GILPIN COUNTY – The Gilpin County RE-1 Board of Education met on February 18, 2025, in the school board room with all members in attendance.

The Board approved changes to the district Internet and Electronic Communications policy (GBEE) to designate ParentSquare as the online platform for notifications and communications with parents and the public.

During the recognitions and celebrations section of the meeting, the Board was introduced to four new staff members: Dominic Ferrante, David Britt, Caleb Ford, and Andrew Peeples. Superintendent David MacKenzie welcomed the new hires and gave the Board a bit of background on each of them.

Middle School Language Arts teacher Ann Myers gave a short presentation on an interdisciplinary unit on World War II. Myers explained how cross-content material is used to create a broader understanding of the subject. Students read The Boy Who Dared by Susan Bartoletti to begin the unit.

Ally Webb was recognized as the high school student of the month, while Olivia Albrecht was the middle school student of the month.

In her principal’s report, Secondary Principal Maria Reich said that the Spelling Bee with elementary and middle school students on February 4 was phenomenal, with many participants. Each participant won $1 for each correctly spelled word.

Second place was a tie between Lane Starkey and Jesse Kennedy. Each was awarded the $25 second place prize. For the second year in a row, Ilyana Paxton was the top speller, winning the $50 first place prize.

Reich presented graphs showing comparisons of fall and winter student performance on Colorado’s standardized tests for reading and math. Detailed discussion followed regarding the results and possible next steps for performance improvements.

Reich also spoke about having Joe Brummer, the author of Building a Trauma-Informed Restorative School, visit the school for a walk-through, speaking to the staff about engaging in the classroom. Reich said the session with Brummer was very informative, practical, and helpful in building a positive school climate and culture at Gilpin.

Under old business, the Board unanimously approved on second reading the policy on graduation requirements (JKF). Graduation requirements have been adjusted to deal with the changes to the number of teaching periods in a school day.

A vote on changes to the policy on staff use of the internet and electronic communications (GBEE), was prefaced by MacKenzie stating that the ParentSquare application by PowerSchool would become the online platform for notifications and communications with parents and the public. The policy has been updated to reflect the importance of using ParentSquare for all online communications between staff and the public.

MacKenzie said that one of the key features of ParentSquare is that all communications are archived and indexed. ParentSquare also allows for group notifications between a teacher and class parents.

Updates to district policy GBEE was unanimously approved on first reading.

The last item of business for the Board was to unanimously approve on first reading updates to the policy on support staff vacations and holidays (GDD).

Board president Sarah Swanson said that two weeks’ vacation after five years of service seemed a little meager and asked that the Board consider some additional compensation before the next reading.

The next RE-1 school board meeting will be on March 4, 2025, at 7 p.m. in the school board meeting room.

The agenda and documents for this meeting are on the RE-1 website (gilpin.k12.co.us) under the Board of Education Agendas for February 18, 2025.

Click on I.1.1._First Reading_Policy GBEE Staff Use of the Internet and Electronic Communications.pdf to read the new policy using ParentSquare for electronic communications with parents and the public.

Click on F.2._Secondary Principal Report_2.18.25.pdf to review the graphs on middle school STAR test monitoring.

There is a video of this meeting on the GCSD YouTube channel, but the sound quality is poor to unintelligible. Click on the link on the agenda to access the video.