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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=B1uYV1Zemck

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Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. It is Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. It is 6:01 p.m. and I call this special meeting of the Elizabeth School

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District to order. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Here. >> Director Hunt. >> Here. >> Director Kay. >> Here. >> Director Olson. >> Here. >> And Director Powell. >> Here. >> All right. Stand for the pledge.

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>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, I move that the board approve the

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special this special meeting agenda for August 11th, 2026 as presented. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Aye. >> Director Hunt.

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>> Aye. >> Director Kay. >> Aye. >> Director Olson. >> Aye. >> And Director Powell. >> Aye. >> Okay, I move that the board approve the Board of Education meeting minutes from June 23rd, 2026, June 29, 2026

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and July 18th, 2026. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion on those? All right, can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Kay. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Powell.

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>> Hi. >> Okay, now we're up to communications. So, who wants to kick it off? >> Well, just today we had kind of an exciting plan that's coming together. Um just about 2 weeks ago, we finally got

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the certificate of occupancy for the auto shop, so we're very excited about that. We are planning a grand opening for Thursday, September 10th at 6:00 in the evening. So, we are very excited about that. It's in progress, and we will keep you posted about that.

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We're excited. >> Yeah, it's long time coming. >> Yes, well say. All sorts of crazy reasons for that, but we are we're good to go. And they get to start classes in there. >> Absolutely. >> Coming right up. >> Yeah, I'll go next. Um since our last

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meeting, I've had the chance to meet with Dr. Knight several times to talk through district business and some of the issues that we're working on. We had our board retreat where we spent time here in the district offices talking through our vision, our mission,

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what we hope to accomplish this year as a board and as a district. And it really was a good opportunity to sit down together, to brainstorm together, and then just to create a direction on how we move forward. And honestly, the most important things are our financial

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stewardship of the district as well as making sure that our kids are achieving academic excellence. So, those are the top two priorities for our school board this year and I feel confident that Dr. Knight is the right person to help us get to those places and those goals.

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Um I also attended the district convocation uh which was a lot of fun. It was really great to see like all of the district staff in that um auditorium and just to see I mean Ted shared some of his story. He shared, you know, what it

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is about public education that has been powerful in his life and how that's really the motivating factor for him personally and I think that personal connection connects with a lot of us cuz I think a lot of us have had good experiences in public education, which is why we're willing to commit the time

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that we are to serve to make sure that public education is great for the kids that we serve. Um then I also met with our finance director just to learn more about the funding and accounting for our student organizations, our parent groups, our teams, our booster clubs. I met with her

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yesterday and I really appreciated her taking the time to sit down and to talk with me and walk me through the situation, all of the accounts, answer my questions. Um she was very forthright about all of this information and I hope we'll get a chance to talk more about that um tonight. Um just wanted to say

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it's been a very busy summer and a very busy last couple of weeks, but there's just been a lot going on in the district and I've appreciated having the opportunity to be a part a little part of what a lot of the different good folks are doing here in our district. >> I got to uh

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sit down with uh Nancy Smith for a couple hours uh and uh on last week and uh just to kind of cover down on where we are with math, where we need to go,

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and um it was uh very I I would came away encouraged. She's she's definitely on top of things, very energetic woman, very knowledgeable, very loves the children and just

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the idea that most children actually math is completely accessible to. And that that is not the general idea out there. Math is special knowledge only to a few

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and I I just I hate that. So um I think that I think you're you're going to try to have her come and and brief us and I think that's going to be good. I to see what she's cuz it's not just the students, it's not just the teachers,

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but the parents too as we try to put all of this together and I'm super excited. I I don't know if anybody saw this week that Sweden is removing all electronics from K through 9. Um and they were one of the first

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countries to put that trash in in the classes. So this is going this is great. I mean we had a I mean it's I think that's that's one thing that Nancy and I talked about was removing

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electronics from students. I mean you just you don't need it. It's just maybe a four function calculator, but that's about it. So she and I are like that. Sympatico. So so yeah, I'm really looking forward to

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what she's going to do and and we'll just I think she's working very well with the DLTs, the math DLTs to make sure that they're tracking from the C mass standards down to the uh you know, what what goes home with a

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child for homework at night. So, yeah, pretty excited. See what happens. >> Yeah. Cool. I also attended the convocation last week and you were right, it was very exciting the energy in the room. I could feel it. It

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was just felt different. And um it was actually inspiring because I think change tends to make people nervous and um in this case, I think people realize that it's a good change and it showed the energy in the room showed that.

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Um I also attended a community clean up day at the old Frontier High School. Got my paint on. Got a little bit more to do. Um it looks great. It was very encouraging to see all the people show up. Thanks for putting that together. Um it's just nice to see a little bit of a

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refresh on the old school. I know that people in the community love it. Um I don't want to step on your toes. >> can go ahead. >> Okay. All right. >> I'll add value. >> Okay. >> Some way. >> So, um one subject that has come up recently

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is the horse's mouth. And I was very excited about it when it was brought forward. It was a great, well-intentioned idea. Um and again, a lot of excitement about it. It was a chance for us to answer questions directly, cut through the

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noise and the misinformation and the negativity that spreads so easily on social media. Um it looks like we're going to have to discontinue it and it's just another one of those good things that has been turned and used for

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bad. Uh for example, we're seeing a growing number of anonymous submissions. So, we don't know if the submissions are even coming from anybody in our district. Um and we're also seeing a lot of questions

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increasingly moving beyond a simple Q&A. Hey, I saw this, you know, you know, what do you have to say to this? What do you have to say about that? And it's basically diving into the realm of CORA requests, a formal CORA request. And people don't

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understand that how much time those take so you know, um delving into the area of a CORA request without any of the structure of accountability that that process provides. Um this also connects to a broader issue.

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Uh since June 1st, and I know this is something that we've talked about in the past, CORA requests being used as lawfare. They take time, they take resources, and since June 1st, I'll give you an example, we have received 38 CORA

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requests. I think that's a record. Um fulfilling those requests takes real staff time. Time spent gathering, [clears throat] reviewing, redacting records, instead of our employees focusing on other work for the district. For example,

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our public information officer, he isn't spending his time documenting back-to-school preparations for families, he isn't promoting the district to prospective teachers and families and students. He's spent in his office

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diving through and answering questions. I'd say the majority of them majority of them were social media gotcha moments. It's a waste of his time. It doesn't serve the district. Uh overall, it doesn't contribute to academic success. It's a distraction and

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probably is meant to be so. So um hopefully they start to die down. And I say that because I don't want to have to hire a position to just answer core requests so we can focus on getting

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the good word out about what we're doing. Um, another [clears throat] thing I want to bring up uh Poor Ted, he's only been on here since you welcomed. Um, and welcome Karen.

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Um I want to make it very clear that we did not bring Ted on to be the face of litigation. We brought him on to do what this district's needs and that is to stay focused on academics and student outcomes.

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He has spent a tremendous amount of time cleaning up financial issues that surfaced late last spring, early summer. And he's been working with staff and teachers to put better academic systems in place. That is where your time is

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best spent. That's where we want your focus to be. And we appreciate everything Um One thing I want to bring up about I'm kind of jumping all over the board. I'm sorry. There's a lot going on in here. So there's been a lot of stuff on social

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media and I know that you're going to address that. There have been a lot of concerns. Um You know, our district it's it's hurting. It's hurting financially right now. It is. Um One thing I want people to know is we're not alone. I'm not absolving us of any

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responsibility, but we're not alone. We're not the only district that is hurting right now. So I just want everybody to know that we're working through it. We're working through it very deliberately. And I'm confident in the direction that we're headed. You've done a great job. >> Thank you.

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>> And our finance office has done a great job. So with that, I am going to toss it over to you. >> Okay. So um before I get into my formal reports, I did want to just make sure as as Rhonda mentioned, we've had some questions

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about finance, questions about um you know, things that have been on social media, and I know probably the newest one is uh questions about our fundraising accounts. And so, I wanted to just very briefly, we obviously put out a statement on social media. Um

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we've done some work. Andrea's done a lot of work on this. Um so is Jeff. Just to try to make sure we help people understand what truly happened. And that is um I think we've seen some words on social media that in my mind are probably a

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little bit inflammatory. Theft, embezzlement stolen. Um if those were used um I I don't know with with good intentions, I could understand maybe people are just confused. Um but no

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money was stolen, nothing was uh you know, um there wasn't anything illegal. It was what I have said is I think bad financial practices. We commingled funds. Um some districts do this. So, as as PTOs, as

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uh booster clubs raise money, they deposit that in with the district. Um the district did not keep that in a separate reserved fund or anything like that. It commingled with all of our other funds. Everyone knows that we've had financial

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difficulties. So, as our cash on hand dropped, um and you guys will hear more about cash on hand um in next meeting, but as we got low on cash on hand July and August, this board has heard me say over and over again, we

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have to make July and August payroll. So, we have gone to every department, every school, and said, "Please try not to make big purchases early on. Um cash on hand is a problem." As that message was also given to our boosters, I think we might have worried some folks

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that that money wasn't there. We know exactly how much money each one of those boosters, uh PTO groups, everyone else has. We'll obviously honor all of that. Um we fix that. We are going to help all of those organizations get onto their

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own 501c3, and we're also earmarking or putting those funds, until that happens, into a reserve account, so they're not commingling. So, the money was not stolen. Nobody took that money and did something else with it. Um but as we

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wrote checks throughout the year, it all went into one pot. And so, um as we had almost $0, we'll know when we get the audit, but moving from June 30th onto July 1, when we didn't have money and we were worried about making

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payroll, um because most of our taxes come in in the spring, we did ask everybody tighten their belt. Um try not to make those big expenses. So, this is where I think that came from. Um again, I don't want to assume people tried to

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take information and and make it bigger than it was, but some of the words that were used, I don't think helped the situation at all. Um We have the money. It's not stolen. We know where it's at. Now, I've used the analogy, if every single one of those

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groups made a run on the bank today and came in withdrew all of that money, would it hurt us? Absolutely. Do we have that money in the bank right now? We do. Would it make payroll tough in August? It would. Um but the money's there. The money will be there as those groups want to spend money and or

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withdraw their money to open up their own 501c3. So, I just want to make sure the board is clear on that, that our community hears that directly from me, that it certainly was not best practice. It's certainly not something I would ever recommend and certainly not something we'll do moving forward.

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But no individual and or group stole money, embezzled money. We commingled funds, which is bad practice and a practice we've already ended. So I just wanted to kind of start with that and kind of get that report out there.

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All right, so let me hop into our superintendent's report and I figured it was easier for everybody to see here and then I have to make Jamie turn around. So but I want to start we have a lot to celebrate. So please bear with me.

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We've got a lot of things that have been happening across the district and this is kind of the the opportunity as we start off the school year to talk about where we're at. But I want to start by facing the brutal facts. Right as we talk about all that

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we have to celebrate, I want to be clear transparency is not just who we are as a district and as a board. Experts actually say you have to start with facing the brutal facts if you are going to improve as an organization. We

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have to talk about where we really are. I also like Jack Welch when he says you have to live in the reality that you're currently in, not the one that you wish you were in. And the reality that we're in is like I just said, we're in some tough financial times.

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Probably more pressing now, we've had a few old skeletons pop out of the closet. These aren't new things, these aren't problems that were created yesterday or anything like that. These are skeletons we might have a few pop up here and there. Um

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we will tackle them as they come. So yes, finances. We know we had to cut $4 million last year. We know our achievement has been stagnant. Enrollment is down. We've had turnover, and we have some divisiveness in our community. I think we need to be honest

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about that, be transparent, own that, and talk about how we move forward. Um what I love about what Jim Collins says is you face the brutal facts, but never lose faith, which for um I think you've all seen my PowerPoint presentation from convocation where I

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said it was tough to start off this year because we've had a tough summer, yet I have never been more optimistic in my life. I've never sat at an organization at this point of the year and felt more confident that we could move an organization to great, and I know we

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will, but we have to start with where we're currently at. Um Nicole already mentioned this a little bit, but the first celebration I want to share is our retreat. We came out of that retreat with a shared mission statement. I'm not sure the last time um

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the district had a mission statement, but without a mission, without a vision, um you're just kind of a ship adrift at sea with no, you know, no direction, nowhere to go. Uh so a mission to me is always simple, right? It's just why we exist as

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an organization. In education, it's pretty simple. We are here to make sure everybody learns. Um so when we sat down as a kind of a governance team board and superintendent, we came up with a very simple mission statement. We're here to ensure that every student student learns and grows,

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right? You could look at that and go learns is primarily your academic achievement, grows that is some of those some of the skills that we're interested in. We need to make sure that students are learning academically, growing as good citizens. Um and why do we want to do that? Because we want to make sure that when they graduate, they can go into college and

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be successful, straight into a career and be successful, and be great citizens. I like to joke that nobody wants a smart kid to graduate who's also a jerk, right? They need to be good citizens in addition to being well educated. And so we need to make sure we

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do both. Also excited that um we looked at our vision. What we hope to become. Now that we know where we want to go, um we should know what success looks like. So we know what we've got to do to get there. Um

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This is and I've I've shared this slide with every staff member over the past couple weeks. Um And I really like the first part of it is we want to be the first and best choice for all families. I always share that I know this board shares my belief

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that family choice is important. We want families to be able to choose the best situation for their kids. For some that's a neighborhood school, some it's a charter, some it's home school. We want families to be able to choose what fits best for them, but we're not doing our job if our neighborhood schools

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aren't our first and best choice. If someone's choosing another option because we're not good enough, that's a problem. Um so it's my job to ensure and that's why I'm I'm really strong about this vision, that we are the first and best choice. And the way we become that

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is by having excellent academic excellence where every kid is achieving, where we have great staff members, um we have a long-term financially stable plan. Not only do we have academic excellence and great staff, but we know

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we have the money to get there. And that we create a culture of excellence. So as we move through that, um we need to ensure that that happens. As I've shared, and again we face the brutal facts, we have 3,000 school-age children in this district.

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1,500 of them go to our neighborhood schools. That's not good enough. It's not good enough for me and I know it's not good enough for this board. We need to be that first best choice in the decisions that I know we've been making and we're going to continue to make in the future are going to ensure that this

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becomes the first best choice for all students. So, very excited about that work that we did. Um, I'll share a little bit more about convocation. Um, you know, I was blessed to open up our school year. Gosh, I think we had two

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250 people there. Teachers, bus drivers, paras, administrators, you name it. Um, and I shared with them, some of you heard, what a difficult summer this was. We had to cut staff in the middle of the summer. Um, a lot of turmoil, a lot of

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transition. And so, I spent a lot of time wondering, how do you open up the school year? Do you celebrate when we know we lost staff? I How do I inspire staff to move forward? And as I shared, I felt the only way to do that was to share my story. And the story of how

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teachers, coaches, um, and staff saved my life, showed everybody what was possible through the power of public education. Um, I was lucky enough to be joined on stage by Rhonda Rhonda gave a great opening to the staff. Um, Autumn Windler, who's our staff uh solutions

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council leader, was able to come on, welcome staff. Um, and I'll share a little more on on her committee later. And I think most importantly, student body president Sarah Parkhill was there. Um, for me, it was a great moment cuz I got to watch Autumn talk and then Sarah,

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and both are PK through now 12 alumni of Elizabeth School District. So, we had a teacher who had gone all the way through our system, a student who's getting ready to graduate who had gone all through our system, welcoming all of staff back, which was a great reminder of all of why we were all there. So, I

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think a huge celebration, um, for convocation. Um, so, please bear with me on these next few slides cuz I've got a lot of notes um on some things that we've done. Um, so, I want to start with what we've done the past couple weeks. I think I had shared

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with the board, we had training on 14 out of 16 days. Um, we have 7 days with new staff, we have 6 days with returning staff. So, we have been learning and growing together as a team, um, since the week of July 20th. And so, um, as I

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go through here, um, again, I don't want to miss anything. I started off bringing in our operational leaders. We have eight operational leaders across departments. Um, we spent a full day in this very room, um, defining how their work directly affects academic

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achievement. Right? That idea that Mark and his team in operations, they don't come to work every day to make sure the heat stays on. They come to work to make sure that the heat stays on so that kids can learn and teachers can teach. Transportation, their job is to make sure that kids can get safely to and

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from school. So, we went through and every director kind of recreated their mission statement for their department around how they impact student learning to really help them see something deeper. Their job's just not to help keep the lights on. Andrea's job's not

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just to make sure people get paid, but everything we do is in that goal of student achievement. So, we had a great day, um, working together. We spent time on communication protocols, um, systems for working together, and kind of began

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to talk about accountability processes. >> [laughter] >> We've had a little bit of an issue in this district where when we've rolled out an initiative, no one's accountable. Everyone kind of goes, "Well, isn't that someone else?" And so, we really talked about the role of a director and how we need to take initiative, how we need to

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take ownership, um, and get some of these things done. And I can tell you I've already seen a big change in a lot of our folks, um, >> [clears throat] >> really trying to ensure that they are doing everything they can to make sure schools are ready for kids. Um, the next day we brought the academic

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leadership team together. Um, that's folks like Nancy, Cindy, our literacy coordinator, um, early childhood ed, special education, gifted and talented. And we kind of talked and about how our work aligns across the district. So, what happens in special education,

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gifted and talented, literacy and math, and ensure that our vision will be met, right? The academics is where the rubber's going to meet the road. That final day of the week, August the 23rd, I brought our building leaders back in

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to finish our leadership academy. We started a leadership academy towards the end of the year, brought them back in. For me, it was a great chance to build relationships, to learn together, create plans for the future. So, we had a great day. I have a seven-part leadership academy that I've

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taken leaders through for years, and they buzzed right through it. It's really great way I think for our new team of building leaders and APs to build relationships together, to watch them go through and work on all of that. Um

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then on Monday the 26th, we welcomed new staff back. We had a quick kickoff over at the middle school, followed by time in their buildings. They needed to meet with building leadership, see their classrooms, those types of things. The next four days were four of the most

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exhausting, yet exhilarating days of my life, where we brought in each distributed leadership team. So, on Tuesday, we started with what we call our purposeful environment group. So, if you remember our academic

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framework, it's real close. We said all we're doing is working on academic achievement and finance. And so, when you look at academic achievement, we said there's three areas. And that was ensuring we have a purposeful environment. So, nothing interrupts that teaching-learning process. Make sure we have a guaranteed and viable curriculum

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in reading and math, and then that we're using effective instructional strategies. So, that first one on Tuesday, we brought in the distributed leadership team for effective environment, which we call the student success network. So, that's counselors, um school psych social worker type

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folks, building leaders, um and we really focused on creating those conditions for effective teaching. We've developed something called the clear framework. Of course, Karen, it's an acronym um of what it takes to have a classroom

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where teachers feel supported with behavior. How do we know if a student is, you know, starting, you know, to become a little squirrely, what do we do? Um It was great to see people bring things together. Connie, our new principal at Singing Hills, brought what she calls her their green folder

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practice and brought that in and kind of brought some meat to what we were doing. Linnae brought in and knew that I'll be probably bringing to you next meeting or the meeting at meeting after, new attendance procedures. Um we have a lot of recommendations for how we can

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kind of tackle this chronic absenteeism problem that's happening across this state, probably across the country. But, we spent again all day talking about how do we ensure we are teaching teachers how to create the most effective

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environment, how our counselors can focus on getting kids returned to learning as quick as possible, that they're not therapists, they are here to make sure that kids and teachers have the foundational skills to learn, and that if they start to get out of sorts that we immediately return them them to

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learning as quick as possible. Um The next 2 days we brought in the the DLT for literacy guaranteed viable curriculum followed by math guaranteed viable curriculum. The the literacy one was a lot better, David. No, just joking. Um so, we brought in Cindy and I led um

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the GBC for literacy. Um we did some joint work in the morning talking about we were going to create a scope and sequence, so get to know the standards, make sure that we have a list of knows and does, what kids have to know and be able to do K-12, um that we would look at creating quarterly assessments that

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were common for every grade level. So, we're not waiting till the end of the year when you get C mass scores, right? C mass scores will be public in like a week or two. A little too late to change instruction in first quarter. So, we're going to create those common assessments and then talk about how we move that

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scope and sequence to an actual curriculum map where we're tying resources and assessments and some of those things to it. So, we did that with literacy and then after I believe probably after lunch then we broke into Cindy took K 5, I took secondary 6 through 12.

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They worked a lot on learn to read skills and what that looked like. The secondary level we talked a lot about how do you let standards drive your instruction and not the novel that you're reading, right? Often times in secondary language arts you ask teachers what they're teaching, it's this novel, this novel, and this

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novel. No, there are specific knowledge and skills that we need kids to know. Once we know that and we define how we're going to measure it, then and only then do we pick the resource. And so, we walked through that. Same thing next day with math. Nancy and I we started off

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whole group. Um kind of just talked in general. Some of the One of the things we did with both groups was looked at standards K through 12 and found those common threads. Right? There are common threads all the way through both contents. When you look at literacy identifying the main idea of a story and

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being able to basically justify what that main idea is with details from the story is pretty much the most important thing in K through 12, right? You wouldn't read if you couldn't identify the main idea. Same thing with math. We talked about that idea of how computation runs all the way through and

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if you don't get that you know, just completely ingrained when you're young, we looked at how you're going to struggle with that the whole way through. We split up in the afternoon. This time I took elementary. We worked K through 5. Nancy took secondary, worked 6 through 12. Um

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got some great work done. Then on Friday, we brought in the team that works on effective instruction. So, these are kind of our school PD strategists. Um and we talked through we could talk for days about effective instruction, right? Research-based instructional strategies. We said,

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"Where do we start?" So, the first thing we talked about starting with is this idea of active engagement. And there's levels of engagement, right? If I am sitting in the classroom, I'm not bothering anybody, but I'm also not thinking or not working, in a lot of

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classrooms in this country, as teacher, you're going to leave them alone, right? Cuz they're not bothering anybody. That's not what we want. We don't want that passivity. So, we talked about this goal of active engagement. We don't want kids just ritually compliant. Like, I'll sit here, I'll do the least amount

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possible, I won't cause any trouble, but I'm not really going to put any effort forward. So, talking about this expectation that 100% of our kids, 100% of the time, are actively engaged. Um we talked about if we know the standards

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and if we have a scope and sequence, should we not be able to expect that a teacher could post a lesson objective every day, meaning this is exactly what kids have to be able to do, and some type of demonstration of learning? This is how kids will demonstrate this before

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we leave. So, as a kid, before you ever teach me, I know what the exit ticket is. Like, could we not start out with those couple things? We also then started working on our walk-through form, right? Cuz we've got to get into classrooms, we've got to give teachers feedback. I think one of the things the staff was most excited about is we made

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a commitment that we're not going to evaluate you on anything we haven't taught you. So, that walk-through form, as we add new professional development and we've taught teachers new tips and tricks, got a new tool on their belt, we will be broadening that um walk-through

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form. But early on, for example, the CLEAR framework, if we're only working on the C and the L, and for effective instruction, we want to see active engagement, we want to see an objective in DOL, let's just get in every classroom the first few weeks of school, look for those five things, and give teachers feedback on the quality of

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those, and then add. So, kind of getting that moving. Um, so that was an exciting day. Um, we got a ton of work done. That That was Friday. Um, I don't know that I've ever been more mentally tired by the end of that day, but it was, um,

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I I think what I liked about it, I sat there during that week and watched our leaders and our teachers take ownership of everything that like I had rolled out that morning, right? I did a lot of the talking in the morning, almost like an I do, we do, you

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do. Funny how that works. Teaching them, and then all of a sudden we're doing it together, and before you know it, they're like, "Ted, we got this. Like, just get out of the way, let us build this." Which is what you want, right? If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, all of this should continue because our

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staff has has ownership in it. They're the ones who built it, they're the ones who've done it. Um, and so it was great to watch different leaders at different points take over. Uh, Kelly, the new principal at Running Creek, she does great Let me hook her up with Mary. She

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does great at using AI to make graphics of text. And so, she's sharing that, and Connie's sharing the the green folder, and Tam's getting us focused, and Brett's talking about next meetings, and teachers are, you know, bringing experience that they had and talking

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about how they want to do this in their class. And so, for me, the coolest thing to watch was as that week went on, it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with leaders and teachers taking ownership and talking about how they were going to run with

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this, and when they got back in their school, how they were going to use that distributed leadership team process to now do what we had just done with their grade level or with their department. And so, my hope is that that structure

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that we put in place, they go back and have that same type of ownership transfer. Right? If you go back and now you've got the middle school math team, and you're taking them through this, that by the time that you're done, it's not Nancy and Tam and Aaron running that, but it's that math

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team running with it. And so, that was really fun to watch. I was really proud of of watching the staff come together. Um was also great for me as an educator, right? Relationships tend to come first. Build relationships with staff and have

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them have us interact in a completely different format, right? Just a group of educators in here working on the right work, laughing, joking. Um there were so many inside jokes by the time those days were done. Um especially between John

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and Corey. If you've ever been in a room with those two together, they have more inside jokes that you'll say something and they just start grinning at each other, and you're like, "What What am I missing?" Um but so that was really fun to kind of build those relationships with people. Um

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And so, sorry, I lost my spot here. Um So, let's see, what was next? Um So, let me move on to last week then. So, in addition to district convocation, um each building leader then that afternoon had a building convocation.

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So, basically, we had the district convocation, which is, "Here's the umbrella of the district." And then each building leader had a building convocation where they said, "Let's talk about how our building fits under that umbrella." Not the district is going this way, and we're going that way, and you're going that way, but how do we all

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stay aligned? How do we row in the same direction? And how is what we're doing going to align? Um so, that was um that afternoon. Thursday was an all-day staff training at the high school. So, Jamie was nice enough to

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take every staff member and put them in one of six groups and they rotated throughout the day through um 1-hour sessions. So, um Tyler and his group taught six different sessions of safety. Michelle and her group did HR

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kind of, you know, employee handbook stuff. Um Linnea and her group did special populations, things you need to know about IEPs, ALPs for advanced students, all of those types of things. Um Aaron, our middle school assistant principal, taught um

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every teacher uh kind of a overview of evaluation. Every year we've got to teach our teachers about the evaluation system, make sure they know what they're going to get measured on. Um So, she went through that. Marty and his team coached staff through like an IT

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101. Here's the fishing email you don't want to open up, you know, here's some of those things. Um and then I did my session was kind of a state of the district in terms of finances. So, I took everybody through the state funding model, made sure everybody understood how we get money from the state, per

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pupil funding, October count, um what our budget for this year looks like. Um how we get money from the state. They were surprised to know that without an interest-free loan, that by February we'd be $5.4 million in the hole because

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we get almost all of our funding the last 3 months of the year. Um gave them a big aha as to why I'm saying don't spend money quite yet. If you need paper, go for it, but buy 1 month, we'll buy the other 9 months in September. Um so, kind of took them through some of that. It's the same presentation that

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I'm hoping to give to you guys next uh meeting. I'd love to take you guys through that just to make sure we all have a good base understanding of some of this. Um and it kind of reminded me of teaching middle school cuz I talked the same thing six times in a row and by sixth period I didn't remember what I

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had told each group. So, I might have repeated myself and some might have missed out, but again great for me to spend time with staff in a smaller setting. I think staff I ended with a Q&A and I think got to walk my talk a little bit with transparency with staff. We kind of did a ask me anything you

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want to know um and kind of go through that. Um Friday was a day for staff to start working in their classrooms. So, as a teacher when you come back all this PD is great, but you're like, "Can I just get in my classroom and and get everything set up?" So, we gave them

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Friday to do that. Um They met with colleagues, worked in their classrooms. There were some individual trainings, CPR stuff like that. Um and then we started off again this week. So, this week kicked off another round of training. So, Monday

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and today was really focused on staff academic training. So, you had for some parts elementary reading teachers or elementary teachers together focusing on reading and you had uh middle school on math. And then we

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switched. And so, yesterday Cindy was able to take our K through three teachers, sped teachers, and interventionists through ELAT training so we can use DIBELS as our uh assessment tool. And then at that time Nancy was taking four through eight math

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together working on alignment. Today they switched. Um Cindy took four through eight and worked on reading. Nancy took K through five and worked on math. And then Cindy took all K through eight. She is going to do a series throughout the year, right? cuz we don't want PD to be one-stop shop.

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So, started today with a kind of a kickoff to the science of reading, and then she'll continue that in each one of our PD days coming up. Um separate of that, I kicked off yesterday, well, and then I'm sorry, secondary math and language arts were at the middle school.

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So, Tam um was working with secondary math, Aaron was working with secondary language arts to continue some of that DLT work. So, they met with with me last week. They had an opportunity uh over the last 2 days to further some of that work. I

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kicked off yesterday morning with our science, social studies, and elective teachers, all of secondary. So, middle and high school lang- or middle and high school um science teachers together, social studies together, elective teachers together. Having that chance for

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vertical articulation, and we talked through standards as alignments, uh reading in the content areas, writing in the content areas, what durable skills should we look at. So, they've basically had 2 days of work time, which I don't have They've probably never had in their entire career to talk about, again,

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themes in science, right? How do we start talking about the scientific method in 6th grade, and what does it look like in 12th, right? Social studies, we looked a lot at things like enduring understandings, right? So, rather than looking just at standards, an enduring understanding in social

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studies might be why we have conflict. So, how might you hit that in 6th grade, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, work all the way up? Or if we ask kids to write, might we want a common writing rubric? Why should we be holding them to the same standards a language arts teacher does? So, they

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had an opportunity to work through all of that. Um tomorrow is for secondary another day for um our secondary teachers to get ready in their classrooms, because then they welcome 6th to 9th graders on Thursday, and all kids on Friday.

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Tomorrow and um Thursday in our elementary schools will be our assessment days. So, one of the things I'm most excited about, so we will be benchmarking every K through 5 kid in both reading and math. And if they are not at grade

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level, we will then be doing a diagnostic to figure out exactly where that lowest common denominator is. And then Friday, I will be working with principals to do that initial grouping. So, by the time school starts on Monday,

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every single elementary kid is not only going to be in their their literacy and math class, but also their literacy and math intervention if they need it. All based on data that is real-time that starts tomorrow. So, that

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is going to be when you talk about putting systems in place, um, literally, a kid's going to show up and we would have them in the appropriately placed classroom in no time. >> And you're going to wait for CMAS scores next year? >> We are not going to wait for CMAS scores

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next time. Yeah, and so we've been working a lot, um, at the elementary level getting that ready. The teachers had asked to move those days so they could have Friday to place kids. I guess in the past we've done it assessment days on Thursday and Friday. And then they have to take their own time on the weekend to try to do

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something with that data before Monday. So, we're able to move that up, use Friday to actually have data conversation so that data means something, um, and get kids in the right group. So, when they come in Monday, that literacy block is could start 8:00 Monday morning and we're we're rolling.

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Um, so I think that's going to be important. Um, again, I think over this week, again, proud of the ownership. Um, by yesterday afternoon, I was already getting emails from, you know, I joked science teachers are very needy. They're like, "Send me

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this graph. Send me this data. We want this. We want that." So, although our high school administrators were monitoring, um, each of those three groups. Those teachers were running with it. They're asking questions. They're looking for data. So again, was was very proud of

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the ownership that they've that they've taken. Um so that's what's happened the past couple weeks in training. Again, I told you sorry this was going to be long. Um >> I'm going to have ask you to add to it. >> Yes. Um so if what I also want to talk

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about is what has happened before that time. So what are the some of the things that [clears throat] that we've done to prepare for this? So the team's been working for a couple months now preparing for the return of students. Um and again, bear with me cuz I've got

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some bullets here so I don't forget. Um she's not going to like me for this, but I'll start by thanking Jamie. Um she does not like to admit, but she we all know she's the glue that holds us together. Um she's kept this district running through the transition. I rarely know

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what I'm doing from day to day and so she is able to to kind of keep on track and if we have a question, it's just ask Jamie. Um so we certainly would not be where we are without her keeping us on track. And every leader knows they need at least

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someone in the organization regardless of the consequences that will tell them the truth. I I have two people like that in my life. One is at home and one is right here that constantly remind me um when I'm screwing up and you need that and I appreciate that. I give her a hard time, but I think she knows I do

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appreciate that. But want to start by thanking her. Um and um So let me go through some of these. Uh I think just celebrations of the stuff staff's been doing throughout the summer. Um

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Cindy, our literacy coordinator, um her and Nancy um Nancy's new, but they both moved into their new office down the hill. Um Cindy spent all summer preparing for this ELA training, preparing for the science of of reading training. She's also making

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sure that all of our teachers have their read act training if they need that done. Um, and working on this, you know, what will be a year-long science of reading training. Nancy continuing to work with secondary math teams. I think it was last Monday she met with middle school,

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then with high school, working on this AGA shift in math. It's a big shift. Um, so she's done some pivot on math resources, some of those types of things. Lynnae, Angie, Jen, and Colleen across the across the parking lot there in in

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special services. They've been working hard to ensure that every kid that has any type of specialized service that they're ready to go, whether it's plans, supports, resources. Lynnae was not feeling good yesterday. I couldn't get her to get home cuz she's in there looking at 504s. Just like we've got to

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get this done. We've got to make sure we've got everything ready to go. Um, Karina and her team in early childhood, continue to offer what I think is world-class service. I've seen some really good programs and we've got a really good program. We had to open a

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new program at RCE, a new preschool. We've had enough enrollment. We've had to add staff there. Um, our business and our HR teams continue to thrive. Andrea and Michelle have been great additions. We did bring in our new payroll person today. We

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joked, I think we have more HR experience in the two that we have now than that like true HR experience than most districts 10 times our size. I mean, they've got a ton of experience. Andrea has hit the ground running. She was doing this job while I think we were still paying her as a secretary.

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Um, and I I feel confident in trusting them. Right? Like we talk all the time. We're on top of stuff, but I don't have to wait and go ask. Like by the time I think I'm going to have to ask for them something, Andrea is already bringing it up. Michelle's already rewritten a

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policy. So, our directors are really really kind of hitting their stride um with almost an entirely new team down there. Fran is the only one um returning in the business office. We have four new team members. I love the culture down there. They're all growing together.

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They've closed the men's bathroom because it's all women down there. We joke. Um but, they use it as a storage closet now. But, the the culture that they've built just feels great down there. Um so, I'm excited for what they'll what they'll bring. I also am excited for how

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much those who have retired and the past employees from the business department are coming back and helping out like crazy. There's not a day I go down there and somebody isn't in there just pitching in and helping. So, it's everybody has is invested in making sure

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we get this right. Um and like I said, they're I think I was down there the other day and there's three. I'm like, you guys don't even work here anymore. Like, nope, we had to come in and help out on this type of stuff. So, great team. Um Andrea had also been working with uh John Everhart at the high school

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making sure we're getting athletics up off the ground. Like I said, being very transparent with boosters. Um this is where, you know, some of the most recent I think social media information came from is we're being honest with people. We're sharing with people where we're at. We've got to figure athletics and

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activities out. We're transferring almost $600,000 a year out of the fund into athletics and activities. We've got to figure out what it's costing us, what the coaches, what the transportation, what all the fees are costing us. We've got to make some decisions. I have told

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the staff I'm absolutely committed to making sure we have thriving athletics and activities programs. If you heard my story, you know, I would not be here today without my coaches. So, I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't value them or they're going away. I'm saying we got to figure out how we make them so

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sustainable for the long run. Um registrations underway. Last time I looked, we were plus 13 at enrollment. So, we're heading in the right direction. Um growing, which is great. Um quick story. I got a call like 2 weeks

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ago. Tam Smith and Aaron over at the middle school, they had done a 2-hour tour for a family. Had two twin girls. They had homeschooled their kids all through elementary and were thinking about taking a chance and Tam spent 2 hours with them to make sure they felt

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comfortable and sure enough the kids enrolled. That's the type of commitment it's going to take from our staff to rebuild that trust. But, I'll take 13 now and 13 next week and we're just going to keep going to keep bringing them back. Um Terry and her team of nutrition have been ensuring the staff's

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ready to go. We had a couple equipment failures over the summer. She got in, took initiative, got them done, got them repaired, did it in the most economical way possible. Um Marty and his IT team have been busy. Have to make sure everybody's got their computer, everybody's got a a Google login, email,

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all of our email groups are right. So, they've been working. Um Tyler, our security director, um continuing to work on district safety. Um he is also spearheading a county-wide safety training that we are going to

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have, I think, on the October 9th PD day, where we are basically getting it for free because he has pulled in like Elbert and Kiowa and Office of Emergency Management and he's um kind of bringing all of these entities together to make sure as one community

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we're ready um for anything that was happen. Um I've also been joking to me how's kind of a new additional duties um as required title for those of you who are like old school home improvement, you know, Tool Time fans, he's my Al

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Borland. He is my assistant. He's been assisting me. We've been doing a lot of um I don't know, building enhancements and painting and just getting some stuff fixed. And every time I turn around, he's there with a drill. Um so, he's been doing a great job. Um our somewhat

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new newer transportation director, Jeff Canella, um I think he was maybe announced towards the end of last year. His team, they've had a fantastic few months. They were hit hard with cuts last year. Rather than sitting around and, you know, kind of playing poor me,

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which they could have cuz they lost a lot of staff, um they've stepped up. The whole team has stepped up. They've revamped our before and after school routes to try and get kids on and off that bus as quick as possible. They had heard the feedback that some kids were on the bus for a long time. So, they've

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not only redone those routes, they've done a great job um communicating. They've created a new process to track those transportation accounts. If you remember back, I said we're transferring about 1.5 million to transportation. However, transportation doesn't charge

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anybody for anything. So, we've got to start accounting for what is this field trip cost us? What does this uh volleyball tournament cost us? So, we know how much some of these things are spending. Um they've saved us thousands of dollars in in-house repairs. They've fixed up vans for us. They've got a

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trailer going for the high school. So, um they've done a great job. And if Jeff has been very creative in finding ways to increase increase revenue for the district. Um had a great plan in place to help with the Stampede. Didn't cost us anything. We made a little money. Um

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we're looking at leasing some of our equipment, selling some of our equipment. Um today, he's like, "We're spending $3,000 a year on um uniform cleaning. Why don't we just buy clothes and a washing machine? We'll save 2,000 bucks a year." I'm like, "Deal."

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Like our folks are just being really creative. Um Jeff in communications, although he has been spending a lot of time on chorus, he's running around grabbing content from everything that's happened. He'll continue to highlight those great things throughout the year.

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He's rebranded our district newsletter. Jeff and I have spent a lot of time talking about how do we brand our district and tell our story versus letting others tell it for us. That idea of and I've shared this since I got here.

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This is a hidden gem that people don't get. Like this is rural values, American strength, Americana, small town. And Jeff's been doing a great job of getting that story out there and we're going to continue to do that kind of district-wide rebranding as we tell

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people what we are about, not what some people say we're about. Um Mark and his team in operations have been busy. Um in addition to getting Frontier ready. Guys know that roof's been ongoing. We finally it's dry. We've It's been dry

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like the last three rainstorms. Um they've ensured we've got buildings ready to go. We got the fire suppression system between Mark, his team, and Tyler up and running at Singing Hills. We fixed the heating system over at Running Creek. Um cutting down trees, all of

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those types of things to make sure we were ready for the start of the school year. I want to highlight a couple of those. Um Well, maybe. Um so I I put some pictures up here. So addition to the work of operations,

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we've had several organizations give us donations. Takawa Gardens donated a gift card for us for the fresh flowers that we see out front to really try to start beautifying the district. Um, Value here in Elizabeth donated gray paint that we

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used for the Frontier building. Um, C&C Sand and Stone in Castle Rock donated an entire dump truck load full of red mulch for Singing Hills. You can see here Singing Hills mulch was looking pretty bad. We obviously, you know, are struggling with funds. Um, so they

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donated It's like, I don't know, five cubic yards or something. Um, in addition, this is again what I'm so proud of our district for. Um, Chad, who's our lead mechanic in transportation, got the dump truck, got it working, fixed the gate so it could actually drop, actually drove it to

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Castle Rock, picked up the mulch, drove it back to Singing Hills, dumped it off where the operations team and the Singing Hills um, maintenance team got it all spread out in time for, like, one of their back-to-school type nights. Um, so at a time when transportation could

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have said, "We're busy." they stopped everything to help beautify Singing Hills. So, everybody, um, kind of came together for that. Uh, last but lot not least, I want to thank Lowe's in Parker. So, they continue to amaze me with their support. Um,

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assistant manager Karen, store manager Jonathan, have both been a huge blessing. Um, they have donated gallons of paint, supplies, and enough mulch to mulch this whole town, I think. Some Like, we went through a pallet and maybe

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a third on Sunday, and we've got like another 50 cubic yards. Like, they are really helping us out, um, with a lot. One of the projects that they helped us with, and this I kind of want to share, um, so I was a part with Rhonda, um, with

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Nicole and her family. Jeff was there, Tyler was there, Jamie, um, of something that I thought was really cool this past Sunday. Um, so Kelly Cleveland, who runs Legacy's Homeschool Academy, um, Didi Vicino, who's the headmaster for ICA, um, and

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the district got together with probably about 50 or so community members to redo the curb appeal of Frontier. Um, it's been sitting there for years, right? We hadn't done a lot with it. Um, we had students. It was so fun watching

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these little 5-year-olds in overalls lugging, you know, it's like it really reminds you that rural kids know how to work. Um, and it it was really fun to watch. Um, Mayor Turness came out. We had board members. Like I said, it was it was great. Um,

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I think me and Jeff Hunt had a axe chopping competition and I think the teenage boys beat us both. Um, but really had a great time. Um, there were a couple times where I stepped back and you just saw people everywhere along the front of that building. I thought we'd maybe get the

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front entrance done. You look up and people are raking all the way around the back, getting pine cones, laying down mulch. Um, Jeff even got his hands a little dirty, not dirty enough, right? But he was out there working. Um, but watching so many people

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come to to work together, um, like in manual labor, it's kind of like breaking bread to me. Like when you come together and do that manual labor all for kids was one of the coolest things I've been a part of. And I think I've done a lot of pretty cool things in education, but it really felt like a

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community coming together, um, and it shows what we're capable of and it shows what we could do as a community together around all of our schools. Um, so really fun day. I enjoyed it. Um, a couple pictures. So, if you look in the upper left-hand corner, that's what the

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front looked like. You look at the lower right-hand corner, a lot of painting, um, went with a nice darker blue cuz that's the color that Legacy shares, um, Legacy Home School with ICA. Um, Rhonda painted I think about every inch

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of that blue. Um, myself and the kids painted some of that green door and one of the two of us painted a lot of the windows and the sidewalks too. But we're going to get that cleaned up and then if you look at the top right, that was the front garden bed. And then

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if you look at the lower left, that's what it looks like now after everybody was in there weeding. Um we literally had like a grandma on oxygen down on the ground pulling weeds out of there. I mean, like I said, it was it was one of the coolest things I've seen. Um

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and so in there got the black mulch in there looking good. We took all the prison grates off the windows. Tyler has a getting a security camera up there. Took those off, got everything taken care of. So we still have another couple days of work, I think, but I think for a

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100-year-old building it's looking looking a heck of a lot better. So was >> You forgot, hopefully I can interrupt you for >> No, please. >> But your wife >> Yes. >> helped gather a lot of the >> She's been She's been out there harassing people for donations, yeah.

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She doesn't take She's very persuasive, so yes. Yes, thank you for all the work she's doing. I've learned not to tell her no and now a lot of other people [laughter] have. Um So I want to talk a little bit about exciting things to come, right? Those are some of the celebrations. There's

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some good things coming up in the next week or two. Tomorrow night, Running Creek, we have our back to school night at 5:00 p.m. Singing Hills has theirs August 26th at 4:00. I think it's both of those. Um Jeff Knolla, our transportation director, is bringing over the Knights of Columbus grill

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grilling for everybody. So again, a lot of people coming together. Um as Mary said, we've got our auto shop grand opening at the high school on September 10th at 6:00. I am doing my first

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TED Talk Town Hall on the 24th of August. And so I'll be at the high school um, that night. Um, probably going to try to do those every couple months just so the community has a chance to to ask some questions. Um, Friday, August 21st, is our first home

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football game. Um, excited to say that we are the CBS game of the week. So, we'll have media on campus all day. They'll be watching the kids, doing some of those types of things. Um, we have a great night planned. We play the, uh, Florence Huskies, who I remember beating

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when I was in high school. Um, so hopefully we'll have we'll have that same luck, um, when we have that coming. Um, we're going to be starting up our committees soon. Um, as the board knows, DAC, um, our district accountability committee is going to be our lone board

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committee this year. So, one board committee that is required by law, um, will be transitioning our curriculum review committee and our financial advisory committee to a superintendent's committee. Um, one that I can be on and stay abreast of and ensure that we are

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getting, um, the information that we need. We'll get both of those going, um, really really soon. I mentioned earlier that Autumn Windler, one of our teachers, um, you know, spoke at at our welcome back. So, I'm excited. She has completely revamped our teacher

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advisory. So, we've had a teacher advisory committee. Um, I'd sat in on it a couple times. I think some of you did as well. It it certainly wasn't what I thought it could be. And it wasn't what Autumn thought it could be. And so, she's spent a lot of time this summer working with her colleagues,

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and we're really transitioning it from to a problem-solving group, where I felt before it was really a problem identification group. We just came together every month and kind of talked about things that weren't working, and I don't know that we ever really got them solved. So, um,

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we're going to move forward with that. Um, she actually has put out an application process for staff. So, staff will have to apply and demonstrate, similar to how we did with DLT, they're going to have to uh demonstrate that they are invested in solving problems,

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not just pointing them out. Um and then those members of that Staff Solutions Committee will be the staff members, and it's not just teachers, it's going to be teachers, it's going to be classified. We're moving to one large um all staff problem-solving

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um committee. Those staff members will then also be the staff liaisons to our other community uh other committees. That way we know we have alignment, we have people who have a problem-solving mentality, and um we're not rehashing some of the same conversations. We know

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we've got those people. Um and on that topic, I'm excited to announce something I thought I would wait on another year. Um but after seeing um Sarah share with staff um at the convocation, um I know we need to

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get going now cuz it's going to remind us um kind of what we're here, and that's starting my student advisory group. So, I've done a student advisory group in other districts. I've got to I have to have an advisory group that I can talk to every month that is telling

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me about how the things we're doing are actually affecting them. Because if they're not seeing the results, why are we doing it? If they're not seeing the changes. Um so, this group will be made up with students to the high from the high school. They'll have rotating terms, we'll meet during the day during their advisory. So, I'll get an out an

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application process for them. Um as I think I've shared with a few of you, my ultimate goal would be that the president of that group becomes, like me, a non-voting student rep for the board. I don't think there's anything as great as having a student sit up here with us that we can go, "I don't know,

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you tell me. What What do you think of that?" Um and so >> if I can add to this, too, when I was in high school, I was the student school board representative for my high school, and it was a really cool experience as a student to be able to represent your school, the students in the district,

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and speak from your own personal point of view, a perspective that maybe the board members don't hear. So, I know I talked to Ted about this. I was like, I really like that idea. >> It's there's nothing like sitting here grappling with the decision going, "Do I go left? Do I go right?" And just looking at the kid and going, "What do you think?" They usually know exactly

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what they and their friends need to be successful. Um so, excited about getting that started. Um Final celebration slide. Um So, I just want to talk about this idea that finish my celebrations by talking

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about people. Right? We have some really great people in this community. Um as many of you know, I said I'd never sit in this chair again. Right? I said that I had no desire to ever be a superintendent again. And I also shared with you guys, the only reason I decided

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to do that is because of the people. I love the people I work with. Um I love this board, the students, this community. Like I said, Sunday was so much fun. Um just being with people in our community that I'm here because of the people. And

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so, as we do these celebrations, a lot of tasks have been completed, a lot of things have been done, but what we really should be celebrating celebrating is the people. And I think we have some of the best people that you could surround yourself with. Um

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I want to say kind of quickly, um I understand politics, and I understand that board members might not be popular with everyone. Right? You're elected officials. Um but I can tell you in my opinion, you are all good people.

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Great people. You have strong beliefs. You care about why your constituents voted you in here, and you vote for why your constituents put you here. Not with the flavor of the day, not what's easiest, but how many conversations have I had with you guys who are like, "Ted,

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my constituents expect this. This is what we've got to do." I think that's what true public service is, not what enriches you or gets you this or gets you reelected, but why you were supposed to be here. Um

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I couldn't do this job without you. I've shared with Nicole earlier today. I had opportunity last week to talk with two retired superintendents. I kind of shared with them our deal, right? Kind of like Rhonda said, "I get to do the academics and operations and you guys get to do the politics." Every superintendent in

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America would take that deal. It is the politics that drive us away. We just want to do the academics, the operations. We want to be here for kids. We want to work with people. And I get that opportunity to do here. I wouldn't get that opportunity anywhere

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else. So, I want this community to hear that I understand, and I'm going to talk about this here in a minute. I understand how politics go, but I wouldn't be here working with this board if I didn't think that you were all great people and great representatives of this community. Um so, I feel blessed

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to work with you guys. I also feel blessed to work with our teachers and staff. Like I said, it's been a very difficult summer. By far the most difficult in my, I don't know, 24 years of leading or whatever it is. Um I've seen our teachers and staff say

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stay flexible and stay focused on kids when they literally could have thrown their hands up this summer and said, "I don't believe. I'm done. I don't trust." But every single one of them, um I still joke after several months in this district, I have not faced a single

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resistant staff member. Every single staff member is there like, "Yeah, if that's good for kids, let's give it a try." Again, that doesn't happen in any other district. You spend most of your time as a leader planning up front how to overcome resistance. That's not the case here. You help

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somebody understand why it's good for kids. Our staff does it. Um and so I I can't thank our teachers, our staff enough for that. Um finally, I want to talk a little bit about our leaders cuz I've spent a lot of time with them or I should say they probably

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unfortunately had to spend a lot of time with me this summer. Um and leaders, I don't remember who said it, but often get too much praise when things go right and too much blame when things go wrong. Um probably true, but I can tell you our

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leaders in this district are not celebrated enough. Um I've worked day after day this summer with our leaders. Um a couple things that I wanted to point out. Our two new elementary principals, Connie and Kelly, watching them come together and start working to make sure that our two

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elementary schools are aligned, to make sure if what's good enough for kids here happens over here, to make sure if we're going to say this here, we're going to say that over there, has been very inspiring. Um I have, might have been with Rhonda or with one of you, had to kick them out of

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here at 7:00 at night cuz they're still in here working trying to get stuff go just so they could go home and then continue to text me and email me because um they were continually to work um continually continually working. Um they are going to set the bar for what our

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elementary schools can be. There is going to be no more revolving door of three principals in three years. They're here for the right reasons, they're leading the right way, they're doing the right things. Um and I think they're going to set that bar. Um similarly,

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what Tam and Aaron have accomplished at the middle school, um the flexibility, they're always thinking, you can tell anytime I say something they start whispering and the wheels start turning. They are constantly trying to squeeze every ounce out of that system.

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They're willing to change anything, they're willing to take any risk, um always willing to just do a little bit more for staff and a little bit more for students. Um, and finally I want to talk about our high school, right? Being the flagship is a double-edged sword, right? It's

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great cuz everybody's watching you, and then everybody's watching you. Um, you're kind of just darned if you do, darned if you don't at a high school. You just are. Um, but I've seen Brett, John, and Corey show this summer a level of vulnerability,

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a level of courage, um, in the face of change, staying the course, um, facing some brutal facts themselves about where that high school's been and where it's going. Um, watching that group of leaders come together this summer has been very fun.

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I joke them constantly, you know, apologize they had to spend so much time with me, but watching them come together they those leaders, those staff members are going to be the reason that we're having a completely different conversation at this time next year. They're aligned,

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they're working hard, they're doing the right things, um, they're not shying away from the mistakes we've made in the past, and they are ready to do whatever it takes to create that culture of excellence. Um, so I am, again, really excited to be

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here with the people that we've got, excited for the things that we've done, but more excited for the people that we got to do them with. Um, so last slide, speaking of people, I want to talk a little bit about our community and our need to come together.

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Um, just as a district, our organization, our community has to face the brutal facts. Um, sometimes as a superintendent you are in a position where maybe I can lecture a little bit or preach a little bit, not because I think I'm smarter than anyone

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in this community, but I've been around for a while doing this. Um And so I'm not naive to school board politics, right? I certainly am no stranger to this game. I spent nearly a decade in Douglas County, which as I've told some

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of you before is like playing Survivor, and I got voted off into Exile Island a couple times. Um but I understand how this works. Um And I get that school boards are political. Um we say they aren't. We say they're non-partisan, right?

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There's no R or D next to names. Um but they are. And as I said earlier, that's why many superintendents left the game. It's why I left. It gets exhausting constantly dealing with politics between the board and the community. Um

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And it's certainly not one way, right? If Rs are on the board, the left tears them down. Ds are on the board, the right tears them down. Um it's just the way it is. We don't like to admit it. We rarely talk about it in education, but we all know it's true.

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And I also have noticed that it kind of doesn't matter. Both sides have this this sense of ethics of the ends justify the means. Right? I need to tear down the other side so that I can get that power, but once I do, I'll fix everything that I

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had to tear down. And it doesn't work. It never works. Um to use a very inappropriate analogy, like a gang fight, you just keep retaliating. I watched that pendulum swing in Douglas County for probably going on 12 years now. And it's not

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healthy. Um so with that being said, I am not saying that we shouldn't have public discourse. Um not saying that as elected officials, you shouldn't be scrutinized. I'm not saying I shouldn't be scrutinized. Um or that we should somehow chill

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people's First Amendment rights. Was joking with Nicole earlier, I'm a strict constitutionalist. Like, I believe in transparency. I believe that people not only have a right to speak, but a responsibility. But, I also think that we have to understand our responsibility and when it comes to the

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words that we use and the medium that we choose to use it under and the damage that we do when we make our feelings known. So, from a political standpoint, I want our community to know and this is where I think, hopefully, I can speak to our

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larger community that when these comments are made, that when things get political, even when they're aimed at a politically or I'm sorry, uh publicly elected board, um we as the district get hit with the shrapnel.

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Right? It seems in some districts, staff and students, I've used this analogy before, we end up being like the children caught in a messy divorce. Mom and dad are arguing all the time. My staff's innocent. They're not doing anything wrong and they get caught in the middle of this. Um

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on the receiving end. I want to share a couple examples to hopefully illuminate for our community to what I'm talking about. I said we have 3,000 kids in our boundaries and 1,500 come to our neighborhood schools. I've said it's not good enough. I've said we need to do better.

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However, going on to social media to point that out in hope that we can somehow place blame on the board actually hurts our staff and our students. Way more than it hurts our board. Our board, our elected officials, they can

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walk away tomorrow. My staff cannot. And so, what would a staff member say when they read that? Why would they want to come to our district? Why would a parent who's choosing whether or not they want to come to our district or not, choose to come here

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when we're constantly going on social media pointing It isn't helping me bring families back and it's not helping me keep the ones that we have. So, as I mentioned earlier, my staff, our teachers, they are working their butts off. I've seen them work like

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nothing I've ever seen these past few weeks. Um A lot's happened this summer. Um and when you think about that, all that work that they've done, and at the end of the day, they end up competing with the narrative on social media.

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It's to me, it's one of the things that has hurt education for at least the last 10 or 12 years that I've been in it. Is again, as a staff member, you're working your butt off. You got into this industry for kids. You're not making any money, right? You're just trying to do the right thing for kids, and you get

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caught in this crossfire. Um I'm not asking our staff, or I mean, again, our community to not say anything. I'm saying, can you find a way to hold us accountable, right? We're the decision-makers,

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without hurting our staff, without hurting our ability to bring kids in, without hurting our ability to retain the great staff members that we have. Um another example I want to share. Here we are sitting a week before school starts.

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Every high schooler has the same theater opportunities they had last year. Same classes, same teacher, same plays. What they don't have is their summer back. We brought children into adult issues.

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We got our students all worked up and worried about adult issues that we as adults ended up fixing. So again, I get the politics. I get why we would be attacked for cutting staff and why that comment or that decision

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might be used to try to hurt us. But I wasn't hurt. I already was hurt by having to make the decision. The board is still here. It was the students who never should have been brought into this adult issue to begin with that were hurt.

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So again, I want our community to speak up. Let us know where we mark aren't meeting the mark. But please [snorts] keep my kids and my staff out of the blast zone. I'd much rather see social media lighting up with the story about how 60

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members of this community came together to fix up a 100-year-old school on Sunday. But you know that we're not because it won't get the clicks. And we all know it's wrong. We know that those feel-good stories should be getting the clicks and not the drama.

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But we don't ever seem to change. So as we look to restore trust, rebuild excellence, and rise as a community, I am asking you to please work with us and not against us. I do believe that everyone wants us to

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succeed, but I do not believe that everyone fully understands the unintended damage that comes from these tactics. So I look forward to a great year with our students, with our staff, and our community, and I'm asking, let's do

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better. So that is the end of my hour-long comments. Again, I apologize for taking too long, but I want to make sure we celebrate everything that has happened well over this summer, and I am really hopeful that our community will hear what I've

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said tonight and put the politics aside and start working together so that we can rebuild a community and a school district that our students deserve. >> I'm going to tack on to that. Like I said at convocation,

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we've been through some very difficult times. A lot of disappointments in the last year. Whack-A-Mole. Um but as I told staff that difficult times don't define this

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district. They don't. How we respond does. And every decision that we make is going to have to be made through student outcomes lens. Period. How does How does this or that How does that affect student outcomes? Because

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that's ultimately why we're here. And that's the absolute most important thing. So. >> I'm very excited to hear as you were talking about all the teachers and staff and everybody, the ownership thing. I think that is just the key thing we hear because we've had things

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that we thought were going to be great last year and they could have been but there was no real ownership and that's why it didn't work out. And there was, you know, other things going on but ownership is very exciting. I'm very excited to hear how they have taken the

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ownership and that is going to make the difference. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Very excited. Next time, can you talk a little bit about the model that you're putting in place at Running Creek? >> Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, I've got some thoughts for just give you a pre-

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preview of some information on the Running Creek model. I want to have Cindy and Nancy come and talk more in detail about all the literacy and math training that they've been working on over the past 2 weeks to really dive in a little deeper. My

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hope tonight was to give an overview. I said I'd probably talked too long but we're going to dive into some of those areas over the next few meetings. >> Great. I'm excited. >> Cool. >> Me too. >> Thank you. >> All right. So next up we have public comment. I have some sheets for you.

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>> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. First up we have Raquel Adams. >> Does this need to be turned on? >> Yeah, if you hold it the numbers come on. Yeah, there we go. Perfect. >> All right. Um, Dr. Knight, I appreciate

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your comments tonight. I appreciate your leadership. I have heard from a lot of teachers that they felt that you brought in a lot of leadership to their meetings this week and that they felt good about that and I I appreciate your plan. I appreciate your thoughts that you shared

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with us today about coming together as a community. I wholeheartedly believe in that and I do think that we as a community can do better on social media. I'm I know that even I can do better on social media. Um, I'm here today to also

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encourage the board to do better. Um, on June 26th, I sat in this exact room and I asked you to be transparent when choosing a new board member. Instead, you had no discussion and you instantly approved a candidate and now

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we know why. Through a Coral Way Crest, which I didn't make, we discovered that board members held secret meetings on a text thread to pre-select that seat and to cut out the public. During these secret communications, the participating board members agreed to

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completely disqualify all original applicants for consideration. This discussion was explicitly stated to be based on the presumed political affiliations of the candidates. In my specific case, a board member falsely

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aligned me with a a liberal political affiliation to justify my disqualification. I am in fact a registered Republican making this assertion both factually incorrect and prejudicial. Furthermore, these board members

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recruited their own preferred candidate. They assured this individual that she would be selected for the the and promised her official board support in the subsequent follow-on election. This is a violation of Colorado Fair Campaign Practices Acts. It is also

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unlawful to perform these actions behind closed doors. By prearranging outcome and eliminating public candidates in secret, these board members violated Colorado Open Meetings Laws, which makes this board appointment actually invalid.

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This unlawful practice doesn't stop at board seats. Recently, you brought in outside groups to help with the ACLU lawsuit. Once again, you had zero public discussion. Our community found this out because one of our board members' husbands announced it on his radio show.

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This seemed to be more of a political stunt than actually communicating with our district, and it violates [clears throat] standard transparency practice and ethics. I am asking you today, as we all do need to come together as a community, to please, please, please be transparent

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with this community. If you believe that you are following what your constituents asked you to do, just be honest about it. One of you recently said that the truth will set you free. That was what Jesus Christ said. And the truth will set us all free. We all need to be

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honest. We all need to be Christ-like. We all need to try to put our political differences aside and come together for the children in our community. >> Courtney Lamb. Okay. Uh good evening. This is my first time ever doing this, so I'm a little

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nervous. Um So, I would like to ask for clarification regarding the district's policy on teacher lunch periods and planning time. Specifically, I would like to know what the district's expectations and protections are for uninterrupted lunch breaks and planning periods for teachers. If there is an

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existing policy, I respectfully request that it be clearly included in the district's policy manual, employee handbook, any staff guidance so that all of our employees are aware of what this policy is. Um and that administrators have access to it as well, so that they

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can all be aligned. Uh if there is not a current written policy, I ask that the board uh and our new superintendent consider adopting one. Uh planning time is essential for lesson preparation, collaboration, communication with family, and meeting student needs. Likewise, teachers should

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have a responsi- a reasonable opportunity to take an uninterrupted lunch break whenever possible, as I know it is not written into law in Colorado for that part, but a lot of districts have adopted having that in the policy. Um

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and then clearly defined expectations help support staff's well-being, improve consistency across schools, and ultimately benefit students. Um so, and you may be asking why this is. Last year, I had 168 missed lunches and plans, um which if you count that down,

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it's 84 days, and we have six 166 days in the school year. I had multiple days where I wasn't even allowed to leave my classroom to go to the bathroom as a special education teacher because we're so severely understaffed. You may ask, "Well, why did you not bring this up sooner?" And I did. I spoke with my principal,

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the special education director, our special education mentor, our union representative, the superintendent at the time. Each time I was told it would be addressed, and that they would consider paying for the extra extra duty assignment compensation.

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Every time that I addressed it, it was like, "We'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it later." Um at the end of the last school year, I did send an email to our previous superintendent where he continued to say that he would not be paying me for my lack of taking a plan time when it was

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allotted to me, that it was my responsibility to just leave my classroom even though I did not have the ability to do so. Um and he would not be paying for it and that I should have spoken up sooner. Even then, I talked to him about all of the times that I did bring it up, all of

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the people willing to come in and talk about how many times I had brought this problem up. Um I did try and speak with um Ted Knight as well where it was actually lied in email about what my plan time consisted of

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and then that was used to no longer pay me for that extra compensation time as well. So, I would really like moving forward if we could have a policy in place so that this does not happen to any of our other staff members as it did almost deter me from coming back, but ultimately my students were more

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important than my pride in this. So, thank you. >> And Michelle Gazinski. >> I hear uh I'm here also to talk about the transparency or lack thereof. Um I've seen the court messages that members of this board

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came from um if those messages between you deciding who was going to replace the board position Um based on ideology. You've You've fired employees over less than that. Why is it okay if you

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guys do that? This is supposed to be an apolitical position. This transparency is unacceptable, even though you're an elected official and there are politics involved. We're asking you for transparency. We've always asked for transparency and you're continuing to break open meeting law

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violations. Like there's laws here to protect taxpayers and parents so that the business is done in public so we can see your motivation behind it. We can see everything going into this. You hired a great guy. I think we can all agree with that. What

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he's bringing to this district is amazing. For you to go and then delete the Horse's Mouth Mouth page simply because you don't agree with it because it's getting a little uncomfortable, isn't it? Because people are are are sending submitting CORs and they're getting uncomfortable because of what

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we're seeing you guys doing behind closed doors that should be done in public. Deleting the Horse's Mouth is not the solution. The CORs will keep coming. He's just trying to get ahead of it and make it public. If somebody's already submitted this information, you said, let's see.

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You don't want them CORs are being submitted anonymously. Well, don't allow anonymous. Make somebody put their name and their whatever if they're a taxpayer, a parent, whatever. Publish the CORs only. You don't need to do all the emails that are that are coming in if that's overwhelming.

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If there needs to be accountability because there is policies and procedures for CORs, just do that. Um but we wouldn't need to submit CORs if you replied to our emails from parents. If you took the time to answer the questions of how are these things done

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being done with within the law, but you're not. The fact that the CRC and the financial accountability will now be under the superintendent and not under the board is very reassuring. What you've said tonight is incredibly gives us all lots

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of hope and we do appreciate that. But this transparency that you guys are choosing, that he's trying to do, but you're stifling him is not okay. It's not okay as parents or as taxpayers. And this this financial situation did not just pop up this spring. We declared

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bankruptcy last year and you chose to do nothing also. There was accountability there that's on your shoulders that you didn't do anything with. The writing was on the wall then and you just kept [clears throat] pushing the pedal down to the metal of your ideology. So here's the choice for you.

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Remove the politics, become transparent, apologize to our community cuz we have yet to hear you say you're sorry to wasting taxpayer money. And if you can't do that, put our kids first or step aside. There are people who will. We have very capable parents and retired educators who are standing by to fill your seats. If you don't want

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to put children first, we will. >> Okay. So next up. Does anybody want to do the motion for the next >> Yeah. I'll move that the board approve consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.4 as presented. >> Second.

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>> Any more discussion? Director Fletcher. >> Aye. >> Director Hunt. >> Aye. >> Director Kay. >> Aye. >> Director Olsen. >> Aye. >> Director Powell. >> Aye. >> Okay, next up we have action items. So 9.1. I move that the board approve the

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revised Board of Education schedule for the 2026-2027 school year. Can I get a second? >> I second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Right, so we're bringing up again just to discuss if there's any things that

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need to be changed. Is that right? >> I can. >> And >> Yes. So, the change the big change here is we've had this rotation of like regular board meeting >> What was the

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>> Was it special or working >> Um working session. >> And a business >> To me, there's just no logical reason why they aren't all just board meetings. That way we can do the work that needs to be done. We don't have to worry about amending an

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agenda at the last moment, which then doesn't look transparent, doesn't give our community time to see what we're doing. I The rotation maybe in a bigger district where it's like this is just a working session. It's not the same formality and then the

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next month we actually vote on stuff. In a district this size, we're working every 2 weeks and we've got things that we need done. So, it's just changing it so that it is a regular meeting every time we meet. >> And is it also the case that when it's a working session that you aren't supposed

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to necessarily be like voting officially on policies or any other changes? So, this way we would have the flexibility to vote always. >> Yeah, and there's certain, you know, certain like special meetings, you don't have to do public comment. Regular meetings, we have public comment every

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meet I mean, to me it just it demonstrates to our community that we are a serious board. We want interaction. We want to be able to vote. We want to be doing our business in public. We If I have something I need you guys to vote on, I

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might not want to wait 3 weeks. It's like So, there's just to me there's no upside to having a working meeting in a district this size, and there's no downside to changing them to all be regular. This just gives us flexibility, which we

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need. We We have to be agile. >> Now, how about dates? Were there concerns some concerns over dates? >> Yeah, I have one just that the Tuesday that's not our usual second and fourth Tuesdays. That one I know I'm not available for and I think we had to move

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it because of fall break, but I don't know if we're interested in potentially that's October the 6th. If we're interested in potentially having it on like a Wednesday or a Tuesday or like the Monday before, but I just already know I won't be able to make that meeting. >> So, we moved it to the first because of

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fall break. So, do you want to move it to the Monday? >> I think we could go back to that second one. >> Well, that's fall break. >> The only thing would be if you're comfortable with making sure that we have the agenda posted in time or any last minute changes. If that would be the only reason why I

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think you might want a Wednesday, but >> And this isn't something you have to vote on. >> Yeah. >> We can change that and just give proper notice. So, if we want time to think about it, if you have a recommendation to change it now, I'm I'm okay with that. I just it's not

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something we have to vote on to change. We just need to post it ahead of time. >> Yeah. >> And clarify the date we're changing. >> Well, and I don't know if if folks wanted to say, "Yeah, I'm available to do a Monday or a Wednesday right now." So, that way we could get it set.

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Um or even to discuss in December who will be available for the December meeting or if we need to move that one around. This might be the right time for the whole board to >> You think December 8th isn't going to work as well? >> Um that week is there'll be two of us and we'll still have a majority, but

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there'll be two of us who are out. >> And are we sure David you're not going to be >> Sure. Yeah, October's going to be bad for me just the whole month. I don't think I'm going to be in Texas for most of that, so I still don't We still haven't nailed that down yet.

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Because our contract is under review with the government, so >> And you're welcome to join by Zoom if that's possible. >> true, too. >> Yeah, I I just I just know the one on the 6th, but I can't even join by Zoom. I will not be available for that day, so. >> So, why don't I come back and

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gather some dates that I think based on our calendar because of events and activities in the district since it's October's not far away, and I can look at December as well if you'd like. And then we'll just make sure we get those posted ahead of time. Right now we can just approve the revised schedule if you

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guys are >> And I noticed on the revised one it doesn't say like regular board meeting, but that's implied, right? >> top I put regular meetings. >> They're just all regular now. >> Oh, I see. Okay. Cuz before it was like behind each meeting. >> Yeah. >> But because they're all going to be regular, and we used to refer to them as business. I think a lot of districts

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just call them regular board meetings. >> Okay. >> So, it's the word doesn't necessarily mean >> we'll we'll circle back about October and potentially December, but it sounds like we would have a quorum for the December meeting even if Miriam Rhonda are not available

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>> on December 8th. >> On December the 8th, but I'm open to changing that if we want to try to >> Well, yeah, and we only have one meeting that month, so we could even probably push it to the following week >> Yeah. >> if we needed to if we wanted. >> We just try to keep them away from Christmas typically. >> Yeah.

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>> And I'm not sure the following week will be >> I don't think it will cuz it's 10 days. >> It's an eight I think eight business >> Is it eight business? >> Eight business days. >> Yeah. >> Now, the only thing in December we have to do is we usually have to certify the mill levy. And a lot of times we hold a special

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meeting for that because sometimes it doesn't match up with our meetings, so there's a good chance we're going to need a quorum just to certify the mills. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Well, if it's hard to say when it'll wrap up, we can go ahead and leave it on. We can go ahead and leave it on the schedule and see when see how it works. >> And just Zoom.

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>> We'll start this off >> I was going to say. We could probably do day by day do a Zoom. Well, and I can throw some dates out and you guys can give me your feedback and then I can I don't think I can talk about it. >> Okay. >> That sounds good. >> Does that work? >> Yeah. In the meantime

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I took a motion so >> And we did a second so we just need a roll call if everybody's in agreement with the schedule as it >> Yes. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. >> Director Fletcher? >> I. >> Director Hunt? >> I. >> Director Kay?

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>> I. >> Director Olson? >> I. >> Director Powell? >> I. >> Okay. So Um Whoever wants to make the motion. >> So I would like to to move and nominate

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Nicole Hunt as Treasurer of the Board. >> Second. >> And discussion is there anybody else that wants to >> [laughter] >> Emily, will you accept the nomination? >> I will as long as Ted and Andrea are willing to have a lot of meetings with me to discuss the finances of our

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district. Yes. Yes, I would. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So with that >> Roll call. Director Fletcher? >> I. >> Director Hunt? >> I. >> Director Kay? >> I. >> Director Olson? >> I. >> Director Powell? >> I.

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>> I move that the board repeal policy BEDB agenda. >> Second. >> Do you want to talk about this for a minute Tony? >> Yeah, so this is one we've had this policy that really outlines how our agendas have to be written, and again,

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it just puts us in a box where we can't always do the agile work that we need to do. It's not a policy that's required. I don't know why we would force ourself into doing certain things when we need to conduct business in

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public. So, I've just I'm asking that we repeal it. We have to post our agenda. Everybody will see what's on there, but this policy it said, you know, if it's a special meeting, you can only list these things, and if it's a regular meeting, you've got to list this. It just again,

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I don't know why we would box ourselves in, and I think you guys know my philosophy on the fewer policies the better. We've got so many policies, no one could know. Um we don't need policies where we don't need them. We need practices and procedures in the

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district for some rather than board policies, and I think this is one of them. Jamie does a great job of always making sure we have the agenda. It's published. To me, there's no need to have a policy that tells us how it has to be written. >> And there's nothing we're losing or that

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the public is losing in terms of public comment or engagement by repealing this policy. >> No, it it's to me it's silly things like I think it's a special meeting doesn't have like superintendent updates. Well, what if I want to share a celebration? I can't? Like, why would we do that to ourselves? Um it

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just doesn't make any sense. No, you'd still have And again, going to a regular meeting every 2 weeks, it's just some of this, and if you remember back to the retreat, I talked about one of the things that good governance systems do is you have this yearly board governance

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calendar where we just know every July we do these things, every August we do these. We'll of course add to them with things in the moment, but we overcomplicate some of these things. We have a small staff. Um we don't need to make things harder on ourselves so

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>> But we've only been doing it this way since March 11th of 1999. >> Yeah, why would we change anything since 1999? >> Somebody had a good idea in 1999. >> Yeah. >> unnecessary policy >> Yeah, and it's not required. >> And we have a public participation

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policy that outlines public comments. So, it has nothing to do with this policy. >> Yeah, it actually allows for more predictability for our community. We have the same agenda, same type of meeting every 2 weeks, same bat time,

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same bat channel. >> But where is the Batmobile? That's the question. >> Yes. Not out in the parking lot. >> [laughter] >> Okay. I get it. So, what's that? >> I'm sure somebody did something stupid at some point, and that's why this came about. >> It's why we have most laws.

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>> You see, stupid That's what I tell my kids, stupid rules come from stupid people doing stupid stupid things. >> Legal disclaimers. >> Yeah, that's That's a navy good old navy adage for you there. So, yeah. Yeah, it's probably

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We're thinking adults, I think we can figure this one out. >> Yeah. All right. Director >> Yeah. >> Director Fletcher >> Hi. >> Director Hunt >> Hi. >> Director Kay >> Hi. >> Director Olson >> Hi. >> Director Powell >> Hi. >> Okay. So, uh next up, we have our first

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reading of first and final reading of the replacement policy GBI criminal history record information. So, I move that the board approve policy GBI criminal history record information

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as our first and final. >> Just one point of order, is that asterisk actually technically part of the policy name? >> Yeah, so the asterisk it just means it's not uh What is it? The NSV and what is it? The >> Oh, national

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>> The larger policy book where these come from. This means it's a Colorado law >> Okay. >> or a school based. This in this case it's Colorado and we recently had an audit and I don't know if Ted wants to explain that after we get a second. >> sorry. >> Do you want to get the second first?

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>> Sure. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Yeah, so this is just based on audit findings. We've got to update um the way we record our criminal history information. Some of this stuff is has happened in various states over the

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years um in terms of how we ask, identify, and keep records of people with criminal histories and so um this is just updating to stay compliant with law. This is one that's required by law, which is why we're bringing it forward.

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>> Right. And pretty much as I understand it pretty much straight from the law. So >> I don't think there's a thing changed. Yeah it's >> and as CASB and the law I mean it's basically straight from that from them. >> Yeah, and I think it's probably most

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likely when we do these with an auditor it's probably an agreement with the auditor that to cure whatever the issue was. >> Yeah, and she didn't feel like CASB's policy even um drew all the information she needed. So she actually went to

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What is it? CB or the the place that audited her and she gathered their information to make sure it was actually accurate. >> So it's been vetted to be exactly what the law requires. >> Yeah, and it's not good practice to do

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first and final. In this case she needs it done because of the audit in a timeline and that's why we recommended it that way. And she's got a memo in here for us as well. >> Yeah, give a more explanation. >> Yeah, and a lot of times that second reading as you speak about it, that gives the community time to hear it,

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come back to it the next meeting, give public comment. But, if we have to do this by law and an auditor said we have to if every parent in this community came and told you not to pass it, I would still recommend you pass it because we have to. So,

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>> Right. At this point, this is legal compliance. >> Correct. Yeah, so passing it in one meeting, I think is appropriate. >> And I made it a replacement because it was so different than our original because it was really a redlining. >> Mhm.

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>> Okay. Okay. >> All right. So, with that, can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher? >> Aye. >> Director Hunt? >> Aye. >> Director Kay? >> Aye. >> Director Olson? >> Aye. >> Director Powell? >> Aye. >> Who wants 9.5? >> I'll take it. I move that the board

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approve the fee schedule revisions presented in the memo provided by the director of finance. >> Second. >> James. >> I gave it to my mom. >> Give it to your mom. >> I won. >> By a nose.

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>> [laughter] >> Okay, so some discussion on this one. I mean, it seemed pretty straightforward. They're basically aligning things. Um >> I'm not quite sure how the middle school

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was It was just the middle school that was so much lower than the elementary student. It's like, I'm not sure how that ever happened. That was an oversight at some point in time. >> That's my guess, and Andrea's here if we have specific questions, but yeah, this was brought up by the middle school. Can we align our fees? Middle school is certainly not cheaper than elementary.

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Um so, it's really just aligning these fees. Andrea, I don't know if you have any more information. It was just It had to have been an oversight that people hadn't noticed and um Dr. Smith had said, "Hey, is this something we can look into?" It made perfect sense to align this cuz like I

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said, in most organizations, you'd probably see an elementary fee raised a little bit for middle, raised a little bit for high school. Um >> No, it makes total sense. >> Don't know that I've ever seen a middle school cheaper than an elementary, so >> that I'm like, am I reading this right? >> [laughter] >> So yeah.

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>> Yep. Just doing some continued cleanup on stuff like that. >> And then the family pass. >> Yes, so I might have Andrea speak to that a little more. I Do you want to speak to the family pass? >> Yeah. Do you want me to go there? >> Yeah, do you want Yeah.

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It's your primetime debut. >> [laughter] >> So the family pass had historically been sold and been open to any and all members of the family. So whether they were parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, whatever, they could all all 20

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of them could get in. So we just clarified the guidelines that it is for I believe it says for four immediate family members. Any additional person to get in is $25. >> This is for an athletic pass. >> Yes. >> You were We were bringing paying what,

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$150 and bringing the whole extended family. And again, as I've said, we've got to start figuring what athletics cost us and not have to transfer so much from the general fund. So this I think is Andrea and John Everhart, the high school athletic director, were talking. This was an area where we felt it might

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make sense to say that family pack I mean, you buy a family pack for the Nuggets, it's not 20 people. It's four tickets, four pizzas, four Cokes, right? So we're we're saying this is for a family of four, $25 for each additional person. So if you do want to bring your extended family, you'd still save money putting

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them on the family pass, but um we've got to be a little more reasonable with what we're charging. >> The only question I have is um, about like if you have families that are larger than four and sometimes out here in the rural country you do and they're your immediate family, right? I'm a family of six.

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>> Yep. >> Um, is there an option for like a family of more than four to buy like two passes so that at least the whole family could go without like constantly having to >> So, in this case you would add two. So, for like your family would be 200 instead of 150, but is still way cheaper

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than like buying individual tickets to everything. >> Okay. So, you're saying you'd still just pay the per person for your extra family members. >> For the extra Yeah, yep. >> Rather than like enough to cover your immediate family. >> Correct. Your family you'd still get a family pass it would just be 200 versus 150.

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>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I see what you're saying. So, it's not like every game or whatever they would have to pay that. >> You're paying it one time and you're it's season tickets, yeah. >> Okay, great. Yeah, I just didn't want to disincentivize them being able to >> Yeah, yep. Yeah. >> for them being able to purchase. >> Absolutely. Yep.

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>> Great. >> Yeah, no, we would hope that they still do. Just add on a couple extras and you still get the family pass. >> Okay, cool. >> Yeah, good point. Thank you. >> So, has there has this been kind of socialized? >> Is this something that was talked about at those booster meetings, do you know?

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Or with coaches meetings? >> it at at the booster meetings and as the booster clubs were a big question was where's gate fee money going? How much are we making? Um, it's something that they're really interested in um, because they all know that we athletics

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do need some extra money to keep them afloat. >> Yeah, okay. >> Yeah, that was my only concern is so close to the beginning of the year and there might be families that just can't afford it. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think it's been socialized with the average coach and booster probably

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not the average parent. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, how do you track this? Like if Nicole only paid for five people and she wants to sneak one in. >> [laughter] >> Couple of them. >> Is there an ID or something that you're >> Yeah, there's um an ID in our athletic

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secretary and our athletic director at the high school. >> You need an ID for all you can eat pasta? >> [laughter] >> We're checking you as you come in the gym. >> Yeah, I'll be interested in hearing some feedback on this. >> Yeah. Yeah, that'll be that'll be good.

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Yeah. >> Thank you for watching this. >> Thanks, Andrea. >> Do we Do we know how much >> It's going to bring in? >> additional it's my bringing >> I don't have an estimate, no. >> I can't imagine it would be much. It's

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just making it more >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, at this point we're just trying to figure out like every part of athletics and activities and what What can we do to make it more sustainable?

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>> Do we have an idea about how much more it's going to bring in for the middle school? >> With fees, we can Yeah, I could probably calculate that. How much is it more? >> $30 >> So, $30 and we've got 320 kids there.

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So, What is it, math guy? No, yeah, almost a thousand bucks, right? >> And what does that go into? Like what kind of fund or >> It would go into their uh probably fund 23 like activity fund or something,

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yeah. It It all goes back into the general fund. They'll be They could use it for books, resources, >> Just school-based >> general fund type >> decision making. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay.

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>> Director Fletcher? >> Aye. >> Director Hunt? >> Aye. >> Director Kay? >> Aye. >> Director Olsen? >> Aye. >> And Director Powell? >> Aye. >> Sure. I move that the board approve the agreement for general counsel and special education counsel between

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Elizabeth Schools and Kaplan and Earnest. >> I'll second. >> Now, so as you know, we moved away from Miller Law Firm a month or two ago. Um, and so we've been looking for new district general counsel.

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Uh, we had a chance Rhonda and I to speak with um, Coulter Bump at Kaplan Earnest and we had a chance with Nicole to speak with them. Kaplan and Earnest is a company I've been familiar with for years. I believe they used to be engaged with um,

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Elizabeth at one point. They've still been doing our special education law for some time. Um, and I mean, they're a firm that has been doing this for ever. Have have a great system. We've had great conversations

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with Coulter in terms of um, the the level of of support that we can expect. And again, although so I've said I'm not someone who uses legal counsel very often. When we need it, we need it, we need it to be accurate and we need it

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to be I like the way um, you know, she approaches the law in a in a little more um, you know, conservative manner in terms of let's let's not be so risky in some things. I think she's going to um,

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be a breath of fresh air for our staff as we work with with her. >> And she was a straight-shooter. >> Yep. >> You know, she >> Tell you how it is. >> And go with the law, yeah. >> Yeah, like like on some things, um you know, this is what the law This is

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what the law says, but we know the values of your community, therefore this might be a way, even though you have it in policy, this is a way you can approach it with your constituents. Um they also do core training for Jeff over there. Um >> [laughter]

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>> maybe or maybe someone to help out with them. Um So, um yeah, I liked her. I really liked her. I think they'll be good. >> Yeah, Jeff made news since people were threatening. >> Um yeah, just to give feedback on my interactions with her, she just seems

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like a very matter-of-fact kind of attorney who's going to tell us, you know, the law as it is and give us her counsel, um not someone who, you know, is going to skirt the law, but say, "Hey, this is what I recommend and this

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is what This is what the black and white letter of the law says." So, I thought she was a very good attorney. >> Yeah. >> That's the boring thing. >> Yeah. Yeah, and her her family, that firm, has been doing this for a long time. They've got a very

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very good reputation amongst folks like me, educators out there, um in terms of giving really sound, practical legal advice. The other thing that she and Kaplan and Ernesta do is they have just a lot of lot of training, a

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lot of documents, a lot of forms, a lot of templates, where you're not paying someone, you know, if we need a contract, I'm not paying a lawyer to draft it from scratch. They're going to have one, say, "Take a look at this, tell us what you need changed, get it done." Um and going to cost us a lot less

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because they just have so much experience in this. Um And I know she I think she had another board meeting tonight. In fact, I think she might have had two tonight, but she's willing to come at any time and and and be here and meet the rest of the board, but yeah, she's they come with my

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highest recommendation. I think this is absolutely the right move for our district right now. >> Yeah. We need someone to tell us what we need to hear and not what they think we want. Good. Right. Okay.

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So, with that, I guess we'll Director Fletcher. >> Aye. >> Director Hunt. >> Aye. >> Director K. >> Aye. >> Director Olsen. >> Aye. >> Director Powell. >> Aye. >> Um before we consider the next item, I want to disclose that I have long-standing personal friendships with

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attorneys at one of the firms included in these agreements. And my husband has a separate working relationship with that firm. So, out of an abundance of caution, I would like to ask the board to excuse me from voting on ratification

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of past legal agreements. >> I appreciate >> Yeah, thank >> Okay, good. >> Just accept it, yeah. >> Okay. Okay, so with that, I'll handle this motion. I move to ratify the legal service legal services agreements entered into

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by the Elizabeth School District with Frasier and Frasier, Jonathan Mitchell, Jonathan Mitchell, Alliance Defending Freedom, Heritage Heritage Foundation, and Logan Trial. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay, first off, um I want to address why we are ratifying

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these previously entered legal agreements tonight. I can't get into the specifics of the underlying cases without revealing legal strategies, so I'm going to speak to this at a high level. Of the agreements before us, three come at a zero cost to the district and will

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actually contribute to cost savings for our defense in the ACLU suit. These agreements, um These were agreements I was confident signing at the time and I thought it was a good agreement for the district, so that's why I did it. why I did it.

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Um I believe strongly in local control. And I know my fellow board members share that commitment and ratifying ratifying these agreements tonight isn't about second-guessing that decision. It's about transparency and process and

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putting any doubts to rest and making sure the public record reflects board support for actions already taken in the district's interest. So that's my statement. >> And of the of the of the ones listed, three of them they they are not

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except for the last one, are not for lead counsel on any of the cases that they work on. They are just simply assistant counsel, so to speak, and they are as you said, they're offering their legal expertise, they're offering time, and some of them

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are even offering cash to us. Uh so we we have no uh financial liability related to any but the last one, and that is, you know, a separate situation. >> So

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>> Do you have >> Okay. So with that can I get a roll call? >> Okay. Director Fletcher? >> Aye. >> And Director Hunt abstaining. Is that what we need to say? Do we need to say anything? >> And Director Kay?

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>> Aye. >> Director Olson? >> Aye. >> And Director Powell? >> Aye. >> Okay, our next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for August 25th, 2026 here in the Board Room District Office. And with that, I move to adjourn this

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meeting at 8:05 p.m. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Roll call. >> Director Lucy. >> Aye. >> Director Fletcher. >> Aye. >> Director Hunt. >> Aye. >> Director Kay. >> Aye. >> Director Olsen. >> Aye. >> And Director Powell. >> Aye. >> All right.

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Meeting adjourned.