thank you may be seated the preamble to the Constitution of the state of Colorado we the people of Colorado with profound reverence for the supreme ruler of the universe in order to form a more independent and perfect government
establish justice ensure tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution for the state of
Colorado thank you okay uh everyone's had a chance to look at the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve the agenda
second I have a item of discussion please before we vote okay um down on in the agenda we have some action items one is for resolution for youth pass bosies the other is
resolution for a student cell phone use restriction policy um before we vote and before I vote to to uh in favor or against our agenda I would like to know is there
going to be vigorous discussion and presentation on why we are leaving bosies and also about the policy for cell phone because I was hoping that those be a separate meetings but since
it's here will we have open and vigorous conversation about that let me speak to that u i will begin with background information uh description of the need for each and then I will read the resolution and then we will go into into discussion before
we take a vote on it is that acceptable yeah that yes that would be yes I will open with a some background information on this Mr Whit going speak to the cell phone program but uh I I will take care of the youth pass policies and I'm going to give read a
description as to why this is coming up okay all right and just and just so um just to make clear I would have hoped these would have been at different meetings but I understand that there Poss you know there's reasons with the
bosis with um with Sue Mrs Patterson had some is our representative on Bose so I am too I can expl it happened in of June but we can talk about it okay all right very good okay thank you yes okay uh any
other questions roll call Bar hi Bates hi Kimbell hi Patterson hi r i okay thank you motion passed okay regarding public comment Please be aware that any Personnel or
individual student matters are considered confidential under Colorado law and it is out of respect of the law and our employees and students that would require those discussions to take place privately in executive session IND idual comments are limited to 3 minutes
or a total of 15 minutes total for a particular topic the intented public comment is to give the Board of Education the opportunity to hear your comments however the board will make no decision or take no action on public comments during this
meeting all right Kelly how many we got we have four people who have signed up so all four will be able to speak we still draw numbers and random you'll be chosen to speak we doing the spotlight or well thank you for asking we were going to have a community Spotlight and it was regarding
the Purple Heart Trail the person that is the representative for that isn't I guess there's some uh Health morning good evening board members I wanted to take a look at the U District general fund for the last year
operations really don't know where to start you publish this every month but it's really shows a deficit of $ 5,269 th000 through the first 10 months of the year and that can't be right we know that's not right but it's the only
thing that you do publish during the year I doubt 1% of taxpayers should understand it um so I took a look at your documents what's available general fund balance for the audit report June 30th 2022 the pure
audit fund balance $1,886 8561 mil8 that's for your audit report general fund balance for your approved budget document that you approved as a fiscal year June 30th 2024 in the June board meeting
7,677 717 that means your deficit spending for the last two years has been 5,29 $139 now if you're going to say these numbers are incorrect so be it you can do that but they are your numbers the
more honorable thing to do would be to document how they are wrong and shown them I'm easy to find and I've got copies of the district's data right here um next thing I wanted to look up for a few minutes was well a minute 27
seconds Capital spending there's no evidence of approval for payment for County dor and Hardware $22,000 job location Middle School Merit Academy Scher construction 7 million
7,800 th000 pass my bedtime County door hardware $1,696 County door hardware $4 4,488 Anderson Enterprises 5,7 $98
$3,950 so no approval but they were paid okay um on your bidding procedures you discussed in June someone said that the threshold for bidding was $25,000 well it's not it's
$10,000 you have a file on your policy website file DJ fitting procedures it discusses all the two pages it discusses all of your Bing procedures enumerates of $10,000 cross references to school
member School Board member conflicts of interest and that sort of thing so with 11 seconds left I'll just say that um that's all I've got does anybody want this going
going I I will take it okay good let me know if you have any questions Mr B I'm real easy to find thank you next speaker Aaron HRM I'm getting all kinds of stuff yes sure thank you
good evening i r tonight speak about something I find near and GE to my heart and I think is vital to our community coming together and that's our veteran Community when we look at our veterans and uh by the way we're the number two County per capita of veterans in all 64
counties 64% I believe 17 this is 26 26% 2020 census it was uh 7 18% and that's 3,539 veterans now just to State the number one County per capita had 292
veterans so I'm just putting into context however we have no World War II veterans we have 291 Korean War veterans 1275 Vietnam War veterans and we go on with the others but this class of Veteran is dying we're losing 100 World
War II vets a day we're losing our Korean war in Vietnam veterans and they have a history to tell I was at the Library of Congress back in April and the Library of Congress has a program that started back in 2000 called the veterans history project as part of the
American folk Life Center and what they're doing is they're taking video uh testimony telling their story or audio and it's for children are 15 and older I am suggesting and asking that this board consider that we do it at the Memorial School school and high school when we
were here for Veterans Day last school year Mr Kevin bird asked all those students who had Parents brothers sisters family members who were veterans to please stand up over 80% of that student body stood up when I look at that student body and I see that many
veterans families connected and then I look at what we're doing and it's nothing the fabric of our society is being torn apart because the stories of veterans and what they have endured for their Liberty for this freedom is not being told and these children are being
misled because they don't understand the sacrifice of family friends lives fortunes and Future these veterans have paid it all that we can have Liberty and I would ask that we take this on there's a 24 page booklet on the Library of
Congress tells you how to do everything it's got the releases it's got the addendums and it walks him through how to do it very simple doesn't take a teacher any time except the printed out we can even fill it out online but we need to engage our veteran Community we
are losing history and it's not being told and these children will do these stories and then submit them to the Library of Congress to ever forever be there and then our history of what's been done will not be lost I also think it's vital that our our society our
children understand the sacrifices that have been paid for this country I'll just do a Pew research report and today we have 18.3 million veterans might I have a minute more you
may thank you 7.8 million 43% of Gulf War era 5.6 million or 30% are Vietnam War era 767,000 4% the Korean War veterans and only 120,000 World War II V
me we've lost a lot of history and we have people tearing at the fact of our society saying that we should allow these children are innocent it's our job to protect them if a child can't smoke drink Drive
shoot at the age of 5 7 10 12 then there's no way they should make a decision to change their gender because they have no understanding of their life impact of what that will do I believe veterans can help change this by bringing some some meaning to what life
is about and passing on stories and history this has been a really 18% of adults were vets this has nothing to do with in 2022 only 6% 18% in 1980 when I was growing up
were vets today only 6% were vets this is a d thank you very much and I stand ready to answer or to provide anything that the board would like or want to know and the Library of Congress is very helpful in his dist thank you thank you
the next speaker is the next speaker is G Garett the start of another school year and more losses because of our superintendent in that leadership loss of two schools loss of our Middle School loss of our good dedicated teachers loss
of confidence and respect of our district storing 27% on a survey loss of families moving because the district no longer provides good public education loss of students going to other districts loss of
friendship for some elementary schools as they are shipped to new schools loss of healthy classroom environment as some classes become overcrowded loss of professional Financial activity as a district stands firm on
controlled limited transparency loss of the professional CFO accounting that was the norm before this Administration but hopefully there will be the loss of the sales tax funding because of the district's willful
disregard when asked to do monthly online accounting which the taxpayers are asking for related to financial loss kenw admitted he did not know accurate figures related to Transportation Transportation costs over
$1 million with Meritt Academy contributing nothing for their full Services since Meritt paid off a loan of over $350,000 this year which you could not see in their budget anywhere they can
now afford to pay their fair share of Transportation costs instead of parents being asked to pay more with Merit having probable 25% of the student population their share would be around 250,000 that's
$250,000 that could be spent on public school students our last speaker Shannon valo and got for it here all right thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I would like to address the action item tonight labeled
resolution youth passies presented by Mr Bates the concern I have as a parent with a student that receives special education services is that there has never been anything discussed about you pass bosies in the recent board meetings or to parents of
students that a resol resolution could impact their kids recently Mr wit sent out an email to the Willam Park School District staff in the email it stated quote we will make a positive difference in the lives of
every student usted in our classrooms by the real owners of their education their parents that would be great if the parents were included in the big decisions that affect our kids I understand that we may not always agree
but parents want to be involved with their with the decisions that impact their kids our kids last Wednesday the upass fies met with the special education parents of woodam Park School District in that
meeting parents spoke of not feeling welcome at the school the principles at the meeting ensured that they want the parents of special education students to feel welcome and involved days later this agenda came out and once again we feel left out of decisions involving our
students we have no idea what y'all are voting on tonight please try including the parents before you vote on issues so we have a chance to contact you as our Representatives I'm speaking on you pass bosies but the same thing could be said
about the cell phone policy you are voting on I'm asking I'm just asking for Action items to be presented publicly before the board votes um we knew manatu was pulling out the bosies in May
and nothing has been said about what was going to go on with Woodland Park but I guess y'all are voting on that tonight so parents we want to be involved in that these are our kids they our special education kids the most vulnerable we have out here so it would be nice to be
involved in that we're the owners of our kids education so please thank you thank you that it KY that is it sir okay thank you next item the consent agenda sure
you've all had a chance to look at it have I got a motion to approve the consent agenda move second second roll call barley hi Fates hi Kimbell I Patterson I rol
I motion carries okay on to action items uh this will speak to our last speaker thank you m g okay some background
information upon the manitu Springs passage of a resolution to withdraw from the youth's boes and in recognition of the extremely limited value of the continuance of the pass bosies with only Woodland Park and Creek Victor
School District R1 as members superintendants of all three of all three member districts of the youth pass bosis have recommended disillusion of the youth pass bosies Woodland Park will immediately apply to be our own
administrative unit and this was decision was made per uh consensus from the superintendent of all three schools now like I said before I'm going to read the resolution and then we'll open it up for
discussion okay dissolve the up pass bosis whereas the Woodland Park School District R2 is a member of the U pass bosies pursuant to CRS 22-5 d141 the up pass bosi serves as the
administrative unit for members Woodland Park School District re2 Manu spring school district 14 and Victor School District re1 occasionally referred to collectively referred to collectively
referred to as members of or individually as member and whereas pursuant to CRS 22-5 d112 three a board of Cooperative Services may be dissolved by the
resolution upon the completion of all contracts or upon other adequate discharge of its obligations and whereas the you pass Board of Cooperative Education Services the you pass boses
bylaws provide a irrelevant part the board shall have Perpetual existence but in the event of its dis dis disillusion all of its assets shall be divided among member school districts on a pro-rated basis determined by the board
no part of the net earnings of this organization shall shall ensure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual and whereas the up pass bosis and the members are parties to a
memorandum of understanding dated August 8th 2023 theou and whereas theou provides in relevant part 4 C for letter C
disillusion should a member district seek to form their own administrative unit or join another bosies they will follow the Au reorganizational rules and procedures as outlined in the rules for administration of the exceptional
children Education Act ecea 1- cc- 8- 3.01 3 and one one each member district will declare its intent to apply to the state
director of special education for reorganization through members board resolution to the bosis board in May prior to the September 1st deadline two up the up Bose board will dis the up
Bose board will discuss the aforementioned resolution at the third quarter work session to seek Clarity and understanding to create next steps held June 20th of 2024 now therefore pursuant to the above
understandings we the Board of Education of the Woodland Park School District re2 hereby declare the Woodland Park School District R2 intent to effective effective 20 the 202
2025 2026 fiscal year dissolve the youth pass Board of Cooperative Education Services the you pass bosies and apply with the Colorado Department of Education for a Woodland Park Independent administrative
unit that is the resolution uh now the now it's open for discussion Mr President yes sir uh just for the sake of the public I think that the people whose students are involved and teachers who are part of bosies and
have the benefits or involved with it know what bosis is I would think that a lot lot of our community may not know but they're interested in knowing what's going on at the school what is bosis how does it uh what are the features the
advantages benefits of it so if somebody could explain what is bosis for the public soon would you be willing to do that you've been on bosis for quite some time you pass bosies to provide special education uh for all three districts um
manager Springs prum Park as well as Creek uh we have contracted Marcy Palmer she is the director of the sped she is involved in all three schools uh each school plays their part I believe we have we have had the
majority of the special ed students since we are the biggest District um the however is with all of this back in May man two Springs came to to the B board and viewed their concerns
that they would like to pursue or be an administrative unit of their own so we we had that meeting we discuss the details then uh kouple Creek and Victor followed up that they wanted to pursue
uh to be a part of another bosis well bosis doesn't exist with one with one school in the district so we have we our hands are tied we were hoping that Triple Creek and we that we could say together and provide the services but
the state will not allow us to be um contracted to have a boses with only one school so we have our hands are tied here we have no choice but to go forward
and um and and and file the paperwork to be our own administrative unit all three schools must have their intentions into the Colorado Department of Education by the 1st of September and um the three districts agreed that
um the solution was to dissolve theosis and well I can't speak up for manatu or Creek but we have to apply for administrative unit as our on our on our own and I believe the state has 60 days
to approve any of this but the simple fact is we can't exist as AOS with the other two schools wanting to pursue other avenues Russ hold she hardly answer sir
can I this this is not public speaking time ask a followup question when did we know that Creek was pulling out in June late June itun it was the June 20th meeting and so um there was a work session that was on there when that
happened all the superintendents were also on that so they started talking about it as if this was going to happen and so the confusion I think for most people is this going to happen this year this is not for this year so this year it will remain the same but it will be
for the year 20 um 25 to 26 but since the state requires us to have all this information in Creek was like you know we're just going to go ahead and go ahead and file the paperwork which left us to go ahead and do the paperwork as
well um in the future as the representatives of bis obviously if B's dissolves we won't that's not necessarily issue but um as a request for as a board member who's not on these other meetings um when this type of
information comes out could you send a message to the entire board because this is the first I'm hearing that Creek has pulled out which I think is oh my gosh um kind of an interesting way to Sir if you speak out again I'm going to ask you to leave to your board members
this is not your meeting talking now but I understand sending an email you're asking for like an email I think Sue is prior to action items we should have the information like it seems strange for us to have this background information right now when when the action item is
here that it should have been presented either as part of the board packet the email their resolution to pull out mud's resolution to pull out should have been in the packet or we should have gotten emails with the information ahead of time I believe we just
hasn't been that long since we received C CLE Creek's official uh withdrawal um I don't even I've seen it officially but we had that discussion so there was more of a discussion on the work session but I haven't seen their official which they might not even come
until they have their board meeting so is there a possibility that we approve this resolution and then Creek does not for their own I don't think so state of their declarations in meetings with the with the we already have their their
their declaration that's going to be submitted to the state well that's what I just asked for and you said you didn't have it yet no I said just received it recently is what I said okay there's a little confusion here if I may speak for a moment yes little confusion here about
the difference between a resolution and a declaration they have declared their intent there is no resolution can you please speak to your mic okay I can't hear you and and all these uh the intentions that they have to be
filed by the to the state by the 1st of September so it's all this has been recent and I've been speaking to Marc Marcy on on a weekly basis um and tomorrow night
you're all invited right here 5:30 um and Marcy is going to read um the resolution for for the for the bo the actual boses this is our resolution for Willam Park tomorrow night the resolution for the boses the up pass
poses will be discussed will that be anoun it's here it's here at 5:30 how is the rest of the community supposed to know it's been posted where where where posted right out there on the um you have to come into the school to see it
I'm just saying it's posted out there that I did see it there I don't know if it's on the pb's website that is not accept I believe sir I've asked you now two or three times to be quiet if you speak out one more time I'm going to ask you to leave do you
understand me sir do you understand me well I'll take that as a yes one more time I'm going to ask you to leave Marcy's been very transparent with this with this whole Marcy is our representative for the postage she is
the the go to she is the person with the boots on the ground for the bosies and and um we're our hands are tied we we we have no choice but to to to follow
through with this has to be done by September 1st can I just Playing devil's advocate for a sake of explanation if yeah if we don't dissolve it and everyone else does and we miss the September 1st what are the consequences for
that go ahead the school district is required to have an administrative unit the Colorado Department of Education definition of an administrative unit is the place where the buck stops for the provision of
special education services there are two forms of the provision of special education services supervised by an administrative unit the first form is to be a member of a bosis which is an administrative unit in which
case the district does not have to be an administrative unit because they rely on the administrative unit status of their bosies of which they're a member the second case is a district may be its own administrative unit which is more common with larger school districts
and smaller school districts often form both seats with a group of members if we did not apply to be our own Au and both Creek and manitu springs attempted to pull out there were
two possible outcomes none of this is guaranteed the CDE may deny their attempt to withdraw they can do that if we had no other alternative that would be something they would consider uh but we're big enough to be
an au without any be our own administrative unit without any problem so they would probably have that conversation about well are you going to stand up in an administrative unit or are you going to be a a uh U are we going to maintain the youth passis and force the other districts to be members
they actually have the option of doing both of those we don't want to force members when people don't want to be members so our better course of action and in fact the only one that makes sense for us is to stand up our own administrative un but those are the possibilities okay so there's just to
clarify there's no um negative consequence for Woodland Park School District for not passing this other than maybe burning some bridges because we would then be forcing possibly the CD's hand in requiring the other two schools
to stay we could be forcing their hand it's not entirely clear what they would do in that case uh this doesn't happen very often okay and then if we don't do this the CDE um accepts their resignation and then we're still the
only School in the Bose's what what does that mean Colorado statute requires that a bosis be composed of membership which includes two school districts right potentially more and Institutes of higher education so if the CDE approves
their resignation from the bosis does that automatically mean they would tell us where our own administrative unit no it would force a decision and and then there would be a dialogue and we'd have to figure that out uh I think it would be better for us to be in control of our path than to get in
that situation but that's my op I do have another question uh what was the benefit of being part of the bosies and since and then my followup to that
is if we do pass this resolution to leave then um what will replace it what will that look like being our own administrative unit please um you asked three questions I'm
going to try and take them in order the first question was what is the benefit of being the member of a b and the answer is you either must be your own administrative unit or you must
rely on the services of another administrative unit which is typically a Bose there is actually a third possibility which not very many people do but it it is possible for one school district to contract the administrative unit services from another school district
but that could get really muddy and difficult but nonetheless you join a bosei so that you have an administrative unit if you don't want to be your own so it's a question of critical mass in the case of Woodland Park the benefit of being a member of the bosis is significantly diminished by the fact
that we have the special education structures as our own employees they're not employees of the Bose the Bose provides administrative support so we would need to hire a sped director and other than that we would we would as we
always do hire our own special education service providers so there's not much of a change which is why I say in our case it's it's a fairly easy process it's a fairly easy path to take nothing's easy but it's the most direct path to take so
that's the what's the benefit of being a member of iosis uh and then you asked what would it look like for us did I get that right yeah what will replace it yeah how will that be replaced I'm sorry I'll oversimplify the question but yes what
would it look like for us um this is where the question of you pass bosis a bosis or be your own Au is a choice right in our case I think I kind of half answer that moment ago in our case it
would be hiring an oversight an administrative support resource because we already have the special education employees which which we just have to continue to have but we would add the administrative resource comparable to paying the bosies to do that right
because that costs us something now as well so it would look very similar for us and it would look almost identical if manatou Springs were to pull out because it would be pretty much just be us and a handful of other children so are you saying that our special education
students our special needs students will be receiving the same benefits as if we were part of bosies the same services from the same staff with the exception of administrative oversight the only change and so just so I understand is
that the only change is What entity is administrating the special education program that's right in the W Park case that is correct now I do want to be clear just because you said it very carefully so I now need to be very careful not to create any
misimpressions of course staff changes if we dissolve osis and we hire and we maintain our own staff they the two or three staff that that they have could could go somewhere else or we can hire them and that's not entirely in our control so there will be some staff
change of course so which but not the special education service providers the teachers are our own employees okay yes um are there any any special education services that our current students receive today in this year that would
not be available with the dissolving of the bosies no it's more Administration so sorry could you repeat that question because I didn't quite so I know some of the benefit of bosies is that if a school district doesn't have a specific
um teacher or program in that building you can send them to the other building so my question was are there any students in the Woodland Park School District who are currently going to other buildings to receive services that would no longer be available to them if the VES you pass VES is no more can you
specify other buildings um other school do we are we sending kids to manatu or Creek to to receive this no uh actually it's the opposite R park has the center programs that the other districts send
their children to typically we're we are the the largest and we provide most services that are special so Mana 2 spring sends their special needs students here very rare okay but the point is
you're asking which way do they go do they go somewhere else no actually the others come to us for the for the very Specialized Service yeah so again we're in we're in the strongest position to be an administrative unit on Earth any other question questions so to be clear the reason that
we're having this resolution and not waiting for the state to take action on it is because the other two members as I understand have the intention of leaving bosis and if we remain that could be a hurdle for them or make it difficult for
them to leave because then the state's going to come in and say yes you can or no you can't am I understanding it correctly not the reason but a reason I'm okay one of the one of the considerations so if we resolve to leave
bosies then everyone is in control of their own destiny exactly and our special needs students and manatu springs and and and Creeks they will still come here or is that all up in the air that is up to them and they
each have their plans we are not speaking for them but they each have a plan everyone needs to understand that uh manatou Springs started this effort and then Creek jumped on board so we we have no other op option but to
be our own administrative unit we're going to have to bring some administrators in but like like spin already said we are the biggest school of the three they come to us so there's not a downside to us applying to be our own administrative unit okay okay so
would you say that we currently receive no benefits from being part of the youth pass poses we pay for administrative Services which we have appreciated okay but if they're no longer available there's no benefits trying to continue so what's the cost difference for us to
be our own administrative unit as opposed to being part of the bis uh I don't have numbers in front of me but I suspect that we will benefit substantially financially of being do you know what what we currently contribute uh no I should ask a 's board
member but I don't know I I don't know the finances point is we would hire we would hire one special education director as opposed to the Contracting that we do with special with the oses and the idea funding which is currently distributed and some of which a significant of which
is consumed by the youth can you speak into your mic I am speaking in my mic I apologize it's about as loud as I can get um we spend more with upes than we would with our own
services so we'll save money and we won't lose any services for our students any other questions would we look to um since we've already got relationships with some of the B's employees would we look
to retain some of them or or pull them into to our unit most of the spe the special education service providers are already our employees the administrative people certainly will have conversations uh remembering of course that Marcy Palmer
has already submitted her uh resignation uh her retirement at the end of the year at the end of next year she has spoke of retirement for a few years and so I think she even wanted to last year we like no no we love you so she ended up
staying but knowing that the other schools were pulling out it would be very uh fair to say that she would be retiring but the other Administration it's up in the air okay roll call please um we need a motion and a second
on the resolution first motion to uh approve a resolution to dissolve the up pass boses and apply with the Colorado Department of Education for Woodland Park Independent administ ative
unit that is the motion so moved second second okay now roll call parkley I Bates I Kimbrell I Patterson I rols
I cares okay the next item and I just pulled my pen out of it I will say if there's any questions we get our board packets definitely reach out to the president okay next item be uh the
revised 20 2024 2025 board meeting schedule there is only one change to that the meeting that was scheduled for January 8th of 20125 is now being moved to January 15th
uh for our regular board meeting meeting and that is just to allow some extra time to get uh agendas and packets out do I have a motion to approve Mo second second roll call who's seconded sorry I heard about three
people thank you roll call did you say roll call sir yes okay Barkley hi Bates hi kiml hi Patterson I rer hold I okay on to item uh student cell phone use restrictions and Mr Whit you're going to speak to
this absolutely get much closer um but what I can so the uh current Trend broadly in the State uh is to restrict cell phone usage in classrooms there is significant
research out there they showing that the distraction level in classrooms with uh cell phones texting surfing whatever is significantly reducing the amount of instructional learning uh learning from the instruction that's going on in the classroom uh we've seen a number of
school districts Rush d11 uh Cherry Creek uh both uh overtly pass uh resolutions or policy to uh then Implement uh practice or procedure to restrict cell phone use we believe that it's there's clear
evidence that it's having a significant impact impact on the learning of students uh it also results in uh increased bullying and other issues in classroom not just for the user but the distractions also for those around the user um so Woodland Park has actually
already had some restriction of cell phone use we have classrooms where students come in and put their phones in um a shoe pouch kind of thing sit down have their their classes and when they leave they take it back out uh it's very likely that that will be the the outcome
of the procedure to continue but just make it consistent across the schools but I but I'm not committing to that because we're working with the principles and the teachers to get it right uh but we do want to restrict cell phone usage there's clear evidence that it makes a difference in the learning of students and it's becoming a very common
practice uh so we feel like it's it's it's time to take action for this for this school year which is why we're having conversation now with that being said let me read the resolution for to restrict student cell
phone use in school whereas the Woodland Park School District R2 located in terer County Colorado is committed to providing a safe educational environment laser focused on academic success whereas research and
experience of Ed of educ s give overwhelming evidence that cell phone use in classrooms is a distraction to instruction with significant negative impact on learning whereas many schools and school districts in Colorado and
nationally have shown that cell phone restriction is feasible and results in better academic outcomes for students now therefore be it resolved we the members of the Board of Education of Woodland Park School District re2 hereby
Direct the superintendent devel develop administrative policy and procedures to eliminate student cell phone use in classrooms except when directed by the teacher as part of an instructional program or as an exception when verified
as necessary for medical monitoring okay discussion so um as a parent with children I I'm actually not opposed to restricting um cell phone use in the classroom but um as far as this
resolution is um concerned I I had two things I just wanted to mention one um again I think it probably would have been a good idea to get some feedback from other parents um prior to putting a resolution on the agenda um and then the
second thing for this actual resolution I'd like to just make a change if if it's amendable so that the motion once we get to that point but um to revise it that we direct the superintendent to develop the administrative policy um just to change develop to the word draft
um and then this way we can take a look at it before it is actually put into motion I I have a question kind of follow up on that as the draft and procedure um you had said Mr wit you had
said the administration and teachers I'm sorry that's okay I apologize oh that's okay what steps have have any steps been made other than conversation about this have you discuss this with
Administration with teachers is there any kind of background that you can tell us about yes thank you I would give more detail in discussion we didn't have emotion on a second yet so I was holding back on that but let me address that thank you well has there been a second there
has first a second then discussion okay let's just back up a little bit then do we have a second second we need the motion first we need the motion I just read motion you got second sorry I jumped
G okay uh student cell phone use restrictions I need a motion to approve the resolution to restrict student cell phone use in school after second and oh I'm sorry sound like we have
second so move to second second okay discussion thank you we already have a question on the table if if it's all right I respond to that please do thank you uh yeah so let's talk a little bit about this uh we have spent some time with the administration talking through
this with principles uh over the summer uh they have been working together to uh advise on what they believe are classroom practices that will work effectively uh they know their schools pretty well the fact that we're already doing this in a number of classroom means that they're pretty well informed
uh on on practice that works and and what's been found AC acceptable uh we met with the Chamber of Commerce and discussed this uh to to expose it to the community uh we met with the new teachers leading into this year to talk about it and encourage them to talk to
their principles uh teachers aren't back until today actually convocation just started today so there'll be more teacher input at this point that's why we didn't put forth the policy without having an opportunity for the administration to kind of finalize they believe is the right answer um so yes
we've had a a community meeting no we haven't had a ton of them but we we've started that process yes we've talked about it uh extensively through the school administration and yes we're already doing it so we have some pretty good knowledge already about how what works and what does not work
a couple of the primary concerns that come up that I do want to address in this uh the first one is in the event of an emergency I don't want my child to not be able to get to a phone that's why the pouch is in front of the room rather than something locked up or something put away in a locker that they can't get
to in the event of a real crisis uh they could get to their phones in the room in a non- crisis if a parent wants to chat with their child or pass a message that level of in the classroom is actually part of the problem you're trying fix uh you want to make certain that the
children are corresponding in casual communication outside of the classroom not in the classroom uh and the the pouches are are a safety consideration so that that's why we're doing the pockets now they also have locking pouches which we're discussed by the administration as well uh quite frankly
the cost there is prohibitive for Woodland Park we don't believe that's the best answer because the pouches work adequately but I did want to give a little background that's interesting because that was sort of my question because I've read other schools across the nation have these block couches where kids would have to go and like
scan them and so some of the concern is like what if something happens they have to run to these scanners scan them open them so having them in Pockets which some of our schools were classrooms were already doing I found out last year it's just easy if they had an emergency they can run and get those phones okay so
that's okay good can you explain the pouches is like each child has their own pouch and the teacher has all these pouches at the a lot that the teacher has the code to to open any of the pouches however this
accomplishes the same objective because the teacher has control of these cell phones in these Pockets visual control and so the pouches aren't necessary complaints people have had about the pouches what if you did have a crisis
that it' be timec consuming to get everyone's pouches open to to call someone so I think this is the better Al alternative uh and in in the research you know there there are some schools that make the students lock them up in lockers for the
day they will have their CL their phones between classes should there be something important like my wife called 15 minutes ago three times I hope it's nothing serious so I don't know if that helped but uh I saw a news I mean not even um
to this it was a year or a year and a half ago and they were talking about those pouches so the kids when they every time they walked into the school they had some device grabbed a pouch or they needed to leave then they would scan it so if there was an emergency they would have to go to these designated areas but they also said they
were costly too so yeah I mean use like baskets and everybody straps their phone into just or a pouch plastic basket at the front of the so my question was going to be like what are we looking at on the costs and so I like the fact that we're not going to be investing in these
things and they're still um they and easily accessible for children or and students that just need to get them in case of these emergencies yeah I this may it seems very obvious to me I I don't know but if
I had kids in school knowing how distracting cell phones are I would do the same thing that my kids do is when before there was a rule at the school you shut off your phone when you get to school you lock it in your locker and you can only get it out at lunch
this is no cost to the school and the school still has a secretary that answers the phone for emergencies and can page a teacher or a student is that I mean we have that here so why all the discussion about pouches
and locks and access when put the phone in your locker you're not going to die without the phone unless there's some emergency extenuating circumstance just put it in the locker turn off and get it out at
lunch it's a distraction between class I know that there's bullying that goes on during class between class and all this with cell phones and so and texting and whatever social media why is this not a consideration
shutting it off leaving it in the locker it's plain and simple and cost nothing yes go ahead I'm sorry my guess from some of the papers and stuff I was reading um with the pouches it said in there that parents like to text their
children so not only is it just students texting in The Bullying it's a lot a huge portion is parents just wanting to touch base with their kids and so I think they like that in between Class touches but like when they're in the classroom they need to have it off so this is sort of a I would think a
solution in the middle for that you can speak more to it I'll add one more piece of color um 10 years ago 20 years ago when kids didn't have cell phones we also didn't have school shootings and school shootings have
greatly increased parent sensitivity how dare you how dare you you know that sir it's time for you how dare you in in this uh in this environment uh parents are much more sensitive to the reality of if a crisis
I want to make sure my my child can get to their phone yeah and like a middle ground this this is Middle Ground thank you Cassie uh because I mean it's not half a day and then you have a little window and then another half a day
there's room between classes if to have some communication I think that's going to make the parents feel a little better and it's a start we we'll see how that goes and make adjustments as necessary but I I personally think it's a good starting point well I certainly wouldn't
vote against it I you know I would but what I would want my kids to have Locker because I know how distracting they can be but having in the locker like I said it goes back to that parent touch piece and so with everything that's gone on in the last 10
or 20 years the parents want to be able to have that communication despite you know just sending them a cell phone that they pay thousands of dollars for just having their school locker so I would say that that this is a good I this that's not something that would
cause me to vote against it because I think that they are a bane to education as far as in the classroom any other comments um I do I have another comment so this specifically says to direct the
superintendent to develop an administrative policy and procedure to eliminate cell phone use in the classrooms um so what will will the next step be when that so we are directing You by if we
have an affirmative vote here to develop the plan once the plan has been developed what is next step the district is is ready to implement what I just described the the the pouch system and with the lower
grades perhaps just allowing the kids to either the teacher to either have a pouch or keep it in your bagpackage keep it out out of your hand for small children that that may work but the point is they're willing to implement and they'd like to implement at the start of school because it's hard to change practice after school is started
which is why they've asked that can you please get the resolution passed so we can start this if we're going to do it this year I'm and and I'm comfortable with that I think because they've worked it out I'm comfortable with that having said that the policy would be posted
within 5 to 10 days um they will test it out and uh if either the board doesn't like the policy or you're hearing a lot of feedback and you want to push back on the policy or ask for changes you know what it is and we and you can certainly do that in the future what I would ask that you not do
is ask us to hold off with school starting and do nothing until we approve a policy in you know in the future well I would like I would like to see something Implement I think I think it's wise to start it right at the beginning of the year but like after a month or so
I would like to have presented to the board a written policy that we can see and say yeah this is great we'd like this changes we want you to add that I would like to see that the policy would absolutely be posted I'm happy to present it to the board but you would need the policy because school started
it AB yes we need this resolution to start that process now Mr wit said that you know something would be available within 10 days you're asking to wait for 30 days to see if there are any necessary whatever's working out you said that was okay I apologize I misunderstood so there is a policy to to
bring it next yeah I would just like but to answer director Park lasers as far as the draft you know then if we had a draft that wouldn't be at the start of the school so having this the
future day yeah and and I agree that it should start right we have have a few days do you think you could draft a a policy before what is it next Wednesday a week and it sounds like we pretty much yeah I think we're all generally on the same page just to take a look and see if
there's anything you know an extra set of eyes or two um to see if anything else needs to be tweets yes I just want to make certain that I've given our uh CAO slokum and the principal's time to agree that that this is right now that we have some teachers on board but I
think the other solution is if they have it we can come back in September and say is there something that we dislike or not like want it I appreciate the input from the principls and some of the teachers already know others will know
soon and so their their input is is valuable okay anything else oh yes I do have one more thing as you just mentioned teachers um is this voluntary for teachers or is going to be a schoolwide districtwide
policy it's already voluntary for teachers the point here is to make it a standard across the district okay it will and I think since some classrooms are have already been doing this for a while if having it across the board for all students it becomes more of a habit and
and geared more to academics versus but still leaving some of that lean just being lenient about you know um students having those cell phones in between those like passing periods so in case parents want to check on them okay and
reducing Bulet bullying throughout the classroom time and so hopefully that will help as well so then I guess my last bit of input since we don't have a draft is just to say I I think we should go with the lowest cost option for this
A Simple Dollar Store basket at the front of the room could be the solution yeah let if you don't mind let me speak to that very briefly the the disadvantage of a basket is other students handling other students
phones the reason for the reason for pouch is preferred over a basket is you know where yours is and you get yours out you put yours in and you're not messing with other people's phones okay um the isolation actually is pretty important okay well if someone gets a crack screen first thing they're going to do is blame the
B okay we need an additional insurance policy since we're taking their phones away uh no please read the last statement in the U in the resolution nope it's not in the resolution yes was
it no I so many about this ex with necessary medical monitoring oh that's right just talk about an exception there will be a statement in the policy that the that the district is not responsible for damage to s that is commonly done across other
school districts that have this policy we had it in there okay so uh a motion to approve the resolution to restrict student cell phone use in school
after set we already have a first and a second we already have a first and a second ready for roll call Barkley hi F hi Kimbrell I Patterson I rest I Kelly I haven't been to meeting for a
month I need retraining okay uh next item Board of Education reports reports from anyone on floor is open well we have superintendent can
speak to this is next Monday the 19th our open house 4 to 7 m SL can give you the open house I don't know if they vary by school or if it's all night yes 4 to six and then secondary is 5 to 7 so
there's enough time to get to both if you need to thank you sorry to put you on the spot schule I mean I'm showing four to seven that would be able to hit all of the schools so between the entire School District from
4: to 7: next Monday all invited to come and tour the schools anyone else yeah um we skipped over discussion and information number eight is that was that intentional or can we put discussion and information into There's No Agenda item that's a
category have anything on that's a category not an agenda item we have no discussion items tonight okay but it was it's listed as number eight so I mean I'm not making I'm not being contentious well but it doesn't
have anything under it I see that so standing item I will so okay just clarify um I want to speak briefly uh we are we signed an inter governmental
agreement with the city back on March 26th both parties signed that agreement uh there were some amendments that the city wanted to that IGA to the original from
2016 they they did all of the Amendments and we agreed to them all we didn't uh we we didn't we had no conflict well since the new city council went in and much of this is repetitive but now they were asking for some more
amendments to the to the IGA and we are openly listening to those uh one is another tier of of uh accounting uh backup and and potentially
uh doing the reporting quarterly we had a meeting the 7th of this month had a very cordial discussion and uh we I thought it went very well and uh so tomorrow night at at the city council
meeting there no doubt will be some questions I I will be there to respond to those questions with the with the the attempt to wrap this up that night the IGA will not be signed but the the Amendments bill will be approved and
we'll have a signable document so it's it's been a pretty labor in intensive project I'm sure there are people at the city that would like to put this behind them as well uh but so this is tomorrow night and we'll uh we'll see how that
goes I spoke with the city manager on Tuesday uh he said nothing has changed uh as far as our discussion on the 7th a couple of of city council people did uh put an item on the agenda if you have
two or more people you can add an agenda item or an ordinance or something two board members did put an ordinance on there to do a first reading of a of putting an issue putting it back on the ballot in November to revote on this
intergovernmental agreement but uh you know I mean back in 2016 the voters decided to do this because rather than all the taxes coming out of the vot Pockets using the sales tax was genius
because then somewhere between 30 and 40% of those of that tax is paid by Outsiders I just learned that a big portion of that is Amazon shipping I I was a little surprised to hear that so
you know it would go back on the ballot but should it fail then we're right back to going for a A M Levy override which came up up in 2016 and a group of people put this together and it was overwhelmingly
passed having said all that we'll just see how it goes tomorrow night at city council like I said I will be there and uh be prepared to the best of my ability to respond to any of the questions they might have so just an FYI for all of
you anything else yes I do have um for Board of educ a report I've had discussions with a number of employees in the school district and some parents and some Curious people who are curious about some of the things that we've
implemented and some questions so I would I would like to ask I think these are important things to just discuss so that the board knows what is going on a little bit better we can hear from some people so I'm just throwing it out there my conversation is like the first one
was on something that I that I like I think it's real world uh but I have questions teachers have questions about the merit-based pay and I'm just wondering at a future
meeting could we schedule to have maybe how is it going we're doing it this year uh what does it look like what are you hearing as administrators about it what are teachers saying what are principles saying about it how can it be does it
need to be tweaked in any way so that would be one of the things because I've had a number of and there have been important conversations with teachers so that would be as a result of conversations throughout the district if we could do that at a future meeting not
too far off then the other one uh I just had another conversation about it yesterday was about the transportation costs now I know that there were some entries made under the wrong category that or I might be misunderstanding the
whole thing but to clear up the transportation cost because it's come up again could we have just a brief explanation or what is the what is the TR actual Transportation
costs uh not even why what are those and what will they look like going forward is something that I would like to just ask that we have at a future meeting to to clear up some of these cloudy areas
so that's basically it well we do have a new CFO coming pretty quick and uh that's that's wonderful we're excited about that and so we can take a closer look at some things rather than just winging it Wing
you here on some issues and possibly misspeaking anything else the only other thing I wanted to add was um again kind of along the same same line there of adding an agenda item just kind of continually um would be on um like a
Personnel or a a staffing item um so that the board is aware of how many positions are open at any one time um how long it's taking us in general to fill these positions what positions are we having the most trouble with um and
just kind of what our I guess tactic or um you know are we actively trying to recruit them is it more passive recruitment we just have a job posted somewhere so we can discuss that and and see if we can brainstorm
any ways to improve it once we are tracking it and know what issues we're facing okay so you're hoping to come up with something like a staffing update or something like that yeah I did write it down all right is that it all right that being all could I have
a motion to adjourn so moved I didn't say after second you see that got a second roll call hi hi Kim hi Pon hi thank you all thank
youup yeah I got to go back to good me