##VIDEO ID:D3PK4xngtmU## e e e e I am calling this January 8th meeting of the 27j Board of Education to order uh and all matters noticed on this agenda in any category may be considered for Action as listed any items so noticed may not be considered or not so noticed may not be considered items listed on this agenda may be considered in any order at the discretion of the chairperson let's first rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance Rachel will you lead us I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much with that we'll move on to our roll call for attendance secretary director carbajal I director con director green estoi director Thomas here director tro here director wilham here Mr President you do have Quorum thank you very much uh our main item of business for this evening is the candidate interviews the Board of Education will be conducting interviews of the candidates to fill the district the director District vacancy we only have one candidate uh Tracy Alvarado we please step forward take the hot seat not really well again uh we have a number of questions we're gonna probably have uh everybody ask two questions if there's follow-ups they may follow up with that uh you just take the time you need and answer as you see fit great uh director carbajal will ask the first question thanks I think that was a gift thank you for coming my question is 27j schools mission statement States in partnership with our families and the Community 27j Schools empowers every student today to take control of their future for tomorrow what does that mission mean to you and how will you support the mission as a board member well thank you all for taking your time to interview me I appreciate it I'm excited for this opportunity um so when it comes to the mission statement the thing that resonates with me right off the top is the word partnership and I think that's such an important thing in education I think as parents we can't be expected or we shouldn't be expected to just send our kids to school and you figure it out and I'll see them when they get home I think that um we really need to be at part of that partnership and work with the teachers work with the staff at the school and the district as a whole to support our children and reinforce the values that they're learning at home I know um with children if they're going to to school and they're really succeeding and they come home and that success isn't reinforced maybe they feel like oh well that was silly I shouldn't have been excited about that or oh maybe it doesn't matter what I'm doing same thing if you have a school where those the students don't feel seen they don't feel supported they I'm a huge believer in positive reinforcement and if they feel like their hard work isn't really paying off or noticed they're going to work less and even though I'm telling them at home hey this is important no but it's not really important at school so I think that that partnership between the community and the school is essential to success for all students across the board and I think as as well as that partnership when it comes to hey there's a mil levy on the ballot and we need our community to show up for us so we can then in turn show up for you and your students I think that's super important too so just allog together support leads to that future success which is of course what we all want is I mean I personally would love if my kids stayed like six forever but you do eventually have to grow up and become adults and you want those successful adults who remember those great times in their school and then want to reinvest into their communities in the future so I think that partnership is really essential and I would love to support that as a board member yeah director willham um what do you see is the role of a board member a board member um so I think with a board member I know that superintendent Pearce and I talked about this kind of in our initial call is is not getting bogged down with necessarily the daytoday like what staff members were late at brandner or is everyone doing XYZ in each classroom but having that overall strategic vision for the board for the district as a whole and I noticed on the website you guys really talk about being future focused and I love that as well because then you can set goals you can inspire you can look towards succeeding and things change and always being willing to change with the times and move forward so I think being overall um outwardly focused having a vision for the future and then focusing on policy as a whole hopefully um you know superintendent Pierce and all of the principles have all the right staff members in place to do all of the things in the buildings as a whole and if as board members we're looking for more globally at the district and at the community and supporting that with policies and decisions that are going to lead to success I think is the the best role to look at I I know that from what I've known from um board's not 27j but in the past sometimes I feel like board members can come on to have a personal mission and say well this is what I want and um I I'm not really as focused on that I more want to know what's the pulse of the community what does the community want what does the community need because you can't make everybody happy but looking at overall where do we want to be um and really keeping that as a a goalpost in the mind of the board is is a good way to be stole my thought I was going to say what do you want to change um uh a lot of times we deal with members of the public to come forward and demand change how how do you handle or respond when you have members for the public that are basically uh demanding action sure I think that that is definitely a skill set um I worked in Hospitality in my previous life I was um an event planner with high at hotels and um you get a lot of people who are kind of used to I'm in a hotel if I yell you'll give me what I want let me let me try this and so you know service with a smile and working on how do I help Rectify this for you or how do I explain the current state of what's going on um making you feel heard and wanting to partner on a resolution together knowing that sometimes you there's just people who maybe you can't necessarily make happy but know that you're working on a decision that you as a board all feel good about and all feel in support of um I definitely am not scared if somebody wants to um kind of sometimes getting out your frustration is maybe all you need feeling listen to is maybe all you need and then you can work after that I think is great I'm open to feedback I definitely you know love positive feedback but if it was all positive you know maybe it would be a little boring so um definitely open to hearing what needs to be done and service with a smile I guess thank you dror Thomas in your um in your resume or uh the attached letter um it mentions um you have two kiddos at branner and a stepson that graduated from Riverdale um so you do have students in the district what is your volunteer experience um so far in the in the district what has your involvement been in the district sure um with my kiddos right now I have six-year-old twins at britner and they're in first grade and I just have to say I feel like I hit the lottery when it comes to elementary schools it's an awesome building to be in it's an awesome place to be great staff my kids love it there um they did preschool there and then kindergarten and now this is their third year and from the time with preschool I wanted to be super involved and mostly because I don't know maybe I was a little nervous about leaving my babies um but I really connected with their preschool teacher so I used to volunteer on a weekly basis in their class I taught science was what my daughter deemed it as I.E I you know supervised kids mixing food coloring and things like that but um that was really fun and I really liked that did this a very similar thing in kindergarten tried to volunteer um I would say twice a month in the classroom and then this year their teacher is just super on it she's got it she doesn't need a lot of help with volunteering so I just try to um volunteer my time giving treats and things like that with her as much as possible last year I did a lot with the PTA was Secretary of the PTA at the school so um have had an opportunity to get to know most of the staff and the teachers and just have loved it there when my stepson was at Riverdale of course the last thing a 14-year-old boy wants us his mom in the school so I didn't really have that opportunity but you know rooting him on at football and soccer games and um things like that I like to believe that attending any School in 27j is hitting the lottery just W star go ahead on the 27j schools website under the Board of Education section the board Global goals are listed what are your thoughts on the global goals would you seek to change any of them and if so why and how um I think that the global goals that you guys have listed are super inspiring and I think pretty all-encompassing so I liked that they were think focused that were measurable um that you can you know hold yourself accountable on and hold the district accountable on and not just um kind of well we did we meet it or not meet it so I really think that that a great way to set goals I really it really resonated for me that social emotional learning was one of the goals on there um I'm a big fan of that especially with my kids um and I think that that's really cool cuz that's part of being a whole person so in looking at it there was nothing that jumped off the page that I said oh there's something missing um if I was to serve on the board and learn more about the district and more about the community you know I if there are things that came up that I said hey you know what about this I would be willing and excited to kind of put my two cents in but I wouldn't be coming into this position because I say oh 27j is messing up and I got to get in and I'm going to clean house and figure this out no I I don't feel like that at all I feel like you guys are doing a great job and the district is doing a great job and I'm would be excited to learn more thank you I think it's my turn my question is uh why do you want to be a member of the 27j School Board of Education super interesting question so just to be fully transparent because I think transparency is important with communication this was not something that I sought out or looked into um the principal of my kids school had called me and said hey there's this position open Brenner it looks like going to be moving into that District I think you'd be a good fit would you be interested in talking with Mr Pierce about it I kind of said what um but I thought about it I had a great conversation with Mr Pierce and then I really started thinking more and more about two things mainly would this be a good fit for my family and would I be an asset to the district would I be able to bring anything to the table I don't want to just you know take up space um so after I thought about a little bit more I actually sat down with my kiddos and um they're six so I explained to them and very limited terms hey how would you feel if Mom was volunteering with the schools and what would your thought be if maybe I I wasn't there for a couple of bedtimes or you know I wasn't you know you had to hang out with grimy and pop you a little bit how would you feel about that and my daughter thought about it for a little bit and she is six but like 30 years old also at the same time and she said well mommy would you help kit and I said well that would definitely be the goal I wouldn't want to contribute my time if I wasn't doing something good for kids and she said then I think you should do it I think that would be great and my son was like yeah I agree so that was a great um thing for me as a mom to think okay they're in support of this they would be you know on the the team as far as that goes and now what could I bring to the board and what could I contribute so as thinking about it I know um I I'm a single mom so I'm a single mom who I have my kids 100% of the time and I know that in at least in branner that I see a lot of split households or single parent households or you know grandparents raising um their kids or their grandkids and I feel like with me being on the board I could maybe bring that diverse perspective of the challenges that some of the single parent families in our district have and want to make sure that that's represented and maybe would resonate with some other people I think sometimes you can kind of feel like maybe you have individual challenges that people don't understand so I think have bringing that um sort of maybe diversity to the board could be an asset and that's something I would like to make sure is represented that all family structures don't look the same which is something I talk to my kids about a lot wow thank you so much for that answer it's great what kind of relationships do you want to have with your fellow board memb well um I was one thing that really stuck out stuck stuck out to me um at the meeting that I attended is I really wanted to know and I had asked Mr Pierce as well what's the dynamic like between everybody and it's super exciting to me to see you guys kind of all give each other you know a hard time and have that like um rapport with one another and I think that that is interesting I was worried it was going to be walking into you know I've seen some some boards in other districts that it's uh really tense and you know maybe kind of uh sh sharks versus the Jets type situation I don't if that reference dates me much at all but um I that would worry me but coming in I feel like you guys have a great report and also I in just talking to Mr Pearson hearing a little about it I hear that you guys don't always agree which is so valuable I think in my opinion because not everybody in our district is going to agree and if we're only representing one opinion and one set of way of thinking then we're not being represented of the district so um I would look forward to disagreeing with people I guess um and I know Mr Pier spoke very highly of everyone saying that he he likes watching you guys disagree and listen to each other's opinions and um change your way of thinking to all come together as a group and I think that sometimes people say nope this is my opinion I formulated I'm not ching and you just end up at a stand still instead of respecting each other listening to new information and kind of molding your um decisions as a as a United board so that's what I would hope for yeah you know and and director te brought this up you know we talk about our Global goals uh and every month we get reports on on the how we're doing on those global goals and there's a school of thought of where you could set your goals really low and then you're guaranteed you always always hit him or he can do what we've done and where we set some of them pretty aggressively uh you know when you set a graduation rate of 100% when we talk about every kid uh and we only get to 89% uh you know sometimes we have to accept that we're not going to be compliant with some of our goals what what are your thoughts on that uh you know there's times where we're sitting up here where we have to accept that we are not going to meet our goals and we have to face the public and every everybody else and complain they say well why aren't you hitting these goals but it's all in the nature of how we set goals so what are your thoughts on that um I think that that's super interesting to see I'm an overachiever at heart I would say that's probably one of my uh biggest I don't know if you'd say assets or flaws but so I'm a huge goal Setter and um where I think it'd be hard to maybe not meet the goals I think maybe the goal becomes less important and the why becomes the question of hey we we set at 95% rate we're at 89 why and also what direction are we trending in where were we at last year were we at 100% last year and we're at 89 this year yeah that's a big problem we need to figure out um or were we at 85% last year and hey we're ticking up what's the trend what's working what's not working I think that can be kind of an exciting time to really see where your successes are coming from and really drill down on maybe where some of your failures are I talked to my kids about this all the time like failures you learn more from failure than you do From Success most often and um I think if the board is willing to acknowledge and humble and say hey we we maybe drop the ball on something in my opinion that's a great thing to do and then learn from and go forward perfect we ran into that with the social emotional learning how do you set a goal for something that you never knew what sure you were at anyway so uh that and we're still struggling with that uh star I'm GNA have you go next all right star doesn't even want to ask you any more questions you've so impressed her with your answers but has a question darn it yeah is everyone else anyone else have any other further questions yeah I mean the last question was just do you have any questions for us um I think that I think that when I I came last time I got I really appreciated the chance to kind of talk to everyone oneon-one and connect with some questions um I think that um Ashley Khan had described this as like drinking from a fire hose right away and getting to kind of you know baptism by fire and getting to learn and understand so I definitely would be ready to absorb as much as I can from all of you I think as as far as a question maybe um are you guys glad that you did this like started and opened this can of worms and got on the board is it something that you look at and go go what was I thinking but say no this has helped me grow and I feel glad about I'll answer um I think when we when we first got on the board and we ran like in your head you have this grandios idea of what you're going to do or how you're going to solve the world problems and I think like the first year of sitting here we what we learn is like what the limitations were or where we were going to able to go and I think that I finally feel excited and eager after this last couple of months um now that I kind of know what my role is and where I'm going and how we can drive and actually create impact um so hopefully like we've done some of the work of just solving what that looks like for us as a board um and so we can welcome you into that and I think that you'll be starting there instead of maybe starting where we started so I think I think so yes I'm glad every day that I did it um I think that gladness gets more and more the more I learn because like ash said it is like drinking from a fire hose and sometimes I'm like oh man I don't know what a lot but every day I learn more and I grow more and I go home and my kids are like Mom what did you do tonight and that's really impactful to me or I'll tell my co-workers about what's going on in the district and it's really great to feel so involved and a part of something so big and so cool that's great yeah um so on the opposite end that were their newer board members I'm in my last term like my last year so so I'm in the home stretch now so after almost eight years um I just think it is the most unbelievable privilege to serve um in this role um the behind the scenes look that we have we work with the most passionate and dedicated Educators and just from from every area I mean from our custodians to our um across the board like every one of them are just so passionate Tom and I have the opportunity we um we do the 27j Believers award and so whenever we get nominations from staff nominations nominating their fellow co-workers just the respect and the love that you see across the district is um it's just an incredible privilege to sit up here and and represent such an awesome District that's great I'm just going to follow along what everyone else is saying it's yes um I came in on an appointment as well so did the same interview and it I was afraid I thought maybe I don't know what I'm doing I wasn't fit for the job or the role and all everything I learned so I worked in the district for 7even years had no idea like you know you kind of think you know you don't know and everything that I've gotten to see on the back end has just made me even more passionate about our district about our employees in the district restrictor again from admin down to our custodial staff it is just 1,000% amazing in what we get to see come across here what I've gotten to learn and getting to know just again that back end on even just our district being like our teams and how small they are and the amazing work they do compared to other districts have like 20 people and we have three so again it's I am very happy with the decision well clearly I Did It For The Money No it's it's it's a a true sense of Pride when you realize uh we are the among the lowest funded uh School District in the state a and what we can accomplish and as SAR was alluding to with a Sho string budget with a Sho string staff uh with we see our graduation rates lead Adams County you know with we're doing incredible things here and so there's a real source of Pride uh and that we have been Mandy and I have been here through it for a long time you know uh been through Co we've been through it all that the challenges that this District faces and continues to lead and exceed and when we go to the Colorado Association of school boards we see all these other schools bragging about the things that we've been doing for years uh we see all these people that are so impressed with everything when we've been doing it for years uh and we get to innovate where we put uh stem centers at every high school and people are like oh wow who how why do you think that because we are uh at the Forefront we you break new ground here every day and that's what I'm I'm so proud of and just happy to be able to look back and say look what we've accomplished and I'm I just have great Visions for the future too uh under will uh and we did that under director or superintendent feedler and now will with a whole new uh strategery to head forward and so that's where it is for us a source of Pride uh that we can look back and say well we're doing good things for the right reasons for the right people and we really take to heart that mission of every every in everything we do so super you got anything you want to add no uh I I think you be uh uh lucky to join such a group of people um I don't I I I think I don't think it's uh the world always knows what boards do right and I don't think I don't even think and we've talked about this at the board I don't even think they understand how significant the role of a board member is to a school district um you can look at the my colleagues at the back of the room um you can they'll they often set the tone for some of the things internally but um the the the Champions they are for the school district the vision they have for the school district the call outs they have for the school district the accountability they modeled for the school district like um I think it's pretty overwhelming um to think about what they do and you get lost in it because you're just star and you're like I don't see myself that way or I'm just Rachel and I I don't but it's it's a it's a big deal and it's a big deal to a whole community of almost 25,000 kids that that you don't even know and can't even fathom how big that is and 2400 employees that you don't always get to know and see but you're you got to be the face of and then and then to a community and the impact that we have on the community is just staggering and so I just think like in this small room when we're all just talking amongst people about who has the most texts that are unread which we learned to Star tonight um um you you you lose yourself in in the significance of the role that we have and I I think that these people are incredible representatives of our our school district um and I think that we have a board that our community should be really proud represented them and so that's what would be my answer I guess perfect thank you Miss Alvarado thank you for coming in uh we appreciate this opportunity to talk to you and kind of pick your brain a little bit if uh you get the chance to sit next to us we I think we would be uh happy to have you but I appreciate it you're welcome welcome to sit around uh while we have a little bit more discussions our next item is going to be discussion of this perfect well thank you so much I so appreciate all of everything you guys said is super inspiring and I appreciate your time um and I think I will step out so you guys can speak freely so but thank you so much I appreciate it thank you again for stopping by Jinx uh well again the next item is would be uh board discussion of candidate interviews is there any discussion no the next item would be the selection of a direct director District Six board member do I have a motion do you want to do it okay go can I do it of course is there do I have to read something sorry wait I want to do it go to agenda why can't I find my agenda it's on here on here oh gosh I'm a mess no it's it's on the screen the board of education has selected oh gosh I'm gonna mess it up Tracy Alvarado to fill the vacancy for director district 6 this director will serve the remainder of the vacant term until November 2025 do I have a second second I have a motion by by director goal and a second by director Trill uh can we have a roll call for vote please yes sorry director carbajal yes director green of course director Thomas I director tro hi director Wilhelm yes by unanimous vote uh Tracy Alvarado is our new director for district 6 uh you will be sworn in at the next meeting uh which is is the the 22nd correct so please be here early we'll have we'll have some dinner and some camaraderie and we'll get to know you even more but thank you again for coming out tonight and congratulations pictures the judge yes it's a whole thing they can't sit during the meeting up here but they can sit out there it's not bring your kids to work day uh thank you very much again we appreciated it uh at this point uh we're going to conduct an educational session regarding the thinking classroom super do you want to take five just kind of reconvene let's take all right then we will take a five minute break we can all congratulate director Alvarado and I we reconvene here at 7:05 okay thanks guys