The Gilpin County School Board approved the first reading of salary data for teachers and staff during a regular meeting on April 5, 2022, at 7 p.m. The Board also heard updates on the district’s financials and current status on school attendance.

For the First Reading of Policy Updates and Revisions, District Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie stated the salary schedule is designed to clean up language and to clarify how staff movement takes place. That $6250 will remain the same, but he wanted to keep this more “evergreen” and keep policies up to date.

Board Chair Joe Marr said the number on the information is easy to refine. “I think it covers everyone’s backside.” MacKenzie said it cleaned things up.

The First Reading Policy Updates and Revisions included

I.3.1. GCBA-R Professional Staff Salary Schedules

I.3.2. GCBD-R Staff Fringe Benefits

I.3.3. GDBA Support Staff Salary Schedules

I.3.4. IIB Class Size

I.4. Updates on Board of Education Initiatives

I.4.1. Strategic Communications

I.4.2. Student and Staff Mental Health Supports

I.4.3. District Climate and Culture

I.5. Initiative: Board/Student Engagement Discussion

The Board approved the first reading.

MacKenzie reported that student attendance is about 89 percent. That hasn’t changed much, and they had staff absences of 20, which is running about average. During an April survey, 35 households requested COVID tests, and tests have been extended for 90 days. The demand for testing is not there anymore.

Regarding strategic communications, the campaign, “I am Gilpin County School” is reaching out to people. The school has been trying to work with the two newspapers in the area and a geographical approach.

On April 27, they will have an open house and are encouraging students to invite a new student in order to bring in some new families. “This is the county’s best secret.” The District has the advertisement for the open house on the web.

Marr said the Clinica Clinic has spoken about a mental health clinic, and MacKenzie said we really need parents to move forward with mental health. The majority of clinics are remote with a long waiting list, but the School has hired a new employee and brought her on to assist in the Counselor’s office. She will get her master’s degree and hopefully will move into that position.

During a business services update and discussion, Finance and Budget Director Joe Tinucci said it has been an exciting month. They are starting to figure out a lot of things in finance that nobody had access to before.

With Infinite Vision, they can jump towards being more team membercentric, go on the system, and look at their employee information. Instead of one person in control of the information, we can segregate that office with proper controls.

He met with Wells Fargo Bank, which can now do desktop scans that will cut down the use of Loomis. It will go through immediately and there will be no downtime.

Regarding the budget, Tinucci said, “We are up at 4.4 percent on interest rates, a difference of $1,500 a month.” Last month, he researched the budget payroll to overall budget, and studied Boulder, Jefferson, and Clear Creek counties, which ran at 75 to 80 percent budget for salaries to the overall budget.

In our case, we spent $4.6 million on payroll at 79 percent on a $6 million budget. When you add in athletics coaches and benefits, that would be an additional $140,000 with benefits. That would put the school at 79 percent.

We are starting to get up there, Tinucci added, so we should look at long range plans and future plans today instead of getting into this three years ago. We want to look at how money in the bank will be used. Overall, he is excited about where the school is taking things, although it will take a little time.

The next meeting of the Gilpin County School District Board of Education will be on April 19, 2022, at 7 p.m.