Who would like to call this meeting to order? Oh, my gosh. If our classrooms could respond like that, that'd be so nice. This is Whitefield School District three Board of Education meeting, 06:00 Thursday, 05/14/2026 at 06:00 1820 Main Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Roll call, missus Medina. Missus Kutcher? Here. Mister Dolphin? Here. Miss Hubbard? Here. Missus West? Here. Mister Ybarra? Here. Can you please join me for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, everybody, for being here this evening. Also, welcome everybody that's online. Can I get a motion for our consent agenda items? We'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. And I'll be your second. We have a first and a second on the consent agenda items. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Dolphin. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye.
Dir Ybarra. Aye. Okay. For those of you that are new, the consent agenda items are things like meetings, agenda, that we when we our minutes, essentially, and any other items that we covered last last time. Okay. So we have first up, mister Hoffman. Do we have all of our correspondence? Yes, ma'am. You've received it all. Thank you. So next, we have with the superintendent's report, Mrs. Sam Briggs. Good evening, everyone. Just a couple quick announcements this evening. First, I wanna start by congratulating Emerson Johnson from Whitefield High School,
who won state championship for triple jump. He jumped 45 feet and 10.5 inches, which I'm told is an elite level performance. Also shout out to Mesa Ridge High School junior, Josiah Garcia, who took second place in the high jump. So shout out to me. Second, we just wanna remind our families that the district is participating in the free summer meal program from May 26 through July 31. We'll have three locations this year, including French, Sunrise, and Whitefield Parks and Rec.
Breakfast runs from eight to nine, lunch runs from twelve to one, and the meals are free for children zero to 18 years old. Adults can purchase breakfast for $3 and they can also purchase lunch for $5 And last, we want to congratulate our class of 2026. Our graduations are starting tomorrow. We have Discovery High School at 4PM, The Haven School at 6PM, and both of those will be in the auditorium at Whitefield High School. And then we have Whitefield High School's graduation on Saturday at 10AM at C. A. Foster Stadium,
and then we will celebrate Mesa Ridge High School's graduation on Monday at 7PM at the World Arena. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. So the Whitefield School Board so the Whitefield School Board wanted to do something special for all of the people that put forth their time, their talent, and everything that makes Whitefield amazing. We wanted to put something together that would, embody and reflect on what Wide Field's about. So we had coins made, and they're pretty awesome.
They're small, but they're they're small but mighty. So tradition this is a new tradition that we've just started, but have any this is so hard. It's sorry. This is, like, reverberating or something. So we would like to hand special people coins, for everything that they do with their time and their talent and just being amazing with a little introduction. So if we could please, bring up Mr. Bob Leavers. Just come right up here to the front. Mr. Bob Leavers is the founder and director of development for more books in children's hands.
Because she's yeah. Turn around. Thank you. They don't wanna see me. They wanna see you. A Colorado Springs based nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to age appropriate books for young children throughout the Pikes Peak region. Founded 03/13/2022, the organization was established in honor of mister Leavers' late wife, Debbie Leavers, a long time k through five Spanish teacher who had a deep love for children literacy and education. The founding date also had special significance as it would have marked Debbie's seventieth birthday.
Since its founding, More Books in Children's Hands has has given out more than 21,700 books to children in classrooms throughout the Colorado Springs area, including all local school districts, CPCD Head Start programs. The organization partners with preschool and kindergarten classrooms to ensure children, particularly those who have limited access to books at home, have opportunities to build personal libraries and develop a lifelong love of reading. The organization is truly a family centered charity. Essential leadership and support have been provided by his brother-in-law,
Mr. John Doyle, his son and the organization president, Mr. Carl Leavers, his daughter-in-law and secretary, missus Jeffer missus Jessica Leavers. In addition, 21 dedicated volunteers assist with sorting, packing, and giving out our books to schools and community programs across the region. The organization is also expanding its support team by adding a retired teacher to serve as an advisor and assist with book selection. Mr. Leavers noticed that organization was founded with a simple but powerful mission,
to ensure that children who may not otherwise have books in their homes or be able to experience the joy and opportunity that reading provides. He also shared the meaningful story behind the organization's name, which honors each of the family's grandchildren, more for Maggie, books for Ben, children's for Cali, and hands for Hannah. Throughout the dedication of the Leavers family and community volunteers to local partners, more books in children's hands continues to make a lasting impact on early childhood literacy and education opportunities throughout Southern Colorado and especially Whitefield.
This coin is for you and in celebration of you, Mr. Labors. We have since it was the first time, we have two. So, if you could just bear with us a little bit. So, Mrs. Emily Campbell. We would like for her to come up, please. Mrs. Emily Campbell is truly a Whitefield kid through and through. Having grown up in and graduated from Whitefield School District three, her diverse professional background in office and secretarial work, kitchen management, and professional gardening ultimately led her to the role that has become deeply meaningful personally
and professionally, serving as the store champion for the D3 Good R grocery store. Through this role, Ms. Campbell has provided food distribution services to district families in a private, welcoming, and dignified environment. In just two years, the store has completely nearly 1,000 shopping appointments for families across the district. Mrs. Campbell shared that some of her proudest moments have come through the incredible support shown by particularly during the government shutdown in November 2025.
Because of this generosity, the store has been able to expand its services to us to support an additional 80 families while also providing holiday meals essential household items during a particularly difficult time. While the grocery store has become a tremendous resource and blessing for many families, Mrs. Campbell believes she is equally blessed to work alongside such resilient and caring families during challenging circumstances. She describes her work with the grocery store as a gig of a lifetime. Mrs. Campbell emphasized that the success of the D3 Good R grocery store would not be
possible without the support, leadership, and partnership of many individual organizations, including Colorado Community Health Alliance, mister Hoffman, missus Rachel Lake, mister Davich, the staff at the Security Public Library, school staff members across the district who help to identify and recommend families for services, especially missus Emily can you say that for me, Emily? Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Zarvakie. Eke. The Family School District three Board of Education and her teammate, mister Greg Tucker,
who delivered fresh groceries each week, provides ongoing support and encouragement. She would also like to extend a special thank you to her husband Peyton and her golden retriever Daisy for being her favorite companion to come home to and share life with. Mrs. Campbell considers it a tremendous honor to serve Whitefield School District three community in this capacity. Ladies and gentlemen, Emily Campbell. Congratulations. We have a couple of, significant retirements this year. Well, everybody that's retiring is significant. If you've put time in in education,
you deserve you deserve the world. The first person that we would like to say to say farewell to, meaning we will see you soon, missus Tammy Medina is the superintendent secretary, and she is the board secretary, and she is literally our lifeline. So, Tammy, if you could stand up front for me, please. Missus Medina started as a bus driver. And I always ask her a lot of bus driving questions, like, how do I turn right? And she said to me, Kelly, don't worry.
You're not gonna drive anything. But I gotta but I have to tell you but I have to tell you, Tammy, you know, you you are a person or a human of a lifetime. I first met Tammy two decades ago when she was the secretary principal at Mesa Ridge. And we were fast friends then. I guess we both have kind of a quirky sense of humor. But everything you've done and everything you've touched and everything that you are is beyond reproach and is going to be darn near impossible to replace.
And we're gonna miss you terribly, and I cannot promise that we will not be calling you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much to missus Tammy Medina. Mister Aaron Hoffman. Mister Hoffman, mister Aaron Hoffman is our current superintendent, and finding the words to describe him and everything that he's been about has been difficult for me because there's so many words, and I have a very large vocabulary. But I will tell you that he is a man of integrity. And the thing that is very difficult to replace is the level
of wide field that mister Hoffman is. He was, he went to school kindergarten through twelfth grade here. He started at Whitefield Elementary at kindergarten, Wenatchee, and then Benatchee to Watson, to Whitefield. And he has an amazing sense of humor, and it's very hard to be around somebody that's so amazing that you could be having a horrible day and he'll be like, I am fantastic and so are you. Right? And so I just went with it. I said,
Yes, we are. And we have been on a march with that since we've been together. I know that you you have so much so much to give and so much to say about this district. But I and I know that we have two more hours to go, so don't leave. But let's give this man, this great man, a round of applause. Mr. Aaron Hoffman. Okay, so we're going to transition nicely into our board reports. If I could just add one more thing. Yes. I just want to say thank you to, Aaron. I don't know if a lot of people know this,
but he was actually my high school principal, when I was at Whitefield. And it was an honor and a privilege to see him in the hallways every day, just smiling and and just being the person that he is and, I know my family loves you a lot and, so do I. So, thank you for everything you have done to this, for this community and for me as well. Thank you, Luis. Thank you. Okay, mister Dolphin. Mister Dolphin, represents the Whitefield Parks and Recreation. So believe it or not, I am missing the Whitefield Parks and Rec meeting right now because it happens to overlap this month. Last Friday, we did a wonderful jazz performance on the steps in front of Parks And Rec,
and it was a great way to bring the community together. And I hope to see a lot more fun community events like that. But this is gonna be a rather short board report because I don't have I was I'm not at my meeting right now. And thank you all for being here, and I'll just echo what everybody else said. And thank you all so much for your service. Absolutely. And the Park and Rec does have really amazing things over the summer like movies in the park. Well, yeah, and also Beartrap is probably one of my absolute favorites. Yes, it is. I threatened to chaperone and my daughter was like,
Beartrap is my time away from you, dad. You are not allowed to chaperone. I highly recommend at one point in time, this district sent every fifth grader to Beartrap, and now it is done specifically through through parks and rec. But if you have not signed your child up for that experience, please do so. It is a beautiful camp in the mountains about an hour away from here, and it's a great way for our community to come together. Kids really learn how to treat each other with respect and learn a lot about our natural environment that is the Pikes Peak region. And,
of course, we have an amazing sports program, and it is growing all the time. We do need some more coaches. I do think we still have a more couple slots left open, so please sign up for coaching if you can. If not, thank you, coach. Yeah. Thank you all. Okay. Mister Ybarra, you, work with Dave Gish on facilities, and you have a report for the bond oversight committee as I believe? Yes. So I'll do two for one. Here we go. The North demo began 05:11, so this Monday. Meetings with architects for drawings for Panello HVAC and exterior windows and doors,
is in the process. Whitefield High School math remodel and met with admin and teachers, Grand Mountain addition getting details and needs squared away. Squirrel remodeling, Watson Science remodel, also underway. We're in talks. Summer meal summer meals start 05:26 at French, Whitefield Park And Rec and Sunrise. Breakfast starts from eight to 9AM, lunch is from twelve to 1PM, and, meals must be enjoyed on-site. So there cannot it can't be like, you know, grab and go. It has to be, enjoyed on-site there. That's what I have for Bond.
And then a couple cap, cap project things. Let's see. The lights for the football stadium are still set, for August, so hopefully they'll be put in before the first football game. Well, it needs to be put in before the football first football game. French is getting a new cafeteria floor. And then one kind of side thing, on April 30, our local County Commissioner, Corey Applegate, toured, an elementary, middle school, and a high school, to see the, bond projects for himself. And he was really pleased to see, all the money going towards, what what it what we promised it was going towards.
So, he wants to extend his gratitude for the board and as well as this community. So that's all I have. Thank you very much, mister Ibarra. Next, we have missus Tina West with the DAC report. Alright. So, the DAC report's pretty small, short today. We we met on the April 30 since, crazy. So we had two meetings in one month. But we did, have the opportunity to have, Jan Bong speak about all of our title funds, where they go, how much is spent, and and all of that, how that's allocated.
That was also filmed. So if you need to view that, you can find that, on the board of education, tab under DAC. So, look for that on the website. Also, Terry Kimber came and spoke about the budget. And, Yeah. You'll hear more about that tonight so I won't I won't, go too deep into that. But, also we had, elections. We elected a new chair. Tabitha Moneypenny was elected the chair. We are still looking for a vice chair, so if anybody out there wants to come and join the DAC, we still want people to come. Anybody who wants to join can can do that.
And, if you're interested in the vice chair position, that should open up in, September. We'll that's the next time we'll meet, and we'll keep you apprised as to the date and the time and where we're gonna meet at that point. And I'm not gonna do a treasurer's, report because, again, we've got, Olivia Boudreaux giving us a budget report tonight. So Did you happen to tell us when the next DAC meeting will be? I forgot when that was. You in September. Beginning of September. Yes. The first three of September. We have that Alright. Yet, and we don't have the Okay. Update that probably in August.
Okay. Perfect. And who should they contact if they're interested in the working with DAC? Lindsay Colwell. Mhmm. K. Alright. Now we have missus Michelle Hubbard with the Security Public Library. So lots going on at the library. There's a plant swap on May 23, so bring your plants, tools, whatever you have. They want you to bring your plants alive so I won't be participating but you can swap for another one. Just saying. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month so they have a nice little display
at the library and a quiz and if you want to participate, you can win a $50 Amazon card. June 6 is a Shred event so if you have things that you want to shred, this is to help prevent fraud. So June 6 I think it's from ten to twelve you can take your stuff to the credit union I think. I'm sorry. I think it's the credit union. Okay. Alright. And then, the library is celebrating their sixty fifth anniversary. So there will be a little festival in June. They'll have a hot dog cart, pop ups, photo event, lots of things. And then there's a contest if you wanna enter a contest to design the next
library card. That's still going on. The summer reading program, started, or it begins May 26 for all ages and it goes through August 1. And there was a, let's see. It's past, but it's the drug take back day. It's quarterly. And even though it's past, it's a passion of mine because I work in health care. We do these things quarterly if you have expired drugs and if you know of adults that have expired drugs in the home please make sure that you take them. They are free. No questions asked. And they usually get tons of drugs off the street so it's a great event
so I'll be sure to let you know when the next one is. And then I'll just finish by saying, I too appreciate Erin and Tammy. They are wonderful. Erin and I actually went to school with Erin, so it's kinda weird you're retiring so young. So so wish you guys the very best and it's been a pleasure. Well, since everybody's saying stuff, Aaron was also, my when I worked at Whitefield, he was my principal. And Tammy, I don't I mean, I know Sherry's gonna be great. But you've been really a godsend to all of you, and and all of you at work. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So next,
we have the bond oversight committee update with mister Shane Scala. And I just wanted to let everybody know that's watching and looking that that's an this is the bond oversight committee is very important to us to promote transparency for all of you. And please, if you do have questions, give us a call, and we hope we can answer them. Mister Scala, you're up. I'm up. And if I could get mister Mike Southworth and mister Peyton Campbell up here. Yeah. I appreciate you taking the allowing us to take some time and talk a little
bit about where we're at with the bond and we will be providing regular updates because we did make a commitment to our community. Promises made, promises kept and that's important to us and I know it's important to everybody who's involved in the committee. We do have roughly over 20 members, fair representation of the community, also staff members, and so we will be, you know, updating everyone regularly. But also for anybody who's out there who wants to have regular updates, Sam Briggs has done a tremendous job creating a believe in me section on our website that has all pictures,
information, financials, everything connected to the projects that we're working on. So, without further ado, I'll turn it over to these two to to give you some more details on what's going on in our district to, upgrade our buildings. Thank you so much. Good evening, everybody. I have the pleasure and honor of being both a staff member and a community member here in the district. So, I wanna start us off just talking about what's going on right now. So a lot of Can you tell us who you are? Yes. I am so sorry. I'm Peyton Campbell. So a lot of the initial work on major construction is invisible so far. Right? Because it's all being done behind the scenes. So we're gonna start talking about the North renovation.
We we know that's not so much invisible anymore as you could see if you go down the road, but they did phase one is officially underway. Crews are currently handling the asbestos, removal and demolition of the stage area as well as prepping underground tunnels for plumbing and HVAC upgrades. HVAC prep has began at Panello, Talbot, and Venetucci. These schools are currently getting plumbed and prepped for their HVAC and climate control overhauls. There as as mister Ibarra talked about at the drawing board right now, there are architects are finalizing drawing for the Whitefield High School, the electrical upgrade, the HVAC system,
and the math remodel. They are also drafting plans for Spruill remodel and Watson Science remodel too. We're they're expanding space, so we're in the design process are in the design phase for Grand Mountain School edition. Meanwhile, the modulars for both Spruill and Grand Mountain School are both being work's already being done off-site at this point in time. Then in the HVAC at Whitefield High School, the first phase has, and the science wing has already taken place. And then there we are ordering materials and securing materials for roof replacements at French and Sunrise and exterior doors and windows at Panello and the rooftop units,
for Mesa Ridge are ordered and waiting for school to, to be out for the summer so they can be installed. Thank you. So I'm Mike Salthourich and these guys at, Panello gave me this hat. Have you guys seen this hat? Can we pass that around? They call themselves tunnel rats. Alright. What I wanna talk about is what you are going to expect during summer. HVAC and climate control by the start of the school year Panello, Talbot, Venetucci and Mesa Ridge. The majority of the rooftops are gonna be replaced. That's good. The, the roofs and the glass.
The crane and the roofing crew from Sunrise in French, they're gonna be fully replaced the roofs. And then, you'll see by August the four new classrooms at Grand Mountain, the trailers and then the eight more classrooms at Sunrise. The good stuff is Panello and North curb appeal. So you're going to see all the exterior doors, the windows at Panello replaced And at North you'll see heavy machinery and they're gonna start working on the playground. They'll upgrade the playground and all new equipment.
By the time the students return, North's playground will be complete. I love that hat. It will be complete for phase one which is the phase one is the office and the stage work. And then they'll be in stage two which is the asbestos. Alright? So they're gonna continue that work throughout '26 and '27 school year. Alright? Thank you. Last thing I wanna do just, thanks for, thanks for being here and, we will also have two people from the community at the luncheon next week, to speak a little bit about the bond. But I do wanna take a moment and just give a shout out to Dave
Gish, Jeff Barretson, and Zach Richards. The work that they have done, the prep work to make sure we're prepared to do the job right has been just simply amazing. And so make I I just wanna give a round of applause to Dave and his team. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Scala. Okay. Next, we have with the 2627 draft budget report, missus Olivia Boudreaux. Hello. So we're going to start off tonight, by comparing us to some of the other districts around. I think before we actually get into the budget,
it's important that we kind of look at where we stand with other districts, and and we can then we can dive deeper into the budget. So CDE actually puts out a transparency site every year and compares all the districts, all the schools against each other. So we have it on our webpage, and I figured I would just walk us through it because it's a little bit easier that way. So we go to financial transparency, which brings you to all of our documents that we have to have for CDE requirements. And you click on the transparency page, and it brings you to the CDE site.
So when you put us in, show you our comparisons. So what we did is we looked at Academy. We normally look at Harrison because we are in very close proximity to them, and then we've looked at Lewis Palmer in the past just because they're a high performing school district. How much is it compare? Let me try that again. And so those are the three school districts that this year we compared ourselves against just to see where we landed. There we go. Alright. So when you bring up the website, it has the overall, which is our spending and our funding. We're just gonna focus on the spending piece just because,
you know, your budget is revolves around your spending. So as you look, it it kinda walks you through student count, what type of schools you have, how many schools are in the district, and then the spending per student breakdown. So you can see we we fall in in line with the other districts as far as where we're spending. Something that is different is I apologize. There's some music or something going on outside. Yeah. I think it's the haven. They're having a senior celebration. So it was it was sanctioned. It's okay. So what CDE does is they take all of our funds and compare us against
other districts, basically, leveling the field. Whereas sometimes it's hard because we may categorize things differently as other districts, this is a really good tool for us to be able to see how we how we measure up. So, as far as our spending, we're in line. You can see our percentages are a little bit different here, and that's the majority of that is because they may code their special education, providers, like their SSPs, to the actual school, whereas we house it within our special education department. So the schools aren't responsible for that. Oh, no. You're good. Thanks. And then you can see the state average is about 15,000,
but there's a lot of reasons for that. The Denver area just has so much money within their schools. Also rural school districts, if they have a 100 students, they still have to be funded to to run their school, so they have a significantly larger, they get significantly larger PPR, which is what they receive per student. So then CDE goes down and breaks it down between learning environment and operations, and then the bigger piece of all of this is where we fall on the learning environment. So we fall in line with the other school districts as far as our per
student in the learning environment, and then it'll go a step further. And it actually breaks it down by individual categories. So what we spend in instruction, activities, student support, staff support, school administration, and district administration. So on all those categories, we're we're in line with those other school districts. And just as a reminder, this is District 20, this is District 2, this is 38. So this breaks it down nicely, so you can kind of see across the board where we stand. And then it breaks it down further by student, but the percentages give us that overall.
And then the last piece is they within the learning environment is they show the breakdown between salaries, services, supplies, and you can see in our learning environment, we're we're right there with District 20 as far as 88 in salaries for spending. And then operations, so operations per student, and it breaks it down a little bit further down here for our percentages. So we all are are in the same ballpark there. Have any questions before? I appreciate that you're showing people how to use that so that people can actually do that. Yeah. It's a it's a great feature,
and it really breaks it down nice and is reader friendly. Yeah. So the last piece of this just goes into, the construction and and debt refinancing. So the only thing that will stand out to you here is our community services, and that's because we have a parks and rec department, and these other school districts don't have a parks and rec department. So that's the the big percentage difference, the biggest percentage difference you could see as we kind of walk through that. So this site is CDE. They updated July 1 with our new numbers, and you can compare schools, you can compare districts,
but I just kind of wanted to, before we went through the budget presentation, run you through that so you can kinda see what we do with our budget, where it goes, and how all of that flows through. So any questions before I move to the presentation? And our community can find this on our website. Yes. Yep. So you just scroll to the bottom, financial transparency. Financial transparency. Yes. Yes. Yep. And then it'll bring you here, and you can you can search, and compare the schools. Yeah. So there, this is 23, 24 numbers, and the reason for that is because there's a 178 districts. So they have to compile all of that data and get all of the categories
to match to get everybody on the same lane. So it takes them, essentially, the whole year to get it ready for the next year. So July 1, we will have the 24, 25 numbers, and we'll do a similar Before you begin Yeah! Kelly do you mind if I have just a quick moment? A personal privilege? I'm gonna be stepping out of the board meeting here in a second. I just didn't wanna be rude to you all. My daughter is performing in a musical at Janatelle, and I promised her that I would be there. So I just if I step out, that's why. And thank you all for being here.
Well, that's good to know. So you're not mad at my presentation. No. And I will be stepping out during your presentation. You did great. So I don't need that anymore. Alright. So, this is our proposed budget for, the twenty six-twenty seven school year. Our goals, the student learning, obviously always our top goal, continuation of economic, academic focus, fiscal responsibility, and compensation for employees. The School Finance Act. So, it was, it was adopted in 1994. We're at 30% implementation. Some of the major factors in the formula are our October count,
where we count all of our students, The cost of living factor, which we talked about last week, that was set to decrease our budget by a million dollars, actually is now postponed until 2728. So we'll still have to deal with it, but we have a lot more time. The at risk funding and the special education factor really help us, not enough to cover our million dollars, but they will help us in the formula as it's implemented. And the budget stabilization factor, or the negative factor, is gone for now, but there are a lot of talks about that coming back. And how we develop our budget, so we have, federal governance,
we have state governance, and we have local governance. And with all- in all of those, we have to follow the compliance on all of those. So this is the slide on how we allocate our budgets, how much we give to each school, what what the basis of that is, how it's allocated with the at risk funding, if they get technology funding, and it's at risk is based on their free and reduced lunch counts. If they are an innovation status school, they do get additional funding as well. So So our budget requirements. So we have 10 funds. So the majority of this presentation will be about our general fund, which is where we bring in all of our our tax dollars is into that
general fund. We do have nine other funds that we manage. It's just the majority of our funding is most of our funding is through the general fund. And then through this, we will talk about the categories. There's additional categories within the general fund that we'll touch on. This is just essentially a reminder, it's required by law that we give this, to you by May 31, and then we have to adopt, approve, and appropriate it by June 30. So, some of the highlights here, our PPR, or our, pupil funding, so every student, the funding for that went up $434 which is equivalent to about 3,800,000
Now, our, enrollment is declining, and they're switching to three year averaging. So, with all of that, we are still looking at losing 877,000 of that 3.8. They did increase the base funding for the cost of living percentage to 2.4, so that was a good increase for us. And then, I just listed what the PPR will be like for next year. So brick and mortar schools, the Haven, or our online schools, don't get as much funding. UPK, you can see, does not nearly get as much funding. And then, the girls for next year,
we're anticipating 20 less students, which is about $234,000 This is just a, I know you guys have seen this sheet, this is what our expenditure adjustments look like for next year, where we're anticipating money coming back, where we're anticipating more, more funding needed. So, where are we now? So, right now, at the beginning of this year, we had over $2,000,000 which is about two point one seven months in reserve. The, we're projected to gain almost $2,000,000 in fund balance this year because of our mill levy override,
or else we would have been in a lot different of a situation right now. And our beginning fund balance, we're projecting it to be around $2.22000000 at the beginning of this year. So at the beginning of this year, we're saying we'll have about two point two months of fund balance, and by the end of the year, we're projecting about 2.12. Anybody have any questions before I keep going? Okay. So salary and benefits, our base teacher salary is going up to $54,650 All staff will receive a 3.25% raise. The one time comp will be 0.75
for eligible staff. PERA is not changing, so PERA is not increasing for for the employee or the employer. And then, the district is picking up the significant portion of the health insurance, which is the 600,000 we asked to be approved. This is the general fund budget by school. If you have questions, it's a nice recap so you can see what each school gets. This is, this is all of their staff, this is their supplies, so and it we have it year over year, so if you have questions, please reach out about that. And this is similar. These are our non instructional sites, or our non instructional departments for support services and what the budget has looked like
and what we're projecting the budget to be. And then the last piece of this is the administrative services. Same as the previous slide, it just goes through what actual for 2024, budgeted, projected, and then what we're budgeting for next year. So this is how our PPR is laid out, and we get specific ownership tax, property tax, and state equalization. So the state essentially says, This is the amount of money that we think it will cost to run your school district. And so we assess the 27 mills to our taxpayers, and then whatever is left over,
the state picks up the difference. So that's the 67, or the $76,000,000 is what the state pays to us to fund our programs. This just shows kind of our PPR over time. This brings into account all of our revenues. The previous slide was just how our PPR was calculated. This shows our mill levy override, additional grants we may receive, and so that is what this slide is showing, for our total revenue. And, you'll see federal sources on there. That's impact aid, Medicaid, those are the majority there. And then our transfer and allocation is gonna be the transfer to capital,
capital improvements fund and to the risk management fund. This is our district expenditures for the general fund based on specific categories. So within each fund, we have specific categories that we have to report to CDE. So you can see our salaries and benefits, we're at 86.02%, just salaries and benefits within our general fund. And then the rest, professional services, property services, which is going to be building improvements, purchase services, supplies, capital outlay, and then our contingency is our fund balance that we carry, which is our two our two to three months.
This just kind of outlines in a chart what we're doing as far as our expenditures and where that lives. And now this these, you're going to see a lot of the same for the next few slides because what we're doing here is just showing you the categories, what the spends are, and what the percentage of the general fund is. So, in the general fund for instruction, we'll spend over 55% of our general fund money just in instructional. In pupil activity, or in pupil support, it'll be about 10%. And then, 5% in, both of those say pupil support.
So this is counselors. This is this 2,100, the 10%, this is, like, counselors and SSPs. This pupil support is going to be, professional development, it's going to be TLRS, if you, librarians, all of that will live in our 2200, which are both considered student support. And then less than 1% in general administration will be about 7% in or a little under 8% in building administration, which is our principals, our assistant principals. Finance and warehouse, we're over 1%. Facilities, 10%. Transportation, four percent. Central support services,
we're at about 3%. And other support services, we're at point 3%. And our debt services, this is our mill payment. So we paid off the mill this year, so next year we will not have that payment. So, essentially, our debt service goes away for next year, which is great. So this this summarizes our total expenditures and what we're projecting. So, this year, we're projecting a 123,000 or a 100 and that would be nice. A $123,000,000 is what we're projecting.
We're proposing, just under a $129,000,000 in expenditures. And so what we're showing here is that your pupil expenditure year over year is increasing, for what we're spending per student. So we're only receiving $11,000 per student, but we're spending 14. So, just to give you an estimate on that. So in our general fund fund balance, we have a balanced budget for next year. We have our Tabor reserve, which we are required to have by state law. We have our multi year obligations, inventory, which brings us down to our total expenditures with our contingency costs.
And then you're going to see a lot of these, there's going to be a handful of these slides. So these are our other nine funds. So what we just went through is all of the general fund, all of our state, local, federal funding. Now we're headed into our nine other funds. So our risk management fund, and I'm just going to kinda go through these. If you want me to stop and explain one, let me know. This is our risk management fund, nutrition services, our grants fund. So our grants fund always has to be zero because our revenue has to equal expenditures. These are our federal grants. They don't they don't allow us to take in more revenue than expenditures,
so that will always be zero. Our pupil activity fund. So this is our fund 23, which is, donations that come in, our PTO. This is is basically self funded by by the organization that has the fund. Widefield Parks and Rec. Conservation trusts. Conservation trusts are our lottery funds. So as a school district, we don't get to use lottery funds, but, because we have a parks and rec department, they utilize the conservation trust, for those lottery funds. The bond redemption fund, which is, how we record paying our bonds.
Capital project funds, that's Mr. Gish's, fund. Project fund, that's all of the improvements as we're we have our own fund for all of our bond projects so that it's easy to report and go through what projects we've done and what expenditures we have in that fund. And then this is just all of our funds, what our expenditures look like, what we're holding in contingency, and then our totals on all of them. Our fund balance fund balance analysis, we do an analysis over the course of five years to kinda see where we're at, see where our months have gone, and making sure that we're we're staying fiscally responsible.
So we just have our our total operating expenditures over the last five well, the actual for '25 and then what we're projecting out, which is important to make sure that we're in line for our two to three months of fund balance. You can see our projected in '28 and '29, we have a pretty significant, deficit there, but we've got a lot of time to get there. That's with, you know, making no changes or or doing anything. So, we've got a lot of time to work on that. But you see, we in year 2029, we will dip below the two months, so we'll have to definitely do some work there.
And then looking forward, so, it's exciting news that we have a balanced budget for next year, and the state is implementing at 30. We did not think that they would come close to 30% this year, year, so that that's great news that also that they paused the cost of living factor. You know, we have a year to address that, as opposed to, you know, the week we thought we had. So, we'll make sure that we keep an eye on that. We'll we will get significant help with the SPED factor and with the at risk pass factor that is coming into play. And then it was just huge that we passed the the mill and the bond.
You know, keep our keep our building sustainable, for for a longer time. And then the mill every override just really helped us, balance our budget. So some things we need to watch For our our continuing in inflationary costs because that is just happening everywhere, and then the growth of the housing market, making sure we have enough room for the students that are coming in. While we are still hoping for lots of enrollment to help with our budget, you know, we have to keep a close eye on that as well. Does anybody have any questions? That 45 slides already? It was? That was good. Nice. That was a great time right there. That would be a Wednesday award.
Oh, sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Was four minutes versus, presentation before. That's fantastic. Thank you, missus Burdraw. We really appreciate it. Okay. Now we're going to our action items, and we have our first act on with miss Amy Roden. Alright. Good evening. In item four a, it is recommended the board of education approve the appointment of missus Michelle Tucker as secondary principal at Grand Mountain School. Can I get a motion? I make a motion to approve Michelle Tucker for Grand Mountain as a principal.
I'll second that. Alright. Michelle Tucker. Michelle Tucker is a dedicated educator and an unwavering advocate for the power of community. Michelle holds a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Regis University. A career educator, Michelle has served families across every level from elementary classroom teacher to principal, championing exemplary teacher effectiveness and high student achievement. Her uncanny ability to connect with others has earned her recognition as a demonstrated leader
who architects strong cultures of learning and leading. Grounded by faith and guided by a spirit of service, Michelle approaches her work with grace and purpose. As the spouse of a retired United States Air Force member, she brings a richly layered perspective to her professional practice. Yet for all of her accomplishments, Michelle remains most deeply grounded in the role that fuels everything else, mom to two sons for whom she builds a better world. Her mission is clear and unapologetic, to lead with integrity, empower others to rise, and inspire a legacy of excellence that will echo for generations to come.
It's my pleasure to recommend miss Michelle Tucker as the next principal at Grand Mountain School. Missus Medina, roll call, please. Missus missus Kutcher? Aye. Miss Hubbard? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Mister Ybarra? Aye. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm honored, to be back in Whitefield School District three. This evening is special for to me for so many reasons. To the board of education, thank you for your support and for giving me the backing to do this work and for equipping Grand Mountain with the necessary tools and the training to pursue our
future goals. I believe in Whitefield, and I believe in the power of this community, and I believe in this great work that we are going to do together. It's amazing to see this, unified collective that's back here, and I appreciate the opportunity to acknowledge the many leaders who have brought me here and have been on this improbable journey with me. Superintendents Erin Hoffman, Stephanie Howell, thank you for this gift of service. I value the vision and work of the selection committee who recommended me, Shane Scala and Levka Craft,
who have generously shared their talents with me. Amy Roden, Justin Lee, Brooke Felice, Millie Melendez, Jennifer Bonds, Sarah Arellano, and the entire Ground Mountain, staff and administrative team. Thank you, miss Medina, the entire administrative team here, members of the cabinet, and all the influential leaders who have shaped my leadership. Kirk Sateka, Kevin Duran, Stan Richardson, and the Sproul Junior High staff that's back here. And then finally, thank you to my favorite people, my husband, Eric, with whom I celebrate thirty years of marriage this month,
and my two adult sons, Jefferson and Grant. I I appreciate their love and support. They help me to, be grounded and do this work. And then I will leave you, with just the adage that I believe that we will carry on, for years to come. We are one mission, one promise, one grand mountain. Believe in Whitefield. Thank you. Thank you, missus Tucker. Employee input process recommendations, missus Stephanie Howell. Yay. And welcome back, miss Tucker. Alright. In item five b, the Board of Education received the employee input process recommendation,
the blue sheet, last week at the board meeting at the special board meeting. If there are no questions, it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the EIP blue sheet recommendations for the 02/2627 school year. Can I get a motion? Yes. Make a motion to approve that. I'll second. I'll second. We have a first and we have a second to act on the EIP recommendation. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Ybarra. Aye. Thank you. In item five c, the board of education also received the memo of understanding for
constituencies. The memo of understanding is attached. The employee input process recommendation to the blue sheet. If there are no further questions, it is recommended that the board of education approve the memo of understanding for the 02/2627 school year. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the memo or MOU. Memo of understanding. Thank you. I'll second. We have a first and we have a second for the memo of understanding. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Ybarra. Aye. Thank you.
Thank you, missus Hemm. Thank you. Act on resolution authorizing early dismissal for seniors, mister Shane Scala. Alright. Hello. In agenda item five d, it is recommended that the Board of Education adopt and include within the minutes the resolution authorizing the early dismissal of seniors for the twenty twenty six-twenty seven school year. I'll make the motion for early dismissal of the seniors. I'll second that. We have a first and we have a second for early dismissal. Mrs. Medina. Mrs. Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Mrs.
West. Aye. Mr. Yavorra. Aye. Alright. And item five e is recommended that the board approve the '20, 06/27 graduation dates for the following schools. The Discovery High School, 05/14/2027, 4PM. The Haven School, 05/14/2027, 6PM. Whitefield High School, 05/15/2027, 10AM. Mesa Ridge High School, 05/17/2027, 7PM. I'll make a motion to, move this. I'll second. We have a first and we have a second to approve graduations.
Roll call, Mrs. Medina. Mrs. Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Yavorra. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. So the board has an act on for a resolution to appoint a new board of education secretary. I would like to make a motion to appoint a new Board of Education Secretary. I think you can say your name. What? Yeah. Actually, it would be a motion to adopt and include in full the resolution within the minutes. That's why we're gonna miss Tammy.
What Tammy said. Yes. We have a second? Oh, I'll second. Thank you. We have a first and we have a second. Missus Medina. Missus Krutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mr. Ybarra. Aye. Welcome, Sherry Watts. Okay. Now we have Mrs. Megan Houchens for AP AP World History. Last month, you guys received the textbook proposal for AP World History. There are no questions. It is recommended the board approve that proposal as presented. I'll make a motion to adopt the textbook. I'll second that.
We have a first and a second to adopt a world an AP world history textbook. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Yavorra. Aye. Thank you. In item five h, last month the board received a proposal for computer science Python programming. There are no questions. It is recommended the board approve that proposal as presented. I'll make a motion to approve that proposal. I'll second. We have a first and a second to adopt a core a course proposal on computer science.
Missus Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Miss Hubbard? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Mister Yabara? Aye. Thank you. In item five I, last month, the board received a course proposal for online media. There are no questions, it is recommended recommended the board approve the proposal as presented. I'll make a motion to approve that motion. Thank you. I'll second. We have a first and a second to approve online media course proposal. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Yabara. Aye. Thank you.
Doctor Jessica Bidding. Hi, everyone. I have three travel requests tonight. The first one is for our audio production team who is requesting permission for them to attend the SkillsUSA national competition in Atlanta, Georgia from June first to fifth. We have two male students who have qualified for that national level competition, will be attended by two district chaperones, can be transported by their parents to the airport, travel with their chaperones by plane to Georgia, use public transportation for their time in Atlanta, stay at the Hilton Hotel, and the cost of the trip is covered through activities funds as well as student
fundraising. And I just need to say that I am so proud of them because they started in a closet that was the band storage room and have built themselves all the way to national competition. Any questions about that? No. That's awesome. I'll make a motion to approve the travel. I'll second. Okay. We have a first and a second to approve the travel request for Whitefield High School Auto Hill production. Missus Medina? Missus Kutcher. Hi. Miss Hubbard. Hi. Missus West. Hi. Mister Ybarra. Hi. My second travel request is for our student to student group. They were invited by the military education,
military child education coalition because they do such an outstanding job to attend their summit this summer. Our sponsor, Mr. Morris, has been part of that organization for a very long time and so they have offered to fully cover the cost of the trip for them to go, and they'd like two of our students to represent. So we're requesting permission for two student representatives to attend accompanied by two district chaperones from June twenty third to twenty fourth in an at San Antonio, Texas. Guys, it's graduation week. I can't talk. They'll be transported by their parents to the airport and will travel with their chaperones
by plane to San Antonio, utilize public transportation for the duration of their time in San Antonio, and they will be staying at the hotel of the summit in rooms appropriate to gender. We received this special invitation, so it is fully covered for costs. Any questions? Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve that travel request. I'll second. We have a first and a second to act on travel request for Whitefield High School s two s attending a summit. Missus Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Miss Hubbard? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Mister Yabara?
Aye. Thank you very much. And the third is on behalf of myself and mister Trahan, who's at senior awards tonight. Our our OTCs would like to go together to travel to for seven students with our combined programs to participate in the sail academy and leadership course in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they're going to learn to sail as part of the Navy. Three female students and four male students along with two chaperones will be driving to Cochiti Lake, New Mexico where they'll stay for the duration of the training course. The vehicle will be driven by district staff who will have received proper licensing.
Students and chaperones will be staying on-site. Separate rooms have been arranged per gender, and female chaperones will be provided on-site. Funding for the event will be covered through NJROTC funding, and they have completed all appropriate approvals to this point. Are there any questions? I'll make a motion for that travel request. I'll second that. We have a first. We have a second on a travel request for Whitefield High School and Mesa Ridge ROTC. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Miss Hubbard? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Mister Ybarra? Aye. Our children Thank you. Busy travel summer. Thank you. Travel request, mister Shane Scala.
One more to add on. I'm on I'm here on behalf of Mesa Ridge High School to request permission for two students from the speech and debate team to participate in the national tournament in Richmond, Virginia. The students earn the right to compete at the national lever level after winning the state competition. One female student, one male student, along with female chaperone and male chaperone will be flying to Richmond and will rent a car to transport them to the competition. The vehicle will be driven by district staff. Students and chaperones will be staying at the Westin Richmond. Separate rooms have been arranged by gender.
Funding for the event will be covered through speech and debate school funds and parent contributions. The group has completed the appropriate approvals to this point. Any questions? Alright. I request approval for these students to attend the speech and debate national tournament in Richmond, Virginia. I'll make a motion to accept that travel request. I'll second that. We have a first and a second for a travel request for Mesa Ridge High School speech and debate to go to the national conference. Missus Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Miss Hubbard. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Mister Ybarra. Aye.
Thank you. Thank you. We have a receive item, Mrs. Olivia Boudreaux. Hello. I have two receive items. The first is for the board. The board has received the 2627 proposed budget. Please take the next thirty days to review, the proposed budget. If you have any questions about it, that or anything that I highlighted, please feel free to reach out to Terry or I. Thank you. Thank you. And then the the second item I have is for the use of fund balance. So be it be it resolved by the Board of Education of Whitefield School District
three in El Paso County that the district will budget the use of beginning fund balance for the listed funds for the 2627 school year. Use of fund balance is necessary to continue the district's effort to increase student achievement to achieve the board's goals for the 2627 school year. The board of education is aware that the use of these funds will reduce the listed funds fund balance and will evaluate the use of fund balance annually during the budgetary process and not allow the use of fund balance to result in an ongoing
deficit. We have a rec receive items for revision recommendations for policies. Missus Stephanie Howell. Yes. More fun with revisions to policies. Yes. The board has received recommendations for revisions for 28 policies. They are either revisions for alignment to practice, CASB updates, or many of them are just ten or more years since the last review. So I will list them out for you. IE program of instruction, IHBA special education programs for students with disabilities, IHBB gifted education,
IHBD equivalents of services title one, IHBEA R English Language Learners Program Procedures. IHBK Preparation for Postsecondary and Workforce Success. IHBK R preparation for postsecondary and workforce readiness success procedure. IHC, correspondence studies, distance learning and college courses. IHCD A R, concurrent enrollment. IJ dash E, request for consideration of instructional materials. IJ dash R A, procedure of the selection of instructional materials.
IJOA, field trips, excursions, and extracurricular activity trips. IJOA dash RA, field trips of elementary students. IJOA dash RB, field trips, junior high, and high school students. IJOA dash RC, extracurricular activities, trips, junior high students, and high school students. IKE, promotion, retention, and acceleration of students. IKE RB, secondary school retention. IKF, graduation requirements. ILBC, Early Literacy and Reading Comprehension. ILBC R, Early Literacy and Reading Comprehension Procedure.
JJAB, Non Curriculum Related Student Organizations. JKA E Parent Notification Regarding the Use of Restraint. KBA E School Level Title one Parent and Family Engagement. KBE Parent Teacher Organizations. KCD Gifts, Donations, Grants. KF, use of school facilities, KF dash r, use of school facilities procedure, KFA, public conduct on school property. If you have any questions about any of those 28 policies, just let me know in between the next thirty days. Thank you. Thank you very much. Receive revision recommendations
for policies, missus Amy miss Amy Roden. Thank you. So the attached policies have been updated due to the EIP process. If you have any questions about these policies, I'll be available in the next thirty days. Thank you so much. Okay. We do not have public comment this evening, but that doesn't mean it's over. Because I just wanna say one thing. I love Whitefield. Thank you for everybody that came. We always appreciate everybody that's on stream. The Board of Education has scheduled the following meetings,
May luncheon, May 19 at 12:00. June luncheon meeting, June 16 at 12:00. June board meeting, June 18 at 06:00, and all meetings will be held at 1820 Main Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Can I get a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn. I'll second. We have a first and a second to adjourn, missus Medina. Sorry. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Miss Hubbard? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Mister Yavorra? Aye. We're adjourned.