By Deb Risden
The El Paso County School District 49 Board of Education held its monthly meeting Oct. 9. All board members were present. Kayla Maldonado, internal communications manager, started the Fantastic 49 celebration. The following were recognized:
- George Blouin, parent volunteer at Vista Ridge High School, for designing props, chaperoning, driving equipment and helping prepare food for the marching band and winter guard programs for eight years
- Lauren Waldorf, art teacher at Stetson Elementary School, for nurturing creativity, confidence and joy in students and organizing other non-teaching activities, such as hosting monthly paint nights for students and their families
- Brenda Waldron and Dawn Takacs, wellness co-leaders at Falcon Elementary School of Technology; their work led to FES being recognized as an America’s Healthiest School by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in the categories of health, staff wellness and tobacco free schools. In their first year, Waldron and Takacs introduced or strengthened initiatives, such as Walking Wednesdays, semester staff breakfasts, wellness games and a Zen Den space for teachers.
Superintendent’s update
Peter Hilts, superintendent, said the subject matter experts from the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program performed a site visit late September. BPE is the quality assurance program of the U.S. D 49 was one of six finalists and the only education organization that was given a site visit. Hilts called the experience “rigorous, comprehensive and exhaustive” and said, “It taught us a lot about ourselves. We have room to improve and places where we are stronger than we knew. It was an informative, inspiring and affirming time with those national examiners.” A feedback report is expected in December
Hilts said the Student Board of Representatives hosted a candidate forum for the November Board of Education election. He said they ran a great forum. Hilts attended the recent Education ReEnvisioned BOCES retreat and planning meeting.
Student Board of Representatives’ update
Benjamin Savel, Falcon High School student, said the SBOR recently met with all Falcon Zone principals. He said there are two new Purple Star Schools in the district, recognized as military safe by the U.S. government: Falcon Middle School and Bennett Ranch Elementary School. Savel said the Falcon Middle School sixth-grade annex is the new Falcon Elementary School campus, so sixth-grade students are returning to the main middle school building.
Emma Schlosser said the SBOR held a leadership conference that focused on bonding, understanding the mission and establishing goals moving forward.
Board update
Lori Thompson, president, attended the Special Education Advisory Council meeting where she learned that state legislation has mandated that all students, kindergarten through third grade, will be tested for dyslexia. Thompson participated as a candidate in the SBOR candidate forum and said the League of Women Voters was impressed with the students’ forum. She attended the 25th anniversary of the Colorado Parents Challenge, an organization that provides low-income families with information, training, mentoring and financial resources to help them choose the right school for their children.
Jamilynn D’Avola, vice president, participated as a candidate in two D 49 candidate forums and said the SBOR hosted a well-organized forum with comprehensive questions. D’Avola attended a Teacher Freedom Alliance training session on school discipline. She said the training focused on helping schools with effective discipline policies so teachers can focus on teaching and not having to deal with “outrageous behaviors in their classrooms.”
Marie LaVere-Wright, secretary, attended the annual 4.9k run/walk for health. She said the Falcon Education Foundation will be announcing winners of mini grants at the November BOE meeting.
Mike Heil, treasurer, attended the Superintendents Cultural Leadership Advisory Council and the District Accountability Advisory Committee. He met with Sand Creek Zone leaders and learned that students on the campus (Springs Studio for Academic Excellence and Pikes Peak Early College) are now receiving hot meals that are prepared at Horizon Middle School and delivered to the campus.
Debra Schmidt, director, attended the SBOR candidate forum. She attended a Colorado Leaders for Academic Success conference that covered law, campaigning tips and finance. Schmidt said she met with Brian Smith, Falcon Zone superintendent, and Lisa Fillo, executive director of learning services, to learn more about Colorado Measures of Academic Success scores and the data it generates.
Action items
The BOE unanimously approved the following:
- Patriot Applied Learning Campus course proposals — Colorado Folklore and Culture & Literature
- Exploration of district expansion alternatives because of challenges of growth and budget
- District and School Unified Improvement Plans
Passed by a majority vote of 4:1
- Social studies task force statements of intent and social studies course sequences for American history and government/civics courses
- Patriot Applied Learning Campus course proposal — film and literature
Discussion items
Todd Snidow, managing director of RBC Capital Group, presented information regarding the refunding of D 49’s Series 2015 Certificates of Participation. Snidow recommended selling about $47 million of D 49’s COPs and refunding at a lower rate, which will result in an annual savings of between $128,000 and $170,000 to the district. The BOE moved it forward for action at the next meeting.
Rebekah Brooks, chief financial officer, presented preliminary, pre-audit fourth-quarter financials from the 2024-2025 fiscal year. She said year over year, revenues have increased; however, salary and benefits are over budget by $2.466 million. Transfers from the general fund to other funds have increased. She said the general fund subsidized the following funds: insurance, preschool, transportation, Base49 (a fund for before and after school programs) and health insurance. She said there are limited funds that can be subsidized with general fund money, and there are rules about what can be paid with taxpayer money. The district is in compliance with funding transfers and allocations. Overall, she said there is a $6.8 million budget deficit. Hilts expressed concern about the upcoming year because of decreased state funding. He said the district is working hard to find ways to reduce expenses.
Hilts presented an annual finding of both quantitative and qualitative performance measures for his position as superintendent. He said the qualitative multi-rater results are gathered by the employers council from direct and indirect reporting staff, principals, cabinet members, other district leaders, support professionals and professional-technical staff. Overall, the scores were slightly lower than last year in the categories of customers (stakeholders, i.e., students and parents), leadership and workforce; higher in knowledge, results and strategy; the category of management remained about the same. When reviewing quantitative measures, Hilts’ scores are lower than last year. He said the metric of having 16 schools improve in academic performance year over year was not met. The BOE discussed exploring changes in the superintendent evaluation system. Schmidt and Thompson will meet with Paul Anderson to discuss options to bring back to the BOE for discussion.
Thompson reviewed a proposed change to the student absences and excuses policy that would require a doctor and/or therapist note for an absent student when the truancy process has been initiated. The BOE moved the policy forward for action at the next meeting.
Ken Witt, executive director of Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), provided an annual report of activity. He said D 49 is a founding member; Montezuma Cortez and Pikes Peak State College are the other two members. He said the organization’s mission is to develop and deliver service to BOCES’ districts and authorized schools to expand availability and access to quality, innovative public education programs. He said they intend to broaden the path of choice in Colorado and expand available programs. Witt said there are six brick and mortar schools in the program, six multi-district online schools and 54 homeschool enrichment programs at 70 different campuses. He said there are a total of 13,607 full and part-time students this school year, representing a 32% growth from last year. He said BOCES’ newest school is Riverstone Academy in Pueblo, the first Christian public elementary school. Witt said the school is in line with programs parents wish to have and feels they are protected by the Espinoza Ruling of the Supreme Court. “We can’t care whether they’re religiously affiliated or not, so we don’t,” Witt said.
When Witt asked the BOE if they had questions, Heil made the following comment regarding Riverstone Academy: “I heard at the end that essentially ER BOCES is going to be participating in the spread of religious schools receiving public funding. As somebody who gets deeply into our U.S. Constitution and our U.S. history, eroding that separation of church and state is very concerning. And for us to be a partner in that does not sit well with me.” Thompson provided what she referred to as a note of clarification: “Separation of church and state is not in the United States Constitution.” D’Avola added: “As to whether or not we should support schools that have Christian values, or that want to be a specific orientation to a religion of some sort, just so everyone is aware, pre the 1960s, in every public school they taught the Bible and they prayed every morning in the classrooms. … It was very much a part of our national heritage that every school promoted the values of the Ten Commandments and the Bible, and our students were taught that all the way up until the 1960s, and they were funded. So there you go.”
The next regular meeting of the BOE is Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Peakview Hall at the Creekside Success Center in Colorado Springs.
Editor’s note:
The Espinoza ruling Ken Witt refers to in the BOE meeting is the 2020 Supreme Court Ruling in Espinoza vs. Montana Department of Revenue. This rule prevents states from excluding religious schools from school choice programs. If private schools receive any funding from the state, e.g., in the case of tax credit initiatives, religious schools cannot be excluded. The ruling does not require or mandate that any state provide funding for private or religious schools.
To those who say the Constitution does not contain anything about “separation of church and state,” the argument is this: The phrase “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” is the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from creating an official religion. The phrase “separation of church and state” is a metaphor for this principle, used by Thomas Jefferson to explain the First Amendment’s goal of preventing the government from favoring one religion over another.”
The legal interpretation prohibits the government from creating an official religion for the nation. It prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. (This implies that all religions would be included — Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Island, Wiccan, etc.) And it disallows any law that mandates a religious test for public office.
In the Oct. 15 issue of The Gazette, Eric Young reported that the day after Witt’s presentation at the BOE meeting, Jennifer Okes, district operations special advisor of the Colorado Department of Education sent a letter to Witt and Peter Hilts raising concerns about Riverstone Academy as a publicly funded school. The letter stated, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. ERBOCES is a public entity bound by the federal and state constitutions. Thus, any school that ERBOCES operates must be nonsectarian in nature.”
