SY 2021-22

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF
Board of Horizons K-8 School

June 8th, 2021
6:00 pm – 7:57 pm

Meeting held virtually via Zoom

Facilitators: Tyler Currie / Lucas Ketzer
Note Taker: Hope Nelson-Roohr

Minutes: Geary Layne
Timekeeper: Mike Ashmore

Process Observer: Tyler Currie

Call to Order:  6:00pm
Present:

Beth Coleman, Geary Layne, Julie Cohen, Karen Wolfer, Lucas Ketzer, Mike Ashmore, Paul Ramer, Peter Hegelbach, Rachel Buckley, Teran Sittner, Tyler Currie

Arrived Late: 

Absent:

Alex Osias 

Quorum established

Guests:  Several

Public Comment: None

Consent Agenda:

• Approve June 8th agenda
• Prior Minutes- May 13th

Motion – Tyler Currie

Move to accept consent agenda includes 5/13 minutes

Second –  Mike Ashmore

Concorded

Head of School Updates:

• Employment offers
  • Shoshona- MS Sped 
  • Kim – Counselor 
  • Carlye (⅚ para) & Ellen (PE) exchanged roles

Motion – Mike Ashmore

Move to approve these applicants

Second –  Paul Ramer

Concorded

• ESSER III Spending Proposal
  • BVSD approved $146,800.00
  • These funds are directed to learning loss from Covid, funds spent thru 2 fiscal years
  • Voluntary committee met
    • Recommending hiring ½ time math interventionist K8, literacy interventionist for middle school and funding ongoing professional development
  • BVSD approved these expenses and will include it as part of their application to state

FY22 Budget:

• Return to normal budget
• $900K beginning fund balance
• Running deficit for 21-22 of $184K
• We will have access to $90K for transportation related expenses
• We have more salaries and benefits costs
• Arts/music/movement/PEOutdoor Ed/Winter Sports will be funded
• FRC recommended building COLA into budget, and look at deficit of 150K-200K

Motion – Mike Ashmore

Moves to approve budget subject to revised COLA #s in the Fall

Second –  Tyler Currie

Concorded

Charter contract:

Motion – Tyler Currie

Motion to move into executive session to discuss positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations regarding the charter contract pursuant to CRS 24-6-402 (4) (e)

Second –  Paul Ramer

Concorded

Open session resumed at 7:55 PM

Motion – Tyler Currie

Moves that the board recommends that the council approve the charter contract

Second –   Mike Ashmore

Concorded

Meeting Adjourned at 7:57 PM

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF
Board of Horizons K-8 School

September 9, 2021
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Meeting held virtually via Zoom

Facilitators: Mike Ashmore / Lucas Ketzer
Note Taker: Stacey Acquavella

Minutes: Lucas Ketzer
Timekeeper: Paul Ramer

Process Observer: Peter Hegelbach

Call to Order:  6:00pm
Present:
Lucas Ketzer, Karen Wolfer, Aubrey Demmon, Adam Brink, Peter Hegelbach, Ryan Conrad, Mike Ashmore, Rachel Buckley, Stacey Acquavella, Paul Ramer, Allyson Desart, Jessica Hogan

Absent:

Quorum established

Public Comment: 

• No public comment

Consent Agenda:

• Approve September 9th Agenda
• Prior Minutes: still waiting on prior minutes from last board meeting

Motion – Mike Ashmore

Motion to approve consent items

Second –  Lucas Ketzer
Concorded

Head of School Updates:

• Fully staffed, but still looking for music teacher
  • If we don’t find a music teacher, looking into potential partnerships with outside organizations
• We are holding our parent COVID Q and A on Monday
• No COVID transmission at Horizons throughout the pandemic
• Our faculty is continuing to focus on four main curriculum and programming areas: MTSS, GT, Math Assessments, and Literacy

Finance Review Committee: 

• Our end of year projected starting balance was $900,000 but our actual starting balance will be approximately $1.3 million
• We plan to draw down $106,000 this fiscal year

Strategic Planning Committee Update:

• Lucas provided a high level overview of the process
• Jess provided an overview of the mental model and the purpose of the mission, vision, values
• Next steps- take the input to faculty for comment and feedback

Adjourn at 8:00 PM

Board Meeting

Oct 14, 2021

6:00 to 8:00 PM

Introductions

Peter Hegelbach, Rachel Buckley, Mike Ashmore, Ryan Conrad, Lucas Ketzer, Allyson deSart, Aubrey Demmon, Jessica Hogan, Adam Brink, Stacy Acquavella, Karen Wolfer

Absent: Paul Ramer

Public attendees: Maggie Anderson, Jeanne Schutz, Lynn Pence, Elizabeth P, Jannell Eagan, Brooke Fritz, Micah Schwalb

Address the board for public comment

Brooke Fritz: Support motion to require vaccination for all Horizons staff. Similar to how most other workplaces-public and private-and other local school districts. Science is dictating that this is the correct thing to do. New study published Oct 1 demonstrates that the virus spreads more rapidly among the unvaccinated. Lower spread from a vaccinated person.

Micah Schwalb: even though BVSD opted not to mandate vaccination, we should at Horizons. We don’t let people into the building that are a danger to the community. There are children in the school that have disabilities. Need to be mindful of danger to the faculty. We should take steps to limit breakthrough infections. If we chat with people that are resistant then we might be able to get them over the hump.

Consent Agenda:

• Approve Oct 14 Agenda
• Prior Minutes: approved for Sept 9 meeting

Motion – Mike Ashmore

Motion to approve consent items, including prior minutes

Second –  Jess
Concorded

Head of School Updates:

Appreciating the staff for great forward momentum

1. Curriculum and programming committees
   1. Assessing all students in math
   2. Adopting literacy curriculum
   3. Shoring up MTSS and G&T designation and programming
2. Had our first EDB meeting
3. Diving into a new comprehensive evaluation system for teachers based on growth and data

Music teacher will be starting teaching students next week on Tuesday

Sending out COVID updates weekly. Tracking similarly over the past few weeks. No major outbreaks. Vast majority of cases are caught early and those kids never came to school with it because families are doing a great job keeping cases isolated.

Strategic Planning Committee Update:

• Jess provided an update on the process to date and shared her screen to show a spreadsheet to the different iterations of Vision, Values, Mission. Goal tonight is to come to closer agreement on vision and then values. What the board proposed and what faculty provided were very different
  • How can we capture equity and justice as a concept but rework to include key components that were included in prior feedback and to embody more parts of the original vision
  • Faculty will work on this Friday or Monday

Finance Review Committee: 

• Got a true up from BVSD which reduces deficit
• Revenue and spending are on track. Fund 11 is looking great. 5 year budget we are drawing down reserves but still financially viable
• Council budget is tracking but might need to make modifications depending on which events we’re allowed to have
• Tent donations. Working with current year capital construction funds. Getting more trees around the school, got parking lot stripes. Those funds were used to offset the costs of the tents so had less capital funds to use. They will be looking into selling some tents in the spring and reimbursing parents that made donations
• Bonuses for staff 11/1 and 5/1. FRC parents approved. Paid for through BVSD funds that were reimbursed. 

Covid testing mandate

The Board is making a formal request to the faculty for the unvaccinated to voluntarily get tested weekly and submit their test results to Karen

What’s the highest level of integrity–attest or show us your vax cards

If this is not resolved by Monday, the Board will meet again for a special session

Meeting adjourned 7:55 pm

Board Meeting

November 10, 2021

6:00 to 8:00 PM

Members Present: Mike Ashmore, Jess Hogan, Paul Ramer, Allyson DeSart, Rachel Buckley, Lucas Ketzer, Karen Wolfer, Ryan Conrad, Peter Hegelbach, Adam Brink, Aubrey Demmon

Members Absent: Stacey Acquevella

Public Comment: Erica Baruch

Consent Agenda:

Motion – Lucas

Motion to approve consent items, without prior minutes
Concorded

Head of School Updates:

Board discussed compliance with COVID testing and decided the best course of action was to continue to follow BVSD policy. No further action taken

Finance Review Committee: 

FRC Notes can be found here

Mission, Vision, Values Discussion: 

The board discussed proposed vision statements and decided to discuss further at the next Horizons Council meeting. Lucas, Jess, Mike, and Rachel will meet to discuss next steps on the strategic plan. 

Meeting Adjourned

Board Meeting Notes

Call to Order: 6:08

Members Present: Mike Ashmore, Allyson DeSart, Rachel Buckley, Jess Hogan, Lucas Ketzer, Karen Wolfer, Ryan Conrad, Adam Brink, Aubrey Demmon, Peter Hegelbach

Members Absent: Paul Ramer, Stacey Acquevella

Introductions and invitation for public comment:

Public Comment: Maggie Anderson and Leontyne Ashmore

Consent agenda: Approved 

Head of School Update: 

Update on the new teacher evaluation process: Lucas provided overview of framework

Spring Auction: Horizons will consider holding an alternative Spring event

Finance Review Committee: notes can be found here

Aftercare position: vacancy upcoming in January and position will be offered to paraeducators.

Mission, Vision, Values Update/Discussion:

Didn’t come to concordance on the Mission, Vision, Values at the last Council meeting

Discussion of the process of updating the mission/vision/values statement

Discussion of how we can increase the community’s ability to concord

Peter presented data reported by students on how they feel about potential changes in the mission/vision/values statements.

Lucas and Jess will compose an email to entire community about process so far, our current proposals, and the documents council should review before the meeting

Strategic Planning next steps: Lucas outlined potential next steps in the strategic planning process (governance/teacher led school). We will revisit this at the January board meeting. 

Process Observer: Ryan- authentic connection & communication, followed agenda

Adjourn: 7:57 pm

Board Meeting Notes

Call to Order: 6:02

Members Present: Mike Ashmore, Allyson DeSart, Rachel Buckley, Jess Hogan, Lucas Ketzer, Karen Wolfer, Adam Brink, Aubrey Demmon

Members Absent: Ryan Conrad, Stacey Acquevella

Introduction and invitation for public comment: no public comment

Consent Agenda: Approved

Head of School Update:

• HOS Goals
  • Head of School Goals- 2021/22
  • Added a new goal about operations and keeping school open in-person
  • HOS evaluation committee will provide feedback on goals too
  • Evaluation – usually 2 teachers and 2 board members: Peter, Adam, Mike, Rachel, and Allyson. Teachers will review goals and complete Google form evaluation. Can we add in community input this year?
• BVSD Covid Plans – Confident about coverage to ensure in-person instruction. By early next week, trying to figure out how to provide instruction for students in quarantine. Working on getting weekly testing and resuming the mask campaign to get more KN95s for students and staff.

Finance Review Committee: notes can be found here

• Vote to approve revised budget was approved
• Vote to approve appropriation resolution was approved

Mission, Vision, Values Update/Discussion: Goal of Council next week is to have something to concord on. Lucas will send another email to get participation at Council. It will be an email to the entire community about the process so far, our current proposals, and the documents Council should review before the meeting.

Strategic Planning next steps: We will tackle specific elements of Governance next, starting with the role of Council. At the Council meeting next week, we will ask for committee volunteers to suggest updates to Council governance.

Process Observer: Quick input and suggestions, jovial tenor, appreciative of leadership, made some important decisions about moving forward with strategic planning

Adjourn: 7:15pm

Board Meeting Notes:

Call to Order: 6:05

Peter Hegalbach, Lucas Ketzer, Allyson DeSart, Rachel Buckley, Bryce Carlson (legal advisor), Mike Tadros, Karen Wolfer, Ryan Conrad, Elizabeth Parady, Adam Brink, Lynn Pency, Brooke Bell, Mike Ashmore, Julie Layne, Mercedes Gitter, Jess Hogan, Micah Schwalb, Aubrey Demmon

Absent: Stacy A.

Timekeeper: Peter

Process Observer: Ryan

Introduction and Invitation for Public Comment

Elizabeth Parady: Governance – communications at Horizons, central repository, how to make things “must read”, how to break down where sources of emails, link for council and what topics will be covered, council had 75+ people after two emails

Mike Ashmore: 

Consent Agenda: Approved

Notes: Approved

Role of Council/Governance

Bryce Carlson advised us on charter, bylaws; point out areas of concern, existing structure, best practices, Q&A

The governance model at Horizons is unique, authority is a concern for Bryce, the council having authority on decisions internal to the school, councils ability to approve the charter contract, unanimous approval from council, CDE or state board level – board consider the role of the council in those arenas. 

Rachel – question about other schools and the role of council

The vast majority of schools do not have voting members like our council, usually, it is a board 5-7 members, self appointing

Any change to bylaws would require the council to be engaged. 

Lucas: the board doesn’t have authority to take responsibilities away from the council

Dialogue and buy-in from the council that we’re all on the same team.

Adam: powers given to council were based on its smallness initially, our charter shouldn’t be in the hands of a large body, maybe?

Peter: not just size, but communication of information, required knowledge to make the decisions (20-25 dedicated people/families)

Allyson: what to consider besides charter renewal

Decision Making and concordance: unusual number (even, and more), potential conflicts of interests when staff is on board, (most charters aren’t teacher-led), changing council’s decision-making ability would be subject to the concordance model, bylaws provide board with ability to break a stalemate, 

Lucas: what changes can we take on

Sunshine laws: staff board members recuse themselves from certain conversations

Bryce: there are areas of concern re: sunshine laws

Mike Tadros: should we talk about a formal process of addressing these issues? Based on Bryce’s suggestions?

Head of School Updates:

Operational goal: to keep students in school, keep goal in place, financial 

Rachel: Come to agreement on goals tonight

Add the topic of safety to operations goals?

Goals/evaluation going out to community? Peter: goals go out that are relevant to community

Mike: motion to approve goals subject to minor editing while keeping with the spirit of the goals, editing to be done in committee, approved, 

Hiring process: been solidified, few vacancies to fill, April or May meeting approve new hires, executive meeting over the summer to approve new hires, 

Vacancy – Board Treasurer:

Lucas: pitch to learn about school finance, how school is operating, looking for volunteer, Adam volunteered

Finance Review Committee:

Shared notes from last meeting, we’re going to come close to breaking even this school year in terms of revenue vs expenses, long term forecasting (5 year), anticipated to continue to draw down our reserves, wild card: what PPR is going to be, top projections 5.3% increase in revenue, proposed budget for next year: unspent arts//music/movement/experiential learning roll over to next year, 

Front Office salary schedule: district salary schedule used; recommend to move over to BVSD salary schedule, more transparent than Horizons, 

Mission, Vision, Values Update & Discussion:

The term teacher led being part of our mission. (it’s already in our strategic plan). More power as a foundational pillar than as part of our mission. Is teacher led operationally significant to the mission of creating students who are self-directed. Wordsmithing putting teacher led: responsibility and out of mission: Jess proposes. approved.

Process Observer: Ryan – people volunteered, lots of communication, really good questions, made decisions effectively, overall great job

Adjourn: 7:43

Board Meeting Notes

Call to Order: 6:03

Members Present: Peter Hegelbach, Stacey Acquevella, Lucas Ketzer, Karen Wolfer, Lynn Pence, Mike Tadros, Mike Ashmore, Allyson DeSart, Ryan Conrad, Jess Hogan, Aubrey Demmon

Absent: Adam Brink, Rachel Buckley

Quorum established

Introduction and invitation for public comment: No public comments

Consent Agenda: 

• Motion to approve current agenda, concorded
• Prior Minutes, concorded

Role of Council/Governance – what are our next steps

• The first step might be a committee of teachers and parents to look at the responsibilities of Council. 
• Big question: what is the scope of the work of council? 
• Recommendations that were more immediate: giving board more responsibility about negotiating charter contract
• Value having faculty and HOS on the board to give perspective
• Consider creating a by-laws committee
• Recommend having the discussion around governance first, because it might affect the work of the bylaws committee. 
• Next steps: ask Bryce to draft a letter to discuss issues at the next board meeting and use that to inform our next steps and have him pinpoint specific points in the bylaws. How could they be rewritten to address the comments and concerns?

Head of School Updates

• Hiring Update – retirements & new teaching assignments – Wendy is retiring and we will ask current licensed teaching staff if anyone would like to fill that position. We are interviewing for ½ teacher and hope to have a candidate for approval at the April meeting
• Equity Audit Update – completed our portion, 7 interviews conducted, WEEAC team will share next week, identify next steps  to create a more inclusive community
• Outside people in the building – parents are allowed in again, we are moving that direction, HCG is getting more active, parents going to clean classrooms, no covid cases this week, no quarantines

HOS Evaluation HOS goals

• Rachel is chair of committee, Lucas’s goals were approved at the last meeting
• Recommendation for revising one of the goals in operations
• Next steps are: April 15- committee will get together to finalize the survey to go out to the community
• Mike and Rachel get together to see what they can glean, then they present to the parent board in executive session at the May 5th board meeting

FRC – FRC Notes

• We are tracking well with revenue and expenses through January 
• We are currently drawing down $144K
• Council transfer has not transferred yet
• Increase in labor costs in January because of the number of staff members we had out, we relied on paras and subs to fill in
• Hilary and Lucas are working on next year’s fiscal budget to present at the board meeting in April for feedback and  approval at the May meeting. Hilary is putting together new salaries and Lucas is revising operational costs.
• BVSD is going to a new budgeting system called INFOR and we hope it will have more capability to look at revenue and expenses in real time

Mission/Vision/Values Update & Discussion – Proposed MVV

• What do we want to present to the Council?
  • Meet in person to encourage engagement, virtual option is more inclusive
  • Share notes from last council meeting
  • Teacher-led to collaborative environment, paras thoughts gathered at meeting, goal is to come to concordance on MVV as a package
  • Agenda focused on doing that work and getting input, making necessary changes
  • Agreement to solicit 5th-8th grade student feedback- Peter will facilitate

• Council Meeting in Hub with virtual option

Process Observer: 

• Flowed
• Efficient
• Communication was good and clear
• We were all on the same page, understanding each other

Adjourn: 7:04pm

Horizons K8 School
Board Meeting Minutes
April 14, 2022

Call to Order: 6pm
Facilitators: Lucas Ketzer, Mike Ashmore
Notetaker: Maggie Anderson
Timekeeper: Ryan Conrad
Process Observer: Allyson DeSart

Present: Lucas Ketzer, Michael Ashmore, Mike Tadros, Karen Wolfer, Rachel Buckley, Allyson Desart, Jessica Hogan, Aubrey Demmon, Adam Brink, Peter Hegelbach, Ryan Conrad

Absent: Stacey Acquavella

Quorum established 

Public Comment

• Joy Pieper – Discussed use of playground afterschool
• Julie Layne – Voiced support for need for playground discussion

Consent Agenda: 

• Approve current agenda
• Prior Minutes

Motion to approve – Mike

Second – Lucas

Concorded

Role of Council/Governance: Board Bylaws

• Motion to move to executive session by Lucas; Mike seconds, 
• Executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-402(4)(b) for conferences with an attorney for the local public body for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions related to the Horizons bylaws. 

Head of School Updates

• Hiring Update – Natalie moving to teach K, Committee ultimately supported the hiring of Nicoletta Simon, motion to approve (Peter), approved
• Equity Audit Update – faculty meeting to discuss equity audit by WEEAC will be held on May 20th

Head of School Survey – Rachel – HOS Goals

• The HOS evaluation committee consists of parent & faculty board members. The HOS Goals were concorded on in February. Three surveys will be administered to three different groups. Next Thursday at the Council meeting, we will have parents/guardians present take a community survey. Board members will take the survey tonight. Teachers will take the survey at a faculty meeting. Rachel will tabulate and synthesize the results and make a recommendation back to the parent board. At the May board meeting, results will be communicated and a recommendation will be made by parent board members. 

Upcoming Board Vacancies (Lucas) – 3 vacancies for 2-year term next year. Council votes at May meeting to elect members. Deadline for applications is May 13th. 

FRC – notes 

MMV Update & Discussion – Proposed MVV

• Council concorded on 2 values: community & responsibility
• Next Council meeting, we will discuss the next three values

Other Board Business: 

• The board discussed the usage of the playground after school

Process Observer: 

• Discussed many topics
• Good job staying on task and moving quickly enough
• Everybody gave space for each other to talk and listen

Adjourn: 8:03

Horizons K8 School
Board Meeting Minutes
May 12, 2022

Call to Order: 6:01
Facilitators: Lucas Ketzer, Mike Ashmore
Notetaker: Maggie Anderson
Timekeeper: Ryan Conrad
Process Observer: Jess Hogan

Present: Jess Hogan, Adam Brink, Ryan Conrad, Peter Hegelbach, Rachel Buckley, Allyson DeSart, Karen Wolfer, Aubrey Demmon, Lucas Ketzer, Mike Ashmore, Mike Tadros
Absent: Stacey Acquavella

Quorum established (at least 3 staff & 3 parent members)
Public Comment

• Elizabeth Parady: frustrated with communication around head of school survey, people didn’t understand that council was the only way for parents to participate in the survey, spirit wear sales is another example

Consent Agenda: 

• Approve current agenda
• Prior Minutes

Motion to approve – Lucas Ketzer

Second – Ryan Conrad

Concorded

Head of School Updates

• Hiring Update – K para and temp ⅚ teacher
• Upcoming End of Year Events – graduation is in person, fun run, fun day, transition day
• Update on aftercare – BVSD will be running our program next year. 

• Parent board vacancies – deadline is tomorrow to submit intent

• Council is next Thursday – discuss two remaining values that we haven’t concorded on yet

FRC

• Approve next year’s budget, Reviewed at last week’s meeting notes
• March financials are late, district is backlogged
• Next board has opportunity to revisit budget if the beginning balance is more than 5% different than expected (concord on budget with this caveat)
• Draw down our ESSER funds
• Splitting payment PPP loan across the next three years
• Lucas suggests using reserves for supporting students during post-pandemic time. To help students who are behind, put money towards interventionists, keeping paras, social emotional learning (this idea based on teacher comments)
• Goal is revenue/expenses are even by 2025
• Mike Tadros – anything in the budget offered as provision for the challenges the faculty faced the past few years; Lucas – discussions with faculty
• Rachel Buckley – is there anything we wished for that isn’t in the budget? Lucas: We will be offering clubs, projecting $7500 for next year
• Jess – is there an uptick in mental health support needs, what is the experience of our mental health support staff

Motion to approve budget Lucas, Adam

Approved.

Development Committee – Lucas: work with EDB, how to make Horizons more equitable, instead of intermittent asks – ask once for the whole year – Hawks campaign to support all 348 students to have supplies they need, participate in OE, winter sports, experiential learning experiences, then in Spring – fundraiser to keep small class sizes, focus on donation being for all students not just “your” student. Lucas proposes to recruit people who can help us be strategic about how we message these requests

Other business: Mike thanks community members who brought the movie to us last week. Lucas talked about the decision making matrix in relation to things like spirit wear sales

Head of School Evaluation Review – Rachel – procedures are lead by board, gave overview of the process as chair of the committee, concorded on decision to keep Lucas next year, see notes, overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding having Lucas as a leader at Horizons

Process Observer: 

• Good input
• Good questions, good push and pull
• Covered important ground

Adjourn: 7:59pm