e e stand I'm not so it doesn't matter I okay folks it's 6 o'l I'd like to call this meeting to order roll call
please Barkley here B here Kim here rest huls here here oh I'm sorry Ben Patterson here oh did you oh I was pay attention
sorry all right thank you okay we everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I've asked Mr Keith McKim a Purple Heart recipient if he wouldn't lead us in that please remove your hats I pledge
aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indiv liy and justice for all thank you now if
we could just take a moment of silence please thank you you may be seated we the people of Colorado with profound reverence for the Supreme r of the universe in order to form a more independent and perfect government establish justice ensure TR
tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the state of Colorado thank
you okay next item approval of agenda we have a motion come in have second second roll call Mr Bates I have a question if you don't mind go ahead this is David uh I'm
just wondering if we might be able to add at least an inal or maybe it's already planned uh something to discuss what response our school has had in light of the threats made against
schools across the state the seriousness of it and uh just something reassuring for parents and the public uh if we can add that agenda item or just have an informal presentation by the
superintendent or yourself I I think that that would be prudent uh thank you for that we did have a discussion uh Mr rer Holtz and it will it will be we will have uh a discussion about that here during this meeting tonight thank you very much appreciate
a little bit of a history and uh and where it's at here tonight thank you yes okay roll call Barkley hi Bates hi Kimbrell hi Patterson I rer
hols I motion carries okay folks uh we've got a a uh a good fun thing tonight that's very important but before doing that
today being 911 I just wanted to make mention that we keep in our thoughts the at are about 3,000 people that died in the World Trade Center on 9911 and then the thousands of people
that gave life and limb in in protection of our country and our freedoms since then uh this is a big deal and we do we never want to forget 9/11 it it changed this country and it changed all of our lives in this room but it has significantly
changed the lives of many people that went to fight for this country and went into the military immediately after 9/11 so I'd like to take an additional moment of silence to be mindful of those people that lost their lives and lands thank
you okay next we have a presentation of the regarding the Purple Heart Trail in Woodland Park we've got some veterans that have joined us here tonight for this and we thank you all
for taking the time I'll make mention there were some others that are were are planning to be here but at this morning at the 9/11 Memorial they're down there taking down all those flags around Memorial Park so there might be some people people wander in a few minutes
late but we we can proceed ahead thank you sir my name is John Bartlett I'm a Purple Heart recipient from the Vietnam times I served in a unit called MOG we ran crossborder operations
in LA and Camp uh this is our sign that we'd like to put up we have two of them and we even got to design it as fits and uh if you look on their web
page the military order of purple hearts you can pick all the colors you want but I thought a purple heart sign ought to be purple that's what we did type of thing it's up to the school district where they will put the signs we asked if that
it'd be a uh honorable place also uh high traffic so people can see it sometimes the elders need reminded of the sacrifices and the youngers don't know sometimes so what better place in the
school district for the son you know we can talk about the side it's a symbol of the sacrifices in each War plain and simple it's a very well received we now have 12 in Woodland Park and 20 some in
Teller County and I'm working on Pike speak I think America's Purple Mountain ought to have a sign very good so if you have some full there let me know pouncing off a few things there uh this is not about the Purple Heart this
is about uh Mo surgery type of thing but most Purple Heart guys know about bandages right so here I am in front of you with to my wife helps take care of have you seen the Purple Heart no no no no
I'm going to S on it around for sh and tail but I want it back can do that this is my first team and here we have the Purple Heart and our dog T we didn't wear Dog tap
because we wer supposed to okay thank you that's the miniature of the metal okay and Keith is wearing metal type thing and I have the coin on on here type type thing I still like the bolo ties here
in Mr mckin would you stand up and SP spin around let them have a look at those in their actual size now I got a confession to make uh is the Purple Heart system
perfect no of course not um we do have closers and we take a p to that right ke y we sure do Ste Stolen Valor is not okay right Ty thing I have some pins
here two different ones feel free to take take one or two not handful talking that's my grandaughter the little bitt one save some for these guys up I'd like to present that sign to you
absolutely and we have another one if it could be displayed in an honorable place we'd totally appreciate it thank you very much yes sir and [Applause]
I think if I may respond to the honorable Place point if you don't mind yes we secured a permit from the city we have the pull up for this on Baldwin Avenue it has the maximum am amount of traffic on the road and we're delighted to do it thank you thank you we we've
had good feedback occasional feedback from tourists or residents about them no negative we don't have a real good way of PR you know and I'd like to just give a special thank you to not only yourself but Frank Connor Frank Connor actually
contacted me to so we can verify this and get this on board doing the best we can we got along the lines of putting the signs up the signs will go up in the very near future and when they do uh the district will
let us know so we could do a photo opportunity when as soon as the signs are are put up so so that's a very good idea because if we send a resolution or a proclamation with the
pictures to the national headquarters military order of Purple Heart they'll put it on their National web page well very good well we do intend to um make make that known once these signs are up we'll get some pictures yeah call me I'll do it I'll all right thank you
Don with that let me read a resolution keep he I keep C vietn both green brains Ser thought Special Operation Behind Enemy Lines in North
Vietnam Cambodian we had a 100% Bo he went far you got from the highest decorated most decorated unit of our size in the history of the United
States John was I was a Recon team leader I got in trouble people like John came to help us out sometimes they brought out Only The Dead B um I just want to mention that to John
botcon also I research wrote and recorded uh the Medal of Honor recipients of so i' like offer that to the school library if I may [Applause] [Applause]
certainly but God bless you thank you [Music] [Music] in the [Music] middle okay the resolution reads as
as whereas the City of Woodland Park in the state of Colorado has always supported its military veteran population and whereas the purple heart is the oldest me military decoration in present use and was initially created as
the badge of military Merit by General George Washington in 1782 and whereas the Purple Heart was the first American Service award or decoration made available to the common Soldier and is specifically awarded to
members of the United States armed forces who have been wounded or paid the ultimate sacrifice in combat with the declared enemy of the United States of America and whereas the mission of the military order of the Purple Heart Is to
Foster an environment of goodwi among the combat wounded veteran members and their families promote patriotic ISM support legislative initiatives and most importantly make sure we never forget and whereas the Woodland Park
area has a large highly decorated veteran population including including many Purple Heart recip recipients and whereas the Woodland Park Woodland Park appreciates the sacrifices of our Purple Heart recipients made in
defending our freedoms and believe it is important that we acknowledge the for their courage and show them the honor and support they have earned now therefore be it resolved with the members of the Board of Education of Woodland Park School District re2 hereby
proclaim the Woodland Park School District a participant in the Purple Heart trail of Woodland Park be it further resolved that the board strongly encourages all members of our community to show their appreciation for the sacrifices the Purple Heart recipient
have made in defending our freedoms to acknowledge their courage and to show them the honor and support they have heard they have heard roll call please Arley hi b i kimal i Patterson I
rer Holtz I [Applause] thank you thank you all okay public comments uh Please be aware that any Personnel or individual
student matters are considered confidential under Colorado law and it is out of respect of the law and our employees and students that we require those discussion take place privately in executive session and individual
comments are limited to 3 minutes or a total of 15 minutes total for a particular topic the intent of public comment is to give the Board of Education the opportunity to hear your comments however the board will make no decisions or take no action on public
comments during the meeting thank you there's a total of five people Avery Willen house uh hello and thank you for hearing with me today my name is Alison a wof and I have a childhood Tes Coline Elementary um I'd like to speak to you
concerning the sales tax that is by back to voters as it stands it doesn't seem like parents and community members trust you to be responsible stewards of Tex fa money I was a teacher for 13 years in other districts and have a child in cine
my mom was a substitute and my grandfather was a principal I've never voted down a tax or Levy that would benefit the schools however it is clear that Whit and his peers are only interested in lying their own pockets and funding their interests I believe that this money will
not go to the students teach nor public Ed facilities after speaking with other parents and community members it is clear that I am not the only one that is concerned I have some ideas for how to earn back public trust and I'm only going to speak on what I think will
help earn back trust the most first please fire kenet he is underqualified and he is overpaid fire Brad Muller and his Law Firm what they are doing to our community is immoral and wrong I have nothing against the students and
teachers at mared can me I want them to succeed and think that they add to the vibrancy of our community it is only right though that from here and out they should pay their fair share it is only right that they are not given any more preferential treatment from Ken wit and
his board members while our Public Schools suffer my person-to person interactions with mered parents and staff have been nothing but polite and gracious they are members of our community who just want the best for their children we are not that different Ken wit and Brad Miller are not members
of this community they do not share our community's values cooperation and doing what is morally right let's interview and hire someone who does someone who cares about the children in this community every child whether they public Merit or have special or behavioral needs if one student in this
district is hurting because of Outsiders like Ken and Brad Miller choices in my eyes that is too many so much trust can be gained by letting pen and Brad Miller's Law Firm go they are ineffective and their policies are destroying our Public Schools let's get rid of this Division and begin to heal
our community today not in November 2024 with a sales tax not in 2025 when we vote in new board members today today because our children and our community is worth it thank you for your time and for your [Applause]
consideration thanks Kinton Walker Zephaniah 8:16 says we must do this one thing tell the truth to each other superintendent wit I thank you for the hard job that you have and that you
do successfully you have spoken the hard truth to teachers which telling the TR hard truth does come with consequences some teachers chose to leave this District but that also opened
the door for other teachers to choose to come into this District you have the hard job of speaking the truth to parents Administration even to your employers the
board but you have done a good job I speak to the board and I thank you for doing the good job of speaking the truth to our community the truth of the changes that needed to be made in this
school district these changes have led to our district math scores improving and our district
ranking number 29 out of 169 in our state 2 Samuel 12:16 says stand and see with your own eyes this great thing the Lord will do before you we have been
seeing the great thing that this district is doing and is succeeding in Jesus name we thank you Father amen har Green Street good evening board I'm currently
reading this book I recommend it to everyone it's called our ancient Faith Lincoln democracy and the American experiment it's hard this guy's smarter than me but I'm learning a lot I've learned that Abraham Lincoln
did not like passion as he felt it kept people from hearing the other side and sometimes even thinking passionate expression does not mean you're right or wrong passion is generally increased around motivations such as protection of
or providing for your children perhaps your reputation it can be hard to control when you know someone is saying something that's not true my passion has been difficult to control at times and I know many in the room have experienced
the same issue issue both here and at City Council meetings if we are to overcome this divide in our community it will be by putting passion aside and listening to each other real listening with the intention of making changes based on what we learn as I said at city
council meeting the speakers I knew were divided between supporters of Merit Academy who's received everything theyve asked for from this board and taxpayers parents who feel with those the traditional schools have lost so much and cries have been ignored the loss of
this tax would have extreme consequences across the district and I believe the voters will approve continuance if they see an end to this division you must stop saying thank is like they just don't like us and answer their
legitimate questions and concerns you cannot honestly say well they just don't like Charter Schools you should not stand on we won the election as you know it was by a very narrow margin when this tax was approved Board of Education
members and administrative staff went to every school in the district and met with parent groups to answer their questions we went to both political party County committees we went to the Commissioners we met with reals Kanas any group that we could find we answered
their questions presented at that moment they were not questions prepared ahead of time will you will you do this to keep the tax for our students are you confident that the answers you provide will gain support from the
community I and many other community members worked hard to get this tax for our students I do not want to see it go away and struggled a bit to understand why anyone would push this then I talked with some parents conservative parents who will likely vote like you and
perhaps worship with some of you they spoke of desperation is this your intent in serving this community if you are not willing to work at this and respond to legitimate current concerns and questions the loss of the tax will be on
your backs you are the leaders here [Applause] I don't have any prepared remarks tonight so I'll keep it short what I do want to talk about is
the disgraceful city council meeting that we had last week it was very very sad we saw a couple of people in here lose their
cool and start screaming and throwing Tantrums like kindergarteners just disappointed what's more your entourage that you bring with
you harass me while I was leaving City Council they told me to quote get the out of here unquote and that my
quote values don't align unquote very very disappointing this was all brought in by you a you my
Miller good evening um I have three children in the district I just have some suggestion on this SCH this one ta situation ta peers would be more inclined to vote for the tax to continue
if you give them a reason to V for it here are a few suggestions please extend the public comment to at least one hour or better yet just let anyone who signs up to speak do so please answer emails in a
timely manner please reapply for any available grants for our students and teachers to Aid in any expenses as well to build our reserves back up since over 5 million was spent in deficit the last two years it would be
great if this wasn't on your next agenda meeting or in in your next meeting agenda please begin to include teachers parents and students and any major decisions about buildings or curriculum like other school districts have
done please post all chores to the website so parents can easily search for them also allow a normal staff member to deal with cores from now on in order to save the district from paying an attorney every time please begin
treating our public school students with the same energy you give to Merit students this includes recognizing and celebrating their successes publicly please restore neighborhood bus stops to colum bind and Summit students
in Woodland Park please give the principles back the decision of who is on the sack and DAC or begin to ensure that plenty of diverse voices from all schools are heard on those committees please ensure Merit begins to
pay their fair share in any expenses please begin working on creating a positive and inclusive work environment for our many creative and amazing teachers and principles their jobs are hard and they
need all the support and encouragement they can get these items are just a start I'm sure taxpayers have more ideas thank you for [Applause]
time that's it all right thank you thank you okay next item the con consent agenda I'd ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda agenda so move second second roll call Mr B yes
but I have just a moment of personal privilege you may thank you um you'll note in under Personnel tonight that we have a couple of personnel changes that I think we should recognize in the meeting if we can number one I'd like to introduce our new
CFO Jack Bay [Applause] and then secondly uh it is much to my sadness uh to have the board acknowledge that we're about to lose one of the most precious assets this District just had over the last 31 years i' I give you a
chance to speak better Kelly we uh how many years have you been here um 31 years and three [Laughter] months well uh I've only worked with you for about 3 years but it's been it's
been a true pleasure and everyone that does work with you shares those same comments and we're going to miss you uh I know there's changes in your life and and I'm glad you get the chance to go do that 31 years has been a long time but I
want you to know how much we all really appreciate you and you're really going to be missed thank you [Applause] okay I have a motion in a second roll call Barkley hies hi Kimbrell hi p
hi rer Holtz hi there you go okay M carries uh we have no action items tonight discussion and information Miss
slen thank you on academic achievement presentation we are going to start in your binder where there is a a tab a FL because I've provided you an immense
amount of information for you to enjoy at a later time but I'm going to start um right here discussing our school Frameworks so I'm very excited about this presentation this evening because I think this is as you as we go through
this you're going to see that this is a huge celebration for all of our schools in our school district so we're going to start right here um just doing a little bit of a comparison um between our composite scores for this year in 2024 to the last
school year in 2023 so we're going to start very much at the top with Coline this year we earned 78% and last year was 68% and you can see that increase there there's a special uh mathematical equation to
solve that that I'm not going to explain but if you would like I could explain Mr Wick can explain that then I am just listen so no one is confused by the number uh that's 68 points out of 100 and that's 78 points out of 100 so what is the percentage increase of 78 over 68
the answer is it's 78 minus 68 divided by 68 which is 14.7% excuse me thank and I do want to point out that every single School grew which is really wonderful Gateway this past year earned
64.2% the prior year was 57.5% with an increase of 11.7% Merit Academy 86.7% this past year and the prior year was 76.3% with an increase of
13.6% summit Elementary um huge shout out for Summit in case you don't know Katie Rexford is the principal of summit and they earned 89.5% this year last year was 73.5% with
the largest increase in the district at 21.8% so she really knocked it out of the ballpark so M Park Middle School earned 81 .7% this year for this past year and the prior year was 76.9% with an increase of
6.2% and then Woodland Park High School last year earned 67% with um 58.9 the previous year and an increase of 13.8% so again great celebrations for all of our students our staff and our
teachers just really did a great job one here I just would like everyone to recognize that every school in wam Park experienced double digit Improvement but that is incredible dig a little bit deeper so
this is the district's performance framework so this is the big picture so I'm going to go through this a little bit more detailed and then I'm going to show you um a snapshot of of each school so this performance framework or the performance Frameworks evaluate the
district and school performance on academic achievement academic growth and postsecondary and Workforce Readiness indicators so if you look over to the right of the screen it almost looks like it's like a bar graph over there the
district earned 73.8 points out of 100 so we are just right at performance accredited but we're just below distinction and I'm going to get to that a little bit more um but then if you
look down at the indicator rating totals at the bottom of the page you can see that our academic achievement meets our academic growth meets and our postsecondary and Workforce Readiness meets so then just to look a little bit
deeper here elementary schools in total our academic achievement meets and our academic growth exceeds and this is these are all of the elementary schools so the elementary levels were given the rating of Distinction which is
wonderful Middle School met for academic achievement and for academic growth they also exceeded so they were also rated distinction and then for high school for academic achievement we're approaching
with which means we're growing we're just not meeting yet academic growth is meeting and postsecondary and Workforce Readiness is meaning which means that they are accredited so that's the breakdown of what gave us that total on the front
page and just to give us a little bit more insight about academic growth or Cass English for all students we met for free I just want to go go through a couple of the categories here because I think it's important to see
that breakdown um for free and reduced price lunch eligible we met and this is for English language arts for minority students we exceeded and for students with disabilities we met and then for Cass math for all
students and again this is growth we exceeded for free and reduced price Bunch eligible we exceeded for minority students excuse me we exceeded and for students with disabilities we met well thank
you again the total is exceeds or academic so now I'm going to give you a slight a snapshot of each School and if you have questions I'm happy to answer so for Coline Elementary School you can
see that for academic achievement we met and for academic growth we exceeded with a total percent or total points of 78 out of 100 points and if you look a little bit closer down at the bottom for performance indicator I just want to
point out for the points that you can earn academic achievement you can earn a total of 40 points academic growth you earn a total of 60 points okay so next we're going to look at Gateway
Elementary for academic achievement they were rated approaching and for academic growth they metant again they are on a performance plan in the green earning 64.2 points out of 100
for Summit Elementary School for academic achievement they met and for academic growth they exceeded and you'll see there how close they are to 100 points 89.5 out of 100 again it is
remarkable for Merit Academy for academic achievement they met and for academic growth they exceeded for postsecondary and Workforce Readiness they're still a young school so I believe they don't have enough data yet
to fill that um category so they earned an 86.7% but when you look at their total points it was a little bit less because of that last category so they earned 60.7 out of 70
points and then moving on to Woodland Park Middle school for AC academic achievement they met and for academic growth they exceeded and their total points earned was 81.7 out of 100 and last but not least Woodland Park
High School they also are in the green on a performance plan for academic achievement again they're approaching academic growth meeting and postsecondary and Workforce readiness they are meeting with 67 out of 100 so then we dug a little bit deeper
we wanted to show some historical um Woodland Park School District framework information so again if you look up here 2024 we just talked about um and I'm just going to focus on the rating because I think that's the easiest to
see there but as we go through it in 2024 elementary schools and middle schools met with distinctions high school and the district as a whole were accredited if you jump over to 2023 is rating elementary schools were
accredited Middle School earned distinction and high school and District was were both accredited if you move over to 2022 rating all four were accredited in the green and then you'll notice a couple of
areas with gray that's due to co and we didn't have r ratings for a few years based on not having testing or only testing certain subjects and then if you go over to 2019 Elementary and Middle School were accredited high school was Improvement
and the district was accredited so you can tell that we have continued to grow even through the pandemic and I believe that we are really on the right track and going in the right direction and that is definitely due to the hard work of our staff teachers and students and
principles and [Applause] Leadership if I may make one point yes thank you I just want to point out that I know we hear an awful lot in education in this state particularly right now about recovering from Co and I just want
to make the point that performance wasn't that great before we need to do better in public education we need to strive for excellence not strive for recovery and Woodland Park is one of the few School District in the state that can show this
indication of yes we were working okay before Co and we have continued to get better Through The Years not just recover thank you [Applause] absolutely so like I said I'm very
excited to share all the positive news there's always room for improvement so I do have a a few just indicators as you look back at all that data that I shared with you um a few areas that I believe that are on our radar and the leadership
teams radar so um math in general is an area where yes we earned a lot in growth which is amazing but we still need to keep um raising that achievement rate in math and then also there's one grade level
that has been stagnant or just slightly below and that is that was our fifth grade from last year as a district and I'm and I'm going to say this um even throughout the state Theif grade seems to be stagnant I do have some theories
on that I do I know that we are um working hard every single day with all of our grade levels this grade level in particular fifth grade was in first grade when we had to close down and that and then the next year in second grade
we were here and home every other week or month dependent on the situation and that is a huge developmental year so I know that teachers and staff have been working very hard I do think it is a Statewide probably a Countrywide concern
but I do feel like we are on track and they are in great hands this year with our SU grade teachers I do have a a few more data points that I just want to point out to you to look at back at um specifics for
some really positive increases in our data our fourth grade and sixth grade had significant increases in reading and our fourth grade math increased um for our meets and exceed
students 20.4% so we just really did there's certain grade levels that have some areas to improve and there's others that are just flying high so I'm really excited about that and then as a whole this I say it's
the best for last so um some District highlights and celebrations Wen Park is ranked 18th in the state of Colorado in composite score percentage points earned um we missed accredited with distinction by only two
ten of a point so that's a really amazing [Applause] thing W park has the third greatest increase 7% in composite score percentage points earned in the Pikes
Peak region Woodland Park has the greatest composite score percentage points in the youth pass area uh Woodland Park had 73.8% manatou Springs had 72.2% and crippled Creek had
44.3% so great job and last but not least Woodland Park has the 11th greatest increase in the state in composite for percentage points so that's really wonderful in the entire state so great [Applause]
thank you teachers and staff of our Wood Park schools for an incredible year thank you thank [Applause] you uh next item
uh uh we I spoke to Mr rer Holtz we agreed we need to give you a little update on security issues I'd like to take this time now to turn it over to Mr wit and uh give us give us an update on the recent events absolutely uh
unfortunately the date of September 11th is significant and woefully significant in this nation and it's in all of our hearts and minds but it's also an opportunity for that some take to create some disruption and some uh disturbance
in schools all over the nation and in fact all over Colorado we saw gun threats related to 9911 Woodland Park experienced the same thing there were no there was an incident that we had to take seriously because of the threat and
we did so and notified parents uh we contacted law enforcement who immediately got involved as well and did a very quick investigation uh we we were able to determine uh the issue and that that there was no um accurate or credit
accredited threat at the end of the day so all is good but we always take these incidents seriously we deeply care for the Safety and Security of our students and we're prompt to respond and to drive
all the way through to resolution on any threat that occurs um so thank you for um both paying attention to what's going on with our students uh for making sober-minded decisions when there's a threat out there that we promise to communicate about it's credible uh and
also for supporting us in rapidly resolving the issue and getting back to normal operations I would have one other comment uh I I do have a question when wait when you have a moment go ahead dude for Mr
Whit uh thank you Mr B uh Mr Whit for the people who do not have children in the school district but live in the district and are have great concerns over the safety of our kids could you describe for the public
how as appropriate how you communicate with parents on days like today or the uh the unfortunate events that have taking place this week yes we have an alert system that we put out emails to the affected parties
if it's a single campus uh we may notify other campuses because parents May children more than one campus to make them aware of what's going on so they can make the right choices we don't send out those Communications until we've at least determined whether it's a credible threat or a threat that's easily uh
detected as as being false uh we immediately involve law enforcement if it appears to be in any way credible and uh we then let the community know via email and via text sometimes depending on the the timing and the nature of the
threat um when it is clear when the when they incident the threat has been cleared as well thank you uh on on that note just keeping it out of my public comment time because it's just I I think that it is prudent I think that the board I think
that we would all agree that continuing the efforts to improve the security of each one of our schools um is something that we are all very passionate about and one of the things personally I would
like to see is that we have more trained and armed security Personnel at each one of our uh locations and and working towards that goal I know it's a high priority for myself and I'm sure and I'm certain it is for the rest of the board
of directors as well as Mr wit so um I know that I just want to assure people that that is something that I want to see happen that's something that we are all working towards to have the best possible security for each one of our
schools and protecting our kids and your children so thank you Mr Whit I appreciate you discussing that Mr Whit you like to respond yeah thank you Mr russer Holtz uh I just want to point out that um since the security the the
resource officer from the police department was withdrawn from the school district we promptly employed armed security guards who Patrol our schools and stay involved um we have two presently we have a job opening for a
third uh which we will fill as soon as we can uh this is the largest investment both in training and an armed Personnel in the history of Woodland Park School District and we not only remain committed to protecting our students but
we are aggressive in ensuring that we have the right protections and the right right uh attention to incidents and threats when they occur in Woodland Park we will absolutely maintain diligence thank you very much I appreciate it thank you David um the
only thing I had to just comment on that um as a parent who received the email last night um you know I don't know if it was just because of the nature of this particular incident um but that maybe using this same kind of call
system that we utilize when we um have delays for school or um are closed because of weather as opposed to just an email because I know I didn't actually see the email till like 10 o' this morning when it went out like 10 o' last
night um just because I didn't check my email at night um just to make sure that the parents are getting the information as quickly as possible so they can make the decisions on you know their children's safety okay thank you thank Keegan anything
else uh I I would just like to add one additional comment I mean early on in in my time here security security is very important to me in schools and uh you know so many people know that
schools are gunfree zones and and I don't agree with that and I was very proud when we brought in armed security into our schools we do take it very seriously there was a lot of effort and money spent on security and and that went into the buildings as well so we do
take this very serious our kids are our precious pride and joy and we've got to protect them and I think I can say that for this entire board uh okay thank you Mr Wht next item uh the application process for Dak and
Sack uh the board is responsible to prove Dak and Sack members and invitations to apply for Dak and Sack have been issued they are out there names will be reviewed and submitted to the Board of Education in next month's meeting and then the board will review
and app and approve Dak and Sack membership at the October meeting uh there are people applying I mean the the process is taking place as we speak so just to let everyone know the applications are out there if there is
an interest from anyone and uh it's just want to let you know that we're in the in motion for it right now questions anyone you um cover the I guess the discussion or the the approval
process of that well the the district the administration will go go over the applications they'll make a recommendation to us and then we've got to decide via vote if we approve of the selections or not so we'll only receive
the names of the people that the administration they will do they will do the screening and we'll review it okay and you'll have it for a month he just went over to get in the next meeting and then you'll then you'll vote and no after meeting we'll get it to you
as early as we can and then the board pack it earlier okay um next item is uh an update on the intergovernmental agreement uh i' I've
talked about it here a little bit I'm going to just hit some high spots on March 26th after we met with City Council in a work session we agreed to a a a new IGA intergovernmental agreement
the city had a request they want to break out uh merits uh percentage of the monies and the rest of the districts percentage of the monies we agreed to all the well it was really that was the primary Amendment there were some reporting things we agreed to all of
that and the new IGA was signed on March 26th we then presented the did our annual presentation to the uh city council it was in the form of a pie chart which was historic for these
reports since this IGA went in in 2016 other entities in the County used the same pie pie charts they were very disappointed with that uh said there wasn't near enough detail and wanted to
go back to the drawing board and and put another amendment forth for the IGA so we started working on that and then and then the request came through that they weren't satisfied with annual
reporting they'd like to see at least quarterly reporting so we were considering that and then they took it a step further and in our work session with the city on this amendment they switched to monthly
reporting we had a discussion about that we agreed to all the terms uh and all parties there agreed and a new an amendment to the new IGA was signed on August 29th
then at the August 5th meeting uh when what' I say August I'm sorry September 5th meeting of of the city council um they weren't satisfied with
that even though both parties had agreed to the terms of that Amendment we we never asked for any changes to that Amendment the city manager wrote it and we took it all in and and signed it well there were then the comment was
well if you don't how do we know you're going to report on this like you're supposed to and folks the bar just kept raised and raised and raised and they put it to a vote and the vote was 43 that the uh they'd send it back to
the voters now in in my Minds ey there are some challenges to that because this District includes much more than just the people of from the city of Woodland Park yet only the City of Woodland Park can vote on this so it is the way it is
that's how it was back in 2016 and we we feel like we'll be able to get the support necessary to continue this and at a school board at a city council meeting I made mention of the
fact that you can say this is whoever's fault that you want to but the the bottom line is our kids are the ones that are going to be penalized for this in some fashion if we have staff red reductions budget reductions it's ultimately going to impact our kids I
was told by a city council member oh that's just a sound bite well folks our kids are not sound bites and I and I didn't appreciate the tone of the last couple of meetings and I've made the mayor very aware of that and clearly you can see that I'm frustrated about this
but we can maintain this IGA and we're going to need the community's help to do so but regardless of what you think of of this board someone said well you know to line your own Pockets my pockets never been so empty since I went on a
school board it's not a paying job sorry Mill Mill and if you don't like sound bites how come Ken wit you should be running like a business and your so afraid there's no there's no public comment at
this time please sit down financial reporting schs are business why are you so afraid answer that this is not public comment thank you uh I think with the community support we can maintain this
IGA and I think I can speak for everyone up here that this is important for our for our kids so please help us with this the elections in November is less than a couple months off and the time is going to go fast so there is your update thank you thank
you okay Board of Education reports anyone have anything I just want to say how proud I am of the teachers and the staff and in administration and our superintendent
um RC scores are off the chart so I'm very proud of our schools all of them anything else I mean I can I can parit that uh this is very exciting I mean it's uh it's a challenge to make
changes and uh no one likes change but the we're seeing the results now and and it's and it's been well worth the effort and I applaud our teachers our administrators all our all of our staff this board and uh I'm I'm very excited
about this and the students are putting in all the effort and work for it so yeah thank you absolutely all right anything else um the I so I've had some parents reach out to me so I don't know if we want to discuss this right now um or maybe just
add it to to another agenda but um since it's not technically a report um but there's there is a good bit of concern um specifically about overcrowding at Coline um which I think would be a good thing for um maybe Mr salt to address
um at the next meeting or this one yeah I mean this is this is report so maybe at another later later meeting maybe the next one I I'll put in a request to have that added um and and then the buses as well cuz there's a lot of concern in in the
parent community and I think we need to make sure we're explaining how we got to the point where we are okay I can you be a little more precise about that um specifically about the students who had been districted at
Gateway um who were either then redistricted to Summit but there weren't adequate Transportation options for them so some of them have chosen to then opt into Coline instead but still have to walk a good distance um some of the younger students um and then some of
them the parents had to make arrangements to drive their students out to Summit which is considerably farther away from their homes than Gateway was um because there wasn't a neighborhood bus provided by the district okay uh I I was involved in that conversation there
were concerned parents about it and I felt like we had adequately addressed Ted through Mr salt but I will do this I will look into it a little further again and see where we sit today cuz I I was thinking that this is resolved and and it and it didn't turn out to be as as
much of a challenge as as people thought it might be and and we made some adjustments we've changed the the doors uh for coming in and out I mean it was a work in progress at the first of the year but I I will look into that yeah and because parents are still reaching
out that's why so I don't think it is resolved for them under operations reports Mr Whit you've got a um Mick I I did have a uh comment that I wanted to make if we're moving on from board members reports we are go
ahead okay thank you U Nick I want to thank you for the work that you've done back and forth with the city council and I have to tell you how disappointed I am with the way things have turned out been to several
of those meetings talked with several of the city council members and I was it it certainly did not turn out the way that I had expected it would especially since
we as a school district have offered everything that they asked for there was really no argument we are too uh separately elected uh representatives of the
community the board of directors the city council and uh we I thought that we did due diligence in working with them and accommodating what they were asking
for um I am very disappointed with it it seems like it is entirely a political move that that was done I had assurances from some of the members that this was not going to happen that they wanted no part in it and uh I just want to say
that I am very disappointed with how things have turned out uh the next thing is I would like to ask uh that at some point in the near future we have a presentation and discussion
about the merit-based pay whether's privately I just I have questions that I would like to have answered I know that there are people that have still have some questions about it but I would like to have a discussion about that and also
now that we have a new um financial officer at the school I would like to have some questions resolved that the public has asked about our transportation questions
um there there are a few more issues but you know I I'm also want to say that I am very proud of of the numbers that Mrs slokam gave this evening very proud of our school district the things that we
have done how uh academic achievement is on the upturn and um I think that we can be very proud of ourselves of the things that are going on academically with our school and with our school district I want to thank Mr wit I want to thank the
board of directors I want to thank our great great teachers and our Administration for the hard work that they've done I've never seen such passionate teachers that absolutely love our children um I'm honored that so many of
them reach out to me and we talk I until I had this position other than my own personal experience with teacher when I was in school I am truly touched at how much our teachers love care about and uh
sacrifice for their students and uh we have wonderful wonderful teachers at our school and I'm so proud of them so that's my comments for this month I wish I could be there but uh I'm enjoying things here in Pennsylvania with
kids uh thank you thank you thank you and this is Kelly's last meeting then yeah well I just want to give you another special thank you for you know being here and being with the district and for as long as you have and so we
will definitely miss you but you know retirement is retirement so you get to enjoy the next chapter of your life and so enjoy it thank you you're you're just a kid yet you got you got all this time to enjoy something
new she looks really happy thank you thank you well there being no other business uh motion to adjourn the operations reports are I'm sorry I'm sorry all right and I just
like to point up I asked about F positions we have only four teaching positions left open we have a handful of par professionals sped specifically positions open which we which are hardest to fill positions so we kind of are constantly recruiting there and filling those uh our four teaching
positions actually is very standard for this time of year in previous years uh we do a pretty good job staying on top of that and we do have one security position open as well um all in all we don't have a very long list of of open positions we're better off this year than we were last year and we're not too
far from getting all of our teaching positions filled um so we're in we're in great shape on recruiting may I ask some questions about that certainly so um I know we have our our job board like linked out from like our district website are we posted on any other job
boards it depends on the the role that's being solicited we we either seek out specifically recruiting groups and Consulting groups that in a specialist area of interest um we will occasionally use indeed if it's needed um but for the
most part uh the job listings get lots of responses okay and do prefer local and Pikes speak area employees for possible so we would start there and do we so I guess we do some active recruitment as well we do occasionally it depends if the job stays open very
long then we then we begin get more Happ do um what would you say is our biggest hold up in filling the positions that are open because you said that we get a lot of applicants so is it more that we don't have qualified people applicate
applying or is it there isn't something else uh we certainly have standards for employment in Woodland Park and we will continue to right that wasn't my question my question was are we having trouble with getting people to apply in the first place or are the people who applying not qualified uh a little of
both okay okay um and then I don't know if we when the last time we've kind of jazzed up our job descriptions but just reading through them um I think we have um an opportunity to just kind of add some
more um exciting pieces to it to entice people to come in kind of sell the district and um show them why it's wonderful to be here I think that's a wonderful point I will point out that uh education positions are fairly standard positions so the people who apply for them already understand what the
position is typically from the from the brief job description it's not a field where you're marketing for people that haven't done this before typically right although we welcome those applications as well if they're highly right that's why the the selling the school district is I'll acknowledge the point do reason
why we don't spend a lot of energy in Pizzazz on job descriptions because the field that we're recruiting from is a field that understands the positions thank you Kean thank you for the report okay is there anything else I've
missed okay with that motion to adjourn so information report it's it's an information report second second meeting Jour hi hi Kim hi patteron hi
RS they sent me to school I'll roll okay did you send that to my grandson such a bur so much energy