001[Music] I would like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. Board members may attend and participate in board meetings by electronic means and in accordance with BBSD policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez here. Medler here. Nisnik here. Quinnland Aea here. Raj Paul here. Sergeant here. Anger here. Thank you. We now encourage everyone to turn their attention to our screens for our land acknowledgement this evening. [Music] The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ude, Pueblin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations. historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time and memorial. [Music]
002We acknowledge the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government. [Music] BBSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples, past and present, and their dignified nations and cultures, who care for this land with strength and resilience. BBSD recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of many nations that carried their oral traditions into the present. It is BBSD's responsibility to educate ourselves, our community, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people and recognize the responsibility to care for
003and appreciate this land together. I would like to remind everybody that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us in person this evening and for attending our meeting remotely as well. We're glad to have you observe and participate. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Beth, seconded by Kitty. Laura, you want to call the role on that one? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nisnik, yes. Quinnlanda, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Thank you. Motion passes. The next item on this evening's agenda is our student moment board members. It's the first time we're having a student moment this year,
004and I I know we are all incredibly excited for that. That being said, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Anderson for the introductions. Thank you, board president Raj Paul, board members. Great to see everyone this evening. Excited to kick off our student moment segment again for this school year. uh board members, as you'll know, it's a chance for us to hear directly from BBSD students, and typically we hear about their leadership at their school or in their community. Back to school was just a few weeks ago, and it was a time for our high school student leaders to shine. Each of our high schools, they helped plan and lead the first day of school for the freshmen. Each school's team has a different name, as you'll hear, but the mission is the same.
005to make sure that the new students have a good first impression and to lower the stress level, helping them get their bearings, them being freshmen um before everyone starts classes for the school year. And so with that, I will turn it over to our student leaders. Thank you. My name is Ellery Barge. I'm from Boulder High School from our Panther Pride Freshman Leadership Program. So for our program, what we do is on our first day of school, we have the activities that we do with them to get to know each other. And it's just the freshman. It makes a big school feel a lot smaller. All the confusing hallways will guide them around. And it really creates these relationships between these upper classmen and these freshmen that create really important relationships. Having a friendly face
006in the hallway, having a upper classman know your name and check in is really important. So throughout the year, typically we would have um our freshman seminar once a week for the first semester where we are connecting with the freshman, making sure that they're doing great. But this year, due to budget cuts and scheduling changes, we don't have that anymore. So this year, part of our mission is total adaptability. So this year, what we're working on is doing weekly newsletters, weekly texts, trying to stay in touch with our freshmen as much as we can without physically seeing them. And if we see them in the hallway, of course, say hi, check in. And then something else that we're working on is getting the freshmen to attend our sports. And we're going to have activities. We're
007going to have food trucks to come to some of our games to really get them into that community. And then we're also advertising a clubs through a rally that we have. But the mission of this program, Panther Pride, is that the freshmen are so nervous to be in high school. And it makes a big feel big school feel smaller, make them feel more accepted and hopefully two years later they'll come back and be a part of this again. We have 150 leaders and it's a really important and really big program. Thank you. Hello, I'm Sienna Spinny. I'm a representative of the executive leadership team at Centurus High School in Lafayette. We do a similar thing doing a orientation for our freshman students, advertising clubs, letting them meet new friends and getting them meeting seniors and
008juniors and making upper classman friends that they can have in throughout their high school career. Um, a big emphasis of the Centurus orientation is opening opportunity for equal experience of orientation for special education programs and also our culturally and linguistically diverse education program. We make sure that these students are receiving the same orientation experience and we have specialized groups in order to make sure that this process is just as seamless for them as it is for everyone else. Our job at Centaurus is to essentially be the upper classmen that the freshmen look to in the hallways for familiarity, guidance, and example. It matters to new students because we show them what it means to meet heart in Centaurus, honor, empathy, achievement, respect, and triumph. The policy of our school is essentially to build future leadership
009roles themselves through following these honor roles. Student leadership matters to us leaders as it introduces us to future business opportunities and teaches us how to be leaders of a group with confidence. This opens up skill sets to kids who otherwise wouldn't find this opportunity elsewhere and lets them go through their school to find a leadership opportunity that looks good on college applications. For our upcoming mean school year, we hope to expand our cremefest activity of having a student tutored as well as teacher collaborated cramfest right before our exams. This builds community not only among the freshmen and finding tutor opportunities, but also benefits the upperassmen by finding tutor opportunities within their school. That's about it. Thank you. and I'm Santiago Kravia Perry, vice president. Um, for our freshman orientation, we have night crew leaders and
010night crew basically spearhead that. They plan a bunch of activities throughout the day where it's just the freshman and they each are assigned a small group of freshmen who they reach out to during summer and they call them, send postcards just to get to know them and so the freshmen know that they can reach out to them if they have any questions or concerns about Fairview. And on the actual orientation day, we line the main entrance with all the spirit teams. So the palm dancers, the cheerleaders, and all the teachers, and they clap while all the freshmen enter the building. And we do this just so Fairview really feels like a community for them so they can feel how we're there for them and we're there to support them throughout this journey. We also have
011our club fair and athletics fair so they can ask questions to all the club leaders and sports teams about how to join, what commitment looks like, things like that. Um, I think our main goal of this is just to show them, like Ellery said, how a big, it's such a big school, but we want to make it feel smaller. So, how they can get involved and just really how we're all there to support each other. We really just wanted to make sure that they were exposed to as many clubs and opportunities as possible. I think one of the most important things in high school is to really put yourself out there in different sports, activities, clubs. I think we really just wanted to broadcast all the various clubs we have, you know, whether that's academic,
012a passionate like a ski club or a sport like football. I think having that wider range of of clubs and activities is really vital for the freshman and to kind of see where they fit in. And I think a really important thing is to have, you know, upper classmen, you know, wave at you in the hall, dap you up. I think that's a really cool experience to have as an underassman. I'm, you know, really honored to be a part of leadership and give the opportunity to underassmen. Thank you. Hi, my name is Aalia Noacowski and my name is Ben Leman. We're seniors at Monarch High School and we're commissioners for the Mohigh 360 program. Mohigh 360 is a student mentor group whose which main purpose is to provide a safe and comfortable transition for freshman
013and new students into high school and to create a positive uplifting environment. We reach out to students over the summer to answer any questions that they might have and reassure them that they're not alone. On the first day of school, we do ice breakers and get to know you games. And we also take students on a tour of the school in small groups so that they are not overwhelmed or confused, but instead they feel confident and connected. As commissioners, it's our job to help students who are lost, who might be sitting alone. And we do this by training the 360 leaders prior to this so the day runs smoothly. What we do as commissioners matters because the first few weeks of high school can shape an entire student's experience. Some students are nervous because they
014don't know anyone and some students are ready to get as involved as they can. Um, high school is an opportunity for students to find themselves and find their place. So, we try to help ease that transition, build a community, and be a friendly face in the hallways. For us as student leaders, it's just as valuable because it challenges us to step up and to improve our leadership skills. And it also allows us to have pride in our own school. It helps us reflect on our own high school experiences. And as we're seniors, uh, it helps us be able to set a tone for the rest of the school and what we want the end of our senior year to look like. Looking ahead, our hope is to continue building that sense of community throughout the
015entire school year so that every student is included and proud to be a proud to be a part of Monarch High School. One specific way we will do this this year is by helping plan Monarch Mayhem, which is our school's like fun week of homecoming activities. Um, and we're going to really try get the freshman involved in that this year so they can they have something to be involved with at the beginning of the year. Thank you. This is an outstanding group of role models that we have here with us tonight. Board members, do you have any questions, Kitty? Now, I don't have a question, but I have a comment because I absolutely love what you all are doing, and I know you all do it slightly differently. My first day of high school in
0161969, I was terrified. My father had told me what it was like when he had been in high school, which had been 20ome years before that. And he said, "The upper classmen make you carry their books, that they tell you to take an elevator, which does not exist, and a bunch of other things." And so I was really, really scared going to my freshman year. Fortunately, I, you know, found none of that was true and I did just fine. But what you all are doing to welcome the new students is just fabulous. I'm so proud of our district for doing it. And I'm proud of you all for being the student leaders who step up. Being a freshman can be really nerve-wracking. And I know part of your job is to sort of get them
017to get to know each other in their small groups that you lead amongst the other things you mentioned. What are some tips and tricks that you found effective in getting those freshmen to come out of their shell a little bit and engage with you and their peers on that very first day of school? Anybody can answer that one. It's working. Okay. I know as a freshman, you know, I interacted with the people in my class. I think one of the best things you can do as a freshman is interact with the people in your class. I think joining sports, joining clubs, even if you're not, you know, even if it's not something that's excites you immediately, I think you can learn to love a lot of different passions and to just explore. Even if you're
018like slightly interested, just join a club. You know, if you're interested in debate a little bit, join the debate team. See if you like it. If you don't, you can always drop the club and join a new club. So, I think the most important thing you can do is just put yourself out there in clubs, classes, sports, and pretty much, yeah, something I have to add as a leader and getting these freshmen who don't always really want to be there on the first day of school. It's really awkward. You don't know a lot of the kids. is something that I do is I make fun of myself. I tell them like who said that I want to be here? Like this is this is all fun. But we end up having a really great time
019with the freshman and really just making those personal connections and sitting down with one kid who might be not not might not be participating being like, "Hey, what do you do?" Like maybe they play basketball. And then later in the year you'll see them in the hallway. You be like, "Hey, how was your game?" And that's something that really creates connection. Thank you for that and thank you again for all your work you do to set a really positive tone at the start of the year. That is exceedingly important and I imagine it helps your administrators and your teachers a great deal that you are taking that on. So, thank you for all your work that you do. Alex That looks better. Um, I'm also super uh impressed and have always been with these um
020orientation programs and it's it's another one of those things I think that we need to continue to support uh in our budget and um in our policies. And I'd also like to give kudos to the staff and the schools um the teachers and administrators who are helping make this work. And another key part is like we talk about all these clubs and uh they generally need an adult sponsor. And so it's another thing uh that our teachers and our staff are doing that um is it's not like just a small little thing. Um my own uh daughter really loved being on the Humans versus Zombies club at Fairview for three years. eventually was chairman or president of the club. But all whatever it is where everybody finds their niche, there's also usually an adult who
021is um helping bring it along. And I think that's just so we should give our thanks to everybody that does that and just maintain the prioritization of this because it's what makes school fun, which is what makes such a better solution for kids who weren't having fun before. So, thank you all very much. The next topic on this evening's agenda is a work session with our district accountability committee's executive team board members. This is the first time we are convening with deck exec and so I think it'd be appropriate to do introductions unless Dr. Anderson you wanted to handle that. No. Um, so deck exec members, if you could go go through and introduce yourselves and the schools in which you represent, that would be a great way to get us started. We're so thrilled
022to be here. Thanks for having us. I'm Ally Bruin. Excuse me. Uh, I'm our one of our deck co-chairs this year. Um, I'm formerly a representative of Cresview Elementary School where I have a kindergartener and a third grader. Uh, this year I am back on the DACK as an atlarge community member uh hopefully representing our entire school district. Hi everyone, Felicia Gorman. Um, third year on DACK Exec, so I feel like I know most of you. Um, and this year I'm coach here along with Ally. I represent Flat Irons Elementary where I have two little ones, a third grader. Um, I also have a little guy who will be starting school next year. So really excited to be here and have this conversation with you all tonight. I'm Aaron Romano. I represent Douglas where I
023have a fifth grader and Platt where I have a seventh grader. This is year three on deck, I think, and first on exec. Hi, I'm Abby Bullock. I'm representing Coline Elementary. I've got two there, a fourth grader and a kindergartener. And I'm here because the way that Boulder invests in its DACK relationship is really spectacular. Uh, and I'm here to try to make sure that we're as helpful as possible in that process. Thank you. Hello, my name is Klaus Nolles and I represent uh Jamestown Elementary. I've got a fourth grader and I'm just excited to be here. Us in the mountain schools, we like to make sure that we're we're available for all these conversations and just very happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you all for your service. You if you've watched our
024board meetings in the past, you know how much we appreciate the work that DAC does and we really do utilize you as trusted adviserss in a lot of our decision- making. Generally board members, public this this meeting on our agenda, we go over joint areas of interest. We talk about sort of the cadence for the year. The DAC over the summer deck Dak leadership looked at some of our policies in advance. They looked at our the board calendar that we had established in advance. And so some of the pre-work has been done, but um I will hand it over to them to kind of talk about some of the changes for this upcoming school year, some of their their thoughts based on the board calendar of what they want to tackle as work, and then
025we can have an an exchange around those conversations if that works. Very informal. Wonderful. Um well, to start, we wanted to just uh run through a few items. Um we sent some materials to you all in advance. I apologize just yesterday. Um but hopefully you had a chance to take a look at those and I know we have some printouts in front of you. Um before we jump into an overview of our priorities, we did want to give a quick update on DAC membership um for this year. I believe in two weeks you all will be officially approving our member slate. So we've been working hard to make sure that we are fulfilling our statutory obligations as far as um who is represented on the DAC um as well as whether we truly represent um
026our entire uh school district community. So, we currently have 53 DACK members um identified for our 56 schools. Um for the three schools that we do not yet have a DACK representative, we are in contact with the principles and providing support to them to recruit a parent representative. For folks who are in the room and for folks who are maybe uh tuning in online, um if you or anyone you know are a parent at Boulder Boulder Prep, Broomfield High School or Lewisville Middle School, please um get connected with us. uh we would love to support you to understand the what the deck does and how you can um be a parent leader and community leader um on our committee this year. Um one quick update that we'll talk um that we'll uh touch on a
027little bit later when we go over our family engagement work is um right now families whose children qualify for free or reduced price lunch as well as our Hispanic and Latino families are under reppresented um in our deck membership. This has been um consistent from previous years uh since uh this group of executive committee members have been on the deck and something that we are actively working on. Um our family engagement subcommittee will is looking at the data and developing strategies and we'll be working with um school school district staff um to figure out how we can make sure that we're really um making progress um as far as DAC representation. So um for the coming year we will be um taking steps to make sure that um all of our DAC recommendations and the
028work that we provide to you all um that we have strategies in place to ensure that we are really tapping into d and and soliciting direct input from folks who are not on the deck um and whose voices are not directly represented on the deck. Um so stay tuned for more on that. And then um we will also be uh thinking through strategies to support our sack recruitment in the spring for next year so that we're really building a a strong pip strong diverse pipeline of parent and community leaders um for our sachs and then from there um funneling them up onto our DAC and then I'm going to turn it over to Felicia who's going to go through the first set of priorities that we shared with you and then she'll kick it back
029to me in a few minutes. Yeah, it was a great segue actually about sex. Um the printout the the road map I'm going to try not to just read this to you but that summarizes sort of our priorities for the year. Um our only priority that's not directly aligned with our statutory requirements is the first one which is the stack DAC operations. And this is in response to some feedback we got from you all and just from our own DAC members that um sort of a more consistent sack um across the district and also a stronger sack deck sort of connection would be beneficial. And so we've taken that to heart and we've um we're working hard on that. Some things that we've already done are um taking a hard look at the SAC manual
030and trying to make that more user friendly. Um and we've also sort of retoled a few of the trainings that have already happened. Um the sort of principal uh sack DAC training. Um our own first DAC uh meeting we did an accountability 101 sort of deep dive just to make sure that folks understand sort of what SAX DAXs are and how they interact. Um, and we're planning to do a virtual session for both of those community those communities later this month. Um, for those who couldn't make it to the Inerson trainings. Um, we're also and I think probably most impactfully actively trying to build in SAC connections into our DAC work. So, um, you know, really actively asking our DAC membership to solicit feedback from their SACs as we consider policy issues or the budget
031issues, you know, things that we're working on. um we are intentionally building in a lot of sort of connection there with the Sachs. So, we're really hopeful that that will um bear some fruit this year. Um and then in terms of our first sort of uh like sort of um subcommittee priority um for the policy and I think Nicole um mentioned this, we worked together the summer to identify three uh policies over the course of the year um to address and so homework is first up. um working at that now. Basic instructional program and grading um are up next and we're um trying out a three-month cycle for each of these policies and trying to you know sort of within three months turn turn out recommendations that also include sack feedback in each. And so
032we're sort of building that in the middle of the process of soliciting sack feedback. And of course as calendars change and priorities change we're flexible um and we'll remain in communication with you all on what's the most helpful for this group. Um I think it's you now. Great question. Sorry, I'm I'm really enjoying all this. I'm hearing so many good things. Um what what's the mechanism by which you're soliciting the SAC feedback for the different policies you're looking at? So for the homework policy, we decided to put together it's it's it's in Google forms. It's a survey, but it's really open-ended. And so it's really just a way to record um feedback gained from Sachs. It's not really meant for folks to like take. It's sort of for the DAC liaison um to you know
033there's a list of questions. We don't they don't have to do all of them. Whatever works at their next sack meeting to sort of surface um sort of information that we're interested in that we think will help us make recommendations. And so that's how we're doing it with the homework policy. But it might look different for different policies. It might be less formal or more formal. Um, but we're really just trying out different ways to to get those SAC voices elevated and connected. And one of the sustainability tools that we're working toward is um the current SAC manual does not have specific guidance in it for sachs around how to engage in policy discussions. So our um subcommittee, our policy subcommittee chair is going to be testing out through these three month cycles um a
034couple of different um processes. uh the one that Felicia just described for the homework policy, putting together some questions, providing a little bit of guidance around like what does a good sack conversation around this policy look like. We're going to do that three times this year for the three policies and then from there we want to pull out some of the lessons learned on what worked, what was effective, what do we hear from Sachs, were good conversations, were good structures to have in place and then create a new appendix that we can roll out um at the end of this year for next year so that we kind of have a new process in place, but that we've had a chance to sort of test it out a few times first. And I I think
035we're we're expecting to find some like information deficits and so we're planning to, you know, try to retool our trainings even next year to fill some of those gaps. So iterative. Alex, uh it's always great to hear from you and it's wonderful to see the organization that's going into this and I I really do support everything we can do to get to the Sachs as operational and functional as possible. One thing as a privilege as a school board member, we get to visit schools and tour them and get inside and see what's going on. And we get time with the school leaders to talk through their implementation of like school innovations or changes they're doing uh through our support whether it's MTSS or RTI or all the other things and then you see it on
036the ground in the classrooms and it just blows my mind. Um and one of the things I always think is oh my god, how many parents get enough time to actually see this? how many parents get grounded in the changes and the change process and change management that's going on in our schools as they improve. So, I'm really curious is I know we've got policy, we've got budget, we've got parent engagement, but I also want to know, you know, do you have the time to really dive in and learn about what the school is trying to do and give parents that chance to see it. So, that is a wonderful segue into a couple other ends that we wanted to cover with you. So, I'll cover those and then I promise I'll make sure that
037I explicitly answer um that question. Um I'm going to tackle it from a couple different angles uh to start. So, um first up uh we have one of our priorities for the coming year is around supporting um SAC and DAC conversations around the strategic plan and the unified improvement plan. Um and I said strategic plan and unified improvement plan because we're really trying to tighten the connection there both as a DAC and also um for our Sachs really thinking about like what are what is your vision for the school? what are the priority improvement goals that you've set based on the data and what's happening in your in classrooms um and in your school and thinking about again what are the what's the sack we're starting everything with like the mechanisms we have right available
038to us like what's the sack conversation that that looks like um if teachers and school leaders are inviting parents to come observe their what's happening our classrooms and schools more often we would be delighted within reason to support um more efforts to make that happen so would love to um to talk more about what that could look like connected to the strategic plan and school improvement plans um as well as our district improvement plan. On the family engagement side of things, um we're really kind of starting from this place of like the operational practices that we talked about like what do what do we need to do to really support um for schools that don't have a fully functioning sack, right? How do we get those up and running? Um we have about we have
039a little under 10 members who um of our DAC who are not sure if they sit on a sack at their school school community right now. So we will be following up with those members to make sure we understand what's happening with your sack. What how do you how how can you go to your principal and kind of initiate a conversation around some of these processes that need to be in place. And then we've also had preliminary conversations with Dr. Bianc um Dr. Bianca Gaigos um around a school family partnership session that we'd like to um co-develop um for the DAC where we can really dig into some of these questions around what is what does authentic school family partnership look like what's happening at the district make sure we're building knowledge but then also
040doing some uh idea generation right around what are some of the high impact practices we can be thinking about and sharing with schools so that families are really do feel like they know what's happening in their building they know what questions to past, they know what experiences they can tap into um to really see those improvement strategies in action. Um so a couple of the ideas that um Dr. Ggo shared with us are, you know, how can parents at the elementary school level, what do they need to know about the new math curriculum? How can they support successful implementation of the math curriculum? And then I think building on that, we might add like how can we make sure parents see this new way of teaching math in action and really understand what's different and
041what's better and what's hard about it. Another example that Dr. Ggo shared with us is um how can parents support career learning at their um children's schools at all levels. So this is something that we as parents we you know we've a lot of us like have full-time careers, right? And so figuring out how we can come in and share our expertise um with our high schoolers who are actually really actively thinking about their careers with our middle schoolers who are maybe starting to plan their high school schedules um and even with my little kindergartenner. I don't know what I would do for career exploration for him, but if there's an opportunity and if we can get creative actually getting parents in the building and that's a first step I think to um being able
042to share expertise but then also be able to be present right for some of the other awesome work that's happening. Um, so I covered two updates in my response to board member Medler's question around data UIP and family engagement. I do want to step back um really quickly on the um data UIP planning um because we this year one of the new things that we are going to be testing out is um uh hopefully and this is in development. So, we're act we're looking for feedback on this and I also want to just confirm that we have not finalized our plans um with some of the folks who will be that we'll be partnering with on this but we are hoping to um do to coordinate a joint um strategic plan unified improvement plan and
043budget session for the DAC. So our goal is really to um model um as a DAC what we think the right sack and school level conversation should be around the budget which is starting with the strategic plan and starting with our improvement plan priorities. Um so we're hoping that that we'll be able to do that um maybe next month. It's coming up fast. Um but we have some uh some of the groundwork laid on the budget side of things. Um I think the big shift uh that we're planning there are in the past we have um tried a couple different ways to solicit feedback from parents and community members around the budget um around things like what's important to you what are your values and these are really really wonderful questions to ask and I
044think definitely can and should continue to be part of the conversations that we're having as a deaconist um in our sachs we do also want to provide a little bit more structure um so that we can hopefully generate a really good gener ative conversations but lead to really actionable input for you all as you are thinking about the guidance that you provide to the school district on the budget development process. So for the coming year um we are uh reworking some of the guiding questions we'll be providing to Sachs and that we'll be reflecting on as a DAC as um far as the budget goes directly connected to the strategic plan in UIP. So our overarching question is are we spending our money and allocating our resources in ways that advance our strategic priorities. So,
045we're going to be asking um parents and community members to be doing a little bit of analysis. What are we trying to accomplish? And then can we sort of fit together what how we're currently spending our money and how what our staffing looks like and other resources at our school. Do we see how those are aligned to the strategic priorities um and our school and district unified improvement plan? And if where we don't, like what are the questions that we have? How can we make sure that we're um filling in those gaps? Um, a question that we want um, schools to be discussing is where we're seeing really great progress. What are our hypotheses around um, the resources that are fueling that progress? So, this is not a one moment in time question, but really
046asking Sachs and the DACK to be reflective around, okay, what did we do one, two, maybe even three years ago that we're now seeing in the awesome results uh, that our district has just came out um, in the last few weeks. The second question we want um to be really digging into is where we um where we feel we need to see greater progress. Um what shifts not what new resources but what shifts um could help accelerate growth and improvement. So again thinking about okay looking at how we're currently spending our dollars. Are there things that we could be doing differently to address some of the um some of the gaps and some of the areas where we aren't seeing the progress that we want to see. And then a third question we thought would
047be interesting for Saxs and the deck to um to dig into is what are the most important investments that our schools and districts and the district are making using um and I might not be using the right budget terms here. So we'll just we'll connect with Bill Setter and make sure we've got all the nomenclature correct, but using non-district or supplemental um funding. So from our PTOs and PTAs. Um when schools and parents and Q members have discretion over dollars, how are they actually spending them? um we don't know what we'll learn from that, but we think it's something that would be interesting to bring into the conversation. So, that's kind of the big shift. Uh that's one of the big shifts that we're actively exploring on the budget side of things. Again, directly connected
048to um strategic planning and unified improvements. I think we covered everything that we wanted to go over. Yes, I'm going to pop in there for one second. I was going to say I appreciate everything that we do talking about budget is always directly related to the strategic plan. And so I think that is a really great way to start. Everything that the district does, schools do has a financial implication whether it's you can see it at face value or not. And so thinking through that I think is exceedingly helpful and it helps align the work that we're all doing. One of the sacks I was on a long time ago, a very high functional sack. We regularly looked at our the school resource allocations. So the SRRA funds that are somewhat discretionary and the PTO
049dollars and how they were spent and how they were helping to meet or not school improvement goals. And so I think that is actually a really helpful exercise at the SAC level because it's the money that most people in the school community understands and then that can help build the conversation around the the dollars at the district level. And so I think that is a really wise undertaking for that and I appreciate the pivot from the while well-intentioned, a budget survey that was designed in a time of surplus and that's really not where we are anymore. So, I think those those changes to that process would be very interesting and continue to bring it back to the data and things that are tangible to the site level is very wise. And I think I saw
050Jason did I see him moving to Okay. Um, and Lolenia, I I know with our new how our screens work, I can't always see your hands come up. So I will let you interrupt as you see fit. I don't want to forget about you in your remote participation. So we'll go Jason and then call. Thank you Jason Laney if you want to chime in and then I Alex. Okay. Thanks very much. appreciate all the work you all do. Uh I never served on DAC but I know it's a lot of work and so thank you for the dedication. Um I did serve on our sack and that was my first involvement in our schools and it was a great experience uh understanding the inner workings of our school and you know obviously the um interaction
051with DAC and the school board. Um you mentioned 10 I think uh Sachs were places where they weren't sure if they're members of Sachs. I know there was something you all worked on last year where you had some kind of a landscape analysis of the sachs and obviously that changes year to year. Um but do you have that information like where um you know where where we're where we have gaps kind of where I know you have some resources to help stand up sachs if not but I'd be curious to know kind of where um where there's need. Yes, we do have that. I don't have it at my fingertips right now, but when we submit our membership slate to all um in a couple of weeks, we'll provide some analysis and that that is
052one of the um data points that we look at is um the percent based on our DAC DAC representatives um information they're providing to us. Um gives us a little bit of insight into um we do have about 80% of schools that have a some functioning stack. Um that doesn't get into quality. Um, so we will that's likely something that we will want to coming up this spring will be two years since we did that last survey. We've been kind of trying to ride the data from that last survey for as long as possible so we didn't have to do it again um right away, but coming up on two years would probably be a good time for us to revisit that um later this spring. And just as a followup, if there's a way,
053and I'm not sure how you do this, I haven't seen the survey, but if to find out, you know, what are the barriers to that, whether it's, you know, kind of resistance at the leadership level or just lack of interest or exactly you mentioned, you know, communities that um were underrepresented. You know, I think that would be I'd be curious to find out kind of where those um what those barriers are and maybe there's something we could do districtwide about those. Yeah, definitely. And we um there are a couple of schools right now who have reached out to us for some more data on things like um you know have we had an administrator attend the August training uh for the last three years. Um so we definitely have some DAC members who are trying
054to I think um do some really great work to get their sacks up and running. So I think we'll be able to shed light on that uh question. Would love to run the survey items by you to make sure that we're getting all the data that you want before we deploy that. And then also know that we will be collecting some qualitative information from some of our awesome parent leaders who are working to get their sacks up and running uh for the coming year. Lenia can uh I I just appreciate the focus on not only having sachs but having them run smoothly and efficiently and to understand their role. So thank you for taking the leadership on that. Um, and I look forward to seeing more robust sachs, not just um all schools having them,
055but more robust sacks. So, thank you, Kitty. Sorry, Alex Katy Beth. Um, yeah, I would reiterate my thanks for your work and I really do appreciate the effort to get this acts effective everywhere. Um, my wife served on the DACK for a long time and there's one thing I think of your leaders as also becoming representatives of the schools because they know more about a lot of stuff than the rest of the parents might. So, I'm always really impressed. I watched her for a long time have tons of questions asked of her by other um people. So, I think it's good to actually let people in the schools know who your SAC members are and actually coach them a little bit maybe on how to share what's going on. Um, on the budget, I I
056share your interest in um, having it be uh, easier to understand and more transparent. Um, and in service of that, I would love to know as you go through your own budgeting process, what the questions are that you have about the budget that you can't figure out when you look at the the 300page thing. Um, so it's hard to answer how much money is controlled at the school level. That's not a simple thing, right? and then it's hard to figure out uh what's there in in all the different strands. So, I'm interested in um for everybody having better transparency into those aspects of the budget. So, I'd be really uh appreciative if we got a good set of the questions that people in the community have about it. I don't know that we'll have all
057the answers, but it'd be great to get the questions. I appreciate that suggestion. I think we are aware that there's like an information deficit with budgeting at the SAC level. I mean, probably at the DACK level, too. And so I think it's part of the challenge is having a robust conversation when folks don't understand the landscape. So it's a good and I I'll add on to that that um we have a few members of our budget subcommittee this year who are specifically interested in exactly what you just described. Um we currently have that slated primarily as a spring project. Um so we'll definitely do some make sure that this fall as we are kind of rolling out our um updated process for soliciting budget input certainly we'll get questions that we'll we can track then
058and then the second half of the year um we have a couple of parents who um really want to understand school finance and share it with the rest of us. So we are going to support them to um follow the breadcrumbs and uh see where they lead. Kitty and then Beth. Okay, I'm going to apologize in advance. you probably answered this question. I forgot my hearing aids and I missed it more than half of what you've said, but in any case, so I'm assuming that the policies y'all are are going through are the same cycle that the board is. Okay, because I heard you say we picked these. At least I thought I heard that and I So anyway, I apologize for not being able to hear very well. Yeah, I think pick is probably
059the wrong word. I I I probably said pick, but um yeah, we developed sort of we came up with a list of policies in alignment with um the board calendar over the summer and um but are flexible as needs change and you know I'm sure calendars are not set in stone so um happy to audible if needed. Thank you. I was just wanting to make a comment um regarding the the questions you're asking in the survey of the budget. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate Nicole kind of said this too, how incredibly thoughtful you guys are incorporating some of the board feedback around the budget survey. Um I think the questions you're asking sound really great. I'm very much looking forward to getting that uh information. I won't be on the board
060when when you guys are presenting it next spring, but I'm still a community member and I'll be very happy to hear it and appreciate the work you guys are doing in that regard. So, thank you for that. Thank you. Oh, sorry. I was just going to give credit actually to um a few of BBSD staff members for sort of turning us on to the alignment with the UIP and the strategic plan. um you know we received the same feedback from a number of folks that hey if you if you sort of align your work to the scheme that's already existing in the district that that might be a good way to go. So um credit goes beyond just us as well kind of piggybacking on Kitty's question and some of the comments you're making. It
061is a reality that for us sometimes our policy topics get accelerated pretty rapidly or slowed down based on other workflows or other things that are coming in whether it be changes at the state and federal level that necessitate changes on other priorities that come to us. Uh we also have an upcoming schoolboard election and we're always trying to be sensitive about what policies do we bring forward that bridge that election knowing that the board every board changes when there an election happens. So, a lot of the policies that you've referenced, we will take we're slated to take a first look at sometime this semester. Whether when we take action on that is going to be pretty variable. One thing as you're kind of working through your working through this new process you're you're identifying or
062you've identified is to consider are there ways maybe to collect some feedback on the different policies earlier or like maybe there's a you get a lot of feedback and you're not working on the recommendations at the same time just in case our cadence happens to shift and I don't know if that's possible but it was something that I was thinking about like what if we have to really expedite something and the board can decide to some degree like hey we want to slow this down to ensure we get DAC feedback or we can do what we've done with title N policies and we have to make a we make one like we make a change and then we iterate after we get the full feedback so there are some tools at our disposal when we
063think about timeline we think about process but we do value the feedback of DAC and we really want to make sure that that particularly on these big three topics that are pretty interrelated that I know that our community is going to be have a lot of opinions on. We have we have that feedback in place and ready to go when we need it. Yeah. So, I think that's a great idea and we can um put some thought to how we might make that happen. I will say in the um guidance we provided Zach's own homework, we did have some questions about grading. Yeah. That ended up in there. So, um uh just as a happy coincidence, I think we have already started. we will have some feedback on the grading policy. Um, and I think
064that's also just a reminder that there is an opportunity to find some of those natural connection points between these topics and um, collect some of that early feedback. So, we have it. And all three of those are very interrelated instructional program grading and homework. They are very So, I think it would be impossible to get feedback on one of those very specifically and in isolation. So, take that as you can. That would just be my recommendation. And then I saw Alex's hand up. Yeah, I I just wanted to reiterate um it's good to know in my observation of uh a rounds of policym here. We get a briefing where they show us what the policy is and sort of recommended the changes. We talk about it right away. Um the legal team draws up the
065red line that has proposed changes in it, presents that back to us and then a meeting after that we have the final one to look at. So when she says get it early, it's like getting um getting changes in uh makes a lot more sense early rather than later because we're that's when we're discussing the changes is sort of in that second uh time we look at it. So just think about the I I know this is very thoughtful to how we'd get it done. But I wanted to reiterate the feedback sooner is let's us as the board have a chance to talk about it and then talk about it with staff and um that would probably get more influence Jorge, thank you for the very thorough and detailed. I'm very impressed with the work
066that you're doing as as a DAC membership. I know it takes a lot of time and a big commitment. So, I really appreciate it. Um, I have the benefit of of presenting the board report to the last at the last DAC meeting and I saw the work that you're doing grounding the membership in the priorities and the the and the stated statute goals of the DACK. And so I really appreciate the work that you're doing to make sure that all the new members are are starting from the same baseline because it's so important. Um the alignment between the budget UIP strategic plan is critical especially as we move to the new UIP for 2026 to 2028. Um and so that's going to take up a lot of your time in the spring. So I want
067you to be mindful of that because it's a lot of work as we think about metrics about what our goals are about where we are in a strategic plan. Um so make sure you set time for that despite all the policy work that's coming. It's going to be a busy spring for you, for you coming through. Um, so thank you for your work. Um, I I really appreciate the work you're doing on school family partnerships. I know it's been ongoing for a few years now. It's a slow process getting information. Um, you mentioned, you know, underrepresented groups on the on the DAC membership. That's a reflection of the Sachs, right? In terms of who's getting in there. So to the degree that it's possible to get information about, well, how are SACs being formed? How
068are they being selected? Who's getting access to them? Because that creates the pipeline. And I know that's an issue for um in terms of who can participate as well, right? So trying to identify things like barriers and challenges and processes or you know it's being a lot more chaotic and have hazard than than it seems, right? But getting information on that so we can figure out how we can do the better outreach to our to our families and our communities is important. So thank you for doing that work. Yeah, we um really appreciate that and that's something that's very important to us as well. we don't feel like we can provide you all with great guidance if we aren't drawing it from all of our school community members. Um so one of the one one
069thing that we've heard from some of our higher functioning sachs is that um they are building in creative and different ways to um have stronger connections between their sacks and um where our families and educators together team exists in 31 schools across the district. Um, so that's something that we're really leaning into for those schools is really encouraging. You know, do you have a FET representative who attends your SAC meetings to facilitate communication back and forth between your SAC and your FET? Um, do you have um are there certain meetings that are joint SAC and FET meetings throughout the year strategically planned for certain topics? Um, for example, bud unified improvement planning and budget, right, would be a great one um to have a joint meeting even including, you know, a big it could be
070a really big meeting, right, with your PTA or your PTA. Um so thinking really creatively about kind of building those connections at the school level um is something that we're kind of early thinking about encouraging um because we have heard that from um our DAC members that those are some of the processes that already exist. Um and we're also really just trying to wrestle with this reality that like we want parents to be connecting with their schools in the places and the manners that is like they're most comfortable with and where they feel like they um can add the most value. Um and we really want that to be a sack. we think it can't be the Sachs and if it's not right now that's okay and so that's where I think some of those
071other creative communications channels come in. Um so sort of tackling that um that challenge of making sure we have representative voices um in the mix from a a few different ways so they can so that schools can really figure out what's going to work best for their community, but ultimately all of that's going to funnel up to the work that we're doing. Yeah. Um uh I'm really interested in how um we support and create strong uh sacks for the mountain schools. Wonder if you could talk a little bit about what you're doing. So I'm actually on the family engagement and for us being up in the mountains it is very hard because parents are scattered and it's hard to get people to come in for PTO let alone sack let alone DAC. This is my
072fourth year serving with the deck and I my son's there for one more year and I'm just like trying to get people engaged in that. One of the things that we've found, and I don't know if this is in all schools, but I know in my school and the other parents I've talked to, a lot of parents are confused as to what a PTO is, what a sack is, what a DAC is. And we're working really hard with the um with our the the subcommittee trying to make that that's very visible to parents because I think that information is out there. But in general, I mean it's very hard for the parents, especially the ones that are entering as kindergartener like having kindergarters and stuff like that to make sure that everybody knows what that
073is and what the expectation is because I think people are a little scared to be like, "Oh yeah, I'll serve in the sack without knowing what the commitment is." So we're working on those materials this year as well. As you're thinking about the UIP and the strategic plan and tying that to individual school data, are you encouraging your school accountability committees to look at both the district parent survey, the student survey results, and then the teaching and learning conditions Colorado? So, that teacher survey that is available with data on the site level. Is that something you're encouraging folks to look at? And the reason I ask is that's not always data that we see. particularly like at the the site level, culture and climate survey day, we see parts of it, but diving in is
074a little bit easier at the site level. And I often find that talking to folks in the community, some of the concerns that tend to percol bubble up to the board level would be really well served as a SAC discussion. And so looking at the data at the site level, having the conversations, creating these the the sense that SAC members are really constructive thought partners and they are working together with school staff in a tight trusting partnership to really address what's most pressing for the individual schools and and I so I just want to put a plug in for some of those other data points that we don't always that you might not always talk about the DAC but might be really relevant at the school accountability committee level. Yeah. So, um, one of the
075new projects that we have planned for this year as well is, um, in March, Dr. Jessica Olen is going to be helping to coordinate at the DAC level, um, a review for us of the school climate data. I will double check that all the specific data sources that you mentioned are part of that conversation. Um, and we have our data UIP subcommittee and our family engagement subcommittee coordinating on um, co-designing that session um, with our with the BBSD team. And our goal is to do that at the district um level with the DAC and then again in alignment with kind of these practices that we're trying to really build some muscles around this year. Um parlay that into okay then what does this look like at the school level? What you know what is the
076protocol? What's the pre-eread? What's the background kind of knowledge building that we want to do with families? Um and then what are some of those guiding questions that we think will make for a really great and robust sack conversation around that kind that type of data. um that is something that we had hoped to do um toward the end of last year and so that we've been doing a little bit of planning and thinking about what that can look like and definitely I'm so glad you brought that up and if you all um have any other guidance or recommendations for us as you're doing that planning right now with that is slated for our March meeting when um so that can kind of follow when the data comes out we can do a little bit
077of looking at the data ourselves and planning and then um roll that out with the deck in March and then um encourage sachs to have those conversations in April and May for planning for next here. And the last plug I want to make is I know you guys meet regularly. You do a lot of really hard work. You are time bound as you've outlined in your timeline for a lot of different topics. State statute really talks about to the extent practicable tapping into and getting eliciting feedback from the SAC. So you while it's important to get that and membership and having those organic organic conversations can really help at the end of the day you're probably going to have to make recommendations to the board that is also utilizing the expertise that you have for
078the multiple years you've been serving on the DAC the fact that you're getting some different types of information you might have some different skill sets. So, it's it's great to get that feedback from the SACS and just being mindful that statute is clear about to the extent practical and there are sometimes you'll have to make decisions and recommendations based on all the things you've heard over the course of the year and we totally understand that and support your work in doing that. Yeah, I yeah, we've identified a lot of things you get stack feedback on just even tonight. So, noted board members any Dr. Anderson Thank you, board president Raj Paul. I just wanna I want to thank our DAC leadership uh for the executive committee. You know, I've as I've in the seven years
079that I've been here, I've found the partnership with DAC so valuable. Uh it's a safe place for folks to ask the hard questions, push on the things that matter. uh and you know as our leaders are leading their sacks you know my encouragement to them is to be vulnerable this is a partnership and uh I I learn a lot every time that uh that I'm at um a DAC meeting I understand what are some of the emerging issues in the community what are some of the questions what are some of the concerns what are some of the misconceptions that we need to work to to clarify uh and I've just found uh I found the partnership to be incredibly valuable. I'm at our last DACK meeting. I thank the entire DACK for for all of
080the partnership because as we will learn as I talk in my comments tonight, it's paid off and our district's doing really special things and we're doing it in a way where we're working together to figure out what are the things that we need to do to get the best outcomes and it's working. So, I just want to say thank you board members. Any last questions or comments? Just want to echo Dr. Anderson's sentiments. We really do value the work that you do. We value your partnership. You are a critical component of of what happens in this district outside of just checking that compliance box with the state statute. So, we know it takes time and energy and we are we are grateful. So, thank you for all your work. We will take a short break
081to reconvene the boardroom into our normal arrangement now that this work session is over. [Music] President Rajpal, board members. Great to be with you all. Thanks everybody for joining us this evening. Um, I'm going to start off with what I think is incredibly uh exciting and important news. Uh we learned last week that for the second year in a row, Boulder Valley School District was accredited with distinction from the state of Colorado. Uh we are the only district for the second year in a row on the front range to earn this distinction. And this past year, we earned more points on the district performance framework than any district has ever earned on the front range. [Applause] you know, it's um credited with distinction is Colorado Department education's highest honor. Uh again, really proud to receive
082this award backtoback and have the best year that we've ever had uh as a school district. Um when we when we look at our school performance frameworks um nearly every BBSD school is now in the place where they earn the state's top rating of performance. Want to especially uh congratulate Coline Elementary School who made some significant gains who are now um went from priority improvement to improvement status. So one level away from being performance. I want to say keep it up combine. I want to congratulate our educators and leaders across the district. You know, board members, we talk a lot about strategy. We talk a lot about budget. We talk a lot about accountability, but I want to be incredibly clear with you and our community. It's the people that are the strength of our
083school district. Uh we know that our people, our educators, our leaders, our pair professionals, everybody in our district focusing on best practices in every classroom and providing targeted support where it's most needed through our all together for all student strategic plan, using our weighted differentiated funding, using many of our interventions, we're ensuring that every student in BBSD has the opportunity to succeed. As I look at the results um within our district performance framework, I think I have the most pr pride around the growth that many of our subgroups are making now in reading. Uh if you were to compare our district to other districts uh across the metro, um our free and reduced lunch students are have the highest median growth percentile of any school district on the front range for students that are um
084qualify for free and reduced lunch um and are multilingual learners. So if you are a free and reduced lunch student in uh the Denver metro area, the best place for you to learn and grow is right here in the Boulder Valley School District. And I will tell you that has not always been the case and something that I'm incredibly proud of. And I just it goes back to our people and to our schools um wrapping our arms around our most vulnerable students um and making sure that they're that they are learning and growing in incredible ways. So, uh all that said, our work isn't done. We still have gaps. We still have work to do. Um but it is important to stop and celebrate uh when we have an opportunity to do that. And I
085just want to thank everybody in our school district for all of their efforts. It's really really uh makes me proud to say BBSD is the best place to learn and grow in the Denver metro. So congratulations to everybody. Job well done. As we think about um some of our other efforts within our strategic plan, specifically Grad Plus, um I've got a really cool example of how Grad Plus is in action in our schools. As a reminder, Grad Plus efforts are for our community members that that are here or watching is where kids are earning more than a diploma when they leave our school district. On Friday, our Apex Culinary students students earned some real world experience alongside Chef Jose Rosenberg. Black Belly's owner and founder and a top chef came to the teaching kitchen at
086BVSD's Culinary Center to whip up the restaurant's offerings for this weekend's Denver Food and Wine Festival. What a cool experience. And if you haven't been to Black Belly, it's delicious. And if you haven't um met Chef Rosenberg, he is a wonderful human being. came and spoke to our Boulder Heist graduates a couple years ago. I had a chance to meet him. Just wonderful community member. Really appreciate his partnership. Um while they were cooking, of course, he offered some pro tips. Um but what a great experience for our students. And so just want to want to thank Chef Rosenberg and want to thank Black Belly um and uh and and encourage um our successful uh businesses and executives out there to reach out and partner with us. Uh we have kids that are are dying to
087learn what you know. Another exciting update. A couple weeks ago, board members after a lot of hard work by our Apex construction trades students, and you'll see many of them there um in that in the lower right hand picture. Uh the first modular unit left the Boulder Mod factory. Big round of applause. And it's the the Boulder Mod is is draped in the white um the white covering there. Um, as you know, Boulder Mod is a net zero modular construction facility built through unique partnership between Flat Irons, Habitat for Humanity, the City of Boulder, and the Boulder Valley School District. Modular units, there's two of those, and they stack on top of each other. They're part of a duplex that is expected to be placed on its foundation sometime in October, hopefully. Um, and will
088provide affording house housing to residents here in Boulder Valley. Those will be, this module will be placed in the Ponderosa. um community in North Boulder. And so very very excited for our partnership and again another great example of Grad Plus in action. Board members from my for my next update want to share uh something that we updated this summer on our website. As you all may know, board members, at the top of every page on our website, uh, based on feedback that this board has provided, um, we have a make a report link intended to make it e as easy as possible for students, parents, and staff to make a report when needed. While we hope students never experience bullying, harassment, discrimination, or hear about a threat, they can click on their link or their
089parents can click on this link or go to bbbscd.orgreport, make a report, and receive help. Well, it's been working well. I know that as a board um we've received feedback from families who once they make a report have questions about the processes and timelines for investigations and why in some case the district cannot share information. We know that can be incredibly frustrating. So this summer, our communications team worked to add some additional information under each topic as well as creating this communicating with families website with both shares our commitments when it comes to communication. Encourages everyone to follow our protocol of working with those closest to the concerns first before escalating the issue. Uh plus there's a section that lays out several of the reasons why we're unable to share more information. We really hope
090that this is helpful for our families. Um and we will next endeavor to incorporate some of these details into communication for families involved in investigations so they're better informed of the process and constraints. You we're constantly working to do do a better job to to better communicate. So I want to thank our board and want to thank our community for u pushing on us for this and and I believe that the result is something that's going to be very helpful for everybody. Then finally, uh, board members, I want to encourage our parents and community members who might be watching tonight to consider joining the next cohort of the community leadership academy. Uh, this is an opportunity that we developed a few years ago uh for folks in our community to learn all about our district,
091including explorations of BBSD's academics and operations, plus additional sessions on building resilient families and communities. Whether you want to know a little bit about BVSC or you're thinking about serving on a district committee or even the board of ed education one day, I'd encourage you to apply. It's a great place to start and learn a lot about the school district and meet just wonderful like-minded folks who care about education in our community. If you're interested, go to bbsd.orgacademy. The deadline to apply is September 18th, 2025. Last uh semester we had 80 participants and so we're looking forward to training the next group of leaders through the BBSC Community Leadership Academy. Board members, that's all I have for my remarks this evening. Happy to answer any questions. Board members, before we turn it over to questions,
092I just wanted to make an announcement for those joining us here this evening that there is a raccoon guarding the front door. And so if you need to leave, I would recommend you go out the side door and around until the raccoon the very front doors. So if folks when when they want to leave and avoid the raccoon, there's a it's outside the doors but guarding those doors. So avoid the front main entrance for the time being. Did you say it was we do live in a urban wildlife interface? Could be worse. It could be mountain line or and it there's a lot of bears out right now. So it definitely could be worse. U after that aside board members who would like to begin questions or comments for Dr. Anderson this evening kitty. Yes.
093I loved all the wonderful news that we got tonight, but I have a question about the achievement gap because back in 2017 when I was first running, it was widely publicized as a very big deal and I'd like to know how that has changed. It's a great question. Um, we haven't eliminated the gap. We've narrowed the gap for sure. Uh, there was a point in time where the gap of MBSC was the largest in the Denver metro area. That is not the case anymore. There was a time in BBSD where we had very high averages, but kids in poverty, multilingual learners, Hispanic Latino students, students with disabilities were learning at rates much lower than their peers. Uh that is no longer the case. What we're seeing um and we've seen this year over year over
094year over year. So, for the fourth year in a row in both English language arts and math, we're seeing more kids, more students at or above grade level in both subjects. Um, and depending upon the subject and depending upon the subgroup, some of those subgroups are narrowing faster than others. Uh, but the achievement in those subgroups is rising as well. And so we're not seeing our our our achievement and growth based on a small subset or even a large subset of students uh that are doing really well with our other most vulnerable subsets of students staying stagnant. Everyone's improving. Some of those gaps are closing faster than others. And so very very good news uh that really just validates the work that we're doing together in our strategic plan that just focus very much on
095supporting students in those subgroups. Well, to to follow up, having a gap is not inherently bad as long as the bottom of the gap is at grade level. I would love to see us have a huge achievement gap with the bottom being the, you know, where everybody ought to be. That would be a good thing. Board members, any other questions? Jorge? Thank you. Um, this is less a question than a comment. Um, first I want to thank um, you and the district and the administration and the teachers for the work they've been doing to follow on the strategic plan. Um, this is clearly a work in progress. I I recognize that this hasn't happened in a single year. It's been slow progress over a long period of time and because we've stuck to the strategic
096plan because we've invested in that and it's become a priority and we've talked about the data, right, about the different groups and how they're doing. Um, and I know that differentiated funding has been played a big role. We started with our elementary schools. We're seeing the payoff there. We started with literacy. We're seeing our payoff there. But I want to emphasize that we have to continue this work that it's in progress and now we need to move to middle school and high school and keep working because it's going to it it's easy for us to lose momentum. Um, and I want to keep that at the core of the work that we're doing as a board and as a district, right? That our strategic plan says we have to support all of our students and
097we've been putting the money there for the last seven years. And so, um, thank you for that work. Um, and you know, I I encourage us to keep that focus. Thank you, Alex. Yeah. Uh, continuing on what uh, Jorge just said, I just want to reiterate my support for that. And, um, I know we talk about lots of things, but I think the achievement and the things we're doing with the strategic plan um, to make sure all students are learning more is is job number one. Um and uh it's the differentiated funding, it's the instructional infrastructure, it's the improvement support, it's a lot of things that people are doing. Um and it's a priority for us as a board as well. And so I just want to we'll I plan to continue supporting that as
098as much as I can and I think uh it always stays job one. So and I also know um looking at the data a lot this is impressive growth. This is an an impressive achievement. um it's uh there's not as much fanfare as there should be for uh how cool it is um to have the improvement that we've had. So kudos to you. I also want to give kudos to the communications team uh for the website change. Um I've been looking forward to something like this and I think it's a great a great step forward and I really appreciate it. Um, in particular, I I do empas as a schoolboard member when somebody has something go sideways, they do come to us and often we're trying to explain what we can explain about processes. So,
099it's really nice to have a resource like that so people can find it on their own and um really know that when we can't talk to them, it's not because we're not working on something. It's because we have uh constraints on what we can say. and that um I know from my sort of look behind the scenes as a board member, it's still very limited, but that people are working really hard to solve uh these situations when they go sideways and that the it takes courage as leadership in a in a district to facilitate that. So, you're just saying, "Hey, someone got something really tricky, complicated. Perhaps I you want to talk to come come talk to us about it." So, I I really want to give uh credit where it's credit's due to to
100Superintendent Anderson and the communications team. Thank you, Melania. Was there anything you questions you had or comments? I just want to echo congratulations to our staff and to our students for all of the hard work to make these ratings happen. There has been a lot of change. We've asked a lot. Uh it it hasn't come without effort and we we wouldn't be as successful as a district and our students wouldn't be successful without that effort. So kudos there. I also want to plug put a plug in for the leadership academy that is if there's one parent engagement opportunity or community engagement opportunity that I hear hear a lot of feedback from in the community generally it is that one. People learn so much about how our district operates. They feel like they can be more
101engaged at their school level or in district accountability conversations. It's a really fascinating way to learn what we do in this district and what makes BVSD BVSD. And it's a great way to connect with others in the community. So, highly encourage folks to participate in that one and I know past board members, uh, current board members have participated in that. Folks that have run for school board have participated in that. It's really a great springboard to learn about what we're doing at BBSD. So, couldn't emphasize that one enough. Seeing as there are no additional comments, I'm going to we're going to move on to our next item on this evening's agenda, which is public participation board. The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of the schools. The
102board does not endorse the comments of any speaker and reminds all those who speak your that you are responsible for your own speech. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional information, you may always email the board. do read all of our emails. As standard practice board members, community members, we will begin public participation with items related to the agenda items this evening and then move on to non-aggenda items. Our first speaker tonight is Debbie Lou. Okay. Good evening. My name is Debbie Lou and I'm the parent of twin boys, Lincoln and Lockach, who are thriving in third grade at Creekide
103Elementary. I'm deeply concerned about the proposed boundary changes that would move my children to Bear Creek in the 202627 school year. By then, they will have spent four years at Creekide, the majority of their elementary experience, only to be uprooted for their final two years. Such a disruption would hard them harm them academically, socially, and emotionally. Creekide has also given my boys something they would lose if moved. Exposure to a student body with a wide mix of backgrounds and experiences. Many of their classmates are the children of visiting professors and researchers at CU which brings an international and cross-cultural dimension to the school. As multi-racial children themselves, being part of this environment has helped them feel connected and has broadened their perspective. This is why the proposed changes contradict their stated purpose. The district says
104it wants to build community, yet in practice it will do so by destroying the community my children have already built. Lincoln and Lock have deep friendships, trusted relationships with teachers and staff, and a true sense of home at Creekide. Removing them to foster a theoretical neighborhood community erases the real lived one that already exists. And it cannot simply be recreated at Bear Creek. I ask you to consider this. How would you feel if your district suddenly told you your children had to leave their school after spending twothirds of their elementary years there? How would you split explain to your children why they can no longer see their friends every day or take part in in the activities they love? There are better solutions. New boundaries should apply only to incoming families and not to students
105who have already spent the majority of their elementary years at one school. Current families should be allowed to remain preserving stability for children and strength for schools. My children deserve to finish elementary school in the community that has nurtured them since the kindergarten. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker this evening is Julie Simmons. Good evening. Um, my name is Julie Simmons. I'm a parent of two BVSD students, including one Creekide third grader. I'm here to express my concerns regarding the proposal to move currentide families to Bear Creek. These families were asked to choose between schools years ago and they chose to enroll their ch children at Creekide. They spent years investing in the school community, raising their children side by side with other Creekide families. Now they're being told their children will be
106subjected to a sudden and unwanted transition to a school where they have no community or connections. School choice families are guaranteed continuity through their students time at any particular school because the district recognizes the importance of consistency for children and their families. It seems that these Creekide families who chose to attend their own neighborhood school should be afforded at least an equivalent opportunity for stability. At a basic level, this is or should be about the well-being of the children who will be impacted. Late elementary school transitions can harm academic progress, cause emotional distress, and disrupt friendships that are essential to kids development. Parents also rely on their friends and connections at school. As a working mother in a two career household, I lean on our Creekide friends often for help, and I don't know what
107I would do if I had to move to a school where I suddenly lost that support. It's extremely difficult to rebuild those connections once you're in late elementary. Um, changing the school neighborhood boundaries may be necessary, but um, phasing in changes for new kindergarteners may take a little more time, but avoids punishing existing students for planning issues that are beyond their control or comprehension. I urge the board to rethink this proposal and to prioritize stability, fairness, and the well-being of our students when planning these changes. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tim Simmons. Good evening. My name is Tim Simmons and I am a parent of a current third grader at Creekide Elementary. He's actually in the back of the room right now. Um, and I'm here to speak in
108opposition to the plan to redistrict uh, Creekide students into Bear Creek. Now, my son is not going to be directly impacted by this change, but several of his classmates will. Um, by the time this plan is implemented, uh, these students will have spent more than half of their lives building their own little community together. I now I'm certain you're aware of the negative academic outcomes associated with school mobility. Uh however um I'm here to talk about the negative impacts on the students that remain. Now these kids are friends. They've spent the majority of their lives together and they love each other in the way that only little eightyear-olds can. uh a key goal of your proposal is stated to be fostering a community and I'm asking you please don't tear their little community apart. Now
109I appreciate the challenges that this board faces and why you're considering this move. Uh, in fact, I'm certain that a lot of families will choose to change districts precisely because of the reasons you lay out in your plan. Uh, all I'm asking is that you give these students the choice to stay. If they had open enrolled into Creekide, they would be guaranteed a spot in that district. I ask you to consider why that guarantee exists and to offer the same rights to the students that are being moved. That is all. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker this evening is Kathleen Donahghue. Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Kathleen Donahghue and I am a parent of a third grade student at Creekide Elementary and two future Creeksiders. I'm here to speak about
110the proposed Creekide Bear Creek dual attendance boundary changes. Forcing existing Creekide families to abruptly transition their children to Bear Creek after they have spent years building ties at Creekide is deeply unfair. When families chose Creekide, they made the choice that was best for their family, taking into account bus availability, neighborhood friendships, and afterare programs. Taking that choice away now and removing busing in this short a time frame is cruel and unnecessary. At a minimum, these families should receive the same guarantee of continuity as school choice families. Telling parents they can open enroll back into the school they have spent years attending and supporting is a joke when you could offer them certainty by creating a a plan to phase in these changes. My child worries about losing three of her very close friends. Not only
111are families within the boundary affected, but also the children who will not change schools but will lose the classmates they have spent the past four years building friendships with. Instead of taking children away from a thriving elementary school, please consider fa phasing in changes for new kindergarteners instead of uprooting current students and allowing current families to stay enrolled. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker on agenda agenda items this evening is Kim Trenbath. Hello everybody. Thank you so much. I'm Kim Trenbath and I have a student who is um at Creekide and we have selected we're in the choice area. So we selected Creek Side when my son was going through and now he's in middle school. Um I want to say that both schools are great. So thank you so much for the choice.
112I'm going to advocate for keeping the choice for my neighborhood. I think that's really really important. Um some people choose to go to one of the others. Um I chose Creekide because there's a bus. That bus is critical for me. I need that bus so I can get myself on the bus because I have to go every day down to Golden, Colorado to be um to work down there. Um so that's really important. Another reason why um other parents have talked about is the international aspect of Creekide um my kids my my my first kid was able to meet a friend from China. The friend is back in China now, but those opportunities are part of the Creek Side community that the previous principal did a great job fostering and I really think that we
113should continue to embrace that. That's why I'm for keeping the boundaries as they are and I think that's really important and the choice is really important. Um I also want to say that in the previous um sessions there were a couple things. Um you had questions about how this would impact the community. I do identify with the community down at Creekide. I went to u my kids went to the daycare right across from it and they've been with that community for a while. Also I'm a working parent and the majority of the parents at Creekide work as well and both parents. So I think that's really critical when you think about the community and why you're choosing a school because you're looking to um have that support system that uh can provide that. Um one
114other thing that I want to point out and other other people pointed out is there's a lot of uh working scientists and we kind of know what uh everybody's going through right now. Um it's a pretty stressful time and I just ask that we just maintain some consistency with our community. Um, in a previous board meeting it was brought up, what problem are we trying to solve? Um, it was like a budget problem. I don't think the districtricting, redistricting, moving like a couple kids from mine, my neighborhood is going to really solve that problem. So, I think that if you're going to try to solve the problem, you should bring communities together, which might be bringing two schools together rather than ripping communities apart. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Michael Whitaker. Hi
115board. I'm Michael Whitaker. I have a ninth grader and a sixth grader and I just wanted to continue our conversation around the AI policy in the schools. I understand that you can't formally start the conversations till January based on your processes. Unfortunately, the technology and its impact on our kids is not slowing down. And what's really hard here is that there's really a dual mandate on the district and our schools. It's to both prepare our kids for a future in which they will have to have AI skills to be successful in the workforce. It is happening fast. I lead AI transition at a large company. It is a mandate for incoming employees. At the same time, we have to protect their developing brains from the insidious consequences of over reliance on AI and and the
116the things that just kind of build up slowly as they use it over time. And that's that's a really hard balance to hit. And I want to talk today about that protection side of things because I think there's an opportunity to build AI principles into our social emotional learning curriculum starting with our youngest kids all the way up. There are toys being marketed right now to three-year-olds that have AI chat bots in them. They will they will build emotional dependency on these tools whether the tech companies build safeguards into the type of conversations or not. We need to start to train our kids in understanding that AI can mimic empathy but doesn't actually feel. We need to train our middle schoolers on how to set limits on conversations with AI when the AI is designed
117to prolong the conversation to tell them what they need to hear and keep them engaged. That's the motivation of the company. For our teenagers, 33% of teenagers are already engaging with AI companions. Of those, a third of them are saying they prefer the AI conversations to their human peers and would prefer to get feedback and guidance from the AI than from a mentor because the conversation is easier. We are heading into really dangerous territory. And I just want as you think about this policy to think both prepare, how do we prepare our students under the sore third pillar of the strategic plan for the future they're entering and protect their developing minds at the same time. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Mary Henry who has been given two minutes from
118Jen Bones. Are they both present? Great. That one. Hello board members and Dr. Anderson. My name is Mary Henry. I'm a a preschool pair educator at Emerald Elementary and I'm the secretary of our Boulder Valley Pared Educators Association. I want to thank you for the work and willingness to hear voices across the district. Today, I want to shine the light on a group of people who make our schools not just possible but successful. Our education support professionals or as I like to say, our essential school professionals. When we think of schools, when we think about education, our minds often go straight to classrooms. But the truth is, schools are living communities. They are kept running in the dedication of people who drive our buses, prepare our meals, keep our buildings safe and clean, support the
119in the office, care for our students health, assist in classrooms. Without them, learning simply would not happen. Our bus drivers are the first smiling faces students see in the morning and the ones who make them make sure they return safely home every afternoon. Our cafeteria staff fuel learning by serving meals with care and dignity. Our custodians and maintenance workers ensure that every classroom is safe and a clean place for growth. Our paraprofessionals and aids walk side by side with students, giving them the extra encouragement and support they need. Our secretaries, nurses, and countless others make sure students and families are welcomed, heard, and feel cared for. These professionals are often the unsung heroes of education. But they are the heart of every success story. They provide not just services, but stability, kindness, and compassion. In
120moments of crisis, they are often the ones students turn to. In moments of triumph, they are often the ones cheering the loudest. As a community, it is essential that we acknowledge their service, not only with words of gratitude, but also with respect, advocacy, and the assurance of their contributions are recognized and valued on every level. I ask you today to see our ESPs, lift them up, and keep them in mind as you make decisions that are impacting our district. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is Jennifer Jacobson. Laura's indicated that person was going to be in person. Are they remote? Okay, I guess that concludes public comment for this evening. Thank you everyone for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with the school district. We really value hearing from
121our community. We're a group up here that we didn't know we needed to sign up. We take the two minutes. Our rules are pretty clear on public participation that you have to sign up in advance. Feel free to email your thoughts and concerns to the board. I know several of you already have. Okay, we will now move on to the board communication item on this evening's agenda. Kitty, kick us off. So, I want to first thank everybody who came to speak to us today. Um, and I want to thank all of the parents that were that we reached out to over the summer who participated and gave us feedback in terms of um their their thoughts about the changes in districtricting. We really appreciate that. We, you know, we don't do this without getting input
122from the community. Um, it's hard. Change is hard and it's scary. And I think we have a tendency to assume the very worst possible thing that could happen with this change will happen. And we don't know that for sure. I would encourage all of you who are here with concerns about the redistricting to stay and listen to our conversation as we talk about it because that may help allay some of your fears. And um I can share my experience at Fireside Elementary when Monarch Ka first opened. And this was not a redistricting. It was a brand new school and there was no opportunity for the kids who had been districtricted to Monarch K8 to open enroll back at Fireside because Fireside had over 700 students. So, it was full and there was a lot of
123concern. There was a lot of angst. the principal did a great job helping with the transition of convening groups, talking about it, talking about what this means, you know, who's going, who's staying. Um, and it turned out okay. It, you know, it wasn't nearly as bad as people had feared, but having been through the process, I understand the fears. And my my daughter was one who you know we lived practically across the street from fireside so we didn't go but she had friends who were going and that was tough but everybody made it through and it wasn't as bad as like as I said as people had thought it might be and I just hoping I can give a little bit of solace to some of you who are pretty concerned about it and are
124very worried about negative impacts but if you can't stay and listen, please go back and watch the conversation about this because you will at the very least learn more about what we're thinking and where we're going. And that is all I have to say today, Beth. Thanks for sharing that, Kitty. Um, I want to thank everyone who spoke tonight as well, of course. And we also appreciate everyone that's reached out over the last several weeks uh via email or you know caught us in the supermarket or or wherever we've had the opportunity to connect with community. Um I know tonight's discussion around attendance boundaries is causing anxiety and concern um because the prospect of change is hard and I see tonight's participation as a really great sign actually. Um, I want to tie it back
125to our policy now states that we have to look at attendance boundaries every 5 years. I've heard different numbers. It's been 20 years, 40 years, I don't know, quite a while since our attendance boundaries were addressed. So, I'm hopeful about this process. I'm glad that we've started this as a policy. It's going to give the community um a predictable cadence at which we can have these conversations every five years as things continue to change. So, I just want to highlight that as we go into tonight's conversation. And I also um want to say that I really appreciate hearing from um our PAR educator and all the hard work that our ESPs, I've never heard that before, do in our schools. Um as someone who's worked in schools many years, I think a lot of our
126support staff are some of our very much our unsung heroes. So, thanks for the work you do, Alex. And then Jason. Yeah. I uh also want to thank everyone who spoke tonight and also all the people who've written in with their feedback and I also want to thank the people who responded over the summer uh to give their feedback on these changes. Um and I agree with Kitty. Uh people I look forward to having the discussion about these options and and how we manage them. I'm a big believer generally that um especially in a world of declining enrollment where we're just uh more students in the district help us keep the services and then more choice going on leads to parents being satisfied and letting people have the choices they want as as often as
127possible is a strong principle for me and also having gone through three elementary schools between the fourth and sixth grade myself I can appreciate the not necessarily wanting to change unless you want to change. Um, so I I'm a strong proponent in the long run of letting students stay wherever they are regardless of how they got to that school once they enter its early grades. But that's uh separate from the discussion. I also just want to say uh that I I believe strongly that um in general when we talk about changes to the school boundaries or to open enrollment or to other things where we're trying to work with the schools that that affect the choices people make that we're really are trying to um it's about the services and the quality of the education
128that students get in the long run. And part of what we're trying to do is make it so that there's a librarian free school and that you know other services that people want and there's real consequences towards having um the balance in the enrollments in the schools not be right. And so in the long run we need to get that balance correct so that the services are all there so the kids are getting the ESPs that they need um and other things. So, it's I really appreciate all the input we've gotten and um thank thanks to everyone who's shared. Um I'll just echo those comments as well. I was going to comment on something else, but I appreciate all the folks who are here. Um I don't have much more to add to what my
129colleagues said. It's uh you know, we're in a difficult situation in this district with declining enrollment. Um and we're doing the best we can and working hard to try to to address these issues down the road. um while still taking into consideration all the concerns of parents. Um but I'm going to shift topics uh because I was also um I'm the CASBY delegate for this board uh Colorado Associate of School Boards and so I um had the good fortune of being in Loveland uh over the last weekend um for the fall conference. And so I just wanted to report on that. Um it was uh it's it's a kind of reminder I know we've all been to the CADsby conference um for those who don't know that it's uh all school boards from across the
130state. Um and it's just really fascinating to be in a room with uh districts of 100 kids, few hundred kids um obviously to as large as Denver public schools. Um and it puts you know a lot of these challenges that we're talking about into perspective. Um, one of the resolutions we talked about was about um trying to to allow an uh someone who lives outside the district to run for school board. Uh, and I think when we looked at that, we thought, you know, we don't want that. We want people to um who live in BBSD to run for BBSD school board seats. Uh but then there were a few folks who spoke about it um where the only members of the school board was a husband and wife and they don't have a third
131member to make a quorum or there's a woman who was on the board for 24 years and can't get off because they don't have interest from their community. And so uh I'm grateful for the interest in this community in schoolboard and uh the issues that we face in this district, but it was just a reminder of just how diverse the state is uh and the challenges that we face. So we covered a bunch of issues. Um nothing, you know, I think we um could maybe have a debate about the value of the CASBY resolutions and and um but we spent, you know, four and a half hours on Saturday uh going through 10 resolutions um on a whole range of issues, Taber and um uh where's my list here? Uh school finance. Uh there was
132pretty strong consensus unlike last time about the importance of the adequacy study that Dr. Anderson's worked on. Um, and just a whole, you know, like I said, a whole range of issues across the state. I did go to a a breakout session on uh with one of the de state demographers who talked about population trends. Um, and you know, not nothing not a surprise to any of us here, but kind of declining birth rates, declining enrollment. It's not unique to BBSD. It's a statewide issue. Uh, potentially made worse by some of the challenges or some of the issues that we're dealing with at the national level. Um, I didn't realize this, but um, Colorado is unique among states where we're really heavily dependent on the tech sector. Not we know this, the tech sector and
133migration, international and domestic. Uh, and all three of those things, as someone alluded to earlier, are kind of being challenged. And so, not only do the long-term trends for student growth um are concerning, they're potentially made more challenging by some of the issues we're facing nationally. And so that was a uh kind of sobering conversation to be part of. Um but anyway, I was I'm grateful for uh choosing me as your delegate and um was happy to be there. Uh it was kind of like I said, democracy and action and whether these resolutions matter, I don't know, but um it was really great to be part of this conversation and to hopefully represent our district well. Um and uh we'll we'll see a lot of these issues back when we go to CASBY again in
134December. Thank you for that update, Jason. I've been eagerly awaiting the results of those those resolutions. I will save my comments on attendance boundaries for our agenda discussion on that item. I did want to say that since we last convened, the school board candidates for the upcoming election have been determined. They have been certified. And so we do have folks running in the three different districts. Only one district, district E, the district Beth is departing from is contested. Other districts, two districts are unopposed. And so pay attention. It's not very many weeks until ballots drop. I think five weeks till ballots drop. So pay attention to who is running, where they stand on issues of concern, and I think as we all prepare for the next iteration of this board and the work that we
135do. So, I just want to bring that to everybody's attention. Of board members, any other comments, items to communicate? Kitty, I forgot to mention that an anonymous person sent me this book. Um, apparently it was not sent to any other board members, but it has to do with providing gender affirming care. And this may well be something I don't particularly agree with, but I will read it because I think it's important when somebody is sharing their point of view and when a constituent is showing their point of view that I try to understand it. So, thank you to the anonymous person in Broomfield who sent me this book. That will be a hotly debated topic in the 2026 election. if we can look at those how those ballot initiatives are are um coming coming up.
136Our next item actually our next item this evening board members is our information item. We have one information item this evening which is a legislative update. Dr. Anderson, did you have anything you wanted to elevate on this topic? Thank you, Board President Raj Paul. just uh since we've last met uh our special session has concluded uh as you'll recall special session was called by the governor um because significant uh budget deficit uh that the the state will be facing uh I think the good news is at this point uh K12 um education has been held harmless. There were no cuts at this point to K12 education. Most of the um bills that were signed by the governor um had to do with uh increasing revenue through the reduction of tax um tax potential tax breaks
137uh that were were in the tax code. And so there's one, two, three, six of those. And then the governor also um proposed balancing the remainder of the cuts uh um by by using reserves. And so I would say that uh short-term good news, long-term still nervous. And I think that we'll just have to as a community and as as a state pay attention to what happens during the session as uh as our legislators are faced with really difficult challenges when we're um you know big cuts to f to Medicaid I think are coming and that could potentially impact the district for sure because of the services that we're able to provide because of those dollars. Um, and so just uh I would encourage folks to stay tuned. The next big thing to stay tuned
138to would be the governor's proposed budget on November 1st. Um, and so I think that we'll be watching uh and uh really keeping an eye on how students are going to be counted. Uh that was that was something that that became somewhat contentious during our last legislative session where we were it was proposed to have more money per student but then to give us money for less students. And so we'd actually have a decrease in funding that was um um being being promoted as an increase of funding per student. And so that actually doesn't help us if they don't count as many students as as that they said they would count. So uh we'll continue to keep our eyes on that. That's that's what I would have in terms of legislative update. Thank you for
139that. Board members, I had sent out in response to our last the last time we convened the proposed ballot items or ballot initiatives for 2025. I just want to give you all a heads up that I have not received feedback from anybody noting that there were ballot initiatives that you wanted to bring forth for potential resolutions at this time. And so I I we will discuss the one ballot initiative that we had previously green lit around healthy school meals for all and um initiative LL and the like later. But if that continues to change, we do have a little bit of time, not much as again those ballots are dropping in early October. But I just want to let you all know the status of that. Moving on this evening to action items, consent grouping.
1408.1 Personnel items. 8.2 approval of minutes August 26, 2025. 8.3 approval of minutes September 3rd, 2025 special meeting. 8.4 acceptance of donation Cole Creek Elementary. 8.5 Acceptance of donation Southern Hills Middle School. 8.6 Superintendent Goals for the 2025 2026 school year. 8.7 Grant Federal Programs Titles 2 through four. Had to think about that one. CDE. Are there any items board members like to pull from consent grouping? Seeing as there are none, we need a motion to approve the items on the list before we begin discussion. Moved by Kitty, seconded by Jason. Board members, are there any items you would like to discuss on this consent grouping list tonight? Kitty, I don't have a discussion as much as as a comment that Cole Creek and Southern Hills, it's remarkable this point in the school year that
141these PTOs have raised over $10,000 already to donate to the schools. I mean, we have the most passionate parents around raising money. It's true. And there are a lot of back to school kickoffs in of that nature. other items. Alex. Yeah. Um I'm not sure if Lenny is able to uh weigh in now, but I just want to reinforce um how important it is uh to me that um in the superintendent's um uh goals, the opportunity to deal with sexual assault and the safety of our um students is is really key. And um I'm looking forward to the progress we can make on that front and support having more information um to like help us figure out how we help make our schools safer for everybody. Uh and I just want to emphasize that goal
142within the um the superintendent's uh expectations. Thanks. And I'll echo that. Thank you, Alex. And for those that are not aware, we establish goals annually and that is what we use to evaluate the superintendent and their progress. And oftentimes these goals are strongly aligned to the work that we are doing within the district or the elements the board values and are prioritized through the strategic plan. Any other comments or discussion? Board members, seeing as there are none, Laura, can you please call the role in consent grouping? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nisnik, yes. Quinnland Aa, yes. Rajpaul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. Next item on this evening's agenda is policy action consent grouping. 10.1 board policy BAM board meetings. 10.2 board policy JO student records. Are there any items board members would like to
143pull from consent grouping? Hearing none, we need a motion to approve the two policy items on consent. Moved by Kitty, seconded by lots of hands, Beth. Board members, are there any discussion on these items? Kitty, I just want to comment that I had really wondered why the controller general general of the United States needed to be given information about our students and I see that has been stricken. So the law must have changed on that I presume. Is that correct, Kathleen? Uh not really honestly. Um we did update that language. I think that policy historically has listed every exception that exists in the federal law to the point that it didn't really make sense anymore. So, we did update the language and then we also incorporated the new Colorado language that restricts sharing of any
144immigration related information with federal authorities. So, I generalized that language to make sure that it's clear that we will comply with state law. And also because I couldn't pronounce the word board member sergeant as you pointed out to me. I just want to thank you for the cleanup at sort of the end of that policy. There were the board members had commented the last time we convened on some of that superolous language removing it to make it more understandable to our community and uh I appreciate the work that you did there. it will be much more easy to comprehend as a result of those changes you made. Appears as though there's no further discussion on those two policy consent items. Therefore, Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nesnik, yes. Quinn
145Aea, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. The next item on this evening's agenda, board members, are policy study items. We have three policies to study this evening, and we will begin with board policies, AC, AC-R, and ACR-2 non-discrimination. I will turn it over to Dr. Sullivan for that. Not yet. Thank you, though. So, um, we are happy to bring back to the board today board policy AC. We did take a note of privilege and we just included the regulations under this item for the board's review and discussion because I think it makes more sense to review them as a group. Um, the you can see on the dates and the board will recall that you last updated these policies in 2024 as Dr. Anderson shared tonight with changes to the website,
146making sure that we have an accessible and understandable process for receiving complaints of discrimination or harassment and then efficiently and appropriately processing those complaints and making sure we understand what's happening for our students and in our community. So, this round of updates is necessary really for two reasons. Um, as the board knows, when the uh new administration was sworn in in January, there were immediately some revisions in the Title 9 world. So, the Trump administration withdrew the uh regulations related to Title 9 that were issued under the Biden administration and returned us to the Trump era regulation that was in place during um the first term. So it changes some of the definitions. It changes some of the processes that we need to have. We had made a decision that because sometimes complaints arise sometime
147after the event itself, the board had kept regulation AC-R2, which is the one that really implemented um that regulatory framework that was in then out and now back in. So that's one reason that these policies and the regulations are being returned to the board. The other reason is because we do take the input of our community very seriously, especially in the context of sexual violence and harassment. Um, equity compliance officer Liz Lundelle, who is on my team, and I both attend most of the Title 9 equity council meetings, um, advisory council meetings. My apologies. Over last school year, we received significant feedback from that committee, which is adults. It includes staff members. It includes community members, professors from CU, other advocates that work in this space. I think that the feedback that we heard from
148that council is consistent with what we heard from some of our students, which is there was language in this policy that was historic that does reflect some legal requirements as to how we think about certain discreet issues. But overall, language about how we might deal with a false allegation or language as to how something might be treated was really viewed as hostile. It was viewed by our community as discouraging reporting or making the process that follows reporting more ownorous. So these red lines reflect the input of both really that we spent almost a year collecting and and addressing board member Quinn Linua um is a part of that committee so she may want to speak further but really incorporating that language and trying to make these policies although they do implement a number of federal
149laws so there are some technical details but trying to balance that with language that is just more accessible and more positive um as people begin to engage with our district in this area. So that really is an overview of changes that are made to the policy as well as the two regulations that will implement policy. Thank you for that overview. Kathleen Molina since we cannot see you raise your hand. Why don't we start with you this round of questions and comments? First, thank you, Kathleen. And it's unfortunate that things sometimes change quickly um and that we have to redo a policy every year. But, um in this case, I think barriers to reporting incidents are very important to mitigate as much as possible. And I feel that that's what we're doing successfully with this policy,
150trying to um mitigate those those barriers to reporting. So I thank you board members questions, thoughts, Alex. Yeah, thank you again for all the work and I really appreciate um the things changing in the field that make us have to respond on the um the policy itself. Can you tell me uh why the sex-based harassment thing gets struck? What's this? What's the intent? Uh it's number 11 on page four. page four. Is that something that ties our hands for how we respond or what led to that deletion? So that's a result of the change in the federal law. So that definition has been revised and the definition sits in ACR2. But I do appreciate your point board member Medler as you asked that question. I think just as a matter of understanding how our policies
151work, we do try to frontload the definitions into the policy itself so that there's less flipping back and forth that people would have to do. So although I do know why we made that red line, something I think that would uh be worth considering how we reference that in the policy itself. Kitty Yeah, I I have a couple of questions. So, in ACR2 under general procedure, it reads, "Upon receiving an allegation that if proven true constitutes discrimination or harassment under this policy, the compliance officer or design will meet with the complainant as soon as is reasonably possible, typically within 10 school or work days. And so it sounds like it has to be proven true before the compliance officer meets with the complainant, but then later on it gives procedures of, you know, what we
152do to determine if it's true. So I found that just a little bit confusing being at the very beginning of the policy. And then also in the same document under informal res resolution, it talks about the individual alleged to have engaged in the conduct. But then I'm thinking back to the very beginning where it says if proved true. So I just want that to be clear because I'm confused about that. Thank you for that question. I think that this can be really confusing. Uh ACR2 is intended to be used when we have an allegation that really falls within the scope of Title 9. We understand that Title 9 is a federal law applies to K12 as well as higher education and it imposes a specific threshold for conduct. it has to meet this higher threshold
153to be considered within the scope of that federal statute and subject to these um more specific procedural requirements in K12. If there is misconduct, it is absolutely misconduct that needs to be addressed in the schools. But not every type of misconduct that might feel like it has a sexual undertone or overtone will meet that federal threshold that imposes all of the requirements of this regulation. So the your first question about the language assuming that that allegation would meet the threshold is not to determine whether it's true or it happened but is what's being presented the type of allegation that requires the federal all of the federal requirements. So for example, we sometimes see conduct at an elementary level that may be developmentally appropriate or typical of the age that we would treat differently at elementary
154than if it happened in high school. So in other words, if not to be cute about it, but not everything is a federal case, right? We heard people you can't make a federal case out of everything, right? That's all that language is intended to suggest is that it has to allege conduct that would fall within the scope of those procedures to activate this higher level of procedure. So, is there a way of rephrasing it that could make that clearer? Because I sure hope so. Yes, I think so. It's possible I'm the only person confused by this, but I would imagine there's at least one other person who could read this and say, "Huh? So on this I've got a um another no two other things on ACR and ACR2. Um under AC it uses the
155language shall report and under AC R it says that people are encouraged to report. Are they talking about two different things? So, I believe the reference you're reading in AC, the shall report language, applies to school district employees who we absolutely can obligate in terms of how they respond to certain types of behavior. And I believe the reference in AC-R talks about community members and students and families bringing matters to our attention, in which case it is a choice. Um, and we can't obligate them in the same way we can our employees. Okay. I I saw that at the beginning of AC. It does not specifically I mean of ACR. It doesn't specifically say um employees and I don't remember exactly where in in um ACR the encouraged to re or in AC where the
156shall report but I understand that and then on ACR two page five talks about mandatory reporting in terms of reporting to um concerns about child abuse and it says must immediately report, but that law was changed and people now have 24 hours to report. We are aware of that change, board member Sergeant, and we do appreciate that the legislature saw that there were educators being prosecuted on the basis of minutes or hours, and that they saw fit following a task force study at the state level to build in some protections for mandatory reporters. that gives a statutory definition of 24 hours. While I do think that that's protective for mandatory reporters, including myself, the intent of mandatory reporting, as you know, board member Sergeant incredibly well, is to make sure that we bring in other
157agencies and authorities when we believe a student is at risk. We are not changing our language as a district away from immediately report because we believe that that's what protects our children and our students. But your point, we are addressing in training and information with our employees. There is a window, but our students need you to report immediately. Well, I can't argue with that. I agree. I wish they hadn't changed the law, but okay, that is all I Alex. Um, I think my question might be for Superintendent Anderson. Um, but, uh, I'm interested in your response as well. Um, without getting into the line by line stuff, what what will fundamentally change in practice because of these policies and regulations as amended? Are there big things that we will be doing differently? Um, and what
158are the highlights of that? So the changes around federal law did create a higher threshold for that federal scrutiny. So the policy changes are important because they direct your staff on which process needs to be implemented. So the details of we've received this type of allegation, it meets the federal threshold, which regulation do we need to follow in terms of our road map? That will change. What won't change is our understanding as employees of this district that this board, Dr. Anderson, our leadership, expect that every report of harassment and discrimination that is made is addressed in a timely manner, whether it is determined to be misconduct, a misunderstanding, or a violation of criminal or federal law. Thank you. That's what I was curious about. Board members, any other questions or comments on this policy, these
159the policy and associated regulations? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to board policy BDF, community bond oversight committee. And if I may just make one statement about policy input. We had Dak here earlier. Just reminding our public that we do have on our website the board policies under review with a link to provide feedback. Members of our community, our staff, everybody is welcome to do that at any time. That feedback comes to me. There is a list of the policies that are up for board review, but our community is welcome to give input on any policy that they may be interacting with and think could be improved. um including these AC policies. So if there are people watching the meeting um or here today that would like to provide input, please do
160look at our link on the website. That's something that this board directed us to do that's been in place for about a year. So the next um policy, as the board knows, you receive policies for two reasons. either because they've been prioritized by the board or because they're part of our routine maintenance or staff has brought them forward. In this case, Sabbach, the community bond oversight committee com committee needed clarification on their voting procedures. now that we really are a uh hybrid place sometimes I think uh they just needed some clarity around how they could collect votes and how that could influence seox recommendations to the board so those red lines were provided to us I align them with board policy style and those are the limited red lines present for this policy thank you
161for that overview Kathleen board members any questions or comments on policy BD FE E this cleanup is rather simple. I did have a question. There are not clear limits on the number of terms one could serve on Sabbach and I know that for a lot of our communities it can be challenging to get participants and so I wouldn't want to create ter the number limit the number of terms in a way that's detrimental to the committee as a whole but I wonder if that is something that was discussed or if there are pros and cons in having term limits for this particular number number of terms served. I know there are term limits as far as years identified, but not the number of consecutive or terms that one could serve. And I don't know if
162I'm looking at Rob Price because I know he oversees that committee if he has any thoughts or if other staff have thoughts on that. So great question. We have not limited the terms right now. I believe members can serve one or two-year terms and to be honest we've tried to keep the membership as is to have that consistency from day one as we continue. So we have not limited that. And do you find that between bonds because the membership is also limited to within 90 days of the bond wrapping up or there's some language there. Don't quote me on the 90 days. Are you seeing as we continue to have bonds approved by our community and this um the committee needing to be reactivated, are you seeing between those cycles as well, similar folks coming
163and joining or are you getting new people joining between the different bonds that the the district has had over the course of the past decade or so? If I had to guess, I'm going to say we have 20% of our membership is from the 14 bond and then the rest is new members. Um, our chair is from the former bond. Um, from the 14 bond, John Stanton. Um, otherwise, we've got a few other members on there, but I would say it's probably 20% 80%. Uh but it's nice to be able to carry that over so they understand how the group worked previously and how the group is working now, how we made decisions previously did now. So I can appreciate that that having that degree of consistency is important in a committee that is rather
164technical by nature. That was my only question on that policy. Moving on to our f final policy study item this evening, board policy. IMDb flag displays. Kathleen, I will let you provide an overview of this one as well. So, this policy had not been updated in a number of years. I believe it was last touched in 2019, which was before my time, and before they had updated state law to require, not only are we required to include and display a flag in every academic classroom, the flags must have certain size limits, and they must also be made in the United States. And sometimes when we uh create board policy, we do it to make sure that we highlight these very specific individual legal requirements that are hard to keep on our radar if they aren't
165codified in policy. Um our bond department, actually Rob Price's team is the one who was most familiar with this. So, we did take a look at this policy and felt like it did need refreshing and to make sure we align with Colorado law on those requirements. It also as we've uh we've known since 2005 at the federal level that there is a federal requirement that we engage in constitution education activities on constitution day which is September 17th. I've yet to discover why it's September 17th, but maybe we have Do you know? I think isn't that the date the Constitution was actually ratified a long time ago? I will know this by the time I'm here next time. I actually had not used AI to confirm that date. So it's quite possible um because of the
166emphasis on the requirement that these education activities happen in order to access federal funding. We wanted to make sure that this requirement as I said that's been longstanding is reflected in policy. Uh the final topic that we added then was the pledge of allegiance. I think every year uh as as an attorney I am surprised when I see news stories from other parts of the country where students have been disciplined for not engaging in the pledge that it was important that we document state law requirement that we offer our students an opportunity each day to say the pledge and that we also incorporate the first amendment law that is very clear that students also have a right to not be compelled to engage in speech. So this policy reflects the first amendment protection for students
167that while we will have an opportunity to say the pledge that students cannot be compelled to participate, they must just be respectful and not disruptive during that opportunity. So, those are the three pieces that we thought we would incorporate into this policy that really touches on these um federal and state requirements. Thank you for that overview. Lots of hands are going up and I'm just going to go around the the dice. We're going to start with Jason, go to Kitty, and then to Alex. Um, thanks uh Kathleen. I'm supportive of these changes and it makes sense to include these here. I was wondering that you said that there's a law from 2005, federal law that requires constitution day education and it's it's um you could lose federal funds if not is that is that the
168consequence? I just never I'm not familiar with that. That's correct. So the law has been in place since 2005. That requirement was specifically highlighted in some of the executive orders that were issued in January with the notice that if that existing federal requirement was not in place that school districts could expect there to be uh consequences. Okay. I was just making sure we're not responding to executive orders and rather to federal law instead. So that's correct. uh we we uh we I certainly read every executive order that applies to education. We are conscious of what is happening at the federal level. Um we have very clear direction from this board through policy and we're just looking at those carefully to see if they require a change of practice. I can't think of any that were
169immediately required. So this is really just um putting a policy finding a place in the policy to include this existing requirement so that we don't lose track of it. Okay. Thank you. So I went and looked up the laws about respecting the flag. I remember and I mentioned in the work session, you know how old I am because I said when I started high school, but growing up, you did not have clothes that had the American flag on it. That was just not done. And I thought, wow, the culture has really changed. But it turns out it's actually in federal law. So, I thought I would read some excerpts from it's US code 4 section 8 and talking about respect for the flag. Um, and things like, you know, you don't put anything on the
170flag. You don't touch the the flag can't touch the ground in that. But section I talks about the flag should never be used for advertising in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on articles such as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes, or anything designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising sh signs should not be fastened to a staff or howard from which the flag is flown. The next section, no part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be attached to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica should
171be worn on the left lapel near the heart. So this just comes up when I think of how frequently I see people with flags, you know, painted on their cars and flags on their clothing and and these people are always doing it to show their patriotism, but the fact remains that it's against the law. I just found that interesting. My turn. Um uh I don't mean to make homework, but um this one does look like a good one to add the legal references to so that people understand where we're coming from and that might make people 10 years from now have an easier time when they have to go change everything again. Thank you, board member Medler. Um we absolutely always include the legal references on the final version. So we we absolutely will. I
172have a clarifying question on this policy. In the second paragraph, it talk the first paragraph outlines flag displays in classrooms. The second paragraph talks about flags displayed on the administration building or on the administration building grounds. Does that mean that flags are not required outside of school individual school buildings themselves? Because when I read administration building and administration building grounds, I am interpreting it as this facility, but our schools do have those larger style flags displayed along with the Colorado flag outside the individual school buildings. And so I was just wondering if it is the law really just dictates admin buildings or if if it does include schools, should we include it here or make a reference about how flags are handled outside or on school buildings? I'll need to look at that and I'll
173I'll add that language. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this policy? And I do appreciate the clarity around the pledge. It is a question I get frequently when there's changes to different teachers, different classrooms on do I the student have to stand? Do the student have to say the words? Does it what is the and so I there um in that addition it appears that there are no further questions and be board members because I anticipate our final two study items of the evening taking a little bit of time. So I'd like to call about a 5m minute comfort break and then the board will resume its conversations. Calling this meeting back to order, we will now move on to the study items of of this evening's agenda. We have two study items
174this evening. The first first of which is school attendance areas associated with policy JC. I'll turn it over to Rob Price who is already at the podium for this topic. Perfect. Good evening, President Rajpaul, members of the board, and Dr. Anderson. We are back tonight with the next step in the board's review of school attendance areas as uh stipulated by policy JC. Uh Glenn Sigru, our senior planner, is also with me here tonight in case any questions come up. Uh tonight's study item builds on prior work sessions that we hel held on the same subject subject. this uh uh those work sessions were held in January, March, and May. Um all part of our uh five-year review cycle. Um I thought Beth did a nice job of saying this is something the community should expect.
175Every five years hereafter, we will be doing the same work. I'm going to need your help, Amla. What's that? Okay. When you get a chance, advance the slide, please. Uh as we continue this discussion, I want to remind everyone that school attendance areas uh serve several important purposes and as we've discussed in previous meetings and outlined here, I'd like to expand on just a few of these as they'll come up through tonight's uh presentation. So, as demographic shifts, student populations change across the district. Attendance boundaries are one of the key tools we use to balance resident student populations amongst our schools. So, our goal is to ensure that every student has access to highquality learning. Uneven enrollment impacts funding and the ability to provide essential staff and programs such as classroom teachers, counselors, specialists in
176art, music, PE, and libraries. While open enrollment does help soften these impacts, still nearly 70% of our students attend their neighborhood schools, which means boundaries continue to play an important role in our planning. Board members, you have also emphasized the value of the connections that come from attending schools with neighbors. In our planning, we have worked to keep neighborhoods together to strengthen that sense of community connections that extend beyond the classroom into daily life and continues as students advance from elementary to middle to high school. I just want to take a moment uh you've seen this before, but I want to remind the board and our community that policy JC, which governs attendance areas, is one of several enrollment related policies the board has been reviewing over the past uh several years. So, following the
177recommendation of the long range advisory committee, this work began in 2023 to ensure that our policies remain current and aligned with the district's needs. Attendance boundaries are just one of the tools we have to influence where students go to school. This policy interacts closely with open enrollment and our schools of choice, which also shape student enrollment patterns. Adjusting attendance boundaries is one of the smaller level levers available to us to help balance resident student populations across schools. But we also recognize that impact is moderated by those other factors, schools of choice and open enrollment. Our last discussion on this topic took place at the May 20th work session where we revisited the ideas first introduced on March 11th. We added the additional attendance boundary options which included potential uh changes at the middle level. And
178at that meeting, board directed staff to engage with impacted families to gather their input on these considerations. At that same meeting, several of you asked for ideas that would have greater impact on addressing declining enrollment, its effect on the overall student experience. Just want to remind you, uh, we will take up that discussion in more depth at our October, I believe it's October 21st work session. So, we'll come back to that at a later date. So, as requested by the board over the summer, we reached out to families that would be potentially impacted by the proposed attendance boundary changes. Efforts included launching a dedicated website, sending emails directly to impacted FL families, explaining the changes, and inviting them to speak with us. We had one-on-one uh conversations with those families that signed up. There was
179also an article in the back to school edition of the spot that was sent to all families in the district. We received feedback from the community both from the website and in conversations with families. All of this feedback has shared been shared with you directly and tonight we'll provide a summary of what we heard from those families most directly affected by these changes. So overall families expressed appreciation I would say for the personal outreach. They offered valuable input on the impacts of the proposed changes as well as ideas to help support uh families through the potential transition. So, as a reminder, here are the boundary considerations we shared with you in May, and we'll review these uh in more detail on the feedback we received tonight. But I want to provide two updates on the
180proposals that we presented to you. So since the spring staff we refined uh projections for Boulder elementary attendance areas. Uh updated data from CDPHE kindergarten enrollment shows Creekide's resident population will will decline much more rapidly than we expected over the next 5 years. In light of this moving area C would shift more students out of Creekide than the stool school can sustain. So, we are no longer recommending area C. Our review of the pedestrian and transportation access also included some site visits over the summer. We identified a underpass at Broadway and Table Mesa um near area E which is shown on the map and that makes walking the creek side easier than the Bear Creek or Mesa. So, we are no longer recommending area E just as an FYI. As a reminder, here are the
181middle school considerations we brought to you in May. And please recall that the only first two proposals, so G and H, impact students. And we'll discuss these in a little bit more detail later in the presentation. The last three simply clean up some maps, uh, clean up the map, but don't affect any students. And I'll talk about those also. So here's the information we shared in May regarding the proposed boundary change for gun barrel. So these student counts I just want to remind you uh reflect the official 202425 enrollment data or 2526 numbers remain unofficial until October count. So, uh, this proposal would reassign the area east of 119th, west of 63rd, north of Independence from Crest View to Heatherwood. This is shown in the highlighted area. While maintaining Boulder High as the feeder school
182at the high school level. If approved, this change would begin in 2627. The purpose of this change is to better balance student resident populations across the two schools and strengthen the community connections. So, Crestview's resident population is approximately 684 uh students as of the 2425 Data More than doubles resident uh Heatherwood's res resident population of 305. Um, so that 684 that already exceeds Crest View's capacity if all of those students uh decided to attend Crest View. However, open enrollment reduces that actual number of students attending Cresview. So with this adjustment, Cresview would still have the largest resident population of any elementary school in Boulder. Um, as noted by the board, this proposal also keeps all gun barrel students together, eliminates the need to cross 119, and ultimately improves the elementary school commute. If the board
183wishes to move forward with the Crestview and Heatherwood change, we are also proposing corresponding adjustments to the boundaries for Centennial and Nevin Plat middle schools. Again, as highlighted on the map, this would maintain the integrity into the feeder path, which would which has been a priority of the board, and this area would continue to be assigned to Boulder High. As proposed, this change would also take effect in 2627. So, guiding principle for this proposal is to strengthen school community connections. As the students progressed through grade level, students would move from Heatherwood to Platt, maintaining the relationships they built in elementary school along with the other middle school changes being presented tonight. This adjustment moves us closer to aligning and simplifying our feeder uh patterns, which has also been a priority as we worked through this
184process. This change could also help balance resident students across schools. additional students would benefit Platt while Centennial still has the largest resident student population among amongst our older middle schools. So, as requested by the board, staff reached out directly to families who would be impacted by these changes. In July, we sent an email to preschool, elementary, and middle school uh families in the gun barrel area. In total, families of 103 students were contacted. We had one-on-one conversations with 27 parents. So, from our conversation with uh families, several themes emerged. Families wondered if the boundary changes would fix the issue. Some families expressed uncertainty about Heatherwood's future. They are concerned about being reassigned there only to have it closed later. A few families commented that BBSD should further investigate the reason families are choosing to enroll
185out of Heatherwood and address those concerns. Families are worried about potential impacts on Crest View if boundary changes are implemented. Again, I would just reiterate even with this change, we Crest View still has the largest resident student population. And then the strength and closeness of this community came through uh many of our discussions with the families. The the neighborhood is close and there's a concern that this change could fracture. So, some of those themes continuing, uh, working families noted they are concerned about having to drive their students if they choose to stay at Crest View or Centennial. We have heard via email from families in support of the change from Crest View to Heatherwood, specifically citing the more bike friendly commute. We heard that students are active in North Boulder Sports and moving the plat
186would make it more difficult to participate. We also heard that biking to plat is not feasible for middle school students. And then some felt the change from Centennial to Plat does not make sense because of the distance and more difficult commute. Um families had shared or did share several suggestions to help ease the transition. Uh some of those were allow current students to finish at the elementary or the middle school where they started with new enrolles and students after a set date moving to Heatherwood and Plat. Address transportation challenges for working families by providing a single neighborhood bus stop for those choosing to remain at Crest View or Centennial. And then there was a comment about considering moving Plat Middle Schools or giving Platt Middle School students the option to attend either Fairview or Boulder
187High School. So from a long range planning perspective, uh we still feel this boundary change makes sense for several reasons. Uh Heatherwood retains 66% of its neighborhood students, slightly above the district average of 64% at the elementary. Would definitely benefit from additional uh enrollment. Crest View has the largest resident student population in Boulder. Would remain the largest even with this change. Platt Middle School would gain enrollment stability while Centennial already has the largest resident middle school population. And then while open enrollment does remain a variable, assigning all gun barrel students to the same schools strengthens community connections, supports the board's priority of moving with peers from elementary through high school. So we appreciate the feedback from families and we are presenting two options tonight for the board to consider. And at the very end of
188the presentation, I'll come back to all of these options. If we can get through the presentation, then I'll open it up for questions. But uh we believe these options along with others we'll present tonight will move forward uh move toward meeting the needs of the district while also considering the experiences of the individual families um that are going through these changes. So, um, option number one, proceed with the boundary changes allowing our current fourth and seventh graders who would be in fifth and eighth grade next school year and their siblings to remain at Crest View for the 2026 27 school year. No transportation being provided for that change or we proceed with the changes, but we allow all Crest View and Centennial students enrolled in 2627 to remain through completion. No district transportation be provided.
189Just understand this option would delay those enrollment shifts at both Heatherwood and Plat. Um we are not uh at this time suggesting a dual enrollment area at the high school level and as you'll see we are not addressing any of the high school boundaries in this presentation tonight or during this five-year review. Rob, may I ask a clarifying question? I agree on coming back to any decisions on the choices until the very end because consistency across all the proposals is paramount. Does it make sense to withhold any questions on each of the different I think there's like three different chunks we're going to be looking at to the very end or should the questions be asked in the context of the specific the boundary changes when they're presented like talking asking questions about the gun
190barrel crest crest view heatherwood centennial plat now or we hold those off until the end if you have a preference what I do not have a preference whatever you would prefer board members it might be a little easier if We just ask the questions related to the before we start to lose track of facts and figures and enrollment patterns. Ask questions related to some of those changes if there are any comments and then kind of save any decision-m or nods to next steps since we are not acting this evening until the end. Does that sound reasonable? So board members, questions or thoughts on the this round of proposed changes based on feedback from our community and feedback that the board provided both in January, March and May. Yes. Yes. The going back to the if
191you want to go just back to one slide so or two sides to remind folks that we're talking about the gun barrel changes. That's fine. or the one before. It doesn't really matter. Alex, can you say a little more about what no transportation provided means and how many students are getting transportation now that would no longer get it? Is that what happens and how many would be affected? So, what we um what I am saying is we would not provide transportation from the new attendance area to uh Crest View or Centennial is what I'm proposing. So back to their to the original school. Transportation would then be provided if student if families qualify to the new schools of Heatherwood and Platt. Does that make sense? So you would continue to provide transportation as is our
192practice for students that attend their neighborhood schools. So if you're attending your neighborhood school as the boundaries are designed, transportation would be provided. If you're remaining at if you're choosing just not to stay at the school you were even though it wasn't in it's no longer in the neighborhood catchment zone like all of our other schools families would be obligated to provide transportation. Is that that is correct? Does that make it so basically saying that if you open enroll back to the school that you were at that you are no longer offered transportation or if we allowed them to stay through the remaining grades but they were no longer in the attendance zone we would no longer provide the transportation. I guess my question is how many students would that affect? I don't have the
193answer to that but I'm happy to get that for you. And I board members I just want to be clear. I just I just want to be clear that we're not talking about open enrolling. We're talking about a guaranteed admission process. I think that you heard an open comment um several of the folks who spoke tonight talking about this consistency and continuity. You know, if you were to open enrolled at the beginning of um you know, of kindergarten and then you get that continuity through the end of of um of you know, fifth grade. And so this would replicate that without having making parents jump through hoops. We would do a simple process where we would ask parents if they wanted to stay or if they wanted to go to um the new neighborhood zoned
194school um and then we would honor that transportation. We would honor that um honor that request. I do think that there's going to be questions that we're going to need some more time to answer um in terms of transportation, in terms of number of kids. I think some of that be becomes difficult because if you choose the choice of folks being able to all all kids who are currently um at Crest View and Centennial to be able to to stay. Uh that's one number. If you choose the other choice, that's another number. And then whatever people choose is the third actual number, which we would never know until we asked them. So, um, but what we could consider, uh, um, if if it was, uh, in the interest of the board is the costs associated,
195uh, with with running those buses. Again, we we are very cautious to add new routes, uh, because of the the significant challenges we've had in staffing bus drivers. And if you make a commitment to a community that you're going to have a route and then you don't have the bus drivers, then we get into this impossible situation where we've been in the past where which routes do you no longer run and which ones do you keep. So I do think that that's a challenge. I think that we can certainly answer any questions that the board might have. But the reason that we didn't propose just running the bus to wherever you want it to go in this zone is that the way that we're staffed and the way that we're budgeted, we can afford one
196bus and that would be what we're proposing is that would be the bus to what will be then the neighborhood school for the change in the attendance boundary. Yeah. And just real quick to answer Alex's question, roughly we have 27 elementary students living in that area that attend Crestview and we have 26 middle school students living in that area that attend uh Centennial. How many ride the bus? That's what I don't know. So, uh, can I ask a clarifying question? Yes, you may. Oh, thank you. I just don't I hate I feel like I'm going to interrupt somebody. Sorry about that. Um, so I just want to make sure I understand that Crest View has a capacity of 615 students can go to that school. Is that right? That is correct. Yes. And then but
197the resident population is in the high 600s like 685 or 690. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. So, this is balancing just that capacity um balancing the neighborhood populations. And do we know how many families are impacted by this? We know how many students are impacted by this change. Okay. So when we look at these slides, um, give me one second and they're not going back, but based on these slides were 2425 data. The new data as of this year, um, we have 59 elementary students living in this area. Of those 59, 27 attend Crest View. Okay. same area. We have 37 middle school students living in this area and 26 attend Centennial. Okay. Okay. Um, and then I also wanted to just verify that I understood it correctly that 60 65 or 70%
198of kids go to their neighborhood school in elementary. That is yeah 64% I believe is the district average that attend school at the end and Heatherwood is is at or above that average. Heatherwood is at 66%. Yes. Okay. Okay. So those kids are staying at their neighborhood school as often as any other kids. Um, and then when we're talking about runway, it's there's just these choices around runway for how it could possibly be. Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to piggyback on that a little bit. And this is the nuance between all of the three population, the three policies and three things that are interplaying on that first slide. It is challenging. Some one of the comments that we receive is that well only 50% of the students are choosing Crest View so there actually
199has more capacity because so many families are choicing out. Attendance boundaries are not meant to address choice. Choice has been enshrined in Colorado law for 30 years. The these are really designed to address resident populations and operational efficiencies as a result of that. we cannot control for for that choice piece and it it's hard to even attempt to do so because people can elect and make different choices in two years from now and again we need to have the space physical space in our schools to ensure that everybody that wants to go to their neighborhood school are guaranteed a seat in our neighborhood school and I know that nuance gets gets muddy um and I think that's something for hard for board members to think through and keep track of and for our community to
200keep track of how these work together and how They are also def designed to address discrete components of of this bigger issue of declining enrollment. Jason, um, yeah, thanks for that clarification, Nicole. Um, I wanted to ask maybe more comment question. I'm not sure exactly kind of following up on Lenia's. Um, it seems like in looking through the comments, most of the comments we got were actually from Crestview families that are not in this triangle that's affected, but actually Crestview families who are understandably concerned about what the loss of that triangle means to the school. And I think it's worth emphasizing again and maybe a clarifying question. Uh, first of all, it has a relatively low u percentage of people that are zoned for that area going to Crest View. I think that's 50 something.
201Is that right? Sorry, I should have that in front of me, too. But so again, yeah, at the elementary level, we have 59 elementary students in this area that we're discussing and 27 of those 59 attend. So, but I mean, as as far as the neighborhood population at Crest View, those people, how what percentage of those kids who live in like outside this triangle who live in Crest View go to Crest View? About 50%. So, much lower than the district average. So there's room for growth. And then despite that, I think you said something and I want to verify this is true that even after these if these changes do take place, Cresty would still be the largest elementary school in Boulder. Largest resident student population at Boulder. Got it. Thanks. I want to clarify
202or elevate what these decisions mean as we consider the rest of the the attendance boundaries. So the first option A allows it it feels rather clear current fourth and seventh graders and their siblings to stay. They're guaranteed admission whatever path that they choose for that period of for that for that year. and no transportation will be provided if you're not attending the newly defined neighborhood school. In B, what we're saying is that beginning next year, folks can elect to stay at their existing schools or go, but it's anybody that's enrolling next year can elect. They make a choice and that choice sticks with them for the duration of that. And if they decide that choice is no longer relevant after that first election of choice, then they would enter the open enrollment process like everybody
203else. So let's say I decided I wanted to stay at Crestview and then two years later I decide I want to go to Heatherwood. Then I would elect then I had to go through the open enrollment procedure at that time like everybody else. So this option is just for the first next year's election of choice not subsequent. You can still change your mind. And would that include a tale of siblings? One wondering I have is that we're tasked to review attendance boundaries every five years. Elementary schools are in a school for six years. And if we consider siblings, we have families that are in elementary schools for 12 years. The tale is rather long. A family could see I mean in theory if things in funny things happen with enrollment resident populations could could see
204changes in over time. highly unlikely that we would continue to tinker on past attendance boundaries, but if there are shifts that we'd have to address, we would have to do so. So, am I understanding B correctly is I think my question and are there other things that are maybe hiding in that first sentence that are not clear to those observing tonight? The way you have described it, the way our current processes are in place, that's exactly what would happen is we would guarantee admission. We would make a call to families, ask what their choice are, those impacted families that live in this area, what their choice are. We would do that work for them. And if they wanted to go to back to which would be then become their neighborhood school, they would have to
205go through an open enrollment process the way it currently works. I know there's been some more discussion around that. That's the way I'll just frame it that way. And then the first bullet talks about siblings, but the second one doesn't. So the second one just to so we're very clear. It's just those that are enrolled in that 26 27 no matter what grade level you are. It's not subsequent siblings that might come down the line three years from now. That is correct. Yes, it would be siblings that are there currently presently attending. Y okay. And then just as a reminder also, the way our open enrollment policy language works is that siblings do get a priority preference in open enrollment. So it's a tangled mess. Um but trying to be really clear on exactly what
206these maneuvers mean for families and what these maneuvers mean for this attendance boundary discussion. Alex. Yeah, thank you for bringing both those points up. Um, so I want to first follow up on the the sibling thing. I assume that when we're dealing with siblings, we're dealing with siblings that are co-enrolled at the same time. And then if we have a break, then the ones who haven't enrolled yet, who are three or four um wouldn't be automatically enrolled because they're si a sibling who graduated or metriculated before they even get there. Right. That is correct. Okay. And then secondly, I I'd like to reinforce why I will continue to advocate for treating the families that want to return to their school of residence as having the right to do so just like if they moved there
207or they transferred from a private school. So, I I'll continue to advocate for that when we can. Um because it seems odd that we're trying to get the attendance zone to change and then we wouldn't have the parents or the families that are in the new attendance zone go to the school when they want to go there. So, um I don't I don't get why we have that part in policy anyway. Board members, any other questions on this particular this these boundary adjustments? Kitty, well, it's not excuse me so much a question on the boundaries, but I noticed that the numbers you're quoting and the numbers on the slides are slightly different. So, these are the ones you're saying now are the updated numbers. Yeah. The reason I didn't change the slides is this is
208what was presented to you in May. Those are the official 2425 numbers. What I have in front of me is the preliminary numbers based on 827. Okay. So, we don't have October count yet, but I wanted to make sure that I was just prepared so you knew exactly who was impacted, how many, etc. Thank you. Yep. Lol. Did I hear you? Yep. Go ahead. Yeah. I I wanted to first elevate just a touch that this is not a move. Attendance boundaries are not meant to address declining enrollment. They're meant to address catchment areas. And I think that's an important element to be thinking of. I don't think that and I feel like the the community has some concern about what this lever is for and it's a lever at least and maybe this is a
209question for for Rob and for other board members is this just for those catchment areas because that's how I view it is we are defining our catchment areas correctly. We haven't looked at them for 40 years and so it's important to do that. Uh you know in our case our cadence will be every 5 years but I just want to get a little bit of feedback on that and then I have one other thing. Dr. Anderson, you start to realize why folks haven't touched these in 40 years when you start to think about the complexities because you're trying to solve tomorrow's problems today, right? In a way that honors and respects the folks that have been going to their neighborhood school. And and it's it's a balance for sure. I think that in most places
210you balance enrollment with these attendance boundary conversations. They're huge big messy conversations. It's a basically an industry standard to go back and look at those every five years, right? If we were just drawing the boundaries today and nobody had a school, right? And nobody was assigned to a school or had those experiences, this becomes easier because the the some of the justifications and reasons, you know, not having to to cross over major highways, being able to ride, keeping communities together, the priorities that we set when we started talking about attendance boundaries, right? makes it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot easier, but that's not what we're ever going to be able to do, right? And so, we've tried to provide the board a few a couple of options, right, as we think
211about balancing these catchment areas, balancing these home populations, hoping and supporting schools to try to get to right the district average of folks who stay at their home neighborhood school. I think that that's an element to this as well. Um and um and then continuing to look at how our community changes, where are families going to move, what families where are we folks in our community aging in place like you know we every 5 years you can get a better sense of that but um but that's why you have to adjust and and and try to balance these catchment areas. Not necessarily because by doing this we solve a problem at Crest View or Heatherwood today, right? but you're looking to try to solve and balance these things as we move forward. Uh so there
212are a couple of options for the board to consider that we feel like um you know gets close to trying to honor both scenarios. A you've got families who are currently in a school um and then you have other families that you know that aren't here yet. Uh, so I do think that that is the really tricky needle that you try to thread um in Colorado when you touch attendance boundaries, knowing and understanding that open enrollment is very different in our district today than it was 5 years ago because there's room everywhere. You know, there there were there were years uh when when I first started here where there was no room in a lot of schools, but now there is, especially our elementary schools because of the declining birth rate. And so today, now
213tomorrow, 5 10 years, maybe that's not the case. I mean, we we can do some projecting. Um, and again, this is the first of what I think is a series of moves that this board will be challenged to make as we begin to try to balance our population and preserve services for our kids. So folks who send their kid to any school, right, are getting what it is that they'd expect. And to piggy back on that a little bit because our maps have not been our attendance boundaries have not been designed in a way that is relevant for today's. The maps look a little confusing. I mean it was hard to justify how some of those boundary lines were decided. Some of them were decided for reasons that are no longer relevant at all. And
214when we set out on this work, one of the things we test oursel with is finding justifiable rational reasons for which our attendance boundaries are drawn. And and I think we did a really good job of laying that out. I don't we didn't get very much community feedback or disagreement on how th those decision points, how we thought attendance boundaries should be made based on our board priorities. And I understand it always gets one level harder when individual families are impacted. Um, as we go through and iterate over the next every five years, I'm trying to continue to have these attendance boundaries that are based on concrete bits of information and that really do provide the best services across our system. And Elen Lolani, did you have another question? I I I the other thing
215I've heard about from community is loss of FTE when you lose students. And I just want to encourage our community to understand that that is very formulaic. There is no um we're trying to send more FTE from one school to another by changing an attendance boundary. It's just formulaic. And I I think that's a really important um concept because we do I I I want to echo what what Dr. Anderson was saying. We want to have neighborhood schools be robust, but you have to be able to not just you have to be able to capture the kids in your neighborhood to start, right? So, that's part of the challenge and and the work to do here, Alex. Yeah. I just want to um again, thank you for all the work and thank you for uh
216getting all the community input. I think that's really valuable. I I just want to observe uh two things. One, it does seem like this is this is playing for the long game and it's um relatively small in a district with 28,000 students, but it's really important to the 103 families who might be affected by different things now. Um and I think uh the way I see this is, and I understand the balancing, so correct me if I'm wrong. Um when this when this is in place and if people stay in their neighborhood schools in 2031 uh these schools will have a slight difference distribution of that 103 kids or something and that will allow us to be more likely to have a chance of having the full continuum of services that we want in all
217our schools. Am I thinking about that more or less correctly? There's there's a lot of lot of whatifs that happen there. But yeah, but yes, I mean, you know, in in in terms of cutting and adding FTE, just just to be really clear, um, we assign FTE based on the number of students we're serving, right? We have class sizes that that we work to to reach and and boundaries we stay within. Um and then we have other services that uh depending upon the number of sections for electives and things like that that we have you know if you have fewer kids fewer classes you have fewer sections and so we assign FTE right to schools based on the kids and what we're trying to provide. Um, you know, we run schools with, uh, you know,
21820, 30 kids in the mountains with two teachers and one person that helps with everything else, whether it's cafeteria, custodial, what have you. Um, and then we have massive comprehensive high schools and everywhere in between. And, uh, you know, I think that that that smaller schools that may have less of some of those things have a smaller, more intimate environment, right? And and people choose that or don't choose that. Um and then your larger schools, you have more comprehensive services um within a within an environment of choice. Um and balancing choice between the strong neighborhood schools, right? Balancing the catchment areas, right, is is really your best avenue to be able to achieve both things, right? We have focus schools within this school district that have no attendance boundaries at all that pull kids from
219all of the neighborhood schools. And those are choices that were made and have been supported and embraced by our community. So you have that and then you also have every neighborhood and everyone in the neighborhood school who goes to neighborhood school wants to be able to support and save that neighborhood school. And I get that and I think that that speaks of the of the quality of communities that we have. Um, but if you're looking, if you're forward thinking, right, balancing catchment areas in ways where every school has a shot to be a neighborhood school and that folks still have the ability um to have choice is really the balance that the ecosystem of public schools in the Boulder Valley School District is is really trying to maintain and has tried to maintain for a
220long time. We just have less kids to do it with. Last question from Kitty, then we'll move on to the next section. And board members, as we continue to want to come back to this particular attendance wonder, we can do so. So, one thing I want to make clear is that we intend to do this every five years. Doesn't mean we're necessarily going to make changes every five years. We're going to look at it every five years. So, it's possible we would make changes every five, but I don't want people to think that every five years definitely something's going to change. That That's correct. The policy says that we review attendance boundaries every 5 years as one of a multitude of efforts um to get this balance that we're looking for. All right, moving on.
221Uh here's the information we shared with you regarding the Creekide Whittier uh boundary change. What I believe I have determined this used to be Lincoln Elementary School, which was in this area, closed in the uh early 80s. It was a one round school. Uh but we are uh recommending that we re reassign this small non-ontiguous bubble from um Creekide to Whittier. Um busing would be provided in this scenario. I need to make that clear. Um this is considered a hazardous area. You would have to cross Arapo. So busing would be provided this. Um as proposed, this change would take effect in the 2627 school year. Based on the 2425 data, there were six elementary students living in this area two attended Creekide. So, as a reminder, the primary purpose of this change is to strengthen
222the neighborhood connections by assigning all of the address in the area to Whittier. So, in this uh same area, staff is proposing moving the Casey attendance boundary to include all of the Whittier attendance area and moving the Manhattan attendance boundary to include all of the northern portion of the Creekide attendance boundary. You can see those changes on the map. These uh both these areas would continue to be assigned to Boulder High School. Uh you'll see there 24 25 19 middle school students, eight are attending their neighborhood schools. Um primary uh reason for making this change is to support neighborhood connections by keeping elementary students with their peers as they move through the grades. Currently Whittier Elementary feeds into Casey and Manhattan and Creekide feeds into Casey Manhattan and Southern Hills. Uh this change assigns all
223Whittier to CA uh to Casey Middle School, reduces the number of middle schools that Creekide is assigned to from three to two. It is important to note most school districts have very clear feeders. We do not have that here in Boulder Valley. So that's one of the primary objectives to a lot of these changes is just to clean up um our feeder systems. So when we reached out to families in July, there were seven elementary students living in the subject area. Uh three currently attend Creekide. There are 39 PKE students living in the affected areas. Of those 39, three attended Casey in seventh and eighth grades. Four attend Manhattan and sixth through 8th grade. One family signed up to speak with us but was unavailable when contacted. So again, from a long range planning perspective,
224we believe these boundary changes uh strengthen neighborhood connections, eliminating the Creekide bubble, assigns the area to Whittier, adjusting the middle school boundaries keeps Whittier students at Casey, and allows more Creekide uh students to move with their peers to Manhattan. So uh similar to what we presented uh with the Crest View boundary change, we're presenting two options for the board to consider. proceed as proposed allowing current fourth and seventh graders who will be in fifth and eighth grade next year and their siblings uh to remain at the schools for the 26th 27th school year. I have no district transportation be provided. However, in that one area, transportation be provided for hazardous area and then proceed with the changes but allow all K8 students enrolled in to stay at CA uh Creekide, Casey, and Manhattan and remain
225there through completion. So again, no transportation would be provided. And with that, I would open it up for comments. So Rob, um, for that little bubble that was Lincoln Elementary, do we provide transportation now for those students to Creekide? Yes, we do. And then we would continue transportation, but it would be to Whittier. That is correct. But not Creekide. That is correct. Okay. As we've currently proposed it. I have a question. Early on you mentioned new CDP data that indicated resident population in Creekide was decreasing. How often do you get that updated CP data? We get that on an annual basis. Annual basis. Y I will say we did not uh recommend moving forward with the creek side to flat irons. That was 40 to 50 students. these changes that we're proposing with this change
226in the Bear Creek Whittier change or Bear Creek creek side change much smaller when we look at numbers. So keep that in mind as we're moving through this presentation. And I just want to also commend every little move we can make to clean up our feeders means a lot. I mean it's really hard on our school communities when they're dividing up amongst several middle schools. Also, I feel like folks follow their friends and so it creates conditions of unpredictability as well. So, I I appreciate those middle elementary school and middle school feeder changes. Alex, yeah, I was about to say the same thing. I mean, I think it's really stressful. I I support our public choice. Absolutely. And I think all for the third of our families that use it, like that's that's an asset.
227That's a good thing. People get the school they want for their kid. Um, and I also think that when we transition from our elementary to our middle schools, it's really stressful on families when the kids are going back and forth about what they want to do because two friends are going to one and two to another and then another. And if uh I do think simplifying the feeder pattern helps the families not have to make choice when they'd rather do the normal thing that most of their neighborhood kids would do. And then we still allow the choice. So if they want to make the choice, they can. But I think that makes it easier for the families who would rather not exercise choice. but their sixth grade or the fifth grader is kind of pressuring
228him into something that's based on what six-year-old sixth grader needs. It's hard and I think this could help in the long run. Okay, moving on. Here is the information we shared with you in May regarding the proposed attendance boundary change related to Bear Creek and Creekide. Uh the proposed change converts the Bear Creek creek side uh dual attendance area west of Broadway north of Table Mesa to Bear Creek only. Um all addresses in this area are within elementary walking distance of one and a half miles to Bear Creek and the area would not receive school bus service under this proposal. So as proposed, the change would take effect in the 2627 school year. Uh you can see the numbers up on the screen. And again, those are 2425. I'll report out that numbers based of
229based on August 27th when we pulled them. We have 28 elementary students living in this area. 17 are currently attending Bear Creek and then six of those are attending Creekide. So, as a reminder on this one, I've got a number listed here, but the primary guiding principle for making this change is to support the neighborhood connections by assigning this area solely to Bear Creek. Now, when we reached out to families in July, there were 32 elementary students living in this area. six of those students uh currently attending Creekide and would be affected by this change. Of those six, five are in third grade this year. Um typically, we have looked back historically, the number of students attending Creek Side is around two or three for this area. Uh we had conversations with five parents, several
230themes emerged. Um, some of those see themes. Some families questioned if this fixes the issue of low enrollment at Bear Creek and suggested that we close a school and combine enrollment instead. S uh students have made strong connections with peers at school and the change would be disruptive. Families felt the walk to bike the walk and bike uh ride to Bear Creek was much more difficult for their elementary students. It is uphill to school with no easy route. Depending on where you live, that is definitely the case. There was also a concern for longerterm well-being of Creekide with students being moved to Bear Creek and Whittier. And as mentioned tonight, parents expressed a strong appreciation for Creekide's international community. Uh from a long range uh planning perspective, staff still feel these boundary changes make sense
231in terms of strengthening neighborhood connections. Removing the dual attendance area would officially place it into Bear Creek's attendance area, create more of a unified, geographically aligned boundary. Um, similar to what we've presented earlier, we are bringing two options for the board to consider. Move forward with the changes proposed, allow current fourth uh graders who would be in fifth grade next year and their siblings to stay at Creekide for the 26 27 school year. No transportation would be provided or under this current proposal or move forward with the proposed boundary change with the following adjustments. Again, beginning in 2627, allow all currently enrolled students at Creekide to remain through completion. I would open it up at this time for discussion on that one. Board members, any questions or thoughts on this one? Kitty, I do appreciate
232that we're we're considering options other than just saying if you live in this area, you will have to go to the new school, otherwise open a role. So that we're considering options to make it easier on families to stay where their kids already are. I'm I'm really glad we're doing that. And at least as of now, I'm inclined to support option B, which is the more liberal one in terms of allowing students in families to remain in the schools where they are. Um, and I mean, there may be a reason I would change my mind on that, but I don't know of one right now. Board members, any other questions or comments on this proposed boundary change before we move on to the others? Can continue. That wraps up the changes that have a direct
233impact on families. The rest of the changes are simply map cleanup. Uh we're just recommending a few map cleanups to a few school attendance areas where there are no students. Um the first is moving the Plat Lewisville Middle boundary to align with the Cole Creek boundary. There are currently no students living in this area. Again, change better aligns with high school feeders. The second one we are proposing is moving a portion of the Manhattan plat boundary to align with the Eisenhower Elementary School boundary. Again, the map uh cleanup is to reinforce Manhattan as Eisenhower's primary middle school except where students live in close proximity to MA Platt Middle School. Again, no students living in this area. And then finally, we are proposing a small section of the dual uh Bear Creek creek side attendance area
234to Southern Hills and Fair View. Again, no students living in this area, nor are there any homes in this area. However, it does help clean up our map. I would just to wrap this up in closing. Um we've presented a number of options uh for the board to consider as we're thinking about this. But our goal through this analysis was just to continue to explore a range of approaches that help balance that resident population across schools, kind of level the playing field, strengthen the community and neighborhood connections that has been a board priority since we started, and overall continue to support the overall student experience. Um I want to thank uh our families who shared their perspectives. We have gotten a lot of feedback both on our website uh both um those who we talked
235to. Uh everybody has been really kind through this process. Uh change is hard as it has been mentioned through this. Um but we want to say that we know this is disruptive in the short term. Um and it will take time for these full benefits to be realized. So I'll just say that. uh we'll continue to do our best to support those that are impacted through this. So, with that said, I would open it up to the board. Beth, well, thanks Rob for that great presentation and thanks to all the families input for tonight. I've been taking some notes and just kind of have some thoughts. So, as I mentioned earlier, you know, I think we're having this conversation, as you mentioned, because of the policy choice we made to create a predictable cadence for
236our community every five years, and that's something the community can count on, which I think is great. And I appreciate that Kitty highlighted that doesn't mean we're going to always change things, but the community can count on us having some thoughtful conversations about what makes logical sense and what's forward facing for our our community. Um, we know we operate on the 50,000 foot level here on the board and so our decisions as as Rob mentioned earlier are here to really serve the greater good of the the district and we're trying to make choices for the long term. Heard Alex me mention that ter that phrase several times. So I appreciate and I think today we're not faced with the choice of no action. We're faced with what I read as sort of two different runway
237options. kind of a shorter runway or a longer runway. Um, I don't have a strong leaning I could live with either choice. I'm glad that we're moving forward. A or B makes sense. I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts on why A or B would make more sense. Um, and that's kind of where I'm sitting right now. So, I just wanted to put that out there. And board members, as we think about how to proceed with ARB, I think the third bullets are pretty easy. No students are involved or impacted. Those are map cleanups, but being consistent in which one we choose will be the one we choose for all of the attendance areas that are designated. And also just this is the first time in 40 odd years we've had to do this. And
238what that means is also that this is going to set the precedent for future re revisiting of attendance boundaries and sort some of the decisions that we make on how to proceed. And so with that in mind, final questions or thoughts? And again, we're not voting tonight. We're not taking action. We're just providing additional direction for this to come back to the board for one final meeting for us to take action in advance of our open enrollment um BBSD showcase events. Jason. Um, yeah, thanks Rob for the great presentation and for all the work you did to, you know, provide, you know, real meaningful outreach to families and feedback, uh, that we got. Um, I appreciate, Beth, your kind of summary of our conversation and the points you made. Uh, I'm I'm glad we're also
239moving forward. I know this is something we've talked about for some time and whether it's 40 years or 20 years, um, you know, this is the first step that we need to take to look at these things. Um, and uh, you know, I I don't have a strong feeling like Beth. Um, I'm I'm glad we do have an option B to, you know, obviously we heard from a number of families here tonight and over email um, that have legitimate and real concerns about the impact of this on their kids and their family. And so I think if B were able to make, you know, the the term long range um kept being come up kept coming up tonight, if that if we're able to kind of make long range planning decisions while minimizing the impact
240on the families and the kids that are currently in school, then I'm I'm supportive of that as well. Uh I'm just glad we're taking steps to to move forward on some of the stuff we've talked about for some time. Alex and then for a Yeah, I I have a comment and then a question, but I'll say um I'm sympathetic to the B option as we when we we come back to make a decision. Um uh because of the feedback we've gotten from the community and just because of um they'd likely choose to stay there in an open enrollment system anyway uh if they want to and um we would welcome their choice if there was room if they were making the choice. So why not uh protect it for the sake of continuity while still
241getting the benefit of the long-term change um that uh is fair to the families who who aren't yet enrolled. So I see that as a pretty reasonable approach to safeguard the current students and families experience while still being able to advance the district's goals of getting more balanced and reasonable. And I do think it's either way within our choice environment, within the changing demographics and populations, um it's good to have the long range plan and uh the the changes look logical to me in terms of the eventual communities around their schools and the pathways. Please reserve the comments. read our feedback. Alexa, did you want to finish your thought? uh um just that uh I think we want to make sure the students that are in the schools and the families continue where they want
242to be and but we can facilitate that multiple ways but I support B as the option and I think uh we'll continue to observe the demographics and the changes and we uh we see a lot of places um where there's a ton of homes of some sort and very few students. So it's really interesting to think through what when there might be students uh generated by that many rooftops in some of these places and what the turnover might be. Um I will say in the long run I am curious to know as the graying of Boulder uh plays out is there a postgraing of Boulder in which families are moving into houses that are now lived in by elderly retired people and we start to see enrollments come back in some of these neighborhoods and
243how does I am curious what the demographers think about that likelihood. Glenn and I Glenn is here we have discussed this on numerous occasions. We wish we had a crystal ball when neighborhoods would turn over, etc. Uh, it hasn't been that easy. So, um, we really don't know. Uh, board member Medler, um, it is something that we've we really like to know, right? Because that's what we're seeing. Aging in place, you know, birth rates have declined, cost of living continues to be expensive. Um, but we really don't know when these neighborhoods will turn over. Thank you for the presentation. Um I appreciate the process you followed, right? These are tough choices to make and figure out given the open enrollment situation for the state and so trying to navigate that with so much uncertainty is
244difficult, but in the long term um these seem like logical changes, a lot of detail in the presentation. I appreciate the outreach you've done to the families and um I'm also um my preface also be right that you're doing the outreach for the families eliminating barriers to get the choice that they want and that you follow through on that. So I I appreciate the work. Thank you. Hello. I don't want to forget to if there's any questions or comments you had. No, I got mine answered. Thank you. I appreciate that. Nicole, I want to echo the thanks to district staff looking at these being thoughtful of the consider of the priorities presented by the board really engaging deeply with our community, taking their feedback into consideration. What I'm hearing from my fellow board members this
245evening is based on that feedback from our community and the understanding that continuity and the connections to schools once they're established is really important and that the early preferences really indicate moving towards option B for all of these so we can honor that continuity allow folks to remain make the choice that's best for them in the upcoming school year knowing that no transportation will be would be provided except for that one carve out in part because we're trying to be very costneutral on this uh and transportation is a cost concern for us and um I look forward to some of the additional questions being answered the next time we reconvene on this topic and bring it forward to action board members final final thoughts when will this be before us for action currently it's scheduled
246for September 23rd next board Thanks again. Thanks to those who attended tonight's evening and provided public feedback and to all those who participated in both the one-on-one interviews and filling out the survey. We really are taking your consideration to heart and know that it it came out pretty mixed. Some people felt one way about the proposed changes and others felt the other way. Well members, we will now move on to our final study item of this evening, which is resolution 25-29 on healthy meals for all ballot measures. I will turn it over to Kathleen Sullivan for presentation. Thank you. So based on the board's conversation at the last uh board meeting, we prepared a resolution for the board. There is some language from the CASBY sample and then language as well from our own research
247and based on the board's style for uh resolutions. As we talked about at the last meeting, this is a way that the board can take a public position and make that position known on an issue that will appear on the ballot without running a file of the Fair Campaign Practices Act. Um, it's pretty straightforward, I think, and consistent with the presentation that Carolyn Via did for the board at that last meeting and that's the context. Thank you for that overview, Kathleen. Board members, any questions or comments on the proposed resolution language? Jason and then Kitty. Uh, no real comment. Just thanks. I think it really did capture the conversation last week. I appreciate the, you know, the focus on reducing stigma and, you know, all the kind of non things we think of the things
248we don't think about necessarily with a meal program, the improved student um physical, mental health, and well-being. Um, and so thank you for capturing that really well. Kitty, Alex. Yeah, thanks for this and I look forward to voting for it when when it's for action. Um, for the sake of public communication, um, does it make sense to add the, um, the number or letters if they're assigned yet, so that people know clearly which ones were in support of. So, we've got the the titles as their like allow state to retain revenue um, measures, but we might have the numbers or names for them. though it'll be on the ballot because people are going to read our resolution. I'm sure we'll do a communication that's um up to date, but can the resolution be modified for
249that? Absolutely. Other questions or thoughts on this resolution? question I've received from folks participating in our community or committees is how this information is be passed along to them should they choose to activate in their their individual capacity members of the district parent council district accountability committee next steps after this because I think there are some this is this topic is percolating in the community there are some questions as as a board as we cannot this is our way to to show our feelings on the proposed language, but then how do we disseminate this out to those those folks within our committee that tend to be more engaged on topics? Any thoughts on that? I would say board members uh once this resolution is is in a place where where you'd want to pass the
250resolution then we can do press releases around that and share that actively with all of our through all of our networks and channels so folks know where this board stands. I'll also share this with all front range superintendent. I'd let them know at our meeting last week that our board was getting ready to potentially act on a resolution. And so I would share that with all of the districts along the front range and uh and invite and invite them to join this board uh if they're so inclined to um adopt their own resolutions. Kitty. Yeah. Could we make a little talking points sheet similar to the ones we had in the legisl you know for the legislators that anybody in the community if you know if you want to join us in advocating for this
251here's something for you so they don't have to make it up on their own and they could do whatever they want with that. Let let me check with with our team in terms of um it's it's uh certainly a priority for the board. I don't think it's a legislative priority because it's a ballot initiative. uh let me think how we could share your resolution in a way that's easy for folks to digest and understand what you stand for. And we are also allowed to uh spend staff time answering questions that may relate to the resolution. So, I would say if board members do receive those questions and it would be helpful for us to be able to answer those, we could we can prepare um something that complies with the Fair Campaign Practices Act. That's
252great. And I I do hope that because this resolution is written in a way that is very clear and almost reads like bullet points that that folks understand where we're coming at with this proposed resolution language. Any other comments or questions on this study item, board members? Seeing as there are none, we'll move on to future agenda items. Board members, if there is anything that you would like to include on the list for prioritization at our upcoming board meeting, now is the time to let those be known. I think the silence is an acknowledgement that we have a lot on our plate and we know that staff and schools have a lot on their plates right now as well. Finally, we will the next item and final item on our agenda this evening is the
253board has items to discuss in executive session. Is there a motion for that? Jorge I, Jorge Chavez, make a motion pursuant to CRS 24-6-424B to convene into executive session to receive legal advice on pending litigation related to teacher dismissal, civil rights, and property damage and insurance claims. Do we have a second? Seconded by Kitty Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nisnik, yes. Quinnland Aida, yes. Raj Ball, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. Board members, we will convene in the glaze room this evening. And for the public, that convene that adjourns the our business items for the evening.