GILPIN COUNTY - The Gilpin County School District Board of Education met on May 20, 2025, at the school to approve the 2024/2025 Supplemental Budget and the 2025/2026 Adopted Budget.

The Board also approved and signed a contract with the Black Hawk-Central City Sanitation District to become a customer of the Sanitation District when the sewer pipeline project is completed.

At the end of the meeting, Tami Velasquez informed the Board that she is moving out of Gilpin County and would be resigning her position as a board member after graduation ceremonies. Once the resignation has been accepted, the board will need to appoint a replacement until the November elections.

All the members of the board were in attendance, along with Superintendent David MacKenzie. High School Student of the Month, Landon Church, was invited to sit with the board. Church is a junior and was elected vice president of the student council for the coming school year.

Sam Stranaly was selected as the Elementary School Student of the Month for May while Hank Thompson was selected for the Middle School recognition.

Retiring art teacher Curtis Halsted presented two pieces of artwork to the board from elementary school student Riley Erickson and middle school student Veronica Vincent. Their artwork used dimension techniques to depict birds, and will be displayed in the school for the next two years.

Reports by the principals highlighted end of school activities and final STAR testing results for the middle school grades. Secondary School Principal Sara Reich said that she was still working on comparing the final testing results from this spring with the fall test results.

Reich told the board that the Day without Hate on April 24, 2025, was a unique collaboration including students, staff, parents, and the school mental health team. The purpose of the event was to promote unity, respect, and nonviolence through kindness pledges, paper chains, and pictures that were hung up around the school.

Elementary School Principal Patrick Linnehan reported on the completion of the STAR testing for both traditional and Montessori elementary grades. Students reaching reading proficiency rose from 66% to 71%. Both principals were working to wrap up the year, including evaluations of their teachers and staff.

MacKenzie’s report indicated that the 2023 Fiscal Audit had been completed and submitted to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). He was hopeful that the 2024 Audit would be done in a few weeks so it could also be submitted to CDE this summer.

Mackenzie has instructed the new auditor to be done with the 2025 audit by December 31, 2025, so the District will be fully compliant and qualify for high cost special education reimbursement. The reimbursement is worth $40,000 to $60,000 to the District, retroactive for 2025 costs.

MacKenzie said that the District Accountability Committee had been reconstituted with new officers recruited and will hold meetings again in the fall. He expressed appreciation for the work done by the committee and the efforts of the members.

The sewer pipeline project is making progress with two pipe crews working simultaneously. Expectations are to have the project completed this year.

The Safety and Security project has a new vendor. MacKenzie had a meeting scheduled with them to do a walk-through and review the remaining tasks. The project involves getting the keycard system finished at some of the exterior doors as well as getting the emergency buttons operational for lockdown in the common areas.

Under new business, the board unanimously approved the 2024/2025 Supplemental Budget and the 2025/2026 Adopted Budget with no additional discussion. A special work session to go over the 2025/2026 budget before the board meeting was held but there were no public participants or comments. Revenue and expenses were expected to be at about the same levels as in the 2024/2025 budget.

The Board also unanimously approved with no additional discussion the 2025/2026 fee schedules after a second reading.

The final action by the board was to unanimously approve the intergovernmental agreement with the Black Hawk-Central City Sanitation District. The agreement formalizes the contract between the two government agencies and sets the tap fee and monthly cost. It also allows the Golden Gilpin Mill Site to tap into the line. The contract was effective as of May 20, 2025.

The next RE-1 school board meeting will be on June 3, 2025, at 7 p.m. in the school board meeting room. The board will accept the resignation of Tami Velasquez and set the conditions for appointing a replacement.

The agenda and documents for this meeting are on the RE-1 website (gilpin.k12.co.us) under the Board of Education Agendas for May 20, 2025. There are spreadsheets for the 2024/2025 Supplemental Budget and the 2025/2026 Adopted Budget. The new fee schedules and the contract with the Sanitation District are also available for review. There is a complete video of this meeting on the GCSD YouTube channel. Click on the YouTube link to access the channel.