Kirk C. Watkins, Boulder. The Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) District Accountability Committee (DAC) meeting took place on February 1, 2021, via Zoom. 

The DAC Chairperson, Ralph Frid, called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. 

A motion to approve the minutes from the January 5, 2020, meeting was approved.

Kitty Sargent, board liaison for the BVSD Board of Education (BOE) gave an update on the board’s activities. Contract negotiations with BVSD will begin on March 1, and board members will complete consensus training as needed. BOE negotiates with the union by consensus, which is non-contentious. 

Graduation rates are up to 91.1 percent, which includes the historically challenged students. Dropout rate dropped from .8 percent to .4 percent. 

The board announced Nederland High School CTE Pathways classes, which are posted on the BOE board docs. 

They are continuing to review the strategic financial plan, and heard from CBOC, the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Sargent reported that the BOE has spent $625 million and completed sixty projects in six years. CBOC provided options for the New Vista project. 

BOE adopted policy KF, which is a facilities usage policy which will move before and after school care to BVSD community schools, and away from the Y.M.C.A. DAC members asked for clarification about discontinuing the contract with the Y.M.C.A. Sargent stated that BVSD could no longer subsidize them by giving them a lower rate on childcare in the schools. 

Question about school age care being handled in schools, and not using the Y.M.C.A., and how much the district would have to scale up to meet the demands. Dr. Anderson said the current Y.M.C.A. needed renegotiation because it didn’t conform to district guidelines. 

Question asked about early start times for elementary age students, and parents not supporting the decision, is the decision finalized? Dr. Rob Anderson, Superintendent of BVSD, said the decision was not finalized. He said the school times would be set based on the best situation for all parties.

A parent asked Sargent about the concerns of secondary students. Sargent acknowledged parents would like their children back in school, but no solid date yet.

Dr. Rob Anderson presented the Superintendent’s Report. Teachers and other staff that work directly with students had been prioritized in the vaccination process, totaling 3400 staff. By mid-February, 70 percent of Boulder County should be vaccinated, which would meet Governor Polis’s set goal. Fulfillment of this goal is dependent on doses delivered too. CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) expected to clarify prioritization and processes. 

Across the district, approximately 66 percent are learning in person and 33 percent are online. Efforts will be made to catch students up using a multi tiered system of support.

Projected reenrollment numbers for next year to be released in six to eight weeks.

The district is in the process of finding paths forward for students participating in sports with potential for spectators. 

A question was asked about teacher support for vaccinations. Boulder Community Health to hold Saturday clinics, district is urging teachers with opportunity for vaccination to go immediately. Available vaccination numbers are currently not known. 

Dr. Anderson said there had not been school closures due to outbreaks and are closely following state guidelines. 

Question was asked about recruitment of classroom monitors. Dr. Anderson said they had been really helpful, and that there were still openings for volunteers.

Rob Price, assistant superintendent of operations and Robbyn Fernandez, east area assistant superintendent, presented equitable school days. 

She said the equal school day conversation had been going on for many years and wanted to guarantee consistency for all students. There is a thirteen-day discrepancy across the district that needed to be balanced. Efforts are made to include specials and other socializing opportunities for students. Longer school days would allow for completion of all priorities for students and teachers. 

Previously, transportation costs stymied efforts to accomplish this goal. Another consideration is late start, which has been in practice since the early 2000’s. This gives educators the opportunity to stay up to date in professional “best practices” and current research, which allows teachers to develop professionally. 

Rob Price spoke next, giving a timeline of high school “bell times,” based on community feedback collected in 2018 and implemented in 2019, and the decision-making process that had taken place. 

Recommendations are for elementary schools to run from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., middle schools from 8:40 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., and high schools run from 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. There will be some variability but that is the current bell time schedule. 

A question was asked about how this work would transfer into equity. Dr. Anderson talked about the difficulty of having different students having different instructional days, and how that affects learning. The development of a seven-hour school day has been a priority for the district for eight years. Closing achievement gaps has been a district goal for many years, and consistency is key.

Feedback from the board addressed childcare, late start concerns, and lunch times being too short. Some parents are worried about the times for bus rides for students. 

Fernandez addressed comments about late start vs. early release. Community feedback said that the majority of parents preferred late start, rather than students being released into the community early.

Rob Price said that Dr. Anderson had sent a letter out to families with a link to provide feedback, a “weekly wakeup” to district staff to ask for feedback, and a “Let’s Talk Education” with parents to allow for feedback which has been recorded and posted on the BVSD website at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DfUB5ITStA

An article in “The Spot,” a letter that goes out to parents asking for feedback from individual schools had also been sent out.

A parent asked about adding hours vs. adding school days, and how that equation influenced the decision. Fernandez broke down the metrics stating teacher and staff contracts call for pay based on school days and student contact days. To add school days would require contract negotiations and is cost prohibitive.

A parent asked about the misuse of equal and equitable in the current social climate. She also said that many of the families she represented were Spanish speakers and had difficulty navigating BVSD resources due to language issues and accessing online resources without dependable internet access, and low-income families, often families of color, work long hours and school hours and it creates extra burdens when not equitably designed. The parent added that the new organizations representing communities of color could help to communicate these needs, possibly creating more equitable situations and ways of having multicultural input. Other parents raised similar concerns. 

Dr. Anderson acknowledged that the district had similar discussions with the DPC (District Parent Council) and there would be a deeper conversation at the next meeting on February 28.

Nicole Rajpal, DAC Vice-Chairperson spoke about SAC (School Accountability Committee) and DAC (District Accountability Committee) responsibilities related to membership and transparency. She presented updated requirements for committee membership and encouraged starting member recruitment for next year in the case of representative replacements. She also suggested reapplying every year, despite a two-year term.

She said the membership should represent the diversity of the district, and gave a diversity graphic, including ethnic, socioeconomic, disability and gifted considerations. 

SAC transparency needs improvement, and the SAC website gives guidelines can be found at https://www.bvsd.org/about/district-accountability-committee/school-accountability-committees.

Update school SAC website and ensure that its current and correct (based on SAC and DAC standards) ensure transparency, adopt SAC bylaws in individual schools.

The Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) is designed to be used as a cycle of continuous improvement. DAC and SAC to provide quarterly input on development of UIP. UIP process begins with a data review (e.g. student performance data, process data) and then identifies ambitious targets and an action plan to direct the next steps.

Categories in the 2020-2021 BVSD UIP targets are:

Inequitable discipline, achievement and growth gaps likely widening during remote learning, large disparities in academic acceleration, and disproportionate identification for special education.  

The district has UIP goals, as well as individual schools. DAC and SAC are responsible for monitoring the individual school plans on a quarterly basis. Currently, these plans have been interrupted by the pandemic. 

The presentation slides can be found at the DAC website at https://www.bvsd.org/about/district-accountability-committee/meetings-agendas.

A motion to adjourn was passed at 8:25 p.m. Breakout sessions followed. 

The BVSD DAC meets on the first Tuesday of every month from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m. The next meeting will take place on March 2, 2021.

(Originally published in the February 25, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)