GILPIN COUNTY — The Gilpin County School District Board of Education meeting on October 19, 2026, featured a lively conversation with the newly elected officers to the Elementary School Student Council and a deep dive into the data trends and themes of exit interviews.

The Board also unanimously approved a contract with Tracy Krug to train staff on the iLead curriculum and the list of charges that the District Accountability Committee will be monitoring.

President Joe Marr was running late, so Vice President Kristin Goodlett presided over the meeting. Secondary School Principal Sarah Reich was absent but Elementary School Principal Patrick Linnehan provided an in-depth report on student improvements in math and language arts based on first quarter comparisons using the NWEA tests. He also spoke about the impact that the IXL app is having on the students.

During the Congratulations and Celebrations section of the meeting, Goodlett spoke about the National Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day that occurred on October 7, 2026. Trigeminal Neuralgia is a rare neurological disorder that has an incidence of 4 - 30 cases per 100,000 person years. The awareness day was used to recognize and support those who face difficult circumstances daily with resilience and endurance.

The four students who were recently elected to the Elementary School Student Council spoke to the Board during the student presentations section. All four students are fifth graders: Denver Paxton is the President. Marley Boydstun is the Vice President. Katrina Mak is Secretary, and Stella Lindemann is the Treasurer. The students took turns telling the Board why they ran for office and what they wanted to accomplish.

The guest presentation for the evening was from Shelly Landgraf of Pure HR Solutions who attended virtually and reviewed with the Board five years of data regarding exit interviews. The big takeaway was that with only 12 of 55 respondents having had an exit interview, a completion rate of only 22%, it is difficult to make any sweeping generalizations why employees leave and what they thought of their time at Gilpin.

Landgraf spoke about trying to spot trends or themes in the replies. She showed charts that highlighted those aspects the respondents rated well, as well as the those that were concerns. Money, job satisfaction, and feedback fron the administration were on both the "satisfied" and "concerned" lists.

 The biggest recommendation for improving exit interview responses was to make it one of the to-dos on the offboarding checklist.

The District Accountability Committee (DAC) met earlier in the evening and approved of the list of charges for monitoring, with follow-up reporting later in the year. The board unanimously approved the list of DAC charges (5-0).

 The Board also voted unanimously to approve a contract with Tracy Krug for three years, not to exceed $20,000 per year, for training staff in the iLead curriculum that will be implemented later in the school year.

Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie, during his report, gave an update on the wastewater interconnect project. An arrangement with CDOT allowed ESCO Construction access to Highway 119 on October 15 and 16, 2026, to work on a punch list with the Black Hawk – Central City Sanitation District. Marr added that the District is in talks with CDOT about the highway.

The deadline for the Phase III bids was extended to November 11, 2026, to allow for more time for ‘value engineering’ of the bids.

The meeting finished with a discussion of the Board Communications Protocols document. The document is not a new policy, but rather is intended to be a collection of relevant board policies that will guide board conduct with the public and with each other. It will be a point of reference for new board members. The Board agreed to continue to discuss the Protocols at a future meeting and vote on adopting it.

The next RE-1 board meeting will be on Monday November 2, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the school boardroom.

Documents for this meeting can be found on the District website (gilpin.k12.co.us). Click on the About tab and the Board of Education. The agendas are at the bottom left side of the webpage.

A recording of this meeting is available on the District's YouTube channel. The YouTube search term is Gilpin County RE-1 School District, or click on the YouTube link on the agenda.

The document on board communication protocols is I.3.1._BE-E School Board Meetings.pdf. The list of DAC charges is document I.1._2026_2027_District Accountability Committee Charges.pdf. Principal Linnehan’s report and graphs of elementary school student progress in the 1st quarter is F.2._Elementary Principal Report_10.19.26 (1).pdf.