May 27, 2025 Regular Meeting

001[Music] I would like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District for Tuesday, May 27th, 2025. Board members may attend and participate in board meetings remotely in accordance with BBSC policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez here. Medler here. Nisnik Quinnlanda here. Raj Paul here. Sergeant Anger. Thank you. Let us now turn our attention to the screens for a land acknowledgement this evening. [Music] The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is Amla, would you just like a board member to read it? I have The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland, an unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Udebin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48. The Boulder Valley School District resides and

002operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute, Pebbloan, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time immemorial. We acknowledge the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government. BVSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples, past and present, and their dignified nations and cultures who care for the the land with strength and resilience. BVSD recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of the many nations that carry their oral traditions into the present. It is BBSD's responsibility to educate ourselves, our communities, and our students so that we

003can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together. Thank you, Alex. I'd like to remind everyone 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 here in person this evening. It's great to see a large audience, particularly after school has wrapped up for the year. And for those of you joining us remotely, we're glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings. Board members, at this time, is

004there a motion to approve our agenda for tonight? Moved by Jorge, seconded by Alex. Can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinnland Aida, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Motion passes. First topic on our agenda this evening uh is our student moment. I'm excited to hand it over to Dr. Anderson to introduce all of the young people joining us here tonight. Thank you, board present Raj Paul board members. Uh this evening I'm happy to introduce introduce members of Lewisville Middle School's sources of strength club for our student moment. As you may know, Sources of Strength is youth suicide prevention program focused on promoting helpseeking behaviors and building strong supportive networks among students. When the club was planning a field trip for their strength blooms campaign, they had an idea. Instead of taking a bus,

005why not ride bikes? And they took the project into their own hands. So, here's a video board members if you can see here on the screens of the group hitting the road and we're looking forward to hearing how all of this came together. And with that, I will turn it over to the Lewisville Middle School Sources of Strength Club. Hello, I'm Nora Derban from Sources of Strength at Leville Middle School. I'm so happy to be giving this presentation as I've been part of this club for two years. In April, our group traveled via bikes to Leville Elementary and Fireside Elementary to give a presentation to third and fifth graders about what source of strength is and our mission. During our time at both schools, we played a variety of fun games like Dance Detective and

006Walkound Cool. But our main objective was to do an activity called Rooted in Strength. This consisted of handing out paper flower petals to the students and having them write on each one. Each petal was a different color to represent a different portion of the wheel. For example, a student would write their mentors on a green petal as mentors is green on the wheel. After collecting the petals, our members assembled these flower petals to make a big poster that we would hang around the school. While at the middle and high school level source strength is a suicide prevention club, we didn't want to focus our presentation on such a heavy topic for young students. Our goal is to bring enthusiasm and engagement to these elementary school students to ensure they had a thrilling and fun day.

007Not only were the younger kids excited, but the middle schoolers were excited as well. And we truly built a sense of community in such a short amount of time. Only a couple of weeks later, me and another member were walking around town when we recognized some third graders from Fireside. And we got to talk to them and they recognized us and we recognized them and it was just truly a heartfelt moment, which is one of the reasons why Source of Strength is such a crucial club. The connections made through both the field trip and meetings will live on long into my high school career and beyond and I'm forever grateful. Thank you. Hello, I am Rory Jesiac and I am a sources of strength member at LMS. Adding on to her sources of strength is

008a very sorry is a very big topic and I see it as a very big thing. So let me ask you something. What do you see as a source of strength in your life? Most people see it as an object or a person, but I believe that some people can uphold an entire community and feel it for the future. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you for sorry that presentation on the sources of strength and the way that you're giving back to your community and the elementary schools around you. Board members, any questions for the students tonight? Alex, what are your plans for next year at Lewisville Middle School for this? To ask. We're going to take the bikes again. Hopefully they're okay with that. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] Our next item on tonight's

009agenda is a superintendent report. Dr. Anderson, Good evening. Thank you, Board President Rajpal, board members. Um, well, we've had a lot going on. It was the last week of school last week. always a memorable week of the school year. Um, and uh, just want to take this opportunity to to thank all the efforts of our school staff and PTAs across the district to celebrate last week of school. Students enjoyed field days, snow cone, truck visits, carnivals, and fun runs to celebrate the end of another school year. I want to thanks uh to schools and parents for hosting these special events for our kids as they kick off their summer break, which we are on right now. So, it's even that much more special. We had so many families uh coming to this evening. So, thanks

010everybody. This this weekend, we also wrapped up graduation season. We had Boulder Prep Charter on Friday and New Vista High School's commencements at Shiitaka Auditorium on Saturday. And I think Alex will attest to uh what a wonderful meaningful ceremony that was at at New Vista at Shiitaka. It was just beautiful. wanted to uh extend congratulations to the entire graduating class of 2025. Uh each ceremony uh was special and had its own flare set by school's culture and I'm proud that our graduating seniors and their families uh as a reminder to our community and I sent something out on social media this this past weekend. We have the the links to all of the live streams of every graduation in the district which are now archived um as well as photos from each of our graduations

011on our website bbsd.org. Uh just uh if you want to relive the moments and I've wanted to do that a few times. My son graduated along with lots of family friends. Or if you missed the graduation and you want to see it, uh those are those are all on our website. Thanks uh to our comm's team uh and our uh chief communication officer Randy Barber for u making that just part of the way that we do business here in BBSD. And I think it's just a a great value to our community and to all of our graduating students. And finally, uh board members Dr. Da Cruz and I were proud to represent BBSD at the Colorado Department of Education's awards ceremony a couple weeks ago. In addition to being officially recognized as a school district

012that's accredited with distinction, as a reminder, the only one in the metro Denver, we also had the privilege of representing the 28 BBSD schools that we received awards from the state this year for academic achievement and growth. Proud of the work that our schools are doing as part of the all together for all student strategic plan, the impact it's having on our students. School students be getting their banners that they can hang up in their halls next week at our summer leadership academy. And I will say just in closing from Netherland to Broomfield to all parts of our district uh schools were awarded not just for achievement but for growth as well and high growth. And so uh it was uh it was just a really proud moment I think for us in BBSD to

013be able to attend that CD award ceremony. So I want to thank Colorado Department of Education uh for for hosting those awards and just a a great honor to be able to accept those on behalf of the district. And that's all I have for superintendent's comments this evening. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members, any questions? Alex, not a question as much as a comment. My inside sources tell me that no other district was even close on the number of individual schools receiving those banners this year. I think we're the only district that needed two people to carry the awards away. Board members, anything else? We will move on then to public participation. The board members the board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board

014does not endorse the comments of any speaker and reminds all those who speak. 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. Perfect. If you run out of time or would like to share additional information when you may always email the board. We do read and respond to our emails. I have a point of clarification maybe because there are so few people reading the budget and public comment and the regular comment at the same time. Perfect. We will start with folks who signed up to comment on the on our budget. First speaker this evening is Douglas Hamilton. Appears as though Douglas is not joining us remotely or

015in person this evening. So we'll move on to Carrie Corno. kind of guessing this is where I go. Okay, that's perfect. Okay. Um, good evening Boulder School Board and Superintendent Anderson. Thank you for your dedication and service to the students and families of BBSD. As a fellow educator and leader in a neighboring district, I understand the rewards and challenges schools and districts face to educate each and every student. I am here tonight as a concerned fireside parent in our district. As discussions about the district's budget continue, I urge you to prioritize full transparency regarding how funds are allocated and spent and to take every possible measure to avoid cuts that directly impact students in schools. My daughter began kindergarten in a mask and shortly after lived through the Marshall fire. Our kids are impacted by

016things out of our control. But what you all have the power to look at is each dollar and ask yourselves, what is the right thing to do to support this particular group of students and our school? A class size of 33 or larger is not conducive to an equitable education. This group of students continues to have impacts from COVID and the trauma of the fire. Our schools were our strength during one of the most difficult times in many of our lives. Our kids rely on their teachers to be their support beams both academically and emotionally. As an educator, um an educator will not be able to form as strong of a bond, differentiate to meet the needs of each student, and provide quality teaching every day in a classroom of 33 or more students. You

017simply cannot support 33 students with varying needs, no matter how strong of a teacher you are. I understand that budget constraints can be challenging, but I respectfully ask that you publicly share detailed and accessible information on district spending. Seek input from our families, educators, and community stakeholders before making cuts. Prioritize reducing administrative costs or non-essential spending before reducing funding to schools, staff, or student services. being and also being proactive in your work on a declining enrollment district and making decisions prior to playing catch-up. We all share the goal of helping every student thrive. Transparency and a strong commitment to protecting school-based resources will help rebuild trust and ensure our child's needs remain the top priority. Thank you for your time and service to our community. I know um I deal with it at the school

018level and district level of how difficult budget um cuts are at this time. Um I think the biggest thing is always looking at every dollar and how it can stay away from our students and our schools in every capacity possible. So thank you for your consideration and time. Thank you. [Applause] We will now move on to non-aggenda topics for the public participation. And our next speaker is Ashlin Jolly. It appears as though Ashlin is not joining us this evening. So our final speaker or public participant will be Megan McGee. Hello. I'm here today to express my concern about the Boulder Valley School District's decision to eliminate a teaching position for the upcoming fourth grade at Fireside Elementary. As a parent, I am disappointed that BBSD would propose to take away a resource as important as

019a teacher from students. More students in a class means that these students will receive less one-on-one attention. Their classroom environment will be more distracting and there will be more opport there will be less opportunity for their social emotional needs to be met. As a former teacher, I am further disappointed that BBSD would propose adding more work for their teachers. Increasing class sizes isn't as simple as adding more chairs in a classroom. There are more behaviors to manage, more learning levels and styles to accommodate, more parent meetings and conferences, more emails to respond to, more papers to grade. In fourth grade, just to give you some perspective, in fourth grade, students are writing essays with multiple paragraphs. Let's say a teacher spends about 10 minutes per paper grading it, looking for clarity of thought, punctuation, spelling,

020adding comments. If there were 33 students in that classroom, which is proposed, this one assignment would require over five hours to grade. So that means that the teachers will not be able to be as thorough. I have open enrolled my son to fireside. And because housing is becoming difficult in Lewisville, BBSD depends on me, on my family to drive my kid to school every day. And yet now I am faced with a school that's going to be overcrowded classrooms and overworked teachers. So I asked the school board, why would I make the effort to drive my son to a school that isn't able to care for his needs anymore or the needs of their employees? In education, students and teachers should be prioritized and the elimination of teacher positions causes both of these groups to

021suffer. Therefore, making these schools unappealing to parents. It is the responsibility of the school board to not only advocate for students but also to ensure that the financial decisions made by BBSD help schools thrive and the decision to cut teachers does not help the students and it doesn't help these schools thrive at all. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. This concludes today's public participation. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to be here to share your thoughts and experiences with us. We will now move on to board communication board members who would like to begin. Lenia, first I'd like to thank the people who came to speak tonight. I I appreciated our student moment and I appreciate the folks from Fireside coming to um share

022with us their distress. And I want you to know that I also have a very heavy heart about these things that we are facing. Um I can assure you that there is budget transparency. If you'd like to stay and watch our budget meeting, we can go line by line, which we do over and over during the year. And so if there's any piece of that that is not understandable, I offer myself to sit down with anybody about budget because we work really hard on it and there are many many public meetings in which you can sit and go over it for hours. Um and then I would also tell you that no one believes 33 kids is an acceptable size for a class. No one believes that. I am a parent. I don't believe that

023um we are faced with budget cuts and a salary schedule that is disabling in some ways. And I just would really want to correct any idea that we aren't aware of that this is impacting people. It's not helping us with declining enrollment. And when we have less money and a salary schedule that we have, then the choices become really, really tough. And then it makes your choices really, really tough, right? Do you want to be in this school or do you want to go to a different school? So, I just I am trying I am not trying to respond to any of you directly, but I'm letting you know that my email is on the website and I am glad to sit down with anybody and go over budget and I am glad to tell

024you that there is not a board member up here that doesn't care about what kids are experiencing in their schools. That's why we are all here. Thank you, Alex. Yeah, I'd uh reiterate what Lelenia just said. Um I'm also uh as a treasurer and party to a lot of other budget discussions. Lennia is on the bud audit committee as well. So um I'm also happy to meet with members of the community who want to go over it. Um, I've been trying to figure out uh tools and resources we can use that make our very large and complex budget more transparent to the community and happy to talk about those strategies. Um, uh, I think we get questions also uh, from our DAC and our Sachs about trying to understand and interpret the budget. So, I

025know there's a lot of um, deeper understanding that we could try to facilitate. Uh, I re reinforced the idea that um, we don't we don't have enough resources to do what we want to do. And so it's an it's a question of how do we make the best decisions with what we have and I will say that we have declining enrollment. We have our schedule salary schedule which is above uh everybody else in the state um and most of them by quite a bit. Uh the declining enrollment leads to underused facilities which uh narrows our options that are available um and that we want to figure out how to make all that work while also accommodating the choices and options of all the families. and that is really hard. So I do feel for the

026people and appreciate their email and their input on the issues. Again, not responding to individual pieces, but I I believe that's not an issue that's going to go away and that um the public needs to appreciate uh some of the challenges that we face as an institution when it comes to the budget. Um, on a completely different topic, uh, I did fully love all the graduations that I went to during graduation season. I'm not going to tell the rest of the board how many fields there are at the new Vista one so that they don't go so I can always have a seat there. Um, but even if you don't get in, you should go just to observe uh, how much love there is between uh, faculty and staff and students and parents at a

027place like New Vista. I also enjoyed going to uh, Boulder Prep, Justice High, Peak to Peak. um Netherland uh and Fairview and it's just great to see the differences that are there and also the connection that so many of our faculty and staff have to their students. Um I mean I think it's impressive at you know some of our smaller alternative schools that they have as many faculty turning up at a graduation as our comprehensive high schools do. Um and it's just great to see the love that is there and the support for all the students. Um, and I think it's greatly appreciated. Um, on another point, I also went to uh the 30th anniversary of Community Monastery where my kids went I now realize 20 years ago. Um, but it's great to see a

028great uh asset in our community like Community Monasuri. Um, it's what we call a focus school in it's not a charter. It's a it's district-run school um part of the system. But one of the things I'm really impressed by by New Vista also a focused school community monasteri bcsis high peaks um as uh program focused focus schools is that they've been able to maintain their uniqueness and the specialness about them and we've been able to continue to support them and what that takes and I just want to reiterate that it takes some flexibility to do that. uh we deal with complex issues of implementation where we're trying to get stuff centralized across the district and we need to figure out the carveouts that happen for unique schools of choice like those and uh we need

029to be conscious of them and I think it's great to move forward in a way where we get to understanding what makes them different maybe articulate for the record what makes them different and the sort of agreements that allow them to have flexibility. So for example, one of the discussions uh that was started when I was at community monator is about our preschool uh approach. Community Monasuri has had preschool for three and four year olds for 30 years. Um and they use I would say a slightly modified monasuri approach uh which leads to um uh monori certified teachers who also are district certified. Eventually, in terms of flexibility, we've asked them to adjust their like early literacy so they can better accommodate uh what we know about evidence and scientific basis of learning to read.

030But as we do the preschool program, I think we face challenges as we try to figure out how we do preschools districtwide. And as we do that, I'd like us to figure out how we also maintain the priority of allowing there to be a public monastery in our district that does things that allow it to embrace its monastery side as well. So, I just want to uh put that out there that as a school board member, I'm really interested in while I'm I really am excited about the things we're doing as a district to make the district's all its schools improve and focus on many that have been low performing, I also like to protect what makes our unique special schools still unique and special. And I don't want us to lose sight of that

031as a as a governing board. That's it. Jorge Uh first of all, thank you to all the speakers tonight. I echo um Alex Elenia's comments about the budget and the different situation we're in. Um I also want to talk a little bit about the graduations. It was an honor to kind of be able to participate and see the different um schools graduations and just the diversity of students kind of where they're going, the pass around, the work they're doing. It's been amazing. I'm struck by a couple of of graduations. One uh I was able to attend the Youth Equity Council um graduation. It's a a small group of of committed students that that are doing the work of the district. Um that the work they're doing is very much aligned with our strategic plan and

032it was great to see them talking about their efforts. They're focusing on building an inclusive school climate um addressing racism and bias in the classroom with their fellow students and and and what they're experienced with their teachers. They're talking about retention and recruitment of faculty of color. They're talking about social emotional development and learning and mental health and the need for greater connectivity in our classrooms. um um and and expanding curriculum to focus on ethnic studies to everybody can be seen in the curriculum that we offer to our students and and I I was struck by the work they've done some of them over four years they're getting ready to graduate um the things that they perceive and the clarity which they see the issues and how they strive for them and and I I'm

033proud to be part of BBSD that we continue to engage in this work and that we support this as we as we move forward and that to see that work continue here. Um I was also, you know, I've got little kids able to participate in some continuations, right? Um to middle school and to high school. Um and and one of those they they they got to talk and and share like, you know, here's my aspirations for the future. Here's where I want to go. Here's where I'm going to school. Um and I was struck by the more than handful of students who talked about wanting to be good people, wanting to help the world, and wanting to see less deportations and for deportations to stop. These are difficult times we're in. our kids are dealing

034with very difficult issues. The need for emotional support um for mental health support to feel like you belong somewhere is really important and and I and I know we're striving to do more of that work. We we need to continue to do that work as well as part of our our curriculum. Um thank you. Uh and I I was also part of the community bond oversight committee. I participate in that. There's a request to transfer funds um later on to address some HVAC issues in a new track at Fairview High School. um the commitment from that group, the discussions that they had in terms of addressing the need about understanding what the problems are in terms of the HVAC system and the need to address the work now. Um and really thoughtful engagement was is

035also great. I'm very it's always great to see the the commitment we see from our parents and and our community here. So I I just wanted to share that. Um thank you. Thanks to board members. I want to jump on and say graduations are always an exciting time of year and it's wonderful to see and hear from our students. To listen to them with their speeches to their peers is uh pretty uplifting. And if you need a little hope in your life, tune in to our graduates because they are doing great things and they really um are paving the way to a brighter future. I also want to give out a shout out to all the fifth graders and eighth graders who are continuing on. I too like where I have kids that are moving

036up and it's been great to see those ceremonies and just it is an exciting time for a lot of folks in the district. So calling attention to that is great. I was able to once again sit in on negotiations today board members and I just I'm starting to feel a little bit concerned about how slow the progress has been and looking at our calendar. So I just want to make call to attention that I I have some wonderings. I've reached out to district staff about what happens. We're supposed to land a budget in a couple weeks and there's still a big unknown there and I'm really hopeful that we can continue to make progress with BVEA. I I do appreciate our time is running short. So, I'm feeling a little bit of nervousness and wondering

037like how how we get there and I just want to share that with you all because that's just on the back of my mind. And related a little bit to our budget discussion, to our public comment, I also wanted to elevate our budget book is super detailed and super transparent. It is attached to this evening's agenda if you want to give a look. One thing I wanted to elevate was on page 116 of that book. It talks about staffing allocations. And we're very very clear on how staff is allocated for all of our employee groups with the exception of classroom teachers. That directs people to the negotiated agreement. And I I just want the public to understand that we don't have a high degree of control what's in negotiated agreements. And so even the like

038in the budget book, it talks about how principles and custodians and how everybody's allocated, but staffing like studenttoteer ratios is really within that negotiated agreement. And and that's a level of transparency that's not we're not as clear in our budget book because because it's part of negotiations. it's not really something was within our direct control on that particular issue. So maybe in the future that could be clarified, that could be pulled out and really be within our control. So you don't have to refer to section C6, but we could tell you exactly what the allocation is for grades. That'd be wonderful. So I just wanted to bring that up that I hear you. Transparency is important. We try our best and then there are some ways in which we get hung up. So that is

039that is in 116 of our budget book. And that is all I have for public comment today. Kitty, I did see your hand go up. So, I was going to make quite a few comments, but as you can hear, I or maybe you can't hear I've lost my voice, but I did want to just talk about Broomfield graduation because I was for reasons I'm not aware of, I was prevented from participating, but I was able to go. And I know that the community was very grateful because Ginger Ramsay did a great honor to me by introducing me even though I wasn't on stage. So, I just want to thank her for that and express my continuing support for the Broomfield High School and the rest of the Broomfield community. I'll say the rest of my

040stuff when I get my voice back at a different meeting. Thanks, Kitty. I hope you get your voice back soon. We will now move on to the information item on this evening's agenda. We have only one information item this evening and that is a recap of our legislative session from our lobbyist of policy matters. I will turn it over to Dr. Anderson for introductions. Thank you board president Raj Paul. Um we are we are uh lucky to have representatives uh Heather Ritzkco from policy matters to give us a um a legislative uh review slashupdate of the session and some of the work that was that happened and some of the things that that transpired during uh this year's legislative session. And so um Heather, I'm going to turn the presentation over to you. First, we

041got to learn how to use the mic. Thank you so much, Superintendent Anderson, and thank you, board, for having us tonight. I'm joined tonight by um Katie Hancock, who's an amazing member of our team and really leaned in on all of the legislative issues that were important to the school district this year. Um Katie's going to kick it off with kind of an overview of those important legislative topics and then I will do a deep dive um on all of the budget excitement that happened this year. All right. So, first we just have like the agenda of what we'll be going over today. Okay, so we have the session recap, the state budget update, and then we dive deep into the school finance act. Um, for the session recap, so 657 bills were considered during

042the 2025 legislative session. Um, more than 70 of those were related to early education, K12, and higher ed. Key themes this session were elections, reproductive rights, immigrant civil rights, housing, social media, and consumer protections. Uh we have a list here of all the positions that BBSD took uh throughout the session. So I'll just give you a quick overview of where those bills uh landed. So 1278, the education accountability system. Um this bill went through a rigorous stakeholding. It was based on um the accountability uh task force uh recommendations. Uh, Superintendent Anderson was really uh, active throughout the process. Um, specifically when it came to the postsecondary workforce readiness provisions in the bill. Um, it has passed and was signed by the governor um, earlier this week. I believe 1287, the social media tools for minor

043users and parents. Um, it died due to pressure from the social media lobby. So, it um, did not make it uh, past the floor. Uh, Senate Bill 76, uh, intoxicating substances and social equity business, was postponed indefinitely by the sponsors, uh, in committee. Uh, SB 86, protections for users of social social media. This bill did pass but was vetoed by the governor and then the veto override failed when it was sent back to the legislature. Uh, in the amend position, we have 1158 digital education materials. This bill was not um stakeholdered very well and was facing widespread opposition um from multiple school districts and so it died on the floor. Uh the school finance act, Heather will go into more detail later on in the presentation. Um uh House Bill 1209, the Marijuana Regulation Streamline,

044uh it did pass and has been sent to the governor for his signature. And then uh HB1300 the workers comp uh bill um it also passed but we expect a veto by the governor at some point. All right, great. So the state budget updates. Um so just going into the session, I think we everybody knew that the the state was looking at a massive budget deficit, a structural budget deficit. Um $1.2 $2 billion is the amount that the state was looking at cutting this year going into November. Um the on November 1st, the governor uh issues a a budget request essentially to the joint budget committee and then they spend the next few months um up until March going through line by line that budget similarly to how you all do. Um and they make

045really challenging decisions. Um, when I say structural budget deficit, I mean that there's been a lot of one-time uh a lot of spending with one-time money over the past few years, especially through COVID that created big new departments, new programs, new things that essentially cost money and and increase in costs over the years. And so the joint budget committee and the the governor really had to dig deep and look at how to cut programs um really serious programs that impact the community. And so it was a it certainly was a challenging um a challenging couple of months. Um the our budget deficit was compounded with the sort of ending of COVID and the um the rolloff of a lot of folks of Medicaid. Um Colorado is was one of the most challenged states um in

046this effect and so it really put a lot of pressure on the state budget to cover increased costs in Medicaid. Those increased costs have to be they have to come out of somewhere and it it certainly put an enormous amount of pressure on the budget. Um again because it was a structural deficit this year we saw 63 orbital bills. orbital bills are bills that run with the long bill, with the state's budget that have to make statutory changes to the budget. And so I think that kind of gives you a an idea of how intense these decisions were because they had to actually go in um into statute, cut programs, change programs, um lessen the investment in programs. And so it was a it was again just an intensive budget year. Um let's go to

047the next slide. Um, so the Department of Education, I think I'll start off by saying thankfully, despite having this $1.2 billion deficit, this joint budget committee that we have in Colorado is incredibly supportive of K12. They made it very known, very quickly, very loudly, that K12 was going to be their number one priority this year to try to protect. Um, that being said, again, there were lots of budget pressures, so there wasn't just a a slew of money to invest. they really had to to make some creative decisions. So, while they did increase um the budget for K12, which we'll go into more detail in the the school finance act, they did have a lot of really hard conversations around the healthy school meals program, um which I know is incredibly important to a lot

048of districts and a lot of families. Um the program has become just a lot more expensive than was originally anticipated in the um first blue book. And so, um, for for folks who sort of are new to this, when the when the analysis on ballot measures, um, comes through, if it says it's going to cost this dollar amount, the state can't retain any money above that dollar amount. And so, the program has become much more expensive than originally um, anticipated, but it's also brought in a lot more money than originally anticipated. the the caveat is that that money has to be refunded back to um to the voters. And so the JBC had a lot of hard conversations around do we limit this by income? Do we um just give lunch? Do we do there

049you know any sort of difficult decision. What they ended up deciding um in the end was that they would support the program through the end of the year. but they approved the introduction of a bill that essentially is sending two ballot measures to the voters um this November. And those ballot me those ballot measures will ask voters if the state can keep that excess money um that that they're bringing in um to help fund the actual cost of the program. Um and so we'll see what happens there. And then if that measure does not pass, they the JBC members said there they are going to have to make some really tough decisions about that program just because they the state can't afford the cost. Um there was also what the the state and the governor

050is calling the big blur and that is a deep dive this the the governor's office and the GBC are taking a deep dive into the different grant programs that have been um created in the state. So things like the Colorado Student Leaders Institute, which gives um students in high school a opportunity to learn about um government, bullying prevention, tutoring, um you name it. There a whole gamut of different programs. And the GBC um reduced some of those programs. They eliminated some of those programs. And then they're also creating a working group to really do a deep dive into all of the programs and figure out what's working, what's not working, what can we afford, what can we not afford. Um, Ascent was a big cut, um, which I know impacts districts, um, tremendously. They cut

051$9 million to Ascent, which is it funds, um, fifthyear, uh, seniors, um, essentially taking college courses. So, definitely serious impacts to to the districts with these cuts despite the JBC's um, desire to to really protect K12. Um, okay. So, House Bill 1320, the school finance act. So, um once the long bill passes, the joint the the school finance act um kind of goes through consecutively with the long bill. If you recall last year, there was a lot of um conversation around a bill called 1448. Superintendent Anderson was at the capital probably more times that I've seen him um uh just really advocating for BBSD and the development of that new formula. essentially created a new formula for school finance that really honed in on um at risk factors and the formula was intended to to

052funnel $500 million into K12 over the next seven years. There was a lot of conversation last year and BBSD was a part of that about um looking at the structure of our state budget. Is this something we can afford? How do we make promises to districts about long-term funding when we don't even know what the what the budget situation for the next year is going to look like? Um, and so I think, you know, the positive side of of that was we had a lot of really in-depth conversations and a a lot of learning was was had by the legislators and the legislators and the joint budget committee. Um, I mentioned the governor's November 1st budget request a little bit earlier. So for K12, the the governor's uh budget request included implementation of that 1448

053formula. Um, I should take one quick step back. One major thing that Superintendent Anderson helped uh do last year was create a trigger for 1448. So if the state didn't have the money to implement this new formula, the bill would be triggered to not be implemented. Uh fast forward to November 1st, the governor recommended implementation of the funding formula, but because the state couldn't afford it, he um the request was coupled with things like elimination of four-year averaging, a huge cut to districts. um elimination of the home hold harmless provision uh in 1448 which we also um really advocated for so that when the new formula would be um implemented no district would get less money with the new formula than with the old formula. Um and so thankfully with those recommendations the districts were

054really united in opposition to that request. it was a non-negotiable to eliminate to kind of just like pull the rug out of four-year averaging. Um, also the the hold harmless provision was was major and districts were already, you know, planning their budgets. And so we really worked as a coalition and I'm I'm very proud of um Superintendent Anderson, the board, the entire board had a meeting with the um the entire Boulder Valley um the entire Boulder County legislative delegation going into the session to explain how detrimental these uh budget recommendations would be to the district. And man, did the legislators eat that up. They were incredible advocates. they helped really push back on that um request. And so fast forward to sort of the end of school finance, we were able to um eliminate that

055the proposal on four-year averaging. Essentially, the school finance act this year will include four-year averaging and then next year it will go down to three-year averaging, but only if the state can afford to implement 1448. So, that's very important. Um they also put as I said they put back in the hold harmless provision which was um really important to us. And then interestingly in the Senate um Senator Barb Kirkmeer who's a fierce advocate for K12 and also Senator Kulker who's the chair of the education committee they offered an amendment to the bill that's called the kids matter account. It essentially I'll spare you from like the complex um accounting because I'm not an accountant, but essentially it takes money off the top of the uh general fund every year and says that K12 will be

056funded first. So this year or I apologize, next year they will earmark $230 million off the top of the general fund for to make sure that K12 is funded first. that there's has to be cuts, K12 will, you know, be funded first and then the other cuts will come from there. This was an incredible messaging bill. I think it again was an opportunity for conversation. I will caveat that with as amazing as it is to create this account and for K12 to be funded first. This isn't a a new $230 million on top of what districts are getting. This is a essentially an earmark for education. And so it it it's a really positive step and it's not an increase in funding, if you will, for that magically solves the district's budget challenges. Um and

057that bill was just signed by the governor last week. Um and then so upcoming dates, the next really big thing for us budget um watchers is the June revenue forecast. There's quarterly revenue forecasts that the joint budget committee receives from um two different sets of economists and it really helps guide their decision-making processes on the budget. We'll be watching this June revenue forecast really closely especially as it relates to tax credits. Last year um because there was such a big Taber surplus which is kind of like money that the state would otherwise um refund to voters that they can't spend. There were hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits passed last year. And again, much like the healthy school meals estimates, the estimates were way low. So the spending, the credits are coming in

058much higher than they anticipated. And so it's possible that those credits will eat into the general fund, which of course has impacts on the budget. So we'll be watching that very closely and we'll um certainly update the board as to um what those revenue forecasts look like um and then just continue our engagement. We're so grateful to the Boulder legislative delegation. you are just so well served truly by the the delegation. Um uh your newest member uh Leslie Smith was just fierce and again just kudos to Superintendent Anderson for spending so much time engaging with them and and helping us build relationships so that when these tough conversations happen at the capital we can make impact. I think that's what we have for you. Are there any questions for us? board members. Any questions? Dr.

059Anderson, no questions, but a huge thank you to Heather, Katie, Tanya, the entire team at Policy Matters. I think that this is tricky stuff, you know, as you have to try to go down and advocate and uh articulate and even informing and educating uh legislators and our delegation on the impacts of of what will happen. um when other things happen and uh there's lots of competing voices down at the capital, lots of people trying to bend the ear of the folks that have to cast the votes and make the decisions. And so, uh, policy matters there there are are ears on the ground. Um, and they, uh, have done, I think, a really great job of positioning the district board members and myself, um, to have conversations, frank hard conversations with the speaker, with uh,

060various decision makers, uh, uh, letting uh, letting us advocate on behalf of um, our 28,000 students and families and communities. So, I appreciate their partnership and uh as soon as the session's over, it starts again. And I know that there's going to be conversations this summer in terms of, you know, potential changes to the school finance act. Um, you know, potential amendments. Uh, folks that are thinking about bills are thinking about those over the summer. And so, uh, it's a yearround endeavor. Uh, it heats up between January and May, but doesn't really cool down at all. So, uh, just appreciate your partnership. I want to echo that uh appreciation and how much work it does take to make an impact on any of these bills and just the volume of bills that go through the

061state legislature is staggering and towards the end it just is crazymaking. So thank you for your efforts there and I just wanted to how what happens at the state level directly impacts us. Two things that you said just really related to conversations we're having. One is that how when we use one-time money when it's available, it creates pressures down road and it's really hard to turn things off. And so whether it's for us onetime money for COVID relief or marshall fires or things that we set up when it when those one-time dollars run out, turning it off becomes a challenge. And so you had commented on that. Likewise, how challenging it is in the current fiscal times to make long-term plans when it feels like you pass the school finance act one year, it changes

062the next year. Sometimes it changes in September in an interim session. It's really challenging to predict in conditions that are entirely unstable and inconsistent. And so that all that stuff at the state that you spoke to is really directly impacting the work that we're trying to do here. And it's not easy for you for a lot for folks at the state level. It's challenging here as well. Alex, yeah, if I may, um I will reiterate the thanks and the kudos. Appreciate all the help and uh um deep respect to the work that um Superintendent Anderson and Nicole have put in in this last session. Um, if I can channel for board member Anger for a moment. Um, he's been uh since he got elected um pushing us to be proactively thinking about like our policy

063agenda earlier in the process and like not waiting till the session and not even waiting till we have our meeting with our delegation to figure out what we're doing next. What advice do you give us to prepare for next session in terms of things that should be first on our list both from like what Dr. Anderson wants to achieve, but also where the legislaturator's head is going to be in a way that we can uh act in behalf of our interests. Absolutely. That's a really good question. So, I think unfortunately what we're looking at next year, and like I said, the June forecast will will tell. Um, but what we're hearing is it's going to be very similar to this year. Um, this this year we had a lot of or the we the JBC

064and the state had a lot of like one-time tricks to move money, refinance money, um, sort of get really creative and the the opportunities to be creative are almost gone. And so I think we're going to see more deep cuts next year. Um, and so what I would recommend, I think it's a great idea to think about your agenda earlier, especially the the things that you know are most important to the district and your strategic plan. Um, things that that benefit students. I think the fact that all those grant programs are on the table is pretty scary, but maybe there are some that, you know, you have ideas about, you know, they could be made better or if there are things that are incredibly successful that you really want to protect. Um, that's helpful for

065us to know too because they really just go line by line. Um, and then we can get that information to the to the Boulder legislators earlier as these conversations are starting. Just the the departments are going to um they're going to submit their budgets at the end of June um to the joint budget committee. And so, um, any and all information is helpful, but I think just your activity and your relationship with these members, I I just can't thank you enough. I know your your ears are on the ground, your um, chair Rajpal, you just spending every other week with us to talk through the, you know, the issues of the day and really um, make us the best advocates for BBSD that we can be. It's really helpful. Um I but I just think

066Boulder is such a special place and has such a special delegation and we just really need to lean into that to protect what um what is most special to us. Dr. Anderson, couple early ideas. Um free meals for all really getting behind the ballot initiative right that's going to be out there. uh because that money runs out end of December if that ballot initiative doesn't pass. I think that's a that's an early um thing for us to think about. And I also we're just going to have to think about I mean I understand what folks are trying to do with the school finance act. They're not going to have enough money to get there. I I you know it's just this it's the same song different year. Um, we're just going to have to think

067fundamentally how fundamentally how as a as a community, as a school district, we are able to fund what it is that folks are expecting. And uh um and I I think that that I you know, rolling out the school finance act isn't going to do that for us. I just want to be really clear that uh the school finance act even on its best day doesn't get us what we need and uh when they start changing the way they're going to count kids which they will right four to three to two to one to zero um that that that begins to impact us as well. I do think that we need to start thinking this summer about some different ways that um that our community can continue to um support and invest in our schools

068in ways that um provide us what we want and deserve. Uh we certainly have performed incredibly well as a school district and uh we need to con can continue to be able to do that and uh at a certain point of time, you know, the ways that these budget pressures uh begin to strip away things that folks are accustomed to having that they can no longer have and uh like you can only do that so long, right? So, uh, so budget, free meals for all early ideas. Um, we'll have to see how some of the accountability stuff begins to roll out. Maybe some ideas there. Um, maybe some more UPK ideas around uh, you know, some of the challenges that we're seeing there in terms of quality control, right, which is one of our concerns

069going into the prek bill. And I think that as you've seen, everybody's getting some kind of prek that but a but a limited amount um control for quality on that and the funding is is behind uh the funding for our students uh K12 that uh but but our salaries stay the same right for those educators. So uh I have some ideas board members but uh Heather I guess we'll talk next week. We'll just start start working. comment to that, Superintendent Anderson. I do think messaging is so critical here and that is something that we could certainly use your help on. This is really complex stuff when you start especially the school finance formula and um I think one thing that just even with the 1448 conversations and then again with this amendment to to take

070money off the top to help K12, it's very easy to sort of read the headlines and think like the state is funneling all this money into K12 and it's not what it is. Um and so we're as a team grappling with that. how do we kind of simplify the message um and also be grateful for um you know the champions that we do have at the the legislature and the investment that they do make in K12. So it's a constant sort of balance and um we look forward to working with you right away on that. So thank you again for coming up to join us this evening. The next item on this evening's agenda is executive session. As indicated, the board has items to discuss in executive session. Is there a motion? Jorge. I, Jorge

071Chavez, make a motion pursuant to CRS section 24-6-424F to convene into executive session to discuss personnel matters pertaining to the superintendent's evaluation. Pursuant to CRS section 24-6-424B to receive legal advice on the pursent evaluation and contract and pursuant to CRS section 24-66-424B to receive legal advice on the board's complaint process sees under board policies AC and KE. Board members, is there a second? Seconded by Lenia. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Motion, I don't know if you heard me. I said yes. I got you. Motion passes. For members, we will convene in the glacier room. Calling this meeting back to order. The next item on our agenda item this evening is action item consent grouping. Actually, before I go too far, can

072we get verify that Kitty's back on this call on the meeting? She is. Okay. Okay. Action. I'm consent grouping. 8.1 Personnel items. 8.2 Approval of minutes May 13, 2025. 8.3 Approval of minutes May 20th, 2025, special meeting. 8.4 Acceptance of donation student support services. 8.5 Amendment to the contract for bond improvement work at Southern Hills Middle School. 8.6 Amendment to the contract for Fairview High School bond project. 8.7 Approval of No Red Ink contract ELA digital materials purchase. 8.8 Change order to DH JHL contractors for bond improvement work at Broomfield High School. 8.9 Contract for Shamrock Foods. 8.10 Contract with Spark Energy. 8.11 fiscal year 26 Microsoft lease purchase 8.12 resolution 25-12 to accept bids and authorized construction and maintenance projects 8.13 resolution 25-9 and 25-20 additional budget and appropriation for parah on behalf fund

0738.14 resolution 25-21 non-renewal of license contracts 8.15 University of Virginia partnership customized support agreement 2025 5, 2027. Are there any items more board members like to pull from the consent grouping? Seeing as there are none, we need a so not to expedite the works. the um during the design process, we found out that the mechanical units in the central portion of the building don't have cooling. So, we have to add cooling. Uh the project won't start until May of 26. However, the lead time on mechanical units is about 12 to 14 months. So, that's why we need to order them now. It's outside the original scope of work. Yep. Thank you for clarifying that because I when I saw we're um asking for the money now, but the work doesn't begin. So it's so we

074can buy with we can buy the parts necessary at a time when prices are potentially lower so we can begin the work in 2026. We're just Okay, that is Yeah, order the units now. They'll be here a year from now. Yeah, it's exciting timelines in construction. That was my only question. Board members, any other items to discuss on this list? Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you please call the role on consent grouping. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinnland Aa, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Motion passes. Next item on the agenda is a request for review of matter under policy K. Board members, is there a motion? Lenia, I move the board deny discretionary review of the complaint decision seconded by Alex. Board members, is there any discussion on this item hearing? None. Laura,

075can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Lawa, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Motion passes. Moving now on to policy action items. Consent grouping. 10.1. Board policy JJF, student activity, and athletic fees and funds management. 10.2 board policy J RLE, student interviews and interrogations. 10.3 board policy JRS searches. Are there any items board members like to pull from consent grouping? Hearing none, we need a motion to approve the items on consent grouping. Moved by Alex, seconded by Elaine and Jorge. Both a tide. Board member, any discussion? Board members, any discussion? Alex and then Lenia. Sorry. Yeah, I just want to say I appreciate um the revised red line for JJF in particular talking about encouraging the waving of fees and uh getting the communications uh to include a statement about the

076availability of the waiverss and the district's commitment to reducing barriers to student participation. I really like the use of the word shall there. Um I will say uh I was at um the Justice High graduation. Uh, no, maybe it was the Boulder Prep. Sorry, which one? One of them had of their class of 20 kids had two different kids say that they were so glad they got to do sports there because they knew it was too expensive and was a burden on their families had they done it at their old high school. So, the idea that um, whatever our system has been is guaranteeing equal access for low-income kids or kids uh, with challenging things going on is I just I don't believe it. So, I think it's great that we would encourage the principles

077to grant more waiverss and that our communications will be saying our goal is that no student would not participate in activity they would otherwise because of the financial burden and that we figure out how to make that happen. So, if our small um alternative high schools can do it, our big comprehensive ones can too. I'm also thankful for the red lines or the additional red lines. Um, in particular that we have booster clubs and donors going through a process. I appreciate that very much. And I also appreciated um that fees and donations financial and inind are included um for data review and reporting annually. So thank you Kitty. I would just like to comment that at the top of page two in that paragraph there is language that says that we think that children keep

078their ankles in their pockets. And I've sent corrective language to Kathleen, but I just wanted to point that out because I thought it was hilarious. I believe board member Sergeant has given me a typographical correction for that JRS in the search policy in eliminating a redundancy that the board had talked about in the last discussion about that pat down process. I may have left an errant word in there. So I'll make sure I take care of that. Thank you. Seeing as there are no further there's no further discussion, Laura, can you please call the vote? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinnland Aa, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Motion passes. We will now move on to policy study items. Board members, we have one policy to study this evening, board policy DJ, DJ, purchasing and contracting.

079I will turn it over to Kathleen to discuss this exciting red line. Thank you. So, the board last updated this policy in 2023. At the time we had made a proposal to adjust the signature authority to increase the signature authority. Um currently as the board knows the board acts on any contract over $100,000. Dr. Anderson signs any contract over $50,000 and no between 10 and 50. I'm sorry. The board president signs contracts between 50 and $100,000. And when we look across our neighboring districts, those thresholds remain a little bit lower. I do have a table that I did not attach to the board agenda that I will share. This is on study this week. So the main purpose was to make sure that we got those signature authorities um to a more practical operational standpoint

080for us. We also needed to make sure that our policy addresses the requirements of federal law. There's a lot of uh grant guidance and other purchasing requirements when you're using federal dollars. And in doing that, we recognized that this policy just needed to be streamlined. It was incredibly hard to read. So we really tried to focus clearly by um carving out the authority that exists by putting the requirements for procurement, getting multiple quotes, the request for bid process and the signature authorities into the table that you see on page two. And then to really clarifying when we do have special circumstances that would allow our district to proceed differently that we've carve those items out integrating federal and state law and that we just clarified the recordkeeping process. So this really was intended to be

081focused on that signature authority but also brought in some important cleanup. Thank you for that clarification. and I look forward to seeing the tables that you mentioned. Board members, any questions or comments on this policy? Alex and then Elenia, I just uh mostly a comment. Uh I really appreciated the help of Bill and the team when the audit committee was discussing these last week. Um I I'm comfortable with the changes uh that were made based on that that get at protecting our ability to do two things. One is to make sure that our procurement aligns um in addition to state and federal policy with the district's um interest, policies and objectives because I think in this day and age it's it's important that we as a whole are supporting the interests we have when things

082can be blown out of proportion in terms of things and also uh want to protect the district's discretion when it comes to professional services. So I see that handled appropriately in both those cases. This is food for thought since we're studying here. on page three under sale of goods and services by school district employees. We had a pretty lengthy discussion about this paragraph in as as Bill and Alex will remember um about if well a couple of ways that maybe we're not following this to the letter of the policy. One would be um if you owned some Google stock, this first sentence um may apply to you, which I don't think that that was the intent of this, but there was some concern in audit committee about that. Um, the second thing we might think

083about is if we had a school employee who runs a summer camp for athletes and they require that athletes, maybe they don't require, they suggest that athletes attend um, and then they're being paid to run that summer camp, then that would violate the spirit of this as well. So I think it's about um what we what the will of the board is on it and then also not having some unintended consequence here like I own three shares of Google. I wish I guess expanding a little bit. I mean, there are elementary school teachers who run summer camps out of their school. And so, it's not just I don't want to be limiting or specifically targeting coaches, but how does that how does that um relate to this? But maybe is that covered in a different

084policy that the board just needs to be aware of? I'll have to give that just some more consideration. I'm really excited about the changes policy. I've been asking for this policy since the three of you sitting here with me prior to you even be electing being elected. So, I think it's a positive move to move our signing authorities, increase those in a way that acknowledges the the large budget we do have and and and being really in align with our school neighboring school districts or like school districts on those signing authorities. I never really appreciated the board president having signing authority without it going to the board. I just this is so much cleaner. I'm excited about the changes that we have started with and hopefully it'll make it easier on staff and a little

085bit more efficient all around not having to wait for things unnecessarily. board members. Any other comments, questions? Alex? Well, to Lennia's point, I think there were two questions we brought up on the the paragraph that's still there about selling the goods and services. Um and one of the issue was whether they would be in a position to sell stuff to students, but the other was whether or not having own um uh that no firm owned in part by an employee would be allowed to sell the goods. So if an I don't the dimminimous amount of ownership that happens doesn't seem to have been fixed by the red line. So that's why I'm like I don't read it as solving that problem. I agree. It didn't address the problem probably. All right. Just want to be

086on the same page. And board members just as a and community policy such as these generally go to audit committee before it comes to the board. So that's why some of this conversation has existed prior. Dr. Anderson, just to clarify the spirit of what the conversation is being had that it's the intent um of the board as we think about revising this policy that uh people who work for the district uh aren't able to leverage their their position as a person of the district to sell other goods and services to folks that are served by the district. I that's that's that you know because I mean ultimately if you're a teacher right and you want to do something or if you're the coach right it's like this yeah it creates a weird dynamic doesn't it

087and um but if I may speak for um Robert on the audit committee his concern was that um a firm such as Google uh that has uh thousands or tens millions of shareholders, one of them could be a district employee and then Google would no longer be able to sell goods or services to us under this policy. So that's the other issue. Well, as long as that employee with the shares wasn't selling it. No, no, no. This is the firm is not allowed to conduct business with us under the current reading of the language. So that's where the dimminimous ownership by an employee shouldn't preclude a company from doing business with us. Kitty, never mind. Alex clarified it. Okay. Seeing as there are no further questions or comments on this policy, we will move on

088to study items. Board members, we have one item to study this evening. It is the 2526 proposed budget. I'll turn it over to our CFO, Bill Sutter, who will be presenting. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Anderson, I am pleased to present the uh 202526 proposed budget. Um I'll run through uh the changes that have happened uh some review of uh our timeline and milestones, the budget development input, uh enrollment and uh the resulting uh proposed budget. Uh just to clarify upfront or to state upfront uh there are minimal changes from the preliminary budget uh that was presented back on April 8th. So for the timeline and milestones uh again the same uh presentation that has been presented numerous times uh the red bar representing where we are in the process is

089just moved a little bit further to the right and as we highlight the items that are remaining in the process uh feedback uh at tonight's board meeting. Uh however, just a couple of things to note that since we last spoke back on April 8th, uh the legislature has ended its uh work as noted in the update that we heard previously. Uh the new school finance act has been finalized. The minimal increase in funding for the universal prek program has been finalized. Uh cuts to state grants have been finalized. Cuts to the averaging formula after 2526 have been finalized. Cuts to the ascent program have been finalized. Temporary funding for the healthy school meals for all program uh has been finalized. And the accountability system has been updated. So there were lots of changes made uh

090in the funding realm uh in particular uh in that last uh month or so of the legislative session. items remaining uh on the timeline [Music] are brown I'm not choked up over school finance um the uh June 20th uh state revenue forecast for the current year that will be very telling as far as um where things are projected uh in the coming months and for the remainder of this year. Thank you very much. Something went sideways. Uh uh and then the deadline uh for budget adoption as required by state statute is uh June 30th. Budget development input. Uh this list is very similar from what I presented before. Uh but just a reminder of the numerous uh inputs into the budget uh over the course of many months. Uh and uh this slide has just

091been updated for a couple of more topics uh at a couple of more board meetings uh since that last time we met. the focus of the budget development, employee compensation, strategic investments, addressing achievement gaps, opportunity gaps, and disproportionality and inflation. Uh as again all stated back on April 8th, uh these remain the points uh on focusing uh on the focus uh in developing this budget for enrollment. uh we had a slight change uh in the projected enrollment uh for preschool. Uh it's a reduction of 25 students uh in the projection for October uh the October one number for this fall. Just as a reminder, uh preschool operates very differently from enrollment and funding uh than the rest of the K12 system. It's a continuous enrollment and funding only uh comes once a student is enrolled.

092Uh so we are hiring and staffing uh or on more unstable uh projections uh because those can change uh throughout the year uh both from a tuition standpoint as well as the funding from the state. So uh it's a very small percentage uh but the uh enrollment drop from the current year to next year uh is the same for the nonpreschool uh sections of the district uh and a little drop of 25 students uh in the preschool. So the highlights uh of this proposed budget. So resource uh commitments and adjustments uh I'll go through those uh changes from that April 8th preliminary budget the few small changes uh that reduction in preschool headcount uh that I mentioned and then from the the other uh accounting funds within the district. The charter school fund uh it's

093a reduction and I say this a couple of times a reduction of the estimated increase. Uh so it sounds a little funny but uh the idea that we're making projections uh well in advance uh before we have numbers finalized. And so this is just a calculation of what is the final enrollment count? What is the final uh projected budget uh for going into next year? Are there new programs that are included? What are the purchase services for uh charter schools? Uh and what are their enrollment counts? So all of that plays into uh sort of calculating that final number. Uh so that uh reduced the obligation there in the athletics fund. Uh the original projection for transportation uh needs uh was refined and uh decreased the uh budget request there. And then uh in addition

094the uh girls the inaugural girls flag football team uh is uh going in at Monarch High. So that's been added to the budget. I believe the statement is SCO yotes. Some of the highlights uh for the budget uh 6.9 million in new ongoing revenue, 10.7 million ongoing funds committed to staff compensation. Uh 13.6 six million committed to additional school staffing programs, instructional materials, and student support in those areas listed. Uh just to note uh for on the the revenue side uh that number last year uh was 15.9 million. Uh so as the school finance act was finalized, while not as uh dire as originally uh proposed by the governor, uh it's still a significant uh decrease in funding uh through the school finance act uh going forward. $7.4 million reduction in staffing costs uh to

095address declining enrollment and staff turnover. uh 2.3 million additional funding uh for technology projects, building maintenance, and addressing inflationary pressures for all of those things where we see uh inflation built in uh utilities uh property liability and workers comp insurance premiums. So a summary of the changes uh again this proposed budget being the total dollar amounts uh included uh in the general operating fund and the differences from what we were uh talking about last time. So, refinements of those projections uh in the charter fund and athletics fund uh and building in a cost of living adjustment uh with identified ongoing funds uh 2.2 million uh it's a 6% cola cost of living adjustment. Uh and then further refinements uh and projections uh will be coming forward. Uh we've finalized negotiations with a couple of employee

096groups and we're working on finalizing uh the remaining employee groups. So there will be some further changes as we get to the uh final budget uh for adoption. uh and this is standard uh course of action as we are uh going through the process of refining projections and we sort of have to pick a point in time where we build the budget uh to bring it forward and then there are um almost always uh few changes uh that happen between the uh original proposed budget and what is adopted uh by by the board at the end. Uh and then on the reserves line, the 3% tabor and 4% contingency, again, we project the increases in that. And you have to build the entire rest of the budget to know exactly how much uh is required

097in those uh percentage line items. And just the uh the increase uh that was needed uh was less of an increase. Uh so we're able to reduce that uh requirement down. Uh next steps um so we have the scheduled budget adoption for June 17th. Uh and then June 30th as the statutory deadline for budget adoption. Uh and then January 31st in 2026 is a statuto statutory deadline for the revised budget adoption uh with updates including uh any revenue forecast changes, student counts, uh endofear uh finalization of where we end up the year uh and uh other adjustments uh as typically come forward. The end Thank you, Bill. Board members, any questions for Bill on the updated budget? Alex. Um, Bill, I really appreciate all the work that goes into this. It's a tremendous amount of

098information and uh really appreciate how hard it is for um general public or us on the board to you wrap our heads around it all. I have um gotten a few com questions from folks uh like members of DAC or Sachs who are trying to figure out, you know, how to make um make sense of this document as we move forward. And I was wondering if you could uh address a few of them. Um, number one, um, like we talk about the general operating fund, but the budget we're approving is actually the budget for the district on all its funds. Can you give a concise answer for what the difference is between the general fund and the total funding that we have in our budget and why do we focus on the general operating fund?

099Uh so the other funds are u accounting funds that are typically required by uh either state statute or uh generally accept accepted accounting principles. So they're they're requirements uh to have these separate funds. Some of them are for uh special revenues. So grants per se. Um while you can include grants in the general fund and some districts do uh it is also acceptable to have a separate grants fund uh where those uh competitive grants flow through. It's easier to keep track of them uh and account for them. Uh the transportation fund is required by state statute. if you have that override. Um, so there are some requirements as to why those other special funds uh exist. Um, we don't spend quite as much time talking about it or about them uh typically because they uh

100either have requirements around the revenue side of it or the expense side of it. And uh the majority of the decisions around uh how the district operates, how schools are staffed, how uh what software we have, all those kind of things uh are occurring within the general fund. Uh and those decisions about um uh how dollars are spent are typically focused there. The majority of where uh those activities are happening. There are some funds that are in in the accounting world considered operating funds. They're subfunds of the general fund. So we're now we're digging deep into accounting world. Um athletics would be a good example of it. Um the majority of the funding for athletics comes from the general fund. It's transferred over there. Uh but then also the participation fees and the gate fees

101uh are accounted for in there. Um again not a requirement but just uh uh uh ease of accounting to keep it separate uh and um have those conversations around something like athletics or risk management uh is another example of that. So, and then so for the the public at home or my own clarification, um something like the athletics fee is transferred over to the athletics fund and then uh that's referred to in the transfers. But then if we want to see what's spent on the athletics, we would see it from the athletics fund for the most part. And so then if someone's trying to understand how much money we spend as a district, uh it's the aggregate of all the funds that gets at how much we spend. And the general operating fund would be

102the one where we have the most discretion to make changes, not necessarily uh all that we spend to make things good for kids, right? Am I describing that accurately? Uh correct. It's just the the vast majority of uh the funds uh are housed within the general fund. So what and what is that vast majority? What is the ratio of the general fund compared to our aggregate spending? I don't know that off the top of my head. uh but it's in the order of we'll say 300 million of 500 million which includes the uh bond program which is a significant portion. So if you discount the bond program as a a very different activity um it's you know 90ish% So that's also discounting like the health insurance fund and the other benefits funds that have bigger

103numbers like 45 47 million in them, right? Because the health uh health and dental insurance fund are um uh an expense in the general fund which creates the revenue in the health insurance fund. And so it's it's accounted for in the general fund, the ma vast majority of it, and the transportation fund where health insurance for bus drivers is. Um and then the employee um dependent side uh as a portion of the uh health insurance fund. um arguably is uh not a district expense in the sense that it's um would be counted in the same way. I mean, you can make the argument that it is because it's part of the benefits package, but um it's not revenues from the district. It's from employees uh into supporting the the uh health insurance fund. But the

104the majority of the health insurance fund comes from revenue from an expense in all the other areas of the district. So it's being treated as an expense under one part of the fund, but a revenue in the insurance fund. But then so it's already covered as an expenditure somewhere else. And then if we were to add those two up, we'd be double counting it. Correct. It's called an internal service fund for that very reason that it's um providing the service of health insurance to the district. And then if we were to consider say the bonds and the MLOs's that we're spending that may be uh many of those don't contribute to the general operating fund, right? So those are handled in the um the funds for which an MLO might have gone into like the

105transportation, correct? or somewhere else versus the bonds and the the debt obligation are covered under separate funds too. Correct. All right. I guess one of my points in trying to explore this in more detail is uh I for one want to know about how we spend all our money and where we get it from. And um when I look through uh these big long documents, it's it's pretty hard to figure that out unless we operate under the assumption that the general operating fund is the only thing that matters. And it feels like it would be more useful if we sometimes had a sense of the aggregate revenue and the aggregate spending and a chance to sort of um I don't know just understand the big picture. Um, is there uh how when I think about

106the general operating fund, do do you think how good is my insight into the financial operations of the district with all these other things going on? Um I would say from what we do daytoday in schools uh provides the vast majority of the insight as to what activities are happening. Right? Grants are separate. Um the bond program being separate. um debt service, right, is something that's voted on and is uh we'll say sort of on autopilot until a a change uh happens. So, it doesn't really they're not resources available to do anything else with uh but uh service debt. Uh I guess that's that's part of the rationale behind it is like what what dollars are really available to to make a decision on to do something different. Um and certainly you know having the

107picture um we just started um this past uh audit will be the second year that we've uh submitted for it. It's called the popular annual financial report and it's through the government finance officers association and it's intended to be uh a very concise um a few pages of information from the audit uh that has uh all of that aggregate spending revenue spending uh in a table or two. Um, and so that's a a presentation of information that as GFOA um purports uh is um simplified in a sense uh for the general public. um it certainly doesn't have that level of detail of are these dollars able to be done do something else with or anything like that but it does give that uh overall picture of of revenues and expense and then so I guess

108one of my observations would be that for the general public or the taxpayer or the parents whether or not we can change it doesn't change whether or not we've raised the money from the community to go to an expense that's just a commit a decision that was made a long time ago and so when I think about what the district spends like on its facilities or its other things that it's helpful to have that aggregate so I look forward to that audit report. So then considering the general operating fund, if that's the one that has the discretion on it, can you tell me about a few of the big discretionary decisions we've made in this budget as opposed to last year's? Uh the uh commitment for staffing is the vast majority of it. 90-ish percent

109uh of uh of the budget goes to staff um from all levels from the superintendent uh teachers um bus drivers, food service, uh all of it. So that's the majority of the the commitment uh there. Um the uh compensation increases, health insurance, uh steps, lanes, um uh the cost of living adjustment that's been built in um being a fairly large incremental uh change. um the uh reductions to some of the staffing uh that has been included. Uh the adjustments that are made to uh rightsize some of the allocations uh those are in there included um the majority of it. Yeah. Uh I just want to give you my thanks, Bill. I really appreciate you're taking the time to clarify these things for me and I think it's useful as we consider the ongoing discussions about

110it because eventually we're going to need to go back to the voters probably and ask for additional money to take care of things in the next decade's fiscal environment and um otherwise public education funding environment. So, I think at some point we're going to want to have more clarity so we can make an effective case for why we need additional funds or a different change to some of it in order to meet those obligations. And when I think about the things that are quote discretionary, they're tied up in the personnel issues. They're tied up in the people. So, our discretion there is greatly constrained as well. So, that's why I'm just trying to get a handle on it so that we can make the case for what we need to get the resources to do

111what the community wants to do with their schools. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Bill. I love the budget book and if when people email me, I refer to it sometimes in page number. And to my comments earlier, it is a way in which we are very transparent with our community how we're making spending decisions. There is a sentence in the budget book that I wanted to read. As part of the budget development process, the superintendent and the school board strive to align human and financial resources with student needs in order to realize the greatest possible impact upon student achievement. Sort of our goal in this process. And there are some ways in which our hands are very much tied and other ways in which they are not. If you go back to the

112presentation, I I have some questions on slide [Music] number 14. So, you're showing a 6.9 million adjustment in new ongoing revenue, but an additional 10.7 million additional funds committed for staff compensation. And we continue to hear and as we saw when we had to non-renew our employees, our number of staffing is going down. So, our total employees as enrollment declines is continuing to decline. That 10.7 million is not covered by our new ongoing funds. Is that 10.7 million steps in lanes in cola or is it health and dental? I know we often talk about compensation being very separate. We don't talk about total compensation a lot which would be your whole compensation package. Um, and so I'm just trying to understand if is that total comp or is that steps and lanes and potential cola

113and then are additional commitments to health and dental are separate? And if you could speak to those two numbers not entirely matching up. I know you talked a little bit about the the staff that would be leaving us and that's a number ticket to that we realize as well but if you could speak in a little bit more detail to those numbers because I am thinking about that sentence around meeting our students educational needs with the decisions we make. Sure. That 10.7 is made up of three numbers. Uh it's the um 1.5 million for health insurance. uh the uh estimated increase in the uh district's um uh uh portion uh of that um uh annual cost. Uh the uh 7 million in uh salary schedule movement uh for existing staff and uh 2.2 million for

114uh the cost of living adjustment that uh I mentioned earlier. Uh so those three things uh that are included in there. Uh there's two other uh compensation items that are not ongoing. I picked the word um specifically of ongoing funds. Uh there's a million dollars for continued uh incentives for uh subteers uh to continue our uh incentive program to get folks to uh participate in more days of subbing. and uh a small relatively small amount about $100,000 for uh one-time funding for um snow plow um stipen that was uh negotiated in the past and uh continued forward. Uh so it's the combination of that and the reduction uh that is um creating the room we'll say for why is compensation higher than new revenue coming in. and we'll say then how do you have room

115for 13.6 million? Uh, a lot of these are uh one-time expenditures. Uh, so I don't have that number off the top of my head, but why specifically it doesn't say ongoing or committed ongoing additional funds. So, a portion of them are uh the one-time um weighted differentiated funding transfer uh or um the one-time staffing reserve. Um so, one-time and ongoing uh funds included in that. And back to the point I made earlier, it gets challenging when these one-time dollars have to go away. And that's a significant commitment, $3.6 million in this budget. And and some of it we continue to set aside like the weighted differentiated funding. Some of it does eb and flow. But when I see classroom teachers, supports in classrooms, when those have to come away, like when those one-time funds expire,

116we hear about it. And part of it is to soften the blow that we're facing with declining enrollment and the decreased new ongoing revenue funding. I just want to be I I know you do a great job in balancing this budget and it's hard to look forward to uncertain times and give significant commitments in ways that we to Alex's point we will need to justify to our community. we will need to speak to the fact that indeed they are driven in ways that support student need to support student achievement and growth. And so I'm just wrestling with with all these numbers and as resources continue to decline at what where is the point in which we start making some more challenging decisions? At what point does our community no longer willing to go along with

117us in some of these decisions because they are not getting the pullout services or the push-in services or the support staff like we're spending more on fewer people and our community is really feeling that and I just want to speak to we hear that and we're continuing to look at how total compensation and these different trade-offs and different levers that we can pull continue to provide the programming paying at the level our community expects in addition to paying our our employees wages that are professional. So, I'm just not so much a question as I'm really wrestling with this current budget for this current year and what it's going to look like for next year and how this conversation is going to continue to get harder and it's going to be felt in very significant ways

118in our community. and we get those emails and we get that feedback and some of this is a negotiated agreements which we have zero control over. I I appreciate u those points uh for President Raj Paul. I would say that um when you have a lot more new ongoing revenue, right, for five of the seven years I've been here, four of the seven outside of COVID, we've been able to do all the comp the cost of living adjustment at CPI steps, lanes, and then begin to really think about the additional supports we needed to add it into schools um into uh other aspects, you know, translation services, dual language programs, special education services that that meet the needs of our of our kids. and uh that ongoing revenue is going to continue to uh be

119flat if that and so I do think that we have to be mindful of our ongoing expenditures and really think to this place of sustainability. uh you know X factors for us. We don't know what enrollment is going to look like and we don't know how they're going to count students even though that they're saying right whatever they're saying. We're hearing there's a special session in September. Um, so I I do think that uh we're work we're trying to be very mindful of the experience that our educators and our kids get working and being served by our in our schools and balancing these working conditions and compensation. Uh it's going to continue to have to be a conversation. Um, and the way that these things come to the school board and and come to district

120office is, you know, you have one school with one issue that they press against every other priority in the district, right? For one CL, one grade level for, you know, and and I do think that that that is going to continue to happen. and whether it was the substitute pay that we dealt with in the beginning of the year with folks um although you know I think our data would show that toward the end of the year things were getting much better in terms of coverage uh or it's a class size that is beyond the um today beyond the the um contractual number without additional support but as I've shared right We don't know how many of those kids are going to show up. Just because it says you're going to have 33 kids today

121doesn't mean 33 kids show up in the door. And what if it's 29 and now you've already added another teacher at, you know, our average teacher salary plus benefits plus parah, which is 125, 130, 140, $140,000 every one time you do that, right? You do that 10 times, right? Then that's 1.5 million. I mean, we only got 6.9 million in new revenue. So, like, you know, when we tighten the belt on our practices to make sure that we're maximizing efficiencies, it's it's the shifting of expectations, right? Uh that that we'll have to continue to work through. Um we'll be able to figure it out. We're going to bring you a balanced budget. We're going to meet the needs. Um and some of the conversations get tougher as you have less revenue. Yes, conversations will continue

122to get tougher. And going back to the comments around transparency actually in the budget book starting on page 51, you do a really great job with the budget adjustment plan and showing what is being turned off or decreased spending is decreased and where are you adding funds and so again there nobody public doesn't really dive into this book but but we are being incredibly transparent around where the dollars are moving and so spending the time and I I did actually appreciate that those few pages around exactly you know where are those shifts in our budget happening um line by line? Alex? No, I uh yeah, and I mean my comments and questions totally in support of what you've just said. Um uh my my curiosity comes from trying to make sure people understand the where

123the where the discretion is and where it isn't as that gets tighter. And that's um part of my reaction from these presentations is we do sort of get the increments but we don't get the big picture as much. We find out about what the change is without discussing what the total is in conjunction with it. And I think it's easier to understand how little the incremental change is compared to the big total amount and then we get a sense of how small our discretionary money is as a percent of the total. Whereas if we talk in terms of $6 million and $1.3 million at a time of the increment, we're missing the fact that we've got 280 million in compensation. So the fact that we went from 288 to, you know, 292 uh for the

124compensation part is more important to me than the 1.6 because basically our hands are pretty tied by the total. And um it's hard to keep the increments in perspective if we don't have them, you know, in conjunction with what the total is for that amount. And that's and um and I just think for for the boxes that we're in, the challenges we face as a community and as a board and a district, that's where, you know, not expecting everybody to read a document like this, but helping us understand where the discretion is in a discretionary budget and understanding the big picture will help us make the case to people about how much we're trying to do the right thing and where an individual case about individual classroom at an individual grade level at a school

125is pretty dissatisfying. Meanwhile, you take the feedback you get as a board member, whether it's about the services that aren't available for the librarians or the counselors or the class size. And in the mass, every time that's not satisfactory, it's hard to bring it back to the reason it may be unsatisfactory. And some of it is the calendar and the way personnel work and open enrollment works over time. And some is just trying to respond to declining enrollment and underenrolled classes and and the ratios. So, I'm just trying to uh get wrap my own head around it and then also figure out how we help the community understand it. And that's where like the big picture for me helps sometimes more than the incremental parts of what the adjustment is or what the change is.

126I want to have a discussion about what the total is as well. Board members, any other questions or comments? Seeing as there are none, um I just wanted to share that since we have the proposed budget for 25 2026 has not formally been adopted at this meeting, the board will next consider proposed budget on June 17th during our regular meeting held at the board of education center at 5:00 pm. Board of Education Center 6500 East Repo Avenue, Boulder, Colorado. At 5:00 PM, taxpayers of the district or their representatives are entitled to file or register objections to the proposed budget prior to its final adoption in accordance with Colorado law. Board members, that is the last item on our agenda this evening. Are there any items board members would like to add to our running list

127of prioritized items? Seeing as there are none, this meeting is adjourned. See you all in June. [Music]