All members were present at the Falcon School District 49 Board of Education regular meeting in February, except David Moore, vice president, who was absent with prior notice.Before the meeting, the BOE held a ìFantastic 49î event, and recognized elementary students from across the district nominated by their teachers: Tailor Fecteau, a fifth-grader from Stetson Elementary School; Laiyla Brewer, in kindergarten at Remington Elementary School; Natalia Roach, in second grade at Odyssey Elementary School; and Madison Nahrgang, a fifth-grader from Springs Ranch Elementary School.Melissa Ardolf, physical education teacher at Falcon Elementary School of Technology, and the elementary students demonstrated the schoolís first Drums Alive program to the BOE. Ardolf coached a two-week session on the Drums Alive curriculum, which combines general education, personal fitness, cardiovascular conditioning, neuromuscular coordination and musical rhythms. The schoolís student council raised the money to buy the Drums Alive curriculum, and used a Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools grant to buy the equipment; including drumsticks, fitness balls and plastic tubs.Chief officer updateJack Bay, chief operations officer, said construction on the office complex in the warehouse near the bus barn is nearing completion and should be ready at the beginning of March.Action itemsThe board unanimously approved the following:
- Review of the charter school contract between the district and Banning Lewis Ranch Academy
- Renewal of the charter school contract between the district and the Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning
- Revisions to two policies: electronic participation in school board meetings and physical activity policies
- Proposals for a life sciences course and a critical thinking course at Vista Ridge High School, and a teen leadership course for the iConnect zone
- The 2017-2018 D 49 school family calendar and preliminary approval of the 2018-2019 calendar
- The contract with Colorado Computer Support for network infrastructure services starting July 1
- A resolution allowing D 49 to negotiate the charter school contract with the Colorado Military Academy
The board discussed concerns about the job descriptions, preliminary budget and facilities plan for the proposed Academy for Literacy, Learning and Innovation Excellence in the POWER zone. The program would be an extension of the one that began at Odyssey Elementary School in 2014, which specifically serves students who fit a profile of dyslexia. Tammy Harold, board secretary, said she had concerns about funding a new program based on the potential for future budget cuts. ìI have no concerns with this program specifically,î she said. ìI want to know about additional funding sources and that the money will be there to sustain this program.îBrett Ridgway, chief business officer, said the mill levy oversight subcommittee has approved the program and would likely allow some funding.Harold also expressed concerns about pulling students from other elementary schools outside of the district rather than from other zones within the district. ìIf 120 students qualify and 30 are from each POWER zone elementary school and another 25 are from out of district, surely we have another 30 students in our own district that qualify rather than from outside,î she said.Marie LaVere-Wright, board president, said the district has policies in place that prioritize district students over outside students. ìThe budget assumes that those 25 seats would be able to be filled even without other zonesí students coming in,î she said.Harold said she was concerned about the programís proposal to move existing modular units to house the new program.Bay said issues could arise from modular units, and his staff is looking into a semi-permanent facility that could be moved. ìWe will make sure we have a quality facility for the students,î he said.The BOE unanimously approved the job descriptions, preliminary budget and facilities plan.
Discussion itemsJulia Roark, Falcon zone leader, provided an update on the status of the zoneís literacy goals. ìWe are increasing our tutoring efforts at all three elementary schools to help make the kind of growth we want to make,î she said. At the middle and high schools, Roark said the focus is on math intervention to help students who are not at the benchmark level for their grade.Matt Meister, director of communications, said his department would like to restructure the existing digital communications specialist position to a digital communications manager position and create a new internal communications manager position.Peter Hilts, chief education officer, said the administration is being judicious about where to focus the districtís funds, and the new position would benefit the entire district. ìWe are constantly looking at opportunities for consolidation, but we see the value to all the departments for this position,î he said.ìThis is an investment in other people to free them up to do what we need them to do,î LaVere-Wright said.The board agreed to move both the position items forward to the March 9 regular board meeting.Melissa Andrews, district planner, updated the BOE on the projects from ballot measure 3B. She said her team received the list of project priorities from the following schools: Evans International Elementary School; Remington Elementary School; Sand Creek High School; Falcon High School; and Vista Ridge High School. Those schools presented their priority lists to their student advisory councils and the mill levy oversight subcommittee, and Andrews said the next step is to start pricing out each project. Whatever projects are top priority and make up 60 percent of the budget will be completed first, she said.ìIf safety and security is not in that top 60 percent, it must be addressed within two years so they either need to use this money or find it in their budgets somewhere,î she said.LaVere-Wright presented information on the first run-through of the BOE self-review and goal-setting process. ìWe want to finalize the review process, including what goals were set,î she said. ìI will provide another update on those goals as a discussion item at the March 9 meeting.îThe next regular meeting of the BOE is March 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the D 49 Education Services Center.
