serve as guideposts for decision-making
during the process of academic calendar
development. I'll share more about the
additional factors in a moment. When
draft calendars are created, the
foundational documents that serve as our
guides are board policy, now referred to
as ICA and a-R,
our employee agreements, principally our
negotiated agreement with BVEA,
and requirements identified by the
Colorado Department of Education.
Yes.
Uh, thanks, Robin. Just as a reminder to
the board and for those um who may just
be tuning in, uh AR is what used to be
referred to as the guiding principles
that had not been um
formally documented as part of a board
policy board policy regulation. And so
uh as we think about this process,
that's one big change. The other big
change is the last time we went through
this board members, if you'll recall,
for those that were on the board, we
went through the entire process and the
board did not get a chance to see the
calendar until we had already vetted it
entirely with our community. And at that
point in time, there was some feedback
at that the board gave us that created
some changes. And so as a as a change to
the process uh coming to you first based
on our draft calendars based on board
policy and board regulation to get
feedback and understand what questions
you might have uh then go back and
engage and then bring it back to you. So
it's just a bit of a change uh in
practice and uh as aligned to um board
policy and board regulation. But just
wanted to clarify that for the public on
why if you've been watching board
meetings for a long time that this is a
little bit different than has been done
in the past.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Um, and so as
you look at this slide, and as I said a
moment ago, um, in addition to policy
and a-rulation,
we create the calendars in alignment
with our BBEA negotiated agreement. That
includes the school year being 172
contact days for students, four
additional conference exchange days that
make for a total of 176 instructional
days for our licensed staff as seen here
and 10 additional days um during which
staff are engaging in professional
learning and work days. Um, as always,
items stipulated in our BVA negotiated
agreement can change over time through
the pro the contract negotiation
process.
In addition, the holidays that you see
on the right hand side are vacation days
to be considered. And I say that as they
are identified in one or more of our
negotiated agreements. Almost all of
these are included on the draft
calendars as observed holidays and based
on previous feedback from our board.
Other days including indigenous people's
day are honored on an honorific calendar
that is printed on the other side of the
academic calendar so that we can
communicate this and other days
important to our community um as well.
So to dive a bit further into the
regulation,
as Dr. Anderson shared a couple of
moments ago, these for the most part
used to be referred to as the guiding
principles. And so they were previously
created by a a collaborative stakeholder
group and served as a means of including
our community's priorities.
They are referred to now as the
additional factors and they're essential
in order to guide our decision making as
the the calendars are developed. As we
know, the academic calendar is a very
complex Rubik's cube of competing
priorities that exist within BBSD and
across stakeholder groups. Um, in
addition, just to make the puzzle a
little bit more complicated, we as a
district don't exist in isolation, but
interact on a number of levels with a
broader ecosystem of communities, school
districts, and governing organizations
in the state of Colorado, uh, which are
spoken to primarily in the two final
bullet points. So as a result, these
nine items are now what appear in the
regulation and are a cornerstone to the
calendar development process.
During the time between calendar
development processes, we continue to
receive feedback on current calendars
and sometimes that feedback can be
incorporated into future draft calendars
for consideration by our board and our
stakeholder groups. So on this slide you
see the reflection of what has been a
significant amount of feedback um during
this interim period and has been added
to these draft calendars. This includes
a more even distribution of professional
learning days throughout the school year
with three added to second semester in
order to facilitate learning of uh among
our our staff members as they work
through the year as well as returning
the second semester conference exchange
days back to April. These requests have
been heard loudly and clearly from many
members of our licensed staff.
Um, as you see here, this is the
proposed timeline for the development
and approval of these calendars for
school years 2728 and 2829.
It begins tonight with the first step at
this work session and with the board's
agreement, I'll move forward with
through the input process by presenting
the draft calendars and giving the
opportunity to share input with the
representative groups that you see
listed in the upper corner of this
slide. And that's inclusive of our unit
B, our BBEA association representatives,
TAC, our teacher advisory committee, our
Latino parent council, our district
accountability committee, district
parent council, principal advisory
council, also known as PAC, uh the
superintendent's cabinet, the executive
team, schools team, and our early
childhood team.
So the next step of this process is
after receiving all of the input which
traditionally is voluminous in nature, a
task force comes together and reviews
all the information and has very
thoughtful conversations resulting in
determining what input that we have
received is in alignment with board
policy, what is in compliance with our
negotiated agreement and CDE guidelines.
The group then discusses any ripple
effects of changes that could have
either a positive or a negative impact
on stat on families, staff and students.
So the task group is composed of BBEA
leadership, a parent representative of
representatives, principles, and
district office leaders including
representatives from human resources and
professional learning.
And so on this proposed timeline, at the
end of the revision process, a finalized
draft will be created and then brought
back to the board prior to the final
meeting in June for the board's
approval. And believe it or not, uh,
families and staff are already uh,
inquiring about the calendars for 2728
and 2829. And so they will be looking
forward to seeing the finalized
calendars after that time.
These next two slides include in English
and the following two in Spanish the
proposed or in other words draft
calendars for 2728 and 2829. You also
have them in front of you and for the
sake of comparison and for your
reference uh you can see that you have
the calendars for 2526
and 2627 which are the currently
approved [cough] calendars. So in other
words, the calendar that we are
currently uh working our way through and
next year [cough]
followed by the draft calendars that are
stated in draft in big bold letters at
the top for 2728
and 2829.
And so with that, I'm happy to jump in
and answer any questions that you may
have.
So board members, I think to frame this
conversation and because it is a new
slightly new process for all of us, I
would like us and knowing that from here
this draft calendar will go to the task
force, think about questions or
trade-offs we might want those
stakeholder groups to consider. [cough]
Uh as we move throughout this process,
as an example, I'll model this on one of
the academic calendars. I noted that
in the 2728
academic calendar, the school year
[cough] ends
on a Monday.
Might there be a trade-off that is
acceptable to end the school year, not
on a Monday, that the task force might
be willing to identify?
trade-offs will have to happen have to
occur for that to happen. But I don't
know what the most acceptable trade-off
is. I might have some opinions, but I'd
be curious to the community
what what might be acceptable to
stakeholder groups. Similarly, we've
heard feedback that Mondays and Tuesdays
are hard for days off. I noted that the
fall break
existed solely of a Monday and Tuesday.
Is that ideal? Might there be
alternative solutions in the same
academic calendar 2728 we start earlier
than we've ever started August 11th
for example would they prefer starting
two days later and not have a fall break
or have a fall break and start that
early. So those are some of the things
that like if if there are questions that
board members would like increased those
task force to sp focus specifically on I
think that that might be a helpful way
to frame this conversation moving
forward. give them some insight into
what the board is thinking, come back
with thoughts on those trade-offs. Does
that make sense?
Who would Lenia would like to begin?
Uh, could you tell me first a little bit
more about what it means that Veterans
Day must be celebrated on November
11th? Does that mean
that it has to be a day off?
That's what I I Okay, please tell us. Um
so my understanding is that if we are
going to recognize Veterans Day that it
must be on the 11th unless the 11th
falls on a weekend in which case it is
observed the day before which is true of
the uh currently in the draft calendar
of 2829 where Veterans Day falls on
Saturday November 11th and so it's
nationally recognized as the holiday on
Friday November 10th.
And does state law mandate that that is
a day we have to give off?
No, it does not.
Okay. So,
and not all not all surrounding
districts do uh recognize that as a day
off.
And so, that would be one of the things
I might suggest to our stakeholders to
um I think that our slides
make that kind of confusing when we put
it on the must be on our calendar. I
understand it must be, but it doesn't
have to be a day that we observe by
taking a day off of school. And so if
that one is inconveniently placed to our
community or they'd rather have it
placed somewhere else, that would be my
first suggestion that um stakeholders
look at. Second, um can you
enlighten me a little bit more on the
family calendar preference? I see 36%
looking at a September start and 64
like the current start. Um I would
assume once it gets pushed back right to
the beginning of August some people
might feel different but first what is
the end size on this and when was this
survey done?
Sure. So that so our uh community was
queried three times um from 20 in 2020,
2022 and 2024
I believe and they were queried through
the vehicle of the family survey that
goes out to families in February which
as I understand has approximately a 15%
uh response response rate on average in
that survey.
So that's I still need an N size. I
can't figure out what 15% would mean in
that case.
Happy happy to get that for you. Yeah.
Um I think that as we that would be
something I would also want stakeholders
to look at in the formation of these two
new calendars. Um that
uh August 8th
August 4th. Um, it's going to be darn
hot and I know Jason has talked about
this before, but I think it's something
for our stakeholders to start thinking
about. Um, I'd also be interested in
having stakeholders understand our
interaction with CHASSA at that point.
Um, and I don't know what the moves are
in Chassa, but certainly an August 4th
start date is going to be a lot for two
days for their football players and
things like that. So, I I to me the
weather is a concern. So, I'm hoping our
stakeholders might take a look at that.
Um,
and then I think my last thing for right
now is I see a little bit of creep here
on
the number of school weeks that are
shortened from five. So this year we
only have six weeks where we see that
occur. And as I look at uh
both 2728 and 28 29, it's either 8 or 9
weeks depending on how you count that.
If you count the first week of school,
if you count that single last day of
school on a Monday, um which I agree
with Nicole needs to be addressed. I
think we need to um ask our stakeholders
about those short weeks and
I would not be in favor of continuing
creep from 6 to 8 or nine isn't good.
Anna and then Jason.
Uh based on the cadence of the uh family
survey, will there be an uh the same
survey for the school calendar that goes
out this year? And will there be enough
time for us to receive that feedback?
So that was not a question that that
went out in the in uh or will be going
out in the survey this year? No, not
yet. But um
we can I can certainly check to see if
that's if that's a change that we are
able to make at this time.
If it is the in the interest of the
board to survey our families again, um I
can certainly check with staff to see
what surveys are still going out. And if
they haven't gone out yet and it's as
simple as adding a question, I think
that that's easy to do if but I'm not
sure when that is going out. I'll have
to check on that.
Jason, and then Alex.
Um thanks for this. Uh, I appreciate the
April the return of the April date. I
know I heard from a lot of teachers
about that and I'm sure there's
gratitude. Um, a lot of the points I was
going to make have been raised, but
curious to know, you know, obviously
want the stakeholders to look at this,
but when you end school on a Monday or
like this this calendar, um, what are
the projections on kind of number of
students that will be present? I think
that should be something we should think
about.
[clears throat]
So the Yeah. Okay. So projections of of
student attendance.
I just think if we I mean in addition to
the kind of trade-off conversation,
you know, that's a if 60% of students
don't show up because the last day ends
on a Monday,
I'm sure that's a revenue hit for the
district. And so wanting to kind of
think about it in those terms as well in
addition to the kind of other
trade-offs. I think similarly looking at
the this 2728
um you know they're already we already
come back on a Tuesday after winter
break which um as someone with three
kids at home for 18 days I think uh I
can speak to kind of how challenging
that is and I have a lot of job
flexibility and a lot of folks may maybe
don't and so understanding the
challenges of winter break and then here
we add another day to that and so in
addition to just being a really long
time out of school challenges with care
and um parents wanting their kids to go
back to school. Uh I would imagine
that's another hit to potential revenue
from the state when you add another day
to a long um break that then becomes a
vacation for a lot of families. So I
think that I would like to consider
those the extra Tuesday after winter
break and then the ending school on
Monday um just the impact of budgetary
impact of those choices
if that's possible.
Um, and I, you know, I don't know, it's
a trade-off that maybe, um, could be
considered, but if we're looking at
ending,
it's only, it only applies to this first
year, not the second year. But the, you
know, we have, a few of us have raised
this ending on a Monday, the 22nd. Um,
which I think we very good chance we
could have snow. And so that like I've
raised this weather issue before, but
it's kind of insane to me that we end so
early. But knowing that we start so
early and end so early, one
consideration I would love our
stakeholders to think about is what if
we just push the start date back a week
and then the end date back a week. And
so that could solve potentially two
problems here of not starting on August
11th and not finishing on a random
Monday the 22nd of May. So addressing
some of the issues I raised, Lenia's
raised over over time of just um kind of
extending summer a bit into August, you
know, considering the weather um and
then potentially addressing I don't know
if that works, but potentially
addressing that issue of um the very
early start and the very early end time.
Um and I think that's it for now.
Alex.
Yeah. I just I wanted to add one other
concern to think about which is data on
um teacher absences on some of those
days that hang out and whether that
becomes a staffing challenge that turns
into a quality of instruction day. I
doubt that would be happen on the last
day, but just always be aware of uh the
likelihood that we may be low on
teachers depending on what we do.
Deian and then Elenia.
Uh on both of these calendars, I'm a
little bit concerned um about the two
breaks in November
um which includes Veterans Day and then
it looks like one other um PD or work
day. I I think that the teachers have
articulated to me that that was
incredibly difficult this year because
you instructionally you just get the
kids going and then they go away and
have a break and then you get them going
and then they have a break. So
instructionally that may not be a really
good flow. I would also personally say
that uh November 11th is a really good
day to teach about what November 11th
is. So, I'd like to see that put back in
as a as a school day and pick a
different holiday. Uh maybe President's
Day or Lincoln's birthday.
Thanks, Dion.
I've also heard the disjointed Oh, I did
say Lenia next.
Disjointed schedules. It's hard to start
and stop and start and stop and keep
momentum going, particularly when the
momentum is high at the start of the
school year. momentum does Wayne at the
end of the school year and I'll reserve
my other comment for after Lenia.
Uh I would also be interested uh in
stakeholders
in particular BVEA
uh giving some input on what days are
the best days they think they will have
good participation
on professional development from their
teachers. what works best for their
teachers. Um I I acknowledge what um
Robin just said that we moved
some professional development days into
the second semester. Is that right,
Robin? Two.
Yes, three. That's correct.
Three. And is that at is that something
that the teachers are wanting? And if
so, we want to try to help them to use
those professional development days as
readily as possible. Um, so I'm
interested in finding a way to not put
all of those right next to a vacation
day where they just become a vacation
day.
So yes, to answer your question, that
feedback did come to us from both our
teaching staff and our academics team.
The last consideration I just wanted to
throw out there as a counterpoint
potentially to some of the other
considerations is we received a great
deal of feedback when we had to have
finals disrupted
for our high schoolers.
Not a lot of people really got very
excited about coming back after winter
break to participate in finals. That was
exceedingly hard. And so if if there's
entertainment around moving the days
back, I would still I would be curious
around stakeholder feedback
the
the relative importance of having finals
continue to wrap up before winter break
or not for those people because we did
hear from from from folks around that
this particular weather related
disruption
And I actually heard the opposite from
folks including one of my own kids who
did wonderfully on finals after break.
And I had a couple of other parents tell
me that as well. So I think it is um
a
I wonder if there are teachers who have
of course been doing their finals before
break for a long time and they know what
the numbers look like and then they know
what they look like when they gave those
finals after break because I found that
my kid probably did better because he
was well rested. Who knows? Um but I
heard positive feedback about it. So
that's why I am in favor of at least
doing some exploration of pushing us to
later in the year. Um with the caveat
that I do think CHASSA stuff continues
to be challenging and that our
stakeholders need to take into account
the CHASSA calendars.
Alex,
uh I appreciate the the back and forth
on the ending before the Christmas break
for the first semester. Um I do believe
and I'd love to hear from Dr. Anderson
on this one too, like how much are we
dependent on grades that are based on
finals in high school and how much
should the um uh performance of the
students prior to a final exam be
contributing to the grades so finals are
less stressful? I I understand that in a
competitive college environment, putting
a bunch of weight on a final makes a lot
of sense for 9th and 10th graders. I
don't get why we would do it that way.
So that if we delayed until after spring
break, the finals would be less
stressful. um if we actually addressed
the instructional part of overly
depending on final exams for kids um
assessment.
Thank you for that question. Um
I do think we have work to do in terms
of the grading policy. I think that as
we those last two days before winter
break where we were contemplating what
we would do, what we found is that
there's just um a great deal of variance
on how much those final exams are
weighted and that it's not something
that is spoken to in the board's grading
policy. So, I think that there's an
opportunity there. Um while I have the
microphone, I have a couple of
questions.
Where is it? Is it is it in one of our
negotiated agreements that that says we
have to observe veteran day veterans day
or is that in the board policy? That's a
question for Rob. And then I have a
question for the board.
Uh I don't believe that it's mandated in
any negotiated agreement or state law,
which is why we updated that calendar
list to say these are what must be
considered. That's the language used in
the negotiated agreements.
The the second thing is that um
multiple board members have asked for
pretty specific feedback from
stakeholders
and I'm I'm wondering how you want us to
collect that. Uh you know, typically
what happens is we go and we kind of
talk about the calendar in generalities.
Do you like it? Do you not like it?
Anything you can't live with? Um, but
I'm I'm hearing almost specific requests
on whether groups like or dislike
certain things.
Now, if I'm misharing that, please
correct me. Um, but if that is the case,
when we bring back the feedback,
what level of specificity are you
looking for so you can make your
decision? I want to make sure that we
deliver on what it is you're asking us
to deliver on. I'm just trying to think,
you know, do you want to have the list
of the groups? Here's the things like do
you want me to have them vote on them?
Do you want me to send everybody in
these groups a survey so you could have
the quantitative data or but because
typically Robin what we've done is just
had presented and had a conversation.
So, I'd love some clarity on the board
to house how how specific do we want to
get because when we get when we bring
this back to you and after we've engaged
folks and we've made the adjustments. I
don't want to I don't want our team um
or you know for any of us to not have
the information you need to make the
decisions that that you're going to have
to make.
I think getting us for me I I wouldn't
want such level of detail that we're
pitting one group against the other and
like saying well we like this group's
recommendation more than that group's
recommendation. So like that granularity
might actually get in the way but like
over majority opinions across those
groups are on these couple things. We
the group those stakeholder groups
prefer and part of this I think is
helping like the the board has never
agreed on what is the most pri the
highest priority and what the best
trade-off should be. Our new policy lays
out that those are the considerations
that things that need to be considered.
And so from those groups, I think some
degree of specific feedback to to kind
of close the loop on these two calendars
around things like Veterans Day, when to
start and end semesters, trade-offs of
those partial weeks and what day they
fall, but not necessarily. I I wouldn't
want it to be like 23% of DAC says this
and 75% of BVA says that. like I don't
know that that's helpful but to ask the
questions to get enough of a sense of
feeling and then my hope was I mean just
so the board knows we're already a
little bit behind the timeline on this
calendar adoption process because the
policy took us so long
so my hope then would be like there are
some you get the feedback on those
things for those groups and board
members if you disagree with me that's
totally fine and we can talk about it
and then any changes that you recommend
making to the calendar have been made
based on that feedback and it comes back
to us then for adoption like this was
overwhelmingly like yes there's high
support of removing or m making this
trade-off we're making this adjustment.
So, we did that and this is what the new
set of calendars we recommend for board
approval look like based on that like
that to keep us on track and not um get
even further behind on this and to honor
the all the work that the board did on
policy that our stakeholders board is
giving our first round of input here
today. First round of questions then
that feedback I think that would be
an effective way forward. board members
thoughts on that.
The one thing I think I can assure you
is that everybody won't agree.
Like if they if there is something I can
assure you of. So I will say that um
there will be certain groups that have
stronger opinions than probably others.
I would imagine the BVEA is going to
have an opinion that needs to be
considered um probably of the groups, a
formal opinion on this is what we think.
Uh and uh with the other groups, I think
that you may get varying degrees of um
of feedback. I do think that there's a
couple points that you've made. Ending
on the 22nd seems a little clunky. Can
we fix that? the Veterans Day piece.
Dan, I really appreciate your
perspective on that. And many
surrounding districts on Veterans Day
actually use that as a day as an
instructional teaching moment. Um I
think there may be some some opportunity
there. Uh and so um I think that there's
enough uh that we can talk to folks
about. I just wouldn't want to get I
wouldn't want to get back here. There be
maybe a a difference of opinion amongst
board members and then we look to the
data. What does the data say? Uh because
I think that at that point it'll be a
board decision and the data won't be
conclusive to tell you what to do or
what not to do and we're going to
consider it. But I would imagine uh why
these processes are difficult is because
people have different perspectives all
across the board. Subgroups of people
have different perspectives. Um, and so
we'll consider all of those. We'll
listen if there's anything that we feel
like is overwhelmingly supportive. Um,
we'll try to do that and also take the
concerns that were shared here from the
board and try to mush those into a
calendar that makes the best sense given
all the information that we have.
[clears throat]
Uh, responding uh, thank you very much.
That's I think that's helpful. And
responding to Nicole's uh, statement
about the granularity. I think this the
kind of issue where um I trust our
leadership within the district to sort
of adjudicate that and um if and to
summarize it for us how you got to where
you get. So I expect I expect your
expert judgment to be really quite
helpful for us to interpret that noise
and how you reach the decisions for your
final recommendation to us. So I don't I
don't know that I like Nicole, I don't
think I need a cross tabs of all the
votes of all the groups on all the
issues, but I I would like to have a
sense of your rationale for the final
thing that we get to accommodate that.
I'm seeing a lot of head nodding. Does
that make sense, Robin?
Yeah, absolutely. That that's extremely
helpful. Uh it might be helpful for you
all to hear that traditionally the way
we gather the input from the re from the
representative groups is to share this
same information and then pose the
questions to the groups that each person
has the opportunity to share uh in
English or as as we present to Kapple in
in Spanish. Um, what are the strengths
of the proposed calendars?
What changes, if any, would you like to
be considered for incorporation into the
academic calendar? And what other
thoughts or uh or suggestions do you
have to share with us? And that goes to
them in the form of a Google form. And
then we do compile the feedback by group
and then we look for themes by group. Uh
so we provide the opportunity to answer
questions and to provide additional
clarity in addition to the way in which
each piece of the calendar is connected
and interwoven with every other piece.
Uh just as as one example
uh
in order to
incorporate again the conference
exchange days into into April
without extending the number of school
days of the the school year. Uh those
need to be accommodated for in in some
manner. And so that is how then the the
two little pieces of wiggle room that we
have are the beginning of the year and
the end of the year. Basically the
entire calendar
um as we are grounded currently in the
regulation that
uh the first semester will end prior to
to winter break. uh that determines how
the year is planned back from there and
and forward from there because one of
the other uh additional factors is that
we balance the length of each semester
as much as possible. And so for example,
if we start the school year later,
that makes first semester one week
shorter. And if we end second semester
one week later, that makes second
semester one week longer. Always by
default, they are never balanced by the
exact number of days. These two
calendars are within just a couple of
days, but we would then extend that
imbalance by 10 school days. And so
those are the types of things that we do
look at because it almost literally is a
puzzle u where
every change or tweak then has a ripple
effect that causes another tweak. And so
then it comes down to the question of
what are our stakeholder groups
priorities
and as Dr. Anderson said, "I inevitably
uh the input comes to us varied by
stakeholder group as we would imagine
that uh the priorities of families or of
some families may be different than the
priorities of other families and
families may be different than the
priorities of staff etc. And so that's
why uh having decision-m that is based
primarily in board policy and by policy
our negotiated agreement and then uh
Colorado Department of Education serve
as what are really the guideposts and
then everything else fills in from
there. And so just a little bit more
information about how that process
generally works. But yes, um, board
president Rashbal, that's very helpful
understanding that we're looking for,
uh, broad themes of input across
stakeholder groups and then rationale
for how certain feedback may be
prioritized over other.
Thank you.
It's very exciting to kick off this
calendar process once again so closely
on the heels
of a previous discussion. With that, the
board will take a quick break to reset
the boardroom to carry on with our board
meeting. Thanks so much.
Superintendent Report. Dr. Anderson,
good evening.
Thank you, Board President Raj Paul.
Board members, welcome back. Good
evening, everyone. Hope everyone had a
wonderful winter break and happy new
year. Excited to welcome our students
back last week and excited for what is
going to be an incredible semester ahead
of us. So board members, earlier today
the Colorado Department of Education
released graduation rates for districts
across the state. Good news for BBSD.
Our four-year graduation rate for the
class of 2025 increased 1 percentage
point um up to 93.3%.
Uh outpacing the state average, which
was 85.6%.
Uh, and I don't know this for certain,
but from what I was hearing from folks
today, the highest our graduation rate
has been in around 20 years in BBSC. So,
a huge huge celebration.
Uh, and I think that you're going to be
really pleased with some of the notal
notable increases among some of our
subgroups. Hispanic Latino students, uh,
our graduation rate is up 8 and a.5%
from last year. multilingual learners up
7.9%
and our students identified as unhoused
up by 7.4%.
And our data in terms of dropout, our
dropout rate has decreased from 0.7%
to 0.4%.
And just as a comparison, state dropout
average is 1.6. Um, I want to thank all
of our amazing educators and leaders in
our schools for all of their hard work
with our students. So, I want to
congratulate our students who are being
more successful than ever before here in
the Boulder Valley School District. Um,
want to thank everybody um at the
district level who's been working hard
to make sure that that we're doing the
right work for students. Um, and just
very very excited that another piece of
student achievement data is trending
absolutely the right direction. So,
congratulations to everyone involved.
Last week, uh, Governor Polus stopped by
the BVSD culinary center. BVSD Food
Services welcomed the governor for a
tour and conversation about Colorado's
Healthy School Food Pathways, which is a
workforce development initiative led by
the Chef Anne Foundation. For those of
you who don't know, Chef Anne um was uh
ran our our school food project for a
number of years and uh has been really
just a um a powerhouse across the
country in um in in trying to bring best
practices to school districts. Um as
everyone will know, especially those of
us who have kids who who eat our food,
we're a leader in scratch cush scratch
cooking with locally sourced ingredients
from Colorado farms. And the visit
spotlighted BBSD as a real world example
of what sustained investment in school
food people and facilities can achieve,
you know, is interesting. As I said on
the tour, the ideas and the impacts even
on our local economy when we buy our
food locally, it's better for our kids.
It's better for our farmers locally.
It's it's healthier. Just wins all
around the board. Um, we had
representatives from Chef An's
Foundation, uh, Colorado Department of
Agriculture and Labor Labor and Alex and
I were there on behalf of the district
along with uh, with with staff members.
I'm very proud of our team and the
pathways we're building for the future
of school food. It's just really a point
of pride, something that I think a lot
of us maybe take for granted, but I
promise you when other folks from other
places from across the country come look
at what we're doing for school food,
they can't believe it. So really great a
point pr of pride. And then finally
before break board members you'll
remember this while we were at CASBY
which is college association of school
boards convention we had the opportunity
to meet with student leaders from BBSD
student cabinet and BBSD youth equity
council. Uh during a special breakfast
which I found very um insightful and
moving. Students play a vital role in
shaping our district, serving as a
bridge between students and district
leadership, sharing their perspectives
and helping guide decisions aligned with
our all together for all student
strategic plan. I want to thank
everybody involved, board members,
student leaders, Dr. Gagos and Flo King
for supporting and elevating this work
and especially our students. And I will
say that it is is a moment every year
where um I'm moved by the courage of
many of our students uh some of who
haven't had great experiences in our
school district and having the courage
to share that with us. Um and pushing us
to be better be better for them, be
better for our community. And so I
really appreciate those moments. Uh and
uh they're very moving for me. Hopefully
they were for you. Um, and so based on
some of those recommendations, we're
we're already hard at work trying to
think about what are some of the new
things that we could be doing. That is
all I have for my remarks this evening.
Board members, happy to answer any
questions you may have.
Thank you for that update. Dr. Anderson,
board members, any questions or
comments.
Seeing as there are none, we'll move on
to the next item of tonight's agenda,
which is public participation. The board
respects the right of the public to
speak on matters concerning the
operations of our schools. The board
does not endorse the comments and of
anyone speaker and reminds all those who
speak that you are responsible for your
own speech. Speech 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 like to share additional thoughts,
you are always welcome to the email the
board. We do read all of our emails.
With that, we are going to be starting
this evening with our students. The
first of which is Zanna Prospero.
And for those of you that have not
provided public comment, you can come up
to the podium, push the little button.
You should see a green light on the
microphone to know that it's on
now. Can you hear me? Okay, great. Can I
start whenever?
Okay, I'll start now. Good evening. My
name is Zana Prospero and this year I'm
a senior at Fairview High School. I'm
here today working with the Resilient
Futures Bond campaign because our planet
is dying. In 2023, as a sophomore, I
petitioned for support to pass the Green
New Deal in BBSD. I was excited to
finally be part of a school district
that prioritized fighting climate
change. However, since the Green New
Deal passed, BBSD has not implemented
these required changes in many schools.
I would like to take a collective moment
to think about the weather today. The
sky was blue, the sun out, and the high
was 60°. Temperatures should not be this
high in January. But if this doesn't
ring an alarm bell in your head, then
think about the rest of the world. Sea
levels are rising. Homes are being
ruined. Deforestation is compromising
ecosystems and murdering millions of
animals. Plastic is consuming our oceans
and killing everything in its path. I
could go on and on, but I hope you get
my point. Global warming is a monster
consuming our world, and BBSD is one of
the few leaders that can actually do
something about it. Make an investment
in renewables. If you won't do it for
our planet, then do it for the financial
opportunity. Okay? Right now, energy is
the second highest cost for BBSD schools
because not all schools are using green
energy. To mitigate this, switch to
renewable energy. This will not only
reduce carbon emissions, but it can
neutralize them. We absolutely need to
start prioritizing on-site renewables
and decarbonization right now for both
the direct environmental impacts and the
financial benefits. You inspired other
school districts and governments around
the country to implement the Green New
Deal in 2023. I'm here to ask you to
keep following this resolution as it not
only will our impact on the environment
be significant, but it will spark the
flame to burn a momentum around this
country. Solving climate change starts
right here with prioritizing renewable
energy in the bond. Thank you.
Thank you. [applause]
Our next speaker this evening is Danny
Bernard.
Yeah, I'm on. Okay. Uh, my name is Danny
Bernard. I'm a senior at Fairview High
School and I'm joined today by members
of my climate club, Fairview Institute.
I want to start off by saying thank you
to the board for allowing me the
opportunity along with students like me
to give public comment about the
pressing and important issues within our
district. A few weeks ago, our entire
district shut down because of a planned
outage by XL Energy. Students missed
class. Finals had to be rescheduled,
requiring mid-year reports for college
admissions to be delayed. And some
families even had to scramble for child
care. This PSPS event was important for
our safety, but it also reminded us of
how vulnerable our schools are to
outside forces.
It doesn't have to be this way. Energy
independence through renewable energy
like solar panels and battery storage
mean our schools could keep the lights
on in these conditions and worse when
they need to be used as emergency
shelters. I believe our schools can be
more than just places of learn places to
learn. They can be places that actively
make the communities they serve better.
Leading by example, BBSD has the
opportunity to adopt renewable energy in
a format that's more sustainable, more
cost-effective, and more resilient than
it ever has been. Over the past few
months, I've worked with community
members on what we're calling the
renewable or sorry, what we're calling
the resilient futures bond campaign.
It's our goal to work with BBSD to fund
infrastructure that is renewable through
a bond initiative. We're not asking you
to vote on anything tonight, but we're
just asking you to keep this
conversation open and to see students
like us as partners in building a
greener, stronger district. Thank you.
Thank you. [applause]
Our next speaker this evening is Kelsey
Glass.
All right. Do I need Oh, this is the
one. Got it. All right.
Uh, my name is Kelsey Glass and I'm a
parent of a second and fourth grader at
Lafayette Elementary School. I've had
the opportunity to meet some of you in
person and deeply respect your service
as school board members. Tonight, I'll
share my family's experience having my
fourth grader's teacher, Mrs. Ker,
removed from the classroom in late
October. My child's neurodeiverse and
requires a strong relationship with his
teacher to have a positive learning
experience. And luckily, he's had that
with Mrs. Harshner. While I can speak to
the positive experience my child has had
with his teacher, I want to share about
the experience we've had in the
district's communication about the
situation. I in no way expect details as
to the investigation taking place, but I
do expect that there's a standard
operating procedure in place regarding
notification of such a situation and
ongoing communication with families. I
had no idea that my child's teacher had
been out of the classroom for be um for
two weeks before I received an email
from the school leadership notifying me.
In that time frame, my child struggled
immensely after school, often having
meltdowns that impacted my whole family.
Had we known that his teacher was
absent, we could have done a better job
addressing things at home. Two weeks
after the initial email and following a
particularly rough week with a multiple
subs, we received another email saying
that the teacher was still out and a
long-term sub was being secured. You can
imagine that the week with multiple subs
was a repeat of challenges at home. Um,
was our family aware of this so we could
make sure that there were added
supports? No. our family didn't have the
information needed to make the choices
to best support our child, and that's
really unacceptable. During a time where
a teacher is removed from the classroom,
there should be a weekly communication
regarding what students and families can
expect. I can appreciate the district's
intentions in their investigative
process, but it's not meeting the needs
of students and families. Too many
children in this classroom have been
negatively impacted by the lack of
communication and expect um expectation
setting to allow their families to help
support their success. That must be
changed and I hope that this situation
sparks the review of how this is handled
in the future. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. [applause]
The next speaker this evening is Craig
Dreer.
We'll Craig is not here. We'll move on
to Kristen Campbell.
The next speaker this evening is
attending remotely. Katie, I'm really
sorry Katie if you're listening. Janau,
you're on mute.
Very close. It's gau
but it's a hard one.
Um, well, my name is Katie Canauer and
I'm here today to address the district
policies and procedures related to
employee investigations. My daughter is
a student at Lafael Elementary as well.
And as um Kelsey just said, in late
October, her fourth grade teacher, Miss
Melinda Kshner, was removed from the
classroom due to a district
investigation. I want to clearly state
that I support the district's
responsibility to investigate potential
concerns involving staff. Students
safety must be the highest priority.
Though I'll add we had a very positive
experience with Miss Carner as our
classroom teacher. The concern today
though is the absence of a clear student
centered plan once a classroom is
disrupted for an extended period of
time. Academically these students have
experienced significant disruptions over
the past nine weeks. During the first
month the class cycle through multiple
subs. While there has been a consistent
subs more recently, she's not an
elementary school certified teacher and
not trained in our fourth grade
curriculum. Emotionally, many students
have struggled. Being in a state of
uncertainty for several weeks has caused
confusion and anxiety. The lack of
consistency led to frequent classroom
disruptions
and interfering with learning. My
daughter even asked Santa to bring her
teacher back. Compounding these
challenges has been a lack of
communication with families. Parents
were not informed that Miss Harsher
would be absent for an unknown duration.
Nor were we provided clear updates
regarding instructional plans,
timelines, points of contact, or student
support. While we respect
confidentiality requirements, families
deserve proactive communication about
their child's education. I respectfully
urge the board to strengthen policies
and ensure that there are clear
procedures to protect instructional
continuity. Thank you for your time and
consideration.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Mark
Milan who is given two minutes from
Emily Zner. They should both be
virtual.
Yes. Good evening. My name is Mark Milan
and as with some other parents you've
heard from, my children attend Lafayette
Elementary. My daughter also has seen
her educational experience this school
year significantly diminished by BVSD's
current practices around administrative
investigation leaves. The way BVSD
currently implements administrative
investigation leaves for staff and
especially primary elementary school
teachers appears wildly out of line with
the district's primary overriding goal
of educating students. BBSD's current
practice appears to prioritize the
district's own bureaucratic
administrative convenience and minim
minimizing litigation risk to an
unjustifiably conservative extent over
students actual education. The
educational impact on students needs
needs to be the primary consideration
for any teacher or staff leave that the
district itself initiates, not an
afterthought as it appears to be today.
I'm here to make two concrete requests
to the board to address the very clear
problems that we affected families have
experienced. First, BBSD should
undertake a study and publish data about
the impact districtwide of their
administrative leave and staff
investigation process. This should show
with data how BVSD's existing process
affects students educational experience
with formal published findings on
whether changes to the process are
warranted. Second, BBSD should create a
publish written policy for when
administrative investigation leaves are
triggered that explicitly takes into
account the negative educational impact
that these leaves have on students and
justifies to a high standard why any
such leave is strictly necessary against
that backdrop. It appears the BBSD has
no written policy today that lays out
specific criteria for when an
administrative investigation leave will
be instituted or what obligations are
triggered for the district when it
creates a teacher or staff absence by
operations of its own HR policies.
This should include providing support
for affected students in advance and as
a matter of course, not just
sporadically at best, after the fact, or
on an ad hoc basis. In the current
absence of a written policy, decisions
about the district initiated leaves
today appear to be made behind closed
doors without any clear criteria that
appropriately values impact on students
and with no accountability for the
district in the extremely disruptive
leaves it appears to institute overly
conservatively. BBSD's current practice
needs to change urgently. a rigorous
datadriven and published study of
current practices and their impact as
well as making any changes that such a
study suggests are necessary and
formalizing guard rails in public
written policy would go a long way to
ensuring that actually educating
students as effectively as possible is
BBSD's paramount priority. That's what
every member of our community should
expect and it's what every BBSD student
deserves. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Fallon
Dudy.
Hi,
good evening members of the board. My
name is Fallon Dudok. I'm a parent to
two children at Lafayette Elementary. As
well, I'm here today to speak to you
about the impact of the extended absence
of my child's teacher due to the
investigation process as it stands. I
will ask you to consider additional
policy measures be added to the BBSD
investigation process to ensure that our
child's right to an education is
protected.
I understand this is a confidential and
very sensitive process and the
importance of privacy and the time to
fully investigate is essential, but I
ask that the communication with parents
be essential as well. Our children's
newly formed safe environment was
[clears throat] removed on October 28th
without direct acknowledgement to our
children and their parents. This has
created anxiety, loss of trust, loss of
enjoyment at school, academic
regression, social regression, and a
loss of structure. What seemed to be at
the start small cracks this at the
beginning of this investigation have
turned into gaps for some of these
students in this class.
I think this could be avoided in the
future. I suggest required notification
to the parents on day one of an
investigation. While parents should be
aware that their child's teacher will be
absent for an undetermined amount of
time and with notification will be able
to feel their child's unique needs due
to the situation at hand. I urge you to
consider a required written plan of
support to be sent to parents within the
first week of removal. This will ensure
that all concerns or needs that have not
been addressed can be met in a timely
manner. I also ask the board to consider
placement of a licensed teacher in the
general education classroom if the
investigation extends beyond 3 weeks.
The loss of structure would not be
eliminated, but it would be restored
more quickly. I hope that you will
consider what our families have endured
during this process and that we would
all like to work together to do the best
for all students at BBSD. Thank you so
much for your time.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Katie
Tahoon who has received two minutes from
Emily Book McGree.
I'm actually going to give kind of like
two separate remarks. Some from me and
then some as a parent group that Emily
did. So I guess I'll just break myself
halfway through. Is that fine?
I won't go over four minutes.
Never mind. They're all part of my
comments. Thank you so much. Okay.
Rescended.
Good evening. My name is Katie Tillahan
and I'm a parent of a fourth grader and
a second grader at Lafayette Elementary.
Go Cougars. I have joined this meeting
to express my frustration with the BBSD
policy around teacher investigations and
my deep dissatisfaction with the way
BBSD has communicated overall and how
BVSD has responded to outreach from
parents throughout the process. This
fall, a complaint, as you've heard, was
filed against Melinda Kshner, an
experienced fourth grade teacher who was
new to Lafayette, but had already made a
positive impact on her students and the
school community. She was pulled out of
the classroom beginning October 28th.
And let's think about that. We're
talking about October, and it's January
now. The students have been taught by
substitute teachers since that time.
BBSD provided no support to the school
in engaging qualified coverage for this
extended absence. Just because this is
the way the policy is written does not
mean that it is right. While I fully
understand the need to conduct
investigations when reports are filed,
we are in week 12 of this investigation.
This is simply too long. The fourth
grade students have not had a licensed
teacher in their classroom since October
27th. This is not acceptable. The lack
of a licensed teacher is impacting
learning. It is impacting behavior and
it is causing confusion among these
students who need structure and
consistency to feel secure at school.
These students have none of the power
but are bearing the negative impact of
this prolonged investigation of their
teacher. When parents have reached out
to BBSD, we either do not get a response
at all or the response is we're
following policy. Following the letter
of policy without addressing the impact
on the students that you are here to
support is not carrying out your duties.
BBSD needs to concern itself beyond
policy steps and think about the
students. There needs to be contingency
planning for what happens to classrooms
when teachers are removed for
investigations. If this does not exist
in the current policy, the policy needs
to be changed. Investigation
investigations need to be conducted
quickly and efficiently with clear
timelines and an end date, keeping the
well-being of students at the front of
mind at each stage. This whole process
has been damaging to the students and
the school community, and it reflects a
complete lack of leadership and
ownership by BBSD.
I'd also like to follow up with a letter
from a coalition of parents in Miss
Kshner's class. Members of the board of
education, we are writing as a coalition
of parents of students who have been
fortunate to be in Melinda Ker's fourth
grade classroom at Lafayette Elementary
this year. We wish to express our
unequivocal support for Miss Ker and to
speak to the profound impact she has had
on our children and our community. Miss
Ker is quite simply an exceptional
teacher. Many of us have worked in
education ourselves across a range of
settings and can say without hesitation
that she is among the finest educa
educators that we have encountered. Her
teaching [snorts] reflects deep
professionalism, clarity of purpose, and
genuine care for children as learners
and as people. She holds students to
high expectations while meeting them
with warmth, patience, and respect. An
increasingly rare and invaluable
balance. This year, our teacher our
children thrived in her classroom. They
felt safe, seen, and supported. They
trusted her. They learned not only
academically but socially and
emotionally. Miss Kchner created a
stable, thoughtful classroom environment
where childrens could take risks, ask
ask questions and grow. These are not
abstract qualities. They are the daily
conditions that allow children to
succeed. Her sudden absence has had a
significant and lasting impact on our
students. The disruption, uncertainty,
and lack of closure we have been have
been deeply distressing for children at
a critical developmental stage. Many of
our kids continue to ask about her,
express sadness and confusion, and
struggle with the loss of a trusted
adult presence in their lives. The
emotional toll of this prolonged
separation has been substantial, and its
effects are still unfolding. We strongly
and respectfully urge the board to allow
Miss Ker to return to her students.
Reuniting her with the children who miss
her so deeply would be a meaningful step
toward healing, restoring stability, and
reaffirming the values of care, trust,
and common sense that families expect
from their public schools. Teachers like
Melinda Kshner are the heart of a school
community. Our children need her back.
We hope the board will act with
compassion, wisdom, and an unwavering
focus on what is best for students.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Our next speaker this evening is Caitlyn
Crouch.
Good evening. My name is Caitlyn Crouch
and I'm a parent of three BBSD children,
all current and former Lafayette
Elementary Cougars. I am following up on
the email I sent the board on November
18th regarding the sudden removal of our
fourth graders's beloved teacher on
October 28th. [clears throat] I want to
be clear, like any parent, I do fully
support keeping students safe. However,
the district's current practice of
automatically removing staff whenever a
complaint is filed, regardless of the
nature of the allegation, is causing
real harm to students. My concern is
that it could be doing more harm than
good.
Months now into Mrs. Ker's unexplained
absence, our children are paying the
price. They've lost continuity, trusted
relationships, classroom routines, and
instructional momentum. Even the
strongest substitute can't replace the
stability and connection that a teacher
builds over months. As much as I love
new ways to connect with my son, joking
over what degree of thumbs up or down
that day substitute was is not the way I
want to be greeted by him after school.
This isn't the first time that our
school community has experienced this
type of disruption. Most significantly,
our principal and dean were both out
together for an extended period a couple
of years ago.
It fractured trust and created deep
anxiety in myself and my family. My
trust in the in our school community and
our district has not recovered. For some
students, especially younger children
and neurode divergent children such as
my eldest child, these disruptions
really are devastating. Losing a trusted
adult and a stable learning environment
shatters their sense of safety and
belonging and therefore their ability to
learn. Students pay the price for these
slow investigations at administrative
batwalks. I hope there's a different way
and that the district can reevaluate
this practice and find ways to protect
student safety without causing prolonged
unexplained harm to classrooms and
school communities. Thank you for your
time.
Thank you. [applause]
Our next speaker this evening is Michael
Whitaker who has been uh receives two
minutes from Jennifer Whitaker.
Hi everybody. Michael Whitaker. I have a
ninth grader at Fairview and a sixth
grader at Southern Hills. Several of you
may remember me from the fall. We had
several conversations about AI in
schools. You said it's going to be a
priority agenda item. The earliest you
consider it is January. It's January, so
I'm back. Um, I need you to understand
that in the absence of the board taking
action over the fall, almost nothing has
happened in the district. My kids are
not hearing any guidance.
I was told after one of the early
meetings that there would be clear AI
policy posted on a website for everybody
to understand. Three of the top seven
Google search results for BBSD's AI
policy are things I wrote or I said. Two
more are policies from two years ago
or and then two more are be um board
candidate statements from the past
election cycle and one was a student
comment in an article last year. There
is no clear policy out there for
students or parents to understand the
district stance. What is that doing to
our kids in the classroom? I'll tell you
what it's doing. They're living in a
climate of fear and uncertainty because
they don't know what's allowed. It
changes classroom by classroom and they
are torn by this. There's this tension
with them. They know they need AI skills
to be successful in the future. But
there are real damaging things that AI
can do to their development if it's not
done in a healthy way. If they don't
know how to have a healthy relationship
with AI and they don't have guidance on
that, they can go down a really
dangerous path. So they know they have
to use it, but they aren't being guided
in how. And what's happening, and I've
talked to several students in the
district, is they are dumbing down their
work to avoid being accused of using AI.
They are taking big words out of essays.
They are not putting the finishing
polish on their work because they fear
that an AI detector will call it AI work
and they'll get a zero and they can't
defend themselves. They are stifling
their voices. And I will tell you that
AI detectors
flag non-English native speakers more
frequently than English native English
speakers. And good writing is
pattern-based.
And so as you teach better writing, it
is more likely to get detected by AI.
The kids are in a bind and they're
getting no guidance. What's happening
with parents? They don't know how to
engage. They're not hearing anything
from the schools. I ran a parent
workshop with CU. 50 plus parents came
to learn how to talk to their kids about
AI, about AI companions, about AI in
school, about digital deception.
I wrote a book since we last talked
because the parents needed guidance. And
this book is about how do you tap into
your timeless parenting wisdom and bring
it into modern conversations like AI to
guide your kids when you're not an
expert when it can feel impossibly hard,
but you still have to say something
because the institutions and the laws
and the everything else designed to
protect our kids is impossibly behind
and isn't meeting the moment. It then it
turns to the parents and it's on the
parents. And I will tell you that the
district and the schools, you have
enough knowledge and you have enough
guidance that you can lean in right now.
Whether that's gradual release of
responsibility, whether it's building
crosscutting skills that the kids can
take forward, opting out is not an
option. And it's critically important
and it is only accelerated and gotten a
deeper issue for our kids since we last
talked in the fall. And I'll tell you
also, St. Brain is ahead. They're
running a summit with 185 teachers in
February to talk about AI use. I'm
running a workshop there about aligning
parents and teachers to guide our kids
in the age of AI. They have an ethos
framework that has guidance for
students, teachers, and parents to have
conversations at home about AI.
It is not impossible, but it takes
action. And and silence is a choice. And
whether that silence is because you're
afraid of making a mistake or you don't
know what to say, it is a scary
territory. Nobody's an expert, but we
have to guide our kids. And I'm urging
you to really adopt this as a priority
agenda item and put urgency behind it,
not just discussions. Go talk to the
community and discover where everybody's
out and have intentional conversations
with parents and students.
[applause]
Our next speaker, I brought copies of
the books.
Our next speaker this evening is Melissa
Zens who has been given two minutes from
Megan Maguire.
Melissa is not here. So, we'll move on
to our final final speaker of this
evening, which is Katherine. I'm sorry,
Katherine
Kat Lararszik.
Hi everyone. Um, I'm Katie Klarik. I'm a
parent of um, three students in the
Boulder Valley School District. I first
want to compliment the student speakers
who spoke tonight for their courage and
conviction. It takes a lot of both to be
here and speak in front of this group.
Um, second, I want to thank the board
members for doing what is often a
thankless job. We know it's hard and
we're here because we care. Every day
since October 28th, my daughter and I
have expected her fourth grade teacher,
Ms. Ker, to come back to school. It has
now been nearly three months of this
uncertainty at Lafayette Elementary.
From the perspective again of serving my
children's educational needs, Miss
Carshner was one of the best teachers I
have seen in my eight years and three
children through this district.
Neither parents nor students have
received communication providing a
reason, a timeline, or a plan for this
teacher's departure.
I do think it's a district's
responsibility alongside the school to
provide a certified teacher to these
classrooms. Rotating substitutes does
not count. And a long-term sub without a
certified teaching degree or curriculum
responsibility and again without any
known timeline for how long they will be
there does not count. So I'm asking you
to step in and take responsibility for
the problems that were created when
district policy allowed the removal of
our teacher from the classroom. You
either need to reinstate what we thought
was a great teacher and still is or
provide a suitable plan and timeline. um
for what's going to happen next. Thank
you.
Thank you. [applause]
This concludes today's public
participation. On behalf of the board,
I'd like to thank everyone who took the
time to show up today in person remotely
to share your thoughts and opinions with
the board. We do take that all into
consideration because we have some new
participants tonight as well as new
members on the board who have not
observed public participation since
being sworn in. As a reminder, while we
listen, the board does not directly
engage with public comment.
With that, we'll now move on to board
member communication. Uh the board
member communication portion of this
evening's agenda. Board members, who
would like to begin?
Deian.
Hello. I would like to um recognize
something wonderful that's happening at
one of the schools in uh district E,
which is Monarch High School, which has
a leader and a tremendous teacher named
Jennifer Dixon. And Miss Dixon has
organized um a unified bowling
tournament at Cole Creek Bowling on the
22nd of January. And I I have seen many
of these unified events and they are
delivered with such passion and such
greatness and such care for families and
the students involved. I'd like to see
everybody um attend if they can get to
Cole Creek. And I just want to honor
Miss Dixon for her dedication to this
cause um which is something very close
to my heart. my brother would have loved
to participate in this bowling
tournament and so I see him there. Um,
thank you very much,
Anna.
Yes. I just wanted to take a a moment of
privilege to just say uh thank you to
all of the senior staff and directors at
the district. Both Deian and I have been
on a training uh schedule these past few
weeks and we've gotten a chance to meet
um all of the directors or not quite all
of them. We have one left. Um but I'm
just very really grateful for the time
that you've all taken to really um take
that time to really talk to Deian and I
about the ins and outs about for uh of
the district. Um and continually just
growing impressed uh with Dr. Anderson's
leadership. Thank you.
Uh, first off, I want to ditto on the
the unified sporting events. I've been
to a couple of the basketball ones, and
for anybody on the board who hasn't been
to one, you really need to go. I'm
bummed I'm going to be out of the state
for the bowling, but I'm going to do
everything I can to make basketball.
It's some of the most powerful stuff
you'll see at BBSD. Um, I also wanted to
I would had the opportunity I didn't
think I'd be able to get there for the
culinary tour with the governor and the
Chef Anne Foundation. Um, and once
again, uh, just kudos to the previous
board members for their leadership to
move us in this direction to Chef Anne
and the district and for the facility
that's there. What I didn't know we had
with the Chef Anne Foundation is a
program for our nutritional staff to do
um uh training and in uh um different
professional development opportunities
that allow them to elevate their own
professional participation. And uh
again, it's not just that we have a cool
thing going on that we've invested in.
It's that we care a lot about the people
that work for us and are trying to
present um to people in our nutritional
program, some of which are our least
paid employees uh with professional
opportunities and partnership with
something like the Chef Anne Foundation
is is sort of a kudos to everybody. Um
but I'm always frustrated by the scale
like I just want there to be more of
that. So anyway, it's it's very cool. Um
[clears throat] I also want to thank all
our speakers tonight uh especially
including the students. I really
appreciate the passion. I wasn't on the
board when the Green New Deal resolution
was passed, but I sure would have voted
for it and its implementation is really
um a key priority for me and I I believe
it's a priority for all folks on the
board from our conversations.
[clears throat]
Uh I also want to not speak to at all to
the case before us um in terms of
teacher stuff, but I I do want to give
the district uh kudos for the progress
we've made in being clear about our
processes um for investigations. So we
have a website now that includes a place
where people can report the kind of
things that lead to investigations and
that website includes explanations of
what can lead to delays and why there
are o times when there isn't much
communication. So I appreciate that
that's really frustrating. I I hear from
parents, teachers, community members who
are [clears throat] somehow involved in
that process and they frequently have
that frustration of not knowing what's
going on. And I appreciate all our
speakers tonight and the other feedback
we've gotten who recognize the legal um
obligations that we face as a district
and an institution. So there's we
there's lots of things we cannot and
should not talk about. Um, I do agree
though that when when parents are facing
a likely long-term absence of a teacher
that the district can do more to
communicate to them. So, we don't have
to talk about ways that are
inappropriate for the actual case that's
before them. But when parents of
especially young kids are knowing that
the primary teacher is going to be with
their kid every day, may be out for a
long time, parents deserve to know
what's at least what's going to h happen
that's affecting their kid. So I
continue to encourage us as a district
to to continue thinking about that from
a parentf facing perspective and I know
we have to look after we have to handle
these tricky things appropriately which
is not easy and we have to handle all
the obligations that constrain us but I
also want us to maintain an empathetic
uh communication with the parents as
much as we can within those constraints
and I don't think that's about the
investig that's can be with um uh family
medical leave or whatever else we can't
talk about. But when the parents are
facing a long-term absence, I believe
communication can be uh can probably
address some of that anxiety. So
Jorge,
uh I would also like to start by
thanking our speakers today. I'm always
moved by the passion and commitment of
our families and our students here and
and I really appreciate it. I I also
want to say thank you to to the district
staff and leadership um and to the very
other board members because uh we had a
chance to kind of connect a little bit
at Casby. It's been a while back now,
but I think it was still um very useful
for us to kind of get to know each other
better and to and to you know make see
the commitment that everybody here has
um in the work that we're doing and
serving our students because that's so
important. Um I was able to attend some
good sessions there and um and uh in
particular some on family engagement and
to see the sessions that were led by um
Superintendent Adderson um talking about
the work that we're doing and the
engagement that we're doing and and it's
it's striking to me that we're leaders
in this area um that we're you know even
tonight you know talking about how we're
engaging our families and our students
in terms of the calendar um hearing from
the community about the the need for
increased communication. we're doing it
at so many different levels and we are
leaders there. Um and and and I really
appreciate that recognize that there's
always room for improvement for us to
continue this communication. Um and so I
thank our community and our students for
that and and the staff as well. Um I
know there's also families that um don't
feel comfortable communicating, right?
That that that
don't feel comfortable coming to these
meetings. And I and I hear from a lot of
uh families and students at the end of
last year and into this year, there's a
lot of turmoil going on in our in our
national landscape. there's a lot of
fear in our communities and I'm continue
to hear about these sorts of things and
not everybody feels comfortable coming
to speak at these things. Um, and so I
want to speak to that and about our need
to serve all of our students, right,
from all of our groups and the need for
our students to feel safe. Um, and I
want to speak to the commitment of this
board to continue that work to make sure
that all our students here feel heard
and safe and able to engage in their
work that we do um and the work that
they need to do um to be successful
because they are are the future. Um, so
I just want to highlight that and and
reflect that commitment that we continue
to do that work and continue to work on
the communication. Thank you.
Uh, one last thing I we'll be doing our
uh, prioritization as a board um, next
week, but I just I want to reiterate uh,
for me uh, in my day job I see the
increasing impact and influence of AI
and I do think it uh, for me it is a big
priority for us to figure out what we
can do and I know that we have so many
other things that we're working on as a
district but I think in terms of an
impact on student uh, learning
experience that has just got to be a
bigger priority to deal with. I don't
know what we do with it. Um, but I do
think it is one of those things that we
underestimate its impact at, you know, a
way that's just going to really undercut
the student experience.
We will be discussing that next week.
And if there are, as a reminder,
prioritization items to be considered
can bring those up at the end of the
agenda. Board members, any final
comments? Board comments.
I just also want to thank the taxpayers,
thank district staff, thank board
members for
allowing us to all go down to CASBY to
learn from other folks in the school
district for us to be leaders on the
good work that we we are doing. I think
there was a few different themes that I
observed in the lineup of topics
discussed at CASBY. Declining enrollment
was a significant one. Multiple
conversations on how to handle declining
enrollment. The other one that makes me
feel sad and worried a lot of
conversations around board and
superintendent relationship and what
happens if you need to hire one. So I
Dr. Anderson and I talked about
presented on board and superintendent
relationship. We had great attendance in
that one. Colleagues, we presented on
another conversation on board governance
which was well attended and I think
throughout the meeting all of us and I
know Alex presented on some charter
school stuff but all of us were asked a
lot of follow-up questions throughout
the meeting. We are seen as leaders. I
appreciate having past board members,
current board members to really set the
tone, be um across the state and um the
work that we do is really making an
impact not only here in BBSD but
statewide.
So um that was great to be down at
Casby.
Since we got back, I was able to attend
the DAC meeting this month. Um biggest
topic of that is their budget update
they will be presenting to the board on
January 27th. Um I think one of their
better budget pre writeups that I've
seen in a long time. There's a lot of
good discourse around how they came to
the recommendations that we received in
writing and that we'll discuss on the
27th. But it was good to reconvene with
them.
Kind of related to board prioritization.
You know, previously the board had
prioritized board policy. We didn't
quite get to it because we got derailed
with some other policies, but they are
still planning on giving feedback to the
board on policy
and on the grading policy because those
were previously prioritized in our joint
work session. So, if there's any
deviation to that plan with the board,
we'll have to figure out how to readjust
that with the DAC, but they are working
on those still. And then um kind of
thinking really working hard on doubling
down on school and community engagement
and some really good work that they're
doing there anchored in best practices
and to really um have that authentic
two-way communication between school
school and families.
Last night I also discovered that with
Kitty's reg resignation when our lack of
appointment to board committees we
didn't have anybody to represent the
board at Elroch. So, I jumped in on that
meeting. It was good to see I had never
been to an IRA meeting before, so it was
really great to listen to their
conversation. Um, and they are just sort
of responding to some questions that
will help inform the board presentation
on the 27th. So, thanks to ALRACK
members for all you've done in the past
four years to get us to this point of
really um getting to a significant
action phase to address facilities and
declining enrollment in that. Um, so was
able to do that.
[cough and clears throat] And then
lastly, open enrollment window
officially closed last week. First round
of slots have gone out.
I've received a lot of questions and
clarifications. I even had to reach out
to Robin to say, you know, what happens
if you're on a wait list and you pick
your second spot. Do you get to stay on
the wait list for your first school of
choice? Apparently, this feels new since
when my kids participate in this
process, but that's yes, you do remain
on the wait list for your first choice
school
if you select a second choice school.
So, that just the public if you're
watching um that is that is the case.
And then just some questions around
there are still folks that fully plan on
attending their neighborhood schools and
aren't really sure what they're supposed
to do. So, for staff, just a heads up,
like those communications to capture
intention to attend the neighborhood
school at the next level. Um, I'm not
really sure where where there's a
miscommunication, but I've received some
questions about that as well.
And that is just a I mean, open
enrollment periods are a exciting and
turbulent time here in BVSSD. So, I
appreciate everybody's patience as they
wait and work through those processes
and those weight lists. our staff does a
really good time, a really good um job
managing
all of those roles until we get to the
end when no more seats are available.
Um I think that is all I have.
Jason,
um I just want to echo your comments on
CASBY. It really was a great opportunity
to get to know folks from around the
state. um and Nicole kind of summarized
the topics, but it's really great to get
to know Deian and Anna better um and
work as a team and uh really looking
forward to working with you too in this
board. So, just wanted to add that to
your summary of CASBY. So, thanks.
Well, that concludes board comment for
today. We will move on to an our one and
only information item, which is the
legislative update. I'll turn it over to
Dr. Anderson.
Thank you board president Raj Paul. Uh
board members as you know uh session is
starting. Uh just a few things to
highlight I think for our public. Um the
2627 budget will be the topic during
this session. Um I would say that uh
from all all uh signs indicate that if
anyone is tries to bring forward
legislation that costs money that that
will be quickly um voted down or made go
away. Uh and so I I do think that that
is is the thing for us all to be paying
attention to. You know, there's there's
something that's happening. you know,
the the ways that our governor the way
that our governor balanced the budget in
his in the governor's budget was the
sale of Pinnacle. Uh so that's something
to be paying attention to, which is the
um it would raise in the governor's
budget 400 million to sell the workers
comp um
insurance company, Pinnacle Insurance.
Uh and so privately selling that uh and
so the JBC has to get behind that. Uh
and if they don't, then that's 400
million that they'll have to a gap that
they'll continue to have to close. I
think that uh in addition
to um in in addition to the budget, uh
we're paying attention to um specific
ownership tax uh that has been floated,
I believe, in in one of the last JBC
meetings as a way to potentially close
any gaps in the budget. And that's the
$78 million cut to BBSD, which would be
pretty significant. And so we're
watching for that. We we'll include that
within our legislative priorities board
members. As a reminder, the morning of
the 27th, uh we will be meeting with our
delegation down at the capital to to try
to talk about things that are important
to us. Um and so we'll be finalizing
what those legislative priorities will
be. uh mostly around budget uh that uh
to make sure uh to ensure that uh that
we're able to continue to provide the
services we need to for our kids and for
our families. So, I don't know if anyone
else has anything else, but uh
legislative session here we go.
Do you have any thoughts on some of the
proposed legislation or coming out of
Adams or some our neighboring school
districts?
So, so there's there's um a bill that's
being proposed that would make some
significant improvements to child care
licensing uh which impacts us in terms
of the afterare programs we're able to
offer and the number of seats we're able
to offer. Licensing is pretty strict. Um
in some instances, kids throughout the
school day can be on equipment, but
because the licensing changes when it
goes to child care, then there's areas
where kids can't go. Uh, I'll get the
board more information on that, but I do
think it's something that we're probably
going to want to support.
Thanks for that.
Board members, any questions or comments
on the legislative update?
Just as a point of information, right
about this time of year, Dr. Ernest and
I meet every other week with our
lobbyists that those meetings will by
phone those meetings will resume later
this month or next early next month. So
the the cycle is really kicking off and
I will say I was at an event for a
candidate this weekend and the peanut
gallery one of the peanut gallery
questions was do the bills you're
running have a fiscal note and it was an
unequivocal no because none of our bills
can have fiscal notes. I think that
message is being heard loud and clear.
So, we will now move on to our action
items. Consent grouping portion of
tonight's agenda. 8.1 Personnel items.
8.2 per approval of minutes December
9th, 2025. 8.3 approval of minutes
December 16th, 2025. 8.4 acceptance of
donation University Hill Elementary. 8.5
acceptance of donation Mesa Elementary.
8.6 Board adopted fees amendment. 8.7
board member reimbursement. 8.8 new
courses and current course changes. 8.9
resolution 26-01
regarding the notice of meetings for the
board of education. Are there any items
board members like to pull from consent
grouping?
Seeing none, is there a motion to
approve? Move by Lenia, seconded by
Anna.
Board members, is there any discussion
on the items within consent grouping?
I want to say I'm excited about the new
course offerings and their potential
ones particularly the creative new
electives at the middle school level. I
think that is really exciting. Also is
part of the reason why like IG needs a
look at because that language is pretty
antiquated and doesn't really reflect
the good work we're doing with grad plus
and some of these creative electives.
So, thanks to the schools and to the
staff for updating those and continuing
to work to make sure our BVSD course
catalog is aligned across all of our
schools and levels so kids can have
access to these o awesome opportunities
as much as possible. So, thank you for
those and also for the change to the fee
document. I think that'll actually be
really helpful. But we have zero control
over what API exams cost. And so having
language in there that can fluctuate
that allows the fluctuation on those
fees that are assessed to us will be
helpful moving forward. And there was a
rate increase on those exams.
Necessitating that change. And as a
reminder to our community, for folks
that cannot afford to take those pay for
those exams, we do provide in part
through our partnership with impact on
education financial support so every
student can take th those exams um
without
worrying about the fees associated.
So just wanted to elevate those ones and
any other if there's no other
discussion, we will move on to a vote.
Seeing none, Laura, can you call the
role on consent grouping?
[clears throat]
Ber,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tuading,
yes. Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next item on tonight's agenda is policy
action items, consent grouping.
[clears throat]
Thanks to the good work of our staff and
our board, we have several
10.1 board policy DD grants management.
10.2 board policy DD--R1 projects
partnership subawward grants
subcontracts pursuant to grants and
thirdparty grants involving district
personnel programs and facilities
regulation 10.3 board policy DD-R2
grants to district personnel regulation
10.4 Four
board policy deeb loan programs and
cooperative funding programs 10.5 board
policy deeb
revenues from state federal tax sources
10.6 board policy DH bonded employees
and officers 10.7 board policy DI fiscal
accounting reporting 10.8 board policy
did capital asset accounting 10.9 board
policy DN district property disposal
procedures 10.10 10 board policy EDA
resource management use 10.11 board
policy EDA receiving and warehousing
10.12 board policy EDC authorized use of
schoolowned materials
are there any items board members would
like to pull from consent grouping
hearing none we need a motion to approve
items on the consent grouping moved by
Alex seconded by Anna board members are
there any discussion on the policies
within and consent the policy consent
grouping. Alex,
um I know it's a long list and it's
great progress towards our general goal
of uh revisiting all our policies. I
just want to give thanks to uh Kathleen
Sullivan and the financial team under
Bill for answering all our questions on
this complicated stuff uh when we had
our study on it. And I just appreciate
us being able to clean up stuff and make
it easier to be an efficient and
effective public steward of money.
I want to second what Alex said and aso
also as I'm reading these
if you want to take the liberty and
decrease the title for board for 10.2
two board policy DD--R1.
You can do so. That was a that was a
paragraph of a title. Um, any other
discussion board members?
Hopefully, this will really help our
operations and finance teams implement
the work of this district.
Seeing as there are no comments,
Laura, can you call the role on consent
grouping?
Booker.
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Linua,
yes.
Rajpaul,
yes.
Tuading,
yes. Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next item on tonight's agenda, board
members, public is policy study items.
We have one policy to study this evening
that we spent a long time studying
earlier this year and receiving a lot of
community engagement from.
[cough and clears throat] So my hope is
that our focus of this study is on the
language that Kathleen Sullivan has
proposed for revision and that sort of
section alone. With that I will hand it
over to Kathleen.
Thank you board president Raj Paul. So,
as uh Robin Fernandez presented earlier,
we are now in our first implementation
cycle of the board's new policy.
And as we worked it through, I realized
that I had really co-mingled two
concepts that cannot be co-mingled and
have an understandable policy. So, the
correction that's offered today for the
board to study is simply making sure
that we acknowledge we've got the
instructional days referenced in the
negotiated agreement at that number of
176. But because it includes conference
days, which we also consider to be
instructional, we needed to add that
explanatory language and then just
reference the general proposition from
the CASBY sample that the school year
and the instructional time needs to be
long enough to satisfy the state
requirements and then also to accomplish
the directives of the board and the
instructional leadership and strategic
plan. So, we're just correcting the
language there to make sure that we're
teasing out instructional days for
teachers are not exactly the same as
actively engaged in the educational
process. And hopefully that will be an
easy correction.
Thank you for that explanation,
Kathleen.
Start off with Lenia.
I know this isn't in the paragraph that
you're discussing, but I notice it says
that this uh
development process
um that the draft shall be presented no
later than January 10th.
And that provision is in fact in the
negotiated agreement which is the the
reason that I left it in the policy to
make sure we we're bringing together
enough of the details that are in law or
other places so that we could really
understand the requirements that we have
to meet.
That's also why I said we are behind
when we were discussing the calendar
itself earlier this year.
Other questions or comments? Board
members?
Alex,
sorry I had to step out there for a
second, but on that issue of January
10th, might it be better to have it be
like the second Tuesday of January? So
times that we'd actually have a meeting
in January with a chance to do that.
I think it's copied over directly from
the language in the negotiated
agreement, right, Kathleen? So that you
know that it could be something we could
think about as we head into negotiations
as just a cleanup measure. Uh typically
we present this well before January
10th. Uh we present typically in
November.
Uh but um that's something that we could
discuss with BVA. But until we do that,
I think it has to stay in the policy.
And just so our new board members know
again, part of that was we had a very
engaged conversation on this policy. It
took multiple gorounds and that kind of
just getting we had to have the policy
in place with the new regulation before
we could draft a calendar. So that that
was the reason why. But typically
November it's before we head out for the
end of the year that we do discuss these
calendars.
Jason.
Yeah. Yeah, I just had it's more maybe a
clarification in kind of going back to
our earlier conversation tonight on
Veterans Day. Um, in that slide deck
that we saw earlier, it said that
Veterans Day was a must on our calendar
recognized by the state for November
11th. I wonder if that's just recognized
or has to be observed. And then here
it's listed as a um vacation or closure
date. And so just given our
conversation, I don't I don't have
strong feelings about it, but I feel
like we need to have some um some
clarity around or maybe some consistency
and maybe I just missed something. I
don't know.
Um, I think what actually happened is
that in that slide deck there typically
there there was a slide that we were
going to skip because when we looked at
this language originally, we really did
understand that those holidays were
required and that was the way it had
always been referenced. When I went back
through and really analyzed each of the
negotiated agreement and the state law,
we realized that it is not a mandated
closure date. So, I think there was a
slide that was confusing and I'll make
sure that I'm I'm clear on that and our
language is consistent all the way
through. Must be considered, but it's
not mandated as a closure day. But
so, Kathleen, in this in this policy, it
does it is listed here. Do we take that
out? It says holidays, holiday and
vacation or closure date. So I guess it
doesn't have to be closure. Got it.
Okay.
Sorry. Thanks.
Your corrected item looks great.
Thank you for amending that to be
accurate.
Anything else, board members?
Seeing as there are none, that concludes
our policy study item for today. We do
board members. So, looking ahead, I just
love to get a sense we have our budget
study and then we have exact session
as far as comfort break. Do we want to
wrap up budget or take a comfort break
before budget?
Budget. We're going to rock and roll.
is Bill's. I was like, where is Bill?
He's already over there. Our next item
on tonight's agenda is a study item, the
2526 revised budget. Bill Sutter will
present that topic.
Good evening, President Raj Paul. Uh
board members and Dr. Anderson. Uh we
are in the final stages of the annual
budget journey that we began about 12
months ago. uh set in motion six months
ago with the start of the fiscal year
and will complete about a year from now
with the audit report for the current
fiscal year. Colorado school budget law
allows for the revision of the adopted
budget after the completion of the prior
fiscal year uh enrollment revenue and
expenditure adjustments uh all of which
are included in this budget revision.
If you will recall uh the fiscal cycle
video from the December 9th me 9th
meeting uh at that time we were talking
about next fiscal year with the budget
process milestones and outlooks. Uh now
we are stepping back and talking about
this fiscal year with the revised
budget. Uh and note the color coding in
the top right corner of the slides. Uh
we're trying to keep that consistent as
we move through this. Here's a little uh
overview of what we'll cover. uh
enrollment general operating fund uh in
detail. Uh other funds, these are
accounting funds and notable changes
within that uh strategic investments. So
the strategic investments that are
included uh within the revised budget uh
and some comments around that and then
next steps
for enrollment. Uh as has been topic of
discussion uh we are continuing to
decline
Uh we did come in under uh what we had
originally adopted the budget in June uh
and Glenn Sigru went into detail uh at
the December 9th meeting uh regarding
this. We're seeing uh decline across u
both our general fund and our charter
schools uh and then some slight
adjustments in some of our
non-traditional uh schools.
Uh when we look at uh the grade levels
in our uh traditional schools,
non-charter schools, uh greater decline
in the elementary grades uh than in the
secondary grades, but uh certainly
spread across all grades.
Did that move? Yes. Uh for uh preschool,
uh we have our uh students with IEPs,
a little decline there. Uh some increase
in the UPK program as well as the
tuition students uh within the preschool
program. Uh so uh some slight glimmer of
hope there with uh maintaining uh
overall and some slight increases.
Uh the takeaway on this uh is declining
enrollment continues to impact BBSD. Uh
those larger declines at the early
grades will progress through the system.
Uh and impacts include the educational
experience for students as well as the
efficient use of resources.
Moving into the into the general
operating fund.
Starting with the beginning balance. So
this is the portion of uh the budget
that is uh representative of finalizing
last fiscal year. So we have our uh
carryover items. These are unspent
budgets from the prior fiscal year. Uh
additional revenue uh for uh Medicaid
funding and specific ownership tax. Uh
net transfers. Uh so these these are we
received more revenue in last fiscal
year than we had projected in the uh
adopted budget in June. So that's what
these changes are. um net transfers. So,
we did not have to transfer some dollars
uh to other funds out of the general
fund uh which uh increased the beginning
balance uh for the general operating
fund and then net unspent budgets in
personnel and non-personnel.
So, an increase of about uh $23 million
uh 23.8 eight uh in the beginning
balance
on the revenue side. Uh specific
ownership tax uh as uh Dr. Anderson
mentioned, this is the non-equalized
portion. This is the portion that is
outside of the school finance act. Uh
that $800,000 increase uh the total
built into the budget uh for this year
is uh 6.8 million. So that would be the
loss uh and the reduction in funding um
if that change were put into place by
the legislature.
Uh ongoing revenue 1.5 million. So this
is the finance act. This is uh
representative of that uh additional
decline in students
uh property taxes. So mill levy
collections are a little bit down. Uh
this is uh projecting the um loss of
students. So this is based on the uh
total program funding. So when that uh
goes down a little bit, the total uh
mill levy collections go down. Uh
abatements which is a portion of uh
property taxes. So these are a levy that
we're informed of how much has been
abated by the various counties.
And so uh we don't increase the uh
ongoing budget on the revenue side by
the total amount uh because it can be
kind of spiky from year to year. So we
count this as one-time revenue uh and
then uh one-time revenue also for
interest earnings and uh donation from
impact on education
on the expenditure side. Uh so those
unspent budgets that uh from last year
that uh led to the increase in the
beginning balance uh those are our
carryover items. So we have standard
carryover uh textbooks uh unspent
materials adoption uh Medicaid funding
which is required by law and then the
school resource allocation those unspent
budgets there. special carryover
requests. So, these are from schools,
departments, or district-wide uh
activities. Uh one-time funding request
for special education mental health
advocates and the summer summit. Uh the
mental health advocates um I believe is
related to the uh donation from impact
on education. Uh that ties through both
on the revenue side and the expenditure
side. And then uh for uh technology
devices uh operations and translations
uh additional one-time funding there.
Little summary uh with the decline in
students were able to uh reduce the
number of FTE for instructional staff
related to that October count. Uh this
doesn't mean that we went in and uh uh
laid people off or anything like that.
There were uh staff positions FTE that
were held back in the staffing process
um because the the students weren't
showing up uh in the beginning of the
the staffing process. Uh so this is just
a a recognition that uh those reserves
in the staffing formula that were
remaining were able to be reduced.
Uh ongoing expenditures for inflation
and software.
Uh so ongoing changes, a reduction uh
and then an increase in one-time uh
additions to the budget
for transfers. Uh so we have built into
the budget uh a transfer of $5 million
for future investment in the diff uh
differentiated school support fund. Uh
this will um make a
the third
twoyear this is a second year of the
third cycle of the differentiated
funding cycles that we've been doing. Uh
it's kind of a mouthful to think of uh
but uh we started it with a three-year
cycle. We are in the second year of the
second thirdyear cycle and we have
funding available for the third year and
two more years beyond that. So uh the
differentiated funding program is set uh
to be funded for uh several more years.
Preschool funding uh there was a change
in how uh CDC is funding uh preschool.
So we uh that was a reduction uh in
funding. So we had to increase the
transfer over to the preschool fund. Um
one-time expenditure
uh reduction because there was a
donation from uh impact on education
going into uh the preschool fund uh and
some adjustments in compensation in
there. uh transportation. Uh this is
relatively small dollar amounts uh here,
but uh some reorganization due to the
staffing that has been changed around in
the transportation department and the
state reimbursement uh going down a
little bit. Uh other ongoing changes to
the charter fund for uh their uh student
count adjustments, the preschool and
athletics. Uh and then also one time uh
as we are required by contract and state
statute to reconcile expenditures and
what we charge uh charter schools for
the services we provide. Uh we give them
dollars back if we charge them too much
after the reconciliation which is uh
what's happening here. Uh as well as uh
a little transfer into the cap reserve
fund
on the reserve side. Uh so we have
increases in the tabor and contingency
reserves at 3% and 4% respectively. As
we uh add to expenditures, we have to
add to those reserves.
Uh we've added something in the budget
here that's a long range planning
reserve. So this is to address declining
enrollment. It's $5 million. There's no
identified use for it at this point in
time. It's just sort of hedging on uh
anything that might need to happen in
the near future. Uh that we've set aside
some dollars to be able to address
expenses uh related to declining
enrollment uh and what comes out of the
long range planning process.
special education staffing reserve of $2
million for uh looking at uh the needs
around special education perhaps uh
maintaining some of the activities that
if we have done on a onetime basis this
year uh pre purchased materials reserve
so when we uh buy curriculum or buy
software uh and pay upfront for it
because the uh companies like to give us
big discounts uh it's actually an
accounting reserve that we have to set
aside for that. Uh and then multi-year
projects again as we uh plan to fund
something with uh some activity or
expenditure uh with one-time dollars but
over the course of more than one year.
We set those dollars aside
uh in a reserve uh so that they're able
to be spent uh in the future years that
are part of the plan.
little summary of the adopted budget
from June, the changes that I just
walked through and then the revised
budget uh uh that's put forth. Uh there
is uh an ending fund balance in the
revised budget. Uh this is these are
one-time dollars. These are not ongoing
resources. Uh but 2.6 6 million. Uh
essentially a rounding error in some of
the projections. Uh when we're talking
about, you know, 440
million worth of revenue or $400 million
worth of expenditures uh a relatively
small uh ending fund balance.
The takeaway uh on this is uh the
district continues to balance ongoing
and one-time resource investments uh to
meet student needs, operational
requirements, and inflationary pressures
while maintaining long-term fiscal
sustainability.
for the other funds
uh on a one-time basis. Uh again, I
mentioned uh these items as I was
walking through the transfers uh but
charter school fund so the
reconciliation the preschool fund impact
on education donation and adjustments
for compensation uh cap reserve fund
with a planned project uh and the
differentiated school support fund the
future investment funding uh included in
the transfer
on an ongoing basis. We have the charter
school fund uh and the adjustments for
PPR and enrollment. Uh preschool, the
decreased funding from the Cdeck
practice change. Athletics, uh we have a
updated uh ticket sale and participation
revenue projections.
uh the revenue projections were uh
perhaps a bit robust uh and so we had to
dial the revenue back uh which was a
increase in the transfer over to the
athletics fund and then in
transportation uh that reorganization of
the positions uh that I mentioned
moving into the strategic investments.
Uh so
the the important piece to capture out
of this is these are the items that are
in the budget that are we'll say uh
easily identified.
Um it's
governmental accounting is not cost
accounting. So um to to cost account for
an account an activity um is uh
difficult in an accounting structure
that's built for government accounting
with uh the required fields and required
uh
parts of the account code uh that are
determined by state law. So um these are
items that we have built in the budget
and we can identify. Uh what these do
not include are the staff time for doing
the work uh other than some identified
positions. So uh for example the
coordinator cost is identified as a
strategic investment but the school
staff time is not for professional
development or implementation of
restorative practices. So
board members, this is in response to um
during last year's budget process. Uh
the question was really brought up on,
you know, how do we see where the
dollars we're investing are impacting
our strategic plan. And so this is our
first attempt in order to begin to at
least start to quantify those things
that are easy to quantify. So you can
understand that this board, previous
boards, uh where investments were made
that keep going, investments were made
that were one time and run out. Uh and
to Bill's point, with everybody focused
on the strategic plan, we're not saying
that our strategic plan investments are
400 million or 300 whatever million. uh
we're just trying to quantify this for
you all and for our public to let them
know how we've invested dollars
strategically to get the results we're
getting. So this is new, this is
different. I want to appreciate Bill and
our team to begin to try to put this
together for you all. And certainly if
there's any questions, we're happy to
answer those. But that's why this is
coming forward in response to um some
requests to let Rob, let's look at, you
know, what it is that we're actually
doing here with the strategic plan and
and our budget.
And to clarify, these investments have
already been made or dollars have been
set aside. So, they're included in the
previous portion of
they're included in the budget this
year. It's not what we spent last year
on a onetime basis. These are 2627
numbers updated as of the revised
budget, but these are not all brand new
investments we're making right now.
These were investments that were
previously made.
Yeah.
With the with adjustments to some of the
one time because of the the shift of the
5 million to the weighted differentiated
funding is reflected in here.
Yep.
Can I get a drum roll?
Okay. So uh
the weighted and differentiated funding
um program that we have in place is very
easy to identify because it is a
separate accounting fund. So uh it's
pretty straightforward. Um but we have
the 5.2 million that is included for
this current year's expenditures as well
as the 21 million uh that is for the
future years.
uh the UVA um professional learning e
something
that one um uh cohorts um again these
are these are doesn't include the time
of everybody that's that's working on
this but these are the the contract with
UVA uh the travel expenses things like
that the strategic plan support team uh
which is again continuing out uh in
future future years. Uh mental health
advocates. Uh there are ongoing dollars
uh in the general fund for that as well
as uh a little bit for the um I believe
the
the 200,000 one time is the wellness
centers.
Uh CTE programming again ongoing funding
for our uh CTE programming. uh dual
immersion as we've expanded that uh and
the families and educators together uh
teams the ongoing expenditures for that
uh the wellness rooms are here not in
the either uh the past one. Uh so this
is the uh uh funding from impact on
education for the wellness rooms uh
curriculum. So, we have a $2 million
that is in the ongoing budget for
curriculum and then the 9 million is
one-time funding that's in the current
budget this year. Uh restorative
practices, assessments, MTSS, and
professional development. Uh these are
all ongoing activities uh within the
general operating fund. Before you move
on, Bill, just would love to highlight
for the board and for our public the
significant additional investments we've
made into curriculum
where our ongoing budget is really only
$2 million a year. And so we've
leveraged fund balance one-time dollars
over time to make significant progress
in um in updating the highquality
instructional materials that our
teachers need to make a difference with
our students. and board members, you've
seen over the years, for those of you
who have been on the board, we've used
this money to accelerate some of our pro
uh the middle school math curriculum
that we accelerated. And I think that,
you know, we've seen really great
results coming out of middle school math
for the first time in a long time. Um,
you know, our new math instructional
materials in elementary school, the new
science of reading materials and and and
literacy materials in elementary in in
elementary. uh this if you were to
compare our budgets to other districts,
where is it that we've traditionally
spent less? It's in curriculum and we've
really changed that. And so uh just
wanted to highlight that as I think what
is a significant um investment that
we've made that is changing the the
teaching and learning conditions in our
district.
Moving on to next steps. Uh so we have
the budget adoption scheduled for the
next board meeting on the 27th. Uh
adjustments can be made to the budget uh
up to June 30th. Uh was it with
additional information uh if there was
some uh big revenue stream that
miraculously came in uh the board could
adopt that uh as a budget adjustment uh
with that new information. Uh and uh
again revenue changes, unexpected
expenditures. Uh and then there's also
the possibility of additional transfers
uh to other funds. If there are uh some
activities that happen in another
accounting fund that were uh required to
to do, uh we'll bring that forward as a
an authorization uh for an additional u
budget change if needed.
The end.
Thank you for that presentation, Bill.
Board members, questions or comments on
the revised budget?
Dr. Anderson,
I I just want to give kudos to our
academics team. Um,
I would say that as we began to adjust
practices due to declining enrollment,
um, our team made some really difficult
decisions to not, um, respond to, uh,
what folks thought the numbers were
going to be, but only allocated staff to
the students who showed up. And so as
you saw where when Bill showed um you
know because of the the decrease in
students based on um the number of
students we lost over projection. It was
just a financial transaction. We didn't
have to cover those expenses of people
that we had hired with one-time dollars
which is what we've done in the past. Uh
so it's to the tune of um almost $2
million, we were able to uh really
tighten up some of our staffing because
because typically what had happened is
schools begin to ask, hey, listen, we
think these kids are going to show. Just
give us the money so we can hire
somebody, but they'll show then they
don't show. [laughter] So then we have
to shift those one those ongoing
expenditures to one-time expenditures.
And then you endate those positions at
the end of the year, which looks and
feels like cuts of people even though
we're um actually hanging on to folks we
probably didn't need in the first place.
And so I would say that that's something
that I'd want to highlight that our team
I think did a really good job with. And
that's not easy and takes a lot of work
and a lot of conversation. So uh kudos
to the team on on creating efficiencies
that uh um to the tune of $2 million.
Piggybacking that a little bit, I just
also want to highlight
our investments in the strategic plan
are paying off in dividends. And it
takes all of us to really be focused on
supporting with dollars that strategic
plan and really not getting sidetracked
in where we're spending money, but
really being committed to supporting the
work of the strategic plan first and
foremost. And so I think continuing that
effort is going to continue to pay off
for our students and for our staff. And
so just kudos to everybody that allows
that continue to happen over the past
couple years. Alex,
yeah, I want to follow on to that and
say thank you very much, Bill, and your
team for this presentation and and in
particular for the strategic investment
portion. It's one of the things I was
really curious to see and I'm delighted
to see not just the transparency about
it but the scale of it and how much it
reflects our priorities. So, I know
budgets are full of numbers and in our
case full of hundreds of [clears throat]
pages, but they really are a reflection
of values and I think that fact that we
are valuing the things we do to increase
performance and outcomes for kids shows
up in our budget and it's great that we
can talk to it, understand it, and as
board members know how to protect and
safeguard and continue it uh because our
budget issues will only be more
complicated going forward with the
context that we're in. [snorts] Um, so
thank you very much. Uh I a couple um I
would [clears throat] like to point out
one little tiny thing in there. I think
the smallest item in the whole strategic
plan investment is the UVA program that
we now are mostly sort of brought in
house and aren't really using UVA
anymore. That was only 0.1. So if if
it's really a great program, which I
believe it actually is and is quite
transformative for the folks who are in
it, maybe we shouldn't always out we
shouldn't try to bring it in-house and
that an ongoing partnership with UVA is
not outside our means. And I'd be
curious to uh know maybe what Robin or
others would think about uh continuing
to rely more on the partnership rather
than the decision to bring more of it in
house as one question.
So, so that does not capture all the
money we've already spent.
So, uh, for seven years we've been
sending cohorts. And I do think that,
um, that every time we feel like it
makes sense to send folks to UVA, we do.
And so, we're not we're not trying to
save money by doing some, but scaling
some of the practices in house, I think,
has been an effective practice. But uh
to your point and for any districts out
there watching uh it this is a very
affordable smart thing to do when you
think about adopting best practices and
scaling them and turning around schools.
Uh but do appreciate that and um uh I do
think that we've sent a good chunk of
our our our central office staff has
been uh I know at least 10 principles
and their teacher leaders and
administrators have been uh and so uh
but it's something I believe
wholeheartedly in and uh and appreciate
you lifting that up and uh a wise
investment for sure.
I would also like to start by thanking
um Bill and the staff for putting this
together and for really emphasizing the
strategic investments. Um I I think
it was useful to understand that this is
above and beyond staff, right? this is a
which is a bulk of our budget and that
we're investing in the things that are
part of strategic plan and are really
focused on addressing the needs of our
most vulnerable students and that these
commitments are now and ongoing right
and that we need to continue this work
over the years to come. But you focusing
on our mental health uh as students who
through differentiated funding um you
know thinking about the pathways after
students leave the district um engaging
in the focus on curriculum and MTSS. I
think these are the it's a valuable
change that we've been working on the
last five years or I guess eight years
now. It goes quickly but that we need to
kind of keep that focus on moving
forward. So I really appreciate seeing
that here above and beyond kind of what
we've already invested. So, thank you.
Um, on an on on a different issue, I
just wanted to um call out uh is the
slide on the UPK stuff. One of the
issues I've been concerned about and
tracking over the last few years is the
proportion of our students with
disabilities that are in our uh
preschool. And a couple of years ago, I
believe we're up over almost 42% um of
the students in the preschool programs
that had disabilities, which starts to
get to a point that kind of makes sense
in a small program that is driven by
special ed, but starts undermining uh
least restrictive environment
requirements and is problematic in
general. So, I'm really delighted to see
those ratios getting back towards um uh
places that safeguard least restrictive
environment and get below closer to 35%.
And it'd be great if that could continue
moving downward and not because we're
serving fewer students with
disabilities, but because we're creating
a context where all kids can learn and
we're making a supportive environment
for everybody as UPK has had a chance to
expand. So, [clears throat] I'm
delighted to see the trend and I'd like
to continue tracking that.
Board members, any other thoughts or
questions?
I look forward to hearing how for the
next year's budget we can continue to
make those strategic investments happen.
Thank you, Bill, for a very thorough
presentation.
Board members, we are now moving on to
future agenda requests portion of this
evening's agenda. I know we are doing
board prioritization next week, but if
there are any items board members would
like to consider for prioritization
for
fall of 2026,
now is the time when you can add those
to the list. Deian,
I'd like to make sure that we put
priority on reviewing policy GBA,
which is defines a conflict of interest
uh for staff. Uh there's been some um
confusion about what that really means
for teachers and principles, and I'd
like to see us clarify that policy.
Anything
else, board members?
It's hard to know. We have a long list
next week. It's hard to know what's
going to make it, what's not. So, um, we
will continue to work through those
agenda requests as meetings continue.
Last item of business, as noted on our
agenda, is executive session. Is there a
motion for the board to convene in an
executive session? Anna
I, Anna De Muading, make a motion
pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute
244024B
to convene into executive session to
receive legal advice regarding the
board's policy LBD regarding charter
schools and charter school renewal
applications submitted by Horizon's and
Summit and to receive legal advice on
current and potential litigation
involving civil rights, teacher
dismissals, and insurance claims.
Board members, there a second. Seconded
by Jorge. Laura, can you please call the
role?
Booker,
yes.
Chavez,
yes.
Medler,
yes.
Quinn Lenoa,
yes.
Raj Paul,
yes.
Tamuading,
yes.
Anger,
yes.
Motion passes.
This concludes our public portion of
tonight's business agenda.
Board members, we will convene in the
glacier room. public. Good night.