All members of the El Paso County Colorado School District 49 Board of Education were present at the regular board meeting in October. Natalie Danford, 11th grader at Springs Studio for Academic Excellence, and Samaya Singleton, 10th grader at Pikes Peak Early College, were present as part of the student board of representatives.Before the regular meeting, the BOE held a ìFantastic 49î event and recognized the following: Michelle Suggs and Sophie Bettendorf, employees of the districtís nutrition services department, for creating a special experience for students who participated in the summer meal program; Katherine Nunn, library staff member at Odyssey Elementary School, for her passion to inspire reading through family engagement; Carolyn Merritt, instructional coach, for her contributions to studentsí achievements in math and for helping teachers build math confidence; and Logan Nestelroad, a student at Sand Creek High School, for constructing eighth-grade band lockers at Horizon Middle school as part of his Eagle Scout rank pursuit.Board updateDave Cruson, secretary, participated in the second annual D 4.9k run/walk event Sept. 29 at Falcon High School, and thanked everyone who participated or helped host the event.Cruson said there are many concerns about traffic near the new school being built in Banning Lewis Ranch; those concerns need to be addressed to the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners or the Colorado Springs City Council.John Graham, vice president, said he attended a district-wide senior mentor training for teachers with seniority to help newer teachers.Chief officersí updatePeter Hilts, chief education officer, said the Springs Studio for Academic Excellence is moving toward a partnership with Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, for a summer architecture program as an extension of the current courses offered at SSAE.Action itemsThe BOE unanimously approved the following:
- Review of the policy on administering medications to students
- An increase in the amount charged for adult breakfast, from $2.10 to $2.40, to be compliant with federal regulations and guidelines
- Changes to the job description for senior data analyst (learning and improvement)
- The new job description for programmer (academic systems administration); early childhood educator; and teacher on special assignment (TOSA) ó job title instructional technology coach
- Statute waivers requested by GOAL (Guided Online Academic Learning) Academy and the replacement plan for those waivers
- Accreditation of the districtís schools as required by the Colorado State Board of Education
After some discussion, the board also unanimously approved the updated student fees. Hilts said stakeholder feedback indicated parents appreciated the ability to space out the fees. Additionally, they liked the clarity on how the fees were spent, he said.Each board member voiced their opinion on Amendment 73, known as ìGreat Schools, Thriving Communities,î which creates a new financial fund in the Colorado Constitution, to be operated outside the boundaries of the Taxpayersí Bill of Rights. The fund, called the ìQuality Public Education Fund,î would receive monies from a new income tax structure designed to net $1.6 billion.Kevin Butcher, treasurer, said, ìI have a personal thing about this amendment, and itís that the State Constitution is meant to have ideas that do not change. Anything that has to do with financial matters should not be made immoveable. I do want to have education better funded, but I cannot support this.îMarie LaVere-Wright, president, said she agreed with Butcher. ìConstitutional amendments should not control behavior, tax policy or financial matters,î she said. ìThe more we allow constitutional amendments to dictate money, the more control we take away from local entities and give to the state and federal agencies. I think education should be funded better but we should get to decide how to spend it.îCruson said Brett Ridgway, chief business officer, has been working on presenting different ideas that could help educational funding. He plans to follow Ridgwayís lead on exploring those other options.Graham said the district has been transparent with the community, and this amendment does not follow that process. ìI do not support this amendment,î he said.The board unanimously voted to indefinitely suspend the adoption of a resolution in support or opposition to Amendment 73.
Discussion itemsCJ Jilek and Daniel Payne, co-directors of facilities, provided information about activities within the operations department. Jilek said the amount of work the grounds department must address has continued to increase, although it appears to have peaked last year. The national average for grounds workers has one person overseeing about 20 acres, while the grounds workers in D 49 each oversee 36.5 acres, he said.Jilek said he and Payne are working with Pedro Almeida, chief operations officer, to bring on additional support staff.Jim Tanner, technology quality assurance manager, presented the ì2018-2019 Key Effortsî from the information technology standpoint.Keith Mann, director of education technology to D 49 for Colorado Computer Support, said his company has brought on additional staff to address the backlog of work orders from the district. He has a designated team for D 49. By the end of December, Mann said CCS will have assessed all D 49 schools for technology-best practices.Tanner said the information will be used to create an IT master plan.Sean Dorsey, Sand Creek zone leader, presented performance reports for the schools in his zone. ìWe have some positive trends, some negative trends and some flat spots, depending on the school,î he said.Hilts presented the mastery-based graduation program report, which his department has been creating since the Colorado State Board of Education adopted the new graduation requirements in 2015. The mastery-based requirements focus on a student’s ability to demonstrate mastery in a subject area, rather than requiring each student to earn a certain amount of credits for passing a class, which is typically achieved through a test or final exam. However, Hilts said those new requirements are achievement-oriented and do not consider an individual student’s growth.ìThe purpose of these standards is so that you can be ready to take college-level courses,î he said. ìWe are working to develop different ways for students to show mastery other than just through test scores.îJosh Fry, board director, asked if transfer students from out-of-state will be impacted by Colorado’s mastery-based graduation requirements, since they will likely be coming from states that still require credit accumulation to graduate. Hilts said the district will need to work specifically with those “credit-accumulation-minded” students to help them adjust to Colorado’s graduation requirements.Lavere-Wright said it will be important to engage with military families and build relationships with the various local military installations to prepare students who have moved into the district from other military locations out-of-state for Colorado’s graduation requirements. Hilts said his department has already begun that process.Jodi Poulin, accounting group manager said the district is up about 1,600 students, about half of whom are online only.Hilts presented information on the CEO performance review results, and said his evaluation tracks closely with that of his peers, which is good. The board agreed to move this item to an executive session at the October special meeting, previously a work session, to conduct their CEO evaluation.The next regular meeting of the BOE is Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the D 49 Education Services Center.
