All board members were present at the April Falcon School District 49 Board of Education meeting. Prior to the meeting, the BOE held a ìFantastic 49î event. Payden Ackerman, Sand Creek High School girlsí basketball coach, talked about the teamís recent successes. The team won the Pikes Peak Athletics Conference and moved on to the Colorado High School Activities Associationís State Girlsí Basketball Championship, Class 4A, where they took second place.Todd Matia, Project Lead the Way instructor at Sand Creek, recognized three Daniels Scholarship recipients from Sand Creek. Philip Garcia, Pierce Davies and Phillip Dupree, 12th-grade students, can use the scholarship to attend any university, with tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies and other miscellaneous educational expenses covered.During the chief officersí update, Peter Hilts, chief education officer, said that district administration will seek approval to rename the Pony Tracks facility to ìCreekside Success Center.î The official request will be brought up at a future meeting, he said.Action itemsThe board unanimously approved the following:
- A resolution for May 5-9 as National Teacher Appreciation Week
- Calendar changes for Springs Ranch Elementary School for the 2015-2016 school year to align its calendar with the rest of the Sand Creek Zoneís calendar
- New course proposals to help strengthen the science, technology, engineering and mathematics program at Vista Ridge High School
- A food service contract between the district and the Community Partnership for Child
- Development for the 2015-2016 school year
- Three food service contracts between the districtís nutrition department and Banning Lewis Ranch Academy, Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning and Imagine Indigo Ranch
- Four new job descriptions, including coordinator of gifted services, audiologist, coordinator of title programs compliance and a Title I parent engagement teacher on special assignment
- A boundary change for the Sand Creek and POWER zones so all students from Springs Ranch Elementary School funnel into Horizon Middle School unless they request a different middle school; the boundary change will be in place for the 2016-2017 school year
- Revisions to personnel policies to ensure the district has current and relevant leave policies in place
- Revisions to district policies regarding public participation at board meetings to ensure those policies comply with federal and state laws
Budget updateBrett Ridgway, chief business officer, presented updated budget information for the 2015-2016 school year. Based on his analysis, Ridgway said the district schools can expect about $5,600 in direct funding as part of the per pupil funding rate.ìWe want to make sure that students have a consistent amount of per pupil funding available to them, regardless of what zone theyíre in,î Ridgway said. ìNo other district does that.îRidgway also cited about $30,000 in savings per year from the installation of the artificial turf at the Falcon High School athletic field.Based on the information presented at this meeting and presentations scheduled for the May meeting, Ridgway asked the board to provide feedback on the proposed budget so he can bring it back for approval at the June board meeting.
Lease agreement with Pikes Peak Community CollegeRidgway also presented the BOE with a ìworking draftî of a lease agreement for Pikes Peak Community College. According to the draft, the college would lease 15,000 square feet of the available 35,000 square feet at the Pony Tracks facility, and the district would retain the rest, he said. The initial lease term would be three years, with two two-year leasing options available after that, Ridgway said.The rent would be about $16,000 per month, with no expected increase for the initial seven-year term.Ridgway asked the board to review the draft and provide comments. He will present the final draft as an action item at the April 22 special meeting.
Sand Creek Zone calendar revisionsSean Dorsey, innovation leader for the Sand Creek Zone, asked for permission to establish a consistent calendar for all schools within his zone. The revisions would add contact time between teachers and students at Sand Creek, and families with students at multiple grade levels would have the same days off and early releases, he said.The board agreed to move the request to an action item at the special meeting April 22.
Summer school updateJim Bonavida, D 49 iConnect solutions manager, provided an update on the districtís summer school credit recovery program. He is currently working on allowing parents to pay online for credit recovery classes.ìWeíve had over 400 students take advantage of the credit recovery program,î Bonavida said. Of those, just fewer than 80 percent have successfully recovered missing credits, he said.Career and technology education updateNikki Lester, career and technology education director, provided an update on the districtís CTE program.ìOverall, 80 percent of all sixth-to-eighth-grade students are accessing CTE programs,î she said. Programs include internships, project-based learning classes, college credits and skilled trades to keep students in school and give them the real-world-relevant coursework they want, Lester said.ìThe community is starting to come to us to get involved in internship-type programs,î she said.
