Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen

Board Meeting Minutes

Page 1

Meeting Date: February 10, 2009

Meeting Location: RMAE Middle School Building - Spanish Classroom
Meeting called to order at: 08:48 PM by President John Morrill
Board members in attendance:
John Morrill (President) Bill Tomasi Ryan Lucas (non-voting)
Jeff Wilhite (phone) Nancy Fiore Jeff Robertson (phone)
Karen Hines (phone) Mike Novick (phone)
Seanna Mulligan

Others in attendance (from sign in sheet):

Jon Tesseo Joy Cox Patti Theil
Linda Neilander

A Quorum is reached with those present, on the phone, and through proxies received.
Meeting notification requirements have been met.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance.

Board and Public Comment:

• Joy Cox stated that this is the first Board Meeting that she has attended and is doing do
because of the hoopla over the recent Board decision to add 2 students to the 5th grade class.
She agrees that class size is an issue. She stated that her husband is a past Board member and
she respects the tough job that the Board members do for the school. She wants the Board to
consider what is in the best interests of all of the families that are, or going to be, impacted
by the decisions that the Board makes. She knows that bad information has been given to a
family, that mistakes happen, and urges the Board to find a way to be fair to the family
without jeopardizing the school.
• Jon Tesseo stated that he attended the last Board Workshop and was very pleased and
reassured with the discussions that were held. He would recommend to the Board that the
next time the Board skip the public comment section and go directly into the Workshop
because everyone who attended would have benefited from the discussions and he feels that a
lot of time was used during the comment section so most people couldn’t stay for the
workshop. .
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Board Meeting Minutes
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• Patti Theil stated that she spoke with Marie Lynch and Marie thought that the workshop was
fabulous.
• Seanna Mulligan wanted to state that the Board is looking at all options and wants to be fair
and equitable. She also stated that 2 Board members met with the attorney and the next steps
are “black and white” in her mind.
• John Morrill stated that tonight’s meeting will be short and that the next Board meeting will
contain an agenda item for Waitlist / Enrollment policy discussions.
Old Business:
• None
New Business:

• Class Size Exception

Motion: Nancy Fiore motioned that the Board rescind the offer to enroll that was made to the
Zementz family for the 2008 / 2009 school year; John Morrill seconded the motion.
Discussion:

Seanna Mulligan stated that per our conversation with our lawyer, the Zementz family must
go into the lottery as an out of county applicant even though they have an address here in
Evergreen.

Ryan Lucas wanted to clarify for the audience members that of the 2 families in question,
one student in question was from a family that physically resides in Jefferson County so there
is no legal issue with accepting this student into RMAE. The Zementz family students are
currently residing in Madison Wisconsin so this would have been against our charter to
accept them into RMAE at this time.

Mike Novick stated that the family can apply to enroll in RMAE, they just have to go
through the Out of District process which is only looked at after all In District students have
been serviced.

Bill Tomasi stated that the definition of “resides” is determined to be where the student
physically lives and attends school and not based on the fact that the family has an address in
Jefferson County. This is different than what was believed.

Ryan Lucas wanted to make sure it was stated that Roseann has followed Jefferson County
policy to the letter, but that after our discussions with the lawyer will be making 2 small
changes to her process. The first is that she will keep an Interest List after open enrollment
and the second is that she will develop an application form that asks questions about where
the students currently reside and where they go to school.
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Board Meeting Minutes
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Seanna Mulligan stated that sibling priority applies within each enrollment bucket (in-district
and out-of-district).

Linda Neilander asked the Board if this policy change is an issue for the enrollment going on
now and Ryan Lucas stated that it is not.

John Morrill stated that we have not had this issue before because we were not full. He
stated that now that RMAE classrooms are full we probably will never be able to take an out
of district child again because we have enough interest in our school from within the District.

Ryan Lucas explained that the reasoning behind this JeffCo policy is that it keeps the tax
base within the county.

John Morrill stated that Cherry Creek School District has had to battle this “address game”
for years and that parents would go rent an apartment within the district just to be considered
an In-District family. This is why the policy clearly states that resides is defined where the
student currently lives and attends school.

Seanna Mulligan stated that this policy also has to apply to teacher’s kids.

Ryan Lucas asked the Board for clarification about a teacher’s kid taking a “regular” spot up
in the class or does this automatically bump up a class to 24 kids? i.e. if we have a teacher’s
kid in a class, would we count that student as one of the 23 students or would we have 23
students plus 1 additional student?

Linda Neilander indicated that the intent of the by-law was always to be used as a way to
encourage a good teacher to join our school after enrollment. This policy was to create an
exception to an already full class and not automatically expand a classroom to 24 students
just because one of the existing students was a teacher’s kid.

Mike Novick stated that we can write a policy and take it to JeffCo for approval.

Linda Neilander stated that this is a slippery slope and leave the potential for a family
member to join RMAE on a part time position in order to get around the enrollment
limitations.

Ryan Lucas indicated that he feels if the staff member in question works more than half time
then he should be able to make an exception.

Mike Novick stated that we obviously need to review all of our policies and make sure they
fit the current needs of our school.

Vote: 8-0 (roll call vote), approved (no one abstained).

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Board Meeting Minutes
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Motion: Nancy Fiore motioned that the Board task Bill Tomasi and Ryan Lucas with writing
a formal letter to the Zementz family rescinding the offer to enroll for the 2008 / 2009 school
year; John Morrill seconded the motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 8-0 (roll call vote), approved (no one abstained).

Motion: John Morrill motioned that the Board move into Executive Session pursuant to
section C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(h); Mike Novick seconded.
Discussions: None
Vote: 8-0 (roll call vote), approved (no one abstained).

• Pursuant to section 24-6-402(4)(h), the Board is going into executive session at 9:40pm for
the discussion of individual students where the public disclosure would adversely affect the
student.

Motion: John Morrill motioned to come out of executive session at 9:48 PM; Bill Tomasi
seconded the motion.
Discussion: None.
Vote: 8-0 (roll call vote), approved (no one abstained).

• Discussions were held around the timing of the next Board meeting. Because the Board
members are expected to attend the Jefferson County Board of Education meeting in Golden
in order to be on hand just in case the BOE asks any questions about our Charter Renewal,
should we try and have our meeting on the same day? If so, should we start at 6:30, 7:00, or
8:00? Mike Novick stated that he feels it would be helpful if someone from our Board was to
stand up during the Public Comment portion of the agenda and indicate that the RMAE
Board of Directors is here and that we appreciate being on the Consent Agenda of tonight’s
meeting.
Action Items to be Completed Before Next Board Meeting -
• None.

Board and Public Comment:

• None.

Next board meeting scheduled for: February 19th, 2009 at: 6:30 pm

With no further business, this meeting was adjourned at: 10:00 PM

Motion: Ryan Lucas moved to adjourn the meeting; Nancy Fiore seconded the motion.
Discussions: None.
Vote: 8-0, approved (No one abstained)
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Board Meeting Minutes
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Respectfully submitted

William Tomasi
Secretary