The board listens to student presentations:  Mr. Newberg‘s media production students presented the ins and outs of creating digital and video projects for his class. Along with learning the basics skills, the students have been directing, filming, editing, and producing regular news broadcasts with interviews and interesting information for the student body.[/caption]

On Tuesday, November 14, 2023, the Gilpin County School District RE-1 Board of Education met at 7 p.m. for their only meeting in November. Kirsten Goodlet, Joe Marr, Joe Stranaly and Sarah Swanson were in attendance in person while Cherokee Blake attended virtually. Gilpin RE-1 Superintendent Dr. Dave MacKenzie presided over the meeting.

Board President Marr recognized Blake for her service to the district during her term on the board the last four years. MacKenzie congratulated the two incumbent board members for being reelected and Tami Velasquez for her election to the board.

During student presentations, students from the middle school media production class demonstrated some of the videos that they had created and spoke about what they had learned about media production.

Secondary School Principal Alexis Donaldson announced during her report that the National Honor Society Induction ceremony will be on December 4, 2023. Donaldson recognized the fall sports athletes in football, cheer and volleyball. She also mentioned that the middle school theater class will be presenting Mean Girls Junior: The Musical twice on December 1, 2023. The first presentation will be at 3:30 p.m. and the second will be at 6:30 p.m.

The report by Elementary School Principal Patrick Linneman highlighted the success of the parent teacher conferences with over 96% attendance by parents (181 out of 188). There are twelve teachers who are reading Love & Logic: Taking Control of the Class by Jim Fay. They are involved with four book group sessions to discuss the insights and practices identified in the book.

There were two significant items in the Superintendent’s Report. The school administration hosted a meeting with the Eagle’s Nest staff and parents on November 9, 2023, and spent a couple of hours listening to them as they conducted a board meeting with their constituents. He let it be known that the school could absorb the kids in the preschool program because the majority were three years old with one four year old. The school is licensed for preschoolers (3 - 8 year olds) and Mackenzie gave assurances that they could be accommodated immediately. The school would probably need to hire more staff to maintain the student/teacher ratio. MacKenzie said that he offered the teacher and assistant teacher positions if the school ended up taking the preschoolers.

The school would not be able to take the infants because they didn’t have a license or facilities to handle them. MacKenzie said that the school would consider getting a license for infants if Eagle’s Nest closed and couldn’t reopen, but he thought that it would be a year or more to go through the application process and secure the necessary licenses.

MacKenzie also brought up that he had reached out to the Coal Creek K-8 folks and found out that they are pursuing a collaboration with the Jefferson Academy. Jefferson Academy is an established charter school in Jefferson County and might be able to operate the Coal Creek K-8 school under their charter as a satellite school.

The board approved the minutes from the October 3, 2023, and October 17, 2023, board meetings. They also approved the reconciled revenue and expenditures for August 2023 and September 2023. The final item to be approved was the Human Resources Report for November 14, 2023.

Under New Business the board approved a first reading of Policy Updates and Revisions from August 1, 2023. The policies reviewed included student discipline, suspension/expulsion of students, sexual harassment, staff sick leave, school board member conduct, superintendent conduct and staff conduct. A second reading and vote will be done at the December 5, 2023, meeting.

The December 5, 2023, meeting will administer the oath of office to the elected Board Members and organize the Board of Education Officers. A Board of Education meeting on December 12, will certify the school mill levy and discuss the 2023/2024 Meet and Confer Proposals. A special board meeting/work session was approved for January 9, 2024, for the purpose of Meet and Confer.

The meeting ended at 8:24 p.m.

Gilpin County School Board of Education meetings are held at the Gilpin County School in the Board of Education meeting room. The school is located at 10595 Highway 119, Black Hawk, Colorado. More information on school board