The Manitou Springs School District 14 (MSSD 14) Board of Education (BOE) held its last regular meeting of the year on Monday, Dec. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the Manitou Springs High School (MSHS) Media Center. All Board members were present.
The BOE meeting began with the approval of the agenda and no public comments. The Board approved the November and December meeting minutes, as well as the Consent Agenda for the evening.
Mustang Spotlight
The Mustang Spotlight this month recognized two outstanding staff members, Chris Lewis, Counselor at MSHS, and Terrance Batson, Spanish and Gifted and Talented teacher at Ute Pass Elementary School (UPES), as well as Alexander Steger, a senior at MSHS and a semi-finalist for the Daniels Scholarship.
Anna Conrad, Principal at MSHS, presented the award for Chris Lewis, stating, “He has an incredible calming effect, and has earned the trust of both students and families here at MSHS, because he goes out of his way to be proactive and to follow up and introduce himself on the daily … [He creates] connections with coworkers and leaves every one of these interactions making a few around him feel better and more valued because of who they are and who he is.”
Jackie Powell, Principal at UPES, presented the Mustang Spotlight award to Terrance Batson. About Batson, Powell said, “He’s a champion for kids and for education … As a lifelong learner, he continuously refines his teaching practices, seeks feedback, and crafts engaging student-driven experiences, including enhancing his curriculum to foster deeper learning this year … Terrence is someone who always goes out of his way to recognize other people, and we are so excited to recognize him this evening.”
Principal Conrad returned to present the award for MSHS senior Alexander Steger.
“Alexander demonstrates the core values of deep learning through his curiosity, persistence and collaboration. He continues to demonstrate kindness, empathy and respectfulness, making him a joy to be around. And his sense of humor allows him to connect with people on a variety of topics, especially soccer, which he loves to discuss … His hard work and commitment have earned him a spot as a semi-finalist for the highly competitive Daniels Scholarship, a testament to his bright future. We’re so excited to see what he goes on to accomplish.”
UPES presentation
UPES Principal Powell and Dean of Students, Mica Wood, returned to the podium to deliver the annual UPES presentation to the Board. The presentation, detailed through the five senses, emphasized the school’s focus on providing a cohesive, inclusive environment and its commitment to environmental education.
Visually, UPES is characterized by a dedicated staff (23 full-time and three shared with MSES), collaboration with 176 students, and a beautiful campus in Chipeta Park in Cascade.
On any given day, Powell explained that someone visiting the campus would see “Hallways that are packed with tents and sleeping pads and backpacks and microscopes and indoor gardens where the students help create and propagate … You’re going to see family engagement … family and community volunteers … You’re going to see amazing student artwork. You’re going to see classrooms without walls, which means we’re going on a lot of field trips in our building … You’re going to see adults co-regulating with students, not escalating them, but really being that calm, consistent presence in their lives.”
Auditorily, UPES features daily announcements, student sharing, and a focus on safety and learning. Powell emphasized the importance of reassuring the children that “they are here, they are safe, they are valued. They matter. They were born for a reason. Their voice matters, and they’re going to go out and do great things. And when we tell that to our children, that’s what they become. So, you’re going to hear that being shouted aloud every single morning … for the announcements.”
Additionally, Powell continued, “You’re going to hear kids being celebrated for their growth, and you’re also going to hear mistakes being celebrated at our school. That’s something we make a big deal about. We don’t grow unless we get uncomfortable, and we don’t grow without making mistakes. So, making that part of the normal culture, you’re going to hear teachers embracing what we call the productive struggle.”
Tactile experiences at UPES include hands-on learning, environmental projects, classroom pets, and using real books and materials. The tastes and smells experienced at UPES originate from Literacy Luncheons, spaghetti dinners, chili cookoffs, staff potlucks, and above all, a hunger for learning.
Finally, Powell highlighted significant celebrations for her school this year. UPES recently received national recognition as a 2024 Leave No Trace Program of the Year.
Powell also explained that, “Before COVID, Ute Pass was an improvement plan school. We were scoring on our school performance framework in a place that we weren’t seeing the academic growth with our students. They were achieving but not growing. And then in 2022 after implementing some really strong Intervention Supports, [we] got back to a performance plan. Then next year, in 2023 we were at 74.4 which is one of the highest SPFs [School Performance Framework ratings] I’ve seen in my career as an administrator … And then in the spring of this year … our school scored 76.7 out of our school performance.”
Connie Brachtenbach, current Board member, praised Powell for all of her hard work at UPES this year.
District audit report
Next, Jessie Seibert, CPA and Audit Manager for Hoelting & Company, Inc., presented the audit report for MSSD 14 on behalf of the District’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Suzie Thompson.
“The bottom line would be that we issued an unmodified, or otherwise known as a clean opinion, of last year … an unmodified opinion means that the overall financial condition of the district is strong, and that financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects,” Seibert outlined.
She explained that “a couple of internal control linings that have been on the audit for two years [are] ‘segregation of duties’ and ‘reporting in Year End’ … We see this every year, and we see this with [other, smaller] districts. There’s just not enough people to separate those duties all the time.” Simply stated, Seibert sees other districts with smaller financial teams also struggle to segregate reconciliation, reporting and processing duties between individual employees, but it is a minor concern in the grand scheme of the district’s audit. The Board accepted the audit unanimously.
Updated policies
Finally, the Board voted on several updated policies. The third reading of the Updated Tobacco Policies includes guidelines for staff, visitors and students. Brachtenbach moved for the policy to pass, Natalie Johnson seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
The second reading of the policies JICA and JIH were voted on together. The JICA policy is an explanation of school dress code; JIH details proper conduct for student interviews, interrogations, searches and arrests. Brachtenbach moved for the second readings to pass, Maggie Santos seconded, and the policies were approved unanimously.
Policy IKFBV gives basic guidelines regarding school-led graduation exercises. Santos moved to approve the second reading. Jill Bishop seconded, and the motion was passed unanimously.
Policy GBJ updates proper policy on storing personnel files. On its second reading, Brachtenbach motioned to approve the policy. Johnson seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously.
Both policies IKF and JEB were presented as first readings. Policy IKF contains updated graduation requirements. Johnson motioned to approve, Brachtenbach seconded, and the motion was passed unanimously. Policy JEB contains updated Kindergarten enrollment requirements, for which Brachtenbach moved to pass. Johnson seconded, and the Board passed the motion unanimously.
With no other business to attend to, the regular BOE meeting adjourned at 6:34 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.
