- Board discusses ACLU demand letter
- Quarterly dashboard overview
- Enrollment update
- Carline concerns
- Finances
- Highlights
By Jackie Burhans
The Monument Academy (MA) board called a rare Saturday special meeting on Aug. 19 to discuss a demand letter from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on their resolution, proclamation, and policies regarding transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary students.
At its regular meeting on Aug. 10, MA’s board heard about a new quarterly dashboard, enrollment updates, carline information, and finances.
Board discusses ACLU demand letter
The MA board met at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, to go into executive session for legal advice on specific legal matters regarding a demand letter received by legal counsel, to discuss security measures, and to discuss personnel matters with prior notice. All board members were present, along with the board’s lawyer, Brad Miller of Miller Farmer Carson Law LLC.
The board returned after an hour to unanimously approve the creation of a Legal Affairs subcommittee to address issues regarding their resolution. Board President Ryan Graham and Director Karen Hoida will serve on the subcommittee. Graham explained that MA had received a demand letter from the ACLU of Colorado addressing its recent resolution regarding transgender students. There was no imminent threat of litigation, he said.
The letter, which is included in MA’s board meeting highlight document, is titled “Unlawful actions of Monument Academy and its school board” and says that MA’s actions undermine the safety and well-being of transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary students and flout multiple state and federal laws. ACLU notes that the refusal to provide students access to restrooms consistent with their gender is prohibited by the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) per CRS 24-34-601 and that MA’s dress code impermissibly treats students differently based on gender, which violates CADA as well as students’ constitutional rights to freedom of expression.
Finally, the ACLU characterizes MA’s recent resolution as signaling its open hostility to transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary students, as well as to Colorado and federal nondiscrimination laws. The ACLU requested a substantive response from MA by Aug. 31 and reserves all rights to file necessary legal action to ensure compliance with Colorado and federal law. You can see the demand letter at https://bit.ly/MA-ACLU-Demand.
Quarterly dashboard overview
Interim Chief Operating Officer Kim McClelland introduced consultant Jennifer Strawbridge of Analytical Discoveries, who is helping the school create a dashboard to present a deep dive into academic growth to the community.
Strawbridge presented baseline results from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. She said she loves working with leadership teams and helping people understand how they can best use this information to drive instruction and improve academic achievement. She color-coded the dashboard to show how it is related to MA’s mission statement.
Strawbridge showed the results from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), which breaks achievement data into four categories: above, at, below, and well below for grade level. The dashboard compares one year to the following year, and the goal is to see the “at” and “above” bars increase. The tests done at the beginning of the year can show a “summer slide,” indicating testing challenges more than knowledge loss, she said. Testing is also done mid-year and at the end of the year to capture growth for kindergarten through third grade and the beginning and end of the year only from fourth to eighth grade.
Next, Strawbridge showed the NWEA (formerly Northwest Evaluation Association) MAP data, which goes beyond reading and divides results into quintiles. NWEA was acquired in May 2023 by Houghton Mifflin. Her chart had a dashed line for the grade-level achievement score in each subject area. Again, she noted that this dashboard was a baseline they could use to track improvement. NWEA looks at the median growth percentile (MGP), where MA students are compared against other students nationally who have the same starting score and grade level. MGP helps to adjust for any skewing that might take place with students who show very low or very high growth. Strawbridge said that MGP is one of the most important pieces of data when looking at growth since it tells you if a school is growing kids academically.
Middle and high school students take the PSAT and SAT, respectively, and that data is currently embargoed, so will be presented in the Q1 dashboard.
In addition to academics, the dashboards will track attendance and discipline, both of which are correlated with academic achievement and growth. Strawbridge reviewed specific data, pointing out where scores were good and where they needed work. McClelland said parents will be able to see this information under the strategic plan in the school board section of the website at https://bit.ly/ma-boe.
Strawbridge said that the participation level in DIBELS and NWEA MAP is near 100%, unlike the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) tests. She noted that CMAS and NWEA are correlated but that the state won’t use NWEA data unless you qualify for the “request to reconsider” process that the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) uses for schools that disagree with the initial CDE rating of its school performance framework. MA is not eligible for the “request to reconsider” process, which requires that 90% of its students take the state assessment without opting out.
Enrollment update
McClelland updated the board on MA’s current enrollment, saying she wished she had better historical data to track the ebbs and flows to understand what happened between the last day of school and now. She noted that students may move away or make other decisions for many reasons and that MA also sees students come in after school has started up to the Oct. 1 student count deadline.
Elementary enrollment is at 518, which is down from the budget. Middle school is at 399, and high school is at 130 for a total of 1,047, with 529 at the secondary school. Although the budgeted number is lower, the total number has increased from the previous year.
She also noted that there has been discussion about increasing class sizes to 28 students, noting that they are not raising the class size for every class. To be fiscally responsible, she said, schools will oversubscribe some classes at the beginning of the year because there may be some attrition. MA cannot hire a new teacher if there are two kids over the policy ratio of teachers to students.
McClelland said she wanted to be clear about the ratio and the need to boost enrollment, noting that MA would be putting out yard signs to get the word out. The number one reason people are not enrolling in MA is that they are choosing to homeschool, she said, followed by choosing to enroll in district-run schools in D38 or D20, and concerns about construction and carlines.
Carline concerns
McClelland said getting the word out on how carpooling and the carline would work was important. Information, including a video for phase 1 access to the West Campus, is on the website. This information was shared at town halls, meet-and-greet meetings, and using the new ParentSquare platform. Information about the significant changes to the carline and student parking was part of the East Campus Handbook updates reported on by high school Principal David Kennington.
For more information, email carline@monumentacademy.net or see the MA website under the parents section at https://bit.ly/MA-Carline. Information on the Highway 105 construction project can be found at http://EPC-Hwy105AConstruction.com/.
Finances
Financial consultant Glenn Gustafson reported that the pre-audit June 30 financial statements were available, but he was waiting for D38 to finish its audit and reconcile with MA. Preliminary results show that revenues exceed expenses by $88,000, but he expects additional revenue from special education (SPED) funds in September.
Gustafson said the new audit firm, Hoelting & Co., has significant experience in charter school accounting. The firm was in MA for two days with non-stop requests for information. He complimented Business Manager Diane Smith for her recordkeeping and documentation of expenditures and deposits.
The July books are closed, and the financial statements are in the hands of the Finance Committee, which will schedule a meeting to review. All budgets are in the black, unlike last year, Gustafson said. He noted that bringing payroll back in-house would save about $4,000 per month after initial conversion costs. The next conversion this fall will be the purchasing module so administrators and teachers can use its electronic workflow to speed up approvals.
Finally, Gustafson said he did some work over the summer at another charter school that qualified for the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) refund. The ERTC is available for businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not all charter schools qualify, so he engaged a consultant to do a feasibility study for free to see if MA qualified. If MA does qualify, the consultant would receive a 5% fee. To apply for the ERTC takes a lot of work, Gustafson noted, requiring records back to 2020, but could result in a significant refund.
Highlights
Board meeting highlights include:
- Board member Craig Carlie spotlighted the work of Kendra Kuhlmann, who works in Marketing, for streamlining the communication and marketing effort. Kuhlmann presented at the meeting on the rollout of the new parent communication platform ParentSquare, detailing the progress and backup plans and noting the challenges.
- McClelland introduced the discussion of new and updated supplementary materials and video resource policies IIAC-MA, IIAC-E1-MA, IIAC-E2-MA, IJ-MA, and IJ-E1-MA. She noted that MA would adopt the standard nomenclature used by D38 for its policies but with MA at the end to differentiate those modified by MA. McClelland said she wanted to have legal review the changes before final adoption. Approved MA board policies can be found at https://bit.ly/ma-bd-policies.
- Kennington and middle school Principal Collin Vinchattle discussed updates to the East Campus Handbook, noting changes around attendance, late submission, phone usage, carline, and student parking. The board asked for updates to board candidate qualifications and the volunteer management system but proposed forgoing curriculum policy changes since those were not yet approved. The board unanimously approved the handbook with these changes.
- McClelland said the portables would not be available on day one as they need additional work on ramps, fencing, and electrical work, followed by a final walkthrough and certificate of occupancy. Kennington said there were alternative plans in place and that it was a matter of weeks, not months, before the portables would be ready.
- The board unanimously approved a motion to move the board meetings from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. This change was made to avoid conflict with sports practices and to allow more time for the board to socialize.
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The MA School Board meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. The next regular board meeting will be on Thursday, Sept. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the East Campus. See more information at https://bit.ly/ma-boe.
Jackie Burhans can be reached at jackieburhans@ocn.me.
Other Monument Academy articles
- Monument Academy School Board, Nov. 18 and 21 – Board responds to organization audit (12/5/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Oct. 17 and 24 – Board hears financial audit, improvement plan, internal review (11/2/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Sept. 12 – Board discusses parental review of library materials, adopts management system (10/5/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Aug. 8, 16, and 29 – Board sets non-legal name change policy (9/7/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, July 11 – Board resolution related to Title IX (8/3/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, June 13 – Board members sworn in, budget re-adopted (7/6/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, March 10, 14, and 21 – Board selects executive director candidates (4/6/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Feb. 8 and 22 – Board passes parental rights policy 6-1; member resigns (3/2/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Jan. 5 and 11 – Board discusses the financial risk of parental rights policy (2/3/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Dec. 14 – Board hears about midyear budget, enrollment/retention, fundraising plans (1/6/2024)
- Monument Academy School Board, Nov. 9 – Board hears first read of gender transition policy, plans to address East Campus budget issues (12/2/2023)