October 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Description:  Approve of the September 17, 2025 regular meeting minutes

Description:  The Board Chair will call for Public participation. 

Description:  Request to Reconsider — With our accreditation score being lowered due to state assessment results, we have submitted a request for the state board to reconsider our accreditation. For the submission, we use our local assessment data to prove to the state board that our students are meeting benchmark and the state assessment data does not correlate with what we are seeing at the local level. In the request, NWEA data was used for Reading and Language Usage in K, 1st, and 2nd grades. Since our class sizes are small, we had to use a three-year aggregate of the data. Submitting a request pushes our deadline for the UIP to January so we can get our final rating after the state board makes their determination. 

Bus Drivers and Activity drivers — We should be able to get drivers trained through Blanding or any other state agency that does CDL training. There is one person looking into obtaining their school bus and passenger endorsement. I have reached out to our district staff who have completed the requirements to operate our small vehicles to see if any of them would be willing to drive some activities as needed if coaches are not able to cover the driving duties.  

Digital Literacy — There have been a number of phone-related issues the last couple of weeks. Therefore, the HS/MS along with the Dolores County Sheriff's office will be doing some educational access around the use of phones and the digital footprint created. Attached below is a letter sent to parents.

New Custodian Hired; One substitute custodian on call

HS/MS Training - Nine HS/MS staff attended the MTSS training put on by BOCES on October 3rd

HS/MS Para

Sick Bank — A committee was created for a sick bank request this week. By policy, a committee of one teacher, one classified staff member, and one administrator must make up the committee to decide on requests to the sick bank.

Attending the Rural Means Opportunity: Strategic Action Convening October 24th

 

Description:  Since our initial budget was passed in June, below are a couple of highlights:

• October count for enrollment is slightly down from the mid-range projections that we used to set the budget. 
• We are waiting for the finalized per-pupil funding from the state, which looks to be slightly higher than we budgeted for in June.
• UPK is still being finalized, and most of our students qualify this year, so the UPK number should be increased from the budgeted numbers once finalized. 
• All our vehicle purchases have been made, and the vehicles have been paid for.
• Once the October Count numbers are finalized by the state, Roxie will get a financial run for our district from the state that can be used for the revised budget in January. 
• Additional money to the budget is $10K for an MTSS grant from the state. We will be using some of the funds to send some secondary teachers to an RTI conference this fall.

Description: 

Elementary ESS Program:

• 13 students currently on IEPs and 1 more student in the process of being evaluated. One student has a 1:1 para.
• One para that works with all of my students and 2 halftime Paras that work with our 1:1 student. One works with him in the morning and the other one in the afternoon.

Angela's Comments:

"My staff is amazing! The para that works in my room is irreplaceable. She covers all the morning services and helps wherever needed in the afternoon. Her ability to build relationships with the kids and her knowledge of reading instruction is invaluable. I couldn’t do my job without her. "

"The two paras that work 1:1 with our little guy are nothing short of amazing. They tackle each day with a determination to do everything in their power to further their student’s growth. He has grown exponentially and with their hard work learning new methods, there is no telling what he will be able to do in another year. "

Positive Happenings:

• Students are growing each month.

Angela said, "They work so hard and each and every one of them is growing. The grit they show on a daily basis is so exciting to see."

• Teachers and Support Staff:  Consistently work with students and provide the best instruction and interventions that any student needs. They work tirelessly to follow the IEPs and are willing to do anything asked of them. This is not the situation in other districts.

Angela stated that, "At the conferences I go to, I constantly hear about general education teachers who refuse to work with the SPED staff and their students. This is not the case at Dove Creek Elementary. We are truly blessed to have a staff that is here each and every day for the students that they serve." 

ESS Program Improvements:

• Angela would like to improve her knowledge about instruction of students with ASD. I have taken classes, read books, etc about how to best serve this specific population of students. We also have an expert from the ASD division of CDE coming in to observe and give us feedback on how to best meet the needs of our student. Until a few years ago, I had no experience with high needs ASD students. As I learn more and more, I am able to share that information with the paras and staff. It’s crucial to know that some of this methodology is applicable to our other high needs students, as well.
• Social/emotional learning. We spend a little part of each day working on social/emotional health. We work on everything including what is happening in our brains when we are struggling and strategies that help us stay calm or regain control of our emotions. 

HS/MS ESS Program

• Caseload:  26 students (25 in 6-12th grade and one in Transition (18-21 year old).  
• The 6th-8th grade is where the majority of the caseload is, with 18 students in those grades.
• We have one student this year that requires a 1:1 staff member
• 3 full time paraprofessionals.

Positives for this year:

• Having a school psych intern in our district. 
• BOCES ESS Director physically (on site) in our district at least twice a month. 
• Having a lot more PLC and collaboration that is focused around general education teachers working with ESS. 
• More training being offered for general education teachers to understand differentiation and the "Ins and Outs of ESS". 
• BOCES did an excellent beginning of year training with paraprofessionals and continues to offer ongoing training for paraprofessionals.

Improvements: 

• Ensuring that ESS students are in the general education setting as much as possible. 
• Need training/better understanding for ESS staff and for general education teachers on the different types of disabilities that we are serving in our district.

ESS Specific Data: 

• In NWEA/MAPS Testing, 25 out of 26 students in grades 6-10th, participated in the Fall test scores.  One student (new to our district) was not able to show if she met projected growth.  Out of the remaining 24 students:  the following met their projected growth goal from Fall 2024 to Fall 2025:

Crystal's Comment:
This is the first time in a long time that I feel that I am able to keep up with the amount of paperwork (case management), and scheduling meetings.  I feel that this is due to having just the right amount of ESS staff available to support students as well as to support me (coverage) so that I can complete these tasks.  I also feel that our current building and district administration's understanding of the ESS system and laws has been tremendous in helping the ESS staff to continue to improve our ESS program.

Description:  On September 30, our leadership team had a workshop all day focused on 2nd quarter priorities and action plans. Through the days' work, we were able to set dates for targets on each priority and actions that needed to be completed by specified dates. Attached below is the scorecard we are working on for our priorities.
 

Priorities

• Increasing Students Achievement and Growth

  • Implement/Continue implementing Progress Monitoring

  • Continue Implementation of PLC

  • Relationship building, Building of Emotional Bank Account

  • Assessing of Instructional Capacity

• Ensure Operational Efficiency

  • Ensure clear team communication and support

  • Develop DC Standard Operating Procedure Manual - After the Financials Audit

  • Develop a DC Assessment Management System

• Effective Communication

  • Develop a district wide Communication Plan

  • Develop DC Branding Guide

  • Revise District Website - Up and running

  • Develop and monitor a semester by semester communication plan

• The Bulldog Way!

  • Introduce and Implement Bulldog Way

  • Begin speaking the language

  • Create lesson plans for each character trait

Description:  Not much to add to last month's Bulldog Way update. 
This month's focus is Grit.

Description:  At this point, we are preparing for the start of the project pending BEST funding. I am in the process of procuring Owners Representation and putting requests out for the following service:

• Site specific ALTA survey of Ag shop property 
• Geo-technical report for the Ag shop property 
• New or updated asbestos reports for HS and Ag Shop 

I have attached the documents for the OR procurement below.

Description:  Minor Technical and Stylistic

Description:  Change to Legally Required; Minor Technical and Stylistic

Description:  New Policy 

Description:  The contract is not ready for approval because legal counsel has not had a chance to review it.

Description:  New Financial Control Resolution to include the new Teacherage Checking account at Community Banks of Colorado

Description:  Some board members and Ty will be attending the CASB Convention and will need to leave on December 10th. The board must also consider the approval of the mill levy certification when selecting a date for the December meeting. 

Description:  Minor Technical and Stylistic; Changes to "Directory Information"

Description:  New Policy

Description:  New Policy

Description:  New Policy

Description:  * New Policy, our legal counsel has reviewed this policy for us. 

Description:  One paraprofessional was relieved of their duties. By policy, I must make the board aware of this situation at the next scheduled board meeting.

Description: 

Review of Social Studies, Capital Improvements, Technology, and Facilities Maintenance, election results, as well as a potential board retreat.