Transcript

0:00:04I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. Board members may attend in person or by electronic means in accordance with the B VSD policy, BMEA, and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? >> Chavez here. >> Medler. Nisnik here. Aa here. Raj Paul here. Sergeant >> here. >> Anger >> here. >> Thank you. >> Like everyone to turn their attention to the screens for our land acknowledgement this morning. The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute, Pueblin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time and memorial. 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.

0:01:44BBSD 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 everybody that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Thank you so much for joining us here in person today and observing the meeting remotely.

0:02:56We're glad to have you with us at this time. Is there a motion to approve today's agenda? Moved by Kitty, seconded by Beth. Laura, can you please call the role? Chavez. >> Yes. >> Medler. >> Nisnik. >> Yes. >> Win a >> Yes. >> Raj Paul. >> Yes. >> Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Anger. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> We have one topic today which is a work session on declining enrollment board members. Um I will turn it over to Rob to do the introductions. Before that, I just wanted to because we have Alex remotely today. I think what I would like to do is after every normal every section that of the presentation, we pause, we can go around the room, include Alex to ask any questions or to provide comments or feedback just so we can kind of keep that flow moving a little bit better with the remote participant. With that, I will hand it over to Dr. Anderson and Rob Price for introductions.

0:04:02>> Good morning, board president Raj Paul board members. uh excited to have our conversation today around uh long range planning. Um I'm going to turn it over to Rob for a second just to introduce folks and then um and then I have a few slides to go through before I turn the presentation over to Rob Price. >> Good morning board. I just want to do a few introductions. joining me today, Glenn Sigru, our senior planner, Robin Fernandez, assistant superintendent of schools, and then our two chairs, Jeff Anderson, our co-chair, and about Solless, our chair from our long range advisory committee. So, thank you all for joining us today. So board members, as we think about um setting the context and the stage for our conversation today, uh you know, first and foremost, talking about declining enrollment has been something that I think that this board has been doing proactively for the past four years. Uh we started with by identifying the problem. We started and and Rob's going to go through this in a minute. Um all of the steps that we've taken since 2022.

0:05:04uh and and I I I do want to highlight the proactive nature in the way that that we have been addressing this and looking at this problem and and it's evolving differently and in some ways and some ways the same than that we anticipated it would four years ago. We'll talk a little bit about that. But as we want to define the problem and define our goals as we think about addressing declining enrollment and what we're going to do today, uh you know, for our school system, we certainly want to first and foremost maintain and improve learning outcomes for all students. Our district has never been performing at a higher level than it is today. And we want to make sure that any decisions that we make um whether it's declining enrollment um budget staffing that we know and understand that that's what we wrap out first and foremost altogether for all students within our strategic plan. Uh we want to be able to to think about strategies and ideas that help us distribute students and so all schools have the right level of students and resources to maintain high quality learning experiences so we can continue to improve outcomes for all students.

0:06:07We'll talk a little bit about that, what that can look like. Uh we want to make sure that we're stabilizing our enrollment uh by retaining current students, but we also want to make sure that we're creating the conditions for new students to come join us. And whether that's students that are currently with living within our district and homechools, uh private schools, other options, or even districts, uh parents who are driving into our community or parents who live outside of our community. Uh but we also have this underlying uh scenario that we talk about maybe as much um as we talk about declining enrollment which is the ongoing fiscal challenges not just in K12 uh but here within our school district and because of those we're going to be making sure that any decision that that we make we have to maximize the efficiencies so we can continue to have the dollars to invest in our kids and in our schools.

0:06:59And I think that um as we define the problem and t and what we're going to talk about today um framing this up, we feel like that those are um really what it is that that um that we're going to be focusing our efforts on today as we talk about um where we are and potentially looking at uh what what you had asked in the spring which is you know and I think that this is the right question and I don't think the board is the only one asking this question. And I think those some folks in our community as well. Are we moving fast enough? Are we thinking broad enough? Right? Do the systems that we have today um where we're really looking at a single school at a time, will that get us to a place where we'll continue to be proactive enough that we get ahead of problems before we have um a crisis on our hands and that we're thrown into some of the scenarios that we've seen other districts across the country, across our state where they're trying to balance the budget by closing schools.

0:07:54And that's a really really difficult place for for a school district to be in. So, you know, continuing to be proactive. I know these are conversations that Elra has had as well in regards to when and how do you look at this broader look at and and we're going to kind of frame that up for you all to have that conversation today. Um just a reminder for the board and for the public. Um yes, yes, we are um declining in enrollment, but we're also achieving in incredibly high levels. uh levels that not only that this district has has never seen, but any district on the front range has ever seen. uh the the year that we had last year, the growth and achievement that we're seeing, not just from our kids that are already doing well, but from our most vulnerable populations of students, our multilingual learners, our students who were served with IEPs, our students on free and reduced lunch, their growth and achievement is at rates that not only outperforms their peers, they're like peers in other districts, but is the best performance we've ever seen as a district. And so, it's a huge celebration to know and understand and something that we want to continue to go to go back to. Um, and it's really this

0:08:59theory of action board members and and for the community uh to know that we've really focused on creating the right meaningful opportunities for all kids that's created the growth for all kids that's helping us raise achievement. If you were to look at the underbelly of how we're continuing to get better as a system, it's because our most vulnerable kids are doing better. And that's intentional and that's taken a lot of hard work to get there. And so we're really proud of that. So um setting the stage we have some we have some an opportunity today I think to have a really meaningful uh conversation. I want to thank everybody who's here um who's joined us for this conversation as we think about you know what what additionally do we need to do beyond the the the the LRAK metrics um and process that we have today to begin to think about um proactively addressing some of these issues before they become a situation where we're forced to to make really tough decisions in a short time frame. And in my experience, that just doesn't go well. So, and so I'm I'm I'm I'm excited that we're having this conversation today while we're not in a crisis situation, but we see it coming.

0:10:13So, with that, I'm going to turn the presentation over to Rob Price. >> Board, you have seen this slide, I believe, a number of times now, but it does a nice job of illustrating the work that we have completed since 2022. As a reminder, as Dr. Anderson mentioned, the proactive approach by the board to put the long range advisory committee together solidified that and board policy. Um, and then the work uh that continued, as you know, we just completed the work of changing attendance boundaries. That was our first five-year review. Just wrapped that up. And then tomorrow night is our third BBSD is the place to be showcase. and then continuing this discussion. I do want to say um with uh the long- range advisory committee, this timeline really illustrates the work of the board, the work of the district and the work of LLR. But as we move forward, we continue to focus on the outcomes of these meetings, the direction that we received from the board, and then we are continuing to focus on the middle level metrics. And we'll talk a little bit about middle school metrics later on in the presentation. I just want you to know that is a focus. We started that work last year. We're continuing this work this year with the hopes of

0:11:29wrapping that up uh by the end of this school year. Um and with that, I will turn it over to Glenn Sigu or I'm going to advance this. >> Oh, so good morning. We will begin by looking at a slide that we have seen before both in the boardroom and at long range advisory committee that serves as the backdrop for the beginning of this conversation today. And what it really is is the progression of our past state, our current state, and our possible future state in terms of looking at the number of rounds that we have in each of our elementary schools with the definition of a round being a class. So a school with three rounds at one grade level means that there are three classes at that grade level. So back in the day and not actually that many years ago when I first started at the ed center about 10 years ago, the vast majority of our elementary schools had three rounds or even more at each grade level.

0:12:38Therefore, our structures for FTE allocation, our special schedule known as the ABC schedule and allocations for full-time FTE that you see on the far left hand side of this slide were created to support what was the reality for the vast majority of our elementary schools. So if we fast forward to our current state, we have only 10 elementary schools in the district that have three roundsish, meaning they have either three rounds at each grade level in all grade levels or the majority of their grade levels have three rounds, but some might have two. Um, and then when we move a little further to the right on this slide, that represents where the majority of our elementary schools are. Now, 18 of our elementary schools have two roundsish, meaning that either all or the majority of their grade levels have two rounds, or they might have a grade level or two with one round or three rounds. And again, we have, as you look toward one round, we have two schools that are more or less one round where they have the majority of their grade levels at one round, but might have one that has two rounds. Not included in this calculation are Gold Hill, Jamestown, or our charter schools. So this means that the majority of our elementary schools now have the

0:14:08adult structures that are bulleted um under uh round two round and one round schools. Despite this, our two round schools are performing outperforming uh what our three round schools ever did. So this is determined by the school performance frameworks and really speaks to the work of implementing a strategic plan that is student focused despite the fact that we continue to navigate the adult structures um as enrollment has continued to decline in our elementary schools. A complicating factor, however, is that our staff and community continue to expect the three round structures that we are all accustomed to in our schools that have experienced declining enrollment to the point where we have either two rounds or one round at each grade level. And so expectations have remained consistent despite declining enrollment in those schools. So as I shared uh most of our schools have a combination of number of rounds. For example, there might be one or two rounds uh or two or three rounds in different grade levels within within the same school. And the complexities that half rounds create lead to a couple of grade levels at some schools sometimes needing to multi-age.

0:15:28So this year, 11 of our elementary schools received multi-age FTE that they then worked collaboratively with their teachers to to decide how to distribute, whether they would multi-age or their teachers would departmentalize and focus their their specialization in that way. Um, so as time passes and most of our elementary schools are projected to continue to decline, our schools will be moving further and further to the right of this slide. So, as we continue to focus on school uh on student needs in our schools, we do also continue to look for solutions to navigate the uh evolution of our adult structures as we balance that with needs of students in in declining enrollment. >> Just just one comment board members. Uh I I think this is an important slide um as we think about communicating to our community what's up for tomorrow.

0:16:41Uh and and I think Robin you captured this this really well that the expectation community expectation may be regardless of how many kids are in my school, right? That I expect to have all of the things that come with the number of students, right? that would support what used to be in a three- round school, right? So, um and and it's people, right? And it's full-time versus fractions of people, right? The smaller you get, uh the more traveling teachers, you know, teachers have to cover two, three schools. Um that happens today. It's happened more and more over time. Even the the idea of the ABC specials rotation being a thing. We had anou with BVEA because that doesn't even feel it realistic anymore. Um, you know, instrumental music is something that we still have, right? But that at a certain point, I don't know that you can sustain that, right? As as something that people have come to expect, right? If if if you do nothing and let all of your schools get smaller, right? Um, the idea that every elementary school can have one dedicated counselor, right? that going to a half counselor, a quarter counselor, right? Somebody a couple of days a week. You know, these are the types of things that if there isn't any conversation around doing something

0:18:09differently, this is what will inevitably happen in schools. And it's hard to communicate that in ways that everybody hears, right? We've been talking about declining enrollment for four years. Uh but those are the types of things. Now, the scheduling complexity and limitations, you could get to a place where schools lose the ability to set their own schedule and we'd have to set it because we have to maximize our people across schools. And so then that that could be a different scenario, a way that we could think about this. Uh but but inevitably the more schools you have, right, smaller numbers of students, uh now there could be benefits to that, right? The small intimate schools, you know, there's benefits to that. But the other things that that folks have come to to to uh learn to feel like is going to always be there uh won't be there.

0:19:03Um just to be really really clear, we can't spend money we don't have. You know, I don't we've been screaming from the rooftops around funding in in Colorado. I spend every year at the legislature um during legislative session for a solid six months telling this story to as many uh folks from our delegation and other elected officials across the state the issues and challenges that that this can occur. So uh knowing and understanding uh that today like today it might be okay right when you start to see the projections five years from now right it's just a very different experience and we have to have a conversation about that. up. >> So board members, before we head into the data, any questions about programmatic operational outcomes based information at our schools, Lenia? So I very much appreciate that we're talking about student impact. Yes. Yes.

0:20:07But what I do see on this slide that I would like to talk about a little bit more is impact to teachers. uh what you know I'm not a teacher not been a teacher uh some board members have but I'd like to understand as you become a single teacher for your grade or a teacher of multi-grade or even two rounds how that affects you um because I think we need to also during this discussion be thinking about how we're taking care of our educators. >> It's a great question. Uh if you get down to one round, it's really hard. It's hard because if you have kids who probably don't for whatever reason should be in the same classroom, right? There's nowhere within the school for them to go. Uh I think as a teacher who's, you know, in like master schedule terms they call it a singleton or just, you know, somebody who is the only person in a school who teaches the thing. uh it's really hard to collaborate. The the more rounds you have, the better you can differentiate, right? If you're regrouping kids and you're doing some ability grouping or things of that nature, that becomes a much logistically something easier to do. Uh traveling teachers are less efficient. So if we are having to compensate teachers to

0:21:32move around the district, right, you have to compensate them for that, right? like they don't go off the clock when they get in their car to go somewhere else and go back on the clock. That's just not how it works. And so we're still paying them as if they were teaching the entire day in one school, but we're able to to be defend depending how far they have to drive. There's um they teach less sections. So your inefficiencies go up the more traveling teachers that you have. Um and uh I think that you know as as we t started talking about this the three round school I think for the teacher experience is probably um it it solves the most problem. It solves problems that the other models don't solve. Anything to add on that Robin? Sorry I'm just going to be jumping in here.

0:22:22No, I guess the only thing that I would add is that there is an impact on climate and culture and sense of community with the uh as we have more and more teachers within one school needing to travel, the collective sense of not just uh instructional collaboration and especially when we think of new curricular materials that we are implementing and the need for teachers to be able to work together on making sure that we are implementing those materials with fidelity. But then that that sense of who we are as a school and where do I belong and where do our students belong. So there is also an impact in that sense. >> Okay. As I alluded to before, we're going to kind of whip around the table. So we'll go Kitty, Jason, if you have anything, Alex, and work our way around.

0:23:11>> Okay. So I have two questions. One, do we pay mileage to our teachers who travel? >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yes. Yeah, I say for the record, Robin was nodding. And are there any elementary schools in which students will go from teacher to teacher at some levels for subject matter? Because I know that happened when my kids were in school, but that was they're millennials. >> Yeah. So departmentalization is something that's happening probably at more of our schools today than it happened previously as a res as a response to these uh you know these you know two and a half one and a half uh um rounds that that that the FTE has provided and so that's a way where you know the again the expectation I have one teacher all day long they teach me everything departmentalization is one of the ways that you can adjust um to be able to distribute the students in ways um that um that allow them to uh to not be a multi-age classroom.

0:24:27>> Um I want to ask about specials. Um you know, as a parent, I think it's it's one of the things I'm most uh grateful for with our district is just the the level of specials and the quality of the teachers. And you said, you know, the a the ABC rotation model is probably not realistic going forward. I mean, not not to not that I don't want to focus on those words, but more like what does it look like in our 18 schools that are two rounds and two schools that are one round? How is that? And if we're looking if this is the future, I think it's important to understand what that really important piece of our our curriculum and our offerings, what that looks like for other schools. >> Yeah. I'll let um I'll let Robin speak to what's happening today, you know, and and I just to to clarify, right, the the the three round if if you do nothing else, right, the three round is is a thing of the past until birth rates come up or somehow becomes more affordable to live here. Um right, of which we don't really have control over. I just went really clear the community those are those are aspects of uh that we have to to um to

0:25:34live within. So um I'll let but but I but for to my knowledge kids aren't even kids in one round schools are still getting their electives. It's just much less efficient to be able to do that because there's more travel. There's less sections to teach within a school. The other complicating factor is when we do have specialist teachers that travel, very often the master schedule is driven by the availability of those teachers as opposed to the teaching and learning needs that really should drive the master schedule and so that is an issue. In addition, we know that in a three- round school, we are able to have to schedule a common plan time for all of our teachers. So as I said before about the the importance of having a common plan uh within one grade level that becomes increasingly challenging if not impossible as we have fewer. And so to that end, we have been collaborating with BBEA and a focused group of principles that have been working to figure out how it is that we can accomplish common plan, accomplish specials in terms of a the student experience continuing in a way that we know and expect and value. And so we are experimenting this year with a couple of different structures with the hope of finding something that really does work

0:27:05uh moving forward that we can use as not our three round model anymore but our two round model um in just in a different in a different configuration of classes and how often specials are taught and in what what structure. >> Alex, >> thank you. Um this is really fascinating and I'm really sorry I can't be there in person uh for professional reasons. Um I have three three questions for you and um uh maybe some of them come up later. Um number one I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the actual impact on job one like the um performance and the improving performance because you mentioned the smaller ones actually aren't doing a bad job at improving performance. It's about this other stuff. Secondly, I'm curious if the number of schools with the amount of instruction that we have leads to like more money going into like facilities maintenance than goes into instruction. So, if we're having an increasing like the ratio of seats to kids keeps going up, are we spending less on instruction because we're spending proportionally more on maintenance and facilities and operations?

0:28:16And then the third part, just to be clear, like these uh school function things that we're talking about in elementary do not affect our middle and high schools because they have a big enough scale even if it's smaller that we're not cutting into this kind of efficiency. So sorry to put three questions but those are the ones I'm thinking about. >> Thanks Alex and uh and thanks for uh making time for us today and calling in and and really appreciate you being here with us virtually. um impact on performance I think is uh you know if we were to look at how our schools are performing today uh on as measured by the school performance framework um you know the two round school and then the one round schools that we have they're achieving um at the highest rates they ever have uh you know Flat Irons Elementary which is our smallest outside of the mountain schools has just had the best year it's ever had so I I think that from you know and Robin alluded to this when when you have high expectations adopt high quality instructional materials have the right systems and structures and supports and have really good teachers uh you know on on things like the school performance framework we're doing we're doing better much better um but it's not

0:29:32about today it's about tomorrow if we had all one round schools how would that impact it would be tough to say if we all had all one and two round schools I mean at some point the systems the resources start breaking down and then you have choices to make, right? Is it that you have three electives? Maybe you have two electives, maybe you pick an elective, you know, maybe you have somebody who teaches all the electives and maybe doesn't have the expertise in art or music or physical education. Uh and uh and then you just have generalists or specialists do doing those types of things. And so I think it's hard to say and I don't know that there's any research out there around CLA around school size and student performance. um that that's uh that would be something that I would turn to as a standard within within K12 education. Um the the the dollars for facilities um if you spend more on facilities and maintenance and less on instruction the more facilities you have. It's that's half of the equation.

0:30:34The other half is how many students that you have. And we're going to get to this part like because we're going to talk about benefits and risks, right? If you do if you make a bunch of big bold moves to fix one problem and then we we end up with a couple hundred less students, right? Then uh you know looking at the expense and then looking at at the dollars that you generate by students that you serve. I mean it's it's a you have to balance that equation and think about both of those things when you're looking at that. So I mean theoretically, Alex, you know, the more seats you have, the more money you're spending, right? So, uh, that I would say, you know, the the the, um, and the bigger your school, the more efficient it is.

0:31:18Now, board members and the public knows this at this point. You know, I've I've worked in really big, large, fast growing uh, like suburban urban districts in big cities, Atlanta and Orlando. And it would be common for an elementary school to have 13,400 kids, super efficient, bad for kids, right? So like there's a balance, right? It's not, you know, efficiency isn't, you can get super efficient and kids get lost and and and not be able to keep up with what's going on because the ratios of administrator to to teacher to family become so it just becomes like a black hole and it's just, you know, you're trying to keep kids safe, keep the lights on and and and cover curriculum. So, uh, super efficient schools, big large I mean, I worked at a high school with 4,200 kids, you know, efficient. It had one principal, right? So the principal house goes down, right? You had an army of administrators trying to keep up with kids and kids lost and who knows if they don't. It was just the big there's a side there's a sweet spot I think that you have to try to strive for and each community has a different sweet spot. There's some communities who value efficiency and other communities that are really like our community is we

0:32:36value the student experience. I would believe in my, you know, seven and a half years of of working here that that is the value of this community is getting a great experience where all kids belong and they're challenged academically and they can be successful. Um, so uh I I do think that you know at its face yes more seats cost more money um but also that there's another side to that equation. And then the finally middle school high school impact. Uh you know it just depends upon you just have to schools have to make choices. I'll I'll quote our friend Bill Sutter. You can at a high school you can do anything but you can't do everything right. You can't have all the electives you used to had. Add new electives add career technical education. Add more college level opportunities. add more work-based experiences without reducing other opportunities for kids because you only have so many teachers and so many kids and you got to fill the schedule up. And if you create schedules and and we're seeing this happening in high schools now where high schools hanging on to like tried and trueue historical we've had this elective for 20ome years but it only has 10 15 kids in it. for every class you have 10 15 kids in, you

0:33:52go over class size in another, right? And if you have one section of something, it's hard to schedule kids in. I might be getting in the weeds a little bit, but you're starting to see some of that impact a little bit at high schools. Now, again, if we filled our high schools up, I was here when Boulder High was at 100%. Right? Folks weren't really 103%. uh and um you know if we were to operate all of our schools at 100% you would get a feeling that they're all overcrowded. So I mean I just think that that that those are yes there's impact. Yes, there's choices to be made. Yes, there's things that we can think about and discuss. And I would say there's benefits and risks to any decision you make, including not doing anything.

0:34:43I just want to kind of go back a little bit to the impact on students as we think about the three round two- round discussion because you mentioned right you lose a counselor special ed um special education teachers I think that's we're doing really well right but we saw these big gaps in terms of you know outcomes for different kids and so to degree that this affects our ability to serve those kids who are multilingual learners who are special education gift and health programs free reduced lunch um and that's the programming that you lose lose right as we get in size um as our sizes go down. Um so I just want want to raise that point again. Um and then u is how does this impact like planning for teacher FTEES every year? How does this impact flexibility and class size and that sort of stuff as we as this as we shrink?

0:35:29>> Class size I think is is something we should spend a little bit of time talking about. Um it it's and and Robin alluded to this. The least efficient is when you have you have enough kids for two maxed out class sizes classes, right? And not not enough for three. And the more rounds you have, the easier it is to absorb students, right? It's easier to have if you have three rounds of 22 kids, right? If 10 kids move in, 15 kids move in, like you're going to be all right, right? If you have one round at 28 and five kids move in, right? So, are you going to have two rounds of like 15? Because remember, it's just every round that you have is 15, right? Where are you making up for it on the other end?

0:36:21either you're allocating additional dollars or you're making other classes larger as a system like like it's it's impossible to to to look at it as the single individualized school. You have to look at this systemically. So theoretically, if the kids showed up in the right quantities, um bigger schools have the ability to absorb more kids and keep class sizes. um you have you have more places for kids to go like class sizes don't go up exponentially like if you know after Labor Day or if somebody should like that this happens right um and and board members we hear this right you have you know and and it creates just different challenges in schools because one year I have 19 kids in my class because we couldn't have uh 38 kids in one class the next year I have 29 9 which is within the range that we've set with our negotiated agreement and how we allocate FTE but then it feels like wait a minute why is my class size so big whereas when your class size is really small that's people don't say why is my class size so small right like so the logistics around elementary school class size now middle school high school again it's what you offer how many sections um how many kids in middle

0:37:47school do you have per grade? Right? The fewer kids you have, the range of error on how things can go. They can get really big and really small. The more sections you have teachers that have the, you know, teaching the same thing, the more easily you can absorb, right? So, but so I would say that uh it's not a guarantee that the bigger school you have, you're going to have smaller class sizes. I want to be really clear with that, right? But the the the the number of really small and really high class sizes gets gets gets um solved because you have just more more teachers to be able to absorb in in the school. >> I really appreciate today's conversation. I think my colleagues have brought up all the points I wanted to bring up as well. So I don't even have any of the hard work to do, but I I want to summarize a little bit. I liked that Delaneia brought up the impact on staff.

0:38:45I think that's a real thing. And Robin added the climate and culture impact. Um the lack of the opportunity for staff to collaborate and we know how incredibly important it is for our teachers to collaborate as we're rolling out new um curricular initiatives. I think that's that can't get lost in the conversation. Um I liked that Jason and Jorge brought up the impact on students and what will happen to the loss of specials and that we're seeing that in my own daughter's school. Right. We've got, I think, three PE teachers this year, and each of the kids has a different they all have different PE teachers. You know, is that the worst thing ever? Of course not. But it's it's an impact. It's an impact on the culture and climate, impact on consistency, etc. Um, anyway, I just wanted to say I appreciate this conversation. I think everyone's asking the exact right questions. And this is why we've been saying for four years that this is probably the most important pressing issue that this board or any board moving forward is going to be dealing with, our response to enrollment. We can't we can't solve birth rates and we can't solve the cost of living. But I'm really keep up the good work, guys.

0:39:52Alex, I heard you be um is your question about this section or the next section. You're muted. >> Sorry. Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> All right. So, um, I also want to I appreciate, um, Beth's summary, and I wanted to capture one other point that was touched on briefly that I think is pretty key to the long-term discussion, and that's that this is for all our elementary schools, not just the ones that are being identified by our long range process. And so, while we have a system that's set up to deal with those that are most severely declining, the impacts and the dynamics we're talking about affect all our elementary schools. And so that's why I think of this as a district-wide issue, a neighborhood by neighborhood issue with multiple schools being affected and the parents and the families and the teachers in elementary schools that are not on the lists for intervention are suffering the negative effects and the dynamics now. So that's why I think it's important as a board and staff to be thinking about it from all the schools. And that's where I'm I'm excited to have uh the chance to start having deeper conversations about the whole all our all our kids and you know prek through five >> I'm not suggesting we do this but I'm

0:41:15wondering what it would take for all of our schools elementaryaries to be three rounds. I think it'd be good for the community to understand what would have to happen. >> So that's in the our section on data. I think there's some graphs and some charts that illustrate how many students are missing. And if we remember that 450 students per three round school that'll come up in the data. Can we hold that question until then? >> I can answer it in two seconds. More kids, less schools. But less schools with all the kids staying. >> Like if you have less schools and you have less kids, more kids, less schools. >> Yeah. I was just trying to get at like how many schools would we have to close for that to work? Just ballpark. >> We'll get to that. And because I because cuz we can't answer that because the second you start talking about those types of things, school closures, so on so forth in a place and in a state with so much choice, it would be impossible for me to even predict how the system would react.

0:42:23Which is why, and just for our community, just to be incredibly incredibly clear, if we did not have the school choice laws that we had that we have in Colorado that started in 1991, um the way that you solve this problem is you redistrict schools and you close schools. And you do that either proactively or reactively, but that's what you do. And and it's always it always tears communities apart. It's never goes um easily, but that is the move. Now, when you have a system like we have with choice where a third of our parents don't even go to their homeschool today, uh and that can change and adjust in any way, shape or form. um depending upon the ecosystem that we build which is our system of schools it becomes really really really hard to even begin to model out and predict what might happen uh in that scenario. So, but but it's it's important because I know board members, you hear this. I hear this as well, right? The person who the the the casual observer who doesn't maybe hasn't paid attention to four years of long range advisory committee meetings and you know, you know, "Eenth number of board members and board policies would just say, well, you just need to close schools, right? And the sooner you do it

0:43:44and the faster we'll be able to move on." It is more complicated than that. Feels a little weird to chime into a conversation after my colleagues have summed it up. But um I just as a parent who started their students started an elementary school at a four round elementary school and watched it shift to a three- round elementary school and was involved in that panic. It's why a decade ago I started looking at them enrollment matrices because there are changes in culture and community and funding and staffing and all of the things. I have a high degree of empathy for those that are experiencing what opportunities are now available at our schools as they continue to get small. It is hard to live through that change and understand what was a norm and what can no longer be a norm unless we change course. And I think that's board members the biggest thing we hear about is the programmatic opportunities in our schools as this as as we go to decre go through decreasing rounds. And so I'm glad we spent a good amount of time on the first eight slides and we've got a lot to go through. So let's just transition over into the data.

0:45:01So I'm going to uh Glen Sigru, a senior planner with the district. I'm going to go through uh elementary level with a focus on um uh the regions in the district and try to focus in on on the different regions where where they're at and also the individual schools in those regions. Uh so just moving on quickly, this is an overall chart for the district uh both enrollment the last few years or um actually the trends from the last few years going into our projected enrollment going forward. So, we're expecting to see continued K12 declines at around between one and a half or one to one and a half percent out into the future. We see the red line on 2025. Uh that's where we came in with our preliminary October number. So, we came in a little bit low this year. Uh and we'll be looking into those reasons uh going forward, but it did come in a little low uh lower than expected. Um but otherwise we don't at this point see any reason that these trends won't generally hold going into the future uh until we look at that a little more closely. Uh and you look at the dark area on the bottom that's the elementary. So we can see uh those continued declines that we're expecting

0:46:09as well. This chart is a we have a pie chart showing uh total capacity and it probably should clarify what capacity is and maybe isn't uh in the district. capacity is typically uh classrooms 600 square f feet or bigger. Uh and we you count those classrooms that are available for instruction and you apply the uh average teacher ratio to those. So it for elementary it doesn't include uh areas that serve kids that are already in the building such as um uh gyms or art rooms because those aren't new classes. It's just the ones um uh that hold a regular regularly scheduled classroom. Uh secondary operates a little differently, but fundamentally still you're counting up those classrooms and loading a staffing ratio to it. When you're below capacity, you don't necessarily have empty space. Schools have a way of of spreading out and uh maybe adding some supplemental programming through their own um own ways of doing things, some extra music or something. But um it isn't really until you start getting closer to about 50% you really start seeing actual empty classrooms in the building.

0:47:29And to go back, uh, currently what we're looking at, um, in BBSD overall at elementary, we have about 99,00 uh, K5 non-charter kids, uh, uh, that we serve with a capacity of 14 uh,, almost 600 students. Um, that leaves us at about just about 65% capacity going forward in 2829 uh, and excess. So that means we have uh uh excess capacity of around 35% at that time. >> And just to clarify, Glenn, that's with all schools at 100% capacity. >> Yes. Yes. And to look at it regionally, uh you see Boulder, Lewisville, Superior, Lafayette, Erie, Broomfield along the side, the schools that we're considering part of those regions. Uh and a comparison of the utilization, that's the percent uh of that capacity that's being filled at this uh being filled uh here in 24. And you see 65% for Boulder and uh also at 59% by the time we get to 2029 uh according to current projections. Uh if we move down to Lewisville Superior, very similar numbers, slightly higher, 67% now utilization, 61% projected uh out into 2029. and Lafayette, Erie, uh a different story. Um actually projected to grow a little bit in the next 5 years with some of the new development uh along that line. So they're not really struggling with capacity the way other

0:49:08parts of our district are in terms of filling the schools at least. And lastly, Broomfield. Um, not as low as Boulder and Lewisville. Um, but, uh, some of the schools there are seeing some lower enrollment uh, and bringing their overall enrollment down 74 to 73. And of course, Broomfield is very, very different than the other parts of the district because they take in very large numbers of out of district kids. So, the enrollment versus the resident is resident students is a very uh, big difference. and seeing what that looks like uh going forward with uh enrollment trends coming from the past from 2019 to present uh and then projected out in the lighter gray areas going forward. Again, we put in uh the little red line on there where where their preliminary numbers have come in for 2526.

0:50:01Uh and we see of course Boulder continued uh declines going forward. Uh same with Lewisville, Superior. Um Lafayette, Erie, same story. Um actually maybe building a little bit and growing somewhat going it forward. And Broomfield's just really been on this this long slow slide for for a long time. And they're really continuing that slide uh going forward as well. And I think we've seen this slide before showing the LRAK matrix uh LRAK um um uh standards metrics that we uh developed uh in previous years um with enrollment advisory status for schools meaning schools are at or below two rounds or 60% of capacity and the engagement phase triggering at one and a half% or one and a half rounds and 50% capacity. Uh so looking at school year 2024 which is our most current complete data year that we have. Uh these are the schools we're looking at who are now in uh either advisory or engagement with Heatherwood being the only school that we are actually considered to be in engagement currently.

0:51:15Going for projected 2025 we'll see a few schools that will come on and off the list. some are are leveling off and they'll kind of toggle right between those categories. Uh but continuing forward to 2029 uh where we could potentially have eight schools in that advisory status and three schools in engagement uh and really what two in Boulder and one in in Broomfield according to our last projections. So focusing in on just the Boulder region. Uh so these are the schools we would be considering Boulder. I think we have left out uh Johntown and Gold Hill and some of these lines, but they do actually feed into uh Boulder uh middle and high schools. Boulder the current capacity of 7,100 uh seats uh with a resident students of 4,100 uh and enrollment of 4600. So about 500 students coming into that area from from other parts of the district or out of district. Uh that brings our uh current utilization at about 65%.

0:52:32And this is a breakout of a previous chart we've shown before. Uh the shaded areas show where a uh um advisory status is triggered from the LRAT criteria. The darker red areas are the engagement um criteria that are that are um a part of that and you need two of the same color to actually hit that status. So this is a graphic or a a a table representation of the map that we showed earlier uh just for Boulder. Uh and we can see as we go along uh by 2029 uh Boulder could have six schools in advisory and uh possibly two in engagement according to uh projections. And I think that to um to kind of piggyback a little bit off of of Dr. Anderson's comments about the complexity of enrollment and an open enrollment. Uh this is taken from our uh dashboard data dashboard for enrollment. Uh and it does a good job of breaking out what's in the uh enrollment matrices and how what the school compositions look like. Uh on that uh dashboard we only have it broken out by north and south boulder. So that's how we have it represented here.

0:53:47Uh but we can see see get some can't quite see those numbers uh that far out but we can see on the right side and or left side of North Boulder that would be the stu the resident population for those schools and overall we're seeing about 58% uh of those resident students attend their own school and we compare that to South Boulder it's a little bit higher at 64% of those students that are attending the the the school that they they that is their neighborhood school. Uh on the other hand, when we look at the enrollment composition, North Boulder, about 64% of enrollment in North Boulder is composed of neighborhood students, while in South Boulder, you're only seeing 44%. So you do see a lot of movement from North Boulder to South Boulder uh where a lot of our choice schools are uh in Boulder um filling those spaces. So you see some of those discrepancies there, but we are seeing you know on average around that 65% of of students attending their neighborhood um school.

0:55:03And we can also see in the bottom portion those trends have generally held over the years. Now, this chart focusing in even more on just the attendance area composition by each individual school. Glenn, can you go back to this last slide? I just want to make a point. Um, like because these trends year-over-year since 2018 stay the same, then that allows us to try to make better predictions because the ecosystem has stayed the same. Everybody understand that? So, you know, whether it's, you know, whatever the percentages are, as long as there's like a small range of error on what we think is going to happen, it does allow Glenn to be able to make some predictions. It does allow Robin and her team to make some staffing decisions in ways where we're able to try to create stable, you know, when we hire teachers, we're not shuffling them around at the beginning of the school year, right?

0:56:05They get to stay. Um this past year we were a little bit more cautious in adding additional teachers because we feel like that's an adjustment to the system that helps us to if there's some unpredictable variability. Uh but I will say that when you look at these regional enrollment profiles you know when you do change make changes shifts in the ecosystem right it'll be harder to understand what's happening because our trends will change because the conditions have changed. So again this is uh based on uh attendance area composition the number of students that live in the attendance area by school. Uh the dark blue area are the resident students that are uh live in that attendance area and go to that school. uh the dark the green portion of the line is are the students that are leaving that school uh for another another focus charter or another uh neighborhood school through open enrollment and then the total line is are all of the kids that live in that that area. Um so when we look at this for Boulder takeaways are resident students um cannot support two rounds at Flat Irons Douglas and Mesa and I did forget the red line there is the level for two rounds which is approximately 300 students.

0:57:30Um we see Heatherwood and Whittier are at two rounds when we just consider their neighborhood population. So if all kids went to that school, we didn't have open enrollment, uh that would be the situation for that school. Creekide, Coline, and Crest View, um their resident attending rate is is uh near or below 50%. So while some of these schools are bigger and can support um their neighborhood populations could support very large schools, we also see some of our bigger schools are where we see the most kids leaving for other schools. And this is a similar chart but is now the enrollment for each school and looking at the composition of the students that are actually sitting in the seats at that school. Uh the little triangle or diamond area in red is the projection that we had for 2029.

0:58:25Uh and when we look at it this way we can see 10 schools are expected to continue to decline over the next uh five years. Uh, six schools currently are enrolled above two rounds, but only three schools are expected to be above two rounds by 2019 or 2029, sorry. >> Board members, we're going to pause here before we go into the next section. And so, questions about overall district-wide trends and then Boulder specific. And we're going to go around the DIS backwards this time. We're going to start with Beth Jorge and then Alex formulating a question a question. I think I want to go back to slide what was it? Um slide number 12 where for me what's striking about that slide is you know you have and you see that the schools in green our focus schools are obviously largely clustered in Boulder um area.

0:59:27And I guess I don't know what my question is. I am wondering what like what do we what do we make of this? What do we think would happen if we were to move focus schools to another part of the district? Would that be something that would be you know how would that change? >> We're in the dangerous space of speculation. >> Just be very very clear. Uh you know I think that and I'd have to take a deeper dive. So, I'm just going to, you know, my my intuition tells me that that where they're located also impacts their enrollment. Uh, so it's not as if uh, you know, but you could think about this, you know, think about a store or think about a restaurant, right? Location matters, right? So, but if it's a really great restaurant, maybe you drive across town for it. But, you know, for for if you if you look at the the ratios of kids in Boulder, right, who go to a different school but stay in Boulder, um that might lead you to know and understand that um that that that there is some um there is some impact on their location and uh um and their programming. I I do think that when we get to the end and I talk to I talk about like there's like a

1:00:54limited number of things you can do and it's the combination of things that you put together uh that create the plan. um moving focus. You could move focused schools, right? Uh and what might happen, you know, may maybe you move some of the, you know, the pro you move the problems into another neighborhood, right? You could if you move the if you move the focus schools next to another school and a lot of folks want to go to that school that were going to their neighborhood school, you change the dynamic. Um again, you know, but we'd be going into this blind because we had talked to anybody, right? And that's another thing that we'll talk about moving forward. But I but but these are the types of things that we have to think about. And so I just want to be you know really clear as as whether the media or or our um you know folks who who are are writing about this. You know we've had some some recently some folks in the community has started writing about this. There's an article in the Boulder Reporting Lab which I appreciate people paying attention but there's also a reason we don't do 10-year projections.

1:01:53We can get into that a little bit. there's some things that you miss and there's a range of error and anything that you predict and and project and some of that maybe wasn't included in the article maybe for whatever reason. Um uh so you know we we're just thinking about potential impacts not saying that we're doing any of these things or or this is what would happen if you did those things. I'm just trying to you know just trying to be very clear around that. >> And before Jorge I just want to put in a plug. I mean our dashboard is incredibly helpful because you can look school by school and you can see that at for Uni Hill and High Peaks a lot of North Boulder kids are going to those schools community monastery a lot of kids from out east are going to those schools I mean you can see where they're already drawing from and so I appreciate the district's foresight this board's foresight to get those dashboards up to give us a look as we think about what decisions we can make have an understanding of where where are kids coming from and how far are they currently willing to travel >> and and no district I know of We we are leading the country in transparency

1:02:54around this. I just don't know of another district that has gone through the lengths that we have had over the past four years to not just be proactive but to be transparent >> Jorge and then Alex >> these these slides are kind of we've seen them before but they're striking in this conversation because the forecast says you know two schools will be above a two round in five years. That's not different from where we are right now, right? There's three schools that are buckar rounds right now. I mean, the problem is here, right? Um, and we don't have the number of students to to address that. Um, but looking at slide 19 where, uh, Coline and Crestu have a large number of students that are, you know, going elsewhere um, and have the capacity. Um, and and, you know, looking at Boulder, I have a hard time looking at these schools and where they're located. They seem packed pretty tight. I don't know to what degree the maps are to scale, but you know, how close are some of these schools in that area? I can't tell based on the map, you know, >> looking like geographically close. Um, >> yeah, proximity for all these different schools. Um, especially when you see such a contrast between like Coline, Cresby, the number of student population

1:04:10and Flat Irons, Foothill, Heatherwood, you know, some are far apart, but some are really clustered tightly together. So, I'm not sure that's a question. Just Just real quick, this is to scale. Um, and the the schools are accurately located actually on the building. >> I don't know off hand, but >> I could find that out. But >> I looked yesterday at this. I was actually Google mapping this. And so if you can see where Flat Irons and uh Uni Hill is, it's point it's less than a mile. And same thing, those two are less than a mile apart. Yep. And then like there's a lot of schools that are a mile like a mile between each other. >> Okay. >> And that's Yeah, that's the impression I had, but I knew it wasn't quite accurate. But >> Alex, you're up.

1:05:09>> Thank you. Um, yeah, I just had sort of a question, sort of an observation. If I look at slide 12 again, um, uh, it looks to me like like Lewisville and Superior like look like everything's blue and nothing's green. And then if I look at the slide where you have or the same slide, you'll see that the projected enrollment is actually, you know, also going down 6% just like Boulder is. and that with a thousand kids that 6% is like um 60 kids, something like that. So, they're losing it. They're already below the thresholds. But in our current system, none of them are green. And then you go to Boulder where um yes, we have a pretty much similar decline and um four of the green are. So, I'm that's where I'm like, okay, I think there are there are places or communities that I draw from that that are being affected by the declining enrollment and that have significant stuff that gets to the impact on the student and teacher experience that are sort of above the thresholds of our current long range um approach. And so, that's where I'm like that's why I'm eager to have these discussions and start thinking about impact on all our kids, all our communities. uh because I think the sort

1:06:29of threshold-based attention um is a disservice to the places just barely above the threshold but still uh having problems and then if I look at slide 19 again um I think I take everyone's point that like whatever we did would not matter if people are still choosing to go somewhere else. So we have to do a combination of intelligently designing our schools and placing them and locating them. And we also have to recognize that parents want to go where they want to go. And I do believe when we think about the proportion green here for these schools, it's good to note that there's two things going on. One is they are choosing some cool place they want to go to. There's an attraction of the thing we have offered. And the other is there's a signal that there's something in that neighborhood school that made the other thing relatively more attractive. So they there's something they're dissatisfied with. So as we think about what we do to make our district succeed, I think we need to take into account what we're trying to do at each school, what people are more attracted to go somewhere else, but also what's not not attractive to them where we where they're in their attendance zone and where we might prefer them to

1:07:40go. So I think that takes some reflection. again, not just the schools that are the the identified ones, but in all our schools. Um, what are we doing that's serving all kids well and how does that and then impact their choices and then how does that impact our consideration about the long range planning? So, that's why I'm I'm excited about our transparency, the depth of our thinking about this, and I want us to be thinking about all our schools and communities as we figure out what's best for the kids. That's where I'm eager to continue this discussion. So those are my two observations. I just want to share. >> Just real quick, board member Medler on slide 12, just to make sure that we're on the same page. The schools that are highlighted in green on the slide deck, it looks like we have lost the legend.

1:08:32So down below, anything in green is a charter or a focus school. >> Okay. >> Just >> Thank you. So, how many I guess I'm curious about how many are on the um sort of LRA list for being identified would be a good thing to know within in this as well as the choice stuff. So, my mistake. Yeah. So, >> no. And I apologize for that. >> Um I'm I'm actually I'm happy to skip questions and move on. I'm anxious to get to the discussion about kind of next steps. So, we've seen this. I'm glad to revisit this. I was I was going to make a point along Alex's line about just wanting to know a little bit more about why certain schools uh why the the numbers are so low or lower for certain schools, why people in those uh attendance zones are not attending their neighborhood school. I don't feel like that's, you know, necessarily the point of today's discussion. So, but I would like to continue that another time, but happy to pass it over to Kitty or Lilia.

1:09:36So I have two questions and an observation. So the observation is that except for Lafayette and Erie, each region is enrolling more students than there are resident students and Lafayette and Erie it's only five less. So that does that mean that's being made up from by out of district students? you know, it's it it can be complicated because it's a net gain and loss in a lot of situations. So, it's >> still it it can be out of district and it could be in district BBSD as well. And so two questions. When we started the ELRACK process, uh we made the determination that we were going to do this without um without looking at the mountain schools which includes >> James Goldill James Town um are on the list as so we didn't add Netherland um as one of the schools on that list, but I would put um put Netherland um in in a similar category in the sense that uh you know you know the challenge in rural communities um mountain communities is that that if you I mean you there's you can only close the kids and eliminate the schools and and make the kids get on buses and try to to drive down and get their services. And so, uh, we made a conscious effort, I

1:11:18think, at that point, and I I'd let Rob talk about this a little bit, to think about this as as, you know, our mountain schools, you know, we have uh different situations up there, right, where we have schools where we have one teacher, we have two teachers, right? We have a principal at two schools. We've continued to try to find efficiencies there. Uh, but the issues, I think, are different than they are down in um the rest of our communities. Rob, do you want to add anything? Yeah. No, to expand on what you said, I think this has gotten extremely difficult. So, the LRAK metrics, as a reminder, don't include mountain schools or charter schools. However, when we're looking at these attendance regions, we need to look at it from an overall capacity standpoint because we're talking about number of students. How many seats do we have? We consider Gold Hill and Jamestown to be part of Boulder. Netherland is specific to Netherland. So Gold Hill Jamestown feed into our Boulder schools where Netherland is a standalone K12 PK-12 system. If that helps >> that very helpful. Thank you. Because it looked like we had two really small mountain schools on the list but not the biggest one. My next question is in these numbers where you're showing um a

1:12:36resident students that are going to the school versus ones that are open and rolling out. How does do the areas with dual enrollment or the choice enrollment, how does that impact how you calculate the figures? >> Yeah, that's a good question. Um, I think when we brought this before you for the attendance boundaries, we had those split out here. Uh, we've wrapped in the dual areas into the school. So I basically take the the students that are attending one of the two schools and count them as towards their neighborhood school and then the leftovers between the two I split in half. >> The only dual attendance areas. >> Well, I mean going forward the only duel is is Mesa, but since we're using historic data, this would include the Creek Side Bear Creek area as well, >> right? Thank you. That makes sense cuz you could look at it and think, well, I wonder if everybody in green is just going to the other choice school or dual enrollment area school.

1:13:39>> Um, I'd like to stay at a very high level and just highlight something that Jorge brought up that we have six schools now that will be above three rounds here out of 16 and then only three schools in the future. So, the problem is here. It's not some distant um ephemeral thing. It's here. And I'd also like to highlight what Alex said is that schools that are just above the threshold for LRAK metrics that would put them into advisory or whatever uh section it would put them in, they are still being affected by the overall system. So those two things um lead me to believe that it's time to do something here which we can discuss in a bit. >> I just want to thank staff and it gets to Kitty's point a little bit but the clarity around exactly how many open seats we have in each region. I mean it is staggering and looking ahead you know the percent half of our seats in some places will be open as we continue to decline and I agree that as the the system continues to shrink it does impact everybody and I also wanted to elevate it's not probably anybody's goal to get to 100% but man 80% 85% I've crunched even those numbers and it's still looking like lots of lots of open

1:15:17seats. So again, this additional level of clarity I really hope helps the board and helps the public understand where we are today and where we're going to be in five years. And that in 2029, there are a lot of schools that don't even meet two rounds. And so if we want to maintain our programmatic excellence, something has to something has to change. So, moving on to Lewisville Superior area. Uh, these are the the map of the school and attendance areas involved in that area. uh current capacity of 3,000 students uh with a resident population closer to 2,000 uh and an enrollment a little above that as well uh and a utilization rate of about 67%. Um and projected 2029 utilization of 61%. And and one of the things about Lewis Hill Superior is we have a lot of movement. They're kind of midway through the district. So we have students in Louisville Superior opening to Boulder schools. So we saw Boulder schools had 500 more kids than they do that live in that area. Uh that's part of that equation, but then also Lewisville schools get back filled from from Lafayette and Broomfield area as well.

1:16:42So there's a lot of movement that goes through this region. And we look at that same chart with the LRAK matrix and uh um really seeing in terms of um um low enrollment according to the matrix uh really kind of focused in the first two schools Cole Creek and Elorado uh in the coming years with a 2029 uh rounds uh being averaged about 2.1 across everything and the number of advisory at two and the number of in engagement at zero. And that same enrollment chart that we saw before um but somewhat different than Boulder uh in the resident uh attendance area on the left. We're seeing 75% of the kids that live in Lewisville attend their own uh neighborhood school, which is quite a bit higher than than Boulder. Um and conversely their enrollment in the seats too is also around 75%. And those trends also have held over time.

1:18:02And looking at it from the uh attendance area populations again the dark blue being the resident students and the green those that open and roll out. Uh we see Cole Creek uh Long Lewisville Elementary and Superior above two rounds uh with their neighborhood populations. Fireside right at about two rounds and Monarch and Elorado uh with their resident populations uh at two rounds. And we also see uh Monarch uh also tends to uh have a little bit lower resident attending rate than the other schools in the area. And from the uh enrollment side uh we can see Fireside, Lewisville Elementary, and Superior are well above two rounds in enrollment currently. Uh Cole Creek, Elorado, and Monarch are under two rounds. Um we can see Monarch resident attending population is low and has and Monarch actually uh is on a pretty high open enrollment into that school, which they do get. Um and but we do see enrollment declines expected over the next five years in four of those five schools.

1:19:24And moving on to Lafayette Erie um these are the schools we have less concerns about utilization 86% and actually expected to go up in in current years or in future years. um according to LRAC matrices they don't really register much um uh you know enrollment profile actually a little bit um lower towards half of the students that actually attend schools um in those regions um a big chunk of that we can see is out opening rolling out to charters uh and a little bit more o and rolling out of the district as well although that doesn't really show up here uh and with resident populations well above uh that two round marker that we've been seeing and uh same with enrollment con uh enrollment um composition over time uh pretty healthy most schools uh pretty well above two rounds Sanchez being close to it but Sanchez does have a large attendance area with with quite a few students in it. So, they do have a pool uh to draw from compared to other parts of the district where uh their enrollment might be below two rounds, but they don't have that resource.

1:20:43Oops. And lastly, Broomfield. These are the schools we're talking about. 1,700 almost 1,800 total capacity. Uh a resident population now of,00 uh but with enrollment at 1320. again that difference from out of district primarily and some a little bit from other parts of the district coming into the area. uh utilization rate of about 75% um and projected to tick down slightly over the next five years. And according to the LRAK matrix here, uh we have Aspen Creek and Emerald seem to hold uh hold well above uh over time. Uh and really birch and coal are the ones that uh the matrix uh we start to look at a little bit more closely. So in the end in 2029 uh we're seeing uh possibly one in advisory and and one in uh engagement uh at that time.

1:21:56In looking at the open enrollment profile, um uh about 73% of the students attend their neighborhood school, which is is pretty strong compared to other parts of the district. Uh but when we look at composition of the seats on the right, we see uh 65% of enrollment is from neighborhood students. So again, it's that huge out of out of district component that uh skews skews their enrollment um in the long run. And looking at attendance area composition, two of the four schools uh that we're looking at are below two rounds based on attendance area population. Um Aspen Creek and Emerald uh students are only slightly over the two rounds. uh and more telling I think when we look at the en enrollments we see the out of district enrollment really plays a big part um in in keeping these schools that are above two rounds two rounds but also contributing to uh the two schools Burge and Cole that are below two rounds so the summary takeaways I think by region Boulder enrolls uh continues to decline uh 10 of the 14 schools or 71% % uh are projected to be at or below two rounds in 2029.

1:23:14In Lewisville Superior, we're seeing continued enrollment declines as well. Three of six schools are projected to be at or below two rounds uh in 2029. Uh Lafayette, Erie, uh we see slow enrollment growth actually uh with no schools projected to be um uh significantly below two rounds out into the future. and Broomfield also continuing some declines with two of their four schools projected to be at or below two rounds. So that's it for the elementary. I don't know if we want to keep going. >> Let's pause there before we get into the middle school data. Board members, questions, closing thoughts? Kitty, we'll start with you. So I have a question about schools in the engagement phase because we have Heatherwood which has been through it and has come up with a plan. How long do we keep schools or I shouldn't say that how long how long would we go with the school in an engagement stage even after they have come up with a plan? Um yeah I'm not sure how that works.

1:24:29something is the community decided we can stay at this even though I mean at this low enrollment even after implementing a plan >> or do we re-engage? >> Well uh not every we've had one school in engagement um after engaging them we created the eam program. Uh but adding a program when you don't have enough kids to go around is not you like it won't be you go into engagement and then you get to add a program and see what happens, right? Like there's just not enough kids to go around. Uh so I would say that um I don't know that we have a hard and fast rule around what happens. I think that we're that's why we're having this conversation where when you look at this summary the summary slide if we can go back um that you have and and Alex alluded to this and other Elenia and others you know you have widpread uh enrollment issues even even if some of those schools today are where they need to be like like the sustainability for all schools in the in in the entire community is getting to a place where we have some choices and decisions to make.

1:25:46So, we don't have a hard and fast rule on engagement. I think Heather would we we were treating each of these as an individual situation to see what happened and made the most sense. Um, you know, for just as a reminder to the public and the board, for two years in a row, we slowed declining enrollment in half. Uh, we didn't do that this year. You know, we had projected 2% two year uh two years ago. So we went to 1% we' have projected 1% we went to half percent. Uh we are down based on a we're down. So um you know the situation and the environment is is shifting underneath our feet. So uh all that to say like I think that that's why we're having a conversation today. You know what's interesting about this summary slide and we've been using two rounds because that was part of the LRAK metrics uh on all of the slides looking at enrollment and where they are. By 2029 only two schools will be at three rounds.

1:26:52So we started this conversation talking about programmatic and operational efficiencies and three the pros and cons between a three round and a two- round school. So in 2029, two schools will be at three rounds. Everybody else will be at two or below. And if you look at the city of Boulder, 71% will be I mean it's signi it's significant. So I think to Kitty's point, like how long do the LRA recommendations carry us through? I think you hear from community that are in some of these phases and it feels like purgatory. Feels like they're stuck. They don't know how to get there's no way out. And so I think that's just something for us to consider moving forward as projections continue to drop systemwide. What is what is the desire of that school community to how do they want to move forward? How do we engage them in moving forward? And then you know as a systems level, a board that has to make decisions for the whole system. you know what how can we work to to improve the situations for folks at those schools so they don't just feel like they're forever waiting for members any other thoughts on the enrollment data for Lafayette Lewisville Broomfield before we move on to middle school kitty >> so I just had one more thought about the

1:28:19process that Elrach gave us because we talk about the the once they're in engagement, there's a group convened among the community and they look at a number of options and come up with either we stay the same and we have fewer we have, you know, less to offer or we do something like a special program to boost enrollment or we close. And I'm just wondering if when we get to that point, unless we change the process, which we might do based on what we're seeing in enrollment, is if you get a community group together and they decide they don't want to close, it's possible that that we would close them anyway or not. I'm just thinking of how we would deal with that. So, at the end of the presentation, we will talk about all of the things you can do. Um, and I will say board members that these are conversations that Elrach has had. This idea, I mean, this is the conversation you're having. Um, Elrach has been having as well. I think that that um and I'll let Rob speak to that, but this idea of you know, you have to broaden the scope of what you're looking at to be able to solve some of these problems and how you do that and how you're thoughtful and

1:29:40how you're engaging um and how you're setting what success looks like I think is is part of of the process. Um but but Rob, if you want to talk a little bit about those conversations that have been going on, I know with >> first of all to address Kitty's question, there's some very promising results from Heatherwood and what we've learned from there. They've retained uh more resident students than they have in a long time. Um and I think that is due to the fact that we engaged their community. It was a very thoughtful, we didn't go in with a plan. We listened. we developed um and what we got out of that is something that the community in Heatherwood desired. Um we can't do that everywhere and this is what we've struggled with in LRAK is is uh Heatherwood is in a very unique geographic area um to where we don't have a school within a mile like other schools have. Um so when we look at this from other regions uh it's got to be more of a regional approach versus a school by school uh approach. Um so that is the mindset going in. That's what we've kind of struggled with up to this point. Uh but the metrics were in place just you know it's it's a a backs stop.

1:31:00It's just to make sure that people are aware of where we're at uh in the process. Right? So, it's an early warning system is how I would refer to it, how the other members on LRAK have referred to it. Um, Jeff or Evette, anything you would add to that on discussions at ELRA. >> So, thanks Rob. I I think we agree with that. In several previous presentations to the board, Elrach has used the words holistic as the need for solutions. And so, what we have done so far and what the board has has done off those recommendations so far, this idea of early warning system is correct. And so those schools that are having these situations have been warned, they've been engaged. Um I don't think that the board has promised them what the solutions will be. And so I think you need to be creative in what those solutions are. And as far as the purgatory thing, I think you're going to have a chance later here to talk about time scales. Again, I've I've talked to folks and people want to find solutions.

1:32:00So, I don't think we should just say, "Well, we we passed this thing and now we're just going to sit there for the next 5 years and see what happens." >> The only thing I would add to that is that we were very clear that we wanted to be transparent, not just to the board, but to the families and the community that uh those schools that are affected by. Alex, I think you chimed with a question. I just wanted to say, well, first off, I wanted to say that um uh I really appreciate and I don't want anybody to to think that our conversation today is any criticism of the LRAK and all the work and the engagement that's been done over over the period of time they're doing. And I think they've done a a great job at the task they were given and achieved, you know, sort of the functional purpose to move us along. And so I just want to make sure that no one thinks, oh, the board's going to take a different direction from the LRAC. It's like, no, no, no, we've we've learned a lot from the LRAK and they have advanced community level district-wide discussion um and a fantastic job. And so this is uh like thanks for the input. Now, now

1:33:12what do we do as we think about this? Um, and I and I will say one of the other big pictures things for me is um, and maybe this is something to think about more over time, but I think ultimately we have we we're a district, so we have our 27,000 odd kids that we're dealing with. Um, but we also have uh families who don't choose to be enrolled in our schools that live in our district. And we we do talk about how we recruit the families into our district. But I think in the in the big picture, something that we want to keep in mind is we want to keep more families from open enrolling out of the district and we want to keep more families from feeling like they have to go to private schooling or homeschooling uh to choose that for their kids. And so that's part of the reasons why I'm interested in those kids who are families who are not enrolling their kid in their neighborhood school and who are not enrolling their kid uh in any BBS school because I think of those families as folks that we could do that would actually increase the number total and not just be about how to efficiently distribute what we have left. So that's where um I think at some level it's

1:34:17great to see the impact on our in district or people entering into the district through open enrollment and that's why I also want to understand all those green families in those graphs and understand what we could do not just to keep them in their neighborhood school but to keep them in the district period. Um so and I think that's something else to add to sort of our long range planning and say what's the effort to get more in. Um, and I will say I think there's two external shocks to this that um could make it uh more problematic. And number one is um like the role of homeschooling in our not just our community but nationwide and uh the advent of like AI helping families at homeschool feel more capable to do so. So I think we have a lot of homeschooling we don't understand in the district that we could serve but that we risk losing families to it. And I think we have um you know potential more forms of choice depending on what Governor Polus does uh that we need to consider.

1:35:15So anyway, I I I don't want to complicate all this by that, but I think one of the things undergirling all this is an understanding that the total pie we have can shrink or grow and some of the things we do shrink or grow the pie that we're distributing. I want to chime in about the about LRA. Piggybacking on Alex's comment, I would agree. No, I think the board is really supportive and appreciative of all the work that LRA has been doing. If we think about how we look at data in five year, we don't project 10 years out. We project five years out. Next year will be year five. I mean be the fifth year of LRA. And so conditions have just changed in the past four years. We've become increasingly transparent thanks to the work of the committee. Our public has an understanding of where we are.

1:36:01And now, you know, as we approach the fifth year, fourth and fifth years of looking at declining enrollment, um, it's a great time to reconsider how we continue to move forward. With that, we can transition to the topic of middle schools and board me. Oh, Dr. Nson. Oh, sure. We've all just been taking breaks at our leisure, but we can take a five minute comfort break. Welcome back everyone. We will now transition into the middle school enrollment data portion of today. And I know that Elrach is eagerly awaiting some board direction on this. So be thinking about how what kind of direction we might want to give their committee on when it comes to enrollment. Yeah, middle school enrollment. I think the what we're really really looking at with this is this is what is going to be looking at in this coming uh year and focusing on. So we wanted to give some high level uh information on middle just to kind of cue that discussion that's coming. Um so when we look at at the the uh trends uh at the middle level at the same regions that we looked at at elementary level uh we still see um uh middle school uh so far it's kind of been up and down and more level in the past but

1:37:32we're expecting that to start going down as those you know we continue to get smaller and smaller cohorts from elementary. Uh so we see the projection continuing down in Boulder uh with that red line indicating where act the uh pro uh preliminary enrollment came in for this October. Um similarly with Lewisville a continued slide downward out the next five years. Um growth in Lafayette Erie as as would be expected. Um and Broomfield still on that similar to elementary that just really slow that they've been on for a long time. And this is what it looks like uh at the individual school level um at the middle school level uh with uh anticipated capacities also utilizations. We've used that uh terminology elsewhere in this slideshow. Uh but overall uh we're seeing declines with it our non-charter schools um of around 500 over the next five years.

1:38:41And similarly, this is what the capacity chart looking at. Currently, we have about 8,000 U 8,10068 students in our charter schools or non-charter schools rather. Uh we serve 5,500 in fiscal year or school year 2425 in the non-charter schools. And that puts our utilization rate at middle level around uh 68%. Uh which means uh about 2600 open seats uh at the middle level. Uh and that's expected to um go up to about 3,000 open seats uh by 20 in in the five-year projection. So we can see the pie chart on the right is for uh our five-year projected projection and we can see enrolled at about 63% in the capacity and about 37% of open capacity. >> Jump in here jump in here real quick on this. As I mentioned earlier in the presentation LRA has uh would like to see us uh put metrics in place. Something that staff has really struggled with. As you can see, the timeline for middle level metrics we've been talking about since last year. We're continuing to talk about it this year. Um, be careful with the capacity at the middle level. Some of these middle levels were not built for middle schools in particular. Um, and when we look at the elementary, when we put those metrics together, it was really around the student experience.

1:40:07So, we talked about two classes per grade level. uh middle level uh systems and structures are a lot more flexible than our elementary systems and structures. So we are not constrained at the same level like we are at the elementary schools. Um so again uh any guidance the board wants to provide um ELRA uh we would be open to that something we continue to discuss um and something we bring back to the board at a later date when we land on it. I've been thinking about middle school metrics and candidly struggling because the conditions that are K8s are very different than in a standard middle school. Ge like geography comes into play. Some of our schools are designed small. Some of our schools are designed really large. I don't know if there's an easy I don't it doesn't strike me as something as easy to create metrics around like an elementary school would. And I think the levers that you could pull are entirely different with the few number of middle schools we have in each spread out across the district. The thing I think the most about is experience and opportunity access to opportunities. So if schools get so small that they can no longer offer a full complement of elective courses or advanced courses in the same topic like if once the

1:41:33educational experience starts to shift in a way the programmatic experience starts to shift for me that's a red flag but I don't know it's just very different I mean metallark it's a tiny 6 through8 they have a lot of kids in it our six or six through8 and our other K8 some of them are at good capacity some are at less capacity. To your point, Plat used to be a high school, so they have a massive campus. I know Southern Hills right now is the biggest it's been in a long time, and I continue to hear complaints about how full school feels, even though they're only at 78% because the hallways are narrow and there's lots of weird stairs. And so, the schools all feel really different. And I think their capacity to to house students. And then I think about the complaints I'm hearing from certain middle schools that are also bigger than they've ever been and they're having more behavioral problems.

1:42:24And so I think that capacity number is just a little harder at the middle level given the types of schools we have where they're located in the district um and the opportunities we would have to make any significant shifts. I mean there's probably shifts but it would be very specific to the individual school. So that doesn't help. But part of me it also maybe maybe there aren't metrics that we can identify for middle schools is kind of what I'm coming around to other than continue to pay attention to what kinds of academic and co-curricular extracurricular experiences are we able to offer as class or total enrollment shifts. Dr. Anderson, >> not to make this more complicated. Um, but there are very different philosophical beliefs around middle grades education and is it a middle school model? Is it more of a of a junior high model, right? Like do you are you focused more on teaming teachers together to really support the social and emotional development of kids as they go from 10 to 14 15 years old?

1:43:40um are and how do you sprinkle in opportunities and having that teaming concept. So um and I would say that over time in our district that that philosophy has changed. Um and so like there's there's some philosophical like what what is it you're trying to do? Is it the same for everything? Does everybody has their own field? Do you have some standards around curriculum instruction, standardsbased instruction, and then some some some different um ability around elective offerings? Uh I know I know for me and I know later on this semester the board has prioritized this idea of of acceleration and advancement um as an extension um to some of the gifted and talented work we've been talking about and how do you create those accelerated and advanced opportunities for all kids? How does that play into it? So um I do agree Nicole that it is it is way more complicated. Um and then you know I mean plat you know some of the yeah we've got it's yeah it's just complicated.

1:44:42>> And the other thing I'd say too are middle schools that are approximate walking distance to high schools like some of that the pressure alleviated because they are they can hop over to a high school and take a class or not. I mean it just is a very different landscape. Elenia >> I agree with Nicole but I don't think that there's a a metric to put here. Um what I would be interested in getting my colleagues feedback on when I look at this is we while you have to look at each school individually and I agree that we look at um the idea behind each school and are we looking for acceleration um I'm interested in understanding the things that we also do for our district in terms of afterchool activities. ities and athletics. And when we have all of this extra capacity, is there a possibility of finding a reasonably central location and having something to support after school activities districtwide?

1:45:52Um, you know, a sports complex, a marching band complex, whatever it is, because this extra capacity lends itself to that. Um, and I don't I don't have a great solution. And I know it's a big um idea that would require bond money and we would probably have to go back to our generous voters again and ask. But given that we are going to have such a large amount of capacity, I'd like to see how we utilize that space. Um, going back to Alex's comments always about how school needs to also have the element of what are kids enjoying, what's fun for them, um, how we support our community at large and hearkening back to our continual problems of we don't have a place for our kids to be swimming. Um, so I would I would like my fellow board members to say if they're interested because certainly I don't want staff to go to work on something that only I'm interested in.

1:47:07I think I think if we got to a place where you know we need that we could entertain that you know you think of our shared athletic facilities for our high schools right is there one shining star theater that our middle schools share is there one shining star what you know I think it's a it's an interesting idea down the road sorry Jeff and then Beth So just quickly on the metric idea, I do want to point out that there are different ways to do metrics than we did for elementary. We're sort of we thought one size could fit all. And so on the middle school thing, one possibility is as an example, staff could define this is the minimum operating student number for what we want to do in this building. And then a metric could be are we falling below that? And I'm just saying there are ways to still do metrics where we can come to um the voters to the community and say this is what we're looking at. It's not just something touchyfey, but it can be much more customized than maybe what we just a possibility.

1:48:11>> Yeah. And just adding to the conversation, I think we're asking the exact right questions and I I support your idea of of opening our minds to what do we do with our our capacity, right? And that would go back to the voters. Um I think the the questions that Rob brought up around um student experience I think that's the essential core for all of us on the board right and what is it that middle school students whether it becomes middle school junior high model regardless what's that student experience what programming opportunities are we getting and having to give up as declining enrollment waxes and waines for our middle schools. Um, so I think I think there is something to be said about the metrics. I like I think we're going to have to keep thinking about this. I think it's difficult. I don't think we have an answer today, but um I like the idea of having some sort of metric around around opportunity for acceleration.

1:49:02That is something we've heard I've heard consistently throughout the district. Some schools have it, some schools don't. And you know, Alex and I are always talking about our differentiation, you know, bandwagon. Um I also thinking having some sort of metric around um uh after school opportunities and um electives is pretty important because I it's my understanding that you know as declining enrollment occurs even in our middle schools we're losing some of our elective teachers. We're not able to keep them on full-time just like in our elementaryaries. So those are just some starting thoughts. I know it's tough but I I support I support thinking about capacity like we've got this space. What can we do with it? What can we do better with it? That makes a lot of sense. Any other questions on middle level before we go to options and next steps? Jason.

1:49:54>> Um I have I have a question and I don't want to open up a can of worms here um at the end. Uh, first of all, I do also agree with Beth and Lennena about just kind of as we think about this excess space kind of how we can be creative with it, how we can kind of also partner, you know, we've talked about partnering with the city and with our community and this could be an opportunity for us to do that. So, thanks for raising those points. Um, I just have a question about the K8 model. you talked about philosophies and um you know I know that's you know maybe a model of of previous time but what is the um I know it's a big question but what is the kind of current thinking about kind of effectiveness whether that's um I don't I don't know if we do that today if that was if that was an option but just I I'm curious to know more about like the thinking on the K model >> um people I can't speak to how we got to K8s in Boulder Valley. I'd have to do some digging on that. In my experience, um oftent times K8s are ways to in in a growing district to alleviate capacity

1:51:01without opening up an entire middle school. Um there is a philosophy and there is um in other places that I've been um a a real I think desire for kids not to have to transition from elementary school to middle to middle school in a K8. Something we do differently here in BBSD is that some kids go to different elementary schools and they go to the K8 and sixth grade. And so that's a very different model than your entire community. You're going to be a K8. you're going to be together from kindergarten through 8th grade. I think that there's um you know educators who you know if you're not transitioning to a bunch of new and different schools, there's benefits to continue to support. there's a there's a familiarity and there's a smaller more intimate environment in a K8 then um but again in in the other places I've been the middle schools were 67 800 kids right and six seven 800 kids in middle school is a is a challenging dynamic right you know when I I was middle school principal for a couple of years on accident I didn't mean to do it >> uh but what happened was the superintendent when I was in Orlando had asked me to open up a high school. So, I was opening up a high school, but the

1:52:13enrollment wasn't coming in. And so, to make use of the space, he said, "You're going to be a relief middle school for two years, too." I said, "Well, thanks. I wish I would have known that ahead of time." Um, it's it I would talk to kids, they would do the craziest things, and I would look at them and I'd say, "Uh, why did you do that?" And they'd say, "I don't know." And I believed them. There is just something about putting a lots of lots of middle school kids. So, all of that to say, uh I think that there's different reasons why people get there. I think that there are benefits, but also when you have small K8s, what you'll see is less advanced options, less elective options. It's the same issue we're talking about with elementary schools. The smaller you are, more intimate environment, everybody knows each other's name. The challenge is when you're trying to get stretched academically or try to fi find your space, find your, you know, find your your your friend group, you know, if if you don't have a chorus, if you don't have a um a band, if you don't have a sport, like those types of things make it difficult in that time where kids are grasping to try to figure out their

1:53:23identity. >> Okay, board members. Um, so we've got uh I I'll walk you through this slide and then we also have this slide on posters along with the defining the problem and defining the goals and the risk and benefits of the next step as a way to take the next hour to really facilitate the conversation to get direction get to collective direction from our team. What how do we how do we move forward? We've identified the problem. We've identified some of the risks and benefits. there there's really only so many things you can do, right? There's only so many moves or a combination of moves that any district can do when they're going through uh declining enrollment and looking at the potential of shrinking um their footprint or not. Right? The first thing is you can you just stay the path that we're on. Right? if we try to see how it meets our original goals that we shared.

1:54:32Um, doesn't redistribute students resources, doesn't generate additional enrollment, becomes more and more inefficient the longer you go along. There's like an exponential factor of that, right? It's one thing to have a couple of one round schools. It's another thing to have lots of one round schools. So one thing you know from so so there's efficiencies that then make it more it will rise up the amount of dollars per that we spend per student to to contain the things that we're doing or you begin to start to whittle those away do different things to try to keep that dollars you're spending per student in each of those kids the same. That's choice one. Choice two is what we did at Heatherwood. uh there you can introduce or expand focused programs in a school, rename it, rebrand it. Um and uh if you have enough kids and if your issue is and and this is used a lot of times when a school's declining because nobody wants to go to it for performance or for safety or for whatever the reason might be, uh that's a choice. um you can reconfigure two schools. And so say if you had two schools that are a mile apart from each other, you could theoretically think instead of having one and a half kindergarten rounds here

1:55:55and one and a half kindergarten rounds here, we'll merge them together. So all the kids will have three rounds of kindergarten, three rounds of first grade, three rounds of second grade at one school. And then you go and you could do the next school, third, fourth, and fifth. So you bring two communities together. It's not necessarily closing a facility. It's maximizing the number of rounds for the efficiencies and for the experience that we talked about. Uh this is this next idea. You know, with our focus programming, you could relocate those programs. You could do a couple things. Some districts we just might change the loca, you could change the location. You could look at a school that has lots of excess capacity and you could do what we've done with BCSIS and High Peaks where you have two schools in one facility. you could move one of those into another facility. Um that that is something you can do. Uh I think a very um popular option as I'm watching districts try to wrestle with this um around the the country is the next option where maybe you have two schools close to each other uh um both uh maybe at a level of rounds that that don't provide for the experience you're hoping for. you figure out a way to to engage

1:57:09your communities, bring those communities together, build a new facility that can host all the kids and you can move the kids into one building. Um, that's a popular option. And then, uh, the other option, which is you could close one or more schools and try to distribute students to multiple schools. Um, and so that doesn't necessarily it creates efficiencies. You redistribute students. uh that does not necessarily generate additional enrollment. And I think that depending upon where your community is, you do run the risk when you do that, you could actually potentially lose students. Um and uh in in an environment where we have so much choice and the schools aren't that far apart from each other, um I think that that's something that you'd have to be mindful we will have to be mindful of as we move forward. So, uh, you know, maybe there's other creative thing. These are the main moves. These are the main things that that districts do. Uh, there's benefits to each, there's challenges to each, right? I mean, ultimately, what I'll say to the board is we can't stay on the path we're on and keep continue to have everything that we have for the kids in schools that get really small.

1:58:29there's not going to be the the funding to be able to do that, right? If if if the direction after this meeting is we just keep the course and we just see how it goes, the less time you have to react to this, the messier it gets, right? And the more challenging it gets because folks know we could see this coming. And I think there's an expectation as leaders as public servants that we keep our eye on the horizon. We understand what bas unless there's something that I can't even think of that makes um makes family housing more affordable in our community or that there's this massive uptick in birth rates uh that would help us six years from now. I we are we are we have a responsibility to think about this to communicate what's going to be happening and thinking about moving forward. So that's what I'll say about that. Um I think if if if um it's okay with the board, we would turn turn this over to Nicole to have a conversation. We have um Susan who's agreed to take some notes for us up on the um on our our like or a parking lot if there's other things you want to think about want you want to know about. Uh we can record risks and

1:59:50benefits if you want to think about that or you may may be ready to say like here's the next thing we think that we need to do as a district, right? and and then or give give staff direction and we can come back with a more detailed plan with a timeline and how long we think certain things may happen. I will say that that I want to be incredibly sensitive to the idea of bandwidth and timing. Um as we you know the faster you move the more bandwidth we need to have. We may have to engage some other individuals if we wanted to go faster. Um uh and uh you know I think that that that we're we're standing by ready to to to partner assist and try to create uh the solutions that our community deserves so we can continue to incredibly ser serve our kids incredibly well here in the Boulder Valley School District.

2:00:43>> So I have two clarifying questions and then I think we're going to continue to use a process that we have been doing where we're just going to go around um for board member questions and comments. So to clarify, there is a slight difference between closing and consolidating. And I want to make sure we're all on the same page here. So consolidating consolidating two or more schools in theory would take some schools offline, but you're keeping the populations intact and they're merging together. Whereas how I understand closing one or more schools and then the redistribution is say like maybe there's a school in a geographic center and you say like that school gets closed and then we're going to redraw the boundaries and redistribute those kids other places. It still takes a school one or more schools offline but it's how you handle the student population. Is that is that the >> Yes. You know, you know, the the consolidating is, you know, kids, their communities, their neighborhoods, their friends who they've grown up with, who their brothers and sisters have grown up with, right? Merge with another school where they have the same thing and they become one community. And then closing a school would be, you know, we have five schools surrounding this one school, right? this one school you just close

2:02:03and you redistribute and you add theoretically you add uh students to all of the other schools if they go >> okay great so they both different approach minimizes the number of schools and my second question you started to allude to BBSD has a history of bringing in external consultants when we're handling big new things we did it with the rea reevaluation of the grad plus we did it with UVA We've done it with all kinds of different things where we bring in strategic plan. Is that what I um it's something that we it's a tool we've utilized before to facilitate change in direction and it gets a little bit to your timeline and bandwidth question. Are there and you talked about it with sponsorships as well. Are there people that we could externally consult with or bring in to help with this problem or is that not a a situation which we could utilize experts in the field? I >> I think the answer is yes. I think where we are in the process districts do this differently. Um some districts bring in somebody to give them suggestions on the way to solve the problem. Like I don't I don't think that's what we're looking for, right? depending upon the level of engagement um and what the work would

2:03:24need to happen. There are certainly folks who live in our community that do this work that live across the state that do this work that could help us if we're facilitating conversations, if we're gathering input, right? It could be um if we want to gather input from our entire community, we can we could go back to a strategy that helped us at Heatherwood. do some polling so we know and understand and can better understand what geographical areas are thinking and feeling. Um um and and getting and making sure that we have the right information to make those decisions. Uh so those are the types of things I'm thinking. I'm not thinking, oh, I'm going to hire ABC company to come in and they're going to run the whole process and we're going to be spectators. I don't think that's where we are. or no? Would I be comfortable with decisions of this magnitude handing the keys over to somebody who doesn't live here?

2:04:21>> Thanks for clarifying that. Since I saw Kitty and Lenia's hands go up first, we're going to go around the circle in this direction. So, we'll start with Senia. So, first my appreciation to staff for laying this out so clearly. Um, it's sobering and pretty stark. Um, something we haven't talked a lot about but is very important to me is fiscal efficiency. So when I look at options for discussion um as a member of our audit committee and as a person who has to provide input and approve budget, I am not okay with things that do not improve our fiscal efficiency in this budgetary environment which I expect to get worse. Um, so that kind of takes out for me personally allow schools to stay small. Um, I also want to elevate Nicole's point that consolidating schools feels better to me than a closure where we send kids from one school to five different schools. Consolidation feels better. Um, and going back to fiscal efficiency, I am not in favor of building a new school to do that. We have a lot of buildings.

2:05:57So, an existing school for consolidation. I'm interested in um relocating focus programs. I think we've talked a lot about that today. Uh, I like that idea for an additional reason, which is if everybody from one area is driving to a focus program in another area, we could take some cars off of our roads or have cars drive a shorter distance. Um, I like that for the environment. I also um recognize our focus programs are not as accessible to all community due to the fact that they are all located or most are located right in central Boulder. Uh grade reconfiguration I understand less uh and I see that the impact on fiscal efficiency is uncertain. So I'm a little more in favor of consolidation than re grade reconfiguration, but I can be open to grade reconfiguration if um I understand it better. So if staff comes forward with recommendation on that, I'm I'm open to it. Um, the other thing that I would have liked to have seen on this slide, not to not be thankful for all the things I have seen, is impact on teachers for all of these items. Um, because I would believe that allowing schools to stay small, we're going to have a teacher impact that I don't like there. Um, introduction or expansion of focus

2:07:42programs. I wonder how that is for teachers if they want to have to have a new focus or they prefer to have a bigger team. So, you know, I'm I'm going to continue to think about how this affects teachers um and obviously students, but my decision-m capacity will also look strongly toward fiscal efficiency. I also appreciate all of these options that we've been given and the I don't look at it as we pick one. We could do depending on the region we're looking at, you know, different things in different areas. I agree with Lania that I think allowing schools to stay small is not going to be the right solution and that we do have to look at the fiscal impact. Absolutely. Um I do have a question about converting a K8 to elementary and middle because a K8 is already elementary and middle. So what does that mean?

2:09:00you you would um reconfigure if you had two K8s. >> You could have a kindergarten and a middle school >> if you wanted to do that. Or you could you could take a K8 and put the middle school. You you could consolidate that with a middle school and keep the K8, make that a K5. >> Got it. >> Or you could take a K8, make it a middle school, and merge the elementary school. >> Yeah. So, >> that was the piece I was missing because it looked like you're converting something into something it already is. >> It's just didn't all fit on the slide. >> Thanks for the clarifying question. >> Okay. Um, there really isn't anything else that I would say that Alania didn't say. Um, but I do think we should be open to looking at regions and focus you maybe doing different solutions for different regions. Um, Boulder has schools that are way closer together than each county does. So there it may require different solutions. But you know I would say anything that we can do going forward and by we I mean you all because I won't be here but to make sure kids get the best academic experience and you know having more rounds is better. I mean not if infinitely more rounds but you know

2:10:29having kids having schools at a number that maximizes their opportunities. I think to Beth's point about um student experience, that's really important. Um and that also leads to not really small schools because of counselors and you know clashes or conflicts between students. The only thing about and I'm not against K2 or 35 especially if they're very clo the schools are physically close together. I just envision families with kids in four different schools. If if there's a large family, you could have a kid in, you know, kindergarten through second in one in three to five, one in middle, and one in high school. Um, I don't think that would be a deal breakaker, but I think it's something to consider. Um, reloc can I learn to speak? Relocating focus programs. I don't know if redistri redistributing students is enough of a reason to do that. I you know if I were going to be involved in it I would want to know what is the impact on the current focus if we move it to from here to there. Um would we see you know greater diversity or you know who do who would we project to lose and all of that before you just move something. So, I would advise that. Um, I'm not at all opposed to consolidating

2:12:02schools if that works well. Um, because the good thing about that is kids stay together. And I think that's the biggest concern among parents when we change boundaries is about kids staying together versus not staying together. Um, same thing with the reconfiguration. The kids at least in the same cohort will all be together. Um, >> so I don't think I have anything else to say about that. So I'll leave it. >> And I get the sense that there's going to be a high degree of agreement. And so if we agree like you could say I agree and then any additional just because we also still have the two questions about how fast and how wide in beyond just like what options are up for consideration. Jason, >> um I wasn't planning to go through each one, but I agree with the comments so far about kind of, you know, we can't I think the one takeaway from today and from the conversations we've had is we just can't continue on the status quo.

2:12:59And I think that um you know, I don't want to be on the board to kind of oversee kind of ongoing decline for the students and what they're experiencing. I um these are not fun moves. These are not things that are enjoyable, but I think they're necessary. Uh, and I think that the takeaway from today's conversation, from May's conversation, from all the presentations we've had from LRAK, uh, is that we just can't keep doing the same thing. Um, I guess we could and we would just have a lot of small schools that offer very few services. And I don't, that's not what I want for my kids, not what I want for our community. um you know in in our very some of us who've talked about this in our kind of short even Nicole just hearing you say just in your experience in the school to go from you've seen a school you know have a a massive change from a four to a three uh I'm seeing that in my kids elementary school we have a incredible counselor who's now split between two schools and having to deal with that um you know we're hearing all of us are hearing uh maybe not daily but often about the impact of class sizes uh and It's hard to make the

2:14:03connection here with class sizes in this, but I think that's one of the big takeaways is that it's we're going to see these things pop up um in community after community. And to I think Jorge's point and Alex's point is this is not just a few schools that are dealing with this. They may be dealing with this today. We're they're all going to be dealing with this uh in a few years. And so um again, I I don't have uh particular thoughts. I do, but we don't need to go through them on each of these. Um I'm just in favor of something that we can do um where we can. I think Dr. Anderson said this at the beginning. You know, we're in a position to to take action now in a position in a relatively strong position. And I don't want to be one of those districts that takes these actions in a crisis or as, you know, they're in the middle of a budget crisis, which could happen, you know, any day. Um, with the the changes at the federal level and sorry, I don't mean to jinx anything, but more just I think, you know, we're in a position we're in a a strong position to make decisions for the future. That's the larger point now

2:14:59uh than in the middle of a budget crisis when as neighboring districts have had to do where they've had to close schools overnight. Um and so I appreciate the all the work that's been done to this point by the staff. Um I really appreciate uh the comments of all my colleagues to get to this point and I'm um you know looking forward to the conversation about pace and scope. I don't know the answer to those, but I just um like I said, I don't want to be um a board member who kind of sits here and oversees uh you know, like I said, the decline of the student experience for our kids. >> Alex, >> uh thank you. Um again, I'm really appreciative of all this and I'm really um glad that we're having these conversations. I just want to say upfront in case anybody's getting ready to do their reporting to the community.

2:15:46I'd be really frustrated if anybody in the media or the community came away with the conclusion that the headline should be BBSD reports plans to accelerate the closure of schools. Um because that is the last thing that we are engaged in here. We are engaged in discussions about all sorts of things you could do to make the student experience better and keep what's good about Boulder Valley. I just want to put that out there and really grateful for the staff's work and prep for this. Um I guess one thing I would say in terms of the thinking about these options number one is I think that the the black bullets could turn into green checks meaning going from we're not sure how it work out to feeling like a positive thing from it depending on how we design it. So I do think there's issues out design and implementation that make us better able to manage the benefits and risks. I also agree that having district bandwidth to work on this whether that's bringing in long-term staff or consulting and people with local expertise too is is the way to go. I think the stakes for this the importance of this are such that we should have the bandwidth to be able to do what we want to think about this um and in the medium

2:16:55to long term. So it's not like a consultant who comes in for three months and helps us figure this out. this is a capacity we need to manage and we should have it uh within the district. Um I do want to point I don't know if this uh was clear but I think one thing to think about that going from like a K6 to a K2 and a 35 the main benefit I see there is that you have the ability to maintain those services um and you well not necessarily all the services as much as the differentiation and the collegial part between the teachers. So if you have you'll have three or four class rooms per grade level when you do that which allows you to do the things not necessarily about like the number of counselors but about the ability to differentiate on instruction to do mixed grouping to accelerate. Um so that's one advantage to that approach and then the kids presumably would go from their K2 to their 35. So the cohort of kids and friends is developing through the two schools. Now, if they're close, that might address uh Kitty's um point about like just making famil family's life unmanageable.

2:18:05Um I also want to say uh that I think a lens to think about this. I still advocate for a regional approach to this. So I think there there is like a superior issue to address and there's South Boulder trying to figure it out and each of our different communities sort of are within reasonable like uh school choice transportation things and you're trying to figure out what's available in that community. So I I do like moving to a way where we don't say well Mesa needs to change but Bear Creek doesn't like it's a Mesa Bear Creek South southwest Boulder situation. Um, I also say that one of the things I really do want to think about and I don't know that it's a new parameter to this, but I do want to ask does this have potential to increase overall enrollment to keep and retain uh families to attract new families and to satisfy more families.

2:18:57So what is what's how does that change the overall condition of us so that we have more people and we're growing or at least uh growing the pie or slowing down how fast it shrinks. And then um I do also want to think about what we mean by introducing and expanding focus programs. One of the ideas I've been thinking about um is like does the whole school need to have that focus or can we do a classroom or two with particular focus? So, like I keep thinking that uh maybe we're losing families of kids who are going to private schools work on dyslexia or early learning problems and we should have some more classrooms that are focused on early literacy in more of our elementary schools or we should have a program that's focused on um uh neurodeiverse students or we could have accelerated classrooms that are preparing kids to go from fifth to seventh grade. So, I like the idea of thinking about like a specific program within a school that also expands the offerings to satisfy and retain more families in that school and takes advantage of the open space. And then finally, I'd say uh I think we should need to pay attention to the implications of having vacant buildings when we do close things down, if we ever

2:20:13did. And so there's different things that go on whether you're um mothballing a building, figuring out community to do it, how do we deal with could we make housing on it or something, but there's all sorts of things uh in our state, in our community that come from any discussion about how we manage our property. I know we have a great operations team and I have all the confidence in and Rob and his team to help us think through those things, but in the long run, if we were to change how we're using facilities, there are implications that play out in multiple ways for us to think about. So, I just generally I'm super supportive of this conversation. I don't want anybody to misconstrue it as, hey, we're trying to figure out how to close schools faster.

2:20:52Um, and that trying to figure out a holistic and thoughtful way about how to manage this. Um, and finally, I'd say whatever we do here, I do not want to detract from the progress we're making academically at closing disparities and performance and advancing our instructional support and infrastructure is paying off. That's why we're credited with the distinction. That's why our schools are improving. So, I want to make sure that what we do here doesn't make any of that continued improvement, performance, and kid experience be worse. We're trying to make those things um continue. So, I'll get off my soap box, but I'm excited about the discussion and eager to talk with us and and eager to continue to develop our ability to have deep conversations about it. >> Thank you. Um, I want to start by saying thank you to the administration, the teachers, um, for the work on the strategic plan that's happened over the last bunch of years. I think that's why we we're at where we're at, right? We've we're serving our students well and small schools clearly work against that, right? They're underresourced. They can't provide services. They can't address the move of population. So, we've got to do something different. Um, I appreciate all the options. I think we're all kind of on the same page here

2:22:04moving forward. Uh, my one thought is that these aren't exclusive, right? So thinking about consolidation focus or strand programs at schools and grade reconfiguration across schools makes a lot of sense. Um the word that um Jeff used earlier was uh holistic, right? This isn't this is the entire district not about one region. We can think about um how we approach it differently across different regions because the spacing is very different in in different areas. The programming is very different. Um and I I think I see this as a chance as an opportunity um for us to make our schools more attractive and and think about our programming. Um East District is interesting because we've got one school that's projected to be 130% of capacity in five years and some that are projected to be at 60% of capacity. So there's opportunities to think differently about those spaces and how who we can draw from other districts if we make our schools more attractive. Um and so I think um it's open, right?

2:22:57I'm open to thinking about how we approach this um moving forward. >> That's why it's really hard to go last in this conversation. Um Oh, well, you're you're going to summarize and transition us to the next section. >> Your job is to really go last. Um yeah, I I too just want to express a lot of gratitude for the level of transparency this conversation is offering for the board, for staff, and for the community. I don't know that other districts are having this these kinds of conversations. These are difficult conversations to use your word, Elenia. They're sobering conversations to have. Um I hear a high degree of agreement around this board. Um I'm not going to go into summarizing because I'm sure you're going to do that and you're going to do a great job. But um for me, I will just add that I agree small schools are not staying small is not an option. That's not on the table.

2:23:50I don't think anyone feels that's the way to go. Um I also similar to Lilenia think that we need to have a real focus on fiscal efficiency as we move forward um especially in these times. So I think that it goes hand inand fiscal efficiency goes handinhand with the the programming um opportunities for our students. So I'm looking forward to the sport having the conversation um without without Kitty and I here. However, you know, we'll be continuing to support as much as we can. Um yeah. No, I uh I I don't have anything more to add other than I think that the relocation of focus programs is similar to what you were saying regarding transportation, but I'm also interested in increasing access to these programs um for people around the district. Why are they all consolidated in one tiny space in BBSD? That doesn't make any sense. So, yep, that's it.

2:24:51I'm hearing a high degree of alignment from this board and kind of bringing it back to the previous part of our conversation. I don't think there's an appetite to wait an extensive period to begin this work. I think we were talking about the 2029 numbers and being rather bleak. We can't wait that long. And so I think considering what capacity, considering what timeline, getting all the information we need to know to understand do we need to take bring somebody in to help us work through this to have have some outcomes in the nearer term versus the longer term would be better. I think I'm also hearing the desire fis fiscal efficiencies student centered opportunities. I think when thing we need to think about what I think about with I um K12 the K235 model I feel like it's a temporary it's a temporary benefit. I went to schools that transit that was in a school that district that was growing quickly and so I was in a 35 or one time I was in a four five school and then I was in like an intermediate school.

2:25:59Transitioning through it's a transition. It feels like a really solid transition to help increase programmatic experiences for students at schools that are really close in a neighborhood that might feed into the same middle school may not meet the long-term fiscal efficiencies. I find it interesting to think about timeline and reality about bond and I wonder the appetite of our community around is there a desire a willingness to pass another bond to build new buildings or to improve upon our existing ones or not if there's not then our decisions might be different than if there is but I think we would need to understand what is the appetite in our community if we move forward this way to Lena's point if we're not building a new building maybe it is taking a focus school and moving it into one of our big elementary schools and like rethinking how we're distributing and maximizing our facilities if we're not doing significant improvements. I think having fewer schools allows us some of those operational efficiencies to make our campuses look nicer. I mean we get a lot of complaints about man the landscaping why do these rock beds why I think there are some improvements that if our buildings looked nicer Rob I say this so I we talk about this all the

2:27:07time. Um, I think there is if our schools look nicer, we will draw in more students. So, I think we're a lot on the same page. I think how wide do we go? Hearing my co my colleagues talk about we need to treat each of the different areas a little bit differently means we probably need to look at everybody at the same time. Do we feel like if we're if we're engaging if we're looking at South Boulder versus North Boulder versus Lewisville versus Erie, it's a systemwide approach. we probably want to be thinking of it them together and so the going wide means we look at it all together. Is that what I'm hearing from my board members? >> Yes. >> And then I really want to tap into when something we have not discussed yet and get some board member feedback on is community engagement. I think there's a balance between setting expectations. I'm hearing from the board that remaining small is not an option.

2:28:07in the long term. And we know that these types of decisions are only successful when we have when we engage our community in thoughtful, meaningful ways to help us solve the problems at hand. You understand very deeply the problems in your own community and you might have creative solutions or you might have just different ideas. So my wondering is what does that engagement look like as far as timeline, as far as scope, as far as parameters, and how can we do that in a meaningful way to bring the community along? Dr. I appreciate um the board having this conversation and being thoughtful in considering uh the experience of our kids, all kids, and making sure that we continue to provide this just incredible um education for every kid that we have the honor to serve. I do appreciate that and just wanted to put that on the record. Um, your community is going to be engaged one way or the other. Let me explain that now. How do I see unproductive community engagement around school closures?

2:29:23Looks something like this. District cooks up a bunch of solutions in the background, considers some things, rolls it out to community, gives them little bit of time to how do you feel about it? and then plans to press forward, right? I haven't seen that go well at all. Uh and then I haven't seen it go well from a just a community satisfaction. Uh the the the level of mistrust that gets developed in a process like that. Um and then ultimately because the pressure gets so high that the school district never is able to roll out the plan that they they originally proposed. Uh so I do believe that that there that uh that there has to be some some genuine community engagement around what folks feelings and understanding the parameters the board has clearly set today.

2:30:26Right. So, and we've done this before around really hard decisions, right? But we've done it in a way where folks really aren't talking about some of the really hard decisions we've made in my seven and a half years here. I mean, we don't annually we're not talking about high school start times, right? Kitty knows what I'm talking about, right? Board made a decision. We went out, we listened to people, used some of their feedback to land where we are. Kids are getting more sleep. They're performing better. um we've we're able to navigate the challenges. Um so, uh what I would like as as um as superintendent is to be able to circle back with staff given the direction. Um think about timeline. What I'm hearing you say is we're talking about parallel processes in our communities, not this community, then that community, then that community. That's very clear.

2:31:23That's clarifying for us. you do three do things at once. I'm going to tell you something. You already know the bandwidth and the other things that our team is going to be able to engage in as we think about prioritizing next semester and beyond. Going to have to consider how much bandwidth we have strategic plan, keeping our foot our eye on the focus and and thinking about how we can reimagine our footprint um with engaging community with with feedback and ideas and thoughts. You know, you're going to want to know where folks are. If there's a solution that that 80% of of folks were like, "We'll take that one." And and board, you you've already began to communicate to our community around these are the things that can happen, right? Tonight around dinner tables, folks will be saying, "Gosh, of all those things, what do we think would work for us?" Like, like that's going to happen. It's happening. Um, how do we engage folks? How do we think about where folks are? And it may not be I love this and I can't stand this. It might be all of these are going to be painful for some people. Of those, which is the most acceptable of of of a series of options, right? Most people would want keep my school small, keep giving

2:32:40me all the things that you've given me, right? And uh and figure it out some other way. Uh that is not on the table. We we just can't do it. You can't continue to compensate people well in a place that's very expensive to live. You can't continue to provide the services that you need. You can't transportation, food service, um operations. Um so, so I'm going to need a little bit of time to come up with our team to begin to to figure out what a timeline looks like. We we're going to need to think about how do we engage our communities? What are those what are those options and opportunities look like? I I do think that we're going to need a way to allow every family to have a voice in this and not that let not have this activity become the voice of the of the loud contingent.

2:33:34Right? This is why I really appreciate some of the polling activities we've done where we really be are able to capture the collective voice in a way um that um lets us know what folks are think folks who participate what they're thinking. I think that there's some opportunity there. Um I want to make sure that we have the opportunity to engage in LRAK. How does LRAK help us and support us in thinking through some of these things? Um what research do we need to do? Right? A review of the literature around some models that we may be thinking about may be beneficial. Right? We're just going to want to be super thorough. Right? And if we're thorough and if we're engaged and if we listen and if we lock arms and make tough decisions for the betterment of our kids and our community, I do believe that that is the best path forward. So, um, yes, community has to be engaged. Yes, we're going to have to listen. Yes, we're going to have to make tough decisions.

2:34:30And no, we can do anything, but we can't do everything. in your factf finding mission. I'm also very curious right before I Beth and I were elected to this board, the staff engaged in a feasibility study with some like 10-year pro projections or more. I'm wondering I think it's misguided to think we're going to have significant financial wins in anything that we do. There will be trade-offs. Some things will cost more, some things will cost less. But as we're thinking about decisions in areas considering what are the conditions of schools, what are the capac like what is the size of the property, what is the what is the ability to convert it to something different down the road if we need to. So thinking about our facilities as they exist, not necessarily the programming within them or the people within them, but the actual facilities and then like what might those trade-offs be so we can also I mean I would hate to you know have somebody a community come up with a great idea about the how they're going to consolidate into this one school and the school is like beyond the state of repair or then hey we really have to go out for a bond or like we need to be mindful of all of that as well. And so I

2:35:42just think tying that piece in would be helpful for the community and the board. >> If if you don't do that, then you have a facilitydriven process. And in some places that's what you do. We take the facilities that are in the worst condition, right? Those are the ones that you close regardless of what anybody, you know, you let that be the long pole in the tent. I do think it's it is an aspect and I do think that in some areas it might make sense to consolidate two schools into one school but you don't have one school that's big enough to hold both of them and even if you had enough classrooms your core spaces aren't built or designed for that type of a of a program capacity right you see this at Boulder High yes we have the classrooms but the cafeteria the hallways the stairwells right so um luckily for us we have some of the best operations folks in in um in Colorado if not the country. Uh we can build schools incredibly well. We can we can um uh remodel schools as needed. Uh so so yes, I do think that that is part of what we have to think through. It is an element, right? And if there are limitations within the geographical areas that we've

2:36:55discussed, you should put them on the table, not after somebody gives you a great idea and say, "Yeah, but we could have never done that in the first place." That's not fair. That's not how you genuinely engage community. Um, so I do think that we'll have to do some thinking around that. What are the limitations? What are the options and opportunities? Where's the space to think creatively? Where's the space to get real? Yeah. And likewise, and sorry, not Jorge. Um, I mean, where our schools are matters as as far as who how are they accessible to people. Are they on main transportation routes? Are they near? We talk a lot about how Broomfield is part of the reason Broomfield continues to be successful. It's bordering another school district. So sometimes, I know we've gotten a lot of feedback about Heatherwood, but to me, Heatherwood there's opportunity there. It's next to St. rain where some of I mean so the the location is also important to consider uh how how kids can come to our schools particularly our choice schools 100% choice schools if they're nec they they could be placed somewhere that allows more access to people both within and without of our district. So thank you for making sure we're going to make all of that come to light Jorge.

2:38:06>> Yeah, thank you for thinking through that discussion on the last point about access right and opportunity in terms of who can access those resources. Um, we mentioned kind of potential required bond that might be needed moving forward, but we have an existing bond right now. So, as we think about timeline, are there implications for the work that's begun that could be started that, you know, where we are with our bond now? I just want to make sure we don't forget about that as we as we kind of move forward. >> The answer to is yes. And, uh, the trains left the track on some of that work, just so folks know. I mean, we have to order so far in advance. Um, and so we're going to continue, we're going to continue our bond work. Um, but if there's adjustments and things that we wouldn't want to think, we could bring that to Seabbach. You know, the other piece that we're going to have to consider, board members, is how do we engage all of our municipalities, right?

2:38:57You're, you know, when you when you're talking about big changes, you're talking about transportation changes, right? You're talking about if there's a place where we do some type of of of a consolidation and then you have a facility, right? You're going to have to engage your municipalities in regards to what what happens that what does that look like? Are there other options or opportunities? Is there, you know, I I think this goes wrong when when districts lead with we're going to save this much money or they lead with the facilities or here's the plan. Um I I was I was I was pretty intentional with what I said in the beginning in the sense that if there is the potential you can do some of these things and you could lose students, right? That's why you have to engage and talk and listen.

2:39:45Uh so um so we're not leading with we're going to save x number of dollars. Although with the districts that we've talked to and by the way while we've been planning for this, our team has been engaged in with districts across the country on processes. What do you do? What works? What doesn't work? How much money operationally um do you spend upfront to get into whatever it is you're doing? And then how long until you recoup those dollars on an ongoing basis? What does that look like? Um so so we have we have a good sense there. But I do think engaging our municipalities as well as part of this timeline like how do we start to let them know what's happening and uh with the understanding that you know this these this is the decision of the board right like like you know we're we're moving forward with this uh but there's opportunity for partnership and collaboration I'm sure >> board members we're hearing a lot about timeline I'm wondering how soon you can present a potential timeline or trade-offs for having a timeline A versus timeline B to the board to do you have a sense of Well, the first thing I think about is we're going to have a new board here in a month.

2:41:09>> So, um uh you know, I would think that we would be able to start be to to think through this over the next few months, right? October, November, December and then um after our prioritization meeting in January with our new board um have this as one of the first things that we begin to talk about in that new in that new cycle. If if for whatever reason after I touch base with our team that that is unrealistic because remember that we've gotten a lot of new information, we've come to some consensus on some big ideas here. Um, I could tell you, you know, if it's not January, I think it would be February because but but then you would have to, I think, use next spring. We got to start engaging and listening and talking.

2:41:54>> Yeah. And we are always bound by the enrollment window and the school calendar. And so, you know, if we don't start this discussion until this time next year, it's going to be a whole other So, I just we are there's there's a calendar that we always work through open roll window begins and then >> your direction's been very clear. >> I understand. >> Any other thoughts, questions? Alex >> Jason, I just uh I guess two observations. one is I really appreciate the direction and I'm part of the consensus that I like what's going on. Sorry I can't be there in person to give you more facial clues, but I'm on board what we're doing and support my colleagues in this. Um, one thing for me is I really do believe that our academic performance and the results for our kids is job one. And so I I'd like this to make sure that one of the things we're integrating into it is how it supports the continued growth and achievement of our kids and the progress we're making on our instructional plan. So I don't want the process to be a distraction from that and I don't want action to be like a detriment to it. So I want I want these changes to be in support of our

2:43:11academic mission. Of course, I'm interested in all the other values that we have that are trying to advance, but I just I just don't want us to be removed from the discussion where we're not also talking about what students um are learning and and also on the engagement front total believer in engagement and having focused and people engaging on the right stuff. So, I think it's important to have not have engagement in lie of change but in support of and you know to inform that change. So I think we need to figure out parameters um that we're engaging about and give constructive realistic conversation about it that that speaks to Nicole's point about the timelines, calendars, things that we're working on. So this is real. This is real now. We need to engage people now with real real ideas and real things and um and it would be great to have uh the ability to do that in a deep way but not um take forever as we do that. That's all good to be in person today.

2:44:21>> Um just just in terms of engagement I think you know I go back to the slide that Robin you presented. It's number eight on the kind of impacts of this and I think you know I think Rob you mentioned this at the beginning too. People say oh just close a school and that solves this. But I think you know for me at least when I think about how we've how we've uh kind of taken on this issue when we had this presentation in May in this particular slide showing kind of what the impacts are at 3 2 1 and multi- grade you know that for me shifted from like a more of a longer term issue to a real sense of urgency it you know and I think it helped me helped connect the dots for this issue with the the actual impact today. And so as we think about engagement I think that that's missing out there. We understand that because we've seen that, we've had this presentation, we've had this conversation is what is, you know, it's not as simple as closing a school. Here is the result of our situation and if we don't do something, this is going to continue. And so tying kind of this slide and this issue to the slide at the

2:45:17end of our different options and how not necessarily we're going to kind of get back to what you've had, but we will get closer to that. And so I think that is a very important piece in our community engagement is is making sure that people understand the relationship there and connecting all those dots because at least like I said for me um you know that was really you know where you really see like oh wow this is not a long-term issue. it's impacting us today and here are the reasons why and if we don't continue that this you know this is what we'll see kind of school to school and so that um as you plan engagement I know we're down the road on that but I I really think that's an important connection to make for folks a big part of this is defining the problem right what do we have to def you know we have to define the problem so folks can know see understand the financial issues challenges the facility like like you have to define the problem for folks.

2:46:14You can't assume folks know and understand what we know and understand what LRA knows and understands. I think we'll have to spend significant time getting out into our community engaging with our public and defining the problem and challenges and the limitations and parameters right and then once people are informed they can really engage. uninformed engagement right uh will lead to a lot of unsatisfied right folks who feel like they haven't been heard right so if you define the problem first clearly we've defined it today right some people will watch this other people you have to just continue to engage right defining the problem I think is the first step of what we'll be thinking about and then once you've defined the problem and parameters Then the engagement around knowing this, understanding this and understanding your community and your family and your like where of the solutions. How do we begin to begin to put together a plan that folks can can live with and understand why we're doing it.

2:47:31piggybacking on the defining the problem. I think it's a great opportunity to leverage our school accountability committees, our PTO's and having, you know, a couple of them get together to hear understand together what the problem is. Maybe district staff can help lead some of those conversations at those schools. So, it's pretty it's consistent delivery from school A to school B and regional. And I think it could um be a really impactful component of the work that they do on a regular basis. Well, board members, Kitty, >> I just have one more thing to say because I will not be on the board making these decisions, but I am going to be joining Elrach and I'm really happy about it. And it's possible Jeff and I will trade places if he gets elected. Um, and the good thing about that is that as liaison, you can't participate in LRAK, but as a member, I can. So, >> thank you for willing to stay engaged in the district in that capacity, Kitty.

2:48:29Your expertise will be of extreme value there. >> I hope so. >> Staff members, thank you for this outstanding presentation today. It was great to kind of >> this this next very important step to clarify for the board and for the public about where we are, what where we're headed um has been it's was outstanding. Thank you, board, for the conversation, for your willingness to just go around the circle and chime in even your hand wasn't immediately raised. I think that helped us all understand where we are all sitting in this conversation and this very important topic. And with that, our meeting is adjourned.