On Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at 7p.m., the Gilpin County RE-1 Board of Education (BOE) was introduced to some new district staff members while lead administrators reported on current and future goals. Omicron and concerns with current trends in district employment remain the major topics of discussion for the Board.

Board members voted to move the BOE Artist of the Month presentation from this month’s agenda to next month. The BOE then heard some introductory statements from two new hires.

The new facilities manager, Russ Thomas, comes to the district with nine years’ experience in city public works, as well as casino maintenance experience. He has already become a popular face with teachers as a result of the fixes and changes that he’s already implemented, such as providing working heat in the classrooms.

Josanne Torres Benitez de Motchan, the new Spanish language teacher, gave an enthusiastic and passionate statement about her excitement in moving into the position, and about the importance of youth being taught to be bilingual.

The primary item in New Business was a presentation on the results of the school district’s recent employee exit interviews.

Shelly Landgraf, owner of Pure HR Solutions in Boulder, led the presentation based on exit surveys conducted on ten previous district employees, anonymously, to gather insight on why staff are leaving not just their districts, but their careers in education. With only five out of the ten contacted individuals filling out their exit surveys, focus now lies on the BOE to complete employee exit interviews more thoroughly in order to help understand trends in employee dissatisfaction.

The majority of individuals surveyed – in this case, only three individuals – were pleased with their total package of compensation, felt supported by superiors, and had a good experience during their time as employees. However, the majority of individuals surveyed also stated that they would not recommend working for the district. The BOE agreed that clarification on whether the surveyed individual would not recommend the district specifically or a career in education needs to be made on future exit surveys.

Surveyed individuals also stated their reasons for leaving as lack of support from the community and for “financial reasons.” The majority claimed to be “extremely dissatisfied” in regards to both workload and with the rate of their professional development within the district.

Landgraf recommended to the BOE that annual meetings to gather employee feedback, as well as third party-directed engagement groups, are helpful tools to strengthen employee relations moving forward. Landgraf and many Board members agree that the pandemic has changed how people view the balance of their work and their mental health. This may explain why teachers are leaving the field. It is also apparent that the current wages in the field are not reflecting the changes that the pandemic has forced on teachers.

The pandemic and staffing concerns continued as District Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie headed the review of Pandemic Status Update, which began with restating the current rules and regulations around health issues in the school, and led into tenuous preparations for a final Omicron spike. Spirited discussions continued in relation to the district’s definition of responsibility when it comes to notifying parents of a potential Covid exposure.

MacKenzie began by telling the Board that in the last few weeks the district had experienced its lowest attendance in months, 89%.With Omicron expecting to peak in the following week, the district is on a “day-to-day” basis concerning whether or not they would need to quickly shift to remote learning.

The BOE proceeded to discuss its wish that educational staff would be considered a priority for the State’s free At-Home Testing program, expected to begin February 1. With both the State’s and the federal government’s application processes for at-home tests being difficult and somewhat inefficient, and local testing sites being overrun, it was agreed that developing a system to monitor and inventory the at-home tests for district staff is a priority.

Board members disagreed over the decision to not notify parents about potential Covid exposures as readily as the district was previously doing. The general concern of the district is that they could be opening themselves up for scrutiny by notifying of potential exposures without having been practicing extensive contact tracing.

It was stated that contact tracing is easier to conduct at the elementary school level because of the smaller class sizes; middle and high school prove to be a much different story. Opposing arguments against the district’s notification policy include that the district could be considered negligent by choosing not to notify.

The BOE and MacKenzie concluded this portion of the meeting by reiterating that Public Health and the CDC regulations absolutely have to be followed, and that the district is certainly not taking Covid lightly. The Board moved to restate the current rules and regulations in their weekly blog post, along with an appreciation message to both parents and teachers for their patience and understanding.

David MacKenzie continued the meeting by addressing the Board with a recommendation to increase the current hourly employee pay. The increase will be an average of $3.96 an hour and will be for the next seven pay periods, February 2022 through August 2022, and was approved unanimously by the Board.

MacKenzie spoke on the current economic environment and how remote work and more desirable pay rates have pulled people away from working in education. This investment in hourly workers will cost less than $37,500 for the remainder of the current school year ($60,000 to $70,000 annually, based on the school year), and will put the Gilpin school district wages on a par with Jefferson County.

The goals for this wage increase reach beyond just hourly employees and the current school year, as plans are underway to propose a mid-year increase to the pay for hourly employee new hires. Other plans include proposing built-in hazard pay and retention bonuses for all current hourly employees, as well as reviewing an increase for all salary and employment ranges in the district into 2023 and beyond.

Elementary School Principal Heather Huntoon and Secondary School Principal Alexis Donaldson then presented their principal’s reports.

Congratulations were given to the elementary school staff for their progress in the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) system. PBIS is a classroom management system that assists administrators in improving student behavior. Huntoon showcased a six-year overview detailing what has been learned and implemented in that time, as well as current benchmark data that shows how incidents of negative student behavior have greatly decreased in district classrooms.

Donaldson recognized her students’ hard work during the start of the new year. The presentation highlighted the effort that was put into the recent Winter Music Concert by staff and music students.

Other recognition was given to the high school basketball teams for a strong start to their seasons, to the Snowdodgers for hitting the slopes, and to the high school cheerleaders for their strong representation of Gilpin County at the CHSAA State Cheer Competition.

MacKenzie concluded this portion of the meeting with a short Superintendent’s Report to the Board. The presentation touched on the progress of several facility construction and maintenance projects, with the bleacher project proceeding with preliminary designs for a press box to be provided by the contractor as soon as Wednesday, January 19.

Plans to replace the outdated HVAC system are still moving forward. Unfortunately, the district’s grant application for sewer pipe reconstruction funding has been declined and the district will have to reapply.

The next Gilpin County RE-1 Board of Education meeting will be on Tuesday, February 15, 2022. Budget planning and staff and student mental health are just some of the subjects on the agenda for February’s meeting. For more information, go to https://gilpin.k12. co.us/en-US.