The Gilpin County District Accountability Committee and the Gilpin School Board both met on February 15, 2022.

The District Accountability Committee met at 5:30 p.m. in the elementary library. The DAC reported that they were told by School Board Vice President Sarah Swanson that hot lunches will be coming back soon.

Gilpin County Sheriff’s School Resource Officer Melissa Sterling said they have a closed campus with security doors and cameras. No one can enter without a reason. There are monthly drills for emergency protocols in place. “Nobody can just walk in,” she said.

Gilpin Schools Counselor Kim Cobb discussed the culture and climate of the school. The school conducted a survey in 2020 to help create a vision statement and make the schools more positive and welcoming for all, Pre-K through 12th grade. Plans are starting for an April event, called W.E.B.: Where Everyone Belongs.

The Gilpin School Board met at 7 p.m. Under new business, Board President Joe Marr said the mask mandate was rescinded last Friday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and now there is time to move forward with COVID like they have with other illnesses, assuming it will be around like the flu. “We’re not going to be quarantining classes unless there are extreme cases,” he said. “It’s all pretty positive.”

Attendance is reported to be about the same. Although there are still staff absences, the school has been able to cover that. With home tests available, the demand in Gilpin County has dwindled. The pandemic is beginning to wane, so the school can soon get back to the “new normal.”

It has now been decided that if a student or their parent wants a child to wear a mask, let staff know and they will ensure that a mask stays on the child. It is still appreciated that a sick child is kept at home.

New staff introduced were Allison Brown, a Gilpin Schools alumna, who started on January 1; also Imy Rich, with 40-plus years of experience, another graduate of Gilpin County Schools, works in the kindergarten.

Lisa Lopez, whose son is a junior at the school, is working in the kindergarten class.

Jonnie Chamberlain is the new physical education coordinator and health teacher who started on January 31.

Geometry teacher Dawn Blake said she has known every one of the students since fifth grade. She introduced four students who are taking the class. The students said the class starts with a warm up or a game. They like that the long work time in the class means that they don’t have to do homework. “Math is harder, especially geometry,” said one student. “She [Blake] makes sure we got it with puzzles and games.

“Ms. Blake wants to push our class. It helps us persevere. Trigonometry includes learning about elevation and depression, angles of buildings and the elevation of an airplane. I struggled but aced a quiz today. Pretty nice, she pushes us.”

The Board thanked them for the presentation. The Board approved the consent items and minutes from the previous meeting.

Secondary Principal Alexis Donaldson provided her report and said she was happy to see faces, which was exciting. A staff in-service took place on February 6. The secondary staff spent the morning together discussing GRIT (Greater Resilience Information Toolkit) and what it looked like in the classroom. Grit is “perseverance, a lot to do with resilience, and learning from your failures.”

They spent time in breakout groups watching a TED Talk and video clip, then followed it up with creating what GRIT looks like to them.

On March 10 and 11, the school will have parent-teacher conferences and will keep the virtual option on Friday to accommodate parents who can’t attend in person.

An Open House night is scheduled for April 27. The Culture and Climate group met on Thursday, February 10, discussing a timeline and action steps for a survey that will be distributed to students, staff and families. Those results will determine priorities to be addressed.

Next week there will be a winter sports week. The students have spirit and dress-up days throughout the week ,with a pep rally on Thursday afternoon. Following the basketball game on Friday, February 18, (Senior night) there was to be a high school game night from 9 to 10:30 p.m.

Elementary Principal Heather Huntoon said that on Professional Development day the teachers reviewed articles regarding feedback to students. They came up with an action plan to choose four students a week to communicate with.

The preschool and kindergarten will have a Meet the Teachers evening on March 7 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Preschool enrollment is down 50 percent, and they would like to increase enrollment by 16 more children.

The school will have an open house on April 27 for elementary, preschool, and kindergarten. They want to bring in some families and share the great things that are happening. The school has a great staff and community, so Huntoon wants to highlight some of the things they are doing.

Huntoon, who is working with fourth and fifth graders on practicing interviewing, said she has been really impressed with the junior class. “We had the Skydome here and it was a great experience. Preschool through fifth grade students had 45 minutes learning about social studies and activities. They received a lot of great feedback.”

They will finish the kindness chain through the rest of the year and share with families on April 27. At that time they will look at how much kindness they have to share. She thanked Monarch Casino after they provided Monster Jam and State Wrestling tickets and parking for their suites.

Huntoon had special thanks for Spelling Bee judges Kirsten Goodlett and Meghan DeGuelle, and for Patrick Linnehan for being an amazing pronouncer. Fourth grader Jesse Kennedy was the champion, while there was a tie for second place with Hank Thompson and James Barton. Third place went to Rylie Edwards.

She thanked the PTA for the Valentine’s day event. Board members said that we need to market these school events by printing some flyers and put them up at bulletin boards around town. We need to be more active. Huntoon said she will do that.

A Board member asked about accountability. “Sometimes as a parent,” she said, “you know what the expectations are for third grade, but I am curious about feedback kids are getting in the classroom.” Her son had better days, she said, when he knew he had done well and was on track. “Do kids understand what feedback is? Where is the accountability?”

Huntoon said, “That’s where the big ticket was: how to give feedback in the moment right there in real time. If we can put the teachers together, they will collaborate and come up with ideas. The spin was, how are you communicating with parents so they are not blindsided by the report card or teacher conferences?”

The Board will revisit this on March 4, regarding holding each other accountable. “It’s going to be a process. It’s about team building, working together and bringing positivity into the classroom.”

One staff member said that what she forgot today was to have a good time with her kids. We need to ask of students, “what is your potential and what can we do to help you reach that potential?” A check mark is not good feedback; there is a need to use rubrics to guide their learning.

Superintendent Dr. David MacKenzie said they have been doing some staff restructuring. Terry Sharp retired, so Joe Tennuchi was replaced in the position half time. Katrina Omaya was reassigned to do payroll, HR, and insurance.

A new strategic communications manager is excited about what she is doing. She will create contacts so there will be a written plan. If anything happens, we will have the beginnings of a plan. The Board is also planning to reach out and stay connected with seniors and graduates and share the good news when they are successful in the future.

MacKenzie also planned to meet with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs regarding reapplying for a grant.

The Board discussed future agendas including meeting and conferring with staff, updates on progress on the Board initiatives, strategic communications, and review and approval of fee schedules. The Board finally convened into an executive session to discuss personnel matters and the superintendent’s evaluation.

The next meeting of the Gilpin County Board of Education will be on March 1, 2022, at 7 p.m.