AURORA | Reportedly the only large school district not already live-streaming school board meetings, the Cherry Creek school board will begin web-broadcasting a portion of their regular meetings in April.
Board member Anne Egan made the announcement during the board meeting Monday evening. The news comes as Colorado lawmakers prepare to hear a bill that will require local government meetings to be more accessible to the public. A bill introduced to the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee would force local governments to livestream their meetings and make it more accessible for people with disabilities.
The proposed bill was introduced to the House committee Jan. 31, however, the hearing of the bill has been rescheduled multiple times. As of Tuesday, the bill is scheduled to be heard at 1:30 p.m. March 20.
Egan said that a portion of the board meetings will be live streamed. According to district spokesperson Lauren Snell, the district is still finalizing details and will publish the information later.
Snell added that the live stream details and link will be ready by the next board meeting on April 8. The meeting will take place at Campus Middle School.
The school board unanimously approved all the consent agenda, including a measure allowing Colorado Skies Academy to submit a conversion agreement with Colorado Charter Institute, a state-wide charter school authorizer.
This means that Colorado Skies Academy may become a CSI charter school beginning next school year. After the conversion, the academy also cannot expand the school within the boundaries of the district.
CSI has dozens of charter schools around the state.
Christa Coryell, acting director of the charter school, and Dana Kirchmar, board secretary for the charter school, spoke during public comment. They thanked the Cherry Creek board members for allowing them to pursue a conversion agreement with CSI.
Previously, at the February board meeting, the board unanimously voted to end the contract with the charter school. They cited declining enrollment rates and financial deficits as reasons for not renewing the contract.
The school board also approved changing the boundary lines for Altitude and Woodland elementary schools in southwest Aurora. The board unanimously approved “Option A” for the boundary changes without any comment at the meeting. However, it was discussed at length during a study session on Feb. 23.
According to the report that was presented during the study session, Option A was chosen because it was geographically closer to Woodland, and because it would affect the least amount of current Altitude students.
Two community members spoke against the preferred change, saying that it would be inconvenient to commute to the new elementary school.