she gracefully listened, empathized, and shared her plans for
bringing music back. She also took action when I asked at a PTO meeting last year for her to post the position again, and she took that action quickly. All of her work ended in filling the position with a qualified teacher. When I told her today that I would be speaking on the subject tonight, she
emphasized that finding her music teacher was the work of the community. I agree and I recognize Miss Brockman's extraordinary role in the project. I'm just so happy and grateful that all of our kids at CRS again had music instruction as part of their early
formative years. After I learned about music going away and was expressing my thoughts and feelings on the subject to Miss Brockman for the first time, she told me she was glad my son liked music class. I don't know, I told her. I don't even know if he likes music. I just know
how important it is for everyone. Music is so important and I'm so grateful for the outcome. Thank you to Ing Brockman and everyone in the district who works to rec who who works to recruit and retrain music teachers for our Roaring Fork
kids. On a different note, I wonder if you've considered moving public comment to earlier in the agenda. Thank you for your consideration, time, and service. Thank you. The next business in order is the approval of the consent agenda which
includes routine personnel minutes from our previous board meeting and approval of policies IHBA, JV, JBV, JF, JFBA, JIC DD and JICD. Directors, are there any items
that you would like to pull from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote? I would like to pull policy JB. Okay. I second. Do I have a initial motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? Removing
policy JP B or JP. Is it JP or JP? Director, can I make a motion to pull policy JB and approve the um consent agenda as amended? Is there a second? Second. Can you please call the
vote? Director After. Director Drades. Hi. Director Kulenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Hi. Director Tidler. Hi. The next business in order is discussion and vote on policy JB. Director Ramirez, can you please start the conversation? Yeah,
it's um I went through policies earlier today and I just realized that um and I do know that there is a note that we were not going to be updating this policy. Just want to state this. Um, but I wanted to make sure I added my comment
for um for when it does come back around as an update because I do believe that we have an account accountability piece missing in this equal educational opportunities and I know it's closely aligned to ADB. But I think this is
something that we could very easily add um like results and data being reported back to the board because I think this is a really good policy and it does have a reference in here. So I wanted it for the record as it comes forward again and
I wanted to make sure I brought it up tonight so that we could bring it back to this conversation. So, are you proposing the addition of the final sentence? Um, well, I wanted it on the record that I would like to have that final sentence
added at some point in time. I do, however, think if it's not a conversation we had in policy committee. So, I just wanted it noted so that when it comes forward, this is a conversation we're having on this. And I don't I guess my question to the team would be
do we know when we think this policy is coming forward or do we think this is not do we think this is feasible to add now? It's a great question. Um, I mean, I'm I'm trying to make a really quick assessment on
the because I think that we report on these in different areas. And so I'm trying to figure out if that needs to be a separate report that would then feel potentially duplicative. So maybe it does need to go back to policy committee for more
conversation just to talk through it and what that might look like sound like might just because I'm not I'm not necessarily able to make it a decision on or recommendation on the fly. Um but happy to discuss it more because I totally get the intention here. Yeah. And I you know after reading it I feel
like this pretty much aligns to a strategic plan and ADV and a lot of our other you know policies where we do have this you know reported to the board annually. So, I would assume that like if we do a discipline thing, obviously we already did. So, check it off. Um,
but I just wanted to make sure it was noted and I defer to the board if we think that it's an easy lift, which I think I feel like it is, but I'm also happy to push it back to when it comes forth or policy committee.
Yeah, I think we'd love to talk through it at policy committee. So the question would be denying it and taking it back to policy committee. I don't know when it's going to make it back on the the agenda with many many policies waiting in the weights. So that sounds like what the vote would be on is
whether it gets kicked back to policy committee for another discussion. Will it I think the motion that you would make is to remove this from this agenda. Remove it as an action item from this agenda. Um and then we would have a discussion in policy committee on what
the appropriate path forward is for policy JV. The my concern with removing it right now is that we are not in compliance with the legally mandated updates and so I would rather we approve it as is bring it back to policy committee and have the discussion on if
we want to bring it back to the board with the addition of the final line. And I would just name that we just canceled the last policy committee of the year. Yep. So if we do if we approve it without that then it would move on to the first like we could bring it back in the fall.
I mean that's fine. I just wanted to make sure that I verbally in this room made the suggestion for the record so that when this comes back so I if it comes back in the fall that's fine. I just want to make sure that this is we
don't lose sight of this for fall. Like I think this is an easy lift if I want to make sure if we're able to let decide what we do. Does that mean the guided line or approving the clean version so that we can take it back to policy committee and
discuss the addition of the final line items. I agree with Dr. Cole that several of those reporting requests that would be made by that addition of the final line are already encompassed in other policies. And so we just need time to ensure that this isn't creating a
duplicative report. And if it's not creating a duplicative report indicating in our board annual review calendar, this checks off the box for JB. This checks off the box for JB. I just think it's I don't think it'll take much time to figure that out. But yeah, my proposal would be that we approve the
clean version tonight. Jonathan's noted this for policy review and that we update this. Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve it as the clean version policy JB as presented? I make a motion to approve the policy JB
as presented. Is there a second? I second. Please call the vote. Director After I. Director Deferred I. Director Kenberg I. Director Ramirez I. Director Tidler I. Motion passes. The next business in order is discussion on
policies ILBC and IKF. Each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions. Uh, director After, are you comfortable beginning with this one? Yes, thank you for asking. Give me one second. Hold this up. Uh, thank you. Um, on I don't have any
questions on ILBC on IKF. Um would you mind um kind walk walking through or summarizing the big picture changes here? Um in particular, I'm curious about the um change to 240 total credits to graduate was a shift. And
then also the comment on the addition of the world history um the new it looks like new text around the world history um content area. So I just wondered if you might like do a little bit of summarizing here about these changes and
why. Sure. Um so the part about world history in 2021 I want to say 2022 we're required to actually and um ensure that content in uh existing courses includes content on
genocide and holocaust. And so that had not been explicitly written into our graduation requirements but has been in practice. And so the comment on the side outlines um we confirmed that in 2022 which courses it was which is so that included geography and world history.
And so um we had an extensive discussion on uh if we are adjusting it to include 10 credits US 10 credits world history civics and geography but instead agreed to include the line that it must include content on genocide and the holocaust because it does show up in different content areas. So that's a piece about
that. It's in line with statute which is referenced at the bottom as well. Okay. And the part about the 240 credits um is in the current graduation requirements um there's a um there's two things. There's a table that has required credits and that's actually all the text that's in the black. That's what's
included in our current policy. But it did not name a specific minimum. Although in the language at the top of the policy it did name students should be taking a full full-time course for four years. And so um caused a little bit of technical
argument with some students who might say I um have done all the minimum things. Can I graduate early? And so if we actually calculate the credits on the table itself, um it add up to far less than 240 credits. Um and in a comparison with probably 15 other districts in the
state, they all require between 240 and 250 credits for high school graduation. And so we thought that that was um reasonable to expect um at a minimum for all students and that um assumes let's say eight classes a year and passing at least six of those classes in those
defined areas for a total minimum of 240 credits. Okay. And so when does this take effect? Immediately. It would be for the incoming nth grade students. So it would be the class of 2029. So it does not impact um students who are currently in
high school right now. Okay. or change. For context though, the vast majority of students who are currently in high school earn well over 240 credits already. Okay, got it. Um, thank you. Looks good to me. I'm done. Thank you.
Director Ramirez, um, can you go over the, um, addition or I'm not sure if it was an addition, but the must include content on genocide and the Holocaust on the IKF policy, please.
Just change a second. I was obviously reading while you were talking, but um, there was a statute that was passed uh, just do that. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure and I I we talked about this in policy committee so I already know the answer. I just was like these
are the things I want to make sure they highlight. Um I don't have any further questions because talk about this committee. Thank you director. I think the 240 credits um is is interesting to me. What is that? Remind
me where the state requirement is. There's no state requirement. um local districts establish the credit requirements for graduation um for their district and that's different from the competency demonstration which is a state requirement um which has a menu of options. So those are two different
things and knowing that there was recent legislation passed about adding financial literacy to graduation requirements. Are we going to see this policy come back around with that in the fall? We sure will. Yay. I love it. Unfunded mandates. Yay. Yay. Um I actually I think the good thing there is
that two of our schools already offer the course and then um the course content is included in maybe not an explicit financial literacy course but is included in civics and so I I've been following that conversation very closely and I know the decision to um
incorporate an existing course versus requiring a specific course on financial literacy I think provides some of the flexibility there. um it will come back. But do you know if the state legislation is going to allow that course to be offered by third parties like with the I
know we use um CMC like concurrent enrollment? No. What's the financial literacy in action? I guess that's the earlier I'm trying to think the middle school and elementary school kids get this group that comes in and talks about financial literacy. Do they do that in high school? Oh, um I'm
blanking on the name. I'm so sorry. I I don't remember the group, but I actually think it junior. Yeah, junior achievement. That's what it is. Um I'm not sure. I actually um need to read more closely that detail if that is something that is permitted.
Um but it is a full semester length course in at least a couple of our schools. Okay. Thank you. Versus a like a workshop. Gotcha. Hi. Um, am I understanding correctly that 240 credits would be six courses
per year to at least pass and complete? So, six courses passing would give you 240 credits per year. Yes, passing a minimum of those. Okay. Um, and then my other question is when I look at um
exhibit and the diff the table that talks about the different ways that you can pass those different courses. Um, so if you have a student like we have many newcomers that come in during the school year and might not be able to pass those
courses, they're through maybe the standard way. The other ways that I'm looking that somebody who is language maybe not fully language proficient at that point and could still graduate would be either through work keys or through capstone. Are those the
two primary ways? ACUPPLACER is also one of them. And again, those these are two different requirements. Um the state demonstration the state competency demonstration is one of the two required parts. Students do also need to u meet and exceed the
district minimum credit requirements. And so um we have cases where we might have cases in which a student might not be meeting the credit requirements in math or reading, writing, communicating. um and uh as the competency, but that's a
different requirement than the credit requirements. We have two different processes if they would like to submit like a portfolio request or modification requests. Um we do have a number of courses that are uh like ELD count uh counts as one of the English core credits that are required. And so
there's um we did extensive auditing and ensuring in our work in our task group to ensure you know students who transfer in the middle of like in 10th grade um or students who have been with us forever or students who um students with IEPs um would they be impacted and so
did a lot of case studies with different student like transcripts to check would this be okay? And so I'm not sure if I'm understanding correctly. So like if a student comes from out of the country and starts in say 11th grade, are they eligible to graduate starting in 11th
grade because they wouldn't have those 120 credits? We often have the transcripts from out of country and then we have um specific guidance on transcripting courses from out of country. So they often do, you know, they take in math courses from out of country, we put them on the transcript
as well. So the transcript follows the student. Okay. Thank you. I don't have any further questions on these policies. We're not taking action on them tonight. Did I miss anybody? No. Okay. Thank
you. Or we have five minutes of open discussion if anyone has any. Do either of you have anything to discuss on ILBC? Sorry. What? I'll be sorry. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Madam Chair, can I make a motion for a fivem minute break? Yeah. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. All opposed. I'll take five minute breaking be 12
13 seconds. Thank you. Yep. Time is 8:12 p.m. The board is returning from a fivem minute break. The next business in action The next business in order is approve. Yeah. The next It's just written wrong.
That's why I'm reading it. The next business in order is action on approval of the Health Insurance Advisory Committee final benefits recommendation. Do I have a motion to approve the health insurance plan recommendation? Health insurance plan recommendation. Is there a second? Second. We'll now have
two minutes discussion for each board member and five minutes of open discussion before entertaining any any intervening motions and calling for a vote. We'll begin with director Ramirez. You're ready? Um yeah, I'm ready. Sorry, choking on a fruit snack. Um, I
just want to say thank you to the team, Christie, our CFO, um, for uh, really working through to find the, um, the extra money for us to be able to
do the PO9 and um, just the base plan for employees and that commitment of 100%. You know, I think it goes without saying that this experience has been a learning curve for all of us involved in regards to health insurance, in regards to what was done
before, where we're at now, what it's going to look like in the future. Um, and so I I appreciate um that we were able to um work through that as a team and I know that it's going to look different for us in the future. And so I
just I appreciate the um volunteer time it took from all of the teams involved. I appreciate um the endless hours on calls and Zooms and um Director Kenberg for being a representative on that. Um I
think that this is a real testament to the investment we as a school district have for our staff and I appreciate that um we turned every stone to make it possible. So thank you so director to trades.
I don't have a lot to add. We've had this conversation a lot of times this year. So thank you for your assistance and leadership and stakeholders that appreciate director. I would like to say the same thing as
um director Ramirez and director the importance of providing this for our staff and all the hard work that went into it and the process which I thought was very important. It seemed like it
could have been done easier and quicker but it never seems to really be able to be done that way. And so I appreciate everybody's time and push to get us there. And and also just to recognize our district as a whole. In many districts that surround
us, um insurance is not provided at 100%. And so the fact that we were able to get there and do that and provide the next step of PO9, I think is is a good move by our district. and
would also just like to say way to back our employees and be there for them and so great job director after. Yeah, I mean I think enough has been said on health insurance over the last few months. I don't have anything else to say, but um it's uh
never too late to express gratitude to the team for getting us to the place where um staff will um be able to have a have the district pay 100% of a base plan for the employee only. So, um really appreciate the work that went
into it and I don't have anything else to say. I'm happy to vote on it. Um, I likewise am grateful for the time and energy that this committee put in. I did just want to say in a public forum
that moving forward insurance costs are we anticipate that they will continue to rise significantly and whether or not it is attenable for us to cover 100% of a plan is a question mark. And I think that I would encourage us as a board, as
a staff, as a district to be very clear with our employees about that, to start that conversation much earlier in the process if that's where we're headed and to be able to have time to work through that with our staff because if insurance prices continue on this route, it just might not be financially feasible or
fiscally responsible for us to continue this. And the last thing that I would want us to do is pull the rug out from under our employees in the spring. I think it needs to be a much longer session of engagement. Um, and you know,
barring something magical happening that would allow us to bring these costs down, I unfortunately think that's where we're headed. So, I just wanted to make that note for the board, for the staff, that although this has been a long conversation, I think it's going to be a continued conversation that we have to
have. And I I want us to do everything in our power to ensure that those conversations are held as early and as often as possible so that as much of our as many of our employees as possible understand the position that we are in
and the options that are available. Um I know budgets move and things change, but I think their writing is on the wall with health insurance costs. They are going to continue to rise. So, um, I'm happy we're here now, and I hate to be like the downer in this conversation, but I just wanted to note that publicly
that I think that that's an important thing for us to consider. Um, so we'll have 5 minutes of open discussion time if anybody has anything else to add. Are there any intervening motions to amend the recommendation? Can you please call the
vote? Director After, I. Director Defres, Director Koulenberg, I. Director Ramirez, I. Director Tyler I. Motion passes. The next business in order is action on approval of the 2526 student
fees. Do I have a motion to approve the school facilities fee updates? I make a motion to approve the school facilities fee updates. Is there a second? Second. We'll now have two minutes discussion for each board member and
five minutes of open discussion. We'll begin with right back to director Fredes. Ready? Um I don't have a lot to add here because we are basing it off of the policy that we looked at pretty thoroughly. I think the question remains
um the communication strategy and making sure that there's equitable outreach around what these mean and what resources are available. So could you just maybe review that really quickly how you're let out in the fall? Sure. you know,
school in alignment with the policy, schools are expected to be sharing information about the student fees now for enrollment next year. Um, so those communications are going out. We've asked schools to make sure that they're sharing um resources and tools to have that reimbured or waved through the um
free and reduced lunch form application where families can check off on that form that they would like these fees, sports, AP administration test fees waved. um we have to follow that process because of federal regulations on waiverss of school fees. Um so that communication is going out now. You
know, this is I think our second or third year of these kind of flat fees and so we're getting better. We're getting tighter. Um we've in some of our leadership meetings uh have kind of aligned with some of the schools based who have done a really great job with communications and basically stolen that
and passed that around to other schools. So, um, our communication around this is much more aligned and consistent now than it was, I would say, 2 years ago when we started this kind of flat fee. Um, but we continue to work with families and, uh, are incredibly grateful for the family resource center that helps parents and families access
resources for our school financial specialists who help families navigate this. Um, and you know, it's uh one step towards kind of working towards elimination of this kind of fee, I think, is where we'd like to get to.
Um, feels like we're taking baby steps, but the communication is key. I think it's it's getting better and more consistent. Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate the plan and the uh the not reinventing the wheel. If some schools are doing it well, that's good. It's just a key piece of building trust to make sure parents know what to expect
and how to access that. So, thank you. To clarify before I move on, I it was misstated in our agenda. I said, "Do I have a motion to approve the school facilities fee updates?" But the motion was actually to approve the fees. Okay, then we don't have to redo anything.
Thank you, Director Tyler. I have one question, Dr. Cole, on the student fees. It says about due to financial constraints, we will not be able to continue the pilot project to reimburse reimburse schools for fees that have been waved for FRL eligible
families. How then will schools pay for that and make that up? Like like how do they cover that cost if we as a district aren't doing that for them? Such a good question. um you know to be I would say we
don't what what we do we we haven't covered that and it's inequitable because we have schools that have higher numbers of students with free and reduced lunch that we expect the you know we're expecting the school to wave those fees but we're not reimbursing them for them. Now we see other offsets
in terms of equitable allocation of resources. those schools that have higher free and reduced lunch status get higher investment from like title one funding. Um and so there are investments other resources going to schools with high numbers of free and reduced lunch student eligible students
and families. Um but we don't offset this. I would say you know it's it's not an area where I feel great about where we are. Um, I know that the Carbondale Education Foundation has jumped in and said they're going to contribute to school fees for the Carbondale School
public schools because of some of these issues and challenges that they know we're experiencing. That's not equitable because that's great for Carbondale schools. It's not happening in Basalt and Glenwood. Um, you know, I can I can tell you that this is we we have a list um of funding priorities. Should our
2526 budget turn out more favorable than we think, this is right up there on the top. Um it is you know when we talk about policy ADB and we talk about those 10 goals equitable allocation of resources is one of the key priorities and this feels like not a great place to
be landing. And when was this or I guess this has been um communicated to school leaders and was that just done recently or has this been in the making? Oh, it's been it's
been, you know, to be honest, if you all remember months and months ago, we realized that the money that should have been allocated for this pilot project in the 2425 budget wasn't actually even there. Um, and so school leaders knew this was a pilot project and then they
knew that the funding was unsustainable because then we had to make sure if you remember our September supplemental budget adjustment a lot, you know, addressed this fact that we didn't have this funding. Um, and so I think school leaders um are disappointed that we're
not able to continue it. I think they're realistic. They understand where we're at. Um, and I don't think it surprised folks. I think it was a an appreciative pilot project, but we also framed it as that for this year. Um, you know, this this effort was established at a time in
which we thought our budget was in a really different place. Well, I'm glad to hear that it is up there in priorities of if money is available for sure. Director after um I had questions about the
communications of this based on the roll out last year that was a little bumpy. It sounds like you thought through that um to make it smoother this year. Um, and so just to state out loud, parents do not need to purchase
school supplies for kids. Correct. That's kind of one of the headlines here. Correct. Like the shopping list, right, expectation. Um, we should not be seeing that. Okay. Um, yeah.
Um, I have a super detailed question because I have a kid going into middle school. How does a school how does like a a middle school communicate with new students who haven't yet started? You know, it it's part of their enrollment packet. So, you know, part of
the the policy requires that we share the fee expectations during kinder registration which already happened and so that's part of that kind of kinder registration packet. But you're right, when we have kids coming up to middle school, um sometimes we don't that that transition year, the it's going to be
part of the enrollment and onboard like orientation materials for students. Um and so it's not it's probably not always as tight, you know, in terms of the the communication for rising fifth graders or rising sixth graders or rising nth graders. Thank
you, Director. Dr. I'm going to need a little bit of clarification just because I think I'm a little confused. I feel like we as a board were really consistent and clear about not
affecting students as much as possible with all of our budget constraints. So, um, how what was the plan for the project initially on how we were going to reimburse schools? So what what we did this year was schools charged the
flat fee. They created, you know, clear pathways for waving those fees for families that want that were eligible and wanted it. So I want to be careful that um not all eligible families want us to wave fees and that is up to them to decide what they want to do. Um and
so when families tell us they would like us to wave the fees, they're eligible, we wave them. Um and then what happened was our finance specialist then basically invoiced the district and said we had a hundred kids um who for who whom we waved their fees. You owe us you
know if this is an elementary school then you owe us $9,000 $99,000. Is that right? Did I do that math right? Um and then we just wrote a check to the school and pass that money through. So that was that was the initial plan for that. And to be honest we had never done that
before as a district. We've always expected uh schools to wave fees for free and reduced lunch eligible families that ask for it. Um it had always just been something that our schools shoulder and figure out um through fundraising through whatever. So it was it felt to the schools who received that this year
like a lovely surplus um because it hadn't existed and schools kind of just made it work um with whatever they received in fees. Um, so that's that was where we were hoping to go and what we felt like we couldn't sustain moving
forward. And the money we were giving, reimbursing, where was that money come from? General fund. Okay. So, um, I mean, and and the thing is, you know, we're talking about communication, we're talking about reinventing the
wheel, but this is like a year's time we've completely shifted again. And so I think for me I'm just trying to understand, you know, we we had commitment to do this for families. Now we're saying we're not going to do it, but we're Nothing's changed for
families. No. Okay. Nothing's changed at all for families. The only thing that's changed is that we're not reimbursing schools. Mhm. Okay. And but that's what we were doing before. This this was the first year. This 2425 school year was the first year we ever even did that or
even considered it. Right. So before this year that we started reimbursing, we were not reimbursing schools and they correct. We still waved the fees but it was up to schools to figure it out. Okay. Thank you. Cuz I was like I have I'm trying to understand I was reading
this over and over again trying to understand. No, I get it. And my push would be then for our district. I I appreciate so much that the Carbondell Foundation is taking a lead in helping
the school. I would push us as a school district to have those conversations with BAL Foundation with Glenwood Springs Foundation because I I think that's what they exist for is to help and to collaborate with us where possible and this is a need for students
and so instead of us being like oh well they're taking the lead but someone I if there's a way for us to bring those foundations together again to make that ask I would ask that we attempt it you I know that they have their own priorities
and every foundation gets to do what they feel is is you know their mission but I I think that's a easy lift for us to try to see if it's possible. Yeah. I mean I would I would say one of the the things that I want to be careful that we're not communicating is that
classrooms aren't stocked that we don't have enough money to have the right materials and equipment and markers and chalk in our classrooms. We do. And and the narrative that we don't is concerning because our schools have have
very clear discretionary budgets. They have money to invest in classrooms. Classroom teachers have budgets and accounts. So, you know, I would say that if we're hearing that schools do not have core supplies to run their programs, they need to be talking to us.
Like I I I would I mean, I I hear you and I'm grateful for our foundations supporting this work. I feel a very strong obligation that we as the Roaring Fork schools fund our schools to run their programs that the the core programs that we believe are essential. And so, you know, the appeal for, oh, we
need money for pencils, like I don't that that is not what we need. Like, we're funding that. This is these are compared to where our big budget is, this is smaller dollars. Um, and so I mean I think it's great when the foundations help out in these kinds of
um additional funding helps, but I would I would say that I would want to push back that um our schools our classrooms don't have the materials they need because of this sort of um the the um sessation of this pilot project. schools have um
discretionary budgets that most of them when they have accurate information and can budget accurately, the discretionary budget covers their needs. I mean, I completely agree with that sentiment. I do. I feel like we stated that with the foundation when they were together. Um
you know, I think that's the priority of this board and the district is to make sure schools are well funded. Um I I my push is simply because I think sometimes the foundations have also expressed they don't know where to how to utilize the money. Um but I I agree with your point
that you know I think that this surplus is helpful in the sense that the school can utilize it for other resources or needs that they may have. Um, but more than anything I feel like it was a pilot project because we thought it was useful
in some way and I feel like that's a gap weap hoping, you know, I think utilized where we were trying to get and where we are still trying to get is out of the business of school fees. I mean, we have an obligation to provide a free and appropriate public
education. And so to ask parents to go buy a bunch of stuff or to ask parents to pay money for core programs feels to me misaligned. Um and that we need to move out of that. And so then I think the question that we would then went to was well okay well clearly we're asking
this was let's go back 3 to 5 years. Clearly we're asking we need parents to go buy a bunch of stuff or we need school fees to run our programs. Okay. Well, what would it cost to pay our school? Like, what do we need to invest enough so we stop doing that and stop asking parents to go shopping for us and
stop asking parents to to write us a check every year? And so, the intent of of of that reimbursement was trying to start get our heads around, okay, we have this discretionary budget that we allocate to all schools based on a per pupil number. How do we adjust that so
that they can stop asking families for money? And so, that's where we were like, and I still feel really committed to that. I think we need to get there. Our neighboring districts do not do this. They figure it out. Um, we need to figure that out. And how do we appropriately resource our schools so we're out of the business of charging
families fees? And that's that's where I think trying to start to reimburse for that was trying to get us to move into that space to say, hey, maybe our school discretionary budget allocation instead of 146 per kid needs to be 136 for
elementary or 236 for elementary. And trying to find that right number. And so I still feel committed to us doing that work and trying to figure out where in our budget we can start making that incremental progress. Thanks. I don't have any further questions on
this. My big points were communication and just making sure that we understand the impact this is going to have on school budgets, especially for our schools that are going to be hit hardest. Um I agree that having Carbondale Education Foundation step in is great. I think that putting this on
the radar of the other education foundations wouldn't be a bad thing. Um, I think they do often want to hear from the district and administrators what would be most valuable and it takes work off of the individual school administrators if we could communicate
out to them that this is a shift we're making this year is going to impact their bottom line. um and this is a way that you could help and then that it doesn't leave it up to individual principles to have be bringing very specific requests to them. Um so we'll have 5 minutes of open
discussion if anyone has anything else. Dr. Co, you just mentioned neighboring districts don't do that. What can you Garfield Garfield R2 does not charge student fees and doesn't really have shopping lists. Yeah, but I feel like okay, yeah, that
we should should head in that direction. Okay. Do you know what? I just tried to do quick math. Um like the percent of a student fee that is our overall per pupil. Yeah. Is a very very small percentage. So I think that's another another consideration when you're looking at
this. It's like a one it's like 1% of per people revenue. So is it really necessary? What is the impact? I think those are the bigger questions. And we are smaller. No, we're bigger than that. Mhm. But not by a
lot. Okay. Sorry. You just got my Yeah. No, it's a good question. All right. We're all good. Can you please So, are there any intervening motions to amend? Oh, sorry. Before we move on, we have to restate our motion. So, I move that the board approve the 2526 student fees as
presented. Is there a second? Second. Are there any intervening motions to amend? Seeing none, please call vote. Director After. Hi. Director Defres. Hi. Director Kenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Hi.
Director Titler. Hi. Thank you. The next business in action. The next business in order is action on approval of the LTE network IGA with City of Glenwood Springs. Do I have a motion to approve the LTE network IGA with the
city of Glenwood Springs? I make I move that the board approve the LTE network IGA with the city of Glenwood Springs as presented. Is there a second? I second. We'll now have two minutes discussion for each board member. We'll start with Director Titler. First of all, I would like to say thank
you to Bonfac for your role in getting this moving and getting it happening. looking at those coverage maps, it's really exciting to think that students who wouldn't have access to internet have that access. Um, I guess my one
question I really had is how has the board been able, not the board, how has the district been able to inform students of the availability of this and find out who actually maybe doesn't have that access and make sure that everybody
is being reached. Uh, great question. It's been one of our challenges, I'd say, for the last four or five years that we've had this network is really getting the word out. Um, but we've done it through, uh, the family resource center is through school front offices, back to school nights, registrations, stuff like that. Um, you know,
newsletters, all that. And we've got big posters and we've got sandwich boards. And Rosala, who's now on our um, tech team longterm, she started in this role as this was her whole job um, for the last few years. despite all that effort, we've never been able to break about 150
um families on it. And so it's really kind of an underutilized network, which is part of why I'm excited to hand it over to a group who this is all they do um rather than it's kind of a side project that's not our core competency. All right. Thank you for your work,
director. Yeah, great. Um I was aware of this, but I didn't know the details of it, so I'm glad to know more about it. Um, so just so I understand the proposal here, the action is to transfer ownership and management of this private network to the city of Glenwood Springs and then they they have
an office in existence that will be able to um support it and maintain it and then and they'll pay for it or who's paying for it after this is signed? Yeah, another great question. Um, so what we currently pay is we pay an external contractor for all the operation and maintenance because we
don't really know how to do that. They'll do that in-house because they run their own, the city of Benwood Springs has its own community broadband network. Um, so they have a municipal broadband network and they have the staff and the support and everything. So they'll more than likely, it's really up to them how they manage that, but they'll more than likely terminate the
service contract with the existing contractor. He's been involved in this every step of the way. He's been really helpful and we use him for a lot of projects. there's no like um bad blood or anything like that around this. Um but they'll they'll probably run it inhouse and be able to do the service calls and the outreach and the
advertising and the billing and all that. And so um on the current map of coverage areas, it it's quite uh wider coverage than just Glennwood Springs, right? Will will the pe the folks who are accessing it in Carbondale or um up
Valley will they will their service be disrupted? It will not be disrupted. Excuse me. So, this is the city of Glenwood Springs um is really interested in expanding their service area. They're not limited to just the city limits. Um they've been a partner on this from the start. They're also our internet
provider for our schools in Glenwood Springs. um we partner with them on quite a few different things and so um they're committed to this for the long term. What the agreement states, you know, we can't really ask for sort of a forever agreement because we don't know what the future looks like. So what we're writing into this is a five-year
at a minimum and 300 families, which would be double what we've ever had signed up at a minimum. I anticipate that both of those will be exceeded and that it won't stress their um capability to deliver the service. But yes, they will maintain the service in all the current locations for at least five
years. And just one more question. How do families qualify for the free service right now? Um it the only qualification is you live in a service area and you have students in our schools. We don't check income or anything and that's what we've agreed that they will continue. They don't want to be in the business of
checking income or even checking enrollment status. So our family resource center has agreed to be the kind of distributor of vouchers essentially. that say, you know, here's an access code. So, we'll work with the city on exactly the technicalities of that, but I imagine it's a a little card
with a access code. Um, we're not going to check income or anything like that. That's why we put in the 300 family threshold that if a really great thing happens and we have a good problem to have, which is, wow, we have more than 300 families on this network, double what we've ever had, and they say, wow,
we can't handle this many, which they might say this is fine. It's not taxing our bandwidth or anything, but if they say we can't handle anymore, then they'll ask us to start prioritizing those and we do it for based on free and reduced lunch. Um, I think a lot we've built in a lot of protections for the
city so that this doesn't overwhelm their capacity to manage it. I'm optimistic that, you know, use is going to increase, but not to the degree that's too challenging for them and that this is going to be a long-term permanent free service at no cost to us. That's my my best hope.
Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, internet service is not cheap, so I hope more people are able to take advantage of this and save themselves some money. Yeah, I mean, we're we're giving the city a very valuable investment in infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and and
network capability. Um, they'll be able to monetize that and sell it to other people who don't have kids in our schools in those service areas. And that will help them basically subsidize our students, which that's what we never did. We never expanded. We never offered it to anybody who doesn't have kids in
our schools. So there's a lot of people like at Auburn and Pinion Pines Apartments up Spring Valley Road who would love to be on this network, but we don't sell the service. It's not what we do. So I think it'll be actually a big community benefit for a whole lot of people. Great. Thank you,
Dr. Ramirez. Yeah. Um, so I did a board tracker request on this. you know, th this really um took off during the pandemic. We um needed it and I I actually agree with you. I'm hopeful that more people utilize it. I feel like
this is one of those um benefits that we worked really hard to acquire for students and then didn't really have good comms going out to promote it and it just sort of like became a thing we had but it just like existed.
in in the city somewhere. Um, so, you know, I really appreciate the commitment from our team to try to make sure that it lives out even if it's outside of us, that it still exists. I I appreciate that commitment from our team. I think it's important that um, you know, we
have this agreement to sort of see if it's possible that the city of Glennwood might even decide they want to do something with it. Um, but you know, I I think this is the type of stuff that these types of agreements, these types
of commitments from our team that I really appreciate that our school district has been creative to try to find. And although it maybe didn't reach everyone we hoped for initially, and it was really hard to get people to commit and and learn about it, I I am still
glad that we did it. So, I just want to say thank you to the team for um really leaning on those partnerships to make sure it still exists. Thank you. Director Freddy's don't have a lot to offer except that IGA are not easy to
come by. So, that's a lot of coordination and moving the conversation forward strategically. Some great financial partners lined up. Now, Saspin Community Foundation, Connecting Colorado, the grant, which I'm sure was not a small grant to apply for either. I just want to recognize those parts and
pieces don't come together by accident. So, thanks. Great. Thanks. If I could just add a quick comment. I give credit to Jeff Gatlin, my predecessor, who put all that together and got all those grants and then handed it to me and basically said, "You got two years to figure out how to make this thing last beyond the the term of this grant." And
so, that's been my work. Um, I also just want to note on the IGA that you'll be the first organization of the two to sign it, uh, if this is approved tonight. I'm going before the city of Glenwood Springs in their work session tomorrow night, so they have not looked at it yet. Um, both of our legal council
has reviewed it and the version you see incorporates all those suggested edits. So, I think it's unlikely that the city of Glenwood Springs would make any changes to this. their staff. I've been meeting with their public works director, Matt Langghor, and the director of their um community broadband network bi-weekly for the past few
months to hammer this out. Um, but I just want to make you aware there's a chance that if they make need to make some minor modification, it might come back to you on a consent agenda and we would just kind of redline that and ask for your approval of that. But I think the the substantive parts will all stay the same. So, we'll we'll find out more
tomorrow night. Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, I don't have anything further. So we have 5 minutes if anyone has anything else to add. Otherwise, are there any intervening motions to amend? Please call the vote. Director, I.
Director Drades, I. Director Koulenberg, I. Director Ramirez, I. Director Titler, I. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. The next business in order is action on approval of a proposed update to the 2627 academic calendar. Do I have a
motion to approve the board resolution to the the board resolution to approve approval of the proposed update to the 2627 academic calendar? I move that the board approve the proposed update to the
2627 academic calendar as presented. Is there a second? They second. We'll have two minutes. director after um I don't have any questions. We've gone over this change and why it's important, but since I have a microphone, I'd like to say I think kids
should be in school more often. Um that's all I can say about that. Director, this is not different from the last one. You just Okay. No, no questions. Director Freies, no further questions on
that. Director Titler, no further questions. This I think is very important that we're able to keep our role of free and reduce from a previous year and as this being the change nothing affronting to the committee to
put so much time into making the calendar that they expected to be the best calendar but it probably wasn't on the radar and seems like a very important change so I think it's great. I don't have anything additional either. We've talked about this previously, so um I understand reason
why and it it makes sense. Um okay, we have five minutes if anyone has anything else. All right. Can you please are there any intervening motions to amend? You please call the vote. Director After I. Director Defrades. Hi. Director
Kenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Hi. Director Titler. I motion passes. All right. Director Kunberg, I don't see uh the DAC members here for
the next item. I think that's okay. Okay. Sorry, I want the It does state in um regulation AE-R that the board shall appoint persons to the DAC. I think that's why they brought it forward. Um
there is an attachment that I added that came today which includes the list of names and the the vote from within the DAC. Mhm. I also shared out the spreadsheet with the board um which included the applications for each member. Okay. Historically we have not
had the applicants present as we've approved them. So I think that would be a change in process. Um, I'm comfortable moving forward approving them and I am going to go ahead and move on to
the section item. The next business in order is action on approval of three new members to join the district accountability committee. Do I have a motion to approve three new members to join the district accountability committee? I move that the board approve three new members to join the district accountability committee as presented.
Is there a second? Second. We now have two minutes each for discussion. We'll begin with Director Ramirez. I'll state that I was really hoping that these um applicants were going to be here um
to meet them at the very least. Um I you know it's been really important to this board um to have a functioning deck and to have members on the deck um that
is autonomous from the district and is really working towards accountability for us. Um, but I I think there has been some confusion in the past of the duties of the DAC, the overlap that it has with the board and how it works with the board. And I think it's really apparent
in some of these responses that there's still some confusion about the purpose of the DAC. And so I would just really want to encourage the deck to share the responsibilities um from the CD website.
And I don't, you know, I don't know if that happens with onboarding. I don't know if there is any onboarding, but I I definitely think it's incredibly important for um for there to be clarity and understanding on the purpose. And I think that's helpful for the board and
for our team um just moving forward in really solidifying how we all work together. Um, and then I just wanted to make mention that, you know, although we're approving three, we still need to recruit for the DACK. So, if anybody is interested, um, you know, we really
appreciate the time and commitment all volunteers give to the school district. Um, and you know, there's still open positions for the DACK. So, that's it. Director, um, no further comment on that. Thanks, Dr. Titler. I appreciate
the members who are looking to become part of the DACK and appreciate their commitment and their time that they're willing to put forward to this committee. And so to say thank you and I just would also like to mention that it's appreciated, but again when we're
trying to look at representation of our district, it continues to be a DAC that does not represent our student population. Thank you, director. Um, happy to vote for these members. Um, and grateful for
their time and to Sarah and Brian who have been working diligently to recruit new members and especially grateful to my girl Amy Westerville who I've known since I was 15 years old. So, um
I my comments on this are that I am appreciative of people stepping up and being on the DAC. The DAC is a leadership organization within our district and I think that it's important that all members on the DAC um understand that and represent our
district in a way that is professional. hold our schools and our district accountable in a way that is um training is the right word that's not professional which is the word I just used but it's almost 9:00 and my brain is turning too much um
that they hold our district to account in a way that is firm but kind respectful and um ultimately supports our students. Uh, I am willing to support all of these members. I want to
remind this body that ultimately the DAC reports to the board of education and should there be issues that arise, it is up to us to manage that. Five minutes for open discussion if anyone has anything else. I just wanted to second director
Titler's comment that the DAC would be a great place to see more representation and how we can get support reaching out to communities. um whose voices should be heard on it. Okay. All right. Any intervening motions
to amend? You please call the vote. Director After I. Director Defrades. Hi. Director Kenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Hi. Director Tyler. I. Motion passes. The next business in order is action on approval of the board resolution
honoring National Fentanel Awareness Day, which was on April 29th this year. Do I have a motion to approve the board resolution honoring National Fentinel Awareness Day? I move that the board approve the board resolution honoring National Fentinel Awareness Day. Is there Oh, sorry. Is
there a second? Second. Okay. Director Drades, do you have any comments on this one? Um it's it's a heavy one. Um it's something that a lot of us would prefer to imagine is not in our community, but
it is. And uh I appreciate the board taking time to recognize that and the support that we give the SRO positions which I know are critical in helping maintain some of the relationships between our community organizations um
that try to make sure that our students have the best possible opportunity to move forward in their life without being negatively affected by drugs like fentanyl. So that's my comment. Thank you Director Titler. much the same. Just anything that we can do to
educate the public to the dangers of fentinel and make it a more to raise awareness is great and so for that reason I'm very much behind this. Great after. Yeah. Um grateful for the
time and putting this to on the agenda and happy to support it. Director Ramirez, thank you. Um so this is being updated to a resolution. and it was a proclamation um that we had created a year ago or two. Um but
I I want to just give a shout out to Kath Adams um who is a parent and um a mother of Emily Adams who is a student of the district. I think that um this resolution and the commitment for us to share age appropriate information and
resources with students and families um is really important. And I I think that this is um I think that you know like director DeFree said this really hard thing to realize is affecting this valley community. Um, but there was a line on
here that I think is really important about just really being able to provide um, uh, information to reduce the
um, potential for the dangers and and potentially saving lives. And so I appreciate that this board has committed to um making it a a resolution and honoring it as a day in the years to come. Thank
you. I would just echo those comments. The thanks to Kath um historic reality that this is a real issue in our communities and I am glad that we are taking this move as word to again honor uh national pendol awareness day. We'll
have five minutes for open discussion if anyone has anything else. Are there any any intervening? Oh, go ahead. Just has been said again, but again, a shout out to Kath Adams who's devoted her life in these last few years. And thank you.
Are there any intervening motions to amend? Seeing none, can you please call the vote? Director After. Director Defres. Hi. Director Coenberg. Hi. Director Ramirez. Hi. Director Titler. Hi. I'm going to refrain from reading the resolutions tonight in order to to
move us along on the agenda. The next business in action is approval the next business in order, excuse me, is approve is action on approval of the board resolution honoring Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution? I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I
need to amend it. Do I have a motion to approve it and then you can introduce an meeting motion to amend? I make motion to approve it as presented. Is there a second? Second. We'll now have two minutes of discussion. We can start with you, director Ramirez. Sorry, we need to
Yep. Can you go ahead? Can you explain? I I just remembered um doc direct Director Kenick's daughter reminded us that this needs to be updated because they have added Hawaiian Native Hawaiian
Native Hawaiian AI PI heritage month. And I apologize because she did tell me and I forgot. And this is why my 10-year-old is an avid reader of the week and corrected me on this one. Yeah.
Um and confirm the order. If you could confirm that one of us can confirm the order. Um so are we still voting on it? Yes. We're just adding language. Sorry. Um, okay. So, the correct language
should be a a nhpi. Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Updating it now. Okay. Sorry. All right. While you're updating, I'm going to go through everybody else if that's okay. Director Degrades, do you have any comments on this one? Or sorry, Director
Tyler? I'm in support. I like the phrase that talks about making sure that we are strengthening the equity um representation of historically marginalized voices.
Oops, director. Thank you. I agree with this general comments. Just to pull two more lines out. The Roying Fork School District values diversity as a strength and affirms that our students ethnic and cultural backgrounds enrich the educational
experiences for all. And the Roaring Fork School District remains committed to students success, equity, and access to highquality inclusive education for all learners. I don't have anything additional to add to this one. I'm grateful that we're doing this and we're putting it in resolution format so that
it outlives all of us. Um, Director Ramirez, can you please present your intervening motion to amend? Um, I make a motion to amend and add Native Hawaiian to our board of education resolution honoring
Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Is there a second? I second. Can you please call to vote on the motion to approve the resolution honoring Asian-American, Native
Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as amended? Um, Director After. Hi, Director Defres. Hi. Director Kenberg, hi. Director Ramirez, hi. Director Tidler, I. Motion passes. Thank you all for your work on that and specifically you and
Director Ramirez for updating those. We'll now move on to our final agenda item, board updates and appreciations. Is there anyone that would like to be in? One sec. Go ahead. Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, Rodrigo, for taking care of me so
well and all of the things, including chocolate and coffee and sodas, and our team benefits from all of the things that you guys do to make our meetings and us run
smoothly. So, thank you. I I feel like we don't say thank you enough, but thank you. Um I just wanted to give a brief update that I had a week of conferences. I um it was like the first time I traveled
in a really long time for a long time. So uh I was gone for an entire week. But um I think there's just a lot of conversation happening around um where our country is at right now. And I really appreciated perspectives and
conversations that are happening and just being able to lean in um to think and um engage on what other school districts are doing, what other um community leaders are doing, what other um electeds, local electeds are doing to
engage in this moment. Um, and I just really appreciated the opportunity to connect with some of our Colorado um, like leadership on immigration uh, related issues. And I just I really want to commend our team too for um, the
last couple of instances where we have had a little bit of panic happen um, in the school district. I they they've been in my district and I have appreciated our rapid response and being able to um
hold community. Um I think that those conversations are going to continue to happen and I I just really wanted to take a second to to say thank you to our team for um like really thinking through process
and systems and how we protect families and students. So that's it. Thank you, Dr. Drades. Um, sure. I think most of us are caught up on the critical bills that were passed around school funding from
the CASBY legislative resolutions group. Um, yeah, the measure we heard about in finance, not finance committee. Sorry, my brain is totally switching off here. in the work session today. The bill on Polus' desk to sign and put a ballot
measure that will go out in November. Um all of that is going to still be at play. So while the session's over, it's not quite over. Um we had labor management, no labor management committee. Sorry, we
changed the name. Um labor management committee met and you've heard what they came up with tonight. We've already seen it. Yeah, I'm trying to find the words. I'm really reaching you. School meals for all. The school meals. Yes, that one. Thank
you. Uh, school meals for all. Yep. November ballot. We're going to do a whole thing. Um, and then my appreciation is Springs Middle School Crew Model has been kind of a joy to watch. They are bringing together support uh for
students from all academic angles and they are building peer groups that are vertical with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and I just really appreciate the effort that goes into it. I think they're doing a great job. Great. Thank you, Director Tyler. Uh I would like to say give a thank you to
Yampa who hosted the Boseis board meeting and we got to do a great tour of there and what a great facility they have and a great programming really impressive. Um at that meeting we finalized our next budget coming up is going to be looking
at creating a strategic plan and the next meeting is coming up. Um I would like to give um appreciations to the teachers who are I guess in like the dog days of this the year and it
gets hard and it's overwhelming and it's running on fumes and just thank you to everybody who's continuing to give that great effort even though it's hard at this time of year to do that and and knowing that they do it because they
want to give their best to the students. So, thank you. And also, thank you to Octavio Mesa. I'm not sure if I'm saying his name, but but for being here and for our work session and providing us a great dinner tonight and for being able to share what he is doing with um his
lunch program thread. And finally, I would like to ask if I could have um talk about a future agenda item. And I don't know if that should be phrased just now or if that should come in a board tracker. I could do it either way, but I would like to have a future agenda
item to see if we could talk about um the strategic plan um um plan the number one of students first and number two reg rigorous learning for all and how this coincides with ADB and the data that is in the
dashboard and have that as a future agenda item. And so I guess the protocol then is to have put that out there that that is something that I would like to see and then that we discuss that then at the next board meeting of whether we move forward with that. Um I guess my
question is is this statement enough to want to do that or do I should I be writing a tracker request to do so? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you, director.
Um, yeah, I don't have any updates to share. So, I wanted to use my time to um express gratitude to all the fourth grade PE teachers across the district who brought together six schools on Monday to compete in the annual kickball tournament. Uh it would took place at
Soers Elementary School and gave students an opportunity to show up as leaders in the fourth grade year to be then selected to earn a place on the team and compete against their peer schools. I think that's a really cool opportunity for schools to interact uh
in a different and unique way. So thanks to all them for making that happen. And then I wanted to take a minute to express uh my personal thanks to a teacher at CRS, Mr. Salvador Castanon, who is a second grade teacher. It was his first year in the district. Uh his
wife's also a teacher, a third grade teacher at CRS, and he he's just he's amazing. Um I think every student he taught this year, including my daughter and his second grade class, just the impact that he had on those students can't be overstated. And he's leaving
after one year, but staying in the district. Uh he and his wife are both going to Two Rivers, which is closer to their home. So, I'm happy to have had the opportunity. He really touched our lives. Thank you. Um, for my appreciations, I
had a couple um, Octavio May I wanted to thank for tonight. And then also along with um, Octavio, one of his staff, Sandra An, I think is how you say her name, but she's um, done some great stuff at Balt Elementary, provided food for some events as he was talking about
with catering, things like that. And this coming Friday, we're having an all school barbecue and running a taco contest to figure out which new tacos will be on the lunch menu. Um, and she's really heading all of that up. And so, it's just a really cool and exciting way to get people involved with food
services. Um, and her commitment to the school and the kids is pretty amazing. It's made I feel like it's made school lunches fun again um, in that environment, which is great. And then I also wanted to shout out Julie Rigggins who's retiring this year from bees.
She's a peak teacher. She spent a long time in our district, left for a bit, and has been back for the last few years. Um, she's really done some incredible things for my kids and many others. I got to sub in her class last Friday, which was super fun. Um, and you know, she's graciously handing off all
of her supplies to her predecessor or her successor successor and and helping out with that transition. And so I'm super grateful for her personally. Um, and also as a board member on behalf of all of our students and for all of our years of
service in our district. Uh, for updates, I don't think I have any specific updates at this time. Um, I appreciated Director Ramirez stepping in for me the last couple of board meetings when I couldn't be here. So, thank you for that. All right. If there's no further business and no objection, this
meeting will be adjourned. It is 9:10 p.m.