The Gilpin County School Board met on September 7, 2021 at 7 p.m. at the school’s auditorium in-person and on YoutTube. Some “technical difficulties” caused the meeting to start a few minutes late.

Congratulations went out to the food service crew for passing the food service audit. They delivered food through the summer and now for school.

The football team was congratulated for their upbeat locker room attitude even with a 0-2 record. They scored 3 touchdowns on Friday evening.

Congratulations to the 3 candidates for Board positions: Drew Allred, Christian Goodwin, and Sarah Swanson. Questions will be presented to each candidate to prepare responses, prior to the Candidate Forum scheduled for September 21, 2021, at 7 p.m. The Board will meet prior to the forum at 6 p.m. Sources of the questions were the District Accountability Committee, the Student Council, and teachers, giving all a chance to become more involved in the choosing of the new Board.

Vickie Edwards, the new District Accountability Committee Chairperson, was present at this meeting, and charged with research and reporting back to the Board, with the Committee’s findings and recommendations about “Critical Race Theory” (does the current curriculum address this “social justice” theory?), Internet safety, (are students taught to be conscious of internet safety?) and a possible charge in school start date each year. Currently, other school districts attend 180 school days with a 5 day per week program, and Gilpin has a 4 day week with 149 school days, starting before the other districts.

The Board voted on recommended revisions to the GCSD Educator Evaluation Guidelines which have 2 changes: one which focus on student improvement as criteria, and the other a “housekeeping” change.

Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie said that currently, the schools are not entertaining a Covid-19 program as the Gilpin County Health Department has an adequate program of testing and vaccination. He said there is no reason to duplicate so far this year, but will reevaluate, if necessary. A Kindergarten class has been quarantined this last week, and contact tracing was done. Dr. MacKenzie said he will re-evaluate prior to each Board meeting, but believes that proper hand-washing, social distancing, classroom cleaning, and mask wearing has done well.

A first reading of a special Policy Update of June 30, 2021, with grammar corrections and recommendations by the State Board were made Dr. MacKenzie said these changes are “pretty standard” and the Board approved the first reading.

Dr. MacKenzie said there are 436 students enrolled, and noted that a lot are behind in learning. The Board asked if there was data whether being in-person or remote learning students were impacted, to which he said he did not know, yet. He said security measures and facilities upgrades were being finalized. Teachers and bus drivers are needed.

The next meeting will start at 6 p.m. on September 21, 2021 with the Candidate Forum starting after at 7 p.m.