Jones gives report on armed personnel survey

The recent October student count and armed school personnel update topped notable topics in the superintendent's report at the most recent Haxtun Board of Education meeting. The Wednesday, Oct. 16 meeting, featuring a short, two action item agenda, consisted mostly of staff reports in the hour-long gathering in the school library.

Superintendent Aron Jones said a recent parent survey was in clear favor of armed school personnel on Haxtun's campus, with an 83.9 percent approval. He noted there were a few questions in the comment section of the survey and should the Board move forward with the policy, he would pursue further communication to address those concerns with parents.

Thus far, the Board of Education has discussed the idea and reviewed sample policies from other school districts. Board members have also looked at insurance costs of implementing the policy as well as procedures and trainings required for staff members who would be armed.

At this time, the Board has not taken any sort of formal vote or action on the matter, but has looked at policy that could be voted on in the future to put armed school personnel in place at Haxtun Schools.

According to a recent article published in the Denver Gazette, more than 400 educators in 41 Colorado school districts carry guns today. The article says about 60 percent of those schools are rural districts and the other 40 percent are in suburban areas, mostly charter schools. Rural school districts have always been early adopters of armed school personnel policy, the article goes on to say, because of response time from law enforcement.

Also in his report, Jones gave the BOE updated enrollment numbers for preschool through 12th grade as reported for October student count. That number is used for State funding and budget planning. This year there are a total of 301 students at Haxtun Schools in preschool through 12 grade; last year there were 311.

The 2024-25 student count day is Oct. 1, however, the collection of data includes numbers the five days before and the five days after the official county day.

In her report to the Board, Elementary Principal Becky Heinz outlined improvement plans to meet school performance frameworks. She said the elementary school did not meet the expected academic growth targets in English and mathematics on the 2024 CMAS tests.

"While students made some progress, the overall growth did not reach the benchmarks set by the State for both subjects," her report said. "This indicates that while interventions and instructional strategies are in place, further adjustments are needed to address the gaps in learning."

Heinz said she is currently working to develop a plan to improve the elementary's rating, which includes parent notification and family engagement, math planning requirement and early learning needs assessment. She said Haxtun is already in the process of addressing several of those requirements with trategic plans and additionally hosted two family engagement nights last year and is planning math nights for this year.

"Our strategic plan for this school year addresses additional math needs," Heinz said in her report. For the other component, she said staff is working on implementation of The Science of Reading. The Science of Reading is a guide on how to teach reading. Heinz stressed it is important to remember that it takes two to four years for new initiatives to be fully implemented across a school.

"In addition, all of our reading teachers and myself have fulfilled the Read Act requirements," she added.

In action items the Board:

• Approved the third and final reading of policy JICA – Student Dress Code. The only significant change is allowing adornments during graduation, which still must meet dress code; and

• Approved the following list of winter sports coaches: Brandon Biesemeier, Junior High Boys Head Basketball; Rob Martinez, Junior High Boys Assistant Basketball; Debbie Myers, Junior High Girls Basketball Assistant; Morgen Budde, Junior High Girls Basketball Volunteer; Jayden Stieb, High School Boys Head Basketball; Lance Chapdelaine, High School Boys Basketball Assistant; Alicia Schram, High School Girls Head Basketball; Shawn Cody, High School Girls Basketball Assistant; Noah Toops, High School Girls Basketball Volunteer; Kyle Wilson, High School Girls Basketball Volunteer.