School Board Mtg : Possible Board Member Conflict of Interest, New Bobcats Logo, Updates to SCBOCES
Operating Agreement Proving Difficult
CCSD-1 Board of Education
Regular Meeting
—February 20, 2023
by Becky Olson
The regular Board of Education meeting finally kicked off on February 20, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. in the school’s multipurpose room after being rescheduled a record three times within a week. A quorum of members was present and proceedings commenced after the call to order and Pledge of Allegiance, with the fifth member joining about 20 minutes into the discussions. Before moving into public comments, the board took a moment to recognize teacher Naomi Smith for her contributions. Thank you, Ms. Smith!
Up first in public comments was citizen and mother, Nikita Phillips, expressing concern over a potential conflict of interest created by board member Jordan Benson recently accepting the nomination to become the chairman of the local GOP chapter. The concern expressed by Ms. Phillips pertains to the fact that the Board of Education is supposed to be a wholly nonpartisan entity, and a member accepting a leadership role with a local political party is causing many to raise an eyebrow about whether a conflict of interest has arisen. Article 1.2 – Eligibility of the BOE’s bylaws states: “No candidate representing a political party may run…”. Citizen and former BOE member, Doreen Newcomb, was also present and echoed Ms. Phillips’ concerns. Ms. Newcomb reminded the current BOE members that she had to resign from participating in the local Democrat Party chapter in order to seek a position on the board in the past, and wondered why this was different.
BOE President, Jake Shy, was quick to speak up seemingly on behalf of both Mr. Benson personally and the board as a whole, and stated outright, “there is no issue.., He went on to opine that 5% of the people do 95% of the work here and elected officials here cannot be expected to remain free of such conflicts of interest in every instance because there simply aren’t enough people to fill these roles.” It is worth noting that Mr. Benson narrowly won his spot on the BOE in an incredibly tight race against another candidate in 2021. When pressed by Ms. Phillips and Ms. Newcomb on the language in the bylaws, Mr. Shy and member Peggi Collins both reiterated that article applies to a candidate for a board position, not a sitting member (though Superintendent Jackie Crabtree was quick to mention they are in discussions with their attorney regarding this matter). No clarification on how this is a conflict for someone pursuing a board position, but is not a conflict for a sitting member, was offered, and Mr. Benson declined to speak.
Up next was teacher, Ms. Smith, with the final version of the new Bobcats logo. BOE members recognized her for her work on this effort and enthusiastically and unanimously approved it. Members all remarked they loved the new logo and wanted to know when they would be available as stickers! Next, a letter of recognition from the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) for Sam Frostman was read and the consent agenda for a Special Meeting that took place on January 23, 2023 was unanimously approved.
Moving into reports and discussion: Principal Sydney Benesch, gave a quick Agriculture Advisory Committee update as well as high-lights from her Principal report; Mr. Benson noted some meetings for the new Pre-Kindergarten programs were underway. He also read an athletic program update from Trinity Huffman, who was not in attendance; and Ms. Crabtree provided a detailed provided a detailed update on a wide array of school projects, activities, repairs, and a federal grant audit which is currently underway. BOE members noted a new fuel agreement with the county is being pursued which would afford some costs savings and allow the busses and other vehicles to refuel at the county shop instead of the town’s retail gas stations. Before moving into approvals, the District Financial Report and check vouchers were unanimously approved.
The first item in approvals was a motion to adopt a change to the amended fiscal year budget stipulating the details of a retroactive pay raise for staff, which was unanimously approved. New hires and resignations, updates to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Riggs Ranch, revised BOE goals, minor work to finalize parts of the Safe Routes to School project last summer, and a retroactive approval for a snow day on February 15, 2023, were all unanimously approved. Votes for approvals on an asbestos abatement contract, new window purchases for the admin and woodshop building, and updates to the BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) contract all
necessitated additional action and were tabled until March’s meeting.
Member Tracy Broll, the board’s representative to the South Central Board of Cooperative Education Services (SCBOCES) lamented the serious challenges she has been encountering when attempting to work with SCBOCES to get information needed in order to pursue desired modifications to that contract pertaining to billing and the nature of services offered. She described how the organization is both unresponsive and continues to deny her requests for a spot on their monthly meeting’s agenda. Ms. Broll made a request for the BOE to draft a formal resolution outlining their questions and desired modifications in the hopes it would carry more weight and garner the SCBOCES board’s attention. The school is locked into that contract and liable for payments through July of this year. (At the last CCSD meeting, it was noted that our school district is paying the 4th highest amount out of twelve rural counties for their part of the expenses. Twelve school districts are in the the South Central division of this BOCES.) A BOE Special Meeting to draft the requested resolution and a few other items has been scheduled for March 2, 2023 at 4 p.m. Ms. Broll also mentioned the building SCBOCES had been operating out of in Pueblo West has recently been sold (Mid 2022), and at this time, the whereabouts of all of the files and records stored there appears to be unknown.
The Executive Session to conduct quarterly performance reviews was rescheduled to next month’s meeting, and after a minor clarification question from a member of the public, the meeting was adjourned.