Check. One, two. Done. Test. One, two, three. Don, can you hear me? to order this meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. Board members may attend and participate in meetings remotely in accordance with
board policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Here. Here. Here. here. Here,
here. Here. I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the screen tonight for our land acknowledgement. The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and
illegally taken territory of the Ute, Puebloin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time and memorial. We acknowledge the atrocities committed
here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government. BBSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples, past and present, and their
dignified nations and cultures, who care for this land with strength and resilience. BBSD recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of many nations that carried their oral traditions into the present.
It is BBSD's responsibility to educate ourselves, our community, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement,
we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people, and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together. I'd like to remind everybody that the mission of the Boulder Valley School
District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Thank you for joining us here this evening. We're glad to have you attend our meetings remotely and in person. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda?
Moved by Deianne, seconded by Jason. Laura, can you please call the role? Booker, yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Rajpaul, yes. Tamuading,
yes. Hunger, yes. Motion passes. First item on tonight's agenda is our student moment. I'm excited to hand the microphone over to Dr. Anderson to do the introductions. Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Board members, good evening everyone.
Board members, as you may know, this is art show season in the Boulder Valley School District. We have several uh shows going on right now, including the high school student and staff staff show at the Dair Arts Center. artwork, as I'm sure you've seen, is amazing, including
including beautiful photos, intriguing videos, and sculptures like the one created by tonight's student moment guest, Sophia Haltquist from Boulder High School. Sophia's piece was chosen as best in show this year, and also won a Golden Key for National Scholastic, I
believe. We're excited to get to hear from her about her journey as an artist and how it translates to her life in school. And wait till you see what it is that she created. Oh, here it is. Uh Sophia, turn the microphone over to you. Uh yeah, hello. Um
my journey as an artist has been super fun and amazing. I've been doing art for as long as I can remember and I've slowly been progressing my talents to the point that you see now with the art piece that's uh displayed. Um, I've
always loved dragons and I picked a dragon as um, my focus for the sculpture and art has always been a huge part of my life and of course has affected uh, my school life. It's helped me find and make friends and express myself to my
friends so they can know about um, like what I like to think, who I am, stuff like that. Um, and it's I think art is just an amazing way for expression and to uh have it so people can know you in another way other
than what you say or what how you look. Um, and uh yeah, so that this piece that I made uh is a naga that represents my mom's culture and it's It's uh
representative of her culture that I I like to look at of her Laos culture. Um where I get to see these dragons and I like to uh that I've gotten a chance now to represent that in my art. Um and now uh people at the school too now get to see a part of that culture as well
through my art. Board members, any questions for Sophia? Melania, so will you tell us what materials you used and what your process was? Right. Of course. Um, I used uh clay,
specifically Raichu clay, which has a special firing process and glazes. Um, and it was the process was like using the clay and like having to work around the fact that sometimes it gets a little cracked and crumbly and like twisting it into these unique shapes and smoothing
it out and then adding armor plates on top of it and um having the scale textures and smooth parts and it was a lot of twists and turns and a very long process uh but eventually turned into that.
It is so neat. Thanks for sharing it. Yes, thank you. You alluded to what my question was to be was how long did it take you to make how long did it take to make those pieces? I think roughly around two weeks to make
the entire piece. Alex, yeah, I was wonder can you tell us about uh some of your favorite art classes and teachers you've had so far in school? So far, I've enjoyed all of my art teachers. I've found them all amazing
and they've all supported me in the different art classes that I've done, which I believe I've done pretty much all the ones available other than photography. Um, so far though, I believe I've enjoyed clay class the most where I made that piece. Um, and the teachers have been really supportive and
helpful. They're the reason I even got into the competitions that that uh piece got submitted to. So, uh, yeah. Dian, how will you continue your art after you graduate?
Um, I'm thinking I might go to an art college um just to progress further in art. I might pick a specific one to major in. And I might eventually start doing freelance art or um moving into a more specific career. It's not entirely
planned out yet, but I'm definitely going to focus on art in the future. Well, thank you for sharing your time and your talents with us here tonight at the board meeting and best of luck in your future art endeavors. Thank you. Our next item on tonight's agenda is a
superintendence report. Dr. Anderson, good evening. Good evening. Thanks again uh for President Raj Paul. Have a few things uh for remarks this evening to update the board and community on. Start tonight with a big milestone for
one of our schools. As Bilingu Pioneer Elementary recently celebrated their 100th anniversary. To celebrate the impressive event, all students and staff posed for a once in a-lifetime photo outside of their historic building in Lafayette. Uh wish the sun was out for
that, but it's a beautiful, beautiful picture. Uh as we mentioned during student moment, BBSD's annual art shows are in full gear. Dair Center High School and staff show kicked off a couple weeks ago with an exciting opening reception. And we've got a clip from that night.
A lot of passion, a lot of support for the arts, and a lot of talent. I think one of my favorite things about this art show is that we have all these students, individual students from so many different schools and then somehow we combine it all together and there's a
lot of like themes and things that play together. It's really cool to see how it all works together. The 2026 best and show award goes to Sophia Hol from Boulder High School. Super shocking. I I wasn't expecting to win the best overall. I I I'm not I
don't even have the full words to describe it. It was just crazy. I wasn't expecting my name to be called. My mom is from Laos and uh she like told me about her culture and stuff and uh the Laos Nagas which uh were like a
they're a very big part of the culture and it inspired me cuz I already love dragons and I thought the Laos Naga looked super cool. So I made the piece for her and uh yeah so she and her culture was my inspiration. Art means to
me uh in like expression of yourself and like the emotions and what you believe in. Um and like bringing your ideas to life. That's what art means to me. It's up for a month and the dairy center is open to the public. So come check it
out. I mean, I know for myself, this opening is great and there's so many people here and sometimes it can take it in a little better when it's actually a little quieter and you just have time to absorb it. So, um, every time I come, I see something new and every time I come, I notice new things and different pieces
jump out of me or different details. So, absolutely come out, check it out, and enjoy the artwork. So, the high school show at the Dairy Art Center will be on display through May 3rd. So, be make sure that you if you have a chance, stop by. Also would like to give a shout out to our partners
at the Dair for providing work-based learning opportunities for our students who helped install the show learning about the job of a curator and have the opportunity to give an artist talk as part of Boulder Arts Week. So, just a hugely successful event. Our K8 student
art shows are also on display at our public libraries through the beginning of May. Our opening receptions are tomorrow, April 15th from 5:00 to 6:30 at Boulder Public Library and from 5 to 6:30 and Thursday, April 16th from 5:00 to 6:00 at the Lafayette Public Library. So, even if you can't make the receptions, we hope
that everyone will come out and check out the incredible talent in our district on display within our community this month. Colorado State Representative Kenny Wyn, who went to Alicia Sanchez Elementary and Anjivine Middle School before graduating from Centuris High School,
recently took some time to show the next generation of leaders from BBSD a behindthe-scenes look at his work at the state capital. 64th graders were on the field trip and during their visit visit, Representative Wyn realized they all had something in common. They're all dragons.
After all, the dragon is the mascot for both Alicia Sanchos and Emerald. Last week, students from across the district came together at Boulder High School for our annual unified basketball tournament. Stands were packed with fans. Students showed off their skills and teamwork. As always, this event was
full of joy and camaraderie along with friendly competition. Centaurus took home the win after some hard-fought games, and all of our student athletes did an amazing job on and off the court. We also celebrated our seniors with awards and medals for their participation unified athletics over the years, and we wish them best the best in
their future endeavors. Finally, uh, board members, we are approaching prom season in our school district. And as you may know, our parents, uh, throughout our school district do an amazing job in providing safe opportunities for students to gather after the big dance. Number of
our schools events started after a series of tragic alcohol and drugrelated accidents that claimed the lives of 11 Denver, Boulder, metro area teens back in the9s. Sadly, there have been reminders of the importance a number of times since. Each of the amazing events are organized by dedicated, caring
parents who create epic and me memorable nights of fun filled with food, music, activities, and prizes. We want to share with our community so folks can donate to support their efforts. The first this year will be the afterp shared by our two Boulder high schools. This event
brings about 1,500 students from Fairview and Boulder High School at the East Boulder Community Center. Go to fhsbhs afterprom.org org for more information and to donate. Centaurus is after prom
known as sea snap. Safe night after prom will be on Friday, April 24th. It's held at the YMCA in Lafayette, so students can have access to the wise activities including ice skating and swimming. To donate, visit centurap.org. Monarch after prom is the next night,
Saturday, April 25th, at Monarch High School. Parent volunteers are planning to transform the school into a Paradise Island theme. Donations can be made at www.mmonarch afterprom.com. There are two schools on May 2nd, including Just Jam just after midnight,
which is Broomfield High School's afterprom event. It's held at Broomfield High, and similar to Monarch, their parents really pride themselves on creating a cool theme inside the school. Always so cool that Broomfield community members line up at 7 p.m. that night to get a preview. Donations can be made at
www.bhsjam.com. Last but not least, Netherlands after prom event is held at the Carob Room in in Netherland. Netherland students voted on a neon glow night theme. So, they'll have tons of fun. Neon photo proms and props and decorations. Donations can be
made uh to Netherland High School, 570 County Road 130, Netherland, Colorado 80466. Board members, that's all I have for my remarks this evening. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Board members, any questions for Dr.
Anderson? I just want to double down on those after prom parties. They are a great place for our students to be incredibly safe on prom night and those donations go to a lot of amazing prizes and activities and events to really keep those kids entertained and safe. So, if
you can give, that would be great. Seeing as there are no further questions, we will move on to the next item of tonight's agenda, which is public participation. The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board does not endorse the comments of individual participants and
reminds all those who speak that you are responsible for ensuring your remarks are suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Furthermore, this is not an opportunity for the board this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents. It is not a time for the board to engage with or react to speakers remarks. Speakers each have two
minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would you like to share additional thoughts with the board, we do read all of our emails. That being said, we will begin with our
first speaker this evening, Gabby. I'm Gabby. I'm sorry, I'm not going to say this last name, right? But Schulties, who is virtual, they're not on. Then we will move on to Esme Kooperman and Natalie Marshall who
will each stand together but speak to us independently. Okay. Hi, our names are Natalie and Esme. We are third graders at Lville Elementary School. Thank you for serving our school district.
We are concerned about the two abandoned oil wells that are leaking methane gas near Metallark and Peak to Peak. Fortunately, there is a program called the Enterprise Marginal Wellplugging
Group. Oil well operators can apply for funding from this group to plug the well. That means BBSD can put pressure on the oil well operators to
to get the well closed. Plugging these wells is important to the health of all students. Additionally, over time, it is equivalent to taking a thousand cars off the road. This is important to us
because we are 8 and 9year-olds and we have many more decades to live. We need a healthy planet to live on, but the oil from these two wells pollute our community and kill lots of plants. So we don't have fresh air to breathe.
We ask that you put pressure on the extraction oil and gas, the oil company that manages the the well near peak to peak. Thank you for listening to us. We hope
you have encouraged you to put pressure on the wellers and blood the oils. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Alice Cohen. Our next speaker then will be Elizabeth
Miranda. Moving on to a virtual participant, Islet Leman, also not in attendance, Mary Newberry, who is also virtual. Moving on to Deb Darnell.
Deb, can you push the I'm sorry. I'm Deb Darnell and due to the twominut limit, I'll be focusing on these salient points. In October of 2023, the Daily Camera reported the results of a parental enrollment choice
survey. It concluded that parents would be most likely to open enroll in BBSD for STEAN, which is science, technology, engineering, art, and math, and gifted and talented programs, programs not available in all the schools across our
district at that time. Rob Anderson emphatically acknowledged this choice, stating this idea of steam and gifted and talented, those are the things that parents are really interested in here in Boulder Valley. This is trend number
one. Trend number two comes in light of the BBSD showcase fairs where a driving theme showed that parents were enrolling their students in other districts or private schools for steam and other programs.
The trend number three is that many schools in the district have decreased staffing or funding and have some have outright removed GT academic options. Trend number four is a very concerning
long-term trend that is that enrollment in general is down. And trend number five is that GT population in BBSD is increasing. BBSD's percentage is 20% as
opposed to the state percentage of 8%. I mean, we have a unique opportunity with the students we have here in BBSD. Taking these three trends together prompts me to totally support the BVGT
proposal that BDSD should require GT inquir professional development and differential differential training at least for all teachers at the elementary level and hopefully grow it or regrow
these programs to stem the decreasing enrollment um of our decreasing enrollment tight and attract more students to BBSD. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Crystal Chin.
Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin. Over the past several weeks, families and educators have come forward to share their experiences both publicly and privately. At our recent community town hall, we heard consistent patterns across multiple schools. Concerns
related to student safety, harm, and retaliation are being raised. And when they are, they are handled internally by the same system being asked to review itself. We came forward in good faith. We participated in this process. We brought forward patterns not isolated
incidents and we asked a clear question. What independent pathway exists for concerns to be reviewed objectively without conflicts of interest? At this point, we have not received a meaningful answer. We are hearing about community engagement efforts. But when it comes to
concerns about harm and safety, there is still no independent pathway for those concerns to be reviewed. that leaves families and educators without a clear pathway inside this system. At a time when the district is making important decisions about resources and
priorities, it is critical that systems for accountability and student safety are also clear, consistent, and independent. So, I want to be clear about where this stands. This is not about disagreement. This is about a structural gap. When concerns are raised
and the only option is internal review, trust breaks down. And without trust, safety cannot be assured. And because of that, we are now exploring next steps beyond the district level to better understand what mechanisms exist to ensure accountability. We remain open to
engagement, but we are also committed to ensuring that these concerns are taken seriously and reviewed in a way that is objective, consistent, and independent. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Techla.
Good evening. My name is Tela Ays. I attended the recent community town hall and heard consistent experiences across multiple schools. This is not isolated. What we are hearing reflects patterns in how concerns are raised and how they are
handled. We need a pathway for concerns to be reviewed outside of the system. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Christy Maynard. Kirsty, sorry about that. Kirsty, thank you. It's a challenging one. Uh, good
evening. My name is Kirsty Maynard. When concerns are handled internally without independent review, trust breaks down. Families and educators need to know that when they raise concerns, those concerns will be reviewed in a way that is fair,
consistent, and objective. We are asking for a process that is independent, transparent, consistent, and accountable. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Liz Himenez. appears Liz is not here. So, our final
final speaker will be Gabriella Flores. I think the rain has kept some folks away tonight. This concludes public comment for this evening. On behalf of the board, I want to thank everyone who took the time to show up to share your feedback with us. We really do appreciate hearing from our
community. and a special special shout out to the youngest advocates in the audience. That was really brave of you for coming and sharing your thoughts with us tonight on the oil wells. So, thank you for that. We'll move next move on to board communication board members who would
like to begin. Anna, I did just want to take a moment um just to uh show gratitude for the teacher roundts that we went through. Um, my final one was at Emerald Elementary School, which is where my son goes to,
and that was amazing. Um, and just thank you to all of the teachers that took the time out of their day to come and share some of their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions with us. Um, I really did appreciate everyone's um, uh, point of view, their ideas, everything that they
have to say. And I am looking forward to uh, going to the engagement sessions with community. um primarily planning on going to the Broomfield one uh happening on the 20th uh at Broomfield High School. And uh just thank you in advance to all community members that are
planning on going to these engagement sessions. Deian, I had the opportunity to attend the uh IT uh the technology group after our last board meeting where we had a presentation and this uh group is made
up of different folks. So, it's community members and a lot of teachers. And um while I'm not a participant there but an observer, I can tell you that we're doing a really good job of figuring out what their next next steps
might be and how they'll be able to move forward with developing um some ideas for um accountability and um procedures for how we're going to use AI
in the schools and with a with a moderate approach um so that we're and we are flexible enough in order to um take care of things that we can't even see are coming and I was really impressed with the
meeting and I look forward to working with them again next year Alex and then uh yeah um first off I just wanted to express my gratitude uh towards the staff and leadership for the community engagement design. Um I had the
privilege of being at the DAC meeting last week and at the first meeting at New Vista last night and I was amazed. Um I was really amazed at our community and the parents and teachers who were there and their um their cander and the
depth of their thought and their ability to listen to one another. I was sitting at one of the tables and just really really impressed at how quickly and deeply people dived in. And I was gratified how much they were focused on all our kids. Um, and I think it's really helpful in our community going
forward that we keep that focus on what's good for the kids and keep that civility from person to person and know it's all good people acting in good faith. And it's amazing to see that level of engagement. So I'm I feel privileged to benefit from that. Um so kudos to the team and for the great
leadership and facilitation by our principles who were there. That was really great to see and by the responsiveness of the team to the feedback from the first meeting. So it definitely evolved. I bet it will continue to evolve and be even more powerful. Also want to give my thanks to the IT team at BBSD who helped me keep
this laptop going. Um which is not easy given my abuse. Uh but I also wanted to bring up something um that I would like to see us do in the long term. I've heard from parents who use GoG Guardian and like AI, I think we have a small group of intense expert users of GoG
Guardian. Whoops. Speaking of bad technology, I apologize. That's ringing in my hearing aid, but not for you. Um uh when you see what experienced expert users of GoG Guardian do to manage their children's screen
time, access to what they're looking at, and track it, it's really impressive. But if you're like me, I use 5% of Outlook and 2% of Excel. And I believe many of our parents uh would like to have the benefits of GoG Guardian, but the actual use of setting it up is more
than they have the time to do. And if we had 30,000 families ask us to do it for them and customize it for them, it wouldn't work. So I think we should really explore um presets in go guardian in which you have option like a b or c that are
pre-esigned that we can do for them and then d would be other and you can do the current customizing that parents do. So, if a parent wanted to say, "Hey, I want the minimum that's allow that will allow my child to finish their homework assigned by their teacher," that would be like a preset they could just pick. And if they wanted to say, "I want to
make sure that the internet on a district device turns off at 7:30 p.m." That's a preset they could pick and we could figure out how to do it for them. I recognize that that would be a lot of work for the great people in the BBSD IT team, but it's an unreasonable ask of our parents to develop the expertise to
use a tool that I know that many would like to have its power, but would not like to the obligation of learning how to use, how to design and and code its power. So, I suggest we explore that. I also think we'd end up with great data on what it is parents want about their
kids screen use because we'd get all their sort of voting for real about what it is they want kids to do with their devices once they're out of school. So, I hope we can make progress on that and I have confidence in our IT team pull it off. Um, I also of course want to thank
our student awardees and speakers tonight. I know they left, but we really love hearing from students and are always really gratified to see the the great leadership that they present. Uh finally, I want to talk um not directly to uh different proposals, but
one of the issues that's near and dear to my heart is how the district responds to parents when something is not going satisfactoryy for their kid. And I know we've had calls for like an independent and investigatory body, which I know from my experience on the board is actually just logistically legally not a
viable option. Like pretty much anytime two people do something bad that's being investigated, uh the district's hands are tied about what is public and what is private data. Whether it's social services, the police, our uh collective bargaining agreements, um uh furpa, you
name it. There's almost nothing we can share with everybody once investigations are underway. And once the police or social services are involved, we literally have to back off and not do anything until they're done. So for reasons beyond our control, investigations can take a very long time
and they can be very opaque to affected parties, including the students who are suffering from an activity that that harmed that child. So our obligations um put us in a place where we can't do some of the things the community would like
us to do. Many of these situations are really complicated and they're legally fraught and they are morally and ethically fraught. So professionals are trying to do really hard stuff. I know from what we hear as board members of stuff that's privileged that these are tricky situations where professionals
are trying to figure out what to do. I do think there's a way to make progress. I mean, I'm happy to have advocated for our changes in the website where it's now easier to make a report and I'm glad that we include information on how hard it is what we can't communicate about. I believe um in the long run, maybe
medium-term, I believe that what we should do is pursue better metrics of school climate and culture and that in our UIPs at the school and district level. Um we could have additional measures. They'd be really powerful to me as a board member to understand do
how kids are feeling safe, how they're feeling included. Um our current strategic plan metrics are outdated. Um, I don't feel like the discrepancy between white and Hispanic um, out of school suspension is the best metric of what's going on. I don't feel like the
proportion of kids involved in restorative justice tells us how well that restorative justice played out. So, I'm really interested in additional metrics of climate and culture that get at our students and families sense of safety and inclusion and the responsiveness of the district when they
have serious concerns because those are very real. whether it's I I can't begin to name the different ways that something can be hard for a kid. And I and I don't want us to be having public discussions about individual cases. That's totally inappropriate. Um we want to protect everybody the way we should.
But I believe we should have governing board discussions about how we're doing on it. And we collect a bunch of data. And I I sort of challenge us to figure out what's meaningful data that we can share that we can use that would inform our feedback to the superintendent that would inform our feedback to the
different departments and say, "Hey, it looks like we have an issue in litigation about special ed uh state complaints um you name it. Or the exit of students who've been involved in discipline proceedings from our district. you know, there's metrics that we could get that would protect the
students confidentiality, uh, not get into the legally fraught manners and still give us more insight into how kids and families are feel and staff are feeling about our conduct. So, I'd encourage us to think about that and I'd encourage people in the community who care about this to explore uh in full
partnership with their school sachs uh to talk about like what are the metrics of the things you value. That's what a UIP is for. Um, and I'm not saying that that solves an individual family's problem, but it speaks to the systematic stuff of how we prioritize safety and
well-being and and the feedback we give to people that when we we are I'm sure as a board member I fall down and haven't handled something well, but people need the feedback. They need the the sense of reflection that comes from actually keeping track of it. So I'd encourage us to explore that uh so that
we can um address the root causes appropriately at the different levels and I know that's a lot uh and I would probably p I'll add that to the prioritization list eventually that we explore what those metrics can be and you know we should along the way explore
like the role of ombbudsman um if that can add some of the independence that might help affected communities or or the role of our community liaison and how they interact on this. So, I know there's lots that we can do. I know there's great people working on this and I know we can't talk about it the way we
would like. Uh, but I do think there's progress that we can make and I appreciate the feedback from the community as well as I appreciate the real diligence of protecting our students interests from the staff now. Um, it's not that people are hiding things, they are protecting students and
they are figuring out what to do and we are left needing to wait too much. So, um, I'll stop there. Elenia. Uh, I'd like to echo thanks for the community engagement. In particular, I'd
like to give a shout out to, uh, our DAC. Uh, I went to that community engagement session and was really impressed as Alex was uh, by the depth of their participation.
So, um, thanks to DACA and thanks for the parents who are and comm community members who are showing up at those engagements now. We're looking forward to all of those. Um, I'd also just like to draw attention to Senate Bill 26004
and that uh was signed by the governor since the last time we met and it expanded the list of pro petitioners for protection orders for red flag orders. A red flag order is something where somebody can go in front of a judge and
say, "Hey, um, this individual has a firearm and could not be safe. You know, there's potential for unsafe behavior in our community." And this expansion um is something that I do think will help keep
our students safe and more people in our community safe. uh as a school district we are now able to petition for red flag laws. So that was just signed into law. Um there are also be behavioral health facilities
um higher education institutions all charter schools. So um I was really happy that Governor Polus signed that. Um, lastly, since we last saw each other,
um, I got the good news that we are going to be doing a pilot of hotspot mapping at New Vista High School. And this is a way for um us to get student voice about where they
feel safe in their school, where they feel welcomed in their school, and any places that are challenging. And once you have that information, of course, you need to figure out what to do about it. But hotspot mapping is a way to do that. um that will be provided by SPAN
who we have a uh current contract with and I'm so excited about this pilot and so I want to thank Rob his team Kathleen her team for helping make that happen. Thank you
Jason. Uh yeah, thanks. I was going to save the community engagement for that section of the meeting, but since we're talking about it, I was able to join last night also and like uh my colleagues who were there, I was just so impressed with all the work um from our district staff, from our principles that went into a
really thoughtful process um you know, for folks who attended to be able to to understand this issue in more detail, really get some important uh data and and understand the various perspectives and possible solutions. Um and so I came
away you know really really energized about the you know very positive great turnout number one but uh you know positive discussions very hopeful and I think um you one thing I was I was very nervous going into this process but
seeing kind of the discussions uh around you know really solutions-based um thinking you know really gave me hope that um you know for for this process. So thanks to everyone who put so much time and effort into that. Thanks to all the staff who were there last night and
will be there, I guess, for the next five. Um, and all the principles who go above, you know, in addition to all the work they do during the day are there at these sessions, uh, helping to facilitate and lead. So, I I was just really really impressed. So, thanks for that. Um, and, uh, didn't did not have a
chance to go to other things. It's spring and my kids are in a million different things and it's hard to get to other places, but I was really grateful to be able to go last night. Um, and then Alex, uh, among your many great suggestions, I, uh, I really love the idea of some kind of, um, a way to make
it easier for parents to use GoG Guardian. When we had our, um, in person or when we had our daytime session on AI, uh, Lynn, who helped lead that, was kind enough to give me personalized instructions on how to do it. And it's still sitting on my desk among a pile of things to do. And if I had a
personalized instruction and I still didn't get it done, I think that, you know, I that's that kind of speaks to how um it's not set up not for any not at anyone, not because of anyone's fault, but not set up uh you know, to make it easy and to maximize, you know, a really great and probably expensive
technology uh that we should be able to to give more families access to. So, I'm in favor of um any kind of thing that, you know, makes it easier to use that uh as a parent. Um, as I've said at during the meeting, it's a source of great tension in my household. Uh, the
Chromebook and what is what is uh what is actual schoolwork and what is not. And I'd love to be able to have a little bit more um visibility uh literally about what is happening uh on the Chromebook. So, um I would love to explore that further. Thanks, Alex.
Jorge, do you have any comments? Yeah, thank you. Uh hi and nice to see you all virtually. I appreciate the consideration. Sorry I can't be there today. Um I wanted to echo some of the sentiment. I know we've gone through
this process right now to u complete the kind of school engagement part talking to teachers, administrators and get that perspective that was so critical you know visiting um all the elementary schools and being able to be a part of that. You know, I think that really set set us up well for the discussion. And
so I want to echo the thanks to the teachers for kind of sharing their concerns and perspectives and and giving us some starting points for the discussions as we think about um the broader community engagement. Um it was really valuable to be there as part of the discussions and and from teachers I've heard back from, they've
appreciated that appreciated it as well. Um I'm looking forward to the community um engagement component of it. Um, and I would like to give a kind of a thanks also to the ELRACK um, committee for helping to kind of iron out this process and and coming up and and and kind of
piloting the the the the ways in which the discussions are being shaped for the community engagement department. I know a lot of work went into that and it's they've been at the forefront of kind of helping us figure out what this process looks like. So, appreciate that and I look forward to kind of hearing from folks in the community as we move
forward. I think we've been really thoughtful about this process. So, thank you to the superintendent um Anderson and administration for the work to really make sure we're being thoughtful about how we're approaching um this tough decision point moving forward.
Thank you. Thanks. Um I'll just a lot of my board members have said what I was going to share about the community engagement sessions. The other thing I would add is it's natur it's instinct if you feel like your school might be one of the ones that is cons up for consideration
for a closure or consolidation or something to really attend in droves. And I would really like to encourage folks who feel like I my kid goes to a school that's solidly three rounds or doesn't feel like it's going to be impacted by any decisions that the board
makes to show up because all voices are really important as we consider what are part of the trade-off exercise is what is of most importance what is of greatest importance to you and so I think I would be great I would be
ecstatic to hear from a wide c like net of parents and community members ers in that not just the from in addition to the those that attend schools that that have been thinking about this for quite some time because they've been experiencing declining enrollment in more significant ways. Along that I also
wanted to just give a shout out to some of our local other local electeds Judia Senator Judia Mallet city council member Tina Marquis for sharing our community engagement sessions. the more we can share when they are, the better engagement we will get from both those
that have students in the district that teach in the district and then those that are taxpayers in our district. It's really important to hear from a wide variety of people. So, thank you to everybody out there who is amplifying these sessions. They are really powerful and and I'll also say that it might seem
a little discouraging to know that they run from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. I will say everybody that participated last night in our first one was fully engaged that entire time. So the time goes by really fast because they are so thoughtfully designed and are in intended to be truly
an engagement activity. So don't be discouraged by the time. It's well worth it. Um and as many people as can that can come the the better. It's been a few weeks now. I was able to a couple weeks ago attend the community leadership academy to talk about what the school
board does. And as I was sitting there I was um Koh's closet. two students from Koh's Closet showed up to share what they do in our schools to teach about health rellated topics. So they ran this group of volunteers or engaged citizens
through one of their lessons. And I just want to give a shout out to Ella from Boulder High School and Kennedy from Centaurus. They did an outstanding job talking about health related issues, suicide, depression, all of the things. I was impressed. So that is a volunteer
organization. A lot of our students volunteer for that. They take donations. They do good work in our schools. And I think it's really important for our our students to learn from their peers. So Ki's Closet shows up in class health classrooms in 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade at most of our schools. Do
outstanding work. So huge shout out to them. Um and then lastly, but not least, I just want to elevate that we are in SEMASS testing windows today. A lot of our schools had PSATs and SATs. that will continue this week. It is a it can be a stressful time for students and for
staff and uh changes in schedules even just can be a source of stress. So I wanted to thank everybody for all that goes into that and for creating the conditions to the extent practicable that encourage our students to take the test because that data does help us in
in important ways and it it's good practice for our students as well. So, just elevating that. That's another one of those things going on this time of year. As Jason said, there's a lot going on and um thanks to our teachers and thanks to our students for for working through that process.
With that, um we will move on to our next item this evening, which we have three information items this evening. The first of which is our 2627 preliminary budget, which Bill Setter will be presenting.
Good evening, President Raj Paul, board members, Dr. Anderson. I uh come to you once again for the uh
starting the details of the uh budget presentations uh as we work our way towards uh adopting the budget for next year. Uh oh.
Oops. Do I have to point at it? It's not picking it up. Oh well. A reminder. Um, we built this into the slides just to as we talk about uh updates. We have audits
and uh which is the prior fiscal year, the current year activities and we are talking about next fiscal year uh right now. So, just uh there's a little color coding up in the corner of each slide uh to remind everybody of where we are in
this conversation. There we go. Uh a little agenda of what I'll be covering. budget development timeline and milestones, the input, uh enrollment projections, uh preliminary budget adjustments and next steps
on the timeline and milestones, uh a review uh of what we looked at back in December. So this is uh the continuation of that presentation. Uh the red line is where we are right now. Uh we are still
taking input uh still incorporating new data uh as that comes to us and uh the majority of the budget uh has already been committed uh through staffing uh that has been uh distributed out to uh
schools. Uh this sort of shading highlights uh the remaining steps uh finishing the legislative session and the school finance act uh in the next uh four weeks or so, five weeks. Uh the
proposed budget presentation uh after Memorial Day uh at the end of May and budget adoption in June. Little summarization. The budget development process spans many months. There are numerous options for input uh
with relevant data and information coming all the way up until the end uh in June with budget adoption the budget development uh input. So the focus of uh budget development for this year uh is very similar uh to
last year uh focusing on employees uh employee compensation. The strategic plan and strategic uh investments uh the strategic initiatives uh within the strategic plan uh
inflation which continues to impact uh districts across the country and in Colorado and uh Boulder is not escape that. Uh and then we added uh mitigating state budget cuts uh to the
list this year uh as conversations uh seem to be continuous at the legislative level of how to uh reduce funding uh for K12 uh in uh obscure ways that uh aren't
tracked and are not uh transparent. uh going forward the uh input these are just uh items committees uh that uh meet I've commented many times before uh just
about any meeting that occurs has a tangental connection uh to budget development even if the meeting is not called a budget input meeting right anytime there is a conversation about uh availability of resources or uh what
kind of services can be provided or additional services. Uh those are essentially budget conversations. The superintendent and his staff take those conversations into consideration uh as the budget is developed.
Just a little reminder of uh the board meetings and board uh meeting topics uh that have occurred this year since the beginning of the year. Uh strategic plan and strategic initiatives uh the updates uh revenue impacts and declining
enrollment uh in the state budget and state economic outlook. lots of opportunity for the public to go back and watch board meetings uh and get information on any of these
topics uh over the past months for enrollment. Uh no surprise I think uh that there's further projected decline in enrollment. Uh this table shows uh actual enrollment
uh physical students not uh students that are uh funded at FTE or uh part of enrollment averaging. Uh the decline is concentrated in our
non-charter schools uh and at the early grades uh as previous board presentations have portrayed. There are uh legislated student count reductions. Uh this is compounding the effect uh in
the loss of enrollment as legislation that reduces funding by changing how students are counted or funded. So this table shows the change in the school finance act uh and how that has reduced funding for districts across the
state uh with declining enrollment. Um projected per pupil revenue for uh Boulder for next year uh is a little under $15,000 per student including our local 25% mil levy override. So that is
approximately $7.3 million uh when compared to the uh previous 1994 school finance act with the five-year averaging. So again, all of those numbers sort of get larger as we move to
the right uh as the enrollment averaging changes from five years to four years to three years to a smoothing factor which is sort of a weighted average uh to two-year averaging. uh and so that is one of the
methods of uh reducing funding uh by just changing how students are counted and funded. So the takeaway on this uh these changes were not part of the
original 1448 implementation. I think the initial one was just changing it from five years to four years. Uh but has been introduced as a way to pay for the plan uh that the legislature didn't really have the money uh to fully
implement. Bill Alex has a question. Yes. Can you back up to the previous slide, please, Bill? Um so what has the legislature done? Have they done made these changes? Are they proposing these changes? Are we planning for the possibility that these changes will
occur? So the current year is the four-year averaging. Uh the next year uh for 2627 uh has the three-year averaging built into the uh school finance act that's
been introduced uh or uh proposed. Uh current law says either two-year averaging or a smoothing factor in the following year. uh the smoothing factor. It was developed by a
group of colleagues, CFOs from across the state uh to kind of split the difference between three-year and two-year. Uh it's a weighted average 50% of uh the current year,
20% and 5% or something like that. So it sort of uh creates a way that counts current students more um and then as the the enrollment from prior years uh gets
further in the rearview mirror uh it gets less weight to it. So the last two columns are current law that will go in effect one or the other uh in the following year.
And so the the three-year average is proposed in the finance act now but hasn't been enacted. Correct. Correct. And what is the unit of these numbers? Are these millions? Are these dollars per kid? What what is what is what does 28.5 mean?
FTE. So student FTEE that is the the averaging um benefit uh that uh is included in our funding. So like it's dollars per child then times 15,000 right equals the dollars. Yeah. So that's a
per pupil dollar amount that would be reduced if we went from the current four-year to the three-year and then from the three-year to the smoothing. Is that a cut? Are all those against the status quo today or are they against the column to their left?
The u second one from the bottom is a comparison to the prior year. So 141 is comparing to uh five-year
averaging. Uh 135 is comparing to four-year averaging. 144 is uh the smoothing factor comparing to uh the three-year and then two-year same. And
then the bottom row is all comparing to the fiveyear averaging. All right. And then if we're using the factor word, is the smoothing factor a new euphemism for the budget stabilization factor or is that a wholly new thing? A euphemism for averaging?
For averaging. Okay. And what is what uh what's our what are we telling the CFO group that we would like to do in terms of BBSD's participation in developing the smoothing factor? Uh
in so many words uh the legislature said tell us how you want to be reduced uh and come up with a factor that is not
called averaging. And so the smoothing literally it says smoothing factor in the legislation. Um so that factor was developed to
it couldn't be more right it couldn't it wouldn't be accepted uh to have it be more than three years uh uh value similar value and averaging um and certainly we wouldn't want it to be less than two year uh because that would be
not beneficial. So it's again kind of split the difference to come up with something that met the current law that said a smoothing factor needs to be developed. Rob and then Jason.
I think this slide highlights our frustration with uh with the new school finance act um which uh makes it seem like they're implementing more money for schools but then gives us uh more money but for less
students as opposed to when they just say how much more per student they're giving us uh alluding to the fact that this is some big windfall for education and it hurts us because the messaging doesn't match the reality of what it is that
school districts across the state are facing. And I do appreciate the 1994 comparison on the bottom bill board members. As you'll recall, we were one of a handful of districts pushing against this new and improved school
finance act that all we've seen is change and morph and phase in and then the smoothing factor which is uh you know folks are really avoiding the realities which is they're not funding education in the in the ways they said they would or they should and
they're trying to make it seem like it's not that bad. And uh to the extent that that this is I think a frustration uh but it's also a problem because it's hard to communicate. I mean we've been talking about this for five to 10 minutes and you all are informed
educated schoolboard members. So for our general public so they know and understand the school finance act was changed. Uh it had different factors. uh it had a phasein plan and as we had predicted when we stood against this
there wasn't the money to implement it as it was written and so now the rules continue to change uh literally there's a um in the school finance act I believe that uh one of our our legislators has coined the positive factor you heard
this bill yeah uh where any new money is going to be the positive factor but so it's just uh it's it's really It's really hard for a public that I think deserves to be um leveled with and and and be communicated
honestly and clearly and I think a lot of this just creates tons of confusion. So uh to the extent Bill that we can clean up some of these numbers but as so we know that they're students and dollars where students are students and dollars are dollars. I think as our
community relies on our communication of these numbers as opposed to the state um uh let's make sure that we go through and clean that up before we post it or when we clean it up Laura let's make sure that that happens. Um I guess on the subject of making this
easier to communicate and to understand I think between Alex's questions and Dr. 's remarks, it's a little clearer. But I think uh if I'm looking at like column two, the 25 26 and 26 27 numbers in the
like high 400s and then you move down to like column four, the 218.5. Is that like that's probably what we're looking at in the future, right? This smoothing factor, some version of that. Like how do you explain that like 50% or more
jump? Like what does that mean? Uh that's a change from four-year averaging to two and a half year averaging. Uh what does it mean when it goes from 496 to 218? Is that like like we're seeing a more than 50% cut from the state level?
Are we seeing like how would you describe that in those things that are funded FTE uh and then you multiply any one of the numbers by the $15,000 per pupil
and which is the what did I say 7 something million um 7.5 million is the 500493 uh funded FTE difference is 7.3 million.
So that's how much less funding we will have in one of those outyear scenarios than if the four fiveyear averaging was in place. Okay, Alex. Yeah, I just I really appreciate the idea of how we figure out how to make our budget more transparent because one
thing I whenever there's a budget discussion with parents in this community, it is, oh my god, can you figure out how to make that budget transparent? we can't figure anything out from what the district shares. So, I I do think it's like incumbent on us in a period where we are advocating uh
against the state in order to not cut funding from our community when we're having really hard discussions with people in the field about closing schools that we be able to communicate clearly what's going on with the budget. And I I've been the treasurer for two years and I still can't figure out a
slide like this. So is in 2024 25 with a five-year averaging $368.9 per student is up or down from 1994. Is that what that says? Uh which number did you say? 200
uh the cell 368.9 in the upper left cell. What what is that? That is what are you telling me with that funded FTE? So funded pupil count. So that's a uh the the benefit the district
received in 2425 under the 1994 school finance act with five-year averaging. We were funded for 368.9 more students than we actually had. This is where the conversation of uh funding
phantom students uh comes from which is um like a really derogatory way of uh explaining that legis some legislators use because they're funding the students that are in
our school. It just gives the district a little runway to make adjustments and changes as we experience declining enrollment. Um, so those were additional resources that the district received over and above the actual students in
the district in each of those years. And then the bottom rows are the decline or the the reduction uh as the averaging went from five year, four year, three year, two year. Okay, that's that's not at all what I
thought it was. So that's helpful to explain it. And again, I'm always arguing that our figures and graphs should be labeled so that someone who doesn't know what's going on can interpret them when we're not explaining it. Lolini and then Deian.
Thank you. I'm starting to understand it. Um, and what would be helpful to me for my discussions with folks in our community would be
a a chart that shows that $7 million. That's that's the chart that I want to have or that I want to be able to have the numbers there, you know, because I understand that and we certainly are not
calling them phantom students, but we see that we would have had 639 students. Is this right? That we would have if if we if things had stayed the same that we would have received funding
funding for. And now by the time we get to smoothing factor, we're down to 218. Um, and I'm sure some could argue about continued phantom students, but I what I need to understand is how much less
money comes in. So that then when someone asks me that that is that's the piece of information that is more understandable for the lay person. Um, is that making sense? Is that what you
need, too? Can someone else speak up? No, I think that'll be I think that's helpful. So, you don't have to say 146.3 time 15,000. So, I I hear what you're saying there, Dian. My question may be irrelevant
because if we turn this into actual dollars and cents, I won't need to ask this question. But if I go back to 1994, well, this the 1994 finance act and I'm taking the numbers for 2425,
that's 368.9, which I understand as an average even though it's last year. Do I multiply it by 15,000? Uh, or is it a less It would be a less amount because it would be in the 2425 per pupil.
Okay. So, dollars and cents would help a lot. Y all good. All right. All right. Uh just a little reminder uh that we are in what I would consider uh the early
stages of the budget finalization. Uh enrollment is being monitored uh as students uh and families continue to put in uh open enrollment requests uh and the weight lists are being
cleared on a daily basis. Uh staff negotiations and compensation is being finalized. Uh we're still meeting with uh all our various associations and employee groups. uh new expenses are uh being identified and
legislative actions are being actively engaged uh over the course of the next uh month or so. Uh this really is right up to the last
minute um as changes come along. So uh the first step in the process is to identify the base budget uh what we would consider the base budget. So this removes all the one-time items uh both revenues and expenses uh to find uh the
starting point uh from moving forward with the budget adjustments. Uh this is a key to maintaining a structurally sound budget. uh something the legislature is struggling with on the revenue side. Uh this is the uh
net amount of per pupil revenue. So this is a 2.3% inflation. So that was the uh 2025 inflation number for uh the Denver Lakewood Aurora
Metropolitan Statistical Unit. So that is the the number that is inflation uh under Taber uh and incorporates the decline in enrollment and the roll out of the new school finance act. So 3.7 million
uh 25% MIL levy override uh for that. So the MIL levy override is only on those new dollars in the school finance act. Uh a little increase for categorical funding. Uh some of the categorical funding uh is
based on enrollment, district enrollment. So within declining enrollment, there's a little reduction uh in categorical funding when inflation is uh taken into account. Uh and then
services provided to charters as part of the charter school contracts. Um they buy services from the district and so that's a revenue line. Uh so 5.3 million uh dollars in ongoing revenue adjustments. So just for some context uh
in April of 2024 when I was here for the 2425 preliminary budget that number was uh 15.9 million at the bottom line. Uh and in 23 it was 18.2 million. So that
included negative factor buyowns and inflation rates of 5.2 and 8%. So much higher inflation. uh two and three times higher. Uh but uh that is what is driving uh those revenue
numbers and a large portion of it was the negative factor buyowns uh which is gone away now that the the negative factor is at zero right now. uh transfers. So as dollars come into
the general fund uh they are transferred over to uh charter schools. So it is their uh portion both uh legal and contractual uh share of per pupil revenue categorical funding and mil levy overrides uh and the adjustment for enrollment. On
the enrollment slide I think there's five more students uh projected for our charter schools uh overall. Um so a little u use of those new dollars into the general fund.
On the expenditure side uh compensation uh so we have not included a cost of living adjustment in here yet. Uh we have salary schedule movement uh so uh movement on the salary schedules uh that are uh in place or uh under
negotiations. uh a little other change associated with uh some negotiations process we're working through now and then health and dental insurance uh this is what the benefits committee recommendation was uh that came to the board I think last
meeting um there is also a employee contribution increase on uh those health and dental insurance uh benefits uh so this is just the district contribution further budget adjustments. So, as we
experience declining enrollment, we reduce staff uh by our staffing formulas. Uh so, this is where districts uh can get into a financial squeeze uh keeping staff not supported by enrollment uh and then have to announce
large staffing cuts uh instead of addressing it annually. board members and for our community. Um this is just a really important point that Bill is talking about. Each and every year we adjust our resources based
on our revenues and ongoing um dollars that we have. If you are looking at other districts that are looking at declining enrollment and there was a news article the other day, you know, districts cutting 150 160 individual teachers.
uh if you if you do things the way we're doing, which is continuing to decline as the students aren't here, um that's why even though we're having this conversation around declining enrollment, it doesn't mean we're, you know, there's there's 150 um people
being being laid off or we're in some kind of reduction in force scenario. Uh it is our formulas, our staffing formulas that are allow us to budget in a way where we're not deficit budgeting. Uh next we have uh utilities. Uh so this
is um a portion of what I would consider that inflationary cost. Um water is a big component of of this about twothirds of that amount uh is both the water rates uh and usage. It's been a wee bit
dry if folks haven't noticed. Um this is ex we have started watering earlier uh and um that uh is going to be challenging this summer. Next we have uh cost savings for staff turnover as more
experienced people retire and uh newer folks are hired in. Uh and then uh expanding Apex uh for new programs, new CTE programs, uh behavioral health, computer science, pharmacy, tech, and
medical assistant are the new programs uh being rolled out in the fall. Uh little summary here. Uh new resources, uh new uses, and an ending balance, uh 1.8 million that's
unallocated at this point. Um just to put this in context right this is on about 400 million in uh total revenues uh and total expenditures in the general fund or total uses. Uh so um pretty
small margins of what we're talking about uh as changes uh even though millions of dollars sounds like uh big numbers uh it's a pretty small percentage of the overall uh general
fund budget. Uh as I regularly comment, we are very careful to track one-time revenues and expenditures to ensure ongoing expenses have ongoing resources uh to create a structurally balanced budget. So we uh
specifically call out those items uh that we add to the budget uh both on the revenue side because there are one-time uh revenues that come in that we don't want to commit on an ongoing basis. Uh but then also uh expenditures uh that
we're committing to for either one year or multiple years. We'll call that out if it's a multipleyear uh use of of resources. Uh but uh our staffing reserve that we've uh been putting in place for uh a number of years now for
uh the enrollment in inefficiencies. uh special education support for the moderate needs program rolling out uh some curriculum, subteer pay uh and uh communications to uh continue our
showcase and marketing efforts uh with that reserves uh required by state law and board policy. So a little increase there. um net expenditures aren't going up very much. So the net reserves don't
need to go up very much. Uh this is the summary of the one-time available about 11.5 million and the one-time uh uses uh that I just described. Um there are uh one-time uses
being discussed in negotiations. So this number will uh get smaller. um uh as we're uh working through uh salary schedule transitions uh and things like that uh with our employee associations
summary uh the base budget uh as I referenced earlier uh the new one-time new ongoing uh and the total preliminary budget at this point uh there have been years where the bottom line numbers are negative
uh which is not a great place to be but uh also we're early in the stage. These are not negative uh and we are continuing those discussions on particularly on negotiations that'll be the uh biggest changes uh that will be
uh included in the proposed budget uh in May. I guess I'll pause there see if there's any questions. Anna and then Jorge, I don't want to forget about you, so if you ever need
anything, just chime right in. Anna, for the 2627 projections, uh, and I know that this is a super short runway because the JBC just passed the long bill on Saturday. Um are the projections
in line with what uh did pass in the long build? That is the next slide. So yes, uh the long bill has been introduced. uh the school finance act
while still uh being discussed um there is I would say pretty limited legislative desire to make changes. Uh there was pretty significant push back
on the SOT uh change that was uh discussed um you know taking those resources making a cut to school districts and counting it uh the the local share the local portion uh of the
school finance act. Um so they backed off on that. Um there's lots of uh talking points for campaigns on how the budget stabilization factor has been eliminated and uh we're not
bringing it back and so it would be kind of backpedaling uh if that was to come back. So there's not a lot of desire to do that. Um the next item on here though, the midyear recision. Uh so the JBC decided
to use a um we'll say a somewhat aggressive revenue target uh for next year. uh which sort of increases the uh chances for a mid-year recision if the
state economy doesn't uh perform as expected or there are further federal legislative changes or anything like that. So, uh the chances of a midyear recision, we haven't had one in a while. Uh but it's not particularly pleasant
when the legislature comes in January and says, "Okay, we need some money back that we uh said you would get." Um whether they're sort of hedging their bets on uh passage
of the referred measure uh that will bring in uh additional dollars to the state um to cover that potential deficit. um pure speculation but um uh
that sort of is out there. Um and then the last one, enrollment uh changes. Uh so a 0.1% uh decline or 25 students is about $375,000
or 1.5 million for 100 students. So if enrollment doesn't materialize, uh that's where some of our revenue sensitivity also exists that we experienced uh this year and this past fall.
Uh some other funds, notable items, community schools, uh the high school scoreboard, uh and advertising and marketing. Uh the board approved the uh install purchase and installation of the scoreboards for the high schools. Uh
so including that uh within the community schools fund and then the initial uh estimated Sundance uh impacts. Um we want to be very clear that uh the intent is not to spend any
uh taxpayer resources on uh the Sundance Festival or the impacts thereof. Uh and so getting the uh festival to uh cover the direct costs uh for the district. Um
we're not in the same situation that the city is with collecting uh sales tax revenue or lodging tax revenue. Uh things like that. Um there's no benefit to the district uh for increased property values because Sundance is now
here or whatever. Um the the so the district needs to make sure that we're recouping those uh hard costs, direct costs uh associated with the festival. Uh in the preschool fund, uh we're in the third year of this new uh structure
of funding. Uh we've not received any communication on the funding rates um which is sort of challenging. Um it's probably the third year of uh funding being below inflation or funding
increases being below inflation. Uh so that continues to put pressure on the general fund as we're needing to uh support staff compensation out of general fund resources uh because the preschool UPK program isn't keeping up.
Bill Jason has a question then. Alex. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Just on this Sundance impact, uh, you know, was I actually wanted to ask kind of what the word impact meant. It sounds like you you're clear on that. Are there no opportunities for revenue? I mean, maybe it's something we need to prioritize and
discuss, but I feel like that would be a real wasted opportunity. There are uh opportunities for um revenue. I mean, our normal rental rates uh that we would charge that are posted
on the website um uh are sort of the starting point, right? Are there benefits to the district uh altruistic benefits, artistic benefits, you know, all the things that will come uh from Sundance being in our school in
two of our schools. Um so, Yes, it's also a new location after I know 40 years of being in Park City. So, I think everybody's feeling out just exactly what this is going to look like.
The facilities uh that they were in, the school facilities in Park City, uh was a giant addition wing on the school. So, um, not in the building in the same way
that, uh, it's going to be in Boulder High and Casey. So, kind of a different setup. Um, and we're working through all the contract negotiations on that even as we speak. Yeah. Uh, I would have interrupted
earlier, but I I wanted to go back to um again the theme of making this um easier for the public to understand or the board members to understand. Uh this one actually I'd go back to slide 19. All the way back.
Yeah. So for me like the column on the far right is our bait buzz budget and we make one-time changes that are affected by a reserve that results in the column to the far left right like what in you in American western culture do we go
from right to left to sum the columns of something for someone to understand like wouldn't it start with 433 it has a onetime increase of 8.3 nothing from the reserves that adds up to 441.9 like I usually add up from left to right I would be my point. So, is there an
accounting reason why you would put the first number as the sum and all the other numbers that add up to it? Uh, or I'm understanding it wrong. Maybe, yeah, it's more of a subtraction, right? So the revised budget that was adopted in January includes
8.3 million of one-time expense uh onetime revenue and the base budget is 433 million to start next year. So that's that's the 2026 27 base after the
431 revised. So the four the 202526 revised budget that's our baseline for what we're moving forward and then the 2026 27 is a new budget year or is that the 202526 revised budget for 2627.
The far right column is the starting point for 2627. So we've removed all the one-time revenues and expenses
and that is then the starting point as we add revenue so on and so forth. So that the the 202526 revised budget is the revision to what we had spent or uh in 2526.
And so are we assuming that the 2526 budget is the baseline for what we spend in 2627 less the one time less the one times changes. So we're starting out with it that way. Okay. Well, that I guess that illustrates for me why one of the points I've made for quite a while that I I
would love to see us at some point like on slide on subsequent slides like 20, you know, 21 when we're dealing with the amount of the changes, I would love to have them proportionate to the baseline for them so that people could evaluate whether they're big or small numbers. So
when something of a preschool fund, you know, changes 100,000 bucks, it's a big deal to know if that's out of a 200,000 baseline or if it's out of an 11 million baseline, right? So with the addition of a single column, I think we could add make that data so much more meaningful
to people so they would know what it's a proportion of and then we could maybe reinforce what I get confused about when I look at the slides and can't figure out how the numbers add up from left to right or right to left. So it uh sort of a a base budget to the left and the
amount of the change. Yeah, I think the public and myself would be able on slide 21 like 1.3 million in the charter schools fund is a transfer which is great because money becomes available from school finance act or the override and
it goes into our fund. Uh but is that 1.3 on top of 100 million or 1.3 on top of three million? Right. And so were we off by a factor of 10 or were we off by a factor of 0.01? Like if if the idea in public governance is to oversee how close we were and how well we were able
to predict it. If I don't know the baseline, I can't make a governance evaluation of how well we did at anticipating or knowing unless I go back and do it myself. So that's where I'm like that's one of those things of opa making it opaque is making it harder for someone to interpret it where all we
have to do is add the baseline number and then they'll at least know how close we were. So, I've asked for that three years in a row, and I would love to see it uh next year. So, this kind of sums up but not individual lines as you're referencing.
Yeah. to illustrate my point like I don't know how these numbers uh correspond to the other ones because the other ones are summing up those individual pieces within it. So this is the baseline data but this baseline data isn't necessarily divided up into the same things that the transfers are going
into. Those are sort of sums of points that are transferred or in the one-time expenditures as I understand it. So in order to judge the numbers on the previous slides, I need to know those baselines. Then I need to know how those baselines add up into this slide. That's
the way I would aspire to understand it. Yep. Transportation. uh an additional transfer of 200,000 uh for McKini Mckin Vento support u
there's an expected reduction in title one funding uh and an additional school uh being qualified as a schoolwide school uh elementary school um so that sort of uh spreads the
resources a little thinner so uh covering the costs of the Mckin Vento transportation, the homeless student transportation um uh as a transfer and additional resources into the transportation fund.
Uh and then the charter school fund. Um so here's the total um for the uh charter school transfer. So 37 million inclusive of that 1.3. Bill, I have a question actually about
Title One funding. I know the federal government is decreasing that pot of money. I was also the under the impression that they were making it harder to qualify at the same time for Title One. Is that not the case? Is it just the pocket of money and that it just is spread around more thinly, but
not that the qualifying standards are changing at all? I have not heard of changing the qualifications. It's still based on pre-launch status. Okay. And the percentages haven't changed or anything like that. It's just
just that money is shrinking. We determine the cutoff. There's some minimums uh to identify a schoolwide school. Uh but we get to determine where that cut off is. So um we have in 30
years focused the title one resources at the elementary level. um to make them go further so that they're not spread too thin. Um and then the one high school it's uh once you hit 75% at the high
school level uh or maybe it's secondary in general um you're you have to be a schoolwide school. just as high as a title one school as well because they're 80 or 85% free lunch.
And as we're making our assessments on that, do we ever consider particularly as that pot of money, the title one funding from the federal government is decreasing. There are times where a title one school in our district frequently is a very good fundraiser because while they might
have a large percentage of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch, they also have a very large percentage of folks that are able to generate generously donate a lot of money. Do we ever take that into consideration when we're thinking about the allocation of this shrinking resource?
No, it is just a number and a cut off point. Okay. strategic investments. Uh so uh we added this in the revised budget uh for this year back in January uh to
uh identify some of those uh strategic investments that are included in the budget both on an ongoing uh and one-time basis. And then if there's any uh future dollars that have been set aside, the weighted differentiated funding uh school support fund uh that
we have transferred uh dollars into uh which is the future dollars that 11.5 million uh and then next year's uh allocation to be used uh 5.2 million uh for that weighted differentiated
funding. uh and then uh so on and so forth through these uh they're the same items that were uh discussed in the revised budget. The ongoing programs are continuing to be ongoing uh and the one-time uh are continuing uh as one
time. Uh the UVA um professional learning uh cohorts uh is the last year uh of that uh funding that has been set aside so far. uh the wellness rooms, uh some one-time
funding that's uh expected uh to be available for next year. Uh and then uh the ongoing funding that exists in the uh current ongoing budget, curriculum, restorative practices, assessments, MTSS, professional development,
and Bill, is that wellness rooms what we're anticipating receiving from the county mental health tax, or is that a different source of revenue? It's combination of uh donation and that county tax.
Uh this is a subtle question that's maybe more important for later. Um in looking through like some of our charter school renewals, uh not all our charter schools are accessing like interim benchmark assessments which are really key to assessing you know the student quality and growth. Are we letting when
we spend our money on our state assessments? I mean excuse me on the district assessments linked to our curriculum. Are we offering those to our charters or is that a fee for service thing we can offer? because I sure want to insist that a school coming up for renewal that has no CMAS testing data
have benchmark data that we can use to assess their quality. Otherwise, I have no insight into whether kids are learning there. So, as long as we're spending the money, it would be great to allow 100 kids at a charter to use that assessment to and sort of encourage or require a charter to do one. Do you know if we do that yet?
I'll have to check. I'll have to check. Um, and it may be different for the um for different charters. Let me check. Laura, you're making a note. Strategic realignment of administrative resources. So, board members, um, as as we're going
through declining enrollment and we're going through, um, adjustments in budget, I need to be clear with you and with our community that that means that we need to make adjustments to central office spending. Um, we are currently
finalizing budget reductions in central office. Um, I anticipate those those dollars that we would recoup to drive towards um priorities in schools to be in excess of a million dollars. And uh across all of our divisions, I think
that we've asked all of our cabinet um I've asked all cabinet members to to really look to see where where can we um make reductions without negatively impacting schools um or teachers or educators. uh you know, if you start to cut um certain
things or if you cut people across the board percentage-wise, it may have unintended consequences where all of a sudden there's more work for teachers to do, there's more work for leaders to do. Um in some instances, a central office uh staff takes the takes work away from
schools. And so those are those are investments that we'd want to keep. and where there's opportunities to make those reductions as as tough as they may be. Certainly, um, all of our schools in our system are facing those same types of challenges. And so, um, I will have a
finalized number when we bring back the final budget for study. Uh, but you can expect that to be in excess of a million dollars. And I would say that um based on the teacher roundtables and the feedback that we're getting from our families as we go
through this community engagement uh there may be a redeployment of those resources to priorities we've identified through those opportunities. Next steps uh so the legislative session ends uh here in the early May. Uh we'll
have the proposed budget public input uh session at the board meeting on May 26th. Uh and then the study item uh followed shortly thereafter. Uh and then June 9th is the tenative uh adoption
date uh for the 2627 budget. That's the end. Thanks, Bill. Board members, any I know we spent a lot of time throughout this information item asking questions, digging in any additional questions or
comments. I see Dr. raising his hand. I I'll just say thank you board members for your feedback. I appreciate your focus on making sure that our community can understand. Um we do have we have been taking notes. We will make some of those adjustments prior to posting this.
Laura, if you can make that note. um in particular making sure that when we have numbers whether it's students whether it's dollars that that's that's incredibly clear with a footnote um and uh to the extent that we could add some of that proportionality of budget I think that we could probably
add that that's just another um column we can add that prior to posting uh and then we'll continue to strive to to do everything we can to try to tell the picture in ways that are um that are accurate not so overwhelming
but are clear for folks to understand. Thanks for that, Dr. Anderson. Alex, then Jason. Yeah, I just want to express my gratitude for that because um uh I find I find the budget tricky for me to understand as former treasurer and member of the board a lot of time and my
interactions with the public are 100% like I've yet to have someone say, "Thank you for how clear your budgeting is. It's really easy for me to understand how you get raise and spend money." Zero people. all the people who have mentioned budget cannot finish the conversation without saying, "I don't know what the heck's going on with your budget. Can't you be more transparent?"
So, and I think in it's incumbent on us when we're doing something as intense as potentially closing schools, um dealing with coverage of the staffing changes that we make that may or may not be accurate to do whatever we can to build public trust and understanding of it.
And so if there's a way we've done something for 10 years because we've done it for 10 years doesn't make it the right way to do it because our public can't understand what's going on. I'm not sure our board can I myself can't understand it. So I I do think uh it's one of those exercises where we should
ask ourselves what's the function of our communication about the budget and what's the outcome of it. And if we were teachers in a classroom teaching a class on the BBSD budget, we would have failed as a collective teaching force to educate the students about it with the
way we do it. So I I just think um we really should do better and it's in our interest in the long term to do and I'm not saying anyone's doing it wrong. It's just we are going the way we are. Public can't understand it. We're struggling to understand it. And uh the more I dive in, the more confident I am that we're
doing it right and we're being prudent and I feel good about our stewardship. But I give us a very low grade for our um transparency. Um I should have asked this question earlier. Can we go to slide 11? I I didn't know we had question
opportunities earlier. Um it's kind of a big picture question. Um not not so different from Alex's, but more in terms of kind of board member understanding of how of the process and the inputs. Um the slide shows like I
think it says 14 different board meetings uh that kind of contributed to the budget process and I really appreciate that because I feel like I've never seen that translate into a slide of where are you know we talk about a lot of things we prioritize a lot of things we care about a lot of things.
Um, and I don't mean this in like a gotcha question way, but like when we talk about all these things here, could you just like how does that translate to the work that you all do and you and your team into, you know, in addition to the priorities we have, you know, strategic priorities that you mentioned
like when we had a conversation about the with the be well action plan, we talked a lot about mental health and counselors and what what is that like that conversation, how does that translate into budget processes and prioritization. I think like and again I
don't mean this in a kind of tell me what you've done with our with our priorities because I know we have limited resources, a very narrow budget to work with and we like I said we talk about a lot of things that we care about and a lot of things we'd love to do that we know we can't. But I think you know
in I guess this is my third year with a budget and so I guess first appreciation for this because it's first time I've seen kind of our work here translate to what you do but I really want to better understand how this translates into the rest of the slides. And maybe that's
another conversation, but maybe just some initial in summary more it's about um all of the conversations that happen uh as we talk about mental health and
the supports that students need and what we're doing that goes into the collective um uh needs bucket of the district. uh as the superintendent is working with
staff and pulling together uh the budget for the next year. And so um if there are resources that are available to uh new money uh to spend what are the top priorities
that's within the strategic plan or if there is something that is such a high priority that we need to uh redirect uh existing resources make reductions to add something like that all goes into
the collective budget development decision. So what I think what Bill has tried to do here is that this has evolved. It used to be we'd go out and ask people what we should spend our money on disconnected from the conversations at the board table and disconnected from
our strategic plan and strategic initiatives, right? And so it used to be the develop we would build I mean remember when we I started Bill we would go out and say what should we spend money on and people didn't they don't it's they have a hard time articulating exactly the investment right so then you
get real generalized feedback and then folks were giving feedback in ways that wasn't maybe necessarily showing up in the budget right with the idea that um every time we have conversations a couple of things have happened. Number one, you have all prioritized this as
something we I need to focus on. Many of these are embedded in my superintendent goals, right? Which are then embedded and cascaded through our entire cabinet and to our principles. And so when you have an aligned organization, your conversations matter. And so in some
instances, we've decided to to maintain the a level of funding. In other instances, we've had to change and shift resources. Sometimes we add, sometimes we subtract. I so but I think what Bill is trying to do here is to really um you
know inform the budget that our conversations right inform the work of the school district. So, it's not a um it's not a direct, you know, at the end of every presentation I say, "Okay, $40,000 goes to this thing we talked about, right?"
But I do think that it does shape goals. It shapes our further prioritization. Every time we have a conversation on a topic some, you know, topics come up and then at the end of the meeting, we can say, "Hey, based on this, man, I'd really like for us to dig in here, dig in there." And then over time those
things be then can can come in um in either a redistri redistribution of resources a new resource um sometimes a reduction in resources. So, uh, I think that, um, I really appreciate the idea that our conversations matter when it
comes to budget and that our conversations matter, um, at, uh, at the board table when it comes to, um, the direction of the school district and, uh, you know, that this isn't a list of
things that I decided I wanted to do. These are things that we kind of really talk about together. Um, yeah, I really I I appreciate that. Again, you know, I'm grateful for this slide. Like I said, it's the first time I've been able to connect uh you know, the conversations we've had to this
process. And so, if I can make a request for future presentations, it would be to continue this stuff and even build on it. And so, you know, here, you know, I could I could look at a few of these bullets where later in the slides, you show, you know, how that budget has changed. Not maybe not as a result of
the conversation we've had, but like, you know, strategic plan progress. And so if there's a connection to hey this we plused up this not because the board discussion maybe but you know here is here's the connection between what you all talked about and how it impacts the budget process. And so I'm not sure how
that looks but if there's a way to tie this stuff to kind of the actual budget development and actual numbers and you know in some cases that might be nothing. It's not I'm not asking for like hey we mentioned AI there's a $40,000 plus up. It's more just, you know, for us to be able to understand,
you know, that these um, you know, that these conversations are important and where they do translate to budget, you know, budget impacts. I mean, deciding to to maintain budget is a decision too, right? Like, so I think that to the extent that based on
any conversation that either you do something differently or you maintain your efforts, right? I think those are decisions as well. I I like that idea. I do think that we can take that back and think about how our prioritization aligns with um conversations that align
with budget implications. Anna and then Alex. Uh first I do just want to say a big thank you for guiding us through all of this. This was uh very indepth. Um, I am going to pull my new board member card
out and say what would be helpful to me uh in understanding new board member card but also a relatively um new parent in K through 12 as having just a kindergartenner in the in the system. Uh
it would be helpful for me to to yes have the footnotes so that when I go back um I know uh specifically on slide 15 um what these units are measuring. Um it would be also helpful for me to have
some sort of a matrix um that tells me what our FTE for BVSD is um but what the average per pupil revenue is for the state. not so that we know like um like where we land but just like to have an
overall sense of what the state is trending at. Um and to that to that um also highlighting how much uh per FTE we're getting from those mill levy
overrides. Um so that I also can break out what is the state and what is the district. um along with these uh student counts totals
for projected future years of FTE. Um so that I know kind of like what we're looking at so that we have that like we're losing the $7 million um what and and to that effect what that is going to
mean for um for programs within the district. Um, I know that that's a little harder to to really dig into and and weed through, but um, trying to understand some of the the district priorities and being able to see the
numbers and being able to kind of guesstimate of like what would be the the tradeoffs um, for that declining um, declining future projections. if it's like a matrix or a whatever it
could be just so that I have a whole a holistic picture for the district and for the state I think would be very helpful to me um ditto great idea uh it's always it's we have a lot of that in there so we embed things in different documents it's
just hard if we don't pull it out and summarize it and give the executive summaries for people to to find things you know I feel like We're very transparent if you read everything and but you have to read everything and understand it which is part of the challenge. So totally been there respect
that very much. I I and I would benefit from it just as much as a new board member. Um back to the point of the long list of people up there. Uh I do think um one of the things that helps with understanding the budget is actually to not talk about all of it in a
quantitative way. So like I think to understand how you and your team have acted on these things is actually a fairly narrative qualitative discussion about like well I heard this and I heard this and we're making an investment in X and it's part of this bigger thing. like we can't say oh it's 42,000 or 41,000
that you added because of this discussion but you can say I've heard a lot about the importance of teacher needing more support from our interventionists and so we need to work on either the you know the collective bargaining agreements for the numbers of thresholds for those interventionists or
the inefficiencies and there's where it shows up so some of it I think of it as sort of a storytelling that helps us understand your thinking and your leadership's actions and and I'm not asking for a a spreadsheet that adds up to the penny. I'm asking for more
philosophical and like um uh big picture decisions that you and your team have made that are based on either this input or our discussions. And part of my motivation is to make sure that we are safeguarding the ability to do the things that come up and that you know we
do these budgeting process on annual basis and we got two or three shots at making changes but things come up in our community. mass shootings, fires, declining enrollment, mental health crisis, you know, suicide cluster, you name it. Super important stuff we have to act on. And if we not responsive to
those things, then we're not responsive. And so, I really want to make sure we're protecting our values and our priorities in our budgeting, too. But I don't expect that to add up to the dollar. What what I really appreciate about this
board is um that uh that you trust my leadership to be able to make these decisions and we talk about outcomes and what we're trying to accomplish and then you empower me as the superintendent to make the the moves that we need to make to begin to create the conditions for
success to happen and I think that that's served that that that relationship I think has served us incredibly well. So um so so yes some you know based on these things based on this feedback based on what we're seeing these are the investments that that
we're making that are different and I would say that that Alex that flexibility is critical and and to the community at large um that you know that we do have the ability and flexibility to to real time make some shifts and adjustments depending whether it's board
priority or community need um and whether it's through our funds or other funds that we that we can access depending upon what's happened. Uh that we set budgets and then we run the district. And I think that uh
oftent times almost every time at the end of the year what you spent isn't what you thought you were going to spend. Always less, never more. Uh um overall and so you know trying to capture some of that nuance. And I do think that and I want to be clear I I do
think that what we do to your point is transparent but very complicated. So how do we simplify what we're doing without cheating the budget of its complexity? you know, we we try to tell Bill Bill tries to tell very highlevel complicated
stories through kind of some of the things that he shares, right? Like if you go back to the slide that we've been talking about, you know, the story Bill is telling is that um you know, the the ways that they're counting students is is creating a different narrative than what you might hear in the public. Now,
to do that in a spreadsheet without the conversation is impossible, right? If you if you buy into the premise that uh you know every presentation's going to get legs and you have to be able to read it upon its own without the narrative and without watching 40 minutes of video
to get it then you know certainly uh so um so I think that sometimes um you know clarity versus trans I mean trans we are as transparent as as we we've we have enough awards in Bill's office and over in business services to prove our
transparency. It's the clarity and clar clarity with simplification so folks can understand. Now I think the danger becomes then people you know you oversimplify things they misinterpret things and come and jump to conclusions that then you have to try to get more
complicated to solve. there's a balance and uh you know since I've been here, Bill has has has adjusted and shifted the ways that we presented the budget. Um but has always done an amazing job making sure our resources are where they need to be and accounted for and transparent. So I do appreciate Bill for
that. Um and the great thing about Bill, he's always open for feedback, right, Bill? So, uh, we can make all the adjustments that we need and and try to get to that clarity, uh, for folks that they're looking for and get clarity around the school
finance act, which is anything but. Jorge, I heard your ding, which means you must have put your hand up. Thank you. Uh, I I appreciate this discussion. I want to say thank you to Bill for presenting this and to the
administration putting it all together. I I think it's an important discussion to have and I really appreciate that we're having this discussion in this sort of way thinking about the ways and we should make this more clear for our community and for folks understand kind of what's happening with our budget
because I think that's a really to Alex's point the way we can tell stories from this is really important and powerful for helping folks understand I mean so that that slide that we've kind of gone back to numerous times to understand what FTE means right that's that it's full-time equivalence for
students and that, you know, declining enrollment is cutting our funding as we lose students, but that the ways in which the state is counting students is accelerating that trend even more and and deepening the cuts going from a fiveyear to a two-year average, right? So, how do we tell that story more
cleanly and efficiently? Um, and then to the slide that um that Jason pointed out, right, the story we have there is that these are the investments that we've made. This is part of our strategic plan. these are the priorities that we think are important for us to serve all of our students. Um, and our
ability and that's in our budget. And then looking further down the budget, looking at personnel, that's over 80% 85% of our budget that's going to people, the people who are there with our kids, educating them and supporting them. And we're doing a lot of heavy
lifting with one-time funds. um you know, I think it was something like over 40 million of one-time funds to kind of support initiatives um um support personnel, support our curriculum in terms of the direction that we've kind of gone and and as our our budget
decreases, you know, we'll have less wiggle room and and so having these conversations now while we're still kind of working within the money that we have is really important. So, I want to commend the district for for doing that work and the board for keeping us all for us for, you know, the board members
for asking the questions that are hard um but having the discussion. So, um I think it's been a really useful discussion this evening. So, thank you. I'll chime in because I haven't had a chance to talk yet before we go back to you, Alex. Um I just want to say thank you for this. I know one of the
challenges is also balancing to one of Anna's questions with our MLOS's and different revenue streams. We our per people funding is can can be more generous and I think sometimes we we don't want to make an example of ourselves in a negative way. So there is a balance I feel like Bill is always
trying to strike in these presentations and to Rob's point not oversimplifying things to the point where somebody's misinterpreting. I think that happens a lot. a point. You know, we've received some emails lately. There was some new nextoor threads blowing up over the weekend about administrative bloat and
how what we really need to do and consider in this declining enrollment situation is cut dollars at the at the administrative level, the central office level. And I appreciate Dr. Anderson. I just want to elevate that that slide. We that we are doing that. We do run very lean at our administrative level. Our
staff work a lot of hours and exceedingly hard to try to juggle all the things. I think at the last board meeting I joked our academics department is three. I mean there's we have very few people at the administrative office and and as we continue to make cuts
everywhere, we will continue to make cuts there. It's an easy place to point to and it wasn't on a slide as necessarily a negative number because central office staffing doesn't decrease proportional to student enrollment in the same way that our teachers based on our contractual obligations
they do decrease that way. Uh but I just wanted to elevate that because it has been coming up in the community. Are you looking at central office spending? It came up at roundts and every single time Dr. Anderson has said yes, the central office will not will not stay as it is when everything else in our budget is
most everything else and our budget is taking a decrease. So I just we didn't spend a lot of time on that and it has continues to come up in the community. So I just really wanted to elevate that that piece um in there as well. And we'll do one last question and then we will move on to our next information item.
Dr. Anderson and then Alex. Sorry. Sorry, Alex. I appreciate you bringing up that point, Nicole, and and certainly we're hearing those things, but you know, I want to be really clear with you board members and to our community that the district conditions matter that the dollars we've invested
where so we can take some of the work away from schools and centralize some things actually is much more efficient and much more effective, saves people time. um and the district conditions that we've created have um along with our incredible educators together have
led to incredible results. And so, you know, for example, Nicole, to your point, you know, people may may frown upon the dollars we spend on the BBSD is the place to be showcased. You know, they see that, oh goodness, you have $200,000 in this budget for the showcase
and for marketing, right? And if we through that event where we have 12-500 people show up bring 20 people back from private school or from other districts right at $15,000 a student.
I mean you could start doing the math but I do think that there there on occasion especially when folks are trying to advocate for something they'll try to highlight something devalue it to then try to lift up what it is that they want. And so that's the nature of of of
of as of being a public servant and having public budgets that you present like and and we're incredibly transparent. But I do I am sensitive, but I also stand firmly behind the investments that we've made because we have the results that show that they've worked in ways that a lot of things have
not necessarily worked in the ways they're working now in BBSD over the years. Um, and so I just want to make sure that, you know, you you're not going to cut your not going to cut your way to get whatever it is that you want. You're going to give something up every time you cut dollars. We're being thoughtful. We're being mindful. Um, we
know and understand it's something that we need to do. We will do it. But there's also things that we need to stand firm on because they're working and they're they're showing up in our student outcomes. Well said, Alex. Uh I just want to thank you for that and that's part of I know I've been sometimes the critic of the
transparency thing and that's exactly the kind of dialogue that I think the community that will serve us well like I fair reviews rate of the percent of kids go getting college credit before they leave's gone from 56% to like 94%. We
have invested in grad plus. That means there's people who work in Fairview and people who work in central office whose job it is is to get more kids college credit. When we go from 56 to 94% college credit, that's a lot of individual students whose life is better
and their opportunities are expanded because we made it a priority to focus on getting all the kids at Fair View a rich opportunity. That's part of our pursuit of equity as is our differentiated investment of, you know, $5.6 $6 million in the schools that historically had the biggest achievement
gaps. We picked as a huge strategic goal that we would close opportunity achievement gaps. And you don't do that by not investing money in it. And you have to invest money in the school. And you have to invest money in like a curriculum and in assessments and interventionists and people to help with
MTSS and a data system. And all those are going on in an office with a threeperson curriculum office. You know, if we were Jeff Co, there'd be 12 people in that office. So I totally respect and again I defer to your leadership team and your expert judgment of making sense
of all this that we're trying to do. So I'm trying to protect the different the difference to our discretion because that's how we do nimble things that matter. And I want us to be able to tell that story so our community understands it. And when we're we're all making trade-offs, that's what all this community engagement is about is the
trade-offs. And we're making painful ones, too. So I just totally uh kudos to you and your team and the lean staff who are doing all this and I um you know are we need to be transparent enough that we are resilient to misinterpretation and
that we can you know make the case for what we're actually caring about and valuing. Thank you Bill. We will now move on board members to our next information item tonight which is resilient schools community engagement update. Oh, Randy being asked for a comfort
break. Board members will take a five minute comfort break and resume. Welcome back everyone. Thank you for that little interlude. As I was saying, the nextformational item we have this evening is a resilient schools community engagement update. To give that update,
we have with us Randy Barbara, our chief communications officer, who is usually the man behind behind the curtain. Um and so we are happy to have him out here uh to present to us tonight. Thanks Randy. Absolutely. Good evening, President Raj
Paul and members of the board. Uh it's my pleasure to be here tonight. Um I'm here as you know uh in January we started the community engagement process related to how we we might best create resilient schools in a time of declining enrollment. At the board's request uh we
are back here to give you an update in regards to those efforts to comm uh connect with our community. Our commitment as always has been to ensure that stakeholders are informed, heard, and meaningfully involved as we begin shaping the potential paths forward. Um, here in BBSD, we really believe in
listening first before leading. So, in this phase, we are creating space for thoughtful structured input that will help to guide the development and options that for the board to decision uh for the board to consider as we move forward. It's also important to remind our audience that this work is really
focused on our elementary and PK8 schools in Boulder, Broomfield, Lewisville, and Superior. This slide here shows us a little bit of the phases of the process. I'm going to start and end the pro uh the presentation today on this uh over the
next two years uh kind of what to expect. Uh the yellow line shows where we're at at this point in April. Uh we're in the middle of our community engagement process. Um as we as we engage our community uh our goal has been to create a deliberate transparent multi-step process that begins with
listening and moves through uh thoughtful uh thought through move through thoughtfully through towards action. Sorry. Uh we've been very busy over the last two months. This I slide uh demonstrates all the places that we've been we've been connecting with community stakeholders uh in a number of
places starting with our ed educators uh and uh principles out at elementary schools. um principal or uh superintendent uh Anderson and Deputy Superintendent Dea Cruz uh visited with each and every one of our principles and went to each one every one of our
elementary schools uh to talk to our educators in regards to their thoughts as we lead into this process. Knowing that they're the closest to this uh to the student experience, we really wanted to begin with the schools as we look at what we're going to do with the district. We also engaged our district
advisory committees. Uh all 13 of them that are on the right hand side there. Um and uh we uh we've been out uh Rob Price, our assistant superintendent of operational services, has been out talking to our municipalities. Uh we've got one more of those meeting scheduled in May uh in Broomfield. And then
finally, uh superintendent Anderson will also be presenting to the Boulder Rotary Club in the next week. Additionally, uh we've really been working to communicate not only about these engagement efforts, but also the information so that folks are aware of what's going on. Uh it's really
important that our community is informed about what's happening, how they can take part in that process. Uh and so we've been sharing our information through a number of avenues. Um one of the biggest ones that I want to mention is in February, we launched a special edition of our newsletter. We call it uh
declining enrollment impacts. Uh we took a a page out of the uh emergency management book here. Um when you have a a wildfire or some sort of situation like that. Um it can be hard. People really want a lot of information and I think in this situation that's certainly the case. We have a lot of families that
are wondering what the what the impact's going to be, staff members, that kind of thing. And so by providing a regular update that's timed that people know to expect it, they know what that's going to look like. It really helps for folks to to sort of worry less about are they going to come back to us and give us more update. um that newsletter has
really been a good good avenue for that. Um additionally in that first uh first one we developed an animated video to really one of the things that we heard pretty loudly in talking to our community is that you know this is a lot of information. How do we distill it in a shorter period? So I actually really enjoyed what the the DAC uh printed in
the paper. They give people options of you know depending on how much time they've got. Uh that's the shortest one. You know if you really just want to try to understand the situation in a basic format in 2 minutes it's really the way to start. Um but on our website we have much more information. You can watch back to the board meetings here, hear
that dialogue. Uh you know that takes a little bit longer but all those options are available to you uh if you really want to dig into it. Um additionally we've been out in social media trying to promote uh the events um uh you know really make sure that people are aware of the of the situation as well um and
and make sure that uh this information is really flowing out to wherever people might be. Uh as president uh Raj Paul mentioned, we uh have been doing some television on this. Uh I interviewed her in the last of the three episodes that we've done for Let's Talk BBSD. Um the
idea really for this was, you know, we've got a lot of information and uh we are sending emails, you know, direct emails. Sometimes we're sending these newsletters, that kind of thing. Um it's it's hard for folks to really uh ingest all that. And you know, one of the things that we know about communication
is that people really have a lot of different channels. there's a lot of noise in the world. Uh and they also people uh learn uh differently. Uh they have different interest in what in the way that they get their information. So this provides us one more slice of that. Um it doesn't suit everybody, but for those that want to sit down and watch a
conversation on it. And I think very importantly, you know, again, back to that idea of listening, we really wanted to open up an opportunity for f folks to be able to ask questions. And so they weren't always easy questions that uh that were posed to us. Um and again, I think uh Superintendent Anderson was a champ. uh up up with us for all three of
the sessions really answering uh a lot of those questions that came in from parents and from staff and that kind of thing. Um but the the structure of this really was to try to set set up the idea of what was going on. So uh the challenge of the declining enrollment we went through the graphs and really talked through the data. Uh the second
time uh we talked about the impact of schools. We had two great principles join us uh to give their insights in regards to how that looks in our schools right now. And then finally uh we talked about the next steps. And so of course that's when we had board president Raj Paul with us. The next step for us is
really the idea of community engagement sessions. And so uh we've already started uh yesterday this first one. We're going to go into that a little bit more. Uh but we have five more sessions that are available for people to join us. So I really want to draw your attention to the dates that we've got on the screen there. Um one of the things that I do want to mention right up front
is that for one, you don't have to go to the session that's in your neighborhood. Now, obviously, we know that most people will probably do that, the one that's most convenient to them, obviously with their friends and neighbors and all that kind of thing, that's cool. If you want to do that, that's awesome. But if something else works more uh you know, for your your schedule, it's all
challenging for us to fit things in as parents. Uh you know, and I just want to mention that one of our smaller sessions right now is Saturday morning. So, if you're you got a little extra time on on the weekend and and want to try to fit it in, that's a perfect time to do it. Uh but really, you know, we're going to be covering the same agenda throughout
it. I'm going to go into what that agenda looks like a little bit. Um certainly in the tables, you know, you'll be able to interject uh the situation that you're seeing at your school. Um there will be that opportunity, but the sessions themselves are relatively general, so you really can attend any of them. And another important thing to know is that we do
have uh services at each of them uh for for all of our families. So, we've got child care, uh child supervision for for families that that might need that. Um we've got translation um and interpretation. So, we have uh folks to help uh uh if they're Spanish speaking and then if they're of other languages,
we definitely want to know that. Uh we've got an RSVP form and we've got a place in there for us, you know, for them to let us know that so that we can make sure that they've got a interpreter on site there. But all the materials are available in Spanish. We really want to encourage our Spanish uh population to come out. Honestly, we want everybody to come out. This is really a great
opportunity for folks to have a voice. And I've been checking back on the numbers. Um I think the word's getting out. uh last night's uh attendance was was it was well attended uh last night's event and then additionally looking forward we've got some relatively large uh groups coming forward. So again that Saturday one's probably the lowest one
but uh most of the other sessions are about 80 and our biggest one's probably at 120 right now. So um really excited that people are getting the word about that. Um this is a a picture of what it looks like uh while we're doing the session. And again, I just want to really affirm the idea that we are
dedicated to ensuring that stakeholder stakeholders are informed, heard, and meaningfully involved as we begin shaping those potential fa paths forward. This phase is about listening first and creating space for those thoughtful those thoughtful uh conversations. And our first session at New Vista was really a good example of
that. Uh one of the things that uh we've really tried to do is set the page for what these conversations look like. You know, typically when we have community engagement and I can think about a couple issues that we've faced here as a school district um since I've been here even uh school start times comes comes as one thing. You know, the normal thing
is that we make a decision and then we go out and we socialize that decision and see what people think and maybe we can make some small changes regard regards to it. No decisions have been made at this point outside of the fact that we don't want to continue on the status quo. uh we really feel like in order for us to ensure that the
education of our students is as rigorous as possible that those services are available that we really do need to make some sort of change and that's really come from you the board um in regards to that. Um but another element to this is that we really want to make sure that everybody has a voice and in those sessions typically what hap would happen
as you might know is those loudest voices take take the room. It's really hard uh you know once that happens uh to bring that back to to an opportunity for everybody to get a voice and so we've really been diligent uh as we've designed this to try to make sure that that's the case. Uh so we really want to make sure everybody's involved. We want
to make sure everybody has that and the format of it um really uh uh sets us up for that. So we're doing that uh small table exercises. So you still get to hear from the superintendent. you get to still hear about uh you know again the declining enrollment. If you need a quick update in regards to if you didn't
have a chance to to listen to some of those uh materials before you get there, it's okay. We'll get you up to speed quickly. But a main part of this is really understanding what does it look like in the day in the life of a student. Uh what is it, you know, what are the uh tradeoffs that you might have to take if we do uh these some of these
different solutions that we're looking at. And so uh you know, you can kind of see the flow of the meeting there on the right. Um, our main idea too is that we really want to make sure that whatever feedback is gathered, which again, that's the key part here. We want them, we want people to be able to share. We want them to feel like that's uh that
they're being heard and whatever feedback is coming out of that session, those sessions, we want to make sure that that comes back to you all so that as you're making your decisions, you're hearing from the community. Um, and of course, we're going to be coming back in June to give you a more robust update in regards to specifically what people
said. uh small small focus groups um and uh like a lot of reflection and discussion. Um I think maybe the best way for us to get a sense of what that feels like is maybe to watch a little bit uh of a news story that just came out last night from 9 News. Um gives you a quick little picture of what it's like.
With fewer students in Colorado schools, districts around the state are closing or consolidating school buildings. And tonight, families in the Boulder Valley School District came together to talk about how they make these choices. 9 News reporter Rachel Krauss joins us now after attending a meeting put on by
BVSD. Rachel, this was the first in a series of meetings. Yeah, the first in six. And people packed inside of New Vista High School tonight to hear more about the state of Boulder Valley's declining enrollment and what needs to happen soon to be able to tackle this problem.
Show of hands if you don't have an idea on what we should do. Boulder Valley schools say they've lost 3,600 students over the past 10 years and are projected to drop another 1,700 in the next five. They're focusing on closure and restructuring plans in
Boulder, Lewisville Superior, and Broomfield elementary schools because that's where they're seeing the biggest declines. Parents and school leaders came out to hear the district's plans. Some say they know closures are needed, but they hope their child's school won't be cut. Tonight, district officials walk
through scenarios of how enrollment is hurting schools and where the district should focus resources like class size, supports, and opportunities for arts and language. Superintendent Rob Anderson says they're bringing parents and community members in early because this problem isn't going away. And hard
decisions are coming. We know that it's the responsible thing to do to have this conversation now. and regardless how tough the choices are going to have to be that we need to make those so we can preserve the experiences that we want for our kids. No decisions are being made tonight.
It's just feedback and discussions about the state of the issue, but the district will be acting on this. They'll be taking their plan for closures and consolidations to the school board in August, and they're expected to vote on that plan in October. Reporting live in Boulder, Rachel Crowns, 9 News.
Yeah. So, I think you get a a little sense of what it's like in there. Um, again, we hope that people will get to see this firsthand. I do want to make sure that we give a shout out to the team that's behind this. U, we've got a lot of uh different teams coming together to make it a success uh both for this and the other uh elements that we're doing. So, a huge thank you, kudos
to those folks. Um, and we've just begun. Um, uh, one of the things that I would like to mention is uh again in the idea of we we're trying to capture that feedback in every way that we can. So, uh, the let's talk shows that we were just talking about is an element of how we can gather that feedback. All that
all those questions will be shared. Um, in addition to that, of course, the community engagement sessions, a huge part of that, the the feedback that's happening at tables. You know, we really want folks to know and I think you got a sense of this with Rob's question in in case you didn't couldn't quite see, no one no one raised their hand.
Everybody's got an idea of what the solution is. And so, you know, we wanted to make sure that people were honored in the idea that you're probably walking in with some idea. We want to make sure that that that packet that we're getting at the end of that has that information in there. But we're also really hoping I just want to kind of spend one more second on this. We're hoping that people
really do look at this regionally and think about all these different options, not be focused on that one thing that they think is going to happen at their school because that's it's natural. It's natural that you're automatically thinking about your own situation and that kind of thing, but that we really have a a wider view. And so, uh, again,
uh, one of the things that we do is we go through each and every one of those scenarios, all five of them, and we give them an opportunity to reflect with their tablemates and then be able to write down for us the feedback that they have, their fears that they're talking about, that the things that we should be thinking about. And I think all that's going to be really beneficial as we walk
away from this. So, that's in April. As we move forward, we're also looking at um, how we might have community focused qualitative feedback. What that really means is surveys, uh, uh, polls into the community. Um and then uh we anticipate after we we wanted to really make sure that everybody's involved in the
sessions that we've built, but we will have a feedback form on our website for folks to give feedback as well. Um and we also intend to try to uh viralize these uh sessions as well. We have all the materials and we'll be providing them to our principles so they can take them out to their school communities as well if they have uh desire to share
that with specific groups that weren't able to make it out. I do want to circle back on to the time frame here because it is really important. Once we finish up with the community engagement element of this, we will come back in June and present to the board in regards to that feedback so that you get to have all
that uh back from our from our team. We obviously over the summer will be working on developing uh what plans uh are up for consideration and bring that back in August uh for you guys to to then deliberate over the next few months uh into October in which then that would
be when we'd make the decision. And then it's a two-year wh there's a two-year plan here really as we think forward into actually implementation. You know, I think a lot of the feedback that we've gotten as we've been at our roundts and as we've started to hear parents is okay. So when this does happen, make
sure that you're considering our kids, you know, their mental health needs or these type of things. These are uh all ideas that we are uh, you know, contemplating as we haven't made a decision yet, but when those decisions are made and I will hand it off for questions.
Thank you for that update, Randy. And I just want to start by saying thank you to your team for all the efforts that go into each of these elements to make sure our community stays upto-date and engaged and aware. It is a lift. And so, thanking thank you and kudos to your team for all the efforts there. I have received a lot of positive feedbacks on
the monthly newsletter. People are feeling informed and appreciate that that level of information. Board members, questions or comments for Randy? Anna, thank you so much, Randy. Um, we did
have uh just a a little bit of a sideline conversation. I did have um some folks asking me if there will be child care provided and I did just want to highlight again uh that Randy did say there will be child care at these sessions. Um there will be um or well
child supervision I think is what you said. Um, so I do just want to highlight that that you can come participate and know that your kiddos will have something to do. Yeah. Our school age care folks, uh, you know, are there and they're going to got
snacks for them. They've got special activities. So, it's it's really a fun opportunity for them. Randy, you forgot to highlight that we have dinner. Yes, that's right. Food. So, yes. Uh, we're really trying to do everything we can to to accommodate a family. Um,
and bring your kids. Uh, we we we have activities for them. You we'll feed them, we'll feed you. Uh, and you get an opportunity to to converse around a really important topic, uh, with your neighbors. And, uh, I think that it's it's going to be a valuable valuable
time for you, valuable time for us to get the feedback. really would encourage folks to come out on Saturday morning because uh right here at the ed center, you know, we we we are I will say, you know, there is this tension board members that we want to certainly obviously open this up to our entire
community and have as many folks uh but the part of the experience is having facilitators and so RSVPing is very important. So folks will please continue to RSVP to so we can make sure that we're prepared with the number of facilitators we need. We've moved from
uh libraries to gymnasiums uh because of the of the of the desire to participate which is wonderful. We just need to know who's coming uh to make sure that we're prepared. So would ask our community to it's really easy. RSVP process will take you two minutes
on our website and uh and that way we can be prepared when you show up. can also say a benefit of RSVPing is that when you do so prior to the event, you'll get a list of suggested if you have two minutes, if you have five pre-ereads to like get up to speed a little bit before you show up. So, I
think that's also a nice benefit if that's a carrot for somebody. Alex, I think we'll all be saying how grateful we are to the team and the staff uh for their work on this and all the principles for putting in all this time. It's not like it's an easy time to be a
school leader right now. So, we really appreciate the the overtime and the work and I think it pays off in spades. Um, I wanted to say two things to the community about it. Number one is you don't have to be having researched this for 40 hours and that you can show up and get briefed on the things when
you're there, but anything you can do before. I do think the the community last night at New Vista was really well informed, but they would have had really rich discussions had they just come in with opinions and real lived experience. So, lived experience is enough. Um, I'll also say I really appreciated our
international parents who were there who were able to say, you know, where I come from, this is what we do and it's so out of the box compared to where we are and how we think in our own world. So, if you're coming from someplace different, that's why you should come, not why you shouldn't. So, please uh come share your
experience. Um, I also uh I really um appreciate the exchange. I also want to tell people like it seems overwhelming when we're getting a thousand people to write down what they want on a bunch of complicated questions and just in the world of AI like and modern technology
there are tools to summarize what a lot of people say. So your voice will count and your input will be heard and it will be incorporated. Um it may go through a silicon chip at some point but we as a board and as a staff will benefit from your input. It's not going into the
void. It's going into uh what we're doing. So, please come. Um, you don't have to do the homework, but if you do, it'll be great. And I'm so impressed by the experience and thoughtfulness that our parents brought. Oh, one other thing, too. I think it's really great uh
I was moved to see our communities um the quality of the civic engagement of our community last night. And uh one of my one of my concerns which is really affirmed that I don't have to be so afraid of it is that we let our stress about this affect our our children and
our students. So kids have a lot of stressors going on. And not only is it good for our community to have good engagement, it's good for our families. It's good for our kids. So, if we can model how to be a a good human interacting with other humans about something hard, that is so much better
than getting our kids worked up about the anxiety that we feel about something that's hard. So, please don't just keep in mind our community and all its kids. Keep in mind your own kids. And um as we conduct ourselves in this, just celebrate the quality of the community engagement and how much that is
safeguarding not only our school system but our kids childhood. Deian, just a question. Randy, is there a sign language interpretation available? So, that will be again if somebody lets us know that they're coming with that need. Absolutely. We'll make sure that
they have a interpreter. Thank you. Yeah, I know a lot of us addressed this in our opening remarks, but any further questions, board members, comments? Thank you again. We appreciate the way in which you keep both the board
and the community up to date on all that is declining enrollment and community engagement. So, thank you again. Thank you. We will now move on to our action items consent grouping portion of tonight's agenda. 7.1 Personnel item 7.2 approval of minutes March 10th, 2026. 7.3 approval of minutes March 24th, 2026.
7.4 acceptance of donation Boulder High 7.5 Acceptance of donations High School. 7.6 accept acceptance of donations Foothill Elementary. 7.7 Acceptance of donation M Elementary 7.8 ated acceptance of donation operational services department 7.9 purchase of school buses 7.10 10 resolution 26-10
non-renewal of license contract 7.11 resolution 26-11 appointment of city of Boulder urban renewal authority 7.12 grant economics climate justice classroom for climate action 7.3 grant academics gift and talented CDE 7.14 grant Boulder prep school health
professionals CDE 7.15 grant health services substance education city of Boulder 7.16 grant peakto peak school health professionals CDE are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping Seeing as there are none, we need a motion to approve the items. Moved by
Alex, seconded by Anna. Any discussion board members? Lenia, I would just like to offer thanks for all of the generous people here, all of the PTOs, all of the um individual
community members that are donating to our schools, the corporations that are donating lawnmowers, all of those things are making our district what it is. And so I just want to put gratefulness out there.
Deian, I came today worried about uh the school bus purchases because I guess I missed the first part of the bus literally. Um I didn't get the presentation about why would we be buying diesel and propane
buses and I was able to have a conversation about the reason for that. So, I want folks who are really interested in us pursuing sustainability uh to know that I've thought about it and I've thought about the reasons that we need to buy these particular kinds of
buses and um I think that it's a go ahead for us. Jason, yeah, thanks Dian. I was going to make a similar comment um but having had a presentation on this I think about a year ago, I I refrained. So, I'm just
gonna be heartened by the words clean diesel and hope that that is good enough for now. Uh, but I appreciate that there's, you know, propane, which I understand from the presentation is better than standard gasoline. So, thanks.
Any other discussion? Board members, seeing as there are none, Laura, can you please call the role? Booker, yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Aea, yes. Raj Paul, yes.
Teamuading, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. Board members, I just realized I forgot to do the legislative update and the information item. Do I actually have to make
an amendment, a motion to go backwards or I think you're okay if the board members agree. I apologize. It's there's been a lot going on and you know legislative update. Dr. Anderson, do you have anything to address the
board regarding legislative session and updates? You know, we're getting towards the end of the session, so um you know, I think that we um have our eyes on a couple of of things that could potentially emerge.
Um, I think a lot of uh a lot of the things we were initially worried about, you know, the the specific ownership tax, I think that that has kind of gone away, which was probably our number one lobbying effort. Um,
I was I was made aware of a bill that may be dropping uh today uh that would combine uh the Sheridan School District with other school districts, a bill by um Senator Bridges. And so be interested to see how that plays out, if that does
play out. Um, you know, seems seems to me that uh um if we're going to get into the business of merging school districts through bills, uh how does that align with local control and um and uh and just, you
know, kind of who who we are as a state? So, I'm very interested in watching that. Um, I'm just trying to think um if there's anything else that's emerging that that I'm worried about at this point. I don't I I think that we're just
kind of waiting to mo most things are we're just kind of waiting still. Yeah. One thing I am curious about is there's discussion as a cost-saving opportunity since we are in the middle of CMASS testing right now. Eliminating CMass social studies for one or several
grades as a cost-saving measure. I'm keeping my eye on that one because social studies is highly opted out of in a lot of school districts and I just find that a curious a curious move forward. Questions on legislative update board members
and sorry about missing that one before. We will get back on track with the agenda and uh address any future agenda requests that board members would like to raise for consideration at our next prioritization meeting. Jason
Um I think this is our first meeting since our uh work session on AI and I know we talked about um I don't think we had a chance to offer um prioritization um items then but I wanted to make sure we prioritize prioritize kind of the
next steps which I think is a followup on the road map and how we'll approach this as a district um our policy and kind of guidance. Uh, so, you know, I'm not sure what that looks like, but I know that there was a followup from or strong interest from others, um, myself
included in a follow-up, Alex. Yeah, I would ditto the AI thing and and within that I would make a friendly amendment to include the discussion of what our reluctant non-users are feeling and experiencing because it's pretty easy to gravitate towards what the heavy users are doing
when we still have a lot of people who are not there yet. So, we got I want to deal with the whole spectrum. Um uh I mentioned it earlier, but I'm interested in having a discussion about our metrics of school climate and culture that can inform our different um accountability
structures that can get us to better understand things about the student experience. Um so I'd love to get to talk about that and figure out if there are ways that we can better understand school climate and culture and how we measure it and what all that should include. Um, and then finally, uh, I
would, and this is probably might get folded into some other topic before we get to it next semester, but I do want to follow up on the GoG Guardian idea and how we make it easier for our parents to understand and interact with our technology and what what we can do as a district to make that easier for
them to have insight into what's going on. Deian, I've had some feedback back from a a lot of uh high school teachers that it's time for us to review the grading policy
and also to look at um what happens with this uh creation of the partial absences that can come um in Infinite Campus that are creating they're creating permission for students
to be very late and still be counted there. Um, so it may be creating some inequities. So, I'd like to see that brought up. And, um, I wonder if we can't talk about this student safety and accountability process in a way that
meets the law. Um maybe not ex totally externally as Alex so uh well addressed the fact that there's all these legal problems with having an outsider but maybe this is something we need to have a process for when people are
unsatisfied with their uh with what's going on with their students because we do want them to be safe. So I'd like to put that as a topic. And um last semester I had introduced the idea that we review what's happening with our
neurode divergent policy and I still think we need to talk about that. Can I ask a clarifying question? So we started a first conversation about our grading policy. It will be coming back to us this semester. You mentioned
attendance and we have a separate attendance policy that talks about absences, partial absences and how assignments can be like how much can be taken off if a student was absent. And so I was just clarifying this is this is really the um this is
really about more about absences. So our attendance policy because our attendance how our attendance is working in infinite campus. Um, if a teacher tells the computer that someone is absent, it notifies a parent right away and then
later it tells them that they're partially absent. And so parents are getting a lot of messages and it's creating a lot of confusion and students have learned to abuse that system. So I just think we need to find out if that
if that u is really working. If we were trying to avoid punishing students for being late, this is might not be actually helping them come to class. No, that makes sense. You said grading policy and I just want because there are two separate and the attendance does have a a little bit of a grading
implication. So, I just want to be clear which one we're Is the grading policy already on the We're in the middle of the grading policy right now. We've had one meeting on it. DAC is providing feedback. It'll come back to us again this Okay, good. So just let's just stick
with the attendance then. Okay. Awesome. Yes. Anna, just a clarifying question. Things that we've added previously before um January because this is what we have added after January 20th is still on the prioritization list. So I don't need to
read our wrapped response around um uh immigration enforcement at schools. No. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? members. Seeing as there are no additional items to add to our future redempt concludes
our business for this evening. Good night and I hope before we convene again a lot of members from our community show up at these engagement sessions. Good night everyone.