November BOE meeting wrap up

All members of the El Paso County Colorado School District 49 Board of Education were present at the regular board meeting in November. Rachel Washburn, 11th grader from Sand Creek High School; and Skylar Neuwirth, 12th grader from Falcon High School, were present as part of the student board of representatives.Before the regular meeting, the BOE held a ìFantastic 49î event and recognized the recipients of the Falcon Education Foundation mini-grants. The foundation received 73 applications and awarded more than $26,000 to educators for their innovative classroom projects.Board updateKevin Butcher, treasurer, thanked the community for approving ballot measure 4C. ìThis is proof that we are winning our communityís trust back,î he said.The other board members echoed Butcherís sentiments.Chief officersí updatePeter Hilts, chief education officer, said this election had the highest voter turnout and level of support for a D 49 ballot measure.Pedro Almeida, chief operations officer, said he and the other chief officers have had the chance to go out and ìtouch baseî with various subgroups in the district to maintain open lines of communication.Student board of representativesí updateWashburn said the high school buddy program between SCHS and third-grade students at Remington Elementary School has been successful.Neuwirth said FHS started a fundraiser for children with cancer, which has also been successful.Action itemsThe BOE unanimously approved the following:

• Designation of the POWER zone arts-focused elementary school as Inspiration View Elementary
• A change to the POWER zone boundaries to identify which families will be served by IVE
• A calendar adjustment for the POWER zone elementary schools to allow for a teacher training day Nov. 16, with no students in attendance
• Revisions to the following policies: evaluation of chief officers and student drug and alcohol involvement
• Review of the policy regarding public conduct on district property
• New and revised course proposal as follows: a Spanish for Spanish Speakers II course and a nutrition course at SCHS; a name change for the Jazz Choir at FHS to Advanced Show Choir and the addition of a Show Choir course; and an alternative cooperative education Pathway redesign, including new courses, at FHS to directly align with newly adopted Colorado Department of Education guidelines
• Adoption of policies to comply with new state requirements for parent notification of alleged criminal conduct by staff members as follows: safe schools; staff conduct and responsibilities; and notice to parents of alleged criminal conduct by school employees
• Celebration of American Education Week from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16
• A resolution for the use of charter buses to transport district students to and from school events
• The job description for the early childhood education administrative assistant

Discussion itemsPaul Andersen, director of human resources, presented the State of the Workforce Annual Report and highlighted some important items. Regarding the student to administrator ratio, he said, ìWe are comfortably within the target ranges we have established and those numbers are remaining steady.îRegarding the salary spent on administration as a percent of the total district budget, Andersen said, ìWe are remaining steady in the middle of the target range.îRon Sprinz, director of finance, presented the amended budget and said each school is under budget so far. The BOE will vote on the amended budget at the end of January.Sprinz also presented student count data and said the preliminary data indicates enrollment is significantly lower than expected. The budget planned for more than 300 new students; but, so far, only 160 have enrolled.Sam Dosen-Himelrick, digital communications manager, said the communications department is working on an app that includes a mass notification system, which allows parents to get the information they want on their mobile devices. She said the districtís website will be refreshed after the first of the year, and she plans to continue her work on engaging the community through social media.Amy Bremser, media and television broadcasting specialist, said she has been doing broadcasting with Comcast, CenturyLink and Falcon Broadband. She also informed the BOE that she won an award for electronic media excellence this last school year; only 12 awards were presented statewide.Marie LaVere-Wright, president, asked board members if they wanted to continue the BOE evaluations process as is, and they agreed.LaVere-Wright also asked district administration for ideas on how to accomplish the board reviews of the school innovation plans as per state statute.Hilts said the administration has a process for that and will bring it to the BOE planning summit in February.Following the regular session, the BOE held an executive session for discussion of the chief business officerís evaluation and performance review. No action was taken at that time.The next regular meeting of the BOE is Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the D 49 Education Services Center.