Transcript

0:20:31Welcome to Superintendent's honor roll. I'm Rob Anderson, proud superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District. Raise your hand if this is your first ever superintendent's honor roll. That makes me a round of applause for everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many folks that we're excited to celebrate this evening. Uh hopefully you're going to have a lot of fun and join us in celebrating all of the amazing award winners uh for this evening. So before we get started, uh just a little bit about superintendent's honor role. We do this three times a year to recognize the outstanding achievements of our students, staff, and community members. Uh before we begin would love to recognize our BBSD Board of Education members. And so when I introduce you board members, if you could stand up and wave. If you're already standing, wave twice or just wave once. That's fine. Um in the back, our president, Nicole Rajpal, vice president in the back on the other side, Alex Medler.

0:21:33Next to him is our treasurer, Jason. Up front we have Dian Booker. Jorge Chavez is somewhere in the building. Uh Lenia Quinn Lenoa and Anna Timu adding also in the back. Thank you all school board members. Appreciate you all. Did everybody enjoy the food this evening? It's it's it's the highlight of the superintendent's honor roll is the food. Uh, and I'm really proud to announce that tonight's food was actually provided by our Apex culinary students. Isn't that amazing? So, uh, they did the planning, the cooking, the delivery. Parents, if you need a little help in the kitchen, around the house, it's a great program to send your kids to, uh, Apex Culinary Program, which is right up here, right up on the hill. And just a wonderful, wonderful program. So, uh, thanks to Apex, uh, culinary students for providing our food and thank you all for being here. Who's ready to get started? Little bit of noise, right?

0:22:36This is, uh, this is an exciting time to celebrate. So, our first group is, well, we have a few groups to recognize for, um, some incredible performances in high school swimming. So, everyone knows now, now, just for those of you who haven't been to one of these before, you'll see you'll hear some dad jokes. Just laugh along. those they're they're intended to be dad jokes. Um, so everyone knows that eagles know how to soar, but you know that they also know how to swim, too. Did you know that? There you go. That's right. Thanks for playing along. Our Broomfield High School certainly provided proved it during the recent 4A swimming and diving championships. Will you help me welcome the 4A state swimming and diving champs from Broomfield High School? Come on up. There we go.

0:23:36And if we have any of our coaches or any folks that came along, please join us up here in the front. So, last month's state championship meet at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton was electric. Eagles started the meet on the right foot by winning the very first event, the 200 medley relay. Congratulations to Carly Chandra, Cameron Wymer, Whmer, Avery Wheeling, Ridley Hagerman, come on and step forward. Those of you that were on the 200 medley relay, so where's Riley? Ridley. Riley's not here. Ridley's here. Ridley, this is you. So after that, Ridley then won the 500 freestyle. And then Ellie Folk. Ellie, where you at? Ellie won the 200 individual medley. And that's the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. That's all of them. like that's all you could swim. Congratulations, Ellie. And then with the event coming to a close, Chassisa said Broomfield already had the championship in the bag, but perhaps the best performance of the night was yet to come. Ellie Ridley and sisters Marbury and Meera Weary left their comp competitors in their wake during the 400yard freestyle with an outstanding time of 333.92, won by 5.26. 26 seconds.

0:25:25At the end, it wasn't even close. Beating the closest teams, uh, China Mountain and Golden. Not even close. And coach Emily Austin was named the 4A swimming coach of the year. Where's Emily? Ellie and Ridley, come over here. I've got some questions. They're easy. They're easy. They're about swimming. Okay. So, you should be all right. Um, so I know you've been working for this for four, you're both seniors, four years to achieve. How do you all feel about finishing your senior year with this accomplishment? And because this is the first state championship for swimming in Broomfield High School history, where is Ginger here? Ginger, was this the last state championship that Broomfield High had ever like you've won them all, right? Is swimming the last one you were waiting on? No. still some more. Talk to me about what this season has meant.

0:26:20Um, it was really Okay. It was really nice to like win on a bang and finish all four years. So, yeah, it was really awesome to have the four years kind of build up and finally we were able to win. So, it just felt amazing and we really deserved it. Worked hard. That's right. You represented your school district really well. Coach Coach Austin, come on over. Congratulations. What a what a big deal. So, from what I hear from from people, what they've told me that you had a feeling that even before the meet started, these ladies would win the championship. Talk to me about what gave you that feeling and what made you the most proud about this this championship uh season for your girls. I don't even know where to start. Um I knew before the season started that we were going to win state. Um, mainly because everyone came back pretty much.

0:27:15We we lost some seniors who were crucial to our team integrity, but we also kept a ton of girls and so I just knew based on that and who they are that we would do it. So, there was never a doubt in my mind. Well, what a great accomplishment. Everybody, one more round of applause. Let's take a great picture. Do we have Jay or Okay, Erin's gonna take the picture. Before you all leave, coach has one more thing to say. Well, it's actually it's kind of about someone who's not here right now. Um, Miata Santos is our diver and she did something pretty extraordinary in that she was on a state champion team for Broomfield High School in two different sports in the same school year. She was also part of the gymnastics team that won state and she did amazing at diving and we couldn't have done all the things we did all season without having swimming and diving. And so, uh, I want to acknowledge her and the second place finishes that we had in our 200 free relay. Um, Myra in the 100 freestyle.

0:28:38Um, we did some great things. Thank you. Another round of applause. What a great way to start off. Superintendent's honor roll. You all can grab a seat. Thank you so much. So, the Eagles weren't the only swimmers from BBSD to impress during this meet. If we could have Carly Pacio and parents, staff, anybody here was here with Carly come on up. We are so proud of you. Are you kidding me? Coach, I'll be you know I'm in charge, right? Doesn't matter. I think I think I'm in charge. I'm not in charge. Amber. Amber is definitely a charge. Okay. So, Carly, I know that you're both a Special Olympics and now a state champion. You won the 50yard unified free. How do you feel? Tell us tell us what it was like. So, I am so good on my strokes and I know it's like to win. But when I finished the race, I did so good. And I was like, you got this and you will hold this to together like Mrs. Cathine says. And by the time I touch the wall so hard hadn't not stop I kept it I kept I I kept going and I did not give up at all. I am a rock star. I I am famous.

0:31:02Yeah. This is so great. So, I also noticed that you were recently featured in a story in the Daily Camera's Boco Prep section. That's a big deal. Another round of applause for Carly. And apparently, you say something when you swim well. What is it that you say when you swim well? I did so good. You definitely did so good. Um, so someone saw that clip in the paper and we've got pictures of you up there, Carling, which is awesome, and was inspired and wrote a song about you. Let's listen to a clip. Aquatic lights on a chlorine blue lane. Mar coyote is howling her name. Cap low goggles just right. Senior year dream fluesing lights. Crowd don't hush when the whistle blows. She dives on in hard over toes. Might miss a turn. Might swim her own way. But she climbs out grinning saying I did so good. Yeah, she always does. Hands in the air saying I did it because it is in the clock and it is in the place. It's the smile on her face at the end of the race.

0:32:36How good is that, Carly? Again, congratulations. Let's take a picture. So proud of you and all the Monarch swimmers. So let's take a picture. That's not awkward at all. Um, so before we leave this 4A meet, we do have one to mention one more honor that was bestowed upon a BBSD student. And I think we can see that student up there. Brady Paddock from Centurus. Come on up. So Brady was named the 4A swimmer of the year by the Colorado High School Coaches Association. That's another round of applause. That's right. Nominated by her coach and was chosen by a vote of all the 4 swimming coaches, which really speaks highly of the way she carries herself. Those of you those that know her say that she's one of the nicest, most humble people you'll ever meet and that she's speedy in the pool, earning placement in Chass's 4A girls swimming second team.

0:34:16But her real love isn't even swimming. It's water polo. Told she's an Olympic hopeful and has committed to Indiana University to play on their team. Amazing. So Brady, you're a senior. heard you thought about graduating early so you could join your college water polo team, but you decided to stay in part so you could swim this season and come to the superintendent's honor role. Tell me a little bit about that. Um, yeah, I don't know. I guess I wanted one more year of swimming, so that's what I wanted. And so I also hear that you are a big help in Sanaus's I intensive learning center. Talk a little bit about what that means to you. Um it's fun. It's very fun. It's like the highlight of my day every day. So it's very fun to be part of that.

0:35:18Another round of applause. Congratulations, Brady. Let's Is your coach here or Carlin? You want to come up? Or both? or Carl or everybody. And our final swimming honores are from Fair View High School. Knights, come on up. So, the Knights team is admittedly quote small but mighty. according to its coaches, but it certainly made an impression at the recent 6A state swimming and diving 5A. See, I'm already trying to to make it bigger and better feel. 5A state swimming and diving championships also held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton last month. They came in second place against Cherry Creek, bolstered by the state championship winning team swim by Lexi Burn in the 100redyard butterfly with a time of 54.26 seconds. This is also an automatic all-American time. Another round of applause. So, Lexi, this is your first individual state title. Last year, you came in third place, but this year you were able to edge out reigning champ, the reigning champ from Boulder High. Tell us a little bit about what that felt like.

0:37:11Yeah, it was really fun. And it was great to see all of my hard work pay off and I just had a lot of fun with my team and it was a good experience. I love that. So throughout the meet Fairview kept Cherry Creek on its toes and while the Knights couldn't pull out the team championship, their efforts were noticed. At the end of the meet, coaches Stacy Toby, who's not here, and Francois Bentley were honored as the 5A swimming coaches of the year by the Colorado High School Coaches Association. I'm free. So, I know that Stacy wasn't able to join us for Annie, but why don't you tell us about what this meant for you all as coaches? Uh, we do wish the award could go to our entire coaching staff. Uh, we have the most wonderful uh coaching staff that contributes and supports all of our athletes. Um, in terms for Stacy and I, we've been co-head coaches um, now since right around COVID. And, uh, it was more of an honor to the team than anything else. Uh, because we're, you know, we're here to just bolster up the kids opportunities. Um, but it was really meaningful because as all coaches know, the amount of time and heart that you put in to make this opportunity. Um, so

0:38:35it was nice to be honored uh, for the work that we do to help the kids. Another big round of applause. Congratulations. Let's take a picture. So, I asked Lexi where she was going to school and she said USC, University of Southern California, which I was like, I know that's a big deal. Congratulations. Um, how's everybody feeling? Anybody need any food? Some snacks? We got plenty of food by the Apex Apex culinary students. Everybody good? Okay. If you get hungry, feel free to sneak back out or grab some food on the way out. Uh, so let's turn our attention from the pool to the mats. Tonight, we're proud to welcome back uh no stranger to the superintendent's honor role and a back-to-back state champion who recently defended her title, Shayla Martinez. Come on up. That was so Shayla is a student at Monarch High, but she competes on the Broomfield High School team. She won her second straight 5A girls 190lb wrestling title. At the state tournament, she pinned everyone, including Thornton's Kada Hullen in the finals, winning the match in under a minute and a half.

0:40:38So Shayla, I understand that you have a perfect record in your high school career, finishing your junior year 40 and zero, registering 34 pins with 12 of those coming in the first 30 seconds of the match. Is that right? And you're not the only wrestler in your family. Your sister Bella is here. Where's Bella? Looking to fit to to possibly follow in your footsteps. Talk to me a little bit about what you do to prepare uh for the season. And you know what goes through your head when you're in these matches because you're just being so dominant in your performance. Um, I just think that like I want to be the best in like the world one day. And if I want to be the best in the world, I have to be the best in Colorado. So going into the season, I just it sounds I'm very humble, but I just walk around with some confidence and like I know I'm the best. So, you know who else knows you're the best is if you notice like the small type bad eyes. So, uh um Kada Hullen knows you're the best cuz that's who you've been in a finals. So, another round of applause for Shayla. Let's take a picture.

0:42:22So Shayla's a junior, so I think it's safe to say I just gave her her invitation for next March of Superintendent's honor roll so we could see her as a backto backto back state champion. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. So folks, it's not just student athletes that are are crowned state champions here in BVSD. Recently, HOSA, the Organization for Future Health Professionals, gathered for their state conference, and three BBSD students won in their divisions. Let's have the following Apex students come up. Bella Barrett, who's a senior at Boulder High. Alexander Barry Hill, a senior at Monarch High. I'm not sure that Alexander's here. And Sebastian Ramirez Medina, a senior at Boulder High School. So Bella won in pathofysiology which is a study of functional and structural changes in the body arising from disease or industry.

0:43:24Alexander one for clinical nursing which aims to test knowledge and skills required in the nursing field. and Sebastian won in sports medicine testing the knowledge and skills required for patient care in the sports medicine setting. Let's give them one more round of applause. Either of you have anything to share about the experience? Why don't you tell them what it's like to win a state championship in in this uh or in this experience that you had? I think that this came with a lot of preparation from our teachers at Apex. So, shout out Apex and I just been you work every day and then eventually the moment comes and we were crown champions. Yeah. Um I think it was also the part was the craziest part was walking up on the stage and not knowing whether or not you're going to win or not. And so when it was in front of like 5,000 people and just seeing everyone just like your name on the little screen in front, it was wild. But I think the person that can best describe it is actually Rick. I think Rick needs to come up here and give a LITTLE SPEECH. COME ON, RICK.

0:44:28Come on, Rick. That's awesome. There you go. That's what I'm talking about. Um, hi. Uh, I'm the MT teacher at Apex. Um, Dan, um, I I would tell you the thing about HOSA. It is phenomenal watching the students prepare most of the year to test. You kind of have the kids that you think are going to do well and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. And then it's the same thing for us as teachers that all of a sudden you see gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal and you're like, "Holy smokes, we had a piece of that." So, I'm really proud of Apex. I'm really proud of the students and what we do here. And Rick, we're proud of you. Why don't we take a picture, Rick? But you got to stay. Ming, you're laughing too much. You need to come up and take get in the picture, too.

0:45:54I've told you Apex is great, right? As we have a little more evidence of that. Again, the food delicious, amazing. I'm glad Rick said he was the teacher because if he came up and he wasn't the teacher, just Rick, I don't know. Thanks, Rick. Appreciate it. So, as you all know, may know behind all these amazing students, teams and coaches are hardworking athletic and activity directors that coordinate all the practices, help schedule all the activities, games, and meets, and supervises it all. It truly is a labor of love at each of our high schools and our middle schools. It is my honor to bring up Carl Buck, assistant principal and AD at Centurus High School. Now, Carl didn't know he's here on short notice. Friday, we were notified he was selected by the Colorado Athletic Directors Association as their 5A athletic director of the year. So proud of you, man. That is so good. Hey, we're so proud of you, Dad.

0:46:55The award recognized leadership commitment to student athletes and community impact. Something that we know that Carl exemplifies. Carl, I know just about every night of the week we can find you either at a game at Centurus or with a Warrior team on the road. And I know it's a big commitment. Talk to us about what keeps you going and what it means to be able to serve in this role as athletic director. Yeah. What what keeps me going, and I think Carlin and all of our AD team would would say the same thing, is our kids. Um, every day on the drive-in, I live in kind of northeast Denver, and every every drive in, every drive home, it's all about how did we make this experience good for kids? because that's what we're here for. Um, and we have just such a wonderful team from Harry's leadership here in the district to Carllin, Austo, Jen, Andrea, and our AD team and my team at home, you know, my wife and my little my little girl right here. It's just anyone in education would tell you, um, it's a team effort.

0:47:50You know, Randy in our athletic office who helps me with with everything. You know, he's like a co-athletic director. Um, and I just I just feel so blessed to be part of this team and and because we are such part of a great team, we're able to help provide for kids and and that's that's what we're here for and that's what what keeps me going. Another round of applause for Carl, his administrative team. I love the team at home. Congratulations. What a great honor. Carlin, come on. I'd like to shift gears a little bit here and take some time to celebrate some of our amazing teacher librarians. Let's have Sarah Kirby of Cole Creek and Kelly Licky of Lewisville Elementary come on up. So Sarah Kelly and Carla Flanhoffer of Peakto Peak who couldn't be here tonight recently earned the highly effective schools through libraries designation for the libraries at their schools program certifies outstanding library programs and professionals and focused on celebrating excellence in five key areas planning instruction leadership management and environment. Sarah Kelly, tell us a little bit more about what drives you to do this important work and what makes your position so important at our schools.

0:49:42Um, well, I feel super lucky to have the job that I have. Um, oftentimes we are the actual central hub of our schools and it feels that way too. Um, we are more than just books. We provide a safe space for our students to come. Uh, we provide a space for our kids to be curious, to be free of judgment. Um, and it's just it is the greatest job. And I know probably for Sarah too, this is something that some of our librarians have been working on with the fearless leadership of Rey. Um, which she is here somewhere tonight. Thank you, Ray, for all you do. Um, and many of us have been working towards this for several years. I know this is four years of hard work of showing the hard work we're doing in our schools. So, I just feel really, really, really lucky to have this job and to have the colleagues that I do as well.

0:50:28Yes, I agree with many of the things Kelly said. Um, when Rey came and brought this to our plates, it was kind of a no-brainer for me. Um, being with the team that I have at Cole Creek and the staff and the community that we have, it's like I already collaborate with many of the teachers and lesson plan with them. And so with the all the things that the Hessel brought, it's like I'm already doing these things and so why not just earn this accreditation and bring it to Cole Creek? It was kind of a no-brainer. And again, in the library, we're doing books. We're doing digital citizenship. Um, the kids are learning so many things like research skills and collaborating with the teachers and we're constantly changing the job with the new curriculum and it's just it is it's the hub of the school and I love my job so much and I love my position at Cole Creek and my family.

0:51:17So, thank you. Another big round of applause. Taran and Jeff, do you want to come on up and we can all take a a a celebratory picture? Jeff and Taran. So, I hear that you all both won award as principles as well. Is that right, Jeff? You look like you're dying to talk about it. I don't know. What do you think? Here we go. Well, I'm going to take credit for both of them because I was previously the AP at least. So, I'm the common denominator and they earned this award in spite of me. So, no, we I will give all the credit, you know, with to both Sarah and Kelly um because they are the ones that do all the work. I signed some paperwork. I collaborated with um Sarah often, but she did all the work. So, all the credit goes to her.

0:52:17Another round of applause for Jeff Taran. So, as we re we we wrap up this evening, I'm glad to have the opportunity to recognize one more teacher who's really made it part of his mission to create a safe space for all students in his class and the whole school. Ace Engelman from Boulder High. Come on up. Congratulations. Ace is a thirdyear English teacher at Boulder High and last week he was recognized by the University of Colorado's Boulder School of Education with their best should teach K12 Gold award. The award from the School of Education and Center for Teaching and Learning recognizes K12 teachers from organizations that partner with CU and whose teaching, mentorship, and impact on their school communities has set a standard of excellence. Congratulations, Ace. So, Ace, I understand that you serve as the sponsor of the Gay Straight Alliance of Boulder High, and through that club and your daily student center actions, all students, but especially our LGBTQ plus students, really have come to view you and your class as a safe space.

0:54:01That's such an important role. Talk to us a little bit about that. Um, I cannot imagine a better place to be every day than with my GSA students. Um, once a week wasn't enough, so now we have GSA every day. Um, and these are the most amazing students you can ever imagine. Um, and the way that they show up in the world and in our classrooms, um, is everything that we need right now and in our future. Um, and sometimes the world is a really scary place for a lot of our kids. Um, and it's our obligation um, to to show up right for them. Um, and I'm I'm grateful that I get to do that in just a little bit. uh in a in a little way every day. Well, I think you do that in a real big way and uh and this recognition proves that. So, I hear you're an expert at teaching freshmen.

0:54:56What's that like? Ninth graders are amazing. If you don't spend time with 14-year-olds every day, you're missing out. Um I don't mean that as a joke. They're just the best humans. Um, there's nothing quite like the curiosity of a ninth grader. Um, and I think we underestimate so many of our kids and especially our ninth graders. Um, what they do in this in this world and in my classroom. Um, it's it's really amazing every day. And so I just get to get out of their way. Big round of applause for Ace. Just three years a I will say that superintendent's honor role um we do it three times a year. Three of my favorite evenings uh in the entire school year getting to just recognize the amazing talent um and effort um and purpose of of our educators, our students, and our community. So, thank you all so much for joining us this evening. That concludes All right, everybody hold on one second.

0:57:09Close your eyes and count to 10. Kelsey, come on up here. This is Kelsey, everyone. We're we're very excited to be celebrating her this evening. Um, and to do the honors is our director of special education extraordinaire, uh, Michelle Brener. So, Michelle, why don't you tell us a little bit about what we're celebrating? Absolutely. This is the amazing Kelsey Wales, our intensive learning center teacher at Broomfield Heights Middle School. And Kelsey has been working for multiple years to earn the recognition of model program for multi-intensive program. I think they call it significant support needs at the state um for the state of Colorado and she just received the program just received that recognition. So congratulations. This is not only a huge honor because it says that they met all of the standards for that the state of Colorado sets forth for these programs, but as we understand it, they're only the second program in the entire state to have received this honor. So, huge recognition and Kelsey knows better than anyone. So, I'm going to let her talk maybe a little bit about the the process or the honor.

0:59:15Would you like to share? Okay. Thank you. I want to introduce to you. This is Mark. He's a pair professional in our program. Um, working to become a model program as a school was really important to me because for any student to succeed and especially students with multiple disabilities, it's a whole team thing. And our school has such a strong community and everyone's really invested in our students. So, I worked hard to to lead the charge, but really our whole school does an amazing job supporting students from the time they get off the bus to all the clubs they do and all of their classes. Um, and there's 10 quality indicators to meet at the state level to get this designation. And it's really intense um in terms of looking at lots and lots of things of how we're serving our students, which is so important for our students who have the most people on their team. and the highest level of need. So, it was really an honor to be able to work towards that. Um, and really cool to see multiple former students that I know were impacted by our program honored tonight. So, that's like really cool. do it.

1:00:32Big round of applause for Casey Kelsey and Broomfield Heights Middle. Okay, scan the room before say anything else. Uh again, thanks so much everybody for being here tonight to be able to help celebrate with us. Thanks so much. We're going to do this one more time this year. We'll do it in May. Uh maybe I'll see some of you all there. Congratulations. Thanks for being here everyone. Have a great evening. I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District for Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. Board members may attend and participate in our board meetings remotely and in person in accordance with board policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the role? Booker here. Chavez here. Medler here. Gwin Lawa here. Raj Paul here. Team here. Anger here.

1:12:59Thank you. I encourage everyone to turn their attention to the screens for a land acknowledgement this evening. The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ute, 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. BBSD 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.

1:14:25It 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, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us here tonight in person. And for those of you who are observing our meetings online, we are glad to have you joining us. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Jason, seconded by Anna. Laura, can you please call the role?

1:15:34Booker, yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Tamuading, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. The next item on tonight's agenda is a superintendent report. Dr. Anderson, good evening. Good evening, board president Raj Paul, board members. Good to see everybody. Um, thanks everybody who was able to join us. uh for our superintendent's honor role this evening which was always really fun. Great to celebrate our educators, our kids, our coaches, our administrators. Uh really really a great uh event this evening. Have a few updates for the board and the public. Uh first is the new Vista solar p solar panels. Installation of those solar panels at New Vista is underway. Target is for the system to go live this May. Once it's up and running, it's expected to offset 99% of the building's annual energy use. This project aligns with BBSD's sustainability initiatives and supports long-term cost savings by reducing reliance on non-renewable energy.

1:16:42Electricity BSC is working toward a goal of being net zero by 2050. And learn more and the public can learn more about BVSD's energy efficiency efforts at our website www.bvsd.org/green. org/greenbsd. A couple weeks ago, Fairview High School's auditorium served as an actual courtroom in what was a really, really cool experience. School's freshman class heard oral arguments to three judges from the Colorado Court of Appeals and two criminal cases as part of the Colorado Judicial Branch Courts in the Community Outreach Program. Courts in the Community is an educational program that gives high school students a firsthand look at how the Colorado judicial system operates and how disputes are resolved in a democratic society. Students were able to ask questions of the lawyers and the judges and got to have lunch with the judges after the event.

1:17:35Additionally, we had a number of representatives from the city of Boulder, including Mayor Aaron Brockett, council members Nicole Spear and Matt Benjamin, Boulder Police Chief Steven Redford, alongside members of our board and leadership team. And at the same time that was going on, the rest of the board of educations was out in schools getting to see some great learning in action. We had great visits at Superior Elementary, Nevin Plat Middle School, and Whittier Elementary. As I've shared before, moments like these highlight the incredible work happening in classrooms across our district every day and help inform the work of the board. Finally, tonight, quick update regarding our engagement efforts around declining enrollment. Board members, as you know, as a team, we've been very busy. Our team has had the opportunity to speak at a couple of city council meetings, I believe Superior and Lewisville, and we are on the docket for um city of Boulder here within the next month.

1:18:33We've met with all of our elementary school principles and are more than halfway done with our roundts with elementary teachers and we've been meeting with all of our key advisory groups, superintendent advisory, board advisory groups. Here's some of the feedback we've received from our teacher roundts, which does reflect what we're hearing from our parents as well. So, as the more we listen, the more we're starting to really hone in on on where folks are in terms of declining enrollment. We're hearing the folks love their schools as they should. BBSD schools are amazing and as board members, as you well know, we've never performed better as a system. Schools are feeling the impact of decline enrollment. They want us to prioritize ensuring that supports are available for our students and staff, including full-time administrators, math literary special, math and literacy specialists, and counselors. Our staff has emphasized that stable teams and manageable conditions are essential to student success and they're asking that we ensure that we are clear about the process, transparent in our actions, and equitable in our decisions and implementation.

1:19:39So, as we look forward, we're announcing a series of live streams where we will walk through the challenge caused by declining enrollment, the impact it's having on our schools, and the actions that we're considering. We're also hosting six engagement sessions over a two-eek period. Monday, April 13th, all of these are from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at New Vista High School. Wednesday, April 15th, here at the Ed Center from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16th at Boulder High School from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18th, here at the Ed Center 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday, April 20th at Broomfield High from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. And Wednesday, April 22nd at Monarch High from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. We're going to be sharing those dates um and more information with our families this week in the latest edition of our declining impacts newsletter. I want to take this opportunity to thank our board members who have been joining us on this engagement. Want to thank our community uh for continuing to stay involved and most importantly thank our teachers who have been giving us lots of time in schools over lunch to share with us the things that they're worried about the things that that that we need to really consider as we're as we're trying to make sure that the teaching experience

1:20:56in in Boulder Valley um school district continues to to stay um as something that really is is excellent for them to be able to do their job. And then um just really super grateful uh for everybody for their engagement and continued participation. That's all that I have for superintendent remarks. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members, do you have any questions? Look forward to those community engagement sessions to begin. The next item on this evening's agenda is public participation. The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of our schools. The board does not endorse any of the comments from individual participants and remind all those who speak that you're responsible for ensuring your remarks are suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th graders. Furthermore, it's the this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents. It's not an time for the board to engage with or react to speaker remarks. Speakers will each have two minutes to speak. You will see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and a red card, orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional information, the board always welcomes your emails.

1:22:01With that, our first speaker this evening is Josie Doyle. Is Josie here. And then Josie, if you just push the button on the microphone, a green light should turn on. Okay. Hi, my name is Josie. I'm of the Arapjo tribe and I'm a junior at Boulder High. I'm 17. I'm here because of what's been happening for decades outside home of our schools and what this board has the power to do about it. Oil and gas wells were here before most of our schools were built. The mistake was allowing schools to be built anywhere near these industrial sites. That decision was made by adults long before any of us were students in Boulder County. But we're the ones living with the consequences. The EPA recently repealed the endangerment finding the scientific scientific and legal foundation that limited greenhouse gas emissions and protects the air we breathe. Boulder County communities already face the risk of wildfire wildfires, flooding, and the ozone pollution. That's why I'm asking this board to act locally. I'm calling on the Boulder Valley School District to support Colorado Risings marginal well campaign which encourages oil gas oil and gas operators to plug and abandon low producing well near wells near schools. These wells are prone to leaks and equipment failures.

1:23:30Methane, benzene, and other volatile volatile organic compounds VOCC's escape from aging wellheads and deteriorating ga gathering lines. The data shows there are over 100 low producing wells in Boulder County operated by SM Energy which now owns both Creststone Peak Resources and Extraction Oil and Gas. Two of these wells are within 2,000 ft of Peak to Peak Charter Academy in Lafayette and Redhawk Elementary in Erie. An additional 34 low producing wells are within one mile of Boulder County schools. A solution already exists through the ECMC's Enterprise marginal well plugging program. Operators are reimbured for the cost of plugging and abandoning these wells. There is no financial excuse for leaving them in place. My fellow students deserve to go to school without an aging oil well next door. And I'm asking this board to use its voice and call on those operators to act. Our future generations need leaders who are on the right side of history. Thank you.

1:24:32Thank you, Josie. Our next speaker this evening, and I'm sorry, Alice Sernasan. Is this thing already on? Thanks. Good evening. I'm Alice Nvasan, parent of two BBSD students and president of Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented or BBGT, a local nonprofit working to educate our community, support families, and advocate for the needs of GT students. 19% of BBSD students are identified GV be GT, the largest subop. You've heard, as we have, that there are GT students in every school who are not getting their academic and social emotional needs met. We listened to your December work session and agree that the communication with GT families could be improved. But this is not just a matter of clearer communication. For years, the supports available to GCG students have been inconsistent between schools and even between classrooms. As enrollment shrinks, the inconsistency is increasing, especially at at the elementary level. As you've noted, this is without a doubt contributing to our declining enrollment and interest in charter and focus schools. Regardless of how BBSD decides to respond to declining enrollment, every BBSD teacher should be equipped to confidently meet the needs meet the needs of every student in their classroom, including all the gifted and twice exceptional ones. We have met with district staff and we applaud their efforts to improve long range support

1:26:05for GT students. But students who were in kindergarten when those district efforts began are now middle schoolers and may be well into high school by the time those um changes fully roll out. Our students really need more support. Now to that end, we ask that you, the school board, require GT informed professional development and differentiation training for all BBSD elementary teachers starting in the 2026 27 school year. perhaps as part of policy IGA or IGR. In the coming weeks, you'll be hearing from students, families, and teachers about their experiences and the needs to establish these requirements. Now, BBGT welcomes the chance to participate with you um to partner with you in this process. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Crystal Chin. Can you turn the mic on? Sorry. Oh, okay. Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin.

1:27:13I'm a BBSD parent. Over the past several weeks, families and educators from multiple BBSD schools have raised concerns about how student safety incidents and investigations are being handled. Across schools, we are seeing common themes. delays in communication, inconsistencies between verbal explanation and written reports, prolonged instability affecting classrooms, and students, including students with disabilities, experiencing academic disruption and preventable harm when processes unfold. This is not about any single case or individual. It is about whether our district has structural safeguards that ensure investigations related to student safety and harm are transparent, consistent, and insulated from conflicts of interest. When investigative systems lack independent review, trust erodess, and harm can continue without meaningful accountability. We are asking the board to commit to establishing independent oversight of investigative and data practices relating related to student safety and harm with a clearly defined scope, public reporting, and corrective safeguards. We also believe families and educators should have structured input in defining the scope of any independent review so that community concerns are fully and accurately reflected. Families and educators from multiple schools are already engaging in this effort and con and the concern continues to grow. To allow broader community voices to be heard, a community town hall will be held on April 7th. Tonight, we are simply asking for clarity. Will the board commit to structurally independent

1:28:52review or will families need to seek external oversight to ensure these safeguards exist? Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Kirsty Maynard. Good evening. My name is Kirsty Maynard. I am a former BBSD parent and current Boulder County resident. I am reading this statement on behalf of a Monarch K through8 family whose grandchild, a student with a disability and an active IEP, is no longer attending the school due to unresolved safety concerns. Over the course of this school year, the family reported multiple incidents involving physical injury, unsafe peer interactions, and gaps in supervision related to IEP supports. After a January recess incident, an investigation concluded that bullying was unfounded. While also acknowledging that an unsafe physical interaction had occurred, the family experienced inconsistencies between initial explanations and the final written report, which left them with ongoing concerns about transparency and accountability.

1:30:10As incidents accumulated, the student experienced anxiety, regression, and increasing school avoidance. This statement is not about assigning blame. It is about structure. When investigative processes lack clarity, when supervision gaps intersect with disability protections, and when families experience inconsistencies in communication, trust erodess. Students with disabilities are entitled not only to services on paper, but to consistent implementation in safe learning environments. Independent oversight would help ensure that investigations are transparent. IEP protections are consistently implemented and families can trust the process when harm is reported. No family should feel that withdrawal is their only option. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Techla. Good evening. My name is Tuckla. I'm a former BBSD parent. I'm reading a statement on behalf of a BBSD teacher who is asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation.

1:31:30Dear members of the board of education, I'm speaking anonymously because I fear retaliation. That fear is not abstract. It is grounded in experience. I'm both a teacher and a parent in this district. I was accused of sexual harassment. The allegation was false. The investigation that allowed followed did not consistently adhere to established district procedures. Safeguards meant to ensure neutrality, fairness, and due process were not clearly applied. An accusation of that magnitude demands precision and strict procedural compliance. When safeguards appear inconsistent, the harm extends beyond one individual. It weakens trust in the entire system. What concerns me most is that my experience is not isolated. Across the district, educators and families have raised concerns about investigative processes, inconsistent communication, and fear of speaking openly. Individually, situations may be explained. Collectively, they point to the need for structural review. This is not about attacking individuals. It is about governance. Accordingly, I am requesting an independent external audit of investigative procedures, a review of anti-retaliation protections and how they are enforced, public reporting of aggregate investigation data, and clear corrective mechanisms when procedural inconsistencies occur.

1:33:03Accountability strengthens institutions. Independent review protects both employees and families. If this system is working, an audit will confirm it. If it is not, our community deserves to know. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Juliana RC. Sorry, Juliana. Julian's not here. Okay, we'll move on to Mary Iraqi. Good evening. My name is Mary Iraqi. I am both a pair professional and the community liaison at Emerald Elementary. My liaison job doesn't provide enough FTE for insurance, so I had added professional hours. I've had these positions for the last 15 years. I've gotten to support families qualified as McKenna Vento or homeless. I've helped families get backpacks for school, find vision resources, set up interpreters for parent teacher conferences. During COVID, most of our liaison were delivering food to student homes. I've assisted students outside the district this year to go through the choice enrollment process.

1:34:26At most schools who host the families and educators together meetings or FET, um the community leaison are helping plan, schedule, and recruit families to attend. These FET meetings are where we strive to hear families with two cultures or two languages in the home, typically the unheard voices. Anytime a new teacher gets to attend, their eyes sparkle when they get to see parents in a neutral environment. We are representing the un under represented, but we remain unrepresented ourselves. I also keep a list of students currently at 60 for Emerald who I send home snacks with because I'm aware of family needs. The the time I most feel I feel the least valued is when I put in my for time off. It's labeled NR as non-represented, but in my head it sounds like not real or like I'm a pretend employee.

1:35:23As has as will be reiterated here sometimes, negotiations between both the community liaison and the early childhood education community liaison is at a standoff. Stand still. Sorry. I urge the board to find a way past whatever is in the way and return to BVCA negotiations. All our liaison der deserve the basic job rights offered all other employees. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Sandra Salazar. Good evening member of the wards. My name is Sandra Salasar and I have proudly served as a community lesson in this district for the past nine years. For nine years, I have worked as a bridge between a school or schools and our families, especially our most vulnerable families. We connect them to resources, guide them through complex systems, translate information, advocate for their children, and empower them to engage in their education. We are often the first call when the families are in crisis.

1:36:46We support them through housing instability, food insecurity, mental health challenges, and academic barriers. We build trust and that trust strengthens our schools. Tonight we are not here asking for more money. We are asking for equity. We are asking for recognition. We are asking for the same union rights the other classified employees in this district already have as our bus drivers, the paras, the custodians. We are employees of the district. We serve this district. We protect and uplift this district's families. Yet our role has not been fully recognized in the same way as other who serve along us. Community lesson are essential to a student success. When family feel supported, a student succeed. When families are empowered, a schools thrive. We are simply asking to be treated with the same dignity, protection, and rights as our colleagues. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to all employees and families of this district.

1:38:06Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Antonio Molina. Hello everyone. My name is Antonio Molina. I'm the community leazison at Manhattan Middle School. I've served uh in BBSD uh in a number of different roles since 2007. Uh the work that I'm really passionate about right now is creating a link between our newcomer migrant families and the school. This is done in close work with our FET program which is our family and educators together meeting once a month. Also being present at extracurricular activities and school events. This dream work has proven to be invaluable to our schools and our community. From a simple registration to booking some interpreters to the unforgettable Pada Navidida, this link is absolutely unbreakable. Unfortunately, we're at an impass with the community lison and our district. We are seeking the same link that we create with our families and schools to be the same link in our amazing district. and your support in doing this and linking us to be part of the BVCA agreements is needed.

1:39:36Um, we want to continue working and we want to appreciate all your efforts and together we're making this difference and this dream work be possible. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Disease McCoy. Good evening. Oh, okay. Um, good evening. My name is Delise McCoy. After many years as an early childhood special education teacher, I found the perfect role that allows me to support support our youngest learners, their families, and the teachers who work with them. I now serve as an early childhood community liaison. I have had this position in BBSD for six years and it has been one of the most rewarding roles of my career. Sorry, I get nervous talking up here. Okay, for those um who don't work directly with preschool programs, you may not um be clear on how important community leaison are in preschool classrooms and throughout the program. I could read the job description from the BBSD website to explain our role, but instead I asked my teachers that I work with every day to reflect on how community le liaison support them and the children they teach. RCL's use their this is what they said. RCL's use their expertise, patience, and care to help connect families with BBSD preschool programs.

1:41:05They are often the very first point of contact for families exploring preschool. Community liaison give one-to-one tours. as they provide information about schedules, curriculum, school environments, and share their genuine enthusiasm for the schools they represent. At a time when enrollment is declining, the CL's are actively reaching out to families and helping bring our youngest learners into the district, offering a warm and welcoming introduction to our schools. Um, CL's serve in many roles. They help with registration, coordinate transportation, connect families with social services, manage scheduling, and guide families through the UPK process. To make to meet families needs, they often adjust their hours and schedules. They also keep a close eye on the well-being of children in the classrooms while supporting preschool and enrichment teachers and staff across multiple locations. It's uh difficult to imagine how our program would function without our community liaison. They are truly an essential part of our learning community. I hope the perspectives shared by my teachers that I work with um will help highlight the important role community liaison play. Because our negotiations are currently at an impass, I'm asking that CLS be allowed to participate in the negotiations negotiations already in place. We want the opportunity to be part of the conversation that affects our work and the families we serve.

1:42:25Thanks. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Beth Stevens. Good evening. My name is Beth Stevens and I am the president of BBCA. That is the Boulder Valley classified employees. We represent the essential classified staff who keep this district running every day. We are bus drivers, custodians, food service, bus assistants, maintenance staff, security, and now community liaison. Community liaison recently voted to be represented by BBCA, and we are proud to stand with them. However, negotiations between the district and community liaison have reached an impass due to shifting requirements and conflicting interpretations of board policy HG. The most recent position shared with us would require BBCA to abandon our NO negotiated agreement, a contract that has been in place for more than 30 years in order for community liaison to join our union. We have also been told that the district believes community liaison have not yet earned their rights and protections that the other unit C employees currently have under the agreement.

1:43:51This creates an unacceptable choice. Either every unit C employee must give up the rights they have held for decades or community liaison are denied representation through BBCA. We do not believe that essential workers seeking union representation in BBSD should be forced into that choice. Community liaison are simply asking for the same opportunity that every other unit C employee has to bargain collectively under one negotiated agreement. Tonight we are asking the board for leadership. Please instruct your negotiators to work in good faith and create a clear pathway for community liaison to join BBCA under the existing unit C agreement. These employees serve the families of our community every day. They deserve the same rights, respect, and protection as every other classified employee in this district. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Beth. Our next speaker this evening is Carrie Westgard.

1:45:01Hello, my name is Ki Wgcard and I've been with BBSD since 2018. I've held several roles in the district but have served as an early childhood community liaison since 2021. In my four years as a community liaison, I've seen our district navigate major challenges from the Marshall fire to the implementation of universal preschool in Colorado to declining enrollment. Uh many of many may not know what an ECE community leaison does, but we play an essential role in BBSD. We are often the very first point of contact families have with the district, helping them guide, helping guide them through the preschool enrollment process and welcoming children as young as three into the public school system. For many families, this is the first time they've entrusted their child to someone outside their family. We support parents through that transition while also helping families who may have no or limited English, face housing or food insecurities, or have children with special needs that need special support. But our work goes far beyond enrollment. We personally meet every child before their first day of school through home visits, school visits, and welcome days. And we assess preschoolers to ensure they receive the support they need to see succeed in kindergarten and beyond. As of today, we have already enrolled 900 families, 911 families for the 2627 school year,

1:46:21surpassing our total enrollment from May of last year, with months of enrollment still ahead. And many of these families come from outside of BBSD's district boundaries. We also connect families with scholarships, organize community events, support teachers, and help families during times of crisis. Our work is often behind the scenes, but it has a meaningful impact on BBSD students and families. Like all BVSD employees, community liaison play a vital role in this district. As of today, our union negotiations are currently at an impass. And I'm here to ask you to allow community liaison to be included in the negotiations already taking place because when you support community liaison, you are supporting the very first step in a child's educational journey. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker this evening is Trent Kerr. Trent does not appear to be with us this evening. So, with that, um, that concludes today's public participation.

1:47:22On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to show up, share your thoughts and experiences with us tonight. Um, it does mean a lot to hear from our community members. With that, we will move on to board communication. board members. I know we've all been exceedingly busy in our roundt discussions at our schools, so probably outside of that haven't had a lot of free time to engage in other board related activities, but if there's something anybody'd like to share, Anna? Yes, I have a couple things. Um, so next in a couple weeks we're going to have a discussion on uh AI and magic magic school and that all of that coming to our district. I did have the opportunity to go to uh the AI summit hosted by St.

1:48:16Vine Valley School District. Um, and I had u a really great time, an informative time. I use AI in my business daytoday. So, a lot of the the things that they were talking about were things that you learn as as you're using the technology. Um, some of the key takeaways that I did take uh with me, the golden nuggets were uh just the parameters of of um setting the guard rails on AI. Um different ways that admin can use the tool um to really help them work through um consistent patterns that they're seeing come up to them. um potentially different um uh actions that they can take. Um for me, I I know that when I'm in um like in a in um trying to solve a problem, sometimes I have the answer and it it's I just need like a sounding board or someone to to kind of bounce it off of. And that's um really one of the the key ways that they were able to to utilize it. And they do use it um within their admin. Um, and I am excited that uh we are going to get um, uh, Magic School and all of that integrated into our district. Um, and even though I won't be here, uh, for the 24th, I am excited to really download

1:49:35and have a deeper conversation uh, with Lynn and and have make sure that all of the things that I was able to to uh, learn and gather, we will still be able to to incorporate here in BBSD. Um, next I was able to attend the FET meeting at Coline Elementary School. Um, and we really did talk about a lot of the the protocols and the supports that the district uh currently has and is developing for immigrant families. And it was very meaningful to me to um be able to speak to the parents and the community members uh in their own language. It just brought a lot of language justice within that room of being able to to not just say we support you, but for them to really understand it and hear it from someone in their native language. Um, so to me that was really special. I did invite all of all of them in their whole school community uh to come and speak to us and share with us during public comments some of their their worries, their frustrations or their excitements. Um, and same for anybody that's listening uh online. uh really just inviting you to to come come here. You belong here. This is your space. And so we really want you to be here and and share some of those um

1:50:48insights and and frustrations with us. Um and finally, I do want to give just a big thank you to the teachers and the teacher round table. I've been able to go to Uni Hill. Um, I went to Birch and I went to uh Alicia Sanchez and I still have uh Cole and Emerald to go through this week. Uh, and I it's really truly been the highlight of my day when we have these teacher roundts. Um because the teachers just come with such awareness and ideas and they know that we have tough decisions in front of us and they they see the opportunities and they don't want us to miss the opportunities and they don't want us to to miss the little the little pieces of feedback that might make a huge impact and a huge difference. Um so I I'm truly appreciative of your of your willingness to engage with us in this process. Um and that's all I had.

1:51:49Alex. Yeah. Uh, thank you. Uh, I want to thank all the speakers tonight for what they shared with us. It was great to hear from everybody. Um, and lots to think about. Uh, I want to share that I was at the DAC meeting last week and, uh, we all received a memo from the DAC um, for our IG policy discussion tonight and I just want to give them kudos for a very thoughtful discussion. I think our DAC is functioning very highly and uh I was impressed by their ability with a lot of people not a lot of time to facilitate pretty um substantive input and from looking at the memorandum they shared with us I think they captured it pretty well. So uh I would encourage the board members to take seriously the DAX's input on policy discussion tonight and look forward to them continuing to find new ways to really um up their game for how we can benefit from them. also really enjoyed uh the round table I've been able to go to. Not enough because I've been a bit out of town. I did want to share something both with the board and the and the community um about our declining enrollment. I think it's good to know that when we go from schools when we have schools with only you know

1:52:57one and a half under two two courses and we have schools with three the impacts of a few kids on one school versus the other are different. And so I have heard from the sort of larger schools that they feel like the smaller schools are more likely to have their staffing change. And part of that is just a function of math. So when you have only one course with 28 kids in it and you add two kids to it, you'll go over the thresholds we have in our collective bargaining unit or agreement and you'll have to change a class. When you add two classes or two kids to a grade with two classes, you don't. You just increase the class size from 27 to 28. And so that on the the optics of that are not great. So a school like Mesa will have not very many new kids added and get have a new classroom because it only has one and a half courses in the first place in that grade. A larger school with close to three would add more kids and still not add a teacher. Now that that's totally makes sense in terms of our staffing patterns, but it does lead to issues and when we're making hiring decisions, how we can make hiring decisions, the stability of the staffing

1:54:01in a school, the long-term ability for the people to plan around it and us to integrate them and on board them. So, it's the kind of thing which really for me highlighted the reason we're having some of this discussion about declining enrollment and the need to take action because our current imbalance of the small schools makes it hard for the adults to figure out how to manage the staffing at the school. Makes it hard to do create the community of learners that we want and that's not fair uh to the kids and teachers in any of the settings. So, I really appreciate the input we got on that uh the last round table I was at. Um, I also want to um give my hats off to all the staff who really are reinforcing and Rob talked about it tonight. The the issues of equity that come up with uh as we consider declining enrollment and how we think about the impact um on two things I'm not so excited about. Uh received an email um from someone concerned about a school that had basically counseledled a parent of a kid with disabilities not to enroll in their school. And uh the fact that there's one of those is not like earthshattering. I know that that happens and people talk honestly about

1:55:09whether or not a school is a good fit for a kid, but there's good ways to talk to parents about what their choices are and how well a school can serve them. And there are bad ways to do it. Um I'm interested in the district adopting, frankly, a mystery shopper program. It's something that goes on in the charter school authorizing movement around the country. And it's like mystery shoppers going to a store or anything else. uh people contact a school as if they were interested in enrolling their child in that school and explain that their child has a disability or some other protected aspect of their child. And uh the expectation is not that you would bust schools for saying the wrong thing. Actually, when charter school authorizers do this around the country, what they find is really quickly everybody changes their behavior. And so people stop counseling out parents of kids with disabilities or parents with special needs or other things that might not be appropriate. So, I'd strongly encourage BBSD to consider um a mystery shopper campaign. We have so much public school choice going on, so many wonderful options, so many people trying to figure out how to take care of kids.

1:56:08And to be honest, the parents of kids with disabilities or other challenges, twice exceptional, you name it, whatever's going on, they're quite often the ones choosing the most. I was just looking at data from Arizona and their voucher program, the parents of kids with autism participate in school choice three times as often as other parents of kids with disabilities. So the parents of kids with disabilities are exercising choice and they deserve to be respected and honored and treated. And if we have schools do the wrong thing, we need to stop that. So I I think a mystery shopper is a really easy thing to do. And I honestly I don't expect it to lead to a lot of gotchas. I expect it to lead um a bit of changed behavior that would be so welcomed by the parents of kids with disabilities in this community. Um and then finally uh I will say that I continue to hear from my community. I live in um southwest Boulder. my kids went to Fair View and I'm concerned about the degree of implementation fidelity on our phone policy at a place like Fairview and I don't know uh what it is we do as a district to enhance the fidelity but I'm committed as a board member to pursuing that and I encourage

1:57:09the other board members uh to join me in revisiting how what the strategies are that we can do to get uh greater um implementation fidelity on that policy. Thank you, Jason. Um, yeah, thanks to everyone for their comments and, uh, I wanted to comment, Dr. Anderson mentioned the the tours that we took to Plat and Whittier, uh, and Superior. And we've done a few of these. This probably was my favorite one. Uh, and I really appreciate Nativity and Emma from the staff, uh, for really providing really great context connecting what we saw in these schools to the work in the district. And so that was great. Um, for those that were there, we went to a seventh grade science class in at Platt. Uh, and I wish we all could have our kids do that or every every seventh grade science class be like that. There was a CSI unit. Uh, and it was just fascinating to see and I hope maybe they'll come back uh when they have the results of their investigation. It was a crime scene with blood and fake blood.

1:58:12Uh, and the kids were doing all sorts of incredible things, just incredible engagement. Um, that was the highlight. there were lots of other things we saw that were really fantastic. And so uh it's great for me um you know former teacher but many years ago to to be able to to connect the work that we do here, the work that's done in the district to actually see that in practice. So I just wanted to add those comments. Um I've been able to go to as many roundts recently. Lany and I were able to go to Douglas uh and we talked about the challenges that they've faced um a number of things uh going from a three round school to a two- round school. Um but we're grateful for all the teachers as as my colleagues have said uh that have taken time out of their lunch uh not required of course um but to share their thoughts um and even you know their hopes for how this process might end up um you know as improving student experience and their own experience as teachers. Um and then Anna you didn't mention as a highlight but we had the audit committee um which uh I actually it really was a highlight in all seriousness. I uh it was the first

1:59:17meeting. It was very long. Uh but I really appreciated our uh Bill Sutter's expertise. Uh the folks who have been on that um served on that committee, the staff, uh you know, it's a really great behind the-scenes look at all the things all the financial um decisions or many of the financial decisions that are made to really put us put this district in a good place uh for all sorts of reasons, including the declining enrollment conversation. We're not having this conversation because we're in uh bad financial shape. Uh we're having it because we don't we have a lot of small schools, but it's because of the work of the people that do all the numbers and behind the scenes. And so I was really um it was a highlight of my day that day. Uh but it was really fascinating to see that um to learn about the bond process and bond sales and all the things that go into um you know when we have a bond uh from supported by the community all the financial transactions and decisions that that go behind the scenes um and also just the expertise there to really put us in a strong position um you know whether it's a lower rate or a lower payment or just being strategic about those things. So,

2:00:24um I'm looking forward to serving on that and uh and thanks again to the team behind that that does all that great work. Jorge and then Deian, thank you. Um I would also like to start by kind of thanking all the committee members who came and spoke today. I think it's always good to get a sense of, you know, what folks are seeing and kind of how they're feeling to get that sense of where people are at. I think it's really important. Um, similarly, I've really appreciated the chance to visit various schools and talk to teachers and get a sense of kind of, you know, how they view their experiences, the challenges of a of declining enrollment, how it limits their ability to support our students in the way best ways possible and that this is a problem that's here today, not five years away because the effects are here now. Um, so it's been really useful to, you know, we saw the list of things that are popping up and there's a lot of commonalities in terms of what our teachers are telling us. Um, so I really appreciate that chance. So, thank you for welcoming us into your schools and to sharing your experiences. Um, I also had a chance to attend my first long range advisory LRAK

2:01:27committee meeting. Um, that was the first group we tasked with with looking at declining enrollment, you know, many years ago now. Um, they've continued to do that work and they've seen the work evolve from the plan they proposed initially to where we're at now in terms of thinking this holist about this holistically across our school district. Um, they they remain committed to um, uh, providing support to being a part of the solution. um and to making sure that we kind of do this right. Um I think this process has been really important right in terms of thinking about transparency and thinking about engagement and making sure that we're we're we're communicating with um our teachers, our staff, our students, our parents, our community members to make sure that we get all their input. So this community engagement part is really important. The dates were shared today.

2:02:10Um and it's, you know, we're doing the outreach to make sure we're talking to all the folks that are going to be affected by this because it's communitywide. Whether you have kids or not, it's really important. So, so thank you for those of you that are engaged with this and thank you to the LRAK for the work that you're doing. Um, and and and I'm really happy with the way this process is working out. I appreciate the work because I know it's been a lot. So, so thank you all. I've been to a lot of meetings in a couple of months. Um, and I have some good meeting buddies, which is nice that we go everywhere together. But um I want to particularly call out what's been happening on the AI committee as they are getting ready for a board presentation in uh just a short time and the work that they've been able to accomplish um in just over a month that they have grouped into different categories of um interest groups and produced documents and done some really deep thinking about what AI is going to mean to to us now and perhaps in the future. So, I've only been impressed with the community members who have given their time to uh making u policy suggestions for us. So, it's been

2:03:23impressive. I also got to go to I'm not going to remember the name of the committee, the bond oversight committee. Is that it? Okay. Too many too many acronyms. Um and uh that group really was talking about how the money from the bonds is going to be spent. And uh once again I came away completely impressed with the long range planning that had been done and the foresight that had been put into the fact that we have schools that are declining and it could mean changes to how money is spent. And uh those things were taken into consideration in a really strategic way. And uh my work has been um both gratifying and um diverse in the last month. I got to go to the city of Lewisville um city council and the city of superior city council meetings um which uh were sort of surprise meetings, but they uh it was great to engage with the adults who mostly it was adults who have students in the schools and to hear their concerns about what might happen over the next year. And um the more they talked, the more we found out that we were really on the same page, that we really want what's best for all students. And uh that was really helpful. So I thank everybody I've

2:04:57gotten to work with and uh see their work because it's really is extraordinary. Thank you, Lenia. I also have attended quite a few roundts and I appreciate how vulnerable our teachers have been uh sharing with us their fears and also sharing with us uh their hopes for where this process takes us. Um and I'm really looking forward to our community engagements in April. I've written all those dates down on my book. Um, I will echo Alex on how much I hear about how our cell phone policy is not being implemented with Fidelity. And as I've said before, um, policy is not optional and it has been the will of this board that we do the right thing on cell phones. Um, and if we need to make technology investment or whatever it is, I I'm I'm here to say that I support whatever we need to do because this is a commitment that we've made to our kids.

2:06:12Um, and you know, I I write things down as it little nuggets like little north stars for me. And I wrote down what the gentleman from Boulder High said today, Ace Engelman. He said it is our obligation to show up in the right way and showing up in the right way is asking kids to not be doing Snapchat in class and I know that is right. So um so I will echo Alex's thoughts. Um it's pretty frustrating to hear it over and over and over from our students that the policies are not being implemented. Uh, I was also disturbed by the email from the parent of a child with a disability who was dissuaded from enrolling in a particular school. I haven't heard of this mystery shopper program. That sounds very interesting. Um, and I am up for whatever it is we need to do so that all of our schools show up for our students the way that they need to show up. Once again, the north star. So I and I wish that Ace Engelman was still here because I really appreciated what he said tonight.

2:07:39Thanks board members. Um I don't really have much to add though I will to be fair we do get emails about Boulder High struggles with the cell phone policy. I know Laney and I have kids at Fairview and Alex is it's in his community. So sometimes Fairview gets undue attention. Um but our large our largest schools have a lot are challenging in a variety of ways. They have different struggles in some of our smaller schools. Um but I just wanted to acknowledge it's not just Fairview. And um it has really again tackle the board members going to these schools hearing from our teachers our teachers feeling really v vulnerable. Uh it's it really it it brings life to this work. It's not just happening in a vacuum. And I do think the efforts that we have put in that staff have put in going and listening first is really going to pay off dividends. Eventually we'll have to make a hard decision that some people are not going to like. Uh that's just you know the nature of of this type of work. But I think the efforts that we've put in on the front end really are they are we will reap the benefits of those and and I I hear staff speak to how much they appreciate this process

2:08:58compared to the process that happened in the as um where it was middle of the night decisions no community engagement. So thanks to everybody for all the efforts in this declining enrollment process. With that or members, we will move on to information items. We have one information item this evening. It's a legislative update. Before I turn it over to Dr. Anderson, I'll just say we met with our lobbyists last week. Maybe it was this week. No, it was last week. And I just I said shared with them. I said we met with our delegation before the session started, the very beginning of the session. We said, "Please do not run bills that have impacts on us at this point in time. the school finance act is is already taking it its toll. Please do not run unnecessarily unnecessary bills. They did not heed that warning. I expressed my frustration to pass along to our delegation. I mean the number of bills that are being run in the education sphere, some of which are from our own members of our own delegation. Uh it's it's disheartening and I just think like there are so many things we're trying to do and some of this stuff is well well intended going to create more work for us in a system that's already strained.

2:10:05So I was frustrated. I shared that with our lobbyists. Um, and with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Anderson if there's anything in particular you want to touch base on. Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Um, you know, I do I do agree with you that uh there's a lot of bills that have been introduced that probably don't have a chance to pass that we're watching, not really having to to take much action on. Um, anything that has a fiscal note we know is watching. I think that, you know, we're look what the next real big moment in time for us to pay attention to is the March revenue forecast. I'm not certain when that's coming. I mean, March, right, at some point, but I don't think it's out yet. And uh just because from what we're hearing that it's going to be a lot worse than what was originally projected, which means a bigger hole for the for the legislature to fill as they balance the budget. So, I think that that's a concern. Uh, we do feel like we've made some progress on the specific ownership tax that that in it of itself for now, right, looks as if that that will not those dollars won't be equalized.

2:11:17They'll continue to come to our district. Uh, that's that's what we're hearing. So, we have to keep an eye on that. But just for the general public, that's $6.5 million. If that goes away or if something similar in the form of some type of a negative factor goes away, then we'll have less money than we had to operate this year. So, those are the things we're keeping an eye on and we're being diligent and just like most sessions, they'll probably come down to the wire. Any questions on the bills making their way through, not dying fast enough? Okay, we'll move on then to action items. Consent grouping. 8.1 Personnel items. 8.2 Approval of minutes February 17, 2026. 8.3 Acceptance of donation Broomfield High School. 8.4 acceptance of donation operational services department. 8.5 board adopted fees amendment stamp fee. 8.6 Latin course approval 8.7 grant federal programs title 4 CDE 8.8 grant health services school health professionals CDE. Are there any items board members like to pull?

2:12:25Seeing as there are none, is there a motion to approve items in the consent? Moved by Alex, seconded by Anna. Board members, is there any discussion on these items? Lenia, I just wanted to ask about our stamp assessment and it going up from our fee on it going from 50 up to 175 is that is the price of the most expens expensive assessment. Do we make sure that if there is financial hardship here that we can make that happen? Yes. Yes, we do. Lynn Gershman is in the back nodding her head. Okay. But I think this board's been very clear on fee waivers and the expectation that that economic it not be a barrier to a test like this. Thank you for reassuring me, Alex. Yeah, on on that front, I mean, I would continue to like to know um the details of our waiverss, uh the programs that have them, the funds that get them, the schools that have them, the students that get them. Um uh it's good to know that we have the policies in place that this board acted on pretty intentionally to make sure that we everybody knew as many waiverss as possible was the goal, not the problem. And so, I'd continue to want to see how that's going.

2:13:48Any other discussion board members? Laura, can you please call the vote on the motion? Booker, yes. Chavez, yes. Medler, yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Tamuading, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. Next item on tonight's agenda are action items. We have one action item which is participation in the social media lawsuit. Is it Do I have a motion? Ten, I move that BBSD join the multidist litigation against Meta and the social media companies. Is there a second? Seconded by Lenia. Board members. Any discussion on this topic? This board has long um had strong opinions on on social media. I know we were doing being very careful in observing the progression of this lawsuit and I think yes I would agree this this is a great time to for us to join in with that board me or Laura can you call the vote on the motion?

2:15:09Booker yes. Chavez yes. Medler yes. Quinn Linua, yes. Raj Paul, yes. Tamading, yes. Anger, yes. Motion passes. Board members, we will now move on to the bulk of tonight's agenda, which policy, we have 37 tonight in one portion of another, which might just be a record. First policy action items, consent grouping. 10.1 board policy BDFG district audit committee. 10.2 two board policy DIIE audits board policy 10.3 sorry 10.3 board policy DLA payroll procedures and deductions 10.4 Board policy DLC employee expense reimbursements 10.5 board policy EA student transportation services 10.6 board policy EA-R student transportation services regulation 10.7 board policy EAA walkers and writers 10.8 8 board policy EA student transportation in private vehicles 10.9 retire board policy EA-E student transportation in private vehicles 10.10 10 board policy EAB school bus scheduling and routing 10.11 board policy EAC school bus safety program 10.12 board policy EAD special use of school buses 10.13 board policy EBA-R schoolowned vehicles regulation 10.14 policy EAC school conduct on school buses 10.15 board policy EA use of school buses by community groups 10.16 board policy EA A D A-R use of school buses by community groups regulation 10.17 board policy E AAA controlled substances and alcohol testing 10.18 board policy EBCB fire drills. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent

2:17:00grouping? Seeing as there are none, we need a motion to approve. Moved by Lenia, seconded by Jason. Board members. Any discussion on these policies? Alex, um I just want to comment on the volume of them. Looking forward to voting yes and and passing all these. But I I wanna we we people have mentioned AI a little bit. But I think if there's any topic in central administration where AI would be helpful, it would be in uh staff, administrators, the public understanding our policy with the help of good AI because this is just as board member the flow of how much is there is incredible. uh trying to find something is not easy. I know it's all on the web, but I'd really encourage us to think about is that the kind of thing that Magic School has an app for or somebody else does in terms of strategies to make sense of what is somewhere over still over 400 policies. Are we under 400 yet?

2:17:56We are. We are under 400 and the board is very close to having reviewed everything in the current century. We're getting close. Okay, that's great. Anyway, I I do think this is a one of those things that would would the use of it would be a lot easier. This is the kind of thing AI helps with today. I just want to thank the the audit committee was able to look at a couple of the policies we had redlinined earlier. They provided some additional recommendations. So, thanks to the audit committee for taking the time to do that. I also just want to acknowledge the number of people that are involved in in these policies when we through red lines through approval through getting them updated on the website. I mean even the fact that all of our charter schools have to wave not wave what have you our policies like there's implications that are deep for for us having a more manageable policy schedule. And I while it's felt like a lot lately um with or without AI, having fewer policies and having policies that are more clearly written will benefit everybody. So I just want to thank everybody that's involved in getting all these policies teed up um and ready to go and out into the universe. So thanks for that.

2:19:16Seeing as there's no further discussion, Laura, can you please call the vote? Booker. Yes. Chavez. Yes. Medler. Yes. Quinn Linua. Yes. Raj Paul. Yes. Tamuading. Yes. Anger. Yes. Motion passes. Board members. We'll now move on to policy study items. There are several policies we are going to study this evening. Um, and I will turn it over. Kathleen and I didn't really talk about this. Maybe we'll take them in chunks, relevant chunks. So we will start with board pol item 12.1 board policy IGA basic instructional program and IGA-R the regulation. Thank you board president Raj Paul. Um and thank you board. You just retired nine and updated nine policies. So congratulations. I think it does make it a lot easier to get through as we just narrow down the number. So board policy IGA was prioritized by this board for review this semester.

2:20:26Um our existing policy was last reviewed in 1993. I think it has some obvious um concepts that are antiquated. It also is not required by law. So, the red line that's provided for the board's discussion tonight is a composite that has both some of the language from our existing policy, though not a lot, and then additional language drawn from three CASBY samples, one on standardsbased education, the CASBY sample on educational objectives, and the CASBY sample on academic achievement. So, as we are doing with a lot of the policies here, um we're proposing to integrate the regulation into the policy itself just for purposes of ease and not having as many policies to reference to try and understand the concept. So, that's what is shared tonight. Um I know board president Rajal, you were very helpful in getting this red line provided. So there may be other areas you want to highlight. Um we were able to run this through our director of academic services and make sure that it also reflects our current practices. And again, just try to make the language clearer, consistent with your policy style book, and able to withstand, I think, what good policies do, which is provide enough specificity to provide guidance to your staff and enough um thought in the language that it will

2:22:12stand the test of time as we continue to evolve. And board members, just as a reminder, and this might be helpful as folks are contemplating the nine pages of um feedback from the district accountability committee, our first priority is to follow federal law, followed by federal law, state law, then it's board policy, and then it's anything in negotiated agreements. And so there are several comments, I would say, in the DAC memo that talk about the readact. We don't we don't write polic we don't write law into policy. we'll often reference it, but um just to make sure everybody's aware that some of that we are mandated to follow law policy comes after that and so some of those recommendations from the DAC just know that we are we have we are following state law so there their inclusion is something we don't typically do in board policy outside of references um with that I guess I will open the floor to conversation to questions to comments on the red line that staff have put together and we can just work through this as we work workshop our policies in general board members who would like to begin lolenia much improved much improved um I think I appreciated did the calling out of a few specific things. Um, health curriculum in middle

2:23:47school. I appreciate that we pulled that out. Um, I also feel like I like in the high school programming that we talk about that we are seeking to equip students with the skills and resources to be successful after high school. And we talk about all the different ways we're doing that. Um, and so I just think it's much improved. Um, cleaned up. So, thank you for your work. I This is must have been a ton of work to get to this Um, yeah, I agree with that. Um, and I appreciate I think folks who mentioned this earlier. I appreciate uh reading through the DAC memo. There are a lot of things um that I don't know that may be relevant in this policy, but things I support um such as some of the comments they made on technology use and age age appropriate and um but I don't think that that belongs in this policy. One thing I do think and in kind of the spirit of Alex's ease of public kind of consumption and viewing is I like the way in the DACK memo that they bulleted all the the required or all the subjects by elementary, middle, and high school.

2:25:12I think just visually that would be something that would be easier to follow here and so that would be just one stylistic change I'd recommend. Um but yeah, I agree with Lilenia's comments. This is uh must have been a lot of work and appreciate all that and um thanks for the many people who provided input uh to get to this place. Jorge. Um, yeah, I want to I want to echo the thanks for the work in setting this up because I remember reading the first go through of the policy and I and I and I was looking going what is this policy trying to do was my was my question, right? What are our goals and and what's the point of it and how could it how is it useful for parents? And and I think we've made significant strides in that direction by noting specifics for each elementary, middle, and high school at each level in terms of what a minimum basic curriculum looks like. Um what is equitable and what prepares you for that next level. I think calling that out I think is really important in terms of here's what has to be provided and what you have to do and how it prepares you to go from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school. And so I think I so I

2:26:20really appreciate that. Alex. Yeah. I'm also grateful for the opportunity to update this and I think uh the red line represents considerable progress from where we're trying to get to. I appreciate that the DAC has given us a lot of information and some of it is appropriate to consider here and some isn't. I guess one of my big questions is what is the suite of policies that do speak to all these things and how do they fit together? So, I want to know how this fits in with grad requirements and homework and um some other decisions that we make that support our instructional approach uh and other aspects. So, I'm I kind of want a road map of the scope of this one to know what it's talking about that it shouldn't or what it's not talking about that it should because what was there before is so hard to work from. I will add as someone who moved to Boulder in July of '92, I'm pretty sure this one was written when the district adopted a middle school program and transitioned from junior high to middle schools. And that's exactly what it reads like. Like establishing middle schools 40 years ago is what this is about. So, we clearly need to update it, but I feel like I'm a

2:27:34little um not sure about things that I'd be tempted to put in here, but that probably might go somewhere else. But if they don't go somewhere else, I'm more tempted to put them here. So I need that. And then the second part is I would be delighted to see the words evidence or research base somewhere in this policy. Um there is none. And uh we have a lot of experience as a district of you know picking our curricular choices and not always being evidence-based and I would like that to be a priority going forward. So, I was very clear that we had to put those words in our curriculum adoption policy and the curriculum revision because that was something that was missing back then. And I hear you and I um I spent some time going through all the cross references to this policy.

2:28:25That's where you'll find like what goes where like parent feedback on requiring recess in middle school. Well, technically that's in ADF, the wellness policy on nutrition and physical activity. And that policy happens to say it's required in elementary, it's optional in middle. And so it is you have like going through is a little wonky. And the other thing I would say is I don't know that all of our cross reference policies are in there like the co-curricular and extracurricular activities we talk about in a line. It's not in our cross reference. Uh and that I think it's a little bit where DAC kind of got all over the place in theirs as well. we have a lot of policies that do very discreet things and then we have some of these policies that are just more general in nature and making heads or tails of that can be somewhat challenging. Um so I appreciate uh I appreciate that comment. I have some very specific um points of feedback. The first of which is I I think it's getting so much better but the opening section is still a little clunky and I think can be simplified a little bit more. And I also think it's a little confusing to move between standardsbased and then talking about academic standards. And so get just getting

2:29:34consistent on how the phrases that we're using I think can be helpful and like whittling it down a little bit more to to really be clear on what this policy is and what it is not. So I think that could be helpful. Um I also think just in partly in light of all some of the the comments from the DAC that final sentence there's a sentence kind of deep in that opening section that talks about in all instances it's the second to the last sentence in that opening par opening section that all instructional program shall meet the educational requirements as required by Colorado and federal law. If we just move that up to the second sentence of this policy, I think that will just make it really really clear that of course we're following law.

2:30:17And then um or suggestions in the middle school section. There is um where is it? There is a sentence in the first paragraph that talks about some of the I would say soft skills that students need to develop and one of the last ones is emotional regulation. That one feels a little odd to have there. So I would maybe consider striking it and ending it at and study skills. So that was one. Um, and I also think I I think there's a clear connection between in the the section on high schools tying it to postsecary success and I wonder if in the middle school section we can talk about preparing students for high school because that really ultimately is our objective there. So being a little bit clearer there could be helpful. And then in the middle school section, it feels some of it feels a little we go from like core classes and then we talk about some of the soft skills or developmental skills and we kind of go back to core classes. And I think it would be clear if we went from core classes to electives to some of those soft skills.

2:31:41And then I'm just have a wondering we call out electives. We call it the electives of music, art, andor world language specifically. And we don't call out other electives. And I know right now there is a great deal of consistency on middle schools requiring some of those electives feels like an oxymoron because elective should truly be a choice. That's my understanding of the definition of what an elective course is. And so I'm wondering um I'm just wondering about those three areas and and are we should we might we want to or do we not want to at all ask our students to leave middle school with an experience in one of those courses or not? And is that why it's called out or is it I just have a lot of questions on outside of the core classes. Are there other experiences we think our students should have in middle school that might help them be successful in course selection or course in their courses that they may take in high school. And one thing I think about a lot is in some of our high schools to obtain the seal of biiteracy if you're not a native speaker you have to take I mean at Fairview you have to get through Spanish five which means you have to

2:33:04take Spanish in middle school and if you're not a student in a household that is fully aware of how to jump through all the hoops that are necessary to get to where you want to be. Not having that language requirement somewhere like puts folks at a disadvantage. And we've done so much work to ensure that all of our kids have access to equal opportunities. Like if there are courses like that, same thing I feel like with advanced ELA, the number of kids that don't know if they could they'd be a good fit in high school because they didn't have the opportunity to try it in middle school. Like I just some of those things like how can we how are we shaping those experiences to help kids make the best choice for them? Similar. So, I just wonder if board members have like thoughts or if staff have thoughts on I know physical space is an issue for some of these classes. I think particularly for art, physical space can be a challenge at our middle schools, band and orchestra, most of our middle schools have those physical spaces set aside. So, I'm just wondering like that's a wondering of mine.

2:34:09How much latitude versus how like how loose versus how tight on the courses that we're identifying as quote unquote electives? Rob, would it be helpful to know what's happening right now as as like a as a starting point of where things are right now and then we could see to the extent how much practice would have to change to to match policy. I think that would be helpful. And then also defining like if some schools are requiring classes that other schools are calling electives like so yes and what does an elective mean and can they truly be optional? So I think both of those would be helpful and then Alex let's work on on getting that information. I'm looking at Laura who um we'll try to include that to for you all. I think that would be helpful. So, thank you for raising that and I appreciate you raising the point or reiterating the point about that transition to high school, right? And how middle school is really geared towards setting that up and that's a key kind of stepping stone.

2:35:13And so, I think for me in ter from like an equity perspective in terms of what's available at our schools and how our students are being prepared and who has access to those opportunities is really important. So, getting to know what's going on now and then what's critical to get that next step to be able to take advantage of those opportunities which isn't really which shouldn't be an elective if if that's the path we want to offer. It should be available to all our students. So, so figuring that part of it out, I think is important. Uh, yeah, I think you raised a lot of really good points, um, both of you. Uh, I I'd like to speak to a couple of them, but I again, I feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of things we could talk about here. Um, I do want to say that the equity of access is pretty important and that I don't believe now that we have it. And so to the extent that we have people who have demanded over time that this elementary or this middle school prepare for this high school or that this high school do something someone else can do or that our concurrent enrollment is a function of how many credentialed high school teachers we have at different high

2:36:12schools that can teach them. These are all like deeply inshed structural things in our human resources and our high school schedule master schedules and stuff. So there's not simple fixes to them. So at the level of principles, it's relatively easy to say, hey, we should have equity of access to these opportunities and we should um standardize the expectations so that people can all be prepared and then you're like, okay, well, when will we have the staff in place in all our comprehensive high schools to do that equitably, right? Um and in the meantime, what is the fix we would do? So I I would like the policy to lead to that principle of the equity of opportunity when we can. Um, another issue I think when we get to what's required, what's what's optional, what's expected is to deal with the levels and the types of schools that we have. And so we have neighborhood schools, focus schools, charter schools, um, and different schools with different degrees of um, mission specific stuff going on.

2:37:11And I think as another policy that's not particularly clear, like it's not altogether clear what it means to be a focus school versus a neighborhood focus school. um and how would that interact with this or if uh an just a single elementary school or a mountain school wants to do something different that's unique to its mission. How do we think about that? So at at the level we want to have this equity of access and this common thing that's preparing everybody. We still have almost half the families exercising choice of some port and thinking schools do things differently and picking the one they want. So what makes them different? How do they know about that? So if we don't know what the options are, I don't think the parents know what the options are when they're choosing them or thinking about it. So this interacts with which schools get which flexibility and how, which is another policy. And then I will say in terms of the um this is something I care about a lot on the board and that is the equity of opportunity to enjoy fun things and um and I think we're really uh in our crisis of mental health and engagement having kids enjoy being students at BBSD is really important and I think um uh to the extent that we pick

2:38:19and choose which cool thing is that's and of course English and math should be great and super exciting and engaging. But sometimes it's drama and sometimes it's something else. So I just want us to have a lens and I don't know if we going to be touchyfey enough to say in fact that we hope our kids enjoy their education through this at BBSD but I would like it to do that so that we can reinforce like what do parents and kids want that would make it fun and like engagement is a real thing and all the way through our grades. So I don't think we should just treat it as too soft. And then when we deal with things like music and art, like this district has a long history of privileging music over the other arts based on pretty lame research that music is, you know, great for your brain as opposed to all other forms of art that are also great for the brain.

2:39:07So I just we can make we can make preferences put out there about some of the fun things that like actually foreclose fun for lots of kids. So I just want us to be thoughtful about fun and engagement and what the role is. And then finally, I'd say if not this document, somewhere we really want to understand the combination of our instructional infrastructure because that is a huge priority for this district of how we've made progress towards having one, right? So what is the interaction of this with that infrastructure that will keep the district moving in a direction to continuing to support our educators by clearly articulating what we do? And I think for the parents that kind of turns into what is the profile of a graduate? what's the profile of a ninth grader, right? And really understanding what a kid is prepared to do. So again, I'm overwhelmed by the number of places we could go with this, but I want us to think about fun. I want us to think about types of schools. I want us to think about the flexibility we have and how it interacts with our ability to hold up all our schools with support.

2:40:07Um, and I do think the DAC raised different things that need to be inserted somewhere. So I don't want to lose many of those things. I appreciate your comment on the fun and that's one of the things that I like we should be encouraging our kiddos to take these classes that maybe are not in their like not normally what they would take uh at at a point in life where you you could try something and it doesn't feel catastrophic to a a letter grade on a transcript or something down the road. So I I appreciate um I appreciate that element entirely and I one other thought that I had related to what Alex said and Dian I realized I said you were supposed to go after Alex so I'll come back to you was we have made significant investments in our curriculum and it is paid off in dividends and our curriculum is standards we're teaching to the standards and that is creating some consistency in our in our instructional programming. across the district which has been incredibly beneficial for how our students are growing and achieving and if there I again I don't know if this is necessarily the place but like the board believes in you providing those tools to meet to teach the standards so we can accomplish this. Um that's

2:41:28just one I thought I had Deian uh let's see I'm backing up a couple of comments. I actually think that um for middle schoolers having the words emotional regulation in the policy is very very important. Um and I would even add words like community engagement because a lot of what middle school is is teaching kids to get along with each other. So I don't see anything about developing the community of the school in that language um which should be part of the learning. I do um get a little bit uh rebuffed given that we had parents talking here tonight about tag students and then we have a sentence that says we will provide advanced learning in language arts and math. How about we will provide opportunities for advanced learning period because it isn't just all about math or language arts. That's not what being a TAG student is about. So, we need to provide those opportunities in a different way.

2:42:36And um the sentence that says each school shall determine which elective courses, we've talked a lot about the word elective, maybe that's not the right word, courses to offer from the school district's middle school course catalog. Um, and as someone who's who has taught at a middle school and still teach at a middle school, sometimes it's about what teacher you have available. It's not about what your choice is. You know, if we don't have someone who can um teach a class like we happen to see at Plat Middle School, which was uh the students were creating music compositions and playing them for us, um then then you're not going to offer that class. So, uh, I don't know how to word that, but it gets at that problem with equity also that we we probably we probably are providing programs that people are actually picking their schools based on which electives they can have and also which advanced courses they can have for sure. Um, when I get dropped down to the senior high, oh, I seniors crossed out the high school program. Um there is something about the second section where we have a whole bunch of different um quote elective kind of programs that some of them are capitalized and some of them are not.

2:44:03That's just a really picky thing, but it makes them look like they're more important. And I had the wondering um is using the word industrial arts like 1970s language? Maybe that is not language we use anymore to describe what we do with students at these incredible programs that we've been able to build. Um, and I think that, you know, that's just really being nitpicky, but just the format there uh makes some things look more important than others. Dr. Anderson. Yeah. I think the the essential question here is how much ground are we trying to cover in this policy? I mean, you know, to the extent that this policy has to reflect everything we believe about and think about in terms of our instructional program, um, as opposed to, uh, you know, some of the things that we believe in sit in strategic plans, some sit in in policy, some sit in other policies, some sit in regulations, others sit in expectations.

2:45:12I think that to to help kind of focus, I do think we need to take um what Dak said seriously and under consideration. I do think that we need for you all to see and understand the differences, especially at the middle levels, what's happening. Um I think the thing I think about is how is declining enrollment going to impact this? I mean, today we were at Elorado K8 and their middle schools, their K8 program is sixth grade program is significantly different than a Lewisville Middle. So, I don't want to I want to pigeon hole our practices where somebody could come to us and say, "Well, you need to give me 4ft FTE at my school because your policy says that we should have this and we don't have this here." Uh, and so I think that we that's just what I'm thinking about like what is, you know, this policy, how do we make this policy meaningful? How do we reflect the board's interests in what you've talked about? if there are things that you're bringing up that we feel like could land somewhere else, how do we do that? Um, I I do think, you know, cottifying the work we're doing today that's working, right? So, so at a at a future point in time, different boards or others would have to change their

2:46:23policy away from what's actually we've proven to work. I get that. Like, I'm interested in that, too. Uh, how do we do that? I think is what I'm thinking about. So, um uh this just kind of my two cents, Alex. Yeah, I um I really appreciate uh your comments, Dr. Anderson. I think um we both we want the policy to empower this current administration to do the good stuff you're doing and to support the continued direction of things that are helpful and effective. I do think um that if we if we empower the district to have policies that lead to making change and empowering the district to make change, that's a good policy. It may be an inconvenient and a hassle to implement. But if we actually drive to uh making it possible to make uh program access more equitable, then that's strengthening the hand of pursuing a value that we have even if it is implies work or doing something that might be hard later. So I don't think we should shrink from reflecting our principles and our values. Uh with that in mind, I think there's two things that we as a board have spoken to quite a bit that we could incorporate somewhere in here. And one goes to um we've talked about tag, but I think we could just

2:47:45deal with the concept of differentiation and acceleration and other concepts like that more broadly and the support for them. Um like and not put that in too small of a box. And I and I do think it would be good to figure out some statement of uh you know all means all in terms of all our students uh and really having some inclusive language including our neurodeiverse populations and other kids out there um that see themselves in this policy. I think there's opportunity to put that in here too. I agree. And in the muddiness of this, we have like two policies on gifted education that speak to some of it. And I do like as an umbrella, a directional umbrella. It's like we have graduation requirement policies. It's very clear. This just there's some direction, some latitude.

2:48:41It's how Yeah. How do we how do we piece it all together in a way that's meaningful? And I I do think you hear over and over and Deian hit it spot on. Sometimes people are making choices because of the degrees of inconsistencies. Not that they want to go somewhere else or they love their neighborhood school to have what feels like a really like not necessarily they'd like more consistency and they're choosing based on based on the classes that we provide. And sometimes it is based on staffing and sometimes it's based on will and sometimes it's based on facilities and what have you. And I'll continue to say like where a kid for particularly for our core subjects where a kid goes to school they don't have private transportation should not impact the quality of experiences they receive. So I'll keep coming back and back and back to that. Um so I appreciate Dr. Anthony what you said. I think finding that yes we can't codify staff that we don't have the funds for.

2:49:37I think that's what made me nervous a lot about a lot of the DAC recommendations is it was extremely heavy on staff and resources that we do not have. Um and so I I appreciate that comment. I think we can find the right balance based on board feedback tonight. Dr. I I think you I think you're going to have to see this a couple times. So I wouldn't expect this to come back on action. Just study again. Is that Would that be right, Kathleen? Absolutely. So I we received the DAC memo after the agenda was prepared, which I understand because we didn't share a red line with DAC. So it was sort of chicken in the egg. I absolutely agree, Dr. Anderson. I think we've got some more staff conversations to have to make sure that we're really capturing current practice. And then I have pages and pages of really great board uh direction and suggestion to incorporate.

2:50:35And because it has become more of a common practice this year, it wasn't necessarily a common practice in the DAC memos in the past. This is a capturing of individual ideas that were elevated during the board meeting or the DAC meeting. It was not um there was not consensus or discourse to whittle it down to what they they believed as a body. It was capturing individual comments that were shared. And so um I just want to make folks aware that have that that it used to be a different process and so that we're all on the same page of what um this memo represents. Alex. Yeah, that's an excellent point and I just want to say um that I appreciate their ability to turn around in a timely fashion and get stuff to us and I recognize that's different than taking a vote and working out the detail of each thing but having it be too late. So, um I really appreciate that and the board uh having been there for the discussion it really was rich and they were quite inclusive of one another's ideas and input but they weren't arguing about this stuff. They were like that's also good. Same way we have added 15 things for Kathleen to work with, they added 20 things for us to work with.

2:51:47Any other discussion on this policy board members, before we move on? I will turn it over to Kathleen to walk us through 3J policies. So for our next set and I and I will say the board has asked us to make sure that we take public input on policies. So, we have put up the full set of policies that the board's studying tonight on your web page um available for feedback and we'll make sure we post the red lines there now um so that people can give additional thought. So, looking at the next set of policies, we have four policies related to health and medication. Um these were identified by our staff as areas that needed updating. The first two talking about 12.2 which is board policy JLCD administering medications to students and the regulation 12.3.

2:52:48This change is due to a change in state law. It used to be that students were only permitted to self-care asthma anaphilaxis medications. there was a change to the law to allow students to carry any medication that is prescribed by a provider other than medical marijuana. So we have updated the policy and we are recommending keeping the regulation in this case because it does have that more traditional policy being more general and then the regulation having the additional detail. This is a place where we need that detail for a couple of reasons. One, if a student's going to self-care, the law has some very specific requirements that are captured in the regulation about making sure that the school and the family are in communication. We know that the student has a medication that they'll be accessing. And it also includes language that in the event that there's a problem that a student carrying a medication would be a danger to that student or other students that the school principal and the nurse have the ability to make an individual decision about that particular student. And again, we would just propose relatively minor updates recommend recommended by our health team to make sure that we can uh facilitate this right that's now recognized in state law.

2:54:19Thank you, Kathleen. Board members, any questions or comments on these three policies? This might just be my reading of it, but it starts off very positive in terms of yes, a student can self-administer medications and they can bring it to school and they can carry it around. A and you have to follow the regulation. Then you go to the regulation, you cannot do this unless you do a b cdef all the way all the way through. Is that potentially concerning if folks see the policy like, "Oh, yeah, it's it's easy to do," but then the regulations like, "No, it's actually not very easy at all to do, and it's extremely rare that you'd be able to do that on your own, and it's only for high school students." So, I so I don't know if there's a way for us to better straddle that line.

2:55:12I appreciate that comment. I noted that, too. And I do think that some additional language in the policy would be helpful and cross references in the regulation exactly to that point. Thank you. I picked that up as well. And the other thing because when you read the regula when you read the policy, you're like, oh, kid kids kids can do this. And the regulation is also like, well, actually just high schoolers. And so my suggestion was also in the policy itself, the self administering like clarify in that title. Yeah. High schoolers can because it's not middle schoolers, it's just high schoolers. If that really is the case. Other thoughts, board members? Seeing as there are none, we'll move on to two different e policies. Yes. So, we have next 12.5 and 12.6. Again, these are just while we were bringing you some related policies. And in light of the measles, I'll just say the word. I hesitate to say it with principal Ramsay here, but um so we needed to just get that language a little more current in EBBA. So we're talking about prevention of disease, infection transmission, handle handling of bodily fluids. And because these items had not been addressed since 2019, they didn't really reference pandemic and things that we learned during that process. They really focused on HIV in a

2:56:47way that I think was reflective of a pastime. And there was just some additional language that we didn't need and the funny little asterisks in the regulation that are actually part of the CASBY sample. Can't explain that. But we do think it's time to just update the language and make it a little more formal by eliminating some of that random language in the regulation. With that, I was wondering why measles wasn't particularly specifically called out in the regulation. We have a lot of different um infectious diseases called out, but measles specifically is not. And given the situation we're facing, I wonder if that might be included in that list. And then I also thought in the regulation like yeah, I appreciate it is very HIV heavy in a way that doesn't seem as relevant today in there's like a list of five items in it goes HIV, HIV, COVID, some COVID, and then back to HIV. Just putting the HIV ones together.

2:57:52Board members, other thoughts on this policy? Lenia. Well, I I guess I question the inclusion of measles if we don't include then whooping cough. Like it. So then is it that we're trying to be and that's okay with me. But I if we're going to include measles, then we should look at the other outbreaks that we do see in our community. And I'm fine with that. Alex. Yeah, I'd be I'd be inclusive of all the contagious things we're trying to help with. I I don't see any reason to shrink back and I don't believe uh we should relax our attention to HIV for the ones dealing with it. It's still a really important thing to deal with. So, no reason to take it out. Seeing as there are no further questions, we will move on to our G policies.

2:59:00Okay. And this is our final set of policies to study tonight. And I did try to organize them a little bit so that you could see the umbrella policies that are incorporating some of the others that were retiring a little bit later. So we really have two primary umbrella pro policies here. The first one will be GBA. This is staff ethics conflicts of interest. This is a policy that's required by law. It had not been reviewed by the board since 2017. I think that this is an area frankly where while conflict of interest may be a legal term or may have its origins in statute there is a lot of confusion in I think just the general population about what an actual conflict is. So what we are trying to do by elevating these policies is just provide clearer, more modern language that reflects our current um our current practices.

3:00:09We had a number of policies the board had uh prioritized for example GCQAB which is a tutoring for pay policy which is a very tiny paragraph because of the way that the CASV sample proceeds around this issue of conflicts of interest. We've integrated conflicts of interest around employment, both that whole uh nepotism, relative supervision that has been in the headlines unfortunately for some other districts recently. And then the second section of this policy is on the sale of goods and services by school district employees. And this is where we're really trying to bring in those other policies that just had a paragraph or two so that they could all be read in one place. This red line on GBA would also uh incorporate the regulation. You will note that the regulation has a little bit of language around if there's a change in circumstance that would result in a violation of the nepotism elements of the policy that there are some specific protocols around transfer. This is an incredibly rare thing to happen.

3:01:30Um, but some of that language might be helpful. So, I crossed out the language that's already integrated, but I left that in the regulation for the board's discussion. Do you want to There's an exhibit. Do or is that for a G? With your permission, I would love to talk about the exhibit separately and I'm happy to start there if it would be helpful. No, no, that's okay. I just want to make sure that that was the case. I saw Lenia's hand up go up right away on the first two and then Alex's. So, can we go down to sale of goods and services by school district employees? So, we may have an employee who may during summer break want to tutor. is that that is where this is being addressed. Am I am I understanding that right?

3:02:35Yes. It was my intent to address all of GCQAB in this section. Okay. And so then I feel confused about um thing. If you were tutoring a student over the summer or several students a day, you would be making more than $500. Or is that unit cost thing supposed to tell me something? Because I certainly, you know, if if there are people in our um employee, I you certainly want them to be able to spend their summer break earning money if they would like to be. But I I I guess maybe I'm not sure I'm reading it right, Kathleen. When I read that paragraph, I was like, well, maybe I don't understand what's going on. I think that that paragraph um you can see that the red line I've moved phrasing around and I think that the moving it around and then trying to incorporate the tutoring paragraph two paragraphs later is just not it's not consistent. I agree with you that sort of lost the thread in that paragraph.

3:04:02But is there some piece that people can't make in excess of $500 without the prior approval of the board superintendent? Yes, that's in your existing policy. Okay. Well, then I guess what I want to say is I don't think that seems right. Um, and I also think I think it's super important to assure that all students get reasonable assistant without charge from their own teachers. But I also know that a teacher may tutor somebody in a summer after they have them. Um, my concern might be then what if that teacher is moved to the next grade up the following year? I I just want to make it that our teachers can do what they would like to during the summer. Um, but I don't want it to be a conflict of interest if they happen then to get that child again.

3:05:00Maybe it's saying hopefully we'll have three rounds in every school so they can be in a different class. But I do think we need to be careful of that. Um, I appreciate uh some of the comments we've gotten um from the public about our investigate investigation process and the procedures and the time that it takes. And I also know from my professional experience in policy and politics that conflict of interest seems like a big deal, but it's always super complicated and you'd be surprised how many very innane things need to got you need to go talk to a lawyer and figure it out, right? Um, and that can be everybody engaged in appropriate best interest, good faith practice. You still got to talk to the lawyer and figure out if there's a conflict and how to manage it. So, in a spirit where we can't communicate about investigations and where people are frustrated by the time it takes to get something straightened out, I would love some sort of nod to the fact that being involved in a discussion of a conflict of interest does not mean anybody did anything wrong in this um charged political environment. I mean, it can be something very untored and inappropriate, but it can also be someone just trying to answer a very technical legal question

3:06:13that a lay person wouldn't know and then a staff person is like involved in a conflict of interest when right that's a very reasonable professional step to take because they got put in it by something going on in the school. So, I don't know how to handle that, but I would love for people not to feel like they're being burned because they went to the lawyer to talk through something that got tricky because that just happens all the time in professional America. I'll speak to the question that you asked about the regulation. I don't know if that is worth salvaging. I think there is a sentence in GBEA um first paragraph on page two where you could just tweak that sentence a little bit that if the circumstances change, an employee becomes immediate family member blah blah blah transfer change employment. I I think that nuance isn't to me I don't think that it's helpful. I mean to our extent practicable also there's bargaining groups that might be involved for different things. So I I think not having a regulation and just beefing up that one sentence would be adequate.

3:07:27And I do appreciate these changes in light of all the things that have been going on. The more clear we can be, the kinder we are to everybody involved. Lolia, so are you saying Okay. So, have we are you saying GB EA- E R those couple she salvage she like held out a couple bullets and she had asked specifically at the outset should we keep those in the regulation or just and I think we can just finesse them into what we have and not keep but we haven't we'll go to that exhibit next that is exciting thank you exciting let's move on to the exciting exhibit So, um I think this is a really interesting exhibit. It is exactly the Casby sample. It is an exhibit that in the 17 years that I've been practicing law in Colorado, we have literally never referenced, not once.

3:08:31It is guidance. So there are two components in state law around conflict of interest. The elements we just discussed that are established required principles and then these are referenced as ethical principles for elected officials local district local uh public employees. And I think it really to be candid in my opinion I think it's so confusing in the context of these policies. I do think that if you think about it from a board member lens a board member is much more likely to be able to take an official action or to leave office. This language in my opinion is really written more for elected office is less applicable to our employees who are going to be looking to these policies for specific guidance. And after polling all of my uh job peers, none of us can really identify any helpful contribution of this language.

3:09:45I couldn't even understand what it was saying and I read it at least three times. So I I'm sure it's not helpful because most the lay person is not going to understand what this is saying. If there is some need to have it, we need to change the language so that it's digestible. And I actually think I mean this is not a required it's not it's not required and most of the content in here we touch in other policies in this G chapter. So my thought before you even preface this was A, it doesn't even align with what we consider exhibits. So that's weird. And B, let's just kill it because it's not helpful in any way, shape, or form. Board members, Dr. Anderson would like to add, here's a rule of thumb. If you have something that people can't understand and they violate it, how can you hold them accountable to do it?

3:10:37So I am I am for getting rid of anything nobody can understand. I'm seeing a lot of nodding and agreement on that one. We will now move on to sections of GB EB. So our next policy, it really got pulled in because staff conduct does touch on that conflict of interest and they sort of occupy the same space which frankly is how we went from having a relatively reasonable meeting agenda to having 37 policies because they were sort of velcroed to each other. Um this one very much reflects the CASBY sample. It is the quintessential sort of schoolboard policy in my opinion in that it picks up requirements of law that live in different places in statute might be hard to find and it puts them into one one um policy. We just updated most of those red lines are to make sure that we're not using uh gendered pronouns that just make it less helpful to incorporate some of the additional um additional expectations and hopes that we would have for staff in terms of attendance and diligence and care and concern.

3:12:08We incorporated, as you get to page three, updates that we have had to the law around unlawful behavior and staff who have been charged or arrested with certain offenses. These are new legal requirements since you last reviewed this policy in 2017. And I do think that that specificity is helpful for our public in terms of understanding some of these really difficult issues that uh that we do sometimes navigate. So the updates are really, as I said, consistent with that CASBY sample and intended mainly to modernize and incorporate new legal requirements. Lenia on page three. Uh in addition, the school district may require the employee to submit a complete set of fingerprints. That is something. Do we always do that? Every employee and volunteer who's going to be having any level of independence is always background check. So yes, fingerprint. Could we use the word shall rather than the word may?

3:13:26Yes. Any other discussion on this item board members? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to GBE BC. Thank you for reading all the all the letter codes. They are in fact consistent with the NSBA and CASBY samples. I did hear you were President Rajfall where it's helpful to use the same codes so that people can find things but it is a little alphabet soup. Um so this policy is on staff gifts. I think this is another place where the law is just not very clear and helpful. So we have put it all into one place with the intent to retire the regulation. The first paragraph of this um policy is intended to allow the value to float as the state raises that gift limit level just over the years. which is why the language says um for purposes of this policy substantial value is as set by Colorado law and then identifies what the current rate is because I do think that that's helpful. Um as I was reviewing this again today candidly to talk to the board, I think that we could use likely another sentence. One of the things that we see happen in our community now is wonderful families care so much about their dedicated educators that they like to do gofundmes or other um sorts of

3:15:17fundraising or gift giving which is really lovely in its intent and really not something that we can endorse in board policy. So I think that maybe under gifts from students or in that section maybe it's gifts from students and families that we need to I need to add a line to talk about that particular issue as we do in the next section of gifts from staff members to staff members specifically talks about that sort of group fundraising for gifts. Thank you for that overview Laura. I had prioritizes policy and agenda settings. So you can make sure you strike that off of the list. Um just as an FYI board members who wants to begin discussion on this policy, I appreciate the floating level. That's why I people in the community were like, have you really not changed that dollar amount since 1970 whatever? Like yeah, it's a good question. So thank you for that. I have another question related to this policy. Um, it is not uncommon for our coaches, our contracted coaches to receive gifts from athletes and their families at the end of a season. Often times I'm some oftentimes it'll be like one parent goes and buys a gift card or whatnot and parents contribute. And my wondering is in part because I feel bad because our coaches are some of the

3:16:51lowest paid in the front range and I acknowledge that they put in a lot of time and effort and people want their coaches to stick around and are so are coaches also included in this because I think most people read this policy as teachers not as like a coach who's an extra duty not necessarily a full-time employee of the district. Are coaches also included? And if so, we might want some clarity there. and my heart breaks a little bit because these people work really hard for very little if we're going to include them. But I just think there's a lot of misconceptions around who this who this applies to and who it does not. And so I'd love that to be clarified. Thank you for that point. I think that will take some research and some additional conversation and I'm happy to bring that back, Anna.

3:17:38And just a clarifying question. Um, this is the $53. Is it per person per gift or is it because I have the example and I'm just thinking of my own self of like I like to give gifts to the teachers at the end of the year and my son has like four people that he interacts with and so I just want to know like am I really blowing it when I give all of them this amount or it apply it applies to the gift the ID. So if you're giving a teacher a basket of stuff, candles and whatever it might be, that's the gift and it would have to be a total value of less than $53. But per teacher, per individual employee and gift. But that I could give four different gifts over the course of the year, each $53, and that'd be okay.

3:18:55If that's I'm just trying to set this, right? Oh, just Yeah, but less than 53, right? Yes, we could put in a frequency limitation. That is not anything that's referenced. But I mean, would it benefit from some language of, hey, the point of this policy is so that this doesn't get into be a competition and an and a way to influence. We just want to honor but not uh expose people to inequity and improper influence. So maybe some more. Okay. Yeah. Just along those lines on the gifts from students, I don't know that the word tokens like I don't know if that's the right way to describe like it sounds it sounds a little bit demeaning. I think in light of this like you know you want to appreciate that and I don't I don't know what a better word is. I looked at that and I was like that sounds wrong. Um, you know, I I know you can't say in appreciation because that obviously could be taken, you know, different ways, but if there's a better way or more modern way to talk about gifts to appreciate, you know, the year or whatever it is that's within legal bounds.

3:20:07Um, I don't know what that is, but maybe you can help find it. I'll work on it. Any other discussion on this policy board members? Thanks. We'll move right along then. All right. Well, not to uh blow the punchline here, but this is actually the last substantive policy that you have to discuss because the remainings are incorporated and proposed for retirement. So, um this final policy would replace a few existing policies. So this is a proposed new policy GCS consulting research and intellectual property. Um our uh non-school employment consulting activities policy that we are incorporating had not been touched since 1978. I know that that policy doesn't show up to you as a strike through red line, but it would be struck. So item 12.14 is actually incorporated into this umbrella policy GCS. So it incorporates consulting activities. It also incorporates former GCQB on research and publishing.

3:21:32It was amazing to read that regulation and realize that I'm the head of a copyright committee and I was supposed to be identifying stuff that we were out there to copyright and and make money off of. I've never seen that policy before. So, we are not recommending. It's pretty antiquated. Our friends in St. brain have a policy that they call intellectual property and I did capture some of that to try and bring all of these concepts together in one place. And then it would also uh retire current board policy IO on educational research and IO-R. So all of those elements are proposed for incorporation into this new umbrella policy. board members Alex. Yeah, as a researcher sometimes and former person who's researched uh Boulder Valley, um I feel strongly that we need to strike the paragraph on the first page that all research studies carried out within the school district, use of school data of any kind or staff or students is subject must be improved advanced by the superintendent or a designate. Um, we have lots of public data on BBSD and Colorado students and it's in the public field. The district has no business saying who does or does not have the legitimate right to conduct research. Um, and lots of people do it in order to advocate for our kids. And

3:23:05when people in our community do research and find that we've dis discovered a discrepancy in outcomes, we want to welcome that, not put a future administration in the position that I've found this district in historically where they're trying to prevent people from doing research that leads to advocacy that would encourage them to change. Um, so I'm going to fight really strongly that that paragraph not exist the way it does now. I mean, I think we need to protect students rights. We need to protect data, the appropriate use of that data. Um, but this is worded so broadly that it's claiming that the district has the right to approve anybody's research of anything that affects data related to our students. Can I Oh, I can I because I read that like it's our employees like it's not governing people outside of our district. It's a policy for our employees because it's in the G chapter.

3:23:54So, I would just actually love a clarification on on what you're saying versus what my it in practice this uh was used to prevent me from doing research with public data as a uh research with Colorado Children's Campaign when working on uh graduation rates in the state as an issue of policy and I was lectured by the people in BBSD and the data section here about how inappropriate was for me outsiders who don't really understand research or data to dare to use talk about our district and our school. So in practice, this has been used exactly the way I'm suggesting. And I'm sorry, board member Medler, are you talking about the last paragraph on the first page of this, the one that has both pink and green? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And that paragraph did come from existing IO, board policy IO.

3:24:42Your point is well taken though, board president Raj Paul, because I thought the same thing. So, the language that we had in the staff policy about research really only applied to staff because it really talks about not uh making sure that you're still following appropriate procedures working with your administration. But if the board retires IO, we would be directing all research questions to this section of policy. So if we retire IO then there is not that freestanding policy um that's in a different chapter. Well if I may even if the other one were to exist if someone were just interpreting this paragraph on its own. Yeah. Uh all research studies carried out within the school district use of school data of any kind doesn't imply that the second clause is a sub clause of the first. It's two different clauses separated by commas. So as a policy guy for me that means those are two separate things um and both would apply independently.

3:25:45Yeah, your point is well taken. Jorge I think to build on Alex's point right our ability to limit folks use of publicly available data that's out there. Yeah. this seems to say they can't use it even though it's they can pull it from our website. So I think it gets tricky, right? Um but I recognize a need for protection of educational data and private data as well, right? And so I think finding a way to kind of provide some nuance in terms of what this is referring to is really important. Well, and that's what I was thinking too because there's data that staff members are privileged to that the public is not. And so how are we protecting that and and truly like it it's kind of to your point everything is corable and if it's p if it's public and corable like how do you Dr.

3:26:54Sorry, I stepped out for a moment. Um, is this policy alluding to the fact that we can control research of people who are outside of our control or authority? That we could stop research from happening if there's publicly available data. Is that what you're talking about? So, this is is that you can't I mean, how would we how would you do that? You should go back in time and talk to your staff 18 years ago and find out. Now there's also um uh requests for information that involve a bit of discretion in terms of what will be gathered and what we're given or the format that it's given in. I've seen huge data sets given in PDF before turning PDF into data sets was possible as a like a frustrating strategy. I've seen huge uh financial charges for requests for information for data. Um, so there's all sorts of things districts have done in this state, including some by BBSD that are just in order to discourage research by independent third parties of data that is arguably public in nature and inappropriate to share. So one of the big questions is what is appropriate to share uh in terms of the public data and uh certainly we in this current environment are seeing public institutions move more and more towards

3:28:06using the excuse of potential data shares to to not share stuff that um had been in the public domain. So, I'm concerned about maintaining access to data because I think it's a really powerful tool for public accountability and for bringing evidence-based analysis to public administration. So, can we clarify that paragraph to I think we're all saying the same thing. We can't misuse private data. Public data is a very different Right. Dr. J and then I I do think that we field a large number of data requests around dissertation topics and wanting us to spend staff time collecting information for somebody to to do those things. And I do think that those are on a case-byase basis to the extent that someone's doing their dissertation. Um that aligns with something we're interested in. Um, obviously publicly available data, you should make those things available through core requests or what have you. Um, but I would say that everybody who wants to do a dissertation study and wants to survey folks or wants to access other information, um, I could I could see that being different than just, hey, you know, this is the data. I know you have it. Let me see it.

3:29:27I I support that entirely. like the last thing we want not is a million surveys from people that are claiming access to our our community that that shouldn't have it. My experience is speaking to the random application of like requests for information procedures in order to stop one researcher with one question that's not acceptable to the district while giving it to another and having the district not apply equally standards uh for core requests or information requests based on the defensiveness of a district. I've seen that a lot. So, I I think we want to reference our other policies about requests for information and public transparency and not put ourselves in an argument of judging when an appropriate research question by an appropriate researcher has been asked um and otherwise supporting what you're talking about. I've just honestly seen this district behave very poorly with regard to that historically. So, I want to make sure that any future researcher is not discriminated against because they're asking a question that might be embarrassing to the district at some point, but a long time ago. This was a long long time ago, but it's real and people are researching stuff today. And the debates over access to public data are as intense today as they ever were. And we could easily have changings of

3:30:41administrations that are again trying to avoid public analysis of how things are going. when I think analysis of how things are going is one of the most powerful things we can do to advocate for equity or kids. Anna and then Elenia. Uh my comment might be a like um yeah of course but I think once we get those clarifications of where those guard rails are at of the intellectual property um this is going to be a very clear guardrail for our upcoming AI implementation of what gets uploaded, what gets downloaded and what gets shared out. Uh, so I just want to make sure that we're flagging that. Well, I'm glad everyone else got to go first because I'm now all the more confused. Um, I I understand where Alex is going. When I read this, the new paragraph in green above the paragraph that we've just been discussing, I thought that that paragraph was talking about research organizations that we contract with the way it was written. Is that true that that's what that is written toward?

3:32:04I I don't when I would so that language comes straight from board policy IO so that's in our existing language which is from 76 I honestly think it was about like doctoral research this is about requests that come to us and how we manage those requests but I think that the board's talked about a lot of things I mean obviously transparency strategic plan metrics, the data dashboard, all of the work that Dr. Anderson and staff have done along with this board. I think it it we need language at the beginning of the research paragraph to explain who it would apply to when we're talking about outside research requests coming to us versus requests that we're making. So, and then public and private data. Yes. And I because I read that as somebody that we were well I I first off I really hated the language in there.

3:33:06While I do of course want to protect the learning environment, I felt like there was just a lot of um physical, psychological, social, educational, and other injury. I I felt like I didn't know what kind of research anybody was doing that was doing that. But I I think it is important for us to detail out as we work with folks in our community. Um Renee Crown comes to mind how what we want our rules of engagement to be and what the board expects our rules of engagement to be with organizations like Renee Crown where we already have a data sharing agreement. So I that's just another take on it that I think we have to sus out. Deian, I've had a couple of opportunities to work with uh researchers in my classroom and had them go through this process and it seemed to me that the the the real concern was always what happens to personally identifiable information and are students protected from their their being released who they are and what they said? And the last time I did this, I was working with a a Google researcher inside the classroom and they just had to they went through the superintendent and it was really uh fine, but we had to make sure that everybody was protected. And um since

3:34:41I'm the long-term employee here, there was a day where um people objected to every survey that we gave because it did psychological damage to their children. So it it was truth to them and so keep that in mind. There are people that just don't want their children surveyed on anything. Jorge, yeah, thanks for this discussion. I think um going back to IO, I think they're referencing research conducted in schools versus the issue of data public or private. So I think making that distinction being really clear would be helpful. I have one comment. I just question and then Alex, we'll go to you. Is director of evaluation and guidance the title we currently use because the policy refers to that? I think that's from the old language, but is that the actual title? I didn't think so either.

3:35:38I've worked with Jessica Alen on the policy, but she asked me to change the title and I don't think I did. Okay. So, she did help with the language in general on this policy. And of course, I'll work with her again to respond to the board feedback. And then should it say superintendent or designate? That might be the simplest. That's kind of what we use as a standard because so many as we every time we reorganize or something we the title changes. I think that would be probably the most aligned with board policy. Alex. Yeah. Um, let me be clear in my comments. I've I've been harsh on historical actions from BBSD from personal experience where I've seen this interpreted not the way the board's discussing it today. So I think of that while recognizing the value of educational research paragraph doesn't say anything about what research it's about. So it could be used by anybody to argue against any research that someone might be trying to do where they're trying to get information. So and since some of these policies we're dealing with one today that's 40 years old. the idea that they will look back on our discussion and to get legislative intent seems seems optimistic. Um, and I've also worked for years with BBSD when they've been a great partner to research

3:36:49and analysis um, with great partners who've had great insight to what's going on. But I was working on just for just to be clear, I was working to get the state to adopt cohort-based graduation rates. So that instead of reporting the number of 12th graders who come in in September that graduate in May and reporting a 97 grad rate, we would do what the state did, which was adopt a cohort model and measured the number of nth graders come in and then count the diplomas. And that data changed state law. And now the state has reported graduation rates accurately based on the way people would think about it for 20 years. and the grad rates went from about 82% to what we're up to now like 96%. BVSD h fought really hard against that legislation. The research director here fought really hard about sharing data just on enrollment. And when we used enrollment data to estimate how many kids who graduated based on enrollment in the nth grade and diplomas four years later, we were, you know, called to task how inappropriate was of us to use the district's data and to attack them so ruthlessly. Um, so that's for me that's like that's an clear example that this district has historically manipulated language like this to prevent good research that had

3:37:53great intentions that eventually led to much better outcomes for the kids in this district. So I don't take it with a grain of salt that people 30 years from now would interpret this the way we want them to and all be good about stuff that's good for kids. This has been used to protect the district against people trying to do what was right for kids because it was inconvenient to the leadership at the time. long time. Long time ago. Board members, any other discussion on this policy? Seeing as there are none, we will, as Kathleen said, the next chunk of policies are red lines incorporated retire and then 12.19 is just a recoding, right? That's just a recoding. I didn't even give you a red line. That was just to make sure that we got that policy back into alignment with the other CASBY references.

3:38:57Board members, any questions on all those recommended for retirement or incorporation? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to our final topic this evening, which is future agenda request. Board members, are there any items you would like to add to the board prioritization list? Seeing as there are none, tonight's meeting is adjourned. Thanks everyone.