There was art and imagination on display by talented students at the Gilpin County RE-1 school board meeting on November 19, 2024, in the school board room. The Board also gave the green light to another wrestling season for middle and high school athletes and studied moving the school calendar for the 2025/2026 school year to start and finish earlier.
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Painting prodigies
November Artist of the Month Sam Stranaly presented his painting Squirrel, and December Artist of the Month Elara Swartz presented her painting Steller’s Blue Jay for display in the school board room.
Mathematics in action
House designers Riley Gerhard-Erickson, Catherine Motchan, and Cooper Kennedy displaying their mathematically calculated floor plans
GILPIN COUNTY - There was art and imagination on display by talented students at the Gilpin County RE-1 School Board meeting on November 19, 2024. The Board also gave the green light to another wrestling season for middle and high school athletes, and studied changing the school calendar for the 2025/2026 school year to start and finish earlier.
Board President Sarah Swanson attended virtually, so Vice President Joe Marr presided over the meeting. Senior Joey Sutton was the high school student of the month and sat at the Board table.
During the Celebrations section, Secondary Principal Sarah Reich brought up the VFW “Teacher of the Year” assembly the previous week, which recognized three teachers for their dedication to teaching and civic engagement.
The fall sports teams had successful seasons, with a number of athletes recognized for their athletic and academic accomplishments. Football Coach Ball was recognized as the Coach of the Year for the Central League.
Elementary Principal Patrick Linnehan reported that Gilpin Elementary was recognized as a US News Best Elementary School for 2025. Gilpin Elementary was rated 226 out of 1,417 elementary schools in Colorado, which put them in the top 16% of elementary schools in the state.
Art Director Curtis Halsted presented the Board with paintings from elementary students Sam Stranaly (November Artist) and Elara Swartz (December Artist). The paintings will hang in the school boardroom for the current school year.
Linnehan introduced three students, Riley Gerhard-Erickson, Catherine Motchan, and Cooper Kennedy, who created floor plans that involved math conversions and volume calculations. The students displayed their floor plans to the Board and spoke about how math helped them size the plans correctly.
Linnehan’s Elementary Principal's Report highlighted the Parent/Teacher conferences that were held on October 24 and 25. Linnehan thanked the parents who provided breakfast and dinner for the teachers during the conferences.
Based on last year’s CMAS scores and this year’s STAR benchmark scores, Linnehan reported improvements in reading and math towards grade level proficiency for a number of students.
Reich reported on the fall and winter sports teams and had graphs in her report showing that reading interventions are going well as they prepare for testing season this year.
Superintendent David MacKenzie reported that the sewer project was ending operations for the year and would start up again in the spring.
During the Public Participation segment, it was brought up that there were Middle and High School students who still wanted to wrestle. The Board had eliminated the program in May, but parents whose kids tried wrestling for Clear Creek said that it was too difficult to try to get to Idaho Springs every day for practice. MacKenzie said that funds could be found for the cost of the program, so the Board reversed their decision and gave the students and coaches permission to continue the program.
Under new business, the Board reviewed the 2025/2026 school calendar with the prospect of starting school the second week in August and finishing at the end of May. The discussion was informational only, with no vote taken. The Board will solicit input from staff and parents before making any decision on shifting the 2025/2026 school calendar.
Secondary Social Studies Teacher Jennifer Gillette, representing staff, presented a report to the Board that identified concerns that would be brought up during the Meet and Confer meeting with staff on January 7, 2025. These included salaries and technology, while policy issues involved professional development and Meet and Confer proceedings.
The Board reviewed proposed policy updates to Board-Staff Communications (BFGB) and Meet and Confer meetings (BFGB – R).
The next RE-1 school board meeting will be on December 10, 2024, at 7 p.m. in the school boardroom. The board will Certify the 2024 Mill Levy and receive the 2024/2025 Revised June Adopted Budget at the December meeting.
The agenda and documents for this meeting are on the RE-1 website (gilpin.k12.co.us) under the Board of Education Agendas for November 19, 2024. Click on the date to see the agenda and documents. The proposed calendar for 2025/2026 is I.1_Draft 2C Calendar 25-26.pdf. The Meet and Confer document is I.2_Concerns for the January 7, 2025 Meet and Confer.pdf.
There is a video of this meeting on the GCSD YouTube channel. Click on the link in the agenda to access the video.
