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. 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 Sobin 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. Earlier today as they looked at the total number. And the really good news is that the start will be a little bit foundational, but then it's gonna be like speed dating with libraries. That's gonna go fast fast because I'm really here to just really showcase a group that deserves a lot of attention and they are extraordinarily impactful in the district.
And since this is National Library Month, we want to just celebrate the great things that we do. So I'm trying to showcase everybody with their, like, five seconds of fame. So we're going to go through this and and just really give you hopefully a nice picture about all the great things or at least some of the great things that happen in libraries in the district. And really my big emphasis is these are people and places that make a difference. And of course, we talked about the fact this is National Library Month. We wouldn't be in education if we didn't have a vision and mission statement,
but I think the nice thing is that it shows that we're not just here to check out books. I think some people view libraries as that. Libraries changed away from that years ago and as you can see right there for our vision, libraries are places of learning and you see that all throughout all of the libraries in the district. And of course we have a great mission, but I'm not going to go diving into that, but it's all about creating great rich environments for students. And of course our top focus is student achievement just like the district. And so we also support other professionals within schools.
Of course we provide, support for reading. We have great resources that we provide to the schools and the districts, and we focus in on library effectiveness. And we really want to inspire our students to do well. And starting to do well starts at the beginning at preschool, So you wouldn't think that you'd be doing much more than story time or, you know, occasional, check out a book. But Rochelle Mayhew is absolutely amazing. And if you ever get a chance to see all of the great things that she does, it is an an extremely rich environment.
She does a thousand books before kindergarten. She does STEAM. She does coding and robotics. It's amazing what she does. So I just wanted to highlight all of the amazing things that she does. And of course, we have fantastic things happening at our elementary schools. We have amazing resources in SOAR, which is our digital library. We have 14,000 plus books available to students and that's very exciting when they can access those anytime 20 fourseven all year round. So that's exciting. Lightbox books, we actually have about 2,250
books that are available. Those generally focus on k two and Xource Encyclopedia Britannica that has pre k through twelfth grade resources. Jennifer Penrose is at French Elementary, and you're gonna notice on many of these slides, I'm gonna just talk about some of the things that, this person does, but it's really about what all of them do. But in libraries, they include technology and they often do research. And at French Elementary, they get a chance to work with technology on a regular basis. Stephanie Hummer is at King Elementary. She does an extraordinary job.
She's been in that position for a while and she builds great relationships with kids. She loves really bringing in STEM and makerspace activities as all of them do, but you can see that she just is really providing a rich environment. Sarah Erway is relatively new to us. She's at Panello. She, loves that role, and she's really growing into it as she continues on. She loves doing reading activities and craft activities. Olga Ermakova is delightful. She's just fun. She's passionate about reading and she loves building those relationships with kids.
And she definitely makes use of her story time. Jamie Cox, she's a quiet person, but boy is she incredible. She does amazing things and she does great things for those kids. During this lesson they were, focused on origami and they were practicing, so they were watching videos and getting a chance to do that. But, one thing that Jamie does is she tends to collaborate with teachers and her, fellow STEM individuals in her building and she does collaborate with administrators, so she's doing great things all the time. Kendra Barnett,
she's delightful. She's quite the character, but she makes, the library a great place to be and she's really focused on student centered learning activities. Webster Elementary, Michelle is a dynamo. She really goes after it and she does amazing things for kids. She's done great things with that library. I don't know that you can see it, but on the left hand side, they are actually, doing a earthworm demonstration and they have a nice tub, you know, something that kids are going to be delighted by and, enjoy. So they really focus in on bringing the outside world into library spaces,
and that's one of the things I love. Mina is absolutely delight delightful and she really is focused on collection development and making the library a rich place to be. And she really does a great job with bringing in great pieces of literature to support school needs. So I love that. Of course, we have a k eight library, which is absolutely amazing. We have extra people there because, of course, they're dealing with pre k through eight. So we have Stephanie Smith, Ruth Andalacy and Shelly Laborde.
All they are doing amazing things. They of course are well Stephanie is a stemologist. She actually works with three d printing certification. They, have a pilot program where you can actually learn how to pilot airplanes. It's amazing how rich her environment is, as I said, program rich. And the reason I put book fairs down, of course, that's very traditional and all of our schools tend to do book fairs, but Grand Mountain is one of the best in the state. They have an extraordinary PTO and,
they usually are, like in the top three for book fairs, which is excellent for them because that means that they can bring in fantastic resources. And you can tell that it's a bright vibrant place at Grand Mountain. I love that. Our junior highs are extraordinary. We have people in those positions that are licensed, and non licensed. So they they tend to have EAs that are helping. Dustin, of course, here is first. He's absolutely amazing, and he has so many skills that he loves to share. And he has so many skills that he loves to share with, the students, with the staff, and he does a great job.
He is a fantastic, coworker in Dara, and they do amazing things. I did put down Game Con. Dustin does a great job with Game Con and that's a big coup for our district that we have that for our students. And of course, he's very much into technology and school news as they all are and they do absolutely amazing things with that. As a matter of fact, at our last coding event, they came and did the videography for us. Christy Martinez and Yvonne Kimena are also delightful. They really enjoyed taking the picture for this,
which I loved. So Christy is amazingly creative and does great things, for us. For some reason, it's not advancing. There we go. Oh, I think we skipped one. There we go. Let's go back just a little bit. Oh, got a little bit of a preview there. But, they're always doing creative activities. They are heavily connected to the entire staff, and they are truly a hub for Sproul. We may have the same thing. It's thinking about it. It's because we're getting close to slide 50. There we go. It's tired. Okay.
You had a chance to glimpse Watson's slide earlier. I absolutely love this dynamic duo. They've been together. They obviously are having a lot of fun in this. Laura Garrett and Kelly Dees do an incredible job. And if you haven't had a chance to go by their place anytime during the year that you go, you're going to see phenomenal activities that engage students and get them involved in the library. And here are some examples. And if you even have looked at the titles for these pictures, it's amazing what they're doing.
Six words, horror stories and all sorts of things all year long. They have such a rich program and extensive planning. And of course, librarians tend to support testing, so they're very helpful in that way also. Our high school libraries are definitely amazing. And so we have, Laura Corny Warrior that's always a mouthful, Lauren Chartier, Danielle Pollock. They are an amazing team and they do great things together. And they've been working extensively to rework the library. And even in that first left hand side picture,
you can see all of the light that now comes into that library and it's becoming such a vibrant place. And they also are heavily involved in technology. You can see the three d printers. They focus in on certification for students in a variety of technologies. They have laser engravers and other technologies there, so it's very exciting. So and they bring in speakers from the outside world. I did want to point out that librarians are often technology integration coaches for the district, and that's hugely impactful. And then, of course, Whiteville High School.
Amy and Renee are incredible. Amy is such a go getter. She's always involved in a million different things and making a difference at Whitefield High School. Still thinking about it. There we go. And so, as you can see just by the pictures, once again, we've got technology represented, student certification, which we have hinted at that. And then she's heavily focused on a special ed support program where she's trying to build a curriculum for those students so that they have a nice, rich place to be when they're in the library.
And then TLRS, my department, heavily supports all of them and computer lab EAs and, makerspace folks. And these people are amazing. We get a chance to do a variety of things. I'm not going to drag you through the mud, but I don't know that I think we're kind of a quiet resource for the district, and we tend to do a lot of things for a lot of different people and these are just some, lists of things that we do to support everybody within the district. And of course we've talked about how libraries make a difference with literacy, with reading, with educational support And as you can see in the pictures,
we definitely have demonstrated that that's definitely part of what we do here in Whitefield. And, of course, digital literacy is important, lifelong learning and social emotional development. Still thinking. But, of course, the the most important piece is that libraries make a difference, and our libraries are no difference. And we definitely represent those fifty years of research that prove that libraries do make a difference for students on standardized tests in so many other ways. But just as a final parting thought, libraries show us the past,
help us to live in the present, and and encourage encourage us to create dreams for the future. So that's your little snapshot of libraries. Thank you so much for letting me share all of those amazing people. Thank you very much, miss Sprungart. I appreciate your time and energy with that. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that concludes the superintendent's report. It So as Terry mentioned, it is National Library Month for the month of April. Also, Betty Mobile, the bookmobile. She had her first birthday. They had a birthday party for Betty.
So they said they had great fun with that, but also they're looking for volunteers for starting in May. If you would like to volunteer to help hand out not to drive, but to no. To hand out books as the Betty starts back on her routine for the summer. Please contact Susan if you would like to be a volunteer to hand out books on Betty. Also, we have, they donated all of they had seeds for the month of March for planting for the summer and they donated all of their seeds to elementary schools that was left
over. They have after movie hours for teens on April 25, community pen pals programs running during the National Library Writing Month, which is this month. Send and receive letters. See our letter writing station inside the library if you wanna do the pen pals with them. Poetry contest for all ages is this month. Also, April 26 is drug take back day, and it will be from ten to two outside of the library. So you bring all of the instead of throwing them in the trash or into
the toilet or anything and flushing them, please bring them over there, and they will dispose of them properly for you. You. Also, this Friday starting is our semi annual book sale. So if you would like to get used books, the children's books start at 25¢. Novels are like a dollar for hardback books. So if you're a member of the library, you can, come Friday night from six to eight. And if you're not a member, come on Saturday, and they're open from eight to four on Saturday and get all your book for
the book sale. And they are cosponsoring a shred truck with the credit union, District Credit Union on May 23 from twelve to three. So you're able to bring up two boxes of documents to have them shredded at the credit union. That's awesome. Let's see. Oh, and I was not able to attend because I was out of state, but mister Hoffman was able to attend and go over the bond and mill for everybody there. And that's all from Security Park Drive here.
Do you have another meeting coming up? I do. But I was not there, so Kelly will give that date because it's the exact same date as Park And Rec. Miss West, would you like to Me? Okay. Alright. Okay. So the deck meeting took place on, April 3 at 6PM at the Palestine School. We announced that, elections for new officers will be held at the next DAC meeting, which is in May 1, '6 PM at Sunrise Elementary School. New chair, vice chair, community positions will be elected, and anyone interested in being a part of the DAC,
or any of the in or any of those positions should attend and, you know, please do. We we need more involvement. The, let's see. We, mister Zateca went over the, the fact that the reconsideration committee will receive and review the weeding lists from the schools, soon. So now these are books that'll be that are being removed that we weed every year, for various reasons. But these these books that they would normally go over in the reconsideration committee are books that are removed due to content. So if there are any on that list,
then that's what they would review. Let's see. We discussed the James Madison Charter Academy contract renewal. They're gonna go over that. So, we won't, well, I won't go into that. It'll be a three year contract we'll discuss. Let's see. Last but not least, Carlos Gonzalo, excuse me, Carlos Lopez, Lopez, director of technology, gave a a presentation on connect with Widefield, which is a chapter of the, school community partnership, which is a new, not new, but it's a state mandated group that is,
just set up to as a bridge between district and community, and the community to offer resources for district residents. There's information and, a link for that particular, group on the web page, the front page of our website. It's, under, Welcome to Whitefield. So if you click on that tab, you'll get that connect with Whitefield link and you can find things in from let's see, food assistance to prom dresses and everything in between. So, if you're in need of anything like that, you know anybody in need, that's a a great resource for that.
They'll have, they'll be having an information night on April 24 at 6PM in the, SA Wilson Gym. And, again, our next meeting will be May 1, '6 pm at at Sunrise Elementary and I'll just give my brief American history moment. Couple of moments on April fourteenth of eighteen sixty five, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by James Wills Booth, Wills Books Booth at 4 Theater, and he died the next day of his wounds. Also on the 04/14/1912,
the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic leading to the death of over 1,500 passengers and crew. And so then now that I've sufficiently brought down the room, I'll hand it off to miss Goodrich. Miss Goodrich. Okay. Whitefield Parkins Parks and Recreation. Okay. So thank you everybody that came this evening that took the time out to be here to celebrate specific individuals, to celebrate children, And thank you to everybody. I say TV land, which means I'm a boomer when it's streaming.
Okay. I do I do know the difference. Back to Park and Rec. Thank you so much. So they're transitioning and they're doing a it's just going beautifully. Our new leadership is transitioning from mister Eric Ullen to mister Josh Tucci, and that's going very well. I'm very excited for him. There's a lot of things that Park and Rec does, and so I don't wanna laundry list it for you. But some of the more exciting things that I think that are coming up are movie nights that they're gonna have, you know, in the in the rec air outside, for our community,
which is amazing. The Park and Rec Center is sending seniors from The Valley Fountain Valley Senior Center. Have you ever been there? That is awesome. And they're sending them to see a rockies game. How exciting is that? Okay. One one one of the great things that they do as well, that they're gonna be doing on April 29 at 9AM at CA Foster is we have an all district track meet. You remember that when we were kids? Okay. Well, when you were kids,
it was just it was just a big thing here in Whitefield. So they're having that for the fourth and the fifth graders on April 29, and shirts will be provided. And every I know everybody's really thrilled to get their little their little, ribbons. So the other thing I wanna just mention very quickly is everybody is always on me about, can you please do something about the hours? Well, no. I personally can't do anything about the hours, but I definitely will mention it for you, especially over the summer. So I got you on that. We've acquired at Park and Rec this new machine.
It's big and it's green, and it it's very, very high-tech. And what it does is you put paint in it, and then you press all the little buttons, and I know they beep a little bit. And it draws the paints, the lines on our on the football fields and the soccer fields. And so they've nicknamed this machine Cielo Green. And so we are so excited to have Cielo Green on-site. Okay. We have we continue to increase membership at Whitefield Park and Rec, and I encourage you if you've never been even swimming,
working out, if you're young or you're old, basketball, anything. It's just it's just the gym. It's just an amazing place to be. Our next meeting, May 8, as well as security property is also library is May 8. All done. That leaves us Mister doc. With mister doc. But you gotta have as much energy. Here's the unsinkable Mario Brown. Here we go. Once a month, I get to meet with our chief operations officer, mister Dave Gish. He's very informative for that hour or so, and and it's the second Thursday of the month,
which also will be on May 8, in the morning at 8AM. This time, looking at things that are in progress, I mean, again, it's always so informative to to listen to Dave because he's he just kinda knows everything that's going on in the district and where everything is at, and, you'll I learn something new every every month. Right now, they're working through that whole list of capital projects that, repair items, things that project projects that need to be completed, a lot of them over the summer. But lining up contractors,
lining up, and signing contracts, and getting getting things ready to go as soon as school is out for those major items. Let's see. Best grant, we went through the best grant process. Our guys over at facilities, Jeff and Zach, I guess, wrote the grant. Dave is a part of overseeing that and helping. I think Eric helped with some wording, and that will be up for interviews on May, which will certainly help with a number of projects, especially regarding North Preschool and some of the HVAC units that are that are going
in at some of the schools. The, oh, it excuse me. Educator housing, mister Gish did come in Tuesday during our luncheon and and and stated that the coordination through Habitat for Humanity with the educator educator housing units that we've been talking about for, gosh, over a year or so. Progress seemingly slow, but, he will meet with them on May 6, get an update as to what the timeline looks like and over the next year or two, really getting that off the ground. And, I know we'll be hearing more about that.
And, I think one of the big topics that we seem to always discuss, of course, as you all know or many of you know, we're short, bus drivers. And, I know that our HR folks here are doing everything they can to get bus drivers, and all of you are spreading the word. I'm sure, anybody that might be listening in, please, if you've got, if anyone if there's retired military, if there's anyone that has an opportunity to, advance toward that career type of a career just in helping us out, we could use all the best drivers we can get. So just make wanna make that plug.
Absolutely. Awesome. So, Dave, is have you heard anything on, what's gonna be going in on the Northwest Northeast Corner of Fontaine and Mark Sheffel? Does he have any of that information? McDonald's. McDonald's, a maverick, a kinder care, and what? Oh, yeah. Mcmaverick. I heard McDonald's, and then I everything Yeah. You tuned it all out. What what about over here at the Safeway or or, the King Soopers? Excuse me? Papers? What was that, everything So you're trying to bring it back up. Let's have some fun. So, but we need a a major overpass or or a walkway over the, Mesa Ridge. Yeah. So What was that,
missus Craft? Only 14,000,000, probably up to 15 or 16 now. No. The numbers change every time we ask of every person. So it's a wide range. Let's go to that one. I'd love to see some coordination between, due date or, demographics or whatever you wanna call it, the city of Fountain in El Paso County in this state and us. I I wish we could put up, a four team together somehow, maybe someday. It'd be nice to see that. Thank you, sir. Miss Roden, are you ready? How are you gonna follow that? Very easily. Can't follow Chipotle. I'll take it. Alright. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the appointment of miss Levka Craft
as assistant director of secondary student learning. Is there a motion? I'll make that motion. Mhmm. One second. One second. Alright. Levka Craft. Levka Craft grew up in small farm towns in Minnesota and Colorado. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Metropolitan State University. She earned her master's degree in curriculum and instruction and her principal licensure program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Her teaching career began as a student teacher at Mesa Ridge High School in 1998, and she taught English and video production there for three years. Levka left Mesa Ridge for a time and was an English teacher,
literacy coordinator, instructional coach, and assistant principal in District 20. She was also a visiting lecturer at Colorado College before returning to Whitefield School District as the principal of Mesa Ridge High School in 02/2021. Levka and Duane, her husband of thirty years, have two children. Their daughter, Kyriana, and her husband, Davis, are teachers in the Denver Metro Area. Their son, Brenner, will commission in the United States Air Force in May, and his fiancee, Katie, will commission in the United States Space Force. In their free time, Levka and Dwayne like to bike and, when schedules permit, travel with their children.
It's my pleasure to recommend Levka Kraft as assistant director of secondary student learning. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Mister I'm sorry. I do. Missus Walsh. Hi. Missus West. Hi. Thank you very much, members of the school board, mister Hoffman, miss Howell, mister Zateka, miss Roden, and, of course, mister Scala, who I know was unable to be here this evening. I'm honored and I'm humbled by this opportunity. Four years ago, I stood at this podium and I talked about how my career had started in
Room 125 at Mesa Ridge High School. And every single step along the way in my career was leading me right back here. I'm eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to serve this community not once but twice. I also need to thank the absolutely outstanding staff of Mesa Ridge High School for their hard work, dedication, and willingness to take risks and push themselves and our children. I believe in the fundamental promise and the potential of each child. And I believe that a high quality education empowers students to have options and choices
in their futures. The Mesa Ridge staff and indeed every single staff member in this district make futures come true for our children. And we saw that tonight. Together, we can achieve anything. Finally, I'd like to thank my family. If you are married to a teacher, you know the sacrifice. In fact, educators in this room, go home tonight, give your families a little extra hug, You know why. My family has been unceasingly patient and understanding across my career. Most especially, I wanna thank my husband,
Dwayne, who's here tonight. He really really had no idea what he was signing up for tonight or thirty years ago. I'm excited. I look forward to serving our school district, our students, our families, and our staff in this new role. Thank you so much. Okay. Next, it is recommended the board of education approve the appointment of miss Jennifer Donato as Dean of Students at Sproul Junior High School. Is there a motion? Motion. Is there a second? Alright. Jennifer Donato. Jennifer grew up in Northern Michigan and headed out about a year after graduating high
school to join the army. Even though she has called Colorado home for around fifteen years now, she still has deep roots in Michigan where her parents and three siblings live. Jennifer has a bachelor's in world history and a with a minor in women's studies, a master's in socials, in school counseling from Adams State, and her educational specialist licensure in educational leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. Jennifer was in the military police in the army and then took about ten years off to raise her children. She jumped into education as a substitute teacher in Whitefield School District three and then became an educational assistant at d three MiWay,
which is now the Haven School. Seeing how much the teachers cared and how important those student connections were inspired her to get a master's in school counseling so she could support students, staff, and families in a bigger way. Jennifer was a counseling intern at Whitefield Elementary School of the Arts, and she stayed there for three years. After that, she moved over to Janitell Junior High where she's been a school counselor for the past three years. Jennifer and her husband, Joey, have been married for twenty years, and he's been serving in the military for twenty five years. They have two boys, Josiah, age 19, who went to Webster, Janitel,
and Mesa Ridge High School and is now studying business at UCCS, and Jonah, age 15, a sophomore at Mesa Ridge, who also went to Webster and Janitel. Their furry crew includes three dogs, Josie, Joplin, and Sadie, and a cat named Freddy. When Jennifer is not working, you can find her watching anything, related to University of Michigan or Detroit sports, officiating basketball games, reading, hiking, doing yoga, trying out new restaurants with interesting menus, or just hanging out with friends and family. It's my pleasure to recommend Jennifer Donato as dean of students at Sproul Junior High
School. Miss Medina. Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Doc. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Walsh. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Well, mister Hoffman gave me all the talking points, and he said, hey. No one wants to hear you talk for ten minutes, so make it quick. So I'm gonna follow my little spiel and, thank everybody according to my little three and a half minute speech here. But first of all, I just wanna thank mister Hoffman because he told me to thank him first. You're not supposed to say any of this. You didn't tell me. I wasn't supposed to say that. I realized I had to tell you. You look fabulous,
by the way. Fabulous. Did he tell you you got to say that too? Say that too? Every time. Every time. But mister Hoffman, board of education, thank you so much for believing in me and for supporting me as I step into this role of, dean of students. Your support is truly an honor, and I do not take this responsibility lightly. Oh, I have it here again. Mister Hoffman, you look fabulous, by the way. So this role, interview committee, mister Vansil, miss Howell, thank you so much for the time, thoughtfulness, and energy that you poured into the process. Everyone was warm and inviting, a direct, reflection of the Sprott community. You made what could have been a very heavy process feel incredibly human and encouraging.
To the entire Sproul community, I am so beyond excited to officially join your building. My heart is fully committed to working hard and serving the Spartan community, with integrity care and high expectations. I deeply admire what's already been built at Sproul, and I can't wait to be a part of it. To mister Vansil and miss Williams, I'm honored to be part of your team. I hope and pray that I'll be a strong addition and help enhance the solid leadership you already bring to Sproul. To the incredible leadership team I had the privilege of working with during my three years at Genetel, mister Tucci, mister Vansil, mister Trahan, and miss Evans, thank you so much for your unwavering support and guidance.
I've grown so much professionally and personally because of your leadership, and I'm grateful for the impact that you've had on my journey. To my janetel family, thank you for challenging me and encouraging me. The expectations at janetel were real and at times, tough, but they made me better. Thank you for pushing me to grow and never letting me settle. To Whitefield Elementary School of the Arts, thank you for taking me in and giving me space to grow as both a counselor and a leader. To miss Finch, thank you for being a true mentor and a friend. Your encouragement to take, your encouragement for me to take risks and step into leadership has made all the
difference in my journey. I don't think I'll ever be able to sit next to her. I can't sit next to her in meetings. We get in so way too much trouble. But I love our friendship. To the Hayman School and its incredible teachers, thank you. Your dedication to education and and your students inspired me. The love and effort you put into education is why I fell in love with this work in the first place. Mister Skala, thank you for always being in my corner. You never hesitate to take my calls, listen to my ideas, and offer advice, and, you give me encouragement when I need it the most. To my counselor crew, my homies, my friends, I love you. You know who you are.
Thank you for helping me find my voice and for your unwavering support. Where's Nikki? Okay. You've always been my safe space, and I carry your encouragement with me as I step into this new role. To my husband, Joey, and to my voice, Josiah and Jonah, thank you for loving me so well and giving me grace as I chase my dreams. I couldn't do this without your support. And most importantly, I wanna thank God. Being an educator is not always easy, but with his grace, love, hope, and peace. I've made it this far, and I know he'll carry me through the journey ahead. Sproul, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your family. I'm humbled, grateful, and ready to learn the Spartan way.
Let's do this together. Alright. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the appointment of mister Tyler McKay as Dean of Students at Watson Junior High School. Is there a motion? Motion. And a second. A second. Alright. Tyler McKay was born and raised in Colorado Springs. He earned his bachelor's degree in elementary education and master's degree in educational leadership, both from UCCS. Tyler has spent all his time teaching at Watson Junior High. He has been a sixth grade teacher for twelve years, sixth grade team lead for two years, avid teacher for three years, mentor coordinator for six years,
avid coordinator for two years, and a soccer coach for two years as well. Tyler and his wife, Jacqueline, have three children, Carson, age 10, Easton, age eight, and Delaney, age five. They all attend Talbot Steam Innovation School. They also have two pets, Wally and Elmer. Tyler enjoys playing soccer and watching his kiddos sporting events. It's my pleasure to recommend Tyler McKay as the dean of students for Watson Junior High School. Miss Medina? Missus Kutcher. Aye. Mister Dock. Aye. Mister Fisher. Aye. Missus Walsh. Aye. Missus West. Aye. Good evening.
I'm truly honored and humbled to accept the role of dean of students at Watson Junior High. I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the board of education, mister Hoffman, Mattel, mister Schola, who's not here, mister Micheler, miss Schubert, and the entire hiring committee for granting me this incredible opportunity to serve in this position. I would also like to thank all my previous principals, and any other mentors that really I've had that have done this for me because without their wisdom, I wouldn't be here. Lastly, biggest thank you goes to my wife and just all all my family with all their support.
Without my wife, who is also a teacher, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be here without all her support and everything that she's put aside for me. I've had an absolute pleasure of being a part of the Watson community and part of Whitefield for the last twelve years of my teaching career, and it's been right at Watson. And so it makes me really, really happy and excited that I get to actually continue that, not only as a teacher and as one of the leaders in the building, but now as an administrator. So all that stuff that I've had culturally, everything else, the people that helped grow me, now I can turn and I can reciprocate that for all of our new staff.
So, just hugely grateful for this opportunity in this new role, where I can keep sharing all of that with everyone else. I truly believe Watson's just doing amazing things. We have a strong sense community and commitment to our academic excellence, and our school continues to always raise the bar. So I'm proud to be a part of it. I'm excited to help build on that and the positive culture and the successes that we've already achieved. So thank you all very much. I appreciate it. So we'll move on to public comment. Any resident or employee of Whitefield School District three is welcome to address the Board
of Education at this time on items pertaining to education and or the operation of the district. Any person wishing to address the board is requested to come to the microphone and on being recognized, give their name and comment. Public comments shall be directed to the Board, not members of the audience. Comments directed to members of the audience shall be considered out of order. Board members will not respond to individual statements or questions during the comment portion of the meeting. Questions relating to employees of the district will not be permitted. Such questions should be referred to, where did we go, to the superintendent another time. Total time allowed will be thirty minutes and it's requested that each person limit their
comments to no more than five. It's a professional meeting in which district business is conducted. Board policy KFA, public conduct on school property, prohibits profanity or verbally abusive language. Behavior in and outside of the boardroom and on all district property is a model for students served in the Whitefield District three. We had one sign up, which is Diane, tell me if I get this right, Zelazinski. Very good. I think it's the second time I've said that. Yes. I was here in the fall. I'm Yes. Diane Zelazinski. I'm the school liaison officer on Fort Carson. I've just come to bring a small token of gratitude to Whitefield for everything they
do for our military kids. It is the month of the military child, and I just wanna read you briefly the little poem on the, the gift that I'm gonna present to superintendent Hoffman. It's the dandelion, the flower of the military child. Dandelions put down roots almost anywhere, and it is almost impossible to destroy. It is an unpretentious plant, yet good looking. It is a survivor in a broad range of climates. Military children bloom everywhere the winds carry them. They are hardy and upright. Their roots are strong, cultivating deeply in the culture of the military,
planted swiftly and surely. They're ready to fly in the breezes that take them to new adventures, new lands, and new friends. Military children are well rounded, culturally aware, tolerant, and extremely resilient. They have learned from an early age that home is where their hearts are, that a good friend can be found in every corner of the world. They learn that to survive means to adapt, that the door that closes one chapter of their life opens to a new and exciting adventure full of new friends and new experiences.
And I'm especially proud of the two schools that earned the, purple star designation. And I just wanna say from Fort Carson's child and youth services, it is through your kindness and care that our military children are allowed to flourish. And for that, we are forever grateful. Alright. I love the purple. Yes. As a former military brat, I appreciate that. Thank you. And I also Uh-oh. Purple up. Yeah. Woo hoo. Miss Lake. Are you ready? And we're done. Yeah. That was the fastest thing we did tonight. You went backwards to forwards, though.
That's awesome. Alright. Well, thank you for sticking with us tonight as we go through all these different presentations and celebrations. I just wanna highlight relatively quickly what special education is and who the people are that, provide the support to our students with disabilities in Whitefield. Our philosophy is to provide equal access to education for children. And if you didn't know it, we do, birth to age 21. In our district, it's three to age 21 by providing specialized services. And really, what it's defined as is instruction that's specially designed to meet the unique needs of
each child with a disability. It's not a place. It's like we like to say it's a service that we provide for kids that that need some different kind of support. So you might be interested in the numbers of students with IEPs in our school district. We went back to 2020. You can see the enrollment numbers district wide at the top of that bar graph. This was pulled right off of CDE's SchoolView site or page. And that year, the percentage of students with IEPs down at the very bottom was eleven point three percent.
Went up to twelve point four percent the next year as our enrollment overall increased. Again, we increased enrollment overall in the next year and our IEP, population went up to 13.2%. To last year, it was at 14.14% and this year, we're at 14.2% of our overall enrollment are students with IEPs. You can see at the bottom I wrote a couple numbers there that in the state of Colorado we're a little bit higher. The state overall is 12.9% students with IEPs but federally we're a little bit low where the rest of the
nation stands the average is 15.15%. We provide a continuum of services in our district. This is part of the way the law is written to provide services for students. We have a wide variety of ways we provide services to our kids with IEPs. What we have to do as an IEP IEP team is determine which setting that is going to meet the students needs the best and where we can provide their free and appropriate public education as mandated. We have all the way from full inclusion students with disabilities who are in their general education classrooms all day long,
going to supported inclusion where special ed staff might help support in the general ed class or through co teaching. We also provide pull out services for students that go to meet with special ed teachers or special service providers to center based programs, and then we have students that receive special ed services outside of our district. Did you know we have IEPs and services in special ed in preschool? It's an integrated environment. So, you will I just I wrote a couple of things about what the the approach that our preschool uses but it is an integrated setting that serves students ages three
and four with disabilities and students without disabilities in the same classroom. It's a really great environment for students to learn from each other and to have models and peers to play with. We have, classroom teachers. All the classroom teachers currently in our preschools are early childhood special educators so they have a degree where they can provide that special ed instruction to students with disabilities. And then we have our special service providers such as speech pathologists, OTs, PTs, mental health providers that also deliver services inside that preschool classroom. We have 16 preschool classrooms in our school district,
11 of the Merritt North, 2 at Webster and three at Grand Mountain. And then, the next setting, is our resource setting. So this is really the services that are available at every neighborhood school for students with mild to moderate disabilities and primarily the services that those special ed teachers are providing in this setting is reading, writing and math, executive functioning, behavior support and that's where we have that pull out model where kids will come out of class to receive those services or in co teaching and they can receive, related services in this environment as well.
And then we also serve students who are 18 to 21 years old. I'm not sure if you are were aware of that but some of our students qualify for services beyond high school graduation. And we serve them through our program called Pivot which is which stands for Pursuing Independence and Vocational Opportunities Together. And they really focus on coaching, they for pre employment job keeping and interpersonal skills. And we have a special ed teacher and two coaches that that help support those those needs for students. Students with more intensive, support needs might receive their special ed services in in an agency for a day
program for 18 to 21. Okay. We have our wide field inclusive social communication program. This is one of our center based programs that students that we have, in various schools in the district. Severe needs in communication and behavior or sensory processing delays receive services in this program. And you can see all the locations where we have these programs in our school district. We have been adding, classrooms regularly over the last few years to meet the needs of our students in that setting. The features are that we have more adults,
to the students and we have the structures around communication and routines and differentiation to promote the behavior and social skills that are needed by this group of students. Significant support needs is our center based program that supports students with intellectual disabilities, cognitive and adaptive delays and you can see we have our elementary programs are at Panello and we have, a classroom at Janital and we have two classrooms at Whitefield High School. The features of this program are really tailored to our students that have those cognitive delays and it,
again, provides that increased adult, to student ratio. They focus on communication support, integrating those speech, motor, and occupational therapies, into the classroom and they really try to practice skills throughout the day to prepare them for life beyond, high school. And then we have our effective needs classrooms. This is our third type of center based program that supports students with severe emotional and behavioral needs and it is, programs the programs you can see where they are listed. We have two at elementary, two at junior high and one at high school. Again,
the focus on that adult, support in these classrooms, the highly structured routines and really learning those those skills of self regulation and self monitoring so they can access their academic instruction. Okay. So that was a lot of services that we talked about and so we would need to talk about the people who are delivering those services because that's a wide range of supports that we have available here in our district which I'm really proud of. We we do a a lot of variety of things to meet the individualized needs of students. And here are the people that work in this department. So you know me,
I'm Rachel. Millie and Andrew were both here, but they had other responsibilities. They didn't know we were gonna be at 07:40 delivering this presentation. So but I appreciate their support. And then we have some other special educators in the house as well who have a lot of endurance and they they are staying till the end. But, I'm gonna have you guys stand up at the end, okay? So I'm just giving you a little advance notice. But you can see all the different types of people that work in our department: nurses, speech pathologists, social workers, psychs, occupational and physical therapists. We have vision and hearing services. We have coaches. We have, other special ed teachers that are specialized.
We have our social emotional wellness team and we have EAs across the district that that provide these services to our kids. So I'm going to show you the pictures of the nurses while I tell you just a little quick thing about what they do. So our nurses provide support in special education by gathering health histories on students on their medical conditions. They make recommendations to the IEP team, and to the school team for how to support health related concerns and they provide information and connect families to community resources.
They don't just work in special education though as you know. Our school nurses support all the students in their buildings with any health related needs they have. They provide medical procedures. We have certified nursing assistants that also assist with that. They oversee medication administration, respond to crisis events. If there's a 911 call, you know the nurses are right there providing assistance and making sure the right, services are available. They also help support the health offices. They do vision and hearing screenings. Our nurses are busy, busy people and they do a lot for us.
And you can see they love working with kids too. Then we have our speech language pathologist. This is a very small, percentage of the number of SLPs we have in our district. They are working all over the place and have very busy jobs as well. They primarily do work in special education evaluating students' communication needs and they provide direct services to help improve the speech language and social communication needs of our students. They also one of the specialty areas that they, help support is for students who need assistive communication devices. They are experts in that area. They help figure out what kind of device a student needs,
support the learning of that device, and the the carryover into the into the home. Then we have our social workers who evaluate the social and emotional factors affecting students' progress at school. They work with kids in individual and small group settings. They do a lot of consultation around the buildings with parents and teachers and community service providers. They participate in building mental health teams. They respond to crisis behaviors and mental health situations and provide intermediate intervention for students who need it.
And then we have our school our school psychologist there. You can see the first serious picture and then when they're letting loose a little bit over there. This is an amazing group of people. They evaluate the cognitive potential of students. They do a lot of assessing to figure out what students need in the school environment. They also work on the social, emotional and cultural factors affecting students' progress at school. They work directly with students and provide consultation as well. They also hold the role of being a special ed team leader and they facilitate
and are the designee for special education meetings. They also participate in the mental health team and respond to crisis behavior and mental health situations and provide immediate interventions to keep kids safe as well. And we have our motor team. We have a mighty motor team of four people. One fourth of them is here tonight. We have three occupational therapists and a physical therapist. And the OTs really focus on evaluating the small muscle functions, fine motor skills used in school based tasks. They work with kids to help develop their fine motor and perceptual motor skills and
they work in consultation with with staff members to help support the sensory needs of kids and work with adaptive equipment to access the school environment. Then we have the our one physical therapist who supports who provides service across the entire district. She works with the large muscle functions or gross motor skills that students need, to access their environment such as sitting, standing, walking and they work directly with students and teachers to assist them to develop their their muscle strength and utilize their adaptive, devices that they need.
And then finally, our social social emotional wellness team, another strong and mighty team of three people. And they these guys, they don't really function in the special ed department but they are part of our department as mental health service in the district and they address the needs of students with common mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, social relational challenges, school related stress. They provide short term therapy up to eight sessions and it's a free service that helps address the mental health needs of students in our district that have barriers to accessing those services in the community.
They receive referrals from people that are in the building. And just so you are aware, to date since its inception in August of twenty twenty three, the suit, as we like to call them, has received 519 referrals for service. They have supported lots of needs in this district, and we're really grateful that they're here. And we're honored to have them as kind of adopted members of the special ed department. 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.