Celebrating art and hard work: Gilpin County School Board’s artist for the month of October was Nora Giuliano. She shared her artwork which depicted an African penguin. She explained that “the African penguin does not live in the cold but rather the warm” climate like they have in South Africa. Mr. Halsted explained that the project was about unique animals and their traits. The new Gilpin Elementary School Student Council met the Gilpin County School Board and shared their ideas and how they wanted to make Gilpin County Elementary School a better place for all students. PHOTO BY CURT HALSTED[/caption]

At their monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 18, the Gilpin County Board of Education discussed several measures in preparation for the November delegate meeting. The measures will affect everything from State Board interaction to property tax in Colorado.

Board members attended a delegate meeting on Saturday, October 24, to discuss new resolutions on education for the Colorado school system. One measure will ensure that schools remain legally responsible for the safety of their students in the case of a school shooting. The Gilpin Board plans to vote in favor of this resolution. “You cannot be negligent when you’re responsible for, to the best of our ability, taking care of kids and staff,” said Board member Kristin Goodlett.

The Board also decided to vote against further raising taxes for free statewide lunches. The tax would affect Colorado citizens who make more than $300,000 a year. Board members said they believe that the measure, which will be on the ballot in November, should be left up to county voters. Goodlett also emphasized the fact that she believed that no kid in the Gilpin County schools would be forced to go hungry because they couldn’t afford lunch. “That’s just a culture thing,” said Board President Joe Marr.

They also decided to vote against a climate action bill that they felt did not properly address how the government could help schools fund green initiatives. Further measures discussed in the meeting can be found on the Gilpin County School District information page, under the October 18 agenda folder.

The Board approved changing future class schedules, allowing for fewer classes, each of which would take a longer period of time. They also approved measures taken by elementary school principal Heather Huntoon in investigating how to improve Student/ Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) growth while still arguing that the statistics were taking unfair samples.

During the “celebration and congratulation” portion of the meeting, Board members were introduced to young artist Nora Giuliano, who has improved in “leaps and bounds,” according to her teacher, Curt Halsted. Nora’s artwork will hang in the School Board room for the rest of the year.

The Board was also introduced to the elementary school student council, composed of students in the 4th and 5th grades. The ten students on the council introduced themselves and their reasons for running for council, almost unanimously saying they joined with the intention of giving a voice to every student and making their community a better one.

The council is composed of Jesse Kennedy, Koraleigh Polizzi, Kenzie Oliver, Ella Albrecht, Erin Schwettman, Olivia Albrecht, Will Ragland-Honeycutt, Nora Manley, Veronica Vincent. (One more member, Canyon Carlson, was not present.)

Among their current goals are monthly presentations on various important topics of behavior with the lower grades, advocating for handicapped students by ensuring all playgrounds are easily accessible, and hoping to give input on the design of the elementary school building entrance.

The Board, which has discussed both of the last two issues in previous meetings, encouraged Huntoon to continue getting the students involved with both projects. The council currently meets with Huntoon for 30 minutes every Thursday at 8:15 a.m.

The Board also heard from Teddy Vaughan-Tomlinson, a high school student, as part of their student engagement initiative. The sophomore had mostly positive things to say about the school. Her one criticism involved the inconsistent temperatures across the school buildings. The Board promised it was working on it.

The Board holds meetings every second and third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Board of Education meeting room.