good evening everyone welcome to the superintendent's honor rooll here in December 2024 I'm Rob Anderson proud superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District and want to start by
thanking you all for being here uh when we do our um our honor rolls are some of our most favorite uh uh events in the district because we get an opportunity to celebrate Excellence here in bbsd I want to start by just saying how incredibly proud We are for the
achievements of all of our students staff um and even some of our leaders that will'll be recognizing tonight it's going to be wonderful celebrating with all of you did everybody get a chance to get some food the cookies were a hot item they were in the corner if you want one you
might want to go now and get them before they're gone um appreciate our food service staff for providing wonderful food and snacks as we get to celebrate today uh so before we start I'd like to recognize take a moment to recognize our Boulder Valley School District Board of
Education members who are in attendance want to start with our president Nicole Raja Treasurer Alex medler Alex you'll stand he's in the back just wave yep lenia Quin Leda board member in the back as
well and kitty Sergeant board member and Jorge Chavez and Jason uner and our vice president Beth nnick will be joining us at some point during the evening so if they do I may just wave to them and and thank them as well and just want to take this opportunity to thank our board of education for all their
leadership that they provide for our school district so before we get started how many of you have been to one of the before all right so you kind of know how it goes um few notes for our honores when it's your time for the spotlight we'll have you come up here alongside
the podium uh if there are administrators from your school or teachers or coaches that are supporting we invite you to come on up as well um honor is on your way up you'll be um walk if you um go to our board president uh Nicole Raja she will give you um a
frame from our uh uh to recognize your accomplishment and then you'll head over here I'll ask you all a couple of questions give you an opportunity to say a few words to the crowd and then afterwards we'll take a photo together uh does that sound
okay alrighty very good well let's get started so in sports there are the Patriots Chicago B Bulls the New York Yankees and today we're celebrating a few dynasties uh when we're talking about student journalism
and if you were talking about student jerusalm dynasties in Colorado Monarch High School would definitely be in the mix yall see what I did there migh you see that yep uh migh mix and the rest of the migh media team come on
up so we can properly celebrate you all as they are walking up here uh for the third time migh media was named all color hey Ben uh by the Colorado student media
Association four categories print news yearbook broadcast and online it's an amazing accomplishment uh now this might take a minute but I think we've got a minute so what I'd love to do is just pass the microphone and just tell everybody your
name and what grade you are in or what program you're involved with does that sound okay everybody we'll start here and we'll end over there then I'll get the mic U my name is Addison Hoy I'm a junior in broadcast journalism I'm eie Martins a sophomore
in broadcast journalism Conor loam Junior in broadcast journalism I'm masik Cola I'm a junior in broadcast journalism um I'm Sonia um I'm a 10th grader also in broadcast journalism I'm Katie I'm a 10th grader as well and I'm
in yourbook I'm Aspen young I'm a senior and I'm in yourbook I'm Ryland mccauly I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook I'm EMT Walsh I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook uh I'm Zan har and I'm a junior in
yearbook I'm Clark Cassis I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook uh I'm Sean Landis I'm a junior and I'm in your book Ben Reed advisor and this is Bry Reid who's the copy editor I'm Sophie I'm a senior and I'm in your book
I'm Ian ble I'm a senior and I'm a newspaper I'm Matthew spratlin I'm a junior and I'm a the newspaper I'm Abby Prescott I'm a sophomore and I'm in newspaper I'm Courtney Whit I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook I'm lla Jolly I'm a
junior and I'm in yearbook I'm Zoe pry I'm a senior and I'm a newspaper I'm Jane Tucker I'm a senior and I'm in your book I'm Brena Severson I'm a senior and I'm in newspaper I'm Mar in Hol I'm a senior and I'm a
newspaper big round of applause for all of our monarchi students uh so if I could get the sponsor Ben if I could get you to come over here and copy editor ex Ed editor extraordinaire
um so so it's important for everybody to understand that like nobody has done this this has never been done before no other school in Colorado has ever achieved uh the level of achievement that we're celebrating tonight so so talk to us Ben about what is it about
the approach uh that Monarch uses to be able to do this and I know you use a unique multimedia approach um I would say that these students up here are fearless with everything they do and I would say that they are the hardest working students in
the entire school and uh they don't just like the a lot of people say the football team as hard as they work well these guys are at every football game and they say the marching band is really really hardworking well these guys are at the practices in July all the way to
the tournaments in October they're at everything and uh they the education that I think that they get and not a credit to me but through the program in reading and writing and speaking and listening is better than anything in the entire
School and uh what these guys are capable of is absolutely tremendous on a state and a national level and more importantly the impact that they have on the school you're stealing the spotlight from me girl is absolutely tremendous as
well and that's what matters the most of what they give to the school could not agree more and we're going to talk to Briana where's Brena Brena come on over br so um hi Brena how you doing thanks so much
uh so you know I I couldn't be more impressed I've had an opportunity to to work with several of your groups have been interviewed by by the migh team they do not pull any punches I will tell you that they are really Brave and ask
really good questions and uh that's what J good journalists do right and they um and so really appreciated engaging with them what is it that drives the efforts of the moh high team um I'd have to say that being able
to inform and entertain and Inspire others um by telling the stories of our community definitely drives us to create good journalism how about another round of applause for the migh team and then we're going to take a picture everybody so I'm going to come on over
[Applause] there e where's Zoe if Zoe and yep if if Zoe and Mr Reed if you all could stay up here for a minute we wanted to to do another special celebration uh to specifically
celebrate Zoe's accomplish because she recently won the national staff editorial of the Year from the national Scholastic press [Applause] Association now like I said the the
coyotes do not pull any punches um her award-winning piece changed the message was a was a a tough and fair critique of the school district's efforts around Title 9 and addressing sexual Sals Zoe if you can come over here um I'm not going to ask you any hard questions like
you ask us but I'm I'm keep it a little bit easier uh student journalism is an important way for students to have voice in their school and education you're a senior are you planning to continue pursuing a career in journalism after graduation tell us about a little bit um yeah I hope to major in journalism in
college um I'm excited to write for a newspaper at a university and then hopefully make it a career well you're already off to a great start congrat rations Round of Applause for Zoe off to a strong start thank you everyone uh very excited to um to uh
celebrate our next honores so this past Saturday it was a great day to be an eagle yes and thank you to our longtime principal at Broomfield High
Ginger Ramsey for always reminding us of that uh you just start clapping look at that yeah no um on Saturday school won its sixth football state championship which explains the look on Coach O'Brien's
face we can have the team captains coaches and administrators come on up from Broomfield High School 2024 state champs [Applause] so as they come up here on Saturday at canvas stadium in Fort Collins
Broomfield Eagles won the 4A state championship at one point in the game they were trailing by three touchdowns against Montrose that doesn't matter though because they rallied back with some spectacular plays to claim the title um
captains where are our captains at all seven Captain all seven are captains um talk to us a little bit about what this me this win means for you and and and talk us about the comeback three touchdowns that's a lot of points and you if you don't want to talk you can keep passing it
down want this one take this you want me to say the answer this one uh honestly it's kind of a dream I think I can speak for all of them when I say it was a dream for all of us to to win that uh going into halftime down two scores honestly we
weren't that worried you know we scored with around 40 seconds left and our coaches over here told us don't blink and we came out hot and um you know we really we worked hard for that moment and uh I don't think any of us wanted us
or wanted to let it slip you know if you want to I'll keep you up with another question I've got another question so um so I'm I'm looking at the photo and it looks like you're all giving a thumbs down which I think is part of um it's
Rel related maybe to the new Gladiator movie and reflects the team Mantra to season anybody want to talk about that a little bit so when we started playoffs we really started preaching that you know our football team is going to be the man in the arena everybody's going to come
to see us but no matter what's happening on the outside all that matters is what we're doing inside the football field and you know obviously in Gladiator the final decision is you know thumbs up or thumbs down and especially as a defense we always wanted to preach thumbs down
because we were here to win and yeah no mercy can I speak on that as well um yeah you know it was something that the boys really really jumped in with and really bought into for us there was always doubt uh we were ranked number
one for the first three weeks of the season and then we were dropped after a win against a 5A team we were dropped from number one to number four after being 4-0 and we talked about the fact that it doesn't matter what the media says it doesn't matter what the people on the outside say at the end of the day
the man in the arena is the person who decides their fate and that was a big thing for us as we wanted to be the controller of our destiny um and that's kind of one of the big things that thumbs down means a lot of people think like we're trying to be negative and tell the other team like but we're
really not really what it means is it's about us and if you ever watch one of our games and you see us doing thumbs down we never do it to the other team we do it to ourselves we give each other a thumbs down because that represents it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks we know we know what we've done we know how hard we worked we know what we've
earned um and we're going to be the man in the arena to make that final decision on if we win or if we lose I I love that so coach orri coach O'Brien this is the school's six title it's the second championship in three
seasons how has the Broomfield High School football program kept the focus to win so many championships year in and year out yeah I mean it's a buzz word but it all starts with culture um and Miss Ramsey and our Administration do a phenomenal job like I said in the paper the other day of backing up our culture
every single day uh of the school year um you know our culture is to show up to love each other to work really hard um Eagle DNA and to do the little things right we talked about all year long attention to details down to our helmet
designs to how we dressed to the way we talk to each other but but the importance is in the details and our ability to focus on those small pieces got us you know the little focusing on the macro allowed us to to win a state championship and kind of focus on the big picture
so you all going to run it back yes sir how bet a big round of applause for our Broomfield High Eagles state [Applause] champs e e
the great thing about these events is that things just keep getting better and better and so we have another state champ to recognize uh we have uh a state champ in mountain biking Tabby snap from Centaurus come on up so back in October Tavi competed in
mountain biking at the Colorado High School cycling League state championship in Glennwood Springs and he won the sophomore division let's give him another round of applause for that so as we can see Tabby this is you on top of the of the podium tell us what
that felt like and tell us about the day I mean I just woke up like ready to race and ready to win that state championship and when I did it just felt like a dream come true I guess and so it looks like you're not
wearing a Centaurus Jersey tell us about this jersey that you're wearing so I received this Jersey from winning the state championship and there's other jerseys that you receed throughout the season from winning various races and like region championships and so I'm going to ask
you what I asked the the guys at Broomfield are you going to run it back next year that's the plan all right another round of [Applause]
applause okay [Applause] so in bbsd we know that our educators are outstanding and while there is an a state championship in teaching or supporting students we are proud to share that number of our employees
received state level Awards highlighting them for being the best of the best in their fields love to begin with odet edbrook from Broomfield High School Odette come on up AET was named the 2024 Colorado history teacher of the year by
the Gilder lman Institute of American History this organization began bestowing their award for K12 teachers back in 2004 for teachers who've demonstrated a commitment to teaching American history that incorporate creativity and
Imagination into their classroom and effectively use documents artifacts historic sites oral histories and other primary sources to engage students with American History Dr Ed Brook was chosen out of thousands of teachers that were nominated by students parents fellow
teachers and community members please join me in giving odet another round of [Applause] applause so adet this is a big deal talk to us a little bit about your philosophy on teaching and how do you make your classroom come alive when you teach
history um well when you have awesome students um it makes things a lot easier and we have a lot of freedom um for me me I like the creativity part and trying to find ways to get real information and
real stuff um interesting to students so we try to do a lot of activities so if we're using primary sources applying it like we do um we take these Declassified military documents from the Cuban Missile Crisis but then they have to advise
JFK um so like no big deal we solve that it's fine um so um yeah and all my classes that's what I try to do the best I can that sounds so great another round of applause for Dr Ed Brook
[Applause] [Applause] so here in bbsd we like to say that we are bilingual and proud and that is certainly the case for our next honory Anna Lilia Martinez of AA by lingu
Pioneer anaia come on [Applause] up so anaia was recently named the par educ of the Year by the Bueno Center for Multicultural education January she will receive the
award from the Bueno Center at their one day family liaison and Par educator learning Institute on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder anaia I'm so proud of you and all of your you've accomplished thank you so much is there
anything that you'd like to say I can say Spanish that's uh yeah let's yeah let's I just want to say I'm very grateful for all the community at Pioneer all the staff and the teachers and to the students to never stop being bilingual because that's a
power to change communities because that's going to open doors and allow them to communicate with their community and be able to get all their dreams thank you amazing was that another round of applause
all right let's yeah [Applause] how great is this right is everybody having fun is that okay there's only like uh eight days of school left before we go on vacation can we get a cheer for
that get some energy in the room all right here you go um you know this this idea that that uh you know with our amazing teachers our amazing coaches that we've been able to kind of recognize today every student in our district gets the opportunity to
be treated with love and respect and and and we hope that that's really evident throughout everything that we do um and certainly been evident throughout the career of BBS the deputy superintendent Dr Laura De La Cruz Laura come on [Applause]
up so the Colorado men of color collaborative recently extended their L daily dare award to her and she was celebrated at their black TI Galla in September at the Ellie ckins Opera House in Denver L deader translates to light of a leader and symbolizes the guiding
influence and inspiration she's had on our organization as a Latina leader also recognizes her strength vision and the profound positive impact she's had on our community please join me in giving Laura a huge round of applause so Laura come here so you get
to answer some questions too um so you know Laura's got this amazing story she started here in bbsd as a teacher uh and then she um worked her way through the district and she was an assistant principal and then a principal uh and
then she left Boo and then we said come on back Laura um and so we were so lucky to have her to come back with us for um and she was actually a superintendent when she decided to come back and take this role Laura talk to us about what's Driven you
all these years um a couple of the big driving forces for me um one is that I was raised by a single mom who came to the the US from Mexico she ended up being a
widow with five kids not very many years later and she went started college in the US in her 30s and there was a lot of modeling there for me about what's possible and I was the youngest of five and she
couldn't afford child care and summer camps and things like that so she would take me to college classes with her during the Summers and um evening classes and so I was this little girl in col col reading my own books and really developing this incredible love for
Academia and also witnessing um when my mother got her bachelor's and her master's how she was able to support our family Lift us out of poverty and change the trajectory of my life and my siblings and my children and I know I'm confident for generations to come and
that really sparked a passion in me that education truly does have the power to change lives and so I've made it my life work to not only be an educator but also to seek out those who need some extra help and support much like my mom did
much like I did Growing Up um to give them whatever I can within my power within my influence and um strive to make a positive impact every day amazing so so Laura you've been working um so hard
part at implementing our allog together for all students strategic plan have uh have been such an important force in our district making sure that all kids get what they need from bbsd you've been spending a lot of times in classrooms this fall tell us about some of the things that you're seeing that are
making a difference oh my gosh it's been so exciting to be in classrooms um I'm seeing kids who are engaged who are interacting who are have agency in their learning I'm seeing teachers who are are
so passionate who are utilizing the resources that we've been building over the last four years and that we've been providing professional learning on and um making sure that they're at the fingertips of our Educators and so we're really seeing the allog together for all students strategic plan come to life in
classrooms and that's incredibly exciting and making a big difference for our kids another round Applause for Dr Dort L De La Cruz now we have an opportunity to celebrate some more of our Educators recently a group of teachers from peak-to Peak
Charter School were surprised with the big National Honor for a project they've been working on Christin chrisy letter Cindy gu guajardo and bayy zubler come on up Voya Financial came to the school
because the team was named the second place winner in Voya foundation's unsung heroes program for their Tech in abl teaching forest in maker space we're told the Innovative approach aims to inspire students to become change makers in solving current
environmental inequity in Colorado representatives from Voya Financial came to the school back in October and presented the team with a big check in all they'll receive $12,000 Round of Applause for our folks here from Peak to Peak I'd love to learn more about the
project that you were honored for all right um well it was student driven and Community enabled we partnered with a lot of amazing organizations in Colorado classrooms for climate action cool Boulder Boulder mushroom um and we
planted two mini forest and put mycelium in the soil in a science experiment yeah am I holding that weird um and the students are monitoring and growing and hoping to expand it so this is going to make that really possible
that is amazing so $122,000 how are you all going to be able to leverage these dollars to do something cool uh do you want to take yeah we don't totally know yet this is student driven and they are part of that but it's definitely we're working on the technological side of it there was a lot
we were deep into the dirt side of it last year um there was a lot of digging and so this is a part where they want to really use technology and sensors and QR codes to expand the impact as much as they possibly
can another round of applause for our folks from Peak to Peak congratul [Applause] so next month is School Board appreciation months month and a chance
for us all to thank our seven volunteers uh our school board members who give so much to help guide our school district tonight I'm proud to share that one of our board members recently received the McGuffy award from the Colorado Association of school boards board member Kitty Sergeant come on
up so to the McGuffy award honors board members from across the state who are committed and passionate in their service in case you're wondering the McGuffy award is named after McGuffy Readers first published in 1836 these highly influential textbook sets usually consisting of seven books
with stories and poems taught many students reading and grammar today they continue to represent the virtue of transferring knowledge so that students can fulfill their responsibilities as citizens of a free Society so congratulations Kitty another round of
Applause so Kitty and I have served here in bbsd together for the past seven years Kitty you our longest tenured board member um talk about I preate You by that is yes yes you've been here longer than me what are some of the big lessons you've learned during your time
leading here in bbsd well that's not a hard question is it um one of the things I've learned is patients and that you know you can come
in with ideas but that doesn't mean you come in and you implement all your ideas here in Boulder we have to listen to our community we want to listen to our community and we would be really foolish if we didn't because we wouldn't have there Buy in it and we wouldn't be as
good a district as we are now um I've learned that change takes a long time and the more we are able to listen to everyone including everyone on the board the better decisions that we make and the other thing I learned and I
learned it from Tina Maris and she said about every 18 months something really big happens and um fortunately maybe the pandemic was such a big deal that we didn't have anything 18 months
later but it's been such an honor to serve on this board and to serve the community and to try to make life as easy as possible for all of our wonderful teachers and our administrators and other staff so that
they can do their jobs doing the best they can for our students because they're the most important people in my opinion in the world so another round of applause for Kitty sergeant this is a really cool recognition so I'm
glad folks have been able to stick around uh this is our last recognition of the evening I think yes uh we tonight we want to recognize a young man who's actions alongside one of his friends helped save the life of a fellow skier
last summer let's welcome Malachi Brooks from New Vista High School up to the podium so Malachi and bod gson who were both Eldora Ski patrollers were in the Indian Peaks Wilderness when they saw a skier hurdle past them uh skier fell
more than a th000 feet down Skywalker cooler immediately this teen skills kicked in helping to rescue the man who survived the incident thanks to their quick thinking Malachi you've got to tell me about this story first of all what an incredible incredible
um event and uh your your courage and and just quick thinking uh saved the life tell us tell us um how how you were able to help this Fallen skier well I would say it kind of started
uh I started patrolling with Alora when I was uh at the start of my freshman year through a program they have and I would just say that like all of those skills that I was able to build and that I was able to build with new vista's like alternative schedule allowing me to
do that and like build that into my schedule was really What mattered in that moment now I know that there was a lot of folks that helped out I didn't know if you wanted to um share any other stories from some of the other Heroes that
day I mean yeah it was really we just happened to be the ones that were there first to help it was really Rocky Mountain Rescue and Veil Mountain Rescue and the Boulder County Sheriff's Office that were there that were able to get him out we just helped expedite that
process a little bit how about a huge round of applause from Malachi [Applause] AB
[Applause] so that is our last Honore what a way to to end tonight's ceremony big round of applause for all of the folks we had a chance to celebrate this evening uh thank you all so much for being here for
your support of our schools our students our school district I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday break which is eight days away thank you all so much grab some food on your way out take care thanks again for being here