The Gilpin County school board met on November 15, 2022, to discuss ensuring student safety online and actions teachers and parents should take to better prepare kids for the online world.

The board heard from an online security expert from Schneider Electric, who is familiar with the school with two kids attending (one of whom has since graduated). His main advice to teachers and parents is to be proactive in their kids’ education on internet safety. He even encouraged the adults in the room to consider downloading the apps the kids have on their phones so that they can begin to understand the apps themselves. He reminded the room that while kids know how to navigate the internet really well, they don’t necessarily know more than the average adult about being safe online.

He advised parents and teachers to discourage kids from using their real names or locations online. He also said that it is essential to make sure kids, especially those of younger ages, are aware of “sock puppet” or fake accounts that are mining for personal information for their own purposes. Sock puppet accounts are accounts made with the intention of deceiving people it contacts. The expert emphasized that anything shared online does not simply disappear after being shared, that it is encoded there forever. This is of particular importance when it comes to sharing explicit nude pictures in middle and high school, especially since sharing such pictures is considered a crime.

Finally, he presented on the importance of understanding the signs of trolling and online building, warning teachers to look out for signs of depression or suicidal kids in class. With the online world being virtually inescapable the collection of evidence is essential. It is up to teachers and parents to notice and act.

The board also briefly discussed several other matters of note. First, they discussed the passage of a recent ballot initiative that will now offer every student in Colorado the opportunity to access free and reduced lunches in schools starting the school year of 2024. Elementary school principal Heather Huntoon also presented her improvement plan on the elementary school’s performance on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success assessments in the next year.

First, the elementary school hired an instructional coach to aid students from third to fourth grade who fall below the average growth expectations for the grade. They’ve also implemented a “problem of the day” in each classroom with each problem intended to help students practice in areas that they showed weakness in throughout the state tests.

The school also implemented new protocols to emphasize teaching students to memorize the math algorithms that’ll be necessary for tests, instead of simply focusing on the process of solving them. Finally, Huntoon hopes to further impress upon parents that testing is an essential part of ensuring their students continue to succeed in Gilpin County School as it reflects upon the school overall.

The Gilpin County School Board meets bi-monthly on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month. Board meetings are held in the Gilpin County School Board room at 7 p.m. and are open to the public.