001[music] Test test. One, two, three. Test. Test test one two 3 test [music] I would like to declare the regular meeting of the Bolder Valley School District Board of Education on February 10, 2026, open. Board members may attend and participate in meetings electronically in accordance with BBBs MEA policy. Could you please call roll? Queena, present. Chávez present. Rashpete. Temy present. Anger present. Thank you. We will now move on to the land survey. The Bolde Valley School District resides and operates on lands that are ancestral homelands, unjustly and illegally taken from the territory of the Ute, Puebloan, Arrapajo, Cheyen, Apache, Navajo and 48 Tribal Nations historically associated with these lands that they have called home since time immemorial. We know of the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to
002alienate indigenous inhabitants from their lands with the support of U.S. government policies. BBSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples in the past and present and their dignified nations and cultures who care for the land with strength and resilience. It recognizes the stories of the Land in Colorado and the survival of the many nations that have carried their oral traditions to the present day. It is BBSD's responsibility to educate our communities and our students [music] to celebrate and respect the wisdom of indigenous peoples and to actively unite [music] to address injustices. By offering this acknowledgment of the land, we affirm the history, wisdom [music], and oral traditions of Indigenous peoples and recognize our responsibility to care for and cherish this land together. I would like to remind everyone that our district's mission is to create
003challenging, meaningful learning opportunities so that all children can thrive and be prepared for a life of success and civic engagement. Thank you so much for being here. We have the motion to approve on today's agenda. Please come in and cast your vote. Ber, yes, Chávez, yes, Queena, yes, Temuer, yes, Queena, yes, the motion is approved. The next item on our agenda is the superintendent's report . Thank you, President Rashp. I have some instructions. Um, starting with National History Day, which was celebrated in Manhattan, our students held several events. They made a great effort to be selected at the regional level. This year Manhattan went even further, and 300 students presented their special projects. As you can see from these photographs, the topics ranged from the punk rock movement to video documentaries, outfits, and various members
004of our community. They acted as judges. At BBSD we know that our food in cafeterias is not only delicious, but also nutritious and healthy. For the past two weeks, the Bolder museum has presented an exhibition on this theme. Visitors were able to observe the evolution of the school food service in our district. Artifacts from our Ann Cooper's time in the district were also on display. Last week we received very good news. We have electric buses that will be traveling through our streets. They have a capacity of 14 passengers and they will start working in March. I want to finally encourage our community to watch. Today we sent out the first edition of the Registration Impacts newsletter . Through this newsletter we will share updates on the reduction in enrollments and how this is evolving and
005the decisions we will be making regarding it. And I want to encourage everyone to open this document. It's a short video about registrations in our district. And that's all from me. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Council members have questions. I see there aren't any. Let's talk now about public participation. The Council respects the public's right to speak about matters related to the operation of schools. The council does not endorse the comments of any speaker. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds left and an orange card when you have 10 seconds left. If there is time or you wish to share additional information, you can email the board. Our first participant, today's speaker, Lucia Herup, is online. No, it's not there. Next participant, Crystal Shin.
006Yes, please press the button until the green light comes on. My time is already running out. We can start from scratch. I have to do something else. Ah, good night. My name is Crystal Shin. I am a mother. I am here to express my concern about the past few years. My family has experienced harm regarding the safety of students. Medical documentation was necessary. We had to take our children to the emergency room because of seizures. I sent emails and maybe I had very high expectations, but in the last week of the school year, mental health support was taken away. Even though she reported this, I made an appeal and requested more support, but they didn't receive it. I have documented all the incidents. I reported 14 documents, but the district was only aware of three.
007Uh, my daughter has also been the victim of racist comments and in both cases there was no independent investigation. This is not about penalizing a person, an employee, it's about having standards for what to do when a report is received. What I want is for there to be independent investigations, independent oversight, and analysis. Uh, it can't be that the district uh supervises itself and thank you very much. The next speaker, Tecla Airs. Good evening, my name is Tecla. I am a father, I was a parent in Community Montessori in this district and we have concerns about this principle. We decided that our children would be better off at homeschooling, because they were not safe at school. I'm going to say that families don't make the decision to leave the district lightly, but only when they
008don't feel safe. And all these incidents must be accurately documented and action must be taken. Independent monitoring, data collection, and analysis are needed to rebuild parental trust in the district. This needs to be addressed seriously. Our next speaker is Stephen Schrider. They are not here. The next participant is Natasha Bterf. He's not here. So, that concludes the audience's commentary. On behalf of the council, I would like to thank all the people who participated as speakers today. The next item on the agenda is council communication. Council members, who would like to start? Llenia. Since we last met, I've had the opportunity to visit a couple of our elementary schools to talk about declining enrollment and school closures. I was impressed by the wonderful teachers we have and how much they love their schools and all the
009effort they put into their work. I learned a lot about the things they consider so important to them, and in our process, we ask a lot when they feel very emotional about potentially closing some schools, but I realized they decided to talk about what their most important priorities are. And we have to preserve and take care of the students' experience. Secondly, I had a meeting about our title and to share with you, we talked about how to listen more to the voices of students and improve the experience of our students in high schools. We had, uh, in all our schools we offered a survey and the people who decided to participate, well, uh, we consider that we are doing a good job. Thanks, Jason. I would like to echo Lelania's words, and we went to
010Mesa and I went to Crickside, and the things that happen in the primaries are incredible about the educators, the staff. Truly the status that is sustainable. Emotions like sadness and anger are part of the process and the decisions, and we always have hope that new resources will present themselves. I felt nervous about encountering negative emotions, but the conversations we had there, well, I only attended two elementary schools and Dr. Anderson attended several schools, and I really appreciate the time he dedicates to this. We see the full range of teachers and school staff and listen to their thoughts, recommendations, and feedback. It's a wonderful thing. Alex and then. Well, speaking of registrations, I went to see Creek this morning and I also want to echo what people have said, the employee. We are very considerate and
011they articulated the needs of their school very well. and community participation in the challenges we face, how we participate in the process, and what they are doing. They are getting involved in the face of difficult challenges such as group size. They want to make sure that they are not making things worse and they are establishing a structured process and they want to consider the options, the different cultures and values that they want to be available to all our children. I was very impressed by the deep reflection and participation, and there is always an interest that says, "Please save my school." And they wrote, "Why did you choose this school in this environment in the first place ?" And these things happen; this is a very participatory community, and they want to make things work, and
012they are doing these provocative activities, and I take my hat off to their attitude. I received a couple of emails indicating that adults are already talking to their children about this, keeping them informed and aware. But other opinions say they are increasing stress in our children. But we have to be clear and we have to communicate what we need to communicate. We have to be a great positive support for our children. Well, they're just elementary school kids and we do n't want to add any more stress. As a dad, I always want to assure them that we value the people who are taking care of them. I am full of hope that we can do this collectively. And changing the subject, I was at the DAC meeting this month. They are very appreciative of having
013a liaison, but I remind the other board members, hopefully they can come from time to time, they let me know in advance and I think it's highly recommended that they go, I was quite impressed with the intention behind their work in the processes and Raw Price was talking about the declining enrollments and we had a great group of people there, excellent and I learned a lot from them. I also want to comment on one of the opinions I heard that was for us to think about with Kathine, the policies, but what are they going to do about something, for example, with the IGA policy, our initial conversation was very helpful for them about where the opinions in schools come from, the interactions we had about setting priorities. We wanted to be more specific when discussing
014these issues and to warn about the topics we are discussing and especially what priority they have because they have many problems to discuss, from budgets, efficiency, and so on. The schedule is better aligned now, but what are they going to do about it ? And I told them, well, I 'm not sure what we're going to do about it . A similar report. I went to one of the round tables with the teachers, with my teacher friends. I mean , I'm the one who mentioned bringing the free lunch and that they shouldn't have homework to do during lunchtime, because it's their own time. I saw the teachers going in and out. So I want to ask you to take care of yourselves. I learned a lot about schools that are suffering because they do n't
015have the special classes, they don't have the resources to have a full-time librarian. And in these schools especially we see this consolidation; she is building on her own experience, and I loved seeing how people are working together to achieve their goals. And I also went to Seb, which is the committee that takes care of the bonds. It 's a very tight schedule, it took 2 hours and I loved doing a tour of the PAC center and all the programs that are operating there, many hospital rooms and ambulances and I loved it. I ran into some students there and said, "You should go there." It was really fun to see the principal demonstrating that. I loved that part of the meeting, and we also had a review of some budget issues, and about potentially combining two
016schools, several schools, and we always talk about being ready to act. I was impressed by the decision to put the primaries in phase four of the bond so we can make really good decisions about how we're going to spend specifically in the schools. That was an impressive piece of work that took many years of planning. It was also a technical committee meeting, and I was intimidated by the technical committee, but they focused on artificial intelligence. We met in working groups and created policies and a roadmap, and we followed examples of what they're doing in other districts, and it was a highly productive and very positive meeting. How are we going to handle AI policy? It was wonderful to see this. Thank you so much for your work there. Council members, any other comments? My colleagues,
017I was able to attend several roundtables. Today I had three, and I can continue. So. We're going to have groups or classes with different ages. In the conversations I overheard, I heard appreciation and gratitude for the process and the different elements. First, listen, talk with the educators, try to understand the complexity of the problem, not just make decisions. In the past, community members have expressed that this sentiment is entirely real. We, the council members, have decided to listen first to understand how the teachers are involved in the community. This seems like a very lengthy process compared to others, but we don't want anything to take us by surprise. And I've heard that in different schools. And from listening to the teachers, what I can conclude is that all of our schools are incredibly special places.
018The teachers care deeply about their students and love what they do, and that makes me happy inside. But it does make me sad that we might have to close a school, but knowing the kind of professionals we 're working with speaks volumes. The culture is definitely important, their values are important, and after listening to them, how have they built a strong community that will remain intact even when the building has to change? And I've been reflecting on that. That's about the community being very strong, especially during times of transition. I want to thank everyone who's listening. We've been very transparent, and we know this is going to be a difficult decision. I also went to a meeting with the City of Bolder at CU. Someone asked what it would take for us to change. Well,
019we would have to reconsider the housing available in Bolder, and currently, it's not family-friendly. The City of Bolder, in particular, is geared toward retirees and college students, not families. So, that's the comment I made to the City of Boulder. That's the reality we 're living with. Next item on the agenda tonight is information. We have the Long-Term Planning Committee , RIS. This is going to be the presentation. Good evening, Chairwoman Raspal, Council Members Dr. Anderson. I agree that this presentation has two purposes. To give an update from the Long-Term Planning Committee, and Dr. Jeff Anderson, the co-chairs, and Glenn Screw, the planning officer, is going to give a... The idea for planning for enrollment trends was first presented three years ago, and with that, I'm going to introduce Rob Centers. Good evening. I'm Ivet Salas,
020and I'm from the Tribes. This is your health. Here on the slide, you can see the efforts supported by the long-term advisory committee , the RAC. Since 2022, the district has studied these trends and metrics and engaged with schools to respond to declining enrollments. We drafted the metrics. From the beginning, the RAC engaged with community members. At the bottom of the slide, it highlights that the district is considering all strategies to plan enrollment trajectories. It's been well thought out and provides important context about where we are today. The committee has held two meetings since the last update in October. In November, we heard community input regarding changes to school boundaries and had a community outreach process for primary feedback. In January, there was an enrollment update and also a community outreach process. Now, I'm going
021to introduce Jeff Anderson, the co-chair. Thank you very much. I'm Jeff Anderson, the co-chair of the RC committee for the past four years. I don't have any slides. I'm going to make a few comments to the district leadership and the council. I want to remind you of the things we 've learned from the process we're going to review tonight. The voter registration data is an early warning system, and it was very effective because it was indeed an early warning. It alerted us to what's happening with the primaries. The data we need is very helpful now that we have that warning, and we're moving to a stage that requires more action, faster than we had planned. The council already knows, the district already knows, but we're going to present more information in a moment. The initial
022action we planned three years ago was to address it school by school, and we started with that. Heatherwood was the pilot program. We had the opportunity to try some things, and we learned some things. The first thing we learned is that all the schools are good, and if we give them more resources, they're going to be even better. It's been excellent. As an environmental scientist, it's very exciting. We can't do what we did in Heatherwood; this is for... All the schools. That led us to the holistic approach we introduced two years ago. And I thank Member Chávez, who spoke about that in great depth. We have this regional approach, and we are committed to it, but we learned other things from the Heatherwell pilot program . The district leadership, particularly Dr. Anderson, and the council
023leadership, Chairwoman Rajpal, have experience addressing contentious issues in the community, and we have learned from that, and it is guiding the process right now. So, it could have been bad, but it turned out well in that case. Second, we learn that a school-by- school solution is not viable. There are good things at Heatherwell; we are not seeing an increase in enrollment. These are things we cannot control. So that leads us to this holistic approach. It is more difficult to solve at the district level. I study these very complex things as part of my work. Now, thinking ahead, key points that will be in the presentation— there are presentations about the uncertainty of the data. The first slide, which will show the data, indicates the The trajectory, the projected trajectory, and also the current ones. It
024didn't predict this COVID, the administration's actions , so there's still some uncertainty, but that amplifies it in individual schools. Making decisions when there's no fixed data is very difficult, and we have to take that into account when we're making decisions. So we all do that. If I really believe it's going to be 34 degrees, as the weather news indicates, then I wouldn't worry about the ice, but we have to make decisions. The important thing here is that the data is based on past trends. Glenn takes new information into account , but past trends aren't as useful as they used to be because now we're trying to break those trends. There's a lot of uncertainty in the future data. We've already talked about that in the Elrac committee. We don't know what's going to happen. Both
025the board and the district are going to make decisions in a very complex system, with a lot of uncertainty, and the last thing that makes it difficult is the presence of school choice. By philosophy and this state law, we have to commit to open enrollment. You can't predict open enrollment; we have to address that. The district We're already focused on making decisions with a lot of uncertainty, but when you have to decide about a delay, an opening, we have that expertise. But another thing we 've discussed in the committee is that there's a lot to it; it's extremely complex and it's going to require a lot of work. At the January meeting, Council Members Raj Paul Chavez outlined the work the staff will be doing, and everyone needs to be empathetic, because it's going to
026be difficult, very difficult for the council. We have complex issues, uncertainty, and open enrollment. And I want to emphasize something we mentioned in January: dividing into regions. We talked about that a lot. What should the regions be? Fayet and Iri, certainly, as Dr. Anderson and Member Chavez indicated, are dealing with different issues, but there's a significant possibility they'll be significantly impacted by decisions made elsewhere. So, we have to consider them throughout the process as well. Thank you for speaking at length, but thank you for your efforts in dealing with this difficult issue. So, now let's get to the real show. Thanks, Jeff. Moving on with the enrollment trends report , let's start with the slide. The 10-year enrollment trend we noted earlier generally began to decline around 2007. By 2025, we had lost 1.9%, double
027what we had expected. We also had an average trend over the last 5 years of a 1.3% decrease, and the migration climate also has an impact on this school year and the past school year. Going forward, district enrollment is projected to decrease by approximately 1,700 students in the coming years. Year after year, we have some leveling off in the elementary schools. We are expecting a continued decline . So, we are expecting it to decrease beyond current levels. For this reason, we expect the elementary school will continue to drive staffing needs, and as a reminder, preschool is not included in these slides. Regarding the methodology for how we arrive at our projections, we use a group survival method , which looks at the rate at which each group or grade level, such as first grade, progresses.
028One year to the next. You can see this diagram; we have 18 children in kindergarten, and we compare that to the next class in first grade. Then we take an average and make a projection. The district modifies it to account for trends in resident students living in the community, as well as inputs for enrollment flow from outside the district, new housing developments, and birth rates, and how that will affect us in the future. When we make a projection, we have to take things into account. We look at open enrollment flow, net migration, which is fairly stable, new housing. If it's consistent with the projection estimate, we use the best available data on housing. It's not always possible; it's a projection. Births becoming kindergarten students—that's much more stable. As Jeff indicated, it's mainly based on past
029trends, but we can use births, new housing, and open enrollment rates to give us an idea of what will happen in the future. As Jeff pointed out, future events can't always be predicted, such as COVID, this migration climate that... We have at that moment. That can cause a lot of volatility in our projections. And here are the projections at the school level. We've organized them with early warning projections, using the numbers from the ELRA committee that we had discussed, and the colors. We 've used colors for schools that have 1.5 classes per grade level. And if one of those indicators is met, they're in red here, and in yellow are the schools that are approaching that point, that have two classes per grade level. And comparing it to last year, we're noticing the same number
030of students that are in the yellow or red category, but we're noticing more red in more future years. We're also noticing over the next 5 years, by 2030, that we're going to have about five schools that have met both indicators. Also, an increase in empty seats by that date. This slide is a graphical indication of the chart I just showed you. It shows the locations of the schools and whether they're at 1.5 classes per grade level, and the other schools in yellow. This is the year Currently and in the future, we are seeing additional schools moving into the red or yellow zones. This will continue until 2030. We have five schools in the red zone, which are noted here along their locations. Our summary is that enrollment will continue to decline over the next five
031years. Primary education is driving the impact on facilities and personnel. We are projecting to have 14 schools with two classes per grade or two rounds by 2030. And of those schools, seven are projected to have 1.5 classes per grade or fewer, which in these situations may require combining classes across grade levels. I'll hand it over to Rob for now. The same timeline you looked at on January 27th. We are in stage one. As we have communicated, the Council members are engaging with the schools, and then after that, in March, we will begin a community outreach process with the wider community. With the timeline, we will continue with what we discussed earlier. With that, we will move on to questions. Thank you for the presentation. Council members, are there any questions or Comments? Alex, first I
032want to thank Jeff and everyone else on the long-term planning committee. I appreciate the lessons we've learned and a moment to reflect. Regarding the questions, I have one . We have numbers about the number of bilingual or multilingual students year after year. Based on the description, we think it's about 100 students overall, and comparing that to last year, approximately 100 students. Thank you. This is also a question for you. I 've asked it before, but it's relevant to Nicole's comment about the city's comments. I live in Table near King Supers, and there are many houses with gardens. What has changed is that families grow, children leave home, retirees move out, and new families buy. The thing for me, I repeat, there are many variables: the interest rate, the ability of retirees to sell their house
033and buy another. We can eventually get an idea about whether single-family homes with gardens, whether a family can buy that type of house... Boulder, how many children per household are we going to have? There's a way to find that data. How many did we have 20 years ago? We can use the information we have, but it would be very difficult. So, technically, per housing unit, we're noticing a decrease in the number of families living in that type of house. That part is mostly retirees who have children who no longer live with them. I'm noticing that in the next 15 or 20 years, I do n't know if those houses are going to create new student housing. After that, you would think that houses would become available for sale, but I think that generally the trend
034of decreasing the city's emphasis on trying to address affordability and subsidies will continue. They're not looking at the number of bedrooms. We are adding more housing units, but we need more bedrooms per unit. I live in southeast Boulder; we have a lot of single-family homes. I'm thinking that they're going to continue to sell, and we want to maintain capacity eventually because we're likely going to have more children, even though housing is very expensive. Those who can afford a house like this... They're going to want to have children. So, even though it's expensive, wealthy families can buy those houses and have children, and that's not the best thing. Yes, we're going to have families, and wealthy families, but we don't want wealthy families to choose private schools. We have to think about that, if there are
035other schools in other cities that have expensive houses, but there are still single-family homes. That exists in California; in the past in Boulder, we've seen the same thing. Families with children live in houses that aren't cheap. So, I think the limitation is availability in Boulder at that time, Dr. Anderson, and then Jorge, I would also say that there's more competition for affordable housing, right? So, if you're a young family and you want to buy your first house, your second house, and you want a yard, a newer house, one that does n't have the same challenges as an older house, you're looking in Frederick and Firestone, and I've been making that point. So, a lot of people say, well, I live there, because that's where the young families are. And I appreciate the comment. Nicole's at
036the quarterly meeting. We have a challenge. Boulder is no longer going to be a family-friendly place , because to be a family-friendly place, we need children. It's rare to be so direct. There are a lot of efforts for the city. It's starting with a kid-friendly initiative. Kid-friendly, but which children? But it's not just Boulder, we're not just talking about Louisville, all municipalities need to have intentions to ensure that families can live and raise their children. That's a community thing. If we don't do it as a whole community, it's not going to happen. We've done our part, our schools are supportive, we have amazing educators, amazing teachers, and we're in the business of helping raise children, and we have to make significant changes. Going back to that point, if people live longer, retire, but stay in
037their homes, it can take two or three decades before they sell their house. So, the best thing for us might be to stabilize. I appreciate that Jeff volunteered because he's a scientist who studies change. I would say that. The members of the Community, if you're not focusing on that, you need to pay attention. We all have to deal with it. We understand that we have to make difficult decisions, and we're prepared to do so. But if you understand what our challenges are, and that challenge goes beyond the number of schools we have, it's a challenge for families to live here, and that's the root of what we're facing. [The text abruptly shifts to a seemingly unrelated topic:] [The text abruptly shifts again ... ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]
038] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] " """ """ """ ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] )]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]")]")]) ace. I have done many studies in other demographic districts. The question is about attracting families with children, but we have a demographic where the number of children per couple at the age of having children is much lower than it was several years ago when we were building schools. One cannot predict these trends. I don't think it's very likely that there are four children per house on your block. It would be helpful if families came, but it won't be enough. The second point brings us back to the uncertainty we 're hearing about everywhere here. emergency managers who deal with difficult issues. There is a
039lot of information about how these issues are addressed. We need to be conservative. What if we get to this point in 10 years and there are eight families with three children each? One has to think very carefully about closing and selling district facilities. There are many challenges. Thank you, Jorge. Thank you. Thank you for your work. It's always a little difficult and sad to hear it. So, uh, two points. The map covers the entire district. You only taught one part, but it's throughout the entire district. We've been looking at the demographic aspect for a long time. We have a group of students going through high school, and each year it gets smaller. That's difficult. We have many homes under construction, but they don't attract families with children. By 2030 we will have 14 schools below
040two classes or rounds per school year. These are the same schools that have two rounds, but there are more schools approaching that number. I understand the uncertainty, but we are living in the moment and I appreciate what you are saying. Yes, at that very point we're talking about some of the most complex issues, and as Jorge said, it's not just a problem in Boulder, but challenges in the western part of the district as well. How do you explain Brofield? Because I look at Brofield and it seems like there's a lot of construction, a lot of family homes and condominiums, and the problem is there too. I don't know if it's affordability or fewer children per family, I do n't know, I don't know if it can be, how do you explain it when you see
041when we are requesting development in the western part of the district and that doesn't translate into more students. In this school we see Metalar Lark, we can see its capacity, but most of the western part of the district still look like it's declining. I do n't know, maybe they're not the right houses. Bromfield, uh, the BBC part of Brunfield has no new housing. There's a new housing development in Small Creek, but they're not building many new units. Brownfield is very tight on that side and has been in slow decline for some time now, and the lowest performances we see in La Fet and Een are what we're seeing in our school districts. Part of that does show that we have many people who have moved, people who are already in the district, they may have
042a bigger house or something different and their children are already in high school or something like that. That may be part of the explanation, but what I've seen is a regional trend; that's mainly all I know for now. Well, it's been 4 years since we started. I want to take a moment to honor all the people who have served in Rock, all the work they have done. I think it speaks volumes about his efforts and his recommendations. They have helped us get to where we are today and have these kinds of conversations. And I thought, how can we connect that image we have on slide 10 with the different schools, different colors? And it shows us that we can't take this one school at a time, but regionally, because there are several schools in this
043district that are changing from gray-yellow to red, and that is still very relevant, and I wanted to highlight that, and thank you to the committee for doing all that work. Just because we are in our new phase doesn't mean that no work was done, that there was no value in it; it simply helped us get to where we are today and face this phase. And the complexity is very real. That's what I hear too. The staff says, "Yes, it's difficult. There are 1,000 levers you could pull, but I don't know which would be the best way to make the decision. That's what makes it complex, and it's real." And we are not in a situation that other neighborhood districts have been in, having to close schools. In some ways it makes the problem a little
044more complex, the way in which what we are communicating becomes more complex. I also wanted to acknowledge that. Thank you for acknowledging that complicity. There is no single solution that will be the exact solution, and it will look different to other neighbors because their difficulties are a little different from ours. And we're going to continue looking at these presentations, the data, the trends, and do our best to talk to the community about why we're doing the work we're doing, and thank you for all your efforts to help us, to help us communicate why we have to make difficult decisions in the future. Yes, I just wanted to add something about the complexity. Yes, I play poker with my friends and they always point out that in the history of all board games, a 50 or
04552 card game does not exist. All the variables are different and we're looking at all these secondary ones; we have five or six options for them and there's no scenario where we say, "Oh, we should do this." Yes, we're going to get a lot of feedback on what we can do. The leaders and staff will come back to us with ideas that align with our values. I know that our instinct is, oh, close this, open this, combine these. But I think it's premature because we need to realize what we want to achieve and be intentional about it, because we could have thousands of solutions for how to structure the school and still not achieve our values. We must stay focused on them and that way we will remain more resilient in making decisions. I also
046wanted to add that we are now in a more urgent situation, and I think we need to look at some of the other districts to realize what the impact of inaction on the budget is. We have these guardians of our finances, a very strong team, the finance department, and that's what helps us stay consistent with children aged 2 to 5, and that's different from what we see in other districts. in Colorado. We're also going to have to make decisions that are designed to provide aid over the next 10 years, and failing to take action will disregard our finances and our ability to think about how we're impacting 14,000 to 20,000 students over the next 20 years. We need to be open to options and hold directors accountable, not say, "Oh, I figured that's how they
047worked." No, we have to say, "That's what we want to achieve." I just want to add that I appreciate everything you 're saying when you're making your decisions and having your private conversations. It's important to keep in mind that for the Elrack community and many of the investigations we conducted, what happened in other districts and how their communities reacted, I think the main thing we want you to take away from our reports is transparency. Being transparent with everything we do, and if they achieve that, I believe it will make things much easier for our families. Thank you. I completely agree. Council members, do you have any further questions or comments? Thank you. The next information item is legislative update. Do Andren, is there anything you'd like to share about that? Yes, the session has started.
048Thank you, President RP. We are monitoring 20 bills; there isn't much movement. Our number one priority right now is to make sure that the SOT taxes that are being marked on a shared fee would take $200 million out of the districts in the state. We are making some progress. There is a united effort in the school districts, lobbying them together with Casby, CA. There is unified opposition to this idea, but if we are successful, the budget stabilizing factor will return. I think there's a great risk of this unfortunately happening, and this would be an unfortunate regression in how we founded schools, but I will say that when we talk to legislators, we look at this senators' breakfast. There's a lot of stress on Capitol Hill about how we can balance this budget, how we can
049share the pains, for example, there's a lot to come. We are monitoring it closely and we have 20 bills that we are monitoring, but we really can't do anything about them yet. I will say that we are actively opposing Bill 27, which would change how school board elections are conducted. Only people who are in your region can vote. There is concern about whether only people from District B can vote for District B, and how we can fully represent our community for individuals who are also in a supporting position, and we are monitoring everything else right now. If I'm going to say yes, some bills we had anticipated that although they have a $0 note on the fiscal note in the costs to the school district as a conclusion security, yes there are some bills that
050are coming out, but we made it clear that we are aware that now is not a good time to do more work or take on more cost and we are pushing them, but not actively opposing or promoting them. And that's what's happening, and it's a little frustrating, but we're going to keep monitoring Dr. Anderson. Perhaps there is no bill I dislike as much as this one about singular district members. Each team on the governance team has a certain number of constituents, and not all children in our school district are represented. I've seen this happen in other places. It's very divisive and it doesn't work. I can say that I am very much opposed to this bill, and anyone who is pushing a bill to remove resources is voting to remove resources from classes, and unfortunately,
051it is not detailed that way. Someone might say, "Ah, uh, I came with good intentions." Because they feel that's what they're passionate about, but we're not in a financial position. None of the 135 districts are experiencing a decrease in enrollments. We are very aware of the administrative costs. We're low on administrative costs and yes, we're going to have to make tougher decisions in the classes, but when we have to have a general band or quality training because of a bill, it takes resources away from the class and I don't know if that's been clearly detailed and I wanted to put that on the record. Council members, thank you for that. We have questions, do n't we? Okay, let's continue. 7.1, personal matters. 7.2, approval of the minutes. January 27. 7.3 Acceptance of donations. Aspen Creek.
0527.4 Donation Acceptance at Community Manchester Primary School. 7.5 Acceptance of donations Monarch PK8 7.6 6 intergovernmental agreements of the city of Boulder. 7.7 Federal program grants, Title 2 and Title 3. Does everyone agree with these? Yes. Led by Alex, second by Jorge. It seems like a very short list, which is a good thing. Seeing that there is nothing to discuss. Chris, can you get the list about Booker's confinement? Yes. Chávez, yes, Medler, yes, yes, RP, yes, yes, yes, the motion passes. Continuing to action items 8.1 9.1 B Board Policy. DBJ Board Policy 9.3 FA Board Policy, cash management policy. 9.4 Policy of the Board of Directors of the DG deposit of funds. Board members , is there anything you'd like to bring up? Seeing that there is none, there is a motion to test consent
053moved by Lin second by Jason. Discussion on these points, seeing that there are none. Chris, can you take attendance? Booker, yes. Chávez, yes. Medler, yes. Quera, yes, Rp, yes. Yes, sister. Yes, the motion passes. Next point. Tonight we have several study policies closing the chapter on DLB, DLBR, DLA and DFB policies. I'm giving Kath time to guide us on these policies. Thank you, President Rash. As the president indicated, we are close to concluding Chapter D. There is only one policy that they haven't seen yet, and I would say it's because of my children's presentation last week, but looking at the first one, if I find it, it's the salary deduction. This policy that we are proposing to collapse the policy and regulation under a general policy, that 11.1 and 11.2 that we are considering or
054recommending removing the language in those is shown in the red line, which would be the DLDLA council policy, payroll procedures. payment schedule and that's why we're recommending the elimination of the first two and there's one left on this topic that you'll see at the next meeting, but the last policy has to do with income from school facility licenses. This had not been updated since at the time it was adopted. It was adopted specifically to ensure that we could have cell phone technology in buildings and generate revenue. It had too much unnecessary detail and focused solely on telecommunications uses. The change we propose is to remove some of the things you can ensure your staff handle under their contract and increase the policy a bit for permitted uses that are similar. And those are the changes
055we're recommending for the council's study tonight. Board members, questions or comments about these policies. Some of these policies are required, aren't they? It answers many of the questions we may already have, but I think collapsing them or combining them into one policy is not necessary because the policy we are asking for, DLA, is not required. Your staff can speak because we believe it's important to have that procedure codified in the policy. There are certain things within the policy that we do use as something practical, having to do with errors that sometimes occur or perhaps the employee has too many or too few deductions. And if there is language in this policy to make it clear to employees that as an employee I have to make sure my records are correct and I monitor my pay
056and if it allows us to have these details of how to correct those errors. And if we have the same question about the last one regarding licenses, those are things that we need and they are things that help us ensure that when we enter into new agreements, we know that we have to work with this certain policy or why we keep this one or remove this one. How does it help us? Very good question. Honestly, I don't know if this particular policy will necessarily help us. I'm looking at my friend Rob Price, if there's anything there. Yes, I can tell you that one of the things I did when we arrived in the district was we had a talk and we told them, "We're done with you." I do n't know if you remember, we
057had a disagreement with the telecommunications department because we were dealing with a very large network, but honestly I think the board has been very clear, the leadership has been very clear, that we are looking for opportunities to increase revenue and it was adapted in the policy here that they have already reviewed to the point that the board uses policies to direct the staff. I think it's very clear that they expect us to make prudent use of the facilities. I believe that not having the policy would change some of what Dr. Anderson or his staff do. Dr. Anderson, there is a reason why this policy exists, to the point that it is relevant or irrelevant. I think, and Kathle, correct me if I'm wrong, but sometimes boards create policies when things happen that are out of
058bounds, but were never clarified, to the point that we're in a very good place right now, we know and understand the dynamics if things were to change, but having something like that is more like an insurance policy and an assurance policy for staff who feel they are doing something innovative, progressive. There is nothing to prevent that, but we also have to assume those risks in the future for advice, the future, super-advisers, the future. Yes, that's what I meant . What I think is the advice of the council's responsibility, to see if it is setting a limit for us, if we are achieving it. Perhaps another administration, another superintendent will make a decision that isn't the best. The council will have to perhaps review this; perhaps it will help a group in the future to figure
059out how they would carry this out. And also to make it clear that it is a use that is approved by the council. There are some districts that felt it was inappropriate to have that technology, perhaps aesthetically, but this clearly empowers staff to seek suitable opportunities. Politics that is innocent, but can be useful if we need it one day. This might be worth keeping there, and I appreciate the removal of unnecessary details. Sorry, Alex. And I would tell my friends at Jack that that's one that doesn't take up your time at Jack. OK? You remove most of the communication references, except for the first paragraph where you use this given that the general use of the policy could be eliminated. I do n't know if there's a way to limit it without being so specific.
060Any other questions or comments? Members, it feels great to be able to move around with so many policies that aren't so spicy. Thank you for your work on this. Council members, the last topic of study is digital markers. Dr. Anderson Rob Price. Thank you, President Rush P., and members of the board. We are meeting because we had a conversation in the fall about some ways we could take advantage of this to promote more revenue for the district. Our team researched several options, and tonight we'll be presenting one that enhances our student and community experience and can provide additional income with one-time investments. I'm going to give this time to Assistant Superintendent Rob Price. I am here to present a proposal for digital marker frames. This initiative, in line with KHB policy, promotes this as a
061source of income and an idea to generate additional revenue by replacing the five scoreboards in the five high school stadiums with more modernized units. Modernization would enhance the appearance of our stadiums, which also improves the sports experience for the thousands of families who visit our campuses daily. Beyond the update, it also provides educational outcomes that can be integrated into our CTE curriculum. Students would have the ability to increase their audiovisual skills, produce videos, interviews, preparing them for their future careers. The one-time investment for this project would be $2.3 million. Most of this 1.9999 million would be for the five digital scoreboards. The additional $175,000 for fiber optic costs and also for these unexpected costs, we have sections and maintenance, which would be approximately $21,000 and this would be replaced with annual income. We're going to
062launch a new program to generate annual income and to offset the cost of this project, and the annual cost would be $21,000. In summary, this is an investment to improve the facilities for our athletes, and we also have the potential to create annual revenue in line with our policies, and we will also, if this is approved, bring the contract. for your approval in your presence. Thank you very much, first Liliana, then Jason. Do we have any experience that we 've already discussed with other districts regarding the impact of these digital billboards on neighborhoods? Yes, primarily it is due to the sound, the noise, that is distributed. Uh, there is associated planning on this. I haven't heard the feedback; we heard it on NWAT, but other than that I have n't received any other opinions on
063the appearance of the digital dashboards. I believe we should be considering visual pollution in Boulder County. Yes, thank you, Rob. I want to ask about the numbers. 2.4 million for the cost and 400,000 not per board, but in total. So we need 6 years to cover the cost, but these have a useful life of 20 years. So we have to wait 6 years before we get a break-even point, and I think after 6 years we're going to have maintenance costs or maybe replacement costs, I don't know, I have questions about the long-term financial cost. Let's assume we're not going to make 400,000. The warranty is for 11 years. We are assuming that we are going to a 12-year warranty from the manufacturer. We're not going to be operating these screens 24/7. So, uh, I do
064n't know if this makes sense. The payment will be made over 7 years, maintenance would be $9,000 per year for the five boards and we do not anticipate that these costs will increase. We want to stay up to date with new technology. First, I live a mile from Centaros and every Friday night I hear the game and when there's a band it's like a festival and I'd like to encourage the noise pollution. Yes, because even though I live a mile from Centaurs and can hear all the games, this would also put me a mile from Monark. I can listen to Monarch and Centauros where I live. I have concerns that I like the fact that they are going to do it as an educational opportunity for students to learn how to operate these devices. But
065I'm also concerned that a large amount of money goes to a small number of students, because not all of them play football or soccer or baseball. So, I think it's unfair. I want to draw attention to this, and I see that I like photographs, and this could be used to sell advertisements. So, uh, and well, I also want us to be careful about which corporations we're involved with. That's my comment. Alex. Well, I think it does make sense, and I'm curious, as other communities have done, how we arrived at the $400,000 figure and how... Well, it matters to me when I think about the $400,000 income. This will allow us to increase the number of available seats in the stadium, also see the study in terms of gender, and it can tell us what budget
066the cost comes from and where it comes from in terms of income. Well, it will be... it will be determined in the future. Bill. Yes, that's correct. And for the other question, we communicate with other districts, our neighbors, and this number; the numbers are aligned with advertising revenue. And well, I would like to speak. Yes, Dr. Anderson. Well, I was a director and I worked at several festivals where there were bands. I believe that Centarus puts on a significant music festival and Monark also has its own music festival. We can add videos. This is very inclusive. A board in the stadium is a place to highlight those children who are not being highlighted. Certain clubs that want to promote themselves can be listed. Student of the month, I am really very sensitive to this point.
067It's not just for athletes. Yes, it's for football games. It's where the community gathers, especially in the fall, but also for soccer games and other activities, and we want to be very sensitive to having equitable representation and allowing all children, all students, to be highlighted on our digital boards. We are becoming one of the few school districts that does not yet have this technology. And well, publicity, yes, but an opportunity for our students, whether it's band, sports or an assembly, to have this type of display. And I don't mean to say that we won't face some obstacles. It's part of what comes with improving something, but schools like Refield and Spelberg in Centuros, we will face concerns from neighbors about the light, the noise, and to elaborate on what he said, "We've been to some
068stadiums, and sports facilities of this type are going to attract a lot of people, and we need this kind of revenue. This is going to be an income generator, and we'll be able to have more seating and capacity. We have a council policy, and we always look forward to sports and youth activities. We want them to be family activities at our sports facilities. This is a great opportunity to have a better spectator experience. And I have a question about the cost and size of the sports scoreboards or digital screens. Can you tell me more about why the costs are different for each school? Yes, I'd like to remind you that Refield has stadiums for football and other activities. So, the scoreboards at Monark and Fairview are smaller. And what size are they? I don't know."
069I have it in mind. I'll give you the information later. Council members, do you have any other comments? Well, Dian, you haven't had the opportunity to familiarize yourselves with this policy. So I'd like you to please read it to see how it works, what we're basing this decision on, and I appreciate it because we just recently had this discussion about having revenue generators for our students and for the facilities. So, would you like me to present the contract for your review? Yes, please. The last item on the agenda is future matters. I know we have many pending issues . Would any of you like to add what issues you'd like to prioritize? I see there aren't any. The meeting is adjourned.