The Jeffco Board of Education decided the following at the May 26 Special Meeting. The following board members were in attendance: Board President Ken Witt, First Vice President Julie Williams, Second Vice President Lesley Dahlkemper, Secretary John Newkirk and Treasurer Jill Fellman.

Student Voice report

The board heard a presentation from Jeffco Student Voice, a group of 80 Jeffco students providing diverse perspectives on their successful experiences within the district, school practices, engaging leadership through mentorship, encourage student advocacy, and by working together to create similar structures at schools across the district.

The group discussed the highlights and opportunities they experienced throughout the 2014-2015 school year. They highlighted how these experiences have allowed them to create new programming at their individual schools, speak up and engage in student advocacy and become leaders within schools and the community. They also highlighted the need to be in regular communication with the district and the board of education.

Budget hearing

The board of education heard a presentation from the district’s Chief Financial Officer, Kathleen Askleson about the 2015-2016 proposed budget.

Following her presentation, the board heard an hour of public testimony on the district’s financial priorities and concerns around teacher compensation, charter school funding and staying within the district’s financial means.

The board then discussed the budget and the testimony, focusing largely on educator compensation, and if and how they may put additional dollars toward the issue and finding dollars for facilities construction.

“Right now this budget doesn’t cut it in terms of the issue around compensation,” Dahlkemper said during the conversation around educator pay. “Jefferson County is a training ground, a training ground for teachers that, in turn, will go to other districts.”

The board will host another public hearing on the budget at their regular business meeting on June 11.

Technology and Data Privacy Advisory Committee update

The board also heard an update from the Technology and Data Privacy Advisory Committee.

The board was given an overview of the work done over the 2014-2015 school year and what the committee priorities are moving forward.

The committee highlighted its approval of the purchase of Chrome books for some schools in the district, of moving forward with the classroom dashboard project and a review of 18 different district privacy and data security policies.

Looking ahead, the committee members said they wish to improve their relationship with the community, define the process and expectations for vendor and technology review, create a data privacy website for transparency and work to influence state-wide decisions and provide input to the board of education, among other things.

Montessori Peaks

At the end of the meeting the board heard an update around the governance and harassment investigations at Montessori Peaks charter school. The district has conducted two investigations to to address issues brought to the district by a concerned family in February.

According to the findings from the harassment investigation, none of the teachers or staff had violated any policies, but three exercised a lack of judgment. The district recommended those individuals be reprimanded by means of counseling or retraining.

The governance investigation is ongoing and is looking into a variety of concerns around academic issues, conflict resolution, issues with the teaching and administration staff and behavior by the charter board.

The next Jeffco Board of Education meeting will be 5:30 p.m., Thursday, June 11, at the Jefferson Education Center, 1829 Denver West Drive, Golden.