August 31, 2026: Let's Talk BVSD on the Resilient Schools proposal

Introductions

0:18:51Randy Barber Hello everybody. I'm Randy Barber and this is Let's Talk BVSD. We're coming to you live right now from the boardroom in the BVSD education center where just last Tuesday uh our staff, our leadership team presented the resilient schools proposal to our board of education. Um I'm excited to have a couple guests with me here today. Dr. Rob Anderson, our superintendent. Hi Rob.

0:19:12Dr. Rob Anderson Hey Randy. Good to see you.

0:19:13Randy Barber Good to see you. And our board president, Nicole Rajpal. Hey Nicole.

0:19:16Nicole Rajpal Hi Randy. Thanks for having me.

0:19:17Randy Barber Absolutely. Thank you guys for both being here today. Uh during today's show, uh we will be talking about the Resilient Schools proposal. uh how it came together and what's ahead. So, thank you for being here today.

0:19:27Dr. Rob Andersonspeaker unconfirmed · check the video Absolutely.

0:19:27Randy Barber Throughout our conversation, I'll be bringing in some of the themes that we've heard from our community. Um we've been uh obviously gathering a lot of questions from our the form on our website. I think we've got more than 200 now. Uh we've uh also have been receiving emails and and getting it uh through other avenues as well. Um and and I want to just start by getting everybody up to speed on the issue in regards to declining enrollment. The Boulder Valley School District has been experiencing declining enrollment since 2018. With declining birth rates continuing and the situation made a little bit more difficult by our housing prices in this area, this decline in enrollment is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

0:20:01Randy Barber In fact, in the next 5 years, as we look forward, uh we are projected having about 1,700 fewer students than we have today for a total decline of 5,000 students since 2017. Rob, as we've talked about before, this is really something that we've been monitoring for some time and we've had several waves of action that we've taken. Tell us a little bit about the history.

History: declining enrollment, the Long Range Advisory Committee

0:20:24Dr. Rob Anderson Absolutely, Randy. This has been um an issue that's been permeating uh and uh throughout our district for the past several years. I want to say in in 2022 is when we started uh really getting more serious about a tread line that that we saw coming after the pandemic. Obviously, we saw some pretty significant drops and then a bump up. Um, however, uh, the trend and the projection and the 5-year projection continued to trend downwards.

0:20:50Dr. Rob Anderson And so we started with establishing a um a long range advisory committee uh which was a made up of about 20 individuals with varying backgrounds uh some that represent some of the of the schools in our district to really begin to talk about what are the ways as a community and as a school district do we want to move forward with declining enrollment. You know the first thing we didn't do is say we need to go ahead and and and work on a plan to close schools. Um this has actually been been been after a lot of work that has happened within our district. Uh we started by really creating a level of transparency.

0:21:26Dr. Rob Anderson So for folks who would go to our website and uh look at our enrollment dashboard, we've been tracking data for for multiple years. and long-range advisory committee actually developed a set of indicators to let um schools know if they were in the advisory phase, meaning that you're getting low, that you could be um a school in trouble with your enrollment to the engagement phase. We had one school two years ago, Heatherwood Elementary, that got into the engagement phase as part of that process.

0:21:57Dr. Rob Anderson Uh and then in October of last year in presenting this data, it became clear to our board of education, it really became clear to staff that a regional approach was was the approach that we needed to take that too many schools as we projected over the course of the next five years would enter into the engagement phase at the same time that it made most sense to move forward with uh with a with a regional approach. So between October and January, our team got together and tried to be really thoughtful on a process that would listen to people first and hear what they wanted from their schools before we moved forward with any plan.

0:22:36Dr. Rob Anderson And Randy, that's really different approach than a lot of school districts might take. Um, school districts might have some very limited engagement. Um, we engaged thousands of individuals. um almost a thousand through seven engagement sessions we did throughout our community where for three hours each we talked about the challenges and issues and asked people what are the things that you want from our schools what's most important um then we did surveying and we did surveying of our community members our staff um and and our parents and preceding all of this Dr. Dr.

0:23:14Dr. Rob Anderson Da Cruz, who at the time was deputy superintendent, and I went out to all of our elementary schools uh that were going to be impacted and asked, "What is it that you need to continue to do the great job that you're doing as a as as teachers to make sure that students are learning?" So, we collected a lot of information up front and that information, what our community asked us for, was really the driving force behind the proposal that we presented last Tuesday. um where the student experience matters and what parents talked about and I'm sure you're going to talk about this today um uh is is really what drove the decisions that we brought forward. So, it's been a long time coming.

0:23:53Dr. Rob Anderson Uh I mean the other things that I think that we did during that process is develop the BVSD's the place to be showcased. um as an effort to recruit back families who have not been opting into the Boulder Valley School District that live here but don't send their kids here. We estimate anywhere between 10 and 15% of families don't come to our schools that actually live in our community. Uh and then we also created the bright futures ahead enrollment preference where we actually marketed and recruited to folks outside of our district that worked in our district. So part of our community but not living here and gave them an enrollment preference. And I would say for a couple of years that was working.

0:24:34Dr. Rob Anderson But this past year, you know, prior to uh the meeting I just I described in October, uh our our enrollment just continued to drop in ways that uh we felt like we needed to act.

0:24:46Randy Barber I think it was really crucial that we have that committee, that long range advisory uh committee working with us. Right, Nicole? And when I think about, you know, the type of feedback that they were able to get, they let they led us to some of the things that we're talking about. They were like, "Have you guys thought about having uh, you know, a big engagement fair about the things that we're doing?" They they they thought deeply about the metrics that we had and they were also the ones that that sort of gave us a little bit of a we're not quite sure that this is moving at the right pace. Tell us a little bit more about that committee and and their benefit.

0:25:14Nicole Rajpal Yeah, I think the the Long Range Advisory Committee was established roughly four years ago like Dr. Anderson said. Um and in the beginning they t they really were looking at data coming up with schools that were in advisory or engagement and different things and along the way uh as as the data the data became clear that multiple schools were going to be coming into those phases at the same time and then they provided shifted their thinking a little bit and really suggested that the district and the board take more of a regional approach to this decision-making. They've really emphasized the need to consider transportation implications should we um make any changes to our schools and our boundaries.

0:25:48Nicole Rajpal They really doubled down in making sure that we bring the community along with us in meaningful ways and support through any transitions. Other things that the LRA community elevated was the need to keep equity at the center of any decision-making and making sure we're providing access to the variety of school experiences for all of our kids and that um that the resources that we are dedicating to schools was really consistent. So no matter where a kid went to school, they had similar educational experiences and opportunities as other students that are at different schools. And so that that feedback to the board was really important.

0:26:24Nicole Rajpal It was one some of the the information that allowed us to sort of pivot from that what people recall as the red and yellow schools on the maps to think to saying, "Okay, we do need to shift direction. We do need to think about this this problem more holistically and and take a systemwide approach, not a sightby-sight approach." And so, I really do uh appreciate all of the feedback that the LRA was able to give us throughout the past four years to help us get from where we were to where we are today.

0:26:52Nicole Rajpal And so again about a year ago as the superintendent was mentioning uh we realized you know the board came back to leaderships and said we think that there needs to be a more substantial plan.

Why the board asked for a plan

0:27:03Randy Barber You know what was that moment like and and what went into that decision?

0:27:06Nicole Rajpal I think over time we can it was partly the LRA feedback and over the past few years the board members board members consistently was we're hearing from the community concerns about every every decrease in students at their schools the the decrease in services we providing. So, getting a lot of emails about lack of full-time librarians, a lack of full-time counselors, concerns about uh advanced math pathways no longer being an option anymore, pulling back of gifted gifted and talented services, having wonderings about peer groups and ability grouping and things like that. So, we were really also hearing from our community loud and clear that as these populations were declining, our student populations were declining, schools were seeing the impact.

0:27:46Nicole Rajpal Uh, and our teachers did an outstanding job trying to keep it all together and meeting the needs of our kids. They really did. And it was with a lot of effort on their part that I don't think that parents necessarily saw, but our staff were really feeling to continue to, you know, put in the extra time and energy to make sure that the student experience was as good as it could be with the staffing decreases um or the student decreases. Another thing that we were hearing loud and clear was as we had to have more multi-age classrooms, that was no longer something that the people wanted to see.

0:28:20Nicole Rajpal And so there were a lot of changes at our sites that encourage that also helped the board make this decision that okay, we need to do something and now we we can't continue to let our schools stay small at this point anymore because it really was having significant impacts on the student and the teacher experiences.

0:28:35Randy Barber I'm going to talk about some of the high level goals that were set. But before I do that, you know, what she was just talking about, I think it's so important. We were really getting reports back from our schools in regards to, you know, this while still growing into the future, uh, you know, an issue that we really see, uh, you know, uh, something that we're not going to be able to to change track from. It's happening and it's it's getting worse that, you know, ultimately we were starting to get reports back of actual impacts right now. Right, Rob?

0:29:01Dr. Rob Anderson Yeah, I do I do think that that uh, you know, and we listen a lot. We get lots of emails throughout the course of the year and we have lots of folks that engage us and we do try to be listen and be responsive and you could tell that the experiences kids were getting started to become tied to how many kids were in their school that uh you know one of the things that we've done as a governance team is uh we take two moments two days out of each semester and we go on school visits and um I I think it was last fall we went and visited uh Foothill Elementary which was a three- round school and watched all the supports and resources that our staffing models allotted there.

0:29:44Dr. Rob Anderson Um and then we went to several other schools where that wasn't the case. And so uh you know we were getting to a point as Nicole had referred to earlier where you know depending upon how many kids went to your school was depending on on the the services and the experience you were getting and that's not what we want for our kids here in BVSD. We want all kids to get our very best which is which forces you into situate situations like we're in now which is very very difficult where we've actually proposed closing consolidating and reconfiguring schools.

0:30:15Dr. Rob Anderson And I know and Randy, I think we all know and we knew this Tuesday when we presented how hard this was going to be for our communities, especially those directly impacted and and certainly understand that and appreciate that and know how difficult this has been for for a lot of the members of our community.

0:30:34Randy Barber We're going to go through the plan in just a couple minutes here, but I did want to just again talk about the high level uh goals that were set as part of this out of the prompting that we had from the board and the all that feedback that we had. Um so first uh maintaining and improving learning outcomes for all students was was the first part. Distributing students so that all schools have the right level of students resources to maintain highle learning experiences. Stabilizing overall enrollment by retaining current students and attracting new students to the district. And then finally maximizing all efficiencies to address the ongoing fiscal challenges.

0:31:06Randy Barber And as part of that we also identified that the tools that we see school districts really using in this case. Um, you know, there's really no surprise if you've been watching this nationally. They're they're pretty much the same things, but the potential of adding new focus programs, uh, grade reconfigurations, relocation of focus programs, the consolidation of schools, and finally the closure of schools. Uh, there was one, however, that the board chose that we could not do. Uh, Nicole, tell me a little bit about that.

0:31:34Nicole Rajpal Yeah, from the outset of these conversations, the board was really clear that we cannot allow our schools to remain as small as they are. that we really do need to make sure we have schools that have at least two rounds, if not three rounds in them to make sure that we are meeting those goals to maintain the the level of learn educational experiences that are that we expect and that our students and families deserve.

What the community said it wanted

0:31:57Randy Barber All right. So, last spring we did go out to our community as you said and we started with our elementary educators and principles first because they're closest to the students that are impacted here. Um and uh we heard a few things from uh them as well as the community as you were talking about. Uh we went and had six engagement sessions in the large community. We did a Spanish uh focused uh uh uh session as well. Uh then we did the survey. Um let's talk about those three themes that we heard from them. Uh uh we heard that they would like smaller classes, fewer uh multi-grade classes as you were mentioning.

0:32:29Randy Barber Uh, and then also providing students with an increased differentiated supports and access to art, music, and PE teachers. I mean, this was pretty universal that we were hearing this from every slice of of who we talked to.

0:32:41Dr. Rob Anderson If if if you're a community member and you're interested on the data that we looked at, you know, I believe it was the June 9th work session where we actually at the end of that presentation, we have a data appendix and it'll show exactly what it is that you're saying, Randy, that regardless of the region or the group, parents, staff, community members, these three themes came up over and over again. You know, parents want their kids to get exactly what they need in our schools when they need it. They don't want to have to wait um till Thursday when the counselor is there, right?

0:33:19Dr. Rob Anderson If they're struggling with a math problem, they don't want to have to wait until the interventionist comes in in in a week's time, right? The the issues and challenges and supports that our students need need to be real time. And so, you know, as you think about class sizes and how that can impact that larger class sizes, and I think that we've talked about this over time, right, when you have really small schools, you just get very uneven class sizes. And we hear from parents all the time, I had 17 kids in my my second grade class. Now I have 30 30ome kids in my third grade class.

0:33:53Dr. Rob Anderson and you know that that what that prevents our teachers from doing is really giving that individualized attention that all students deserve and need. So um you know whe whether it's uh it's class size, whether it's making sure that our specialist teachers actually have a home in a school. I talk to specialist teachers all the time and you know what they would convey to me is that Rob, you know, we feel like strangers in our old building. Nobody knows who we are. or we see the kids every other week or every third week depending upon how many kids are in a school. It doesn't feel like we can make the connections.

0:34:28Dr. Rob Anderson A lot of our kids, their best connections are with those specialists, you know, whether it's music, art, or PE. That love for those subjects is what brings a lot of our kids to school and what helps motivate them. I mean, it's an important part of the school. So, we knew how important that was.

0:34:47Randy Barber And it's sort of an X-factor in the school's culture, too. I mean, when you've got a physical education teacher or a music teacher that can bring things to a whole schoolwide opportunity like assemblies or that kind of thing, it just it does change the dynamic.

0:35:00Randy Barberspeaker unconfirmed · check the video They're a really important part and and no matter where I went, there was no desire to have multi-grade classrooms because you didn't have enough kids in the school.

0:35:11Dr. Rob Anderson Right. Right now, we have Community Montessori that has a multi-grade model. I think there's some bilingual programming where some of that multi-grade might make sense. Yeah, Meadowlark I know has Meadowlark has done something which is really intentional but unintentional multi-grade classes. Um we had about six or seven throughout the course of the district last year. Every teacher we heard from those parents all year long um not meeting the needs of kids in the ways that we should

0:35:39Randy Barber and so so that feedback was really really clear. Okay. Okay. So, with that feedback in mind, those themes, you know, firmly implanted in our in our minds, uh, this summer, we we came together as a team. Uh, we analyzed enrollment trends, data about where students live compared to, uh, where where where the schools are located, building capacity, facility conditions, and long-term student needs. Talk to me about what those discussions were like. I I know it wasn't straightforward. It was a lot of debate and discussion.

How the proposal was built

0:36:05Dr. Rob Anderson Well, I think that um really complicated decisions and uh we're trying to be very very mindful of how we could bring something forward that would uh respect and honor what our parents asked us to do uh throughout the course of what was from you know February, March all the way till the last week of school when we had held that Spanish speaking uh session for our Spanish speakers because we didn't feel like that they were fairly represented. in the other sessions and we had interpreters at all the sessions and just um weren't getting the the folks who needed interpretation. Uh and and so so it was a decision that we we made very we took very seriously.

0:36:47Dr. Rob Anderson I mean it comes down to you know some some it's complicated but it's also can be explained pretty easily. We we have to watch where our kids our resident students live. We have to look at our five-year enrollment projections and we have to look where our where our schools are, right? And um those three factors um are I think the the most important factors in making um recommendations like this because you don't want to have to close any schools.

0:37:20Dr. Rob Anderson and Randy, whether it's the schools that we that we decided to close or consolidate the school buildings that are closing, whether it's the four we chose or if it was four different or five different, anyone whose school is closing, right, is going to have a lot of emotion around that. Regardless of the logical explanation that I could provide, right, our parents, our kids love their schools. They do. And and I can we as we see the feedback that's coming in I I can say that this is something that we w would have expected because all school districts who go through a closure or consolidation go through um this type of feeling and emotion from community and we're feeling that very strongly now.

0:38:02Dr. Rob Anderson We're trying to listen and answer questions and clarify and um but when you don't have resident populations of kids, right, and you don't have enrollment projections because because families and kids who live in a neighborhood aren't all choosing their school, uh and you look five years out and you can project and predict what's going to happen. uh we have demographers, we have staff that have been doing this for decades in terms of projecting enrollment. Um again, all that information has been transparent and public to our public, but it's still very very emotional.

0:38:39Randy Barber And so, uh what was the process like?

0:38:45Dr. Rob Anderson Gut-wrenching because we knew and understand how the feelings that people were going to have when we had to move forward. But we also, Randy, have a responsibility. I have a responsibility as superintendent to listen to our community at large, right? Who have been very very clear no matter where you go in our community, what it is they want from our student experience. And the way to get to that student experience is by having paying for less seats where kids aren't showing up, right? Birth rates are down, housing housing costs are high. We know all of those factors. Um, so just really really challenging.

0:39:21Dr. Rob Anderson Um, and so we I want to empathize with with those folks who are upset at where we are, but also know and understand that this is what our community when asked told us very clearly that we need to make sure that we're dealing with class sizes, we're dealing with the supports. We got to make sure that folks are able to be in the buildings and not part-time driving around our community because we don't have enough kids in schools.

0:39:50Randy Barber And as we were talking about uh the idea of you know approaching this regionally um you know there was as we're about to go through on the list here in regards to the the proposal um not one-sizefits-all um and also even with these changes it's not a perfect solution. I mean it it's kids do not come in perfectly shaped boxes. uh you know all these things are difficult at you know and that's something that we have to sort of recognize as we go into this as well.

0:40:17Dr. Rob Anderson Well you know ultimately we know that our community preferred consolidation versus closure right that was pretty clear in the feedback that we gathered but to be able to consolidate you have to have one school that's big enough for two schools to fit in.

0:40:29Randy Barber Absolutely

0:40:31Dr. Rob Anderson right. And so in the instances where we felt like we were able to do that, we did that. But in some instances, we had to use some of the other um methods that we had shared with the community of things that we may do. Uh but um you know, some schools just weren't big enough to fit two schools in and again the location of the schools. I will say one of the things that we heard from the feedback that really shaped what we were do what we did in this plan was the the general um lack of support for K-2s/3-5s and that was across the district and um you know I know that we were really clear with our community and with stakeholders that we didn't have a plan we were going to listen first and then act but like that was a piece of information that's if you know by not doing that then you have to start to think about different things and So you look at where your resident students actually reside.

0:41:22Dr. Rob Anderson You look at where your schools are located. You look at the capacity of schools and how can you combine communities together with the least amount of disruption possible. In some instances it was, you know, and you're going to talk about this, but Birch is going to go into Kohl, right? Um Mesa is going to go into Bear Creek, but in other instances, you know, Flatirons is going to go to two schools and Douglas is going to go into three schools. And so, um, you know, the locations, capacity, all of that played a factor.

The proposal, region by region

0:41:51Randy Barber I think you set me up well to start talking about the actual proposal. Uh, so let's briefly walk through it. Um, in Broomfield, the proposal is for school consolidation with Birch Elementary closing and the school communities merging in the Kohl building. In the Superior Louisville area, the team proposed re reconfigurations at both El Dorado and Monarch PK aids to create an elementary school at El Dorado building and the middle school at the at the Monarch building. At the middle level, the proposal would combine the current Monarch and El Dorado middle level attendance areas into one attendance area for both middle and high schools. The elementary level is a little bit more complicated with Monarch PK8's attendance area being divided amongst El Dorado, Fireside, and Superior elementary schools attendance areas.

0:42:32Randy Barber And then in Boulder, uh, Douglas Elementary would close. Its attendance boundaries would be split between Heatherwood, Eisenhower, and Coal Creek elementaryaries. Recognizing that Douglas is a newer building and well positioned on Baseline Road, we have chosen that High Peaks or we propose that High Peaks Elementary, BVSD's most in- demand focus school, will relocate to the Douglas campus, increasing access for students who live in the eastern part of our district. Then the plan proposes to relocate Community Montessori to the current High Peaks building, colllocating it with the community the Boulder Community School of Integrated uh studies or BCSIS. The community Montessori building would then close. Meanwhile, under this proposal, Flatirons Elementary would close and its attendance boundaries would be divided between Foothill and Whittier Elementary Schools.

0:43:20Randy Barber And finally, in Boulder, Bear Creek and Mesa Elementary Schools will consolidate with Mesa closing and merging and the merging of the school communities at the Bear Creek campus. Uh it's important to note uh to note that if approved by the board of education on September 22nd, these changes would take effect beginning the 2027 2028 school year. Um as I mentioned, we've received quite a few questions and so we're going to kind of dig into some of those uh areas that we've gotten, some of those themes that we've heard. Um and as you were kind of already alluding to, you know, a lot of the questions, you know, sort of refer to how the decision-m was was made, uh the data that was used.

0:43:57Randy Barber And so I do want to just mention uh right up front that in our board meeting uh our assistant superintendent of operational services Rob Price did a really good job of running for each of those uh actions uh in regards to rationale in there. Um you know but understandably this is difficult for the communities uh the schools uh schools impacted knowing that we've gotten a lot of those questions in regards to how the proposal was made. What would you really want folks to know at this point?

0:44:22Dr. Rob Anderson I would say that the the factual rationale behind all the decisions was was presented by by Rob Price. I thought he did a really good job. Um and uh you know if you if you to watch and rewatch those those uh this was a 70 plus slides that I think that we put in in that deck uh you would see and know um the reasoning behind each and every one of those moves. Um, and I would also say that if your school is closed, right, that it's very emotional and I think that folks are are looking for reasons why maybe that the plan that we presented isn't the right plan. We stand behind our proposal.

One proposal, no plan B

0:45:08Dr. Rob Anderson We considered One of the things that was very important to me, Randy, was when we presented, we also told people other things we studied. We didn't just come up with one idea and say this is it. We deliberated for months uh on what would make the most sense given given our community's feedback, you know, given what it is they've asked us to do. And then once we had some of those ideas, then going and looking at the facilities to see how many kids could fit in there. How would we fit our special education programs? That was feedback that we received.

0:45:43Dr. Rob Anderson H how would we make all of the pieces of the puzzle work in a way that would allow us to free up resources that will benefit students districtwide? Right? When we talk about three and a half to$4 million per year, in 10 years it's $40 million, 20 years it's $80 million. That we can reinvest back into those experiences, lower class sizes, making sure that we have the right supports in our schools. That was really, really important to us. But there's lots of pieces to come together uh that that made this proposal the one that we brought forward.

0:46:17Nicole Rajpal The other thing I really just I think it's important to emphasize is we have a lot of empty seats in this school district. We have far more capacity than we do students attending our schools. And some of the goals at the outset were really to get to two round schools, three round schools to decrease the amount of open seats. And I know sometimes looking at the data that was provided or even the data on the screen showing us getting to over 75% overall utilization. I think meeting that's a great step.

0:46:44Nicole Rajpal And while that shift between 68 and 75 might not look like a lot we have to remember that that's 1100 seats that we've we will be potentially be removing from the city of Boulder and then an extra 800 seats from the rest of the district. That's almost 2,000 empty seats that we will be potentially taking out of the mix. That is a lot of capacity we're reducing even though it doesn't necessarily look like it when we're looking at percentages. And that's real impact on families and that's why we're hearing from the community about how hard this is with it being my school because everybody loves their school. And at some we had to find a way to start decreasing capacity somewhere.

0:47:22Nicole Rajpal And so this is a very when you look at it the number of vacant seats that we'd potentially be removing that's very significant.

0:47:32Randy Barber I know that um you know everybody looks at this a little bit differently. Some people uh say may maybe we go too far. Some people say maybe we don't go far enough. Uh certainly people have asked a lot of the questions that we've gotten are about tweaking the plan about the idea of you know could we remove this school change this one in that kind of thing. as we look at this, you know, this really is the proposal that we're moving forward with. Um, and and you know, you feel, you know, I mean, that's that's what we're going to be voting on in the 22nd.

0:48:00Dr. Rob Anderson Uh, the last time we went through this, Randy, 20ome years ago, the district took a very different approach. And I only know that because I continue to hear about it and I've heard about it over the past four years. And what the district did is they they rolled out a bunch of different plans which pitted schools against one another. Close this school. No, keep our school. We're better than that school. You had people in microphones literally staring at each other telling each other, you should, you know, close them. We're better than them. No. You know, that is not productive. And as we decided how to move forward, we came forward with one proposal that the board will take action on um on September 22nd.

0:48:39Dr. Rob Anderson There's not a plan B. This is the proposal. We think that we were really thoughtful. We we we listened to the feedback. We considered the complexity of all of the elements that go into making decisions like this. And so there's one proposal to respond to. And um I think that it's different than the last time that the district did this. But uh the nightmare stories that I've heard from and the lessons we've hopefully learned and some of the angst really became from making changes at the last minute,

0:49:17Randy Barber right? That you know once you put a proposal forward like if you make one change then you impact a whole new set of individuals,

0:49:25Dr. Rob Anderson right? And so we've proposed one plan that the board uh will consider that study then action and and that's how we'll move forward.

School size, data, sustainability and walkability

0:49:35Randy Barber I do want to dig into some of the specific questions that we've got. Obviously I probably won't get as deep as people would like me to but um at least on the theme level there have been a number of questions in regards to the size of our schools and what you know folks being worried that their schools may not be large enough. You know specifically with like Superior and Bear Creek that kind of thing. uh they are you know certainly uh higher enrolled schools um but I I know our team has really looked carefully at that.

0:49:57Dr. Rob Anderson No, I think we have I think we've studied that. You know, we try to be as transparent as we can. So, if you notice the the the um projected enrollment comes through a range, right? And so, I think that um you're going to have schools when you consolidate schools, schools will be more full filled. And I do think that moving forward, declining enrollment, I mean, not declining enrollment, open enrollment processes are the levers in which we can use to make sure that schools fit with inside their buildings. Um, for the past few years, for the most part, outside of some charter schools and maybe focus schools, we haven't had weight lists. We've worked really hard to clear those weight list.

0:50:36Dr. Rob Anderson Folks will still have lots of choice, lots of choice amongst a lot of really high performing schools that provide different things for families and kids. Um, but there may be some schools where open enrollment isn't as as wide open as it as it might um have been prior to the consolidation.

0:50:55Randy Barber I know that we were talking about data. Um, I know that there uh, as you mentioned, uh, some of the previous presentations that we had had data in it. People would like to see more data. Um, I know that on our resilient schools website, we'll be putting more up there. Um, so that will be helpful to folks. I just wanted to make a mention of that. Um, also just want to take a quick moment is before we dig into more of the themes that we've heard, uh, the idea of, uh, kind of that what's coming ahead. Uh, and then I'm going to relay that back at the end.

0:51:20Randy Barber But, uh, we've got, uh, a number of meetings coming up as as we were talking about a second ago. So, uh, September 8th, uh, we've got a board meeting. That will be an opportunity for folks to provide public comment to the board in regards to their thoughts on this on this proposal. And then on the 22nd, again, uh, we'll be, uh, coming back for public comment. And then again, uh, possibly a board decision on that. Um, as we've heard more of the questions, another one that had come up is in regards to uh, we as a school district have had a huge focus on sustainability. I know the city of Boulder also uh, you know, really is focused on walkability and that kind of thing.

0:51:54Randy Barber um you know, as we've made these difficult decisions, uh talk to me a little bit about how that aligns with our sustainability efforts.

0:52:00Dr. Rob Anderson Well, I think that everywhere we could, we tried to combine schools that weren't that far from each other, so you could still have some of that walkability. Um and so in in in some instances, we were able to do that better than in other instances. Um, I think that that walkability and sustainability is a priority, but I think affordability in our community needs to really become a priority, right? If if if families can't afford to have kids um or choose not to have kids and and families with kids can't afford to move here, right? This isn't an issue that's going away. And so, yes, sustainability, yes, walkability, and um if kids walk to a school that doesn't have what they need, right? Is that the solution?

0:52:46Dr. Rob Anderson And I would suggest that it isn't, right? There are some instances where we're able to do that better than in other instances, but our obligation and and and if it's not walkable, we've got transportation and we'll be able to provide transportation and busing to those communities. And hopefully that fits in with our electric buses, our propane buses, and to our sustainability efforts, right? But affordability is is I would I would imagine that this really difficult decision will start to really hopefully put some energy around what are we doing as a community around affordability for families because that's really, really important.

0:53:25Randy Barber So that actually brings up a question. Oh, I'm sorry.

0:53:27Nicole Rajpal No, that's okay. I was just going to add that walkability is something that we did that was looked at and the schools that were prioritized to remain open really were the p pockets of our community where we had the most resident students and the people that we the largest number of students who were within that walkable range also. So while some people will may not be able to walk to school anymore, we are making a concerted effort to ensure to maximize the number of students who remain walkable in some of these decisions.

0:53:54Randy Barber Perfect. in considering that resident population and we'll talk a little bit more about the services in a second but off of what you were just saying I do think this might be a good opportunity you know naturally I think people want to know if we're talking about closing schools do we already have a game plan in regards to what are going to happen to those buildings and I think the follow-up question that I've gotten certainly is the idea um you know I know that there's been some efforts in the state and otherwise to think about you know turning uh school facilities that are not being used into housing um at this point I know we've talked to our municipalities to a certain extent But where are we at with that process?

What happens to the buildings

0:54:26Dr. Rob Anderson Um, it's impossible to get too far deep into that process if you don't know what's going to happen, right? We've made a proposal. The board will act on that on September 22nd. But I do think we're going to have to engage with community and municipalities, right? On what it is, what's a good community use for our schools, right? You know, do some of them stay within the district? Do we we find better uses for some of those for community? I don't really know. I know that we will be open to having those conversations. I would say, you know, before presenting this plan, right, we presented to every one of our town city councils to let them know what's happening.

0:55:09Dr. Rob Anderson Um, and I think that we'll circle back to those municipalities as well to begin to think, okay, now we have these facilities. What is there any good use of these facilities? And um and I think that's important and I think that that that worry Randy is driving some people to push against the plan that um keep the school open because at least we know then what in our in our neighborhood what this building is going to be used for and I can understand that. Um, but I do think that we'll have to be very mindful and thoughtful as we think about how do you repurpose buildings or or what do you do, right?

0:55:44Dr. Rob Anderson Um, you know, post a closure consolidation to be mindful to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, but also to be good neighbors, to be um be respectful and and honor um our community.

0:55:59Randy Barber I think this came up in one of our previous shows, but you know, there is always uh you know, the question in regards to looking way into the future. You know, again, the these tend to be cyclic situations, right? Uh right now, as we look as far into the future as we can see, we see declining enrollment. Uh but obviously, we need to kind of keep in mind, you know, the future of our our community as well. I know that that's part of what we've been talking about for sure.

0:56:23Dr. Rob Anderson AB: Absolutely. But if things don't become more affordable

0:56:27Randy Barber here,

0:56:27Dr. Rob Anderson right, that cycle that we're referring to where, you know, you have, you know, folks who are aging in place, they, you know, they move on that then we have, you know, new housing, but if it's if it's so expensive that families can't afford to live here, right? This will be an issue that's that's going to continue to press into the future. And

0:56:46Nicole Rajpal to your point, I mean, state demographer through 2050, we're showing declines. And as the schoolboard member, our job is to make sure we're good stewards of our facilities and our budget and and um we need to make some choices now to say to continue to provide the programming that our students deserve to make sure we're managing our resources well today knowing that things ahead could potentially change, but the forecast doesn't look good for some time.

0:57:12Randy Barber Okay. Thank you. Um I do want to touch on uh supports for students. So assuming that the proposal is approved, uh you know, again, change is incredibly difficult. Uh we've got some resources that we're going to be supporting students with, uh as we go through that process, right? I mean, obviously beyond moving furniture and helping those teachers and that kind of stuff get the stuff into the building, there's there's some other things that we're going to be doing to help students.

Supports for students; open-enrollment priority

0:57:34Dr. Rob Anderson Yeah. I think that that um the first challenge is developing the proposal, right? The second challenge is for the board to wrestle with the feedback that they receive and and and move forward. Then the third challenge is after a proposal if it's if it's accepted. That's the third challenge and maybe the biggest challenge, right? Because we're going to have to help families transition, right? We're going to have to communicate. We're going to have to provide a high level of service, right? To to let families who don't maybe don't want to go to their um new neighborhood school. There's lots of choice.

0:58:06Dr. Rob Anderson And we're really going to try to customize experiences that a bring communities together like so schools that are combining make sure all kids feel welcome. Uh and then also for families who say gosh you know I think I want to go through open enrollment and see what else is out there. We're working on creating those experiences as well.

0:58:24Randy Barber I do know that we've gotten questions in regards to and I think it it's probably a little bit like what are we going to do with the buildings question but uh folks that want to make sure that we're thinking about the naming of the buildings uh uh you know can we not have it be you know the two you know can we come up with something new these are all things that will be in the future as well we're really considering how to bring those communities together

0:58:45Dr. Rob Anderson yeah as communities come together I'd really want to empower them to think through the the benefits and challenges of doing something like that um I think that individuals have opinions but it's collective opinions of a community that help drive these types of decisions in schools. And so we would want to want to work with with school communities as they as they sorted those things out.

0:59:05Randy Barber Obviously all kinds of factors with history and all that kind of stuff as well. Um I do know you you were kind of touching on this already, but enrollment. So one of the proposals that we have uh

0:59:15Nicole Rajpal open enrollment

0:59:16Randy Barber open enrollment. Okay, that's right. Sorry. Thank you for being helping me be clear about that. uh one of the proposals is uh higher priority for for the students that are impacted by this in the open enrollment process. Talk to me a little bit about what's going to happen there if if if approved.

0:59:29Dr. Rob Anderson Yep. So, so this is something that that um that we thought a lot about and um for our families who feel like they need to if you know if they're impacted if their schools are closed, right, and they're a student at that school, if they don't want to go to the new neighborhood school assigned, um how can we prioritize them in the open enrollment process? And so what we've proposed, and we'll probably have more details on this on the September 8th meeting in terms of some of the nuance because we could go through each and every scenario here.

1:00:00Dr. Rob Anderson It might get a little confusing for folks, you know, but the big idea is if your school is closed that you would move up to the top priority in open enrollment um and then be able to choose from the schools that that had space, which is the vast majority of our schools. As you saw, we're only at 75% collective capacity. So, uh, there's lots of room in most places, uh, as a way to allow families to be empowered to figure out what it is that's best for their family and best for their kid if it's not their new neighborhood school. Um, and uh, and I think that this is really, really important.

1:00:35Dr. Rob Anderson Again, this would be a proposal that the board would have to approve and act on. Uh but we feel like that for families who are really having a hard time with their, you know, their new neighborhood school or want a fresh start, whatever the reason may be, they don't have to tell us they're going to get the first um first uh um level of priority in open enrollment to be able to choose.

1:00:56Randy Barber And I don't want to belabor it too much, but just at the high level, I know that we've gotten a lot of questions in regards to exactly how this will work. So again, I think plenty of room for good communications moving forward here. But the idea of if you're a neighborhood uh student, you go into, you know, one of the schools is one of your neighborhood schools. If those attendance boundaries get redrawn, then you go to your new uh neighborhood school as a first. Again, you have got that open enrollment.

1:01:16Randy Barber Um if you open enroll from the school district uh from another place in the school district, then um there's a kind of a little bit of separation between if you're going into a place where again that's happened, then you would open enroll at that place using that enrollment uh priority. Correct. my you follow me. This is where it gets complicated a little bit.

1:01:37Dr. Rob Anderson I would say that if if you're um in your neighborhood school, your neighborhood school gets closed, then you would be automatically enrolled to where your new attendance boundary is. And if you didn't want to choose that, then you would have the open enrollment preference, that number one preference to be able to choose a different school. If you had openen enrolled into a school from your neighborhood school, your neighborhood school would go back to where that you're your assigned school, but you would still have that num that that top preference to be able to choose another school if you didn't want to return to your neighborhood school that you open enrolled away from.

1:02:14Dr. Rob Anderson Then there's a whole group of individuals who have open enrolled from outside of the district. So if you've opened and rolled out from outside of the district, you don't have a neighborhood school to go back to, right? But you would still if you had been in the district would get that top preference because the school that you had come to have closed. Uh so I think that those are the big categories. Um you know, again trying to really cater to folks whose schools have closed to give them choice on where it is that they want to go.

1:02:44Nicole Rajpal And can you clarify just the for in or families that are attending a focus school present? So if you're attending a focus school right now, you would still have that opportunity to stay at that focus school, but if it's no longer in a location, then you could go back into the open enrollment preference, exercise that right for open enrollment and and do something different.

1:03:06Dr. Rob Anderson That's correct.

1:03:07Randy Barber Yeah. And naturally, people have all kinds of questions about siblings and that kind of thing. that would all operate under the open enrollment rules which that's a priority although again lower if under the proposal than all the open enrollment students that uh all the impacted students uh and where that would be. So

1:03:22Nicole Rajpal and I also just want to clarify again the board hasn't acted on this. That's right. So, it's still a proposal. Uh, and I I really understand all of until the board takes action on whether it's the policy change or the decision on what we're going to do with the schools, there's a lot there's going to be a lot of unanswered questions because we can't provide a lot of these answers till we know what the board is going to do. And I understand how hard that not knowing is. And I understand that it's going to be really hard to sit in that space for the next three weeks or so until we get from study into action.

1:03:55Nicole Rajpal And I just want to acknowledge that that is out there. And I I get that. And um and we're going to do what we can to help through that phase. But a lot of these questions will be answered once the board takes action.

1:04:10Randy Barber Absolutely. Um, I think another area that I really appreciate that there's such a heart in our community for is as a school's impacted, uh, families are thinking about the teachers at that school and how that will work. I know that we're going to have supports around those teachers. Um, and I think one of the things that we're also proposing is that our open enrollment period moves a little bit because ultimately the placement of uh, of our teachers uh, is going to be related to that open enrollment. So, we need as much time as possible to get our teachers to um to the to to the to to the best fit, you know, per contract language.

1:04:43Dr. Rob Anderson Certainly, you know, Randy, if the proposal moves forward, I could anticipate um now every year that we decline in enrollment, we do shrink the number of people that we have. But but with the the dollars that we would recover, I could anticipate lots of teacher vacancies and lots of choice for for our educators who um whose school has been closed. So, uh I do think that to do that right, you need more time.

1:05:14Dr. Rob Anderson And so we will be moving the close of the open enrollment window to right before winter break as opposed to right after winter break because we're open during winter break, Randy, and our team has that time to work on this to help really create a smooth transition and really move our our um our placement timeline up several weeks uh by making that move. So yes, that's something that we've decided to do.

1:05:36Randy Barber Perfect. Um, another thing that we've uh heard about was part of the proposal towards the end of it was about our dual language schools. And so, uh, unlike the other ones that I mentioned, uh, we weren't quite ready to take action on it yet, but we recognize that something, uh, some attention is needed there. Uh, tell us a little bit about what what we're looking to do on that.

Dual language schools

1:05:57Dr. Rob Anderson Sure. I mean, you have, uh, right in the heart of Boulder, you have Uni Hill, you have Columbine, you have Pioneer, which wasn't even a part of this process. You have Casey Middle, you've got you've you have uh Manhattan Middle, you have Angevine Middle. Um we have a lot of programs. And I think as we started to begin to assess how those schools could fit into the proposal that we were moving forward, we realized that we hadn't done the level of engagement that we needed to around the program itself.

1:06:26Dr. Rob Anderson And then when we started looking at some of the outcomes of the program, what we realized is our dual language programs, kids who were studying, spending so much time, effort, energy, passion studying K through five weren't necessarily going to our middle schools that had programs and those students in those programs weren't necessarily continuing studies in high school. and it wasn't resulting in the Seal of Biliteracy which was is the is the certification we want for our kids who graduate to be able to display to the world that they're bilingual. So um once we started to uncover all that we realized that we needed to to take a deeper dive um and we really need to think about the implications of our programming.

1:07:11Dr. Rob Anderson What do we want that to look like? What do we want that to look like K through 12? and didn't feel like we had had done enough due diligence or had enough information to make any decisions on any of those on those schools as part of this proposal.

1:07:26Randy Barber So, I know that we've gotten some feedback from folks uh you know that that feel like uh they may be a little upset that that that decision isn't made now because then it kind of puts them in a little bit of a waiting period, right? And so, as all these moves are going on, people might choose those schools, but then there's a little bit of, you know, uh consternation about whether or not to choose them. What would you tell them? Why why wait? I mean, again, we're not quite ready for that decision, but it's but it's still an important one that's coming. I

1:07:51Dr. Rob Anderson I think we owe it to the parents, the kids, the educators to be really thoughtful when we make decisions, decisions we can stand behind. Our decisions should be grounded in what it is that that that our community wants for our kids. And if I can't answer those questions, while while people might want me to move faster than that, I can. Right. when I make proposals to the to the board of education, regardless whether it's this or the many other decisions that we make um on Tuesday uh nights throughout the course of of the school year, there's thought, there's intention behind those things, right? Um you know, we care about our community. We care about our kids. I care about our educators.

1:08:31Dr. Rob Anderson We want to make sound decisions. And when you rush to make decisions and you haven't put the thought and time and effort into listening to people and collecting the data, the data, you make bad decisions and that's not really something I'm interested in.

Closing thoughts and what's next

1:08:46Randy Barber I do want to thank both of you guys for being here today and I know that again you guys have been looking at your inboxes and all that kind of thing. Uh is there one final thought or a final question or whatever that you'd want to address?

1:08:57Dr. Rob Anderson Sure, Randy. First of all, thank you. Thanks for for having us here. Um, thanks for asking us, you know, difficult questions around something that's certainly really emotional for our community. Um, and I would just hope that people know and understand that, um, we understand how hard this has been for folks whose schools have been has been impacted. you know, some of the things that we talked about today, you know, hope to be able to support those individual families and and um and their kids as we transition to um to to to from proposal to plan if the board does act on this on September 22nd.

1:09:30Dr. Rob Anderson But I know that that this isn't easy and we're getting a lot of technical questions and I know and understand that even if I give pure technical answers, it's still the the the emotion that is there, the love for our schools is so deep. And so I want to thank our educators, thank thank our family, thank our community for all the support they provide to our schools and know and understand that that we understand that this has been difficult. We're going to do everything we can to answer many of of the questions that have been coming through. Um but again, we've done done our due diligence.

1:10:10Dr. Rob Anderson The proposal that we have presented, we feel like is the best solution given what of our what our community has asked us to do and our board has asked us to do.

1:10:19Randy Barber But it doesn't make it easy. I think one of the things that you mentioned actually made me made me remember that today actually we learned that uh that our schools are actually for the third year in a row accredited with distinction.

1:10:29Dr. Rob Anderson Yeah. So uh coming in the news hopefully tomorrow uh for the third year in a row BVSD is the highest performing district in the metro Denver metro accredited with distinction. We're actually the sixth highest performing district in the entire state of Colorado 184 district. It's the highest and it's the best we've ever performed. But we want to keep it that way, Randy. And to be able to keep it that way, we've got to give the educators what they need so they can give the kids what they need so our kids can continue to learn and grow and be successful.

1:11:01Randy Barber Yeah. And when we have, you know, obviously every school is doing so well when they when when folks will bring up that that amount. Yes. All of our schools are doing doing quite well. So, um Nicole, what else would you like to add to the conversation?

1:11:13Nicole Rajpal I just this is a really hard change for our school district and it is really exceptionally hard for the families that are impacted. At the end of our community engagement sessions last year, I I remember the in the daily camera they posted a quote from a parent that we know we need to close schools. We just hope it's not ours. And I think it was the right thing to do to engage our community early before we talked about specific schools to understand what was needed, what are what were the best hopes for our school district and then have this plan to support families after this transition is made.

1:11:43Nicole Rajpal I know it is hard and I know it's a natural desire and reaction to want to do everything you can to to save your child's school because our schools are so beloved. Um and so I just I like I know this is really hard for our community. And I know no matter what school we have to close or consolidate, we would have the same information coming back to us like please what about this school? Anything other than my school?

1:12:08Nicole Rajpal Uh, and so I I recognize that and I know it's really I I I feel for the families that are going that will potentially be displaced and I know we need fewer schools than we have today and we need to do what we can to get to that. So are the we are able to provide the conditions that are students and staff deserve. And so thank you to everybody that's reached out. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I know it is hard if we can't provide the answers you want. And Dr. point, sometimes the answer that you just want is I won't close your school. Um, as he shared, this is the one plan coming before the board.

1:12:46Nicole Rajpal And so, we're just going to have to take that into consideration um in the in the coming weeks ahead. So, we hear you even if we don't aren't responding to all the emails or giving you the answers that you want or that you feel like you're hoping for. Um, and I know this is hard and I know uh while it may not seem like it right now, I do anticipate, my colleagues anticipate after we get through this period of change, which is difficult, we will have we're better equipped to provide those learning opportunities that our children and our staff really deserve.

1:13:20Randy Barber Well, again, I just want to thank you two for being here. again the superintendent representing the proposal that was made uh Nicole Rajpal our board president uh you know really representing the process that's that's about to happen here um so I do want to just remind folks about the timeline that's coming up so again last Tuesday August 25th we had the proposal uh coming up on September 8th uh we will have public uh comment uh in regards to the proposal we'll also be talking as you mentioned about uh you know uh board policy and some other things that uh that we'll be deliberating on uh That's all in a public meeting. You guys could, you know, watch and hear hear that discussion live.

1:13:55Randy Barber Um, and then again on September 22nd, we'll be coming back uh for for final vote after public hearing. Do you want any any other words in regards to what that process will look like or or obviously the board is really dedicated to hearing hearing what people have to say and

1:14:11Nicole Rajpal Right. Yeah. I think that that really is the process. Depending on how many people we have signing up for public comment at any of those meetings might kind of change how our agenda flows a little bit. Um, but you're welcome to attend in person. You're welcome to tune in online, share your feedback. Uh, we are listening. Another great resource place to share your feedback is on the form. A lot of our questions came out of that online form today. Uh, and I would say continue to visit the resilient schools website. We're putting more information out there as time progresses. It's a great place to have some resource to have your questions answered. Um, so yeah.

1:14:48Randy Barber Thank you. Thank you, board president Nicole Rajpal, Superintendent Rob Anderson, and she stole my thunder because I just was going to mention the resilient schools website. That's at bbsd.org resilient-schools. Um, and I just want to mention that we'll have uh the questions that we're receiving through our forum. We're working on FAQs right now that will be posted there. Um, we'll obviously uh uh you know, continue to be updating folks. We've got our impact uh our declining enrollment impacts newsletter that will be coming out as well. So, stay tuned. We'll have more information. And then again, tune in to the the board meetings. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have a great day.

1:15:21All Thanks everyone.