Nobody from BVSD brought the plan to Lafayette's City Council. Douglass families did, filling the chamber on September 15. The council took up a plan that wasn't on its agenda and, in fifteen minutes, found what families across the district have been saying: it counts Lafayette's children at Douglass, but no one asked Lafayette families, no one modeled Lafayette's boundaries, and no one asked the city about the homes it is planning.
Councilor after councilor named the same problem. Without a single objection, they agreed to write to the Board and ask it to go back and do that work before it decides.
“This is entirely BVSD's decision, but just tremendous appreciation for all of the parents and family members who came out this evening. I'm agnostic on the substance because I want to learn more about it, but it does seem to me it's very clear there was a process foul here. So I would be interested in whether us sending a letter to BVSD is an option. I think these folks certainly deserve a response and some action from us.”
Councilor Kyle Beaulieu 1:33:19
“Douglass is the neighborhood school in my neighborhood. There was a list of criteria and a list of schools that met that criteria that were being considered for closure, and there was a process for the school district to meet with those schools and the parents and the families. Because Douglass didn't meet those criteria, they didn't do the kind of outreach that they were doing with other schools, or listen to the parents. They also did not gather data on the impact on Lafayette, because they weren't doing Lafayette schools. So they made the assumption that Douglass was really a Boulder school and didn't consider Lafayette impacts. I think there are a lot of procedural problems in how they handled this.”
Councilor Annmarie Jensen 1:34:05
“Here we are hearing that Lafayette schools were actually impacted. It turns out we weren't briefed as the Lafayette City Council. So I don't think it would be out of place for us to ask BVSD to slow down. They're giving our residents short shrift.”
Councilor Adam Gianola 1:36:43
“I work for BVSD and I had no idea up until Friday that Douglass had a small part of Lafayette zoned for it. I do think closing Douglass could potentially in the future also have implication for our Lafayette schools. Lafayette Elementary, I believe 39 open-enrolled out of Lafayette Elementary. If those students were to come back to Lafayette Elementary, it could have a pretty big impact on class sizes. I do think a conversation with the school board would be beneficial, especially with a plan for monitoring our Lafayette schools' class sizes in the future.”
Councilor Crystal Gallegos 1:38:11
“All we can do is advocate on behalf of the residents of the city of Lafayette. I hear process and procedural problems, and I think that would be the vein that I would like this letter to go.”
Mayor Saul Tapia Vega 1:41:08
“The Lafayette City Council respectfully requests that the Board remove Douglass Elementary from the Resilient Schools proposal before its September 22nd vote, and that the district commit to including Lafayette families and the city in any future process that would relocate Lafayette children. Although the city has no jurisdiction over district decisions, a majority of Douglass's resident students live in Lafayette, where portions of the city fall within that attendance zone, and many additional students open-enroll there. Because the district counted these students in assessing Douglass's enrollment while treating Lafayette as outside the scope of the study, Lafayette families had no structured engagement, Lafayette boundaries were not modeled, and the city was not consulted about planned growth that bears on future enrollment. We believe a boundary analysis that includes Lafayette may offer an alternative to closure, and we ask that Douglass's future be decided only after that analysis is completed and published. We would welcome the opportunity to connect district staff with the city's planning staff.”
The draft read into the record by Councilor Jensen 1:43:09 Council asked that the opening request be softened from “remove” to a suggestion, and kept the rest.
“I did hear from one of the phone calls that I made that the reason that we weren't in that is because technically it doesn't fall within the city limits of Lafayette, and the schools that are closing in the other cities do. I don't know that to be true, I just heard that. That's a choice. Again, procedural questions, process problems.”
Mayor Saul Tapia Vega 1:45:32
“Is there any councilor that would like to lead this? Councilor Jensen, I see your hand up. Fantastic. Is all of Council okay with moving forward with Councilor Jensen? Fantastic.”
Mayor Saul Tapia Vega 1:46:46
The full 15-minute discussion.
Why it matters
The families were right, and now a city says so.
It confirms what families have been saying for three weeks. Douglass, Flatirons, Mesa and Birch families told the Board on Sept 8 that the district abandoned the early-warning process its own advisory committee built and gave them 25 days. Lafayette's council reached the same conclusion from the other side of the table. The mayor was told Lafayette was skipped because Douglass is “technically” outside city limits. Counting a city's children while leaving the city out of the study is the pattern, not an accident.
It exposes a hole in the “regional approach.” On Sept 15 the superintendent told the Board that the regional approach “was very much front and center” in the district's engagement. A city of 30,000 that, by the council's own count, is home to the majority of Douglass's resident students had no seat in it. If the plan missed Lafayette, ask what else it missed.
It asks for exactly what the coalition is asking for. Not “never close a school.” The analysis first, the affected communities in the room, and the decision after. That is the difference between a complete plan and the current one.
Say it to the Board
Analysis first. Communities in the room. Then decide.
The Board votes on Sept 22. Tell them a city council has now asked for what families have: finish the plan before you vote on it.