I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. Board members may attend and participate in meetings remotely in accordance with BBSC policy and state law. Chris, can you please call the role? Bcher
here. Chavez here. Medler here. Qualina here. Rajpaw here. Tamu add a here. Anger. Okay. Thank you.
Now I'd like to encourage everyone to turn their attention to the screens for our land acknowledgement this evening. 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. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us here in person and remotely. We're glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Jorge, seconded by Anna. Chris,
can you please call the role? But yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Rajpaw, yes. Timuing, yes. Motion passes. Next up on our agenda this evening is a
superintendence report. Dr. Anderson, good evening. Good evening, board president Raj Paul. Board members, good to see you all. Um, cue up the pomp and circumstance. It's time to celebrate the class of 2026. Uh,
starting on Friday, we all have graduates from our 12 high schools as well as our transition center and we'll be taking part in commencement ceremonies. Board members, I know you'll be joining me at many of those events. Uh for those in our community, you can find the details on our graduation page
at www.bbsd.org/graduations. And congratulations to the class of 2026. Board members, we actually started uh celebrating this past weekend. Uh BBSD proudly celebrated the achievements of our Native American Alaskan Native 2026
graduates at the Title 6 graduate honoring ceremony right here at the Ed Center. It's a thoughtful ceremony complete with traditional dance, food, and community. Congrats to I believe we have nine graduates that were celebrated. Um, and congratulations to their families.
Another sign of the season is School Fruit Project's annual plant sale. Didn't have a chance to shop for your garden staples, be sure to stop by this Friday and Saturday at the BVSD Greenhouse located right between the Culinary Center and our Apex campus here
on the Upset campus on Arapjo Road in East Boulder. Whether you're looking for flowers, fruits, or veggies, some great soil from the Panoya Soil Company, we've got you covered. Learn more at food.bsd.org back/plen sale.
Last Friday was a big milestone. Boulder High School marked 150 years in serving our community. It was a great night and a powerful reminder of what makes Boulder High so special, including its amazing history. Take a look at these photos from over the years.
Boulder High started as the prep school at the University of Colorado and was actually based in Old Maine on campus. Current building was built back in the 1930s. And over the years, they've had some remarkable alumni that I'll list out while you're looking at students
from over the years. Project Mercury astronaut Scott Scott Carpenter was in the class of 1943. Former University of Colorado athletic director Mike Bone graduated from Boulder High in 1979. Former state senate president, state
representative, and Colorado attorney general Morgan Carroll was in the class of 1990. The founder and former CEO of Chipotle restaurants was a Boulder High grad, as was Sports Illustrated and ESPN columnist Rick Riley, and Boulder County judge David Archeletta, who spoke on
Friday night. But Peggy Cop Cppam from the class of 42 stole the show. Before becoming a CU super fan, she was a Boulder High cheerleader and helped to lead the crowd in some chance. With a B, with an O, with a Ub
with a B, with an A, with an N t. Boulder had the team fight. Victory is a team's right. Boulder has fight. How great is that? Thanks to Congressman Nagus, Boulder
Mayor Aaron Brockett, State Board of Education member Kathy Gart, and all of our board members and everyone else who came out to help us celebrate this milestone. Finally, board members, we just want to remind our community, everyone in our community, participate in the resilient school survey. It's open until next Sunday, May 17th. So, if
you haven't participated, please do. Only takes about five minutes will help us gather insight regarding the values and priorities of our community before we begin to develop a plan for the board to consider. All survey results and the feedback from the recent community engagement sessions will be presented to the board of education during a report
scheduled on Tuesday, June 9th. Board members, those are my remarks for this evening. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you for that, Dr. Anderson. Board members, any questions or comments. Watching the Peggy cheer really was a highlight at that anniversary.
Seeing as there are no questions or comments, uh we will now move on to public participation. The board respects the right of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board does not endorse the comments of ind individual participants and remind all those who speak that you are responsible for ensuring remarks are suitable for an audience of uh that
includes kindergarten through 12th graders. Furthermore, this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents. It's not a time for the board to engage with or react to speakers remarks. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining
and a orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional feedback, you may always email the board if you haven't already. With that, we will start kick off this evening with
Duke. I'm gonna apologize in advance. Duke Tutle. Just push the little button and you should see a green light on the microphone when it's on. Okay. Um, hello everyone. My name is Duke Touetelli and I'm currently a
sophomore at Border High School. I've come to the board meeting today in order to discuss the enforcement of the current land acknowledgement at all BBSD school events. I believe this is the first step in establishing a greater support for different cultures within our community, creating a safe space for
all students, as well as bringing indigenous related topics to current discussions. School events also provide an opportunity to reach a larger audience and raise greater awareness to respect indig indigenous communities that were historically oppressed and still
experience the impacts of this today. Other schools in Colorado such as Legacy High School and Mountain Range High School include a land acknowledgement at all school events like sports games. I believe schools in BBSD like Border High School should be required to
mention a land land acknowledgement in order to to support indigenous peoples within our community. Now, I've researched the history of the land acknowledgement um within the district and I found that we do have a really impressive one that you guys probably
heard earlier. Um but it is not implemented within the schools and prior to reading it on the website and listening to the video, I haven't heard of it before, which makes me question why a school district has a land acknowledgement that isn't even recognized at the schools. I believe the
solution to this problem is very simple and with the imple implementmention um of the land acknowledgement at all school events people be will become more aware of the indigenous culture and land that all schools operate on.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Odin Young. I am Odin Young and I will be speaking about the um open enrollment and the like priority enrollment at Summit. I'm currently an eighth grader at Summit. Going into middle school and transitioning is uh really difficult.
It's hard to make friends and find a community you are a part of. But when you have a sibling who has already gone to the school, it makes it much easier to get those connections. For me, because my brother was at Summit, I was able to connect more with teachers and students who already knew him. My uh
teams that I was part of already knew him and liked me because of him. So, when you have a sibling out of school, you don't have to spend your time in middle school worrying about whether you can find friends or a community to fit in. And you already have like your people. I've also seen
this happen with my uh sister. She has made connections with siblings of my friends, kids who some wasn't an option wouldn't probably go to the same middle school as her because they all lived in different areas. Because they are coming to Summit, they already have a built-in
community before they even start. My sister has also come to concerts, games, and uh my pinnacle night and walked around the school and she really feels a part of that community and like it's her school already even though she's not in
that school. Um because of those things, she already is like part of it and she has a sense of security going into a new place where she where other people wouldn't necessarily have that and it
really sets um kid up for academic success. Um that's why I believe that the policy that uh people with um like um brothers or siblings that already graduate should get like priority
enrollment in summer. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is August Hersfield. Hold on one second. We'll pull out a little step stool for you. Okay. There we go.
Hi, my name is August Hersfeld. Please don't change the rules. I want to go to the same middle school as my older sister. Thank you. Thank you, August. Our next speaker is Zephr Anderson.
Hello, my name is Zephr Anderson and I'm a seventh grader at Summit Middle School. Please do not remove the student graduate sibling preference. I along with my family was selected to join summit through the lottery process. We, me, my little brother, and my parents
were all so excited when we found out because it wasn't just me that got in. It was my whole family. Summit became my family's neighborhood school. I love Summit and I want my brother to have the same opportunities as I have had at Summit. My brother, who is in fourth
grade, would be directly and negatively impacted by this change. Over the last two years, he has sat at the dinner table and heard about my classes, my teachers, my electives, and my tests. All of the sentiment I have shared is helping him get prepared for when he
gets to Summit. After my sixth grade year at Summit, my grandma donated money to the school to help fund the building of the new wing because she believed that it would benefit not just me, but my younger brother, too. Now me and hopefully my brother will get to walk past a brick with my our family's name
on it every day. I know equity matters to BVSD. Equity within families is just as important as equity between families. Every family should have the same opportunity in the lottery. Robbing my brother of the promise to get
the same opportunities that I had is wrong. I hope you honor your commitment to the Summit families and keep within family equity strong by maintaining the Summit graduate sibling preference. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Zephr. Our next speaker this evening is Allison
Sosa. Hi. Uh my name is Allison Souza. I'm a parent of a student at Gold Hill Elementary and I mostly have questions about increasing enrollment, although I realize we won't get answers here. Um, at least not right now. Um, but I
noticed that so I believe the district has two enrollment programs right now. One focused on resilient schools, another focused on the showcase. Um, but I didn't find any other programs that were geared towards increasing enrollment and even pulling from two
neighboring districts that are arguably larger uh and aren't distinguished uh like the Boulder district is. Um, theoretically, we should have all the pull in the world to get students from those districts to increase our
enrollment. Um, but I was also told that we're not accepting students outside of the open enrollment window, which I think we're getting closer to that goal given um that let's see in 2020, what
was the data for? 2022 we enrolled 541 students outside the window, 361 inside the window. In 2023, we enrolled 4586 students outside the enrollment window and 354 inside the window. And
then in 2024, we enrolled 352 students outside the enrollment window and only 257 inside the enrollment window. So, I was just wondering uh how we could work on increasing that and also how we could
clarify guidance on when students are accepted. There's public data on many of the enrollment pieces except for applications versus denials, which is interesting to me as well. Um, so I just wanted to find out if we could have more information. I also didn't hear back
from the superintendent on this as well. uh and wanted to see like I would literally volunteer for a program uh to increase enrollment. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Stacy
Proctor. Stacy does not appear to be present and she's is she she's not noted as virtual. Is she online? No. We'll move on to Lyall Stannard. Hello, my name is Lyall Standard. I've been working with BDSD Transportation
for 12 years. For the last six years, I've been a dispatch helper. A little while ago, I was informed that my position is being eliminated. I understand and respect that the district has weighed and measured the decisions that it makes, but I would like to point out why a dispatch helper
is still needed at least a little longer. I work at the Lafayette terminal. We supply busing for 23 general ed routes and 34 special education routes. All the special education routes are more frequent to call the terminal in case
they are ill, have appointments, need extra minutes to get to the bus, all of which uh dispatch handles these calls with customer service and smile and uh additional calls over the phone. Over the next year, the
amount of transition kids will be increasing from 63 to over 70, increasing the amount of still yet more need in the office assistance. Finally, I I uh personally have um become the terminal bus charge assistant. The Lafayette terminal
supports 10 of the 12 electric buses. I understand the the uh district is very proud of uh its electric fleet. With only six working high efficient chargers, I have organized, coordinated, and scheduled drivers to charge at different times, making sure that buses
are ready to go. I'd simply like to propose a two-year extension so that my position can make with all the challenges uh that are the challenges that are manageable and that we get over the uh the the hump
until it's able to be resolved. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Crystal Chin. Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin on behalf of the BBSC Community Coalition. Our coalition continues to grow.
Families and educators across 21 schools are still coming to us not just with past experiences, but with current ones. I want to be clear about what that means in real time. Families are pulling their children out of this district right now. Others are
desperate to leave but don't know how to educate their children safely outside of it. They are stuck weighing their child's safety against their family's resource and resources and options. We cannot share the details of these situations publicly because these
families fear retaliation. That fear is not abstract. It is grounded in what they have watched happen to others who spoke up. That is what it looks like when a district polices itself and is cons and consistently finds no wrongdoing.
Families don't get resolution. They get a choice between silence and leaving. We have heard that independent oversight isn't possible. We want this board to know that Cherry Creek School District right here in Colorado has issued an RFP
for independent third-party review of its operational practices. It can be done. It is being done in this state right now. We are still asking this board the same question we have been asking since February. Will you commit
to independent oversight of student safety investigations? Families are still waiting for an answer. Children are getting hurt now. It is not okay. Hear us and please respond.
Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Katie David. Hello. Good evening. I'm here to uh
request uh support for the draft academic calendars for um 2627 and 2728. Um I'm sorry, 2728 and 2829. Um
on behalf of BVA, we request you to support the draft academic calendars of 2728 and 2829. We feel that the stakeholder meetings were conducted in a way that enabled rich discussion and thoughtful consideration of the many and varied
stakeholders perspectives. Particularly, we support the return of the spring compensation days to April. We also believe the professional development days, teacher workdays are strategically placed to the best um possible uh places
to ensure participation in professional development. And this is also a shared interest between BBA and BBSD. Um, we request that you discuss this this evening and honor the work that was done by our calendar committee, particularly
Robin Fernandez, and the great work that she's been doing all this time. Thank you for your support. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Peter Young. We will move on to Barry Hersshfield. Good even
Peter Young. We'll come back to you after this one then. Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the clapping. Good evening, President Rajpaul and members of the board. My name is Barry Hersshfeld. I'd first just like to thank you all for your public service. We know what it
means to take your time and serve our community like this and we appreciate it. I'm here to talk about my family. My daughter is just going to start going to Summit Middle School in the fall and we received the pretty shocking news today
um from the school that the open enrollment policy was going to be changed. Um as you just heard from my 8-year-old um and you can see my 5-year-old, we're really a proud BBSD family. We believe in public education
and I'm here to strongly oppose the proposal to remove that uh sibling graduate open enrollment preference for summit for 30 years. The policy has existed to keep families together. Middle school is a brief three-year
window. Because of their age gaps, my youngest two children, who you see sitting over here, will not overlap concurrently with my oldest daughter. um and we made a long-term um educational plan for our family based on this 30-year agreement. And now without
consulting the summit board, uh you're proposing a change that change that really pulls the rug out from our family and I think approximately 150 other families. So it's a pretty big impact in the community and it really penalizes children for being more than three years
apart from their siblings. Um, and just in terms of precedent, you don't force this type of family separation in elementary schools, high schools, or neighborhood middle school schools. And it really is fundamentally inequitable to force it on Summit families now. Um,
so we hope that you will change your mind and stick to the 30 years of track record, the great track record that we have with Summit. Um, please do not break the trust of our community. Trust is fragile. It's easily broken and it takes years to get back. We believe in
BBSD. I think everyone here believes in BBSD. We want to stay here. Uh thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Peter, you're back up. Apologize. No worries.
Good evening. Uh my name is Peter Young. Uh and as we discuss the summit enrollment policy, I ask that we're guided by a single principle, the best interest of our children. When we talk about sibling priority, the conversation tends to drift towards the convenience
of transportation and the logistics of a family schedule. But for those of us rooted within the school, those are secondary concerns. The real value is the consistency, the stability, and the sense of belonging that a school community provides to a
child. For my youngest daughter, Tan, Summit isn't a choice on the farm, it's her home. She has grown up on the sidelines of the ultimate frisbee games. She has been to every robotics competition and band performance. She
knows the hallways, the teachers, and the culture. She already sees herself as part of this place. To tell a child who has spent years building that belonging that she is now a stranger to her brother's school ignores everything that our
schools are really meant to be. We've been part of the Summit community for over six years. We believe in this community. We see the value it creates when families are fully rooted in it. We have moved our home closer to Summit. We've invested our time and our
resources to keep it thriving for every student that follows us. To unilaterally dissolve the 30-year agreement of continuity is more than just a policy shift. It's a breach of trust. It overrides the local expertise of the
summit board and tells the families who have treated the district as a partner that really the partnership is only one way. I urge you to pro prioritize the interest of our children. Honor the connection that they have built. Honor
the consistency that leads to their success. Please keep our families together and keep the sibling graduate preference at summit alive. Thank you. Thank you. being conscious of waiting for the clapping to cease. Matthew Flynn is our
next speaker this evening. Thank you. Um Matthew Flynn, uh three children BBSD, 10th in Monarch, eighth at Summit, fourth at SCES. So 11 years in, eight to go. Thank you very much. Um we've had a good run and hope to continue. Um also speaking on summit
tonight and taking a different approach u a lot of great a lot of great comments but one the board really should consider is the fact that by eliminating the sibling uh admission rule immediately following a privately
funded in parts um project to that school. um you're creating significant potential legal exposure under promisory estoppel. And what I mean by that is many families, my family included, donated money to this with the
understanding that not only was it going to be the right thing to do, but our other children or younger children would benefit from this as well. We we relied on that promise. It was marketed as that. And that's not a knock on the current team at the school. They're just as blindsided as everybody
else about this. they're doing a great job, but we relied on that much to our detriment. And so for for this to happen, for this change in policy to occur like three months after the paint dried on the walls, um if this does go
forward, that's that to me is an ethical breach and it's also a potential breach under promisory stoppple. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Pamela Jen Ross. Hello, my name is Pamela Gendres,
another Summit parent here. Um, I have also three kiddos at BBSD, one in elementary, one in middle school at Summit, and one at Fairview. Um so like my predecessors has said before like um
this has blindsided us. We've had some long-term planning um into the education of our children and we have built relationships with the staff and with the teachers and with our communities of frisbee teams and u
others. And actually you've already met some parents of some fourth graders. Mine is a fourth grader too. we were hoping that we all meet back together at summit. Um so I'd like you to reconsider um uh this new rule and also I think the
timing is kind of a little bit off here because uh our youngest goes to Flat Irons Elementary, one of the schools that is potentially being affected by closures um due to uh low open uh low enrollment.
And so we are already all on edge to see what happens and I'm sure you guys are too. So this is just adding another, you know, point of stress to our lives. Um, so thank you for your time.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Megan Dawson Schwarz. Hi, I'm Maisy Schwarz. I'm a fourth grader at Bear Creek Elementary School, and I think that it's not fair that me and other kids can't go to the same school as our siblings just because we
won't be there at the same time. I've seen my sister and her friends do so much fun stuff like beays and take fun classes, and it's sad that other kids won't be able to do that. I've always wanted to go to summit, so please
reconsider removing sibling preference. Maisy has been planning uh and sorry and counting on attending summit ever since we came off the weight list with our older sister. And it would be heartbreaking not to have give her this opportunity. We're part of the Summit
community. We've made friends here. We donate our time and our money to the school. And Maisy's been following along all the way. Removing sibling preference suddenly doesn't seem fair, equitable, or reasonable. Why would we start this social experiment admits declining
enrollment and risk alienating families already living here? Please reconsider. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Mary. I'm gonna miss out on pronouncing this
Chung. Hello. Uh my comment is regarding BVSD's plan to remove the Summit sibling graduate open enrollment preference policy. Um, if BVSD wants Summit to be a touchandgo community, um, this is how you make it happen. One where there's
taking but little giving back. So, we all know that Summit is an amazing school. And right now, Summit has a blend of families. Some who are happy to take what Summit has to give um, and just leaving it at that. And then you have families that have
built-in motivation to care about Summit's long-term success. Um, these are the families like mine that have kids at Summit, see how great it is. Don't take for granted that Summit needs families supporting its success and are willing to put in the work because we
have another kiddo that will be attending in the future. I, for example, have invested over 30 hours of volunteer time to Summit in 2026 so far. This balance in the types of families at Summit seems to be working great. All
students benefit. A summit student who I would not have known but for my volunteering told my daughter that I was goatated goated because of some volunteer work I had done. And I'm so glad she had a good experience. And when students thrive, Summit thrives, BVSC
benefits and the larger community such as even homeowners benefit of which I am one as well. Summit uh with the change that BVSD is making, you're disturbing this balance. You're excising the group, this second group of families from even
existing. And to what advantage? I have heard of nothing except alignment with the open enrollment policy that has not been required of Summit for 30 years. Thank you. Thank you. Our remaining speakers this evening are
virtual. The first of which, and I'm going to apologize for the pronunciation again, is Yo Yo Luri. Hi, good evening. My name is Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Uh, my name is Yo Luri. I'm a parent of a sixth grader at Summit Middle School and a third grader at
Foothhill Elementary. While I've lived in Boulder for 15 years, up until this year, both of our kids were in private school in Boulder. When our daughter got into Summit through the lottery, we did something we hadn't planned on doing. We explored BBSC. and we liked what we saw
so much that we pulled both of our kids out of a private school. Our daughter went to Summit and our son joined Foothhill. If it weren't for Summit, our family would not be in BBSD today. The district gained two students because of Summit's community and its enrollment
promise. And what a Summit family we become. Specifically, our third grader is already a Summit kid in every way but great. He went to the school play on Friday night and his sister wasn't even in it. He and I cooked together at the new food lab after I bid on a cooking
class at the summit auction. He cheers his sister on at basketball and ultimate frisbee. And I think he's got more friends there than she does sometimes. He talks about Summit like it's his school already and it's convinced that's where he's going. He does that because that's what we've told him. and he does
that because that's what you've told him with a district policy for over 30 years. Under the proposed change, he loses sibling priority. He'll still enter the lottery and we'll hope and pray that he gets in. But if he doesn't, like 150 other families, we'll have a
choice to make and we will probably choose to leave the district and go back to private school. Here's what I want the board to sit with. My son's only failing under this proposal is that he and his sister are three years apart instead of two. If he
were in fourth grade today, he'd have priority. But because he's a third grader, he won't. That's not a policy distinction grounded in equity and educational value. That's not taking kids first. That's an arbitrary line that punishes families based on birth
spacing. Our family committed PBSC based on an agreement. Changing that agreement now breaks trust with families you most want to keep. So I beg you, I ask you, and please keep the summit sibling preference in place.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Boya Deng, who is in person, not virtual. Yeah, I decided to show up. Um, hello everybody. My name is Boadin and I have a upcoming sixth graders at Summit Middle School.
And then the reason I'm here today is to ask politely ask you to do not remove the summit graduate sibling preference because it's such an awesome policies. It's connect the family together at our
community especially summit and then it is summit's board of directors who should be responsible for school operations including the open enrollment preference policies and then we understand that summit is also part of BBSD
but summit is also unique because it's a charter school run and run by parents and then uh also the school board of um directors So um we back you please do not remove these unique characters for
characteristics of summit and secondly I think as parents mentioned that we want to keep a very very close communities within summit and then by removing the summit graduate sibling preference it
will this action will um break the trust of the families who were following the BBSD agreements that their siblings will be able to attend. Again, I think removing this um sibling preference policy is a punishment for kiddos that
were three more than three years apart. So um please reconsider keeping the summit graduate graduate sibling preference policy. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is Mercedes
Gitter who is virtual. Good evening. My name is Mercedes Gitter. I am a proud parent at Summit Charter Middle School. I'm here this evening to share a concern about BBSD's
non-concurrent open enrollment sibling preference policy change, also known as sibling graduate preference. As a choice-based school with a three-year enrollment period, the loss
of this preference will present challenges to maintaining strong community continuity for Summit and has a significant negative impact on lowincome
ELLL, RFL and other disadvantaged families. These families take a longer period of time to engage with the community, staff, and teachers. Removing this continuity
is exclusionary and will harm these members of our community the hardest. I want to highlight the importance of extended parent and teacher relationships.
Parents who spend more years with the school become more invested and comfortable. As you have heard from others this evening, improving teacher parent relationships, engaging in events, and
supporting the school. Teachers who know families for longer periods provide more tailored support, particularly to families who take time to acclimate. The district focuses on providing a safe, inclusive, and personalized learning experience, ensuring that
societal inequities and unique learning needs will not be barriers to student success. This change in enrollment will present a large barrier for student learning at Summit for families who need the most support. I urge you not to change the open enrollment sibling
graduate preference for Summit Charter Middle School. Thank you. Thank you. This concludes today's public participation. On behalf of the board, I want to thank everybody who took the time to show up tonight to share your thoughts and experiences along with those that participated online.
We'll now move on to board communication. Board members who would like to begin. Deian. Wow. Oh, it's a busy month. Um, I want to share with you that I got to attend a
couple of uh great events. One was I got to go to the Title Six um celebration of graduates. And I was so happy that I had chosen that, not knowing that I was going to see hoop dancers and I was going to hear
music and I was going to eat home-cooked um native foods. And it was a tremendous event. But as a board member, I have to celebrate something that I never saw in the time that I was a teacher. And that is one of those Native American students
was a National Mer Merit Scholar. Two of them had GPA over a 4.0. And all of the students received a lanyard that celebrated their heritage
to wear at graduation for having a 3.0 or higher. These are statistics that just didn't happen 10 or 15 years ago. And um I was duly impressed with all of the students and the families that I got to meet that night. It was a beautiful
event. Sign up for that one next year. Um the second thing that I got to do is I got to go to the um AI uh meeting, teacher meeting. It had shrunk a little bit and I think that's just because people are so uh busy, but
we had some really great discussions about some of the legal changes that are happening in the AI landscape and how that might affect the work that teachers do. Um and um it was um inspiring to see
that that the conversation had elevated beyond what we had started with about how do we use this. That was where it started and now we're really talking about policy and we're talking about legal ramifications of our kids using AI
in school and what that means. So, it was a good meeting and I look forward to getting to meet with those folks again ne next year. They did um ask me to um
advocate for a the that committee becoming actually an advisory committee, a technology advisory committee to the superintendent. And that's a message I'll pass along to you. Thank you.
Thanks, Dian. Anybody else? Anna, thank you. I also had the privilege of attending uh several events. Uh one of them being um the 150th anniversary of uh Boulder High School. I had the great
privilege of going with my cousin who graduated there in 1999. Um, and we got to roam the hallways. She got to tell me their senior traditions that she hopes that they still uh partake in today. Uh, one of which is that they throw all of their uh, school
assignments over the balconies in that little center quad, which I would love to see sometime. Um, but it was overall such a great event to see um, so much history uh, coming out of that building. Um, so it was a really really fantastic
uh way to connect to um to the history there. Uh, second, I did attend uh a parent meeting uh with several parents that are inside of our uh bilingual uh schools. And uh their
biggest uh communication to me was just ensuring that um one we are prioritizing uh our bilingual education in the district through our declining enrollment. Um but also being aware of the intentionality of getting um
Spanish-sp speakaking parents' inputs into the survey that is going around. Um and so uh to them I did commit that I would convey to the board um and to uh the superintendent and um the rest of the administration that we um or that
they really want to make sure that we are with the time that we have um we are just pushing as much as we can for that participation from our Spanish- speaking parents. Um, and then, uh, finally, um,
let's see, what did I have? Uh, I had just an amazing meeting this week, uh, and I was just very impressed, um, with Rob and and all of the the, uh, directors um, primarily around um, the district's immigration response. Uh we
came earlier this year um together with parents and a local nonprofit, El Centra Mistad, and they came up with a list of several different things that they thought that the uh school district should prioritize.
Uh, and I've gotten feedback from the parents and from um that nonprofit of just how um how welcoming and how much in partnership they feel with the district. Um, a lot of the things that
they sent over um were ve were very uh lowhanging fruits. Some are a little bit more uh tricky than than the others than the other things, but they just felt really listened to. um the the resources that are coming out for our teachers and
our parents. Um they're very excited to to see and continue to see. Um and afterwards after our meeting and before before the meeting ended, just seeing um the different facets of the district and how
how intentional you're being in responding and thinking through uh your own policies within your own departments. um was just really something that doesn't happen every day at different um government entities. So
I was really happy really um really proud um to have been in that building or in that meeting and then leaving it uh again I was talking to the co-director of El Centra Mistad and just what a night and day shift it has been
um to have the the partnership um that they do have with the district now. um and they're excited for that continuing partnership to grow and to continue to to go on several years. Um and it was
really nice to to to see and to hear all of the things that the district is doing um for our kiddos, for our parents, um for folks in our community in general. And it again, it just made me very very proud of everyone that is here and the
intentionality that you're all putting into and that you are listening and that you are taking action um to make sure that all of our kiddos um especially uh those that have immigrant backgrounds feel welcomed and safe in our district.
So, thank you so much, Jorge. Thank you. Uh thank you enough for raising the important issues and uh I want to echo those sentiments. Uh I know it's a a lot of uncertainty right now, a lot of fear in the community. So um I know the district's working very hard. I also want to use as a jumping off point.
Um there was a email that went out today about the survey um regarding kind of resilient schools and for folks to give their opinions about, you know, what their preferences are. Um so Um, and that's open till Sunday the 17th. Um, so please make sure that you
are responding to that survey and participating. Um, it's a separate link, so it's a little confusing because you get the email from the district and then you have go to you receive another link to actually do the survey. So, we have to make sure that folks are able to do that. Um,
um, so I just want to kind of reinforce that point that, um, it's important for everybody to kind of participate in that process and I appreciate the district doing the additional work to make sure that we reach out to all parts of our community because that's that's so important. Um, uh, I also want to touch on, you know, our great schools and all
our great kiddos that are out there. If I look at old SU today, I was out for two hours with the six with the middle school girls district track finals today. Um, so that's ongoing out today. Right now at Broomfield High School, I think it's still going on now. And tomorrow, uh, the boys district finals
at Centurus High School. So, please check those out if you can. And I heard a rumor that Curus High School ultimate frisbee is the state champion from what I understand. So, I maybe you heard it here first. I don't know. But thank you all,
Alex. Uh, first off, I just want to express my appreciation for the staff and leadership at BBSD over this last month when I've been out of state on an awful lot. So, I really appreciate being able to trust such a great team to do good stuff and to keep me informed when I've
been away. Um, I wanted to speak in general about, you know, part of what will happen as we work on our school consolidations or changes over the next few years. I mean, I've always championed uh public school choice, our
our enrollment in our charter schools. I think we're doing everything we can to get more families to enroll into the district from outside and there's multiple programs we can talk about for that that are that are I think working. And I also think we're trying to retain all as many families as we can. And I'm
proud of our effort to facilitate public school choice in as open a way as possible. So that um the out of our 26,000 families by my count we have about half of them that exercise public school
choice. for those that enroll um try to enroll somewhere and don't get to go there. I'd suggest more than half our families are actually considering or exercising public school choice. And I it's incumbent on us as running a system to make that work for all of the 60,000
humans we touch and the families and the students and that's a lot of kids and a lot of considerations. And as we work on uh consolidating schools, moving programs, uh doing all sorts of design, I want to just make sure that we remain committed to serving all kids, that the
ability to participate in choice is open to everyone, that uh you don't have to pay money to get to exercise choice or volunteer hours, that uh your ability, your language, your class, your race have nothing to do with your ability to
exercise choice. And I'm proud of our policies that move us in a direction to fulfill that. And I think as we work on it in the future, that's going to be hard for lots of families. Uh but I think our commitment to all the families is that they will be treated equally as they try to exercise choice in this
district. And I'm proud of us moving in a direction to facilitate that, not just for one school, but for all 56 schools, 19 of which don't have catchment zones, don't have neighborhoods. So we have a ton of families who are managing our choice system. And I think as board members, we have to work for all of
them. I'm I'm grateful to my colleagues who were able to go to so many events uh with three kids of my own. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend more, but May is a crazy month and what is it? Seven days of school left. Um so not ready for
that. Um, but I did I was able to go to the Boulder High 150th and I just would add to what a cool um thing to see graduates from the 40s and the 50s and a school with so much tradition as someone who went to a high school I think from the 1970s with very very few traditions.
Um, I just really it was it was a great to see that. I didn't realize it was the oldest. It's the oldest high school in Colorado. Just how much history is there and grateful that we have schools of all ages, but particularly a school like Boulder High. So, really fortunate to be able to have gone to that event. Um, and
I'm looking forward to graduations starting this weekend. Thanks, Jason. Uh board members, since we last convened, I was able to attend BVA BV BVEA's closing negotiations,
which was lovely to see, and I'm excited about the progress there. Um I was also attend Boulder High's 150th S or celebration, and yesterday we had our quarterly meeting with the county and the city of Boulder along with the CU and
they're all doing negotiations, too. It seems to be the theme right now. Um, and I just want to like pause and say thanks to our staff and our students who are in the middle, our high schoolers who are in the middle of AP exams and IB
exams and gearing up for finals and participating in state competitions for athletics and activities. It's a really busy time of year. It's hard to manage all these moving parts and the changing of schedules. And so I just want to give kudos to our staff for making all that happen and for our students for being
really patient throughout the process. It's a tough time tough time and an exciting time for high schoolers. And with that, we will move on to our information item this evening. We have three information items. The first of which is a legislative session recap.
And Heather Rzco from our policy matters lobbying team will present this topic. Sorry. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Nice to see you. Thank you so much for having us. Um I'm sorry the rest of our
team is not here. The legislators are still working as we speak. Tomorrow is the last day of the legislative session and they still have quite a bit of work to do, quite a bit of bills um on the calendar, things to vote on. And so, thank you for having me. Um I wanted to
just give you Oh, wait. Hold on. Sorry. I forgot this piece. There we go. Um, so we thought tonight that we would just give you a quick session recap. Um, and then a quick update on the state of the budget and then the school finance act. There's
been a lot of moving pieces on all of those areas. Um, and so we Here we go. Sorry, I'm clearly not technically um savvy with this button item, but um so just taking it back like 119 days, we
had an incredible legislative breakfast with our Boulder County delegation. Thank you so much, Superintendent Anderson and the board for coming to meet with the whole delegation and members of the um education committees. We were really able to have, I think, an
honest conversation at times tense conversation about the realities of the state budget, about the realities of the administrative burdens um impacting school districts, especially those coming from um very well-intended legislation, but it turns out, you know,
it always takes um action to implement. Um and then also a deep conversation about the specific ownership tax. I know there was a lot of conversation about the state's um ability to sweep that tax um from districts and the impact that it would have had on the budget. And so I
think just the ability to have that conversation on the front end of the state session really set the tone for us. And I I am so thankful because I think it made our job easier because they at least our members of the delegation were able to say when they were looking at bills, how is this going
to impact BBSD financially? How is this going to put stress on our teachers, on our administrators, um, and really make informed decisions in a way that they haven't had to um, in the past decade. There were 712 bills that were introduced this session. They're still
being considered. Um, no more bills, thankfully, will be introduced because it takes three days to pass a bill, it turns out. Um, but 712 bills is incredible. and our team goes through every single one of those bills and meets bi-weekly um with President Rajal
and Superintendent Anderson to talk through the impact of those bills on BBSD and take positions in the best interest of the district. The key themes that we saw in terms of legislation introduced this year were um around transportation
tax adjustments, certainly revenue generating measures. We saw that through the um special session um and ideas to do anything and everything we can to um put our state budget into a better place because it's certainly um impacting K12
and and investment into school finance. Artificial intelligence, I heard you talk about that. There was a massive AI bill this year that was a culmination of a year and a half of negotiations between deployers and developers about the um liability as it relates to using
AI. And so I'm happy to say that there was a um an agreement on that bill in the 11th hour as well. Um and as comes with AI comes data centers. We're going to continue to see conversations around data centers over the um interim and uh
through the next session. Um looking at bills that were of part particular interest to BBSD. Um two bills in particular that BBSD supported which were just incredible bills. House Bill 1078 was the off-campus courses concurrent enrollment
programs bill. This bill was sponsored by um two Boulder uh county legislators. Representative Leslie Smith and Senator Janice Marchman. This bill um would allow it will allow um districts to partner with four-year institutions on
concurrent enrollment now instead of having to either bus students to a 4-year institution. Um the dis the four-year institutions are able to either send folks to the district or um work with the teachers at the district to provide those courses.
um the four-year institutions had heard loud and clear from districts across the state that there's um desire to partner, but this um location barrier was was really impacting the ability to partner um in really effective ways. So, that bill is um waiting for the governor's
signature, which is really exciting. The other bill that we worked incredibly hard on and BBSD was a very early supporter of and Superintendent Anderson is very passionate about is the elimination of duplicative regulation of
um before and after care requirements. So right now after the creation of the um CDC, the districts are under both CDC and CDE rules. And so our before and after care administrators have one set of rules during the day and then as soon
as the bell rings or before the bell rings, they go to a different set of rules. And um with different sets of rules comes different sets of violations and um needs for investment. And so we really went into this bill looking at how do we try to eliminate the
duplicative and contradictory requirements between the Department of Early Childhood and um the Department of Education. Turns out it's wildly um there's a lot of people who care about this from private centers to um school districts. And so we really were able to
hone in on um the we really were able to hone in on training for teachers and then also um inspection of playgrounds. Um there's a lot of districts where the playground is okay to use during the day and then as soon as the bell rings those same students are not allowed to use the
playground. And so I think that there's a lot of work to be done in this space. It was an opportunity to have really thoughtful conversations and really um lift up challenges that are facing our before and afterare teachers. Um those were the two that we were able to tackle
this year and I hope that we're able to tackle more next year. Um moving on to bills that we were monitoring school finance. I'm going to get into that a little bit more um in depth uh as it relates to the state budget. Um so I'll I'll pause on that one for a second. Um,
Senate Bill 68, the modify administration of education assessments. This was a bill that was introduced. Um, it was a bipartisan bill to really look at the amount of assessments um, taking place at districts that are above and beyond what's required by federal law.
Um, as introduced, the bill would have said that districts don't have to do anything above federal law. um in negotiation with a a number of um stakeholders, the bill was amended to create a task force to look at all of the different um assessments that are
taking place in districts. Ultimately, again, it turns out there's a lot of um thoughts about assessments. The to do a task force costs money. Um they're literally again I'll get into the budget in a second, but there was zero dollars for other bills um to pass this session.
Um, so this bill is ultimately laid over until after the session adjourns, which means that it's it's dead. Um, but certainly something that we anticipate to keep um talking about. Um, the a bill that we oppose that was postponed
indefinitely, which means it it was killed in committee, is the school um board elections director district um bill. This essentially would have changed schoolboard elections from at large to um where people can only vote
for the district that they live in. Um BBSD took an imposed position as did virtually every other um district in the state and the the bill was ultimately postponed indefinitely. So, those are just a few of the 700 and 700 plus bills
that we looked at this session, but um BBSD played an active role in as it relates to the state budget. Um going into uh the session and with the governor's November 1st budget request,
the state was looking at um a 1.5 about a $ 1.5 billion budget gap um which is just astronomical. Um we knew that a lot of the budget pressures facing our state were because of Medicaid growth and expansion. This
is this has created a structural gap in our budget. So these are things that you know are not going to fluctuate from one year to the other. It's it's they compound over time. Um and then the estimated impact of costs as it relates to the federal HR1 um bill, the
implementation in terms of redetermination of benefits um that that would have on the state. And so just a a significant budget gap um in the nove in the governor's November first budget request, he really wanted to protect K12 and public safety at most. But as um
we'll talk through in a second, um $1.5 billion is an incredible amount of money and not a single department or entity in the state um was able to come out of this budget without experiencing cuts. As it relates to the um Department of Education in particular, the joint
budget committee really focused on the elimination of grants um that school districts participate in that are run through the Department of Education. So things like behavioral health care professional grants, bullying prevention grants, read act awareness grants, um
the statewide social studies test, they removed the um now it will only be required um in seventh grade instead of in elementary school. So, these are um relatively in in in terms of a $ 1.5 billion billion dollar cut, relatively
small um cuts, but added up and the people that they impact really um they made for very hard decisions with the joint budget committee. um as it relates to the school finance act, this was um a very interesting year
because the past few years that we've had a school finance act um especially Superintendent Anderson had to be at the capital almost daily um engaged in different negotiations. I think because there was no money and because the state really wanted to do everything they
could to protect K12 funding, it was a relatively um low-key year, I would say, as it relates to the school finance act. They um Senate Bill 23 um will do a 30% implementation of House Bill 1448, which
is about a $150ish um million dollar investment to K12. It um includes a three-year averaging, which is something that's been important to um averaging has been something important um for for us to protect over the past few years.
The big um unanticipated consequence of the school finance act happened in just the past week and a half, I would say, and it was on the cost of living factor. CDE submitted um probably four or five rounds of really complicated runs, runs
that were not correct. Um runs that would have had um school districts anywhere from there were different variations from 140 school districts to 45 school districts who would have had experienced a cut if the new runs on this cost of living factor were
implemented. Um so so much thanks to to Keith and the Colorado School Alliance and then all of the district lobbyists. we all pushed back very hard on um these cuts and so there was an agreement um just recently uh to pause that cost of
living factor in the school finance bill so that the districts will not experience um a change in what they anticipated this year. And then conversations will continue over the interim about why um why 1448 is causing this cost of
living factor um to fluctuate. The specific ownership tax I mentioned at the very beginning of this um presentation. Again, the board and Superintendent Anderson were incredible. Um in our breakfast with the delegation in terms of um you know, a cut is a cut
is a cut and this would have been this proposal would have been a significant cut to BBSD um to the tune of more than $7 million. we were able to get this cut off the table with the joint budget committee and then work with case to challenge the legality of the cut which ultimately
pulled it off the table with the speaker in the governor's office. Um so it's something that we're really proud of. Looking to the future um because again if you can believe it the session ends tomorrow. Um but June 18th is a big day
for us. It's the June revenue forecast and it's where we start this whole process all over again. And um all eyes are on this forecast as it relates to um the risk of a recession, as it relates to impacts of federal legislation, um as
it relates to impacts of um potential ballot measures. Um it's it's going to be a really important forecast for us to look at in terms of planning ahead. So, we'll certainly um as we always do, send you all an update as to to how that
forecast looks. That was a a long presentation, but any questions for me or that I can pass along to our team? I just want to start by saying thank you to Heather and her team are great partners throughout the course of the legislative session. And while Dr.
Anderson is a fierce advocate, we can't always get down to the capital as often as we need to. So, we do rely on you for for that advocacy. So, I just want to commend you for all the efforts that you put in on behalf of the school district. board members, any questions or comments?
Great. Well, Dr. Anderson, oh, I just want to thank Heather, Tanya, and the team for always doing such a great job of of staying keeping us informed during session, putting us in the right positions to advocate. Um, I was very, uh, happy to see that SOT die pretty
quickly. I think that uh the the the ways that we engage our delegation are are highly effective and right on time and I think we're able to deliver some messages in that meeting that really resonated and that helped our number one legislative priority which was to eliminate that to come to fruition. And
um even the work on uh the child care I think that was that's looking forward to to seeing that come in play. and uh Representative Smith's bill, I think, is going to really help make a lot of kids in BBSD happy when they're able to earn the CU concurrent enrollment courses.
Wonderful. Thank you all so much. It's an honor to represent you. Thanks, Heather. Thank you. Our next information item this evening is preschool and enrichment programming update. Dr. Anis, would you like to do
the introductions? Yes, I I would love to do that. I'm I was looking to see if we'd um approved the personnel report yet, but we haven't. So, um our current assistant superintendent um chief academic officer uh Nativity Miller is going and um
director of academics uh Emma Herszog and Terresa Clemens from early childhood will be giving you all a preschool and enrichment programming update. And so with that, Dr. Miller, I'll turn it over to you. All right. Good evening, President Rajpaw, members of the board, Dr. Anderson. Um, as Dr. Anderson just
mentioned, tonight we are going to be providing you with the preschool update for the 2526 school year. And just as a quick reminder, the early childhood education department lives under the academics department. Teresa Clemens is our amazing early childhood director and Dr.
Emma Herszog is their direct supervisor for the team. And so with that, I'm going to pass it to the two of them and they will be presenting to you this evening. I'm all stressed out about this clicker. All right. Good evening. Tonight, we will do a quick review of our existing
preschool models, share updates on preschool enrollment, both current and pro projected, as well as how we're maximizing our enrichment seats, share an update on the preschool impact analysis that was completed in partnership with Dr. Alzine and her team and share some updates from the Colorado
Department of Early Childhood on UPK. Going to pass it over to Terresa Clemens, our director of early childhood, who will take you through the bulk of the slides this evening. It's the down. Okay. Good evening. Uh we will begin with a
visual of our current programming. This is our second year offering half-day preschool 5 days a week. Each preschool classroom is taught by a licensed early childhood special educator and we have three-hour preschool in the morning and a three-hour session in the afternoon.
In order to meet the 15-hour a week requirement for universal preschool, our preschool classes do not have late start on Wednesdays. At 14 of our sites, we also have the option to add enrichment. The second column on this slide in the middle there shows one example of how preschool
enrichment supplements preschool to create a full day bell-to-bell schedule for families. In this example, the student is enrolled in morning preschool and then after those three hours, the student moves to the enrichment classroom where they spend the remaining four hours of the day. Some students
would have a schedule with enrichment in the morning and preschool in the afternoon. At Alicia Sanchez, we have a full day model that is six hours a day, five days a week, and students spend the full 30 hours with an early childhood special educator. Students do not change
classrooms midday like in the model with enrichment. Looking at enrollment this year, um our preschool enrollment over the past two years of universal preschool has stayed steady in both preschool and enrichment. As you can see, in October of 2024, we
had 770 students and that increased to 832 this October. While the end-of-ear numbers are similar, our October enrollment numbers reflect an increase from 770 to 832. We receive funding based on monthly
enrollment, which means students enrolling earlier and remaining enrolled throughout the year increases our revenue. And the end ofear numbers are ending very similar. last year 98 and as of right now we have 917 students.
This slide also shows the growth of our extended day enrichment program. Prior to universal preschool enrichment had an enrollment of just 113 students and we are ending this school year with 319 which is very similar to ending last
year which I believe it was 318 students. So again, remaining consistent with enrichment enrollment as well. We are continually reflecting on enrollment and looking to see where and how we might make adjustments. One area
we wanted to look at was maximizing enrollment in our full day seats. For the 2627 school year, we are going to continue to offer a preschool and enrichment model that we've been implementing at both Mapleton and Pioneer. We will add this model to
Elorado PK8 for next school year. There's a visual on the left side of this slide. And at these three sites, we are pairing a preschool classroom with the enrichment classroom. In other words, 100% of the seats in that preschool classroom will be for students
who are attending preschool and enrichment. All three of these sites have an additional preschool classroom, and all of those seats will continue to be half-day preschool, which allows families attending those schools to continue to have a choice in either half day or full day.
One other change that we're making for next school year is reserving a certain number of seats for full day programming at two of our sites, Birch and Cole Creek. At these two sites, a minimum of 26 of the 36 total seats will be reserved for students who are enrolling
in the enrichment program. The other nine sites with enrichment will continue with the current enrollment model, which is a mix of half and full day preschool, and families can choose which works best for their family. So looking ahead to 2627 enrollment, we
are seeing strong enrollment for this coming school year as well and we're on track to match or exceed this year's enrollment numbers. As of now, our enrollment for 2627 is at 619 students and 306 of those students are already
enrolled or in the process of enrolling in enrichment. Our community liaison are actively enrolling students and will continue to enroll throughout the summer. So we will continue to see that 619 number rise over the summer months.
There continues to be a demand for full day enrichment seats and sites with enrichment tend to fill quicker than sites who just offer half-day programming. And now I will hand it over to Dr. Herszog to share an update on our
analysis of preschool impact. So we know that an ongoing question the board has had that we share is you know we believe in an excellent preschool experience for our students. We know research says it should have an impact but does it have an impact and to what extent in BBSD particularly considering
the significant cost of preschool given the lack of sufficient state funding through universal preschool. At our October 2025 board presentation we shared that we plan to partner with Dr. Jessica Alzine, our executive director of accountability and evaluation, and her team to dig into our data to see
what conclusions we might draw. Dr. Aline and her team did a lot of work digging into a variety of data sets over time. And the conclusion was it's not possible to have any conclusions right now given the changing parameters we've been operating in over time.
Specifically, we've just adjusted pres we have we have had adjusted preschool programming three times in the last four years. When we're trying to figure out the impact preschool has had on a student over time, it's hard to do when the preschool experience is not staying consistent. We
anticipate now after new legislation and an adjustment to that new legislation, we'll have more consistent programmatic offerings over a longer period of time. It's also important to note that COVID continues to impact longitudinal data sets. If we look at student trajectories
from the last five or 10 years starting in preschool, for example, COVID remains a key variable in those data sets. And with that variable, it's also hard to draw conclusions. So, all that said, for now, we will continue to work on maximizing preschool seats and improving
and refining our preschool student experience in alignment with preschool standards, kindergarten readiness, and developmentally appropriate practices. After we have more years of UPK and our consistent model, we'll work with our data and accountability team to re revisit and review a longitudinal data
set and anal and complete an analysis to determine impact of our preschool program. This slide's from a previous presentation, but we wanted to include it here um because we're going to transition from talking about our current preschool model and how that's going to some updates from the state
that Teresa will share. It's important to remember that preschool is under the Colorado Department of Early Childhood while K12, as we know, is under CDE. And there are some real ongoing implications with this. So, at a really high level, enrollment is different. Preschool
enrollment is managed by the state's platform, Bridgeare, while K12 enrollment, as you know, is managed by local school districts. Time in school is different. Preschools funded based on time per week, while K12 is funded based on time per year. And then, as Teresa
mentioned, funding is different. Preschool is funded per pupil per month, while K12 is funded per pupil per year based on an October count. This structure also means that new guidance and new UPK requirements come to us from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, not CDE. Teresa is going to
give you an overview and preview of refinements CDC is planning to make over the next several years. So for the last part of the presentation, I want to share some of these updates from CDC with you. We will be going into our um third year of
universal preschool and um as of July 1st, all UPK providers um will need to meet these quality standards that are outlined in legislation and rules. This slide shows the five main categories of standards that will be required of all
UPK providers. Boulder Valley has been and continues to provide the highest quality programming and we already meet or exceed these requirements. But I think it's important for you to know what will be expected of all providers. The first one is around instructional
practice and all providers will be required to have an approved curriculum by CDC and an assess assessment system that's aligned with Colorado academic um standards. We do have that in place and have had that for many years. Also, programs will be required to have
on-site observations every three years from an outside observer that will um measure quality and classroom interactions. Again, this is something that we have put in place as a part of our quality improvement plan for the last several years. It also requires um
some regulations around healthy development requirements which basically is um requiring programs to provide screening such as social emotional screening, developmental, vision and hearing and also oral health.
Uh the next category is family and community engagement. There's a requirement to um allow families input on programming, allowing families to complete surveys to give input, working with um preschool staff, working with families to develop goals for their
child. Again, all things that we have in place are best practice and we have had in place. The last one is around professional development requirements, which again we have a robust professional development program. The change for us will be that CDC is now
mandating specific um types of training that we have to require um such as trauma-informed practice, family engagement and so forth. So they've listed out the topics and how many hours we have to provide. So we need to ensure that all of our providing fits um all
those requirements. And then um another change that I just wanted to share with you, this is just a proposal and a draft um but it felt important to share that this is something that's being discussed um at the state level. There is a quality
rating system for early childhood programs and CDC is in the process of updating that monitoring process for all programs. And currently Ced is proposing that the quality monitoring process for school districts be aligned to some of
the current Colorado Department of Education requirements. So, for example, um looking at requiring districts to have an early childhood specific goal in the district and school unified improvement plans. Also with educator
effectiveness evaluation system in those expectations, ensuring that um there are developmental instructional strategies that are in place preschool through third grade. Um, one of the things under the principal quality standards as a part of the principal evaluation
process, ensuring that there's training for evaluators so that they have the knowledge and expertise to um evaluate developmental appropriate practice and also a strong preschool to kindergarten transition plan. And then the last one
is ensuring that learning goals are aligned to the Colorado academic standards. And then finally, um although you already heard about this this evening, um was just going to give you a brief update on House Bill 261282
um to eliminate the duplicative um legislation or the duplicative um oversight for programs that are a part of a school district. Um we were hopeful that this would eliminate some of the burdens placed on school districts who
have preschool and school age programs. The original bill included preschool as well as school age. Um however um there were major revisions to this bill as you heard. Um and it does only include school age before and after school
programs. Um and it was whittleled down to um just a few of the items. But it is a win because um there is something in place and it's a starting place. So with that um we will take any questions that you have.
Thank you for that preschool early childhood update. Board members, do we have any questions or comments? Alex? Yeah, I have a few questions, but I'll start with a few and give my colleagues a chance. Um, previously we've gotten updates on the proportion of students
with disabilities in our preschool programs. Can you give us some data on what the trends are this year for enrollment? In the past, I've been concerned that maybe our rates are higher than we would want uh in terms of least restrictive environment. and I want to know what they are this year.
That's the first question. Um I can I don't have the exact number, but I can tell you um we can certainly pull those for you. Um we typically start with around um 30% um of the students in our classrooms have an IEP.
Um we need to keep the enrollment at 50% or less and we are below that. Um, I think right now it's probably around 40%. Because throughout the school year, we add about a hundred students who have an IEP because, as you know, we
continually need to evaluate students and um, students with IEPs start the program as soon as their IEP is in effect. Theresa is not going to toot her horn on this, so I'm going to toot it. and we were trying to figure out how to put it in the slide in a cohesive way and we
didn't. But I would say, and she can correct me if I'm wrong, we're also seeing a trend that more of our noniep seats are being filled earlier in the year. So, for example, as of now for fall, we already have sites that are full on the nonie seat side, but we're
very mindful of the balance by classroom. Yeah, I I would love to get the data. It's I know we were at 42 two years ago and somewhere in the mid30s last year. So I' I'd love to actually find out what that number is and I'd love uh our impact study to explore that pretty
closely uh because I remain concerned that we would um get the ratios we want in order to serve all the families and to make the LRE be effective for the kids. Um another basic question, how many kids do we want in this program and what proportion of capacity are we
currently serving? How many unused seats do we have throughout the year or the beginning or the end of the year? Um, we have capacity, again, I'd have to look up the exact, um, but it's a little over a thousand. Um, and so by ending
the year at 9:18, um, obviously there's still open seats there. However, again, I will say as students come through Childfind and qualify for programming, we have to hold seats so that we have a spot for them. So, even though school is
out in two weeks, um we still have families who maybe had their IEP last week um and they are starting school. So, we have to be ready, willing, and able to serve them at any point. So, we do need to have some open seats so that we have space to serve them.
Jason. Um, yeah, thanks for this update. Um, I was going to ask a kind of variation of Alex's question about demand and you you mentioned there's demand at some sites, but then it looks like from what you just said there's a thousand seats and we're we're at 90. you talk about demand
and maybe where we see are there particular sites or is it you know areas of the district just just I think as if we think about this strategically in terms of declining enrollment and where we want to think about where um you know where we want to attract more families
and particularly at preschool level it's interesting because um there's always some surprises in there and so for instance um I could name Emerald that's one school who maybe wasn't quite as full and then going into this year or
I mean going into next year um it's I believe it's it's full with our nonIP seats. We might still have some IEP seats that are open and that is a site that has just half day programming, not the full day. Um we follow the trend that we're seeing in the district that
our Boulder sites um are struggling to um completely fill all of the seats that I'll refer to as nonie seats. Um, again, we the number doesn't go over 50%. Um, but
we do still see that there are students with IEPs um that we need to be serving. So, does that answer your question? I think one addition also is um the early childhood team has done a really thoughtful job of mapping out what are the other providers by town and region
across our district and essentially like what else is available to families. And so then it can create some confusing trends because we may have an area of the district that doesn't have a large student population, but because of a lack of other options, we see an influx in demand for our programming or through
word of mouth or whatever. And to Teresa's point, it changes year to year based on word on the street, based on what's happening in a neighboring district, in the preschool they may or may not have. And so we're trying to be constantly nimble in understanding what is the ecosystem that we are working
within for pre kindergarten and what does that look like by sub area and also monitoring that over time while trying to be really competitive and and getting our word out for families. So it's not a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Um and you know I know you mentioned
just kind of you know data and analysis. Uh, I just, you know, add that, um, I do have, my youngest is in preschool at Creekide and anecdotally, I can speak to the incredible quality of the teachers and the programming. Uh, and I hope more Boulder families in particular, it
sounds like, uh, you know, can really discover, you know, the great offering that we have. Um, and I think it's, yeah, really a kind of a kind of a hidden gem in our community that we have such, you know, incredible teachers, high quality programming. It's not daycare. It's really, you know, really
solid early childhood education. Um, and you know, again, from one perspective, I can talk about how effective and, um, strong the programming has been. So, thank you. That's not the official data we'd want on slides, but and I think a lot of other families in our, um, in in
the the preschool at Creekide would agree. So, thanks very much for all you do. Yeah. Thank you, Alex. Yeah. Uh, a few more questions. Um uh how big is our class size for these things? How big? What does full mean?
Yeah. So um our maximum is 18. Okay. Um per session. So like when I say 26 of the 36 seats, so we have 18 um in the morning session and 18 in the afternoon session. Okay. And I'd be interested in data in the long run that gives us a sense of
the class size by school or the enrollment by school and the and the special ed ratio by by the schools program because I would help us understand I think how how it's working in the different places. Um I have maybe
this is a question for Rob or um Dr. Miller. Uh when we were doing the the roundts at the schools, I would always ask the principles about their preschool program and to a person they had zero ownership of these programs. They're
like, "Oh, that's not mine. The district runs that." Um that seems exceedingly problematic to me in the long run in terms of like trying to get people to enroll in preschool and then enroll in the school or potential to integrate this into our system as we move forward and try to be special. What What's the
deal with that? And is it okay? Hey, and can we do something about it? Sounds like a new kind of agenda item line. What's the deal with that? We could kind of got kind of answer questions like a game show. Um, and and I'll let Teresa and Emma answer
this, but you know, the enrollment's goofy because it has to go through bridge care. So, you can't go to the school and enroll, right? You have to go back to bridge care. and then through the bridge care that the the early childhood team is and the liaison are the ones that walk a lot of those
families through that. I I would say though, Alex, that there is an opportunity and to better connect um what's happening in early childhood with with what principles are doing in their schools around unifi universal
improvement planning, unified improvement planning. And I think that some of the legislation that Teresa was alluding to would actually make that a requirement because you don't want it to be this disconnected thing. You really want, you know, from 3 to four years old
all the way up through college or industry certification or you know grad plus completion. Um and so uh you know I I think the enrollment piece may is is difficult right? you know, the principles don't manage the enrollment
because there's this calculus that Teresa over the years of her experience is really good at, which is if you overfill your seats and then you have students with IEP show up and you don't have room, then you're you're what
you're going to add another section and then move kids from programs to another program. I mean, I just that the logistics around is kind of crazy. So, um I do think that there's opportunities to do a better job of connecting and I do think over time, you know, the work that's happening um in early childhood
and and making sure that our principles know and understand what highquality early childhood education looks like and how it connects to curriculum is um is an opportunity um for growth, but the enrollment uh the enrollment piece I think is has traditionally
been um been been the tough part of that. Teresa, Emma, do you want to add anything to that? Um, I would just say yes. The enrollment we have, um, preschool at 24 of the elementary sites, so they're not everywhere. Um, so there are students
at, you know, a school where they may not be going there for kindergarten and up. Um, principles are the evaluators of the preschool staff. Um, so, you know, the preschool staff definitely is a part of that school. Um I think also what
complicates it is um childcare licensing and there's so many things and so you know as it should be there's a reliance on our department to make sure we have those regulations and so sometimes I think some of those comments come
because it's just so big with Cdeck and childcare licensing and all these pieces and we don't we we expect principles to understand them but not the nitty-gritty like we're there to consult and support Then Jorge and then we'll go back to Alex.
Thanks Alex. You you beat me to that question. I was curious. I know um you mentioned the bridge um management of the enrollment and that's changed over the years. We'll say generously, right? Um how's that process working out for parents? Is it improving? Are is any of
the legislation tackling that issue at all in terms of making change? And the second question is is about the transition to kindergarten. Are we do we have numbers on how that looks like from the preschool program to the kindergartens um and schools? So, um, Bridgeare, that's the state
enrollment system that all families have to put their application into Bridgeare, go through a lottery. Um, so yes, there's been improvements um, and the state has listened to districts um, to implement some of the things like for
instance, there used to be several rounds and they were later and so like families wouldn't find out until now if they even had preschool for next year. So with advocacy of ourselves and some other districts now those rounds happened earlier um you know January
Februaryish time so I think families can't remember exactly but I think they heard in March so beginning I think it was April 1 we can do direct enrollment so there have been some changes um still as a school district we would like to
have full control of enrollment um and be able to just have families work with us. it was so much more efficient for all of us. So, um, and I forgot your other question. The other question was just about the transition from preschool to
kindergarten. Oh, yes. And what that looks like. Um, I mean, that's definitely something we look at. Again, I don't know that I have the numbers. Um we've been having well one we work um really um closely with the schools both preschool and
kindergarten staff sharing ideas around transition from preschool to kindergarten and how to support that and that really it's a year-long process right like should be starting um for those four-year-olds in preschool in the fall and and different activities happening at the school as far as like
specific numbers of if you're going to preschool at this school and are you staying there for kinder? Um I don't have those exact numbers. Um I mean it's something that we could get for you. We've been having those um discussions and also looking at you know what does
that look like if I come to a school for preschool and you know being allowed to stay there or not because right now you with the way that we do open enrollment um unless it's your neighborhood school you would need to go through the open enrollment process to stay at that
school. That's what I was going to add and just say um in the fall we shared a a slide that we didn't end up including because we don't have an update other than we're still monitoring but we do we're seeing a significant increase in the number of out of district students coming to us for preschool um which wasn't a part of preupk how we
structured things and now it is and so something that we are doing is monitoring those students over time to see if we're seeing any impact especially along the fringe of um our school district and whether we're retaining those students. I think to Teresa's point, it's it's a hard thing to track because when you have about
twothirds of our elementaryaries have preschool and the other third don't. Um it it really just becomes like we're we're trying to get to a place where we're nuance of are you staying generally the answer is yes and if like at when are you staying in the school you were at for preschool if that wasn't your home school and there's just a lot
of nuance in there to to figure out the details. Thank you. Yeah, one of the things I'd be interested on an impact study would be to, you know, track that and figure out where the kids are going. So, we know who they are, so we should be able to figure out where they end up the next year if we've got them somewhere in the
system. Um, I'm also interested, this is sort of a two-part question. I'm excited to integrate them into our larger intellectual exercise, but I'm super anxious about that because of the track record of K12 systems of not doing
developmentally appropriate stuff with little kids once they're on the hook for it. And it all turns into how do we increase third grade reading scores, not how do we give four year olds developmentally appropriate play. Um, so I that's why I it's not so much making
sure that and I look forward to like the UPK being, you know, part of that and integrating the preschools into it and having discussions about the curriculum and the ongoing oversight. But my greatest concern is that's going to lead to creeping um developmentally
inappropriate uh practices or expectations or the system will be built that way. and my reading of the research from other states advancing universal preschool is that's often like the thing that makes it go most poorly. So, I'm interested in a thoughtful integration
that's really focused on developmentally appropriate uh care for the little kids, but that also tracks it and educates like the school leaders so they know not to pressure them to like sit down more and let's talk about colors, you know. So, um it's it's got to be different
than that. And to that, I guess I am curious to know and as we move forward, how and I know that we give like four stars on the on the state system and none of our competitors have more than two except for one that's five, but we don't have five and the districts don't
try to get five. But I am really curious as we consider to hold ourselves accountable for quality. I mean, I'd like us as a board to be educated about what quality looks like, what our metrics are that we're using, how it integrates with the state's quality system and the intentionality of when we
choose not to do something that the state would you expect us to do to get a five-star rating, for example. Can you talk about and I don't mean to say what's the deal with, but can you talk a little bit about how we make sure our we're being developmentally appropriate as we integrate into the K12 system and
how we protect that as we try to evaluate quality going forward. Really good questions. Thank you. Um, something that I was going to add on later, but then I was doing my awkward dance behind the podium is, um, we've been starting with principles some
virtual professional learning because when I started in the role of early childhood a few years ago, something that principles self- admitted is like my background's in secondary. Like I want to support, but when I go in a preschool, kindergarten, first grade classroom, I need some help. And so we've been trying to provide some really
targeted, thoughtful um, learning there for those who need it. And then in conjunction with that, with the support of Dr. Miller. Um, a small group of us have been engaged in some learning about what do excellent PK through third grade practices look like and sound like. And to your point, board member Medler, how
do you marry developmentally appropriate practice with standards in a meaningful way for students of certain ages? So that rather than your description of we're going to now learn to read when we're three, it's actually like what does play-based learning look like up through elementary, but in a way that
doesn't compromise the rigor that we want out of standards, but is developmentally appropriate for kids. So we've been doing some learning on that as we think about what resources do we have in place and how do we vertically align them thoughtfully and there are some real inroads with our strategic plan over time. So we're starting to think about how do we do that work and
do some learning here in this building across teams so that when we're supporting schools we're doing it in a way that helps facilitate that sort of environment and understanding. So it's really exciting more to come and then I'll let Teresa talk about Colorado Shines. Um yes and I guess just one more thing
to add just with the um the training and the support that we are um giving to principles is really understanding that it's not that you have rigor or you have developmentally appropriate, right? Like we can have both and we can marry them
and rigor isn't a bad word in preschool and early childhood in a high quality environment. So what does that look like in our environments? We need to have at least an hour of intentional play in our preschool classrooms in a three-hour program. That isn't just throwing
materials out there and just hoping that things happen. It's being really thoughtful of what standards are we addressing this week? What are we putting in those centers that are going to help support that? And so really being thoughtful as um the teacher of
setting up that environment and knowing why are we putting these things out in the environment? What are our goals for the students to learn with them in a playful way and child directed way not sit and get from the teacher and you know kind of do some of that wrote learning um because you're right that's
not where we're going to see um the supportive um instruction for students as far as Colorado shines rating um that's that second um slide that I showed you about um aligning with the unified um improvement plan and so
forth. So there is something called an alternative pathway. So as a school district, I'm very proud. We were the very first school district to go through the work to do an alternative pathway. Um we originally were like well is one
is one is fun. Like let's just stay a one because it's a lot of work. Um but we decided no, we're going to go through the work. We want to do that. We're a leader um in the state. So we were the first to go through that um six years ago I think. And so we just renewed it.
Um and the alternative pathway, what it looks like right now is basically submitting seriously like hundreds of pieces of paper um documenting all the things that we do. Um and many of those
things are required um from CDE. And so they are revamping the entire Colorado Shines quality rating. And so one of the things is for school districts this alternative pathway one it might not be optional like it is right now and if we
continue with it that those are the recommendations that they're making that it aligns with those requirements from CDE and you are correct we have a level four at all of our sites and that goes through 2029. Now, Teresa, can you explain why we're not level five and what we would have to do to be level five?
Yes. So, five is the highest rating. Um, and so the highest level that you can get in an alternative pathway is a level four. And so, if we were to do the level five, um, the administrative burden, the
cost really just outweighs going from a four to a five because you have to do it by school, right? And we have to do it by school. So, correct. Um, so right now we submit all of the paperwork one time for all 24 sites. Um, and if we were to do that
individually, um, we would need to do it 24 times and pay for different things. And yes, Deian, is there a program that helps um either educators or other school staff access a
preschool program at the school they work at? Um I'm not sure I understand the question. So, if I'm a teacher and I have a preschooler, can my child go to preschool at the same building that I work at? Yes. And we do have um several
staff where their preschoolers um are coming to school. Um and um it depends on if they're three or if they're four. If they're three, they go through our lottery system and we follow the same open enrollment um priorities.
I forget what the term is. Um but for four-year-olds, they have to go to Bridgeare and hope that they get matched. Okay. I I understood there was lots of open enrollment things happening there. So, I didn't know if there was a specialized route for people who work in
the building. Yeah, because um for four-year-olds, it all goes through the state. So, again, if we could control that, we could have our different priorities, but it all goes through the state and if they get matched, they get matched. Uh the other thing that I would like to
know is has anybody thought about um the possibility of training uh potential new preschool teachers from maybe our high school cohorts or something in order to prepare new
educators because preschool teachers are sometimes hard to fill, right? Yes. Yes, there definitely is um staffing workforce um concerns in the early childhood field. Um we have done some partnerships with um the early childhood
classes um that the concurrent enrollment classes. Um we definitely work with our paraprofessionals um also and encouraging them to continue their education. um if um you know staff is coming to us and they're interested in
getting their lensure um myself or a member of our team meets with them individually we talk with them kind of here's some of the different steps here's all the resources like teach Colorado here's scholarships that are out there and things like that so um we really believe in growing our own
supporting our staff um and encouraging them to take that next step if that's what they Alex. Yeah. Uh um sorry, I just blank. I had a great question and I just lost it. Um I guess
I I am interested in learning more about this and I'm interested in hearing back as the the the study continues. But I'd want to one thing I did want to put on the record in case anybody's listening to this. I looked today at the ratings and just about every private provider within striking distance of Boulder is a
one or a two on the five-star system and we are a four because of administrative decisions we've made to not bother to try to get a five, but we probably could if our individual schools put the work in. So, the community should know that we have the best kick-ass um preschool programs uh in the area and that we put
a lot of work into it and we have really great people doing it. um to that uh effort. I did remember the question and perhaps it's for Bill. I know we've spent like 1.3 million or more on top of what the state gives us for this in previous years. Uh can anybody tell me what the extra money was we spent this
year and what we're anticipating spending next year? It's like a cliffhanger, Bill. Uh absolutely. And I think that's important for us to to know. We'll we'll prepare that for news and notes if you can take the lead on that to make sure that we get that. Um while I have the
microphone, I will say that uh the idea that it's mandatory that uh that schools go through pro private any providers go through a process to show quality. I think one of the biggest issues I've had with universal preschool is um access to
to nonquality programming is uh is probably worse than having nothing at all. uh only because as a parent you think you're doing the right thing to send your kid to preschool so they can get ready for kindergarten and if they're not doing the things that they need to do uh your kid can end up behind
even though as a parent you think you've done the right things and so I think it should be mandatory. I don't think that um I think that you should be able to get a a five through a system level accreditation just like I don't understand that but sounds like I might have something to uh to begin to
advocate for because that doesn't make any sense to me. Actually, and my comment was kind of related to how Dr. Anderson ended that first. Thank you for the presentation. And I I'm wondering maybe optimistic and naively hoping that as Cec wants to align to
some of the CDE standards, maybe they'll just align themselves into non-existence um to to work around, you know, some of these challenges that we've had. And in this year, more than in years past, there were a there were a lot of prek early childhood bills coming through the
legislature. I I don't recall seeing this many last year, and we highlighted just one, but there were several. And I do and some of the best ones got watered down or, you know, turned into non-existence. I wonder if if this is an
area in which with your guidance we might want to take a firmer stance or propo propose something for next year because this really is a an important piece of the education system and it every year we hear about the challenges that continue and challenges that are
created by the state that really do impede us our us and our ability to provide really great before and afterare really great prek services and so I know when we were meeting with our lobbyist several times this year I'm like I preks in in early childh is just something I'm not really familiar with and I was
always struggling with how do I think about this bill or how does this bill interact with that bill and there were so many I'm like I kind of want to give up until somebody that is an expert weighs in but if if your team and if this district feels like that's an avenue for the
board to pursue in the future with our delegation I'd be very open to hearing that so that's all I had to say on this topic any final questions questions or comments on UPK before we move on for tonight's agenda. Seeing Thank you so much.
Thank you. We'll now move on to action items consent grouping 7.1 Personnel item 7.2 approval of minutes April 28th, 2026. 7.3 approval of minutes package 2627.4 approval of purchase for Riverside Technologies Inc. 7.5 approval of the
contract with Summit Hosting. 7.6 6 resolution 26-14 to authorize necessary contracts during the summer hiatus. 7.7 grant strategic partnerships title six Indian ed USD doe. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping?
Seeing as there are none, is there a motion to approve the items on consent? Approved by Lenia, seconded by Alex. Board members, any discussion? I just want to say we have some significant retirements this year and on this year's ag tonight's agenda we are
um posting the retirement of Robin Fernandez and I wanted to thank her for her time in this district on all the various levels for which you have served. You have left a mark and you will be missed. Likewise, congratulations to Nativity Miller. We're excited to have be working
more closely with you um in your new role. Anything else? Board members, may I comment on the Title Six grant? Yeah. Um, of course, we want to uh
pursue any funding that we can get to um perpetuate that problem with that program that has been incredibly successful in the last few years. But I just want to put out there that I think that we have we have parents in the community who are cooking for those
dinners. Um and we don't really have enough money to run that program on the 0.25 um FTE that it supplies. So I hope we've look for other sources of income for that program.
Seeing as there is no there no there's no further discussion. Chris, can you please call the role on the motion? Booker, yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Aea,
yes. Raj Paul, yes. Tammy Wading, yes. Yes. Motion passes. Board members, we have one item remaining on tonight's public portion of the agenda and I want to get a sense of
if we have time for this 11 page slide deck or if we want to take a comfort break. May we please take a comfort break? We can take a comfort break. We will be back in about 5 to 7 minutes. Welcome back everyone. We will now turn to our study items this evening. We just
have one study item which is the academic calendar. Robin Fernandez will be presenting this topic this evening. Good evening, President Rajpaw, members of the board and Dr. Anderson. Since I was before you in January to share the initial draft calendars for academic
years 2728 and 2829, a lot has happened. So this evening I am back before you and I'm going to describe the process that has occurred since January and I will be explaining the adjustments that have been made to these final draft calendars as a result
of that process. There we go. When we were together in January, the board provided a significant amount of feedback about the original draft calendars that were presented to you at that time. Based on that feedback, adjustments to the drafts
were made. Uh, and you see those on this slide. As we know, each and every change that is made has ripple effects. So, some feedback was possible to be incorporated and that feedback is listed on the left hand side of this slide.
That included begin beginning the school year later in August, ending the school year later in May, uh avoid ending school on a Monday, avoid extending winter break until Wednesday, decreasing the number of Mondays off, and maximizing staff attendance on
professional learning days. The feedback that you see on the right hand side of the slide was not able to be incorporated because of specific aspects of negotiated agreements or the existence of certain holidays. So as a result, the draft calendars post January
board meeting when we were together were adjusted to include this feedback and new drafts were created which were then presented to our representative groups for them to consider and respond to. So as described in the January
presentation to the board, we have since progressed through this timeline, which brings us to the meeting here this evening. And in just a moment, I'll share a summary of this feedback that we received from the representative groups that you see listed on the right hand side in that box on the upper uh part of
this slide. On this slide, you can see the general themes of the feedback that we received on the post January board meeting draft calendars that were presented to the representative groups for review. The
first bullet uh represents a request to decrease the number of 3-day weeks. As a reminder, we had increased the number of 3-day weeks in the current academic cycle in order to decrease the number of partial weeks. Therefore, we had tagged
on professional learning and educator work days to establish holidays in order to meet this request. The unintended consequence of doing so resulted in feedback from both educators and families about the perceived negative impacts of three-day weeks on students
and families. Both groups cited negative impact on learning with a special call out for students on IEPs needing more consistent support during the week in addition to general decreased student and staff attendance and student dysregulation during three-day weeks.
Additionally, families reported that arranging for child care for a three-day week versus a 4-day week can be more challenging. Next, on this second bullet, uh the feedback we received was having Mondays off have a more negative impact on
learning than having Fridays off. And that was reported by educators at all levels, elementary, middle, and high. In addition, the continuing challenge for having enough substitute teachers on Fridays make Fridays a better no contact day in the minds of our stakeholders
than Mondays. Third, there was universal support from staff and surprisingly so much from families often met when I uh spoke with representative groups with applause at the return of the April
conference exchange days. However, this also included requests to move them from a to a Friday and Monday off for some of the reasons stated above about 3-day weeks, but also to address higher than normal staff and student absences on
Fridays prior to Monday's off, which of course negatively impacts student learning. In addition to the ongoing struggles with substitute shortages on Friday, there was also a sentiment to move the conference exchange days to later in April so that they were completely
outside the CAMASS testing window while still allowing enough time for high schoolers to gear up for AP and IB testing which begins at the beginning of May. the academic calendar task force which is made up of BVEA leadership
principles central office leaders including professional learning and human resources and a parent representative refu review reviewed and considered all the feedback that we received from our representative groups. The team used a consensus process to make adjustment to the draft calendars
that also took into account other intended unintended consequences of changes. In addition, the group worked to address other concerns when making these proposed changes that we are always trying to to solve for this. This includes maximizing educator attendance
on professional learning days and addressing student and staff absences resulting in substitute shortages on Fridays prior to Monday's off as I mentioned a moment ago. So with that, I will share the adjustments that the task force made based on the feedback from our
representative groups. We will begin with this calendar. This is the post January board meeting draft calendar for 2728. What you will see on subsequent slides are animations that visually show the changes to the post January meeting
drafts and you will see the final drafts that are on on study before you this evening. So there are three adjustments that were made to the 2728 draft calendar. first
moving the January 18th professional learning day to January 4th. The rationale for this includes an effort to increase staff attendance on professional learning days as these immediately after winter break historically are our highest attended
professional learning days in the second semester. Moving a professional learning day in this manner eliminates a three-day week as I uh talked about just a moment ago and a three-day week so soon after winter break and therefore with this change second semester would
begin on January 5th. Next uh the there was the adjustment made moving the February 27 22nd professional learning day to September 7th. This change allows for follow-up to the August professional learning
assignment in September, which made sense to many stakeholders as a good move given the implementation of so many curricular materials. Also, again, this supports the intention of high levels of staff prof staff attendance on
professional learning days based on past year's data that is far higher at the beginning of the year than later in the semester or later in second semester. And then finally moving the conference exchange days from Thursday and Friday
to a Friday and a Monday. This responds to the request to complete again CEASS prior to the conference exchange days. Responds to feedback about negative impacts of three-day weeks on student learning and family child care needs. and again mitigates lost learning on
Fridays before a long weekend when staff and students often take off leading to low attendance and challenges with teacher coverage. And there's that animation. Now moving on to the 2829 calendar. There are also three adjustments that
were made based on the feedback provided to us by our representative groups and they are very similar and in alignment with the adjustments that you just saw for the 2728 calendar. First moving the January 16th professional learning day to January
9th. again maximizing staff attendance on professional learning days at the beginning of the semester and eliminating a three-day week so close to the end of winter break. Moving February 20th, professional
learning day to Friday the 16th again in response to lost learning opportunities on a Friday before a Monday off. uh and responding to the needs for uh increased substitute
teacher coverage on Fridays. And oops, I'm going backwards here. And then finally, the movement of the two April conference exchange days to later in the month after CMASS has been completed and again from moving one from
a Friday to the subsequent Monday for all of the reasons that I stated for the 2728 calendar. And finally, on these last two slides, you can see the final drafts that are before the board this evening for study that will be brought back in front of
you for vote at the beginning of June. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you for that presentation, Robin. Board members, any questions or comments? Melania,
thanks for your work on this. um and the explanation of that the 3-day school school weeks don't work for regulation etc. I'm curious and maybe I'm just misreading this um says that drafts
address avoid extending winter break until Wednesday and so but I see us coming back from winter break on Wednesday. You are absolutely right. So the the
adjustments that were made to the original draft calendars that were presented to the board in January based on the feedback received at that January board meeting. Okay. So that's yes that uh the the change was made to
not return from winter break on a on a Wednesday. However, after those draft calendars with all of these Oh, the animations take a bit. I see what you're saying. You're saying one iteration ago
um after the board gave that feedback, but then it's that feedback has been then that feedback was considered and responded to by our representative groups and therefore changed which addresses uh part of the board's request which was
to try to use previous data and maximize staff attendance at professional learning opportunities while also listening to our families who were wanting to decrease the number of three-day weeks which we originally had in this draft calendar just a week after
the the conclusion of winter break and moving the additional professional learning day closer to winter break. It's the same number of three-day weeks because you have two days in that first week of January. You've just moved the
day one. And my question is, um, while that's okay, it's a 3-day week here or a 3-day week there, which I understand. Um, if you could help me to understand, I guess when I look at this, one of the
important things to me, um, and this is well known that I care about teachers attending professional development. And maybe what would help me is to understand the difference between,
you know, we call it out here for our families as no contact days for students, but maybe what I need to understand is what the difference is between a workday and teacher development and how we're actually maximizing this given the changes that we're making here.
Yeah, that that's that's a great question. So a professional learning day is when teachers engage in learning specific to the continued development of their craft either at the building level or in professional learning opportunities provided by the district.
The uh negotiated agreement for our unit B employees does stipulate that there are a number five and a half I believe of teacher work days that teachers engage in which is purely for their own planning and grading. Now what we have
done is maximized the organized either building le or districtled professional learning days in alignment with the data that we have about staff attendance uh on those days. So the days where we traditionally have our highest levels of
staff attendance are the days identified as professional learning days and the days that we know based on data from past years have lower attendance. We have identified those as individual teacher work days. So that there is less organized professional learning possibly
lost if staff do not do not choose to report on those days. And can I have an understanding instead of just all green on here which ones of these are professional learning and which are ones are work days? We we can
and that is some of those are building level decisions and some of those are district level decisions. So as soon as the buildings have completed their professional learning uh schedules for next year, we are very happy to provide that for you. I guess that
I'm still trying to understand if this really meets the requirement that I'm trying to put forward, which is that I want teachers to attend professional development. And I'm not, you know, saying, well, we'll see what happens
when buildings take it. That's I want to understand which ones are slated for that and which ones are slated to be work days. Oh, I see. So yes, the ones that are both district and building directed fall on those five pre-ervice days. There is
a mixture on the five pre-ervice days in August. And part of those again are delivered by the district, part are professional learning delivered at the building level and part is planning. Uh September 7th is slated to be a professional learning day.
September 7th or then Yep. September 7th, which is the day after Labor Day on the 2728 calendar, or September 5th, and those traditionally are our highest attended professional learning days of
the year, followed very closely by September professional learning days. Hence the fact that you see on these final draft calendars, there are now professional learning days following Labor Day, which are district professional learning days designed
specifically to follow up on the district professional development that was provided for staff in August during those pre-ervice days. Additionally, the the second green day in January
is a districtowned or district-led, if you will, professional learning day. The first day after winter break by contract by negotiated agreement is a workday for staff so that they have time to complete
grading from their first from anything that remains from first semester and completing grade reports from first semester. So that green day immediately following winter break is always for that reason slated as a teacher workday. However,
the second one is um is a districtdirected professional learning day. What we often have seen in the past is that that second green day when it has occurred,
we've had iterations of the academic calendar over a very long time. some of which have one green day and some have two following winter break. What we know is that there are times that families and staff members will take an additional day after winter break
inclusive of that Monday. So that is why that second day is a districtdirected professional learning day. The final one in May is again a teacher workday per negotiated agreement which
follows the final day with students which is their second opportunity in the academic calendar year to complete grading and report card work and that is in alignment with our negotiated agreement and November 12th that November 12th day
will be a work day and that is that exists only on the 2728 calendar and that's because we have discussed a lot in the past about that ever floating
Veterans Day on November 11th and we know that if we were to have a school day as it falls on 2728 a school day on November 12th we know already that there would be a great impact to the learning
environment through both student and staff abs substances leading also to a the ever challenging um substitute shortage. So therefore in the 2728 calendar when Veterans Day falls on a Thursday that is a work day immediately
following that on Friday the 12th. However, if you look at the 2829 final draft um Veterans Day is observed on Friday the 10th. An interesting fact is that if Veterans Day falls on a weekend, it is identified to be observed on
Friday, the on the previous Friday, and here is the 10th. So therefore, there is no need to tag on on the in 2028 an additional workday to accompany a midday, a midweek Veterans Day holiday.
But given that rationale, we have February 16th. them on 2829. We have February 16th which looks like that floating work day and we've said how bad it is. You know, is that because we don't we think we
should put it back in the November or we're trying to get a 4-day weekend there or what what's the rationale of not doing it the same two years in a row? Right. That that's a good question. one, you know, and we had substantial discussion in the task force about this
and we talked about, okay, how can we best support teachers and students knowing that by contract, the negotiated agreement, the the teachers are allotted a specific number of work days and so they have to fall somewhere. and knowing
that uh in November having having not had a three-day week, we do not create an additional 3-day week because we were also very cognizant of feedback both from educators and from
families about wanting to spread out or have fewer 3-day weeks. And so we decided to put it in February knowing that it's always a good time for a workday for for teachers. So I would say probably the opposite is the most true
that the reason in the previous year that it is tagged on to Veterans Day is because Veterans Day is in the middle of the week. And so that just makes sense. Um and then knowing that uh the flow of work for teachers, it does work for them
to have a workday second semester um in the middle of the in the middle of the winter. And last, can you enlighten me on um how we keep track of if teachers are
going to their professional development days and what are the consequences for people who don't? Mhm. We actually have come in the past few years to track uh attendance on professional learning days very closely. That is done at the
building level and school office managers and school principles monitor that and staff have the ability through uh our negotiated agreement if they choose to take their own annual leave on professional learning days just as they
do on regular school days. And if they do choose to take an annual day on a professional learning day, what the the principal does is monitor to make sure that that staff member has submitted um a request for their annual time. But principles also do have significant
conversations with their staffs about the why behind professional learning. Why is it that we are gathering to discuss curricula? Why is it we are gathering to discuss our curricular materials? How does this development impact our students? And the district
and our building leaders have worked really, really hard to try to make this professional learning relevant because we know that our staff members are going to make the best choices for themselves and for their students when they know that the learning that they will be
engaging in is relevant. So we have tried to address it from a number of angles to both support uh staff members in wanting to attend but also to help communicate what it is and why it is we're doing that. And do we have any numbers on on how
we're doing if it's on an improve? Um we can certainly get those for you of course. actually um exact numbers not right off the top of my head but I do know that we have had increased attendance as a result.
Very good. Thank you board members. Any other questions about the calendar comments? Jason. Jason. Uh not so many questions. more just thank you for um I know how hard this is
and how many um perspectives and uh much input you have. I just want to say a few things. I appreciate you know I've I've talked a lot about you know that you know why we start when we start and the consequences of that and so I appreciate that that's been addressed here to some to the
extent possible. Um a later start uh to the to the school year and a later end to the school year. Um, and I also appreciate, I don't think you noted it, but it looks like we're starting on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday, which I think has been, at least in my experience, typical. And I I think
families will appreciate that. I think finding kind of a half week of camps or child care has always been a challenge. And so, that is um at least one day rather than two days. So, that's appreciated. Um, and I know just in my conversations um with teachers how hard
uh it is to not have the April break. um and how much um I know that was looks like a priority on on every single uh focus group. Um but I think that's uh I'm really happy to see that back as well. I think good for um you know post seam mass, good for students and post um
you know it's a long stretch from spring break to the end of the year for teachers and so appreciate that they uh will have that break which I think is needed. Um, so yeah, just wanted to comment on that and thank you for your work and all the the various folks who provided input on this. Um, I think this
uh I think this is a really good result. Thanks. You're very welcome, Dian. Uh, this is important to me in two ways. One is um all of my still teaching friends have had a lot of time to
contemplate and argue and grouse about the lack of subs. And so anything that you can do to reduce that need for subs on Friday I think is brilliant. So I really appreciate that. And um my private school uses the BBSD calendar so
it looks beautiful. Anything else? Board members, I just want to echo Jason's comments. Thanks everybody that helped provide feedback on this. It is a collaborative process. While it's not really a significant
complaint kind of tongue and cheek, it's funny that we we have fall break and it's one day doesn't really feel like much of a break when it's one day. And I don't know if there's a way to rename that. So you don't we don't get grief about you promised us a break and now it's just one day. Um, so that's just all I had is
that the words there are kind of misleading, but otherwise I think the calendar is great and it is I I think another thing I've heard in addition to the begging for those April exchange days back um getting back to a semblance of our normal rhythm for our academic
calendars and whatever we whatever we have for the calendars, the closer we can do to adhere to a rhythm and a consistency every two years, the better. And so, um, hopefully this this calendar is more appreciated by our staff and our
students and our families. Seeing as there's no further discussion on that calendar, we'll move right along. Um, board members, next item agenda item this evening is our future agenda request. Are there any items board members would like to prioritize for our upcoming
prioritization session? Alex? Uh I'm not sure how to concisely articulate this, but I am interested in the integration of our uh preschool programming into our K through 12 instructional infrastructure. Dian, I'd like to add uh the um
discussion about whether we can have a technology advisory committee that's official. Seeing as there are no other hands up, we will move on now to our final uh agenda item this evening, which is executive session. Is there a motion?
Alex? I, Alex Medler, make a motion to convene into executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-42 PRN4 PRNF F to discuss personnel matters regarding the superintendent's
evaluation and pursuant to CRS24-6-42 PN4 PRNB to receive legal advice regarding the superintendent's evaluation and charter negotiations regarding Horizons, Summit, Peakto Peak, and Boulder Prep. Is there a second?
Seconded by Jason. Chris, can you please call the role yes Chavez? Yes. Medler. Yes. Quinn Aea. Yes. Rajpaw. Yes. Teamu Aing. Yes. Yes.
Motion passes. Board members, we will convene in the glacier room. And for the members of our public watching this evening, this concl This concludes our public portion of our meeting. Good night.