By Deb Risden
The El Paso County School District 49 Board of Education held its monthly meeting Aug. 14. All board members were present.
Superintendent’s update
Peter Hilts, superintendent, said the school year started smoothly and there were few first day vacancies for teachers, which he said was a “huge accomplishment.” Hilts said that D 49 has been named a national finalist in the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program. He said the program recognizes, emphasizes and incentivizes performance excellence across many organizations, including corporations, municipalities, school districts and hospitals. Hilts said the next step in the process includes a D 49 site visit by Baldridge representatives in September, when he anticipates receiving feedback and learning more about the reasons D 49 is being recognized.
Hilts said it was learned during a recent audit that instructional or contact time experienced by students has been evolving. He said there are two different standards and the Colorado Department of Education does not fully clarify those standards. Adjustments are being made to the calendar to ensure the district is fully compliant and more, he said.
Student Board of Representatives’ update
Vivienne Barr, student at the campus of Pikes Peak Early College and Springs Studio for Academic Excellence, said the SBOR had their first meeting of the school year and welcomed many new members. She said the group is energetic and has many plans for the school year.
Nikkos Clift, student at Pikes Peak Early College and Springs Studio for Academic Excellence, said the SBOR has grown and is planning on organizing a leadership meeting day to include teamwork exercises and activities.
Board update
Lori Thompson, president, attended the first SBOR meeting of the school year and noted there were many new members along with six returning members. Thompson attended the third annual Teachers Freedom Summit and met teachers from across the United States. She said the recent court case lost by the district — Schmidt and Kohls vs. D 49 — exonerated the district’s security team.
She said the BOE has agreed to work on the Raptor Technologies check-in system. Thompson said a change in policy will be discussed, however, in the meantime, the practice will be to not allow signs at BOE meetings.
Jamilynn D’Avola, vice president, said students have begun with testing in the new school year to determine how they should be placed.
Marie LaVere-Wright, secretary, said involvement in the Baldridge program has been helpful in all areas of the district’s operations to obtain feedback and help the district improve.
Mike Heil, treasurer, said a ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled in August to celebrate Falcon High School’s new automotive shop.
Debra Schmidt, director, said in the case of Schmidt and Kohls vs. D 49, the plaintiffs were vindicated by a unanimous decision of eight jury members who agreed that violations of first amendment rights had occurred. She said the case was not about ways to better support a board president or preserving constituents’ rights to express themselves. “Instead, the outcome was about the deprivation of plaintiffs first amendment rights and that, based upon the viewpoints that the plaintiffs expressed on their signs, this deprivation stemmed from board policy or practice,” Schmidt said. She said the district’s policy BEDH should be revised to provide more guidance to the security team, as well as comply with the first and 14th amendments to allow the public opportunity to speak about their concerns.
Action items
The BOE unanimously approved the following:
- The job description of coordinator of charter school relations
- Resolution to authorize execution of intergovernmental agreement for the Nov. 4 election
Discussion items
Dan Snowberger, executive director of Colorado Leaders for Academic Success and superintendent of the Elizabeth School District, gave a presentation about the CLAS organization. He said its mission is to “advance student achievement by helping public school board members hone their leadership skills in governance, professional development, communications, legislative outreach, networking and policy.” He said the organization believes that leaders in the public school sector should be focused on academic achievement, parental rights and educational excellence. The introductory fee to join CLAS is $1,000 for the BOE and includes newsletters, networking opportunities, webinars and in-person training opportunities. The BOE moved it forward for a vote on joining CLAS at the next meeting.
Paul Anderson, executive director of people and culture, and Sonia Marroquin-Smith, human resources manager for culture and compliance, presented revisions to Policy KEA-Stakeholder Grievance. Anderson said the policy changes were proposed to enhance clarity of the policy and does not alter its contents. The policy applies to district-operated schools and not charter schools. Marroquin-Smith said about 16% of grievances were coming from charters and the new language will help direct grievances where appropriate. The BOE moved the policy changes forward for a vote at the next meeting.
Rebekah Brooks, chief financial officer, presented a new job description for an information technology specialist. She said the district looked at what was needed when a couple of staff members retired. She said one result from that evaluation was the development of this new position description, which will not have management responsibilities. The BOE moved it forward for a vote at the next meeting.
Monica Deines-Henderson, director of nutrition services, provided a Nutrition Services Department update. She said the department has 103 staff members when fully staffed and currently has six open positions. Meals are served at 24 sites including those provided to charter schools. There were 342,604 breakfasts served during the 2024-2025 school year, averaging a daily participation of 2,168; and 1,499,424 lunches, averaging 9,550 served per day. She said the department had no critical findings from a required administrative review completed under federal law. Deines-Henderson said the current free and reduced population is almost one-third of D 49 students. She explained that the meal program is reauthorized by Congress, controlled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and operates as a nonprofit enterprise that does not receive funding from the district’s general fund. She said a structured formula dictates that a certain amount of unused funds at the end of the school year can be given to the district’s general fund. For the 2024-2025 school year, that amount was $411,000. Deines-Henderson said the Colorado free lunch program expires Dec. 31; there are two referendums on the November ballot that address it.
Thompson led a discussion on policy and procedure review. The Code of Conduct policy will be reviewed by Schmidt and D’Avola with the intention of presenting revisions to the BOE at a future meeting.
Ten Colorado Association of School Board resolutions were discussed for the purpose of providing direction to D’Avola, the CASB board delegate.
Other business
D’Avola led a discussion on requirements or guidelines for when students will complete U.S. history, civics and government classes for the purpose of providing input to the social studies task force.
The next regular meeting of the BOE is Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Peakview Hall at the Creekside Success Center in Colorado Springs.
