How long, and where have you lived in Boulder County?

I have lived in Boulder County for over 40 years, at various locations in the City of Boulder.

What schools have you attended throughout life?

My entire education has been in public schools. My K-12 education was in the Denver Public Schools (Bradley Elementary, Hamilton Junior High, Thomas Jefferson High School). I earned both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. I have also taken technical classes at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden.

What additional training or education have you received relevant to the Boulder County School Board?

Over the years, as a scientist, manager, volunteer, community activist, and parent, I have received training in a variety of areas that are relevant to being on the school board. These areas include 1) project management, 2) cultural diversity, 3) personnel supervision, 4) violence in the workplace, 5) power and privilege, 6) ethics and implicit bias, and 7) promoting a culture of respect, fairness and inclusivity. I have also taken formal and informal trainings that have helped me to recognize and understand my privilege.

List the Boulder County boards, civic or volunteer activities in which you have been involved and the dates of service.

• Boulder County AIDS Project (Board of Directors, 1985-1991)

• Boulder County Health Department, Only One Project (1987-1988)

• City of Boulder Valuing Diversity Project (1994-1996)

• Community Foundation Open Door Fund Grants Committee (1997-1998)

• University of Colorado President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity (2005-2006)

• Boulder Valley School District, District Parent Council (2007-2008)

• Geological Society of America, Rocky Mountain Section Secretary (2008-2013)

• Geological Society of America, Councilor (2013-2017)

• Boulder County Democratic Party, precinct leader (1996-present)

• Boulder County Democratic Party, Outreach & Inclusion Team (2017-2023)

• Out Boulder County, Development Committee (2019)

• Out Boulder County, Capital Campaign Committee (2020-present)

• Out Boulder County, Advocacy and Public Policy Committee (2022-present)

Why do you want to hold the office for which you are running?

I am running because I’m a passionate and ardent supporter of public schools and want to ensure that all kids have access to an excellent public-school education in the future. My passion grew out of my own experiences in the public schools, as well as the public-school education of my child (BSVD graduate). I attribute many professional and personal successes to my public-school education along with experiences being a BVSD parent and having the complete experience as a parent in BVSD (elementary, middle, and high school). My motivation to run also grows out of my decades of experience being deeply engaged in local community organizations focused on social justice work, including non-profits (BCAP, Out Boulder), government (municipality, county, state), as well as in the BVSD. My community involvement has led me to develop strong connections to the community, which in turn has helped me to recognize and acknowledge many of the challenges and barriers faced by some BVSD kids and their families. Finally, I am motivated as a gay man to bring a heretofore unspoken voice of diversity and life experiences to the school board, which is crucial given what is happening across the US. My leadership skills and life experiences will be brought to bear as a productive board member.

Will you be able to meet the time commitments of the office? Yes.

Do you support following Public Health guidelines for child safety like vaccinations? If you don’t then what are your reasons and alternatives?

Yes, I fully support Public Health guidelines for child safety, including vaccinations as well as other health-related guidelines. As a parent, I made sure that my child was vaccinated as per health guidelines, Colorado law, and recommendations by our family doctors. I believe in school readiness, including vaccinations against preventable diseases.

How would you promote diversity among staff in BVSD, and what is the best way to bring more inclusion and responsible diversity into the schools?

Having an inclusive and diverse staff that better represents the entirety of the BVSD student population requires continued and genuine commitment from the district on ongoing work toward equity and inclusion. To that end, BVSD has been working at increasing the diversity of its staff. Of the new administrators recently hired, 26% are persons of color, and there have been strides forward in the hiring of persons of color from the BVSD Educator Fair. And of course, having staff who themselves are from marginalized communities is also key to both promoting district-wide equity and inclusion as well as providing students from marginalized groups with support, encouragement, and hope. I believe that hiring and, importantly, retaining a diverse staff ultimately requires that the workplace environment be safe and welcoming for everyone. As a board member, I would push to further expand staff diversity and charge BVSD administration with developing the necessary workplace environment to support these new hires. Another mechanism to support staff diversity is to ensure that staff have and maintain excellent connections with families. I support and would actively promote the continued work of the BVSD Youth Equity Council as well as the various committees nested within Theme 3 of the Strategic Plan—Community and Family Partnerships. These committees are critical in strengthening the school-family connection and they help to promote diversity and nurture inclusion.

Briefly, how does your belief system align with BVSD’s Strategic Plan?

My belief system is closely aligned to the BVSD Strategic Plan, and in fact I have spent some of my volunteer time working to those same goals but outside of the strategic plan. For example, while serving on the BVSD District Parent Council, I played a pivotal role in expanding the BVSD’s nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity/expression. As a community member, I worked collaboratively and strategically throughout 2022 to get progressive social studies standards passed by the CO Board of Education. These two examples are both fully in alignment with Themes 3 (Community & Family Partnerships) & 4 (Positive & Inclusive Culture) of the plan. And my platform (neil4bvsd.com) also aligns with BVSD’s Themes 1 (Challenging, Engaging, and Relevant Instruction) and 2 (Customized Supports). Although application of the District’s Multi-tiered System of Support and Data Driven Instruction, is helping to identify students who need addition learning support, I advocate for understanding the processes that allow teachers to teach well and students to learn optimally.

The mountain schools in BVSD are different from the other schools within the district. How will you become familiar with them, and how will you best support them so they can thrive in their own environments?

The Boulder Valley School District is a geographically huge district, spanning across almost 500 square miles. In addition, BVSD schools include those in urban settings to those in rural (plains and mountain) settings. This affords the district some unique opportunities but also presents some unique challenges. As it pertains to mountain schools, I have been engaged with families who live in the mountains, some of whom have sent their kids to mountain schools and others whose kids attended schools largely in Boulder. So, I’m somewhat familiar with the opportunities and challenges that mountain families face, including the frequent turnover of key administrators and somewhat limited after-school student support and activities. Engaging further with families from mountain communities is my favored approach to support them and develop strategies to address their unique challenges. As a board member, people may reach out to me to discuss matters of importance to them; but my life experiences have taught me that proactively soliciting their input is a better mechanism to find out what is really on their minds. But the entire district, regardless of geographic location, will need to focus on the thorny issue of declining enrollment. Because declining enrollment is such a significant district-wide issue, I believe it is imperative that the board be exceedingly transparent and candid with the entire BVSD community. Thus, I recommend that regular BVSD board meetings be held in schools around the district, including in the mountains, to make it easy and accessible for constituents to share their thoughts and concerns.

If you could ask all of the candidates one question, what would it be?

How much time can you really afford to devote to being an active and productive member of the school board?

For additional information, email Neil at neil4bvsd@gmail.com