July 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 July.Board updateJohn Graham, vice president, reminded everyone to pay attention to the traffic signals near schools, especially along Londonderry Drive where a new stop sign was installed. Students and drivers need to remain vigilant to keep everyone safe, he said.Marie LaVere-Wright, president, said she wanted to make people aware that there are several veteransí services in the area that offer resources to the children of veterans from any era, regardless of their discharge status.Chief officersí updatePedro Almeida, chief operations officer, said there is a new registration process for district transportation.Brett Ridgway, chief business officer, said the human resources department has hired about 200 new staff members and expects another 40 to 50 with the opening of Inspiration View Elementary School.Peter Hilts, chief education officer, said the POWER zone received special recognition for the overall performance of its schools and earned a High Reliability Schools designation from Marzano Research, an educational consulting firm in Centennial, Colorado.He said the Falcon zone has implemented an improvement plan through Modern Teacher LLC, an educational institution in Denver.ìIt is great to see all of our zones adopting different performance improvement methodologies,î Hilts said.Open forumSix community members spoke in favor of the charter school application for Spacious Skies Charter School; two spoke in favor of the Mountain View Academy charter school application; and two people spoke in favor of the Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy charter school application. Two other community members sent emails to the board in favor of PTAA.Action itemsThe BOE unanimously approved the following:

• A resolution to participate in the coordinated election on Nov. 5 and to appoint Donna Garza, executive assistant to the BOE, as the designated election official
• A resolution to call for nominations for school board director candidates from director districts 2, 3 and 4
• Revisions to the following policies: nondiscrimination/equal opportunity; school board meetings; cooperative purchasing and ìpiggybackingî contracts; catastrophic leave bank; professional staff supplementary pay plans; substitute support staff employment; English language learner; students in foster care; student absences and excuses; students fees, fines and charges; and stakeholder grievance process
• Revisions to the Students Rights and Responsibilities Handbook to include compliance officer contact information
• Revisions to the coordinator of title programs and the education technology technician job descriptions, the former is a grant-funded position; and approval of the new title programs manager job description, which is also grant-funded
• Revisions of the following business office policies: annual budget; budget planning, adoption, implementation; funds from local tax sources; loan programs; insurance program ñ- risk management; and workers compensation
• A resolution for capital lease financing with Kansas State Bank for six buses
• Conditional approval of the Mountain View Academy and Spacious Skies Charter School contracts

After some discussion, the board denied the application for the Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy charter school in a 4-1 vote with Graham opposed.After much discussion, the BOE unanimously approved a resolution to pursue the land dedication transfer for already dedicated property near the Forest Meadows subdivision, owned by Aspen View Homes. Ridgway said the property had already been dedicated to D 49 for a school site, along with property owned by Challenger Homes, which donated land for the newly constructed Grand Peak Academy charter school. The difference is that Aspen View does not want to transfer the land to D 49 like Challenger Homes did and thus far has not paid any fees in lieu of land, as is common practice by developers in EPC, he said.According to the resolution, ìThe current owner feigned ignorance on their responsibility to transfer the parcel and with conversations, written and verbal, with the City of Colorado Springs, have indicated their intention not to honor the dedication requirement.îMelissa Andrews, community and facilities planning manager, said no other developer in D 49 or any other district has ever refused to pay the fees in lieu of land or to honor a dedicated school site.ìPursing this honors the former contracts with other developers who have done the right thing and what they have already done,î Ridgway said. ìThey (other developers) support this action.îDiscussion itemsMatt Willhelm, project manager with Wember Inc., updated the board about work on the 3B mill levy override Priority 2 projects, and said all the projects that were scheduled for completion before the school year begins are on track.Paul Andersen, director of human resources, updated the board on the guest teacher pilot program launched at Horizon Middle School in December 2018. The program, called Tagg Education, was expanded to five additional schools in the spring of 2019, and intends to address the lack of guest teachers within the district by accessing a new pool of talent through a third-party supplier of guest teachers.ìWe want to get to the point where just about any teacher can be guaranteed to have a quality person in the classroom (if they need a substitute teacher),î Andersen said.Graham said the intent is not to have the Tagg program replace the traditional guest teaching program but to end up with a mix of guest teachers from both pools.The BOE agreed to move revisions to the policy regarding evaluation of the chief officers forward for action in August.Ridgway presented an item proposing adjustments to the expense authorization reimbursement policy, which he said would address issues about how things like mileage reimbursement are handled before they become issues. Graham said he feels the way the district currently handles these items is more responsible to taxpayers.LaVere-Wright requested the addition of a work session on May 27 and the item was moved forward for action in August.The next regular meeting of the BOE is Aug. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the D 49 Education Services Center.