001e e e [Music] I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday May 14th 2024 board members May attend and participate in board meetings by electronic means in accordance with bbsd policy bmea and state law Laura can you please call the role Chavez here medler here nnick here Quin Lin AA here Raj Paul here Sergeant here anger here thank you at this time I'd like to request board memb M medler to read the land acknowledgement for us Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on the land that is the ancestral Homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute puan arapo shyan Apache Navajo and 48 other tribal Nations historically tied to this land who have called This Land home since time Memorial
002we acknowledge the atrocities committed here including painful history of genocide forced assimilation and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their Homeland supported by the policies of the United States government bvsd is aware of the many indigenous peoples past and present and their dignified Nations and cultures who care for the land and strength with strength and resilience bbsd recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of the many nations that carry their oral Traditions into the present it is bbd's responsibility to educate ourselves our communities and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices in offering this land acknowledgement we affirm and honor the history wisdom oral traditions and resilience of indigenous people and recognize the responsibility to care
003for and appreciate this land together thank you Alex I'd like to remind everybody that the mission of the Bull Valley School District is to create challenging meaningful and engaging learning opportunities so that all children Thrive and are prepared for successful civically engaged lives good evening everyone thank you for joining us remotely and in person this evening we're glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings at this time I would like to make an motion to approve our agenda or I'd like to see if anybody like to make a motion to approve so move move by Kitty seconded by Jason Laura can you please call the RO shavez yes medler yes nnick yes quinin waa yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion passes as indicated on this evening's agenda our first order
004of business is an executive session the board has business to discuss in executive session may I have a motion I Kitty Sergeant make a motion pursuant to CRS 24642 4f to convene into executive session for Purp purposes of discussing Personnel matters regarding the superintendent evaluation process pursuant to CRS 246 eii for or for purposes of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators regarding agreements with the Boulder Valley Educators Association bvea the Boulder Valley par Educators Association bvp and the Boulder Valley classified employees Association bbca pursuant to CRS 246 40243 for purposes of developing the strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to collective bargaining with bvea bvp and bvca and pursuant to CRS 246 424b for legal advice advice regarding the same thank
005you for that very thorough motion Kitty do I have a second I'll second seconded by Beth Laura can you please call the role Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quin Lin NOA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion pass passes board members we will now convene in the glacier room nice job e e e [Music] we will now be the work session portion of our meeting this evening tonight we have one work session topic which is a review of policy study non-discrimination and complaint policies Kathleen I will hand it over to you thank you board member Raj Paul members of the board board president Raj Paul yeah um we are excited to be back with the board tonight to talk about some of our really core policies um board policy AC is a
006central tenant of all of our policy framework um and really one of the uh policies that best protects our students and our employees and their ability to work and learn with me tonight I have Liz lelle she is our Title 9 coordinator and the district's Equity Council um if we look tired it's because those title n RS just came out and here we are we may be the first board you may be the first board looking at this policy following the issuance of those RS so we are going to start tonight with just a very brief overview of the three laws that we are trying to capture with this update to our policies so we had looked at these uh policies a couple of years ago and frankly Colorado continues to be very active legislatively
007so we'll be talking about two Colorado laws and then the revisions to the title 9 regulations so just remembering board members that when we look at our policy framework board policy AC is going to be our big policy that establishes the tenants of non-discrimination and equal opportunity in the district it is required by federal law uh in response to all of the titles you would hear associated with civil rights title six Title 5 title 7 and title 9 so with that kickoff recognizing it is a big legal framework we're going to start first with the title nine regulations and just a little bit of a revisit as to the implications for policy good evening board members president Raj Paul superintendent Anderson it's a pleasure to be here um I'm gonna be going over the new
008title 9 regulations I know that this is a point of passion for this board um just to give us a little bit of context before 2020 we had a regulatory body that was largely very discretionary under the Obama Administration um the guidance essentially was that when when a school district received reports of discrimination um sex- based harassment the obligation was to investigate to appropriately respond and to remedy there was a lot of discretion in that body of Regulation um in 2020 we had a new um regulatory statute passed with a very high level of due process um that required school districts take a very specific approach when it comes to different types of sex-based harassment that are alleged um and that did not give us a lot of room with regards to how we responded
009to incidents of sex-based harassment under the Biden administ ation we have now returned largely but not totally to the premise that school districts have a little bit more flexibility when it comes to the way that they respond to incidents of sex-based harassment so we've we've it's kind of a hybrid now between the two administrative bodies interestingly we will have to continue to carry um the 2020 regulation that still will stay in place because the new title 9 regulations are effective August 1st of 2024 so that applies to alleged incidents that occurred on or after August 1st 2024 in the event that the school district receives any reports of alleged Title 9 violations that occurred between July 31st of 2020 and July 31st of 2024 the old 2020 regulations will apply so we'll have parallel um
010policies so these new title 9 regulations the intention is to broaden the scope of what's considered sex-based harassment which goes back into alignment with what we were looking at before under the Obama Administration this creates more protections for students it's also much more in aligned in alignment with our Colorado Laws um the state specific laws we'll talk about 296 in a moment that requires us to respond in specific ways to incidents of harassment so we have an alignment between the federal law and our Colorado obligations um as I mentioned it allows for more flexibility in responding to reports of harassment this is because we recognize now based on how things went with the 2020 regulations that it's really important to have age appropriate responses when it comes to different types of incidents of behaviors that
011happen at school um it also expands training require requirements for employees we're required to provide annual trainings to our employees on sex-based harassment and discrimination namely their obligations this is something that the district's been doing and we will continue to do and we will augment and create even more robust trainings um in preparation for the 2024 school year and finally it requires consultation with the students I or 504 team this is because we want to make sure that we're being mindful of all of the different types of considerations that impact um behavior and a school's response on how they support our students inside of the school system so SB 296 is essentially the parallel state law of Title 9 the intention was to provide additional and complimentary requirements for Title 9 complaints and other protected
012classes this is the law that says school districts these these are our expectations with regards to how you respond to student on student incidents when it comes to reports of discrimination and harassment so that's incidents of student un student misconduct that relate to protected classes it establishes a lower standard than Title 9 with regards to conduct that constitutes harassment it doesn't have to be severe and pervasive it doesn't have to meet that higher definition a single act can in fact um constitute harassment or discrimination um it requires a separate policy from Title 9 and like the title 9 regulations it also requires annual training to our employees it protects unfounded reports as confidential and it restricts those from disclosure under Kora and um we don't quite know exactly when this will requirement will go into
013effect but we will be required to report to the CDE annually about our harassment or discrimination like the number of incidents that are reported so that data piece is a piece that's upcoming and we'll have more information about that um once we hear more from the legislative body the final legisl legislation that I'm going to talk about is the Colorado Powers Act this relates specifically to protections for workers against discriminatory or unfair Employment Practices this is very similar to 296 the law that we just talked about that relates specifically to students this now relates specifically to our employees it has a revised definition of harassment that includes offensive conduct that is both subjective and objective this is important because we are seeing from Colorado um the need the ask for our public entities to recognize
014that subjectivity and objectivity both play a role in the experience of our employees when it comes to what is happening at work whether there's a hostile environment that's being created for them harassing conduct doesn't have to be severe and pervasive so that's also very similar to 296 right a single incident can constitute harassment or discrimination if submission is implied or explicitly made a condition of employment forms the basis for subsequent employment decisions and unreasonably interferes with the work performance or creates an intimidating hostile or defensive working environment so those are the three bodies of law that were recently passed that all um have an intersection in the way that our policies work and I will let Kathleen take the rest from here so with this comprehensive network of laws we really I had hoped to
015be bringing you perhaps the eight or 10 policies that were impacted by this Trio but reality is this is hard work it takes a while to make sure you get your policy language right so we started with the big four and then we'll share with you our plan for addressing the related policies so as Liz mentioned this first policy AC is the umbrella non-discrimination equal opportunity policy it applies to both students and employees it provides our Broad language so in terms of redlines that have been made one of the things that we did was we pulled definitions across the three laws and we put them in one place in the AC policy so that it's easy to identify upfront what some of these terms mean and I think that this is a policy and this
016is a process that the legislature most wants us to be able to explain clearly and make accessible to all of our students and employees but it is really bogged down with a lot of very legal language so our efforts to put definitions up front are just to try and improve and enhance the readability this second piece is that you'll see on page one of the redline board members Boulder has always identified a few other areas as protected classes within Boulder so our policy he has said we protect against discrimin discrimination or harassment on the basis of physical characteristics as another area that was added and then as we looked at um across again all of the laws there were a couple of other groupings that we are suggesting or classes be called out and specifically
017identified and this is really consistent with the board's other policies so we have added am I Los am I losing you no okay the slides you didn't have you have the policies in Red Line okay um so we've added immigration and Status immigration status as I look at that again we can always improve the language and I know that this board made a very conscious choice about not addressing citizenship mhm continuous Improvement model right and family composition which I thought was something that we certainly have also talked about the importance of recognizing all of our families um in our community so we've made sure that we've got a comprehensive list of protected classes and then you'll see that same list is repeated as you go through the policies just to make sure that we're clear
018the sorry sorry yes I know it's a topic of community interest and something um we've been pondering a bit about but I was wondering the idea of adding neurodiversity into that protected list of statuses neurodiversity thank you very much for that comment and I'm certainly H happy to take any feedback as we go along board members to make sure that this is a policy that meets your needs I think the other two elements we we tried to capture in this red line were really twofold one you'll see that we've struck the reference to unlawful everywhere that it exists when we ask our schools and our administrators to follow board policy they're determining whether or not the board policy has been followed and I think having unlawful across the policies makes it feel overly legalistic and
019harder to access so we remove that language across the policy and then the other thing that we've tried to do is to streamline language that wasn't particularly helpful to make sure that this policy stays at a high level it has the definitions clearly prohibits discrimination and harassment sets out a path for reporting those and then establishes the big expectations for the district for employees and students when discrimination and harassment occurs Alex in the also just in the spirit of understanding our language um uh what's the thinking behind both um classifying basis of disability and need for special education services I'm more familiar with using a student with disabilities so that the special education proog programming is not the definition of the person you know that's really I think a hold over of the law that's
020actually in Colorado statute but to your point board I I I don't think it's necessary if it's already encompassed within disability to necessarily spell it out that way and that would certainly be something that the board could decide Kitty well as I told you earlier I already sent a number of suggestions for improving language but I've got a few questions on AC so oh and one another thing the definition of harassment in AC and the definition of harassment in jbb are yes they are okay so um where under harassment number six on AC the under definitions it talks about that is and you mentioned this Liz subjectively offensive to the indiv individual alleging harassment and is objectively offensive to a reasonable individual who's a member of the same class so it has to be both
021it cannot just be one is that correct that's correct and that's language that's pulled specifically from the the statute okay I figured a lot of it was um on the little bullet points underneath six it says submission to the conduct or communication is explicitly or implicitly made a term of or a condition of the individual's participation in what in there in the educational program or activity okay so um does this address if a student sexually harasses an employee yes it does okay so then how would the term or condition of an individual's participation apply in that situation so for example if a teacher was being harassed by a student that would impact their ability to show up safely and comfortably in that educational environment thus affecting their ability to participate as a productive employee in
022that classroom space okay and I was I was interpreting interpreting it just slightly differently so that clears that up um under on page three number 11 sex-based harassment is a form of sex discrimination and means sexual harassment and other harassment on the basis of sex including restrictions on contact between the parties to a complaint of harassment or discrimination and I'm not quite sure I understand that phrasing in in respect to it being part of a definition of sex-based harassment that language should end and it should go straight to the pido harassment I think that was a a spelling mistake or a typo okay so that including restrictions phrase should be that's it should that shouldn't be a part of that okay well yep thank Youk thank you for pointing that out okay and under the
023next page same it's 11 but it's a and I even ran this by somebody else to see if I was missing something quid proquo harassment and employee agent or other person authorized by the school district recipient to provide an aid benefit or service under the school district's recipients education program and then it goes on what is a school district's recipient that's a the legal term that we use but we should take out recipient because that makes it inaccessible like Kathleen was saying some of that excessive language It should read School District okay simp okay authorized by the school district to provide Aid to this so to provide Aid benefit or service under the school district's education program yes okay and this is also the the specific definition under the new title n regulations this language
024is pulled directly from there okay then on page five the paragraph right before where it says District action any employee applicant for employment or member of the public who believes they've been a victim of discrimination dot dot dot shall file a complaint how do we make a member of the public file a complaint members of the public have the opportunity to file a complaint shall is strict language in there and we can absolutely look at making adjustments okay yeah I just yep because I'm thinking this is impossible to enforce that's all I have on this thank you so much those are very helpful we appreciate it you're welcome melenia under our definitions can you enlighten me why we are calling out let's see sorry I was following Kitty and I got okay on number okay
025um on our definitions we have harassment number six and then we have at the bottom there Petty slights minor annoyances and lack of good manners do not constitute harassment unless the slights annoyance or lack of manners Etc what what's the purpose of having this piece in here is this have to be in here this is also a part of the legislative language in the Powers Act okay thanks um and then under supportive measures um I would be in favor of either well do they have to be listed as such I guess is my question I would be in favor of listing either a more extensive list of supportive measures or none at all but I don't like I can think of about 10 more supportive measures I'd like like to see on there um but
026I don't necessarily find unless we have to list them that we should or is it something we should be doing in policy I guess is my question I think that's a great question with our practitioners we've developed I know Liz has developed including with the stakeholder councils um a menu of supportive measures that is more expansive than what's reflected in this definition so we'll talk about that some more look at different language um we also have a part now I have to find it about um reporting okay about Nexus to the school I'd like to understand what that means that certainly isn't something that um is easily accessible to the lay person what that means Nexus to the school and that's something we could look at defining or add some language where it lives Nexus
027basically means it needs to have some sort of direct connection SL impact so if something happens outside of school that has no relationship to school then is that something that the school would necessarily be able to take action around and I think when we look at as Liz explained the title 9 framework that's just now being replaced that had a very high threshhold we saw 296 come in to try and make sure that we've really got the ability to act upon all of the conduct that would be impacting students at school so one of the easiest examples is there may be an act of bullying that happens by technology right phone to phone text to text whatever and if nothing related to that were to ever come up at school there was no Behavior there
028was no misconduct there was no concern then we might be trying to um identify that Nexus it's more typical where if something like that starts outside of school we do see it coming into the building we have kids that are impacted some of the conduct may happen during the school day and then we would say even though it's speech that started outside of school we've got that direct connection and we need to be able to act but we can look at some better language there yeah I think we need to be if it isn't clear to the board then I wouldn't think it would be clear to someone reading the policy thank you for that explanation good example Jason um yeah thanks very much uh I also wanted to comment on the supportive measures I
029feel like the definition at the top of that is very Broad and then we get into very specific things and I you said wanted to revisit it I'm actually concerned uh for a few reasons one about putting in some of these examples even though the language says that they may include but not limited to um and then I'm also concerned if we do list them there's a lot of you know potentially problematic flexibility with some of this language you know when it talks about extra time for homework like that you know that that is something we should either Define or leave very broad at the top um you know I I do feel like the top the the opening sentence is very clear that there's a broad list of supportive measures and we can reference
030those somewhere else not in policy but when we start to list some of these and some of these that are so Broad and also vague um I I share linous concerns about just including that list at all so thanks I want to pckg you back on this because I actually received a couple student emails about our titled line policy as it currently exists this we this past week and they were asked asking for a really clear Direction on supportive measures and and so I was pointing him down the rabbit hole of like our attach exhibits and our regulations that talk about some of the things like access to counseling and confidentiality that AC didn't and so I agree with removing some of the language as my board member shared our student body really wants to
031know what kind of supportive measures they have access to when this stuff happens and so if they're looking at policy to find that we need to be really clear in policy where to direct them to uh as they're thinking through like what can I have access to if I'm going through this what are my rights and so pointing them in a way to like whether it's the menu of options or that the title n um group discussed I just think we need to be mindful of how to help our students access an information when they when they need it Jason um yeah no I I definitely agree I think just consistent with all of the things we've done to this point which is to kind of have broad language in the policy and then direct
032to a very specific set of resources so I totally agree with that we need to be able to direct people in the right place I just think listing policies that are that are you know that's somewhat you know a pretty long list of things but also you know if we're going to get into this listing of of um supportive measures Without Really defining it clearly that is that's really problem problematic so whether that's in regulation or another resource we need to also be clear on you know when if we do have an exhaustive list we need to be clear what that means you know both for the public and for our employees so I agree with uh Nicole's comment there and I think just consistent with everything we've done on policy but this is concerning
033as is you know whether it's here or elsewhere I think we really need to think about how we list these measures uh and you know what kind of guidance we give to teachers and and students about that kitty this is on the same topic so that brings to mind that perhaps is it possible that a supportive measure could be something the student determines for thems that I could really use this even though it's not listed on our list and I know when it says may include not limited to that pretty much opens it up to anything absolutely I think part of what we're trying to do is what we've learned is when students make a report it's incredibly traumatic and they go in often into a State of Shock and so understanding what some of
034their options are but knowing at the same time that there is a lot of flexibility can be deeply deeply helpful for those students who are going through through that reporting process and that and requesting those supports that absolutely yes because I can you know based on what you said and that makes perfect sense when kids are traumatized or in shock they may not be even able to think well what would a supportive measure be and so having suggestions is a good idea but I also agree if stick them in the overly long regulation instead of an overly long policy well and for I'm sorry for our students I want to make sure it feels a little weird with my back to some of our students but um that on the health for students page from
035our website you will find links to our Title 9 information we are looking at that again to make sure that all our training materials are there they have to be by federal law but making sure that our students can access that information readily Alex yeah this is a a clarifying question and I I don't have where I'm going on this but these are supportive measures for the person who's experienced the the harmfulness are there complimentary set of interventions and remedies that address a perpetrator that are listed in the policy definition somewhere else too or so all students or all impacted persons are able to be supported through supportive measures so the law uses that one term for students whether they are identified as a potential perpetrator or as a student who's been targeted by the
036conduct or a bystander uh potentially with the change in law uh I'm wondering I feel as though we will be we we should be expecting an increased number of reports because the language has broadened and I'm wondering how we are thinking about Staffing or changing current practice to accommodate the potential increase in reports given the change in the language of the law so that's that's a great question so we receive reports under the 2020 regulations there was then a an additional formal complaint process above and beyond that where the conduct had to meet that higher threshold so while we might have more title n complaints the number of reports and incidents of student misconduct that we're receiving shouldn't really shift that much right it's sort of just how we're kind of classifying the different types
037of process that this that that we're obligated to create um and so so that's sort of how we're looking at that and I would say it was under the um the regul the immediately preceding set of regulations that required us to have multiple roles involved in the complaint process the investigator the decision maker and that that will no longer be required so when you look at this policy under definition four where it says design for a lot of the behavior and the conduct that we see in schools that would be investigated addressed remedied and supported by the building leader with our guidance support and then in the event that there's something that either directly involves the adult that would otherwise fill that role or it's something that's maybe more complicated something that involves a lot
038of different uh allegations and people we would have the ability to continue to do direct investigations where it's appropriate to do so henia as a followup on that um if we have school leaders or department leaders handling this rather than a compliance officer my fear is we would be doomed to repeat uh some past issues when we have school leadership that is not doing a good job on that so I guess I'm not clear what the new regulations are saying in terms of when a complaint comes forward is it not going to Li anymore and it could be handled by a principal or is it still going to Liz Liz to parse out where it should go from there so under the new regulations the complaints that come in you still have to work with
039the title N9 coordinator and there still is a title n process there are still requirements that we have to follow especially in relationship to 296 and so we have what we've done with the new laws that have created better scaffolding much better scaffolding and legal requirements for our school district to follow when it comes to supporting our students those are provided for in some of our training materials and some of our um like the guidance that we provide with regards to how administrators are to respond invest like through their investigation to support those students so there's still involvement with the title 9 coordinator what the what the new title regulations say is you must still have a centralized title n coordinator they must still exist to monitor all of the compliance however because of the
040way that we've expanded the scope it we understand that there must be designes or there must be Deputy title n coordinators essentially that handle at site levels or you know Department levels in order to manage these new expectations when it comes to the investigatory and responsive process right and that that's the rub for me there is if there designes who report up through your structure that's different than at a school administration level at 50 some schools so are we having designes that are Deputy Title 9 coordinators or are we having principles do this work so the the principles are the designes and the bill and the building or the department heads are the designes with regards to managing investigations for this type of harassment well I'll voice my concern about that I I am not
041in favor of that well and as we go through we will certainly talk about this I think that um the expectation now we have a a bullying report bullying button that's on the website we also have the ac2 form which will continue to be required we're required to have that Complaint Form both of those have a specific uh pathway through the district all of the ac2 complaints are reviewed by myself or by our compliance officer we also have added and I think this came out frankly of the title 9 stakeholder work and some of our discipline data that we're reviewing right now with CDE and the office for civil rights so we are now undertaking monthly Behavior data review team meetings that means it's myself or it's Liz londelle and several other members of the
042district Ed center team who work with student conduct we are reviewing all of the data that's entered into Infinite Campus within specific types of conduct so that we're able to assess how those are moving whether or not we've got the right responses in place and follow up on the documentation and the detail so so I definitely hear your concern um and we've got a responsibility as Liz said to make sure that that compliance officer role really functions in such a way that we're able to monitor those designes designes doesn't mean that we just tell you and you go off and we've delegated it and it's gone it's a you're given a very specific role a little bit like the way the board does with an advisory committee which is here's your role and here's what
043we want you to do but we will be following up to check so um if you're ready board members I would look at the regulation next which is board policy ac- R this really is the implementation piece for the AC policy so we have El limited language eliminated language that really was a relic of this Whiplash we've had around Title 9 we mve the substantive language about definitions and standards over to AC and then this regulation is really focused and formatted and styled to be consistent with your other regulations that are directive in terms of what you do step one step two step three um we are also required as I mentioned AC is an umbrella policy that addresses all of our federal civil rights statutes so for example Section 504 which is a protection
044for individuals with disabilities has a specific procedural requirement for a hearing procedure which is why you see that procedure for a hearing at the bottom of that regulation ac- r kitty I have a a few questions on this I know on the top of of this ac- and ac- r-2 both talk about sex-based harassment that occurred between August 1st 20120 and July 31st 2024 is going to be using a different procedure I think it would be useful in here to say why just for when I mean we know why but when a parent is or a member of the public is looking at this going well that seems random and so just to have that in there I think would be helpful under General procedure where it says upon receiving a report that if proven
045true constitutes discrimination or harassment under the policy that they'll meet with the aggrieved individual as soon as as reasonably possible and that sounds like they have to know if it's proven true before they meet with the agreed individual but that I mean the way it's written but that doesn't make sense to wait till you know if it's true to meet with them no the intent of that language is to say you need to make sure that it is the sort of allegation that would be addressed by a compliance officer for example if the report was um my student needs makeup work for a particular homework assignment that wouldn't be something that the compliance officer would take up but we could look at that language yeah it just confused me and I was pretty sure it
046didn't mean what it looked like it meant because that doesn't make sense and then further down where under during this initial conference and the bull bullet points this the third one down the school district's obligation by law regardless of whether the individual files a formal written complaint slash grievance or otherwise requests action to take steps um to prevent discrimination or harassment against anyone who makes a report but if nobody has made a report then how do they know to take steps so I I think this is meant to to address like you have the ability to file a written formal complaint or like send an email that says hey this happened to me and I want you to investigate it um there's that piece and then there's also I'm experiencing this at school or in
047the work environment right and so they're not necessarily saying they don't necessarily know that they're filing a formal complaint but they're they're engaging in a conversation where you we learning about an incident of harassment or discrimination okay so then that gives um the district the ability to take steps okay that makes sense under informal resolution can the compliance officer deny a request excuse me I have popcorn in my teeth um can deny a request for the informal process if in if there is a reason to right there has to be a reason for there to not it's not appropriate like we've either tried it in the past or it's a dynamic there's a power Dynamic where we feel uncomfortable creating um informal resolution in a particular manner um so it's discretionary based on this set
048of circumstances and that's what I thought it said so you could have the two parties really want it but the compliance officer based on their knowledge and experience could say no this you know we're going to go the formal route because we believe that or I believe it would provide a better outcome where the circumstances don't lend itself where we feel like it's really in the best interest of all the parties so then on page four the very um the last paragraph before outside agencies middle of the paragraph it said the process shall apply unless the context otherwise requires and unless the requirements of another policy procedure statute yada yada yada um should it say something about the the other policy being a superseding policy because there could be another policy that say we haven't
049updated yet or something that's you know in conflict is that the are you reading the paragraph under hearing procedure it's on page yes it's the last hearing procedure paragraph and in the middle it says this process shall apply unless the context otherwise requires and unless the requirements of another policy procedure statute rule regulation or agreement expressly contradicts with this process in which and besides I take that with out in which event the terms of the contrary policy procedure law rule regulation or agreement shall govern yeah I think honestly the sentence that you just read is not necessary if we're going to make this as understandable as possible a sentence with a hear in it never gets it there sounds good to me Lan then Alex I think it's of the utmost importance an that we
050remove any barriers to reporting that we can um reporting is hard for these folks who have been victimized um and I first would like to understand that we are encouraging people to make reports not discouraging them um and I want our verbage to be really clear with that that we aren't going to say to them it's much harder if you make a formal report because I unfortunately have heard that students have got that message that it's much harder um on us as a district if they make a formal report which is not appropriate we need to make it as easy as possible for them to make a report which brings me to um on page four we talk about statements by any witness to the alleged incident which hearkened me back to the previous document
051that we were looking at um just AC and there on page six of AC there's a concern to me that we're sending a message let me see if it's page six or not maybe it's page four um that we're sending a message sorry I went to the clean one here I got to go to the red line okay so I'm looking at AC on [Music] page six and the second paragraph under District third paragraph under District action I'm not sure what this students or employees who make false accusations in an investigation shall be subject to discipline is that something we're having a big problem with false accusations that we should be calling it out here um I to me we're sending a message once again that we're not sure if we want people to report
052so I want to make it very clear that I want all barriers to reporting to come down in this district and this whole thing here about false accusations I mean are we talking about someone making false testimony when they're interviewed or are we talking about we think that victims are falsely accusing potential perpetrators there's just something about our wording that is making me very uncomfortable in the red line it's in the middle of page six of AC under District action so I appreciate your comments and here's what I would say about that language I know that there is a new definition of false accusations and I have to review my sour sources I think it's from the casby sampo but I'm not certain and I believe that that language is also um has been around
053for a long time there's a Colorado law that's specific about if a student makes a false allegation against a teacher and a specific statutory protection so let me go back and look at those two pieces is and then I'm happy to bring that back for more discussion I actually have a follow-up question for that if somebody were to knowingly make a false accusation that would also be a form of harassment I I mean I part of that I'm wondering is to tease out somebody actively harassing Somebody by making false AC accusations against them and um wanting wondering how that maybe got mixed up and muddied in that language as well Alex I think we're still waiting on you um yeah I'm very sympathetic to your argument on this front and to making sure that we're
054not having the we're not citing more regs that exist in other areas of law or regulation in order to play the heavy on someone to discourage reporting because that's why it reachs same way to me it does to lenia um and also in the spirit of being able to make sure we're encouraging reporting and not discouraging it um most of the reporting language is based on the grieved individual making the report and we're dealing with a lot of minors in Elementary grades especially our anti-lgbtq hate that we're getting to little tiny kids um and it's often the parent who is reporting it so I'm I think we should be careful about just um saying it's the AG grieved individual uh when often we're dealing with either parents or other stakeholders kitty yeah I understand lania
055what you were saying and also Nicole what you were saying because what comes to mind for me is a student who may have a history of trauma of sexual abuse feeling like they know they're not going to be believed because that is the message we send to kids who could be sexually abused we are telling them we shouldn't be doing this but we are telling them to tell and if nobody believes you keep telling and a lot of kids whove suffered that kind of trauma expect not to be believed so I understand that piece of it on the other hand you can't go around knowingly making false allegations because that's also traumatic at the end of ac- R we have lists of phone numbers and email addresses and physical addresses in our other policies we've
056taken upon taken the practice of removing those are we keeping those here because we have to or because those are holdovers we are obligated to provide those contacts for outside agencies I'm pretty sure we have them on ac1 also so we may be able to adjust leave them on ac1 I'll look at that and then my other question is um with the reg and with some of the exhibits that have that specific language with timeline do we have a notification when will that timeline lapse and that language be removed from these policies is there a statute of limitation that we were we're no longer working under the old policy and the old regulations that we're then only working with the new ones and do we have a reminder because we're not in the actual policy
057I know you have the privilege of just removing that language when the time comes without it coming before the board but I was wondering do we know when that that language could be removed I don't I don't think that we can say when um students can report harassment that they've experienced at any time and so even if in 10 years someone reports that something had happened to them during that time frame that's the procedure under which we would need to investigate and respond to that that report yeah no statute of limitations it's after someone turns 18 two years after I believe it's two years after they've turned 18 a student has turned 18 and we know that's something that shifted in Colorado right because we've had legislation to allow older claims to come forward we've
058had some constitutionality problems that really is the reason that we let left acr2 intact we didn't try to overhaul it this is the procedure that we're freezing so that eventually that regulation could be retired but really in order to improve practice across our district we need to have clear understandable policies I think that are very tight I know that and Liz has spent a lot of time working with other Metro districts there are some districts who are creating six policies out of this work I don't think that students should have to know the magic letters for a policy or get that exactly right in order to be heard so we definitely hear the feedback that the board's given tonight how do we better serve people who are impacted by this kind of conduct and that's
059really what we're trying to do in reducing the focus to just these three policies AC the regulation to investigate it and then the final policy which is jhb and I appreciate that effort it is we send students and staff in our public down rabbit holes chasing different regulations and Exhibits in ways that is maddening so the more we can clean that up the better and I also appreciate moving some the language from this regulation that is the most valuable and really touches on the rest of the work into the policy itself because the more we put there it it's better for the folks that we serve because they don't have to go to the next document and the next document so I appreciate all of that work Alex yeah um and this this is more
060a comment for followup afterwards but um as a Schoolboard member I I get occasional random reports of of bullying and and harassment behavior and uh I try to pass on uh as appropriately as I can but I myself when I go to the bbsd website I don't find this magic button for bullying I don't find searches to bullying very productive I don't find it easy at all to find where I'm supposed to report and what my rights are so if we've got it somewhere um I'd like to see it in brighter print on the website so that we are actively educating people about what to do because I feel like right now by the time someone sends an email to their school board member they've clearly missed five other steps that should have been easier
061and more obvious to them that are not kitty then lenia no that's a good point and I know Tina Marquez used to tell people Google what you want to see because you won't find it on our website if you're looking for it so it's a this is an issue we've had for a while to find specific things I would suggest also on as related to this seeing a flowchart I know that other school districts have had flowcharts um and I believe that we do have some really good examples and I'd like to see a flowchart up on our website that says here you do this you report here are the things that could happen and here are the things that could happen after that and here are my timelines because all of that is laid
062out for us and I'd like to see that go up sooner rather than later I know that the uh advisory council's been asking for that for coming on two years I believe that the flowchart that The Advisory Council recommended is on the title 9 website that was uploaded um and we have we're working on making sure that there's based on that feedback that there's a flowchart that's going to be implemented in preparation for the 2425 school year under these new regulations as well thank you very much for pointing that out then the last board policy we're going to look at at tonight and I know everyone's glad we don't have 8 to 10 um so we've got the bullying policy we haven't touched this policy in a several years um Colorado had a task force
063they came out with a Colorado model bullying policy which we used as a resource we also sought to align the language with board policy AC that we just talked about and make sure that we have pulled in all the specific requirements of Senate Bill 296 which specifically requires a separate policy that's the reason that we need to have a lot more of this language within bullying itself or within the bullying policy itself board member Sergent pointed out that we do have um some variance in the definition of harassment from AC so we will be fixing that then we focused on sure we're clear about what the prohibited behavior is under this policy to emphasize the board's commitment and expectation around bullying prevention efforts and then to make sure we are clear in talking about how
064reports of bullying will happen and then what the steps are for investigation following a report um the intent is and we've embedded those timelines that board board member Quin Lin AA that you reference that we can put in a flowchart or a simpler document for review we would with this policy retire JD hb- which is the exhibit that's a checklist I think this board has already pointed out our need to stay current what lesson have we learned how do we make the next investigation better than the last one and I think one of the things we know is we don't want to embed in policy language something that will evolve and shift so we've really tried to focus in on the high level policy requirements here and then we'll have a lot of guidance governing
065checklist materials that we'll make sure the board has an opportunity to see that would guide the implementation in replacing that exhibit and that checklist checklist would be available those types of things would be available online not in a regulation is out Absolut that's right okay yes clarify that kitty so I have a question on this one on page three Under reporting and investigation um third paragraph where it says all administrators teachers and classified staff who receive reports are there employees who are not included in that group and if not could it just say all employees employes or if there are some who are not required to make take the appropriate action to stop the behavior should that be specified I think the idea with regards to this language was who's in the who's in the
066building with students because it's build it's building specific but we can absolutely broaden that definition yeah because somebody else could be there totally yep and are we going to talk about the acr2 CU I have questions on that we can I I'm happy to Circle back to that let's finish the question the top this current policy Red Line before we move back or move over so if you had a question Jason please go ahead uh just a question on the you know looks like all the language or references to cyber bullying or social media were kind of removed and Under The Heading of communication is that accurate is that so I will tell you Colorado has suffered for a long time with bad law around bullying because it was written in segments that didn't really
067ever connect um so the Colorado model bullying policy work that happen happened they really collapse those definitions into one so you can see in the definition of bullying conduct or communication that's written physical or visual so any electronic message is either going to be written or it will be visual so that bullying definition is written to uh Encompass all of them it could be auditory verbal yeah my point was just want to make sure that it's all that like understanding the change but making sure that it's still like all encompassing of all the things that could happen online and the potential you know obviously you can't predict what's the next thing but you know making sure that that is you know that includes all aspect of social media melenia yeah that would that cues me
068to think about deep fakes that are coming out right now and I agree that those would be a visual image but do we need to make sure our verbiage there really is very very clear um okay with board president Raj Paul's uh yes sorry I gave you the go-ahead and then Alex raised his hand okay uh and again this may not I don't know where to put this in policy or regulation or procedure but the story I also hear from frustrated parents is of a student who experiences bullying from there that would fit this definition they report it to one of the professionals at the school and there's no other proof and the other kid denies that it happens in this world of younger kids talking about bullying Behavior avior what is the what what
069happens when a kid says I've been bullied and I'm being bullied repeatedly and the other kids no I'm not and no adults seen it what what what do we do as a district and I realize this is probably being should be held later for a procedural question about what to do but I think it's at the heart of many sort of Parental complaints and allegations is something that can't be documented and therefore parents feel totally dis disempowered in the situation what's what does the policy do to speak to that and or and when would we get to how to address that I love that question so much so that's part of that's part of our training and our conversations as especially as a compliance officer working one toone with administrators who are really wrestling with
070different types of incidents our standard and under 296 the requirement is preponderance of the evidence so that means that like just the weight of a Feather Mo in One Direction or another means that it's more or less likely to have happened and it's they said they said right like that's such a common thing for us to you know they said they said how can I prove it it's unfounded I give up right we're working really really hard in our trainings and our conversations with our administrators to make sure that they understand there's a whole body of context that needs to be considered and in jhb we talk about that it's the totality of the circumstances it's not just this one isolated incident um and when you look at the totality of the Circ cumstances that's
071when you're able to identify if it's more or less likely to have happened we really try to make sure that our administrators understand all of the different pieces of evidence and things that they should be considering as they are navigating um their response and an outcome to an investigation and I would just add I think that with our school safety Advocate Program that are very experienced trained investigators have really been able to stand alongside our administrators and help them through investigations that aren't as clear as I just watched you push somebody so we do spend a lot of time talking about those investigatory practices and then having regular meetings with administrators and our school safety Advocates together to talk about what our investigation practices are and then our documentation Alex and kitty then the lenum
072yeah Ju Just to follow up I mean I've had multiple reports of parents explaining that their child was told they should video the C they should keep their phone going um in the hall and stuff which seems like just putting the victim in an untenable and unsafe situation this sounds loud uh yeah like they have to violate policy in order to do it yeah but I mean I I do think it speaks to Lena's point in our policies that we should have nothing in there that is encouraging the school staff and administrators and people making the decisions to be put in a position of distrusting the kid who's come forward and to put the onus on them and the potential punishment on them for reporting it so if we have abuse of that then yes
073that's abuse of whatever policy any policy can be abused but our policy should not be set up to discourage people from exercising that policy because someone might abuse it we would get rid of all our policy if that was the case so when you talked about it being un found it a question that came up for me is do we ever have circumstances in which there's an investigation and it's just undetermined it can't be you it's not in the moment knowable our guidance is that should be pretty rare based on the preponderance of the evidence standard because I know that happens a lot with um well I don't know a lot it happens with child sexual abuse investigations sometimes and it makes a big difference in the terminology ology you use when you say unfounded
074meaning I think this did not happen as opposed to I can't tell it may have it may not have yeah and this is a place where the people making the law have established some requirements for us so founded and unfounded is not language that we have selected that is language based specifically in the law and it's also a requirement of the office for civil rights that we report allegations of bullying discrimination her harassment on protected classes and that we also then disclose how many of those were founded Dr Anderson then lenia I I would just say um and I really appreciate the deep rich discussion on a topic that I know there's a lot of passion around and uh and certainly understand that I would say that you know Alex to your your points that
075you know in in no way shape or form should any adult in any of our schools be telling kids that they should be trying to catch the person bullying them to prove it that's not okay and I would encourage you to send that to me and we'll follow up with that um I would say that in in my experience and as a school-based administrator uh who's doing a lot of Investigations I think that you know there are times when the the information isn't as conclusive as you'd like but you'll find other information that you can act upon where's the supervision how are kids being bullied in area like are they not where they're supposed to be are they around where adults are are the adults not watching are the adults not paying attention is there
076a safety plan is there you know I think that there's lots of things we can do to continue to work to make our system safer and um but I just want to be really clear uh to the board and to the public that uh when when we have incidents where our policies right or our practices fail in our system or they're not adhere to or not interpreted to be as they need to be adhered to uh you know to either to to send that to um principal area superintendent or network superintendent and just let let's follow our chain of command and and Chase those things down Dr Anderson can you tell me um and I am struggling to remember what our numbers were looking like on bullying were we trending downward upward were we staying
077kind of the same I I'd have to see where those numbers are we're at the close of the year so we can we can take a look at that and report that out I don't know that there was any troubling Trends um on incidents reported right but from what we're talking about tonight that that may not be a true number if there's incidents not being reported or incidents where folks aren't understanding how to report that but we can get that information to the board I I will say I did check the website after um and it's I do think think it's it's there is a link right on the front page it's help help for students and if you CLI if you click on that it's right at the top it takes you to uh
078bullying discrimination title 9 safe to tell uh but help for students might not might need need to be right report bullying so uh but um again you know I think that we always need to be making sure that that we're being um really intentional so good feedback on that and just may I if I may um just to be clear that help for students button is on the top of every single web page on every single School page home page anytime you're on a bbsd website that that's on there up at the top that's correct the help for students and where is that flowchart that was put on there I can't find it if you go to the title 9 website there's the the sexual health and or the sexual violence and prevention web page
079um there's a list of resources towards the bottom including the title 9 videos that the students put together the flowchart should be attached in there and if if it's not please let me know so that I can make sure that it gets updated well and I would say this right this board has had a lot of wonderful discussion tonight about how we make this as friendly to our students and our employees as possible and we hear that message um I know uh Randy Barber our director of communications is thinking a lot about the accessibility law that's coming into play also so we will really be making sure that our resources are very easy to find and accessible Alex um and this is this is less again to the regulation than to follow up and ongoing
080work but I do think um in the spirit of of communities understanding their school culture and climate and understanding their data that the information on incidences of reported bullying and the resolution of those and the protected classes that are coming into question are all great questions for a parent to to know the answer to from their school for a Sac to be encouraged to consider when they think about their uip or for the DC to consider uh while many of us were campaigning we got a ton of feedback from the community saying hey what are we doing to track and keep track of health and social emotional learning and um the volume of uh bullying and perceived bullying and harassment is a key indicator so I I'd encourage us to think about how we make
081that data publicly available and accessible by key groups like our sacs and others ac- r-2 okay back to ac- r-2 so this is the regulation that our recommendation is to keep in effect so that anybody who wants to report an incident that happen in that time frame understands exactly what that process would be so the only red line is the addition of that jurisdictional and time frame at the top of that rig so I still have some questions about it so on page two under definitions decision maker the school district District's designated individual charged with considering the evidence contained in the investigation report making findings a fact and analyzing the relevant policy Provisions to determine whether the allegations constitute a policy violation the decision maker may not be the title 9 coordinator or the investigator
082so does that mean it shall not be those two people or it could possibly not be one of those two people it cannot be okay I would say maybe shall not be because when because I could read that both ways like it's going to happen it may not be the title line coordinator it might be somebody else and then under emergency removal the second little bullet point under there says determine that the student respondent poses an immediate threat to the physical health and safety of any student or individual and it goes on it sort of sounds like it's directing you to determine that they pose a threat rather than to figure out if they pose a threat I mean I know it's not saying that but that's because if they don't pose a threat then
083you're not going to remove them correct right that language specifically addresses the prohibition in the Federal law against removing a student who is accused of a title 9 violation but we can look at that language and then on page five under mandatory reporting it says because all School District employees are required to report actual or suspected sexual harassment or retaliation any such information a complainant shares with any school district employment cannot remain confidential from law enforcement Andor protect Child Protection agencies but if the harassment is not a crime it's just a title n violation why would law enforcement or Child Protection be informed I think that relates to uh um sort of the situation where in the event that there is information that would give rise to filing to submitting something to law enforcement that
084then it would not be able to be uh maybe we can think of something that clarifies it better because when I first read it and I used to teach classes on mandatory reporting um and sexual harassment is not something that you would report as child abuse it sort of implies that it might B uh I would say our expectations from our local law enforcement are that things that that we might consider sexual harassment say um trying to pull a students pants down on the playground we are absolutely expected to report yes that I would agree so um we can look at that language I would tell you I think mandatory reporting is a entirely a a topic that would take its own work session oh more than that I I think something important to note
085too is that under these Title Nine um definition sexual harassment includes the definition of of sexual assault and so that's why it's likely that broad okay yeah well and I'd rather it be overly broad than too narrow because if it's not a crime they're not going to investigate it so on page seven the very bottom Number Four B sorry neither the complainant nor the respondent is required to participate do we know how nonparticipation both parties impacts the outcome of an investigation is it yeah yeah it can impact an investigation under circumstances where let's say that there is an incident that um satisfies the sexual assault definition and there's a criminal charge that's pending and um the respondent decides not to participate for whatever reason that means that we we base our determination on the evidence
086that we have available and the same goes with a A complaintant in the event that they decide not to participate we use the body of evidence that we have available okay thank you and very briefly board members so we clearly have some work to do which we expected um like I said I think the regs themselves have just come out and we're having a lot of conversations across uh school districts and attorneys about it but we do expect to bring the policies you've discussed tonight back to this board for Action before the end of June um as part of that work we will also be updating the two definition policies gbaa that applies to employees and jbb that applies to students and then uh we have onta the complaints policies just because um we've learned
087a lot about how to better serve our our community um and those don't have any sort of time sensitivity so I would say that you'll see those in the fall and it will be the other items that we are working to get the board in June before uh so they can be in place for the new school year thank you so much thank you thank you both for a very thorough presentation and excellent updates to the policy I feel like you have really clear direction from the board moving forward I also want to say thank you to our public for waiting they did lead this conversation with this is a very important topic to the board um and that was evidenced by the fact that it's taken you know an hour and 40 minutes so
088we will take a the very briefest of recesses to rearrange the board table and then we will be right back for our student moment superintendent report and public comment e e e SP what e when I saw the list of public participation we will now reconvene this evening's meeting with the superintendent report so if I could have everybody take their seats Dr Anderson um the first item on this evening's agenda is a superintendent report Dr Anderson good evening thank you board president RJ Paul members of the board want to thank members of our community for hanging in there with us this evening and appreciate seeing so many of our students I know we have lots of students and some of our students unfortunately had to leave it is was it six days of school left
089seven finals so I I um I just want to acknowledge and appreciate you all for hanging in there with us um just a few items to update the public on the first item is is is pretty important board members as you know bbsc is a long practice of not using herbicides on our grounds with the goal of reducing toxins and protecting air quality in and around our schools unfortunately it was recently brought to our attention over the past year we failed to follow this practice at 16 of our schools in Boulder the beginning of the 2023 growing season bbsd contracted with a landscape contractor for maintenance services which included the application of chemical weed control and walkways parking Island and Cobblestone landscape areas and this is not in alignment with our values we regret the
090error and have reached out directly to staff and families at the affected schools with this information we take our responsibility of keeping students and staff safe and healthy incredibly seriously moving forward we're reconfirming our commitment to reducing toxins in the school environments we maintain our operational service team will be working Services team will be working with Community Partners to review and update our procedures to align with integrated Pest Management principles and formalize our processes in these in this area we're committed to continually improving our practices to ensure we're doing what is best for students and the environment board members is those of you that know me when we we do something that isn't what we're supposed to do we're going to be honest about it transparent and let folks know what we're going to do
091to fix it moving forward so I know there's some community members here this evening to speak to this and I appreciate their advocacy um and we we commit to doing better so board members says past week I hope everybody um enjoyed the wonderful Employee Appreciation week and as you know here in the Boulder Valley School District we know that our people our our strength so every year in alignment with the national teacher appreciation week we celebrate our teachers and staff and thank them for all they do for our students family and Community we know that our employees from Educators to bus drivers Food Service workers to child care providers par professionals to office staff all have superpowers to help our kids and we've got a pretty cool video we'd love to show you all at
092this [Music] point superheroes are the people who help everybody and save the city they save people the super abilities and sometimes they do um cool things you know bravery courage always fighting for something they help people names probably like like Spider-Man or Batman Superman I like Spider-Man he's pretty cool I think that a superhero means that they like always stand up for you when you need them and they're always there for you like mainly Superman yeah yeah some teachers you're a superhero instead of having superpowers they're just really really kind and even though they don't have powers like super strength they to fly they're still amazing because they teach us um they would do amazing things by um helping me when I don't feel really good like take us outside and do fun activities with
093us if I hard on myself they're going to make me feel better and say that it's okay teachers to me are superheroes because of the work that they do in school and out of school to help us yeah I really appreciate how much at least the teachers that I have like how much time is put into like the lessons and Grading and responding to emails takes a lot of work courage to teach in front of a whole class every day I mean I know they're working 70 hours plus a week I mean getting the grading done everything I mean it has to be such a tiring job I think it's a lot and I think that it takes a lot of bravery and courage to do that keeping up with everything that comes with being
094a teacher I think is a huge amount of work it's like a superhero they will let me do stuff like fun and just like Inspire us um cuz they teach us stuff they teach us makes the topics fun they teach kids something kids don't know yet like math in my mind I kind of feels like they're like helping you to become your personal best they care about you really they're really kind they're always understanding and they're there for us when we are feeling down or hurt when like everyone's like quiet and tired in the morning she like sings and like dances makes us smile in the morning she makes games for us us and it helps us learn more and like if one of us are sad she'll talk it out with us yeah since
095he's like so good it makes me like want to be like just like him and like he just inspires me to be better my teacher comes out to me and she asks me if I'm okay and I really think that's a good quality to have for a superhero because that's what superheroes do I really am grateful for all of them and what they do when you come into school and you learn things in like a fun way and they like help you learn it and if you're confused they help you understand it it like makes you feel like you're appreciated so you want to appreciate that so much energy has to go into this job that I think a lot of people don't either like see or acknowledge and so having appreciation week I think
096is definitely a lovely thing they're just there for us no matter what just like the whole staff a lot of people there's I mean so many other people security guards are nice you know the lunch people yeah and our counselors they make good food yeah I also see the principal sometimes yeah uh-huh you know the office staff re's perz bus drivers I have a really nice bus driver his name is Tony janitors I don't know his exact route but I'm imagining that he has to get up pretty early people don't realize they're coming in 3:00 a.m. cleaning stuff doing all that I think of basically almost everyone in the school yeah all of them are making this whole operation run they're really great people and you know raising the next generation of people that are
097going to run the world so just all the like unseen labor that goes into keeping a school running is definitely like something that I'm trying to be more like appreciative of thank you so much to our lovely employees who help us grow throughout our whole um school year I think it's really important and it's really it adds a lot to the world Happy employe Appreciation Week you guys rock thank you happy Teacher Appreciation Week you guys guys are super Heroes happy Employee Appreciation Week you're the best happy Employee Appreciation week thank you so much keep doing what you're doing you're doing a good job you're the best teacher ever thank you teachers happy Employee Appreciation Week keep going thank you for everything all the teachers you are the best everybody the staff thank you thank
098you thank you you're a very good teacher thank you teachers happy Employee Appreciation week thank thank you for always being there for us thank you teachers and staff you're awesome you're the best you're Rock teachers thank you thank you for teaching me happy Employee Appreciation week thank you guys so much you guys are amazing amazing teachers are [Music] superhero thank our Communications team for putting together that awesome video and thank thanks to all the students um with their honest feedback and uh we do truly have the best teachers and employees uh of anywhere in the state of Colorado if Colorado if not the nation and so thanks everybody and last week was a great week for Employee Appreciation week last week we also held um Boulder Tech held its second annual Tech Fest which is
099a chance for students to learn more about the exciting College and Career Pathways Boulder Tech has to offer event is always a nice way for the program to wrap up the year because students get to share their learning with interested families get a chance to showcase our partners like construction firms and local First Responders plus there was a rock concert food trucks and a car show put on by Boulder Tech's automotive and collision repair team of course and if you haven't checked out Boulder Tech you you're missing out you should definitely check out the amazing things happening over there speaking of amazing things uh bbsd plant sale there's only two days left to take part in what's an always popular uh plant sale organized by the school food project it's held at the bbsd greenhouses
100is right here between the Ed Center and arapo Ridge Campus where Boulder Tech is you can shop for your garden Staples during including heirloom varieties this Friday from 4:00 to 6: p.m. and Saturday from 8:00 to 4: see a list of plants available at food.org plant sale and finally uh board members Community member it is time to congratulate the class of 2024 here we go all right that was that was the queue uh graduations in bbsd kickoff Friday I can't wait we've recently had the opportunity to honor members of the class 2024 who are black identifying and those who are American Indian Alaskan native and native Hawaiian you can see our full list of graduations and information about live streaming if available on our web page our website on the homepage [Music] www.bbs.ca.net celebration and
101a new acknowledgement of students uh this year with our Grad Plus medallions board members you're very familiar with blad Grad Plus for those not familiar We Believe here in bbsd that a high school diploma is not enough that we encourage students to um earn credentials in one of four areas College before graduation industry certification work-based learning or bilingual education and so all graduates we all have thousands of them um who have earned one or multiple credentials will be able to be wearing their Grad Plus uh medallions as they graduate and cross the stage and so I want to thank our our team for putting that together and just a great way to celebrate um our strategic plan and see our allog together for all students strategic plan in action here in bbsd and finally it's
102time for our student moment Zoe thanks for hanging in there with me and I'm excited to welcome thesbian president from Monarch High School Zoe Wy who has also served as state thespian officer she and her fellow thespians from across District help put on this year's theater showcase which provides our middle schoolers with a chance to learn Hands-On about the world of theater this event covers all aspects of theater including Broadway dancing lights and sound costumes makeup prop making improv stage combat and more want to thank you uh Zoe for your hard work on this event which was held in January and we' love to invite you to come and share a few words about the event [Applause] well I'll start us off um I'm Auer I'm the coordinator of fine and Performing Arts and PE
103for the district and so just a little bit about the theater showcase uh we are a few months out but it was a really exciting event that we host it's been I think over 10 years now uh where we bring middle and high school students together from across the district to just really celebrate the joy and um the love of theater so we had about 270 middle schoolers and 65 high schoolers there if you go back a slide you'll see uh some of the scenes from that day and that the biggest pictures are high schoolers and the best part about this event is that our high schoolers it's really student run they lead it for the middle schoolers they lead the Workshops the performances and um it's a really great leadership opportunity so this is
104just one of the many things that our thespians and theater students do throughout the year so I'm going to hand it over to Zoe to share a little bit more thank you so much to the bbsd board for having me here today and thank you to our community to for coming out to support theater um as I was introduced I'm Zoe Wy I'm proudly represent Monarch High School's troop 5989 um and I am a senior this year part of a wonderful team of officers both at the state level and at the district level and at the school level who have been working to really promote theater advocacy theater education and the joy that theater can bring um so I put together a little slide on the benefits of theater education that we are seeing throughout
105the state throughout our district and specifically at Monarch is where most of my examples will come from and this is sorted into four groups the um social emotional development of students their building of communication skills the ability to empower students to grow learn and use their voices and the existence of students within a safe and accepting Community throughout middle school and high school so going more in depth in that social emotional development these are um some of the most recent events that I've participated in um we have on these pictures detailed the DPS Denver public school Shakespeare Festival that I um volunteered at and saw these three students are doing a trilingual interpretation of McBeth which um wo in and out of English Cantonese and Spanish and seeing students empowered to explore social and emotional
106everything and explore their communication and their development of their identity through theater is so magical to see this is um next to that we have a scene from a Harry Potter children's camp that I helped run where you got to see kids create characters that they knew from their beloved stories and translate those emotions to the stage um if you flip over to the next slide this is mirror image Arts which is a group that I had the joy of working with at the state level this year and volunteered for them that explores how to use Theater Arts and reframing techniques to help prevent the school to prison pipeline in impoverished communities and places where crime is rampant and this they they have they run workshops at multiple different levels including um Elementary workshops with
107puppets um Middle School workshops with um jump in jump out theater where they'll run a scene with multiple different um Q lines and explore the emotions present in the scene and finally High School workshops that are building and empowering the identity of the actor through their exploration of characters um and I felt like this was showing off how theater is really the safest way to take risks to explore personal development and explore emotional connection with others seeing in real time how do my actions make myself and other people fear feel without the fear of a social situation without the immediate catastrophe of how will my peers see me how will my friends perceive me and how will this change my social standing additionally um theater is one slide back please um theater is showing the
108importance of Storytelling we saw that a lot at the um showcase when we were teaching these kids about improv about how to tell a story through violence with stage combat about the use of violence and how to do these things Tastefully and it exposes them to such beautiful messages um some of them are detailed on the stage the idea that nobody is alone the idea of um having the love be present in our community that love is there and it matters um as well as the idea of supporting and uplifting each other through all of these shows which then relate back to history class relate back to LA class studying the industrial Industrial Revolution studying um 911 any of these stud students are able to put into real context with the emotional side of all
109of these great world events through their expressions in theater all right moving on to our next category um communication these are up here is our leadership and student-based Tech at Monarch so oh and one of the pictures is upside down great I am not the tech side of techie um clearly Illustrated but these show um up here we have Monarch's last two officer teams a student run opening number that included high school students from the entire District at the Showcase our state thespian officer this team this year with people from all over Colorado and showing off Monarch's incredible ability everything you see on in these pictures in these Productions is student designed and student produced um and this type of communication and it communication and empowerment my NE my two um current sections go go
110together because in placing students in these leadership roles you're securing them the ability to communicate with their adults with each other to test and try their ideas and to work together towards a common goal um it's building valuable skills like improv public speaking and problem solving and it allows students especially when we bring in the middle schoolers when we bring in in elementary school Outreach to learn and teach through mentorship and through this peer mentor model that we have set up at so many schools at Monarch it takes the role of our felos program which is a one-on-one freshman mentorship program um the boy in the orange shirt in the top picture was my personal fos Mentor um and is currently pursuing his degree in theater education and my friendship that I formed after being
111introduced to one person on the first day of Monarch Theater was instrumental in keeping me in arts expression in showing me no this is cool showing up authentically and showing that you care about something it's not cringy and it's not going to make you make you an outcast theater kids are the ones having most the most fun because they stop caring about what other people think and that's done through the respect of older students showing younger stud students showing our middle schoolers showing our freshmen what it is to be free and to freely Express moving on to the next slide that ties right into our empowerment we have um a image of one of our students dressed up as a superhero for our recent production of Matilda the Musical as well as um the ability
112to be fierce on stage which I think is being taught to middle schoolers to our elementary schoolers and our out Outreach to any programs done connecting students throughout the grades um by empowering others through student leadership student run Tech student run Artistry student developed um student developed short films student developed plays um we do a 24hour onea um production throughout the year which is that Center photo and it's the amount of creativity that can be shown through those 24 hours is like nothing you've ever seen if you let high schoolers just stay up all night and create you get incredibly beautiful shows the one pictured above is um an exploration of the four sta or five stages of grief and it's done through the characterization of a man just sitting on a bench and interacting
113with these characters embodying these emotional traumas of their past and they did that overnight because that's what they're capable of when they're continuously told I can which is the message we are getting as students throughout bbsd in many many areas but in theater especially is that I can be a student leader I can develop my tech program I can design honestly comparative to Broadway level sets and see it through with the resources we have in our tech room what can I do next is the question that bbsd theater leaves so many asking and this is because of the support we have from our community from each other within these organizations and because of the empowerment that our teachers and student leaders are giving us on that note um the student leadership opportunities that we have
114in theater include the community leadership of having officers having social media managers things like that throughout our um throughout the hierarch learning to work as students with our director having student-led Tech letting students design such an integral part of the show and see it through to the end is like no other team sport in the world and it's empowering by Nature as an actor you step on stage and you ask every day who will I be who am I right now and that allows you to become so in touch with your own identity and with using your voice to promote the messages that we see throughout Theater which is acceptance love and perseverance and on the tone of in acceptance there is no safer place than a high school theater um I gets I I
115graduate at the end of the week and it gets me a little emotional looking at these images of my four years the lowest one is my senior class and it's these people who have been with each other for four years in this nurturing building authen authenticity and mentorship environment where we're allowed to mess up and allowed to make mistakes and encouraged to make mistakes because if you're showing up and really trying of course you're failing sometimes so it's the gentle leadership the gentle help from our directors and um the connections that we build with those incoming nothing could have prepared me to make the transition from freshman looking up to the upper classman to building myself into a person that I feel comfortable with freshmen looking up to me it gives students a safe place
116to become themselves and become a person that they are proud to have their younger peers modeling themselves after we have a running joke that theater is a big family and that when you're introduced to theater you meet your theater mom and dad and having had a wonderful theater mom and dad who taught me so much about who I am I am so proud to say that I'm now able to leave my department with that same impression that I have such wonderful theater kids and I cannot wait to see everything they do it makes me excited that we have so much joy and have set up the next generation of artists and of authentic creators and I want to give the biggest thanks to bbsd for making that happen [Applause] and as a proud dad with
117two kids in the theater program uh one graduated one a junior at at Monarch High School I second everything that's zo we had to say that's all we have for uh superintendent comments this evening happen to answer any questions thank you for that presentation Zoe your energy and excitement about theater was Pub board members any questions for Dr Anderson before we move move on with this evening's agenda seeing as there are none our next item this evening is public participation moment you've all been waiting for the board respects the right of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of the schools the board does not endorse the comments of any speaker and reminds all who speak that you're you are responsible for your own speech speakers will have two minutes to speak you
118will 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 you'd like to share additional information you may email the board um we have a long list of speakers this evening so in order to get through everybody not bump folks to the end of the agenda like policy says we can I really would like us to be mindful of the two minutes um so watch the timer our public participation list is always as always organized by students first items pertaining to the agenda and then non-agenda items our first Speaker this evening is Lily thorn can you push the button with a little talking person on it thank you um hello I'm Damien I'm a sophomore Evista High School
119unfortunately Lily and Yoda had to leave for work so I'll be introducing us um we're a research group based in new vissa high school researching High School bilingual Pathways in Boulder um in order to assess what the high schools and B bbsd needed in terms of bilingual education we set out to observe classrooms and interview students as well as do more general research per our mission we felt that it was important to hear the voices of students in our community so that we can find solutions that work for our district first we visited elementary and middle schools within I mean with different forms of bilingual programs and found profound positive impacts both socially and academically Spanish speaking students in bilingual programs showed improved grades attendance and enthusiasm for learning it also helped build the sense
120of community amongst all students um native English speakers greatly benefited from these programs as well when interviewed these elementary elementary and middle school students said they want to continue dual language programs in the high school education how however during our visit to our local bbsd school we observed many students struggling with the c within the CDE program they express a need for more specific support based on each one's individual linguistic level given more resources we'd hope that this program could account for different levels of language Lang language proficiency as well as ADD M more culturally connected teachers thank thank you our next speaker this evening is yira Lopez compos hi I'm ree Ferman um and I'm a sophomore nist and I'll be adding on to what Damian has said um we found through our research
121that there are many different ways to integrate bilingualism into schooling each High School in bbsd is unique and needs opportunities offered that cater to their specific environment however there are a few improvements we suggest that could benefit every High School in the district such as a linguistic inclusion policy for assignment and testing accommodations both for Teacher created test as well as in standardized testing it is extremely important that testing is accessible for all students and the addition of other language options on tests would be relatively low effort and cost for an inclusive culture it is crucial that students have the option of multilingual uh literature and media we suggest the integration of this media in libraries and classrooms as well as more bilingual announcements flyers and Communications these would make information more available to help
122integrate the language within schools additionally students request more bilingualism in school extracurriculars like sports Music Arts um as well as clubs for bilingual students these help Foster community and Bridge language barriers which is key in implementing bilingual education and finally every High School in the district could benefit from more thorough consistent support and promotion of the Seal of biliteracy Not only would these program elements that we're recommending create more productive schooling environments for students who are bilingual or who struggle with English um but would help enrich the educational experience overall as well as being an incredible tool in one's future research shows that multilingualism expands cognitive function these elements of support that we're suggesting should be standard in our schools um our team member vaita who was going to present recommendation to about increasing bilingual
123staff at all schools um unfortunately had to leave for work but we encourage you to read about it in the report we sent out to you earlier today thank you so Damian are we going back to to you or so we're going to skip ahead to Daphne to Patrick Martin the first four had to leave uh good evening my name is Patrick and another recommendation we have is a districtwide initiative to support and encourage bilingualism one such element is a districtwide summer school in Spanish for proactive credit earning rather than just Credit Recovery offering these credits in Spanish will benefit students both academically and promote Equitable access access to education this is important for students who struggle in their classes as instead of catching up they have the opportunity to get ahead an additional approach
124is to strengthen the districtwide celebration of bilingualism for elementary middle and high school students when surveying high school students we found that many don't feel comfortable speaking their native language at school in a globalized world students must understand the power of bilingualism this would give bilingual students the recognition they deserve and encourage others to pursue bilingual Pathways along with this should come extracurricular activities in Spanish and other languages for example a multilingual student advisory Council as we know extracurricular activities are critical to students mental health though many bilingual students feel they do not have a place in any of these clubs this would ensure every student an encouraging and relatable Community the opportunity of a future bilingual teacher program would be extremely beneficial encouraging students with college credit from the CU School of Education provides
125an extremely valuable and exciting Avenue for those passionate about bilingual education finally a districtwide meeting for bilingual staff at the high school level to share resources and problems of practice would Aid in amplifying Community Voices this would also provide opportunities for growth within this initiative as we brainstorm the next steps thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Hamilton Dunn is it okay um hello and thank you for your time like many of my peers I'm finishing my sophomore year at n Vista my name's Hamilton and over the course of the year the research that we have conducted has helped us best understand which implications bbsd will benefit from the most in terms of dual language strands uh one in influential finding in our research showed that many multilingual students expressed the need
126for an interest in linguistic support and in core classes to be able to succeed academically knowing this helped us create the recommendations that I will share with you now uh the first aspect of dual language emersion that will help pave the way for an ideal program is trying out content courses in Spanish at at least one high school in bbsd over the next few years this will help gauge interest and identify early challenges and opport opportunities for improvement uh in these strands next uh considering and understanding the locations of current newcomer centers as well as where the large uh Spanish speaking populations are in the district will help predict how and when to implement different uh strands at different locations uh additionally a a solution to students being forced to choose between the Dual language
127Strand and alternative programs is considering integration with other existing programs either right off the bat or at some point during the integration process of the programs that we would like to see implemented one prime example of this is IB programs which have bilingual diplomas with content curriculum assessments and a system of evaluation already available in Spanish and English obviously uh and finally supporting legislation to include Spanish language arts as a course that can be counted towards traditional language arts credits will greatly benefit the many uh students in this District who do not call English their first language which is nearly 5,000 students so uh in other words English language arts should be switched to just language arts to help create high schools in which all students have equal opportunities to learn thank you thank you
128our next speaker this evening is Grace and Tate hello my name is Grayson Tate I'm a sophomore at no Vista and I'll be handling the recommendations for what we can can do at our own school which is New Vista with our research and collaboration from student voices in New Vista and with the survey our research has led us to the conclusion that for individual support the biggest change we would like to see would be an elective class taught in either Spanish or dual English and Spanish this would help to incentivize students to to take the class without the pressure that a core class credit would put on them this approach can also potentially use nist's unique schooling techniques to offer this class for a community experience or Workshop which are specialized short classes that we
129offer through the school um in doing this the school could use its smaller student population as a testing ground so that further efforts can address what might work and what areas might need Improvement furthermore students will look into um asking for and incentivizing more media that spoken or read in Spanish so that the Spanish speaking students won't feel isolated or as if they are sequestered into a few Spanish speaking places these methods were further outlined in the recommendations that my peers have presented and in the report in addition I will be reading e sas's script um because she's no longer a boulder resident but she's a recent graduate of n Vista and she's been working with us all semester kamino seismo is an important step to create a difference um for the upcoming generation that
130will be coming to any bbsd school the research group might seem small but including things like what the students have suggested from various schools means a lot to them starting with a group like this is important to students who are having a hard time in class this research team has gotten a lot of time for interviews from different students um of varying ages and presenting in front of multiple important groups it is important to acknowledge that the students need this support although we cannot answer questions at the moment we would appreciate you sending them and any feedback you may think of today um and we encourage you to send them to John mesy the principal of nista high school or to come to New yourself if you want to thank you our next speaker this
131[Applause] our next speaker this evening is Ash Brave moving on our next speaker this evening is aie McGrady who's been given two minutes from Andrew brand okay good evening board members and superintendent Anderson my name is AI McGrady graduating this month from New Vista High School this public statement serves as my call to action regarding the state of information security and cyber security education in the district part of my senior year culminating project first I must stress the Urgent necessity for increased awareness and vigilance regarding cyber security our educational institutions manage a wealth of sensitive data ranging from Student Records to financial information any compromise of this data not only imperils the the privacy and security of our students and faculty but also erodes the trust fundamental to the educational process it's essential to recognize
132that there is still so much ground to cover in terms of educating our district students in basic cyber security and privacy principles shockingly only 54% of students surveyed by edtech magazine in 2021 reported receiving any cyber security training or instruction from their educational institution at all it's critical to recognize that data breaches don't just impact high ranking officials they affect everyone in our district including our students staff and teachers it's essential to acknowledge that even though large scale breaches get a lot of attention even seemingly minor incidents like credit card fraud or identity theft can also profoundly harm individuals and communities this emphasis the pressing need for for bbsd to expand and enhance its efforts ensuring that all students are equipped to handle anything thrown at them in the digital world as we move faster
133and faster into the future it's not only inadequate but unethical to neglect such an important aspect of Our Lives the digital land landcape is expanding exponentially saturating every facet of our existence with this rapid integration of Technology comes an ever increasing risk of cyber threats therefore addressing cyber security for students isn't merely a suggestion but an ethical imperative it's crucial to address a significant blind spot in our current approach to cyber security education while teachers and administrators may receive occasional training our students are left entirely unattended in this regard bbsd is at a point where prioritizing cyber security education is Paramount this district is renowned for adopting Progressive educational methods and integrating technology by prioritizing cyber security bbsd can help create a safer and more secure digital environment for the community this would not only
134promote the growth in success of bbsd but being more prepared for the risks of the real world would enhance the lives of all bbsd students there's also a notable absence of outlets for further learning particularly for those interested in pursuing cyber security careers by overlooking this aspect the district inhibits students from reaching their full potential cyber security is a rapidly growing field with abundant opportunities yet many students AR aable to explore and cultivate their interests due to the absence of dedicated educational resources and programs I asked this board to deliver avenues for students to delve deeper into cyber security in the future I implore this board to address this cyber education Gap and provide students with necessary support support and resources to pursue their interests and Excel in the field of cyber security in closing
135it's evident that cyber security education is not merely a suggestion but a moral obligation demanding our immediate attention as our digital footprint expands so do the risks associated with the scope underscoring the pressing need for the heightened awareness and vigilance by prioritizing our involvement bbsd can lead the charge in creating a safer ecosystem for our entire population by investing in their education and providing lanes for further learning not only safeguarding students's future but also pave a path for a more secure digital environment for Generations Hereafter let's use this moment to provide our students with the knowledge and abilities needed to navigate the intricacies of our inter interconnected world thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Luke menine sorry if I butchered that hi thank you for having us this evening uh my
136name is Luke manene I'm K Moda and uh we're sophomores at fairv high school and uh we come here tonight to talk about uh bbsd climate change and how we can uh affect climate change um and we kind of came up with two vital strategies that stood out to us um that could make a difference uh one of them being transitioning to Electric school buses and plan planting plenty more trees around our schools electric school buses not only reduce harmful emissions but also improve air quality safeguarding Health the health of our children and communities and reduce greenhouse gases electric school buses can also save money in the long run for all bbsd schools each electric School Bus can save districts nearly $2,000 a year in fuel and $45,000 a year in maintenance costs planting more
137trees around schools can be beneficial because it can not only provide more shade and produce better air quality but it can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions the main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect some gases in the Earth's atmosphere act like a bit of a glass in a greenhouse and trapping the sun's heat and stopping it from leaking back into space and causing global warming we think each teach trap Fairview should plant one tree on campus in order to take initiative on taking another step closer towards preventing climate change our ultimate goal is to make a difference with the with the climate crisis and one thing that kind of inspired me to come here today and talk about this was last week there was a couple bbsd members who came into our science
138class and they talked to us about greenhouse gases and how it affects climate change and they even planted a tree outside with us so thank you thank you [Applause] next up we have Matteo Murphy uh hey thanks for having me and I'm here to talk about how bbsd can help with climate change uh first off I think they can incorporate incorporate comprehensive Environmental Education across all subjects and grade levels ensuring students understand the interconnectedness of ecological systems and human activities next I think they can Implement sustainable practices within School operations such as waste waste reduction energy conservation and Water Management serving as models for students and the community next I think they can develop and utilize Outdoor Learning spaces to connect students with nature fostering a deeper appreciation for the environment and providing Hands-On learning
139experiences lastly I think they can align curriculum standards with climate science and sustainability principles ensuring students are equipped with knowledge and skills needed to address environmental challenges thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is El is Eliana Alper hello and thank you for having me this evening my name is Elana Alper and I'm a sophomore at Fairview High School tonight I would like the board to consider the importance of Gardens and schools I spent the first nine years of my education at community monor where I had full access to a garden and I believe it was an integral part of my elementary education for young children Gardens help to develop major muscle groups as well as fine motor skills teach about nutrition and appreciation for nature and promote communication and teamwork at a
140high school level gardening continues to not only teach about nutrition communication and teamwork but gardening also improves overall mental health and reduces stress things we have plenty of in high school by having Gardens at high schools students could be given the opportunity to have a sustainable living and gardening course as an elective a course like this would not only give back to the school in the present but teach students that this is our future for example fair viiew just planted trees at the front of our building and I realize they will not benefit the current students but would eventually be enjoyed by Future students my hope is that by starting Gardens now there will be a positive impact not only for current students but for future students overall studies show and I believe that the
141presence of Gardens and schools are beneficial to students and the overall Community thank you for your time this evening thank you our next speaker this evening is Eloise dembroski hi um my name is Eloise D Browski and I'm a sophomore at Fairview High School today I'm going to be talking to you about planting native grasses in wild flowers on the roofs of our school buildings um for when we're building a building we remove all the photosynthesis that is happening in that area if we plant native grasses and wild flowers on top of the buildings it will redo our photosynthesis footprint and also reduce our carbon footprint uh because the grasses would be constantly um renewing the air around the school this would also be lowering our Heating and Cooling bill for the school overall um
142and also if we add uh spaces for students to sit in or just study outside in a natural environment we will have more varieties on our campuses and we will also see benefits in student stress levels by earthing also known as grounding which is uh the discovery that contact with Earth's natural electric charge can help with stabilizing stress sleep and energy levels in students this would really benefit a lot of kids from walking around my school and hearing about finals recently everyone is stressed out so I think that this would be a very beneficial um addition to our school and campuses thank you for your time and consideration thank you our next speaker this evening is Nico Leopold is Le [Music] linga Pioneer Pioneer Mally is currently as a student support specialist position a job
143that I think is very important um and it's losing its funding for the next year this job helps helps a lot of kids that Pioneer with conflicts and similar things for example last week I had a conflict with another student and Joshua the current um student support specialist helped me with the um the very next day me and the student were in different classes so without Joshua um I don't think it would have been solved the same way because of his training Joshua helped us solve it in a simple way last year we also had an amazing support specialist named relle she was very kind and didn't just help us with conflicts but she gave us lessons on how to prevent and solve problems she also taught us lessons on conscious discipline overall all the
144student support Specialists have been amazing I hope you can help Pioneer keep this position thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Olive trout fine who is virtual sorry if I pronounced that wrong Olive members of the board and Dr Anderson my name is Ol trapline I'm a sixth grader in bbsd I'm here speaking to you tonight because I think it's important for bvsd to have a neurodiversity policy having a policy will encourage us to talk more about how all of us think and learn differently as an example I know a student who uses head headphones when it gets loud in class I've heard other classmates call his headphones stupid they say it's not loud that loud in here we don't need headphones why should you following neurodiversity can teach us to respect
145each other's differences I had a friend who taught me that using a fidget actually helps her focus when the teacher is talking it's in important that we get our needs metant not to have them minimized or made fun of a policy is an opportunity to show that we value other people's needs most of the most of the time our school does a really good job of appreciating their diversity my peers and I try to be be accepting and inclusive of everyone our school has speakers and sometimes parents come to talk to our classes we ask questions about each other's experiences and learn about the ways our own brains work I believe these conversations should have been in all bbsd schools a policy is important in making a appreciating neurodiversity a district guide value thank you
146for your time thank you our next speaker this evening is winter Howley my name is winter Howley and I'm a sophomore attending Fairview High School ladies and gentlemen of the bbsd school board thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address you today as a student I stand before you not just as an individual but as a voice for my generation advocating for a cause that is Paramount to our Collective future preventing climate change and reconnecting with the natural environment every day I walk into our classrooms with a growing sense of urgency because I understand the gravity of the situation we Face climate change isn't a distant threat it's knocking on our doorsteps right now we're witnessing unprecedented natural disasters melting ice caps and rising sea levels the world we have inherited is rapidly deteriorating
147and it's our responsibility to take action but why does this matter to me as a student it matters because of my future and the future of our children hangs in the balance it matters because the decisions we make today will shape the world we live in tomorrow it matters because I want to breathe clean air drink clean water and enjoy the wonders of nature just like Generations before me have done and I want the generations who come after to enjoy these wonders as well pollinators are a keystone species because they are a mechanism for fertilization so that plants can reproduce which allows for genetic diversity Fairview High School where I attend as well as many other schools in the district were built at top of previously photosynthesizing Meadow by implementing rooftop gardens to assist pollinators
148we can return photos synthesizing footprint to the Earth we previously destroyed rooftop gardens also act as natural insulation which would cut costs of Heating and Cooling in the respective Seasons another benefit would be the potential to improve the overall mental health of your students and teachers by providing them with a space to surround themselves in nature as they further their understanding of ecosystems and the interdependence of species in closing I implore you esteemed members of the school board to see beyond the present and envision the future we can create together I urge you to prioritize climate action in our schools let us lead by examples showing not only our commitment to sustainability but also our dedication to imp empowering students to become informed and engaged citizens because implementing rooftop gardens and other nature-based climate Solutions
149integrating education into our curriculum and advocating for policy reform we together can make a difference thank you for your time and consideration thank you our next speaker this evening is Maya rich we were under the impression that we could combine our two minutes to four um and wrote our statement as such are we able to do that who is the other she's also what was your name Grace Mosley Laura do you have a Grace on your list oh two minutes from osley we just need four we wouldn't need the extra time anymore if we were so there's no Eliza Mosley and Grace Mosley just the two okay I can make that change thank you before we would again we would just like to acknowledge that we are not representing the youth Equity Council in any
150formal capacity we are just here representing ourselves on our own V hello my name is Grace Mosley and I'm a bbsc graduate of 2023 and I am Mia Rich a 2024 B SD graduating senior recently the department of Ed equity and Community engagement as we know it has was dismantled with changes in leadership and uncertainty about what the department as an entity will look like we have no option but to be concerned about the future of equity social Consciousness and appropriate And Timely action within the district we care deeply about this community and are fearful of the negative impacts this change will elicit there are currently numerous systems and programs that work in collaboration with run through or overseen by this department including the the youth Equity Council the equity Council the parents of color
151Council and the Grad Plus program we have both worked very closely with you with the youth Equity Council and have seen the profound effects of these programs through the work of our classmates and other community members the youth Equity Council serves as a safe inclusive and necessary space for students of color and other underrepresented groups throughout the district for myself and many other student members youth Equity Council has been a space where we not only feel like we belong but where we are heard this feeling of belonging is one that current and and future students will likely never be able to hold in any other space outside of YC throughout their educational career YC as it exists today focused on empowering youth voices and fostering a community built upon the values of connection and change
152making is vital to the Safety and Security of our students during my 12-year educational career within bbsd I experienced many instances of discrimination and and inequity it wasn't until the formation of the equity and youth Equity councils that I was provided the outlet to share my struggles within the district and be a part of the solution this is what truly ignited my passion for diversity equity and inclusion work which helped me earn scholarships and awards for my work as I entered higher education my passion for this work stems from the hope that my younger siblings who are current bbsd students or any of the future generations of bbsc students won't have to go through the things that I went through this year my younger sister joined the youth Equity Council and has been a part
153of this work it is truly disheartening to see this program end knowing many alumni and current members feel their work has been for nothing while we deeply value the space that yuc has given us the shift of the department has proven to us what we have always known Equity work in this district is purely performative if bbsd cannot commit to keeping systemic support in place for our students how can we trust that Schools staff and individuals will continue to promote equity and inclusivity in day-to-day interactions this removal of an effective system that was already in place signifies to our community and our students that on a district and board level we do not support diversity equity and inclusion it seems that the district only supports Dei work when it supports its image we plaster the
154accomplishments of those such as the youth Equity Council to promote that we are doing things when in reality the district itself is doing very little to actually support the voices who are doing the work in reality bbsd creates an environment that causes those who have valuable opinions to be uncomfortable advocating for what is right I will say that again bbsd has created an environment that makes people fear advocating for what is right this is what we ask ask we ask you to cons to consider the dangers in changing the department of equity and Community engagement we ask for full transparency for the new direction of this department and clear communication of what will happen to the responsibilities this department once held we ask that you find a way to keep these programs running in the
155best interest of students and their voices within change makak we ask that you commit yourself to Dei work systemically Beyond it simply being performative above all else we urge you to keep the well-being of underrepresented students in the Forefront of your mind thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is virtual Louise Ramirez seura uh hello my name is Louise and I'm a sophomore in Ferry High School uh last week we had uh some volunteers to teach us about climate change and uh I think it's really really helpful if we uh have uh rooftop gardens uh that were like uh hold on I'm sorry sorry it would uh cost like the energy of a of a it would uh reduce the energy from uh I'm really sorry I'll get to my next Point uh
156it's okay you're doing great think you uh uh I think we should uh plant more trees on the school cuz uh that would uh really help us with like the air quality and uh give us some shade uh I've noticed the a lot of students uh being really stressed about like finals and uh not like really much space to work and like having a like quiet quiet environment would be like really nice and just working outside uh would uh would help us thank [Applause] you thank you that concludes the student comments for this evening we will now move on to Jennifer Bean hello my name is Jennifer bean and I am a Lafayette Elementary parent former Dak rep former high school classroom teacher and current Middle School teacher tutor you you have in front of
157you I believe I gave that to Laura thank you you have in front of you a photo of several swastikas actually these are the ones two fifth graders Drew on the Lafayette Elementary playground on April 5th it is a symbol of hate because the Nazis World War II era cowards and murderers used it starting in 1920 to terrorize torture an attempt to wipe out an entire people they murdered 6 million Jews and 6 million others hate groups now use the swap Tica to remind Jews and others that the hate has not gone away and it can and will grow if given the chance if hate is if hate is buried and normalized so if you ever see the symbol reported to a trusted adult immediately don't let hate make you silent and hate should never
158be ignored or forgotten that took a minute and 10 minute and 10 seconds it's not that hard it's quite simple actually so I ask you why it's been six weeks since those swaso were drawn and not one ATT attempt has been made by Megan Weir to prevent this expression of hate in the future only the perpetrators have been spoken to why has it been four weeks since Bianca gagos director of strategic Partnerships promised me she'd follow through on my request to educate every fourth and fifth grader on what hate looks and sounds like before this summer and why has the only response I've received from the Boe and not even my own Lafayette representative but rather Nicole rajaul been a mockery of the bbsd Valu stating please know that providing a safe learning environment is
159something the board takes seriously with nothing being done and my son not feeling safe at his own school I ask you if you are liars Hypocrites or cowards and I say all three a safe learning environment is not hoping people forget the Hate by doing nothing if they can draw it they can know it protect our children with knowledge do your job it's not that hard thank you our next speaker this evening is Calvin ree so I would have just about as much energy as the lady before me because I have similar feelings and Alex used the word tonight disempowered I would say that the majority of folks in the district do feel disempowered whether it be from the board or from the uh Board of director uh chair or from the super attendant so
160each of you board members are well-versed in my concerns and it's impossible for me to share these in two minutes and I've already burned through 30 30 seconds so I'm here to communicate that action from the board must be taken in Community member engagement to hold the STA staff accountable for recklessly managing this District placing hardships on families endorsing policy violations breaking the law placing students at the bottom the district's priority list as we heard from two members earlier two students and constantly refusing to create a safe Equitable non-discriminatory non-bias education system in Boulder County there is a simple solution here we need to find new District Administrative leadership board members if this is too large of a commitment than perceived then you should resign frankly these positions should be paid for so you have
161more time to work on these issues or go find folks who have executive level talent to work through some of these issues without the actions of each of you there is no accountability and there's no check and balance system in place there are parents who don't follow complaint process and they simply just file a lawsuit not everybody has the ability to go get attorneys and file a lawsuit why does it have to go through the legal jurisdiction jurisdiction to hold this District accountable is beyond me there's been over 10 plus lawsuits in the past few years that range from 30,000 to millions of dollars and I have seen no action against the administrative staff further and one of the issues I think that the the the Sy systemic issues here is only one of four
162households in Boulder County have school AG children so I don't think there's enough engagement as Community to inform others and 55% of our property tax is paying for this school district so certainly we need more engagement and I'm here to Advocate change we'll continue to Advocate change and I'm glad to hear others are advocating change thank you our next speaker this evening is Jennifer maybe moving along to Caitlyn Klein my name is Caitlyn Klein I've been a teacher in bbsd for 16 years and I'm also bbst parent understanding how neurodiversity impacts the way my own children perceive experience and interact with the world has transformed both my parenting and my teaching I see on a daily basis that my kids and the students in my classroom Thrive when they feel connected safe and understood and
163they struggle when they don't my hope is that all students in bbsd feel a true sense of belonging that they develop awareness about their own neuro identity and the experiences of others and that they receive the collaborative support they need to learn and Thrive and that they are encouraged to self- advocate in my current role as the mtss coordinator I strive to support teachers to be open-minded and curious about students experiences to use Universal Design and differentiated instruction to normalize different learning Styles and to affirm student identities and to collaborate with students and families to proactively address student needs I'm here today to encourage the board to adopt a policy that promotes understanding neurodiversity because I believe that consistent districtwide neuro affirming values would benefit all students and it would support District initiatives such as
164addressing declining enrollment promoting teacher sustainability reducing bullying and harassment closing the achievement Gap and supporting positive mental health outcomes for youth thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Audra degraph who received two minutes from Tiffany Gango Bach if it's possible I was hoping that I could share my two minutes with Cindy we're just kind of speaking on similar issues if not I can read a statement prepared by her is she on the list no so because yeah I'll read her statement that's fine my name is Cindy slasher newly elected PTO president ATA building way Pioneer I'm a social worker at a local nonprofit that provides services to newly arriving immigrants IEPs have decreased in bilingual schools bvsd needs to investigate whether students with IEPs have received adequate services and no longer need
165support because they're they've improved or whether they're leaving our school I have personally spoken with five families and Pioneer whose children have IEPs or 5504 plans and could not access necessary services for their children these families cited the principle as the root problem and were either encouraged to leave or were simply unsupported these are not isolated incidences and are not simply problem parents and children they are an indication of systemic discrimination one family with with a child with Down Syndrome moved their child to a different bbsd school after they were told that their child would not receive adequate services at Pioneer this was personally difficult for this family because their family is from Mexico and they wanted their child to be able to speak with their grandmother and their family's language of Spanish these are
166five families these five families are the only people I know personally and are very concerned about and I'm concerned about parents that are flying under the radar how many other families of pioneer are not receiving Services guaranteed under the Ada or services that adequately address the heightened needs of the families at Pioneer Pioneer has a higher percentage of newcomers and Spanish speaking Families Our Community is uniquely diverse within bbsd which is beautiful it also means that there is a higher level of Need for support for not only students with IEPs but for students whose identities lead them to experience race-based and systemic trauma and discrimination when parents have voiced concerns at higher levels in bbsd they have been referred back to the school in the absence of an anonymized investigation process that leads to changes
167around that leads to changes around discrimination families are fearful fearful of in concerns this is contrary contrary to where bbsd says we stand on these issues my name is audre deph and I'm also a parent at Pioneer Elementary and I'd like to share my concerns about the school accountability committees the key word in that title is accountability however these committees are toothless to actually hold anyone accountable despite numerous complaints about various topics at my school including budget transparency and fundraising practices such as the use of personal venmo accounts parents keep being pointed back to sack unfortunately the district gives sack no power whatsoever and Sack is not a viable option to change a school's poor climate or culture at Pioneer meetings have been scheduled and canceled in a chaotic way dates inconsistently publicized and parents
168not informed making it inaccessible to all but the most of persistent app parents an additional issue is that sack cannot require anything of school administration they can only make requests our Sac has been requesting information to explain missing money for months only to be rebuffed by school administrators this means there's no actual Financial oversight for funds from within the School Community or from the district sack unfortunately has no oversight in the decision-making process our school has been short one kindergarten teacher when school starts for the last two years we serve a vulnerable population with 48% of our students receiving free or reduced lunch and many more are dealing with significant social and emotional issues which have been exacerbated by covid rather than using differentiated funding to help support our students and teachers these funds are
169implemented within a school within the school in a way that has negatively affected the climate and culture which sack has no ability to resolve again when parents complain they are pointed to SAC but sack's recommendations are repeatedly unheeded and many of the issues are outside saxs purview finally it's a major problem that the person whose Sac is supposed to oversee is also the person who appoints and removes Sac members if there's an actual corruption issue such as missing money the administration can silence sack members by simply removing them at the end of the year I'm requesting that Sac be given more power to overseas School administrators a district employee needs to sit on every sac committee to clarify policy and budget issues full Financial transparency on all funds coming into and out of the school
170needs to be required as a core function of Sac and lastly the principal should not be the one appointing Sac members they should be appointed by vote of the sitting sack members thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Melissa Joy I'm not going to try my my name is Melissa dais and I'm the communications coordinator and former Secretary of the PTO and a parent at esquea bingu Pioneer Elementary over the past few years many teachers have left Pioneer because they are experiencing difficulties with the current Administration and others are being removed this year or considering leaving these are seasoned teachers and staff and they have the best resources to support our unique bilingual community and we are seeing the detrimental effects of teacher turnover in increased instability among our students and teacher
171teams especially affecting the most vulnerable students I and many others in Al line In This Very Room have been reaching out to bbsd about these issues for years now in particular over the last 13 months I've been requesting that bbsd follow up directly with teachers in the form of exit surveys and interviews we have been told by multiple bbsd employees that they would contact several teachers through HR but this hasn't happened more recently I've been informed that quote any employee who has transferred to another school can email or visit with HR to voice their concerns however none of the pioneer teachers who have left in recent years have been contacted to convey this information or solicit feedback and it is unclear if they even know about this passive process it should not be the responsibility
172of parents to bring up issues between administrators and teachers and that is why I urge bbsd to make it standard procedure to reach out to all exiting teachers and staff to conduct at least surveys and if possible also follow up interviews we are seeing a climate of fear and unhappiness at Pioneer having detrimental effects on our staff our teachers and most importantly on our students and we ask that bbsd act quickly on their behalf we are begging you to care thanks in advance thank you our next speaker this evening is Jenny themer who has been given two minutes from Amanda McGary thank you board president Raj Paul and members of the board thank you superintendent Anderson and District Executives for your collaboration this year on integrating and appreciation for neurodiversity into trainings and discussions across
173the district my name is Jenny themer I am a bbsd parent and have served as co-lead on the bbsd autism advisory team where I have had the honor honor of collaborating this year with bbsd staff and community members I'd like to take a couple of minutes to share background on a request for the board to consider the development of a neurodiversity policy in January of this year the advisory team recommended that the district develop a neurodiversity policy to articulate District values and lay the foundation for successful and affirming learning environments grounded in connection safety and belonging between the end of January and mid-march bbsd community members solicited input on a policy in an online survey in English and Spanish we also facilitated discussions with multiple vbsd committees and Community groups our Outreach efforts involved the
174district accountability committee Latin uh latinx parent advisory committee gifted education advisory committee the special education advisory committee families and Educators together the dyslexia advisory team and the equity Council we sought input from Community groups such as the Boulder Valley kids identified with dyslexia Boulder Valley gifted and talented and the Dei collab and some members of these groups also circulated the survey to their school Dei committees and school accountability committees in all an estimated 150 individuals participated in group discussions about the policy's key points at these meetings and the survey the two surveys received over 115 responses from parents students and bbsd employees esteemed board members as you consider a neurodiversity policy I would like to highlight a few of the guiding principles that reflect the input that we received neurodiversity includes all of us Dr
175Nick Walker defines neurodiversity as the diversity of human Minds for this reason a neurodiversity policy isn't just for one group of students or staff a policy on neurodiversity would Encompass and benefit the whole bbsd Community many of you have seen the bbsd neurodiversity and the classroom training the training asks us to reflect on ways that we each experience the world differently and rather than see those differences in each other as positive or negative we can instead focus on shaping our environments in ways that align with the different ways we experience to help everyone succeed a neurodiversity policy would nurture appreciation for our differences Decades of research show that when we learn about and our accepting of the unique ways we experience the world we're more attuned to our own needs we're more equipped to advocate
176for those needs in Social school and work environments cultures that actively value neurodiversity Foster improve listening and collaboration and numerous Studies have proven that an understanding and appreciation for neurodiversity can encourage empathy self-reflection self-awareness reduce instances of misunderstanding bullying and other and increase empathy connection and belonging I am joined this evening by fellow bbsd community members who would like to also encourage the board to consider a policy thank you again board members Dr Anderson for the work you do for our staff students and families thank you our next speaker this evening is Sarah Pilla hello bvsd board my name is Sarah pill my son is an autistic 10-year-old who has been part of bbsd for seven years including the rise and aim programs there are some harmful practices in place that have led to a
177lasting traumatic impact on my whole family these practices coers children to behave in ways that are convenient to the management of our schools these practices create Mass ask in behaviors that are easy to dismiss and at worst negative cycles of physical restraint and seclusion due to a lack of compliance I speak from personal experience during my son's years of 8 through 9 we received 25 official reports of physical restraint and seclusion and three suspensions but over the years there have been countless undocumented cases as well I know because I was called in to help as a result I have a child who is now displaying panic attacks of what has been done however this story this is a story with a positive outcome last year we transferred to a different School our sixth bbsd transfer
178the Special Education team and teachers there have a deep appreciation for neurodiversity and are empowered to think through this lens when interacting with our children we have experienced an entire school year with no escalations and no phone calls to come pick up our child the school staff report that he is like a different child a wonderful child but we all know he's simply a child who is now seen and understood please give your staff this empowerment so that they have similar opportunities elsewhere to build connections with these children there is more to our children than antecedants and replacement behaviors please support a neurodiversity policy thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is James weard hello members of the board and superintendent Dr Anderson my name is James weart as a former coach in
179the bbsd school system and a member of the last Conference Championship football team at CU I can say that I am lucky to collaborate with the members of the bbsd autism advisory team and special education advisory committee who who selflessly put their students education ahead of their own needs or who serve their students with the utmost respect and professionalism I am an autistic parent of bbsd autistic students fortunate to see my school's IEP team adapt into a truly neuro affirming and supportive environment the principal at my kid school has adopted Community concerns and has supported this transition a shift has happened in neuroscience and in the community culture ones who better get to the root causes of what someone is trying to convey with more understanding and empathy a narrow affirmative approach that sees the
180individual as an individual bbsd has an opportunity to reflect this affirming cultural shift when we perceive neurodiversity what do we see acceptance appreciation do we support the students sensory preferences and differences their well-being their strengths leadership how does this look from a minority perspective or intersectionality to those who who do not speak have a voice I Envision an environment where students flourish and Thrive to suppos sorry to Foster neurodiversity we must be intentional in our focus on it I endorse a neurodiversity policy thank you our next speaker who I think just popped up as a virtual participant is Christina Lea hi thanks for your time um so I'm kind of building off a little bit for my son Nico said um a little while ago and this is to talk about that student support specialist
181position um that exists at pioneer and first I do want to acknowledge that that is not a bbsd like supported position that's one that Pioneers actually use their discretionary funds to create because they thought it would be valuable and um this I know the students and parents at Pioneer have felt that is also been invaluable um if students don't feel safe in support in their schools then they can't learn um and last year position was had a full-time role um the student support specialist taught conscious discipline classes one discipline um classes once a week in every classroom and the four uh they she also added a fourth week of essentially a special for kindergarten classes so once a month there was an entire week of conscious discipline um curriculum which is a lot of social
182emotional development conflict resolution and kind of um kind of like self-support and confidence building course uh classes and so um I really hope that bbsd can consider having this position you know supported as an FTE that's allotted at the district level um at least for some of these elementary schools that are you know are supporting students with really diverse backgrounds um I know that they need a full-time position for this because um right now our admin as they are don't have the capacity to do um to support the students in the way that they really need so anyway I want to wrap that up and just say I hope that you all if you weren't previously aware of the student support specialist position at Pioneer that maybe you'll look a little bit more into it
183and find out how valuable it's been to um our elementary school kiddos thanks thank you our next speaker this evening is Leah cousin hi there I'm speaking tonight regarding the use of the pesticides on bbsd school grounds that Dr Anderson had mentioned previously um so I helped maintain the Gardens at High Peaks Elementary as well as teach the curriculum that's provided by the nonprofit Garden to table so over spring break I discovered the that the herbicide had been sprayed in the school garden at my child child's elementary school and I have farmed in Boulder County for the past 15 years and my background is in organic farming and certification standard operating procedures on Vegetable Farms so when I came up upon the the herbicide at the school garden I knew exactly what I was seeing
184I was directly exposed to the herbicide without proper protection equipment and I immediately notified bbsd while I wish this event had never happened I am super relieved I saw the heride when I did the next day there were heavy rains and as a result I would have not have seen the small granules of herbicide we would have never known that the gardens had been sprayed until we saw evidence of vegetation damage and by then kids at all of the six elementary schools affected would have been ingesting the toxin over the the past several weeks the staff members of the bbsd operations team have been very open and communicative with myself and other parties involved in mitigating the contaminated soil I've been super encouraged in the ways that the bbsd operations team led by Rob Price
185um has acknowledge their error and I appreciate deeply all the efforts that staff members have made in soil mitigation I'm speaking tonight to push for Clear more transparent policies in relation to the green bbd's action plan I feel that there needs to be a broader update with research-based strategies for improving the health and resilience of the natural infrastructure around our schools when I imagine health and resilience I I Envision infrastructure that places the nourishment and sustainability of our Landscapes as the highest priority looking at up from the ground up quite literally healthy soil ecos ecosystems give life to our high desert Landscapes I was just teaching a lesson to third graders last week about soil Health the biggest T the biggest takeaway healthy soils produce healthy plant which support healthy bodies bbsd has to commit
186has committed at this time to stopping the use of pesticides I am pushing for a written policy for this moratorium on pesticide use for the future thank you two minutes AES thank you our next speaker this evening is Matthew Sandler if you want to send those the rest of your comments to our you can email us thank you thank you good evening these are long meetings um I'm also here to speak about the pesticide use on bvsd properties um I have a student a third grader at bcsis his name is Micah he was here earlier he wanted me to give him a shout out and when he came in he said I can't believe that you're going to argue about um putting poisons on our school grounds and I said you know I don't think
187we're going to be arguing about it um I am an attorney by profession so I'm up for a good argument but um seems like that's not the format um this evening and hopefully not something we need to get into um we really appreciated our time with Rob Price he walked around with us saw where this occurred um owned the mistake um really appreciate superintendent Anderson's um statement this evening and we're really here just to show that there are parents who are very concerned there were a group of parents here unfortunately as parents we have to get home um to kids and get them to sleep and all that um but you know a few things um R price sent out an email that that we also really appreciated um couple concerning things were just that
188the contract with the landscape company included the use of these herbicides on school grounds in specific areas um some of those areas are places our kids play and The Rock beds our kids love to play and stack these rocks and move them around um so that was concerning and then clearly um there was an error in putting them and garden beds and potentially playground areas stuff like that um we really just want no more pesticide herbicide use um in these areas we understand there may be situations um in talking to Mr Price um where there might be an infestation or something where something needs to be used real strategically and pointed um and you know we're hoping there there'll be a committee or some way to make sure that those situations are very limited um
189but on these school grounds we're really um asking to keep these these out of there um is that my time is that all right um so we appreciate it and um you know parents just wanted to be here to show we're going to stay engaged and um and make sure that our school stays safe thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Janette Sutton hello board members and Dr Anderson thank you so much for serving and for being here tonight I know it's not easy balancing the needs of all the various stakeholders diverse needs and the district's finite resources it's actually this understanding that compelled me to speak to you tonight um I represent several different stakeholders I'm a parent I'm a voter I'm a former autism intensive ilc Pera I'm a substitute
190oh and I always cry when I'm up here um I'm a sack member I'm a parent coach I'm a taxpayer I'm and a school volunteer so it is through these lenses that I see each of you as agents of change to make our district just a lot better for our kiddos and I'm here to support our neurodiversity policy work and greatly appreciated of all the time that you have put in with Jenny and our team um I've experienced 11 years at bbsd with out one and I really truly believe that a policy will help the teachers the staff who are most motivated and most capable of serving our bbsd Learners we need this policy for all of our kids all of our Learners need to know that they are valued at their schools and in
191their school Community the current model does not Grant this for our Learners one of my one of my to exceptional Sons had to switch to a different high school and search for a place where I quote teachers see me as an individual not just some sped kid that needs a dumb down version of the test this policy will help parents stop chasing the good teachers and stop looking for the schools that get it and please please listen to us as we search to serve all of our Learners at our schools thanks thank you our next peer this evening is Allison LaVine Ali LaVine was one of the parents here she gave me her statement is that is it possible for me to read that for her if you could email that to us if she's
192not here and didn't give her time to you that would be great or if she could email that to us she can thank you great thank you our next speaker this evening is Elliot fladen faden fladen it's a virtual thank you yes hi can you hear me yes hi Elliot fladen from Superior Colorado my daughters are at Eldorado K through 8 uh we're from a multicultural family on my wife's side of the family uh they're Mexican my side of the family is Jewish uh September 15th to October 15th is a Hispanic herriage month uh at Eldorado K8 as far as we can tell nothing was done for that month this month is Jewish Heritage Month uh from what we can tell barely anything if anything at all is being done for that month uh for
193the month of February however which was Black History Month there was I think weekly trivia there was movies there were books uh there was announcements there was classes taught it there was clearly a priority there was I think decorations hung around the school so I I've heard a lot of talk about Equity diversity inclusion you know making sure that different groups feel included or spoken to but when you have this kind of disperate treatment of minorities where you a very discriminated with anti-Semitism On The Rise you had one speaker talking about it earlier uh it's exploding Jewish history month is not getting any attention very any attention given to Hispanic Heritage Month if at all and not mention other minorities this is not okay if you're going to give minorities a month or a week
194it should be done in some sort of equal basis we should not be favoring one minority and ignoring the others especially in this time of rising anti-Semitism so my request for this school board is that if you're going to do a month for one minority don't pretend that the other minorities don't deserve time and are not being discriminated against thank you thank you our final speaker this evening is Julie twerk twerk sorry if I pronounce that as well does not look like hi no I'm I'm here I'm sorry um can you hear me I sure can okay hi my name is Julie CH and I'd like to share my experience around the recent school Age Care Lottery I'm also here to ask the board to consider what it takes to provide after school care to
195match the demand I live in Boulder and have three kids in bbsd Charlie and Harry will be in middle school next year at Southern Hills and Matthew will be in second grade at Bear Creek Elementary for the past two years Matthew has thrived in the sac program after school he's built routines developed trust in teachers and made friends outside of his cohort of classmates unfortunately Matthew was not lucky enough to secure a spot in sack for the 2024 25 school year and we're currently Wast weight listed without any further information my husband and I both work from home we own a consulting company we have clients on both the east and west coast I have done my share of the child care scramble I've paid for many years of preschool full day kindergarten was not
196free from my older kids I or organized rotating PODS of working parents during remote learning I thought those days were behind me in the last two years of stable child care after school have been a real safety net and frankly made me feel human and valued as a person my company and skills have grown as a direct result we've come to rely on the stability of Matthew sack program to fit an additional worker a meeting while also helping our older kids with homework after school since we live in Boulder our house is small we don't have space for an Ann year babysitter we need Matthew to be in an after school program like many families in bbsd we don't have any relatives nearby who are available to help with child care I've heard from dozens
197of other parents whose children do not have spots in after school care next year many moms in particular are wondering how they will continue to work full-time when their current childcare situation has been taken away I asked that the bbsd board find a way to reconcile availability of after school care with a demand families should have access to Affordable Care in their community during the work work day please make this a priority so that Working Families can operate without the additional stress caused by piecing together and scrambling for child care after school Additionally the sack Lottery process was incredibly stressful and it introduced a situation where parents were encouraged to sign up for full-time care when they only needed part-time because they received an advantage in the selection process I fear this inflexible process may
198leave unused days which would have gladly been filled by families on the wait list thank you for your consideration on this issue thank you well that concludes public participation for today that was a record for this year on behalf of the board I wanted to thank everybody who took the time to attend virtually and in person and stay on this late evening when the nuggets are playing um to share your thoughts and experiences with us we do take all of your comments into consideration B will now board members if that's okay I think the rest of the agenda might be a little quicker um move on to board communication board members who'd like to go first elenia I'll be fast in case you have your two-minute timer um uh since we last got together uh
199I attended an athletic review committee meeting and we discussed proportionality data which I think we'll all find interesting I'll do an RFI so I can pull some stuff together on that it was very interesting um and today today along with Alex I attended an audit committee meeting and there are some looming budget challenges that will be coming our way which I was very disheartened to learn more about but I know we will all be learning more about those as they come so um and I attended eliches with my son's 7eventh grade choir class which was not the highlight of my week Kitty well I want to thank everybody who came and spoke to us um one Zoe is not here but I was so impressed with her presentation this evening and it reminded me of
200my daughter also being a thespian at Monarch High School many years ago um I went to the widor IB Fair last week and was so impressed with what they're doing there I had no idea what elementary IB was like and I wasn't able to stay a really long time so I'm looking forward to going back next fall and learning a lot more about what they're doing there and yes that's all oh and also just to mention all of these students who spoke to us who had done so much research on their issues the climate change the bilingualism um I'm just so impressed with our students so again you're not here to hear me say this but thank you poor heyan Jason thank you um I also want to thank all the students that came and
201spoke today from our youngest to our graduating students and those are who are alumni it's wonderful to see so much passion from our students and the work that they've done was really impressive you can tell how much care they put into it and how much thought and that they're really planning for the future so it's um it builds confidence in seeing our students perform so well I also want to thank the parents that spoke tonight that are advocating for their kids and for what they believe is important in their schools uh I think that's really valuable and and I uh I appreciate them coming and share um those perspectives with us um you know in terms of uh the potential for hate in our schools and and the need for us to address that I
202think that's something that I think we can take active steps to do when it's a community that has to take that step forward to make sure that we all feel protected in terms of being here um and so I want to share that perspective um I was able to attend a few events and celebrations um for were graduating native students uh last week and that was great seeing that group of students celebrating and to see some of those Traditions I was able to stop by the girls 6th through eth grade track District track meet earlier today before coming here and it's wonderful seeing all those athletes out there running um it was just a huge group of people the competition was great um but I had to leave early to come here um so I
203know that that continued for a little while um that's great the boys sixth through eth grade continue tomorrow um I was also attended the uh quarterly uh committee uh Bond oversight committee meeting um and things are moving forward you'll be seeing a lots of construction starting this summer so as you look around look for the signs there's new accessible playgrounds going in across uh five of our elementary schools um Eisenhower Foothill Cole Lewisville and Netherland so it's great to see that work being implemented um I know it's just a start so it's it's very exciting to be a part of that work um New Vista is moving forward and I think if things progress smoothly we'll be holding our meeting in September there so I'm excited about doing that because I hav had a chance
204to check that out um one issue that was raised I kind of want to raised for the board is some concerns about um the sales and use tax exemption um tax and how that's going to affect the the bond and our use of those funds um in April uh governor poist of 2022 this is going back a while um uh put into law um that we would have an exception for school projects in terms of those uh in terms of that use tax uh the bond was approved in November of that year and about a month later uh Supreme Court ruling from state of Colorado turned that around and said that we do not have an exemption after all and that that would not happen the implications for our bond is that costs could be
205increasing moving forward um and so we can have to take that into account with fairly serious impact of over the course of the whole Bond of 2.5 or $2.25 million that will have to take into account so wanted to share them information right now we're uh from what understand is that that's being observed we're seeing how we're going be able to handle that we're try to take that into account as part of the process um but we'll have to kind of keep tracking that as things move forward um so just something for us to kind of be aware of on that particular project thank you um yeah thanks everyone I second all the comments on the student leaders understandably they're not here uh it's almost it's 9:30 but I really appreciate I just seen so
206many great and strong Advocates and student leaders um also appreciate the the many parents who spoke on the whole range of issues Jorge said it best to um really appreciate the passion and um just the range of issues they brought up two things I wanted to follow up on um one was uh Maya and the other student I'm sorry I didn't catch her name from the youth Equity Council U I had the chance to actually have dinner with May a few weeks ago when we were meeting as a board and the council she's off to Georgetown she's incredibly impressive um and I was concerned about some of the things she raised in terms of potential changes so I'd love to talk about those um what is happening what's not and so there's Clarity there um
207I think you know we all um I I do feel like this District um is a leader in terms of equity and our work is more than performative but if that's the perception I'm concerned that that's uh the message that that these students are receiving and so we need to do some work there to address that um I also want to acknowledge uh they're Al also not here either uh Jenny uh themer and and all the other parents who spoke on neurodiversity policy I think many of us have I've met with them a few times and I really appreciate uh their work um you know to create a vision as as several of them said for all students not a policy for a handful of students but a a policy a vision that is um
208inclusive and and would benefit all students so look forward to potentially considering that um I didn't attend any districtwide events I have uh a fifth grader and it's like a full-time job with all the fifth grade events I was at two field trips music concert orchestra concert um and a graduation next week so that is my the extent of my district involvement but um it's been been really fun and uh I've talked before about the music work but it's just incredible to see uh the students perform at the level that they're performing and so really appreciative of the music per music uh education and teachers we have in this District Alex um uh first off I want to say for all the new board people next year you should go to the impact on Ed
209honoring uh the awardwinning teachers uh event because it's super cool and it's great to see the wonderful celebration of uh not just one person from each School who's being honored but the team that's there to cheer them on and uh if you want to have one of those positive pieces where you really see great teachers being honored for how great they are put it on your list and it's a free bar so it's good uh good event I strongly recommend it um uh also uh I attended the last DC meeting um and and speaking of honoring at the end of the year uh like our DAC members many transition as they go from one school to the other as their kids age out and uh they are eager to work and help and I do
210think we should honor them some way too uh we honor them with with food on their last meeting but I think we should think through some way to highlight and celebrate our Dak and Sack memb some way in additional ways to reward them for it and also to promote the concept um substantively we should be on the lookout for the upcoming uh Memo from the uh DC on the uip and strategic plan with a bunch of very deep and substantive recommendations so I know we get a ton of reading material but I highly recommend diving into that memo in depth um it has great thinking uh the capacity of Our Deck is as Jorge can attest is you know of the charts really good thoughtful people thinking about important stuff so uh one thing I
211would like to think about is is as we do our school improvement work how we prioritize the like support and fostering of a highly functional sack like in all our schools uh because I think it just adds um a degree of agency and voice to the school that if it's not there it's it's maybe indicative of other things going on but we should figure how to support it and honor it as well um finally also the plant sale was great you should go I look forward to killing all the tomatoes I got um and uh it's good good to support that um oh and I do uh I am uh kudos to uh Bob price and Dr Anderson for the response on um the herbicide treatment I think it's a testament to the quick owning
212of an issue figuring out how to resolve it and settle it and it's great that we can have people right away in the first week coming and recognizing how great the district has been and their response to a problem I think I observe sometime in our meetings when we get a lot of angry parents that sometimes our hands are tied in other issues especially when there's anything dealing with personnel and stuff and I realize like we as board members don't make those decisions we don't direct and micromanage the leadership when they make them but like the figuring out how we respond to the community to diffuse a widespread um misconception or or partial information and do that responsibly seems like a really worthwhile way to figure out if there's some way where like are we
213being too careful in communicating about some of the controversies that arise when we could communicate something pretty quickly and pretty easily that might dissipate months of public ranker and I don't know how to do that I'm totally new to this I don't want to get into debates during the public commentary about it for sure but I see some things where we we respond pretty quickly and it's gone and we just figure out how to work on it and other things where we can't really talk about it and um it festers and breeds mistrust so I'm like how do we figure out how to clarify the cool things that are being made and the appropriateness for us to respond or not anyway I'm wrestling with that Beth I want to jump on board in just second
214third whatever everything that I want to said tonight I've um I've been in and out of town quite a lot lately dealing with some family medical stuff and my job has had me running pretty crazy so I haven't done a lot of board work since I last saw you but I just want to take a moment to also Express so much gratitude for all of tonight's speakers as you said from our elementary students to our soon to be graduates the parents that came out and spoke tonight to advocate for all the things that they hold dear to themselves and I just appreciate them coming out and speaking with us and um it's almost end of the year and there's been quite a lot of uh a lot of fun things happening like was saying that's
215that's making it provide a lot of fun energy as we wrap this year up that's all I want to say that leaves me um couple things since we've last convened board members I had the uh benefit of attending the impact on education Awards it is always wonderful to celebrate our teachers and our new teachers and just the amazing work that they do and to see them one of my favorite Parts is the cheering sections and to see how excited that they get for each other it is good to see our staff well supported by impact on education the district and their peers I was able to attend with Jorge um the indigenous honoring ceremony title six honoring ceremony and that was incredibly beautiful and um if you have the chance in the future I'd highly
216encourage you to attend that I've been receiving a lot of student emails lately uh there have been a lot of clearly a lot of class projects where they're Advocate they've been asked to advocate for different things and it is been fun to see uh and hear from our students on policies that resonate with them and why and what they think about it and pointing them in the right direction different directions to to find more information and I am grateful that our even if it is four points on at the end of the year it is great to hear from our students so really do continue to show up at our board meetings and to continue to email us and advocate for things that are really important to you we do this work for you I
217was able to volunteer for after prom and while that is not a BBC sanctioned event it takes a lot of time and energy from a lot of different people around the district for this Boulder high and Fairview PR after Fairview High after prom and I want to send a special thanks to everybody that was involved our DA's office and the Boulder Police Department for showing up in a capacity of support and safety not in a capacity of um penalizing our students their presence was welcomed and and very positive so thank you to all those folks who show up to make that event for our students safe and entertaining last but not least I was invited to attend a meeting with the UN reparatur for Education with several board members from across the state of Colorado
218and it was she had a lot of specific questions a lot of questions around how education is funded in the state of Colorado how we handle choice and what kind of equity conditions that creates and I was impressed by how much she understood about the state of education in Colorado and our nation I think more than most legislators I've met um so it was a pleasure to meet with her and to advocate for improved Federal funding improved State funding for Education particular around individuals with disabilities and I'm looking forward to seeing her reports um this summer and into next year I think that is all our next item this evening is our information item our guests in the back of the room we have one information item this evening it is our lobbyist from the
219policy matters who will recap the 2024 legislative session Dr would you like to do the introductions it would be my pleasure uh Heather Tanya it's so great to have you here this evening um our lobbying team board members and community members our lobbying team um worked uh as hard as I've ever seen them have to work this past session as we've been we're engaged on on multiple fronts um the long the largest being uh House Bill 1448 and I just want to thank them for all that they've done to help support our community other communities across Colorado that they serve um K12 communities and uh it was a long session I will tell you though if there's anybody who is uh wired to sit through a few hours of public comment it's Heather and Tanya
220because they that there so much uh so many sessions down at the capital this year I think that it's kind of second nature so uh thank you for being patient with us and and would love to turn it over to you all to to kind of give our board and Community an update on what happened this session um some of the work that you all did and on behalf of the district and uh it's my pleasure to turn the the presentation over to you thank you so much well we actually just wanted to start the presentation off today by just thanking you I mean it was good for us to as you mentioned we do sit through long committee hearings but I have to tell you we are so proud of this board this District
221is incredible and um I was going to save this till the end but I'm going to start with it just because I am now going to be a parent of a Broomfield high school student my daughter is transferring from the Denver School of the Arts um we have met with Jinger Ramsey your principal who is outstanding Rob was already there um these board members all of you guys I'm so proud of our freshman members that I got to know each of you at your election night party I think lenia invited me to come um but also our senior board members this community is so well served and I think Heather and I can speak with experience because we actually represent other districts and our students have gone to other districts and I just think Boulder
222Valley School District sets the bar I I am very proud I I know some of the comments that were expressed this evening you guys are so humble but just given the reports that you gave out I wish the parents had heard that at the beginning of this meeting I think you should start with your reports out before public testimony because I actually think to Alex's point of pring the incredible commitment that you have the time that you take out of your schedules without getting paid it's really important so we just want to start off by letting you know what an honor it is to represent you at the capital and I will tell you Rob and Nicole I mean did an outstanding job I mean we are your lobbyists but they became real lobbyists this
223session and um I'm going to turn it over to Heather first to talk a little about the bills and then we'll talk about school finance and some of the property tax stuff we will be brief because I think we're both ready to go home and I know you guys are but um just want to just let you know what an honor it is to represent you down under the gold Dome I just absolutely have to Echo Tanya I think it was a wild session a busy session a complex session and we were just so honored to represent all of you and have such an active voice um on all issues k12 and budget um we were also so grateful to start the session out in February with an incredible breakfast with the entire um Boulder
224County legislative delegation and um superintendent Anderson and many members of the board um I think it was just an incredible way to create um Goodwill with the legislators and a voting block that really stuck with us especially with some of the complex um School Finance issues that Tanya is going to talk about um here in a minute but we did want to highlight um a few of the bills that we really tracked and supported on behalf of bbsd this session that passed um House Bill 1136 was the healthier social media use um by youth bill this is a great bill that was sponsored by representative Julia ma from Boulder so it was great to be able to support um our friend um the bill essentially will create a Resource Bank in the department of education
225for districts to utilize especially um especially in um secondary schools and elementary schools um it'll create a resource bank with program materials about um the effects of social social media use and it also will require the social media platforms to issue notifications to um to folks under 18 about if they're on social media platforms for more than an hour a day or in the middle of the night which I think is really important um another great bill that we were really um excited to support was Senate Bill 104 which is the Seal of climate literacy diploma endorsement this bill will essentially allow districts to endorse diplomas um with a climate literacy seal when students um you know utilize the different credits within the district um again a really exciting bill that was sent to the
226governor um and then also another bill that we worked really hard on with the joint budget committee was House Bill 1389 which um allocated $24 million for funding for new arrival students to districts across the state this was really important um as you all know um a lot of um wraparound services are required to support these students um uh bbsd got over $700,000 of that um appropriation so we were really proud to be able to support that bill as well I think we wanted to F oh go ahead did you want to add so um I think you guys have really prided yourself on having bilingual representation having lobbyist that really go and fight for a lot of the new arrival students that have come um I am very proud proud as as someone who
227is Latina I look like I'm Irish because the Irish jeans won out of my Mexican American mom my Irish dad but I'm uh very fluent in Spanish and this one was a personal one I really want to compliment and thank Bill Sutter who really worked with our team to help us crunch the numbers and Rob said we got to go get this let's go after this let's go after the JBC and this was one of our really early victories um Heather and I were really proud of this um because we actually delivered the two Republicans on the joint budget committee to vote for this which is a really tough thing to do given some of the debates that come up with immigration issues but um again I think it just speaks to the culture in
228the backbone of Boulder Valley School District being a leader that we were able to step in and work with our partners and then anything Tanya was going to give um just an overview of the two School Finance bills that we spent so much of our time and energy on this session so um each year um there are two big things that have to be done um the state of of Colorado Constitution requires that we must have a balanced budget and then the second thing that must pass each year is the school Finance act the school Finance Act is actually basically the budget that funds all of the 174 school districts in the state of Colorado um this was the first year in 14 years and again we kind of feel like we were in Groundhog
229Day with multiple different bills coming at us throughout the entire session uh but we were able to secure uh the entire after 14 years the budget stabilization buy down Factor was fin finally equalized um I think that the saying down at the capital was it's still Taylor Swift 1987 even though we were able to equalize that we're still not where we should be I think a couple of the presentations in your talk about the um Federal Congressional member that you worked with is that Colorado is still very very far behind in terms of funding um I think lolina you talked a little bit about that um uh I'm sorry P Board member OA um uh about sort of what happened with the audit report and what we're seeing in terms of funding and uh one
230of the big issues that was critical this year that we were very proud to work on with the teachers unions um with our friends at uh democrats for Education reform with the charter schools and a lot of our partners was to get that budget stabilization bought down Senate Bill 188 was passed unanimously that was the school Finance act that went through and one of the additional things that Rob really led the Front Range superintendence after the speaker last year asked us was to fight for funding for Rural School District in the past they've only gotten onetime dollars which as you as the fiduciary members on our board appreciate it's very challenging to make long-term decisions based on onetime dollars and so we were very very proud um Rob actually led the Front Range superintendent in
231his role as a leader there with Tracy dorland to support even though none of that funding was going to go to us his colleagues and partners around the state of Colorado to make sure we got that ongoing funding and that was placed in Des Senate Bill 188 188 which we were proud of Rob did come and testify um this was something that we had lobbied on and advocated throughout um the entire process um and that did pass that bill will be in place for this legislative session and for this next coming fiscal year because they tend to do the budget a year um in advance because our fiscal year start in July so it's kind of the middle of the the normal year but they start the fiscal year starts July 1 as you might
232know so that will kick in July 1 um about two weeks before the end of the session we of course had been hearing rumors even though we did come down on March 1st and directly asked the speaker of the house if there was going to be any other sort of school finance bill that was dropped to change the funding formula um we did not find out about that until about two weeks before the end of the session and it was a Mad Dash because it really changed a lot of the factors the biggest one and the biggest impact being to us is the cola and sort of reorganizing some of those funds and really looking at penalizing um we are so fortunate that our community actually votes to support education because we do not get
233enough funding from the state of Colorado and unfortunately some of the provisions that bill really penalized the different districts that were welcoming that support from their voters and so we really worked hard uh to push back on some of those um key aspects that hurt us um but mainly we really worked hard to really educate our policy members our legislators about is this happening too quickly do we really need to see how some of the school Finance accountability all of the measures should be implemented because some of them were implemented but the committee that was formed was actually asked to implement all of the measures um and so I just really need to complement um the work that I think superintendent Anderson and that our board chair Nicole was I mean down there with us
234on every call I mean I think we did probably 40 50 meetings phone calls um we were down there several times and just really advocated I think to make this policy much more sound um during the final stages of the session we still of course have concerns but we were able to get a trigger implemented which as it turns out um was a a critical piece that needed to go onto the speaker's Bill the speaker willingly gave that to us to get the Denver delegation board member or legislators to go to potentially being neutral on the bill and now at 3 days left of the session they implemented this property tax measure which is a reduction and then will require backfill to happen to the state of Colorado and one of the big things we
235did not want to see was to go back to the BS Factor so um in spite of a lot of our lobbying efforts we were unsuccessful just because of the majority of other districts that were coming out in support of this proposal but I do think the advocacy that we did and in spite of the fact that Rob was offered several different um proposals to potentially try to buy us off I think he really maintained his statan statesmanship for all of the districts in the state of Colorado to try to make sure that we're protected as we move forward to not have to go back to that BS Factor um for lack of a better word um the speaker I think uh probably were not her favorite lobbyists in the building um uh we were
236very respectful in our approach we were very transparent that's the way we operate um we are are very straightforward and and how we Lobby issues um but it was a a very challenging session and I just uh cannot emphasize how lucky we were to have superintendent Anderson and after hearing some of the comments in this uh conversation today I'm sorry that we did not bring stuff for everyone but Heather and I did want to bring some celebratory rewards for superintendent Anderson and Nicole for the role that they played [Applause] sparkly they did I also need to apologize for some of the inappropriate language that I utilized in front of Nicole's daughter getting ready for school in the mornings on a couple of our phone calls uh but nonetheless Heather and I are really pleased to
237have the outcomes that we did I think we are a very small powerful and mighty team I think we made a huge impact for the state of Colorado this year and we're very proud of what we were able to accomplish with your partnership so thank you happy to answer any questions thank you for that overview I just want to say I'm endlessly impressed by how hard you fight for what is right down at the capital and we are lucky to have you um on our side and I also want to give a shout out to representatives of maay and Kyle Brown and Senator Marchman who really were in our court and always checked in and always were responsive until the very end I really that relationship is really important for us in this work and
238in the work moving forward so I wanted to highlight the the degree to which they were on our team throughout this process as well but thank you so much for all you do and board members does anybody have any questions thank you madam president and very very good points because we actually had them written down but I think between the waiting we forgot which as you know that credit and currency of the realm is so key and they were very strategic Partners in terms of getting some of the key amendments and protecting bbsd to not get the the initial version of this bill had us being cut about $9 million so I think you know over time there still potentially will depending on how this rolls out or if it rolls out um we'll see
239how this ends up but they were incredible partners and all the way along were checking in with us and they were incredibly grateful for the show of support out there um Town Hall um I I think it gave them a lot of backing to really lock down um their votes and you all came out in full force we heard a lot about it so thank you thank you very much even R Joseph is now checking in with us on everything yes it was very yeah they were all just very grateful so thank you great great thank you so much thank you all so much appreciate you board members we've had a request for a five minute Comfort break before we wrap up our agenda so e e e calling the meeting back to order the
240next item on our agenda this evening is action items consent grouping 9.1 Personnel items 9.2 approval of minutes 20 April 23rd 2024 9.3 accept acceptance of donation Foothill Elementary 9.4 acceptance of donation Industrial Services and Equity 9.5 acceptance of donation metal metal AR School 9.6 acceptance of donation Mesa Elementary 9.7 acceptance of don donation University Hill Elementary School 9.8 adoption of Quaver Ed for elementary school health curriculum and authorization for personal or materials purchase I'm really having a hard time at this hour reading these quickly agreement for direct serve to renew Palo Alto firewalls for it in the district that was 9.9 9.10 athletic trainer contract of Boulder Community Health 9.11 contract Amendment for hmh 9. 12 contract change order for field surf USA 9.13 contract for counter trade Products Inc to purchase student Chromebooks
2419.14 the gr propane gas purchased and deliver 9.15 resolution 24-11 to accept fids and authorized construction and maintenance projects 9.16 resolution 2412 to Joint Centennial state liquid investment pool 9.17 resolution 2413 non-renewal of licensed Personnel contracts 9.18 resolution 24-14 adopting proposed language change to agreement with the administrative and professional technical employee group 9.19 resolution 24-15 accepting recognition election results for ECE community leag on 9.20 Vista contract for Spanish World Language and new cumber adoption and materials purchase 9.21 Grant Food Services US Department of Agriculture 9.22 Grant student Support Services US Department of Education are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping hearing none we need a motion to approve the items on consent grouping before we begin discussion move by Kitty seconded by Jorge Laura can you please call oh
242Bo sorry board members is there a discussion yes so on the Foothills donation it looks like they're sharing per um policy KH 10% of only some of the donation and and so I'm curious about that and why that is what item number is that that is 9.3 93 we what they said do you want to inform us on how that policy works with sharing I have a quick answer so uh it's only 10% on the portion that pays for staff so if they're buying you know technology or something it doesn't get applied to that okay and then other question Metal Lark doesn't mention sharing anything is that because it's not for staff let's see what it says Academic Program okay and just this um Department of Agriculture Grant sounds really exciting I'm I'm interested to
243see how that's going to work out with I have a couple questions my first one is with the tennis court replacement taking longer and being a little bit more costly than anticipated do we have an agreement for how our Fairview and Boulder high school teams are going to be able to practice since those completion dates will be after the season started starts the just FYI on the change order that you're approving tonight the completion date is changing but not on the actual court so Fairview they're still scheduled to be done by September first we'll still have some L Landscaping and Grading to do after that um I'll check with Harry Waterman our athletic director on what we're doing for practice facilities he's been coordinating that work so I'll have to get back to you yeah
244that's great because I think their season starts in August and so if we have a as 27 courts come offline in the city of Boulder there's going to be a lot of competition and if we don't lock in some time they they won't be able to practice so we'll we'll get that information to you great thank you other question I had I've I've asked it but I think it's important for our community to understand is the hmh contract language and some of that money that looks like additional but isn't really additional I was hoping link can clarify that for board members in the public hi everyone um the hmh uh uh contract amendment is twofold we purchased um into reading a year ago for our literacy component for um for all of the district however
245we rolled out the implementation in two cohorts the first cohort was nine schools last year and starting in August we'll do the other 24 elementary schools so part of the implementation is around coaching from um hmh where uh each school is assigned a coach that coach comes four times a year spends the whole day observing and working with teachers and coaching the implementation um didn't want to pay for coaches for the 24 schools for cohort 2 last year because we weren't going to use them so we put the money in place in the initial adoption and purchase but didn't use it we banked it so now we have to purchase that coaching um so the money was there here um and ready to to purchase that um coaching the other part of the contract amendment
246is for the high school math intervention adoption which is also hmh so we had to do because it's such a large amount of money we had to do a amendment to our original contract but fully expected to do that you're welcome thanks for clarifying that I know you stayed all night for that I think that's where I'll leave my questions for this evening board members and Jason uh yeah just more a comment um on the two grants one from looks like Department of Agriculture one from uh the Department of Education U I was just happy to see you know us pursuing federal grants I know they're timec consuming and difficult to manage and a lot of reporting requirements but particularly in the light of our budget concerns and constraints um I would do I would
247encourage us to do all we can to to find more Federal funding um the science agency I know we've talked I know Alex and I when we had our onboarding we talked about you know the many science agencies that are out there that it's worth pursuing some of these funds so really happy to see that especially um the funds that will go to to mental health and student support counseling so great to see that thank you Laura can you please call the RO on consent grouping Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quinn Lena yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes uner yes motion passes moving now to the policy action items on our agenda we only have one policy on which to take action this evening board policy jece administrative assignment of schools do we have
248a motion Mo moved by Kitty seconded by Alex is there any discussion on this topic seeing is there none Laura can you please call vote on this motion Chavez yes medler yes nisn yes Quin Lin AA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes uner yes motion passes board members next week is our much anticipated board priorization meeting at this time of the agenda um board members have the opportunity to bring up any ideas that they haven't previously brought up um to discuss at board priorization Beth yeah so I do have an item to add to our list I am interested in learning more about the students we're losing especially during this declining enrollment time so I want to dig in a bit more on subpopulations that we have including like GT identified students students with disability
249like dyslexia specifically you know it's come up a few times neurodiverse individuals who are leaving us where are they going and what more can we offer them here in bbsd kind of as a broad framework for our conversation I have a couple things I want to throw out there um after emails from students and looking at the policy language that exists our homework policies ikb and ikbr um might be might warrant a revisit they aren't really in the language and the tone that we use in a lot of our policies and it has come up about homework load and I think looking at those uh in whatever direction we take but the language itself feels not consistent with our other board policies so I wanted to elevate those similarly um hearing about inconsistencies and around
250our grading policies Ika ikc and there's a whole bunch of regs Associated there if there's opportunities to either ensure our policies reflect current practice or make sure our pra practice there there's opportunity to clean those up so I wanted to add that into our running list of policies to look over I also wanted to bring up um at the last board meeting there was discussion about um wanting to expand our policy platform to be more than two people which would be a subcommittee which um if it's more than two people we'd have to have at a board meeting which would require some just our normal procedure so I wanted to put that on our uh priorization list as well to see if we want to escalate to move that forward to come up with some
251policy platform ideas as we head into the next legislative session particularly knowing and I think staff time was going to be invaluable on this what the landscape might look like and if we want to get out early on issues that are important to us I think having that go through a normal prioritization process is the right thing to do if we're not if we're working with more than two people so I wanted to add that there as well okay I'm seeing no other desires there so oh elenia did we already have ai on there I thought we did Alex yeah I I don't recall all the things I don't know the running list so um I I am interested in uh how we support um our Sachs and more schools in order to sort of
252pursue uh parental engagement with our performance data and the other stuff that they want to deal with and figure out how we get them get it to be more universally available and functioning um and I think the other stuff I'm interested is already on the list okay board members staff this concludes our business for the evening um more board members I have a motion to adjourn no one motioned by Jason seconded by Jorge thank you all for your work this evening I wish you all a wonderful week ahead with that we are adjourned e for