[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.

Re-2 School Board of Education • Sept 23, 2026

Agenda

Transcript