HVAC project should increase comfort
Budget development timeline gets nod
Student learning environments should soon be more comfortable. The RE-1 Valley School Board approved a proposal from Universal Controls Solution for the upgrade of district Hvac/automation systems during a regular meeting on Monday.
The total cost for the project is $618,064 and will be paid for using ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) III and capital reserve funds. Superintendent Dr. Foster shared that the goal of the project is to get an automation system in place that can talk among all of the schools. That means there will be upgrades at all school buildings to replace outdated control components and enhance network security and user interface for efficient control and monitoring.
David Jonas, of UCS, explained right now there are three platforms that Mike Manuello, district maintenance director, and his team have to access in order to look at HVAC issues in different schools and some of the systems are obsolete.
“So if you had a failure on a piece of equipment, it would be an emergency replacement and it would be costly,” Jonas said, noting this will help improve the comfort of the environment at all schools.
Dr. Foster mentioned the district had to cut back a little bit on its budget for this project to have more money for the purchase of Smartlabs. However, Jonas shared that the new system has analytics built into it that will allow the district to interrogate the operation of equipment through automation, pinpointing pieces of equipment that are having repeated problems and allowing the district to better determine what it may need to budget to replace in the future.
A majority of the project will be completed before the end of the school year and the summer can be used to fine-tune and make any adjustments needed.
In other business, the board approved a timeline for the development of the 2024-25 budget. The first employee group meeting was held on Jan. 3 and a second meeting is scheduled for the Feb. 26
professional development day. Those employee groups will have a first meeting with the board on April 1 and a second meeting on April 15.
Dr. Foster noted that depending on what the state legislature is doing, the board will respond to employee requests at either the April 15 or May 6 meeting.
A District Accountability Committee budget committee will be established by Jan. 17 and there will be a budget meeting with the DAC committee on April 24. On May 6, the DAC will present budget recommendations to the board, a preliminary budget will be presented to the board on May 20 and they will consider the budget for adoption on June 17.
Any amendments that need to be made to the budget must be made by Jan. 31, 2025.
Dr. Foster mentioned that Gov. Jared Polis has said this year he wants to do away with the budget stabilization factor, which was established in 2010-11 by the legislature as a way to reduce funding to districts to balance the state budget.
“He may very well be able to do that this year, maybe the next year or two. But we’ve always got to keep our eye on the prize — the prize is that we maintain a balanced budget,” he said.
The board also had first reading of policies IC/ICA, school year school calendar instruction time; JHB, truancy; JICDE, bullying prevention and education; JKD/JKE, suspension and expulsion of students; JKD/JKER, suspension and expulsion of students-regulation; and KDB-R, public’s right to know freedom of information — regulation, which were updated with revisions suggested by the Colorado Association of School Boards.
JHB had a minor verbiage change and IC/ICA was updated to note that administration will allow public input from parents and teachers prior to scheduling the dates for staff in-service programs and to change the required amount of notice given for changes to the calendar, except for emergency closings or other unforeseen circumstances, to 30 days instead of five.
JICDE was revised to include updated information about prohibited behavior including bullying, retaliation against those reporting bullying and/or other behaviors prohibited by the policy and making knowingly false accusations of bullying behavior. Policy JKD/JKE was updated to add another factor that will be considered in determining whether to expend or expel a student — whether excluding the student from school is necessary to preserve the learning environment. The accompanying regulation includes updates related to records that are intended to be used as supporting evidence for an expulsion hearing and how hearings are conducted.
Additionally, Policy KDBR has been revised to state that the district may not require a person to provide any form of identification to request or inspect records, unless the identification is required by law in order to release confidential information.
The board will consider approval of the policies on second reading at their Jan. 22 meeting.
During his superintendent’s report, Dr. Foster shared that the purchase orders for Smartlabs for each school have been delivered to Creative Learning Systems, putting the district on track for delivery and installation in June.
He also shared some thoughts about the state of RE-1 right now.
“The things that I see going on now with our district, we continue to move forward in a very positive way. I’m really happy with the work that people are doing here,” Dr. Foster said. “I feel as though we’re really making a lot of headway in getting back some of the things we lost.”
Assistant Superintendent Brenda Kloberdanz reported she is working on updating the district curriculum renewal/revision cycle and is also working with Northeastern Junior College regarding concurrent enrollment and any opportunities the college can provide for RE-1 students.
“We want to be a part of anything we can to help our students move forward and increase our partnership with them,” she said, adding that RE-1 also is continuing to partner with NJC to provide professional development credit opportunities to help teachers renew their licenses and move on the pay scale.
Under the consent agenda, the board approved staffing changes including the transfer of Yadira Benson-lively, Ayres Elementary teacher assistant to long-term sub for second grade; new hires Zachary Ralston, Caliche Elementary special education paraprofessional and Missy Walters, district-wide special education paraprofessional; rehire Darin Hershfeldt, Sterling High School volunteer boys basketball assistant coach; transition from full to part-time for Chelsey Lehmkuhl, SHS social emotional learning specialist; and termination of Caiden Bruns, Caliche Jr./sr. High School sweeper.