We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is 6PM on the February 20. If we can have roll call, miss Medina. Missus Kutcher? Here. Mister Doc? Here. Mister Fisher? Here. Missus Walsh? Here. Missus West? Here. Okay. Before we do the pledge, I just wanna announce that we are going to, update agenda item trying to get this right. Mhmm. Sorry. My glasses are all all item five a, the admin appointments. It's gonna be moved right after the consent agenda. So if we can stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you all for showing up. It looks like a full crowd. Hopefully, you guys will stick with us until about 08:40 when we finally get to go home and miss the hockey game. It's 08:40. I went to a fight and a hockey game broke broke out. Uh-huh. But, Three or four times. Yeah. If we can go ahead and, get to the, consent agenda. Is there a motion for the acceptance of the agenda. Mister Fisher, I'll make a motion to accept that consent agenda.
Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you, ma'am. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Awesome. We will move to the appointment. Hi. Hello, ma'am. I have have some appointments for you tonight. First off, it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the appointment of miss Stephanie Howell as assistant superintendent. There's yeah. Sorry. No. No. I think you go first. Do I do the motion first? Yeah. Is there a motion to I'll make a motion. I will sit on that.
Alright. Stephanie Howell. Stephanie Howell is a Colorado native. She grew up in Black Forest, graduated from Liberty High School, and attended college at Colorado State University. Go Rents. That's what I'm talking about. Stephanie earned her bachelor's degree in animal science at CSU. The same year, she met her husband, Casey. Casey is a paramedic firefighter for Fountain Fire Department and a flight medic for Travel Air. Stephanie and Casey have three children, 19 year old Quinn, who attends Colorado Mesa University on an academic and soccer scholarship, and 16 year old twins, Avery and Gavin, who are juniors in high school.
In 02/2003, she earned her master's degree from the University of Colorado in curriculum and instruction. Stephanie is currently the executive director of of secondary student learning. She began her career in education teaching science at Sproul Junior High School in February. She and her dad also coached eighth grade girls basketball and high school basketball for thirteen years. In 02/2013, Steph became the assistant principal at Sprole and then became principal in 02/2018. She has served on several district committees and has worked closely on instructional leadership throughout the years. She especially enjoys supporting principals and staff in order to provide the best possible educational
experience for all d three students. In her 25 in Whitefield, Stephanie has always loved to promote a positive culture and looks forward to continuing that tradition as the assistant superintendent. It's my pleasure to recommend Stephanie as assistant superintendent. So can we have a vote, miss Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Doc? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Good evening, everyone. Hello. Good to see everyone here. Thank you so much to our school board. I really appreciate all of your support and and hard work and efforts throughout this
year and dedication. I know you do this on your own time and without compensation, but we really, really appreciate all of you. To mister Hoffman, he's the most amazing mentor and I'm grateful for his leadership. He leads us with support and compassion and accountability. So we really appreciate you. I know all of us do. Mr. Zateka, he's he was a history teacher and a coach. So many of you already know that. Up here, he has volumes and volumes of history and thirty two years of Whitefield experience that we all learn from each and every day.
And so thank you for your mentorship and for, being an example of what an assistant superintendent should be. Thank you to the supportive dedicated cabinet team, all of you that we work with each and every day. There's so many dedicated people in this room that spend hours and hours of tireless dedication and help and support to make Whitefield the best place for all of our students and parents and staff. We appreciate all of the work you do every day. To my family who are here tonight, mom and dad and Avery and Casey,
and Gavin's trying to get here from soccer practice. So, and Quinn, he's in college, but, I'm just proud of their love and loyalty, and I couldn't be more proud to be their mom and wife and daughter and thank them for everything they've done for me in my whole life. We in Whitefield have been fortunate throughout the time and the strength and leadership. I can remember back in 1999 when I was a student teacher at Whitefield High School, and, we had mister Cosby and doctor Hatchell and mister Richardson and mister Royer and mister Campbell and mister Dern and now mister Hoffman.
And my personal hope is to carry on the pursuit of excellence and uphold the Whitefield Way. At our last roundtable meeting, miss Kucher highlighted the Whitefield Way, and she talked about how it encompasses trust and support and leaning on each other when times get tough and challenging. And we all know that we're in challenging times in, education, and, I hope that we can continue to lean on each other and support each other. And, we're only as good as the team that we're surrounded with. And, again, we're so for fortunate to be surrounded by so many solid,
amazing individuals. And I promise to support and develop our staff and our students to the best of my ability as long as I am privileged to be your assistant superintendent. There's so many people in this room that I know, assistant superintendent. There's so many people in this room that I know and love and appreciate, throughout the entire district. So Michael Jordan once said, heart is what separates good from great. Whitefield has heart and Whitefield is great. And I will continue to persevere as we work together as a united team. Believe in Whitefield. Alright. Next, it is recommended the Board of Education approve the appointment of mister Josh Tucci as
director of Whitefield School District Parks and Recreation. Is there a motion? Motion passed. A second? Mhmm. Second. Okay. Josh Tucci. Josh was born and raised in Iowa. He attended South Dakota State University earning his health, physical education, and recreation degree. During college, he met his wife, Molly. The two moved to Colorado Springs in 02/2014 to start their teaching careers in Whitefield. Molly is the consumer family sciences teacher at Whitefield High School, and Josh has been the principal at Janitell Junior High for the past three years. Before becoming principal, he served as assistant principal for two years and as dean for a year.
Prior to Janitell, Josh was the PE teacher at Sproul Junior High. He coached wrestling at Sproul and football at both Sproul and Whitefield High School. He was also a member of the bond oversight committee, wellness committee, and other building and district level committees. Josh earned his master's in educational leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. He is currently getting his doctorate in educational leadership from UNC. He and Molly have a son and daughter, seven year old Lincoln and nine year old Delta. Both children attend Whitefield Elementary School of the Arts. Josh and his family like to spend their free time going on hikes and walks
along with spending time with family and friends. It's my pleasure to recommend Josh Tucci as the director of Whitefield Parks and Rec. Can we have the vote roll call? Missus Kutcher? Yes. Hi. Mister Doc? Hi. Mister Fisher? Affirmative. Hi. Missus Walsh? Hi. Missus West? Hi. Alright. Well, first of all, thank you very much to the board. I appreciate the opportunity. I do have to start off with some specific thank yous to my wife, Molly, and my kids, Delta Lincoln. I know it's not always easy to to be around me.
I know that, my brain is taken up by work quite often, so I appreciate the the support that they always give me and have given me, throughout my years in Whitefield. Cabinet. I know everyone in cabinet has supported me pretty directly in some way, shape, or form. I definitely appreciate all that support. All the administrators that I've had the opportunity to work with directly in buildings starting with Moda Stasio, Stephanie Howell, Mike Felice, Dave Gish, Sean McCune, Rebecca Evans, Sean Vansell, Josh Trahan. I've been a part of some pretty amazing teams. Some other specific folks that I have to thank, Joe Garrett, Scott Campbell,
Kirk Zateca, mister Hoffman, Shane Scala. There's just been a a huge number of amazing mentors, in my time here in the district. Kind of a tough one for me. The the Janicell staff, I definitely appreciate them more than than I think I can even articulate right now. I hope I've made a fraction of the difference for you all that that you made for me. To the Whitefield Parks and Recreation staff, I'm incredibly excited to get to work with you all and and roll up our sleeves and and make some differences for the community and to the wide field community.
I do not take this responsibility lightly, and I will do everything I can to meet the needs of both the community and the school district. So thank you all very much. And finally, it is recommended the Board of Education approve the appointment of miss Stacy Blair as assistant director of human resources. Can I get a motion? Motion. Mhmm. Second. I'll second that. Stacy Blair. Stacy is originally from Michigan. She graduated from Western Michigan University with her elementary education degree. Stacy also has her master's in arts and teaching from Colorado College. Stacy is in her eighteenth year of education.
She started her career as a classroom teacher and instructional coach in District 2 before coming to Whitefield as an assistant principal at Sunrise Elementary. After a year, she was hired as principal at Pinello Elementary for three years and is currently the principal at Sunrise Elementary School, which she has served for the last two and a half years. Stacy and her husband Sean have two children, 16 year old Maxwell and 11 year old Samantha. They enjoy wrestling, football, and soccer. Stacy spends most of her time driving them to and from their activities. I'm happy to recommend Stacy as assistant director of human resources.
Can we get a vote, miss Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Dock? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Good evening, board. Yeah. I'll move it down. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I appreciate all of you and I just wanna say a few thank yous. First, I wanna thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their continued support. I wanna thank the board of education. Thank all of you and the hiring committee, for trusting me and having confidence in me, excuse me, to be aware of the responsibility that comes with this role.
And I'm please know that I'm dedicated to work alongside Amy and the human resources team to support and ensure that we have the best people in front of our students every day. I firmly believe that our staff is the most valuable asset in our district. And as a human resource director, my goal is to focus on not only attracting, but retaining talent, but also ensuring that every member feels supported and empowered. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm excited to embark on this journey and look forward to working alongside Amy and the human resources team to do the best for Whitefield.
So thank you. I appreciate this opportunity. For now. For now. Aaron, have we received and or acted on all correspondence? Yes, sir. You've received all correspondence. Okay. Now we get to the excitement and the fun. Sam. More more good news to come. So I've got I've got some stuff. So we'll start with, a recap of wrestling. The district had 25 wrestlers compete at the Chassa State Wrestling Tournament last weekend. 18 wrestlers represented Whitefield High School and seven wrestlers represented Mesa Ridge High School. The Whitefield High School girls team took third place in the five a division,
and 10 of those wrestlers are coming back next year. So that's great news. Whitefield also had several wrestlers take the podium including, Vivian Arellano, state runner-up, Amaya Hinoza. Oh, my gosh. Sorry about that. Amaya Genosa is also state runner-up. Rylan Rose Casares, took third place. Micah Martinez was fourth place, and Matthew Sandoval was fifth place. Mesa Ridge High School also had a great season and brought home a state champion. I'd like to bring up coach Gavin Melendez and our state champion, Elias Tims. I'll go first. Okay.
Hello. My name is Gavin Melendez. Prior to this year, I was the head coach of the citywide Pueblo Central girls wrestling team where I developed my coaching philosophy. I passionately believe in process oriented coaching. I prioritize athlete development over win loss records in the belief this paves the way to lasting success. I am a firm believer in doing the little things right in order to be successful. When I first got the position as head coach of Mesa Ridge high school, I was very excited for the opportunity. I wasn't sure what to expect, but everyone spoke very highly of the Mesa Ridge wrestling team.
I'm sure for a lot of the seniors, it was intimidating getting a new coach for their last year competing, but Elias Tims adopted our co our coaching philosophy and shine through. We are a coaching staff that is indeed process oriented. Big time moments come down to muscle memory. Wrestling is a game of inches and one minor mistake can be the difference in a match. When thinking about Tim's, he did all of the little things, right? If you want to be a champion, what you do on the mat is just as important as what you do off the mat. Elias Tims continues to exemplify what it means to be a grizzly.
He is hardworking, extremely coachable, respectful, funny, charismatic, and kind. When thinking about the upcoming season, there are going to be some big shoes to fill as Elias was a leader on this team. I look forward to the future of the Mesa addressing program with time and pressure champions are molded. I can't wait to see who is next. I would like to thank my coaching staff, athletic director, Mike Felice, our parents, our sponsor security florist, and most importantly, my fiancee, Hannah, for her unwavering support. I will now hand the microphone over to the man himself, the heavyweight state champion,
Elias Tims. Alright. The grizzlies. I just wanna say thank you for having us come here and all this. I wasn't as prepared as him. I didn't really write his book. So I just thought that I'd come up here and go with the flow. I wanna just thank all my everybody who gave me the opportunity to be here. First off, I wanna thank my mom. Without her, I wouldn't be here anywhere. You know, first off, she brought me into this world. Yes, ma'am. Second off, you know, she really was the one who drove me to wrestle. And I I love you, mom.
I wanna thank all my coaches, my school coaches, coach Gavin, Melendez, coach Tony, coach Marthaler, coach Leo. I wanna thank mister Felice, all my teammates who helped me get here, my club coaches, my coach Gabe, coach Kyle, my good friend Noah. He pushes me every every day, and I wouldn't be here without him, really. And yeah. I don't know. That's really to say. It's It's okay. It's alright. Thank you. So our athletes are not the only ones that are being recognized by the region and the state. We have a few coaches who have earned the Coach of the Year title.
So I'd like to invite up Athletic Director Mike Felice to tell us about the accomplishments of one of his coaches, Jeremy Caleb. Okay. Alright. Thank you, guys. Thank you to the board. Of course, mister Hoffman. Thank you, sir. First, Elias, I can't say enough, buddy. How proud we are so unbelievably proud of you in the season you had. And, like, coach Melendez said, you know, not only is he the best wrestler in the state at his division, but he's also just a tremendous student athlete. He's a he is just a wonderful young man, and we're we're certainly gonna miss him next year, but just so proud of him.
And, of course, coach Melendez, you know, coming in. It's his first year here. And, you know, just like the rest of our coaching staff and what we want to do and accomplish as an athletic department at Mesa Ridge, he is singular focused on on developing kids and winning. So I appreciate everything that he does for our kids in our program. So we love him, and hopefully, he sticks around for a really long time. So, but, coach Jeremy Caleb, our our head football coach, unfortunately, he took a bunch of our avid students to, a nuggets game tonight. So coach Caleb could not be here tonight, but, you know, coach Marthaler and coach Kutcher came also to help to represent Jeremy.
And for those of you who don't know coach Caleb, he is, he what he does for our student athletes, our our football team, goes beyond just x's and o's and within our school. He is, just an unbelievable mentor to our our young men that are on our football program, and it's and it's you know, kids are constantly in his room, and they they they just absolutely love Jeremy. He's a a wonderful, wonderful, you know, educator. He's a fantastic football coach. Obviously, he's a league coach of the year in the Gazette coach of the year. So, you know,
we just we're very fortunate and very lucky that Jeremy is the head football coach at Mesa Ridge High School. He's a he's not only that, but he's just he's he's a wonderful human. He's a good man who really pushes our kids to do all the things that they need to do both on and off the field, and he's, impressive. And and we love working with him every single day. I don't know if you guys wanna say something also about Jeremy, Tommy. I I would just like to add coach Caleb's really big academically with kids. And we we stress that it's just not the token saying that we have.
Excuse me. We had a team GPA on the varsity level of a 3.04 this year. And I was actually kinda looking at little stats as coaches were stats guys. We had 19 kids with a three point o or higher on a 46 man roster. Awesome. And and I've been around Mesa. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. I've been around Mesa for fourteen years. We've always had a goal of getting to that three point o, and we we haven't come really close enough to say we can do this, but we have now. And, like, next year, our goal is to get to a 3.1. I mean, we bring actually a lot of those kids back.
We have a host of kids who are two point five to two point nine nine that we can move up over the next couple months and through the fall. So, the the the message of the classroom, meaning everything, is truly the message coach Caleb, distributes to our players. They bought in evidently, and we got we got more goals, more doors opening up for kids because of that. That's that's all very true. And, you know, hopefully, you know, we just continue the successes that we have had as a as a football program and as an athletic department in general. So thank you guys on coach Caleb's behalf. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it.
Alright. Britney Kenny, the Grizzlyators swim girls swim and dive coach, was also named coach of the year by the Colorado Southern Metro League. Britney wasn't able to be here tonight, but I have a few fun facts to share that she gave to me. For those who don't know, the swim team is combined team with both Mesa Ridge and Whitefield, thus the grizzlyators, which makes it just a special bond for those those two schools to to come together. The girls' team is small but mighty. Britney said she's proud of her team for pushing through all the grueling workouts she puts them through, and they placed first and second in the 5,100
freestyle. So congrats to Brittany. We have 16 students who will be competing at the SkillsUSA state competition in April in the following categories. We have welding, automotive, cabinet making, construction team works, electrical, plumbing and carpentry. I'm sure Kathleen Minna will, talk a little bit more about that in her presentation. So moving on to competitions. The district chess tournament took place recently for our elementary and junior high schools. We've been hosting this term tournament since around 02/2003. And this year, we had 70 students participate in the tournament. Tonight, we'd like to recognize,
overall school winning teams for both the elementary and the junior high level. So the winning team for junior high was Watson Junior High, coached by Adrianna, Chukas. She couldn't be here tonight, but wanted to express how incredibly self motivated her team was this year. They worked hard on their own time and pushed each other toward excellence. The winning team for elementary is French Elementary, coached by Carrie McDuffie, who is here tonight with her team to come up and share about their experience. Right. Just move it over here so we can thank you so much. Thank you for having us.
I'm really proud of my team. I didn't really prepare a speech, but, I just wanna say these guys were really dedicated. They were so supportive of each other, and they were really good sports and just showed so much class at that tournament. I really want to say thank you to my boss too for always supporting our clubs. It's been wonderful. I've been doing it for seven years. This is our first time getting medals and making a really great showing. So first place for us was really great. Thank you. This is, Isaac Langstratt. You wanna say hi? Hello.
Hi. Tell us what your favorite thing is about chess. My favorite thing about chess would probably be, like, the strategy because you have to, like, plan your moves, like, 10 moves ahead so that you know what the other player is gonna do. Awesome. Thank you, sir. This is our friend Joshua Johnson. What is your favorite thing about chess? My favorite thing about chess is winning and and doing the moves and being able to beat the kids and thinking 10 times ahead. Oh, thank you. And this is Jay Scott. What is your favorite thing about chess?
My favorite thing about chess is that, the moves in my friends being with me. Cool. Yeah. We had good camaraderie in there. It was great. And this is Braden Newton. What do you like about chess the most? The thing that I like about chess most is probably just, like, having fun, hanging out with friends, making new friends. And I just wanna thank my mom. She's back there with her camera up right now. My grandpa and my uncle because they got me into chess, and I just wanna thank them. Awesome. That's awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you,
guys. So sweet. And one last thing to share, the district hosted our annual Science with a Twist or SWAT, as we call it, event at Grand Mountain School. We had 17 teams representing all nine elementary schools. The theme was science makes sense, and each of the events involved quarters, nickels, dimes, and or pennies. Students built a bridge, paper airplane, tower, and a boat. First place this year was the King Elementary Cougars. Second place was Grand Mountain Golden Hydra, and tied for third place was the Venetucci Wizards and the French Pandas.
Awesome. That's all I got. Yeah. So if it's okay with everybody up here, due to our time constraints, instead of doing the, board of education reports, just send those to Tammy. And if we kinda wanna go through and, let everybody know when the next meeting set is, so if they wanted to join. I'm gonna start with you Dave for Sure. I always meet with, mister Gish, 8AM Thursday, one week before the Thursday board meeting. So Okay. Miss Walsh? So the Security Department Library next meeting is the March 13. Is that the same day, I think.
Okay. Miss West? I think I was in, March 6 at facilities. Okay. 6PM. The the DAC meeting. The DAC meeting. Yes. Sorry. Miss Kucher? Whitefield Park and Rec will meet next Thursday, March 13 at 06:00. Go Park and Rec. And since, there were no sign ups for public comment, you don't have to listen to me drone on and read the whole statement. So we'll move on and go to the administrative reports. That would be you. Come on, Kathleen. Is Terry trying to preclude his birthday?
And Okay. Good evening. I am Kathleen Mena, and I am the operations manager at the Whitefield School District three Manufacturing Industry Learning Lab National Training Center. And I'm here to talk to you about what exactly that means, and I'm gonna focus on where we've been, where we are now, and where we're going. And, apparently, I'm adding stuff about skills. USA. But thanks. You must looked ahead. So as the slide says, we have been building brighter futures since 2017, and that speaks directly to our past. We first started the mill as a partnership with Peyton School District and the woods
program. That was a five year contract. And by 2022, Whitefield School District '3 is the sole owner and operator of the mill and alt programming and the curriculum. So the mill logo that you see up there is trademarked. I have added Whitefield School District three to represent that this is something that we are really, really proud of. And that goes out across the nation. Our name, Whitefield District three, is out there and attached to the mill. We have been building brighter future since, 2017. Attendance secretary. The building is a 46,000 square foot facility that houses those three programs.
And I have a picture of a student on there to kinda show what we do at the mill, and I call it the mill magic. So, miss Feeney, can you tell me what you see in that picture of that young man? I see two thumbs up and a some sort of a toolbox. And he's happy. He's very happy. So that that is a third year student, and he really exemplifies what we do at the mill. We engage kids. We make them do difficult things. And when they're done, it really gives them a sense of pride,
accomplishment, and confidence. That is a heritage, toolbox that the kids worked on in third year, very intricate, very rigorous. And for me to see that every single day, thumbs up, I'm happy. That's what it's all about in education. That's how I feel. So one of the things that was really important to me when I became the mail manager was to have a mission statement. Everybody needs a purpose. What are our outcomes? What are we working for? So our primary mission is to build skills and knowledge in the area of cabinet manufacturing, construction technology, and welding. We are safe, and we are committed to that. We are hands on learning,
and we have practical application of industry approved competencies. Everything that we do is based on what industry needs and wants right now. We are the pipeline to industry. I always tell the kids, you put a math test in front of me, I'll pass the math test. I'm not good at math, but I can pass the test. My industry is education. They start talking to me about eight sixteenths off center and all the intricacies. I'm like, you've lost me. So they really are, like, you've lost me. So they really are, earning that CTE math credit. So they get elective credit, CTE math credit, and physical science credit. It is very academic out there, and it's all hands on.
So their ability and my teacher's ability to bring that out of the students is really what's important. We also need to make sure that kids are advancing in the industry of their choice. We're not saying if you come out here, you have to go into the skilled trades. We have about a hundred kids in construction and cabinet manufacturing that start, and then we funnel up. We end up with about 20 students who are dedicated and are going into industry, and we guarantee them jobs. Every kid that graduates from our program walks into a job of their choice in the skilled trades. And then it's foundational and then they can grow.
It's always learning. So they may not be going off to college or maybe they're going to get another certificate. But we give them those foundational skills to take them where they want to go. And the last very, very important thing is that we create and enhance industry partnerships. We are nothing without our industry partnerships. Once we partnered with Peyton in industry, the cabinet manufacturing industry donated multimillion dollar machines for manufacturing. We took off. And so our cabinet manufacturing program is turning heads across the nation. I routinely hold tours for the Colorado Springs Economic Development Council for manufacturing companies that
wanna look at us in Whitefield District 3 as preparing kids for that industry. And that's really, really exciting. And then at the bottom, those are just the icons that I created just for fun. The Mill logo is great, but it's very static. And kids really wanna say this is who we are. So we put this on T shirts and sell them and and really bring that cohesive unit together. So then what I thought I would do is we're gonna go through a little tour in pictures. Okay? You're all welcome to come a tour. Feel the energy in the building. As people say when they take a tour, they love the vibe. So I'm gonna attempt to recreate that.
So our cabinet manufacturing program, I think you guys will see Tiger ply just donated $75,000 worth of plywood, so that kids can be making their stuff. It's five years' worth of material. Tigerfly is an industry leader, and we are very, lucky to have them. We did have a student, hold their flag in the parade today. So that's one of the things that we also did. We participated in the parade. Down at the bottom, you will see, Hayden Thomas. He's a two time state champion in cabinet manufacturing, gold medal winner. He got fifth in nationals last year, and we're starting our run this year for him to be a three peater.
He really doesn't have a lot of competition, so hopefully, he can maintain that. Also to the right, industry, Mahira is the HR director of concepts and the work who, gives our students internships every summer. Those internships have turned into jobs, and concepts currently has six former students of ours who've graduated from the program and are currently working there. The top student is a former student of mine from, Watson, and he is joining their millwork apprenticeship program because of his hard work. But I I say that he's an HR director, and I snapped that picture because those two young men,
as soon as Mahiro walked in the door, big smiles. Hello. We love seeing you. I thought this is amazing. So they're doing all the right things. We also have industry come through. Chet Miller was one of our original guys that started in Peyton and started the program, and a lot of people come in just to see him, and they really then donate more materials. We also have the chairs there. That's what fourth year fourth year is doing, very intricate and rigorous. In the center there, I want you guys to know that we at the mill take what we do very seriously,
and we really wanna expose all kids to the skilled trades. When we have testing in this district and the students only come for a half a day, our teachers were not a tested field, but they work. And they work by giving tours to elementary school kids. So they come out. They do hands on learning. We expose them to manufacturing. They put their PPE on. They do hammering and everything else. And this year, it's been really gratifying. A lot of kids come and say, oh, miss Mann, I remember when we did the tour with you three years ago. I was in fifth grade. You know, that kind of stuff.
So it really is about planting seeds and getting kids involved. So that's cabinet manufacturing. Construction technology, that student, Hayden Baker, was one of the first students who, three years ago was our first Whitefield District three facilities intern. So he did a lot of work in this district in the plumbing area, and he worked side by side with our guys in facilities. He also was an intern for Murphy Contractors who did the HVAC up in Janitell. And he is now going to CSU Pueblo for mechanical engineering. So he's worked in industry. He's got such an engineering brain,
and he was such a great builder, and then finally made his choice to go to CSU Pablo. We are OSHA OSHA safe. Those two students earned OSHA ten within the first two weeks of school. That is a requirement in our our building. We teach plumbing and electrical. No other home build program does that. We are a four year program. Other people may build buildings, but you have freshmen working on buildings. We we save that for juniors and seniors. We also host with industry. We partnered. We did Build Like a Girl last year. For two years in a row, we've done that. And that's where young girls come with GE Johnson,
and we just host. So we open our doors to our industry partners and, provide Saturday days where they can come in and continue to train the next people. Our students go to the El Paso County Contractors Association, and they earn speech credit by talking about their experiences at the mill. It's a way for them to make connections. It's a way for them to look people in the eye, shake hands, and really practice soft soft skills, and then our kids are recruited by the El Paso County Contractors Association to go into jobs. And then one of the coolest things that we got to do on that right side, we do a lot of tours and I take a lot of kids on tours
of different projects. We were able to go behind the scenes at the, Pioneers Museum. They were closed down for a very long time because they do an HVAC. So we got to go in and see the updated technology for HVAC and got to see the original weld and building structures at the Pioneers Museum down at Colorado Springs. It was amazing. The other thing that we are currently working on is and I don't know if you guys have seen this in the paper, but we are partnering with the Colorado Springs Fire Department to build, structures that they are going to be used as exemplars to prevent the spread of
fire in homes in the wildland urban interface. All the things that are happening in California right now, those are all homes in the wildland urban interface. And our kids are setting the example for industry by building with code specific things that can prevent, the tragedies that happen when people lose their houses. So that's really exciting, and we are, gonna be doing that in April. And then NDT and welding. Welding, is a three year program now. We have a teacher that is, really invested and has a lot of contacts. We've brought in the American Welding Society,
so that's growth. We did Weld Like a Girl where students were exposed to welding. We're doing a welding challenge this year, and we're gonna couple that with industry. So March. We're gonna do an industry night, and we're gonna have our welding, students teach their parents how to weld. And then the next day, we're gonna offer that up to, students between eight and 15 to learn how to weld. We are really, really proud of our nondestructive testing program as well. Those three kit those four kids up at the top, took time out two years ago, earned certificates, and are now currently working in industry.
We have five kids right now. We're gonna be graduating and going off to do turnaround, which is testing all the welds in industry. They are really bought into this hands on learning with that. I don't know if you guys notice on the bottom as well. We now have fabrication, and Mark Bauer, through our connection with the, senior center, he said, hey. I need a fence. And we said we can fabricate that. So for a donation, our kids fabricated a fence for his house. And it was really interesting because one of those young men, that's his neighbor. So he was able to go on a Saturday and deliver it because that's his
neighbor. So that's really cool, about our welding program. So to wrap that up, we just thank you that we are able to provide these opportunities for kids. They are elective classes that kids can choose at the high school. All kids are welcome. We also have kids from Fountain who come in and do our cabinet program. Everybody is welcome at the mill. I think you guys all know, I think, outside the box. So if you have an opportunity to expand this, you just come and let me know. We also have fun. My EAs are the best. We have, Friday, Hawaiian shirt day that we try to get and get into the spirit of it. I'm always giving tours.
It's about finding your future. The other thing is that little center picture, I am very, very lucky, and I sell this to myself every day, that I get to sometimes be at the mail when the sun is coming up, and sometimes I'm there when the sun sets. And you can capture that in the, mirrors right there. And then just back to what we do for the community, working with the senior center, last year, we did a volunteer day, and the teachers were like, oh, our kids aren't gonna do that. They don't wanna do it on their day off. We had 25 kids show up.
They sanded, painted, and fixed the senior center because Mark said, hey. Can you help us out? So though those kids, really volunteered and do that, and we're we're always looking for ways to kinda fix things and help that out. So we have fun, and we do love our Whitefield District 3 community. How do I do on time? Fantastic. I'm always worried. Okay. Any other questions? What do what do they do with the furniture that they make? Do they sell that? So on the cabinet side, everything that they make, they take home. Mhmm. Okay? We don't sell it. When we have chairs that are available,
we give them to the kids first. We, wanna make sure that what we're selling, we have a good product. So when we have extra available, we do, put that out as for a donation. Yeah. But we we are not there to just build chairs. It's not a production place. That is just the tool that we use to help kids understand the cuts. We get them on the saws and all the measuring. Excellent. Yeah. But that's a $2,500 chair that a kid can take home, all donated material. Mhmm. Yeah. Fantastic. Mhmm. I love that we lead in this industry. We do lead. We are the male model. Mhmm. Right. We do. Fantastic. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Thanks, Kathleen. Alright. Good evening. Steph and I are gonna, talk to you about, attendance, graduation, dropout, and, some student demographic, rates. But first, I wanna say it's it's a five point game at halftime if you're interested in, in the boys' basketball score. Mesa's up by five. It was a two point game for for quite a while. So good game going on over in Bowers tonight. Alright. So starting out, I wanna tell a little story that kinda encapsulates the the data that you're gonna see, and hopefully that helps kind of explain it a little bit.
If you know anything about me, you know what? I'm always thinking long term and don't wanna sacrifice long term for for short term. And so, two years ago, during the 2223 school year, if you remember Juan Salceda over at Mesa Ridge, he was dean of students. Unfortunately, he was only with us for a short time, but good dude. He called me up and he said, hey, Kirk. You know, talk to me about about what's going on. We've got some kids who are mathematically eliminated from passing their class this semester. And I said, okay. And I said that,
you know, we wanna teach them. You know? We wanna keep going. We wanna make sure that they're learning. And he said, you know, where I've been and my understanding is sometimes these students are are dropped. And, they're they're dropped from school, and, I said, you know, we we wanna keep kids in school even if they're mathematically eliminated from passing. I said that they still need a chance to learn, and we still wanna, you know, make our put our best foot forward, to to get them all that they need because they're gonna probably need to make up those classes and get the learning that they need so they can graduate and go on and be successful. He agreed a %.
He said, you know, we we again, we had a pretty in-depth conversation about this, and he said, you know, keeping those kids on our rolls though, it it hurts our four year graduation rate. You know? Because there's some places that will drop those students to help their rates with the state. And I said, well, you know, anybody who knows me also knows that I live by the creative, you know, decisions are easy when the priorities are clear. And I said, what what's more important? That student dropping out or our four year graduation rate? And he said, well, obviously, we don't want kids to drop out.
And I said, okay. And this is where you're gonna kinda see where decisions make a difference. And there's there's some parts to the data that aren't my favorite, and I'll explain that. But I want you to know that that when we left that conversation, Juan was like, hey. I wanna make sure that these kids stay in class, that these kids come back the next semester, and that they keep working towards graduation. If you know anything about Whitefield, even if a a student doesn't graduate in four years, we do an excellent job of helping them and and be successful in any number of ways with all of our different programs and support by our staff,
to to reach that diploma in a fifth year, a sixth year, a seventh year. And that's what ultimately matters. And if you've looked at our district performance framework, you'll see that, you know, sometimes our four year rate will fluctuate up and down, but when you start looking at our five, six, and seven year rates, which we track and we work diligently to to keep up with those kids, you'll see that we do really well. We meet or exceed the the state average on that. And that's what it's all about is, you know, it sounds cliche, but no child left behind. Right? Not having dropouts. And, you're gonna see that there's some pretty phenomenal data since we made that decision a
couple years ago right around our dropout rates. Spoiler alert for our for our two, traditional high schools. One school more than halved their their dropout rate, and one it was it was, two thirds less. And so we've done an excellent job in that area. So with that, I'll kinda jump in here. We got slide. So first one, one, let's talk about attendance. Attendance is something that's obviously very important for us. I know that, board has talked about that. We talk about this as well. Those rates are pretty good for '24, and you can see kinda historically where we've been.
You know, a lot of people will say, hey, you know, post pandemic, this, that, or the other, and there has been some effects from the pandemic, but those should be diminishing by this point in time. And so, you know, we really, again, saw some immediate effects in some areas in that regard, but shouldn't be really happening now, not in my book. And so you can see for yourself the state average and kinda where we're at. I only predict that we'll be improving on this, with the efforts of Steph and Shane, and the schools. There's been a lot of things that have been put in place just this year
that I think that will continue to help our attendance rates and make a difference of getting kids to school and therefore, having more success in school. So, my prediction moving forward, and you can hold me to this wherever I may be, but you can hold me to moving forward, and you can hold me to this wherever I may be, but you can hold me to this. I really see that those, those, numbers for us will go up, and I really expect that we that they should go up, even though that they're not so bad right now. As far as four year graduation rate, when you first look at this, this is kinda what I'm talking about with my story, as as you can see that we were holding firm, for quite a while, pretty much the same until the pandemic hit,
and then we went down, somewhat, and then we made a jump back up, and it sure looked like we were on the rise. But you'll see, about a 2% drop or so in the two traditional high schools. That's an effect of that decision a couple years ago. I wanna tell you that. And so right up front, I'm telling you, we're sacrificing four year graduation rates with the state, and when Steph shows you the, dropout rates, you'll see why. You'll see why we did that. Again, we do a phenomenal job of working with kids. You're gonna see a little bit of fluctuation with that. Definitely want to see that,
average higher and that's something that we'll continue to work on, but never at the risk of of having kids not come back to school and continue their education. So this this slide here talks about that five, six, and seven year. The orange will kinda stand out, orange, yellow, whatever that is, will kinda stand out to you. That's the that's the pandemic effect. The kids who graduated last year were freshmen when when the pandemic hit, and so that's why I say that we really in my book, we really shouldn't talk about pandemic anymore. That that, you know, those effects are are are enough behind us that we should be making a making
a difference in getting past that. But you'll see there and and I'll I'll be talking about doctor Wiggins a little bit here more in a moment, his efforts at discovery, but you'll see that after that four year rate, how those, rates go up and that we, really make a difference with kids, to make sure that they're getting those those crucial diplomas five, six, and seven. Again, that yellow line, those yellow bars, that is some of that effect from that really low group, post pandemic, though. So with that, I'll let Steph go through the next part. And just on that previous slide with attendance,
shout out to the Haven. I'm not sure if anybody saw that. Yeah. 99% attendance rate. So just shout out to them. And also, I wanna point out that, you know, discovery with that 12 and a half right there for the four year, there's there's a reason. And and, sometimes with, credit deficiencies and things, and there's a purpose for discovery because we're getting them graduated in five years. And so that's the purpose of looking at how that jump looks on the screen. These are our demographics, split up between the four high schools. So we have the two comprehensive high schools, Whitefield High School and Mesa Ridge, and then we'll separate out the Haven and Discovery as well.
These demographics mirror those of the district in all schools. They're very closely matched in terms of, the ranking in the sequential order. So you're gonna have the highest percentage in white, then followed, very much closely with the the white population as Hispanic, and then followed by two or more racer races, and then we have, black or African American. That is going to be mirrored across the district, as well at Mesa Ridge in that same exact order. Demographics at Discovery also proportionally mirror that of the district, and The Haven demographics are also mirrored,
in in the building. The desegregated gap data shows us the four year graduation rates. So as you look at this, it's separated out by the demographics. You're gonna have the state in the teal on the left and the district in the light blue toward the right of, the the state. And so if you look at the individual schools, I'm just gonna highlight my notes here. The state average in the teal, you have the district average to the right. Below the state average for our demographics, we're five out of seven categories a little bit below the state. And the American Indian, the Asian,
the black or African American, two or more races in white. And we are above the state average in graduation in two out of the seven seven demographics if you look at the Hispanic and then the native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. As you look at the dropout rates, this is what we were talking about before. Our district average is at 1.3%, so we are below, the state average of 1.9%. If you look at the seven year trend, you can see that post pandemic, again, as we look at, after the 02/2020 school year, we have gradually we did have a spike a little bit in dropout rates at
Whitefield High School in Mesa Ridge in 02/2022. We've done some great work in, maintaining that trend to go back down. So we are gradually decreasing that. I wanna point out, Discovery High School in in that purple. Highlighting Discovery in 02/2021 and '22, their dropout was 2221%, and it has steadily decreased to then 14. And now in 02/2024, doctor Wiggins, '6 point '8 percent. Woo hoo. Yes. Woo hoo. Shout out to doctor Wiggins and his students and all of the hard work that
they've put in. I know that, there's a lot of work in discovery opportunity center now. We have night night classes and credit recovery, and we have a lot of work that's going into that. And just to look at those rates from twenty two percent to to six point eight percent is just commendable. So great work there, doctor Wiggins. Let's see. And then also, in tandem with the lower dropout rate, Discovery High School, of course, is having more success with graduation rates, so in terms of that. The demographics here, the desegregated data that are separated out,
again, Colorado state average is on the left in the teal, our district average is in light blue. The highlight is in all categories for the exception of the white demographic, d three is below the state average for dropout. And then we let's see. We tied. We're only three tenths below for the white population, and then we did tie in the two or more races. But everywhere else, we are below the state. So that's good news. And then in terms of steps to decrease dropout rates? Yeah. I just wanted to say too that that regarding those dropout rates, again,
if you look at our district performance framework, we we meet or exceed, with our minority populations that percentages at the state level, and so we're very proud of that, trying to make the difference for all of our students in the district. So with this, you you I'm not gonna read all this to you. We do quite a bit to, really try to decrease dropouts. Told the story before, but this is what really where I wanna brag on doctor Wiggins just a little bit more. You guys know the phenomenal job and all the effort that he puts in on behalf of the students at Discovery, in particular that last board there talking about the EZ Grant. In his very short time,
obviously, he's made a difference with the numbers that you saw with the statistics, but there's a lot of work behind that, not only during the day, but a lot of evenings. And, you know, he with the help of the EZ Grant, which, he put a lot of effort into getting, you know, he put in the the Discovery Opportunity Center, which allows kids to start picking up credits in between those hexters or semesters because we've expanded, some of that services to, you know, Mesa, Whitefield, and and, Haven Students as well. But that discovery opportunities, center definitely helps kids stay engaged even when they're mathematically eliminated,
from other, you know, semesters or hexters or what have you. He has implemented the the graduation coach, supports within the building. You know, you you've seen other, course, offerings that he has brought before you guys, but most importantly, and it's something that's near and dear to me is is night school. And, you know, he has implemented that to just increasingly give our students, every opportunity to get the credits they need to graduate. And, what what most people don't realize is that's all on his time. You know, I mean, he's doing that pretty much every evening at the sacrifice of his family.
I'm always encouraging him to go home, but he is most dedicated to those kids. And, all of those efforts and then some have made quite a bit of difference, not only with the graduation rate, but with the dropout rate as you saw before. And doctor Wiggins, I'm gonna put you on the spot. How many do we already have graduated this year from from discovery? Awesome. Alrighty. Awesome. Alrighty. Alrighty. And that's one of the focuses of the grant is to, increase graduation rates and and all that. And, Albert works diligently every day, and you can ask him any minute of any day,
and he will readily be able to tell you not only what who's graduated already this year, but who's in play coming up and who's gonna make it by the end. He makes the difference at Discovery for sure. That, I don't know if you have anything else to add, if you guys have questions or anything for us. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Birthday boy? That's tomorrow. Tomorrow. This is your March of your Sixty fourth. Three hundred and '60 fifth day of your year. Yeah. There's leap years. You gotta include those. Come on. You're in finance, Kevin. That's funny. Hey. First first off,
I that's impressive, doctor Wiggins. That is crazy, crazy impressive on what you've got going on there. I just wanna say thank you for me, for the kids at Whitefield. Thank you. Tonight, we're starting off with the legislative update. And, again, I I've filled you in a little bit with what's going on, but I wanna make sure that you guys are fully aware of what's happening in in the state with with the legislature this year. The first thing is is usually they come out in the in January and pass a supplemental bill. Typically, that will add or use typically adds a little bit to your,
PPR into the dollars coming into the district as they settle up the state score with what actual enrollment and actual at risk numbers are. Well, for us, that didn't help in this year. It was actually a negative for us. And, but that has passed and has gone through the process. Next up is the, governor's revised budget. I Let you guys know about his his budget originally that was came out on November 1 as mandated by law. He put in an additional one, a revised one to the JVC. It, calculates an additional $425 in the PPR due to 2.3%
of inflation for, amendment 23 calculations. It also includes the new, school finance act, that was passed last year, and it adds in the SPED factor. With that bill, he also planned to eliminate the the five year, which we have now, was gonna be four year into the new formula, down to the current year only. And for Whitefield, that number is, nearly 2 and a half million dollars in in reduction for us to try to use that current, current count. So it's not it's not very well beneficial for most, in the state,
let alone what it's doing to us. It's compounded in different areas, and I had went up last week and met with the speaker of the house, senate majority leader senate assistant majority leader Bacon, the representative who's on the education committee that represents the Craig Steamboat area, and a bunch of other cert CFOs up there. And and we we made our point. We let them know that it's not okay for them to just remove that averaging piece. We negotiated in good faith last year, and we told them last year that when they decided to change the school finance act,
formula, that there wasn't that didn't appear to be enough money to make it work. There's a trigger inside that act that says, you will, if there's not any money for it, it won't it won't be implemented. And so we warn them about that. And so we're asking them to create some sort of new negative factor so that we can at least have a picture of what what that cut is gonna look like and where it sits so that we can attack it back like we did the negative factor, so to speak. If they just come in and and wipe out enrollment, which is what they would like to do, or the averaging, that that disappears in the face of the world.
And so it's it's it's like a hidden and and a lot of people are calling it, you know, the the hidden negative factor, and it it won't be able to be attacked. And so that's where that kind of thing is. Why is that important? Because the state is projected to have a budget deficit. Last week, it was $1,300,000,000, and this morning, it's $1,700,000,000. Gracious. So it's not going in the right direction by any stretch of the imagination. So one way or the another, we're gonna have cuts, guys. I don't know how it will how it will play out, where it will come down, and how it will will funnel through.
We won't really know until the JBC takes up the the budget in March after the March forecast, which is usually around the nineteenth or twentieth of the month, so basically a month from now. The JBC, luckily, is the one who write the budget, not the governor. The governor's stuff is just a proposal and a and a a guidepost. However, the meeting I was in, the governor's office was in there and very heavy, with their their proposal of of the elimination of the of the, averaging or reducing the amount of impact of the new formula coming through the system. Because the new funding formula for us adds adds about a million dollars,
or a little over that actually, in the coming year because it adds SPED, into the the SPED student counts into our factors. We're very I'm gonna say we're very high, but we do have a high rate of SPED, in as a percentage of our population. And so that that makes a big difference for a school district like Whitefield. Again, we'll see have to see what happens come come, a month from now and see where that goes. I will keep you informed if anything magic happens between now and then. I don't anticipate that. I wasn't anticipating it going another 400,000,000 in the hole in a in a week either.
So that's a different different conversation. The legislature's made up all three chambers are made up of of, of one one particular, the Democratic Party. And so when that happens, you don't have the the intermixing that they and that can the cooperation it takes to be able to get good bills through. But so that all these bills go through here, and all these bills get shut down. And we need the collaboration to make a good bill and to make a good thing for the legislature. Otherwise, just one track. And and it's a pendulum. It goes one way and then it comes the other, it'll flip back. But right now, it's it's hard. And the the biggest thing that we have,
is that there's every every legislator gets five bills, and every one of them thinks they know what's wrong with education. And most of them have no idea the level of budget that they're dealing with. And so we have a a real conundrum up there. The fiscal note process, they used to have to pass out fiscal notes on the on all the bills. They used to give them to me. I was part of a group that we would say, here's how it's gonna cost our school district to implement this bill. They could care less about that anymore. They've wiped that out. They only cost the state as a as a matter of fact. So a lot of these unfunded mandates that come trickling down that the state wasn't
gonna spend any money on that and I'm gonna use special education. A lot of the special education stuff that comes down comes down with you're gonna go do this and you're gonna do it on your dime. And poor Rachel's like, what am I gonna do? You know? And again, there's been with this large structural deficit, every bill that's out there competes for dollars for our students. And so that's that's kinda where we sit. There are over 60 education bills sitting out there on the docket right now. I'm just gonna list a couple, a few that, there are a lot more than this, but this is just a few. There's a a bill house bill eleven thirty.
It's a version of the state Davis Bacon Act for Colorado, which means that we would have to pay union wages to anybody doing major construction in our in our district rather than than being able to just be do a competitive bid. PERA, retirees lose benefits if convicted of sex crimes. House bill eleven fifty two requires vendors to have access, accessibility on other sites. Sam, that's big for you with our with our website. It's gonna try to require that if we contract with, Pearson that they if we have links to Pearson, they will then have to make sure that their website has the compatibility with the,
with the, accessibility pieces that are in place. Eight, house bill 11 city 78 bans student seclusion, off-site as well. So, like, if they're on field trips and you need to take care of a kid who's acting out, we can't do that. There's a lot of problems with this bill, with the seclusion bill because there is a real need, sometimes to be actually be able to move kids safety safely away from other kids or or away from from, other staff members. As poor Amy has found out over the years, we we've we've got a serious issue there. The and, there's November,
financial literacy for all graduation as a graduation requirement and and those types of things. And there's many, many more guys. I just kinda wanted to give you a flavor of a few of them. They're they're kind of diverse and and how that comes down. But, how how are we playing in this game? We belong as as a district to, Pikes Peak Alliance, which is basically the the school districts that are here in the Pikes Peak area. We've, that group, the Pikes Peak Alliance is contracted with a lobbying firm called J and H Consulting. And so we meet with them every Thursday morning at 08:00,
during the legislative session, and they go over the different pieces that are going on in the legislature. They send us bills, draft bills, and I forward them out to to our staff. Kirk is getting tired of me, and I know Megan is as well, as far as some of these bills that are going out and if to get our take on them to pass back on to the lobby is to pass on to the legislature. We've had the opportunity again. I I was able to go up last week and meet with legislators. We've had that opportunity in other areas. Many of you guys remember, Lisa Humbert, who used to be a special education director. She's a part of the, special education consortium. So she's still involved and still promoting on our behalf,
at at those particular things. Our legislators, our senator is Tony Exum. My representative is Mary Bradfield. And, the and out, the back end of Lawson Ranch, out towards Meridian, where Meridian Road comes across there is Scott Bottoms in the eastern part of our district. So Mary is supposed supposedly on the, education committee. I know Erin has had a few conversations with her, but she defers mostly to the other people inside the inside the state house. She doesn't have a lot of, knowledge in education areas. So but we are continuing to reach out to her or will continue to reach
out to her and make sure that she's aware of our our particular plight as we work down through this. So I didn't wanna take up too much time, but I wanna give you a good flavor of what's going on because it's gonna impact how we go through EIP, how we go through the budget process, and all the different pieces as we work through the course of the year. This isn't a light lift, guys. This is gonna be a heavy lift. It's not the major budget cuts that we've seen in sometimes in the past, and we are also in in a great position financially to be able to to work through these things, but it's not gonna be easy. And I just wanted to warn you guys that upfront.
So thank you very much for letting me present to you tonight, and thank you. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you, mister Jerry. Miss Howell? Lots of items. Alright. I have several trips for acting on this evening. We're ready. In item five b, the janetel junior high robotics team is asking for permission to attend the VEX US Open create challenge in Council Bluffs, Iowa from March 23 to the twenty sixth. Four students will be accompanied by one male and one female chaperone. The trip's costs will be covered through building and the DoDEA grant funds.
Chaperones will drive a rental van to transport everyone, and all required paperwork and driver clearances have been completed. If there are no questions from the board, it is recommended that the board of education approve the travel request. Make a motion. Mhmm. Motion. Second. And a second. Any discussion? I forgot to ask that earlier. No. Sounds good. We can never go. Missus Kutcher. Hi. Mister Doc. Hi. Mister Fisher. Hi. Missus Walsh. Hi. Missus West. Hi. Thank you. In item five c, the combined janetel and Watson junior high robotics teams request permission to attend the Western
National Robotics Drone Championships in Milpitas, California from April 10 through the thirteenth. Twelve students will be accompanied by two male and one female chaperone. The trip's cost will be covered through fundraising and CTE funds. Students and chaperones will travel by commercial airlines and use rental vans drive driven by chaperones. All required paperwork and driver clearances have been completed. If there are no questions from the board, it is recommended that the board of education approve this travel request. Motion to approve that.
Any questions? None? Okay. A shame they're not all going the same time to The same. California. Yeah. I'm like Yes. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Dock? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Thank you. In item five d, the Whitefield High School robotics team requests permission to attend the Western National Robotics Drone Championships in Milpitas, California from April 12 through the fifteenth. Seven students will be accompanied by one male and one female chaperone. Navy reimbursable funds will cover the trips costs,
and students and chaperones will travel by commercial airlines, use a rental van driven by chaperones. All required paperwork and driver clearances have been completed. If there are no questions from the board, it is recommended that the board of education approve this travel request. Is there a motion? A motion. A second? Second could you repeat, Stephanie? Where where did those funds come from? Did they do fund raising? Yes. So they have funds that, let's see. The navy reimbursable funds. Okay. I'll second that. Did you need the one before that as well? Or Okay. No. I think I got it. K. So,
Dave, you're good with discussion? Yeah. Okay. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Welch. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Okay. In item five e, the Whitefield High School varsity choir requests permission to participate in the choral exchange and clinic in San Antonio, Texas from March 20 through the twenty third. Thirty '4 students will be accompanied by two male and two female chaperones. The trip will be funded through student fundraising. Students and chaperones will travel via the Ramblin' Express,
and all required paperwork and volunteer background screenings have been completed. If there are no questions from the board, it is recommended that the Board of Education approve this travel request. Is there a motion? Motion. I'll second. Any discussion questions? None. Okay. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Dock? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Thank you. In item five f, the Whitefield High School, Mesa Ridge High School, NJROTC request permission to attend the US Navy and Marine Corps orientation in San Diego,
California from March 24 through the twenty ninth. Nineteen students will be accompanied by three male and one female chaperone. And JROTC reimbursable funds will fund the trip. Students and chaperones will travel by commercial airlines and use rental vans driven by the chaperones. All required paperwork and driver clearances have been completed. If there are no questions from the board, it is recommended that the Board of Education approve this travel request. Is there a motion? Motion. I'll second that. Second. Any questions? Is there any room for anyone else to go? And Diego's always beautiful.
Pack your suitcase. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Walsh. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Just wanted to hand me yours. No. I'm just kidding. Go ahead. Doc's gonna do it. Oh, if we're changing, I don't know. Alright. Good evening. I am requesting the approval for four Discovery High School students to attend the Western National Robotics drone competition in Milpitas, California from Friday, April 2025 through Tuesday, 04/15/2025. This prestigious and highly competitive event will provide our students the invaluable opportunity to engage
with some some of the best robotics and drone experts in the nation. College coaches as well as industry leaders will also be in attendance, opening doors for potential college recruitment. This competition allows our students to showcase their skills on the national stage, pitting them against other top tier talent from across the country. This group will consist of four students and one coach, all of which are female. They will fly to California and travel to the tournament by minivan, and the team will be staying in a hotel for the event. Miss Hagmeier, the head coach, will serve as the chaperone and will be present at all times to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.
For this trip, funding for this trip has been secured through a combination of student led fundraising efforts, grant support, as well as family contributions. All necessary approvals have been obtained up to up until this point. If you have any other questions, please let me know. But and thank you for your consideration. And if there are no questions, it is a request that you approve this request for Discovery High School. Is there a motion? To approve. Second? I'll second that. Any questions? Miss Medina No. No. I just like, god. They're a day apart. Could we not just get a big plane and send them all with the same
you know? I'm like, yeah. I was looking at that. I was like, wow. Missus Kutcher? I love you. Aye. Mister Doc? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Thank you. Mister Zateca, do we have a game update? Whitefield High School Mesa Ridge? All the way to the second half of three minutes Okay. The girls are up next. The girls are up next. Right? Okay. Alright. That's where the two high school principals are. I've said so much. So we have four textbook adoption proposals for you this evening. I would like to welcome mister Josh Tucci back up here to discuss the athletic
training and advanced athletic training proposal. Alright. So, yes, this book would cover both athletic training and advanced athletic training. Currently, neither high school offers advanced athletic training, but it's important to note that in case they want to start offering that again. So as you'll see in the packet, some some highlights, we had representatives from both Mesa Ridge and Whitefield on the committee. Very workable group. And Whitefield currently has two sections, two different teachers that teach that. So they had two represent representatives. Mason Ridge only had the one.
You could see some important things through this adoption, up to date information aligning with athletic training standards since they're updated consistently and making sure, that we're teaching students as appropriate practices that are up to date was a big deal. Teacher additions to support instruction, improve flow of information for student engagement, and digital additions for modern accessibility, was certainly a big deal with this. And just trying to going through this, I guess, quickly since you have all this information. We we really looked at three main books. You started off with more, but when you go through the real evaluative evaluative part of it,
there was the three that were highlighted in your packets and ultimately falling on the fundamentals of athletic training and sports medicine fifth edition that just came out recently in the last month, is what they landed on for strong readability, high quality graphics, alignment with athletic training standards. That was some of the highlights of the book. And miss has the hard copy of that that'll be available for the next thirty days for anyone that wants to read up on athletic training standards. And one question I know that might come up, there's a hundred and five standard textbooks in the adoption,
two class sets for wide field because they do have two teachers in two different classrooms very far apart from each other. That's why, it's important to have the two classroom sets for them. Only one for Mesa Ridge and then a hundred and five, six year digital licenses as well just so that they have that accessibility. So, you know, that was fairly fast, you know, that information, but is there any questions for me about the athletic training Mhmm. Textbook? I was just like, when I looked at all the cost for everything, I was like, god, has everything gone down from when I used to have to do it? I was like, everything is low this year.
And I'm like, woo hoo. All the textbooks. I think history went up maybe. Yep. No. Not from before though. I was like, they're all good. Yeah. So great job with the whole pulling it together and Yeah. Yeah. It was a very workable group. So Good. Awesome. Props to them. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Next, let's see. We're on, letter I and j. We're gonna combine those two, so I would like to welcome miss Angie Murphy up here too. Okay. I don't know if you have any cat teachers with you as well, so you can No. It's just me. Just you. You're gonna cover it all. They just let they trust me to do this.
I couldn't see that. Hi. Hello. Good evening. So I would like to recommend that we and Katie from Mesa Ridge that we adopt this book from BFW, biology for the AP course. I've been teaching AP bio for seventeen years. And out of the three adoptions that I've been a part of with AP biology, this one actually matches the best to our curriculum and the eight units that we cover, and it's set up to match that perfectly. And so I really love this book too because it's really accessible to students.
It's an online version. They all we also hand them out, to students because just like any other college course, they have to access that at home too, and sometimes kids like the hard copy too, not just the online version. I also like it that they can get the book on their phone, which is really nice because they always have that with them. So I can just send them a little remind like, hey, do your work tonight? But also I I teach us for dual credit through, CU Denver, and this is a accepted book through them too. So I've already checked with that. I really like the idea that they can practice, like,
multiple choice and FRQs and all of that stuff just from being in the book. And I think that we asked for also a hundred and five books because we want enough for three sections. I usually have two and Mace always has one, and so we would like to ask for that. This is cheaper than the Pearson book. Also, I have the biology and focus book now, from Campbell, and it's just over it's a little overwhelming. And the mastering biology that they have online is really confusing to use.
And so I wanted to something that was a lot more accessible for teachers and for students. So that's why I'm requesting this. Nice. Do you have any questions about that book? Okay. Was that here? Mhmm. Yeah. Great. Yeah. And yeah. There's one here, and then I brought them to bed. You like the cost? Yeah. It's a lot better than the Oh, yes. Ones. Like, worth we're trying. Okay? I got excited. I was like, yes. And it ties in. So that's awesome that ties into the course. Yeah. It's perfect. It's lined to the eight units and so I think they, you know, they're trying to get us AP teachers to pay attention.
And, we have the AP environmental one, that Suzanne Carmody did and so she kind of helped get me connected to BFW and that's why I requested this book because they're just really awesome to work with. K. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have our physics adoption with mister Alhofer and mister Roche. Missus Alhofer. Oh, missus Alhofer. Sorry about that. So Sorry about that. No worries. Welcome. Thank you. Okay. Mister Ellehoefer is my husband. Yes. Yes. I'm awesome at this town.
Well, good evening. How's everybody doing? I'm right. I'm missus Ellehoefer. I teach at Mesa Ridge. I'm Devin Rauch. I teach at Whitefield. Yep. And, we got together to talk about our new book adoption for physics. So we would like to recommend to adopt a new textbook this year for physics. I was here for the last textbook adoption, however many years ago that was. And our need was not necessarily just for the new textbook, but also supplemental materials, which we really lack for this course, and online access, which we really, liked for the McGraw Hill book, which, yeah, mister Petzold brought that,
early for me, so that was great. The, app is accessible to students through Clever, which we love. So the McGraw Hill app starts, each unit or module as they call it with something called encounter the phenomenon. We love this for physics because, physics phenomenons are so common, and it's a great way to get kids in excited for the topics that they're gonna be learning. It also has a CER prompt to either guide or use to assess students on their understanding for that phenomenon. Each lesson or section in the unit starts with a way to engage, in what they call,
launching the lesson, which I really enjoy using. It gets them thinking about the vocab that they're gonna be using, the equations that they're gonna be introduced to. Okay. There are many resources for teachers, to choose from, including labs, physical labs and virtual fet labs, smart book, which is an adaptive questionnaire. It's kinda like a worksheet, but if students don't do well, they actually get sent to a different question than if they would have answered the question correctly. And then it redirects them back to the textbook to go back and learn that, that objective. Lesson checks,
which we use for formative assessments, tests, explore, and explain, interactives, online, access to the book that has reading aloud options, which we love because students, they like to always have something in their ear. Editing options and a Spanish version of the textbook as well, which I love. High I'm gonna highlight that the explore, explain interactives are wonderful because you get to, start these interactives with, an idea that maybe they haven't, explored before. And, it's a new topic, something new to them. You go through it, and sometimes it even links it to a lab.
And, at the end, they do metacognition where they are thinking about their thinking through the process of learning a new topic. The smart book, like I said, which was the interactive thing and the lesson checks, which we use for formative assessments, and the ability of teachers to upload their own materials to the same platform. So everything's kind of in one neat place. The online online book does chunking for the information, which I really like for, readers who struggle with the topics that they're learning, which I can only best describe as a social media style for everything. They don't have to click on anything to learn everything they need.
They just scroll and scroll and scroll. So it's a one page has it all. And, the read aloud option for the text, which we really like. So, we're asking to purchase three class sets. Each school has only, one section or what one teacher, teaching physics. So, Whitefield currently has one section. I think discovery has one section, and then I have two sections. But we really just need, three class sets for that, which is a hundred five books in total. And the, which I think mister Petzel told me it was a six year subscription to the
online platform, which is wonderful. So, if if that is everything, do you have any questions for me? Okay. Chunking. That's a new word. Chunking. Yeah. Yes. It's a it's very So thank you. Very educational. Very educational. Oh, yeah. Yes. It is that one with the northern lights on the front of it. Mhmm. Yep. Mhmm. Gotcha. Yep. It's purple. Love physics. So Yeah. It's the best. Thank you. Thank you. I use it every day. Alright. Finally, I'm gonna raise the microphone up, miss Williams. Alright? We're at letter k, and we would like to welcome miss Hannah Williams up here to discuss world history
proposals. Hi. Alright. Okay. So I am the assistant principal at Sproul Junior High, and I am the cap leader for social studies this year. We have quite a few adoptions, so I'll see you next month as well. I will start with world history. We are proposing to adopt or recommending to adopt the Savvas World History interactive text. So text are there provided for you. Just a couple of things to highlight with this text. There was a lot of conveniences and benefits in the digital platform in particular. The publishers actually came to present and explain to teachers and me kind of the
platform there, and they were very excited about the accessibility and ease of that, for students on their Chromebooks and at home on things of that nature. There was some really good compatibility, from the teacher's perspective as well through grading, through Google Classroom and Schoology that they could do an assignment in the text online, and it would sync up to their gradebooks that way very easily. Obviously, that's an incentive for teachers, and it gives a lot of immediate feedback. So if they answer something incorrectly, then online,
they'll get feedback back from there. We also will consider the discovery a lot in our adoption as their, texts were out of date, really wanting to hear from their, school how we could help that, that department. So we are proposing to adopt the a class one hard copy, in a class set and then the digital licenses for six years. You'll see obviously, because it's social studies, there's going to be a lot of student additions that we would need. And then I just wanted to highlight a couple of strengths here.
Our teachers did a evaluation tool, reading all the text. And for this one, they felt it was very easy to navigate, the online platform as well as the text, and they believed that the digital resources and supplemental materials will be very beneficial. Are there any questions on world history? Hannah, I was just trying to understand that it lists the number of student editions, 310 here, I believe. Was that is that indeed hard copies or am I understanding right? Yes. Those are just the hard copies. So for maybe 30 per classroom or something like that.
We have the specific numbers on a document. Let me ask you one more thing. I I recall back to when mister Fisher brought this up a couple years ago. Any any ask for, discounted shipping cost? We have had a conversation around it. It's weird. Yeah. But as far as we know, we've been not trying any flat years on that. As you can see in the budget to go on. We got $80 down to, like, 30. Yeah. Miss Eberwein is working a lot with us. You're way ahead of me. I just thought I'd bring it up because I I just happen to remember that I did get something a couple years ago. So Yeah.
Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for Okay. And then I have US government as well. Yeah. The last one. So this one is a bit, unique. We are going to actually be adopting just the digital licenses, teacher analyte I don't have US I don't either. We don't have that one this year this month. Oh, okay. Not on our top right now. They must have put it in for next month. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. We'll see you next month. I'm ready. Next month. You are prepared. Yes. I was looking. Yeah. Alright. Thank you. It looks good. Alright. I have to bring this back down.
I'm not as tall as Hannah. Hannah was opposed. I was a guard. So if I may take l and m together. Thank you. Absolutely, sir. Alright. Please. Item five, five five l is a revision to policy JKD, JKE suspension expulsion of students, which is an update to the fall twenty four revision that you guys passed to include guidance pertaining to students being adjudicated legally. So that's the change on that one. In five m, these are part of the overarching policy review process this spring and include the following revisions. GBA, open hiring equal employment updating the discriminatory category,
GBC, leave of absence provisions, adding family insurance program information. GBCAD, military leave, updating the district practice. GBGAA, staff training in crisis prevention and management, adding in the safety and security reference. GBKA, transfer of licensed personnel removing dated references, GBL duty time updating to include all employees, GBN supervision and evaluation of district staff updating the district practices, GBQEARB, transitional retirement incentive plan updating the district approval process, GCBARB educational salary increments,
for licensed making all employees the same in the salary increment process. That's a that's an important one. GCE, professional staff recruiting, updating the discriminatory category and removing dated references. GC, OAR, instructional staff reduction and forced procedure altering the question language. GCQB, displacement and reassignment of instructional staff removing dated references. GDBA RA, non licensed compensation guidelines updating the district practice. GDBA the district practice. GDBARB, upgrade of non licensed or support employees within one job description,
updating the reference position titles, which is the same for GDB ARC, the upgrade of non licensed or support single position. GDBC, work week and overtime, updating the definitions and process. GDBC r, overtime additional hours authorization form, kind of the corresponding form with all that updating that process. And then finally, GDQD, discipline suspension, dismissal of non licensed staff updating the district practice. I did catch just a couple editing things today, just today. That's why we have a month, before you pass them. I'll I'll get those to Tammy.
We were in staffing meetings today and get those to you, but just a couple minor editing things. Of course, if you see anything as well, please let me know. There there'll be even more next month. And kudos to Tammy, and thanks to Tammy for all her efforts to help me out on all this. Again, it should be noted that the most of the rest of the g section of the personnel policies were also reviewed. No changes were made to those, but they will have a new review date incorporated accordingly as we discussed previously. Each of the aforementioned policy revisions though are received items this month for your review.
Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Kirk. So we've moved to the time of the meeting where future meetings, Board of Education luncheon is scheduled for noon on March 18. And the regular Board of Education meeting will be held March 20 at 6PM. All the meetings are gonna be held here in the boardroom at 1820 Main Street, Colorado Springs, 80911. Is anybody gonna do a motion? Motion to adjourn. I would like to second that. Miss Medina, can we get roll call? Sure. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Doc?
Why not? Hi. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Baker. Go. Aye. Missus West? Aye. Yes. Thank you. All meeting is adjourned.