March 12, 2024 - Board of Education Meeting

001e I'd like to call order this regular meeting of the bowler Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday March 12th 2024 board members May attend and participate in board meetings by electronic meets in accordance with policy BBS or bbsc policy bmea and state law Laura could you please call the role Chavez here medler here Nick here Quin L AA here Raj Paul here Sergeant here anger here thank you we will now begin the work session portion of our meeting for this evening tonight we have one topic on the agenda for this section which is the review of the mental health and social emotional supports Dr would you like to do the introductions thank president Raj Paul members of the board thanks for here this evening uh today's work session is going to dig in

002a little bit in regards to mental health and social emotional supports board members as I'm sure as you engage with community members or as we're at our round taes we know and understand that this is a big area of concern and a need of support for our schools and so today we're going to give you an overview give the public an overview of of some of the things that we're doing and then we'll have an announcement toward the end of the presentation about a partnership that we're um we're embarking on to make sure that we know exactly what we're doing um if it's working or not and where we have uh opportunities and so with that I'll turn it over to Dr DEA Cruz to introduce presentation good evening president Raj Paul members of the

003board and Dr Anderson uh we're here tonight to as Dr Anderson said provide you with information about mental health supports supports for social emotional learning that are happening across the K12 ecosystem and bbsd as well as the tiers of support that these appear in and they were provided through you know the work that we do to support the mental health and social emotional wellbeing of our students is Paramount to them being able to access learning to be present for learning to be really engaged in learning and to access um the benefits of the work we do around our allog together for all students strategic plan I have with me Tammy Lawrence who is one of our directors of student support services and Tammy works really closely with our mental health Advocates with our counselors with

004our trauma response teams and with our Partnerships who um help us to support mental health and well-being of our students and our adults and Tammy will be sharing an overview of the Continuum of supports as I said across the ecosystem of our K12 environment and I'm going to turn it over to Tammy now thank you for having me this evening I'm here to share with you the work that we're doing around mental health in our schools I will walk you through the continuums of support highlight theal and mental health work that's being done share with you um our Partnerships that we have in place and share with you the staff support that we've been able to provide um over the last couple of years this slide shows an overview of the three tiers of support

005and the staff members that support each of these areas I will be breaking down each of these areas in the upcoming slide but there are two things that I would like to highlight on this Slide the first is the arrows at the bottom um of the slide that go back and forth that's to indicate our students and how they move through the continuums of support needed throughout their educational Journey at some time you know at some point they um may not need as much support and then there's an event that happens where they need more significant support so we know that our students are continually moving back and forth um through the continuums the other is um collaboration we have an immense amount of collaboration that happened between that happens between all of our departments

006with our teachers with our administrators um with our TSS staff with our um health services staff our uh school counselors uh our nurses everyone that's working together to support our students across that Continuum so there's a great deal of Continuum or collaboration that happens to ensure success for our students we really want to meet them where they are and create that plan to ensure that success our largest area that we have is for all of our students and that's a universal tier one layer of support and the biggest piece of this tier is developing relationships with our students we know that our students the number one indicator of success is building that trusted adult within our schools and we are so fortunate in bbsd to have tremendous staff that work in all departments across our

007district to ensure that we're building relationships with our students um we also um I also have on the slide here mtss and that's just a reminder that's our multi-tier system of support and we really work together to ensure that we are looking at our system we're analyzing our data and reviewing our practices that we put in place for our students um we have social emotional learning education supports for our students our elementary counselor one of the non-negotiables that we have with our elementary counselors is our bullying prevention so all of our schools across the district are um teaching that bullying prevention unit there's four units that is happening for our students across the district as well as they have built a um uh scope and sequence that's aligned to essential skills that they use curriculum

008to ensure that they're teaching across the system our secondary um counselors and our health um teachers are teaching the boing prevention unit in their classes as well um all of our educators are approaching it with a culturally responsive teaching practices to ensure that we are covering all of those needs as well as our schools um have PBIS programs in place to ensure that we have a car warm environment for all of our um students to enter we discuss career career aware awareness for our students as well as analyze our data in each of our schools to see where we need to improve and what supports we need to add for our students success tier two so we know that at times our students need additional targeted support um this is where our administrators school counselors

009mental health Advocates School nurses and health room Paras are working together um to provide that support for them all of our schools through the mtss process have SS meeting that's where we're analyzing our data looking at our students that need additional support and then building those plans and interventions for our students um through those SST conversations they happen weekly or monthly within our schools um to ensure that we are looping back around um to make sure that the programs and the plans that we've put in place SST stands for student support team sorry I speak in acronyms I don't mean to do that we want to ensure that all of our um programming that we put in place for our students is is working and if it's not then what are the uh different interventions

010that we might need to put in place to help support that Student Success um we're also working um a lot of times students need large and small social group support so they're building those um small groups out for them and then there's individual family school crisis intervention that might take place um during this tier 2 level of support as well and then we move to our intensive tier three level of support and that's really for few of our students we know that um our students may need additional support we're uh in strong collaboration with our special education um folks our school school social workers our school psychologists do tremendous work in this space they also support mental health in a great way as well as our School nurses our school counselors mental health Advocates our

011engagement Specialists our attendance ad adves are working um collaborating with parents to ensure that we have the supports um in place for them as well and um in student Support Services we rely heavily on Grant funds and Community Partnerships we currently have about $2.5 million in Grant funds that is funding staff um within our within our system and um we really rely on those Partnerships that we have in place one of the Partnerships that we have is um with Rise Against suicide their aim is to decrease youth suicide by removing those financial and social barriers um there's no charge to bbsd or the students that are receiving these supports our um practitioners will make the referral to Rise Against suicide they really listen to what the needs are they connect with the family and the

012student and then they offer hope in the form of um Therapy Services in 2022 and 23 they offered over $220,000 in therapy sessions for 169 um of our youth in bbsd typically that's six to eight sessions but they have committed not to leave any student um that needs additional support and they really work with the family to ensure that they have that support if needed um that is that 220,000 is up from 140,000 the year prior and then one of our great Partnerships that we have is with impact on education um they really came through for us during the Marshall fires we were able to hire four Mental Health Health Advocates um during that time was which was essential to meet the needs of our students gratefully they were um able to provide that funding

013again this year and they also came through in a big way and they provided funding for us to um stand up um wellness centers in six of our schools we have four full-time mental health advocates in our large comprehensive School curus Boulder High Monarch and Fairview and then we have part-time um mhas at nland High School and as at New Vista High School um just this year alone they have provided over $831,000 in funding for us which has been critical um The Wellness rooms are really set up for a unique learning environment for our students it's a universal level of support for our students it's open to anyone that would like to visit them um we have also a great partnership with um the Renee Crown Institute and so we have been utilizing our check-in

014and checkout data throughout the year to really evaluate um the effectiveness of our programming who's entering the the rooms who's receiving the support and how are they um doing with that so I want to provide for you some of the um data that we have as of March 8th there have been 11,279 visits we had a midlevel or midyear report from um the Renee Crown Institute our highest users at that time at the middle level up in Netherland um with our was our eighth grade grade class and our ninth and 12th grade classes are the ones that are utilizing the most in our other um high schools the US I'm sorry can you say that one more time I wanted to drop those numbers down e8th grade in Netherland is the highest usage for then

015that's the only Middle School that we have because it's a combination between middle school and high school so we have e8th grade um is the highest users in Netherland and Ninth and 12th grade um in high schools um here down um down the hill um our our highest users and I would say the rep it's representative um the following groups are representative of the school population that's our elll our ethnicity our GT and our IEP students so that have been those have been equal with the school um population the number of visits where we saw um uh a difference was with our frl students and our 504 students there was an increase of student visits with our frl students and our 504 students as well as more female um visit the wellness room than males

016do 60% of our users come more than once and um we part of the check-in process is we're gauging their um where their mood is at the time and um thankfully they have indicated they're feeling um much better when they're leaving our Wellness room so we're showing that it's a positive use of the time for them in that space and it has been really really effective for them so we're great greatly um appreciative of impact on education you can see the pictures on this slide are from centaura high school they brought in a interior designer that was able to work with the space and make it more inviting and feel more comfortable for our students um as they were in the room they just finished Boulder high and I received those pictures today and I

017unfortunately couldn't get them into the deck but it looks just as amazing so we're um extremely grateful for impact on education we also focus on parent Mental Health education um Health Services is huge in this area um in partnering with us and in providing those services for our families uh Mental Health Partners also offers many Suicide Prevention trainings QPR assist prepare um the office of Early Childhood has a call-in line for parents that they can use for mental health our parent engagement Network also offers many um parent trainings um for those hard important conversations that we have to have with our student stents um they help parents navigate those through um trainings that they have and a new one that we have coming after spring break is let's connect let's connect is the parent portion

018of rise rise is uh resilience in schools and Educators and came when we um with resolution 2033 and during our um conversations with many of our families they said they wanted to have something similar um provided for them and we are able to provide that starting after spring break we will have one session where our facilitators will be full Spanish speaking and then another will they'll be full English speaking and then supporting our staff we know that after the pandemic our staff needed um additional support as everybody did um throughout the country Colorado educator support line was um established right after that it's available for all of our Educators that live in Colorado and work in Colorado there's a text line and there's also a call-in line they have hours available through the week and

019through the weekend um rise was I just mentioned um we began implementing after we we had actually a grant that we had been implementing in a couple smaller schools but we started districtwide implementation after um the resol to meet the needs of resolution 2033 um for qualifying staff members they receive eight sessions of mental health support through EAP and um Kaiser Permanente we've had a grant with them for seven years now um we will have a total of nine years with them they have been great Partners they um provided for us some funding during the Marshall fires to create a wellness um hub for our teachers and Educators to use and they really focus this on the um well-being practices of Rise they they focus on the connection and relationships that we have within our

020family and with our friends and our community um they discuss the stress response and in stress and how it can be positive but if it's if it's too much at times how we navigate and mitigate that the importance of moving our body expressing our s emotion regulation mindfulness and most importantly we know we're better together and so they really focus on having an Integrity partner to work on our goals that we have set for our wellness and um practices to keep ourselves healthy and wellbeing yeah hand it over to Laura thank you Tammy you definitely heard Tammy mention many of our critical Partners who help us to carry out this work work and we're really pleased to launch uh the information tonight that we are expanding our partnership with our trusted research Partners at the

021Renee Crown Institute at CU Boulder uh Renee Crown has already partnered with us as you heard Tammy describing and along with impact educ with on education to assess and evaluate the um wellness centers and how our students are using them and the effect that they're having on our students and we're now work working with Renee Crown to co-design an expansion of that research to investigate and assess the bbd's full um offerings in the space of how we address mental health and social emotional needs of our students in our system because we really want to be able to identify the strengths of our current state and also look at opportunities that we have moving forward we already have in place with Renee Crown a comprehensive Master data sharing agreement and that really poises us well to

022be able to collaborate further to assess not only what we offer as I said but also in what ways are we meeting the needs in our system and what ways are we meeting the needs of our students and what do we need to be thinking about moving forward um as you likely know last week we learned the disappointing news that uh Mental Health Partners is discontinuing its contract with Boulder Valley School District because theyve lost their funding from Boulder County that allowed them to have um that important contract with us and between that and the loss of about $1.4 million in grant funding that is um discontinuing or it's coming to an end it's coming to its natural end we stand to lose um a good number of significant positions of folks who are providing

023mental health support in bbsd and we're working on ways to mitigate that um but we also are in a place where we know we won't be able to completely fill the the needs that will be left by the loss of that funding and it's also going to have an impact on our system as as the board can surely imagine um over the last few years we have been as a system very responsive to needs as they have Arisen in our community and in our schools and we've provided all of the supports that we can as they were needed and this opportunity um to assess and evaluate the current state of our offerings along with our trusted Partners at the brne crown Institute is really going to put us in a position that we're in right

024now to pause to reflect and to have some learnings that will inform our decisions moving forward so we're really at a critical juncture right now and it it is a a real opportunity as I said to pause reflect and learn and to make decisions that will best serve our students moving forward we're so glad that we could provide you with this information um about our partners and the offerings across bbsd and we are we stand by for any questions that the board may have thanks Laura and Tammy for that great presentation um board members I'm going to with Kitty because you're virtual I would like to start with you I don't have any questions thanks Kitty you've muted [Music] yourself I thought can you hear me now I'm sorry I guess the unmuting I was

025doing looked like it to me but it didn't work I have no questions thank you um Beth while we wait for Kitty why don't you ask your question thanks for that presentation and all that great information um this is a very minor question but I don't think I caught it in the presentation we're expanding our partnership with Rene Crown at CU which sounds great and it sounds like we're doing a co-designed um assessment and I'm wondering what the timeline is on that and when we can expect some results do you want to working on the timeline now we've actually um we formalized the fact that we're going to be working together um we've approved kind of the design um kind of structure uh we should know within the next few weeks kind of what that

026timeline would look like we feel like this is a multi-year engagement um and and and as Laura said this is comes in a really important time when we're losing critical funding right amongst the backdrop of declining enrollment so the idea that you can just backfill $1.4 million in Grand funding in that environment is is is not realistic and I think that if You' ask any group of our either it's whether it's tier one tier 2 tier three supports as described right even at today's numbers folks would say we need more and I think that you know that's certainly a challenge and so having some professionals to come alongside of us really study what we're doing and decide where we would um where we're meeting the mark and where there's opportunities for us to lean in

027or if there's Community Partners have an opportunity to lean in I think it's going to be important so no details on the specific timeline yet um you know that and Rene Crown is very excited they were excited for us to announce that you know this extended partnership this evening uh more details coming with probably within the next month Alex thank you yeah I really appreciate the presentation and the breadth of what we've got going on um I think uh in light of the fact that we're also revisiting our strategic plan and that this is such a big priority for us I think as a board we are really interested in what kind of metrics come out of it that are both useful for evaluation and that can also inform our strategic planning process so I

028know it takes a while to figure out you know what we're going to do but I'd be I'd be curious what you're thinking about metrics are now and then what that process would be as we figure out how to keep track of it and I want to I'm hoping we can get to a a broader set of indicators CU I think it depends on schools and stuff which is the most important and I'd hate for us to pick just one that's too narrow or something we had this exact same conversation with Renee Crown as we were talking the other day and I think the challenge is is that as the need began to emerge in our community uh we did what the school districts should do which is we responded adding more resources more support

029um what we didn't do which had we had time and maybe if if you know as we move forward we'd hop to do is really to identify those indicators up front right if you don't identify what those indicators might be and on how you're going to track whether it's working or not uh it's it's somewhat difficult I think on the back end so I do think that um it's going to be multi like uh multiple measures right I don't think it's one measure and um I do think that that's going to be something that could we're going to be working with Rene Crown to identify and um as we move forward help us uh keep track and stay accountable around I think a problem which everybody realizes is a problem but I do think we

030depending on where you are folks have different proposed solutions to the problem and whether it's more counselors more school psychologists more Wellness rooms more I mean the only consistency is more so um I do think that uh that that's a great Point Alex and I think it's something we're going to have to do moving forward elenia uh this may be a case of more as well but I heard you say that we're teaching bullying prevention four classes in elementary there's four lessons there and then four in Middle is that right it is a little bit different in Middle it comes through their health classes and so it's a unit of study that they have through their health classes um that the health teachers um deliver okay um and what I was thinking about as I

031was reflecting back to what Shelly talked about how we despite working on bullying still have a problem with bullying and are we making sure in whatever we're doing with Renee Crown to begin to look at why we have these things there and if we're not scaffolding them enough or or what's going on that we continue to have that issue so absolutely I think that they're they're a connected issue and somewhat of a separate issue the ways that we're we're recording documenting following up around bullying issues is one thing and then how bullying relates to mental wellness and social so I do think that there's some overlap there and I do think that as we think about co-designing what we're going to be looking at with Renee crown that there's an opportunity and then I think

032we also need to think about you know this idea of bullying disproportionality and and how are we going to reposition some of our assets um in people time and money to make sure that that work is is embedded in the work um that's happening in classrooms and so I do believe that that's something that as we're contemplating the next moves to implement some of those recommendations that it be something you'll be hearing about Jason um yeah thanks very much for that presentation um my you know two of my kids go to Creekside and we are just so blessed to have the most incredible counselor and I I I see how he is with the kids and I just it's something you hope that every kid has access to um and so I am concerned you

033know when to hear about budget cuts and loss of Grants and um and what that impact is on the staff and our already you know High ratios of student to counselor uh student to counsel ratio um so I'm I'm uh but I did want to ask a question about the wellness centers I have a few other questions but you mentioned the number of visits um and you know kind of General feedback from students is there is there anything more that you all have in terms of kind of you know what counselors are seeing you know has there been a decrease in the number of visits to counselors like what are you know some kind of more hard metrics on what student how students feel how like the atmos how the kind of atmosphere at the

034school has changed or not changed as a result I think those are that's really encouraging to see how many how many people have visited or how many students have visited I just want to know kind of the actual like when we translate that into impact like what does that look like yes so the numbers that I gave you um the actual visits were from 38 um the data that I provided for you was the mid year report um we've have been so grateful for um the the team at Renee Crown because they've come in um they've been able to do observations in each of the rooms um we've been able to pull um data from student um surveys that they've been able to do we've also sent out staff surveys also um we'll be doing

035another observation before the end of year and will be able to provide a comprehensive more of what you're looking for evaluation of how how did it go through the whole year and are we seeing that change across the system does it feel better in the school is the culture and climate improved because of the wellness rooms we'll have a better understanding of that at the end of the year um I'm sorry I can't give you more of that but they they are they're using multiple metrics and Survey data and um observations as well as you know different um interviews they do pulse checks with each of the um mhas that are working in the rooms currently they do those weekly and so I'm excited to see what that data comes back as as well at

036the end of the year but um we'll have that more towards the end yeah corge um I would also like to thank you for this presentation you covered a lot of ground it's clear we're doing a lot in the district and I really appreciate the work you're doing um and clearly there's always more need um I I really appreciate your focus on the linkage you have of the community and recognizing that there's needs to be follow-up services that you know the school's just one small piece and we can't do it all alone and so as you move forward the r c to like to see or hopefully be a component where you look at you know what's transitioned to the community what connections can we build where can we get more resources in that direction

037because it's it's you know the school isn't really designed to do that part of it and so handing off that part I think would be great um you uh my question is is focused on you talked about cultural competence cultural sustaining and how that is a key component here and so I'd like to hear a little bit more about what that means and what that looks like for our counselors in the or the different kind of mental health um providers that are in the schools and kind of uh how we approach that can you repeat your question was it cultural competence yeah like like how do you like how do you um U train provide uh you know how much need is there for that what that looks like on the ground so our counselors

038have participated in a lot of the um cultural competence um trainings that have happened across the district over the last couple of years we also bring in trainers we meet with our counselors monthly and um really focus on bringing in what are the highest needs needs and we talk about what are the needs around cultural competence what are we lacking those and we work really closely with our um with Amy Nelson's team and providing additional trainings that way um rise also has a huge component around cultural competence and that is um part of our mental health Advocates train that and so we'll bring that into our our counselors and our schools as well so that's really where we're um getting a lot of that um work done anything to add right no that's great thank

039you I know there's a lot more need this year with uh new arrivals and everything as well so I appreciate it Alex um I this is perhaps a a comment but also a question for for going forward I think there's a lot of interactions that happen in the school site that like you've alluded to some of it is social emotional learning some of it is bullying some of it is school culture that's handled you know outside the mental health sort of framing um I'd be really interested especially with Renee crown and other other partners how we integrate sort of the awareness of mental health issues into like unified Improvement planning or other school Improvement planning that's broader for the rest of the staff or how we um and then as we evaluate and understand what's

040going on what's the interaction between say the schools with advisories and those without and sort of understand the non-mental health things we're doing from a mental health lens and I know as a like as a researcher Renee Crown's going to not want to have every possible interaction study because it just doesn't work but I do think we should be thinking about this as a way for more people in schools to have more information and to be more reflective about that how it integrates into the the everything else in the aspect of running a school and I don't know how to do that without making it overwhelming but I think it would it's worth doing I do think there's a couple of opportunities obviously within this study which is one aspect um you know board members

041in about a month we're going to be resit revisiting our strategic plan metrics and right now um around safe learning environment is is really just one single survey question that we look at if you know if students feel like they have a trusted adult right I do know that there's um that there are surveys going on right now um that we've just pushed out recently to parents at least I just got mine the other day um that has some more data that we could take a look at as well and then you know I think you bring a unique uh Point Alex on how does this then information go to our district and our school accountability committees and how does that inform and drive um improvements maybe academically maybe culturally socially emotionally as well and

042so I think that you know get figuring out what are the right questions ask what's the right like to your point like you don't want to overwhelm folks what are the right questions to be asking what are the right data points to be looking at and then how do we inform folks so then we can have systemic improvements as a district and then Local Schools can take on local challenges as well through some of that process and I would just add to that that as our schools are engaged our school leaders and school teams are engaged in their uip planning as we engage at the district level as well um and we look at discipline and behavior as a means of communication and an opportunity to educate um rather than isolate we we talk a

043lot and learn a lot together about the um inclusivity aspects of how we're approaching students students and their needs and looking underneath you know where implicit bias is playing out but also um being very cognizant to build in indicators at the school level of improvements that schools want to see and how we can respond differently to students because we know that discipline and behavior are are a way that students are communicating to us including about um about their mental health needs and so there is a very comprehensive look at how we're responding to those needs as they arise and how we can be proactive in creating the conditions in schools so that students can be more successful feel you know that sense of belonging and welcoming through culturally responsive and inclusive practices at the school

044so it really does all intertwine when we're looking at school Improvement and unified Improvement planning lenia uh do we use data from healthy kids Colorado on this too we we engage that data as well I can speak to Tamm we can look at that it's not comprehensive right and so not every kid not every school conducts the healthy kids Colorado survey data um and some school districts don't even give it at all we are not one of those school districts um I don't know if you wanted to speak to how we use the information but we do review it and then we will build out plans based on that if we know that um we need there's a certain area that needs a little bit of focus um we will collaborate this is where Health

045Services and student Support Services as well as um our special education teams will come together to figure out what we're going to do to help support that um and we do review that data as it comes out do you break it down to a school level we don't we don't break it down to school level we have more high level data um because of who's taking it um there's a lot of um measures put in place around student um I guess data privacy yes um data privacy so we don't narrow it down into specifics like that it's very much a broad view of it but we've definitely looked at the trends that have shown up in the healthy kids survey and that has informed how we engage with our leaders and professional development that we

046provide so I have two questions um one related to some of what my board members have been asking with our school culture and climate surveys that are conducted um is there a plan I know you said Renee cronel is looking at some of that data they've reported on some of that data we'll continue to look at it are we dialing down and doing any kind of root cause analysis with some of that data or some of the things that are percolating up across the district at different school like levels High School Middle School um Elementary School in some of that data to help us kind of pinpoint where the resources might be most beneficial or where things could change that might not have a cost associated with them but just culturally or as a districtwide

047practice things that we could alleviate um burdens mental health burdens for uh our students and our staff I know that at the school level the the results of the climate survey are definitely um data points that teams dig into deeply and then we do as well at the looking at the systems level our executive directors of schools are looking at those data points with their school with the school leaders who are um then making plans uh to work with the teams and uh I believe that part of the work that we'll be engaging with as we assess and evaluate current state and aspirational state even with Renee crown and the assessment will involve looking at all of those data points um at an even deeper level as we determine you know where have we hit

048the mark or where have we met the needs um or where do we still have spaces where we need to either provide more resources or utilize our resources differently thanks for that my second question is a few months ago the health curriculum the new health curriculum was on display I had the chance to look at it all of those options had a mental health component and emotional well-being component to them given the loss of funding uh that we're T we're hearing about tonight in mental health supports are we thinking about doing an even a deeper dive into what that component help that component of each of those curricula are and how they are serving the needs hard how they might serve the needs of our students from a K12 perspective in that educational piece I

049think we have a real opportunity with the um looking at adoption materials in our health curriculum um adoption process that we're in right now and in fact we'll be out um decisions or preferences that the adoption committee has um has surfaced and and you're right each of those or each of those uh materials has a mental health component to it and so the opportunity that we have in front of us is to ensure that those lessons are taught that we now have materials that haven't been updated in decades I believe and they're very Leading Edge materials very comprehensive and the opportunity exists not only in just the materials but also identifying at what grade levels um what lessons will be taught and um which of the which health teachers or otherwise will be providing those

050lessons and creating a really Solid scope and sequence that we haven't been able to have in years because we haven't had updated materials so that's an opportunity that we're excited about I'm excited as well thank you for that board members any last questions Kitty any questions can you hear me I can now okay um only question I have is is about anti-bullying because Colorado passed a law and I think it was 2011 requiring schools to do anti-bullying program and are we aware of any districts that have really gotten it right and have significantly reduced bullying or they don't have to be Colorado districts either but just curious um Kitty I am trying to think off the top of my head and I don't have any right off of the top of my head I we've

051been working on um our bullying work probably for the last four years um Dr Anderson touched on the reporting piece and we brought in the curriculum pieces um but I cannot answer if we have a a district that's you know hitting it out of the park as far as their programming um that they're doing thank you and thanks for the presentation it was great Alex sorry I just have one other uh I think request as you think about the research design with Renee Crown I it's a big deal to have a research partner that you're working with with such sensitive data and I'm sure this will be very professional and I I don't worry about that but one of the downsides can be of trying to uh you can't get granular enough to share the

052data in public to make it more useful at different settings so I would just encourage when you do the research design it's not just the best research evaluation plan but it's also the most useful product when we're done because you could end up with something that has maybe a little bit less information but we can share it as opposed to having some very granular information that very few people can access so I would just think about the audiences for the evaluation as you design it in our in our discussion and again we we have a commitment from them to co-design so and along with our community right and so I think that that it's not like they're bringing this is how we do the here's this is how we're going to do it uh right

053right or wrong like this is our methodology um it's an opportunity to co-design and I and I think that what really excited Renee Crown um and excites us as well is that this is a problem that school districts across the country are facing right you have increased needs in social emotional health mental health mental wellness and um my assumption would be many districts just like us have jumped to the solution because the need was so great post pandemic without having a real design on to decide what works and what doesn't work right and I think this breaks in communities different ways in places like Boulder Valley we step up to the plate we we find grants we work with Community Partners and in other places they say that's not our job right our job is

054teaching and learning and our job isn't you know that this is you know you need to go outside of the school in the community so I do think that we have an opportunity to design something that influences not just the 28,000 students here in bbsd but um can influence practice across the country but I think your point is well taken these need to be practical analyses that are actionable once they're done uh so we can know and understand the you know the pieces on the chess board that we can move to to better support our schools and our kids well thank you for that very thoughtful presentation this evening on the mental health and social emotional learning supports for students thank you to the Rene Crown Institute and all of our Community Partners for really

055helping do the best we can with the resources we have to serve the needs of our students and staff at this time um we are going to take a short break to rearrange the boardroom for the rest of our business [Music] meeting e no e just e for talk we'll reconvene the this meeting of the B Valley School District Board of Education with the reading of our land acknowledgement Jorge would you please do the honors apach nav IND B thank you I'd like to remind everyone that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging meaningful and engaging learning opportunities so that all children Thrive and are PR prepared for S successful civically engaged lives good evening everyone thank you for joining us in person and remotely we're glad to have you

056observe and participate in our meetings at this time I'd like to make a motion to approve our agenda is there a second seconded by Jason Laura can you please call the rooll Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quinn L AA yes Raj Paul yes sergeant hunger sorry I cannot hear you yes I can't hear you either motion passes the first item on our started like two minutes ago we haven't heard anything the first item on our agenda is the superintendence report Dr Anderson good evening good evening board president Raj Paul members of the board I'm glad to see so many folks here this evening have a few things to update the board and the public on our first topic that I'd like to provide the microphone is mate on our building for Student Success Bond

057program this is one of the interpreters it sounds like they're working on it presentation presented by the bond oversight committee representatives and staff um in conferring with them uh this there wasn't enough information to um in to necessitate an entire update and so I'm just going to brief you um and then happy to uh to bring any questions back we've got Rob Price here who can answer any questions um that you might have phase one project teams are preparing to move into construction phase this includes meeting with School principles and staff to coordinate moves and making arrangements for summer programs Cruz will mobilize at sentaurus over spring break and complete some exteria work to get a head start on the summer schedule installation of a new field at Justice high will begin in March and

058be completed by summer break other projects will mobilize in May board members for those of you that are new to the board we do try to make sure that we um uh we conduct these projects in ways that are the least disruptive as possible so hence why we're we we push a lot of the work to the summer uh design for most phase two projects is underway with the rest uh set to begin by April the design will continue through the summer and fall with construction contract amendments coming to the board November December construction will begin in 2025 and our cach and staff will bring the next Bond program update to the board in June board members uh exciting moment a couple weeks ago we had the mountain view fire department who surprised students at

059Boulder Tech by dropping off an ambulance that they had donated to the program unit which was uh recently dis decommissioned after serving Superior in El Dorado Springs will now help our em T our emergency medical technicians learn how to work in the cramped moving environment EMT program was made possible uh through a partnership with Front Range Community College it's a new addition to Boulder Tech's Health Service offerings which include an emergency medical responder sports medicine physical therapy and biomedical problems new ambulance will also provide some opportunities for other Boulder tech programs students in Boulder Tech's Auto Repair program will responsible for its upkeep and the kids in the autoc Collision Repair program program will get to paint and help vinyl wrap the vehicle and so that's really exciting and um I was just laying Randy

060bring that picture back up I I had to make sure that I let my loved ones know before this one on social media that I was okay I was just actually just trying out the stretcher I was not nothing happened to me so um in any event it was we had a lot of fun that day um on Saturday board members middle and high school students gathered at Manhattan School of Arts and academics for the B Boulder Regional naal National History Day contest this year's theme was turning point as always students did a great job researching and presenting on different historical topics it's is a great event in our district um and and finally before we get to our student moment M much anticipated student moment um campus this campus we're at today was hopping

061on Saturday for the bbsd hiring Fair we had a lot of candidates come to the Ed Ed Center and arapo Ridge High School to interview for a variety of positions from teachers a bus driver to child care openings I believe we had around 500 folks sign up to come interview for positions uh at Boulder Valley School District next school year that's that's a that's a huge victory for us I want to thank everybody who came out and our staff for making the bbsd is the place to be hiring Fair a huge success uh folks if you're interested in working in the best school district in Colorado it's not too late you can always apply at jobs. bvsd.org and finally board members it is our time for our student moment today we're celebrating our Unified sports

062program and I saw Jen where's Jen at Jen Dixon our amazing uh PE teacher and bvsd unified Athletics and events coordinator hi Jen I'm going to turn the presentation over to you and the stars of the show Good all right is this working all right first of all I just want to thank you for inviting us we're all very excited to be here um this Unified at physical education class and Athletics is a partnership that Jen Cohen and I started years ago of combining an ilc teacher with a PE teacher and creating a class where everybody is included and unified and the friendships um that are made with within this class just uh is the highlight of our day and so we want to let the students talk so you can hear from them um

063we have a couple students to say some things and they're very very excited and a little nervous but they're going to do great so our first one is Cari hi guys okay um I like hiide because all all the different sports we get to play my favorite is basketball I love going on at our weekly Feld Tri act especially to the L alley because I like to knock down all the P I like to hang out with pment toy like liby she always helps me she's kind funny and fantastic I like everything about unified [Applause] PE good morning my name is nyaki p turbet I'm a senior at Monarch High School and I'm uh and I'm uh and I'm a part participant here at at in the ilc and I'm a I'm a senior and

064I am in Stucco and when I started coming here 3 years ago I would have expected the best friendship that would impact my life as much as the one I had with Miss Cohen and such as I didn't even tell him to say that yeah I love all the unified tournaments and like basketball soccer and bowling cuz I like to see other friends from other schools I love going on weekly field trip such as the park Bowling mall and pumpkin patch we got to we get to go on a bus into the community it's great because I like to get to meet new friends such as the peer mentors and I love hanging out with other friends too thank [Applause] you hold it um my name is Scot I am a freshman uh the reason

065why I like unify is it's just so open and inclusive and like I can't do everything the normal way but EV but everyone there thinks of solutions for me and everyone and I like that we get to go in to the community like that's fun it just feels like a needed break thank you say your name hi I'm Haley I'm one of the peer mentors in unified PE um unified PE is something that I look forward to every day I know that our other mentors do as well um it's something that we just love hanging out with kids um it gives us time to escape what we're going through during the day and some of the best friendships that we've made are in this class with these kids um I know like I play basketball

066for Monarch and I know Scott has come and supported us and that means a lot because it shows how deep these friendships really go during this class so I just love UniFi PE and how does it impacted me as a person also the friendships I've made through this class right I all right I think that's all the students we have to talk so is there anything I have shirts for you too if you want them here any any board members or anyone well not anyone Jen thank you so much and for all the students the peer mentors the students who participate in in our bbsd unified program we're so proud of you you did such an awesome job thank you so much for being here with us this evening another round of applause board members

067uh that's all I have for my comments this evening thank you Dr Anderson and thank you to our bvsc unified students for coming here tonight I think all of our board members would appreciate a shirt so we'll take you up on that offer uh the next item on our agenda this evening is public participation the board respects the rights 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 that speak that you are responsible for your own speech speakers will each have 2 minutes to speak you will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining if you run out of time or you'd like to share additional

068information you can please feel free to email the board we have a long list of public participants tonight so I am going to keep a really tight two-minute time schedule I would also like uh us to consider holding Applause particularly for our grown-up speakers until the very end board policy does state that if we exceed 60 Minutes any remaining speakers will have to wait till the end of the board meeting to provide their public comment and I'd really like us to avoid that to all uh to the extent that we can so with that our first Speaker of this evening is Sasha Lawrence and on Deck is Jamie Pearson if Jamie would like to make their way up to the lecturn as well yeah [Music] okay hello my name is Sasha and I'm in fifth

069grade and I'm here to save sloyd you may think that sloyd takes away from our academic time but in reality it helps us sore and it's just a different integrated form of learning while you might think that we were missing one subject we are doing math science and addressing the terms that are important to the bbsd board for example challenging integrating and relevant instruction the teachers Luke and Allison equip us with tools for the real world and they help us you also they also let you fail when you do fail they put it on the wall of learning and they talk you through what happened how you feel and how you want to approach it next time Luke and Allison are warm-hearted and so inspiring and compassionate and also look what they help me make

070they help me make a shelf and they whenever you make a mistake they say well what' you learn from that mistake why did you make that mistake and what you going to do differently next time I there's UK creates and there is also um you can make Sanders for your tools um this is just a couple out of 16 or 17 projects that Luke and Allison have available for us and they have generously donated their time to make those for us we I added subtracted multiplied divided measured read instructions and wrote a response those are all things that we use in school and those are all things that we're supposed to do in school um we always use these things inside and outside of school and they prepare us no one has ever broken any

071arms in no serious cuts and sloyd is self-funded even though I am leaving for middle school next year I want sloy to be open for all and sloyd is an incredible opportunity for school and I don't want the kids that haven't gotten a chance yet to even not have any chance yet and sloyd should stay thank you for your time next we have Jamie Pearson with Penny Seguin on Deck hey hi my name is Jamie Pearson and I am a former student of the SL experience sloyd is more than just a woodworking class it provides so many opportunities for kids like me sloy is about making mistakes and growing from them while I was in sloyd I had to start some of my projects again multiple times before getting it right I would try and

072try again and still it wasn't exactly what I wanted but that was okay because eventually I learned how to keep going roll with my mistakes because I learned that the process was more important than the product sloyd helped me understand that which is a life lesson kid should have the opportunity to learn the lesson is mistakes are okay I and every other kid who has been insens soyd has benefited greatly from it not only because they got a nice hat rack out of it because it amplifies every other activity that student does because of the hard and persistent work they are doing in sloyd if you make this decision without walking into the sloyd classroom you wouldn't really know what the sloy experience offers to kids because the people who make these decisions haven't hold

073a Japanese saw or sanded a piece of wood to Perfection but I have and I can tell you with pure confidence and other sloy students can too that this is something worth our time this is a unique and valuable experience that the kids of Boulder Valley School District deserve to have thank you next hi my name is Penny and I'm here to save sloyd because Floyd is amazing in so many ways but I'm giving three reasons why sloyd should stay one reason is sloyd teaches you to have perseverance Mr Johansson tells me I have perseverance this means that when something is hard you keep trying second reason is SL means a lot to the kids I want my sister to be able to do so but she's in kindergarten and she wants to do it

074my last reason is sloyd teaches you to use things you may have never used before like saws or the marking cage so I think sloyd should stay thank you I agree Penny I totally think I should [Applause] stay next we have Nora Mills with Liam Richardson on [Applause] Deck hi my name is Noah and I'm a second grader at L I'm here to speak about what you learn in sloyd this is a very important program for me and I want other kids to be able to do this tonight I'm going to share the important things I've learned and story and the things that Mr Johansson helped me with for learning you do math and story because you measure a lot in the second grade math class you learn about measuing so it's really cool that

075you get a practice in story you also use foundations reading and writing because you have to read directions sometimes you stim wordss on your project and you have to complete a worksheet finally here are some important things Mr Johansson taught us I learned that if you make a mistake you can always start over and learn from it it's c is a mistake rall I also learn that if you get stuck it's okay to ask for help I used to not have the confidence to ask for help but now I do since Mr Johansson encouraged me also think about the amazing stuff you can make like a shf that you can actually use I'm am 8 years old and I think I can do this with M Johansson's help since she encourages me please come please

076come and see a sloy class for yourself if you had the opportunity and you will understand that we should have sloy I prefer sloy over recess Liam and we have Noah on Deck um I'm Liam Richardson I'm in uh fourth grade I'm pretty sure I started sloyd in first grade and I think SLO should stay cuz it adds to learning like a lot of the other kids have said like it helps you you do math writing and you it just prepares you for later on in life when you like later on in life maybe if you take up like being a construction worker or something you need those skills and sloyd teaches you them and they really help you and it's just really A Gift To Have sloyd and a lot of the other kids

077have said like that that you wouldn't know what sloy is like unless you tried it out for yourself and I really think you should it's really a great class and it's just one of the most amazing things I've experienced and I almost prefer it over any other subject thank you Noah divine hello my name is Noah Divine I am 8 years old and is second grader at Le taking away sloyd from the school day is very very disappointing at Lees we practice something called Roar which stands for respect ownership attitude and resilience sloyd fits so perfectly into this respect sloyd teaches us to be respectful with our tools with other people and with our ourselves ownership sloy teaches us about making mistakes and boy do we make a lot of them and never giving up

078attitude sloy teaches us to be proud of what we do and gives us confidence resilience sloy teaches us how we can use our hands our brain and that we can do hard things taking away this program during the school day takes away from achieving the school goal I'm asking you to please please rethink this decision thank you next we have Jasper Coleman followed by Riley laferty hi my name is Jasper sloy is one of the best things in the world I have two reasons why to start m Mr Johansson is awesome and so nice secondly in sloyd we are doing math so actually we are learning we are doing reading and writing also it is so so so safe as you can see you should please consider um keeping soy thank you hi um I'm

079Riley lafy and I'm here to talk about a different subject although I do admire everybody here um uh I a senior at Fairview High School and I'm in my second year of hairstyling at Boulder Tech I talked to you about a month ago about the reasonings behind um the discontinu the discontinuation of the cosmetology programs um the reasons that I addressed were the ones given to me by admin at Boulder Tech but at the end of the last meeting it was brought to my attention that there are some other reasons um and that includes lack of return on investment and completion SL licensing rates um I emailed the board to ask for the data to back up those reasons and I have not received a response so I'm here to ask today what the data

080surrounding um the completion and Licensing rates um and return on investment is um I've also been told in several instances that demand is not being looked into in relation to the decision to cut the cosmetology programs I would like to ask why that is um to me it seems like demand would be an important thing to consider um for a publicly like for a public um for a program at a public at a public school um and then I would like to take a moment to talk about a little bit about sloyd I have not had the um I have not had the privilege of doing a program like that and hearing all these kids talk about it um made me wish that I had um word working is not something that I got to

081do until um I did uh a theater Tech at Fairview um and it was definitely a really cool skill um that I wish I had gotten more of a chance to learn so I hope that um this program gets to stay thank you our next speaker is Adrien Sher yeah hi I'm Adrien and I think SLO should say because we're learning and we're not just doing stuff and we're missing out on learning we're still doing math and writing and reading we have to read instructions to make our project and we have to stamp on letters also we have to measure the length of everything and I learn not to give up from sloyd and I really hope that this program can stay thank you that concludes the student speaker section of this evening's public comment

082and I just wanted to take a presidential privilege and say thank you for your bravery and coming and standing up at the elector to speak with us tonight our next speaker this evening is Lindsay Andrews oh can I all right I'll just be super tall Lindsay was given two minutes from Hilda yeah she yielded too okay thanks so like 85 people in the audience I'm here to voice my support for sloyd I appreciate that the board does not normally involve it s in school level decisions you provide strategic direction to your leaders including importantly establishing the bvsd Strategic plan soyd as you've heard is the Strategic plan in action it provides Hands-On learning that reinforces our kids core academic skills in Reading Writing math and other subjects as well as providing social emotional learning which

083I know is your working group session with real life application of a growth mindset that bolsters their self-esteem unfortunately as the 360 plus Lees community members who have signed our petition can attest we believe the district leaders you have tasked with implementing the Strategic plan and acting in our students our kids best interests are failing to do so in this case in addition theyve failed to live up to the principles of open transparent communication and Community engagement which you have deemed so critical to school and Student Success for instance as parents we are getting a number of ever-shifting reasons for the cancellation first it was vague statements about required instructional minutes and then we were told how moving sloyd to a fee based after school programming will expand access and Equity to more students this

084is completely false it would reduce total weekly sloy enrollment while putting the program Out Of Reach for low-income students who now have access for free make no mistake which students will be academically disadvantaged by this decision in addition key District decision leaders have never even observed sloyd in action or spoken to sloyd leaders or Lees teachers many of whom are in the audience today about its instructional value because if they had they would understand that losing sloyd will mean losing valuable interactive and unique instructional minutes our kids as they've told you have to read detailed directions for each project they are constantly practicing their math and measurement skills as they build their models and they must complete written Reflections for each Project based on our conversations thus far with leaders it appears that in most

085cases these sloy instructional minutes will be replaced with computer literacy games and independent reading like Scholastic News the two just don't compare and if we care about outcomes and we care about Equity we should take a second look at the impact of this decision we are here seeking the board's help in getting Lees back on track and aligned with the Strategic plan we ask for the board to direct a full transparent revisiting of this decision as a starting point as parents and as teachers we would like the opportunity to submit detailed written questions and receive written consistent factual responses from the relevant District leaders we would also like the relevant District leaders to be required to engage with sloyd leaders and our teachers to discuss and instructional requirements and explore options for integrating sloyd with

086those new requirements you might be surprised at how activated the Lees Community has been over this issue we even had to make the room larger but I I can guarantee you that if your kids had gone through sloyd you'd be in the audience with us and you would be one of the 360 people who signed our petition in just over a week and that's at a school with 345 families and you would be one of the parents Who provided 50 pages of testimonials in support of sloyd these are just some of the voices and evidence that have been ignored in this closed door process our Shared Hope is to keep sloyd at Lees and expand the program to other schools in bbsd so that even more students can benefit from this tremendous learning experience and

087I have can I give you I have um board packets we've mailed them to you you take them great thank you our next speaker this evening is Tiffany Fitzgerald who is [Applause] virtual is Tiffany F Gerald available our next speaker this evening will be Karen Foreman Forman and I'm a teacher at Lewisville Elementary School um last week I tried to condense sl's value into a two-minute presentation um and I scrap my draft yesterday because I heard um that one of the main reasons for discontinuing Floyd was because of a drop in Cass scores I am 100% % behind U my state my bbsd my PR my my bbsd um my principle in improving education um but H uh having the ability to Define problem Define problems debate Solutions and make long-term plans can only happen

088with informed and invested citizens this will take a straightforward partnership this will take a culture that moves Beyond blame and defensive reasoning this will require all of us to check our egos if it can be done it can be done in bbsd we basically we basically share values we just get undone with the magnitude of the challenge and from the weight of the criticisms there is no statistically significant or even a reasonable connection between the sloy experience and declining camass scores on the contrary we have many witnesses to sl's effect iess I've seen children who struggle with executive functioning in other settings who get into the flow as they cultivate the habits of order attention perseverance in the in the sloyd workshop we are all concerned about our children's future we all need to listen

089to each other teachers need to be open parents need to be open and the School Board needs to be open many of us see that sloyd does provide essential instruction to our children and our students so why would we Dr drop an Innovative program that is working so brilliantly thank you so much way the applause was a little loud when I called the name for Tiffany Fitzgerald so I wanted to make sure that they were not here or virtual before we continue to move on okay so our next speaker this evening will be Oleg umansky hello we can hear you thank you uh my name is Oly gansy um I'm a parent of a first grader at Le uh and I'm here for the same reason that the lot of the others are just concerned

090about the decision to cancel the Floy program that my son was going to be participating in uh when he gets to second grade next year uh when we were making a decision to stick with a neighborhood School uh two years ago going into kindergarten uh sloyd was one of the reasons we picked Lees as it showed that the school believed in Hands-On Project based learning as a way to teach life skills as well as providing strong academic skills for math reading and writing as a first grader my S so far has only experienced sloyd as a paid after school activity uh but the character building elements were clear from the start uh the first time he went in I was actually sure completely that half he was going to quit halfway through because he's doing

091a repetitive task over and over again but he worked through it and when he had to start over he did it and continued persevering and was eager to come back again uh when we talked about it at home it's clear that he's taking those lessons to heart now I don't believe that the loss of the independent reading minutes is a loss considering what sloyd uh provides in return in addition to character skills sloyd directly contributes to the core subjects uh we've heard the other kids speaking about it earlier uh they're reading in every session they are writing in every session every time my son comes home with a write up a thoughtful write up on how the session went um and they're obviously doing math with measuring uh shapes and angles um so it's been

092led by parents as you can tell teachers and kids um and having it integrated into the school schedule u in my opinion is the best way to ensure Equity of access make sure that the kids whose parents cannot afford to pay for this outside of school are also able to participate so just adding my voice and urging the board and the Las leadership to reconsider this decision and continue bringing sloy to all the kids of our community thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Megan Armstrong gotcha this is my first time um hi um my name is Megan Armstrong I'm an Lees parent and I am here to request that the bbsd board and Jeff Miller um report u reverse your decision to cancel the in school sloyd programming um I have

093a master's degree in education and 10 years of classroom teaching experience my son who is currently in third grade is twice exceptional and has thrived at Lees in large part due to the sloyd program which was embedded into the second grade school day my son is extremely bright yet struggles with focus and executive function BEC an executive function because he does okay on his report card he falls through the cracks of any Services the system might provide to teach executive function and fine motor skills he's in the vast majority of students who would benefit from executive function support and occupational therapy but do not qualify for services from bbsd the sloting school program encourages self-reliance attention to deta detail Love Of Love of Labor focus and fine motor skills in an engaging setting these are

094life skills that our children need to be explicitly taught these are the skills that will help my kiddo and other students thrive in the classroom we as a parent body want our children to know how to focus we want them to hold themselves to high standards for neatness and project completion we want them to be proud of the work they produce across all subject areas where are they being taught these skills at Lees in sloyd this program will only have a fraction of its potential impact if shifted to an after school program I will tell you that my son was not willing to participate in the afterschool program until he had repeated exposure and success with it during the school day we are here today to ask you to reverse the decision to remove sloyd

095from our children's school day we are a strong parent body that is United around this issue we believe that the school can come together to brainstorm ways to keep the program alive can you finish your sentence and email the rest of your comments to the board yes we expect that our children's education match our community's values and prepare our children with the tools necessary to be excellent students thank you our next speaker is virtual Natasha Johnson hi everyone I'm here to talk today um about the bullying going on in schools and I know that's what we were just uh talking about in the prior meeting but I want to talk and I want to address to other parents who are being bullied not only by by the administrators at the school level but also the

096school board Rob Anderson Robin Fernandez I'm here to tell you guys I have a voice for you guys I have been in contact with our state senator I've also been in contact with uh Kyle Brown I have had numerous meetings with Kyle Brown and he wants to hear how we as parents and students are not being heard by the Boulder Valley School District they also want to hear how the students are being treated and they want to hear how we as parents are being treated by our administrators and our school board they want to know what the school board is doing to people I have a daughter who's autistic the school board and the board of educations made me miss her games I applied by their rules and did what they said and Mr Rob

097Anderson himself wouldn't even contact me back and then did contact me when he said R can write your complaints to me and I sent him numerous complaints numerous complaints I've also been in contact with Robin Fernandez herself who told me after I filed appeal after appeal that there is no process for appeals in the boulder School District so if you have a problem there's really no appeals all you have to do is file complaints with the school board in the school district well the school district doesn't help you so our state senator and our state representatives they want to hear what our school board and the school district is doing to you you sloy parents you need to write to Kyle Brown he wants to hear what the boulder school district is doing doing they're

098they're writing you all off I'm a parent who has children who are being bullied all across from elementary school all the way up to the high school level and no one has helped them the school district just writes them off they write us off as parents also I have called and call they don't even give you the documentations when you ask for documentations when you thanks Natasha our next speaker this evening is Helena sherai who has received two minutes from Mary O'Brien all right so hello dear Schoolboard members thank you so much I love my job I do not just teach German and Japanese to students at Boulder High School I teach about other cultures social values historical events celebrations education systems family structures food music more my students learn that other cultures are to

099be enjoyed appreciated and explored they learn open-mindedness and acceptance of others this prepares them to be compassionate and responsible Global Citizens and competitive in the global job market in my classes all of the students are second language Learners so they all receive scaffolding and support World language classes support La goals by reinforcing grammar rules reading and writing skills they promote social emotion skills such as social awareness collaboration conflict resolution and growth mindset as students continually interact with each other they've reinforced 21st century skills of critical thinking and reasoning Global awareness and information literacy students have clubs travel and contest opportunities to reinforce with their learning in class in and AP and IB tests across the district in our languages allow students to earn college credit in their languages high quality world language programs in a

100variety of languages including Latin German French Spanish Japanese ASL and bbsd or a draw from students considering open enrollment from outside of our district as well in light of declining student enrollment project projections in bbsd we're asking the school board and the district leaders to examine policies that negatively impact our existing World Language programs the stamp test qualifies students for the Seal of biliteracy in place of students registering for and taking existing AP and IB classes the push to enroll students in KP testing to earn college credit potentially deinen devizes them from taking upper level World language classes and the policy of allowing World Language credits that are earned outside of our bbsd schools to count toward graduation from Boulder Valley School District high schools likewise negatively impacts our enrollment and our ability to offer

101high quality programs so we hope that the school board and the leadership will re-evaluate policies that potentially negatively impact our programs in these ti times of hard choices um thank you so much for supporting World Language programs at bbsd thank you Helena our next speaker this evening is Helen vicory who has given two minutes from Isabelle l good evening um my name is Helen vicy and I'm here tonight to speak about bbd's new policy of funding students um taking foreign language classes at the University of Colorado Boulder um language classes such as Mandarin Arabic Russian and Italian these classes themselves will have a tremendous and direct impact on the world language program at Boulder high due to the proximity of Cu which is just up the hill um I want to speak a little bit

102about um what goes on in World language classes my Latin students are currently preparing for the national Latin exam and they are working on a visual representation of all the components of each level of the national Latin exam this project involves art where they um draw and create images from the classical um world and research and it Fosters collaboration this project instills in students confidence and a feeling of taking pride in achieving a common goal in essence it creates a community of Learners encouraging students to take a World Language at CU has several consequences it raises the question of economic equity my understanding is is that bbsd will pay $400 around there of the class of the tuition toward the CU class which is about $1,300 families that can afford the balance of that tuition

103will be able to send their students to learn languages that are not offered at uh Boulder high and so what we have it does not provide equal access um if your family cannot um supplement the addition income um and what it does also it um reduces inclusivity um by creating an element of specialness so that um in essence we have a group of kids that can access classes at CU due to economic advantage and a group of kids who can't and it furthermore takes dollars away um from existing high school programs that do allow equal access um a former student uh remarked that uh High School is arguably the most transformative time of a person's life um my own experience has been filled with more memories laughters stress and most importantly growth than I ever

104could have anticipated when I began and these students that choose to go up to see you to take their classes they are taking um a college level course with different expectations that you have at high school with different in-class participation than you have in high school and without the uh support academically and socially and emotional well-being and in essence that deprives students of a full High School experience the mission of Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging meaningful and engaging learning of opportunities Boulder High has done that and it continues to do this if you continue to support financially students going up to see you to learn a language that isn't offered at Boulder High then you are indirectly impacting these viable languages that we already have and impacting students ability to learn 21st

105century goals or skills such as collaboration decision making um just creativity and having a common goal furthermore these students leave the classroom and they go into other classrooms in aike and similar Community thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Allison [Applause] Johansson good evening Board of educ and uh Dr Anderson my name is Alison Johansson my interest in quality education is twofold I'm a parent of two young boys in bbsd and my husband Luke and I founded SLO experience we are tremendously proud to have served as a bbsd community partner for nearly two years investing in our community's youth our aim was to work with the district to purposely grow this impact however we were informed that sloyd education takes away from instruction minutes and no longer has a place in the

106school day the communications and justifications as explained to us have been either absent shallow slow short or misleading some bbsd Communications have even contained blatantly false information community members parents and teachers do not view sloyd as part of the problem in education access and opportunity rather it is part of the solution Floyd's efficacy is indisputable it supports every learner enhances the teaching of Colorado's academic standards and instruction time and directly develops nearly every one of Colorado's essential skills sloyd education belongs in our community where it can be accessed by all our organization already offers after school enrichment programming it's full we cannot serve more youth at Lees or other youth in the community without investment in Partnership from bbsd if bvsd truly finds value in what we bring to this community it would have been

107essential to consult with our organization before boldly declaring to the community that sloyd programming can continue in an after school capacity and serve additional students this did not happen our organization's ability to function in the way bbsd leaders have described thus far is impossible although District administrators do not find essential value in sloy education there is an entire community that does this needs to be considered as the community is a central agent that places demands and expectations on the activities that take place in a school our District's policies emphasize the importance of involvement of all of its stakeholders in the decision-making process and we ask you ensure this involvement actually occurs thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Christina Pearson who is given two minutes by Jessica [Applause] Lawrence good evening and

108thank you for the chance to comment my name is Christina Pearson I've been a teacher at Lewisville Elementary School for 19 years I'm also the mother of two two daughters who have benefited from the sloy experience and is my great honor to serve on the board of directors for the SL experience for the past 3 years two years for two years our L teachers Founders Luke and Allison and principle Jeff Miller have worked tirelessly to implement soy's valuable programming into the second and fifth graders school day that is tricky to do because every other service and curriculum gets first priority still by being creative and dedicated we've managed to do it as you have heard our students value their sloyd experience and they're willing to give up their recess to spend time at those workbenches

109our parents love sloyd because they see how sloyd helps their children strengthen their character by building grit and mistake tolerance our Lees teachers love sloyd so much that we asked for our own class after school so that we could get on those workbenches many of our Le teachers are here tonight in support of sloy any comfortable giveaway it is not an exaggeration to say that sloyd has become part of our school identity we are so proud and deeply grateful to be the first Elementary School to partner with this Lloyd experience two weeks ago we experienced a very surprising and confusing turn of events when our beloved sloy experience was informed they would not be allowed to work within the school day the given reasons have to do with preserving instructional minutes for the new curriculum

110adoptions and Equity I imagine that our administrators are under intense pressure to make sure our new curriculums are implemented effectively we hear you that the core instructional minutes will matter even more next year please know that your teachers are committed to excellent instruction with those new materials also know that your teachers parents students sloyd teachers we want to get to work to figure out how to overcome obstacles so that we can keep sloy in the school day we are ready to figure this out with you on the equity front sloyd has always intended to serve the largest possible number of students by expanding into other committed schools lees's sloy is just an incubator for the embedded program we want to use what we've learned to benefit a much larger base of schools we are in

111a precarious place here if this sudden decision to cancel sloy at Las stands our elementary school and certainly the schools in the southwest network will not have access to this incredible resource that's not fair I'm concerned that sloy may decide not to donate its valuable services to our bbsd schools at all members of the school board please ask our administrators to rethink this decision please ask them to start the decision-making process around sloyd over again let's have a collaborative and transparent conversation that includes teachers sloy teachers administrators and parents at the table and let's get to work solving the problem because that's what we do most effectively to serve our students thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Rebecca Leever lur sorry about [Applause] that for 19 years I've been proud to

112be a bbsd teacher but I'm concerned about how the decision to cut sloyd was reached by all counts sloyd is a great success with students with teachers with parents with our principal and even with our I ready scores then all of a sudden it's cut there was little to no conversation with the stakeholders involved it's also concerning that the message of why is instructional minutes we're told we'll need more of those to close the achievement Gap by having all students read more in a book or next year on a computer but not at sloyd but the secret is our students are reading at sloyd as they've told you they're reading they're writing they're doing math with diagrams more than I was ever able to do in second grade now I've actually traveled all around the

113world as a teacher asking the question what makes a successful educational system never once did I hear best practices described as trying to do the same thing across all schools I have heard of highly trained teachers being allowed to make decisions for their students as a best practice in education are we really a district who wants to use those instructional minutes to have every student doing the ex exact same thing that's not the bvsd I know I think we should be a district that actually lets teachers help innovate for their students in terms of equity we have students who fit the demographic of our achievement Gap and sloyd saves those students I had one student at the beginning who spent a good part of their day outside of the classroom because it just wasn't safe

114to be with us but they loved sloyd they were successful there because for the first time they were as good as their peers they also saw why one learns to read and write and do math please consider them when helping us relook at our decision to cut SLO thank you our next speaker this evening is Pier [Applause] Richardson thank you hello my name is Pia Richardson and I'm here to offer insight as a volunteer teacher for sloyd for the past four years I am also a Lees parent for a fourth grader um I fell in love with sloyd when I first found out about them in 2020 and it's been such a profound impact for my life personally and for all the children that I see and students come through the door um I've seen

115them learn such traits character building traits as perseverance accountability responsibility dedication commitment the list goes on and it's such an incredible program I'm so sad to hear of a recent decision I truly hope that you take time to reconsider and have some open communication and dialogue um both ways um with uh sloyd and the board as well as um with bbsd and um as all of the students have already given their testimony it's it's heartwarming and it's heartbreaking all at the same time and I truly hope that sloyd will stay and be um equitably available for all upcoming and future students not only at Las but other schools as well thank you so much our next speaker is Cara [Applause] Mills hello my name is Cara Mills I'm an Lees parent to K second and

116fifth grade students and a sloyd classroom volunteer in recent years the emphasis in public education has been squarely placed on the areas of Reading Writing mathematics and science but is important that education reform also emphasize the public education's historic mission of education and active participation in democracy this is directly from Senate Bill 08212 also known as the Colorado's achievement plan for kids passed in 2008 it goes on to say that public education must encourage and accommodate students exposure to an involvement in postsecondary planning and in activities that develop creativity and Innovation skills critical thinking and problem solving skills communication and collaboration skills social and cultural awareness Civic engagement initiative and self-direction flexibility productivity and accountability character and Leadership information technology and application skills and other skills critical to Preparing students for the 21st century Workforce

117and for active citizenship these are defined as essential skills and school districts within Colorado must support support the development of these skills we know the resources are limit limited and despite our amazing Educators without supplemental Community Partnerships like sloyd experience bbsd is simply unable to meet our children's needs in choosing to eliminate sloy from the school day instruction bbsd is missing a massive opportunity to fulfill essential skills learning requirements and negating their own policy IIA on instructional goals to safeguard the development or Safeguard the development of these essential skills I asked for the district's commitment to a discussion and their support of our principal Mr Miller to find collaborative solution where sloyd exists in the school day I'm saddened by this conversation here today we're having when this program is provided free to all students

118at no cost to the district however as you hear from this community I'm also confident that discussion will soon be how to support the growth of the special program throughout the district I have really high hopes and optimism for this school board and I thank you for your service and attention thank you our next speaker this evening is Whitney [Applause] Mills thank you uh my name is Whitney Mills and I'm a fifth grade teacher at louville elementary um also my three kids go to Louisville Elementary and two of them are in sloyd currently um sloyd experience is a powerful solution to help close our achievement Gap it creates an environment for our participation regardless of race disability language or socioeconomic concerns I would like to discuss Equity District leaders have stated that moving to an

119Afterschool sooy programming will expand access in equity this is not factual sloy currently has an after school program that has filled to capacity reaching 32 students per week during school sloyd reaches 165 second and fifth graders the reality is that an only after school opportunity would make this program inaccessible for our critical population of students most impacted by the achievement Gap due to not having the necessary support system to stay for this program after school including transportation and financial considerations sloy experience is a perfect example of a Community Partnership bbst seeks to forge $70,000 annually this is the amount of money sloyd brings to Lees to positively impact the 165 students 0 this is the cost to bvs families and students per KB policy Boulder Valley School District recognizes that Partnerships across families schools and

120communities are essential to create and sustain positive learning environments to address long-standing disparities in participation and access to opportunities to improve student academic outcomes and to advocate for the needs and interests of a diverse student body we are walking back this tremendous Community Partnership at the detriment to our students and this is not aligned with bbd's strategic plan as an educator at Lees I'm committed along with my peers to finding a solution with leadership to keep soy within our school day small changes like eliminating the softar give us 25 minutes a week that we can put towards instructional minutes our fifth graders lose 30 minutes per week to this program this program supplements our curriculum grows our students social emotional skills addresses the achievement Gap in Equitable ways all at no cost to bbsd finally

121the confidence of my students exhibit when they return from sloyd is truly inspiring thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Leah murala hello I'm leam moala and my son is a fourth grader at coold Creek Elementary my alarm is set I log onto the computer at 5 50 a.m. I go to the sloy registration website it's not time yet still 5 more minutes before registration opens I hit refresh a couple of times recheck the dates and it's 6:00 a.m. I picked the classes as quickly as possible and hit the submit button after a few seconds of processing I get a message the classes are all full and I couldn't get even one class for my son I was too slow time is now 602 a.m. and I was too slow when my

122son gets up he asks Mom did you sign me up I tell him no Baba I will try again next month this has been my experience trying to register my son for sloyd classes two months in a row my two 10-year-old son loves going to carpentry class never has he once said Mom today I don't feel like going at sloyd he focuses on building something for more than an hour he learns new skills he learns he can use his math lessons here he learns it's okay to make mistakes he learns to ask the right questions he learns to progressively take on challenging projects he learns to retrospect and express it in life writing what he did well and what he can do better next time at the end of class he learns to clean up

123his mess with his classmates my son can't wait to come back to finish his current project or start a new one for more than an hour he's not on an electronic device he's not bored he's not distracted or disruptive he's focused and learns from his teachers and his classmates I request the bbsd school board leaders to consider not only to SL safe slit education but to expand it so more kids in our community have access to such wonderful program I'm certain that you will be glad that you did most importantly Luke and Allison are amazing humans and teachers we are so lucky that they're part of our community thank you thank you our remaining speakers this evening are virtual next is Dan G groski hi this is the first I've heard of uh Floyd but

124I I'll give up some of my precious time to say I really hope that is allowed to continue um I was and and the cosmetology program at Boulder Tech I I taught math for 17 years and un unwaveringly students that were able to apply their skills were the most willing and able to learn more so absolutely um that's what is appropriate for a rich education I want to talk about appropriateness a lot of kids have been asking about book bands well some people use a really wide definition but an actual book band is when the government does not allow uh a specific book to be bought and sold so if a school just stops offering a book that's not a book ban it's still it's still uh legal to buy if you want it imagine

125if your cafeteria stops serving hot dogs and someone calls it a food ban you'd think they're being a bit dramatic now schools work with miners so they are obligated to exclude unsuitable materials that encourage things like racism or drug use them uh drug use or bodily harm so it seems odd that several libraries in the district offer a book that shows a man sexually abusing a child one that the author calls the best fantasy any sexual contact between an adult and a child is abuse pedophiles tell their victims that's not abuse if they enjoy it but it's absolutely abuse and the context is important you might expect an image like this to be used to warn kids about the harmful effects of sexual abuse but this book portrays pedophilia as something erotic this is very

126disturbing for uh victims of sexual abuse when adults offer this book as though it's a good resource it confirms a victim's fear that if they report their abuse people will say it's not a big deal so you can see why it's wrong to offer this book to minors thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Andrea Cox thank you my name is Andrea Cox and this goes hand inand with a social emotional learning presentation my son attends Netherland middle school high school this is regarding sanctioning athletes who commit drug tobacco and alcohol offenses by taking away the opportunity to play sports list to say this is the most counterproductive sanction possible Sports equal Health both mental and physical not being able to play sports and enabling more free time will most likely lead

127to more chance of use and abuse taking away one of the only motivations and stimuli a teenager has in their lives that alow in a small town and in the mountains is not acceptable where as cool in the mountains and our Sports Seasons are short due to many reasons our harsh weather our low number of students sometimes lack of coaches the distance to the city to be in a competitive environment Etc it is challenging enough to motivate our kids to enroll in sports teenagers do make mistakes they will face choices and make bad ones and have to learn a lesson with the pandemic children's depression and anxiety has rising and we as parents have the responsibility to support guide and get the help needed for them but with Boulder Valley uh retributive punishment policies we

128are taking away something that can actually help heal their Spirits playing sports and belonging to a team it is so important for our children to keep active and to engage in Afterschool activities and to build a sense of teamwork commitment and to experience wins and loses the cons should the consequence should be that they have to play sports and get more involved in helping coaches or something I am totally in favor of a code of conduct but it is time that bbsd updates his offenses policies other districts have done to reflect and Implement what we all know by now works for our kids restorative justice community service mental and health aid instead of doing this we're pushing kids away from school from Sports and from the chance to be better human beings all around and

129finding a natural high please as a mother and a substitute teacher I ask you to bring this to the board and to the SE thank you our next speaker is this evening is Jennifer a who has received two minutes from Matt a hello thank you for having me I'm a proud parent of two metalarc Mavericks kindergarten in second grade I'm here to specifically talk about our class sizes in second grade we are what's called a bubble year we have a lot of children in second grade and last year when they were in first we had four classes this year we only have three as a volunteer an employee of bbsd and a parent that's in the school district seeing this happen I can tell you firsthand that these class sizes 29 29 and 30 children

130in second grade classes is not working I understand teacher contracts that's what we hear from the superintendent over and over oh look at the contract look at the contract well the board knows just as well as anybody that contracts the highest amount 29 children is not what's actually ideal for learning our children need help we have about a third of the kids in my child's class are on an IEP we have 504 accommodations we have the I can program and we also have gifted and talented children there are not enough resources for our kids and in negotiations right now currently I really strongly advise the school board to please look at these class sizes this is not acceptable these class sizes were negotiated pre- pandemic and it did not take into account learning loss from

131covid social emotional as well just like this board call we're talking about mental health and social emotional support well I can tell you right now in a way to quickly and easily support the mental health and social emotional well-being of our students and teachers is to have smaller class sizes I strongly advise our superintendent to help with that I've reached out to our sped directors I've talked with them and I will since reach out to our superintendent in addition I do want to say that I do support sloyd it's a real life skill and not only do we need it at Lees we need it at other schools as well it's something that our kids can actually apply in real life when they're no longer in school in addition to what Dan said I agree

132with book filtering I actually had the opportunity of volunteering in the Curiosity Center where a book that was highly inappropriate for the age of my children was on the Shelf being displayed I've since talked to administration at metal Arch about it and I'm not satisfied with the response I got what's happening is we're taking away the parental rights of teaching our children what we need to our children in kindergarten and second grade cannot articulate the questions to help them understand what they had just read so Dan thank you for bringing that up I really appreciate all of your time in addition I do want to put a plug for the GT program second grade has an astronomical amount of gifted and talented children this is upping the numbers in Meadow Lark and Heather how our

133amazing resource is only there 16 hours we really need to put more supports in place at mear I would like to say I hear a big problem of bbsd and enrollment all I hear is enrollment enrollment enrollment is down and we're not we don't have enough funds we don't have any extra money for special things well guess what in Erie metalark is not declining an enrollment we're busting at the seams and I feel like we're getting the short end of the stick because of declining enrollment all over the district so special programs whatever it is there's other schools that we have resources to help with things and I think that the school board really needs to look at spending extra funds and money in Eerie communities where we are busting at the seams thank you

134for your consideration thank you that brings us to one hour for of public participation and I'm happy to announce that due to your cooperation no one has to wait uh to give their comments at the end of this board meeting um so our board our public participation has included for this evening on behalf of the board I would like to thank everyone who took the time to be here this evening to share your thoughts your perspectives opinion with us we do take these into consideration and we also do read all the emails that our public sends to us and I I respond to all those um at this point we will be moving on to the next item on our agenda which is board communication board members who would like to begin Kitty is there

135anything that you wanted to add since you're remote this evening um yes thank you I just spent the last few seconds trying to unmute myself um yeah so um first of all I would just like to thank everybody who came and spoke to us I I hear your passion um about all of the topics that you all came to um discuss so thank you for bringing those to us and I'm sorry I made some notes one thing I want to say is I am an expert in child sexual abuse and child sexual abuse prevention and the speaker who objected to a book didn't name the book so I'm not positive what book he was referring to but there is a book that was brought to our attention at our first meeting of this school year

136and the book was called gender queer and so of course I read the book because I'd like to see what it is people are objecting to and the only thing I saw that could be considered sexual abuse was a depiction of a pot Shard from ancient Greece or Rome that was created during a time when pedasi was considered acceptable now of course we don't consider that acceptable now um I would never condone anything that promotes sexual abuse but in my expert opinion this does not do that what the book did do and I I apologize if you're speaking of a different book but this book I'm speaking about has been um objected to what I did see in the book is how the author felt and I think knowing how people who are different from

137you experience the world and feel things is an important thing to know so I would never support getting rid of gender queer and that is really all I wanted to say um during um this time thank you Beth all right well as always I want to thank everyone who came out to speak tonight just like kitty said um your passion and commitment around all the topics we heard about tonight is truly noted so thank you for sharing that while we don't usually get involved in sight based decisions something I kind of consistently heard um throughout tonight's comments was a request for more intentional Community engagement around sloyd around some of the other topics so I'm looking forward to seeing how we can come together around the situation I and I know truly believe we can

138um this is going back a little ways but I kind of want to go back and linger a little longer on how much I enjoy tonight's student moment um I found their presentation just so inspiring and incredible and inclusivity certainly does matter and I'm really looking forward to getting that t-shirt I don't know who to look at but I hope it happens soon um thanks for coming out tonight and sharing with us and I guess finally on the note of board work I've had the opportunity to attend a few more teacher roundtables and um I'm always just struck by the themes that hear across our different schools and one of the themes I heard most recently in a round table was around teachers feeling kind of that disconnect between our assessments and our curriculum and

139um that's something that came up in our strategic review and so for me that was really um affirming that we're on the we're on the right track to try and get that work that work uh ahead of us and make it more an alignment so just want to share that from my most recent uh teacher Round Table Alex yeah I'd ALS excuse me I'd also like to um explain how much I appreciated all the input we got tonight and uh and the student um moment as well was very intense um and I'm always struck by how articulate our young people are in particular and super impressed and sometimes I regret sitting over here on the far right because I'm the one who will Weep the most near the camera um but uh I one of

140the things that came up in the sloyd discussion and I'd like to bring it up a to a higher level um is questions about who does participate in our enrichment activities and I've asked before for information on uh the demographic data of our students are in fee based programs but I think in any of our enrichment programs fee based or otherwise it's good to find out um if it's an equity issue and different people have access to it who's actually accessing it so I think that'd be useful information for us to gather and and reflect on and include in our community uh discussions when we engage on topics like that um I'd also like to say I had a uh good meeting intense but good with some of the Netherland Elementary School parents um a

141couple weeks back and uh was struck by sort of a sense of um who who can fix what and I think as we deal with the clien in enrollment one of the questions we're going to wrestle with as we talk to the communities and they're trying to figure out what to do differently in their schools is is who's responsible for coming up with the solutions and and if the solution involves more work and people are thinking about something like a a focus school or a strand who's that on and I and I think um for the parents in a small Mountain Community trying to figure out what to do uh it may be unrealistic to expect the community to come up with the solutions and that's where we need to think about our other Community

142Partners and how we can incorporate them into that process and also be um realistic about what what we're asking of of the parents um when their option is to leave or um deal with it as it is or do a ton of work to figure out how to make it different so I'm just a little sobered coming away from that discussion of who's who's up for which piece of that work and who are we expecting to do um the heavy lift lenia uh since last meeting Dr Anderson and I attended a meeting with the title 9 advisory Council which was very successful uh made some good progress with forward steps um looking at doing an assessment uh so I wanted to thank that title on line Council for their work that's it I will jump

143in here since our last meeting which I thought was just last week but time flies I was able to attend the DC meeting provide our board report there uh Dak is always a great thought partner and they were excited to hear about the work we did on our policies was able to also attend the Heatherwood community meeting which was well attended by the Heatherwood Community they had a lot of great questions addressed some concerns and we're generally appreciative of the next steps I also wanted to notify the board that if those of us that are parents and those of us that are not there was a parent survey that I went out I received it today and it did indeed again as the very last question have a question about calendar preferences and so it'll

144be great to see if those change and deviate from your years past or of that continues to hold as we look at our calendar but that has indeed come out I know some folks in the community have said that they've never received it I want you to know that that survey has been sent out and that that question has been included that is all I have for my public comment this evening seeing as there are no other items to address from board members we will be moving on to our next item on the agenda this evening which is the information section we have two information it this evening the first is a legislative update Rob would you like to start thank you board president Raj Paul members of the board um I think things are

145cooking down at the capital I know that we've got I'm I'm trying to pull up our the bills that we are tracking currently um give me one moment I will say that um since the last time we've met I did spend a Friday morning slash almost afternoon down at the capital had a chance to engage with the speaker I want to thank her for giving many of the superintendents on the Front Range some time to talk about some of the recommendations from the school Finance task force that she had shared I thought some some positive information with us in the sense that there doesn't look like there's going to be any changes directly next year I think it's unclear whether or not there's going to be changes proposed for the year afterwards I will say

146that um if you were to look at the school Finance task force recommend ations that the back is an appendix with a lot of dollar signs going to a lot of districts and some dollar signs coming away from districts and for anybody in our community who may um have taken a look at that or for folks on the board I would say that there is no money to do any of that so as we think about adopting and recommending task force recommendations I think the things that I will be paying attention to our community should be paying attention to is if there's no new money and even with new money uh um we are one of a handful of districts that would lose significant amounts of dollars how is that going to impact the Boulder

147Valley School District right and board members you'll you'll see um and you're seeing this pick up in in the energy around public comment right where um folks are feeling the pinch of declining enrollment and uh just a reminder to our community 100 students about a million dollar all right for every hundred students who don't come here it's about a million dollar and um and with averaging that the impacts of that get even more severe over the fiveyear term so um I would say that school Finance still top of mind and Nicole I'll look up those other bills I don't know if you have those P pulled up um other things that we're watching uh but session is definitely um in session and we're paying attention there aren't really very many significant changes to the bill

148since we we last received an update on those with the exception of Senate Bill 88 which is something that we're opposing around transparency data and Charter Schools we received a note tonight saying that there have been lots of amendments proposed for that one and being worked through so we might see some changes in that piece of legislation but everything else seems to be status quo at this time so I don't really have much to add Rob our next information item this even or board members you have any questions on those legislative updates no seeing as there is no further questions I'd like to move on to our next item information item this evening which is a recommendation for dismissal board members Kathleen do you have anything you would like to D great board members there

149was a lot of public comment this evening and I was wondering if we needed a comfort break yes so I would like to call a 10-minute Comfort Break um for the board e calling this meeting back to order the next item on our agenda for this evening is action items consent grouping 8.1 Personnel items 8.2 approval of minutes February 27th 2024 regular meeting 8.3 approval of contract Amendment for HH HSS Inc for the installation of surveillance cameras 8.4 purchase of casting Hardware 8.5 contract for construction needs at New Vista High School 8.6 Contracting for furniture Furnishings fixtures and equipment at New Vista High School 8.7 contract for the purchase of new school buses 8.8 resolution 24-9 right of way for Campus Drive improvements 8.9 Grant Career and college connections concurrent enrollment expansion color Department of

150Education 8.10 Grant Community Schools driver education Transportation safety Foundation are there any items board members like to pull from consent grouping hearing none we need a motion to approve the remaining items before we begin discussion move by Beth seconded by Jorge board members is there any discussion on consent grouping Kitty I just have one short thing to say and I and it is I have never seen a Personnel report this short in the entire time I've been on the board anyone else I had two comments one as a parent of a Southern Hills middle schooler I wanted to welcome Melinda Murphy to bvsd and the Southern Hills Community and take that a little bit of opportunity second I wanted to bring up the item on the cameras I want to thank our community for the

151overwhelming support and for the information that they provided on whether or not to Pur with the cameras at the middle school level and that process felt very thorough and Equitable um since installing cameras in our high schools I also want to point out that we have seen a drop in discipline reports and improved investigation processes and outcomes so I'm excited for these cameras to be installed I believe over the summer break in our middle schools so I just wanted to point that out to the board and the [Music] community anything else board members before we move on okay Laura could you please call the RO on the consent grouping items Chavez yes medler yes mnik yes Quin Lin AA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes hunger yes motion passes moving now to the action items

152on our agenda I should say policy action items on our agenda our first action item will be board policy JH student absences and excuses and jhr do we have a motion I'll move by Beth seconded by Alex is there discussion on this policy Alex yeah uh I wanted to include a sentence um and I'm not sure where I defer to Kathleen on on where it belongs but I wanted to say something about that this would be all done in alignment with IEPs 504 plans and other um plans for student that would be controlling and the the reason for that for me is thinking about many like 504 plans will include accommodations that give people more time to get something done and so if a kid's out sick for a week and is literally sick and

153can't do the work for a week and they have two days to get their work done then we'd be basically violating their 504 plan so I'd want to make sure that that's clear and no one looking at the attendance policy would would think that that was a question sorry I'm trying to pull up the Pauls Dr Anderson if if what um Alex is proposing the board is in agreement with I think probably under notification and documentation uh there would be an opportunity um maybe in that second paragraph to to make that notice that um that that he had suggested and I guess the qu then I also have a question for Kathleen if that isn't if that sentence is not in the policy then um is is there somewhere else that we have some something

154that would would lead parents to let them know that they have those rights so the board's policies on students with disabilities so to the IEP in Section 504 reference specifically let me try and manage my mic here okay um certainly we would be violating federal law if students weren't provided with extended time when they're returning from an absence and they have the right to make up work so it's absolutely a right that clearly exists irrespective of whether it's in policy I think uh I thought about this a few different ways I think all of our policies have to be implemented in such a way that they are equitably applied to our students and they consider all of their plans I will say and I think Robin Fernandez may have even more thoughts on this this

155particular policy is one that I do expect our teachers will keep handy and they will look at with some frequency which isn't necessarily true of every policy so I could go either way on it but I do think if it's something that our teachers are going to reference frequently it may in fact be helpful to have a simple sentence about this that just cues it for people to remember as they are implementing it I and if I could go just a step further I was originally thinking maybe it would go in the interventions section I spoke with board member medler for just a moment at the break and I think if the intent is to say hey don't forget where while you're following this your kids that have these individualized plans then there could be

156a sentence added either as a standalone sentence above the definition so in the early section of the policy or it could just be attached to that second paragraph that could say this policy shall be implemented in coordination with students individualized plans such as iep's Section 504 plans Advanced learning plans that could have implications in this way also and student support plans it might be a good way to just help our teachers remember the very complicated work that they already know that they do but as a way to remind them how to bring those pieces together corge just just a little clarification because the two-day it policy is about notices for why the absence happened and then under the work it talks about equal time for the number of days Miss to make a for missed

157work but I do like the idea of the statement maybe more generally about the ways in which these policies fit within the broader IEP and 54 discussion so maybe at the very top that's supposed to specifically within the document addressing missed work yeah it really does I think have the most obvious application to miss work but probably throughout the policy including when we're developing intervention plans for children who are struggling with attendance we need to do that work in conjunction with the students IEP team or Section 504 team so that's why I I could support that more General reference coming earlier in the policy and then applying throughout the policy and I was going to add that under missed work the bullet item three states that individual teachers may be asked by Administration or Grant

158extra time for makeup and hardship cases in special circumstances and I had just considered that a student's learning plan would be one of those special circumstances that would allow for consideration of Extended Learning time so whether it's reiterated there again or to Kathleen your point in the interventions category I think a simple sentence that is inclusive of all the different types of learning plans that our students have I would be comfortable with that and I know we will need to make a motion to approve with that language so we need to figure that out before we get too far down the road Kitty okay can you hear me yes okay good um so this brings up for me a question of are there other places in policy where if we weren't clear that a student's

159plan whatever plan they have um suedes any policies that um that we should have some kind of disclaimer in a number of places because I I think Alex point is well taken that just because we know it doesn't mean we shouldn't make it really obvious um and especially for parents Alex yeah I I really appreciate that and I I don't know how to be inclusive of all the other plans that might exist I I would propose an amendment that is to instruct Council to have the right language that's inclusive of the appropriate plans um and place it where we decide I would also say an important part of these plans at least as a parent for me is how much uh is put on the CH the student to advocate for themselves and so that

160there'd be a situation where they'd be dealing with the teacher face to face trying to figure it out and it would be helpful if to point if the teacher's going to reference the policy that that policy include the language so I appreciate people's consideration Kitty um but I was talking about more than just this particular policy just wondering is there anywhere else in any our policies and is there anywhere else maybe on the website where we would just make it really clear that a students individual plan will supersede any restrictions in policies I mean I don't know if I mean obviously I don't know the answer to it otherwise I wouldn't have asked it but it's worth thinking about now that Alex has brought it up Dr Anderson thanks for uh thanks for that point

161Kitty um and and I don't I don't have the answer to that um either I would say that I don't have any examples of where policies have been misinterpreted in that way that has come to my attention I think to to Kathleen's point you know this is a pretty significant change to a policy of some longstanding practices that will have to adjust based on this board's change of this policy so to the extent that we're explicit so there's just no question concern and um you know the realities of how policies get implemented over time uh it may I think I just think it would be helpful to be incredibly explicit and so to the extent that it sounds like Alex has made a Motion sounds like we don't know okay um just just we would

162just need to know where to put it and then we'll do that and then you could approve it so before we make we made a motion to approve the item and then we discuss now we have a potential edit so we'll need to have a a different motion for this proposed language and be I don't know if we want if somebody wants to provide that language or if using the C language that Kathleen recommended um I have a a question it might be a point of order I have another small technical uh fix I would suggest so I don't know if that should be a second one or we'd put them both so that we'd direct with one motion to do both um the second one for me is we have a new sentence we're

163including that says students who are excused from attendance shall not be on campus during excused periods and um I don't know if you're in Kaiser or not but they do tons of remote appointments nowadays um and I think we're doing remote counseling and stuff too so I would hate for students who are doing one of those appointments to have to go off- campus to go make their Zoom call with their doctor so um I'm not sure how to change that but I could see conflict coming up as we increasingly have remote Medical Care would that maybe be covered under the the medical appointment piece I guess I don't really assume somebody's going to be having and maybe I'm wrong one of those types of visits in the middle of the commons area where I think

164is where this is getting out students loitering in the Commons area particularly at our high schools during the day and skipping skipping out on certain periods would would the medical visit one cover that if it was an actual medical visit Kathleen it may so we do have jcda which is our uh policy for students who are receiving medically necessary treatment at school or during the school day the task force really talked a lot about this language and it was pointed out to me that it was emitted so it was added and we did try to highlight that for the board the point being that if a student is called in so we've removed the single period absence documentation but particularly at the secondary level there's a fair amount of concern about students being excused from

165a period so they can miss a test that they may feel unprepared to take and then remaining on campus and not uh not being where they need to be and various other concerns so I think that we could address this this could potentially wind up being a complicated motion but we could I do understand the intent there and I think we could probably come up with language to balance it that would need to say unless the student has received explicit administrative permission right if you're excused from a class and you're not going to be in class could you be in a place that the administration designated yes should you be excused from class and then wandering the hallways and not in some way within a permitted activity would be the concern I'm looking over at

166Robin Fernandez due to her deep investment in this topic you can come up Robin and my other question is around enforcing of that and how do you how do you enforce that uh with are you I suppose you'd have to ask students are they in common areas for an excused medical purpose or not yeah so that is a great question and thank you Kathleen for summarizing the conversation that did occur at the task force because really the intention is to make sure that we are not supporting what is essentially sanction ditching as Kathleen said that if a student perhaps feels unprepared for a test or um might want to study during for example period three for a test that could occur later in the day wanting to make sure that we are not supporting uh

167impact on one class in terms of learning in favor of another and so in my experience if a a child is or a student is going to engage in something as you say a medical appointment a counseling appointment they would need a separate space that would be an office space maybe a small group space that would be appropriate to maintain the confidentiality that a student would need and therefore they would need the collaboration of a teacher a special service provider a counselor administrative to do administrator to do so and then they could collaborate on making sure that that absence is appropriately excused so that's a great Point thank you this goes back to Robin so do you feel like we need the additional language there or do you think feel like the language we have

168is adequately addresses Alex's concern in my opinion I think our current language does address the concern that those would be inclusive of special special circumstances of which that would be one one example board members any other discussion on this policy item that issue policy on the policy General discussion before we move forward on a motion since we have to amend that motion anyway Jason um no no real deep comment here I just wanted to thank you for the language you added uh under the missed work section I think it really um changes the tone of that policy to reflect the discussion we had um about restorative practices um and then equ kind of equitably enforced and so thank you for for doing that I feel like this um is kind of where we which is

169you know reflects our discussion so appreciate that thank you I was going to share a similar note of gratitude and appreciation for our community and our team for creating policy updates that really are much more restorative and student centered in nature particularly limiting the academic penalties for missed work and bringing that up to no more than 75% if for unexcused absences for allowing single period absences and making it less arduous for students to provide documentation for those excus absences I also really want to thank Kathy gibart for prioritizing this as a board issue some time back I know she was sad to miss out on this work but it really will have a positive impact on our schools and our bbsd community so I just want to add that as well Jason uh just actually

170just because Nicole mentioned it you know the new language says reduced credit to 75% and then you said no more than 7 and so I was uh I know we had kind of a lot of conversation around that but it is like this this policy kind of sets it at at 75% um but I think there like I don't know the intent should it be no more than 75% or up two sorry I know I just confused it more but I think that 2 75% okay yeah it says teachers May reduce credit to 75% and then it clarifies if a student scor 80 points on 100 Point assessment the teacher could reduce that by 25% so the student could have a final score of 60 points on that assignment that language is tricky which is

171another reason why I think this policy will be readily available to our staff as roll it occurs I do have question on that you know sometimes it does take time for our policies to become fully implemented and there are inevitably some bumps along the road do we have a process laid out or a way for folks to acknowledge when the system when it if this is not working as intended Dr Anderson yeah you know typically you know with the change in board policy we'll we'll communicate that to our leaders who in turn we'll communicate that to our our teachers we'll communicate that through the download um which is a weekly communication and I think that as as instances come up where there may be inadvertent um non-adherence to our policy that will'll interject is appropriate

172um and uh the policy will be clear and uh you know I think that to the extent that uh our community becomes aware of the policy I think that that'll happen pretty quickly thanks any other discussion board members Alex um can I offer a motion that um we direct Council to insert a sentence that they could uh revise as needed but that would be to the um something to the effect of quote implementation of this policy shall align with students iep's 504 plans and other plans as appropriate but include the other plans um after thinking about them motion made by Alex seconded by lania any discussion on that motion Laura can you please call the rooll this is to vote to amend the policy with Alex's sentence amend the motion to amend the motion vot

173to amend the motion unless they're going to say it's a friendly okay this is a motion to amend the motion okay Chavez yes medler yes nnick yes Quinn Lena yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes hunger yes motion passes now I need a motion to approve the policy as amended move by Beth seconded by Jorge Chavez yes medler yes NIS ni yes Quin L NOA yes Raj Paul yes Sergeant yes anger yes motion passes and that fellow board members is a great exercise of Robert's Rules of Order the next item on our agenda this evening is future agenda requests board members this is the time in our meeting when we can bring up items that we would like to include at our next board priorization meeting that have not already been previously discussed or added are

174there any items we haven't talked about the board members would like to add looks like there are none we will move on to the final item on our agenda this evening which is the closing of our regular business for the evening members do I have a motion to adjourn move byenia seconded by Jason thank you for your work this evening board members I wish you all a wonderful week ahead we are [Music] adjourned