The Garfield Re-2 school board covered several items at its Sept. 10 meeting, including accreditation status, a unified improvement plan and two policies on their third reading.

Superintendent Kirk Banghart opened the meeting by announcing that Garfield Re-2 has received an “Accredited” rating this year by the Colorado Department of Education.

“This has only happened twice before, and the last time Re-2 was accredited was in 2019,” Banghart said. “Which I will say has nothing to do with myself, of course. I just got to be the one to deliver those really nice ratings. It’s all about the work of everyone else who’s in the district, and their incredible hard work.”

Unified Improvement Plan

The board next discussed the district’s Unified Improvement Plan, which ties into Colorado’s Achievement Plan for Kids, or CAP4K. The law requires regular review of academic standards from kindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as state assessments and workforce readiness.

Banghart said the district will focus not just on compliance, but on continuous improvement.

“Instead of compliance and just walking into our offices and saying, ‘let’s build a plan for compliance,’ it’s really about how do we build a plan for continuous improvement, how do we build a cycle of improvement,” he said. “Where we’re looking and analyzing our data, making sure we’re looking at what our data says, then what are we going to do about that data, how do we implement what we’re going to do about it and then come back and analyze the new data.”

The district is analyzing Colorado Measures of Academic Success scores, SAT scores and iReady data to identify its greatest areas of weakness.

“Sometimes a lot of people will come up with big long lists that have to be done,” Banghart said. “What I’ve found in my work is that you can create big long lists, but the problem with big long lists is that they don’t get done. So we’re focusing our team on three to five things that can get done.”

Those areas are math, reading, English language learning and special education.

“We have to get more laser focused to make these next steps,” Banghart said. “It’s absolutely no insult to the hard work everyone else did, but to make the next steps, we’ve got to be more methodical in what we’re doing.”

Policy readings

The board also held third readings on two policies. Both passed unanimously.

The first, regarding the school year, calendar and instruction time, defines educational time as hours spent working toward educational objectives under a licensed teacher’s supervision. It includes classroom time, study halls, library research, school-related field trips, independent study and assemblies. It does not include lunch, recess, waiting periods before or after school, or teacher preparation time.

The policy was revised to include online schooling through a full time online program for students. While learning may take place outside regular attendance hours or asynchronously, enrolled students must complete the same number of hours as their in-person peers.

The second policy updated how board policies are developed. Under the change, the first meeting where a policy is presented will serve as the first reading and discussion. The second meeting will include a second reading, additional discussion and a vote. Previously, policies required three meetings.

Other changes included removing requirements for the superintendent to periodically recall all policy manuals for updates and eliminating language stating that all policy manuals must remain on district property. The board’s policy manual remains a public record and will still be available for inspection at the district’s administrative offices.