I'd like to call to order this regular
meeting of the Boulder Valley School
District Board of Education for Tuesday,
January 27th, 2026. Board members may
attend and participate in board meetings
electronically in accordance with BBSC
policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can
you please call the role?
Booker,
here. Chavez,
you're muted
here. Let me try it again.
Thank you.
Medler
here.
Quinn Linua
here.
Raj Paul
here.
Tamuading
here.
Anger
here. Thank you.
I would now like everyone to turn their
attention to the screen 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,
Pueblin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache,
Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations
historically tied to this land who have
called this land home since time and
memorial.
We acknowledge the atrocities committed
here, including the painful history of
genocide, forced assimilation, 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. Thank you for joining us
here in person tonight and those of you
watching online, we're glad to have you
observe and participate in our meetings.
At this time, is there a motion to
approve tonight's agenda? It's moved by
Jason, seconded by Lenia. Laura, can you
call the vote on the motion?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tamuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
Our first item on the agenda this
evening is our student moment. Happy to
have our students back in the building
with us tonight. I'd like to turn it
over to Dr. Anderson to kick them off.
Thank you, board president Rajpal. Board
members, as you all know, BBSD is the
place to be green. We pride ourselves in
being a leader here in Boulder Valley
School District in sustainability.
Through our green BBSD action plan and
the board's green new deal resolution,
district is make is making some big
gains in this arena, including making
progress towards our goal of becoming
net zero when it comes to energy
districtwide, reducing BBSD's greenhouse
gas emissions, creating new climate
literacy opportunities for students at
all levels, and implementing the seal of
climate literacy. Perhaps most
importantly, we've expanded student
voice and involvement in our
sustainability efforts. To that end, I'm
super excited to introduce to you a
dynamic sister duo who are passionate
about our environment are taking action
to make a difference. Taylor Hatch is a
sophomore at Centaurus High School and
Harper Hatch is an eighth grader at Plat
Middle School with plans to join her
sister at Centurus next year. Hatch
sisters, the floor is all yours.
Okay. Yeah. Once again, my name is
Harper and my name is Taylor. We are so
grateful for for the opportunity to be
here with you this evening. Tonight we
are going to share our roles in
establishing the seal of climate
literacy in our newest program, the
junior seal of climate literacy,
touching on our journey, where we are
today, and what we hope for the future.
We have both been BBSD students from
early stages in our education. As we
grew as students, we both became
increasingly more passionate and
concerned about the future of our
planet. Thankfully, BBSD provided many
outlets for our passion. from the school
green team to the BBSD green youth
council which has specifically given us
a platform to lead district-wide
initiatives.
We got involved with the green youth
council when two high school seniors
approached us with the goal of
establishing a group of students that
helped to implement components of the
Green New Deal for schools resolution
that the board of education passed in
2023. For example, climate education.
Eager to join, we became some of the
first members of what is now recognized
as the Green Youth Council.
Last year, which was the Green Youth
Council first year in operating, we
successfully established the application
process of the seal of climate literacy.
As a result, about 20 seniors were
recognized last spring. For those of you
who may be wondering, similar to the
seal of biiteracy, the seal of climate
literacy is for is a high school diploma
endorsement that recognizes students who
demonstrate climate literacy. One of the
main components of the seal is long-term
commitment to specific environmental
issues identified within the community.
As a seventh grader and freshman, the
seal of climate literacy felt far away,
not because of our age alone, but
because it often seemed that the work we
were doing did not yet carry the same
weight or recognition.
With this, we decided to create a middle
school branch of the seal of climate
literacy. The creation of the Junior
Seal of Climate Literacy addressed this
gap by validating and amplifying younger
students efforts, providing an age
appropriate pathway for environmental
engagement and affirming that meaningful
climate action can begin at any age.
Turning this dream into reality often
felt daunting and impossible. Stretching
our leadership skills, we had to reach
out to principles and convince them that
this brand new program was worth their
time, as well as talk to our peers and
other staff to help get the program off
and rolling. As we developed our plan,
we chose to pilot the program at Nevin
Platt and Choice Middle School. Doing so
allowed us to learn the framework's
weaknesses and strengths. At our first
year with the program underway at Plat
Middle School, we decided to develop a
subcommittee, a group of GYC members who
had helped us expand the program. Within
the Green Youth Council, we had many
different subcommittees, including
curriculum development and fundraising.
Leading a committee further pushed us to
learn how to productively conduct and
lead a small group of peers. With our
subcommittee underway, we enlisted the
help of others to get this program into
other middle schools. To do so, we
drafted emails to principles, planned
out our communication for the year, and
refined our application process. One of
the most notable improvements was the
switch from an paper application to an
online form. As of now, we have five
participating middle schools and 49
students who are actively working to
achieve the Junior Seal of Climate
Literacy and hopefully earn recognition
in the spring.
To get to to get to where we are today
with this program, we participated in
many outreach events, most recently
during the 2025 BBSD showcase at the SU
event center where we personally
connected with many middle schoolers,
introducing them to the Junior Seal of
Climate Literacy and giving them the
confidence that this was something they
can achieve.
Looking ahead, we can hope we hope that
we can continue our work with the Junior
Seal of Climate Literacy, eventually
getting it into all middle schools. We
also aim to create a ripple effect that
strengthens the seal of climate literacy
as a whole by engaging students at a
younger age. This early participation
reinforces one of the program's core
principles, sustained long-term
environmental action that grows with
students over time. We would like to
thank Miss Greenwood, the adult
ambassador of the Green Youth Council,
as well as all the hardworking and
driven students and driven students of
the Leadership Council and Green Youth
Council. However, none of this work
would have even been possible without
the support of BBSD's amazing board and
dedicated staff. Thank you so much.
Thank you for that. Board members, any
questions or comments?
I have a question.
What five middle schools are
participating in the junior sil climate
literacy and what kinds of activities do
they do to earn that?
The middle schools are Platt, um, LMS,
Manhattan, Aspen Creek, and Metoark. Um,
and to achieve it, they can do a lot of
different things. A lot of different
things count. um something as small as
like picking up trash, making that a
goal that you have with that you carry
throughout your life or something bigger
like organizing a community event or
being part of your school green team.
It's it's really open to a lot of
different things and especially this
year um since students didn't have a lot
of time to create a portfolio, we'll be
more open to our applications, what what
accounts. Yeah.
Thank you both for all of your work on
the committee and for getting this off
up and running in our middle schools.
Well done.
The next item on tonight's agenda is a
superintendence report. Dr. Anderson,
good evening.
Thank you again, President Raj Paul. Uh
pleasure to give my uh report this
evening.
So on Saturday, some of our best student
musicians were in BBSC were brought
together for the district honor band
concerts at Monarch High School. Both
middle and high schoolers had the
fantastic opportunity to work with a
guest clinician and explore a range of
musical styles. Congratulations to all
of our students and thank you to our
amazing conductors and all the district
music teachers for putting together this
opportunity for our band students. And
as you could see, lots of uh lots of
happy kids there um at Monarch High
School on this past Saturday. Also
last week, the BBSD unified uh bowling
athletes from across the district came
together for their annual unified
bowling tournament at the Cole Creek
Bowling Center. If you haven't been to
one of these unified events, you're
missing out the celebrations of
inclusion, teamwork, and of course, some
friendly competition. Great job to all
the kids who participated. And a big
thank you to the staff at the district
and school levels that come together to
make these events a success.
And speaking of success, a couple of
weeks ago, Plat Middle School hosted a
day-long workshop focused on the
climate, the challenges we face, and how
they might take action on the issue.
During a special event, which is
organized like a conference, students
from Platin Lewisville Middle Schools as
well as Centurus and Fairview high
schools moved from session to session,
learning about everything from climate
related careers, careers, and art to
climate justice to the legislative
process and how they can participate by
testifying. Guest speakers included
Boulder County Commissioner Ashley
Staltzman, Boulder Chamber Policy
Program Specialist Devin Edgely, and
student climate leaders, including
several from our BBSD schools. You can
read more about the event in the spot
newsletter that came out last week,
which includes several stories about
grad plus opportunities in celebration
of career and technical education month.
And with high school course registration
just right around the corner, high
schoolers and parents, there are a lot
of great opportunities available in
career and technical education. So, be
sure to learn more and register through
your high school. And board members,
those are my comments for this evening.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members,
any questions or comments?
It's always great to see what is
happening in our schools and in our
community. The next item on tonight's
agenda is public participation. The
board respects the right of the public
to speak on matters concerning the
operation of the schools. The board does
not endorse the comments of any
individual participant and reminds all
those who speak that you are responsible
for ensuring your remarks are suitable
for an audience that includes
kindergarten through 12th graders.
Furthermore, this is an opportunity for
the board to hear from our constituents,
but is not a time for the board to
directly engage with or react to speaker
remarks. Speakers will each have two
minutes to speak. You will see a yellow
card when you have 30 seconds remaining
and an orange card when you have 10
seconds remaining. If you run out of
time and would like to share additional
information, you may always email the
board. Um and to our public and to our
board um
to better align with our policy, we have
gotten away with the option for gifting
minutes. So speakers will all have
moving forward two minutes to speak.
This will also help us maximize a number
of individuals we can hear from on a
given moment as particularly as we head
into a time where we are all
anticipating um slightly more public
comments.
With that, our first speaker this
evening is Kristen Kembell.
My name is
Is your button pushed?
No, it's not. Thank you.
There you go.
Uh, thanks again. My name is Kristen
Campbell and I'm a parent of two
students at Mesa Elementary School.
Archer and third and Harrison and First.
When our family moved to Boulder two
years ago, we wanted to find a place to
live where our kids could walk to a
neighborhood school, build deep
friendships close to home, and feel
rooted in community. During a whirlwind
week of house hunting, one image stayed
with us. A stre a steady stream of kids
hiking,
biking, walking, skateboarding together
down the sidewalks leading to Mesa
Elementary. It felt like belonging in
motion. at Mesa. Both then our first
grader and preker could attend under the
same roof. And we quickly connected with
many welcoming families during our one
daily drop off. We learned that these
welcoming families are a bedrock of
Mesa's culture, curated by its
exceptional team of teachers and paras
specialist and its principal Josh
Baldner, whose leadership comes with
endless compassion and a belief that
every child belongs. Not long after
Harrison started prek, it became clear
that his needs were complex. At five, he
could read chapter books, but he
struggled deeply with self-regulation
and social connection. What we didn't
know yet was that Harrison was a twice
exceptional student, living with ADHD
and anxiety, but also gifted. The Mesa
team met Harrison's needs even before we
knew what those needs were.
Nurturing his emotional and academic
development while also helping navigate
really complex IEPs and advanced
learning plans. All of this while
miraculously fostering an environment
where kids accepted and embraced those
differences and didn't bully. Harrison's
story isn't unique. So many families
choose Mesa for this holistic approach
to supporting every kid emotionally and
academically.
Our students are thriving on both
accounts. We are knocking test scores
out of the park while also teaching kids
how to accept others and advocate for
themselves and become kind leaders.
Thank you for considering protecting
that environment as you guys make hard
decisions.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Melissa Zens.
Hi everybody. Thank you for having me
tonight. I too am a Mesa parent of three
children. Um, in my professional life,
I'm a data professional and I attended
the last board meeting and heard about
the small schools and economic issues
facing BBSD. Um, so I took it as an
opportunity to do some investigation on
the South Boulder uh, school district
uh, myself just to see what the trends
were in that area. Um, I have created a
handout. I emailed this to you all
earlier. Um, I'll go ahead and start at
the top. In terms of academic
performance, it's no surprise to us that
Bear Creek is an absolute shining star
on BBSD's resume. They are what I would
consider an elite program school. Um
Mesa is a close second in the South
Boulder neighborhood, scoring in the top
two and a half percentile across the
state. Additionally, we see that Bear
Creek and Mesa are serving the
community's needs in their zoned
constituents at a high degree with 70%
plus attendance from their zoned areas
as well as net positive uh net
enrollment numbers. Where I'd like to
pause a little bit is the parent climate
caregiver uh survey results where Mesa
outperformed every South Boulder school
on every metric by a huge margin. Um in
terms of the school satisfaction
metrics, there are 33 of these metrics.
I'm not talking a select two or three or
five. There's 33 metrics. As a data
professional, I can tell you that this
is not an anomaly. It's parents like
Kristen and myself that seek out this
type of environment and this kind kind
of culture that cause us to have that
kind of dedication.
In terms of enrollment, this causes us
to have steady enrollment. We're not the
highest. There's no secret to that, but
our enrollment is steady because the
people who go there want to stay there.
Our mobility numbers are incredibly low
and they're low for every demographic
because we are the school for everybody.
I say this because I think we have two
great schools already in existence in
South Boulder and as you have the
unenviable task of deciding how to
adjust programming to meet economic
demands, I just request that we
recognize the strengths that we already
have in the South Boulder um
neighborhood. Thank you very much. Thank
you. Our next speaker this evening is
Craig Dreer.
Good evening, members of the board and
Dr. Anderson. First, I want to sincerely
thank you for your service. I know that
serving on the school board is a
demanding role, often involving
difficult decisions, and I appreciate
your unwavering dedication to the
education and well-being of every child
in Boulder Valley School District. My
name is Craig Dreer. I'm the parent of a
student at Mesa Elementary in Boulder
and a second child that will be
attending Mesa in 2027. I understand the
district is facing hard realities
regarding declining enrollment and
budgetary constraints. As you are well
aware, these are not easy problems to
solve and will require practical and
creative solutions. It is for these
reasons that I am here tonight to
highlight Mace Elementary as a blueprint
for the district's future stability.
While enrollment trends across the
district are playing downward, Mesa has
remained steady, maintaining its
enrollment numbers. This isn't an
accident. It's a direct result of
intentional inclusive culture uh the
school has built. Mesa currently holds
the highest satisfaction scores in the
district and maintains high academic
performance. But the metrics that matter
most cannot be always cannot always be
found on a spreadsheet. Mesa is an
inclusive haven that creates thriving
students as a neighborhood school with a
close-knit community. I know families
who have struggled in other environments
and were on the verge of leaving the
district entirely for private school or
homeschooling but ultimately found a
home at Mesa. When families like these
find a home at Mesa, they stay in BBSD.
In this way, Mesa acts as a vital
revenue retainer for the district. It
retains students who would otherwise
exit the district to private schools or
homeschooling, and attracts students
from outside of BBSD who have not found
a home in neighboring school districts.
Mesa is quite unique in its ability to
effectively retain at risk of leaving
families who would not keep their kids
in the district if faced with
consolidation to other schools while
also serving as a beloved neighborhood
school. In closing, my goal here tonight
is to highlight Mesa as a
high-erforming, retention positive asset
to the district that is doing exactly
what we all want our schools to do,
grow, perform, and welcome everyone. I
believe it should be viewed as a
blueprint for the future of the schools
in our district. Thank you so much for
your time.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Kathy Murray.
Uh, good evening. Um, I am here today to
really question and understand how a
student safety concern regarding, this
is the dismissal of Melinda Kshner, how
a student's safety concern ultimately
were led to result in a teacher being
investigated. How does a report intended
to protect students lead to personal
actions other than through a process
that's raising concerns? I'm a parent of
two students at Aspen Creek, second and
fifth grade. Since the end of last year,
I've raised safe serious safety concerns
on the PTA board as part of um emails to
the principles submitting safe to tell
reports. I've personally spoke with Mr.
Ryan and Miss Jones regarding the
incident referenced in the dismissal
letter dated September 8th. My intent
through all of this has always been to
advocate for the safety of not just my
children, but for all children to be
able to have access to a safe learning
environment.
Rather than addressing the underlying
safety issue, which was repeatedly
characterized at this point as a legend,
the district has devoted months to
investigating a well- reggarded teacher
in our in our indust.
During that process, issues related to
data access were also identified. Access
under district policy should have been
appropriately safeguarded from the
outset per the document that was
released. Policy JO was stated and I did
I researched what is policy JO and I
questioned earlier to emails to the
board about who is responsible for data
access in this in our in in our
district. The policy JO clearly states
the superintendent or designate with pro
will provide the proper administrative
administration of student records
including the implementation of a
safeguard measures or procedures
regarding access. End to quote each
principal is responsible for the
maintenance or access to the school
students record. If this level of access
was inconsistent with district
expectation, it raises a question why
appropriate controls were not in place.
this as we come to conclude this leads
to several important questions about the
the dismissal that's at question. Why
were repeated student safety concerns at
Aspen Creek not addressed? Why did the
investigation lead to months long with
students being the one at the at the
being harmed?
Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker
this evening is Jennifer Rap.
Hi, thank you. Um, I am a parent of two
students at Aspen Creek and I'm here um
tonight to speak regarding the dismissal
of Melinda Kshner. Um, in the
recommendation for dismissal posted on
the board's agenda, it states that Miss
Ker
access frontline to view records for
students at her previous school where
she had been a teacher. The first
question that immediately came to my
mind was why she had these why she had
access to these records in the first
place. Why did she have access to an
entire school's records and why did the
access remain in place after she
accepted a position at another school
within the district?
The question leads to a much more
important one. who is responsible for
granting and managing managing staff
access because that is where the
responsibility lies in the data breach.
Not with Miss Ker. Miss Ker accessed
data that she was explicitly given
access to. Access that the district is
now claiming that she should not have
had. She did not bypass security
measures, misuse credentials, or gain
unauthorized entry to the system. She
had it. she was given it. It is the
district's responsibility to safeguard
student information and to ensure that
staff are granted only access necessary
for their roles if improper access
existed. That is the failure of district
systems and oversight, not misconduct.
I would also like to know when the
district plans to conduct a full audit
of staff access permissions and how many
other additional teachers will be
investigated and dismissed based on the
precedent you are setting tonight with
the dismissal of Miss Kshner. How many
more students will be without a teacher
for months with monthslong
investigations
with this precedent set tonight? Thank
you.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Alexa
Jones.
Okay. Hi, I'm Alexa Jones. Thank you for
the opportunity to speak. I have two and
soon to be three kids at Aspen Creek.
Um, in terms of Miss Ker, I wanted to
speak about what I read in terms of what
was published and the concepts of a
neglect of duty. And I am here to tell
you that the definition of duty is
exactly what this district should be
fighting to keep when it comes to
Melinda. This is a teacher with a rare
magical ability to teach and make
students feel seen. While my kids have
not had her, I've heard countless
stories from neighbors and friends and
examples um from the last board meeting
from Lafayette parents as well. We are
facing a national teacher shortage and
are we really prepared to dismiss a
teacher who among many other things um
helps children feel seen and for them to
reach their full potential? Um are we
really going to penalize her for not
having the proper guard rails in place?
And I share the same concerns that were
shared about the dangerous precedent
that we are setting and the impact that
it will have on our students and our
community. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker tonight is
Jana Navaro.
Um, good evening members of the board.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Jana Navaro and I'm here as a
parent of Zachary Navaro, a student at
Aspen Creek who had the privilege of
being taught by Melinda Kshner.
I want to be very clear about why I'm
here. This recommendation is not just
about a policy or a single incident.
It's about the loss of an exceptional
educator,
which begs the question, was this policy
set up to support exceptional teachers?
Miss Car Miss Carner is without a doubt
the most impactful teacher my son has
ever had.
That's not a phrase I use lightly.
My son tells me this regularly. He felt
seen,
challenged, and supported.
As parents, we're often told that great
teachers are hard to find. When we find
one, we should be doing everything we
can to retain them, which is why I'm
here tonight. I understand that schools
need standards, policies, and
accountability. But good governance also
requires judgment, perspective, and
humanity. When the response to a
situation outweighs the offense,
especially when it costs students a
teacher who's truly making a difference,
we need to pause and ask if this
decision serves the best interests of
the community. I respectfully urge the
board to reconsider this recommendation.
Exceptional teachers change lives and I
hope this board will stand by that.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Lisa
Cyp.
Good evening members of the board. My
name is Lisa Cip and I'm here as a
parent and community member to speak on
behalf of Melinda Ker. I have two
children currently at Aspen Creek K8. We
were fortunate enough to have Melinda as
our daughter's fourth grade teacher.
After two previous years in which my
daughter dealt with bullying on a daily
basis, she entered fourth grade with
trepidation. Her confidence in
interacting with her peers was at an
all-time low. And as parents, my husband
and I dreaded hearing our daughter's
afternoon recap. Was it going to be a
good day or a bad day. Melinda was aware
of our previous difficulties at the
school. And I was thrilled that my
daughter would have a teacher with a
kind heart and an excitement for fourth
grade. Melinda saw her, supported her,
and helped rebuild her sense of self in
a way that few educators are capable of.
The growth that we saw in our daughter
academically, emotionally, and socially
was extraordinary, and it was a direct
result of Melinda's compassion,
professionalism, and skill as an
educator. Melinda is the kind of teacher
every parent hopes that their child will
have. She creates a safe and structured
environment, pushes her students to rise
to their potential, and treats each
child with genuine care and respect.
She's also a deeply engaged member of
our community and I've been fortunate to
get to know her not only as a teacher
but a member of our neighborhood and a
friend. I'm not here to speak to the
details of the investigation. I'm here
to speak to the character of the person
that I know. An exceptional teacher, a
wonderful human being, and someone who
has had a profoundly positive impact on
the lives of the children she serves. On
behalf of my family and many others, I
urge the board to consider the full
picture of who Melinda is and the
difference she has made in our
community. She deserves fairness and she
deserves to have her years of dedication
weighed with the seriousness they merit.
I believe her dismissal from the BBSD
system would be a true loss to the
community and future students lucky
enough to have her as a teacher. Thank
you.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Jared Ker.
Good evening. My name is Jared Ker and I
am a parent of a current Aspen Creek
student. I'm here because of a
studentwide email that was sent out on
January 26th at 3:31 p.m. to Aspen Creek
community, including students,
regarding a personal matter involving my
child's parent who no longer works at
that school.
That email went out at the end of school
day while students were still on campus
and interacting with their peers. I was
not informed of this ahead of time,
which meant I had no opportunity to
speak to my daughter
or help prepare her for what she might
hear or feel.
As a result, my child received
information at school from the school
about a serious personal situation
involving her parent in a setting the
district does not control socially.
that placed her in a difficult position
with her peers without parental support.
I want to be clear. I'm not here to
address the merits of any investigation
or the district's authority to act on
personal personnel matters. I am
speaking solely as a parent about
communication decisions that directly
affected my child.
Even when details are limited, school
communications that reference personnel
uh personnel investigations must take
into account timing, audience, and
foreseeable impact on students,
especially when a student may be closely
connected to that employees involvement.
Sending a message like this directly to
students during the school day creates
real risk of social and emotional harm.
Student privacy and student well-being
need to be considered together.
Protecting one should not come at the
expense of another.
I am asking the board to review how this
communication was approved, including
why students received it and why parents
were not given the opportunity to
prepare prepare their children and to
ensure safeguards are in place so no
student is put in this position again.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Fallon Dudek.
Good evening board members. Thank you
for the opportunity to speak tonight. My
name is Fallon Dudek and I'm here again
to speak about the removal of my son's
fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Ker.
Yesterday, we received notification that
she is recommended for termination.
While I am appreciative that we now have
some information and respect that there
is a legal and policy matters at hand,
the information given is vague and
leaves many questions unanswered. It is
not at all clear why BBSD systems do not
already limit access to records by
technical means instead of just policy.
One could make a good argument that the
district itself is violating the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act for
its lack of appropriate technical
protections for education records.
What are the timelines of this
investigation? If early September is
referred to as the date in which concern
occurred, it appears that immediate
removal from teaching on October 27th
with no plan for support in place should
not have happened. If the primary
concerns were for our children, then
what measures were taken to ensure their
education was the focus?
I'm asking the board to consider
restorative action take place in the
form of but not limited to placement of
a certified teacher, district support uh
district supported academic enrichment
and instructional opportunities,
additional pareducator allocation, and a
written transition and support plan for
this class entering fifth grade. I'm
asking everyone listening today,
especially those who have been or
continue to be educators, is there a
different avenue of disciplinary action
other than termination that could be
explored? I will echo another parent who
couldn't be here today in saying
the loss of this talented educator would
be a serious loss to our children in our
community.
While accountability matters, so does
whether the response meaningfully serves
our students and is reflected in the
values we hope to model for them. Thank
you for your time.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Lori
Reetta.
Good evening. My name is Lori Reetta and
I am one of the ILC teachers at Aspen
Creek. I'm here to thank the board and
many other leaders in BBSD for take for
taking tonight's vote on the
recommendation for dismissal so
seriously. As educators, we have many
responsibilities to our students and
families beyond providing a highquality
free and public education.
One of our most important
responsibilities is to protect each
person's basic human dignity. And we do
that through respectful discourse and
maintenance of privacy and trust. As
educators, we are trusted with very
sensitive, confidential, and sometimes
painful information about our students
and their families. Much of that
information is recorded in Frontline.
The intentional misuse of that
information by a trusted educator is
horrifying. It's harmful to so many, but
especially to our most vulnerable
students with special behavioral and
unique educational needs. Our greater
responsibility is to the children
entrusted to our care. I love my job and
I hold every one of my students and
their families in my heart. I know that
all of you do, too. Thank you for this
opportunity.
Thank you. Our next speaker this evening
is Katie Tilla Hun Tahoon. Sorry, Katie.
Hi, I'm Katie Tillahan. I'm a parent of
a fourth grade and second grade student
at Lafayette Elementary. I was here a
couple of weeks ago and spoke about how
upset I've been watching the BBSD
investigation unfold and the lack of
communication and support to the school
and also my continued support for
Melinda Ker. Uh all of that still stands
today. I would like to say that this has
been a debacle the last three months and
I think there are three main people and
groups that have been been harmed by
this. The first is the students at Aspen
Creek where there has been a continued
pattern of student safety concerns that
have not been addressed by the
administration. I don't even have a
student there and I can see that and
that is horrible. The second group is
and I'm sorry for all of you that you've
been going through that. The second
group is the fourth grade students at
Lafayette who lost their teacher three
months ago today. They have not had a
teacher in the classroom all of this
time for what amounts to in the end an
IT policy violation.
Did Miss Ker break the rules? Yes. Would
I have done it in her situation? Yes. If
you are in a situation where you feel
that your students are not being
protected as a parent, I don't think
anyone of us in the room would not
access information that we felt we
needed to make our case.
The other group that I think is harmed
here is Melinda Carner. And I just
talked about it. I think you there has
been a disservice done to every single
person involved in this. I think that it
is unacceptable that the BBSD
investigation has rolled this way. And
I'm confused about why after a pattern
of student safety concerns that came to
a head in this way, why is the
investigation not about the
administration at Aspen Creek that
hasn't been dealing with the student
safety concerns that are clearly well
documented? And anytime I have questions
in that, I want to ask why. And I think
you should, too. This feels political.
It feels like a witch hunt. And I would
want to understand as the board of
education before rubber stamping what's
being put in front of you. You're an
independent body for a reason. And I beg
you to look into why this is coming to
you this way and why the investigation
is on Melinda Ker versus the
administration. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker tonight is virtual.
Mark Milan.
Is Mark on?
Uh, yes, I'm here.
Good evening. My name is Mark Milan. I'm
a parent to two students at Lafayette
Elementary, one of whom is in Miss Ker's
fourth grade class. Other speakers
tonight and parents in letters to the
board have already done a commendable
job articulating why dismissing Miss
Kshner would be a disproportionate and
overall negative outcome for the
Lafayette Elementary School community. I
won't repeat those points, but instead
want to highlight now that the public
knows that access to records was the
issue at stake, how wrong it was for
BBSD to place Miss Ker on leave while
its investigation dragged on for months.
Removing a primary teacher from the
classroom was not even close to the
least educationally disruptive means of
addressing the risk actually presented
here, which was records access. In the
students best interest, BBSD should have
kept Miss Carshner in the classroom with
a warning while its investigation was
ongoing and simply revoked her accounts
access to whatever records required
limited access. If it had no technical
means to do that, that's a problem
that's incumbent on BBSD to fix. BBSD's
system should enforce access
restrictions technically instead of just
by policy. An immediate removal from
teaching should never even have taken
place here had BBSD appropriately
weighed the actual risks at issue
against the very real harm of a
teacher's extended absence. less
disruptive, equally protective
alternatives were easily available,
which BBSD inexplicably elected not to
take. The board should immediately
re-evaluate the criteria for when a
teacher leave is triggered by an
investigation, and it should only resort
to that extreme measure when there's no
other more narrowly tailored way to
address real risks. BBSD's wildly
overconservative one-sizefits-all
leaves practice deprivives students of
their teacher first and considers ready
better alternatives never. This does
obvious harm to students whose interests
seem unrepresented in the district's
current investigation decision-making.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you. Our final speaker this
evening is James Bush.
Thank you. I am not talking about the
other issues. However, I would note that
my son went to Mesa Elementary 35 years
ago. It was a great school. It is a
great school. I like the schools.
I'm here to talk about Fairview High
School student parking lot. I addressed
the board uh on October the 11th, 2022
about putting gates up. That was done.
Now, I'm asking that the board or the
school enforce the policy that is shown
on their signs and actually lock the
gates at 11 p.m. until the following
morning. Because as it was a example
this last weekend with a snowstorm
the gates unlocked in came person nor
persons unknown to zoom around in their
trucks and their muscle cars and be very
disruptive. And this has this has been
continuing for the last three and a half
years. We've called the police many
times. I live right across the street on
Gilaspie from the exit to the student
parking lot.
It's driving friends I have in the
neighborhood, my family crazy. And all I
ask is that the policy that is shown on
the signage be enforced. The sign says
student parking lot is closed Monday
through Friday after 11:00 p.m. and on
weekends. Gates will be locked when the
parking lot is closed. Somebody has
figured out that if you station a car in
the parking lot and leave it overnight,
no one will lock the gates.
We need to enforce the policy. That's
really all I'm asking.
Thank you.
Good luck.
This concludes today's public
participation. On behalf of the board,
I'd like to thank everyone who took the
time to share their thoughts and
experiences with us this evening. Our
next item on tonight's agenda is the
district accountability committee's
report on budget recommendations for
fiscal year school year 2627.
Alli Brown DAC chair will be presenting.
Hi board. Thanks for having me. Um I'm
excited to be here with you today. Um
yeah, that'd be great. Thank you so
much.
Um I'm Ally Bruin. I'm co-chair of our
district accountability committee for um
the 2025 2026 school year. I'm here
tonight as um the interim chair of our
budget subcommittee. I'm still working
on recruiting a full-time chair. Um
there are some DAC members in the
audience today. I'm still working on
recruiting a full-time budget
subcommittee chair. Um we're so excited
to be here today to share out Oh, there
we go.
um one of our core statutory
responsibilities which is to provide
input from the district accountability
in consultation with our school
accountability committees on the
development of um the next budget uh for
our school district. Um so wanted to
start with the why. Um, as many folks
who are listening, who are in the room
may may or may not know, the district
accountability um committee um has the
opportunity to weigh in on a lot of
different um issues that um come before
the board, but there are a few that we
are um required by state law to address.
Budgets, um our school and district
improvement plans, um policies that are
mutually agreed upon um with our board,
um we review charter school
applications, and there's a couple of
really specific responsibilities we
have. um by staying really focused on
those responsibilities, we are able to
do the work um that we are presenting
tonight um which is um takes a lot of
time, takes a lot of volunteer time from
our parents and our community members.
Um and I just want to thank our team for
um being so focused and um and kind of
keeping uh being able to keep us as a
group focused on um on the on the budget
topic so that we can present some really
robust findings to you all tonight.
Um, I wanted to start our uh,
presentation today with um, a reflection
that actually comes at the bot at the
end of the memo that we shared with you
all a few weeks ago. When we better
understand not only what's working in
our district, but also how things work,
we as parents and community members can
be more effective advocates for our
school and district improvement
priorities. So, in just a minute here,
I'm going to walk you all through um,
the process we went through this past
fall to actually generate the um,
insights and recommendations that we're
going to be sharing with you. It's a
little bit different than how the DAC
has um gone through this process in the
past. So, I thought it'd be helpful to
spend a little bit of time um taking you
on that journey with us before we share
our findings.
So, last fall, the first thing we wanted
to do to start our budget conversations
were to actually start with our
strategic plan. So, um as a group, we
had the opportunity to hear from Dr.
Laura Dea Cruz and Dr. Jessica Alzine to
review not only what are the core
priorities in our strategic plan, but
why are these our pri why these are our
priorities? Um as well as the data that
is in our um that we look at as a as a
district and as a school community to
really deeply understand how are we
doing um and where do we need to keep
getting better. Um the the big message
here being the strategic plan and the
budget really go hand inand. So, um,
moving forward, we're really trying to,
um, come up with different ways that we
might continue to deeply integrate those
conversations we're having as a DAC.
We reviewed the strategic plan
dashboard, which tells us how our
students are progressing in each of the
four strategic plan priorities
districtwide as well as at every school
and broken down by different student
characteristics. We also looked at our
unified improvement plan scorecard,
which tracks our progress toward those
targeted two-year goals that are helping
us accelerate progress in areas of focus
need. again aligned to those strategic
plan priorities.
Um we wanted to look at this data again
to really understand um from a budget
perspective to use um hard data um
versus maybe some perceptions that might
not be grounded in data on what is
actually accelerating progress and where
are there gaps that we need to um
revisit with our strategy and then the
um financial resources that that go
behind that. Um so to be actional we u
worked with our uh partners at the
district um to to present to DAC members
um hypotheses on which of our
investments that we've made not just
yesterday but actually over over the
past few years are starting to show
results in our schools and then what are
our best hypotheses on areas where we
need to continue um to either focus our
attention or maybe shift shift our
resources so that we can see better
progress.
These slides here um are available um
through our DAC resources. These slides
were also shared with the board um last
fall.
We know that parents can feel more
confident engaging in budget
conversations and providing that really
actionable input when we understand how
our district is funded. Right? So, we
got we spent some time um learning about
the school finance act. We spent some
time um uh we had the opportunity to
look at a two-minute video on Taber
trying to understand that crazy thing.
Um we walked through our fiscal cycle
again just so that we could really
understand like what's happening when
and why is it happening, what decisions
are made um locally in our in our
schools, at our district, and what
decisions are happening at the state
level and beyond so that we could really
target the recommendations that we share
with you all tonight.
We also wanted to better understand how
our district's revenue expenses
breakdown and compared to other similar
districts. This is something that was
really helpful in past years. We've
heard a lot of questions and comments
from parents on the DAC around we need
to be spending more. We're not investing
enough and understanding that actually
we're spending more per pupil than a lot
of our um neighboring districts was very
illuminating for us um to take a look
at. All of this information is pulled
from the financial transparency report
cards that the Colorado Department of
Education shares.
We also had the opportunity to hear um
from Robin Fernandez um a little bit
more detail on the district that hap the
processes are happening here in our
district um that inform our that
influence and inform our school's budget
and the sitebased spending decisions and
flexibility that is available. So, we
have um some more detailed slides I'm
not going to go over here tonight, but
that are available to the public on um
what goes into the staffing and FTE
allocation. Um how the differentiated
school support fund allocation um what
it looks like today compared to what it
looked like previously when we had
federal stimulus dollars. Um we looked
at um spending for the common um items
that schools are spending their school
resource allocation on. Um some state
and federal grants that are going
directly to our schools. um as well as
different ways that our fundraising
entities are set up um across um across
our schools.
All of that information I mentioned we
have in our um slides that we use for
the deck which are publicly available.
This information is also in the massive
um award-winning budget uh that Bill
setter puts together for us every year.
Okay. So our process that we went
through as a DAC um we are so grateful
to Dr. Anderson um and our BBSD team for
partnering with us to co-design a
flexible protocol that we shared with
school accountability committees um
directly with principles through the
principal um weekly uh communication
that goes out um asking them to review
basic information on their school's
budget um and to instead of coming to us
and saying what do you need which did
not feel very actionable in the current
um uh in the current financial
environment that we're in to instead go
through that similar our process we went
through at the district level and saying
let's analyze alignment between our
school spending and our improvement
priorities. So we asked school schools
to school teams to answer a few
questions. What's fueling your progress?
What would help accelerate improvement
where you're not seeing the results that
you want to see? Um and then we also had
a third area of inquiry that that was a
little bit more of just an information
gathering um process at this point in
time, not an analysis, but what is your
PTO or your booster clubs? what are they
spend um what are you spending using
funds from those um private fundraising
sources
we received uh formal input from 33 of
our 56 schools or about 60% um in
general these feel pretty representative
when we look did our analysis of
elementary middle K8 and high school
which is a big concern on the DAC um for
folks who uh may not know this the DAC
in our DAC membership includes one
representative from each school
accountability committee which means
elementary schools are the majority of
um our DAC members. So, we wanted to
make sure that as we were doing our
analysis that we were really caring for
the reality that um we have fewer high
school representatives um on the DAC,
but that we wanted to make sure the high
school perspective, for example, um was
well reflected in our results.
Um,
one of our budget subcommittee members
put together this awesome um, Tableau
visualization to just showcase again
geog geographic representation of the
folks who formerly um, participated in
this budget input process. Um, along
with and I also wanted to just share the
reminder that some school teams were
able to have conversations um, about
their budget. they did not like fill out
our form, but their DAC representative
was able to participate in the process
of reviewing the findings and
recommendations. Um, so we again just
another opportunity for us to make sure
that uh the information we're sharing
tonight um feels well representative of
our um schools across our district.
Um so key findings, let me pause there
actually um just process-wise, do folks
have any does board members have any
questions around the process that we
went through before I start talking
through findings?
Yeah. Before
you go any further, um
I know I'm sure it's bothersome to you
as it is to me that only 33 of 56
schools participate here and then we say
that um if they didn't complete the
survey, they had the opportunity to
review. So how many more schools did you
get?
Yeah. So, we had um five additional DAC
members who represent schools that did
not complete the survey did provide
feedback on our the memo that we shared
with you all a few weeks ago.
So, we're still running at like 65%.
Yeah, it's it's hard. I mean, maybe we
nailed it and the other schools all read
it and like agreed with it and just
didn't let us know. Um but yeah, so
we're not I think the response rate is
not um is not where we want it to be. Um
and um so that's something that we are
our family engagement subcommittee this
spring um is going to be thinking
through a couple of priorities for the
work they do this spring planning for
next year. One of them is um making sure
that we are recruiting DACK members who
represent not only all of our schools
but our entire school community. So, we
want to we're going to be working on um
tapping some of our uh the leaders of
our family engagement or family and
educators together committees to see if
any of them are interested um in
stepping into a new leadership role on
the deck, for example. Um and we're also
going to be thinking about what are some
of the processes that we um plan for
next year um so that we can really
increase the response rate for these
types of opportunities. So, one idea we
floated um that we have, you know, not
made no decisions on um as a group yet
is um do we want to collect budget input
and input on our improve district
improvement plan separately or together?
Um so, if we're asking for input maybe
one time instead of three or four times
per year, what might that do? Um so, for
us to be able to increase the really
that high level engagement that we want
from our Sachs,
we appreciate how hard you're working to
get this input. So, thank you.
Yeah. And I would just say for our um
community and for the board, the way the
statute's written, it's like to the
extent practicable, engage with your
school accountability committees. No
other school, no other district
accountability committees across the
state that I'm aware of send a survey
out like this. Um most district
accountability committees actually just
meet the bare minimum that state statute
is, which is seven members from their
school district participating. And so
while we love, and this is a plug for
schools that are paying attention
tonight,
better engagement with our district
accountability committee, still you're
definitely meeting with that response
rate the the the task um outlined in the
state statute, Jason, and then board
members and for the rest of the meeting,
we'll start with our remote participants
because I can't see them waving their
hands anymore in this and then we'll go
through um everybody else. Jason.
Um, yeah, thanks Ally. Um, how, you
know, with Nicole's caveat in mind, too.
Uh, but how does this map uh track with
like supportive or strong SAC sacks
where you have a strong supportive
principle or engaged sack? I know you
all have done a lot of work on kind of
um, you know, uh, supporting like
improvement at the SAC level and so I
don't know if this relates to that if
that's if there's a connection there.
Just a question on that. Yeah, I think
definitely there's a relationship
between the strength and health of our
sack and engagement in these types of
kind of formal input opportunities. Um,
I had several principles reach out um to
just like check in on process and make
sure that they um were planning for
their sack meetings in the way that was
going to get us the input that we were
looking for. Um so to me that was a
really strong indication of this is a
principal who really relies on their
accountability committee as a thought
partner as advisors um when they're
making decisions in their school
community. We have a lot of um we have a
number of uh schools who have sacks that
are um kind of in more in the kind of
getting up and running um state of
things. We heard from a lot of those
schools too. often it was the sack chair
or the DAC rep who was kind of leading
the process of bringing the budget
questions to their agenda taking the
notes and um and getting those inputed.
So when we when we looked at the actual
like kind of who completed the survey we
had a combination of principles sack
chairs and deck representatives which
again I think speaks to um in some cases
to kind of overall like strength of the
sack but also to the variety of like
leadership structures and community
partnership structures we have across
our schools. It's okay if some of these
agenda items are driven by the DAC
representative rather than the
principal, right? If that's kind of how
that the SAC is set up in a way that's
going to really work for the school
community. In other places, we have
really strong engaged DAC members who
are reviewing all the documentation and
they are very clear that they don't
really have a SAC that's up and running
at their school and they're working on
it. So, we're supporting them. Um, just
received outreach from a principal today
that they identified a DAC rep for this
year. So we are like getting close to
100% of schools represented on the DAC.
Um and so we're really trying to make
sure that we're supporting schools kind
of no matter where they are. Um and then
we'll be actually consulting with you
all this spring to decide what kind of
we we had administered a sack health and
practices survey two years ago. So,
we're kind of approaching that and um
we'll be considering whether and how we
solicit more input on kind of what's the
state of your sack right now again in
light of like managing survey fatigue um
and overload.
Jorge or Alex? Maybe I'll start with
Alex and then Alex have anything let us
know and then we'll go down to Jorge.
No, I'm good. Thank you.
Hi. Uh, thank you for the opportunity.
Um I I just want to highlight um the
great efforts you're going to to get
participation on this and to get
feedback and input from all of our
schools because I know of the amount of
work that takes. But also I really
commend the amount of development and
capacity building you're building with
parents across the deck in terms of
understanding a very complex budgetary
process and the ways in which um our
budget is laid out and it directly
impacts what we want to achieve through
our improvement plan through our UIP and
our strategic plan. Um, so I just want
to say thank you for for doing that hard
work and I and I recognize um it's hard
to pull a whole bunch of uh to bring a
bunch of schools along um that are at
different levels of capacity right now.
So thank you.
Great. Thank you so much board member
Chavez. And two just quick reflections
on that. Um one, you know, we think the
best way to encourage schools to really
have fully functioning Sachs is to make
sacs like really valuable. um to
principles. Um and so that's something
that we are working that we've been
think very thoughtful about this past
year is making sure that all the
resources that we're developing um just
feel really meaningful to school
communities and that they do feel like
something that folks really want to have
versus something that we're like kind of
getting after them in sort of a
compliance exercise. Um and there was a
second reflection that I had that I have
lost and I will let you know if it comes
back to me.
All right. Right. So, I'm going to run
through now quickly um the key findings
that we shared in the in our memo to
you. First, um we were really thrilled
to see that the input we got from
schools um did reflect our district
strategic priies and priorities and
school improvement goals. So, everyone
did the assignment, which was great. Um
we were also uh we also noticed that um
more than half of our school teams
explicitly reference differentiate
funding as being something that has
supported them to make progress against
their improvement goals. And this was
for um schools that were were receiving
all three levels of differentiated
funding. So um again, I think that's a
really strong testament to that um that
strategy that our district has um
employed the past few years. Um we also
shared and there's more detail on the
memo on just a lot of staffing concerns
directly tied to the strategic
priorities. So um schools were really
thoughtful in sort of talking through
like we have this this data coach or our
biiteracy coach and we don't and they
are amazing and important and we don't
know how much longer we will have them
um given our enrollment right and given
the current fiscal realities and in the
memo we have a list of some of this uh
the specific uh staff roles that were
highlighted by school teams. Um, another
interesting finding that uh we
appreciated hearing from schools was
many um without prompting from us noted
that there was really good alignment
between their school improvement goals
and priorities and the investments that
their PTO and PTA were making in their
school. Other schools let us know that
the exercise revealed for them that
actually their private funding was not
being used to support their school
improvement goals and they expressed um
a need and an appetite um to take steps
um to ensure that there was better
alignment moving forward. And then
finally um across the responses just
sort of either explicit or um kind of
implicit interest in thinking about how
policies KH and KHB um might be
revisited down the road in the future
when the time is right as you all are um
making decisions around um the declining
enrollment and um next steps for our
school district.
Okay. Okay. So, in response to the
question of what's fueling progress,
there were five key areas um that we
heard from across schools. First, the
new and higher quality curricula uh
curricula and um resources that schools
have specifically um new math curriculum
um as well as new literacy curriculum
that are um better aligned to the
science of reading. We also heard that
the data data driven instruction
staffing strategies coaching support um
is really supporting schools to um look
at data holistically and make really
like in the- moment shifts to their
instruction so that they're supporting
better better able to support all kids.
Um very closely related to that um
schools uh highlighted the role of
interventionists and once they've used
the data to better identify kids who
need extra support actually having
staffing so that there are folks who can
go take action in response to um what
they are learning through the DDI
processes. um educator collaboration. We
almost kind of embedded in those first
three bullet points, but we decided to
pull that out um as kind of a fourth
area of what's fueling progress because
it was really clear from the responses
that like being able to more deeply
understand what the expectations are in
the new curricular resources, how
teaching changes um when you're shifting
from a direct instruction model, for
example, to an inquiry based learning
model. um looking at data, being able to
collaborate on um how they're going how
teachers can shift their instructions
the next day, the next week, the next
month um to respond to that is all made
possible by being able to come together
in community and look at the
information, problem, solve, collaborate
together. Um and there there is a there
was a little bit of attention in some of
the other responses in some other
responses we heard around um ideas that
parents and community members have for
what else teachers could be doing um
that would take them out of that
collabor that would require them to step
out of that space where they are
collaborating together. And so we just
wanted to make that visible um
especially to our we it became visible
to us and so we wanted to make make it
visible to our community um that
sometimes when we're asking for
something we might not realize that um
what we're asking for is for teachers to
have less time collaborating together so
that they can look at data and so that
they can um design interventions uh for
our kids. So wanted we we felt like it
was important to pull that out. And then
the fifth piece here uh was around
student support and school family
partnership. So, we had schools who
shared a a number of different really
customized ways that they are directly
addressing um the needs of their kids as
well as working with families in their
communities. Um and that looks different
across schools. Many of our title one
schools and some of our high schools um
specifically highlighted the role of um
student supports in school family
partnership, school um family liaison,
um credit recovery support. So, it
looked really different at the
elementary level versus middle school,
high school level, but again, sort of a
theme of having some of these um
additional supports in place to help
kids and families really based on their
unique and distinct needs.
We also uncovered four areas of um
consensus across our schools around
what's needed to accelerate improvement.
So, school counselors and mental health
support. This is really the biggest gap
that we saw and it came across in a lot
of the responses that we got from
schools. Um, schools really value the
additional support that they've received
in recent years um to support kids and
um at the elementary school level like
you we saw a lot of responses around
like what it means to support our young
kids to um build those social and
emotional skills around um uh you know
being able to kind of step back and name
their feelings, right? And then um get
along with their peers at the middle
school level. you know, really thinking
about healthy relationships and, you
know, how you sort of navigate um like
instances of bullying um at the high
school level. Um a lot of really um deep
appreciation for um the mental health
centers funded by impact on education
and all the wraparound supports that
have been built around that. Um we also
heard from schools um DDI was listed as
like something that is accelerating
improvement and it was also shared as
something where they need more um to
keep improving. Um and specifically had
a few schools who who sort of named it
um you know the the DDI work is a lot um
and so they were really excited about
it. they were definitely feeling like
the need for um uh support from the
district around like kind of being able
to do that DDI work in more manageable
chunks I think was one of the quotes we
pulled in. Um and then we had a couple
of schools um sort of relay that they
felt like they were actually at the
point in implementation where they felt
like more of the DDI work um could just
come live in the school building. Um so
right now a lot of it sort of started
out like very heavy with the district
support um kind of coming in and
teaching and coaching um and modeling
some of these practices. Um they're now
in a place where it feels a little bit
more balanced and they're sort of
feeling more and more ready to like
bring it all inhouse and thinking about
what does that mean as far as like
budget and resource allocation. Um
interventionists were also listed here
both as um accelerating improvement and
also an area of concern um like we need
more better um just like all the time.
Um, and so there's a little bit of
detail um in in the memo around just
like what what that might look like as
far as um
as far as like thinking through
sustaining supports that are currently
in place or like getting creative with
making sure that like when we use the
term interventionist sometimes we are
talking about a 1.0 you know, FTE, math
interventionist, but oftentimes we were
talking about a person in the building
who is providing intervention support.
Um, and so that was something we did
want to name um came through in um some
of the feedback that we got from schools
was um a desire to to maintain or even
increase intervention support, but an
openness to thinking about how we do
that. Um it doesn't necessarily need to
be a 1.0 FTE person. um as long as
whoever is providing that support is
trained and supported um to be able to
um support our kids. And then finally,
this one was really interesting. A
number of schools um shared a desire for
additional support around like how they
design their master schedule. So really
wanting to think through um like how do
we make sure that we are setting
everyone in our building up for success
um literally through the way that we
design our school day. Um, so we thought
that that was a really interesting
insight, unexpected insight um, from
this conversation. Um, but just as an
example, we heard um some of our
secondary schools sort of talking about
the idea of like if we were able to like
redesign our electives so we could kind
of merge electives, like how might that
free up space for us to like have um
kids would have access to the coursework
and the learning that they're that they
want um and need um in order to be ready
for what comes next, but also might free
up some space for us to bring in some of
those more some more intervention
supports. Um, and there are a couple of
other um, notes in here at the
elementary school level around the kind
of what I how to make sure that that
what I need um, section that some of our
elementary schools are using um, is set
up so that the the adult who needs to be
with the student for the intervention
can actually be there um, on a regular
basis every every day or every week.
All right. And finally, um, again, this
is a place uh, on private spending. We
ask schools to report out on what they
are investing their private dollars on.
We did not ask them to do alignment. We
did not ask them for like an opinion on
whether these are the right things. But
this was kind of our first step in um
demystifying a little bit u for us as a
DAC um what what are those private um
dollars being used on. So um by and
large pair professionals also a lot of
investments in learning experiences
professional development for teachers
aligned to those learning experience as
well as classroom supplies um aligned to
those um enrichment uh learning
experiences. Um additional mental health
supports um are being paid for with
private funds. um lots of school
culture, cultural activities um and
events and um just kind of other efforts
that are really important to our school
buildings um but are um things that you
know felt like they were sort of school
teams reported were outsourcable to
parents and community members um even if
they continue to be critical um to um
the way students are feeling that sense
of belonging and welcoming at their
schools. Um and then schools reported
some school facilities um investments as
well.
Okay. So, taking all of that together,
we offered you five D um five
recommendations from the DAC. Um the
first one is to continue the planned
community engagement um that you have
around declining enrollment. Um so many
of the challenges that schools shared
with us are a direct result of
the the issues facing our schools when
we don't have enough kids and we don't
have um enough resources um that we're
able to allocate to those schools. Um
and so we don't we don't offer
solutions. We don't we don't know what
they are, but just like we we do need to
figure this out. I think we we left this
process with a new appreciation for um
how hard it would be to try to come up
with short-term solutions that actually
keep a full-time art teacher in every
building and a full-time music teacher
in every building and a full-time
counselor in every building just given
our budget realities. The second
recommendation that we're offering to
you all is to continue prioritizing the
DDI investments. Um clearly this is
something that is making a huge
difference for our uh teachers and
principles and um school communities and
um it's something that as you are making
tough decisions um uh moving forward um
we would urge you to really retain um
the work you're doing around datadriven
instruction the 90-day plans and those
continuous improvement cycles. Um we
kind of smooshed a bunch of stuff into
one into one third recommendation um
which is just the start of a list. This
is not a comprehensive list of just like
what are those creative strategies that
might be budget neutral. Um so we heard
from some schools this idea of like if
every teacher identified as a math and
reading teacher and had professional
development support around your math our
math and literacy priorities like what
would that mean in terms of being able
to continue accelerating growth in math
and literacy. Um so can we identify
opportunities for other teachers to
attend some of the professional
development that literacy and math
teachers have been going to um so that
they can be incorporating that into
other disciplines. Also some interesting
ideas on the school student support and
family partnership work around like are
there other um school staff in the
building who could benefit from for
example some of the training you all
have done on restorative practices right
and some of the culture building work um
that we're culture building and um
social emotional learning uh that we're
that is happening at our schools. We
learned through this process that a lot
of schools are staffing um with hybrid
roles. They didn't use the language of
hybrid roles. that's a word we use to
describe it. Um there are lots of educ
there are lots of folks in our buildings
who are point four here and point six
here or point this here and point that
there. So um we think that's could be
really neat and creative. We heard some
examples of for example a librarian who
um is now at a 0.5 um.5 library teacher
and then.5 literacy interventionist and
it turns out it's the greatest thing
that's ever happened to her career. um
also had an example of another educator
who um is really challenging to be split
right in those roles and it's maybe not
quite working for her. So, we're not
necessarily recommending um that we like
implement more hybrid roles, but more
more deeply understand what are these
roles that are happening that are that
exist at our schools, documenting that,
learning from that, sharing those across
schools, and then using that information
um to make really strategic decisions
around um you know, maybe maybe there
are certain roles that are more
effective and sustainable for educators
and so let's like build those into the
model more explicitly and maybe there
are some that really aren't working um
and so we can maybe steer schools away
from those. The master schedule boot
camp was another idea that came up just
around this idea of bringing educators
together um and administrators together
to just rethink how we're setting up our
school days. Um we're also recommending
that you connect schools at various
stages of implementation. Um for the
most part schools were really excited
about the DDI work for example. Um we
did hear a couple of schools who were
like this is too much work and we're
just not quite sure that we're getting
the value out of it. um our hypothesis
is that they're just starting the work
and it is a lot and it is too much. Um
so maybe if they had the opportunity to
see and hear from their colleagues who
are one, two, three years down the road
that that might help them kind of keep
up energy and momentum um as they are
working on implementing something that
by and large most all the other schools
in the district are really seeing value
out of. And then finally um we did hear
from some schools uh questions about the
tutoring programs and this overlaps a
little bit with the intervention
interventionist uh feedback that we got.
Um some schools are using the language
of tutoring to talk about some the inter
the type the way that they're
structuring their interventions. Um and
in some places that was especially at
our elementary schools. They're like
this is gamechanging. It's amazing for
our kids. They're meeting consistently
with the tutor every week and the kids
who have access to that are growing
astronomically. At the middle school
level there was concerns that um middle
schoolers who were connecting with
tutors during their study hall were
maybe not seeing the same value. Um, and
so we just thought that was an
opportunity to maybe do a little bit
more research, check in on what's going
on there, and um, make sure that, you
know, we we know that high impact
tutoring is actually very cost-effective
and very effective way to support our
kids. Um, and in uh, times of tightening
budgets, um, would hate for us to kind
of throw those out the window if we
could actually maybe just like adjust
um, uh, the the program as it's being
implemented to make sure that it really
is uh, supporting kids and helping us
reach our goals. Um our fourth
recommendation is around um the private
funding sources. So, we do not know if
you guys are planning to revisit
policies KH and KHB, but if you do or
when you do, um, we would really
encourage you to make sure that you're
using and making visible data on how
those dollars are being spent, um,
potentially even projecting like what
changes in policy, like what that might
mean for how much um, private funding
schools have access to. and making sure
that you're using that to really just
check in and make sure that you feel
good that we feel good as a community um
about whether or not those changes are
supporting our equity goals. Um so we
know that schools want to raise money
for their or we know that families want
to raise money for their schools. Uh we
know that that's super important. We
believe it can be really valuable and um
we want to make sure that that is done
in a way that is um we can all sleep
well at night if any changes are made
there. And then finally, um, keep
partnering with us. Uh, this was a
really, really good experience and we
are really grateful to the BBSD team for
working really closely with us on, um,
oh, board member Chavez, I the second
thing I was going to say in response to
you later, I just it just came back. Um
we we had a lot of questions at the
beginning of this process and I think um
some concerns about whether or not we
should be asking all those questions and
um we um sort of went in hoping that by
digging into a lot of data, by digging
into a lot of detail um that it might be
overwhelming and that it might not be a
good idea, but that we hoped it would be
and we wanted to give it a try and you
guys were game um to partner with us on
that. Um so we really appreciate that.
Um I think at times when we are trying
to simplify and make uh the language you
use about our schools more concrete for
parents and family members uh we can
there's that Oliver Wendell Holmes quote
like we want to get to the simplicity on
the other side of complexity. Sometimes
we get to the simplicity on this side of
complexity and that's not very helpful.
So thank you for getting to going
through the complexity with us and so
that we could get to the other side. um
DAC members really appreciate that and
we felt like it was a valuable process
that we are hoping to share out with
more community members um and hopefully
replicate whatever that means in the
future with more of our parents and
community members. So that was a lot of
information. Thank you so much for
bearing with me. Um I like to bring this
picture in wherever I can. One of our
students tagged BVSD
um up off one of our hiking trails
nearby. So questions, any additional
questions um that you all have?
Graffiti is not condoned but we do
appreciate the love for ABSD.
I would like to start any questions or
comments this evening from Jorge and
then we'll go to Alex and then board
members sitting at the dis will go on to
you.
Thank you to the um for all of your work
on this. I mean, this is this is a
really great to see the applicability of
the questions that we're asking and the
very direct effects that our current
budget investments have had on these
schools. Um, I I really appreciate the
way you've kind of laid this out and the
great efforts you've put in terms of
trying of getting participation from the
SAC and DAC community. Um, I think these
these recommendations really align with
kind of where we're going and the
challenges we're facing as as we're
moving forward. I'm curious um if if
from your perspective if there are gaps
um that you see or or or or um areas
that you think um we need to focus on or
or folks that we need to reach out to
that were missed through this process
given that we had somewhat little
participation um or questions that
remain to be asked.
Yeah. Um as a followup I think I would
recommend just connecting with our
alternative high schools. Um we have
awesome DAC representatives um from
those school communities. Um and and
they are amazing contributors to the
work that we do. Um I know that those
are places where we are just continually
paying attention to whether or not we
feel like the recommendations, the
insights we're sharing with you all
really apply um to those school
community. So that's one that jumps to
mind. I think this time around, you
know, we did we do feel like our title
one schools were really engaged in the
process. Our bilingual schools are
really engaged in the process. Um, so we
feel really good about those
recommendations. Um, or we feel really
good about um the repres how how
representative we were able to be um of
the experience of those school
communities. Um, but if we were to do
another next step, I would just check in
um with our high schools.
Thank you,
Alex.
Yeah, I just want to say a huge thank
you for the for the complexity and the
depth and the engagement around this. I
think this is all such useful
information. Uh certainly to me on the
board and I'm sure to all my colleagues.
So kudos to you and everybody who's um
done all this work. I think it's really
helpful and I'm um really pleased to see
the direction that the DAC and the Sachs
are going in in terms of like
facilitating deep discussion about such
important stuff. So whatever we can do
as a board and as a district to support
that continued deep engagement, I'm all
in favor of. And uh I think it's really
helpful to us and I think as we move
into
uh dealing with declining enrollment,
dealing with a mature strategic plan,
figuring out how to sustain our
investments in this spite of the kind of
uh financial challenges we'll face as a
state and a district, it's just all the
more important to have this kind of
engagement. So my main feedback is just
a big thank you. Um, and I and I'm
looking forward to as we'll be talking
about it, you know, just tonight in
terms of like future engagement around
the issues we face as a district around
declining enrollment. I think keeping
that ability to touch things back on our
strategic plan, on our UIPs, on our
goals is really quite an important
anchor for us. So, I just mostly just
have gratitude for you and I appreciate
the input and I recognize um how much uh
this level of input is helpful to us as
a district. So, thank you.
Thank you,
Anna. I similarly wanted to share my
appreciation. And I think that sometimes
we can get um caught up in the weeds of
our of our own um policym and it's
sometimes so refreshing to see some of
the very obvious things that we can keep
doing um that really align with our
strategic priorities. And so um again I
just echo what Horge and and Alex just
said of just thank you for consolidating
all of this, taking the time to do it.
um because we are going to face a very
hard financial uh coming years and I
think that having those very obvious,
very simple things that we do daytoday
um that will help us keep us afloat and
help our students make sure that they
continue having that enrichment at their
schools is invaluable honestly and and
it does make me really excited that so
many of the things are aligned to our
strategic plan and that they they feel
and they seem so seamless that we can um
start to incorporate and integrate and
make sure that we're not uh overlooking
those very very crucial parts. So, thank
you.
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you so much for that. And
one reflection back is um you know in
the past years we have provided schools
with like a menu of investments. For
example, we've really scaffolded these
conversations thinking like oh this is
what we need to do to get good good
input and like we threw that out this
year. So to see schools, school teams
independently reporting back so many
investments that are aligned to the
strategic plan was really powerful for
us too. Um and I think validation that
like you know our our schools are we're
ready to engage in this process.
I just want to take a moment to note
gratitude and how excited it makes me
feel that what we hear from the
community. What we believe as a board is
also being echoed in your report. The
work we are doing is making meaningful
changes to our students and to our staff
and our school community and also
elevating the fact that we can't
continue to do that work without
addressing declining enrollment. It is a
very significant reality. So, thank you
for bringing that up. Um, amongst the
other things along those lines, I know
several folks in the audience are folk
are individuals who have signed on to
letters around KH policy revisions when
they sometimes are considered by the
board.
And I recognize that I I think a lot of
the things that schools are trying to
fund raise for are a direct result of
declining enrollment. like you said back
filling staffing positions and I really
don't think it's does us a disservice to
touch that policy until we have tackled
declining enrollment to really
understand if we don't have those
significant staffing issues because our
schools are underenrolled and underst
staffed as a result maybe we don't have
to have schools raising tens of
thousands hundreds of thousands of
dollars to support some of those
decisions and then the policy might look
very different as a result of that and
so I think that policy we all know it
does need to be revisited and I think
what we really need to focus our time in
as you saw in our board priorization
that did not get rep prioritized to be
looked at again sitting in a redline
version. But after the dust settles on
the declining enrollment things, I think
we all recognize on the board that that
policy is really poorly written. It's
very confusing and it's unclear what um
what the language causes and behaviors
and what the outcomes of those and the
impacts to equity. So when dust settles
there, I think we have an appetite to to
tackle that, but conditions are going to
change significantly, I presume. And so
let's like let that landscape take shape
before acting on that. And then the last
thing I just want to say and to folks
watching, DAC is one of our best thought
partners here on the on the board of
education. They do amazing work. It's
predominantly parents, volunteers, and
there is not a more meaningful way,
maybe as a former deck member myself,
it's selferving uh to get involved in
really big decision-making at this
school district. So, if you have a
school community that does not have a
high functioning school accountability
committee, does not have a DAC rep, a
big plug, like your work is really
important to us. This budget
presentation is an excellent example.
Um, we we can't do our work well without
your support and um your constant
connection to our school community. So,
thank you so much to Ally, to Felicia
Gorman, Dak Chair sitting up in front,
co-chair, and everybody else on district
accountability committee. We do really
appreciate your part your partnership.
With that, I think we're ready to move
on if there are no further questions.
Yeah. Thank you. And just a plug for
everyone in the room, for everyone
watching, join your sack. If you are
looking at what's happening in the
world, if you are looking what's
happening in my hometown of Minneapolis,
um a really great way to take action to
do something to do good is to join your
sack to come join attend a DAC meeting.
Um join us. Um, we're doing great work
and uh we want all of you to be part of
it. Thank you. Thanks, Ally.
Thanks to everybody on that budget
subcommittee.
Next item for this evening's agenda is
board communication.
Keeping up with the theme, Jorge and
Alex, I will start with you.
Uh, I'm good.
Uh, all I can say is I sorry I can't be
there in person tonight. Uh, my stomach
is acting up so I don't think anybody
wants me there. But, uh, I'm just really
excited uh, at the discussion we had
tonight from the DACK. And I just want
to add that uh, I think we get a lot of
helpful input from the community and
it's it's really good to see what great
thought partners we have on lots of
issues out there.
Menia,
no. Jorge, huh? Um,
just in acknowledging Dak's work there
on our total spending per student, which
I really appreciate you guys um sussing
out and putting it on your slide. Thank
you.
um and you're digging into Taber and the
school finance. All of those things were
really um other than
well this morning we met with our
legislators as a board and um
well they don't know how much we spend
per student which you know they do know
about Taber and school finance and we
had some lengthy discussions this
morning and it was brought into very
sharp focus again for me um the
financial landscape in which we're
operating.
And um so that was very helpful for our
board to sit with our legislators and
talk those things through um and what we
can control and what we cannot control.
And so as a board member here, I'm
anxiously awaiting our discussion that
we will have here
uh on declining enrollment. And what I
would encourage our community to do is
to think of our community quite
holistically
uh not just as your school.
You're it's bigger than your school.
It's a community. and and as we start
discussing
declining enrollment, consolidating
schools,
um given our budget constraints, given
declining enrollment, I hope that our
community
takes that big worldview.
Deanna and then Anna.
Hi, I want to recognize that uh one of
the things that I see as a former
teacher is uh driving around our
beautiful community and seeing on all
kinds of days, Saturdays and Sunday
afternoons, there are teachers parked in
the parking lots at the schools and
they're putting in those extra hours to
make all of this happen. And I just want
to say to all of you that spent your
Saturdays in a cold cold school uh
trying to get set up for this week, I
want to say thank you.
I did also want to uh mention about uh
we had a legislative breakfast this
morning with a handful of our senators
and representatives and it was really
helpful and I'm really grateful that we
were able to see the
the state of our budget at the state
level but also um to hear from Rob about
the solidarity that a lot of the school
districts and superintendent are holding
the line to make sure that uh we are
protecting as much as we can budgetwise
for our schools uh for our public
schools across across the front range
across Colorado. Um, so I'm really
grateful and uh thank you to uh policy
matters for really bringing together a
really great group of folks um this
morning. And uh secondly, as a a school
board member, a parent, and as a
daughter of immigrants, uh my heart is
with every student and family in our
community who is feeling grief, who is
feeling fear and uncertainty right now.
Um, last week I was really uh broken by
seeing a 5-year-old being used as bait.
Um, very similar looking to how my son
looks with his backpack and his beanie.
And then to hear my young nieces and
nephews uh come up with their own
contingency plans on how they would
protect their cousin. And this fear is
not only on the directly impacted folks
um but it is being felt in that in the
greater community as well. And um I just
wanted to take this moment of privilege
to really let every child in our
schools, regardless of immigration
status, race, religion, gender identity,
or background, uh they deserve to feel
safe, welcomed and loved and a place of
of learning and peace and belonging. And
these are not just ideals that um we
express broadly, but they are lived
experiences that we strive to create
each and every day in BVSD. And my
commitment is uh to continue to show up
and do the groundwork with our
community. And to all of our students
and families who are feeling anxious
about what they are seeing happen across
our country, I just want to say that you
are seen, you are valued, and you belong
here.
Thanks for that, Anna. Um
our delegation is amazing. So, thank you
voters for electing highly thoughtful,
engaged representatives. Uh, we can't
they help us do our work. They are
always in constant contact. Um, so it
was great to meet with them this morning
and just thank you to the voters for
electing awesome people. Not everybody
has a delegation at the capital like we
do.
I want to
We have 56 schools in this district.
Approximately 36 of them are elementary
schools. We have more schools than we
have people to fill them.
And we'll talk about the community
engagement process tonight. But I I want
to really emphasize
every single one of those schools loves
their community. Every single one of
those every every parent and kid in
those school and teachers in every
single one of those schools are showing
growth in and improved student
achievement. they they have great um
results when it comes to like sense of
belonging and we are not looking at data
like that to make decisions moving
forward like these are really hard
fiscal decisions they are real estate
decisions they are facility conditions
decisions they are zoning decisions it's
not um I just would hazard the community
to get into a place where it's not my
school but maybe that school because
we're all in this together and it's
going to be really hard and we all love
our schools so much and I think as a
board this is going to be the hardest
job we tackle and working together to
find the best path forward for us is
really my biggest goal and
I know everybody's going to want to save
their school and at the end of the day
that's not going to be the reality and
so working together supporting your
neighbors supporting schools around you
um is really I think the foot forward
because at the end of the day your kids
might be in schools with those other
parents. You might be on a PTO at a
different school with those parents.
Like how can we really work through this
very challenging time together as
partners um is just something I've been
thinking a lot since the weekend since
you start to feel the energy building up
around this today's presentation and so
I just want to honor that. But that's my
biggest hope for that this community as
we work through this really challenging
time. So I just wanted to say that out
loud.
With that,
I think we are con done with public
comment or board comment today. So, we
will move on to information items. We
have three information items this
evening. The first of which
is strategic community engagement plan
for resilient schools.
Mr. Rob Price will do the presentation.
Dr. Would you like to do the
introduction?
I would. Thank you, board president Raj
Paul. Um board members, as you as you'll
recall in October, we had a work session
where we really dug into the realities
of declining enrollment in our in our
school district. Um at that moment and
at the conclusion of that meeting, uh it
was through consensus um from the board
that we needed to begin to really start
to ramp up this process. At that time,
on behalf of of district staff, I
committed to bringing back to you a
thoughtful plan for us to engage our
community uh prior to um bringing you
any recommendations or developing any
recommendations around school closure,
school consolidation, school
reconfiguration.
Um and so we've been hard at work over
the past four months. Before they even
get started, I want to commend our team
for for being thoughtful. And I think
what you'll see in the presentation this
evening um is a district that wants to
engage our community and that wants to
listen first to know and understand the
things that are most important around
the student experiences which are
creating the best outcomes that the
Boulder Valley School District has ever
seen for all kids. Uh and that's very
important to me. Um and uh this will be
difficult. It will be challenging, but
we're going to start by listening and
then putting our heads together to try
to figure out what is the best path
forward to accomplish our goals. And so
with that, uh, I think our team has a
great presentation to share with you
today. And, uh, Rob Price, assistant
superintendent of operations, I'll turn
it over to you. Thank you.
Good evening, President Raj Paul,
members of the board. Dr. Anderson,
thank you for that introduction. Uh the
purpose of tonight's presentation is to
define the uh comprehensive community
engagement process to help us address
the really the profound challenges of
declining enrollment. Um as the district
moves forward towards a future where the
majority of our schools will be two
rounds or less uh doing the status quo
is no longer sustainable and that has
come up a number of times tonight. So
this engagement strategy that we are
presenting tonight is clearly defined to
uh clearly define the problem for the
public including the operational the
programmatic impacts ensuring that the
community understands the necessity for
change
struggling on there we go
uh tonight's presentation has four
purposes. First, to confirm a shared
understanding of the bird's uh board's
urgency to declining enrollment or
created by declining enrollment. Second
is to reaffirm the board's goals that
will help guide future decisions. Third
is to review a proposed community
engagement plan that will help inform
viable school adjustment options. And
finally, establish a clear path for
towards eventual board action. Um, as
you can see on the right side of your
screen, the list of school adjustment
options shown reflects the tools that
districts uh typically considered, but
as discussed, allowing schools to stay
small is not an option. That was
discussed at our October 21st work
session. Um, with that said, no options
are being recommended tonight.
Declining enrollment is not just a BBSD
issue. It is happening across our
nation. It is happening across uh
Colorado. This year, Colorado's public
school enrollment dropped by more than
10,000 students. That was the largest
single year decline since the pandemic.
Uh the statewide decline uh really
reflects broader demographic shifts.
It's including uh lower birth rates,
shifting population patterns that are
affecting districts of all sizes. uh our
enrollment decline, we've talked about
this in a numerous uh work sessions and
board meetings is influenced by similar
factors. Uh declining birth rates means
fewer kindergarteners. Our population in
Boulder Valley School District is aging
in place. Housing costs remain high and
neighboring districts are able to afford
or to offer more affordable housing
options. I just go over these as we are
going to be uh experiencing sustained
enrollment declines over the next
several years and we'll give an update
on that here in a minute.
This slide illustrates that this work
did not begin recently. Since 2022, the
long range advisory committee, the board
of education and staff, we've been
studying enrollment trends, developing
metrics, engaging communities, and
updating board policies. The pace and
the scope of this work has reflects
sustained board of education interest
and direction over multiple years. Uh
the work on this slide also shows that
we have pulled every available lever to
change enrollment trajectories over the
last four years to avoid the difficult
conversations that we're going to be
having over this next several months.
This work has been very very deliberate
over this course of time.
over a five-year period uh from 2019 to
20124, our enrollment declined by over
2,800 students. So, what has changed
since last year is we declined by
another 525 students. That's 284 more
students than we projected. This is the
second largest decline that we've seen
since the pandemic.
We talked about a number of reasons
during the December work session. Some
of that could be happening at the
federal level, some of the immigration
changes that have impacted us. But we do
know that delaying any further just
continues to increase the risk to the
student experience. We strive to provide
it creates additional instability for
our staff and it challenges the
district's long-term financial uh
sustainability.
We currently have the capacity to serve
over 14,500 elementary students in our
non-charter schools. Right now, we only
serve about 9700 elementary schools. Our
util utilization rate is 67%. Just as a
reminder, utilization is calculated
enrollment divided by program capacity,
leaving us with over 4,800 open seats in
our elementary schools today. And this
is this number is projected to grow to
over 5,100 open seats just over the next
five years. And one issue we'll discuss
among many other issues uh is that we're
just maintaining a significant amount of
excess space which is really diverting
limited funds away from the classroom
that has real instructional and
financial consequences.
The core impact of declining enrollment
is on the student experience. and Robin
Fernandez, our assistant superintendent
of schools, has done a phenomenal job of
explaining this slide. And I'll go into
a little bit more detail and then we'll
watch a video. But as our schools move
from three classes per grade level to
two classes per grade level to one class
to now we're even seeing multi-grade
classrooms, we know that programmatic
offerings begin to suffer as schools are
getting smaller. smaller schools. This
shows up as traveling specialists
teachers, really complex scheduling,
limited teacher collaboration, and
reduced access to other enrichment
experiences.
Board me, board member Quinnland Leea,
you brought this up in October about how
difficult our teachers are working right
now, and we want to acknowledge our
staff's effort. As we know, our
teachers, our principles, our pair
educators are all working extremely hard
with limited resources to provide
high-quality learning experiences.
The effort though as we all know is this
is not sustainable. So this year several
schools were required to implement
multi-grade uh classrooms. One teacher
said that she would much rather teach a
class of 50 students than ever have to
teach another multi-grade classroom.
very different than an intentional
multi-age classroom like community
monaster. This is much different. We're
giving them our standard curriculum.
We're asking them to teach two different
grade levels in one classroom.
Much different than what we have come to
expect. And with that, uh, we will, um,
show a short video.
As you've probably heard, the Boulder
Valley School District is facing
declining enrollment. But what does that
mean? and how does it impact our
classrooms and students?
Well, over the past decade or so, birth
rates in Colorado and across the country
have been diving. And of course, with
fewer kids in our neighborhoods, we're
also seeing a matching decrease in the
number of kids attending our schools. As
you may know, school funding is directly
tied to the number of students we serve.
So, as schools have gotten smaller,
we've also had less dollars. For a
while, BBSD has been able to make things
stretch so that all of our schools still
have all the bigger school services that
we've become accustomed to, like a
robust offering in specials that rotate
every week, instrumental music, and
dedicated counselors and special
education teachers. Sure, there have
been sides of strain, but we've been
largely able to bridge that gap. Maybe
we've had to cut back on school
administration or have had specialist
teachers serve multiple schools. But
most folks have been satisfied, if not
even happy about having small schools
with all the things that they've been
accustomed to. The problem is that
things are quickly getting too tight to
keep us up. So, as some of our schools
have had less and less classes at turn
grades or across the school, there are
now fewer adults supporting students,
reducing their access to learning
opportunities and needed support as well
as supervision. The less kids, the more
complex scheduling becomes. Plus, that
adds a lot of strain to our teachers who
now don't have the support and
collaboration that they typically have
had from other educators teaching in the
same grade level. Plus, things are
getting pretty unpredictable. Teachers
may have to move from grade to grade,
year to year, and class sizes can go up
and down like a roller coaster ride. In
BBSD, we remain steadfastly dedicated to
making sure that our students continue
to receive a top-notch education from
the best teachers in the state. We
however know that something has to
change. That is why we will be engaging
with our educators and community to
discuss how we move forward together to
make schools resilient while students
remain at the center of any decisions
that we make.
So uh last two slides this video and the
last slide you know I've been studying
this for four years and the more I study
this it should not depend on where a
student goes on the resources they get
and right now that's the way the system
has evolved by doing nothing access to
programs access to supports has become
increasingly uneven across uh BBSD so uh
we already know that declining
enrollment is already straining a number
of our schools. Uh how inaction will
continue to erode uh equity, stability
and our student experience over time.
So um
as you can see here, this is our
five-year projections. um as you can uh
over the next five years we are
projected to decline
um another 1,700 students. So while all
levels are affected, elementary
continues to drive the most facility and
staffing impacts. Um and that's why
we're having this discussion.
So this slide uh shows our 5-year
elementary projections using our 202425
enrollment data. The last slide was
based on the 25 uh enrollment data that
you got in December. We have not updated
our school by school projections that
will come to the board on February 10th
during the annual enrollment trend
report. However, based on this data, it
helps us understand really the regional
patterns which becomes important when we
look at the um uh engagement process.
So, two indicators that we're looking at
here are the number of schools projected
to have two or fewer classes per grade
level and then the regional building
utilization which shows how efficiently
schools are being used or facilities are
being used in that region. Uh Boulder
continues to experience the most
significant uh enrollment decline at the
elementary level. 10 of our 14 schools,
71% of the schools are projected to be
at or below two classes per grade level
uh over the next five years. The
region's overall building utilization
projected to be at 58% meaning we have a
substantial amount of space that is just
underused. Uh this creates both
educational and operational challenges
and that is why Boulder will be a focus
area of the engagement. Uh Lewisville
Superior is also experiencing continued
declines. Three of our six schools are
projected to be at two classes per grade
level or less. The regional utilization
is projecting at 61%
again indicating underuse across
multiple sites. Lafayette Erie shows a
different pattern compared to the
others. We got enrollment that is slowly
growing. No schools during the 20 using
the 2425 data are projected to fall to
two or fewer classes per grade level.
Regional utilization is at 88% which is
a much uh which is much closer to an
efficient use of space.
Um Broomfield continues to see declining
enrollment though on a smaller scale
just because we have fewer schools in
Broomfield. Uh two of our four schools
are projected to be at or below two
classes per grade level. The regional
utilization is at 73% just indicating
some moderate underutilization.
Uh the number of resident students in
the area is the cause for concern there.
So Broomfield will also be an area of
engagement. Uh really the challenge is
we're just seeing fewer students across
the same number of schools. So um and we
know that the impact isn't even across
the district. So the projections really
help us explain why this regional
engagement approach is necessary and why
different regions might have different
solutions as we look at this.
Dr. Anderson,
if you if you could just go back to that
slide, Rob, you know, board members, you
know, I think this is going to be one of
our greatest challenges is um is we're
solving a problem that's that is coming
but may not be here yet for everyone.
And uh if we wait till it gets here,
it's too late to solve it. And I see
districts across the country kick the
can and wait until it's too late and
then um they they aren't able to listen.
They aren't able to put together
thoughtful plans. Uh you know, the the
the five-year projection data is if we
stay on projection,
um again, we were off our projection by
284 students. That's roughly $3 million
in actual dollars uh to the school
district with the idea that around a
hundred kids is is more or less a
million dollars in today's school
finance act. And so as we engage, I
think one of the things that we're going
to be talking and really focusing on is
making sure everybody understands the
problems of tomorrow, right, within the
context of today. And uh and so as as
you begin to review this engagement
plan, uh we're going to be very
thoughtful in the in in not only just
listening, but the information that
we're sharing and doing that in ways
where folks can know and understand to
keep the the the school district
operating and functioning at the high
levels it is today. We just have no
choice. We have to make some um some
really difficult decisions. Uh but at
the end of the day doing nothing will
create a situation where um you may not
be able to recover the school district
that you have today. Uh because at a
certain point without the resources
schools become undesirable and we have
all desirable schools today. So
all right. So in response to the data
that just presented and the direction
that the board gave us back in October,
we will be standing up a regional
engagement process. So over the next
month, we will communicate all of the
details about this engagement process,
including how uh our staff, our
families, and others can participate. uh
the communication that we send out will
include the timeline for the engagement,
what topics will be discussed, where
those are held etc. Uh what engagement
will and will not do as we think about
this process. Um engagement will help us
build understanding of the problem. uh
it will gather input and inform our
decisions as we move forward through
this process and it will inform board of
education decisionmaking when we get to
that time frame. However, uh just to be
very clear about this process, it will
not guarantee the preservation of
specific schools. It will not delay
action and it will not delay the
transfer of decision-m away from you.
So, just hope to set up some boundaries
up front. Uh hopefully we can maintain
some trust by uh continuing to um
communicate this out as we move forward.
So as illustrated here, the engagement f
uh structure is focused on uh regional
input. As we looked at in the data
slides, we're going to be organized
around three regions. That's Broomfield,
Boulder, Lewisville, Superior where our
school utilization rates are the lowest
and a majority of those schools in those
regions are projected to be at or below
two classes per grade level. Um,
projected enrollment in Lafayette and
Erie is currently stable. We'll continue
to monitor their enrollment and any
potential impacts to enrollment in
Lafayette and Erie uh will be considered
in the development of our school
adjustment options. Um, our M Mountain
schools are currently not included in
this process just due to their unique
circumstances up there. Um, and then
looking at who will be involved, the
regional groups will be comprised of
principles, teachers, uh, parents,
community members, committee members,
um, etc. Our goal throughout this
engagement uh process will to be to make
sure our community understands the
consequences of not making changes and
why action is needed now. And as I
previously stated over the next month,
we will communicate out the details on
how everyone can be involved in this uh
process and how they can participate.
So as we move to the timeline, I have
broken this down into seven different
phases. Uh phase one which has begun uh
is focused on really engaging our
principles, our uh teachers, other
staff, uh district advisory committees
and beginning conversations with the
different municipalities that are part
of this process. Um this work will begin
and or will continue through the month
of February. Phase two is where we will
start our regional uh community group
meetings to build understanding of the
problem. This F phase will occur between
March and May of this year. And then
during phase three, staff will present a
summary of the community engagement that
we have received to the board. We will
present that at a June uh board meeting
and then we will spend time uh staff
will spend time over the summer
developing school adjustment options uh
based on the input that we've received
and the board of education's goals uh
that we have discussed.
During phase four is when we plan to
present the school adjustment options to
you. This will be in August. This will
be an opportunity for the board to
discuss the options being presented.
This will be an also be an opportunity
for public comment at our board
meetings. In September, which is phase
five on the timeline, we will present a
final plan for study to the board. And
this would include everything
considering updated attendance
boundaries, maybe open enrollment
preferences, transportation
considerations among many other things
that we need to think about, facility
improvement analysis, etc. As we move to
phase six, that is where we will present
the final plan for action to the board
that will occur in October to align with
our uh open enrollment timeline. And
then as we move into phase seven, that
marks the transition
uh for focus support um for our impacted
families and staff. And we are committed
to supporting our students, staff uh and
families throughout this transition and
to move forward in a way that hopefully
strengthens the long-term stability and
excellence of Boulder Valley School
District. Um that concludes tonight's
presentation and I would welcome board
discussion.
Rob, can you go back? Um, I want to get
into a little bit more depth on phase
one
uh for our board and for the public. Um,
we have already established 35
calendar invite meetings. Laura, is that
right? Around 35, where Dr. Dea Cruz and
I will go and speak with every
elementary school teacher in the
district.
Um, we're going to speak with every
principal in the district. We're going
to start with our educators. Uh, you
know, there there's a lot of great
things about BBSD, but the people that
we have are our strength and we need to
listen to them. We need to understand
what it is that we need to preserve
through this process to make their
experience one where they can serve the
kids of our community. And so we're
going to be very intentional between
January and spring break to make sure
that we're engaging deeply with
teachers, understanding the impacts,
hearing their fears, hearing and
listening and and gathering that
information to really give us a strong
base on what our schools, what our
educators, what do they need? Um, and so
I just wanted to the the phase one is
was just I just wanted to give a little
more depth here before we get into into
discussion. Thanks, Rob.
Can I since we're on that slide, y
I know there's folks watching tonight
curious about phase two. When do we have
a when do you anticipate having a
timeline of what those community
outreach
events will look like? When can they
anticipate hearing when like that
information will be available?
Over the next month, we plan to
communicate that out details of those
engagement sessions.
And sorry, Alex and Jorge for jumping in
there. Um,
Alex, we'll start with you, then we'll
go to Jorge if you guys have any
questions or thoughts, and then we'll go
to Lenia.
Uh, no, I I mean, I appreciate the plan.
I look forward to getting the input. I
almost want to reinforce something you
said, Nicole, which is, um, I really do
think this is a a community
communitywide issue that we're facing.
And um I guess in my day job I've seen
what happens when when you're dealing
with a potential closure of schools. And
sometimes people think that the most
political rabble rousing is the best way
to inform the strategies. And really,
I'm just encouraging everyone to stay
student focused on this uh throughout
all of our discussions and to be
thinking as a community about how we um
safeguard the student experience over
the next couple of years as well. So all
this discussion for the most part is
affecting the elementary schools, at
least the elementary schools first. And
so we have kids between the ages of like
three and you know 11 involved in all
this. And I really think we want to not
making them any more anxious about their
life in the world these days. And so I
just encourage everybody to be thinking
about our end goals being studentf
facing, our conduct being studentf
facing, and um just trying to figure out
how we support and keep things as good
as possible for everybody. Um so I'm
excited to have
uh excited is probably not the right
word, but I think it's important that
we're moving forward with a timely
approach. uh if we don't act now that
Rob talks about you know it'll be too
late later but what that'll lead to is
declining enrollment more and people
exiting the system which will make it
worse so I do think we're trying to stay
focused on kids and I encourage us in
our engagement process to do what we can
to keep that at the focus of it as well
that's it for me
thanks Alex Jorge
thank you Um, I just want to thank um,
Rob and the administration for this
presentation. I really appreciate um,
the way that they've laid out the need
that we're seeing across our schools and
the tremendous variability that um, our
schools are facing in terms of ability
to serve our students given the
declining enrollment situation and
providing a rationale for why we need to
act now rather than waiting till later.
Um, I also appreciate the clarity around
the goals of this engagement process and
a clear timeline. um in particular the
recognition that the problems are the
same across all areas of the school
district and we have to be flexible in
terms we think about how we address um
the current situation. Um, I'd like to
go back to kind of one of the slides
earlier that referenced the structure
for the engagement plan. And I want to
be clear if I understand this correctly
that um that there will be meetings with
every school across the district and
that while Lafayette and Erie are not um
facing the same situation as other as
other areas of the district that they
will be part of the engagement process
um and that um concerns there'll be an
opportunity to kind of engage with those
communities as well. And so I want I
want that make sure that's clear um as a
part of this.
Thanks for that question, Jorge. In
phase one um we'll be engaging all the
schools, Lafayette, Erie, all the
schools. Um and uh as we get into the
regional community engagement structure,
we'll have to think about what that that
engagement would look like for those
communities because it would be
different. Um, I do think that everybody
in the community is interested in in
what's happening and wants to be
informed and certainly lots of folks
will have opinions and we want to listen
and hear that. Um, I do think that that
the plan here does focus on our areas of
greatest need. Um, but there will be
engagement with all communities. It just
may look a little bit different and over
the course of the next month, we'll
shape that. I think as we get out to
schools and I talk to teachers and
principles, they'll give me a really
good sense of maybe what that they think
that should look like and we'll take our
lead from there.
Thank you. I appreciate that. And yeah,
really it's about that flexibility,
right, to make sure that we are engaging
across the entire district. Um and uh
even if it doesn't look exactly the
same. So, thank you.
Uh, I will just continue to echo Nicole
and Alex um about looking at this as a
community rather than
uh just individual schools. We need to
look at it as a community first and
keeping it student centric
keeping in mind our students. Um, I want
to look at slide 16 and just make sure
that our community understands that the
final plan will be presented for study
in September
for action in October so that by an open
enrollment time frame, all parents would
have the opportunity to understand what
the plan is to alleviate as much stress
as possible for our students and I think
that's a really really important piece
um that we are
striving I see us striving to meet this
time frame um because we know this is
going to be stressful
for the community um but trying to give
people the information as quickly as
possible is going to be important and
continuing to focus on our our students
there. So, I appreciate us laying this
out for the community at the get-go.
Jason and then Dia,
um Rob for your really thoughtful work
on this. Um I just I just really, you
know, I think my colleagues have said
kind of where I stand on this as well,
which is, you know, looking at this
holistically kind of we can't afford to
wait. I mean, I think the alternative is
some of our neighboring districts that,
you know, overnight are closing schools.
And so I appreciate this, but I really
appreciate slide 13, which is kind of
what laying out what this process will
and won't do. And we're not guaranteeing
preservation of schools or delaying
action. And so um just appreciate you
laying that out in this presentation. So
thank you.
Uh to echo a little bit of what Jason
said, I think that the um the timeline
is important
and it's important to point out what a
contrast it is to yes, what our
neighboring districts will sometimes do,
put out put out um announcements of
what's going to happen without input. I
so appreciate the long timeline that we
get to process and figure out what the
best plan is over time. And because of
the way our world is working right now
where people are thrusting decisions
upon us regularly, we probably will feel
like it's incredibly slow. So, let's
keep that in mind that it's slow for a
reason so we can process and get gather
all the information and ease into um
decisions that are best for our kids.
And um I'm so appreciative of this uh
long planning timeline. Thank you.
Speaking into the timeline,
I think we the I appreciate the staff
striking that balance between
not too long. We've heard from our
community that there's some sense of
feeling like schools are in purgatory
waiting to see what's going to happen
and then also allowing the time for
really that really important community
engagement perspective taking. So I
think we did strike a very good balance
in this timeline. I will also say it is
going to be an exceptional amount of
work for staff and so for the community
it's going to feel like this is taking a
while and for staff it is going to be
feeling like a they're sprinting every
day to to do this work. And so I think
we struck the right balance and and it
is going to take time and effort.
One thing I've heard a lot about over
the years in relationship to declining
enrollment is how unpredictable these
conditions have created. how much
unpredictability schools now have. One
year a mixed age classroom, one year,
two rounds of second grade, one year,
one. It's staffing coming in and out
because you can't guarantee the same
specialist teachers. We're stitching
together FTE to make our our employees
whole.
I hope at the end of this the vast
majority of our schools have a high
degree of predictability around class
size, around staffing, around all the
great opportunities that our schools
when they were bigger consistently
offered things like math olympiad and
spelling be and go and battle of the
books. all of the fun things that are
harder to do when you have less staff to
support schools, consistent full-time
librarians, counselors, we heard from
the DACK, like these things are
incredibly important to schools,
interventionists, all of it's harder to
do when we have smaller schools. And so
for me, I think a lot about what kind of
positive experiences once we're through
this phase of change our students are
really going to have. And I keep leaning
into that. My kids had the good fortune
of attending schools that were three
rounds, had all of the stuff.
It's hard when you don't have all the
stuff and all the supports. And it's
really hard on our staff trying really
hard to like it's like the Wizard of Oz,
the man behind the behind the curtain
trying to make it be amazing for our
students and they're doing an awesome
job and I really wish they didn't have
to work that hard to do it. So I think
through the end of this my hope is the
outcome is positive. It is really
predictable. It's what's right for our
students. It's what's right for our
staff. It's what's right for our
taxpayer dollars in what is an
incredibly challenging fiscal
environment. So those are my big goals
um with this process and I hope to have
our community there with us. The other
thing that we hear a lot about is how
not nice our facilities are. And I keep
thinking to myself, man, what if we had
that same amount of facility dollars to
be spread around fewer schools? Could
they look better? That might be really
awesome. So, I think there are some
positives.
I'm trying to think about that in terms
of the student experience and
understanding that it is going to be a
challenge.
When we met with our delegation today,
we were offered condolences when we
mentioned that we are going to be
addressing this topic tonight.
When school districts do this
nationwide, it often results in change
of leadership at the board level, at the
superintendent level because it is
challenging and it is really hard. And
so kudos to the board and to our
district leaders to be willing to take
this on knowing that it's the right
thing for students and knowing the
potential personal cost. Like we really
are here to do what's best for students
and what's best for our community.
So with that um I look forward to these
conversations. I'm excited to be in the
schools. I signed up I'm going to be in
a school this week to have one of the
first round table discussions that I get
to participate in. And it is going to be
a very big listening tour for all of us.
And I look forward to the opportunities
ability to engage when that time comes
up with their communities in ways that
are really meaningful and ways which
trade-offs can be explored like you
said. Um
I think we have a good plan. It's
setting us up for success as much as
possible. So thank you for that.
Any other comments board members?
Seeing as there are none, um I would
like to call a fivem minute comfort
break before we carry on with other
information items. Rob Price and team,
thank you so much for this presentation
today and over the years. We will take a
short break.
Welcome back everyone. We are still on
the information item portion of
tonight's agenda. The second information
item is recommendation for dismissal.
Kathleen, any words on this?
No. Board members, this is an
information item because this is the way
that section of statute operates. The
board's just taking notice tonight.
Thank you. Our next information item
then is our legislative update. We've
heard a little bit about that already
tonight, but Dr. Anderson, would you
like to kick off that topic?
Uh, thank you, Bo President Raj Paul.
Again, thanks to our delegation who
showed showed up in force uh early this
morning um outside the capital for
breakfast with us. Our legislative
priorities, I think that our our
delegation was incredibly uh supportive.
Um our big um priorities here is to try
to um
band together with other school
districts to stop this effort to um to
take the specific ownership taxes um and
put that into the local share as opposed
to dollars that come directly to the
district. Again, if if this moves
forward, it's a $6.5 million hit to the
district budget. Uh we can't have that.
And so our delegation was um we we made
sure that they understood that. Uh we
talked to them about our declining
enrollment and let them know the process
that we would be going through uh and
making sure that if if our local um
elected officials begin to get engaged
in this process to drive that back to
the school district. As a reminder, um
local elected officials will not have
any authority over these decisions.
These decisions will sit with the school
district and the school board. Um and so
talked to them about that, talked about
um some deregulation around school age
care. Um as it stands today, because we
aren't able to use our facilities to
their maximum capacities, we have to
decline parents who really could use
before and after care in our schools.
It's a service we'd love to provide if
we were able to use our facilities, but
because of regulations and um some of
that's owned by CDE, some of that's
owned by Cdeck, but there's a bill
that's going to be moving forward that
we support that would deregulate some of
those things, you know, it's simp it's
silly things like during the day the
kids can use the program, the our
playground equipment, but then when they
go to afterare, they can't use it.
It just doesn't make any sense. Um, and
then just some additional uh asks in
terms of preschool and making sure that
we empower our families to choose BBSD
and not have to go to Bridge Care to um
hopefully get into their local school um
through some kind of lottery process
when we have seats and we want folks to
enroll. Uh again, thanks to our
delegation uh for showing up and thanks
they have tough task board members and I
think that you all understand that uh
the budget's going to be tight. Uh but
we knew school finance was going to be
tight three years ago when we lobbied
very much by ourselves against this
school finance act that was supposed to
create all this equity across Colorado.
And now what it's doing is it's it's
showing that they never had the money to
do it in the first place and now they're
trying to find ways whether it's
averaging the way you count kids now
it's this um SOTS. Uh so again we just
hope our delegation stands by us and and
make sure that that we band together to
protect K12.
Thanks for that Dr. Anderson. Board
members any questions or comments?
The other thing I'd like to add just for
the public, we talked about this morning
is that with the current state of the
state budget, a lot of legislators
legislators are being asked to pass
bills that have a 0 fiscal note. And one
thing we're paying very close attention
to is are they trying to pass bills that
would add
time or
financial burdens on our on us as a
school district. So, while it might cost
zero dollars to the state, might they
make a decision that costs us time or
costs us money? So, we're being really
careful about that. We've asked our
delegation to be very careful. Dr. said,
um, you know, just say no when it comes
to a bill that has a fiscal note that
negatively impacts us, which conjures up
things from, you know, the 90s and the
80s. And then just say yes to bills that
really do help us out in this
challenging time.
question in favor I have is Dr. An was
just leaping through our packet. If we
could attach either to today's agenda or
this morning's agenda those documents
for public that might be interested in
and for our delegation to reference back
and for board members to have that kind
of in our record that would be lovely.
Anything else?
Okay, seeing as there are no there's no
further discussion we'll move on to
action items. Consent grouping 8.1
Personnel items 8.2 approval of minutes
January 13th 2026 8.3 approval of
minutes January 20th 2026 8.4 Board
member reimbursement 8.5 approval of
contract with Alpine roofing 8.6
rescheduling of February 26 and March 20
sorry February 2026 and March 26 regular
meetings 8.7 resolutions 26-02 through
266-05
the 202526 revised budget 8.8 Nate grant
Arapo Ridge Ess-
CDE. Are there any items board members
would like to pull from consent
grouping?
Seeing as there are not, is there a
motion to approve the items on consent?
Moved by Lenia, seconded by Anna.
Board members, any discussion on those
items?
Anybody viewing from home?
Nothing here.
Just want to thank the team. Revised
budget looks great. Happy to sign that
over. Um, one of the, you know, jobs we
have to do is manage our money well and
our team continues to do that an
excellent job of that. Seeing as there's
no further discussion, Laura, can you
please call the vote on consent
grouping?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Rajpaw,
yes.
Tamuadi,
yes. Hunger,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next item on tonight's agenda is policy
study items. We have several policies to
study this evening. All of which are in
our D chapter. For folks in the audience
and at home, our D chapter covers our
finances. Very exciting. I'll turn it
over to Kathleen Sullivan to walk us
through these policies.
Thank you, board president Rajpaw. As
you mentioned, the board has been
working through its policy maintenance
review calendar with the intent to make
sure every policy gets refreshed and
reviewed at least every 5 years. We have
been making our way through the D
policies. You have already acted upon
six. We have six more in front of you
for study tonight. And at our next
meeting, we will finish with the last
five uh study of the last five D
policies.
Um tonight, the six that we're starting
with are primarily around the budget and
around um the way that we maintain and
reference the financials of the school
district. As the board is aware, this is
an area that is highly regulated at both
the state and the federal level. I think
when you look at these policies, most of
them were last reviewed in 2009
and what we see is sort of globally an
awful lot of detail
that can would constrain potentially
your staff from being able to make uh
timely and reasonable fiscal decisions.
So the overall effort here is to reduce
some of that technical detail reference
the existing laws that really establish
that governing structure.
So with that background I would start
with DB. This is the annual budget
policy.
this uh the updates that you see, there
aren't very many of them, is really just
trying to align it with the board's
policy style book and make sure that
those legal references are current.
We're doing away with things like the
notes that accompany policy that don't
really provide any additional
explanation for the public. Instead,
we're just moving the reference to the
state board rules and their financial
policies and procedures handbook, which
really does dictate much of what the
school district has to do um regarding
its budget.
Thank you for that overview on board
policy DB.
Board members, any questions or thoughts
on changes to that policy?
Jorge and Alex, there's a lot of nodding
of no, so if you want to chime in, now
is your chance before we move on.
No additional comments.
Me neither.
So moving on to DBJ then. This also
budget transfers was a very technical
and specific document that has
unnecessary detail that we are proposing
that the concepts and the legal
references be incorporated into policy
DB that we just discussed and that this
item be struck.
Board members, any questions?
I didn't see anything moving forward
into policy DB from this one. Do you did
we just find that there wasn't anything
worth saving?
Um, sort of. We did find one line um
that we think that we may pull over and
put into DB when the board uh looks at
this the next time. There's one line
that uh our CFO Bill Sutter recommends
that we pull over. And this was feedback
that Bill was timely with, but I wasn't
necessarily in responding, so you'll see
it in your next meeting. Um, and that
the one sentence that we would talk
about is that unencumbered monies shall
not be transferred from one fund to
another unless authorized by a board
resolution. So that would be the one
sentence that you'll see reflected in
DB.
That is a good sentence to transfer
over.
Um, and board members, none of these
policies are required for us. Just as a
item to note, they're not required by
state law or CASBY or because so much of
the language is within the law itself.
So that's exactly correct about this
really this entire chapter of policy.
Yeah.
Okay, next policy.
So then the next policy is DFA. This is
the cash management and investment
policy. This is a sevenpage policy with
lots and lots of detail. As the board
knows, I think that when you start
getting to seven pages, it's really hard
for our staff to stay attuned to all the
details that may reside in a seven-page
policy. So unless it's specifically
required by law or necessary, it just
generally isn't a great practice. So we
have substantially reduced um this one
to align with law and regulations.
And that's what I have to say about
policy DFA.
Board members, any questions or comments
on DFA?
hearing none. Let's carry on.
Moving on to board policy DG. This is
the banking services depository of funds
and authorized services uh authorized
signatures policy which is funny because
it's really never included authorized
signatures. So I think the title was a
mismatch for quite a while. um this
policy candidly, we are taking out a lot
of the information that's just not
necessary or doesn't reflect modern
times. There aren't a lot of checks,
paper checks that get handed around in
this digital age. I do think on this
one, um one of the comments that Bill
had to share with us is that the very
first sentence references an official
bank. This is CASBY's sample language,
but more sophisticated school districts
do sometimes use investment pools. So,
you will see a revision between this
study session and the next time you look
at this policy just to reflect uh the
recognition that we have throughout the
policies that investment pools that are
appropriate and have the correct
securities can can also be used.
That was actually a question I I was
going to bring up. Even like banks, we
diversify. So, I'm glad to see that's
addressed. One thing I noticed in this
policy is the word monies is spelled two
different ways.
Yes, it is. Thank you.
So, let's choose one. Stick with that
one. So, that was my second
comment on that policy. And then um in
the second to the last sentence there is
we state twice with requirements set
forth in state law under both um
oh sec sorry under
I see it
under the paragraph starting with
revenues. Yes. If
we could just
I like the the new language added in
that green section but we can just make
that sentence read a little bit easier.
Yes. Thank you
board members. Any thoughts, questions
on this policy.
Okay, we will
move on to Die.
So, the final two policies we'll look at
tonight are really related. We have the
audits policy, which I love that its
file name is DIIE because
numbers and audits is not my strength.
So, I'm really grateful we've got Bill
here. So, this die policy on audits, we
really just had one update. So, the
language currently says that the board
needs to issue an RFP at least once
every 5 years looking for auditors. And
this is perhaps other people feel like I
do. There are not an abundance of
auditors out there. Um, it may not be
prudent or practical to issue a
full-blown RFP every year, but it's
certainly something that the board has
the discretion to determine that you
want to do. So, the suggestion here is
just to say that the board shall review
whether to issue an RFP rather than to
formally require it.
That makes sense. Board members,
questions, comments?
I have a couple on this one. I was
looking at the CASBY example policy and
there's a sentence that might be
worthwhile to entertain that says within
30 days after the board receives the
audit, it shall be submitted to the
state auditor and the state commissioner
of education. Is it that a requirement
that 30 days or is it not a requirement?
Because if it's not, I don't want it in
there, but it was very specific and it
caught my eye.
Yeah, it's not a requirement. And our
policy has this December 31st date, but
let me let me look at that and make
sure. I did look at it when I was
updating this policy to make sure that
the December 31st date that was here
would work, but let me take a look at
that again.
Okay. And then the other question I had
is um the CASBY example outlines a lot
of required inclusions in the audit. I
don't necessarily know that they are
helpful and again they're not required,
but I also wonder is there a way
that we can make sure board members and
the public know what's expected of an
audit that's not living in this policy.
I I just have that
that wondering
we could use something like in DB in the
budget policy where we have a sentence
that says it's going to follow the
generally accepted accounting principles
of we could look at referencing that
sort of professional standard regarding
the audit.
Okay, that'd be great.
And then the final policy that the board
is studying tonight is the audit
committee and we have refreshed this
language just a little bit. Um I wonder
also the one the one question I would
really have for the board is that the
audit committee is a board advisory
committee. The rest of the board's
advisory committees are referenced in
the B chapter of policies and they're
all together as a group that are coded
with BDF. So, this was something that I
didn't make a recommendation on at this
point, but I wonder if it might be more
efficient to have a cross reference to
the audit policy, leave that in the D
chapter, but move the board advisory
committee to the B chapter with an
appropriate code so that it stays with
the other like policies.
That was a question I had as well in
part because when I was getting through
through the list of committees for us to
choose from during priorization, I had
to hunt for this one because it's not
with all the other ones. Um, so I was
wondering that makes sense to me. I know
that's not where CASBY keeps it and
that's why it's probably titled as it
is, but I think for our community to
understand what our board advisory
committees are and how they are
different than superintendent advisory
ones, having this in the B in our B
chapter would make sense. board members
nodding. So I think that recoding would
be great.
One point I noticed in this policy is
that in the bullets it talks about
quarterly financial reports and then it
talks about meeting three times. I just
the committee meets three times but they
receive reports four times a year and it
it I'm just wondering in practice
how how does that math work?
Well, and candidly, uh, our audit
committee is a very dedicated, diligent
group of humans, and we will want to
take this policy. I brought it to the
board first because it's a board policy.
But I do think it makes sense to take
both the audit policy and the audit
committee policy to the actual audit
committee so we can make sure that it
connects on issues like that that really
boil down to practice.
Lenia,
I also wanted to point out in practice
um the community member
it this isn't what we do in practice and
so it's okay for it to be different but
just be sure that uh we correct it to
the way that we are currently doing it.
And do you mean the terms or Yeah, the
the term the term and I I myself would
be in favor of a longer term for the
community member, but that's neither
here nor there. I'm sure that somebody
else can have an opinion about that. I
just we certainly are not adhering to
this. Well, and I wonder if it's like
when we talked about the LRACK, I think
it was the LLR
committee and we said the terms are this
long, but there's no limit to how many
terms one can serve because we
understand how challenging it can be to
find folks with very specific knowledge.
So maybe that's a sentence that we could
entertain and you could bring forth to
the audit committee that the term is two
years but they are renewable.
We should use the term smart here.
as a long-standing audit committee
member. Yes,
Bob Smart would find that hilarious.
Any other comments on this audit
committee policy
hearing? None. That wraps up policy
study for this evening.
continue to make our way through our
target of 20 policies a quarter. Thanks
to Chris and Kathleen for keeping us all
on track.
Final item of tonight's Oh, no, it's
not. Gosh. The next item tonight is
future agenda requests. Board members,
at this time
we can bring up items um you would like
to include during the next board
priorization meeting. Board members, are
there any items?
I have one
came from. We all received a me email
from the community about
how old our board policies.
I'm going to find them. Just one second.
It's about employee gift amounts. Oh,
GBEC,
which was codified and last touched in
1979, and GBEC-R,
which is a little bit sooner, but it
relates to employee gifts. So, as we're
making our way through, I just want to
elevate those because
times have changed.
Anything else, board members?
Seeing as there are no additional items
to add to our list, we will move on to
what is actually the final item tonight,
the executive session. As indicated on
tonight's agenda, we the school board
has issues to discuss in executive
session. Is there a motion?
Lenia? I Lenia Quinnlanda make a motion
pursuant to CRS24-6-424B
to receive legal advice on the most
recent bond measure. Is there a second?
Seconded by Anna
Laura, can you please call the vote on
that?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tamuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes. Board members, we will
convene in Glacier Room to the public
here tonight viewing at home. This
concludes the rest of our business for
the regular business for the evening and
we will be adjourning from executive
session. Thank you and good night.