Roll call, please. >> Here. Davidson, >> here. >> Gilgame. >> Oh, sorry. Here. Gordon >> here. >> Green Street >> here. We don't have here.
We don't need her for this part. But um for the >> algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the flag for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. Take a moment of silence. Thank you. All right. Um before we get to approval of the agenda, I would like to ask for a motion to amend the agenda slightly to
add an executive session again. Um so the 10 in the executive session to confer with the attorney for the school district pursuant to CRS24-6-424B to receive advice on specific legal
questions concerning term of merit academy charter contract and related facilities use agreements and for the purpose of discussing detail details of security arrangements or investigations related to district operated schools pursuant to
CRS24-6-424D. Um, and and I know Rob and and Carol, you're going to go into some uh detail on the meeting from this weekend, but I want to make sure I know some things were brought up that we wanted to double check with the lawyer about. And so that's why that piece is on there just
to kind of clarify some of those things. Um, and then there's the other that's what that's any questions on it. >> Roll call. >> Hi. >> Davidson, >> I
Gordon >> I >> Green Street >> I. >> Thank you. And then I need a motion to approve the amendment. So moved. Second any discussion
call please I >> Davidson I >> S >> I Gordon >> I >> Green Street >> I exc uh so that brings us to the administrative reports first on that is board of education please
>> who would like to go first >> I'll just I was at the citywide garage And we had a few groups from our athletics and activities that had spots there and it was one I think their most
successful ever or at least in many many years. They had about 50 spot 55 spots reserved and it was just a fun day with community. Um, and I wanted to say thank you to our coaches and parents and
teachers and community members who are already doing so much to support our athletics and activities. It's amazing to have amazing people. >> Yeah. Under academic excellence, I'd like to just bring up an update. I've
introduced Karen Hamilton to retired Air Force Junior Roxy instructor who has experience standing up new junior Rosi units. So, he's got a lot of good valuable information that he's willing to to meet with Karen Katy and pass that on after, you know, he's got he's on a
break right now, but uh he's just a wealth of information. Would love to share that with us so that we we know how to stand up our unit based on his experience as well. Secondly, under
operational integrity, Cassidy and I met informally with two of Merit Academyy's board members, Mrs. Mary here tonight and Dr. Matt Va on June 7th. The purpose of the meeting was to or two purposes really to set into
motion our collective commitment to work together to establish the best school district in the region for our students and two to discuss how we can work together to strengthen our overall relationship. And we all stated at the end that it was a productive meeting and discussed
having having it as a recurring basis of continuing the communications. Yeah, I think just a couple things to add. Um, it really gave us a good opportunity, I think, to have a good dialogue with Matt and Mary and also to share some insight too on like what
we've been trying to to do as a board and over the last couple of months, which is really level set on not only what our role as board members are, but our role as an authorizer. Um, and to get like a full account of like where we stand, like where do we stand, where are we starting from, how can we move
forward from here? Um, and so that began with the executive session that we had a couple months ago and like just collecting that information, consulting with our attorney, trying to figure out what we know and what we don't know. And uh, our intent actually at that point was to have a conversation a little bit
earlier which was interrupted by some other events in the meantime, family emergencies. Um, and so went back and tried to get more class or clarification on what do we do now if we don't have the time to offer the lead time to be able to have a discussion or dialogue
heading into this month's meeting. Um, and so we were briefed on that and provided some updates on where do we stand and then our collective uh decision to move forward was let's engage on a two to two basis and see if we can't start the conversation there and advance some of our concerns and
ideas in good faith and figure out our next steps. So I think just to give a little bit more background on how that discussion originated and um I think our effort tonight and due diligence is to get further clarification based on what we heard and then figure out how do we take our next step forward. So that is
just a quick bit of insight on that discussion. So yeah >> um and then my my report um is just that I went I was at the farmers market this past Friday. I was the first one. Saw so many people which was awesome. Uh but
most importantly saw a lot of the school district represented there. Um I know that the district itself had a boots and they had lots of information on the table and saw a lot of people going over to talk to these lovely ladies over here. Um and then also I believe it was
the swim team had um a booth where they were selling some of the produce to help do some fundraising for that as well. Um, so it was just really exciting to see uh the district be involved in the farmers market itself and then of course all the people who were walking around. So
such a wonderful part of this community and I'm glad to see the district being so involved in it. um at the work session um we discussed finding out what Mellan strategies would recommend in terms of engaging them you
know sooner rather than later and I'm still waiting um to hear back from that. So I'll report on that hopefully at the work session. Also, I just really wanted to I know Ginger will probably cover this part of her report, but I just wanted to express a lot of appreciation for our junior
senior uh high school staff and the openness that they have had in engaging with our coaches and athletics and activity sponsors around um the budgetary challenges that we're facing this year and just being willing to engage in a dialogue in the town hall and then meeting again with coaches last night. Um really feels like there's a
very high level of care being paid to like how do we figure this out together as a team. Um, so I just want to say thank you for doing that and thank you to Cat for leading that effort too. So >> yeah, it is great. Anything else?
>> And that brings us to your report. All right. >> So first of all, I just want to give a safety update. First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone for being flexible as um today as safety is our number one priority. We are resuming summer school
and student athletics tomorrow. All of our buildings have been secured. We are in the process of rekeying some of our doors and the exterior key lock cylinders have been disabled. Um but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. It took a team effort to make
sure things got done quickly so that we could resume um school tomorrow. >> Is there a specific threat? So, um, when we have a safety and security issue, it's typically very confidential while we're investigating. So, that's what I'll say. But we are
secure and, um, feel very comfortable having everyone back even tonight. So, >> interesting. So, when will it be disclosed? Um this week I know that we talked about this a little bit but we had principal retreat and um it was the kind of the
first ever real principal retreat for June which felt really good because it's all about planning forward and um starting conversations conversations in June that we will have more of in July late July when principles come back from summer. And so it felt really good to do
that. We did make some progress on the strategic plan goals, keys, key initiatives and KPIs for academic excellence. So really great conversation um very detailed work and so we we got through academic excellence. That's what
I'm going to say. But it was really great and um brought a lot of lot of creative ideas. Um, I want to remind everyone about summer hours at the district office and with 12 month employees. We um during
the months of June and July, our 12-month employees continue to work. Um, they work four 10-hour days. So, they get Fridays off to try to honor their time as well and give them a little bit of time to um build back some resilience
for when August starts. and our district office hours are 9 to2. Um, a little bit about school finance. Karen, David, Brad and I went to a school finance training last Thursday and Friday. The training was very
valuable. It was pro it was put on by CDE and it gave us some valuable foundational knowledge on school finance and also gave us time to collaborate as a leadership team while discussing the district's
future financial priorities, planning efforts, and operational needs. So, it was nice to have some time with that team because we often don't get time with that team because Karen and I are usually doing the curriculum and they're doing the finances. And very excited to announce that we've
hired a new principal for Summit Elementary School. Her name is Heather Smith Verano. You may or may not have seen the email that went out, but I know Lindsay's going to be working on a press release. Um, we followed a very similar process to hire the Summit elementary principal. We had an interview with a
small group of teachers um and staff members and a parent from Summit that Karen led and then we had an interview at the district office with the district office team that I led. We also used feedback gathered through a
staff and family survey regarding leadership qualities and the skills that were most important for the next principal. Um, Heather brings a wealth of experience and passion and dedication to this role. She earned a master's degree in educational leadership from the
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. And um, throughout her educational journey, she has served as a K12 curriculum and instruction facilitator in D11 and an elementary dean of students. So, we're very excited to welcome her to our team. Um, she
couldn't be here tonight. She's having one last vacation before she hits the ground running. Um, I do want everyone to know that we are doing a meet the principal open house at Summit on July 28th from 5 to 6:30. So, I know that's a little bit out there, but we wanted to
do it closer when families get back from their vacations and are getting ready to come back to school. Um, I did want to thank everyone um, from the high school as well for the conversations that we've had with
activity leaders and athletic coaches. I know that we are working we're working through things. We're we're taking a one team approach. Katie Rexford um took on that immediately even though um she
she's kind of doing dual roles right now as leaving summit and starting at the junior senior high school as the principal. But um the town hall I think went really well. People were very open and honest and I think we gave a lot of open and honest feedback and then Katie is championing that now with Cat and
they had a I guess a long coaches meeting last night. So, I think we're making some really great progress. And um Junior ROC, just wanted to report uh Karen and I just checked the data and we already have 19 students who have emailed
>> and filled out a Google form, which the fact that they're reading their email in the summer is amazing. Um but also wanted to report that they're mostly eighth and nth graders. So, that's really interesting and great because that program can continue with them as they grow each year.
I also wanted to shout out that we do have a farmers market booth and I know that um principles were there last week. Lindsay is going to be there this Friday. We have a few people sprinkled in that have signed up. If any of you want to sign up, we would love to have
you come. I think the link is on um I think it's been shared with you and then we're going to share it out to our schools and clubs and anyone else that wants to come and represent. So, we're hoping to have someone there throughout the whole summer
and almost finished. Um, we've been working diligently on recruiting students um to Woodland Park and so that was some of the collaboration we did this week with the principles. So, we are having a homeschool
informational and listening meeting next Tuesday, June 16th from 1 to 3 at the New Divide Library. Um, we are really hoping to gain information from homeschool families in the area who might be interested in coming and taking a a couple of classes at Woodland Park
Junior Senior High School or even in our EA enrichment program um at Summit Elementary. We also have flyers that are being mailed to residents in Ter County to help recruit students and share what types of programs we offer. And also
sharing with homeschool families what we offer such as junior ROC, CTE classes, college classes, and any athletics and things like that. And also we have distributed flyers to
the local realators um and Dub Miller at the chamber for new family packets. That was something that we discussed at one of our community connections meetings. So we've done that. Lindsay is going to attend the CARIS summer family Bible conference fair on July 2nd to recruit
students of families who are moving into town. And then also something that came out of community connections because we always get a lot of great ideas from the community. We are going to do two summer open houses here at the district office for new families. One will be on June
23rd at 10:00 a.m. and the other will be July 28th at 2 p.m. That will be meeting here, helping if they need help with registration, giving overviews of the district, and then if they have any schools they want to tour, we will do that. Can you recompose me? Oh, absolutely.
Sorry. Uh June 23rd at 10 a.m. and July 28th at 2 p.m. So, if anyone else wants to attend that, let me know. >> Just a quick question. Um Ginger, I know that we got a request from Lindsay about
a district-wide calendar, which seems like it would be a great asset. as um will there be those types of events on that calendar? >> I believe they're already on there. So, we also collaborated on that I think yesterday and we talked about what
events need to be on there and so I believe it's now up on the homepage. Is that correct when you scroll down? So, it's from all the schools um district run schools. >> Okay, >> cool. >> So, we're trying to be a little more efficient with that as well. That would
be so nice to have in Google calendar, too. So, thank you for that. >> Absolutely. >> Is there a time for the meet and greet at summit? >> Uh, yes, there is. >> It's 5 to 6:30. >> Okay. So, after the
>> Yes. I just decided why not. And if we have families that um I can also share that information. That's okay. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um, okay. So that brings us to facilities report. Jason feel like we need to reintroduce you
with your parent. This is still Jason. >> All right. I don't have anything significant to report. I know you all are working diligently to come up with another 40 $50 million that I would like to have. But in the meantime, we're just
doing emergency repairs only. We're doing our basic preventive maintenance over the summer and trying to get ready for kids to come back in August. That's going to be here soon. But I didn't have Candace taking it off in case you had any questions about anything that
happened over the summer or going to happen. >> I I'm just curious, Jason. I know that one of the things we really try to do is engage our community in a number of ways to try to offset some of those expenses. Do we do you feel like we've made some meaningful progress with all of that as
a combination of like fire mitigation and cleanups and all things? >> Yeah, I think so. We had the Elco uh fire mitigation bos came and did a pretty significant uh amount of work a
few weeks ago. And then we had the community surf day which we had 30 or 40 people I believe out and we we tackled all the needs that we had listed here at the junior senior high campus. So that was awesome. Um, we are working with
some community leaders um that uh know contractors that want to participate in some projects that are on my list. So, those are kind of in process right now. I think that that's looking really hopeful and we just need to keep reaching out, making those connections
and making sure the doors open on both sides of that. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Um, are you thinking about a second community workday? >> Not at this time. >> Okay. >> So, I know there was talk about
uh doing at a different date the next time we do one, but I wasn't I don't have anything on my agenda right now. So, >> I think the latest just another update. I I believe that keep beautiful will be doing a fall annual citywide cleanup this year. So that might be an
opportunity to collaborate a little bit depending on how they assign their workers. But just a heads up on that because normally well it it there have been June there have been fall claims in the past but there it's usually in June. So I think that will be coming up. I
don't remember the date though. >> How's proof that the old mill holding up? >> Um I know at the work session we you talked about the energy audit. Is that going are you going forward with that? >> Yeah, I think there's
probably going to be something on the agenda for August possibly or September for that so for you guys to receive more information about the energy performance contracting and what that would look like. I tried to get it on the July board
meeting. >> We said no. Thank you and keep up the good work. >> All right, brings us to the financial report. >> All right. Well, good to see you all again tonight. And as far as the financial report, want to just share
with you that we hopefully at the end of this meeting, we'll have a new audit firm under agreement with us. So, immediately after I think the last meeting we had, reached out to CDE, reached out to a few people about uh
referrals to audit firms that they would recommend. CDE recommended a company DMC out of Denver kind of a midsize Colorado based firm also received a referral to plant which is a global firm and as well as CLA.
So reop those three firms had three responses back. I think all three of them were really willing to work with us, but ended up after numerous discussions and some reflection and went with DMC and that's what I'm
recommending tonight. Any questions? I I just have one sorry about just um because I read the engagement letter and I think it's a great thing to have for like our fiscal advisory committee to refer to as well just understanding what
the audit will entail and was just curious from your experience working with holing if there's anything that's stands out as different in their services with DMC. >> Um we are actually created kind of a
maybe a term sheet the things that we need. So the services that they would provide are identical to the whole team. So what the experience will be like you know it's a whole new set of people. So so we're looking forward to expanding our it's a
very tight-knit everyone we talked to knew everyone else but they all seem to be have a great relationship. So Chris Holton uh I believe has had conversations with the new firm that
it's going well. He's helping still helping us as we close out the this current year. Um and he prepared some of the ending balance entries and we're working to reopen those with a new audit firm. And uh he's also still engaged
right now doing our federal single audit. So we're in the middle of that that needs to get wrapped up in the next few weeks. But Laura will be able to report on that within six months. >> Anything else?
>> Um, I just wanted to clarify, David, that I think one of the things that they recommended in the last audit presentation was just to engage with like after the engagement letter is approved like to start working with the auditor pretty early just to be prepared and delivering on time for the upcoming audit. Is that your intention as well
like with the finance team? already started yesterday. >> All right, cool. >> Involved with the meeting and so that's already underway. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay, that brings us to the public comment portion of the evening. So,
please be aware that any personal or individual student m personnel, sorry, or individual student matters are considered confidential under Colorado law and it is out of respect of the law and employees and students that we require those discussions to take place privately in executive session.
Individual comments are limited to three 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, board will make no decision and take no action on public
comment during the meeting. Um and then just to call out in case um it wasn't noted on the agenda, we do have a separate public comment for the budget portion. So if you wrote on the signup
sheet that you wanted to talk about budget, you'll be called up later. Okay. How many people do we have signed up? Two. Excellent. and Miller. >> And I cheated a little bit about the
budget. Well, it's in relation to the strategic plan. We've been here for about five years. I have a Summit Eagle and two Panthers. that for the first time in five years, this school district has a
concerted and shared purpose and mission and leadership. And we both see and appreciate that. It's easy to hear a lot of noise, a lot of the detraction, but it's mostly because we who appreciate what you're
doing maybe don't think of saying thank you, but we see what you're doing and we appreciate it. As far as I'm concerned, this district has a very bright future. And that's not to denigrate the work
you've done and the hard work ahead of you because I understand tightening that fiscal belt is extremely tough, but what I see, and this is the budget part, the cheating part, that you've create a b created a balanced budget and that's a
high priority in your strategic plan. fiscal accountability and from what I see all I see is honesty and integrity and accountability and what I take from that is for the first time in five years my
children's education is being prioritized over politics over whatever your predecessors were doing I appreciate you all and I know there a number of us tons of us in this community who appreciate what you're
doing. So, take heart. We're behind you. Thank you, >> Reverend Nate Williams. >> Good evening, members of the property and president. I'm here tonight as a taxpayer and a dedicated community member to address a
fiscal crisis that this board can no longer afford to ignore. Fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers and families of the Woodland Park School District is not optional. It's your primary legal and moral obligation. Yet,
the current handling of Merit Academy is a direct failure of that duty. Here's the factual breakdown. Let's look strictly at the numbers which are a matter of public record. Barrett Academy is financially insolvent. It's currently
nearly $1 million in debt to our greater school district. Worse still, for the upcoming school year, this institution is slated to operate on a deficit budget. What makes
this deficit utterly indispensable is the massive funding disparity. Merit Academy receives nearly 25% more funding per student than our traditional district schools. Think about that. They're h they are handed a massive
financial advantage per pupil and they still cannot break even. They're continually draining resources from our collective pot. Every single dollar used to bail out or carry the debt of an insolvent
charter school is a dollar stolen from the classrooms, the teachers, and the programs of the rest of the Woodland Park students, including giving them just a4 million dollars. Oh, hey, we're going to pay for your buses, even though you should have been paying for them all along. We're actively subsidizing a
failed financial experiment at the expense of the majority. The problem here isn't the students or the families who chose merit. They deserve stability, highquality instruction, and a school system that won't collapse under a
mountain of debt. The problem is a broken structural framework that is mathematically unsustainable. This brings us to a clear, logical, and necessary conclusion. My call to action tonight is direct. It is time for the board to wind
down operations at Merit Academy and seamlessly integrate the Merit student body back into the regular district for the upcoming school year. Our traditional neighborhood schools have the space, the capacity, and the fiscal responsibility to absorb these students
without running a million-doll deficit. By bringing these students back into the main district fold, we ensure that every child in Woodland Park receives their fair share of public funding backed by a stable solvent budget. Stop protecting a
broken balance sheet. Bring these students home to a stable district. protect our tax dollars and restore restore fiscal sanity to Woodland Park. Thank you. Brings us to the consent agenda
for a motion. I Oh, >> did you mean to sign up for the public comment and not the budget? >> Yes. >> No, you're good. Everybody sign up. >> I thought the second comment period was
after was later in the agenda. >> Yes, it is. >> Okay. >> Yeah. directed for the budget, but I think Gail said she did signed up on the wrong. >> Oh, got you. >> I was wondering. >> In light of the recent community
comments, I'm here to hopefully shed some light on communications that I have observed attending both the district board meeting since 21 and Merritt's board meetings since December. I have been the only community person to attend Merritt's last three meetings. Their
meetings are not recorded. The current board has shared non-privileged information in detail at meetings. For example, the 2425 audit was delayed due to horrible finance recordkeeping under the previous superintendent. It was
announced that all unnecessary parties were notified and property tax funds would not be withheld. At the following merit meeting, the board was told the county should withhold funds so they didn't know if they would be getting much funding. The district CFO reported
routine contact contact with the merit CFO questioning why their board didn't know this was not an issue. At the May meeting when the 2426 budget was presented the negative comments related to the district
persisted. It was mentioned that they merit planned could challenge the 5% administration fee. They were not signing a document for services. And when asked by a board member to explain an expenditure of 200,000, an increase
in expenditure, the answer was one word, shutters. Obviously, they did not want to discuss transportation in detail in my presence. The district inherit the district's inherited financial stress means that any charter school in the district would have to pay their fair
share. Glenn Gustoson, finance manager of CDE, in an email to Merritt said 12K charter schools pay the same cost as a district with Monument and New Summit paying towards school bonds and that
Merritt was fortunate to have a building. But in office 23, merit's administration fees had decreased from 5% to8% and building and maintenance had decreased by 61%. A half a million dollars is needed for
district sports program and merit students can join. My question is does merit contribute to these costs? Merit's audit might explain their financial concerns. The general fund balance was reported as 13,267,
but then the audit reads 196,500 was restricted for chamber and reserves of 8,853 was nonspendable for prepaid items resulting in an unassigned balances of a negative
2,086. and that can sometimes represent um fiscal instability. I hope the public better understands the district position in establishing a new FUA with merit. Thank you.
Anyone else before we move on? >> Okay, then we move to the consent agenda. So, I will look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> I second it.
>> Comments, please. Parkley. >> I Davidson. >> Hi. >> Gilgeness. >> Hi. >> Gordon. >> Hi. >> Green Street. >> Hi. >> Um. Okay. Was it So, is there anyone for the finance
after it's after this presentation? >> Oh, sorry. My eyes jumped. Correct. Uh, it says public hearing, not comment. Okay, David, you're back up. Stop the discussion and information.
Public hearing on the proposed budget, >> David. Um, we had moved the podium for public comment so that our speakers could see the timer. If you want to like crab walk over at the podium, if you want us to see anything behind
you on the height, cool. >> All right, which means I forgot to give Steve a slide. So, >> all right. Well, the budget that that
was made public few days ago, it's substantially the same as the one we went through kind of in depth at the last meeting in May 13th. So, I wanted to go through with you and just walk through some of the
changes that were made. Uh, as you can see, you know, the top and bottom line, uh, the budgets are still balanced. I think that the net changes that washed through the budget were only I think it was
it was like $40,000 difference in the uh expense side and 77,000 in the revenue side. So we'll walk through those. uh as far as I'm going to go fund by fund. So in fund 10 the general fund
some of the major uh fluctuations in fund 10 were changes related to the school finance act that was passed. So actually think they're still working on that because CD told me next month in
July they're actually going to release additional information. So obviously any changes from tonight will get readressed in January as a traditional reforcast month. But there was uh the school finance act changed I
think kind of what I've always wanted which is money follows the kids the students and what the school finance act uh an amendment from actually it was the league of charter schools that got that in at the last minute. So, uh, at risk
funding, ELLL, uh, extended high school spent dollars now are going and following the students. So, that is changing our numbers a little bit. So, I think it was around $150,000
that we actually need to run the programs to support those students. And then so merit and the district will receive funding based on eligible eligible students in each one of those categories. So I'm delighted with that.
I'm glad that happened. Uh so anyway, that accounted for some of the changes in state revenue. If we drop down a little bit, we can go through the charter pass through to merit. So that was that declined because
that affected their budget as well and subsequently the merit fees and reimbursements dropped and that dropped for a couple reasons. one if they get less money they rece we collect 5% you know if there's no money going there we don't collect 5%
and I will say that we have this year in the flow through we have been withholding 5% of the fee so they have been contributing uh to that basically because I've been withholding it and the same on
transportation so u we've been withholding transportation fees we'll do the troop after the end of the year and There may be money headed back there, money coming this way depending on what those numbers are. And I'll talk a little bit about transportation
uh when we get to fund 25. So the other reason the merit fees dropped and it dropped 228,000 in this budget is due I just learned this week that they are not participating in the district sponsored transportation
program. So withdrawing that out of the budget I will say so if we drop in fund 10 onto expenditures so there was a little bit more salary wages that are showing up in there not a huge percent out of the almost 11
million in expenses but out of right now it's sitting at 10.7 million and that is there's a couple things that occurred since fiscal year 25. So 25 it was a little over 13 million. Now it's
down to 10.7 million. So you can see there's about 2.3 million reduction in payroll since last fiscal year. In addition to that, we've actually hired people into this number that are
replacing people that we had contracted to third part. some very specialist um staff to work with um whether it's physically or mentally challenged students. So, we've been able to recruit
in staff at a significantly high cost savings compared to outsourcing it. So, you can see the salary and wages go up a bit, but you'll also see an offsetting number in the professional technical services that was reduced uh by about
$700,000. So, a lot of things rolled up into that, but that is a significant number that dropped. And I'm really glad the HR team and Katie that they were able to go out and recruit some staff that are now on our payroll on our team and saving the
district hundreds of thousands of dollars. The other the other drum is in contracted transportation. So the cost to the district last year in this line item and I just maybe I'm
jumping ahead to transportation but uh transportation's in fund 25 for specific CDE related income and expenses. So my preference if I wasn't in school finance would be
to put all transportation in one fund and then we could see all the transportation costs. And I think it creates some confusion possibly people who read the financials that the actual transportation cost is much greater than fund 25. So within the general budget we
are paying a contract to Durham. Part of the contract to Durham is in fund 10. We also have vehicles that the district owns and maintains. The fuel cost to operate not only our fleet but also the
Durham fleet is in our fund. We've got uh vehicle insurance that's in fund 18. We've got payroll in fund 10. So the transportation just the way CDE tells us
how to host these expenses, they're really all over the board. But if someone's trying to calculate what is our cost per rider, it's nearly impossible from one sheet of paper to do that. you really have to have all of
these individual pieces of information to assemble and and I've actually done that kind of for this year but if the cost for this year ends up and these are rough numbers because we haven't closed the year yet but at a cost of 1.1
million in cost of transportation so that's Durham that's our fleet maintenance fuel payroll for all of that and then we deduct from that CDE so they granted us 195,000 We collected of all the bus fees that
are out there, we collected $15,000. So I had a a friend of mine, he's like, "David, you keep saying that, you know, the charter doesn't pay, but we pay." It's like, "Okay, the bus fees are $75. The cost is over 2,000." He's like, "Oh,
so I have misstate." If I'm saying people aren't paying for bus, they're not paying for all of it. they're paying $75 at risk pays nothing but the actual cost to the district is thousands of dollars per rider. So I just wanted to clarify
that as well. So the um so that that's kind of transportation I don't know you know obviously we're going to shore this number up but as we just learned that merit is not in our transportation program this coming year.
Uh Jason went to Durham to share them share with them the news and start negotiating reconfiguring routes. So I don't even know yet what that actual number will be when we redo the budget in January. We will know what that
number is and we'll slide that in. I took the liberty of kind of making an educated guess on what we had been paying and what we uh anticipate paying. Uh, so last week I plugged in the number um there and it may change. I just want
to let you know don't get on me too bad in January if that number doesn't match exactly with reality, but I hope it's close. the any other big changes in fund 10 pretty much
pretty much no I did if you remember I in my draft budget there was some coingling of utilities and technology in different rows so I ended up breaking those out uh in the new budget and those are are the line items that you can see
there the uh not a huge amount of change mostly a reclassification of of those expenses into into a more readable logical format. Um, fund 18, which is pretty easy. There
wasn't really I think a $14,000 change out of a half a million spend. Again, fund 18 is basically our insurance policies, some cost of keeping fire suppression inspected, elevators, and all of that. Um, workman's comp,
unemployment insurance. So that fund has to zero out. So whatever those costs are, fund 10 moves money into the fund 18 to zero it out. And so that's what we've done with fund 18. Fund 21 is basically food service. And the district
actually has little to do with food service since we outsource to chart wells. So the revenue that comes in from uh into fund 21 are you know the students that pay fees, staff pays fees
to get food. Um and then the state pays funds and the federal government pays funds. So I did add uh some additional funding that comes in from the USDA that was omitted in the original draft. So those dollars are now in this final
version. And then the expenditures are basically all chart wells. I mean uh so they if you look at it salary and wages but the way we have to report to CDE is chart wells gives us their data and we plug it in so that we can file for the
reimbursements from state and federal government. So but these are not our staff. These are not our employees or salary benefits. So front 21 doesn't necessarily have to zero out but I
basically working through the numbers was able to pretty closely zero it out and that's good news. So in most districts the food service that's provided to the schools operates at a deficit. So April who runs Chartwells
for us locally is just doing a really good job and how she's acquiring food products and staffing. So we are actually or she I should say she is really outperforming her peer group around the state. All right, here's the fun part fun 22
which is the grants. Uh the major change here is uh a new grant. Karen has done fabulous job applying for grants and so we've she landed another grant which I'm
99.9% sure is coming in >> uh for school health professionals and so I think it needed one last what I was describing as a rubber stamp and oh
there you are. So, we're really excited about that. And uh so that'll just help the district and these are funded over a four-year commitment from the state. So, this isn't money. The worst thing is you get money one year, you
build some program, and then you're stuck trying to cover the cost if you like the program for the next year or the state both grants that she landed early childhood reading in this grant for a year. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. So that that's about it for grants. The
majority, so there's about 1.1 million in grants that are coming in is just over 100,000 of that. So just over 10% are non-payroll related expenses. You know, supplies, uh, furniture and equipment, some travel and personal
development, but 90 nearly 90% of those grants, uh, are used for staffing. The other grants that are in there, not a huge amount of change. The title grants are pretty stable and the ID IDA funding
is actually a little bit of bright spot. Uh it has 44,000 which is up from my estimate of 3,000 in May and 3,000 was based off last year at four. So what happened and we're still working on the
voseis budget but these dollars are captured through voseis and they do their services and then they'll flow through this year the remainder because we also have staff doing supplemental services that will get fund that will
receive funding for this 44,000. So working with uh Katie at Boseies doing their budget. So, they're going to vote on their budget uh in maybe a week and a half, I think. And uh so, working with
her, flowing through those dollars. So, Creek and uh our district as well as Merit will receive a portion of those proceeds that are there. So, that was encouraging.
Fund 23 is probably the most complex fund and I turned in my budget to you on Thursday, went to CDE training on Friday to cover fund 23. So there will be changes to this when we hit January. Uh
but the most you know this is where we're we we book currently student activity fees, fundraising, donations, all of these type of activities that we're doing to bring in funds and then
expense funds according to the purpose that they were brought in. So CDE their recommendation is limit fund 23 to uh fundraising
and that's it. And then uh all the other funds are tagged. So if we raise money for hockey and it goes into fund 10, it's tagged with hockey although it's residing in fund 10. They were like very adamant. Fun 23 is
for uh student for fundraising and that's it. Everything else fun 10 but tagged according. So if a donor donated money they wanted it for specific purpose we'll tag that with that specific purpose and Skyward our reporting system will enable obviously
enable us to track that and report on it. The key that hasn't been done over the years, which we are uh working this year to correct, is fees were going into 23 and getting expenses paid out of fund 10. So, we're working uh this year, I
think I mentioned maybe nine months ago, once we get that audit done, we're turning our attention to uh to the funds in fund 23 to sort those out. So, uh, so we're in the middle of doing that as well. But the funds coming in,
obviously, we want to support our our activities, our athletics, and there's been a lot of question that um I think maybe coaches stipens, which is the core foundation of a program. Um, I just I'm here to tell you that those are covered.
So, we've got historical data saying that we're going to have the money and we will have those funds. So, I don't see programs in jeopardy of having coaches. What we really need to do, I think if everyone does their
part, some of some of the parts are very small, but I am so encouraged by the community response to we want to fund raise for sports programs. Literally, they're the out it's an outpouring of support and I'm really happy to see that.
>> You mentioned coaches. You said athletics. So is it the same answer for activity? >> Yes. I'm sorry. >> Just for clarification for community. >> Okay. I was more involved in athletics as a kid than I was in activities. >> Just making sure. >> Yeah. I appreciate the clarification.
That is correct. Uh transportation fun 25. And if you really look at this, so CDE is really dictates how we use fund 25. So
what's in this fund 25? You know, I mentioned before there's there's probably 800,000 700,000 in other funds that do transportation, but in this particular one, there's uh the budget you have
before you is 379,000 for this portion of transportation. largely for uh sped transportation is what this is CDE that's we're just following their guidelines and if we don't follow those guidelines when we
upload our data through the data pipeline it comes back as fix this so um we're ahead of the game for next year but so these fees are I think the state
195,000 the state chips in uh which I I think I agg I think I did the math and it came out to about 16 cents. Every dollar the district spends on transportation, the state has refunded us, reimbursed us 16 cents. So, better than nothing. I
mean, wish I wish it was more. Uh, if you're thinking in your head, where's some of the bad news? I would say the next page is >> I didn't recognize I didn't recognize So, fund 43 capital projects and uh this
is a fund this year. I know we've spent pushing on $400,000 this year. Um last fiscal year it was over 700,000
just in site improvements and contracted work. This budget has 125,000. So if you pray pray that nothing breaks, but as you know, as Jason has mentioned so many times, and we have dozens of
very expensive HVAC rooftop units that what did that last 179,000 I think for the Yeah. So it would take one of those to go out to fully deplete this account. Um, so that's something we've really got
to study. We went for a best grant this year. Unfortunately, we were not awarded that one. Um, I've Jason have already talked about reapplying when that window reopens, but those funds still wouldn't even be here for probably 18 months. So,
we've we really need our equipment replaced. And it's a bigger even one whole budget year for the entire district wouldn't satisfy Jason's request for funding. So he's not
listening but >> his videos. >> All right. So that's my presentation kind of what changed from draft to the one before you. If you have any question on 25 said you had a guest what is that
minus merit and what is that? >> Thank you man if we had questions. >> I did thanks for the public and for the record. Um, so since we were talking on on transportation there for a little while,
I know there's been a couple people have talked to me about it. I know there's have been approach about u looking into doing in in-house busing, right? Like we we contract out presently. Is it feasible? Would it save us money
to to pull that back in? >> Excellent question. and uh Jason probably the one that came up with it, but we kind of did an analysis I don't know maybe early winter, late fall
on that and it kind of it really I think cl confirmed what CDE has said and told me which is once a district's out of the busing business it is near impossible to get back into it
just the cost of acquiring you Now, we would need probably 12 buses uh to acquire. And in my mind, the only way really to do that if we wanted to get back into the busing would be to uh pass a bond for that equipment for those
vehicles. Even then, and hopefully Durham's not fussing, but uh Jason and I kind of went through the math. It's like, well, here's some of the acquisition costs, maintenance cost, fuel. It's like our own salaries. What? It's like, okay, we don't know how
Durham's really making money at the busing transportation game. So, my answer, sorry, it's longwinded, but always open to revisit it, but I just from what CD says, from our analysis, I don't see >> wouldn't save us any money at least. >> I don't see it. Yeah.
>> And trust me, if there was a way to save money, would prefer to How's merit paying for their transportation? >> Are they going to Uber their kids? >> I have more, but I don't want to.
>> Okay. Um, so I, you know, I I think we're looking at some of these um, you know, the change from from last year to to what we're looking at going forward. Um some of them are are larger than some are smaller. Um you know in
past board meetings when talking with our our past CFOs um the the process was kind of all right what did we spend last year? Do we see major changes? You know how do we estimate going forward? Did you follow that same process or was it
kind of a different approach here? We did a little bit of a hybrid, but I would say any budget I've ever built, this was the zero more zerobased than any other budget. So we started uh
what's the most important thing that's having teachers and supporting the education directly and so we started and our whole team went through I mean every position is this needed to move forward if there was a question mark move on but
we went ultimately went through every position whether it was justified or not justified under the current circumstances of the district which I would not describe as a crisis. If we don't stay on budget, there's
we're at the point where we have to, >> but I wouldn't describe us in a situation of a crisis at this. So, um, but so we started there, we got our our staffing and generally staffing CD has a
metric of about 70%. your staff and your benefits, your overall payroll benefit or burden on the organization 70% plus or minus a little bit and uh and we were there. Now we're at 80%. Which depending
on how you think about you say, "Oh, you're overstaffed." Well, in reality, we've cut actually so many expenses that we're left with salary. So, we've actually overcut and I hope that can be restored
with in the future. So, I think we've cut some things that uh we're able to really get by whether it's curriculum, it's like can we get through another year with this particular curriculum. So, we've made some decisions to defer
some things, defer maintenance on certain things. And uh the second step is okay teachers we've got that we got to keep the lights on. What our utility bills that isn't a zero based >> right >> that's an analytic what was it and
they're they've gone up. So, our fuel costs have, you know, I look at the monthly charge and if we're humming along at 10% or $10,000 a month until this invasion in Iran and now it's 20,000, it's like that's a significant I have to swallow, you know, that is
120,000 a year extra. So hopefully that gets settled quick and the oil prices will come back down. So anyway, utilities uh and those expenses pretty much dictated to us. That's what that line line item is. Transportation. You
know, we want to make sure kids can get to school. So, that was definitely a priority. Um, and then, you know, as we run out of money, then we create a list of here's the priorities that were six and seven that we don't have funding
for. Um I I think one of the things that bothered me this year was uh you know this is I think the second year in a row for staff not to have a pay increase and I started
noticing prices going up myself and it's like wow and then to try I worked hard some people understood this and they were very grateful that there is still some b you know benefits available to staff But I try to have that as a zero
impact. So that means staff actually paid more for benefits than they were last year or this current year. They're they're paying more next year than they are this year. So that if we can get additional funding, I would like to
restore that and then help our staff who really work hard and I think do a fantastic job get to breathe a little bit. I just uh I guess I'm at the point of life where uh
I'm not living check to check but I know a majority uh fortunately people are younger than me and but they are in a different economic environment than I'm so I feel for them. I don't want to lose sight of that and hopefully we as we get
funding we're able to do that. It really is important for retention of staff and I've seen us having difficulty recruiting people as I'm highly involved in HR uh because of our wage rates are lower than our other
schools around us. So we've got to really find a solution for that in in the next year or so. >> Thanks David. I appreciate that. I just want to say thank you to David and his team and our entire principles, executive leadership team, everyone has
been working really hard to figure out the best way to balance a budget. >> Um where we have had to make more cuts than anyone has ever wanted to make. Um it hurts all of our hearts to freeze
pay. Um I know how hard everyone works and um I do have hope for the future. I know that David's worked hard. He's done a great job leading this team. And um I just wanted to say thank you for that.
>> Just want to point out some details um on second page just the projected increase in enrollment. I know um the projected increase was about a little over 100
and 207 and I know Merritt was projecting about 75 but that means that we're projecting around 46 or something like that >> right >> which is really encouraging but also um
noting that with that our salary went our instructional spending went down a couple percentage. And so it's like we're we're doing everything we can to still keep that a priority, educating our students a priority. And
then we also have 125,000 just for our buildings. And that's we've said over and over again that's not enough. And I just think like my husband's in construction and I think of the
you know the roles of owners of a property and property managers and I think there's a misunderstanding that we're not the owners like the district doesn't own these buildings the community and the taxpayers do and we
are the property managers and so we're really at a place of saying, "Hey, like there's stuff that needs to be taken care of, but we don't own it. You do, and you fund it. Like, we can't fund it without you." And so, that's just the
cry I hear today is just we've done everything we can to to still prioritize our students, the buildings, they need attention from their owners. It's a great picture.
you know, this isn't really a question, but there's been talk around um buildings and properties and all of that. And I think um I think it would be very wise for us to have evaluate and
and a valuation of all of our all of our properties that have buildings on it that don't have buildings on it. and to just have that um for us in moving forward to make uh better decisions
about what we might need to do to help with funding. >> Um David, I have a question just coming out of the coaches meeting from last night. some clarification on the um you had presented I think or there have been
a series of presentations around the changes and fees and all of that and that is incorporated into the the numbers that you've presented to us tonight. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. As well as I think a little bit more of an optimistic picture on the fundraising that we hope to engage in
over the course of the next year. Correct. >> That's fair. >> Okay. >> I'm optimistic. >> Yeah. I think Karen's actually gonna go over more detail on those fees that you're >> I have one more question for you. Um, one that uh has been raised a couple of
times, but I just wanted to get really clear on this, which is um when you mentioned the charter flow through of funds and the charter uh administrative fee specifically, can you please explain just what does that fee include and how it is calculated? Okay, it's a state
statutory maximum cap of 5% and that's measured on the flow through of specific dollar revenue streams funding streams. So the total per pupil uh funding so that would be the state shares. Uh if
when we flow through the atrisisk fed ELLL uh extended high school, it's basically on those funding. So if we look at mill levy, not included on that. If we're looking at title money, not
included on that. It's strictly on part of the state. It's majority of the state funding, but it's limited to specific state funding um programs and we as a district provide uh services and CDE. It
you know, I guess when the government gets involved, nothing makes 100% sense. So uh anyway we is the flow through is their authorizer. So we have administrative expenses that we incur uh
registar expenses and I can give you we could publish like the whole list CD actually has specific accounting codes that are acceptable to be put into that category of the subject to the 5%
um as well as job descriptions. So, but there's a immense amount of effort put in that is behind the scenes and unfortunately I think it goes unrecognized for the people doing it because they're really doing a great
job. So, but it's mostly it isn't it is what it says. It's administrative. I might disagree with the categories that they would put in it or not put in it, but that's the state formula, >> right? and it does exceed. I would say
that when we run the calculation and we say here's all the 5% what is what are our expenses in those categories it exceeds 5% but by statute limited to the 5% >> right and that's work that's being done
on behalf of Merit Academy students right like to make sure that they receive the funds that they need or the program support or whatever that is correct like that's not >> that's just not us saying we're spending a lot of time thinking about Merit Academy that's saying we're actually performing work on behalf of their
students and that it's being charged appropriately. Is that accurate? Okay. Thank you. >> Um the other thing I I wanted to call out kind of celebrate on the you know light of all the other things a little silly but um the change in our in our
ending fund balance projected from what we're starting at the beginning of the year. there's actually a positive there. >> Uh, and it's the first time in like I want to say like at least five years
that we're not seeing a huge drop from our starting fund balance to our ending fund balance. And I know again work went into doing that, but I want to acknowledge that that has happened and it's a change and I and uh it's a change
that needed to happen. So >> about next year's budget. >> Yeah. Well, if you look at the Yeah. Yeah. >> Well, it's on paper. I mean, I will It's on paper. >> Yes. But it's never even since it's in the time I'm on the board, this is the first time it's even been on paper when
we're voting that that we're gonna have, you know, not dig into that that fund balance there. >> I hope not, but I just want to raise the expectation we have to live within the budget to accomplish that bottom line.
>> Yeah. >> And that's part of my job is to help ensure that happens. But it's going to take, you know, Jinger and Karen and the rest of us to to make that happen as well and pray that capital or HBC systems don't break down.
>> We need to make sure we don't get any greets, but at least there's a plan to make it happen. And I appreciate it. Ask questions, right? Thank you. Williams. Okay. Do I need to reread that thing again?
>> No, I guess you see. >> Okay. So, I'm not going to reread our public comment thing, but the same rules apply. >> Sorry, >> make sure you cut that off before the inappropriate words show up.
>> Thank you. No, I'm just, you know, we know that the mayor Ruth is months away from a $10 million failure. >> Oh, boy. Howdy. Well, I think it's really weird that David asked if there were any questions, but then he wouldn't
answer a question from the public. um you know, we're talking about fund 25 transportation and he said that he's done the gueststimates minus merit and he's done the guests per student. But then when asked he avoided the question
um I find that really weird and said we're not in crisis mode. But what he meant to say was we're not a crisis mode yet. We're in crisis mode. We're one air conditioning unit breaking down from being busted.
How many years is it until Mayor is bankrupt? They're on a deficit budget. They owe the district money. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands. They get 22% more money while enjoying
the same benefits of the broader district. sports and activities half a million dollars where I went to middle school and high school. We had parochial school for K through six and
they had tuition and it was Catholic. Much like the failed experiment of Brad Miller and Ken Wit in Pueblo where they tried to have a public Christian school, these people paid tuition. They went to Catholic school and then when it came time for middle school, they were integrated into the general district.
And that's what needs to happen. We need to make the middle school all the middle school students again. We need to make the high school all the high school students again. We need to reopen Gateway. Well, it's already open. We're just not using it for its intended purpose. We need to take the elementary
school students from Merit and put them in Gateway. So, you can have your separate but unequal grade school and then we can have a real middle school again and a real high school again. the schoolest thing. It's absolutely
ridiculous. Nobody said what Merit's going to do for transportation. Why wasn't that answered? Where's that? Are they going to Uber? Are the kids from Merit going to Uber? Is the district going to pay for Merit to Uber? I mean, you guys are going to be working on earning back public trust to get this
sales tax. We're eight months into your tenure and this shoddy should be within shiTty accounting is still not transparent. I can't believe this district went four
years with their accounting in such disarray that we've taken eight months to piece together where all the cracks, not cracks, this is a colander, this is a civ where this money is drizzling
through. I'm almost out of time already. Um, but you need to charge fees that merit or you need to reintegrate them back in the district. Make the middle school a middle school. Make the high school high school. make Gateway the elementary school for those separate but
equal students. And that's it for the budget. But how long, David, is it until Merit is bankrupt? One year, two years, three years? We
know it's less than three years. So, uh, commenting on public comment is not our thing, but if you have questions on Merit's budget, I would advise asking Meritt's board at maybe one of their meetings. That's not our job. >> Why is there never a member of Meritt's board here? They're part of this
district and they don't send a single representative to these meetings. >> Oh, hi. Sorry. When was the last time you were here? That brings us to our action portion of the evening. >> Uh so first action item of course is on
the budget. So looking for a motion on adopting the budget for 2026 2027. >> I move we adopt the budget part 20 that
David's proposed for 2627. Second. Let's have any further conversation at this time. I think I just want to say that yeah, I'm I really want to do the work to keep
us within budget or to help our increase our revenues. I'm here for it. Me, too. All right. I did want to say one thing. I know that when David was talking, he does through um excuse me, his HR role
also he does do a lot of the negotiating on salaries and things like that. But I do want to say even with us not being able to um hire people at the higher levels that some of the larger districts are um able to, we've had a lot of very
qualified people applying for jobs again. And so I feel like that's a huge plus for our district, um, our board of education and our leadership team. So I think that's that's a nice light at the end of the tunnel. So it's good to hear.
Thank you. >> All right. Um, I guess we need a roll call. >> Hi, Davidson. I >> Green Street. I budget has passed.
All right. So then that brings us to the DNC auditing and consulting LLC engagement letter. We all had a time chance to read through all of that. >> David, did you >> do you have anything else to present on
this matter? No. >> Okay. Then at this time I will look for a motion to approve the DMC auditing and consulting LLC engagement links. I move to approve the DMC auditing and
consulting LLC engagement letter. Second >> discussion. >> Hi, >> Davidson. >> I >> Green Street. >> I
have a consultant. >> Okay. Um so that brings us to our regular board of education meeting schedule. Um, and then yes, there's there's bit of
>> is that I'm sorry. Is that change on the documentation? >> It is. >> Okay. So, I'm going to just follow that up. Um so as part of the uh leadership meeting I think yesterday they realized there was a bit of a
conflict with our September meeting falling on the same day as the incoming parade. And I don't know about you all but I would much rather march in the parade than sit here. So proposing that we move the September date. Um it's currently listed September
9th in the packet. Uh that's to September 2nd. I don't know if you want to make a note on that and then we can do up to >> Okay. I don't know.
>> Okay. I think technically we need a motion so that we can have full discussion. I move to approve the regular board of education meeting schedule 26 2027. >> A second. >> Okay. Now we can have
>> So I just looked at the district calendar for that year and we had teacher parent teacher conferences on the 14th October 14th and February 10th in the evenings. So I just write that
out for our if our teachers who are wanting to attend our parents or if any of the parents sitting up here want to attend the teacher conferences. >> There will be conferences for the next
day too. So parents have but it's the teachers who don't have as much. It's also going to be >> That's true. What's easier to make? Probably us because conferences are that like we have to count minutes and do all
the things that we have on the line with um the breaks and things like that. Those are Wednesdays. I mean, is it unheard of to move it to a Tuesday and keep it in the same week or is that is it better to move it a week and keep it
on a Wednesday? >> I'm just curious. >> At the moment, I don't like the Tuesday. >> Which one is that again? >> October 14th, >> Tuesday the 13th and then February 10th, making it
February 9th. I don't have >> I don't have the full calendar for next year with me. Um >> I think so. >> Is it does it hurt if we put the calendar up on the screen
like the district calendar? Then I just want to I want to double check vote and like then have to go back and vote again at a later meeting. >> Yeah. I mean, we can always do a oneoff change, too, right? >> As long as we're posting it early enough
in advance. But >> February 10th is actually up. >> Yeah. >> Well, if we change it to a Tuesday, then it would be February. >> That's true. >> But it depends on if you guys are okay
with it. thought I was trying to >> I don't mind but I don't want >> I don't mind if it's Tuesday I don't >> as of right now I have no conflict like I don't know 13th right now
>> next week how big can we make >> All right every time we put stuff on this board. I feel really old. >> Oh, there you go. >> So, what's the yellow on September 8th?
>> That is a moving. >> Yeah. So, that one's okay. So October 13th should be okay because there's nothing on it. >> Okay. >> And then February, sorry
>> also looks okay. >> Should be okay as well. >> All right. As long as I'm not missing anything or principles, >> you're moving over the Tuesdays. >> Yeah. >> If that's okay with people.
>> Okay. The 13th and the 9th. >> Yeah. We didn't look at the caption. >> Any other comments, concerns on the proposed meeting schedule? feel like we just threw out extra
meetings in all of the >> question of like do we typically plan in advance like like a more annual retreat is that a thing or is that like we'll get to it? I don't know. >> I think in the past for the regular
meeting schedule we didn't vote on it. It was more of like a what do we need? >> It's work session. >> Yeah. Okay. Um I would if while we're discussing that prefer we do that earlier in the school year. >> Yeah. >> So
>> you know September would be my preference but I I don't know that we need to decide that tonight. >> Okay. >> Just throw that out there. >> We should probably note it as a discussion item for August so that we don't forget. >> Yeah.
Uh yeah, probably could add that as a discussion for the June work session. >> Oh, true. >> Just we need any facilitators. We can't have Rob anymore. Don't. Sorry. >> Um Okay, cool. Is there any further
discussion or we feel ready to roll? Hi Davidson. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Hi Green Street. >> Hi. So that brings us to curriculum review configuration.
Is there you want to come up? Is there stuff to present on it or we just from what you've discussed last couple of times available? Um so um just to kind of recap for everybody, right? We had a couple of
choices of curriculum that have been available to the public to come in and see for months. Uh two weeks open for two weeks. Okay. Um yeah, sorry. Um and uh provide feedback to us on
that. Um presume that since there's no major changes, feedback was >> had guiding comments for the public and no one was concerned about content. They were concerned about they had questions like some of the elements didn't seem to have enough writing for instance, but we
also have another writing curriculum, but that was not enough. Okay. >> Excellent. Um so then the um curriculum we would be voting on this evening is what has been presented to us was presented to us at the last meeting.
All right. So then at this point I for a motion to approve the curriculum review and the course reconfiguration that's has been presented to us. Make a motion to approve the curriculum review and course reconfiguration as
presented to us in a second. >> Second. All right. Any further conversation at this point? >> I don't know if that's curriculum related, but I just wanted to clarify Karen. I don't know if you know the answer to this for the preschool that they just recently went through another
accreditation. Is that related at all to or sorry preschool at Coline specifically? I thought Yeah. Not related. Okay. >> Okay. >> Any other questions for concerns?
>> Call me. >> Hi. >> Davidson. >> Hi. >> Gilganess. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Green Street. >> Hi. >> Thank you. Um and then the next thing is student fees. You'll see a couple of changes with the
athletics and activities start three classes or three activities specifically service organizations. So, Beta Club, food club, and NHS. Um, we did lower the fee because their service organizations and students not only do
community service, but they purchase things like candy and giveaways for things depending on their like food drives and things like that to purchase so many things for it that their fees kind of come in the form of supplies and it's
destination imagination. uh which we actually removed because it's a we made it a class this upcoming year. >> I'm sorry that destination Imagination is no longer a club. it will be a class
so it doesn't a lot of the activities. We did increase the fees uh for oh excuse me let's see forensics and marching band those were shared before I believe to $200
the schedule originally it said 150 sorry about I think we covered this in the last meeting, but still students who qualify for like the free and reduced their fees, >> they will have yeah either fees waved or reduced depending on the the
circumstance. And again, I think you covered this in the last meeting, but just to reiterate that the fees, we're increasing the fees, but the fees from the past had not been changed in quite a few years. And yes, yeah, obviously all of the
activities cost the school more money. And so again, I I understand that some of these increases are are significant to some families and we'll work with them to to fix that. But for, you know, purposes of keeping up with general
inflation, that's why these increases are here. >> Yeah. And they're consistent with the schools in the area as well. We can have more questions for Karen >> for school. The class fees are in addendum E in your binder there.
We didn't make any changes on what was coming up. >> And I just wanted to verify too because this is another thing that just kind of came up a little bit last night with at the coaches meeting which is just to confirm that we are not cutting any programs. Correct. Right now, right,
we're we we will have incremental increases and are needing to fund raise for additional things, but we're not cutting any programs, right? No programs are no programs being cut. >> I don't want to let this
time. I will look for the to approve the student fees structure as presented to approve the students. >> I second. >> Right. Any further conversations?
>> I Green Street. >> I is approved. Thank you. Um on kind of a side note but related um had a also on the board um planning the
um October Fest above the clouds. Um the October Fest above the clouds foundation is a nonprofit that helps fund uh youth sports in Teller County. Um, and we had a meeting today with the district to bring them in as part of our uh,
beneficiaries for the funds we raised during October Fest. Um, with hopefully the the proceeds of that going towards helping some of the students who are having trouble paying for these fees as they increase. Um, so scholarships for
that. So just how the community can help with that and and how we are already taking steps to do so and we are very excited to participate and help our students and we appreciate that.
>> Um so then that brings us to the fiscal advisory charge. >> Um so looking for a Motion to approve that charge. >> I move we approve the fiscal advisory
committee charge. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Do you want to go over that another time? Do you want to give a brief recap on that? I'll maybe just say that in the
edits that I made, I um reduced to just 10 points of purpose mostly because I felt like um like there was internal controls line. I felt like that fit under the audit
processes like if there's concerns about internal controls that's that's in our audit. Um, so just took away a couple of those things and then added terms like you requested. Um, notably I just made
the DAC member a one-year term because they us and then the residents would be threeyear terms. Um, just that's the standard that I saw.
um added charter school representative and then kind of if we have two board members that want to part be part of that they can they wouldn't be voting members that's the edits I mean
um Laura a question that I have um and I it's not in the charge but in the initial um uh the initial group the initial committee would they all be starting three year
terms or would we have some start with year and two or something just because I I wouldn't want to see that completely turn over every three years. >> Yeah. And that's um I wasn't sure how to address that. Like maybe we can do that
with the application process and their bylaws um of just saying like two people are a two-year term and two or three. Yeah, if that makes sense. >> I think it's a good thing to have set
up. My guess is it probably works itself out a bit organically as well with people moving or, you know, becoming busy and needing to step back. But I I didn't think that's a good thing to set up
because losing four people having like that four person turnover all at once would be disruptive. I don't know if that would be our job to set that or is that part of their their own setting like their own bylaws. >> They set the bylaw.
I just want to clarify the like sequence of events because I know we talked about this in the last meeting as far as it relates to board policy, but we're going to approve the advisory charge and then we'll approve a revision to board policy where the committee charges are included
and then we'll extend invitations right to the various groups to do that. Is that right? >> Or I I wasn't sure but I think we could put application out even as soon as this charge we could is approved. Yeah, we could put that on the website
>> and then but then come August or September, we would change the policy and approve the members. >> Okay. Okay. I think we were also thinking or we talked about changing when we start DAC
applications so that we are starting off a little quicker than um it's always been a little bit of a late process for when you have to have a first meeting anyway. So yeah, I think that's something we could start off sooner and that would help you being a DAC member
as well. >> Yeah. Any other questions? >> Hi >> Davidson. >> Hi Nest. >> Hi >> Gordon. >> Hi >> Green Street. I
school advisor can be a charge for it. Um that brings us to This is my language for the
>> Oh, okay. Sorry. I thought Thank you. Okay. So, uh, executive sessions. Um so as a board we have issues to discuss discuss in executive session to confer with the attorney for the school district pursuant to CRS24-6-42
or PD to receive advice on specific legal questions concerning the terms of merit academy charter contracts and related financial use agreements and for the purpose of discussing details of security arrangements or investigations related to district operated schools.
pursuant to CRS 24-6-424. Do I have a motion to go into executive session at this time to go into executive session? Thank you, Laura. Do I have a second? >> Second. Cassidy. Any discussion?
>> Stevenson, >> I street. All right. Excellent. Um so we will have um Melissa Barber our attorney from Chapman Ernest Superintendent Ginger Silicon Chief Financial Officer
David joining us in executive successors and things is That's something that could be said to the board, too. She's clear. Okay. Um, we have come back from executive session. >> Well, that's fun.
love hearing your voice come back at me. Um, no decisions were made in there. No votes or anything. Um, so board information reports are in your packet. That brings us to the end of the meeting. Do I have a motion to adjurnn?
>> Make a motion to adjourn. >> A second. Second. Any final thoughts? Hi >> Davidson. >> Hi >> Gilgness. >> Hi >> Gordon. >> Hi >> Green Street. >> I
meeting is adjourned.