BOE Meeting Summary

Partnership with Northwest Colorado Health: We have secured our contract and partnership with Northwest Colorado Health (NWCH). Through this partnership, each of our six schools will benefit from having Lillian Vandeveer on-site each week to provide behavioral and mental health services to students and families.

This partnership allows us to continue leveraging the expertise and resources of our community partners to strengthen and align our district’s tiered system of support, ensuring students and families have access to the right level of care when they need it. This contract allows us to cost-share and provide needed services using creative braided funding, which supports our sustainability efforts.

Community Partners Fair/Alpine Bank BBQ: We have 14 community partners signed up to participate in the Alpine Bank Community BBQ, ranging from local scholarship opportunities to environmental education organizations. We are excited to have the community, teachers, first responders, and families join us to kick off the new year. The event is this Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the high school.

TalkingPoints Rollout: We are receiving positive feedback from district staff and parents regarding the rollout of TalkingPoints, a platform the district introduced this year to enhance two-way communication and engagement between schools and families. We are still working out some technical kinks, but overall the rollout has been successful. Huge shoutout to Julian Piedra for his work in getting this platform up and running!

Post-Secondary Workforce Training: The Colorado Department of Education is hosting a regional training for Post-Secondary and Workforce Readiness. We have a multidisciplinary team including me, Shelby DeWolfe, Kirsten Brendtro, Jay Hamric, Cheryl Fullerton, and a student from Steamboat Springs High School. We will look into

• Reviewing ICAP implementation plans for our district;

• Identifying educational milestones aimed at preparing high school students for future careers and higher education, including previewing our region's latest industry-recognized credential and work-based learning data; and

• Developing a plan to broaden “Big Three” access for students.
  
  

New Director of Finance and Operations: Our new Director of Finance and Operations, Mr. Derek Fettig, has proven to be an invaluable addition during his first week. He is currently working with the finance department to close out Q4, develop the Q4 2026 report, and is preparing for the upcoming audit through November. Additionally, our District has been reclassified as a Rural District, with 4 of 7 Schools now classified as Rural, resulting in additional pupil funding through FY 2032.

From Exceptional Student Services

• We recently had 29 staff re-certified by the Crisis Prevention Institute.

• A course titled Beyond Compliance: Best Practices for Meaningful Student Outcomes: Building Legally Compliant IEPs that Drive Instruction, Collaboration, and Measurable Student Growth was approved by NWBOCES as of this morning, August 24th. Our educators will have the opportunity to participate in a 6-session professional learning series to help special education teachers develop meaningful, legally compliant IEPs that support student growth and improve outcomes.

Professional Development: We had a district training on 8/13/26, followed by a staff feedback survey. According to the feedback, 98% of respondents to the survey agreed or strongly agreed that the PD met the learning intention.

We are using two questions from the spring Panorama staff morale survey in each of our PD staff surveys.

1. How supportive was the professional development you received on 8/13/26 to your professional growth?

2. How much did any or all of the professional development you received on 8/13/26 support your learning about your profession?

The feedback we received from these questions was more positive than the results of the Spring Staff Morale Survey conducted through Panorama.

Information Technology: Technology Device costs continue to rise, and there is an active conversation among districts and tech leaders across the state about how to tackle this issue. We are in active conversations about which technologies are essential in each of our classrooms.

Maggie Bruski, School Improvement & GE Coordinator, and Dr. Tim Ridder, Director of Teaching & Learning, recently presented our 2025–2026 state assessment performance and growth results to the Board of Education. Here is a quick look at the key takeaways across our district:

Academic Achievement Highlights

• CMAS ELA (Grades 3–8): 65.2% of SSSD students met or exceeded expectations, significantly outpacing the state average of 44.7%.

• CMAS Math (Grades 3–8): 55.9% met or exceeded expectations, performing well above Colorado’s 37.3% average.

• CMAS Science: Strong performance across grade bands—5th grade at 60.4%, 8th grade at 68.0%, and 11th grade at 45.9% (compared to state averages of 36.1%, 35.4%, and 24.8%).

• PSAT & SAT Benchmarks: High schoolers continue to outpace state averages across the board in Reading & Writing, led by PSAT 9 at 86% (vs. 66% state), PSAT 10 at 81% (vs. 65% state), and SAT at 79% (vs. 60% state).

• PSAT 9 Math Strength: PSAT 9 Math reached 63% meeting/exceeding benchmarks, beating the state average of 41% by 22 percentage points.

• Global & National Standing: Benchmark performance across our high school PSAT and SAT assessments significantly exceeds state, national, and global comparison groups.

Growth Wins & Subgroup Success

• District Growth (Grades 4–8): Posted Median Growth Percentiles (MGP) of 59 in ELA and 59.5 in Math, well above the state norm of 50.

• 11th-Grade Science Momentum: CMAS Science performance for 11th graders jumped +5.1% year-over-year to 45.9%, nearly doubling the state average of 24.8%.

• Multilingual Learner Growth: Multilingual Learners district-wide achieved MGPs exceeding state growth averages in both ELA and Math.

• Special Education Progress: Students on IEPs district-wide achieved MGPs exceeding state growth averages in ELA and Math, with high school IEP students outpacing state growth benchmarks on PSAT/SAT Reading and Writing and PSAT 9 Math.

Areas for Strategic Focus

• CMAS Growth Trajectories: Address slight year-over-year growth dips across elementary and middle school grades, keeping in mind this reflects normal variation within upper typical growth ranges.

• High School Growth Velocity: Target growth percentiles in both ELA and Math across PSAT/SAT demographic groups where percentiles dipped below state averages (while remaining in the typical growth range).

• Districtwide Goal: Maintain momentum toward our goal of 78% of students meeting/exceeding standards and performing above the 50th growth percentile by June 2026 (scaling to 80% by 2027).

• Action Plan & Supports: Drive these targets through needs-based PLCs, Science of Reading & STRIVE writing coaching, new 4–8 ELA curriculum rollouts, and expanded MTSS in Panorama.

As a reminder, all BOE meetings are livestreamed and available to watch on our website. This does not include workshops or executive sessions.