# BVSD Board of Education: Regular Meeting, October 27, 2026

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[0:23:37] I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Bowler Valley School District for Tuesday, October 27th, 2026. Board members may attend and participate in board meetings by electronic means in accordance with board policy, BMEA, and state law. It's got a hot mic today. Laura, can you please call the role? >> Booker >> here. >> Chavez >> here. >> Medler >> here. >> Quinnland Aida >> here. >> Raj Paul >> here. >> Teu adding >> here. >> Anger >> here. >> Thank you. I >> encourage everyone to turn their attention to the screens for our land acknowledgement this evening. The Boulder Valley School District resides and operates on land that is the ancestral homeland and unjustly and illegally taken territory of the Ude, Pueblin, Arapjo, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, and 48 other tribal nations historically tied to this land who have called this land home since time and memorial.
[0:24:59] We acknowledge the atrocities committed here, including the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the indigenous inhabitants from their homeland, supported by the policies of the United States government. BBSD is aware of the many indigenous peoples, past and present, and their dignified nations and cultures, who care for this land with strength and resilience. BBSD recognizes the histories of the land in Colorado and the survival of many nations that carried their oral traditions into the present. It is BBSD's responsibility to educate ourselves, our community, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and resilience of indigenous people, and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together.
[0:26:14] I'd like to remind everybody that the mission of the Boulder Valley School District is to create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us in person and remote this evening. 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 Jorge, seconded by Jason. Laura, can you please call the role the vote on the motion? >> U >> yes. >> Chavez, >> yes. >> Medler, >> yes. >> Quinna, >> yes. >> Rajpaul, >> yes. Tamuading. >> Yeah. >> Anger. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Next board members, I am excited to hand this the meeting over to Dr. Anderson for our first student moment of the 2627 school year.
[0:27:09] >> Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Board members, good evening. Uh excited to introduce our first student moment this school year. So, in August, 10 Centaurus High School physics club students and their coaches traveled to the Daisy Particle Facility in Hamburg, Germany to work directly with European scientists. The Warriors earned this opportunity and the fully paid trip after winning the prestigious Beamline for Schools competition organized by CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, which aims to give high school students a hands-on opportunity to experience what it's like to be a scientist. Tonight I'm excited to have some representatives from team Centauri Stars along with their sponsor and Centaurus science teacher Kimberly Becker. Kim um would you like like to share with us a little more about this special group of student scientists and thank you all so much for being here.
[0:28:05] >> So here is the microphone on. Great. Um yes so my name is Kim Becker. I teach physics at Centurus High School. Um these are um only half of the team of the Centuri stars who got to go to Germany and Switzerland this summer. Um they have been working on this project tirelessly for years. Um so some of the students that you see in the picture had been working on on the um project for four years. Um and it was a project that was passed on from uh students all the way back to 2019. Um but then it changed over the years and they learned more and they reached out to experts and um I just want to share how proud I am of everybody standing up here and everybody um and that you see in the picture because um I've seen them accomplish more as um students than um than probably a lot of like college students or graduate students in terms of actually getting to do real physics work on a particle accelerator. and working as physicists in the field. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna turn it over to them.
[0:29:23] >> Hello, I'm Ryan Griffith. I was a student part of the Centauri Stars. Um, if you go to the next slide, um, I can explain some of the pictures here. Um, this slide basically demonstrates our entire, um, experiment. Uh at the top left is kind of the uh brief idea of how um the direct internal reflection works. And so our entire experiment was basically to detect um shrinkov variation using direct internal reflection. And by doing this you can calculate the momentum of a particle. Um I'll skip some of the more of the other science stuff, but you can kind of see in the bottom right our general uh experiment and then top right a little bit more of a more advanced diagram. Um Dylan, do you want to explain >> uh Sharonov radiation? >> Yeah.
[0:30:10] >> Okay. So, what our experiment is is detecting Sharonov radiation, but I I'm pretty sure a lot of you don't know what Sharonov radiation is. So, to to go over that really quickly, Sharonov radiation is the equivalent of a sonic boom for light. Well, you might be thinking, nothing can go faster than light. How can there be a sonic boom for light? It's because light slows down through mediums. Our medium in this case is a glass bar. If you want to show the glass bar, this is not the exact one we used. This is a spare that uh was not manufactured to the tolerances we needed. Um in glass, light moves around 3/4 the speed it does in a vacuum. While nothing can surpass the speed of light in a vacuum, particles can surpass the speed of light in a media. The particles coming out of the particle accelerator were going 99.99999% the speed of light which is a lot more than 75%. So as it goes through it produces essentially a sonic boom of light coming off of it in the blue frequencies. This can be shown in the center bottom image on the slide. You can see the blue glow coming off a nuclear reactor. This is from tons of Sharonov uh events happening over and over again in the water of the reactor
[0:31:36] releasing a apparently continuous blue glow. >> Yeah. All right. Cool. Um do you want to share anything else about any like parts of your equipment or setup? Share some of these things. Um, so to do this, we basically had like this giant bar set up and we just shoot the particle beam through that glass that's being I guess being passed around. Um, then we would use this uh custom circuit board we created and it has these silicon photo multipliers which is kind of the more um it's like the more revolutionary part of what we did is because it's never been done with silicon photo multipliers. So it hit these sensors and then we were able to basically reconstruct the path of the particles using simulated and um the real data we obtained from our experiment in Germany.
[0:32:21] >> And I think um does the next slide have some of the >> should have the cone, right? >> Oh yeah. >> No, the next slide. >> Yeah, it does. >> Okay. So when I mentioned that Sharonov radiation comes out like a sonic boom, sonic booms emerge from their parent object in a cone shape. And we're able to see the same process by reconstructing the shape, reconstructing the shape with our array. Our array would scan up and down like this. The light's coming out of the bar this way. Reflects down, comes out here. It would scan up and down, move back a little bit, scan up and down, move back a little bit, scan up and down. And we created this 3D image you can see on the bottom left, I mean bottom right of the cone of Sharonov light.
[0:33:09] >> Ocean, you want to talk about your your image? >> Uh, sure. So, how it's plotted is you can see like the purple means that that's like it's like less concentrated. So at the bottom it's more concentrated towards the center and you can see the light spreads out. So if you s if you imagine that that was rotated like that it was coming out of the end of the glass bar. That's basically just showing the 3D cone and only some of the channels on this board were working. So it's not there. You can see there are gaps in the data on the left. So the cone on the right just has those emitted just so it's easier to visualize. And the reason that it like doesn't look like a full cone is just because we didn't have enough width. You can imagine that that cone shape would continue out to the sides.
[0:34:01] >> Great. Um Oh, and um who wants to talk about the trophy? >> No. >> All right. >> Okay. I guess I don't qualify. >> Okay. So yeah, we uh received this trophy um from it, you know, it says awarded to Centauri Stars from the United States of Centurus High School. Um it contains um Okay, somebody >> you don't remember. I don't remember. >> The trophy has um wood that's sourced from the CERN campus. So like trees that are like cut down on the campus, basically the wood here on the trophy is part of that. Um, additionally, it has this vertical slice of a superconducting uh cable, and this is an actual uh cable that was used on the actual particle accelerator. So, it's really cool to see that. And then it has symbols across the side that um represent the different experiments that happen at CERN. And of course, it has the Daisy and CERN logos on it to show because we were at the Daisy uh Deutsche Electro Synretron in um Germany.
[0:35:14] >> Yeah. Um and then um would anyone else like to share about um how like any any other things to add about your experience, Marilina? >> Yeah, >> I think that truly this has been um an opportunity that none of us really imagined at one point just getting to work at such a professional level uh with professional equipment and the experience overall. We got to meet a lot of amazing people and I'd say that thanks to this trip now we all have a better idea of um what we'd like to do for with our future thanks to this. So yes, >> great. Thank you. Do we have anything else to say? I think that's it. Yeah, I think we're good. >> Thank you for taking the time to present your work with us. Board members, do you have any questions for the Centauri stars? Lenia, why don't you kick us off?
[0:36:12] >> I'd love to hear what your plans might be for after high school. >> Well, um I'm actually currently uh enrolled at CU Boulder because I was a senior during this project. So, I guess um this experience has kind of shaped me because I'm now trying to do computer engineering after designing the PCB that you guys have held. And I think that experience has really um I guess motivated me and definitely altered the course of my academic career because of that. >> All right. Others. >> Okay. Um I am currently a senior although I am currently in the process of applying to colleges as a physics major. Um I think my like overall goal is to do some sort of research in academia. And so it was amazing like actually seeing a snapshot of what that looks like um you know at as a high schooler. It's not something that very many people get to do.
[0:37:23] I'm a junior currently and this whole experience has shown me a new path. Maybe not specified the path I already wanted to go down but it's given me another option. I never even considered spending a significant portion of my life in academia and research until this point and I saw the how this worked and it really resonated with me and overall while it hasn't like solidified my path it has definitely opened up a view that I've never seen before. Um, I'm also a senior, so I'm currently in the process of applying to colleges. So, I'm undecided on where I'll go, but I've already had some research experience, so I was already definitely considering going to grad school after uh I get my undergrad, and this has really just solidified that, and now I definitely want to pursue a PhD.
[0:38:22] >> I'm really in between two options. um well for a long time I've been really interested in geology and engineering. Um I find petroleum engineering a really interesting career but over the last two years I'd say that um I've also found mineral geoysics pretty interesting as well. So we'll see where we go from there. Um although then again this opportunity really has provided an insight on what science overall is like. uh it contrasts with the idea that science is perfect. We all learn that it's very messy. Um but that's part of a process and the beautiful thing about it. >> I'm curious how much time this pro working on this project took outside of the classroom because I'm assuming not a lot of it happened during a regular physics class. >> Correct. >> Go ahead. Step up.
[0:39:16] >> Okay. So our work on this was spread across uh I think seven years. Was it six or seven years? >> Yeah, since 2019. So seven years. >> Seven years. We've spent seven years as a club with um PE members changing over time. after school club actually one one hour a week we would meet up and talk about this work on the proposal uh have some fun with it as well because originally we didn't even think that we were had an opportunity to win this we thought it was just a fun way to use our time but then we saw it like build and get uh more and more refined and eventually after seven years of iterations of slowly altering a proposal over time we ended up And um how many hours um did you spend over the summer?
[0:40:09] >> Okay. I mean yeah basically I mean if we just want to look into the context of this specific proposal um our physics club is kind of separated by semester. So it's like first semester we we did some other things. Second semester was when we uh started our beamline proposal and it was kind of like short notice if I remember correctly. It was like we only had like a couple okay 3 months. Um and so yeah uh we ended up having to meet you know on Fridays and Mondays like even though we would normally only meet once a week and then once we found out in May it was actually on a snow day. um we found out that we we had won. Um we kind of just immediately had to like okay, let's figure out when are we going to meet, you know, when is everybody available? And then we started to meet for like a couple hours every week. Um you know, we had to figure out all these different things. We had to figure out where we can get a glass bar.
[0:41:10] We have to figure out how we can make a printed circuit board. We had to figure out, you know, we made a dark box. And so we ended up meeting like we met like two hours a week on every week and then we had to bump it up to like another day of two hours and then we also had a meeting with people from Germany helping us with our proposal. And so overall, we did a lot of work in during the summer and then when we were actually there at um Daisy um we ended up >> 10 hour 12 hour. >> Yeah, it was a lot. >> 12 hour days. Sometimes sometimes until 3:00 a.m. >> Yeah. The the last day um the day we had to take our last um did we take our last bit of data the day before or the day after?
[0:41:58] >> Yeah. Then we had like a 19 hour 20our day, >> right? So that was just a very long night. We all had to get into the kitchen of our uh guest house and like all gather around trying to make our presentation that we would then present the next morning or afternoon. And so it was a whole whole thing. >> Yeah, >> that's outstanding way to persevere through all those years and all those hours. it takes a lot to to achieve what you have inside with your not just your coursework but this the club time um and also so thank you for all that board members any other questions congratulations again and thank you for being our first student moment of the YEAR >> yeah thank you so much um I don't know if we mentioned also that there were um 712 proposals But only five were selected and um only one from the Americas.
[0:42:58] >> Yeah. >> Our next item on tonight's agenda is a superintendent report. Dr. Anderson, I will turn it back over to you. >> Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Board members, a few things to update uh the board on this evening. Um, last week had a fantastic turnout at BBC's the place to be showcased. With open enrollment right around the corner, parents, students walked into the CU event center ready to explore their options. They had deep, thoughtful conversations with school administrators and teachers asking about curriculum pathways, specialized programs, and school culture. Every school brought their best to help families find the perfect fit. Seeing the arena packed with families and educators was a wonderful reminder of the strong, supportive partnership that makes our district so special. want to thank everybody from our community who was able to come out uh to this event and thank all of our teachers and principles and everybody at our school students who took uh took the time that it took to prepare uh for the showcase and was really excited to engage with with many of our community members and students and uh um this has just grown into a really great experience and uh and a really great event for our schools. you know, we hear from school leaders um and and teachers just the opportunity to
[0:44:15] connect with one another in one space is really really really positive. So, I think we have a 30 second video if I'm not mistaken. There's obviously a lot of elementary schools, middle schools, high schools all set up and trying to show off all their amazing things that they offer. Oh, this is great. I know where everything is and I can go check out specific schools. >> BBC is awesome. Thank you so much for joining us at this year's showcase. So, folks who were able to um be at the showcase got a chance to try our worldass school lunches. It's no surprise to us that our food service team received some national recognition recently. Chef Anne Foundation has officially named BBSD's school food project a 2026 school food renegade. Only five districts across the entire country received this honor which recognizes national leaders in scratch cooking and healthy school meals. Team prepares more fresh made from scratch food than nearly anyone in the nation.
[0:45:30] And we want to give a huge thank you to all of our food services staff feeding our students nutritious food each and every day. And finally, board members, the Colorado Department of Education gave some love to one of our teacher librarians. Rea Kelly of Manhattan Middle School was celebrated on CD's Facebook page while they were highlighting the highly effective schools through libraries program. For more than a decade, she's cultivated a joyful student- centered library environment, ensuring students have a special place to explore and grow. Couldn't be proud of Reetta and all she's accomplished. Board members, this concludes my remarks for this evening. Happy to answer any questions. >> Board members, any questions for Dr. Anderson? >> I just want to give a huge thank you to all the staff and teachers and students who help pull off the showcase. It takes several months of planning um to get that get that up and running. and uh it all of those efforts really do make it an amazing event for folks to check out our schools and all that we have to offer. So, thanks to everyone who helped with this year's showcase.
[0:46:36] Seeing as there are no additional questions, we will move on to public participation. The board respects the rights of the public to speak on matters concerning the operation of the schools. The board does not endorse the comments of ind individual participants and reminds all those who speak that you're responsible for ensuring your remarks are suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Furthermore, this is not an opportunity for the board to this is an opportunity for the board to hear from our constituents. It is not a time for the board to engage with or react to speakers remarks. Speakers will each have two 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. With that, our first speaker this evening is Lily Calvin Yandros. Mayor, we'll then move on to Crystal Chin since Lily does not appear to be here.
[0:47:42] No. >> All right. Good evening. My name is Crystal Chin, BBSD parent. Superintendent Anderson, board members. As observed in the last couple of board meetings, I appreciate that you've been working with the legal counsel on how to engage with families who have been harmed. Here's what that looks like from my family's perspective and many others. I write to the one email we're told to use on your website. It reaches all of you at once. A year later, I learned that open meetings law keep you from responding to it together. I never saw that explained on the website. So, I wrote and I got no meaningful response. Imagine what that felt like. We teach our children if something is wrong, speak up and say something. And when we do, our cries for help aren't taken seriously. I understand you worry we'll ask for details you can't share. I wasn't going to ask you about the details. I wanted to sit down with you.
[0:48:36] one at one at a time if I have to to show you what happened to my family and what it looks like when a district investigates itself, then find the gaps together so that we can close it. Instead, the silence made it worse. Nothing changed and other families came forward with the same harm. You know that because we've told you I stood at this microphone five times last year and I've watched many other voices stand here saying the same concerns. If you know children are being harmed and families keep hitting a wall with no visible improvements to safety protocols, that's the real liability. I'm not here to continue to follow a process that doesn't work for families. I'm here to identify it and help fix it. Please tell families in plain words how to be heard and how to stop the harm. As I understand it, this board and the district share the same legal counsel.
[0:49:25] So, who advises you on how to listen to families when the district is the one being questioned? That is why we need independent oversight. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Yolanda Hagar. >> Hi. Uh I'm Yolanda Hager. I am the board president of Rocky Mountain Equality and I have two kids in the BBSD school district and I am just here to say thank you. We are very appreciative to see the resolution on the agenda tonight against 134 and I just wanted to from the community express gratitude around that. Um, we know it's been a really demanding year for the board and so we are very grateful to see that and um, you know, parenting a transgender child right now is incredibly challenging and difficult and it feels really nice to see your school board support your child in these ways that are really needed by our community right now. So, I just wanted to thank you guys for showing up that way tonight. Thank you.
[0:50:31] >> Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Jillian Waters. During the October 8th legal hearing, Rob Price testified under oath that being truly informed about BBSD requires attending or watching every meeting in its entirety. He confirmed that relying on agendas and minutes are insufficient. Think about what that means for families. The superintendent earns over $300,000 annually, not counting $200,000 in incentives to lead. Elected board members receive stipens and catered meals. Yet, parents like me must donate hours of unpaid time just to understand the decisions affecting our children. That's not engagement, and it's certainly not transparency. In six years as a BBSD parent, I've served on PTO and district accountability committees, volunteered in classrooms, and participated in engagement sessions. Since August 25th, I've attended five board meetings, sent over 120 emails, largely unanswered, to board members and superintendents, and joined the leadership academy. At the first session last week, we were asked to reflect on leadership attributes. And all I could think about what h was how this room is lacking virtually every single one. Dr.
[0:51:42] Anderson, you have not responded to a single email I've sent you this year, including the one last week, which include the BBSD withdrawal forms for my children. When superintendents ignore parents and board members disrespect them and their own colleagues with eye rolling, it this indicates a system level leadership problem. Being a BBSD parent means committing to the full-time job of trying to be informed. Since 9:22, I have continued to search for any reason to trust this district again, and each time I end up more disappointed. The question is whether leadership will acknowledge the issue and make BBSD worth returning to. Trust is not restored through slogans. leadershipmies, social media posts with comments disabled or superficial superintendent updates. It is restored through action, accountability, transparency and respect. So no, BVSSD is not the place to be. You cannot demand trust from families while refusing to engage with them. And you cannot rebuild trust until you take responsibility for your roles in dissolving it.
[0:52:43] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Britney Harvey. Good evening. I am Britney Harvey, a Douglas parent. BBSD says closing four schools will save three and a half to$4 million a year. Against that, the district's own financial slide shows 7.5 to 10 million in onetime facility costs and a $5 million one-time transition support costs. That's 12.5 to 15 million upfront. These numbers come with no detail at all and we have not seen a net analysis. A net analysis would show yearbyear what the district spends and what it saves. The first couple of years are likely to be a loss but we haven't seen any s when savings would catch up. Basic math on the district's own numbers puts it roughly at 3 to four years. That estimate leaves out added transportation costs and families who will and already have left the district because of the closures. A responsible plan would show exactly when savings are projected to overtake costs. I also haven't seen a school by school renovation estimate or the cost of new transportation or the same analysis applied to any alternative options.
[0:54:01] The stated purpose of this plan is to provide students more resources. Where is the analysis showing that each receiving school will have more support than the schools being closed? Where are the full-time counselors, PE teachers, programming like advanced math that we've heard so much about? Was keeping schools open with these resources added ever analyzed side by side versus closing them? Without that comparison and detailed understanding of future resource allocation, the board voted on a highle savings estimate and not an informed plan. The public deserves to see detailed analysis and the board should have demanded it instead of just blindly trusting their staff. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Jordan Holes. Good evening. Um I just have to take a moment to call out the food services program. It might be the only thing that this district is doing correctly. It's run beautifully. I know that my child can get a cheese pizza that the lunch lady is going to save it for them because they don't eat pepperoni pizza.
[0:55:09] So, from the top all the way down, maybe that's the department you should be looking to on how to run this district because that's the one thing that they're doing well here. Um, we elected this board for diverse perspectives, independent judgment, and a willingness to challenge district leadership. We expect we expected difficult questions, complete answers, and push back when a proposal was not ready. Too often, you accept assurances while families search for evidence. In some cases, record responses indicate we are searching for evidence that does not exist. At the September 15 meeting, Alex described requesting information multiple times from the school district. And he said it took a substantial amount of time to get that information. Even if the board vice vice president struggles to obtain information, how can we trust that you would need to that you have what you need to make informed decisions? Why move forward without answers? Parents are requesting records, reviewing policies, and following board meeting uh following board meetings because we no longer trust that these decisions are being adequately examined. Consider Birch 1.2 million last year, an additional 800,000 this year to keep the building open for preschool. 70 kids.
[0:56:13] How does that spending fit with the financial justification for closing the elementary school? This bord taxpayers a clear explanation. Nicole mentioned that uh people have been generous with supporting the bond. I feel like going forward we are not going to get any residents to support bonds because you all look like fools to all of the residents out there. Um the lost trust will follow you into future bond elections. People will not support more money when they lack confidence in how you manage what taxpayers have already funded. Rob Anderson and Rob Price repeatedly congratulate themselves on community engagement. Engagement requires consideration of evidence and public input that can actually influence decisions. Many of you risk being remembered for the ineptitude of this process rather than the engagement. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Lisa Cono.
[0:57:16] Thank you. Um my name is Lisa Kungl. I have two children at Flat Irons Elementary and I'm part of uh Intersectional Justice for Boulder Schools Coalition. We sent a statement today with um about 40 signatures on it. Uh 30 of parents and educators. We remain concerned that BBSD's settlement with the ADL is likely to actually aggravate anti-semitism to dangerously and erroneously pit Jewish well-being against Palestinian human rights. it to to chill academic inquiry and give undue power to a political advocacy organization with a repressive agenda. The settlement is binding. So, our focus is on mitigating its negative consequences. We have three clear steps we'd like you to take. First, seat Jewish advisory council members who reflect the diversity of the Jewish community, including those who reject the conflation of anti-ionism with anti-semitism. Ensure equity for other protected groups while you implement a settlement focused on combating anti-semitism. I'm grateful the board explicitly named Islamophobia in the revisions to the anti-discrimination policy, but the ADL has a track record of Islamophobia. So, the district will need to address that contradiction in implementation of its policy. And three, provide clear guidance to protect academic inquiry and free speech, including the right to speak up for Palestine and to speak out against genocide. In just the last two months, the ADL has weaponized continued
[0:58:53] accusations of anti-semitism against people who speak up. From Na'vi Pai, who won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, to pop star Mackmore, our kids are watching and they will easily know these examples. Unfortunately, the ADL has contorted our understandings of anti-semitism with its own political. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Susanna Lopez. >> Hello. Thank you. Um, I would like to echo everything Lisa was saying. I am a resident of uh Boulder uh County. Um, I pay taxes here. I have two children attending Boulder Valley um schools and um a couple months ago me and many others were here pleading that you don't bring DADL into our schools but here we are. So now that this is FEA complete, I would like to ask you if you are working on plans to protect and and ensure the safety of our Latino students, African-American students, Asian-American students, Native American students that could be targeted because of their gender, gender identity, uh sexual orientation, being neurody divergent, all of these things because sadly the ADL is not going to help you with that. So, you still have to work on that. So, I as we've brought up multiple times, there is a systemic bullying problem in Boulder Valley schools. And when I say systemic, I am not I'm not blaming you because bullying begins,
[1:00:42] happens, that will happen. What parents blame Boulder Valley is because you let it continue. You let it fester even when parents report it. the ADL is not going to help you with that either. So, I hope this is something that you're working on because parents keep complaining about it. Now, what the ADL will do is bring yet another problem to to Boulder Valley School District, which is squashing free speech, creating an atmosphere of surveillance, of being a watched. So are you making plans to ensure free academic inquiry, free speech? How are we going to square the circle to our children telling them use your critical thinking skill? >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Aaron Stone. really make me bend down to get to this mic. How are you all doing tonight? Um I'm Erin Stone. I have two kids uh at Fair View. Uh one of them was at Southern Hills and you know, I talked to him about the bullying that went on there and he thinks he knows who the perpetrators were. You know, we don't know who their names were, but they're generally um known by the entire student body and a lot of that behavior is not acceptable. Um, as you announced your resolution with the ADL, I noticed that a lot of the examples that the ADL gives
[1:02:17] of anti-semitism were left out. And the ones that I'm most concerned about with are the criticism of a foreign country and conflating that with anti-semitism. And um what I'm really concerned about is that a student might face some sort of harassment or bullying charges for opposing just a foreign country without actually saying any anything that's truly anti-semitic against another student. Um and I'd be really concerned that if this were to happen that it could open BVSD up to further legal action as well. So, I'd like to know what the school board intends to do to ensure that this kind of harassment um charges aren't brought up against students because they're criticizing a foreign government. And I think it would help to have people on both sides of the the board that are governing this harassment policy um to actually help dictate how it's implemented. So, I thank you for your time.
[1:03:12] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Caitlyn Ununis. The BBSD mission, create challenging, meaningful, and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives. You aren't owning it. I have personally emailed each of you without response. We have sat in rooms with most of you collectively and one-on-one. We attend schoolboard meetings, SAC, DAC, and DPC. Our community is as civically engaged as it gets. Yet, we're met with contempt. I recently attended the Tour of Cole. This has been my only avenue to get in front of a district employee beyond Katie. Since I can't have any true discourse, imagine my surprise when I was told that this consolidation might result in needing four rounds of classes. When asked about class sizes, a community priority acknowledged by BBSD, Eileen's response, they have to see how close to the allowed number they get, translating to, "What's our legal limit?" To add insult to injury, as the tour progressed, all therapy and unutilized spaces were presented as future classrooms, and large classroom spaces will be divided. All in the name of what? Rob stated, "Our goal is to improve the student experience as defined by our communities across the district." Unfortunately, you all and the community you serve have differing ideas on what improving is. Turns out no
[1:04:43] small schools means overcrowding learning spaces not designed for them. It forces Broomfield students into suboptimal learning environments to check a box on your agenda of doing something. All while being told this is going to enhance our experience. The district stated declining enrollment causes fiscal challenges that would require maximizing all efficiencies during their long range planning update. Now only one year later, the district is pivoting away from citing cost-saving measures as a goal, even stating in a recent interview that this is really never about the financial situation. This pivot came after public scrutiny of utilizing Birch next year for some, not all. How does this provide educational stability? The district message just Thank you. Our next speaker is Zel Cohen. I don't see you. Our next speaker then is Tammy Farber. Is Tammy online? >> Great.
[1:06:07] Tammy, we're going to come back to you. It seems like we're having some audio challenges. The next speaker then is Kelly Kramer. Alex and Anna, are you able to hear the board meeting? I'm trying to figure out if this is a problem with on our end or if it's on the Tammy Farber's end and the audio challenges. >> I can hear it. That's fine. >> Okay. >> Alex, can you hear us? >> I can hear you. I can't hear if there's someone speaking who's remote. I can hear everything in the room. >> Okay. Um Tammy, are you able to hear us? >> I mean, you could put it in the chat and see if she can like turn her she she's not projecting any sound either. Okay. Um, I guess Tammy, we're going to have to come back to you at another meeting where you can always provide your comments and writing to the board since we're having some challenges, um, with both hearing from you and you hearing us.
[1:07:56] With that, um, that concludes public comment today. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with us this evening. The next item on tonight's agenda is board communication. Since we see Alex on the screen and then Anna was just up, I'll ask Anna and Alex if they wanted to start kicking us off. >> Sure. I'll go first. Um uh sorry I can't be there in person. A professional obligation require me to be in Nashville. Um I appreciate it's wonderful to hear about the students accomplishments um in physics. That's just amazing. Once again, I'm always amazed by the accomplishments of uh some of the BBSD students are just off the charts. Um I also uh really enjoy being at the BBSD is the place to be showcase uh last week. Really enjoyed talking to some of the school leaders and and parents and stuff. Um I and I I wanted to share a little bit of analysis. Um sometimes people comment on the price of the BBSD is the place to be, which I think is budgeted around $175,000.
[1:09:09] I just want to be clear for people that we get about $12,300 per student uh in funding from the state and locally through the finance formula. And uh that is equal to about 14 students um to equal to the $175,000. Um we attract about 2,700 students into the district. Uh that bring about $33 million to us. About 1184 students leave the district, which is about 14.5 million, leaving us a net gain of about 1,500 students and $18 million. We also have about 5,600 kids who exercise intrad district choice and probably another 200 who go to private schools. So I just think it's um an incredible investment of 175,000 bucks to do whatever we can to put our best foot forward to keep students from leaving the district to attract students into the district uh to let parents who are considering private schools see if they can find the right school for them within our district. While I honor all their choices and uh you know, I know they're doing the best thing for all their kids. Um I think the BBSD as a place to be is a great thing to do. Um and in addition to being in a celebration and a communication opportunity, it's really a good thing to help us um keep our students which are
[1:10:29] really important in times like this. Um, I also want to say I appreciate uh the data from a recent uh request for information um that I'd asked for for information on uh the patterns of assignment of students with disabilities who exercise open enrollment in the district. And I'll be later talking about prioritizing that as a discussion for the board. But it's it's uh important to me because we have so much of this choice going on. Um, and I absolutely support neighborhood schools and I want them most people to find the neighborhood school that serves them. And I want to make sure that in a system where so many people exercise choice that access to those choices is not um affected by disability or other student attributes. Um, realizing that we need to serve our students with disabilities with the best services that they need.
[1:11:18] We can't do that everywhere, but I believe we should do everything in our power to try to give them uh every access to the other choices that students without disabilities enjoy. So, um I just want to say thanks to the district for that and uh look forward to the rest of tonight's discussion. Sorry I can't be there in person. >> Thanks, Alex. Anna, did did you have anything this evening? Uh just super short, I had the privilege of attending the uh family and educators together vet meeting at u my son's school, Emerald Elementary, and just have to give a big shout out um to the school and to the principal, Samara Williams, uh for hosting a really great uh FET. it was filled um with over half a dozen brand new um parents joining the fest and so it was uh really amazing to get to know u more of my community members neighbors um and then finally I am really excited about the resolutions that we're going to be voting um during tonight's action um section um and there are only seven more days until the election. So, please make sure that you do that vote. Um only one that I feel like we're missing is uh the Boulder County Measure 1A. Um that really helps with child care because we know that um
[1:12:47] early early education really helps developing brains. And so I am a huge supporter of the brighter brighter start um initiative happening in Boulder County. Can't wait for it to come to Broomfield. Um so that is my report. Um, sorry to not be there with you all. Feeling a little under the weather, but next time I will be there. I was uh I got to attend the um the festival of schools. I'll call it that. Um which was such a great change for what had happened. um even six years ago when I was a teacher and schools were literally spending money from their from their reserves in order to compete with each other. So we would try to one up each other on what we did um on the open enrollment nights where people could come. And so I have no doubt that we spent much more than $175,000 trying to recruit students for our schools in um kind of destructive ways.
[1:14:04] And honestly, the choice system has sort of put that out there that we're going to have teachers, we're going to have um schools compete for students. So it seemed like a much more friendly uh way to go. I also um got to meet with people who are on the very back side of the arena and they were people who work for BBSD that I don't get to see at these meetings um and hadn't had chance to uh work with before. So, I got to meet with transportation folks and I got to uh work with people who are working on equity and I had lots of little team meetings as I went around and uh met all of the players for who is helping out our district. So, I think it was a really nice event and for those of you that attended, I hope you it helped you find a school. I know that schools are still doing personal tours, so make sure you get in on one of those. If looking at a booth is just not enough for you, what you want to do is get the look and feel of a school and what's happening.
[1:15:13] Um, please um please ask for that because uh there's much more to it than reading a brochure when you're picking a school for your kid. I um attended um a meeting that we will be talking about the results of that meeting later in the agenda um when we talk about culinary spending on the culinary and so I won't repeat myself there but um I hope you all enjoyed our showcase. Uh, I look forward to discussing resolution 134 and NN today. Um, I'm glad to see those come before us. I also am bummed the students aren't here. I did not know there could be a sonic boom of light and how incredibly cool that they're digging into science. Um, and that they're having the support of their school district to do this year upon year upon year. I heard seven years that that club has been supported. Um that the teachers have been engaged. And so anybody who questions what we're doing right, maybe pay attention to those students.
[1:16:32] >> Jorge, >> thank you. Um I also want to give a shout out to all the folks who participated in the BBC's a place to be showcase. I was able to attend. It was always such a great time. Thank you to the district staff and school administrator staff, teachers that were there and the students that were there that bring the energy and really kind of make it a celebration. It's always a great opportunity to meet with all the different folks across the district. Um, thank you. Um, also thank you the staff for uh drafting these prop these uh propos u resolutions for today. I know it was short notice. I know it's up against the clock. Um, but I think it's really important for us to address these. Um, and to the students that were here today, just amazing work. I understood like 10% of that, but it's just so wonderful. Uh my daughter's a student of Centaurus and I know um she talked to a couple students who were here today that said they were really nervous coming in and they did a great job. So I just I'm always so proud whenever I see our students here and just um so inspiring. So uh thank you.
[1:17:28] Um I uh I'll just echo a lot of the same comments. I actually did not go to the showcase the first time in four years. Uh, and strangely enough, it's the one year I really need to know, really need to go because I have a fifth grader and eighth grader, uh, looking at options. So, I will just have to go to the individual tours. Um, but it's always a great event and I appreciate all the work that goes into that. Uh, and I'm also just glad as others are to see the resolutions on the docket. I heard from a lot of folks in the community disappointed that we had not done that and um, I think procedural hurdles were not good excuses and so really glad to see those on our agenda tonight. So, thanks Okay, we will now move on to our information items this evening. Board members, we have two items up for information. The first of which is a safety, security, and emergency services update. I'll turn it over to Rob Price for introductions.
[1:18:26] Can you hear me? All right, perfect. Sorry. Sorry about that. Uh joining me tonight and presenting will be Brendan Sullivan, our executive director of security emergency management and transportation. And sorry about that. Uh Chrissa Jakewish, who is our assistant director of security emergency management. And with that, I will turn it over to Brendan Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Price. Good evening, President Rajpaw, members of the board, Dr. Anderson. Uh first I want to say that uh we're incredibly appreciative of the time tonight to share our story about the safety work and the security work that happens um every day within our school district and the prevention and preparedness and the emergency management that happens in the background as well. So I am joined um with by Carissa Jakeish tonight. She's as Rob said, she's our assistant director. She oversees the day-to-day operations of our security team and then we are supported by a truly phenomenal group of staff that work around the clock to make sure that our schools are safe. Um, we know that just because the PM bell rings and kids go home, there are still circumstances or situations um or events that unfold that uh could impact school safety or could impact um the well-being of our students. and um our team um always steps up to the to
[1:19:44] the to the uh call to address those issues. So when we look at school safety from an organizational perspective, uh it's mostly the visible things um that we see the visible um operational ones like our personnel, our cameras that maybe um planning secured vestibules um safety systems etc. um all that protective infrastructure and those capabilities are incredibly important and we have made a significant investment to ensure that they remain effective, current and aligned with best practices. But what we know is that school safety is far more complex than any single system, technology, any person um or response program etc. There's no single tool that can address all of our safety responsibilities. um effective school safety depends on multiple interconnected components that have to work together and that's the framework that's represented in this graphic and um will be the focus of our presentation tonight. So what we know is that school safety is also a shared responsibility across our entire organization and community. Our team works really closely with our public safety partners um police, fire, EMS, medical as well as our county disaster management and also the professionals within our school district that work every day with our kids from our um building leaders, teachers, paras, um special education, uh student support services, mental health, etc. And we
[1:21:10] know that we don't own all of these areas, but the collaboration that we have across them um allows us to uh identify concerns, um connect students with resources, and when we need to uh respond to an event, it gives us the ability to effectively coordinate that. Um, so throughout tonight's presentation, you're also going to see that our work is grounded in evidence-based practices, recognized standards, uh, professional experiences from our team, and lessons learned from incidents that have occurred in public spaces or K12 environments, um, across the country and in our own backyard. We're incredibly deliberate in how we implement and develop programs, protocols. We're not just looking for the latest fad um or the newest craze, but we're ensuring that everything that we add to our system um contributes to our overall effective safety systems.
[1:22:02] I'm going to start with systems and process because it's like the foundation, right? Any strong school safety foundation requires a clear structure underneath it. And that structure has to establish expectations. It has to establish and guide our decision-m and create consistency across the district. So for us, those uh that structure is our uh legislation. It's the Clare Davis Safe Safe Schools Act, Colorado Safe Schools Laws, um our board policy, district and departmental procedures, our threat assessment practices, and other established protocols that we have in place in BBSD that um identify how we respond to safety concerns. Um, one of our most important prevention strategies is our behavioral threat assessment and management tool, which is a recognized best practice that provides us a structured process for identifying concerning behaviors, assessing risk, and then determining appropriate interventions. Um the importance of that process is reflected in research on K12 uh attacks that have been averted where 94% of individuals exhibiting attack related behavior had communicated their intentions through some form of leakage and the threat assessment is that mechanism um that turns that warning those cries for help into actionable prevention. So in BVSD we use a non-punitive multidisciplinary team approach um that's focused on really what's understanding what the concern is uh what the behavior is uh determining the level of concern or behavior and
[1:23:35] then identifying appropriate supports interventions or safety measures that we can put in place. Um assessments are conducted by a consistently trained a consistent team of trained team members. Um they involve our security administration, um our school safety advocates, um school leadership, mental health, um and special education, uh student support services. Um this team and the established process uh that we have provides uh greater consistency, transparency, and fidelity in how these assessments are conducted across the district. And um we have applied that same intentionality to decision making involving law enforcement referrals. BBSD has established a process to distinguish lower level behaviors that can be appropriately addressed through school-based interventions from those um behaviors that need to be referred out to law enforcement for um situations such as mandatory reporting um crimes of violence, victim rights protections, victim safety considerations, or significant public safety concerns. And uh consistently about 0.5% of BBSD discipline and behavior referrals result in law enforcement engagement and our objective is to always ensure that uh it occurs when it's warranted and necessary by the circumstances.
[1:24:56] Uh moving on to climate and culture within our schools. It's um considered one of the most important factors for school safety. Um it directly impacts how stu how our students feel and behave within their school environment. And we know that a positive school culture fosters a sense of belonging. It fosters a sense of safety and security. And it reduces the likelihood of disruptive and violent behaviors. Now, creating that environment is a collective responsibility across our district uh within our security team. Our role is to ensure that we're not simply just present during a crisis or when something bad is happening, but we're visible. We're approachable. We're developing those relationships. We're becoming that trusted adult within within the school environment and connected to the schools that that we serve. Our school safety advocates pay uh pay a particularly important role in that effort. Over the last uh 12 months, they have dedicated about 800 hours to direct student engagement. And uh what that objective is is to build that trust, build that relationship, become those trusted adults, engage with our kids on a positive um aspect. And uh we know that to be critically important when there's a crisis, when a kid is having trouble um or needs assistance, they know who to reach out to. Um, we also have data that helps us understand how
[1:26:16] our students perceive their school environments. The spring 2026 climate survey, more than 10,000 of students grades 5 through 12 had participated in the survey and 92% of the responses across the safety domains were favorable. So, this provides us an important measure of student confidence in the safety of their school environments, but also an ongoing benchmark for our work. So, as as you will hear or have heard and will continue to hear from Cararissa, um the the systems and structures that have been described require trained people to put them into place. And within our safety and security team, we have um very distinct roles that together provide the prevention, the response, and the support um across the district. At the excuse me, at the center of our operational response is our security operations center, which is uh the photo on the left or we call it SOCK. It's really our 247 365 hub for anything security, emergency management, maintaining situational awareness, not just on our campuses, but also what's happening within our community that could impact school safety and have lead over um but also providing that operational coordination. The security op center or sock is our um centralized hub for emergency communications. It monitors our assets. It monitors our systems, our schools, uh initiates a district response when needed and uh
[1:27:41] directly um coordinates with our team, public safety and other responders when necessary. Whether we're managing a critical incident, a significant safety issue, a security concern, um weather issues, public safety, power shutdowns, or an operational disruption like a water line break, our security operations center is the team that coordinates uh resources, information, gets the appropriate people engaged um so that we can quickly respond and support our schools. Um the second cornerstone of our personnel model is our school safety advocate program. Um which by the way they just celebrated the fifth year of that program here in BVSD. So we know that that was developed through extensive community input um and and significant vetting and we have 11 school safety advocates um that support our schools. Now their role is to intentionally um bridge school safety, student supports and the operations of our schools. They bring extensive experience in managing crisis and critical incidents and managing those, understanding Colorado law and how that pertains to school safety, board policy, mandatory reporting uh concerns, misconduct, investigative processes, etc. So, they routinely assist our schools with complex concerns involving um threats of violence, sexual misconduct, title N issues, students in crisis or other significant safety concerns.
[1:29:08] supporting that work are our security agents and our campus monitors. Our security agents um are really the uh district-wide response and patrol, right? They they respond to our schools. They patrol them nights and weekends after hours, making sure that they're um ready to receive kids and in good condition and there's no issues with them. They're also that critical on the ground support when we need them during the school day, uh when we have emergencies. And then our campus monitors are stationed at our high schools and they provide that visibility understanding of the school and the relationship that contributes to both the prevention and early identification of concerns that may rise. So the scale of that work is significant. Over the last 12 months, our team has managed over 27,000 calls for service. Um, and what that is is calls for service from our schools, from our facilities, from our community, um, as well as self-initiated activities of our staff.
[1:30:03] So that figure reflects not only the workload but also our daily operational presence within our school district and the engagement of our team. So I'm going to turn it over to Carissa who will take it from here. >> It's the other way. Okay. Wanting to make sure. >> Thank you. Okay. The next portion of our multi-dimensional approach that we'll discuss is hardware, software, and physical security. After incidents across the country, school districts often see a surge of companies offering the next best thing to prevent school violence. HBO's documentary, Thoughts and Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America, looks at how quickly that marketplace grows after tragic events. And as mentioned earlier, school safety and BBSD is not a single fix. We rely on all of these systems to work together and technology built only for response does not replace prevention.
[1:31:01] As mentioned uh BBSD upgrades already in place and these are some of the photos follow standards from recognized national school safety organizations. They are secured vestibules in all of our schools to create a buffer and vet visitors before they enter the building. Cameras at all of our school and facility sites. the ability to remotely activate our standard response protocols from our sock during fast-moving incidents and updated PA systems through recent bonds to cover stronger inside and outside schools as well as text board messaging to support staff and students with access and functional needs. A consistent finding in this work is that students are safer when they can get behind a door that locks quickly and does not require a key. In 2024, our department wrote and was awarded more than $1 million from the Colorado School Security Dispersement Grant. We completed work that uh work this summer updating more than 1,450 doors in instructional spaces across the district and that allow for push button or thumb turn locks with indicators. Following incident debriefs and building assessments that identified radio coverage gaps, our department wrote and secured more than $800,000 through Colorado safer grant to improve radio communications. That project improved radio coverage at six of our schools, uh, five high schools and one middle school, so staff and first responders
[1:32:15] can communicate during a critical incident. Our next portion is training, and over the past 12 months, our team has delivered more than 280 hours of training to our students and staff to include our substitute teachers. Training and drills teach the procedures and the protocols and the roles before an incident occurs, so staff are not hearing the plan for the first time in the moment. Staff who have practiced the plan can respond faster and make clear decisions for the students in their care. Our drills are conducted from a trauma-informed approach so staff and students can train in a way that supports them and builds the critical thinking skills they need during an incident. This includes scenario-based training tabletop exercises like power outages and swatting events as well as pre-scheduled drills and announcements. This year, we expanded that work on uh based on white papers from leading organizations across the country on trauma-informed exercises. And we now offer individual training for staff and students who choose to opt out of scheduled school drills. These sessions connect our students or staff with their school safety advocate and their counselor so they still learn our standard response protocols in a way that supports them and understanding the actions they take during an emergency.
[1:33:22] Afteraction reports from Qua K12 emergencies routinely identified training and communication as a gap before an incident and in response we partnered with our amazing communication team to develop a crisis communication academy. This is offered as a lunch and learn for every school administrator and the training covers district processes um how to handle information during an incident and how our safety and security team communication and the school all support one another. We also apply evidence-based research and lessons learned to close gap in student preparedness, focusing on age appropriate training that helps student make safer decisions when emergencies occur outside of those predictable conditions of a drill. Part of our engagement, as seen on my right, I think your left over at Fair View, um has been our tableing events at our high school where our security staff talk with students about what to do if they're outside or in a hallway when a standard response protocol is activated. And through these events, we have reached more than 1,700 students across our comprehensive high schools. First responding partners, if you, as you can see from these pictures, have also joined in these events and discuss their response and how they engage with students during a critical incident.
[1:34:28] Because of the f positive feedback from staff and students about these conversations, we are carrying this engagement down to our middle school levels this year. Our training also includes our amazing district reunification team. Uh it's going to be the top left corner with the sandwich board which has 75 members from our district office. In nine the nine years executive director Sullivan has been here. That team is activated five times to support schools during crisis incidents. And the team trains quarterly and we review our own incidents to improve how we facilitate reunification and support communities through trauma and mental health supports. Our emergency management work uh is the foundation of how our systems operate together. And over the past year, our team has spent more than 1,000 hours on emergency preparedness planning. Those hours are the planning and the training and the coordination behind what we actually have on paper. Preparedness matters because those relationships and roles and decisions have to exist before the incident. We do not want to arrive at an event and build capacity while our students and staff are already impacted.
[1:35:28] BVSD has two plans that supports our student, staff, and commi uh community. Our district-wide emergency plan offers all uh all phases of the emergency management cycle for how we respond and prepare to incidents such as floods and wildfires and bomb threats and uh bus accidents, although Brendan tells me that never happens. And how our district and schools recover from those, including trauma supports and district reunification team. The plan is reviewed with outside partners, our fire, police, the office of disaster management, Boulder County Center for People with Disabilities, the Boulder County Public Health, and our internal BVSD departments of facilities, student support services, health services, and special education. At the school level, each site has a plan that addresses the unique needs of that school community, such as their specific evacuation routes, incident command structures, and communication plans. But we know that a plan that works for most students is not a complete plan. And a couple years ago, our team worked with BBSD's special education department and SEAK, our special education advisory council, to review our emergency plans for students with access and functional needs, including our neurodeiverse students.
[1:36:32] That collaboration led to extensions of the school site emergency plans with student specific plans built with parent input and taught to the general education teachers who serve those students, not only the adults listed on a student's IEP or 504. SEAK also work with special education and our team to develop the community helpers program and education day uh which is pictured on my bottom left here. And this gives students with IEPs a chance to meet our public safety partners in a calm setting so they are familiar with how responders will show up, what they may ask, and what they may look like if there is an incident. The program launched at Boulder High School and was wellreceived by students and staff who participated. School plans are only part of our readiness. We need plans for decisions we make before our first responders arrive. And lessons from the Marshall of Fire reinforce we need to act quickly during fast-moving wildfires. In response, we strengthened our preparedness through new red flag procedures, early bus mobilization, and designated busing and train staff ready to drive buses in support of rapid evacuations. We also partnered with our amazing facilities team and our fire agencies to complete building assessments and share that critical information on a secured platform real time so we can all make informed
[1:37:43] decisions to support our school community. Additionally, four mile fire and wildfire partners who I'd like to give a shout out to provided no cost wildfire mitigation to all of our mountain schools clearing debris trimming vegetation and cleaning gutters. And preparedness is not one plan or one project. It is the planning and the partnerships like these that we have pictured and the work done before an incident that put BVSSD in a place to better respond during emergencies because we know that school safety and security of school safety and security of our schools is not work we can do alone. It is a collective effort among our staff, among our students and our community partners. Like a puzzle, when one piece is missing, the picture is incomplete. And this section is about how we teach our work. We practice it with our partners and share ownership across our schools, the district and public safety.
[1:38:30] One place we practice this is in joint exercises. Uh this photo here on my left is from a recent training with first responders, BBSD school and district leadership, department heads, and staff who would support schools during an event. And this exercise was based on a wildfire. These exercises help us build processes, strengthen capacity, and see where procedures need to improve. This also shows how we work inside a unified command structure. And one result of that has been radio interoperability with our fire and law enforcement, which now gives us situational awareness sooner so we can make decisions for our schools before alert and warnings are issued to our community. It has helped us set clear practices and processes for how we do that. These partnerships have also led to a multi- agency steering committee on hoax and swatting calls made to our schools and 911 centers. The committee focused on rapid verification and clear coordination so they do not stay in the most disruptive posture longer than needed. BBSD and our partners including our 911 centers have already trained on these new practices and the goal is to keep schools safe from actual threats um while providing uh sorry from actual threats while protecting students and staff from the disruption of over response. These relationships with our first responders give us shared responsibility and access
[1:39:44] to expertise we do not hold on our own. Our safety and security team has also engaged with organizations like PTO's and FET and SAC and community me uh groups like Moms Demand Action, our attorney general's office and lawmakers delivering 95 hours of school safety training presentations and student advocacy. These partnerships extend the work beyond our department and into the communities that all of our schools serve. >> I'm sure we have plenty. Lenia, why don't you start? >> You'll have to indulge me. I wrote down a lot here. Um, >> so we use the term lockown drill, not active shooter drill. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Okay. And then when I look at um slide 13, I see we have 133 lockdown drills. And then so am I to assume that how does the math work out on that?
[1:40:45] >> 50 um all of our schools do them twice a year. >> Twice a year. >> Um and over the last 12 months. >> Okay. Okay. And then uh standard response protocol drills, 744 of those. Can you parse that out just a little bit? >> Evacuation. It would be secure shelter in place. Um hold. Uh so everything that the I love you guys foundation which was drawn off the tragedy of the plaque canyon um event and the I love you guys foundation created the protocols that have um common vernacular and nomenclature that we can use. So um we do drills across uh the school district across every school um throughout the year. >> So how many drills would say an elementary school be getting per year? >> Uh fire drill every month. It's regulated by fire code, a lockdown drill twice a year, and then the other drills are also >> done at the same time.
[1:41:43] >> Um done at the same time. So, we're not monopolizing um five days of school week for drills. >> Okay. And and I heard you say that individuals could opt out if they feel like this is causing stress for their kids. Um, I do have some concern about harm to in particular younger students in doing so many of these drills and I'm glad to hear that we're being trauma informed and using verbiage. Do we you what kind of verbiage do we use in the lockdown drills for our enter elementary school kids? Um, I I can't tell you exactly what is said by the the school teacher, but it is a uh it is a very calm setting. We're not here to create training scars. We're not here to um scare them into um a response. I've heard this about um a bear, right? They're like, "Well, there's a bear in our building, so we need to hide." So, it's age appropriate language. Um the the action based on the response is what we're trying to get through to the teachers. and then they um explain it to their students in age particular um language, right? And then um the opt out option is is exactly that is we communicate through the school leadership uh I believe it's a week
[1:43:05] before the drill um and and then also the day of and then they can um opt their children out. they can come um they notify I believe it's the counselor and then our team goes and meets with the student um to to make sure that they understand what to do in in the event of an emergency >> and given the recent events in Bend Oregon which I'm sure are on everybody's mind um >> and and you're calling out of five years of our SSAs. Um I would love for you to talk about the training that our SSAs have and then if there are any new um pieces of guidance or best practice about having SSAs versus SRO's in schools. >> Sure. Um wow. Uh our SSAs come with a lot of experience, right? They have a lot of um all of them have some sort of background in public safety. So they've got um I would say the average is probably close to 20 years experience in in the safety realm. A lot of them worked in schools um prior to working for BBSD. Um we provide them uh an enormous amount of training. We we onboarded them with um a significant amount of training. We we work through um I don't know there's threat assessments.
[1:44:37] Um uh we mental health procedures, deescalation, um bullying prevention, Title 9, um uh just uh a whole slew of of training that they go through um consistently whenever there's a new event that comes up. We um find information that we could share with them as well. Um regarding Bend, Oregon is uh yes, we have been following that closely. Um like Cararissa had said, we want to make sure that we're um understanding what's the facts, right? And so we we'll wait till we understand all of the facts until there's a commission reporter, official investigation. We will always compare what the findings are from that to what does our system look like? What is our what is our structure? What is our policies? Um do we have a gap? And then make the effective change if if if it's necessary. So, um there's a lot of information out there, um and we're we're we're still gathering information, but what we know is that um these events unfold incredibly quickly and the actions of the suspect or the perpetrator are um uh unpredictable. And so what we know is that a a quick response and a multi-layered or multiaceted approach is is what we have to establish and it has to be taught throughout our schools so that there's not just one tool for our kids and for
[1:46:03] for our staff. >> Do you want to talk about um she asked about the Washington reaching out to us about our SS and also >> Yeah. Um I this is a good point too is um you know we we talk a lot about school safety and we're incredibly proud of our SSA program. Um they've uh absolutely uh set the bar really high and and um you know we're we're fortunate enough we've had um I think it was the mayor's office of Washington DC had reached out to me and I met with them about uh our SSA program what it looked like. School districts in Colorado have as well. And then we had a couple of school districts out in um Washington reach out to us um learning about our process, our systems. And then just two weeks ago, we had um the Department of Ed for a state on uh the western um the western side of the United States, it was Oregon actually, um had come out here. They sent five of their people out here um because they wanted to learn about school safety. We met with them for the better part of a day, talked to them about all of our systems and structures, what does our personnel look like, how do we respond?
[1:47:08] um the a toz of what we do. Took them out to one of our schools, showed them how they function and operate and um so it was a great opportunity. Um I would say the SSA I I don't want to um give a comparison from SSA to police officer because they are two entirely different roles. I I think the benefit and the value that we have in our SSAs is there's ownership, right? They're our employees. They understand our policies. Um they're looking out for the best interest of the district. um and and what our objectives are. There's personal buyin for that. Um and we can uh we have authority over them, right? We we have uh we control the work that they do that they don't do. Um help guide decision making, set policy, and then accountability for things like um planning, right? preparation, training, um ensuring that um we can go to um PTO meetings and and teach the PTO and have the the abundance of staff to do that.
[1:48:10] Um meet with our kids, have those individualized conversations um where we're actually directing the work and ensuring that it's getting done, not relying on an outside partner to do that. Both have value. Um but what our what our team is is um truly uh remarkable in the work that they do, the relationships they they create and and align with um ensuring that the entire uh system is working correctly. So, our use of threat assessment is different than a lot of other districts or at least that's kind of my understanding is is not everybody's using threat assessment which is that preventative piece and I and I want to call that out. I think that's super important. Um, and I just want to make sure that we are not missing anything for best practice by not having SRO's.
[1:49:09] And so I that's why I ask you point blank about that. >> Yeah, I I will tell you that the relationship we have with our law enforcement partners is incredible. And it does it takes it takes that collaboration. And it takes that coordination, the communication um that we have to work together to maintain safe schools. They have a very distinct role and responsibility within our communities, right? And we have a distinct role within our communities and we have to work together um to establish effectiveness in a response and a recovery and making sure like Carissa said that we're not in the most restrictive um environment for as long, right? I I specifically recall the Boulder Swatting event which happened on a snowy day. I believe it was in December a few years back. Um there was immediate communication um between the police department and me and my team about this is what's going on. And uh within minutes we were able to to make a determination of what what the facts were actually telling us, right? And that is the value of that relationship. That's the value of the coordination and the teamwork and understanding who we are and who they are and developing all of that prior to the incident, right? Because at the time of the incident, it's not the
[1:50:22] opportunity to get to know each other and figure out what our roles, responsibilities, and what your objectives are versus what mine are. So, >> thank you for that. Board members, any other questions? Jorge and then Deian. Thank you for this presentation. There are so many different things that go into this and it's so important and I I really appreciate the the coordination, the training, the preparation for when crises do happen. Um and and that our partnership with the community with the police is is our back stop at at the back end, right? Um but I think what sets us apart, it really is kind of the front-end work that we're doing, right? Being proactive, being preventative. Um and so I appreciate the Lennia's questions about that. Um I'd like to hear a little bit more about what that looks like. you mentioned um you know our our discipline matrix and how that fits within this this a little bit. I hear more about that um the ways in which we kind of create um culture and climate at our schools, the type of trainings that our staff, our teachers receive because so much of this starts there, right? Um long before a crisis happens. So I'd like to hear a little bit more about kind of what we're doing
[1:51:28] to train our teachers or staff to better connect with our students um on the front end. Um, that's a good question and and I will have to defer um on what what the actual trainings look like and what the climate and culture considerations look like. I I think that's really u potentially an academics issue and then also our student support services can give us a better um understanding of how how they create that in the schools. Um is that is that fair? >> That that's fair. Um could you speak a little bit about the uh the role of the SSAs then in that in that regard? >> Um yeah, you know is they're they're an ally of our students and they're here to support them, right? Um so I I will tell you a quick story. One of our SSAs is big into um cycling and a student was having problems with his brakes and so our SSA worked with the student and fixed them during the school day. Um that's the relationship piece, right? Um we've had uh a a number of events like that. A couple of our SSAs just met with um up here at Apex on uh a couple of students who had some questions about safety and um wanted to understand um hadn't experienced or had experiences or
[1:52:48] wanted to um experience the public safety or school safety side of of uh the work. And so they had met with them. Um it's uh being involved in classes with them. I know Steve Brown who is pictured in one of these um one of these videos or one of these slides had um actually was invited by a a teacher at Monarch um to be a participant in a class over a period of time where they uh read a book and then had discussion about it. Um completely not his job. um a phenomenal way to develop relationships with these kids. Um I I would say uh the evidence of that is um the when the whole SSA program kicked off, right? I know this work has happened in the long for a long time and Steve Brown happened to also be um a campus monitor before that. Um, I was standing outside of uh Monarch High School with him the first day that he was assigned back to Monarch High School's as an SSA and uh a parent had pulled up parked in the fire zone and was like, "Steve, we are so glad you're here. We missed you." Cuz we had them out of the school for a while while they were going through training and onboarding for their new role. And so th
[1:54:01] those things, it's it's the daily um interactions with our kids that are not punitive, they're not disciplinary. um our SSAs do not work on um student code of conduct or discipline, right? That is not their role. That's that's the licensed staff's role. Um so it's it's really them trying to create that relationship with our kids so that one, when they're in trouble, we can work through that and two, if they're needing that assistance, um they're like, I can reach out to Brent or Steve or um pick the employee, right? >> you answered um some of my questions about the SSAs and um how you might measure the success of that program, but I have um I have been able to see that happen at Monarch High School. So that's um that's a beautiful thing and I want to congratulate you cuz I know that you're a leader in the country and getting that going and getting rid of um police officers being the ones who are intimidating students all the time. So thank you for thank you for leading that. It's a it's a great effort. So I'm glad all those people are reaching out to you to find out how to do it. Um I do want to also um ask you a question. As a teacher, I had more of security concerns
[1:55:24] after school hours because the doors were kind of left a jar and everybody that wanted to come in for basketball practice and community schools and those kind of things free flowing in and out of the building with not so much security around. So, tell me about how things might have changed in the after school hours. >> Um, well, we still have building monitors that still have roles, right? they're hired through community school for the rentals and um free roaming schools are still not a thing. Um so I think when we have these these situations um they just need to be brought up to um our team or community schools and we can address it on a case- by case basis. They still have um obligations to keep our our school secure and um not just willy-nilly for anybody to come in. So okay, >> Dr. Anderson.
[1:56:19] >> Thank you, Bo President Rajp. I just want to publicly thank Brendan and Cararissa for and and all of our folks on our safety and security team for the incredible job they do. Uh diligent, thoughtful, caring um and uh making sure that that they're keeping all of our students safe even each and every day. And I want to thank our law enforcement partners. They're a critical component of the ways that we keep our students safe. And uh I think our relationships have never been stronger with with our different municipalities in both county and within our local uh cities and towns. And so want to publicly thank our our law enforcement part partners as well um on their partnership. Uh we've come a long way and uh this is there's a reason that others come to learn from us um from across the state, from across uh the country. uh that you know the work that we've done and the and the system that we've built is is is really great and and is worth uh it's worth folks learning about. So I want to appreciate both of you. I appreciate Rob Price for his leadership and just thank you board for the opportunity to present this information.
[1:57:23] >> Alex or Anna, did you guys have any questions? Folks have any questions? No questions here. Thank you very much. >> Thanks. I have a couple questions. Curious, is your team responsible for monitoring the vape monitors that we have in some of our schools? >> Um, no. The the the vape notifications do not go to them. They go to um schoolbased staff. Um, I believe it it may be our campus monitors at the high school may also get those notifications, too. But I'd have to confirm that. I know for a fact it goes to the school admin. >> Okay. And then um my other question was around how many people I guess two questions. How many people are opting out of the drills at sites kind of piggybacking on what Eli asked earlier and then how do you think through evacuations and evacuation planning and preparation on our campuses that have two fac like share campus? I'm thinking of Southern Hills and Fair View and the logistical um realities there or a Monarch campus with those two questions.
[1:58:36] >> Um I can get you the data on opt out. I don't know that it's significant. Um the other is a very good question and it has taken um a substantial amount of work um operational work with the city um police departments, office of disaster management, city planners um our team um it continues to be um uh something that we we will always work at right there's uh there's a lot of work developed around polygons right within um the city um operational coordination. I had a meeting with one of our fire chiefs and he said, "Brendan, how soon do you want to know when there's a fire?" And I said, "As soon as you know that there's a fire that's not under control and could impact our schools." Um so having that immediate coordination and that communication with them is is paramount. Um we we have set up like Carissa had explained an entire process.
[1:59:35] Um we've had a few fires already this year. um the the one um wasn't too far from one of our schools and prior to it going on watch duty or um the Twitter verse blowing up. We have um our school bus is staged. We send staff up there. Um we had the the fire up in the mountains just recently and at um Cowwood um and we had uh students from one of our schools up there. Um it was an immediate notification to the um fire management team of understanding size, scope, wind direction, humidity, all the um all the factors that we need to know and that they need to know in order for us to make educated decisions and start staging appropriate resources. We know that there's going to be um a very quick response when this happens and we have to make quick decisions and we can't wait for it to be at our doorstep to to execute, right? So, um, we actually had buses staged up there. We sent staff up there to start coordinating with our, um, the director of of Cowwood on what to do, uh, how to do it, how to take inventory of your students, how are we going to communicate, um, a situational update on briefing. So, there's a lot of work that goes into it, but for the
[2:00:51] greater Boulder community and the planning that's happened. We've sat in a lot of meetings with U. Mike Chard and the Office of Disaster Management and and city leaders um to to really understand how uh what they need to do in order to evacuate a city and there has been an enormous amount of work that they own um uh surrounding this. Um our role is to understand how we fit in that right and also when we're we're in those situations to be able to uh inject our concerns or our operational um practices. One of the things that we've always talked about is how do we get buses in, right? And so, um, uh, almost immediately when there's a fire that ticks off anywhere close, um, we will start mobilizing buses. We did it by the, um, Good Samaritan fire last year.
[2:01:39] It was over break. Um, but as soon as that ticked off, we were sending buses um, to the Broomfield area because that's what it was closest and that was the wind direction. And so for us, it's being really intentional on our operational execution and making sure we have the right people who know what's going on and have the right connections and all that those things that the sock does, right? They they notify us um uh or or the appropriate authorities notify us and then it's starting to coordinate um across the district on on what is that what does that look like and how do we get those people involved and engaged. So um lot of work and it continues to go on. It's not it's not done, right? there's there's always events that happen or situations or nuances that weren't thought of or um road construction that changes um traffic ingress, egress, flow, etc. Um we're there have to be pivots and and changes, but um we are incredibly grateful, like Dr. Anderson said of the relationship that we have with with the ODM and and and law enforcement and fire partners to help us integrate in the system um so that that our interests can be protected, our students can be protected um because that's also their priority as well.
[2:02:50] >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And I also really appreciate your cycle of continuous improvement. So continue to evaluate how practices are going, looking out, seeing what best practices across the country, and continue to improve our process to help keep our students and our staff and safe. Reiterate the shout out to our community partners for their help and um managing safety in our schools. And I do like after the incident at Fairview High School last year, the security team was at Fairview. They answered a lot of questions to parents. So, I appreciate the fact that our SSAs and our school campus monitors and our security team are willing to come and talk to parents and talk to students to really help build capacity, build understanding and and um a sense of safety within our school. So, thank you for that. And board members, I am really excited after that incident in Fairview last year. I happened to be at the district later in the day and was able to go into the sock at real time. So, I'm excited that you will be able to see that facility or that part of this uh facility this evening. It is pretty sophisticated.
[2:03:48] Any final words or questions? Thank you both for presenting tonight and for all you do. >> We'll move on to our next information item that is on the agenda as a legislative update. We're not in legislative session. We do have some resolutions to talk about under action. So, we'll withhold that. Um Dr. any reason to Okay. So, will sorry for keeping that in there, board members, but we don't have anything to update you with at this time. So, we will move on to action items. Consent grouping 7.1 Personnel item 7.2 approval of minutes October 13th 2026 7.3 authorization of the transfer of the culinary kitchen sorry culinary center kitchen project. Are there any items board members would like to pull from consent grouping? Seeing as there are none, is there a motion to approve the items on consent tonight? Moved by Jorge, seconded by Jason. Board members, any discussion on consent grouping?
[2:04:45] Um, I just want to make a comment on the It looks like a small amount of money that um has been uh set up for the culinary center, but it's really important work. Um, the cement was not strong enough in order to um have the cooling system put in, which was is a redundant system in case the first one goes down so that all of the food that we own at one time doesn't go bad. um even if there's a power outage. So, it's a really important system to put in and to have the right cement underneath that cooling um cooling center is um above and beyond what we expected to have to do. But if the cement isn't strong enough, we couldn't do it. And um I'm excited to make sure that our food is always fresh for our kids. So, that's great.
[2:05:35] >> Interesting to hear the cement isn't strong enough. Maybe our students from Centurus could have helped troubleshoot that before we got to this point. Alex, I think I heard you raise your hand. >> Yeah, I just just say um I'm excited to get uh a new in-house legal counsel. I look forward to meeting our new attorney and uh uh thanks to Dr. Anderson for expeditiously pursuing our new attorney. So, um Kathleen, services will be missed, but I look forward to getting to know our new attorney. Any further discussion board members? Seeing as there are none, Laura, can you call the vote in the motion? >> Booker, >> yes. >> Chavez, >> yes. >> Medler, >> yes. >> Quinnlanda, >> yes. >> Raj Paul, >> yes. >> Tamuading, >> yes. >> Anger, >> yes. >> Motion passes. We'll now move on to action items this evening. Board members, the first um item we have up for action is resolution 26-30 in opposition of the ballot proposition 134. Do I have a motion?
[2:06:39] Moved by Lenia, seconded by Deian. Board members, any discussion on this? Actually, I should turn it over to Dr. Anderson because this is a little bit out of our normal process and procedure. And I'll give him a moment to talk about our conversation on Friday and why we are bringing this to action rather than going through our normal study and then action process. Thank you, board president Rajpot. I do appreciate that. Um, you know, board members, as we spoke last at our last meeting around legislative priorities, you know, we we have a a a practice that has served us well, which is in September, early September, board members are able to bring forward any um any ballot initiatives or anything that that they would they would want the board as a whole to weigh in on. we would typically have a discussion around that and then have a formal process uh because of the um resilient schools proposal and the time that it took to to engage in that. we didn't have some of those um opportunities. And so um as we were getting closer and closer to the elections being closed at our last board meeting, we we certainly made some statements. And uh I think it was important for me to make sure that we're really clear um with our community where
[2:07:54] we stand on these issues and didn't want anyone to misperceive that because we hadn't taken a resolution that that our that our values as a school district had ever changed. I haven't um stand uh firmly um against Proposition 134. And as I shared board members with you all last uh um last board meeting, I have grave concerns if this does pass and how this is going to impact students in our district and other districts across Colorado. And I'm committed to continuing to support um and serve all of our students um especially our trans students uh to make sure that they feel safe and they feel included and they feel like they belong. Those are important things to our community. Those are important things to this board and important things to me. Um, and so we'll continue to stay engaged on this, but I'm I'm proud to bring this uh resolution forward for you all for action this evening.
[2:08:45] >> Thanks, Dr. Board members. Any discussion? The end? >> Uh, Dr. Anderson, I met with you on Thursday and this I don't think this was in the works yet. Um, so I just want to actually thank you for taking um the extra effort to make sure that these um went through and that we could really say to our community, we are with you. And I know that in my heart, we are with these students and we have been with these students. um cuz this resolution is just saying that we we stand with the we stand against this um legislation, but we've always been with our trans kids for a very very long time. And um I know that we will stand up for them and with them should this uh should this uh resol should this proposition pass. Um we will be right there to fight with our kids and our parents. And so thank you Dr. Anderson.
[2:09:53] Any other discussion? Board members hearing none. Laura, can you please call a vote on the motion? Booker, >> yes. >> Chavez, >> yes. >> Medler, >> yes. >> Quinn Lenoa, >> yes. >> Raj Paul, >> yes. >> Tamuading, >> yes. >> Anger, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Next, we have resolution 26-30 in support of ballot proposition NN. Is there a motion? Moved by Jason, seconded by Jorge. Board members, any discussion on this action item? should this pass will have a significant benefit to our school. I mean any dollar is significant it feels like at this point. So um I want to thank folks that have been advocating for this in the community. Thank BBEA for supporting this work. Um and I look forward to hopefully seeing this item pass on the ballot this year. I know it is long and not everybody is going to make it through that ballot. Some people might be picking and choosing, but if you're picking and choosing items, I do hope you also um choose to support Proposition NN.
[2:11:07] Seeing as there are no further discussion, Laura, can you please call the vote on the motion? >> I just want to clarify that this is resolution 26-31. >> Yes. Did I say the wrong number? Okay, great. >> Thanks. >> Uh Booker, >> yes. >> Chavez, >> yes. >> Medler, >> yes. Quinn Linua, >> yes. >> Rajpaul, >> yes. >> Tamuading, >> yes. >> Anger, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Board members will now move on to policy study items. We have two policies to study this evening. We will begin with board policy GBI, criminal history, record information. There are some light touches to this policy based on changes to law. I don't know if Dr. Anderson or Kristen Edgar want to elevate some of these changes that are proposed for the board. Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Uh ju just some changes. Um as as you will note in the uh in the language um in the agenda in terms of board policy GBI um these are revisions that are made to comply with the requirements of uh Colorado Bureau of Investigation in order to retain the school district's asset access to pre-employment background screening results which is important. So, um, as you can see, just some some light touch changes. Happy to answer any questions. And, um, Kristen,
[2:12:23] if you have any other things to add, happy to to hear those as well. >> Sure. I I'm happy to add I didn't work on these changes, but these are districts are audited pretty regularly by CBI to ensure compliance with pretty rigorous rules around how criminal history, record information is um, stored um, securely and things like that. So, pretty common that a school district looks at these frequently um and makes slight touch changes as the ones that you see here. Board members, any discussion on these? Pretty straightforward. The next policy we have for study board members is board policy JDHB bullying. We've looked at this policy several times. Um, there's been an addition to the policy language since we last discussed this that has now shown up as either a red or a green line depending on the PDF that has been uploaded. Um, board members, any discussion on this policy?
[2:13:20] Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you, board president Raj Paul. Uh, board members, I'm going to need you all to weigh in on this um as we think about um the change and it's on page four in my copy. It's green. Um, it's the paragraph that was included in ACR. Um and so the the decision around this your bo um board's policy is do you want to add this here under this bullying policy um is it sufficient to have it in ACR and not have it here in this policy. I think that that that is the guidance that I need to be able to bring back a policy for you all to take action on. And uh I think that for me and for our team, it's important for for board members to weigh in on where you stand on this so we know and understand what policy to bring back forward to you all.
[2:14:07] >> So I I for me personally, I find it I would rather not have this language inserted into this policy. It is an AC-R. It's a regulation. There are nuances to how language gets changed in policy versus regulation that I think come into play. And then I for me I also just feel like AC is our overarching policy. This is something that kind of falls underneath it. So for me I am not a fan of including this additional language in the policy. I am ecstatic about all of the other policies changes to this policy that the board members have previously discussed and I look forward to moving this. But for me uh I having this language in this policy and then in the regulation for the other policy creates conflict. And as I said when we talked about the last resolution, I think there are still some outstanding questions that I have about when this when that if that language gets implemented, what are what um are some unintended consequences that we might not be aware of right now. So having it two different places with that being an unknown u is a is concern for me.
[2:15:25] It's in board docs in the policy as a red line. We don't typically share a policy of those documents. You have to look at those online. Alex, >> yeah, thank you. Um, I'm glad to see this in there. Um, I have a different position on it. I was hoping to see this last week uh when the last time we met because I thought it actually does align very well with the regulation. Um, I think it's it's it's incorrect to describe it as in conflict with the regulation when they have exactly the same language. I think this is an issue. I mean, just to catch everybody up on it for looking at it, what we're talking about is language. We said before that to the extent permitted by law and policy, we which includes state and federal policy as well as district policy, we do want to communicate to parents about what we what we can that lets them know uh important information related to their students experience um with harassment, bullying, discrimination. Um I believe strongly that we get a lot of feedback from the community about circumstances when something unfortunate happens to their student and then uh they don't learn much more ever after that and they feel like the district is not responded and they ended up with a um a a very meager
[2:16:43] thinking that we the district hasn't taken action when there actually are things that the district has done. And you can review uh the federal educational right to privacy act and you can review the state version of that which I have and uh the the state policy is actually pretty clear actually has an affirmative obligation uh for the district to communicate to parents. Um, so I feel this is strongly addressing an issue that we have in practice that has been problematic for the district that leads to litigation and it leads to frustrated parents and it leads to parents leaving the district when in fact we could have communicated to them aspects of what's happened that would be appropriate and legal. So I mean I think this is a pretty narrowly prescribed thing that is focused on um in practice. Now, the reason I think it belongs in policy uh in addition to the regulation is that it's pretty uh intimidating when we're dealing with these intense circumstances. In a lot of these cases, things have gone sideways and uh district staff and school administrators are in a spot. And it's pretty easy to default to an assumption that there's nothing we can share, which leads to the status quo. So, I want to I want to signal from the board. we set
[2:18:01] policy that we want that communication to happen. And the idea that there's incoherence because a policy and regulation are parallel to me doesn't make any sense. We want our regulations and our policies to be parallel. And as a board, I want this to stay with authority for a while until any future board needs to change it in policy. Uh I don't want it just in regulation where that could eventually change without actually a pretty serious board reconsideration of it. We talked about this. I think twice now. Um I actually thought this should have come up in the last meeting. Um and and I and I do think the other part is we're trying to send a very clear signal to administrators to do something that they haven't done before. And I also want to send this signal to the senior district staff because it's pretty easy to become conservative and become ultraconervative about what we can share. Um, and I uh talked with previous legal counsel Kathleen Sullivan for about 90 minutes about this. We played through all sorts of different scenarios and got to the kind of information that we could have shared under state and federal law and and related policy uh where our instinct before would have been not to share. So I do think this makes a difference. I
[2:19:18] believe it's narrowly constrained. I think addresses a problem we have in the community. We hear regularly from the parents of people who uh whose students have experienced unfortunate things and I would say as a board member we always hear a great deal from parents of individual circumstances and one of the main things I hear over and over again is I have no idea quoting the parent I have no idea what the district has done about this and I and they assume in this environment that the district hasn't done anything when in fact we have taken appropriate action and there's information about the disciplinary that a particular students receive uh that can't be shared and that's appropriate and that would not be affected by this. But there are things that we can say. Um like I've dealt with parents who are still trying to get a protective order against a student who's no longer enrolled in the district or will never again be in a brick-andmortar school for the district. and we can say something uh as Kathleen Sullivan explained it to me to say that your student in the school will never come in contact with that student again. Um so that's kind of stuff that assures parents this assures students it keeps students enrolled in the district and that's that's why I
[2:20:31] think we should do it and I it should be policy because the traditional response to these issues is to be very conservative. Jason. >> Um, thanks Alex and Nicole for sharing thoughts on this. Um, I know we've talked about this a little bit. Probably Alex to be honest more you've talked about this than as a group we have. Um, I guess I don't understand the issue. Is it is the is the concern that um about this proposal that he's offering or is it about the placement in regulation versus policy? I I because if you look at the paragraph above, we're talking about all the ways we're communicating. You know, this is obviously in more detail and uh goes further than the the previous paragraph, but just looking at this and based on the conversation we've had, it seems like um this could be part of the previous paragraph. It's it's not really the maybe the the issue of policy versus regulation is not the issue. It's more do we disagree with this idea? And I I that's a question I'm just asking, I guess, to everyone else because I I don't know. I don't see um you know, Alex has obviously made a case for this over course of several meetings. Um it seems like in light of how we started
[2:21:39] this school year um with issues of bullying that this is appropriate an appropriate response. Um but I guess I just don't understand the larger issue of are we are we debating the the language or the placement? >> I think that's up to board members to weigh in on >> Elenia. Uh I don't mind this being here. Um, when I go back to victim rights, um, when, this is a a little history lesson for everybody who loves history here. When Ronald Reagan was shot, um, the perpetrator went away to prison. And as he was moved from prison to prison, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, could not know if he was at this prison, at that prison, had he bonded out, anything. And that's where our victim's rights bills come from as from when Ronald Reagan was shot.
[2:22:43] And what this says to me is it says that we shall communicate to the families of students who are the victims of alleged bullying and to me having communication. So one thing we know about victims is um they should have a right to have a voice and then they should also have a right to know what's going on as far as the law allows. So now, for instance, um if you if somebody is arrested who has shot you, you would have a right to know where they were imprisoned, if they were imprisoned or not. Um all going back to Ronald Reagan. So for me, um this is actually a victim victim centric approach that says that we shall communicate to every extent permitted by law and policy. If there's something that FURPA says we cannot disclose, then I think we ought not to do that. That that is in everyone's best interest, those privacy concerns. Um but an affirmative obligation to communicate um is appreciated as a victim advocate.
[2:24:08] Um, Alex, I'm going to let everybody else weigh in before we go back to you, unless that was Anna chiming in. Dian, >> uh, I'm kind of approaching this as if I was a parent who, um, had a bullying incident, uh, with my child and I'm reading, I'm not going to be a policy hack and look through every web page that comes up uh, to to find the information. So, I think it's good to have it right there. it the language seems to flow. And if you need to reference the other instance instead of it just being a regular paragraph like a quotation and a um link to the other um regulation that would be great. I think that's where I was the last time we discussed this that it seem repetitive to have this in a policy and a regulation and and the bigger issue is more that we should be following the regulation that's already in place as opposed to driving new policy and making changes that may be unnecessary. I appreciate the idea of maybe having a link to that regulation here so folks know where to go, but I'm not sure I see the need for changing the language.
[2:25:39] >> Um, I guess I'm thinking about the 50 or so parents who have talked to me in very frustrated situations about the communication from the district so far. You'll note in the language that it is similar to the language that's in policy, but they haven't gotten any communication in the past. So that's why I'm really strongly insisting that the policy be strengthened. Um it's one thing to have it in the rag, but I believe we've had a policy in the past that's been insufficient for people to exercise the kind of discretion that they might. So, um, if we're going to do the practice and the board is in support of the practice happening, then I think we can send a stronger signal that will lead to more frequent following of our policy by putting it in there and referencing what's in the regulation rather than just putting it in regulation. We have the language that's sort of there, but it has been, as far as I'm concerned, totally inadequate to drive the practice that we want. I think this board has sometimes experienced challenges with enacting policies and things don't get really implemented on a timely basis or to the extent or with the fidelity that we are hoping. So that's a frustration for me as a board member. I think some other board members
[2:26:46] share it on other policy and so this is an opportunity uh we are a policym body. We are not a reg regulatory body. Uh we direct the staff to do that. And so this is our opportunity to send our signal. So I think it belongs strongly in policy and I object that we wouldn't put the things we care a lot about in district policy just because they're somewhere else. This is where we make our strongest statement and this is a this is an issue on which I want to make a strong statement and I hope you vote for it. >> We will take those votes when this comes to action. Um I see Dr. Anderson raising his hand, so I will call on him next. >> So, board members, I I appreciate the discussion and I appreciate um folks weighing in. Um it looks like the board is is fairly split on this uh on this issue. Uh which is fine. Um but, uh it doesn't make for an easy edit. Uh my plan would be to bring this um back as is uh for your action um next at our next board meeting. And then at that point in time, if there is going to be amendments, then then those could be made. I will share this that um and and
[2:27:59] I appreciate board members comments as as as somebody who is a high school principal, a longtime school administrator and uh you know, when I think about the pressures that are on our school administrators on what they can say and what they can't say. Um do I feel like that at times administrators air on the side of caution not to say the wrong thing? I mean, I can understand that. I think that whether it's in regulation, whether it's in policy, it's going to take training of our administrators to know and understand what's okay and what's not okay. And then also communicating that directly to our community because if if I'm a community member and I read this as I should be getting as much information as humanly possible um and it can become subjective in terms of what you should tell me, what you shouldn't tell me. And then if instances are different from one school to another, what will happen is somebody will find out at this school I found out this this school I didn't find that thing out. Now again I think that those things can be corrected with training and expectations. Um but I just want to be able to level set with the board and with our community that um you know we can't tell parents the consequences of
[2:29:03] um of of what another student received on an incident that where their child may be the victim. And I think that there's probably a desire for that. What happened? Did the kid get off? Did they throw the book at them? Like what did that look like? You can't do that. Um are there instances where you can talk about attendance and and being able to say whether or not where students are located? I mean potentially. I do think that we'll have to get um now that we have new legal counsel, another formal legal opinion on what's inbounds and out of bounds here because I owe it to our administrators to let them know what the rules of the road are here. And I don't want to incentivize folks telling too much because then there's a liability on the other end as well. So I think that there's a balance. I think training is the way to get there and look forward to to having the the board uh vote on this uh at our next meeting.
[2:29:52] >> Sounds great. Um at this time uh as indicated on the agenda, we have items to discuss in executive session. Is there a motion? >> Jason. Uh, I, Jason Anger, make a motion pursuant to CRS 24-6-424B to convene into executive session for a conference with an attorney for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions specific to pending litigation against the district board of education under the open meetings law. >> Is there a second? Seconded by Lenia. Laura, can you please call the vote on the motion? Uer, >> yes. >> Chavez, >> yes. >> Medler, >> yes. >> Quinn Linua, >> yes. >> Raj Paul, >> yes. >> Tamuading, >> yes. >> Anger, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you. That concludes the regular business for this evening's agenda. Board members, we will convene in Glacier Room and then we will take a tour of the sock immediately thereafter.