September Board Meeting Recap
Reminder: Independent parent group — not affiliated with or endorsed by FASD.
The Board completed its leadership transition and heard encouraging enrollment and financial updates. Most of the questions carried forward from August are still waiting for answers.
TL;DR
Wendell took over as Board Chair. Kiana completed the handoff after the financial update, and Yana resigned from the Board. The Board's Zoom link will also change.
Enrollment remained at 252 students, 12 above the adopted FY27 budget assumption of 240 funded pupils. That budget already projected a $144,093 surplus. The later monthly report's 250 funded-pupil figure is a current-year update, not the assumption used to adopt the budget. The Board Treasurer said the school is tracking toward a surplus and reported that the annual audit remains in draft form.
The academic presentation covered ELA and science, but not math. The already-published CMAS data show that FASD's all-grades math proficiency rate fell from 68.4% to 54.3%, while schoolwide math growth fell from a median growth percentile of 69.5 to 47.
The Board unanimously approved revised SAC bylaws. There was no discussion of the parent-representative election required by the previously published bylaws, so families will need to see the new version before knowing whether that obligation changed. A Board member described the SAC survey results as generally positive, but no detailed results were presented.
A Board member shared information about a proposed homeless shelter near 40th and Monroe. The proposal discussed would use two buildings and serve up to 400 people. Families who want the City's meeting or contact information can email Board@fasdenver.org
Parent Recap (What Happened)
The leadership transition is complete
The meeting began under Interim Chair Kiana and transitioned to Wendell after the financial update. Kiana reported that Board files had been transferred. Yana, who stepped down as Secretary in August, resigned from the Board; Yena had already been elected Secretary. Other Board members and the School Director thanked Kiana and Yana for their work.
The August minutes were approved. The Board's Zoom link will change as Wendell takes responsibility for the account, and School Leadership said students will continue to be invited to future meetings.
Enrollment and the financial outlook were positive
Enrollment was 252 students—12 above the adopted FY27 budget assumption of 240 funded pupils. The later monthly report's 250 funded-pupil figure is a current-year update, not the original budget assumption.
The adopted budget already projected $144,093 in net operating income. The Treasurer said the school remains on track for a surplus and that the audit is still in draft form, although the report labels FY26 “Audited Actuals.” The report also labels MLO 2020 revenue as “Facility” without explaining the current uses or resolving the prior question about MLO dollars budgeted to consultant-services object code 0334.
The School Director report was heavy on operations
The School Director's report covered enrollment, student diagnostics, CMAS results, staff learning, safety, playground procedures, teacher collaboration, and other school operations.
The CMAS portion compared the last two years of science and English language arts results. Math was not included. The presented results included both positive and negative signals, including improved overall ELA and fifth-grade science results alongside a sharp decline in third-grade ELA. Leadership also discussed teacher cohorts, professional-development workshops, and the additional collaboration time created by the new bell schedule. A Board member asked how often training pulls staff out of classrooms and requires substitutes; the answer was that it varies by program. No frequency, substitute-cost total, or classroom-impact measure was provided.
A Board member described the current enrollment picture as encouraging in a city with declining enrollment. During the discussion, the School Director attributed the third-grade attrition to the prior school leader.
A Board member also noted that FASD received the 2025 Governor's Distinguished Improvement Award and John Irwin Schools of Excellence Award.
Committee reports produced few decisions
The Governance Committee reported that it is supporting the Chair transition, building a governance calendar, and developing tools for the School Director's evaluation. The committee said the School Director is working with the Governance Committee on that effort. A Board member said the SAC has previously been invited to provide non-binding input.
Marketing and community engagement are now combined in one committee, and each committee is expected to develop its own plan. Smart Cookie is helping with marketing through a Denver Families grant, and separate PTO- and Board-level fundraising plans are expected. The school also promoted an upcoming ribbon cutting.
The SAC reported that FASD is taking a “bye year”—in the same sense that a sports team gets a bye week—rather than submit a new Unified Improvement Plan this year. A Board member also described the SAC survey results as generally positive; detailed results were not presented. The Board then unanimously approved revised SAC bylaws. The meeting did not address a parent election or explain whether the revised text changed the previously published election requirement.
The PTO reported that every teacher has a room parent, committees have leads, approximately 75 people attended the Boulevard event, and the Fun Run is scheduled for October 16. Families will be welcome to attend, and students will tie-dye shirts purchased by the PTO.
A proposed nearby shelter was raised
A Board member shared that the City is considering a shelter for people experiencing homelessness near 40th Avenue and Monroe Street. The proposal described during the meeting would use two buildings and serve up to 400 people. Community meetings were announced for October 8 and November 10.
Families who want the City's meeting details or contact information can email Board@fasdenver.org.
The “Since You’re Here…” Section
Unofficial reflections — offered in good faith (and with a grain of salt)
I want to be explicit: the section above is my attempt to keep things factual and balanced. This section is my personal perspective.
Whatever my disagreements with the Board's direction, Kiana and Yana both gave substantial time to the school during a demanding period. That service is worth acknowledging.
Unfortunately, this felt like a step backward
The August meeting offered a small green shoot: Board members tested a proposal, asked for evidence, and declined to vote until they had it. September returned to the familiar format of operational readouts, clarifying questions, praise, and very little visible governing.
The School Director seems perfectly capable of managing diagnostics, staff development, schedules, playground procedures, and the other operational work described tonight. That is precisely why the Board does not need to spend most of its public working session listening to a narration of that work. The Board's value is in setting direction, testing assumptions, allocating resources, evaluating leadership, and holding the school accountable for measurable results.
A concrete example was SAC. The Board had an opportunity to insist that the parent-representative election provision in the bylaws then available to families be followed. It chose not to address that requirement. Instead, the Board approved revised bylaws without publicly explaining whether the election language changed, and no parent representative election was discussed.
Any parent interested in serving as an elected parent SAC member should email Board@fasdenver.org and ask for the revised bylaws and clarification about the election process.
Student voices deserve a bigger audience
The return of student presenters was treated as an uncomplicated positive. I remain unconvinced that a Board Zoom attended mostly by Board members and staff is the right venue.
I made this point in the March Board recap and again in the April Board recap: student stories deserve a larger audience at PTO meetings, Coffee Chats, newsletters, podcasts, assemblies, or community events. Board time is finite, and student spotlights do not move the Board's business forward.
We are still running too much on vibes
The clearest example was the CMAS presentation. There was real good news: all-grades ELA proficiency rose from 54.7% to 57.3%, ELA growth rose from 50 to 79.5, and fifth-grade science proficiency rose from 66.7% to 78.9%. The presentation also showed third-grade ELA falling from 48.8% to 25%. Science and ELA were shown; math was not. That selection left out the school's clearest negative academic signal.
The FASDads CMAS Explorer already includes the state-published 2026 data. FASD's all-grades math proficiency rate fell 14.1 percentage points, from 68.4% to 54.3%. Schoolwide math growth fell from a median growth percentile of 69.5 to 47. Third-grade math proficiency fell from 73.2% to 35.3%, although those are different cohorts and should not be treated as the same students declining.
Those numbers are not a diagnosis. They are a reason for the Board to ask what happened, what leadership believes is driving it, what will change, and how progress will be measured. We do not need to wait for CDE to tell us that math took a step backward; CDE has already published the data.
The same evidence gap showed up in the professional-development and bell-schedule discussion. Teachers deserve adequate planning and collaboration time. Students also deserve a clear accounting of what they gave up and what benefit the change produced. As I wrote in The Shorter School Day Is Here. The Tradeoff Still Isn't Clear, the school day is roughly 88 scheduled hours shorter this year. Yet the Board still did not hear the prior planning-time baseline, the additional minutes teachers now receive, a benchmark, or a measure of how the change benefits students.
Positive impressions are not an evaluation plan.
The SAC survey illustrates a related limitation. Belonging matters, and generally positive responses are welcome. But a survey centered on belonging does not tell the Board why families choose FASD, what makes them stay, or why they leave—the questions that matter most for enrollment and retention strategy.
The adopted budget already expected a $144,093 surplus at 240 funded pupils, and current enrollment is 12 students higher. That is welcome news. It should also reopen the tradeoff discussion, including whether declining to add a librarian remains the right choice.
The awards are newer; the credit still needs context
I need to update my earlier skepticism. In April, I wrote about the school recycling its 2024 Governor's Distinguished Improvement Award as if it were new. This time, there really is newer recognition.
CDE lists FASD as a 2025 recipient of both the Governor's Distinguished Improvement Award and the John Irwin Schools of Excellence Award. The Governor's award is a repeat; the John Irwin award is new for FASD in that award cycle. Congratulations are appropriate.
The timeline still matters. CDE says the 2025 awards use academic achievement and growth over three years, and FASD's 2025 multi-year performance framework includes results from 2023 through 2025. These are institutional accomplishments built by students, teachers, families, and leaders over multiple years—not a quick win produced by the current administration.
That makes tonight's attribution asymmetry frustrating. The Board and School Leadership are quick to celebrate multi-year awards, while third-grade attrition was explained by pointing backward to the prior leader. Leadership should use the same timeline for credit and accountability. If a result belongs to the institution when it is good, the institution also needs to own the harder results.
What changed since August?
It would be too strong to say that nothing moved. The leadership handoff happened, strategic-planning sessions occurred, the audit reached draft form, and the Board voted on revised SAC bylaws. But most of the substantive questions from the August Board recap remain open.
| August item | September status | What remains |
|---|---|---|
| Academic analysis | Partial | ELA and science were presented; math was not presented, and no root-cause analysis or response plan was offered. |
| Leadership transition | Process complete | The new Chair took over, but the public meeting returned to passive readouts rather than sustained challenge. |
| SAC bylaws and parent elections | Bylaws reapproved | No parent election was discussed. Families need the new text to see whether the prior requirement changed. |
| Finance and MLO 2020 | Some positive movement | Enrollment and the surplus outlook are encouraging; move costs, the former-site deposit, monthly-report links, and the use of MLO 2020 dollars remain unexplained. |
| Facilities and move closeout | No apparent movement | The shelter proposal was new information, but no final move-cost or lease-closeout account was provided and the Facilities Committee's remaining charge is still unclear. |
| Spending authority | Still pending | The peer comparison and transaction analysis requested in August were not ready. |
| Strategic Planning | Sessions held | No draft, community-review process, ownership map, or measurable priorities were presented. |
| Governance cleanup | Limited process work | A governance calendar and evaluation tools are being developed; the policy audit-lite and other pending policy work were not addressed. |
| Parent survey | Limited update | A Board member described the SAC survey results as generally positive, but detailed findings were not presented and the survey did not answer why families choose, stay at, or leave FASD. |
The pattern is familiar: activity is happening, but the questions that require governance, evidence, and public accountability keep sliding to the next meeting.
What to watch next
Strategic planning: Will the plan translate FASD’s mission and vision into a focused set of priorities backed by resources, owners, timelines, and measurable outcomes? Before adopting it, how will the Board solicit broad community input and test its assumptions so that the groupthink and misunderstandings that have hampered prior efforts are not repeated?
CMAS: Will the Board receive the missing math analysis, including likely causes, proposed actions, and measurable follow-up?
SAC: Will the revised bylaws be posted promptly, and will the required parent election occur if that language remains?
Finance: Will the final audit, move-cost detail, deposit disposition, monthly reports, and MLO 2020 uses be made public?
School Director evaluation: Will the Board finally stop rebuilding the framework year after year and adopt a durable, Board-owned process—with the criteria, evidence, and evaluation procedures set independently of the person being evaluated?
Family and Student Handbook: When will the approved handbook be posted? If families and students are expected to follow it, they should be able to read the version currently in effect.
Spending authority: Will the requested peer and transaction analysis support a specific proposal?
Bell schedule and professional development: Will the Board quantify planning time, substitute use, classroom disruption, student-time tradeoffs, and outcomes?
Governance: Will the policy audit-lite and the other unfinished policy work finally return?
A new Chair is an opportunity for a reset. September did not feel like one.
~ Greg
