##VIDEO ID:NhGzLUmqjEQ## it was a a five year so there's still three years left you like this part of the job yeah I remember what [Music] you payroll [Music] this you very happy kind of suuck in things trying to moving can I see on yes she's here she should be here it is now okay folks it's 6:00 call this meeting to order well call please here B here Kim here Patterson here Mr Holz here could you hear Cassie okay if everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Matt would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all 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 well Ware and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity do ordain and establish this constitution for the state of Colorado we can take a moment of silence please thank you okay uh approval of the agenda do I have a motion for approval of the agenda move have a second second all in favor um well I'd actually um like to make um a or move to amend the agenda um I'd like to add a discussion item um so it would be item 8D um on the deck appointments um there's been a good bit of back and forth via email since the last board meeting when it was brought to our attention mention that some of the DAC appointments may not be um eligible to be on the DC um and I want to make sure that we have proper discussion in the public setting um so we don't wind up violating any Sunshine laws uh are you prepared to make a motion to do that yes that's I just made the motion is there a second well can we have discussion about it I know we needed a second but if we add it as a discussion item then we can discuss it can we discuss adding it to the agenda of course we can I need a second first right I need a second first I'm G give a second for that so that we can have some discussion about it right now so you can bring me up to speed on it and then of course take the vote well okay well I'd be willing to have the discussion I mean we we've we've talked about this a lot um you know go ahead Keegan well so I think the proper order would be to add it to the agenda item and then we can discuss it in the discussion section I would like to discuss it before we take a vote on adding it to the discussion adding to the discussion if you know what I mean I just I want to be normally just so we bring up to speed we take we have a motion about something we have a second emotion about it then we have to discussion about the the the the motion and then we take a to a vote after after the discussion so I guess there's been discussion some back and forth via email um I know there are still some community members and parents who are concerned about the current DAC appointments I want to make sure that we are addressing it in a public setting which is why I think it's more appropriate to add it as a discussion item as opposed to continuing to discuss it via email well I mean I think could we not just have this discussion now and then and then no it isy wouldn't be this is discussion to add it to the agenda okay and I'm not asking for a vote I just wanted to add it as a disc you want to add it to it as a discussion item I've only heard from Keegan is there any other I mean I'd like to hear from more people if we should add it to the agenda any other comments I I'll second it okay the agenda all right and you wanted to put it where um in section8 can be after you got a motion second okay so we have we have a motion and a second roll call Bates nay Kimber i w Holz I motion carries okay so now we can approve the agenda okay that being said do I have a motion to approve the agenda as as amended so mooved second second roll call Arley hi Bates hi Kimbrell hi Patterson hi rer Holtz hi you know just a point of clarification M Barkley uh I was prepared to discuss this but I was going to do it down here under board information reports because I do think there's some validity to to both sides of this so I I hadn't I hadn't forgot that thank you all right next item an exciting item uh the district Community Spotlight uh tonight I'm thrilled to recognize a truly outstanding collaboration between our students staff and the maintenance team this collaboration was featured on KRDO School buzz and we are going to take a minute to watch that video I've seen it it's good restoration is now complete thanks to the help of a group of seniors at Woodland Park High School they got to polish up their wood shop and Welding skills and Jos it was a 40h hour effort that's deserving of some the school's facilities director we at schooling shop personally they had a trail I it was completely Fallen apart and these kids right here stepped into hell wasn't simple they were ready for a big challenge they put their welding goggles on you have like mask right Wood shopping skills and they got to work Matt wield the teacher who oversaw the project gathered his best students at all seniors Matthew new Joseph new Jackson boo Smith even a 10th grader Molly Miller together tore down the old wood decking replaced it with a brand new wood built a new ramp completely from scratch fixed the front cross nver whatever that is do he beeped up the world replaced all the wiring you get it as a final test they gave a trailer a new paint job to before send it back to the district's maintenance division it was a lot of work 40 hours and a month to be exact but all worth it not only did these students restore the trailer back to its original Beauty they got to of course apply their knowledge to a real life situation how cool is that I talk about a remarkable hardworking project hard project to do and a real life practical skill they've learned love it good job W Park High School kudos to this kid is it something you want to give kudos to someone you can give kudos to at your school let me know about it school buz I care you not [Applause] uh the teacher Matt wielt could you just stand up Matt yes sir I I know Matt pretty well and he's he's a good guy uh he provided the guidance empowering the students to tackle real world challenges confidently uh a thank you to Jason Ferris and the maintenance team for bringing this project to our students which made this learning opportunity possible and to the students as I call your name out stand up please Jason Ferris the facilities director oh I'm sorry next line next line Matthew Nome none of you guys were standing up Joseph Jackson boo Smith and Miller [Applause] your hard work and dedication and attention to detail have set an incredible example for your peers and shown the power of vocational education this project is a testament to what education is about applying skills solving problems and making a difference thank you to everyone involved for your outstanding work and for making Woodland Park proud thank you we'll talk later about the trailer that I have that's in in bad shape I have wi thank you all and thank you for coming in We Appreciate You You Bet thank you to all of you that's an exciting project thank you when can I drop my trailer off before user and we'll put it on thank you doing a good job man thank you very well wonderful the video I can sit here and try to describe but it would have done with okay 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 we require those discussions to take place privately in executive session individual comments are limited to 3 minutes or a total of 15 minutes total for a particular topic the intent of public comment is to give the Board of Education the opportunity to hear your comments however the board will make no decisions or take no action on public comment during the meeting do we have anyone up we have two two all right Aon hellstrom have a in you it out will be this is what I'm going to talk about tonight I want to talk about year round schooling and the benefits there up compared to the Traditional School I believe in our district as a small District this would be a great thing to consider as When teacher burnout so I'd like I went through pros and cons on this I won't have enough time to read all three pages but I want to go over the pros of Miram and then cons and hopefully I'll get into traditional one year round schooling and uh I can personally speak this my children were enrolled in year round schooling was the best schooling I ever had my kids involved in I saw my children more often I had more quality time with them so this I'm an actual user and a believer in it this isn't someone just throwing ideas against the wall red do summer learning loss shorter breaks throughout the year help prevent the summer slide where students forget material learn during long summer vacations improve retention regular breaks help students maintain focus and retain information better as they're not out of school for long periods more frequent breaks students have shorter more frequent breaks during the year which can reduce burnout and provide rest without long gas better teacher retention teachers get more frequent breakes which can reduce burnout and increase job satisfaction enhance Focus shorter more frequent break to throughout the year keep students and teachers refreshed and focused potentially improving overall performance flexible vacation scheduling families can schedule vacations throughout the year rather than being restricted to the summer break and seven efficient use of school facilities schools are in session throughout the year meaning better use of facilities staff and resources throughout long periods of idleness the cons one scheduling conflix with shorter and more frequent breaks it might be difficult for families to plan long vacation or trips especially in school schedules that don't align with work schedules Child Care issues parents might need to arrange Child Care during shorter breaks which could lead to logistical challenges three holiday Mass Miss alignment yearound schools might have different holidays compared to traditional schools causing confusion for students while that is a con I have found it not to be a con because it went with every federal holiday and it worked great for me number five or four disruption of family time with school continuing throughout the year the family time over summer vacations might be limited which can affect family bonding but for our area I don't believe that we have a very short window for summer up here so this could fit perfectly within that six we summer break five cost and Logistics year- round schooling requires schools to remain open year round may increase op operational cost for maintenance utilities and teacher salaries now for traditional schooling the pros extended summer break a long summer break allows families to spend quality time together take vacation participate in activities through the required extended time off simpler scheduling the predictable scheduling of starting in the fall and ending in the spring makes it easier for families to plan vacations and for teachers scheduled rest periods seasonal employment for students with summer off students pursue seasonal employment and internships gaining work experience during the summer months alignment with extracurriculars and five is consistency and then the cons go thank you for your time if you have questions feel free to ask me I'll be will thank you than you Shon Valero good evening president Bates superintendent WT and members of the school board um I'm coming to speak tonight as the mother of a student who receives special education services thank you for the update on the approval of the Woodland Park administra unit in its partnership with Creek Victor School District it is encouraging to see steps being taken to align with the state of fedal special education requirements following the closure of Youth pass fosies while this is a significant Milestone there are key questions that concerns uh questions and concerns that need to be addressed especially as families prepare for upcoming IEP meetings first I want to acknowledge the critical programs and services that you pass boses has historically provided which will now fall under the responsibility of the Au these include special education services child find activities gifted and talented programs transition services and professional development for educators these foundational supports are crucial for the success of students with diverse needs and is important to understand how they will be maintained under the new structure the email mentions that um chance SL will administer the place program and existing Place staff will fill special education vacancies across the district while retaining staff is reassuring there are concerns about whether Staffing will be sufficient to meet the needs of all special education students including those not placed in the place program will redistribution staff create gaps elsewhere and how will chance light lights rooll integrate into broader Services additionally how will families be supported during this transition parents rely on accurate timely information to make decisions and advocate for their children particularly during IEP meetings will decisions about changes to Services Staffing or contacts be finalized and communicated before the end of this school year to give families and staff adequate time to adjust while the Au has been approved how will compliance and quality assurance be monitored moving forward are there clear timelines and Metric to ensure consistent and Equitable Service delivery Furthermore with Woodland Park in Creek Victor sharing resources how will collaboration between the districts be managed to ensure fairness for all students finally what plans are in place to prevent distribution to Services during transition main maintaining IEPs and accommodations without delay and essential and is essential to avoid negatively impacting ing students progress in summary while the steps taken so far are positive these questions emphasize the need for clarity transparency and clear timeline moving forward who should families and stakeholders contact with specific questions and how will the district ensure that all special education students not just those in the place program receive the support they need most importantly will these decisions be made be finalized and shared this school year thank you thank you thank you is that it yes okay moving on else I can finish [Laughter] reading okay I'm looking for a motion for approval of the consent agenda so move second second roll call I had a question on that too sorry just real quick and usually we don't the only question I had was on um the work session page that was added in there um looks like we're changing for calling the Veterans Day assembly a work session I just curious why well for for all of us to be able to attend it need it would have had to have been done done that way for us to all to attend should we want to anytime three board members or more expected at an event it's posted as a work so that there's no open meetings law violation that usually is just announced that we're meeting um that we'll all be there but not necessarily listed as a work session but without work sessions mean that you're discussing School Board issues no we just normally PR as a work session so we're just retroactively calling it that thank because if it was a work session we'd have to post it ahead of time as such right and we always supp stay including now can you talk just a little louder please we in m i I only hear I'm not hearing everything that you're saying I apologize the problem we facing each other exactly anytime three board members are present are expected to be present at a meeting that is a school function it's always posted as a work session maybe the word occasionally might be used special session but normally it's posted as a work session that's to uh make certain that we're complying with the open meetings law so that it's posted 24 hours before it occurs okay are you looking for a different description of it for this no I was just making sure that there wasn't like a board meeting discussion that I wasn't included in were just yeah was like I didn't know we were I'm understanding now make sure that's what it was cuz I think for the parade it was advertised as a work session an agenda posted and then there's the minutes that are the follow-up and so what you're seeing is the follow-up minutes okay so that's just the minute saying people there correct like nothing else I understand yeah that part I get it was just the work session part because in the you know GPA that says a work session is when you're discussing school things and it's like this is just a concert that's all okay thank you thank you okay any other discussion roll call roll call hi Bates hi Patterson hi Kell hi R HTS hi next item an action item the M Levy certification Mr B president Bates other board members it's that time of year for the finance office uh typically especially in December there's quite a few activities that each of the school districts have to do in setting or M is one of those um House Bill 24302 requires each of the local governments to Levy their property tax access to a specific M ly and what that M ly represents is a and if you look at it from standpoint of simple math you take the mill Levy times whatever the total assess valuation is uh within the county of teller and that ends up what our property taxes is and as we know in school Finance part of the school Finance Act is us is property taxes that's our local share of our school Finance so each year onor before December 15th we to set of M and so what we've done this year and there's a it's it's really getting to the point it's pretty nice to do it used to be in the past you had to go find a bunch of information um but the state has really uh gone in and doing an awful lot of stuff where they put the worksheets out and you really just have to go in and put in the information and it's really simple to do once you get to the point where it's zero because you can only um go up to a certain amount of Mill levies or a certain amount of Revenue that you can col during the course of a tax year um and you're seeing here as a results of that you move down to the next page you'll see what we're doing as we go through a process so for the 205 make sure I got that right 25 26 school year we will set our property taxes at 29.25 7 Ms and that's what we will certify and get that to the county before the end of this week very good um do I have a motion for approval the M ly so move second second any discussion yes the mil current Mill Levy is at 29.25 s uh do you have I'm looking to see what was it last year and the year before there's a worksheet that we have to fill out as well and you said and the formula is set by the state is that correct it is set by the state um and is this also part of the while you're looking for this is this also part of the catchup or have you know catching up on what was miscount calculated from several years ago or are we all done with that um that is still part of the uh process for this I believe it's this year one of the things that we've done Mr rest that you've noted is that we are required to reduce it by a certain amount over a specific number of years we're fortunate that we didn't have as many ours wasn't as well you say it was actually overdrawn but it was miscalculated that much so we have this year we make make the correction and that correction is point it's 0445 Ms that this year we will actually lower it by that and that's where it really capped us at 2 29257 otherwise it would have been a little bit higher but we had to reduce it for that adjustment um but last year I'm looking at the actual Mill was 27.5 72 I'm sorry I'm just confused you said we're lowering it this year but last year 27 we're lowering the amount that we would have set it at had we not had to make this the adjustment we would have set it at 29.6 7 a little bit well it's actually that 0450 would have been added to that amount but since we had to make that adjustment we made that adjustment to lower it down to the 29257 and then can you just explain how we come up with the number yeah there's a factor of what we do um the county sets the ass valuation of the entire County it's taxable um that I believe was in the neighborhood of 453 million dollar I think it is um and so what we do then the factor that we have plus this also includes our fixed M override that we have which is the $1.1 million that was approved so when we go through the little factors we put in what the assess valuation is um and then you go through the little process we take the deduction that we did and then we have that portion of it now we have an approved mil heavy override we have as well put that in there and that when you put it all together really allows us to collect approximately 12 million and you see it right here it's the 12 I think it's 12 point I'm trying to read what that I'll look on M 12,184 $184,000 and $391 of property taxes that we will collect that is the local funding for our school district the rest of it as you know is backfilled by the state in the school fin okay just to clarify just in case there was the miscalculation that we're playing catchup on was not done by the district that was done by a formula that was given to the county by the state is that accurate the assessor Department yes yes right yeah what what happens when we get done with it then we'll go up to the state level and they uh make their calculations and just they they certify what the count and that's how they actually come up with the miscalculation and several counties throughout the year various years will have that same sort of issue that comes up okay thank you okay anything else okay welome barley hi Gates hi Kimbrell hi Patterson hi prer Holtz hi motion passes all right Mr B next item Item B resolution authorizing requests for extension of time to file on audit for year end yeah one of the things that we also are required to do by December 31st is actually file our audit with the qu Department of Education and the state audit divisions uh after visiting with our audit firm and having some discussions with our leadership uh it was recommended by not all R but also ourselves to be able to get an extension what allows us up to 60 days from the end of the year to March 1st to actually file it and as you know I am the new CFO that's been on board since the middle of August I believe it something like that and so what we were doing part of it because of the transition um and some other activities that happened we were originally going to have our audit field audit done um the 20 I believe it was the 28 29th and 30th of October and as you recall we had several events that occurred here in Taylor County especially in wooden Park where we had to fire um he had that then we were going to set in another week we ended up having the snowstorm so as a result of all not all the activities that occurred um here on site but also with our audit firm because they also do other school districts um we looked at that and said okay we looked originally at doing it in the next having them come in on the 16th of December well when you look at our school calendar that means that we really only have a week to finish the entire audit and get it done and filed and do the a pipeline so as a result of looking at their schedule our schedule we felt in order to do the most efficient and effective job of producing the audit including the financial statements is let's extend that 60 days and then allow us to be able to get it done after the Christmas break not be rushed to try to get it done especially when you're look at we have and it's typical on the school Finance side of it uh we end up working during the holiday anyway however what we really wanted to do is make sure that everybody that is that be involved in the AIT doesn't have to come to the school district during this the vacation break and that was the reason for the extension I have a question yes sir um since it was extended that part uh since we had to back it up the auditing company um I'm guessing they didn't want to be working over the Christmas holiday as well were they part of that decision no they they Ty going to work over that holiday season but yes they were part of that okay um one of the things that they wanted to do is to make make sure that they give us sufficient time one of the things that we do on the field side of the audit is they do their testing so that'll give us a certain amount of documentations in the area of accounts receivable and some other records and some other Financial records and we pull that information and they do their testing and so in trying to get it done within a certain amount of time um typically it usually takes three to four days to draw the information and then they do their analysis after that the issue that we would have here is we would be remote um answering those questions for the analysis portion of it when we actually beginning to create the financial statements so it's not necessarily the fieldwork that was really the creation of that it's once they do their testing such that we have a re our our financial statements are accurate to a reasonable level we wanted to make sure that we do it after the break gives us time to go ahead and then finalize all of the not only the financial statements because it's the only time of the year we actually do financial statements in school of Finance we also have the management discussion and Analysis section that we have to do that identifies changes that occurred from year to year and in order to do that in a timely process to do it in a twoe process was really not reasonable um I know we said you had it originally planned to do the the onsite in October when we wound up closing the schools to students because of the fire but was the District closed that day like we had um child care provided so the buildings were open would it have been it seems like it would have been prudent for us to just go ahead and have we could have but however you know since we were we actually evacuated one day that we're here we're actually here two days last two days of that of the time that we would have been doing the field on it um and then there because of they also do other schools have that following week what they typically do is come and do their field work one week and then do their analysis off site well since we weren't able to do that we had to postpone it again um and then we were actually going to do it I believe it was the the second week of November um and I can't remember which week it was it was the week that it snowed because on one day it was snowed and you know that shut us down from having to be yet as well and then uh the lead auditor Chris bander and I I talked brief a little bit about it and trying to figure out how to schedu it rescheduled in their their time frame and then we ended up having Thanksgiving break um and so when we looked at that and we discussed really doing it and having 20 years of experience of doing it you know I just knew that trying to put all the statements and everything else together in a twoe period is totally unreasonable Chris recommended the same thing after looking at their schedule being able to get it done and so we said why don't we do this in a timely and efficient way and let's just ask for the extension especially because what it did it also gave me additional time to go back in to analyze where we were at within trial balance and gain more knowledge since I've only been here you know relatively three and a half months are there any problems with uh I mean is this something that's unusual that a school's asking for you know an extension on filing it are there any problems with doing it was be question it is common given the situation that we had where we have a new Chief Financial Officer at the time frame that we did um had that been earlier and you know I had enough time and enough traction to be able to gain knowledge of the financial statements of each of the various funds put all together unfortunate I haven't accent background in school Finance I understand it um we had a couple logistical issues with our um software that we have which is Alo um initially and we resolved that um once we resolved that really was just getting together all of the documentation that that we needed for our audit we've got all that done the only thing we weren't able to get done is the fieldwork and so the fieldwork is a very crucial piece of the work that ensures when they're doing their testing The credibility of of our financial statements and so that doing that and then trying to get the financial statements and you really can't get all of that done until you get the financial statements put together as well so once you get the testing the analysis and the financial statements is it reasonable to be able to get that done uh even if we were to get it done like we did in in November if they would came on we still would have been pressed to get it done by December 31st and then file that also with the state audit's office so um historically do we usually have this on site earlier than October did we push that date back so so we really pushed our normal timeline back through this will be the fourth time we're pushing back our not necessar that long typically you would have it right around in September um sometimes you have it in August but August I found to be a little bit premature because remember you're just closing the year and you're closing the month at the same time trying to get that information typically and then through August um by St law we have to really take certain activity that occurs in the month of July and bring it back because of the way our our certifi staff gets paid we end up acur that back to the this school year versus so typically you can't have that until probably September so September October is Pretty much typically when you would do an a a field audit um but then just trying to get with all the logistics of trying to get all that done um and then just the you know the delays that we had uh that were caused by Mother Nature um it was really you know just kind of it it happens at some point in time but really when it happens most often is when you see a change in the position like with my position as a Chief Financial Officer because the individual has to come in gain the institutional knowledge go through the information make sure that it's accurate um put it together and then it gets accepted by the audit firm you know our trial balance has been accepted we know that you know it's fairly accurate given what we've had there maybe a couple minor changes that we have once they do their field work uh but we're very comfortable that were in pretty pretty good situation we just didn't want to have to try to do all this in a two and a half week three week period in Russia yeah and I I can understand that I you I just want to make sure we're um explaining as well as you know as we can why this situation occurred um you know there's been a lot of uh controversy up here in Woodland Park about the school's finances um and this raises a lot of red flags for people to see that normally this is done in September it was pushed back to October that was pushed back to November then that was pushed back to December now we're asking it to happen in January you know what we need to make sure we're putting Minds at ease that that doesn't mean something fishy is happening no I appreciate that that's that's really you know one of the things it's it's something can you only do it once a year um you know and haven't come for the private sector where I had to do it every year I had to do it three times you during the quor and then also through the year end uh it's kind of nice we really don't have to do it once uh but in doing it once you want to make sure you get done accurately and so our concern was not necessarily um you know we've done all the work that we needed to do to get all of the statements and all the other documentation for audit done the only thing that really just didn't happen what was supposed to happen was the schedule of the field AIT itself and that being probably the most crucial part of it uh because that is the basis for their opinion and so no it's something that happens U but like I said I've seen this happen typically when you have a leadership change um in the finance office um because it allows everybody to actually you know to get on board to what's really going on understand the Dynamics of because every district is different um we have a a very unique way we do it we have the general fund we have our grant fund that is actually separate uh that it's kind of a neat way it's done and we have our various other funds or Capital fund on that um but it's really just giv all the Dynamics for that because there's not a lot of transactions that happen in the course the year when you think about it you know we try to do it every month and you do you all your reporting but then when you get the big stuff you got to get the year end year end is quite a bit of documentation we have to provide to our auditor um and fortunately we've already got all that part done I did have a chance to speak to the auditor about this situation and he too recommended he said I'd suggest you guys file for an extension with Christmas coming up he said you know it's just going to compound things so that was his suggestion as well that we did file for an extension yeah and i' I've lived through a couple of them where the recommendation was not approved and we had to just basically jam it in in in four and a half weeks um and to be honest it just doesn't you know the likelihood of getting things accurate when you're rushing it and you're also rushing the people are reviewing it to review it um hav't been an auditor myself I just feel it's probably best to make sure it doesn't the normal process is there extension is only for 60 days but we're hoping to schedule this sometime in January that will be correct yes we'll we'll be scheduled we are scheduled uh right after we get back on January 6th uh that week they'll be in for anywhere from three to 4 days get the information we have then we'll do the analysis right after that we'll get our financial statements ready to go um and you we'll probably end up with the preliminary review of that in January and then finalize it in the February because we have to have the financial statements and the opinion so I I the final side of that would be done at our February board meeting and then we'll go ahead and get it filed right after that okay and so we're not rushing like you said over the holidays we're not having people um just have inaccurate information or having to work remotely and trying to give information that they might not have while they're not in the district is that correct that is correct and I told my staff the same thing one of the things we want to try to do is try to normalize activities and get things done within the normal time frame and typically you can I mean if I had been here four or five years and had all the knowledge and everything else you know we probably would have scheduled the audit a lot earlier um but just the factors of a perfect storm a new CFO um and then really the the issues that occurred when we tried to have our site visit they were out of our control um and so with that the schedules and as uh Mr bant said it's probably best that we look at this and doing it in you know early in January get it all done give them time to get their stuff done if they want to take time off for the holidays I'm not sure what their schedule is I know they were off the week of Thanksgiving very much like we were um and so in having that discussion we just felt it was in the best interest of the school dist stre to do it accurately and efficiently do we have any um contingency plans in place obviously it took us we got pushed back more than 60 days from our original plan it's probably going to snow again here in the next month or two um to make sure we stay on their schedule and wind up missing our next Mark we do yes I had a conversation with Mr f a little bit about that as well there something were to occur insur me that we had to you know push it back to a Thursday Friday and following Monday Tuesday we could do that as well thank you thank you uh let me read this resolution and then we'll go to a vote this resolution is authorizing a request for extension of time to file an audit for year end whereas Woodland Park School District re2 in Teller County Colorado is a public corporation and polit and political sub subdivision duly organized and existing under the Constitution and the laws of the state of Colorado and whereas the members of the Board of Education of the district the board have been duly elected Chosen and qualified and whereas the Colorado Office of the state auditor provides opportunity for a 60-day extension of the audit deadline for an annual audit and whereas the district and auditor firm have separately recommended to the board that an extension application be submitted to ensure timely submission of the audit for the year end June 30th 24 by obtaining such a 60-day extension but it be it therefore resolved the Woodland Park School District R2 Board of Education hereby authorizes and instructs the district to promptly submit a request for extension of time to file an audit for the year end June 30th 24 2024 only that being read do we have a motion to approve so moved second second roll call Arley next Bates I Kimbrell hi Patterson hi pror Holz hi motion carries thank [Music] you what say oh you you're up again I'm sorry on this occasion I'm glad you stayed I getes in would you like water okay Mr Bay you're up okay this item is for discussion this is another item that uh superintendent Whit I've had several discussions about and it's it's a what it is pursuant to state law the state treasure really is authorized to uh provide short-term debt in order to make interest free loans to participate in school districts to alleviate temporary cash flow deficits expected during the course of a year and as all of you know part of the way we collect our total revenue that we have for the school distri is through the collection of our property taxes typically property taxes the the bulk of them are collected in February March April and then you get a couple of little laggers you know that come in in May and June um in reviewing also last year our activity of getting some of our June property taxes we actually didn't get them until July and early early August so what we want to make sure and this is a program it has been existence for a long period of time there's a number of school districts that actually use this uh both big and small and part of it is driven by the fact of having normalized cash flow uh one of the things I learned early on in running my own organization was how difficult cash flow sometimes can be you try to normalize Revenue such that you're getting it on the same basis now from the state we get one 12th of what the state is going to give us every month which is fine but in property taxes we collect those property taxes when they get paid to the county and then the county turns around and gives them to us so obviously there can be you know ups and downs in the collection process what this program was identified for and created for with the state's Treasures Office is to allow School District to have a normalized cash flow what we in essence do the Dynamics of this program is this what the collateral is for the interest free Loan program is our property taxes the $12 million that we have the opportunity to collect from the county we get that as I said before typically you get it in you know four or five months in essence what this allows us to do is to come up and say what is your normalized cash flow that you have and what would you need for a period of time if you had to operate from December January and February without it so that being said typically what I did when I got here and it was something that I began to look at probably within my first couple weeks that I was here is what is our cash flow and as I know haven't been in this business for a number of years especially on the school Finance side is understanding the school Finance how it works and how the Dynamics of it are and understanding that anybody that has an opportunity for this program should be in this program most smaller school districts I would highly recommend that they're in this and so it's one of the things that I suggested to superintendent Whit is that this is something that I feel that we should get into the program of making sure that we normalize our cash flow so that being said what I knew that it wasn't possible will to be able to do it in December I actually looked at it in November and early October but be with the Dynamics of learning the program and trying to figure out because it has changed I hadn't been in school fans for the last two years previous to being here and so you know I had to get up to speed with really how it was working the program is really pretty dynamically put together now what we will do over the next couple weeks between now and the end of this year and as well as preparing for the board meeting one of the items that will be on for action in January will be this information here that we need to certify uh and it has the same thing it has some resolutions in there of what the board has been we have to review this initially with you and then what we will do is we'll come up what our cash flow is I've estimated and guesstimated what I think our cash flow is what our need will be and that being said we're either going in and we'll redo it and then look at see where we're where we're at and how much we actually need now the neat thing of this is what we each month what we would do superintendent Whit I would certify this is the amount that we feel we need for this month gets distributed either on the 7 17th or I think it's the 27th of the month and so we have four different times that we can actually collect for it then what happens is it remains outstanding um it's capped to a certain amount um obviously we couldn't go over $12 million because that's what our $1 million in property taxes but what it allows us to do is to not have to worry about what's in your cash activity and your bank accounts and your reserve accounts during the course of the time of year when we know the the state knows that it's going to be at very low so they allow us to collect the money put it into our um and we even get to collect the interest on that we put into our bank collect an interest um and then all of a sudden we pay that back as those revenues come they get paid back we get the property taxes but then it pays back that loan once we paid back our loan the rest of the the balances ours and so it's a program that I highly recommend uh to Woodland Park School District I've utilized this in the past with the charter school um and so having gone through the Dynamics of it uh we understand you know but there's some legal things that we are required to do and there's a table of contents that I provided for you you can see that the table of contents is very extensive and so that's what I'm in the process of doing right now is going through first of all getting the cash flow done and then getting all of the particular information that the state would need for this now one of the nice things is that my predecessor had actually applied for this back believe it was probably May or June of this year so we've done all the preliminary stuff we needed to do now I need to do all the finalization of the paperwork the cash flow the final cash flow and I really won't know what that is you know until I get through December once I know what that is then I can actually apply for so um it's a program I highly suggest but I wanted to just give you that as a discussion item and share with you you know as part of the process that'll allow us to stabilize our cash flow during those critical months Mr re yes I'd like to know um is this sort of like a business factoring their invoices when they're very seasonal type business it would it be similar to that Mr is exactly what it is this is nothing more than now the nice part about this is as you know in that when you do it on the private side there's a fee you end up having to pay to do that you don't get your full value back here we get our full value back so it's kind of a very unique program um and the state is identified I'm trying to remember how many districts I believe there's if I'm not correct there's anywhere from 27 to 29 school districts are actually in this um it's a very large ones Boulder Valley School Districts is actually in it um and I know their CFO very well um and they just utilize it just because the program is available it's available to us why not use it um it's some additional actions but once you get into it we're typically are doing our cash flow analysis anyway all we have to do now is and now I do have to admit this program 10 years ago was very put this way difficult because of the legal beagle stuff that we had to do the state now has refined the program with the state Treasures Office such that there's it looks it appears like there's a lot that we have to do but there's a lot of little things that we have to do the biggest thing is our cash flow of understanding what we need making a calculation that month of what we're going to need because we may put in that we need $1.8 million which is our average cash flow that we have it's anywhere from $ 1.8 to $2 million that we spend almost every month from payroll to operations um and you look at that and say okay what do I need this month you know maybe some of the property taxes came in uh we have Medicaid stuff that comes in this time of year we you get some other stuff so maybe some of that stuff comes in maybe it doesn't if it does you don't have to worry about it as much uh but it's there and the nice part about it is it's a program that's unique to school districts only what is a downside to it in my opinion nothing there's no risks we have no liability if you and I were in business and had this program this would be a wonderful thing you get an opportunity to get free money you don't pay an interest fee on it it's designed for use simply because they know that they're cash flow models because remember we give all of this information to them through the pipeline um I'm surprised that the state of Colorado has not gone to a couple models that I know exist in other states um because in other states you have to give that information to them almost every month and they're actually calculating your cash flow for you um here we do it the state is very aware that you know in those months of November December January February are difficult because your your cash flow is going like this your bank balance is going like this and all of a sudden you want it to go back up they want you to be able to normalize that worri about it well I have more questions but I'm do we have a current cash flow issue no I just are we are we in a space where we're regularly worrying that we won't be able to pay staff no ma'am we're not worried about it matter of fact we did the calcul today our our U report was due to the bank today um we made the transfers of what we need to do we made our calculation of cash flow earlier this week uh actually made it last week and we verified it this week um we've got all of that done we look we still have you know money in our our k bank or our piggy bank if you want to call that um and we also have money in our Reserve so we're doing fine right now but it's just really within those months of January and it's really because of the unexp expectation you don't know what revenue is going to come in during those months here we know that if we use this program we can go in and say okay for this month we need our average cash flow we need $1.8 million okay they give it to us we put it there it just adds to whatever we need and then once the property tax coming in just we pay that off first the balance we get so when sorry so it's really more of an extension of our banking activities if you wanted to call it that but it is a very unique program I've been aware of this program for a long period of time um because one of the things the state has always tried to do and I'm very fortunate because of my knowledge and interaction with the 1994 School Finance act how it works um we've always wanted to have the districts get what they always called the soft Landing um and we've done this you know with the fiveyear average that seems to be getting changed as well um but in the past the state leadership has always wanted to you make sure that school districts are not having to worry about cash flow during those months when the bank balance goes down doesn't mean we're not meeting cash flow it just means it's going down um and so you know it gives us the ability to maintain all of our reserves and all of our um funds that we have available without really any risk of knowing that when we get the money back from the property tax we're just paying them back the balance is ours um it's a program like I said I highly recommend for every school district especially as a smaller District uh in a smaller District that has declining enrollment probably more so to be able to utilize something like this and why would that be just simply because you look at your cash flow if you're in a declining model unfortunately I followed District 11 for nearly 30 years with a very good colleague of mine and he worried about cash flow every year of his 30 years he was there and having to had a discussion with him he told me ja this is something I definitely would be using and I was well aware of that um and like I said it's something I've known for a long period of time and I just finally got to the point where the level of activity that I had trying to you know get the preparation of the budget and or the all some of the budget from last year getting information about the audit get on now at a point in time where hey now I need to get this done but this will be something that I will recommend even next year the same thing thing it's something that annually we have to you know we don't annually have to apply but we annually have to make the commitments and everything else because it goes year by year when our normal tax revenue comes in where what account does that go into it goes into our general fund okay will this money also go into the general fund yes the N what what will happen in this case is very similar Mr R tell us about the way you do it in your receivables it's a receivable that's actually due from the the um in our case Teller County so when it comes in what the state does is if we've paid you know if it's more than what our average uh stuff is we just wouldn't get that prop that property tax that month right let's say that you know ours was a million dollars and they would just deduct a million dollars from whatever we get up you know and if it were over a couple months they'll take a portion of that so the eligibility of that money um basically what I'm is it able to be spent on the same things is there any difference in what you're able to spend there's no restriction on it is there restriction on the normal tax money because it's it's general fund monies yes and and this is this is specifically for the general fund it's not for us to do you know Capital expenditures and things like that and Grant funds typically just for your normal operations that you have within the district um and so it's for your payroll and your operating side of the school dist Street which you know it's our happens to be our utilities and various expens expenses that we had to run the school anything else I do have another question uh there's you said that there's no downside to it as far as the state is concerned and there's no strings attached that we have to perform do certain things because we're accepting it what is but it seems that there is now a reporting cost associated with it how often are you reporting auditing this what kind of auditing requirements are there from the state and what does that cost the district yeah typically what what it cost is my time as a CFO um there isn't you know what you would have to do each and I I'm doing this anyway you know I just look at it from a CFO standpoint it's kind of real comfortable knowing that you know you're making the calculation just to go get the money from the states and instead of worrying about you know where the money is because we have you know we have you know eight or nine different bank accounts that we have for various activities and you know you don't have to worry about balancing those you just say okay this is a calculation I need this month I've got the assurance that I can use it into this interest free Loan program um so I'm getting the money in essence as a surrogate being the state versus being the county that I will be getting it from when those funds come in later on but yes you are correct the only downside of this is there's some additional work that you have to do but typically that work is not additional work it's work that I should be doing anyway and I am doing I'm doing the so it's no additional labor cost to the district to file all these this paperwork and reporting to the state no it's just like you said there when you as I sent you the package the entire packet you can see really what the level of activities there's some insurances that we have to do one of the insurance is that says when money comes back in we will pay it back from the property taxes that we're going to receive and that that gets paid first before we get our share um and so really there's not any and that's the reason I said I I highly recommend this program to school districts because there isn't a downside risk um there's probably more of a downside risk if you don't use this program than there is on you know utilizing the program and that's really why the state Treasure's office you know came up with this because they're very aware of the problems that occurred in the past um you know with and range from small districts to large districts I've been aware of school Finance for well over 20 some years and I've watched some of the very largest school districts get into cash flow issues um and I've also watching very small was the same thing so it's it's just a matter of as it says it's it's an interest free cash U program for us to be able to augment our cash flow during a period of un unnown when you're going to be able to collect those funds there there is no motion uh needed tonight a resolution will be proposed for the January meeting and he did include the the entire packet so there is time for everyone to take a a closer look at it the questions wen't answered tonight that's the reason main reason I wanted to bring it on for for this evening is just so you have that information have a little bit of discussion answer a few of your questions I will go in then beginning the balance of this week and next week and really over the break make sure diligently we got all the information together so we have this board meeting a month from now then we will be making that recommendation to take action on the program at that point in time you'll actually know how much it is that we're actually requesting that we have for for that period of activity and that so I just want you to be aware of it first and then bring forth next month but thank you very much okay now now thank you Jack okay thank you we didn't have any discussion no no I mean if there's something that comes up this before we do this resolution next month is there something else you were wanting to discuss Yeah just something I mean I don't want to come across as I'm opposed to it there's just some questions I have about it you know in my company we were so seasonal between production and sales we used to factor invoices every year and not every year but you know we would we would do it it's wonderful program take advantage of with the bank um I'm just wondering um I lost my train of thought so I was just wondering if is this more of a contingency an insurance type plan that if something comes up we have an even amount of income that we know is going to be there draws from our our property tax monies if we don't need to do it financially we're sound if we don't need to do it I'm just trying I wanted to hear from the board what do you think I mean is this something sounds like there's no downsizes to it what's the benefit in your minds that we should do this or not do it well it's a program that has put out there because this need comes up for a lot of school districts just the lack of cash flow and as a business person we all know that but I could have gone out and uh when I had my business I could have gone out and used my line of credit to get some monies but I I'd have to pay interest on this there is no downside to this in fact there is an upside because they're not charging us any interest we get to have the interest of that money's while it's in our possession for our use so I don't see a downside and this isn't some to to my understanding this isn't some program that's just for the people that are struggling and not managing wealth it's available to all school districts and and they do take advantage of that so I I don't think this is anything new um and I I don't see a downside to this program I think it's nice that they've made that made that available to us anything else last year I was at the December board meeting in Creek and and and they voted to to do it because it's just it's just a security blanket we probably won't have to use the money at all but wouldn't you rather if uh we had to replace the roof for $5 million5 million the $12 million he stated we get from our property taxes that's a third of our yearly budget so I think it's insurance and it's a safe way to have a blanket of money if we need it and it insures and I think it gives the employees um peace of mind that they they are going to continous to be paid the bills are going to be paid school is going to be taken care of and I think it's our job to it well there just not a downside to this anything else I'm going to look into it more before the next meeting well and and there is time and and there's time to spend some more time going through this packet as well I really appreciate that we have this proposal that we have a public discussion about it and uh I like I like that we did it this way than I'm going to second that thank you okay next item our new item our amended item the daak um let let me open this uh there was there wasn't I mean what we've done with the daak this year was a good faith effort um the notice went out to all of the Dak members early that we were going to be having elections that night and when we had the part um so before you get into that I'm not talking about the elections within the DAC my I wanted to discuss who we as a board elected to be on deck not the who [Music] then the elected dck officials decided to be part of their um you know officers well my point being that the the agenda went out and the night of the meeting there was no one else interested in those positions was there an oversight not making sure they were categorized correctly that's something we're going to need to fix we to to make sure everyone is clear going into that election that we have we have people that are electable and and and that was a mistake but for this to come up halfway through the year we've already had two DC meetings I do not want to throw a wrench in the program by changing chairs uh Mr de booth has done this his second year now and if anyone the the DC meetings are open to everyone to everyone but if if people saw the the content of our last DC meeting just for everyone's information we got sack reports from everyone uh it was a very cordial good meeting and you know I left the meeting saying wow that that was a good meeting so I don't I personally don't want to make a change to it at this point do we are there some things to learn from it yes but it was a good faith effort there was nothing underhanded that was done and and that that's where I sit on it okay um so again just to clarify the issue I wanted to bring up was who the the administration proposed recommended to us to vote on several of those people are not actually eligible as per the D and so we were what the list that we as a board voted on was not a good list um I think you know I assumed and I'm sure you all did as well that the list we were provided you know I asked um superintendent with that meeting how the people were selected um and he didn't bring up eligibility but again I assumed that was part of it um but that wasn't the case there were people who were recommended that we vote for who were not actually eligible to be on the committee at all so that is the part we need to amend and it was brought to our attention last month before the second daak meeting and we tried to have conversations about it prior to the second daak meeting and it took too long um for whatever reason and so what I'm saying is we made a mistake mistakes happen we're all human but now that we know we've made a mistake it is our responsibility as a board to make sure we are following the policies and you're right but under the circumstances I things are going well enough and we you guys sack and D meetings in in many districts they can't get three people to show up to sack meeting and and low numbers for DAC meetings I'm very encouraged of where we're at with our sack and our DAC and I don't think this is an issue to upset the apple card over to to make those changes now we did have a volunteer that at the last meeting that was new that suggested that she would be willing to come into that role but she's already a part of this the only thing that she would gain from that would be being able to sit in on the agenda setting meetings there's nothing there's nothing underhanded or undercover about this Keegan well I I hear you saying that and I hear you saying it was a good faith effort but we have we had a wonderful list of people that applied to be on the deck we don't have an issue with with not having qualified people we have them we have a very involved parental and and community at large um that wants to be involved and I'm saying it's for the accountability committee to not adhere to policy is kind of a big deal even and I'm not saying anything about the people themselves I won't even bring up names but there are there are three people who we voted on who are not actually eligible because of um their community members or parents titled but they are related to or work directly for the school so it's a conflict there and it's in our policy that we wouldn't do that unless there is nobody else who applied but we do have other people who applied so to say we had a good faith effort is not accurate because we have other options and we knew about it before the second DAC meeting and we didn't take action on it well again clearly mistakes were made so let's fix them I have I have a question for you um about about the whole thing you've said that the meetings are going very well uh Ginger is a part of the meetings that I understand is yes and she's and she's instrumental in that she's very yeah in it so is there a way I agree that we need to I hate to upset something that is working well is there a way how do we keep it working well and satisfy that we are over the accountability committee is accountable to the to the guidelines that they're supposed to be working under because I understand I understand what Keegan is saying but what is what is the solution to it well I was proposing that we don't make any changes but we learn lessons from this obviously we we missed some pieces of that and I've spoken to Mr wit and we we've agreed that in in future uh selections that that we'll get this right the the only thing that that would be not overly um uh wouldn't overly mess things up would be I could certainly talk to Crystal def fob who who s who volunteered the at the last act meeting I could talk to her and and and see if she's interested in in engaging in that but I don't want to I mean that would be a co-chair type of a position because I don't want to in the middle of this race start with a a whole new chair uh it I I think that would be counterproductive well I have a suggestion okay just throw this out here for conversation since we as a board of directors made the mistake and it affects their operation rather than the board saying how to fix it and what to do can we just task or ask the the Dak here's the situation you as a body fix what the mistake that we made you your government you decide your governing body take care of it and report back to us please so that you're within the guidelines of the and they come back with us to us with a suggestion I'm just throwing that out there you think it's Oh you mean for for going forward for applying yeah I think I think that would help um the current one it states that if you are related to anybody um any employees that you are ineligible for the DAC but it doesn't also mention that if you work for the district that you would be ineligible as a parent or Community member which should be amended that as the oversight we made the note that to that's a good idea but also the administration should have known that these people were employees and not recommended them to us I'm I'm sure you know our employees right no I don't know every employee in the district employed by or a relative of a person who's employed by the school district including being employed at a public school of the school district unless the district good effort and it's unable to identify a sufficient number of parents who are willing to serve right which was not the case this year because even in the last meet or the meeting when we voted on DC members um superintendent Whit mentioned that we um didn't that about half of the people who applied were not selected well I think the questionnaire is a good idea that's going to benefit all parties involved to make sure we're dotting our eyes and crossing our tees I think that's a a good idea um and like I said some lessons are learned here and if it would help the situation what I would do is is speak to Crystal and ask her if she is open to that talk to Mr deuth if they were to co-chair then we've got a parent representative in their in the chair position and we've got Mr deuth there for them to work together to take us through the end of the year and lessons will be learned to to prevent this in the future yeah I I'm I'm glad we're learning lessons the problem with that is that Mr deuth himself is one of the people who are not eligible to be on the deck and for for us to knowingly allow a person who is ineligible to even be on the committee to chair the committee seems terribly irresponsible but the team made good effort but we made the mistake in the first place by electing him they voted theed and the members only for my understanding two people that even volunteered to take the election of the officers that's because we didn't elect the right people in the first place we caused this problem we didn't have a goodi effort we didn't elect when there's only two meetings left well there's nothing understand there was nothing underhanded intended there it was it was an honest mistake I mean it an honest mistake by us the board we need to fix it that's all I'm saying it it seems wrong to have our accountability committee chaired by someone who's ineligible to be on the committee well I would like to ask the committee to come up with a solution and if they need help from us if they need something from us then ask us and we'll do it that that would be my suggestion let them take care of it and we'll help if necessary what we did at the last meeting was Miss slum did a presentation at the very beginning and and address this and the the mistakes that were made and at that point the the Dak all agreed to just forge ahead what I would do is take this back to the Dack and and have a a discussion about this and make sure everyone is still comfortable to do that or do we need to make the adjustment sounds like what Keegan is saying is uh Mr deuth would have to step down as the chair and off the committee compl she would she would come in well he could he could come in there and assist her in her position could he not he's not even supposed to be on the committee at all well I mean we we we can run it back by the by the daak but technically this is our have to vote himself out what's that if we did that if we say Okay Dak you decide we're asking people who are ineligible to be on the committee to to basically kick themselves off yeah well I would I would TR I would trust Our Deck I think that those people from what I've heard about them of course I don't know them all that we would tell them make yourself we made a mistake come up with a solution that complies with the guidelines and if you need something from us if we need to appoint someone whatever we need you be compliant and I mean i' I'm just repeating myself so I mean this is the technicality the DC is is functioning very well that is correct but we're still saying that the people who shouldn't be there are the ones we are allowing to make the decisions well I mean they're one of the votes when we have issues that come up it does come up for a vote in the room so we're not that shouldn't have a vote that's the point we have these bylaws to make sure that there's good representation of parents and community members and teachers we do not currently have good representation because we elected ineligible people we have unbalanced representation and so the vote is not going to be a balanced vote well where do you guys want to go from here may I speak you may I agree with I agree with keik and and I think it would we are the ones that appoint the people and we we did make a mistake and I think there would be other people I think we need to make it right to be transparent with the community because we're the ones that chose the appointments and I think I I think we should do the right thing and I think there are other people that will do as good a job well I mean we have a candidate right now and she fits the criteria so I think we need three I think there's three people that are currently eligible not hard find well and you know I don't uh Mr de a decent guy like I said I mean there's I'm trying to be very transparent here there was there was no it's nothing personal intended not at all um I'll I'll talk to Mr deou and I'll talk to Crystal as well with the intend mention that he would he would need to step down and she would need to step into his seat I you guys don't misunderstand me at all we we have to set the example for what we expect from what we do here I I totally understand that but but nothing was broke other than us breaking the rules well that's broke so uh I will I will visit with the two of them and I will follow up immediately yeah it might even be appropriate for us to vote on an additional three people to fill in those spots I'm not I'm not with tracking with you so I can't tonight no not tonight I don't mean tonight maybe in the next want to vote well I think oh I see you want to of the choices right because we have a a list so we just pick keep in mind two of those people weren't interested so we really have one that no we have a whole list oh off the list off the list of people who applied in the first place I think we should use the same process we did let the administrators um recommend these people now we know what the rules is I see so go back to the base and and we just need to replace these people I agree with I agree rules fair enough every everyone good with that we did look at that sounds like you have consensus at next meeting we'll bring at the next meeting will finalize make sure that we're aware of employment with Charter School Etc okay so we're just going to do early what we plan to do for next year exactly all right very good thank you good conversation thank you uh Board of Education reports does anyone have anything yes I do well you go girl I went to the most amazing middle school high school band concert last night I missed the GOP dinner I you on it was amazing the the middle schoolers their their first piece was um I don't know what the name of it is but it was the combined um songs for each of the armed forces that is how the students opened up their Christmas concert was ome um to do a tribute to the Armed Forces that's great and and it was amazing and as well as a high school band they did what's called red white and blue which was this was their opening to the this um I believe this song was written in the 1800s but it became popular for the Vietnam vets and they opened up um the high school a tribute to the armed forces and they they closed with the Jazz Band it was amazing I think who was the music teacher Kayla Garcia Kayla Garcia yes she she's amazing the these kids I I cried and um and next Tuesday is the choir for the middle school and the high school I encourage everybody to go that's it I'm I'm glad to that for that report sad I missed it that's awesome that's really good I also have a board report that's um musically related um so Coline is having their um holiday or winter sing along um on the 19th um so I will be there singing along with my cre is that right yeah probably from the audience but you know but it's always so much fun and um seeing the kids they get so excited to to get up there and perform so um that's on the 19th at call by 9:00 a.m. thank you others yes um I just I'm I still can't quite get over the Improvement that our school district has had in the past couple years academically you know and the work that the administration are great teachers dedicated parents and the amazing kids that did the work to bring us from being in the bottom half of performance of the schools across the state to the top 10% academic performance you know that's when it's a focus on the foundational building blocks of learning math and science and Civics and English and literature and history and you know and removing distractions so that kids can focus on what's important in the schools and so I I'm just so so proud of of this school district and the dedication that the community has towards education and it takes all of that to make it happen and just I just look forward to what we're going to do years and years from now and what is this District going to look like academically going forward I just very pleased with that it is exciting you know one of one of the things is you know since it's Christmas time one of my favorite subjects has always been has been history it's still my favorite I read historical novels and accounts all the time and um Christmas tying history and Christmas together Christmas is my favorite time of the year I start listening to Christmas music in the summertime I have my Pandora stations you're one of those so anyway but it's it's a little bit sad to me that we don't use the historical documents to to also support this wonderful wonderful holiday that that most everybody support you know you know participates in and you know I find that I'm not trying to throw a sad thing in there but you know we have great historical documents that to build this country we've got our Declaration of Independence we've got the Constitution The Federalist Papers all these things swirling around and we have that wonderful founding collection of 66 historical documents that all those were built upon and so you know these this collection here of 66 historical documents in one volume that our country's built on that that Christmas is built on we come in and celebrate this time where a Judean boy was born to change the world and we all get to celebrate that and uh it's my favorite time of the year and uh I'm just so glad it can be that you know that we bring that if in our community we can find a time to look at the truth to look at Liberty and to look at peace and how can we bring that all together and I know for me I just I I want to do everything that I can to build bridges of Peace uh with with each other in the community around wherever I find it you know and and just being this time of the year it's just it's a board report or a biography this is my this is my time I get to say whatever I want I could do a dance jig so anyway okay I have one Merry Christmas to everyone and hope you have a great new year does your wife put a stocking up for you on the mantle Oh I thought she was going to say stuff one of my mouth or something um I got a report yes she does anyone else can I can I just say one um anyone who watched the performance the The Lion the Witch and the Ro at the high school it was an amazing theatrical production that our our students put together it was amazing I I cried that too my uh mine isn't as uh flowery but uh we've had trouble we've had trouble in past years attracting students to uh apply for scholarships the Kanas the rotary other organizations half scholarship money that it's like pulling teeth to get people to apply for them and I've had people reach out to me asking you know who do we need to talk to what do we need to do to make these more uh help people understand that they're available well you know some of them are are $500 scholarships and that's great but for the effort that's involved in applying for them I one of my guesses is that people thought you know it's not worth it for this small of a scholarship but the community is working on this and uh I'll give you an example of it the honorary deputy sheriff's Association used to do $2500 worth of scholarships to the students of Creek and Woodland Park a decision was made this year to bump that up to up to $110,000 so you know that that could be5 $2,000 scholar ships that's going to that should increase the appeal if if we don't have enough applicants then we divide that up into larger portions so what we want to do as a group is make sure that the students understand the opportunity is there that is money for them for whatever they do and and another important piece of that is these scholarships will be available to not only go to college but they'll be available to go to trade schools if someone wants to continue with their welding excuse me their welding career or something else so this isn't just restricted for college we know that the Dynamics of that are changing so it'll also be available to trades trade school students so that that's pretty neat thing I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that can I ask a question with your board report um our guidance counselor is aware of all the scholarships that are available do we connect the community members it has varied but that's part of this push is to make sure that all parties know so for example uh you know we would make Matt here the industrial arts teacher aware of this so it's on his frontal lobe to try to increase the interest in these so it'll be more spread out of of these availabilities could we have a maybe an available scholarships page on our website well there was discussion of that that you know list all of the these opportunities and links to the applications the download that hasn't that hasn't been uh addressed yet but that was one of the ideas to try to make this more widely known yes that would be great thank you anything else with that Cassie still here sleep uh motion to adjourn so moved second second roll call Barkley hi bat hi Kimbrell hi patteron hi rer Holz hi motion Carri is meeting a Jour thank you Merry Christmas Merry Christmas two weeks you are like a little kid do you go sit on s's la School