001Yes, everyone can finish what they have in their hands, finish their conversations, and find a seat. We would love to welcome you this evening. It's a very important night for the School District of our community. Those of you I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Anderson. I'm a teacher. I have microphones here. I'm not that important, but it's a bittersweet night. We're here to celebrate our four new board members, but also to thank the four board members who are leaving tonight. First item on our agenda is to invite the departing members to share some remarks, to say thank you, and then I'll give some remarks. We'll give out some gifts, and I know our business meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. Is that correct, board members? I don't know if you'd like to
002speak in a particular order. Okay, Lisa, we can start with you. Okay, who's first? Lisa, thank you very much. It's a shame. I was hoping to listen to the others and steal the best lines they had to say. I'm sad to be leaving today, but grateful for all the things we were able to accomplish over the past few years. But when I think about what I think about most tonight, it's not so much the accomplishments, but The people who have been part of these achievements, it's been incredible working with you. I think the community doesn't fully understand everything you do or how all the achievements we've had in the last few years have been completely due to your support, your leadership, and the work you've done, and everyone I'm forgetting who makes it possible. Richard,
003it's been an incredible pleasure to work with you. I don't know what else to say. I don't know how I would have done it. I'm not going to miss being with you, but Kathy, many times we haven't agreed, but I think that's been very good for the council and for the district, and I've enjoyed my time with you. I'm also very grateful for everyone else, all the people who came. And the last thing I'd like to say is to acknowledge two people in that room who, without their support, I wouldn't have been able to make it through these four years. Two people who have been in this building, in the back of every council meeting, coming to visits on the days my children couldn't be here. They were three and six years old when we
004started this, and now they're confident second and fourth graders. They are ready to conquer the world. I am very grateful for everything I have been able to do with you and for you. Thank you very much. Good night everyone. Eight years have flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were sworn in in the other room to serve, but as I said, time has flown. And the same as Elisa said, especially working with such an excellent person as Elisa, who I think is probably the most equity-minded person in the state of Colorado, he and his team, all the people Elisa mentioned, with a mindset centered around equity. I appreciated all their presentations, whether informative or study sessions. They had diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind. And that made it easier for me to continue serving,
005working on that council, because I knew that this district, under his leadership, was serving our children who [Music] and who historically have not been able to achieve certain things. His mindset and the strategic plans he put in place, which we adopted, had all the elements to ensure that all the children in the Boulder School District received the attention they needed to achieve their academic goals. And Elisa, for you, it was a delight. Sitting next to me at the council table, your support, especially when we talked about equity, diversity, and inclusion, your voice was strong and I really appreciated it. St. Tom's chair after she left, and F, president, and your work around the RFs reminded me of the breakfast program meetings and those really nice things, and I was thinking, wait, we need to talk
006about the recess program and the milk program, and you told me, and many schools are already doing that. Thank you so much for your advocacy on that. I don't know what to say about you because of all of them, but your work at this table, on this council, has been incredible, and you follow in the same footsteps as China, who, wherever she sits, put points. And you follow in the footsteps of Sam, who has already left the leadership there in terms of really pushing forward the equity work that is being done here. And Laura, without your support, none of this would have happened. You are incredible. You keep us straight in everything we have to do, and you have that special talent to be able to connect with all of us. This is such an
007amazing person here, Amila. without her, making sure all the technical stuff, the microphones, were working... We could have. Thank you for your work. And thank you all for your support of the Education Council and for the equity work that we haven't finished yet here in the Boldar district. I also have someone I want to thank. I almost forgot the benefit we have, or had, of sitting at the Council table. It gave us a scene. Sometimes it was good, sometimes not. And sometimes, when it was so good, I would go home and have a delicious dinner waiting for me there. Thank you so much for all the support you've given me. I'm going to keep this short. As you know, I don't like to talk about myself in front of everyone. I prefer to be behind
008the scenes talking about other things. As I said in our last meeting, we have the pleasure of working with the best source in the State of Colorado, and being part of CASE confirms that this is true, and we should all feel very grateful that this is the case. We have overcome many things these last four years. It has been four long years. I am grateful that the doctor reminded me of this. One of the best things about being on the Council is being able to go to graduations, but my favorite memory is being at the The platform when my son graduated and watching all his friends walk by, Dr. Ge, made me very emotional. And I still am. I'm grateful for that moment that Dr. Anderson took pictures, and the following year I was able
009to take pictures of Dr. Anderson when his son graduated. I know this is one of my most cherished memories. And to the members of the Council, I already told you how much I appreciate you. My husband and my mom are here, and they have always supported me in everything I do, so I'll leave it at that and wish the new Council all the best. Thank you all so much for being here. I know everyone in this room means something special to someone. It means a lot that you are here. I don't have much to say, but I wrote a few things down because I was about to get emotional. Thank you to Rob. He is an excellent superintendent. He knows how to bring us together, how to keep us all connected. Thank you to Ch
010for helping us hire Rob because she led that search, and we couldn't have had a better superintendent because Rob has all the judgment. And thank you for allowing us to have him. He lends us a lot of respect. Thanks to my family, I have three of my children. Now you don't have to tell me I have something in my teeth or hair during the meeting. It keeps me looking presentable during the Council meetings. I'm going to read a little bit of what's on. These days are full of many emotions. I know you've seen them; it's a pleasure. But there is sadness as I have to say goodbye. Although I know we will meet again, it has been the honor of my life to work with you. We started as strangers, except for Richard, but I
011didn't know the rest. We all came together for the development of the district under his leadership. There is much to say about the quality of you and what you hold in your hearts as right. And as L said, sometimes we had differences, but we had the needs of the district in front of us. Each of you made this incredible journey, and I have confidence that with the staff we have, the talents of the new council, and the leadership of the superintendent, you will overcome the challenges that arise. I don't know what they will be, but I know they will be challenges and will keep us on our toes. Maybe we had a pandemic, we had to hire someone, but through all its challenges, we have overcome them. Your dedication to our community, Public Education, and
012every student will help us close the academic and educational gaps and respect the dignity of our students and staff. And what can I say about Amel and Laura? You make everything better. You take care of us. You are behind the screen, behind the curtain, making everything work. I don't know where you come from. You arrive with 10 microphones, you make sure we get things done. You stay late, you arrive early, you take care of us so much. I am so grateful to you. I hope our paths continue to cross, and I don't even know what to say. You have gone through everything for us. Thank you for your kindness, dedication, your generosity. I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for everything, and thank you all for being here. I wish the new
013board all the best. I don't know what challenges they will face, but I am confident that they will face them in the best way under the leadership of our superintendent. So I am going to try to give some comments about those incredible leaders, Richard, to share with everyone just a small part of what your leadership has meant to this District. 30,000 students, their parents, our community, their leadership has resulted in better opportunities for students at all levels, less dysfunction in subgroups of our students, with better policies, more equity, they have changed or touched more than 100 policies, they established an equity committee, they established the land recognition that is now read at each of our meetings, they made the academic honors society more accessible, they increased transparency in our community, establishing metrics, talking about the
014things that are going well and also about the challenges that still exist, and we don't hide from those challenges, we step forward to talk about them, they were able to approve more equity funding with $15 million in our schools, they helped support and lead a complete change in our lowest-performing schools, and talking with Sam, that was one of the things we were going to focus on, that Sanchez couldn't be a low-performing school and it isn't anymore, the governor has been recognized as one of the highest- performing schools, all those schools have completely changed because of their leadership, we have better centers, I was talking to someone earlier, I was talking With Angelica, and she hadn't been to the new administrative building, they remember the lime green council room where we met. The board told us
015to go out into the community and supported us with $350 million in resources. Through their leadership, we were able to solve problems before they arose, for example, putting air conditioning in our buildings. And now I see how the other districts around us are closing their schools during the summer because they can't—they don't have air conditioning. We have a new school, New Vesta High School. They didn't just want to improve the school; they said, 'Let's stand up and let's do it right, and it's going to be an incredible center.' They have been able to support better academic programs. Now more than ever, there are more students having access to AC college credits. These technical certificates helped us push our program to ensure we were giving opportunities to students, and they are being taken now more than
016before. They help us improve our curriculum by adopting a Foundation reading, writing, and math curriculum. They supported social-emotional well-being, provided more counselors, more mental health support, and better support for students in education. Special students are learning English, ensuring we are doing our best by implementing co-teaching models and implementing 80-90 improvements after an audit was done for our students. I don't know if you remember when high school students had to go to school at 7 in the morning. We were talking about difficult decisions with the leadership of this council, Kathy Richard. With you, we were able to put something in place that people don't take into account, but I assure you it is making a difference. More recently, you have pushed us to talk about the difficulty of low enrollment. You helped to show up and
017have put the challenges front and center, and we haven't hidden from these challenges. We are facing them head-on. In addition to all those things, you helped lead this community through three terrible tragedies that this community has had to face, including the K. Marshall School fire and the pandemic. The decisions you made, your leadership, helped the community cope. Personally, I will be very grateful to all of you. You have taught me so much as a leader. I was speaking with my beautiful wife earlier, and today, when I... I came here in 2018. I certainly wasn't the leader I am now. So thank you for coaching me, teaching me, challenging me, guiding me, and supporting me. I will always be grateful to all of you. Another round of applause for our amazing board members who are coming
018forward. We have gifts that we would love to present, and Laura is going to do the presentation. When I call on her, do you want the gifts? I have a microphone over there. Thank you, Chini. Let's start with Lisa. I think you should stand here. She's going to carry the gift. Let's stand here. This is a crystal plaque acknowledging her four years of dedicated service to the Bolder Valley School District. Richard, acknowledging her eight years of dedicated service to the students of the Bolder Valley School District. And Cath, acknowledging her four years of service to the students of the Bolder Valley School District. And this plaque is for her in recognition of her ten years as president of the Bolder Valley School District Board. We have one more thing for you. If you can come
019back, this is Representative John, Representative to Congress. Thank you, Mrs. Gebhard, for your service as president of the school board. The Bolder Valley Board has had a great impact on our community, and I am proud to represent this community. Thank you for being a positive light for the State of Colorado. As a leader in the Bolder Valley and throughout the state, you have taken tangible steps to improve the lives of future generations of students. Thank you for serving our community and for your exceptional leadership. Your service and advocacy as Board President in our community have been excellent, and we wish you all the best. Thank you for your service. As we conclude the program celebrating the outgoing board members, we have much to celebrate because we have four new members for our community district. Today
020they will be taking their oaths of office. I cannot begin with that until I finish speaking and call the meeting to order. I hope you will stay. If you cannot, thank you very much for being here, for your support of our board, the schools, and the entire School District. Thank you for being here. Now we will transition to our board meeting. I would like to call the meeting to order. Bolder Valley School District Board meeting. May I call the roll? Garcia, present, present, but not for much longer. Present, Rul, present. s present present Thank you. We have an item of business tonight, which is to recognize these new members. I have acknowledged that we have received the vote count, and I want to take a resolution to adopt the election results. It is available for
021the meeting; you don't have to read it. Once it is communicated that the vote count has been certified, the District Director for District A, Jason Anger, 4 years; District C, Alex Mler, 4 years; District C, Cueda Line, 4 years; and District G Director, Jorge Chavez, 4 years. There is an emotion, and a second is Garcia. Yes, yes, yes. Raj Paul, yes, yes, yes. Mar, yes, the motion passes. So, the next step is the oath. Everyone stays there. We are going to take the oath. We are going to have the election. We are going to have the election for the new president, and then the new president will come forward. We can do it however you want, while the president can do what she wants. I think, Kathleen. Once the oath is taken, you will take
022your seats. I think you will come in together and sit in the front row. Once you take your oath... Until the election of the new president, we're going to start with Jason Anger, if you can hear me. Okay, listening to all that, when I got here, I wanted my son to attend the Bolder Valley School District. So, raise your right hand and speak loudly into the microphone. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of Principal of the Bolder Valley School District RE2 in Bolder, Bromfield, and Gilpen counties as required by law, and will uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and the laws enacted pursuant thereto. You have time to sign. You may come forward to affirm. Congratulations. I
023have to say one more thing. I heard that Member Swey Mar wanted to name the house after her. I tried that with my son. He still calls me Mom. Alex Medler, come forward. Raise your right hand. I, Alex Medler, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of Principal of the Bolder Valley School District RE2 in Bolder, Bronfield, and Gilpen counties as required by law, and will uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and the laws enacted pursuant thereto. Please sign this. I want to congratulate you. Congratulations. Len. Excuse me, I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of Principal of the Bolder Valley School District RE2 in the counties of Boulder, Bromfield,
024and Gilpen as required by law, and will uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and the laws enacted pursuant thereto. Please come forward to sign, Mr. Chávez. Mr. Chávez, raise your right hand. Are you ready, Raael? I am very pleased that you are here. Raise your right hand. I, Jorge Chávez, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of Principal of the Bolder Valley School District RE2 in the counties of Boulder, Bromfield, and Gilpen as required by law, and will uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and the laws enacted pursuant thereto. Congratulations. The next business matter is the president's lesson. I am willing to receive applications. Some cannot automine this. One second, each
025candidate has the opportunity to make a brief presentation in support of their candidacy. Once, I don't know if there's only one nomination, and we can do it by voice vote. If there's more than one nomination, we'll have a secret ballot. I'll open the time for nominations. I'll nominate myself. Anyone else want to nominate? I nominate... Are there any other nominations? If only for president, for the moment, let's go to time. First, K, so you can make your presentation. I 'm the veteran of the Council, but I have to say how important experience is. When I first joined the Council, there was a lot to learn. I learned it in a couple of years. I said, "Ah, I understand this," but then I realized I had more to learn, and a crisis... and then I had
026even more to learn, and I think the Council needs my leadership. We have very important work coming up regarding the decline in enrollment. Excuse me, I have a difficult question, and what we're going to do about it is... as the only person with more than two years of experience, I believe I would be the best option for president. Thank you. Now, thank you for that nomination. I've only served two years in this position. I've been the auditor and the board member, and also... The responsibility committee has the power to bring different perspectives and ideas. It's going to say what K said, a very important point in what we face as challenges like distribution. In terms of enrollment, I've tried in my time here to be punctual, to be prepared, to be willing to listen to
027community members, to council members. And I think that's very important. Elected president of the board or council, I'm going to bring a point of view that really elevates all the members of this council, finds a role for each person where they feel valued and heard both on the council and in the community. It's my leadership style: shared leadership. And I hope this will reach the people concerned at the community, county, and state levels. And this is going to be very important. Well, in the end, I think my experience, my communication and organizational experience, is going to be essential in this. And thank you for your consideration. Now, Laora, you have the slips of paper. Then, after Jenes does her vote, the oral committee will count them and let us know. The new president is Nicole
028Rash. Cathy went with my slip of paper. What I have to say is: the next vote is for your president's nomination. Nominations were requested and it will be the same method. Unless there is only one candidate, then the board will be able to vote by roll call in the absence of objection. There is an autonomous nomination. I nominate... and since there are no other nominations, we will still have a secret ballot. We are going to vote by roll call. You just have to vote and I'm going to look at my roll call sheet. Very good. Chávez, yes. Mler, yes. Nesn, yes. Qu, aa, yes. Rash, yes. Anger, yes, thank you. Congratulations. You can't stay in your seats now. We are going to continue with the motion to nominate a treasurer. The treasurer is a member
029of the board. The assistant is usually a staff member. Votes are taken by roll call. There is a motion for treasurer. I would like to nominate Alex Mler for treasurer. There is a second... me, second... me, second... by B. Laura, can you take the roll? Chávez, yes. Mler, yes. Nesn, yes. A Enor, yes. Anger, congratulations. Then a motion or a second motion must be requested for the appointment of a secretary. The vote will be by roll call. Friends, I would like to nominate... and me I would like to be second. Chávez, Mler, yes. Paul, yes. Anger, yes. Pass, thank you. Well, now we have resolution number 2328, which appoints board officers and related positions. Basically, it says what this resolution says. It's 3.05 on the agenda and it deals with the state requirements we have
030for authorized signatures for the treasurer when it has been needed. It's resolution number 23. Or we need a motion and a second one to take action. It has been moved by Alex, second by Lia. I'm trying to find the order of names. Subject: Chávez, yes. Mler, yes. Lia, yes. Rash, yes. Anger, yes. The emotion passes. Next order. Or is that each member has to form an affidavit about the knowledge and compliance with the rules of the executive sessions? There, I have to read it. No, the council doesn't have to take any action on that. Just something we have to do to finalize. Okay. And lastly, and I know we've done a lot, the board members are going to have their certificates, their oaths, and their final steps so that they are installed, and finally the
031affidavit. Knowledge and compliance with the official nature of the executive sessions. And these will be notarized. We can do that after the session is adjourned. That's the last business for this afternoon. I just want these prepared remarks. As a new member of the Council, we have a lot of work ahead of us. One of the most important things we're going to do together is great things, and I look forward to working with you all. With that, this session is adjourned.