Transcript

0:09:28I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education for Tuesday, April 28th, 2026. Board members may attend and participate in our meetings remotely in accordance with board policy BMEA and state law. Laura, can you please call the roll? Booker Chavez Here. Medler He's not there right now. Quinlan Awaida Here. Rajpal Here. Tamuwading Here. Unger Here. Thank you. We will now move on to our land acknowledgement this evening. I'd encourage everyone to turn your attention to the screens. I'd like to remind everyone that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Thank you everyone for joining us here tonight. We're glad to have you observe and participate in our meetings. At this time, is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Moved by Anna, is there a second? Seconded by Lolita.

0:12:51Laura, can you please call the roll? Chavez Yes. Medler Yes. Quinlan Awaida Yes. Rajpal Yes. Tamuwading Yes. Unger Yes. Motion passes. The next item on tonight's agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Anderson, good evening. Good evening, Board President Rajpal, board members. Great to see everyone this evening. Have a few things to update the board and the public on. Um so, as board members, as you'll know that we wrapped up our last of our six connect with uh the BVSD community engagement sessions last Wednesday around declining enrollment with our largest crowd um of uh the 2 weeks that we held these meetings. About 180 people came out to Monarch High School. And over the 2-week period, about 1,000 people participated. I am uh so proud of our community and so thankful for those who came out to provide us feedback and engage in this process.

0:13:57Next phase begins this week with the launch of survey went out to staff today and will go out to families tomorrow. Want to thank everyone for their participation. It's just really important that we listen before we lead as we look for ways to create really resilient schools in this time of declining enrollment. Last Wednesday uh was also Earth Day and we once again held our district-wide bike-and-roll-to-school day. Kids across the district rode into school on bikes, scooters, skateboards, you name it. One of the highlights was at Crest View Elementary where they celebrated the grand opening of the new underpass. You can see it up here um for a safer route to school alongside the city of Boulder. Last week we celebrated our second class of seniors to earn the Seal of Climate Literacy Diploma endorsement. Seal recognizes students for demonstrating a strong understanding of climate science, sustainability, and environmental action.

0:14:54The program expanded significantly this year. 51 students earned recognition, which is more than double the number of recipients from last year. This increase underscores the growing commitment among BVSD students to become leaders in climate action. To earn the seal, students must complete two climate literacy courses, create an experiential learning portfolio that centers on a local climate problem with five real-world application experiences. Uh it was a great event and uh if anybody was able to attend uh the the projects the capstone projects that that the kids uh created were awesome. We also recently celebrated all the students who have earned the Seal of Biliteracy this school year as well as those that are on their way. BVSD, we believe being bilingual is a superpower opening doors in the lives of students in life after high school and it was wonderful to hear from a number of our seniors about the impact that being bilingual has already had on their lives.

0:15:50I also wanted to give the folks at Apex, our Career and Technical Education Center that is next to the ATC, a shout-out for hosting us during last week's board meeting. Uh while the facility is still in construction, it's already a stunning facility filled with some amazing learning. Got to visit students learning emergency medicine, biomedical, automotive service and collision repair, film and video production, and our Teacher Academy. Uh we can't wait until the aviation, intro to nursing, and modern manufacturing pathways come online in a little more than a year. And then we wrapped up the visit at the BVSD Culinary Center where Apex culinary arts students prepared and served a delicious lunch. Uh it was an impressive demonstration of the real-world skills students are developing every day. Speaking of the Culinary Center, we want to mention two events that our food service team is cooking up.

0:16:41Thursday, they were they're opening the doors at the Culinary Center for their first ever open house where parents and community members can learn more about BVSD's gold standard school food program, meet our amazing chefs, tour the Culinary Center, sample foods from our school menu, and share our celebration of receiving Boulder Slow Foods high honor, the snail of approval. This award recognizes food and beverage businesses that practice the organization's values organization's values of good, clean, and fair food for all. These values closely align with how the school food project approaches preparing meals for students every day. Congratulations to our food services team. The other event that we have in the works is the 2026 BVSD plant sale. Kick off your gardening this year by picking up all kinds of plants including heirloom varieties at the BVSD greenhouse right here between the Culinary Center and the Apex building.

0:17:28It's open 3 days with early staff access and discounts as well as $100 in free plants for new school gardens. Friday, May 8th, Saturday, May 9th, and Saturday, May 16th and more information is available at food.bvsd.org/plant-sale. And board members, that's what I have for my remarks this evening. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Board members, any questions or comments? Seeing as there are none, we will move on to the next agenda item this evening, which is public participation. The board respects the right of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of the schools. The board does not endorse the comments of individual participants and remind all those who speak that you are responsible for ensuring your remarks are suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th graders. Furthermore, this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents.

0:18:20It is not a time for the board to engage with or respond to speakers' remarks. Speakers will have 2 minutes to speak. You'll see a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining and an orange card when you have 10 seconds remaining. If you run out of time or would like to share additional information, you may always email the Board of Education. With that, our first speaker this evening is Piper Vice. How about Ava John? There were two young ones just walking down the hallway that I wonder if it might be them and maybe they'll come back um and join us later. Our next speaker then will be Teresa Butterfield, who is virtual. Hi. Um give me a second to see if my camera worked. There you go. Um hello. My name is Teresa Butterfield and I'm an elementary special education teacher here in the Boulder Valley School District, which I've worked in for the past 10 years.

0:19:20As someone who's worked in both our highest performing and lowest performing elementary schools, I would like to share a bit about my experience as it relates to the district's approach to students who are gifted and talented. As you may or may not know, giftedness is a type of neurodiversity, meaning that the gifted brain actually works differently from most other people's. Gifted students often learn more quickly and understand topics with greater complexity and nuance. Gifted students also experience the world differently and therefore they require something different than their neurotypical peers when it comes to instruction and support. And yet in my time across schools in this district, I've mostly seen these students receive one-size-fits-all instruction from teachers who are well-meaning, but who are underprepared in how to meet gifted students' complex needs. These teachers are passionate, capable, intelligent, and hard-working professionals, but most of them have never been taught how to support neurodiverse students.

0:20:12As a special education teacher, I've been trained to support students like these with disabilities, and I'm able to do it through individualized education programs that are backed by human resources. In gifted education, there are not the same trained human resources available. They're just general education teachers doing their best. So, how do we support these general education teachers in caring for our gifted and otherwise neurodiverse students? We provide them education through professional development opportunities, which is why I support Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented's proposal that BVSD school board require GT-informed training starting in the 2026-2027 school year. Thank you for your consideration and your hard work on behalf of the students of the Boulder Valley School District. Thank you. Since our young friends have joined us, we'll go back to the top of the list and welcome Piper Weiss to the podium.

0:21:05Are you either of you Piper? Ava John? We'll welcome Ava to the podium. Hi. My name is Ava and I'm in fourth grade at Louisville Elementary School. So, thank you for serving our on our school school board. I'm here today because I am concerned about the abandoned oil wells that are leaking methane and other toxic gases near Peak to Peak Charter School. The air pollution created by these leaks can cause worsen asthma and in in children and even premature death. Fortunately, there is a program called the Enterprise Marginal Well Plugging Group. Oil well operators can apply for funding from this group to plug the well. That means BVSD can put pressure on the oil well operators to get the well plugged. Plugging these wells is important to to the health of our of students. It's time for action.

0:22:19Please pressure the oil well operators and help create a a healthier environment for BVSD students. Our next speaker is Mary Henry. Mary got caught out in an appointment in Denver. She'll email her comments. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening then will be Richard Garcia. Can you hear me? Great. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Anderson, and members of the board. I come here tonight because of the concerns that Latina Latina families and other white families have concerns concerning the future of bilingual education in Boulder Valley School District. There are rumors because of declining enrollment that the dual immersion school and the 90/10 school at Pioneer may face some changes to the programs. Because of the history of bilingual education in BVSD, it would behoove the Board of Education and administration to dispel these rumors.

0:23:37The history of bilingual education goes back to 1972. It was a struggle to convince the district then of the value and importance of bilingual education. It took numerous meetings and discussions with both the administration and public and public participation participation at school board meetings. I'm hurrying up. Uh to convince the board that bilingual education was important and valued by the community. In 1973, I ran for the Board of Education on a program on a platform of bilingual multicultural education. I didn't make it. However, uh it did create a lot of excitement in the community around bilingual education. The Chicano Latina community and the Anglo community uh had an activist group of Chicanos that decided that perhaps approaching the implementation of bilingual education by another route was important. We submitted a Title VII proposal to the Board of Education, and the board discussed it for several meetings. We had expert testimony to the viability of bilingual education and heard from the community as well. The board voted it down. A gentleman named Federico Peña, who is a former mayor of Denver, in 1974 reached out to us to help him write the bill to implement bilingual programs in school districts in Colorado. Thus, the Bilingual Education Act of 1975 was passed and signed by the governor.

0:24:56BVSD then decided to allow bilingual education in four elementary schools. Lincoln Elementary, Lafayette Elementary, Columbine, and Aurora 7 had bilingual education programs, although they were transitional. Am I done? Wow. Anyway, I would really really urge the Board of Education to reach out to the Latino community and maybe perhaps have special meetings to have community discussions around declining enrollment because none of them have been able to attend, and those that have come out of there confused. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Genie Schlafly. Hi. Don't worry. Yeah, we're other moms. We're not all speaking, just I am. Thank you, board members, for this opportunity to speak, and thank you so much for your service to our schools. Our staff, our teachers, and our amazing and our kiddos, we really really appreciate everything you do.

0:26:17I am here um as a mom of two two kids in our bilingual schools in BVSD, and I am here to advocate for our bilingual education, like Mr. Garcia just did so beautifully, and if there's time on mine, maybe he can finish up. Uh I um I will voice some concerns that I have, and then um there's there's so much I want to talk about, but um hopefully we'll be back another time as well to talk. But um some of my concerns in the form of questions are wondering what's been uh what is being done to retain our Spanish-speaking families, and how can we better connect with them, as Mr. Garcia had mentioned. And then uh what is also being done to recruit our Spanish-speaking families? For example, can we make enrollment easier? It's so hard for everybody, I think.

0:27:19Um And then three, what can we do to retain our amazing bilingual teachers? Don't want to lose them. They're amazing. And then, as I've heard um from the superintendent in other places, oh, wait, 30 seconds, that it's hard to find bilingual teachers. So, let let's problem-solve all this. So, these are just a few concerns. I want to close with my son, he's a 10-year-old. This is a little snippet in his life. He His best friend is Gael, and uh he doesn't have a phone yet, so neither of them they talk on their parents' phones, and in the back seat of the car, it was on speakerphone, we're all listening, they were talking in Spanish, and the next thing I know, I hear Gael say, "Now, Miles, why don't you speak in English? We're not in school anymore."

0:28:07So, let's keep this up. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Crystal Chin. Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin, and I am a BVSD parent. At our last meeting, this board acknowledged student safety as a priority. We heard board members engage seriously with our concerns, and we really appreciated that. But I want to be precise about something. We were told that independent oversight isn't feasible because of FERPA. I want to address that directly with a concrete example. Cherry Creek School District recently issued a formal public RFP commissioning an independent third-party firm to review their district. Their scope explicitly includes retaliation concerns, whistleblower protections, and conflicts of interest. They built FERPA compliance directly into their model, requiring all findings to exclude personally identifiable and identifiable information. Cherry Creek's own document states the process must remain, and I'm quoting, "independent, objective, and able to endure public scrutiny."

0:29:30That is the standard we're asking BVSD to meet. Better data and improved communication are welcome, but they do not access the core gap. When the system investigates itself, there is no independent mechanism to verify the outcome. Cherry Creek proved that gap can be closed. The only question left is whether BVSD will act or just keep saying the right things while families keep getting hurt. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Liz Jimenez. Good afternoon. My name is Liz Jimenez and I'm a BVSD parent and my 9 and 11-year-old child have attended Pioneer since kinder. I'm here to speak about the district's approach to gifted education. My children were identified as gifted early on at Pioneer. At first we were excited, but this past year I haven't seen my oldest thrive. I've seen her retreat.

0:30:47I've watched a bright inquisitive child grow frustrated as she spent her days waiting for a challenge that doesn't come and for a curriculum that meets her where she actually is. As we just heard, giftedness is a form of neurodiversity. Is defined by high sensitivity and asynchronous development. Too often this results in twice exceptional students who are gifted but also navigate a disability. These children require a specialized strength-based approach to ensure their unique needs are met. And the data is clear as of spring 2025, gifted students represent our largest subpopulation at nearly 20%. In a district that prides itself on being all together for all students, we can't ignore the needs of 1/5 of our population. As a district navigates consolidation and declining enrollment, we must prioritize classroom level expertise. Every teacher should be equipped to support neurodiverse learners. This is especially critical for our dual language schools. Families should never be forced to choose between linguistic proficiency and the advanced academic support their children legally and educationally require.

0:31:57I ask the board I ask the board to require GT informed training and support for all BVSD elementary teacher starting next school year. Thank you for your consideration and your hard work on behalf of our students. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Sarah Dodson-Knight. Good evening, y'all. I am Sarah Dodson-Knight, a substitute teacher in BVSD and parent of two children in the district. And I'm here to add my voice to the others who have said GT students in the district need more support. But first I want to start by praising and thanking the marvelous teachers that I have met who have made huge efforts to meet my children where they are, to do differentiated instruction so that the students who are performing above grade level are challenged. For example, at Escuela Bilingue Pioneer, Pamela Chavez and Elizabeth Vela Robles noticing that my son was ready to do more than count and recognize letters.

0:33:28So with Pam's encouragement, he started writing short sentences to accompany the drawings that he made in preschool. And with Elizabeth, he learned to multiply and divide as a kindergartner. I'm thinking of David Smith, the school librarian, who supported my daughter when as a fourth grader she wanted to create a young authors club and he helped with that. Emily Ritter at Platt who offers a weekly lunch bunch for gifted and talented students helping with their social emotional development. Aida Hubbard at Centaurus who teaches French four, French five, AP French, and IB French all in the same class. Amazing skills at differentiating, but that doesn't come naturally to us teachers. And so many have not had a strong formation in gifted and talented stuff. So I am pleading for BVSD to add professional development, regular continuing professional development for teachers as part of their mandatory hours to help them learn how to recognize and understand our neurodiverse children who frequently struggle with anxiety, perfectionism, under perform and getting bored in school. Thank you.

0:35:07Thank you. Board members, we have one final public commentor this evening. Public watching, you know I don't normally make exceptions to our rules around sign up, but we have a young person with us who would like to share their comments at the podium. So I welcome Penny Seguin up. Hi, my name is Penny Seguin and I'm a fourth grader at Louisville Elementary School. Today I'm here here to talk about plugging the abandoned oil wells near Meadowlark and Peak to Peak. These oil wells leak poisonous gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. In fact, hydrogen sulfide can kill a man with one breath. Both schools are very populated. Today the total enrollment for these schools is approximately 2,200 students. These oil wells are within a mile of the schools and kids are being harmed. Kids' lungs are still developing. How can you help? Well, you can pressure the Enterprise Marginal Well Plugging Company, EMWP. This is a company that is dedicated to plugging oil wells. If you push this company to plug the oil wells near these schools, kids will be healthier along with parents, other guardians, and teachers.

0:36:19Plugging these wells will also be better for the earth in general. The methane that leaks coats the atmosphere with an extra layer of heat. The US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, estimates there are approximately 3.4 million oil wells in the country. This is not a reasonable amount and in fact there should be no abandoned oil wells at all. So all in all, you can push the EMWP to close these oil wells near Meadowlark and Peak to Peak. That concludes public comment for this evening. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everybody who took the time to show up and share or attend virtually to share your thoughts and concerns with the board. I want to give a special shout out to our youngest students who are early advocates for both the environment and their peers.

0:37:10Takes a lot of bravery to come to the board. With that, our next item on the agenda is board communication. Board members, who would like to begin? Lelenia. Uh I would also like to extend my thanks to the kids who got up to speak tonight. That's wonderful that you're advocating for what you believe in. Uh and we listen to you. So thank you. Um I also would like to uh tell all the people who come to speak that I appreciate it and the board takes very seriously what people say when they come and all the your emails. Um and I went to the Monarch uh community engagement and there I met a lot of parents who are taking time away from their own families uh to give us their input and I was really impressed by the depth of thought that I saw and and the ability to think community-wide. So um as we move forward and our our community engagement now is transitioned to survey uh I would ask that we continue to have that view um where we don't just think of our own kids, but we think about all the kids in our neighborhood and all the kids in our town and all the kids in our district. Um and I also think I I heard from several

0:38:46folks, well, you guys are just backing into a plan that you already have. And I want to say that that is not true. There is no plan out there that we're backing into. We are listening before leading, just like Rob said. So I think it's really really important um that people bring us um their heart in that way. That they understand that we do care what they have to say and what their families experiences. So thank you for all of our community members tonight. Thank you. Uh I'd also like to thank all our speakers today. I appreciate you coming here and advocating for our students and for changes that you want to be a part of and in particular for our younger students who are here today and I appreciate your efforts in raising your voices.

0:39:37Um I'd also like to thank um all the folks who participated in the community engagement sessions. It was great to see um the buy-in and the consideration that people took that that families took, community members took in terms of thinking beyond themselves and thinking about the broader questions that we're asking about how we can better serve all of our students cuz I think that's at the core of what we're doing. And these sessions really help us that these changes that we're kind of going to be going through are really to address the needs of all of our students, those who you know, are multilingual learners, who are special education programs, or gifted and talented students, our kids on free and reduced lunch that we can better serve them, right? By really thinking about how we have space at our schools and where they're located and how we have how we can spread resources around. So, I really want to thank folks for that that participation. But also recognize that you know, we have a survey coming up that's important for folks to participate in.

0:40:30That not everybody could participate in these sessions that it does take extra work on our part to make sure it's accessible to all folks in the community, especially those ones that may not feel most comfortable participating in certain venues and that maybe aren't historically used to participating in the system. So, so I know we've got more work to do, but you know, as Laniya mentioned, right? Recognize that we're doing this with the with the right intentions to really allow your participation, to hear your voice. And I see folks out here who were at those sessions, so thank you for being there. And that's a work that we have to do together. So, thank you. Oh, wait, one more thank you. And thank you to you know, I I think it's important the discussions at the tables. And thank you to our principals who took time to participate in these, to lead the discussions, to man the tables. It was great to hear the conversations that were going out there.

0:41:18It was just very thoughtful work. So, so thank you all for the for the work that you're doing. Thank you. Jason. Sure. I don't have a whole lot more to add to what Laniya and Jorge said, but I also appreciate the folks that have come out tonight and that went to the I think six sessions, maybe a thousand folks in total, which is really remarkable when you consider that it's two and a half hours on a school night. You know, as Laniya said, taking away time from your families. I went to two of them, one at New Vista, one at Monarch. And I didn't see you know, maybe a handful, but very few people leave. They were people were engaged. They were positive, you know, productive conversations. And I think from what I could hear, you know, people were really focused on solutions and not on kind of you know, what's just in their own interest.

0:42:10Obviously, we all have want to do what's best for our own kids, but I think to Laniya's point about, you know, kind of looking beyond your own family and community and school and to kind of what, you know, what solutions work for the district. And that's what I heard that's what I heard in those sessions. And so, adding my thanks also to folks who've been and also, you know, as Rob has mentioned, all the work that went into this on top of full-time jobs that all these folks have, principals and staff attending, planning, you know, really putting together a incredibly thoughtful and well designed engagement sessions. And you know, obviously just the the first of many things we're doing at as many as folks have mentioned, the surveys, but yeah, I just wanted to add my two cents to that also. And then I just seeing the pictures of our tour of Apex is always one of the highlights of at least for me being on the board is being able to be at schools and see what's happening there, just seeing how amazing you know, the things that are happening at these schools. And Apex in particular, I think you know, people would be blown away if they knew the the programs and the the things the kids are

0:43:22learning. Every single student I talked to said it was the best part of their day and it was really great to see that in person. We we get a lot of presentations on it, but you know, really great to see what's happening there. And hopefully more people around the district can can can also see what's happening there, too. So, thanks to all those folks on staff who made that tour such so impressive and so great. I thank you. I also want to thank everybody who spoke tonight. I'm sorry I can't be there in person, but it's it's great to hear people's input, especially as always including students who come to speak. I just wanted also reiterate how much I appreciated the community engagement and also recognize how much I think the survey stage now is important and other input that we always continue I think I'd like to make sure to the extent there's people in the public who see this who haven't been to those meetings, two points. Number one is we really are thinking about lots of options. Some people talk about it like, well, what schools are we going to close? And really when we get in those if you're in amongst the thousand people at those meetings, you know there's a lot more than just talking about closing

0:44:38schools. We're talking about programming, program placement, what to do with multi-grade things, you know, can K-8s become a K-5 and a middle school. All sorts of different options that are in addition to potentially closing, including where we put magnet and focus schools and where we might relocate the magnet and special schools that we have now. So, some people are talking about it as if we're having a discussion about closure, when in fact we're having discussions with a thousand people about eight different options, some of which include closure. And then secondly, I'm also I can say if there's a plan or a list of closures that's already been picked, they sure haven't shared it with the board. I don't think that's real. I think people have been great in their sincere engagement in the process where we're talking about the things we value as communities and the things we're trying to protect and foster going forward. And I think that's really real.

0:45:29And if you haven't had a chance to be in those meetings, I'm just super impressed by the way our community has addressed it and by the great leadership of our people facilitating that and the district central leadership. So, I'm just grateful for all of that. And finally, I really enjoyed the Apex visit last week. And I just want to say like one of the things we need to do because that is so special is figure out how we get more kids through it and into it. And we have wonderful programming there that more kids would like to enjoy. And it's as a board and as a district, I know things are tight, but we should figure out ways to have more kids be able to benefit from it. And thank you very much and I'll sorry I can't be there.

0:46:14Anna. Also just echoing my fellow board members, I had the opportunity of attending the listening session at Broomfield High School and I was just so grateful for the community that showed up there. And I have sang my praises to Dr. De La Cruz and Dr. Anderson, but just about the the preparedness that the team team was and the the materials that they had ready for the parents to be able to have an engaged and intentional listening session at those community meetings. Um, and to that end, I also want to um, also give a shout-out to the survey, but also let parents know that we're still not done listening to to parents' feedback, to community members' feedback. And I think to um, uh, uh, Richard's point today at public comment in making sure that we are reaching out to more marginalized communities, Spanish-speaking parents.

0:47:21And I am inviting Spanish-speaking parents to reach out to me, fill out the survey to really share share those insights. And I know that this does get translated, but I do want to make sure that folks here get And then finally, I do want to just also give a shout-out to our great tour at the Apex Center. I was I had the great great privilege of being able to double dip in having my school district hat on, but I'll also my commissioner on higher ed hat on to really observe both both sides of the Apex Center and the concurrent and dual enrollment that they're having over there at that center. It made me very excited and I have been talking to my other fellow commissioners on higher education about the great work that's happening here at the district and making sure that our work on the commission is also blending in with what the later K-12 system is doing.

0:48:49And so, I am just very grateful and um, really proud and excited to see what what more is to come of those programs. I want to echo my board members' comments around the community engagement sessions. They have been outstanding and it has not been without a significant amount of effort from our staff and from the parents that have been able to attend those meetings. I also want to share that we are still in that engagement phase. The surveys are coming out as my board members have said. And I know since the sessions themselves have wrapped up, we have seen a ramp up in emails. People thinking that maybe we're already moving on to decision phases or newspaper articles that list certain schools and that there's a foregone conclusion. And I want to reiterate that we are still in the community engagement and listening phase. We are not in the decision-making phase and so even if certain school communities might think that certain moves are being made or if newspapers reference certain schools or if there's a narrative floating out there, that's just not where we are right now as a district and so I just really encourage everybody to stay. It's It's easy to want to kind of go to the next step when you feel like the first

0:50:00step your part of the first step is done, but we are still engaging. Fill out the survey. We will continue to listen and you are always free to email the board. Depending on the volume of emails, we may not be able to respond to all of them and really the best way is to participate in those surveys moving ahead. So I just want to share that with the board. Um I also want to share that I've been thinking a little bit about the social media lawsuit that we joined as a school district. Some of the public comments and part that we've been hearing around access to social media at our schools and want to put a plug in for the possibility of turning off access to social media on our district issued Chromebooks for consideration.

0:50:43Um I think that is something we continue to talk about talk around, but never directly speak to and so I just want to put a plug out there knowing that we do have that ability for consideration at our high schools. We do have limited access at our elementary schools and our middle schools, but I offer up the consideration for turning off that access at our high schools. Um lastly, I had the opportunity this afternoon to attend an award ceremony at the with CDE with Dr. Anderson and Dr. De La Cruz to receive all of the awards that the school district has received from the state. We will be presenting on those moving forward, but I just want to say we cleaned house. So kudos to the staff and to our teachers and to the administration for continuing to do the hard work of improving opportunities and outcomes for students. It's not just the posters and the banners. It's It's not just the data, but it is the day-to-day experiences and what our young people are able to do while they're with us places like Apex and all of our amazing campuses and then what they're able to accomplish once they leave us and so I'm really proud of this district for the efforts that we continue to make and

0:51:54know that that dogged focus on our strategic plan and some of the efforts to really continue to improve access outcomes and opportunities um is sometimes challenging, but it is really worth it. So with that, we will move on to our next item this evening, which is information. We have two information items, the first of which is a sustainability action plan and our April Earth Month update and I will turn it over to Rob Price for introductions. All right. Good evening, President Rushball, members of the board and Dr. Anderson. Tonight's presentation will be led by Dr. Carol, our sustainability and energy officer, and Sarah Nick, our sustainability energy analyst. They're going to walk you through the district's progress on our current sustainability action plan. They're going to highlight key accomplishments from this year and really from the past 5 years.

0:52:50And then they're going to provide an update on our next development of our next sustainability action plan. So as we begin, I just want to ground us in our vision, our green BVSD green BVSD vision and mission. Our vision is all together for all students and the planet. And the vision continues to guide the district's work work across operations, instruction, culture, and leadership. So for the past 18 years, Dr. Carol has really helped shape and lead the district's sustainability work with a vision and deep commitment. And under her leadership, BVSD has built a nationally recognized sustainability program that has connected district operations, student learning, community partnerships, and long-range planning in meaningful ways. And the recognition reflected on this slide speaks not only to the strength of the work itself, but also to Dr. Carol's leadership in establishing BVSD as a leader in whole district sustainability.

0:53:59So as Dr. Carol nears retirement, I want to just take a moment to thank her not only for her leadership, but for her lasting impact across the district. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. CAROL. THANK YOU SO MUCH. OH, I CAN'T believe this is my last time. I'm so happy to be here giving you your Earth Day Earth Month update on sustainability and thank all of you for your ongoing support. The work here wouldn't happen without the support of the board and the leadership of Dr. Anderson and Rob Price and so many others. So thank you for the opportunity. So um with that, here are guiding documents around sustainability that BVSD has had in place since 2009. They are supported by board policy, which the Board of Education re-emphasized in 2023 by passing the Green New Deal resolution. So the work we're doing and reporting highlights on tonight supports both the 2021 sustainability plan and the Green New Deal.

0:55:08Our plan covers the four impact systems on the slide to align with district systems and priorities, leadership, operations, curriculum instruction, and climate and culture. The plan has overarching goals and supporting goals in each of these areas and reflects a 5-year timeline in which we are in year five of five. Also this year, we're working on the next 5-year plan, which we'll give you an update on later in the presentation. We'll walk through each of the plan areas starting with leadership, where our overarching goal is to collect data and report on healthy, equitable, and sustainable school best practices for all of our schools. And this beautiful picture on the right was created by one of Eisenhower's Eco Eagles in a school-wide poster contest. And speaking of leadership, these students also presented in a national forum on Earth Week just last week sharing their work around waste diversion and they were amazing. There's a video of it in case anyone wants to see it.

0:56:00So the first supporting goal in this category is to create a sustainability advisory group, which is complete. The group was established in January 2022 and meets quarterly. Current members include students, teachers, community members, past Board of Education members, and more. And applications are now open for new members for next year. This year, the work of the committee focused mainly on development of the new plan. The sustainability dashboard was also completed and launched in fiscal year 23-24. We have great engagement with this tool and you can find sustainability metrics for all of our schools on the tool. The dashboard lives on the district's new dashboard page and this year we added a new district level tab and will add in access to our new live energy data for each school this summer. We continue to update operational policies with sustainability principles.

0:56:48Most of the work here has been building documents in the bond to make sure sustainability goals and priorities are reflected in the right places such as the technical specifications and other contracts. Two areas I want to highlight this year were the creation of a new water management plan and also work to align our new chemicals with green cleaning principles. And we are thrilled to roll out the Green BVSD certification professional learning opportunity for staff this year. There are 11 units that staff walk through to learn more about sustainability at the district level, tools and resources, and how it connects with their day-to-day. I'm going to hand the next part over to Sarah. Great. So within facilities and operations, we've continued to focus on our goals around greenhouse gas reductions, particularly from building operations and transportation, as well as water management. And I want to highlight one of our biggest wins this year. The solar array being installed at the newly rebuilt New Vista High School will produce enough to offset most of New Vista's electricity and it'll increase our total solar production capacity throughout the district by nearly 19%.

0:57:59And that array is expected to be operational by the summer. Our short-term emissions goal was to reduce our emissions by 14% compared to FY19. On this chart, you can see that baseline year on the far left and then that 14% reduction is this blue line. And not only did we hit that goal in FY22, we surpassed the goal and achieved a 29% emissions reduction overall, which is equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year. For reference of the scale of that, that's as many cars as all 5,000 plus of the students from BVSD's three largest high schools. We're continuing to engage with operations teams to identify opportunities for energy reduction across our footprint to keep this momentum up. And our long-term goal remains to be carbon neutral by 2050. In terms of building efficiency, we we utilize the energy use intensity metric or EUI. The formula for EUI is at the bottom right of the slide here. We're looking at our energy use in a building divided by the building area. So this lets us compare the efficiency of our biggest school and our smallest school fairly. Our 2026 goal was to average an EUI of 56 across our footprint footprint and you can see just to the left of that goal on the chart, we reached that goal

0:59:24in FY25. Our long-term goal for 2050 is to get to an average EUI of 30 and we are on track to hit that goal. I also want to note that BVSD is required to meet EUI goals through Colorado's building performance standards programs, um and our more ambitious targets have left us in great shape to meet these goals. Uh at current, we've met all of our requirements for 2026, and we've met 86% of our requirements for 2030, which tells us which schools we'll be able to focus our efforts on. So, moving on to our supporting goals, uh our green building guiding principles continue to be utilized in our bond construction projects, and those baked-in best practices let us tap into more available funding. Um so, at uh Centaurus High in the photo here, uh the bond program was able to fund sustainable flooring, and we were able to receive lighting rebates for our more efficient LED lighting.

1:00:24Our short-term waste goal was to maintain a 50% diversion rate, um but that goal hasn't been feasible for our schools due to external composting policy. Uh however, our diversion rate is creeping back up, and we've hit nearly 32% this year. Our goal around water has two parts. We've grayed out this checkmark uh to signify that we've met part of this goal. Uh so, we've been tracking our water consumption and cost since 2008, and we did achieve our 5% reduction goal in FY23. But, both FY24 and FY25 were extremely hot and dry, uh and we can expect to keep seeing these weather patterns impacting our consumption. Um so, it's really important to once again keep perspective of what these reductions really mean in terms of budget. Uh since 2008, our water usage is down, but our costs have more than doubled. Um we recognize that water is and will continue to be a high priority for both the district and for the region. Um and earlier this week year, we produced a comprehensive water management plan uh that will guide our path towards better water resiliency, and alongside the district's standing water team, we're actively exploring smart water management solutions and funding opportunities to reduce our consumption.

1:01:46We also met our transportation emission goal reduction uh in FY2023, and we've maintained that reduction through route optimization uh and through purchasing alternative fuel buses. Uh this year, we received six additional grant-funded electric buses. Um our transport our transportation team uh also released a community survey to better understand how our community travels to school. Uh the survey had more than 14,000 respondents, and we and we learned that nearly a quarter of our students walk and bike to school, which is more than double the national average. And as mentioned earlier, we've continued to work towards our net zero emissions goals, uh and that work includes decarbonization planning throughout the district. This year, Apex underwent renovations to install two new solar canopies, uh and we earned a $50,000 grant to plan for the full decarbonization of the building. Um as part of the requirement for the grant, we'll be applying for the second round of funding focused on implementation later this year. And now, I'm going to pass it back to Gita to talk about curriculum and instruction.

1:02:57Thank you. Just going to say while I'm catching up here that I would love for these students to join every presentation moving forward. They're such a great family. Thank you for your enthusiasm. So lovely. All right, in curriculum instruction, the overarching goal here is for all students to have experiences to develop sustainability knowledge, values, and behavior. And the picture here is from our first BVSD Seal of Climate Literacy graduating class last year. Dr. Anderson showed you the class from this year that nearly doubled. Um so, very excited about for all of those students. All right. The supporting goals in this section, first is to integrate sustainability topics into our standards. So, we've identified standards in science, social studies, and health for opportunities for students to learn about sustainability. Students in our Green Youth Council, um which is always looking for new members for our students who are here, uh have learned to write optional lesson plans using standards and BVSD instructional model for all levels, and are excited to try these out next year.

1:04:01As part of the Seal of Climate Literacy, we've reviewed all courses, and all of our comprehensive high schools have at least two or more courses aligned with obtaining the seal. Additionally, we added five new climate-related courses to our course catalog. The second goal is to support and track professional learning. We completed this at the beginning of the year, and it's listed as optional professional learning for teachers. They can earn Green BVSD SAP certification level one, and we are working on level two for next year. The third goal is to build relationships with strategic partners. So, we new partners are reaching out to us weekly about how they can support our work. We're building additional connections between BVSD initiatives and through our Seal of Climate Literacy work. The fourth goal is around student voice. Um so, as I mentioned, we have our Green Youth Council. We're in the second year of that. They meet monthly. They help further refine and provide outreach for the Seal of Climate Literacy. They're involved in the application review, and they helped us host the celebration last week. Um they have also attended events such as the BVSD the Place to Be Showcase to um talk about the work and engage student voice. They expanded significantly since year one, and the majority of our secondary schools are

1:05:10represented on the Green Youth Council. The fifth goal is to continue to pursue and develop aligned professional development and curricular and extracurricular activities. So, I'll highlight here that we have the Green Teams at the majority of our schools, and our high school climate summit has continued. This past fall, the summit was hosted at Centaurus. Platt also hosted a climate day of learning for several schools, and both of these events were partner supported. The sixth goal is to expand pathways to green jobs. We've continued to work with green the Grad Plus team to incorporate green job exploration in Dare to Dream and Discover Your Dream Career events in elementary and middle and pathways in high school. This is year two of the environmental sustainability course offered at Apex. And you've heard about the Seal of Climate Literacy um from Dr. Anderson, and I think on your Apex tour, so we won't spend too much more time um talking about this, but we're thrilled about this. This program ties so much of the work that we're doing in general, and especially in this curriculum instruction section of the plan, um and thrilled to have this opportunity to recognize our students. And all the students earning the Seal of Climate Literacy are also recognized as part of our Grad Plus program. So, here are just

1:06:17some fun numbers. Um we In the two years that we've had this program, we've had 71 students earn the seal. We have many, many more students in grades six through 11 who've expressed interest in it. We've added the five new climate courses. Um students have earned 12 certifications and participated in 46 work-based learning opportunities, including jobs, internships, and volunteers. Uh off We've offered eight courses where students can earn college credit before graduation. And we've have supported interest in climate literacy at our middle school level by creating the junior seal experience, which five of our middle schools are offering. Uh so, LIRA, as our main supporter for the Seal of Climate Literacy, and they drove efforts at the state level to create this in Colorado, which was the first state to pass this legislation, and now they're working with other states as well, um which is amazing. Um but we are also proud of the many, many community partners who help provide grant funding, technical support, curriculum, student learning experience, and much more for the Seal of Climate Literacy and making it a reality for our students.

1:07:23The fourth and final quadrant is climate and culture. The overarching goal here is to have regular opportunities to experience sustainability in action. We have outdoor learning spaces at all of our elementary schools and increased seating and shading at all of our secondary schools. In this picture, we're highlighting a group of high school students at Boulder High who hosted the last um last spring's climate summit. As part of each summit, they do hands-on work at the school to help beautify and create these outdoor learning spaces. I want to also continue to highlight our partnership with Play Boulder, through which we have planted many trees at many of our BVSD schools, and the Community Forestry Corps, who hires for paid summer jobs for students to help with the planting and caring of these trees across the county and um at our school sites over the summer.

1:08:12We have communications around sustainability that goes out every month at minimally through our various channels. Our biggest reach being the Earth Day spot that goes community-wide and went out last week. Finally, the third goal here is to support the model programs that already exist and are truly the heart of sustainability work at our schools. So, for example, we have 48 schools committed to zero waste through our Green Star Schools program in partnership with Eco-Cycle. Our amazing food service program continues to offer a healthy, fresh, and when possible, local foods for all students, and are committed to best zero waste reduction practices, and they host our greenhouse, and lots of learning happens there as well. And Trip Tracker, phenomenal program in 43 of our schools supporting sustainable modes of transportation. We could go on and on about these programs, but when you ask our students um when we talk to them about our new sustainability action plan and what are the programs that mean the most to them, these are the programs that come up as most notable.

1:09:05In just the past two years, we have raised or been awarded more than $400,000 to support these efforts through grants and rebates. We intend to do a better job tracking and reporting this important number to the board, as we know that even this number is not all-inclusive of what the district has been able to to bring in to support this work. It also doesn't include savings we know we've achieved through energy efficiency measures and utility reductions. Moving forward, as previously mentioned, because our current plan ends this year, staff are working hard to build out the next action plan. So, we have hired Lotus to help support this work. We've engaged with many stakeholders, including community members and staff to get feedback on accomplishments, challenges, and ideas moving forward. We've met with more than 100 plus people, um half of whom are students.

1:09:51Meetings have been in the form of stakeholder groups, interviews, and plan area focus groups, and we are sending out a principal survey not this week or next week to get confused with our other survey, but in a in a couple weeks. Um the new plan will keep the four bucket areas as our current plan. Some of the priorities that are rising um is part of the discussion are listed on this slide, but include uh resilience, water management, continued focus on greenhouse gas reduction, integration of this work with our strategic plan, and green jobs guild's development. Staff will have a draft plan ready for review this summer and plan to bring the final to the board in the fall. And we will be using story map to share out our progress from the last 5 years as a tool for the community.

1:10:34And with that, we will take questions. Thank you for that very thorough update. See Lilianna has her hand up. Did you or For questions, we'll begin with her. First, I want to thank you for the great presentation. I enjoyed it. Um I learned a lot. I want to elevate for community that we have doubled our cost on water even though we're using less than 2008. Is that what you said? So, water resiliency um has to be a priority. So, thank you for elevating that. My questions um could you talk a little bit about the five new courses that are being offered in schools? And then also on uh waste diversion rates, I see that it wasn't what we wanted. Tell me what's happening with composting. Sure. Yeah. So, the five new courses we've created are in the course catalog, and I had details on all of them that I deleted from this right before, but I'm I will send you all the details that you want, but they're being offered, I know, at Centaurus and Fairview and Platt for sure, and maybe some others, um by teachers there who were teaching other things, but are now doing this work as well, and have new curriculum in the high school courses. As part of what they were doing was working towards the

1:11:54seal of climate literacy, they did really great community projects, but happy to send you any details that you want about those courses. Yeah. Um the composting, so what what changed a few years ago in community-wide across the front range was that with they're no longer accepting anything other than food waste and yard waste in the compost, which is probably overall a good change, and that was due to community-wide um contamination, not to our schools, but um just an issue that they were having. When contamination goes in the compost, it's much harder environmentally than, for example, when contamination goes in recycling, cuz that what that compost is doing is going back into the soils and growing new food, and so it's a problem when there's a plastics, for example, in there. So, we shifted um to meet the that new standard that we're looking only at food waste and in some cases garden waste.

1:12:43So, that was a a pretty big reduction for us, cuz we were able to do things like colored um paper and tissue paper and other just There were a lot of other materials we we had it in our schools um school-wide, and now it's really just focused in the cafeteria. So, we were at the 50% um diversion rate, and that dropped, but that's okay, cuz we've um been able to build back, and it's and it's a cleaner um compost that we have. And in fact, the compost from our schools is so clean that um I believe in 10 to 15 of our schools, it's going directly back to local farmers. This is a partnership with Eco-Cycle and local farmers, and then our students get to go visit those farms. So, we're doing a really great job and rebuilding that program. So, yeah.

1:13:23Anything else to add? I know you have Yes. Okay. Jason? Um yeah, I I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you. This is really uh very uplifting and hopeful. I I feel very demoralized with some of the national news around sustainability and climate goals, and so to see, you know, us meeting these targets and more, um you know, really gives me hope, and hopefully, you know, all these all the kids and young people that are following this that care so much about this. So, um you know, just a whole range of news, the meeting our goals, the number of kids and um earning the seal of climate literacy. Um I had a third one. I don't remember what it is, but I just yeah, I just want to say thank you for this.

1:14:04This is really really um always one of my favorite presentations, and even more so this year just given how um how much we've accomplished as a district. So, thanks. Thank you. I have two two questions. First, you referenced that the state itself has an EUI goal that's different from our goal. What is the state's EUI goal? Do you have that benchmarking goal? So, it's unfortunately a little more complicated than that. We get to pick from functionally about eight different goals from each of our sites. Uh we're looking at uh EUI, this energy use intensity. We could be looking at um a flat uh reduction in our EUI based on the type of building we have. Uh we could be looking at our greenhouse gas intensity. So, rather than looking at energy use, we could be looking at um emissions specifically. Um so, when I say that we've met those thresholds, it means we've met at least one of our many options. So.

1:15:11And the state a few years ago required um benchmarking for all state buildings 50 50,000 square feet and above. So, we have what, 50? 46, I believe, of our buildings are required to benchmark. So, we send them our information annually. Um we are exempt from having to pay the fines as a school district, um but we wouldn't have had any fines to pay, so that's okay. And it's actually worth mentioning as well that because we did so well on these benchmarking goals, I mentioned that $50,000 grant, we were able to apply for that grant through this benchmarking program. So, that helped us out a lot. And then um my other question was are you Can you identify the barriers to the handful of schools that are not participating yet in Trip Tracker and our Eco-Cycle Green Star Schools programs?

1:16:02Well, the exciting news about the Eco-Cycle answer is that all of our schools will be participating um by the end of 2026. So, we're all on track, and we're going to be 100% compliant. So, that will be the our big update next year. Trip Tracker, I cannot speak as well to. Do you have Yeah. No, and I I think Trip Tracker is still reliant on community partners, etc. Uh however, we have extended that significantly into other parts of our district. It used to be solely around Boulder, but right now, we've really moved that into Erie, Broomfield, and other areas, but I'd have to talk to Amy Thompson, who's our Safe Routes to School coordinator, to find out what those barriers are. Yeah, that'd be great. And I know you also have been expanding more into like high schools, which that didn't used to be a program.

1:16:43So, I I I'm observing the continued expansion, which I think is great. I know that program is very well received, particularly by our younger students, but just curious about the barriers that continue to exist that may not be within our locus of control at all, sort of like when we were waiting for other localities to get on board with some of the different types of recycling and composting options that were preventing the Eco-Cycle the Green Star Schools stuff. And then last, I'm just curious as you think about composting um and the changes that we've had to adapt to there, I am curious about our universal free lunch program and how that may or may not have been changed is changing food waste within the district and our ability to manage the food waste and then the composting of that and delivering it to farms.

1:17:28Yeah. It has increased food waste, unfortunately, but the benefits, of course, outweigh the negatives on that one. So, it just allows for more opportunities to really emphasize the food sharing bins for the untouched wrapped food and composting when there's no other options um that then goes to the farms. So, it's it is that that that is yes, it has increased waste. And I'm glad to hear that there is some messaging around that that might be happening at schools to help remind folks about that impact and how you can drop off that orange into for somebody else maybe to consume. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Alex, any questions or comments before we move on? Nope. Just grateful for the presentation and and the news. Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy your retirement, Dr. Carol. Our next information item this evening is a legislative update.

1:18:27Don't know that Dr. Anderson Roy I really have much to report, but I'll turn it over to Dr. Anderson. Uh thank you, Board President Rajpal. Just uh you know, session's kind of winding down. We're trying to figure out what's happening with school finance. I will lift up two things. Um Senate Bill 26-135, and this is um a bill that would uh refer to voters in the in the fall um in effort to uh increase the TABOR cap for K-12 funding along with a variety of other items. Uh the K-12 funding would be um up 2% for 10 years, and it would allow our state to retain uh excess uh revenue um that would exceed the the current TABOR cap um for these limitations. So, it's something we're watching. Another thing that we're watching, but it feels like uh nothing is going to come of it is that last week Sheridan School District Senator Bridges was and I think the governor were talking about potentially introducing a bill that would consolidate Sheridan School District into either DPS or some other school district. No bill language has been pulled on that and since that time Sheridan has been able to come to terms with their teachers association and have ended the strike and so we're really thankful that the strike ended

1:19:55and then kids are back in school. And I think a concerning thing to watch the the idea of um uh where where my perspective the problem is the s- is our um School Finance Act that forgets about school districts like Sheridan in its efforts for equity and that the answer would be to put them in DPS and then just give those same kids more money because they'd be in a separate district. I think the answer might be just give Sheridan the money it needs and so maybe they'd be able to pay their teachers and that we wouldn't have to be having this conversation. But uh no there was a threat of that. Nothing has come of that, but I will keep close eyes on that. I think all of us that are superintendents and especially along the front range are keeping a close eye on that and I know that our partners in in the rural alliance and rural Colorado very very in tune to this idea of uh of consolidating school districts and what that might look like and is this the way to do it where you you know the a bill's dropped maybe toward the end of a session. So don't don't think that's the right answer, but that's what I've been watching in legislative session.

1:21:10Thank you for that. Board members any questions? Just got to see how the School Finance Act and the budget shakes out. We will move on now to action items consent grouping 7.1 personnel item 7.2 approval of minutes April 14th, 2026 regular meeting 7.3 approval of minutes April 21st, 2026 regular meeting 7.4 acceptance of donation instructional services in equity 7.5 acceptance of donation Nederland Middle School Middle Senior High School 7.6 acceptance of donation Nederland Middle Senior High School 7.7 acceptance of donation Southern Hills Middle School 7.8 approval of image learning Traverse Middle School social studies adoption and materials purchase 7.9 contract with Spark Energy 7.10 resolution 26-12 authorizing the exchange of real property and approving an agreement 7.11 resolution 26-13 non-renewal of license contracts. 7.12 grant food services local programming CDE 7.13 grant food services school nutrition professionals Newman's Own 7.14 grant food services wages and stipends CDE. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping?

1:22:16Seeing as there are none is there a motion to approve the items on consent moved by Anna seconded by Jason. Board members any discussion on the items? Lelenia. I once again would like to thank our community for the support of our schools. Um Boulder Bookstore donated a large amount of books to uh kids who may not otherwise have books. And uh High Performance Earthworks and Hero Dirtworks are helping our folks up in Nederland with uh I think it's bike track, right? Bike track. So um what this says to me just is that once again our community is really really engaged and I want to say that I appreciate them and we should also be supporting these businesses that are supporting our students. Speaking of elevating things, we have another energy contract here. Again, energy is costing us more year over year in ways that are challenging.

1:23:28Um and then I actually have a question on our social studies curriculum. I did not have the opportunity to see that and I saw it's a 5-year contract and I was wondering if anybody can speak to any like significant changes we might see as a result of this purchase. And I continue to be excited for all the investments we make in our curricula across this district. It really does improve the learning opportunities for our students, which is why I'm eager to learn more. Hi board. It's nice to see everyone tonight. We finished our adoption process with our middle school social studies adoption for um world world history and US history is basically what we teach in 6th, 7th and 8th. Um we decided on an inquiry-based product. So our kids will be doing a lot of inquiry education. They will not be memorizing facts. They will not be going chronologically. Um there's a lot of projects. There's a lot of project-based learning and I think the most exciting part of this particular adoption process is we had six or seven students at every meeting um who were talking about what they wanted to see in social studies curriculum and many we had one middle schooler um but the rest were in high school and remembering what they had in middle

1:24:56school. So they were very influential in our process. The other exciting part about this is this particular product that we decided on will have full Spanish parody in 1 year and it was the only one that would have full parody. Um they're some of their materials just aren't ready yet in print form but we're working with them to get their PDFs so we can print them ahead of time ahead of their printing schedule. That is great. I saw that Spanish inclusion and I was excited to see that and that is a continued effort for a lot of our adoptions. So I'm glad that's in there and I appreciate that overview and I think our middle schoolers will be happy to have an inquiry-based curricula moving forward. Also want to say because this board talks a lot about professional learning, professional learning is also included with our curriculum roll out. So that's in here, too.

1:25:50Any other discussion on those board items board members? Thank you, Lynn. Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you please call the vote on the motion? Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Quinlan-Owayda? Yes. Rajpal? Yes. Tamu-Wading? Yes. Unger? Yes. Motion passes. We will now move on to policy action items consent grouping. 9.1 board policy JL C D administering medications to students. 9.2 board policy JL C D dash R administering medications to students regulation 9.3 board policy JL C D E administering medications to students exhibit 9.4 board policy EBBA prevention of disease infection transmission handling of body fluids 9.5 board policy EBBA-R prevention of disease infection transmission handling of body fluids and substances 9.6 board policy GBEA staff ethics conflict of interest 9.7 board policy GBEB staff conduct 9.8 board policy GBEBC staff gifts solicitations. Board policy 9.9 recode board policy KJA to board policy KHC distribution of posting of non-curriculum materials 9.10 board policy GBEA-R staff ethics and conflict of interest regulation 9.11 board policy GBEA-E staff ethics and conflict of interest exhibit 9.12 board policy GBEBC-R staff gifts and solicitations 9.13 board policy GCQA-G GCQA-GCQAA non-school employment consulting activities by professional staff members 9.14 board policy GCQB professional research and publishing 9.15 board policy GCQB-R professional research and publishing regulation 9.16 board policy GCQAB tutoring for pay. Are there any items

1:27:59board members would like to pull from consent grouping? And for the public that is watching, we don't make up those letters. They are they are assigned to us and at the national level. Seeing as there are none, is there a motion to approve the items on policy consent? Moved by Jason seconded by Jorge. Board members any discussion on policy consent? Lelenia. Sorry, I think I asked this question last time and I'm just going to ask it again cuz my brain mustn't remember and retain here. Um under GBEBC Okay, and that's staff gifts. Um I appreciate the inclusion of coaching and other positions on the gifting. Um I wanted to just understand the line. These provisions shall not be interpreted as intending to discourage acts of generosity in unusual situations. And I just don't know what that means and I'm Fair enough.

1:29:11So that language came into being when we were trying to eliminate reference to tokens and talking about what happens if a kid is overwhelmed and gives a present and now we have a policy violation where it really is just supposed to discourage this ongoing practice or expectation and to just um like I said, really disrupt that expectation that there would be some additional gift that would be expected. So, that language is really just protective, but if it doesn't mean anything it does not have to stay. I have no strong opinion if it needs to stay. I just don't think it's clear what it does mean. Can I'm just going to chime in here. I like the intending to to discourage not um acts of genera- I wonder if it's like non-financial cuz the token was idea of like the token was gifts or displays of generosity that were not significant financial value. I think that was what the token, but the word token fell flat for the board. But, if there was a way to just not to um acts of generosity with insignificant financial or limited financial value or something.

1:30:49Board members, would that be adequate to to continue to move this forward and um that because it's a minor word change, I don't think I have to amend or pull this and then do I or do I have to pull this technically? I really think as a friendly amendment if we're if we all understand the language that that's not a problem. Could could we say what the language will be again so I'm sure I understand what it's saying? For the pleasure of the legal team I and the board um not interpret as intending to discourage acts of generosity or that have limited or insignificant financial value or something to that ex- like putting it like that. If you want to give a card or you know pack of gum. But, I'll leave that up to legal.

1:31:44At the risk of making this harder than it needs to be um the limit now, right? Before it was $25 and it's out there for an exceedingly long time. At this point, this policy has a $75 limit. Does there need to be any exception at all? Probably not, so maybe we just strike that sentence. That would be my recommendation, strike the sentence. And yes, teachers love cards and notes of encouragement. Board members, are there policies or inclusions within the consent that we would like to discuss? Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you please call the vote on the policy consent grouping? Chavez? Yes. Medler? Yes. Quinlan-Awada? Yes. Rajpal? Yes. Tam Owati? Yes. Ungar? Yes. Motion passes. We are going to call a 5-minute comfort break before we move on to policy study. Welcome back everybody.

1:39:12Um we are going to move on to policy study items and I wanted to note for the record that DM Booker has joined the board meeting. We have three policies to study this evening, the first of which is board policy GCS professional consulting publishing and research. I will turn it over to Kathleen Sullivan to present. Thank you. So this policy was discussed by the board on March 10th. You may recall we had a pretty lively conversation that night. The biggest discussion revolved around how the language about research would apply to external organizations as well as to employees themselves. After conferring with Jessica Olsen, our executive director of accountability and evaluation, um we sort of changed course on that just a little. So you'll see that on your agenda tonight, there is also uh a new proposed policy or recoded proposed policy to apply to external organizations.

1:40:25So we had board policy IO that a lot of the language from GCS had been lifted from. So I just put that language back into policy and proposed to recode it to match the CASB and NSBA coding as LC, which puts it in the board's chapter of policies that apply to external organizations. So back to GCS, the main difference between the March 10th discussion and tonight then is in this research section where I still recommend that we include the language about what's different for staff members, but all of that green struck language is back now in policy LC, which is cross-referenced. Board members, any questions about this change? Seeing as there are none, do you want to I mean move on to Keep going, yes. So um I do. If I'm a way in. Yeah, I just didn't hear a ring for you raising your hand. Sorry, Alex.

1:41:47Sorry. No. Um Yeah, I So the paragraph is still talking about the litmus test for people doing the research is us deciding that it's in our interest uh for the research to happen. Am I reading that right? Cuz that's that's still what kind of makes me uncomfortable. It's still there. Um are you referencing board policy LC, board member Medler? Yeah. Okay. Yes. So there is still language there, but to your point, I did hear from the board's discussion that the existing language felt um like it didn't strike the right balance. So the language that you see that is left in place at the top is actually replacing what was originally there, the discussion about protection from harassment and invasion. That was really the language that the board objected to last time and that language is struck.

1:42:59Well, I guess I was also um it's the district's philosophies that is a big loophole to the the discourage or deny research that is by someone who might have feedback for us on something that we're not doing well for somebody. So I'd like to just I'd like to strike school district philosophies um or understand more what you're thinking um for how broad that is. Cuz I understand like philosophies of inclusion and equity and serving all kids, but I also know about how much school district philosophies can be a pretty big thing for other questions. So I'm just wondering what how to interpret the word philosophies, I guess. I'm trying to figure out where that word came from, board member Medler, because I thought honestly it came from the CASB sample. And it may be that it came from our IO-R.

1:44:18I'm not wedded to that word. I certainly did try to reduce the language that was of concern as I mentioned about harassment, invasion of privacy, and it had a long list of other things it was supposed to satisfy. I did try to shorten that up, um but I take your point that that language uh is not your favorite. Yeah, and can I also suggest that maybe um uh I I'm interested in research that is of value to our students and our families and that's not always completely aligned with the district. And so if someone's proposing research that the district doesn't like, but is in the interests of our students and our families, that's where I'm like I I'd want to support that inquiry. Um so the I I want us to be open-minded about the research. And if someone said, "Well, this may not be in the district's interest, but it's in your students' interests."

1:45:21I want to know what that research finds. Um cuz I care more about our students than I do about our district. Um so anyway, I don't I'm wrestling with that based on previous experiences as an external researcher trying to do stuff that's best for the kids in this community uh and the district doesn't always hasn't always seen um that interest of the students the way I have as an advocate for students in the community. So that's why I'm still uncomfortable with it. So I I want to chime in here just a little offer a counterpoint. Any my my take on this policy is that it is incumbent upon us to set establish policies that are in the best interest of this district and in the best interest of our students. And if we have information that is not necessarily we should have the ability to determine who has access to that information. If somebody wants to do a study that we don't feel like is in the best interest of our student and our students in our district, I feel like we should be able to not be required to provide that. And if there is publicly available data, that individual, that group, whoever wants to do a study can CORA those documents. And so I just want to be mindful that I

1:46:35understand board member Medler had a past experience personally and and that like I view my job as a board member to protect our collective interests, not necessarily an outside entity's best interest. And so whatever word and language whatever language we come to, I just want to make sure that that alternative viewpoint is taken into consideration as well as we're finding the right balance there. No, I uh if I may. Um I agree with that. I guess I would be I would feel better if we added um in addition to the school district's then. I mean, I take your point. My point is that we were making consideration It doesn't say students' interests anywhere there. It says the district's interests. So I would like us to add the students' interests to the part before the district's or after the district's interests and I'd be happy with that.

1:47:31Rob. Just to provide the board some context on when we talk about research in schools and just to be clear with the public. You know, typically um when we get requests, we have formed a research review committee that then determines the um the usefulness for the district, for the students, for um not necessarily the the district's benefits, but you know, how much work is it going to take? Does somebody want us come in and survey kids? Does somebody want to provide another survey to employees? You know, I don't I don't believe we're talking about action research where we we come into a school, you know, we we give an experimental kind of of program to one group of students through some randomized controlled trial. Like this a lot of this research is is around folks completing their dissertations and on on occasion folks asking us to to to participate in certain things. Um I would say that when those come to me as superintendent, I pass those on to the research review committee and then they make a determination, which I mostly support because they have the understanding of how much time um it's going to take from staff, right? Like I said, you know, so to the extent that uh that they are going to approve proj- projects up to the amount of time

1:49:00they have to commit to those projects. That I do think that that becomes a limiting factor in a world of uh of of limited resources. Um and so, you know, I do think that there was probably a time in this district where there was more of a of a stone wall towards you know, things that could be beneficial for Colorado, the nation, our kids. And I don't think that that's the case anymore. And I'm happy to have have uh whatever language the the board is comfortable with. I will say that time is a limiting factor in the amount of research that we can we can allow other research to do within the context of our school district. And sometimes those are benefits to us. Often those are times to you know, to benefit of of just the you know, research as a whole.

1:49:47So, um I just want to be clear like when we're talking about research, um that you know, district time, you know, we have to account for that. There's a committee who oversees that not one person. I'm not on the committee. I refer these things to the committee. Um and then uh these are not things where we're we're creating experi- experimental tactics or strategies uh that some folks get and others don't and then we see what works or doesn't work. Uh when we're talking about teaching and learning, we want to use what the research says works for all kids. Uh so, I just want to be really clear on on that. Thank you. I totally appreciate that. I'm in in total agreement with Rob on that and on the sensitivity around the things that people research.

1:50:39I just find um that the stonewalling by districts is sometimes real historically and in real time in other districts. And I want to protect the interests of the community in having transparency and and researchers being able to figure out stuff that a future district may find inconvenient to have researched and it would be under all the same considerations of what's in the interest of the district in terms of legal obligations or the time and effort of the staff. Um but I want to resist against a um uh future stonewalling that is based on someone giving feedback on stuff that's happening for kids that's not good for kids but it's embarrassing to a a future district's leadership. And I that's a very real challenge that comes up in communities with school districts. Um so, I would I would like to say what's in the interests of our students and the district to temper that in future discussions that a future board and a future committee might have.

1:51:43I uh just for example, so we could have research going on with partners that are describing what's going on with all our different mental health campaigns and programs. And we could work with an outside researcher uh who is giving us feedback on programs that aren't successful. And we could be deciding whether we're going to continue to do that research and we'd end up deciding that the main lens on getting the feedback is not learning about what's going on with our kids but figuring out how not to get bad feedback about something we're not succeeding at. So, that's the sort of you know, 10 years from now hypothetical where I would like to insert something about um in the interests of our students into that policy where it's about the the district's concerns. Having pondered actually Dr. Anderson's comment and because we do spend a lot of time talking about staff time and managing staff time, I do wonder if there's an opportunity to include something about the time involved in that list of the research review committee's determination.

1:53:00Dr. Anderson. Would it be helpful for the board uh uh for for us to get you some more details from Dr. um Alzina in terms of what the the structure of that research committee is, um what they consider, uh cuz cuz what I hear what what what Alex is saying, that from to me feels more like a district led program evaluation versus a research project um where uh you know, we're doing something similar, right? With Renee Crown where we've asked them to do some things and analyze some some stuff as an external partner. Um happy happy to provide the board whatever you need to make this decision. I do think that um I am very open to beneficial research that will help us get better. Uh I think it's embarrassing not to be open to those types of things to to know and understand that there's always opportunities for us to look at what's happening and try to improve. So, I'm open to those things and just whatever the board feels like would be helpful for us to provide.

1:54:06I saw some heads shaking that maybe that wouldn't be necessary. Deanne. Uh as a former teacher, uh I thought the policy hit the nail on the head in that it says uh allows teachers who are usually the people who are directing these kind of research projects as some um educational uh project for a master's or a PhD degree using their own classrooms finding out data and then perhaps finding out something really interesting and being able to pass that on. I don't um I haven't seen except for a time when I was working with one of the tech companies that is local, um even when I worked with the tech company, it was they were the outsiders and I was sort of the lead investigator doing the work. So, they weren't in contact with the children.

1:55:03So, um it would be hard to separate what was valuable to the students or not. They were getting to do an experience that was interesting and um at the forefront of education. So, that felt valuable always to me. Jorge. I appre- I appreciate the consideration about um staff time and the impact, right? The research it would take for doing that that being in a more consideration. And and to to Alex's point, is does this hinge on the definite of what school district includes? That he's saying that doesn't include students but I assumed it would subsume students within the school district. Whereas Alex is proposing that it should say potential value for the students and the school district. Is that the distinction we're we're talking about? Just just um for clarity. I heard Alex raise his hand and then I saw Lelania's hand up.

1:56:13Uh in answer to Jorge's questions, yes, that's my intent by adding in the interests of the districts and or the the students and the district. When I was doing research as an outsider and Boulder Valley was stonewalling me, the reported graduation rate for the district was 96%. And that was the number of 12th graders who started the fall of the 12th grade and got a diploma by the end of the 12th grade. The number of students from the cohort who started at Boulder Valley in the 9th grade and graduated was something more like 85%. There was about a 10 or 11% difference between those two numbers. The research staff, the data analytics staff at BVSD worked really hard to make sure that out outside researchers didn't report an embarrassing piece of data that for the district made more transparent to the community that their graduation rate was not as high as what they were saying.

1:57:01So, for me it's yeah, it's not hypothetical. The district interests under a future board, if it's like the previous board and district administration, was in order to hide the performance of the district from the public by not having researchers get access to something that was in the interests of the students, I would argue, but not necessarily in the interests of that district's leadership at the time. That's what I'm trying to get to and that's why I would suggest we add in the interests of the students and the district. And I mean no implication that the current leadership and research team is anything like that. Um but I do know that we're making policy that could last another 20 years and I want to empower the future community to know that we're doing stuff that is not about protecting um how someone else might interpret the adult interests in the district or its political interests but really focused on the interests of its students.

1:57:51And I'll I withdraw my proposal if there isn't support for that but I I think adding um dis- districts and students in the district is a reasonable step in the direction to protect against the previous behavior uh uh in this district. I I just the more I I hear the and students, the thing I'm wondering about is who would decide if it's in the best interest of interest of the students. We're still and and students most of our students can are not at the age of they cannot consent themselves. So, how would like if we added that, what kind of problem would it make about who then determines if it is or is not in the best interests of students? I actually think well well-intended, it makes it a little bit muddier for me around like who gets to decide that.

1:58:43And what obligation do we have to say a person that puts that forward. I'm just a little struggling a little bit around how would it be determined if it's not the school district? And I saw Kathleen and I Lelania, I want to get to you. So, we'll go Kathleen and then Lelenia. Um so, I do want to point out that in that top paragraph, there is a new sentence um that last sentence before the strikeout, it doesn't show up in bold as it should because that's new language that said the board also values transparency that allows consideration of the success of the school district's programs by the community. The board's discussion was clear in wanting to cement into policy that transparency value, so that is new language. Uh this item is on study. So, this discussion is always helpful and I'm happy to hear more of it. I do hear that the concern is really focused around that second paragraph of the policy and what the research review committee would be considering in terms of factors. So, I'm happy to go back and spend some time with our team and see if we might come up with some some additional language since it's not on action tonight, you don't have to word smith that, but I'm I'm happy to listen

2:00:16to it if you'd like to. Thanks. It is good that it's a study item. Um I guess I need I hear what you're saying, Nicole, that these are kids who are not yet 18. And so, they're not the ones who are So, they're not determining for their own good. I unders- I understand your point. And I'm still trying to understand and I and I heard Alex's example and I don't think that that's the situation we're in now, but I also understand Alex's want to buttress us against that in future times. I guess I I do need continued work because I and I understand both sides of what's going on here. I don't see my way through it exactly. Um And I do like Kathleen that you point out the trans- transparency And I don't think Alex is saying people need to have more access to students. I think Alex is actually just talking about data and Did Alex, am I Is that right?

2:02:00Uh I'm talking about I'm not talking about changing the standard when we decide something is too time consuming, that it's violating the privacy of or the students or sound research. Um I don't know the nature of the research that might happen. I assume this is a policy like all our policies that would be referenced by the appropriate people. So, I'm assuming that a future uh research committee, whatever that process is and I'm happy to learn about and I don't need a briefing. I can get a just a description by email or something about what our current one is, but there could be review committees, there could be a research committee, there could be a delegation from the superintendent, whatever that process is, I'm just hoping that it includes uh an honest appraisal of what's in the interests of the students um as part of that. And I will forward a three-word addition to Kathleen that is a place where we can put in and it's students um uh after the part about um the district.

2:03:04Corey? Th- thanks for the clarification. I I uh I think that's helpful. I I'm just not sure I mean, at the end of the day, the district decides what is or is not acceptable, what meets the standards of good scholarship, what can serve our students or doesn't. So, I'm not sure it adds anything. It's maybe confusion by distinguishing. And so, I'm not I think that's where I'm at. I'm not sure that there's a value add by adding those words. Um Uh may- maybe for the potential value for the school district to serve its students uh something along those lines, but I don't really see uh I'm not sure that it changes anything by adding that that language. So, I'm not sure it helps. But the important parts there are transparency, legal obligations, standards of good scholarship, right?

2:03:48Um I I think that's the stuff that we need to focus on for something like this. Jason and Anna, any thoughts before we move on um and then we'll kick it over to staff to bring this back the in the future meetings. Um if I have to weigh in here, uh I don't have strong feelings here, but I do feel I mean, I I see both sides of this. I don't have the experience uh that Alex had previously um and I understand the need to, you know, secure against if you know, future different leadership. I do feel like, you know, the language at the top in the first paragraph about transparency um addresses that and maybe we strengthen that section rather than add you know, and students below. I think um to make clear our values are, you know, transparency and, you know, um Yeah, I don't know what else to add there, but I think that that that really strengthens this uh policy for me.

2:04:54Yeah, uh same here. I think that uh the transparency and data, I I know that we have several community members that listen to the board meetings, listening listen to our work sessions and really try to to be that that eagle eye to ensuring that we do have an objective lens in a lot of the work that we do and I think that that's something similar um that I feel like Alex wants to get embedded into here of making sure that we're not um gatekeeping any sort of information that may um be of interest to our community and so, um yeah, if having to weigh in here, I I see the value in finding that balance. Um where we put it or how we word smith it, um still not entirely sure. Thanks for a thorough discussion there, board members. We will move on to our final policy to study, board policy HT, methods of determining staff negotiating organizations.

2:06:03Thank you, board members. This is a policy revision that we discussed following uh public comment by our community liaisons group in particular. You can see that there are two places that there are revisions to this policy that are intended to make that process clearer. So, the first revision is in the section on units. Under two E, you'll see and I apologize, this is at least black and white. If you can see the color, that helps. So, that liaisons and advisors have been added to that descriptor of unit E. And then if you look on the final page, section No, second to last page, new paragraph eight describes the process for expanding a current bargaining unit. That language, that entire paragraph is new. I hope you the digital copy makes that clear. And explains that if um an already recognized employee group desires to expand to incorporate new members, that the petition process would would be necessary as referenced above.

2:07:21But because a collective bargaining agreement itself is fundamentally a contract that commits rights and resources, including financial resources, it is a contract that is voted on. It is ratified by the members, it is voted on by the board and it is signed. It is a commitment of resources. So, really it is a pie. And in order to slice that pie differently, you would either have to have a vote of all the members, which was one of the possibilities that we discussed, where they relinquish in whole the collective bargaining agreement, they they redefine that pie and then they redibby it up. Or there needs to be a process to determine what provisions of existing contract language may apply to the new members. And should there be additional language that would apply to those new members. And that happens through the process of collective bargaining.

2:08:39That's what it is. So, that's what that language says and that's what that language means. A vote would change the group, but collective bargaining would determine the application of the provisions. Thank you for that thorough overview of what that expansion or that particular item number eight means. I think that's clear. Board members, questions or comments, discussion on the updated updates to this policy. HD. Anna. Just a clarifying question on section eight. Um if an existing um bargaining unit wanted to add um another unit, they would have to go back to um their uh entire units um uh petition procedures, is that correct? Yes, they would need to go through the petition process. And the petition process itself, if we look back at that language, would require then that the petitions are signed by at least 30% of the employees who are eligible for inclusion in that negotiating unit.

2:10:25So, in order to join a group, you can't just vote as the people that want to join. You have to have a vote of the collective. Just one more. Um just reading through, I just want to make sure that um if the existing existing collective collective bargaining unit wants to add an additional unit, um I just want to clarify that there um there aren't any um date limitations. So, if they have a a 5-year contract, they wouldn't have to wait until the end of the 5-year contract if they wanted to do that in the middle of their contract, they could as long as they took it to the whole. As long as the petition process and the requirements of this policy are followed, then there's no requirement to wait for a the collect a collective bargaining agreement to it and no.

2:11:38Thank you. Board members, any other questions or comments on this policy? Alex, do you have your hand up for this? I I'm not hearing the chimes. Sorry, I was navigating back from reading the policy. So, Kathleen, can you I really appreciate this. Seems like this is a thoughtful way to address our current situation and empower the the newly added group in a way that should work. Can you explain if this had been the case a while ago, how would the addition of the liaisons work in practice in terms of the agreement? So, I don't understand the on the ground implications. Like if this had been the play in place 2 years ago, what would have happened? It's possible that the changed of the definition of unit E would impact that process, but the process itself, um I believe that this language clarifies, but does not actually alter what was in place.

2:13:06Hopefully, our employees feel that that clarification is helpful. Seeing as there are no further hands up for discussion on this policy, we will move on to future agenda requests. Board members, this is the time when we bring items up for consideration during our prioritization meeting, which will be in June. Are there any items that board members haven't previously noted that they would like to note at this time? Board members are recognizing we're going to have our hands full in the fall, I think. And uh don't have anything else to add to the list at this time. With that then, as indicated on tonight's agenda, we have business to discuss in executive session. Is there a motion? Anna. I, Anna Temu Waring, make a motion pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-402-4b for legal advice relevant related to charter school contract negotiations for Summit Horizons, Boulder Prep, and Peak to Peak, and pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-24-6-402-4b for legal advice related to pending litigation related to personnel, special education, civil rights, and class action regarding Meta.

2:14:27Is there a second, board members? Seconded by Jason. Board President Raj Pal. Oh, I apologize. The motion was perfectly read, but it fails to say what you're doing, which is convening an executive session. That's That's my edit problem. Sorry. Shall I read that? Yes, we will read that one more time to make sure we have the exact right language for anybody that might be watching out there. I, Anna Temu Waring, make a motion to convene an executive session pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-402-4b for legal advice related to the two charter school contract negotiations for Summit Horizons, Boulder Prep, and Peak to Peak, and pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-402-4b for legal advice related to pending litigation related to personnel, special education, civil rights, and class action regarding Meta. Is there a second to this revised motion? Seconded by Liliana. Laura, can you please call the roll on the motion?

2:15:42Booker. Yes. Chavez. Yes. Medler. Yes. Quinlan-Wayda. Yes. Raj Pal. Yes. Temu Waring. Yes. Unger. Yes. Motion passes. Board members, we will convene in Glacier Room for executive session. For the public, anybody watching, this concludes our regular business for this evening, and the meeting is adjourned.