April 22, 2025 Regular Meeting

001[Music] I would like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025. Board members may attend and participate in our meetings by electronic means in accordance with BBSD policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez here. Medler here. Nisnik here. Quinnland Aa here. Rajpaw here. Sergeant here. Anger here. Thank you. I'd like everyone to turn their attention to the screens for our land acknowledgement this evening. [Music] PBloan Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, [Music] Recob. BBSD responsible. Resilencia. [Music] 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. Thank you so much

002for joining us here in person tonight. And for those of you watching online, we are glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Kitty, seconded by Beth. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nisnik, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. First item on our agenda this evening is our student moment. I am excited to hand this over, this portion of the meeting over to Dr. Da Cruz, who will be going to the podium. Good evening, President Raj Paul, board members, and Dr. Anderson. We are delighted to spotlight the student cabinet, the BBSD student cabinet this evening. We have a few but not all of our student cabinet members here

003and um they have some experiences to share with you just to let you know a little bit about let's see if I can forward this. There we go. Um how student cabinet came about. We we know that we have a youth equity council whose voice and experiences we highly value. And a couple of years ago, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Gyos and myself asked ourselves, how can we expand the voice and the representation of students and bring them to um to us really to interact with leadership to become part of an advisory group. And we started conceiving this notion of a student leadership group, a district-wide student leadership group. And right about that time that um a student from Boulder High wrote an opinion piece which was published in the daily camera expressing that BDSD should

004be thinking about ways to have student voice advising us and involved in our decision-making. So it was really this perfect moment. So we actually reached out to her, Dr. Gyos went to meet with her and we invited her to co-design what we wanted to do to launch this amazing group and during that spring during a spring semester a couple years ago we sent out a nomination form a self-nomination form as well as so students could self-nominate principles and teachers could nominate students and from there we had an opportunity to get to know students engage their interest and we invited students to be part of the inaugural group, which was then called the district-wide student advisory group, which is a mouthful. Um, but during that first year, our smaller group, which you see here on the

005screen, came together, determined topics that they wanted to engage in, learn more about, provide us with some guidance and advice about. And it was such an incredible experience that we again after that school year uh sent out the interest form and the group expanded and uh now we have 20 members of this group and some of which not all but some of which are here tonight and we are so excited their families are with them as well. We're so proud of them. I know that their families are and you will be too. And something that I I really want you to know about this group is that I can't get this to move in the right direction. Here we go. Is that we have really grounded our work in collectivist culture ideology. So some of

006the quotes that I've we've had discussions with the group about you see here on the screen um in latch you are my other me ubuntu I am because we are and sawona I see you and by seeing you I bring you into being and what we know and our students have reminded us of is that not only do they um want to be seen and heard they want to be a part of collectivist decisionmaking and advising BBSD leadership. And so we've had opportunities to bring in leadership from across the district to meet with and share um work that we're doing with with this group and also to ask them what do we need to be thinking differently about our work and and they actually have determined the topics they want to learn more about. Dr.

007Gyos is going to share more about that with you next, but I just wanted to introduce them because it's been an absolute pleasure. I would say it's the highlight of our month when we have an opportunity to get together with these incredible young people. And so with that, I'm going to let Dr. Ggo share more context with you and then we're going to turn it over to our student leaders. Thank you, Dr. Dea Cruz. Good evening, everyone. It's such a pleasure to be here. As you can see, these are the topics that our student cabinet leaders have chosen. Um the previous year we had about eight different topics that everyone was excited to engage in. This year's uh student cabinet leaders have decided to go deeper into topics and have a focus two months at

008a time so that they can really be able to understand quite deeply the topics and then also have feedback loop cycles with um BBSD leaders. And so as you can see here, um these are the topics that we've had. Um we've focused on mental health, uh safety and title 9 and curriculum and diverse curriculum. And these are all topics that um came about from the students. They were able to go through a process where um they uh found themes at the beginning of the year and were able to um choose which topics they wanted to focus on. And also they've been able to co-f facilitate some of the meetings as well. Scroll. Oh, scroll up. Oh, okay. Opposite way. All right. So, with that, this is the best part is actually hearing from our student

009cabinet leaders. Um, we're going to have each of them come up and share a quote with them that really focuses on their experience as student cabinet members. Okay. All right. Um, hello. My name is Gustavo Castillo. I'm a senior at Boulder High School. And my quote was, um, to me, leadership is taking, um, initiative and not waiting for others. Anthony. Hello, my name is Anthony Reyes. I'm a senior student at um Boulder High School and my quote is leadership is the uh the ability to be depended dependable by those who need us. Um yeah, thank you. Hi, I'm Nay Ready Pauly. Um my quote about student cabinet was that it allowed me to expand my viewpoints on leadership past my own experiences. Also, I have learned to open my eyes to many different and unique

010perspectives that have been vital to my role as a leader and as a person. Thank you. [Music] My name is Leah Nitus Brightenbach. I'm a junior at Monarch High School. And um my quote was that I've always believed it's crucial to bridge the gap between student experiences and the administrator's understanding of our experiences. But until I joined the student cabinet, I wasn't sure if it was possible. And now I'm confident that um our student cabinet can properly express their concerns and praise if if it exists to uh directly to those who are in control over the experience that we are all sharing. Thank you. All right. Hello. I just want to say first of all, I'm uh really grateful to have this opportunity to be part of student cabinet and uh I'm really thankful for

011it. And my quote is uh leadership is the ability to guide and inspire others by being a role model. And one of my uh favorite quotes is by uh Warren Bennis which says uh leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jasmine Salamera and in my experience, the student cabinet has helped me have a more open-minded view on how different policies and trends ripple across multiple schools such as new district policies or new implementations about discrimination. Thank you. Hi, my name is Nia Courier and I attend Monarch High School. I'm honored and deeply moved to be here tonight. This moment is not just about recognition for student cabinet's efforts. It's a call to continue the work. A call not to only celebrate leadership, but to amplify student

012voice as a force for systemic change. Leadership for me has never been about position. It's about responsibility, to truth, to equity, and to the role people who too often go unseen. and unheard in our schools because I believe that the most transformational change starts in community with listening, with learning, and with love. Some of you know me at the district level as I've served on both the youth equity council and the student cabinet where I've worked closely with leaders throughout Boulder Valley and student cabinet. Our efforts focus on many things like bully prevention, grant distribution, and title 9 response planning. We often have crossover with youth equity and the emphasis on transformation justice that directly impacts educators and students of marginalized identities. Leadership in this space is an act of care and community, an act

013of justice and act of possibility. BBSD's commitment to going all together for all students is one I truly believe in. But going all together means we continue listening, continue growing, and I and continue taking bold steps forwards for change together. We must continue to show up every day and commit to immediate and sustainable action. Thank you for honoring student cabinet with this moment. I hope it's not just a spotlight but a spark for what is possible. So that is the last um participant but like Dr. Deacru said um these 20 fantastic student leaders are amazing and we're very thankful for their service and leadership. And we also want to say thank you to their family uh for supporting because we know that it takes a village for everybody to come together um and to be

014able to make an impact in our community. So, thank you so much. I hope you all have a a great evening. [Applause] Thank you students for being here tonight. Laura, can you turn that mic off? Now that I'm less echoey, thank you all for being here tonight and for serving on this really important committee. We value the what our students feel and perceive about our curriculum and our policies and it was great to be able to sit down on your meeting earlier this month. Board members, any questions for our student moment this evening? Dr. Anderson. Before everybody leaves, I just want to say thank you all. We're proud of you. We're proud to all work in a district where student voice is valued. Want to thank Dr. De La Cruz, Dr. Gyos for their organizing

015and um embedding the ideas of our students into the work that we're doing. It makes us a stronger school district. So, I just appreciate all of you. Thank you so much. Uh what a wonderful student moment. Thanks, We will now move on to the work session study portion of this evening's agenda and cabinet members are making their way up here. I will turn it over to Dr. Anderson for introductions. Thank you board president Raj Paul. Members of the board uh excited to um work through some acade academic calendar policy and policy development process with you all. this evening. Um, with us here is, uh, Kathleen Sullivan and Robin Fernandez. Uh, we are going to talk a little bit about kind of the ways this has happened in the past, why it's happened the way it's

016happened, and then get some feedback from this board on how we want to make sure this works in the future. Um, and so with that, why don't we get started? So, just to be clear, uh, for our public, uh, tonight is not about changing any of the calendars that are already approved, right? We've approved calendars for two years for, uh, 25, 26, and 26 and 27. Uh what tonight is about is to gather feedback on what that process is going to look like in the future and how do we codify that in a way where it's clear and transparent to anyone and everyone who might want to know what it is we do and why we do it. Uh so we're going to gather some forward some board feedback uh tonight. There'll be some opportunities

017to share. Um we're going to talk about the process that has been in place for um depending upon who you talk to anywhere from 10 to 20 years. Uh and then we'll and we'll share a little bit of the history of kind of why that is the case and just really talk about all of the things that we try um and aspire to do when we build our calendar. And and as you can see board members on this slide, these are all of the entities that come together and have influence on our calendar through our existing current practice. And whether it's coordinating with large employers where people live, um CDE, uh some of the language in our negotiated agreements, there's lots of things we try to bridge to pull this together. So board members, here's

018the great news that you have a policy that that can guide and direct how we how we develop our calendar. That's policy ICICA. Uh we're going to talk about these guiding principles which um have been followed for quite some time, but uh the origin and the placement of those principles outside of just being the process that folks have come to expect um are a little fuzzy. Uh I know that it was something that was was agreed upon and and Robin will talk a little bit about that. Um and then also really think taking a look at model board policy around cal academic calendar development and making sure that we embed that language into the policy that we'll be crafting. Um and that gets into requirements for instructional time which we've done some work on as

019board members as you'll recall and some of the community if you have kids in high school will recall um we had a lot of work um we did anou with BVEA and then made some decisions around some standardization with some flexibility around um bell schedules at our high schools at our comprehensive high schools and all of our comprehensive high schools have now um adopted new bell schedule times that uh um for for many of those schools will increase the instructional minutes that those students are able to obtain uh that benefits kids and also help make sure that we're in compliance with with Colorado Department of Education requirements. So with that, we're going to go ahead and dig into it. I'm going to kick it off to Kathleen to talk about our current policy. I would

020say board members as thoughts or ideas or feedback comes in um uh I think that you should share that. I know that we have team in the audience. Laura is going to be taking notes and we'll be able to review this work session as well to go back to know and understand the feedback you provide uh around just big thoughts because we're going to probably start with everybody sharing individual thoughts. Then we're going to have to kind of take that try to wrestle it down a little bit to come to to to make some suggestions and come back to this again try to hone this finalize this before we'd be ready to implement a policy and regulation. You know, my hope would be is that not only can we have a policy of of what

021are some of the elements, but then the regulation and how it happens, right? So, you know, these guiding principles, think about those setting in a regulation uh and uh the policy really sending the tenants of what needs to needs to be involved with that. So, if that sounds okay, which it looks like it does, I'm going to turn it over to Kathleen. Thank you. So looking at the board's current policy, it was last updated in 2001. So it is definitely a good one for us to be taking a look at together. Your current policy establishes a few things. I really This is all most of the text from that policy that's on the slide verbatim. I I omitted in the middle where there are nine holidays identified. Um so really our policy currently establishes a

022timeline by which the board needs to act and make some basic sort of commitments around vacation days, holidays and instruction that should accompany national holidays. If we look at the CASBY sample then which I provided to the board as part of your agenda, you'll see it's very different from our current sample or from our current policy. The CASBY sample really focuses instead on the state's definitions around instructional time. It does also put in place a requirement that there be a calendar adopted, but sets the time frame at the end of the year because that's one of the elements of this policy. That's certainly within the board's discretion. The other things that the sample policy does is require consultation with our neighboring school districts and collection of public input from parents and teachers and also um

023pulls in a state law requirement. That bottom bullet says we have to make sure that our calendar includes the dates for all staff inservice programs. And this is a place where Colorado just has that one state law that makes that requirement. So we make sure that it's wrapped into the policy so that we can consistently comply with it. So it really isn't that the CASBY sample does things differently than our current policy. they just sort of touch on two very different aspects. So, as we're looking at um an update, I think it makes a lot of sense to incorporate these elements around instructional time and what those requirements are. So looking next then at the state law and what is actually required around instructional time. We again just put the actual hours and the very

024specific language of the law on the slide so that the board could see it. What we're trying to do with this part of the presentation is tease apart what might be a an understanding of how things have worked from those principles that the board has to make sure that we capture in this work as we move forward. So you'll see that there are minimum instructional hours and days with a recognition that those hours can be reduced to accommodate teacher stu for parent teacher conferences inservice programs and other sorts of emergencies. That's really what the law has to say that has to be addressed in the calendar policy. Then the next slide shows the elements that we have um traditionally attended to that arise out of the negotiated agreements. So again we went straight to the

025language of the agreement here the teachers agreement. So our contract with BBEA identifies 186 total working days 176 of which are instructional days. So that's the number that we have in the BVEA contract. Looking just below that then five and a half days are set aside as teacher work days. 4 and a half days are allocated for professional development. Both of those are specific requirements that arise out of the negotiated agreement. Then I'm I'm obviously avoiding that data point in the middle for last. So looking next at the holidays to be considered. These are scattered across our various negotiated agreements. We don't have the same language in say our teacher agreement that we do in our BBCA agreement that applies to our operational people like transportation. So, we put all of the references from all

026of the negotiated agreements here, and these are holidays that need to be considered by the board consistent with those agreements. The final piece, I think, is one that definitely came up the last time we touched on this with the board where it has been our practice to have these four conference exchange days. That is a practice. it is not rooted in the negotiated agreement, nor is it rooted in the current policy. So, that was something we just wanted to highlight for the board um to make sure we're all really clear on where the requirements live and what they what they say as we look at this issue. Can can we maybe pause there and talk talk through negotiated agreements, laws, CASBY example policy before we head into the guiding principles so we can kind of

027keep clear maybe things are more mandated by the state and then the things that we have come up with over time as a district board members any questions or comments on what Kathleen has presented thus far? Kitty Benellenia. So, Kathleen, you said that the the conference days are not in policy. Should they be? That's an excellent question that I think I would [Music] um I think I'd really like to hear the board's discussion as we go through it. I think there's a danger in putting so much in policy that we don't leave oursel room in negotiations. And there's also a danger in having multiple negotiated agreements that have different language on the same topic. So I definitely know our team is spending time in negotiations right now and just looking at alignment that will improve

028our ability to really do what our students and our educators need. I think is that balance that we're trying to strike. Lolia, I was curious about um when the four instructional days began being set aside as exchange days for those parent teacher conferences. Do we have any idea on that? Well, anecdotally, I can say I do remember when I came back to the district in 2003 as a teacher. I believe that I remember they existed at that time. Dr. Anderson, you know, I will say that um you know there multiple aspects of this I think at some point were agreed upon and implemented but not um memorialized in policy or the negotiated agreement for reasons beyond my understanding. Right? I think that you want to make these commitments, right? you you make it clear, you

029put it you you commit, you put it in policy, you put it in negotiated agreement, right? Because as we you know, we were going through the calendar last fall, right? You know, we were like, okay, well, where is the language on why this happened, when it happened, what the intent was, right? And so because that could make a difference on where those days sit in the calendar. Are those days designed, they were exchanged for what? And so there wasn't anything that we were able to find within our our documents. So um I do think that it is a a long-standing practice. Um but uh at least 20ome years ago Beth, you guys are all saying a lot of the things I'm thinking which makes me feel like we have some good synergy here. Um this

030less of a question, more of just a comment. When preparing for today's meeting, I did notice as we as you know that the there's a lot of inconsistencies and our policy is pretty py. Um there isn't a lot nothing is codified for the protection of staff community. I think we should try to strive to really make our policy reflect our priorities. And I know we're going to get into guiding principles next. And I know that's I think that is sort of our priorities, but I guess I would encourage us to really think about what are our priorities, what is the purpose of this policy and that's the lever we can really pull at this point. So that's all. So I'm glad we're having this conversation. Kitty. So, just for perspective on exchange days, now I

031never taught in BBSD, but I started out teaching in 1977, and no place I've worked has not had this. So, it's very longstanding across districts. I was 12 when I started teaching. You know, Kathleen would I agree 100% that we really need to get consistent across all of our policies, state law, negotiated agreements and that the discrepancies was was eye openening to me to see that language spelled out and see how they were a little bit different and so I getting to a place of alignment and clarity is really important and allowing that flexibility and there are some places in our current policy I wonder if flexibility could be expanded on. I wonder about the date that we have set. Example policy doesn't talk about November 30th as a deadline. Does that having a deadline

032for calendar adoption, is that a benefit or is that a disservice and being really specific around that? So, that's an area of flexibility that I was wondering about. Our policy talks about K12. It doesn't talk about our preschoolers and so having a carve out that talks about calendar for preschoolers. I know it's very different, but mentioning them feels really important because we are educating preschoolers. The CASBY example policy talks about how different schools can have different schedules. It's our princip it's our priority to be consistent, but I do know our charter schools can have different calendars from us and that creates confusion and misunderstanding. So maybe speaking to the fact in our policy that some charter schools might have different calendars than BVSD and calling that out because that is an area of flexibility that

033we currently have are some things that really caught my eye in the very beginning. And then getting consistent around holidays. What are holidays that the state of Colorado observes and requires us to observe and what holidays are there flexibilities around or maybe are not as significant because our students are in school but may have staffing implications at those times. So thinking through those were pretty like rose to the front of mind thinking about consistency and flexibility for students and staff. So, those are a couple things these first couple slides that I thought were worth highlighting, Jason. Um, yeah, thanks, Nicole. So, yeah, in addition to kind of the things you brought up, I just wanted would want to second what Beth said about, you know, I read this policy and it just is kind of,

034you know, it's like here's basically the law. This is what we require. But I hope at the end of this and obviously that discussions to come is we'll have you know an additional paragraph or something like that where we really talk about what we value when we put together the calendar. So whatever that is whatever we decide um you know in addition to the recommendations from my colleagues I really would like to you know I think best suggestion of you know what what is what is the point of all this and what is our goal in addition to yes we have to have a calendar by this date and these holidays are observed. Um, so again, just to kind of help set the table for that conversation, I think that's a great point. So, thanks

035Beth, Alex. Um yeah, I was uh Nicole, you made me think about um also Boulder Universal and whether um what's going on in our schools where there are not synchronous um in terms of this and does that matter uh tangentially related policies around opportunities for remote learning when necessary? Does that need to be included in this policy or is that housed elsewhere? thinking about pandemic time policies around remote learning. I don't know where that needs to live moving forward. Should we need to exercise at any given time remote learning? That's partly a question like do we have a policy around that? Does it live elsewhere? Um thank you for that question. So during the pandemic um CDE the department of education actually adopted some flexibility for school districts to specifically accommodate um remote instruction for

036an unfortunately long period of time. That flexibility no longer exists. It was not made permanent with CDE in this district. We adopted those definitions through resolution that allowed us to capture that time. um uh resolutions specific to the pandemic, but I do think that this policy would be the place to address it if it wasn't sitting separately in a resolution. So, I think it would be a good idea to claim the flexibility that exists under state law to address emergencies. Board members, any I know we might have more questions and thoughts as we continue to work through this presentation, but any questions before we move on to the next round of slides. Dr. Anderson, not a question, but just a I guess a reminder for us as we develop this as as we get into

037guiding principles, which again there will no be no longer guiding principles. It'll be policy and regulation that guide this. Um, you know, I think the the trick You know, in my time here in BBST, going through this process is balancing the competing interests of stakeholders and knowing and understanding that all stakeholders are important, right? And creating the balance. I think that you know when I first when I first started I think Robin started this whole process my first year if I remember and I started asking some qu and people are like just that's this is the process don't don't mess with anything right this gets us to a calendar that that then we're able to pass uh which you know leads me to believe that that the development of this is at one point and

038maybe some of the timelines and deadlines where there's the hand ringing that can go on between competing interests and then which interests do you listen to and prioritize? And so I just want to be mindful that while these might not be the principles that we choose and we may prioritize these things in different ways that there is this balance of employee, student, parent, community, separate community groups, um employers, uh you know, neighboring districts, uh um where people may live. like there's all of these competing interests and typically when when you're asked about those things they're lifted up at one at a time without the collective whole right so there is this interconnectedness with um with some of the things that have been happening but it doesn't mean that's where it lands but I just wanted

039to just bring that forward before I turn Rob turn the presentation over to Robin who is going to kind of talk through the ways that we've done things and she'll do that for a few slides and I think I I pick up on slide 11 if if I recall. Can I sorry Robin before you go one more question I had in the CASBY example policy it talks about what counts as instructional minutes and they have a lot of examples and then there is a little box that talks about what may or there's some discretion and I know with our secondary or with our high schools we spent a lot of time working out those calendar options and some of the some of that discussion talked about where lunch the passing period minutes and so I

040would really like to rely on the expertise These are the staff that developed those calendars and spent some time to inform any policies around instructional minutes like is it passing period before lunch? Does that count as lunch or as an instructional minute? Those details I think staff really are the experts and having to have this high school schedule conversation. You've really been steeped in those. So whatever expertise you can pull forward would be helpful for our public also to understand. Should we ever have to talk about bell schedules again? Having something in policy to explain why like the state's instructional minutes and what can and cannot count will help any of future potential conversations around bell schedules. So being clear there would help helpful. Thanks Robin. I'll turn it over to you. No problem. Good

041evening everyone. So this slide depicts the previously referenced guiding principles that are also to date used in this process. So these were developed before I inherited the oversight of this process and depending on who you ask they were developed either in the late as or the early 2010s. Um what I know is that it was before my tenure of facilitating this process. So board members as we know as Dr. Anderson referenced these have existed outside policy or regulation. What we do know is that each one of these guiding principles is is grounded in priorities voiced by the state stakeholder groups and they were part of this creation. However, that occurred at a different point in this district when many of our practices were grounded in legacy agreements and merely documented as such and not part

042of the way in which that we've evolved into our present state, which is the consistent review of policy and regulation. So, my purpose in sharing this information really is to describe the history um as we know it about why and how these guiding principles came to be. So over time and now we know that when I say over time I mean decades, right? Um we've worked to create an academic calendar that primarily meets the the needs of students but also the needs of families and staff. Um so each one of these guiding principles came to be after a collaborative task force work of a representative group but also have come from students. So the primary example that I remember was and I still remember that day is when a group of high school students came

043before the board. some of them with almost teary please of could we please have first semester end in December prior to winter break because they talked a lot about the stress of spending winter vacation uh finishing assignments studying for exams and parents at that time also spoke to the board about how difficult it was for them as a as families to enjoy winter break knowing that um primarily at the high school level but also at the middle school level that their children were dedicating so much of their winter break to to school tasks and not vacation tasks. And so it was at that point that it was decided that first semester would end in in December and not January as it had previously been. So all that to say that over time there have been

044a lot of conversations, a lot of collaboration, even some tears that have gone into the creation of what we have considered to date to really be the foundational values of our academic calendar that are uh factors that we use as the baseline in creating draft calendars. So at this juncture then important questions to ask would be as as we move forward would we embed some or all of these in policy and if so are all of these guiding principles that to date have been weighted equally will they or will they not be weighted equally moving forward? Um, and as you weigh these questions, board members, we know that there are also additional considerations that are taken into account as the realities of what it is for us as a district to exist in a larger

045ecosystem of metro uh district metro area districts and districts across the state of Colorado. Um so our process to date for drafting the academic calendars also takes into account factors like those that you see on this slide. Uh for example uh while district front while different front range districts have slightly different calendars based on their context they all more or less in the neighborhood begin in August and um finish around Memorial Day. Uh and this is also relevant based on that next bullet is that we also interface with other statewide organizations like CHASSA Colorado high school athletics and activities uh association which coordinates high school sports determines activity seasons practice parameters context contest schedules etc. Um, in addition, we know that nearly 63% of our employees live within the boundaries of BBSD, but we also

046know that about 18% of our employees, both licensed and classified, live within St. Vine Valley School District. And the next area following that is Westminster Public Schools with merely 4.5% of our employees residing there. So, alignment with St. Rain's calendar up to this point has been important for our staff members as we know that it can be a challenge for staff members to report to work if their children are off school on a different calendar than than we have. Um, furthermore, both BBSD and CU Boulder being the largest employers in Boulder County have it have a great deal of interface and therefore the alignment of our calendar with theirs has also traditionally been important. Um, another factor that we take into consideration is the placement of professional learning days throughout the year. Knowing that in

047order to maintain the high quality professional learning and professional practices that our staff members have, we know that now we cluster professional learning in pre-ervice days before school starts, but we know that it's also important to have opportunities for professional learning throughout the year in order to deepen understanding of practice and understanding of the use of curricular materials. Um in addition um and focusing on that final bullet of other considerations that we take into account as well while first semester is always a little bit shorter than second semester uh we do work to balance the length of those two semesters and so that is yet another factor that we discuss um and look at. So as we said you know we ground our calendar development primarily in what is best for students but also wanting

048to take into account the needs of all of our stakeholders as Dr. Anderson said so that we can consider and incorporate to the best of our ability those priorities and perspectives because they are all puzzle pieces that at the end of the day must come together to create a coherent calendar for everyone. So, one question that often comes up and primarily from adults who grew up in other areas where the school year starts later and ends later is um why it is that our calendar starts in August and ends in May like like others in in the state of Colorado. And so therefore, at the request of the board, families were surveyed in multiple years about the current beginning and endofear dates and a preference for maintaining an earlier start date and an earlier end

049date to the school year or a preference for starting later in August or September and ending in June. And as you can see here that uh in both 2022 and 2024 in both queries BBSD families who responded responded with nearly twothirds support for current calendar versus changing to a later calendar. On this side, you see the timeline and process that we have used to date, which serves really as a baseline for discussion around consistencies or changes to the process that are needed as we move forward for future academic calendar development. So, as you know, because of the development feedback revision processes are so involved and have to date taken the better part of a year, we generally create two years at a time. However, in addition, this also benefits families and staff for future planning

050as they are looking at calendars that are coming up for for themselves and for their families. So, uh traditionally this process begins in January when I come before the board and present the draft academic calendars which is merely the current the current calendar agreements overlaid onto the dates as they shift slightly one or two days in in future calendar years. Um, in addition, we try when we can to incorporate feedback that we have received in that two-year gap between approval of academic calendars. And probably the best example that I can think of is in the 2526 and 2627 calendars, we incorporated a fall break because of significant feedback that we had received from our staff, but also from some parents about the need for incorporating a fall break into our academic calendar. Uh in moving

051on in February I usually present the draft uh calendars and the development process with the board followed by represent by uh presentations to the representative groups that you see in the box on the upper right hand part of this slide as these representative groups are given the opportunity to provide feedback and offer suggestions for revisions. After receiving what is consistently a significant amount of feedback, uh the calendar task force reviews the information and has really thoughtful and thorough conversations about whether or not the feedback that receive that we receive uh is in alignment or not with board policy, is in alignment or not with our negotiated agreement, is al in alignment or not with state law, and finally in alignment or not with our foundational values as referenced to this point in the guiding principles

052and therefore this calendar task force which is made up of a representative group of BBEA leadership, parent or parent representatives, principles, district leaders including representatives from HR and professional learning and then the group discusses any ripple effects because what is absolutely true since this is a kaleidoscope of interwoven factors that come together to create this calendar when you pull on one thread, it inevitably pulls on a multitude of other threads that are part of this Rubik's cube. And so therefore, what the task force does is talks about ripple effects and positive or negative impacts of any changes to the academic calendar for students, staff, or families. And so then at the end of this revision process, a finalized draft is then brought back before the board for final study and final approval. And so with

053that very simplified summary of what is an incredibly complex uh scenario of interwoven factors, um I will turn it back over to Dr. Anderson. Before I move on, Robin, I'm just assuming that the makeup of the task force is not codified anywhere as well. Correct. So that's just something we've always been doing. Well, as long since sometime around Y2K, actually the the task force uh is newer um as a structure uh than the development of the guiding principles because there was not previously a structure for evaluating feedback and whether or not it is in alignment with the the the do the the documents and the the principles and the foundational values that I stated. So I know for a fact that at least the three rounds of cal calendar development that I have facilitated that

054is true. Um but exactly how far back in history that goes I'm not sure but it does give you a balance after you've tried to consider all different stakeholders then a representative group of stakeholders has to look at it collectively at the end before bringing it forward to the board. So, so that so that does provide some balance. Yes, absolutely. Because it really takes a deep understanding of the way in which each one of these factors interfaces with everything else and to take the time to really study what the ripple effects are or what the the positive or negative impacts for students, staff, and families are because if you change one thing, you change a whole bunch of other things and there are always implications. So absolutely and so this gives a variety of perspectives

055the opportunity to come together and really have discussions for the purpose of creating both the most coherent calendar but the one that addresses and meets the greatest number of those competing priorities that we've been talking about that are expressed by our different stakeholder groups. And getting back to Dr. Anderson's previous point about being incredibly transparent and codifying all of this. The process and being clear on who's in that review committee and how that works is going to be an important piece to consider moving forward. So when folks have questions, we can very clearly say, well, these are the folks involved in making those decisions at the very end. So something to consider. Is this a good time for questions or did you want to do your ju just to clarify? So as we think about

056feedback, there's really kind of four buckets. The fourth being this task force bucket that that maybe we didn't lift up on the slide, so I just wanted to lift that up. Right? You know, does the timeline make sense or is is the board um uh just neutral on the timeline, allowing staff to say, you know what, you all figure out the timeline that's going to work. You're doing a lot of the leg work, right? That could be a piece of feedback. Uh the guiding principles, right? Do we want to have a set of similar principles? Um, and then which ones do you want to, you know, is there a ranked order of principles? Like first do this, then do these things or these are the three things that are most important or these are all

057the same weight, right? Because that changes how we would engage a task force or gain feedback, what have you. Like like the board gets to direct and guide that. Um and then uh you know the process, right? So does it do we start with staff coming up based on what we have then bringing it to the board? Is there a mandated public collection of information every two or three years to make sure that our calendar is still in in sync with our community? Is that a survey? Is that what could that look like? You know, is that something that you embed in there? And then does it still make sense to align with CU St. Frame? Um I will say one of the years we passed the calendar then we made an adjustment to spring

058break because it was out of alignment with CU because CU hadn't set their spring break yet but because of the timelines we had to meet the board's timelines on the calendar and then CU set a spring break that was different than the district. Then we went and changed the spring break and heard about the negative impacts of that for how long? The whole time. Right. Yeah. We're still hearing it. I'm not. So, well, yeah. So, uh, so in any event, um, I think that we could we could stop and then as you give feedback, just frame it into one of the buckets on your individual thoughts. We'll take notes. And then, um, and if you're like, look, these are only the other stuff's fine. just you can keep it the way it is or or

059recommend something better if you think you can, but these are the things that we think are different and we care about. Then I think then then we'll be in good position to take this back, begin to draft something, and then start to bring it back to the board for review, study, and then action. I'm going to shake up that process a little bit just to help with the notekeeping. I would like for us board members to talk about timeline first. Just working through these consecutively, share all of our thoughts on timeline, move into guiding principles, and then alignments. So, as staff are trying to take notes, it's a little bit clearer. With that, any questions or thoughts on timeline? Lania, why don't you say that in the mic, please? I would rely on staff there,

060as you said, doing most of the leg work. And so I would be at your guidance. I feel the same. Jorge, I have more of a general question. Um, not so much on timeline, but just in general. Um, you know, I had the opportunity to serve on this on the task force years back as as a parent and I remember telling people about the process and they're they're because they're like, "Oh, how's that?" You know, like, "Oh, we need to change this. We need to change that." And then I told them what you just covered right now and they were like just shocked about the amount of feedback, the process, the detail, how involved it is and and the different parts that come into the developing the the the calendar and then what happens when

061you move one piece. Um and so I I really appreciate the focus on transparency. Um, and so this is more general comment in terms of given our conversation around policy and keeping it streamlined and making it really clear being really I I I want to make sure that the information is available, but I'm not sure if it's policy or in regulation or somewhere else where this information belongs and for us to be thinking about that as we kind of go through that process. Um, because I want to make sure we have the flexibility. Um, but also make information available to everybody. Dr. Anderson, you you could embed in policy that this process is clearly stated on our website and available for accessible accessibly available for any and all community members. That would be a way

062that you all could act on that to ensure both things happen. Alex, yeah. Um, I'll be clear. I I don't have very many dogs in this fight at all in terms of what the calendar eventually looks like. Um, but I will say uh in terms of timeline from this uh most recent process, it's apparent to me that other board members have feelings about stuff that are strong and that it would be good if the timeline included that opportunity for input early so that all the other stakeholders knew where what the board was thinking because otherwise the board ends up becoming having uh very constrained what they could do and don't have the input and that's likely to lead to a conflict which frustrates the process. So I don't know what the degree how do you

063do that seems like the staff would have the time I agree in the staff creating the timeline but there should be a time for a substantive board discussion that's captured and caught or then articulate it to the rest of the stakeholders so it's not a surprise Dr. if you're interested in that, Kitty. So, you could take one of two approaches as a board. Set it and forget it, right? These are the priorities like we're setting this, right? And then future boards, if they wanted to adjust this, they'd have to amend the policy. That's one way. Other way would be as part of the timeline and process, a board work session on whatever these principles, what we want to call them, reviewing and reapproving or or or reviewing this policy prior to each one of these

064cycles starting to ensure that everything's okay. So you could and a and a future board could pull it up like this board has pulled it up and said, "Well, that time out. You want to look at this?" I think you could do it either way. Yeah. Just for a bit of a historical perspective because my kids were in school be when we were ending um first semester in January. And the other piece that wasn't mentioned besides it being stressful for kids is educationally it does not make sense to take more than a week off and then have two weeks in a semester. that just, you know, it it's not really sound policy. Um, we used to always have spring break as the last week in March, the last full week in March, and it doesn't

065have to be that, but the the thing that was nice as a parent was knowing that it will always be this. The problem was it didn't necessarily coordinate. In fact, frequently it did not coordinate with CU, which is a big problem. But if there is a way to work with CU and St. Brain to say here is, you know, this week is going to always be spring break for all of us. And I know we can't make anybody do anything, but it makes it more predictable for families. Um and so you know that would be a good thing to have because you know we remember the feedback we got when we you know at the last minute changed spring break people were not happy about it. Um, I want to also commend staff for the

066huge amount of work that is put into developing the timeline, the process, the 10 feedback groups. 10. I'm doing this, it's this. Um, that I think the district is doing everything possible to get feedback from as many stakeholders as possible. Um, and I'm in favor of, you know, the what Rob said is, you know, have your principles, have here's who we're working with, and let it play out. Um, it's not real helpful to have one or two people who just happen to be on the board say, "Well, I'd really prefer if we started after Labor Day, you know, and then we have to have a discussion about it when we know what the community wants." And if we go against what the, you know, the majority and we know what the vast majority of the

067community wants, I think we're just causing problems for ourselves and the community. So I mean I understand people have feel you know strong feelings about it sometimes but I think it's important to recognize the process the work that's gone into it and you know let that guide it and sure there you're never going to have 100% of parents happy that we have this particular day off or we don't have that particular day off but overall we come up with something that's really workable. In the event anybody wants to chime in on some of the Kitty's comments that aren't related timeline, I would like to first wrap up timeline conversation and then we can continue to move on. I want to second my board members third staff should have you are the experts. You've done this

068a long time. The timeline I think really should fall within your court. I would er on the side of less strict rules. We came ourselves into a hard spot on that November 30th hard deadline. Having that hard deadline in the past created some of the problems with the CU calendar and having to make some of those adjustments when we were waiting. So knowing so balancing what those firm deadlines may cause and what the benefit might be to having them your discretion but I sort of heir on what will allow a policy live last longer versus having to tinker with consistency but you guys know working backwards a roughly how long it takes to get stakeholder input roughly how long it takes to kind of take all these things into consideration whatever those things are we

069decide in the this new version of the policy but I think staff I would agree Um, should we I would rely on your expertise, Beth. Beth, I was going to move us on to guiding principles. So, I don't know if you have a timeline thing. Yep. The two things that might be helpful to get feedback on are a do do you build into the process two validation points? One with the board, hey, does this still work for you board? and then one with some type of community data collection that would be around the elements that we set forth forward uh in in some form of a survey, right? And I would if if you were to do that, I would say survey to community first, right? To see what folks are thinking and then that

070future boards would be able to process that and say, "Hey gosh, feels like what we're doing is out of sync with our community, right? let's make some shifts and adjustments before we move forward. Um, if if you wanted to do those things, right? Or again, you could do a set it and forget it and a future board a future board could un dismantle any policy you set like so just to be clear, but a future board um you could leave it up to future boards to figure that out or you could set it in a way that the policy would last, but then you could put these check-in points to guarantee those things. So that I mean maybe a little bit of talk about that would let us know and understand kind of how to

071build this as we move forward. So part of that I think is what is interesting to me is what ends up in this policy would weigh on my how I would like to proceed with those two options depend like if the policy was incredibly flexible or very rigid it might lend itself to a different path forward. And I also think that like the setting and forgetting it, there's benefits to that. This, as we've known, this calendar process is not easy and nobody's ever happy. And if we didn't do that, thinking through what would be a logical surveying every two years and reddrafting guiding principles or the policy every two years may not be in the best interest of the community. So is it like is there a a longer runway where we would check in

072or something that makes more sense with timelines for other things and other policies like JC is every five years now? I I mean is there a consistent rhythm that makes sense that aligns with other PR board practices? So that's where my brain is and I like to hear from other board members to help Dr. Anderson answer this question. Jorge and then Elenia. Yeah, I I think I've got the same sort of concerns. So, I think maybe this might be helpful to come back to at the the last question, right? Depending on what we decide because it really be framed by what we're trying to do. Um, and right now I lean towards let's set the priorities and then let the process play out with as much community input as possible. I like the idea of

073a survey, but a longer run time, right? A couple of cycles over five years and then revisit. But we can come back to that later on would be my preference. Lena, did you have no Okay. So, thumbs up on maybe circling back. Thank you, board members. Next topic on this slide is guiding principles. I'm seeing Beth, Lenia, Jorge, and then Jason. Such a complicated conversation. I appreciate you all. I want to second what Kitty said. I want to thank you for all the work you guys do and our our 10 two handfuls of community um input stakeholder groups. It is really incredible. It is quite the process and Jorge has shared with me in the past too what it what it was like being on the on the task force and like just how much

074work it is. So thank you all for that. That aside, um I did want to talk about guiding principles for me when I when you brought up the bucket of guiding principles. I toggled back to slide nine and I feel like my goal is and I may not articulate this perfectly but my goal is for us to move towards a policy that codifies our priorities. Maybe we don't need this guiding principle document. I don't want to like offend anyone or hurt anyone's feelings about that but I do feel like we need to have it in our policy. And I see right here I like the way it's phrased balance of different stakeholder priorities with a primary focus on students. If you ask me what are we trying to do with a calendar policy, it's that

075balance of different stakeholder priorities with a primary focus on students. Our goal with the calendar and with anything we do should be to focus on students. And so I'm I'm interested in how we write a policy and I don't know the answers. I'll leave that to the experts. I want a policy that is broad enough that it reflects our values, but I mean sorry, broad enough that we have flexibility and tight enough that it reflects our values. So that's my interest. I know that's very big picture and not specific, but I hope that helps. That's where I'm coming from. I like the guiding principles document. That's neither here nor there. And I don't I don't care how it shakes out in terms of documentation. I'll give my um 17 cents on guiding principles. Um, the

076very first thing I will say is that I will never be a fan of doing things the way that we've always done them because we've always done them that way. Don't care. Um, we need to do things the way that makes sense in our times and for our students and our families and our teachers and our district. Um, so now that I've said that, I'll say that um I really really still believe that partial school weeks are a hardship on students because I don't think it helps with regulation and on families. And I understand that the narrative is that the um most complaining parents may not be the most impacted parents on this, but I would really challenge that to say that the most impacted parents may be disenfranchised parents who don't feel like their

077voices matter anyway. Maybe they're working two jobs and they're too tired to call and say, "What am I supposed to do with my kid every other Friday or Monday?" um maybe English isn't their first language. So I really really care about the partial weeks. Second, um I think that professional development days should be highly attended by our teachers and however we have to make a calendar to do that, that needs to happen. And that's part of being a professional. And I won't back down from that. I care about our teachers a lot, but I have been a professional in other circumstances than here and I was expected to attend meetings and I attended them. Um, the third thing I will say is I don't believe that we understand what the community wants in terms of

078when school starts and when school ends. I think Alex can inform me on the ends size here of our survey, but I continue to hear Jason's point that our climate is changing and we send kids back to school when it is hotter than snot. And I think it matters. I think it matters to elementary school kids. Absolutely. And if you can't send them out to the playground because they're going to get burned on the slide, it doesn't make me feel good. Um, and I also am a I grew up here living through Christmas break where I had to study for finals and I'm alive to tell the tale and I think it's doable if that's the right thing to do for our climate. So, um, I will be one of those people who really cares

079about these issues. And, and once again, I will say it really clearly, just because we've done it one way isn't the reason to keep doing it that way. And we can be leaders just like we were on cell phones. So, if we need to be changing when the school year starts, so be it. Let's be leaders. I have Jorge and then Jason and then Kitty. Uh, thank you. Yeah, I agree. I like the guiding principles. I think that's important to kind of be really clear about what priorities we we set. Um, and I think these are a good a good starting point. I think these are um these are the things we should be focusing on. As always, I thought that they're really they're really clear. Um, and I do like the aspect of getting

080as much community input as possible through the different groups, but I like the idea of doing the survey as a regular basis as a part of this process to get that upfront feedback um about where people are in terms of what they want and then that follow through about once they've seen the calendar to get that feedback. I think that's critical at both stages. So, I just want to encourage that part of the process. Um, yeah, I don't have a whole lot more to add to Lilenia's points. I really agree with everything she said. I'm one of those people that didn't grow up in Colorado and so I moved to Colorado. I obviously have elementary age kids and a middle schooler and a preschooler. Um, but I continue to be baffled by the fact that

081we go back to school when it's, you know, I mean, I've been here eight years and I feel like August is now regularly in the 90s and now potentially in the hundreds. And so to the points that Lenny made about kind of climate impact impact on our youngest kids particularly uh and then kind of thinking down the road to the future, you know, we're not getting cooler August, we're not getting cooler Septeers. And so to me, you know, when I think about these guiding principles, you I guess kind of to my questions. I look at the one about ending the the semester before winter break and I understand Kitty's points and the history and understand and very sympathetic to high school students needs, but it seems to me that that is despite being on a

082list of multiple things like that is the thing that really drives the calendar. Like if you if CU changed their calendar to another a different kind of calendar where it wouldn't line up where our first semester ended the winter break, like then we would have to like then we'd have to choose between our guiding principles. And to me, it should be something we consider, but it shouldn't be our guiding principle. And to me, that's the one that drives the the entire calendar. And I am, like I said, I'm very sympathetic to it. I think it's something we should consider, but I don't think it should be the driver of our calendar. I know there are other things, but in practice, that really drives our calendar, it seems to me. Uh, and so I think I

083would dep prioritize that one and say great if it works, but also like Lane, I grew up having to take finals, you know, both in high school and college in January. Uh, I mean, I think we all survived and I think kids would be fine and would adjust. Um I am also sympathetic to the surveys results but at to Lena's point that was you know 4,000 which is not a small number of respondents but at the end of the day we're we have 30,000 potentially closer to 30,000 families and it's to me a small percentage of people that responded and so again that's one input and one thing we should consider but I don't think that should drive our decision-m um and I think to Beth's point about kind of the the the the goal

084of and I forget the language about benefiting um you balance different stakeholders um you know to would benefit all students. So I think when we have a policy that is really driven by one at one of our grade levels and that's high school and not then a corresponding policy that really focuses on our youngest kids who are the ones I think that are most impacted by 95 degrees on the playground in August or in September. Like I I think we need to balance that. So whether that's dep prioritizing that particular principle or adding an additional principle that would say you know we need to factor in the realities of climate change realities of our of our current weather uh as we develop the calendar. I think we need to balance that and I think this

085current list of guiding principles is heavily weighted towards one one group of students and not to the benefit of all our students. I you know I am so um appreciative and Robin the detail you went through about all the process and the 10 different um you know groups that have input and how long this takes and the various stakeholders but I also you know I am also very much in line with Lenny's point of just because it's been done that way and just because it's hard doesn't mean that we don't have to kind of rec it doesn't mean we're blowing it up. It's like we should let's let's think about some other things in addition to you know this one priority of ending the semester before winter break. And so I know I'm a lonely

086voice. I when this first came up, you know, probably a year ago, I kind of innocently asked these questions and I had I've received more mail from folks about that particular issue than anything else. But I also we also got a lot of angry emails about cell phones and I think we made the right call despite maybe surveys or you know number of people number of folks that emailed and so I I feel really strongly about this as well. You know, I'm talking about this point. And I agree with all of the things Lena mentioned in terms of professionalism and attendance at professional development days um and limiting the the number of partial weeks. It's really hard on working families and our district I don't think is uh does as best as good of a

087job as it could in really supporting working families. So I'll stop there. I know folks have thoughts on this, but I really think I really feel strongly about that point about balancing the needs of all of our kids and not just high school kids. Kitty and then I'll jump in. So I have a couple of questions. Rob, is there any reason to think that these surveys that were done in 2022 and 204 24 are not valid? I don't I don't know that that they're not valid. I think that it's just a sample population, but it's not a random sample. So uh to the extent that that we've given the surveys, but survey out who wants to take it, they take it. who doesn't want to take it doesn't take it versus something that would be

088more statistically accurate would be more of a random sampling right and and you've seen us do this with uh you've seen us do this with some of the feedback on declining enrollment where we engaged Mellin to do some random sampling I think that we have the ability to do that to get to make sure that uh the feedback comes from a balance of stakeholder groups I think that there's ways we could give that survey for it to be more stat statistic ically accurate. Uh, but the way that the survey was given, the way a lot of surveys are given, right? Folks who want to respond respond. Those who don't don't. You know, you hope people don't try to stuff the ballot box and figure out a way to respond multiple times. But those are the

089risks associated with just giving out surveys. So, it's possible we could get more robust information, which I think would be good. Um, one thing one might assume about a voluntary survey is that the people who cared about it are the ones who responded. Now, do you know that 100%? No. You know, it's possible people cared about it and missed it somehow. Um, but to the extent that we know what our community wants, I think it would be really foolish if if this holds the twothirds to one-third to go against what twothirds want. And I think some of the issues about end, you know, starting later and ending the semester later is we fixed a problem and now we're now there's push to unfix it. It was definitely a problem before because I rem you know

090I was a parent in the district when this was going on. Um the piece about partial weeks if we is it possible to have zero partial weeks? Okay. because I also historically remember February used to have all partial weeks. So I know the district has improved on that. Now can we have fewer? I don't know. I would leave that to staff to figure out what is the the absolute fewest amount of partial weeks we could have because it it is difficult for families and especially if they don't have like sack where the kids are still going to the same place and they're you know taken care of. Um there was another point I was going to make. I can't remember. So, I was going to ask Lilenia, do you believe that this these um community

091preferences are wildly out of sync? I don't think that the NS size is probably giving us the information we need. Okay. I I think Alex would better answer that. Who knows? I mean, well, or Rob, too. He also has experience with that. Here's what I would share. This is a board policy. Oh, I do. Right. Right. So, to the extent that um as as as folks that are elected by the community that you have certain responsibilities and authorities as school board members, right? You can choose to get feedback, right? Or you could say this is what we want to do. Um because the board policy sets it. And when and when you prioritize things and to Jason's point, you're absolutely right, Jason. If you say, "Hey, you have to start by this date, end by

092that date, and you have to have all these holidays off, and you've got to align with these folks." Like, there's really I mean, it's pretty rinse and repeat. You know, we get the feedback, but once you press it against the priorities, right, the calendar is 95% set. Was that Would you say that's accurate, Robin? Uh, so you know, so, so that is true, right? So, like while they're equally prioritized, some are absolute, right? and some aren't absolute. Uh again, you know, you can you can ask folks what they think, right? You can bring your own perspectives to the table. You know, what you set as the priorities was what will drive what we do. And when we engage folks, we won't be asking them about your policy. We'll be implementing the policy as you've said

093it. Right? And that's how governance works, right? people elect you, you hire me, you set the policy, I delegate to staff to be able to bring this forward, I check it, and then we bring it back. So, um, like that's how the how like the nuts and bolts of this will work. Uh, you know, do I do I think we could be more statistically accurate with surveying if that becomes part of the process? Absolutely. Right. Do you know do do would would our community pay more attention if they knew that this was more of a highstakes survey than what do you think when they know things aren't going to change it? I think that changes things significantly. I don't know which way it breaks. Like I don't know. I can't tell you. Like that's the

094trick when you ask people, right? They're going to tell you what they think. And if that is against maybe what it is you'd want to do, right? You do you ask people like I mean that's I mean that's the question. So piece that was it was climate that I wanted to talk about. Um, you know, having grown up or at least the second half of my childhood in Phoenix, I mean, it got down to the 90s in October and we did not have shade on the playgrounds. And I'm not saying, you know, I walked five miles in the snow to school and back uphill both ways. But just as a different perspective, I think we should do everything we can to make sure kids are safe and comfortable considering what the weather is and there's

095the ability to add shade structures. Um, everybody has water bottles now. That did not used to be the case. You know, in my generation, you didn't do that. And just more perspective, I have a friend who's in Phoenix and her daughter started school in the beginning of August. So, and we have and that's one reason we have air conditioning in all our schools, all our schools that are not up in the mountains is is because of that very concern because it is very difficult to learn if the temperature is too high. But I think there are ways we can mitigate in terms of providing enough shade for kids to be outside during the warmest part of the year. So I I what I'm saying is I don't think that should hold us back from doing

096you know being able to end the semester early or in December because educationally that's a better choice than you know sure we survived we survived all kinds of things. We survived you know not having car seats too but nobody would say let's go back to that. Now, I'm not equating when you end the semester to car seats, but I mean the I it's the idea of, you know, we know better so we can do better. Um, I would be in favor of getting um a more statistically significant input from the community, but I think it would be folly if you had seven schoolboard members and say you have seven members who all have kids in school who if we get the same kind of results on what the community wants in terms of when to

097start and when to end. If we went against that, I think I mean if I were a community member, I'd be really upset about that. here we know here's what we want but the board saying no that's that's not what I want so so yes and I think this is a survey having an accurate survey is really important and it's only important and valuable if the board is willing to listen to the results so if if that's the case and we move forward with Melan I think that's great as a parent of a high schooler my beall end all is winter break people I know like the thing that they would give up last is ending the semester before winter break. My kiddo, if we're going to use personal anecdotes, like didn't get grades back

098through through winter break and was stressing the whole time not seeing grade posted, having to study for midterms or having waiting for college, like having their colleges that they're applying to, waiting for exams be posted. It does create a hardship. The other thing I would say is we have to be mindful. Part of the CASBY example policy is looking at what our neighboring districts are doing, what the state is doing across the state of Colorado. We start in August. We end typically in May. CHASSA the organization sports start in August and there's funny rules about when you can start practicing based on when your school starts. So some districts are actually moving their start dates earlier so they can get more practice time. So you're seeing some flexibility. So if we had made a significant

099change later, our student athletes would have to be back in August. Match play games, all that stuff starts early August, the first week of our school schedule. So it's not just finals and it's not just us. We are in a context and some of our priorities talk about our neighboring school district. So we aren't in a bubble. Taking it all into consideration to me I think is important with the guiding principles. I again I'm coming back to flexibility. I look at the Memorial Day principle. Memorial Day can happen on the 22nd of May. It can be the 31st of May. Why can't it just be end in May? Why does it have to be before Memorial Day? How can we create some flexibility? Right now, most of our staff that don't live in BBST live

100in St. Brain and 10 years from now, maybe they live in Adams or Westminster. Could the language say taken to coordinate calendars with the University of Colorado Colorado Boulder and neighboring districts that are a large percentage of our staff work in so it's more flexible. So today it serves our need for St. Brain. In the future it could serve our needs differently. So those are some things I'm looking at when I look at these guiding principles. I feel like the testing one is pretty obvious and the state gives us a huge testing window. I don't for me that does I don't understand why that has to be a guiding principle if you can test all of a April and we design our calendars two years in advance why is that there we know I mean

101we can work around that I think it is a value but does it need to be codified when our testing windows are pretty big and I have a question there a little bit too and how that relates to our instructional minutes in high schools testing week is like a second spring break you come in for one day out of the whole week to take your PSAT your SAT if you're a senior you get the whole week off. How does that play into instructional minutes versus calendar days? And would we need to outline that in our future policy? So, that's a question I'll pause for and then I have a couple things. Yeah, I think that that that we're going to have to as as we as we march towards, you know, increasing instructional minutes. That's

102something we've had conversations around. Um but like any big change right lots of push back around schools have have have structured themselves in a way where they only have to spread their staff amongst all the kids who have to test which leaves staff potentially in avail unavailable to teach kids who aren't testing. Like it's a logistic because you need you depending upon how many kids are testing. if you're testing the whole school and you want to have good testing um conditions, those things can kind of impact one another. I will say it's something that that we need to look at and it's something that we we talked about adjusting then we then based on feedback we didn't adjust as much. Um I'm not even sure where we are with it right now. Um other than

103I have a senior and I know what you're talking about. Um uh so uh so in any event, I do think that that's something for adjustment in the future. But uh like I think we would probably need the flexibility to make that work with the idea that we're maximizing instructional minutes by also but also providing schools what the resources that they need to be able to test thousands of kids at the same time. And I hear that and maybe that's amplifies the argument of not having it in there because you wouldn't want two things are directly in conflict with each other in the same policy. I think it just begs a question about what happens during that time. So those are some of the big things that come up and I'd already mentioned prek and

104thinking about charter schools in these guiding principles and then I don't know with conversational professional development I can see times in which frontloading PD could be incredibly helpful. Let's say we had to roll out new curriculum and multiple new curriculum and maybe you want to frontload it. I don't know h that the rules around the PD other than how the PD days are like where they're supposed to fall and if there's flexibility or not I think articulating that like does it have to be divided in half. I I would love to just see flexibility at the discretion of the staff developing the c calendar based on the conditions of the time but I don't know if there's things that get in the way of that. So for me, just thinking through some of those things

105and trying to futureproof this policy so boards aren't revising policy every two years. We're on a five-year calendar. You know, revision schedule is important and to make this longer lasting and reflecting to Beth's earlier point. Creating the condition through creating the calendar, using the calendar as a tool to help create the conditions for student success and to support our staff and and there might be some latitude that is required for that to happen. Dr. And then Alex, I would say that when you limit partial weeks, you force PD at the to the and exchange days to the beginning and end of the year because to have PD in, you know, in in October or in February, that's a partial week, right? Kids aren't going to school. Teachers are there to get their professional learning. So,

106and I just depending on what it is you're trying to provide professional development on, right? Like, you know, sometimes it makes sense to have that time, you know, throughout the course of the year. Uh, a refresher like, hey, we've implemented a new curriculum. Teachers have all these issues and challenges they're running into. A one day PD, you can come in, clean a lot of that up. and then you know some of the light bulbs go off as folks have been trying to implement something and then they oh goodness that you know that's helpful. uh so those two things can be there can be tension between those two priorities I would say that uh that is what we'll have to consider and then it's what's happened within the budgets we've adopted right so we adopted budgets

107that limited partial weeks and most of the PD's frontloaded now that right so uh we've never done that before we'll see how it goes we'll see what happens um we feel like that it may actually increase attendance right um just because is right at the beginning of the year. Who's going to take like the, you know, first two weeks, you know, plan big big big time off? Probably not. Uh, will we have people's undivided attention when they're thinking about setting up their classrooms, all those other things? I mean, I've led a school before. I think that there's lots of challenges with that. So, so we'll have a we'll know and understand what happens if we do it and it's it's information we could consider in the future because in these these calendars we we've adopted,

108right? That's kind of what's happened. Alex, and then I think Beth, that did I see your hand again? Yeah. First, I just want to back up and um reiterate my support for Lenia's response about the governing role of a board and elected board members. I also want to uh congratulate us as a board of having a hard conversation and being able to share things about which we have disagreement. That's actually a sign, I believe, of functional deliberation and a good place where people can deal with things. Um, so kudos uh to everyone who's spoken for sharing what they're dealing with. I've said before I don't really have super strong feelings on many of these issues of calendar. I'm sympathetic to all of them to the high school kids stressing out to the climate change needing

109to lead to change to having PD actually happen. I get that this is really hard, but I think a board is appropriate place to have conversations, not an inappropriate place to have one. Otherwise, I hate to say it, but if if if advice means actually you we must accept all advice from process, then we're just a rubber stamp. And I didn't run to be a rubber stamp and I won't behave as one during my term at least. So, I think it's really helpful and healthy to be able to voice disagreement without being told that that's not the role of a board. And I'll always uh support people who want to say something different um during our meetings about what they think. And that'll come up, I think, again, if we have intense discussions about intense

110stuff. And I I believe we're all wanting the priority to be on the focus on the kids. And I hear that in all the different suggestions coming forward that these are things about thinking about mental health, about families, and about the challenges of families raising uh their kids. So, I'm I'm really sympathetic to the depth of this discussion and uh happy to see it. Um, in terms of uh some of the substance, I will just say in the I only have a PhD in political science and you you study inferial statistics a lot, but all I would say is 4,000 people is a lot and only having them vary a half a percent over two years is indicative that there's a lot of people who feel this way and that probably won't change. But to

111Lolenia's point, if I were doing anything over time, I would want to have a better way of gathering information from different types of families. And so if you're going to have sampling, get representative sampling that reflects the full community. Uh I don't know if this uh usually you'd have in a survey like this, you'd be able to identify and share, which they probably can because we're good at this stuff. Uh the demographics of who's responding, the school and the age of the kids, all that kind of stuff would be helpful to know. to Lennenia's point about whether or not this is uh the partial days are helpful or whether or not it's all high school parents or not. So that would be good stuff to know, but otherwise I I don't think we can know

112anything other than that a lot of people like the current start. Um but I will say I'm really sympathetic to coordinating with multiple other systems. I'm really sympathetic to having future policies also encourage future boards to have actual deliberations about it and empower future boards to make decisions. That's why I say that we should share and have this conversation earlier in the process so the other stakeholders know what people are thinking um and so that we're not put in a position of being disrespectful by having a discussion about the things we're elected to represent and say. So, I don't want to be put in a corner of having other again, I don't have strong feelings, but I don't want you six to feel like you're in a corner where it's disrespectful to represent and push

113the things you want to push for. Beth, yeah, I agree, Alex. Such a great conversation tonight and I I agree. I like your word kudos. Kudos for that. Um, I just had a note that I've been kind of hanging on to along the I noted that CASBY's um, policy says that PD days should be planned into the calendar, but our policy doesn't say that. Doesn't say anything about the importance of PD days. When Lenia was talking, that's something that's been on my mind a lot as well, the partial weeks and the PD days. Um, I I would like to see our policy reflect that priority. I've heard clearly from the board that we value that we value professional development for our teachers. We want it to be useful for them and meaningful for them and

114translate to supporting our kids, right? So, I know that's a value of this board and I do see this as an opportunity to reflect that value. Um, I think it should be there. So, Board members, other thoughts on the guiding principles as a first go round. I am excited for the day where we can just refer to board policy and not guiding principles. Uh so yay for us to codifying our values and the community's values on on the calendar. anything that is that we haven't already talked about that is not in this list of guiding principles we might be worthy of consideration based on community feedback that anybody can think of. I will say every year we get students advocating to have the Friday after Halloween off should Halloween follow on fall on a Thursday.

115I know it is not one of the the state holidays, but I do want to acknowledge students. I hear you when you ask for that. I know it's a priority and if it didn't come in contact with partial weeks, maybe we could make that a reality, but that is something I just wanted to acknowledge. We do hear from our students and some school districts do that. The next kind of looking back, jumping ahead onto that slide 12. There was a question about equal importance. I think we have enough board conversation for us to take a take a run at this. Um, I think that this has been really really good. I I um you I agree with with board members and and I agree with Alex. This idea of of of a board who's confident

116enough in its relationship with one another and what we all stand for that we can disagree and still it not be like it's it doesn't have Yeah. You don't have to be disagreeable to disagree, right? And I think that um everybody cares about similar things and care about it in similar but different ways. So we I think we have enough information. This has been super helpful. Uh I think that we are going to move forward in in a with a policy and regulation that's going to be clear and will reflect the the values of this board. And then as I think articulating the process for that feedback and that stakeholder engagement group and having a better understanding of what that process looks like might help inform us on who who which groups we're using or

117if it's or if it's surveys or whatnot. I would say, you know, if we're surveying folks, timing them when we're not actively discussing, you know, well in advance or maybe in the middle of a calendar discussion so people aren't feeling like they're advocating on a specific situation at a specific time, but really what's in the best interest of the community. So thinking through when that that happens in that timeline discussion, I think would also be important. Dr. Anderson, I'll just say where you all were silent on some of these things is where we'll put our input in, right? with the idea that if you were passionate about it, we talked about this for 90 minutes, it would have come out. So, so, so that that'll be the rule the rule of the road on how

118we try to put this together. We'll get with our team and then we'll get this um scheduled to come back to you all. And then one question then I'll go to Alex. Sorry. You know, previously, and I know your list of holidays no longer reflects it added all the holidays observed by the state. Previously we emphasized Veterans Day and celebrating that on Veterans Day itself. Not all school districts do observe Veterans Day. And I think it would be important to clarify right now what law is around observing. And if it's if it used to say celebrating, one could celebrate Veterans Day in class being held at the time. It is celebrating the same of observing. So I'd like some clarity on that because it does result in partial weeks. That is again the conflict between

119our different priorities. So in terms of the state and national definitions of holidays, there definitely in statute is a section of law that says these are identified as the national holidays, but there is no related law that then requires the board to incorporate all of those into a school calendar. I could not find any Colorado law that requires schools to be closed on Veterans Day. Thank you for clarifying that. And because that one often falls on a Wednesday or a Thursday in a time that's pretty disruptive, I think thinking through that and um and taking the time to communicate any potential changes to our community would be important, Alex. Yeah. Um, in looking at the alignment with other areas, I guess, um, I'm sensitive to all the activity stuff, having watched kids in the bands

120on the, you know, on those fields out in August, too, and the need to do that for all the timing. I guess I'm really curious to know if there are any other districts in Colorado that have or are considering taking the actions of earlier start days and figuring out ways to do it. So, I guess one of my requests would be, you know, has anybody done it? which other districts have had discussions about this and considered it and is there anything um if we were uh part of a group of districts that were saying, "Hey, we'd like to change the state fundamentally to address climate change collectively," then that's different than us being the only ones um trying to abandon just make kids do six weeks of sports before school starts instead of three or

121four. So, we might want to find the districts who don't have air conditioning because from what I understand, nobody on the front. So, to my knowledge, nobody on the front range starts after Labor Day um or starts in September. Uh maybe a week here or there, but there are districts that that repeatedly have to cancel school for hot days. And I would say that the impact on our schools is our gymnasiums which do not have now that won't change because Chassa like the sports schedule right it change you know because it gets really hot in the evenings with volleyball especially um so but uh but we can I can put a I can put something out I can actually um contact case to see if anybody's interested in that Jason just Dr. to that point

122and not hopefully it wouldn't not asking for a big but you know potentially looking at the savings of something like that you know in terms of not air conditioning your buildings for two weeks in August and you know what two extra weeks in May or I don't know what that looks like but I would imagine there's some cost savings if you're not if you're starting later and you're ending later and so you know there's obviously I don't know what that looks like but I would be curious to know and without running down a rabbit hole on this I don't think we we we keep pretty good data on that you all have seen our sustainability team I don't think it would be that hard to to guesstimate on a daily basis with average temperatures what

123our utilities cost is in today's dollars. I think that if it's if if it's if it's longer than an RFI then I then I'll come back to but I think it would fall within that range. Kitty. Yeah. Just one more thing about the the temperature. It might be interesting to see what school districts in places that are actually hot do. And I know people who've lived here forever go, "Oh, it's so hot." But as a former resident of the desert in Arizona, it I will not say it's hot unless it's over 100 degrees. Um, but I understand it's still the kids still experiences it as hot. But what do they do in Las Vegas? What do they do in Phoenix and Tucson and, you know, other desert communities where it's routinely in the 110s, you

124know, in August because those are things we could incorporate. I mean, I know there's misting that can be done, shade structures, you know, and clearly the, you know, the AC inside the schools that was really important and we did that. Um, Beth and then Jason. This is just kind of wondering out out loud. I'm hearing a lot of, of course, that we're we're talking about elementary kids being kind of disproportionately impacted by the heat and then high school students being kind of disproportionately impacted by the winter break thing. I don't know if it's a good idea, but I know one of our guiding principles is to have everyone start at the same time. Would it be worth considering what if elementary started later? Is that not something that we could do? No. Okay. If you

125have kids in multiple levels, that would cause a nightmare. It's hard enough if you have a kid at a charter school and the calendar is different. That's hard, Beth. Just trying to think outside the box. I'm just I'm just trying. It was good. And I'm sorry to like that's going to make people not happy. Really? And our bus schedules and all the things. Sorry, Jason. And then Alex. Oh, just just to Kitty's point, I actually worked in Las Vegas schools uh or involved in Las Vegas schools and you know, I think the answer is that they don't go out until October. And that's not I don't think that's the situation we want for our kids and that's you know folks who choose to live or need to live in Las Vegas or Phoenix that's the

126reality but it doesn't have to be our reality and that was my point and understanding you know that it's by comparison it is not Phoenix it's not Vegas but I think looking you know where Las Vegas schools where the kids realistically do not go outside until October is not why I live in Colorado why a lot of people live in Colorado and I think it's not what we want for our kids. Not that you're suggesting that, but just I you know I know what they do in Vegas and it's like I said it's not something I want to mirror here in our district Alex and I'm always happy to embrace uh the reputation as a tree hugger. Uh, but I also believe this is why I continue to bring it up when we talk about

127facilities that I don't think we're replacing our trees at the rate that we should and that in the long-term investment in our kids and in our climate change, we need to figure out how to irrigate them if that's what's necessary for the first 15 years to get more leafy trees out there as soon as we can. Um, and I also believe uh I mean I grew up in Oregon um where again our school calendar is set on the original calendar for harvesting and stringing beans um and not about what's in kids' best interest. So I do think our historical thing is not based on what's good for kids uh and what we would be great to figure out how to change it in the long run. But I'm also uh whether it's about our calendar

128or not, making our schools be comfortable kids for places for kids to play outside is really a value for me in the first place. So there's no reason not to do all those things even if we are starting school in September because September is pretty dang hot, too. And so so is May and June before we know it. Um, so I'm in favor of planting trees, creating mist, creating shade, creating playgrounds that everyone can play on before and after school, which we'll talk about later tonight, and then making those fun places for kids to be. So, and I also agree that we need to plan for our kids um our kids here and their well-being. I would be interested to see data on um health related issues that happen with the students uh by calendar

129too to inform this discussion. see how much heat, stroke, and other uh things are not illness issues we're dealing with because of the heat. Well, board members, I feel like that wraps up our questions and comments on this topic. Thank you to staff members for putting this together, for thinking through some of the challenges and the ways in which state statute, our negotiated agreements, our existing practices that have yet to be codified, all work together to form our current and future PRA po policies around calendar. We look to an update coming up and we will hear DAC recommendations next. will receive some recommendations from the district accountability committee regarding the calendar policy next month. With that, board members, we will take a short recess to reconvene the board to rearrange the boardroom Welcome back everyone.

130The next item on our agenda this evening is a superintendent report. Dr. Anderson, take it away. Good evening, board president Raj Paul board members. Thank you. I'm happy to provide a few uh remarks this evening and for superintendent's remarks. Um so first and foremost, happy Earth everyone. Uh, as as we all know, Boulder Valley School District's very proud of its tradition as a leader in sustainability. Earlier this month, you heard an update from our team about progress we're making towards our many sustainability goals. Anyone who wants to learn more can check out this the video that from the meeting uh earlier this month or the latest news on our website. Focused on creating healthy learning environments and experiences that equip all students and staff with the knowledge and skills to create more sustainable communities. BBSC

131is the place to be green. Today's the perfect day to celebrate that important work. Uh last week, students from Emerald Elementary School and Broomfield Heights Middle School spoke at the Broomfield Council meeting before the council members voted to make April 17th No Place for Hate Day in the city and county of Broomfield. Want to thank um thank the city um of Broomfield and their council members for recognizing our students. Uh No Place for Hate, part of the Anti-Defamation League, is an antibbias program that aims to confront bias and bullying in schools across the country. Students then took the celebration out to their schools and as you could see here, Emerald students signed a no place for hate uh poster and left encouraging messages on the walk leading up to the school's entrance. And at Bloomfield

132Heights, students spoke to their classmates and organized activities over the lunch hour. events also align perfectly with the culture of respect initiative led by BBSD's title 9 student advisory council that encourages schools across the district to celebrate empathy, kindness, and inclusion through student led events during April. I want to thank all of our students who are taking part in these important events this month. Last week, uh, Peakto Peak Charter School celebrated the completion of the school's new K12 performing arts center project converted the former auditor which is auditorium cafeteria. Yeah, we got that uh into a new modern 605 seat auditorium. Students will also benefit from new art room and stage craft area. Project was possible through the generous support of BBSD taxpayers through the building for student success program as well as school fundraising

133efforts. Addition to cutting a ribbon during the event, Peakto Peak students performed part of their show MMA Mia which will take the stage this week April 24th through April 26th. get tickets before they're gone. Good opportunity to get out there to support students and see the finished product in person. And then finally, uh Boulder Valley School District students and families are invited to join us for bike to and roll to school day tomorrow. It's fun, active, and eco-friendly way to start school day. Dozens of celebrations happening at schools across the district. It's a great time to dust off your bike, lace up your sneakers, experience the joy traveling to school on two wheels or by foot, scooter, or skateboard. Hope to see you there. More information is available through the news article on the front

134page of our website bvsd.org. And that's all I have for superintendent remarks this evening. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members, any questions for Dr. Anderson? Seeing as there are none, we will move right along to public participation. The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board does not endorse the comments of any speaker and reminds all who speak that you are responsible for your own speech. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You'll see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional thoughts, you can always email the board. We do read all of those emails. Board members, we have two

135speakers this evening, both of which are virtual. Our first speaker is Mayor Billy Giblin. Hey folks, how are you? Um, thanks for your time. I'm sorry. I was there for a while, but I had to run some errands uh before I get home to put the kids to bed. So, um um I sent you an email today. I just want to follow up. Um again, I'm Billy Giblin. I am father of a a first grader at Net Elementary and a fifth grader at Net Elementary. I'm also a coach in the middle school Nordic ski team and I'm mayor of Netherland. And I want to um just reiterate our invite um for a town hall in Netherland. Um we would host it and meet and facilitate it. And um had a good talk with Alex here,

136Rick, before your meeting. So we have some good ideas of of how to um make that happen. and just really want to looking to move forward and um um and support the decision of the, you know, the final decision of the district with our principal and uh really believe that Caleb, you know, could be a good can be a good choice is a good choice with the proper mentoring and the proper support. We believe the two assistant principles and the dean are key and um and just look forward to continued discussion and to working with the BVSD, working with the community and BVSD to um make our schools thrive. And um I think I think that's everything. Yeah, I mean our one of our community members referred to it as kind of a a call

137for our healing. you know, there's a lot of outcry at those first two meetings and it's time for healing and moving forward. And um I appreciate your time and for me to speak tonight as well as for me and Tanya Kurland to speak last last Tuesday. And I look forward to having you up in Netherland. I came down in person um but I had to go run errands, but I hope to have you all in person in Netherlands soon. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Emily Stites. Hi, good evening. Thank you. I'm a parent of a Monarch High School student and I'm advocating to bring girls flag football to BBSD as a varsity sport in fall 2025. With its rising popularity, including ads during the Super Bowl and

138designation as an Olympic sport, flag football deserves a place as a varsity sport in BBSC. Flag football is the only chassis sport not offered by VBSD and girls flag football is already a chassis sport at 62 other Colorado schools. Currently, the proposed path is to begin a club sport, which requires students to gather interest, find a coach, fund raise, and coordinate field space. As a club sport, only students at that specific school are permitted to join a team, and they can only play other BBSD club teams. The pathway seems overly complex to ultimately consolidate into one or two district-wide teams. We believe the roadblocks presented by BBSD can be overcome if we identify a champion within the district and flag football can be established as a varsity sport in fall 2025. We've identified approximately 15

139interested athletes through word of mouth alone. So there are more than enough players for a team now and in future years to compete with other CHAS schools. We've been told that the cost to launch a Chaza sport in VPSC is about $20,000, but this cost could be offset by grants from various organizations interested in increasing access to flag football. While field space coordination is needed with other fall sports, creative scheduling and use of middle school fields could easily solve this. Though CHASA typically adds sports in the two-year cycle, they are making exceptions for girls flag football due to significant interest as a new sport. If we have a champion within PBSD, we can overcome these challenges and remain the place to be by offering girls flag football as a varsity sport for fall 2025 and

140make this a reality for our students. Thank you for your time and service to our community and students. And I'd just like to thank the other parents that were in attendance at the meeting as well. So I believe they're at least one of them is still there. So thank you. Thank you for that. And yes, they are still here. Perfect. That concludes our our public participation for this evening. Board members, the next item on the agenda is board communication. Board members, who would like to begin? Alex? Yeah, I just have I have two things. Um, I just want to follow up on an observation I had I had the pleasure of making it to the unified basketball tournament. um which I've already talked about how great that is and how much we should all get

141to the next one and the other unified sports events. They are the coolest thing and uh we all need to see the creation and intentional aspects of creating joy and we need to do that more often. Uh but the thing I wanted to share tonight was I I went I walked out a little early. It was lunchtime. Uh I think I saw about 70 kids sitting outside the school. None had their cell phones out. They're in big circles, groups of people talking to each other. um with her uh making eye contact and talking. And then I had to park a long ways away because there were so many people there for the great basketball tournament. And I think I passed about 50 kids um who were going over to the mall to get their lunches.

142And I did not see a single cell phone out the whole time. Everybody not only was not using their cell phone in the school during the day, but rather, you know, people talked about how much, well, they're going to hang out in the sidewalk next to the school and use their cell phones. They were not. they were in a new form of interacting with other teenagers which involved just talking and looking at each other's faces. So, I just want to say how great that was. And I'm I'm looking forward to figuring out a way to observe our other high schools during the lunchtime. And I know as board members, it's hard to figure out how we get there, but I'm I'm really interested in actually observing and seeing and talking to the kids. Uh but

143my my selfish uh confirmation bias showed me that they were talking to each other and not on their phones even when they could have been on their phones. Um secondly, I just want to say I did talk to Mayor uh Giblin this evening and um I want to reiterate uh I support the district's decisions and I think um I wasn't able to make the previous meetings, but I I'm interested in a new phase of discussion uh for Netherland. And what I've really suggested to the mayor, which I think we can work on, is to get leaders from other mountain communities, uh, from other districts, um, superintendents, former superintendent, mayors, board members from a from other similar towns to talk not about like what's going on in BBSD's other schools that Netherland can't have, but what

144are great mountain community schools doing and how are really cool mountain towns supporting them and finding ways to work together to make people want to be in their schools. schools to make their schools do what people want. Um, uh, we could connect Netherlands community to the folks at the Keystone Policy Center that are exploring how to help school districts build affordable housing in the mountains, uh, for their staff. Um, I think we have an innovative community in Netherland. they have a lot of good vision about what to do and I think we can figure out how to partner and I look forward to maybe maybe steering that towards a discussion of like what are the things communities do that want to make their schools great and how do the schools work with the community to

145do that and refocus on um how similar communities overcome the kind of challenges uh that they have and also leverage the assets that our small town like Netherland and its larger community have whether that's exploring, you know, setting up a home school center, whether that's figuring out in the long run, whether they could create affordable housing so that they could keep more staff in the long run. I think um we're in it as a district for the long run. People in the Netherland are in it for the long run and we need to figure out how to build to a constructive future. So, I look I look forward to partnering with folks up there. Thank you for that, Alex. We'll move on to our next item this evening, which is information. We have four information

146items. The first of which is recommend recommendation for dismissal. Kathleen. Yes, board members. Um this is we received information on Monday that uh some court action had been taken on Friday. This action follows receipt of that new information and just as this board has done previously. It's an information item at this time. It puts in place the statutory timeline and allows us to move forward. Thank you for that update, Kathleen. Next information item tonight is board policy exhibit JKA E-E1 student restraint or physical intervention or incident report. Take it away. Thank you. So this is an exhibit to an existing board policy. I believe I put in the item for the board's information. We did recently review and revise and update the the board policy and related regulation. So the updates to this form are

147intended really just to clarify and highlight the essential requirements of that policy and we'll also make sure that we have data that's responsive to the office for civil rights um dataeping requirements as well as CDE. So, these recommendations came forward from a task force that the special education department um oversaw and have the support of our dedicated district trainers in this area. Board members, any questions or comments on this exhibit? Seeing as there are none, we have next on the docket the retirement of board policy exhibit KMA-E, relationship with military recruiters, post-secondary institutions, and prospective employers and high schools. So, tonight we're just retiring this policy exhibit. So, we're giving the board notice consistent with your policy process. really I should have retired this fund or we could have retired it at your last meeting

148where you adopted the replacement exhibit that's attached to our student records policy. Members, any questions or comments on this exhibit? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to our final information item this evening, which is the legislative update. Dr. Anderson, would you like to begin? Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Board members, um session is starting to to wind down. Um we uh the school finance bill is is moving forward. Uh our last opportunity to provide feedback, we were in amend position. I think that we're hoping uh that as this is finalized, there'll be a way to keep track of dollars that are not provided to school districts. Um similar to the budget stabilization factor, um to put that mechanism in place. Um, I will say that uh as we move forward, uh,

149districts are feeling the new school finance act in ways that are making them make choices. I board members, for those of you who are able to read, we contributed to a Denver Post article um earlier this week. Uh, where where ourselves along with with other districts kind of weighed in on what this this new um this new school finance formula actually means. Uh, one thing that I shared with the reporter that that wasn't um wasn't written in the article is that unfortunately I think that when you look at the impacts of this across our state um in many ways this um this new school finance act is neither adequate nor equitable. Uh so our friends in Sheridan School District uh you all remember Johnny Thompson who served here and is now leading their district and

150doing a great job. uh they're going to be basically at even funding in a place that has high high need but because they're small like a rural district but in an urban environment they're not considered rural and so some of those factors that were put into place they're left out from what I understand Adams 14 PBLO 60 also very high needs districts are not having large amounts of new funding and you would think that an equitable fun an equitable formula would take care of them first not forget about them so uh that wasn't in the article. Um, you know, we continue to try to push and and uh for for the right things around Colorado. Uh, we had our first uh negotiation session today with BBEA. Thought it was incredibly productive. Uh, and so we

151continue to to look forward to partnering with them as we look as we move um through um our negotiations with them and all of our other associations. Um and so uh but school of finance looks like it's going to land uh pretty quickly um in a place that isn't as good as we'd hoped and isn't as bad as we'd worried about. So uh and then accountability bill uh if it hasn't landed it will be landing soon. I think that the fiscal notes been the barrier there uh around some of the changes that were hoped for uh and trying to figure out how we could get those things done with no money when a lot of changes cost money. So uh working through that as well. um and some adjustments there. I think there were some

152last minute adjustments that we'll have to take a look at. Uh but those are the two big things that we're tracking um as a district moving forward. Nicole, I'm not sure what you have uh you'd like to add. No, board members, I just wanted to give you a quick update on a couple of the other pieces of legislation that we have taken a stance on. I wanted to let you know that um Senate Bill 2576, the Intoxicating Substances piece of legislation that would limit potency and access to to marijuana and psilocybin products failed. So that bill is done. uh bill we oppose House Bill 1209 the marijuana regulation streamline that is was calendared for today for another reading that seems to be marching forward in a slightly watered down version or a little bit more

153watered down version than what had originally started which is positive but still looking to pass in the legislature they are counting votes to have Senate Bill 86 the protections for social media users be veto proof and they it's unclear if they have those votes. And so if you know folks that you want to lean on, now is the time because that looks like the the governor is going to veto that even though it passed both houses by a two-thirds majority. And then the last of those social media and drugrelated bills was 1287, the social media tools for minors and parents. It's not currently calendared, which given for another reading. So given the degree to which the clock is running out, probably not promising on that one either. So not great news, but that's that's where

154we are on those ones. Any questions on the Alex? Yeah, I just I'd like to reiterate on the accountability bill. Um, one of the other things I'd encourage us to continue looking at in the last moments is um, uh, I believe it uh, in the way it's been drafted in some of the amendments is overpoliticizing the finalization of how actually the accountability system works and putting it a dangerous precedent of having the legislature dictate that specific terms of how like things are calculated in our accountability system. uh which tends to backfire and then leads to later uh political horse trading about it in ways that affects the accountability system rather than getting to transparency. So, I'd encourage us to continue to track that and push ultimately so that our state accountability system is actually reflects

155what we want it to accurately. And some of the current language is not good at that uh and reflects people just uh who don't understand the actual calculations doing stuff that will backfire and again not work the way they expect. So, I would like to encourage us to continue to track that. I also want to um uh uh take a moment and be glad that House Bill uh 1135 is uh out of the legislature and before the governor. That's the one that will require other school districts to um develop plans regarding cell phones. Um it's a very watered down bill. I'm not excited about the change that it will produce in the short term, but it is a good time, I think, for the service to our other districts in the state to have information

156on how our implementation is going of our policy and let them know that it's possible because uh once that bill is signed, if it is, uh then we'll have a lot of other districts that are having a discussion like we had um basically uh last year. And I I hope that they uh have some courage and understand how big the the benefits are of the policy that we've done. And I'd encourage us to to share that with them so that they um don't think of it as as just sort of a mandate to have a just quick discussion and make no change because that's what the bill doesn't force them to do anything but it's an opportunity for them to think about it. Other questions or comments for members? Seeing as there are none, we

157will move on to action items. Consent grouping. 8.1 Personnel items. 8.2 Approval of minutes. April 8th, 2025. 8.3 approval of minutes April 15th, 2025 special meeting. 8.4 2025 2026 benefits agreements. 8.5 Acceptance of donation Brewfield High School. 8.6 Acceptance of donation Mesa Elementary. 8.7 Acceptance of donation Southern Hills Middle School. 8.8. Change date for regular board meeting from June 10th, 2025 to June 17th, 2025. 8.9 fiscal year 26 infinite campus renewal 8.10 10 loose hill construction change order 8.11 resolution 25-10 non-renewal of licensed contracts 8.12 resolution 25-11 accepting of recognition election results for the gifted and talented advis adviserss 8.13 service now fiscal year 26 renewal 8.14 grant academics climate justice classroom for climate action 8.15 grant academics lit literary assessment tool CVE 8.16 grant health services substance education city of Boulder are there any

158items members would like to pull from consent grouping Hearing none, we need a motion to approve. Moved by Kitty, seconded by Jorge. Board members, any discussion on the items within consent grouping. Kitty, I just have a comment that I've always found it amusing that we have to vote to approve for people to quit their jobs. It's true, Jason. Um, I just wanted to recognize I know included in this is uh Dr. Euphimia from Creekide Elementary was retiring and so I just wanted to publicly thank her. Two of my kids or one is out, one is currently there and my youngest will be there soon. Um, it's just a remarkable school. She's been a remarkable leader um to create a really special environment, special community. Um, we're really sad to see her go. So, I just

159I knew that I knew the news. I saw that in there. I just want to make sure she was recognized uh for all her work um in education and then I think 10 years at Creekide um with BBSD. So thanks Dr. Ephimia. Thanks for that Jason board members. Any further discussion? Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, yes sir. Medler, yes. Nikk, yes. Quinn Aea, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger. Yes. Motion passes. Board members, the next item on our agenda this evening is policy policy action items consent grouping. Sorry, I'm double checking to make sure that yes, perfect is right. 10.1 board policy ECAA access to facilities. 10.2 board policy FM real property management. 10.3 board policy KDB public access to information. 10.4 Retirement of Board Policy FE site acquisition. 10.5 Retirement

160of Board Policy FF-R Naming of new facilities. 10.6 Retirement of Board Policy FL Retirement of Facilities. 10.7 Retirement of Board Policy Regulation Exhibit KDB-R and KDB-E public request for open records. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping? Seeing as there are none, we need a motion to approve. Moved by Alex, seconded by Kitty. Board members, any discussion? Elenia, thank you to Kathleen and her team for the work on this. Um, and a special thanks for our access to schools, buildings, and grounds. Um, for the welcoming language for uh folks to use those playgrounds and fields. Um, and I enjoy that we say that we'll post signs if we need to for certain um, facilities or certain areas, but other than that that we're sending our kids off to play.

161So, thank you, Alex. Yeah, I just want to also uh give my thanks to Kathleen in the development of um that policy on the facilities and reiterate I consider it sort of the second part of people in their um anxious uh generation reading groups of improving our access to the playgrounds and making sure that you know we're we think it's great that kids would come and play on the playgrounds and fields before and after school and that they're all welcome including those who may not have someone supervising them the whole time. So that's great. Any further discussion hearing? None. Laura, can you please call the role on policy consent grouping? Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Nisnik, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Rajpaw, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. board policy or board members, we have three

162policies to study this evening on our policy study items. We will be begin with board policy KMA, relations with military recruiters, post-secondary institutions, and prospective employers and high schools. I'll turn it over to Kathleen. Thank you. So, this first policy that's up for review is um brought forward because we already adopted, as I pointed out earlier, the exhibit that makes sure that we're giving our families notice of the federal requirement that we share certain student information with military recruiters and then our sharing of information from post-secary schools and employers. So the updates that you see are really to improve the cross references across the policy and then just to clarify and update the language. Um so nothing too uh nothing um more than that honestly just updates to make sure we're compliant with the law

163and as clear as we can be. Thank you for those updates. Board members, any questions or comments? Seeing as there are none, we'll move on to board policy JO, student records. So, um, we have the policy and the regulation around student records unsteady tonight. Again, we sort of planted the seeds for those as we cleaned up our parent family student opt out forms. These clarifications really are intended to modernize, reflect what we actually do with student records, bring us a little bit into the digital age since so much of this now happens electronically. Um, we retained language that we know is really important that talks about when families are divorced or separated and there are custody concerns. Making sure that the policy is really clear that parents retain rights to information about their children under

164the federal law regardless of that status. Um, and then we eliminated, frankly, things that we thought were just too technical and too detailed for policy and brought forward some language from the regulation to really be clear about the types of disclosures that are made with parent student family consent and those that were obligate obligated to make by law. So in this case, we are going to still have a regulation, but we felt like or the this proposal is to move those important rights into that more visible location of the policy. And then we reserve the regulation itself for the two types of requests that we deal with the most when a family just wants to review their students records and what that procedure should look like. And then uh the procedure to implement the federal

165laws requirement that parents and families can challenge the contents of their students records and that there is a hearing process baked into that federal law to resolve any uh concern that may remain. Thank you for that overview. Board members, any questions for Kathleen Kitty? Yes. Thanks for all your work on this, Kathleen. And I I sent you my copy edits so I don't need to talk about that. But under the the section on disclosure without written consent and in section in number one section A lists all the people who can get it. And I'm just curious why a board member would need um access to a student's um information. Yeah. I think it's an important question and this is really where we're bringing together federal and state law. As the board knows in Colorado, there's

166a state law provision that entitles board members to the records of the district. And by incorporating the language here, we're we're incorporating the federal law requirement that that person have a legitimate educational interest in the students records. So, I think in my experience, there have been times where a constituent will talk to a board member and say, "Hey, something's going on with my student. I need your assistance to get it figured out." And I might wind up in a conversation with a board member where I would be referencing information from a student's records. So I don't think it comes up with great frequency but if we didn't have that identification in policy then we would have a problem with complying with that state law. I understand that. Okay. And the only other thing is the

167piece where we we in the same section where you share information with other students who are on a particular committee say disciplinary and I guess I just need more information. I just have a little bit of concerns about sharing one students information with another student. Thank you for that question. So that language comes directly from the CASBY sample and candidly when I read it it also uh it raised a question for me but I moved it forward anyway. I think that what we find is typically in higher education you might see something like peers on a discipline committee. I think as a district, I'm not aware that this board or school district leadership has ever um created that sort of role. So, I think that it's absolutely within the board's discretion to suggest that that

168language be removed from the policy. Well, I would make that suggestion, you know, assuming there is no good reason for a student to be in that position to receive it. Elenia, the only instance I could think of where something like that might come up is in a restorative process. I I think I can put in language that protects the ability to do that process without that language. But I appreciate the comment, Kitty. Sorry, I need to get to a different page here to an email. Uh, okay. In J O, can we talk about J O R or do we wait? I think they're both on the table right now since Kathy gave an overview of both. I just noticed in J there's um a place that it says additional designated the official designated above shall

169issue a decision when they're talking about revealing contents and notify the parents by certified mail but I saw that in another section that notification by certified mail was deleted. So do we need to do that or not? And it seems to me it should be consistent. We we don't have to do that by certified mail. And you're correct that that needs to come out. Certified mail has really if it wasn't already in trouble the pandemic certainly um I think it just negated the practice. Almost all of our families prefer email at this point. Alex. Yeah. on um uh paragraph one lowercase A uh we include a person or company with whom the district has outsourced services or functions that would otherwise use its own employees to perform. I would like to add analysts or researchers

170there to that list or analysts and researchers. I'm not sure. So for example, we might work with um our mental health partners on on research and we'd want them to actually have better data that we would use internally to make the same sort of assessment. What page is that? Uh that is on page five. Um, after disclosure without written consent, uh, section one, paragraph lowerase A, uh, midway through. I have a question looping back to Kitty's comment about disclosure to school board members. I'm wondering if there's a way to I would hate for board members to be lobbyed by people to collect information that is not relevant to a conversation with our legal staff or other privileged information to access that information if have any leeway that is not directly related to our work with

171staff. I don't know how the language might be shaped, but I would want to be clear that just because a community member asks us for somebody's public records doesn't mean we can get them and provide them. But it would just be for the purpose of taking action or communicating with legal counsel or I just I would hate the for the community to think that they could lobby school board members to obtain student records on an action that they're struggling with whether it's related to their student or they're not their student. Yeah, thank you for that clarification because definitely uh that example that I gave for one thing is pretty narrow. The second thing is it it's not sharing the records themselves. cuz I can't recall of a time that I've ever done that. But if

172I'm sharing even information from the records, that language needs to be there. I think another better example is for example when the school board is asked to consider a complaint from a family. So, and we've had several of those. I think considering a complaint or looking at an expulsion matter, both very specific roles for the board and a more likely reason that the board would actually receive that information. And then one a couple things that I caught were just around our standard use of language. So in at the bottom of page two in JO it talks about a natural or adoptive parent and then we inconsistently use or apply our standard around the terms of parents and guardians throughout both JO and J-R. And so just cleaning up and making sure we're really consistent with

173our practice around that language. Then Alex, I saw your hand up. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think this uh issue of um when parents or somebody talks to us about an issue dealing with a specific student and then we as board members uh can have a conversation with um district staff, legal staff. Um we might get background information that's not from a student record, but that is also not for us to share to them, but is in order to inform us. Um, this has come up a few times and I appreciate, um, this is part of where I'm trying to push, uh, and I'm excited about the district making progress on how we communicate with the parents involved in tricky situations, right? So, there's these are definitely almost always tricky situations. I'd uh and I I'll

174bring this up for agenda setting, but I I do think we do need sort of uh I don't know if it's in a policy, but I would like to have guidance or training as the board member about how we appropriately handle those situations. I want this policy to allow staff to explain to us what's going on in a situation. So, I don't something want something that restrains our ability to have that conversation. Like I'd rather know upfront and have to recuse myself later in a process than not know when I'm in the middle of something that could be not being pursued enough by either party or it's being handled and it's really tricky. So I'd as a governing entity I'd like to be able to have access to um information with nuance and like careful

175legal consideration of what's being shared. But then I'd also like instruction about what I can and should or shouldn't do and then how that might affect later hearings that would go on. So I I think uh I'm not alone on the board probably in not understanding the details of that. So it would be a great subject for an executive committee or maybe a a training um and I'd like the policy to still keep us able to be responsive to parents um appropriately. But I don't have any change to the policy. That's just an issue I've dealt with. Board members, any other questions or feedback? Seeing as there are none, we're moving it on to our final agenda item this evening, which is future agenda requests. Board members, this is the time when we can bring

176up items that we'd like to include at our next board priorization meeting. Alex, uh to the point I just raised prematurely, um I would uh and I don't know, um I don't know what's the right context for this, uh but I suspect it's it's mostly a briefing that would explain to us our roles and responsibilities and how to handle some of these tricky situations carefully. So, board members, anything else? With that, our meeting is adjourned. Good evening, board members and staff. Oh my god, that