During public comment at the Dec. 9 Poudre School District board meeting, community members and staff raised distinct concerns the board said it would follow up on.

Calendar and instruction: Amy Healy (Fossil Ridge German teacher) and Charles Stone (Fossil Ridge science teacher) warned that the proposed 2026–27 calendar creates significant semester imbalances for students on block schedules. Healy said the proposed schedule’s difference in days between semesters will make courses inequitable across terms and schools; Stone quantified the difference as roughly 1,200 instructional minutes for some courses and asked the board to reconsider how workdays are scheduled so teachers can grade and provide timely feedback.

Safety and accountability: Laura Whitehead recounted personal experience managing violent or unsafe student behavior and said three staff resigned after refusing to use certain practices they considered harmful; she urged the district to acknowledge failures at CLPE, take accountability and ensure programs for behaviorally complex students are in place and adequately supported.

Special education and credits: Danny Lawrence, a parent, said his visually impaired son received hundreds of hours of braille and assistive-technology instruction but received no graduation credit for that work. He argued district site-based policies and IEP teams have been insufficiently flexible and called on the board to review local practices and ensure students receive appropriate credit and accommodations.

Levy transparency allegation: Eric Sutherland alleged the district told voters a 2024 ballot measure would tax $49 million but that the board subsequently set the levy to $52 million; he raised constitutional and ethical concerns and indicated taxpayers may have legal recourse. The CFO’s later presentation explained formula mechanics and inflation adjustments but did not directly reconcile the specific dollar figures raised by Sutherland.

Board response and next steps: Board members and staff acknowledged the comments, asked clarifying questions and said the district would take follow-up steps: review calendar workday placement and concurrent-enrollment constraints; examine safety and program accountability at CLPE; and provide documentation explaining how ballot figures, inflation adjustments and assessed valuation interact with the final levy calculations.

The items raised in public comment feed into the board’s January and spring committee work on the calendar, comprehensive planning, and budget.