I'd like to call to order this regular
meeting of the Boulder Valley School
District Board of Education for Tuesday,
April 28th, 2026. Board members may
attend and participate in our meetings
remotely in accordance with board policy
BMEA and state law. Laura, can you
please call the role?
Booker
Chavez,
here.
Medler.
Quinn Lawa here.
Raj Paul here. Tamuading
here. Anger
here.
Thank you.
We will now move on to our land
acknowledgement this evening. I'd
encourage everyone to turn your
attention to the screens.
Pueblo, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apache,
Navajo,
LBBSD. Resistencia
BBSD
PBSD
I'd like to remind everyone that the
mission of the Boulder Valley School
District is to create challenging,
meaningful, and engaging learning
opportunities so that all children
thrive and are prepared for successful,
civically engaged lives. Thank you
everyone for joining us here tonight.
We're glad to have you observe and
participate in our meetings. At this
time, is there a motion to approve
tonight's agenda? Moved by Anna. Is
there a second? Seconded by Lenia.
Laura, can you please call the role?
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes. Teamuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
The next item on tonight's agenda is the
superintendent report. Dr. Anderson,
good evening.
Good evening, board president Rajpal,
board members. Great to see everyone
this evening. I have a few things to
update the board and the public on. Um
so as board members as you'll know that
we wrapped up our last of our six
connect with uh the BBSD community
engagement sessions last Wednesday
around declining enrollment with our
largest crowd um of uh the two weeks
that we held these meetings about 180
people came out to Monarch High School
and over the twoe period about a
thousand people participated. I am so
proud of our community and so thankful
for those who came out to provide us
feedback and engage in this process.
Next phase begins this week with a
launch of survey went out to staff today
and we'll go out to families tomorrow.
Want to thank everyone for their
participation. It's just really
important that we listen before we lead
as we look for ways to create really
resilient schools in this time of
declining enrollment.
Last Wednesday was also Earth Day and we
once again held our district-wide bike
and roll to school day. Kids across the
district rode into school on bikes,
scooters, skateboards, you name it. One
of the highlights was at Crest View
Elementary where they celebrated the
grand opening of the new underpass. You
can see it up here. Um for a safer route
to school alongside the city of Boulder.
Last week, we celebrated our second
class of seniors to earn the seal of
climate literacy diploma endorsement.
SEAL recognizes students for
demonstrating a strong understanding of
climate science, sustainability, and
environmental action. The program
expanded significantly this year. 51
students earned recognition, which is
more than double the number of
recipients from last year. This increase
underscores the growing commitment among
BBSC students to become leaders in
climate action. To earn the seal,
students must complete two climate
literacy courses, create an experiential
learning portfolio that centers on a
local climate problem with five real
world application experiences. Uh it was
a great event and uh if anybody was able
to attend uh the the projects, the
capstone projects that the kids uh
created were awesome.
We also recently celebrated all the
students who have earned the seal of
biiteracy this school year as well as
those that are on their way. BBC, we
believe being bilingual is a superpower,
opening doors in the lives of students
in life after high school. And it was
wonderful to hear from a number of our
seniors about the impact that being
bilingual has already had on their
lives.
I also wanted to give the folks at Apex,
our career and technical education
center that is next to the ed center, a
shout out for hosting us during last
week's board meeting. Uh while the
facility is still in construction, is
already a stunning facility filled with
some amazing learning. got to visit
students learning emergency medicine,
biomedical, automotive service, and
collision repair, film and video
production, and our teacher academy. Uh
we can't wait until the aviation, intro
to nursing, and modern manufacturing
pathways come online in a little more
than a year. And then we wrapped up the
visit at the BBSD culinary center where
Apex Culinary arts students prepared and
served a delicious lunch. Uh it was an
impressive demonstration of the real
world skills students are developing
every day.
Speaking of the culinary center, we want
to mention two events that our food
service team is cooking up. See there
Thursday they were they're opening the
doors at the culinary center for their
first ever open house where parents and
community members can learn more about
BBSD's gold standard school food
program. You can meet our amazing chefs,
tour the culinary center, sample foods
from our school menu, and share our
celebration of receiving Boulder Slow
Foods high honor, the snail of approval.
This award recognizes food and beverage
businesses that practice the
organation's values organization's
values of good, clean, and fair food for
all. These values closely align with how
the school food project approaches
preparing meals for students every day.
Congratulations to our food services
team. The other event that we have in
the works is the 2026 BVSD plant sale.
Kick off your gardening this year by
picking up all kinds of plants,
including heirloom varieties, at the
BVSD greenhouse right here between the
culinary center and the Apex building.
It's open three days with early staff
access and discounts as well as $100 in
free plans for new school gardens on
Friday May 8th, Saturday May 9th, and
Saturday May 16th. And more information
is available at food.bsd.org
sale. And board members, that's what I
have for my remarks this evening. Happy
to answer any questions.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members,
any questions or comments?
Seeing as there are none, we will move
on to the next agenda item this evening,
which is public participation.
The board respects the right of the
public to speak on matters concerning
the operation of the schools. The board
does not endorse the comments of
individual participants and remind all
those who speak that you are responsible
for ensuring your remarks are suitable
for an audience that includes
kindergarten through 12th graders.
Furthermore, this is an opportunity for
the board to hear from our constituents.
It is not a time for the board to engage
with or respond to speakers remarks.
Speakers will each have two minutes to
speak. You'll see a yellow card when you
have 30 seconds remaining and an orange
card when you have 10 seconds remaining.
If you run out of time or would like to
share additional information, you may
always email the board of education.
With that, our first speaker this
evening is Piper Vice.
How about Ava John?
There were two young ones just walking
down the hallway that I wonder if it
might be them and maybe they'll come
back um and join us later. Our next
speaker then will be Terresa Butterfield
who is virtual.
Hi.
Um give me a second to see if my camera
work. There you go. Um hello. My name is
Teresa Butterfield and I'm an elementary
special education teacher here in the
Boulder Valley School District, which
I've worked in for the past 10 years. As
someone who's worked in both our highest
performing and lowest performing
elementary schools, I'd like to share a
bit about my experience as it relates to
the district's approach to students who
are gifted and talented. As you may or
may not know, giftedness is a type of
neurodeiversity, meaning that the gifted
brain actually works differently from
most other peoples. Gifted students
often learn more quickly and understand
topics with greater complexity and
nuance. Gifted students also experience
the world differently and therefore they
require something different than their
neurotypical peers when it comes to
instruction and support. And yet in my
time across schools in this district,
I've mostly seen these students receive
one-sizefits-all instruction from
teachers who are well-meaning but who
are underprepared in how to meet gifted
students's complex needs. These teachers
are passionate, capable, intelligent,
and hardworking professionals. But most
of them have never been taught how to
support neurodeiverse students.
As a special education teacher, I've
been trained to support students like
these with disabilities. And I'm able to
do it through individualized education
programs that are backed by human
resources. In gifted education, there
are not the same trained human resources
available. There are just general
education teachers doing their best. So,
how do we support these general
education teachers in caring for our
gifted and otherwise neurodeiverse
students? We provide them education
through professional development
opportunities, which is why I support
Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented's
proposal that BBSD school board required
GTinformed training starting in the 2026
2027 school year. Thank you for your
consideration and your hard work on
behalf of the students of the Boulder
Valley School District.
Thank you.
Since our young friends have joined us,
we will go back to the top of the list
and welcome Piper Weiss to the podium.
Are you either of you, Piper?
Ava John.
We'll welcome Ava to the podium.
Hi, my name is Ava and I'm in fourth
grade at Lisville Elementary School. to
thank you for serving our on our school
board. I'm here today because I am
concerned about the abandoned oil wells
that are leaking methane and other toxic
gases near peakto peak charter school.
Their pollution created by these leaks
can cause worsened asthma and in in
children and even premature death.
Fortunately, there is a program called
the Enterprise Marginal Well Plugging
Group. Oil well operators can apply for
funding from this group to plug the
well. That means BBSD can put pressure
on the oil well operators to get the
well plugged. Plugging these wells is
important to the health of our of
students. It's time for action. Please
pressure the oil well operators and help
create a a healthier environment for
BBSD students.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Mary Henry.
Mary got out.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
then will be Richard Garcia.
Can you hear me? Great. Buenes.
Good evening, Madam President, Dr.
Anderson, and members of the board. I
come here tonight because of the
concerns that the Latina Latina families
and other white families have concerned
concerning the future of bilingual
education in Boulder Valley School
District. There are rumors because of
declined enrollment that the dual
immersion school and the 9010 school at
Pioneer may face some changes to the
programs. Because of the history of
bilingual education in BBSD, it would
behoove the board of education and
administration to dispel these rumors.
The history of bilingual education goes
back to 1972.
It was a struggle to convince the
district then of the value and
importance of bilingual education. It
took numerous meetings and discussions
with both the administration and public
and public particip participation at
schoolboard meetings. I'm hurrying up.
Uh to convince the board that bilingual
education was important and valued by
the community. In 1973, I ran for the
board of education on a program on a
platform of bilingual multicultural
education. I didn't make it. However, uh
it did create a lot of excitement in the
community around bilingual education.
The CHO Latino community in the Anglo
community uh had an activist group of
Chicanos that decided that perhaps
approaching the implementation of
bilingual education via another route
was important. We submitted a title 7
proposal to the board of education and
the board discussed it for several
meetings. We had expert testimony to the
viability of bilingual education and
heard from the community as well. The
board voted it down. A gentleman named
Federico Pena who is a former mayor of
Denver in 1974 reached out to us to help
him write the bill to implement
bilingual programs in school districts
in Colorado. Thus, the bilingual
education act of 1975 was passed and
signed by the governor. BBSD then
decided to allow bilingual education in
four elementary schools. Lincoln
Elementary, Lafayette Elementary,
Coline, and Aurora 7 had bilingual
education programs, although they were
transitional.
Am I done?
Wow. Anyway, I would really really urge
the board of education to reach out to
the Latino community and maybe perhaps
have special meetings to have community
discussions around declining enrollment
because none of them have been able to
attend and those that have come out of
there confused.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Jeannie
Schlafley.
Hi. Don't worry. Yeah, we're
other moms. We're not else speaking just
thank you board members for this
opportunity to speak and thank you so
much for your service to our schools,
our staff, our teachers and are amazing
and our kiddos. We really really
appreciate everything you do. I am here
um as a mom of two kids in our bilingual
schools in BBSD
and I am here to advocate for our
bilingual education like Mr. Garcia just
did so beautifully and if there's time
on mine maybe he can finish up.
Uh I um I will voice some concerns that
I have and then um there's there's so
much I want to talk about, but um
hopefully we'll be back another time as
well to talk. But um some of my concerns
in the form of questions are wondering
what's been uh what is being done to
retain our Spanish-sp speakaking
families and how can we better connect
with them? As Mr. Garcia had mentioned.
And then uh what is also being done to
recruit our Spanishspeaking families?
For example, can we make enrollment
easier? It's so hard for everybody, I
think. Um and then three, what can we do
to retain our amazing bilingual
teachers? Don't want to lose them.
They're amazing. And then as I've heard
um from the superintendent in other
places, oh 30 seconds, that is hard to
find bilingual teachers. So let let's
problem solve all this. So those are
just a few concerns. I want to close
with my son. He's a 10-year-old. This is
a little snippet in his life. He his
best friend is Gel and uh he doesn't
have a phone yet. So neither of them.
They talk on their parents' phones. And
in the backseat of the car, it was on
speaker phone. We're all listening. They
were talking in Spanish and then next
thing I know I hear Gail say, "Now,
Miles, why don't you speak in English?
We're not in school anymore."
So, let's keep this up.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Crystal
Shin.
Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin
and I am a BBSD parent. At our last
meeting, this board acknowledged student
safety as a priority. We heard board
members engage seriously with our
concerns and we really appreciated that.
But I want to be precise about
something. We were told that independent
oversight isn't feasible because of
FURPA. I want to address that directly
with a concrete example. Cherry Creek
School District recently issued a formal
public RFP commissioning an independent
third-party firm to review their
district. Their scope explicitly
includes retaliation concerns,
whistleblower protections, and conflicts
of interest. They built Furpa compliance
directly into their model, requiring all
findings to exclude personally
identifiable
identifiable information.
Cherry Creek's own document states the
process must remain, and I'm quoting
independent, objective, and able to
endure public scrutiny. That is the
standard we are asking BBSC to meet.
Better data and improved communication
are welcome, but they do not access the
core gap. When the system investigates
itself, there is no independent
mechanism to verify the outcome.
Cherry Creek proved that gap can be
closed. The only question left is
whether BBSC will act or just keep
saying the right things will families
keep getting hurt. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Liz
Himenez.
Pioneer.
Good afternoon. My name is Liz Jimenez
and I'm a BBSC parent and my nine and
11year-old child have attended Pioneer
since kinder. I'm here to speak about
the district's approach to gifted
education. My children were identified
as gifted early on at Pioneer. At first,
we were excited, but this past year, I
haven't seen my oldest thrive. I've seen
her retreat. I've watched a bright,
inquisitive child grow frustrated as she
spent her days waiting for a challenge
that doesn't come and for a curriculum
that meets her where she actually is. As
we just heard, giftedness is a form of
neurodeiversity.
is defined by high sensitivity and
asynchronous development. Too often,
this results in twice exceptional
students who are gifted but also
navigate a disability. These children
require a specialized strength-based
approach to ensure their unique needs
are met. And the data is clear. As of
spring 2025, gifted students represent
our largest subop at nearly 20%. In a
district that prides itself on being all
together for all students, we can't
ignore the needs of oneif of our
population. As a district navigates
consolidation and declining enrollment,
we must prioritize classroom level
expertise. Every teacher should be
equipped to support neurodeiverse
learners. This is especially critical
for our dual language schools. Families
should never be forced to choose between
linguistic proficiency and the advanced
academic support their children legally
and educationally require. I asked the
board I asked the board to require GT
informed training and support for all
BBS elementary teachers starting next
school year.
Thank you for your consideration and
your hard work on behalf of our
students.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Sarah
Dodson Knight.
Good evening y'all. I am Sarah Dodson
Knight, a substitute teacher in DVSD and
parent of two children in the district.
and I'm here to add my voice to the
others who have said
GT students in the district need more
support. But first, I want to start by
praising and thanking the marvelous
teachers that I have met who have made
huge efforts to meet my children where
they are to do differentiated
instruction
so that the students who are performing
above grade level are challenged. For
example, at Esquea Vilingu Pioneer
Pamela Chavez and Elizabeth Vela Robles
noticing that my son was ready to do
more than count uh and recognize
letters.
So, with Pam's encouragement, he started
writing short sentences to accompany the
drawings that he made in preschool.
And with Elizabeth, he learned to
multiply and divide as a kindergartener.
I'm thinking of David Smith, the school
librarian,
who supported my daughter when as a
fourth grader, she wanted to create a
young author's club and he helped with
that. Emily Ritter at Platt who offers a
weekly lunch bunch for gifted and
talented students helping with their
social emotional development.
Aayita Hubard at Centurus who teaches
French 4, French 5, AP French and IB
French all in the same class. Amazing
skills at differentiating but that
doesn't come naturally to us teachers.
And so many have not had a strong
formation in gifted and talented stuff.
So I am pleading
for BVSD to add
professional development, regular
continuing professional development for
teachers as part of their mandatory
hours
to help them learn how to recognize and
understand our neurodeiverse.
Children who frequently struggle with
anxiety, perfectionism, underper
and getting bored in school. Thank you.
Thank you,
board members. We have one final public
commenter this evening. Public watching,
you know, I don't normally make
exceptions to our rules around sign up,
but we have a young person with us who
would like to share their comments at
the podium. So, I welcome Penny Sequin
up.
Hi, my name is Penny Sigin and I'm a
fourth grader at Lewisville Elementary
School. Today I'm here to talk about
plugging the abandoned oil wells near
metallark and peak to peak. These oil
wells leak poisonous gases such as
methane and hydrogen sulfide. In fact,
hydrogen sulfide can kill a man with one
breath. Both schools are very populated.
Today, the total enrollment for these
schools is approximately
2,200 students. These oil wells are
within a mile of the schools and kids
are being harmed. Kids lungs are still
developing. How can you help? Well, you
can pressure the Enterprise Marginal
Well Plugging Company, EMWP. This is a
company that is dedicated to plugging
oil wells. If you push this company to
plug the oil wells near these schools,
kids will be healthier along with
parents, other guardians, and teachers.
Plugging these wells will also be better
for the earth in general. The methane at
leaks coats the atmosphere with an extra
layer of heat.
The US Environmental Protection Agency,
EPA, estimates there are approximately
3.4 million oil wells in the country.
This is not a reasonable amount and in
fact there should be no abandoned oil
wells at all. So all in all, you can
push the EMWP to close these oil wells
near me and peak to peak.
Thank you.
That concludes public comment for this
evening. On behalf of the board, I'd
like to thank everybody who took the
time to show up and share or attend
virtually to share your thoughts and
concerns with the board. I want to give
a special shout out to our youngest
students who are early advocates for
both the environment and their peers.
Takes a lot of bravery to come to the
board.
With that, our next item on the agenda
is board communication.
Board members, who would like to begin?
Lania.
Uh, I would also like to extend my
thanks to the kids who got up to speak
tonight. That's wonderful that you're
advocating for what you believe in. Uh,
and we listen to you. So, thank you. Um,
I also
would like to uh tell all the people who
come to speak that I appreciate it and
the board takes very seriously what
people say when they come and all the
your emails. Um, and I went to the
Monarch uh, community engagement
and there I met a lot of parents who
were taking time away from their own
families
uh, to give us their input and I was
really impressed by the depth of thought
that I saw and and
the ability to think communitywide.
So, um, as we move forward and our our
community engagement now has
transitioned to survey, uh, I would ask
that we continue to have that view. Um,
where we don't just think of our own
kids, but we think about all the kids in
our neighborhood and all the kids in our
town and all the kids in our district.
Um,
and
I also think I I heard from several
folks, well, you guys are just backing
into a plan that you already have. And I
want to say that that is not true. There
is no plan out there that we're backing
into. We are listening before leading,
just like Rob said. So, I think it's
really really important um that people
bring us um their heart in that way that
they understand that we do care what
they have to say and what their families
experiences. So, thank you for all of
our community members tonight.
Jorge,
thank you. Um I'd also like to thank all
our speakers today. I appreciate you
coming here and advocating for our
students and for changes that you want
to be a part of and particular for our
younger students who are here today and
I appreciate your efforts and raising
your voices. Um I'd also like to thank
um all the folks who participated in the
community engagement sessions. It was
great to see um the buyin and the
consideration that people took that that
families took, community members took in
terms of thinking beyond themselves and
thinking about the broader questions
that we're asking about how we can
better serve all of our students because
I think that's at the core of what we're
doing. um and that these sessions really
help us um that these changes that we're
kind of going to be going through are
really to address the needs of all of
our students. Those who um you know are
multilingual learners who are are
special education programs are gifted
and talented students are kids are free
to reduce lunch that we can better serve
them right by really thinking about how
we have um spaced out our schools and
where they're located and how we have
have spread resources around. So I
really um want to thank folks for that
that um participation. Um but also
recognize that you know uh we have a
survey coming up that's important for
folks to participate in that not
everybody could participate in these
sessions that it does take extra work on
our part to make sure it's accessible to
all folks in the community especially
those ones that may not feel most
comfortable uh participating in certain
venues and that maybe aren't
historically used to participating in
the system. So, so I know we've got more
work to do, but you know, as Lenia
mentioned, right, recognize that we're
doing this with the with the right
intentions to really allow your
participation to hear your voice. And I
see folks out here who were at those
sessions. So, thank you for being there.
Um, and and that's a work that we have
to do together. So, thank you.
Oh, wait, one more. Thank you. Uh and
thank you to uh you know I did get to
hear the discussions at the tables and
thank you to our principles who took
time to participate in these to lead the
discussions to man the tables. It was
great to hear the conversations that
were going out there. It was just very
thoughtful work. So so thank you all for
the for the work that you're doing.
Thank you
Jason.
Sure. Um, I don't have a whole lot more
to add to what Lenia and Jorge said, but
I also appreciate uh the folks that have
come out tonight and that went to the I
think six sessions. Um, maybe a thousand
folks in total, which is really
remarkable when you consider that it's
two and a half hours on a school night.
You know, as Lilia said, taking away
time from your families. Um, I went to
two of them, one at New Vista, one at
Monarch. Um, and I didn't see, you know,
maybe a handful, but very few people
leave. They were people were engaged.
Uh, they were positive. Um, you know,
productive conversations. And I think
from what I could hear, you know, people
were really focused on solutions and not
on kind of, you know, what's just in
their own interest. Obviously, we all
have want to do what's best for our own
kids. But I think to Lolenia's point
about you know kind of looking beyond
your own family and community and school
and to kind of what you know uh what
solutions work for the district and
that's what I heard that's what I heard
in those sessions. And so adding my
thanks also to um folks who've been and
also you know as Rob has mentioned um
all the work that went into this um on
top of full-time jobs that all these
folks have principles and staff uh
attending planning you know really
putting together an incredibly
thoughtful and well um designed
engagement sessions and you know
obviously just the the first of many
things we're doing as many as folks have
mentioned the surveys but um yeah I just
wanted to add my uh two cents to that
also. Um and then I just uh seeing the
pictures of our tour of Apex uh is
always one of the highlights of at least
for me being on the board is being able
to be at schools and see uh what's
happening there. Just seeing how um
amazing uh you know the things that are
happening at these schools and Apex in
particular. I think you know people
would be blown away if they knew um the
the programs and the the things that
kids are learning. every single student
I talked to said it was the best part of
their day. Uh and it was um really great
to see that in person. We we get a lot
of presentations on it, but um you know,
really great to see what's happening
there. Uh and hopefully more people
around the district can um can also see
what's happening there, too. So, uh
thanks to all those uh folks on staff
who made uh that tour such uh so
impressive and so great.
Alex
Uh thank you. Um uh I also want to thank
everybody who spoke tonight. I'm sorry I
can't be there in person. Uh but it's
it's great to hear uh people's input uh
especially as always including students
who come to speak. Um I just wanted to
also reiterate how much I appreciated
the community engagement and also
recognize how much um I think the survey
stage now is important and other input
that we always uh continue.
Um I think I'd like to make sure to the
extent there's people in the public who
see this who haven't been to those
meetings. Two points. Number one is uh
we really are thinking about lots of
options. Some people talk about it like
well what schools are we going to close
and really when we get in those if
you're in amongst the thousand people at
those meetings, you know, there's a lot
more than just talking about closing
schools. We're talking about programming
program placement what to do with
multi-grade things. You know, can K8s
become a K5 and a middle school? all
sorts of different options that are in
addition to potentially closing,
including where we put magnet and focus
schools and where we might relocate the
magnet and uh special schools that we
have now. So, some people are talking
about it as if we're having a discussion
about closure when in fact we're having
discussions with a thousand people about
eight different options, some of which
include closure. And then secondly, I
I'm also I can say if there's a plan or
a list of closures that's already been
picked, they sure haven't shared it with
the board. I don't think that's real. I
think people have been great in their
sincere engagement in the process where
we're talking about the things we value
as communities and the things we're
trying to protect and foster going
forward. And I think that's really real.
And if you haven't had a chance to be in
those meetings, I'm just super impressed
by the way our community has addressed
it and by the great leadership of our
people facilitating that and the
district's central leadership. So, I'm
just grateful for all of that. And
finally, uh I also really enjoyed the
Apex visit last week. Um and I just want
to say like one of the things we need to
do because that is so special is figure
out how we get more kids through it and
into it. And uh we have wonderful
programming there that uh more kids
would like to enjoy and it's as a board
and as a district I know things are
tight, but we should figure out ways to
have more kids be able to benefit from
it. Um any thank you very much and I'll
sorry I can't be there
Anna
also just echoing uh my fellow board
members I had the opportunity of
attending uh the listening session at
Broomfield High School and I was just so
grateful for the community that showed
up there. Um and I have sang my praises
to Dr. Deac Cruz and Dr. Anderson. Um
but just about the the preparedness that
the team um team was and the the
materials that they had uh ready for the
parents to be able to have an engaged
and intentional listening session um at
those community meetings. Um, and uh, to
that end, I also want to um, also give a
shout out to the survey, but also uh,
let parents know that uh, we're still
not done listening to um, to parents
feedback, to community members feedback.
And I think to um uh uh Richard's point
uh today at public comment and u making
sure that we are reaching out to to uh
more marginalized communities,
Spanish-sp speakaking parents um and I
am inviting um Spanish speaking parents
to to reach out to me, fill out the
survey um to really share share those
insights. Um and I know that this does
get translated, but I do want to make
sure um that folks here
Hasar
particip.
Um, and then finally, I do want to just
um also give a shout out to our great
tour at the Apex Center. Um, I was I had
the uh great great priv privilege of
being able uh to double dip in having my
school district uh hat on, but also my
uh commissioner on higher ed hat on. Um
to really observe um both both sides of
the Apex Center and the concurrent and
dual enrollment that they're uh having
over there at that center. um it made me
very excited and I um uh have been
talking to my other fellow commissioners
on higher education about the great work
that's happening here at the district uh
and making sure that our work on the
commission is also blending in with what
the later K through 12 uh system is
doing. Uh and so I am just very grateful
and um uh really proud and excited to
see um what what more is to come of
those programs.
I want to echo my board members comments
around the community engagement
sessions. They have been outstanding and
it has not uh been without a significant
amount of effort from our staff and from
the parents that have been able to
attend those meetings. Uh I also want to
share that we are still in that
engagement phase. the surveys are coming
out as my board members have said and I
know uh since the sessions themselves
have wrapped up we have seen a ramp up
in emails um people thinking that maybe
we're already moving on to decision
phases or newspaper articles that list
certain schools and that there's a
foregone conclusion and I want to
reiterate that we are still in the
community engagement and listening phase
we are not in the decision-making phase
and so even if certain school
communities might think that certain
moves are being made or if newsp
newspapers reference certain schools or
if there's a narrative floating out
there. That's just not where we are
right now as a district. And so I just
really encourage everybody to stay. It's
it's easy to want to kind of go to the
next step when you feel like the first
step, your part of the first step is
done, but we are still engaging. Fill
out the survey. We will continue to
listen and you are always free to email
the board. Depending on the volume of
emails, we may not be able to respond to
all of them. And really the best way is
to participate in those surveys um
moving ahead. So, I just wanted to share
that
with the board. Um, I also want to share
that I've been thinking a little bit
about the social media lawsuit that we
joined as a school district. Some of the
public comments in part that we've been
hearing around access to social media at
our schools and want to put a plug in
for the possibility of turning off
access to social media on our district
issued Chromebooks for consideration.
Um, I think that is something we
continue to talk about, talk around, but
never directly speak to. And so I just
want to put a plug out there knowing
that we do have that ability um for
consideration at our high schools. We do
have limited access at our elementary
schools and our middle schools, but I
offer up the consideration for turning
off that access at our high schools.
Um lastly, I had the opportunity this
afternoon to attend uh an award ceremony
at the with CDE with Dr. Anderson and
Dr. Da Cruz uh to receive all of the
awards that the school district has
received from the state. Uh we will be
presenting on those moving forward, but
I just want to say we cleaned house. So
kudos to the staff and to our teachers
and to the administration for continuing
to do the hard work of improving
opportunities and outcomes for our
students. It's not just the posters and
the banners. It's it's not just the
data, but it is the day-to-day
experiences and what our young people
are able to do while they're with us at
places like Apex and all of our amazing
campuses and then what they are able to
accomplish once they leave us. And so,
um, really proud of this district for
the efforts that we continue to make and
know that that dogged focus on our
strategic plan and some of the efforts
to really continue to prove access to
outcomes and opportunities um, is
sometimes challenging, but it is really
worth it. So, with that, we will move on
to our next item this evening, which is
information. We have two information
items. The first of which is a
sustainability action plan and April
earth month update. And I will turn it
over to Rob Price for introductions.
All right. Good evening, President
Rashall, members of the board, and Dr.
Anderson. Tonight's presentation will be
led by Dr. Carol, our sustainability and
energy officer, and Sarah Nick, our
sustainability energy analyst. And
they're going to walk you through
the district's progress on our current
sustainability action plan. They're
going to highlight key accomplishments
from this year and really from the past
five years
and then they're going to provide an
update on our next uh development of our
next sustainability action plan. So as
we begin I just want to ground us in our
vision our green BSD green BBSD vision
and mission. Our vision is altogether
for all students and the planet and the
vision continues to guide the district's
works work across operations,
instruction, culture and leadership.
So for the past 18 years, uh Dr. Carol
has really helped shape and lead the
district sustainability work with a
vision and deep commitment. And under
her leadership, BBSD has built a
nationally recognized sustainability
program that has connected district
operations, student learning, community
partnerships,
and long range planning in meaningful
ways. And the recognition reflected on
this slide speaks not only to the
strength of the work itself, but also to
Dr. Carol's leadership in establishing
BBSD as a leader in whole district
sustainability.
So, as Dr. Carol nears retirement,
I want to just take a moment to thank
her uh not only for her leadership, but
for her lasting impact across the
district. So, with that, I'm going to
turn it over to Dr. CAROL.
Thank you so much.
Oh, I can't believe this is my last
time. I'm so happy to be here giving you
your Earth Day um Earth Month update on
sustainability and thank all of you for
your ongoing support. The work here
wouldn't happen without the support of
the board and the leadership of Dr.
Anderson and Rob Price and so many
others. So, thank you for the
opportunity. So, um with that, here are
our guiding documents around
sustainability that BBSC has had in
place since 2009. They are supported by
board policy, which the board of
education re-emphasized in 2023 by
passing the Green New Deal resolution.
So, the work we're doing and reporting
highlights on tonight supports both the
2021 sustainability plan and the Green
New Deal.
Our plan covers the four impact systems
on the slide to align with district
systems and priorities, leadership,
operations, curriculum, instruction, and
climate and culture. The plan has
overarching goals and supporting goals
in each of these areas and reflects a
five-year timeline in which we are in
year 505. Also, this year we're working
on the next five-year plan, which we'll
give you an update on later in the
presentation.
We'll walk through each of the plan
areas starting with leadership where our
overarching goal is to collect data and
report on healthy, equitable, and
sustainable school best practices for
all of our schools. And this beautiful
picture on the right was created by one
of Eisenhower's Eco Eagles in a
schoolwide poster contest. And speaking
of leadership, these students also
presented in a national forum on Earth
Week just last week sharing their work
around waste diversion. And they were
amazing. There's a video of it in case
anyone wants to see it.
So the first supporting goal in this
category is to create a sustainability
advisory group which is complete. The
group was established in January 2022
and meets quarterly. Current members
include students, teachers, community
members, past board of education
members, and more. And applications are
now open for new members for next year.
This year, the work of the committee
focused mainly on development of the new
plan.
The sustainability dashboard was also
completed and launched in fiscal year
2324. We have great engagement with this
tool and you can find sustainability
metrics for all of our schools on the
tool. The dashboard lives on the
district's new dashboard page and this
year we added a new district level tab
and we'll um add in access to our new
live energy data for each school this
summer.
We continue to update operational
policies with sustainability principles.
Most of the work here has been building
documents in the bond to make sure
sustainability goals and priorities are
reflected in the right places such as
the technical specifications and other
contracts. Two areas I want to highlight
this year were the creation of a new
water management plan and also work to
align our new chemicals with green
cleaning principles.
And we are thrilled to roll out the
green BBSD certification professional
learning opportunity for staff this
year. There are 11 units that staff walk
through to learn more about
sustainability at the district level,
tools and resources, and how it connects
with their day-to-day. I'm going to hand
the next part over to Sarah.
Great.
So, within facilities and operations,
we've continued to focus on our goals um
around greenhouse gas reductions,
particularly from building operations
and transportation, as well as water
management. And I want to highlight one
of our biggest wins this year. The solar
array being installed at the newly
rebuilt New Vista High School will
produce enough to offset most of New
Vista's electricity, and it'll increase
our total solar production capacity
throughout the district by nearly 19%.
Uh, and that array is expected to be
operational by the summer.
Our short-term emissions goal was to
reduce our emissions by 14% compared to
FY19. Uh on this chart you can see that
baseline year on the far left and then
that 14% reduction is this blue line. Um
and not only did we hit that goal in
FY22, we surpassed the goal and achieved
a 29% emissions reduction overall, which
is equivalent to taking more than 5,000
cars off the road for a year. for
reference of the scale of that. That's
as many cars as all 5,000 plus of the
students from BV BVSD's three largest
high schools. We're continuing to engage
with operations teams to identify
opportunities for energy reduction
across our footprint to keep this
momentum up. Uh and our long-term goal
remains to be carbon neutral by 2050.
In terms of building efficiency, we uh
we utilize the energy use intensity
metric or EUI. The formula for EUI is at
the bottom right of the slide here. Uh
we're looking at our energy use in a
building divided by the building area.
So this lets us compare the efficiency
of our biggest school and our smallest
school fairly. Uh our 2026 goal was to
average an EUI of 56 across our
footprint footprint. And you can see
just to the left of that goal on the
chart, we reached that goal in FY25.
Uh our long-term goal for 2050 is to get
to an average EUI of 30. and we are on
track to hit that goal. I also want to
note that BBSD is required to meet EUI
goals through Colorado's building
performance standards programs. Um, and
our more ambitious targets have left us
in great shape to meet these goals. Uh,
at current, we've met all of our
requirements for 2026 and we've met 86%
of our requirements for 2030, which
tells us which schools we'll be able to
focus our efforts on.
So, moving on to our supporting goals,
uh, our green building guiding
principles continue to be utilized in
our bond construction projects and those
baked in best practices let us tap into
more available funding. Um, so at uh,
Centurus High in the photo here, uh, the
bond program was able to fund
sustainable flooring and we were able to
receive lighting rebates for our more
efficient LED lighting. Our short-term
waste goal was to maintain a 50%
diversion rate. Um, but that goal hasn't
been feasible for our schools due to
external composting policy. Uh, however,
our diversion rate is creeping back up
and we've hit nearly 32% this year.
Our goal around water has two parts.
We've grayed out this check mark uh to
signify that we've met part of this
goal. Uh so we've been tracking our
water consumption and cost since 2008
and we did achieve our 5% reduction goal
in FY23
but both FY24 and FY25 were extremely
hot and dry. Uh and we can expect to
keep seeing these weather patterns
impacting our consumption. Um so it's
really important to once again keep
perspective of what these reductions
really mean in terms of budget. Uh since
2008, our water usage is down, but our
costs have more than doubled. Um we
recognize that water is and will
continue to be a high priority for both
the district and for the region. Um and
earlier this year, we produced a
comprehensive water management plan uh
that will guide our path towards better
water resiliency. And alongside the
district's standing water team, we're
actively exploring smart water
management solutions and funding
opportunities to reduce our consumption.
We also met our transportation emission
goal reduction uh in FY2023 and we've
maintained that reduction through route
optimization uh and through purchasing
our alternative fuel buses. Uh this year
we received six additional grant-f
funded electric buses. Um, our transport
team our transportation team uh also
released a community survey to better
understand how our community travels to
school. Uh, the survey had more than
14,000 respondents at we and we learned
that nearly a quarter of our students
walk and bike to school, which is more
than double the national average.
And as mentioned earlier, we've
continued to work to towards our net
zero emissions goals. Uh, and that work
includes decarbonization planning
throughout the district. This year, Apex
underwent renovations to install two new
solar canopies. Uh, and we earned a
$50,000 grant to plan for the full
decarbonization of the building. Um, as
part of the requirement for the grant,
we'll be applying for the second round
of funding focused on implementation
later this year. And now, I'm going to
pass it back to Gita to talk about
curriculum and instruction.
All right.
Just gonna say while I'm catching up
here that I would love for these
students to join every presentation
moving forward. Such a great fan base.
Thank you for your enthusiasm. So
lovely. All right. Incurriculum
instruction. The overarching goal here
is for all students to have experiences
to develop sustainability knowledge,
values, and behavior. And the picture
here is from our first BBSD seal of
climate literacy graduating class last
year. Dr. Anderson showed you the class
from this year that nearly doubled. Um
so very excited about for all of those
students.
All right, the supporting goals in this
section first is to integrate
sustainability topics into our
standards. So we have identified
standards in science, social studies and
health for opportunities for students to
learn about sustainability. students in
our green youth council um which is
always looking for new members for our
students who are here uh have learned to
write optional lesson plans using
standards and BBSD instructional model
for all levels and are excited to try
these out next year as part of the seal
of climate literacy. We've reviewed all
courses and all of our comprehensive
high schools have at least two or more
courses aligned with obtaining the seal.
Additionally, we added five new climate
related courses to our course catalog.
The second goal is to support and track
professional learning. We completed this
at the beginning of the year and it's
listed as optional professional learning
for teachers. They can earn green BBSD
staff certification level one and we are
working on level two for next year.
The third goal is to build relationships
with strategic partners. So we new
partners are reaching out to us weekly
about how they can support our work. Um
we're building additional connections
between BBSD initiatives and through our
seal of climate literacy work.
The fourth goal is around student voice.
Um, so as I mentioned, we have our green
youth council. We're in the second year
of that. They meet monthly. They help
further refine and provide outreach for
the seal of climate literacy. They're
involved in the application review and
they helped us host the celebration last
week. Um, they have also attended events
such as the BBSD is the place to be
showcased to um talk about the work and
engage student voice. They expanded
significantly since year one and the
majority of our secondary schools are
represented on the green youth council.
The fifth goal is to continue to pursue
and develop aligned professional
development and curricular and
extracurricular activities. So I'll
highlight here that we have the green
teams at the majority of our schools and
our high school climate summit has
continued. This past fall the summit was
hosted at Centurus. Platt also hosted a
climate day of learning for several
schools and both of these events were
partner supported.
The sixth goal is to expand pathways to
green jobs. We've continued to work with
green the grad plus team to incorporate
green job exploration in dare to dream
and discover your dream career events in
elementary and middle and pathways in
high school. This is year two of the
environmental sustainability course
offered at Apex.
And you've heard about the seal of
climate literacy um from Dr. Anderson
and I think on your Apex tour. So we
won't spend too much more time um
talking about this, but we're thrilled
about this. this program ties so much of
the work that we're doing in general and
especially in this curriculum
instruction section of the plan um and
thrilled to have this opportunity to
recognize our students and all the
students earning the seal of climate
literacy are also recognized as part of
our GR plus program. So here are just
some fun numbers. Um we in the two years
that we've had this program we've had 71
students earned the seal. We have many
many more students in grades six through
11 who have expressed interest in it.
We've added the five new climate
courses. Um students have earned 12
certifications and participated in 46
wor work work-based learning
opportunities including jobs,
internships and volunteers.
Uh off we've offered eight courses where
students can earn college credit before
graduation and we've have supported
interest in climate literacy at our
middle school level by creating the
junior seal experience which five of our
middle schools are offering.
Uh so LRA is our main supporter for the
seal of climate literacy and they drove
efforts at the state level to create
this in Colorado which was the first
state to pass this legislation and now
they're working with other states as
well. Um which is amazing. Um but we are
also proud of the many many community
partners who help provide grant funding,
techno support, curriculum, student
learning experience and much more for
the seal of climate literacy and making
it a reality for our students.
The fourth and final quadrant is climate
and culture. The overarching goal here
is to have regular opportunities to
experience sustainability in action.
We have outdoor learning spaces at all
of our elementary schools and increased
seating and shading at all of our
secondary schools. In this picture,
we're highlighting a group of high
school students at Boulder High who
hosted the last um last spring's climate
summit. As part of each summit, they do
hands-on work at the school to help
beautify and create these outdoor
learning spaces. I want to also continue
to highlight our partnership with Play
Boulder, through which we have planted
many trees at many of our BBSD schools
and the community forest who hires for
paid summer jobs for students to help
with the planting and caring of these
trees across the county and um at our
school sites over the summer.
We have communications around
sustainability that goes out every month
minimally through our various channels.
Our biggest reach being the Earth Day
spot that goes communitywide and went
out last week.
Finally, the third goal here is to
support the model programs that already
exist and are truly the heart of
sustainability work at our schools. So,
for example, we have 48 schools
committed to zero waste through our
GreenStar Schools program in partnership
with Ecoycle. Our amazing food service
program continues to offer healthy,
fresh, and when possible, local foods
for all students and are committed to
best zero waste reduction practices. And
they host our greenhouse and lots of
learning happens there as well. And Trip
Tracker, phenomenal program in 43 of our
schools supporting sustainable modes of
transportation. We could go on and on
about these programs, but when you ask
our students um when we talk to them
about our new sustainability action plan
and what are the programs that mean the
most to them, these are the programs
that come up as most notable.
In just the past two years, we have
raised or been awarded more than
$400,000 to support these efforts
through grants and rebates. We intend to
do a better job tracking and reporting
this important number to the board as we
know that even this number is not all
inclusive of what the district has been
able to to bring in to support this
work. It also doesn't include savings we
know we've achieved through energy
efficiency measures and utility
reductions.
Moving forward, as previously mentioned,
because our current plan ends this year,
staff are working hard to build out the
next action plan. So, we have hired
Lotus to help support this work. We've
engaged with many stakeholders,
including community members and staff to
get feedback on accomplishments,
challenges, and ideas moving forward.
We've met with more than 100 plus people
um half of whom are students. Meetings
have been in the form of stakeholder
groups, interviews, and plan area focus
groups. and we are sending out a
principal survey not this week or next
week to get confused with our other
survey but in in a couple weeks.
Um the new plan will keep the four
bucket areas of as our current plan.
Some of the priorities that are rising
um as part of the discussion are listed
on this slide but include uh resilience,
water management, continued focus on
greenhouse gas reduction, integration of
this work with our strategic plan and
green job skills development. Staff will
have a draft plan ready for review this
summer and plan to bring the final to
the board in the fall. And we will be
using storymap to share out our progress
from the last five years as a tool for
the community. And with that, we will
take questions.
Thank you for that very thorough update.
See Lenia has her hand up. Did you or
for questions? We'll begin with her.
First, I want to thank you for the great
presentation. I enjoyed it. Um, I
learned a lot. I want to elevate for our
community that we have doubled our cost
on water even though we're using less
than 2008. Is that what you said? So,
water resiliency
um has to be a priority. So, thank you
for elevating that. My questions um
could you te talk a little bit about the
five new courses that are being offered
in schools and then also on uh waste
diversion rates. I see that it wasn't
what we wanted. Tell me what's happening
with composting.
Sure. Yeah. So, the five new courses
we've created are in the course catalog,
and I had details on all of them that I
deleted from this right before, but I
will send you all the details that you
want, but they're being offered, I know,
at Centurus and Fairview and Plat for
sure, and maybe some others um by
teachers there who were teaching other
things, but are now doing this work as
well, and have new curriculum in the
high school courses as part of what they
were doing was working towards the seal
of climate literacy. They did really
great community projects, but happy to
send you any details that you want about
those courses. Yeah. Um, the composting.
So, what what changed a few years ago
and communitywide across the Front Range
was that we they're no longer accepting
anything other than food waste and yard
waste in the compost, which is probably
overall a good change. And that was due
to communitywide um contamination, not
to our schools, but um just an issue
that they were having. When
contamination goes in the compost, it's
much harder environmentally than, for
example, when contamination goes in
recycling because that what that compost
is doing is going back into the soils
and growing new food. And so it's
problem when there's a plastics for
example in there. So we shifted um to
meet that that new standard that we're
looking only at food waste and in some
cases garden waste. So that was a a
pretty big reduction for us because we
were able to do things like colored um
paper and tissue paper and other just
there were a lot of other materials. We
we had it in our schools um schoolwide
and now it's really just focused in the
cafeteria. So we were at the 50% red um
diversion rate and that dropped. But
that's okay because we've um been able
to build back and it's and it's a
cleaner um compost that we have. And in
fact, the compost from our schools is so
clean that um I believe in 10 to 15 of
our schools, it's going directly back to
local farmers. This is a partnership
with Ecoycle and local farmers and then
our students get to go visit those
farms. So, we're doing a really great
job and rebuilding that program. So,
yeah. Anything else to add? I know just
Yes. Okay. Okay.
Jason,
um yeah, I don't have any questions. I
just want to say thank you. This is
really uh very uplifting and hopeful. I
I feel very demoralized with some of the
national news around sustainability and
climate goals and so to see you know us
meeting these targets and more um you
know really gives me hope and hopefully
you know all these all the kids and
young people that are following this
that care so much about this. So, um,
you know, just a whole range of news.
The meeting our goals, the number of
kids in, um, earning the seal of climate
literacy. Um, I had a third one. I don't
remember what it is, but I just, yeah, I
just want to say thank you for this.
This is really really, um, always one of
my favorite presentations and even more
so this year just given how, um, how
much we've accomplished as a district.
So, thanks.
Thank you.
I have two two questions. First, you
referenced that the state itself has an
e an EUI goal that's different from our
goal. What is the state's EUI goal?
Do you have that interacting goal?
So, it's unfortunately a little more
complicated than that. We get to pick
from
functionally about eight different goals
from each of our sites. Uh we're looking
at uh EUI, this energy use intensity. We
could be looking at um a flat uh
reduction in our EUI based on the type
of building we have. Uh we could be
looking at our greenhouse gas intensity.
So rather than looking at energy use, we
could be looking at um emissions
specifically. Um so when I say that
we've met those thresholds, it means
we've met at least one of our many
options.
And the state a few years ago required
um benchmarking for all state buildings
50
5000 square feet and above. So we have
what 50
46 I believe of our buildings are
required by benchmark.
So we send them our information
annually. Um we are exempt from having
to pay the fines as a school district.
Um but we wouldn't have had any fines to
pay. So that's okay. And it's actually
worth mentioning as well that because we
did so well on these benchmarking goals,
I mentioned that $50,000 grant, we were
able to apply for that grant through
this benchmarking program. So that
helped us out a lot.
And then um my other question was,
are you can you identify the barriers to
the handful of schools that are not
participating yet in trip tracker and
our ecoycle green star schools programs?
Well, the exciting news about the
ecoycle answer is that all of our
schools will be participating um by the
end of 2026. So, we're all on track and
we're going to be 100% compliant. That
will be our big update next year. Trip
tracker I cannot speak as well to. Do
you have Yeah.
No. And I I think Trip Tracker is so
reliant on community partners, etc. Uh
however, we have extended that
significantly into other parts of our
district. It used to be solely around
Boulder, but right now we've really
moved that into Erie Broomfield and
other areas, but I'd have to talk to Amy
Thompson, who's our safe routes to
school coordinator, to find out what
those barriers are.
Yeah, that'd be great. And I know you
also have been expanding more into like
high schools, which that didn't used to
be a program. So, I I I'm observing the
continued expansion, which I think is
great. I know that program is very
wellreceived, particularly by our
younger students, but just curious about
the barriers that continue to exist that
may not be within our locus of control
at all. sort of like when we were
waiting for other localities to get on
board with some of the different types
of recycling and composting options that
were preventing the ecoite the green
source school stuff. And then last, I'm
just curious as we think about
composting um and the changes that we've
had to
adapt to there. I am curious about our
universal free lunch program and how
that may have or may not have been
changed is changing food waste within
the district and our ability to manage
the food waste and then the composting
of that and delivering it to farms.
Yeah, it has increased food waste
unfortunately, but the benefits of
course outweigh the negatives on that
one. So it just allows for more
opportunities to really emphasize the
food sharing bins for the untouched wrap
food and composting when there's no
other options um that then goes to the
farms. So it's it that is yes is
increased waste and I'm glad to hear
that there is some messaging around that
that might be happening at schools to
help remind folks about that impact and
how you can drop off that orange into
for somebody else maybe to consume.
Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, Alex. Any
questions or comments before we move on?
Nope. Just grateful for the presentation
and and the news.
Thank you again and I hope you enjoy
your retirement. Dr. Carol,
our next information item this evening
is a legislative update.
Don't know that Dr. Anderson and I
really have much to report, but I'll
turn it over to Dr. Anderson. Uh thank
you, board president Raj Paul. Just uh
you know, sessions kind of winding down.
We're trying to figure out what's
happening with school finance. I will
lift up two things. Um Senate Bill
26135,
and this is um a bill that would uh
refer to voters in the
in the fall. um an effort to uh
increase the TABER cap for K12 funding
along with a variety of other items. Uh
the K12 funding would be um up 2% for 10
years and it would allow our state to
retain uh excess uh revenue um that
would exceed the the current TAR cap um
for these limitations. So that's
something we're watching. Another thing
that we're watching, but it feels like
uh nothing is going to come of it, is
that uh last week uh Sheridan School
District uh Senator Bridges was uh and I
think the governor were talking about
potentially um introducing a bill that
would consolidate Sheridan School
District into either DPS or some other
school district. Uh no bill language has
been pulled on that. Um, and since that
time, uh, Sheridan has been able to come
to terms with their teachers
association, um, and have ended the
strike. And so, we're really thankful
that the strike ended and kids are back
in school. And um I think a concerning
thing to watch uh the the idea of um
uh where where my perspective the
problem is this is our um school finance
act that forgets about school districts
like Sheridan in its efforts for equity
and that the answer would be to put them
in DPS and then just give those same
kids more money because they'd be in a
separate district. I think the answer
might be just give Sheridan the money it
needs and so maybe they'd be able to pay
their teachers and that we wouldn't have
to be having this conversation. But uh
not there was a threat of that. Nothing
has come of that but I will keep close
eyes on that. I think all of us um that
are superintendent and especially along
the front range are keeping a close eye
on that. And I know that our partners in
um in the rural alliance in rural
Colorado very um very in tune to this
idea of uh of consolidating school
districts and what that might look like
and is this the way to do it where you
you know a bill is dropped maybe toward
the end of a session. So don't don't
think that's the right answer but that's
what I've been watching in legislative
session.
Thank you for that. Board members, any
questions?
Just got to see how the school finance
act and uh the budget shakes out. We
will move on now to action items.
Consent grouping 7.1 personnel item 7.2
approval of minutes April 14th 2026
regular meeting 7.3 approval of minutes
April 21st 2026 regular meeting 7.4
acceptance of donation instructional
services and equity 7.5 acceptance of
donation Netherland middle school middle
Senior High School 7.6 acceptance of
donation Netherland middle Senior High
School 7.7 acceptance of donation
Southern Hills Middle School 7.8 8
approval of image learning traverse
middle school social studies adoption
and materials purchase 7.9 contract with
spark energy 710 resolution 26-12
authorizing the exchange of real
property and approving an agreement 7.11
resolution 26-13 non-renewal of licensed
contracts
7.12 grant food services local
programming CDE 7.13 grant food services
school nutrition professionals new men's
own 7.14 grant food services wages and
sip CDE are there any items board
members would like to pull from consent
grouping.
Seeing as there are none, is there a
motion to approve the items on consent?
Moved by Anna, seconded by Jason. Board
members, any discussion on the items?
Lolenia,
I once again would like to thank our
community for the support of our
schools. Um, Boulder Bookstore donated a
large amount of books to uh kids who may
not otherwise have books and uh High
Performance Earthworks and Hero Dirt
Works are helping our folks up in
Netherland with uh I think it's
Bike Track, right? Bike track. So, um,
what this says to me just is that once
again, our community is
really, really engaged and I want to say
that I appreciate them and we should
also be supporting these businesses that
are supporting our students.
Anything else, board members?
Speaking of elevating things, we have
another energy contract here. Uh, again,
energy is costing us more year-over-year
in ways that are
challenging. Um, and then I actually
have a question on our social studies
curriculum. I did not have the
opportunity to see that and I saw it's a
five-year contract and I was wondering
if anybody can speak to any like
significant changes we might see as a
result of this purchase.
and I continue to be excited for all the
investments we make in our curricula
across this district. It really does
improve the learning opportunities for
our students, which is why I'm eager to
learn more.
Hi board. Um it's nice to see everyone
tonight. Um we finished our adoption
process with our middle school social
studies. Um adoption for
um world world history and US history is
basically what we teach in sixth,
seventh, and eth. um we decided on an
inquiry based product. So our kids will
be doing a lot of inquiry education.
They will not be memorizing facts. They
will not be going chronologically. Um
there's a lot of projects. There's a lot
of project-based learning. And I think
the most exciting part of this
particular adoption process is we had
six or seven students at every meeting
um who were talking about what they
wanted to see in social studies
curriculum and many we had one middle
schooler um but the rest were in high
school and remembering what they had in
middle school. So they were very
influential in our process.
The other exciting part about this is
this particular product that we decided
on will have full Spanish parody in one
year and it was the only one that would
have full parody. Um they're some of
their materials just aren't ready yet in
print form, but we're working with them
to get their PDFs so we can print them
ahead of time, ahead of their printing
schedule.
That is great. I saw that Spanish
inclusion and I was excited to see that
and that is a continued effort for a lot
of our adoption. So I'm glad that's in
there and I appreciate that overview and
I think our middle schoolers will be
happy to have an inquiry based curricula
moving forward. Also want to say because
this board talks a lot about
professional learning, professional
learning is in also included with our
curriculum rollout. So that's in here
too.
Any other discussion on those board
items board members? Thank you Lynn.
Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you
please call the vote on the motion?
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes. Tamuading,
yes. Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
We will now move on to policy action
items.
Consent grouping 9.1 board policy JLCD
administering medications to students
9.2 board policy JLCDA-R
administering medications to students
regulation 9.3 board policy JLCDE
administering medications to students
exhibit 9.4 policy EBBA preventive
prevention of disease infection
transmission handling of body fluids 9.5
board policy EBBA-R
prevention of disease infection
transmission handling of body fluids and
substances 9.6 6 board policy GBE staff
ethics conflict of interest 9.7 board
policy GBE staff conduct 9.8 board
policy GBEC staff gifts solicitations
board policy 9.9 recode board policy KJA
to board policy KHC distribution of
posting of non-curricular materials 9.10
10 board policy GBE-R staff ethics and
conflict of interest regulation 9.11
board policy GBE- staff ethics and
conflict of interest exhibit 9.12 board
policy GBBC- staff gifts and solit
solicitations 9.13 board policy GCQA-
GCQA-
GCQA
non-school employment consulting
activities by professional staff members
9.14 policy GCQB professional research
and publishing 9.15 board policy GCQB-R
professional research and publishing
regulation 9.16 board policy GCQAB
tutoring for pay are there any items
board members would like to pull from
consent grouping
and for the public that is watching we
don't make up those letters they are
they are assigned to us and uh at the
national level seeing as there are none
is there a motion to approve the items
on policy consent
Moved by Jason, seconded by Jorge. Board
members, any discussion on policy
consent? Lenia,
sorry, I think I asked this question
last time and I'm just going to ask it
again because my brain mustn't remember
and retain here. Um, under
GBBC.
Okay. And that's staff gifts. Um, I
appreciate the inclusion of coaching and
other positions on the gifting. Um, I
wanted to just understand the line,
these provisions shall not be
interpreted as intending to discourage
acts of generosity in unusual
situations.
And I just don't know what that means.
And I'm
fair enough. So that language came into
being when we were trying to eliminate
reference to tokens
and talking about what happens if a kid
is overwhelmed and gives a present and
now we have a policy violation where it
really is just supposed to discourage
this ongoing practice or expectation
and to just um
like I said really disrupt the
expectation that there would be some
additional gift that would be expected.
So that language is really just
protective. But if it doesn't mean
anything,
it does not have to stay.
I have no strong opinion if it needs to
stay. I just don't think it's clear
what it does mean.
Can I'm just going to chime in here. I
like the intending to to discourage not
um acts of gener I wonder if it's like
non-financial because the token was idea
of like the token was gifts or displays
of generosity that were not significant
financial value. I think that was what
the token but the word token fell flat
for the board. What if there was a way
to just
thread that needle to say
not to um acts of generosity with
insignificant financial or limited
financial value or something?
Board members, would that be adequate to
to continue to move this forward? And um
that because it's a minor word change, I
don't think I have to amend or pull this
and then do I or do I have to pull this
technically?
I really think as a friendly amendment
if we're if we all understand the
language that that's not a problem.
Could could we say what the language
will be again? So I'm sure I understand
what it's saying.
For the pleasure of the legal team, I
and the board
um not interpret as intending to
discourage acts of generosity
or that have limited or insignificant
financial value or something to that ex
like putting it like that's if you want
to give a card or you know pack of gum
but I leave that up to legal
at the risk of making this harder than
it needs. needs to be
um the limit now, right? Before it was
$25 and it sat there for an exceedingly
long time. At this point, this policy
has a $75 limit.
Does there need to be any exception at
all?
Probably not. So maybe we just strike
that sentence. Just that would be my
recommendation. Strike the sentence.
And yes, teachers love cards and notes
of encouragement.
Board members, other policies or
inclusions within the consent that we
would like to discuss?
Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you
please call the vote on the policy
consent grouping?
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinnland Aa,
yes.
Rajpaul,
yes. Tuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
We are going to call a five minute
comfort break before we move on to
policy study.
Welcome back everybody. Um, we are going
to move on to policy study items and I
wanted to note for the record that Dian
Booker has joined the board meeting. We
have three policies to study this
evening. The first of which is board
policy GCS, professional consulting,
publishing and research. I will turn it
over to Kathleen Sullivan to present.
Thank you. So, this policy was discussed
by the board on March 10th. You may
recall we had a pretty lively
conversation that night. The biggest
discussion revolved around how the
language about research would apply to
external organizations as well as to
employees themselves.
After conferring with Jessica Alen, our
executive director of accountability and
evaluation,
um we sort of changed course on that
just a little. So you'll see that on
your agenda tonight, there is also
uh a new proposed policy or recoded
proposed policy to apply to external
organizations.
So we had board policy IO that a lot of
the language from GCS had been lifted
from. So, I just put that language back
into policy and proposed to recode it to
match the CASBYNS NSBA coding as LC,
which puts it in the board's chapter of
policies that apply to external
organizations.
So, back to GCS. The main difference
between the March 10th discussion and
tonight then is in this research section
where I still recommend that we include
the language about what's different for
staff members, but all of that green
struck language is back now in policy
LC, which is crossreerenced.
Board members, any questions about this
change?
Seeing is there none. Do you want to I
mean
move on.
Keep going. Yes.
So, um
I do I do if I'm a way in.
Yeah. I just didn't hear it ring for you
raising your hand. Sorry, Alex.
Sorry. No. Um yeah I so the paragraph is
still talking about the litmus test for
people doing the research is us deciding
that it's in our interest uh for the
research to happen. Am I reading that
right because that's that's still what
kind of makes me uncomfortable
is still there.
Um are you referencing board policy LC
board member Medler?
Yeah.
Okay. Yes.
So, there is still language there, but
to your point, I did hear from the
board's discussion that the existing
language felt um
like it didn't strike the right balance.
So the language that you see that is
left in place at the top is actually
replacing
what was originally there, the
discussion about protection from
harassment and invasion. That was really
the language that the board objected to
last time and that language is struck.
Well, I guess I was also
um
it's the district's philosophies
that is a big loophole to to discourage
or deny research that is by someone who
might have feedback for us on something
that we're not doing well for somebody.
So, I'd like to just I'd like to strike
school district philosophies
um or understand more what you're
thinking um for how broad that is
because I understand like philosophies
of inclusion and equity and serving all
kids, but I also know about how much
school district philosophies can be a
pretty big
thing for other questions. So, I'm just
wondering what how to interpret the word
philosophies. I guess
I'm trying to figure out where that word
came from, board member Medler, because
I thought honestly it came from the
CASBY sample
and it may be that it came from our
IO-R.
I'm not wedded to that word. I certainly
did try to reduce the language that was
of concern as I mentioned about
harassment, invasion of privacy, and it
had a long list of other things it was
supposed to satisfy. I did try to
shorten that up. Um, but I take your
point that that language uh is not your
favorite.
Yeah. And
can I also suggest that maybe
um
uh
I I'm interested in research
that is of value to our students and our
families
and that's not always completely aligned
with the district. And so if someone's
proposing research that the district
doesn't like but is in the interests of
our students and their families, that's
where I'm like I I want to support that
inquiry.
Um so the I I want us to be open-minded
about the research and if someone said,
"Well, this may not be in the district's
interest, but it's in your students
interest. I want to know what that
research learns." Um because I care more
about our students than I do about our
district. Um, so anyway, I don't I'm
wrestling with that based on previous
experience as an external researcher
trying to do stuff that's best for the
kids in this community. Uh, and the
district doesn't always hasn't always
seen um that interest of the students
the way I have as an advocate for
students in the community. So that's why
I'm still uncomfortable with it.
So I I want to chime in here just a
little offer a counterpoint.
any my my take on this policy is that it
is incumbent upon us to set establish
policies that are in the best interest
of this district and in the best
interest of our students. And if we have
information that is not necessarily
public, we should have the ability to
determine who has access to that
information. If somebody wants to do a
study that we don't feel like is in the
best interest of our student and our
students in our district, I feel like we
should be able to not be required to
provide that and if there is publicly
available data that individual that
group whoever wants to do a study can
corro those documents and so I just want
to be mindful that I understand board
member Mel had a past experience
personally and and that like I view my
job as a board member to protect our
collective interests not necessarily an
outside entity's best interest. And so
whatever word lang whatever language we
come to, I just want to make sure that
that alternative viewpoint is taken into
consideration as well as we're finding
the right balance there.
No, I uh if I may
um
I agree with that. I guess I would be I
would feel better if we added um in
addition to the school districts then. I
mean I take your point. My point is that
we were making consideration. It doesn't
say students interests anywhere there.
It says the district's interests. So I
would like us to add the students
interests to the part before the
district's or after the district's
interests. And I'd be happy with that.
Rob,
just to provide the board some context
on when we talk about research in
schools and just to be clear with the
public, uh you know, typically um when
we get requests, we have formed a
research review committee that then
determines the um the usefulness for the
district, for the students, for um not
necessarily the the district's benefits,
but you know, how much work is it going
to take? Does somebody want to come in
and survey kids? Does somebody want to
provide another survey to employees? You
know, I don't I don't believe we're
talking about action research where we
we come into a school, you know, we we
give an experimental kind of uh of
program to one group of students through
some randomized control trial like this.
A lot of this research is is um around
uh folks completing their dissertations
and on on occasion folks asking us to
com to com to participate in certain
things. Um, I would say that when those
come to me as superintendent, I pass
those on to the research review
committee and then they make a
determination which I mostly support
because they have the understanding of
how much time um it's going to take from
staff, right? I guess you know so to the
extent that uh that they are going to
approve
pro projects up to the amount of time
they have to commit to those projects
that I do think that that becomes a
limiting factor in a world of uh of of
limited resources. Um, and so, you know,
I do think that there was probably a
time in this district where there was
more of a of a stonewall towards, you
know, things that could be beneficial
for Colorado, the nation, our kids, and
I don't think that that's the case
anymore. And I'm happy to have pro have
uh whatever language the the board is
comfortable with. I will say that time
is a limiting factor in the amount of
research that we we can allow other
research to do within the context of our
school district. And sometimes those are
benefits to us. Often those are times to
you know the benefit of of just the you
know research as a whole. So um I just
want to be clear like when we're talking
about research
um that you know district time you know
we have to account for that. There's a
committee who oversees that not one
person. I'm not on the committee. I
refer these things to the committee. Um
and then uh these are not things where
we're we're creating exper experimental
tactics or strategies uh that some folks
get and others don't. Then we see what
works or doesn't work. Uh when we're
talking about teaching and learning, we
want to use what the research says works
for all kids. Uh so I just want to be
really clear on on that,
Alex.
Thank you. I totally appreciate that and
in total agreement with Rob on that and
on the sensitivity around the things
that people research. I just find um
that the stonewalling by districts is
sometimes real historically and in real
time and other districts and I want to
protect the interests of the community
and having transparency and then
researchers being able to figure out
stuff that a future district may find
inconvenient to have researched. and it
would be under all the same
considerations of what's in the interest
of the district in terms of legal
obligations or the time and effort of
the staff. Um, but I want to resist
against a um,
uh, future stonewalling that is based on
someone giving feedback on stuff that's
happening for kids that's not good for
kids, but embarrassing to a future
district's leadership. And I that's a
very real challenge that comes up in
communities with school districts. Um,
so I would I would like to say what's in
the interests of our students and the
district to temper that in future
discussions that a future board and a
future committee might have
like uh just for example. So, we could
have research going on with partners
that are describing what's going on with
all our different mental health
campaigns and programs, and we could
work with an outside researcher uh who
is giving us feedback on programs that
aren't successful. And we could be
deciding whether we're going to continue
to do that research and we end up
deciding that the main lens on getting
the feedback is not learning about
what's going on with our kids, but
figuring out how not to get bad feedback
about something we're not succeeding at.
So that's the sort of, you know, 10
years from now hypothetical where I
would like to insert something about um
in the interests of our students into
that policy where it's about the the
district's concerns.
Having pondered actually Dr. Anderson's
comment and because we do spend a lot of
time talking about staff time and
managing staff time, I do wonder if
there's an opportunity to include
something about the time involved in
that list of the research review
committees
determination.
Dr.
would it be helpful for the board uh for
for us to get you some more details from
Dr.
um Alzine in terms of what the the
structure of that research committee is
um what they consider uh
because because what I hear what what
what Alex is saying that to me feels
more like a district-led program
evaluation versus a research project um
where uh you know we're doing something
similar right with uh Renee Crown where
we've asked them to do some things and
analyze some stuff as an external
partner. Um
happy
happy to provide the board whatever you
need to make this decision. I do think
that um I am very open to beneficial
research that will help us get better.
Uh I think it's embarrassing not to be
open to those types of things to to know
and understand that uh that there's
always opportunities for us to look at
what's happening and try to improve. So,
I'm open to those things and just
whatever the board feels like would be
helpful for us to provide.
I saw some head shaking that maybe that
wouldn't be necessary.
Deianne,
uh, as a former teacher, uh, I thought
the policy hit the nail on the head in
that it says, uh, allows teachers who
are usually the people who are directing
these kind of research projects as some
um, educational uh, project for a
master's or a PhD degree using their own
classrooms,
finding out data, and then perhaps
finding out something really interesting
and being able to pass that on. I don't
um I haven't seen except for a time when
I was working with one of the tech
companies that is local. Um
even when I worked with the tech
company, it was they were the outsiders
and I was sort of the lead investigator
doing the work. So they weren't in
contact with the children.
So um it would be hard to separate what
was valuable to the students or not.
they were getting to do an experience
that was interesting and um at the
forefront of education. So that felt
valuable always to me.
Jorge
I appre I appreciate the consideration
about um staff time and the impact right
the resource it would take for doing
that. That'd be an important
consideration and and
to to Alex's point is does this hinge on
the def of what school district includes
that he's saying that doesn't include
students but I assume to subsume
students within the school district
whereas Alex proposing that they should
say potential value for the students and
the school district is that the
distinction we're we're talking about
just just um for clarity
I heard Alex raise his hand and then I
saw Elenia's hand up.
Uh, in answer to Jay questions, yes,
that's my intent by adding in the
interests of the districts and or the
students and the district. When I was
doing research as an outsider and
Boulder Valley was stonewalling me, the
reported graduation rate for the
district was 96%.
And that was the number of 12th graders
who started the fall of the 12th grade
and got a diploma by the end of the 12th
grade. The number of students from the
cohort who started at Boulder Valley in
the nth grade and graduated was
something more like 85%. There was about
a 10 or 11% difference between those two
numbers. The research staff, the data
analytic staff at BBSD worked really
hard to make sure that out re outside
researchers didn't report an
embarrassing piece of data that for the
district made more transparent to the
community that their graduation rate was
not as high as what they were saying. So
for me it's yeah it's not hypothetical
the district interest under a future
board if it's like the previous board
and district administration was in order
to hide the performance of the district
from the public by not having
researchers get access to something that
was in the interests of the students I
would argue but not necessarily in the
interests of that district's leadership
at the time. That's what I'm trying to
get to and that's why I would suggest we
add in the interests of the students and
the district. And I mean no implication
that the current leadership and research
team is anything like that. Um but I do
know that we're making policy that could
last another 20 years. And I want to
empower the future community to know
that we're doing stuff that is not about
protecting um how someone else might
interpret the adult interests in the
district or political interests but
really focused on the interests of its
students.
And I'll I'll withdraw my proposal if
there isn't support for that. But I I
think adding um dis districts and
students in the district is a reasonable
step in the direction to protect against
the previous behavior uh uh in this
district.
I I just the more I I hear the an
students the thing I'm wondering about
is who would decide if it's in the best
interest of the students. We're still
and and students most of our students
can are not at the age of cons they
cannot consent themselves. So how would
like if we added that what kind of
problem would it make about who then
determines if it is or is not in the
best interest of students. I actually
think while well intended, it makes it a
little bit muddier for me around like
who gets to decide that and what
obligation do we have to say
a person that puts that forward. I'm
just a little struggling a little bit
around how would it be determined if
it's not the school district.
And I saw Kathleen and I Lolenia I want
to get to you.
So, we'll go Kathleen and then Melania.
Um, so I do want to point out that in
that top paragraph, there is a new
sentence.
Um, that last sentence before the
strikeout, it doesn't show up in bold as
it should because that's new language.
that said the board also values
transparency that allows consideration
of the success of the school district's
programs by the community. The board's
discussion was clear in wanting to
cement into policy that transparency
value. So that is new language.
This item is on study. So this
discussion is always helpful and I'm
happy to hear more of it. I do hear that
the concern is really focused around
that second paragraph of the policy and
what the research review committee would
be considering in terms of factors. So,
I'm happy to go back and spend some time
with our team and see if we might come
up with some some additional language.
Since it's not on action tonight, you
don't have to word smith it, but I'm I'm
happy to listen to it if you'd like to.
Thanks. It is good that it's a study
item. Um,
I guess I need
I hear what you're saying, Nicole, that
these are kids who are not yet 18 and so
they're not the ones who
are
so they're not determining for their own
good. I I understand your point and I'm
still trying to understand and I and I
heard Alex's example and I don't think
that that's the situation we're in now,
but I also understand Alex's want to
buttress us against that in future
times.
So,
I guess I I do need continued work
because I I understand both sides of
what's going on here. I don't see my way
through it exactly.
Um,
and I do like Kathleen that you point
out the trans transparency
is there.
And and I don't think Alex is saying
people need to have more access to
students. I think Alex is actually just
talking about data. And
Alex, am I is that right?
Yes.
Uh I am talking about I'm not talking
about changing the standard for when we
decide something is too timeconuming
that it's violating the privacy or the
students or sound research. Um I don't
know the nature of the research that
might happen. I assume this is a policy
like all our policies that would be
referenced by the appropriate people. So
I'm assuming that a future uh research
committee, whatever that process is, and
I'm happy to learn about and I don't
need a briefing. I can get a just a
description by email or something about
what our current one is. But there could
be review committees, there could be a
research committee, there could be a
delegation from the superintendent.
whatever that process is, I'm just
hoping that it includes uh an honest
appraisal of what's in the interests of
the students um as part of that. And I
will forward a three-word addition to
Kathleen that is a place where we can
put in and its students um uh after the
part about um the district.
Jorge,
thanks for the clarification. Uh, I
think that's helpful. I'm just not sure.
I mean, at the end of the day, the
district decides what is or is not
acceptable, what meets the standards of
good scholarship, what can serve our
students or doesn't. So, I'm not sure it
adds anything. So, maybe confusion by
distinguishing. And so, I'm not I think
that's where I'm at. I'm not sure that
there's a value add by adding those
words. um
maybe for the potential value for the
school district to serve its students or
something along those lines, but I don't
really see
I'm not sure that it changes anything by
adding that language. So, I'm not sure
it helps,
but the important parts there,
transparency, legal obligations,
standards of good scholarship, right? Um
I think that's the stuff that we need to
focus on for something like this.
Jason and Anna, any thoughts before we
move on? Um, and then we'll kick it over
to staff to bring this back the in the
future meetings.
Um, if I have to weigh in here, uh, I
don't have strong feelings here, but I
do feel I mean I I see both sides of
this. I don't have the experience, uh,
that Alex had previously. Um, and I
understand the need to, you know, secure
against,
you know, future different leadership. I
do feel like, you know, the language at
the top and the first paragraph about
transparency
um addresses that and maybe we
strengthen that section rather than add
you know and students below. I think um
to make clear our values are, you know,
transparency and you know um
yeah, I don't know what else to add
there, but I think that that that really
strengthens this uh policy for me.
Yeah. Uh same here. I think that uh
the transparency and data I I know that
we have several community members that
listen to the board meetings, listening
listen to our work sessions and really
try to to be that that eagle eye to
ensuring that we do have an objective
lens in a lot of the work that we do.
And I think that that's something
similar um that I feel like Alex wants
to get embedded into here of making sure
that we're not um gatekeeping any sort
of information that may um be of
interest to our community. And so um
yeah, if having to weigh in here, I I
see the value in finding that balance.
um where we put it or how we word smmith
it um still not entirely sure.
Thanks for thorough discussion there
board members. We will move on to our
final policy to study board policy HG
methods of determining staff negotiating
organizations.
Thank you board members. This is a
policy revision that we discussed
following uh public comment by our
community liaison's group in particular.
You can see that there are two places
that there are revisions to this policy
that are intended to make that process
clearer.
So the first revision is in the section
on units.
Under 2e you'll see and I apologize this
is at least mine is black and white. If
you can see the color that helps. So
that liaison and advisors have been
added to that descriptor of unit E.
And then if you look on the final page,
section, nope, second to last page,
new paragraph 8 describes the process
for expanding a current bargaining unit.
That language, that entire paragraph is
new. I hope the digital copy makes that
clear and explains that if um an already
recognized employee group desires to
expand to incorporate new members that
the petition process would f would be
necessary as referenced above.
But because a collective bargaining
agreement itself is fundamentally a
contract
that commits rights and resources
including financial resources.
It is a contract that is voted on. It is
ratified by the members. It is voted on
by the board and it is signed. It is a
commitment of resources.
So really it is a pie
and in order to slice that pie
differently
you would either have to have a vote of
all the members which was one of the
possibilities that we discussed where
they relinquish and hold the collective
bargaining agreement. they they redefine
that pie and then they redivy it up or
there needs to be a process
to determine what provisions of existing
contract language may apply to the new
members and should there be additional
language that would apply to those new
members and that happens through the
process of collective bargaining.
That's what it is.
So that's what that language says and
that's what that language means.
A vote would change the group, but
collective bargaining would determine
the application of the provisions.
Thank you for that thorough overview of
what that expansion or that particular
item number eight means. I think that's
clear. board members questions or
comments, discussion on the updated
updates to this policy. HG
Anna,
just a clarifying question on uh section
8. Um if an existing um bargaining unit
wanted to add um another unit, they
would have to go back to
um their
uh entire units um uh petition
procedures. Is that correct?
Yes, they would need to go through the
petition process. and the petition
process itself.
If we look back at that language
would require then that the petitions
are signed by at least 30%
of the employees who are eligible for
inclusion in that negotiating unit.
So in order to join a group, you can't
just vote as the people that want to
join. You have to have a vote of the
collective.
Just one more. Um
just reading through I just want to make
sure that um if the existing existing
collecting collective bargaining unit
wants to add an additional unit um I
just want to clarify that there
um there aren't any um
date limitations. So, if they have a a
five-year contract, they wouldn't have
to wait until the end of the 5-year
contract. If they wanted to do that in
the middle of their contract, they
could. As long as they took it to the
whole
as long as the petition process and the
requirements of this policy are
followed, then there's no requirement to
wait for uh the collective bargaining
agreement to end. No.
Thank you.
Members, any other questions or comments
on this policy?
Alex, do you have your hand up for this?
I not hearing the chimes.
Sorry, I was navigating back from
reading the policy. So, Kathleen, can
you I really appreciate this. seems like
this is a thoughtful way to address our
current situation and empower the the
newly added group in a way that should
work. Can you explain if this had been
the case a while ago, how would the
addition of the liaison work in practice
in terms of the agreement?
So I understand the on the ground
implications like if this had been the
play in place two years ago, what would
have happened?
It's possible that the change of the
definition of unit E would impact that
process, but the process itself
um I believe that this language
clarifies but does not actually alter
what was in place.
Hopefully our employees feel that that
clarification is helpful.
Seeing as there are no further hands up
for discussion on this policy, we will
move on to future agenda quest. Board
members, this is the time when we bring
items up for consideration during our
prioritization meeting, which will be in
June. Are there any items that board
members haven't previously noted that
they would like to note at this time?
Board members are recognizing we're
going to have our hands full in the
fall, I think. And uh don't have
anything else to add to the list at this
time. With that then as indicated on
tonight's agenda we have business to
discuss in executive session. Is there a
motion? Anna.
I, Anatu Aing, make a motion pursuant to
Colorado Revised Statute 2464024B
for legal advice relevant related to
charter school contract negotiations for
Summit, Horizons, Boulder Prep, and
Peakto Peak and pursuant to Colorado
Revised Statute 2464024B
for legal advice related to pending
litigation related to personnel, special
education, civil rights, and class
action regarding men.
Is there a second board for members?
Seconded by Jason
Board President Raspol,
I apologize. The motion was perfectly
read, but it fails to say what you're
doing, which is convening an executive
session. That's that's my edit problem.
Sorry.
Shall we read that? Yes, we will read
that one more time to make sure we have
the exact right language for anybody
that might be watching out there.
I, Anatuaring, make a motion to convene
an executive session pursuant to
Colorado Revised Statute 246424B
for legal advice related to the two
charter school contract negotiations for
Summit Horizon's Boulder Prep and Peakto
Peak in pursuant to Colorado Revised
Statute 246424B
for legal advice related to pending
litigation related to personnel, special
education, civil rights, and class
action regarding META.
Is there a second to this revised
motion? Seconded by Lenia. Laura, can
you please call the role on the motion?
Booger.
Yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinna,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes. Board members, we will
convene in Glacier Room for executive
session. For the public, anybody
watching, this concludes our regular
business for this evening and the
meeting is adjourned.