The Manitou Springs School District 14 (MSSD 14) Board of Education (BOE) held a regular meeting in the Manitou Springs High School (MSHS) Media Center on Monday, Sept. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
All board members were present save for Board President Tina Vidovich, who was excused absent. The Board unanimously approved the August meeting minutes and the September personnel updates.
Mustang Spotlight
The meeting started with a Mustang Spotlight award, recognizing Kym Ferguson, who has worked as a Kindergarten teacher in MSSD since 2000. Jackie Powell, Principal at Ute Pass Elementary School (UPES), nominated Ferguson for the honor.
Powell praised Ferguson, stating, “Her remarkable ability to foster student growth and nurture young minds is truly impressive. Regardless of the challenges in her classroom, Kym remains calm, consistent, and a positive presence for her students … Every student in her class can attest to her belief in their potential and her dedication to their success.”
Flying Pig Farm shows kids how to grow resilience
Throughout the school year, the district partners closely with Flying Pig Farm for various educational opportunities. Barak Ben-Amots, Educational Director of Flying Pig Farm, then took the podium to give the Board a brief update on the inner workings of the farm. Ben-Amots just returned from the USDA Farm-to-School Grantee gathering in Omaha, where Flying Pig Farm was awarded $96,000 to continue its efforts with MSSD 14.
About the conference and the grant money, Ben-Amots said, “It just was so exciting to be in a space with 300 other awardees, finding out that what we’re doing here in the district is not at the lonely cutting edge of education, but is actually part of the rising tide of a movement that is about restoring students’ relationship with land, [the] students’ relationship with food, their sense of belonging, their sense of value, in collaboration with farms.”
The awarded money will bring about the opportunity to grow the farm’s nonprofit, as well as “focus on the students … the program development, on our intake process, on our assessment, on really taking good data, [and] on our social-emotional learning programs,” according to Ben-Amots.
When asked how the Flying Pig Farm received its name, Ben-Amots told the story of longtime local and active community member Doug Edmonson:
“The thing is that pigs sort of can fly. The guy who owns the land, his name is Doug Edmundson, and he actually went to Manitou Springs School District … He was smoking cigarettes by the time he was nine years old. His mom was the nurse at school, and she would watch him every day get kicked out of class, [and] walk past her office to go into the assistant principal’s office to be told off … One day, the assistant principal called in Nancy, the mom, and little Doug, and he pointed at Doug and said, ‘You’re good for nothing. You will never amount to anything. Pigs will fly before your life turns into anything of value.’ … Doug and his mom turned to each other; they just started laughing right there in the meeting, and that became their mantra … When Doug was having a hard time, his mom would say, ‘Let’s show him. Let’s show him pigs can fly. Let’s show him that you’re the flying pig.'”
Ben-Amots continued, “Doug has not had an easy journey. He’s had a lot of ups and downs, but this legacy project that he has going right now is incredible, and that story of being able to turn things around, and the impossible being able to be within our reach, is something that I believe deeply, and I think it’s the message of the farm to the school children, not just for their own personal journey, but also for our culture at large, in these very difficult times. I want to give those kids a chance to believe that we can turn this thing around and we can find the solutions that we need.”
’23-’24 State Assessment Report results
Kolleen Johnson, Executive Director of Secondary Schools, and Sarah McAfee, Executive Director of Elementary Schools, continued the meeting, addressing the ’23-’24 State Assessment Report, Concurrent Enrollment, and Career and Technical Education (CTE).
In the past three years, school attendance was both a state and nationwide priority, due in part to the lasting effect that COVID-19 produced on chronic absenteeism. MSSD 14 is in its first year of implementation with new supports in place for educators, students and parents, significantly reducing the number of absences in the ’23-’24 school year compared to ’22-’23.
The State Assessment shows Manitou Springs Elementary School (MSES) students scored around the state average for ELA, with some room to improve in Math. Students at UPES are scoring above the state average in ELA, with a mixture of scores in Math. McAfee explained that this is the third year of implementation with a new math curriculum, and it is normal to see a dip in statistics when starting a new program.
Manitou Springs Middle School (MSMS) students scored above the state average for ELA, with room to grow in Math. Johnson explained that through School Performance Frameworks (SPF) data in conjunction with this report, they can see growth occurring at MSES in both Math and ELA. The majority of students at MSHS are testing above the state average, according to SAT data.
Johnson celebrated the 119 AP students from last year, who together “earned $199,234.64 in scholarship equivalency with AP scores of a three or higher.” Additionally, 9 students through the Career Start Program and 24 students through on- and off-campus Concurrent enrollment totaled $48,296.40 in college credit.
Technology Department update
Cat Olimb, MSSD 14 Director of Technology, finished the meeting with an update on what the department focused on over the summer and moving into the ’24-’25 school year.
Last year Olimb started a District AI advisory group, aimed at discussing the future of AI in MSSD and how it may support educators. This project will be ongoing again this year.
Over the summer, Olimb and the MSSD Technology Department added key card access to MSHS and MSMS, rebuilt iPads for all 1st-5th graders, set up brand new laptops for 6th-grade UPES and 7th-grade MSMS, installed new televisions, and updated all networks systems. Notably, Olimb also received her degree in Cybersecurity this summer, and is a member of multiple cybersecurity organizations, which allows MSSD 14 to have a community of support as well as access to grants and other opportunities.
The ’24-’25 school year will focus on updating cybersecurity, working on a staff intranet site, implementing new learning platforms, and applying for grants.
Before adjourning, the Board voted on two policy reviews, ACA and AC-R1 first readings, both discussed in previous meetings. Both policies were unanimously approved .
With no further business to attend to, the meeting concluded at 6:26 p.m. For more information about the MSSD 14 BOE and their meetings and agendas, you can visit https://www.mssd14.org/district_information/board_of_education.