● Introductions and Council Procedures
● Concordance and Communication Policies
● Open Forum
● Discussion Items and Proposals
● Committee Reports
Facilitators: Danny and John
Minutes: Liz Meador
6:30 Introductions, and welcome to new staff and parents
Council Procedures – Concordance, Council Board, Communication Policy
Council Procedures:
Concordance –
Decisions of the Horizons Council, Council Board, Faculty and Faculty Board are made by concordance, in order
to maximize decision making, participation and support for the outcome. Concordance is a discussion and
decision-making system whereby each member has an equal opportunity to voice opinions or concerns, offer
alternative solutions, and then agree or disagree with any proposed course of action. If a member disagrees
with a proposal, that member is encouraged to offer an alternative course of action. Concordance is reached
when all members agree unanimously to support taking the proposed course of action. The Council Co-Chairs
determine when Concordance cannot be reached. If Concordance is not reached at the Council meeting at
which a proposal is considered, the Co-Chairs will determine whether to continue Council consideration of the
proposal at one or more subsequent Council meetings, or to refer the matter to the Council Board for decision.
If concordance cannot be reached, the proposal is taken to the Council Board.
…Support for the proposal is shown by giving a “thumbs up” By doing so, while you may not think the proposal
is the best thing ever, you agree to support it and not “torpedo” it.
Comments: Rather than offering your personal opinion, we think about the whole community and what is best
for the kids.
Communication Agreements-
We agree to abide by the Horizons’ Communication Agreements which are written in the Horizons’ Handbook.
In short, they state that if we have an issue with someone or something, we take that discussion to that
person, rather than discussing it with other people. By communicating directly with the person involved, issues
can be resolved effectively. Recognizing that it can be hard to be so direct, we encourage people to get
support from John, Liz or any of the other staff who are trained in conflict remediation, NVC, etc.
Comments: Pivotal anchor of school, clarity about how to communicate with each other. Agreement is about
privacy, not to go away from the council and speak to others about an issue. Go to the source (go directly to
the person and try to solve the problem directly)! This something we also ask the students to do, and is hard
at first. Testimony about kids who have learned how to communicate well from their Horizons experiences.
Model is NVC – own your own piece of the communication clarification process.
Introduce Council Board: The Council Board is elected in May. This year our Council is a body that is new to
the school in regard to the scope of its responsibilities. With our recent By Laws re-write, this group has the
overall fiduciary responsibility for Horizons K-8 and the 501 ©(3) status of the school. Parent Members are:
Danny Conroy is our Co-Chair with John McCluskey. Parent members include: Ron Wawrzynek., Rosemary
McKnight, Laurie Braunstein, Cheri Felix and Kevin Holst. Faculty members include Liz Meador, Jim Freund, Nel
Nelson-Woller, Beth Coleman and Nichole Houser.
6:40 Open Forum – Council members may share up to two minutes of information relevant to our community
● This past week and community resources BVSD website has a page with resources. If you need help
or support, please let us know. Google doc to bring folks together who want to help
● IMPACT on Education also looking at some kind of fundraiser
● Letters being delivered by Lauren, box in front office
● A Horizons art piece is being sent to the President as a part of the thank you packet to the first
responders
● Robocalls very efficient way to reach people; John promises not to overuse.
● John’s voice was very calming lots of appreciation
● Please keep your contacts updated on Infinite Campus, and choose method for message delivery with
the Robocalls via Contact Manager
● How to keep contact info private when everything is going on the web
● Peace Pole Paint rocks to put around the pole!
● Website Please rely on and use the Horizons website for announcements that are current
www.horizonsk8school.org Problems? Change your browser to Firefox or Safari and see if that helps
● Fall Dance change to Oct. 18th from Oct. 25th
● MS basketball program at Horizons for boys and girls through the YMCA (practices and games at
Horizons) Girls coached by Sarah Brooks; Boys coached by same person as last year
● Gratitude to John, Stacey and Lance in face of adversity last week, evacuation, etc.
6:55 The Story of Horizons! What do you want to be true five years from now….
The timeline will be up in the cafeteria. Please add to it, if you see things that are missing.
Small groups will take some time to talk about the prompt above. Some things that came up for faculty are
Nonviolent communication and social emotional curriculum.
Share out from groups:
Getting the word out about how well this works, there are people who share the philosophy, but I’d like to see
the practices shared. Not just to pay it forward but also to educate and share out what we are doing.
1. Experiential education in curriculum, field trips, projects, nature based curriculum.
2. Consistent phys ed/movement
3. Music
4. Extend the Horizons community into high school
5. Reenergize the NVC
1. Producing kids who are excited about learning
2. Engaged teachers, parents and students
3. Communication on progress of students happens in a number of ways within nongraded environment
4. Continue 912, high school
5. Financially sustainable, not just fundraising all the time
1. Relationship, special balance between community and specialness of the individual.
2. Child is safe and seen and known
3. Honoring the spark in each kid passion, selfmotivation without losing the engaged community
4. More diversity, promote more inclusiveness into this community
1. Emphasis on experiential learning
2. See Horizons as a forprofit learning lab
3. Build on NVC
4. Sports
5. Shared gov
6. Inclusive ed
7. Sister school to increase and engage with diversity
1. Maintaining and building on experiential ed
2. Nongraded
3. Noncompetitive
4. Full day K
5. Multiage
6. Increase diversity
7. Class size less than 20
8. Social emotional embedded in curriculum in every classroom
1. 8th grade travel for service, rite of passage
2. Increase diversity
3. Sister school in diverse neighborhood
4. Replicate what happens at Horizons at other schools
5. Continue to pay attention to communication between teacher and student
6. Create student leadership opportunities
7. Individualized attention
7:30 Outdoor Ed. highlights from faculty
Film on website of Fruita group, worked with Keystone Science School thanks to Martha and Steve
Keystone Science School Forest ecology, wet days, great bonding, boys dorm was wonderful good support
from dads. Girls dorm was a bit crowded, but still snuggly and good.
First grade will overnight Nov. 7th they got rained out.
Slide show/multimedia presentation from Glacier view set to Bob Dylan Shelter from the Storm!
Collegiate peaks, Buena vista, great parent volunteers teachers had to figure out how to get back to Boulder,
kids supported one another while stepping outside of their comfort zone ropes course, horseback riding,
swimming in a mountain lake in the rain
K’s field trips were all delayed, will spread the rest of the adventure out Jeff Kagan will come on Monday at
10:30
Alamosa trip shared a multimedia presentation of all of their adventures.
7:50 School wide goal and UIP process
Big Picture team will be working on UIP. Parents will be invited to look at data climate survey, TCAP, etc. UIP
is due to state by the end of Oct.
8:00 Committee Reports
● Board Report, Danny
Board has met 4 times, figuring out what to cover, what to go to committees. Learning as we go. Everyone is
invited to attend the meetings, and notes are made public.
● Development (Fundraising)
Kathy Hagen, chair. Payback books to raise money for google laptops for classrooms. Two books per student
are going to be sent home next week with a flyer. Moola drive coming up ask campaign; money goes to
council budget, art and music, A&S, etc. Looking into crowd funding, also will contact alumnae. Looking for a
band made up of parents and teachers to raise money for the school, venue will be a restaurant on Pearl.
● Finance Review – Council Budget and District budgets, Ron W.
Slide show from Ron details Fund 11 (district budget) and Council budget.
This groups controls the council budget donations 83K, fundraising 67K
Spent on Council funded people, BVSD, tech reserve, BEST repayment, professional development. Tuesday
Oct. 8, 5PM next financial review meeting. All are welcome to attend.
● District Accountability Committee (DAC) Sarah Holst
Report next meeting
● District Parent Committee (DPC) Shannon Hassan
Report next meeting
● Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Judy F. and Sarah
District meeting for parents and educators presentation on Amendment 66. This will overhaul how schools in
Colorado are funded. Colorado is #46 in funding in the US. Important amendment, prioritizing education. Nest
meeting Oct. 9th during the day (111 at the district) will talk about new IEP process.
8:30 Close