December BOE meeting wrap-up

All members of the El Paso County Colorado School District 49 Board of Education were present at the regular meeting in December. Rachel Washburn, a 12th grade student from Sand Creek High School, and Sam Nguyen a 12th grade student from Vista Ridge High School, attended as members of the student board of representatives.Before the regular meeting, the BOE held a ìFantastic 49î event and recognized the following: Malou Koster, data technician in learning services, for her customer service and the important part she plays with state assessments; Nick Salas, Falcon High School math department chair, for his teamworking abilities and leadership; and the 34 recipients of the Falcon Education Foundation mini grants.Board updateKevin Butcher, vice president, said he attended the groundbreaking ceremony at the Springs Studio for Academic Excellence, which will house the Pikes Peak Early College.Dave Cruson, treasurer, said he also attended the groundbreaking ceremony, as well as the Colorado Association of School Boards conference to represent the D 49 BOE as the new treasurer.Rick Van Wieren, secretary, thanked the D 49 community for the warm welcome and said he attended the pre-convention meeting at the CASB conference, which was offered to new board members. Van Wieren was sworn in as a new BOE member at a special meeting Dec. 2. The members voted on new officer positions at that time.Graham, president, said he attended the CASB conference and was looking forward to the new legislative session.Chief officersí updatePeter Hilts, chief education officer, said four members of the D 49 student board of representatives attended the student portion of the CASB conference, and Jordan Reynolds, a student from FHS, was chosen to participate on a panel of students for one of the morning keynote sessions.Hilts said he attended a national conference held by Learning Forward Co., a subsidiary of the National Commission on Teaching and Americaís Future, at which two members of the D 49 staff presented, in coordination with staff members from Douglas County School District. Amber Whetstine, executive director of learning services, and Kathy Pickering, Ph. D., coordinator of professional learning, presented on women in learning and leadership, Hilts said. Their presentation received a lot of good feedback and the team was invited to speak at other conferences in the future, he said.Brett Ridgway, chief business officer, said his team had a face-to-face meeting with representatives from Aspen View Homes for the first time since last spring to discuss a conflict about property in the Forest Meadows/Woodmen Heights subdivision. Ridgway said that, although the groups did not come to a resolution, the conversation was productive and he looks forward to additional discussions in January 2020.Pedro Almeida, chief operations officer, said the IT vendor transition to Sentinel Technologies is almost complete and the company will have full control of the network Jan. 1.Action itemsThe BOE unanimously approved the following:

• Revisions to the policy regarding personnel records and files
• Certification of a mill levy to property owners within the district for 43.189 mills
• Amendments to the attendance and substitute staffing specialist and human resources reporting specialist job descriptions
• The technology service manager of infrastructure and technology service manager for end users job descriptions in relation to the IT vendor change from Colorado Computer Support to Sentinel Technologies
• The new financial reporting and fund analyst and accounting process manager job descriptions
• Revisions to the accountant II job description
• A request by district administration to negotiate a sales agreement for the appraised value of $900,000 for property owned by D 49, located at 2120 Meadowbrook Parkway, that the proposed Mountain View Academy charter school would like to purchase

Discussion itemsAlmeida presented information on the status of the districtís 3B mill levy override projects in Ron Leeís place, who retired. He said D 49 is working on hiring a new director of 3B MLO projects and staff is currently planning the Priority 2 projects for the summer of 2020. All Priority 3 and Priority 4 projects are complete and came in under budget, Almeida said.ìWe had a budget of $20.9 million and have spent $19.72 million of that,î Almeida said. ìAbout six schools still have at least $75,000 remaining in their budgets and we have plans for how that will be spent.îDavid Rex, district accountability advisory committee chairman, provided the DAAC annual report and said the committee is doing well, with more participation from people in the community. Additionally, the committee has changed to a two-year term for each chairperson and has staggered those terms so there will not be all new people heading up the committee at once, he said.ìThis has become one of the strongest committees in the district and it adds so much value,î Butcher said.Andy Franko, iConnect Zone leader, updated the board on the status of the approved Automotive Institute of Science and Technology charter school. He said the school will be based out of Hilltop Baptist Church in Colorado Springs until the purchasing process for the permanent facility is complete. That facility, the former K-Mart building on Palmer Park Boulevard in Colorado Springs, is significantly larger than the temporary facility at Hilltop Baptist, he said.Franko said he needs to discuss with the schoolís board of directors how the facility change might impact the already-approved educational programming and budget. ìWe want to ensure the school does not change too much from what was approved in the charter in 2018,î he said.Ron Sprinz, finance group manager, updated the board about student enrollment numbers and the amended budget for the 2019-2020 school year. He said D 49 has 134 students more than what it budgeted for, which is a positive thing for the district. Sprinz also said he has brought back budgeting scorecards to more accurately depict the state of the districtís finances.Jim Rohr, purchasing and contracts manager, provided an update on D 49ís external partners and vendors and identified vendors and how they are using the money. He said many of the current list of vendors are general contractors from MLO projects.William Yerger, health science teacher at Horizon Middle School, presented three course proposals for SCHS as follows: pre-medical 100, pre-medical 200 and pre-medical 300. He said he wants to promote careers that many kids do not know about, and explained what type of experience each course would provide for the students, including the opportunity for certificate-and-degree-focused learning.Washburn said many kids at SCHS want courses like these but was concerned that one semester for each course was too short of a timeframe.The BOE unanimously agreed to move the course proposals forward for action at the January 2020 regular meeting.Whetstine updated the board on the districtís accreditation designation through the Colorado Department of Education, which the state agree to upgrade from ìimprovementî to ìfully accredited.îRidgway presented information about upcoming legislation he is helping to create regarding school finance and a ìuniform mill levy.î He said there is a disparity in property taxes assessed in districts throughout the state and the uniform mill levy possibly would lead to a more equitable taxpayer obligation.ìThis is a way to make school finance across Colorado beneficial for all students,î Cruson said.The next regular meeting of the BOE is Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the D 49 Education Services Center.