Thompson School District Board of Education Special Meeting and Study Session 8/06/25

• Dr. Bret Heller, Thompson School District’s new superintendent, was in attendance for his first monthly board study session.
• The TSD board held a special public meeting immediately before the study session for discussion and approval of an upcoming bond initiative. The study session included a Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) legislative update and plans for future meeting topics.

The board passed a resolution calling for a $99M bond initiative to be included in the general election on November 4, 2025.

The bond will not create a tax rate increase, but instead will be a continuation of an earlier bond set to expire. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Todd Piccone presented an update about recent planning activities, including working on ballot language, fine-tuning various details about the bond, and creating a communication strategy to inform voters about the issues. He noted that once this resolution is approved, the board will follow the Fair Campaign Practices Act.

Piccone gave an overview of the proposed distribution of the $99M, which includes $35M for critical needs, $10M for safety and security, and $54M for future planning. More details are available at https://www.tsdbond.org/about/2025.

Mattie Prodanovic of Hilltop Securities (the TSD municipal advisor) described the process for selecting the $99M figure. A table of options considered for estimated borrowing capacity is available in the presentation slides.

Kim Crawford of Butler Snow LLP, discussed the process of writing the ballot language.

Board member Nancy Rumfelt noted that voter trust was a significant issue in the failure of a 2024 bond initiative, and asked whether the proposed 2025 ballot language is detailed enough in listing specific intended uses of the money, as well as whether the language is in compliance with Colorado’s Tax Payers Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Board Vice-President Stu Boyd compared the proposed 2025 ballot language with the ballot issues from 2024 and 2018, and felt that the language was consistent.

The resolution passed 6 to 1, with Rumfelt voting no.

The board reviewed plans for future agenda items.

• Assistant Superintendent of Operations Todd Piccone presented information about the longstanding contract with Orthopaedic and Spine Center of the Rockies (OCR) for sports medicine services for TSD athletic teams. As in the past, OCR will donate half the cost of the contract for this school year, which will be approved at the August 20 regular meeting.
• Board members discussed amending the 2025-2026 board meeting calendar to accommodate Yom Kippur. The best option is to move the October 2 study session to Monday, October 6, and they will approve that change during the August 20 meeting.
• The Standard Action Consent Items on the August 20 agenda will include approving personnel contract recommendations and approving purchases greater than $50,000.
• During an all day retreat earlier in the week, board members generated ideas for future study session discussion items. The agenda included time for public comment, but the retreat was not livestreamed. Minutes are not available yet, but may be at some point.

Board Vice-President Stu Boyd presented a legislative update from the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB).

Vice-President Boyd reported that Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced an emergency legislative session for August 21. Boyd contacted the 4 legislators representing areas within the TSD boundaries, asking that they protect funding for public education. He received a response from Senator Janice Marchman indicating that no cuts to K-12 education would be on the table during that legislative session.

Boyd presented a list of recent Colorado legislation of significance for TSD. Several of these items were briefly discussed during the June 4 study session, including

• communication devices in schools,
• legal protections for transgender individuals,
• penalties for passing a stopped school bus,
• a new formula for school funding in Colorado,
• a financial literacy graduation requirement, and
• strengthening civil rights protections regarding immigration status.

In addition:

• HB25-1245 Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning Improvement Projects in Schools ensures that districts choosing to make these types of improvements follow certain technical requirements that result in the desired energy efficiency.
• HB25-1149 Comprehensive Black History & Culture Education in K-12 requires the State Board of Education to adopt standards for Black historical and cultural studies during its next review of state education standards, in 2028.
• HB25-1274 Healthy School Meals for All Program refers two ballot issues to voters in November concerning funding for the Healthy School Meals for All Program.
• HB25-1059 Food Waste Reduction in Public Schools encourages school boards to consider adopting an optional policy to reduce food waste in school cafeterias.
• SB25-154 Access to Educator Pathways removes barriers for those who want to teach, particularly in special education and early childhood education, by modifying the ways that candidates for certain educator license endorsements may demonstrate professional competency.

Board members agreed with Boyd’s suggestion that the matter of food waste in school cafeterias be included in a future study session.

One piece of new legislation, SB25-276 Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status, requires quick action. It prohibits public schools from collecting information that might relate to a person’s immigration status, unless this information is required by state or federal law or a federal judge issues a warrant. The bill gives a deadline of September 1, 2025 for each district and school to adopt a policy showing how they will respond if required to share such information or give access to district facilities. Boyd noted that CASB has been working to create a policy, and TSD will respond accordingly. More details are included in the list that Boyd presented.

Questions to Consider

A plan is in place for pre-election public communication with specific details about the ballot issue, but a board member expressed concern about whether the ballot language itself includes enough detail to satisfy skeptical voters. Is it important to provide a similar level of specificity on the ballot?

How will the new superintendent navigate the plan that is required to be in place on September 1 to show federal regulators that Colorado districts are complying with new federal rules some may consider to conflict with state and local preferences?

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be a Regular Meeting on August 20, 2025, 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the Thompson School District Administration Building, 800 S. Taft Ave., Loveland.

The meeting will be broadcast live on (Loveland) Channel 14, and also livestreamed, linked from the Board Meetings web page.

Board Members

Present: Vice-President Stu Boyd, Denise Chapman, Amy Doran, Dawn Kirk, President Barb Kruse, Alexandra Lessem, Nancy Rumfelt.

Links

• Agenda and Packet, Special Meeting
• Agenda and Packet, Study Session
• View live-streamed meeting, Special Meeting
• View live-streamed meeting, Study Session
• Thompson School District Board of Education website

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*Citizen Observers further the commitment of the League of Women Voters to its principle of Citizens Right to Know, however, we are not acting as journalists. Omissions and errors are possible. It is assumed that users of this information are responsible for their own fact-checking. This could include contacting a government clerk, conversing with an elected official or staff, and/or asking us to speak to the Observer who attended.