I would like to call to order this
regular meeting of the Boulder Valley
School District Board of Education for
Tuesday, June 9th, 2026. Board members
may attend and participate in our
meetings electronically in accordance
with board policy BME and state law.
At this time, Laura, can you please call
the role?
>> Booker
>> here.
>> Chavez
>> here.
>> Medler
>> here.
>> Quintona
>> here.
>> Raj Paul
>> here.
>> Tamui
>> here.
>> Hunger.
>> Thank you.
>> Encourage everyone to turn their
attention to the screens for our land
acknowledgement this evening.
The Boulder Valley School District
resides and operates on land that is the
ancestral homeland and unjustly and
illegally taken territory of the Ute,
Pueblin, Arapo, Cheyenne, Apache,
Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations
historically tied to this land who have
called this land home since time and
memorial. 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. We're
glad to have you observe and participate
in our meetings. At this time, is there
a motion to approve tonight's agenda?
Moved by Anna, seconded by Jorge. Laura,
could you please call the role?
>> Booker,
>> yes.
>> Chavez,
>> yes.
>> Medler,
>> yes.
>> Quinna,
>> yes.
>> Raj Paul,
>> yes.
>> Teni,
>> yes. Motion passes.
First item on our agenda tonight this
evening is public participation. The
board respects the rights of the public
to speak on matters concerning the
operation of our schools. The board does
not endorse the comments of individual
participants and remind all those who
speak that you're responsible for
ensuring your marks are suitable for an
audience that includes kindergarten
through 12th graders. Furthermore, this
is an opportunity for the board to hear
from our constituents. It's not a time
for the board to engage with or react to
speaker remarks. Speakers will each have
two minutes to speak. You will see a
yellow card when you have 30 seconds
remaining and an orange card when you
have 10 seconds remaining. If you run
out of time or would like to share
additional information, you may always
email the board. Board members, tonight
we just have one person for public
participation, and that is David
Stewart.
>> Can you make sure you
good Good evening everyone. Tonight uh
you will vote on ratification of the BVA
BBSD negotiated agreement. As I told you
last year, BVA's focus was to make good
on our pledge to find a path forward
when both sides felt the stressors of
time and the temptation to stake out
one-sided interests.
And we upheld the demands of the process
of consensus
that each topic be evaluated on its own
merit.
And so we see what is possible when we
engage deeply with each other to address
the problems that we face. BVA
recognizes the time and energy put forth
by BBSD staff to do this work properly
and we are grateful to have a partner
who has demonstrated a commitment to the
process.
On another note,
I'm here to assign you your summer
reading.
This year marks the 250th anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence.
That document binds Americans in a
common identity and a promise of
equality before the law.
For many, it's a controversial document,
betraying itself with contradictory
slights and exclusions,
even as it purports to lay out the
foundations of a just society.
It is not just a primary source
document. It is our primary source of
the meaning of the promise of America.
And it is certainly worthy of study and
deep consideration.
And to honor this anniversary, BVA
presents the entire board a copy of
Danielle Allen's work, Our Declaration,
which tells the story of her teaching to
both day students and night students at
the University of Chicago.
These distinct cohorts of students had
different reactions to the document
which prompted her to a close reading of
the declaration and led her to
reconsider what the original meaning of
the text held for the founders. We are
grateful to you all for your service to
our democracy. So let this book serve
not just as a token of appreciation for
your service, but a tribute to the de
democratic ideals that make your service
possible.
And I know I'm running out of time, so
we made bookmarks that invite you to
some academic uh they're called uh
civicmies
uh that's sponsored by us and family
learning center and the Coloradoatans
for the common good. And so that's all
in here. So, I'll stop talking, but I'm
going to pass out your reading now. If
you can help me, Lenia, because I only
have one arm.
>> Thank you, David.
>> Well, that concludes public comment for
this evening. David, on behalf of the
board, thank you for our summer reading
and thank you for working with the team
during negotiations.
We will now begin the work session
portion of tonight's agenda. We have one
one work session to topic to study,
which is declining enrollment community
engagement updates. I will turn it over
to Dr. Anderson for the introduction.
>> Thank you, board president Rajpal, board
members. Uh good evening. Thanks
everybody for joining us. Um it is June
9th and as many of us have been
anticipating for and waiting, we are
here to talk about um declining
enrollment, our community engagement
update, share some of the data that we
collected over the course of the past
semester and then um and then think
about what those next steps will be here
in our process. With us this evening,
Rob Prices and Superintendent of
Operations, Dr. Alzine is executive
director accountability evaluation and
our chief communications officer Randy
Barber and with that I'll turn it over
to Rob Price.
>> Dr. Anderson, thank you. Good evening,
President Rashbell, members of the
board. We're here tonight to provide the
board with an update on our community
engagement process as it relates to
declining enrollment. Uh this community
engage engagement process was launched
in January at the board's request to
connect with our community about
declining enrollment. How do we create
resilient schools in a time of sustained
declining enrollment? Uh the process is
the latest in our ongoing work on this
topic uh which began uh almost four
years ago. We're here to share the data
we collected tonight, the insights that
we've come from the various ways we've
engaged our community. And just as a
reminder, our aim throughout this
engagement was to ensure stakeholders
were informed, they were heard, and they
were meaningfully involved as we begin
shaping potential paths forward. And
that's the work we'll be doing this
summer. So, we're going to re just start
out. You've seen the first handful of
slides a number of times, but we're
going to continue to build that
background, that understanding for those
that might be tuning in for the first
time on this.
So, just want to take a few moments.
Declining enrollment, not a BBSD issue.
This is a statewide issue. This is an
issue that's happening across our
nation. Almost every school district, if
not all school districts surrounding
BBSD are dealing with the same thing. It
really comes down to a few demographic
trends that we're seeing. We're seeing
fewer bursts that relates to fewer
kindergarteners. Our population over the
age of 60 in Boulder Valley School
District is growing while our elementary
age population continues to decline.
Housing costs continue to drive families
to more affordable areas throughout the
state.
As we look at this graph, this shows our
enrollment trends from 2015 to 2025 and
really illustrates the reality of our
sustained decline. Over the last 10
years, really since 2017, our enrollment
has declined by 3,600 students. while
our portfolio of schools has remained
unchanged during that specific time.
When we look ahead over the next 5
years, we're uh projecting a decline of
about 1,700 students. As a reminder, our
community engagement over the last
several months is focused on the
elementary level and our K8 schools. And
that's where we see the most facility
and staffing impacts. And that's where
we're seeing the most significant impact
to the student experience.
We currently have over 4,800 open seats
and that's projected to grow to 5,100
open seats in the next 5 years. So, uh,
real consequences associated with those
numbers because we're continuing to vest
invest in, uh, underutilized space
throughout the district.
Our community engagement over the last
several months has been focused on three
areas and those areas are Broomfield,
Lewisville, and Superior and Boulder.
And that is where at least 50% or more
of our schools are at or below two
classes per grade level. And that was a
metric established by our long range
advisory committee when we're really
starting to see that impact to the
student and staff experience in our
schools.
The core impact as we all know it and
why we're having this discussion is
really on uh this the student
experience. And as enrollment declines,
as our schools get smaller, it becomes a
lot more difficult for us to provide the
thriving experience that we hope to
provide. And you've seen this slide a
number of times, but it really
illustrate the challenges as schools go
from three classes per grade level to
one class per grade level. This past
year, we started seeing more and more
multi-grade classrooms.
That is what we are seeing. By doing
nothing, we could expect a lot more
schools being over on the right side
struggling to meet our student needs
because we have less resources in our
schools based on the declining
enrollment.
Uh this slide illustrates that we've
been studying this work for four years
since 2022 when the board put together
the long range advisory committee. Uh we
have been studying enrollment trends,
developing med metrics, engaging our
community for the past four years,
updating board policies. uh we've been
in this phase of making it work and then
we looked at how can we increase
enrollment in this district and we've
really been focused on that with the
showcases changing attendance boundaries
the commuter preference etc and while
that has worked it hasn't addressed the
underlying demographic trends that we've
really been seeing uh here in in BBSD.
So, as noted early in our work, the long
range advisory committee developed
metrics and recommendations for the
board to consider. The committee also
provided these guiding principles and
other uh considerations just for you to
keep in mind. I'm going to read through
these, but equity and access should be
the heart of every recommendation or
decision in the enrollment context. Data
should play a significant role in
decision-making. decision should aim to
maximize efficient use of resources for
all students. Should be understood that
change is hard and that communities will
need to be supported through any
transition. Municipalities should be
included in conversations about closing
or consolidating schools. The facility
condition, the cost of modernize an
existing school to meet EDS specs uh
should be taken into consideration. And
then districtwide responses and
optimization of resource should also be
explored. uh when appropriate.
And then LRAK also wanted the board and
staff to keep in mind important
considerations related to transportation
maintenance, capital improvement needs
and factors related to our
sustainability goals as we move forward.
As a reminder, as we move into the
summer months, developing school
adjustment options, the four or I should
say, yeah, the four goals on the left
hand side will continue to frame the
work as we move forward. And then the
five school adjustment options that are
listed will be the options that we are
considering as we are working forward or
working towards uh the August date when
we bring this back to the board. And
just to make it clear, and I believe the
board board made this clear, allowing
schools to stay small is no longer an
option. And that's what we'll keep in
mind as we're moving forward. And with
that, I will turn it over to Randy
Barber. Thank you. Good evening, board
members. I'm uh very excited uh to come
back and give you an update in regards
to our engagement uh efforts. Uh as you
know, we've been very very busy over the
last six months uh connecting with our
community. And as we've discussed
before, we are dedicated to ensuring
stakeholders are informed, heard, and
meaningfully involved as we begin began
shaping the path forward. Uh this slide
uh shows uh uh illustrates the many ways
that we've connected with different
community stakeholders so far. Uh this
phase has been about uh listening first
and creating space for thoughtful
structured input that will help guide
the development of options for the board
to consider. Knowing that our educators
are the closest to the situation and the
student experience, we began first by
visiting their schools across the
district. Superintendent Anderson,
Deputy Superintendent De La Cruz, and
board members met with elementary school
principles, educators to and educators
to understand the uh and and to
understand and see the declining
enrollment uh the ways that it's
impacting uh the experiences of our
students and staff and hear the concerns
that they have and the hopes that they
have for the future. Uh we've also
engaged the district advisory committees
and we've made uh several presentations
to our municipalities in alignment with
the the goals that uh uh Mr. Bryce had
mentioned earlier.
In April uh we held six community
engagement sessions throughout our
district. Uh they were regionalized in
the areas that are uh to be impacted.
They were all well intended uh and folks
were highly engaged, very passionate in
their conversations. Um I I believe that
a quote from the Daily Camera really
captured the spirit of the effort.
parent said, uh, quote, "We know that
there will be that these will be tough
pills to swallow. Uh, it's important
that we're here. They're asking for the
community to think like a community."
And I really truly believe that that's
what happened in these events. Uh, they
came together. They considered their
priorities, the things that they they
wanted us to remember and to think about
through this process. And then as
groups, they really considered the
trade-offs and and the difficulties in
making these decisions uh that we were
facing as a community.
One of the things that uh we recognized
as we were going through this process is
that despite our best efforts to make
sure that these sessions were
accessible, including Spanish
communications prior, uh making sure
that our events had uh materials in
Spanish and interpretation and that we
convey that out to the community. We
didn't really get that many Spanish
speakers uh during these six events. So,
valuing their voices, we connected with
the principles uh and and our community
leaders in this area and uh we held a
couple additional sessions. uh one with
our uh Kappell uh group and then also
one at Coline Elementary in May uh right
before the end of school. Uh we wanted
to really make sure that we valued their
voices and understood what their needs
were and uh through that process. They
they really were um very strongly uh uh
thoughtful in regards to the fact that
they wanted it to be all in Spanish.
They wanted to make sure that it felt
like it was uh at home. So in a school
in an elementary school uh they're
comfortable with that kind of thing. Um
and um we feel uh that that that session
was very well attended as well.
Uh communications as we've discussed
before has been an important part of
this engagement process as well. Uh it's
important that we've been reaching out
uh in a variety of of ways. Uh but uh we
also wanted to make sure that they're
informed about the process and and the
uh the declining enrollment situation as
well. So, we've uh been sharing
information through a number of our ch
our avenues. Uh most importantly, our
declining uh impacts newsletter. As you
know, we launched that back in February,
and it's been a monthly drum beat really
helping to ensure that we're carrying
information that folks know uh that they
can count on that information to come.
Uh we've had letters from our
superintendent uh and uh and our board
president uh and really try to uh make
sure that we're keeping up with the
process. In fact, our next edition
should be coming out next week and we'll
have an update in regards to this board
meeting and the pro and the the the data
that we'll be presenting tonight.
Uh, as you also know, we presented a
number of live stream events. I think
it's important that we're not trying to
hit uh folks with just one way of
communicating and obviously written
format uh doesn't necessarily meet
everybody's needs. And so by having uh
these live streams, it was really a
great opportunity for us to to change
the format to have it in a
conversational for uh form. Uh something
that you really, you know, even to this
day, it's still good information that I
I would encourage people to to watch and
and listen to. Uh if you're walking the
dog or making dinner, it's not a bad
thing to just, you know, have that on
your phone and be listening to it. Uh
and I've included the the links. Uh it's
on BB22, so we're going to be playing
that throughout the summer on our TV
station. Uh we've also got it on YouTube
and it's available through our resilient
schools uh website as well. Uh and and
thank you for those that joined us in in
having those conversations. Uh it was it
was a I I think one of the important
things too is to mention is that we
really uh it was another feedback loop
for us. We were hearing from folks in
regards to their questions, their
concerns. Uh it really did open up
another window for that
uh throughout this entire process. So
again, a six-month engagement process.
uh we had a variety of ways that we were
engaging with folks as we've discussed
that started with those teacher roundt
uh feedback sessions uh principles uh we
had uh that let's talk show had a
questionnaire that we were gathering
feedback through uh the engagement
sessions as we discussed both in English
and Spanish and then finally we finished
up with the survey uh that we sent out
to both our employees and to our parents
uh to gather feedback uh we gathered a
lot of uh feedback a lot of thoughts
through this process and so I'm I'm very
proud now to hand it off to Dr. Jessica
Alzen Azine uh our executive director of
accountability and evaluation who had
the pleasure of taking all that data and
preparing it for tonight's presentation.
>> Before you hand it off, Randy, if board
members, if I may, um
first of all, our communications team,
our senior staff for the past five
months has made this our number one top
priority. And I know that you all uh
attended many of of the opportunities
whether it was the let's talks or the
community engagement sessions or our
community engagement session that we did
at Combine Elementary School. Um a
couple thoughts uh from from where I
sit. Number one, it's the deepest
community engagement we've done since
our strategic plan that we had more
opportunities to hear from more voices
uh than we've have in seven plus years.
And I thought that was it's appropriate.
That's the type of engagement I think
all school districts across the country
should be doing when you talk about
something as significant as school
reconfiguration, consolidation, and
closure. Um, and so that's the first
thing. The second thing is before you
start to look at the data, um, not only
did we just let people tell us what they
were thinking, we informed them of the
problem and we talked about what the
potential solutions were. So the quality
of the data that you'll see today, uh,
this is data from an informed community
and I think that just asking people
their opinions without the context and
without going through here's our
challenge, here's why we're doing this,
these are the things that we could do.
Um, I think that that's um, it's empty
feedback. You ask people, they will tell
you what they think, right? But having
an informed opinion on a problem that we
all share as a community is what you're
getting ready to see. And so I'm
incredibly proud of the work that we've
done here. Um I'm really thankful to our
senior team and for our principles and
everyone who pitched in to make sure
that our community was informed and we
heard them. Um and the data that you'll
see I think Dr. Azine will do a really
good job of telling a data story that
really triangulates the different
sources of information that we were able
to pull together to give you a really
clear picture in terms of kind of what
we heard as we went out over these past
five months. So with that I'll turn it
over to Dr. Aussie.
>> Actually before that board members any
questions or comments on this first
section before we get into the data? I
know we've seen these slides a lot but
we're good. I want to echo our community
really is informed and our team did a
great job of ensuring that's the case. I
continue to hear talking point like
people speaking back the information
that they heard when they're asking
questions or wondering like how was
what's the process? How's it how is it
continue to move along? So that is
commendable. Not often do you hear your
community really understanding the issue
whether or not they're going to like the
outcome different story but they do they
really understand the problem. So kudos
to the team for really clearly defining
that and taking all the time. I think it
will pay off in dividends and schools
districts around us are currently
talking about their additional school
closures and they are definitely taking
a different process than we did. And so
thanks to the team for for the path we
took. I think it will pay off. And the
other thing I just wanted to point out
um we talk about our projections. The
state demographers's office released
updates to the state the state um
demographics and through 2030 they are
predict predicting a continued decline
of 0 to 17 like we this problem for yeah
until 2030 there's continued declines
predicted in the number of stu student
age people living in this state and so
this um this is very timely and it's not
going away anytime soon. Yeah, Alex
>> also ditto. Uh, but I want to get into
the data, but I also want to say from
the conversations I've had in the
community, what the the depth of their
thinking really shows and it's it's not
that there's an answer that comes back.
There is a consideration of the issues
that you hear the community wrestling
with. just well we always have a super
impressive community and very engaged
folks but the fact that there we're we
have this shared problem and a shared
deeper understanding of it is really
testament to all your work and your
leadership and I think that puts us in a
much better position to have substantive
conversations focused on kids rather
than other stuff.
>> Thank you board members Dr. Anderson. Uh
as Dr. Anderson said, it's it's uh my
pleasure to be here to tell you a
coherent data story across all of these
different sources of data that we have
uh engaged in or gathered over the last
few months. Um before I jump into that
story, I want to make sure we're all on
the same page of where is this data
coming from. So uh as we just heard, we
had our teacher roundtables, we had our
community engagement sessions, and then
we had the resilient schools community
survey. So from all three of these uh
buckets or sources of data, we have both
qualitative and quantitative data coming
from hundreds if not thousands of
respondents.
Just to give a little bit more detail in
the numbers across each one of these
sources and the response rates that you
can see here at the round table
sessions, teachers had the opportunity
to provide their feedback about their
hopes and their fears, what's working,
what challenges they're experiencing uh
in a qualitative way and then also
ranking the shifts that they um hear are
options from the district actions. At
the community engagement sessions, we
have two sources of data. There are the
packets that participants completed
during the sessions as well as a
follow-up survey that happened afterward
and was offered via QR code. And then
finally, we had the resilient school
survey that was offered again to uh the
full census of our staff and our current
parent and guardian uh population. Uh in
addition to that, we had an outside
contractor offer the exact same survey
to a random sample of community members
not currently connected to the district.
So you can see here the different
response rates, the numbers, the counts.
Um we have over 6,000 collections of
data. Uh when we look at that at the
actual item level, this ended up being
about 76,000 bytes of data. Um so quite
a lot, a mountain of things to go
through if you can imagine. Uh so we
won't go into the details of the
methodology of how we moved through all
this but just as um a high level uh we
did use AI to help us move through that
qualitative data at a fast turnaround
pace for you all. Uh but for every one
of those qualitative data sources we
also had a team of humans do um an audit
on at least a subsample of that data
just to check for accuracy and look for
nuance make sure we felt good about the
summaries that I'm about to share with
you all.
So to start off with our data story, I'm
going to outline it from our
quantitative data and we're going to
start with the resilient schools
community survey. So just as a reminder,
that survey had three sections
essentially. It started off or the
majority of the survey was uh with this
this exercise that's referred to as max
diff. Um each respondent would see a
random sample of four priorities to
think about within declining enrollment.
And they were asked to choose what was
most and least important to them out of
that list of four. And that activity was
repeated nine times for each respondent.
And we heard from the community that
sometimes this felt frustrating and that
this felt really difficult. And we
wanted to just name and recognize that
that we we knew that going in. Uh we
chose the items that were on that list
because we heard that those were things
that were important to our stakeholders.
And um we wanted to have an activity
that would help us understand what was
the most important to the community. out
of these 12 things that uh our community
told us were important, did anything
rise to the top as the most important,
what we should be using as our north
star to kind of guide the decisions and
the conversations moving forward. And we
did get that from this part of the
survey. So what we see here are six of
the 12 priorities that were uh
identified as most or least important by
our respondents.
And these are the six that had the
highest probability of being chosen as
most important with small class sizes
being uh far and above having the
highest probability above everything
else. So small class sizes, equitable
funding, neighborhood proximity,
advanced academics, full-time art,
music, and PE at every school, and
full-time math and literacy specialists
at every school. These were the six that
had the highest probability of being
chosen as most important. After that
activity, respondents were then given
the full list of all 12 priorities and
they had the opportunity to pick up to
three that they named as most important
for themselves.
What we see here are the top three that
were chosen the most frequently by
respondents. So, small class sizes again
being the first uh most prominently
chosen, full-time art, music, and PE
staff at every school, and then
full-time math and literacy specialists.
Everything else was chosen uh 30% or
less across the respondents.
So in this activity, people were shown
priorities and they chose what was most
important to them. In a similar but a
little bit different activity at the
community engagement sessions, uh what
happened, one of the activities that
happened here is that people sat
together in tables, table groups. They
shared with each other, they learned
together about the challenges that
people experience in underenrolled
schools. And that activity uh was a
chance for people to talk about these
different challenges that occur in
underenrolled schools. And they worked
collaboratively to identify the
challenges that they thought most needed
to be addressed moving forward. So kind
of the same idea but from the other
other side of of the challenges that
we're facing here. So here the what we
see here are the five cards that were
chosen most frequently. These five were
chosen by more than half of the tables
across the community engagement
sessions. Everything else was chosen
less than half of the time. So here we
see limited small groupoup support,
multi-grade classrooms, limited access
to specials, part-time counselors, and
part-time instructional support. Now,
you remember I I mentioned we have these
three buckets of data. These two uh are
our quantitative data, and we're going
to kind of squint a little bit and
pretend that this qualitative data is
quantitative data so I can tell a
coherent story here. Uh at our round
tables, there were 30 of them. At almost
every round table, 90% of them, this
idea of small class sizes came up in the
conversation. And also at over half of
the round tables, the challenges of
part-time staff came up in the
conversation. So from our outline of our
data story here, we can already start to
see some patterns. first and foremost is
that issues related to small class size
are a top priority to our stakeholders
and across these different stakeholder
groups and across these different ways
that we solicited feedback from uh our
community. Um and we see that through
class-siz numbers as well as the ideas
of small group support and multi-grade
classrooms. A second theme that came up
pretty prominently here is this idea of
comprehensive and full-time staff.
survey respondents identified wanting
full-time specials, full-time
specialists, uh, and advanced academics
at every campus being of high priority.
We see limited access to specials and
part-time staff as a challenge that the
community engagement session data says
this is important. We need this to be
addressed. And then finally, staff
mentioning um staff part-time staff
challenges being a problem across the uh
roundt discussions.
One more p oh and then lastly uh
equitable funding and neighborhood
proximity also came up here um across
this quantitative data.
One more piece of quantitative data uh
at the community engagement sessions and
at the roundts people were asked to uh
rank or provide feedback on the
different shifts that the district might
make in response to declining
enrollment. In both the community
engagement sessions and the roundts
consolidating schools was the most
favorable choice. uh at the community
engagement sessions this was 64% of
respondents either agreed or strongly
agreed with the statement that
consolidating schools is a move in the
right direction to solve the challenges
of underenrolled schools. And then at
the teacher roundtables, over half of
the teachers who provided a ranking uh
identified consolidating schools as
their number one choice for what
decisions might be made going forward,
followed next by closing schools and
lastly by grade reconfiguration.
>> Dr. Aine, can you go back to slide 22? I
would just like to make a point for the
board and for the public. Um Dr. Azine
talked about this importance of the max
diff and and the frustration that I
think some folks felt uh that activity
replicates what we're going to be trying
to do right where it is a tradeoff
amongst things that you may think are
all important but you have to decide to
to what extent is something the most and
least important of things you might
consider all having a level of
importance right and so uh And then we
gave them an opportunity to say, okay,
if you can make a top three list, make a
top three list. So then they gave were
given that opportunity. And then the
other piece of data on the right is
where you had to think through this with
a group of your neighbors and peers and
friends or strangers who have kids in
the district that may be um like your
kids or not like your kids or they might
live in your community or not in your
community. Um and so and then ultimately
these conversations with teachers were
so deep. So I just would you know the
variety of ways in which we asked
similar questions I think that it was
just a really great design. So I just
wanted to highlight that before we move
on that we asked people in you know
similar questions in a variety of way it
wasn't just one survey with endless
amounts of of uh opportunities to click
what you wanted. Right? when we sent out
the surveys, they they were um everybody
got one survey and we had a way to track
that through um to knowing and
understanding that folks didn't get more
than one opportunity. So, there was some
real quality control and design
intentionality in how we how we went
about collecting the data. I just wanted
to to thank Dr. Azine and make that
point.
Um, one last point that I want to make
here before moving forward because we'll
come back is that at the community
engagement sessions we have
consolidating schools as number one with
the 64% of uh agree strongly agree. The
second choice um after that one was the
reconfiguration of K8 schools with a 43%
of respondents saying uh agree or
strongly agree and we'll come back to
that when we get to the qualitative data
because there's some nuance with that.
Okay. So now we're going to shift to our
quantitative data kind of tells us what
our community uh named as most important
and we're going to use our qualitative
data to tell us more about why and we're
fleshing out our story a little bit
here. So, we're going to talk through
these same themes that we just saw,
class size and instructional complexity,
comprehensive full-time staff, talking
about that both in the context of
special education as well as whole child
support and staffing stability. And then
equitable funding and walkability in
neighborhood schools. And you'll see
number five here, varied school models.
We didn't talk about that in the
quantitative data because it didn't come
up in the quantitative data. Uh but it
came up as a strong enough theme through
the qualitative that we felt it was
important to name it. Um, and in our
story outline as well as we kind of
pivot to the qualitative data, I'll do
my best to give you some sort of
quantification of how uh prevalent a
theme was or how much something came up
through that data. Um, as well as uh
wanting to make sure that you're hearing
some quotes from across the data
sources, knowing that all of these
themes were presented from across the
spectrum of stakeholders. So none of
these themes are here because only
families brought it up or because only
staff brought it up. All of these themes
are up here because across the data we
saw this being important to people in
our community. Dr. Heline, can you
remind us this qualitative data is
coming primarily from the roundts in the
community engagement sessions. Correct.
Because the survey didn't ask
questions that would require open-ended
feedback, right? That was more of a
forced ranking. The third part of the
survey that I forgot to mention earlier
was that there was one open-ended survey
item and so a lot of the data is going
to come from that too.
>> So all the qualitative data is from
three those three big buckets of
information. Great. Thank you.
>> Uhhuh.
>> Okay. So first this idea of class size.
As we've already seen this is a top
priority um across the stakeholder
groups. This was the single most
prevalent theme in the open-ended
responses on the survey. It appeared in
hundreds of responses across staff and
families. It was present in nearly every
roundt conversation. Uh an example from
the staff survey is quote large class
sizes are by far our biggest concern.
However, something that came up that's
really important to think alongside of
this is it's not just numbers. There's a
call to redefine the idea of capacity.
That class size isn't just the number of
desks in the room, but it's also
thinking about the complexity of the
people in that room. So staff across the
roundts argued that post-pandemic
behaviors, neurodiversity, social
emotional support, and language needs u
make a class of 25 feel like a class of
40. So a quote from a creekide teacher
at the round table, class size and
classroom capacity are not the same
thing. 30 independent kids is very
different than 30 kids with multiple
IEPs, behavior plans, and needs for
support.
>> Next, can I ask a question um about
class size? having attended the roundts
and the community engagement sessions,
class size was never def small class
size I don't recall ever being defined
and I wonder if we can speak to um how
how staff and how the board and how the
community might want to think about what
what that small class sizes or a smaller
class size means um or might potentially
mean moving forward given the
redefinition of capacity and also
because it was never defined at the
outset. that. So people might have very
different ideas of what that means for
them.
I would say uh my interpretation um
having been to most of the roundts and
all of the sessions uh yes we didn't say
small class size is x number of students
I do feel like though that there is
pretty broad consensus that the
thresholds that we have now are too high
and so to the extent that that that
would be the starting place and trying
to reduce those thresholds is how I
would interpret um what it is that folks
have said and and I don't know that
there's a
um standard or benchmark on what a small
class size for a public school district
is. Um and so I think that that the way
that I'm interpreting this after hearing
this is that uh it is smaller than where
we are today and it's a a combination of
number of kids plus their needs is the
thing to really be thinking about. Uh
and to the to the quote from the teacher
at Creekide and as a reminder board,
we've we've done some work in this area
before where we've allotted extra
resources post pandemic to bring down
class sizes based on number and need.
And so I think that really resonated at
that point in time and I think the
teacher um teachers were referencing
that as we were going through our
roundts. And so uh but not a not not a
hard number. We didn't say small class
sizes equals X, but I do think that
people are responding to the thresholds
that we have right now.
>> Yeah. And like how it feels to be in
classrooms and different complexities of
needs. Uh I just wanted to emphas
elevate that because as with declining
enrollment, we've seen really wonky
shifts in class sizes. Some class sizes
are pushing upper thresholds. Some class
sizes happen to actually be small. So
class like
we'll get hopefully we will eventually
get to somewhere that feels smaller than
our thresholds defined that we have
defined but it might shake out
differently depending on the school and
the grade and the like the present
experience
after we come work through closures and
consolidations. So, um, thank you for
elevating that. And I know a long time
ago when the district accountability
committee used to bring this up as a top
priority, we were able to easily like
Bill had this magic number. He'd say,
well, to decrease the class by one
person, it was x amount of dollars back
in the day. And I know that those
numbers change depending on all kinds of
things. Uh, but it um, inevitably as we
continue to work through this, that will
come into play at some point as well.
Alex and then did I see
Alex?
>> Yeah, I wanted to follow up on that too
because uh in particular I heard this in
the classroom or in the school roundts
was an understanding of the volatility
in the class size being hard for the
schools that go up and down. And then to
our concern about equitable funding, the
idea that the small school that only has
one classroom of 30 of 29 kids gets two
more and suddenly they have two 16s
feels like we've just invested another
full salary into the school that didn't
have it. Whereas a school that was
always at 29 and had three rounds of 29
uh got four more kids and didn't get
another dime. So the two kids in an
underenrolled school are hugely
impactful financially and get more
investment. two kids in a very impacted
school with lots of poverty but high and
three classrooms don't lead to any more
resources. And so that was an equity
implication uh that both sides uh the
people that didn't get the 16s were
frustrated and the people that were
dealing with the volatility of last
minute hires were like hey these people
are in for a year we can't guarantee
them a job the next year when it goes
back down and it's all bad and they
haven't had a chance to be incorporated
into the culture. So I think class size
is one of those things like yeah
unaffordable to actually in bulk bring
it down and the changes will lead to
more consistency and more rationality
and more equity but not a rapid big
reduction in our class sizes without us
finding another half billion dollars or
something.
>> Deian,
>> I would uh back up Alex's um observation
on that. A lot of the tables that I
listened to, they were very concerned
about there was one class of third
graders that had 13 kids and another one
that had 28. And so they were it was
about relative smallalness like
shouldn't we have the equal number um to
each other. So I don't think that it was
really saying they wanted extra small
classes. Of course they probably do, but
um it was about the equity issue for
sure.
And and just to to to wrap this up so
Dr. Aine can continue, you know, the
more school sites that you have, the
more volatile class sizes are going to
be, right? You know, the more rounds you
have in a school, the easier it is to
balance those those numbers out in ways
where you don't have two 13s or one, you
know, two 15s or 130. Uh you can spread
that out over over uh multiple classes.
Okay. Uh next we have the idea of
comprehensive full-time staff and uh
first talking about this in the uh
context of special education. So, um,
cuts to sped programming, unmanageable
case loads, and similar comments were
explicitly mentioned in over 200 of the
open-ended survey items. Um, which was
about 5% of the sample. And then in
about 10% of the community engagement
packets, this idea came up as well. U,
this idea being that um, sustainable
case loads are are a priority, that
staff needs to be moved from stretched
thin to fully supported. So, a quote
from the survey staff. So many more
students are coming to BBSD with IEPs.
Our sped programs are sometimes
stretched thin and have high case loads.
We need additional resources so that all
case managers have the staff and
resources to meet the needs of the
students and their schools. And then
similarly from a parent or guardian
survey, teachers are overburdened with
demands to manage neurodeiverse students
and every student suffers due to lack of
sufficient support.
In addition, we had a lot of comments
about um comprehensive
full-time staff when thinking about uh
whole child support and staffing
stability. So, this was again hundreds
of mentions in the open-ended comments
regarding full-time counselors,
specials, teachers, gifted and talented
support and special education staff. Uh
this was the most frequent request at
the teacher roundts was the elimination
of shared or fractional or 0.5 FTE rules
in favor of full-time dedicated
professionals in every building
including counselors, specials,
teachers, interventionists and
librarians. Uh so it's this idea that
teachers need a consistent daily support
team to meet increasing student needs
and that uh relying on shared or
part-time roles compromises the
continuity of the student experience. A
quote from a staff survey. So many
students need intensive literacy and
math interventions that teachers simply
cannot provide on their own effectively
with fidelity. And then a comment from
the flat irons roundt. Part-time
support, counseling, resource, gifted
and talented specials, etc. does not
work. Working as a classroom teacher
without a team is not sustainable.
Next is this idea of equitable funding.
Uh so we didn't see equitable funding
come up in the top three musthaves when
we looked at the full survey population.
Uh but that did rise to the top of um
top three list for both staff as well as
the community. Uh this was also came up
in dozens of uh open-ended responses was
this idea of equity based equity based
funding. So a call for differentiated
funding uh to ensure that resources
follow student needs. So, a quote from
the Ryan Roundt, when funding is
diverted to maintain small schools
rather than being allocated based on
student need, it limits our ability to
provide the level of support our
students require to be successful. From
a staff survey, I strongly believe we
need differentiated funding, additional
interventionists, paras, sped, behavior
support, mental health advocates, and
smaller class sizes to support the
school populations with highest needs.
uh finances came up in a couple of other
ways. So, there were dozens of people
who uh made comments about there being
cuts from the top, calling for central
admin reductions before any cuts
happened at the school level. A quote
from this uh family survey, I believe
that BBSD is topheavy and needs to make
cuts centrally. And then finally, there
were also dozens of comments uh talking
about asset preservation, just really
noting that buildings are long-term
assets and stakeholders warned against
selling property. This was concern about
what would happen to buildings that BVSD
lost control over. Uh concern about as
demographics shift moving forward in
time and the difficulty of uh uh
regaining real estate in this area.
Next, walkability and neighborhood
schools. Uh this was named in over a
hundred uh almost 200 of the community
engagement packets. It was also hundreds
of open-ended survey responses where
people uh were just naming the cultural
loss in the shift from biking and
walking to school to drive to school
instead. This is seen as a loss to
community identity. Um and there's also
uh a lot of comment about the civic
commitment that walkable access is
defended as a core value for pedestrian
safety and environmental health. So this
is a quote from the post community
engagement survey. Many of our
elementary and K8 schools are central to
the fabric of our communities. Children
and parents walk or bike to school,
families bond with neighbors, and
teachers and staff are an important part
of the neighborhood. This is a rare and
valuable dynamic.
And then lastly, this theme of uh varied
school models that again we didn't see
in the quantitative data, but it came up
in the qualitative data. Um about 80 of
the community engagement packets named
it. Um, hundreds of open-ended survey
responses again uh naming different
models, different programs, STEM and
STEAM, arts integration, Monasuri, IB,
dyslexia, special ed programming, twice
exceptional, advanced and gifted
programming, and dual language schools
uh were all named as important and
needed and valued. So this idea of
educational diversity uh are essential
to meeting unique learning styles and
student interests and uh that that these
offerings provide a competitive
advantage that our focus programs serve
as a pull factor for family recruitment
and retention. So a quote from a staff
survey because children learn
differently it's important to keep a
plethora of models making it easier to
select a school that can best
accommodate your child's learning style
and needs. And then a quote from the fam
a family survey. Traditional
neighborhood schools are wonderful, but
families also need the option of
additional focus schools to represent
values and curriculum they find
important. I believe we need both
schools. It's not an eitheror choice.
So that uh kind of fills out these key
themes in general and we want to kind of
end with some nuances for different
pockets of uh people or different uh
groups of stakeholders. So, first I want
to talk about some nuance by region. In
uh the Broomfield region, we had dozens
of respondents uh talking about or
advocating for redrawing attendance
boundary lines. So, a quote from a
community engagement packet, is there an
option to redraw some of the lines of
which areas feed which schools in order
to even out enrollment before closures
or consolidations have to take place?
For example, there are neighborhoods
that are closer to Cole but feed into
Aspen Creek.
And then another nuance earlier, um
you'll recall I said that the uh
reconfiguration of K8 schools was the
number two favorable shift at the
community engagement packets. Uh but we
did we see in the qualitative data a
pretty even split um in the Lewisville
Superior area of uh some people being in
favor of um preserving that model and
others being in favor of the
reconfiguration. So a quote from each
side, a staff survey saying, "I love the
K8 model. It gives middle students the
chance to rise as leaders and role
models while still affording them the
link to childhood. And then a quote from
a community engagement packet. It's good
to separate these ages because they are
developmentally so different. Young
students not exposed to older students
behavior, violence, etc. and specialists
teachers and support staff being able to
be specialized for specific grades.
We also saw some nuances by role. So
families really emphasize some issues
around logistics. Um particularly the uh
K235 reconfiguration at elementary
schools. Dozens of parents wrote in
about uh concerns regarding multiple
drop offs, staggered start times, and an
unsustainable mental load. Uh and there
were also hundreds of mentions regarding
gifted and talented programming. This
was a point of tension. Here's a quote
from a family survey. Our family places
a high value on a rigorous and engaging
mathematics curriculum. Continued
reductions in the rigor of the math
curriculum as well as any decreases in
resources or support for talented and
gifted programs would be significant
concerns for our family.
And then for staff, uh something that
came up for this group was
collaboration. There's a high value
placed on collaborative teams and
planning time. This was a top fear at
most of the roundts was the fracturing
of established teaching teams um and
concerns about being spread across the
district. Here's a quote from the
wittier round table. The wittier staff
is my extended family. Honestly, if I
were separated from my colleagues, I'm
not sure I would continue teaching.
And then lastly, as we heard earlier, we
had our uh Spanish only session. We
wanted to elevate some themes that came
out particularly for this group. I want
to start off by emphasizing that this
group also named some of the same things
that we have already heard. concerns
around the K235 reconfigurations. Um,
wanting small class sizes, support for
full-time comprehensive staff, but some
things that came up uniquely for this
group. First and foremost is this
prioritization of bilingual access above
all else is a core value. Uh, and
related to this uh transportation
or increased travel uh being seen as a
barrier to access and not just a
logistical hurdle. So, uh, participants
worry that relocating a focus program or
closing a bilingual school farther away
from Hispanic communities, um, would
cause families to need to look for new
places to live, find new jobs to be able
to continue to support this core value
of bilingual access. Uh, and then
finally, uh, the concept of student
disruption. So, this theme came up of
school closures are feared as disruptive
events that could diminish student
attitudes about school. So a quote from
uh this session, my fear is that my
child will have to change schools and
won't know anyone there and then he'll
find it difficult to adjust and will
lose hope and desire to go to school.
So some last additional thoughts to kind
of end our data story here. I wanted to
name that we had uh dozens of
qualitative concerns for our educators
wanting to make sure that there is
support for their working conditions,
concern of burnout and the support that
happens for our educators going through
this process. Uh a quote from the
community engagement post survey. I
think that it's so incredibly important
that we support our teachers during
these changes. How they are supported
directly affects our children. They need
peers and admin to lean on.
Next, uh there's a strong call for
transparency. Uh our community is asking
for a proposal that reflects the input
from all of this engagement as well as
clear and specific data to garner
community buyin for what comes next. And
then finally, just to end this data
story, the story that I've told um
includes competing values and so we need
to be mindful of the fact that
trade-offs will be necessary moving
forward. Thank you.
Thank you for that thorough summary of
the
data that you guys gathered.
Board members,
I know there's lots of questions and
comments that we I'm sure we will all
have and Lilia was first to raise her
hand, so we will start with Elenia.
Thank you, staff. Uh great presentation
gives us lots to chew on. Um,
you know, I note there at the end
something that's super important to our
community is transparency. And I feel
like we're really doing a great job of
talking about the problem. Um, letting
everybody talk about what they think the
best solutions are. And what comes up
for me is um, and two people have
already mentioned it, but I think it's
worth continuing to say that there are
going to be tradeoffs here. So, while we
can say we care about the I bet that's
me. Is that you, Randy or me?
It's me. Pardon me.
Sorry. Um, I think that
we want the community to know
that we would love to solve all of the
problems, but we're not going to be able
to solve all of the problems. And those
trade-offs are going to be necessary.
When I look at something like
neighborhood proximity and then I take
something like um advanced academics,
those two things are not going to meet
together at all points.
So that challenge um of maintaining
transparency while understanding that
trade-offs are necessary
is really important for our public to be
aware of. Um and then just for staff, I
think that the solution that I hope
comes forward is a five-year solution, a
seven-year solution.
Um, I would not want any
of our students to have to go through
this twice in their BBSD
tenure. One time is enough. It's hard on
students. Um, it's hard on our families.
It's hard on logistics. Uh, it it's hard
on neighborhoods, neighborhood
cohesiveness. So, I think if we can
avoid revisiting this in
3 or 4 years, just starting again, um I
think that that's in the service of
everybody here, including staff, and the
incredible amount of time it's taking
for you to find the best answers that we
can have. Um,
I'll leave it there for now. See if
anybody else has something that
Anna,
>> first I want to go back to um
the
the intentionality that went into
collecting all of this data. Um, I truly
feel spoiled with community input in a
way that I don't think many other um,
elected officials get to have. Going to
meet and build relationships with
teachers and principles and community
members. It was just an amazing
opportunity and experience to be able to
dive right into community and really
listen to their thoughts and and their
their frustrations, their feelings about
everything that's coming down the
pipeline. And I do just want to also
elevate um the amazing work that the the
team has done to really be intentional
again in um including and having a space
of belonging for Spanish-sp speakaking
communities and immigrant communities.
um at every single um community
gathering, seeing the interpretation,
the materials that were there for
community members. And it just really
highlights the first guiding principle
of of this um this work that we've we've
um encountered upon is removing
institutional barriers and really
providing equity and access um at the
heart of of this endeavor. And so I am
giving huge kudos to you all for really
being intentional and and really taking
um taking the ownership of really
meeting community where they're at. Uh,
I know that at the very end we didn't
have um we well we had um a lot of input
from Spanish-sp speakaking parents that
they didn't really feel heard and to see
the team quickly adapt and set a new uh
a meeting that wasn't planned and then
um put full force into advertising and
getting parents recruited and then still
having such an engageful an an engaged
conversation with the parents there. Um
I think it really just speaks volumes to
how much um this school district and
this board really wants to listen to
every person in in our community to make
sure that we're making the right
decision. Um and I do want to echo what
Lenia said. Um, and it also came up in
the nuances of Spanish-sp speakaking
communities where um, a lot of the the
if if a school closes or someone's
environment is disrupted um, especially
for these communities, it feels very um,
it has a huge gravity around them. And I
think that as we're going through and
even what uh, Nicole had mentioned
earlier, this problem isn't going away.
And I think that if we're going to be
making some really big maybe
uncomfortable decisions that we make
them for the long haul. That this isn't
something that we're planning for just
um the next few years. That it is
something that is going to be
sustainable for a much longer uh longer
term because we know that the problem is
isn't going to get better anytime soon.
And so really making sure that we are
thinking as long term as possible of
what is going to be best for our
students, for our community members, for
our teachers. Um I think that that's
going to be the best course of action.
Um and yeah, so kudos to to the team. Um
this is really great data and really
well um well focused and very well
aligned with those guiding principles.
Um, and I'm just I know that there's
going to be uncomfortable decisions. Um,
but I think that we have gone above and
beyond to really make sure we have that
community input so that we're not just
making a decision out of nowhere, but
that it's informed and guided by what I
but by what our community wants. So,
thank you,
Alex.
Like everybody else, I'm I feel
privileged and honored to be part of
your process. And as a decision maker, I
feel like I'm in a much better position
to know what the feelings are on
something so complex among so many
people. I I really I've looked into this
around the country at different
strategies and people have and I see
nothing like this even from the people
that have had super engaged stuff. So
kudos to you and kudos to our community
for really um stepping up to it as well.
Um and it's it's great to hear it's
great as a leader I think to start to
feel the triangulation of things and for
the the big numbers to reinforce from
the from the data what it is we kind of
get the feelings of as elected leaders
where you know you have 100
conversations and you start to hear the
same things again and again. So, it's
great to reinforce that to know that all
of us are benefiting from those thousand
conversations. So, I'm really excited
about that. Um, I have one re one thing
I think as I look through the data,
uh, I notice I feel like the things that
we're talking about are largely framed
from an adult perspective of like what
will we do to reorganize buildings and
adults and every one of those changes
and values is actually a very
kid-focused thing. And sometimes in the
way we talk about it, I think we lose
the kid focusness. So when we talk about
teacher collaboration, I'm like, big
deal, teacher collaboration. It's like,
no, no, no. When teachers collaborate,
Johnny gets to talk to somebody in the
reading class who knows what they did
last week. If they don't collaborate,
that they don't know. So all these
things, we could have you could have
done that whole presentation and not
really mentioned adults at all. Um, and
talked about the same things because
this is all very kid focused in terms of
the changes that we will make. And I do
think we should maybe figure out ways to
talk about that that way because this
still comes off as you know when it
comes if I have to weigh what a teacher
thinks compared to what a kid needs I'm
elected to act on behalf of the kids and
I will do that but that's not what it's
not a one or one but it sounds like
we're talking about a lot of adult
things here. Um another one spoke to
this but there's the extent to which we
can act on these things is from how bold
we are. we do less action, we can
address less things. So if people want
to do the right things on the
trade-offs, we have to do the hard
things on structure. And so the more
structurally uh necessary things we do,
the more good things we can do. And if
we pull our punches on making the hard
calls, we are going to get less of the
good part. And so if you want to if you
want to do more about class size, you
want to do more about differentiated
instruction and teacher collaboration,
then we need to do more on consolidation
or restructuring. So like that's the
other obvious like it's one or the
other. Like we we can't just close one
school but then fix eight. So if we're
going to close five schools, then maybe
we can fix 10 schools in in one of these
regards. And that's it's a it's a really
direct trade-off that the community
needs to know. Same thing is that this
work is really this is the first phase
of the work that we do like we don't
want to do multiple phases of closures
and consolidations. There will be a next
phase of implementation where there's a
lot of work to do and we want to be able
to switch pretty quickly to adults
talking about how to do this well not
should we have done it or can we go back
and not do it. So I think our messages
to the community need to be really
clear. We're going to do intense stuff
once and then we're going to work really
hard to implement it well. And the more
intense we make it, the more this will
last longer and the more we'll focus on
what kids need and how to do it. And
then the last part, I think um I'm glad
to really see the data come through on
the varied school models because I
that's one of the things I hear a lot
from parents and it's not just the
parents of a charter or a focus school.
When parents pick their neighborhood
school, yes, they want to walk there,
but they also know that their
neighborhood school does something
really well that was working for their
kid. They could have been one of the
people driving their kids or biking and
their kids across town, but they're not.
So, all our schools are special in
unique ways that have attracted the
parents to be there or go there. And so,
I think as we think about what we do and
how we we our changes need to
accommodate the things people love about
their schools and that stands for the
neighborhood schools as well as the
focus and innovation and and track
schools. So, I want to make sure that we
are excited about implementing things.
And then finally, like I think we can
get the kids excited about that. I I
looking through some of the work in
place like San Antonio and their primary
advocates. I mean, they organized the
students to pressure the school board
and say, "How dare you not close more
schools? Why don't you love us enough to
change this and make our schools
better?" Um, so like you can turn this
around and stay really kid focused and
get even more positivity out of it. So,
but I'm I feel so empowered by what
you've shared and by the work that all
the staff have done to do this and I
think it's uh speaks speaks volumes to
our leadership and uh your team
>> Jorge.
>> Thank you. I I would like to start by
thanking you all the way everybody else
has done because it's uh it's a
testament to the work that's put in
here. That's we've had so much outreach
and I I can say that everybody I've
talked to whether it's the community
engagement sessions, the bilingual
sessions, the Spanish sessions, the
teachers, um everybody I talked to came
away more informed um heard and listened
to. Um and we're part of the
conversation. I think that's that's
really important. And I appreciate you
going back to 2021 2022. Um, some people
are just now, you know, it's kind of
hitting them in the face, right? But
it's been a long time coming. We've been
having these conversations and we've
been really, you've all been really
thoughtful about what this process
looked like. Um, and have adopted tried
different models prior to this, right?
Um, and to the point from some of I'm
hearing from some of the other board
members here, um, now is a time to be
forward thinking and and to look at
meaningful change, right? Because small
measures aren't suitable anymore. um you
know seeing the data results here um it
was really
clear that there's some that these
themes that arose are all underlined by
equity our ability to serve or not serve
our students as has been the case given
the small number of schools and our
inability to provide resources
everywhere and I think that's the
driving force for what we're doing and
so you know I'm in favor of of being
forward thinking and addressing this
stuff now and and having a a long-term
plan right for the next seven 10 years
so we're not going through this again um
and and so that we can have greater
impact and change um you know
I'm not from Colorado originally um we
have open enrollment in Colorado I'm
still trying to wrap my head around that
all the time right and that's something
that didn't really come up here but
that's that underlies all this as well
right currently half of our school or
our schools about 50% of them are all
through open enrollment right so it's a
neighborhood school but it's also an
open enrollment school and that adds
complexity here so so I appreciate
thinking about the different models and
thinking about, you know, how we can
improve access throughout the district
as opposed to any individual school and
to really think about transportation um
and barriers to to individuals to access
the schools that they want to choose
from and try to expand that as much as
possible as a part of this process. Um
so I think this is an opportunity for us
to better serve, you know, not just
within the schools but across our
district, right, in terms of who has
access to our to the great programming
that we have here. So so thank you for
um uh all this data. think we've got
some clear direction from our community
and our teachers um and our and our
families. Um and
this is just the start. I I don't want
to forget that, right? We've got to the
next years can be very challenging. Next
couple years, right, as we support our
families through this process and change
um and I I think, you know, we've kind
of had the transparency. I know that's
going to continue. So, I really
appreciate the work. And so, not so much
a question, but a thank you,
>> Deian.
I personally have enjoyed every minute
of this process as an observer and
getting to meet parents and uh see them
engaging in the process and I bet they
feel the same way too that they they
feel heard and seen. Um I do worry a
little bit about one of the data points
because one necessarily negates the
other and that is we would like
consolidation
and we wouldn't like school closures.
You can't really do one and not have the
other. And so it was kind of a false
choice for people. It almost should have
been should we consolidate schools and
close a few or should we close a lot of
schools? I don't know. It should need to
be different because you can't really
you can't really do the job without
disappointing some people as we've all
talked about. So, um, there are going to
be disappointments and I also have a lot
of confidence in the fact that we're
going to be able to figure out some way
different ways to support the
communities that are being asked to make
some changes and maybe to improve the
schools that we have. Um, so maybe this
is an opportunity for us to make uh BBSD
even better.
Did I see your finger go up, Rob? Or
>> I'll let you go.
>> Okay.
>> Great. Um,
thanks for the presentation. Like my
colleagues here,
I am in favor of significant maneuvers
to protect us in the long run. I mean,
again, state demographer down 30,000
students and then between now and 2030.
It's not going to get better. And so the
more we can do today, the better the
educational experiences we can provide
for our students
more quickly. Uh I don't want to have to
do this. Elenia said five years, Jorge
said 7 to 10. I am like 10.
We need to we need to look out further.
Uh this has been an exceedingly
heavy lift for our staff. It's created a
lot of anxiety for our community in the
last couple years just waiting and
wondering. It's going to be a lot of
work to make the shift. Disruption is
always hard and the more we can minimize
the frequency of disruption whether it's
through not facing in like Alex said or
thinking longer term I think um while
hard in the outset will be appreciated
by our staff and our community in the
long run. And so I I agree um bigger
changes that will be provide lasting
outcomes is really where I am thinking
about this. And I'm thinking a little
bit about the tension that exists
between the the priorities that were
elevated.
And to my board members points, we we're
not going to be able to accomplish
everything, but we're going to do our
best to take this into consideration. I
think like a couple things that really
stood out to me around walkability.
If we close schools, which we have
already decided we cannot keep schools
closed, some people might have a longer
commute to school.
Like we walkability is I understand it's
important. So when I think of that, I'm
like, well, let's make sure we keep we
the schools that are in pockets where we
know we have a lot of students, those
are the ones we prioritize, but somebody
is going to have a longer walk. Similar
like taking a school offline. I
understand that there's a um there is
some property value there. Yes. And I
also know it's really hard for the
community to conceive of not having a
school as a neighbor because a school is
a great neighbor on the weekends and in
the summer and the holidays and not
knowing what's going to happen to that
property I think is can be pretty
anxietyprovoking.
Um I also found it interesting the
comment from Broomfield about redrawing
attendance boundaries rather than
considering a school closure. Aspen
Creek is 50% open enrollment and 30% of
those kids are coming from out of
district. So even in Broomfield, we
don't have enough students to redraw
those lines. And that's a reality I
think that our staff is going to Yes, we
know. We don't want We hear you. We
don't want schools to necessarily close.
and to accomplish the other things like
smaller class sizes, to have full-time
staff in all of our schools, to have
differentiated supports, that's going to
be part of it. And similarly I would say
for the community I hear you in the
priority the priority is consolidation
to keep those groups of students
together but it may not be that we're
able to completely consolidate without
some reconfiguration of attendance
boundaries or some people might like it
depends on our facilities and so to the
extent practical again I'd say to staff
consolidate when you can and if we have
to make boundary line adjustments
because there's we can't obtain a
perfect consolidation because of the
seats in a school.
Really relying on the hard work that the
board did in policy JC and thinking
through like what are the priorities
there. having like contiguous boundaries
and it's having compactness of
boundaries and it's thinking about
balancing students and so like all of
those things are going to come into play
inevitably and I really want to um
remind the community and staff that it
probably isn't going to be incredibly
clean but relying on all the work we've
done since 2021 to really think through
transportation realities, facility
realities, attendance boundaries
and policy JC again is kind of where I
was thinking with my tenurs is we have
to at attendance boundaries every 5
years based on board policy JC. Like
it'd be lovely to be in a cadence where
you look at attendance boundaries five
years later. Like you're in a cadence
where it's not every 5 years you're
having to look to close the school in
the conjunction with redrawing those
attendance boundaries. Those attendance
boundary changes could potentially help
even out. Um so that's just something I
want to elevate there. And then
um there was one other thing.
At the end of the day, this is like a
really big fiscal decision, right?
Because all the things that we want in
all of our schools cost dollars. And
that will just have to be part of the
conversation um into next year. And to
Alex's point, the bigger maneuvers we
have, the more dollars we have to free
up to do all of the stuff that we've
really heard loud and clear that our
community, our students, our staff, our
families really do want. So, it'll be
hard. And I feel like we are in a really
great position based on the extensive
community feedback that we received,
based on all the listening we've done
and the years we've had thinking about
this to set us up for success
and help us create a plan before we're
in a dire fiscal situation. So kudos to
everybody involved in these processes.
And I am excited to see to see where
we're headed and what we can do to
create the outcomes and opportunities
our kiddos really do deserve.
Rob,
uh, I don't know. I we don't have a lot
of parents here this evening and without
a doubt come fall we'll have a lot of
parents here. Um, and I'll remember
maybe to say this again at that time,
but anybody who's watching uh this later
maybe will hear this any parents. Um,
one of the things I encourage of our
community is for the parents to hold
this work and not have the kids hold it.
Um,
I got a great compliment from one of my
colleagues about that I was very afraid
for my own child, but my own child never
knew during that moment
and that that's like a a parenting win.
So, we're going to have a lot of parents
that don't feel comfortable. And this is
big change. And I hear a lot of support
from my colleagues about making big
change.
And I really hope our parents can hold
that and not scare the kids because
wherever your kid ends up in BBSD, we
are going to love them. We are going to
do a good job of teaching them. We are
going to hold them safely. So,
I just I really want to say that because
I just recently had an experience where
I had to not have my fear be the driving
factor for my own child.
So, I'll remember to say it again in
fall when I've got a room full of
parents, but any parents watching this,
take note.
>> Rob, and then Alex.
I just want to thank the board for your
thoughtful discussion around this topic.
Uh, a couple things to point out. Uh,
76,000 bytes of information. We do not
have evidence that our community is
fighting for the status quo.
We don't have that evidence. We didn't
hear do nothing, everything's fine. Um,
the other point I want to highlight is
that for the closures, consolidations,
reconfigurations that we do, those
dollars that we recoup, we're going to
be reinvesting in the student experience
based on what our community has told us
they want,
right? And I and I don't look at the the
because there's tension amongst some of
the feedback, right? Uh, it's more guard
rails, not a roadmap. Tensions will
exist for sure. You can't have fully
staffed schools and not close school
like close or consolidate schools or
cons close and consolidate. Can't do
that. Um and this isn't the only pieces
of data that we'll look at board members
as you know that we have enrollment
projections based on your feedback.
We'll be looking at enrollment
projections from 5 years out from now.
So you may have a school that's
going to drop 50 students between now
and 5 years from now. We're going to be
dealing and trying to solve for five
years from now.
um we have OE patterns and so folks may
say one thing about a school but if we
look and less than half the kids in that
community actually the parents send
their kids to their neighborhood school
that's a data point that we have to pay
attention to. Um we also have building
capacities
right we we are not in um looking to
overload schools
uh we have to be considerate of our
building capacities as well. So there's
other data points that we'll bring into
this as we think about the
recommendation we'll be bringing back to
you all in August. Um I would provide
just a compliment to the board that in
October you had a very good sense of
where this community was which is we
can't do nothing and uh that was
validated by the process that we went
through. I just want you to to to to you
are in tune to your community and so
that is really good news. And then the
last thing and I'm really proud of this.
We didn't cheat this. We're not cheating
this challenge of its complexity,
right? We're not giving people two
options or three options and these are
the only ways you can solve this or um
you know, unfortunately I think and this
is just my opinion, but sometimes
superintendent, school boards get to
this place where well, we're not going
to make people happy, so just do it
fast. Do it quick. Don't talk to people.
People aren't going to be happy
regardless of what you do. Uh, so you
make the decision, you move on, you hope
people forgive you. I don't think that's
the right way to do it. I think the way
we're doing it's the right way to do it
where you listen to people, you give
them space, uh, you hear what they want
for their kids, you hear what they'd
prefer um, as you think about moving
forward and you don't overpromise that
we're just going to make everybody happy
with all of these decisions. We won't.
There will be people who are are going
to be impacted in ways they're going to
be emotional and they're going to not be
happy with. But if we can stand in in
August and present to you an option that
provides a better opportunity for our
students across our district by making
some tough choices, then I think we will
have um done a process uh done this
process well and uh we will be a better
school district after it. So, uh, again,
thanks for the conversation and I guess
there's maybe a couple more comments,
but
I regret speaking after you, Rob,
because you said that so well. Um, I
have a big picture thing and then a
technical thing. Um, one is, uh, I was
really excited about the feedback for
how holistic it was about our students.
And when you read through that from a
student perspective, I'm like, oh,
people care about the specials. specials
turn into teachers, but really the
specials turn into kids smiling because
they had art and, you know, energetic
kids, you know, sweating a little bit
and and PE on singing and feeling
resonance for their community. Like the
things people are valuing are they're
not reading, writing, arithmetic all the
time and they make kids happy and give
them an outlet and that's one of the
things I think we should never lose
sight of. And at the same time, we have
parents who are, you know, really
frustrated at the lack of access to
acceleration. So we think about things
forward. We think about new focuses or
what to do and we have opportunities to
figure out how to add more accelerated
opportunities for kids in this mix. So
like we have really holistic ways to
think about all our kids. Another
observation I have in all these
conversations is everybody knows a lot
about our schools. Like parents will
come to you and say you need to know
this about my school. And I'm always
like do you think there's anybody on
Arapaho who doesn't know that about your
school? Like everybody knows these
schools really well. They know the
things they're wrestling with. the way
the district has evolved to be much more
like engaged with its schools and
improvement means that all the adult all
the people you know here know what the
schools are like. So all that's going to
go into the decision making too. And
then finally um I've had the end same
criticism of our consolidation versus
close and you know distribute people and
I have the technical thing is I'm
starting to wrestle with doing two of
these things three of these things at
the same time and suddenly the
consolidation makes more sense to me
versus the merging. So like let's say we
have three or four schools and three
neighborhood schools with catchment
zones. We actually make one of the
schools become the new home of a focus
school because we said we're going to
move a focus school. Focus school goes
there. It doesn't have a catchment zone.
So now we have three catchment zones of
kids but only two catchment zones of two
neighborhood schools and a focus school.
So suddenly we have merged those schools
and we haven't closed one but we've
changed one of a neighborhood school
into a focus school. Um, so like that's
the kind of thing where you combine two
or three things together and suddenly
your options start expanding even more.
So like it's not just one thing. We're
going to do X here and we could do Y
here. We're going to do stuff for a
neighborhood that involves all those
things. So it'll be even more complex.
Board members, any other questions or
comments?
>> Or are you gonna Oh, yes.
>> We'll just cover this just to wrap up
the work session. One, thank you so much
for the thoughtful uh conversation
tonight. As we look at the overall
timeline, we are now transitioning from
that community engagement process to the
what I'll call decision making process.
So, in 10 weeks from now, we will be
bringing you a plan in late August. uh
in alignment with what we've heard
tonight from the board from our
community engagement sessions from the
work that uh long range advisory
committee has done prior to this. So we
will be bringing that to you and then
that will give the community an option
to uh speak a public comment and then
another opportunity during study in
September with final decision uh
thereafter in October. So, just want to
line that up. That is in alignment with
our open enrollment uh time frame as we
have spoken about previously. Um but
with that, that wraps up tonight's
presentation.
>> You got your work cut out for you team
between now and August. I think I can
speak from behalf of the board that we
are eagerly awaiting that presentation
for the community as well. As I alluded
to earlier, there are some schools that
have been really struggling with under
enrollment for a long time and are eager
to see some change to improve the the
experiences in those schools. One final
thought I had, you know, we we for years
now we've held three rounds up as a
model. I know we've also prioritized
smaller class sizes. So, some magical
three- round model with slightly smaller
class sizes and all the people to round
out that educational experience in our
neighborhood schools at the very least
is sort of where my brain is. And I um
I'm looking forward to to seeing how
this all shakes out. So, thank you
board members. We are going to
reconfigure the boardroom back to its
normal
arrangement now that this work study
session is done. So we will take a small
5 to 10 minute break
everyone. The next item on our agenda
today is the superintendence report. Dr.
Anderson, good evening.
>> Good evening. Thank you, board president
Raj Paul. Board members, uh, some quick
remarks this evening. Uh, congrats again
to the class of 2026. We now have
officially wrapped up graduation season.
We had a total of 13 commencement
ceremonies over just under three weeks.
Last Thursday was our last ceremony,
Boulder Prep Charter School. Just want
to um say congrats to the entire BBSD
class of 2026
board members. This is the third year of
our grad plus leadership academy and it
is now underway. We had more than 100
applications for the program and
ultimately 36 rising juniors and seniors
were selected over the summer. They get
work-based learning experiences
including uh resume writing, how to
interview. They intern at a variety of
work sites across our community,
including here at at um at the Ed Center
here in the district. Additionally, this
year they visited the Boulder County
Sheriff's Office for getting to learn
all about the different jobs available
in law enforcement. This year we've
partnered with Impact on Education, who
among other things offer students an
honorarium for participating. So, thank
you to our partners at Impact on
Education. And then finally, very
exciting news. In August, 10 Centurus
High School students and their coaches
will be headed to Hamburg, Germany to
work with European scientists after
being selected by in the prestigious
Beamline for Schools competition
organized by CERN, the European
Laboratory for Particle Physics.
Beamline for Schools competition started
in 2014 to coincide with CERN's 60th
anniversary and aims to give high school
students a hands-on opportunity to
experience what it's like to be a
scientist. High school students from all
around the world compete by submitting
experience experiments. Those selected
are invited on a full paid trip to
conduct their experiments alongside the
international scientists at CERN or at
one of their partner institutions.
This year members of the Centaurus
physic club physics club that call
themselves team centuri stars and you
kind of like that were among five
winning teams from around the world
chosen based on the scientific merit of
their proposals. They're the only team
from the United States. The other teams
are from the United Kingdom, Turkey,
India, and Bangladesh. What an
incredible
opportunity and accomplishment. Congrats
to team Centauri Stars. Uh their project
using silicone photo multipliers to
detect
Sharrennikoff radiation inside a glass
bar.
They've actually been consulting with
elite scientists in his cutting edge
physics research and now they get to
work with European scientists at the D
Desi Research Center in Hamburg,
Germany.
Incredible. And that's all I have for my
remarks this evening.
>> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members,
any questions or comments?
It's very exciting for those students. I
wish them the best of luck. Seeing as
there are no questions or comments, we
will move on to board communication.
Board members, do any of you have
anything you would like to update us on?
Alex,
>> um, uh, yesterday I had the pleasure of
meeting with Jen Douglas, the executive
director of Peak to Peak, and this today
I met with a couple of board members
from Peak to Peak. Um, I would recommend
to my board, fellow colleagues on the
board, that those are good lunches to
take sometimes. And it's great,
especially like board to board, to just
be able to talk and have it not be about
a negotiation, have it not be about some
high takes authorizer decision, but just
talking about what people are um working
on, what they care about, the
challenges, things they're celebrating
um and getting to just know one another
as colleagues sharing similar roles at
different scales in different places.
So, uh happy to invite other people. I
plan to meet with other charter board
members when I can and happy to have
another board member join any of those.
If you're interested, let me know. And
uh word out to the charter schools, too.
Happy to to hear from you. Um we hear
from lots of people about all the
schools all the time and it's it can be
complex and we have a different
relationship with the charters. So, it's
nice to build. I mean, I love that our
district celebrates the great
accomplishments of our charters and
their wonderful students and the things
they're doing that we are there for
their graduations and you know,
everything else. Uh they're institutions
that are big part of our community and I
think it's uh really helps build
understanding about what they're dealing
with so that we can be constructive
partners and that we can share real
feedback when we have it in a lower
stakes environment than will happen when
it comes up renewal or something. So it
builds a reservoir of understanding that
can be useful to us. Um also uh um had
the pleasure of sitting down with some
Fairview students um this week and it's
great to hear from the students about
what they're doing um and their
experiences and uh it reaffirmed my
commitment to making sure that we deal
with our students holistically as people
with complex lives and multiple
pressures and things going on and
concerns and that we, you know, try to
make sure our schools are remaining
responsive.
to the the the stressors, the
aspirations, and the things our kids
have. Uh so again, I'm not a parent of
active kids in school anymore. So when I
have a chance to sit down with students
and have them really tell me what they
think, it is just it's a pleasure. So
anyway, I just um uh am grateful for the
opportunity for either whether it's a
charter board member or a Fairview
junior to take the time to tell me what
they're thinking. And um uh it's people
say like, "Oh, you're on the board. That
must be a thankless job." It's like,
"No, not at all." People I get gratitude
and people share wonderful things with
me and sad things with me and I am so
glad to hear it. So, keep it coming.
Thanks, Alex. We will now move on to our
the next item on our agenda this
evening, which is information. We have
one information item this evening which
is a cell phone policy update. I will
turn it over to Robin Fernandez for
introductions.
>> Thank you, President Rajpal. Good
evening, President Rajpal, members of
the board and Dr. Anderson. I'm before
you this evening with an update on how
our cell phone policy, what we call away
for the day, is going in our high
schools. As a reminder, the board
revised the policy in the fall of 2024
and was implemented in our high schools
in the in January of 2025. Joining me
this evening is Principal Greg Don from
Monarch High School and Principal John
McClesy from New Vista High School and
they will share how that's going in
their schools. You will hear about the
current state of implementation in these
two in these two schools. You will hear
how they are monitoring and tracking
compliance. You'll hear celebrations and
challenges with the implementation and
you will hear about how principles
across our high schools in our district
are planning for future work in the fall
and beyond. But first, we are going to
start with hearing from our students.
Our wonderful Randy Barber visited with
stu high school students across the
district and checked in with them during
the last week of school, so just a
couple of weeks ago about their
perceptions of the implementation of the
cell phone policy. And as you will see
in a moment, they did not hold back.
We're not allowed to have our phones in
the classrooms or in the cafeteria
hallways. Um, so it's basically a
complete ban.
>> When school starts at 8:35, we have to
put away our cell phones and we can't
have them out until school ends at 3:55.
>> Basically, if they see your phone at
all, it's getting taken. Like any phones
at all is getting taken and you get it
back at the end of the day. And if you
like have too many offenses, your
parents have to come pick it up.
>> I have my phone in my pocket right now.
It's not a problem as long as you're not
using it when you're supposed to be
doing school work. I think that was one
the main problem.
>> I think it's definitely increased like
my focus in classes.
>> Students shouldn't be on their phones
during school.
>> It was really hard to focus because my
phone is like a constant distractor
because I get so many texts and like
notifications.
>> Students really shouldn't be able to
like
play games cuz it'll distract them.
>> Kids just don't want to lock in on
school work. They want to be on their
phones. And I personally have ADHD, so
having the rule that I can't touch it
does help me. When we were allowed to
have our phones out, like maybe I would
get my assignment done in class and I
would have like maybe 20, 15 minutes
left in class and I would spend that
time on my phone. Now I kind of spend it
like getting other work done for other
classes or maybe talking to people in my
class.
>> For the cell phone ban, I would just
remember like going to recess and
everybody would be on their phone.
People would just be like in the
hallways just like on their phone
walking to the next class. I feel like
it just makes you used to being like
being able to uh socialize on a phone
and not really in person and it really
takes away that um feeling of really
talking to someone eye to eye. Now it's
like you know there's like actually some
interaction which is pretty cool to see
after the band like we actually went
outside and do stuff now.
>> I think it's like totally add it's like
conversations with my friends not having
our phone. I mean, like today we played
hacking sack, but I think if we were
allowed to have our phones, we probably
would just be sitting inside.
>> Miss Carol has done a great job, but
just making the transition of no phones
easier cuz kind of before we didn't have
any of this stuff. It was just tables
and I think now you just kind of find
other ways to connect with people like
playing games or going outside
>> to an extent. I think it is good for
students cuz I like being off my phone.
I like being forced to be off my phone
cuz I think it helps me but taken away
from me. Most students know that being
on your phone is not helpful for your
learning. So, I feel like there's no
need for everyone to be getting their
phone snatched left and right.
>> And I've got my phone taken away before
just on off period.
>> I hate it. I mean,
>> we don't really like it because we feel
like it's a little extreme.
>> It's just like I don't know, they're
really strict about it sometimes.
>> It's too much cuz like it's it's
excessive cuz we are like in in charge
of our own grades. I think if I could
change something, I would change the
atmosphere around it. We can't have it
out like in the school when we're just
checking the time or anything like that
to create more of a supportive
environment instead of a punishment
oriented environment.
>> We just feel like it's enforced a little
too much.
>> I feel like the school should be
worrying about bigger issues that we
have.
>> In classes, it makes a lot of sense why
you wouldn't be able to have your phone.
You're supposed to be listening. You're
supposed to be present. Supposed to be
focused. But when you're during lunch,
like I don't have to be focused on
anything.
>> When it like comes to like cafeteria or
more social spaces, I feel like it's
maybe a little too strict for like lunch
and passing period. I feel like it's
unnecessary.
>> That's where I take my 30 minutes to go
and do what I want to do. I at work I'm
able to go on my phone. Not while I'm
working though. in in the way it
currently is, it's made it so that the
people who would be using their phones
in class anyway, you know, they just
kind of
>> like they still kind
>> still use it and the people who wouldn't
be using it then they're affected in
that way.
>> I definitely think it depends on the
teacher or the staff member that you
encounter.
>> Like some teachers are super strict and
they're like no phones at all.
>> It just kind of depends.
>> Other teachers will be like hey like you
can have them out sometimes. definitely
think it's not fully consistent
throughout the school.
>> A big thing for me was when they started
talking about how they're going to make
us put it in lockers at the beginning of
the day, right?
>> And I feel like that's just too far
because in case of emergency or family
emergency.
>> What if there was an emergency and I
needed my phone?
>> I just think it's a little bit over the
top, especially considering like
Colorado and like the school shootings
in Colorado.
>> If you need to contact your parents or
something, if it's an emergency, you
should be able to do that like whenever,
wherever. I don't really know what
students could change cuz everyone still
is addicted to their phones.
>> Just leniency.
>> I don't think anybody's really ever
going to listen to it. Like our phones
are our freedom.
>> I think it's awesome that you're doing
this to hear students perspectives. I
think that's really awesome.
>> And there you have it. A wealth of
perspectives from our students across
our high schools. And now I'm going to
turn it over to principal Greg Don and
principal John McCleskkey so that they
can share from a leadership perspective
how it's going in their schools.
I'm going to start with current state.
>> Yeah. Uh we wanted to start with the
video because I think the kids are
really uh good advocates for the world
they live in and how they're
experiencing things. uh I think you know
the overall statements that it is uh
been largely positive and again the kids
will say that they recognize what
happens in their classrooms and some
differences that it's made. Um I know uh
John will speak specifically especially
in a small school environment. um the
connections that you make and uh some of
the behaviors like uh recognize that all
of a sudden hacks is back and actually
kids skip class more to play hackysack
than they do to get on their phones and
so they are connecting not
electronically. Um and so some of those
like cultural positives we were looking
for are definitely happening.
Yeah, I you know, thanks for the
opportunity to talk with you all about
this because I actually do think
systemically it's been really
significant for the schools to just
begin the conversation with young people
about the impact of phones. And I just
I've talked with some of you
individually, but the idea that we we
really I mean we're a relationship based
school, so we really started with the
idea that you didn't break any rules. As
adults, our society handed you this
phone, so you've done nothing wrong. We
just changed our minds on whether it's
good for you or not. And now we actually
think it's not and we've shifted. And so
we want you in on the conversation about
what this feels like to now not have
your phone. And schools have made
changes like this. And I think by by
starting with that premise of you're not
getting busted, you didn't do anything
wrong, nobody's in trouble, but we have
changed our mind about what these phones
are doing to your system and your brain
and and so get in with us on this. And I
think that piece has really I think the
kids have said great like you know I
mean some kids have really said I want
to I mean you heard some students really
say like I really do need somebody to
help me with the boundary on this thing.
And so that's generally speaking I think
been a huge win. Um if I had to ask my
faculty right now would we go back
nobody would say let's go back. I I'm
convinced of that. So moving forward we
have to keep reinforcing but nobody
wants to go back. Don't say that.
>> Moving on to celebrations. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, you know, I I might just start
with we had a panel of students when we
were doing open enrollment um this last
round just talking about the school
environment and I was very surprised
unprompted how several students really
talked about. One of the things that we
are now doing as a matter of course is
insisting that during those social
times, lunch times, hallway times, young
people actually are being have to get
together and talk with other people they
might not have talked to. And that they
they mentioned that as a highlight of
the school experience that we're not on
our phones, we're not isolating. We're
actually getting to talk to each other.
And so I I that unsolicited. I thought
that was a great highlight from an open
enrollment standpoint to say this is why
you could should consider our school is
that we're talking to each other and and
connecting with people who we normally
might not hang out with. I also just
would say administratively,
you know, um these devices have
quadrupled my workload over the years
and I have felt a reduction in that in
terms of online behavior. Those kinds of
things have really reduced since we've
done this. Um particularly during the
school day evenings, we can't control
that. So, we're still getting some
stuff, but during the school day, we we
do see less. So,
>> um I would just say the kids said this,
too. Just the classroom environments
have changed. I think the they'll point
out when teachers might have differences
of of how they enforce the policy, but
whether you see the the shoe racks where
they put the phones up or they're in
their backpacks, there's far less of
them being hidden under desks and just
sort of this sort of complicitness that
they would be around. So I think the
classroom environment for me would be
the celebration is is feeling that
relief that for that period of time that
universally most people understand that
they're going to be away.
Um, I think the challenges just remain
that uh they're on their person. And so
when you got an open campus and kids are
coming and going and they do have
passing periods, uh, you know,
admittedly, if you walk into Monarch and
I'm not there and there's not three
security guards and you're just a passer
by, uh, you'll see some phones. And I
think the the part of it is is the kids
are not oppositionally defiant. They're
not mean or mad at you, but they're
going to take a chance. If nobody's
seeing them, they're going to get their
phone out and they're going to use it.
And if you tell them to put it away,
they'll politely put it away. So, I just
think it's that challenge of what our
campuses are. When you've got, you know,
a couple thousand students and it's a
couple of you versus them. It's just not
a pure system. And so, it's hard to
really say that it's completely taken
care of. And to John's point, you just
you always feel like you're playing
catch-up, right? you're trying to to
catch the next one and make sure it's
not happening. Um, and so that doesn't
always feel good.
>> Well, you know, depending on your
perspective, pluses and minuses, how one
adult approaches a student who has a
phone versus how another adult
approaches. So, we're having to manage
the big people also in this in terms of
like, you know, you know, what's the
right sized response in any given
situation. And so that's you know it's
another place for us to look for
collective e efficacy amongst our
faculty and you know it's good if we can
view it. I think it's been tricky
because some teachers are like I don't
that's not my thing. I I don't want to
take phones from kids and other people
are like please I'll be your guy in the
hallway because they annoy me. And so
you know when you have those contrasting
adults you've got to kind of get them on
the same page.
So several weeks ago, we met with all of
our high school principles, and they
expressed to us what they are thinking
about in terms of the next iteration and
the deepening of understanding among
students and the deepening of this work
across our high schools in our district.
And so you'll see on this slide what
they all shared with us. First, they are
going to continue to incorporate
conversations in class, sometimes in
health classes, other structures,
sometimes in advisory. Uh share more
with students about why. Continue to
develop the understanding of why it is
that away for the day was developed, why
the board policy was revised in the
first place, talking about the effects
of of cell phone usage, principally
social media.
um and uh structure these conversations
with students so that as both of our
principles have shared, they're
collaboratively
thinking of how is it that they need to
be supported, how is it that they can
make choices that work for them and how
is it that everybody within the school
can work together. So in conclusion, our
high schools are working very hard and
have been for three semesters now to
implement the revised policy. They
continue to deepen the word. There are
challenges, but there are also a lot of
celebrations.
And with that, we are happy to answer
any questions that you may have.
>> Thank you for that update. Board
members, do you have any questions or
comments on the cell phone policy
update? Dr. Anderson, I see is a first
taker.
>> Uh,
thank you, board president Raj Paul. I
want to start by thanking John and Greg
and uh as a former high school principal
and managing large numbers of kids and
trying to get them to do the right thing
and managing and navigating the adults
who some people see things very black
and white other thing other people see
things very gray and other people just
don't see things and uh I think that
that is always always really a challenge
I'll point out that I read in the paper
today that DPS has taken our
And um I congratulate any school
district that takes on this this uh this
really really important challenge and
and I'm proud that our board and our
school district was one of the leaders
in the state if not the country in
adopting this bell-to bell cell phone um
away for a day uh policy. Uh I will say
that board members we have work to do. I
I think that uh I really love the idea
of talking about the why with students
and and continuing to set the
expectation. I think that in in in
schools that are lean administratively
by design, it's going to take a
concerted effort of all people in the
schools to really set the culture to get
wide enforcement.
And you know, I think one of the biggest
worries we had going into this is is
this going to lead to more
disproportionate discipline? Is this
going to need lead to more exclusionary
discipline? You know,
I would see this all the time as a
principle. A simple thing is please put
your phone away turns into an
insubordination. I'm calling the office,
kids are escalated, and you get these
really, really ugly results over a
simple direction. And so I mean I think
that is a piece that we're navigating as
well. I've not seen an uptake uptick in
the disproportionate discipline. I think
the last data we looked at said you know
is that we're continuing to decline and
so there's some some I think some
competing tensions there as well to get
to closer to 100% compliance but also
not um not doing that in a way that
creates more conflict and damages the
relationships that we're really trying
so hard to build with our kids. So, um,
just wanted to thank everybody, give a
little more context and and excited to
hear your questions.
Deian,
I don't know if you all are have been
able to pay attention to uh things
outside of school in the last few weeks,
but there's been some interesting uh
debates among the governor's candidates.
And 100% of them have said that they
want to ban all cell phones in all
schools,
including needing to lock them away. So,
I wondered if any of you have heard
those those um ideas. They are now um
and how you would handle it if you
needed to do more control.
So, with the conclusion of the school
year, we are standing back here saying,
"No, those are the things that we catch
up on in the summer." But you're you're
right in terms of what John shared with
us in particular and what we heard from
some of the students uh whose
perspectives are shared in the video.
That is that's another level of
implementation and another level of
understanding why. And so that would be
a different conversation and one that
they would really need to approach
carefully and differently
with with students. And we saw in the
video that much of what students shared
is all right well it's on my person and
we heard concern around
uh emergencies
uh family contact needs things like
that. And so some of our students also
shared that they have their their phones
in their pockets. They don't take them
out. It's all okay. And so needing to
put them away would be a very different
conversation and a different approach
that we would need to take with
students.
I was going to part of this conversation
I think is amplified because of um a
house bill that passed in 2025 requiring
all schools in the state of Colorado to
have a policy in place by July 1st of
this year. So I think it's on the
forefront of districts that didn't take
an earlier step and then the governor's
um that's expensive and so I would love
if as we think about our legislative
platforms we know when there's mandates
that we also get the funding to
implement said mandate from the
government. So hopefully those governors
are having that conversation as well of
how they'll help us afford those pouches
that get broken and lost and all the
things um should they really want us to
do that. Um, but interesting. And just
to piggyback, I actually really
appreciate the emphasis on the why and
in helping students come along, even
though it takes longer, that will have
more lasting impacts. When students have
voice and choice to some degree, they
understand the why. they can make
informed decisions for themselves
because it's the right choice because
there are benefits to them rather than
just to follow some to not be penalized
or punished or have to have your parent
show up at school to get your phone
back. So, I just really do appreciate
the emphasis there. And hacky sex are
sold out all across the country and and
you know, kudos to if the cell phones
ban is having a an impact on that,
great. But it is fun to see those kids
playing hackysack. Sometimes I hear in
crowded hallways during passing periods,
but at least they're not on their
phones.
>> Alex, I saw your hand up and then Elena.
>> Yeah. Um, thank you very much and thank
you and you and all your teams for the
hard work that it takes to do this. I
was one of many people on the board who
are all in on this and I remain all in
on this. Uh, I alluded to my
conversation with Fairview students. The
initial part was to ask them about cell
phone implementation. And so as opposed
to the 76,000 data points that um the
data team shared with us on declining
enrollment, I have five. But their uh
reports are of 10 or 15% of the Fairview
teachers who think it's a great thing.
About 50% real enforcement in the
classroom. So like every other teacher
doesn't really care. They have class
they report being able to have their
phones out in class. It's okay. They
won't be told might be told to put away
might not. probably in half their
classes they're not as long as no one's
around there's only one or two security
officials in the whole building who are
asking them to put them away. So the
story I have from my small end is a much
less implementation than you've
described in your schools and uh it's
great to see the voice from the video
and I'm super pleased by all of that.
But for me I'm like okay if Fairview
takes a third year to do this I'm ready
to buy in pouches. I'm ready to buy
lockers and um take uh take a stronger
position, not a weaker position. And I
know we need to get to why with the
students, but apparently we need to get
to why with the adults, too, in some of
our schools. I'd be curious your takes,
all three of you, on how do we get to
the why with the adults.
>> Um actually, in some ways, I do think
the kids are leading this in this. I
don't know if you guys paid attention to
the graduations where kids were
graduates were booing about AI
discussions and our kids are super
savvy. And so again, what I see
happening is
kids are getting their phones out
because they have a job requirement and
they're in the hallway and like I got to
get a hold of my boss. Again, I I agree
with you of what you're seeing in
classrooms, but I guess I am seeing and
it does take time is the opposition to
it to me is a lot of logistical things
that they see their phone use for. They
totally get and understand they
shouldn't be doing social media. They
shouldn't be using it to cheat. Like all
the wise are there. Um and I agree with
you because it's on them. it's
inevitable that they're going to access
those different things. And so I've
always, you know, we never did a ban,
right? It wasn't a ban. It was an ask to
to reconstruct some things and figure
out where it is. And a ban would require
the level of things that some other
governors would talk about. And I just I
can't conceive of that again
conceptually with off periods and
everything else and how do you manage
that? And to me, trying to get them to
uh work within the systems that are best
for them, it's going to take time. I
guess that's the ultimate thing is it's
not an easy one class fix. It takes like
generation of kids to kind of move
through a school in my mind to have them
see that. Uh because when I talk to like
middle school principles, obviously they
have lockers and places they can put
them. So kids are experiencing it up to
their freshman year and then it's just
it's taken us longer to get it a
freshman through senior system where
they see that value in the same way.
I mean I would echo that the approach
with the students is similar to the
approach for the teachers and you know
I'm I spent a good third of my career
without a cell phone as a teacher and
and yet I would say half of my staff
doesn't remember not having a cell phone
themselves as adults. So what I think
what we're having to return and come
back to with the teachers is also kind
of that balance between you know obey
versus comply versus buy in right and so
we just you know my plan in August is to
reenter the conversation with the
faculty around hey here's what we're
doing who's you know who's got concerns
let's talk about it you know you know
we've been keeping some data on who's
turning in most the phones versus other
how come you're never turning in a
phone. That's interesting that you never
see a phone and that teacher sees 10 a
day and so you know what's you know and
so we're just going to have an open
discussion about that so that we're all
kind of really buying in at an equal
level. So I think that's the biggest
part is just relationships relationships
relationships even with the teachers and
how are we going to do this in a way
that supports each other. you know, we
have similar things. You know, well,
you've all been through dress codes,
right? So, here we are similar. People
are going to have different reactions to
this. So, it's on us to get people kind
of level set on where we're going. So,
>> Melenia,
>> so I just hear you talking about the
leadership and relationships it takes to
get the adults on board and the kids on
board. Um, and I will echo what Alex has
said, but my end size is much larger
than Alex's because I have a kid at
Fairview. And I hear the same thing that
Alex's N size of four said that at at
Fair View, we're we haven't got the kids
on board and we don't have the adults on
board. And so I give you guys kudos that
you are bringing those folks along. Um,
and
I think John, what you said is so
important. We gave you these devices and
now we're changing our mind because, you
know, we're we're starting to feel that
way about all of the technology. We gave
this to you kiddos and now we're up in
arms. So, um, I appreciate you working
not just with the kids, but with the
adults. I think it's it's really tough
work.
Jorge and then Rob.
>> Thank you for the taking the time to
present this and I I really appreciate
the kids' perspective on this. I think
it's so important. Um and I for one was
hesitant with this policy to move
forward because of concerns about
implementation and what that would look
like and having it be very top down and
concerns about how it would be
implemented disproportionately across a
number of kids. So, so I for one really
appreciate the conversation with the
students, recognizing that it's a
process and it's about changing culture
and attitudes and so providing
opportunities for engagement with each
other, providing other activities,
providing resources and I think you can
see that across the schools where that's
happening that makes it a much easier
process and and having them be a part of
the conversation. You know, I would hate
to see us go towards a purely uh
punitive ban and and really embracing
that. I I think that it's a cultural
shift that we've got to make. Um it's
one we're battling outside the schools
as well as within the schools. And it's
not fair um to come crashing down
without understanding the perception.
And I think the students seem to
recognize the benefits of this. And to
the degree that we can kind of support
them in terms of having healthier
alternatives, building relationships,
and really building community, then I'm
all for that. So So thank you for that
work.
You know, I I will say that there are
other things that you can do. Um
uh you know, as you set expectations for
teachers as a principal, like those are
the expectations, right? When you set
policies as a board, right? I don't get
to say I don't like that board policy. I
like this. I follow the board policies
up. That's my job, right? Uh and so to
the extent that there are schools where
we we we begin to collect data and
information where there's just a level
of apathy around doing something that's
important, I think that there's ways you
can collect data. I mean, we're in
classrooms all the time. You can collect
classroom data. Um you can look at who's
turning in the phones, who isn't turning
in the phones, what's happening, having
those conversations. Um I think that
students are able to go to um
administrators if they feel like that
there's you know a lack of enforcement
and I think that's that's that can
happen. Um and so I do think you can
move it's not there's nothing you can
do. I do think you can move the needle
bringing folks together. I think the the
approach the first approach is the why.
And then if that doesn't work, if I'm
the principal, I'm gonna say, "Well, why
aren't you
enforcing what we've talked about and
what is it?" And then those can be
professional development opportunities
for teachers. Those can be um
clarifications for expectations from
teachers. Uh I and I think that's all
part of being a leader. So, as we
continue to move forward, um, as as we
hear concerning data from whatever
sources it comes from, I think that the
board can expect that we'll continue to
lean in on something that's important.
We're going to continue to try to do
things in in the ways that we've
described, which is talk about the why
and and and really bring people on
board, adults and kids. Uh, and then if
we don't see ju, you know, just just
just like any other rule or policy we'd
have, if we had an outbreak of fights at
schools, if we had an outbreak of of of
some other offense that we would pro we
would intervene. Um, and we've done
that. Uh, then then that's what you can
expect. And, uh, you know, you want to
you want to make sure that you empower
folks to be their very best. And and
this is this is the right thing for
kids. Uh, but I don't want the board to
go away from this conversation thinking
that if we have a faculty or school or
or a set of schools that um isn't doing
what we've expected them to do that
there's there's nothing we can do. There
is.
As a parent of two kiddos at Fair View,
since I feel like, you know, we're
talking about Fair View, I just want to
say
they did have a community culture day
where the students brainstormed ideas to
help improve
cell phone utilization and the student
council has also come up with ideas to
increase engagement. Fair View, at the
end of that year, my kids had the
opportunity to be on both of those
different um things. So, I'm well aware
of that. And I think part of fair view
um they didn't they weren't early
purchasers of some of the fun things at
Broomfield and Centurus and Monarch.
They didn't quickly buy game tables and
ways for alternatives. They didn't
invest in those right away. They were a
little bit slower in the investing in
the alternatives and they at the end of
last year started having a lot of
conversations with the students about
what alternatives
would be successful.
So, I also want to make sure the
community doesn't think that Fairview
while they're maybe struggling. Similar
with Boulder High, our biggest schools
are harder to manage. Those schools are
very complex. There's not grown-ups
everywhere. There's a lot of places to
be without supervision. But I in their
own ways and on their slightly delayed
timelines like our big comprehensive
high schools are trying to engage and
move the needle also even if they
haven't been as quick to change as some
of our other school comprehensive and
non-comprehensive high schools have
been.
DM,
>> I'm uh curious about uh the wonderful
world of cell phone usage that can now
help people with disabilities
um and if students are able to use their
phones for those kind of activities. So,
I'm using my cell phone right now
because it's uh running sound to my ears
and I would be not very happy if I had
to put my cell phone away. So, are are
people making accommodations for kids
who are using um sugar meters that run
on their phone or what? There's all
kinds of different things that u being
able to dictate things to the phone and
have the phone write it for them.
>> Uh short answer is absolutely. I know
there was some fear too that there'd see
an in an increase in 504s written
specifically for I can have my phone, I
can have my headphones in. Um, I'd have
to check with someone like Shannon New
to see if that actually played out. I
think again the difficulty is teacher in
the classroom knows, hey, this kid has
an accommodation, but then again,
they're in a hallway and a different
adult sees them and doesn't know it's
for their blood sugar monitoring and
then they get trapped and then that if
it's a hard teacher who follows the
rules, right? And so you do get some
caught situations even though it's, you
know, totally on the up and up. You
know, at first we talked about are there
safe zones in schools that you could
like go to to use your phone and that
quickly sort of dissipated because there
is no safe space where you're like this
is okay to use it here because you try
and draw that line right of where it is
and it isn't. And um I just think too
about like in certain curriculums
for kids to listen to music as they're
creating art makes a lot of sense. And
so when kids say in this class I'm
allowed to use my phone, it could
absolutely be true because they're
individually doing clay work and they've
got their music and they're jamming out
to it. I understand why they're confused
sometimes because we see the value in it
in a certain space, but it doesn't apply
to all spaces.
Alex,
I
>> I really appreciate uh the hard work and
the sincere effort and the the need to
do the maximum engagement that gets the
buy in because that'll lead to the
change. As a board member who's totally
in favor of the change and wants to get
as close to full implementation as we
can, who received input from parents
that ran 98-2 in favor of a full ban. um
uh and uh whose kid went to a school
where I know it's really hard to change
the culture of our comprehensive biggest
high schools. I just want to say I want
the update on this next year to have
some data on it. I would love to have
some things that we figure out to
measure that some numbers by school
could be reported to me um as a board
member so I could evaluate that and know
about it. I want to continue to hear
great stories about the engagement and
the celebration and the stuff we're
doing. But if we can't get adults in
buildings and some buildings to care. I
want to support the principles and
leaders and the superintendent in having
this not be an optional policy. Like I
think of this in the spirit of vaping
and and tobacco and we don't have safe
places for the vaping. We don't uh
encourage some teachers to allow vaping
in their class and others not. So, I
think it's something that we could
prioritize, measure, make a culture,
invest in, and I'll continue to support
all those things. So, I'd love I'd love
to hear in the next report the data on
this. I'd love to know what our
administrative folks are doing to
support the principles during the
principal um transitions. I'd like to
know how the teacher evaluations handle
all sorts of declining to follow
district polic. What are the other
district policies that our staff don't
implement? love to know how many like we
do we're reviewing all our policies
every five or seven years um depending
on the scale and it's uh frankly the
majority of our substantive work and in
that discussion I never get data on well
this policy isn't really implemented
this policy is implemented 70% of the
time or this policy is met 80% of the
time but only at 40% of our schools so
if if we have policies that don't need
to be measured that are hard to do that
will take a long time that we don't have
enough resources for and that's why
we're not doing it. I want to know that
about all our other policies, too,
because this uh this is really hard for
me because I ran on this. I think it's
important to do. I'll keep pushing for
as long as I'm in office. And um and I
feel like I'll get 50 to1 support from
parents saying, "Alex, you go. You go
tell them to do that." So, I'm going to
keep going and telling them to do that.
And hope next year you come back with us
with some numbers and that you are
empowering uh the leaders to make more
change than we're getting.
Board members, any other questions or
comments?
Thank you again for the update. We will
now move on to action items consent
grouping. 8.1 personnel items. 8.2
approval of minutes May 26, 2026. 8.3
approval of superintendent's annual
evaluation. 8.4 Proposed 27 28 28 29
academic calendars.
8.5 resolution 26-22 ratification of the
negotiated agreement with Boulder Valley
Classified employees association. 8.6
resolution 26-23 ratification of the
negotiated agreement with Boulder Valley
Par Educator Association. 8.7 resolution
26-24 ratification of the negotiated
agreement with Boulder Valley Education
Association 8.8 98 resolutions 26-9
20 21 and 25 adoption of the 2026 27
budget and 8.9 grant federal programs
titles 1 through nine. Are there any
items board members would like to pull
from consent grouping?
Seeing as there are none, is there a
motion to approve? Moved by Anna,
seconded by Jorge. board members
discussion on any of these items.
I just want to say um we have more
resignations and appointments on this
agenda and I just want to thank Dr. Da
Cruz for her time in this district. the
amount of change
that has been accomplished while you
have been here. I I mean, I'm not quite
sure without your ability to get work
done and be everywhere all at once that
we would have done as much as we did.
So, I just want to say thank you for
your time here. We are sad to see you
go, but really excited for all that you
have next. and
that knowing that you are going to help
other schools
achieve our level of success is great
for the state of Colorado. So, thank you
for your time here and best of luck.
Also want to say congratulations to
those of you in the in the gallery who
are getting new jobs and new job titles.
Um we're excited to continue to work
with you in a more um one-on-one board
to senior staff level. So, welcome to
the team.
Also on this uh consent item, consent
agenda is a superintendent evaluation.
And typically I take the time to at
least just read the closing paragraph on
the evaluation so our community and our
staff get a percent of what the board is
feeling about his service.
It reads, "The board commends the
progress Dr. Anderson has made towards
this year's benchmarks and is grateful
for his leadership. Dr. Dr. Anderson is
an an incredibly skilled leader and
public education advocate. He's
dedicated to improving educational
experiences, opportunities, and outcomes
for students and staff. Dr. Anderson's
willingness and ability to navigate
several significant issues simultaneous
simultaneously this year has shown
remarkable fortitude and an undaunted
commitment to doing what is best for the
Boulder Valley School District. And
while it doesn't say it, I will say and
it's been incredibly hard and will
continue to be very challenging. So, um,
not everybody can do what is right over
what's easy. And, um, we appreciate your
ability to to guide this ship this year
and in the years to come.
With that, Laura, can you please call a
role?
>> Booker,
>> yes.
>> Chavez,
>> yes.
>> Medler,
>> yes.
>> Quinnland Aa,
>> yes.
>> Raj Paul,
>> yes. Tuading.
>> Yes. Motion passes.
We are now moving on to action items.
First of which is the cancellation of
the June 23rd, 2026 regular board
meeting. We can do this because we did
pass the budget. Well done team and
staff.
Is there a um
a motion on or approve?
>> I move that we cancel the June 23rd
meeting.
>> Is there a second?
>> Seconded by Dion. Any discussion on
whether or not we should convene for one
more day in June?
>> Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you
please call a vote on the motion?
>> Lucer,
>> yes.
>> Chavez,
>> yes.
>> Medler,
>> yes.
>> Quinn Linua,
>> yes.
>> Raj Paul,
>> yes.
>> Tamuadi,
>> yes. Motion passes. Next action item
this evening, our final action item is a
peakto peak charter school waiverss. Do
we have a motion?
Moved by Jorge, seconded by Alex. Board
members, any discussion?
Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you
please call the vote on the motion?
>> Booker,
>> yes.
>> Chavez,
>> yes.
>> Medler,
>> yes.
>> Quinn Linua,
>> yes.
>> Rajpaul,
>> yes. Totting.
>> Yes.
>> Motion passes.
>> Quick quick action items. Board members.
Next item on the agenda as always is
future agenda item requests. Board
members, we are meeting our next meeting
is board prioritization. So just know
that any items mentioned today will then
go on next semester's prioritization of
which we will amazingly not discuss
until December. So, it'll be a bit, but
we can capture those ideas here this
evening. Alex,
>> uh, in light of the last presentation, I
would like to put on the agenda item how
we track the implementation of our cell
phone policy.
>> Can I piggyback and say
all of our updates have really been on
high schools and I would love if we're
doing some any data like to see how our
middle schools are doing as well. Any
other items, board members?
Seeing as there are none, we will move
on to the final item on today's agenda,
which is executive session. As noted in
our agenda, the board has evenings on
this evening's agenda. The board has
items to discuss in executive session.
Is there a motion? Jorge?
I, Jorge Chavez, make a motion pursuant
to CRS 24-6-424F
to convene into executive session to
address personnel matters regarding the
superintendent's evaluation and contract
and pursuant to CRS 24-6-424B
for a conference with an attorney for
the purposes of receiving legal advice
on specific legal questions regarding
the superintendent's evaluation and
contract and the school district's
pending litigation related to personnel,
special education, civil rights, and
class action regarding META and related
to charter school contract. Crack
negotiations for Summit Horizons,
Boulder Prep, and Peak Toto Peak.
>> Is there a second? Seconded by Anna.
Laura, can you please call the vote?
>> Booker,
>> yes.
>> Chavez,
>> yes.
>> Medler,
>> yes.
>> Quinn Linua,
>> yes.
>> Raj Paul,
>> yes.
>> Tamadi,
>> yes.
>> Motion passes.
>> That concludes the public portion of
tonight's meeting. To anybody watching
and to those in the audience, I wish you
a very wonderful summer break. And board
members, we will convene in Glacier
Room.