001Good evening everyone. Before we start, I would like to point out the exits in the room. We have an exit over here. over here and then two behind me. Please silence all electronic devices or put them in airplane mode and thank you in advance for helping us maintain a respectful, safe, and civil forum space. Before we begin, I want to invite our Spanish-speaking community members to check in with Favi at the door. She can provide instructions for interpretation and equipment that will allow you to hear the forum in Spanish. And Spanish interpretation will also be available online. Welcome to the Boulder Valley School District Candidate Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Boulder County and the Boulder Valley District Parent Council. My name is Martine Elenor. I am a proud member of the
002League and I am pleased to serve as moderator for tonight's forum. The League of Women Voters of Boulder County is a nonpartisan political organization. For over 100 years, we have encouraged informed and active participation in government. The district parent council is made up of one representative from every school in the district. They meet once a month during the school year with the superintendent of schools to discuss and examine timely and relevant topics that affect the students and schools of BBSD. Neither the league nor the district parent council supports or opposes political candidates or parties. Now to the forum. The board of education is made up of seven elected volunteers who determine district policy and how the district operates. Each board member is elected to a 4-year term representing a section of the district based on
003the board of education boundaries. Candidates must live in the director district in which they are running. However, they are voted upon by the entire BBSD community. For the November 4th election, voters will be asked to fill three seats on the board of education. Specifically for district B, E, and F. This election only district E is contested but we have asked the uncontested candidates from district B and F to also participate in tonight's forum. The format will be as follows. Each candidate will have one minute for an opening statement. We will then begin with the questions submitted from the audience including from those questions that have been submitted by the Boulder community electronically online. Audience members may submit questions by writing them on index cards available from our volunteers. Please raise your hand if you need
004a card or a pencil or pen. Once you have written your question, please catch the attention of one of our volunteers. Volunteers, raise your hand. Once you've written your question, please catch the attention of one of our volunteers and give the card to them. Questions should be addressed to all candidates rather than directing your question to a particular candidate. I ask you submit your questions very early in the forum. Our question screening team will possibly combine several similar questions received from the audience into one question on that topic. We will try to ask the candidates as many questions as time permits. In most instances, each candidate will have one minute to answer the question. If the time is longer, I will announce before the question is asked. Please do not do any actions to interrupt
005or disrupt the forum. Please refrain from clapping, booing, or otherwise showing your approval or disapproval of any response. The candidates are seated in the order they will appear on the general election ballot. Now to the opening statements and questions. For the opening statements, we will begin with District B candidate Rajpal. Good evening everyone. Thank you for taking the time to be here tonight and to the league and DPC for hosting this forum. My name is Nicole Rajpal. I'm a parent of two students here in the Boulder Valley School District. They're high schoolers. My partner is a physician in the community and I have been supporting schools across the district for the past 11 years in various capacities including serving on PTO's Sachs, the district accountability committee and in the last four years on the board
006of education serving two of those years as board treasur and two of those years as board president. In the time on the board, I have worked with board members to pass policy, strategic plan, balance budgets in a way that meets the needs of all of our students and staff. I'm running for reelection to continue to focus on increasing access to opportunities for all of our students and to ensure our students and our staff feel safe, welcome, and included in our schools. >> Candidate Anderson. >> Good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming. I'm Jeff Anderson. In 2001, my wife, two young daughters, and I moved to Lewisville when I started a job as a data assimilation scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. A lot has changed here in the last quarter of a century. My
007daughters are both successful BBSD graduates and one as a teacher in another Colorado district. I've had a chance to serve on many BBSD committees, including seven years on the school accountability committee at Fireside, five years at Fairview, and six years at Boulder High. I was a representative on the district accountability committee for eight years, including one year as chair. In 2001, when I got here, most BBSD schools were close to full. Today, many are dealing with challenges from declining enrollment. For the last four years, I've served as co-chair of the long range advisory committee that advises the board on how to deal with enrollment challenges. During the last 24 years, I've learned so much about climate achievement, budget, and enrollment issues in the district. If elected, I would use my experience and expertise to provide
008the best transparent, compassionate, datadriven governance for the district so that all students achieve their full potential. >> Candidate Booker. >> Good evening. I'm here after a full day of teaching and that should tell you a little bit about uh how I'm different than these other folks. I have been a teacher in my heart for 35 years. When I tried to retire from Boulder Valley School District, I lasted three months before I was looking for a job to be back with students because it it is the work of my life. I want to be part of the Boulder Valley board because there's some issues that I really think we need to address to help our teachers. One is we need a view of what policies land on classrooms like and that's been missing. Two, we need
009to focus on the three big issues of creating equitable outcomes. We need to focus on literacy and expanding how much our children are reading and required to read at every level and in every language. And the last would be that we would um help our students be safe in the Boulder Valley schools. >> Candidate Demu Auding. Thank you. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for being here. My name is Anna Teu Aing and I believe my story really starts with the story of my parents. My father immigrated here from Mexico and my mom escaped genocide from the Guatemalan civil war and I was raised seeing the challenges people face in this country when they're undocumented. And so as a senior in high school, I began my advocacy journey uh and really fighting for a comprehensive
010immigration reform with the Pathway to Citizenship, Dream Act, DACA. Uh, I helped pass uh, Colorado ASA, our instate tuition for undocumented students, uh, and our driver's licenses for all program. I've spent the fa past 15 years working on uh, pro-immigration policy. Um, and now I am super excited to be able to continue um, that advocacy uh, here on the board as well. Thank you. For the first question, we will start with district E candidate Anderson. What changes to BBSD policies and approaches would you like to pursue? So I will say that the recent boards have worked very hard on policies and many of them are up to date and doing very well. I think the most important place where we need to work on adapting our policies is with regard to technology in particular artificial
011intelligence that is already in our schools in many ways. It is uh doing great things for some of our educators. It is doing great things for some of our students. It is also a real burden for some of our educators and can be a catastrophic social and emotional problem for many of our students. At present the district has a committee working on this but the board itself does not. I think I would advocate for having the board establish a committee that responds directly to the board that would deal with these issues. We have lots and lots of expertise in Boulder County to deal with these things. I would try to bring those experts to bear on this and then adapt policies that need to be very frequently updated because these technologies are changing so rapidly.
012>> Candidate Booker, >> I'm also from district E. So Mr. Anderson and I are are the two people who are running opposed and you can see we're friendly about that. Um I'm also a person who lives in Lewisville and I can tell you that one of the things that I'd really like to work on is how how things are distributed throughout the district so that schools are treated the same. There is a bolder bonus. Boulder schools are more important. I worked at Monarch High School for 20 years. I worked at um Broomfield High School and I worked here at the education center in this room and probably spent hundreds and hundreds of hours here with teachers who are trying to learn. I really think the other problem that's very big is uh we do not
013have substitutes to keep teachers afloat. We do not have enough people to keep teachers employed and we're going to lose them. >> I'll say the name of the district for the voters's sake. District F candidate Tamu A. Thank you so much. Um I currently sit as a commissioner for Colorado's higher education system. And one of the things that we are currently talking about now that we're really working through is financial insecurity. And I know that that's going to be a very big um topic and very big um piece of policy that we're going to have to really dig into. Um, and some of those, um, some of those things that we're already talking at the state level, I'm excited to bring here to the BVSD uh, to the BBSD level to really get creative and
014to really be transparent and within community as we're making decisions um, with the budget shortfalls at the state and at the federal level that we're going to be facing next year. District B candidate Rajpole. The BBSD has several hundred policies amongst which most folks don't know exist or know what they mean or intended to apply, how they're intended to be applied to schools. So for me, I'm really excited about the work that the board is engaged on on looking at all of our policies on a regular cycle and eliminating the policies that are no longer relevant or suiting the needs. I think when we're thinking about policy, one thing I like to really lean into is what am I hearing from the community? What is percolating up? The board in the last four years have
015addressed a lot of the I would say call hot button policies. I would agree with Jeff. The policy we're probably hearing the most about right now is artificial intelligence, but as a board member, it's me relying on you, the community members, to help me understand what's working, what isn't in policy, and that's where I make my decisions on what to elevate and what not to. Next question. The next question will have 90 seconds for a response. How will you prioritize hearing student voices? Do you feel there are adequate social, emotional, and mental health supports available at the high school level? And how can we offer these to all students to remove the stigma of the student having to ask for help? candidate booger district E >> there aren't enough resources uh in this time that
016we are seeing as a mental health crisis for our teens and I think that it's very important that we figure out how to work with the community and I know we have a relationship with a community organization that is trying to provide help especially to the large high schools. Um, but I'm not sure how that plays out in the smaller high schools or the high schools and middle schools who tend to attract students that are not as able. And so I would think a school like Justice High could use some extra love there. Um, I work in a school where the students get pushed out of BBSD and other districts and come to a place where they get that help on a daily basis. It is extraordinarily important as as our teenagers especially are dealing
017with all of the things that we're talking about the AI the um the politics of today and whether they feel safe and whether they're hungry. So we definitely need to figure out if there are ways that we can make it not a stigma. >> District F candidate Tuing. Thank you. Um, for me, one of the biggest things that I'm looking forward to in the coming year is to uh really show up and hear folks um and really listen to the things that they're going through. I think that that's going to be the number one thing to really guide us on uh resources, especially as we're um again facing uh financial shortfalls um at the state and federal level. But I think that's going to be the best way for us to really hear and understand
018uh where those resources um should go, should live, where um you know, more schools need a little bit more attention, more love. Um but also really listening to our kids on like what is what they're facing in a dayto-day. um the things we know that we're facing as adults as reading the news every single day. They're scrolling uh with it on their phones and they have um just such tremendous anxiety. And for me, uh, showing up also means, um, sharing my story and sharing my lived experiences because I know that for when kids see, uh, they have an example, they hear a story, they know that they can relate to someone, um, that really reduces the stigma of of having to, um, really, you know, build up the courage because you've found an ally. Um,
019and so I'm really excited to show up um, to share my lived experience and to really listen to what our community is going through. District B candidate Raj Paul. >> I appreciate what Anna just said. One of the things that the board of education in the school district is doing right now is precisely that we are talking to trying to understand what our students need, how the services that we are currently providing are impacting them and where gaps might exist. So really understanding how where the return on investment is the largest because we are facing bud budgetary challenges at the state and federal level. So being really mindful about those resources is incredibly important. So partnering with Rene Wellness Institute to help us understand where those gaps exist, what's working, what's not. Our partners at
020the impact on education have generously supported wellness centers and all of our comprehensive high schools which is um an outstanding service and they're highly utilized. So continue to do that. I think looking at what services are provided in the community and making sure we're not being redundant. Again, we all need to be working together to support the needs of everyone in our community, and we are all on tight budgets. And so, if the city is doing something, the county is doing something, what can we do to be supportive and yet not redundant, that is really where my head is around the mental health and wellness um services for our students. And student voice is incredibly important to me. I love talking to students. We hear from students at board meetings, getting out in the community.
021It's helpful to have high schoolers and and understand what's going on, boots in the ground there. But um engaging with our students in meaningful ways, including starting the student cabinet, youth equity council, there are a lot of ways that we are hearing from students and sort of continue to elevate those voices and understand where they are in with their mental health needs is important. >> District E candidate Anderson. >> So I agree with all my um colleagues up here about these issues. So we know that during the pandemic there was huge pressure on our students and so mental health issues got worse and we have not as a community as a country recovered from that. So this is an unprecedented situation that we're trying to deal with. Listening to students is super important. I will
022call out I see a couple student actually in the back here that I know and so great for you getting out and communicating uh to the board members and everything else. And we do need to listen to students. We need to find for where they're there and get the message from them. We need to continue our support for counselors which we've heard and resources are always a challenge but counselors need to come first for mental health safety. Another issue that perhaps we haven't talked about yet here is that our faculty, our administrators are also under enormous pressure at this particular time. They have the challenges of supporting all these students and they themselves need resources too. And so an important thing is making sure that as we move forward that the health plans that we
023do make available to our employees provide them with the mental health support that they need. Also, you know, one of the things that we know is that having a trusted adult for every student in our buildings is super important. That is a huge burden on those adults and so we really need to support them as well as our students. Finally, I will again second the other things that have been said. We have a number of community partners that are really helping out the district impact on education. I will also note that there is a Boulder County mental health initiative coming up and we need to support that too. Next question. How can we make schools safe for all students and employees? District F candidate Themu Aing. Thank you so much for that question. I uh
024again having just shared that when you share your lived experience and you share your story, you're really um opening up a space to to bridge a gap uh for someone to to connect to you. And I think that um having connection and having belonging uh is one of the biggest ways um to create a safe space. Um, I think that, um, one of the things that I've, uh, truly admired from a lot of my conversations, um, with different board members and community members, um, is just how, uh, well-rooted we are in our values of making sure that we are creating these, uh, safe and open spaces for our students and really making sure that we are, um, valuing and acknowledging and supporting, uh, everyone's uniqueness. Um and also making sure that um yeah that we're
025creating space for for uh our teachers and our kids to feel comfortable to be who they are around around their board members. >> District B candidate Rajpole. >> When I think of safety, I think of physical safety and I think of psychological safety, emotional safety. The district has made great strides in improving their physical safety at our buildings. um automated door locks, cameras, all kinds of things to really the changing vestibules. We've invested heavily thanks to taxpayer dollars in our bonds to improve the physical safety in our buildings. When it comes to more of the psychological, emotional safety, continue to do the the work of making sure folks feel valued, included, and that they belong in our schools. So, making sure that we are representing and celebrating the diversity that exists within our community, both
026on the staff level and on the student level and on the family level. Making sure that our curriculum are representative of the folks that live in our communities and that everybody sees themselves represented through through lessons and through topics is another great way to to foster that. And then just celebrating celebrating everybody's uniqueness and is really a part of what makes BBSD BBSD >> district E candidate Anderson. So I'll second what we've already heard and that is that the most important thing for safety is that our students must feel welcome, included and valued. If they don't then there are all kinds of other complexities arise from that. the BBSD policies. Again, I I've been uh quite happy with the things the previous boards have done. In particular, our policies with regard to um social and
027emotional safety within the buildings, making sure everyone is welcome have been updated in the last few years in 2021 and then checked on even in the last few weeks. I think our policies are good. Where we may have some issues is that we are not always implementing our policies and we are not vigilant enough in seeing that that has happened. And I think there are egregious examples in the recent history in the district with certain high schools where the climate kind of went off the rails. And so we really need to work closely with the superintendent and the superintendent needs to work very closely with principles and buildings to make sure that we are actually following our policies and keeping our kids safe. >> District E candidate Booker. As uh Nicole has said already, uh
028there's different ways to look at safety. Uh one is the safety of the persons in the building as especially against weapons and that fear is real in the students that um I talk with daily. Many of them left our comprehensive high schools because they did not feel safe. they did not feel that that it was a good place for them to be. They felt like someone could get a weapon in minutes. Um, and that's something that we really need to work on, but I think we need to work on it through the back door. Um, why are those students bringing weapons and how can we help them? One of those is by equitizing the achievement level. If kids are achieving, they're probably less likely to bring weapons into the school and be angry. Graduates, they
029go in many directions. Employment opportunities in technology fields, for one, have suddenly undergone a decline, possibly due to AI. Are there any routes for which you feel our students need to offer young people better preparation for the future? Please explain. We'll start with candidate Rajpal, District B. Fascinating question. I think one of the reasons why I'm running again is to continue the good work the district is doing. part of the grad plus framework requires us to look at what are the top industries currently in the in the county and in the region for for jobs. And so when we're thinking about the expanding opportunities for career certifications and for work-based learning opportunities, like tapping into what what folks that work in this environment say are needed as far as jobs is the best thing we
030can do to prepare prepare our students for the jobs of today and the jobs of five years today. I am not an expert in that area. You would not want me hypothesizing what might be coming down the pike, but it's really great to have the partnership, the partners with the business community that is telling us what kind of skills are needed, what kinds of jobs are they seeing coming, and how can then we prepare our students to meet those needs. >> District E candidate Anderson. So, as a tech professional, we're already seeing this stuff also, and the causes are complex, but there is certainly less opportunity for folks coming out of sort of traditional colleges on tech paths. And so, for our graduates to be successful, we need to be identifying other possibilities. So the
031district strategic plan which has four strategic goals, one of those strategic goals is to actually explore with all students through all the K12 experience opportunities for careers in a variety of different ways. I think that the district is going to have to put additional resource into this on a fairly quick time scale. We already have a number of opportunities for less traditional college focused opportunities. I just saw recently we rolled out the modular housing the first two units for this year which is great stuff. Um it's totally different path than what you might be doing at IB at Fairview. So I think there are lots of opportunities we can explore and the district is going to have to focus our resources on some of these uh alternatives. >> District E candidate Booker. >> I find
032this a really interesting question because um I am right in the midst of it. I have a daughter who's 23, graduate from from university and in graduate school and doesn't have a job. So, I do understand that uh we need to really make sure that those opportunities are attractive. So, right now, what's attractive in a high school is AP classes and IB classes. And if you're in those, you're good. And if you're not in those, then you somehow are lacking. And so we really have to change the um atmosphere for people to feel like going into and choosing other careers is a good choice for them. And it might actually make them happier than sitting at a theoretical computer all day. They will need to um use their hands. They will use need to use
033different parts of their brain. They might need to be creative. They might be more suited to a person who's a neurodeiverse learner than the traditional AP and IB tracks. District F candidate Demu Auding. Thank you. This is uh one of the things that I'm most passionate about is really ensuring that our kids have a really clear uh cradle to career pathway. I currently sit on the Colorado Commission of Higher Education and that's one of the bigger things that we work on is uh collaborating with our workforce and making sure that our our lifelong learners are ready for the workforce. That is one of the biggest complaints that we get from a lot of um large employers here in the state is that on day one our students are not ready. And so I'm really excited
034to really dig in and bring in a lot of the great resources that we have at the higher uh higher education department um that can really be uh useful for our students in K through 12. And so I'm really excited to get to work to really make sure that we're uh addressing our workforce needs um that we are promoting uh different pathways uh and that we are um making them all you know as valuable because we do um we are seeing that we have a growing need in the trades. Um, and so, uh, I'm very excited to to work on this, uh, cradleto career pathway for our students. The district is facing a number of challenges in the coming years. It will be important for our board to have guiding values while making budgetary decisions.
035What would you say are your top three values and priorities that should guide where these limited resources are spent? Candidate Anderson, District E. >> So I think the first value is >> Oh, please turn on your mic. Thanks. I think the first value is one of transparency and so the board needs to be communicating clearly what our decisions are and we need to be listening very clearly to the input coming from the community. The second thing and I'm a data person. I'm a data scientist professionally is that our decisions have to be data driven. So we need to have data available. We need to study it. We need to have professionals tell us how to interpret it. Now there are different types of data. There is hard data. How many of our third graders in
036a particular school meet the grade level standards? There's also soft data. Okay. How many of our students feel safe in school? How many have witnessed an episode of bullying? And so the third thing I would bring is we have to be compassionate in applying data. We have to understand that there are students, there are families, there are educators that are tied to these data points. And so we have to reflect a value of treating them in the best possible way uh along with a transparent decision. >> Candidate Booger. >> I think one of the biggest challenges we will have is um a shrinking enrollment problem which could have implications for shrinking staff and a shrinking uh shrinking schools number of schools. We are currently losing about 200 students a year and that's been going on
037since I was in the classroom. So we somehow managed to work around having to close anything and we have communities that are growing. So in Erie there are still schools to be built. So, in the end, I the value that I hold most dear is that it's equitable for our students and they're getting equitable educational experiences no matter where they live or what what school they choose to go to. >> District F candidate Themu Aing. >> Yes. Uh for me, um one of the things that I didn't get to share is uh I own a couple businesses. is one is called Gorason consulting which means heart consulting and the other one's called Gorason printing which means heart printing uh and I named it that because everything that I do I try to do it uh
038from my heart and from my soul and so that's really primarily my first value uh secondly I really want to make sure that we're human- centered um that we're not just um you know creating policies separated from community but that we're really rooting uh our students and our teachers and the decision decisions that we are making. And then third, um really being data driven. I believe that once we rely on the data and once we have uh really good data, uh we're really able to make um really those equitable decisions that sometimes fall through the cracks. And I think that that is where um our our um equitability advocacy really needs to come come in strong. >> Candidate Rajp district B. So my biggest value is ensuring our students have access to outstanding educational opportunities
039and experiences no matter where they go to school. And so when I look at budgets, I think of how are we driving resources to students into classrooms. So that's number one. Second for value for me, good governance. A board's job isn't to micromanage how the budget works. Our job is to provide oversight and to to sort of set the tone or the direction of where resources should be allocated. Right now, we're doing that through the strategic plan. So, continue to advocate for and in and for um allow that strategic plan to make its way through because it is really improving outcomes and opportunities for our students as we've seen two years in a row highest performing district in the in the uh front range. Third is return on investment. We have to make sure our
040our resources are being spent in ways that are creating meaningful outcomes. So if a literacy program is really expensive and it's not really working and and and showing the same benefit to students as a cheaper version that might have way more benefit, we need to be paying very close attention to that so we're using our our resources in ways that are benefiting our students. How will you address the shrinking student population in BBSD without losing the robust education that BBSD has been known for? We'll start with district E candidate Booker. when the board looks at and and allocates funds to schools. One of the things that they don't see is some of that robust education that happens at schools is after school and it's done by voluntary work from teachers. And so we need to
041find a way to compensate teachers for working extra to make that robust program work. And I'm thinking of things like Odyssey of the Mind. Is that a robust program? I think it is. I think it's excellent. Do the teachers get paid for operating that? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the school. So, robustness is much bigger than just what's in the curriculum books. And that'll be a problem if our schools start shrinking because you lose teachers. You're going to lose those people who are willing to volunteer their hours to do those robust programs. >> Candidate Theu AI Yes, one of the biggest things um or well really looking at uh that we are one part of the whole ecosystem and really communicating the things that we are seeing as a district in our schools in the
042day-to-day um with our county, with the city, with other advocates that are working on other parts of housing affordability. Um because that is one of the biggest things that is driving our declining enrollment. While you might have two or three kids, Boulder might not be the most affordable place for you and it might be very hard to find something that is affordable for you. And so we are one piece of the puzzle of the declining enrollment um and being as um communicative and straightforward with the other uh pieces within the ecosystem that are working to address um some of that housing insecurity that's happening that's contributing to the declining enrollment. Um but also really being as um uh community centered, listening to community when it does come time to really evaluating and looking to see
043what what programs are um still viable and what schools um should still maintain open. >> Thank you. >> District B candidate Rajpole. >> Birth rates are decreasing nationwide. They're decreasing here in Colorado and we feel it a lot in BBST as well. board members can't contrast can't address declining birth rates. Unfortunately, we do speak to our city council members and talk about the types of housing that families want to live in. We know very clearly what types of housing students our students live in and what types of housing they don't. So, when we meet with our partners at the city, talking about where to invest affordable middle level, family style housing is really important. And then I think showcasing the good work that we're doing here. BBSC, the place to be showcase is coming up
044later this month. We have been able to attract students from out of district that is helping stabilizing the declines. We do have great schools. We have great teachers and just showcasing that can definitely help. And then again back to opportunities for kiddos. If there comes a time in which our schools are so small and underenrolled that they are losing access to opportunities. I think it's incumbent upon board members to make really difficult decisions to ensure that those act those opportunities um are exist everywhere. even if it means considering closing, consolidating, and or changing enrollment boundaries. >> District E candidate Anderson. >> So, the past four years, I've been co-chairing the long range advisory committee, which the board set up to address these declining enrollment issues. So, I have studied a lot of the data here.
045There is no shortterm solution that is going to get us more students back in this district. And so, we have to deal with that. The board has adopted some policies over the last two years that are an initial attempt to explore solutions to this. They have instituted an investigation of elementary schools that have insufficient enrollment to provide good opportunities for students. And we've identified one school, Heatherwood Elementary, where additional resources were put in. He Heatherwood has rebranded itself as an environmental steam school. And that's great. This type of solution is not going to work. We're going to need more holistic solutions. They're going to be potentially difficult decisions to make. I cannot tell you what those decisions might be at this time. We're going to need more studying ahead of but hard decisions are going
046to have to be made and I am up for making hard datadriven decisions. >> This next question is connected with the proposition LL and MM that will be on the general election ballot. BVSD food service is highly regarded with most meals made from scratch for students. All BFD BVSD schools offer free or lowcost breakfast and lunch. But what happens to the healthy food BVSD offers if propositions LL and MM do not pass? District F candidate Theu Auding. >> Thank you. Um, and I do um believe that it's uh in beholden on all of us to really be able um to champion some of those initiatives of really making sure that we're securing funds for um that food security in our schools. Um, and again, we are going to have to look at um tough decisions,
047but I believe in in Boulder Valley uh district voters um to really look and see the value of of providing uh that food security. And I don't know if folks um how often you all look at the at the lunch menus. I have a 5-year-old who is in kindergarten and I him and I we talk about like some of the food that he's going to have in in the coming week and um I would not want to lose uh any of those healthy food initiatives because their their meals look awesome. District B candidate Raj Paul. >> Our food service program does an outstanding job. In fact, it's often tour our culinary center at at this campus is toured by folks from around the state and around the country because we do outstanding work in that
048area. Proposition LL and MM are incredibly important. If that they do not pass, not only will we have operational inefficiencies increased in the district, uh we will also since uh meals have been free, we've been able to increase the types of meals offered. So dairyfree meals are now offered when they didn't used to be offered. Um we have gluten-free of variety. All kinds of off um different dietary preferences are being accommodated right now. We might lose some of those accommodations if we need to be more um mindful of the cost. Same thing with locally sourced foods that could potentially be at risk. And um first and foremost, I guess more most importantly, our rates of participation have been outstanding since these meals have been free for both breakfast and lunch. And to see that decrease
049really does jeopardize kids ability to learn in schools. If you're hungry, you're not learning. And so we could see actually, I believe, impact negative impacts in achievement and growth as well. District E candidate Anderson. >> So I'm going to come back to the question was was how can we provide healthy foods without LL and MM in the district and the reality is that we will not be able to do most of what we've been doing. It is absolutely essential that LL and MM are passed and voters statewide have control over that. But anything we can do to help the voters realize the consequences of not passing this is important. LLM get their funding um in a most progressive way. They only tax people who are making more than $300,000. Um so I think it is
050possible to generate a ground swell of support for this. But again, realistically, the district cannot pick this up on its own. That being said, the district has a great food service as we've heard. We have great employees. We would have to find our ways to stretch the available funds as much as possible to do what we can. By the way, LL and MM will also bring back more of the farm-totable support and also provide training and other things for our staff. I mean, they are huge wins and without them, there are just gaps we cannot fill. >> District E candidate Booker, >> that would be a sad day if LL and MM did not pass. So, um I hope that that's not a truth that comes to us. Uh, I really honestly believe that the
051the availability of food over the last couple of years has been a gamecher and I would dare my data mongering friends to prove that the achievement uh achievement gap uh reduction and the the um good scores that gave us so much um recognition as a district weren't just from the food because they could have been before the food was given. Do you know where kids got food when they were hungry? From their teachers. Their teachers would open up their purse, open up their food bags, and feed children on their own. So, I hope that doesn't happen again. What is your position on bilingual education in BBSD? Specifically, what plans do you have to support students whose first language is not English in order to close the achievement gap? Candidate Rajpal, District B. I'm always a
052little leerary of questions that say, "What will you do?" Board members serve on a team of seven, and it's so it's a what would what could we do? Um, I've been really proud of the work that the B district has done to expand our bilingual education programs at our middle school level and our elementary school levels. And so continuing to support those schools, I think is incredibly important. They are also being sought out. So they are schools that are well attended. Um, so I would continue to to work to support those pathways. So these kiddos can students can have a kindergarten through 12th grade experience in their her culture their their language that they speak from their heart and at home um and supporting them through their classrooms for world languages are superpowers. We recognize
053that in the seal of literacy here as well in the school district and so continuing to to do that work that's deeply embedded within strategic plan is something I would continue to advocate for with my fellow board members. District E, candidate Anderson. >> So trying to be in a K12 educational environment in a language you don't speak, think about that for a while, is an intimidating thing. So this is really hard for students that are in this situation. So the first thing we need to continue to do is providing targeted additional resources for students that are in this situation. And hopefully we're not going to lose some of those targeted additional resources that are currently coming from the federal government and for the state in some levels. If we do lose those, I think those
054are going to be priorities that we're going to have to take out of other funds in the district. So continuing to fund those things is essential. Um there's a lot of good state programs, a lot of good programs that the district is already running. We do have specific dual language emerging schools which are are helpful and expanding some of those would be good too. But the most important part is to continue to keep the resources in so that those students have uh the supports they need to be able to deal with these challenges. >> District E candidate Booker. One of the things that goes on in our district that's kind of secret and under the table is that there's a conflict between uh between students who want to go to their community school and maybe
055need an English as a second language program because those things don't happen in every school. And so students are waving their right to ESL services in order to enter their community school and then therefore being able to ride the bus or walk to school or be there with um neighborhood friends. And we need to figure out a way to provide services to all the kids who really need it so that they are not just floundering and increasing that um that opportunity gap that we have. District F candidate Tamu Auding. >> Thank you. I think uh language justice is very important uh for all of our students and making sure that they have that accessibility to um the language of of their of their hearts. Uh, and so for me, one of the when I think
056about um being supportive of bilingual schools and bilingual programs, uh, I go back to when I was in high school in my sexed class and I was the only bilingual student there and I was tasked with translating a lot of the curriculum of that of that course uh, over to Pier. And so I want to make sure that uh our students aren't put in that hot spot and that we do have the support to make sure that everybody gets an equitable education and isn't fully embarrassed as a 15-year-old having to explain all of these crazy things. So, uh, yes, I am super supportive of bilingual schools. Some parents express a view that general education students are shortchanged because of the amount spent on services and facilities for special programs such as gifted and talented those
057with special needs and others. What is your response to this view? We'll start with district E candidate Anderson. So obviously these are challenging questions because we have finite resources available and I understand that every parent would like to see as much resource going into their child's education as possible. At the end of the day the district has to provide as close to an equitable education as possible for all the populations in our school. And that requires, as we mentioned a moment ago, for English language learners, for instance, that requires targeted additional funding to certain populations. There are certain students that we are um obligated morally to serve that require much more resource uh than some other students. And so simply leveling the resources so that everyone gets the same opportunity, the same chance to succeed
058is something we have to do. Again, I'm sympathetic to parents who want more resource for their child, but at the end of the day, the district has to balance things for everyone. >> District E candidate Booker, >> I think it appears to parents that some of the children are getting more resources. Um, if you're talking about special education programs, those are usually funded by from other sources. And I can tell you from my personal uh story that my brother, who was born before Brown versus Board of Education, never got to go to a public school. And so we don't want that either. Um I would really like to see the district putting more money into helping neurodeiverse students that they um are working on policy about. And I think that that will um help even
059out the score. And I think that there are some inequities that data would rule out if we really calculated the cost for each kind of teacher at which school and who benefits from the most expensive instructors. >> District F candidate Demu Auding. >> Yes. and really echoing a lot of the things that have been said about um about equity and really making sure that those resources are um really equitably distributed um and really looking at um uh all of the different marginalizations that our students are facing um and really making sure that we have programs that are helping them and addressing them. And I am uh very sensitive especially to uh neurodeiverse students as I have um several people in my family that uh live that experience. And I know the importance of of feeling
060like you have support from the district and I think that one of the the great things from this district is that we do want to be equitable and we do want to provide those programs and those resources. Um and so I am uh very um sympathetic and empathetic to uh those parents that want to see those resources for their students. Candidate B or excuse me, District B, candidate Rajpal, we are obligated to provide access to public education services for all types of learners. And the school finance act does provide additional resources for students who have special education services or on on IEPs. It's part of their funding formula. So, we do get additional resources for those students in different ways. Um, but all of our students need to have the supports necessary to learn and
061achieve in our school environments. I I would put the asterisk around gifted funding. We get very the state provides very little money for gifted education. And so I would argue that students that are identified as gifted are are not receiving more funding than a general education student um based on again the school finance act and how those formulas work. But I I appreciate the the feeling that our funding is is inherently inequitable when in fact the funding formulas are trying to address the inequities that exist. For our final question of the forum, we will begin with candidate Booker, District E. What makes you the best candidate for the board of education? We haven't had a teacher on the school board for I think 30 years. It was a teacher who uh retired from Fair View
062High School and uh he was a math teacher. And I think that it's time that we get the view from um from down under so that we can uh figure out what is the best way to implement these policies and what is the communication going to be to our teachers who are really in charge of implementing these policies on a daily basis and balancing them all in their head at once. And so I'm a unique candidate and I hope that you will vote for me. District F candidate Tudding, what makes you the best candidate for the board of education? Though I don't I'm not fully comfortable with saying like I'm the best at anything. Um, but I think one of the biggest things it's I'm excited for is to to show up and again to
063share my my lived experience of uh growing up with a single mother um who who is an immigrant who didn't go through our public education system who um she didn't even see you know uh the four her fourth grade classroom. um and really having to navigate that on my own and really understanding what um you know college uh applications mean and uh what FASA is and really sharing that experience of um being that first generation person that has gone through the K through 12 system and through the higher education system. And so I'm excited to to be here to show up to share my story, my lived experience um and hopefully support and elevate other students as well. District B candidate Rajp Paul, what makes you the best candidate for the board of education? It's
064kind of funny to discuss why I would be the best candidate in district B considering I'm the only candidate in district B. So whether you know like it or not, that's it's you've got me right now. Now, I actually think what makes me the best candidate in this district B is that I have experience right now. Last year, we two years ago, we elected four new board members who now currently have two years of experience serving on the board under their belt. And then there's me who's only had four years of experience. And so, I think that experience uh is beneficial to the board just to understand sort of where we've been and where we're headed. I think can be extremely helpful. And then also I am a systems level thinker. I'm thinking about what
065how to make our system work better for all people involved in it. And I really don't get down into the individual level which I think is helpful as a board because we do govern at the you know 40,000 foot level. We don't govern at the specific teacher level or specific school level. District E candidate Anderson. What makes you the best candidate for the board of education? >> So, we've already talked about the fact that I've spent a quarter of a century learning about what's going on in the district. So, climate, achievement, budget, enrollment. I know the data and I have the professional skills to interpret the data to make decisions. However, that's not the only reason you should vote for me. So, most of you think this guy's a data scientist. Data scientists have no
066social skills. And perhaps um when I was first on DACK 20 years ago, I had no social skills. Some people in the room coached me. Um actually I have very strong people skills. I am a consensus builder. I'm a listener. I'm a team builder and that's made me successful in my career and it would make me successful as a member of the board having the expertise to understand the issues but the skills to also work with the other board members to work with the superintendent to implement the right decisions. So that is why voters should vote for me. >> On behalf of the League of Women Voters of Boulder County and the District Parent Council, I would like to thank our candidates not only for their participation in tonight's forum, but also for their participation
067in the democratic process. Running for office and serving as an elected official is hard work. Thank you to our forum volunteers for their essential work. And a huge thank you to our 2025 election sponsors, Elevations Credit Union, Inspire Salon and Skin Longmont, Christina's Luxuries, Kaplan and Earnest, Attorneys at Law, and a short and sweet reminder that donations to the League of Women Voters of Boulder County help us continue our education and advocacy in this community. members are out are ti outside on the table in the hall. As you leave, they are ready to accept your donations via tap to pay. Please donate so we can continue this excellent work. For more information about the upcoming election and the candidates, please go to the league's premier voter information guide, vote411.org. I'll repeat it because it's important.
068That's vote411.org. And as always, remember that democracy is not a spectator sport. Thank you for coming. As we adjourn, please join me in a big round of applause for our candidates. Thank you and good night.