##VIDEO ID:https://vimeo.com/1044342972## All right. Good afternoon and welcome back 2025, and also welcome to the January 14th, 2025 special meeting of the D 60 Board of Education. I would like to call the meeting to order. The time is 2:00 PM Ms. Patron, will you please call the role Mr. Cisneros? Here. Dr. De Niro? Here, judge Mayes. Here. Mrs. CIO. Here. Mr. Tebo here. If at this time everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, the Board of Education has issues to discuss in executive session as follows, pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes and Section 24 dash six dash 4 2 4 E Roman one, and section 24 dash six dash 4 2 4 A to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, develop strategy for negotiations and instruct negotiations for the potential sale of the following real properties. Carlisle Elementary School, located at 7 36 West Evans Avenue, Pueblo, Colorado, 8 1 0 0 4 and Strat School located at two 10 West Fairview Avenue, Pueblo, Colorado, 8 1 0 0 4, in which no board director has a personal interest. May I have a motion to go into executive session for the previously stated purpose? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tebow Aye. Superintendent Kimsey and Mr. Dick Bump of Kaplan and Earnest, the board's legal counsel will be joining the board in the executive session. We will now adjourn and reconvene in the conference room. All right. Before we adopt the agenda, does Superintendent Kimsey or a board member have any recommendations for corrections or modifications to the agenda at this time? Director Tebow. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I am going to request that the board, uh, unanimously approve, um, a change in the agenda so that we can take up consideration of a resolution that I've prepared concerning full funding of public education. Um, it's, um, fairly lengthy. Um, I would like very much to be able to, uh, read it into the record and have a discussion of it. Um, but I recognize that there are several matters in our agenda where we have, uh, individuals that want to make presentations. So, um, if the board is inclined to, uh, change the agenda, uh, through a unanimous approval, uh, perhaps it could be placed, uh, toward the end of the agenda at a time when, um, others who have taken time of their day to come, uh, we can take care of their, their matters, uh, ahead of this. And that would be my request at this time. All right. So, director, uh, Tebow has requested to add a resolution to the agenda. Um, may I have a motion? Well, I would move that, um, the board approve the, uh, change of the agenda so that we can take up, um, consideration of an action upon a resolution concerning full funding of public education at a point in the agenda, um, which respects the, the, um, the, uh, fact that others are here to, uh, comment on some very important and complicated matters that the board is to undertake. Do I have a second? I would like to, um, I wanna second it, but I'd like to ask if we could move it before the consent agenda. Would that be appropriate? I don't have a problem with that, And that would be perfectly, um, fine with me if that's what the board chooses to do. Okay. A second. Is there any more discussion? Please call the vote. Yes. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. Director Mays, Uh, is it the intent to discuss this and take action on it at today's meeting? Yes. Okay. Uh, one, I I, I, I don't know. I haven't seen this, so, and it looks rather detailed, and it's obviously something that's of primary interest to all public schools in the state of Colorado, and we know there are numerous discussions that are going on in this legislature and in the governor's office about school funding. My concern is I would love to be able to study this a little bit more before making a decision as to whether it should, we should authorize the resolution or not. And, and having said that, I certainly don't mind, uh, placing it on the agenda for the next board meeting, which is just two weeks away. And, uh, I, I really would like some additional time Mr. Tebow, to really delve into this and see what it's all about, because I, I, I don't have that information right now, and I feel a lot more comfortable making a, a decision on this if I had the opportunity to look into it. So, not that I'm opposed to at some point discussing it, but I would prefer not to discuss it today with the intent of reaching a resolution, uh, for the reasons I stated above. That's, that's what my concern is. And, and if I could just Director Tebow, make a statement, um, perhaps we could, um, Perhaps what we could do is, um, place it on the agenda as suggested, uh, before the consent agenda, uh, for information so that it can be read and, um, discussed by the board. And then at that point, uh, the board can make a decision as to whether or not it wishes to take action on it or delay it, uh, for another board meeting for action. Um, sort of a, a a chance for us to kind of go through this and understand, um, you know, what it's about, which I intended to do by reading it into the record and, and responding to questions. So that would be, you know, my suggestion. I don't know if that would help, uh, director Mays, uh, at least as far as today goes. Uh, simply because it's critical that the board act on it as at the soonest possible moment, knowing that the legislature is, um, in session right now today, making decisions on these things. And, um, I think it's just critical that we, we are upfront and, uh, ahead of the game with regard to at least our legislative delegation, knowing what it is that we prefer. Uh, in terms of full funding of education, public education, this session in, in response to, to Mr. Tebel. I, I will tell you now that if the issue comes up that we're actually gonna take a position on it after a discussion, uh, I will vote against it because I, uh, as I indicated, this is important stuff, and I've seen it for the first time five minutes ago, and I don't know that two more weeks is gonna make it. I certainly would not have any problems with, uh, Mr. Tebow reading, uh, the resolution into the record so that the, the public knows and the folks that are here today know what he's gonna be talking about. And then we can, they will know that we will be discussing it in full, uh, as I said, per, unless there's some reason not to at our next board meeting, which is two weeks away. So that's, uh, I, I don't mean to stymie everything, but I, I don't think I'm gonna be prepared to issue a deliberate decision on this thing without having an opportunity to really study what this is all about. And reading it into the record isn't going to necessarily happen. Thank you. So is the board opposed to just adding it as an informational piece, uh, right before the consent agenda so that, uh, director Tebow can share his thoughts on this to prepare us for two weeks down the road? Or would the board like to continue with the motion and take a vote now? Director Tebow? Well, I would just urge, um, and, and I do wanna respect any board member who has, uh, questions about this, um, because it is quite extensive. Um, so I, I don't necessarily object to us not taking action today. I would prefer that we did, but I definitely, um, think it would enhance our understanding of what this is about. If we could just add it to the agenda for information purposes at the le at the very least, uh, I can read it into the record and maybe it'll spark some preliminary discussion and then we can, you know, take it, you know, from there, the next board meeting. I, I, I'm fine with that. Um, but in the world of the legislature, two weeks is an eternity. So, um, you know, I just, I, I think the sooner that we can do it, the better, and if it's two weeks, uh, for us to take action, um, I'll settle for that. But I, I do think that it's important for at least the public to know what this resolution is about and how we can, um, be counted as, uh, a board that is supporting full funding of public education. So I think what we must do right now, we have a motion on the table to vote, to add it to the agenda to actually take a vote today. That's the way we, we presented it. So I think we need to at least vote on that to either go ahead with that or to remove that, uh, motion to vote that motion down. And then we could, if we vote that down, we could add another motion to the table to add it as an information piece to the agenda. Does That sound or I can just, um, amend my motion. Okay. If, if, if that's, uh, something the president would accept, I would accept That to just have it, um, after our policy discussions ahead of the consent agenda for information only and not action. And that would be my, your Motion. Motion motion. Do I have a second on that motion? The amended motion? I second it. Is there any discuss discussion about that? Alright, the motion on the table now is to, uh, the amended motion on the table now is to add the resolution to the agenda as a discussion item right before the consent agenda. Alright. Would you please call the vote, Ms. Patron? Mr. Ciro? Aye. Dr. Denu Aye. Judge Mays? Aye. Mrs. Peno? Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. We are now on to the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion please? So moved. Second. See none. Please call the vote. Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio. Aye. Mr. Tebo? Aye. We will now get started with a work session of the agenda. We have several reports this afternoon. I will now turn it over to Superintendent Kimsey. Thank you President Pen Nuncio. Uh, it is my pleasure to, uh, introduce at this time our chief financial Officer, Lana Hans, to present our first quarter fiscal year 24 25 financial statements. Good afternoon, president Pen Nuncio, Dr. Kimsey, members of the board today or this evening, I guess it's not this evening. That's unusual. Right? This afternoon, we're going to look at the first quarter financial statements for D 60. There's three different sections. One is a PowerPoint that we're going to go over, I hope. Um, number two is a printout of, uh, a summary of all of the different funds. And the third one is the, the itest, um, that looks at fund 10 in detail. That's like this, that you can't see, but it was provided to you so that you can see where all the numbers come from. And I don't know where my PowerPoint is. PowerPoint, Click it, click it. Oh, there it is. Oh, oh, Sorry. Technical difficulties. All righty. Thank you. So the first page that we're going to look at is, um, the quarter ending, uh, September 30th, 2024. This is fund 10. Um, at the very top of the page, it shows you what our budget and, uh, beginning fund balance as well as our audited fund balance is. That's a new one, um, because we did get the audit completed timely enough to get this first, first quarter done with showing you audited information. So, yay. Um, if you look in the middle of the page, there's a detail of the salaries and benefits, um, purchase services, et cetera, basing, uh, on budget, the encumbrance for those expenditures, actuals as of the quarter, and then a total we are really on track, um, as usual, um, even though it's the first quarter, something you will note is salaries and benefits. Um, when we encumber all of the, the salaries and benefits we're at 95% of our budget. So that's a concern that we will address later. Okay. Does anybody have any questions about the first page? Don't read ahead any questions? No. Okay. Do, does our, uh, where we're at as far as reserves are concerned now, is that, is that lining up the way we would like to see it line up At this moment? It is. Thank you. Mm-hmm. So we'll look at the same, basically the same information only in a picture format. And you can see, um, the big kind of purplish blue Pacman is salaries and the red slice is benefits. And, um, you add those two together and we're right at 90, 95% of budget. Okay? No questions on the picture. The next, uh, page, we are going to look at the first quarter, um, as it relates to Athletics Fund 17 and our Insurance Reserve Fund 18. And the reason I lumped these together is that's how they are presented in our audit. So it will just make it easier for you to compare should you decide to do that. There really is nothing of specific interest on this page. Everything is going according to plan. All of our insurance, uh, expenditures are paid usually in the first month of the year. So you will see that, um, that line is bigger than the encumbrance. Most of the revenues are generated from fund 10 transfers, as you know. So this is where we are for athletics and insurance risk management. Does anybody have any questions on this set of funds? Seeing none, we'll go onto the next page. Page number six is looking at other governmental funds for the first quarter. That includes fund 22, which is our grants fund Fund 31, which is our Bond Redemption Fund Fund 41, which is our bond capital construction and fund 64, which is risk management, which covers unemployment and dental. As we're self-funded for those two programs. The revenues in, in the general, um, I mean, I'm sorry, in the grant fund 22, that's always, um, quite a ways in arrears because, uh, funding happens after you request the, the money to be reimbursed. And so it takes a long time for that to catch up. And unlike the general fund, um, our expenditures are running about 28% of budget right at this point in time. So there's not really a whole lot to say about this set of funding. I will will tell you, we're getting closer on the bond. It looks like we've got about another, um, 15 months. The reason being, uh, the demolition of Roncalli is going to drag out a lot longer than anticipated. And so it's actually going to flow over into FY 26 27 potentially. So I'm trying to close it. Anybody have any questions about these? Okay, the next group is non-major governmental funds, and that's Fund 21, which is Nutrition Services Fund 23, which is our Student Activities Fund Fund 27, which is our education foundation and Fund 43, which is our capital projects. And there's really nothing to say here either. Of note, um, nutrition services has a lot of plans to, to spend some money. Um, they need to, because historically our fund balance, um, exceeds the re the required limit of 90, 90 days cash on hand, and with our facilities being able to be upgraded like electrical systems and that in the, in the kitchens at all of the other schools, um, she's allowed being allowed to improve the serving lines and the equipment that's in the kitchen, which is our plan all along. But it's taken a while to get there. Anybody have any questions about that? No. Okay. Well, that's the end of that deal. You have any questions for me? Don't make them too hard, Mr. Tebow. Um, school financing is a big deal. Everybody needs to really start paying attention. That's my plug. Um, the new formula is going to be very painful for this district. So, Anything else? Would you please explain that last statement? The new funding formula house bill 1488. Um, originally was, um, to allow the, the difference in the calculation, which for us actually would improve our funding, but they were going to spread it out over six years. Okay, so it's 18% one one year, and then it goes down to 10% for the years that there's an election. Dunno why that is, but, and the, the government, I mean, the governor is considering expanding that to seven years. Uh, there's a hold harmless provision, um, of 10% add back, and that may be on the table averaging currently is in there. Um, however, they're also talking about cutting that to no averaging. Instead of going down a, a group at a time, instead of going from five to four, four to three, um, just cold Turkey. Um, that's very detrimental to us. And, um, the, the ugly BS factor has raised its head, So the budget stabilization, they're trying not to call it that. Um, however, we have seen in the current formula a demonstration from Colorado School Finance Project where you can change the numbers in the back end and actually create that budget stabilization factor without anybody even knowing what you've really done. Um, there's also, um, he has a motion on the table to cut at risk $7 million. Why? That might not seem a, a lot. Um, but every at risk dollar, um, we, we need a lot. And so that's my comment. Um, lots of moving parts, lots of concerns. The state has a budget problem, so, and as usual, they try to balance the budget on our back. So we need to be vocal and stand up for ourselves. What do you think about that? I guess one of the questions I have is, uh, you know, what was it last year, two years ago, we did a true up on all of the BS factor and the whole bit, and we all know that's a bunch of BS because we never catch up. Uh, I mean, no matter, uh, what they tell us, uh, we're probably still, uh, Dr. Kimsey is five, $600 million behind from what they owed us before. Are you suggesting or are they suggesting that that can come into play again now? So that three years, four years from now, five years, we're gonna have to throw up again. Oh, there's not, you know, it's all economics. Um, they have to balance their budget. That's a easy way to do it. Now, whether or not everybody's going to go down that road and agree with that process, I don't know. I, but yeah, you know, every time there's a, a downturn in the economy, which we really don't have at the moment, what we have is the esser cliff and everybody's really, um, really hung over on that and that's causing a lot of problems. So I would anticipate it coming back. It probably won't be called the BS factor. We probably really won't be able to see it, um, in the, in the funding calculation, but it will be there. Anyone else that I can bring Happy news to the table? Thank you. Alright, thank you Ms. Hans. We always appreciate the efforts that you and your team put forth in providing us with any kind of updated information for the district on financials. Does the board have any further questions for Ms. Hans? Alright, we're ready for the next report. Uh, Dr. Kimsey? Thank you, president p Nuncio. Uh, it's my pleasure at this time to introduce our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Mr. Johnson. And he will be, uh, also introducing Mr. Weston to provide the report from Pueblo School, uh, for Arts and Sciences, their annual report. Good afternoon, uh, president Penso, Dr. Kimsey, members of the board, uh, Tom Weston, charter School Liaison. Um, this is an annual event, 15 years now that I've served as liaison. Uh, state statute requires that we provide an annual report on all of the charters that are authorized by the district. Um, this year, the renewal application for CHPA will stand as basically the annual report because the, the, uh, information requested is essentially the same. Um, but with PSAS, um, it is a typical annual report. Um, it's mandated by state statute and basically it, it asks districts to assess if the educational program that the charter has is a success, um, if their academic achievement and growth is up to par, if the school is financially viable, if the organization both governance and leadership is appropriate and well done. And if the community relations are solid. Um, in the interest of time, I know you have the report, I'll give you more of a 30,000 foot, um, assessment. But, um, public School for Arts and Sciences is, is in general in, in a very good place. Um, they are a bit unique in that they are actually a network. Um, there are two schools that we authorize here in District 60, uh, the Jones Campus and the Fulton Heights campus, but they also have a network, uh, which includes a school that is now authorized by ER BCE that impacts their finances a little bit. And the network concept, um, impacts their finances a bit in that they get a single budget. Um, ERB CS funds it at a little different time than than districts typically do, but that said, and I think it was January, um, that ERBO Cs finally, um, will fund them. They're in good shape, their reserves are solid, and they have been able to fund all the schools, uh, appropriately. Um, so they're in good shape there. In terms of their reserves. They're in very good shape. Um, they have sufficient reserves to handle their network obligations. I'll also tell you that they have put literally millions into both the Jones and the Fulton Heights facilities. Um, over the years, like I said, I've been here 15. Um, they have put millions into both facilities. Of course, they do not pay rent by statute. And so I always say if, if I'm assets, kind of their mortgage. Uh, but they've done great work. And bo those facilities have been upgraded significantly. Um, one of the many strengths, uh, Mr. Martin has their executive director is a very solid background, um, in facilities and facility improvement. And so he's, he's guided that effort. I should also say that their financial picture, as I mentioned, very solid there, soda is their CFO and she rides herd on a, again, a kind of a complicated budget at times because of the network. Uh, but they're in, they're in really good shape. I provided some specific statistics for you, uh, based on October 24 income that you can certainly take a look at. Um, I'll jump quickly to leadership, operations, community relations and governance. Um, and I will comment as I observe, uh, over the year, uh, Mr. Martin, their executive director, um, for me as a educator, 43 years now in this, in this business, um, I've watched Mr. Martin grow, um, into an instructional leader. I, I will tell you that his background was, as I mentioned, finance or not finance, facilities and construction. Um, but over the past few years, he's gotten very, very involved on the academic side. And there are challenges there. There's no question about it. Um, but he has done a deep dive to get, um, educated and very familiar with pedagogy and appropriate curriculum and how to implement it and how to motivate staff. And so he's very, very involved with that. And I just think that that needed to be, to be noted. Um, in terms of governance, it, it's a consistent board. Um, there has not been a tremendous, uh, turnover. Um, some of the board members, um, have been there about as long as I've served as liaison, but they do, they work in concert, um, with a unified purpose, and they work very well with, with administration as well. In terms of community relations. Um, I have noticed across the three districts I work with as a liaison in 12 charter schools, um, one of the, one of the products of the pandemic era is an uptick in issues, um, that come before the board that come to us, parent concerns, uh, on a, any range of things. So there's been an uptick in parental concerns, both at PSAS and at CHPA in the last couple of years. But I will say on P-A-S-P-S-A s's, um, part, um, what happens is the district will receive the complaint. It'll go to me, I send it to Mr. Martin, um, and they act very quickly to, to resolve it. Um, sometimes the reports are rather alarming, um, when you read 'em at, at first blush. Um, but Mr. Martin and his team responds. Uh, they investigate, they respond appropriately, and in every case, um, those issues have been taken care of. So that's, that's something, um, in their column as well. Um, the, the greatest challenge that they have, of course, is their academic work. Um, Jones prior to Covid was a real leader. They, they were at or above state standards most years. Um, as enrollment changed and things happened, they, they struggled a little bit Fulton Heights as well. Fulton Heights when they first opened also, um, showed some very strong results. So they're very intent, um, on working with interventions to try and turn that around and get their performance in the right direction. Um, assistant Superintendent Johnson has the details on that, so I'll defer to him to present to you the academic piece. But if you had any questions on the other pieces that I, uh, shared, I'm certainly open to any questions. And Dave and his staff are here as well. Um, they could answer any questions if you had Director Tebow. Thank you. I I just have a couple of questions. Sure. Um, with respect to this, uh, network Uhhuh, I know, know that, uh, in your comments, you, you mentioned that, uh, the Pueblo West School is now, um, I, I guess, uh, under the supervision of Bo boces, The Classical Academy, Right? Yeah. Pueblo West. Yeah. And I, and I remember that they were previously under the, um, uh, under the contract with, uh, district 70. Yes. Can, is there any kind of relationship between why District 70 terminated that arrangement and what we can expect, uh, with respect to the two schools that, that we have a contract on the Fulton Heights and the Jones? Right. Um, all I know, because I, I don't get involved with the D 70 side for obvious reasons. Um, they negotiated and D 70 gave 'em an unconditional release, um, from their charter. Um, I don't know what the issues were. And so they took and went to ERBC and, and found authorization. I do believe, uh, Mr. Martin, um, envisions a day where the PSAS umbrella in total network can come back under the D 60 umbrella at some point. Um, but I think that's a future issue. Uh, the classical Academy is small. I mean, there's not a tremendous number of, of kids. Um, but I don't have details on what happened. Yeah. Thank you. I have one other question, and, and the only reason I mentioned that is, um, obviously it's between, it was between district 70 and the classical Academy, but I just wondered if there was anything going on there that might, uh, you know, interfere with, with our contract on the other two schools. But the, the other question is if, if my recollection is correct, um, the audit, the timing of the audit was a, an issue last time. Has, has all that been sort of charted out in, into territory where we won't be, um, in that situation again, It was, and again, to Ms. Soda's, credit, uh, and their team, the, um, all the information was presented on time this year. In fact, early, there were a few issues with balances, uh, post submission of the audit that Lana and Theresa worked out something about pipeline, and I don't understand it all, but yes, it was, the audit was finished on time and, and submitted, so there were no issues this year at all. Thank you. I'll now present the, uh, academic performance for the, uh, uh, Pueblo Charter School for the Arts and Sciences, um, campuses, um, superintendent Kenzie, president Peno members of the board. Um, the, uh, as, um, Mr. Westin mentioned that there are two schools, uh, within that network that, uh, fall under the District 60 charter of Fulton Heights and join Jones Campus. Uh, each of those schools is configured as a kindergarten through eighth grade site. Um, and as such, each receives an individual school performance, uh, framework, um, from the state, uh, uh, Colorado Department of Education. Um, within your materials, you'll find, um, uh, that PSAS has shared a lot of local data, local results, um, from assessments, um, regarding their academic performance. Um, for this presentation and for our purposes, I'll be focusing on the results of the frameworks. And just, uh, as kind of a quick reminder from our presentation last fall, schools are eligible to receive one of four plan assignment types under the accountability system. The first two levels are performance and improvement, and those are, uh, typically considered, um, schools that are off of the accountability clock. And then the next two levels, priority improvement and turnaround are considered on the clock. So we will start with, um, Fulton Heights. Uh, Fulton Heights enrolls about 230 students in grades K through eight. It's located on the southeast side of Pueblo This year. Um, uh, PSAS Fulton Heights earned 52.6 points on their framework, which did maintain them in the improvement category. Uh, do want to note that that is just shy of the performance rating cutoff, which is 3 53 points. So they were just a little bit below, um, that rating for, for, um, the Fulton Heights campus. Um, we can dig down a little deeper at their academic performance and look at how the school performed in terms of the students at the elementary and middle levels. Um, we can see that in both cases, they made some improvements, uh, just some minor improvements, uh, compared to a year ago. Uh, overall at the elementary level, they've seen a positive trend in their performance, uh, over the last three year, three years. Um, the middle level, um, between last year and this year remained fairly steady. Uh, I do wanna note that they did have a performance level in 2022. Um, I, I think it's important to note that during that year, um, they were still building out some of their middle school programming, um, and there was also some limited testing that year coming out of the pandemic. So not all contents and grade levels were assessed, uh, in the way that they typically do do that, uh, in the state. Uh, we can also dig a little bit more and look at, um, how they did in terms of their academic achievement, that kind of level or measure of proficiency of students, as well as their academic growth, and how much students are gaining, uh, within the framework formula, 40% of the framework points are based on the academic achievement, and 60% of the points are based on, um, academic growth. And so in, uh, this most recent, uh, assessment, uh, for 2024, Fulton Heights received an approaching expectations rating overall at both the elementary levels in, um, both academic achievement and academic growth. Uh, if we look at the data in terms of, uh, content areas, um, starting with the elementary level, uh, we can see that, um, PSAS Fulton Heights received an approaching rating in ELA achievement in math growth, and in science achievement. Um, they earned a, does not met meet, uh, expectations rating in math achievement, um, and a meets rating in their academic growth. And you'll also see the, the same pattern for their, their middle level, uh, with, uh, a, uh, approaching level in achievement, math growth, uh, science achievement, a meets rating in ELA growth, and a does not meet rating for math achievement, um, when, uh, considering their subgroup performance. So those groups of students, such as students that qualify for free or reduced lunch, um, for minority students, there really weren't significant differences between the performance of those subgroups relative to the entire school. Um, and then in a number of cases, uh, where you have, uh, the subcategories of multilanguage learners or students with disability students on an IEP, um, they do not have a sufficient number of students to publicly report that data. So the Department of Education does not publicly, um, present that information when those groups are under, uh, uh, about 16 students. So we don't have data for those, those subgroups. Um, just to kind of summarize, um, the, uh, PSAS Fulton Heights campus saw an up uptick in their overall academic performance framework in 2024. Uh, they saw moderate achievement in many subject areas, uh, which with the exception of, of math achievement, which they have identified as a, a priority focus. Um, both the elementary and middle school, uh, earned a, a meets rating in English language arts, um, which I think is kind of a highlight. Um, and the school, again, overall has that improvement plan type in 2024. Um, I would say that relative to other schools within our district, the elementary, uh, kind of falls in about the average category. They're, they're about, uh, the same, no, no better. They're no worse than our elementary schools. And I would say that their middle school performs slightly stronger, uh, relative to other middle schools in, uh, within our district in terms of their academic performance. The other school, uh, uh, that falls under the, the D 60 charter is, uh, PSAS Jones. It's also a K eight campus and serves, uh, approximately 430 students kind of in the South central part of, of our community. PSAS Jones has struggled in terms of their academic performance the last three years, and overall has seen a decline in the total framework points earned in 2024, uh, with, uh, 32.9 points earned on the, the, uh, framework. This year, the school received a turnaround plan type assignment, um, that puts them, uh, the, the points earned, puts them about a point below the cutoff for priority improvement. Um, those two categories, as a reminder, are considered, uh, on the accountability clock. Uh, this, this slide kind of outlines that breakdown by level. Um, you can see that, um, both the elementary and the middle levels fell into that turnaround category this year, um, uh, which is, is a decline from previous years. Looking at their breakdown between achievement and growth, that 40 60 breakdown, um, we can see, um, that, uh, the elementary and the middle schools earn a, does not meet rating overall in their academic achievement and in approaching expectations rating for their academic growth. And then looking at their elementary, uh, uh, results by content area in English Language arts, they received a, does not meet expectations rating in ELA, achievement in math, achievement in math growth, and in science achievement. They did earn an approaching rating in their ELA growth. And again, that's a similar pattern that we see for their middle school, um, with a, does not meet rating in all categories, but the ELA growth category. So, to summarize, for PSAS Jones, um, the campus is currently on a turnaround plan. Um, they're demonstrating low academic achievement across all levels and content areas. Um, their academic growth in math is low, uh, a little bit better in ELA, um, at both of the levels. Um, but overall, the campus, um, for both the elementary and the middle levels, um, shows low performance relative to other schools in our district. Um, and then I just conclude by saying, as a reminder, their, um, PSAS, uh, their Charter renewal application will take place in about a year. Um, uh, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. Um, I'm sure if you have additional ones for Mr. Westin as well, Director De Niro. Thank you. And maybe Mr. Weston can answer this. Do you happen to have the, um, numbers for the Jones and Fulton Heights for K five and six eight? The enrollment numbers? Mm-hmm. I don't, it, I can probably get them. Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Martin, Mr. Martin's, the executive director divided up Earlier. That's, I just, I said back, uh, the enrollment numbers were our, uh, Our enrollment numbers for the, uh, I don't know that we've got 'em separated out by six eight or K five, uh, but our Jones campus is currently at, at the four, right around the 408 mark. And our, uh, Fulton Heights campus is right at the two 30 mark, which Mr. Weston had indicated earlier. Could you possibly send those? Yep. Thank you. I can have those to you probably within any hour. Thank you. Yep. Director Mays, Uh, Mr. Weston, you indicated that that things were going along pretty smoothly then Covid is, and we all know that took its toll in a number of different ways. But you also said, I think what I heard you say was that, uh, uh, PSAS is taking steps now to see about getting them back up to the level that they were before Covid. Can you explain a little bit more about that? Or Mr. Martin, whoever wishes to, uh, what are the steps that are being taken In, in meetings that I've attended, um, the academic presentations are early laser focused on, um, on curriculum improvements, um, specific curriculum to implement, but even more than that specific pedagogy, um, how to teach those students how to reach them. Um, the premise being, um, what I get as I sit in the meetings, all students wanna succeed. They wanna be good at something. It's in all of our DNA. And so how do we reach that? How do we encourage them? And they, um, they have done deep dives, and not just with the, the state standards, but with NWEA, um, they do a lot of, um, intermittent testing, and they chart progress monitoring throughout the year. And so those strategies right now are being used. Um, Mr. Martin's academic, um, chief is, is also here, could probably give even more specifics, but that's, that's what I've observed. It's, um, it's taking a more deep dive into what specific strategies can we use that are proven that will put us on the track to come back to where they were. The, uh, uh, did you, uh, solicitate any outside, outside PSAS help in trying to resolve the particular problems you just described to us? We do. Um, uh, Susan is, uh, is my director of ed, and one of the things that we've, you know, we've kind of broken the data down by student, so we try to take, um, not just a, a population of students, whether it's, uh, uh, maybe math scores in second grade or, or, or reading. We try to break that data down to the student level so that those teachers are aware of, of where that student's at on a weekly basis. We've done things like, uh, brought in Haggerty and done Haggerty training for our staff. Um, we've had, um, multiple different trainings. Uh, we've done an induction program for new teachers. Uh, we've hired a, uh, Megan Miller is our, uh, what we call an instructional coach. So sometimes we found that our teachers need to, uh, to, to be taught how to teach. Um, so we've kind of dove back into just about every detail from our teaching staff to the individual student to, um, where we funnel those resources into our classroom. Have, uh, what, what has been the, uh, stability of the staff from covid Forward? Have ha has your staff, teaching staff, the entire staff of PSAS has, has it been pretty stable? Uh, So I, when I first took this job over, we had a pretty high turnover. Um, we had somewhere in the neighborhood of one year alone, about 40 different, uh, staff turnovers between those two schools, which is relatively high. This last year, we had a turnover of, you know, um, I, I, I believe Mr. Uh, Thito had mentioned, uh, you know, he had asked about the D 70 situation, and even with some of that turmoil that's going on, we've literally, at the end of last year, had three staff members that turn over. So we've, that's probably the other thing that we've tried to focus on too, is, is that we've tried to align ourself, uh, with a four day week so that, um, that four day week matches the district, so that those students are there. We noticed a high absentee rate on Fridays where when you folks initially went to a five day, a four day week, we noticed an increase in attendance. But now that the community has become more of a four day school week community, uh, we went back and changed that too. So we've seen our attendance on a daily basis go up because it matches, uh, D 60 and D 70. Um, so our staff has benefited from that as well. Um, and we've done, uh, quite a few pay increases for our staff, uh, while maintaining our, uh, some pretty decent reserves over the last three or four years. Thank You. Yes, sir. Are there any other questions for Mr. Johnson or Mr. Weston or Mr. Martin? Thank you. Well, thank you, gentlemen, for that report and that update on, on the, the charters. We really appreciate that. Thank you so much for being here today. I believe we have another report, uh, superintendent Kimsey. Yes, we do. Uh, at this time, it's my pleasure to invite up Mr. Segura and his team from, uh, CHPA to present their renewal application, uh, for the renewal of their charter. After that, uh, Mr. Johnson will give, um, a report on the administration's findings, and after that, I will present my recommendation. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, president, uh, cio, um, superintendent Kinsey and Board of Education. Uh, we really appreciate this opportunity to come and speak with you about, uh, district 60 Sixty's renewal, um, in response to Pueblo School's, renewal of Chavez Worth of K through 12 preparatory academy's recommendation for non-renew renewal. Uh, we have many questions of the claims that were made by District 60 and the review team. Uh, we have been chartered by the district since our authorization in 2000. Uh, so our non-renewal comes as quite a surprise. We are a Hispanic serving institution that provides an opportunity for our kids to participate in mariachi folk dance, and Hispanic and cultural studies. Our early college program is the only early college school recognized by CDE, uh, as far as the southern part of the state, although their team concluded that our application lacked clarity in many areas, these claims could have been resolved by a simple phone call to our school to request any additional information or clarification. CHPA received the renewal process in September, 2024, and we were given a timeline to complete the application by December 2nd, district 60 claims. Their support was offered through the district to review and provide feedback on the application. However, on two separate occasions, our request for feedback was not acknowledged by district personnel. Traditionally, district 60 has requested follow up information after the initial review of an application before making a recommendation to the Board of Education. This step was not performed this year, and District 60 made a recommendation to the board without asking for clarification or additional information. Issues pertaining to enrollment budget and academic growth and achievement were assumed based on perceived lack of clarity In the document, the review team provided their own perceptions of outcomes related to these areas. Instead of seeking clarification from CHPA, we acknowledge the recommendation of non-renewal and the Board of Education decide. And if the Board of Education decides to support District Sixty's recommendation, then we would ask for release of charter authority to seek authorization elsewhere. Thank you, Mr. Segura. Mm-hmm. Uh, Mr. Johnson, could you please provide the report from the review team? Yes. And, um, thank you, uh, superintendent Kimsey, president, pen Nuncio, and members of the board. Um, this afternoon, I'll, I'll, uh, review, um, uh, both our, our process as well as the elements of the plan that we reviewed, our, our ratings, and some of the rationale, uh, for each of those ratings. Um, I do want to note, um, uh, a little bit about the process first, so you just understand the context and when this, when which this did place, uh, did take place. Um, we did submit a, uh, a timeline, um, uh, for chipa that included dates by which, um, we would offer, uh, be available to offer feedback. Um, those were also communicated via email. Um, uh, chip, uh, in, in several cases, um, uh, was past those dates when they were asking feedback. And it's just not practical, practical for our team to drop what we're doing with all of the other business we have to do. Um, that's why we set those dates and sent them to CHIPA well in advance, um, of those times. Um, we did receive the application, uh, on December 2nd, as Mr. Segura indicated, uh, we convened a team of, uh, district leaders to review that application. Um, that process began with an individual review by each team member. Each team member read through the application, uh, referenced the appropriate areas of the appendices, uh, as appropriate. Um, uh, and then, uh, each team member was also assigned a set of specific areas of the plan, uh, related to, um, their areas of expertise, um, where they dug in a little deeper, uh, to, to those particular sections. Uh, team members used a rubric, uh, uh, to review the application. And for each of those areas, they identified both strengths and concerns within each section. Um, for further discussion with the team, uh, they also identified for themselves a potential rating. After everyone had, uh, done their individual review, uh, they came back, or we came together to collaboratively evaluate and discuss the application in its entirety. Um, so we, we looked at it a couple of ways. We looked at was all of the material, were all of the materials included, um, and did those, uh, materials that were included, uh, include, uh, the, the criteria? Did they meet the criteria? What, what questions? What concerns did they, uh, raise for us? Um, through a consensus process, we, uh, assigned one of the four ratings as identified, and those were fully developed, mostly developed, partially developed, or not developed. Um, you have those referenced, uh, in with more description under appendix two. Um, I will note that when we received the initial, um, application, we did, um, uh, express concern regarding a number of the materials that were submitted and the quality of those materials. Um, uh, that is actually why we had encouraged Chip to submit, uh, according to that timeline, materials in advance, so we could provide feedback and avoid, um, that, that situation. Um, they're here today, so I'm sure they'll be able to, um, provide some clarification for any of those, um, that you, you might need. Um, but what I, what I'd really like to do at this time is go through each of the plan elements, um, talk about where the team landed as far as a rating, and then I will highlight some of the strengths within each of those sections, as well as some of the key concerns, uh, that we found within most sections. Um, so the first section that we looked at was the introduction. Uh, we did assign that a mostly developed, uh, rating. We felt that most of the narrative required materials, uh, were in place, uh, were provided to us. Um, but we did have several concerns. Uh, the, the first of those, uh, had to do with some of the information around staffing felt that the information provided was pretty minimal. Um, it was hard to tell, uh, the percentage of staff that were teachers versus those serving in other roles. Um, we noted that the staff turnover rate that was included, um, had increased significantly over the last several years from 17.46% in 2020 to 30.61%, uh, at the end of, uh, the 2024, uh, school year. Uh, we also had some, some concerns. There seemed to be a dec discrepancy between the numbers of highly qualified or in field teachers, uh, that were included in, uh, or identified in the application relative to what was, um, recorded in our district human resources department. The other area that we, um, were, uh, concerned about had to do with projection, projected enrollment. Um, it wasn't supported by current data and current trends. Um, the school has seen a decline in enrollment since the 20, 20, 21 school year, and was well below a projected enrollment, um, this year by over 100 students. The next part of the plan was the academic performance, academic goals, and staff qualifications. Our team, uh, identified a partially developed rating for this area. Um, some strengths that we noted. Um, the application indicated that CHIPA participated, uh, in an externally provided diagnostic review in September, uh, this past, uh, fall, uh, that identified a set of strengths and challenges that could be used to inform improvement efforts. Uh, we also, uh, wanted to note that during the 2223 school year, the middle school did receive a performance rating, uh, during that year. Um, and also that, uh, at the high school level, CHIPA has met or exceeded expectations for graduation and dropout rates for the last, uh, three years. Uh, when we turned to concerns, uh, in this area, CHIPA did receive an improvement rating overall, um, on their current performance framework this year. Um, but similar to, to, uh, how we broke down the PSAS, uh, by level, uh, when we look at the elementary level, um, we saw a decrease of 17.3 points this year to 25.6 points earned at the elementary level, which would be a turnaround rating, um, relative to other elementary schools within our district. Uh, chipo received a second number, second lowest number of points earned in 2324 at the middle level, uh, or Clio. Cruz Middle School earned a performance rating, as I mentioned, in 2223. Um, that number dropped this year to 33.1 points, which is a 24.2 point decrease, which also resulted in a turnaround rating for the middle level and relative to other middle school programs in the district. Um, ECMS earned the lowest number of points, uh, in, in 2324. President Pen Nuncio, I, I don't, you know, there's a, this is a lengthy report and everything, uh, is it, uh, appropriate to break in and ask questions as we feel, uh, should be at the I, I think so, yes. I think hit those questions when They're appropriate. And if I might, I could pause after each section, if that would be helpful, and, and entertain questions after each section. Thank you. Uh, uh, Mr. Johnson, the thing, I, uh, the question, the initial question I have, excuse me, this is concerning the, uh, academic performance, academic goals, staff qualification, uh, and, uh, I'm down into the concerns area, and, and please correct me if I'm wrong on this, alright, but it's my understanding that there are very favorable, uh, uh, results as far as the elementary and the middle school level are. Uh, uh, and there's some difficulties in those areas, and, but the high school level, uh, performs at a very high achievement level. When you give, when you're talking about a deeper analysis of the academic performance at each level within the school, you might understand at some point in time, uh, all of them were jumbled together and a score was reached, and then individually each was addressed, uh, in an individual way. And that's how you came up with whether or not they were, uh, can you help me understand that a little, please? Sure, Sure. When, when a school receives a a, a school performance framework, it provides an overall rating, which is in the case of, of chipa, uh, is a combination of their elementary, middle, and high school levels. So they receive one performance framework rating overall. However, within that framework, it also breaks down by level the performance of each of those. And so, in the case of chipa this past year, their elementary and middle schools earned enough points. That would be a turnaround rating. The high school earned enough points that would be an improvement rating. So the overall rating is improvement, but the, those smaller categories were turnaround ratings. Um, uh, another concern we noted, um, uh, CHIPA included two, uh, uh, the past, uh, two school unified school improvement plans. Um, the, um, the most recent one that we received, the copy that we received was, um, illeg illegible in several places due to the print quality. Um, so we had to go out and, and obtain that, that usip, um, from a different different source. Um, there was a sign significant amount of local assessment data included in Appendix E regarding some of their, um, their local measures, their NWA data. Uh, the application referenced a statistician that conducted an analysis. Um, but, but there was limited evidence to suggest the data is being used or analyzed, um, by the current leadership team and or teachers. Um, the application itself, um, stated, uh, quote yet no conversations, meetings, or understanding took place between principals or the executive director's office to determine the next steps to improve the quality of learning for students. That was on, on page 18 of the application. Um, the res review team also felt that, um, the results of the diagnostic review that, that, uh, was undertaken. Um, there was some, some lack of alignment or clarity there. Uh, for example, the identified root causes per, per performance within the report, and then within the USIP in the application. Um, we struggled to see, uh, some critical alignment there. Um, when we looked at some of the growth goals and targets that were within the USIP and also explained on page 21 of the application, um, they, they were not appropriate. Um, for example, at the elementary level, um, the school was at the 32nd percentile for growth, um, with a goal they set for themselves to reach the 35th percentile, um, for the coming year. That's a three percentile point gain. Um, and that didn't indicate to us a strong sense of urgency related to proving, uh, improving academic outcomes at the elementary level. Generally speaking, um, the target should never be set below the 50th percentile because that kind of equates to a year's worth of growth. Um, and then there was a discrepancy when we looked at what their achievement targets were in their growth targets. Um, they seemed kind of contradictory, and it made us wonder about the understanding of the connection between, um, your achievement and your growth. Um, some of the targets for achievement. If, if they met those, they would be well beyond, um, that three percentile point gain. So we just weren't clear, um, whether or not, um, there was a deep understanding of, uh, of some of those. Um, I'll go ahead and pause for that section and see if there there are any questions maybe on that or the, the, uh, previous section before moving to educational program, I, uh, there were, uh, when Mr. Segar gave his report, he indicated that, uh, at least the way I was understanding it, that, uh, there, there was a, at least a, at the very least, miscommunication in terms of getting information back and forth from CHIPA to the school district. And that if there were some issues that the district had in preparing the report, they could have easily have called Mr. Segura and anyone else from CHIPA to, to clarify some, some information. But I am particularly interested in, uh, the, uh, one of, I don't know, what is the second or third bullet point concerning the unified school improvement plat. Uh, You indicate one, it was illegible, uh, but that chip of staff were invited to participate in several, uh, UIP development, uh, work sessions offered by the district, but, uh, did not participate. Would that, would they, is that documented that they did not participate? Is there anything in the record that would indicate that they did indicate, uh, an intention or at least a, a request for you to get back to 'em with that, uh, that, that seems to be conflicting at this point in time? And I'm trying to figure out where the, uh, where the, where the confusion is. Yeah. So for all of our, our schools in the district, including our, our charter schools, um, we offer several walk workshops on, um, school improvement development, um, where we sit with, with, uh, school teams and help them work through each of the components of that. Um, CHIPA did not participate in those, those workshops in terms of, um, the timeline that we sent. We said, Hey, we would be more than happy to give you feedback to help you in the development of your application, um, provided that you get it to us by a certain date so that our team has time to make looks, look, to take a look at those, um, make some suggestions and get it back to you in a timely, uh, fashion. They, those were optional. They weren't required of them to, to submit those ahead of time. Uh, uh, our intention was really to try to make sure that the application that got submitted on the 2nd of December was high quality and was, was easy to understand and would've clarified those things. Um, we did not receive, um, those, uh, at that point, um, there were some things that were sent after the fact, but by that point, our team was not in a position to, to schedule time to look at that and get that information back to them, um, before that application due date, Can you, do you, uh, recollect offhand how many developmental works development work sessions, USIP development work sessions, uh, were offered by the district? Uh, off the top of my head, I know we offered at least two. There might have been three sessions. Um, we usually offer those and, and allow people to, to select when they would like to attend those. And are, are those, uh, the scheduling of those, are they time sensitive for some reason? They, they are. Um, if you recall, the board, uh, is required to, uh, approve the submission of school improvement plans, um, by the October date. Um, uh, it's, uh, it's, so it's a pretty compact timeline between when we receive the performance framework results and can, can share those and work on those. Uh, and when we have to have those, uh, those drafts ready for submission, um, to the board, to, to pass on to CDE, Would, would, would those development work sessions have taken place between that time and the October submission day? Yes. Thank you. All right. I'll, I'll go ahead and continue with the next, uh, element of the plan, which is the educational program. Um, some strengths that we noted, um, uh, the application to pro provide a comprehensive list of both, uh, some of the strengths and challenges that the school has experienced, uh, historically since its ex, uh, inception. Those were on page 27, and as Mr. Ura mentioned, uh, previously, uh, we also noted a strength that, uh, CHIPA provides a variety of programming, uh, reflective of the school, uh, school's large Latinx population, including mariachi, folklorico dance, Chicano studies, and other representations of Latino culture. Um, some of the concerns we noted in this area, there were just some contradictory statements within the application. Um, so at one point of the application, it says, uh, Chavez Huerta, K 12 Preparatory Academy continues to achieve and grow. Um, but then in the very next section, it stated, academic achievement and growth have lacked at CHIPA over the past eight years. Um, that was on page, page 29 of the application. Um, the application also said, well, the, uh, school will continue to monitor and adjust the program accordingly. Um, it lacked specificity in terms of how this will be done systemically. Um, it does mention the use of professional learning communities, um, but it clearly expressed description of that system that the leadership has in place, including how they'll, uh, make those adjustments, uh, uh, and communicate those to staff was, was lacking. Um, a, a another, another one kind of key concern in this area was related to, uh, professional development. Uh, they did indicate that they provide professional development on a monthly basis. Um, uh, it lacked specificity in terms of, um, those topics that were provided, um, uh, how those would address improvement efforts and how those were translating to the classroom. Um, the diagnostic review submitted with an Appendix C noted a similar challenge regarding professional development. It said, uh, additionally, it was not clear what follow up takes place from professional development. And then I think some of the focus group survey they had in there, um, uh, about 61% of the teacher surveyed disagreed with the statement, the professional learning I receive is relevant to my work and student needs. Um, that was on page 190, and those are, uh, uh, I'd be happy to answer any questions, um, from that area. Okay. We'll continue with the, the next section then. Um, the, the next part was serving students with special needs. Uh, our team assigned a partially developed rating to this area. Uh, some strengths we noted is they do seek to utilize experienced ESS teachers to support newer teachers at the school. Uh, and they also have a regular cadence of weekly meetings, um, with various, um, stakeholders, um, to address special education programming at the school. Uh, uh, some concerns there were some discrepancies, um, between, um, uh, the, uh, number of students identified with an IEP at each level. Um, that may be just in terms of, uh, the types of IEPs and how they, they counted, uh, which IEPs reported and what what, um, our department had. Um, the application also provided kind of a, a general definition and description of the, uh, MTSS, which is multi-tiered systems of support process and its purpose. Uh, it lacks some details regarding how the process is currently being implemented, uh, specifically at chipa. Um, some additional information there, such as the number of students receiving tier two and three supports, uh, along with types of interventions and used, uh, consistently across the school, um, would've provided some, some additional context and help with that understanding. Um, as a district, we have, uh, provided, uh, professional development in this area of, uh, exceptional student services this year. Um, and, uh, CHIP has not participated in, in those sessions. Again, not, not required of them, but an option to do so. I'll pause there for that section. WA was chip, uh, invited? Uh, I mean, yes. They, they had the opportunity, were they in fact invited? Yes. Uh, the next section of the plan had to do with budget and finance. Um, our team, uh, identified a not developed rating for this section. Um, nor did we identify any particular strengths within this section of the application. Um, some concerns, um, that we identified, um, the budget materials provided in the application and appendices, uh, fail to follow the CDE templates and formats that creates challenges in terms of comparability and obscures, um, uh, potential discrepancies. Um, the three year budget protection report was incomplete. Um, it did not include the context of the fund balance, uh, within that. Um, additionally, some of the budget protections for fiscal year 26 27 are concerning, given that that district analysis has identified an estimate estimated deficit of approximately $4.3 million due in part to loan payments that will come due, uh, in 20 26, 27. And that deficit was not well represented in the application. Um, the application lacked clarity regarding, uh, needed identified cuts to achieve budget reductions. Um, the revised and approved budget seemed to be, um, the same, uh, on pages 525 526 within appendix H. Um, the, uh, the school budget, uh, the, the plan for school budget revision indicates that 17 grade level positions could be restructured for a savings of approximately $300,000. These appear to be cuts in positions, but the report did not provide additional details, including whether these were teaching or leadership positions. What specifically that term restructuring means, or how the 300,000 in savings was, uh, determined. Uh, The application did not indicate whether a current contingency plan is in place. Um, the narrative of the application indicates that contingency plans could be developed in various ways. Uh, that was in page 40. Um, there was an Abacus Review in Appendix H that could presumably be serving as a contingency plan, but that was not clear. Um, a table on page 525 is, um, designed to show savings, but it was not complete. It didn't include a total to show, uh, or show the total amount for what was listed there. Um, and then with regard to enrollment projections, um, it did not, the, the application didn't indicate a specific model or a formula that was applied, um, to explain the, the projected increases in enrollment. Um, they referenced a grade growth rate of one to 2% in the coming year, and then a three to 4% rate, um, for the following year. Um, they explained that their rationale for those was based on implementing a dual immersion program and an online program. Um, neither of those programs, uh, currently exist at the school. And then the enrollment projections also appear to be con contingent on new residential construction, uh, in the area around the school. Um, there wasn't clarity around the construction and occupancy timeline for this, uh, development in the area. I did, uh, find it within the, uh, Pueblo chief in an article that indicates that there is a plan to build 600 homes there. The first phase of that was about 114, um, single family lots. And that's the end of that section. So I'll pause for questions, and just for, I, I may defer some of these two to Ms. Hans, uh, on the budget Director Tebow. Thank you. Um, I'm looking at exhibit H in the, uh, application notebook, and I'm at the very last page. Um, there's a paragraph that I found, uh, whoops, quite intriguing in terms of, um, how everything was analyzed and what the school is looking for. And let me just read it. It's fairly short, and maybe you can comment on, I think you've commented on some of these things, but I think you can, maybe in the context of this paragraph, um, add to your comments. It says, at this point, um, chip is looking for time with the plan changes in staffing and reduction in the operational and supply budgets. We have cut $1.03 million from the budget. We need to be able to reduce our debt through a more analyzed system of spending at the end of the year without risking the quality of education and the gains being shown. In this current school year. We will introduce a budget of 850. I, I think they're referring to the student enrollment for the 25 26 school year. And if we are able to implement an online program, which is an additional program, um, with additional families into the area, the construction issue, then we should be able to maintain and save resources to assist our debt ratio issues. It says, please let me know if you have any further ideas or suggestions to assist us with our budget. I, I just find that as a interesting kind of summary from their standpoint and how your team, and possibly you, you know, viewed that in the context of what was said in there. What struck me was they're looking for time, they're looking for kind of a way out. Um, and perhaps you can comment as to whether or not there is a way out or not. Um, with, with reference to the, um, the programming in particular, I think that would, and, and Lana might be able to comment on some of the budgetary pieces to that, but with reference to the programming piece, um, I think our concern is those are programs that don't exist, uh, currently at the school. Um, undertaking online programs and dual immersion programs are, um, uh, add costs. Um, they are, um, Fairly complex programs to implement. Um, they should be implemented with the intention of not just boosting enrollment, but, but, um, because of the, the educational supports that we'll provide. And so I think our team's concern was, given some of the other struggles, the academic performance of the school, how do you take on new programming and new things, um, in a way that, um, is going to make them effective? Um, and, and would those things potentially divert resources and finances, um, that, um, are already an issue for the school? Um, I, I think that would be the perspective our, of our team, uh, and why we we raise those as concerns. Director Mays, Uh, Mr. Johnson, on the, uh, again, on your concerns here. Uh, the, the first concern you indicated under budget finance, uh, reads as follows, the budget materials provided in the application and app dependencies failed to follow CDE templates or formats, creating a lack of comparability and obscures potential discrepancies. Is that a requirement to follow the CDA templates and format? Uh, I'm, I'm gonna actually defer that question to Ms. Hans. Um, just she's gonna be able to speak more to, to what's required in, in terms of the budget and finance pieces. Well, according to Colorado Department of Education and their handbook, um, which is where you can actually find, um, the formats for proper, uh, financial reporting and, and budget presentation. You can actually see that in the CDE handbook, um, which is available to everybody. Um, I did develop a, a document using the CDE, uh, setup and provided it to chipa, showing them why it's important to use this, um, process, because you have to include fund balance. If you don't, don't start with your bank account in the beginning of the year and see what you have up at what you have at the end of the year, then you have no idea what you, what you've accomplished, or how much you've spent. Um, and it, it's just a good practice to, to follow. Said guidelines also makes your data more comparable. Um, you could compare it to like one of our schools if you so desired. Um, but at the current format and the printout that was provided, there's no context. Um, it's just salaries, benefits, purchase services, et cetera, that you don't have any delineation between what's instruction, which would be very important for us to know. Um, instructional costs. If you're truly not affecting the classroom, then those should not have been, uh, driven down, in my opinion. So I hope I'm answering your questions. You know, in order to compare things, you have to have apples to apples, um, not just budget document for revenue and expenditures. That doesn't tell you anything. Are you, are you familiar with, uh, uh, the way other, other school districts, uh, format their, their budgets? All of us are required to use the uniform budget summary, which also is delineated in that fashion. You start out with fund balance plus your revenues to end up with your resources that are available. Then you have instructional expenditures and you keep breaking it on down. It's no different from when you look at, um, our document that goes this way. Uh, we do it the same way. I know you can't see it. Um, but we break it out by what's instruction, what's sped, what is student services, you know, student supports, instructional supports, hr, the superintendent costs, all those sorts of things, um, are broken out so that you can truly see what's going on. All of us are required to use that uniform, but who Is all of us, Every school district in the state of Colorado? So that's a general recognized principal that you follow. Uniform budget summary is required to be posted, um, on your website as well as your, uh, proper budget documents. Have you had these discussions with CHIPA before this particular budget cycle? Um, No. Uh, they have the same information that I do. Um, I've provided them with our chart of accounts and have ref referenced many times that, uh, CDE has a handbook, um, everybody has to follow it. I request their budget, um, documents in the uniform budget summary, because we post it in con included in ours. So if you go to our website, you will actually see the charter schools listed as well. Are, are you aware of, uh, whether you or previous, uh, uh, folks involved in the finance part of District 60, uh, offered any kind of, uh, assistance to CHIPA in the past concerning their, uh, finances? Uh, we've offered numerous times. Um, when, uh, I can't tell you how many years it's been, uh, several of us went over to chipa to, to try to look into their financial accounting system and see if we could figure out what was going on. Um, we always offer assistance, whether it's taken or not is another thing. Um, historically, they have not wanted our assistance. Madam President, may I ask a question or provide some clarifying information to Judge Mayes if that's appropriate? That would be fine. To your question, judge Mays, relative to the information that was presented in the packet, first and foremost, we also conform with the uniform budget summary. We understand the requirements for our disclosure and how that has to look on our website. And when asked specifically, we'll provide that to the district as well. What was included in the application from what was shared with me is the raw export of our financial information as it's presented to our finance committee. So the way that our board reviews the income and the expenses, as well as staffing, salaries, and all those other pieces, that was the report included. Just how we see it and how we review it, and how we take that information in from the finance committee level to review that. Now, if it was the intent of the district to be very specific in that the CDE model be submitted, then it would be helpful to include that type of clarifying language in the application charter packet that we received. When I go back and look at that, I was not at first glance able to identify anywhere where that was a part of what was said specifically that you would like to see the budget in that CDE format. So what we provided was that raw information that we reviewed to make decisions from there. We have our Abacus team that is phenomenal at helping to make sure that it's then provided in either format for the auditors provided in the uniform budget summary for disclosure to the public, or posting to the website, or provided for any other matter of the decision of our board or the executive leadership of the school. As it relates to advisement. As I've shared with this board, I believe in the past, we rely upon our finance committee of the board, which also includes membership of other individuals. One of those individuals was a former Chief Financial officer for the district that also reviews that information, also helps us look at and remember those deadlines of disclosures and information. So I just wanted to clarify that it's not like these things are foreign to what we have to do. We realize we have to comply and for purpose of the application, it was the raw data, if I could call it that, that was submitted for the financial information portion of this. Now, if it were to be more clear, or if the district had intended to wanna see it in the CDE format respectfully, I would request then I think that packet should reflect that. So we're very clear in the future and any other charter school for that matter, that wants to apply to supply it in the CDE format and not the native format of whatever software that they may use, which in our case is a slightly different one. If I understand correctly, SDS or whatever the case may be, Mr. Trujillo, it, it is been pretty clear for a, a significant period of time now that the financial issues involving CHIPA have been of concern to this board. I mean, that's, it's, it's nothing new. And I, I say that probably going on nine years now that I've had something to do with chipa, either as a board member or when CHIPA was having their, their problems, uh, after I left the board the first time. And do you believe at any point in time that CHIPA has some responsibility in trying to figure out what's going on and, and why we're having these, these discussions? Absolutely. I, and I won't get into it because I know in the past I've also was, was told, uh, on certain occasions that when I wanted information, it would be forthcoming and it never was forthcoming. So I, I mean, I can, uh, I have a concern with those issues. Yeah. You, uh, can I respond to that Judge Mason? Sure. I will acknowledge, and I think both of you and I can agree that there was a fair share, a fair share of challenges that the institution incurred, you know, that revolve around the accu, or, excuse me, the finances relative to enrollment, the numbers used for enrollment, the budgets that were presented. Um, and I will tell you, and I I say this with all sincerity in the sense that unfortunately no wand was ever provided to solve it overnight. And it wasn't a, a, a issue that arrived overnight. However, there have been, and we could go into the details of these things, significant improvements in how our systems operate, the quality of data we're only as good as the quality of the data that goes into a system in terms of what it generates. And today, I feel confident saying we have much more robust reports, we have much more robust systems and levels of accountability with our finance team, our executive team, and others to help that. Now certainly over a period of years, it has been an issue and could have continued, but we feel confident that moving forward we have the right mix. And I hope that that is never an issue. But we realize that when it comes to education, it can always be an issue overnight with enrollment and whatever the state legislature brings. We heard earlier about the budget that's being proposed and how those things could impact it. So it's not just a matter of the, the system and how we report numbers, but it's all these other factors that are sometimes beyond any board's control that we are victim of as well. And the severity of those issues could impact a smaller school like us, a smaller district in the state of Colorado. But as it stands to being able to make financial decisions, to look at it from a board member's perspective, to ask questions, to receive the data, to have confidence in that data as well as a, a competent team behind that data that understands the inputs and what the numbers mean, and not just say, well, we clicked a button, that is what instills confidence to me and to tell you that we are in a much better place today than what we even were a year ago. When you and I had that conversation, we were going through the midst of the transition when I sat before you and said, we could bring that back. Now, if there's additional information again that is requested or wanted to be viewed, we submit that through the district and, and our context there. What happens with it at that point, I'm not too sure. I don't get to that level of operations as a board member. Um, you know, that's, that's something I could certainly look at. But from board member to board member, I have much, much more confidence in where we stand today and what the future holds to meet those challenges with these systems in place. Mr. Segura, uh, apparently the projected enrollment, uh, for CHIP is, was about a hundred behind. Can you, can you walk me through the process you used to determine what your projected enrollment for this particular school year was and what happened that we ended up with the 100 less, uh, uh, students. And then on, uh, in addition to that, knowing that, can you also explain to me how you are projecting a growth rate of 1.1 to 2% next year and three to 4% the following year? So I, I, I'd like to know how, how it came about a hundred, a hundred students, and I know it's, it's, I know it's not a, you can just pick the number out, but, uh, and you're gonna be on it. You're gonna, there's gonna be some wiggle room someplace. Uh, but walk, walk me through how you folks came up with that, and how is it that you at this point are predicting, uh, in the next, uh, couple years, uh, up to a 4% growth Rate? So, again, I think, um, as you talked about earlier, and if I can answer the first question as far as is your question, how did we lose a hundred students? No, no, I didn't say you lost a hundred students. I think you projected, uh, a hundred more students than you actually got. We Projected a hundred more students. Yeah. And that was based on, uh, previous projections that we had over the last five years. We had anywhere from 1,024 students that had dropped maybe one to 2%. Um, well, let me take that back. I would say drops of about, uh, if we're talking about a thousand students, we were dropping, oh, I would say about 10 to 15 students a year. Again, the additions that we were getting to the school versus the drops that we were getting usually evened out. So again, we, we did do this kind of, of graph, if you will, where we went up a little bit. We'd go down a little bit, but over the past three years, we did see a drop of about 10 to 15 students every year. There was no reason, or there was no method that said between 23, 24 and 24 25, that there was going to be a drop of a hundred to 140 students. Now, if we look back reflectively and look at maybe some of the root causes, I can't speak to what my predecessor predecessors might have done previous to that, but something happened within that school that did cause a drop of a hundred students that did take place. So again, it might have been placed on, uh, a current, uh, you know, the administration that was happening during that time over the previous year. Um, I know a lot of our students, when we did our exit interviews, told us that they were going towards, um, a remote learning types of platforms, and they were looking at those alternative areas in which, uh, they, they weren't coming back to our school. So again, we collected a lot of that data, and we tried to find ways to say, you know what, maybe an online system would work better for us, or adding an online system could help us with keeping that enrollment that's taking place. Right now, one of the current things that we are doing to try to prevent, uh, students leaving is, again, engaging students in their instruction, improving the quality of making sure that students are feeling like they're, they're at a home. That CH plays, PA is a place for them to be so that they can continue to perform and do well, and not choose to leave our, our academy. 'cause again, the losses that we saw this year were very, uh, surprising to us. We did not expect to see any losses of a hundred. So again, going back to that, um, uh, going back to, to what we're looking at, to see maybe a 1% to two, 2% increase. We have 838 students that we plan on keeping this year. We would like to go ahead and introduce some innovative waste to try and keep them there. Again, looking at online learning, at the time, I, I believe it was early August, September, we had a, a, a company, uh, contact us. They wanted to put an online, uh, uh, portion of a school that they were running into our school, and they were bringing 50 students to us, uh, immediately if we would do something like that, well, we wanted to go back and take a look at the background and see what kind of, of, uh, uh, of implementation that would look like. But, um, we could say that there is a definite need for online and what others are looking for, again, a dual program. Okay, I, I understand that. I understand is, are you telling me that you going to build this thing up from one to 4% by adding an online school, which is gonna be expensive to do to begin with in, uh, in a budget that's already has some concerns? And, uh, uh, an immersion program? Is, is that where you're going to get your understanding full? Well, that just about every school district in the state is seeing declining enrollment. But we have conversations through NeighborWorks. We've had conversations through other building areas, and the west side is going to start bringing up, uh, a a lot of the population as far as the housing and, and some of the, the, the, um, uh, the area just is growing right now. So, again, to think that we're gonna have 138 to go to 150, that's only a growth of 12 students. And I think that's very minimal growth for the housing that we're gonna see that's going to be happening on the west side. Okay. So my, my next question is, uh, was this, Uh, again, I don't know whether this goes Ms. Neon's or who, but, uh, CHS CPA's budget projections for 26 27 are concerning, given that the district analysis has identified the district, the district analysis has identified an estimated deficit of approximately $4.3 million due in part to balloon payments that will come due in FY 26 27. The definite is not, well, this definite deficit is not well represented in the application. And my question is, uh, uh, as I'm reading this, it's just not the balloon payment that there's a concern about a deficit, but there are other matters as well. Can, can anybody from the district help explain that to me, please. At the time that I shared the CDE, uh, format with, um, some of the folks from Abacus, I did clarify the expenditures that were, were listed, and I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me. Um, I don't know if it was 25, 26 or 26, 27, there was a huge jump in an expenditure line, which I asked what that was about. And they were trying to pay down their debt. Well, we, we know that we aren't supposed to have a conversation about the debt, because that is part of, uh, their building corporation. Okay? But if you represent on the budget that you're going to spend all of a sudden $10 million in a line that tells me something's going on, and if it's not your debt, then what is the expense for? And it also made their fun balance go upside down. So part of it is their, their, their presentation, um, you can't tell really what's going on, and there would've been, it would've been, uh, behoove them to have some context so that we knew what was really happening in those account lines. Did I answer your question? Yes. Thank you. I'll, I'll continue with a, a couple more sections. Um, uh, the next part of the plan element was food services. Um, the team, uh, assigned that a fully developed rating, um, with no, uh, particular noted strengths or concerns in that area. Uh, and then the next one was transportation. Uh, same thing, fully developed rating for that section, uh, with no noted, uh, strengths or, or concerns, uh, uh, for that particular, um, piece. Um, and then the third, uh, element was governance. Um, we did rate that as fully developed, uh, with a strength that all the required elements were included, uh, as appendices in this part of the application. Um, one concern noted was just the turnover of leadership, uh, since the previous renewal, including three new executive directors, um, and the impact that that can have on consistent systems. Um, and then, um, uh, kind of to the, to the point we've been discussing is just the extent to which, um, the, the leadership has a thorough understanding of financial challenges and the, uh, and whether these have been effectively communicated, um, to all stakeholders. Um, that was not clear to our review team. Um, So I'll pause there for questions. Okay. Uh, if there are none, I'll turn it back over to you. Superintendent Kimsey. Thank you so much, Mr. Uh, assistant Superintendent Johnson. Um, so, uh, I would like to share with the board that, um, I approached this, um, matter with Quite a bit of deliberate action. I personally read through the application before reading any recommendations from the district review team, so that I could ensure that what they presented to me aligned with how I would score the application on the rubric. Uh, I was very methodical. And I also want to share that I realized that this school, uh, was designed to serve a need in our community. So this is a grave matter, and it is not one that I took lightly, uh, at all. Um, after reviewing the application for myself, in addition to reviewing all of the recommendations from the review team, uh, I am, uh, recommending to the board, um, non-renewal of this charter application. And as I said, I do that not with any kind of excitement. Um, I know this is, this is grave, um, I, the basis of my recommendation is around the fiscal area that is, uh, found to be not developed. Um, I realized that we as a district too, have schools that struggle. So I did not feel comfortable citing that as part of my recommendation to the board. Um, so, uh, based on that, uh, that is my recommendation. However, I do realize that this is a very grave matter. And so additionally, with the help of the review team, we are also offering the board should the board want to consider doing so some potential ways to renew the charter for a shorter amount of time, requiring certain benchmarks, um, to, to ensure continuation of that charter approval. And I've included those in my recommendation to the board. They include shortening the contract term. Um, and I would recommend one year, uh, requiring separate school codes for elementary, middle, and high school. Just like all of our schools have separate codes and are reported with their own school frameworks. Um, I also recommend withholding approval of an expansion of instructional programming through the addition of that online or dual immersion program. Just knowing that we focusing on the current instructional program to ensure that it is shored up and strong will take the efforts of the CHPA staff, uh, adding another layer could actually undermine those efforts. So that's my recommendation there, requiring CHPA to work with us on the development of their unified school improvement plan. We stand ready to work with them on developing that, and I look forward to being able to do that should the board decide to go with that recommendation requiring CHPA to use our available district programs, applications, professional resources, so that we can avoid these disconnects in communication requiring CHPA to use the templates and formats required by the CDE for all fiscal management and reporting. And I would like to share, Ms. Hans does a good job of always copying me when she is corresponding with CHPA, and she does that on almost a daily basis regarding, uh, different issues with what has been sent to the district, also requiring C-H-P-D-P-A to provide those quarterly financial statements, a trial balance and its audit in a timely manner. So we need to meet those deadlines requiring CHPA to return all district real and personal property, uh, at formal former Hyde Park Elementary, which we understand from CHPA has been vacated. Um, and expecting that CHPA provides the district with answers to the questions in appendix three as we reviewed the application. And I respectfully submit that recommendation to the board as presented in your board materials. Alright, do we have further questions for either Okay. Director Tebow, Thank you. Um, and this will probably be directed to our superintendent, and I want to thank our superintendent for, uh, a thorough review as she put forth in the record. And, um, I agree it's a matter of great concern, and I'm going to assume that if the board adopts the recommendation of the team and the superintendent, and there is a non-renewal, uh, in asking these questions, and if they are, um, questions that can't be answered, or if people feel they're inappropriate to answer, you know, that's fine. But these are things on my mind. Um, and they're basically surrounding the impacts to District 60 if non-renewal is, um, voted on. And our plan at that point, and how we develop a plan in, um, three areas, and one area is how we use the assets of, um, the charter school, if indeed we do, per the audit that I reviewed in, in, um, attachment M, it was, uh, in note three, page 13, relative to assets. Um, secondly, how we assume debt, if we do, uh, per the audit under the attachment M in note four, page 14. In other words, will the district assume debt or will it assume some kind of operational or maintenance costs that have been derived, um, from the point that the application is not renewed? And how do we, thirdly, how do we, how do we plan for the students? Which really is something on my mind as, um, superintendent pointed out, it's a, it's a very special school for, um, special area in our community. And I'm just wondering, um, if we non-renew the 2020 5 26 academic year, then what happens? What, what is our plan? How do we absorb those students and, um, you know, take care of them along with all the staff too, that, you know, um, obviously is an integral part of that. These are questions that perhaps can't even be answered today, but I, I'm just not clear, especially when I looked at the, um, the timeline that we're, we're facing here, that, um, we as a board, if I understand correctly, under our current policies are supposed to take action on this matter no later than February 1st, which is less than a month away. And, uh, there's also a provision that says, or an agreed upon date, um, following a public hearing and so on and so forth. But I, I'm just a little unclear about those things. Um, and I'm even concerned that maybe they don't even matter in, in the sense of our determination, because as the superintendent pointed out in her recommendation and citing the statute that's involved, which I reviewed, there are certain criteria and it follows in the first renewal application or contract, these, um, these time periods, or not the time periods, well, the time periods and the, um, the reasons for non-renewal. So the things that I just brought up, I know they're of concern, but I'm not quite so sure they're the first line of determination by the board. The board has specific, um, standards upon which we must make findings relative to how the, the contract was developed, the renewal contract, the first renewal contract was developed, and, uh, the statute. So, um, I'm just wanting us to, to really proceed in a fashion that's, that's, um, that's giving the right process that's due to the school to, to make their case. And if they can't make their case and there is a non-renewal, you know, just sort of what happens at that point. I know that's a lot, so I'm not expecting a lot of, uh, you know, answers, but those are the things that are on my mind. Now, if the board decides to go the route of, uh, sort of a conditional approval, I think then that's gonna take quite a bit of work on the part of, um, lots of lawyers to fashion language in the contract to make sure that those things, you know, are achieved. So I'll end there, madam Superintendent, and just throw that out. And, um, if we cannot come to some answers for those things today, I certainly understand that. I just, those are the things that are on my mind. Thank you, And I appreciate those, uh, Mr. Tebow. Um, we too are concerned with students as I know CHPA is concerned with students. Uh, so I would want to assure the board that we would work very closely with CHPA should the board determine, uh, non-renewal is the path. However, we have also given you the option for not for renewing with some conditions, um, because I personally, uh, would expect that the board might allow CHPA to answer some of those concerns. Um, and in fact, if you look at the language in the law, you know, giving CHPA the opportunity to respond to the concerns we have raised in this recommendation, uh, would be in order as far as how the assets are handled, how the debt is handled, um, I would defer to Mr. Bump around the legalities of all of that. Um, and he, he may need time too, I'm not sure. Um, but we could certainly get those answers for you about how that exactly would proceed moving forward. I hope that helps. Yes, Ma'am. Madam President, may I ask a qu clarifying question or provide a comment? Yes, Mr. Trujillo, one of the items that our board has also taken a look at in this particular packet that was provided, we met at a special board meeting, reviewed the information, and if it is truly the intent of the district to non-renew, then our question and or suggestion would be then allow us the opportunity to ask the question of someone else if they would choose to authorize our institution, thereby allowing us to be innovative and creative and let the cho let the choice be the parents where they choose to enroll their student. At the end of the day, we're all in it for the students and what's best for them. And that's certainly our intent as well, as well as the district. We know that. But by allowing us to be chartered elsewhere, if that's the case, then we can continue that programmatic offering. We can hopefully then create programs where we see those deficiencies. Uh, one of the points that we didn't point out earlier, when students exit our institution, there's an exit interview, and every time they leave, it's pointed to what the data is telling us online. They're going to an online program, they're going to an online program. And by us simply not being able to offer that as where we look at that as a retention strategy or being told by the district, no, you cannot offer that. That's where we wanna be able to have that runway to say, well, let's be creative. That's what our school was founded on in 2000, being able to offer the parents a choice and being an institution that was creative and innovative. And that's different for everybody. So we also, our board is aware and looks at that as a possibility as well. Go ahead, director. May I, uh, I, I think that's a valid question, and I, I would again, uh, defer to Mr. Bump. Uh, is the, the question is, is do we have to give our approval for CHIPA to seek out another, uh, charter, uh, uh, support school? Yes, you would. Pardon? Yes, you would. We have exclusive chartering authority. So, uh, to release CHIPA to say the Institute Charter Charter School Institute would require board approval. Any other districts could not place a charter school within our boundaries without the board's approval as well. Is there a time element involved in that? There is, there's a statute that requires, since I think CHIPA had issued bonds that were certified by the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority. Uh, they, I think were a qualified charter school at that time. So there's a statute that if we non-renew, we have to notify the Commissioner of Education and the state treasurer, and both of those individuals have the opportunity to put a hold on any further action for up to 120 days while they sort it out with us as far as what options might be available, that would potentially include going to the Charter School Institute. And that's just to protect the bond holders, I believe is more important than anything else. And Madam President, if I may, and then I promise I'm No, Mr. Rio. Go ahead. Um, I, relative to that, we have also been, I want this board to understand that we are very communicative also with our bond holders and understanding the depth in the buildings and all of this. And so they are kept aware and are supportive of our, of our plans thus far in our conversations with the most recent being in December, where we shared with them what we were doing this year and what we had plans and intentions in the future. So we, we are keeping that party to our institution apprised as well. And that's our commitment to be very transparent with all stakeholders. So I just wanted to point that out and note that. Thank you, Madam President. Other questions? Well, Mr. Segura and Mr. Trujillo, we appreciate you being here today and presenting your application, um, and allowing us to ask questions. Um, and Mr. Johnson, we thank you for the report that you and your team prepared for all of us. All of that was, uh, as Superintendent Kimsey said, it's very grave, um, very difficult topic to be talking about, but we'd appreciate all of your, um, preparation and being here today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank You. We will now move on to 10.0 policy, and I know we have some policies to review, but I will turn it over to Superintendent Kimsey first. Thank you, president Pen Nuncio. At this time, I'd like to call Mr. Andy Burns, our Executive Director of Student Support Services. He will present to you policies for first reading, JIH and KDE. Thank you, superintendent Kimey, and good evening, or good afternoon, president Pen Nuncio and members of the board. This afternoon, the board is asked to consider modifications to two board policies on a first reading to pleases the board. I'll just go over both of them first and then entertain any questions. Those two policies are board policy, JIH, interviews and searches, and board policy, KDE Crisis Management. The edits are redlined for the board's consideration and have been reviewed and recommended by our legal counsel. We'll, we'll review both policies, uh, individually. First, with regard to JIH interviews and searches, the Board of Education has asked to review the modifications that add clarifying language associated with student privacy. Specifically during any would-be law enforcement interviews. Uh, I can say, uh, with complete confidence, any interviews are handled with discretion, dignity for our students and privacy. Uh, we, uh, aim to not disrupt the student day and handle any interviews, uh, with, uh, complete care and dignity for our students. Um, and so there are minimal changes to JIH With regard to KDE Crisis Management, the Board of Education is asked to review modifications on a first reading and recommend any changes. The modifications, highlight the importance of training district staff on the National Incident Management System, or nims. Uh, Mr. Mike Bayer, our Director of Culture Safety and Wellness, tracks this information. And we did an audit for compliance in the spring. We had staff, um, who weren't current on their NIMS training. They completed it during last spring. So Mr. Bayer reviews that on a regular basis. The modifications also update the policy and reference a district safety plan, which is maintained by the Office of Student Support Services. Mr. Bayer in particular, he does an amazing job with his work. Uh, the Policy and Safety Plan is updated and reviewed by district leadership on a regular basis. It's also, um, updated in consultation, uh, with a great collaboration and generosity of numerous agencies, um, the Pueblo Police Department, uh, the Pueblo City, uh, the health department, the fire department, and many other, uh, city and county emergency response and planning agencies throughout Pueblo. As the, uh, changes recommend, it discusses a framework, and that's exactly what we have in place. We've, uh, worked closely really under Mr. Bayer's leadership to create an ecosystem of safety for all of our students and our staff. That includes an annual, uh, reunification exercise, the NIMS training, regular conversations with our principals and our leadership team on how to ensure safety in our school. Uh, this includes my information and the updates for these two policies. And at this point, I'm glad to address any questions. Alright, well, thank you so much Mr. Burns. I appreciate that. Update. The updates on those two policies. Superintendent Kinzie, Thank you so much, Mr. Burns and President p Nuncio. Next, I invite to the microphone, Mr. Johnson, who will present, uh, changes to L-B-D-L-B-D-R, the regulation, um, LBDE one, uh, and LBDE two. And these are all, um, due to changes in law. Uh, thank you, superintendent Kimsey, um, president Pen Nuncio, Amanda, uh, members of the board. Um, this afternoon I'm bringing forward, um, recommended changes to the LBD policies that deal with, uh, relations with charter schools. Um, and as, uh, Dr. Kimsey mentioned, um, these are largely due to changes in statute and updates to the timeline for submission of, uh, applications and materials. Um, so I, I will walk through there. They're a little bit, uh, more here. So I will walk through these just kind of briefly, individually, um, with you, um, just to kind of EE explain those, um, and entertain questions for each, each one of these policies. Um, so we'll begin with LBD. Uh, uh, the, the policy relation with charter schools. Um, PA first, uh, few changes are really just some, some grammatical changes and updates to the, the policy. Uh, if you turn, um, to the second page of the policy, um, uh, the third paragraph down is where it starts to get into some more substantive, um, information. Uh, it's, it identifies if the board approves a district's charter school application. The district charter school must use the school and fiscal year from July one to June 30th, following the submission of its application as a planning year during which the district charter school will prepare for serving students the next school year, uh, district charter school will open in the fall of the school and fiscal year following the planning year, unless another starting time is agreed upon by the board and the applicant. So within that establishes a planning year for, for the implementation of a charter program. Um, and then there is a, a small just update to the, um, charter application process statute, uh, listed there as well. So let's see if there are any questions on that LBD policy first. The next one we'll look at is the, uh, regulation policy LBD dash R. Um, you'll see, uh, an updated timeline under the intent to apply section. Uh, it states new district charter school. Applicants must file an intent to apply form, uh, exhibit LBD, uh, dash E one with the district at least 30 days before submitting an application. Uh, but no later than March 1st of each year. Uh, and then if March 1st falls on a weekend, a legal holiday or a day day a school is not in session, then the form is due the next school day. Uh, and then following that, um, uh, in accordance with this regulation, and I'm sorry, I'm under the timeline. Uh, for submission of application in accordance with this regulation, a district charter school applicant shall submit an application to the district no earlier than February 1st, and no later than April 1st, um, of each year, if either date falls on a weekend, a legal holiday or a day school is not in session, then the date is extended to the next school day, 18 months before the charter school is set to open. Uh, and then there's a provision at the bottom of that. Uh, however, the board and the applicant may jointly wave or extend the dates in this deadline. So again, just updating those two, uh, coincide with the new, um, uh, new timelines, uh, provided in statute. Uh, there's, uh, uh, again, just some updates on page, um, four to the timeline, uh, under the submission procedures timeline. Um, I won't read them 'cause they're, they're redundant again, um, in terms of what they say. Um, but establishing that, that window there, um, on page five of the LBD dash R policy, um, just, um, there was some language that was stricken, uh, at the top of the page under the review by the District Accountability Committee. Um, and then under the decision on the district charter application, uh, it does say the board shall make a decision on a complete district charter school application by resolution in a regular or special board meeting no later than June 30th of the year, the district charter application was submitted or by such deadline as mutually agreed by the board in the applicant. Um, if you turn to page six under negotiations, uh, it does indicate, uh, agreed upon, uh, this is at the very top there. Um, agreement shall be concluded by and all terms agreed upon no later than 90 days after the board resolution approving the district charter application, or by September 30th, whichever date is later. And that would be falling within that, that planning year time. So I'll pause there. Those are the changes to LBD dash R. Are there any questions? Director Tebow? Thank you. I, as I read through all these, I noticed that there was a, after the application is submitted, there's a review by the administration. I'll just term it that there's some timeline involved with that, and then a review by the accountability committee, and I, before the board takes action on it, and I'm just wondering why the Accountability committee is involved and not just a review by the administration and then to the board. I, my understanding is that that is in statute, that that's part of the, the statute requires that the District Accountability Committee does review that app application. It's been a number of years since we've had a new application, but I do remember the accountability committee participating in that. Yeah. May, maybe Mr. V can provide a additional Context, but Well, yeah, I, I, I, I know it's in statute and all that. I'm just wondering, what, what does that serve? What purpose does that serve in assisting the board in its decision? I'm, I'm just thinking what if, what if the review by the administration says, you know, approve it and the accountability committee says, don't approve it, or vice versa. I mean, So the District Accountability Committee, uh, if you remember, is a committee that's comprised not just of school and district staff, but also community members. Uh, each school brings a, uh, it's typically one of the administrators participates in that, uh, as well as a parent, um, as well as a teacher, as well as a community member. So it's a, um, perhaps my sense and my interpretation of it would be that it provides an opportunity and a perspective from, uh, more of a community lens and, and that I think would be important for the board to understand. All right. Uh, the next, uh, uh, piece of the, of this is LBD dash E one, which is the intent to apply. Um, the, um, big changes here, uh, really occur in the instructions. Uh, first and foremost, just, uh, bringing into alignment with LBD dash R and then also updating, um, the, uh, contact information, uh, for, uh, who receives this information. Um, so it's updating with my name and email, uh, as the assistant superintendent, and then Mr. Westin as the liaison as well. Um, there's a, just a, uh, some clarifying detail partway down that they can attach additional pages as necessary. Um, that's really it for the, the LBD uh, dash E one. Alright. And then LBD dash E two, um, is, uh, the application itself, um, it's 30 pages. So again, I i, if it's all right with you all, I, I can read it if that's your preference. If not, uh, I can, uh, address anything in particular pages. But again, it's pretty much to bring everything into alignment. It updates some of the, um, name changes. Um, there's been some changes in contact information for some of the, uh, charter resources, um, updates to the timeline, that, that kind of of thing. So are there any questions on the LBD uh, dash E two charter application itself? Okay. Alright, thank you very much. Thank you so much Mr. Johnson for that update on the modifications to those policies. Appreciate it. We'll now move on to 11.0 approval of the consent agenda. Oh, Oh, no, no, no. And I pulled that sheet out. Uh, so we were gonna, we added here to the agenda of just a discussion, some information time for, uh, Mr. Uh, director Tebow to, uh, share some information about the resolution he would, uh, like to propose to the board to adopt Director Tebow. Should I turn it over to you? Thank you. Um, I think what I'll do with the permission, uh, your permission, Madam President and the board is just read the resolution and then sort of leave it at that and see if there's any comments, questions, or concerns. And then, um, we'll just go from there. But it is entitled a resolution concerning full funding of Public Education. Uh, it says, whereas public education is vital to representative democracy, it is the spark igniting economic prosperity and it is the cure for societal ills. Whereas the vision of Pueblo District 60 is to become a, a high performing school district that inspires community confidence, close quote with one of its goals being to achieve sustainable funding. Whereas District 60 values its teachers and building principals, whereas a student demographic, whereas student demographics of District 60 reveal that at least 80% of our student enrollment qualify for free or reduced priced lunches. Whereas among other sources of revenue, district 60 receives money from local property taxes and specific ownership taxes, as well as equalization funding from the state, which establishes total program funding. Whereas during fiscal year 25, 26, district 60 local share is expected to be impacted as a result of House Bill 24 B 1 0 0 1. And I'll just sort of note that that was the special session bill dealing with the um, uh, property tax changes in the law and then the resolution goes on. Whereas beginning in fiscal year 25, 26, house Bill 24, 14 48 created a new school finance formula to distribute funding to schools including District 60. The approach of which is more student focused, which will be phased in over six years without the budget stabilization factor it goes on. Whereas enrollment is a major determinant of required total program formula funding as funding is allocated on a per pupil basis, whereas the fiscal year 25, 26 enrollment count for District 60 is expected to decrease. Whereas House Bill 24 14 48 modified the calculation of district sixty's funded pupil count, which is used to allocate funding by changing the averaging provision so that District 60 will use the greater of the current year of student FTE or up to a four year average of student FTE. Previously it was five year average was a five year average, which was an additional benefit to District 60, whereas the law adds important factors in determining adjustments to the new law for students and district characteristics such as as at risk, English language learners, cost of living, remoteness personnel costs, district size, and online among others. Whereas overall, the new formula is expected to increase statewide total program and impact the state share each year through fiscal year 2030 through 31. And whereas the new formula may be impacted by adequacy studies that identify the base in quotes, level funding, which is the same for every district, and represents the resources needed for students with no special needs in a district with no special circumstances, as well as identifying the adjustments needed for student and district characteristics. Whereas categorical funding outside the formula is projected to increase by inflation in fiscal year 25 26 pursuant to law for special education disabilities, gifted and talented English language learners, transportation, career and technical. Whereas the cost of categorical services in District 60 are not covered by additional categorical funding by the state. So District 60 must use its general fund dollars to cover the difference, whereas the funding stream for Universal Preschool transferred from the State General Fund benefits District 60 and needs to be predictable, reliable, and adequate, whereas providing free breakfast and lunch for all students benefits District 60 students, especially considering the district's student demographics. And whereas for purposes of budget balancing, the state education fund can be thought of as interchange interchangeably with the general fund and they contribute to school finance, as does the public school fund. And it is good public policy to be prudent in spending down fund balances, but is, but it is equally good public policy to recognize that since 2010 public education has been underfunded by $10 billion and significantly in District 60 depriving our children the opportunity to become creative lifelong learners, therefore be it resolved. The Board of Education of Pueblo District 60 urges the general assembly to adopt its final appropriation for state aid and fiscal year 24 25 through passage of the mid-year supplemental bill for the Colorado Department of Education in conformity with the necessary increases in state share, be it further resolve the Board of Education of Pueblo District 60 urges the general assembly to prioritize as against other state wants and needs. Its initial appropriation for state aid in fiscal year 25 26, through the passage of the Public School Finance Act of 2025 and the 2025 long bill to, among other things, phase in house bill 24 14 48 over six years without the budget stabilization factor established student and district adjustments to the Public School Finance Act, which are student focused, including one base in quotes, level funding, and two, the definition of at risk factor in keeping with House Bill 22 12 0 2, which promised a new at at-risk measure that would replace the proxy that estimates the number of at-risk students based on free or reduced priced lunch and provide for student enrollment averaging. So the District 60 will use the greater of the current student FTE or at least a four year average of student FTE be it further resolved the Board of Education of Pueblo District 60 urges the general assembly to prioritize as against other state wants and needs categorical program funding outside the new formula, especially for education, special education and English, English language learners be it further resolved the Board of Education of Pueblo District 60 urges the general assembly to prioritize as against other state wants and needs. The funding stream for Universal Preschool transferred from the State General Fund, which benefits District 60 and be it further resolved the Board of Education of Pueblo District 60 urges the general assembly to prioritize as against other state wants and needs free breakfast and lunch for all students, which benefits District 60 students, especially considering the district student demographics. Then it requests that copies of this resolution be sent to Governor Polis, members of the legislative council, joint budget committee members, chairs and vice chairs of the Colorado House and Colorado Senate Education Committees and Pueblo's local legislative delegation at their respective addresses as noted on the roles of the Colorado General Assembly. Are there any questions for Director Tebow at this time? Alright. Nope. All right. Director Mays, And I don't know if this is, uh, uh, uh, your third line down, uh, uh, Mr. Tebow says, whereas district sales 60 values its teachers and building principals, I'm wondering if that couldn't, uh, be broadened to say, uh, values it's, uh, a school family and I don't know, maybe there's a better way to say that, but it involves bus drivers, workers, cafeteria workers, everybody that has anything to do with the children that we serve in District 60. It certainly could and it would be a friendly amendment as far as I was concerned. Um, as far as I'm concerned, um, whatever language does broaden or in be more inclusive, um, the idea behind this was that, um, many of the things that drive the, the funding, um, rely on, um, teachers and principals. Um, and in our recent community forum that, um, was held by our superintendent, uh, just before the holidays, um, one of the, one of the flashcards was that we value our teachers and building principals. But I'm more than happy to expand that with the appropriate language to include, uh, whomever because really when you stop and think about it, the more money we have in our district, the, the, the better everyone, um, you know, benefits by it all, all staff, all students. So I, I'm inclined to, to accept that as a friendly amendment at the proper time. Any other questions? Well, thank you, uh, director Tebow for reading that resolution and sharing that with us this afternoon. I guess it's this evening almost. Yeah, I did it all in one breath too. That's right. Excuse me. Alright, we will now move on to 11.0 the consent agenda. May I have a motion please? Well, no, you're just being bashful. It's uh, I move that we adopt the consent agenda items two through uh, Two through four. Do I have a second? Second. Is there any debate? See none. Please call the vote Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays aye Mrs. Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tebow? Aye. If there is no further business this evening, may I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second? I Second. It's been moved and seconded to adjourn this meeting. Is there any debate? See none. Please call the vote Ms. Patron. Mr. Cisneros? Aye. Dr. De Niro? Aye. Judge Mays Aye. Mrs. Pen, nuncio Aye. Mr. Tebow Aye, Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. Have a great evening. I.