4.17.25 Business Meeting - Part 1

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this business meeting, the Clear Creek RE-1 Board of Education discussed several critical issues, including budget constraints, declining student enrollment, and teacher salaries. They highlighted the financial challenges facing Colorado school districts, such as potential insolvency and reliance on federal funding. The board also emphasized the importance of community involvement and transparency in addressing these challenges. Plans to attract more students and improve teacher retention were discussed, as well as updates on various school programs and projects. Community members expressed concern over financial decisions and emphasized the need for investment in teachers and programs to enhance education quality.

Highlights

The board meeting started with discussions on budget constraints and the need for strategic financial planning. 📊
Community members voiced concerns about budget cuts and the impact on education quality. 🗣
The board emphasized the need for creative solutions to attract more students and improve the school's financial situation. 🎓
Teacher salaries and retention were major topics, with numerous attendees advocating for competitive compensation. 🧑‍🏫
The board plans to engage the community more in strategic planning to ensure a sustainable future for local schools. 🤝

Key Takeaways

The meeting highlighted significant financial challenges faced by the district, including a potential budget shortfall and declining student enrollment. 💸
Community input and involvement are deemed crucial for overcoming financial hurdles and ensuring quality education. 👫
There is a strong emphasis on investing in teachers and educational programs to improve retention and attract new students. 🍎
The board discussed potential revenue-increasing strategies, such as increasing enrollment and leveraging community resources. 🚀
The importance of transparency and communication between the board, teachers, and community members was stressed. 🔍

Overview

The Clear Creek RE-1 Board of Education meeting illuminated pressing financial concerns within the district, particularly focusing on budgetary constraints and dwindling student enrollment numbers. Members of the board underscored the severity of these financial challenges, highlighting the risk of potential insolvency and the delicate balancing act required to maintain quality education. The meeting emphasized the critical need for both short- and long-term planning strategies to navigate these economic hurdles.

Community engagement was a focal point of the discussions as board members stressed the importance of transparency and collaboration. There was a palpable sense of urgency in addressing the misconceptions and misinformation about the district’s financial status. The board planned to enhance communication efforts and encouraged community members to become actively involved. This, they believe, is essential to fostering a supportive educational environment and ensuring the district can thrive amidst financial adversity.

Much of the dialogue centered around teacher compensation and retention as educators form a fundamental pillar of the school’s success. Community members called for strategic investments in teachers and educational programs to draw more students into the district. There was a shared sentiment that investing in and valuing teachers is crucial not only for maintaining current staff but also for attracting new talent, which in turn, enhances the educational standing of the district.

Chapters

00:00 - 01:00: Meeting Introduction The meeting was called to order on Thursday, April 7th, 2025. The speaker acknowledged the date and playfully commented on their imperfection, expressing appreciation for the board members present.
01:00 - 06:00: Board of Education Updates The chapter 'Board of Education Updates' begins with gratitude expressed to the attendees for their service throughout the year. The meeting is officially called to order on Thursday, April 17th, 2025, at 5:32 p.m. During the meeting, a motion is put forth and seconded to approve the agenda.
06:00 - 16:00: State of Colorado Schools The chapter titled 'State of Colorado Schools' begins with a mention of updates related to the board of education. The speaker indicates that the usual process will be adjusted, mentioning a brief delay as someone prepares to continue.
16:00 - 27:00: Financial Challenges and Proposed Solutions Chapter begins with introductory music and an invitation to fill available seats in the front row.
27:00 - 30:00: Meeting Conclusion The chapter titled 'Meeting Conclusion' discusses the importance of thoughtful and respectful problem solving. The speaker emphasizes that the challenges faced are not confined to the current budget year and have been long-term issues that require innovative thinking and open-mindedness to resolve. The speaker acknowledges working with Erica Heg as part of the bargaining committee to compile relevant information and data.

4.17.25 Business Meeting - Part 1 Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 All right, we're live. Excellent. Good evening. It is Thursday, April 7th, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting 17th. It is the 17th. Say, I am imperfect. Welcome to my world. I have a great board who like stands
00:30 - 01:00 behind me and I I will say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all of the help that you have given this year uh and all of your service. I will start again. It is Thursday, April 17th, 2025. I would like to call this meeting of the Clear Creek order. It is 5:32 p.m. minutes here. here. Here I look for a motion to approve the agenda. So move second.
01:00 - 01:30 Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. All right. We got our board of education updates. All right. We're going to do this a little bit differently this time than normal. One second. Oh yeah. It's going to take her a minute. Give you a second.
01:30 - 02:00 [Music] Thank you. Seats up the front row. Front row seats. Three open seats right up here. All right. For those of you I don't know, I'm Charlie Flendin. I am the treasurer of board of education and I have the privilege I guess or not of going first in board updates and I'm going to do things a little bit differently. Uh first I want to thank
02:00 - 02:30 you all for being here. Uh I appreciate your interest and what I hope to be is your commitment to thoughtful and respectful problem solving not just today but well into the future. As I assure you the challenges we are facing are not limited to this budget year alone. We are well aware of these challenges and we've been aware of them for years. And in fact, we know that without innovative thinking and open minds, the challenges are going to worsen. I have worked very closely with Erica Heg as a member of the bargaining committee to pull together some information and some data in this
02:30 - 03:00 presentation and I've done my best to include feedback and thoughts and ideas from my board member colleagues as well. So to my colleagues, if you would like to add anything during this presentation, please give me the high sign and I am more than happy to pause and incorporate your comments. I tend to get on a roll. I certainly don't want to leave you out. Is this How do you do this? Is it not working? No. But can you just do the next slide? Thank you. All right. So, I
03:00 - 03:30 think it's really important that we understand sort of the state of Colorado schools. In Colorado, a substantial number of school districts are currently experiencing declining enrollment. Specifically, more than half of Colorado's 178 school districts, or 113 of them, have reported decreases in student enrollment compared to previous years. This represents a significant percentage of districts who are dealing with the same problem we are. 63% of Colorado school districts. Most small school districts have a large reserve
03:30 - 04:00 because their per pupil revenue is higher and more susceptible to declining student enrollment. When I look at what's going on in other districts as a result of the financial squeeze that we are experiencing, I will share that many districts in Colorado are implementing spending cuts, freezing salaries, consolidating and closing schools, and eliminating jobs. In our district, we are hopeful that some of these more draconian measures will not be necessary, but we are all correct in calling this a dire situation. But I
04:00 - 04:30 hope that you understand that we are not alone in this position. And in some ways, misery does love company. We were asked in an email if there is a comprehensive long-term plan we are following to address the ongoing financial issues that we face. And the answer to that is yes, most certainly. And we've been following this plan. It includes slowly spending down our reserves, advocating for the sustainment of averaging when it comes to per pupil funding, and forming a long range planning committee in order to pursue a bond in the future. Next slide, please.
04:30 - 05:00 So, how are we funded? Let me talk a little bit about this. The state education fund, which is also known as the Colorado Constitutional Amendment 23, is slated to be fully insolvent in 2028 2029. For those of you who do not know, that fund diverts a portion, onethird of 1% of the state income tax revenue, and that is what funds education. The state education fund will be insolvent in three years even when they include capping the best program
05:00 - 05:30 building exceptional schools today which we have taken advantage of multiple times in our district and a very large reduction in grants that are awarded by the Colorado Department of Education. We'll talk more about grants in coming slides. Every year that fund takes in about $1.1 billion dollar in funds and we spend $1.5 billion dollar to afford the finance act that was put into place in the last legislative session as well as all the associated categorical
05:30 - 06:00 increases. As you can see in this slide, we are very very heavily reliant on the state for our funding which unfortunately is a precarious position and we cannot afford to rely on that year after year. The state this year has a $1.2 billion shortfall in their budget and they are projecting a bigger shortfall next year. Some additional context that I think you should be aware of. The new finance act that would bring more money into our school district would require a historic level of new
06:00 - 06:30 investment into the state. It would require a 5.5% increase in our general fund, which has only happened six times in the last 15 years. and it's only happened twice two years in a row. Simply put, we cannot increase general fund contributions in the manner that we need. Colorado has historically underfunded schools across our state and across every single factor that is funded in the formula. So taking from one underfunded student and giving it to
06:30 - 07:00 another underfunded student is not equity. It really actually harms all of the students and has unintended consequences of putting school districts in a battle against one another for the very limited resources that we have. We also know that the state continues to have a general fund shortfall and they have historically balanced their budget on the backs of kids whether that has come to cuts through K12 or cuts to the higher education system. Next slide please.
07:00 - 07:30 Then if we look to the local share, you can see a couple of things that maybe feel exciting about this perhaps, but I want to tell you that the increase in local share was a short-lived excitement. The way property taxes are calculated was changed over the summer. Residential assessment rates decreased this year from 7.15% to 7.05%. And if our state has growth of greater than 5%, that assessment rate will drop again to 6.95%. Our funding is a mix of state and
07:30 - 08:00 local resources. An increase in local funding like rising property taxes does not provide more funding for schools. It just means the state has to give us less money. So even though we saw a 43% increase in property taxes in this county in 2023, the school district did not increase statewide. When you look at school districts in last year about 60 to 40 were reliant on state 60% from the
08:00 - 08:30 state 40 local. Um next year or this year we think it'll be closer to 5050. Clear Creek is closer to 7030 which does really demonstrate that we are nearly entirely reliant on the state of Colorado to fund our school district. Another important factor for you to be aware of is the impact of the declining production at Henderson Mine. In 2014, the mine accounted for 68% of our budget. That number today is closer to 11%. Which is another factor that leads
08:30 - 09:00 us to even more reliance on the state, which as I hope that you just heard is not a great place to rely on. Next slide, please. What you have here are grants over the next couple of slides that we'll talk about. Um, and while we are incredibly grateful to have these wonderful grants, it is important to note that as I stand here today, the state and the joint budget committee has indicated they're willing to eliminate all grant funding so that they can support the new finance formula. This will impact our funding in a whole
09:00 - 09:30 another way. The grants that are indicated here as federal funds are also proposed to be eliminated. Next slide, please. You see a few more. Oh, not that far. Um, so you can see we have about a little over a million dollars that we receive on an annual basis from grants. We were asked a question, what grants are we seeking to help bridge the funding gap for certain expenses in these difficult years? Are there other alternate funds or cost-saving efforts we could take advantage of? We have a strong number of critical grants as you
09:30 - 10:00 saw. Our intent as a board is to and district is to continue to apply for all of these grants so long as they continue to exist. We are looking at all kinds of ways that we can save money. We did find a wonderful opportunity this year and I'd like to thank our innovative and our incredibly hardworking staff for coming up with this idea to leverage bulk purchasing with other districts. So we will be working with Gilpin and Platt to have Chromebooks and other items like
10:00 - 10:30 that and take advantage of economies of scale and bulk purchasing. We'll continue to look for those type of opportunities. Next slide. Well, this looks maybe simple because it's like kind of cute cartoons. Um, school finance is really really hard. it. I've been on this board now for six years and I have invested I would say hundreds if not thousands of hours learning about Colorado school finance. It is really hard to understand and that very
10:30 - 11:00 complicated position is compounded by the fact that the state and the federal government are kind of regularly tweaking the very foundation by which we are funded making it even harder to understand. Accountants don't even understand. And that is not to be offensive to accountants, but school finance is an unwieldy beast. And in fact, the Boseies just hired an accountant. She left shortly after and stated that it was because school finance is really complicated and hard.
11:00 - 11:30 So if you have school finance experience, please apply for our district. Please apply for Boseies. We need your expertise. Next slide, please. Bonds versus mills. Let's talk a little bit about bonds versus mills. We have lots of conversation around bond and mills. I'm not going to read that to you because I have a lot of other things I'm going to say. So, you read that. The school finance act does not provide any funding for facilities or capital construction needs of schools. The only
11:30 - 12:00 way that we receive additional funding for capital construction or operating expenses like teacher pay is by voterapproved measures like bonds and mill levy overrides. For districts like ours, the cap on mill levy overrides is 30%. And we don't have the ability to raise any money beyond that 30% because that is what the state has told us is the max. And unfortunately, as we've said many times, bonds can only be used
12:00 - 12:30 for capital instru construction. They may not be used for ongoing operational cost. Next slide, please. The website there, I'd like you to maybe take a picture or something because it has been suggested that our bond funds have not been properly spent or accounted for. And as you might remember, throughout the course of the bond, we had regular quarterly updates from our project manager and project team on the bond
12:30 - 13:00 process. And we regularly promoted this website um where you can and it was built immediately upon the passage of 4A. I encourage you to check it out and see exactly where the money was spent. Every dollar has been accounted for. Next slide, please. Oh, not that far. There we go. Um, this is the a slide from the final wrapup that Jacobs did to us in our in our final bond closeout presentation. With the reserve amount, if you recall, a couple of
13:00 - 13:30 months ago, the board decided to use those remaining bond funds to replace the roofs at King Murphy Elementary School and at the middle school high school to ensure that our students and our faculty can stay warm, safe, and dry. Another important note, the Colorado law mandates that school districts conduct an annual audit of financial affairs. This audit must be completed within five months at the end of the fiscal year and reported to the district's governing body. That's us. And then that audit must be submitted to
13:30 - 14:00 the Colorado Department of Education and to the office of the state auditor. We do that every year. Next slide, please. Mill levies. We have three voter approved mill levies in Clear Creek County. I'm not going to read them because you are able to. And while we've said that we're maxed out on mills, we continue to be asked this question. So, we continue to investigate and perhaps look for a different answer. And we've looked quite a bit given the very clear public sentiment that you are all very excited to pay more taxes to support our
14:00 - 14:30 school district. And we are very excited that you are excited to do that. We agree. So, thank you. But at this moment, depending who you ask and what sources you look at, we might not be able to actually do that. We're not totally sure. We are looking. Um, and if there is any room, we would we would look to be able to do that and run an election. And so, again, given the very clear excitement for a tax increase, I commit to you tonight that I will follow up with the Department of Education and
14:30 - 15:00 I will find out if this 1999 mil levy is included within our 30% cap. Depending on what that answer is, we may be able to go to voters and ask for a mill levy override. On the small end, $25,000. On the large end, almost $700,000. So, a difficult data point for you, and I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and I will continue to be. Um, the cost of that would not even cover the cost of one group of our employees
15:00 - 15:30 moving one step on the salary schedule. Next slide, please. No, not that was too far. Thank you. All right. So, we have a lot of budget challenges and I want to try to be a positive person and think about opportunities that come with challenge. But the reality is the state is facing historic budget uncertainty and this is most acutely felt by the school districts in Colorado. The state has implemented a number of new programs over the past four years that remain
15:30 - 16:00 underfunded. Those are universal preschool, healthy school meals for all, and full day kindergarten. And these programs, which we are not here to cast a value judgment on, but they will require more than $100 million of additional ongoing funds in order to fully support Colorado school districts. And I do want to talk a little bit about averaging and the success of our advocacy efforts. When the governor's initial budget was introduced, it proposed eliminating student averaging. This would have cut $150 million in
16:00 - 16:30 school funding in Colorado. And instead of that, we to work with the governor's office and keep four-year averaging in the budget this year. And the state was able to invest 269 million in new funding. But before we get too excited, the continued conversation of elimination of averaging of students is very much still in play. And unfortunately, the state budget picture only looks worse in years to come. So, a
16:30 - 17:00 question that we were asked, how does the near-term sale of the old Carlson property help improve district finances? And it does certainly and we are very hopeful. Please send up your hopes um that we do have a sale and any proceeds from that would be able to go toward capital improvements and only too far. Um so we need to make big bold moves to meet the challenges. We've talked about
17:00 - 17:30 programmatic shifts and we've talked about some other things. The board of education has thought about all of these and we are here to very loudly say no thank you to the programmatic shifts and we're disappointed to learn that there are educators and community members that are telling each other, telling our community and telling our students that we are eliminating specials at our elementary school level. That is not true. We are changing technology and library at Carlson. Technology will be integrated in a better way throughout
17:30 - 18:00 classrooms and the library of course willated but it will be provided with a pair of professional and nothing is being cut at King Murphy. We are changing teacher teaching technology. To be crystal clear, we are not eliminating specials. We are not eliminating middle school sports. We are not eliminating activity bus service. And at this point in time, we have not crunched the numbers about what it would look like to consolidate our schools. We do need to
18:00 - 18:30 see if the financial benefit is worth the trauma of such a big decision. And please know and please understand, we would never make a move of that scale without significant stakeholding and public feedback. Next slide. Reserve spending. We talk a lot about reserve spending. Most Colorado school districts retain between 10 and 20% of their revenue in the reserves. Let me give you a few examples. Summit
18:30 - 19:00 school district keeps 14.5% in their district in their reserves, which is above their policy of 10%. Aspen School District, which I almost would never compare us to, but I think is an important example, did decide that they wanted to dip into their reserves, leaving them with a 6% balance. Their credit rating was subsequently downgraded, making it hard even for Aspen to move forward with some of the projects that they wanted to do. So, they are now working very methodically to try to rebuild their reserves to a
19:00 - 19:30 target of 20 to 30% of revenue. And it is important to understand that using one-time reserves to fund ongoing expenses is not a fiscal solution to our challenges. We were asked a question, well, there is no question that the district needs a reserve. What is considered the responsible ratio of our reserve to our budget generally and for school districts our size? Can we estimate the near-term demands on the reserve to determine how much could be used in a funding emergency? I do think
19:30 - 20:00 I answered the first part of that question, but it's important to know that when we put a withdrawal in the reserves, it lives there. It slowly is leaking. That's why I have this picture of this leaky bucket because it continues to leak out while nothing is going in to fill it back up. We have lowered our policy and we have spent down our reserves to support teacher salaries. Labor or the taxpayer bill of rights requires a 3% reserve and board
20:00 - 20:30 policy which we did recently lower is at 15%. That's and we consider ours 15 in total. So including that 3% of tabor best practice for Colorado schools is 10 to 20% of revenue. Next slide please. It's important to understand the impact of reserve spending. As you now know we have thoughtfully and responsibly been spending down our reserves. But as I discussed in the previous slide the slow spendown has
20:30 - 21:00 very real implications. We can forecast the long-term impact of this decision. We can see from this that our district will be insolvent in six years if we do not plug a few of those leaky holes or find a hose to fill the bucket. What you can see here is the impact of our gradual reserve spending. If we do nothing right now, financial insolveny in 2031 for me personally and my family, that means my youngest daughter cannot
21:00 - 21:30 graduate from this school district. Next slide, please. Salaries. talk a lot about salaries too and I want and I'm starting intentionally at 2018 because that is when the voters passed a mill levy increase to support teacher salaries but it's also important to know schools across Colorado are experiencing a severe teacher shortage as a state we have the least competitive wages in the nation we also are dealing with the highest inflation in 20 years so a
21:30 - 22:00 question that was asked of us regardless of recent salary adjustments how do our educators compensation compare with surrounding districts and smaller districts in Colorado today? If we are still lower, which is my understanding, what is the plan to remain competitive? I'm happy to tell you we are not lower. We purchased a salary comparison tool last year. And when we look at all of the data in all different ways, we are consistently in the top when it comes to
22:00 - 22:30 our teacher pay in districts of the same size and scale. Next slide, please. Total enrollment. This is what it's looked like from 2020 to now. There is an ongoing trend in student enrollment continued to decline. And with that threat of the in of averaging, it poses long-term threats to our district. Next slide, please. But what you see here and and I've tried to kind of differentiate a little bit between preschool, this line,
22:30 - 23:00 elementary, and then we've got middle school and high school. So when I look at this and I look at the previous slide, I see glimmers. And I am a believer in the glimmer theory. And while it's typically talked about in terms of mental health, which certainly I'm a supporter of, um, I think it applies here as well. And the glimmer theory suggests that small positive moments of joy or connection can have a significant impact. And I see glimmers
23:00 - 23:30 here, like the slow increase in our elementary school population. I see slow glimmers when we talk about building early childhood and finding a way to get more kids in earlier. Hold on to glimmers. Next slide please. Teacher retention. A lot of discussion also around teacher retention. So our average tenure if we look at our full entire staff is over six and a half years. If we take the staff out and we look at just teachers
23:30 - 24:00 and principles, our average retention or our average tenure is 6.4 years. I am really proud to say we have a bus driver who has worked for the district for nearly 30 years and a King Murphy teacher who is approaching 27 and a half years of service. And if you stay for all of tonight, you can clap some more because we have several more to celebrate. So we do have about 19 teachers that have been
24:00 - 24:30 here less than a year, but we also have a dozen who have been here for more than 15. Turnover. Lots of social media conversation around turnover. So let's let's talk about it. First of all, turnover is normal for any employer. I am an employee and I have changed jobs before. There's a myriad of reasons why people leave their jobs. And while people leaving does always lead to change, not all reasons are the same and nor should they be treated the same. For
24:30 - 25:00 instance, if someone decides to leave because their spouse is relocated, it's kind of hard for us to argue with that. This board respects the decisions of people when they decide that they got married and they'd like to stay married and that they enjoy living with their spouse or partner. We support that. Sometimes people resign in lie of being fired. Sometimes people leave work because they retire after years of dedicated service. Sometimes people leave because
25:00 - 25:30 they want to try something altogether new. That's why I left my last job. And sometimes people do leave because they just don't like their employer. That's fine, too. As one of the largest employers in our community, we've experienced all of these reasons. But I do think it's important to show how our turnover has changed in the past few years. Most of the educators who have left our district have left for family
25:30 - 26:00 reasons. So I'm assuming by your presence that you wonder how you can help. So let's talk about how you can help. There are only so many levers that can be pulled to increase revenue to school districts. We are pulling every lever that we can and we do ask that you do the same. So I'm gonna ask you a little bit. Are you helping? Disparaging the school district and suggesting malfeasants doesn't encourage families to enroll their students. It doesn't
26:00 - 26:30 contribute to a positive working environment and it doesn't feel very good. The reality is enrollment is the only way that we will get more money for teacher pay and operations without the possibility of whatever that little mill levby glimmer might be. We were asked a question. What can concerned parents and citizens do to further support the district, the board, our educators, and the wonderful programs that make our district desirable for families like ours? Thank you for that question. I
26:30 - 27:00 very much appreciate that question. You can help boost enrollment by talking about great innovative programs, our 4-day school week, the exceptional opportunities that a district like ours provides to kids. So, I'm going to ask you, is your social media post that accuses this board of embezzlement helpful to enrollment? Is your social media post that suggests we have 75% turnover on an annual basis
27:00 - 27:30 helpful? Is arguing about decisions that were made decades ago helpful? What if you pointed out how innovative course offerings improved your students ability to get into college? Helpful. What if you were posting about how your child has a newfound love of the outdoors through their experiential learning? Helpful. What if you had a post that showed sun-kissed faces of kids at Loveland after a day of snow
27:30 - 28:00 dodgers? because we have a 4-day school week. Hopeful. By the way, those last three I've never seen. I made those up and I hope I see them someday. But I will share something that I did get earlier and I do think people should know. I got this email earlier this week. Hi everyone. I wanted to write a note to thank you for having the incubator class at Clear Creek. My son, who is a senior, has taken this class twice now and has developed two different businesses as part of this class. I have seen such growth in him
28:00 - 28:30 that I can attribute to it. He has become a more confident student, a good public speaker, and a young man who is not afraid to tackle new challenges. I think colleges saw those same qualities because he was admitted to many competitive schools, including, among others, Cornell, UCLA, University of Michigan, Notre Dame, St. Andrews, and more. He even received a handwritten note from Notre Dame that read, "Our team was so impressed by your leadership at home, school, and in your community.
28:30 - 29:00 We loved reading about the first entrepreneurship class at your school that you helped launch. We cannot wait to see your impact in the business field." This young man will be attending Cornell University this fall to major in hotel administration. I'm fairly certain his entrepreneurship experience, which he discussed extensively in his essays, had a lot to do with him being admitted to the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell. I also asked him what he learned in this class, and he mentioned public speaking, figuring out what you are passionate about, and going for it,
29:00 - 29:30 working with a team, being strategic. I cannot think of better skills than those in terms of preparing a young adult for the workplace. Thank you to everyone who played a part in rolling out this class at Clear Creek and especially to his teacher for diving into curriculum and helping her st students learn and grow. She has clearly done a fabulous job. I know this class pa played a pivotal role in helping my son distinguish himself in the college acceptance process and achieve his dream of attending Cornell. I wanted you all to know that this class
29:30 - 30:00 made a huge difference in my son's life. We need more of it at Clear Creek. Thank you. I think that's helpful. And congratulations, by the way, to that young young man who is getting ready to attend a dream school and to the many other seniors that are going to launch to the next chapter of their life. Thanks in large part to our school and our teachers. Next slide, please. What keeps me up at night? I'm so glad you asked. Uh given the continued budget pressures that the state of the Colorado
30:00 - 30:30 faces, it's becoming increasingly more likely that the BS factor or the budget stabilization factor will make a return in the coming years. When you couple these concerns with the compounding effect that districts like ours have where most of our money is at risk of being cut, whether by the state or the feds, and we don't really have leverage to pull locally, that keeps me up at night. most recent title six certification. Title six is about civil
30:30 - 31:00 rights. It's the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. The federal government has asked the states to certify that they are complying with Title Six. Colorado is not sending this certification. There's a lot of technicalities in what that looks like. Um, and I think that gives room for some states like ours a position to interpret. So, our Colorado Department of Education Commissioner, uh, Susana Cordova sent a letter to all schools that said a couple parts. It would be
31:00 - 31:30 unlawful to restrict federal funding because someone declined to sign a document they were not legally obligated to sign. She goes on to say, I know there is a lot of uncertainty right now. I recognize how critical federal funding is for creating the conditions every child needs to learn, grow, and thrive. Other states have been a little bit more on the nose with it. written things like, "If we acknowledge racial racial disparities, that's racism. If we help English learners catch up, that's
31:30 - 32:00 favoritism. If we give a disabled child a reading aid, we are denying someone else the chance to struggle equally. Struggle equally. And if we train teachers to understand bias, we're indoctrinating them. But if we train them to ignore it, we are restoring neutrality." I hope this goes to show some of the challenges we are dealing with here. And it would be really great if we could work together, not about fighting misinformation in our community and rumors, but that we could work together
32:00 - 32:30 collectively on a much bigger fight. The one like that that keeps me up in the middle of the night. The state of Colorado and the districts here receive about$ 1.5 billion dollars annually from the federal government. And the uncertainty around that federal funding means our district faces a very real likelihood of an additional and deep federal funding cut. So I ask, are we fighting the right fight? Can we fight the real fight together? Next slide, please. This is a map of our community
32:30 - 33:00 and the school district spots. But I'm going to tell you, the idea that there in this community who think that this group of hardworking, unpaid volunteer community members and moms would be embezzling, shortchanging, or otherwise harming our kids and our community is outright offensive. I've been thinking about it a lot and what has been discussed, most of which I would not know but for social
33:00 - 33:30 media. And a quote from Bnee Brown keeps coming to mind for me. And I'm going to share that with you. It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly. Who hes who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error or
33:30 - 34:00 shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion? Who spends himself in a worthy cause? Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of great achievement? Or who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. If you are not willing to get in the arena and get your ass kicked, I'm losing interest in your feedback. And before you get angry at me for that last part, which was part of the quote, please understand, it doesn't
34:00 - 34:30 mean I'm not interested in exploring good ideas. It doesn't mean I am not interested in actionoriented solution focused thinking, but it does mean that I am losing interest in combating negativity and I am losing interest in fighting information that is founded in untruths. Please consider bringing forward questions and ideas before blasting questionable facts on social media. The school board is an honor to
34:30 - 35:00 serve on. It is paid handsomely in zero dollars. We do have an election in November. Three seats are up. Erica's seat, my seat, and Jessica's seat. Encourage you if you think you could do better, please do. There are a few requirements. You need to be a resident and a registered voter for at least 12 consecutive months prior to the election. You need to live in the district that you are running for. Even though you will be voted on countywide,
35:00 - 35:30 you do not have to have a party affiliation. It is a nonpartisan job. You do have to have signatures. You have to have a certain number. I think it's between 25 and 40. I don't remember. Um, our elections are run through the county clerk. She will be happy to give you information. we would be happy to give you information. Your date that you need to make notification that you'd like to do that comes in August. There are a couple of other dates I'd like you to pay attention to where we will be discussing our budget further. I hope I see you there. I hope
35:30 - 36:00 tonight is not a one and done. Well, I know that it is far easier to be angry than it is to be informed. I hope that you have more information now than when you arrived this evening. And finally, if you have questions, please, please reach out and ask them before you know the answer, before you assume you know the intent. Our contact information is readily available. I told several people
36:00 - 36:30 that I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you Google me, my cell phone number comes up. So, you know, try that. I've been on the board six years. I think I've received eight emails in total. So please, if you have a question, if you'd like more information, reach out, please, and think about am I helping. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly.
36:30 - 37:00 Um, as Kelly mentioned, we worked several hours together on that presentation. So, uh, therefore, my update is to concur with her comments. Um, I hope that you found that
37:00 - 37:30 information helpful and informative. I encourage you to take this information into account when giving public comment tonight. Thank you guys for coming through. Um I just want to thank everybody for coming tonight. Um it's truly encouraging to see so many engaged parents who are committed to ensuring our district operates at its very best. At the end of the day, we're all on the same team working toward the same goals for our district, our children, and their futures. Just two years ago, before I join joined the board, I was a
37:30 - 38:00 concerned parent sitting in the audience, just like many of you are tonight. I regularly attended board meetings and didn't did my best to stay informed about district spending. Still, I'll admit there were times I misunderstood how school financing works and how funds can legally be spent. I want to assure you that this board takes fiscal responsibility very seriously. Each month, we review the district's check register and outgoing expenditures to ensure there is no overspending or misuse of funds. Uh for transparency, these check registers are publicly available on our
38:00 - 38:30 website going back to 2016. Working alongside dedicated individuals like Kristen Funston and others, our team is actively implementing cost-saving measures that do not impact students directly. These include, to name a few, initiatives such as upgrading our phone systems, transitioning teachers to Chromebooks, um and leveraging joint purchasing power with neighboring districts like Gilman and Plat. These efforts are projected to save us approximately $95,400. As many of you know, Clear
38:30 - 39:00 Creek District is a hidden gem, one with much to offer. It's time we shift the conversation and start highlighting our successes more often. Our graduates are leaving our schools well well prepared for the next chapter of their lives. Many have gone on to attend prestigious institutions such as Notre Dame, Duke, Colombia, Berkeley, Wake Forest, Arizona, and North Carolina just to name a few. These accompl accompl accomplishments are not celebrated enough. While we recognize that our district isn't perfect, I believe that we can agree it offers exceptional
39:00 - 39:30 opportunities from unique course offerings and small class sizes to an unbeatable location. I look forward to working together with all of you to generate ideas and find solutions that ensure long-term viability and success of our district. And thank you again for coming tonight. Thank you. as usual. What else can I say? They they did they covered everything that you know I would have said otherwise. I do want to reiterate that at our study sessions that's more
39:30 - 40:00 less formal of a meeting where we do have a little bit of interaction with our audience members when it's appropriate during the agenda. Um, and that's that's the you know, I've been surprised, you know, since we initiated putting the payables on the website and going over all of the expenses every month that nobody, not one person has shown up and said, "What about this expense?" I'm assuming that you think that we're doing an okay job if we're not getting that feedback otherwise. I'm
40:00 - 40:30 asking a lot of questions. We're getting a lot of feedback and things are moving and shifting as a result of us scrutinizing those things. But if there's more other than the teachers unit, teachers union we have invited to be on our agenda every study session as well um and business meeting and you know they give us their feedback. Um so that's something different that's happened within the last two years. Um dust, sweat and blood sounds very
40:30 - 41:00 familiar. Um thank you for that. [Music] Um, I'm just going to leave it at that. I want to say that I'm a very approachable person and if you have questions instead of accusing us of embezzlement now or future or whatever, here's my phone number 3036685796. Call me and ask me a question.
41:00 - 41:30 Thank you everybody for being here this evening. I've got a couple updates for committee seats that I'm I'm on. Erica and I serve on the Boseies board. Uh we had our quarterly meeting for Boseies this month. Uh we discussed some issues with our upgoing financing finance director and how districts were not properly invoiced for expenses by the Boseies.
41:30 - 42:00 in the 232 24 school year and we were hit with invoices this year for those um that said we began the process of transitioning to a new finance director and as Kelly lifted up that person after this quarterly meeting said oh my so we are in the process of of looking for another financial director for that group of uh for the Boseis. So that
42:00 - 42:30 is the order of my god of cooperative educational services. I said it earlier today. Um it is that group that we're working with to streamline our purchase of technology. So it is Clear Creek, Gilpin, and Black Canyon. So, we are finding ways to work cooperatively across districts to to cut spending in in ways that benefit our students. Um,
42:30 - 43:00 that said, the Boseies will be fine. We're going to be fine. Um, but again, you know, it takes all of us kind of working together to to find those opportunities and and to to leverage those relationships so that we can move forward together. Uh, I'm also glad to say that I completed my service on the C dot technical team. That that was an opportunity to meet with folks across uh the area for
43:00 - 43:30 this lovely, you know, Floyd Hill reconstruction project on on uh I7. Um that was an opportunity to meet twice a month for the last three and a half years. um they are now fully in construction mode. But it was really amazing to watch people come together from a range of backgrounds. So we had individuals who were representing folks
43:30 - 44:00 that ride bikes. We had folks that were representing uh semi-d drivers and coming together to to see, you know, how this construction was going to affect us. So, we were able to say, "Please don't do construction before we start our school day. Can you have it done before we end our school day so that our kids can get home, get to and from the school?" Um, so it was it was amazing to to watch that happen and um I I would
44:00 - 44:30 love to do something with all of you when the the the minds working together are are the way that we move forward and and succeed. So, I I did have my why. We were asked last month what our why was. So, I'm going to shorten that down because a lot of it did hit on some financials. But um you know again none of us ran because we
44:30 - 45:00 thought you know it's going to make us famous or um that we'd get lots of attalizers. I believe in public education and well-rounded students who are constantly learning and growing. This is especially true in a community like Clear Creek that comes together and supports their schools and their students. Um, just this week I was at
45:00 - 45:30 Safeway and Dez's the grocery manager was like, "Hey, we can do more together, but let's do that. Like, let me reach out to us more." Um, you know, it's more than just asking, "Can you support the GTI with some free food?" Um but yeah, like we can come and talk about what it's like to manage an apartment or, you know, so that kids can get real life experience. They've got a great um relationship with Carlson, but it's
45:30 - 46:00 like, let's come up here to the middle school, high school, too. So, you know that these conversations are happening and the work is happening. Another reason I ran was for increased educator salaries. I've been a proponent of salary increases in every community I've lived in. I first learned that salaries were not keeping up with other disciplines in 1995. So yeah, I was a student teacher in a district that was going through negotiations. Educator salary issues are
46:00 - 46:30 not new. They're not limited to Clear Creek. They're not limited to Colorado. I was outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I learned then and continue to believe that every educator should be recognized for the important role that they fill in training our future generations. While we have not been able to make up for decades of underfunding, I am proud to have served with this team that has worked so hard to provide increases the last few years. You have done a lot,
46:30 - 47:00 but the future is a little scary and and that's why we need the community to come together to help us in other ways to say educators, we love you. We appreciate you. We're grateful for you because the financial situation across the nation is we're bracing. and and Kelly again Erica thank you for because it it is it shines up bright light on on the
47:00 - 47:30 experiences that and again it's not unique here it's not unique in the last five years this this has been compiling for decades um I I will remind you again that we are not looking to cut from student experience um I am a mama who attends football games to see the band and the games. But, you
47:30 - 48:00 know, if you don't know, this is a board that advocates for the arts. I mean, we we want well-rounded students. Um, I loved watching one of our star basketball players this year audition for the musical and just own it. They might even be in the room today. This is how we save the future. We provide a range of opportunities
48:00 - 48:30 today and allow our students to stretch and grow as it will make them better citizens tomorrow. Well, I'd love to delve into my love of curriculum and classroom environments. I'm pretty sure I lose you all. So, I'm gonna just say thank you for coming here tonight. We need you. Our students need you. Clear Creek is an amazing place to be and there are so many wonderful things happening. We in
48:30 - 49:00 this space are not enemies. We are the solution. We will come through this time of uncertainty if we work together. Again, I am so grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for being present. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for valuing education. And if you want to do more, we you've already shared that you can find all of us when you Google like cell phones and emails and
49:00 - 49:30 I've got a Mississippi extension. So yeah, 6014153343. But uh really we we honor you and we are grateful for you. We cannot do this alone. Thank you. All right. Uh thanks for all the board members in your uh sharing this evening here this evening. Um so superintendent updates uh can have all
49:30 - 50:00 the buildings here in our district. Carlson has said some neat things and Lorine a couple things I said happened today and yesterday I confirmed it in but anyway uh some different things going on there preschool in K round was on March 27th uh fifth grade snowshoe adventure see some pictures there that actually looks really fun with them or find time myself to go do that sometime went to the butterfly pavilion on Wednesday uh today the fourth grade went to the Argo Mill uh to to kind of
50:00 - 50:30 just gain more about their their learning about color history and actually going out and seeing something is far better than being in a classroom and hearing someone talk about. Sorry if I'm offending any teachers here myself. So, uh, but just say those experiences are really important. Uh, and Sammy sent me some GPS, you know, they do I've been over there a couple of times for their morning meetings. They had one that the fifth graders gave on sportsmanship recently, which I found very interesting to hear about. I think that's something that that uh we probably all need to
50:30 - 51:00 learn about as well sometime. So, uh to the next one there, uh King Murphy Elementary, they have a parents night out April 24th. So, maybe I think someone's going to come and talk for the PJ from King Murphy. So, maybe I stole your thunder on that, but uh parents night out is coming up there. They had a student Shark Tank experience on a business plan recently. uh and the staff or some of the staff is presenting at the Colorado uh the Colorado Innovates conference on the joint learning expedition between Mrs. Gordon's fourth grade class in the Evergreen Fire
51:00 - 51:30 District regarding wild fires and mitigation. So that's interesting things that goes once again beyond the classrooms when you learn something like that that goes out and you know learn something from the people in our community who are the experts in those areas. So, uh, Click Middle School High School. Maybe I'm stealing some of Miss Lewis Thunder, too. But they had a career fair recently with 50 plus partners there and thanks to all the community partners who worked with that as along with other colleges and tech schools or whatever the case may be of
51:30 - 52:00 people that were there. Uh, so it's a very positive thing. And then, uh, they also have a week without hate coming up, uh, April 21 to 24. And Randy may talk about that, but that's just respectful of each other, things like that. Um, another thing going on here is the mountain bike park. Um, and I had some notes on that, so let me pull up my notes here. Uh, the mountain bike park, Joe Barry, Ben Shay have been working with some students on this that way. Uh, it's actually through a grant and the funding for it is so it's at no cost
52:00 - 52:30 that way. And they, one question was asked at the study session, well, how about maintaining this and everything like that? Well, they plan on doing uh either a small fee to join the club, annual fundraiser by the club, more grants or donations in general. So, that's something that they've worked with Aaron Barry or facilities person on as well. So, that's a real positive that is happening and some different spots with that. Um, move on to the next slide here, the baseball field. And had a baseball game tonight, popped up there for a little bit, too. Um, we're looking
52:30 - 53:00 to improve that baseball field. Coach Schustler will be very happy about that along with our players. Uh we've had some discussion of that. Erin is actually working on that with some consultants of what's going to work for it out there. In many ways, uh he has also fixed the fixed the irrigation line when there we believe it's fixed until we actually turn the water on around May 1. We believe it's going in the right direction. So that's a positive. Um uh open positions. I talked to Kristen about this. you want to share anything about some of the uh uh I I I know you
53:00 - 53:30 have some stuff in consent agenda that way but go ahead. Yep. Um so thanks to our principles they've done some fabulous hiring. There'll be a pirate here next year. Uh, two counselors at the middle school high school, a math teacher who is in person. Um, but nothing against our inerson person right now. [Applause]
53:30 - 54:00 To slip between Carlson and King Murphy. Um I did send out um thanks to Michelle McNeel um a message went out to all the parents today and all the families and then also to the staff at the middle school high school that we are um starting the principal hiring process. So I have screened um the candidates and we have some excellent candidates and we will be doing in-person interviews on Monday, April 28th. Um and once we fill
54:00 - 54:30 that position then we will look to fill them um middle school assistant middle school high school assistant principal position and we are still working on a director of finance. Thank you for that update there. Um as far as for energy use I do not have anything to share tonight on that but has went through all of our buildings looking at what could we do to save money be more economical more friendly to the environment things like that. Uh so that is happening. I just don't have a report on that yet. Um, and Kelly, you talked about federal funding, uh, title
54:30 - 55:00 six and civil rights. I do have, and that's too small for most of you to read that way, but just an update on that. What Susan Cordova, the commissioner of the education department, stated was that the federal government, according to laws, they cannot just take that away. There are certain steps that go with that. One step being, and one step being read here, they have to open an investigation. they have to give an opportunity for a hearing uh for the state district whatever the case is. Uh
55:00 - 55:30 then they have to file this with the federal house and senate um appropriate report that's filed with them and then no action restricted funds can take place till after 30 days. So it's a process government usually we're slow to a couple other things that I did not have slides today. Um, we lost electricity here at I think about noon. It was 11:57 or something like that. I think Erin called me and then Brandon was calling me at the same time or something like that. We lost electricity at the high school. So, we were going to
55:30 - 56:00 do this for high school students. This is a this is a new one. So, Paul was here and I talked to Paul. I said, "Uh, we lost this situation here. What's going on?" And, uh, so we were trying to determine what we're going to do because we didn't want to dismiss all students that way. I talked to Lorraine a little bit. Uh, one plan is to bring students over to Carlson Elementary and have them in the gym, which would have been a very productive time. We all thought, well, for some reason, they weren't really in favor of that. That was kind of a backup plan as we went on.
56:00 - 56:30 Uh, but we decided we had buses Paul and he got two drivers here. We had three buses here ready to little kids. And then, um, I'm I'm actually reading an infinite campus message going out to all the middle school and high school parents. It was going out to all parents. Actually, it was uh emphasized this only middle school and high school we were going to let out for the day. Um and I'm thinking at that time I'm reading it to Lori and Sunny saying, "Does this sound right? Does this sound right?" And thankfully they had a couple corrections for me and then Aaron calls. He goes, "Uh electricity just came on."
56:30 - 57:00 And then Granny's calling the same time. I go, "Branding I already know." So we were 60 seconds literally probably of like pushing a button saying send. And then I don't know what would happen. But fortunately then Eric called me up about 10 minutes later. He goes, "Uh, sorry for the false false alarm." And I go, "Are you serious about that auditing?" He goes, "No, no, for calling the first time." So anyway, it all worked out fine. It did give us something to remember for the future if that happens. Um, I don't know if our plan was
57:00 - 57:30 reviewed a little more. So, it was a u I can laugh about it now. It wasn't really laughing like 12:30. It wasn't really a laughing matter, but and then I I hopped into another meeting and I I think I forgot to call Paul. Uh, I Paul because actually Brooks is gone today and it's like I'm going to call Paul up. I'm sure he knows anyway. Goes Paul electricity back. Oh, thanks for talking with me. Okay. Well, you might have set up for 3:30. I don't know. Uh that's way funny. Uh the Boseies uh we talked about the
57:30 - 58:00 finance bosses. I actually had a meeting with Terry and uh Mike from Plat the superintendent there and a couple other people. I think they have a solution they're working on right now for that too. So, and I feel good about that solution. But um I'm a more latency. So um that is the comments that I had. But the next thing we have there are recognition and I'm actually gonna uh name the names off the people. If they're here, great. If you uh Jess will come around and shake your hand and all
58:00 - 58:30 that kind of good stuff. But uh starting off with and we have those on the board there too. Uh we have we have Jill Cole who is Bennett. [Applause] Then we have uh Brian Inman who's the assistant principal at at the middle high school he's
58:30 - 59:00 [Applause] driving professional team Murphy [Applause] Matthews. [Applause] Then we have Kristen Betts who's a first grade teacher.
59:00 - 59:30 Then we have the next is a Eddie Quin who's a cook at the elementary school. We have a first grade teacher at
59:30 - 60:00 Carlson. We have Schwarz who's been at Carlson Elementary. And then we have Paul Steel who's our mechanic and Uh, next is is Brandy Polly who's at
60:00 - 60:30 as I mentioned before. Our next person is Brookley. He's been here for 10 years as director of transportation. And we also have Steve Forz who's been here for 10 years. [Applause] We also have a group of people from Georgetown. Uh Sam Brockman 14 years of [Applause]
60:30 - 61:00 service. Sam, are you online? [Laughter] Well, if you are online, thank you very much. Uh if you're not, still thank you very much. Next is Marray Sing Master at Georgia for 13 years. [Applause] And then and then Megan Vanur who's been at Georgetown for 13 years. [Applause] Conlin
61:00 - 61:30 China Con. Thank you. China Conland for 12 years at Georgetown. And Sandy Clan, he's been in the district for 10 years. Also, we want to thank all of you for your service that went to the district. It means a lot to all of us. The students you've interacted with through the years, probably have many stories, funny and not so funny or funny now and
61:30 - 62:00 not funny then. But all those different things. So, thank you very much for all your time. We have someone over there. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Uh so we do not have our student board representative. I request the students that are here for Warren Tech need to leave as they were wondering if they could move up. That would be fun. Yeah. Otherwise, one of them has to wait with me and so um with the student curriculum report, we have two students here
62:00 - 62:30 introduce themselves. I want to thank Cam Gins for helping out with this that way. Uh actually maybe maybe you could stand up up front ask some questions not speaking at the board. Um but uh get your help set some things up. We were talking not sure who was talking even might have been during our agenda planning. I'm not sure who it was and I started think about Warren Tech. We have multiple students who go to Warren Tech and gain a lot of uh valuable information there. Pam has facilitated
62:30 - 63:00 that over the last two years. And I asked you if I two people who would uh volunteer. Maybe one got volunttoled to do it, but I'm not sure. Maybe they both got volunte. But u I'm just You guys have anything you want to say? You just want me to ask you questions that you want to say? We could introduce ourselves. All right. Yeah. My name is uh Donovan Duke and I play like a bunch of sports and I was the kid who did basketball and theater and I go to Warrant Tech for outdoor leadership in the AM. Um, I'm
63:00 - 63:30 Kira Ginter. I also play a bunch of sports. I did not do theater this year, but I go to War Techch for graphic design and I'm also in the A class. Well, thank Can you tell us a little bit about your experience? You talk about the program you're in, but can you tell us a little bit about your experience at War Techch and maybe why you did it? I think it was definitely like a great opportunity to meet like more people from out of the county and like learn like life skills because mine is like
63:30 - 64:00 outside and they want you to like be ready for the industry. So, it's like you're at a job every day but you're like learning and getting college credit for it. Yeah. And with me, um it was also just meeting a bunch of kids out of the county. Um, mine also has client work, so I'm actually getting real, um, life situations. I, uh, a few weeks ago, we went to, um, never summer and walked around their,
64:00 - 64:30 uh, industry and stuff. And yeah, we kind of get prepared for the real world. We get prepared for business and all of that stuff. So as you think about the future years and other students, why would you encourage or maybe disagree? I think you encourage. Why would you encourage other students to do this? Um I think for example, most kids would rather take like a work study which is like half the day of doing school and half the day of going to work or doing
64:30 - 65:00 whatever you want. But I feel like doing like Warren Tech, it's like a great experience and you get college credit and like the colleges that you apply for in the future look at that and it's just a great way to like understand what you want to do for the future in your career and uh it's just a great opportunity to get out of your home school. It's a great learning experience. Way like you get way better
65:00 - 65:30 knowledge from it. Um and you this year I didn't have to take English here because I So you talk I think I think when you said something about career going to college and things like something like that. Is this an area that you're studying now that you're going to pursue in in further education that way or are you going away from this or or not? Or do you know maybe you don't know yet? Yeah, I feel like it's a good like
65:30 - 66:00 alternative because it's like like a trade school but like something you can do in high school and I definitely do want to work in outdoors as like an adult because that's like such a fun thing just to be like outside and getting paid to do it. I feel like that's a big point for me. Yeah. With me, I would love to work in the art industry. So, it's a good opportunity to get me to started. Okay. Any other board
66:00 - 66:30 members have any questions? Specifically, Carrie and just wondering um what barriers or if any did you experience going to Warren Tech? um have a transportation. Yeah. But that's not it's because scheduling with the school or within your summer. Um scheduling I think they got the schedule figured out but next year I feel like it's going to be very difficult because their schedule has changed. Oh, gotcha.
66:30 - 67:00 So I'd say next year it's going to be a difficult situation, but this year I feel like it wasn't too bad. Yeah. And I also get rides from the department of transportation like every morning, right? But um my class is like rock climbing stuff and things like that. So I might have to like get rides with my parents and the only other like factor is like we buy lunch every day and I've lost a lot of money from buying lunch every day.
67:00 - 67:30 Just kind of talking about schedule. One thing that happens, do both of you go Monday through Thursday or do you go Monday through Friday? Right now, Monday through Friday. Monday through Friday. And see, there is an option this year there's an option Monday through Thursday. Depends on your program. As long as you're Yeah. But next year the all the programs are Monday through Friday. Yeah. Which will be a change for some people who only want the PM class goes to 2:50. Yes.
67:30 - 68:00 And it'll be like so like last year they started at 7:30 and now they start at 7 or 8 but they're just like moving like to 720 which is like 10 minutes before what they usually do. So it's not that really big of a change once you think about it and like all the time. Are there any award ceremonies or presentations? There's awards ceremonies for graphic design because you get to create a snowfl and then top 10 gets picked and
68:00 - 68:30 then there's a huge ceremony for that. Fantastic. And there's like a whole bunch of opportunities with that or at least graphics because I don't know that. Will you please let us know when those opportunities come up so we can come and support you please? And then uh for my class, we do like presentations where we go to um like they're like schools. I forgot it's like CLC or something like that. It's like schools for like troubled kids and we just like teach them a lesson and like have them
68:30 - 69:00 like have a fun time compared to just like sitting and doing the boring work that they don't really interact with all day. So I feel like it's good to make a difference kind of. Questions over there. Any questions? No, thank you for having us updates that the education association.
69:00 - 69:30 Hi, my name is Rachel Richardson. I'm a third grade teacher at King Murphy Elementary. Uh, and tonight I speak on behalf of Clear Creek Assoc uh, Education Association. Uh, thank you board for the opportunity to address you tonight. Um, we're here to ask that
69:30 - 70:00 during this challenging budgeting year, the board prioritizes stability for students by investing in people who work with them every day. are educators and administrators. Students thrive when they have consistent, experienced, and committed educators in their schools. Right now, we're facing a growing problem. We're struggling to attract and retain qualified
70:00 - 70:30 professionals. Too many excellent educators and administrators are leaving Clear Creek or never apply in the first place because the compensation doesn't reflect the level of responsibility, commitment, education, and expertise required. We understand we have a nearly $1 million budget uh district budget loss crisis compounded by grossly
70:30 - 71:00 insufficient state funding. Paying competitive salaries is not just a line item on the budget. It's a strategic investment in student success. A revolving door of educators and administrators hurts our schools, our communities, and most importantly, our students. As we approach another session of negotiations on May 9th, mark your
71:00 - 71:30 calendars. We encourage the board to explore creative and bold solutions to address this issue. Whatever the path forward, we urge you to center the conversation on retaining the people who make learning possible. When educators feel valued and supported, students benefit. Let's work together to build
71:30 - 72:00 schools where every student is taught by a committed, experienced, and stable team of professionals. Thank you for your time and commitment to our schools. Did you see our deck chair? Would you like to to make a Yeah,
72:00 - 72:30 actually ton of updates because the DAC just did the presentation which is the culmination of the winter survey and put it all together present to the board and we did that recently. But what I'd like to say to the audience that everybody that joined here that showed up here tonight is no matter what you say or as eloquent or as pointed as it is, it's going to be less impactful than if you joined your sack or your back and participated all along. That's my
72:30 - 73:00 experience. I used to come to the school board and fuss and complain during co there are things I didn't like. Um and I found that you can actually affect change and provide effective constructive feedback if you join especially the SAC which is under attendant at each school which is the school accountability ability committee but the DAC too. If there's something at the district level that you really think needs improvement and you'd like to be part of improving it then join us in the deck. Um we'd love to see a higher level
73:00 - 73:30 of participation from everybody here. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Murphy's PTA. Yes. Um here. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Hi, I'm
73:30 - 74:00 Josie. I'm the I'm Josie Claymier. I'm the president of the Key Murphy PTA. I'm Heidi. I'm the secretary and um yeah, thank you for letting us uh update you on what we've been up to. We are fresh members of the King Murphy PTA board. Uh I came on in January after our president moved away. Heidi came on last summer after the former PTA board decided that they were all finished. So, we're all learning and uh going through existing
74:00 - 74:30 things and trying to really refresh involvement in our group. And we in addition to Jacob Wolf, our treasurer, have all com recommitted to another year on the PTA board. And uh I say recommitted instead of elected because yeah, takes both. We were the only ones. I'm sure you guys can relate a little bit. Um, so I just want to say that it's
74:30 - 75:00 my continued goal as PTA president and part of the PTA to really bring back involvement or, you know, get people involved. It's an everlasting challenge and to really positively represent King Murphy within the Evergreen community. And um, yeah, we have some great news. is our chili cookoff. I'm not sure if we've really updated the board on the success of the chili cookoff that we had in February where we with a silent
75:00 - 75:30 auction raised $4,300. And so with the help of generous donations from the community both in Evergreen and Idaho Springs and uh we are now using that money to purchase some furniture for our first and second grade classrooms, primary grades. primary as well. And um I'm going to note that Miss Needam and her second grade class were the drivers of the chili cookoff. So thank you for that. And Sally Sally
75:30 - 76:00 Sprum, who I think I saw your lovely face here, too. Um spearhead she was here spearheaded the auction. So thank you Sally. Yes. And Jill Kogle helped a lot with giving us tips from her past experiences of PTA member and uh helping us with the silent auction and getting some really good donations. So, it really is a showcase of how it is a parent teacher association. We can't do what we do with PTA without the teachers at King Murphy. Um, and I I feel like I
76:00 - 76:30 want to call them legacy members. You know, their experience with the school, their longevity with the school allows them to have the knowledge and the dedication to these kinds of fundraisers and events and efforts that strengthen our community and, you know, really bring things to the school that we need. Um, and that's really that's also showcased by some upcoming events that we have. the parents night out that's
76:30 - 77:00 led by teachers uh four for four teachers and in addition to some parent volunteers and then there's the smoothie and a movie coming up in early May that's another thing parents pay $25 a student and that right $30 a student and then what is it 25 for additional siblings to come to these afterchool events and spend special time with their teachers doing something fun uh we have and then of course we have another one coming up in May with Rory of King Murphy parent who has a lot of wilderness skills that he'll be sharing
77:00 - 77:30 with students. Uh but again like this kind of stuff does not happen with our lovely staff and teachers and uh who you know again are able to do this because we can support them and they have been here long enough to share their knowledge and their dedication and expertise you know with us as a PTA and share that load. Um, and then another exciting thing spearheaded by Paulolly Fischer, our kindergarten teacher, we have a new sustainability committee, and
77:30 - 78:00 that was sort of kicked off with her inviting the Evergreen Sustainability Alliance and a Denver-based nonprofit called We Don't Waste to the School to do uh an audit of the waste that comes out of the King Murphy Cafeteria. Um, so what they did is they came and they separated out the food waste that was coming from the school lunches into different buckets to gather data on what was being thrown away and why. And then
78:00 - 78:30 I joined Paulie in attending Evergreen Middle School on a Friday to observe their program where they do the same thing. And uh the food waste goes to an industrial compost uh collection site facilitated by Evergreen Sustainability Alliance that then goes down the hill to Kingsburg. Um, and it was really enlightening because in addition to collecting the food waste and diverting that, they also divert the liquid waste into a bucket and they stack the trays so that they
78:30 - 79:00 cut their trash amount like the number of trash bags that they have in half or more than half. So the goal of um you know learning about this program is to maybe implement it in King Murphy next year with the help of some volunteers both student and parents hopefully and um yeah lessen the amount of trash that we get uh in our cafeteria and inspire more sustainability efforts. I think it's also really strong in joining Evergreen Sustainability Alliance and
79:00 - 79:30 those kinds of efforts in Evergreen and becoming visible along with the other schools saying like hey we do this too. So um and then we are also working on the end of the year carnival and sixth grade continuation which are exciting things. Do you want to take it from here? um along with you know the idea of being more visible in Evergreen you know King Murphy we are uniquely placed and located um as far as increasing enrollment in the district um and as a PTA we are aware of that and um you know
79:30 - 80:00 we're working to um come up with some plans and some ideas to create more visibility um we put a blurb in our newsletter this week um Mr. Bane's newsletter about reviewing King Murphy online. So, if you're here and you are a King Murphy affiliated human or um love King Murphy, please um go review it um on Google or on Great Schools. Um we can pull in Jeffco people. We're better and we pull them in. We are we're doing that and we can suck them in because we're
80:00 - 80:30 wonderful up there. And so, you know, we're doing that. We're talking about trying to create um prek liaison parents in the schools. So when we have new prek families coming in um having parents talk with them, welcome them um orienting them to the school, encouraging them to continue on um in King Murphy because we do get some kiddos in our pre-K program who are in Jeffco and could return to Jeffco. Um so we want to keep them and so we're working on some initiatives around that
80:30 - 81:00 as well. Um, so I think that's an important thing for the board to be thinking about too is, you know, is there support that could be offered to King Murphy given that we're so well placed to increase enrollment. Um, and that's good for the entire district. Yeah, I think our vision for the next year is to really like, you know, reinforce that choice that they have made because it really in Evergreen where we are is a choice to choose for key students to go to King Murphy and it is a choice that can be easily changed and hopefully will not
81:00 - 81:30 be. Yeah. Uh but and again I want to re uherate that like the teacher part of our PTA is so strong and we are so thankful. Do we have any other PTA or PTO representatives? I saw Yes. Oh no.
81:30 - 82:00 Um, right. Um, the booster club. I thought I Okay. Um, legislative updates. We're kind of covered now. Yeah. Okay. We're good there. I mean, I I could give you several more updates, but I will spare you. The school finance act did pass
82:00 - 82:30 through the house. I do suspect some amendments senate approps. Right. [Music] Randy principal pres presentation from the high school. There's a minimize that. I'm starting to realize that you are not
82:30 - 83:00 all here for my presentation. So, I want you to know I will try to make it short and sweet. Just watch. So, as they're pulling this up, um, I chose Clear Creek because of the direction the district was going. And anyone that's had the chance to work with me knows I'm a pretty upfront, transparent person, and I could I'll make it short and sweet, but I could go on and on about the amazing things that are happening at the high school. There
83:00 - 83:30 are their ups and downs. I admit that. Chris Gold is here, so we we know that math wasn't great. Um, today just like with the power being out, I was a god for about 1 minute when I sent those kids home and then instantly went back in and was like, "Oh, school's on. I was dead to them. I want you to know that Jill was there. She witnessed it." So, yeah, it was great. So, yeah. Needless to say, there really are
83:30 - 84:00 a bunch of amazing things going on in Clare Creek. And um I chose to come here because of these things. And I definitely didn't do it for money because believe me, that is not the case. And I think when you're in education, you don't do it for the money all the time. Even though we deserve it, you do it for the calling. You do it for the payoff. The payoff may come late, but it comes in the ways of a student going to Baylor, a student going to Cornell, a fifth grader that's invited me to their graduation. So I just want to keep that in mind as we move forward and talk about the great things of Clear
84:00 - 84:30 Creek. We have 17080 students enrolled in our high school right now. Coming from a district with 2600 3,000 you it does not hold a candle to what you can do with 171 students in four different grades. They get a lot of one-on-one attention. We have so many programs that you cannot offer. You can have 32 AP classes. That doesn't mean your child's going to go to an Ivy League. So please keep that in mind that this district is great. This high school is amazing. And I would not be leaving it if it weren't
84:30 - 85:00 for my husband. I'm currently considering do I need a husband? I want you to know. Yeah. I love you. Okay. So, um, our our enrollment has stayed steady for the last couple years. I did the data. I dug in. Um, I met with my assistant principles. I've met with parents. And so, some of the things that you should know about our high school is that we're currently performing in what's called the performance level for the state. That means we are in the green. This
85:00 - 85:30 little bitty, this little bitty school, the high school is okay. So, we have a 12 to1 ratio on average. That is huge for students. That is not 35 in a class. And if you've ever had 35 freshmen in a class, you know that this is huge. So, some things that we um do need to work on is some attendance rate. Parents, we love you, but please bring your kids to school. Our absenteem rate is something that we are working on. That's a goal for the high school this
85:30 - 86:00 year. I feel like we should be transparent about that. Even if you call your child in excused, it still shows up once you hit a certain number that we are chronically absentee. So, please keep that in mind. I love vacations. I love mental health days, but we're only in school for 170 days. So, as much as you can bring them, we appreciate that. Our average um SAT scores are a thousand, which is not bad at all. When you compare this to some of your larger districts, this is what you're going to
86:00 - 86:30 see as well. And with the capability of having smaller class sizes, even though a test is not everything, this is something that we can increase and we actually have the ability to do here. So, the high school goals this year were pretty simple. I'd like to increase the academic rigor and professional growth of our students. Um, we wanted everyone to feel comfortable and be a part of something. And for a small school, we have a lot of athletes, a lot of fine arts students, and a lot of kids are a part of multiple things in our district. And that's not always the case when you're at a bigger district.
86:30 - 87:00 You can't always get that. You can't be in football and cross country at the same time. But here we do, we try to make that happen. Also, fostering student voice and leadership. You heard from Donna earlier and and little Ger as I call her. and they are so excited that they get these opportunities to go to Warren Tech and we we saw that and so we're now bringing that here to Clear Creek too. We have bike tech and snow science and entrepreneurship and we finally just I'll get to it later but launched a CTE pathway which is what these kids are doing at Warren Tech.
87:00 - 87:30 We're headed in the right direction for sure. So some of the curriculum focus that we've had is PBL which is our problem based or project based learning. um that that is actually hands-on experience in the classroom. We are trying to help our teachers know that it's not just a project and we give it to them and we move on. It includes critical thinking, analyzing and giving them the experience to learn something by utilizing their hands and their mind and it's not just a lecture. So every teacher was um asked to do a PBL this
87:30 - 88:00 year and they did deliver. And so some of the things we had going on were amazing. We have career connected learning where the kids will get to have, you know, interests that they couldn't necessarily get in a normal high school. Next year, all of our freshman will be taking what's called a career connections class and it's required and it's so they can explore what their interests are and be able to take electives that actually are meaningful meaningful for them in their next high school years. So, that's something new that we're adding. Um, as
88:00 - 88:30 far as um advanced placement and honors classes, I'll go over those. We have an honors diploma. Not every district has that. So with the PBL, we have had energy solutions. Don't know exactly what that was. We've have something called BI bungee jump, but it gets the kids attention. They did it in in statistics, I believe. So we also even had our county commissioner forum where kids went and got to be a part of that. And it was pretty neat. Thank you, Miss Matthews, for that. Um, so with the
88:30 - 89:00 redesign, I was not a part of that, but I did make it a mission to continue with it. And so that's why those career connection classes are happening for freshmen. We work with Ben Shay who is an amazing partner. He does our ski tech, our snow science. The kids or excuse me, our snow science and our bike tech. The kids absolutely love him. We have actually taken his course and now made middle school course for next year and we've had to increase it to two sections so that our kids can get the experience earlier in middle school and now have that all the way throughout
89:00 - 89:30 high school. Um we would like to thank the foundation because they do help us a lot in that. Um, Deja Kelly is not here tonight, but she is part of that amazing incubator class where Kelly read about the email where the student gets to learn all these amazing entrepreneurship things and go on to a college where Notre Dame writes about them. Um, Deja also has become part of what is now called the career tech pathway. Our kids can do business, marketing, entrepreneurship, and she'll help run our career connections classes. So, we're offering a lot of neat things for
89:30 - 90:00 our kids next year. Um, this year we have that work study where he said they get to go home and do nothing. We that that is not entirely the case. They do have to work 75 hours to do it, but how neat is that? Like I didn't get to do that in college or high school. I mean college, but high school did not get to do that. We have internships. So we have kids that have internal internships that we've created here where they can do technology. They can be under our athletic director. We have outturn outside internships that
90:00 - 90:30 they get to do. And so some of the things that we offer right now are Allied Towing, the Clear Creek Fire Department, the Clear Creek EMS, Sheriff's Department. We even had ReMax reach out to us. Um there is this many students currently or this is just this semester. So that's about 9 to 10. Lovelin Ski Resort works with us and so we even have a little technology assistant. But I think these are some pretty cool things that we have at the high school that not everybody gets to do. and our freshman can start taking
90:30 - 91:00 concurrent classes literally as a freshman. That is not normal. Normally, it is juniors and seniors that can only do that. So, we have made the news a few times due to our career connected learning. There's lots of news articles out there. Um, it was a neat experience. The kids got miked up and they were If you haven't seen it, I'll send it out. It's awesome. And then speaking to the college and career fair, we had over 50 different groups here. Thank you, Pam and Dea. It was amazing. the kids. I thought like surely this is going to be a mess in 30 minutes there's going to be
91:00 - 91:30 all over the school and they weren't. They were intrigued. They were engaged. I mean the amount of people that work with us, Mountain Youth Network, all these communities, you guys are so lucky here. I can't even tell you how amazing this district is. So the amount of AP classes we have right now, we currently have AP World, AP US, AP Government, AP Lit, and Lang alternate. And then we have AP biology and environmental science that alternate. We've added an AP class next
91:30 - 92:00 year for our freshmen so they can start getting a little taste of what that's like. And that's going to be AP human geography. In a wonderful world, we would love to offer biology and environmental science at the same time. But the truth is we just don't have we only have 40 kids in a great. So that is why sometimes it looks like we don't offer as many, but this is this is pretty legit for a normal district or a larger district as you would like to call it. Um and then our honors classes. We have honors English, honors biology, we have pre-calculus, statistics, and we even have a teacher here that teaches on
92:00 - 92:30 campus to give dual credit math. You don't have to go anywhere. You just take his class and you get it. So, lot of neat academic options here. As far as activities and programs, we got to start cheer this year. So, I was really excited for that. They've been part of homecoming. They're going to be in our senior parade that's about to come up. And it's just a neat thing to bring everyone together. And so, um, esports is trying. We're really trying for esports. It's a neat thing. People get paid for it right now in high school. They can get paid for it. They
92:30 - 93:00 can go to college and get scholarships. And so, I urge your kids if they play video games or they're on their phone, go join esports, please. We have so many different things that students can be a part of. Athletics, we made it to playoffs for the first time in football. I mean, we went to state cross country. I just urge you to think about the amazing things that are actually happening here. And like I said, I'm still considering if I need a husband. So, thank you guys. I made it short and sweet. And you have a wonderful evening.
93:00 - 93:30 Thank you so much. [Applause] Welcome, Mitch. Greetings. I came prepared to present to you guys. Not you guys, but it's going to be brief. Sure thing. Greetings. It's hard when you guys are on opposite sides. I have to pick. [Music]
93:30 - 94:00 Well, thank you for the invitation. Um, your time's precious. I'm going to be quick. I have three slides in a two-minute video, so I'm gonna be out of here fast. Um, and always am I qualified? Thank you. Um, and as always, um, the best way to learn more is to ask questions. I'd be
94:00 - 94:30 happy to buy lunch, coffee, breakfast, whatever works. Um, to spend time with you guys and let you know what's going on and to hear what you'd like to see us do if we're not doing something that you'd like. So, to to to borrow from the board president's words, this is our why. Um, we've got the words on the left and we got the picture on the right. And this is why we're here. We're here for the students and to support the students,
94:30 - 95:00 we're also supporting our educators and our district leaders. Um, when I looked back at the what for the year really it came down to we did a lot of work with career connected learning and capacity building. And capacity building is where we help the teachers or the district or the building grow their base so they have more offerings for the students. Um this year we were able to bring
95:00 - 95:30 um our youngest learners at both Georgetown and Carlson the opportunity to grow their own snacks. We expanded the hydroponic grove at Georgetown and we brought hydroponics to Carlson Elementary. You did aquaponics at Georgetown. Okay. Thank you. So it is Georgetown's second year. Um they they got um hydroponics the first year and aquaponics this year. Um and they really are um growing their own
95:30 - 96:00 snacks. Um what's the difference between hydroponic and aqua fish? Fish. Thank you. I'm learning all kinds of things. Thank you. Um this year we have last year we had one rising senior that we supported on a summer program. He went to Cambridge and attended a medical congress because he thought he wanted to do something in medicine. Turns out he does. I don't remember exactly what, but he's studying he's when he graduates he's going to go
96:00 - 96:30 study biio or biochemical something. I don't remember what it is. That was kind of a pilot. Um we're lucky we have two people going this year. We have someone that's going to spend about a week learning about marine biology. Of course, we all wanted to do that when we were in high school. Um, and we have another one that's also going to look at different medical opportunities. So, that's an extension of our exploration fund, and that's where the foundation helps the students um get we help cover the students
96:30 - 97:00 out-of- pocket expenses when they're getting credit while they're still enrolled in high school. So, on one end of it, we buy we buy steel towed boots for someone who's going to a fire academy. Sometimes we cover help them cover travel or summer programs or we just pay the difference between what the school district can afford for classes at Red Rocks and what the students real cost is. So we pick up the fees and any excess tuition for those students that
97:00 - 97:30 are taking classes at Red Rocks either here and doing it online or going down the hill to do it. Um we had a big year on literacy. We were able to introduce or establish libraries in each of our buildings. Uh we established a Spanish language library in both Carlson Elementary and this building. Um and that's helping the students maintain the literature lit their literacy in their home languages. You know, they're still learning lots of English. Um but we're
97:30 - 98:00 supporting both of their languages. Um snow science has already got a call out. That was a big area this year and I promise I'll stop talking about it next year. But we brought the students the opportunity to design, build, and then use their own skis, snowboards, or skateboards. So, they're they're actually building their own equipment. Um, and we helped out district leadership as well. Uh, we we sent the
98:00 - 98:30 superintendent to the to the rural superintendent academy. Um the the district leaders across all the buildings did some work with transcend again to help with the redesign of the district. Um and the counseling core grant was in its first year and that's a a grant we helped bring to this building and it will pay for one additional counselor for each of the next three years. So this is a picture of Brew Crew up in the the right hand corner. They
98:30 - 99:00 are second graders at Georgetown. We got them a coffee cart. They brew the coffee and they serve it to their teachers. They earned they earned enough money that they're all going to the wild, not wild game, the um wildlife refuge on the eastern plains in Kingsburg. They earned the money to cover getting in and the bus ride there. And I can just add that I actually got up there to go there next Thursday, every Thursday. Thursday calling. That's opportunity.
99:00 - 99:30 How do I make it go?
99:30 - 100:00 So instead of listening to me, I thought
100:00 - 100:30 I'd let you listen to some of the people
100:30 - 101:00 we we hopefully have impacted in a
101:00 - 101:30 positive way. What's a presentation without numbers? Um through March this year, so for the current school year, um we've invested around $216,000 in programming. Um and that that is including early learning. So it's not just in in the school district, but it's covering, you know, pretty much birth to
101:30 - 102:00 college age students. Um that doesn't include roughly $35,000 that we've that's obligated. We've got POS in place for either suppliers that are supporting the school district or teachers that have ongoing grant needs or other obligations that we made to the school district. So we know we're going to spend at least $35,000 more dollars this year. Um of that through this year 90,000 of it's ended up in the
102:00 - 102:30 classroom. Um, and last year we awarded um, seven seven scholarships for about $87,000. I expect something similar this year. Um, we've we've hit an inflection point on scholarship applications. I admit we used to have to beg for applications. Um, last year we got a few more than we needed. Our portal opened Monday and at 6:00 am and 40% of our high of our graduating
102:30 - 103:00 classes apply. What's new? What's going on next? Um we recently found out that uh the schools foundation is going to be the recipient of the Henderson operations employee giving program. Um, in years past they have parsed out to multiple organizations within communities and they've decided to to select one organization and just give them that
103:00 - 103:30 community's worth of giving. I don't know what that means, but but I'm sure we'll put it to good use. I think I can help you. they um if I have it right, but they um their employees are allowed to choose like give what a percentage of their paycheck to donating and then they get um like a day off in return. So you would be like United Way. Yeah. Warrior like those kinds of things. So the the money goes to the United Way. There's a
103:30 - 104:00 match from from the organization, the Henderson operations. Um and then they turn around to take that money that's at they direct it from Mile High United Way to the communities that are impacted by the mine. We are working hard with Lauren's outdoor space. We've got three outdoor spaces at Carlson Elementary. Um, we've got the expeditionary space which is in two pieces on the north side of the building and that is a that is a student
104:00 - 104:30 centered design pro project that Lorraine and her educators are working on. Um, it's an area that the bond fund was not able to finish. So, the foundation is going to step in and do it. She envisions this being a community build once they'll design documentation. We we're going to work with Lorraine to get the community to come in and do the work. Um we're starting a pilot program next week uh for our older high school
104:30 - 105:00 students. Um it's for medical powers power for a medical power of attorney. Many students, even some parents don't realize when a when their student turns 18. Um the parents don't get to help make medical decisions unless there's a document that says they can help. So this is going to give the families and the students the opportunity if they want to to list decision makers on their behalf if they can't do it and it doesn't have to be their parents. They can pick whoever they trust and feel
105:00 - 105:30 will make a good decision for their benefit. Um no idea of what kind of traction we're going to get but it's a program worth trying. Um I already talked about the summer explorations. Um, one of our students, there was a slide from her. Um, she completed her CNA this semester and when she approached us to do it, her rationale made all the sense in the world. She wants the CNA in her pocket so when she gets her under working towards her undergraduate degree in nursing, she can
105:30 - 106:00 work as a CNA. Um, and this summer we're going to start a a campaign to celebrate all the cool work that's happening at our elementary schools as well as the middle school high school. And we're calling it Where Classrooms Have No Ceilings. And that's it. Oh, got to talk about Elliot for a moment. Elliot Elliott is uh has a huge pres presence at Carlson Elementary. Uh, one of the things we did this year and we've done
106:00 - 106:30 every year um is provide support for the handlers of the dogs. So this year the handler of our three therapy dogs, two in this building, one in Carlson, um, each got $500 this spring and we give them a gift every spring and we are funding the training of Carl of King Murphy's therapy dog. Any questions? Thanks for your time. I appreciate it.
106:30 - 107:00 [Applause] comments. So, as we enter our time of public comment, I want to remind everyone that our policy is three
107:00 - 107:30 minutes per person. Uh again, thank you so much for coming to share. Uh we will have a timer up here on the screen so that you can see as because we do have a long list and we want to make sure that everybody has a chance to share. Um if there are a group of you that have very very similar uh comments, uh you are welcome to to group together and have one person speak on your behalf and we'll give you 10 minutes. um rather than having lots of people maybe and I
107:30 - 108:00 don't know what what's being shared today but uh that is another opportunity if you want to talk amongst yourselves to to organize because I know folks might like to get home tonight but again grateful that you're here um cover everybody's already signed up Okay. So, up first we have Katie
108:00 - 108:30 Dailyaly. She is a parent speaking on up. Hi, I'm Kate. Um, I live here in county. I live in the Springs. Um, I have a four-year-old who's at Cross High School and he loves a bear and we want a bear. Um, and um, I'm here probably like
108:30 - 109:00 many of you because of just the general hubbub around the budget. Um, and I think there's I think sorry I'm trying to speak from the heart and not like from the script or anything. It's a little mumbly. Um, I I want to call out the importance of people who volunteer for positions in the board. That's awesome. And the importance of our teachers and our other
109:00 - 109:30 parents and our community members and the people on the deck who are angry about the budget. They are confused. They don't feel that they've been given straightforward answers or accurate information or that they're being treated with respect. Um, these are people who are why I love living here. Um, they're the people who, you know, have helped me figure out how to get my kid into preschool and how to navigate having a wonderful but also, you know,
109:30 - 110:00 um, totally chaotic four-year-old in preschool. Um, they're the ones who have helped me figure out how to navigate the resources in the community. They're the ones who coach my kid and you know give him that firm love that they need because it's really really love that they give them. They are the ones who sub at the school. They are the ones who I will have years with and talk about, you know, how much they care about this school district, not just for their jobs
110:00 - 110:30 as teachers, not just for their children, as students, but for other kids. some of them who they know like my kid and some of them who like haven't even been born yet probably and we just want them to grow up in a good school district. Um the last meeting admittedly kind of bummed me out. I think the um maybe presentation that uh some of the the conversation on social media was misinformation or a lack of personal
110:30 - 111:00 teacher integrity. Um because that is so far from the truth. Um, and and I just ask that everybody get that. And we are helpful. We talk constantly about how amazing this school is and how much we love our preschool and we love all the other teachers and the people who we don't know but we have just met. We are helpful by talking about that and we are helpful by getting angry because that helps make it better. So all I ask of you guys, we respect you. Please also
111:00 - 111:30 respect the people who are angry and know that when they're angry, it's because they are trying who are trying so hard not for themselves but for everybody else. And we all feel it all the time. All the time. And that's why I'm here. I feel like maybe that's fine.
111:30 - 112:00 Okay, up next is Jordan Dumpar, parent speaking on the current status of our All right. I too am nervous. I don't like to speak in front of people. So, we've been here in the district for five years. We have one that graduated and we have four more still in the district. So, I want to start by saying that I've spent the past month having conversations with teachers, board
112:00 - 112:30 members, and members of our community and sitting in on meetings to try and better understand the district's current position. I came into this process hoping to help, but if I'm being completely honest, I've mostly left feeling frustrated, defeated. The biggest red flag for me, we're in a financial crisis, yet we're building a brand new bus barn for close to $6 million. That's three times the amount we sold the old stadium and bus farm property for in 2019. I know hindsight is 2020, but how can we justify that
112:30 - 113:00 kind of decision now when our budget is being cut by $1 million over the next two years and we're watching enrollment drop year after year? And that brings me to what I really want to talk about tonight. Because while the bus barn is a glaring example, the big bigger issues are these. One, how do we attract more students? and two, how do we pay our teachers what they're worth and retain strong staff? So, how do we attract more students? Our main source of funding is
113:00 - 113:30 enrollment. If that continues to decline, our budget gets tighter and tighter. So, where is our strategy? What are we doing to promote our schools? Are we marketing beyond social media and putting a pin on the maps app? Can we create banners? Can we create yard signs? How about community events? Can we partner with local realators? Families are looking elsewhere, and I don't blame them, but we need to give them a reason to stay, and better yet, a reason to come. How do we pay our teachers what
113:30 - 114:00 they're worth and retain strong staff? We're losing administrators. We've lost extremely talented teachers and we're not offering competitive pay. Teachers can go just a short distance down the hill and earn significantly more, like 12,000 a year more. How can we possibly retain great educators under those conditions? This is the heart of our district. Not buildings, not buses, but people. If we don't take care of them, everything else falls apart. So, yes,
114:00 - 114:30 I'm upset about the bus barn, but more than anything, I'm scared we're losing sight of what actually matters. We need a clear, transparent plan, not just to fix this year's budget, but to build a future where families want to enroll, teachers want to stay, and our schools can thrive again. And Tom, I'll be contacting you because I would love on your way out to hear what your thoughts are for the second year of the
114:30 - 115:00 $500,000 cut. Okay. So, next is is it Mary Sher? Mari Mari, a parent speaking on support for clear schools. My name is Mari. I am a new school parent or kiddo. He's at KP in
115:00 - 115:30 prek and he's going there just like his family and my niece also did. So hoping to be another family that goes through. Our hope is one day that he can graduate from the district high school. And as a new parent, it's hard to see the difficult financial situation this district finds itself in. And it's unfortunate to see distress, defensiveness, and division. I deeply appreciate and acknowledge the unpaid labor that the board does. I do know I don't even know the half of it.
115:30 - 116:00 And I want to acknowledge also the unpaid labor that our teachers do. We should be focusing on coming together and teachers are the backbone of everything. So we must listen to and support them. Let's all rise to the challenge before us. Now for something positive that we can all rele sorry. Um I'm speaking to share how prek teacher Miss Pippy at King has transformed not just my child's
116:00 - 116:30 education but our family's relationship with the outdoors. I'm not sure if you've met her, but her work deserves a spotlight and your support. She doesn't just teach, she builds community around stewardship innovation. Her classroom feels like a nature preserve. My son came home once insisting we made gooseberry jam from wild berries like this hippie showed us. Spoiler, we used storebot that he still turned snowflakes into science
116:30 - 117:00 experiments and animal tracks into detective games. Impact is everywhere. My kid now points out edible plants on heights and talks about phases in the moon. friends. Older kids is in the snow divers program talk about the slopes with the same excitement as video games. She's not just educating. She's creating a generation that cares. Why am I telling you this? Because educators like Miss Pippy are why families choose this district. But
117:00 - 117:30 she can't do it alone. Whether it's funding for gear, partnerships with parks, or just recognizing and uplifting, we need to find a way to support. Thank you for supporting our teachers who turn classrooms into adventure and a lifelong love of learning. Our district is outstanding because of them. Thank you for your time. We love to hear it from the
117:30 - 118:00 teachers. Kristen, hi. Parents working on improving. Hi. Um, I have three kids in the district now for 11 years. Um, let me begin by thanking our board members, our educators and parents who volunteer their time to steer our children's education on a better path. No doubt we are headed heading in the right direction. But even with all the wonderful engagement, we have work to do to function like the team we need to be
118:00 - 118:30 to achieve the success our children deserve. First, if you know me, you've heard me say we must improve communication. We cannot solve problems ahead of us without teamwork. But teamwork requires communication, not degradation. You cannot seem surprised that in our small tight-knit community, the void of information fills itself up. If you want us to use the right information, you must share the right information. Accusing folks of intentional dissemination of
118:30 - 119:00 misinformation from those who have and do not share access to the information is disingenuous and unproductive at best. Sharing bad information or complaining about when someone else shares bad information gets us nowhere. It is your responsibility as the board to correct inaccurate or incomplete information shared in these meetings, preferably the supporting documentation. Tonight went a long way to get there. Thank you. But did you realize that in recent board meetings,
119:00 - 119:30 we have been told the comparable data of other districts shared by presenters is useless. But when the board and the superintendent share it, it justifies their position. Teacher salaries since 2022 have increased by 21% or 36.65%. Teacher salaries increased last year by 5.5%. However, the teachers only succeeded at negotiating a 3% increase. Attrition is low because our teachers
119:30 - 120:00 our teacher attrition in 2022 23 was at the national average of 23%. But my research showed that the national average is actually 10%. Inching up slightly to 15% for rural districts. Then for 2023 24 you said teacher attrition was 20%. But the representative of our teachers group said the number was 32%. And then tonight you said that our teachers are paid at comps above comps. However, in the last
120:00 - 120:30 meeting, Mr. Meyer shared a slide that showed the opposite. Hopefully, this helps you understand why we're confused and why there's misinformation. I can I encourage you to continue to be honest and forthcoming about the needs of our schools and open to assistance from our wonderful families and businesses as we try to create um solutions for Clear Creek. So listening input, ideas, involvement from our community to reflect in your actions is
120:30 - 121:00 your job. Share actual comparables, not just the comparables to suit your current narrative. There are so many possible districts to benchmark from, but Rarely will the same set of comps work for I also need to encourage you discussions. I encourage you to and [Music]
121:00 - 121:30 Kevin Man. Hello, my name is Kevin Man. Thank you for time to speak. Follow up on all's earlier comments today. We should start with the most contentious topic our community seems to be facing. But our teachers are making a competitive wage. Thank you for listening to teachers, parents in our community in 2018 who ask that our teachers be paid in a way that makes them want to come and remain in our district. But telling that pay is better is better does not
121:30 - 122:00 mean that this effort is completed and ready to be rolled back by a million dollars over the next two school years. Our amazing teachers deserve a wage which with which they can live in our county while keeping comparable districts from luring them away or at or after hire. It is time to let our teachers know that they are our star players on the team whether or not we can find the perfect comparables. We agree with you that teacher attrition does not seem to be the problem we need to solve first. Administration attrition has been much more problematic. In our
122:00 - 122:30 11 years in the district, every year but two has brought a new superintendent and or new principal, and next year seems to be even worse than usual. Who picks up the slack after left each year? Who has to make the biggest adjustments with each administrator while prioritizing prior prioritizing our kids' education and well-being? At King Murphy, I can say with 100% certainty that has been our amazing teachers, which is why we cannot afford to lose them or have them focused on
122:30 - 123:00 anything but educating our kids. No matter the reason or whether teacher administration, attrition costs money, hiring, onboarding, hiring, onboarding, training, lapses in instruction for weeks or months, and offboarding these positions over and over again takes taxpayer dollars out of the hands of our students and our educators. Please help us understand how to make sure our teachers get paid fairly. Thank you for your time.
123:00 - 123:30 Annie, as a chicken wrangler who raises birds for soil improvement, I know how to turn well into gold. And I think that's kind of the moment we're in. This district is in transition. We're moving through some hard stuff, but I believe we're being invited to dig deeper and help shape a vision for Clear Creek's future. My name is Annie Pura. Um, my daughter just started 8th
123:30 - 124:00 grade here and I've been homeschooling for over a decade from kindergarten through 11th grade. I also serve on the DACA board and have been learning a lot about the needs and opportunities facing our district. I see the challenges. We all do and are not without concerns. But I'd like to put a few cards on the table that could lead to future funding and a stronger foundation. As a homeschooling parent who's explored different approaches to education for over a decade, I've seen both innovative tech and deep reconnections with land and
124:00 - 124:30 I've seen both models work not as opposites but as compliments. Many homeschool families also have children in public school. We often have one foot in each world using a wide range of tools to support our kids and spark their learning. I also see districts that I also see a district that values its educators and is struggling to retain them despite despite efforts to raise pay. I believe we can support our teachers by bringing in more funding and giving them new ways to lead and earn.
124:30 - 125:00 Each homeschooler who enrolls in a part-time program brings funding, but the potential goes farther. If we support teachers as creators, they can develop recorded lessons, digital content, podcasts or resources for platforms like teachers paid teachers or out school. These tools can serve Clear Creek students and also generate income ongoing income for the educators who make it. We can take this one step further by reimagining un underused
125:00 - 125:30 district spaces like the old elementary school in Idaho Spring. With some repair and creativity, it could become a community hub, a launch pad for studentled businesses and rental space that provides that supports the district financially. These students know this community and they deserve to help shape its future. And we can also build momentum right now with something simple, a car wash or a car show to raise funds for bathroom repairs. It may sound small, but it's visible, doable, and builds pride, trust, and connection.
125:30 - 126:00 And that's how change begins. So, let me circle back. I do not think that Clear Creek is Not at all. I think it's rich soil. And I believe and as someone who's turned compost into gold in my garden, I believe transformation is possible here, too. As someone who lives with a bit of anxiety, I know what it means to sit with fear and still move forward. I imagine many of you do, too. And I believe the best way to move through fear into courage is with action, with community, with showing up. So, thank you for showing up. Thank you
126:00 - 126:30 for listening and considering this one card in the deck. Whether or not it's the right fit, I hope it's far possibility because we have everything we doing but more connected and courageous.
126:30 - 127:00 So, I was trained by that Mitch guy and I'm going to present to the board. Um, I don't know if I'm going to be able to be heard that way. I'm going to go this way so I can see all of you. Hi. Good evening. Uh, my name is Sandy Shusler. Some of you might know that I'm um a parent in the district. I also have children. Um, sorry. I'm also a former
127:00 - 127:30 schoolboard president. Some things you might not know about me is that I'm also a union member with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and that my both my in-laws graduated from Clare Creek schools and so did my husband. I'm here tonight because the moment is not business as usual. Our district is on the edge of a financial cliff. I'm not using that phrase lightly. The term insolvent means that there may not be any more money to operate our school as we know them. As of this month, over 40
127:30 - 128:00 school districts in Colorado have already been forced to cut programs, lay off staff, and dip into emergency reserves just to survive. Ours could be next. And when what and when that happens, it doesn't just affect a few families. It ripples to the entire community. Class sizes grow, programs disappear, burnout spreads, and schools lose the very people that make them strong. I've lived this before. My husband taught in the district for 26 years. We endured a 5-year pay freeze. And I remember the stress, the
128:00 - 128:30 impossible choices, and the weight on our educators. That was then, but this is now, and the stakes are even higher. I want to be clear, this is not just the school board's problems to solve. If you're a taxpayer, a business owner, a voter, this is your school district. If you live here, your property value, your workforce, your local economy, all of it is shaped by the health of our public schools. And right now, our schools are asking for help. For the folks that are not already doing so, that starts with showing up. Learn about the budget, join your school
128:30 - 129:00 accountability committee, read about a board agenda, ask a question, talk to a teacher, vote for school funding. This is the time to pay attention before it's too late to fix it. I also want to speak plainly about the role of our teachers and their union. When schoolboard members and unions work together, outcomes are better for everyone. This isn't speculation. This is backed by national research. Collaborative districts see higher student achievement, stronger staff retention, and a healthier school climate.
129:00 - 129:30 Collaboration isn't a luxury, it's a strategy. Our district is lucky to have local control, but that only works when the local people engage. that includes a ballot measure that this year to keep our district afloat that I'm in. If that includes um hard budget decisions, I'm still in because the alternative is unacceptable. Board members, I want to thank you not only for your leadership today, but for showing up in a time when it would be easier to point fingers and walk away. I know that tensions are high
129:30 - 130:00 and it can feel like everyone is looking for someone to blame. But the truth is no single board, no one superintendent and no one group of people created the financial challenges we are facing. What matters now is how we move forward together. We need to work with the board that exists today and the board that will be here tomorrow. Because the health of our district shouldn't depend on election cycles to protect what matters most to our students and our schools. [Applause]
130:00 - 130:30 So share with you guys. All right. Heidi Arer. I'm speaking now as a parent um of two King Murphy kiddos. Um one is in third grade, one in sixth, about to join our wonderful middle school. I've been a King Murphy parent for seven years. My oldest daughter began in kindergarten. I got a personalized beautiful tour from Tony Pasco who was a principal at the time. 30 minutes or more with Paulie Fischer or seemed Paulie Fischer and
130:30 - 131:00 that convinced me that King Murphy was a place to be. I toured Bergen and it felt like an institution. Um, and I toured King Murphy and it felt like a school out of a children's book. It was lovely. People were happy and kids and teachers there are still happy to be there and happy to be doing the work that they're doing. As a parent and this year as a PTA board member, I've witnessed the science and the magic of a school administration and teachers and students and families all working together toward a common goal. Um, I interpret the fact
131:00 - 131:30 that so many parents are here tonight as being representative of our passion and commitment to our educators. And yes, this seems to be a particularly well attended meeting, but I'm finding myself a little frustrated by comments made by a couple board members essentially saying that people could have been attending board meetings all along. Um, I'm a PTA board member and our PTA board meetings are also sparsely attended. The stakes are not the same. I understand that between PTA and the school board. But our approach to that is to maintain
131:30 - 132:00 an ongoing conversation about how to engage our families, to be curious about barriers to engagement, and to be innovative and not to disparrage people um or judge people about not attending. Um, sitting here tonight, it's clear to me there's a disconnect between the board and many teachers and community members. It's obvious there's hurt on both sides of this. Everybody's working hard and has noble intentions. As has been said, school district accounting is complex and opaque. There's a lot of fear and when people are scared, they say the wrong things. It sounds like a lot of people
132:00 - 132:30 in the community are venting fear in inappropriate ways. I don't presume to know all the reasons for this disconnect, but it might behoo the board and the district level folks because you are the ones with the burden of power and decision-m to consider when and how this disconnect has happened and this loss of trust and be curious as to steps to rebuild it.
132:30 - 133:00 Alicia, I thought that was longer. Um um good evening started a second. Okay. Um I'm a second grade teacher at King Murphy Elementary. I spoke to the board before. I'm here tonight to speak again in response, but this time it's in response to the April community nugget which expressed concern over the rising cost
133:00 - 133:30 of educator salaries. I'd like to offer a different lens in which to view that and one that I hope centers us centers us back on our purpose. I'd also like to provide an edit to the earlier um proposal or the earlier speech given by our board member King Murphy has taken a cut to a position. We are short in instructional coach not only because she's retiring but also because that's a decision that our school made to help the budget. Um, I would like us to instead view
133:30 - 134:00 educators as a as not a rising cost. I urge us to recognize them as the district's most valuable investment. Educators are not simply a budget line item. They are the foundation of what we do. The core mission of our district is to educate children and the people who carry out that mission every day are teachers. Um, we don't refer to doctors as a cost or to hospital at hospitals or
134:00 - 134:30 mechanics as a cost to an airline. We recognize that without them, the entire operation would fail. The same was true here. Without skilled, passionate educators, those who plan lessons, nurture students, support mental health, guide social growth, and respond to thousands of unseen needs, there's no education. Yes, educator salaries did rise over time. That's not a liability. That's a reflection of growth, expertise, and the reality of maintaining excellence. Like any
134:30 - 135:00 successful organization, the strength of our product, our students education, depends entirely of the strength of our people. What sets our district apart, our teachers. When we talk about the cost of educators in the same breath as supplies or maintenance or buses, we risk sending a message that the people who power our classrooms are replaceable and secondary. I am upset. But educators are not a cost to be controlled. They
135:00 - 135:30 are the resource that drives everything forward. If we truly believed in preparing students for the future, then investing in professionals who teach, mentor, and guide them must remain our top priority. Thank you for your time. And I'd also like to say I do feel a significant disconnect. I am taking a risk saying that to my board, but I don't feel appreciated. I feel like fighting for my salary and asking for an increase every year is a slap in the face.
135:30 - 136:00 Hi, my name is Ann and I currently have two students in the high school. I've been a parent of this district for over 16 years and during that time I witnessed both the highs and the lows. We've had some truly wonderful teachers
136:00 - 136:30 come into the district, dedicated, passionate educators who have made a real difference in our kids' lives. Thankfully, some of them escaped, but unfortunately, too many collapsed. The board often points to retirement or relocation as the reasons behind these departures. And while that's sometimes true, it's not the whole story. We need to acknowledge that some of these losses stem from deeper issues, issues that need to be addressed if we want to keep and attract high quality educators. Unfortunately, this is not the first time our district has faced financial challenges. Back in 20101, we faced a
136:30 - 137:00 projected shortfall of $550,000. The district managed to cover $430,000. Then again in 2016 with the looming closure of the Henderson mine. We had to make another round of cuts, again around a half million dollars. And now here we are once more. The pattern is clear. The district continues to face significant financial hurdles. And each time we're forced to make difficult choices that impact our students, our teachers, and our community. But here's the thing. We've gotten through tough
137:00 - 137:30 times before by working together, being creative, and making decisions that reflect our core values. Let's not lose sight of what matters most. The quality of education we provide for our kids and the support we give our teachers and staff. Our students deserve stability. Our teachers deserve respect and resources. and our community deserves transparency and leadership that prioritizes long-term solutions, not just short-term quizzes. Thank you very much.
137:30 - 138:00 We're hi, my name is Tyler Tong and uh I was a student at King Murphy. I also graduated from this high school and um I got a great education. Uh, I think a lot of that was partly due to the legendary teachers that were here when I went through here. They had been here 20 plus years or four or five of them. And it was great. Um, I have a six-year-old, an
138:00 - 138:30 8-year-old, and a 10-year-old in King Murphy. And, um, I'm a small business owner. I have been for almost 15 years. And to me, this problem is um, it's just like a sales problem, right? I've when I've had hard times uh financially, I've never been able to cut my budget into profit profitability. Like you have to increase your sales. So, how do we get how do we increase enrollment? Um we got to make an investment. It's not just
138:30 - 139:00 going to happen. And I think the investment is going to be in the teachers and attracting and retaining talent. um also all these awesome programs that we talked about tonight, but we're facing like a huge opportunity because you you saw in the the enrollment graph it's like that, right? So, we need to keep the momentum really. We got to cling to that. We got to go all in. Um and so like where do we find the money for an investment? I think
139:00 - 139:30 it's um I think there the the answer might be in the the rainy day fund, right? Which is uh I think a little bit over our stated goal of how much money we want in there, but it's um significantly over the goal that's set by the state and the average of all the other districts in the state. So I'm like, okay, that we that's something to work with maybe, you know. So, uh that's my idea. Thank you guys for your presentation. It answered a lot of
139:30 - 140:00 questions and um I think the whole idea of you know we need to take a a role in um talking about the school and getting other parents obviously we do but like we need to just do full board press on like marketing whatever but I think it's all about the teachers. Thank you, Arlene Gutierz.
140:00 - 140:30 Good evening. um school board, you asked um I'm sorry, I'm from the I'm the director and teacher at King Murphy Mountain Preschool and um you asked us and we delivered on um growing our program. Uh four years ago, we had 16 students enrolled with a phenomenal teacher who then under the district opened up a second classroom and for three years we were in the mid20s in our
140:30 - 141:00 enrollment. Next year we are already have 35 students enrolled for us coming from both Jeco and Clear Creek County. Um in anticipation of this we have been trying to get the district to help us build our classrooms yet again and we're so far not having much success with that. Um it's the the people who are coming are saying it's the quality of our program offerings. We offer a
141:00 - 141:30 unique learning opportunities both in nature and in the classroom. We do hydroponic growing. We do junior snow ranger program that our kids have all gotten certified in which includes snowshoeing. Uh they've learned how to forage. They've learned how to make food from what they forage. And they are also completely ready academically for kindergarten. They are reading ready on day one. Um the parents are looking for
141:30 - 142:00 that and that's why they're coming. We are not being accommodated for having delivered what you asked. Um you've said previously that you've made some positive social media suggestions that you wished you had seen but hadn't. Then you must not have been reading our posts. We have been posting to the community in Japo and here about our program saying all of the things that you suggested we might say. So somehow
142:00 - 142:30 you missed our social media post I suppose. Um we are have new beautiful classrooms thanks to the district but they are very tiny right now. You're asking us to put 20 kids into a class size with the wonderful Miss Could be next year into a class size that is so small it is ridiculous. When we heard um we heard from licensing that we were not putting our mats, they suggested far
142:30 - 143:00 enough apart for nap time. They suggested that maybe we take out the furniture every day, move the furniture in and out to have enough room. Um, I have never I we used to see I've seen Sunny Vincent multiple times a month. Thankfully, I used to see Q regularly. I have not ever seen a single person who makes decisions about what's happening in my classroom in my classroom. No one has come to see what
143:00 - 143:30 it looks like to have 20 kids smack. Before you make your decision, you should come [Applause] Hi, my name is Jill Copel. Um, I've worked in this district in as a parah, as a substitute teacher. Um, and I've
143:30 - 144:00 had the good fortune to be a kindergarten teacher this year, which I've thoroughly enjoyed. Um, in addition to that, I have been in this district since 2002 with my son all the way till my daughter graduated in 2022. So, 20 straight years as a parent, as a volunteer, I ran snow dodgers. I was president of the booster club. I was president of PTA. Um, I have invested a lot of time and energy. And I do appreciate the school board. I will
144:00 - 144:30 never do school board for reasons that are very clear. Um, but to say that you're not at these meetings, that you're not invest in invested in this district is absolutely ridiculous. I don't make very many schoolboard meetings. I am totally invested in this district. So, I think you need to think about how those comments affect and offend people who find many, many ways to invest in this district. And it doesn't mean that you have to be at this
144:30 - 145:00 meeting. The other thing that I am going to say is that I do not understand school finance and I do 100% believe you guys that it is a complicated thing. I have a speech. I'm not even going to use it. I'm just going to talk. Um and it's a very complicated thing. But in in the letter that came out in the district update, you guys said that you were trying to stave off doing more challenging thing, making more challenging cuts for a while. So, if
145:00 - 145:30 these things are only going to extend having to do things for another year or for a while, I think that we should look at how we can increase things in this district by making investments. I think back to some quote that was probably given to me by my parents or by a teacher that says that it's better to have tried and failed than not try at all. So if this district
145:30 - 146:00 becomes insolvent, I would much rather say I invested in an extra teacher so we can keep small class sizes. I invested another parah or another teacher at the preschool level so we can grow this district from the bottom up. I would much rather say I am sorry this district has failed but I invested everything I could than saying hey we went down to bare bones we cut everything we could
146:00 - 146:30 cut we made bigger class sizes than Jeffco we did all of the cuts to make it as run as lean as we can and we still failed as a district I would much rather hear all the wonderful things we did and how hard we tried to keep this district small and the way it is. everything.
146:30 - 147:00 We're just saying. In the past, I have spoken out against BOE decisions that I disagree with, but that's not my goal tonight. I'm not going to be as grumpy as I normally am. I am speaking in support of our school district, this board, our
147:00 - 147:30 administration, what's left of it. Teachers, and especially our students, of which I have two, a 10th grader and a fifth grader. They've gone through the system a whole. I am continuously amazed at the fantastic families that have made the commitment to attend our schools. So we must do all we can to give them the best possible education. Now I could talk about financial management, taking care of our teachers, athletics, on and on, but the
147:30 - 148:00 driver behind every issue is student enrollment. I'm Captain Obvious here. Without students, nothing else matters. It stands to reason, therefore, that we focus our attention on increasing student enrollment. We should immediately form a task force laser focused on student enrollment. Many of us successfully promote Clear Creek, but our current efforts are fragmented and
148:00 - 148:30 dis disorganized. To help the task force, we need to do the following. provide data analysis that details county demographics, specifically identifying all families with school age children who could be attending Clear Creek but are not, including homeschooled, unschooled, those who choose to go elsewhere like Evergreen, etc. We need to know the exact numbers
148:30 - 149:00 and who they are so that we can engage with them. We will develop plans to inform those families why they should attend Clear Creek. To do so, we must develop a list of success attributes that we offer that make us great. We have so much to be proud about that's been talked about tonight. Our long tenure teachers, athletics, band, musical, plays, and our academics. Somehow we have students going to the best colleges and all colleges. We're
149:00 - 149:30 good at that. Big and small. some of the finest institutions in the world. We have technical programs that teach skills that enable our graduates to earn a good living doing what they love. These attributes need to be compiled into one easy to use document, distributed far and wide, and strategically marketed to all our potential audiences. This is just a start. The task force will dig deeper
149:30 - 150:00 and do more. We have to take strong and definitive action now to save our school districts. And the last thing I want to say, well, I don't have time to say it. [Music] You're going to get a theme from anything I say tonight, and it's pay attention, get involved. Um Jordan
150:00 - 150:30 mentioned the bus car. There weren't enough people paying attention I think at the time. No, if there were, we wouldn't have done that. It didn't make sense financially in my opinion. Some people here agree with that. Um that's what prompted me to get involved in the DAC. The sack is just as important in each of your schools. Pay attention. Get involved. Stay involved. A lot of you have young kids here, which is awesome. If I had advice to give to myself 10 years ago, get involved 10 years ago. um because then I could see these things
150:30 - 151:00 coming. Kelly said that this budget issue isn't new and it's not. Um but she also said that we've got to be cheerleaders for our district because outside our district, we are who the people look at when they're considering coming to our school. And if we're beating ourselves up and we're a circular firing squad, nobody wants to come here. So let's build ourselves up, make good decisions, pay attention, and get involved. Thanks.
151:00 - 151:30 How do we get involved in the I will send you an application. All right, August. [Music] All right, that's all done. Budget work. more I was going to
151:30 - 152:00 review I sent you Christmas sent you yesterday or something like that significantly different than what was on there. Um do want to emphasize you know we tried to keep things as far away from students as possible. We talked about that. Um it does get into the 500,000. Uh we talked about the director of teaching and learning reducing that to half. Uh had some
152:00 - 152:30 conversations about grants with that as well and how that impacts that. Um I mentioned I think the last meeting and I mentioned at notes to you as well that I think there's some other people they can pick up on some of that stuff. We also have some grant money to allocate to possibly work on that as well. So we're working on that. Um uh we lost we're combining some things in the middle school high school office with the registered position and and we see Tiffany she moved out to the front desk.
152:30 - 153:00 So we're combining that. We're reducing one position in the uh middle school high school office that way and that will work well. We believe it will. Um is that what's already happening? Yes. Uh well no not exactly because we do have Tammy in back yet uh who's part-time where she used to be she's parttime she was filling in at the district office that she moved over here but but that will be a position that will be eliminated. Yes. Um we based on numbers the multilingual uh uh parah
153:00 - 153:30 multilingual par we do not need that anymore based on our our numbers that we have uh those numbers that went down from around 20 to single digits. So there uh was Scott Bane at King Murphy about the kindergarten moving to first grade that was a position we added at the start of the school year where as they move on to first grade from kindergarten to first grade we're eliminating that second section at this time. There is
153:30 - 154:00 something to recognize too. And there's like $540,000 in budget cuts, but you want to have a little bit of a cushion there too in case, let's say we talk about increase in enrollment at King Murphy or wherever that may be. If you have a class that gains, for example, that class gains three or four kids over the summer, we're going to have to do something. Whether that's another section or whether that's a parent or something, there's always has to be some recognition as people mention tonight of it's about kids and doing what's best for kids. So that's what we're looking
154:00 - 154:30 at right now or doing right now. Um someone mentioned uh the instructional coach at at Kurie uh that individual is is retiring. Uh we're not replacing that at this time. Uh just recognizing that where we're at. Um, we also are the instructional coach at at Carlson going to be doing some more intervention and non instructional coaching, moving that around. So, we do not have any instructional coaches in the district. We do not have any here this year as
154:30 - 155:00 well. Um, uh, the moving some other staffing around. We talk about specials. We're not eliminating specials as you mentioned earlier today. It was you, maybe some other people as well. We're not eliminating specials at Carlson as we mentioned. we are we are moving technology more into the classroom more integrated in the classroom some people would say that's a very good idea to make it immersed within the classroom itself um and then uh in the library we're not eliminating that position
155:00 - 155:30 where we have a parent in the library professional library u uh and then we also had some reduction of staff in in instructional areas through attrition or schedule adjustments and a lot of that happened or that has happened middle school, high school with a with a few contracts that way and stuff like that that we do not need some of those positions anymore. Uh based on the change of schedule and based on names that way. Um and and then technology savings, someone mentioned uh uh technology savings uh earlier. We
155:30 - 156:00 talked about this at the last meeting too, but we're saving roughly $95,000 on that. And I think that's a conservative number because I think there may be some more coming. Some of that's through B purchasing and just uh getting better programs but at a lesser price. So that's some aspects to u to be aware of right there. Uh questions from the board that way. I would be curious to discuss a little
156:00 - 156:30 more about the middle school high school register. um that that's a very very important position that literally plots out a student's success throughout their their career in our school system. And if there isn't that person to help them with the continuity and say, "Hey, listen, this this credit's not being met. You're going to fail to make your goal." And if we don't is that that that's being housed more in Pam Gincher's position. Well, I think
156:30 - 157:00 there's a couple that I think you're bringing up some I think bring up some very good questions and I think as you mentioned that's handled somewhat with am in that position but also remember we haven't had school and we haven't had official school counselors not mental health counselor school counselors we will have two coming on next year as former high school counselor that was my role that they'll register with actually in a size district like this that is pretty common to be in the counselor's role we also have Tiffany who is now at
157:00 - 157:30 the front desk in the office who used to be the register even though it was only for a few months or whatever the case was. So we have that person there as well. Um just talking with Brandy and talking with others, we really believe that is something that can happen very easily. I feel very confident with that actually. I understand what you're saying though. It's important to recognize does this person have the credits they're supposed to be having as they're going through. That's partly a scheduling thing with the school counselors to recognize that as well as they're going through and that's
157:30 - 158:00 typical. So we're gonna have two school counselors next year. Can I that one is through one is through general fund, one is through the school counselor. Okay, gotcha. We may not have a second counselor because Yeah, it's a threeyear it's a threeyear position that way. Yes. I I just I just want to impress upon, you know, the importance of that of that position and and when my child was going through the school system, we did not
158:00 - 158:30 have that support. We actually had to hire somebody outside of the school system to get them through to the system to get their scholarships to get their goals. I feel confident that that is being handled uh very well. I I I I think it will handle Yes, I think it'll be handled very well. student will show up and know that that person is going to be guiding them throughout their high school career. Feel very confident. You guys heard me.
158:30 - 159:00 That's a relevant question. They all are, but that's another relevant question. It's a very Yeah, I feel that that's more student facing than a lot of the other positions that you went through. And you know, I just want to be clear that last we didn't we didn't direct to cut 500,000. We said, "Bring us options for 500,000." Just so everybody's clear on that.
159:00 - 159:30 Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Facilities long range planning committee. This has been a long time coming on. I have one other thing on budget too. One thing on budget. I think I said this to board members and notes too, but the budget will be posted once it's roll over that way. I mean, it'll be posted online on May 8th on May 8th. That way just to be some requirements that way. So May draft
159:30 - 160:00 the budget. Yeah, the it's not the official budget. It's the budget draft where everyone's looking anyway. Sorry about that. We look forward to lots of feedback. Will we have like where we have the thing on our on our website where people can give feedback on our policies? Can we have something about our budget to get feedback on the budget on that same that way we can kind of capture so that not
160:00 - 160:30 everybody has to come to the meeting. You think we can I think we can look at that budget confidence that way every avenue that we can get to collect feedback. Yes. Thank you. All right. Facilities. Facilities. So, we've talked about a long range planning committee. Uh, as I mentioned at the study session, Kelly and Kianne attended a meeting with myself and Aaron or Kristen and Rachel, I think from Jacobs, whoever else may have been
160:30 - 161:00 there. Um, and just looking at that, I drafted just this is not an official letter. I just drafted a letter somewhat based upon the letter for the CAT citizens uh team uh for the bond. It I I use that as a as a template. Changed a bunch of things didn't fit with this, but I use this as a draft that we could send out to our families that we send out to people in the community, whatever the case may be. Put it online, whatever the case is, I guess. But first I think
161:00 - 161:30 we want to know do we want to move forward with something like that and discussion about that. I'm going to be quiet and let you all I think for all of the reasons that Kelly and I hashed out during the study session and what we learned with the professionals that were kind of guiding us through this process is that this is a no-brainer for our community and it's something that we we will benefit from getting the input from community members as we're moving through the ongoing physical needs of our of our school
161:30 - 162:00 district. I would just add how important it is to have. Um the bond was tremendous and I'm proud of it. I hope the community is very proud of it and it scratched the surface of the capital needs that we have in our district. Um I do appreciate that we refer to this building as the new school. This building is not new. Uh this building is halfway through its usable life in terms of kind of school buildings. And so the need to think
162:00 - 162:30 about how we take care of our facilities is critical and it is ongoing. And that is what a long range planning committee does is really takes a look at all of the things looks at the condition index which we have built and a matrix of kind of how to stagger the maintenance and replacement and that input from the community is critical for that. Um, so I do think it is part of I'm not sure where Miss Manorin went, but it is part of that long range budget sustainability plan is to be able to prioritize and
162:30 - 163:00 build a long-term long range planning committee for how we continue to tackle the incredible amount of money that it will take to keep all of our facilities up to speed. And I'll share that even, you know, new Carlson, which is in a very old building, um, isn't new either. It's a very old building. And it it already has things that we know that we're going to need to do and replace over time. And so those are already put on this condition index. So it's really important that we hear from the community what those priorities are. I
163:00 - 163:30 think this is really important and it is something that I think stays in the district kind of in perpetuity because things always need fixed, replaced and funded. I think when you talk about just emphasize the talk about this is the new school we're putting a new roof on it this year. So it's not a new school just just to recognize that that way too advisory committee. I would look for a motion.
163:30 - 164:00 Do we need a motion to move forward with the idea? I guess I I guess I would like some direction if you want me to send this letter out in some manner to our families, put it on social media. Um I also have a list of other people that I send things to the community business owners and things like that that way too. I just have a couple small edits. If you want to get those edits to me, I will gladly send it out. Let's let's
164:00 - 164:30 plan on maybe Monday and I'll send that out. Edits sometime early next week. It's not a perfect document. I think at the end I left a bunch of dots like what else do you want? So thank you. I don't think you I think we can just say yes, please. Thank you. Uh the old Carlson proposal. Oh, say you've had you you've had that. Um, it's moving forward. It's been tendly
164:30 - 165:00 approved, but we just have a final approval tonight. If you want to talk a little bit about that. I I'd be happy to because we we still have an audience. Um, so as you likely know, the building uh the old Carlson has been put on the market and we did have a couple of offers for the building. Um and we did tentatively approve a purchase and sale agreement with um with an entity to take over well not to take over to buy that
165:00 - 165:30 building uh to purchase that building. Um so what we are looking to do tonight is formalize that decision that we made um and that we directed Tom to do to really move forward with that purchase and sale agreement. The reason that we need to officially ratify that tonight is because of the timing that that developer had in order to apply for their first round of Mitech and LITC tax credits. Those are middle inome housing tax credits and lowincome housing tax credits. And it is a lengthy and a long process. So we didn't want our budget or
165:30 - 166:00 our board meeting calendar to impact their ability to meet those first initial critical deadlines, which their first one was St. Patrick's Day. So we needed to kind of create this little buffer space. Um, so we are excited about this. We do believe the proposal uh that we accepted did advance the community goals that that we heard loud and clear about what we are looking for for that facility. And so with that, I would make the motion that we formally ratify the purchase and sale agreement for old parks. I'll second I would also like to add
166:00 - 166:30 before we discussion um that just to make it clear that when we do hopefully sell the building and the money and the proceeds from that are not proceeds that we're actually allowed to use in the operational funding we have to use that for the capital um projects that for our buildings it's it's a law that's what we have to do so I just want to make it clear to everybody that just because we end up with a of OC that we wouldn't have a
166:30 - 167:00 huge chunk of money to dump into our operations. I just wanted to make that there. Any other questions or comments? Yes. Yes. Yes. M. Yes. Yes. Uh title N policies. Uh these are under first read. We did an emergency passage of
167:00 - 167:30 those. We can pass them in all at once today unless there are any questions or concerns about any of those policies. And these were put out online. There were no comments on them. I verified that. And for those of you that are hearing that for the first time, when you when you go to our website, you will see that we post the policies and that we are asking for feedback on the policy. the emails go out to all of the at least parents board
167:30 - 168:00 members don't get but but you will see that on the website as well. Uh I would move to approve the title n policies on first read. I'll second that. All right. Yes. Yes. Pink. Yes. M. Yes. Yes. uh policy AC-R3 we pulled
168:00 - 168:30 out of some previous policy readings. Um this is the sexual harassment investigation procedures policy. So we really wanted to spend some time and make sure that the community had a chance to provide some feedback but I think we also there's no feedback on that. Um but this is a policy that we do not currently have in place. Um but the the casby policies attached there and color school districts this is a sent directly to me color school
168:30 - 169:00 districts are required by law to adopt the policy and regulations or procedures on the subject and the law contains some specific direction as to the content of the language for a motion to approve that I so I'll Second, yes. Yes. King. Yes. M. Yes. Yes. We'll move on to our consent agenda
169:00 - 169:30 that includes minutes from our March 4th study session and March 13th business meeting and a staffing update. So moved. I'll second. Yes. K. Yes. Kane. Yes. Thank you. Mark. Yes. We have a meeting with commissioners coming up on May 13th. Are there any agenda items for that that you would be interested in? There were a couple items that they put forward they wanted to discuss budget
169:30 - 170:00 both theirs and ours because that would have been the thing. Yeah. Yeah. There's one other item I thought they looked it up. Yes. Thank you. Which also what was it correctly? early child care which yeah affects us all. So I think it would be worth putting on just an update around the SRS funds. Um I I know an update but I think we should talk about it a little bit further. Those are the secure rural schools funds. They are allocated
170:00 - 170:30 through the federal government. They're also part of the payment in lie of taxes, which is a big chunk of money that the federal government sends to counties that have a disproportionate amount of public land where they are not able to collect as much property taxes. And a portion of that pilt uh is also described as the secure rural schools. It does have a lot to do with timber uh and bringing bringing back the timber industry throughout the country. Right now, um it does not look like those
170:30 - 171:00 funds will be sent to counties. Um and the way that that funding structure looks like is that the county gets a a percentage of of this overall and then they are required by law to give a portion of that to the school district. They obviously can't give that to us if they don't have it. So they give they have to do 25% to us, 25% to fund road and bridges and then they have some discretion for what they do with the remaining 50%. It does not at this
171:00 - 171:30 moment in time look that that will be reauthorized at the federal level. So if you are interested in advocating to federal Congress folks, I would recommend that you put this on your list. uh right now in Colorado uh Michael Bennett is supportive of this, Jeff Herd is on this and also Joe Nagus who is a prime sponsor of the reauthorization. So if you want to reach out to your federal delegation beyond those three, I would recommend that you do that.
171:30 - 172:00 I think it would probably be good just to get a quick update on our housing authority um efforts because you know unless we're getting more families in our school district. How about anything for our What was that? We are I think Tom's gonna provide it, but we are going to get a marketing update. Yes. Yeah, you have a marketing
172:00 - 172:30 update next. In fact, I was sent I it's sitting at my table that I meant to bring up. But I I was that was just a brief overview. I will send that to you either notes this week or next week. I'll send you another overview, but then we'll talk about that at our next meeting. Um, would anybody be interested in pursuing community feedback or opportunity for a committee focused on enrollment? I think it's a great idea. I
172:30 - 173:00 think, you know, there there's I think it's a great idea, but I also know that, you know, when we're talking about let's get the data and go with the data, we've been beating our heads on this freaking the data is not as easy to access. The data is impossible. I mean it's like slipping sand through your hands. You cannot get that data. If I can say one thing on CD when I contacted contact is that earlier this year they they won't break down things to see how
173:00 - 173:30 many students from click could go up because that's I tried to do that. Um I will look again and see I do have some stuff I think is I can't remember but I will look at that again. But I think, you know, if we have willing community members that are willing to help us nosh this nut, then yeah, let's do that. I mean, can we now that Mr. Harvey has left, can we volunteer him to do that great idea that he had? Yeah.
173:30 - 174:00 Can we He's interested in it. Yeah. Seriously. Right. No, he would be great, too. He really would. So, I mean, maybe we could follow up with him between now and then and see if he might be willing to take that on from a leadership role. I would be willing to I feel like that pairs really well with communication, too. Okay. And now that I've got lots of free time because I'm at C dot. So, are they done with Floyd Hill now? Just kidding.
174:00 - 174:30 No, it now moves on to the construction team. I was on the technical team. So, but yeah, I've got phone numbers for everybody. So if they they do wrong, I still know how to get a hold of them, but uh or not wrong, but yeah. Um yeah, I I I would love to to make sure that we person those two things. So I'd be glad to help you kind of draft that invitation. So um seeing no other agenda items, I think
174:30 - 175:00 budget's enough right now. Okay. I would like to make a motion that we move into executive session. This executive session would be pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes 24-6-42 sub4 sube sub1 to determine positions relative to matters subject to negotiations developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators specifically concerning the district's July 25th, 2023 contract for services with McFersonson and Jacobs LLC. Jacobson LLC. I'll second.
175:00 - 175:30 Yes. Yes. King. Yes. Mchu. Yes. Yes.