Transcript

0:00:01And we are recording. Good morning. Today is January 20, 2026. This is a business meeting of the Board of County. Commissioners of Boulder county. We have Commissioner Stolzman and Levy present in the hearing room and commissioner Lohimin, joining us virtually online. We will start our morning with the commissioner's consent agenda. And may I have a motion? Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. So that is approved. We have one item on our discussion agenda four a from the county attorney's office, and we have David Hughes with us. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. David Hughes, deputy County attorney. We are requesting that you sign a legal representation agreement for Brian Floyd, who is an appraiser in the assessor's office. Mr. Floyd was doing a real property appraisal in the course and scope of his appointment. So we believe that representation of him would. Be appropriate under these circumstances.

0:01:09Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, we have no questions. Thanks for coming in front of us. May I have a motion on four a move approval of legal representation agreement for Brian Floyd in the matter of Costillo v. Floyd. Second. Okay, a motion in a second is on the table. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That is approved. Commissioner's deputy. Good morning, commissioners. I'm here on item five, which is simply a note for the record. Natalie Springt, commissioner's deputy. For the record, I'm here. To confirm that the executive session topics that were noticed at the January 13, 2026 regular business meeting of the board. Were discussed as scheduled, so I'm happy to take us to item number six. Which was listed as authorization for executive session. But, commissioners, we don't have any executive session.

0:02:00Topics for you this week, so I won't be requesting authorization. Thank you. Okay. So we have very quickly come to our monthly. Report from our director of head start, and you may not have been quite ready to come up. And get started. This quickly, so we'll give you a minute to do that. Just let me know when you're ready, Akani. Just waiting for the. There we go. Screens up. Good morning, commissioner. Connie Ogren, division manager for Boulder county head start. And. I will start with some happy photos. The school year has resumed since winter break. Staff came back to professional development. There's an image of our staff. Participating in. An understanding child development through artistic process. So some photos there. For our enjoyment and hopefully yours also, children return to school on January 6, and there we have one of photos from children in our violeta classroom at the Mapleton YMCA. Scroll down. Meal service.

0:03:27In December. Total meals delivered by the Boulder Valley School District Food service team 4329 total meals served 2984. The invoice for meals was 12,445. With CACFP reimbursement based on attendance at 8816 97. Total cost in December to the program 36 28 91, with an average since the beginning of the school year of 3542. 72. And going down to attendance. There were 15 days of school in December. Very low attendance rates. In the month of December, you'll see Dagney and Lafayette. 57% Woodlands at 59, and then Mapleton always seems to be running strong on a month to month basis, but at 75%. And illness. And then we had transportation issues, actually. This December, mostly due to sibling births and then just some difficulty with arranging additional transportation for the sibling children to come to school. And then weather. The power outages obviously closed school for us.

0:04:56For 2.25 days. So we were not in school those days. Let's just stop for a minute and see if we have questions from the commissioners. Any questions on this. Yeah. Commissioner Louie. Thank you. Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for your work and for the team's efforts. I don't have questions, per se as much as just. I just want to appreciate where you're at in regards to the timing. Of federal concerns, the ability for you all. Or the pictures that you show are actually really important. To show that piece of the learning and the celebration and just the solidarity and work within communities. I just want to capture that before you keep going. And appreciate that and hope that you can send our best wishes to your teachers and families. And the community group that works with the parent group as we start 2026, it just feels really important right now. Thank you, commissioner. Yeah, those are really important thoughts and good wishes to send. Your way.

0:06:00You've explained that. There was a whole cluster. Of issues. That came together in December. I guess I always wonder about two things. One really is the impact on the families. Parents count on their kids being able to be in school so they can go to work, go to school, whatever it is that they need to do. And so I do wonder. What you hear about that. Impact. It is definitely difficult for families every time we have an unexpected day off of school. We are building those days back. Into the end of the school year. So our current calendar says, I think May 22, May 21. Was our end of school. Date, but we're actually building back those days that they lost in December and then also due to the flood. We had to shut one site down in October, September, October, and we're. Adding those days back for families at the end of the school year, okay? So the other aspect, I guess, that I always wonder about is the financial impact to the program.

0:07:14When you have to be closed. So how will you. How will we pay for those additional days at the end of the year? Well. There's no change to any lease agreements. Operational costs are power, Internet, those kinds of things. That we pay anyway. And then the salaries. The only additional costs would be our hourly staff. That would have to add on. But the staff actually ended up with holiday emergency closure. County coded days off as well as they swapped out vacation time in the summer for the days that we had to close. For some of those days, and so it's just a swap of the days. Okay, so. The extra days for those that are on salary, it doesn't matter. Things like contracting with PVSD for the. Meals. Yes, there will be some additional costs, and it looks to be about a week's worth. Of costs to the program. Okay. All right, you can keep going. Okay. So I'll scroll down. To enrollment. We are still at 109. We do have another student who is in the process family in the process of completing their enrollment. Paperwork. And so hopefully they will be starting within the next week. We're waiting for. Physical, medical documentation, those kinds of things. To start that child. The budget. I'm going to go down to the graph. But. The deficit

0:08:58is still holding it about 139,000. Which I expect that to go down a little bit. We've had some staffing changes. Currently. We're short one center director. And so I'm filling in as the center director as well as the division manager and we're not currently opening that position until we have some decisions about the next grant. Which I'll come down to in the next section. Just hold on. Commissioner Lo Treen has a question. Sure. Thank you. Chair. Just a quick question. Akana in regards to the deficit piece. Or the projected deficit. And that item. Thank you. Just in regards to salaries, wages, benefits, parole. In the past, we've done like. The board of county commissioners has done additional amount to make sure that our head start teachers are paid the same or with other entities, et cetera. I wanted to ask if that's already taken into account here. I know we addressed it. I'm trying to think. I was going to say last year, I don't know. If I was 25 or if it was actually 24. My head is in 25, so I just. Wanted to check in on that and see if that's something that is already accounted for. Or if it's something that head start may need to come to the board of county. Commissions at. A separate time to address for 26.

0:10:26If I can ask a clarifying question, is the question whether the deficit. Ask for additional support. Is accounted for or. Any salary amount changes specifically for staff. Yeah. Thank you. So I think it might be both, like. What is the plan for that deficit? Is that going to be a separate ask to the board? Of county commissioners or. In other places, and that might be where you're headed with these grants. Further on the slide, but then. The other specific portion is just in regards to. Head start, teacher or staff salaries, and if there is a portion of that, or there will be. A separate ask just in regards to ensuring that the board of county commissioners is able to pay head start teachers. The same, which is that other staff is being paid. Yeah. There won't be a separate ask for salaries. Or when we will ask for support on the deficit, I believe. Those conversations will be happening in the next few months. With the commissioners as we kind of watch those numbers settle a little bit with the changing. Ins and outs of staff. Okay. Thank you. I do also just want to note that the $139,000 deficit does match the loss. Of CCAP funding. That we had from last year to this year, and there was a reduction from last year to

0:12:09this year, so we'll have to look at our budget going forward in an account for that freeze and reduction as we move forward into knock on with the next five year grant cycle. Thank you. Okay. The coaching region eight training and technical assistance. Coaching and program supports have resumed since the shutdown with the new administration and new regional leadership. If you recall that. There was some changing of staff at the regional level, some layoffs, and also. Some retirements that happened. Their leadership team has changed, and we have been notified that the expectations of head start programs have changed. A head Start program should expect to be held to head Start program performance standard fidelity and with precision. So the new expectation is that there are practices always in place, whether one person or child or.

0:13:12100 interacts with the program and that there are systems of accountability in place to ensure that this is true. And to ensure that staff can speak precisely about them. So that. Was big news for us. In our recent work with the regional team working towards fidelity to precision. Yeah, I'll stop. Thank you. So we saw on January 6 that there was an injunction. Against some of the Headstart agency. Changes and the actions are not to be implemented or enforced by HHS officers, agents, servants, employees contractors, representatives and so on because of the injunction. I just wonder if this interacts portion is related to the other injunction or not? It's a little bit muddy waters right now to understand. This is just sort of our regional team giving us good guidance. In what to expect moving forward, but I don't know how it interplays with the injunctions and then the use of specific language or words.

0:14:23That. We were told couldn't be in the grant, and now we don't know. Could you please send the communication from the region eight team that they're asking us to? Do this just so we can look into that with the attorneys around whether this other injunction applies. To this. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Next is the head start competition. Grant. And as of the writing of this report last week, And this morning, when I checked again, the competition grant still has not opened. So the site posting I am monitoring on a daily basis and we'll submit that application. As soon as it opens and becomes available. The application that we did submit was the 2026 Bual grant, and that was an application request of $35,000 of funding to support early childhood mental health, supports to staff and families that was submitted. On January 13 that had a January 15 deadline. And that comes to the end of my report. Great. Thank you. It looks like we have another. Question. Thanks, Commissioner Levy. So the other question I have is just around the competition, grant has the regional office indicated their estimate of when that will come open.

0:15:38I know we were expecting it last. Year. And so I have asked, and they have no idea. They went to their supervisors and asked for me, and there's no indication of when it will open. Just as a curiosity if it didn't open. By may or something like that. Would we continue the program? On a continuation basis, or, like, at what point should we escalate it to HHS? And make an effort to get it open. Yeah, I've been thinking about that as well. Historically, when a comp grant opens, there's a 90 day period. But between the day it opens and then when the application is due, so I've been sort of calculating based on that 90 days. And when the funding would come in, which we would need that funding to come in by July. 1 so for. Backing. June. May. April. I would think April 1 would. Be. The very latest that would be able to open unless they're changing the amount of time that a program is given or an entity is given to submit that application. So that's my concern also is we are going to be given less time to submit. When it opens. We'll just keep a close eye on it and be prepared. To. Think about it. I don't know what we could do right now. Well, I think contact

0:17:16HHS. Okay, well, thank you. Connie, for being with us and for stepping in and taking on the additional duty of the center. Or site director. And if you ever need to do this remotely because of other things as you know, you're welcome to join us. That may come up. Virtually. So that is the end of our agenda for today. We do not have any other.