good evening everyone even welcome to the superintendent's honor rooll here in December 2024 I'm Rob Anderson proud superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District and want to start by
thanking you all for being here uh when we do our um our honor roles are some of our most favorite uh uh events in the district because we get an opportunity to celebrate Excellence here in bbsd I want to start by just saying how incredibly proud We are for the
achievements of all of our students staff um and even some of our leaders that will be recognizing tonight it's going to be wonderful celebrating with all of you did everybody get a chance to get some food the cookies were a hot item they were in the corner if you want one you
might want to go now and get them before they're gone um appreciate uh our food service staff for providing wonderful food and snacks as we get to celebrate today uh so before we start I'd like to recognize take a moment to recognize our Boulder Valley School District Board of
Education members who are in attendance want to start with our president Nicole rajaul treasure Alex medler Alex you'll stand he's in the back just wave yep lenia Quin L NOA board member in the back as
well and kitty sergeant board member and Jorge Chavez and Jason uner and our vice president Beth nnick will be joining us at some point during the evening so if they do I may just wave to them and and thank them as well and just want to take this opportunity to thank our board of education for all their
leadership that they provide for our school district so before we get started how many of you have been to one of these before all right so you kind of know how it goes um few notes for our honor when it's your time for the spotlight we'll have you come up here alongside
the podium uh if there are administrators from your school or teachers or coaches that are supporting we invite you to come on up as well um honor is on your way up you'll be um walk if you um go to our board president uh Nicole Raja she will give you um a
frame from our uh to recognize your accomplishment and then you'll head over here I'll ask you all a couple of questions give you an opportunity to say a few words to the crowd and then afterwards we'll take a photo together uh does that sound
okay all righty very good well let's get started so in sports there are the Patriots Chicago B Bulls the New York Yankees and today we're celebrating a few dynasties uh when we're talking about student
journalism and if you were talking about student jalm dynasties in Colorado Monarch High School with definitely be in the mix youall see what I did there migh you see that yep uh migh mix and the rest of the moh high media team come
on up so we can properly celebrate you all as they are walking up here uh for the third time migh media was named all
Colorado hey Ben uh by the Colorado student media Association four categories print news yearbook broadcast and online it's an amazing accomplishment uh now this might take a minute but I think we've got a minute so
what I'd love to do is just pass the microphone and just tell everybody your name and what grade you are in or what program you're involved with does that sound okay everybody we'll start here and we'll end over there then I'll get the mic U my name is Addison Hoy I'm a
junior in broadcast journalism I'm EV Martins a sophomore in broadcast journalism Conor loam Junior in broadcast journalism I'm mik Cola I'm a junior in broadcast journalism um I'm Sonia um I'm a 10th
grader also in broadcast journalism I'm kadye I'm a 10th grader as well and I'm in yearbook I'm Aspen young I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook I'm Ryland mcau I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook I'm EMT Walsh I'm a senior and
I'm in yearbook uh I'm Zan har and I'm a junior in yearbook I'm Clark Cassis I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook oh I'm Sean Landis I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook Ben Reed adviser and this is
briy Reed who's the copy editor I'm Sophie I'm a senior and I'm in your book I'm Ian V I'm a senior and I'm a newspaper I'm Matthew spratlin I'm a Junior and I'm a the newspaper I'm Abby
Prescott I'm a sophomore and I'm a newspaper I'm Courtney Whit I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook I'm Lyla Jolly I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook I'm Zoe pry I'm a senior and I'm a newspaper I'm Jane Tucker I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook I'm Brena serson I'm
a senior and I'm in newspaper I'm Marin Hol I'm a senior and I'm a newspaper big round of applause for all of our monarchi students uh so if I could get the
sponsor Ben if I could get you to come over here and copy editor ex Ed editor extraordinaire um so so it's it's important for everybody to understand that like nobody has done this this has never been done
before no other school and Colorado has ever achieved uh the level of achievement that we're celebrating tonight so so talk to us Ben about what is it about the approach uh that Monarch uses to be able to do this and I know you use a unique multimedia
approach um I would say that these students up here are fearless with everything they do and I would say that they are the hardest working students in the entire school and uh they don't just like the a lot of people say the
football team as hard as they work well these guys are at every football game and they say the in band is really really hardworking well these guys are at the practices in July all the way to the tournaments in October they're at everything and uh
they the education that I think that they get and not a credit to me but through the program in reading and writing and speaking and listening is better than anything in the entire school and what these guys are capable of is absolutely tremendous on a state
and a National level and more importantly the impact that they have on the school you're stealing the spotlight from me girl is absolutely tremendous as well and that's what matters the most of what they give to the school could not agree more and we're
gonna talk to Briana where's Brena Brena come on over Brena so um hi Brena how you doing thanks so much uh so so you know I I couldn't be more impressed I've had an opportunity to to
work with several of your groups have been interviewed by by the migh team they do not pull any punches I would tell you that they are really Brave and ask really good questions and uh that's what good journalists do right and they
um and so really appreciate engaging with them uh what is it that drives the efforts of the moh high team um I'd have to say that being able to inform and entertain and Inspire others um by telling the stories of our
community definitely drives us to create good journalism how about another round of applause for the migh team and then we're going to take a picture everybody so I'm going to come on over [Applause] there e where's Zoe if Zoe and yep if if Zoe and
Mr Reed if you all could stay up here for a minute we wanted to to do another special celebration uh to specifically celebrate Zoe's accomplishments because she recently won the national staff
editorial of the year from the national Scholastic press [Applause] Association now like I said the the coyotes do not pull any punches um her award-winning piece changed the message was a was a a tough and fair critique of
the school district's efforts around Title 9 in addressing sexual assaults Zoe if you can come over here um I'm not going to ask you any hard questions like you ask us but I'm I'm keep a little bit easier uh student journalism is an important way for students to have voice in their school and education you're a
senior are you planning to continue pursuing a career in journalism after graduation tell us about it a little bit um yeah I hope to major in journalism in college um I'm excited to write for a newspaper at a university and then hopefully make it a
career well you're already off to a great start congratulations R of Applause for Zoe off to a strong start thank you everyone uh very excited to um to uh celebrate our next honores so this past
Saturday it was a great day to be an eagle yes and thank you to our longtime principal at Broomfield High Ginger Ramsey for always reminding us of that uh you just start clapping look at
that yeah I know um on Saturday school won its sixth football state championship which explains the look on Coach O'Brian's face if we can have the team captains coaches and administrators come on up from Broomfield High
School 2024 state [Applause] champs so as they come up here on Saturday at canvas stadium in Fort Collins Broomfield Eagles won the four a state championship at one point in the
game they were trailing by three touchdowns against Montrose that doesn't matter though because they rallied back with some spectacular plays to claim the title um captains where are our captains at all seven are captains all seven are captains um talk to us a little bit
about what this me this win means for you and and and talk us about the comeback three touchdowns that's a lot of points and you can if you don't want to talk you can keep passing it down y want this one take this you want me to say the
answer this one uh honestly it's kind of a dream I think I can speak for all of them when I say it was a dream for all of us to to win that uh going into halftime down two scores honestly we weren't that worried you know we scored with around 40 seconds left and our
coaches over here told us don't blink and we came out hot and um you know we really we worked hard for that moment and uh I don't think any of us wanted us or wanted to let it slip you know pass it if you want to keep
down I'll you up with another question I've got another question so um so I'm I'm looking at the photo and it looks like you're all giving a thumbs down which I think is some part of um it's Rel related maybe to the new Gladiator movie and reflects the T Mantra to
season anybody want to talk about that a little bit so when we started playoffs we really started preaching that you know our football team is going to be the man in the arena everybody's going to come to see us but no matter what's happening on the outside all that matters is what we're doing inside the football field
and you know obviously in Gladiator the final decision is you know thumbs up or thumbs down and especially as a defense we always wanted to preach thumbs down because we were here to win and yeah mer no mercy
can I speak on that as well um yeah you know it was something that the boys really really jumped in with and really bought into for us there was always doubt uh we were ranked number one for the first three weeks of the season and then we were dropped after a win against
a 5A team we were dropped from number one to number four after being 4-0 and we kind of talked about the fact that it doesn't matter what the media says it doesn't matter what the people on the outside say at the end of the day the man in the arena is the person who decides their fate and that was a big
thing for us is we wanted to be the controller of our destiny um and that's kind of one of the big things that thumbs down means a lot of people think like we're trying to be negative and tell the other team like but we're really not really what it means is it's about us and if you ever watch one of our games and you see us doing thumbs
down we never do it to the other team we do it to ourselves we give each other thumbs down because that represents it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks we know we know what we've done we know how hard we worked we know what we've earned um and we're going to be the man in the arena to make that final decision on if we win or if we
lose I I love that so coach obri coach O'Brien this is the school six title it's the second championship in three seasons how has the Broomfield High School football program kept the focus to win so many championships year in and
year out yeah I mean it's a buzzword but it all starts with culture um and Miss Ramsey and our Administration do a phenomenal J job like I said in the paper the other day of backing up our culture every single day uh of the school year um you know our culture is to show up to love each other to work
really hard um Eagle DNA and to do the little things right we talked about all yearlong attention to details down to our helmet designs to how we dressed to the way we talk to each other but the importance is in the details and our
ability to focus on those small pieces got us you know the little focusing on the macro allowed us to to win a state championship and kind of focus on the big picture so you all going to run it back yes sir how bet a big round of applause for
our Broomfield High Eagles state [Applause] champs e the great thing about these events is that things just keep getting better and better and so we have another state champ to recognize uh we have uh a state
champ in mountain biking uh Tabby snap from Centaurus come on [Applause] up so back in October Tavi competed in mountain biking at the Colorado High School cycling League state championship in Glennwood Springs and he won the sophomore
division let's give him another round of applause for that so as we can see Tabby this is you on top of the of the podium tell us what that felt like and tell us about the day I mean I just woke up like ready to race and ready to win that state
championship and when I did it just felt like a dream come true I guess and so it looks like you're not wearing a Centaurus Jersey tell us about this jersey that you're wearing so I received this Jersey from winning the state championship and
there's other jerseys that you re reive throughout the season from winning various races and like region championships and so I'm going to ask you what I asked the the guys at Broomfield are you going to run it back next year that's the plan all right
another round of applause [Applause] [Applause] so in bbsd we know that our educators are outstanding
and while there isn't a state championship in teaching or supporting students we are proud to share that number of our employees Reed state level Awards highlighting them for being the best of the best in their fields love to begin with adette edbrook from
Broomfield High School Odette come on up Odette was named the 2024 Colorado history teacher of the year by the Gilder lman Institute of American History this organization began best sh their award for K12 teachers back in
2004 for teachers who've demonstrated a commitment to teaching American history that incorporate creativity and Imagination into their classroom and effectively use documents artifacts historic sites oral histories and other primary sources to engage students with
American History Dr edbrook was chosen out of thousands of teachers that were nominated by students parents fellow teachers and community members please join me giving odet another round of [Applause]
applause so odet this is a big deal talk to us a little bit about your philosophy on teaching and how do you make your classroom come alive when you teach history um well when you have awesome students um it makes things a lot easier and we have a lot of freedom um for me I
like the creativity part and trying to find ways to get real information and real stuff um interesting to students so we try to do a lot of activities so we using primary sources applying it like
we do um we take these Declassified military documents from the Cuban Missile Crisis but then they have to advise JFK um so like no big deal we solve that it's fine um so um yeah in all my classes that's what I try to do the best I
can that sounds so great another round of applause for Dr edbrook [Applause] [Applause] so here in bbsd we' like to say that we
are bilingual and proud and that is certainly the case for our next Honore Anna Lilia Martinez of asuela by bingu Pioneer Ana Lilia come on [Applause]
up so anaia was recently named the par educator of the Year by the Bueno Center for Multicultural education January she will receive the award from the Bueno Center at their one day family liaison and Par educator
learning Institute on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder anaia I'm so proud of you and all of your you've accomplished thank you so much is there anything that you'd like to say Spanish that's uh Pap yeah let's
yeah let's I just want to say I'm very grateful for all the community at Pioneer all the staff and the teachers and to the students to never stop being bilingual because that's a power to change communities because that's going to open doors and
allow them to communicate with their community and be able to get all their dreams thank you amazing was that another round of applause all right yeah [Applause]
how great is this right is everybody having fun is that okay there's only like uh eight days of school left before we go on vacation can we get a cheer for that get some energy in the room all right here you go um you know this this idea that that uh
you know with our amazing teachers our amazing coaches that we've been able to kind of recognize today every student in our district gets the opportunity to be treated with love and respect and and and we hope that that's really evident throughout everything that we do um and certainly been evident throughout the
career of bbsd Deputy superintendent Dr Laura De La Cruz Laura come on up [Applause] so the Colorado men of color collaborative recently extended their L daily D award to her and she was
celebrated at their black Thai gallet in September at the Ellie ckins Opera House in Denver L deair translates to light of a leader and symbolizes the guiding influence and inspiration she's had on our organization as a Latina leader also
recognizes her strength vision and the profound positive impact she's had on our community please join me in giving Laura a huge round of applause so Laura come here so you get to answer some questions too um so you know Laura's got this amazing story she
started here in bbsd as a teacher uh and then she um worked her way through the district and she was an assistant principal and then a principal uh and then she left Boo and then we said come on back
Laura um and so we were so lucky to have her to come back with us for um and she was actually a superintendent when she decided to come back and take this role Laura talk to us about what's Driven you all these years um a couple of the big driving
forces for me um one is that I was raised by a single mom who came to the US from Mexico she ended up being a widow with five kids not very many years later and she went started college in
the US in her 30s and there was a lot of modeling there for me about what's possible and I was the youngest of five and she couldn't afford child care and summer camps and things like that so she would take me to college classes with her
during the Summers and um evening classes and so I was this little girl in College reading my own books and really developing this incredible love for Academia and also witnessing um when my mother got her bachelor's and her master's how she was able to support our
family Lift us out of poverty and change the trajectory of my life and my siblings and my children and I know I'm confident for generations to come and that really sparked a passion in me that education truly does have the power to change lives and so I've made it my
life's work to not only be an educator but also to seek out those who need some extra help and support much like my mom did much like I did Growing Up um to give them whatever I can within my power
within my influence and um strive to make a positive impact every day amazing so so Laura you've been working um so hard at implementing our alt together for all student strategic plan have uh have been
such an important force in our district making sure that all kids get what they need from bbsd you've been spending a lot of times in classrooms this fall tell us about some of the things that you're seeing that are making a difference oh my gosh it's been so exciting to be in classrooms um I'm
seeing kids who are engaged who are interacting who are have agency in their learning I'm seeing teachers who are so passionate who are utilizing the resources that we've been building over the last four years and that we've been
providing professional learning on and um making sure that they're at the fingertips of our Educators and so we're really seeing the allog together for all students strategic plan come to life in classrooms and that's incredibly exciting and making a big difference for our kids another round of applause for
Dr D Lord De La Cruz now we have an opportunity to celebrate some more of our Educators recently a group of teachers from peak-to Peak Charter School were surprised with a big National Honor for a project they've been working on Christin Christie letter
Cindy gu guajardo and Bailey zubler come on up Voya Financial came to the school because the team was named the second place winner in Voya foundation's unsung heroes program for their Tech enabled teaching forest and
maker space we're told the Innovative approach aims to inspire students to become change makers in solving current environmental inequity in Colorado representatives from Voya Financial came to the school back in October and presented the team with a big check in
all they'll receive $112,000 Round of Applause for our folks here from Peak to Peak I'd love to learn more about the project that you were honored for all right um well it was student driven and
Community enabled we partnered with a lot of amazing organizations in Colorado classrooms for climate action cool Boulder Boulder mushroom um and we planted to mini forests and put mycelium in the soil in a science experiment yeah
am I holding that weird um and the students are monitoring and growing and hoping to expand it so this is going to make that really possible that is amazing so $12,000 how are you all going to be able to leverage these dollars to do something
cool uh do you want to take yeah we don't totally know yet this is student driven and they are part of that but it's definitely we're working on the technological side of it there was a lot we were deep into the dirt side of it last year um there was a lot of digging
and so this is a part where they want to really use technology and sensors and QR codes to expand the impact as much as they possibly can another round of applause for our folks from Peak to Peak
[Applause] [Applause] congratulations so next month is School Board appreciation months month and a chance for us all to thank our seven volunteers our school board members who give so much to help guide our school
district tonight I'm proud to share that one of our board members recently received the McGuffy award from the Colorado Association of school boards board member Kitty Sergeant come on up so the McGuffy award honors board members from across the state who are
committed and passionate in their service in Cas your wnding the McGuffy a ward is named after McGuffy Readers first published in 1836 these highly influential textbook sets usually consisting of seven books with stories and poems taught many
students reading and grammar today they continue to represent the virtue of transferring knowledge so that students can fulfill their responsibilities as citizens of a free Society so congratulations Kitty another round of applause so Kitty and I have served here
in bbsd together for the past seven years Kitty you our longest tenured board member um talk about I preate You by that is yes yes you've been here longer than me what are some of the big lessons you've learned during your time leading here in
bbsd well that's not a hard question is it um one of the things I've learned is patience and that you know you can come in with ideas but that doesn't mean you come in and you implement all your ideas
here in Boulder we have to listen to our community we want to listen to our community and we would be really foolish if we didn't because we wouldn't have there Buy in it and we wouldn't be as good a district as we are now um I've learned that change takes a long time
and the more we are able to listen to everyone including everyone on the board the better decisions that we make and the other thing I learned and I learned it from Tina Marquis and she said about every 18
months something really big happens and um fortunately maybe the pandemic was such a big deal that we didn't have anything 18 months later but it's been such an honor to serve on this board and to serve the
community and to try to make life as easy as possible for all of our wonderful teachers and our administrators and other staff so they can do their jobs doing the best they can for our students because they're the most important people in my opinion in
the world so another round of applause for Kitty sergeant this is a really cool recognition so I'm glad folks have been able to stick around uh this is our last recognition of the evening I think yes uh we tonight
want to recognize a young man whose actions alongside one of his friends helped save the life of a fellow skier last summer let's welcome Malachi Brooks from from New Vista High School up to the podium so Malachi and bod gson who were
both Eldora Ski patrollers were in the Indian Peaks Wilderness when they saw a skier hurdle past them uh skier fell more than a th feet down Skywalker cooler immediately this teen skills kicked in helping to rescue the man who survived the incident thanks
to their quick thinking Malachi you've got to tell me about this story first of all what an incredible incredible um event and uh your your courage and and just quick thinking uh saved the life tell us tell us
um how how you were able to help this Fallen skier well I would say it kind of started uh I started patrolling with Alora when I was uh at the start of my freshman year through a program they have and I would just say that like all
of those skills that I was able to build and that I was able to build with new vista's like alternative schedule allowing me to do that and like build that into my schedule was really What mattered in that moment now I know that there was a lot
of folks that helped out I didn't know if you wanted to um share any other stories from some of the other Heroes that day I mean yeah it was really we just happened to be the ones that were there first to help it was really Rocky
Mountain Rescue and Veil Mountain Rescue in the Boulder County Sheriff's Office that were there that were able to get him out we just helped expedite that process a little bit how about a huge round of applause from Malachi
[Applause] [Applause] yeah so that is our last honory what a way to to end tonight's ceremony big round of applause for all of the folks
we had a chance to celebrate this evening uh thank you all so much for being here for your support of our schools our students our school district I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday break which is eight days away thank you all so much grab some food on your way
out take care thanks again for being here [Music] I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday December 10th 2024 board members May attend and participate in board meetings in person
and by electronic means in accordance with bbsd policy bmea and state law Laura can you please call the role Chavez here medler here nnick Quin Lin away
here Raj Paul here Sergeant here anger here thank you board members I'd like you now and guests turn your attention to the screens for our land acknowledgement this
[Music] evening the Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral Homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the ud Pelin arapo Cheyenne Apache
Navajo and 48 other tribal Nations historically tied to this land who have called This Land home since time and [Music]
Memorial we acknowledge the atro I ities 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
[Music] 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 BBC recognizes the histories
of the land in Colorado and the survival of many nations that carried their oral Traditions into the present it is bbd'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 [Music] injustices in offering this land acknowledgement we have 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 thank you to our Communications team who put that together what's very well done I'd like to remind everyone that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging meaningful and engaging learning
opportunities that alter and Thrive and are prepared for successful and civically engaged lives good evening everyone than thank you for joining us in person here tonight and remotely we are glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings at this time I'd like to see if there's a motion to approve our agenda move by Kitty
seconded by Jorge Laura can you please call the rooll Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quinn L AA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes
motion passes next I am excited to pass the uh meeting over to Dr Anderson who will be introducing our student moment for this evening thank you board president Raj Paul uh board members as we all remember early this fall we had a couple very
serious incidents in which bbsc students were hit while crossing Baseline Road near 95th Avenue tonight's student moment guest Willow Fleet Meer an eighth grader at Nevan plat middle school and her her family and neighbors decided to take action to help protect students she
wrote about her her experience in the Indian Peaks neighborhood newsletter the stroll and now she's here to share her thoughts in person welcome Willow we're excited to have you this evening thank you hi my name is Willow
Fleet Meer and I am going to be talking to you guys about the Indian Peaks crosswalk action from past present and future perspectives um I am 13 years old I am an eighth grader at plat middle school I have been
in bbsd since kindergarten I went to Douglas Elementary School I have two older siblings I'm a 360 leader at school and I love to dance I love to sing I go to youth group and I take the bus to school each morning so turning back to the
crosswalks I'm going to talk to you guys about past present and future so in the past on Thursday September 5th and Friday September 6th two students were hit by cars at two different
crosswalks on Baseline Road I was walking home from school one day and I live in an alley that you can see the end of not the end but I can see Baseline Road so I was walking up my alley and I see the AR TD and it dropped
off a couple kids and I turned into my house and then I saw my dad running up to the top of the road to see what all the commotion was about so I walked up to the top of the road and I saw somebody lying in the middle of the road
and then my dad told me to go home so I went home and my dad came home and he was really really scared and I remember trying to comfort him and then he had described the girl he had seen and I had
walked with her home the day before she rides the RTD and I had ridden the RTD school bus home from school and you have to cross the road to get to the neighborhood the next morning I was at my school bus stop and me and my friends
heard sirens we were trying to stay calm cuz all of us knew what had happened the day before and so we were all a little bit scared and then I got a call from my mom about a minute later saying that another student in bbsd had gotten hit so on that Friday morning I went to
school and I was really distracted and so my mom came and picked me up from school and we wanted to take some action and so we made signs to put on the roads that said slowed down and we made these
signs to put on these buckets that had Flags in them and they say take it to make it and you take up a flag when you're about to cross the road so that cars can see you when you're crossing the community response in my neighborhood and school was
incredible um a bunch of parents stepped up to help and stand at the crosswalk so that students and other people can cross safely and also a bunch of students at my school St stepped up and we all made posters and signs and presents and a
bunch of things for the two students that had gotten hit the news has also done a really great job of communicating all of the accidents that have happened and making sure that everybody knows what has been happening in the community with the
accidents so I got interviewed and my mom got interviewed and a couple other people in my neighborhood got interviewed to help assess what had happened there has also been a lot of education for people to understand what
has been going on the police have done a really good job at staying at their stations by the crosswalks so that people will get tickets if they're speeding and a bunch of other traffic
issues 5 days after the accident there were 62 tickets handed out from the police station and that is a lot of tickets and it was only on Baseline Road as well at those two crosswalks so the police have done a great job of taking action as
well also 120,000 cars pass from Boulder to Lafayette every day putting a lot of students and people and cars in risk of being injured or killed just this
morning I I was on the school bus and we had to turn around two times from two different car accidents on the road and I was late to school and that was really really interesting to see I also wrote an article from my
neighborhood magazine it's called stroll in Indian Peaks I write one article monthly and a couple months ago I chose to write about the crosswalks and the action in the future I have a couple things
that I think would really help the crosswalks and the safety of people crossing the road and also cars as they cross too so Community Partnerships like you guys and the police stations and
cities have all been really really helpful and I hope that they will continue I also think that it'd be very helpful if we could lower the speed limit in the area because right now it's at 40 and that is a really fast um that really fast for cars to pass through
with two different crosswalks in the midst of it and I think we should at least lower it to 35 the police have been and I hope will continue to be very helpful through all of these times and they have been pulling and pulling over people and I've
even seen it outside of my own neighborhood and that has been really helpful as well as maybe making the road a single Lane so that there would be more traffic so that car cars could be going slower right now it is two lanes I also think that it' be helpful
to have crossing guards at the crosswalks in the morning and in the afternoon when students are arriving and going to school because there are so many kids who have to cross the road to get to LMS or Centaurus or the RTD bus stop um in the morning and the
afternoon parents can step up but they can't step up forever and I think that to have some people that we'll do that would be really helpful there's also been some talk about a traffic light being put at Roser and Baseline and
although that is really great it probably won't happen for quite some time and yeah thank you so much for listening and for having me have a wonderful evening thank you for your activism Willow and for keeping us AB breast of this issue as it unfolds board members
do you have any questions for our student moment speaker this evening Kitty yes do you know do either of the crosswalks have the that thing where you push the button and the lights on the signs flash is it do they even have that
yes they do have that and with both accidents both of the students had used them and the car still didn't see them coming and it was yeah they're hard to see sometimes during the day yeah especially because in at night the lights show out more but they didn't
okay I have one question have you um been in communication or working at all with safe roads to school who is at all I have not I'll just put in a plug for the great work that safe routes to school does to help think through
challenges around pedestrian and car transportation and access points and so that would be in your journey another Avenue I would explore and they the safe roots to scho team from bbsd can work with different local governments to help address joint areas of concern so I'd encourage you to reach out to them as
well thank you thanks Willow best of luck thank you so much board members the next item on our agenda this evening is our work session study tonight we have one topic which is the review of our annual comprehensive
financial report otherwise known as the AER I will turn it over to Dr Anderson to do some introductions thank you board president Raj Paul um board members as you know this is an annual meeting where we
present the annual comprehensive financial report through our partners with Clifton Larson Allen uh and uh to introduce our team I will turn the presentation over to Bill
Suter uh thank you Dr Anderson uh president Raj Paul members of the board um so we're reviewing the uh fiscal year 2324 audit uh that's last year um is the
culmination of the fiscal cycle that lasts some 28 months uh that's a little foreshadowing for my next presentation uh so stay tuned uh but um the audit is really a uh a lot of work
uh to pull this uh all together and I just really want to thank staff for all the hard work uh and folks might not realize but that the staff really is everybody in the district uh from HR to payroll to the accounting staff to
everybody that has a PE card and is coding expenditures and the purchasing staff and the clerical staff at school buildings so it's really I'm getting a new microphone it's really that's much better uh uh a
lot of work uh for all the accounting that goes on in the in the school district this is really just pulling it all together uh at the end so uh on November 20th the audit committee uh which is comprised of board member and
Treasurer Alex medler uh board member lenia quinland OA uh and Community member and longtime audit Committee Member Bob smart uh and staff we reviewed the audit uh it was still in draft form at that time but we reviewed it in
detail uh and had some great discussion uh as we always do uh with the audit committee uh but really dove into it uh for uh quite some time uh so uh at this point I'll turn it over to Allison SLI who's a principal
with not a school principal uh principal with Clifton Larson Allen uh and who is the lead uh on our audit team and so we have a a PowerPoint presentation which I'll bring up here in a second and we'll go through the
audit great thank you so much and uh thanks everyone for having me here this evening so we do have a brief presentation just to summarize the results um as was mentioned we did meet with the audit Committee in uh much more detail so um hard to summarize almost 200 page document that you have in front
of you uh in a in a short meeting but certainly happy to um cover some highlights uh this evening as well as uh certainly answer any questions that the board members might have and we're almost there slideshow
there there you go thank you all right so we will be covering the fiscal year 2024 year end as was mentioned so as of 6:30 uh 24 year end uh covering the audit results here it's not sharing there that didn't quite work
hold please why it's not presenting T support e back in business thank you we'll go through this uh efficiently here so uh just a couple agenda items but just to recap the overall audit scope um as is
every year uh we do ultimately issue uh report over the financial statements which you should have in front of you in the green uh cover that the board members have um this almost 200 Page document is the annual comprehensive financial report or Acer uh so that's the ultimate financial statements for
the district as a whole uh for your fiscal year uh there's also different aspects that we as external Auditors are engaged to to perform and report to you all as board members we are directly engaged with the board to perform the audit um so certain aspects related to Communications that we uh issue a letter
to the board as well as any sort of uh recommendations findings things like that as well um because the district is a recipient of federal funding uh we also uh conduct What's called the single audit uh which is basically an audit of uh Federal funding that the district receives so the requirement is any
government highered or nonprofit uh organization that receiv receives 750,000 or more of federal funding has to go through a single audit so that's a deep dive into uh certain federal programs related to internal controls and compliance so that's one of the deliverables the compliance section that's within the financial
statements so just to summarize the overall uh results of the audit so um these are just some highlights out of the the large uh document you have in front of you so uh we do issue an audit opinion over the financial statements and we're happy to report rep that was an unmodified or clean opinion over the financial statements for the district
again this year so congratulations to um everyone involved with that as as Bill mention um it is a large effort that um takes up quite a bit of the year to get us to the point to issue the audit um in November uh related to uh the federal Awards as I mentioned so um we do also
uh conduct an audit over the federal Awards any of the large programs that the district has has to be audited every third year um so this year uh we did audit one program um Esser fun which is similar to to last year we audited that last year as well um that's Co related
covid-19 related funding that does um uh get audited and and that'll run its course and and should be the last year of being audited um but we we're happy to report we did have an unmodified opinion over the uh Federal Awards as well so um that's a a large achievement to be able to achieve both of those um
from an audit opinion standpoint in terms of the audit results uh more specifically related to the financial statements um within the compliance section at the back of your act for document you have uh there is a schedule of findings and question costs so that's an uh one of the deliverables related to
the single audit um that has to report any sort of finding so um there's kind of two different levels of findings uh one is a material weakness which would be the most uh severe type of finding that an entity can receive um a step down from that um is what's called a significant deficiency so that is a uh
type of finding that is reported within this document that does get provided to the federal government at the end of the audit as well as uh different stakeholders so uh we did have one significant deficiency this year uh related to the financial statements this was related to an audit adjustment that was made um it was discussed with the
district and they um updated it it was a capital asset item uh for about $3.1 million so the financial statements that you see in front of you are correct U management agreed to that um and that was uh taken uh taken action so the the financial statements are correct and and
reflect that adjustment we did have some other verbal best practice recommendations related to Information Technology um we do do bring in it Auditors from our team at CLA um and those were uh discussed with with management as well just best practice recommendations related to Federal
Awards uh we did not have any material weaknesses and we did not have any significant deficiencies related to the Esser program um which is uh great to see um and that's a really positive result as well um so the governance Communications letter that's a letter that does get
issued directly to governance um so that uh you don't necessarily have in the public document um but just some summaries here really it's just kind of overall takeaways from the audit um no sort of major changes though really um not a lot of updates or anything like that if you were to compare that that
letter to the prior year uh letter um we did have uh what's called a uncorrected misstatement which is basically an item that was identified through the audit that um was large enough to bring to your attention but not any sort of material error so um that item is noted related to um kind of accounting
specific information of lease standards so um that was similar to the the prior year um and it was noted again this year so um that that is one of those items where again not a material uh error but just something to bring to your attention uh and then that corrected misstatement I mention that was corrected within the financial
statements related to Capital assets um no sort of disagreements with management no sort of um issues there in terms of the audit results which is all positive um and then we do get a signed management representation letter that we do attach to that letter that is signed by management saying that they let us know of um they gave us the board
minutes to review they gave us all the supporting documentation they let us know of any litigation things like that so we do do get that signed before we issue our audit opinion um and just a real high level overview uh to without going through the large uh Acer document so um some of the
just highlights here that uh independent Auditors report you'll kind of conf follow along with the table of contents if you want to that is our unmodified or clean opinion so that's towards the front of the financial uh the management discussion and Analysis or mdna is a good summary of what happened year-over-year that is written by management and does have that
comparison year-over year so if you're looking for um you know about 15 pages or so summary of the 200 Page document that's a good place to look in terms of uh Financial results um and then the actual financial statements themselves uh follow after that statement of net position which shows that Allin look uh
for the district the balance sheet basically for the district um and statement of activities is basically the income statement for that all-in look uh for the district uh and then there's several other uh pages of financial statements at the fund level which is kind of more the budget to actual information you're used to seeing um at the individual funds and then a whole
lot of pages uh explaining all the all the numbers um all the disclosures things like that that are required to be reported so that's just a real high level overview of the acord document um and then the single audit section just to touch on that briefly is that compliant section that's towards the back of that document um that does
have our two audit opinions related to uh internal controls of our financial reporting and compliance um and then it does have our uh report over compliance for each major federal program that schedule of findings and question cost um as well as the schedule of expenditures of federal awards are noted
back there as well um so with that that's kind of the formal presentation high level overview uh certainly happy to address any questions or comments that the board members might have or Bill if I miss anything feel free to jump in board members do you have any questions for
Allison Alex uh not really a question for Allison but I did want to give a shout out uh to Bob smart on our uh committee for the expertise and the care that he puts into it we continue to be um very well served by having him as part of the group and uh I'm not sure what to report
from a long and thorough discussion of these documents that we had um last month uh but we um it was good to get to all the little things where the um audit uh reflects things uh didn't have much substance behind them and was uh uh gave
me confidence in the overall management of the finances and the transparency into it so Bill uh one final thing attached to the agenda item is the uh assurances for financial accreditation uh that's a form required by
CDE uh and just to read a couple of things off it um the school district must submit an assurance form certifying School District substantial and good faith compliance uh with School District budget law Financial policies and
procedures act a public school Financial transparency act and accounting and Reporting uh so there's uh several sections on here uh that are all indicating that we are in compliance uh
with the those U pieces of uh state law uh there is one item that's noted uh that uh spending did not exceed amounts appropriated for each fund uh so um Justice High School uh expended over
their uh appropriation uh it's a little weird because the the charter schools are listed as component units so while the total Charter fund uh wasn't overspent
uh the the singular School uh overspent their um uh appropriation uh so uh We've noted that um on the last page uh there's a place for myself uh and the superintendent to
sign uh certifying to the best of our knowledge and belief the assurances are uh true and correct uh and that all information is provided as applicable and is true and correct and then also that uh as board president uh certifying that the board refed reviewed the
assurances and approved uh the related responses so with that if there is any other questions you alluded a little bit to um to my question with your comments on Justice High did you conduct the audit for all of our charter schools this year
as you have in the past we did yes we conducted the audit and those are all um Standalone financial statements that get issued as well by each charter school which are issued before the district as a whole and then um is it only the IT department that you
specifically audit or do you rotate through other departments um you noted the comment the comment on it and I know when I was treasur you also did an audit of that department so I was just curious how that process works yeah that's a great question question so um there's not necessarily audits of specific
departments it as a whole has obviously a big role in financial reporting and kind of how financials are put together so that's a component of control environment as well as any sort of risks that are identified with data integrity and um security things like that so um that's just part of the understanding
the district as a whole and kind of what those controls are over the financial reporting but um as uh I think Bill mentioned earlier um we meet with members of a lot of different departments so HR payroll grants uh being probably the largest ones in in in terms of um the expenditures that you
all have in activity so um yeah a lot of folks Transportation I mean a lot of different folks are discussed during the audit process as far as just what what's happening um Capital assets you know being a large spend as well so a lot of uh involvement with discussions with those folks as well
so thanks or members any other questions we appreciate your work on this and second Alex's comment on Bob smart he's been a great partner for many years on that well seeing as there oh Alex can I just invite uh bill um I think one of the things that's good for our community
to be aware of and and this may not be the right place to have this discussion but I as I look at the finances I continue to see a very decreasing State share from the state finance formula and I think it's helpful to understand for the community when we start dealing with our budget decisions later throughout
the process where we sort of stand with our finances both after last year's legislative session after this upcoming budget and also our role of just how much we we get from the state and feds could you comment on that change from this year last year the the trend on that um I'll say that's more
foreshadowing as well for the the budget conversation because I do have a slide specifically on that that'll really illustrate that uh very clearly thanks again um board members that concludes this discussion this topic we will take a very brief
adjournment to rearrange the boardroom welcome back to the meeting everyone the first item on our the regular portion of our agenda this evening is a superintendent report Dr Anderson good evening thank you board president Raj Paul board members few things to update you all on for the
December 10th superintendent's remarks first I want to thank everybody who was able to join us for our superintendent's honor role uh that happened prior to this meeting was a great way to just continue to recognize all the amazing things happening in our school districts I want to thank all of our attendees and
their families for for coming out and celebrating with us today um so the holiday season as you know is underway if you were out at the lights of December parade in Boulder this weekend you may have seen our transportation team team going down the parade route
they decked out a bbsd bus with holiday lights road bikes and walked with decorated crossing guard stop signs all to celebrate the many ways bbsd gets kids to school CW who's our cross crosswalk mascot encourages kids to keep their
heads up while crossing the street he even came along for the FES of fun Transportation staff enjoyed cheers and lots of gratitude from families watching the parade and we're told that we love our bus drivers Was Heard many many times along the the route from all of
our fans that are parents and kids and so we want to thank the transportation department for participating in the lights of December parade board members this time of year many of our schools are in the holiday spirit busy coordinating efforts to benefit Community organizations right before Thanksgiving senturus high school
students staff and even some family members gathered to make about 500 heart pillows for breast cancer patients the pillows are for breast cancer patients the nonprofit Jay will pink Village aims to distribute them to every woman going through a masectomy the heart shape
works perfectly when they're strapping into a seat Bel helping to prevent the seat Bel from touching their chest area which is a very painful Prospect isn't the first time centaura students have helped make these pillows back in May of 2023 the school helped the organization replace its stock of pillows that had
burned down in the storage unit during the Marshall fire one of thanks uh goes out so much to all of our schools who go to extra mile of help during this time of year and and special thanks to the students at santaur last week uh was an emotional time for some of our longtime folks in
our community where people were able to come out and say goodbye to the old Baseline Junior High Baseline middle school and New Vista High School building after serving the students of bbsd for 71 years the building is scheduled to be demolished in 2025 after
the upcoming opening of the New Vista High School building which will be following winter break while the 1953 building is showing its age many of the past students and staff reminisced fondly while walking through the hallways visiting classrooms the gym and more it was
evident how much their time at the school meant to them and I think there's many of us that are excited to welcome in the new version uh which will be the new high school the new New Vista High School building bbsd was recently selected to
participate in the US Department of Energy's energy class program also known as Champions leading the advancement of sustainable schools BS is joining about 60 other districts and education agencies and developing strategies to enhance Energy Efficiency Foster healthier learning environments and
optimize costs conjunction with this announcement bbsd was also invited to be part of the Department of Ed Energy's better climate challenge which aims to set and reach ambitious ambitious portfolio wide emissions reduction goals and finally want to send a thank you to
Broomfield mayor guen castria city council member Bruce Leslie nine news anchor Kyle Clark and the many many other community members and parents who came out recently for Aspen Creek's K8 career day we know it takes Partnerships like these with our community to make
our educational efforts and students successful and very excited for um all of the the career related functions and activities that are happening in our elementary and middle school in alignment with Grad Plus initiative board members that's all I have for my
remarks for this evening thank you Dr Anderson board members do you have any questions for Dr Anderson seeing as there are none the next item on our agenda this evening is public participation the board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operations of our
schools the board does not endorse the comments of any speaker and reminds all those who speak that you are responsible for your own speech speakers will each have two minutes to speak you will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining if you run out of time or would like to share
additional information you may always email the board our first Speaker this evening is Knox McCutchen who is attending in person maybe not Knox does not appear to be
here this evening so we will move on to our second speaker Victor Guston and if you could just push the little button with the person on it and it'll turn your mic on thank you okay uh hi my name is Victor and I'm a junior at monach High School uh and I
like to talk about the cell phone policy uh I'd like to start by saying that I would like to add my voice to what the other students from the last meeting said about the policy and that I don't think this harsh of a policy is necessary nor the right thing to spend resources
on by disallowing phones or personal technology devices the only people affected will be the people who use their phone responsibly those who abuse the phones will always find a way around it and keep using them uh for example to get around in
classroom phone Pockets students can say that they forgot their phone at home or use an extra or old phone uh these tactics can easily translate to avoid a building wi band the only people who are actually being punished by this rule are those who don't want to break it which
are those who can manage their phone use already I also think that the time that we that will be spent enforcing this policy would be better spent addressing the far more concerning issue vaping and other substance abuse that is ubiquitous in school buildings specifically
restrooms these substances are known to be detrimental to students and all students who are using them are abusing them whereas that is not necessarily the case with phones vaping and substance abuse causes students to follow the rules to feel
uncomfortable using the school and I'd like to urge you to prioritize addressing the substance abuse issue before considering cell phone restrictions thank you for your time thank you our next speaker this evening is NE
Neil Fishman good evening thank you very much uh for this my name is Neil Fishman my gender pronouns are he and him and I'm speaking tonight both as myself as well as in my role as president of the board of the Rocky Mountain equality action fund I want to express my wholehearted
support for the Boulder Valley School District's resolution 24-36 on supporting students and families this resolution embodies the district's commitment to ensuring that every child no matter their Identity or background can access education in a
safe and supportive environment the resolution takes a bold stand for E Equity by addressing the unique and overlapping challenges faced by students from targeted minority groups including those who are lgbtq intersectionality reminds us that
the experiences of discrimination and marginalization often overlap for instance lgbtq students who are also students of color immigrants or from diverse religious backgrounds face compounded challenges this resolution affirms that
all students deserve protection respect and the ability to thrive without fear of bullying harassment or hate it's critical to recognize the disproportionate impact of bullying and harassment on students from marginalized communities and to ensure these behaviors are not tolerated in our
schools and I am grateful that the resolution also acknowledges the fears and uncertainties facing students and families affected by immigration challenges no family should have to choose between safety and education schools must remain protected spaces for
all furthermore the districts stand against hate speech including anti-Semitism and religious harassment as outlined in the resolution emphasizes its dedication to cultivating a culture of respect and inclusivity this resolution is a call to
action for all of us Educators students parents and community members to Champion equity and stand against all forms of discrimination I applaud the district for its leadership and for advancing a vision where every student feels seen
supported and celebrated regardless of their Identity or identities thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Andrew brand uh good evening board members superintendent Anderson I'm Andrew Brandt uh new vista's rep to the Dak and
the Dak policy subcommittee uh speaking on my own behalf and not uh on behalf of the committee um we've been working on updates to policies jle and Jrs which govern interrogations and searches of students by law enforcement uh or school officials on school grounds you'll
receive Notes From The subcommittee co-chairs Who diligently worked with us to formulate policies that align better with the districts and board's goals for equity and fairness I won't disparage the Dax work but I'm asking you not to approve the changes and to send the
policy Redline back to the back the subcommittee was under a tight deadline to get these to you by tonight but late in the process some committee members and other Dak reps recognized and called attention to Serious deficits and problems that remain unaddressed in the
policy Redline document uh there are also new pitfalls created by some last minute additions there are more issues than I can even list in two minutes some of the changes in my opinion seriously impact student civil rights and turn school grounds
potentially into an anti-constitutional safe space for law enforcement giving them greater latitude when they operate on school grounds than they would have at a police station at the expense of the rights and dignity of kids and families as a result of the time pressure to deliver this to the board by
tonight a plurality opted to send you the redlines and some notes about the hour-long debate that transpired in last week's Dax meeting I don't think that's good enough what is so urgent that there was a rush to finish this right now when it comes to civil rights we need to get
the whole thing right the first time and not make things worse in a quest for expediency we live in an era where we hear a lot about imminent threats to school safety but these remain fortunately very rare however these policies don't apply only to those rare
instances what is far more likely to happen is that a student suspected of any sort of wrongdoing with or without evidence may be subjected to searches or interrogations where a power imbalance leaves a student uninformed of or unable to exercise their civil rights and
leaving them humiliated and degraded and that is not the bbsd that I signed on to be a part of and I urge you to kick this back to the deck thank you thank you the remaining speaker this evening are participating virtually first of which is Scott
Blakeley Scott is not present we'll be moving on to Elliot flaten flaten you hear me okay yes okay my I am Elliot fayen I have two non-jewish children currently at Eldorado K through 8 I attended Callis man's presentation last
night at uh bbsd regarding her book that has been promised to be placed in each bbsd Library this presentation which was set up by bbd's new inclusive teaching director floret King went exactly as expected namely a he used the term
extremist only for a Jew and not a single Arab in spite of the two in tadas in October 7th D it placed this blame for the October 7th genocide not on those who broadcast their barbarity live but instead on Israel and C it pushed
racist blood lials about Israel engaging in quote disproportionate Force against those who have promised to murder its civilians from one of time I cannot educate those here tonight on why those items were both racist and false I can only say that given this was an event
put on by bbd's Dei program that I just should not have to we do not expect inclusive teaching directors to invite the KKK or the proud boys in the name of Education because for other minorities we know that the pretext to providing education is not justification to teach
racist lies yet when Jews are the minority article after article has been written about Dei programs not just ignoring their well documented suffering at the hands of racists but in fact GI programs Banning the Flames of hate in this past year on a Charged topic like
this Lor King should have done basic due diligence to make sure the invited speaker would not Foster hate or at least coordinate with stakeholders she did not do that similarly she was at Best dismissive of community concerns last night the lesson for bbd's Jewish
community and allies is that for bbd's Dei program unlike other minorities racism and hate aimed at Jews simply does not count thank you our next speaker this evening is Elise MOS hello can you hear me yes we can
great um thank you I am a resident of Boulder and I'm here to discuss the same event that Elliot fayen had just reviewed I um am concerned for numerous reasons what Elliot mentioned as along with addition to what I'm going to
mention I learned this event about one hour before it took place and By Word of Mouth I know other parents and concerned Boulder writes who also learned about it last minute and made time quickly to attend this due to the important nature
of this topic um it was uh some of us already knew of this professor because she moderated a Q&A for an event event that featured the anti-israel film israelism at Colorado School of Minds last month which was
co-hosted by the anti-semetic group SDS so a lot of us were already aware of this professor's anti-israel agenda and sure enough that came through last night um as expected uh certain facts were omitted and certain things were
presented that were opinions and not actual facts um and uh some of the issues were definitely addressed during Q&A um by attendees who expressed serious concerns about the skewed
narrative being shared to teachers who are then supposed to educate their students on this topic um had the audience not been there I can imagine that no one would have probably checked some of the facts that were being shared
since I'm guessing most teachers were there to learn about the topic and didn't have a lot of prior knowledge on this issue um anti-Semitism is already a problem at B at bbsd and this event only fans of flames further I ask that the
board investigate the materials at of this uh lecture and see how it's being presented in the classroom and also see how this topic is being discussed in the classroom thank you thank you our next
speaker this evening is dicka Leon hi can you hear me yes I am too here to express um my serious concerns about the recent Israel Palestine event yesterday organized by Flo King the new
Dei director um her selection of uh CU Boulder Professor Hillary kisman um who is known for her anti-israel narratives was highly problematic uh and you'd expect her to
do her due diligence and really uh look into who she is inviting um Hillary's presentation displayed clear bias presenting opinions as facts while meeting critical historical context this only deepens
hostilities towards already struggling Jewish minorities in B bbsd schools like my children uh who already both of them experienced anti-Semitism at school I would like to know uh is bbsd also
planning similar events to address other Global conflicts such as the Sunni alawai CH Shiite conflict maybe Boh Haram Nigeria conflict or turkey Kord conflict because if not I am um
wondering why this topic isi prioritized and why was it presented in a way that reinforces harmful stereotypes about Jewish students uh what was exceptionally disturbing was Flo King's response when
parents raised concerns about the bullying of Jewish and Israeli children as students instead of addressing the issue she deflected to anti-Semitism and islamophobia despite nobody in the room
ever mentioned islamophobia this word didn't come up in yesterday's conversation this dismissive uh response lacked empathy and failed acknowledge to acknowledge uh the institutional racism and anti-Semitism Jewish families
currently face in our schools this event thank you our final speaker this evening is Jamal Gilmore hello uh hello everybody uh thank you for your time um I wanted to talk about
um this is tough uh some harassment and bullying by teachers at my son's school his school is uh andine Middle School uh I've talked to uh Dan Ryan and everybody inside the administration and they don't feel that uh uh the teacher uh Mr schler
I think that's his name he's a math science teacher uh there he's uh shaming and stealing dignity from my son uh We've we've wrote the school we've wrote inside the like tell safe to tell we did the bullying
report uh we haven't got any feedback really um I think rihan Rihanna just emailed me a minute ago saying that uh she's sorry to hear about this and she's known about this uh what happened is uh my son uh is getting messed with in school
and he's asking people to help him out no one can help him out uh but the minute he sets boundaries with other students uh then the miraculously the teachers come in and they discipline him without disciplining other schools other students in the school so that's uh
that's the way um systemic racism looks like in the school so for him it it's it's it's really hard for him to go to school he uh he is neurodiverse and so he does he does take his steps to help himself out in this uh but he does need
help from the administration and and no one seems to help him at all uh he can't go anywhere um and so my ask is if the board or the superintendent or anybody around could help us uh with this problem he's already lost two years of his schooling due to bullying in the
school being called Gay and and all kinds of colorful language and so I would like some help from bvsd thank you so much you have a wonderful day thank you board members that concludes public
participation for this evening I want to thank everyone who took the time to show up in person and attend public participation remotely um we are here to listen to your thoughts and experiences we will now move on to the
next item on our agenda this evening which is board communication board members who would like to begin Kitty well first I want to thank everybody who took the time to come and speak to us and especially I I can't even remember I'm sorry our students name from but
Willow of course and I always love hearing from our students and we have some of the best students they can get up right in front of board members where I would have been shaking in my boots at the same age I wouldn't in fact it would never have occurred to me um and thank
you for the parents who of have commented about last night's um presentation thank you to the who else what do else do we speak about out to the students whove given us their
opinion on our um cell phone policy last weekend we were at our casby conference in Colorado Springs and we did hear an earful from students on their opinion ions on the um cell phone policy and and I'm glad they were able to share that
with us um a couple of of um presentations I went to um I was impressed with the first one was put on by the um Durango school district and they're doing something along the lines
of what we've done with Grad Plus only it's more intangible um skills that they're promoting it's called portrait of graduate and they're working on ways to in all of their instruction teach kids
to be empathetic collaborators resilient Risk Takers agile thinkers creative problem solvers confident communicators and courageous leaders and they are encouraging their students to be active in the community and to work for some of
the things that they think are important sort of like our students do so that was an excellent um program to go to and I don't know if there's anything else I was going to talk about
now I don't there was an I can't remember now the other um breakout session I wanted to mention if I think of it I'll raise my hand again lenia uh I thought we had a great
um some great sessions at casmi but what comes to mind that I would like to share with our public is that um several of us attended a discussion from the superintendent who was in Grand Island
Nebraska when there was a 2006 immigration raid and that particular session was very informative about uh what we potentially face as uh these new policies may come
our way and so I would encourage anyone with concerns to uh be sure they're reaching out to our Administration so that we can help allay concerns and then uh later tonight we will be discussing a
resolution about how we are here to protect our families so thank you J and then Alex I'd also like to thank everybody who spoke tonight um you know it's it's been a I really appreciate you know seeing
the student moment earlier the super honors role and and know the great things that we're doing here uh but I also you know hear the the need for us to kind of come together as a community and and be inclusive and and think about the actions we can take to kind of support each other right and that how important it is for us to come together and recognize the differences but also
the needs that we see across the district and and and and and um the actions that we can take right in terms of standing together um I think we need that now more more than ever um the the casby meeting last week I think one of the highlights for me was having breakfast with um our uh student cabinet
and youth Equity council members to to recognize the work that they've put in over the years as a part of this district and the voice that they have um and seeing how engaged they are and proactive they are and the change that they want to make I think that's a reflection of this community and what and what our students can do and and I
think that's that's really powerful um and you know I I was in that session um that you know this that uh it was emotional it was something that you know affects communities I think as we come together and think about how we stand not just for ourselves but for others I
think that's that's why many of us are here and so I want to I want to thank our our teachers our Educators our administrators and our community members who um are are voicing that right now um and I was at that parade on Saturday evening um I did see the transportation buses I had no idea we had a mascot that
was awesome so many of our elementary schools were there um our middle schools or high schools the Manhattan band was there which is awesome um just a just a great energy great event and it's a nice uh uh it's nice for this time of year
thank you um yeah I had a few things well again like everybody else I want to thank all the people who spoke uh tonight and uh it was really exciting always to see the superintendent um on a role just really amazing things going on by our our
students and and the adults as well um I wanted to comment on a couple of sessions I went to at casby I went to a panel uh from districts that were actually ahead of us on implementing cell phone uh policy and uh there was some great stuff
brought up um uh and I I raised questions said hey we we've done it now what's the most important thing on the communication front what to do and and generally the experienced superintendents and School Board presidents in that session were emphasizing uh the the things to
facilitate uh social interaction the getting the getting the pingpong tables available getting the games and the library things that give kids uh uh the students things to do with their time they also talked about how to the importance of having some discussions amongst the Educators about what they're
doing differently and how they might change uh what goes on in the classrooms in addition to just having less distraction but um I think the primary feedback I got from the U most experienced superintendent was um yeah these are all really important things to talk about but you should just do this
it makes things a lot better and uh they overall affirmation that it's the right way to go um I will say that uh I've appreciated all the input we we've heard from uh the students and the parents and uh one of the recurring things that's come up in the discussion and I I don't
think it's an either or I think it's a yes and but I have heard from a lot of students complaining about uh The Vaping issues that are still going on and I know this was a huge priority uh for the board um in previous years it's happened at the same time that there was State attention to Legal settlements that are
going on and sounds as far as the students are concerned that uh we haven't um cracked that egg yet and that we still have progress to be done on it and I'd be curious to find out eventually um maybe add it to our agenda setting or something and revisit how
we're doing on The Vaping front I really don't think it's a an either or I think kids should be comfortable all the time and we should do what we can to stop uh practices like that um I also went to a session that was a little mind-blowing for me um I went to two sessions in a
strand on artificial intelligence and uh I will say that from my professional work I am kind of a skeptic on edtech and that I have seen lots of full-time virtual stuff in the charter world where there's just not really a focus on achievement and I
think the sessions uh I came away with actually thinking I need to or that we should be deepening our consideration of it and over time we'll have to put a little more time into it and it's the part I came away with is it's much more than thinking about plagiarism and that
if we're thinking about it primarily from like what might a student do wrong with this we are totally thinking about um 3% of it that's really important this year and in fact there's much more transformative stuff coming down the pike that is both advantageous and problematic and that the sort of first
thing a parent or someone thinks about is like oh this is a new form of plagiarism support when in fact it's so much more than that and it will affect how we do analysis how we construct teaching but it will also affect what it means to be literate and what it means
about how we communicate with one another and construct our arguments like people will use this the same way we do research on the internet today and we're thinking about it instead like how to make sure it doesn't happen um finally I I would really have appreciated the
parental input I've gotten from people on the street as well as emails as well as this testimony one thing I'd like to highlight is the a I got a bunch of emails from Netherland parents who were just supporting their principle and there have been some issues going on lately that were pretty tricky for
families in Community to deal with and there was an overwhelming support from the community like wow our principal really treated us with respect and worked to address those things and it's nice on the school board I will confess sometimes you get uh an emphasis on the grievance and that's important and I'm
glad to receive it uh but it's also good when you hear when someone says well they really appreciated a bolder leader uh who they thought was doing good things for their community so wanted to bring that to people's attention and um um I guess that's it oh and I
really appreciate people speaking and emailing in support of our resolution 2436 and look uh look forward to acting on that Beth I should have gone earlier I want to ditto pretty much everything that
everyone said tonight um so I too was at casby and I think this was the best casby we we've been to in my estimation um mostly because some of the sessions felt more relevant and thought-provoking than in the past I too was at the the
session around the um immigration raids that occurred in uh in Nebraska and it was as Jorge and lenia said it was uh it was emotional and difficult to listen to and very thought-provoking um and it I walked away with similar
feelings as Jorge was saying how incredibly important it is that we come together right now you know we have challenges ahead and I really truly do have confidence in this board and in our district leadership to do everything we can to ensure students are safe here and they have a place to belong um I'm glad
we have tonight's resolution um on the docket and as Alex said we really appreciate hearing from all the folks in the community in support of it so I think we're going to keep things that are important of this nature top of mine and I just want to to add that and also hanging out with the students at casby
is always a highlight we have some incredible kids Jason is there anything you wanted to share this evening uh sure um hey everyone sorry for not being there in person uh I came home to a sick household and got sick myself so
best that I'm not there but I was disappointed to meet to miss the honor roll that's always one of the or it's was my favorite event last year but um anyway yeah I think uh unfortunately going last most of the casby stuff was covered uh I think you know I went to a
lot of those same sessions really enjoyed it um and just getting to spend time with my colleagues on the board I'm grateful to have um you know colleagues that are smart and passionate and fun so a really enjoyable time a lot of good
takeaways so again sorry for not being there in person but uh I'm I'm listening in um casby I guess my two cens B casby I went to a few different sessions for my board members one was around professional development I went to a session on higher education it was
interesting to hear a little bit about whether some school districts are doing direct admissions working with colleges universities to do direct admits I thought that was an interesting um thing to consider or think about exploring the other thing that I thought out of that
highered breakout session that was interesting was ways in which we can improve and increase access to college campuses for our students and any body that has kids at are high school age are thinking about college to understand how
Predictive Analytics is increasingly a part of an application process and every touch point you have with the university whether it's visiting it online going to a table or showing up in person those are data points that they're collecting and can impact the application so I
thought thinking through how to help our students get on campuses to determine if they're good fits if it's the right thing for their future when they might not be able to figure that out or have the means to do that themselves is something worth exploring I went to a session on the upcoming legislation with
Susanna Cordova and board members from across the state with a lot of questions on uh how to how to process what we're hearing may occur at both the state and National level that was something
that while not entirely positive it felt good that a lot of people are trying to tackle the same problems that we are there are a lot of unknowns that we are yet to to to think through and understand I was able to attend two different student sessions
one as a panel and one or a round table session and then our breakfast and through both of those experiences with our students and students from across the state there were two threads that I thought are worth interesting for us to consider and
think about is how to increase student access to the information in the work of the board and to the board itself when we make decisions that impact them and there are a lot of different models out there and there are a lot of ways that we could consider approaching this as a
board but from our students both that attended casby the casby youth strand as part of Youth Equity Council and our student cabinet really a a a desire to understand what we do and how they can engage in the work that impacts them so
something to think about there and then it was great just generally to interact and network with school board members from across the state there are a lot of school districts that are tackling the same problems we are graduation requirements cell phone
policies how to speak to and think about changes to the school Finance act and and averaging and how the budget's going to impact us all and what does it mean for the accountability task force recommendations and so it was really great to talk with peers from
like-minded school districts and validating definitely to know that we're really all tackling the same big important issues and there is a lot to learn from each other that is all I had and for those listening casby is the Colorado Association of school boards
and we do attend at least one conference every year to convene and learn from each other seeing as I was the last board member to provide comments we will move on to the inform our information item this evening we have three information items the first of which which is the
annual enrollment update all right good evening president Raj Paul members of the board and Dr Anderson this next presentation doesn't really need an introduction I think Glenn's been providing this presentation the annual enrollment update for almost
15 years I believe uh let's not confuse this presentation with the annual Trend report annual enrollment Trend report that we deliver in February that includes five-year projections this is really just an update on October count you will see over the last decade
although the presentation style has changed a little bit the data points the trends have stayed the same so it's easy to compare year after year and with that I will turn it over to Glenn SRU our senior planner I just noted that we have the incorrect date on this it should be
December 10th not December 12th so we will get that corrected and uh uploaded to uh board dos with that glimp thank you I to provide a little bit of uh overview and context for this uh um um
presentation uh this is specifically a snapshot for the 2024 enrollment um and to to review how uh past Trends uh affect our current uh status with our enrollment um that
information is then used uh uh for more information in the future and contributes to enrollment projections uh that which also contributes to the 2526 budget it's also a resource uh it's also important in the resource allocation for
FTE facilities uh and educational materials and it's also uh heavily used by several communities uh especially um the elch and bond committees so moving on to the overall Trends uh this year 2024 uh we saw about
a 0.5 decline in enrollment uh about 141 students which was uh quite a bit better than we had projected we had uh expectation was to be around a 1.4% loss which is 388 students down so we beat That by a pretty good margin but we
still did decline uh that's uh following a trend since around 2017 a pretty steady decline uh especially through the pandemic years uh and continue Cline more recently uh but more recently we've been closer to about a 1% loss so a half
percent loss is pretty good A big contributor to this is probably a bolster from recent migrants uh to the area um which hit much of the Front Range uh we thought we might have seen maybe an additional 100 uh 125 students
uh from recent migrants looking at enrollment change as a a absolute number uh year-over-year change uh in this chart the dark blue lines represent Elementary level uh with the lighter uh the lightest being the high school and middle in between uh we
see uh as we've been seeing over the years Elementary has really been driving a lot of the declines uh as that moves into the middle school and now we see High School in more recent years in Decline as well in 2024 uh we still see Elementary uh in
Decline but not as bad as we've seen in recent years uh also uh High School is probably pretty consistent with uh recent years a little bit better uh but we do see another surprising year of growth at Middle School um the one explanation that comes to mind
is we may still be seeing uh um uh pandemic kids who enrolled in Elementary programs outside the district uh that are coming in at that transitional level looking at this in terms of grade distribution how the different grade levels and populations and those grade
levels affect overall enrollment uh when you look at this chart you can see the grade levels along the bottom K through 12 uh each grade level has the top of the line in dark is the highest that grade level has been in the last 10 years the line with a lower with the
lighter blue is the lowest that that enrollment has been in the last 10 years uh the white squares are where we are at this year and the little triangles are where we were projected and what really stands out is that kindergarten class which was uh about a 100 bigger than
what we had expected um so a definite pop at kindergarten and also uh one of the biggest classes since the pandemic as well but not just kindergarten all of the transitional levels uh experienced did beat
expectation and were a little higher than what uh a lot of the past trends that we've been seeing uh would tell us they would be otherwise we see the pattern that we've been seeing over the years with very very small classes uh through Elementary and middle
school and moving into high school when we look at change on a regional level and K12 students where they live based on where they live not where they go to school uh we see this chart breaks down Boulder in the dark
bars and the Eastern communities in the lighter bars uh we see that starting in 2018 or so we see Boulder uh starting those declining Trends and really driving a lot of the decline in the district and through the pandemic uh much of the eastern part of the district
was in Decline as well uh this year Boulder is fairly on Trend in terms of its amount of decline but we saw a pretty good bump in the eastern part of the district uh that was not necessarily unexpected uh the eastern part of the district did have quite a bit of housing
that was expected to come online and it it has uh in the this last year so Parkdale being the biggest one has added about over 400 units in about the last 18 months so that's probably the major contributor to that bump uh this
year looking at a similar chart uh refined a little bit to the elementary level and showing more Community differences again we see that Elementary losses uh in Boulder starting as far back as 2016 and continuing uh through
this year and Boulder still showing uh fairly consistent losses uh again this year uh we do see bumps a little bit in Broomfield and the mountains in 2024 uh but we do see uh and we also see
the uh Lafayette Erie area you can reflect in that that Ki growth that I mentioned earlier probably from new housing uh and also Lewisville and Superior showing uh similar declines they've seen in the past although
Lewisville uh seemed to have a little bit less decline this year than in the past and looking at other factors in uh districts uh enrollment migration out of district and births being a few uh this is a a revision of a chart we've shown
in the past uh in the past we've shown only the dark bars which are uh outer District students coming into the District uh this year we ranched out to use CDE data which also shows us students leaving the district as well uh the one difference with this is it also
includes PK which isn't in most of my charts I do not include PK and it does skew things a little bit um because PK in recent years in particular with uh Universal coverage um uh we've seen an increase so the numbers do skew a little
bit but the overall trends of of new um out of District students is generally the same uh the other part on this is the light blue lines on the bottom that's what the CD does offer uh it's not data
that we have in house uh and that is the number of students leaving out to other districts and we can see actual growth in that number from 2014 up until about the pandemic uh and a leveling off since then
uh since CD doesn't produce their data until January uh the last bar 2024 is our estimate of CD numbers which are uh our out of District kids plus our preschoolers uh we'll have to wait till January to see what the outs look
like uh net migration is an important factor in enrollment uh this is our chart where we try to get at that as best we can uh measures new and leaving resident students to the district the uh Top Line in green measuring new students
that come into the district uh either moving to it or uh enrolling from um private schools or home schools the line below that in in kind of the reddish purple are the students that are leaving bbsd uh and the gains or difference that
we see is that line with the arrows in between that would be the net difference so the bigger that net difference line the more uh students we gain from from from this kind of uh net migration uh this year we're seeing very large gains
580 again probably a function of some of the um recent migrant students uh in the area that I mentioned before um but it doesn't explain the entire difference uh 580 is pretty large last year was a pretty good gain as well at 380 some of
the best numbers we've seen since even before um the pandemic uh and this year was even stronger stronger so uh that's another good sign for the district um in our in our uh Outlook going into the future births uh another key Trend that
we look at uh course births hopefully turned to kindergarteners uh later so it's an important thing to monitor um and as a baseline to enrollment overall uh um declining burst is nothing new to bbsd um overall decline for the District
since 1999 um and that's continued we can see in this chart it does differ regionally somewhat uh the Top Line in Gray is the eastern part of the district uh we can see a much uh More Level line although
some slight decline uh with that line and much more drastic uh birth declines in Boulder itself although since 2019 we do see a bit of a leveling in in Boulder as well and of course we discussed this
over the last year or so total fertility rates have been going down steadily and again we see in 2020 that is happened again uh that means um women are having fewer um fewer childrens or or fewer
kids and uh or not having kids at all and what births the correlation of birth to kindergarteners looks like in bvsd is shown here uh the dark blue line are the resident kindergarteners that we've had year-over-year the Gray Line
on top of that are the corresponding births uh that occurred roughly five to six years before that uh so uh we can see over the years there's been a fairly consistent uh Trend between those two lines uh with a few
exceptions especially the P pandemic uh the thing that we've been watching more recently has been the previous two years where that ratio between uh the number of births and uh the number of of Resident kindergarteners that we say had been
declining in recent years uh we're usually running between 90 between 90 95% and we were getting into the 80s this year we did see a little bit of a rebound in that number much more to what we've seen in previous numbers so that's also another good sign uh in the long
run in summary uh declines this year uh uh have been been better than in recent years we had a lot although we did go down 141 kids or a half a percent um we did beat our uh expectation by uh over
two two times that um Elementary and high levels saw declines uh in 2024 but Middle School uh saw a second year of surprising gains uh and kindergarten at 1609 was the largest that we've seen since the pandemic
uh we saw stronger resident student gains at Middle School which may have come from uh the student uh from students returning uh re-entering the system after uh the pandemic uh outed District contributions to enrollment 2024 was close to last year's historic
High uh Boulder Lewisville and Superior are largely driving enrollment declines where Lafayette and er actually showed some modest growth in 2024 uh birth showing signs of leveling off after a period of steep declines especially in Boulder and we are seeing
stronger student net migrations also in 2024 with that I open up to questions Beth thanks for that presentation sounds like a lot of good news um tell us a little bit more about Parkdale are we
seeing the majority of the gains there or are we anticipating more coming the number of houses purchased you know that sort of thing it it it seems to be moving they seem to be selling briskly there's three different Builders there and they're all nationals so they have they're pretty good at at providing
incentives uh and bringing people uh into the houses so for 400 plus homes in in 18 months is is very robust Alex yeah on I'm trying to understand slide 11 which looks like great news news on the the leaving and
coming residents um when is this is adjusted for kindergarteners and outgoing 12th graders what does that mean so it's not so it doesn't all kindergarteners are new and all 12th graders leaving right so you've got to take those two groups out yeah so what's
left here are people in the other grades who started out in bbsd schools that but left or kids in those School AE that are entering other than through the beginning of kindergarten it really just looks at uh last year's kids and and
seeing um which students were gained since last October and then which students were lost since last October so it's just a simple point-to-point comparison board members any other questions for Glenn was a very thorough presentation
Glenn thank not a lot of questions from the board I will put a plug that there are Bright Futures ahead in bbsd and that open enrollment window is open and will be open until January 8th so as you're thinking about 8 days left till
winter break uh by the 8th of January if you want to be with us please be sure to apply Kitty yes I just want to make sure I understand on um slide 12 where says the
fertil total fertility rate fell from 1.4 to 1.0 so does that mean between 2010 and 2020 okay yes how is that a lot is that I what do we it you know it's
it's been amazing since 1990 we've dropped almost perfectly 04 kids so to speak um every 10 years uh so from a lot of demographers and say 2.3 is what you need to sustain a
community without immigration uh so we're well below that level and I've been getting lower and lower Alex uh on that point uh how is the overall population of the school district doing are we continuing to we're the the the the the overall
population is has been increasing um just not in the areas that where we see a lot of kids so we of course we see a lot of young adults uh and also we're seeing you know the 60 plus uh portion of our um population gaining quite a bit
too Dr Anderson first of all I want to thank Glenn for being such an expert and for 15 years providing us this information thank you Glenn um if you could go to slide six I just want I want to point out out a couple of things I I really just want to take this
opportunity to thank all of our schools all of our school leaders all of our teachers for continuing to provide uh just an amazing opportunity for students uh as you can see here with kindergarten sixth grade and 9th grade those are the
transition years that we've really been focusing on at the bvsd is the place to be showcased uh and uh and to Glenn's point we certainly had an influx of Migrant students but it does not uh account for all of the students that
we that we were able to either retain or gain and uh while I couldn't tell you X number of parents who went to this event uh then enrolled in the school district I think it's it's between the the Showcase between the improved efforts I
think in our um our school-based events uh it's it's a mentality I think that we're embracing here in our school district uh to make sure that we serve each and every kid in our community and we open our doors um where space allows for folks outside of our community that
are part of our community in a different way to Nicole's point that work here or um or plan to be here at some point and so uh pretty significant news board members that we are slowing down declining enrollment and if you were to
tell me two years ago that that's where we would be at in December of 2024 that we would have um beat projections and have begun to slow down declining enrollment based on the things that we've been taking on I would I'd be thrilled and uh and so I don't want let
to let this good news go past us without celebrating all of the work that has happened um over the course of the past two years to really begin to adjust to our enrollment situation and know and understand that I think the future is
bright in regards to uh not only with our new enrollment preferences but uh new opportunities at schools that for for a long time maybe there weren't opportunities for folks to open enroll uh and so just very excited that um one of the biggest challenges we're
taking on which is declining enrollment we're seeing some progress based on I think the collective efforts of a lot of things thanks Glen thank you our next information item this evening is the 526 budget development
process and the 2526 budget Outlook Bill Suter will be presenting this information thank you president Raj Paul members of the board Dr Anderson so we have our first step in the uh
budget development cycle uh for the uh 25 26 fiscal year so we'll start with uh the fiscal cycle so as I mentioned in the audit
update uh as a little foreshadowing the 28th is month uh fiscal cycle of budget development budget implementation budget revision and then the financial audit uh so we've got a brief two-minute video uh
that uh highlights we we showed this about a year and a half ago uh but this really helps um kind of uh show the cycle for the community uh and uh some addition additional excellent narration
by our chief Communications officer Randy oh we don't have any sound do I need to unmute or e here in the Boulder Valley School District we take our responsibility at stewards of taxpayer dollars very seriously we pride ourselves not only on
our careful management of the funds that you've trusted us with for our students but also being transparent throughout the process Beyond being honored by national and international experts in the area bbsd is committed to ensuring that our community understands our fiscal process so that you can follow it
and participate it's important to know that from start to finish the fiscal cycle is about 28 months and includes first defining our budget process and planned Milestones then regularly checking in on the fiscal lay of the land opportunities are given
for staff members families and community members to contribute ideas District leadership then considers the alignment of these suggestions to the district's strategic plan and prioritizes things accordingly as the budget is created it is then presented to the board of education for discussion and potential
editing once board members approve the budget bbsd staff Works to implement it along the way as we will discuss in more depth in a moment there are factors which might alter our course which is why we regularly come back and update the board and ultimately revise the budget Midway so that it reflects the
conditions on the ground as the fiscal year ends our team ensures that everything that happened is properly recorded that report is then audited by an independent outside organization and they report back to the Board of Education about how we did covering whether we followed best practices
complied with state and federal law and accurately reported the information ensuring that we stay on the straight and narrow as we go through this process it can get a bit complicated because as we mentioned the entire process stretches over 28 months it is common that our business services team is
working to establish next year's budget while implementing this year's plan and reviewing what happened during the last fiscal year ultimately each cycle has the same events what does change from year to year are the factors that may impact our budget every year we base our flight plan on the best information we
can gather and try to forecast what might be ahead challenges certainly can emerge along the way with a billion dollar budget we can adjust and still get to our intended destination but in the rare event of a situation in which we need to significantly change course we are in constant communication with
our Board of Education and community so that everyone is aware and can provide feedback and be part of the solution here in the Boulder Valley School District we are proud of our tradition of Financial [Music]
stewardship so a brief overview of uh this fiscal cycle um as as uh was mentioned this this um last year this year next year conversation can get a little confusing uh sometimes so uh
we've done some color coding and I'll note this as we go through the presentation uh but we just reviewed uh last year with the audit uh for this year we have the state revenue forecast and revised budget and then next year budget development uh uh conversation we'll
have in a minute so I'll point that out as we move along so uh the timeline and Milestones uh we've been reviewing this process for about a decade now uh it helps illustrate the points in the process uh where we get information uh
comes into the district and staff uh we get feedback from the board uh we get input from the community uh and then the board takes action so I've gone through this in more detail in the past uh the the conceptual ideas behind it uh
haven't changed so I'm going to keep this a little slim down version um but uh from September to June uh really is all the opportunity for uh feedback uh in input for um uh the community and uh
the stakeholders uh public comment at board meetings uh there's plenty of opportunity for uh the community to give that feedback uh we have our data inputs things like state revenue forecast uh Governor's budget the legislative
session uh the October count that we got just got the uh update on uh Consumer Price Index which drives or inflation which drives uh fund uh as well as those enrollment projections uh District quarterly financial
statements uh and then we have the action items like the release of Staffing uh notifications to staff and adopting the budget the uh releasing of Staffing which is noted there in the February to
April uh time frame in that gray bar that's committing uh approximately 90% of uh the general operating fund so it's a fairly significant uh action that gets taken uh and is a commitment of the
budget as we move forward uh so note the color coding uh up in the corner there so we have the hopefully it's shown up yep uh next year is identified so this is the conversation uh for the next year budget
development so the Takeaway on this uh is the budget development process spans many months and there are plenty of opportunities uh to provide input uh and relevant data and information comes to us throughout
the process so some of it's coming to us right now uh the audit does uh uh provide us information for budget development uh enrollment count uh and then those uh State uh Financial outlooks so as we move into the
September state revenue forecast uh which is the most current one that we have available although uh there's another one the December forecast they come out quarterly uh is coming at the end of next week so uh again note the color cording
uh up in the corner there uh the green is this year so this is the current year September uh state revenue forecast and uh it's only about 14% of the data that
comes in into the state so this is information uh you know the the revenue collections the proper uh not property taxes but uh income taxes and sales taxes that are coming into the state so it's a very uh small portion of what
they're projecting on but uh the indications are a slowing economy uh there's been some downward revisions uh in their projections so moving into next year while it's still the current year revenue forecast
um the governor's budget is built at this time of year right it comes out uh 1 of November and it's built on that projection that has uh pretty limited information uh when we get the December forecast there's almost three times as
much information and data uh for that forecast uh that is uh helps inform uh where the legislative session starts and then when you get to the March forecast which is what the state is setting the next year's Budget on uh it's much more
than we have right now but it's still only 62% uh or just above half uh of the annual data so again the Takeaway on this is that both the district and the state are building budgets with
projections so they're imperfect imperfect data uh incomplete data uh and uh the picture becomes more clear as we move along uh but we do have to make those uh uh educated guesses we'll
say uh to to project the budget project student count uh build the budget pass the budget implement the budget and then make those revisions as we get into the next fiscal year so for the revenue forecast in the current year uh the state general fund
uh has a downward revision uh for Revenue uh the investment income and insurance premium taxes came in lower than projected uh so that's why they're uh reducing their forecast uh inflation uh is projected in
that September forecast at 2.7% which was up from the June forecast of 2.5 uh but it's actually likely to decline as we get into the December forecast and what uh is the final number for the calendar year uh 2024 which is
the number that drives the fiscal year 2526 so it's in a rear uh is the funding increase for the following year so for the economy uh normalizing wages so not as uh much growth in wages uh in income
and Associated retail demand is why those lower income tax and sales tax revenues have been projected downward continuing in uh the current year so uh you can see the declining
general fund Revenue at the State uh both in last year uh so it was steady for 22 and 23 declined in 24 further decline in 25 which is the current fiscal year uh and then starting to
climb back so again this is uh constraining the state's budget uh when those revenues are declining so uh again the takeaway total general fund state general fund revenues declining uh while at the same time
there are statutory increases uh for Budget areas including K12 uh that make it very difficult for the State uh to fund new programs uh or move towards fully funding uh K12 to meet educational expectations and
mandates so as we move into uh budget development uh this is just a reminder this is the new uh look and layout of the uh alog together for all students U strategic plan this is just a reminder for the public uh that we have a phenomenal
strategic plan uh that is producing great results and that the Strategic plan is the budget plan uh and will drive those conversations in the coming months uh as we begin to build the bu budget uh and bring It Forward for
adoption so as we move into the 2526 uh budget Outlook and challenges so again note to color coding up there uh for next year the governor's uh 2526 K12
budget request had uh 2.5 inflation uh or Consumer Price Index funding increase on base student funding uh Statewide enrollment decline so this is just uh the the raw number of
students uh in the State uh declining by about half a percent or uh about twice uh the percentage for the about half I would say the boulder is about twice what the state average is $115 million
increase in general fund support for K12 schools uh this increases the state average per pupil funding uh by about 200 $99 there's a $1 13.5 million increase for categorical programs so categorical programs are required to be increased by
inflation uh as part of uh Amendment 23 uh that was passed in 2000 uh by the voters uh so there's a a requirement again some of that uh required statutory increase uh these are things for uh
Transportation special education uh gifted and talented uh education and career in technical education so they uh reimbursements uh to the district for uh current spending and the governor's budget also maintains uh the budget
stabilization Factor uh at zero now uh for the what I would say are the stunning components of the proposal uh just seven months ago and after two years of processing with the legislature uh the rug was pulled out from under school districts by eliminating
averaging uh reducing and extending the roll out of the new school Finance act uh This was done with no public uh input and no public uh processing and so it was really disappointing to see this uh
come out from the governor uh and really it was done to avoid at all cost reimplement reimplementing the budget stabilization Factor this really makes for good talking points at presc conferences uh but is really bad for schools so the Takeaway on this by
adjusting for the inflation and eliminating averaging for declining enrollment school districts implementing the new school Finance act maintaining this budget stabilization Factor at zero the state is increasing per pupil funding by a
greater percentage than total funding so it's kind of basic math when you reduce the denominator total student count uh you drive up the average funding at a greater percentage uh than total funding is increasing hey Bill I going to need
you to back that thing up here uh and I'm going to have to talk about this slide here for a moment you know board members and just for the public that's watching I just want to be incredibly clear uh that uh averaging um a
longstanding practice in Colorado on how Stu how students are counted how we've projected and built our budgets for how long ever ever and then um in a in November right before a session to
change to change the way you count students so you don't have to reestablish a budget stabilization factor is is what this looks like uh it does it's not what it looks like it is what it is uh we know that there are are
um there going to be budget challenges and pressures we know that within the special session uh to avoid having 50 and 108 be on the ballot in November and as a reminder for the public those were two um ballot
initiatives uh that uh that would have significantly reduced the amount of tax dollars the state would be able to collect as opposed to letting those go to the voters there was a special session this is something that as as a board we supported um but those dollars
came out of um they're contributing to this uh but you know as another reminder as we were pushing back against 1448 last year what is it we told
everybody you're not going to have the money and uh they don't have the money but if you change the way that you count kids and say well this is a better way to count kids it's actually a way as Bill described to try to to get to the
money so you don't have to reintroduce the budget stabilization factor and I would say that this is the governor's initial budget and I'm Bill I'm sure you're going to talk about the joint budget may maybe you are going to talk about the JBC um they've been talking um in regards to this I think that there's
a lot of folks in our corner to not allow averaging to be eliminated but I will tell you up and down the Front Range and as we were at casby and speaking with superintendant uh there are um
a lot of concern around the chaos that this will bring to school districts across the Front Range so so Bill you were cooking I know I don't I hate to stop when you're on such a role uh with the budget presentation but I think it's just really important to stop and allow
let folks know that a we saw some of this coming we were worried about some of this when we were fighting against 1448 board members as you can remember that was a long drawn out fight we were unsuccessful in stopping that from from passing um and and some of the things we
were worried about are now coming true and uh and so in any event uh this will be a busy legislative session as we engage our delegation um and share with them the realities of what will happen if this Governor's budget pushes forward and I
believe Bill you're going to get into that a little bit so uh some more foreshadowing for you um as you move on with the budget presentation and just a quick reminder is it hundred students is roughly a million dollars is that the or
how many for looking at a drop in 574 F or it's 574 FTE FTE or student count uh that's 574 FTE of students uh so full-time equivalents um of students
and what does that translate to typically in an average on a dollar basis uh $6.5 million dish thanks that is the entire five-year
averaging just to note that the new school Finance act part of that negotiation that went on last spring uh dropped it from five years to four years uh so this is the cumulative effect of going from five years averaging which
we're in right now uh to zero years averaging which is the proposal uh by the governor um just to note a couple other things uh uh extending the implementation of it so
it was originally rolled out to be implemented over six years uh with about 18% uh per year um of the uh new money uh $550 is million doll uh of addition
new money to in order to fund uh that new school Finance act so it extended it but uh to seven years but then also significantly re in reduced the first year implementation from 18% of the new
funding down to 10% with a promise of it'll be somewhere between 10 and 20% uh per year for the additional years of rollout which really is just an indication that there probably won't be the money to roll
out it in the future as well um so again just some significant changes that were made uh as uh all of the negotiations that were happening uh during the legislative process last year um to
knowe I don't have a particular slide on the JBC uh presentation that was done for school Finance act or for school Finance last week uh but members of the JBC um made some comments uh around the
disappointing nature of making such significant changes uh to the finance Act without um that public process that occurred uh during the legislative session uh there were requests for
numerous uh different scenarios uh what would it be to or what would it cost what would it take in funding to just continue the current School Finance act uh so which was the uh language that was put into the the
legislation last year of um if the money doesn't exist if the revenues aren't coming in high enough uh the trigger language it's called Uh to to make it not be implemented so instead of not
implementing it uh they just ch they made the changes to it uh so that it both could be implemented uh and also um have that claim that uh per pupil funding is going up um funding
students where they are uh eliminating Phantom students um comments uh of districts just need to close schools faster um I would hope that Governor would show up to any community meeting
and tell the community that they should just close their school faster uh because that's the message that's coming along uh when it takes as we have experienced um a lot of processing with
the community to uh understand what's happening uh and make different choices or uh try things uh differently to um either slow down or reverse the effects uh of some of that declining enrollment so uh these aren't schools aren't
storefronts they're not a Dollar General you don't open them in six months and close them six months later um they're the heart of a community and so uh to be as callous to suggest that schools should just be closed faster uh is um um
pretty disingenuous in my opinion moving right along um so as we move forward uh looking at the budget pressures uh for next year uh right sizing
Staffing uh we have staff currently on one-time resources uh so these are staff that uh we maintain as we do our staffing process uh we make the projections we staff schools and if uh
students don't come in quite as projected and we're talking you know 2 three5 uh students in a class uh that could mean that the class is smaller than would be otherwise staffed but we don't uh go in and move students around
and move teachers around at the beginning of the school year we have historically not done that uh it can be disruptive to the learning environment so uh we maintain those staff uh on onetime dollars and make the adjustment in the following year when we have new
enrollment projections and new uh visibility into where students are so uh making those adjustments for the current year uh staff that we have that need to be uh moved around uh and then um you know our
staffing anomalies with the small schools uh those are other challenges that exist uh when you have um we don't have any five six seven round elementary schools uh it's much easier to uh sort
of smooth the Staffing uh within a school uh so when you have really small schools with uh one two and three rounds uh gets a little harder to do that so also resetting uh Staffing for declining enrollment um just as we're projecting
the student decline for next year um uh it's just a resetting of all those Staffing formulas and then uh funding and resources focused on uh continuation of current strategic plan initiatives uh so
maintaining as much as we have uh so this slide uh essentially sort of repeat some of that information but Staffing enrollment and inflation are uh the the sort of Trifecta of uh what we're facing
uh uh going into next year's budget so the school Finance act changes I think I elaborated on that uh plenty uh but the projected net increase in school Finance act funding for uh the district is
8% yet the projected per pupil funding increase is 3% right so that's where you change the denominator and all of a sudden the per pupil increase uh gets much larger and is a great talking point uh but we need to face the reality that
the total school funding uh School Finance act funding for the district is not going up up uh by uh as much of a percent then um the tax implications the local
property tax implications foreshadowing on the uh uh State share piece so as local property tax increases the state support declines uh it's not a windfall of funding so uh we created this uh
graphic a couple years ago to help illustrate that as the total program funding for the school Finance Act is developed it's made up of local share uh which is the light blue and the state share which is the
orange and so uh we have the BS Factor the budget stabilization Factor funding void down there in the corner because that's uh we'll say a balloon that is right now at zero but can grow uh if the state is facing a short fall uh and
needs to balance its Budget on the backs of schools uh it's an easy mechanism to be able to do that I think there as I said um will be uh other choices made perhaps to still reduce funding to K12
uh but not make it as visible uh as the budget stabilization Factor was uh because it's a reminder to the state of them uh not funding uh K12 education in an appropriate manner so as those State sources flow back to the state budget uh
they get to be repurposed uh to other uh needs within the state so the budget stabilization factor is currently proposed to be zero um and if it comes back uh it's an option uh and um some of my colleagues
and I uh would suggest that uh it's a a an appropriate way to um transparently uh reduce funding to K12 in the need that the state we have the constraint of the Taber that really
doesn't allow the state to do some things there are some things that they could and should be doing uh in some cases but um uh it's a it's a real transparent way to show that debt that is owed uh to school districts um the governor was
pretty quick to uh comment um I think one of the priorities listed in his budget letter uh included within his presentation to the to the uh legislature uh was that a priority was fully funding K12 education and so we'll
see when the adequacy study comes out here fairly soon uh just how close we are uh to fully funding uh K12 education so this graph clearly illustrates uh what happens when local property tax
increases uh and the state share declines so even though we had uh total funding increases uh those funding increases were largely uh or entirely supported by the local property tax increases so this
is not necessarily unique to Boulder um but with declining enrollment and very strong uh property values uh it's the phenomenon that we're in uh where we're getting fairly close uh to being fully
funded um locally there are some other constraints in here so to be fully funded um there's maybe an oil and gas District uh typically they're very small districts um Aspen I believe is fully funded locally um you have to fund all
the categorical um reimburse ments and uh the entire School Finance act so we're a little ways away but um a couple of reassessment cycles and a strong economy uh we could see ourselves being fully funded
locally uh the whole point of this is that there are not windfalls of dollars to the district uh when those local property taxes uh uh go up because of reassessment Cycles uh and allows the
state to repurpose those $ uh to other purposes so uh this is really uh the Crux of where we are where we have a um expectation imbalance uh just to provide um what
would be our historic uh compensation expectations of a cost of living increase at that rate of inflation uh movement on salary schedules uh a health and D Dental uh
benefit increase of 5% which is very low uh anybody who's in tune to health and dental benefits uh they're usually as we experienced last year double- digit increases uh we had to really uh
increase the deductibles uh and change some of the benefit structure in order to maintain uh the funding for it uh but on the flip side the revenue expectations uh is under $2 million in
the governor's proposal uh in in the school Finance act including our 25% override so uh it's you know a 12ish million dollar Gap uh at this point um this is again based on the governor's
proposal uh it is not very popular in a lot of uh arenas uh so we'll see if the legislature is willing to push back um against the governor uh that hasn't
materialized in some of the past sessions uh when there have been some other uh not so great ideas come forward um but uh you know we're just at the start of this um this is projecting
additional Revenue next year so it's not a uh uh decrease in Revenue uh overall for the district uh it's just a very very very very small increase so uh next steps in our budget
development uh so we'll have the second quarter state revenue forecast uh coming out next week that'll help inform uh where we are if they've UPG uh dated their uh inflation estimates uh as well as some of their projections for
revenues uh with that softening economy we have the state supplemental budget uh coming in January and February they'll be updating it for uh the student count from October uh we have our revised budget
study uh and action in January uh we have our draft strategic financial plan uh in mid January so that's a another um bite at some of the economic uh
projections uh yesterday the Cu uh leads School of Business puts out their economic forecast for the next uh calendar year so 2025 the 60th annual uh economic forecast I will add um and uh
so we'll include some of that updates uh in the draft strategic financial plan as long as along with some of the uh assumptions uh that will be generated um uh and then we have our mid-year analysis in early February so
that's uh expenses compared to budget so that's our own sort of Revenue and expense projection uh for the district how are we doing through the first two quarters of the year uh and then the in April early April the preliminary budget
uh for next year so with that the end back back to slide back to slide 26 bill um you know board members as we were
discussing 1448 last year I made a comment that you know if this thing passes we need to be ready for a new reality um this is this reality is is even a worse
projection than that comment would have intended it's important uh as Bill and I worked on this budget presentation it's important for us to be very honest with people honest with our community honest with our employees honest with um
everyone that you this is a12 million gap between and this would include no new programming no new expenditures no I mean we're going to have potentially additional needs um everything is we're
going to have to take away to do new um it is just a very different reality than I think our district has become accustomed to not insurmountable we will we will we will deliver a balanced
budget but they're uh I just I just think there's there going to be things that people um feel like they can't live without and they're going to have to live without them that's that's the nature of balancing budgets so um you know I think
that we've done as much as we can to try to prevent this from happening whether it's the focus on on enrollment whether it's the focus on advocacy board members you know how much time and effort and energy we poured into to trying to to to hold off 1448 we'll do the same thing
with this budget uh just know and understand that um but it's just really important that we're incredibly clear that if things don't significantly change uh that uh we're going to have to look at doing business differently in a
lot of different ways uh in our district to be able to build and deliver a balanced budget which we have an obligation to our taxpayers I have an obligation to this board to this District that this community to make sure that we live within our means so um I know Bill the 27 slides is is is a lot
of slides and I know bill went through some pretty painstaking detail on some of these issues and as we went through this I just think it's really really important uh if if folks should be paying attention to what's going on and uh and I want to
thank bill for his leadership and and for this presentation but I just needed to come back to this slide to just stop to make the point that we are we are moving forward in a new reality um that is going to significantly change the ways that we've done business in the
past with the understanding that our needs for our kids are continuing to grow thank you for sharing that Dr Anderson and it speaks a bit to what I shared with the district accountability committee when they convened earlier this month to discuss their draft recommendations for a budget that um
adding things is not a reality at this point and to think about the tradeoff very clearly so thank you for articulating that as well board members we will be spending a lot of time thinking and discussing thinking about
discussing this budget as Bill showed and we will undoubtedly be hearing questions and concerns from our community about the contents of all of these budget discussions and so I really want to make sure all of us have a pretty clear understanding can speak to
how our budget process works and next steps and so I would welcome any questions that you have for Bill or for Dr Anderson on this presentation and to make sure that we get questions answered on how to
speak to our budget in the months ahead Kitty thank you for that lovely news um do we have and by we I mean you have any idea what this
especially on slide I just accidentally made my screen smaller 26 um what that would be like if the averaging were not taken away uh
so so um there were three changes done to the new school Finance act in the in the governor's proposal extending the implementation uh cutting the first year
implementation uh and eliminating four things eliminating the um uh hold harmless there's a half a percent uh increase that was eliminated uh as well as eliminating the
averaging so all four of those things together uh is at least $5 million so it would not have closed the Gap entirely uh but it would have uh significantly reduced
it uh for sure um so yeah and the other thing I just wanted to say is I used to talk about the state balancing the budget on the backs of schools now I talk about the state balancing the budget on the backs of children because that's what we're
really doing and in my opinion it's important when we talk about it that we talk about it that way so the community understands that this is something that will directly harm children sure it
will be a problem for employees especially if we have to reduce our our Force but the biggest impact will be on [Music] children
Alex um sort of a policy question is the change in the averaging still require a statutory change by the legislature and a governor is proposing that they make that change or is that something they have the authority to make without voting in the legislature to make it happen uh no it's it's currently in the
school Finance act just as the all of the calculation that go into it so it would have to be a statutory change there would have to be or wouldn't have to be sorry would have to be okay so that's the sort of thing we can work with our delegation on to
try to make not happen right um another question uh 5% Health dental increase how realistic is that in the last three or four years Trend data on health and data increases um so that is the um
current language uh that's in the contracts around uh two times inflation um up to a maximum of 5% so that's kind of The Benchmark uh that's in there um you know we have the the
benefits committee went through a long process this fall uh to come together and we're really digging in and moving forward on uh what are our options um from um the the uh benefit mix the plan designs uh all
of that and this is perhaps a question for Dr Anderson but um I was strucked inside Bas ball uh coming out of the casby delegate assembly like failing to be able to take a position on the accountability issues before the state was indicative of you know whether
groups like casby are up to the task of like advocating these complicated things um I'm curious what you think uh the status is of our our fellow districts of similar size along the Front Range other ones affected by this and um who we have to work with to sort of build the
Coalition uh of people that want to do the things we want to do because I'm I'm not sure I expect casby or case to come through and I think that's a fair assessment um you know we're we're GNA we're going to definitely have to to I think um work
through our lobbyist to uh to to look at those districts that are that are in similar situations around around uh around averaging um you know the Front Range is where we
serve 70% of the you know the of the students in the state and that's where most of the decline is so will be impacting uh the majority of districts across across the front L places like uh 27j and St Frain who may be um would
actually be benefactors of something like this because they if you're increasing uh you don't if you if you're averaging and you lose a kid and it's spread over five years you feel 0 two of the impact if you're gaining you feel 02 of the impact right and so uh there's a lot more
school districts that will be that that this would hit and and some things that we spoke at at Casp had an opportunity as part of our Front Range superintendent group to talk with state board members the commissioner uh around a couple of Big Ideas around um just the
volatility um without averaging that you have to prepare for as a district like say for example um you know because of new federal immigration policy a district loses 500 600 kids which is a very it's a real that's that is a reality that I think districts are
thinking about you just heard Glenn present around you know the influx of Migrant students and how that help boost our numbers right it can go the the same way and so you know this idea of how we when I say that we have to change the way we do business it fundamentally changes the way we do business right you
know schools are used to getting C you know their their allocations at a certain timeline parents are used to knowing who their teacher is going to be at a certain time or how many teachers there's going to be you know to the extent that you create this volatility we'll have to reflect on lots of our
practices to make to make sure uh that that we are living within our means and uh what does that mean getting you know people are already pushing us to hire earlier tell us you know give us give us that ft earlier so we can get in you
know get ahead of the hiring processes or you know but but without averaging and without knowing in an environment where people can pick up and go to any school that has room in the state like there's this other set of conditions in Colorado that make this
completely um different than other places I've worked where um the ability for folks to pick up and go to another school um beyond their neighborhood School uh is is vastly different it creates a it's a comp complicated set of
of problems that we'll be looking to solve so you can trust me that our community can trust me to fight for our school district to fight for every kid to fight for our employees as we think about pushing back against this proposal this proposed budget I will I promise
you I will do that and um it will take more than just bbsd to make this happen Alex to your point and so um we've already started some of those conversations and uh and knowing and understanding this is a tough this is a
tough year for budget and uh um if this goes forward as past uh there's going to be a lot of things changing in bbsc that that people probably will not like I want to piggy back on thanks for bringing those points up out there were
things for in the front of my mind on slide six I wonder I've been wondering your timeline that's been in place for 20 years I feel I struggle a little bit with having
that window for Staffing allocations feel as permanent as it always has been giving the changes that average the elimination of averaging might present and I wonder if there's a way to make that box look different and maybe shaded or dotted lines to indicate that that
that isn't necessarily going to be the reality for the rest of this year I just don't want to set like oh well this slide says and your timeline says we will know by April we may not depending on how this all shakes out
there are implications that need to be considered so that that timeline and being committed to that there's probably other things that that timeline impacts negotiations and other things but I I just that is something that I'm really looking at in our timeline and how
averaging will definitely impact abilities to Think Through Staffing just think about it like this we'll have to be ultra conservative right you're going to have more people on limited term contracts you'll have less people that that you can offer regular contracts too right um you know you're going to have
to do some type of allocating right but to the extent that you can give somebody all their positions and they can do all their interviews and be hired before uh before May ends that may not a reality anymore now um I don't want to um I just
I'm trying to you know um strike a balance between without sounding tons and tons of alarms for folks but also being realistic about the situation I think that uh to the extent that that we have contractual obligations that we're obligated to meet I think that that you
know we we um need to look at that and I also think that there are some things that will that we may have to negotiate and and open up the contract and think about um as we think about ways in which we can navigate this new environment uh and so to the extent that
you know we will'll lean on our our strong long-going partnership with our associations and uh and just you know put the facts in front of of everyone and start to figure those things out so I would say this is if there are massive changes that that that happen with this
budget development uh process then um then we'll just have to bring that forward to the public and let them know what's changed like I'm saying right now things are going to change to the extent we don't know again this is we're very early in the budget process but if it stays on this path uh we won't be able
to do things the way we've done them bill um my understanding is that upk and the school lunch program costs are also exceeding anticipated revenues and so
so working through the JBC is you know with upk has got a first look and they have some recommendations but as as that situation continues to unfold and we potentially have shortfalls there how do you expect that to impact our budget and the
need for our general fund to potentially help continue to support those programs in particular uh so the we're in our second year of upk um
so uh and it continues to change so um we'll see if there are further developments in how they decide to use the um online application process um uh
any changes to that uh any decisions that they make midye uh to to be within their fiscal constraints at the state level um because that tax
revenue isn't coming in as um hoped um the so that's upk for the um free meals for all um the conversations the CDE that was a whole task force that got together uh to
explore we'll say explore different options of how to make that uh program sustainable and uh it covered the full gamut from we need to go ask for more
Revenue uh to um well just make some school districts pay for it um make all the high school kids I mean like there's all kinds of different options uh it was funded out of the state Ed fund uh this year um just because they're not
generating the right amount of Revenue um I think it's a something that the legislature needs to wrestle with is the idea that they have the power to put uh tax increases
in front of the uh electorate and uh they should get accustomed to that um the voters have the option to say no uh but the the legislature is um sort of
um I don't know afraid maybe uh to put tax increases in front of people uh where I think that they should get more accustomed to doing that uh to help get the word out it's inexpensive right if any Grassroots effort is going to put
something in front of the voters uh it's you know a quar million dollars to go get signatures to get that to Happ happen uh whereas the legislature can uh just have a vote and and put it in front of the voters um so I think that's one
thing that uh hopefully they'll um it's actually their obligation within Taber uh Taber does not say there will never be a tax increase ever it's just that you need to go ask the voters and so okay do that process uh and ask the
voters and they get the option to say no uh but when you ask the question the voters say no and then you have to make reductions at the State Legislative level um that's a little bit more visible
consequences of not providing adequate funding for public services uh in the state um when you know the cash funds that come in from uh uh hunting licenses
drive up the amount of dollars into the state that creates a Taber refund that has to come out of the general fund I mean that cycle of of more people enjoying the state's activities drives
up the refunds uh is just sort of a perverse way of this um uh Taber ramification so the legislature should get used to asking to um have those appropriate uh funding for uh
public services in my opinion Alex if I could bring us back to sort of stuff within our control I appreciate that Colorado has really screwed up state finance and that Taber sucks and that we should change that as a state
and a people um I believe that's not something bbsd is going to decide and I think the fact that we had a special session that um did such detriment to our finances indicative that the politics don't look like they're about to switch to where we're going to go uh fix Taber and get more revenue and have people put a bunch of new taxes in front
of the electorate in the next few years so I I think we could have more constructive uh conversations that are focused on the stuff within our control um can you fill me in on some of the other budget pressures uh
um that and also put in perspective what a $12 million whole is in terms of other things I mean I I put that 12 million in a roughly $480 million um General operating budget as a percentage of like a 2.5% whole is that
in in the big picture is that maybe uh a realistic or proportional way to think about what the 12 million hole looks like and what other things also cost $12 million where there is um any incremental flexibility on our part
well uh K12 education is a service industry and so the the costs that we have are in staff um the idea
that uh an elementary school costs four to5 million to run with all the staff for all the students um and all the projections are that you don't save anywhere near that amount of
money when you close a school so this is not a suggestion that closing schools saves enough money but that's like three elementary schools that go away and all the staff and all the everything and the kids get squeezed into the remaining schools uh driving up class sizes so
like that's the the size of the the issue I think it's tough that I mean at this point in the budget to to to know okay if we're short 12 million where where would the 12 million come from that's kind of what you're asking us uh
you know 90% of our budgets people uh and uh I think that you know we'd have to really look at at everything um both future and current uh that we're wanting to do to try to preserve you know the efforts that are
happening to support our students in our classrooms for sure and um look at the things that we have implemented that are helping us move the needle across the district uh with a with a focus on supporting those those critical pieces
and um I I think it I think that that's really going to be the job right that'll be my job that'll be Bill's job that'll be our team's job as we try to think about um making up that difference in a way that has the I mean we're going to feel it for sure but that preserves
those critical functions as best we can you know but there's things that we do here that we spend more money on than other folks would spend money on um uh that have become expectations right within our community and uh and and some
of those things might be things that uh we would just we would just have to look at doing differently and you know operationally Food Service Transportation I mean big big big divisions big chunks schools you know Services uh you know we're going to have
to look at all those things board members Jason any questions no but thanks uh bill for your expertise and sobering presentation appreciate it one thing I wanted to go back to in the presentation was that the Strategic plan does guide our fiscal budget
decision-making processes and I grateful that we just revised our strategic plan we have a clear clear path forward and that um while it sometimes regardless of how that shakes out it feels like we're going to have to be making some types of decisions with that really is going to guide us in that process and I think
relying on that um saves the board saves the public saves from like trying to think of those small little levers to push it's like well how does our plan guide us um and we have a great plan in place thank you Bill for that very thorough and as Jason said sobering
presentation board members we have one more uh information item this evening and that is the legislative update we've touched on a few items regarding that in our budget presentation but I will hand it over to Dr Anderson for a more detailed overview thank you board president Raj
Paul uh yeah legislative update we're gearing up for our legislative breakfast in January um making sure that we have all of our materials as as we've previously discussed board members um getting getting one pagers ready topical you know we'll have one pagers ready
around some of this budget stuff one pager is ready on the accountability update um and then as we prepare between now and January as as topics are emerging we'll be in touch with the board on on what some of those other one pagers may look like that we can present
again beginning to try to build Synergy around the common issues that that some of our Front Range super districts um will'll be facing and dealing with and trying to align support around the things that we know um will not only help our students but help students
across the Front Range and so uh it's uh kind of we're winding down here in December things will ramp up pretty quick when we come back in January board members one question I have uh for you all as we think about that packet and thanks Rob for mentioning that we're going to be making those updates casby has also developed a
one pager they have asked during the delegate assembly that boards consider including their one pager along with District's information to legislators and so I am highlighting that request and we can I think you've saw that
before when I before the delegate assembly when I went down to peblo we saw that but maybe we bring that back to the board and decide if that is something we indeed want to do as Alex said sometimes the casby positions are not entirely aligned with ours and so I think it's something for
us to to come to agreement on whether we want to include that with our documentation as well okay we will be moving now on to action items consent grouping 9.1 Personnel items 9.2 approval of minutes November 19th 2024 9.3 batement
at Boulder High School 9.4 acceptance of donation Eisenhower Elementary 9.5 acceptance of donation Netherland Elementary 9.6 amendment of funding agreement for construction at Summit Middle Charter School 9.7 Amendment for construction at Boulder Tech 9.8 Amendment for construction at Casey Middle
School 9.9 Amendment for construction at the education center 9.10 Amendment for construction at esqua esqua Bing way pioneer 9.11 Amendment for construction at Horizon's Kate School 9.12 Amendment for construction at Louisville Middle School 9.13 Amendment for construction at Ryan Elementary School 9.14 annual
comprehensive financial report otherwise known as the AER 9.15 cancellation of the December 24th 2024 board meeting 9.16 closer of the bond funded work for Monarch campus 9.17 contract with blueprint skilled Services LSC 9.18
contract with Ena Services LLC 9.19 contract with Triad Services Solutions 9.2 20 acceptance Don of bond funded work at Lafayette Elementary School 9.21 final acceptance of bond funded work at Cento middle school for tennis courts
9.22 HVAC filter purchase 9.23 renewal of the DHE Computer Systems LLC contract 9.24 resolution 24-37 appointment to chassa board of directors 9.25 vacation of easement
agreement 9.26 Grant AC academics instrument matching Grant Classics for Kids 9.27 Grant Food Services project skills USDA Boise State are there any items board members would like to pull from the consent grouping seeing as there are none we
need a motion to um approve before we discuss move by Alex second and by Beth for members any discussion on items within the consent grouping Bill thank you for your service to the chassa board of directors Laura can you please call a
rooll Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quin Lin AA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes hunger yes motion passes moving now to the action items on this evening's agenda board member
we have resolution 24-35 certification of Mill levies do we have a motion move by Alex seconded by Kitty is there any discussion on the certification of Mills board members seeing as there are none Laura
can you please call the rooll Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quin L NOA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes uner yes motion passes next board members we have
resolution 24-36 supporting students and families do we have a motion move by Kitty seconded by lenia board members is there any discussion on this item Kitty then lenia I was just golly every time I touch my computer this screen
changes I was going to suggest that we actually read this resolution even though it's long but um because of the impact that it's going to have that is a great idea Kitty would you like to do the honors sure if I can
get my screen back yes it'll come back hang on I'm almost there okay I'm ready you want me to do it now whereas is whereas the mission of
the Boulder Valley School District is is to create challenging meaningful and engaging learning opportunities so that all children Thrive and are prepared for successful civically engaged lives whereas in order to learn and Thrive
children must know that the school district will support their safety and emotional well-being regardless of disability race Creed color sex sexual orientation gender identity or
expression National origin immigration SL citizenship status religion ancestry family compositions or physical characteristics whereas students deserve to feel safe and honored for who they
are whereas the Boulder Valley School District board of education has become a national model for school districts seeking to create safe schools for all students by adopting Equitable policy and transparently reviewing data in
pursuit of the school district's strategic plan whereas Colorado also is a national leader including in passing hb1 19- 1192 to ensure the inclusion of the
history culture and social contributions of racial and ethnic groups and lgbtq individuals in school in public school curricula and academic standards whereas since the US Supreme
Court's 1982 decision pler V do federal law has recognized the right of all children regardless of immigration status to enroll in public schools whereas Federal guidance recognizes School quote schools are
protected spaces where Federal immigration authorities should not conduct immigration activities unquote further the guidance clearly states the federal agency's belief that we can accomplish our enforcement
Mission without denying or limiting individuals access to needed medical care children's access to their schools the displaced access to food and shelter people of Faith access to their places
of worship and more adherence to this principle is what one Bedrock of our stature as public servants whereas the school district values and prioritize family and Community Partnerships including in its
strategic plan knowing that our students need their parents Guardians and other adults in their lives for their well-being including their educational success and whereas statements being made regarding possible actions to be
taken at the federal level have caused some of the school district's families students and staff to feel un insecure and unsafe whereas the board is committed to policies and practices that support and
represent the diverse people and families in our communities and assures that students can access their education as guaranteed by the Colorado Constitution and both Colorado and Federal
law now therefore be it resolved that the school district shall do everything in its lawful power to protect our students and families regardless of immigration status including but not limited to the following
actions the school district will continue its practice to not collect or maintain any information about our students or their families or Guardians IM immigration sta status the school
district s shall assist families in keeping emergency contacts up to dat and otherwise support families in making emergency plans should families feel a need to do so and shall support students who may feel that they and their
families are at risk the school district's office of legal counsel shall respond to any request by federal immigration officials for entry into any school district school or other school district
property to communicate with any student while that student is under the supervision of the school district during any school activity or while using School District transportation for any information about our students and
families be it further resolved that the school district shall do everything in its lawful powers to protect our lgbtq students and community members including through implementation of Title 9 and other related federal and state laws and
board policies and an ongoing commitment to creating schools that are free of discrimination harassment and bullying be it further resolved that the school district shall not tolerate hate speech including anti-semitic speech and
other forms of religious harassment be it further resolved that the Board of Education restates its commitment to creating Equitable School conditions through its policies prohibiting bullying discrimination and
harassment principls teachers students and parents in all of our schools are encouraged to immediately report such behaviors through the school district's website and expect that all such reports
will be fairly And Timely investigated www um pointb do bvsd.org parents hyphen students SLB hyphen ready
slake hyphen ayen report be it further resolved that the superintendent and staff shall identify for the board any update dates to policies and procedures necessary to implement this
resolution be it further resolved that the school district shall post this resolution at every School site and distribute it to School District staff and parents in all the predominantly used languages of the school district
and shall broadly communicate the commitments of this resolution now therefore be it resolved that the bvsd Board of Education adopts this resolution on this 10th day of
December 2024 thank you kitty it is days like today in resolutions like these that make me really proud to be part of bbsd me too board members discussion further discussion on this
resolution helenia thank you to outstanding work via Kathleen and her team on this resolution Jason sorry I had trouble unmuting um yeah you kind of stole my words there
Nicole I just uh listen to kitty listening to you read that and I'm sorry I'm not there in the room but it just makes me proud to be part of this district and some of the gravity of the words um you know really reminds us of our responsibilities here so thanks for
all the work on that and thank you kitty for your suggestion to read that that was really powerful J thank you for the work on this I think um our discussion the last meeting just talked about this was really important that we were all in the same um Step moving forward on this and we've heard
from our community members who are also saying that we're aligned and we're standing together and I think it's important this reflects our our values but all and our sentiments about what we believe in but also speaks to the action that we want to take as a district to protect our students um who may be singled out um and so I really
appreciate this and that it creates um a real link that people can reach out to if they need help or support so uh thank you for the work on this Beth yeah I'll just join the chorus and wanting to thank Kathleen and her team for for creating this and something
that kind of stands out for me is this the last part um that this will be posted every School site and distributed to the School District staff and parents in all predominantly used languages of the school district that's really powerful and amazing and I think it it
is a testament to to this board's resolve in this District's um commitment to supporting all students so thank you for that Alex yeah I have two things one is to ditto what you what you've said and I
think it Bears repeating that I that um as Leaders on a school board in a district this is one of those cases where I think we're reflecting the value of our community and this is what our community values and we are there um as part of that making sure that our our schools and our institutions do what we
can reflect our values and I have um dare I say it a a line edit um uh well it's only only because of what you're saying about how visible this will be that one of the bullets strikes me is not quite
reflecting what it means and it takes sort of a careful reading of it to get it right so I don't know if it's in order or not but I would propose adding a couple words in the um where the part where it says the school district's office of legal council shall respond to any request by federal immigration
officials now what it's saying substantively is that when the legal council responds to that they shall keep in mind the things that are three paragraphs before but I'd like to reference that again so as it now it reads superficially if you just take it out of context as if our legal council will be
responsive to uh these requests when in fact what it's meaning is that the legal council shall follow through on our principles and the rest of this as they respond to Legal requests does that distinction make a difference Kathleen maybe you could speak to that yeah I do think that words matter
so I do think um I wonder if even since we're there already if more helpful language might be schools will forward all requests to the office of legal counsel who will respond because then
our schools would have that assurance that we're trying to offer them that they can educate our kids and we will work on these other issues that's okay so just for clarity
we have a motion on the floor do we need to amend that to include the changes presently discussed prior to passing I would yes um does anybody want Alex would you I would move
uh to make a conceptual amendment that Kathleen would work out the language to that reflects that direction that those people in the schools would direct those requests to our Council Laura do you want to call the role on that yes who actually made the second I
didn't Kitty than you okay this is the motion to approve making the [Music] amendment Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quin Lin NOA
yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion passes so then we unless there's further discussion board members we would go back to the motion to approve this resolution with the inclusion of the
language in the amendment we just also approved second was there motion okay so this is to approve the resolution as amended correct Chavez
yes medler yes nnick yes Quin L NOA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion passes thanks to all the committee members Who provided feedback and of this
resolution we will now move on to policy action items board members our first action item will be board policy ikf graduation requirements do we have a motion to approve this policy moved by
Kitty seconded by Jorge board members any discussion on this policy I'll start while everybody's pulling that policy up I wanted to thank legal council for making some changes grammatically to improve the clarity of
this policy and improve our community's ability to understand the inclusions of it Kitty okay hang on I'm I'm trying to find it it is it's in the section where we talk
about students being prepared for college and is it industry and I was my proposal would to make that and or but I I'm
let me see I tried to put it in my Google Drive let me see if I can find my suggestion on that here it is come on open right so it would be under College and Career Readiness
and the second paragraph under there students must complete at least one of the measures and meet or exceed the measures corresponding cut score or criteria to demonstrate college and or career Readiness in English and math
since not every single student is going to college does does that make sense does that make sense Kathleen yes okay and then there's another instance of it in the following paragraph and I have a few other grammatical
things that I'll just send off to you oh no I did have one more sorry under elective credits 70 credits and it says a maximum of five credits of community service may be earned as an elected elective and then recommended 15 or more hours of
volunteer work equals one credit so is that really just recommended and not required and if so how do you determine if if what's recommended isn't
followed my understanding is that that recommendation creates a standard that building principles can then apply based on the type of community service that the student might engage with and the intensity of that service as well as the overall our commitment okay so it
doesn't need to be more specific than just recommended um no my sources say no okay Alex on that front I guess I was reading the switch from 75 for five credits to
15 per one as producing more flexibility in case schools were giving credit for Less service not to change the status or the criteria that were used that's how I understood it right well I was just looking at the word recommended not the the
numbers if if um if if we figured out the what to do with the recommended part I have another edit to propose um I really appreciate again all the the work by Council and all by the people working that have that's gone
into this um we had a discussion at the last meeting where we talked about the cut where we're taking out the sophisticated and competitive skill levels and the physical um education waivers and I uh made a case for inserting really more attention to say
um a student's well-being and accessing um activities they can do for lifelong Wellness um and in that spirit I appreciate uh replacing the sophisticated competitive with adequate rigor but I might suggest making another amendment in the list where it says the
activities that are there and it has the IE of mountain biking and Ultimate Frisbee um to illustrate what I'm talking about I'd be interested in saying mountain biking comma yoga comma dancing and Ultimate Frisbee to illustrate what I mean about non-competitive sports that could very
well lead to student well-being and lifelong access to physical activity so one clarification there um is it says or compara non chassa school activities but we don't which we have mountain biking and Ultimate Frisbee as
a school activity that are non chassis Sports I hear you on the wellness part and I would also say that those components are not necessarily school activities but our PE classes we do offer walking and yoga and those types
of more Wellness Focus that are not necessarily competitive type P classes so I don't know if that would help some of your wondering on that position it's a good point that the above point is talking about the school activities and
I was still thinking about the the waiver process um thinking of my own SK kids who did stuff like yoga and climbing um that may be school or may not be school so maybe that we need another IE down there under uh the other
part where we list some of those other activities all defer I know the athletic Review Committee has weighed in on this multiple times but I was and we've heard reports but I I've never been nor am I currently on that committee so I would defer to Harry Waterman or legal councel
or others that have that expertise and then I saw two hands Kitty and elenia I thought that the waiver discussion was centered more around an equity issue um
where folks were getting waivers for doing club sports um and I don't have a a very strong opinion about whether that's right or wrong but if you're getting it for yoga or
mountain biking or Club sport maybe all of that's fine I just am not sure we've ever hash that out completely about what we're trying to do with waivers and also to one of Nicole's
previous points why are we requiring 15 credits of PE and 10 credits of foreign language isn't that right is that right 10 credits of foreign language I mean I
I just I don't feel that we've ever really dug into the waiver issue um to look at the equity or maybe even some of the common sense of it w with this topic board members I
as I said at the last board meeting passing this to ensure that our students are graduating with here the higher education uh admissions requirements and kind of getting towards back PR practice was a right first step and that we could
potentially take another pass on some of these Athletics waivers and PE as a next go round I only and I'm bringing this up just because timing does matter so people can start planning and we have our open enrollment window
ends and we have our transition nights beginning for this class of 2029 in Janu in January actually right after that window and so those kiddos need to be coming in with an understanding of their graduation expectations and if this discussion was going to take longer to
to give it the attention it deserves I would encourage I you know strongly recommend we take that as iteration number two on this policy but I hear you and that is what I
I I you know I did bring out that kitty okay so I have a question is purely grammatic it has nothing to do with whether we throw yoga in there or rock climbing or whatever so when we're saying mountain biking and Ultimate Frisbee we're being specific about those
two things is that correct okay because I had thought when I read it that was an example so I was going to change IE to EG but if it's really specifically that then it should stay IE Dr
Anderson so you know I know that at um that at our last meeting discussing this that this is something you all want to dig into and I do think that to do that the implications of adding specific
fundamental changes um and and from what I'm understanding it's things that are certified club sports but not chassis Sports and expanding that to individual activities that go beyond club which would be a change right which is something that we could consider but there's whole processes and things that
you would have to do to validate that to verify that um and and um I don't think that was the intention of of cleaning this up now and if if it was we would have to pull the policy and and and and wait another year to do do that I just don't know that we have the space and
time to be able to make those changes now for the next graduating class Alex in the short term I would support uh Kitty's proposal of turning IE into EG uh because I think that gets at what I'm talking about so that we're not
being exclusive now in our policy and I'll note this policy was last updated seven years ago and has gone through 10 year a decade long periods between updates so getting the political will to update this in the long term I know we might iterate it but I do think it could take another decade so I I would prefer
to at least insert the EG instead of the IE to Kitty's Point can I ask are there any actual other school sports not that are not chassa I mean there is I can't think of any other except for
those two that are not chass of sports that we provide not that I I mean the grammatical new these are the two primary activities that I'm aware of and um it's true that we did change this language since the
board last looked at it the intent was really to correct some of that language that I believe the board asked me during open meeting to interpret and I could wouldn't because the language was confusing Dr Anderson stepped in I think
and clarified that and then this language was really just intended to clean that up and to reflect what is my understanding of current practice but if it is too much of a shift then we can
revert to that same language we can postpone to the 17th which is also a voting meeting or we could okay stop talking so board members just to kind of
think through our Roberts Rules of Order there is a motion to approve this language if we wanted to and I'll add an insert that I actually think it is does make more sense when you read that um but if we
wanted to to not if we wanted to amend and revert this section on waivers back to the previous language that would require an amendment like we just in the process we just took undertook for the resolution on protecting
families so if somebody would like that option a motion would be required yes Jorge you can ask a question I I just want to be clear on what this current language is saying because I got a little confused on the chassa discussion because we have an or
there so right so non chassa school activities IE mountain bike and Ultimate Frisbee that means that those specific activities are non chassa or a comparable activity outside the school program supervisor or structural physical activity and that would be comparable to what Alex is saying that
we need some examples of keeping the current language is that am I reading that correctly yes you've you've stated correctly what I understand that paragraph means so it really is taking
language that was a little bit clunkier and just saying there are three ways we do it chassa approved non- chassa approved school activities or those comparable activities that are outside of school and as a clarifying those are H
have always been and will continue to be approved by the building principle by the building principal that's correct and I think in practice those have been club sports so I just want to
Alex's point I in practice those have always been club sports I've not seen now there could be an example out there someone else's aware of of someone saying I go to aerobics every week and they're
building principal letting them out of gym I have no idea but I just want to make sure that this is reflective of what we're currently doing yes that's my understanding that this is reflective of what we are
currently doing Alex I guess substantively what I was hoping to get to are the experiences of children like my own who are not interested in competitive team sport and who wouldn't play on a competitive Club
but would do a sport that they loved or an activity that they loved that gave them great physical activity um and lifelong access to well-being and I would hate for a system set up by coaches who are used to competitive Sports thinking oh well this kid's doing this thing that's not like the stuff
everybody does when in fact the whole idea of a waiver is to facilitate a kid with from a different circumstance following their joy and finding physical activity that makes them healthy so I'm I'm still in Fai of moving in this direction I'd much rather make these edits than not again I'd probably again
take out the IE so that I don't have a narrow-minded interpretation of this thinking this is all it could be when I'd like them to be open-minded and encouraging of Whatever Gets a kid active who might not who might probably hate PE class in the high school and find an activity out of high school that they really
enjoy Kitty so I have a question for Alex so in the second parenthetical oh I guess it would be the third parenthetical statement but the one that says I.E supervised Andor structured physical activities and so on would that cover
what you're talking about yes and and what I had prop sorry what I had proposed in our last meeting was to take out sophisticated and competitive so I appreciate that that struck and it's sort of replaced with adequate rigor um but I was still trying
to get to an open-minded and an um uh an a a broad interpretation of what that takes so that it wasn't um competitive team sports always but this isn't that yeah I'm just trying to understand
why how this does not address your concerns not arguing with your concerns I'm just trying to figure this out uh I think it does as long as people are thinking about adequate rigor this
same way I am instead of the way um a basketball coach might think about it well I would think that if it were say yoga adequate rigor in yoga would be totally different from rigger in something that was in involved a lot
more motion and moving through space that's why I would love an EG that includes yoga and dance as examples of things that we're talking about so that someone who's not familiar with how intense yoga can be thinks that it doesn't disolve deserve the kind of waiver that being on another club does
so so um board members since I think we heard that nobody wanted to make a motion on amending this language and we still have the motion on the floor to approve this policy and we have also previously prioritized bringing this back with some discussions particularly
around Sports and and that that part of this discussion I I would if there's any other discussion outside of that topic I think we can entertain it but maybe moving toward a a Vote Alex I I support moving towards
vote and I think um my intention here is probably better addressed uh through um implementation Dr Anderson so I I appreciate the discussion and I think
that you know you want to do something like this that isn't subjective to the extent that uh you know because there's words are are included or not includ I mean I do think that uh that a a a different look at how we require PE and
physical education would take a little bit of a longer conversation but also a regulation uh to the extent that says what are the processes in which you decide or not decide because you know to the extent that that right now which up to the
building principle right um to to approve any waivers or not is is that that's correct it's this is the principle is to get to a place if we want to have more inclusive opportunities for folks
to be able to earn waivers of credit for demonstrating phys physical activity through things that aren't already sanctioned by the school whether a club or hsaa I just want to be really clear that we're not with the changes in the language that have been made that that's
not the expectation that we've we're changing anything until we come back have that other conversation again it already has been prioritized um and so to the extent that we can bring that back for the next graduating class and come to some consensus on what that
looks like was my understanding that that's what we would be doing um and so uh whether that's in the fall uh which would give us plenty of time for um to to to continue to do that I just don't if you if you if you start changing or
shifting language I just don't want there to be um uh an interpretation that that means we're shifting what qualifies or doesn't qualify for for a waiver until we've had that dis that conversation um knowing and understanding that I think I think that
is the right conversation to have I just want to be I just want to be really clear on the specificity that I think we would need to get into to be able to to to navigate something like that Laura can you please call the rooll Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes
Quin L NOA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion passes at this point in the evening we have a comfort break request and so the board is going to take a very brief adjournment e
I'd like to call the meeting this this evening's meeting back to order board members we are now on the policy study item section of this evening's agenda we have two policies for study this evening the first of which is board policy jrl interrogations by law enforcement
officials at this point I will hand it over to Kathleen Sullivan thank you uh board members we did put together just a few slides that have the Constitutional Authority that underpins
both of the policies we're going to talk about tonight it seemed important in light of the public comment we've received as well as I think um the Dak committee's memo just to ground Us in what the legal requirements are so um
searches really rest on the fourth amendment that is our governing um and important law we need to pay attention to the fourth amendment of course that prevents unreasonable searches and seizures I wish our history teacher from
Broomfield High School were here to really put this all in context but I'll do my best so of course the fourth amendment applies right to government and when the Supreme Court really looked at the fourth amendment in the context
of schools we have two important cases the first one New Jersey versus T is a Supreme Court case that looked at whether that law enforcement standard that we understand applies to searches where law enforcement officials would
need probable cause in order to have a constitutional search in New Jersey versus tll the Supreme Court really looked at those requirements and tried to balance the extent of um requirements
that would be put in place against the public interest that we have to navigate in public schools how much process are we going to require when we're trying to balance a school's need to take action to protect the safety welfare of their
institutions and their students and what the Supreme Court said is in the center of this slide it's evidence the school setting requires some easing of these restrictions and that it wouldn't be reasonable to require a teacher to
obtain a warrant because it would unduly interfere with our ability to really do what we need to do to protect kids so it's from this case law that we have the Supreme Court standard that requires that school officials must have a
reasonable suspicion to justify a search of a student and when we really look at what it means there's a second case that the Supreme Court heard in 20 09 Safford United school district versus reading that had to do with the extent
of the search that the school could do so not a question about whether it was appropriate to search but in this case this involved a middle school student they were searching for high strength ibuprofen pills and this student had on
a T-shirt and leggings and was asked by staff to remove clothing turn out underwear and undergarments and that was the case where the Supreme Court said we're going to have two standards that apply to schools school districts first of all you have to be
justified at the Inception of a search meaning you have to have a reasonable suspicion that your search is going to turn up evidence that the student has violated board policy and the second requirement is that any search even if
it's reasonable in its Inception is aible reason able in scope meaning that the way that the search is carried out is respectful of the students's age gender and the nature of the infraction
that we're looking for so this is really the Constitutional standard established through those two primary cases when we look now at the issue of interrogation I want to point out for the board both of these
policies have been in place since the 80s and our current board policy is termed interrogations by law enforcement officials so it's really important that we understand what this term interrogation actually means it rests on
the Fifth Amendment I've highlighted because this is a really dense Amendment so in bold you'll see the language around interrogation this is really about not being able to compel a person's statements that could be used against some in a criminal case that's
the authority that we are attending to with this requirement when we look at the case law Miranda is the big case law it really interprets the Fifth Amendment to apply to custodial interrogations which means it's an
interrogation being done by law enforcement in a custodial situation where a person isn't free to leave that's what we're talking about when we talk about interrogations this really applies to law enforcement and I think our public commenter was
referencing that earlier tonight so when we turn to the revisions themselves starting with I think jrl is first so we can start with that one um I would say a few things so the original
policy that the board started with is really just a couple of paragraphs which is why this policy has so much redlined content cont I think one of the questions that comes up repeatedly with schools and with parents sometimes is
when a school official wants to talk to my student about misconduct or something that's happened during the school day what does that look like so the proposal on this policy is to expand the topic IT addresses to address interrogations by
law enforcement officials but also to provide our schools and our families with guidance around these other types of interactions they would have so interviews by school Personnel those really do have to be appropriate but we don't have those obligations related to
custodial interrogation like Miranda the other thing that we have an off a lot of in our schools that raise a lot of questions for school leaders is after we've made a mandatory report when a public agency either law enforcement
or Child Protective Services wants to come to a school to interview a child they have an absolute right under statute because they are vested with that obligation to investigate child abuse so the proposal is to add that
content to this policy so that it really can be um instructive and provide that more comprehensive guidance um so the Dak we we did ask Dak earlier this fall when they were looking for for
some policy work we provided Jrs and J rle to them I think it was September and so we did ask that Dak would provide us with their feedback so that I could try and incorporated into a red line for the
board because of when I received that feedback I had to go back and forth with our staff on this more than I might ordinarily like to do so originally the board was looking at a red line that really talked about if you have to do this interrogation at school law
enforcement official these are the conditions we're going to put in place and the DC had a lot of comments I think in their memo about making sure that those were sufficiently strong so we did make some additional additional revisions and I just want to point that
out to the board now so the definitions and everything on policy on the first page stay the same but that paragraph at the top of page P two was modified after hearing from Dak and after talking with our Safety and
Security leaders in the district so that we can be clear with law enforcement and our schools we know that a law enforcement interrogation raises significant issues of legal and individual rights and I do think that some of the DAC language that they were
asking was pushing this policy a little far I can't give legal advice to students about how they should engage with law enforcement so we really need to make sure that we're drawing a very careful line there so this top paragraph
says just first of all our fundamental belief that if law enforcement is seeking to do an interrogation of a student that they believe is engaged in criminal conduct they really need to try to organize that activity outside of
school while our students have access to their parents Guardians and other trusted adults that can actually give them advice as to how to proceed the rest of these numbered um steps that we're asking School Personnel
to take if there is a law enforcement official who is present in seeking to interrogate a student are really just more specific iterations of what the board had in policy previously and also incorporate some language from the casby
sample so obviously we need to confirm we're dealing with law enforcement we would make sure that we have a principal or a design who's familiar with this policy that accompanies the student until the parent or Guardian can be present that is current practice it's
reflected in our current language this is just more specific paragraph three also more specific we have always made an effort to talk with families but this language uh tells our school leaders we expect
them them to notify parents and then to talk to law enforcement and say by board policy I need to ask you to wait to do anything here until the student has access to their parent and guardian and that the school and this is
really where I'm trying to walk that line between legal advice and just information to support our students that the school would inform the student that they may have legal rights associated with that request interrogate them and
that they can elect to wait for their parent and guardian to be present so just providing again more specific language we did incorporate a new requirement in Colorado law to make sure we're making sure our students are questioned in a private
space and then also just a general assertion that we would make sure our school leaders are asking law enforcement to follow all applicable safeguards again our hope is that we will not need those more specific steps because we're
communicating clearly our belief that those should those interrogations should take place outside of school but it does give us some specific direction if our school officials find themselves with an officer with a badge and a gun standing
in front of them demanding access to a student which is the way they've relayed these um these scenarios to us when they're asking for guidance so we believe that this will equip them with the information that they would need to
navigate these really challenging situations thank you for that thorough overview of case law and incorporation of that into this policy I see Kitty has her hand up so we'll start with her one excuse me one thing that
confuses me a little bit about this is this policy includes interviews and interrogations with the with the idea that the student may have committed either a crime or an infraction but then
it also includes interviews by Child Protection where the concern is that the child didn't commit something they are the victim of it but what's not mentioned in here is if law enforcement is going to interview a child because of
concerns the child has been a victim but the suspected perpetrator is not a family member then Child Services doesn't get involved and it would just be law enforcement but that would not be an interrogation it would be an interview
and most likely they wouldn't even do it at the school anyway they would take them to Blue Sky Bridge um but there are times when they have to do it at the school if it's like the parents about to come pick them up and then the kids you know they they think the kid's going to
be a danger but or the perpetrator who's not a parent will pick them up um and I don't know what I'm asking I'm just it just sounds like we have two different things in here and perhaps there might be a different way to organize it as you
know interviews when the the student is a suspect and interviews when the student is is suspected to be a victim then it doesn't matter who's interviewing if they're the victim
whether it's law enforcement or um Child Protection Services can I ask a clarifying question on that and then we'll go to you lenia in our section of interviews by school personnel it does talk about
victims and Witnesses Kitty's talking about victims perpetrators does the process differ or is the process the
same and is that important to the question that and how we address the question that kitty proposed the process is definitely different if it is a school interview or if it is a law enforcement interrogation
absolutely so I I I hear that um question and I'm thinking about some additional changes we can make when this comes back to the board to clarify that around the interview section yeah noted on the interrogations versus interviews by thinking like in
that interview section that new want yeah Kitty then Len I just want to clarify because what I was talking about was just suspected child abuse okay not any other suspected you know policy violation or crime
okay lania I actually feel like I like the way it's organized um because we're talking about interviews by authorized public
officials regarding child abuse neglect I like that it parses it out three different ways and it makes good sense to me so I'm I guess maybe I just want to understand what I I understand
that of course it could be someone different doing an interview but we've said authorized public officials but the title only only says law enforcement no it says student interviews and interrogations by law
enforcement officials Child Protection workers are not on law enforcement officials I wonder board member sergeant if we should just I should just drop law enforcement officials from the title so it's just interviews and interrogations
that would make more sense to me Alex uh this is maybe a just a legal precedent question but how is the school interview not custodial if the kids have mandatory attendance like they're in our custody and that they can't leave so the
same question about the police officer who's doing the interrogation when you can't leave should come into play shouldn't it not according to the Supreme Court but what but I would say that that's an important piece of what we're trying to address with our students when
we talk about law enforcement officials accessing them at school is it possible for a child being interviewed by law enforcement if they're suspected of wrongdoing to think that they can leave if they're at school I just don't know which is why we went to the language
that said we really are going to ask that you do this anywhere but at school unless there's some sort of exigency and then I guess the intention for me would be not that the officer makes the kid step outside
but this is done and then their their parent are guardian and Council are involved but but it's not clear that the officer couldn't say just wait for them when they leave and catch them outside or say well let's step outside and continue this interview they wouldn't be able to say let's step outside and
continue the interview under this policy because the principal or design would be required to stay present until a parent guardian or adult was there in their stad so they can't just step outside the school building just the officer and the
student this policy would prevent that and if I may uh considering um the complexity of this little testimony tonight that's in sort of In conflict with what the daak said when would this come back to us for
action and if we said hey we need we want some more input on this how much are we slowing it down like where are we in the process with our stakeholders and what's the intention of how we would move forward um so I would say this unlike
your graduation policy these policies can be changed any time of year and then what we're doing is training staff which we're constantly doing anyway so um I had this scheduled to come back next week but there's no reason that it would
have to if the board would like some more time span or consideration of some other input posting it for a while longer seeing what other input we might get um then that's up to the will of the board and just to I'm happy to get
engagement on all of our policies to reiterate the DCH had a long time with this they were poked at multiple iterations to ensure that they were on timeline um and I do actually think it's important for us to understand the case law and for them to have
even if it's not like if they felt rushed have some early indications of where they were heading to help guide the conversation and they can always come back but I just want to make sure the board they they were prodded a few times to make sure that they were on track for this initial meeting knowing
that we always do study followed by action and sometimes there's more space in between so not a hard and fast on this one [Music] but other thoughts jge for all these interviews and interrogations it's clear guidance about
when to contact parents for child prod agencies and law enforcement but it doesn't speak to when school Personnel um so thinking about the issue of age and ability to consent and at what point we involve parents is there any way we can provide some guidance on that I know it's outside the external agencies but
how do we distinguish that or a guide that for our our school leaders yeah I think we do need to provide that guidance and there's one sentence at the end of that first paragraph that um reads such interviews do not require
prior consent of the parents Guardian but we could say consent or presence this is a pretty consistent request I I'm not going to lie there are an awful lot of parents who want to tell us that we cannot speak to their children if they're not present and
realistically in order to protect safety return k to instruction so that they are learning that's just not feasible so that's the gental language that we were using I was actually thinking more after
the fact notifying parents interview after they that their kid was interviewed and you know in terms of defining what interview is and all that I would second that it's similar to the language that was inserted under assertions around notification to parents so I think that
feels reasonable this is a big shift um this policy is really old we have moved all of our student policies related to code discipline in a lot of positive directions and I'm
excited to see more clarity I I'm excited to see this have context around interviews not just interrogations and to have some of these protections for our students and notifications to our parents I think those are really big
positive steps in in these red lines so thank you for all of the iterations on that and even though maybe the full body of the deck didn't feel like they engaged a lot I do still want to thank them the policy subcommittee for their work um both of these policies and for
the information that they were able to provide us ahead of this meeting to help kind of guide board member thought thinking and the the red lines of this document so that partnership is always welcome any other questions on this red
line this evening board members knowing it we'll come back with some changes Beth just to wrap up my understanding we are going to move forward with this because it can be iterative and we're not going to kick it back to stakeholders to get more input right like we're going to keep we're going to keep moving and when will we see it
again I guess I'm asking maybe a question I mean we heard from one DC member who's not speaking on the behalf of the DAC this evening is we could offer they did not look at the red line they did look at the original policies to help provide guidance they
were provided with state law they were provided with the casby example of a lot of which had been included and they provided their feedback based on that we could if the will of the board show give them an opportunity to provide additional feedback based on
this red line again no sense of urgency rather take the time rather than have approve and then come back and then reapo if that is what the board is considering Dr Anderson so I don't want to speak on
behalf of Dak I was at the Dak meeting meting there were mixed opinions in the meeting um in regards to uh in regards to these policies but to your point I'm not sure that everybody had the understanding of the difference between reasonal suspicion probable cause I
think that maybe there's some confusions around you know the role of a school search versus the role of a of uh or interrogation um so uh it would be interesting and and it did feel like they were pressed for time
in that meeting so to the extent that's helpful for the board on your conversation I'd be happy to check in with the doc policy subcommittee make sure that they've seen the red lines and maybe gather some feedback from them about how much time they want and report
to the board next week at our policy work that sounds great next policy that you overline o outlined a little bit is Right JS yes so Jrs is the search policy I've already provided the
Constitutional authority authority on which it is based so we did um incorporate more language from the casby sample to make sure that we addressed um multiple topics and a lot of this actually came
at the behest of Dak they specifically asked us to address things like cell phones that we had not previously addressed in policy but well before Dr Anderson or many of us were here um we did have litigation in our district in
2008 on this issue so I've Incorporated that language into um this policy it is our practice in bbsd not to search cell phones um unless there's an exence circumstance because of the additional
privacy protections that courts have applied around phones um another thing that I would point out is that this policy actually explicitly addresses the fact that um in
our school district we do not ask School Personnel to conduct searches that are looking for firearms this was a significant point of discussion um two years ago when there was ISS studing in our neighboring District
um as part of a search of a student where they knew that they were looking for weapons this is absolutely part of our practice It is Well discussed across our safety security teams and our um building leadership but that is on page
one of this policy I think that the other language you will see we included Dak had requested that we make sure that there's an administrative report written up if there's a search that done that is done we've added language around um privacy
and non-binary students having voice in how that search is carried out um we added the cell phone piece and then we also added language around searching of automobiles and finally new language
that came from both the casby sample and I believe dax's request that talks about what we would do with items that may be seized as part of a search and those are the updates we've
proposed for the board's discussion kitty yeah I have a question about non-binary students what if there is no one no adult on staff I don't even know how to phrase it
Ian there's probably not going to be a non-binary adult in the room in on step but what if there's no one whose gender identity makes this non-binary student feel
comfortable we would only search if we had reasonable grounds to believe that we had a serious violation of board policy which means we will make every effort to make that student um to afford them all the dignity and privacy that they
deserve fundamentally if we need to do a search to assure the protection of our school environment we will give that student voice and then the search will be carried out in the best professional judgment and discretion of our highly
trained and caring educators I have a question about when the personal searches are conducted the degree to which students are informed of the rationale for the search and making sure that the
students understand why they are being searched and um as long as that is in accordance with law I think that would be helpful for our students and our families to understand similarly with the searches I'm
wondering about situations in which a student may be searched the student felt the search was unreasonable and nothing was found what types of restorative practices might
be helpful in that situation because a search of a person which they might be asked you know and the pat down that particularly for our students that might have some trauma related to sexual assault or just power and balances and
feeling like now this person of authority has I've been in this situation what kind is are there restorative things to help mend that relationship and the person required of doing these searches is not I mean it's pretty clear um we want trusting relationships in our buildings is there
a way to weave any of that in a way that's meaningful and if the answer is no I just these are delicate situations particularly if a student feels targeted unjustly M keeping our school safe and
thinking about those situations is on the of my mind Dr Anderson I do think it can be tricky and and I appreciate the sentiment I think that um I think that that that maybe we consider those things I think my worry would be if you
create um too many conditions that would prevent people from searching kids that might be in the best interest at the safety of the school I think that would be you know what's the balance there um and I want
to be um but but I hear what you're saying I worked in schools a long time and and uh but it's been a while right and so things have certainly changed uh for the better um I'm just trying to think you know you know potentially maybe we could take
that back to some of our and and I'm guessing Kathleen you talked to school-based administrators and the security team around what are the what are the things that they need to be able to do and how do we do those in the right ways to make sure that we're ensuring safety in our schools and I would think that as long as we're thinking about that balance and that
that's what I would want to want to make sure we're doing yes 100% and that was really the reason that there were some uh later red lines made is because I had to confer with our Safety and Security team and couldn't do that until I had
all of dac's input or had a few things we needed to clarify we did add some language um it's in the middle of page two under in between those paragraphs that actually have some black language or black uh print that says whenever
possible we will inform the student of the reason that we're conducting the search we'll talk them through that we'll really try to do it in an informed way um and then we did include that notification piece also on that page to
make sure that parents are informed if there is a search that's done and I do think um you know we've almost tripled the length of this policy in terms of the guidance and I will I will talk with um our administrators
again and just make sure we've struck that balance correctly but see if there's um some language that we can look at and then one more just comment related to the first two paragraphs in the second page related searches um the SEC the final sentence of that first
paragraph searches of one person's are subject to XYZ it's similar to this whole the paragraph immediately following it searches of um Pockets objects in The Possession pat down next year the clothing and then it says it in the next paragraph kind of again oh I
see that it's just a little bit redundant and since we just said we expanded the language it' be an opportunity contract the language a little at your will Jorge this actually goes back to the earlier Point um there will be an administrative
report that's a part of this and I don't know to what degree May it's not in policy here but to agree to that we could be tracking this on a regular basis as part of our C Bo discussion around discipline and their use of interrogations and of searches to kind of understand the scope of how we're approaching students um I think maybe
address some of the stuff that you're raising in terms of our appropriateness and in targeting students and that sort of thing um and the other part was I I did notice that whenever possible because I was kind of curious that that kind of caught my eye to what degree would not be possible to disclose to a
student why they're being searched and and what kind of if if that's necessary language of the whenever possible um I think to Dr Anderson's point it's really hard sometimes to think about every circumstance that could possibly
transpire when I started as a school attorney 30 years ago we've we were looking in purses for cigarettes right and that's that's some of what we
do but I do think that there may be circumstances where we have a very high level threat concern and we're early in an investigation and we might not at that time be able to talk about why the search was done but we might be able to
Circle back to it later so that's when I the language I'm thinking about might be something like that if it's not possible up front to make sure there's a conversation with the student to try and address any concerns that might have Arisen something like that
so in that same paragraph it talks about asking um the students or requesting the students permission to perform the search but then the next sentence pretty much says not they're
not allowed to say no or they're going to get in trouble right which it does because I think right I don't hug people now without asking them I think there's a lot of things that we used to do a little differently that probably maybe aren't the best
trauma informed but hey I'm going to need to Pat on your ankles now you okay with that right a little bit like the TSA so it sounds like it's just trying to be more gentle about it but we're
going to do it anyway rather than saying get on the floor sucker yes for example sorry seen too much Law and Order and it's getting late Alex yeah I was thinking along similar lines Kitty not along Law and
Order but uh the second sentence where it talks about the students's failure to cooperate um will be grounds for disciplinary action I feel better if it said if we inserted something like a student's failure for to cooperate with school officials conducting a search in accordance with these policies will be
considered grounds for disciplinary action so that the students are in a situation to say what you're proposing violates your policy without fear of retaliation because I'm sure our students will memorize this but Jason any questions or comments on this
policy uh no no nothing for me thanks board members any other discussion thank you Kathleen this was a big lift and in a policy two policies that are really heavy in law it was helpful to have that legal lens uh
ground our conversation I think it does provide a great deal of understanding of how we can take steps to afford our families and our students with as many rights as practicable and still follow
law and uh we don't need another discussion of this but I am curious if there's any of the other legal developments that covered in our earlier resolution that are relevant to this or if um we feel comfortable that this puts us in a stronger position to implement
our previous policy um from the resolution tonight I do think this just really reflects the importance of updating board policy regularly making sure it continues to reflect the boards and Community Values
along with the law and then it provides the level of guidance that our staff and our students need in order to understand the way the district operates oh here we go I'm back on um well board members we have one final item this
evening a future agenda setting so if now is the time if there are items You' like add to our agenda uh prioritization now is the time to raise them Mia uh Rob if you would just confirm for me
at some point that waivers are already on there because I can't remember that yeah revisiting of the graduation requirements specifically just fiscal education waiver that waiver thing and then I would ask that we put vaping on
our list any other items for members seeing as there are none this meeting is adjourned