The Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education Packet Summary — 2026-08-26
Meeting: Work Session - August 26, 2026
Scheduled time: 4:00 PM
Location: Boardroom, Main Administration Building, 1115 N. El Paso Street, Colorado Springs
The work session agenda centers on a comprehensive review of the district's Board policy manual. The two scheduled topics are the K-Series, covering Community Relations, and the L-Series, covering Education Agency Relations / External Relations and Partnerships. Staff is recommending a combination of revisions, repeals, retention of existing policies, movement of operational material into Department Operating Procedures, and limited new policy adoption.
Key Items on the Agenda
K-Series Policy Review
The Board is scheduled to consider proposed revisions, repeals, and new adoptions across the K-Series. This series addresses subjects including parent and family engagement, community relationships, gifts and donations, public information, media relations, crisis management, complaints, use of district property, visitors, advertising and solicitations, government relations, immigration officials, and parent notifications.
Staff's recommended motion calls for the Board to adopt the proposed revisions and new policies, regulations, and exhibits and repeal the items identified in the K-Series Policy Review Cover Sheet.
Notable recommendations include:
- KB — Parent/Guardian Engagement: Repeal and incorporate applicable statutory requirements into Policy AKB.
- KBA — Parent/Guardian and Family Engagement in Title I Education: Retain with revisions intended to maintain compliance with federal Title I requirements.
- KBA-E — School-Level Title I Parent and Family Engagement: Adopt the exhibit.
- KBA-R and KBAA-R: Repeal the regulations and move applicable procedures into Department Operating Procedures.
- KBBA — Custodial and Non-custodial Parent Rights: Retain as revised.
- KBE, KCA, and KCB: Repeal; staff indicates their content is addressed under Policy AKB.
- KJJ — Relations With Community Fundraising Groups: Repeal, with the work addressed through an Engagement Department Operating Procedure.
- KCD and KCD-R — Gifts and Donations: Repeal, with the work addressed through an Engagement Department Operating Procedure.
L-Series Policy Review
The Board is also scheduled to review the L-Series. Staff's recommended motion calls for adoption of the proposed revisions and repeal of policies and regulations identified in the L-Series Policy Review Cover Sheet.
The packet's recommendations include:
- LB — Relations With Other Schools and School Systems: Repeal.
- LBD — Relations With Charter Schools: Retain the current district policy. The packet says it was revised by the Board on May 12, 2025, closely aligns with the sample policy, and remains current.
- LBD-R — Relations with District Charter Schools: Retain the current regulation, which the packet also identifies as having been revised on May 12, 2025.
- LBD-E1 — Intent to Apply: Repeal, with responsibility assigned to the Charter Liaison.
- LBD-E2 — Request to Relinquish ECA: Repeal, with responsibility assigned to the Charter Liaison.
- LC — Research Projects, Studies, Experiments and Surveys: Repeal and develop a Department Operating Procedure establishing parameters and guidelines for research projects and surveys.
- LDA — Student Teaching and Internship Field Experiences: Repeal, provided its processes are addressed through Human Resources policy, a Department Operating Procedure, or established practice.
Policy / Governance Items
Moving Operational Rules Out of Board Policy
The K- and L-Series reviews are part of a broader policy-manual project that the Board addressed at its April 15, 2026 work session. The stated approach is to retain legally required and governance-level policies while reducing material considered outdated, duplicative, or operational in nature.
A recurring recommendation is therefore to repeal Board-level policies or regulations while moving procedures into Department Operating Procedures. This approach appears in recommendations involving parent engagement procedures, gifts and donations, community use of district property, advertising and solicitations, research and surveys, and other operational subjects.
Several K-Series recommendations concern public access to district information:
- KDA — Public Information/School Communications Program: Retain the current policy as an important commitment to the public.
- KDB — Public's Right to Know/Freedom of Information: Retain as revised. The packet notes a statutory requirement for a policy addressing research and retrieval fees if the district imposes such fees.
- KDB-R — Freedom of Information Regulation: Repeal and address the subject through the district's Colorado Open Records Act procedures.
- KDDC — Legal Notices: Repeal.
Staff recommends retaining KDDA — Media Relations, Press Releases, Conferences and Interviews with revisions reflecting sample-policy best practices, while repealing its accompanying regulation and leaving regulations to the Superintendent as provided in the policy.
For KDE — Crisis Management, staff recommends retaining a revised policy. The packet cites Colorado law requiring the district to establish a school response framework meeting statutory requirements.
Public Complaints and Reconsideration
The packet proposes different treatment for several complaint-related policies:
- KE — Public Concerns and Complaints: Retain as revised.
- KEB — Complaints About Personnel: Repeal; the packet says the process is addressed in Board Operating Procedures, with employee complaints handled in executive session.
- KEB-R: Repeal because the subject is addressed in Board Operating Procedures.
- KEC — Complaints About Instructional and Library Resources: Retain the current policy. The packet notes that the Board revised it on March 4, 2025 and that a policy addressing reconsideration of library materials is required.
Community and Family Impact
Parent and Family Engagement
Parent and family engagement is a major component of the K-Series review. The packet proposes consolidating some existing policies into Policy AKB while retaining the Title I policy framework required under federal law.
The proposed structure includes retaining a revised Title I parent and family engagement policy, adopting a school-level Title I engagement exhibit, and shifting some procedural material from Board regulations to administrative procedures.
District Property and School Visitors
Staff recommends repealing KF — Community Use of District Property and its regulation, with the relevant work handled through an Engagement Department Operating Procedure.
By contrast, KFA — Public Conduct on District Property and KI — Visitors to District Schools are recommended for retention with revisions. The packet cites statutory requirements concerning tobacco and retail marijuana use on school property and access to observe school classes, activities, and functions.
Advertising, Solicitations, and Political Activity
Staff recommends repealing several district-specific policies and regulations covering solicitations and advertising, including KHA, KHB, KHB-R, and KHE. The packet indicates that Engagement Department Operating Procedures address this work.
KJK — Relations With Partisan Political Organizations is likewise recommended for repeal, with the packet again pointing to an existing Department Operating Procedure.
Government and External Agency Relations
The K-Series review includes several policies governing the district's relationships with public agencies.
- KL — Relations With Government Authorities: Staff recommends repeal.
- KLB — Relations With Election Authorities: Staff recommends repeal. The packet says voter-registration group visits are addressed in Policy KI and proposes developing a Department Operating Procedure for principals or designees serving as deputy registrars.
- KLG — Relations With State and Federal Agencies: Retain the current policy, which the packet says the Board revised on September 3, 2025.
- KLG-R — Relations With Federal Immigration Officials: Retain the current regulation, also identified as having been revised on September 3, 2025.
The packet cites Colorado law requiring policies and/or procedures addressing access and information provided to federal immigration officials as required by law.
Proposed New Parent-Notification Policy
Staff recommends adopting KDBA — Parent Notification of Employee Criminal Charges to meet statutory requirements. The packet cites Colorado law requiring a policy addressing parent notification when school is not in session.
This is identified as a proposed adoption rather than an existing policy being revised or retained.
How the Policy Review Is Designed to Work
The packet includes a Policy Review Protocol intended to structure the Board's series-by-series review. Before a work session, Board members review the scheduled policies and identify those they want to discuss.
During the work session:
- Board members may nominate individual policies for discussion and identify specific issues they want to address.
- Policies receiving no nominations are intended to move forward without discussion.
- Available meeting time is allocated among policies requiring discussion.
- Members who nominated a policy are given time to present their questions and ideas.
- Staff review teams are available to provide subject-matter context.
- The protocol emphasizes substantive policy issues rather than grammar, formatting, or minor wording.
- Board members use a visual signal to indicate readiness to move a policy toward action; the protocol explicitly states that this signal is not a vote.
- Substantive changes supported by the Board may be edited live so members can review the same language.
Under the protocol, a policy that is considered ready to "move to action" is intended to proceed to a vote at the next scheduled Board meeting. The work-session readiness process itself is not described as final adoption.
What to Watch at the Meeting
The central question is how far the Board is prepared to go in simplifying the policy manual while preserving requirements and governance matters at the Board level. The K-Series in particular contains numerous recommendations to repeal stand-alone policies or regulations and place operational details in Department Operating Procedures or consolidate overlapping subjects into other Board policies.
Key areas for Board review include the proposed consolidation of parent and community engagement provisions into Policy AKB; the treatment of public records, complaints, district-property use, advertising and solicitations; legally required policies involving school safety, visitors, immigration officials, and parent notification; and the L-Series proposal to move research, survey, internship, and certain charter-related administrative responsibilities outside the Board policy manual.
