Transcript

0:13:02I'd like to call the order on this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, October 28th, 2025. Board members may attend and participate in board meetings remotely in accordance with BBSC policy, BMEA, and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez, here. Medler Nisnik Quinnland Aea here Raj Paul here Sergeant here Anger here thank you like to ask everybody to turn their attention for to the screens for our land acknowledgement this evening The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute, Puebloin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nation. ations historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time immemorial. We acknowledge the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government.

0:14:42BBSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples past and present and their dignified nations and cultures who care for this land with strength and resilience. BBSD recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of many nations that carried their oral traditions into the present. It is BBSD's responsibility to educate ourselves, our community, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people, and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together. I'd like to remind everyone that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Thank you so much for joining us here today evening.

0:15:52We're glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Jason, seconded by Lenia. Laura, can you please call the role Chavez? Yes. Quinn Aea, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Sergeant, yes. Anger. Yes. Motion passes. Next, I'm incredibly excited to ha hand the meeting over to Dr. Anderson, who is going to introduce our student moment for this evening. Thank you, Board President Rajpal. Board members, uh, a couple weeks ago, BBSD's first all female flag football team's inaugural season came to an end. While of course the team had visions of making it all the way to the championship game, the prospect of a team, let alone a playoff birth, was unimaginable unimaginable only one year ago. You see, BBSC opted against fielding a team initially when CHSA, the Colorado High School activities association, first sanctioned the sport in the 2425 school year in order to assess the student interest and work through the funding and logistics. The plan was for the sport to be considered by the district's athletic review committee during the normal two-year process.

0:17:20Student athletes are here tonight would not take no for an answer. They're seniors and wanted to play this fall. So undon undaunted, they worked together to gather the names of girls across the district who wanted to play the sport. And with a surge of support, they succeeded and the team was launched over the summer. Very, very exciting. This video captured by Monarch's TV program KYT shows them at practice. And tonight, we're excited to hear from the girls about their experience this inaugural year. Uh ladies, I'm so proud of all you've accomplished and for advocating for something that I think is a really just great thing um great opportunity for the students uh in BBSD. So, with that, I'm going to hand it over to our flag football student athletes. Hi, thank you for having us. My name is Avery Kennedy. I'm a senior at Monarch and I got to be a wide receiver and a safety for the team.

0:18:11Hello, my name is Elliot Shen. I attend Monarch High School as a senior and I was a rusher and a inside linebacker. My name's Addie. I'm a senior at Centurus and I was a linebacker and rusher as well. Um, we just want to thank Randy for giving us the opportunity to come out here. He came to our practice a few weeks ago and interviewed us um and wrote an article about our team. Um, and just kind of got the world out there that we were going to playoffs and how much this team really means to all of us. Um, and just kind of the background and history of how we got this team going and what we did. A lot of the girls in our in every single team had no idea what they were getting into. In the beginning of the season, we got an email and we saw an Instagram post and we just went on the field and started playing and pulling flags. A lot of the girls had to drop their commitments that they've made, sports, activities, extracurriculars, everything just so that they could be a part of a team that they had no clue what was happening. Some of us didn't even know where the line of scrimmage was, didn't know how to pull a flag,

0:19:05didn't know how to throw a ball, and our coaches love to bring that up. But our girls have made it a true risk to give up other accomplishments and teams and memories that they have could have made to play in a team that they didn't even know how to participate in. So, growing up, I had always loved football and I'd watch it with my dad and brother, but I always kind of knew it wouldn't be a possibility to play because it's not really a girl sport. But, it wasn't until last year when me and my friend Abby Aloof, who couldn't make it tonight, decided that we wanted to make that change. We had seen other schools such as Arvvada West and other schools having really successful flag football teams. So, we're like, why don't we bring that up? So, we brought it up to our athletic director, Eric Gustoson, and we had, I think, two meetings with him before he was kind of like, yeah, it's most likely not going to happen. It runs on a two-year system.

0:19:53if you don't get in within the two years. We were on an off year this year, so we couldn't get into the league. So, he was like, "Maybe next year, like we can start a club if you guys want." But we weren't going to take that for an answer. So, we reached out to Mr. Waterman from the district. And he agreed to meet with us and we met with a few parents. We created an interest list. We got names all the way down to third graders because a big fear was that we wouldn't have enough player interest and enough like to make it last. So, we did all the steps and we had a lot of meetings, but it was still just constantly being told like no, no. So then finally we took it to the daily camera and they decided to write an article about it and then I think that kind of got the community more involved and more passionate about it and I think that was a big part of the push that made it happen. So it was super cool to see that. And then we started stuff in the beginning of summer. We interviewed and we decided to select coach Colin Hart for us because he just came in. He had so much energy, so much passion. He

0:20:43came in, he had like a five-year plan of all the things he wants to accomplish and we just decided that that was our best option and I couldn't be any more proud to see how we took that initiative to get the team started. Yeah. So, we got um like we said earlier to playoffs in our inaugural season. We got a buy the first round, we made it to the second round, which we lost, but it was insane that we even got to playoffs. Our record was um 82 for the season, which is crazy thinking that we didn't even know um that we would have a team like as of like seven months ago. we didn't think this would even be a thing. Um, so we got to playoffs and since we did actually so much in our inaugural season, we taught so many girls even how to play football. Um, and now, um, since we even brought the district completely together because it was a district team.

0:21:25So we had people from Monarch Broomfield, we had people from where else? Eerie, Fairview, Boulder, all sorts of different places. And especially Monarch and Centurus. Um since those teams are um those schools are rivals um it was kind of a learning curve for the Monarch and Centur girls. It was a very real thing. Like we laugh at our rivalry all the time, but it actually is a real thing. Um and so we got to that team um and we got on the field the first time like at practice and we were like oh go yolts but we didn't we secretly were like scubs. Um but we honestly we really had to persevere through either not knowing everybody on the team, not having the same schedules, not knowing the teachers. Um, and we really persevered through that through our leadership skills through either DECA or FPLA or National Honors Society. Um, by using our education also in our schools that were different than the other schools.

0:22:13And then we got to share relationships and build honestly a much like tighter knit um, community than we would have usually. Um, which is really a thing that I think we cherish the most of our team was our chemistry with our coaches and our teammates. Um, and since the NFL is like launching uh their first like actual flag league, um, I think the popularity in this sport is definitely going to go up. And I do think there's a really bright future for this. Um, and I do really appreciate that we as seniors got to be a part of this inaugural season and that we got to actually really like be the building blocks for this community, for this one sport that we think is actually going to flourish a lot in the next few years. We have a lot of girls that are coming back from um, last year being underassman and all of that. They're going to be the rocks this year. And then we have a bunch of people like in middle school and elementary school um that seem really interested and really do want to come and talk about this um and do want to play. Um so anything else that you guys want to add?

0:23:07Yes. Um this season truly wouldn't have been possible without our girls, but especially we want to give a big thank you to our coaches. Our coaches were absolutely amazing. I have learned myself so much. I have played sports ever since I was a little kid and I have not learned I have I haven't learned as much as I have from anyone other than these coaches. So truly without these coaches that we've had this season, it wouldn't have been possible. Yeah. Thank you guys for letting us come to this little moment. Thank you guys. Have any questions, comments, concerns? Open to answering. Where there is a will, there's a way. Thank you for being here and sharing your experience with us. I see Kitty has a question to kick us off. So, since you represent different schools, you're not using the mascot of anyone school. Do you have a mascot and a team name? You got Yes, we do. So, this is a BBSD sport where all of the girls from BBSD schools, even some outside next year will probably come, but this is a Monarch Coyote team sport.

0:24:14Okay. And you already said how many um the other schools involved, but I just wanted to say I loved seeing the video and I loved seeing somebody wearing a t-shirt from my alma mater, University of Arizona. Was me. Bear down. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We will now begin the work session portion of our meeting this evening. Tonight we have one work session topic which is a review of the BBSD be well action plan. I'll turn it over to Dr. Anderson for intro introductions. Thank you board president Raj Paul. Board members. Uh we're excited to be here with you today with uh members of our team. I'll let Dr. Da Cruz introduce everybody in a moment. Um to focus on our be well plan. If you'll remember about I think it was about a year ago um where we had this discussion of we should do some evaluations of how things are working when it comes to supporting the well-being and mental health of our students uh making sure that we're doing uh the very best that we can and and using our resources the most effectively. And so we partnered with Renee Crown. Uh they're going to summarize we'll summarize their findings today. Um and then we will also go

0:25:32through um how it connects to our strategic plan valued and included um and uh and then then what our action plan is moving forward. So with that I'll turn it over to Dr. Dea Cruz for introductions and get to get into the presentation. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Good evening President Raj Paul board members. Uh we're really glad to be here tonight to talk about the Be Well action plan and I'm joined by members of our valued and included action team which is a staff task force focused on the all together for all students valued and included strategic objective. So from my uh left to my right we have Sen, director of student support services who's focused on behavior discipline, bullying prevention and restorative practices. Tammy Lawrence, director of student support services focused on mental health and well-being who oversees counselors and mental health advocates. Shannon Gamble, our MTSS director, and Chris Bret, the director of strategic initiatives.

0:26:32I'll start by just refreshing our collective memories about the be well research practice partnership which is a collaboration between BBSD and the Renee Crown Wellness Institute at CU Boulder. By combining research and practice expertise, the partnership seeks to strengthen and expand a shared understanding of best practices for increasing the overall wellness of students and staff. Um, I don't think we're there yet, but it's fine. Uh, while there are many research practice partnerships across the nation, this is the only one with this particular focus on wellness, mental health, and well-being um with actionable evidence. So during the time that we have together, we'll be discussing um a brief overview of the BBSD valued and included initiative, a quick summary of or I'm sorry, as well as a thorough summary of the findings and recommendations from the Bwell study and the BVSD action plan with identified timelines. The aims of the be well study were to learn about our practices, our programs, our policies, and to gather and analyze the perspectives of um those who are closest to students daily lives through a mixed methods approach. And this culminated in a report with key findings and recommendations that identified both bright spots and opportunities. Um the school board has seen the be well report with the findings and recommendations and we're going to show the intersecting

0:28:07points between those recommendations and our actions in BBSD tonight. Our valued and included team has been working pretty diligently on the action plan um based on or founded in that report and as I said looking at where our work intersects with the recommendations. So the B well report actually names uh five keys our 29 recommendations um as Chris will outline. We're going to talk um about well what we've established is 10 proposed actions for year one. 10 proposed actions that align with current priorities andor initiatives and then another nine that are proposed actions for future consideration. But for the purposes of today's conversation, we're prioritizing year one actions along with ongoing actions that are already underway. Before we go into the recommendations, I will very briefly regground us in the work within the valued and included ecosystem as it sets the stage for our discussion tonight. So, as the board knows, the aim of this strategic objective is that all students feel valued and included, that schools engage in restorative practices and that um they apply consistently the recommended resolutions for disciplinary events with and you all know about the accompanying implementation plan. Um I know you're very familiar with that. It's also codified in our UIP.

0:29:32As you recall, the climate survey composite shows that Oops. Yeah, there we go. The climate survey composite shows that um overall the climate survey results and restorative interventions are generally comparable across groups. Suspension rates vary a bit across groups, but are notably low in general. And this is data that the board has seen. Slides not There we go. And looking at trends over time, the climate survey results again are relatively stable across time and across groups. Suspension rates show a three-year downward trend despite a 0.1% increase for some groups. And there is slightly more variability in restorative interventions, but still showing relative consistency. In summary, the climate survey responses were stable. Suspensions continue to trend downward over three years. Restorative interventions are holding steady. And as I mentioned, the review of this context is merely setting the stage for our action planning as we connect be well recommendations with our current and future work and our allgether for all student strategic plan. So Chris is going to bridge this context to the action planning and then the rest of the team will relay that additional content.

0:30:57Good evening board members. Thank you for having us. Um so the slide that you see here is actually a repeat slide from a previous work session that we had uh where we were outlining opportunities for improvement as a result of the progress that had been made through our UIP and the targets that we were chasing. Um, in addition to our ongoing success of restorative practices and building on that restorative practice, uh, we also highlighted, um, something that relates directly to what you're going to hear more about tonight, which is that we've established a district working group or district action team that primarily is looking at two pieces of data sets in order for us to identify next action steps. And that those data sets are the MTSS implementation review as well as the Bwell recommendations.

0:31:41And uh this board has expressed interest in ensuring that we um identify the intersection between those two data points to identify and inform our next steps as a part of this overall initiative. So if you're more of a linear thinker as I am from a timeline perspective, last spring we completed the be well action report. Our partners at Crown Institute completed that report. Our MTSS team also completed the MTSS implementation review. This fall, we officially established this uh valued and included action team. Tonight, we're going to talk about how those overlap and where you're going to see how the MTSS data as well as the Bwell recommendations intersect, but more specifically, it's going to be around MTSSB. And Shannon Gamble is going to talk a little bit more about how we define that and why we're aligning it into that scope tonight.

0:32:35because in December we're going to have a much deeper dive into the overall MTSS implementation review that you'll see for both academics and behavior. But for tonight's purposes, we're going to focus on where that intersection lies between MTSS as it relates to SEAL and mental health. Um so with that, I will hand it off to our director of MTSS, Shannon Gamble. Thank you, Chris. Um good evening. I'm going to start by just grounding us in some vocabulary to make sure that we all are thinking about the terminology in the same way because MTSS can be full of different letters and terminology that can be a little bit confusing. So when we talk about MTSS, we're thinking about the five components that are in the state framework. uh the comprehensive screening and assessment system, family, school, and community partnerships, team-driven shared leadership, database problem solving and decisionmaking, and our layered continuum of supports, which includes the evidence-based practices. So, in previous conversations, this board has talked about MTSS largely in the context of academics. And so, for tonight, as Chris said, we're really going to be focusing on an MTSSB.

0:33:44When we say that, what we're referring to is um we have a definition here. Sorry. A comprehensive system of social, emotional, and behavioral supports to promote student wellness and improve engagement and learning. So, with everything we hear tonight, that'll be the framing of of the MTSS information that I'm about to share. So, as Chris mentioned, we completed an evaluation um review of MTSS implementation across our schools and um we met with each school to discuss where they were at with their implementation of MTSS. And we used um a a rubric from the um called the fidelity of implementation rubric from the center the American Institute for Research Center on MTSS. That's a mouthful. um we took their tool as this kind of objective researchbased third point and we took our Colorado COOMTSS framework and we we made some adjustments to make sure that it aligned to the language and the framing that is used in this state.

0:34:52So um that's all familiar for our schools. And so you can see here that there is a section for each of the five components of MTSS. And the rubric uses a fivepoint scale um with descriptions of practices that might score at a one, a three or a five with the rating of one indicating that there's little or no implementation. Three would be partial or inconsistent implementation and a five would indicate complete and consistent implementation. Um this there can be scores of a two or a four for anything that might fall in between those um descriptors. So this is a response frequency table here that you see that has the scores from all 27 items that were in the evaluation. And what it shows is the number of schools scoring at each rating within the one to five point range for each item on the rubric. And the color coding here matches the five components of MTSS. So just think of this kind of like a heat map. So we don't need to look at the specific numbers yet, but just kind of where you see the darker colors is going to indicate that there's a higher concentration of schools scoring at that rating.

0:36:10So using this to guide our opportunities, the first I would like to share with you is um within the component of databased problem solving and decision-making and this is really about the standardized processes that schools use to solve problems and monitor improvements. So this item is really specific to the ways in which the schools are using student data to drive systems level decisions. So remembering that we're zoomed in really on the MTSSB side of things. Um and we know that this might be a strength for us on the academic um in the academic side of MTSS, but we feel like there's a real opportunity here to improve um the consistency across all schools when it comes to using data about the students social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Um, I can add that since we collected this data in the spring, we're we're excited to see that schools are already making some shifts here as they're using really great intention in their 90-day plans to use some of their data to set goals for improvement.

0:37:23The next piece here is around um our sorry our comprehensive data um screening and assessment system just one second. So when you think of the first opportunity think about it in terms of the processes that schools are using once they have the data the way that they're engaging in conversations to make decisions. This the items here in this section are really about the tools that are being used in schools to gather the data. And we see that there's an opportunity to explore the use of assessments to make sure that we know exactly which students need support in which area and that the support we're providing is working for each student. We know that um having these robust resources to assess needs and impact within MTSSB will allow schools to make more informed decisions about individual students as well as their schoolwide system implementation.

0:38:19And the third piece here falls under our layered continuum of supports. And this is where we think about our evidence-based resources and practices aligned to students social, emotional, and behavioral needs at each of the three tiers of MTSS. So here we have an opportunity to consolidate resources and increase professional development around these evidence-based practices, making sure that we're putting our efforts behind the strategies that we know are the most effective. Um, and we'd like to narrow our focus to support implementation with fidelity. If we could pause there, if if board members have any questions around the process, around the incredibly comprehensive job that that Shannon and her team have done, uh, you know, developing this um, not only selecting the rubric, but going through each and every school and going through really thorough processes to reflect where they are and where they need to go, which would be a first for BBSD.

0:39:20um you know this movement from a um a system of schools to a school system is we're seeing just evidence of that every time we have an opportunity to update you on how our implementation of our strategic plan is going. So would want to pause there for a second. I know that we've thrown a lot of kind of real technical information. So just if there's any questions before we move on to the next piece if that's okay. Jason, um thanks very much for this. Uh I have a question on the I guess it's the third one. Um increasing professional development of evidence-based practices. Um I don't have a sense a good sense of like how much dedicated time teachers have in professional development for this specific work. Do you like is there a number of days that are dedicated or how does that look like over the course of a year?

0:40:11Well, as we all know, we do not have an abundance of days for professional development um with our teachers. However, we have um there there have been a variety of offerings in this realm that have either been um optin some of those have been um offered through BBSD, some through our partners at Rene at the Renee Crown Institute. And then um do you want to just talk a little bit about what your team has offered? I know that it's not all within the required realm, but the MTSS team has definitely offered a lot of um learning. Yep. So we have offered um as Dr. Dela Cruz said, some asynchronous courses that teachers can engage in. Um and um there's a coach on my team that works really closely with a small case load of schools to do embedded professional development and coaching with that case load of schools um in alignment with the goals in their 90-day plan. Um and I think it's important also to name the work that the student support services um does with their um their MHAs and the counselors and with our administrators which is is really um aligned to these practices as well.

0:41:23Yeah, we've been working um diligently with our professional learning team. We have multiple um different opportunities for um supports around professional learning. We have um provided them as optin. We also have in-person sessions. We've looked at a variety that some are two hours, some are one full day, some are two full days. They cover the the gamut of everything that's needed to help support um teachers in identifying areas of concerns for students, how they care for themselves, how they use resources within our district to help support students. And um we have also really worked to get internal trainers established within BBSD, so we're not always going outside of BBSD. that also allows for that flexibility on our Wednesday mornings to really be embedded within the schools um to help support our schools and the system work that they're doing.

0:42:29It's the right question, right? Um and and I would say that you know the work that we've done up to this point in really establishing the systems and structures and responses and whether it's um establishing um this value and included uh um team uh whether it's really focusing on restorative practices setting the expectations I I really feel like you know getting on the same page with page amongst all schools with consistent implementation of MTSSB. So, we're diagnosing and intervening uh in ways that prevent kids from having to get to the place where maybe we have to use uh restorative practices or even, you know, some types of some type of discipline. And uh so, you know, as as I've seen our strategic initiatives go from uh where maybe some of these things are now to fully implemented uh and and really part of our culture, most have started kind of where these are now. uh and then through either UIPs, 90-day plans, uh schools, you know, doubling down on their focus is is when you really get to the place where uh folks have buil have built the systems and the culture inside their buildings where they're doing this with consistency. uh um and so I think that that we're on the right path. But you know this I it idea

0:43:47of using MTSS for students um supporting their their behavioral and social emotional needs uh diagnosing that thinking of that as tier one, tier two, tier three uh versus oh here's an issue, let's solve it, I think is is definitely um we're evolving in the ways that we're that we're being able to to address these problems at school levels. Jorge Thank you for sharing this and condensing all the information. It's a lot in there, right? And I'm looking at the numbers and it looks like like a normal distribution, right? A lot of people in the middle, a lot of schools in the middle, some high achievers and some ones who are maybe struggling. Um, are these really uh I'm trying to figure out how to interpret the the patterns, right? So is it that the degree to which there the training has been achieved for some of these like the ones that you just pointed out? Is that the participation in terms of um training by schools? Is it the degree to which they've implemented the programs? Um and are you seeing any kind of patterns or trends about certain types of schools are you know that are not doing as well or are there barriers that are arising as you're kind of going through this?

0:44:56I think the thing that is a little tricky about looking at this data table here is that um the evaluation was looking comprehensively at all aspects of MTSS academic and non-academic. And so that's what those scores reflect is an overall implementation. Um, and so where you might see a school a school scoring in that middle area as a three, it might be that their academic systems are really strong and they might have rated that alone as a five, but maybe their social emotional behavior side would be more of a one. So you kind of say, well then you're a three. You're in the middle. And so I think what's you know when we have a chance to look more closely at the the findings and the data um you'll see that the when we look at that qualitative piece to really um dive into what those individual scores mean is where we get some more of that information. Um we definitely saw patterns by level from elementary middle to high. Some pretty clear patterns as I'm sure you can imagine. Um and we haven't yet been able to correlate some of that professional learning to implementation. And I think those are some of our more long-term goals is if you've engaged more in some of the learning efforts, do we see that playing

0:46:08out not only in the implementation um ratings, but also in some of the student outcome data? So, I'd say that's more of one of our our long-term goals. So before we we transition into um the recommended action steps from Renee Crown and the be well report I think it's it's obvious based on the conversation how critical it was for us to be able to have a lay of the land if you will for where we are within the MTSS systems across all of our schools in order for us to have really great conversations as an action team on what we can prioritize uh what the lift might be what those trends are uh because As you can see, there is a lot of information that that comes from this and it and it speaks to how critical Shannon's role is and as a part of that action team to helping guide us through that as well.

0:47:00Um so how how did we actually go about the prioritization of it? So uh the board is is aware of the B well report and the findings coming through um uh five key areas there of student reports of mental well-being awareness of ava a available mental health supports usage of wellness centers and other supports our BBSD families awareness of mental health resources and finally the system supporting student mental health u so all the recommendations in that were we looked at that as an action team we looked at where we saw the opportunities ities through the MTSS implementation data and then we were able to prioritize those and as Dr. Dea Cruz mentioned at the beginning of the session this is kind of a summary of how that breaks out and then we'll walk you through each of those. So it became 10 proposed actions to address in year one 10 proposed actions that align with the current policies or projects that are in place and then nine that are going to be held for future um consideration. Now, one thing that I'll note here is that when we say addressed in year one, it means that we are going to address it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to meet and complete those action steps within year one. As you'll see,

0:48:11there's many action steps that may transition into multiple years. And and are we in year one? We are in year one. Yes. All right. Currently, year one. All right. And so now I will hand it over to our directors of student support services starting with Senour to walk us through the recommendation and action items. Thanks Chris. Great to be here with everyone tonight and I will kick us off with the first three recommendations. So this first recommendation from the be well report essentially suggests that we make sure that the programs and services that we have in place are aligned to what students need most and then to engage our community partners for broader support as is possible. And so the first two action steps in the kind of pink color there is indicated by year one um are to be completed this year by the that valued and included working group that you've learned about. Again to make sure that our programs are supporting the mental health and well-being are aligned and not duplicated across our system and that they're addressing the most pressing needs of our students at this time. And then beyond that, the two action steps at the bottom that are on the ongoing category, those recommendations are that we continue to review our policies to be

0:49:30sure they're reflective of our student needs, well-being needs, and that we continue to work with our community partners and forge new partnerships as as well. Next slide, Chris or or Thank you, Dr. Da Cruz. All right. So, this next slide references recommendation number two, which calls us to be sure that we have an increase in awareness of the well-being related services that are in place for our middle schools and our high schools. And the first ongoing step in blue is to continue to track the mental health resources and programming that are in place. And additionally, the report suggests that we establish a student team to co-design and then distribute awareness materials. And so we will be utilizing the student leadership groups that we have in place already such as the student cabinet, the student equity council, and hopefully perhaps even the Renee Crown Institute's Bwell student advisory group. Also in this year one, we will be increasing the awareness of our mental health resources with additional visuals, announcements, assemblies, and we'll be working with um specific school leadership teams on that. And then finally for this recommendation too, we will be working with our accountability and evaluation team to revise our annual student climate survey to make sure that the information we're gathering and asking of students in that survey really

0:50:59reflect their understanding of the mental health resources and services available to them. And that's something we haven't really done much of before. Next slide. Recommendation three might look like there's not a lot on this slide, but this is a very important topic. Um, recommendation three addresses all our wellness centers at our high schools and recommends that we consider expanding the program to include wellness centers at the middle school level. You'll note that the ongoing action steps related to this recommendation of course include our fiscal sustainability for the current wellness centers that we have in place. And obviously we must do that before we can make decisions about expanding the program. And now I'll turn it over to my colleague Tammy for more. Hello everyone. Thanks Sen. I will be talking about recommendation 4A which outlines ongoing steps to help educators identify early signs of student mental health concerns. This will be ongoing work for the value and included team and in collaboration with our professional learning team. We will focus on reviewing existing professional learning for mental health literacy and symptom recognition. This will ensure that what is being offered is equipping our staff to know how to recognize warning signs and symptoms in students. We will continue to offer compassion focused training for our leaders and our educators. This will help educators

0:52:23respond with empathy and understanding when they notice a student is struggling. And finally, we will integrate these efforts into the district's mental health frameworks, ensuring that these trainings aren't one-off trainings, but are embedded into how we support staff and students long-term in BBSD. Next slide, please. Recommendation 4B, which focuses on actively sharing clear and accessible mental health resources and information with families. This recommendation is designed to ensure that families are not only informed, but feel empowered and supported when seeking help for their children's mental health needs. In year one, we have identified three key action steps. First, we will evaluate our current communication channels to ensure they are clear, responsive, and meeting the needs of our families. This step is crucial in identifying gaps and areas for improvement in how we currently share information. Next, we'll establish a clear referral pathway for our internal and external resources. This will help families navigate mental health resources more confidently and efficiently. Also, in year one, we plan to work collaboratively with our communications team to co-design materials with support from our parents and guardians. This will ensure that we create what we create is truly accessible and relevant from a family's perspective. We will continue to measure progress using annual family survey data spec specifically our school climate survey. This will be overseen by our

0:53:53accountability and evaluations team. These steps are designed not only to improve communication but also to build stronger, more supportive partnerships with families around mental health. Next slide. Can you can you we just pause for a second there? Um I think this is tricky, right? Because it's it's one of those things where um you're not looking for it till you really really need it. Does that make sense? And so I I do think that that's one of the challenges that we'll have to how do you create um communication channels uh let folks know how to access something um that that they probably won't be looking for until they need it and when they need it they need it fast, right? Um, so I I just wanted to kind of highlight that as a challenge around um a general awareness, but then when you need it that we have a place where you know how to go and and and you can go from, you know, looking to getting services pretty quickly.

0:54:57And to follow up on that, I wonder if that's an opportunity in particular the parent compon component of the survey to ask that question like is this some is this a need of yours? And if so, how how have you been receiving the communication or the tools? It's like were they easy to access versus if I'm not never looking for a tool or resources to support the mental health needs of my kiddo? I could just say no and that could skew the data in that survey, those results. So, it's asking those questions and I appreciate both in the parent survey and the student survey the willingness to adjust what has been a very long-standing non non-budging tool for some time to really meet the needs that we see today with our students. So, I appreciate staff's desire and willingness to do that.

0:55:39Other questions board members while we pause before we continue on? Great. Thank you. Okay. In recommendation five focuses on increasing enhancing coordination between departments that sto support student mental health at both the district and school level. Our first action step is to continue to work with district leadership on providing contactbased support for students and prioritize sustainable funding for these positions. District leadership is responsible for this work and it aligns directly with our annual budget review process. Secondly, we will be working to expand the use of current data collections that aligns with what Shannon spoke about earlier in the presentation. Next, the value and included team will continue to work collaboratively with our professional learning team to enhance and design professional development opportunities that bring together our multidisciplinary teams. This collaboration directly supports our goal of fostering integrated team-based approaches to students mental health. And finally, we want to encourage and sustain communication and collaboration at the building level.

0:56:44Overall, recommendation 5A is about strengthening our systems of coordination, ensuring consistent support for mental health across all levels, and building a culture where students truly feel valued and included. I will now hand presentation back to Dr. Da Cruz to close us out. and invite questions. We you can see that the team has been hard at work diligently building an action plan that is rooted in not only the be well recommendations but also in our strategic plan altogether for all students and the initiatives and actions that are underway and ongoing and building new actions as well. Um and we always appreciate the perspective of the board and we're we're we welcome any questions or additional information. Ju just a couple other points before before we turn it over for questions. You know, it was when we reached out to the Renee Crown Wellness Institute. Um you know, there was there was a board conversation uh where the question was posed, you know, is there anything that we're doing that's doing more harm than good? Do do you all remember this? Like that was one of the the the key questions. And so good news is uh no, that's not what they found. that that uh you know this awareness piece uh making folks more comfortable in being able to diagnose

0:58:03and and and help help kids get what they need uh you know trying to expand on uh the things that are working. You know I do think that there are certainly fiscal constraints and so as we get towards the budget process that means you got to have to make tough choices. Some things that that we were doing if we want to expand some of these things we have to stop doing those things. So, u I do think that that this um the the be well action plan gives us some clarity. It gives our team um direction on where to go. Uh but I think the really good news is that we didn't find anything like yeah, we were doing this thing. We thought it was helping kids and man, it's really it's actually been more detrimental than helpful. So, um I do know that's something that they looked at and just wanted to point that out because I just remembered that distinctively from our conversation because I had never thought about, oh my gosh, we could do be doing something that we think's helping and it's not.

0:58:56So, um with that, sorry Laura, I'll turn it back over to you or or to you Nicole for if there's any other additional questions. Board members, any additional questions or comments for the team? Jason? Um, yeah, thanks for a great presentation. Um, you know, it was it was noted in number five about the the staff at the school level that are that's, you know, kind of on the front lines here, this mental health advocates, counselors, social workers. Um, and then you I think as we're having this conversation, I think back to the meeting last week when we were talking about what our declining enrollment challenges and fiscal challenges mean and how it means, you know, I know for my own uh for two of my kids at Creekide, we have a counselor that's incredible that's now halftime and um, you know, I think about all these things kind of in the context of that and how um, you know, I don't know that I have a question, but it's it's hard to look at these recommendations and think that, you know, these people that are on the front lines doing this work um you know we're putting 500 kids on their you know on their on their plate instead of 300 kids and so I don't know where again I

1:00:06don't know my question here it's more just I want us to keep in mind kind of the reality of what's happening at the schools um and so you know as we think about these recommendations kind of where do these frontline staff and key people um how are they involved how can we you know to Dr. Anderson's point about kind of tough conversations with the budget. You know, if we really want to implement these recommendations, we have to think about having the staff in place to be able to do that. Kind of piggybacking on that a little bit, Jorge and I had the opportunity to be at Metoark last week. They talked a lot about some of these support services. Question that I have is around the two goals both on the systems and then the tier one supports. Piggybacking a little bit on what Jason said, where are we with ensuring we're using consistent evidence-based tier one tools and materials that teachers can use, not just counselors, to help meet some of these goals in the classroom and help support students. I I know we're trying to get consistent, but I was just hoping you could provide an update on where we are with some of those in instructional materials and tools.

1:01:14Yes. Um, we have spent the year going back to Jason's comment. Um, we sent out a document for our administrators and our counselors to really work on together. Um, given that some of our schools are working with less FTE than they have in previous years to really outline and define what the role of the school counselor looks like in their building. Along with those efforts, we took the curriculum that has been identified and really found which department holds what curriculum because that's the other challenging piece. We have multiple departments that have different curriculum that they are using to support our our schools and we've out outlined and identified those. We will be working really closely with our valued and included team to identify the best way to move forward and identify is it one particular curriculum that we're going to be able to push forward? Is it the school counselor that's delivering it? Is it our teachers that are delivering it? how do we um incorporate all those um efforts knowing that on our academic side we have a lot on teachers plates as well and so it's a really um challenging coordinated effort that we really are going to be undergoing in the next year. We have outlined what those curriculums are. The other challenging piece is we also in that same at the

1:02:27same time learned that there's a lot of other um curriculums that are being used by our by our schools. So, it's it's about trying to figure out how we move forward in the most thoughtful way given our FTE um allocations, the needs on our academic side, and then what we need to do with our MTSSB work. Not to mention, some folks are better at this than others. You know, some folks are more comfortable than others digging into things that are related to well-being and and social emotional health and can have a better intuition and can pick up on when things are happening. So, yes. So, so to answer your question directly, Nicole, I think we're in the beginning stages. I I think that there's pockets of excellence and pockets where we have a lot of work to do. if that is that a fair statement. Uh but you know you start at the systems level you start with expectations then you can focus on implementation training um and then at the end of the day you can't people can't be short staffed to be able to do really deep work in this area and so Jason to your point as we think about um you know our footprint of schools and you know a footprint of a lot of really

1:03:37small schools makes makes deep implementation of something like this impossible. It really does. Hence the conversation we had last week uh and and the and the plan that we'll be bringing forward uh in in January 10 recommendations in year one, 10 recommendations in year two. That's a lot to get lost in the shuffle. As you look at these, are there certain ones that um are easier to implement or maybe take priority over others that should be happening sooner? First um to mind is the issue of communication, right? Making things really accessible and you know, do we have to weed through the website to find stuff like where is it being like where do we get the information? How can we make that as easy as possible? And are there other places that you feel like we should be focusing and investing first and foremost as we figure some of this other stuff out?

1:04:31Or you're speaking my language. Um, so yes, absolutely. I think uh you bring up communications. I think that's absolutely a priority for us because there is so much that's going on throughout the system right now. How we coordinate those efforts to ensure that we're focusing on the right things, I think is going to be it's a no-brainer in terms of a year one priority that we can that we can take. Um I would say the the first recommendation in with um how we align programs I think is also a priority for us as a team. I don't think that we can have an accurate scope until we can define our focus area within that. Uh so, you know, we can be we can be a mile wide and an inch deep in some areas and and and it does that's not to say that things that are happening aren't adding benefit and they're not adding value, but sometimes when we are able to narrow our focus, we're able to expand the scope. So, I think us being able to take on some of those challenging conversations to really understand what's working where uh is going to be a priority for us to be able to take those next steps. I would say that and then communications runs through uh three of

1:05:33the recommendations from our partners at Crown Institute. So that's obviously a priority for us as well. Looks like we have no further questions. Thank you so much for this thorough presentation for connecting between the last presentation update we had on on the Renee Crown information and what are our action steps for this year and the years ahead. So, thank you for your work on this. Board members, we are going to rearrange take a little bit a little break to rearrange the boardroom before we reconvene. Welcome back to the meeting everyone. Our next item on tonight's agenda is a superintendent report. Dr. Anderson, good evening. Thank you board president Raj Paul. Board members. Good evening everyone. Uh board members, as you know, last week we held the BBSD is the place to be showcase. I'm proud to report it was a huge success. I want to thank all board members who were able to make it, everybody from our community who was able to come out. More than 1,800 people came to our showcase. Um and so I know we have declining enrollment, but we have not had a decline in attendance at the at the showcase. Uh two years ago, we had about 700 students. last year about a thousand. So, this is probably the biggest gain that we've had

1:13:49um and tons and tons of interest and it's just was such a great opportunity uh for people, you know, parents, community members, folks who are interested in and and going to school in BBSD next year uh to meet all of our schools in one place on one night. I want to thank everybody who who was had the opportunity to come out. And for those who didn't make it, we've got an awesome video that we're going to show you so you can see what it felt like. right here on the table. Yeah. Still here. So, I'm setting up, getting ready, and hoping that there's lots of families that come by. So, the setup process is you get here, and you just try to one up the person next to you. This is us trying to figure out how to put together our stuff.

1:14:36Today, we're going to showcase the mannequins that we use for our hair styling program. We do have the red carpet rolled out and we got the lights on so you know where to show up to. She's at THE GOOD SIDE NOW. We're doing BBSD is a place to be and just trying to recruit the next great humans here at Boulder High School in Boulder Valley School District. The showcase is like a college fair but for schools. This is the place to be. The showcase is where it's at. Yes, I think it's a great opportunity. We showcase all of the great things that our school district does from the elementary level all the way up to the high school level and our school district as a whole. Whether it's academics, sports, clubs, there's so much community at Fairview.

1:15:14There are tons of people who are here to directly help you, directly answer your questions. When you think trade school, that's what I think of these ones. Did you guys get our little brochure? I think I took a pamphlet out one of these. It sat on my desk for like 3 years and I was like, "Oh, I want to go to Tech." That That's a good one. The biggest question is finding the right school. Is this school what is right for my student? I see you have soccer earrings. Do you play soccer? I think it's quite empowering. Hi. I'm asking about the sports program if the tennis teams are good. And she's actually dove in and going to all the booths and talking to people. What are the um the students like at the school?

1:15:56Yeah, it's been really great. It's been really informative. Thank you. Thank you. This is like a P and we do two Ps each year and it's a presentation of learning. Parents know their kids better than anyone and so they should be asking, you know, what our class size is like. Why should I come to your school? What are we doing that's different than other school districts? What clubs? What sports they're interested in? Home high school questions are really good questions. What are my child's strengths? If you offer advanced classes or any unique electives, what do you do for safety? What are the ways that you're going to support my student in reaching their goals? This is the place where you come to get your questions answered. Thank you. Of course. It's one of the coolest things about open enrollment.

1:16:46Boulder Valley School District is all about community and connection. Boulder Valley School District is full of opportunity. It's full of different ways towards success. Boulder Valley School District is definitely the place to be. At the end of the day, the students are the ones that are the winners. Boulder Valley is right for every student because we have something for everyone. Thanks for coming to talk to us. Thank you. Want want to congratulate our communications team for doing such a good job with putting together that event. And uh I want to thank Laura Schaefer who is on our cabinet team is is the architect of the BBSC is the place to be showcase. And uh and everybody on our team and from all of our schools from our cabinet to our board. You you know when people ask me what is this like I describe it as like a pep rally for our school district where everybody's there everybody's celebrating. You can feel and we've been doing this for three years. You can feel how the culture in our district has shifted, right? Where we are working to make sure that everybody knows what we can do for them, that we're we're out and reaching out to our community and beyond on on why we're a good fit, what we can do and how we can help support

1:18:03all kids. And I think that uh it's gone from a culture of, you know, some if you knew some folks, you knew where to go and you knew what school you think you might want to go and it was really stressful and really chaotic to a moment that's exciting for our staff and for our community, for our kids. We didn't pay any of those kids to say those things, right? When you think about how they're talking about opportunity, you think about what's in our strategic plan about developing and creating opportunity is just was really really great. So, uh we are now in the second phase. So, we've had the showcase, the second phase, which has always been known as open enrollment, but we've been calling it now choice enrollment to better align with the state terminology.

1:18:44Do I have that right, Randy? Um, so uh we uh communications team sent a great message out to our community yesterday kind of summarizing the event, asking people to give us feedback. We would love feedback on how we can do a better job. What are we missing? How can we be more accessible? What questions went unanswered? how could we figure that out? Um, and then uh in that communication was uh was a link so you so parents, community members, everyone, kids can see uh the dates for our open houses and tours at all of our schools. Um, and that's where students and parents visit buildings to see which one is the right fit for them before they submit um the their application, which is uh opens up November 1st. So, uh, in just in a week. So, huge success. I anticipate, um, again, lots of interest.

1:19:37As a reminder to the board and the community, uh, bright futures ahead preference is an enrollment preference that we have. If you work, um, kids, if your parents work within our community, you get a preference to come to the best schools in Colorado, which is here, right here in BBSD. So, uh, encourage if you own a business, uh, if you if you go to our schools and you know somebody who might it might be a great fit, reach out. We do have room for a limited time only, right? We, um, uh, so, uh, come on, come on to BBST. It's the place to be. We'd be excited to have you. Thanks everybody for that. Okay. So, a couple weeks ago, the Colorado chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education held its annual conference at the BBSD Ed Center right here.

1:20:22Multilingual educators from across the state joined to talk about student belonging, educational excellence and equity. Keynote speakers spoke on building connection, cultivating constructive dialogue, and true belonging. So, I want to thank the National Association for Multicultural Education for choosing us to host their conference. And finally tonight, um I am pleased to share that recently 83 educators across BBSC have been awarded grants from Impact on Education, our school district's excellent nonprofit foundation. They've awarded over a total of $115,000 to our teachers just this fall in their grant cycle, and they're planning for another grant cycle in the spring. These student opportunity fund grants help open up opportunities that our students might not get otherwise. Opportunities to support their academic development, their well-being, and their career trajectory. It's one of many ways that our foundation invests in our district.

1:21:19Um, impact. Allison, we want to thank you for your support. Allison, we're going to make you stand so we can all properly thank you and anybody else from the impact team that might be here. They're here in spirit, I know. Um um but I'd also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge our community support. So this grant funding was made possible by community donors including somebody who's new in town but not really new, Merit Trust Credit Union, formerly known as Premier Members Credit Union. This organization has its root right here in our district for many years. um Premier Members Credit Union was actually started by BVSD employees in 1959 and showing their ongoing commitment to those roots, Merit Trust, um who was previously Premier Members Credit Union but is now Merit Trust recently made a $100,000 gift to impact on education to support these grants. Matt, if you could stand to introduce yourself, say hello. Uh we are excited to have you in town.

1:22:22you know, those six figure checks make us super excited to have you in town. Um, and and really just uh um want to acknowledge you for this significant investment. Um and and this you you're you're making a difference for our kids, for our families, for our educators. Thank you so much. Want to thank you Allison and Impact. Um thank you Matt Mayor Trust and I want to thank our entire community for showing up for educators and our students. It's really making a difference and it's helping us be the best school district in Colorado. So thank you all. Another round of applause. And that is all I have for my remarks this evening. Board members, any comments or questions for Dr. Anderson? Just want to say thank you for clarifying the shift from open enrollment to choice enrollment. I did get some questions on that. And then I also wanted to elevate that while choice enrollment opens on November 1st. It is not first come first serve. So take the time, do the school tours. You don't have to apply right away. You just have to apply by the time in which choice enrollment closes for to participate in that lottery.

1:23:27You know, some districts only co they have the window open for a couple of weeks, not BVSD, right? We want folks to be able to make sure you find the school that is the right fit for your kid and for your family. And so we are really going the extra mile with the with the showcase, with our communications, with our school events. I think that you know parents who have lot questions even if you don't know uh these are great opportunities to learn more about um about not just about the schools but you know get to know what your what your student needs you know often maybe sometimes as parents we just assume we know you this is a great time for parents and kids to talk about what are you looking for in a middle school and a high school you know you know and how would you know if you found it and I think that those are really great opportunities for our families as Moving right along, the next item on tonight's agenda is public participation. The board respects the right of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of the schools.

1:24:25The board does not endorse the comments of any speaker or reminds all those who speak that you are responsible for your own speech. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time and would like to share additional information, you may always email the board of education. Our first speaker this evening is Daniel Bernard. Push the button with a person on it. There we go. Hi everyone. My name is Daniel Bernard. I am a senior at Fairview High School and I'm here to talk to you all about a thing that I've been working on with a couple other people across high schools as well as TIFF Boyd. Um it's called the Resilient Futures Bond Campaign. It's starting as a small group of people and really our goal is to expand the use of decarbonization and renewable energies across schools in BVSD. This is a really pressing issue for me and a lot of other students at the schools in BBSD and I am sure that it is a really pressing issue for all of you as well because of the efforts that you've made in the past to uh lead this effort in decarbonization

1:25:43and renewable energy for schools. Our goal primarily is to get funding for decarbon renewables placed on an upcoming bond measure um in order to make this change. We know that we're currently in the um we're in the 2022 bond right now until 2027 and that work is still currently being conducted, but it's our goal to influence the uh research that goes into developing what goes into a new bond and we want climate action to be placed on that. So, um, we appreciate all of the work that you have done and we look forward really to working with BBSD, um, to get this done because this is something that really matters to all of us as I am sure it matters to you as well. Um, that is all I have to say. Thank you so much.

1:26:27Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Lisa Larson. Hello, my name is Lisa Larson and I'm a PAR educator and the president of Boulder Valley Pared Educator Association. I'm here tonight to ask you to reject the proposed changes to policy HGNHC. In groups composed of hourly paid workers, I consider requiring 51% membership rate an unfair practice. Some paris can't afford to pay dues, but they benefit from having fellow paras in leadership roles in the union. BVPA advocates for all paras, not just members. The threat of the administration having the power to dissolve a union is troubling. The district should continue to stay neutral. In regards to HC, for the past few years, BVPA has negotiated for important procedural improvements. Our negotiations have been respectful and effective. We have worked together as one organization, not two opposing sides. We've brought different interests to the bargaining table and worked collectively to find creative solutions for all of them.

1:28:10This would not have been possible if our negotiations had been limited to only joint interests. There's an African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Please don't approve HG and HC." Let's continue to move forward together. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Jen Bones. Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Anderson, thank you for the opportunity to speak and be heard. My name is Jen Bones. I'm a Lewisville resident, proud parent of a BVSD graduate, a PAR educator in my ninth year at Mapleton Early Childhood Center, and vice president of the Boulder Valley Pared Educators Association. Having been in education for over 20 years, I count myself as blessed. Blessed by the different cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and voices that have helped shape me into the person I am today. As a member of the BVPA executive board, I work to lift up the voices of our members. However, I am also proworker, meaning my voice is a reflection of the needs of the workers around me. I am here tonight because the proposed changes to policies HG and HC would directly impact these voices from being heard. The 51% membership requirement in policy HG, if imposed during this concerning financial climate, would be gutting. I have

1:29:56co-workers who cannot afford union dues because they already write the district a check at the end of some months just to pay for their family's health insurance. Their whole paycheck goes toward their insurance and then some. I want their voices to be heard even if they cannot afford to be union members. Possible changes to policy HC are also concerning. These changes would limit bargaining to salaries and only issues the district considers to be of joint interest. As a member of past bargaining teams, I have been proud of the strengthening of our contract and the building of consensus. This has been accomplished because of open communication and collaboration, a partnership, not a restriction. I feel that together is better. All voices are important voices. Please reconsider these possible changes. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

1:30:50Our next speaker is Mary Henry. Sorry. Um, good evening board members. I am Mary Henry. I'm a parent and proud BVSSD PARA educator. I have been active in Boulder Valley Par Education Association since I began working in the district uh 18 years ago and I am proud of the hard work that BVPA has done and continues to do in collaboration with BBSD to create a powerful contract that provides safe working conditions, fair wages, and other resources for our that our students deserve. I'm here tonight because the proposed changes to policy HG and AC HC would directly affect the people who support our students and teachers every day in the classroom and strip away the hard work done in collaboration with the district to create a robust contract for PAR educators. The proposed 51% membership requirement in policy HG would unfairly penalize PAR educators. Tying district recognition to percentage creates instability and fear that employees could lose that recognition simply because of normal staff attrition. In these uncertain times, there are many PAR educators that appreciate the union's work but are also trying to balance supporting their families, which means if we fall below the fresh threshold, we could lose the contract that provides provides for them, creating more instability. Policy HC is equally troubling. This would limit bargaining to salaries and working

1:32:32conditions and the district deems joint interest. In practice, the district could decide what topics the employees are even allowed to bring to the table. The shift silences voices and weakens transparency. Unions are not about politics. They are about protection and ensure employees can advocate for themselves and have a voice at the table. Collective bargaining is a partnership between the union and the district. The current policies already support the partnership of mutual respect. Changing policies that result in re restricting the process erodess the trust that benefits our district as a whole. I respectfully urge the board to reject the proposed policies HDNA. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Beth Stevens. Good evening board. My name is Beth Stevens and I am the president of Boulder Valley Classified Employees Association as well as a proud bus driver for BBSD. Classified employees are the backbone of our schools. We make sure every day runs safely and smoothly. We take pride in our work and in our long history of partnership with the district. I'm here tonight because the proposed changes to policies HG, HC, and HJ would directly affect the people who support our students and teachers every day.

1:34:02The proposed 51% membership requirement in policy HG would unfairly penalize classified employees. Union membership is voluntary. That's both a legal and personal right. Tying district recognition to a percentage creates pressure and fear that employees could lose their unions simply because of normal staff turnover or retirements. We've built trust with district leadership through open communication and good faith problem solving. This proposal would undo that progress. The changes to policy HC are just as concerning. They would limit bargaining to salaries and only those working conditions the district decides are of joint interest. In practice, that means the district could choose what topics employees are even allowed to discuss. That silences staff voices and weakens transparency. And under the proposed policy HJ, unions would have to submit all of their negotiation proposals in writing before talks even begin. If fairness is the goal, both sides, the union and the district, should be required to share their proposals at the same time.

1:35:07Collective bargaining is about partnership, finding fair and practical solutions together. The current policies already support that partnership by promoting fairness, stability, and mutual respect. Restricting that process would erode the trust and teamwork that benefit students, employees, and the district as a whole. I respectfully urge the board to reject the proposed changes to policies HG, HC, and HJ and preserve the balanced cooperative relationship that keeps BBSD strong. Thank you for your time and commitment to BBSD employees. Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is David Stewart, who has granted two minutes from Katie. David, good evening. Uh before I address my um stated remarks, I just wanted to just recognize the credit union that used to be Boulder Valley Credit Union, the Premier Members. Um made a big difference to me when I was a young teacher because they had this thing called overdraft protection that I needed to get through because I was living paycheck to paycheck. And um and that was a that was a huge lift and it's just a reminder of the small things that if we have in place can make people's lives so much better. Um but tonight I'm here following uh my co-presidents and uh fellow union officers uh to address um the pro policy provision changes to uh policy H. Uh first I want to thank the

1:36:41board and the district and Dr. Anderson for moving the proposed changes from action to study. That decision shows real thoughtfulness and willingness to take the time for honest dialogue. We appreciate that you're that you're giving space for conversation with local unions um as we move forward. That said, we are concerned with some of the policies under consideration. Tonight, we're sharing what we can fit into just a few minutes, knowing this isn't the full scope of our reasoning. The proposed changes to policy HG, allowing union recognition to be withdrawn if membership drops below 51% after three years, undermines fairness and stability. It might seem like accountability, but in practice, it punishes employees for individual choices and risk pulling the district into internal union matters. The district's role should stay neutral, respecting employees right to decide who represents them with added pressures, excuse me, respecting employees right to decide who represents them without added pressures and consequences.

1:37:56The proposed changes to policy HC limiting negotiations mainly to salaries in areas of joint interest would also narrow the space for employees to raise concern about working conditions. True collaboration depends on all voices being heard. These revisions could inhibit or even prohibit the dialogue and weaken trust. We like manner have reservations about proposed changes to policy HD. The added language is likely unnecessary because the board already holds these rights under existing laws. More concerning, the clause stating except as specially limited by the expressed term of agreement that is permissible in the school district's policy framework could also future could could allow future boards to challenge parts of a negotiated agreement as not permissible and therefore uninforceable. Now, it's easy to assume that under the current leadership, these risks might never materialize, but we cannot predict who will hold these positions in 10 or even five years. As the current national climate reminds us, policies must be written to protect fairness, certainty, and balance under all circumstances, not just when things are going well. So again, we thank you for pulling these policies back for study and we look forward to the next phase which includes real meaningful conversations with the local unions before any further action is taken. Thank you for your time and most especially thank you for your

1:39:30service. Thank you. This concludes public participation for today. On the behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with us this evening. The next item on tonight's agenda is board communication board members who would like to begin Kitty. First, I want to thank everyone who came to speak, especially our student speaker. I'm always impressed when we have students come and speak to us because it can be very intimidating for a student to speak to a board of adults and especially in a formal meeting like this and thanks to all the union representatives who spoke to us as well. The only other thing I wanted to mention is I have noticed around where I live in Superior a lot of kids riding ebikes on sidewalks.

1:40:29And I know we have information that we've given parents about ebikes, but it's not legal to ride ebike on a my time up. I'm taking all the time I want. No, I just want to encourage parents to really go over the laws with their students and go over safety rules. I saw a kid just zoom out into the street the other day, a bike that didn't require being pedal, no helmet. And I'm just concerned for our students. So, please be careful with these ebikes. Um, I want to thank all the speakers tonight. Um, you know, uh, the showcase was an opportunity to really see the best characteristics of our schools. Uh, the thank you to the teachers and the staff and the students that participated. I mean, that that was so much fun for me. Um, just seeing the energy they brought and and the work that how much the students cared about what they were doing there. Um, and it's something that, you know, we know is going on, but um, but maybe sometimes we don't always see it. Um, and so I had a chance to talk to so many people at so many different schools and they're so proud of the work they're doing and they're working so hard and for me it was a real sense of community. Um, I I

1:41:51really felt the difference there and it's something I feel we miss sometimes today. Um, and that really reflects so well on Boulder Valley School District and all the work that you're all doing um, as a part of that. Um, I talked to students and parents from outside the district um, and from within the district and it was great to see our students representing our schools so well. Um, I couldn't have been prouder. Um, so I want to thank you all um for the work that's going on. Um, that's all. Thank you. Well said on the showcase, Jorge. The only thing I wanted to mention, I alluded to it earlier, Jorge and I had were invited to represent the board at Metoark School as they are trying to obtain ramp status which is the recognized ASCA model for um school counselors. So American school cultures association has national standards and framework and metallark has the metallark school has been working hard to attain that part of their ability to receive that recognition is to have support from the board. So we did that last Friday. We might be invited to join them again. But shout out to Metallark for for all the hard work you're doing in that avenue.

1:42:54We will now move on to information items this evening. We have three information items for members. The first of which is the community bond oversight committee update for which Rob Price will do the introductions. Good evening, President Rash Paul, members of the board. It has been nearly two and a half years since voters generously approved uh funding for our 2022 building for student success program. If you have been paying attention, a tremendous amount of work uh that has been completed in those two and a half years. Chris Stopenhagen, our executive director of bond planning and our entire bond team have continued just to do a fantastic job year after year uh implementing that work. Um tonight joining me is Katherine Barnes who is our community bond oversight uh co-chair and Chris Stopenhagen. And with that Chris will kick us off with our quarterly update.

1:44:03Good evening board members and good evening BBSD community members. Uh it was another incredibly productive Sorry, let me advance this. There we go. Uh another incredibly productive summer for the bond program with $74.5 million over 22 uh of our sites of improvements um being completed. Um this was our third and largest uh summer construction season so far. As you can imagine, delivering uh that level of work in such a short window comes with its challenges and hurdles. So I want to take a moment just to thank uh each of our school administrative teams, our facilities, IT, security, community schools, and business services teams. uh as each played an essential role in helping us navigate those challenges and ensure that every one of our schools opened on time and students were welcomed for the first day of school. Uh and most importantly, I want to thank uh our BBSD uh board uh Dr. Anderson and our voters uh who approved this. Uh it's your dedication uh and your commitment that makes uh this work possible. And uh we're really proud of the work that we're accomplishing here. And so I want to share this highlight reel of work that we put together for uh what we've completed over the past few summers so far.

1:48:33Thanks to our communications team for putting that footage together. It's uh really great to see all that those exciting improvements in that reel. Um our next slide here uh we take a look at our updated timeline within the bond and what's happened really since January. So we're wrapping up our summer construction, our elementary, middle, and PK8 sites. Uh while phase 2 high school projects will continue into next summer, our phase three construction documents were delivered in September. We're now bidding those projects and we'll bring be bringing amendment uh documents uh for the November board meeting for your review. Uh looking ahead, RFPs are nearly complete with being evaluated for phase 4 and teams begin work in January uh setting us up for construction in summer 2027. Uh this is just a reminder of the schools we have wrapping up projects that are in construction and then our future projects that are being designed right now. So transitioning really over all four phases at this current juncture.

1:49:43Uh as you know some of our phase one projects uh stretched over two summers. So, at Broomfield High, uh, this summer, we completed replacement of the stadium lighting, the press box and bleachers. Interior work here included completing the expanded business center and flex space in the 700 wing. And then, uh, our continued mechanical upgrades were completed this summer as well. Also, at Centurus, uh, Pressbox uh was renovated on the field there. The flooring on the first floor was replaced and then um we continued with mechanical upgrades installation there as well. And then our graphics package which you see in the lower right photo there um was implemented at New Vista. We had demolition of the middle school wrapped up baseline middle wrapped up uh in the summer. uh work all around the site has progressed and uh is really at the uh end of completion right now including grading landscaping uh installation the turf field and the parking and sidewalk construction. So the solar panel scope of work is moving forward. We have design drawings that are 90% complete. Uh the panels have been ordered um and we anticipate installation of the solar array in February and March without any interruption uh or risk to the school activities.

1:51:01We're excited for the upcoming ribbon cutting ceremony uh and open house on November 13th and hope that you're all able to join us. Here's a reminder of all the school sites from this summer. Uh along with these, we had our second round of universal playground projects at six schools. Uh we had the Netherland Middle School high school track and field replacement that was moved forward in the bond uh due to a need need to replace them before the summer of 2027. Uh playground improvements uh that were needed uh to be addressed at Jamestown Elementary School were also completed. Uh Apex will complete phase three of five in December. The new entry and instructional spaces on the first floor are scheduled to open in January 26, marking a big milestone for this project. really exciting to see how that's coming together.

1:51:55Boulder and Monarch high schools are now in summer two uh phase planning. So, scheduling and coordination of construction activities are underway to ensure a smooth transition transition into our next construction phase. So, I want to further highlight the progress at Apex here for just a minute. Uh we began phase one construction in March and it's exciting to see how much progress has been made since then. So in this slide you can see photos showing our architectural renderings uh starting to come to life particular on the first floor of the north wing. So these newly renovated classrooms will soon be home to biomemed and criminology pathways uh providing modern and flexible learning spaces uh for hands-on learning. It also includes a design for an outdoor uh scenario space that's been completed where students will be able to conduct crime scene investigations and EMT scenarios. So really adding that real world dimension to their learning experiences.

1:53:00In August, we welcome students into transformed former library space um on the second floor, now home to the college and career connections, Apex Counseling offices, and our teacher academy. At the same time, we opened the new spaces north and east of the cafeteria where Arapjo Ridge High School classrooms, administr administrative offices, uh their counseling areas, and the new heart space are currently thriving thriving and well used. So, projects in phase two continue to fulfill the promises of the the critical needs plan. Culinary labs were updated with new equipment, countertops, and appliances at Boulder High, seen here in the upper left. And at Monarch, we expanded uh accessibility and play opportunities at playgrounds. Uh this one in the middle was Esquea Bilingua Pioneer. Um on the upper right is the expanded KYT studio at Monarch High School. The Panther TV studio at Boulder High also is updated uh with industry standard equipment and new finishes. Uh in this bond program, we are investing in auditorium upgrades as you know as well. And so at a number of our high schools, you can see um this happening and and here the new lighting at Boulder High School is highlighted in the bottom left.

1:54:18The business classrooms at Bowler High uh were reconfigured and updated with new furniture and casework, similar to upgrades that we did uh at um Broomfield High and Monarch High. And we will uh be replacing turf at most of the tracks and fields at our high schools as well in this program. And you can see the new field at Netherland Middle High School here in the lower right. That turned out really great. So, uh, like I said, we're bringing our contract amendments to you, uh, for phase three at the November 18th board meeting, uh, for you, for for our phase three projects, uh, and coordination meetings for our summer schedules at each of the schools are underway. Uh we'll meet with school stakeholders holders this fall to refresh on the upcoming scopes, discuss upcoming planning meetings, including our bond 102 meetings that'll be scheduled for the spring of 2026. And that's really designed to prepare our staff for what improvements will be made over the summer and then what those uh logistics plans will look like for preparing them for that.

1:55:29Over the past three months, we've been uh completing uh evaluations for our phase 4 RFP process for both architects and general contractors. So, we had strong participation uh which we felt really good about. Uh received competitive proposals from our pre-qualified teams. We anticipate those again coming in November and December likely will be um those contracts for review. um that'll keep us on track to kick off design uh in at the new year. Uh both architects and general contractors have commented positively on really our preparation, the clear timelines uh the coordinated approach that we have um and really the windows that we're hitting. So we know that there's a lot of other bonds out there uh right now that are active after last year's election. So what we found of our planning efforts are really paying off to help us attract these strong teams and we're hitting windows ahead of other districts right now.

1:56:27And with that uh I am happy to be joined here tonight by Katherine Barnes who is our vice chairperson on the our community bond oversight committee uh to provide meeting updates. Uh John Stanton was not able to be here tonight so happy to have Katherine here with us. Thank you very much. Good evening board and Dr. Anderson. I'm Katherine Barnes. I'm uh the engineering coordinator at Centurus High School. Yes. I'm the computer. Hi, I'm Katherine Barnes. I'm the engineering coordinator at Centurus High School. I'm also the mother parent of two uh Boulder Valley School District graduates. So, um I'm also the co-chair of the community bond oversight committee. So, uh, tonight what we wanted to do is, um, since we last spoke at the last meeting, we had our last meeting on September 17th and we reviewed the financial documents and at that time the expenditures through September 9th were the 158 million. Okay. Um, we have incumbrance of 47 million. Am I still not close enough?

1:57:38Thank you. Um and so we've got the forecast remaining extend expenditures of 183 million. Uh we heard different project updates and where we were and we had an item action item for Crest View Elementary School. And at Crestview Elementary School, what we did here is the committee recommend recommended the action item for the Crestview Elementary School totaling $875,814 for roof and gutter repairs. And that was an increase due to the state of the roof at Crest View Elementary School. And so the bond oversight committee voted to recommend that action item for you to approve here tonight as board members. So that's what we're looking to ask for this evening. Have any questions on that? Okay. Thank you. Um and those are all the updates that we actually have for you this evening. So, uh, we'll open it up for any other questions you might have about the bond program for members who would like to kick off questions about the bond.

1:59:12So, I have a question, please. Last week, we had a presentation on declining enrollment. We discussed ways forward. Several of the schools listed in phase four are our lowest enrolled schools. And I'm wondering as we think of how our bond projects will work together with our thinking about declining enrollment moving forward, particularly with phase 4 who are we're just doing RFPs on design proposals. Other items have yet to be purchased. I'm just wondering staff's thoughts on how those two work together or against each other. President Rushball, great question and this is something that we've been talking about before we even went to voters because declining enrollment has been a topic in this district for quite some time and that is one of the reasons that you see a number of our elementary schools at the tail end of the bond program. So uh although Chris and his team are proceeding with design, we are not proceeding with ordering equipment, materials, other things. Those would come to the board uh about 10 to 11 months from now for us to take action.

2:00:27So that is something that I'll be working with Dr. Anderson on it, Dr. Anderson on here in the next couple months, bringing timelines to you to develop next steps as it pertains to declining enrollment. Elia, just as a followup, um, so I see phase 4 contracts um, coming for review in November and December. Are we talking about November and December of this year? So, you'll have contracts coming in for this coming summer's work in November. That's on November 18th. But the majority of our projects, those elementaryaries that we've been talking about will be summer of 27. So those contracts would come to you sometime in October, November of 26. Thank you for that clarification. So you will see so for phase three, those will be our general contractor amendments for the construction work. Then you would see our design contracts for the RFPs we're reviewing now and then a preconstruction phase from our contractors. So that's kind of their uh contract is just or agreement just to help us estimate those projects to see where they would come in.

2:01:55Do you have a rough ballpark of how much money is earmarked for phase 4? Um I can get that to you. Yeah, we we do have it mapped out. I don't have it just calculated right now, top of my head, but um I can definitely get that back to you. Board members, any other questions or comments? Thank you for this update and thank you for so much fiscal responsibility. Um managing our bond, overseeing the work, keeping us on budget and on time is a huge lift and we're grateful. My pleasure. Thank you. Our next information item this evening, board members, is an update to our preschool program. I will turn it over to Nativity Miller to do introductions. All right. Good evening, President Rajpaw, members of the board, Dr. Anderson. This evening, we'll provide you with a preschool update for the 20 2526 school year. Um, and just wanted to quickly share while today we'll be updating you on preschool, I wanted to inform you that our ECT ECE team is also responsible for preschool enrichment, our preschool community liaison, as well as our kindergarten instructional support and professional learning. Um, today you will be hearing from executive director um, Dr. Emma Herszog, executive director of academics, and as well as our ECE director, Teresa Clemens. And so with that, I'll pass it on to Dr.

2:03:20Herszog. One moment. Uh Dr. Herszog, before you before you get started, board members, uh this is a preschool update, but as a reminder in our prioritization, um it was kindergarten readiness. So, we've wrapped kindergarten readiness into more overarching preschool updates just to give you context as to why it's coming this way. Sorry about that. All good. Good evening. Um, tonight we will share some preschool enrollment updates for this year. Review highlevel data on the growth that our four-year-old students make in preschool using TS Gold. Review some initial data on Alicia Sanchez's 30-our a week full day model. And then talk through some additional questions we have about the effectiveness of our preschool and related longitudinal data we're exploring. At the end, we'll close with some ongoing next steps we have for the rest of this year and beyond.

2:04:14So to start, we'd like to share some updates on our enrollment this year. Our preschool enrollment is up from where it was this time last year. As of October 1st of this year, we had 832 students enrolled. On October 1st of last year, we had 770 students enrolled. Last year at this time, we had 325 students with an IEP enrolled, and this year, that number is down slightly to 293 students with an IEP enrolled. It's worth noting that the majority of our at the majority of our preschool sites, our general ed seats are either completely filled or have only one to two remaining openings. Our preschool community liaison are essential to our enrollment process. Community liaison are actively recruiting yearround and continue to make connections within the community to ensure all families are aware of our program and how to enroll. This is our second year of having a 5-day a week program and our program's strong and positive reputation is continuing to spread.

2:05:15In addition to our overall enrollment numbers, we also wanted to share a potential emerging trend we're noticing with out of district enrollment in preschool. Prior to universal preschool, we did not take out of district preschoolers. Now that we're accepting out of district preschoolers, we're noticing that the number of those students continues to grow. As you can see on this slide, over the past two years, our out ofdist preschool students have grown from 49 to 93. This is an emerging trend we're keeping an eye on and we're monitoring the potential impact this may have on kindergarten and beyond. It's important to mention that the current status of the Colorado Childcare Assistant Program or CCAP impacts our enrollment. CCAP provides funding for early learning and care for families who qualify based on income. Funding for CCAP is currently frozen statewide. This means that the majority of families who qualify for CCAP are not able to access those funds, which creates a barrier for families who have three-year-olds and families who need full day care. In order to help address this barrier for our BBSD families, Impact on Education secured funding for 70 tuition waivers for students. These waivers have made it possible for three-year-olds to access preschool and four-year-olds to access a full day. Without the support of Impact on Education, we would not be able to

2:06:30serve as many families. and they're truly making an impact. Terresa Clemens, our director of early childhood, will will take you through the next portion of our presentation. Good evening. On this slide, you can see a visual of our current programming, and this is the second year with our model. Each preschool classroom is taught by an early childhood special educator. And there is a three-hour preschool class in the morning, 5 days a week, and a three-hour preschool class in the afternoon, 5 days a week. In preschool, there are no Wednesday late starts. Students attend for the same three hours, 5 days a week, in order to meet that 15-hour requirement from the state. At 14 of our sites, we also have an option for enrichment. um which allows for an extended day for our preschoolers. This slide shows one example of how preschool enrichment supplements preschool to create a full day bell-to-bell 5 days a week schedule for these families. In this example, the student is enrolled in morning preschool 5 days a week and then after those three hours, the student moves to the enrichment classroom where they spend the remaining four hours a day.

2:07:48Some students would have a schedule with enrichment opposite this with enrichment in the morning and preschool in the afternoon. Before we look at some data, I want to give an overview of the gold assessment that we use in preschool and kindergarten. The gold assessment was launched by teaching strategies in 2010. It is a birth through third grade assessment and it's used by 90% of Head Start programs and 63% of the largest school districts nationwide. Gold is one of CDE's approved assessment systems for state reporting for preschoolers who have an IEP and Gold is also one of CDE's approved kindergarten school readiness assessments that is completed for all kindergarteners within the first 60 days of school. The gold assessment system has six domains which you can see across the bottom of the slide there. In addition to these six domains, we also look at science, arts, and social studies. The social emotional domain looks at skills such as naming feelings and working together in groups.

2:08:56The physical domain looks at gross motor skills such as balancing and kicking a ball and fine motor skills such as using writing and drawing tools. The language domain looks at things like vocabulary and engaging in conversations. The cognitive domain looks at tasks such as solving problems and persistence. Literacy looks at items such as alphabet and book knowledge. And then math, of course, numbers and counting. Preschool teachers complete gold three times a year. Using the TS Gold Checkpoint data, we can look at how our preschool students progress throughout the year. This data set is for our four-year-olds in preschool at the beginning of year and end of year in the 2425 school year. It includes only students who participated in all three checkpoints and shows what percentage of our four-year-old preschool students are within widely held expectations for their age. You can see that across the TS Gold domains, our four-year-old preschoolers made significant progress from fall to spring. For instance, in the fall, only 54% of the four-year-olds were within widely held expectations for social emotional. And by the end of the year, that grew to 86%.

2:10:13In this table, you can see the progress our our preschool students make in our programming across all six domains. And we also know and understand that this is limited data. Now we're going to look at our full day model at Alicia Sanchez and share some early quantitative and qualitative data in what we are seeing as a result in that model. At Alicia Sanchez, we have a full day model that is 30 hours a week with an early childhood special educator. Students spend the full 30 hours a week with this educator and do not change classrooms midday like in the model with enrichment. This full day model is 5 days a week, six hours a day. First, we're going to look at some kindergarten school readiness data at Alicia Sanchez for the 2324 school year when we were not implementing the 30-hour a week preschool model compared to 2425 when we began the 30hour a week preschool model. It is important to note that these are two different groups of students and we are only comparing one year of each model, but we wanted to share the initial data that we have. The kindergarten school readiness benchmark is where the preschool and kindergarten expectations meet on the assessment scale. If a student meets the kindergarten readiness benchmark, it shows that they have strong foundational

2:11:44skills as they enter kindergarten. On this table, you will see a comparison of four-year-old students at Alicia Sanchez meeting the gold kindergarten school readiness benchmark in 2324 as compared to 2425. There are some significant celebrations that we see from our first year of implementing this 30-hour a week model. For example, in the social emotional domain, we saw growth from 50% of the students meeting that benchmark to 81% of the students meeting the social emotional benchmark. With language, we saw growth from 46% readiness to 77% and in literacy, we saw growth from 67% to 85%. Of course, we have more work to do. However, from a gold and kindergarten readiness perspective, there is overall a clear increase in kindergarten readiness in the social, emotional, language, and literacy areas. We know these areas are essential for student success in kindergarten and beyond.

2:12:55We'd also like to share with you some qualitative data that we've gathered from the families at Alicia Sanchez. Patricia Aman, our preschool enrollment and family services coordinator, and I held a family roundt in June of 2025 to learn about the experiences of our families and how the model at Alicia Sanchez has impacted their family. Overwhelmingly, the feedback was positive. Families saw great progress in language, social skills, and behavior when their child spent the full day with the early childhood special educator. I don't know. Let's see if this one will work. The remote does not seem to want to work. Do you want to try? Does the other one work? Oh, that one. One of them worked. It's this one. There you go. Okay, now it's working. Thank you. All right. So, um, families shared that their students went from not wanting to go to school to loving going to school.

2:14:11And families shared that the ECSE supported them with strategies and routines at home and that they they too have learned from the teacher. The challenges that they shared were about the schedule. Our 30-our week model ends at 150 and having preschool end one hour before the rest of the school can be challenging for some families. We also spoke with families who are receiving a tuition waiver through Impact on Education for their child to attend preschool at Alicia Sanchez. Last school year, we were able to award six tuition waivers through impact on education. And this school year, we have awarded 14 tuition waivers through Impact on Education for Families at Alicia Sanchez. The feedback we heard from families is that their students would not have had access to preschool without the waiver. It has increased their family's financial status and food security. Many families shared that it was the first time their children had been exposed to English and all of the students benefited from high quality programming.

2:15:16In addition to now learning English and their colors, numbers, and letters, families report that their students display self-confidence and ease when at school. We're seeing initial positives with this model, and we will continue to work with the staff at Alicia Sanchez to monitor the effectiveness of this model. I will now pass it back to Dr. Herszog. While we're regularly reviewing our existing preschool data, we also have some bigger questions and we've been working with our new executive director of accountability and evaluation, Dr. Jessica Alzen, and her team to plan for next steps on addressing those questions. We know that with universal preschool legislation, preschool is a significant cost investment. We want to better understand what impact our district preschool has on student outcomes. Here are the research questions that we're trying to answer. How effective is our preschool program?

2:16:13What impact does being in our preschool have on kindergarten readiness and beyond? And how do students who attend our preschools do in our schools compared with students who do not attend our preschool? We're working there. We go. We're working with the assessment team to take stock of current and past data to figure out what sorts of analyses are possible to help us answer those research questions. As we take stock, some of our considerations include, first, we've changed our preschool programming three times in the last four years with the changed universal preschool and then finalizing our BBSD programming model to meet the 15 and 30 hours. From a data collection perspective, the student experience across those years has not been consistent. Second, we'll need to control for both student profiles and time spent in our preschool. We'll need to determine comparison groups to make sure our demographic comparisons are consistent.

2:17:12For example, comparing a low-income student who attends our preschool with one who didn't, and comparing a student with an IEP who attended our preschool with one who doesn't, didn't, etc. We'll also need to control for time spent in our preschool. Students can spend anywhere from a month or two up to almost three full years in our preschool program. Third, we also need to review the data we have available on what students who did not attend our preschool were doing for their preschool years. Currently, families who join us in kindergarten may choose to self-report where their student was prior to kindergarten, but it's optional. And last, the assessment team is also currently reviewing our historical preschool enrollment data for accuracy as state departments and student coding has changed over the last several years. In the words of our assessment team, all of these variables make defining the treatment group and the comparison group messy. So given that, for our next steps, we will continue to collaborate with the assessment team. And we're currently in the phase of taking stock of what's possible given the current and historical data we have. And from there, we'll be designing a plan for what can be done to answer our questions.

2:18:27In addition to next steps with our research questions and data collection, there are also three key elements that continue to be ongoing and critical components for our work in preschool. First, we'll continue to leverage the preschool community liaison team for recruitment and support for families through the enrollment process. Our increased numbers are due in significant part to our preschool community liaison team who work one-on-one with families through every part of the enrollment process and who are deeply connected with communities and families to help spread the word on our programming. Second, we'll continue to find alternative ways to offer preschool tuition waiverss for our low-income families. CCAP remains frozen indefinitely and we know that access to high-quality preschool experience for students and families who would qualify for CCAP is essential. And last, we'll continue to advocate to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood for an improved enrollment process and efficient and timely approval for families who qualify for 30 hours. Their enrollment systems continue to be clunky and difficult to navigate for both school districts and families. and Teresa has and will continue to prioritize attending all office hours, giving feedback, and asking critical questions to improve outcomes for all.

2:19:36When we look back on the start of universal preschool two years ago to now, we're proud of how far we've come and the positive traction we're making within this new legislation. We also know as always that there is plenty more work to be done. And with that, Teresa Nativity and I are happy to take any questions. Thank you for that presentation. Looks like Laney will be kicking us up with questions. Thanks for the presentation. Um, and with CCAP frozen, I want to give a shout out to Allison because she's here. 70 waivers for preschoolers. That's a big deal. So, thank you. Um, and to our team here, do we have any idea how many kids are out there that we're not capturing? not just what they're doing, but how many kids are not coming into our preschools?

2:20:33I don't I don't have that exact number. Um I know that one of the things in Boulder County is that we have more preschool slots for three, four, and 5y olds than we have three, four, and 5year-olds in the county. And the type of um early care that's needed really is infant toddler. But as far as how many were not reaching or aren't in any program, I'm not sure what that number is. I will add and Teresa can jump in when I probably get some of this wrong. My understanding is with Colorado preschool program previously, maybe not for the lowinccome indicator, but there was more flexibility with how to provide access to three-year-olds who might have had some sort of indicator eligibility than what we have through universal preschool. So, historically, we were able to capture a wider array of three-year-olds through state funding than what we're able to now with universal preschool. And I don't know if you want to add or edit any Dr. Anderson, totally unscientific.

2:21:33We have around 2,000 kindergarteners. I'm looking at somebody to And we had about 930 kids in preschool. So almost, you know, a little less than 50%. 40ish%. Again, I mean, to the extent that some of those folks move here in kindergarten, some of those folks don't live here. So, you know, gives you a sense. Um, and I don't know that we have the capacity or ability to serve 100%. Uh but we are continuing to grow. Other questions? Jason, thanks. My chair has been falling on me, so I hope it doesn't do that while I'm asking a question. But um just, you know, on the slide on out of district enrollment. Um you know, it said 49 and 23 24 75. Do we have any sense of how many of those kids have stayed in the district in kind through kindergarten to kindergarten?

2:22:31You want to take the This was never going for it. Um I don't I don't know if I know the percentage. We were just when we were preparing for this presentation, Teresa pulled up one of our VizLab reports and we were like, "Look at this." And then we noticed that kindergarten and first grade, some of the numbers districtwide are potentially higher than second grade on. So I think at this time we have more questions than we have answers. But one of the things that we're starting to work on with the assessment team as part of those questions that we laid out is like, hey, can we track some of these kids over time? And then it potentially opens some possibilities to think about that will all have ripple effects and and things to think about of like maybe a potential future recruitment strategy. I mean, this is off the cuff, right? Which is a great thing to do when you're at a board meeting. um but is is just saying something like hey if you come to us for preschool we'll prioritize you in some way for lottery for kindergarten or something to incentivize kids. So I do think it's something to watch and it's something that we'll be working with the assessment team on going forward.

2:23:35I I would say that you to the extent that we can continue to tout the quality of our program uh as folks are making choices both inside and outside of the district um I I think is is important as well. uh again as a retention tool and a preparation tool. Um you know again I I love the questions that you're asking and this is tough to triangulate all this data to to kind of really be able to confidently answer questions and not speculate. So um but most of the preschool programs do not have certified teachers that are certified in both early childhood and special education like we do in BBSD. uh and so uh that is for sure a measure of quality in terms of our of our the certification qualification of our educators uh but I do think that that's really important thing to know and understand uh if you're with us in in um preschool do you stay with us so yeah thanks and I would just you know I mean that's 50 kids in two years and so just given our larger conversations on enrollment I think it's something important we should track and um focus on if we can. And then I just add you I appreciate this, but as one of what is it 893

2:24:51kids, my daughter is uh at preschool at Creekide and just having an incredible experience, really incredibly um experienced and energetic teachers and uh there's really no better way to prepare her for kindergarten than being in school, having um you know, going to the cafeteria like the big kids and seeing her older brother of course, but like just so many things um you know comparing to our previous experience as private preschool. It's just really an incredibly um positive experience and something I hope we can share more with people in the community both to attract obviously more kids and just get more kids prepared for kindergarten. So, thanks. Thank you, Kitty. So, how is the enrollment process compared to the first year? I I would say it's not any better. Um the state continues to try to make adjustments. Um but it's still really difficult and parents don't understand. They need to go through the state system to then get matched with a program and they also need to apply and or a ro enroll in our infinite campus system. And so it's still really problematic and it's a slow process. Prior to UPK, a family could come to us, we could get them enrolled that same day and we could work with them. And we also had flexibility of seats. One thing that I'm concerned

2:26:26about is they're starting to put more pressure and we're not allowed to change our seats more than 20% and as we're trying to meet the needs of the community and how many three-year-olds and how many four year olds and how many half day full day it's almost impossible to predict that today which we have to predict today for August of 26. So it continues to to be an issue that we continue to advocate and welcome other advocacy. Can I add I think one thing that I've observed Theresa and team is like just our ability to get more nimble and proactive relative to all those barriers and we talked a little about our preschool pal leazison team but truly the work that's done to go handinhand with families throughout all the whole process. It's clunky. We're giving feedback, but I think as a district team, because we know the clunks a little better, even though they're shifting, we are um maybe addressing them like more fluidly than we were two years ago.

2:27:29Jorge, thank you. It's great seeing the progress of the last bunch of years despite the challenges and barriers. Um I I appreciate you kind of trying to figure out what's working and and where and being really thoughtful about how you control for different things. I I I have a question a little bit to think about um the enrichment versus preschool distinction. If you can talk a little bit about that. I know there's 14 schools and and I'm curious about what that the differences look like. If you can tease out the data to see if there's differences in terms of outcomes and and what the distribution looks like compared to other schools. So to clarify, all students come and have three hours with a licensed early childhood specialed teacher. And where we have enrichment, then they spend the other half of a day um with a classroom lead who does not need to be a licensed teacher, but who does need to have education to basically it would be the same um education and experience that you would need to be a director at a private child care center. Um and so the enrichment team works closely with the preschool team to basically do that, enrich what the students are doing um in that opposite session. So we know just

2:28:49students being able to spend a full day um in our program is beneficial to them. Um, as far as getting to that place of comparing those that are in both preschool and enrichment versus just enrichment, we haven't got to that place yet of being able to to look at that data. This is just the second year that enrichment has been under our department and previous to that it was under community schools um and a different type of program. I think every time Teresa talks, it gives me an idea of of something that I want to say when I think I didn't have anything. What we do know and and I and I know we've talked about this in the past too is just at our sites that have enrichment, we tend to see higher enrollment because it is a need for families. And so part of um the wedi game that Teresa is very good at playing is like at how many families do we need to break even on cost to make sure we're staffed appropriately? Where do we have the space? Because in some of our schools, we have the demand, but we don't necessarily have the space. So it is um you know, it's wonderful to have b-tobell high quality preschool programming. And we're also just

2:29:52continuously trying to think about how do we maximize where there's the most need in the community with the spaces that we have. And then the point is well heard as as we continue really distinguishing um our sites that have enrichment versus not and disagregating data in that way to see if we can find any trends. Thank you. That's really helpful. Um uh we have 14 sites with enrichment out of how many preschools? And c can you talk a little bit about the where they're located and accessibility and and how we're addressing that or if there's potential for growth in those uh schools? We're at 24 sites, 24 elementary and prek 12 sites. Um so all throughout the district we have Netherland, Lafayette, Lewisville, Superior, Boulder, Broomfield. I name name them all. Um and so they're all throughout the district I would say. Um, our enrollment, what we've seen in Boulder has been a little bit lower and our enrollment in the Lafayette area has been higher. So, we could um use some more space in the Lafayette area, but the spaces there are not quite as available as they are in Boulder. So we continually look at where is there a preschool classroom available, where is that need and you know how can we move forward? Do we need

2:31:16to adjust classrooms and so forth? Does that answer your question? One final question. Um is is there enrichment at the Sanchez site as well or is it pre strictly preschool? So um the difference at Alicia Sanchez is those students spend that full day with the teacher. So there's not enrichment because they're with the preschool teacher the entire time. So that's the difference and that's the only site where we're doing um that model. I have a question. Are there national norms for either achievement or growth in TS Gold? So um we were looking at that um the last normative sample that teaching strategies did was from 1819 and so we felt like that to compare 2425 to 18/19 which was precoid also that normative sample was not the same type of sample and percentages as our school district like as far as percentage of students um on IEP. PS and things like that. So we are I anticipate that with universal preschool that statewide data is going to become available. That is something that they are looking at um for their accountabil and then we'll have access. When we had Colorado preschool there was state data for Colorado preschool programs but again that last data set was 2223.

2:32:56Thank you for that. I also just want to say thank you for your efforts to continue to push the state on improving the UPK system and also put a plug that there are elections coming up and different people be in different roles and and advocating with those folks who might be coming into those roles in 2026 and beyond is also um could be worthwhile for us as we continue to navigate what has been a very challenging system. Dr. Anderson, I asked that same question. I mean, wouldn't you think wouldn't you think that if if you were investing this much in a new program, that'd be like the first thing you'd set up is is understanding what good is? I I think one of the I'll I won't do this very long, but you know, one of the challenges with the with um the UPK program is there's no quality control on programming and they don't have any way so you can even analyze the results on the mandatory assessments that you have to give. That's broke.

2:34:05Thank you so much for this update and for all your efforts in preschool and kindergarten readiness. Thank you. Our final information item this evening is the legislative update. Dr. Anderson, did you have anything to share? Ballots are in the mail. if you already have haven't had them and have returned them. Um I will say uh to your previous point uh that as a superintendent group, the front range superintendents are beginning to engage with um candidates for governor. 26 is around the corner and trying to understand who do we feel like will be uh the person that's best positioned to support um to support public education quit K12 education help us navigate through the challenges what are the things we're asking them about student count universal preschool because whoever is the governor will be the new person in charge of universal preschool right so there's very direct control um um asking about uh you know funding um and just overall um approach. Oh, asking about the federal uh tax credit uh tax break uh that the governor gets to decide by 26 if Colorado participates or not. So, I think there's some high stakes um things for K12 in the next governor's race that I would just hope that folks would pay attention to. And I would imagine that um organizations,

2:35:32educational organizations will be endorsing candidates at some point to um based on on positions on those items. Thank you for that update. Board members, we've been asked for a 5m minute comfort break before we come back for action and study items. Welcome back everyone. Calling the meeting back to order. Our next item on today's agenda is action items. Consent grouping 8.1 personnel items 8.2 approval of minutes October 14th 2025. 8.3 approval of minutes October 21st 2025. 8.4 Four, authorization of transfer to Cresfield Elementary School. 8.5 cancellation of the December 23rd, 2025 board meeting. 8.6 grant health services substance use of prevention from the AG's office. Are there any items board members like to pull from consent grouping? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve? Moved by Kitty, seconded by Jorge. Board members, is there any discussion on consent grouping? Seeing none, Laura, can you please call the role?

2:43:31Yes. Medler. Whoops. Quinn Linua. Yes. Raj Paul. Yes. Sergeant, yes. Hunger, yes. Motion passes. Our next item on tonight's agenda are policy study items. We have several policies under study today to try to clean up the docket for the rest of this semester prior to the next prioritization. We're going to go through these in a couple big chunks and I'll hand it over to Kathleen to talk about that. Thank you, board president Rajpaw. So, um, we do have a few sets of materials here that we can group together. Items 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 are policies that the board addressed in August of this year. They were immediate changes that were made necessary due to changes in the law. Under the board's policy, we are then required to go through our ordinary policy adoption process where you study and then take action at the second meeting. So, tonight is the first of our normal study opportunities for these. There have been no additional changes made since the board touched these in August.

2:44:53Board members, any questions or comments on these three policies? Solenia, then Kitty. Okay, Kathleen. Um, on a on IGAC, I'm still confused about the um under C, the human sexuality part. I'm just still not sure that how that gets back to um religion and school. But anyway, I just as long as it's supposed to be there. I I did take a look at that again. So board member Quinnland Noea is asking about languages that is on page two. So it's section C3 of the policy had the new language in response to the Supreme Court case Mahmood versus Taylor that explains how a family would go about seeking a religious opt out. I think that reference just to if we're talking about our health education or sexual education, that isn't an opt out under this policy, it would happen under IG AE. Would it help if I added the policy reference there? I I think I just couldn't understand what it was trying to do. So, yes, it would help me if I were reading that. Um, and my second thing on this is does this policy apply to athletic competitions?

2:46:21Yes, this like all of the board's policies apply to our education and to our activities. I guess I should say to most policies would apply across our school district programs and activities. Uh, and so I don't know if anybody else is open to a friendly amendment there, but I would like athletic events and activities to be specifically called out in this policy where in somewhere part in the policy about not having religion in school. in this policy. We don't we don't talk about athletics anywhere in this policy as far as I can see in the title. You could put it anywhere you want to put it or perhaps in the neutrality section that talks about the establishment clause restriction. So when we're thinking about things like um prayer at an athletic event for example, if it is a student expression, then it would not have any constitutional issues. But certainly under this policy, adults could not lead prayer at an athletic or any other event. But I'm I think that we could put a reference to make sure that it's clear that that neutrality requirement applies to programs in that section. A I'm just wondering if anybody has yet opted out. I know the board got an email at the very beginning of the school year and so I'd just be curious how many have

2:48:11opted out of various things and what we have done to accommodate them. Well, as we sort of anticipated candidly, because this isn't a brand new policy for this board, and there's been language consistent with the constitutional rights of families for some time. To my knowledge, we've had one family opt out of instruction. Um, I think that it's really important to think about what that right is. What we're talking about is if there's instruction being delivered at school. And that definition is on page two in section three that we just referenced where it talks about um instruction means an oral, written or digital lesson, lecture or presentation. So I believe we've had just that one. So do we know what they've opted out of? I mean what subject matter? I actually think I need to correct myself. Board member Sergeant, I believe that the inquiry was about a specific ADL curriculum around No Place for Hate.

2:49:28I think there was a inquiry by a parent about whether there was instruction of that curriculum. The school's response was that they had a sign up that was sort of referencing the tenants, but there was not instruction through that curriculum because we've adopted the second step program as our anti-bullying curriculum. And that was the instruction that was being delivered at the school. And once the parent had that information, they actually didn't persist with the request to opt out. Thank you. Board members, any other questions or comments on 10.1 through 10.3? We can now move along to the next section. The next items that we will take a look at then are two that the board studied recently. So if you look at items 10.4 4 and 10.5. These are the policies that address grading and homework.

2:50:40Um, starting with um 10.4 great grading systems. There were an awful lot of red lines to this policy. So I did provide you with a clean one, but just for high level, the initial red language around assessment is really language that's required by law about our district assessment system. The grading system language that's just below it came from our existing policy. I did collapse policy and regulation into one document. So that existing language may have been from the regulation. Looking at page two, when we look at the principles, items one and two are new based on the board's discussion. The remaining items 3 through six are in existing language. As you proceed through this document, you will see that what we're really trying to do is get the policy to be aligned and consistent with current practice.

2:51:51Get it in a place where we really can have DAC who has told the board and staff that they are studying this area and tend to have comments this year. So this first cut was really an effort to get everything into one place, take out unnecessary redundancies and then align it with practice as well as the board's discussion in the agenda. Oh, sorry. In the agenda item, we did point out a few items that I did not attempt to redline or to correct. a few things that I think would warrant some specific discussion and then consideration as to how um any updates would be rolled in. Those items are in the bullets on the board's agenda. So, the use of pluses and minuses on letter grades is an issue that's been addressed in policy. whether to uh we also have a separate policy on weighted grades that the board did update in the last two years, but a question as to whether the board would want to further reduce the number of policies and integrate that language here.

2:53:06There is some language about notice requirements, giving kids notice if they're in danger of failing a class, and then some language around retaking courses where um we thought that those were items that might benefit from additional board discussion. Thank you for that overview and having attended the last DAC meeting where they were taking a first pass at all these grading policies. I think having something cleaner is going to be of immense help for them to provide feedback on. There was a lot of confusion about what did what was required, what was not required. I think even amongst ourselves, our old policy was really clunky. So I think this is a great first step. I think it helps us maintain what our existing practices whether or not we believe they could be modified and we can have some discussion on that. But I think that this will be a help helpful in all of us and our community reframing and having the conversation around grading and grading systems. So I appreciate the initial work on this. Board members who would like to kick off questions or comments on this policy.

2:54:14I a 10.4 Lenia. I would be in favor of moving the um weighted grade segments or policies into this so we only have one place to look. I think that'd be immensely helpful. I also think one thing about the pluses and minuses, I'm curious how many schools use pluses and minuses and how many schools don't and the benefit of continuing to allow that practice if they are not in our high schools if they are not then included on transcripts. Historically, pluses and minuses have been used to further differentiate grades so they can help with class rank. But if that's not a practice that we're doing, our weighted grades policy also talks about what great weighted grades look like and it talks that we will not use class rank. So I'm curious if we have an understanding of how how widely used that practice is. We don't know but I would really like that to be looked at because if consistent what I heard at the last board meeting is a high degree of consistency at sites and across the district so everybody understands and and are we are consistent in in what all the grades mean from our BBSC schools. I would like that to be evaluated something to be considered as well.

2:55:38second on the weighted grades. Folding that in and then the degree to which I guess we allow schools versus departments versus the district deciding how to approach grading. If a school if we're considered allowing standard based grading, is the whole school have to allow standardsbased grading or can it be one teacher within a school or how are those decisions made? Like what what are we hoping for in this in this policy? Dr. Anderson. So just to be clear, this this first pass is just to clean up and then what you all are suggesting would be things that we'd hope Dak and others would weigh in on, give us feedback. You're not suggesting that that Kathleen try to do this now as part of the initial cleanup. No, no, no, no. But things to definitely Okay. So, we're defining step two.

2:56:39Step two. Okay. Because I think that we have to get some a good good amount of feedback on some of these things. What might not seem like a big change to the system might be a massive change for individuals or folks who again like we have to own the fact as a district that we've allowed these things to to to happen. So I just think we have to be sensitive to that. Other questions or thoughts on this policy board members? Can I ask a process the take this two-phase approach makes a great deal of sense. We can get feedback for any changes to board policy or district school direction. Are we going to keep this in red line? How long are we going to keep this in red line before we go out and get further feedback on grading before we kind of take that longer second phased approach?

2:57:37I mean, I think that you would approve a policy, right? Not a like you'd approve a policy, right? and this is the policy. And then we would continue the conversation based on board discussion, based on direction, based on prioritization, like, hey, we need to kind of think about these things. And we're just going to need to really think through the system implications. What are the implications on Infinite Campus? What are the implications on certain schools? You know, the why behind some folks and some departments and some schools are doing some of the things they are. They you know, you know, what does that happen? the know the whole standardbased grading like do we have folks that don't give zeros? Do you have like there's all kinds of nuances that over time depending on the professional development or the book that you read like folks have adopted different philosophies in the absence of a district here's how you do it. So I do think that it'll take some time. So let's clean it up. Let's get this let that let's get this clean so it just clarifies and cleans up. Doesn't change much. Right. Um, and then we can take it and adjust it, which this will be just a new approach for us with policy like the the one two kind of the first step,

2:58:43second step, which I think makes sense. So, particular for ones that are really messy. So, thank you for that. I look forward to passing this to get it out to the community for feedback. Moving on then to 10.5. So 10.5 is in the same group with the one that we just talked about where it is something that we know that we need some additional feedback and work on but the current policy is really far from actual practice. Um just this is the one policy of all that we had listed tonight that we actually got some feedback from through our website and I think encouraging what the board already talked about which is some flexibility in the policy itself but that was the only input that we received on this one. Um this this policy I don't think even had a regulation.

2:59:42So at this no I'm sorry it did have a regulation. So we have collapsed into one policy. We've eliminated the 1991 reference that we had that was there. We tried to consolidate it with just clarifying the language and condensing the district expectations and then making clear what school and program responsibilities and flexibilities could be. Board members, any questions or comments on IKB? I think it's much improved. I think it after DAC feedback, I know that they're going to approve their feedback the first meeting in November. we can potentially whittle it down further and if it makes sense I think then deciding if it makes sense to continue to be a standalone policy or after you look at all the a policies IGA if it can be embedded because none of this is required by state law I think much improved Okay, then we will turn next to our K policies. We have two. Um the first is public gifts to schools and the school district.

3:01:11Um, this is a policy that the board addressed in November 2024 and then talked about again. So, this is a first effort at a red line that would again consolidate the regulation. There is a theme here just to get our numbers down. Um, and then a number of red lines that were based on board discussion and efforts to just clean it up and make it a little bit easier to understand. Board members, questions or comments on this updated KH? Dr. Anderson, I would say that there's one thing here that we probably want to have a little bit more discussion on or consideration on, and that's the types of personnel that we allow schools to fund raise for. Um, you know, in the past it has been um very explicit that uh that that the dollars were were were allowed for more non-licensed um or temporary personnel versus uh giving, you know, parents hiring teachers.

3:02:35And uh I think that I have some concerns around that from an equity perspective, from a um um you know, I don't I don't want some schools to be able to just buy teachers and buy services when other schools maybe can't afford to do that. Uh, and I also think that gets tricky, right, when parents are giving money and to pay for the teacher that then who they respond to? They respond to the school district or the folks who are giving the money. I think that it can get just I I think I have some concerns there. I want to think about that a little bit more. I think that that the the rest of cleanup I think makes sense. Um, I do think we need a little bit more work on that and I apologize for not getting that feedback in earlier. Um, you know, we've got a bunch of policies we're trying to get going. So, I just kind of wanted to put that on the table as as something I think we need to consider.

3:03:32Yeah. And I think elevating that in item number one, it is confusing that the two bullets, the high schools talks just about personnel and then the elementary K8s talks about non-licensed regular temporary personnel. So just having that define personnel clearly and then apply those 10% 30% as they have been always applied because I think the first time we saw this policy that was the biggest feedback about like leave those alone but if we can have number one be a clear what clear what we define employee the way we want to define the type of employee and then kind of remove the nuance from those individual bullets and keep the reallocation exactly the same. I think that would be a relatively minor change and we could move forward these cleanups which make this policy so much easier to understand which will be a huge benefit to our schools and our community.

3:04:26Kitty, so I went through it quickly and didn't notice the difference much between the high school and the elementary. Um, and what I remember high schools raising money for is maybe to pay a a coach, you know, a teacher who's already there to coach something or I know the band director was paid to work over the summer, but it wasn't hiring a new person, but I think we should be fairly specific about what we mean by personnel and who can be hired at high school as well. piggybacking the the contract language for those types of employees that it's non what's the extra duty does extra does that language in the extra duty I know you do there's anou on extra duty right now too does that clean that up about how that extra duty comes in or not I just want to be clear that we're not the language is consistent across all the documents that refer to those types of employees that Kitty just referred to and also I'm sorry and also that they that all personnel answer to the school district, not to anybody else.

3:05:37We did add language to make clear that the evaluation and the supervision responsibilities are unchanged regardless of the source of the funding. But I think um I'm sorry, I have a migraine, so my my words are not cooperating with me right now. Yeah, I I I think we need to take a look at at that. make sure we don't want to we have to be in in um sync with our contract language and and and I think that you know um sometimes uh it's not a coach but they would have like a they'd call it a clinician. I'm just thinking about and this happens music band pro programs across the country, right? You bring in somebody specific to work with. If the band director doesn't play the drums and you want somebody to really, you know, teach the kids how to play the drums, you bring in a clinician, right? And I do think to a certain extent um there's specialized coaches for like track and field. You bring somebody in to you know pole vaultting if if you ran sprints you you don't want them coaching pole vaulting right? Somebody could get hurt. So um so so to not change practice but to clean the language up I think would be the language to would be the goal just to make sure everything

3:06:50aligns. Does that make sense Kathleen? Y okay that does. Thank you. and we'll clarify and make sure I have had those discussions with human resources, but I think a little bit more conversation will help us land exactly where we want with the language. Yeah. And just also all the work we did with the booster clubs and that kind of stuff. I mean, some of that that who's funding what does this apply to that or is this like PTO's raise dollars? Somebody gives a gift to the aeronautics program, somebody like we have the athletics and activities policies as well. So being really consistent on what's talking about what would be great. Okay, moving on to KHB sponsorships, Kitty. Oh, Kathleen. Oh, Kathleen's going to start. Never mind. This one was probably freshest on your mind since we talked about it most recently. Um, so the red lines that have been made to this policy were based on the board's discussion and I think your most recent meeting.

3:08:00Yeah, I was just going to say that I'm assuming everybody noticed that the last paragraph, the fir well the last full paragraph doesn't really make any sense. And Kathleen and I talked about that to say what is it supposed to say and I'm going to help her write what we want it to say and leave out the the nonsense. I read it to my daughter and she said it needs to be put out of its misery. That's the paragraph on documentation board members. So, we do have some ideas and we'll bring you one that is less miserable at the next meeting. Thank you for your work on that policy. Okay. And the final set of policies that we have then are the board's age policies. We looked at these policies in June 2025 and had not revisited them since. Um, so as board president Raj Paul mentioned, we're trying to make sure that we've completed action that the board has already initiated.

3:09:15Um, the board did hear some public comment tonight on a couple of provisions and those provisions are new language since we talked about this in June with the 51% that language was in the first red line. it. I modified it slightly in response to some feedback that we heard from the association, but the responses you heard tonight um or the public comment we received tonight were to that that updated language in the recognition section. And then you did get a couple of comments about new language where we're trying to align the language around scope of negotiations as well as that representation rule. Um, and then I did write down the association's final comment, not one that I had heard previously and something I would like to spend a little bit of time on between today and the board's next meeting.

3:10:15Kitty, yes. After hearing the comments from our union representatives, it gave me pause a little bit because I don't want to see anything that we do to harm the negotiations to harm our employees and the unions or to pull the rug out under them because of lower membership. Um, so I don't know how I didn't go back and read the absolute original ones, but I do have concerns about everything that they said if what we wrote would actually do what they're concerned it would do. Dr. Anderson, you thank you for those comments, Kitty. I' I'd like to to ask the board to give us a little bit of space to circle back with our associations to make sure that we honor the feedback that they gave. I appreciate them coming speaking this evening. Um I think that certainly our intent as a district, my intent as superintendent is to continue with the very positive relationships we've had.

3:11:25Uh things aren't going to get easier as we deal with the other things from the federal government, from state budgets, so on so forth. And so, um, to to have some just deeper conversations, um, with associations, uh, circle back and get something that's cleaner that I think that that we can live with, they can live with, um, and that that gets us to where we need to be is what I'd like to do. I was curious um because I also heard the concerns about the 51% and I'm wondering do we know what the percentages are currently for BVPA and for the classified employees in those unions? Um, we were in the process of getting updated numbers this fall. I think as the associate some of our members mentioned today that it changes as people retire and there's attrition and new people come in, but we'll have those for news and notes this week.

3:12:34Thank you. That would be super helpful. One thing I did notice that I'd like to suggest a change for is if you have a group that is wanting to hold an election to choose uh you know a union or other entity to represent them in negotiations and when I saw that it could be more than two possibilities I mean there's join a union or don't join a union but what if it's two separate unions and It says whatever gets a simple majority wins. But my concern is is that you could have more people voting against that than for it because there are three choices. And wondering if you could do ranked choice voting instead. So that you know that you what you end up with is what more people want. I think you would mean HG, right? Which is our method of determining staff negotiating organizations. I'll have to look at that. Yeah.

3:13:56In response to staff feedback about challenges to get to 51% of membership participation because dues are a hindrance. I mean I I it seems unusual that somebody somebody with a minority representation could represent a group. There's 20 20 people participating union that they would have those those decision-making powers in my brain logically. Who sets the dues? I mean, I also don't want dues to be the reason why people cannot participate. And I'm curious about who sets the dues and what are those dues? And what control does the district versus the bargaining units have over that? If that truly is a barrier to part to participation in the union, we so we don't set the dues, right? There would be I but I don't I would have to check in with our associations to see how that's determined and figured out. And you know I do think I I do appreciate um David's comments around uh you know thinking about these types of policies over the test over the just kind of will they stand the test of time right you know we've got this wonderful relationship now we work hard to maintain that lots of give and take lots of collaboration lots of consensus building um and so um and we also have strong you know association leadership right and so how do we create policies

3:15:18uh that ensure that regardless of who's leading associations, who's leading the district, who's on the board, that they get to a place where we're protecting employees, we're protecting the interests of the district. Um, but I do think that um we have to just have some more conversations on the why behind those things. What what's the flexibility? What's the inflexibility depending upon national affiliations? So on so forth. Yeah, I have one more question. So if there is a group, let's say one of the unions falls below 51% or whatever we if we revise the number. So if that were to cause them to use lose union representation, then who would negotiate for that group? I think that I mean I have no idea. I think the question is is a group still a group if there's not enough participation but the group of employees would still be a group of employees. I mean like the teachers are still the teachers even if BVEA didn't represent them. So are we expecting them to coalesce on their own and come up with negotiations or Well, I think as you heard the district and the board's role is neutral when it comes to employees determining who will represent them. I mean our policy has been silent on this issue since these policies were written in the 60s. I

3:17:00think um I would really want to look at what that process would be if policy doesn't have a way to say if it falls below this threshold there's no longer a represented group then would there be another election how would we go about assessing whether there's still adequate representation I think that's a question we should look into and bring you back more information. Any further questions on those policies? Board members process question, we have one meeting left before the I mean before elections. We have one meeting after that before we recess for the semester. Is there a potential for some of these that have not been questioned tonight during public comment and board comment to come back and then potentially taking longer for the others or do we have a timeline? Do we have to approve them all at once as a chapter? Can we approve them as we work our way through?

3:18:09I think that uh you know pretty quick to have the conversations that we need to have. Certainly, we want to be responsive. Whatever we can bring back in November, we'll bring back. will bring you back things that we feel really good about and that folks feel good about. And if there are things that folks don't feel good about, just, you know, they just won't be able to come back until we get to a place where where we get on the same page. Thank you for all that policy work this evening. Board members, final item on tonight's agenda, future agenda item requests. Is there anything anybody would like to add to our pri prioritization list for January? Oh, I have five things. Kitty's going to prioritize a bunch of work she won't be here for. Seeing as there are none, I just want to remind folks to vote. We've got elections in a week and cast those ballots. With that, our meeting for tonight is adjourned.