Ellicott School Board News

The Ellicott School Board held a special meeting held on Jan. 12 we managed to get quite a bit done. Policies were approved that will allow for a student representative to be on the school board. The seat would be a non-voting seat, since it’s appointed and not elected, but the school board wishes to get the opinions, ideas, suggestions, criticisms and more from the students as well as from the community. The requirements to be a student rep: GPA of 3.25 or higher and during the term of office maintain C’s or higher in all subjects and be an incoming Junior or Senior. One of the reasons the board choose to make the seat open to any student was there might be a student out there that is not on the student council or other such club that might be interested. We will take applications and draw a name for a primary seat and an alternate seat. The two students will work together to be available for meetings and then take the information they receive back to their fellow students.

We approved changes to a policy that will allow for input from our PTA and Booster Association at every meeting, input from Schriever AFB at every meeting, an input time for any district employee who has something to say and of course the public input opportunity. We removed the initiation of having a prayer at school board meetings based off legal advice.

Public input was changed and any taxpayer of the Ellicott District is again welcome to attend a school board meeting, sign up to speak, and then speak that night. If the citizen has questions that cannot be answered that night, for whatever reason, the school board president, Ernest Hudson, will take their contact information and respond to them in writing within seven days.

We added in an official working board session to each month, making two working board sessions and one regular board session per month. As we did in January, if there is a need for an additional board meeting, we will create a special meeting with plenty of notice to take care of business.

Because our elementary school is in priority improvement status, we were required as a district to create a Unified Improvement Plan for that school. Employees worked long and hard on the plan and created one for each school and the district as a whole, in an effort to go above and beyond. Due to time constraints the plan wasn’t put through the District Accountability Committee as it should have been, so when it was approved by the board it was with the caveat that it would be sent to the DAC and that they would render an opinion/recommendation at their February meeting.

A grant for the Improvement Support Partnership Grant was created by Mrs. Garduno in an effort to secure the district more than $150,000 to assist in implementing the Unified Improvement Plan. Because it was not ready to be sent before the last board meeting, the school board president had to sign it to get it up there and the board approved it after the fact. This is not ideal, but sometimes it does happen with boards. In addition, the district added Caplan and Earnest law firm to their choices for district attorneys.

After consulting with the new lawyer, the board determined in a unanimous vote of 5-0 to non-renew the superintendent’s existing contract. One reason for this is that the contract, as currently written, was a very poor contract for the district and for the school board. The board holds the responsibility of ensuring that the district is covered by adequate contracts and that we limit the liabilities of such contracts. One reason that the vote was unanimous is that all the board members took the time in executive session to get their questions answered about the contract. Before the vote was taken the motion was read aloud at least four times and one board member even verified that we were voting on the existing contract, which we did.

Overall, the board is very pleased with the progress they have been able to make thus far. We have a regularly scheduled board meeting Thurs., Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. and we have a retreat planned for the school board (Jan. 29 from 1-5 p.m.) to be hosted by District 38, where we will discuss such things as goals, plans, finances and more. We want to extend our gratitude to District 38’s school board for being kind enough to take us in and share their time, experience and knowledge with us.

What type of Community do we have that supports this type of behavior?

This is a posting from another blog - but is this how adults are supposed to behave?  This type of behavior is exactly the same as Hitler and the "brown shirts" did in 1932 to silence anyone that had a different opinion than them.

I debated whether to write about Thursday night’s near riot or not and I think I will. I think I need to get this off my chest and just work through what happened.

At the end of a uneventful meeting, there was a clearly hostile crowd. Joe Nee had paced back and forth instead of sitting down for a majority of the meeting and when it was over he started popping off his mouth talking gibberish that I never did quite understand. Once he had done that then the crowd got to its feet and many were shouting and clapping. I had put on my coat and was trying to leave when I was trapped by people.

Johnny Adams got his hands right in my face and was aggressively and vehemently clapping while saying, “You did it now girl, you’re gonna get it now girl.” I was shocked. Did what? I am one of five people on a board. I believe this is the second or third time I’ve been threatened by Johnny Adams.

Gary Lake, standing right next to him was saying at the same time, “You’ve lost your mind now girl.”

Why was a former board member talking to me about losing my mind I still have no idea, but he certainly did nothing to protect me from Johnny Adams or his aggressiveness to me. I consider myself to have been verbally and physically harassed by Johnny Adams and I am looking into filing charges on him as such.
I again underestimated Gary Lake. As someone who goes to the same church as him, I thought, as a cowboy and a Christian, he would have been the first man standing to help me out of an assault. Once again I was wrong about him. And disappointed.

The crowd was in a semi-riot at this point and crowding around. Bea Twiss was also being verbally assaulted by audience members, some of them employees!

I walked out the door and into Brian Bradley and Chuck Howarth. I turned to Chuck to say something and Brian Bradley turned on me, all 6’3″ of him to my 5’8″ and he got so close to my face we could have kissed. I took a step back and he advanced on me again screaming in my face about what a bitch I am and how I was ruining this entire community. I was like, “Who ARE you?” and he said, “Brian Bradley.”

Now, you need to know that I have NEVER met this man before and I do not know him other than his hateful words in letters to the editor. I could not have picked him out of line-up before this moment.
I said that he needed to get out of my personal space or I would call the Sheriff’s Department and that was when Chuck Howarth stepped in and put himself between Bradley and I. It gave me enough time to get to my car, all the while Bradley was screaming after me (around Chuck) that I was a stupid fucking bitch and ruining the community with my “agenda.”

He then went back into the administration building and called me a “fucking c-nt” to which more than a few people heard. I continue to be shocked and frankly a bit frightened about a reaction like this. There is no rhyme or reason for this man to hate me to this extent and I am considering filing the same charges against him as I will file against Johnny Adams.

That won’t protect me in public though will it.

The faces that I picked out of the crowd were Joe Nee, Gary Lake, Fayne McDowell, Johnny Adams and Brian Bradley. A few of them displayed the strangest behavior I have ever seen in public. I ended up at the ER the next morning.

Not ONE man on the board was treated as Bea Twiss and I were treated and she wasn’t treated to even half of what I had to go through just to leave a meeting!

We have some serious issues in this community with men believing they have the right to assault any woman this way.

I would love to know the reasoning behind any man assaulting a woman who is simply trying to do the brand new job she was elected to do by other community members. These are grown men who for one reason or another showed up to show their support of the superintendent again.

I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I had to go to the ER the next day? I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I know I can’t fight against a man and come out ahead?

Brian Bradley wrote to me just today and confirmed his nastiness toward me, “I will attest to Mrs. Dahn’s account of what I said to and about MaryAnn Clemons. I heard it because I said it.”

The question remains – why would someone spend this kind of time and energy to hate someone he doesn’t know and who had no issue with him before the last meeting?

School Board Meeting on 17 November

 

I would like to let people know that the school has a policy against being inebriated on school grounds. We are also a tobacco free zone, which means you should not be smoking on school grounds. I, as my opinion only, would like to ask the public to respect both of these rules. As well, if we get a crowd like that again, I will ask the Board President to move the meeting to a location that does not violate the fire code and does not force people to sit butt-cheek to butt-cheek. The door was not only blocked for much of the meeting, but it was reported to me from someone in the audience that it was even locked at one point – major violations of the safety and fire codes.

Nov. 17 regular school board meeting. These are unofficial minutes of the board meeting and are paraphrased, not word for word.

Opened the meeting with the old board members approving the minutes from Oct. 2011 and then we moved into the swearing in of the new board members. Outgoing board members, Sherri Joregenson, Todd Shianost and Gary Lake received a memento of their time on the board from the superintendent.

We then voted on the new board positions and the results are:

Ernest Hudson – President

MaryAnna Clemons – Vice President

Bea Twiss – Secretary

Cody Chambers – Treasurer

Dwight Hobbs – Board Member at Large

We then heard from Board President Ernest Hudson:

"Tonight represents a new chapter in our community. In the last election more school board members were elected than at any other time in recent memory. More voters participated in this last election than in any other school board election in the past 20 years or so.

The citizens and the parents of this community have decided that those of us sitting here should take on an awesome responsibility – the education of the children of Ellicott. They are giving us their most precious asset, their children, and charging us with providing those children with the basic educational skills necessary to become productive and responsible adults.

The school board must take the desires, goals, wishes and dreams of the parents and citizens, and mold them into the school goals, mission, and policies that insure that we accomplish what the citizens want.

Each of us represents the citizens of this community. They elected us to represent them, and not some special interest, or hidden agenda. To that end, we must be open, honest, and transparent in everything we do on this board. Every decision we make must be open to discussion, and explainable to the citizens of this community.

We also have the responsibility of overseeing the spending of our precious tax dollars to make certain we are spending them responsibly. There have been funding cuts in the past, and it is likely that there will be more in the future. But we must make certain that every dollar is spent to insure that every student gets the best educational opportunity available.

As board members, we must focus on the students. Every decision we make must be targeted to provide them with the best educational foundation possible – because nothing less than their entire future depends on it.  We must make certain that they can and will be successful and productive members of our community."

We then heard public input from Sherry Joregenson and Col Webb from Schriever AFB.

At some point in here, I made a motion to amend the agenda and add in the creation of a “New School Committee,” which was voted in unanimously. After the board meeting I already had someone interested in being on the new committee approach me with his name and contact information. It was suggested by me that since Marna Booker had done a good job with the last committee, and she did, that she might be interested in chairing this committee.

I didn’t get a chance to say this at the meeting and it’s my opinion only, but we should also thank Ernest Hudson, Mike Dahn, Chuck Howarth and Gary Dahn for their grassroots efforts of going house to house before the election to both promote the election and to promote the 3E Bond request. They fielded many questions from hundreds of people and Ernest paid for a letter on his own that was sent out to taxpayers that both promoted his quest for a school board seat AND promoted the 3E Bond.

We moved into consent items in which two people were hired, one for the kitchen staff and one as a para-professional.

We heard and approved the financials.

We moved into discussion for action:

• State Best Grant Resolution
• Bond Resolution
• Authorization of facsimile signature plates
• Account signators
• Student credit approval (credit as in for a class, not money)

We moved into just discussion:

• Policy revisions GCE/GCF-R and GDE/GDF-R (These will be talked about further at the next board meeting and then voted on at the next board meeting. All policies are online at http://www.ellicottschools.org/).

• We talked about the CASB convention coming up in December. All board members are signed up to go and Mrs. Van is working to get two students from the high school at the school’s expense (registration fee only). The convention is Dec. 8-11 and it was suggested by me that we all carpool in one of the school van’s to get there. Superintendent Ebert said that was fine. If only one person wants to carpool, it probably won’t be worth driving a van, but if we all go and take the students on their day, that would work.

We went over superintendent goals. There wasn’t a lot of discussion here as we were not given this information in advance. It was already, from what I understand, decided by the last board, so at this point it’s just information for future use.

• We discussed the adoption of the Colorado Academic Standards. This is a pretty straight forward issue.

We heard from the principals as well:

• Mrs. VanEsselstine said that Debbie Womack re-initiated Drama Club at the H.S. and Derek Stach received a grant to help with new Chemistry equipment.
• The following students made Academic All State (3.60 or higher GPA): Justin Ellison – Football / James Davis – Cross Country / Mykala Crist – Cheer / Jami Funk, Paulina Hermosillo, Ashley Faust, CheyAnne Clemons and Ashley D’Amour – Volleyball.
• Honorable mentions for the same (3.3-3.59 gpa) were: Brandon Simmons – Football / Nicole Lenz and Sarah Spencer – Volleyball.
• Mrs. Joseph wanted to recognize Sheila Giles, Ashlee Runge, Peggy Sue Edick and Lycrecia Ouellette for making the Elementary Carnival a Success.
• She was further asked by me what her plan was for the elementary school since they had done down a full accreditation status to Priority Improvement, down one level from last year. Mrs. Joseph stated that there is a plan that is being worked on and that it includes assistance from the admin and the other principals.
• Mrs. Olasci recognized Danny Galaviz-Sifunetes (5th grade) for his innovative efforts to create a new Elem. school flag; and Ashley Johnson, Aalyah Morales adn Mercedes Thiem (5th grade) for making posters about anti-bullying.
• Mr. Smith wanted to recognize Mrs. Wilson who is the Pride sponsor for the M.S. and Mr. Canuel who has been putting on contests and really encouraging the students.
• He also remarked on Senior Soup and Salad and I remarked that it might be nice to have a regular soup and salad visit from a board member to talk to them, get their opinions and/or just visit with them.
• The pride committee is doing a great job keeping the school and grounds clean.
• Principal awards went to: Kaitlin Pistone, Jasmine Rascon, Miranda Garduno, Ben Ratz, Hannah Winkler and Dakota Tall.

Results:

The Bond Resolution passed, it was a formality mostly to get started on the bond and get the new school moving forward.

State Bond Resolution passed, same as above.

Authorization of Facsimile Signature Plates passed with the exception of the VP, who chooses not to have my name on a stamp. I am however, always available to come and sign something in person if and when neeeded.

Account Signators was passed with the exception of the VP.

Student Credit was given to a student who did some online learning, and per Mrs. VanEsselstine and the board it comes to us because it is outside the normal scope.

Future Board Requests:

• Request to have working board sessions on Nov. 28th, [regular school board meeting Dec. 8th], Dec. 12th, and Dec. 19th. All are scheduled for 6 p.m. and will run until they are done. The public is welcome at these working board sessions as always.

We adjourned.

This are unofficial minutes for informational purposes only. I am not the board secretary, I am simply wanting to keep the public informed.

Over 2 Million and 600 Hundred Thousand Dollars

During the last eight years, Gary Lake and the rest of the District 22 School Board has taken over $2,600,000.00 in excess school bond taxes from the citizens of District 22.  They have set the tax rate almost 50% higher than necessary so they could reach into your wallets and pocketbooks to take more money than they needed; just to build up a bank account balance.  They think it makes them look good.  Each year for the last 8 years, Gary Lake and the rest of the School Board has voted to take more tax money from you; the citizens of the District, than is needed to pay the school bond that the voters approved in 2004.  Did the voters who approved the bond in 2004 get any say in being overtaxed?  No, Gary Lake and the rest of the District 22 School Board just decided to take more money from every citizen without telling the voters they were going to do it.  Are you outraged?  Well you should be!

In last week’s letter to the editor in the Ranchland News, Gary Lake tries to put a sugar coating on this fact by saying we have “A healthy bond redemption fund”.  What we have is an inflated ego from the very person who wants to continue taxing every tax payer over 50% more than necessary.  What we have is an inflated ego that wants to continue to take YOUR money with no regard to how hard you must work to earn it.  What we have is someone who wants you to let him stay on the school board for another 2 years so he can continue to take your money.

You don’t need a financial degree to look at the District 22 reports (they are online at the district WEB page) and see that the bond redemption account has a very large balance.  You don’t need a financial degree to understand that the bond redemption account should have a near zero balance, as the money taken in from taxes should equal the money paid out to reduce the bond. When you see that over $2,600,000.00 Dollars of your taxes is just sitting in a bank account, not helping the school system in any way, you should at least ask why?  

 Suddenly, out of thin air Gary Lake is now saying he and the rest of the District 22 school board were over taxing you for your own good.  They were taking all this extra money from you to keep you from having to pay a little bond interest over the next 10 years.  They say that you didn’t need to know about this because you would not understand. 

I think you would understand what they were doing….They were doing it to you!

If you want your taxes reduced to the minimum level needed please vote for Hudson, Clemons’ and Gary Dahn for the school board.  They have all pledged that they will lower your taxes…the other candidates ….well they haven’t said anything.

My Proposed Salary Scale for Ellicott Teachers

I am proposing a new salary scale for the teachers at Ellicott.  All of them are very dedicated and try their best to teacher the students the foundations of education so they will be successful in adult life.  As a community we should reward their efforts.

Proposed School District Salary Schedule
Step	BA	BA+15	BA+30	MA	MA+30	MA+45	PHD
1	32,000	33,000	34,400	36,800	39,200	41,600	44,000
2	32,000	33,000	34,400	36,800	39,200	41,600	44,000
3	32,000	33,000	34,400	36,800	39,200	41,600	44,000
4	32,000	33,000	34,400	36,800	39,200	41,600	44,000
5	33,200	34,200	35,600	38,000	40,400	42,800	45,200
6			36,800	39,200	41,600	44,000	46,400
7			38,000	40,400	42,800	45,200	47,600
8			39,200	41,600	44,000	46,400	48,800
9			40,400	42,800	45,200	47,600	50,000
10			41,600	44,000	46,400	48,800	51,200
11				45,200	47,600	50,000	52,400
12				46,400	48,800	51,200	53,600
13				47,600	50,000	52,400	54,800
14				48,800	51,200	53,600	56,000
15				50,000	52,400	54,800	57,200
16					53,600	56,000	58,400
17					54,800	57,200	59,600
18					56,000	58,400	60,800
19					57,200	59,600	62,000
20					58,400	60,800	63,200
21						62,000	64,400
22						63,200	65,600
23						64,400	66,800
24						65,600	68,000
25						66,800	69,200

School District taking 50% more in taxes than necessary.

Your current District 22 School Board is taking more money in taxes than needed.  The School board has purposely set the tax rate almost 50% higher than the amount needed to make the existing bond payment.  Every property owner in the district is now paying almost 50% more property tax than necessary.

The School District has been collecting more money than necessary for the last 8 years according to an email from the district finance officer. 

This year Mary Anna Clemmons and Ernest Hudson (two individuals running for the school board), began asking questions about the existing 2004 school bond.  No one could or would answer the questions at first, and both Mary Anna and Ernest Hudson continued to dig into the problem.  What they discovered was that  the tax payers in the District have been paying almost 50% more in taxes than the amount required tomake the bond payments.  The school district has been collecting almost 50% more in taxes than was needed for the last 8 years.  Now after several months of not saying anything, the board is saying that it was the plan all along.  It was done so they could pay off the existing bond early.  I don’t think so.  How many voters do you know that would say “take more money than necessary in taxes, and think about paying off the bond in ten or twelve years?  When you go to the gas pump, do you want to pay almost 50% more for the fuel?  When you go to the grocery store, do you want to pay almost 50% more for the food in the hope you might save some money in ten  years or so?

This is just one of the many reasons why this school board should be replaced. 

If I am elected to the board, I promise to vote to stop the over payments, and lower your property taxes by almost $240 per year for the next 8 years.  If you vote for the new bond to build the new middle school, your taxes would go down by about $170 per year for the next 20 years, and we would be able to build the new middle school.

This is a far better deal than the “no higher tax statement that the current board is now making Using their mind set your taxes will not go up if you vote for the new bond.  Of course it will not go up, because they are already taking 50% more than they need…but they plan on continuing to do that for the next 20 years...

School District Employees on the School Board?

Should school employees be permitted to sit on the School Board of Education?  This is a question that has been on my mind since 2007.  That was when school custodian Sherri Jorgenson was elected to the District 22 school board.  Then again in 2009 Bea Twiss (the wife of a school teacher in District 22) was elected to the school board.  I have nothing but respect and compassion for these two women, and completely believe that they have nothing but the best intentions for the students within the district.

But I continue to wonder just how effective they can be when every day they (or their husband), have the superintendent (H. Terry Ebert) as their boss; but on that one night of the board meeting, they are the superintendents’ boss.  Can they really vote in favor of some issue, (even when it is in the best interest of the students or teachers), when they know that the superintendent is opposed to the issue? 

As an example suppose that the majority of teachers in the district deserve a pay raise.  If the superintendent didn’t think the teachers needed a pay raise, then the school employee who is also a school board member would be in direct opposition to the superintendent.  Will they still vote for the pay raise, when their very jobs could be on the line?

This year Sherri Jorgenson and 10 other district 22 custodians lost their jobs when the superintendent decided that he should contract out the custodial function.  Sherri was excluded from the vote (and so was every single member of the public that she represented) and she was completely unable to do or say anything regarding the decision to contract out this function; not to mention her job.

The year before, both Bea Twiss and Sherri Jorgenson were unable to stop a salary freeze for all District 22 staff.  District 22 teachers already are the lowest paid teachers in El Paso County.  They both actually decided to vote in favor of the salary freeze, because they were lead to believe that there was a shortage of funds (something the superintendent told them), only later did it come out that there was over $600,000 available and not spent during the school year.

This year there are two school district employees running for the District 22 school board.  One is a coach/teacher, and one is a substitute teacher (Donte’ Stewart and Justina Brownewell).   I completely believe that these individuals want to help with the education of our students, but I just can’t believe that they will be completely independent because they work for the very individual that they may need to vote against.  Their very jobs could be in question, and should they be dismissed, then who will be selected to take their places on the school board?  The voters would not be given any choice, but the remaining members of the school board will make that decision.

We have serious problems with the quality of education being provided in District 22.  The CSAP scores are among the lowest in the state; the teacher retention is poor; the way tax payer dollars are used is in question.  I don’t believe we can risk the future of our children’s education by having school district employees on the board.  There will always be a conflict of interest between what they may want to do, and what they are allowed to do and still keep their jobs.  Even if they did not get dismissed, their job performance ratings could suffer, and limit their opportunities for future employment with another district.