By Deb Risden
The El Paso County School District 49 Board of Education held its monthly meeting April 10. All board members were present; Lori Thompson was present by phone. Kayla Maldonado, internal communications manager, recognized the Fantastic 49 recipients.
- Brinklee Ruiz, Falcon High School freshman, for being an inspiration to others and organizing a dance recital and fundraising campaign for a child who is fighting cancer in the community
- Jeff Woodward, building manager at Woodmen Hills Elementary School, for his creativity and problem-solving skills that make the building more efficient, functional and accessible to everyone
- Mark Loos, facilities locksmith, for going out of his way to personalize a field trip for students at Peak Education Center on locksmithing
Open forum
Twenty-one people spoke during the open forum about the proposed new policy JBA: Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports. Thirteen people spoke against the policy; eight people spoke in favor of it.
Superintendent’s update
Peter Hilts, superintendent, said Gov. Jared Polis and Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova recognized Bennett Ranch Elementary School and Falcon Middle School as Purple Star Designated Schools in a special ceremony in Denver on April 10. The Purple Star designation is given to school communities for their work in supporting military connected students and their families.
Student Board of Representatives’ update
Sadie Sierer, Vista Ridge High School student and Katherine Taylor, Sand Creek High School student, represented the SBOR. Sierer said she was one of eight representatives from the SBOR who attended the National Student Council Leadership Conference held in Chicago. She said they learned leadership skills, and a former president of Yale’s student council gave an informative and empowering keynote speech. Sierer said there is consensus of SBOR members that they would like to see protection and fairness in women’s sports but not necessarily the language in the proposed policy. Taylor said the SBOR is trying to be the voice for the D 49 student body and will participate in the policy discussion.
Board update
Lori Thompson, president, attended the SBOR meeting and said it was lively with discussion about the district’s mission statement and the proposed sports policy. Thompson said they provided good feedback with differing opinions and were respectful to one another.
Jamilynn D’Avola, vice president, said Colorado Measures of Academic Success testing has begun and she has been proctoring tests. She said the results of CMAS testing will be available in the fall.
Marie LaVere-Wright, secretary, said there were 38 applicants for Falcon Education Foundation scholarships. Ten were awarded to seniors for a total amount of $29,000.
Mike Heil, treasurer, attended the performance “Matilda Jr.” at Horizon Middle School. He said it was a quality production along with the school’s orchestra that performed at a prior month’s BOE meeting at Sand Creek High School. Heil attended the D 49 food show — a community event hosted by the district. Food vendors are invited to bring samples of breakfast and lunch items.
Action items
The BOE unanimously approved the following:
- A new course at Vista Ridge High School – Intro to Dance/Hip-Hop Dance/Jazz Dance
Passed by a majority vote, 4:1:
- Director of building maintenance and director of grounds maintenance job descriptions: Louis Fletcher, executive director of facilities and operations, said the job descriptions do not represent new open positions, but rather a change in existing job titles and descriptions that are more in line with the level of work being performed by staff.
- Policy and procedure updates
Discussion items
Nathan Pearsall, Pikes Peak Early College principal, and Sean Norman, director of applied and advanced learning, presented a new course proposal for PPEC students called College Success Bootcamp. Pearsall said the course fills a need in PPEC’s unique setting to help prepare students for college courses. He said it can be a summer school course and could be taken concurrently with college courses. Norman said Pikes Peak State College is working with them on the course development and allowing access to their student learning management system, where students can have a simulated college experience as part of the course. Pearsall said this is a new, cutting-edge course that students can take at any level, freshman through senior.
D’Avola said the District Accountability Advisory Committee would like the BOE to recommend specific areas or topics that could be prioritized by the DAAC to support the BOE and the district. Options were discussed and four areas were suggested for DAAC involvement:
- DAAC’s mill levy override subcommittee to report a summary of MLO oversight activities to the BOE
- Provide the BOE with general trends for school needs rather than individual schools as was presented in previous meetings
- Participation at the BOE’s annual planning summit
- Evaluating and tracking the district’s strategic priorities and objectives
BOE members discussed the proposed Policy JBA: Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports. The policy states that participation in sports will be “based solely on the individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” The policy states that sports and sporting teams will either be designated as male, men or boys; female, women or girls; or coed, mixed or open. The policy does not allow transgender students to participate in sports designated as anything other than their biological sex at birth. The policy was moved forward by a 3:2 consensus for a vote at the next BOE meeting.
The next regular meeting of the BOE is May 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Peakview Hall at the Creekside Success Center in Colorado Springs.
