The Gilpin County School Board discontinued temperature checks for students entering the building during a regular meeting on March 1, 2022. The Board also approved a rubric for nonteacher staff evaluations.

During Congratulations and Celebrations, the Board heard that Middle School Girls’ Basketball Teams, both A and B teams, are first in the league. They were planning to play on March 2.

Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie announced that the Girls’ Varsity Basketball Team went through the district tournament the last weekend in February and qualified for the regional tournament the weekend of March 4. They played Wiggins Friday at 5 p.m. in Oak Creek. He said it is a great accomplishment for the teams.

The Board approved the Consent Agenda, which included the February 15, 2022, meeting minutes, the March 1 Human Resources Report, and the report of the school closure on February 2 and the two-hour delays for school start on January 6 and February 17, all due to inclement weather.

MacKenzie provided an update on the pandemic status. School attendance has been at 89 percent. They sent 10 students home in the last two weeks who had some symptoms.

In the past two weeks, the school had eight students with symptoms from four households the first week. The second week, there were two students from another household. As of February 24, staff absences have come down from the previous week.

During the last two-week period, there were 19.5 staff absences, but they are down to 15 staff members. On February 17, the Department of Public Health had a press conference and said they expected 90 percent of people will have COVID immunity either by vaccination or assimilation by the end of February.

During the last month in February, the school gave out testing kits to 121 households and are now down to 72 households. Tests are being sold at King Soopers for $20, and the Fire Department has them for free.

MacKenzie said he had a request to stop performing morning temperature checks, and the Board agreed. He also said he was reporting on the pandemic at every board meeting, but now he would like to cut back to a report at the first meeting of the month. The Board agreed.

Board members expressed concern about taking home books and asked if elementary students can stop taking them home every day. One member announced that the books weigh as much as her son. MacKenzie said he would work out a program.

MacKenzie introduced the Climate and Culture survey, which the Board will review, but they will hold questions until the March 15 meeting. Board members said the survey only had one focus area.

They would like to see a broader survey to see where there are areas of strength and areas of need. It was very narrowly focused. Some indicated that it is lacking in the areas of climate and culture. MacKenzie said he will follow up on March 15.

MacKenzie presented the new staff member evaluation rubric. He had put it out to all non-licensed staff before the pandemic. If this document ever existed, it hasn’t existed in recent decades.

He doesn’t see this as a document designed to remove an employee, but to provide feedback for growth. He suggested that they revisit this in the fall and get the process started again.

MacKenzie said the rubric came from other school districts. It is not for teachers, because the Board already adopted the statewide rubric for teachers. They expect to perform the evaluations every year. He would evaluate the three managers, who would then evaluate their staff. The Board approved the evaluation rubric.

The next meeting of the Gilpin County School Board will be on March 15, 2022, at 7 p.m.