I would like to call to order this
regular meeting of the Boulder Valley
School District Board of Education for
Tuesday, February 10th, 2025. Board
members may attend and participate in
board meetings by electronic means in
accordance with board policy BMEA and
state law. Chris, will you please call
the role?
Booker here.
Chavez
here.
Medler
here.
Quinna
here.
Rajpaw
here. Tuing
here.
Here.
Thank you.
like everyone to turn their attention to
the screens for our land acknowledgement
this evening.
The Boulder Valley School District
resides and operates on land that is the
ancestral homeland and unjustly [music]
and illegally taken territory of the
Ute, Pueblin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache,
Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations
historically tied to this land who have
called this land home since time and
memorial.
We acknowledge the atrocities committed
here, including the painful history of
genocide, forced assimilation, [music]
and efforts to alienate the indigenous
inhabitants from their homeland,
supported by the policies of the United
States government.
[music]
BBSD is aware of the many indigenous
peoples, past and [music] present, and
their dignified nations and cultures,
who care for this land with strength and
resilience.
BBSD recognizes the histories of the
land in Colorado and the survival
[music] of many nations that carried
their oral traditions into the present.
[music]
It is BBSD's responsibility to educate
ourselves, our community, and our
students so that we can embrace the
[music] wisdom and knowledge of
indigenous peoples
and actively stand together to address
injustices.
[music]
In offering this land acknowledgement,
we affirm [music] and honor the history,
wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience
of indigenous people, and recognize the
responsibility to care for and
appreciate this land together.
I'd like to remind everybody that the
mission of the Boulder Valley School
District is to create challenging,
meaningful, and engaging learning
opportunities so that all children
thrive and are prepared for successful,
civically engaged lives. Thank you for
joining us here this evening. We're glad
to have you observe and participate in
our meetings. At this time, is there a
motion to approve tonight? A motion to
approve tonight's agenda.
Moved by Anna, seconded by Lenia. Chris,
can you please call the role?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinna,
yes.
Rajpal,
yes.
Tuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
First item up on our agenda this evening
is a superintendent report. Dr.
Anderson, good evening.
Good evening, board president Raj Paul.
Board members, good to see everyone.
Have a few uh remarks this evening.
Starting off with the National History
Day event kickoff at Manhattan Middle
School. Board members, as you know, this
time of the year, several of our BBSD
schools hold National History Day events
where students present on historical
topics of their choice and then have the
opportunity to be selected to compete at
the regional level. and even eventually
nationals. This year, Manhattan Middle
School of Arts and Academics went above
and beyond. They had all of their sixth
and seventh graders. More than 300
students present their projects during a
special event last week. As you can see
from the pictures uh displayed here, uh
students chose all kinds of topics from
p from the punk rock movement to the
iPhone revolution. They presented in a
number of ways including video
documentaries to costume performances.
Manhattan's educators along with several
dozen community members were recruited
to judge the project. Uh very very
impressive Phoenix is great job
in BBSC. We know that our school food is
not only dish delicious but a bit
revolutionary. So it should be no
surprise that it's worthy of being
highlighted in museums. For the past two
weeks, the Museum of Boulder featured
the school food project in a rotating
family table display as part of its
ongoing Boulder Eats food traditions
along the Front Range. exhibit. Visitors
got a glimpse of our school meals and
learned about our local sourcing and
scratch cooking along with a mannequin
uniformed like our lunch ladies and guy.
There's also a permanent case in the
exhibit with several school food project
artifacts from Chef Ann's time and
Cooper here in BBSD.
So, last week we got some exciting news.
We're excited to share that uh some new
electric buses will be hitting the
roads. Um, last week at our Lafayette
terminal, we received four new electric
buses. These are all type A 14 passenger
buses and will be used for special
education routes. BBST mechanics are
checking them over. Should be out on the
roads in March. So, keep an eye out for
those electric buses. And then finally,
board members, I want to um
encourage uh our community to check out
uh what we we sent out uh earlier today,
the first edition of the BBSD enrollment
impacts newsletter.
This is going to be a foundational way
we are able to share updates regarding
the impacts BBSD is facing when it comes
to declining enrollment,
also ways that our community can engage
moving forward and eventually the
decisions that we make. And all of that
will be able to be um shared at this
through this uh newsletter. So I
encourage all of our community to open
that, read that, watch the video at the
top. It's a twominute video that'll give
you a very good sense of what we're
dealing with if you are just getting up
to speed. And so um thanks to our
communications team for putting that
together and pushing that out today. And
that's all I have for my remarks this
evening.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson. And board
members, do you have any questions or
comments?
Seeing as there are none, we'll move
right along to public participation.
The board respects the right of the
public to speak on matters concerning
the operation of our schools. The board
does not endorse any individual comments
and reminds all those who speak that
you're responsible for ensuring your
remarks are suitable for an audience
that includes kindergarten through 12th
graders. Furthermore, it's an
opportunity for the board to hear from
the our constituents. It's not a time to
for the board to engage with or react 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.
Our first speaker this evening actually
sent an email saying they were likely
not going to attend. Luci Lucia Herup,
are they online or are they not?
Okay, so we'll move next to Crystal
Chin.
Just push the round button and a little
green light will come on to know
indicate the mic is working.
Yep.
Okay.
Does this thing move? Oh, it does move.
Okay.
Is my time already on?
Mhm.
Oh, can we like restart that?
Do I have to hold it? Oh, no. Do I have
to do anything? Oh, okay. That one's
much easier. Well, good evening. My name
is Crystal Chin and I'm a BBSD parent.
I'm here tonight to place my concerns on
the public record in good faith. Over
the past several years, my family
experienced serious harm related to
student safety and how concerns were
handled by the district. Medical
documentation was provided, including
two ER visits related to stress and the
onset of anxiety induced seizures. And
yet, the situation continued.
I was told to send fewer emails and that
I was expecting too much. And despite
clear signs of distress, my child was
not removed from mental health support
until the final week of the school year,
69 days after she repeatedly asked
adults at school for help. The district
conducted an internal investigation. I
was told staff followed procedures and
that no corrective action was taken. I
appealed and the district upheld its
findings. Later, through a fer request,
I obtained records the district already
had. They showed concerns were minimized
and underdocumented. At the time, I
documented 34 bullying incidences in
real time. The district only showed
three. In those same records, I
discovered a separate and deeply
troubling issue. The principal forwarded
a private email about my child to a
teacher with no educational reason to
receive it and made a racist comment in
that same chain. I shared this with the
district leadership and with this board.
In both situations, there was no
independent review and limited
transparency. And this is not about one
school, one employee or punishment. It
is about whether this district has
systems that respond objectively and
safely when harm is reported or whether
families are left to navigate that
process alone. I'm here to ask for
something specific. Independent
oversight, including independent
investigation and independent data
collection and analysis, so the district
is not policing itself in matters where
conflicts of interest are inherent.
Thank you. On enrollment, the next
speaker.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Techla Heirs.
It's still on. Yes. Yes. Good evening.
My name is Tela Ays. I [clears throat]
am a former BBSD parent. My child used
to attend community monastery and we had
similar concerns under the same
principle. Ultimately, our family chose
to homeschool because we no longer felt
our child was safe or supported in this
district.
I'm speaking briefly because this board
has been focused on declining
enrollment, which I guess there's a new
video on the website about that which
I'll watch. Families do not take leaving
lightly. We leave when harm keeps
happening to our children and when we
lose confidence that concerns will be
taken seriously, documented accurately,
and addressed in a way that actually
protects students.
From my perspective as a parent who left
BBSD,
independent oversight, including
independent investigation and
independent data collection and and
analysis is necessary to rebuild trust
with families.
For the sake of student safety and the
future of this district, I urge you to
take this request seriously. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Stefan Shrier.
Appears they are not here. So our final
speaker is Natasha Boddorf who is
attending virtually. She is not here
either. I guess then that concludes
public comment for this evening.
On behalf of the board, I want to thank
everyone who took the time to speak
tonight um
to share your thoughts and experiences
with us this evening.
Our next item on the board agenda is
board communication. Board members, who
would like to begin?
Lania.
Uh, since we last met, I've had the
opportunity to go to a couple of our
different elementary schools, which um
to discuss declining enrollment and
school closures. [snorts] Um,
and I'm struck again by what amazing
teachers we have and how much they love
their schools and how much they put into
those schools. Um, and I did a lot of
learning about things that are very
important to them, the things we need to
preserve as we go through this process.
Um,
which is a a big ask when people are
feeling
very emotional about uh potential
closings. That's hard. But I was really
impressed people can come forward with
what their most important priorities
are. And for all of us, it always ends
up being students. Um, and that we need
to preserve student experience.
So um and secondly, I had a nice
title n meeting
uh just to share with my fellow board
members u moving forward with some ways
to get more student voice
as in uh
our kids experience in our especially
our comprehensive high schools. Uh, we
had all of our comprehensive high
schools offer Healthy Kids Colorado
survey, which typically you'd only see
maybe two schools be chosen to do that.
And so I think that's good work that
we're doing. Thanks,
Jake.
Yeah, I just want to [laughter] echo
Lenia's comments. I was able to go join
uh Dr. Anderson, Dr. Da Cruz, and Nicole
at Mesa and um and also at Creekide and
same thing. just incredible things
happen in the schools, you know, really
engaged staff. Uh, and I think one of
the big takeaways for me was that people
realized that the status quo is not
sustainable. Um, and you know, had all
sorts of, uh, kind of emotions as part
of the discussion, sadness, uh, you
know, some anger, but also I think at
the end of the day, um, you know,
hopeful about what this process could
lead to and what may potentially other
resources might be coming to schools
that as a result. Uh, and so I to be
honest, I was a little nervous going
into these things. How would they how
would they go? Would people be angry?
And I think at least from my own
experience, it was a really positive uh
conversation. Dr. Anderson, I don't know
how you're able to sustain that kind of
I only went to two and I didn't say
anything. Um, [clears throat]
and you're going to a number and so
really appreciate the time you've spent
on you're putting on your calendar to do
this and staff as well. Um, and I'm just
uh looking forward to going to more.
hope we'll continue to see, you know, a
whole range of teachers and actually
staff from across the school join uh to
provide their thoughts and uh feedback
and recommendations for how we move
forward here. So, um just wanted to
report on those two visits.
Alex in.
Yeah. Um I'll start with the declining
enrollment discussions as well. I've
only had a chance to be at the Bear
Creek discussion this morning. Um, but I
echo what people have said. The staff
have been uh were very thoughtful. Um,
were very articulate about the things
they value and appreciate about the
culture of their own school and
appreciating the community nature of the
challenges we were facing. Um, so I
thought it was it was constructive and
the things you're talking about about
people's anxiety coming into the process
and at the same time like the palpable
like pride they have in what they're
doing as well as like they're involved
in big intense challenges now with
things like class size or the different
uh part-time specials and things and
they're making do and feel like they
want to make sure this thing is not
making this worse, right? And I think uh
we need to make sure they feel like this
is a constructive process and that we
can honor [clears throat] the amount of
choice we have in this community and the
different cultures we have in the
schools but focus on the values we're
trying to get to be available to all our
kids. So um any I just was very uh
impressed with the thoughtfulness and
the engagement. I had the same thing
actually with a long sit down with some
Mesa parents this weekend as well. And
again, like there's an instinct to say,
"Okay, save my school." And then there's
the start you start engaging about what
it is you like about your school, what
why it made a difference to you, why you
chose it in this environment. And people
then get into the things that really
matter to their kids. And I like this is
a engaged community and they are pretty
deep thinking about how to make that all
work. And I think they get the
trade-offs. That's why I think the
engagement process and the simulations
are going to um be really uh stimulating
and provocative for people because they
are trying to think about this on so
many levels and I just hats off to the
parents, hats off to the staff for doing
this. Um I will make one plea. I got a
couple emails that indicated that some
adults are talking to their kids about
this and sort of a, you know, maybe
venting, maybe trying to just update
their kids and doing so in a way that
is, I think, potentially adding to the
stress for our students. And so I I
think we all can advocate for it. We
want to communicate what we need, be
clear about what we're going on, but I
just put out a plea for everybody to be
supportive and positive about schooling
with our kids and that if uh it's not
going to be developmentally appropriate
for the little elementary school kids,
probably [clears throat] not
constructive, and it will add to the
stress that our students have. And I
think I would as a parent, I'd be
thinking about reassuring them about the
things that we value and the people that
are taking care and working for them and
that that's going to stay the same. So,
I'm hoping we can all do that
collectively.
Uh, [clears throat] switching subjects a
little bit. Um, it was great to be at
the DAC meeting this month. Um, uh, they
seemed appreciative of having a single
designated liaison, so there'd be
continuity, but I remind all the other
board members that we can have two
people go there. Um, and so I do
encourage you to come through every once
in a while. Let me know in advance so we
don't end up with three and you know
having an issue. But I really do think
you should go again super impressed by
the intentionality and the leadership of
the DAC designing the process for them.
They heard from Rob Price about the
declining enrollment and the engagement
process was most of the discussion last
uh last week and again um we have a
great group of people there in that
discussion and we should um learn from
them and hear what they have to say. Um
[clears throat] I will say that uh
um one of the feedback I got and uh this
perhaps for Kathleen and for us to think
about it um the policy subcommittee was
thinking oh what is it you're actually
going to do with something like IGA and
as a single board member I don't know
for sure what it is we're going to do
but any policy we proceed but I do think
our initial conversations at the first
step are really helpful clue to them
about where their feedback is most
useful. So when we think about the first
interactions we have whether it's
prioritization or something else if we
can add a little more specificity to our
discussion about policy issues or maybe
uh with council when we're dealing if we
can get a little more heads up about the
substance of the discussion we'll have
about a particular policy then I think
the DAC can prioritize a little bit more
and figure out you know what to do
because they have so much stuff they're
dealing with they deal with community
engagement the UIPs they deal with the
budget they deal with policy so if we
can make their time more efficient I
think uh that would get better feedback.
Now the schedule seems better aligned,
but they're still saying, "Well, what
are you guys going to do about it?" And
I'm like, "I'm not sure what we're going
to do about it." So,
let's see a similar report. I'll start
with I was only able to attend one of
the um roundts with teachers. And um for
my teacher buddies out there, I have to
tell you that I am the one that brought
up the fact that they've asked you to
meet during your duty-free lunch. And I
appreciate all of you volunteering to be
there and talk to the superintendent
because it is your time and for you to
give it to the district is an extra
duty. So I really appreciate you all
coming through. I saw the teachers
moving in and out as um they needed to
and that seems to be really appropriate.
So, make sure that you're taking care of
yourself on your on your lunch. Um, and
I learned a lot about
schools that are suffering because they
don't have enough um, maybe specials
added or they don't have enough
resources to have a full-time librarian
or they don't have um, any number of
programs. and those schools especially
really see that um consolidation would
add to their experience, their own
experience and their students
experience. So it was great to see
people trying to work together to
achieve more for kids. Uh on the second
item I went to Cabbach which is the
committee that is dedicated to um taking
care of the bond um items. Uh, it was
incredibly full agenda, a couple of
hours. I particularly loved my tour of
the APEC center and all of the different
programs that they now have up and
running with the equipment and the mini
hospital rooms and the and the ambulance
out back. I I really loved it and went I
went running to some of the students I
know and said, "You should go there."
So hopefully that'll bring some
enrollment. It was uh really fun to see
how excited the principal is in showing
that off and um I loved that part of our
meeting. We also got to have a review of
some of our budget qualms
um and the potential for having to
combine schools
um so that everyone was aware. And the
committee was incredibly well-run,
organized, and uh ready to act. I was
especially
impressed with um the decision to put
the elementary schools into phase four
of the bond work so that we can make
really good decisions about how that
bond money is being spent simultaneously
with the decisions about schools. So
that was really impressive work that's
being done that clearly took many years
of planning. So I enjoyed my time um
joining the committee.
I also went to um tech committee meeting
and I have to say I was uh I had been
warned about the tech committee and did
not find it that way at all. the tech
committee um who are focused on AI um
broke out into working groups and have a
direction about creating policy and a
roadmap and they were able to find
examples from other districts that they
could use in order to form that road map
and it was a highly productive and very
positive meeting. So when we get
together and have our chance to wrestle
with the AI policy for BBSD, we're going
to have a lot of really good information
and feedback. So that was really
wonderful to see.
Thank you for diving right in to those
committees. Board members, anybody else?
Um, like my fellow colleagues, I've been
able to attend several different roundts
at schools, schools that are at three
rounds today and might stay that way,
schools that are, you know, have
multi-age classrooms, schools, all kinds
of schools, choice schools. And I think
uh one thing I want to elevate from the
conversations I've been able to sit in
is some gratitude and appreciation
around this process and how it was very
different from the process in the early
as um listening first talking to our
educators trying to understand the
complexities of the problem not just
making last minute decisions at the dis
which I guess is what her happened in
the past and I just honoring that our
community some members of our community
still remember what that looked like and
that that feeling is still very real.
And so I am appreciative of the time
that staff, board members are willing to
take to go listen first and then to our
to our teachers and our principles and
our community and
the prolonged seems prolonged compared
to the previous process to really make
sure as the community is coming along
with us that they're not surprised by
any one outcome that we make late in the
evening. So that has come up at several
different sites. I think
as as school listening to teachers, my
takeaway is all of our school, it
continues to be all of our schools are
really special places and our staff love
their schools and they love their
students and they love what they do and
and that actually makes me feel really
like happy inside. sad that we'll have
to probably close some schools, but
knowing how much people care for the
work that they're doing in the places
that they are speaks volumes. And I
think I've been thinking a lot about
about those feelings and how much
culture matters and feeling valued
matters and and thinking about after we
get through this phase of listening
like that community building to really
en ensure that those values and those
things that people care most about
remain intact even if the buildings have
to change or it's something that is just
I've been reflecting a lot on how can we
make sure that that community building
um in times transition is really strong
so that those feelings remain uh even if
conditions have to change. So
appreciative for folks listening for or
for folks sharing being very transparent
providing the written feedback so we can
really make the best of what is going to
be difficult choices. I also had the
opportunity to attend our quarterly
meeting yesterday with the city and the
county of Boulder CU and somebody asked
a question about what would it take to
to turn this declining enrollment around
and I was pretty frank like well the
city of Boulder does really need to
reconsider the types of housing that
they're building and the way in which
they are want to be family friendly or
not family friendly and without changes
at the level of the city we will be the
city of Boulder in particular will a
place for retirees and college students
with not a lot of folks in between. So,
I tried to elevate that to our folks at
the city
um in that in that moment because that
is increasingly feeling like the reality
that we are that we are in.
But that's all I've been up to since we
last convened.
Okay.
Next item on tonight's agenda is
information. We have two information
items this evening. The first of which
is the long r long long range advisory
committee update and the annual
enrollment trend report. Rob Price will
do the introductions.
All right. Good evening, President
Rashba, members of the board and Dr.
Anderson. A reminder that tonight's
presentation really serves two uh
purposes. The first purpose is to
provide an update from our long range
advisory committee. Handling that will
be I [clears throat] bet Solless and
Jeff Anderson our chairs for our loan
range advisory committee. Sorry
[clears throat] about that. And then
Glenn Screw our district senior planner
will be presenting on our annual
enrollment trend report which was put
together to establish enrollment trends
at our elementary schools. That was uh
first presented to the board I believe
about three years ago was the first
time. So with that I will turn it over
to Solless.
Okay.
Good evening. My name is Dvette Sales
and I am Sue Staint Marie Chipoa and I'm
a parent, grandparent and employee. Um
on this slide, it reinforces that the
work um before the board is a result of
a multi-year effort which has been
supported by the work of the long-range
advisory committee, also known as LRAK.
Since 2022, the district has
consistently examined enrollment trends,
developed metrics, engaged with
communities, and updated board policies
to responding
to respond to declining enrollment.
In in addition to drafting the original
metrics, LRAK has provided feedback and
insights from the perspective of
parents, staff, and community members.
The lower part of this uh slide um
highlights that the district has taken
comprehensive and deliberate approach
using every available strategy to
influence the enrollment trajectories.
These efforts have been thoughtful and
proactive and they provide important
context for YBVSD as is at this point in
the process today.
The committee has met twice since our
last update to you in October. At our
meeting in November, we heard an update
from the staff about the attendance
boundary adjustments. We reviewed the
Octo October 21st work session and had
initial discussion of the community
engagement process. At the January
meeting, the group heard the enrollment
update that was given to the board in
December and discussed and provided
feedback on the upcoming community
engagement process. At this time, I'm
going to turn this over to Jeff
Anderson, our co-chair.
Just make it a go backwards one.
Um, thanks Evette. I'm Jeff Anderson, a
co-chair of Elrach here over the last
four years. And I don't have any slides.
I'm just going to make a few remarks u
to the board and to the district
leadership. So the first thing I want to
briefly remind you is things that we've
learned from this process that we'll be
going through again tonight, which is
reviewing the enrollment data. So when
we first did this, we built this as an
early warning system and I think the
board bought into that and it was very
effective. It was an early warning
system. It provided us a lot of ideas
about what was going on with our
elementarymentaries.
The depiction of that data that we used
for that early warning system, which
you'll see again tonight, I think is
still very useful now that we have been
warned and we're moving into a phase
where we're making um action faster than
we might have initially planned when we
looked at this. So, we're really into an
engagement phase where we're moving
forward. The board's all on that, the
district's all on that, but this data is
still useful and Glenn will present it
in a minute.
So the initial action that we planned
and this was three years ago that we
started was to deal with this on a
school-by-school basis
and we started with that in a very
convenient way. There was one school
that became the pilot program,
Heatherwood Elementary School. So we got
a chance to try some things out and we
learned some things from that. I think
the first thing we learned is that our
schools are all great and if we put more
resources into them, we can make them
even greater. And so I've still been
engaging with with Heatherwood. I know
some of us have kind of moved on to the
next part of the process, but this has
been great. And as an environmental
scientist myself, it's just so exciting
there, but we can't do that for every
school. That's become absolutely clear.
So, we can't pour resource into every
school. And that leads us to the term
holistic, which we first brought to you
two years ago at this. And I'd like to
thank board members again, especially
board member Chavez, who used that
holistic term very effectively in a
discussion in the January meeting about
this. we've moved on to understanding
that this regional approach, which is
really the holistic thing, is where we
have to go. And again, the board's fully
bought into that. The district staff has
fully bought into that. But there were a
few other things I think that we learned
from the pilot project at Heatherwood
that we can bring to bear here. The
first thing is that district leadership,
especially um Dr. Anderson and board
leadership, especially President Rajald,
got some experience dealing with um
controversial issues in a school
community. And I think we've we've
learned from that. I think that's
helping this process now and I think
it's important to remember how that went
and how it could have gone maybe bad and
it didn't it went very very well. So
that's really useful experience. Um the
second thing is that we learned that
single school solutions are not viable
because we can look back at the data
tonight and we'll see that while great
things are happening at Heatherwood
we're not seeing a huge enrollment in
increase there. So this are just things
that you can't control. Um and so that
led to this holistic approach. Now a key
thing about the holistic approach to
remind everyone is it's vastly more
complex to think about a whole bunch of
schools together than it is to think
about one fix for Heatherwood. Okay. And
so in my day job I am a scientist who
studies prediction and complexity and
uncertainty. And so I just want to
quickly bring a little of that
experience what we've talked about a lot
in Elrach to bear here looking forward
Neil. So a few key points for you to
look for in the presentation that
Glenn's going to make for in a moment.
The first thing in there is that
traditionally there's been very little
information in those reports about the
uncertainty of the data. But there is in
fact a piece there and that is the first
slide he shows you with data on it is
going to show the projected enrollment
trends and the actual enrollment trends.
Glenn did not predict the global
pandemic.
Okay. He did not predict um I think
highly unexpected actions by the current
administration which both led to
uncertainty. But despite the quality of
the rest of the things, there's still
some uncertainty there. And the
uncertainty amplifies when you go to
individual school levels. Um decision
making uncertainty is very very
difficult. Okay. And so we need to keep
in mind when we're making the decisions
um how we react. All of us make
decisions under uncertainty all the
time. And again, I'm an environmental
scientist. I don't trust the weather
forecast I hear every day. And so if I
really believed it was going to be 34
degrees like the forecast said, I might
not worry about ice. But I'm going to
worry anyway. Okay. And so these are the
ways decisions are changed under
complexity and uncertainty.
The second thing you're going to see in
the slides tonight, I think it's on the
fifth slide, is there's going to be a
list of bullets about the procedure
Glenn used. You've you've seen this
before, but a key quote there is that
these are primarily based on past
trends. Okay? And so Glenn does work
hard to take new information into
account, but past trends become far less
useful than they have been in the past
when we start doing new things because
we're intentionally trying to break
those trends. So a reminder again here
that there is lots and lots of
uncertainty in the data and moving
forward. Okay. Um and we've discussed
this in IRA. These issues are there. We
don't know exactly what's going to
happen. Um
so you make you will be making decisions
both the district staff and the board in
the presence of a highly complex system
with lots of uncertainty. Um and the
final thing that makes this hard is that
it's going to be in the presence of
choice. So both by law and by philosophy
I believe the district is absolutely
committed to maximizing choice. And we
learned again at Heatherwood that you
can't enforce choice. You can't predict
choice very well. And so there's that
much more uncertainty and that more much
more to deal with. Now BVSD
already deals with a whole bunch of
decision-m and uncertainty. And my
suspicion is that certain staff here
will tell you that when you're trying to
decide what to do about a delayed
opening, okay, there's a whole bunch of
uncertainty. There's a whole bunch of
thinking there. So we have expertise in
house. Um but again things we've
discussed about on LRAC is just it's
going to be an enormous amount of
complexity an enormous amount of work to
deal with this. Again in your January
most recent January meeting several of
the board members again including board
chair Rajpal board member Chavez
specifically called out the need how
much work that staff is doing. This is
going to be really really hard and I
think everyone needs to be sympathetic
to the fact that this is going to be
hard and eventually it's going to be
hard for the board. Um
so complexity, uncertainty and choice
making everything hard. I have one last
point I want to make again emphasizing
something that was mentioned in the
January meeting and that is that
breaking into regions. We had a lot of
conversations in Elrech about how to do
that what the region should be and other
things. Again this came up Lafayette and
Erie certainly as Dr. Anderson pointed
out certainly as board member Chavez
pointed out are dealing with different
problems but there is a significant
possibility that there will be a big
impact on them in different ways by the
decisions that are made elsewhere. I
just think it's important to remember to
keep um them in the mix along with
everything else. Um thanks very much for
everyone working on this super hard
problem and sorry for talking too long
tonight but we have been talking about
this a lot.
Oh, and I'm sorry. Glenn's coming on
with the data now, so the real show
starts.
Thank you, Jeff.
All right,
moving on with uh the [clears throat]
enrollment trend report. Uh we'll start
with uh the slide showing uh the last
year um 10ear pro or 10year enrollment
trend that we've seen. Uh we've seen
this one before. Um generally going uh
starting a decline around 2017 2018 and
continuing to this year uh in 2025 with
about a 1.9% loss a little bit over 500
students down about twice what was
expected. Um,
we also had uh an average year-over-year
or an average trend of the last um uh
five years is now at about uh minus
1.3%. So, it's averaged all of those
years together. Um, and also the current
immigration climate is also likely uh
affected impacted 2025 enrollment as
well as uh last year as well.
Looking forward,
uh overall district enrollment is
projected to decline to continue to
decline uh by about 1,700 students over
the next five years. Uh although we did
see some year overyear uh leveling at
the elementary uh level. Um uh we still
expect overall declines to continue um
to we excuse me, we expect overall
declines over current levels.
Uh for this reason, we expect elementary
to continue to to drive the most uh most
of our facility and staffing needs going
forward. And as a reminder, preschool is
not included in these slides uh given
the unique nature of that program and uh
the difficulty in in assessing demand
for it
and project methodology. Um how we come
up with these projections and looking
forward to it. Uh we use the cohort
survival method which is principally the
technique most school districts use. Uh
it looks at the rate each cohort or
class or class level like kindergarten
or first grade uh progresses from one
year to the next. So you can see in the
diagram you have 2017 students
kindergarteners and we compare that to
the next year when that same class
becomes first graders and and derive a
rate from that and and we average those
rates and project it forward. Uh now
BBSD does modify this to as best we can
uh to account for uh resident students
and resident populations in neighborhood
schools uh and the kinds of impacts that
will have. We also look at the in uh the
inputs for open enrollment flows coming
in and out of schools and out of the
district uh and new housing development
and uh how births will affect
kindergarten classes going forward.
Of
course, when doing projection, there's
always assumptions. Um,
we look at open enrollment flows and net
migration when they're stable. Uh,
projections are going to be more
consistent. Uh, new housing, whether
it's consistent at similar rates as we
estimate in the projection. So, when
coming up with new housing, we use the
best available information to see what
we think new housing will look like. Um
but that's not always possible dead on
with that. So that's an assumption. Uh
the ratio of birth to subsequent
kindergarteners uh is also an important
one and uh when those are stable
projections are much more solid and
really primarily as Jeff said uh these
are based on past trends. Um but we're
able to use births, new housing, open
enrollment updates to fight to at least
provide some of a glimpse moving forward
and not just relying on those past
trends. Um, and of course, as Jeff said
eloquently, uh, future events aren't
always predictable, and big events like
COVID or even some of the immigration,
um, uh, climate that we're seeing now in
the country also can can, uh, produce a
lot of volatility in projections
and here is are the projections at a
school level. uh we have um uh arranged
them to color code them uh as an early
warning projection or an early warning
system uh and indicators using those
LRAT criteria that we've discussed in
the last few years. Uh we colorcoded
uh uh schools and years that are uh one
and a half rounds. That's 1.5
CLA uh classes per grade level at a
school and 50% those are noted in if one
of those uh indicators is hit are hit
then those are ind are shown in red
here. Uh and in yellow we use that as as
a kind of um uh schools that are getting
close to that red mark and those are
schools that are at two rounds per
school or 60%.
Uh when looking at this and comparing it
to last year, we see about the same
number of schools that are in the yellow
or red category, but we are seeing more
red moving forward in the later years.
That's the one thing that stands out.
We're also seeing in uh over the next
five years by 2030 that we'll probably
have around five schools that will have
uh both of those indicators met being
one and a half rounds and uh 50% at
least. And we're also seeing
uh an increase in the number of empty
seats from around 4,800 to 5100.
This slide is a graphic representation
of that that uh highly numeric chart
that we just looked at.
It shows the locations of the schools uh
and whether they've met that one and a
half rounds uh and 50% shown in red
here. And we also have the other schools
shown in yellow. This is a current year
as we see it. And progressing forward,
we see some additional schools
hitting either the red or yellow
criteria
out until we get to 2030.
And we see five of those schools uh in
red noted here and where they're
located.
[snorts]
So in summary, projections indicate that
overall district enrollment will
continue to decline over the next five
years with elementary um with
[clears throat] the elementary level
driving most of the facility and
staffing impacts. Uh by 2030, BBSD is
projected to have 14 schools at two
classes per grade level. So that's two
rounds. This is looking only at rounds,
not capacity as well. So we expect 14 of
those um by 2030 with two rounds being
very close to that level um as well. And
of those 14, seven are expected to be at
one and a half uh classes per grade
level or below. Uh which in in those
situations we would uh which could
necessitate mixed grade uh classrooms
going forward.
So I'll hand it over to Rob for now.
This is the same timeline that you saw
on January 27th. So currently in phase
one as communicated uh by multiple board
members and Dr. Anderson. So we're
engaging with our principles and our
teachers. That work will continue
through February and then we will start
engaging with our community uh in March
time frame and I would expect more
details on that process to be coming out
here in the next few weeks. Then the
timeline will continue as we discussed
at that January 27th meeting.
And with that we'll open it up for
questions.
Thank you for that presentation. Board
members, any questions or comments?
Alex.
[clears throat]
Uh, just first off, I just want to say a
big thanks to Jeffet and everybody else
in the long range advisory committee.
It's really remains helpful and I
especially like the um the lesson taking
uh from what we've been doing so far and
pausing to reflect on what we've learned
and done. So, thank you. Um, in terms of
questions going forward, one question I
have is can we do we have numbers on the
actual number of multil- language
learner like drop from year-over-year
like what is the impact of the current
chaos on our enrollment
in terms of actually being on
enrollment? Uh, we thought it was maybe
around 100 students um very generally
looking at because we only have can use
uh multil- language learners but uh
using that and comparing it to last year
and previous years probably about a
hundred
Okay, thank you. Um, [clears throat]
uh, and, um, Glenn, this is also a
question for you. Um, I I've asked this
before, but I think it's relevant to,
uh, Nicole's comments about dealing with
the city. I live in Table Mesa, you
know, behind, uh, King Supers and a ton
of large neighborhood, single family
homes with yards. And um the big thing
there that changes the amount of kids on
my block is the turnover from the you
know the retirees and now like me the
empty nesters to the next family. And my
particular block has turned over. When
my wife and I moved there we were two
families of 11 out of the 11. And now
we're the empty nesters and there are
eight of the houses have families in
them with multiple kids. So like the big
thing for me that's again 15 billionth
variable to take into consideration is
the interest rate and the ability of
retired people to downsize and have any
financial reason to do so. It's like
that's again outside our control. But
can we get a sense of eventually if our
single family homes with yards had
families in them? Like how many people
might we get back uh 10 or 15 years from
now if you know we had the kind of
ratios of kid per house that say we had
20 years ago in those same
neighborhoods. Is there a new way to
take that in consideration?
Very difficult. I mean we go from the
information we have you know we'd be
saying what you'd be seeing though is
demographically a lot of reversals
because technically per household we've
still been seeing declines even for
single family detached relatively. Um so
you know there's that part of it. Um and
um you know, yeah, it's really the the
empty nesters and and the aging
population is really the biggest
roadblock that I'm seeing over the next
15 20 years um of of of
creating a lot of new students in in in
this in that time period. After that, I
mean, you would argue that yes, some
houses might start opening up, but it's
very difficult to tell what those rates
are going to look like. And so far, most
of them have been declining. Yeah. And
[clears throat] following up on that, I
mean, I think about the city's emphasis
on trying to address affordability. And
they tend to go for the numbers and the
subsidy and not the number of bedrooms,
right? And so like [clears throat] and I
think our argument will continue to be
with the city. Hey, can we if if we are
adding housing stock, can we do it with
more bedrooms so there's a greater
likelihood that families will live here.
Um but the other one for me is trying to
figure out what those ratios are. Uh I
live in southwest Boulder. We've got a
lot of single family homes. I would
anticipate that they would continue to
turn over and that we'd want to maintain
the capacity eventually that there might
be kids there. And that what my
observation is even though the housing's
really expensive, people with the
ability to buy a single family house are
more likely to want to have kids in it
too. So just because it's expensive
doesn't mean that families aren't moving
in there and having kids. It just means
only wealthy families are, which is not
a great thing. And those wealthy
families that move in have the capacity
to exercise choice and attend a private
school. So we have to be all the more
competitive, all the more meeting
people's needs to keep the enrollment in
that neighborhood. But I'd love to know
if there's any
uh
if there's any other lessons from other
cities where housing stock gets
expensive but you still see single
family homes lead to students over time.
And I don't know where like is that a
California story we could learn from or
something?
We can look at that. I mean I think past
Boulder has been an example. We have
seen uh occup
families with children occupy houses uh
that were not inexpensive houses and
it's you know right now the constraint
is availability. I think
Dr. Anderson and then Jorge
I would say also that there's more
competition for affordability,
right? Like, so if you're a young, you
know, if you're a young family and
you're looking to uh buy your first or
your second home and you want a yard and
you want a a newer home with maybe not
some of the challenges that an older
home may may present, uh you're looking
in Frederick and Firestone.
And as we've been doing our roundts,
I've been making that point. And every
single time someone goes, "Yeah, that's
where I live
because
that's where young families are." And um
I did appreciate Nicole's comments at
our our quarterly meeting and uh we are
in a challenge and we are very much in
danger of Boulder not being a
familyfriendly place to live because to
be family friendly you have to have
kids.
Like I know that sounds silly to be that
direct, right? So there's lots of
efforts underway to to make our I think
that the city's taking on a
child-friendly city initiative and I was
brought into a meeting there and I said
the same thing. Well, childfriendly for
what kids? But it's not just Boulder,
right? We're talking Lewisville. We're
talking SP. talking all of our
municipalities and intentionality to
ensure that families have the ability to
live and raise their kids there, right,
is is something that if as a community
we don't lock arms and make that a
priority, it will not happen.
We've done our part
in every corner of this school district.
our schools are achieving and providing
the supports uh and incredible uh
amazing educators, teachers
and you know we're in the kid business.
So without kids right we're going to
have to make some significant shifts. Uh
so uh back to this point you know this
idea of if you're aging in place with
people living longer with folks retiring
maybe earlier like you know you could be
two three decades out before things
change
you know I think maybe our best bet is a
stabilization
so but it's you know and I appreciate
that Jeff stood up because as a
scientist who studies unpredictability I
always value his opinion Uh we we are we
are um I would say this community
members, if you're not paying attention,
you need to pay attention. This is a
serious issue that we're all going to
have to wrestle with. We know and
understand as a governance team, we have
tough decisions to make. We stand ready
to do that, right? I think that folks
knowing and understanding what our
challenge is and that our challenge
stretches beyond the number of schools
we have and it really comes down to the
number of families that can live here is
is really at the root cause of of the
challenges that we're that we're really
facing.
I just want to jump in on two issues. So
the first one is I have made um quite a
bit of study recently on other districts
and demographics
and the question of attracting families
with children is one thing. Right now
we're dealing with a national
demographic where the number of children
per childbearing couple is vastly
reduced from what it was 20 years ago
and even more reduced from what it was
40 or 50 years ago when we were building
elementary schools on the west side of
the district. And so you cannot predict
these types of trends very well either.
I think it is unlikely that we're going
to go back to four kids per house on
your street of 11 and the density that
we had earlier. And of course we've
already closed some of those schools. So
it is not just enough. We're not going
to solve everything by solving these
problems of getting families in. That
would be helpful and I'm glad you're
engaging on it, but that's going to not
going to be enough. Um the second thing
again comes back to um uncertainty which
we're hearing all over the place here.
So emergency managers including people
dealing with emergency situations in the
district. There's a huge body of
literature on how to make decisions in
this type of thing. And normally the
thing to do is to be conservative. And
so your issue of what if we get 10 down
years 10 years down the road and there
are eight families on your street with
three kids each coming up. um one has to
think very carefully about closing and
selling district properties and the
impacts of that versus other things. So
there's a lot of a lot of challenges
here to think about.
Thanks Jorge.
[clears throat]
Thank you. Uh thank you for your work on
this. You know it's always kind of not
jarring but always kind of so sobering
to see this. Um it's less a question
more probably the two points. Um, one,
the map you showed on there, it's not
just a problem in West District. It's
the across the whole district, right?
The schools are spread out everywhere.
So, it's not just about one community,
it's all communities. Um, the the part
about the demographic cliff, right? We
we've seen that for a long time and
we'll probably see smaller. We've got a
group of cohorts coming through at the
high school and middle school level that
are getting smaller and smaller and will
be for the for the future. Um, so it
does make it kind of tricky. Um and and
we've got lots of housing being built,
but it's not bringing in kids now. The
stuff that's already happening now. And
and I think in one of the charts you
said by 2030 we'll have 14 schools that
are below two rounds.
That chart is actually really stable. We
have 14 schools now that are below two
rounds. It's the same schools that are
still below two rounds. We just have
more that are getting close to it. So
the problem is here. Um and those 14
schools are spread out across our entire
district. So, I think um you know I I
get the uncertainty moving forward, but
we're there now and so I appreciate
that. Thank you,
Jason.
Yeah, just kind of on that point, um you
know, if we're talking about I mean
there's so many complex and interesting
issues here, but you know, if you're
looking as Jorge said, this is not just
a Boulder problem. This is there these
we have these challenges in the eastern
part of the district as well. How how
would you explain Broomfield because I
look at Broomfield it seems like there's
a lot of construction um a lot of single
family housing I mean obviously condos
and apartments too and yet the problem
is there as well so you know it's
affordability fewer and fewer kids per
family I just don't it you know I think
there's some things you can explain I
don't I can't explain when you see the
you know kind of more robust development
on the eastern part of the district how
that's not translating to more kids in
those schools I mean some of the schools
Do you see like I think it was meark
that it's exceeds capacity but the
majority [clears throat] of them in the
eastern part of the district still see a
decline and do you have any sense of
what's happening? Is it still not the
right kind of housing? I mean
so Broomfield on in the BVSD part of
Broomfield does not have much new
housing at all. There's one development
just north of Aspen Creek uh that's
broke ground. It's a small developer and
they're not building a lot of units
every year. Um, so that's so
Broomfield's actually been pretty
landlocked in that regard for a while
and they've been on a slow decline for
for some time as far as the the lower
yields in the other new housing that
we're seeing in Lafayette and Erie. Um,
you know, that's a trend other school
districts are saying they're seeing in
new development. Um, one part of that it
does appear looking at it that we have
quite a number of moveups in those. So,
a lot of people who are already in the
district uh want a bigger house or want
something different and are moving to
those and they already have their kids
in high school or or something like
that. That can be part of the
explanation. Um other than that, it's
it's a trend that I could I've seen
regionally and it's about pretty much
all we know.
Okay. Guess I just want to four years or
it's been a while since we started LRAK
and I just want to take a moment to
honor all of the work that all the folks
that have served on LRAK over the years
have done and our staff to support them.
I think it really has their efforts and
their recommendations have really got
helped us get to the place we are today
to have these kinds of conversations.
And I've been thinking a lot about how
do you bridge that image we have shown
for a long time on slide 10 with the
schools and the different colors to
where we are today. And I think that
that image is still relevant because it
shows how we cannot take this as a one
by one school sight by sight um problem.
We have to take it by a regional
regionally and think districtwide
because there are multiple schools
across this district that are changing
from gray to yellow to red. And so I
think that is still very much relevant.
And so I just wanted to highlight that
and thanks to the committee for doing
all the work. Just because we're in this
new phase doesn't mean that their work
is done or that there was not a value
and purpose to that. It just helped us
get to where we are today in the
addressing the realities that we face. I
also want to like the complexity is is
very real. That's the other thing I hear
at roundts
staff will acknowledge like I don't I
this is hard. There are thousands of
there's a thousand levers you could
pull. I don't know what might be best.
Good luck in making that decision. And
so I think the complexity
[clears throat]
is is real and I think it it because
we're not in the conditions that our
neighboring school districts have been
in recently where we have to close a
bunch of schools in a very short time
because we're fiscally constrained in
some ways it actually makes the problem
slightly more complex for us makes our
comm how we're communicating it slightly
more complex. So I just want to
acknowledge that as well. So I thank you
for elevating that complexity. There
isn't there isn't one solution that is
going to be exactly right. And so just
that leaning into the listening and that
this is going to look different than our
neighboring districts because our
challenges are slightly different and
our reality is is slightly different. So
um
we'll continue to see these
presentations. We're going to continue
to see the this data and the trends and
do our best to message to the community
why we are tackling the work of today.
And I just um thank you for all your
efforts to help us help us um
communicate why we have to make some
hard decisions moving forward.
Alex,
yeah, I I just want to add on um on the
complexity thing. I play poker with my
friends and some are very nerdy
atmospheric scientists as well and they
always like to point out that in the
history of all card games on Earth, the
same 52 card deck has never existed. So
once you have 52 variables, you it'll
never you can never have the same thing
happen. And so we're dealing with our
school approaches and we have, you know,
all these elementary schools and we have
five or six options for them. There's no
like, well, you should do this scenario.
We're gonna we're gonna have a lot of
input about the considerations we should
take and our our leadership and staff
are going to come back with um a set of
ideas that are trying to match our
principles and our values while still
managing all this complexity. So like I
know the instinct is to start gaming out
like you should close this one and open
this one and combine these two. And I
feel like it's it's almost premature
because we have to figure out what it is
we're trying to achieve and then be
intentional about the design of how
those things work. because we we won't
we could have a million solutions to how
to structure our 56 schools and still
not achieve our values. And so if we
stay focused on what the principles are
we're trying to achieve as we make that
change, then we're more resilient to
continue making the decisions. And the
other thing I I just want
[clears throat] to add is that um we're
now at a more urgent situation and I
think you just have to look at some of
the other districts in Colorado to see
what not taking action does to budgets
that then that what that does to staff,
what that does to politics and blows up
a community. So we have careful
financial stewardship. We have strong
finance team. We have responsible
planning and this is stuff that
maintains our ability to be coherent and
focused on kids 5 and 10 years from now
rather than dissolving into the chaos
you see in some of the other Colorado
districts. And one last part of that is
that we have to make decisions over the
next couple of years that are designed
to be the structure we'll have for the
next eight or 10 years. And so not
taking action would be undermining our
finances which undermines our
initiative, our ability to solve
problems and is um affecting the 26 or
the 14,000 elementary kids for another
decade every year. So that's why I think
we have to have the right conversation
about principles be open to the options
and then hold them up against those
principles and criteria rather than
saying well this is the way I envisioned
them working. It's like this is what I
envision them achieving is what we have
to be talking about.
Um, I just want to add that, um, I
appreciate everything that you said. Um,
but when you're making your decisions
and your making your private discussions
to be mindful that it was really
important for the LRO community and um,
a lot of the research that we did
outside of that, looking at what
happened in other districts and how
their communities were really upset
about everything that we are
transparent. The main thing that we
always wanted to have you guys take away
was that we were being transparent with
what's happening and what we're doing.
And if you can accomplish that, I think
this will make everything a lot easier
for our families to handle.
Thank you.
I couldn't agree more.
Board members, any other comments or
questions on this information item?
Thank you. Our next information item,
final information item this evening is a
legislative update. Dr. Anderson, is
there anything you wanted to share on
that?
Yes, session has has started. Thank you,
board president Raj Paul. Uh we're
tracking 20 bills right now in our bill
tracker. Uh no real movement. think, you
know, our continued uh top priority is
ensuring that the specialized
um
that the SOT taxes that um are being
framed up as having to be included into
the local share that that doesn't
happen. Uh it it would take 6.5 million
from our district, 200 million from
school districts across the c uh the not
the country, the state. Uh we feel like
that we're making some progress. There
is a united effort between school
districts across the front range to push
back against this along with case CASBY
um and CA. So there is unified
opposition to this idea.
That's not to say that if we're
successful that that the budget
stabilization factor won't come back. I
think that there is a real risk of that
happening unfortunately
and I think that would be an unfortunate
regression uh in how we fund schools. Uh
but I will say that and you know when we
talked to legislators and we saw this at
our legislative uh breakfast that there
is a lot of stress at the capital on how
do you balance this budget and who how
do you how do you share the the pain so
to speak. So, uh, more to come. We're
we're watching really closely. Uh, and,
uh, we've got about 20 bills in our bill
tracker, but really too early to to, I
think, really do much on any of those
yet. [snorts]
I will say we're actively opposing a
bill, Senate Bill 57,
that would change how schoolboard
elections occur. You would only be voted
on by folks living in your region. So,
some significant concerns around what
would happen if only people in district
B could vote for district B and how we
would be able to adequately represent
our entire community if we were beholden
to the individuals that voted for us.
So, we're opposing that bill. Um, and
then we did take a support bill, support
stance on that bill that would allow
concurrent enrollment at higher
education campuses. We talked about that
one board members already. Everything
else we're kind of monitoring at this
point. I will say there are some bills
like we had anticipated that while they
have a $0 fiscal note on the bill itself
would put work and costs to school
districts, well-intended bills like
concussion safety or things of that
nature. So, there are some bills
creeping up like that and we continue to
make it clear that um we are aware that
that we this is not a good time for us
to take on more work or more finance,
more um costs at this point. and so
continue to push back on some of those,
not necessarily actively opposing or
actively supporting those, but it it is
what we anticipated happening there is
really happening there and that's um
frustrating and we'll just continue to
monitor those bills. Dr. Anderson,
so there there may not be a bill I
dislike more than this idea of single
member districts.
You know, the idea that each and every
one of the governance team members up
here would have a an individual set of
constituents and then we would come
together as the United Nations and not
represent all kids in our district. I've
watched this actually happen in other
places. It's massively divisive and
unproductive. And so I can't speak out
loudly enough against that bill. And
then just this idea of anybody who's
pushing a bill that will take resources
um to implement is actually voting for
something to take resources away from
classrooms
and and unfortunately it's not framed
that way. So whether it's concussion
bill or other well-intentioned good
ideas that somebody cooks up and they
want to you know you know push push a
bill forward because they feel like you
know that's the the thing they're
passionate about. We are in a position
where we are in no shape financially to
any districts. I mean 135 districts
across the state are in declining
enrollment to add administration.
And I think that we're very wary of our
administrative costs. Uh you know we we
are are low in administrative costs will
probably end up having to be lower as we
make hard decisions and try not to
impact our classrooms. Uh but when we
have to have dedicated bandwidth for
compliance reports or mandatory
follow-up quality control on trainings
because of a bill that takes resources
out of classrooms and I don't know that
it's been framed that clearly. Uh so um
I just wanted to put that on the record.
Thanks for that board members. Any
questions on our legislative agenda on
the legislative update?
We will then move on to action items.
Consent grouping 7.1 Personnel item 7.2
approval of a minutes January 27, 2026.
7.3 acceptance of donation Aspen Creek
PK8. 7.4 acceptance of donation
community monatory. 7.5 acceptance of
donation Monarch PK8. 7.6
intergovernmental agreement with the
city of Boulder. 7.7 grant federal
programs titles two and three from the
CDE. Are there any items board members
would like to pull from consent
grouping?
Seeing none, is there a motion to
approve the items on the consent? Moved
by Alec, second by Lenia. Board members,
any discussion on these items?
Feels like a short list, which is kind
of nice. Um, seeing as there's nothing
to discuss, Chris, can you call the role
on consent grouping?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinna,
yes.
Rajpal,
yes.
Tuading,
yes. Yes.
Motion passes.
Moving on to policy action items.
Consent grouping 9.1 board policy DB
annual operating budget. 9.2 policy DBJ
budget transfers. 9.3 board policy DFA
cash management investment policy. 9.4
policy DG depository funds and
authorized signatures.
Are there any items board members would
like to pull from consent grouping?
Seeing as there are none, is there a
motion to approve consent? Moved by
Lania, seconded by Jason. Board members,
any discussion on these items?
Seeing as there are none,
Chris, can you call the role?
Uh,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinna,
yes.
Rajpal,
yes.
Tuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next item this evening, board members,
we have several policy items to study.
Once again, rounding out our D chapter
this evening. Um, board policy DLB,
board policy DLBR, DL DA, and DFB. I
will turn it over to Kathleen to walk us
through these policies.
Thank you. [clears throat] Thank you,
board president Raj Paul.
Um, so as you as the president already
indicated, we are coming up on
concluding the board's maintenance of
the D chapter. There is only one policy
that you have not yet seen. I blame that
on my kids dance show last weekend. But
um, so looking at the first one, if I
can find it, is salary deductions. This
policy we are proposing to collapse both
the policy and the regulation into a new
umbrella policy.
So that's 11.1 and 11.2 are proposed to
be retired.
The language that's contained in those
items is now shown in red line in
proposed policy DLA. That would be
payroll procedures and salary
deductions. So it carries over that uh
the language from those first two that
are recommended for elimination.
There's one [clears throat] remaining
policy
on this topic that you will see at your
very next meeting. But the final D
policy has to do with revenues from
licensing of school facilities.
This had not been updated since 1996.
At the time it was adopted. It was
specifically adopted to make sure that
we could put cell phone technology on
buildings and make revenues from that.
Um, it had an awful lot of detail in the
policy that was unnecessary and was only
focused on the telecommunication uses.
So the red line proposal is just to back
off some of those things that that you
can count on your staff taking care of
in the contracting and also broadening
the scope of this policy to permit
similar related uses. Um
and those are the red lines proposed for
the board study tonight.
Thank you, Kathleen. Board members, any
questions or comments about these
policies?
Are any of these extra required policies
to have?
No.
That answers a lot of the questions we
might have had already. [laughter]
Um, so I think collapsing into that one
policy and my question is because even
the policy that we're retaining on DLA
is not required. Can you or staff speak
to why we think it's important to have
that procedure? It's more of a procedure
codified in policy.
There are a few things in this policy
that we actually use as a practical
matter having to do with errors that
sometimes will happen or a employee
might be have too many deductions or too
few taken. And there is language in this
policy to help us be clear with
employees that as an employee I have to
make sure my records are accurate and
keep track of my salary. It does allow
us to have some specificity and how we
would correct those errors.
Alex,
and if we [clears throat] had the same
question about the final one on the
licensing, um, are these things we need
or and are they things that help us make
sure that as we enter into new
agreements that we have leverage with
potential entities that they know we got
to work with this policy, don't even so
don't even start negotiating away from
these things or why do we keep this one
and how does this help us?
It's a really good question. I don't
honestly know that this particular
policy
necessarily helps us. I'm looking at my
friend Rob Price just to see if there's
anything in it. I can tell you one of
the first things I did when I got to
this district, we had a little dispute
and we just said we're done with you.
You don't get to decide. We had a
dispute with the telecommunications
company. Do you remember that? Yeah. We
felt really big time since we were
taking on a major network. [gasps] But
honestly, I think this board's been
pretty clear. I think the leadership is
clear that we do look for opportunities
to enhance revenue. The board adopted
that in the K policy that you've already
looked at. To the extent that the board
um
uses policy to direct staff, I think
that it's pretty clear that you expect
us to make prudent and responsible use
of facilities. So candidly, uh, I don't
think not having this policy would
change anything about what Dr. Anderson
or your or his staff do.
Dr. Anderson,
there's a reason this policy exists.
And uh to the extent that it's relevant
or not relevant, I think at some point
um
and and Kathleen, correct me if I'm
wrong, sometimes boards set policies
when
uh when things happen that uh are out of
bounds but that were never clarified.
So to the extent that um I think we're
in a great place right now, we know and
understand, right? If dynamics and thing
dynamics and things were to change, uh,
having something like this, it might be
like a more of an insurance policy for
the board to know and understand the
bounds in which to operate and an
insurance policy for staff who may think
they're doing something innovative and
the right thing and there's no policy
that prevents it. Uh, so I do think that
you could do without it if you'd like,
but then you take on those risks um in
the future for future boards, future
superintendents, because I think we'll
be fine.
Alex.
Yeah, I was that's [clears throat] kind
of where I was going. Um, and the thing
I think about is the board's
responsibility is in the approval of the
resulting agreement or contract if it's
at the threshold where we're approving
it. And [snorts] then in a future of a
different board, different
[clears throat] superintendent,
different administration that might do
something not so great, there's still
both the responsibility of the board to
be reviewing and authorizing the actual
procurement and then [clears throat] but
this policy would help probably some
future group thinking about what they're
going to pitch or how we would negotiate
them, right? So that's the reason we
would still keep it.
And to be clear that it's a use that's
approved by the board. There may be some
school districts where they felt like it
would be inappropriate to have whatever
that technology is for aesthetic or
whatever reason. So, this does clearly
authorize the staff then to go and
pursue appropriate opportunities.
And a policy that is rather benign, will
be whittleled down to one page could be
useful when we need to lean on it.
Probably good to keep. And I appreciate
all the elimination of unnecessary
detail in there. Board members, any
other Alex,
sorry, I should have said this before
just for efficiency sake. I would and
[snorts] I would tell my friends on the
DAC, this is probably not one that needs
your time as a DAC.
Agreed. um you removed both most
references to telecommunication except
for the first paragraph um where you
refer to use of telecommunication and
other similar equipment. Could given the
more general use of the policy, can that
just be removed? And I'm not sure
if there's a way to limit that without
just being specifically about tele
communication, but
Any
other questions or comments, board
members?
It feels great to be able to move
through so many policies that are not
very spicy.
Thank you for your work on this.
[clears throat]
Board members, final study item, final
shifting to study items. You have one
item to study this evening, which is
digital scoreboards.
Dr. experience in Rob Price.
Somebody will do the introductions.
Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Uh
board members, we're bringing together,
you know, per our conversation this past
fall in beginning to think about what
are some ways in which our district can
capitalize on potential advertising,
potential partnership, uh to increase,
um new revenue streams. Um, we had our
team uh investigate some options and
tonight we'll be presenting on one
option that we think is an enhancement
for our our student and community
experience but also could provide
additional revenue down the line with
some one-time investment. So, with that,
I'll turn it over to our assistant
superintendent of operations, Rob Price.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Good evening,
President Rashall, members of the board.
Uh, as Dr. Anderson just mentioned, I'm
here to present a proposal for outdoor
scoreboards at our high schools. So,
this initiative is aligned with uh board
policy KHB utilizing advertising as a
ongoing revenue stream. And one idea to
generate additional revenue would be to
replace the five scoreboards at our five
high school stadiums with modern digital
units. Uh the modernization would
elevate the overall aesthetic and
technical capabilities of our stadiums
which in turn enhances the game day
experiences for the thousands of
families and visitors who visit our
campuses annually.
Beyond the physical upgrade, this
project delivers tangible educational
value. It provides our students with
real world operational media outlet
which can be integrated directly within
our CTE curriculum. Students would have
the ability to manage content creation,
gain hands-on video and a audio skills,
uh produce weekly game game day
releases, hype videos, interviews,
preparing them for future careers in
digital media and production.
So, the one-time capital investment for
this project is estimated at 2.38
million. The majority of this 1.99
million is for the five digital units
themselves. an additional 175,000 for
the fiber optic and then carrying a
contingency of about 216,000
uh for just unforeseen associated with
construction etc. Um small ongoing cost
of about 21,000 for maintenance software
easily offset with the ongoing uh annual
revenue that we'll talk about on this
slide. So as part of the financial
strategy, the digital scoreboard serve
as a premium advertising asset. Uh
community schools would launch a new
dedicated sponsorship program with a
target of uh generating about 400,000 in
annual revenue. The income would then be
used to offset the one-time costs
associated with the project and then the
ongoing
um uh annual costs of about $21,000 all
supporting board policy KHP.
So summarize this is a threepronged
investment. We're enhancing our
facilities for our community, our
athletes. Um we're providing a valuable
career and technical education for our
students. and we're creating a
sustainable revenue source in alignment
with board policy.
So, as a reminder, this is a study item
tonight. If the board is supportive, we
bring back the contract for the
scoreboards in a future meeting. Um, and
with that, I'll open it up for the
board.
Thanks for that overview, Rob. We'll go
Lenia and then Jason.
So, do we have
any experience that we've talked with
other districts about the impact on
neighborhoods of these new scoreboards?
Uh, yes. And the primarily it's been
around the uh noise, the sound, etc.
because ultimately they're distributing
noise directly straight out of the
scoreboard. So there's some planning
associated with that. I have not heard
any any feedback. Um maybe outside of
the Naiwat community. I think there was
some feedback I got out of Naiwat. Um
other than that I have not received any
about the appearance of the scoreboards.
I would think that we might want to
be mindful of light pollution
as we exist in
Boulder County. and I know their rules
around it there.
Okay.
Uh yeah, thanks Rob. I want to ask about
the just the numbers behind it. It looks
like um
almost 2.4 million for the cost, right,
for five scoreboards and other related
costs. And then it's 400,000 not per
scoreboard, but total revenue for all
five. Uh so what are so just looking at
a long term that looks like it's about
six years to cover the costs and then
are we are these do these have like a
20-y year lifespan or what are we like
anticipating revenue because if I mean
we're looking at six years before we
break even and then we'd be able to make
you know potentially 400,000 I would
imagine there's some more than just at
the after six years we'll have more than
just maintenance costs but potentially
replace talking about even replacement I
don't know the lifespan but I think just
questions about the kind of long-term
financing around this.
So, let's assume that we're not going to
be right out of the gate making
$400,000. So, I'm going to assume the
payback is going to be 7 to 8 years. The
warranty on these boards is a little
over 11 years. Um, we are assuming that
we'll get at least 12 years.
Manufacturer saying that you'll get 12
years if you operated them 247. You're
more than likely going to get 15 years
the way we typically would operate
those. So, you're net positive
approximately 7 to eight years on that
back end. If our payoff at life cycle
cost is 7 to eight years, if that makes
sense. Um, I do not expect the
maintenance costs to go up. Uh, I still
expect those maintenance costs to be
around $9,000 a year for all five
boards. Then the rest of that is
software. So, I wouldn't expect that to
go up. But then we're at a pinch point
in 15 years. You know, do we continue to
renew that, etc. with as with any new
technology
first. Um I live approximately a mile
from Centaurus and every Friday night I
hear the I hear the game all the way
through and when it's band day, woo,
when we have the band festival. So, I
would really like to encourage a sound
pollution kind of check on those because
really being a mile away from Centurus
and still being able to hear every
football game is uh a lot. Um, and that
would also put me a mile away from
Monarch or so. So, I could hear both of
them from where my neighborhood is. So,
that worries me. Um,
I do have a concern that um I like the
fact that you're going to use this as an
educational opportunity for kids who are
trying to learn how to do um media kind
of management, but I have the concern
that once again a great boon of money is
going to a very small amount of children
because not everybody plays football and
soccer and baseball and those things.
So, it feels a little bit inequitable.
Just a question. I also would really
like to make sure that those scoreboards
I like the picture that you've provided
there in that it looks like there's more
than one uh provider of advertising
money and it's not some exclusive of a
um a corporation that's trying to get
our children's attention. So I would
like to see that it's not exclusive.
My comments
Alex.
Yeah. And then uh could you um I think
that makes sense and I appreciate the
estimates of the range. I'd be curious
what other communities have had in terms
of a range per you know board for how we
get to the 400,000 calculation. Um and
one other thing to think about is having
the students help with that as well. You
know as an entrepreneurial experience.
Um, I'm [clears throat] also
uh uh it matters to me that we think
about that $400,000 income as not just
belonging to the place that gets the
most seats in the in the stadium each
time. So, I I'd like to make sure that
we're thinking equitably in terms of
gender and sports and activities for how
we use the revenue that comes from it.
Um, and uh and can you tell us which
fund does the two and a half million
come out of and which fund does the
400,000 go into?
fund would come out of fund six
go into
bills. Yeah,
the
TBD fun 10 would it bill or
schools?
Yeah.
And to address your other question, we
did reach out to other districts. other
districts uh have these um all around us
and we do believe those ranges are in
alignment with what they're seeing for
advertising.
Rob
and and just to speak to Deian's point
because as a um as a band dad uh who
worked uh multiple music uh band
festivals and spent every weekend for
the past four not this this year but
past four years. I I do think that
Centaurus does a significant music
festival. Monarch does a significant
music festival and you can put kids uh
videos from, you know, from band like
this is actually inclusive and think
about it a football game where it's
actually a place to highlight the kids
that might not be getting highlighted.
Like it's not just uh you know football
highlights. It could be students of the
week or, you know, certain clubs who
want to do a promo. I do think that if
we do this well, it can be very
inclusive because I'm incredibly
sensitive, Dean, to that point of of
this is purely for athletics. I do think
that our football games um are our
biggest community gatherings that we
have uh in the fall for sure. Um
but soccer games, band competitions, I
think there's other opportunities as
well. And I think that we would want to
make sure that we were being very
sensitive to in to to have equitable
airtime to allow all kids to be
highlighted uh to be able to to share
information with our community. Um and I
will say that the it is we we are
becoming one of the few school districts
that doesn't have this type of uh this
type of um advertising. Yes. But but
just opportunity for kids uh in our
schools, whether they're in the band,
whether they're playing a sport, whether
they're at a schoolwide assembly, to
have these types of um these types of
scoreboards. Now, that's not to say that
there won't be bumps in the road, board
members. I think that that is that is
part of what comes with enhancing a
something like this. But when I think
about um our big schools like Recfield
and um Spanglebergfield uh at Centurus
um I mean we've we've dealt with noise
and light kind of concerns with
neighbors. Uh I think we would follow
those same processes.
Yeah. I want to just to piggyback on
that. I mean we used to do graduations
at these stadiums and that would be a
value ad.
you taught our athletic facilities and
things of that like this nature are
lagging everybody around us and we did a
good job in our policy to say that any
revenue generated from these types of
things would be distributed across the
school district. It doesn't mean a
scoreboard shows up at Rectfield and
Boulder High gets the proceeds and that
would that's that's our board policy KHB
would really guide that revenue sharing.
And so I think for me I think this shows
our community that we care about youth
sports and activities which a lot of
people care about even if we are
increasingly not maybe if always
familyfriendly cities based on housing
policy but we do care and all kinds of
kids um use these facilities and I think
it is a great opportunity to to elevate
that. It's a better spectator
experience. I think it's cool that kids
can learn to how to how to film and um
do some of those things. I have a
question that the cost to each school is
different. Are the sizes of the boards
different? I I know the three with the
highest amount of costs are our biggest
stadiums and the other two are smaller.
Can you tell me a little bit about those
one-time funds and why they're different
and and the size of these boards
potentially? So, as a reminder, Recfield
and Spangenberg Field are both shared
stadiums, so they have bigger boards.
Broomfield is also uh football plus
multiple sports. We do not play football
and some of our bigger sports at Monarch
and Fairview. Therefore, those two
boards are smaller. So, the reason for
the reduction in cost is because they're
smaller boards
and rough size.
Um, any idea?
I will get that for you.
board members, any other thoughts or
questions? And and because Deian and
Anna didn't have a chance to be engaged
with KHB, I'd encourage you to look at
that policy just to see like how any
whether it's scoreboards or other types
of revenue, how the how we are looking
at that and and also how we're looking
at folks that may potentially be able to
advertise because that's going to guide
any of those decisions more than any one
contract would. Um, just throwing that
out there.
I appreciate it's not that long of a
time since we looked at that policy and
talked about being creative re finding
creative revenue generators that benefit
our students and our staff and our
facilities. So, thank you for bringing
this forward and not too much time.
So, is the direction to bring back
contract? Okay.
I'd like to Yeah. Okay.
Bring back the contract. Thank you.
Well, board members, our final agenda
item this evening is future agenda item
requests.
I know we have a lot on our plate this
semester, but we are always looking
ahead to the future semesters. Are there
any items board members would like to
add to our running list of prioritized
items?
Seeing as there are none, this agenda is
this meeting is adjourned.