[0:00] Perfect.
[0:00] Alright, we'll go ahead and You guys ready?
[0:03] Yes. Okay. Alright.
[0:05] We will go ahead and call the meeting to order at
[0:11] 5 43.
[0:12] If you could please rise for the pledge of Allegiance.
[0:15] You got the flag right over here.
[0:18] Alright. Megan, would you please?
[0:20] Yes, I pledge Allegiance.
[0:21] Allegiance to the, due to the flag of the United,
[0:23] United States of America
[0:25] and to the republic for which it stands,
[0:28] one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
[0:32] and justice for all.
[0:33] Thank You. If you would please remain standing
[0:35] for just a moment of silence.
[0:49] Great, thank you.
[0:55] Alright,
[1:01] on to the approval of the agenda,
[1:04] the September 23rd, 2026 agenda.
[1:07] Are there any changes to the agenda? None at this time.
[1:10] May I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented?
[1:13] I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented.
[1:15] Thank you. Chance? May I get a second please? A second.
[1:18] Thank you Megan. Sharon, may I get roll call?
[1:22] And then just to clarify, we do have Steve online
[1:25] and Cassie is unfortunately still in the Air.
[1:28] Air. Okay. Thank you. Will you excuse me?
[1:33] My voice is going Will you? Aye. Hi.
[1:39] Aye. Jenkins? Aye. Jenen
[1:41] Aye.
[1:42] Alright. And then onto public audience and we'll go ahead
[1:47] and read just a few welcoming notes.
[1:59] All right.
[2:04] Okay. The board's meeting time is dedicated
[2:06] to its strategic mission and top priority FO focus areas.
[2:10] Public participation is an opportunity
[2:12] to present brief comments
[2:13] or pose questions to the board
[2:15] for consideration and follow up.
[2:17] Each person is asked to focus comments to three minutes.
[2:21] The boundaries are designed to help keep the meeting focused
[2:24] and in no way should limit
[2:25] conversations beyond the boardroom.
[2:28] Please be aware that any individual student
[2:30] or personnel matters are considered confidential
[2:32] under Colorado law.
[2:34] It is out of respect for the individual students
[2:37] and staff that we ask for those conversations
[2:39] to be held in executive session.
[2:42] Insights are needed and welcomed
[2:43] and the board encourages you to meet
[2:45] with the most appropriate person
[2:47] among the district's, many leaders.
[2:49] Alright. Alright. All right.
[2:54] Judy Bram, come on down.
[3:00] How do you spell last name? Bra. BRE.
[3:05] Okay.
[3:12] Do I get three minutes? You got three minutes. Okay.
[3:28] Madam President, members of the board,
[3:30] superintendent Bangard.
[3:32] My name is Judy b Brownberg.
[3:34] I'm co-founder of the Garfield County School of Innovation,
[3:37] a proposed tuition free district charter.
[3:40] Thank you for accepting our letter of intent.
[3:42] In August, on August 14th,
[3:45] superintendent Bang Hart confirmed receipt
[3:48] and directed us to deliver 10 copies
[3:50] of the completed application.
[3:52] By September 30th, 2026, we will meet that deadline.
[3:57] Colorado Law is clear about what happens
[3:59] after a complete application is filed.
[4:03] CRS 22 dash 30.5 dash 1 0 7
[4:07] 0.2 says,
[4:09] after giving reasonable public notice, the local Board
[4:12] of education shall hold community meetings in the affected
[4:16] areas or the entire school district to obtain information
[4:20] to assist the local Board of Education in its decision
[4:23] to approve a charter school application.
[4:26] The local board of education shall rule
[4:28] by resolution on the application
[4:30] for a charter school in a public hearing upon
[4:33] reasonable public notice.
[4:35] Once the 10 copies are in your hands on September 30th,
[4:38] we look forward to presenting the application,
[4:41] including our PowerPoint at the Board
[4:43] of Education community meeting,
[4:45] and at the propo public hearing.
[4:48] So families in rifle, silt, Newcastle,
[4:51] and the rest of RE two can hear the proposal.
[4:54] GCSI is designed as a fir
[4:57] as the first public charter option.
[4:59] In this district, core knowledge
[5:02] required engineering from sixth grade entrepreneurship,
[5:05] steam plus business and aviation tech lab,
[5:09] and a culinary arts lab.
[5:11] Those pathways are not currently available in re two
[5:16] families who want them should not have
[5:18] to leave public education to find them.
[5:20] Over 130 students have now signed letters
[5:23] of intent to enroll.
[5:25] That number is growing every day.
[5:28] We will file weekly updates with the district
[5:31] as families continue to sign up until this board votes
[5:34] to approve our charter.
[5:36] If your staff or reviewers have questions
[5:39] after the initial review,
[5:41] we will file a timely written response document.
[5:44] We look forward to filing on September 30th
[5:47] and to presenting the application
[5:48] to this board and to the community.
[5:51] Thank you very much for your service.
[5:53] You did it in less, you did it in less than three
[5:55] minutes. Woohoo. You
[5:56] Seemed worried when you came up.
[5:58] Thank you very much. Thank you Judy.
[6:04] Alright. Camie. I don't see Camie.
[6:09] I Is she? Yeah, she's in person. Is she? She's not online.
[6:14] I did not look because I thought she was supposed to be in
[6:16] Person.
[6:17] She is in person. So I just figured I, I'm sorry. Yeah.
[6:19] Nope. I Mind. Okay. We will. I will try her again.
[6:24] Trish, welcome. Trish. It's been a while. It's been a while.
[6:30] It's nice to see you. Yeah, I don't come
[6:31] Too often, but I'm always in the
[6:33] background at least. At least.
[6:36] It's always nice to see you out in public. Oh, thank you.
[6:38] I can't wait to see you again at one of the,
[6:40] the flag raising ceremonies
[6:42] for the veterans, so that'll be fun.
[6:43] Yeah, I'm involved. I'm a member of the American Legion
[6:46] and so yes, thank you.
[6:47] Thank you for the support on that.
[6:49] So that tells you that I am a retired military person,
[6:52] but I'm also retired from this school district.
[6:57] So I have a vested interest in what's happening
[7:00] with the school, even though I don't have children
[7:02] or grandchildren that will be intending.
[7:04] But since I'm a retired teacher here,
[7:07] I feel like I do have some, you know, insights
[7:10] that other people don't have necessarily.
[7:12] And I thank you Kurt, that you're allowing this charter
[7:14] school process to go forward.
[7:16] Because I am here to support the charter school.
[7:20] When I saw the first notice ever in the paper,
[7:24] I sent this immediately to that day to people I knew
[7:28] that were struggling with their children.
[7:31] Things like I talked to people at church,
[7:34] I wish I could afford a private school,
[7:36] I wish other things were happening in the district.
[7:39] I don't know what to do with my kids kind of thing.
[7:42] And I had a lot of initial support for this
[7:45] and I attended the meeting in Rifle
[7:48] and when I came away from the meeting,
[7:50] I was even more excited about what Judy had to say,
[7:54] what the curriculum's gonna be like.
[7:56] I'm not trying to downplay
[7:57] what you do here in the public school.
[7:59] Like I said, I benefited from myself,
[8:02] but they're offering things that you're not able to.
[8:05] One thing would be a, hopefully a smaller classroom
[8:08] size, decentralization.
[8:10] 'cause I've worked at a charter school
[8:12] over in the front range.
[8:13] That was my first full-time experience.
[8:15] Four years at New Hope Academy in Greeley.
[8:18] It was one of the best experiences I had.
[8:20] We had a lot more freedom.
[8:22] I was able to get answers quickly.
[8:24] We didn't have so much professional development put on us.
[8:28] And so I think it's very important
[8:30] that we go forward with this.
[8:32] And then I did read Judy's letter in the post independent,
[8:36] but I also know that there's already been some
[8:38] backlash in regards to this.
[8:40] Ashley Stall was already raising concerns about this
[8:43] particular charter school asking about whether they're gonna
[8:47] have some kind of a religious program.
[8:50] Public charter school, from my understanding,
[8:52] does not allow any kind of religious activity.
[8:56] They can do it legally before the school day
[8:59] or possibly on a Friday.
[9:01] I don't see what the problem with that is.
[9:03] But she's raising questions in her
[9:06] response to Judy's letter.
[9:07] Things like she states, this is public information,
[9:12] talks about the history curriculum.
[9:14] That was under question.
[9:17] She's talking about do any board members have a relationship
[9:21] with these applicants?
[9:22] Will the full charter and budget be public before any vote?
[9:27] Who's this church they're referring to?
[9:30] I don't understand what her concerns are. Really.
[9:33] I think parents need a choice and we need options.
[9:36] And I don't believe this charter school
[9:38] will be for everyone.
[9:40] I think a lot of parents are more than happy
[9:42] to have their kids here and that would be great.
[9:45] Okay. So thank you. Thank
[9:47] You Trish.
[9:48] Thank you Trish. Sharon, was there anybody that signed up?
[9:51] There's not. Okay.
[9:55] Alright, we will go ahead and move on.
[10:00] I will keep Cammie's out in case she comes in.
[10:05] Alright.
[10:07] Sorry, I'm hungry. That's all right.
[10:10] You were at football practice. It's okay.
[10:12] Alright, onto the consent agenda.
[10:15] So we've got the approval of the September 9th, 2026
[10:18] draft board minutes.
[10:21] I would take a motion to approve the draft board minutes
[10:24] for September 9th, 2026 as presented.
[10:31] I'll make a motion, I'll make a motion for the approval
[10:34] of the September 9th, 2026 draft board. That,
[10:37] Thank you. May I get a second?
[10:39] I'll Second. Thank you. Sharon May get roll call.
[10:43] Yes. Aye Kyle? Aye.
[10:48] Jenkins? Aye.
[10:49] Jensen? Aye. Alright. And then onto the consent agenda.
[10:57] Were there any other changes?
[10:59] I believe we needed to add Steve's virtual meeting
[11:03] to the consent agenda.
[11:06] Yes. We'd like to add an addition of asking for approval
[11:10] for Steve Bulu to add an additional virtual due to work,
[11:15] which is in compliance to
[11:18] our board policies upon approval of the board. Great.
[11:24] Thank you. May I get a motion
[11:26] to approve the consent agenda as amended?
[11:30] I make a motion to approve this consent agenda as amended.
[11:33] Thank you. Megan, may I get a second?
[11:35] I'll second. Thank you. Sharon, may I get roll call
[11:40] Move? I believe you. Oh,
[11:42] Abstain Accused Steve Abstain.
[11:46] Okay. Thank you Kyle.
[11:52] Aye. Jenkins. Aye. And Jensen?
[11:55] Aye. Alright, thank you.
[12:02] Getting funny if we denied it. Sorry. Sorry,
[12:09] Stevie, now you, Us here.
[12:11] Everybody's so serious in this room.
[12:14] Jenny assistant super
[12:16] Report.
[12:17] Awesome. Okay, so I wanna start with a shout out
[12:20] to Mary McPhee and her team
[12:24] As Chance goes, get more food.
[12:26] Yep,
[12:27] There you go.
[12:28] Chance. You know,
[12:30] she has had in her department some unexpected events
[12:33] that have taken a lot of people out suddenly
[12:36] and that woman works so hard to keep things going.
[12:40] And so their team just really nailed it with even in,
[12:44] with such a reduction in staff.
[12:46] And then we had people from the district office
[12:49] who went over in different shifts to get to serve lunch and,
[12:52] and so that was always, that was fun
[12:53] for everybody who served lunch.
[12:55] So Mary just is an amazing
[12:58] facilitator in our nutrition services department
[13:01] and it's gonna be difficult for to see her retire,
[13:04] even though I know she has lots of good things to go on to.
[13:08] And we went to the taste of RMS.
[13:11] I said that I wasn't gonna get any tickets this year.
[13:14] I did, I wasn't going to eat.
[13:15] And we got two tables in and I promptly met, went back
[13:19] and bought tickets.
[13:20] And if you haven't been to the taste of RMS, it's hard
[13:23] to imagine or explain how yummy it is.
[13:26] And so if it ever works out in your schedule to go,
[13:30] I highly recommend it.
[13:31] Anyone's welcome. And it just is such a cool
[13:35] multicultural event with many authentic different kinds
[13:38] of food and community just being together.
[13:41] And that was on September 10th, the day
[13:45] before the, of course, September 11th,
[13:48] which I'll talk about in just a second.
[13:50] So it was wonderful.
[13:52] I got to go to the Coleridge homecoming game
[13:55] and I hadn't had a lot of time
[13:57] to think about the anniversary of nine 11 as I was
[14:00] approaching the game and as I was walking up,
[14:02] I saw the first responders that were at the game.
[14:05] So of course I started to think about it
[14:07] and as I stood there, I thought about how amazing it is
[14:10] to be able to come together as a community at any
[14:13] of our schools or our events enjoy and support and
[14:17] and relationship.
[14:19] And one special thing is,
[14:21] I guess the Coleridge cheerleaders hosted like 64
[14:25] mini cheerleaders at a camp on the Friday
[14:27] of their homecoming week.
[14:29] And so you just really can't, those girls came
[14:32] to perform at halftime.
[14:34] The energy was insane
[14:36] with like 60 extra little girls jazzed about performing.
[14:41] So it was just such a beautiful event
[14:44] and they did such a nice job organizing it.
[14:47] And then the next day in on the, in the shadow
[14:52] of that, we had a tragedy.
[14:54] And I just again wanna give a shout out to Coleridge Mick
[14:58] and his team and the counselors at Riverside
[15:00] and Amanda Vaughn arranging support for staff
[15:05] and for students as they needed it.
[15:07] And just wanna acknowledge that our,
[15:10] our thoughts will remain
[15:11] with the Allen family as they grieve.
[15:13] So we come together in joy
[15:18] and we come together in sorrow too.
[15:20] So we went on school visits all day on
[15:24] Tuesday, yesterday.
[15:26] And it was, it's just so much fun to go be with the kids
[15:29] and watch the teachers teaching and see the kids learning
[15:32] and, and one experience, Simone and I were in one classroom.
[15:36] We were watching the teacher
[15:38] and they were making a transition
[15:40] and just as natural
[15:41] as can be a little boy first grade maybe he walks up
[15:44] by this teacher, I love you.
[15:47] I love you too. And they go on about their business
[15:49] and it's just, it's just great to be able
[15:52] to talk about the work and really see it.
[15:54] And I'm grateful to Kirk
[15:55] for prioritizing getting in classrooms.
[15:57] So on Tuesday, here's some thought,
[16:01] some stuff I thought you might wanna know.
[16:03] On Tuesday this week, the one door team, Amanda Vaughn
[16:06] and Lorenza Alvarez, our district liaison,
[16:10] represented the one door services in Garfield R two at the
[16:12] Grand River Mental Health Fair all day.
[16:15] And they reported that it was a day full of conversation
[16:18] with so many community partners about the work
[16:21] that we do with families.
[16:23] And even many of the hospital employees came
[16:26] by the table to learn more.
[16:28] And that many spoke very highly of the support
[16:31] that Garfield R two is providing to families.
[16:35] Also related to one door,
[16:36] the Garfield County Library is gonna be remodeled in rifle
[16:39] during the months of October and November.
[16:41] So one door building gets to host the Spark team group
[16:44] and raising a reader groups while that's underway
[16:46] and the literacy outreach will host
[16:48] their tutoring program there.
[16:49] And so it's nice to see our elderly building
[16:55] being useful and ser and, and in service of the community.
[17:01] Just interesting to know is
[17:02] that we have two interns from the CMC Human Services
[17:06] bachelor degree program working at one door currently.
[17:09] And they are amazing
[17:11] and they are just learning so much and they speak.
[17:14] So it was such excitement about the work.
[17:16] So, and then just last, I just wanna acknowledge
[17:20] and thank every single person who works for this district,
[17:23] who shows up every single day to do the work with
[17:28] and for kids and families because there are good days
[17:32] and there are challenging days.
[17:34] And nevertheless, you show up
[17:36] and just as we saw with Steve tonight in his report,
[17:40] there is much success to celebrate.
[17:42] So that's my report. Thank you, Jenny.
[17:48] Next. All right, Kirk, you're up.
[17:52] So adding on to, to what Jenny talked about.
[17:56] So I think my,
[17:58] my report is gonna focus mostly just on last week I was able
[18:02] to attend the superintendent Colorado Superintendent's
[18:05] conference, which was great to be able to get together
[18:08] with the superintendents from across the state.
[18:12] Both, you know, good news and,
[18:15] and bad news depending on how you look at it.
[18:18] A great deal of the time was really sent spent on both
[18:22] legislative updates and legal updates, both looking back
[18:27] and looking forward at where, where we're going.
[18:31] I think one of the, you know the interesting parts is that
[18:34] with the way our term limits are, the entire house,
[18:38] of course will have to turn over
[18:40] and half of our Senate in Colorado will turn over,
[18:44] which means that almost every seat at in Denver will turn
[18:49] over in this upcoming, one of the things that that means
[18:53] for us is when they start counting seats,
[18:56] we're pretty much assured
[18:57] that there's most likely gonna be a super majority
[19:01] in Denver this year.
[19:03] And so one of the things that I've learned in my tenure is
[19:06] that what you don't want, regardless
[19:09] of your political affiliation, is a super majority
[19:12] of any party because it means that there's massive control
[19:16] by ideologies.
[19:18] And so it's gonna be a very interesting year,
[19:23] January through May when it comes to doing that.
[19:26] Yeah. What compounds that is really that our state budget,
[19:30] what came out is the JBC and,
[19:32] and alleged counsel also had their reports last week of
[19:36] where the state budget is and due to Medicaid
[19:40] and some poor budgeting that they already did,
[19:44] we're pretty sure that we're back to between one
[19:47] and $1.5 billion deficit.
[19:50] Again, if those of you
[19:52] who remember the conversations we had in January
[19:55] of last year, that was the number we were at last year,
[19:59] it's the number that we are already at
[20:01] before they've even gone into session.
[20:03] So it really makes for an interesting
[20:07] session to come.
[20:09] It means that the 17 items that are going
[20:13] to be on this November's ballot become really critical
[20:17] for us as we go into the future.
[20:19] Not only four A
[20:20] and four B here locally being critical components,
[20:24] but also 87 and,
[20:26] and will make a big impact on what we do as far as work.
[20:31] So those were important discussion pieces
[20:34] that were at the superintendent's conference.
[20:37] Some other interesting things was I was able to
[20:40] hear from the keynote speaker who was a professor at Harvard
[20:45] and also did a breakout session with her really,
[20:49] which was about superintendents being civic leaders.
[20:52] I see. And so that was a great conversation.
[20:55] She's runs a whole part through the Department of Ed
[20:58] or through the education component of, of Harvard
[21:02] really doing some research around civic leadership
[21:06] and the superintendent's role.
[21:07] And so was able to really dive deep into the question of
[21:11] what do superintendents need
[21:12] to lead school systems in increasing polarized communities?
[21:17] And so what their research has
[21:18] found and, and how that works.
[21:20] And so I found that to be well worth my time to be able
[21:23] to do that and spend a Friday up there with them.
[21:27] So that was, that's kind of my report as far as, as
[21:31] what I've seen and work with my colleagues.
[21:33] Also spending some time just hearing what's going on across
[21:36] our great state and the good things that are going on
[21:38] and be able to brag about what's happening in our E two
[21:41] 'cause as you heard and and shine the light
[21:43] and you, you heard LA last time we were all together,
[21:46] we've got unbelievable things going on here
[21:49] in Newcastle Silt and Rifle and, and can't help
[21:52] but brag what that, what's going on with that.
[21:55] The other thing that happened that I I we had this month was
[21:58] we did have our DAC
[22:01] and we have our DAC representative here to talk about that.
[22:05] So Janelle, if you wouldn't mind doing your
[22:07] report. Hi Janelle.
[22:08] Hello.
[22:14] So we met a week ago. Wow. It's been a week already.
[22:20] And we start each meeting with our celebrations
[22:24] and I just kind of set it in the frame
[22:26] of our strategic plan.
[22:28] So our students are showing community connection traits by
[22:32] participating in the taste of RMS and cooking
[22:35] and selling their wares there.
[22:38] My understanding is it's fun and very delicious. Never been.
[22:41] But silt heyday floats
[22:45] were created by students.
[22:48] New Castle, burning Mountain had a float,
[22:50] the marching band from Coal Ridge floats by Riverside
[22:55] and KSC.
[22:57] And then as Jenny had mentioned,
[22:59] the Cole Ridge cheerleaders hosted a camp
[23:03] and then a halftime with 64
[23:06] elementary school age girls.
[23:09] So that shows not only community connection
[23:12] but resilience as well and patience going, yes.
[23:16] Going on with the resilience.
[23:19] I believe you saw some information from Rifle High School
[23:22] and their increased graduate ratio rate,
[23:25] which is super exciting as well as Jenny mentioned,
[23:29] the new principal taking the reins on a tragedy in our
[23:32] community and really helping through that.
[23:34] Riverside also showed some resilience,
[23:36] if you've ever been involved in trying to
[23:41] complete the PowerSchool updates, that is a very large feat
[23:46] and they're at a hundred percent now.
[23:47] Wow. So great deal there.
[23:50] As well as ECE has a new art teacher who is taking on all
[23:54] of the bulletin boards across the school
[23:56] and she is filling them with 3D art.
[23:59] So that's a lot
[24:01] of bulletin boards have been in elementary school.
[24:02] We like to show our stuff off
[24:05] KC now nutritional staff is taking our produce from the
[24:09] garden that the community
[24:10] and parents kind of helped nurture through the summer
[24:15] and is preparing it for our kiddos to show 'em, you know,
[24:18] from ground up what they can do with themselves.
[24:21] See Jimmy is running a pilot of the new S
[24:26] Sac idea in having an evening SAC meeting
[24:31] where they're going to be providing daycare and food.
[24:36] So there's an old saying, you feed them, they come.
[24:38] So we're hoping that that might be setting a new precedent
[24:41] to get more people in the room
[24:44] and more ideas floating around.
[24:47] RE two is one of 18 districts who received a CDE award
[24:52] for the reduction of absenteeism during, since COVID.
[24:57] So as we know, the absentees
[25:00] after COVID have really affected children's learning
[25:04] and our district has made huge strides in that to the point
[25:09] that districts around us are now looking at our model
[25:12] and asking us how we did it
[25:13] and how they can do the same thing.
[25:17] That our segue into our main topic, which was the district
[25:22] performance framework, which
[25:25] I know you guys are gonna have a presentation with.
[25:26] And I'm not gonna steal Simone's Thunder.
[25:29] I will say that it is great news
[25:32] and as Jacob told us, it's not necessarily good news
[25:36] or bad news, but it does give us where to go next.
[25:41] In our goal for continued academic growth finishing up,
[25:46] we received information about surrounding schools,
[25:49] including one that we heard from
[25:51] the, just a little while ago.
[25:53] And the facts about the bond
[25:55] and mill levy measures complete with the renderings of
[25:59] what Coleridge could look like
[26:01] and the early childhood center with the passage
[26:05] of those measures.
[26:07] As I finish up, I wanted to extend an invitation to all
[26:11] of you to please come to one of our meetings.
[26:14] The next one is October 27th at in silt at CVE.
[26:20] I also like to invite you guys to come
[26:22] and see the work being done in classrooms.
[26:26] It is amazing as Jenny led us to, to, to know,
[26:31] just to see those little guys absorb what they can absorb.
[26:35] What time, what time? They're five 30
[26:39] to seven 30 And it's at
[26:40] C-V-E-C-V-E Cactus Valley.
[26:44] Yeah, they're right off, right off of,
[26:46] I think it's seventh Street.
[26:50] Third Street. That's not my town. Sorry.
[26:54] I know, I know how to get there. It's right there on the end
[26:56] of town as you're coming towards rifle.
[26:59] Any questions?
[27:02] Nope. At 5 37 30 10 27. Yep.
[27:06] It overlaps the safety committee meeting so
[27:10] I know.
[27:11] Yeah, I won't be there. Sorry
[27:12] Heidi. Thank you.
[27:13] Thank you Janelle. Thanks for coming
[27:15] Very much.
[27:20] Kirk,
[27:21] Did you have anything else?
[27:22] Nope, that was it for my report. Awesome,
[27:24] Thank you.
[27:26] Onto board reports and requests.
[27:29] Steve, do you have anything?
[27:36] Not explicitly. I guess the few things
[27:41] to mention, I thank you.
[27:43] I guess something not created
[27:46] but you know, want to provide condolences
[27:50] for tragedy we had, and not only for our community,
[27:54] but our neighbors are, are one
[27:58] heartbreaking across the, the board.
[28:01] And you know, thank you for our staff to supporting our,
[28:07] you know, community with that.
[28:09] And then, you know, also just celebrating the good news of
[28:13] performance and, you know, celebrations was great
[28:16] to see the numbers coming outta rifle
[28:19] and all the good work that's coming out
[28:23] and then, you know, in the community feeling a lot of energy
[28:28] behind the mill and bond issue
[28:31] and you know, lots of conversations around there.
[28:33] So we got a busy time of year doing a lot
[28:37] of important work.
[28:39] So thank you for everybody that's involved in that process.
[28:42] So, but that's all I got for today.
[28:46] Great. Thank you Steve. Megan,
[28:51] I'd, I'd also like to echo Steve sentiment,
[28:54] it's always hard to hear about a tragedy in our community
[28:59] that impacts our schools.
[29:00] It's really hard to, to move forward
[29:03] or to keep momentum moving in a school,
[29:05] it seems like a little bit of
[29:12] stall trying to refocus the kids and,
[29:15] and sometimes you just have to, you have to call it
[29:18] what it is and say that today's obviously not going to be
[29:23] Growth and academics.
[29:25] It's gonna be growth of a, a more personal nature and,
[29:27] and really kind of meeting our needs,
[29:30] meeting the kiddo's needs.
[29:31] So I, I appreciate that we can pivot so quickly
[29:34] and take care of all of those, those needs as they arise.
[29:39] I, I got to participate in some of the
[29:43] parades over the summer in early fall.
[29:46] I gotta say that I really,
[29:47] really enjoyed Cole Coleridge's marching band
[29:51] at the Burning Day, burning Mountain Days parade.
[29:53] It was, they did a phenomenal job.
[29:56] They, they were dressed to the nines
[29:59] and you could tell that
[30:00] they were just excited to be out there.
[30:02] So it was nice, it was nice
[30:03] to see a great representation back into the community.
[30:08] That's all I have. Okay. Chance?
[30:14] Excuse me. Just really the tragedy
[30:19] I love fall's usually my favorite time of year
[30:23] and it started as Jenny said, homecoming at Coleridge.
[30:29] I didn't even realize until I got there
[30:31] that it was 25th year of nine 11.
[30:35] And seeing the fire trucks and the memorials
[30:40] and all of this stuff,
[30:44] man takes you back to where you were that day.
[30:47] Yeah. And I mean it's,
[30:53] it's great to think that way
[30:54] and it's great to, great to remember where we were at
[30:56] as a nation and the day after where we were at as a nation.
[31:01] How it didn't matter what you thought, who you were,
[31:03] you were an American and you were on our team.
[31:06] And I wish, I mean, I,
[31:10] I wish we could go back to that.
[31:14] And then Saturday night, the horrible tragedy
[31:19] on I 70 and my neighbors actually grew up,
[31:23] my neighbor's daughter actually grew up with her,
[31:26] the graduate of Coleridge.
[31:31] Nice. Great girl.
[31:32] And, and of course the student from Glenwood.
[31:35] I just, I mean no, no words will suffice
[31:38] for the parents and family.
[31:41] It's just a complete tragedy.
[31:43] And then piggybacking off of
[31:48] superintendent banger's report on the superintendent
[31:52] conference, super majority in state,
[31:56] state legislature is never great.
[32:00] I'm a big fan of democracy
[32:02] and constitutional republics when there's at least two
[32:04] voices that have say, I think
[32:07] that's pretty important for a balance.
[32:12] It's never good when something's just
[32:16] drowns everything else out.
[32:17] So, but then you today
[32:24] you can have all that stuff going on and you can be down
[32:26] and you can kind of, you know, be pretty somber.
[32:29] And then you get around the kids in our district. Yeah.
[32:32] And they have a way of just bringing a smile to your face.
[32:37] I mean, that's why I, I will, I will miss things to go
[32:40] to football practice to be around those kids.
[32:44] It's, is that frustrating?
[32:48] Sometimes you wonder
[32:49] what they're thinking if they are thinking,
[32:51] but just their energy it like, it like fills you up,
[32:56] you know, it taught, it like, just helps you
[32:59] like almost take on the world
[33:01] because you're just like, oh that, like you just remember
[33:03] that just being so maybe optimistic
[33:07] or whatever the word is, but they just,
[33:09] their view on life is, I wish I could go back to that.
[33:12] It's pretty simple when they're that age
[33:15] and we have some great news at the district.
[33:18] I mean, last week's last board meeting, we went over
[33:21] our huge gains with our
[33:26] state testing and we're gonna hear more about it this week.
[33:29] And I just can't say enough about the staff down
[33:33] to our train, our teacher trainers, down
[33:36] to the training models we have in our schools
[33:37] and elementary schools that when,
[33:39] when our new teachers need help, they have the resources
[33:42] for the help they can go and get the resources.
[33:46] And I think that's huge. Like very important.
[33:48] Especially because we're always looking for new teachers.
[33:50] So there's always new teachers in every building every year
[33:53] and they need a place and need that structure to be able
[33:56] to go and get support.
[33:58] So I'm glad to see that and you know,
[34:02] I'm just really looking forward.
[34:03] I'll close it out. Looking forward
[34:05] to next week's football game against Rifle
[34:07] For the middle school.
[34:09] Yeah, yeah. At Ridge. Yeah.
[34:11] So we'll see. Yep.
[34:12] Alright. Yep.
[34:14] We'll, we'll definitely have to, there is,
[34:17] I believe Steve said he brought a rifle shirt for you.
[34:20] Okay. I wear it. Okay.
[34:22] Just, I don't know where that, where that went off to.
[34:25] Yeah. Yeah. A good short You got it. Yeah.
[34:30] Anything else? No, I think it, yeah,
[34:31] I'm, I'm good. Okay.
[34:33] Thank you. Thank you everybody.
[34:39] I, I too want to echo
[34:43] the sentiment there is, there are no words that we can say
[34:48] to express
[34:52] to these families, to the schools, to the students.
[34:57] Having gone through a school tragedy
[34:59] when I was in high school.
[35:00] It is, you have to take the day to just sit back
[35:05] and realize that you may not be learning education,
[35:10] what's in the books that day,
[35:11] but you're learning a life lesson
[35:14] and seeing the communities come together
[35:17] is, is amazing.
[35:20] Like Jenny said, we, we come together and, and happiness
[35:23] and we come together in sorrow and, and in grief.
[35:26] And we get to help each other with that.
[35:28] So during September 11th,
[35:31] I was at the school board fall conference in Breckenridge.
[35:37] And it, it was same sort of thing.
[35:39] You wake up and, and I, September 11th is always a day
[35:43] that will live in the back of everybody's mind.
[35:45] But we were able to open up the conference that morning
[35:49] and share where we were.
[35:51] Of course there might've been some people there that
[35:53] didn't remember because they weren't around.
[35:56] But there were, but there were plenty of us that got to,
[36:01] and and that is something
[36:02] that you definitely do not, you forget.
[36:06] And, and somebody had said it was amazing to see
[36:10] how you united this nation was on September 11th
[36:15] and on September 12th,
[36:17] and then now 25 years later to see where we're at.
[36:22] It's sad.
[36:25] So, and hopefully we can get back to that
[36:27] because at the end of the day, we all bleed red
[36:30] and we're all Americans.
[36:32] So with the CASB conference too,
[36:37] one thing that I really enjoyed tonight
[36:39] that I got in the fall conference that I really wanted
[36:41] to bring forward was there was a lot of student councils
[36:45] with, with it being in Breckenridge Summit School District,
[36:49] hosted a meet and greet with some of the students
[36:51] and the student council at a
[36:52] couple other different high schools.
[36:54] And one of the high schools actually does,
[36:58] the student council actually meets with the board
[37:01] once a month or once a quarter
[37:03] and tries to help the board with their policies.
[37:06] They, they look at 'em from a student aspect
[37:09] and things like that.
[37:10] So it was really neat to see the freshmen from the Freshman
[37:13] academy come in tonight and and see that as well.
[37:17] 'cause I know we've asked a couple of times
[37:18] to hear from the student councils
[37:21] and especially, I mean, Carl, I mean they,
[37:23] they were I think,
[37:25] 13 students in the student council last year up to 50
[37:28] so far this year for Rifle high school.
[37:30] So, so that's, that's exciting to see as well.
[37:35] Also, we had the delegate assembly, which I can go over
[37:38] that in advocacy,
[37:42] but it, it is, one thing I will say is,
[37:46] is having all the different districts from the state with
[37:51] many different students, many different ideals,
[37:53] many different budgets, we all have a lot
[37:57] of the same issues.
[37:59] So that was kind of nice
[38:01] and rewarding to see at the same time
[38:03] that we're not alone dealing with some of these things.
[38:08] And again, the attendance is amazing.
[38:12] And that goes back to the work that is done at the schools
[38:15] and with the attendance secretaries.
[38:16] And, and again, like I told Steve, it comes from the top.
[38:19] So one thing too
[38:24] that I wanted to get out was, I think when,
[38:28] when I started in this, in this role on the school board,
[38:33] you don't realize, one, how much work it is.
[38:37] And I've said several times that this is the best unpaid,
[38:40] full-time job I have next to being a mom.
[38:45] But you come in and you're, you're so excited
[38:47] and you wanna get things done and the process just stops.
[38:53] And the thing that I've learned though is
[38:55] that there is a process and we have to trust in the process.
[39:01] I have advocated for consistency
[39:05] and I don't wanna speak for the board,
[39:07] but I, I believe Chance has spoken about consistency.
[39:10] Cassie has spoken about consistency.
[39:12] We've all spoken about consistency and how important it is.
[39:16] And not just for our students
[39:17] but for our staff, for our community,
[39:20] and our board policies are there for a reason
[39:24] and the process is there for a reason
[39:27] and there are things that happen
[39:30] that we can't discuss.
[39:34] And again, we have to trust in the process, unfortunately.
[39:38] And that process does happen and it is successful
[39:43] and our staff does an amazing job of fulfilling
[39:47] and finishing out that process.
[39:52] And the top priority in that entire process is our students,
[39:56] is our students' wellbeing, our student safety
[39:59] and our students' education.
[40:01] They are our biggest asset.
[40:03] And our teachers are our next biggest asset
[40:06] because they are the ones
[40:07] that are teaching our biggest asset.
[40:11] So that's my soapbox for the night,
[40:16] but I can't, I can't stress enough
[40:21] the importance of this role up here to,
[40:24] and I, it's nothing that I take lightly
[40:26] and I am very honored
[40:27] and very proud to serve on this board, especially
[40:31] with those that I serve with.
[40:33] So, and the community is amazing. So
[40:38] Can we add one thing?
[40:40] Go Bears? No.
[40:41] Oh, we have to go around.
[40:43] Where was, we'll start with Sharon.
[40:45] Where were you at on nine 11?
[40:47] I'm moms the elementary.
[40:48] I'm just getting school opened up,
[40:50] getting there before everybody else.
[40:51] And I got a call from my dad,
[40:54] Man, very Broke up.
[40:55] Was getting ready to go open up a jewelry store.
[40:57] I was a manager at Zales. Sweet.
[41:01] My dad was in intelligence at the time
[41:05] and all he said was, don't leave your house.
[41:08] Like, no, gotta go
[41:11] Adam.
[41:13] I was in college and I had the morning off
[41:18] and woke up and turned on the news
[41:21] and couldn't leave my couch
[41:25] 'cause it was, and I called my now husband who
[41:29] was working construction and also a former Marine.
[41:32] And 'cause of course my biggest concern was
[41:34] that he was gonna reenlist
[41:37] and he had no idea of what was going on.
[41:40] 'cause he had been running a job site since
[41:43] five 30 that morning.
[41:45] And when I said, you need to turn on the news
[41:46] and call me back, it was a completely different story.
[41:51] I also worked for student media at the college at that time.
[41:54] So we actually had a new show that night
[41:57] and it was, it was, it was tough.
[42:01] It was tough. But all of my classes were canceled that day
[42:04] because as one instructor said, this is not important.
[42:10] Current events are, is what is what's important. So
[42:14] Kirk, So I was teaching fourth grade at Upper Blue
[42:19] Elementary in
[42:20] Breckenridge, Colorado at the time uni,
[42:24] I had just dropped my three elementary school kids off at
[42:27] school and come home and the television was on
[42:30] and I was vacuuming
[42:31] and then I saw the, you know, the vacuum was on
[42:35] and I saw what was happening on the television
[42:39] and just like everyone else stopped in my tracks
[42:42] and couldn't believe what I was seeing.
[42:45] I was a junior in high school, of course I woke up at
[42:50] seven, about 20
[42:52] minutes where I was supposed to be at school.
[42:54] 20. Wow. My mom always had the Today Show on,
[42:59] and at the time I left the house
[43:00] and I remember Matt Lauer saying
[43:05] something about awfully weird a airplane.
[43:09] And at the time they were going off,
[43:10] it was a private plane had hit the tower.
[43:14] Well, I drove get my truck and drove 10 minutes to school
[43:17] and by the time I got to school,
[43:19] the principal was ushering everybody into the auditorium
[43:24] and we sat in the auditorium with 400 students
[43:29] and not one time did a teacher have
[43:31] to tell anybody to behave.
[43:33] I, I mean we just sat there glued.
[43:35] Just, you just remember it. Yeah.
[43:38] You don't forget it. And I don't,
[43:40] I don't think we ever should forget it.
[43:41] Nope.
[43:43] Also, one thing I did want to to say too is
[43:47] Rifle Middle Schools, Ms. Howard and Mr.
[43:50] Moon's seventh grade class, they're reading a, a book
[43:56] a, a fictional book on it.
[43:58] It's from the point of view of the author of September 11th.
[44:01] And so they went back and gave back
[44:02] to the community on that day.
[44:04] So that was pretty awesome.
[44:07] So, okay. Committee reports
[44:15] I haven't had, I don't have anything to update
[44:17] until later the, this month. Okay.
[44:19] I have nothing. Yep.
[44:21] I missed DI was at CASB.
[44:25] Did you guys have any committee reports other than Dak? Hm.
[44:28] Okay. Steve,
[44:32] did you have any committee reports?
[44:35] No, we haven't had a finance meeting yet. Okay.
[44:37] But from Kirk's comments, we,
[44:40] I don't know if I'm looking forward to the next one or not.
[44:44] And Steve, where were you on
[44:45] September 11th? Oh, Steve, I'm so,
[44:48] Oh, no worries.
[44:49] Yeah, I was a junior in college
[44:51] and slept in late as junior in colleges do
[44:55] and came in, you know, came downstairs,
[44:58] my roommates had the news on
[44:59] and you know, I remember just sitting down on the couch
[45:03] and we stayed there all day, you know, just missed class.
[45:07] I don't know if classes were canceled or not.
[45:09] I don't think it mattered, you know, in my mind at the time.
[45:12] But yeah, you know, talking to my dad on the couch
[45:16] and surrounded by my roommates
[45:17] and just kind of taking it all in.
[45:22] Yep. Nice. Okay. Crazy times.
[45:25] Very crazy
[45:30] advocacy in other news.
[45:34] We'll go on to advocacy. Jenny, that was for you.
[45:39] So before we read the resolution really quick, I just wanted
[45:42] to go over the things
[45:45] that I went over in the 86 annual delegate assembly.
[45:50] That was on Saturday the 12th in Breckenridge.
[45:54] And this was the first time I had actually attended,
[45:58] I attended in person last year.
[45:59] I was supposed to attend virtually
[46:01] and unfortunately something had come up
[46:03] and I was unable to attend.
[46:06] But there was some legislation
[46:10] that was brought forward just to see if we were, were able
[46:14] to kinda read and go over what
[46:20] the purposes to why it's being presented
[46:22] and whether we agree if there's any changes
[46:25] or anything that we want to, if that we wanna make to it.
[46:29] They do have to meet certain criteria.
[46:31] They have to meet either the finance, local governance
[46:35] students, student and staff safety and success.
[46:40] Say that 10 times fast and accountability.
[46:45] And there were different resolutions
[46:46] that were submitted over different things.
[46:50] There was a couple over finance
[46:53] and the districts, the districts
[46:55] that bring these forward actually get
[46:56] to present them at the delegate assembly too, which is,
[47:02] which is really neat and,
[47:04] and again, like I said, I learned that districts
[47:06] of all sizes and all budgetary constraints have
[47:11] a lot of the same issues.
[47:12] So it was nice to see.
[47:15] So I do have some notes from
[47:16] that if you guys would like to see 'em.
[47:18] I won't bore everybody with everything that we went through.
[47:22] There were two two that we tabled for Decembers.
[47:26] So there'll be another delegate assembly
[47:27] during the CASB conference and we will revisit those just
[47:31] because we could not come to a consensus.
[47:36] So, but I would also like to say too that we couldn't come
[47:39] to a consensus but we were all able
[47:41] to disagree respectfully, which is nice to see.
[47:46] So do you guys have any questions on that? Anything Steve?
[47:51] Anything or, sorry, Steve Kirk, anything you want
[47:54] to add to that? Nope.
[47:57] At this time. Awesome. All right.
[48:01] So there is the resolution for resolution in support
[48:06] of the district RE two board and mill levy.
[48:12] Do we need to read the resolution in full?
[48:15] That's up to you. Gimme a minute.
[48:23] It is.
[48:28] You can just do the top as well
[48:29] because you don't need have
[48:30] to read the whole thing so it's okay. Okay.
[48:35] So the resolution of the Garfield School district number
[48:37] RE two Board of Education
[48:39] regarding the district's 2026 mill levy override
[48:42] and bond ballot initiatives.
[48:50] I would take a motion to approve the resolution in support
[48:52] of the district's re two bond and mill levies.
[48:57] I make a motion to approve the resolution in support
[48:59] of the bond and mill levy.
[49:01] Thank you. Megan. May I get a second?
[49:04] I'll second. Thank you.
[49:05] Chance Sharon Mag roll call please.
[49:07] Do you wanna have discussion first before you roll?
[49:11] Sure. We discussed it. Yeah.
[49:13] I was like, I don't, I don't think anybody, is there any,
[49:16] Steve, do you have any questions or concerns? Discussed
[49:19] It with Fathom anyway, you had no questions on my end.
[49:23] Okay.
[49:25] I also have no questions or concerns.
[49:27] I think we've been over this a lot, very, very clearly.
[49:31] Okay. I have nothing.
[49:36] Okay.
[49:38] Sharon, roll call.
[49:40] Roll you. Aye.
[49:43] Hi aye Jenkins. Aye Jensen. Aye.
[49:49] Okay. And next up is our governance discussion items.
[49:54] We have got our district unified improvement plan.
[49:58] Hi guys. I would, I dunno if this is allowed,
[50:02] but I would like to impose that John and I flip
[50:06] because these kind people here has plans.
[50:10] Okay. So if we can flip that would be great. The plan.
[50:15] Sure. We can go ahead and amend the agenda to do that.
[50:17] So we'll go ahead and have so,
[50:21] so John, you're here for the
[50:25] Trail.
[50:26] So yeah, so 11.3
[50:30] Here.
[50:33] That my favorite is my favorite.
[50:36] Come on down, grab a chair.
[50:43] Does everybody know Mr. Reynolds? Dave?
[50:47] He's the city manager of Newcastle.
[50:52] Okay. Nice to see everybody. Okay,
[50:53] Thanks.
[50:54] That's why you look familiar. Oh yeah.
[50:55] I was gonna say you look familiar. I know, I know.
[50:57] I've seen you around. He
[50:59] Looks, he looks official.
[51:00] I didn't wanna mention where I like we work,
[51:02] we work together a lot.
[51:05] Just over many different things that are going on
[51:08] and most of 'em get along pretty good most times. Yeah.
[51:13] So was this one of those times
[51:15] Always, always, always.
[51:16] I'm just playing. We, we get along great.
[51:19] Well we've got, tonight is, this is a IGA
[51:24] between the city of Newcastle
[51:27] and the school district.
[51:30] This is a step among many steps
[51:34] to possibly get to a project at Elk Creek Elementary.
[51:39] Okay. The IGA spells out the project
[51:44] pretty good as an overall view,
[51:48] but this is a piece that needs to be approved to y'all
[51:52] by y'all for the grant to move on to rta,
[51:56] which is awarded in December.
[52:00] Okay. So I don't know
[52:05] if y'all have looked over the IGA at all.
[52:08] So it does spell out a lot of a lot of stuff.
[52:12] It does say that if funds were if administered by Rafta,
[52:17] that they would go through the city of Newcastle
[52:21] and then be reimbursed to us.
[52:24] But there's a lot of steps we have to get to
[52:26] before we get to that.
[52:28] That make sense? Okay.
[52:31] So the one step is the grant's gotta be awarded.
[52:35] Well there's not any money really
[52:37] to even talk about another step.
[52:39] It had, the project has to be bid out.
[52:42] It has to come in under the amount of the grant.
[52:46] The project has to be engineered.
[52:48] State permitting has to be approved.
[52:55] I've got something I can't read
[52:57] 'cause I don't have my glasses on
[52:58] that are right at the very bottom of the page.
[53:00] Really small. You want read
[53:04] what I'm trying to, to get to?
[53:05] I think it says the Board of Proofs.
[53:07] Yeah, the board of proofs.
[53:08] I knew there was something really? Thank you. Thank you.
[53:11] You got some, yeah. Yeah.
[53:13] The board also would've to approve the ultimate project
[53:17] before it would go on.
[53:18] So sorry about that.
[53:20] That's the most important part I guess, isn't it?
[53:22] So we would approve. So we could approve this then we
[53:25] would have to approve the project later.
[53:27] You would still have to approve stuff
[53:29] two more times. Okay.
[53:30] 'cause this is just the agreement to get
[53:32] the grant awarded.
[53:33] Right. Grant, yes. So
[53:34] that's all we're really talking about tonight.
[53:37] And again, the grant wouldn't be decided upon until December
[53:41] by the executive board of rta.
[53:46] So, and the, the reason, if I,
[53:49] 'cause I see a few question marks out here.
[53:53] The reason it goes in this direction in the process is
[53:57] that the town is the only one eligible for this grant.
[54:02] So as a member of rafta, the town can apply for this grant
[54:07] on behalf of the school and on behalf of the project.
[54:11] So that's what brings the town into the project.
[54:13] The project actually takes place on school property, but
[54:17] because the school district is not a member of rafta,
[54:20] you wouldn't be eligible for this.
[54:22] So seeing a way to partner
[54:24] and seeing a way to move this project forward,
[54:27] the town was willing to step in.
[54:30] And this, by the way, as I was sitting here tonight, I kind
[54:35] of remembering how intertwined the,
[54:37] the town has been in the last few years
[54:39] with the school district.
[54:41] This is actually the third project in the last two years
[54:45] that we've partnered in a grant project.
[54:49] So we had, two years ago we had an a DA playground
[54:54] at Catherine Sr.
[54:57] That the town partnered with the school in an FMLD grant.
[55:01] And I think one of the reasons we were successful there was
[55:04] because we went after a joint grant together
[55:07] and that's what FMLD was looking for.
[55:09] We've currently got another FMLD application in
[55:13] for a large playground behind Riverside Elementary School.
[55:18] And we're hoping to hear, I think that's in about two weeks,
[55:21] we should hear whether or not we're successful there.
[55:23] And then this is the third
[55:25] partnership that we're going after.
[55:27] So yeah, so I, I am kind of reminded of
[55:30] how intertwined we are
[55:33] and this project is a little more complex just
[55:36] because we've got an organization out there willing
[55:38] to give the funding through the town
[55:41] as opposed directly through the school.
[55:43] So this IGA tonight is a critical piece to demonstrate
[55:47] to RTA how the project will work
[55:51] and how the money will flow once they award it.
[55:54] And I'm pretty confident they're gonna award it. So,
[56:04] So I'm just reading through project description
[56:09] and again, like you said, we'll be back ahead in front
[56:12] of you guys will be back in front of us
[56:13] for two more times at least,
[56:15] Right?
[56:16] It sounds like. Yeah. And that'll kind
[56:17] of be more in your process than on the, our side.
[56:20] Yeah,
[56:23] Correct me if I'm wrong, John.
[56:25] There is for the board, there's a couple, this, this,
[56:30] this as, as Dave's pointed out, this is the agreement
[56:35] with the city of New Castle to all
[56:37] to allow the grant to go forward.
[56:40] The actual pro.
[56:42] This IGA also allows the board some outs
[56:47] if in fact things like
[56:50] cost overruns come in, those kind of things.
[56:52] So if, tell me if I'm incorrect in
[56:56] that it allow their minds can be eased
[56:59] that there is outs down the road if things don't line up
[57:04] as expected.
[57:06] Budgetarily your time, things like that.
[57:10] They're not locking themselves in right now
[57:14] if unforeseens come up.
[57:16] Is that, that is correct my understanding. Correct.
[57:19] That is correct. But we need this in order to go
[57:23] after the grant to even get us in the position
[57:27] to then make, to have the opportunity
[57:30] to even see if things line up.
[57:32] Correct. Is that a, that's a fair way
[57:33] of saying it. Okay. This
[57:35] Is, this is just us shaking hands
[57:37] agreeing to go to the next step.
[57:39] That's it. Yeah.
[57:42] Okay. Yeah, I I mean I'm,
[57:46] I'm always a big proponent of, you know,
[57:50] making our infrastructure useful and efficient.
[57:55] So I'm willing to go to the next step.
[57:58] And I think it's important too, the, I mean,
[58:01] we definitely wanna have a safe place
[58:05] for the community to walk through.
[58:10] Yeah. I see it very much as a win-win,
[58:12] win win potentially.
[58:15] But I also see that realistically there's some areas
[58:18] that I have some pretty significant concern
[58:21] and it would be in construction and, and material and costs.
[58:26] I also have some additional concerns about
[58:30] extended maintenance in the obligation to the district,
[58:32] which I don't think is unreasonable.
[58:34] I wanna be really clear with that.
[58:36] But It's a, it's a shuffle.
[58:41] It's a juggle and you know that better than I do John.
[58:44] And, and really kind of protecting, I think our job
[58:46] as board is one, to not just present or protect
[58:49] and preserve our assets,
[58:53] but to be mindful of what any future obligation
[58:58] that we are committed to for the district that may seem
[59:02] pennies on the dollar or reasonable now
[59:04] and are exponential later.
[59:05] So I I'm also in support of moving forward
[59:13] and getting a better look at what this project
[59:16] actually entails without a full commitment to,
[59:19] to move forward at this time.
[59:20] Yeah.
[59:23] Steve, do you have any, any questions
[59:26] or concerns on this one?
[59:28] Yeah, I mean I, I, I like the project overall.
[59:32] I also, you know, going, reviewing the agreement, I guess
[59:35] maybe my biggest question
[59:37] or concern is, you know, probably to John to say, you know,
[59:41] there's a lot of things that end up on him
[59:44] and his team's lap that I, I guess I wouldn't have expected
[59:48] from the initial conversations
[59:50] and, you know, with engineering
[59:52] and contracting and all of that.
[59:56] I guess I would wouldn't mind hearing John's perspective
[1:00:00] as far as how impactful that is on him and his staff
[1:00:03] and if that, if there's bandwidth for that
[1:00:07] and then obviously, you know, potential budget override
[1:00:09] or over overages and things that we could deal with later.
[1:00:12] You know, that's just part of construction.
[1:00:13] But I guess that, you know, my,
[1:00:16] my main concern from the beginning of, you know,
[1:00:19] when this was proposed is do we have the, the, the manpower
[1:00:22] to execute And this is more of a administrative
[1:00:27] and manpower heavy task than I initially
[1:00:30] anticipated, but that would be,
[1:00:35] Trying to think the correct way to answer at this point.
[1:00:40] There's nothing official going on next summer,
[1:00:43] but there's a possibility we could have a tremendous amount
[1:00:46] of things going on next summer.
[1:00:50] So there are some outs in the, in the IGA
[1:00:54] and with the process if that were to happen.
[1:00:58] Okay. Okay. So,
[1:01:01] And I, I would like to point out to both Megan
[1:01:03] and Steve's points, I share those
[1:01:06] and my support is just going to the next step.
[1:01:10] There's a lot of information we need to be presented with
[1:01:16] and maybe some of those questions
[1:01:18] and concerns about whether it's on us
[1:01:21] or on the city can be resolved in that rest
[1:01:23] of that process. Yeah,
[1:01:25] Sure. So
[1:01:26] That, that's my thoughts on that. Yeah.
[1:01:28] Yeah, because I, I had a lot of the same concerns too,
[1:01:32] but I think those concerns can be addressed Right now we're
[1:01:36] just wanting to make sure that we get the money right.
[1:01:38] So I, I mean hopefully we get the money,
[1:01:41] but I mean this could also be no
[1:01:44] and Boyd come December, so Yeah, I think so that,
[1:01:48] that does help ease my mind knowing that there are,
[1:01:51] there are stipulations.
[1:01:52] 'cause of course we don't want it to,
[1:01:55] 'cause you know, teachers don't, we don't teach,
[1:01:57] we don't run a school district for profit.
[1:01:59] So, you know, we pinch every penny that we possibly can.
[1:02:02] So I appreciate this and it is very thorough too, for sure.
[1:02:08] So is there any other discussion, any other questions?
[1:02:13] Nope. Okay.
[1:02:19] Can we move to approve it
[1:02:24] first or do we have to go through the rest
[1:02:27] of the discussion?
[1:02:29] I think as long as you guys are okay with it, you can do it.
[1:02:33] Okay. Are you guys okay moving this on for Yep. Approval?
[1:02:38] I am, yeah. Okay. Yep.
[1:02:40] I would take a motion to approve the MOU for the
[1:02:43] Lova side sidewalk project.
[1:02:48] I make a motion to approve the IGA
[1:02:51] for the Lova side sidewalk project.
[1:02:55] Thank you. Megan, may I get a second please?
[1:02:58] I'll second thank you.
[1:02:59] Chance Sharon Mag, get roll call please. Will you? Aye. Hi.
[1:03:04] Aye Jenkins? Aye Jensen. Aye.
[1:03:08] Okay. Thank you.
[1:03:11] Thank you. Appreciate you guys. I appreciate it. Yeah.
[1:03:13] Can I just say one other thing I,
[1:03:14] I appreciate we're talking about how we're intertwined
[1:03:17] and I wanted to thank you for your,
[1:03:19] your words about the tragedy on I 71 of the parents works
[1:03:24] for me directly and that's a, a huge loss in town hall.
[1:03:28] And then thank you for your participation in the parade.
[1:03:31] We, we love how re two is always out there
[1:03:35] and doing things with the town of Newcastle. So thank
[1:03:38] You.
[1:03:39] I can't even even think about it without tear up.
[1:03:40] Yeah. I, I can't even imagine. That is September 11th.
[1:03:42] So yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[1:03:51] If we could all look at John
[1:03:54] and when I say go, we're all gonna say happy birthday John.
[1:03:56] Ready go. Happy birthday John. Thank you.
[1:04:01] We could sing. I was just trying
[1:04:02] to be a gentleman and hug your chair for you. Thanks
[1:04:06] John.
[1:04:07] Appreciate you.
[1:04:08] How old are you John? 37. 39. I love it.
[1:04:11] Alright. All right again. You too.
[1:04:17] When you start going backwards,
[1:04:22] It's just you Simone. Thank you Simone. Hi.
[1:04:24] It is just me. I appreciate, I appreciate you
[1:04:29] allowing that to swap so that Absolutely.
[1:04:32] So no problem. Bold move cotton.
[1:04:35] What's that? There was in the movie dodge
[1:04:37] ball, bold move cotton
[1:04:39] Dodge ball.
[1:04:40] Yeah.
[1:04:41] I had a dodge ball chance a few weeks ago.
[1:04:46] I was lucky enough to share with you the great progress
[1:04:49] that Garfield RE two is making
[1:04:52] inching our way towards being a high achieving district.
[1:04:56] That being said, we know the only way to do that is
[1:05:00] to focus on the areas that are not
[1:05:02] as strong as we want them to be.
[1:05:04] That's what tonight is about.
[1:05:07] In your packet, you'll see Theresa, if you go
[1:05:11] to the next page please, you'll see the graduate profile.
[1:05:15] The reason for that, as you well know,
[1:05:17] this is our north star.
[1:05:18] This guides all of the work we do.
[1:05:22] All of the conversations we have
[1:05:24] is fixated on the graduate profile.
[1:05:27] And I would argue
[1:05:28] that this year it's tighter than I've ever seen it before.
[1:05:32] Which is exciting as our schools
[1:05:34] and our district dig into our data in order
[1:05:37] to make magic happen.
[1:05:40] Last week, right, last week on Wednesday,
[1:05:45] 'cause today's Wednesday we had all
[1:05:47] of our district leaders at the district office
[1:05:49] and they dug into our achievement data
[1:05:54] and they came up with direction for us
[1:05:57] as we launch into this school year.
[1:06:00] That being said, keep in mind that our students,
[1:06:04] their little feet, some big feet have only been in our
[1:06:08] buildings for 22 days today.
[1:06:11] 22 days. Is that all? That's all.
[1:06:14] But think of this, we are farther, it feels
[1:06:18] that we are farther along in all the work we're doing
[1:06:21] than we've ever been before.
[1:06:22] And that part of it is exciting to do or to see
[1:06:26] and we're seeing it for sure.
[1:06:29] So what I'll walk you through tonight is thinking about how
[1:06:34] we're going to embed the work in areas
[1:06:38] that need more support so that we can continue
[1:06:41] to grow towards a high achieving district.
[1:06:45] Last year you saw a data protocol
[1:06:49] and that data protocol is the same one
[1:06:53] that we're using this year.
[1:06:54] It's become the theme of Garfield RE two
[1:06:57] as we dig into data.
[1:06:59] And so the first step to all of this was
[1:07:02] to take our data protocol
[1:07:04] and let our leaders look at it to find where
[1:07:09] our district was breaking down in the work
[1:07:13] that they were doing in order to support students.
[1:07:17] So we did that at the district level with district data
[1:07:21] and then the schools, we'll do it at the school level, most
[1:07:25] of them Friday, to create their school plans.
[1:07:30] What's happening here is very much being mimicked in
[1:07:35] the schools and the work all feeds together.
[1:07:40] There's a lot of synergy between what we do with the schools
[1:07:42] and what they're doing with their staff.
[1:07:48] So you're going to get the big broad overview
[1:07:51] and the slides that you were sent changed just a little bit.
[1:07:55] The why is your presentation had to be ready
[1:08:00] before we were able to solidify all the work we did
[1:08:04] with the staff on Wednesday.
[1:08:07] But it's same, same just written in a different way.
[1:08:11] What came out of the work we did is very much a continuation
[1:08:16] of the work we've been doing.
[1:08:19] Garfield re two will focus on three
[1:08:23] large priorities
[1:08:25] and we call 'em priority performance challenges
[1:08:28] because they are the areas that are challenging us the most
[1:08:33] in attaining higher achievement and increasing our growth.
[1:08:39] Through the data that we looked at, which included CMAs,
[1:08:45] S-A-T-P-S-A-T,
[1:08:48] and beginning of this school year i-Ready
[1:08:52] and progress learning, we had all of
[1:08:55] that in front of our leaders.
[1:08:56] Through that, they decided
[1:08:59] that we are focused on the right things
[1:09:02] and we are still not seeing the achievement scores
[1:09:06] where we'd like them to see in both math and ELA.
[1:09:11] What also came out of
[1:09:12] that is they wanna focus on the other end of the spectrum.
[1:09:17] So we need to look at the students how, who are performing
[1:09:22] below the achievement level
[1:09:23] and start tackling some of those targeted groups of kids.
[1:09:30] So right now we're at 45% of our students
[1:09:35] demonstrating lower achievement.
[1:09:36] In those two areas combined,
[1:09:38] you can see each content area broken out in the bottom of
[1:09:41] that square with round corners.
[1:09:44] So I'm not really sure what you call that shape.
[1:09:47] And then the second challenge that RTRE two is going
[1:09:52] to tackle, which you'll notice again,
[1:09:54] is a continuation from last year.
[1:09:56] We had schools that showed great success
[1:09:59] with moving these two subgroups of kids.
[1:10:02] And there are areas where we still need
[1:10:04] to make improvements.
[1:10:05] So we will again, focus on our EL learners
[1:10:10] and our special education learners so
[1:10:13] that we can show we are meeting their needs
[1:10:16] at a higher capacity.
[1:10:18] And the last one is
[1:10:22] mostly at the elementary level,
[1:10:24] but we really want to target our students
[1:10:27] that have significant reading deficiencies.
[1:10:31] We identify them in K three.
[1:10:33] What's happened in the state of Colorado is we don't
[1:10:37] ever take students off a read plan.
[1:10:40] And so over the course of the past three years,
[1:10:45] we put into place our read plans that start in kindergarten
[1:10:51] moved up if a student was still on a re plan.
[1:10:54] By the time they transitioned into the middle school,
[1:10:56] they stayed on a reed plan
[1:10:58] and the middle schools tackled as many as they could to,
[1:11:01] to try and get them closer to being in a place where their
[1:11:06] reading deficiency wasn't as significant so
[1:11:11] that they could tackle grade level text.
[1:11:15] And now next school year
[1:11:17] read plans will follow students into the high school
[1:11:21] and it will be the high school's responsibility to work to
[1:11:26] minimize those deficiencies even more.
[1:11:28] So we really wanna hit hard
[1:11:30] and start being more preventative so that kids don't have
[1:11:34] that longevity of having a reading deficiency.
[1:11:37] We're gonna start working on that in the next school year.
[1:11:41] Any questions about that?
[1:11:47] I don't know how to, I don't want to make it sound like
[1:11:52] bad, but do you believe,
[1:11:54] because this process has been going on for years,
[1:11:56] like this process of, you know, of raising our achievement
[1:12:00] and our growth rates, and you guys have done,
[1:12:01] we've talked about it almost every board meeting, how
[1:12:04] we all think everything's going is very well,
[1:12:05] which I still agree.
[1:12:07] Do you believe that we've entered this phase of this project
[1:12:11] that like, for lack of a better word,
[1:12:14] like the low hanging fruit's been taken care of,
[1:12:16] so now we're having to hone in
[1:12:18] and find the little subgroups?
[1:12:22] I do. I I believe that,
[1:12:24] and we've seen it in some schools when they move certain
[1:12:27] subgroups, they move everybody.
[1:12:30] And because you remember those subgroups are a part of our
[1:12:34] complete student population.
[1:12:36] And when our complete student population is showing growth
[1:12:39] at this rate and our subgroups are showing growth at this
[1:12:42] rate, that disparity makes a big difference.
[1:12:45] And guess what? The, the big picture really isn't the fact
[1:12:49] that it affects us on A SPF.
[1:12:52] The big picture is, darn it, what are we doing wrong?
[1:12:55] That we're not servicing these kids the way we need to.
[1:12:58] We have to figure it out. It's our job to figure it out.
[1:13:01] It's our job to give them the best we can.
[1:13:03] And that's where we're at right now.
[1:13:09] Steve, did you have anything?
[1:13:15] No questions from me. Thanks.
[1:13:19] The last area that we'll tackle on our district, UIP
[1:13:23] as well as the school UIPs,
[1:13:27] is using the Aspen Business Group survey
[1:13:30] to help us improve culture and climate.
[1:13:35] When we did this, we realized that the number of surveys
[1:13:39] that are coming back potentially
[1:13:42] could be affecting the data that we're looking at.
[1:13:46] So one priority we have is to work hard to increase
[1:13:52] the responses from families and the responses from staff.
[1:13:56] You'll see that represented here.
[1:13:58] The work we haven't done yet
[1:14:00] that will be reflected in our unified improvement plan
[1:14:05] is more of an action towards
[1:14:08] actually increasing the culture.
[1:14:10] We have to dig in a little deeper to figure out
[1:14:12] how we can do that for our staff.
[1:14:17] Any questions about that Work for culture and climate?
[1:14:22] So one of the things, just so the board knows
[1:14:24] that you'll see that's different than last year, is
[1:14:26] that you, you'll see that every, every building
[1:14:31] will not only have achievement goals in their UIP,
[1:14:35] but this year you'll see culture and climate goals.
[1:14:38] And so one of the things that we're asking all the buildings
[1:14:42] to do is integrate that.
[1:14:44] So we do invest as a system quite a bit of, of
[1:14:48] resources into surveying our parents
[1:14:51] and our staff, which is, which is a great thing
[1:14:54] that this system prior to my,
[1:14:58] my coming on board has been a,
[1:15:00] a longstanding tradition, which is great.
[1:15:02] Not all systems look at culture and climate and higher
[1:15:06] and hire an outside company to be able to do that.
[1:15:09] One of the questions that we asked as a team is
[1:15:12] how are we using that data?
[1:15:14] And unfortunately, I think one of the things
[1:15:16] that we dove into is not very effectively.
[1:15:19] And so I think one of the things
[1:15:20] that we're looking at is saying the greater research says
[1:15:25] that one should be, and there's a lot of effect size about
[1:15:29] how culture and climate do in fact impact achievement
[1:15:34] for students, how they impact productivity for employees.
[1:15:39] And so we want to better use that data to impact it.
[1:15:43] So what we're doing from a systems point of view is doing
[1:15:47] that as, as Simone talked about,
[1:15:50] we're mimicking it at the district level
[1:15:53] and that then asking all 10 buildings
[1:15:55] to do the same in their UIP.
[1:15:57] So you'll see that when we do our, our shine the lights,
[1:16:00] every building will have that same thing.
[1:16:02] And so you're seeing it here.
[1:16:04] One of the things that we, we did when we did our,
[1:16:07] our rollout is we, we looked at it
[1:16:10] and the feedback we got initially is it's very difficult
[1:16:14] from our business group data, one of the first reactions
[1:16:18] that we got was, hmm, this is hard for us
[1:16:22] to find a trend and a root cause
[1:16:26] because we're seeing some structural problems with
[1:16:30] how the data is collected.
[1:16:33] So we stopped there and said, okay, let's change this.
[1:16:37] Let's rewrite some of the questions.
[1:16:40] Let's, let's change what some from some
[1:16:42] of the feedback we got from parents.
[1:16:45] I think those of you who have that you may already think
[1:16:48] to yourself, why is that no chance wrote me on one
[1:16:51] and said, why am I being asked this?
[1:16:53] That kind of stuff that we said, okay,
[1:16:55] this may be setting up a barrier for us
[1:16:58] to actually get true data of what we should be changing
[1:17:03] from feedback from our parents or from our staff.
[1:17:06] So we said, okay, we gotta stop right there.
[1:17:09] Let's do some, some tweaking so
[1:17:11] that we can really dive into our data
[1:17:13] to get some good analysis to be able
[1:17:16] to say, what do we change?
[1:17:17] Or we're gonna change something that may not be what we want
[1:17:22] to change to because the, our tool isn't the right tool.
[1:17:26] So that's one of the things we're looking at.
[1:17:29] The the schools are, we're able to say, Hey, we,
[1:17:33] we actually think we can get some more changes
[1:17:36] before without having to make we,
[1:17:39] we've got some good data without making some
[1:17:41] of those changes based off of some of those factors.
[1:17:44] But I just want to point that out to you all that
[1:17:46] that's something new that you're gonna see this year
[1:17:49] and what your schools are gonna be
[1:17:51] bringing you in the shine.
[1:17:52] The light is that there will be a cultural goal in their UIP
[1:17:56] that they didn't have last year.
[1:17:57] So for clarification, he's talking about the,
[1:18:00] what was the name of that form?
[1:18:02] The UIP? No, the one that I asked you like,
[1:18:05] why in the heck am I getting this?
[1:18:06] The survey. The survey.
[1:18:08] The Survey. Yeah. Yeah.
[1:18:10] I did, did you, you know what I'm talking about for my,
[1:18:13] I mean for my, I'm justifying that,
[1:18:16] but I'm gonna tell you the whole story is I get it.
[1:18:18] And like my, my personal first thought of it is like,
[1:18:21] it's none of the school district's
[1:18:22] damn business how much money I make.
[1:18:24] Right? That's my first initial thought,
[1:18:26] like none of your business.
[1:18:29] And then Kirk explains it to me.
[1:18:33] It's like, I get it.
[1:18:35] However, I believe there's a different way we can go
[1:18:38] after it because especially in today's age
[1:18:41] where people are like hyper vigilant of their information,
[1:18:45] like I'm not just establishing the need to advertise it.
[1:18:48] Right? So it was a good talk
[1:18:50] and I'm very thankful Kirk took the time to explain
[1:18:52] that why it was an important survey.
[1:18:57] So just to, so sorry Simon, you're good.
[1:19:00] I just wanted to talk to about something you,
[1:19:03] you guys will see differently in what's,
[1:19:06] what's gonna come up this year as,
[1:19:07] as you're seeing shine the light.
[1:19:09] And so maybe something just that you're aware of
[1:19:11] that you will see their,
[1:19:13] both their academic goals in their UIP,
[1:19:16] but you will notice
[1:19:17] that they will have a climate culture goal
[1:19:19] that they've been requested all to do to mimic
[1:19:22] what you're seeing in the district.
[1:19:23] What you are gonna see that's district that different
[1:19:26] between the district goal
[1:19:28] and the building's goal is
[1:19:30] that ours looks more structural at the district
[1:19:33] because we're fixing that piece in order
[1:19:36] to help facilitate some
[1:19:38] of the what's happening at the building level.
[1:19:40] But the buildings were able to pull out some stuff
[1:19:43] that they felt like they could do.
[1:19:45] Or at least that's the feedback we got
[1:19:47] and have gotten so far as they said,
[1:19:49] we actually still can write one based out it.
[1:19:51] I don't think we felt comfortable writing
[1:19:54] bigger district ones yet.
[1:19:56] We, we still will do that
[1:19:58] because we do know that building culture
[1:20:01] and climate has an effect size on achievement.
[1:20:05] And so we believe it's something we
[1:20:06] Will do well, it matches everything,
[1:20:08] especially industry-wide.
[1:20:09] Safety has been a huge push
[1:20:12] for any industrial company the last 20 years, right?
[1:20:15] Because they people, they saw the workplace incident rates
[1:20:18] go up and they started looking into
[1:20:20] the data of like, why is this?
[1:20:21] And they found really quick, the culture of a company
[1:20:24] plays into account extremely.
[1:20:27] Like the variable is very high and the factor is very high.
[1:20:31] The worst of culture is around safety.
[1:20:33] Like all those, you know, those glasses look dumb
[1:20:36] or you know, just, and then
[1:20:37] as the culture improves across the sectors
[1:20:39] and across these industries, like you see, I mean the,
[1:20:42] the graphs diverge, like the claims go down and you know,
[1:20:46] and, and it's, and it makes a complete sense.
[1:20:49] You see it on sports teams, the culture of teams.
[1:20:52] You see it on everything where humans are at.
[1:20:55] If the culture is conducive and the sky's limit, you got
[1:20:59] It.
[1:21:00] You got it. And that's that, that's where we're at
[1:21:02] for the employee side.
[1:21:04] And then we see the same thing for families is that to use,
[1:21:07] you know, I don't love using the the business model analogy,
[1:21:11] but in this case it very much fits.
[1:21:13] We've gotta survey our clientele
[1:21:15] and make sure we know what our clients are seeing
[1:21:18] and how they're feeling about the product we're putting out.
[1:21:21] And if we're not doing that, for those of you in the bus
[1:21:24] business sector, you know, if we're not,
[1:21:26] if we're not surveying our our clients, we don't know
[1:21:28] how they're feeling about what we're doing.
[1:21:30] Yeah, we're doing that a whole injustice for, for us as a,
[1:21:33] as a, as a business.
[1:21:34] And so that's why we've gotta,
[1:21:36] we've gotta do the same is do it.
[1:21:38] We know we're, we know how we're measuring
[1:21:41] what the outcome is,
[1:21:42] but we've gotta also service survey how,
[1:21:46] how they feel about what that looks like.
[1:21:48] And so we're doing that as well.
[1:21:52] Any more questions about culture climate?
[1:21:55] I, so once our school, our district
[1:21:58] and our schools have their priority performance challenges,
[1:22:02] they figure out why, why, why, why,
[1:22:05] why have they been struggles And create actions in order
[1:22:09] to help those things improve.
[1:22:11] Hopefully this next slide
[1:22:13] or page in your packet, hopefully none
[1:22:16] of this on here is something you haven't heard before.
[1:22:20] We've worked very hard to keep you well informed about
[1:22:24] all things Garfield re two classrooms
[1:22:27] and this is exactly what has been
[1:22:30] and will continue in Gar field re two
[1:22:33] with a few new nuances.
[1:22:35] So obviously you've heard about instructional way
[1:22:38] and behavioral way for all 10 schools.
[1:22:40] They are guiding all the work we do when we're in the
[1:22:44] buildings, especially the one right
[1:22:46] below being the building walkthroughs,
[1:22:49] you know about the counselor corret
[1:22:51] and how much we have learned about the role
[1:22:53] of a counselor this year.
[1:22:55] All schools, all counselors will be setting goals
[1:22:59] to support student achievement.
[1:23:02] That is their job. And we are working hard on that.
[1:23:06] Seven steps to a language rich classroom came from all
[1:23:10] of the work we've been doing with ELL and you.
[1:23:15] You may remember the program review we had with CDE,
[1:23:18] the work we've been doing with the gal named Marie Heath.
[1:23:22] This is where that resource has come from.
[1:23:26] We already have some schools who are doing staff pd.
[1:23:29] In fact, last night I sat with Highland Elementary School
[1:23:32] who is doing a formal book study with their staff.
[1:23:35] Best conversation I've had in years
[1:23:37] around instruction in a classroom.
[1:23:40] And then in the next column you'll see our data cycles
[1:23:44] working with and teaching our staff how
[1:23:47] to facilitate data conversations, how
[1:23:50] to do them more frequently than just beginning, middle,
[1:23:52] and end of the year 30 day cycles.
[1:23:55] Rifle high school is hot with 15 day cycles.
[1:23:59] So we're seeing a lot of impact as we embed those things.
[1:24:04] Graduate profile, it's not going away.
[1:24:06] It's rising to a whole new level. You guys know what RTI is?
[1:24:10] We worked hard to teach you about RTI.
[1:24:13] We just had a meeting today.
[1:24:16] They set their goals for the school year as a district team
[1:24:20] and we'll now be going back to their schools
[1:24:22] to share some information with them on Friday.
[1:24:24] And then obviously the survey.
[1:24:27] So some, some actions have nuances.
[1:24:29] Hopefully you are familiar with everything that's up there.
[1:24:32] This is just the small brush of it.
[1:24:34] When we write the actual UIP, which is in the works due
[1:24:39] to this date on October 15th,
[1:24:40] there will be much more detail to it.
[1:24:43] Those are public documents.
[1:24:45] Anybody can go online and read that.
[1:24:48] Any questions about this one?
[1:24:53] You guys are making it easy.
[1:24:55] And then obviously the last page is the graduate profile
[1:24:58] again, because I can't emphasize enough
[1:25:01] how much it all comes back to this.
[1:25:04] Everything we do,
[1:25:09] any questions at all about the unified improvement plan
[1:25:12] for the district for the 26 27 school year?
[1:25:18] Steve, do you have any questions?
[1:25:25] No questions explicitly.
[1:25:27] Love to hear, you know, you know, particularly on,
[1:25:32] you know, the ELA
[1:25:34] and special ed, you know, focusing on those things.
[1:25:37] I think those are, from the feedback I've gotten from the
[1:25:39] community, they would love to see, you know, gains there.
[1:25:43] So I love to see it. Thanks for the work.
[1:25:49] We don't have any questions 'cause you guys do a good job
[1:25:51] of keeping us informed.
[1:25:53] We do. We, it's important.
[1:25:55] Thank you for your work in putting it together.
[1:25:56] Yeah, I would like to say Simon, I love you
[1:26:00] and you do an amazing job.
[1:26:01] Thanks. And I don't know if you, you know, you
[1:26:04] and Jacob work your tails off to make this happen
[1:26:08] and the huge strides we have gotten the last really since we
[1:26:12] got on the board so I I mean technically
[1:26:15] I could take credit for it too.
[1:26:16] No, You can't. I mean technically, I mean
[1:26:19] No you can't. No, no you can't.
[1:26:20] So No. But you've done amazing
[1:26:23] and thank you for, for
[1:26:26] teaching me along the way.
[1:26:29] You're welcome. And how was roller derby?
[1:26:32] Oh my gosh. Was it fun? Oh my gosh.
[1:26:34] I would encourage everyone next year when it starts up
[1:26:36] to at least go once.
[1:26:38] It was a hoot. It was a hoo the oldest.
[1:26:41] I can only imagine Erin Uns skates.
[1:26:43] I don't know how she's not bruised from head to toe. She is.
[1:26:47] And the oldest woman, I mean I may have considered it
[1:26:50] as I sat there watching 'cause I'm like
[1:26:52] what a good way to get out.
[1:26:54] Wow. The oldest woman on the team was 60.
[1:26:58] I'm like that's fascinating too.
[1:27:00] 60 60
[1:27:02] Sharon, you up for it.
[1:27:07] You're not a day over 55. Come
[1:27:09] On.
[1:27:10] Thank you guys. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks.
[1:27:15] Attendance challenge champion award for re two.
[1:27:20] Yes. So I was so excited
[1:27:23] because I was told that we would have a banner here
[1:27:28] and I was really hoping it was gonna be here in time
[1:27:32] and I was gonna unveil it to you all
[1:27:34] and it still hadn't come.
[1:27:36] So as you know, male
[1:27:41] In our area is never quite as quick as you want it to be.
[1:27:46] So unfortunately it's so I am, I am, I just get
[1:27:51] to announce once again that Garfield was one
[1:27:54] of just 18 attendance challenge
[1:27:56] champions in the entire state.
[1:27:58] There's 178 school district, so we're one of 18
[1:28:03] that's for dropping over the last four years
[1:28:06] that our chronic absentee rate dropped from 40.1
[1:28:10] to 17.8.
[1:28:12] That's a 55.6% reduction.
[1:28:17] So we're absolutely ecstatic about that.
[1:28:19] And so to be honored by the state of of being one
[1:28:23] of these champions is just something I just keep wanting
[1:28:26] to scream from the rooftops
[1:28:27] because it is not something, when you read the list of,
[1:28:34] honestly, the rest of those 18 are mostly small
[1:28:38] and they're I think pretty much all rural, which screams
[1:28:42] for rural way for all of us to do it.
[1:28:45] But we are one of the largest to be able to do it.
[1:28:49] And I think that really speaks to a lot of our, the work
[1:28:53] of our family liaisons, our attendance secretaries,
[1:28:56] our buildings of what they've done to really reach out.
[1:28:59] I think it also speaks a lot to the board
[1:29:02] and implementing policies and,
[1:29:04] and how we're implementing those policies.
[1:29:07] But we are getting a lot of phone calls from
[1:29:10] around the state of saying, how did you do it?
[1:29:12] So I'm very proud of the staff and,
[1:29:14] and the hard work that they've done to be honored in,
[1:29:17] in, in such a way.
[1:29:18] So it's, it's pretty awesome.
[1:29:21] Our E two is definitely on the map across the state for,
[1:29:25] for doing something that's, that's hard
[1:29:27] and difficult to do over time.
[1:29:29] So I, like I said, I want to unfail the,
[1:29:32] the, the, the banner.
[1:29:33] But when we get it, I will show you all
[1:29:36] because I'm very excited for the banner.
[1:29:38] I think it's also important to give a shout out to
[1:29:40] how hardly Lisa Pierce worked with our school.
[1:29:43] I was Gonna say to develop
[1:29:45] and Rob Dean was no small force in urging us
[1:29:48] to raise the standard for our attendance.
[1:29:51] And so work that has gone
[1:29:53] before has had just such a huge impact
[1:29:56] and we're not very far really all that far from COVID
[1:30:01] and to reduce our chronic absenteeism
[1:30:04] and recover where are the kids, you know, in such a
[1:30:09] visible way is powerful.
[1:30:12] So yeah, just shout out to them. Yep.
[1:30:14] That was a great point.
[1:30:15] Jenny Lisa was the first person that put on my radar.
[1:30:19] Yeah, She took that bull by the horn, so Yeah,
[1:30:21] She did And we needed it. Yep.
[1:30:23] Yeah. And, And kids deserved it.
[1:30:25] When I first got the attendance policy,
[1:30:28] I was like, it's none.
[1:30:31] Why am I, I excuse my kid. That should be enough.
[1:30:34] And you know, so the, the way that Lisa
[1:30:36] and them were able to explain it.
[1:30:37] Yep. But I also wanna say I think we've also changed,
[1:30:41] trained our community.
[1:30:43] 'cause now when I take the boys to the orthodontist,
[1:30:45] to the dentist, to the doctor, do you need an excuse note?
[1:30:48] Yes I do.
[1:30:50] That's great teamwork. Yeah, Exactly.
[1:30:53] So thank you guys. Congratulations on that. So
[1:30:57] Absolutely Back onto governance action items.
[1:31:01] We have got a second reading
[1:31:03] and approval for the CASB policy revisions.
[1:31:08] There is a nice long laundry list and a nice long packet
[1:31:12] but there was no changes
[1:31:16] or any, any amendments from the
[1:31:19] last, from the first reading.
[1:31:21] Steve, did you have anything on these?
[1:31:35] All right,
[1:31:44] we will take silences golden if you
[1:31:49] have anything shoot me a text.
[1:31:52] My, there we go. No question about second reading.
[1:31:56] Okay. Okay Perfect.
[1:32:00] Alright then I would take a motion to approve
[1:32:05] a listed policy revisions from CASB.
[1:32:08] Do I have to list them? I don't believe so. No,
[1:32:12] I think if you just have it just like we had it worded on
[1:32:14] there, I kind of put it,
[1:32:16] I'll make a motion to AP to approve
[1:32:19] the CSB policy revisions listed in 12.2.
[1:32:22] Thank you. Chance? May I get a second? I second.
[1:32:25] Thank you Megan, Sharon Mag get roll call please will you?
[1:32:31] Aye. Hi Aye
[1:32:35] Jenkins.
[1:32:36] Aye Aye.
[1:32:37] Aye. Thank you Steve.
[1:32:41] Alright, policy focus.
[1:32:44] So we've got the first reading of a few more
[1:32:47] CSB policy revisions.
[1:32:51] Yep. So we've got DDJB dash R,
[1:32:56] which is the procurement
[1:32:57] and procedures, JLCB
[1:33:03] immunization of students
[1:33:05] and JLCB dash R,
[1:33:11] which is just the amendment
[1:33:15] to the, the process I guess to the,
[1:33:45] is there any questions or anything on any of this
[1:33:50] that doesn't look like there was really many changes?
[1:33:57] Yeah, looking just the immunization of students,
[1:34:04] all the exemptions are still in place.
[1:34:06] Yep. So
[1:34:31] And we had, we had our school nurse review it as well.
[1:34:35] Okay. And so since we have with two
[1:34:39] and so both of them reviewed it.
[1:34:41] Okay. And so Diane and and Sarah reviewed it
[1:34:45] and gave us feedback.
[1:34:46] 'cause there is, as you know, there's kind of a unique thing
[1:34:49] with our preschools
[1:34:51] and K 12 that were under two departments.
[1:34:54] And so even though CASB gave us one,
[1:34:57] we also had them double check it to make sure
[1:34:59] It covered Both DHS was also like there wasn't
[1:35:03] something that we were gonna get funky that we,
[1:35:05] oop we didn't do this one.
[1:35:07] So they, they made sure that they double checked that we,
[1:35:10] we had it and we got feedback from them too as well.
[1:35:13] So, so always helpful to have as many experts
[1:35:17] as we've got in that we employ.
[1:35:20] Absolutely. So and they are
[1:35:22] That they are.
[1:35:24] Steve, did you have any questions on these?
[1:35:29] No, that all looks good to me.
[1:35:31] Okay. Megan, Did you have anything? I do not.
[1:35:35] Okay. Alright. Alright.
[1:35:39] So I'll move those on to a second reading at the next
[1:35:41] meeting onto future requests.
[1:35:50] I have a request, Kirk,
[1:35:54] about the transportation policy.
[1:35:57] Okay. We discussed if you could look into
[1:36:01] clarification about how driver hours
[1:36:06] for full-time as opposed to our coach
[1:36:10] slash bus drivers. Okay.
[1:36:12] Yeah. And get some clarification there
[1:36:15] and kind of how that is applied.
[1:36:17] So duty, duty time. Duty time. Yep.
[1:36:20] Okay. We, yep. We can look at that
[1:36:22] And possibly what the process, if,
[1:36:26] if there's any governing documents that lays out the process
[1:36:30] for the bus
[1:36:34] routing of extracurricular activities.
[1:36:36] Okay. Just that whole process.
[1:36:38] What it, what it, what it looks like.
[1:36:40] Okay. Yep. We can definitely, we'll,
[1:36:43] we'll meet with transportation.
[1:36:45] I know as, as they're, they continue
[1:36:47] to work through their shortage.
[1:36:50] It's, it's a, a point of conver conversation right now.
[1:36:54] So it's a very timely conversation
[1:36:56] And a shout out to Aspen for help for jump jumping in.
[1:37:00] Yep. Now thank you Aspen School District for Wow.
[1:37:03] Jumping in with the driver trainer.
[1:37:06] That's right. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
[1:37:08] There we've got new drivers all coming
[1:37:10] online here in the next
[1:37:13] Two weeks, Two weeks, weeks or so.
[1:37:14] So we're, we're hopefully coming out of our,
[1:37:18] our shortage on that.
[1:37:19] So.
[1:37:21] Excellent. Saw Oscar last night at the
[1:37:25] middle school football game.
[1:37:27] Nice to see him out in the community. Awesome. So
[1:37:31] Good to hear.
[1:37:33] Steve, do you have any future requests?
[1:37:37] Nothing I can think of at the moment. Okay.
[1:37:40] Megan, anything?
[1:37:42] No, I can't think of anything either.
[1:37:47] So we'll go ahead and do a meeting.
[1:37:49] Debrief chances already filling his out.
[1:37:54] I used it for notes. Oh, here,
[1:37:57] I got one right here
[1:38:07] Theresa.
[1:38:08] I'm still waiting for the deputy Jeopardy theme song one
[1:38:10] day, one of these days.
[1:38:12] Thank you.
[1:38:17] And I know it's gonna happen. I'm gonna forget about it
[1:38:19] and all of a sudden it's gonna start playing.
[1:38:24] It will brighten my day.
[1:38:26] Funny story from today at work.
[1:38:28] I had a piece of pipe on the ground for maybe laying there
[1:38:31] for a little while and you know what, you know,
[1:38:34] metal holds heat and it's fall time and cold.
[1:38:38] What finds what tries to find heat when it gets cold. Yeah.
[1:38:43] So I went to pick it up
[1:38:44] and I, I screamed like a little girl when
[1:38:49] that snake came out the side of that right there,
[1:38:52] like right next to my hand.
[1:38:54] Oh it was like that long.
[1:38:59] It was or no it was ice rattle. Yeah. No it was deadly.
[1:39:04] Had huge bangs.
[1:39:06] Are you sure? Yeah.
[1:39:08] I don't know what it, I mean it was, it was this
[1:39:10] Long, it was like it was a bull snake.
[1:39:12] It was about the yay long but Okay.
[1:39:14] That's why I don't like 'em.
[1:39:15] They always just take you by surprise. Yeah,
[1:39:17] Absolutely.
[1:39:18] Alright. They do best. If there is nothing else we will.
[1:39:24] Steve, do you have anything else?
[1:39:27] Nope. All good for me. Thank you so much.
[1:39:28] Thank you. Hey, thanks Steve. Safe travels.
[1:39:32] We'll. Go Ahead. Very much appreciate you all.
[1:39:34] We will go ahead and adjourn the mo let me try that again.
[1:39:40] We will go ahead and adjourn the September 23rd, 2026
[1:39:44] meeting at 7 24.
[1:39:49] I got 7 22.