I'd like to call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. Barkley? Here. Bates? Here. Kimbrough? Here. Congressman? I'm here. I'm calling. So I'm Avon Parks over there. Finished it out. Can't wait to find your two business with my daughter. Hello. Alright. And I just called your name for a roll call. I'm putting you up. Maybe. There we go. I'm putting you up for the mic. So rest your hold. Sure. I would ask to let everyone know that I am calling in from Kansas because I have some work to do here.
I will be back in back home in Colorado to assist you public health. Public Thank you. Is that everyone? Okay. Approval of approval of agenda. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Second. Volkow? Barkley? Aye. Bates? Aye. Kimbrell? Aye. Patterson? Aye. Rusterholtz? Aye. Okay. Thank you. I'm going a little bit off agenda, but not so much. First of all, I want to I want to discuss rumors about the board's viability
to act in their board positions. There are some rumors floating around town about whether or not Sue Patterson or David Rasterholtz and in some cases, Cassandra Kimble Kimbrell are residents here. I can assure you that they are eligible. I don't know where this stuff came out at. The mud mud what? Mud Mudmaker. Mudrocker? Mud. Anyway, there is very viable proof that they are they are all residents here.
Sue Patterson still owns her house here. Her husband is here. David Rushterholtz sold the house across the street from another house he owns, and he is living in that. And Cassie Kimbrell has never gone anywhere. So let me get that out there in public. I don't know how these rumors got started, but they're false. Okay. Moving on. Discussion information, the lease agreement. We had put put this off this past this lease, agreement off this last Tuesday
because it it it wasn't ready for discussion. We, since then, we have found some child there there have been some challenges found in the lease. And another issue, we really do need to have counsel present to have a a good legitimate discussion about the lease, and he wasn't able to be here tonight. Let let me make a few quick comments, and then I wanna turn it over
to our CFO, mister Kuritar. One, we need to work on the verbiage about assessed value versus it saying appraised or fair market value is an issue that has come up. Another issue, verbiage regarding Woodland Park being named as coinsure on the sublease liability policy. It it currently is not. Thirdly, the board must exercise ongoing oversight to ensure the charter school's financial health aligns
with the charter contract and state standards. That being said, I'm gonna turn it over to mister Curitard to expound expound on that if you would like to. Thank you. It's an honor to present to the board. I wanted to put in context kind of my thoughts. I think real close so our So that Alright. People that are in here. Thank you. I'm often guilty in that. Right. Anyway, I think my comments will be more valuable if I put into context kind of my personal background, about education.
I've got four children. One graduated from a charter school, Thomas McLaren. Another, my son attended d twenty. Two of my other kids who are overseas graduated from international schools. Before that, there was some homeschooling in our family. I think we've covered almost every base education we have. So I don't have any bias on any education. You know, I'm a proponent of kids learning, and I think, Merit Academy is based on their scores.
They are producing some highly educated children is is our district. So, I wanted to share that. Also have, as a CFO, the fiduciary responsibility, to the community. I wrote down three things I think that resonated with me. Avoid waste of public resources, protect district assets, act in the best interest of all students and taxpayers. So that is kind of my mindset when I come and analyze this. So I wanted to talk a little bit about this lease.
And one of the most important things, I think, when you enter into contracts, who are you entering the contract with? So I've owned some commercial property. I've leased commercial property. When I owned it and leased it, I always wanted to know what's the financial standing of who I'm signing this lease with and vice versa. When I've leased, I've had my credit checked, produce financial statements, to show that I'm a viable partner in that lease. So I took the time with your Merit Academy. I've got the draft of their annual audit audited financials, looked through actually pulled the
form nine ninety with the last year's financials, looked at the five year, and I think that's where a lot of my concern was looking at the five year, forecast on the website. So I downloaded that and kinda did some modeling. What if what if they took a lease? What if they had a debt service? What if a tax sales tax came into play or some additional revenue? So I was able to look at that and kinda took a step back and
and considered this one. Barrett Academy's got a third year charter, so they are here. It's very difficult really to end the charter. I mean, they have to do some egregious things to lose that, and I don't foresee that happening. I think they've got a secure charter. Second thing is facility. You gotta have a school. And under state law, the full statute, CRS 22 dash 30 dot five dash one zero four six a, a charter school shall be provided with facilities by its authorizer,
which is the district at no cost to the charter school. If the authorizer has space available in school district facilities that is not being used for other educational purposes. So although there's a lease on the table, in essence, Merritt Academy has space in the district. They keep the charter. They keep the space. If we ever wanted to move them out of the space, there's a lot of hoops the district would have to do to accomplish that. And if that happened, which I actually don't foresee, we the district would have to
provide comparable space, for their schooling. So in my mind, there's absolutely no risk of them not having space for the school. So then I turned my mind to the financial position. That's when I went through the financials. But I joined the district just five year or five months ago and determined at that time this capital improvement's needed. District wide, absolutely. There's not a single facility in this district that doesn't have deferred maintenance, and it
is, significant. We're talking tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance. In addition to that, I think what's really hurt is the sales tax that that is. So, you know, I I just looked at Marriott Academy, you know, it was running half a million, and that it's forecasted this year to be zero. And so that's, I think, very difficult when you're budgeting multi year and facility planning to have those funds removed.
And as they're growing, those funds would have grown as well. And I think, if those funds are still there, I think the need for that would be diminished significantly. So the, when I got here and kinda got in the midst of this, the thirty year charter, I was told that it was all that was needed to leverage the per pupil revenue to secure the loan. And after that, it was done, and I wasn't involved in that.
You know, Aaron Salt kinda took that and ran with it. I wasn't really aware that that was underway. I was a little surprised myself when the Charter agreement got signed because I'm reviewing it. There's a lot of changes I think I would have made, many of which I think I would have agreed to. So I wish I could have spoken into that agreement. I wasn't able to, because I wasn't aware of what's happening. The let me just say one thing.
In the charter agreement, I mentioned it's really hard to close the charter school. And the number one reason that they do close is we've had 31 of them close in Colorado. 90% of those were attributed to financial issues that were with the school. So, that is concerning, especially in the in light of a lot of sales tax. So they're paid here. So after the, you know, I was initially told that the that the charter agreement
was what was needed, and then I was told now a thirty year lease is needed to finance the capital improvement. I disagree with that. Just confessionally, I don't think that that's truly required. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hold your applause. I didn't think so. So, anyway, my understanding is that Aaron Aaron Salt deferred the drafting of the lease agreement. I was part of that meeting that occurred right after I started, to Merrick's attorneys. If that's true, that was a major mistake on Merritt's part.
As a I mentioned before, I own commercial property, and I would never allow a tenant to draft the lease. Since Business. Bad time. So I did get involved in it September 29. I reached out to Nick and said, I think I get a feeling this is happening, and I'd really like to, review that lease. You're wide open. Please contact Brad, get a copy of that, let me know what you think. I appreciate that. And, you and I met along with, David and Ginger in on September 29, and
we reviewed my analysis of the lease. Kind of, honestly, felt the lease was offensive in a number of ways to put it politely. So I redlined that lease, and it was, I think, Brian sent it back to their attorneys who returned a similar lease, which I redlined again. So we went through those gyrations a few times. Still not happy with the lease as it stands. I think it needs a significant rework. And and no offense to Brad, but really need an attorney representing us that is
familiar with real estate Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, there there will be time for public comment. But I'm gonna ask you another time to hold the applause. Why? Be be because you'll have your opportunity to But why? He was not talking what they're saying. He was not talking. Yeah. He's talking. You know what, folks? We're not gonna go through this. If you can't if you can't hold your if you can't hold your hold your
comments until public speaking, we we will clear the room. Do you understand? You've already made your decision, but not anything's over. You have not heard the entire discussion. Be patient. Nobody has. We're doing it tonight. So what I'm not gonna ask again Okay. So some of the concerns I think you would, you know, the board should find valuable when I went through the least and talked to Fred and, and you today on that. But I think I'm not even sure which one's the most important, but I think
the concept of the district losing control of an asset, I think the finest school facility that we have for not just thirty years, but two two ten year renewals plus there's a clause in there that if there's any debt, that would extend beyond the term of the lease, the lease becomes extended again. So I'll be dead in particular in fifty in fifty years.
But I think there's a better way forward. So another one another issue that I have is that if merit defaulted in that lease, which I am concerned about with the economics of of the not just merit, but the district. I'm very concerned about it. And, but what would happen if merit defaulted? The cure for their default remedy is that they sublease it to another party without
our approval. And I just that is I'll fight that all day. So what could be done different, and that's a district reverter with the lender payoff. Not super happy with that, but it would at least give the district the option that if Merit did default on the lease, lost their charter, whatever happened, there's a number of triggers in that agreement, that at least the district could step in, pay
off the lender, and regain reclaim that property. I think that that, at minimum, should be there. Little concern. I don't know if I should share this, but lenders like that because it lowers their risk and why it's not in this document. It's a good question for Merit's attorneys. I'd like to know why it's not in there because it should help them, and it could even lower the interest rate that they would be paying. So what we started with was and you've been very strong. It's like, I just want them to have the facilities, track, invest, and invest.
The softball fields and the surrounding property would not be part of the lease. That's been a struggle because that exhibit has always been missing. And when we finally when I finally saw it a day or two ago, it is not what we've talked about. So, that was disappointing because I know you've told them repeatedly what that property description should be for. And so I listened to you, and I think everyone on on our board heard
you, but it wasn't in there. So other issues that I've got is if we end up having to deal with someone other than Merit, we've never the way this lease is written, we don't even get to know who the lenders are. We don't know who the sub lessees would be in the future if that ever happened. So that makes I think we, as it's our asset, should be able to speak into that, and and not withhold approval, unless it should be withheld.
So, that's a couple other issues. Another issue that I really have is just the economics behind it. I mean, as a district, we are required to provide just space to them at no cost, and that's fine. Don't have a problem with that. But the concept of merit being able to sublease this to a third party, actually collect rental income from that that wouldn't flow back to the district is just distasteful. I mean, if we can't earn rental income and they can, it's just maybe legally,
if this document was signed, but morally, I've got great concern with it. The other concern I just have is they've they've really there's a tone in the agreement, and it's also the charter agreement, and, that it's isolating. It's like this wall is getting built between the district and Merritt, and that just is uncomfortable. And if anyone read this or read the Charter Agreement, I think that that language pops out pretty strong. But the concept of turning over a building that maybe is worth $15,000,000 with a
$3,000,000 capital project and not having any being engaged in that process. Jason Farris is a phenomenal facility manager, and to block him out of that, I think it's wrong. I think the district has a great asset in the facility, and they got a great asset with Jason, and we should really leverage his expertise to ensure that that $3,000,000 when it arrives is spent well spent. And I've got other issues there, but I'll just move along with that.
So let's see. Yeah. Yeah. Fine. How know, just looking at the let's see. I haven't really talked about Merit's financial position, but I did look at that five year financial forecast. And when you what's missing from that is servicing the debt that you're proposing to take on, which is significant. I actually went through line by line on all the items that they want, $3,050,000. What is the and I even stretched it.
I mean, if something should be financed for fifteen years, stretched it to twenty. And the the annual cost to financing all of those things at the appropriate amount per item per row or project is a little over 300,000 a year. So the tax revenue could have covered that, but we do not have that. So when I overridged that here, it really, I guess, evaporates a lot of their fund balances going forward.
To compound that, there's an assumption in that forecast that the district is gonna continue to subsidize merit. And what are those issues? One is transportation. So there's over $200,000 in transportation expenses. If we look at what does it cost, what's the net cost to the district? So we've got transportation cost. The government gives us some money on CDE. There's some rental income. But if we wash all of that out and then we look at riders, who
should pay what? And about 200,000 would be the allocated amount properly allocated to merit for transportation. That is not included in this, five year fiscal plan, which sends them into the red. So, the other thing is the administrative support and oversight. I've talked to Glenn Gustafson, open CDE. He's a wonderful person. I think we're all gonna meet with him later, but reviewed with him kind of our history there.
And prior to a couple years ago, Merit, like, basically, every other charter in the state, was remitting three to 5%. The state caps it at 5% of per pupil revenue can be withheld for the oversight and administrative support of charter schools. We did the calculation, and it's about 200,000 that we had not been collecting just in the last couple years. So before, it seemed like we were collecting it, and then prior CFO a couple
ago seemed to cease and it dropped significantly. And, but that should be returned. I think that's something that we'll talk about when we meet with Glenn on that as well. But there's also other minor things, BOCES, some student services there, some maintenance on the facility in the grounds that we haven't fully recouped on those. The other thing in that five year forecast, it was like, I don't know. I think there's some overstating of revenue.
Okay. And, you know, you you could go on, but as as we can all see, there are some challenges before us. And I wanna I wanna give, miss Peckron an opportunity to speak to all of this, but I wanna start with saying we have decided to hold the lease until we can get a a more thorough lease that both parties can agree to before
we move ahead with any more, lease agreement talks. I just need to say that. But I do wanna give miss Petron an opportunity to speak to all that has been discussed here tonight. Miss Petron? So I think you have I think you're pretty enough. I apologize, but I think that most everyone has a copy of this. And like what, mister Curitard did, it started with the other party as well. So when you look at enrollment trends with the districts, currently, the Woodland Park High
School junior high is sitting at 52% capacity. Third academy is the largest and fully functioning capacity at 68.2%. We've not yet hit maturation. Columbine is at 63.7%, and Summit is at 57.4%. What is And this this is relevant to the lease? It's a historical just like you it's my key for the Well, he's presenting financials which are relevant to Well, the lease is relevant because it shows that we are we are well poised in this facility currently as it stands.
Right. But you're not in in danger of using it, so I'm not quite sure what we get back with you, but it has to do with this. It's pretty fast. I just presented it. I'm moving on. District improvements. It's fluid. So I can understand what he's saying just like with, mister Curry. David, if you were here Well, with yes. We gave mister Kurita the floor. Let's give her the floor just to present her facts. Like I said, there is not gonna be a decision made today, but bringing some
facts out tonight are gonna be important for this board to move on with considering a lease with the facts at hand. The facts at hand say we're not ready to to, have a conversation about the lease. So with, mister Perez's report in September, the district is and Merit Academy as well, but it was not listed, is in dire need of improvements.
And the whole goal for this conversation started off with how do we work together to try to fix these buildings. Okay. Well, our building, we would like to fix it. We have some funding, which I will address because what was preloaded is not accurate. And how do we how are we able to fix the facility? We don't own it. That it's not our collateral, but we would like to be able to to take part in that. And then it ended up being that by conversation with multiple lenders who are not
our friends, they're people with money, they said you have to have a leasehold mortgage, which is complicated. And that's what all that was. That was not us. We hired a real estate attorney. We hired the lenders. Well, the lenders had their attorneys. We had the school attorneys. There were multiple attorneys involved in this who were not Merit Academy attorneys. Anyway, mister Farris' report showed or statement was that $40,000,000 the district needs the facility repairs. He itemized Summit Elementary boiler replacements at 170,000. Wilburton Park junior senior high rooftop replacement at 200,000.
HVAC upgrades across the built across the district, 2.5 to $3,000,000. Roof replacements in Summit at Summit and Columbine and two thirds of the junior senior high was 11,600,000.0. Gateway needed $15,000 in playground repairs possibly with the city. And the the additional building that's needed was the bus barn and maintenance building. And then if you go back to the 2021 assessment, they had over 35,000,000. So I think the 40,000,000 is probably spot on with the inflation.
Right? Everything just keeps getting more expensive and and worse and improved. So, and then for the adopted budget of June 2025, you know, how the budgets adjust as as things happen, WPSC had a facilities budget of $225,000 this year. So we said how, in that name, is this is are the district facilities going to be repaired and approved, and how can we take care of the facility we're in? And that led to iterate. That led to that lease, because we had to have certain things in there that
could not be removed or the lenders would not lend us the funding for that. Joint conversations continue with gender, and myself and others regarding funding mechanisms. We know best brands are important. That's 27%. We are not, we are not adversaries here. We we are working together to try to find ways to make this a good partnership. And this, after all the things we've discussed, ended up being a creative way.
The timeline, people say, oh, there hasn't been any discussion. Well, in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, Woodland Park School District commissioned the district facilities committee, and that's when they found the 35 plus million dollars that needed to be addressed within the one, three, and five years, and that was four years ago. 2022 to 2025, we have all us and the at the end, current, administration, we're talking about what repairs we needed, especially when we first got in the building. We talked about to the WPMS admin, like, what's what's going on with this?
How do we fix that? What have you guys seen in your in your sit in that period? So those have always been conversations going on as well. Twenty twenty four, twenty five, the admin, met following the November election. How do we how do we use this, sales tax to continue working on these facilities across the district? What can we do to care for our building? How does the outlook look? 03/31/2025, there was a joint board meeting to discuss the facility issues. Granted, it was a transfer that obviously was not the right decision, so no decision
was made on that. But it certainly was checking off the box and saying, what else can we do? September 2025, Merit Academy and WPSD admin and attorneys met on several occasions, sometimes with board presidents for their board directives to discuss options for facility improvements. Anyways, for Merit Academy to garner funding to help offset William Parks' dire financial and facility pressures. May 25, we had our, charter renewal packet submitted for the charter. '25, we further discussed between administrators and attorneys, sometimes with board representation, depending on their
board discussions, district facility improvements, including Merit Academy's facility needs, continuing to be an unrelenting matter. August 25, Merit Academy's thirty year charter was approved, and with that, the discussion of a lease to possibly mirror that. '25, again, further discussion with this lease. And, yes, we would have loved it if we were not the ones doing this because we have never ever created a lease like that, which is why we have four attorneys working on it. And they all came from very different specialties. So we were very confident that the lenders would approve it.
We were very confident with the real estate attorney that it was going to pass the muster from the real estate perspective and for the school perspective as far as, the school, state statutes. And then now here we are. Woodland Park's facility situation is a crisis. Woodland Park School District and Merritt Academy have been partnering together with the goal of alleviating at least some of the burden, that supports both Woodland Park and Merritt Academy. That was the end result for that, lease there. As far as the fiscal forecast, current five years, five year forecast that we have,
we are we have, decreased the, teacher raises. We removed some of our, teachers and, TAs from our system. We've, also in as you can see the assumptions, we've included the transportation fees along with additional fees to students to, offset some of those fees as well. Our enrollment forecast continues to be strong. We are still growing. Right now, year five, we may look at 700 funded count, approximately 770.
This year, we are the second largest district in the fourth I mean, the second largest school in the fourth, district region out of 17 schools with 614 students. The only larger being the the junior high high school at Woodland Park at 624. Fiscal year twenty seven, Colorado is ceasing that five year average, which is where the, funding for that route transportation is coming. And so we knew that that is going to kick in because that excess funding is gone, with that five year average for those district centralized services.
And so that is included in this, five year forecast as well. And let's see. We have a conservative minimum raise for staff, as I mentioned, a modest increase because, you know, benefits are gonna increase as as long with your typical, excuse me, inflation. We, are very conservative on the the PPR amounts because you never know what's gonna happen with the state if they can actually get their crack together, for a balanced budget and not take any money away from education, which, you know, we find out
on two days. November 1 is the first governor's, forecasting coming out. Facility operations are included in the expenditures. And now if you look underneath, it says capital construction minimum repairs, that is also included. And first year is, basically interest only. They can escalate that for us, and then they can actually grow those payments as we grow. And so we absolutely have the funding to, manage that, those repairs for the, you know, for the district facility.
One thing I would also mention is that, we got off the phone, at least, actually kind of the timing. The next three pages are the facility needs as assessed by, the facility, it's capital a d. It's a facility, assessor just like when we had cooperative strategies come through. That building requires $14,000,000 worth of repairs. The roof, actually, he is actually quite appalled at the, the, state of the roof.
He said there's three huge holes. He could stick his fingers through them all the way down. He sees that they've been repaired quite a bit. He says we absolutely need to get a hold of that warranty to see if we can have that covered. I know Port West has been phenomenal when he talks about the roof warranties and and how the district can possibly save some funding there. So that could be something that we look at with, someone who specialized in that field. Then he's the first year is year one, what he considers, immediate needs. Year two is, like, within one to two years.
Column three is three to five years. Four and five are, you know, five plus years out. Some of it, of course, is like flooring, which we all just go well. There's no funding. Flooring's your last thing that you're gonna repair. But there's quite a bit here. And, as we all know, our, we're having issues with the security of our doors. We had to have a point where our magnets are not locking, so we actually had to use chains to lock our our doors because we are not they're not getting fixed. And so we had to, pull that out as well.
So there's a lot of things that actually need to be repaired. This is by a professional, not anybody from Merit Academy, not anybody from Oldham Park. And it's it's daunting when you add this $14,000,000 to the district's $40,000,000, and you're looking at a school that wants to help, needs to find a means for that finances. And in that way, yes, have a little bit of autonomy in that building, but it's only gonna make that building better. And it's certainly going to stay as a district asset.
So that is that's our presentation. I think I addressed a couple of things that you had mentioned. Just a leaseholder mortgage, that's that's all the finance, attorneys. The district know you said that a reorder. We were told the district would not buy into that, so that was the reason why that was not included. The, fiscal year twenty five you mentioned, that is because of the we budgeted fiscal year twenty five, as did the district, fully based on a full year of sales
tax funding. That includes the 80% that we had for our staff at Friday. That's most districts, most schools, funding as people. And so when that was taken away, that's $200,000 that we had to just scramble to cover, which is why that's at that negative mark. It has nothing or that zero mark. It has nothing to do with, our lack of ability to finance or forecast finance, in that effort.
And so, this year, we we knew that wasn't gonna be around, just like there is absolutely no guarantee that there's any more ever funding beyond what we are looking at right now as a district and as a school. And so this year, we we are very, very tight. We are very, very, we have no fat in our building. And it it works well, and, the auditors are very, very pleased with, how things are looking and our forecasting and the state that we're we're progressing.
So we are a very strong, healthy, financially stable, school, or we would not even be pursuing something like this to, be able to establish that that fixing the building and being able to have a little bit of autonomy when it comes to that. Thank you, miss Petron. I apologize. I misspoke. I'm gonna I need to entertain a motion to decide whether to move on with the on with the lease as originally proposed or to go back to the drawing
table and adjust some of these issues, and and come back with an adjusted lease to to to discuss and then vote on. So do I have a motion to conduct a a vote on whether we move ahead with this lease or not? But I I can't. I'm not sure if we can. Well, I I I can't decide on my on my own that we're not going to run with that lease. You can have a consensus, but I don't think we have a we don't have
a vote or a motion on our agenda. Yeah. It's Okay. The meeting. But a majority of people of the board can say we can either stop the meeting or get into a meeting as written. So I said we can have a consensus, but we cannot have emotion on the floor. It's not an urgent matter. I couldn't understand what you said to you. That that's casting. I said that we can have a consensus, but there's no motion because of our agenda. There's no vote and then we've already passed our agenda.
We've moved to approve it. Well, that is true. We we can we can have a consent just before we Yes. What I I was confused though. What was the meeting on Monday you were talking about? The meeting on Monday is, as I understood, we discussed that there would be a meeting set for Monday, I thought, but it was already met. So who discussed the meeting on Monday? That that had not been set yet. Yep. It it come back. What what did I say? You will have an opportunity to talk.
No more till the till you have the opportunity. The there had been talk about discussing the lease tonight and with the possibility of of calling another meeting to take the vote Monday. But since we're not get since we're not discussing the lease because it needs adjustments, we can't move forward with that. I don't think we can I'm confident meetings happen. I oh, it's a lot of meetings. And it has not been communicated to the board yet because we were waiting to
see how the lease, discussion went tonight before we scheduled anything else. I think it's pretty clear that we need to make some additional adjustments to the lease that both parties can agree to before we have a discussion and then at some point take a vote? Well, mister president, I would say that it it is not yet clear to me that I wanna make that decision because I have questions to ask, and I think that some of these questions can be answered.
So I'm not prepared to say that it's obvious. I have some concerns, but I'm hoping these questions will clear those things up. Well, mister Rosterholtz, until we can make some of these necessary adjustments, I'm I think we need these questions remedy to go ahead with the discussion of the lease before we move on to schedule a vote on the lease.
Tonight, I thought that we that was part of the meeting this evening is to to press the lease and respect things that that, board members thought were problematic and and go forward. Well, there there was a meeting today with our attorney and mister Curator and Jason, our maintenance director, that we needed to proceed ahead with some adjustments to the to the current lease before we could have an in-depth discussion about the lease agreement.
And and we we don't have anything yet to discuss. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I have to speak up here. Where is he calling from? And is he even still a resident in Teller County? Did you Why has he ever opened the meeting? I want proof that this man still lives here. Otherwise, why are we even listening to him? This is ridiculous. I have shared all I can. We did the research and all everyone on the board are legitimate.
I don't know where you're getting your information, but they are still registered voters in the district. Oh, registered voters? Voter registered. Really? All those There will be time for public comment at the end of the meeting. We still have a lot of important topics and facts to cover. So please let us get to those facts. Thank you. Thank you, Keegan. Mister Rusterholtz, we've got to put a hold on this till we can adjust the language in here that is gonna be satisfactory to both parties, mayor and the rest
of the district. And that was per a discussion today with, with our attorney and mister Kuritar and our maintenance director and myself. I and I agree I agree with you that and I understand that that is their that's their advice for the board of education. But I would say that it's up to the Board of Education, the majority of whether we move forward or not with those suggestions. They seem very good suggestions. I would like to hear from the rest of the board what whether we should
move forward or not. Well, I guess we can take opinions, but we we cannot take a vote. That's correct. It might not be easy. Understood. Okay. Well, I'm I'm opening up the floor to the board for any comments. Since there's no other way present, we don't know exactly the specifics that we'll release that the electric need or do you guys have any Well, that was a concern from the beginning was that we really did need to have, counsel here to participate in in any further discussion about the lease, and and we do not.
But I think I think upon making some adjustments and running them back and forth between the two groups and having something to discuss that we could move forward with, I think we're at a standstill to go any further on discussing the lease. You have heard commentary from our CFO and from the headmaster of Merit. That has already been discussed. If someone or if if someone on this board wants to further discuss that, I
am open to that, but I don't see that there's really a whole lot of discussion until we have a document to discuss. Yeah. I mean, David covered a lot of the concerns I have, but I redlined a lot of this lease with concerns. And and, I mean, foremost was the fact and and confirmed here by what David was just saying that this is a rushed decision. Having another emergency special meeting on Monday, I mean, it's it's flagrant.
It's trying to push something through before a vote on before the election on Tuesday. Okay. And and what I've been saying all along is that this is a good lease, and and if it's worth doing, and if it's actually gonna save the district money, then it will still save the district money on Tuesday. And there's no reason to push this through unless there is a fear that this is not a good lease, and the new elected board members will see that it's not a good lease, and they will not approve it. And and and especially the taking place that that there's agreement that some adjustments need
to be made before we can move further. Does everyone understand that? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Any further discussion? Well, I think that there are a few things that should be discussed with these that David Curran our front does not. I'm just wondering. I would like to hear from because it's a merit academy's attorneys drafted the proposed leads for us to review. I would like to know if, there is time to make adjustments to that David,
I sent mister Gurudar shaking his hand and saying that we can't have these adjustments made by Monday. What? Do we know of the actual cost to operate and maintain the property yard? I don't have that specific number. Okay. It would take a combination of Merit's numbers and our numbers to combine them. Okay. Okay. Cassie, I think from old, just from that old yes. It was about 280,000 meters for operations that does not include me.
These are questions that people have asked. So those are operating costs, not including maintenance. Right. But that's for, like, your what what does that include? Okay. All of this. Like, custodial? No. It does not include the studio. Just the electrical, the water, all the things that we pay for outside of to be able to operate the building minus any of our maintenance and custodians. Those are listed in our, those are listed in our salaries and benefits. So they're It's it's hard.
Please stop in your mind. So Seungman, David, thank you. Yeah. $2.80 was is primarily the operational expenses. So that's the gas, the the water, the electrical, all of those sides of things. It does not include the custodians who are on our on our, salaries, their benefits, our maintenance guy is actually good for that. But it's about $2.80. You have a separate maintenance guy? Yes. What does he what maintenance does he do that our maintenance guys don't do? Anything that we think needs to be repaired, if there's a ceiling tile that needs
to be fixed, drywall, basically the minor things. But they pretty much call Jason with most everything. And then Jason will come over and oftentimes show him where things are, walk him through, and sometimes Jason just manages it with his journalism. You have a good working relationship though. So, David, are you saying that the district can inherit some of the deferred maintenance liabilities that have been the placement? Is that what I'm reading? That's the district? Yes. No. That's not No. That's not No. That's not not not currently what I so that's the section that's missing.
That's the section that's missing. Because right now, what it says is that if merit, for whatever reason, what were to go under as a school or default on their loans, that the loan holder would then take over the lease agreement. So then the school district still has no control over what happens to the building, but whoever whatever company, has the the loan would then basically have total control of
the school district building. That's what this says current, which is That's what I was trying to find. But you're you're not sure. And and David David is shaking into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sue and Sue and and David can't hear you hear you shaking. David, I I have the sense that you were you had a couple of other things, that you wanted to to bring up. I yeah. Thank you. I I did. I kinda had I don't wanna end on a sour note. I wanna end on a positive note. But you critique my financials saying that they're wrong.
I'll stand by those. I know the audited financials are due in just a few weeks. When you look at those and see what they look like. One thing I you know, we talked about safety of the kids and they're changing the doors shut, which concerns me. Do you know if you receive, capital construction funding from the state, Did you spend all of that money in fiscal fifth, '25? In '25, we did not. We withheld, I don't remember what the actual amount was, but we withheld that per
our conversation with, Brandon Lechants for a larger, improvement that we needed to make, whatever that was. We knew we had some things come up. The doors just happened, probably about three weeks ago, and we did an emergency, so it lasted all the day. But those magnets are failing. So we know that so far that's two sets that have failed, and we just know the others would come. How about 40,000, you know, for the safety of the kids, for $40 that you
should help with that? That's what we we posted that to their to that, repair. Yep. They had a gun repaired. No. That one has been repaired. That was an emergency, but we're not repaired. The door is a repair. The door the door that has malfunction is repaired. Yes. That was twenty seven. So that's twenty four minutes. Not included in in the number 2001 door. No. Jason, did you have any comments at all? Well, I've I'm on payment with David again yet. I'm sorry? Yeah. David, I'm keeping with you. So, anyway, my recommendation, from from my vantage point, got an action plan here real
quick. So I mentioned Glenn Gustafson. He's in the state finance office up at CDE, and he is gonna meet with if you guys have agreed great. Wonderful. On November 10. So, Glenn, if you don't know, Glenn is so respected. I think but just want everyone within public schools Yeah. Former CFO at the eleven, he which has a lot of charters, but he's just an all around great guy, full of wisdom. And we're all gonna sit down and meet with, Ginger, Gwen, Jennifer, and I'll be
meeting with him on the tenth. I think that, hopefully, we get a good reset, start moving forward in a collaborative fashion. The financials, which I mentioned, your audited financials, the auditors have not seen the true up from fiscal year twenty five, and so that will happen. We haven't seen those. You haven't seen those, but they're due tomorrow. So we'll get those to you. Yeah. Are you do we have a number on that? I do. I have it with me. I haven't shared it Okay. With Merrick yet.
But Are we putting you on the spot? Sorry. Well, I don't wanna put you on the spot. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Yep. Anyway, so my recommendation is we've we've got a facility use agreement and and look at re bringing that up to speed and and get that renewed and brought current. Update the existing district wide facility improvement plan, but we need a slot of history there. We'd love to see, you know, Jason get to work, which he continually seems to update this. But what are we really looking at? What's the bottom line for the district wide including Merritt Academy's facility, Marion, as well
as all district facilities? And then we gotta work to restore the confidence to get, like, a sales tax back or a bond or a mill money, something that can take care of, all of this deferred maintenance. So we've got to work collectively to do that, and I think we can. If we can do that, I don't really see a need for for, you know, a one off loan for Merit to get and work to service on their own. If we, you you know, if we do a COP, combined with a voter approved
sales tax or millage levy levy, to me, those two go together really well. Voter approved, we get we get to use those funds, and, again, not servicing, debt on our own, out of per pupil revenue. I think that's the best way to go about that. Also think, maybe to put merit that can be at risk. And I just got I didn't say it earlier. I wanna say it now. I don't want you guys to think I'm an adversary. I'm an advocate. My I really believe in my heart that if you guys sign this lease, it
is gonna lead to really economic struggle for your canopy, and I don't want to see that. I think this is a better route forward. But if we cite that MOU, say, for $3,000,000 dollars between the district and merit, contingent upon a few things. One, we get the revenue, whether it's a sales tax fund, village led levy override to cover the cost of debt repayment. One, Merit agrees to pay their proportionate share of that debt if it is in a debt structure. And Merit also has established, cash reserves to comply with Taber, hold at least two
months operating expenses on hand in cash, and develop a positive growing cash flow. I think if we follow this, we'll be in a better position. We'll be in a better position, and, and I would feel much better as the person responsible for overseeing the finances. I think this is the route to pursue. Thank you. Yep. You're welcome. Jason, did you have any comments? Sure. So I don't I don't really see you, but I'll make sure You're my best friend. Thank you.
We can always share. So am I good? You guys can hear me? Yeah. Hey. Okay. So I I don't think there's anybody in this room that wants to see every single building in this district improve more than I do. I live deep breath this every day. A lot of days, I'm really frustrated because I can't do all the good that I wanna do. I do feel like, I'm super impressed with mister Kuratar, and I have high hopes, with him in that position.
We could get the district back on track to a place where we can do the upgrades that we need to do. Yes. We've got I mean, the $40,000,000 number is not an exaggeration. About 25,000,000 of that is what I would call, pretty immediate needs, like, in the next few years. The rest of that is, you know, things that, you know, a little bit further out, maybe five. And in my professional opinion, I think there's about one in, 1.4
ish million dollars worth of immediate needs at the Merit Academy Building. There are some things that I would really love to improve. We are still able to operate because those same needs are at every building. It it is our, nicest facility and requires the least amount of maintenance for me, second to Gateway Elementary. So, I in in my, professional opinion, it makes me extremely nervous to see an
asset with, that high of a value and a percentage of the overall assets of the district. For us to lose that, control of that asset to solve a 1.5 or $1,400,000 problem. I think there's better ways to do that. Obviously, I'm not a CFO, but I I, am a property investor. I own properties now. I have owned commercial properties, and I have leased commercial properties.
And as a, a landlord, this, lease agreement, made me very concerned. I personally, I would never sign it as the owner of a property. And so I'm in my discussions with mister Kuritar, and he and I both wanna see these improvements made to this building. And like I said, I don't think anybody wants it more than me. And Gwen Mayo may be right there with me. I know there's some things about all of our buildings that frustrate all of these
staff and educators in them because I talk to them every day. And, you know, my heart is by the time I leave this district that I'll leave it better than I found it. And, I think that we really need to take the time to investigate what is the the best way for it to come up with that money because there there's obviously we own the building as a district. We can come up with the funding to repair that. And instead of merit having to go out and go through all the hoops to get financing for that, we can do that as a package to cover several projects
in the district and then merit can, you know, make the arrangements to pay back the district. So, you know, we kinda just summarized, like, yes, there are some needs at that building. Yes. There's needs at all of our buildings. Do I wanna see all those repaired? Yeah. See. If David would give me a $40,000,000 check, I'd have to spend my morning. But we obviously can't do this. We gotta be realistic. Like, I've got an amazing team that works under me, and, we do the best we can with what we have.
And, so does anybody have any questions for me at the board about any specifics facility wise? There was a a comment on Tuesday. That was last meeting Tuesday, about a boiler need. Are you aware of boilers? I think there was, there's probably been some miscommunication about I mean, I don't have boilers that Merit Academy are not on my shortlist. So the boilers are original to the building.
They're original. They're they call a sectional boiler. If they're properly maintained, they have a lifespan up to fifty years. Now, obviously, I haven't been here long enough to say that they've been properly maintained. Like, my assumption would be that they have been maintained like I would wanna maintain them. So since I've taken over, we're trying to do the proper maintenance on those boilers out. So they're about 30 years old. Are they gonna make it twenty years twenty more years? Like, I doubt it. Are they gonna go out next year? I highly doubt that. So what is the expected lifespan?
I would just be making educated guess on those, because you can't have a catastrophic catastrophic failure if you can't expect. But based on what I know, like, I did not put them on my immediate needs list, if that helps answer your question. I'm not a concern of mine right now. Anything else? Yes. Absolutely. First of all, I wanted to thank David Kurtar and his team. They've been looking around the clock to try to be fiscally responsible and really try to help our entire district be successful.
I think that it is very true that we all want to see Merit Academy be very successful, and you have proven that with your test scores and, your growth with students. But we also have to be fiscally responsible for our entire district. And, I think truly slowing things down, rebuilding trust with our community, and finishing our audits is the first step in the right direction and then finding a path together forward where we are all, working together for the sake of our children, and that's
truly the bottom line for me. It's always gonna be about the kids. The kids belong to our community, and we all need to come back together to do the right thing for them. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that, that I implore all of our schools being successful because I truly our children are successful. Sorry. If there are no further comments, we'll move into public comment. Okay. Here's my normal piece to read. Well, before you No. You can. Sorry. No. No. No. It's fine.
I guess, like, my only thing is, you know, I like the thing going forward you guys are talking about. I know it's been slowing down. And I think you guys are all looking at it, and now this has all been brought forward. I have questions, and it sounds like it's, you know, going to be completely redone. And so for that, good luck. And good luck. And good luck. And, we'll hear from the comment. I just wanna make sure that Well, and and good luck to the whole team. We've we've got a big project.
Wanna say anything? Yes. Yeah. I I think that you should get, missus Beckron an opportunity to respond to anything that she would like to do that that's been said by Jason, followed up by with with what some of the things that David has said. I think that, we should give her that opportunity. Okay. Thank you, David. And she said she's she's good. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Just a request that I'm involved in the meetings where we discuss the leads with
the lawyers and and Merit's board or whoever on Merit's side is is participating in these meetings. I would like to be included in this. And before it comes to, like, final draft. Okay. And and and I have been involved in some of them, not much of them because I don't have the expertise to to I mean, there's some simple ideas that I have offered by suggestions, but this is primarily been between people that are used
to this kind of thing. But I don't see a reason that you couldn't be a part of of those meetings. And I don't know when and where they'll be, but we can make you aware of it. K. Thanks. Okay. Nick, Nick, before we go to some of the comments, I would like I appreciate what you said at the beginning of the meeting. I don't know why there this thing that came up with the media, the the other night against me. I did contact the reporter. He sent me a text asking me, you know, to to respond before he printed
the article. And, I would I could not answer the text until later in the evening, which I did. And I provided him a lot of information about how I actually am a resident of, of Calvert County. I still live in Florence. I have several properties within within the county, and all of them are within the school district. So, I'm not exactly sure why people are so eager to believe that because of
a Facebook marketplace post that I made about a moving sale, then that meant I was moving in Kansas. As a matter of fact, if you know me or present mine or if there was a tearshot, I have always said, I don't want to move to Kansas. I have never planned to go on hand to Kansas, and I I will never I I just I just don't have a movie here. I like to visit here because my daughter and her husband live here. I have three grandchildren who live in campus where I am right now.
And so I come in this with my grandkids because they're closest to the 13 grandkids that I have that I don't deserve, and then they're also the youngest. So it's nice to be green. My grandkids grow up. So I work and have a business in Heller County. I have a number of projects going. I am often at Foxworth Delray daily, which is about Colorado Bulldog. In Florida and in Howard County. So, I don't know why people are so eager to believe something like that.
The only place I said that I'm going to move to is back to Pennsylvania someday, I'll be moving to or if I may that would be helping with my my under 80 agents. So, I don't know what else to say. I just wanted to address that. And if anyone has any questions, please contact me directly. I'd be happy to talk to you. So we'll have that. That's really all I have to say.
Good. Sue, did you have any further comments? Yeah. Sue. No. Just I had some premium financial business to take care of, and now I'm old. Spending some time with with my daughter and, my hospital. I don't know if she's a she's a coordinator for the third year business school at Paris. We have committed to another year to stay there. I've had to be out of town for a while. I have family. I I'm excited to look in in Charleston just like Jeffrey Westerholtz.
That's where you're registered to vote? And that is where you're registered to vote. Is that correct? That is correct. And when I saw the, the smear job done by an activist who doesn't deserve the word journal journalism because he's not a journalist, we got this information from Van, which is and that is Bruce that actually worked for the Democratic party 2,000 votes. So Oh, yeah.
She's here. That's super fun. And it is the last time when I was at the Virginia, registration, and and I am registered to vote in Virginia. I have been since 03/22/2016. They never took me off the vote voter rolls. So his article was a blatant lie when he said that I registered three days ago in Virginia. The fact of the matter is I've been registered for Virginia for the last since
2016, and it never kicked me out the voter rolls. I have never passed a vote or a stop vote in Virginia since I moved here in 2020. So it's a funny why there's a loss coming down because I I will lose. And, and he's not even a journalist. He's an activist. So the Democrats. So that's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Sue. Okay. Are we ready to move on to public comments? Yes, please. Yes. Okay. Public comment. Please be aware that any personnel or individual student matters are considered confidential under Colorado
law. It is out of respect out of respect of the law and our employees and students that we require those discussion take place privately in executive session. Individual comments are limited to three minutes or a total of fifteen 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 not make any decisions or take any actions on public comments during this meeting. I also would include, we've already had some speaking out of turn and some hostility.
I I will not allow any personal attacks on any member of this board. And if someone should be start speaking about something other than what is on the agenda tonight, you will be stopped. Thank you. Thank you. For president. May I extend your ticket, please? Go ahead, Sue. I just wanna say for the record that Thank you.
Okay. Ginger, you've got a list? Mister Bates, I'm sorry. Can I ask a clarifying question about public comment, please? Because I'm asking a serious question. You you mentioned that we can't disparage anyone. Is that similar? So so, like, what miss what Sue Patterson just said about the the journalist, is that the kind of disparity you don't want us to say? No. That is true. I want you to talk about the discussion that was had here regarding the lease, and and that is typical within a school board meeting that the discussion is about
the items on the agenda and not about personal attacks. It's government matter. Government agents cannot infringe the practices and speech. So we we can't disparage other people in our comments such as the way Sue Patterson just did about the gerbilance. You know, you I would encourage you to do additional research. Do you hear what she said? She's a old man. She's a old man. She is a paid journalist. She does it for a living. That's okay. I think I understand the answer. Thank you. They don't have Okay. We'll we'll move ahead, please.
Abby Blafsetter. Or Blafelter. Okay. Yeah. You okay? Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure I have a nest. That's fine. Slow your mind down a little bit so we can hear you. There you go. I and I have a breakdown. We've lost three minutes. So I come from a family of bankers. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I come from a family of bankers and a father who was an auditor. Yes. And I'm a previous owner of a business partnership with 45 employees and five buildings over forty years. I may be responsible for the future of a high schooler, in the not so
distant future. In regards to the matter before the board this evening, I'm having serious concerns about regarding honest, truthful transparency with use of taxpayer investment. With funds on this scale, there is no logical reason I come up with to not in, speak to the office in a deep dive audit, which it sounds like some of that work has been done just recently, which I'm so happy. And an extended serious discussion of the reasons behind such a monumental decision.
A cancer on fire decision can only lead to more legal expenses where all the only individuals that benefit are attorneys to the expense of kids. So I would just, love the fact that you're it sounds like you're searching more time and going deeper dive into the information that I have been exposed to in the last three or four years of, you know, following this issue. So I appreciate the hard work that the current people are putting in, and and let's stay honest and truthful.
Thank you. Emily Glenn Staker. Thank you. Let's talk about thirty years. Because sometimes we look at time, and it is a little bit malleable. For example, I can look back to 1980 and feel like it was yesterday. So thirty years. Thirty years ago, we had to build a building because our district was growing so much. You guys have moved that population out of that building and given it to merit because merit is garbage, currently. But you're making an assumption that they will still be growing in thirty years, and that's a ridiculous assumption because we're not still growing thirty years after that decision was
made to build a new building. It's not gonna happen. Population goes up and down. And in this town, the population is getting older and older and older. Less kids. Less kids to make our populations grow of any of our schools. So thirty years is a big time frame, and this lease does not leave room for changes. This lease, I'd be glad to hear that it's put aside and we're gonna rewrite it because I found a lot of problems in it. As someone who practiced law, I found a lot of problems in it.
We haven't looked at our friends and bought it yet. In fact, you guys haven't even mentioned it since the one time you discussed, well, maybe we should get a quote. You we should get quotes. And then you mentioned, like, well, we like this agency better. That's the last time you've mentioned it. There's been nothing about it in public telling us what's happening. We don't even know that you actually hired them. We only know that you reached out to the final candidate. We don't know what NAMIC has done. We don't know the district's health financially. We don't know what Whitman Bay did.
Because that last audit wasn't even when Bay was in charge. The man who has actually lost an entire school because of this financial mismanagement, have a school closed under his management. We still haven't seen what he's done. You won't see that till next year. So we need that information. We need to know where our district stands. And our community made it very clear they wanted that. When you guys put that onto the, agenda, we had one week to ask people to sign a a petition, and we got hundreds of signatures in one week.
People want to know what the district health is. You guys are tasked with a gigantic job, a huge job, but you volunteered for it. And you must look at the entire district. That is your job, not one school. Some of you will be long dead before thirty years is up. Right? Me too, probably. Some of you are have already begun your exits from this town. Some of you have begun your exits from this convenience. You've begun your exits from the school.
Don't do damage on your way out. Shannon Valero? Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'd like to open with a shared belief that decisions at the level of our Willow Park School District are best made when grounded in data, transparency, and mutual trust. As we consider a thirty year lease agreement, I ask that we pause and request the following. The financial numbers that show how this lease benefits the district over time. Cost savings and return on investment. The proposal or bank documents are something that show that indicates a thirty year lease
is required for financing. I'm not gonna take that long. It's alright. As we consider a thirty year lease agreement, I ask that we pause and request the following. The financial numbers that show how this lease benefits the district over time. The cost of savings and return on investment. The proposal or bank document that indicates a thirty year lease is required for financing. A clear plan for how the loan will be repaid, including any obligations of Merit Academy or other entities involved. It also seems prudent to ask whether we should move forward before the forensic audit
is completed. The audit may provide essential context to ensure any major financial decisions that's aligned with the district's financial health. In a different oh, here. Okay. Additionally, oh, I can't talk about that. Okay. You can. Additionally, just because of the news articles, we just I know it's been talked about tonight, but I think the community just wants proof that Ms. Patterson and Mr.
Russel holds, they still have voter rights here in the district. It's not about pushing motives. It's about ensuring that every member makes significant decisions, that makes significant decisions for our children and community. It's appropriately positioned so positioned to do so morally, legally, and transparently. We all share a common goal of Russia. David. Yeah. No. We all share really you shouldn't be talking back to you. That's right. We should not be talking back to you. Sorry about that. We all share a common goal to serve our students, support our team David, this
is the bathroom. No. That's not your question. I'm sorry. I know. It's okay. I'm gonna let Restart the time. We all share our common goal, to serve our students, support our teachers, and ensure our schools thrive. Transparency and clarity build trust, and trust strengthens our ability to move forward together. Also, something that a lot of community members are asking about is, when merit is leased out to maybe, churches or something like that, is that money going to the
general fund for Woodland Park, or does that go to merit? That clarification would be nice. But I do appreciate I feel like this is the first time in a long time that we've heard a lot of truth tonight. I appreciate you a whole lot for talking and kinda just going with the data. That's all for us too. Thank you. I think we're not. Yeah. It's a lot, hon. Thanks. Steven Rocha. Next. Steven Rocha. That's yeah. I I think there are conflicting housing.
Address public comments. He was already breaking. We're trying to be respectful for the speakers. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you all for listening to I'm not on there. That's good. I'm not gonna take that long. Listening to the killer and understanding that I do agree with you that this needs to be postponed. I'm not sure I've read through this document, the draft, and then the second draft, and whatever it is that is out there right now.
I my experience has been an ex school board member, a teacher in this district, the real estate agent for forty years. I dealt with, leases and sales of property, hundreds. There's no way I'd sign a thirty year lease. As of I've also been an owner and a landlord. There is no way I would sign a thirty year lease with any tenant. I would maybe do a five year lease with the automatic renewals of five year based on the response of that. But I also wanna speak to the fact that the rumor mongers out there, whether
it's, towards Peterson and, Rusherholtz or whether it's to the candidates that are running, it is ridiculous. Get your backs. There are facts there are rumors out there that are totally false. And I just my my plea to you is to be civil, to get your facts, talk to the person, and get it straight from the horse's mouth. And when they give you the facts, don't call them names.
Thank you. I need, like, a minute better. Oh, gosh. What's what? Can we pause from one minute to one minute? Saturday. Yes. I reconfiled, so we have a timer. You said he's got it. Yes. You go. So director Barkley, thank you for your service on this board, and please know that everything else I'm about to say is not extended in your direction. Bates, Westerholtz, Kimpel, and Patterson, as a constituent, a parent, property owner, a taxpayer, one of the people who will likely be alive for the next thirty years. I find my it's not funny, but okay.
I find myself discouraged, disappointed, distressed, and not even remotely surprised of the absolute disrespect to our community, which is the lack of transparency we're experiencing right now, but also always from the school board. What we're witnessing here is absolutely disgusting. You have no respect for your constituents. You continuously lack regard for our time, our taxes, our voices, our wants, our needs, and most of all our children who should be your absolute highest priority. Resign. You continue to steal and siphon resources from the public and your children's future. Resign. You can't keep your lives straight.
Resign. The finest school facility that we have is what you are stealing. Get your filthy hands off our school district. This crisis is one that has been completely manufactured and is entirely your doing. Resign. This district was thriving prior to the election in 2021, financially, socially, academically, and more. But a few people weren't getting their way and had to ram in their puppets to get what they want. As the aforementioned puppets, you have run my child's school district into the ground. Resign. I really don't understand how you live with yourselves, or maybe that's why you continue
to run from your constituents and run from your responsibilities and run from your debt to this community. Not showing your face at your own school board meeting for months on end would actually be kind of funny if I wasn't so irate, and that is a word that means angry. But you can't run from your karma. You can't run from the sick legacy that you have left here. This absolute nightmare of a contract, unsurprisingly, puts WPSC in a horrible position yet again. You've stolen our money, our buildings, and valuable education time and relationships from our students with the destruction you and your predecessors have caused.
I am here asking you yet again to resign. This is the wish of not just me, but obviously many of your constituents. Leave. Stop just hiding your guilty faces and go ahead and abandon the mess that you made here so so we can be free from your sick, desperate, tyrannical need for control of our students and our spaces. We will come back together as the community that you've done everything in your power to obliterate. You cannot break the spirit of this community. And I say this was all due disrespect to Brad Miller and all of you who have had your dirty, sticky hands all over the theft and deceit.
And while we are at it, let's be clear about something. The loss of the sales tax is completely your fault and a clear consequence of your actions. So stop acting like you are somehow a victim or that you're somehow powerless here. In conclusion, may every evil action that you've participated in, covered for, covered up, come back to you 100 fold. Resign. And, Nate, just a piece of advice since I have time. Every time you open your mouth, you just let how ignorant and unqualified you are in your position, you would do so much better to just be quiet. I know we're all tired of hearing your voice.
Okay. I said it better myself. Take it to JIP. Megan? Just tell me. Just tell me. Just tell me. Okay. Missus Lee? Okay. Do you wanna ring the mic over here? Just so you don't have a laid out. Thank you. I'm gonna handle this a little more respectfully than we've still missed. Good evening. My name is Megan Grady. I'm here tonight to urge the board finalize and sign the long term lease agreement for Mary Academy. This decision is not prudent. It's essential for a district operating under severe financial constraints.
The 2526 adopted budget allocates a mere $225,000 for maintenance across all district buildings. This figure is not a rounding number. It's a stark illustration of our reality. Mister Farris has publicly acknowledged that the district facilities face 40,000,000 in deferred maintenance and critical upgrades. Roof replacements are estimated Thank you. In the millions of dollars each. Agent boilers, failing HVAC systems, outdated infrastructure, and deteriorating public are not hypothetical concerns.
They are documented, urgent, and unfunded. We simply do not have the capital to address these needs. Repairs are being are being deferred indefinitely. Every dollar in every hour our facility team spends answering calls for Mary Academy is a dollar an hour not spent keeping elementary classrooms warm, ensuring high school blacks are safe, while preventing water damage at other sites. That's where Merit Academy steps in with a responsible self funded solution. Under the proposed lease, Merit assumes more responsibility for maintaining, preparing, and improving the building,
investing real capital into a facility the district cannot currently sustain. In return, they gain operational stability and greater autonomy to manage the space effectively for their students. This is not a surrender of oversight. It's a strategic partnership that preserves educational access while protecting the taxpayer resources. I've seen the social media flare up, predictable outrage, and the same voices who oppose school choice at every turn. They mischaracterize this as giving it to merit, but this is far from the truth. It's more constructive. Merit Academy is volunteering. The building remains a vibrant center and learning rather than another crumbling liability on our
books. This agreement didn't appear overnight. It's been a product of many months in deliberate conversation, solution focused and negotiation amongst administrators, boards and legal counsel for our brave facility district crisis. This this lease reflects rigor and includes clear standards and clauses to protect the district's long term interests. Your administration I'm sorry to interrupt. You didn't like when they interrupted your side. Your administration and counsel have navigated Shut silence. It's her turn. You guys don't wanna be interrupted.
Don't interrupt me. It's not flight. Your enemy administration and counsel have navigated a complex process with absolute care. Now with the terms finalized and benefits undeniable, it's time to act. Approve the long term lease with Merit Academy. We leave the pressure on our over extended facility team. We direct the expertise through campuses where our youngest learners are most vulnerable systems where we network. Honor the trust families have placed in both Woodland Park School District and Merit Academy by ensuring the voting. Yes. I got you. Guys, please. Wonderful.
Cheese. This is a fiscal responsibility in action. This is leadership. This is the right path forward. Thank you for your dedication for hearing my comments. So I know this is a a really heated topic, but please, if you can, please just stay quiet. And if you can't, please maybe step outside until you get a little more calm and then come back in. This way we can all hear what everyone is saying. It's based. Resign. Is this Mike Doug again? Hello? It's based. Resigned. Bruce holds it's not true that he doesn't live here.
He owns rental property here. His official address in the tax records on the date of transfer states an Eighth Street address in Sterling, Kansas. That's why he's calling from Kansas right now. He doesn't live here. It's a lie. And Patterson is still registered to vote in Virginia and also not, but that's your vote in Tellur County. So you gotta need equitable and equal funding per student. That means each student.
So you guys don't need to have a favorite crown jewel school that you've been doing. Thank God, three of you are gonna be gone. Thank God. This is unconscionable that you would hold a meeting on Tuesday, a week before the election, meeting tonight, five days before the election, and then Rooster Holt thinks you're gonna have a meeting Monday, twelve hours from the election. This is fraud. You guys are frauds. You have rigmarole this district, and you lost the tax.
You would be in much better shape if you guys this whole tax loss was over your shady s h I t with the merit lease. That's the sole reason you got ganked, and you know that. You know that it's your fault. Please just resign. She's okay. The state, by the way, has a balanced budget, FYI. It always has been. It's in the constitution. The state has to have a balanced budget. Balance point three is gonna be interrupting me. Shut up. And head mistress Gwen, why is your name on this contract for the LLC?
Hello? Yeah. You guys are criminals. And Brad Miller needs to be fired, and I hope the very next meeting after Tuesday, he is fired. And how is Merit affording four lawyers? Who's paying for that? I'd like to know. Yeah. Roll your arm, sweetie. Yeah. You guys, you wanna give the dead horse one more kick, but it's done. If you guys have a Monday night meeting, it'll be immediately reversed the very next board meeting after this. Good riddance. And you might be a nice guy, but you're a terrible horse member.
And the rest of them that are gonna be gone, thank God. And by the way, that's why they're not running for reelection is because they don't really vote here. They don't. So Eighth Street, Sterling, Kansas. He sold his house on September 10. He should have resigned the next day as a liars. Terry. Terry. Terry. Terry. I like Terry Downs. Well, the damage is no different. Okay. There you go. There you go. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. I'm Terry Miller, and, I put you're almost a year.
I have a master's in English. I have a a m s MA in English, an MS in educational administration and supervision. I have only six years in education. I've been in four public schools, mostly sec all secondary, and at two universities. I have worked with several school boards over the years and many and some boards of directors at the universities. In the year I've been here, I've attended almost every school board meeting and either in person or online. And I must say I've I've never seen anything like this.
I never have. It took me two days to read the Bruce agreement, and I saw lots of red flags as an educator. When I was an educator, I read all of my student papers, especially speaking on squats, and I took a break between them just to make sure I was seeing everything I've given you. You have not given us time. This is a huge commitment that shouldn't be taken lightly. We need legal outside, excuse me, legal advice. We need much discussion and much more information. Already, we have asked for thirty years.
We will change this in thirty years, and we wanted another twenty on top of that. And I've seen in forty six years of education an awful lot of changes. I don't think you can take those chances. And you are a lame duck. I hate to use that word since several did not run again. So I want you to give the next board the opportunity to take this kind of decision because it can hurt merit just as much as it hurts our school board, and we have to remember that. I am not in any way against charged schools.
I believe everybody should have an opportunity for whatever kind of education you want. I have been a fault fighter in the warning of transparency, the financial irresponsibility, and all these personal agendas that scare me to death. Please try to remember the students and let the next board work through this path. Please. Amen. I assume. How long have you guys been married? In very long.
I believe. Of course. What the fuck? First of all, I'm not gonna say, of what I had written that I wanted to say tonight. But I do wanna say thank you very much. I have not had the pleasure of meeting, CFO mister David, whatever your last name is. And, but I do wanna say your comments were excellent. And your comments were excellent because they came from real knowledge. I have been a real estate broker and an agent and a commercial agent for
about fifteen years and worked with developers. And, I did read this list after hearing. Didn't take me too long. I was very aware of your wicked. I would be very concerned for merit as well. I do not think it was a good news. So hooray for what you've done tonight. Thank you. And I think I would like to say, however, that, I'm a bit disappointed to hear that the lease was drafted by one side's attorneys and then reviewed by mister
Miller. The fact that mister Miller reviewed this lease with the blatant errors in it is shocking, quite frankly. Just shocking. I'll just leave it right there. I I will also say that, I'm not gonna try to repeat anybody that anybody else has said. But I will say that the fact that the consideration is the expense of the building, I understand that, But to whose standards?
How is that measured? How will Woodland Park, school district oversee this this, which was one of the other points, I believe, mister David. And, the second point on that, there was very little dip differentiation between capital improvements, which the sheet was left behind. So I guess I can't really say what they were. But the implication was that the capital improvements would, be approved by this board.
But how do you know what capital improvements are? And what capital improvements I've never ever worked on a commercial lease where the capital improvements were being able to be removed when they left the building. That was what? And then finally, maybe the most egregious thing in this league was the fact that The least Leslie was able to give over or sublet this to any particular person
they wished. Matter of finish. And with that said, I would say, why on earth would this board not want to approve who is actually gonna take over that lease? And the fact that whoever give the mortgagee, whoever was paying, Felicia that was is responsible for the, mortgagee the mortgage. Let me just leave it that way. They it says right in here that they're not responsible for the amended default.
Are you are you are you almost done? I know. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. While the other means that I was gonna talk about the two and three hour. Thank you so much for deciding this is not gonna be an enemy of those. That things are obviously wrong with the police, and we do have to check it out and make sure it is agreeable to all parties. And one person who said there is no way that I would sign a thirty year lease with agency is absolutely correct.
That is absolutely ridiculous. And as far as participation in our school system, and I know this is not part of the agenda, but our curriculum drove several people to take their kids out of our school system and send them somewhere else. If we change it back, they'll come back. Thank you. Four years ago, my husband and I we just loved it.
We felt so blessed. I still do. I've never spoken before. I've never been to a point even after my daughter was in school. And the things that I have been heard, just my my. I've been a business owner. I've been a realtor. I've we've owned property. We've had, we've owned, an apartment building and other things places that we've grown up. So I know about leases somewhat, not to this big extent, but still.
And it's all about transparency. Transparency with the with with Sapomi and really got me going to get a little bit more vocal. That's what happened with this last administration, this last miss Patterson, mister Westerham, but his
news, they are not here. Mister Winn was not here. What happened with that money? What happened there? That's what I want to know. The tax dollars I'm glad the tax is stuck. And if it comes back, I hope it's worth the tax. Thank you very much. What name? Fatburn. Oh. Fatburn. I think you need to speak a little louder with the names. There's a lot of facts here tonight, Sarah. My name is Patricia. I'm not participating with Microsoft for forty two years. I still Could you talk, into microfinance?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I still live in a home we purchased in Arrowhead Estates in 1985. When our oldest son, Matthew, started first grade, he was in the newly built Columbine Great School. I feel like these belong to the taxpayers and that the school board should be should be in the fiduciary capacity to oversee I feel that attorney might have come
in before. I this is my first board meeting, but I've read a lot of what's been going on the last few years. And I feel that the turn on the round is happening, and I'm happy to see it. I appreciate that you give us the time to speak our minds and let us come in and witness this. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Michael O'Connor? You can raise the mic. You take the mic. I think most of what I had intended to say has been covered. I do appreciate you guys taking the time to hear from the community, letting us
speak. I appreciate once you brought up. The way it was said, it made most sense that this is a good deal. It'll be a good deal next week. You know, Thursday, Friday of next week, it's just a good deal with today. So keep that in mind. Thank you. Gail Gerg? I'm trying not to repeat anything that we really, heard good, efficient, professional information.
Woodland Park, district benefits from having a charter school, but not one that is given preferential treatment. The stakeholders should be aware that the district did not have true legal representation when the contractiveness lease agreement were written. Brad Miller represents charter schools. You can read his law firm's article on charter schools and what they should look for and sign the lease. He came to the district to help me here. Finally, there, I'll read over some of the essentials that I found in the lease and just comment, highlights and things.
One, I would, recommend no thirty year lease since five is the usual. And there should never be an automatic ten year renewal clause. The leasehold mortgages are a severe threat that's been mentioned. Merit could rent to a commercial property. If merit defaults, they can sublet the property that has been mentioned. And if the district sells the property, it's been noted at 20 I'm sorry. 95%. And it should be an independent appraisal, and the clause should be admitted omitted that
says or on any terms which are mutually agreeable. That would lead to another offer of a $1 sale. This lease gives no evidence that this deal protects community value. There is no requirement for annual reporting, cost verification, and or third party audits. Merit can set excuse me, can schedule third party use of gym and fields, possibly limiting district access. I'll comment like someone else did that exhibit c was blank.
And I also wanted to mention that transportation and food service costs, I still don't understand where they stand. I just with that, I I thought tonight would be a good night for the removal of two board members since those seats are really vacant. And I'm glad that you voted, for the new, board members to take over this project. Thank you. You're finally getting to talk. Yeah. Members of the board, my name is Pat Miller. I live in Blueland Park.
I would like to start by thanking the board in this district.
And by that, I mean, there's a diversity of what people want and expect from their schools, from their public schools. And that is exactly the reason why this community needs a charter school. The community needs for it to succeed academically and financially. And I'm convinced after a lot of questioning and talking that no matter the outcome of Tuesday's election, every member of the next board is gonna feel exactly the same
way. The current board is always has created a lot of controversy and divide and loss of trust in this community with the controversial decisions like moving middle schoolers to the high school, like, approving a thirty year contract, in the face of, a lot of community disagreement. The current agreement that we've been discussing today, if approved like it is or similar
to what it is, would be an animal by that camel's back. It would just further divide the community. So I'm here to say, I can't you put that off, let it go to the next door because that cake is only half baked. I'm not an attorney. But I've got forty one years in public service. I've read a lot of contracts. I've negotiated a lot of contracts, and I've marked up a lot of contracts. I'm not gonna put in all the issues that I found in this one because a lot of them have already been mentioned.
I will point out that the thirty year, term is a big problem because for one, we don't know what the economic conditions are gonna be here in ten or fifteen years, much less thirty. The then there's this, the National Center for Charter School Accountability, reports that more than twenty five percent of charter schools fail within five years. On the twentieth year, that number goes to fifty five percent.
You need to think about that. And most important, this board, as I said, has created a great deal with this board of the community with its decisions and lack of transparency. The best way for us to heal this is for the two boards to get together, identify all the issues that need to be dealt with as a contract, and sit with the two boards and their warriors and hash that all out.
If they can all come to agreement, that's a great way of healing this community. I ask you. I urge you. I beseech you. Please pass this on to the next board. It's the right thing to do. Thank you. 22, actually. I'm gonna be on the app. We're at eighteen, I think. Okay. Hi. My name is Kelly Strong, and a lot of the things that I had thought I was gonna say have already been taken care of. I will also reiterate what everybody else has said, but maybe I won't say your
last name, but I'll note you now. That I appreciate the transparency. It's the most transparent I've ever heard any of these meetings provide. I would also like to say, 30 I would like to know if anyone here has ever signed a thirty year lease, ever. I don't think so. You have a mortgage that's thirty years. I think it's ridiculous. I'm glad that you passed on to the next for the after the election. I also, wanna say that I would hope that it would also, it would also
wait until there was, the results of a forensic audit, which I I'm disappointed to hear so much talk about, but never actually hear that it's happening. I'd like to know, is that happening? And who is the accounting firm doing it, and when will it be done? Because I don't think that at least should be any of these negotiations should happen until until that until that information is available because it it speaks to the transparency.
You've created so much division in this community that I'm here talking to you. And, I I wanna say that I I don't understand why, you have these two remote people who have obviously moved out of the district. I have seen evidence to that effect. And I was appalled when one of them lodged personal personal, accusations or whatever against
a journalist and and groups of people here, disparaging us. Disparaging us. Who is she? She's on a board that's supposed to support the community? With shocking. What I also wanna say that oh, no. I know. Is there more? Is there more? Are you kidding me? We can hear the microphone there. He wants to talk to us. Okay? And I I would like, I would like to to know that Merit Academy has four attorneys and we have one.
And who pays for their attorneys? I would like to know that. I I would like more transparency. And I know that my time is ending, and I'm not used to talking like this, and most of my concerns had been alleviated before I got up to speak. But I felt it was necessary to come here and speak my mind. And hopefully, things will change. Thank you. Also talked about what you did. My name is Khursheed Rogers, and I'm going to break my comments about this lease agreement into parts.
And part one is feelings. It is difficult not to feel resentful of the timeline around this agreement. Providing one and a half days for the public to review this kind of contract before soliciting their feedback feels disingenuous, inconsiderate, and unkind. These rushed timelines are what cause people to feel angry and suspicious or stay up till midnight because I can't review them as fast as Sharon. Another feeling I'm experiencing is hurt.
Four years ago in the auditorium, when middle school parents were expressing apprehension and fear around letting merit into the building, director Patterson, you made us feel ashamed for not being willing to share what at that time was a third of our building. To now hear you say that this lease agreement is what you were after the whole time really hurts a lot. Part two is concerns about this agreement. I'm not going there.
Everything I had listed has been mentioned, but it does bear repeating. Thank you, mister Curator, for for the work. Part three is consequences of rushing the loose agreement. More division caused by favoritism. More erosion of trust from entering a thirty plus year that is my phone. Tell them how to be your child. Yep. On ours. More erosion of trust from entering a thirty year agreement one week before an election. My request is my final part.
Please do your due diligence. Where due diligence looks like your time spent, your hard work, and gathering information from other from people other than those who stand to benefit the most. This is not the same thing as bringing up a stakeholder concern and feeling satisfied with a single merit representative. Please consider the information from our CFO, especially the true up numbers between Merit and the district and other financial considerations.
Please allow for the development of a strategic plan prior to committing a building for thirty years. Please trust the six candidates who all say they are committed to transparency, stakeholder input, and success for all schools, and entrust this issue to them. If it's a good idea, it'll stand on its own. Thank you. Thank you. Say it again. Marissa Haichu? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for listening tonight, but more importantly,
for activating hearing us as a whole tonight. My name is Chris Hajjoo, and I come to this meeting as a mom of six kids, who all whom I'll all currently attend the marriage academy inside the Willowbrook Park School District. I've lived in this community for twenty years. Moving here at the age of 10 and graduating from Littlen Park High School in 2013, I stand here representing my six kids of the six fourteen children in here at Chapman in the future of school choice. I cannot come here to wage more on the topic, but rather to offer one
individual perspective among the hundreds of others in our community. I care deeply about the district, and I have a great amount of respect for both Merit Academy and Wilton Park Schools as a whole. School choice empowers families to do what's best for their children, and I've seen firsthand the positive impact it can have and that it has been on my life. While there is no one size fits all solution to the challenge our district faces, we can thoughtfully consider what mayor has proposed. The city's decision to reboot the increase in sales tax greatly affected everyone with the
children in the district. Now more than ever, we all work together to find a way to maintain the schools and sustain their funding. I'm not here to dissect every number or budget line, and I'll admit there's probably stuff I don't fully understand in the financial details. But I but I do understand I understand that this lease is achievable. As someone who works in lending, lenders will not agree on a loan unless there's a proper firm and lease agreement, terms, physical affordability, and on on any loan, let
alone a commercial loan. In the meantime, Merit's proposed contract presents a practical and responsible opportunity to address part of the financial strain, both now and in the future. Defined lines such as fees, terms, length of the contract must be discussed, presented agreed upon, which takes time and commitment from both sides and must be in accordance with the lenders. It's a partnership that it's a partnership that keeps the building alive, well cared for, while serving the educational needs of our children as a whole. As a parent, I'm proud to support school choice.
I believe everything we should have the opportunity to decide where their children where their child learns best, and whether it's traditional public schools, a charter school like Mayer, or another educational setting. Our district is evolving and not everyone will agree with every decision. Although not yet perfect, this contract represents a thoughtful, collaborative step towards stability and collaboration. It's not about division. It's about finding a solution that preserves Merit Academy and Willow Park as a whole. But my school choice is Merit, and I will continue to fight alongside.
Thank you. Thank you. She's she's already spoke. That was She's a no. There was a Sonia. That I sent you there. So she said Sonia. Sonia. Is there a there's okay. So okay. So we just switched. Sorry. Okay. Last one is so Holly Sample. There's actually one more. Hello. My name is Holly Sample, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening. I have my my comments today or I still understand.
Just, this meeting has gone. I grew up here in Littler Park, graduated from Littler Park High School. My mother was a first grade teacher in Littler Park for thirty four years. And then I went on to be an educator for thirty four years after that. The last twelve years of my career, I was a high school principal at a k 12, charter school campus. I've worked in both traditional and charter schools. I've been very, very concerned about what's happened to our community and our schools, since
2021. And, one thing I'd like to say is how much I appreciate the change that I see tonight in this work. And first of all, that you have scheduled a meeting to discuss an issue. That hasn't happened. What we have seen in the last four years is that a vote is brought forward and taken, sometimes without some members of the board even aware of what is
being voted on. And instead, what you've done is you've discussed the issue, you've brought forward data and facts, and then made some, not good decisions, but very, informed comments that have led you to recognize that this, chart this, lace is not ready to go forward. And I appreciate that because I have not seen that before in my code.
He said this is the beginning of a change. And we know that there's a change coming because there are new board members who elect. And most of what I had planned to talk about was why this, lease agreement decision shouldn't be made tonight. And I think that's moot, so I don't have to go into that. But I will echo, the comments that CFO has. You made very thorough and courageous comments, about this lease and appreciate your candor.
And, and also the approach of problem solving and moving forward together. I think that it's uncomfortable when you have so much passion, but I appreciate you for listening and for giving people the opportunity to participate. So thank you very much. Thank you. There is one more person, but I can't make out their name. But it looks like they're a parent. If I didn't call you yet, it looks like it might be an a s t r y. Is there anyone here? Anyone want the box that hasn't had a chance yet?
I would like to. So there might be two people. That's the first time. Right. Before PM. Right. I I was just curious because I I I've sent emails and haven't been responded to, and and maybe this is captured. But mister Osterholtz, you mentioned that you are at, Solid Browns Coffee every day. What day will you be there next? Because I'd like to come down and visit with you. Can't hear him now. He he said he'd tell him when he'd like to meet, and he'd be happy to come down to meet. Great. I I'm I'm free tomorrow morning. Same morning, really. Tomorrow morning or whenever.
I need to know when he's back in the state. Monday, could you get my phone number from one of the other ports? You bet. I know. Me a call, and I'd be happy to set up a time to get together. I look forward to it. Thank you. Is that it? One more. One more. The smallest country in the world is Madison City. It's an interesting case of being a country within a city within a country. Merit Academy, it seems, is reminiscent of that. The only way I can parse the nearly a few looking statements made about this charter is that it is an independent entity within the district broadly, the district being
Rome. Let me tell you though, Rome is no longer an empire. It is in Italy. And I say that because I think some of you forget that the district, similarly, exists in in, exist and is expected to operate not only within, but in the interest of the Lindbergh Park community. But Vatican City does not sit in the resources of Rome. Maris Hedgester, and I'm sorry. I forget your name. Spoke admirably of her school and also the district. Merit and the district. That's separate and distinct and often suggested to be adversarial by each.
Merit has its own board, if I'm not mistaken. So having seen this board prioritize merit over and over and over the other when I say other, the Mackenzie Scott levels of generosity schools in the district, I wish that I could believe myself to be misunderstanding this matter, but I cannot seem to manage that level of delusion. There are some of you who could perhaps take the time to educate me on that skill set or even just fix the issues that you are aware of and
neglect. Actually, yeah. Do that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes? Yes. Yes. Yeah. But that that will be the last one. We we've allowed a lot of time. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Rachel Priest. I'm a teacher at Merrick Academy, and I just wanna say that, we do have a lot of issues at Merrick Academy as do the other schools. For instance, my colleague who I share a wall with, he has a flood, a leak a leak in the roof where water roots down regularly. So that personal item is ruined.
I also I I I teach math, and my classroom is very cold in the morning, to the point that it's, like, in the sixties. I also teach a line dancing class on Fridays, where I'm on the other side of the building where it's no exaggeration, up to 86 degrees while I was at home. Okay. So there are there are a lot of things going on, building wise. I really feel like a parent academy is able to get a long term lease, and they are then able to maybe get a lump to take out to address some of these issues themselves instead of all the ones being having to be divided
between all the schools. That's all I wanna say. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you. You know, being no other business, this meeting is adjourned. Don't you have to do something before?