I'd like to call to order this regular
meeting of the Boulder Valley School
District Board of Education for Tuesday,
May 12th, 2026. Board members may attend
and participate in meetings remotely in
accordance with BBSC policy and state
law. Chris, can you please call the
role?
Bcher
here.
Chavez
here.
Medler
here.
Qualina
here.
Rajpaw
here.
Tamu add a
here. Anger.
Okay. Thank you.
Now I'd like to encourage everyone to
turn their attention to the screens for
our land acknowledgement this evening.
The Boulder Valley School District
resides and operates on land that is the
ancestral homeland and unjustly and
illegally taken territory of the Ute,
Puebloin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache,
Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations
historically tied to this land who have
called this land home since time and
memorial.
We acknowledge the atrocities committed
here, including the painful history of
genocide, forced assimilation, and
efforts to alienate the indigenous
inhabitants from their homeland.
Supported by the policies of the United
States government,
BBSD is aware of the many indigenous
peoples, past and present, and their
dignified nations and cultures, who care
for this land with strength and
resilience.
BBSD recognizes the histories of the
land in Colorado and the survival of
many nations that carried their oral
traditions into the present.
It is BBSD's responsibility to educate
ourselves, our community, and our
students so that we can embrace the
wisdom and knowledge of indigenous
peoples
and actively stand together to address
injustices.
In offering this land acknowledgement,
we affirm and honor the history, wisdom,
oral traditions, and resilience of
indigenous people and recognize the
responsibility to care for and
appreciate this land together.
I'd like to remind everybody that the
mission of the Boulder Valley School
District is to create challenging,
meaningful, and engaging learning
opportunities so that all children
thrive and are prepared for successful,
civically engaged lives. Good evening,
everyone. Thank you for joining us here
in person and remotely. We're glad to
have you observe and participate in our
meetings. At this time, is there a
motion to approve tonight's agenda?
Moved by Jorge, seconded by Anna. Chris,
can you please call the role?
But
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Rajpaw,
yes.
Timuing,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next up on our agenda this evening is a
superintendence report. Dr. Anderson,
good evening.
Good evening, board president Raj Paul.
Board members, good to see you all. Um,
cue up the pomp and circumstance. It's
time to celebrate the class of 2026. Uh,
starting on Friday, we all have
graduates from our 12 high schools as
well as our transition center and we'll
be taking part in commencement
ceremonies. Board members, I know you'll
be joining me at many of those events.
Uh for those in our community, you can
find the details on our graduation page
at www.bbsd.org/graduations.
And congratulations to the class of
2026.
Board members, we actually started uh
celebrating this past weekend. Uh BBSD
proudly celebrated the achievements of
our Native American Alaskan Native 2026
graduates at the Title 6 graduate
honoring ceremony right here at the Ed
Center. It's a thoughtful ceremony
complete with traditional dance, food,
and community. Congrats to I believe we
have nine graduates that were
celebrated. Um, and congratulations to
their families.
Another sign of the season is School
Fruit Project's annual plant sale.
Didn't have a chance to shop for your
garden staples, be sure to stop by this
Friday and Saturday at the BVSD
Greenhouse located right between the
Culinary Center and our Apex campus here
on the Upset campus on Arapjo Road in
East Boulder. Whether you're looking for
flowers, fruits, or veggies, some great
soil from the Panoya Soil Company, we've
got you covered. Learn more at
food.bsd.org
back/plen
sale.
Last Friday was a big milestone. Boulder
High School marked 150 years in serving
our community. It was a great night and
a powerful reminder of what makes
Boulder High so special, including its
amazing history. Take a look at these
photos from over the years.
Boulder High started as the prep school
at the University of Colorado and was
actually based in Old Maine on campus.
Current building was built back in the
1930s. And over the years, they've had
some remarkable alumni that I'll list
out while you're looking at students
from over the years. Project Mercury
astronaut Scott Scott Carpenter was in
the class of 1943.
Former University of Colorado athletic
director Mike Bone graduated from
Boulder High in 1979.
Former state senate president, state
representative, and Colorado attorney
general Morgan Carroll was in the class
of 1990.
The founder and former CEO of Chipotle
restaurants was a Boulder High grad, as
was Sports Illustrated and ESPN
columnist Rick Riley, and Boulder County
judge David Archeletta, who spoke on
Friday night. But Peggy Cop Cppam from
the class of 42 stole the show. Before
becoming a CU super fan, she was a
Boulder High cheerleader and helped to
lead the crowd in some chance.
With a B, with an O, with a Ub
with a B, with an A, with an N t.
Boulder had the team fight. Victory is a
team's right. Boulder has fight.
How great is that?
Thanks to Congressman Nagus, Boulder
Mayor Aaron Brockett, State Board of
Education member Kathy Gart, and all of
our board members and everyone else who
came out to help us celebrate this
milestone. Finally, board members, we
just want to remind our community,
everyone in our community, participate
in the resilient school survey. It's
open until next Sunday, May 17th. So, if
you haven't participated, please do.
Only takes about five minutes will help
us gather insight regarding the values
and priorities of our community before
we begin to develop a plan for the board
to consider. All survey results and the
feedback from the recent community
engagement sessions will be presented to
the board of education during a report
scheduled on Tuesday, June 9th. Board
members, those are my remarks for this
evening. Happy to answer any questions.
Thank you for that, Dr. Anderson. Board
members, any questions or comments.
Watching the Peggy cheer really was a
highlight at that anniversary.
Seeing as there are no questions or
comments, uh we will now move on to
public participation. The board respects
the right of the public to speak on
matters concerning the operation of our
schools. The board does not endorse the
comments of ind individual participants
and remind all those who speak that you
are responsible for ensuring remarks are
suitable for an audience of uh that
includes kindergarten through 12th
graders. Furthermore, this is an
opportunity for the board to hear from
our constituents. It's not a time for
the board to engage with or react to
speakers remarks. Speakers will each
have two minutes to speak. You will see
a yellow card when you have 30 seconds
remaining
and a orange card when you have 10
seconds remaining. If you run out of
time or would like to share additional
feedback, you may always email the board
if you haven't already.
With that, we will
start kick off this evening with
Duke. I'm gonna apologize in advance.
Duke Tutle.
Just push the little button and you
should see a green light on the
microphone when it's on.
Okay. Um, hello everyone. My name is
Duke Touetelli and I'm currently a
sophomore at Border High School. I've
come to the board meeting today in order
to discuss the enforcement of the
current land acknowledgement at all BBSD
school events. I believe this is the
first step in establishing a greater
support for different cultures within
our community, creating a safe space for
all students, as well as bringing
indigenous related topics to current
discussions.
School events also provide an
opportunity to reach a larger audience
and raise greater awareness to respect
indig indigenous communities that were
historically oppressed and still
experience the impacts of this today.
Other schools in Colorado such as Legacy
High School and Mountain Range High
School include a land acknowledgement at
all school events like sports games.
I believe schools in BBSD like Border
High School should be required to
mention a land land acknowledgement in
order to to support indigenous peoples
within our community. Now, I've
researched the history of the land
acknowledgement um within the district
and I found that we do have a really
impressive one that you guys probably
heard earlier. Um but it is not
implemented within the schools and prior
to reading it on the website and
listening to the video, I haven't heard
of it before, which makes me question
why a school district has a land
acknowledgement that isn't even
recognized at the schools. I believe the
solution to this problem is very simple
and with the imple implementmention
um of the land acknowledgement at all
school events people be will become more
aware of the indigenous culture and land
that all schools operate on.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Odin Young.
I am Odin Young and I will be speaking
about the um open enrollment and the
like priority enrollment at Summit. I'm
currently an eighth grader at Summit.
Going into middle school and
transitioning is uh really difficult.
It's hard to make friends and find a
community you are a part of. But when
you have a sibling who has already gone
to the school, it makes it much easier
to get those connections. For me,
because my brother was at Summit, I was
able to connect more with teachers and
students who already knew him. My uh
teams that I was part of already knew
him and liked me because of him.
So, when you have a sibling out of
school, you don't have to spend your
time in middle school worrying about
whether you can find friends or a
community to fit in. And you already
have like your people. I've also seen
this happen with my uh sister. She has
made connections with siblings of my
friends, kids who some wasn't an option
wouldn't probably go to the same middle
school as her because they all lived in
different areas. Because they are coming
to Summit, they already have a built-in
community before they even start. My
sister has also come to concerts, games,
and uh my pinnacle night and walked
around the school and she really feels a
part of that community and like it's her
school already even though she's not in
that school. Um because of those things,
she already is like part of it and she
has a sense of security going into a new
place where she where other people
wouldn't necessarily have that and it
really sets um kid up for academic
success.
Um that's why I believe that the policy
that uh people with um like
um brothers or siblings that already
graduate should get like priority
enrollment in summer. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is August
Hersfield.
Hold on one second. We'll pull out a
little step stool for you.
Okay.
There we go.
Hi, my name is August Hersfeld.
Please don't change the rules. I want to
go to the same middle school as my older
sister. Thank you.
Thank you, August.
Our next speaker is Zephr Anderson.
Hello, my name is Zephr Anderson and I'm
a seventh grader at Summit Middle
School. Please do not remove the student
graduate sibling preference. I along
with my family was selected to join
summit through the lottery process. We,
me, my little brother, and my parents
were all so excited when we found out
because it wasn't just me that got in.
It was my whole family. Summit became my
family's neighborhood school. I love
Summit and I want my brother to have the
same opportunities as I have had at
Summit. My brother, who is in fourth
grade, would be directly and negatively
impacted by this change. Over the last
two years, he has sat at the dinner
table and heard about my classes, my
teachers, my electives, and my tests.
All of the sentiment I have shared is
helping him get prepared for when he
gets to Summit. After my sixth grade
year at Summit, my grandma donated money
to the school to help fund the building
of the new wing because she believed
that it would benefit not just me, but
my younger brother, too. Now me and
hopefully my brother will get to walk
past a brick with my our family's name
on it every day. I know equity matters
to BVSD.
Equity within families is just as
important as equity between families.
Every family should have the same
opportunity in the lottery.
Robbing my brother of the promise to get
the same opportunities that I had is
wrong. I hope you honor your commitment
to the Summit families and keep within
family equity strong by maintaining the
Summit graduate sibling preference.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Zephr.
Our next speaker this evening is Allison
Sosa.
Hi. Uh my name is Allison Souza. I'm a
parent of a student at Gold Hill
Elementary and I mostly have questions
about increasing enrollment, although I
realize we won't get answers here. Um,
at least not right now. Um, but I
noticed that so I believe the district
has two enrollment programs right now.
One focused on resilient schools,
another focused on the showcase. Um, but
I didn't find any other programs that
were geared towards increasing
enrollment and even pulling from two
neighboring districts that are arguably
larger uh and aren't distinguished uh
like the Boulder district is. Um,
theoretically, we should have all the
pull in the world to get students from
those districts to increase our
enrollment. Um, but I was also told that
we're not accepting students outside of
the open enrollment window, which I
think we're getting closer to that goal
given um that let's see in 2020, what
was the data for? 2022 we enrolled 541
students outside the window, 361
inside the window. In 2023, we enrolled
4586 students outside the enrollment
window and 354 inside the window. And
then in 2024, we enrolled 352 students
outside the enrollment window and only
257 inside the enrollment window. So, I
was just wondering uh how we could work
on increasing that and also how we could
clarify guidance on when students are
accepted. There's public data on many of
the enrollment pieces except for
applications versus denials, which is
interesting to me as well. Um, so I just
wanted to find out if we could have more
information. I also didn't hear back
from the superintendent on this as well.
uh and wanted to see like I would
literally volunteer for a program uh to
increase enrollment. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Stacy
Proctor.
Stacy does not appear to be present and
she's is she she's not noted as virtual.
Is she online? No. We'll move on to
Lyall Stannard.
Hello, my name is Lyall Standard. I've
been working with BDSD Transportation
for 12 years. For the last six years,
I've been a dispatch helper.
A little while ago, I was informed that
my position is being eliminated.
I understand and respect that the
district has weighed and measured the
decisions that it makes, but I would
like to point out why a dispatch helper
is still needed at least a little
longer.
I work at the Lafayette terminal. We
supply busing for 23 general ed routes
and 34 special education routes. All the
special education routes are more
frequent to call the terminal in case
they are ill, have appointments, need
extra minutes to get to the bus, all of
which
uh dispatch handles these calls with
customer service
and smile and uh additional calls over
the phone. Over the next year, the
amount of transition kids will be
increasing from 63 to over 70,
increasing the amount of still yet more
need in the office assistance.
Finally, I I uh personally have um
become the terminal bus charge
assistant. The Lafayette terminal
supports 10 of the 12 electric buses. I
understand the the uh district is very
proud of uh its electric fleet. With
only six working high efficient
chargers, I have organized, coordinated,
and scheduled drivers to charge at
different times, making sure that buses
are ready to go. I'd simply like to
propose a two-year extension so that my
position can make with all the
challenges
uh that are
the challenges that are manageable and
that we get over the uh the the hump
until it's able to be resolved. Thank
you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Crystal Chin.
Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin on
behalf of the BBSC Community Coalition.
Our coalition continues to grow.
Families and educators across 21 schools
are still coming to us not just with
past experiences, but with current ones.
I want to be clear about what that means
in real time.
Families are pulling their children out
of this district right now. Others are
desperate to leave but don't know how to
educate their children safely outside of
it. They are stuck weighing their
child's safety against their family's
resource and resources and options.
We cannot share the details of these
situations publicly because these
families fear retaliation. That fear is
not abstract. It is grounded in what
they have watched happen to others who
spoke up.
That is what it looks like when a
district polices itself and is cons and
consistently finds no wrongdoing.
Families don't get resolution. They get
a choice between silence and leaving.
We have heard that independent oversight
isn't possible. We want this board to
know that Cherry Creek School District
right here in Colorado has issued an RFP
for independent third-party review of
its operational practices. It can be
done. It is being done in this state
right now. We are still asking this
board the same question we have been
asking since February. Will you commit
to independent oversight of student
safety investigations?
Families are still waiting for an
answer. Children are getting hurt now.
It is not okay.
Hear us and please respond.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Katie
David.
Hello. Good evening.
I'm here to uh
request uh support for the draft
academic calendars for um 2627 and 2728.
Um
I'm sorry, 2728 and 2829.
Um
on behalf of BVA, we request you to
support the draft academic calendars of
2728 and 2829.
We feel that the stakeholder meetings
were conducted in a way that enabled
rich discussion and thoughtful
consideration of the many and varied
stakeholders perspectives. Particularly,
we support the return of the spring
compensation days to April. We also
believe the professional development
days, teacher workdays are strategically
placed to the best um possible uh places
to ensure participation in professional
development. And this is also a shared
interest between BBA and BBSD. Um, we
request that you discuss this this
evening and honor the work that was done
by our calendar committee, particularly
Robin Fernandez, and the great work that
she's been doing all this time. Thank
you for your support.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Peter
Young.
We will move on to Barry Hersshfield.
Good even
Peter Young.
We'll come back to you after this one
then.
Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the
clapping.
Good evening,
President Rajpaul and members of the
board. My name is Barry Hersshfeld. I'd
first just like to thank you all for
your public service. We know what it
means to take your time and serve our
community like this and we appreciate
it. I'm here to talk about my family. My
daughter is just going to start going to
Summit Middle School in the fall and we
received the pretty shocking news today
um from the school that the open
enrollment policy was going to be
changed. Um as you just heard from my
8-year-old um and you can see my
5-year-old, we're really a proud BBSD
family. We believe in public education
and I'm here to strongly oppose the
proposal to remove that uh sibling
graduate open enrollment preference for
summit for 30 years. The policy has
existed to keep families together.
Middle school is a brief three-year
window. Because of their age gaps, my
youngest two children, who you see
sitting over here, will not overlap
concurrently with my oldest daughter. um
and we made a long-term um educational
plan for our family based on this
30-year agreement. And now without
consulting the summit board, uh you're
proposing a change that change that
really pulls the rug out from our family
and I think approximately 150 other
families. So it's a pretty big impact in
the community and it really penalizes
children for being more than three years
apart from their siblings. Um, and just
in terms of precedent, you don't force
this type of family separation in
elementary schools, high schools, or
neighborhood middle school schools. And
it really is fundamentally inequitable
to force it on Summit families now. Um,
so we hope that you will change your
mind and stick to the 30 years of track
record, the great track record that we
have with Summit. Um, please do not
break the trust of our community. Trust
is fragile. It's easily broken and it
takes years to get back. We believe in
BBSD. I think everyone here believes in
BBSD. We want to stay here. Uh thank you
for your time and consideration.
Thank you.
Peter, you're back up.
Apologize.
No worries.
Good evening. Uh my name is Peter Young.
Uh and as we discuss the summit
enrollment policy, I ask that we're
guided by a single principle, the best
interest of our children. When we talk
about sibling priority, the conversation
tends to drift towards the convenience
of transportation and the logistics of a
family schedule.
But for those of us rooted within the
school, those are secondary concerns.
The real value is the consistency, the
stability, and the sense of belonging
that a school community provides to a
child.
For my youngest daughter, Tan,
Summit isn't a choice on the farm, it's
her home. She has grown up on the
sidelines of the ultimate frisbee games.
She has been to every robotics
competition and band performance. She
knows the hallways, the teachers, and
the culture.
She already sees herself as part of this
place. To tell a child who has spent
years building that belonging that she
is now a stranger to her brother's
school ignores everything that our
schools are really meant to be.
We've been part of the Summit community
for over six years. We believe in this
community. We see the value it creates
when families are fully rooted in it.
We have moved our home closer to Summit.
We've invested our time and our
resources to keep it thriving for every
student that follows us. To unilaterally
dissolve the 30-year agreement of
continuity is more than just a policy
shift. It's a breach of trust.
It overrides the local expertise of the
summit board and tells the families who
have treated the district as a partner
that really the partnership is only one
way.
I urge you to pro prioritize the
interest of our children. Honor the
connection that they have built. Honor
the consistency that leads to their
success. Please keep our families
together and keep the sibling graduate
preference at summit alive. Thank you.
Thank you.
being conscious of waiting for the
clapping to cease. Matthew Flynn is our
next speaker this evening.
Thank you. Um Matthew Flynn, uh three
children BBSD, 10th in Monarch, eighth
at Summit, fourth at SCES. So 11 years
in, eight to go. Thank you very much. Um
we've had a good run and hope to
continue. Um also speaking on summit
tonight and taking a different approach
u a lot of great a lot of great comments
but one the board really should consider
is the fact that
by eliminating the sibling uh admission
rule immediately following a privately
funded in parts um project to that
school. um you're creating significant
potential legal exposure under promisory
estoppel. And what I mean by that is
many families, my family included,
donated money to this with the
understanding that not only was it going
to be the right thing to do, but our
other children or younger children would
benefit from this as well.
We we relied on that promise. It was
marketed as that. And that's not a knock
on the current team at the school.
They're just as blindsided as everybody
else about this. they're doing a great
job, but we relied on that much to our
detriment. And so for for this to
happen, for this change in policy to
occur like three months after the paint
dried on the walls, um if this does go
forward, that's that to me is an ethical
breach and it's also a potential breach
under promisory stoppple. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Pamela Jen Ross.
Hello, my name is Pamela Gendres,
another Summit parent here. Um, I have
also three kiddos at BBSD, one in
elementary, one in middle school at
Summit, and one at Fairview. Um so like
my predecessors has said before like um
this has blindsided us. We've had some
long-term planning
um into the education of our children
and we have built relationships with the
staff and with the teachers and with our
communities of frisbee teams and u
others. And actually you've already met
some parents of some fourth graders.
Mine is a fourth grader too. we were
hoping that we all meet back together at
summit. Um so I'd like you to reconsider
um
uh this new rule and also I think the
timing is kind of a little bit off here
because
uh our youngest goes to Flat Irons
Elementary, one of the schools that is
potentially being affected by closures
um due to uh low open uh low enrollment.
And so we are already all on edge to see
what happens and I'm sure you guys are
too. So
this is just adding another, you know,
point of stress to our lives. Um, so
thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Megan Dawson
Schwarz.
Hi, I'm Maisy Schwarz. I'm a fourth
grader at Bear Creek Elementary School,
and I think that it's not fair that me
and other kids can't go to the same
school as our siblings just because we
won't be there at the same time. I've
seen my sister and her friends do so
much fun stuff like beays and take fun
classes, and it's sad that other kids
won't be able to do that. I've always
wanted to go to summit, so please
reconsider removing sibling preference.
Maisy has been planning uh and sorry
and counting on attending summit ever
since we came off the weight list with
our older sister. And it would be
heartbreaking not to have give her this
opportunity. We're part of the Summit
community. We've made friends here. We
donate our time and our money to the
school. And Maisy's been following along
all the way. Removing sibling preference
suddenly doesn't seem fair, equitable,
or reasonable. Why would we start this
social experiment admits declining
enrollment and risk alienating families
already living here? Please reconsider.
Thank you.
Our
next speaker this evening is Mary.
I'm gonna miss out on pronouncing this
Chung.
Hello. Uh my comment is regarding BVSD's
plan to remove the Summit sibling
graduate open enrollment preference
policy. Um, if BVSD wants Summit to be a
touchandgo community, um, this is how
you make it happen. One where there's
taking but little giving back.
So, we all know that Summit is an
amazing school. And right now, Summit
has a blend of families. Some who are
happy to take what Summit has to give
um, and just leaving it at that. And
then you have families that have
built-in motivation to care about
Summit's long-term success. Um, these
are the families like mine that have
kids at Summit, see how great it is.
Don't take for granted that Summit needs
families supporting its success and are
willing to put in the work because we
have another kiddo that will be
attending in the future. I, for example,
have invested over 30 hours of volunteer
time to Summit in 2026 so far. This
balance in the types of families at
Summit seems to be working great. All
students benefit. A summit student who I
would not have known but for my
volunteering told my daughter that I was
goatated goated because of some
volunteer work I had done. And I'm so
glad she had a good experience. And when
students thrive, Summit thrives, BVSC
benefits and the larger community such
as even homeowners benefit of which I am
one as well. Summit uh with the change
that BVSD is making, you're disturbing
this balance. You're excising the group,
this second group of families from even
existing. And to what advantage? I have
heard of nothing except alignment with
the open enrollment policy that has not
been required of Summit for 30 years.
Thank you. Thank you.
Our remaining speakers this evening are
virtual. The first of which, and I'm
going to apologize for the pronunciation
again, is Yo Yo Luri.
Hi, good evening. My name is Can you
hear me?
Yes.
Great. Uh, my name is Yo Luri. I'm a
parent of a sixth grader at Summit
Middle School and a third grader at
Foothhill Elementary. While I've lived
in Boulder for 15 years, up until this
year, both of our kids were in private
school in Boulder. When our daughter got
into Summit through the lottery, we did
something we hadn't planned on doing. We
explored BBSC. and we liked what we saw
so much that we pulled both of our kids
out of a private school. Our daughter
went to Summit and our son joined
Foothhill. If it weren't for Summit, our
family would not be in BBSD today. The
district gained two students because of
Summit's community and its enrollment
promise. And what a Summit family we
become. Specifically, our third grader
is already a Summit kid in every way but
great. He went to the school play on
Friday night and his sister wasn't even
in it. He and I cooked together at the
new food lab after I bid on a cooking
class at the summit auction. He cheers
his sister on at basketball and ultimate
frisbee. And I think he's got more
friends there than she does sometimes.
He talks about Summit like it's his
school already and it's convinced that's
where he's going. He does that because
that's what we've told him. and he does
that because that's what you've told him
with a district policy for over 30
years. Under the proposed change, he
loses sibling priority. He'll still
enter the lottery and we'll hope and
pray that he gets in. But if he doesn't,
like 150 other families, we'll have a
choice to make and we will probably
choose to leave the district and go back
to private school.
Here's what I want the board to sit
with. My son's only failing under this
proposal is that he and his sister are
three years apart instead of two. If he
were in fourth grade today, he'd have
priority. But because he's a third
grader, he won't. That's not a policy
distinction grounded in equity and
educational value. That's not taking
kids first. That's an arbitrary line
that punishes families based on birth
spacing. Our family committed PBSC based
on an agreement. Changing that agreement
now breaks trust with families you most
want to keep. So I beg you, I ask you,
and please keep the summit sibling
preference in place.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Boya Deng,
who is in person, not virtual. Yeah, I
decided to show up. Um, hello everybody.
My name is Boadin and I have a upcoming
sixth graders at Summit Middle School.
And then the reason I'm here today is to
ask politely ask you to do not remove
the summit graduate sibling preference
because it's such an awesome policies.
It's
connect the family together at our
community especially summit and then it
is summit's board of directors who
should be responsible for school
operations including the open enrollment
preference policies and then we
understand that summit is also part of
BBSD
but summit is also unique because it's a
charter school run and run by parents
and then uh also the school board of um
directors
So um we back you please do not remove
these unique characters for
characteristics of summit and secondly I
think as parents mentioned that we want
to keep a very very close communities
within summit and then by removing the
summit graduate sibling preference it
will this action will um break the trust
of the families who were following the
BBSD agreements that their siblings will
be able to attend. Again, I think
removing this um sibling preference
policy is a punishment for kiddos that
were three more than three years apart.
So um please reconsider keeping the
summit graduate graduate sibling
preference policy. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our
final speaker this evening is Mercedes
Gitter
who is virtual.
Good evening. My name is Mercedes
Gitter.
I am a proud parent at Summit Charter
Middle School. I'm here this evening to
share a concern about BBSD's
non-concurrent open enrollment sibling
preference policy change, also known as
sibling graduate preference.
As a choice-based school with a
three-year enrollment period, the loss
of this preference will present
challenges to maintaining strong
community continuity for Summit and has
a significant negative impact on
lowincome
ELLL, RFL and other disadvantaged
families. These families take a longer
period of time to engage with the
community, staff, and teachers.
Removing this continuity
is exclusionary
and will harm these members of our
community the hardest.
I want to highlight the importance of
extended parent and teacher
relationships.
Parents who spend more years with the
school become more invested and
comfortable.
As you have heard from others this
evening, improving teacher parent
relationships, engaging in events, and
supporting the school. Teachers who know
families for longer periods provide more
tailored support, particularly to
families who take time to acclimate.
The district focuses on providing a
safe, inclusive, and personalized
learning experience, ensuring that
societal inequities and unique learning
needs will not be barriers to student
success. This change in enrollment will
present a large barrier for student
learning at Summit for families who need
the most support. I urge you not to
change the open enrollment sibling
graduate preference for Summit Charter
Middle School. Thank you.
Thank you.
This concludes today's public
participation. On behalf of the board, I
want to thank everybody who took the
time to show up tonight to share your
thoughts and experiences along with
those that participated online.
We'll now move on to board
communication.
Board members who would like to begin.
Deian.
Wow. Oh, it's a busy month. Um, I want
to share with you that I got to attend a
couple of uh great events. One was I got
to go to the Title Six um celebration of
graduates.
And I was so happy that I had chosen
that, not knowing that I was going to
see hoop dancers and I was going to hear
music and I was going to eat home-cooked
um native foods. And it was a tremendous
event. But as a board member, I have to
celebrate something that I never saw in
the time that I was a teacher. And that
is one of those Native American students
was a National Mer Merit Scholar.
Two of them had GPA over a 4.0.
And all of the students received a
lanyard that celebrated their heritage
to wear at graduation for having a 3.0
or higher. These are statistics that
just didn't happen 10 or 15 years ago.
And um I was duly impressed with all of
the students and the families that I got
to meet that night. It was a beautiful
event. Sign up for that one next year.
Um the second thing that I got to do is
I got to go to the um
AI uh meeting, teacher meeting. It had
shrunk a little bit and I think that's
just because people are so uh busy, but
we had some really great discussions
about some of the legal changes that are
happening in the AI landscape and how
that might affect the work that teachers
do. Um and um it was um inspiring to see
that that the conversation had elevated
beyond what we had started with about
how do we use this. That was where it
started and now we're really talking
about policy and we're talking about
legal ramifications of our kids using AI
in school and what that means. So, it
was a good meeting and I look forward to
getting to meet with those folks again
ne next year. They did um ask me
to
um
advocate for a the that committee
becoming actually an advisory committee,
a technology advisory committee to the
superintendent. And that's a message
I'll pass along to you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Dian. Anybody else?
Anna,
thank you. I also had the privilege of
attending uh several events. Uh one of
them being um the 150th anniversary of
uh Boulder High School. I had the great
privilege of going with my cousin who
graduated there in 1999.
Um, and we got to roam the hallways. She
got to tell me their senior traditions
that she hopes that they still uh
partake in today. Uh, one of which is
that they throw all of their uh, school
assignments over the balconies in that
little center quad, which I would love
to see sometime. Um, but it was overall
such a great event to see um, so much
history uh, coming out of that building.
Um, so it was a really really fantastic
uh way to connect to um to the history
there. Uh, second, I did attend uh a
parent meeting uh with several parents
that are inside of our
uh bilingual uh schools. And uh their
biggest uh communication to me was just
ensuring that um one we are prioritizing
uh our bilingual education in the
district through our declining
enrollment. Um but also being aware of
the intentionality of getting um
Spanish-sp speakaking parents' inputs
into the survey that is going around. Um
and so uh to them I did commit that I
would convey to the board um and to uh
the superintendent and um the rest of
the administration that we um or that
they really want to make sure that we
are with the time that we have um we are
just pushing as much as we can for that
participation from our Spanish- speaking
parents. Um, and then, uh, finally, um,
let's see, what did I have? Uh, I had
just an amazing meeting this week, uh,
and I was just very impressed, um, with
Rob and and all of the the, uh,
directors um, primarily around um, the
district's immigration response. Uh we
came earlier this year um together with
parents and a local nonprofit, El Centra
Mistad, and they came up with a list of
several different things that they
thought that the uh school district
should prioritize.
Uh, and I've gotten feedback from the
parents and from um that nonprofit of
just how um how welcoming and how much
in partnership they feel with the
district. Um, a lot of the things that
they sent over um were ve were very uh
lowhanging fruits. Some are a little bit
more uh tricky than than the others than
the other things, but they just felt
really listened to. um the the resources
that are coming out for our teachers and
our parents. Um they're very excited to
to see and continue to see. Um and
afterwards after our meeting and before
before the meeting ended, just seeing um
the different facets of the district and
how
how intentional you're being in
responding and thinking through uh your
own policies within your own
departments. um was just really
something that doesn't happen every day
at different um government entities. So
I was really happy really um really
proud um to have been in that building
or in that meeting and then leaving it
uh again I was talking to the
co-director of El Centra Mistad and just
what a night and day shift it has been
um to have the the partnership um that
they do have with the district now. um
and they're excited for that continuing
partnership to grow and to continue to
to go on several years. Um and it was
really nice to to to see and to hear all
of the things that the district is doing
um for our kiddos, for our parents, um
for folks in our community in general.
And it again, it just made me very very
proud of everyone that is here and the
intentionality that you're all putting
into and that you are listening and that
you are taking action um to make sure
that all of our kiddos um especially uh
those that have immigrant backgrounds
feel welcomed and safe in our district.
So, thank you so much,
Jorge.
Thank you. Uh thank you enough for
raising the important issues and uh I
want to echo those sentiments. Uh I know
it's a a lot of uncertainty right now, a
lot of fear in the community. So um I
know the district's working very hard. I
also want to use as a jumping off point.
Um there was a email that went out today
about the survey um regarding kind of
resilient schools and for folks to give
their opinions about, you know, what
their preferences are. Um so
Um, and that's open till Sunday the
17th. Um, so please make sure that you
are responding to that survey and
participating.
Um, it's a separate link, so it's a
little confusing because you get the
email from the district and then you
have go to you receive another link to
actually do the survey. So, we have to
make sure that folks are able to do
that. Um,
um, so I just want to kind of reinforce
that point that, um, it's important for
everybody to kind of participate in that
process and I appreciate the district
doing the additional work to make sure
that we reach out to all parts of our
community because that's that's so
important. Um, uh, I also want to touch
on, you know, our great schools and all
our great kiddos that are out there. If
I look at old SU today, I was out for
two hours with the six with the middle
school girls district track finals
today. Um, so that's ongoing out today.
Right now at Broomfield High School, I
think it's still going on now. And
tomorrow, uh, the boys district finals
at Centurus High School. So, please
check those out if you can. And I heard
a rumor that Curus High School
ultimate frisbee is the state champion
from what I understand. So, I maybe you
heard it here first. I don't know. But
thank you all,
Alex.
Uh, first off, I just want to express my
appreciation for the staff and
leadership at BBSD over this last month
when I've been out of state on an awful
lot. So, I really appreciate being able
to trust such a great team to do good
stuff and to keep me informed when I've
been away. Um, I wanted to speak in
general about, you know, part of what
will happen as we work on our school
consolidations or changes over the next
few years. I mean, I've always
championed uh public school choice, our
our enrollment in our charter schools. I
think we're doing everything we can to
get more families to enroll into the
district from outside and there's
multiple programs we can talk about for
that that are that are I think working.
And I also think we're trying to retain
all as many families as we can. And I'm
proud of our effort to facilitate public
school choice in as open a way as
possible. So that um the out of our
26,000
families by my count we have about half
of them that exercise public school
choice. for those that enroll um try to
enroll somewhere and don't get to go
there. I'd suggest more than half our
families are actually considering or
exercising public school choice. And I
it's incumbent on us as running a system
to make that work for all of the 60,000
humans we touch and the families and the
students and that's a lot of kids and a
lot of considerations. And as we work on
uh consolidating schools, moving
programs, uh doing all sorts of design,
I want to just make sure that we remain
committed to serving all kids, that the
ability to participate in choice is open
to everyone, that uh you don't have to
pay money to get to exercise choice or
volunteer hours, that uh your ability,
your language, your class, your race
have nothing to do with your ability to
exercise choice. And I'm proud of our
policies that move us in a direction to
fulfill that. And I think as we work on
it in the future, that's going to be
hard for lots of families. Uh but I
think our commitment to all the families
is that they will be treated equally as
they try to exercise choice in this
district. And I'm proud of us moving in
a direction to facilitate that, not just
for one school, but for all 56 schools,
19 of which don't have catchment zones,
don't have neighborhoods. So we have a
ton of families who are managing our
choice system. And I think as board
members, we have to work for all of
them.
I'm I'm grateful to my colleagues who
were able to go to so many events uh
with three kids of my own. I'm sorry I
wasn't able to attend more, but May is a
crazy month and what is it? Seven days
of school left. Um so not ready for
that. Um, but I did I was able to go to
the Boulder High 150th and I just would
add to what a cool um thing to see
graduates from the 40s and the 50s and a
school with so much tradition as someone
who went to a high school I think from
the 1970s with very very few traditions.
Um, I just really it was it was a great
to see that. I didn't realize it was the
oldest. It's the oldest high school in
Colorado. Just how much history is there
and grateful that we have schools of all
ages, but particularly a school like
Boulder High. So, really fortunate to be
able to have gone to that event. Um, and
I'm looking forward to graduations
starting this weekend.
Thanks, Jason. Uh board members, since
we last convened, I was able to attend
BVA BV BVEA's closing negotiations,
which was lovely to see, and I'm excited
about the progress there. Um I was also
attend Boulder High's 150th S or
celebration, and yesterday we had our
quarterly meeting with the county and
the city of Boulder along with the CU
and
they're all doing negotiations, too. It
seems to be the theme right now. Um,
and I just want to like pause and say
thanks to our staff and our students who
are in the middle, our high schoolers
who are in the middle of AP exams and IB
exams and gearing up for finals and
participating in state competitions for
athletics and activities. It's a really
busy time of year. It's hard to manage
all these moving parts and the changing
of schedules. And so I just want to give
kudos to our staff for making all that
happen and for our students for being
really patient throughout the process.
It's a tough time tough time and an
exciting time for high schoolers.
And with that, we will move on to our
information item this evening. We have
three information items. The first of
which is a legislative session recap.
And Heather Rzco from our policy matters
lobbying team will present this topic.
Sorry.
Good evening. Good evening, everyone.
Nice to see you. Thank you so much for
having us. Um I'm sorry the rest of our
team is not here. The legislators are
still working as we speak. Tomorrow is
the last day of the legislative session
and they still have quite a bit of work
to do, quite a bit of bills um on the
calendar, things to vote on. And so,
thank you for having me. Um I wanted to
just give you Oh, wait. Hold on. Sorry.
I forgot this piece.
There we go. Um, so we thought tonight
that we would just give you a quick
session recap. Um, and then a quick
update on the state of the budget and
then the school finance act. There's
been a lot of moving pieces on all of
those areas. Um, and so we Here we go.
Sorry, I'm clearly not technically um
savvy with this button item, but um so
just taking it back like 119 days, we
had an incredible legislative breakfast
with our Boulder County delegation.
Thank you so much, Superintendent
Anderson and the board for coming to
meet with the whole delegation and
members of the um education committees.
We were really able to have, I think, an
honest conversation at times tense
conversation about the realities of the
state budget, about the realities of the
administrative burdens um impacting
school districts, especially those
coming from um very well-intended
legislation, but it turns out, you know,
it always takes um action to implement.
Um and then also a deep conversation
about the specific ownership tax. I know
there was a lot of conversation about
the state's um ability to sweep that tax
um from districts and the impact that it
would have had on the budget. And so I
think just the ability to have that
conversation on the front end of the
state session really set the tone for
us. And I I am so thankful because I
think it made our job easier because
they at least our members of the
delegation were able to say when they
were looking at bills, how is this going
to impact BBSD financially? How is this
going to put stress on our teachers, on
our administrators, um, and really make
informed decisions in a way that they
haven't had to um, in the past decade.
There were 712 bills that were
introduced this session. They're still
being considered. Um, no more bills,
thankfully, will be introduced because
it takes three days to pass a bill, it
turns out. Um, but 712 bills is
incredible. and our team goes through
every single one of those bills and
meets bi-weekly um with President Rajal
and Superintendent Anderson to talk
through the impact of those bills on
BBSD
and take positions in the best interest
of the district. The key themes that we
saw in terms of legislation introduced
this year were um around transportation
tax adjustments, certainly revenue
generating measures. We saw that through
the um special session um and ideas to
do anything and everything we can to um
put our state budget into a better place
because it's certainly um impacting K12
and and investment into school finance.
Artificial intelligence, I heard you
talk about that. There was a massive AI
bill this year that was a culmination of
a year and a half of negotiations
between deployers and developers about
the um liability as it relates to using
AI. And so I'm happy to say that there
was a um an agreement on that bill in
the 11th hour as well. Um and as comes
with AI comes data centers. We're going
to continue to see conversations around
data centers over the um interim and uh
through the next session.
Um looking at bills that were of part
particular interest to BBSD.
Um two bills in particular that BBSD
supported which were just incredible
bills. House Bill 1078 was the
off-campus courses concurrent enrollment
programs bill. This bill was sponsored
by um two Boulder uh county legislators.
Representative Leslie Smith and Senator
Janice Marchman. This bill um would
allow it will allow um districts to
partner with four-year institutions on
concurrent enrollment now instead of
having to either bus students to a
4-year institution.
Um the dis the four-year institutions
are able to either send folks to the
district or um work with the teachers at
the district to provide those courses.
um the four-year institutions had heard
loud and clear from districts across the
state that there's um desire to partner,
but this um location barrier was was
really impacting the ability to partner
um in really effective ways. So, that
bill is um waiting for the governor's
signature, which is really exciting. The
other bill that we worked incredibly
hard on and BBSD was a very early
supporter of and Superintendent Anderson
is very passionate about is the
elimination of duplicative regulation of
um before and after care requirements.
So right now after the creation of the
um CDC, the districts are under both CDC
and CDE rules. And so our before and
after care administrators have one set
of rules during the day and then as soon
as the bell rings or before the bell
rings, they go to a different set of
rules. And um with different sets of
rules comes different sets of violations
and um needs for investment. And so we
really went into this bill looking at
how do we try to eliminate the
duplicative and contradictory
requirements between the Department of
Early Childhood and um the Department of
Education. Turns out it's wildly um
there's a lot of people who care about
this from private centers to um school
districts. And so we really were able to
hone in on um the we really were able to
hone in on training for teachers and
then also um inspection of playgrounds.
Um there's a lot of districts where the
playground is okay to use during the day
and then as soon as the bell rings those
same students are not allowed to use the
playground. And so I think that there's
a lot of work to be done in this space.
It was an opportunity to have really
thoughtful conversations and really um
lift up challenges that are facing our
before and afterare teachers. Um those
were the two that we were able to tackle
this year and I hope that we're able to
tackle more next year. Um moving on to
bills that we were monitoring school
finance. I'm going to get into that a
little bit more um in depth uh as it
relates to the state budget. Um so I'll
I'll pause on that one for a second. Um,
Senate Bill 68, the modify
administration of education assessments.
This was a bill that was introduced. Um,
it was a bipartisan bill to really look
at the amount of assessments um, taking
place at districts that are above and
beyond what's required by federal law.
Um, as introduced, the bill would have
said that districts don't have to do
anything above federal law. um in
negotiation with a a number of um
stakeholders, the bill was amended to
create a task force to look at all of
the different um assessments that are
taking place in districts. Ultimately,
again, it turns out there's a lot of um
thoughts about assessments. The to do a
task force costs money. Um they're
literally again I'll get into the budget
in a second, but there was zero dollars
for other bills um to pass this session.
Um, so this bill is ultimately laid over
until after the session adjourns, which
means that it's it's dead. Um, but
certainly something that we anticipate
to keep um talking about. Um, the a bill
that we oppose that was postponed
indefinitely, which means it it was
killed in committee, is the school um
board elections director district um
bill. This essentially would have
changed schoolboard elections from at
large to um where people can only vote
for the district that they live in. Um
BBSD took an imposed position as did
virtually every other um district in the
state and the the bill was ultimately
postponed indefinitely. So, those are
just a few of the 700 and 700 plus bills
that we looked at this session, but um
BBSD played an active role in
as it relates to the state budget. Um
going into uh the session and with the
governor's November 1st budget request,
the state was looking at um a 1.5 about
a $ 1.5 billion budget gap um which is
just astronomical.
Um we knew that a lot of the budget
pressures facing our state were because
of Medicaid growth and expansion. This
is this has created a structural gap in
our budget. So these are things that you
know are not going to fluctuate from one
year to the other. It's it's they
compound over time. Um and then the
estimated impact of costs as it relates
to the federal HR1 um bill, the
implementation in terms of
redetermination of benefits um that that
would have on the state. And so just a a
significant budget gap um in the nove in
the governor's November first budget
request, he really wanted to protect K12
and public safety at most. But as um
we'll talk through in a second, um $1.5
billion is an incredible amount of money
and not a single department or entity in
the state um was able to come out of
this budget without experiencing cuts.
As it relates to the um Department of
Education in particular, the joint
budget committee really focused on the
elimination of grants um that school
districts participate in that are run
through the Department of Education. So
things like behavioral health care
professional grants, bullying prevention
grants, read act awareness grants, um
the statewide social studies test, they
removed the um now it will only be
required um in seventh grade instead of
in elementary school. So, these are um
relatively in in in terms of a $ 1.5
billion billion dollar cut, relatively
small um cuts, but added up and the
people that they impact really um they
made for very hard decisions with the
joint budget committee.
um as it relates to the school finance
act, this was um a very interesting year
because the past few years that we've
had a school finance act um especially
Superintendent Anderson had to be at the
capital almost daily um engaged in
different negotiations. I think because
there was no money and because the state
really wanted to do everything they
could to protect K12 funding, it was a
relatively um low-key year, I would say,
as it relates to the school finance act.
They um Senate Bill 23 um will do a 30%
implementation of House Bill 1448, which
is about a $150ish um million dollar
investment to K12. It um includes a
three-year averaging, which is something
that's been important to um averaging
has been something important um for for
us to protect over the past few years.
The big um unanticipated consequence of
the school finance act happened in just
the past week and a half, I would say,
and it was on the cost of living factor.
CDE submitted um probably four or five
rounds of really complicated runs, runs
that were not correct. Um runs that
would have had um school districts
anywhere from there were different
variations from 140 school districts to
45 school districts who would have had
experienced a cut if the new runs on
this cost of living factor were
implemented. Um so so much thanks to to
Keith and the Colorado School Alliance
and then all of the district lobbyists.
we all pushed back very hard on um these
cuts and so there was an agreement um
just recently uh to pause that cost of
living factor in the school finance bill
so that the districts will not
experience um a change in what they
anticipated this year. And then
conversations will continue over the
interim about why
um why 1448 is causing this cost of
living factor um to fluctuate. The
specific ownership tax I mentioned at
the very beginning of this um
presentation. Again, the board and
Superintendent Anderson were incredible.
Um in our breakfast with the delegation
in terms of um you know, a cut is a cut
is a cut and this would have been this
proposal would have been a significant
cut to BBSD um to the tune of more than
$7 million.
we were able to get this cut off the
table with the joint budget committee
and then work with case to challenge the
legality of the cut which ultimately
pulled it off the table with the speaker
in the governor's office. Um so it's
something that we're really proud of.
Looking to the future um because again
if you can believe it the session ends
tomorrow. Um but June 18th is a big day
for us. It's the June revenue forecast
and it's where we start this whole
process all over again. And um all eyes
are on this forecast as it relates to um
the risk of a recession, as it relates
to impacts of federal legislation, um as
it relates to impacts of um potential
ballot measures. Um it's it's going to
be a really important forecast for us to
look at in terms of planning ahead. So,
we'll certainly um as we always do, send
you all an update as to to how that
forecast looks.
That was a a long presentation, but any
questions for me or that I can pass
along to our team?
I just want to start by saying thank you
to Heather and her team are great
partners throughout the course of the
legislative session. And while Dr.
Anderson is a fierce advocate, we can't
always get down to the capital as often
as we need to. So, we do rely on you for
for that advocacy. So, I just want to
commend you for all the efforts that you
put in on behalf of the school district.
board members, any questions or
comments?
Great. Well, Dr. Anderson, oh,
I just want to thank Heather, Tanya, and
the team for always doing such a great
job of of staying keeping us informed
during session, putting us in the right
positions to advocate. Um, I was very,
uh, happy to see that SOT die pretty
quickly. I think that uh the the the
ways that we engage our delegation are
are highly effective and right on time
and I think we're able to deliver some
messages in that meeting that really
resonated and that helped our number one
legislative priority which was to
eliminate that to come to fruition. And
um even the work on uh the child care I
think that was that's looking forward to
to seeing that come in play. and uh
Representative Smith's bill, I think, is
going to really help make a lot of kids
in BBSD happy when they're able to earn
the CU concurrent enrollment courses.
Wonderful.
Thank you all so much. It's an honor to
represent you.
Thanks, Heather.
Thank you.
Our next information item this evening
is preschool and enrichment programming
update. Dr. Anis, would you like to do
the introductions?
Yes, I I would love to do that. I'm I
was looking to see if we'd um approved
the personnel report yet, but we
haven't. So, um our current assistant
superintendent um chief academic officer
uh Nativity Miller is going and um
director of academics uh Emma Herszog
and Terresa Clemens from early childhood
will be giving you all a preschool and
enrichment programming update. And so
with that, Dr. Miller, I'll turn it over
to you.
All right. Good evening, President
Rajpaw, members of the board, Dr.
Anderson. Um, as Dr. Anderson just
mentioned, tonight we are going to be
providing you with the preschool update
for the 2526
school year. And just as a quick
reminder, the early childhood education
department lives under the academics
department. Teresa Clemens is our
amazing early childhood director and Dr.
Emma Herszog is their direct supervisor
for the team. And so with that, I'm
going to pass it to the two of them and
they will be presenting to you this
evening.
I'm all stressed out about this clicker.
All right. Good evening. Tonight, we
will do a quick review of our existing
preschool models, share updates on
preschool enrollment, both current and
pro projected, as well as how we're
maximizing our enrichment seats, share
an update on the preschool impact
analysis that was completed in
partnership with Dr. Alzine and her team
and share some updates from the Colorado
Department of Early Childhood on UPK.
Going to pass it over to Terresa
Clemens, our director of early
childhood, who will take you through the
bulk of the slides this evening.
It's the down. Okay.
Good evening. Uh we will begin with a
visual of our current programming. This
is our second year offering half-day
preschool 5 days a week. Each preschool
classroom is taught by a licensed early
childhood special educator and we have
three-hour preschool in the morning and
a three-hour session in the afternoon.
In order to meet the 15-hour a week
requirement for universal preschool, our
preschool classes do not have late start
on Wednesdays.
At 14 of our sites, we also have the
option to add enrichment. The second
column on this slide in the middle there
shows one example of how preschool
enrichment supplements preschool to
create a full day bell-to-bell schedule
for families. In this example, the
student is enrolled in morning preschool
and then after those three hours, the
student moves to the enrichment
classroom where they spend the remaining
four hours of the day. Some students
would have a schedule with enrichment in
the morning and preschool in the
afternoon. At Alicia Sanchez, we have a
full day model that is six hours a day,
five days a week, and students spend the
full 30 hours with an early childhood
special educator. Students do not change
classrooms midday like in the model with
enrichment.
Looking at enrollment this year, um our
preschool enrollment over the past two
years of universal preschool has stayed
steady in both preschool and enrichment.
As you can see, in October of 2024, we
had 770 students and that increased to
832 this October. While the end-of-ear
numbers are similar, our October
enrollment numbers reflect an increase
from 770 to 832.
We receive funding based on monthly
enrollment, which means students
enrolling earlier and remaining enrolled
throughout the year increases our
revenue. And the end ofear numbers are
ending very similar. last year 98 and as
of right now we have 917 students.
This slide also shows the growth of our
extended day enrichment program. Prior
to universal preschool enrichment had an
enrollment of just 113 students and we
are ending this school year with 319
which is very similar to ending last
year which I believe it was 318
students. So again, remaining consistent
with enrichment enrollment as well.
We are continually reflecting on
enrollment and looking to see where and
how we might make adjustments. One area
we wanted to look at was maximizing
enrollment in our full day seats. For
the 2627 school year, we are going to
continue to offer a preschool and
enrichment model that we've been
implementing at both Mapleton and
Pioneer. We will add this model to
Elorado PK8 for next school year.
There's a visual on the left side of
this slide. And at these three sites, we
are pairing a preschool classroom with
the enrichment classroom. In other
words, 100% of the seats in that
preschool classroom will be for students
who are attending preschool and
enrichment. All three of these sites
have an additional preschool classroom,
and all of those seats will continue to
be half-day preschool, which allows
families attending those schools to
continue to have a choice in either half
day or full day.
One other change that we're making for
next school year is reserving a certain
number of seats for full day programming
at two of our sites, Birch and Cole
Creek. At these two sites, a minimum of
26 of the 36 total seats will be
reserved for students who are enrolling
in the enrichment program. The other
nine sites with enrichment will continue
with the current enrollment model, which
is a mix of half and full day preschool,
and families can choose which works best
for their family.
So looking ahead to 2627 enrollment, we
are seeing strong enrollment for this
coming school year as well and we're on
track to match or exceed this year's
enrollment numbers. As of now, our
enrollment for 2627 is at 619 students
and 306 of those students are already
enrolled or in the process of enrolling
in enrichment. Our community liaison are
actively enrolling students and will
continue to enroll throughout the
summer. So we will continue to see that
619 number rise over the summer months.
There continues to be a demand for full
day enrichment seats and sites with
enrichment tend to fill quicker than
sites who just offer half-day
programming.
And now I will hand it over to Dr.
Herszog to share an update on our
analysis of preschool impact.
So we know that an ongoing question the
board has had that we share is you know
we believe in an excellent preschool
experience for our students. We know
research says it should have an impact
but does it have an impact and to what
extent in BBSD particularly considering
the significant cost of preschool given
the lack of sufficient state funding
through universal preschool. At our
October 2025 board presentation we
shared that we plan to partner with Dr.
Jessica Alzine, our executive director
of accountability and evaluation, and
her team to dig into our data to see
what conclusions we might draw. Dr.
Aline and her team did a lot of work
digging into a variety of data sets over
time. And the conclusion was it's not
possible to have any conclusions right
now given the changing parameters we've
been operating in over time.
Specifically,
we've just adjusted pres we have we have
had adjusted preschool programming three
times in the last four years. When we're
trying to figure out the impact
preschool has had on a student over
time, it's hard to do when the preschool
experience is not staying consistent. We
anticipate now after new legislation and
an adjustment to that new legislation,
we'll have more consistent programmatic
offerings over a longer period of time.
It's also important to note that COVID
continues to impact longitudinal data
sets. If we look at student trajectories
from the last five or 10 years starting
in preschool, for example, COVID remains
a key variable in those data sets. And
with that variable, it's also hard to
draw conclusions. So, all that said, for
now, we will continue to work on
maximizing preschool seats and improving
and refining our preschool student
experience in alignment with preschool
standards, kindergarten readiness, and
developmentally appropriate practices.
After we have more years of UPK and our
consistent model, we'll work with our
data and accountability team to re
revisit and review a longitudinal data
set and anal and complete an analysis to
determine impact of our preschool
program.
This slide's from a previous
presentation, but we wanted to include
it here um because we're going to
transition from talking about our
current preschool model and how that's
going to some updates from the state
that Teresa will share.
It's important to remember that
preschool is under the Colorado
Department of Early Childhood while K12,
as we know, is under CDE. And there are
some real ongoing implications with
this. So, at a really high level,
enrollment is different. Preschool
enrollment is managed by the state's
platform, Bridgeare, while K12
enrollment, as you know, is managed by
local school districts. Time in school
is different. Preschools funded based on
time per week, while K12 is funded based
on time per year. And then, as Teresa
mentioned, funding is different.
Preschool is funded per pupil per month,
while K12 is funded per pupil per year
based on an October count. This
structure also means that new guidance
and new UPK requirements come to us from
the Colorado Department of Early
Childhood, not CDE. Teresa is going to
give you an overview and preview of
refinements CDC is planning to make over
the next several years.
So for the last part of the
presentation, I want to share some of
these updates from CDC with you. We will
be going into our um third year of
universal preschool and um as of July
1st, all UPK providers um will need to
meet these quality standards that are
outlined in legislation and rules. This
slide shows the five main categories of
standards that will be required of all
UPK providers. Boulder Valley has been
and continues to provide the highest
quality programming and we already meet
or exceed these requirements. But I
think it's important for you to know
what will be expected of all providers.
The first one is around instructional
practice and all providers will be
required to have an approved curriculum
by CDC and an assess assessment system
that's aligned with Colorado academic um
standards. We do have that in place and
have had that for many years. Also,
programs will be required to have
on-site observations every three years
from an outside observer that will um
measure quality and classroom
interactions. Again, this is something
that we have put in place as a part of
our quality improvement plan for the
last several years. It also requires um
some regulations around healthy
development requirements which basically
is um requiring programs to provide
screening such as social emotional
screening, developmental, vision and
hearing and also oral health.
Uh the next category is family and
community engagement. There's a
requirement to um allow families input
on programming, allowing families to
complete surveys to give input, working
with um preschool staff, working with
families to develop goals for their
child. Again, all things that we have in
place are best practice and we have had
in place. The last one is around
professional development requirements,
which again we have a robust
professional development program. The
change for us will be that CDC is now
mandating specific um types of training
that we have to require um such as
trauma-informed practice, family
engagement and so forth. So they've
listed out the topics and how many hours
we have to provide. So we need to ensure
that all of our providing fits um all
those requirements.
And then um another change that I just
wanted to share with you, this is just a
proposal and a draft um but it felt
important to share that this is
something that's being discussed um at
the state level. There is a quality
rating system for early childhood
programs and CDC is in the process of
updating that monitoring process for all
programs. And currently Ced is proposing
that the quality monitoring process for
school districts be aligned to some of
the current Colorado Department of
Education requirements. So, for example,
um looking at requiring districts to
have an early childhood specific goal in
the district and school unified
improvement plans. Also with educator
effectiveness evaluation system in those
expectations, ensuring that um there are
developmental instructional strategies
that are in place preschool through
third grade. Um, one of the things under
the principal quality standards as a
part of the principal evaluation
process, ensuring that there's training
for evaluators so that they have the
knowledge and expertise to um evaluate
developmental appropriate practice and
also a strong preschool to kindergarten
transition plan. And then the last one
is ensuring that learning goals are
aligned to the Colorado academic
standards.
And then finally, um although you
already heard about this this evening,
um was just going to give you a brief
update on House Bill 261282
um to eliminate the duplicative
um legislation or the duplicative um
oversight for programs that are a part
of a school district. Um we were hopeful
that this would eliminate some of the
burdens placed on school districts who
have preschool and school age programs.
The original bill included preschool as
well as school age. Um however um there
were major revisions to this bill as you
heard. Um and it does only include
school age before and after school
programs. Um and it was whittleled down
to um just a few of the items. But it is
a win because um there is something in
place and it's a starting place. So with
that um we will take any questions that
you have.
Thank you for that preschool early
childhood update. Board members, do we
have any questions or comments?
Alex?
Yeah, I have a few questions, but I'll
start with a few and give my colleagues
a chance. Um, previously we've gotten
updates on the proportion of students
with disabilities in our preschool
programs. Can you give us some data on
what the trends are this year for
enrollment? In the past, I've been
concerned that maybe our rates are
higher than we would want uh in terms of
least restrictive environment. and I
want to know what they are this year.
That's the first question.
Um I can I don't have the exact number,
but I can tell you um we can certainly
pull those for you. Um we typically
start with around um 30% um of the
students in our classrooms have an IEP.
Um we need to keep the enrollment at 50%
or less and we are below that. Um, I
think right now it's probably around
40%. Because throughout the school year,
we add about a hundred students who have
an IEP because, as you know, we
continually need to evaluate students
and um, students with IEPs start the
program as soon as their IEP is in
effect.
Theresa is not going to toot her horn on
this, so I'm going to toot it. and we
were trying to figure out how to put it
in the slide in a cohesive way and we
didn't. But I would say, and she can
correct me if I'm wrong, we're also
seeing a trend that more of our noniep
seats are being filled earlier in the
year. So, for example, as of now for
fall, we already have sites that are
full on the nonie seat side, but we're
very mindful of the balance by
classroom.
Yeah, I I would love to get the data.
It's I know we were at 42 two years ago
and somewhere in the mid30s last year.
So I' I'd love to actually find out what
that number is and I'd love uh our
impact study to explore that pretty
closely uh because I remain concerned
that we would um get the ratios we want
in order to serve all the families and
to make the LRE be effective for the
kids. Um another basic question, how
many kids do we want in this program and
what proportion of capacity are we
currently serving? How many unused seats
do we have throughout the year or the
beginning or the end of the year?
Um, we have capacity, again, I'd have to
look up the exact, um, but it's a little
over a thousand. Um, and so by ending
the year at 9:18, um, obviously there's
still open seats there. However, again,
I will say as students come through
Childfind and qualify for programming,
we have to hold seats so that we have a
spot for them. So, even though school is
out in two weeks, um we still have
families who maybe had their IEP last
week um and they are starting school.
So, we have to be ready, willing, and
able to serve them at any point. So, we
do need to have some open seats so that
we have space to serve them.
Jason.
Um, yeah, thanks for this update. Um, I
was going to ask a kind of variation of
Alex's question about demand and you you
mentioned there's demand at some sites,
but then it looks like from what you
just said there's a thousand seats and
we're we're at 90. you talk about demand
and maybe where we see are there
particular sites or is it you know areas
of the district just just I think as if
we think about this strategically in
terms of declining enrollment and where
we want to think about where um you know
where we want to attract more families
and particularly at preschool level
it's interesting because um there's
always some surprises in there and so
for instance um I could name Emerald
that's one school who maybe wasn't quite
as full and then going into this year or
I mean going into next year um it's I
believe it's it's full with our nonIP
seats. We might still have some IEP
seats that are open and that is a site
that has just half day programming, not
the full day. Um we follow the trend
that we're seeing in the district that
our Boulder sites um are struggling to
um completely fill all of the seats that
I'll refer to as nonie seats. Um, again,
we
the number doesn't go over 50%. Um, but
we do still see that there are students
with IEPs um that we need to be serving.
So, does that answer your question?
I think one addition also is um the
early childhood team has done a really
thoughtful job of mapping out what are
the other providers by town and region
across our district and essentially like
what else is available to families. And
so then it can create some confusing
trends because we may have an area of
the district that doesn't have a large
student population, but because of a
lack of other options, we see an influx
in demand for our programming or through
word of mouth or whatever. And to
Teresa's point, it changes year to year
based on word on the street, based on
what's happening in a neighboring
district, in the preschool they may or
may not have. And so we're trying to be
constantly nimble in understanding what
is the ecosystem that we are working
within for pre kindergarten and what
does that look like by sub area and also
monitoring that over time while trying
to be really competitive and and getting
our word out for families. So it's not a
straightforward answer to a
straightforward question.
Um and you know I know you mentioned
just kind of you know data and analysis.
Uh, I just, you know, add that, um, I do
have, my youngest is in preschool at
Creekide and anecdotally, I can speak to
the incredible quality of the teachers
and the programming. Uh, and I hope more
Boulder families in particular, it
sounds like, uh, you know, can really
discover, you know, the great offering
that we have. Um, and I think it's,
yeah, really a kind of a kind of a
hidden gem in our community that we have
such, you know, incredible teachers,
high quality programming. It's not
daycare. It's really, you know, really
solid early childhood education. Um, and
you know, again, from one perspective, I
can talk about how effective and, um,
strong the programming has been. So,
thank you. That's not the official data
we'd want on slides, but and I think a
lot of other families in our, um, in in
the the preschool at Creekide would
agree. So, thanks very much for all you
do.
Yeah. Thank you, Alex.
Yeah. Uh, a few more questions. Um
uh how big is our class size for these
things? How big? What does full mean?
Yeah. So um our maximum is 18.
Okay. Um
per session. So like when I say 26 of
the 36 seats, so we have 18 um in the
morning session and 18 in the afternoon
session.
Okay. And I'd be interested in data in
the long run that gives us a sense of
the class size by school or the
enrollment by school and the and the
special ed ratio by by the schools
program because I would help us
understand I think how how it's working
in the different places. Um I have maybe
this is a question for Rob or um Dr.
Miller. Uh when we were doing the the
roundts at the schools, I would always
ask the principles about their preschool
program and to a person they had zero
ownership of these programs. They're
like, "Oh, that's not mine. The district
runs that." Um that seems exceedingly
problematic to me in the long run in
terms of like trying to get people to
enroll in preschool and then enroll in
the school or potential to integrate
this into our system as we move forward
and try to be special. What What's the
deal with that? And is it okay? Hey, and
can we do something about it?
Sounds like a new kind of agenda item
line. What's the deal with that? We
could kind of got kind of answer
questions like a game show. Um,
and and I'll let Teresa and Emma answer
this, but you know, the enrollment's
goofy because it has to go through
bridge care. So, you can't go to the
school and enroll, right? You have to go
back to bridge care. and then through
the bridge care that the the early
childhood team is and the liaison are
the ones that walk a lot of those
families through that. I I would say
though, Alex, that there is an
opportunity and to better connect
um what's happening in early childhood
with with what principles are doing in
their schools around unifi universal
improvement planning, unified
improvement planning. And I think that
some of the legislation that Teresa was
alluding to would actually make that a
requirement because you don't want it to
be this disconnected thing. You really
want, you know, from 3 to four years old
all the way up through college or
industry certification or you know grad
plus completion. Um and so uh you know I
I think the enrollment piece may is is
difficult right? you know, the
principles don't manage the enrollment
because there's this calculus that
Teresa over the years of her experience
is really good at, which is if you
overfill your seats and then you have
students with IEP show up and you don't
have room, then you're you're what
you're going to add another section and
then move kids from programs to another
program. I mean, I just that the
logistics around is kind of crazy. So,
um I do think that there's opportunities
to do a better job of connecting and I
do think over time, you know, the work
that's happening um in early childhood
and and making sure that our principles
know and understand what highquality
early childhood education looks like and
how it connects to curriculum is um is
an opportunity um for growth, but the
enrollment uh the enrollment piece I
think is has traditionally
been um been been the tough part of
that. Teresa, Emma, do you want to add
anything to that?
Um, I would just say yes. The enrollment
we have, um, preschool at 24 of the
elementary sites, so they're not
everywhere. Um, so there are students
at, you know, a school where they may
not be going there for kindergarten and
up. Um, principles are the evaluators of
the preschool staff. Um, so, you know,
the preschool staff definitely is a part
of that school. Um I think also what
complicates it is um childcare licensing
and there's so many things and so you
know as it should be there's a reliance
on our department to make sure we have
those regulations and so sometimes I
think some of those comments come
because it's just so big with Cdeck and
childcare licensing and all these pieces
and we don't we we expect principles to
understand them but not the nitty-gritty
like we're there to consult and support
Then
Jorge and then we'll go back to Alex.
Thanks Alex. You you beat me to that
question. I was curious. I know um you
mentioned the bridge um management of
the enrollment and that's changed over
the years. We'll say generously, right?
Um how's that process working out for
parents? Is it improving? Are is any of
the legislation tackling that issue at
all in terms of making change? And the
second question is is about the
transition to kindergarten. Are we do we
have numbers on how that looks like from
the preschool program to the
kindergartens um and schools?
So, um, Bridgeare, that's the state
enrollment system that all families have
to put their application into Bridgeare,
go through a lottery. Um, so yes,
there's been improvements um, and the
state has listened to districts um, to
implement some of the things like for
instance, there used to be several
rounds and they were later and so like
families wouldn't find out until now if
they even had preschool for next year.
So with advocacy of ourselves and some
other districts now those rounds
happened earlier um you know January
Februaryish time so I think families
can't remember exactly but I think they
heard in March so beginning I think it
was April 1 we can do direct enrollment
so there have been some changes um still
as a school district we would like to
have full control of enrollment um and
be able to just have families work with
us. it was so much more efficient for
all of us. So, um, and I forgot your
other question.
The other question was just about the
transition from preschool to
kindergarten.
Oh, yes.
And what that looks like.
Um, I mean, that's definitely something
we look at. Again, I don't know that I
have the numbers. Um we've been having
well one we work um really um closely
with the schools both preschool and
kindergarten staff sharing ideas around
transition from preschool to
kindergarten and how to support that and
that really it's a year-long process
right like should be starting um for
those four-year-olds in preschool in the
fall and and different activities
happening at the school as far as like
specific numbers of if you're going to
preschool at this school and are you
staying there for kinder? Um I don't
have those exact numbers. Um I mean it's
something that we could get for you.
We've been having those um discussions
and also looking at you know what does
that look like if I come to a school for
preschool and you know being allowed to
stay there or not because right now you
with the way that we do open enrollment
um unless it's your neighborhood school
you would need to go through the open
enrollment process to stay at that
school. That's what I was going to add
and just say um in the fall we shared a
a slide that we didn't end up including
because we don't have an update other
than we're still monitoring but we do
we're seeing a significant increase in
the number of out of district students
coming to us for preschool um which
wasn't a part of preupk how we
structured things and now it is and so
something that we are doing is
monitoring those students over time to
see if we're seeing any impact
especially along the fringe of um our
school district and whether we're
retaining those students. I think to
Teresa's point, it's it's a hard thing
to track because when you have about
twothirds of our elementaryaries have
preschool and the other third don't. Um
it it really just becomes like we're
we're trying to get to a place where
we're nuance of are you staying
generally the answer is yes and if like
at when are you staying in the school
you were at for preschool if that wasn't
your home school and there's just a lot
of nuance in there to to figure out the
details.
Thank you.
Yeah, one of the things I'd be
interested on an impact study would be
to, you know, track that and figure out
where the kids are going. So, we know
who they are, so we should be able to
figure out where they end up the next
year if we've got them somewhere in the
system. Um, I'm also interested, this is
sort of a two-part question. I'm excited
to integrate them into our larger
intellectual exercise, but I'm super
anxious about that because of the track
record of K12 systems of not doing
developmentally appropriate stuff with
little kids once they're on the hook for
it. And it all turns into how do we
increase third grade reading scores, not
how do we give four year olds
developmentally appropriate play. Um, so
I that's why I it's not so much making
sure that and I look forward to like the
UPK being, you know, part of that and
integrating the preschools into it and
having discussions about the curriculum
and the ongoing oversight. But my
greatest concern is that's going to lead
to creeping um developmentally
inappropriate uh practices or
expectations or the system will be built
that way. and my reading of the research
from other states advancing universal
preschool is that's often like the thing
that makes it go most poorly. So, I'm
interested in a thoughtful integration
that's really focused on developmentally
appropriate uh care for the little kids,
but that also tracks it and educates
like the school leaders so they know not
to pressure them to like sit down more
and let's talk about colors, you know.
So, um it's it's got to be different
than that. And to that, I guess I am
curious to know and as we move forward,
how and I know that we give like four
stars on the on the state system and
none of our competitors have more than
two except for one that's five, but we
don't have five and the districts don't
try to get five. But I am really curious
as we consider to hold ourselves
accountable for quality. I mean, I'd
like us as a board to be educated about
what quality looks like, what our
metrics are that we're using, how it
integrates with the state's quality
system and the intentionality of when we
choose not to do something that the
state would you expect us to do to get a
five-star rating, for example. Can you
talk about and I don't mean to say
what's the deal with, but can you talk a
little bit about how we make sure our
we're being developmentally appropriate
as we integrate into the K12 system and
how we protect that as we try to
evaluate quality going forward.
Really good questions. Thank you. Um,
something that I was going to add on
later, but then I was doing my awkward
dance behind the podium is, um, we've
been starting with principles some
virtual professional learning because
when I started in the role of early
childhood a few years ago, something
that principles self- admitted is like
my background's in secondary. Like I
want to support, but when I go in a
preschool, kindergarten, first grade
classroom, I need some help. And so
we've been trying to provide some really
targeted, thoughtful um, learning there
for those who need it. And then in
conjunction with that, with the support
of Dr. Miller. Um, a small group of us
have been engaged in some learning about
what do excellent PK through third grade
practices look like and sound like. And
to your point, board member Medler, how
do you marry developmentally appropriate
practice with standards in a meaningful
way for students of certain ages? So
that rather than your description of
we're going to now learn to read when
we're three, it's actually like what
does play-based learning look like up
through elementary, but in a way that
doesn't compromise the rigor that we
want out of standards, but is
developmentally appropriate for kids. So
we've been doing some learning on that
as we think about what resources do we
have in place and how do we vertically
align them thoughtfully and there are
some real inroads with our strategic
plan over time. So we're starting to
think about how do we do that work and
do some learning here in this building
across teams so that when we're
supporting schools we're doing it in a
way that helps facilitate that sort of
environment and understanding. So it's
really exciting more to come and then
I'll let Teresa talk about Colorado
Shines.
Um yes and I guess just one more thing
to add just with the um the training and
the support that we are um giving to
principles is really understanding that
it's not that you have rigor or you have
developmentally appropriate, right? Like
we can have both and we can marry them
and rigor isn't a bad word in preschool
and early childhood in a high quality
environment. So what does that look like
in our environments? We need to have at
least an hour of intentional play in our
preschool classrooms in a three-hour
program. That isn't just throwing
materials out there and just hoping that
things happen. It's being really
thoughtful of what standards are we
addressing this week? What are we
putting in those centers that are going
to help support that? And so really
being thoughtful as um the teacher of
setting up that environment and knowing
why are we putting these things out in
the environment? What are our goals for
the students to learn with them in a
playful way and child directed way not
sit and get from the teacher and you
know kind of do some of that wrote
learning um because you're right that's
not where we're going to see um the
supportive um instruction for students
as far as Colorado shines rating um
that's that second um slide that I
showed you about um aligning with the
unified um improvement plan and so
forth. So there is something called an
alternative pathway. So as a school
district, I'm very proud. We were the
very first school district to go through
the work to do an alternative pathway.
Um we originally were like well is one
is one is fun. Like let's just stay a
one because it's a lot of work. Um but
we decided no, we're going to go through
the work. We want to do that. We're a
leader um in the state. So we were the
first to go through that um six years
ago I think. And so we just renewed it.
Um and the alternative pathway, what it
looks like right now is basically
submitting seriously like hundreds of
pieces of paper um documenting all the
things that we do. Um and many of those
things are required um from CDE. And so
they are revamping the entire Colorado
Shines quality rating. And so one of the
things is for school districts this
alternative pathway one it might not be
optional like it is right now and if we
continue with it that those are the
recommendations that they're making that
it aligns with those requirements from
CDE and you are correct we have a level
four at all of our sites and that goes
through 2029. Now,
Teresa, can you explain why we're not
level five and what we would have to do
to be level five?
Yes. So, five is the highest rating. Um,
and so the highest level that you can
get in an alternative pathway is a level
four. And so, if we were to do the level
five, um, the administrative burden, the
cost really just outweighs going from a
four to a five
because you have to do it by school,
right?
And we have to do it by school. So,
correct. Um, so right now we submit all
of the paperwork one time for all 24
sites. Um, and if we were to do that
individually, um, we would need to do it
24 times
and pay for different things. And yes,
Deian,
is there a program that helps um either
educators or other school staff access a
preschool program at the school they
work at?
Um I'm not sure I understand the
question.
So, if I'm a teacher and I have a
preschooler, can my child go to
preschool at the same building that I
work at? Yes. And we do have um several
staff where their preschoolers um are
coming to school. Um and um
it depends on if they're three or if
they're four. If they're three, they go
through our lottery system and we follow
the same open enrollment um priorities.
I forget what the term is. Um but for
four-year-olds, they have to go to
Bridgeare and hope that they get
matched.
Okay. I I understood there was lots of
open enrollment things happening there.
So, I didn't know if there was a
specialized route for people who work in
the building.
Yeah, because um for four-year-olds, it
all goes through the state. So, again,
if we could control that, we could have
our different priorities, but it all
goes through the state and if they get
matched, they get matched.
Uh the other thing that I would like to
know is has anybody thought about um the
possibility of training
uh potential new preschool teachers
from maybe our high school cohorts or
something in order to prepare new
educators because preschool teachers are
sometimes hard to fill, right?
Yes.
Yes, there definitely is um staffing
workforce um concerns in the early
childhood field. Um we have done some
partnerships with um the early childhood
classes um that the concurrent
enrollment classes. Um we definitely
work with our paraprofessionals um also
and encouraging them to continue their
education. um if um you know staff is
coming to us and they're interested in
getting their lensure um myself or a
member of our team meets with them
individually we talk with them kind of
here's some of the different steps
here's all the resources like teach
Colorado here's scholarships that are
out there and things like that so um we
really believe in growing our own
supporting our staff um and encouraging
them to take that next step if that's
what they
Alex.
Yeah. Uh
um
sorry, I just blank. I had a great
question and I just lost it. Um I guess
I I am interested in learning more about
this and I'm interested in hearing back
as the the the study continues. But I'd
want to one thing I did want to put on
the record in case anybody's listening
to this. I looked today at the ratings
and just about every private provider
within striking distance of Boulder is a
one or a two on the five-star system and
we are a four because of administrative
decisions we've made to not bother to
try to get a five, but we probably could
if our individual schools put the work
in. So, the community should know that
we have the best kick-ass um preschool
programs uh in the area and that we put
a lot of work into it and we have really
great people doing it. um to that uh
effort. I did remember the question and
perhaps it's for Bill. I know we've
spent like 1.3 million or more on top of
what the state gives us for this in
previous years. Uh can anybody tell me
what the extra money was we spent this
year and what we're anticipating
spending next year?
It's like a cliffhanger, Bill. Uh
absolutely. And I think that's important
for us to to know. We'll we'll prepare
that for news and notes if you can take
the lead on that to make sure that we
get that. Um while I have the
microphone, I will say that uh the idea
that it's mandatory that uh that schools
go through pro private any providers go
through a process to show quality. I
think one of the biggest issues I've had
with universal preschool is um access to
to nonquality programming is uh is
probably worse than having nothing at
all. uh only because as a parent you
think you're doing the right thing to
send your kid to preschool so they can
get ready for kindergarten and if
they're not doing the things that they
need to do uh your kid can end up behind
even though as a parent you think you've
done the right things and so I think it
should be mandatory. I don't think that
um I think that you should be able to
get a a five through a system level
accreditation just like
I don't understand that but sounds like
I might have something to uh to begin to
advocate for because that doesn't make
any sense to me. Actually,
and my comment was kind of related to
how Dr. Anderson ended that first. Thank
you for the presentation. And I I'm
wondering maybe optimistic and naively
hoping that as Cec wants to align to
some of the CDE standards, maybe they'll
just align themselves into non-existence
um to to work around, you know, some of
these challenges that we've had. And in
this year, more than in years past,
there were a there were a lot of prek
early childhood bills coming through the
legislature. I I don't recall seeing
this many last year, and we highlighted
just one, but there were several. And I
do and some of the best ones got watered
down or, you know, turned into
non-existence. I wonder if if this is an
area in which with your guidance we
might want to take a firmer stance or
propo propose something for next year
because this really is a an important
piece of the education system and it
every year we hear about the challenges
that continue and challenges that are
created by the state that really do
impede us our us and our ability to
provide really great before and afterare
really great prek services and so I know
when we were meeting with our lobbyist
several times this year I'm like I preks
in in early childh is just something I'm
not really familiar with and I was
always struggling with how do I think
about this bill or how does this bill
interact with that bill and there were
so many I'm like I kind of want to give
up until somebody that is an expert
weighs in but if if your team and if
this district
feels like that's an avenue for the
board to pursue in the future with our
delegation I'd be very open to hearing
that so that's all I had to say on this
topic any final questions questions or
comments on UPK before we move on for
tonight's agenda.
Seeing Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We'll now move on to action items
consent grouping 7.1 Personnel item 7.2
approval of minutes April 28th, 2026.
7.3 approval of minutes package 2627.4
approval of purchase for Riverside
Technologies Inc. 7.5 approval of the
contract with Summit Hosting. 7.6 6
resolution 26-14 to authorize necessary
contracts during the summer hiatus. 7.7
grant strategic partnerships title six
Indian ed USD doe. Are there any items
board members would like to pull from
consent grouping?
Seeing as there are none, is there a
motion to approve the items on consent?
Approved by Lenia, seconded by Alex.
Board members, any discussion?
I just want to say we have some
significant retirements this year and on
this year's ag tonight's agenda we are
um posting the retirement of Robin
Fernandez and I wanted to thank her for
her time in this district on all the
various levels for which you have
served. You have left a mark and you
will be missed.
Likewise, congratulations to Nativity
Miller. We're excited to have be working
more closely with you um in your new
role.
Anything
else? Board members,
may I comment on the Title Six grant?
Yeah. Um, of course, we want to uh
pursue any funding that we can get to um
perpetuate that problem with that
program that has been incredibly
successful in the last few years. But I
just want to put out there that I think
that we have we have parents in the
community who are cooking for those
dinners. Um and we don't really have
enough money to run that program on the
0.25
um FTE that it supplies. So I hope we've
look for other sources of income for
that program.
Seeing as there is no there no there's
no further discussion. Chris, can you
please call the role on the motion?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Aea,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tammy Wading,
yes.
Yes.
Motion passes.
Board members, we have one item
remaining on tonight's public portion of
the agenda and I want to get a sense of
if we have time for this 11 page slide
deck or if we want to take a comfort
break.
May we please take a comfort break?
We can take a comfort break. We will be
back in about 5 to 7 minutes.
Welcome back everyone. We will now turn
to our study items this evening. We just
have one study item which is the
academic calendar. Robin Fernandez will
be presenting this topic this evening.
Good evening, President Rajpaw, members
of the board and Dr. Anderson. Since I
was before you in January to share the
initial draft calendars for academic
years 2728 and 2829,
a lot has happened. So this evening I am
back before you and I'm going to
describe the process that has occurred
since January and I will be explaining
the adjustments that have been made to
these final draft calendars as a result
of that process.
There we go. When we were together in
January, the board provided a
significant amount of feedback about the
original draft calendars that were
presented to you at that time. Based on
that feedback, adjustments to the drafts
were made. Uh, and you see those on this
slide. As we know, each and every change
that is made has ripple effects. So,
some feedback was possible to be
incorporated and that feedback is listed
on the left hand side of this slide.
That included begin beginning the school
year later in August, ending the school
year later in May, uh avoid ending
school on a Monday, avoid extending
winter break until Wednesday, decreasing
the number of Mondays off, and
maximizing staff attendance on
professional learning days. The feedback
that you see on the right hand side of
the slide was not able to be
incorporated because of specific aspects
of negotiated agreements or the
existence of certain holidays. So as a
result, the draft calendars post January
board meeting when we were together were
adjusted to include this feedback and
new drafts were created which were then
presented to our representative groups
for them to consider and respond to.
So as described in the January
presentation to the board, we have since
progressed through this timeline, which
brings us to the meeting here this
evening. And in just a moment, I'll
share a summary of this feedback that we
received from the representative groups
that you see listed on the right hand
side in that box on the upper uh part of
this slide.
On this slide, you can see the general
themes of the feedback that we received
on the post January board meeting draft
calendars that were presented to the
representative groups for review. The
first bullet uh represents a request to
decrease the number of 3-day weeks. As a
reminder, we had increased the number of
3-day weeks in the current academic
cycle in order to decrease the number of
partial weeks. Therefore, we had tagged
on professional learning and educator
work days to establish holidays in order
to meet this request. The unintended
consequence of doing so resulted in
feedback from both educators and
families about the perceived negative
impacts of three-day weeks on students
and families. Both groups cited negative
impact on learning with a special call
out for students on IEPs needing more
consistent support during the week in
addition to general decreased student
and staff attendance and student
dysregulation during three-day weeks.
Additionally, families reported that
arranging for child care for a three-day
week versus a 4-day week can be more
challenging.
Next, on this second bullet, uh the
feedback we received was having Mondays
off have a more negative impact on
learning than having Fridays off. And
that was reported by educators at all
levels, elementary, middle, and high. In
addition, the continuing challenge for
having enough substitute teachers on
Fridays make Fridays a better no contact
day in the minds of our stakeholders
than Mondays. Third, there was universal
support from staff and surprisingly so
much from families often met when I uh
spoke with representative groups with
applause at the return of the April
conference exchange days. However, this
also included requests to move them from
a to a Friday and Monday off for some of
the reasons stated above about 3-day
weeks, but also to address higher than
normal staff and student absences on
Fridays prior to Monday's off, which of
course negatively impacts student
learning. In addition to the ongoing
struggles with substitute shortages on
Friday,
there was also a sentiment to move the
conference exchange days to later in
April so that they were completely
outside the CAMASS testing window while
still allowing enough time for high
schoolers to gear up for AP and IB
testing which begins at the beginning of
May. the academic calendar task force
which is made up of BVEA leadership
principles central office leaders
including professional learning and
human resources and a parent
representative refu review reviewed and
considered all the feedback that we
received from our representative groups.
The team used a consensus process to
make adjustment to the draft calendars
that also took into account other
intended unintended consequences of
changes. In addition, the group worked
to address other concerns when making
these proposed changes that we are
always trying to to solve for this. This
includes maximizing educator attendance
on professional learning days and
addressing student and staff absences
resulting in substitute shortages on
Fridays prior to Monday's off as I
mentioned a moment ago.
So with that, I will share the
adjustments that the task force made
based on the feedback from our
representative groups. We will begin
with this calendar. This is the post
January board meeting draft calendar for
2728.
What you will see on subsequent slides
are animations that visually show the
changes to the post January meeting
drafts and you will see the final drafts
that are on on study before you this
evening.
So there are three adjustments that were
made to the 2728
draft calendar.
first
moving the January 18th professional
learning day to January 4th. The
rationale for this includes an effort to
increase staff attendance on
professional learning days as these
immediately after winter break
historically are our highest attended
professional learning days in the second
semester. Moving a professional learning
day in this manner eliminates a
three-day week as I uh talked about just
a moment ago and a three-day week so
soon after winter break and therefore
with this change second semester would
begin on January 5th.
Next uh the there was the adjustment
made moving the February 27 22nd
professional learning day to September
7th. This change allows for follow-up to
the August professional learning
assignment in September, which made
sense to many stakeholders as a good
move given the implementation of so many
curricular materials. Also, again, this
supports the intention of high levels of
staff prof staff attendance on
professional learning days based on past
year's data that is far higher at the
beginning of the year than later in the
semester or later in second semester.
And then finally moving the conference
exchange days from Thursday and Friday
to a Friday and a Monday. This responds
to the request to complete again CEASS
prior to the conference exchange days.
Responds to feedback about negative
impacts of three-day weeks on student
learning and family child care needs.
and again mitigates lost learning on
Fridays before a long weekend when staff
and students often take off leading to
low attendance and challenges with
teacher coverage. And there's that
animation.
Now moving on to the 2829 calendar.
There are also three adjustments that
were made based on the feedback provided
to us by our representative groups and
they are very similar and in alignment
with the adjustments that you just saw
for the 2728 calendar.
First moving the January 16th
professional learning day to January
9th.
again maximizing staff attendance on
professional learning days at the
beginning of the semester and
eliminating a three-day week so close to
the end of winter break.
Moving February 20th, professional
learning day
to Friday the 16th
again in response to lost learning
opportunities on a Friday before a
Monday off. uh and responding to the
needs for uh increased substitute
teacher coverage on Fridays.
And oops, I'm going backwards here.
And then finally, the movement of the
two April conference exchange days to
later in the month after CMASS has been
completed and again from moving one from
a Friday to the subsequent Monday for
all of the reasons that I stated for the
2728 calendar.
And finally, on these last two slides,
you can see the final drafts that are
before the board this evening for study
that will be brought back in front of
you for vote at the beginning of June.
And with that, I'm happy to answer any
questions that you may have. Thank you
for that presentation, Robin. Board
members, any questions or comments?
Melania,
thanks for your work on this. um and the
explanation of that the 3-day school
school weeks don't work for regulation
etc. I'm curious and maybe I'm just
misreading this um says that drafts
address avoid
extending winter break until Wednesday
and so but I see us coming back from
winter break on Wednesday.
You are absolutely right. So the the
adjustments that were made to the
original draft calendars that were
presented to the board in January based
on the feedback received at that January
board meeting.
Okay. So that's
yes that uh the the change was made to
not return from winter break on a on a
Wednesday.
However, after those draft calendars
with all of these
Oh, the animations take a bit. I see
what you're saying. You're saying one
iteration ago
um after the board gave that feedback,
but then it's that feedback has been
then that feedback was considered and
responded to by our representative
groups and therefore changed which
addresses
uh part of the board's request which was
to try to use previous data and maximize
staff attendance at professional
learning opportunities while also
listening to our families who were
wanting to decrease the number of
three-day weeks which we originally had
in this draft calendar just a week after
the the conclusion of winter break and
moving the additional professional
learning day closer to winter break.
It's the same number of three-day weeks
because you have two days in that first
week of January. You've just moved the
day one. And my question is, um,
while that's okay, it's a 3-day week
here or a 3-day week there,
which I understand. Um, if you could
help me to understand,
I guess when I look at this, one of the
important things to me, um,
and this is well known that I care about
teachers attending professional
development. And maybe what would help
me is to understand the difference
between,
you know, we call it out here for our
families as no contact days for
students, but maybe what I need to
understand is what the difference is
between a workday and teacher
development and how we're actually
maximizing this given the changes that
we're making here.
Yeah, that that's that's a great
question. So a professional learning day
is when teachers engage in learning
specific to the continued development of
their craft either at the building level
or in professional learning
opportunities provided by the district.
The uh negotiated agreement for our unit
B employees does stipulate that there
are a number five and a half I believe
of teacher work days that teachers
engage in which is purely for their own
planning and grading. Now what we have
done is maximized the organized either
building le or districtled professional
learning days in alignment with the data
that we have about staff attendance
uh on those days. So the days where we
traditionally have our highest levels of
staff attendance are the days identified
as professional learning days and the
days that we know based on data from
past years have lower attendance. We
have identified those as individual
teacher work days. So that there is less
organized professional learning possibly
lost if staff do not do not choose to
report on those days.
And can I have an understanding instead
of just all green on here which ones of
these are professional learning and
which are ones are work days? We we can
and that is some of those are building
level decisions and some of those are
district level decisions. So as soon as
the buildings have completed their
professional learning uh schedules for
next year, we are very happy to provide
that for you.
I guess that
I'm still trying to understand if this
really meets the requirement that I'm
trying to put forward, which is that I
want teachers to attend professional
development.
And I'm not, you know, saying, well,
we'll see what happens
when buildings take it. That's I want to
understand which ones are slated for
that and which ones are slated to be
work days.
Oh, I see. So yes, the ones that are
both district and building directed fall
on those five pre-ervice days. There is
a mixture on the five pre-ervice days in
August. And part of those again are
delivered by the district, part are
professional learning delivered at the
building level and part is planning. Uh
September 7th is slated to be a
professional learning day.
September 7th or then Yep. September
7th, which is the day after Labor Day on
the 2728 calendar, or September 5th,
and those traditionally are our highest
attended professional learning days of
the year, followed very closely by
September professional learning days.
Hence the fact that you see on these
final draft calendars, there are now
professional learning days following
Labor Day, which are district
professional learning days designed
specifically to follow up on the
district professional development that
was provided for staff in August during
those pre-ervice days. Additionally, the
the second green day in January
is a districtowned or district-led, if
you will, professional learning day. The
first day after winter break by contract
by negotiated agreement is a workday for
staff so that they have time to complete
grading from their first from anything
that remains from first semester and
completing grade reports from first
semester.
So that green day immediately following
winter break is always for that reason
slated as a teacher workday. However,
the second one is
um is a districtdirected
professional learning day. What we often
have seen in the past is that that
second green day when it has occurred,
we've had iterations of the academic
calendar over a very long time. some of
which have one green day and some have
two following winter break. What we know
is that there are times that families
and staff members will take an
additional day after winter break
inclusive of that Monday. So that is why
that second day is a districtdirected
professional learning day.
The final one in May is again a teacher
workday per negotiated agreement which
follows the final day with students
which is their second opportunity in the
academic calendar year to complete
grading and report card work and that is
in alignment with our negotiated
agreement
and November 12th that November 12th day
will be a work day and that is that
exists only on the 2728 calendar
and that's because we have discussed a
lot in the past about that ever floating
Veterans Day on November 11th and we
know that if we were to have a school
day as it falls on 2728 a school day on
November 12th we know already that there
would be a great impact to the learning
environment through both student and
staff abs substances leading also to a
the ever challenging um substitute
shortage. So therefore in the 2728
calendar when Veterans Day falls on a
Thursday that is a work day immediately
following that on Friday the 12th.
However, if you look at the 2829 final
draft um Veterans Day is observed on
Friday the 10th. An interesting fact is
that if Veterans Day falls on a weekend,
it is identified to be observed on
Friday, the on the previous Friday, and
here is the 10th. So therefore, there is
no need to tag on on the in 2028 an
additional workday to accompany a
midday, a midweek Veterans Day holiday.
But given that rationale, we have
February 16th. them on 2829. We have
February 16th which looks like that
floating work day
and we've said how bad it is. You know,
is that because we don't we think we
should put it back in the November or
we're trying to get a 4-day weekend
there or what what's the rationale of
not doing it the same two years in a
row?
Right. That that's a good question. one,
you know, and we had substantial
discussion in the task force about this
and we talked about, okay, how can we
best support teachers and students
knowing that by contract, the negotiated
agreement, the the teachers are allotted
a specific number of work days and so
they have to fall somewhere. and knowing
that uh in November having
having not had a three-day week, we do
not create an additional 3-day week
because we were also very cognizant of
feedback both from educators and from
families about wanting to spread out or
have fewer 3-day weeks. And so we
decided to put it in February knowing
that it's always a good time for a
workday for for teachers. So I would say
probably the opposite is the most true
that the reason in the previous year
that it is tagged on to Veterans Day is
because Veterans Day is in the middle of
the week. And so that just makes sense.
Um and then knowing that uh the flow of
work for teachers, it does work for them
to have a workday second semester
um in the middle of the in the middle of
the winter.
And last, can you enlighten me on um
how we keep track of if teachers are
going to their professional development
days and what are the consequences for
people who don't? Mhm. We actually have
come in the past few years to track uh
attendance on professional learning days
very closely. That is done at the
building level and school office
managers and school principles monitor
that and staff have the ability through
uh our negotiated agreement if they
choose to take their own annual leave on
professional learning days just as they
do on regular school days. And if they
do choose to take an annual day on a
professional learning day, what the the
principal does is monitor to make sure
that that staff member has submitted um
a request for their annual time. But
principles also do have significant
conversations with their staffs about
the why behind professional learning.
Why is it that we are gathering to
discuss curricula? Why is it we are
gathering to discuss our curricular
materials? How does this development
impact our students? And the district
and our building leaders have worked
really, really hard to try to make this
professional learning relevant because
we know that our staff members are going
to make the best choices for themselves
and for their students when they know
that the learning that they will be
engaging in is relevant. So we have
tried to address it from a number of
angles to both support uh staff members
in wanting to attend but also to help
communicate what it is and why it is
we're doing that.
And do we have any numbers on on how
we're doing if it's on an improve?
Um we can certainly get those for you of
course. actually um exact numbers not
right off the top of my head but I do
know that we have had increased
attendance as a result.
Very good. Thank you
board members. Any other questions about
the calendar
comments?
Jason.
Uh not so many questions. more just
thank you for um I know how hard this is
and how many um
perspectives and uh much input you have.
I just want to say a few things. I
appreciate you know I've I've talked a
lot about you know that you know why we
start when we start and the consequences
of that and so I appreciate that that's
been addressed here to some to the
extent possible. Um a later start uh to
the to the school year and a later end
to the school year. Um, and I also
appreciate, I don't think you noted it,
but it looks like we're starting on a
Tuesday rather than a Wednesday, which I
think has been, at least in my
experience, typical. And I I think
families will appreciate that. I think
finding kind of a half week of camps or
child care has always been a challenge.
And so, that is um at least one day
rather than two days. So, that's
appreciated. Um, and I know just in my
conversations um with teachers how hard
uh it is to not have the April break. um
and how much um I know that was looks
like a priority on on every single uh
focus group. Um but I think that's uh
I'm really happy to see that back as
well. I think good for um you know post
seam mass, good for students and post um
you know it's a long stretch from spring
break to the end of the year for
teachers and so appreciate that they uh
will have that break which I think is
needed. Um, so yeah, just wanted to
comment on that and thank you for your
work and all the the various folks who
provided input on this. Um, I think this
uh I think this is a really good result.
Thanks.
You're very welcome,
Dian.
Uh, this is important to me in two ways.
One is um all of my still teaching
friends have had a lot of time to
contemplate and argue and grouse about
the lack of subs. And so anything that
you can do to reduce that need for subs
on Friday I think is brilliant. So I
really appreciate that. And um my
private school uses the BBSD calendar so
it looks beautiful.
Anything
else? Board members,
I just want to echo Jason's comments.
Thanks everybody that helped provide
feedback on this. It is a collaborative
process.
While it's not really a significant
complaint kind of tongue and cheek, it's
funny that we we have fall break and
it's one day
doesn't really feel like much of a break
when it's one day. And I don't know if
there's a way to rename that. So you
don't we don't get grief about you
promised us a break and now it's just
one day. Um, so that's just all I had is
that the words there are kind of
misleading, but otherwise I think the
calendar is great and it is I I think
another thing I've heard in addition to
the begging for those April exchange
days back um getting back to a semblance
of our normal rhythm for our academic
calendars and whatever we whatever we
have for the calendars, the closer we
can do to adhere to a rhythm and a
consistency every two years, the better.
And so, um, hopefully this this calendar
is more appreciated by our staff and our
students and our families.
Seeing as there's no further discussion
on that calendar, we'll move right
along. Um, board members, next item
agenda item this evening is our future
agenda request. Are there any items
board members would like to prioritize
for our upcoming
prioritization session? Alex?
Uh I'm not sure how to concisely
articulate this, but I am interested in
the integration of our uh preschool
programming into our K through 12
instructional infrastructure.
Dian, I'd like to add uh the um
discussion about whether we can have a
technology advisory committee that's
official.
Seeing as there are no other hands up,
we will move on now to our final uh
agenda item this evening, which is
executive session. Is there a motion?
Alex?
I, Alex Medler, make a motion to convene
into executive session pursuant to CRS
24-6-42
PRN4 PRNF F to discuss personnel matters
regarding the superintendent's
evaluation and pursuant to CRS24-6-42
PN4 PRNB to receive legal advice
regarding the superintendent's
evaluation and charter negotiations
regarding Horizons, Summit, Peakto Peak,
and Boulder Prep.
Is there a second?
Seconded by Jason. Chris, can you please
call the role
yes
Chavez?
Yes.
Medler.
Yes.
Quinn Aea.
Yes.
Rajpaw.
Yes.
Teamu Aing.
Yes.
Motion passes.
Board members, we will convene in the
glacier room. And for the members of our
public watching this evening, this concl
This concludes our public portion of our
meeting. Good night.