Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order. It is 6PM on Thursday. I believe it's the seventeenth of, April. Better remember that. It's the day after my mom's birthday. Happy birthday? Yeah. Mhmm. So if we could do roll call, miss Medina. Missus Kutcher? Here. Mister Doc? Here. Mister Fisher? Here. Missus Walsh? Here. Missus West? Here. Awesome. If we can all stand for the pledge of allegiance and notice the flag has maneuvered its way down. 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. Okay. Okay. So the consent agenda, is there a motion or is there I guess we do the motion first, and then we could have a discussion if we wanna break it out. So motion to accept the I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda. Second. Okay. Miss Walsh, you seconded. Any discussion? Anything wanna be broken out or are we good with everything's good? Mhmm. Okay. Miss Medina, roll call. Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Doc? Aye. Mister Fisher?
Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. K. And moving on to mister Hoffman. Have we received and acted on all correspondence, sir? Yes, sir. You've received all correspondence. Awesome. Now as Aaron moves from his one role to his other role Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Miss Briggs is excused for tonight, so I'm going to do the superintendent's report. Very excited to do that for this evening. We've got several guests here today and just wanna say thank you to everybody for, for for continuing to power on and continue to do great things. First up, Whitefield High School and Grand Mountain School received a Purple Star designation missus Zahara Harris
up to share what this means to their respective schools. And missus Zahara Harris up to share what this means to their respective schools. When you're the principal of a k eight Bring T shirts. You have bring T shirts. Bring T shirts. We are extremely honored, and I was honored to represent Whitefield School District at the ceremony with the governor and the commissioner of education last week. We have the opportunity to serve a host of military affiliated students and families.
And coming from a state where there was one school that was recognized in the state to watching 27 in Colorado, was very exciting. And Grand Mountain is honored to be able to provide different opportunities for our kids and our families. We have MFLAC services. Next week is Purple Up Week, and we have the army, band coming from Fort Carson for a an assembly. If you come to Grand Mountain and you walk around, you'll see placards on doors that recognize not only veterans who are on our staff,
which Grand Mountain has quite a few. We also, recognize our family members. This is so that kids know and can connect with someone who might be going you know, they might be going through something, and they have a staff member who may have been in the Navy, who may have kids in the Marines. We have a lot of Army veterans, and of course, we have a host of Air Force and Space Force veterans and families. So we are honored to have the opportunity. In the fall, we have our Veterans Assembly,
that's organized by our kids, and our gym is full. And so it's just a great opportunity to honor those families and be there to support them. It also means it puts us on a list that's actually a positive list, which is great for Grand Mountain. We're thrilled about that. We are already getting calls about how do I get my kid there. I'm a military person PCSing. I heard your name on one of my lists that I was given. How do I get my kid there? So it's good for our district.
It's good for our schools. And, we thank you as a board for continuing to support the opportunities that you do for us. So I I echo all of Shauna's sentiments, but I brought students with me because at Whitefield, they do the bulk of the work. The work of mister Morris, who's their club sponsor for student to student. And these kids are the ones that really truly make our military students, our transfers into our building feel welcome. So I'm gonna turn it over to them. I have to point out this is the only day of the year that we allow purple into Whitefield. That's what I say. A purple star.
But today was purple update for us, so there was a lot of purple at Whitefield today. Okay. And I'm gonna turn it over to Peyton and Molly. Sunglasses. This designation is not only recognize or yeah. This design this recognition is not Yeah. It's okay. Recognition. This recognition or yeah. This designation is not only a recognition recognition of all of the work that s two s has put into, the Whitefield community, but it's also a beacon to our military families that we are a safe spot for their kids and that we will be able to take care of them and make them feel like we care or make show them that we care.
As a military fam as a military student, I know how hectic and lonely it can feel. And to be and to be in a position where I can help someone that was in the same place as I once was is such a beautiful thing, and I love being able to make them feel loved. Just today, we had our military our student our military month of the child event. We had recruiters come down during our lunch period to show off all the work that people have served in those branches. But my favorite part of the event was our American flag that we had out, that we had all of our students come up and write names of the people that have served in their family or people they know that have served.
I think it show it helps our students honor and really see all the work their parents are putting in because it can hurt, having a parent gone, but to see the work they're putting in is so beautiful. I live by the saying, you never know what someone is going through, and I really try to carry that through all my interactions with our new students and especially our military kids because, again, it is such a lonely feeling. And to be able to extend our love to them, for families to see that we do see these kids and the struggle they're going through and the love and that we do care for them. I love that this designation allows families to see that and allows kids to get
to us before going somewhere that can't love them the same way we can. Awesome. Yeah. Just going off of what Peyton said, us our SUS program, we really put in as much work as we can to make sure that all of our new students are feeling as welcome as can be. My SOS has been an amazing opportunity for me, not only to meet new people, but to also get involved so much in our school and then as well as lead a group. Me, Payton, and two other leaders, We do the bulk of the work,
the planning, but we also are super proud of all of our members and being able to really help out all the militations we can so that we can get this amazing design designation. Yeah. Getting it getting this designation also shows that all the work that we have put in has truly changed the life of kids in our building, and that's also a really amazing thing to see. Yeah. Whoo. Purple up. Yeah. Real quick. Oh, I love them. Yes. Shirts come for sale. Alright. Fantastic, guys. Thank you for that. Next, I'd like to invite Phil Olivas and Shelby McNeil and the Mesa Ridge High School
Winter Guard up to talk about their recent achievements at the state and the world championships. Alright. Alright. Hey. Woo hoo. I'll take a picture if you guys have to run Sorry. I'm playing double duty again. I don't know. Oh my god. You were gonna start. Oh, I mean okay. Alright. Hi, everybody. I've seen new faces. This is my third time here. Here. This is my third time here. My name is Shelby McNeil. I'm the director of Color Guard at Mesa Ridge High School. This is my fifth going on my fifth year there. So these amazing people, we have, a couple missing tonight. But these amazing kids walked away with a third place medal in Scholastic a.
So this will be our third medaling placement in the past four competitive years, which is absolutely incredible for us. So we're super proud of them. And then we are also the first scholastic based Winter Guard team to travel to WGI World Championships in Dayton, Ohio from Colorado in ten years. K. Wow. So These performers are absolutely incredible, and I could not do it without the support that I have from mister Olivas. He is my backbone in everything that we do and my my partner in crime. And miss Dakota Blakey, who's my tech.
She cleans every part of the show. She also is a graduate from Mesa Ridge. Mhmm. So we kept her around. So, I also have an incredible group of parents, that are here tonight. They do incredible things for these kids, and this program would not exist without those parents back there. So if you guys wanna stand up and be recognized, please. We practice, six to nine, three days a week, and then ten to five on Saturdays. We are always in that building, and I never have an issue. My parents are amazing picking up the kids and things like that. I'm very,
very happy to to report that I got to have a really awesome conversation with mister Hoffman yesterday, about some issues that we've been having inside the building. And we are very excited to move forward positively. And I am very excited that my kids wanna talk to you guys. So just about guard and how it's changed their lives. I have seniors, that are going to speak. So we'll start with you. Yeah. Mister Elise is gonna talk, and then we'll start with, my head captain, Naomi, and kinda go on from there. So I told him to keep it short and sweet because we respect your guys'
time. So thank you guys so much again. Thank you. Take your time. Mhmm. Thanks. I do wanna say, again congratulations to these kids. Being a part of, of an incredible program and being where I've been for as long as I've been, we won't say how long, and getting to work with a group of kids like this, has been amazing and watching their growth. As a side joke, miss McNeil four years ago was like, hey. I'd really like to take a group to worlds. I'm like, yeah. Right. Right. Right. And and we did it. And we worked really, really hard to do that. Both, the kids and the staff, the support that we get from our parents, the support we get from everybody,
is really the backbone of of, of the road that gets there, but they're the people that traveled it. And these kids did an amazing job. I've never worked with so many kids that have such deep integrity and, just a deep commitment to doing something and achieving something that nobody's done in a very long time. So I just want to say thank you to all of our performers, to Miss McNeil and Miss Blakey, all of our parents, and just an extreme set of gratitude that I get to come along in this journey and, and take a little bit of, of pride in in what they've done. So thank you guys.
Thank you guys. Yes. So oh, okay. I'm Naomi. Thank you. I'm Naomi. I'm the head captain, and I just wanted to say that I'm so grateful for this season. My directors put in huge amounts of work for us to be what we were. Going to Dayton was an experience that I'll never forget, and I'm incredibly grateful. We had a large amount of rookies this year, and they did an amazing job. This sport has hard expectations to meet, and they had little to no problem meeting them. I remember not wanting to do guard at all, but my best friend, Zalia, convinced me to try out, and now I'm having a hard time letting go.
It's hard for me to even think about leaving the one thing I've put most of my time and energy into. I remember my freshman year when my head captain, Amari, told me that he could see me and sleep being captains, and since then, I made becoming head captain my goal. And I am grateful that I made it. I had doubts all year. I felt incredibly useless. But when leaving the floor at Dayton, I'm bawling my eyes out, and mister o tells me, you brought them here. Don't forget that. And those words stuck with me and assured me that I did everything I could. I'm happy that we could fulfill this dream for Shelby. I know she's always wanted to go to Dayton, and I'm happy we're here we were the team able to do it.
Shelby is an incredible instructor, and I can't imagine spending under anyone else. Mister o taught me discipline, Shelby taught me patience, and Dakota taught me friendship. Had she not been there my sophomore year, I don't think I would be here today. Guard has brought me incredibly close to my friends, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. This season showed me how truly special this sport is, and I'm happy that I spent my four years a part of it. All the pain and doubt was worth it. The feeling of working so hard to get something like a toss or dance move and then finally getting it is something I'll never forget. Thank you. Hi. My name is Talia Richardson, and I have been in this program all four years of my high school experience.
I can tell you no one has ever worked harder than all 12 of us, some missing, that are here right now. I remember having a growing anger in me because we would always have long practices that lasted about seven hours while my other peers were out doing whatever. I soon learned after our first state championship that it was all worth it. We put in literal blood, sweat, and tears into the sport. We condition, win, and work our butts off. There's never been a time that we haven't worked hard and tried our best to get whatever we wanted. Shelby and and Dakota have been here,
like I said, my entire four years, and I am forever grateful for the experience that they have earned that they have gave given me. I used to be a very shy person and had really bad anxiety, but this sport has genuinely brought out a side of me that I have never seen in my entire life and I never expected to see. I've made a lot of good friends, and I've met a lot of amazing people that I'm so glad to have in my life. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. So yeah. Hey. Thank you. Hi. Hi. My name is David. I just wanna take a moment to express the heartfelt gratitude even though public speaking
isn't my strong suit. First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest thanks to Shelby, mister O, and Dakota for for providing me this incredible opportunity to stand before you today. As I've taken this moment, I can't help I can't help but reflect on how significant this senior year is for me. It truly feels like just the beginning of an exciting journey that lies ahead. It has been an absolute privilege to kick off my first experience with Dayton alongside alongside an outstanding team. Your unwavering support and insightful guidance throughout the season have made the difference.
I and I genuinely couldn't have asked for a more enriching way to immerse myself in this environment. I also want to express my profound appreciation to my parents whose unwavering support and endless encouragement have been the backbone of my journey in this sport. Your belief in me has fueled my passion and perseverance, and I'm forever grateful for that. Additionally, I want to acknowledge the wonderful individuals with whom I have cultivated meaningful friendships throughout this journey. The warmth and cam camaraderie of these connections have brought me immense joy,
and they have enhanced my experiences in ways I'd never anticipated. I take great comfort in knowing that this moment is not a farewell, but rather a promise to future gatherings, continued support, and shared experiences that we will all create together in days to come. Thank you all for being such an important part of this chapter in my life. Sure. Okay. Hi. I'm Gavin. If you didn't hear them, just calling me up here now. But, I'm a senior at Mesa Ridge. And despite that, this is my first year actually doing color guard. All the people you've just heard from have spent almost their entire high school careers
in the position that they were working to this spot. And I'm just so incredibly grateful for the work that they have put in to get the program to where it is. I kind of you know, I've jumped in at the last second. I'm enjoying the rewards that they have worked so hard for. So I just wanted to thank all of them so much for the effort and time that they've put in. As a lot of the other performers that just said, it was almost, you know, ten, fifteen hours a week every single week that we'd be in that gym working out,
basically, just to perform that show that we put our our hearts and our souls into. And a lot of the people here, have truly put everything that they have into it. And you can see, by the way, that they're all standing here very proudly, that it means the world to them. If you were to point out a single one of the people in this this crowd standing up right now, I could tell you a way that they have been permanently changed by this program. I've known many of them, for example, Naomi, their head captain since middle school for ages.
And to see the people they've become now instead of the people they were before is it's an insane difference, truly. They've become people who I think, honestly, this district should be very proud of for walking through these doors and for putting their mark out and something that I'm very proud to say that I was a part of even if just for a little bit. Another thing that I would like to say sorry. I know I'm very lots of ums today, but I just want to put out the thanks for our superintendent for working for
with our, coaches, because a lot of our our students here sorry. We've been you know, we went to world championships. Just to put in perspective what that means, it's if our basketball team went to go play at the championship game for the NBA. Like, we were there with the best of the best in the world and got to come home with an experience that nobody in this entire state has done for ten years. And I think that it's an insane achievement, not only for us or for our school, but for this district to be able to say that we have created a team
that has made I mean, it's almost it's not history, but it's almost there. In ten years, nothing like this has been done. And I'm just so incredibly grateful that we are able to come into this room today and show our appreciation and accept your all gratitude as well for the achievements that we've made. I know that a lot of things in our schools go without recognition, and it's just it means the world to me and to the rest of these performers behind me to be able to come in here and say in front of
everyone in this room that we did it. We were able to do it, and nothing can take that away. Thank you. Hi. My name is Tamara Richardson. I'm actually the mother of one of the students. And, just coming from a parent's perspective, wow. Four years. We did it for four years. And, honestly, when she came to me and told me that she was doing band, I'm like, what? Here we are with, Color Guard. Okay. So you're just gonna be spinning, doing the football games. Great. It's more than that. It's absolutely more than that. And there's, an extension to that. It's the Winter Guard that I think we lose sight of.
So when they went to World, it wasn't part of the band. It was them single together as a team of twelve twelve twelve. So that's totally different. You know? That was a different, blood and sweat. That was different, seven hours of practice. That was different picking me up at hours in the night and going distance. So it's a commitment that I believe these young people have learned to, really put their heart into. They learned how to work together as a team, how to be individuals, how to push themselves,
how to take leadership, how to take criticism, how to take, hey. You can do better. You can try this. You can try that. And that's good. Because a lot of times, these young people go out into the world and they get that, and it it doesn't settle right. It doesn't settle quite as well if you haven't had that background, that training. So I appreciate doctor excuse me. Mister o. You must be a doctor one day. Mister o and, Dakota and definitely Shelby for all that they put into our young people. Thank you. So So, hi. My name is Debbie.
My daughter is Harmony. She's also been in the program for four years, eight seasons with Shelby and O. And it's, yeah, it's been interesting. It's been long late nights, some nights when, you know, we have to be up early and and be at work by six. So it makes for some more early mornings for those of us, but, you know, we do what we do for our kids because we love them and we wanna see them succeed in life. So with that being said, I wanna read something my husband posted actually in our band app, the day after we came back from Dayton. And my husband's not one of sentimental words, so to hear him say these things means a lot.
So I just wanna read real quick. It says, I wanna thank Owen Shelby for the most amazing four years. It's been a journey that I will cherish for the rest of my life. To see these kids bloom into adults, harmony is my heart, and so proud of the woman you guys have helped make her. Memories will last a lifetime, and that's what Mesa Ridge Color Guard gave me. I don't post, but I just wanted to say thanks for everything, and words can't say enough. And whenever god wherever god leads us, just know we all love you guys. So it not only affects the kids, it affects the parents, it affects the families,
everybody. And I wanna thank, you know, mister Hoffman and his time with the coaches because we wanna move forward with this program. We want it to be there for generations to come. And like we say, going to this, world championship in Dayton, Colorado is definitely behind some of these other states, and we want to be the school that represents the state of Colorado in this field. So your support is greatly appreciated, and we appreciate everything you do for us. Thank you. I have awesome parents. One of them is watching my child for me out there right now.
Reina is our assistant captain this year, but she's my head captain next year. And she can't be here tonight. She works, full time and goes to school and does color guard, because she's absolutely amazing. But she sent me a speech that she would like me to read. My name is Reyna. My name is not Reyna. The assistant captain of the winter guard season and soon to be head captain my senior year. I've poured my heart and soul into this sport, giving my time, energy, sweat, and tears to my team and the wonderful staff I work with. Shelby and mister Roe have given this have given this team amazing opportunities along with amazing skills to bring into the real world outside of high school.
This program, which I have great, which I have had the great privilege to spin with, has brought home multiple medals and two state championships. The lack of recognition we as a program get is incredibly undermining. Every other sport in our school gets a variety of recognition from the admin and staff. Getting stopped in the halls to say congratulations, getting multiple posts on social media, a spirit bus to go to state or walk through the school, or all team our team had no recognition at all. We placed third in the most competitive division in our state this year. Our staff did not receive a text message or any type of recognition when we got back to the school. Then when we left for Dayton,
still no recognition. From from my teachers even asking why I was gone for so long, The hard work my coaches and the and the people on this team put in are not for the admin at our building, but for us, for our confidence. Not only not only I would, would I like a bit more recognition, but I'm sure my coaches who put hours among hours away from their own families to ensure our success would enjoy it as well. This team does not need a pity as much as we just wanna be seen for the hard work we put in and the success we have had in the past. Thank you for your time.
Reyna. So that being said, mister Hoffman is incredible meeting with mister Olivas and I about moving forward in a positive way in our building to make sure that our students, all 12 of them, even though they are only 12 of that student body, get the recognition that they deserve in that building. Because walking in there with medals around their necks and nothing was really disheartening. And coming back and going to world championships and nothing, not while we were there, nothing was really difficult.
And these kids deserve the world. Not me. I don't care. I'm just here to create good humans. And I do that, and they need to be recognized for that. And mister Hoffman has been really incredible about moving forward in a very positive way with us, and we hope to see that improve in our building. So thank you guys so much. Let us just say that you guys have placed yourself on the map from what you did. You're on the map now. Okay? And we cheer you. We thank you. We're very proud of you. Nice work. Go get them again next year. Okay? You do it.
Yes. Come up here and get your picture. I'm with Kelly. That's true. Turn that right. There you go. We won't do rabbit ears on you. We found it. No. We're hiding. No. We're hiding. It's always fun. Yeah. No. No. No. No. No. You're too short to be in the back. She just blew herself. Yes. We are. Yep. Thank you, Joe. Good job, guys. Thank you, guys. What great ambassadors for our school district, guys. Wonderful. Good job. Good job. For Mesa Ridge and for Whitefield School District. Good work. Good job. Alright. From the Winter Guard to STEM, I'd like to bring up Nat Sobin, coordinator of grants and STEM programming in Whitefield School District three,
to give an update on the VEX VRC and aerial drone robotics competitions for our secondary students. Good evening. Thanks so much for having us. We're very grateful to get to present some of our our accomplishments in secondary robotics. So, we just have a few slides and I wanted to tell you about some of the accomplishments that we've done. So, actually, let me re rephrase, that our students and our teachers have done. So, if you'll hit the next slide, I just always want to start with the why. I know. I I wanted to. I'll do it. Terrified. Hey. Okay. Cool. So, secondary robotics is grades six through 12 as probably many of you know.
One of the really interesting things that I always like to talk about is the why. So if you run a really great STEM, program in a school district, it's very common to get 20 to 30 percent of students into STEM career fields at the end of their their high school journey. And, actually that statistic in robotics is if they work two years or more in robotics, they're about 80 here in Whitefield and in our larger coalition, we go through and we do lands land, air and sea robotics. So we do drones and VEX V5 and we also do underwater robotics robotics, for our robo nation SeaPerch group.
So one thing that I'm not sure is is known is that we actually have the largest robotics secondary robotics coalition in the state of Colorado. D three actually has 42, high school middle school and high school teams that competed this year and 21, drone teams that competed this year. So, next, I'd really just like for you to hear from our students to describe not only their their journey and their experience, but also celebrate the major successes and accolades that they have accomplished. You'll hear about it, I should have done it the other way. So, we'll hear about VEX first, which is land robotics and probably you've seen it. It's at Mesa Ridge each
month in October through January. And we host about what do we do? About a 50 teams and what simultaneously, we do drones in the small gym. So, this year, we had Whitefield High School, Janatel and Sproell that made it to the Colorado State Championship. Janatel, under the direction of doctor Vanessa Moses, went to the US Create Open under, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and we had students from Whitefield High School, NJROTC, Discovery High School, Janatel, and Watson Junior High School make it to the Western National Championships, which occurred in Milpitas, which is basically San Jose,
California. So, I'm here to talk about this. I hope this is a fun photo. So this is Nathan and Gavin, and this is from 02/2022. They grow so fast. So so, anyhoo, here to tell you more about their land robotics that we do, I'd like to bring up our our Whitefield High School team, formerly Watson Junior High School team, that has made it to VEX worlds. And just to tell you a little bit about that history as they come up and bring the robot, VEX worlds actually is in Dallas. It's next month. It's the largest robotics championship in the world. Three about 3,000
teams from 36 countries could beat. May of twenty two, we had Mesa Ridge High School NJROTC, and why why Watson Junior High School make it. And then again in '23, and then Watson Junior High School, is actually this picture in '22. So, you're meeting team Fire Hazard under the direction of the incredible Ziggy Joseph, who runs both of our robotics programs at both high schools. So, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Nathan Brown and Kevin Bennett. Thank you. I first wanna say thank you guys for having us out here. It's amazing to be able to talk here in front of everyone.
And I first wanna thank mister Soban and miss Ziggy for giving me this opportunity to excel in STEM. I really am am so happy with my VEX experience. I've done this for five years. I've been able to go to many state championships, and I've been to the world's experience, which is unbeatable by anything Without robotics and VEX Robotics at Whitefield High School, I don't think I would have found my passion for engineering After my fifth year, which would be this year, I figured out what what college I would like to go to and what I would like to do.
I really want to go into the mechatronics engineering field because I love building the robots and actually seeing what I can create with anything that I can make. After this season, we won three out of our five tournaments. We've taken home four trophies, three tournament champions, and a sportsmanship award at the Broadmoor, which invites teams from all over the country. This was our robot from the twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five season. About our sixth robot that we made this year. It's a it's a design process.
Something doesn't work. You gotta, obviously, you gotta change the whole thing, not just that piece. Oh. See, it's it's gotta work like that. Yeah. We competed at the state championship. I think we did pretty good. Didn't make worlds this year, unfortunately, but we'll be back next year. Nate? I would just like to talk about my worlds experience. When I went to worlds, my sixth grade year, it was teams from all across, like, the world. Like, I think we were stationed next to, wasn't it? In China. Yeah. It was a China team. And I really got to, like, collaborate and connect with them and to see their design process throughout the whole year.
No. I was I yes. I was broken that year. I was on an e scooter, but we we were zooming. We we were going above speed limits. But, no. Honestly, going to Vex Worlds was really fun. I got to meet a lot of people from all around the world just to see their design process and actually like the things that I like. This year also, when when we went up to Erie, I met this guy. I did get his phone number. So Yay. I'm not kidding. But, we're staying in touch. And we're on we're gonna talk about next year, and we're gonna talk through our design process. We're basically gonna, like,
collaborate, and we're gonna help, like, get each other just get each other going. And then, yeah, that's about it. Can you give us a sample? Can we see it? Can we can we run? Can it? Oh, god. Hey. That was your job. It's not a school. You said you said you said you don't need that. We don't have a controller though, don't we? Uh-oh. It's a Reloid hydro break. That's your fault. You you take them in. Yeah. You know? No. It does. Engineers. We'll be here until they get it fixed. Right? Yeah. I mean, we should have the LEDs on this one. Okay.
Use it to your ears. Oh. That's it. Oh my goodness. Enough. So, actually, just our top stage intake. Uh-huh. Okay. We had our controller, which would be a lot cooler. Okay. Let's go move that around. Our bottom stage and top stage work at the same time. Okay. Fantastic. So to pick rings up off the floor and shoot them directly onto the mobile goals that you can pick up and move around. Oh. We use this little piston thing with this a lot of air Mhmm. To kinda pick them up on this bar here, move them around the field, and then just kinda scoop them up and use these to throw them on really
nicely. And then the only other really cool part is this. This is what we like to call a fish mech. And it's used to there's two high beams on the sides of the field, which count for the same amount of points, but it's pretty cool. It kinda just, like, grabs it when it's on the conveyor right here and just kinda, you know, flips it on. Okay. We can also use it to tip other robots and, and then tip them back over so we don't get disqualified. Oh, yeah. We just had to, you know, happen to our own team at one of our local tournaments. We flipped them over, and then we had to attempt to flip them back over.
But That's crazy. That's pretty much our robot. Nice job. Very good. You get a picture. You get a picture. Miss Joseph. So next year, if you're coming back, let us see it. If you come Yeah. Oh. Toby. There you go. There you go. Alright. Next up, we have our aerial drone competition. To tell you a little bit about it as our drone, teams come up, doctor Vanessa Moses, I might have mentioned her. She's been, one of our most successful teams, our coaches, and actually, they took second place in the Western National Championships this year in San Jose. That again is part of our strong history where Mesa Ridge did the same thing
in Flint, Michigan 2 Years ago, and Widefield High School NJROTC also did that, last year. So, here we'll start with Janet Tell and then our Widefield High School NJROTC crew will speak right after these guys. Okay. Well, this year, we were successful. We had a total of five teams that went to some type of competition. My robotics team went to the US Create, and then I had, three teams, drone teams that were accepted for, California. We were only able to take two because of financial restraints, and I have one from Mesa because I also take, coach at Mesa Ridge drone team that also was accepted to to,
Maltese, but they couldn't go either. I'm very, very proud of these students. They have done a wonderful job. They have done they've worked really hard, been very diligent in doing everything that they needed to do. I'm proud of all the awards we won this year, which were quite a few, and, like, getting all champion twice, getting the skills each time but once, and, we got the pilot team. We got lots of awards. And not only that, they're gonna tell you about how much money they raise to be able to go to these events. So Emma's gonna come up.
Emma Howard is gonna come up, and then, Avery will come up along with her. Yeah. Yeah. Hi. We are Emma Hamblick and Avery Longoria, seventh graders at Janet Hill Junior High. And these are my awesome teammates from our competitive drones team. We had we had an amazing season. This year, we received two pilot awards, two scale two scale awards, and two all round champion awards. Our seasons went Our teams placed fifth and second nationally where we earned this trophy. We are really proud of our teams.
I want to take a second to thank our families, friends, and and our community with your support. We raised $8,100 That support made our trip to California possible. Doctor. Moses, we would all like to thank you for your dedication, knowledge, and belief that we can all achieve big things. You have been an amazing leader and coach. Also, we would like to thank the board, mister Hoffman, mister mister Soban, and our principal, mister Teegee, con for continuing to support STEM education in our district. While we were in California, we connected with multiple multiple,
states, creating new friends and new alliances where we hope to connect alliances again with our with our friends from Hawaii, and next year, achieve the first place award. And that's all we have. We thank you for all of your support and all the help we have received. These kids are learning to work in industry. When they graduate, they will be able to make mega money flying for the military That's right. Or, flying for the police department Yeah. Or flying for the city. So we are doing something to train our children up for their future. And so we thank you.
Thank you for all your support. Yes. Next time when you guys come, will you bring one of your demonstrations for us? Oh, sure. Yeah. Because we love it. I think I think Mesa's gonna do it. But no. Not Mesa. My wife doesn't do it. They're gonna do one? Oh, okay. Uh-huh. It's getting a little hot up here, so it'd be nice to get a breeze. You wanna coat? Way to go. Yes. Yes. And last but certainly not least is our Widefield High School NJ ROTC crew that pulled away second place last year. And, is, Sean and Blake Dent and Riley k Davis. Take it away.
Hi. I'm Riley k Dailey. I am at Widefield's current drone team commander. And this year, we had two teams in total with three, members altogether. Today, I have two of my seniors with me, Our pilot Dent or Sean Dent and our co pilot or our spotter, Blake Dent. You didn't tell your mom about that. If it may please the board, my name is Blake Dent. I am the visual observer and autonomous programmer for team Dent five zero eight four five a, formerly five zero eight four five d for the REC Foundation, robotics education competition foundation,
aerial drone competition. Aerial drone competition is open to grades six through 12 with teams competing from a junior high level to a senior high level in a set of time matches in which teams compete with in alliances to complete tasks and score points in a limited time frame. This year, we were honored to, attend the Western Regional Championships at in Millie Pizzas, California in the heart of, Silicon Valley. And, we were very honored. We didn't do quite as well as we did last season,
but, the season before, we also competed at the Farmington Utah Western Regional Championships. And as mister Soban said, we finished in second place in the teamwork competition. The competitions are divided into two, competitions. Well, a teamwork competition in which teams are assigned, randomly to other teams to work together to score points on a playing field. And there's a individualized skills competition, in which teams work to score individually as many points as they can within a
limited time frame. The aerial drone competition has been a very beneficial experience for me. I've been a member of it for two years. Although the name is NJROTC drone team, it is open to anyone at Whitefield High School, not just ROTC ROTC members. I joined last year as my brother here was in need of a programmer for his team, and I was happy to fill in that role. The aerial drone competition, teaches all sorts of values to the students who compete in it. It teaches teamwork,
acceptance of failure, planning, creativity, engineering, communication skills. There's a communication competition, communication competition. Yeah. Competition, as part of it. Mhmm. And, the drone the aerial drone field is very, very open, very brimming with possibilities, you know, maybe a few years back you everyone was excited about Amazon delivering packages with drones. And, but I'd like to say the career fields open involve the military as this is ROTC sort of program, but it also has all sorts of applications in,
agricultural, agricultural, real estate, civil search and rescue operations, architecture, city planning, all sorts of things, aerial photography. And the aerial drone competition is a very excellent way to enter the field and learn many of the STEM skills that are required for many career fields in the future. I, for example, am the autonomous programmer, for our team. I program the drone to complete a routine to score points, and, it's a very, very nice way to learn how to program. Also, as part of the, as part of,
the aerial drones this year, mister Sobin was kind enough to place me and Sean in a, class for the, for our commercial certifications for the FAA part one zero seven. Nice. To allow us to fly drones in the commercial field and do work there. We've also collected our personal certifications and learned much about the safety of how to operate a drone safely and, pilot it in the real world. And I would like to turn it over to my brother now. Alright. Hoping that the board is pleased by now.
Not, this is one of them titular drones that we've been talking about. Okay. Alright. Yep. We unfortunately did not bring the battery unless you count our arms. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Doesn't fly very long. Next time. Hello. Yes. There we go. Alright. So, these competitions have been a massive game changer for at least everyone that has been on the drone teams. It is taught well, starting with me, of course, because I'm I'm the best. But, I've learned so much about, per se, learning to, branch out more,
to really communicate more with your team, you know, and, also to work harder under pressure. And this is basically one of the first competitions I've ever done in my high school career. I've learned so much in these three years I've been doing it. When you're behind that, controller well, you're not really behind it because you're holding it. Potato, potato. Alright. You really learn, everything that comes into play, strategy, communicating with your spotter, making sure to, pay attention every second. Otherwise, you'll find the drone in Kansas.
Oh. And, I used to be way different before I did this but then I started doing it and I changed. It's hard to notice the change because, no one looked at me before I changed. But now I have. Anyways, this has been a very enriching experience for all of us. Blake, Daley, the other two. I mean, the other three. I forgot that guy. But, thank you for having us today. Four other. That's crazy. Bring the battery next time. So really quick, I'd like to extend a thank you to doctor Bidding, mister Sobin, the board, and, superintendent Hoffman.
Thank you. To all of our presenters, we just wanna say we're very proud of all of you. And next year, do demonstrations for us because we don't get to see it. Mom. Do you see it? She'll capture the change. Yes. And in closing, I just wanted to say thank you if we haven't said it enough. Thank you to our incredible students, our dedicated coaches, and for your support throughout all our endeavors. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Woo hoo. Always love listening to our students talk. Good job, you guys. Last but certainly not least, Terry Brungart, our district media specialist, is here to celebrate National School Librarian Appreciation Month.
Yes. Only 50 slides here? Only 50. That's that's the very good news. I I gave Stephanie and Carolyn a little bit of a heart attack. And then finally, I just want to remind you of our mission in special education, which which flows with the district mission. It's to uphold the district's values of serving every child, every classroom, every day. The special ed department uses a highly collaborative approach with all stakeholders to support every child's full potential through a continuum of services. And hopefully, you saw that in the presentation that I gave here tonight.
But I just want to highlight and thanks to Megan Ellis for pointing out that we need to highlight this in our department because the collaboration we have among our staff, students, parents and community providers is the key to upholding this mission. We have a highly educated staff with expertise in a wide variety of fields that you just heard about tonight who love what they do and they come back every day and they do it again and we're super proud to have them here and they're so dedicated to the students in our district with disabilities and our students thrive as a result under the support that they receive.
So could our special educators in the house please stand up? Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Yes. Awesome. Yes. Doctor Houchins. That's gonna be tough to follow. I I can't follow that. And I'm using my voice. It's in different Well, we'll go look for it. Heck. Let me know when you find it. Good evening. Tonight, I have a couple items for you. It is recommended, that the Board of Education act on the textbook adoption recommendation for US history. So I'd like to make a motion to table the US history textbook adoption indefinitely
at this time. I'll second that. Oh, we gotta we gotta yeah. Discussion. I'm sorry. I'm going to discuss. So we'd like to read a statement from the board to provide some context for our decision in this matter. We are not voting no on textbooks at this time. We are just voting to hold off on new textbook adoptions because of recent political developments at the federal and state levels. Here is a general summary of the things that are currently developing. On April 3,
the US Department of Education sent letters to all 50 state commissioners who oversee K through 12 state education agencies requiring them to certify their compliance with their title nine and anti discrimination obligations in order to continue receiving federal finance assistance. On April 10, the state of Colorado responded to the US Department of Education's request and stated that Colorado will not be collecting signed copies of the April 3 certification from school districts,
and our state will not be sending signed copies of the April 3 certification to the US Department of Education. We do not know the full implications of this decision at this time, and we do not know the impact that this may or may not have on our school district. Because of the uncertainty surrounding this issue, we feel that it is wise at this time to pause all new textbook adoptions until we get a clear course of action moving forward.
We want to make sure that we are spending our money wisely and we prefer to continue the adoption process when these issues are resolved. We would like to publicly thank, and I mean really thank because I've adopted a lot of books myself, The teachers and the cap leaders who have spent countless hours working on textbook adoptions. Your time and energy has not gone unnoticed, and we thank you all for your very hard work. Miss Gucci, just wanted to make a quick clarification. You had mentioned title nine previously.
It it was title six, was the was the decrease I'm neurodivergent, so I twisted it there. So it's actually title six. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Miss Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Doc? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Thank you. I we do have a received item for you tonight. The art teachers, went through their process to identify their needs, and I have, miss Rebecca Evans here. She is the dean of students at Janet Hall Junior High,
and she is also the lead for our art cap team. Good evening. I will try to keep this short. We are approaching my bedtime. So the art curriculum articulation team, which includes all the district's sec district's secondary art teachers, is recommending the adoption of new technology for the district art programs. This recommendation comes after a thorough needs assessment was conducted. This assessment identified critical technology needs including enough devices for students, devices that support industry standard software, and sufficient storage for student work.
The team collaborated with the technology department to select appropriate devices to support the programs used to teach the arts standards. The proposal details pupil and teacher devices needed, materials already owned by the district, technical support needed, and the total district cost. This investment will empower our students and staff to achieve academic excellence in art education. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. You guys will have that for a month, and then I'll be back up here next month, as an act on item. I do have one more item as Tricia and Shane are both excused tonight.
It is recommended that the board act on the Center for Success service contract as presented for the 2526 school year. Is there a motion? Motion. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Walsh. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you find your voice. Miss Rosenwald. Hi. I'd like an act on contract renewal for licensed personnel. Colorado's law Colorado state law states, a teacher employed by a school district on a full time basis shall be deemed
to be reemployed for the succeeding academic year at the salary at the salary that the probationary teacher would be entitled to receive under the general salary schedule, the teacher salary policy, or a combination schedule and policy, wherever it is appropriate. Unless the board cause written notice to the contrary to be given to said teacher on or before June 1 of the academic year during which said teacher is employed. It is necessary the employees be notified before June 1 that they will not be
issued a contract for the 2526 academic year. Motion to adopt the following resolution. Resolve that whereas the board of education has received the status of the attached licensed personnel and has duly considered the matter of reemployment of said personnel for the 2526 school year. It is therefore resolved based on the recommendation of the superintendent that the employment contracts of the licensed employees named on the attachment be non renewed for the 2526 school year,
be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools or his designee is hereby directed to give timely written notice of said non renewal to the attached named personnel. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion. Is there a second? Second. Miss Medina? Missus Kutcher? Aye. Mister Doc? Aye. Mister Fisher? Aye. Missus Walsh? Aye. Missus West? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. We're getting close. What? We are. Did we do e? Yes. D and e. She did both of them. Oh, you did d and
my brain. I was gonna No. That's what you just voted on. So Yeah. We kinda lumped all that together. Yeah. Mine, unfortunately, cannot be taken by consent. So I'm gonna need to separate or do the next couple items separate. So Sounds good. Alright. So first is item five gs or excuse me item five f. Excuse me. Based on the work of the calendar committee and the district staff survey, if there are no questions, bless you, it is recommended the Board of Education approve the instructional calendar for school year 2627.
Make a motion. I'll second the motion. Miss Medina. Mrs. Kutcher. Aye. Mister Thank you. And everybody will enjoy that long weekend in February in 2627. I appreciate that. If I can invite Mr. Casina for just a second, if you don't mind joining me, sir. For item five g, on behalf of James Madison Charter Academy and mister Casina, the JMCA principal, and Whitefield School District three, the proposed contract for renewal of the JMCA charter for the next three years is presented for your review, along with the renewal conditions expected of JMCA.
The JMCA board will be receiving the same document with its attachments and appendices, for their review during their next board meeting at the end of this month. I'll make a motion. Oh, no. We're just Oh, sorry. No. No. This is just for review. This is the review. Sorry. All 8,000 pages. I'm tired. I'm sorry. Yeah. So I do actually have a question. Yes, sir. Just on process. Yep. So would the JMCA board be approving the contract before it comes back to us to approve it? Yes. K. So the the timeline of events, and I I was reflecting back on I don't know if I emphasized
the lunchroom when we spoke to you. We're presenting we we spoke with you guys on Tuesday, presenting it to you for for review. Jeff has already had some conversations with his board, but he and I both will present to, to his board. What is that? Monday, the twenty eighth twenty seventh, whatever that Monday is at the end of the month. And then, they will, sign off on it, and then a a copy signed by them will will be presented to you for potential signature. If there's it's a big document, and there's a lot lot of provisions to it. So, if there's any questions at any time,
we'll be happy to go through that over the course of the next month. But I'll keep you posted in advance of any approval needed from you, kind of how it went with with their board. No. Thank you. And thank you both for and the teams because this was not just you two for all the work that went into getting it to the place where it's at, and you guys did a great job with it. Absolutely. Thank you. And I I have to publicly thank Mr. Sotaka here. He was cute on a cute Very good. You look really nice.
Yeah. Nice suit. Oh. And that's Yeah. Alright. Thank you. That's it on g. Thank you. Last but not least, for my pardon, sir? I just wonder that was a three year contract Yes, sir. We're looking at. Right? Yeah. So that would be for school years, 2526, '20 '6 '20 '7, and 2728. Gotcha. Thank you. So that would, expire June, '28. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Alright. Last of my items is item four h. The following policy changes are presented for your review this month. And before I go through it, shout out to Tammy as always.
Thank you, ma'am. ECA, ECAB, security access to buildings to include reference to the established visitor and volunteer guidelines. ECABB R, use of surveillance equipment updating the surveillance access to current personnel and practice, EEEAEA, these are the tough ones for me, qualifications and responsibilities of bus drivers and EEEAEA, drug alcohol testing of commercial motor vehicle operator. Those both update the procedures and expectations in both policies. These are only recommended these are the only recommended policy revisions this month,
more to come, next month. There are no additional policy reviews or deletions this month. Each of the aforementioned policy revisions are received items for your review this month. So thanks. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, and future board meetings, have been scheduled on the following dates, 6PM on 05/08/2025, which will be a regular, board meeting. 12PM on 05/13/2025 is our luncheon meeting. And then the monthly regular board meeting at 6PM on 05/15/2025. They all occur here in the Boardroom 1820 Main Street,
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80911. I'll make that motion. To we adjourn, please. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Miss Medina? Missus Kutcher? Double I. Mister Dot? Hi. Mister Fisher? Shut eye. Missus Walsh? S. Aye. Missus West? Aye. The meeting is adjourned.