Good evening, everyone. Welcome to superintendent's honor roll. I'm Rob Anderson, proud superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District. Raise your hand if this is your first ever superintendent's honor roll. That makes me a round of applause for everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many folks that we're excited to celebrate this evening. Hopefully, you're gonna have a lot of fun and join us in celebrating all of the amazing award winners, for this evening. So before we get started, just a little bit about superintendent's honor roll.
We do this three times a year to recognize the outstanding achievements of our students, staff, and community members. Before we begin, I would love to recognize our BVSD board of education members. And so once I introduce you board members, if you could stand up and wave. If you're already standing, wave twice. Or just wave once, that's fine. In the back, our president, Nicole Rajpal. Vice president in the back on the other side, Alex Medler. Next to him is our treasurer, Jason Unger. Up front we have Dan Bucher. Jorge Chavez is somewhere in the building.
Lalena, Quinlan Ueda, and Anna Timu Ading, also in the back. Thank you all, school board members. Appreciate you all. Did everybody enjoy the food this evening? It's it's it's the highlight of the superintendent's honor roll is the food. And I'm really proud to announce that tonight's food was actually provided by our Apex culinary students. Isn't that amazing? So, they did the planning, the cooking, the delivery. Parents, if you need a little help in the kitchen around the house, it's a great program to send your kids to, Apex Culinary Program, which is right up here
on, right up on the hill and just a wonderful, wonderful program. So, thanks to Apex culinary students for providing our food, and thank you all for being here. Who's ready to get started? Little bit of noise. Right? This is, this is an exciting time to celebrate. So our first group is well, we have a a few groups to recognize for, some incredible performances in high school swimming. So everyone knows now now just for those of you who haven't been to one of these before, you'll see you'll hear some dad jokes. Just laugh along.
Those they're they're intended to be dad jokes. So everyone knows that eagles know how to soar, but you know that they also know how to swim too? Did you know that? There you go. That's right. Thanks for playing along. Our Broomfield High School certainly provided proved it during the recent four a swimming and diving championships. Will you help me welcome the four a State swimming and diving champs from Broomfield High School? Come on up. There we go. And if we have any of our coaches or any folks that came along, please join us up here in the front.
So last month's state championship meet at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton was electric. Eagles started the meet on the right foot by winning the very first event, the 200 medley relay. Congratulations to Carly Chandra, Cameron winner Wimmer, Avery Wheeling, Ridley Hagerman. Come on and step forward. Those of you that were on the 200 medley relay. So where's Riley? Ridley. Riley. Riley's not here. Ridley's here. Ridley, this is you.
So after that, Ridley then won the 500 freestyle. And then Ellie Folk. Ellie, where you at? Ellie won the 200 individual medley, and that's the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. That's all of them. Like, that's all you could swim. Congratulations, Ellie. And then with the event coming to a close, Chassa said Broomfield already had the championship in the bag, but perhaps the best performance of the night was yet to come. Ellie Ridley and sisters, Marbury and Mira Wherry, left their comp competitors in their wake
during the 400 yard freestyle with an outstanding time of three thirty three point nine two. One by five point two six seconds. At the end, it wasn't even close, beating the closest teams, Chania Mountain and Golden, not even close. And coach Emily Austin was named the four a swimming coach of the year. Where's Emily? Ellie and Ridley, come over here. I've got some questions. They're they're easy. They're easy. They're about swimming. Okay. So you should be alright. So I know you've been working for this for four you're both seniors? Mhmm. Four years to achieve. How do you all feel about finishing your senior year with this accomplishment?
And and because this is the first state championship for swimming in Broomfield High School history. Yeah. Yeah. Where's is Ginger here? No. Ginger, was this the last state championship that Broomfield High had ever like, you've won them all. Right? Is swimming the last one you were waiting on? On? No? Still some more? Talk to me about what this season has meant. It was really oh, okay. It was really nice to, like, win on a bang and finish all four years. So yeah. It was really awesome to have the four years kinda build up and finally able to win. So it just felt amazing, and we really deserved it.
Worked hard. That's right. You represented your school district really well. Coach, coach Austin, come on over. Congratulations. Thank you. What a big deal. So from what I hear from from people, what they've told me, that you had a feeling that even before the meet started, these ladies would win the championship. Talk to me about what gave you that feeling and what made you the most proud about this this championship season for your girls. I don't even know where to start. I knew before the season started that we were gonna win state, mainly because everyone came back pretty much.
We we lost some seniors who were crucial to our team integrity, but we also kept a ton of girls. And so I just knew based on that and who they are that we would do it. So there was never a doubt in my mind. Well, what a great accomplishment. Everybody, one more round of applause. Let's take a great picture. Do we have Jay or okay. Erin's gonna take the picture. Thank you. Before you all leave, coach has one more thing to say. Well, it's actually it's kind of about someone who's not here right now. Miata Santos is our diver, and she did something pretty extraordinary in that she was
on a state champion team for Broomfield High School in two different sports in the same school year. She was also part of the gymnastics team that won state, and she did amazing at diving. And we couldn't have done all the things we did all season without having swimming and diving. And so, I want to acknowledge her in the second place finishes that we had in our 200 free relay. Myra in the 100 freestyle. We did some great things. Thank you. Another round of applause. What a great way to start off.
Superintendents on a roll. You all can grab a seat. Thank you so much. So the Eagles weren't the only swimmers from BVSD to impress during this meet. If we could have Carly Pacio and parents, staff, anybody who's here with Carly come on up. We are so proud of you. Are you kidding me? Coach. No. No. I'll be videoing. You, Joe. You know I'm in charge. Right? Doesn't matter. I think I think I'm in charge. I'm not in charge, Amber. Amber is definitely in charge. Okay. So, Carly, I know that you're both a Special Olympics and now a state champion.
You won the 50 yard unified free. Mhmm. How do you feel? Tell us tell us what it was like. I so I am so good on my strokes, and I know it's like to win. But when I finish the race, I I was so good. And I was like, you got this, and you will you will hone this to,
to gather like missus Kathleen says. And by the time I touch touch me well so hard, it hadn't not stopped. I kept it I kept, I I kept going, and I did not get up at all. I am a rock star. I I am famous. Yeah. This is so great. So I also noticed that you were recently featured in a story in the daily
camera's BOCO prep section. That's a big deal. Another round of applause for Carly. And, apparently, you say something when you swim well. What is it that you say when you swim well? I did so good. You definitely did so good. So someone saw that clip in the paper. We've got pictures of you up there, Carly, which is awesome, and was inspired and wrote a song about you. Let's listen to a clip. How good is that, Carly? Again, congratulations. Let's take a picture.
So proud of you and all the Monarch Swimmers. So let's take a picture. That's not awkward at all. So before we leave this for Amy, we do have one to mention one more honor that was bestowed upon a BVSD student, and I think we could see that student up there. Brady Paddock from Centaurus, come on up. So Brady was named the four a swimmer of the year by the Colorado High School Coaches Association. Right? That's another round of applause. That's right. She's nominated by her coach and was chosen by a vote of all the four
a swimming coaches, which really speaks highly of the way she carries herself. Those of you those that know her say that she's one of the nicest, most humble people you'll ever meet, and that she's speedy in the pool, earning placement in Chass' four a girls swimming second team. But her real love isn't even swimming. It's water polo. Told she's an Olympic hopeful and has committed to Indiana University to play on their team. Amazing. So, Brady, you're a senior. Heard you thought about graduating early so you could join your college water polo team, but you decided to stay in part so you could swim this season and come
to the superintendent's honor roll. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. I don't know. I guess I wanted one more year of swimming, so that's what I wanted. And so I also hear that you are a big help in Centaurus' IL intensive learning center. Talk a little bit about what that means to you. It's fun. It's very fun. It's, like, the highlight of my day every day. So it's very fun to be part of that. Another round of applause. Congratulations, Brady. Let's is your coach here?
Or Carlin, you wanna come up? Or both? Or Carl? Or everybody? And our final swimming honorees are from Fairview High School. Knights, come on up. So the Knights team is admittedly, quote, small but mighty according to its coaches, but it certainly made an impression at the recent six a state swimming and diving five a. See, I'm already trying to to make it bigger and and better for y'all. Five a state swimming and diving championships also held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton last month. They came in second place against Cherry Creek, bolstered by the state championship winning team
swim by Lexi Byrne in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of fifty four point two six seconds. This is also an automatic all American time. Another round of applause. So, Lexi, this is your first individual state title. Last year, you came in third place, but this year, you were able to edge our reigning champ the reigning champ from Boulder High. Tell us a little bit about what that felt like. Yeah. It was really fun. It was great to see all of my hard work pay off, and I just had a lot of fun with my team, and it was a good experience. I love that.
So throughout the meet, Fairview kept Cherry Creek on its toes. And while the Knights couldn't pull out the team championship, their efforts were noticed. At the end of the meet, coaches, Stacy Toby, who's not here, and Francois Bentley were honored as the five a swimming coaches of the year by the Colorado High School Coaches Association. I'm for Amy. So I know that Stacy wasn't able to join us for Amy, but why don't you tell us about what this meant for you all as coaches? We do wish the award could go to our entire coaching staff. We have the most wonderful, coaching staff that contributes and supports all of our athletes.
In terms for Stacy and I, we've been co head coaches, now since right around COVID. And, it was more of an honor to the team than anything else, because we're, you know, we're here to just bolster up the kids' opportunities. But it was really meaningful because as all coaches know, the amount of time and heart that you put in to make this opportunity. So it's nice to be honored, for the work that we do to help the kids. Another big round of applause. Congratulations. Let's take a picture. So I asked Lexi where she was going to school, and she said USC University
of Southern California, which I was like, I know. That's a big deal. Congratulations. How's everybody feeling? Anybody need any food, some snacks? We got plenty of food by the Apex Culinary students. Everybody good? Okay. If you get hungry, feel free to sneak back out or grab some food on the way out. So let's turn our attention from the pool to the mats. Tonight, we're proud to welcome back, no stranger to the superintendent's honor roll and a back to back state champion who recently defended her title, Shayla Martinez. Come on up. So Shayla is a student at Monarch High, but she competes on the Broomfield High
School team. She won her second straight five a girls, 190 pound wrestling title. At the state tournament, she pinned everyone, including Thornton's Kayda Hullen in the finals, winning the match in under a minute and a half. So Shayla, I understand that you have a perfect record in your high school career, finishing your junior year forty and zero, registering 34 pins with 12 of those coming in the first thirty seconds of the match. Is that right? And you're not the only wrestler in your family. Your sister Bella is here. Where's Bella? Looking to fit to to possibly follow in your footsteps.
Talk to me a little bit about what you do to prepare, for the season and, you know, what goes through your head when you're in these matches because you're just being so dominant in your performance. I just think that, like, I wanna be the best in, like, the world one day. And if I wanna be the best in the world, I have to be the best in Colorado. So going into the season, I just it sounds I'm very humble, but I just walk around with some confidence and like, I know I'm the best. So You know who else knows you're the best is If you notice, like, the
small type, bad eyes. So, Kayda Hullen knows you're the best because that's who you've been in the finals. So another round of applause for Shayla. Let's take a picture. So Shayla's a junior, so I think it's safe to say I just gave her her invitation for next March as superintendent's honor roll. So we could see her as a back to back to back state champion. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. So, folks, it's not just student athletes that are are crowned state champions here in BVSD. Recently, HOSA, the organization for future health professionals, gathered for their state conference, and three
BVSD students won in their divisions. Let's have the following Apex students come up. Bella Barrett, who's a senior at Boulder High, Alexander Berryhill, a senior at Monarch High, not sure that Alexander's here, and Sebastian Ramirez Medina, a senior at Boulder High School. So Bella won in pathophysiology Yep. Which is a study of functional and structural changes in the body arising from disease or industry. Alexander won for clinical nursing, which aims to test knowledge and skills required in the nursing field. And Sebastian won in sports medicine, testing the knowledge and skills required for patient care
in the sports medicine setting. Let's give them one more round of applause. Either of you have anything to share about the experience. Why don't you tell them what it's like to win a state championship in in this, or or in this, experience that you had? I think that this came with a lot of preparation from our teachers at Apex. So shout out Apex. And I just think you work every day, and then, eventually, the moment comes and we work crown champions. Yeah. I think it was also the part was the craziest part was walking up on the stage and not knowing whether or not you're gonna win or not. And so when it was in front of, like, 5,000 people and just seeing everyone
just, like, your name on the little screen in front, it was wild. But I think the person that can best describe it is actually Rick. I think Rick needs to come up here and give a little speech. Come on, Rick. Come on, Rick. That is awesome. Hi. I'm the MT teacher at Apex. Yeah. Dan, I I would tell you the thing about HOSA. It is phenomenal watching the students prepare most of the year to test. You kinda have the kids that you think are gonna do well, and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
And then it's the same thing for us as teachers that all of a sudden you see gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, and you're like, holy smokes, we had a piece of that. So I'm really proud of Apex. I'm really proud of the students and what we do here. And Rick, we're proud of you. Why don't we take a picture, Rick? But you gotta stay. Ming, you're laughing too much. You need to come up and take get in the picture too. I've told you Apex is great. Right? As do we have some little more evidence of that? Again, the food, delicious, amazing. I'm glad Rick said he was the teacher because if he came up and he wasn't the teacher, just Rick.
I don't know. Thanks, Rick. Appreciate it. So as you all know, may know, behind all these amazing students, teams and coaches are hardworking athletic and activity directors that coordinate all the practices, help schedule all the activities, games, and meets, and supervises it all. It truly is a labor of love at each of our high schools and our middle schools. It is my honor to bring up Carl Buck, assistant principal and AD at Centaurus High School. Now Carl didn't know he's here on short notice. Friday, we were notified he was selected Colorado Athletic Directors Association as their five a
athletic director of the year. So proud of your dad. That is so good. Hey. We're so proud of your dad. The award recognized leadership commitment to student athletes and community impact, something that we know that Carl exemplifies. Carl, I know just about every night of the week, we can find you either at the game at Centaurus or with the Warrior team on the road, and I know it's a big commitment. Talk to us about what keeps you going and what it means to be able to serve in this role as athletic director. Yeah. What what keeps me going, and and I think Carlin and all of our ad team would would say the same thing, is our kids.
Every day on the drive in I live in kinda Northeast Denver, and every every drive in, every drive home, it's all about how did we make this experience good for kids because that's what we're here for. And we have just such a wonderful team from Harry's leadership here in the district to Carlin, Augusto, Jen, Andrea, and our ad team, and my team at home, you know, my wife and my little my little girl right here. It's just anyone in education would tell you, it's a team effort. You know, Randy in our athletic office who helps me with with everything, you know,
he's like a co athletic director. And I just I just feel so blessed to be part of this team. And and because we are such part of a great team, we're able to help provide for kids. And and and that's that's what we're here for, and that's what what keeps me going. Another round of applause for Carl, his administrative team. I love the team at home. Congratulations. What a great honor. Like to shift gears a little bit here and take some time to celebrate some of our amazing teacher librarians. Let's have Sarah Kirby of Coal Creek and Kelly Lickney of Lewisville Elementary come on
up. So Sarah Kelly and Carla Flandhofer of Peak two Peak, who couldn't be here tonight, recently earned the Highly Effective Schools through Libraries designation for the libraries at their schools. Program certifies outstanding library programs and professionals and is focused on celebrating excellence in five key areas: planning, instruction, leadership, management, and environment. Sarah and Kelly, tell us a little bit more about what drives you to do this important work, and what makes your position so important at our schools. Well, I feel super lucky to have the job that I have.
Oftentimes, we are the actual central hub of our schools, and it feels that way too. We are more than just books. We provide a safe space for our students to come. We provide space for our kids to be curious, to be free of judgment. And it's just it is the greatest job, and I know probably for Sarah too. This is something that some of our librarians have been working on with the fearless leadership of Ray, which she is here somewhere tonight. Thank you, Ray, for all you do. And many of us have been working towards this for several years. I know this is four years of hard work, of showing the hard work we're
doing in our schools. So I just feel really, really, really lucky to have this job and to have the colleagues that I do as well. Yes. I agree with many of the things Kelly said. When Ray came and brought this to our plates, it was kind of a no brainer for me. Being with the team that I have at Coal Creek and the staff and the community that we have, it's like I already collaborate with many of the teachers and lesson plan with them. And so with the all the things that the HESL brought, it's like I'm already doing these things. And so why not just earn this accreditation and bring it to Coal Creek?
It was kind of a no brainer. And, again, in the library, we're doing books. We're doing digital citizenship. The kids are learning so many things like research skills and collaborating with the teachers, and we're constantly changing the job with the new curriculum. And it's just it is. It's the hub of the school. And I love my job so much, and I love my position at Another big round of applause. Taryn and Jeff, do you wanna come on up, and we can all take a a a celebratory picture? Jeff and Taryn. So I hear that you all both won award as principals as well.
Is that right? Jeff, you're look like you're dying to talk about it. I don't know. What do you think? Here we go. Well, I'm gonna take credit for both of them because I was previously the AP at LES, so I'm the common denominator. And they earned this award in spite of me. So no. We I will give all the credit, you know, with to both Sarah and Kelly, because they are the ones that do all the work. I signed some paperwork. I collaborated with, Sarah often, but she did all the work, so all the credit goes to her. Same for Kelly. Yes. Another round of applause for Jeff Teran.
So as we we we wrap up this evening, I'm glad to have the opportunity to recognize one more teacher who's really made it part of his mission to create a safe space for all students in his class and the whole school. Ace Engleman from Boulder High, come on up. Ace is a third year English teacher at Boulder High, and last week, he was recognized by the University of Colorado's Boulder School of Education with their best should teach k 12 gold award. The award from the School of Education and Center for Teaching and Learning recognizes k twelve teachers from organizations that partner with CU, and whose teaching, mentorship, and impact on
their school communities has set a standard of excellence. Congratulations, Ace. So Ace, I understand that you serve as a sponsor of the Gay Straight Alliance at Boulder High, and through that club and your daily student center actions, all students, but especially our LGBTQ plus students, really have come to view you and your class as a safe space. That's such an important role. Talk to us a little bit about that. I cannot imagine a better place to be every day than with my GSA students. Once a week isn't enough, so now we have GSA every day. And these are the most amazing students you can ever imagine.
And the way that they show up in the world and in our classrooms, is everything that we need right now and in our future. And sometimes the world is a really scary place for a lot of our kids, and it's our obligation, to to show up right for them. And I'm I'm grateful that I get to do that in just a little bit, in a in a little way every day. Well, I think you do that in a real big way, And, and this recognition proves that. So I hear you're an expert at teaching freshmen. What's that like? Ninth graders are amazing.
If you don't spend time with 14 year olds every day, you're missing out. I don't mean that as a joke. They're just the best humans. There's nothing quite like the curiosity of a ninth grader. And I think we underestimate so many of our kids and especially our ninth graders. What they do in this in this world and in my classroom, it's it's really amazing every day, and so I just get to get out of their way. Big round of applause for Ace.
Thank you. I will say that superintendents on a roll, we do it three times a year. Three of my favorite evenings, in the entire school year. Getting to just recognize the amazing talent, and effort, and purpose of of our educators, our students, and our community. So thank you all so much for joining us this evening. That concludes What's that? Hey, look over there. Alright. Everybody, hold on one second. Close your eyes and count to 10.
Nothing like building suspense. Kelsey, come on up here. This is Kelsey, everyone. We're we're very excited to be celebrating her this evening. And to do the honors is our director of special education extraordinaire, Michelle Brenner. So, Michelle, why don't you tell us a little bit about what we're celebrating? Absolutely. This is the amazing Kelsey Wales, our intensive learning center teacher at Broomfield Heights Middle School. And Kelsey has been working for multiple years to earn the recognition of model program
for multi intensive program. I think they call it significant support needs at the state, for the state of Colorado. And she just received the program, just received that recognition. So congratulations. This is not only a huge honor because it says that they met all of the standards for the the state of Colorado sets forth for these programs, but as we understand it, they're only the second program in the entire state to have received this honor. So huge recognition. And Kelsey knows better than anyone, so I'm gonna let her talk maybe a little bit about the the process or the honor.
Would you like to share? Okay. Thank you. I wanna introduce you. This is, Mark. He's a paraprofessional in our program. Thanks. Working to become a model program as a school is really important to me because for any student to succeed, and especially students with multiple disabilities, it's a whole team thing. And our school has such a strong community, and everyone's really invested in our students. So I worked hard to to lead the charge, but really our whole school does an amazing job supporting students from the time they get off the bus to all
the clubs they do and all of their classes. And there's 10 quality indicators to meet at the state level to get this designation, and it's really intense, in terms of looking at lots and lots of things of how we're serving our students, which is so important for our students who have the most people on their team and the highest level of needs. So it was really an honor to be able to work towards that, and really cool to see multiple former students that I know were impacted by our program honored tonight.
So that's, like, really cool. Big round of applause for Casey Kelsey and Broomfield Heights Middle. Okay. Scan the room before I say anything else. Again, thanks so much everybody for being here tonight to be able to help celebrate with us. Thanks so much. We're gonna do this one more time this year. We'll do it in May. Maybe I'll see some of you all there. Congratulations. Thanks for being here. Everyone, have a great evening. I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District for Tuesday, 03/10/2026. Board members may attend and participate in our board meetings remotely and in person in accordance with board policy BMEA and state law.
Laura, can you please call the roll? Bucher? Here. Chavez? Here. Medler? Here. Gwendolyn Uweda? Here. Rajpal? Here. Temuwati? Here. Ungar? Here. Thank you. Now I encourage everyone to turn their attention to the screens for a lead acknowledgment this evening. The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute, Puebloan, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations historically tied to this land who have called this land home
since time immemorial. We acknowledge the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government. BVSD 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 rural traditions into the present.
It is BBC's responsibility to to educate ourselves, our community, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people, and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together. I'd like to remind everybody that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are
prepared for for successful civically engaged lives. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us here tonight in person. And for those of you who are observing our meetings online, we are glad to have you joining us. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Jason, seconded by Anna. Laura, can you please call the roll? Bucher? Yes. Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Quinlan Ueda? Yes. Raj Paul? Yes. Temuwadding? Yes. Ungar? Yes. Motion passes. The next item on tonight's agenda is a superintendent's report. Doctor. Anderson, good evening. Good evening, board president Rajapal, board members.
Good to see everybody. Thanks everybody who was able to join us, for our superintendent's honor roll this evening, which was always really fun. Great to celebrate our educators, our kids, our coaches, our administrators. Really, really a great event this evening. Have a few updates for the board and the public. First is the new Vista solar panels. Installation of those solar panels at Nuvista is underway. Target is for the system to go live this May. Once it's up and running, it's expected to offset 99% of the building's annual energy
use. This project aligns with BVSD's sustainability initiatives and supports long term cost savings by reducing reliance on non renewable energy, electricity. BVSD is working toward a goal of being net zero by 2050. And learn more and the public can learn more about BVSD's energy efficiency efforts at our website, www.bvsd.org/greenbvsd. A couple weeks ago, Fairview High School's auditorium served as an actual courtroom in what was a really, really cool experience.
School's freshman class heard oral arguments to three judges from the Colorado Court of Appeals and two criminal cases as part of the Colorado Judicial Branch Courts in the Community outreach program. Courts in the Community is an educational program that gives high school students a firsthand look at how the Colorado judicial disputes are resolved in a democratic society. Students were able to ask questions of the lawyers and the judges and got to have lunch with the judges after the event. Additionally, we had a number of representatives from the city of Boulder, including mayor Aaron Brockett, council members Nicole Spear and Matt Benjamin, Boulder Police Chief Steven Redfern, alongside members
of our board and leadership team. And at the same time that was going on, the rest of the Board of Education was out in schools getting to see some great learning in action. We had great visits at Superior Elementary, Nevin Platt Middle School, and Whittier Elementary. As I've shared before, moments like these highlight the incredible work happening in classrooms across our district every day and help inform the work of the board. Finally tonight, quick update regarding our engagement efforts around declining enrollment. Board members, as you know, as a team, we've been very busy. Our team has had the opportunity to speak at a couple of city council meetings.
I believe Superior and Lewisville, and we're on the docket for, City of Boulder here within the next month. We've met with all of our elementary school principals and are more than halfway done with our roundtables with elementary teachers. And we've been meeting with all of our key advisory groups, superintendent advisory, board advisory groups. Here's some of the feedback we've received from our teacher roundtables, which does reflect what we're hearing from our parents as well. So as the more we listen, the more we're starting to really hone in on on where folks are in terms of declining enrollment.
We're hearing the folks love their schools as they should. BVSD schools are amazing. And as board members, as you well know, we've never performed better as a system. Schools are feeling the impact of declining enrollment. They want us to prioritize ensuring that supports are available for our students and staff, including full time administrators, math and literacy specialists, and counselors. Our staff has emphasized that stable teams and manageable conditions are essential to student success. And they're asking that we ensure that we are clear about the process, transparent in equitable in our decisions and implementation.
So as we look forward, we're announcing a series of live streams where we'll walk through the challenge caused by declining enrollment, the impact it's having on our schools, and the actions that we're considering. We're also hosting six engagement sessions over a two week period. Monday, April 13, all of these are from 06:30 to 08:30PM at New Vista High School. Wednesday, April 15 here at the Ed Center from 10:30AM to 12:30PM. Thursday, April 16 at Boulder High School from 06:30 to 08:30PM. Saturday, April 18 here at the Ed Center, 09:30 to 11:30AM.
Monday, April 20 at Broomfield High from 06:30 to 08:30PM, and Wednesday, April 22 at Monarch High from 06:30 to 08:30PM. We're gonna be sharing those dates, and more information with our families this week in the latest edition of our declining impacts newsletter. I want to take this opportunity to thank our board members who have been joining us on this engagement. I want to thank our community, for continuing to stay involved. And most importantly, thank our teachers who have been giving us lots of time in schools over lunch to share with us the things that they're worried about, the things
that that we need to really consider as we're as we're trying to make sure that the teaching experience in Boulder Valley, school district continues to to stay, as something that really is is excellent for them to be able to do their job. And then, just really super grateful, for everybody for their engagement and continued participation. And that's all that I have for superintendent remarks. Thank you, doctor Anderson. Board members, do you have any questions? Look forward to those community engagement sessions to begin. The next item on this evening's agenda is public participation.
The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board does not endorse any of the comments from individual participants and remind all those who speak that you're responsible for ensuring your remarks are suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through twelfth graders. Furthermore, it's this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents. It's not enough time for the board to engage with or react to speaker remarks. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have thirty seconds remaining and a red card, orange card, when you have ten seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional information, the board
always welcomes your emails. With that, our first speaker this evening is Josie Doyle. Is Josie here? And then, Josie, if you just push the button on the microphone, a green light should turn on. Hi. My name is Josie. I'm of the Arapaho tribe, and I'm a junior at Boulder High. I'm 17. I'm here because of what's been happening for decades outside home of our schools and what this board has the power to do about it. Oil and gas bills were here before most of our schools were built. The mistake was allowing schools to be built anywhere near these industrial sites. That decision was made by adults long before any of us were students in Boulder
County, but we're the ones living with the consequences. The EPA recently repealed the endangerment finding, the scientific scientific and legal foundation that limited greenhouse gas emissions and protects the air we breathe. Boulder County communities already face the risk of wildfire wildfires, flooding, and ozone pollution. That's why I'm asking this board to act locally. I'm calling on the Boulder Valley School District to support Colorado Rising's marginal well campaign, which encourages oil gas oil and gas operators to plug and abandon low producing well
near wells near schools. These wells are prone to leaks and equipment failures. Methane, benzene, and other volatile organic compounds escape from aging wellheads and deteriorating gathering lines. The data shows there are over 100 lower producing wells in Boulder County operated by SM Energy, which now owns both Crestone Peak Resources and Extraction Oil and Gas. Two of these wells are within 2,000 feet of Peak to Peak Charter Academy in Lafayette and Red Hawk Elementary in Erie.
An additional 34 lower producing wells are within one mile of Boulder County Schools. A solution already exists. Through the e ECMC's enterprise marginal well plugging program, operators are reimbursed for the cost of plugging and abandoning these wells. There is no financial excuse for leaving them in place. My fellow students deserve to go to school without an aging oil well next door, and I'm asking this board to use this voice and call on those operators to act. Our future generations need leaders who are on the right side of history. Thank you. Thank you, Josie. Our next speaker this evening and I'm sorry, Alice Srinivasan.
Is this thing already on? Thanks. Good evening. I'm Alice Renivasan, parent of two BVSD students and president of Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented or BVGT, a local nonprofit working to educate our community, support families, and advocate for the needs of GT students. Nineteen percent of BVSD students are identified g BT, the largest subpopulation in our district. You've heard, as we have, that there are GT students in every school who are not getting their academic and social emotional needs met. We listened to your December work session and agree that the communication with GT families
could be improved, but this is not just a matter of clear communication. For years, the supports available to GST students have been inconsistent between schools and even between classrooms. As enrollment shrinks, the inconsistency is increasing, especially at the elementary level, as you've noted. This is without a doubt contributing to our declining enrollment and interest in charter and focus schools. Regardless of how BVSD decides to respond to declining enrollment, every BVSD teacher should be equipped to confidently meet the needs meet the needs of every student in their classroom,
including all the gifted and twice exceptional ones. We have met with district staff and we applaud their efforts to improve long range support for GT students. But students who were in kindergarten when those district efforts began are now middle schoolers and maybe well into high school by the time those, changes fully roll out. Our students really need more support now. To that end, we ask that you, the school board, require GT informed differentiation training for all B. V.
S. D. Elementary teachers starting in the twenty twenty six-twenty seven school year, perhaps as part of policy I. G. A. Or or IGA R. In the coming weeks, you'll be hearing from students, families and teachers about their experiences and the needs to establish these requirements now. BBGT welcomes the chance to participate with you, to partner with you in this process. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Crystal Chin. Can you turn the mic on? Sorry. Oh, okay.
Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin. I'm a BVSD parent. Over the past several weeks, families and educators from multiple BVSD schools have raised concerns about how student safety incidents and investigations are being handled. Across schools, we are seeing common themes. Delays in communication, inconsistencies between verbal explanation and written reports, prolonged instability affecting classrooms, and students, including students with disabilities, experiencing academic disruption and preventable harm when processes unfold.
This is not about any single case or individual. It is about whether our district has structural safeguards that ensure investigations related to student safety and harm are transparent, consistent, and insulated from conflicts of interest. When investigative systems lack independent review, trust erodes and harm can continue without meaningful accountability. We are asking the board to commit to establishing independent oversight of investigative and data practices relating related to student safety and harm with a clearly defined scope, public reporting
and corrective safeguards. We also believe families and educators should have structured input in defining the scope of any independent review so that community concerns are fully and accurately reflected. Families and educators from multiple schools are already engaging in this effort and con and the concern continues to grow. To allow broader community voices to be heard, a community town hall will be held on April 7. Tonight, we are simply asking for clarity. Will the board commit to structurally independent review or will families need to seek external
oversight to ensure these safeguards exist? Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Kirsty Maynard. Good evening. My name is Kirsty Maynard. I am a former BVSD parent and current Boulder County resident. I am reading this statement on behalf of a monarch k through eight family whose grandchild, a student with a disability and an active IEP, is no longer attending the school due to unresolved safety concerns. Over the course of this school year, the family reported multiple incidents involving physical injury,
unsafe peer interactions, and gaps in supervision related to IEP supports. After a January recess incident, an investigation concluded that bullying was unfounded while also acknowledging that an unsafe physical interaction had occurred. The family experienced inconsistencies between initial explanations and the final written report, which left them with ongoing concerns about transparency and accountability. As incidents accumulated, the student experienced anxiety, regression, and increasing school avoidance.
This statement is not about assigning blame. It is about structure. When investigative processes lack clarity, when supervision gaps intersect with disability protections, and when families experience inconsistencies in communication, trust erodes. Students with disabilities are entitled not only to services on paper but to consistent implementation in safe learning environments. Independent oversight would help ensure that investigations are transparent, IEP protections are consistently implemented, and
families can trust the process when harm is reported. No family should feel that withdrawal is their only option. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Tecla Ayers. Good evening. My name is Tecla Ayers. I'm a former BVSD parent. I'm reading a statement on behalf of a BVSD teacher who has asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation. Dear members of the Board of Education, I'm speaking anonymously because I fear retaliation. That fear is not abstract. It is grounded in experience. I'm both a teacher and a parent in this district.
I was accused of sexual harassment. The allegation was false. The investigation that allowed followed did not consistently adhere to established district procedures. Safeguards meant to ensure neutrality, fairness, and due process were not clearly applied. An accusation of that magnitude demands precision and strict procedural compliance. When safeguards appear inconsistent, the harm extends beyond one individual. It weakens trust in the entire system. What concerns me most is that my experience is not isolated.
Across the district, educators and families have raised concerns about investigative processes, inconsistent communication, and fear of speaking openly. Individually, situations may be explained. Collectively, they point to the need for structural review. This is not about attacking individuals. It is about governance. Accordingly, I am requesting an independent external audit of investigative procedures, a review of anti retaliation protections and how they are enforced, public reporting of aggregate investigation data, and clear
corrective mechanisms when procedural inconsistencies occur. Accountability strengthens institutions. Independent review protects both employees and families. If this system is working, an audit will confirm it. If it is not, our community deserves to know. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Juliana Arce. Sorry, Juliana. Juliana's not here? Okay. We'll move on to Mary Araki. Good evening. My name is Mary Araki.
I am both a paraprofessional and the community liaison at Emerald Elementary. My liaison job doesn't provide enough FTE for insurance, paraprofessional hours. I've had these positions for the last fifteen years. I've gotten to support families qualified as McKinney Vento or homeless. I've helped families get backpacks for school, find vision resources, set up and backpacks for school, find vision resources, set up interpreters for parent teacher conferences. During COVID, most of our liaisons were delivering food to student homes. I've assisted students outside the district this year to go through the choice enrollment process.
At most schools who host the families and educators together meetings or FET, the community liaisons are helping plan, schedule, and recruit families to attend. These FET meetings are where we strive to hear families with two cultures or two languages in the home, typically the unheard voices. Anytime a new teacher gets to attend, their eyes sparkle when they get to see parents in a neutral environment. We are representing the underrepresented, but we remain unrepresented ourselves. I also keep a list of students currently at 60 for Emerald who I send
home snacks with because I'm aware of family needs. The the time I most feel I feel the least valued is when I put in my for time off. It's labeled n r as non represented, but in my head, it sounds like not real or like I'm a pretend employee. As has as will be reiterated here sometimes, negotiations between both the community liaisons and the early childhood education community liaisons is at a standoff standstill. Sorry. I urge the board to find a way past whatever is in the way and
return to BVCEA negotiations. All our liaisons deserve the basic job rights offered all other employees. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Sandra Salazar. Good evening, member of the wards. My name is Sandra Salazar, and I have proudly served as a community liaison in this district for the past nine years. For nine years, I have worked as a bridge between a school or schools and our families, especially our most vulnerable families. We connect them to resources, guide them through complex systems, translate information, advocate for their
children, and empower them to engage in their education. We are often the first call when the families are in crisis. We support them through housing instability, food insecurity, mental health challenges, and academic barriers. We build trust, and that trust strengthens our schools. Tonight, we are not here asking for more money. We are asking for equity. We are asking for recognition. We are asking for the same union rights the other classified employees in this district
already have as our bus drivers, the paras, the custodians. We are employees of the district. We serve this district. We protect and uplift this district's families. Yet, our role has not been fully recognized in the same way as other who serve alongs us. Community liaison are essential to a student success. When family feel supported, a student succeed. When families are empowered, a school strive.
We are simply asking to be treated with the same dignity, protection, and rights as our colleagues. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to all employees and families of this district. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Antonio Molina. Hello, everyone. My name is Antonio Molina. I'm the community liaison at Manhattan Middle School. I've served, in BVST, in a number of different roles since 2007. The work that I'm really passionate about right now is creating a link between our
newcomer, migrant families, and the school. This is done in close work with our FET program, which is our family and educators together, meeting once a month, also being present at extracurricular activities and school events. This dream work has proven to be invaluable to our schools and our community. From a simple registration to booking some interpreters to the unforgettable Posada Navidena, this link is absolutely unbreakable.
Unfortunately, we're at an impasse with the community liaisons and our district. We are seeking the same link that we create with our families and schools to be the same link in our amazing district. And your support in doing this, in linking us to be part of the BVCEA agreements is needed. We wanna continue working and then we wanna appreciate all your efforts, And together, we're making this difference and this framework be possible. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Dilyce McCoy. Good evening. Oh, I had okay. Good evening. My name is Delice McCoy. After many years as an early childhood special education teacher, I found the perfect role that allows me to support support our youngest learners, their families, and the teachers who work with them. I now serve as an early childhood community liaison. I have had this position in BVSD for six years and it has been one of the most rewarding roles of my career. Sorry. I get nervous talking up here.
Okay. For those, who don't work directly with preschool programs, you may not, be clear on how important community liaisons are in preschool classrooms and throughout the program. I could read the job description from the BVSD website to explain our role, but instead, I asked my teachers that I work with every day to reflect on how community liaisons support them and the children they teach. RCLs use their this is what they said. RCLs use their expertise, patience, and care to help connect families with BVSD preschool programs.
They are often the very first point of contact for for families exploring preschool. Community liaisons give one to one tours. They provide information about schedules, curriculum, school environments, and share their genuine enthusiasm for the schools they represent. At a time when enrollment is declining, the CLs are actively reaching out to families and helping bring our youngest learners into the district, offering a warm and welcoming introduction to our schools. CLs serve in many roles. They help with registration, coordinate transportation, connect families with social services, manage scheduling, and guide
families through the UPK process. To meet families' needs, they often adjust their hours and schedules. They also keep a close eye on the well-being of children in the classrooms while supporting preschool and enrichment teachers and staff across multiple locations. It's, difficult to imagine how our program would function without our community liaisons. They are truly an essential part of our learning community. I hope the perspectives shared by my teachers that I work with, will help highlight the important role community liaisons play. Because our negotiations are currently at an impasse, I'm asking that CLs be allowed to
participate in the negotiations already in place. We participate in the negotiations already in place. We want the opportunity to be part of the conversation that affects our work and the families we serve. Thanks. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Beth Stevens. Good evening. My name is Beth Stevens, and I am the president of BVCEA. That is the Boulder Valley classified employees. We represent the essential classified staff who keep this district running every day. We are bus drivers, custodians, food service, bus assistance, maintenance staff, security, and now community
liaisons. Community liaisons recently voted to be represented by BBCEA and we are proud to stand with them. However, negotiations between the district and community liaisons have reached an impasse due to shifting requirements and conflicting interpretations of Board Policy HG. The most recent position shared with us would require BBCEA to abandon our negotiated agreement, a contract that has been in place for more than thirty years in order for community liaisons to join our union. We have also been told that the district believes community liaisons have not yet earned
their rights and protections that the other Unit C employees currently have under the agreement. This creates an unacceptable choice. Either every unit C employee must give up the rights they have held for decades or community liaisons are denied representation through BBC E. A. We do not believe that essential workers seeking union representation in B. V. S. D. Should be forced into that choice. Community liaisons are simply asking for the same opportunity that every other unit C. Employee has to bargain collectively under one negotiated agreement.
Tonight we are asking the board for leadership. Please instruct your negotiators to work in good faith and create a clear pathway for community liaisons to join BBC EA Under the existing unit C. Agreement. These employees serve the families of our community every day. They deserve the same rights, respect and protection as every other classified employee in this district. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Beth. Our next speaker this evening is Carrie Westgard. Hello. My name is Kari Westgard, and I've been with BVSD since 2018.
I've held several roles in the district, but have served as an early childhood community liaison since 2021. In my four years as a community liaison, I've seen our district navigate major challenges from the Marshall Fire to the implementation of universal preschool in Colorado to declining enrollment. Many of many may not know what an ECE community liaison does, but we play an essential role in BVSD. We are often the very first point of contact families have with the district, helping them guide helping guide them through the preschool enrollment process and welcoming children as young
as three into the public school system. For many families, this is the first time they've entrusted their child to someone outside their family. We support parents through that transition while also helping families who may have no or limited English, face housing or food insecurities, or have children with special needs that need special support. But our work goes far beyond enrollment. We personally meet every child before their first day of school through home visits, school visits, and welcome days, And we assess preschoolers to ensure they receive the support they need to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.
As of today, we have already enrolled 900 families 911 families for the twenty six-twenty seven school year, surpassing our total enrollment from May with months of enrollment still ahead. And many of these families come from outside of BVSD's district boundaries. We also connect families with scholarships, organize community events, support teachers, and help families during times of crisis. Our work is often behind the scenes, but it has a meaningful impact on BVSD students and families. Like all BVSD employees, community liaisons play a vital role in this district.
As of today, our union negotiations are currently at an impasse, and I'm here to ask you to allow community liaisons to be included in the negotiations already taking place. Because when you support community liaisons, you are supporting the very first step in a child's educational journey. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is Trent Kerr. Trent does not appear to be with us this evening. So with that, that concludes today's public participation. On the behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to show up, share your thoughts and experiences with us tonight. It does mean a lot to hear from our community members.
With that, we will move on to board communication. Board members. I know we've all been exceedingly busy in our roundtable discussions at our schools, so probably outside of that haven't had a lot of free time to engage in other board related activities, but if there's something anybody would like to share. Anna? Yes. I have a couple things. So next, in a couple weeks, we're gonna have a discussion on, AI and magic school and that all of that coming to our district.
I did have the opportunity to go to, the AI summit hosted by Saint Vrain Valley School District. And I had a a really great time and informative time. I use AI in my business day to day, so a lot of the the things that they were talking about were things that you learn as as you're using the technology. Some of the key takeaways that I did take, with me, the golden nuggets were, just the parameters of setting the guardrails on AI, different ways that admin can use
the tool, to really help them work through consistent patterns that they're seeing come up to them, potentially different actions that they can take. For me, I I know that when I'm in, like, in a in a trying to solve a problem, sometimes I have the answer, and it it's I just need, like, a sounding board or someone to to kind of bounce it off of. And that's, really one of the the key ways that they were able to to
utilize it, and they do use it, within their admin. And I am excited that, we are gonna get, Magic School and all of that integrated into our district. And even though I won't be here, for the twenty fourth, I am excited to really download and have a deeper conversation, with Lynn and and have make sure that all of the things that I was able to to, learn and gather, we will still be able to to incorporate here in BVSD. Next, I was able to attend the FET meeting at Columbine Elementary School, and we
really did talk about a lot of the the protocols and the supports that the district, currently has and is Developing for immigrant families. And it was very meaningful to me to, be able to speak to the parents and the community members, in their own language. It just brought a lot of language justice within that room of being able to to not just say we support you, but for them to really understand it and hear it from someone in their native language. So to me, that was really special. I did invite all of all of them and their whole school community, to come
and speak to us and share with us during public comments some of their their worries, their frustrations, or their excitements. And same for anybody that's listening, online, really just inviting you to to come come here. You belong here. This is your space, and so we really want you to be here and and share some of those, insights and and frustrations with us. And finally, I do wanna give just a big thank you to the teachers and the teacher roundtable. I've been able to go to Unihill. I went to Birch, and I went to, Alicia Sanchez.
And I still have, Cole and Emerald to go through this week. And I it's really truly been the highlight of my day when we have these teacher roundtables, because the teachers just come with such awareness and ideas, and they know that we have tough decisions in front of us, and they they see the opportunities, and they don't want us to miss the opportunities, and they don't want us to to miss the little the little pieces of feedback that might make a huge impact and a huge difference. So I am truly appreciative of your of your willingness to engage with us in
this process. That's all I had. Alex? Yeah. Thank you. I wanna thank all the speakers tonight for what they shared with us. It was great to hear from everybody, and there's lots to think about. I wanna share that I was at the DAC meeting last week, and, we all received a memo from the DAC, for our IGA policy discussion tonight. And I just want to give them kudos for a very thoughtful discussion. I think our DAC is functioning very highly. And I was impressed by their ability with a lot of people, not a lot of time to facilitate pretty, substantive input.
And from looking at the memorandum they shared with us, I think they captured it pretty well. So, I would encourage the Board members to take seriously the DAC's input on policy discussion tonight and look forward to them continuing to find new ways to really, up their game for how we can benefit from them. Also really enjoyed, the roundtable I've been able to go to, not enough because I've been a bit out of town. I did want to share something both with the Board and the community, about our declining enrollment. I think it's good to know that when we go from schools when we have
schools with only, you know, one and a half under two courses and we have schools with three, the impacts of a few kids on one school versus the other are different. And so I have heard from the sort of larger schools that they feel like the smaller schools are more likely to have their staffing change. And part of that is just a function of math. So when you have only one course with 28 kids in it and you add two kids to it, you'll go over the thresholds we have in our collective bargaining unit or agreement, and you'll have to change a class.
When you add two classes or two kids to a grade with two classes, you don't. You just increase the class size from 27 to 28. And so that on the optics of that are not great. So a school like Mesa will have not very many new kids added and have a new classroom because it only has one and a half courses in the first place in that grade. A larger school with close to three would add more kids and still not add a teacher. Now that's totally makes sense in terms of our staffing patterns, but it does lead to issues and when we're making hiring decisions, how we can make hiring decisions, the
stability of the staffing in a school, the long term ability for the people to plan around it and us to integrate them and onboard them. So it's the kind of thing which really for me highlighted the reason we're having some of this discussion about declining enrollment and the need to take action because our current imbalance of of the small schools makes it hard for the adults to figure out how to manage the staffing at the school. It makes it hard to do create the community of learners that we want, and that's not fair, to the kids and teachers in any of the settings. So I really appreciate the input we got on that, in the last roundtable I
was at. Also want to give my hats off to all the staff who really are reinforcing and Rob talked about it tonight, the issues of equity that come up with as we consider declining enrollment and how we think about the impact. On two things I'm not so excited about, received an email, from someone concerned about a school that had basically counseled the parent of a kid with disabilities not to enroll in their school. And, the fact that there's one of those is not like earth shattering. I know that that happens and people talk honestly about whether or not a school
is a good fit for a kid. But there's good ways to talk to parents about what their choices are and how well a school can serve them and there are bad ways to do it. It. I'm interested in the district adopting frankly a mystery shopper program. It's something that goes on in the charter school authorizing movement around the country and it's like mystery shoppers going to a store or anything else. People contact a school as if they were interested in enrolling their child in that school and explain that their child has a disability or some other protected aspect of their child. And, the expectation is not that you would bust schools for saying the wrong thing.
Actually, when charter school authorizers do this around the country, what they find is really quickly everybody changes their behavior. And so people stop counseling out parents of kids with disabilities or parents with special needs or other things that might not be appropriate. So I strongly encourage BVSD to consider, a mystery shopper campaign. We have so much public school choice going on, so many wonderful options, so many people trying to figure out how to take care of kids. And to be honest, parents of kids with disabilities or other challenges, twice exceptional, you name it, whatever's is going on, they're quite often the ones choosing the most.
I was just looking at data from Arizona and their voucher program. The parents of kids with autism participate in school choice three times as often as other parents of kids with disabilities. So the parents of kids with disabilities are exercising choice and they deserve to be respected and honored and treated. And if we have schools do the wrong thing, we need to stop that. So I think a mystery shopper is a really easy thing to do, and I honestly, I don't expect it to lead to a lot of gotchas. I expect it to lead, a bit of changed behavior that would be so welcomed by the parents of kids with disabilities in this community.
And then finally, I will say that I continue to hear from my community. I live in, Southwest Boulder. My kids are well, I went to Fairview. And I'm concerned about the degree of degree of implementation fidelity on our phone policy at a place like Fairview. And I don't know, what it is we do as a district to enhance the fidelity, but I'm committed as a Board member to pursuing that. And I Yeah.
Thanks to everyone for their comments. And, I wanted to comment. Doctor Anderson mentioned the the tours that we took to Platte and Whittier, and Superior, and we've done a few of these. This probably was my favorite one. I really appreciate Nativity and Emma from the staff, for really providing really great context connecting what we saw in these schools to the work in the district, and so that was great. For those that were there, we went to a seventh grade science class in at the Platte, and I wish we all could have our our kids do that or
every every seventh grade science class be like that. There was a CSI unit, and it was just fascinating to see, and I hope maybe they'll come back, when they have the results of their investigation. It was a crime scene with blood and fake blood, and the kids were doing all sorts of incredible things, just incredible engagement. That was the highlight. There were lots of other things we saw that were really fantastic. And so, it's great for me, you know, former teacher, but many years ago, just to be able to to connect the work that we do here, the work that's done in the the district to actually see that in practice.
So I just wanted to add those comments. I haven't been able to go to as many round tables recently. Lalainie and I were able to go to Douglas, and we talked about the challenges that they've faced, a number of things, going from a three round school to a two round school. But we're grateful for all the teachers as as my colleagues have said, that have taken time out of their lunch, not required, of course, but to share their thoughts, and even, you know, their hopes for how this process might end up, you know, as improving student experience and their own experience as teachers.
And then Anna, you didn't mention as a highlight, but we had the audit committee, which, I actually it really was a highlight in all seriousness. I, it was the first meeting. It was very long, but I really appreciated our, Bill Sutter's expertise, the folks who've been on that, served on that committee, the staff. You know, it's a really great behind the scenes look at all the things, all the financial, decisions or many of the financial decisions that are made to really put us put this district in a good place, for all sorts of reasons, including the
declining enrollment conversation. We're not having this conversation because we're in, bad financial shape. We're having it because we don't we have a lot of small schools, but it's because of the work of the people that do all the numbers and behind the scenes. And so I was really, it was the highlight of my day that day, but it was really fascinating to see that, to learn about the bond process and bond sales and all the things that go into, you know, when we have a bond from supported by the community, all the financial transactions and decisions that that go behind
the scenes, and also just the expertise there to really put us in a strong position, you know, whether it's a lower rate or a lower payment or just being strategic about those things. So, I'm looking forward to serving on that, and, and thanks again to the team behind that that does all that great work. Jorge and then Deon. Thank you. I would also like to start by kinda thanking all the community members who came and spoke today. I think it's always good to get a sense of, you know, what folks are seeing and and kinda how they're feeling and to get that sense of, you know, where people are at. I think it's really important.
Similarly, I'd really appreciate the chance to visit various schools and talk to teachers and get a sense of kind of, you know, how they view their experiences, the challenges of, of declining enrollment, how it limits their ability to support our students in the way best way as possible, and that this is a problem that's here today, not five years away because the effects are here now. So it's been really useful to you know, we saw the list of things that are popping up, and there's a lot of commonalities in terms of what our teachers are telling us. So I really appreciate that chance. So thank you for welcoming us into your schools and to sharing your experiences.
I also had a chance to attend my first long range advisory LRAC committee meeting. That was the first group we tasked with with looking at declining enrollment, you know, many years ago now. They've continued to do that work and they've seen the work evolve from the plan they proposed initially to where we're at now in terms of thinking this whole list about this holistically across our school district. They remain committed to, providing support, to being a part of the solution, and to making sure that we kind of do this right. I think this process has been really important, right, in terms of thinking about transparency
and thinking about engagement and making sure we're we're we're communicating with, our teachers, our staff, our students, our parents, our community members to make sure that we get all their input. So this community engagement part is really important. The dates were shared today, and it's, you know, we're doing the outreach to make sure we're talking to all the folks that could be affected by this. It's community wide whether you have kids or not. It's really important. So so thank you for those of you that are engaged with this, and thank you to LRAC for the work that you're doing. And and and I'm really happy with the way this process is working out. I appreciate the work, because I know it's been a lot.
So so thank you all. I've been to a lot of meetings in a couple of months, and I have some good meeting buddies, which is nice that we go everywhere together. But, I want to particularly call out what's been happening on the AI committee as they are getting ready for a board presentation in just a short time, and the work that they've been able to accomplish, in just over a month that they have grouped into different categories of interest groups and produce documents and done some really deep
thinking about what AI is going to mean to us now and perhaps in the future. So I've only been impressed with the community members who have given their time to, making, policy suggestions for us. So it's been impressive. I also got to go to I'm not gonna remember the name of the committee. The bond oversight committee. Is that it? Okay. Too many too many acronyms. And, that group really was talking about how the money from the bonds is gonna
be spent. And, once again, I came away completely impressed with the long range planning that had been done and the foresight that had been put into the fact that we have schools that are declining, and it could mean changes to how money is spent. And, those things were taken into consideration in a really strategic way. And, my work has been both gratifying and diverse in the last month.
I got to go to the city of Lewisville, city council and the city of Superior city council meetings, which, were sort of surprise meetings. But they, it was great to engage with the adults who mostly it was adults who have students in the schools and to hear their concerns about what might happen over the next year. And, the more they talked, the more we found out that we were really on
the same page, that we really want what's best for all students. And, that was really helpful. So I thank everybody I've gotten to work with and, see their work because it's really is extraordinary. Thank you. Melania. I also have attended quite a few roundtables, and I appreciate how vulnerable our teachers have been, sharing with us their fears and also sharing with us, their hopes for where this process takes us. And I'm really looking forward to our community engagements in April.
I've written all those dates down on my book. I will echo Alex on how much I hear about how our cell phone policy is not being implemented with Fidelity. And as I've said before, policy is not optional, and it has been the will of this board that we do the right thing on cell phones. And if we need to make technology investment or whatever it is, I I'm I'm
here to say that I support whatever we need to do because this is a commitment that we've made to our kids. And, you know, I I write things down as it little nuggets, like little north stars for me. And I wrote down what the gentleman from Boulder High said today, Ace Engleman. He said, it is our obligation to show up in the right way. And showing up in the right way is asking kids to not be doing Snapchat in class. And I know that is right. So, so I will echo Alex's thoughts.
It's pretty frustrating to hear it over and over and over from our students that the policies are not being implemented. I was also disturbed by the email from the parent of a child with a disability who is dissuaded from enrolling in a particular school. I haven't heard of this mystery shopper program. That sounds very interesting. And I am up for whatever it is we need to do so that all of our schools show up for our students the way that they need to show
up. Once again, the North Star. So I and I wish that Ace Engleman was still here because I really appreciated what he said tonight. Thanks, board members. I don't really have much to add, though I will to be fair, we do get emails about Boulder High struggles with the cell phone policy. I know Elaney and I have kids at Fairview, and Alex is it's in his community. So sometimes Fairview gets undue attention. But our our largest schools have a lot are challenging in a variety of ways.
They have different struggles than some of our smaller schools, but I just wanted to acknowledge it's not just Fairview. And, it has really, again, tackle the board members, going to these schools, hearing from our teachers, our teachers feeling really vulnerable. It's it really it it brings life to this work. It's not just happening in a vacuum. And I do think the efforts that we have put in, that staff have put in, going and listening first, is really gonna pay off dividends.
Eventually, we'll have to make a hard decision that some people are not gonna like. That's just, you know, the nature of of this type of work. But I think the efforts that we've put in on the front end really are they are we will reap the benefits of those. And and I I hear staff speak to how much they appreciate this process compared to the process that happened in the odds, where it was middle of the night decisions, no community engagement. So thanks to everybody for all the efforts in this, declining enrollment process.
With that board members, we will move on to information items. We have one information item this evening. It's a legislative update. Before I turn it over to doctor Anderson, I'll just say we met with our lobbyists last week. Maybe it was this week. No. It was last week. And I just I said shared with them. I said we met with our delegation before the session started. The very beginning of the session, we said, please do not run bills that have impacts on us at this point in time. The school finance act is is already taking its its toll. Please do not run unnecessary unnecessary bills.
They did not heed that warning. I expressed my frustration to pass along to our delegation. I mean, the number of bills that are being run-in the education sphere, some of which are from our own members of our own delegation, It's it's disheartening. I just think, like, there are so many things we're trying to do, and some of this stuff is, well, well intended, gonna create more work for us in a system that's already strained. So I was frustrated. I shared that with our lobbyists. And with that, I will turn it over to doctor Anderson if there's anything in particular you wanna touch base on.
Thank you, board president Rajpal. You know, I do I do agree with you that, there's a lot of bills that have been introduced that probably don't have a chance to pass, that we're watching, not really having to take much action on. Anything that has a fiscal note, we know is watching. I think that we're look what the next real big moment in time for us to pay attention to is the March revenue forecast. I'm not certain when that's coming I mean March, right, at some point, but I don't think it's out yet.
And just because from what we're hearing that it's going to be a lot worse than what was originally projected, which means a bigger hole for the legislature to fill as they balance the budget. So I think that that's a concern. We do feel like we've made some progress on the specific ownership tax that that in and of itself for now, right, looks as if that that will not those dollars won't be equalized. They'll continue to come to our district. That's what we're hearing.
So we have to keep an eye on that. But just for the general public, that's $6,500,000 If that goes away or if something similar in the form of some type of a negative factor goes away, then we'll have less money than we had to operate this year. So those are the things we're keeping an eye on and we're being diligent. And just like most sessions, it'll probably come down to the wire. Any questions on the bills making their way through, not dying fast enough? Okay. We'll move on then to action items consent grouping. 8.1 personnel items.
Eight Eight point two approval of minutes, 02/17/2026. 8.3 acceptance of donation, Broomfield High School. 8.4 acceptance of donation, operational services department. 8.5 board adopted fees amendment stamp fee. 8.6 Latin course approval. 8.7 grant federal programs title four, CDE, 8.8, Grant Health Services School Health Professionals, CDE. Are there any items board members like to pull? Seeing as there are none, is there a motion to approve items in the consent? Moved by Alex, seconded by Anna. Board members, is there any discussion on these items? Lalania. I just wanted to ask about our stamp assessment and it going up from our
fee on it going from 50 up to 175 is that is the price of the most expensive assessment. Do we make sure that if there is financial hardship here that we can make that happen? Yes. Yes, we do. Lynn Gershman is in the back nodding her head. Okay. Thank you. But I think this board's been very clear on fee waivers and the expectation that economic it not be a barrier to a test like this. Thank you for reassuring me. Alex?
Yes. On that front, I mean, I would continue to like to know, the details of our waivers, the programs that have them, the funds that get them, the schools that have them, the students that get them. It's good to know that we have the policies in place that this board acted on pretty intentionally to make sure that we everybody knew as many waivers as possible was the goal, not the problem. And so I continue to want to see how that's going. Any other discussion, board members? Laura, can you please call the vote on the motion? Bucher? Yes.
Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Quinlan Ueda? Yes. Rajpal? Yes. Temuading? Yes. Ungar? Yes. Motion passes. Next item on tonight's agenda are action items. We have one action item, which is participation in the social media lawsuit. Do I have a motion? Diane? I move that BVSD join the multi district litigation against META and the social media companies. Is there a second? Seconded by Lalania. Board members, any discussion on this topic? This board has long, had strong opinions on on social media.
I know we were doing being very careful and observing the progression of this lawsuit, and I think, yes, I would agree. This this is a great time to for us to join in. And with that, board member or Laura, can you call the vote on the motion? Bucher? Yes. Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Quinlan Uweda? Yes. Rajpal? Yes. Temuwading? Yes. Ungar? Yes. Motion passes. Board members, we will now move on to the bulk of tonight's agenda, which policy
we have 37 tonight in one portion over another, which might just be a record. First policy, action items consent grouping. 10.1 board policy BDFG district audit committee. 10.2 board policy DIE audits. Board policy 10.3 sorry. 10.3 board policy DLA payroll procedures and deductions. 10.4 board policy DLC employee expense reimbursements. 10.5 board policy EEA student transportation services. 10.6 board policy EEA dash R student transportation services regulation.
10.7, board policy EEA, walkers and riders. 10.8, board policy EEAE, student transportation in private vehicles. 10.9, retired board policy EEAE dash e, student transportation in private vehicles. 10.1, board policy EEAE dash e, private vehicles. 10.1, board policy EEAEBA school bus scheduling and routing. 10.11, board policy EEAC school bus safety program. 10.12, board policy EEAD special use of school buses. 10.13, board policy EEBA dash R, school owned vehicles regulation. 10.14, board policy EEACC.
School conduct on school buses. 10.15, board policy EEADA. Use of school buses by community groups 10.16 board policy EEADA R. Use of school buses by community groups regulation 10.17 board policy EEAAAEAA. Controlled substances and alcohol testing 10.18 board policy EBCB fire drills. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping? Seeing as there are none, we need a motion to approve. Moved by Lalena, seconded by Jason. Board members, any discussion on these policies? Alex. I just want to comment on the volume of them.
Looking forward to voting yes and and pass all these. But I want to people have mentioned AI a little bit, but I think if there's any topic in central administration where AI would be helpful, it would be in, staff, administrators, the public understanding our policy with the help of good AI. AI. Because this is just as board member, the flow of how much is there is incredible. Trying to find something is not easy. I know it's all on the web, but I'd really encourage us to think about is that the kind of thing that Magic School has an app for or somebody else does in terms of strategies to make sense of what is somewhere over still
over 400 policies? Are we under 400 yet? We are. We are under 400, and the board is very close to having reviewed everything in the current century. We're getting close. Okay. That's great. Anyway, I I do think this is a one of those things that would would the use of it would be a lot easier. This is the kind of thing AI helps with today. I just wanna thank their the audit committee was able to look at a couple of the policies we had redlined earlier. They provided some additional recommendations, so thanks to the audit committee for taking the time
to do that. I also just wanna acknowledge the number of people that are involved in in these policies when we through red lines, through approval, through getting them updated on the website. I mean, even the fact that all of our charter schools have to waive, not waive, what what have you, our policies. Like, there's implications that are deep for for us having a more manageable policy schedule, and I well, it's felt like a lot lately, with or without AI, having fewer
policies and having policies that are more clearly written will benefit everybody. So I just wanna thank everybody that's involved in getting all these policies teed up, and ready to go and out into the universe. So thanks for that. Seeing as there's no thanks for that. Seeing as there's no further discussion, Laura, can you please call the vote? Bucher? Yes. Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Gwendolyn Awaida? Yes. Rajpal? Yes. Temuwadding? Yes. Ungar? Yes. Motion passes. Board members will now move on to policy study items. There are several policies we are going to study this evening, and I will turn
it over. Kathleen and I didn't really talk about this. Maybe we'll take them in chunks, relevant chunks. So we will start with board item 12.1, board policy IGA, basic instructional program, and IGA R, the regulation. Thank you, board president Rajpal. And thank you, board. You just retired nine and updated nine policies, so congratulations. I think it does make it a lot easier to get through as we just narrow down the number. So board policy IGA was prioritized by this board for review this semester.
Our existing policy was last reviewed in 1993. I think it has some obvious concepts that are antiquated and also is not required by law. So the red line that's provided for the board's discussion tonight is a composite that has both some of the language from our existing policy, though not a lot. And then additional language drawn from three CASB samples. One on standards based education, the CASB sample on educational objectives, and the CASB sample
on academic achievement. So, as we are doing with a lot of the policies here, we're proposing to integrate the regulation into the policy itself just for purposes of ease and not having as many policies to reference to try and understand the concept. So that's what is shared tonight. I know board president Rajpal, you were very helpful in getting this red line provided. So there may be other areas you want to highlight.
We were able to run this through our director of academic services and make sure that it also reflects our current practices. And again, just try to make the language clearer, consistent with your policy style book, and able to withstand, I think, what good policies do, which is provide enough specificity to provide guidance to your staff and enough, thought in the language that it will stand the test of time as we continue to evolve.
And board members, just as a reminder, and this might be helpful as folks are contemplating the nine pages of feedback from the District Accountability Committee. Our first priority is to follow federal law, state law, then it's board policy, and then it's anything in negotiated agreements. And so there are several comments I would say in the DAC memo that talk about the Reid Act. We don't we don't write we don't write law into policy. We often reference it. But, just to make sure everybody's aware that some that we are mandated to follow
a law. Policy comes after that. And so some of those recommendations from the deck just know that we are we have we are following state law. So their their inclusion is something we don't typically do in board policy outside of references. With that, I guess I will open the floor to conversation, to questions, to comments on the red line that staff have put together, and we can just work through this as we work workshop our policies in general.
Board members, who would like to begin? Melania. Much improved. Much improved. I think I appreciated the calling out of it. Few specific things, health curriculum in middle school. I appreciate that we pulled that out. I also feel like I like in the high school programming that we talk about, that we are seeking to equip students with the skills and resources to be successful
after high school, and we talk about all the different ways we're doing that. And so I just think it's much improved, cleaned up. So thank you for your work. I this is must have been a ton of work to get to this. Jason? Yes, I agree with that. And I appreciate I think folks mentioned this earlier. I appreciate, reading through the DAC memo. There are a lot of things, that I don't know that may be relevant in this policy, but things I support, such as some of the comments they made on
technology use since age age appropriate and, but I don't think that that belongs in this policy. One thing I do think and in kind of the spirit of Alex's ease of public kind of consumption and viewing is I like the way in the DAC memo that they bulleted all the the required or all the subjects by elementary, middle, and high school. And I think just visually, that would be something that would be easier to follow here. And so that would be just one stylistic change I'd recommend. But, yeah, I agree with Lelania's comments. This is, must have been a lot of work and appreciate all that.
And, thanks for the many people who provided input, to get to this place. Jorge? Yeah. I wanna I wanna echo the thanks for the work in setting this up. I remember reading this first go through the policy, and I've and I and I was looking at going, what is this policy trying to do? Was my was my question. Right? What are our goals, and and what's the point of it, and how could it how is it useful for parents? And and I think we've made significant strides in that direction by noting specifics for each elementary, middle, and high school at each level in terms of what a minimum
basic curriculum looks like, what is equitable and what prepares you for that next level. I think calling that out, I think, is really important in terms of here's what has to be provided and what you have to do and how it prepares you to go from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school. And so I think, so I really appreciate that. Alex. Yeah. I'm also grateful for the opportunity to update this. And I think, the red line represents considerable progress from where we're trying to get to. I appreciate that the DAC has given us a lot of information, and some of
it is appropriate to consider here and some isn't. I guess one of my big questions is what is the suite of policies that do speak to all these things? And how do they fit together? So I wanna know how this fits in with grad requirements and homework and, some other decisions that we make that support our instructional approach, and other aspects. So I'm I kinda want a road map of the scope of this one to know what it's talking about that it shouldn't or what it's not talking about that
it should because what was there before is so hard to work from. I will add, as someone who moved to Boulder in July '2, I'm pretty sure this one was written when the district adopted a middle school program and transitioned from junior high to middle schools, And that's exactly what it reads like. Like, establishing middle schools forty years ago is what this is about. So we clearly need to update it, but I feel like I'm a little, not sure about things that I'd be tempted to put in here, but that probably might
go somewhere else. But if they don't go somewhere else, I'm more tempted to put them here. So I need that. And then the second part is I would be delighted to see the words evidence or research based somewhere in this policy. There is none. And, we have a lot of experience as a district of, you know, picking our curricular choices and not always being evidence based, and I would like that to be a priority going forward. So I was very clear that we had to put those words in our curriculum adoption policy and the curriculum revision because that was something that was missing back then.
And I hear you and I, I've spent some time going through all the cross references to this policy. That's where you'll find, like, what goes where? Like, parent feedback on requiring recess in middle school. Well, technically, that's in ADF, the wellness policy on nutrition physical activity. And that policy happens to say it's required in elementary, it's optional in middle. And so it is you have like, going through is a little wonky. And the other thing I would say is I don't know that all of our cross reference policies are in there, like the co curricular and extracurricular activities we talk about and align.
It's not in our cross reference. And that I think it's a little bit where DAC kind of got all over the place in theirs as well. We have a lot of policies that do very discreet things, and then we have some of these policies that are just more general in nature and making heads or tails of that can be somewhat challenging. So I appreciate, I appreciate that comment. I have some very specific points of feedback. The first of which is I I think it's getting so much better, but the opening section is still a little clunky and I think can be simplified a little
bit more. And I also think it's a little confusing to move between standards based and then talking about academic standards. And so get just getting consistent on how the phrases that we're using, I think, can be helpful and, like, whittling it down a little bit more to to really be clear on what this policy is and what it is not. So I think that could be helpful. I also think just in partly in light of all some of the the comments from the DAC, that final sentence, there's a sentence kind of deep in that opening section that talks about in all instances, it's the second to the last sentence, not
opening pair opening section that all instructional programs shall meet the educational requirements as call as required by Colorado and federal law. If we just move that up to the second sentence of this policy, I think that will just make it really, really clear that, of course, we're following law. And then, I would I have a couple questions or questions or suggestions. In the middle school section, there is, where is it?
There is a sentence in the first paragraph that talks about some of the, I would say soft skills that students need to develop. And one of the last ones is emotional regulation. That one feels a little odd to have there. So I would maybe consider striking it and ending it at and study skills. So that was one. And I also think I I think there's a clear connection between in the the section on high school is tying it to post secondary success. And I wonder if in the middle school section, we can talk about preparing students
for high school because that really ultimately is our objective there. So being a little bit clearer there could be helpful. And then in the middle school section, it feels, some of it feels a little we go from like core classes and then we talk about some of the soft skills or developmental skills and we kind of go back to core classes. And I think it would be clear if we went from core classes to electives to some of those soft skills. And then I'm just have a wondering We call out electives.
We call it the electives of music, art, and or world language specifically, and we don't call out other electives. And I know right now there is a great deal of consistency on middle schools requiring some of those electives. Feels like an oxymoron because the elective should truly be a choice. That's my understanding of the definition of what an elective course is. And so I'm wondering, I'm just wondering about those three areas. And are we, should we, might we want to or do we not want to
at all ask our students to leave middle school with an experience in one of those courses or not? And is that why it's called out or is it, I just have a lot of questions on outside of the core classes, are there other experiences we think our students should have in middle school that might help them be successful in course selection or in their courses that they may take in high school. And one thing I think about a lot is in some of our high schools
to obtain the seal of biliteracy. If you're not a native speaker, you have to take I mean, at Fairview, you have to get through Spanish five, which means you have to take Spanish in middle school. And if you're not a student in a household that is fully aware of how to jump through all the hoops that are necessary to get to where you wanna be, not having that language requirement somewhere, like, puts folks at a disadvantage. And we've done so much work to ensure that all of our kids have access to equal opportunities. Like, if there are courses like that same thing I feel like with advanced CLA,
the number of kids that don't know if they could they'd be a good fit in high school because they didn't have the opportunity to try it in middle school. Like, I just some of those things, like, how can we how are we shaping those experiences to help kids make the best choice for them? So I just wonder if board members have, like, thoughts or if staff have thoughts on I know physical space is an issue for some of these classes. I think particularly for art, physical space can be a challenge at our middle schools. Band and orchestra, most of our middle schools have those physical spaces set aside.
So I'm just wondering, like that's a wondering of mine. How much latitude versus how like, how loose versus how tight on the courses that we're identifying as, quote, unquote, electives? Rob. Would it be helpful to know what's happening right now as as, like, a as a starting point of where things are right now and then we could see to the extent how much practice would have to change to to match policy? I think that would be helpful. And then also defining, like, if some schools are requiring classes that other schools are
calling electives, like, if so yes. And what does an elective mean? And can they truly be optional? So I think both of those would be helpful. Jorge and then Alex. Let's work on on getting that information. I'm looking at Laura who, we will try to include that team for you all. Yeah. I think that would be helpful. So thank you for raising that. And I appreciate you raising the point or reiterating the point about that transition to high school, right, and how middle school is really geared towards setting that up. And that's a key kind of stepping stone. And so I think for me, in terms of, like, an equity perspective, in terms
of what's available at our schools and how our students are being prepared and who has access to those opportunities is really important. So getting to know what's going on now and then what's critical to get that next step to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, which isn't really we shouldn't be an elective if if that's the path we wanna offer. It should be available to all our students. So so figuring that part of it out, I think, is important. Yeah. I think you raised a lot of really good points, both of you. I I'd like to speak to a couple of them, but I again, I feel
a little overwhelmed by the amount of things we could talk about here. I do wanna say that the equity of access is pretty important and that I don't believe now that we have it. And so to the extent that we have people who have demanded over time that this elementary, this middle school prepare for this high school, or that this high school do something someone else can do, or that our concurrent enrollment is a function of how many credentialed high school teachers we have at different high schools that can teach them, These are all, like, deeply enmeshed structural things in our human resources and our
high school schedule, master schedules, and stuff. So there's not simple fixes to them. So at the level of principles, it's relatively easy to say, hey. We should have equity of access to these opportunities, and we should, standardize the expectations so that people can all be prepared. And then you're like, okay. When when will we have the staff in place in all our comprehensive high schools to do that equitably? Right? And in the meantime, what is the fix we would do? So I I would like the policy to lead to that principle of the equity of opportunity when we can. Another issue, I think, when we get to what's required, what's what's optional, what's expected
is to deal with the levels and the types of schools that we have. And so we have neighborhood schools, focus schools, charter schools, and different schools with different degrees of, mission specific stuff going on. And I think as another policy that's not particularly clear, like, it's an altogether clear what it means to be a focus school versus a neighborhood focus school, and how would that interact with this? Or if, just a single elementary school or a mountain school wants to do something different that's unique to its mission, how do we think about that?
So at at level, we want to have this equity of access and this common thing that's preparing everybody. We still have almost half the families exercising choice of some important, thinking schools do things differently and picking the one they want. So what makes them different? How do they know about that? So we don't know what the options are. I don't think the parents know what the options are when they're choosing them or thinking about it. So this interacts with which schools get which flexibility and how, which is another policy. And then I will say in terms of the, this is something I care about a lot on the board, and that is the equity of opportunity to enjoy fun
things. And, and I think we're really, in our crisis of mental health and engagement, having kids enjoy being students at BVSD is really important. And I think, to the extent that we pick and choose which cool thing is it's and, of course, English and math should be great and super exciting and engaging, but sometimes it's drama, and sometimes it's something else. So I just want us to have a lens. And I don't know if we're gonna be touchy feely enough to say, in fact, that we hope our kids enjoy their education through this at BVSD, but I would
like it to do that so that we can reinforce, like, what do parents and kids want that would make it fun? And in like, engagement's a real thing and all the way through our grades, so I don't think we should just treat it as too soft. And then when we deal with things like music and art, like this district has a long history of privileging music over the other arts based on pretty lame research that music is, you know, great for your brain as opposed to all other forms of art that are also great for the brain. So I I just we can make we can make preferences put out there about
some of the fun things that, like, actually foreclose fun for lots of kids. So I just want us to be thoughtful about fun and engagement and what the role is. And then finally, I'd say, if not this document, somewhere we really want to understand the combination of our instructional infrastructure because that is a huge priority for this district of how we've made progress towards having one. Right? So what is the interaction of this with that infrastructure that will keep the district moving in a direction to continuing to support our educators by clearly articulating what we
do? And I think for the parents, that kinda turns into what is the profile of a graduate? What's the profile of a ninth grader? Right? And really understanding what a kid is prepared to do. So, again, I'm overwhelmed by the number of places we could go with this, but I want us to think about fun. I want us to think about types of schools. I want us to think about the flexibility we have and how it interacts with our ability to hold up all our schools with support. And and I do think the DAC raised different things that need to be inserted somewhere, so I don't wanna lose many of those things. I appreciate your comment on the fun.
And that's one of the things that I like, we should be encouraging our kiddos to take these classes that maybe are not in their like, not normally what they would take. At at a point in life where, you know, you could try something and it doesn't feel catastrophic to a a letter grade on a transcript or something down the road. And so I I appreciate, I appreciate that element entirely. And I one other thought that I had was related to what Alex said, and, Dan, I realized I said you were supposed to go after Alex, so I'll come
back to you, was we have made significant investments in our curriculum, and it is paid off in dividends and our curriculum is standards. We're teaching to the standards and that is creating some consistency in our, in our instructional program across the district, which has been incredibly beneficial for how our students are growing and achieving. And Again, I don't know if this is necessarily the place, but like the board believes in providing those tools to meet, to teach the standards so we can accomplish
this. That's just one other thought I had. Diane. Let's see. I'm backing up a couple of comments. I actually think that, for middle schoolers, having the words emotional regulation in the policy is very, very important. And I would even add words like community engagement, because a lot of what middle school is is teaching kids to get along with each other. So I don't see anything about developing the community of the school in that language, which should be part of the learning. I do, get a little bit rebuffed given that we had parents talking here tonight
about tag students, and then we have a sentence that says we will provide advanced learning in language arts and math. How about we will provide opportunities for advanced learning, Period. Because it isn't just all about math or language arts. That's not what being a TAG student is about. So we need to provide those opportunities in a different way. And, this sentence that says, each school shall determine which elective courses, we've talked a
lot about the word elective, maybe that's not the right word, courses to offer from the school district's middle school course catalog. And as someone who is who has taught at a middle school and still teach at a middle school, sometimes it's about what teacher you have available. It's not about what your choice is. You know, if we don't have someone who can, teach a class class, like, we happen to see a Platt Middle School, which was, the students were creating music compositions and playing them for us, then then you're not gonna offer that class.
So, I don't know how to word that, but it gets at that problem with equity also that we we probably we probably are providing programs that people are actually picking their schools based on which electives they can have and also which advanced courses they can have for sure. When I get dropped down to the senior high oh, seniors crossed out by the high school program. There is something about the second section where we have a whole bunch of different,
quote, elective kind of programs that some of them are capitalized and some of them are not. It's just a really picky thing, but it makes them look like they're more important. And I had the wondering, is using the word industrial arts like nineteen seventies language? Maybe that is not language we use anymore to describe what we do with students at these incredible programs that we've been able to build. And I think that that, you know, that's just really being nitpicky, but just the
format there, makes some things look more important than others. Doctor Anderson. Yeah. I think the the essential question here is how much ground are we trying to cover in this policy? I mean, you know, to the extent that this policy has to reflect everything we believe about and think about in terms of our instructional program, as opposed to You know, some of the things that we believe in sit in strategic plans, some sit in in in policy, some sit in other policies, some sit in regulations, others sit in expectations. I think that to to help kind of focus, I do think we need to
take, what Dax said seriously and under consideration. I do think that we need for you all to see and understand the differences, especially at the middle levels what's happening. I think the thing I think about is how is declining enrollment gonna impact this. I mean, today we were at El Dorado K-eight and their middle schools, their K-eight program is six to eight program is significantly different than a Louisville middle. So I don't wanna I wanna pigeonhole our practices where somebody could come to us and say, well, you need to give me four FTE at my school because your
policy says that we should have this and we don't have this here. And so I think that we that's just what I'm thinking about. Like, what is, you know, this policy how do we make this policy meaningful? How do we reflect the board's interest in what you've talked about? If there are things that you're bringing up that we feel like could land somewhere else, how do we do that? I do think, you know, codifying the work we're doing today that's working, right, so at a future point in time, different boards or others would have to change their
policy away from what's actually we've proven to work. I get that. Like, I'm interested in that too. How do we do that? I think is what I'm thinking about. So, this is kind of my 2¢. Alex. Yeah. I really appreciate, your comments, Doctor. Anderson. I think, we both we want the policy to empower this current administration to do the good stuff we're doing and to support the continued direction of things that are helpful and effective. I do think, that if we empower the district to have policies that lead to
making change and empowering the district to make change, that's a good policy. It may be an inconvenient and a hassle to implement, but if we actually drive to, making it possible to make, program access more equitable, then that strengthening the hand of pursuing a value that we have even if it is implies work or doing something that might be hard later. So I don't think we should shrink from reflecting our principles and our values. With that in mind, I think there's two things that we as a board have spoken to quite a bit that we could incorporate somewhere in here.
And one goes to, we've talked about tag, but I think we could just deal with the concept of differentiation and acceleration and other concepts like that more broadly and support for them, like and not put that in too small of a box. And I and I do think it would be good to figure out some statement of, you know, all means all in terms of all our students, and really having some inclusive language, including our neurodiverse populations and other kids out there, that see themselves
in this policy. I think there's opportunity to put that in here too. I agree. And in the muddiness of this, we have, like, two policies on gifted education that speak to some of it. And I do like as an umbrella, a directional umbrella, it's like we have graduation requirement policies. It's very clear. There's just there's some direction, some latitude. It's how yeah. How do we how do we piece it all together in a way that's meaningful? And I I do think you hear over and over, and Diane hit it spot on. And I I do think you hear over and over, and Diane hit it spot on. Like, sometimes people are making choices because of the degrees of inconsistencies. Not that they want to go somewhere else or they love their neighborhood school to
have what feels like a really like, not necessarily they'd like more consistency in their choosing based on based on the classes that we provide. And sometimes it is based on staffing, and sometimes it's based on will, and sometimes it's based on facilities and what have you. And I'll continue to say, like, where a kid for particularly for our core subjects, where a kid goes to school, they don't have private transportation should not impact the quality of experiences they receive. So I'll keep coming back and back and back to that. So I appreciate, Doctor.
Anderson, to what you said. I think finding that, yes, we can't codify staff that we don't have the funds for. I think that's what made me nervous a lot. But a lot of the DAC recommendations is it was extremely heavy on staff and resources that we do not have. And so I'd I'd appreciate that comment. I think we can find the right balance based on board feedback tonight, Doctor. Anderson. I think I think you're gonna have to see this a couple times. So I wouldn't expect this to come back on action. Just study again. Is that would that be right, Kathleen?
Absolutely. So I've we received the DAC memo after the agenda was prepared, which I understand because we didn't share a red line with DAC. So it was sort of chicken and the egg. I absolutely agree, doctor Anderson. I think we've got some more staff conversations to have to make sure that we're really capturing current practice. And then I have pages and pages of really great board, direction and suggestion to incorporate. And because it has become more of a a common practice this year, it wasn't
necessarily a common practice in the DAC memos in the past. This is a capturing of individual ideas that were elevated during the board meeting or the DAC meeting. It was not, there was not consensus or discourse to whittle it down to what they they believed as a body. It was capturing individual comments that were shared. And so, I just wanna make folks aware that haven't that it used to be a different process and so that we're all on the same page of what, this
memo represents. Alex. Yeah. That's an excellent point and I just wanna say, that I appreciate their ability to turn around in a timely fashion and get stuff to us, and I recognize that's different than taking a vote and working out the detail of each thing, but having it be too late. So, I really appreciate that. And the board, having been there for the discussion, it really was rich, and they were quite inclusive of one another's ideas and input, but they weren't arguing about this stuff. They were like, that's also good. Same way we have added 15 things for Kathleen to work with, they added 20
things for us to work with. Any other discussion on this policy board members before we move on? I will turn it over to Kathleen to walk us through three j policies. So for our next set, and I will say the board has asked us to make sure that we take public input on policies. So we have put up the full set of policies that the board's studying tonight on your webpage available for feedback and we'll make sure we post the red lines there now, so that people can give additional thought.
So looking at the next set of policies, we have four these were identified by our staff as areas that needed updating. The first two talking about 12.2, which is board policy JLCD administering medications to students and the regulation 12.3. This change is due to a change in state law. It used to be that students were only permitted to self carry asthma, anaphylaxis, medications.
There was a change to the law to allow students to carry any medication that is prescribed by a provider other than medical marijuana. So we have updated the policy and we are recommending keeping the regulation in this case because it does have that more traditional policy being more general and then the regulation having the additional detail, this is a place where we need that detail for a couple of reasons. One, if a student's going to self carry, the law has some very specific requirements
that are captured in the regulation about making sure that the school and the family are in communication. We know that the student has a medication that they'll be accessing, and it also includes language that in the event that there's a problem, that a student carrying a medication would be a danger to that student or other students, that the school principal and the nurse have the ability to make an individual decision about that particular student. And again, we would just propose relatively minor updates recommended by our health team to
make sure that we can, facilitate this rate that's now recognized in state law. Thank you, Kathleen. Board members, any questions or comments on these three policies? Jorge? This might just be my reading of it, but it starts off very positive in terms of, yes, a student can self administer medications, and they can bring it to school, and they can carry it around. And you have to follow the regulation. Then you go to regulation. You cannot do this unless you do a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h all the way all the way through. Is that potentially concerning if folks see the policy?
Like, oh, yeah. It's it's easy to do, but then the regulation is like, no. It's actually not easy at all to do. It's extremely rare that you'd be able to do that on your own, and it's only for high school students. So I so I don't know if there's a way for us to better straddle that line. I appreciate that comment. I noted that too. And I do think that some additional language in the policy would be helpful and cross references in the regulation exactly to that point. Thank you. I picked it up as well. And the other thing because when you read the regulate when you read the policy, you're like, oh, kid kids can do this. And the regulation is also, like, well, actually just high schoolers.
And so my suggestion was also in the policy itself, the self administering, like clarify in that title. Yeah. High schoolers can, because it's not middle schoolers. It's just high schoolers, if that really is the case. Other thoughts, board members? Seeing as there are none, we'll move on to two different e policies. Yes. So we have next twelve point five and twelve point six. Again, these are just while we were bringing you some related policies and in light of the measles, I'll just say the word.
I hesitate to say it with principal Ramsey here, but so we needed to just get that language a little more current in EBBA. So we're talking about prevention of disease, infection transmission, handling of bodily fluids. And because these items had not been addressed since 2019, they didn't really reference pandemic and things that we learned during that process. They really focused on HIV in a way that I think was reflective of a
past time and there was just some additional language that we didn't need and the funny little asterisks in the regulation that are actually part of the CASB sample. Can't explain that but we do think it's time to just update the language and make it a little more formal by eliminating some of that random language in the regulation. With that I was wondering why measles wasn't particularly specifically called out in the regulation. We have a lot of different, infectious diseases called out, but measles specifically is not.
And given the situation we're facing, I wonder if that might be included in that list. And then I also thought in the regulation, like, yeah, I appreciate it is very HIV heavy in a way that doesn't seem as relevant today. And there's, like, a list of five items. It it goes HIV, HIV, COVID, some COVID, and then back to HIV, just putting the HIV ones together. Board members, other thoughts on this policy? Melania? Well, I I guess I question the inclusion of measles if we don't include them
whooping cough. Like, it so then is it that we're trying to be, and that's okay with me. But I if we're gonna include measles, then we should look at the other outbreaks that we do see in our community. And I'm fine with that. Alex? Yes. I'd be inclusive of all the contagious things we're trying to help with. I don't see any reason to shrink back. And I don't believe, we should relax our attention to HIV. For the ones dealing with it, it's still a really important thing to deal with.
So no reason to take it out. Seeing as there are no further questions, we'll move on to our g policies. Okay. And this is our final set of policies to study tonight. And I did try to organize them a little bit so that you could see the umbrella policies that are incorporating some of the others that were retiring a little bit later. Retiring a little bit later. So, we really have two primary umbrella policies here. The first one will be GBEA. This is staff ethics, conflicts of interest. This is a policy that's required by law.
It had not been reviewed by the board since 2017. I think that this is an area frankly where while conflict of interest may be a legal term or may have its origins in statute, there is a lot of confusion in, I think, just the general population about what an actual conflict is. So what we are trying to do by elevating these policies is just provide clearer, more modern language that reflects our current, our current practices.
We had a number of policies the board had, prioritized, for example, GCQAB, which is a tutoring for pay policy, which is a very tiny paragraph. Because of the way that the CAS v sample proceeds around this issue of conflicts of interest, we've integrated conflicts of interest around employment, both that whole, nepotism, relatives, supervision that has been in the headlines, unfortunately, for some other districts recently.
And then the second section of this policy is on the sale of goods and services by school district employees. And this is where we're really trying to bring in those other policies that just had a paragraph or two so that they could all be read in one place. This red line on GBEA would also, incorporate the regulation. You will note that the regulation has a little bit of language around if there's a change in circumstance that would result in a violation of the nepotism elements of
the policy that there are some specific protocols around transfer. This is an incredibly rare thing to happen, but some of that language might be helpful. So I crossed out the language that's already integrated, but I left that in the regulation for the board's discussion. Do you wanna there's an exhibit. Do or is that for a With your permission, I would love to talk about the exhibit separately. Okay. And I'm happy to start there if it would be helpful.
No. No. It's okay. I just wanna make sure that that was the case. I saw Lalenia's hand up go go up right away on the first two and then Alex's. So can we go down to sale of goods and services by school district employees? So we may have an employee who may, during summer break, want to tutor. Is the that is where this is being addressed. Am I am I understanding that right? Yes. It was my intent to address all of GCQAB in this section.
And so then I feel confused about, the $500 thing. If you were tutoring a student over the summer or several students a day, you would be making more than $500, or is that unit cost thing supposed to tell me something? Because I certainly you know, if if there are people in our, employee, I you
certainly want them to be able to spend their summer break earning money if they would like to be. But I I I guess maybe I'm not sure I'm reading it right, Kathleen. When I read that paragraph, I was like, well, maybe I don't understand what's going on. I think that that paragraph, you can see that the red line, I've moved phrasing around. And I think that the moving it around and then trying to incorporate the tutoring paragraph two paragraphs later is just not Okay. It's not consistent. I agree with you that sort of lost the thread in that paragraph.
But is there some piece that people can't make in excess of $500 without the prior approval of the bore superintendent? Yes. That's in your existing policy. Okay. Well, then I guess what I wanna say is I don't think that seems right. And I also think I think it's super important to assure that all students get reasonable assistant without charge from their own teachers. But I also know that a teacher may tutor somebody in the summer after they
have them. My concern might be then what if that teacher is moved to the next grade up the following year, I just wanna make it that our teachers can do what they would like to during the summer, but I don't want it to be a conflict of interest if they happen then to get that child again. Maybe it's saying, hopefully, we'll have three rounds in every school so they can be in a different class. But I do think we need to be careful of that.
I appreciate, some of the comments we've gotten, from the public about our investigate the investigation process and the procedures and the time that it takes. And I also know from my professional experience in policy and politics that conflict of interest seems like a big deal, but it's always super complicated and you'd be surprised how many very inane things need to go you need to go talk to a lawyer and figure it out. Right? And that can be everybody engaged in appropriate, best interest, good faith practice. You still gotta talk to a lawyer and figure out if there's conflict and how
to manage it. So in a spirit where we can't communicate about investigations, and where people are frustrated by the time it takes to get something straightened out, I would love some sort of nod to the fact that being involved in a discussion of a conflict of interest does not mean anybody did anything wrong in this, charged political environment. I mean, it can be something very untoward and inappropriate, but it can also be someone just trying to answer a very technical legal question that a layperson wouldn't know, and then a staff person is, like, involved in a conflict of interest when, right,
that's a very reasonable professional step to take because they got put in it by something going on in the school. So I don't know how to handle that, but I would love for people not to feel like they're being burned because they went to the lawyer to talk through something that got tricky. Because that just happens all the time in professional America. I'll speak to the question that you asked about the regulation. I don't know if that is worth salvaging. I think there is a sent sentence in GBEA, first paragraph on page two, where you could just tweak the that sentence a little bit that if the circumstances change, an employee becomes immediate family member, blah blah blah, transfer, change employment.
I I think that nuance isn't to me, I don't think that it's helpful. I I mean, to our extent practicable. Also, there's bargaining groups that might be involved for different things. So I I think not having a regulation and just beefing up that one sentence would be adequate. And I do appreciate these changes in light of all the things that have been going on. The more clear we can be, the kinder we are to everybody involved. Lilia? So are you saying okay. So have we are you saying GBEA dash e?
R. R. Those couple she's salvage she, like, held out a couple bullets, and she had asked specifically at the outset. Should we keep those in the regulation or just and I think we can just finesse them into what we have and not keep but we haven't we'll go to the Thank you. Exhibit next. That is exciting. Thank you. Oh, exciting. Let's move on to the exciting exhibit. So, I think this is a really interesting exhibit. It is exactly the CASB sample. It is an exhibit that in the seventeen years that I've been practicing law in Colorado, we have literally never referenced, not once.
It is guidance. So there are two components in state law around conflict of interest. The elements we just discussed that are established required principles and then these are referenced as ethical principles for elected officials, local district and local, public employees. And I think it really to be candid in my opinion, I think it's so confusing in the context of these policies. I do think that if you think about it from a board member lens, a
board member is much more likely to be able to take an official action or to leave office. This language, in my opinion, is really written more for elected office, is less applicable to our employees who are gonna be looking to these policies for specific guidance. And after pulling all of my, job peers, none of us can really identify any helpful contribution of this language. I couldn't even understand what it was saying.
And I read it at least three times. So I I'm sure it's not helpful because most the layperson is not going to understand what this is saying. If there is some need to have it, we need to change the language so that it's digestible. And I actually think I mean, this is not a required it's not it's not required. And most of the content in here, we touch in other policies in this g chapter. So my thought what before you even preface this was, a, it doesn't even align with what we consider exhibits, so that's weird. And, b, let's just kill it because it's not helpful in any way, shape, or
form. Board members, doctor Anderson would like to add? Here's a rule of thumb. If you have something that people can't understand and they violate it, how can you hold them accountable to do it? So I am I am for getting rid of anything nobody could understand. I'm seeing a lot of nodding in agreement on that one. We will now move on to sections of GBEB. So our next policy, it really got pulled in because staff conduct does touch on
that conflict of interest and they sort of occupy the same space, which frankly is how we went from having a relatively reasonable meeting agenda to having 37 policies because they were sort of Velcroed to each other. This one very much reflects the CASB sample. It is the quintessential sort of school board policy, in my opinion, in that it picks up requirements of law that live in different places in statute. Might be hard to find and it puts them into one one, policy.
We just updated most of those red lines are to make sure that we're not using, gendered pronouns that just make it less helpful to incorporate some of the additional, additional expectations and hopes that we would have for staff in terms of attendance and diligence and care and concern. We incorporated, as you get to page three, updates that we have had to the law around unlawful behavior and staff who have been charged or arrested with certain offenses.
These are new legal requirements since you last reviewed this policy in 2017. And I do think that that specificity is helpful for our public in terms of understanding some of these really difficult issues that, that we do sometimes navigate. So the updates are really, as I said, consistent with that CASB sample and intended mainly to modernize and incorporate new legal requirements. Melania. On page three, in addition, the school district may require the employee to submit a
complete set of fingerprints. That is something do we always do that? Page three, second paragraph. Every employee and volunteer who's going to be having any level of Any other discussion
on this item, board members? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to GBEBC. Thank you for reading all the letter codes. They are, in fact, consistent with the NSVA and CASB samples. I did hear you were President Rajpal, where it's helpful to use the same code so that people can find things, but it is a little alphabet soup. So this policy is on staff gifts. I think this is another place where the law is just not very clear and helpful, so we have put it all into one place with the intent to retire
the regulation. The first paragraph of this, policy is intended to allow the value to float as the state raises that gift limit level just over the years, which is why the language says, for purposes of this policy substantial value is as set by Colorado law and then identifies what the current rate is because they do think that that's helpful. As I was reviewing this again today candidly to talk to the board, I think
that we could use likely another sentence. One of the things that we see happen in our community now is wonderful families care so much about their dedicated educators that they like to do GoFundMe's or other, sorts of fundraising or gift giving, which is really lovely in its intent and really not something that we can endorse in board policy. So I think that maybe under gifts from students or in that section, maybe it's gifts from students and families that we need to I need to add a line
to talk about that particular issue as we do in the next section of gifts from staff members to staff members, specifically talks about that sort of group fundraising for gifts. Thank you for that overview. Laura, I had prioritized this policy and agenda setting, so you can make sure you strike that off of the list, just as an FYI. Board members, who wants to begin discussion on this policy? I appreciate the floating level. That's why people in the community were like, have you really not changed that dollar amount since 1970 whatever?
Yeah. It's a good question. So thank you for that. I have another question related to this policy. It is not uncommon for our coaches, our contracted coaches, to receive gifts from athletes and their families at the end of a season. Oftentimes, I'm so oftentimes, it'll be like one parent goes and buys a gift card or whatnot, and parents contribute. And my wondering is, in part because I feel bad because our coaches are some
of the lowest paid in the front range, and I acknowledge that they put in a lot of time and effort, and people want their coaches to stick around. And our so our coaches also included in this because I think most people read this policy as teachers, not as, like, a coach who's an extra duty, not necessarily a full time employee of the district. Our coaches also included, and if so, we might want some clarity there. And my heart breaks a little bit because these people work really hard for very little if we're going to include them, but I just think there's a lot of
misconceptions around who this who this applies to and who it does not. And so I'd love that to be clarified. Thank you for that point. I think that will take some research and some additional conversation. And I'm happy to bring that back. Anna? And just a clarifying question. This is the $53, is it per person, per gift? Or is it because I have the example, and I'm just thinking of my own self of, like, I like to give gifts to the teachers at the end of the year, and my son has, like, four people that he interacts with.
And so I just wanna know, like, am I really blowing it when I give all of them this amount? Or It apply it applies to the gift. The so if you're giving a teacher a basket of stuff, candles and whatever it might be, that's the gift. And it would have to be a total value of less than $53. But per teach per individual employee and gift. Jason, then Jorge. But that I could give four different gifts over the course of the year, each
$53 and that'd be okay? If that's I'm just trying to this is perfect. Right? Oh, just Yeah. But less than 53. Right. Yes. We could put in a frequency limitation. That is not anything that's referenced. But, I mean, would it benefit from some language of, hey. The point of this policy is so that this doesn't get into be a competition and then and a way to influence. We just wanna honor but not, expose people to inequity and improper influence. So maybe some more okay.
Just along those lines on the gifts from students, I I don't know that the word tokens I, like, I don't know if that's the right way to describe. Like, it sounds it sounds a little bit demeaning. I think in light of this, like, you know, you wanna appreciate that. I don't I don't know what a better word is. I looked at that, and I was like, that sounds wrong. You know, I I can't say in appreciation because that obviously could be taken, you know, in different ways. But if there's a better way or more modern way to talk about gifts to appreciate, you know, the year or whatever it is that's within legal bounds, I don't
know what that is, but maybe you can help find it. I'll work on it. Any other discussion on this policy for members? Thanks. We'll move right along then. Alright. Well, not to, blow the punch line here, but this is actually the last substantive policy that you have to discuss because the remainings are incorporated and proposed for retirement. So, this final policy would replace a few existing policies. So this is a proposed new policy GCS consulting, research, and intellectual property.
Our non school employment consulting activities policy that we are incorporating had not been touched since 1978. I know that that policy doesn't show up to you as a strike through red line, but it would be umbrella policy GCS. So it incorporates consulting activities. It also incorporates former GCQB on research and publishing.
It was amazing to read that regulation and realize that I'm the head of a copyright committee. And I was supposed to be identifying stuff that we were out there to copyright and and make money off of. I've never seen that policy before. So we are not recommending. It's pretty antiquated. Our friends in Saint Vrain have a policy that they call intellectual property, and I did capture some of that to try and bring all of these concepts together in one place.
And then it would also, retire current board policy IO on educational research and IO r. So all of those elements are proposed for incorporation into this new umbrella policy. Board members, Alex. Yeah. As a researcher sometimes and former person who's researched, Boulder Valley, I feel strongly that we need to strike the paragraph on the first page that all research studies carried out within the school district use of school data of any kind or of staff
or students as subject must be improved advanced by the superintendent or a designee. We we have lots of public data on BVSD and Colorado students, and it's in the public field. The district has no business saying who does or does not have the legitimate right to conduct research. And lots of people do it in order to advocate for our kids. And when people in our community do research and find that we've discovered a discrepancy in outcomes, we wanna welcome that, not put a future administration in the position that I've found this district in historically, where they're trying to prevent people from doing research
that leads to advocacy that would encourage them to change. So I'm gonna fight really strongly that that paragraph not exist the way it does now. I mean, I think we need to protect students' rights. We need to protect data, the appropriate use of that data. But this is worded so broadly that it's claiming that the district has the right to approve anybody's research of anything that affects data related to our students. Can I oh, I can I because I read that, like, it's our employees? Like, it's not governing people outside of our district. It's a policy for our employees because it's in the g chapter.
So I would just actually love a clarification on on what you're saying versus what In practice, this, was used to prevent me from doing research with Publico data as a research with Colorado Children's Campaign when working on, graduation rates in the state as an issue of policy. And I was lectured by the people in BVSD in the data section here about how inappropriate it was for me outsiders who don't really understand research or data to dare to use talk about our district and our school. So in practice this has been used exactly the way I'm suggesting.
And I'm sorry, board member Medler, are you talking about the last paragraph on the first page of this, the one that has both pink and green? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And that paragraph did come from existing IO, board policy IO. Your point is well taken, though, board president Rajpal, because I thought the same thing. So the language that we had in the staff policy about research really only applied to to staff because it really talks about not, making sure that you're still following appropriate procedures working with your administration.
But if the board retires IO, we would be directing all research questions to this section of policy. So if we retire IO, then there is not that freestanding policy, that's in a different chapter. Well, if if I may, even if the other one were to exist, if someone were just interpreting this paragraph on its own Yeah. All research studies carried out within the school district, comma, use of school data of any kind, doesn't imply that second clause is a sub clause of the first.
It's two different clauses separated by commas. So as a policy guide for me that means those are two separate things, and both would apply independently. Yeah. Your point is well taken. Jorge? I think to build on Alex's point, right, our ability to limit folks' use of publicly available data that's out there, this seems to say they can't use it even though it's being put from our website. So I think it gets tricky. Right. But I'd recognize a need for protection of educational data and private data as well.
Right? And so I think finding a way to kind of provide some nuance in terms of what this is referring to is really important. Well, and that's what I was thinking too because there's data that staff members are privileged to that the public is not. And so how are we protecting that? And and truly, like, it it's kind of to your point, everything is horrible. And if it's public and horrible, like, how do you doctor Hassan. Sorry. I stepped out for a moment. Is this policy alluding to the fact that we can control research of people who
are outside of our control or authority, that we could stop research from happening if there is publicly available data? Is that what you're talking about? So this is a So is that you can't I mean, how would how would you do that? You should go back in time and talk to your staff eighteen years ago and find out. Now there's also, requests for information that involve a bit of discretion in terms of what will be gathered and what will be given or the format that it's given in. I've seen huge data sets given in PDF before turning PDF into data sets was
possible as a frustrating strategy. I've seen huge financial charges for requests for information for data. So there's all sorts of things districts have done in this state, including some by BVSD that are just in order to discourage research by independent third parties of data that is arguably public in nature and inappropriate to share. So one of the big questions is what is appropriate to share in terms of the public data. And certainly, we in this current environment are seeing public institutions move more and more towards using the excuse of potential data shares to not share stuff that had been
in the public domain. So I'm concerned about maintaining access to data because I think it's a really powerful tool for public accountability and for bringing evidence based analysis to public administration. So can we clarify that paragraph to I think we're all saying the same thing. We can't misuse private data. Public data is a very different right? Doctor. Harrison and then on that. I do think that we field a large number of data requests around dissertation topics
and wanting us to spend staff time collecting information for somebody to to do those things. And I do think that those are on a case by case basis to the extension that someone's doing their dissertation that aligns with something we're interested in. Obviously, publicly available data, you should make those things available through core requests or what have you. But I would say that everybody who wants to do a dissertation study and wants to survey folks or wants to access other information, I could I could see that
being different than just, hey, you know, this is the data. I know you have it. Let me see it. I support that entirely. Like the last thing we want not is a million surveys from people that are claiming access to our community that shouldn't have it. My experience is speaking to the random application of like request for information procedures in order to stop one researcher with one question that's not acceptable to the district while giving it to another. And having the district not apply equally standards for core requests or information requests based
on the defensiveness of a district. I've seen that a lot. So I think we want to reference our other policies about requests for information and public transparency and not put ourselves in an argument of judging when an appropriate research question by an appropriate researcher has been asked. And what otherwise supporting what you're talking about. I've just honestly seen this district behave very poorly with regard to that historically. So I want to make sure that any future researcher is not discriminated against because they're asking a question that might be embarrassing to the district at some point.
But a long time ago. This was a long Long time ago. But it's real. And people are researching stuff today. And the debates over access to public data are as intense today as they ever were. And we could easily have changing some administrations that are again trying to avoid public analysis of how things are going when I think analysis about things are going is one of the most powerful things we can do to advocate for equity or kids. Anna and Elena. My comment might be like a yeah, of course. But I think once we get those clarifications of where those guardrails are at of
the intellectual property, this is gonna be a very clear guardrail for our upcoming AI implementation of what gets uploaded, what gets downloaded, and what gets shared out. So I just wanna make sure that we're flagging that. Well, I'm glad everyone else got to go first because I'm now all the more confused. I I understand where Alex is going. When I read this, the new paragraph in green above the paragraph that we've just been discussing, I thought that that paragraph was talking about research organizations that we contract
with the way it was written. Is that true that that's what that is written toward? I I don't when I owe with so that language comes straight from board policy I owe. So that's in our existing language, which is from '76. I honestly think it was about, like, doctoral research. This is about requests that come to us and how we manage those requests. But I think that the board has talked about a lot of things. I mean, obviously, transparency, strategic plan metrics, the data dashboard, all of the work that
doctor Anderson and staff have done along with this board, I think it it we need language at the beginning of the research paragraph to explain who it would apply to when we're talking about outside research requests coming to us versus requests that we're making. So and then public and private data. Yes. And I because I read that as somebody that we were well, I I first off, I really hated the language in there.
While I do, of course, want to protect the learning environment, I felt like there was just a lot of, physical, psychological, social, educational, and other injury. I I felt like I didn't know what kind of research anybody was doing that was doing that. But I I think it is important for us to detail out as we work with folks in our community, Renee Crown comes to mind, how what we want our
rules of engagement to be and what the board expects our rules of engagement to be with organizations like Renee Crown, where we already have a data sharing agreement. So I that's just another take on it that I think we have to suss out. Diane? I've had a couple of opportunities to work with, researchers in my classroom and had them go through this process. And it seemed to me that the the the real concern was always what happens to personally identifiable information.
And are students protected from their their being released, who they are, and what they said. And the last time I did this, I was working with a a Google researcher inside the classroom, and they just had to they went through the superintendent, and it was really, fine, but we had to make sure that everybody was protected. And, since I'm the long term employee here, there was a day where people objected to every survey that we gave because it did psychological damage to their children.
So it it was truth to them. And so keep that in mind. There are people that just don't want their children surveyed on anything. Jorge? Yeah. Thanks for this discussion. I think, going back to IO, I think they're referencing research conducted in schools versus the issue of data public or private. So I think making that distinction being really clear would be helpful. I have one comment. I just have question and then Alex will go to you. Is director of evaluation and guidance the title we currently use? Because the policy refers to that. I think that's from the old language.
But is that the actual title? I didn't think so either. I worked with Jessica Olsen on the policy, but she asked me to change the title, and I don't think I did. Okay. So she did help with the language in general on this policy. And, of course, I'll work with her again to respond to the board feedback. And then should it say superintendent or designee? That might be the simplest. Yeah. That's kind of what we use as a standard because so many as we every time we reorganize or something we the title changes, I think that would be probably
the most aligned with board policy. Alex. Yeah. Let me be clear in my comments. I've I've been harsh on historical actions from BVSD from personal experience where I've seen this interpreted not the way the board's discussing it today. So I think of that while recognizing the value of educational research paragraph, doesn't say anything about what research it's about. So it could be used by anybody to argue against any research that someone might be trying to do where they're trying to get information. So and since some of these policies, we're dealing with one today that's 40 years old. The idea that they will look back on our discussion and to get legislative intent
seems seems optimistic. And I've also worked for years with BVSD when they've been a great partner to research and analysis, with great partners who've had great insight to what's going on. But I was working on just for just to be clear, I was working to get the state to adopt cohort based graduation rates. So that instead of reporting the number of twelfth graders who come in in September that graduate in May and reporting the 97 grad rate, we would do what the state did, which was adopt a cohort model and measure the number of ninth graders come in and then count the diplomas. And that data changed state law.
And now the state has reported graduation rates accurately based on the way people would think about it for twenty years. And the grad rates went from about eighty two percent to what we're up to now, like ninety six percent. BVSD fought really hard against that legislation. The research director here fought really hard about sharing data just on enrollment. And when we used enrollment data to estimate how many kids had graduated based on enrollment in the ninth grade and diplomas four years later, we were, you know, called to task how inappropriate was of us to use the district's data and to attack them so ruthlessly. So that's for me that's like that's a clear example that this district has historically
manipulated language like this to prevent good research that had great intentions that eventually led to much better outcomes for the kids in this this district. So I don't take it with a grain of salt that people thirty years from now would interpret this the way we want them to and all be good about stuff that's good for kids. This has been used to protect the district against people trying to do what was right for kids because it was inconvenient to the leadership at the time. Long time. Long time ago. Board members, any other discussion on this policy? Seeing as there are none, we will, as Kathleen said, the next chunk of policies
are redlines incorporated. And then 12.19 is just a recoding. Right. That's just a recoding. I didn't even give you a red line. That was just to make sure that we got that policy back into alignment with the other CASB references. Board members, any questions on all of those recommended for retirement or incorporation? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to our final topic this evening, which is future agenda requests. Board members, are there any items you would like to add to the board prioritization
list? Seeing as are none, tonight's meeting is adjourned. Thanks, everyone.