Kirk C. Watkins, Peak to Peak. The Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) District Accountability Committee (DAC) meeting took place on November 3, 2020. It was conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The DAC Chairperson, Ralph Frid, called the meeting to order at 6:16 p.m. 

Members of the Latino Parent Advisory Council (CAPL) were recognized for attending and for their recent contributions towards the School Resource Officers (SRO) subcommittee.

Next, the DAC reviewed and approved the minutes from the last meeting.

The first speaker for the evening was Kitty Sargent, Board of Education (BOE) Treasurer, who gave the Board of Education Report. She spoke about the rise in Covid-19 cases in Colorado. 

Frid asked about language in the draft resolution from the SRO reports, which had indicated that some of the strategic initiatives for the year will be put on hiatus, and why that had taken place. Sargent explained that the extreme changes in resources regarding staff and time constraints were the cause, in response to the current crisis being dealt with across the district. This led to the Board having to reassess their priorities and capacity to accomplish what was the most pressing.

Nicole Rajpal, the DAC Vice Chairperson, added that the budgetary implications were one aspect that the DAC would need to consider, as the changes to the strategic initiatives would necessarily affect the original budget priorities. 

Regarding redistricting, Jeff Glen proposed new scenarios, establishing where population growth was taking place. 

A question period followed with parents asking about School Resource Officers (SRO) removal timeline and policies. Clarification was made that the SRO process was to include removal and replacement with another effective method to create safety nets for children. It was pointed out that the Boulder City Council had already planned to defund four of the five existing SRO’s. BVSD has made no plan to defund the program because BVSD was already only one of a few districts that did not pay for SROs in schools, and now they will be eliminating them entirely. 

A question was asked about who was in charge of putting together the new revised discipline processes. The administration has that responsibility, while the legal councils develop language for it to ensure it is done correctly according to state law.

A question was asked about maintaining consistency when creating policy. Sargent replied that implementation took place at the school level. The reason, she explained, was that the goal was to create equity in both discipline, policy and curriculum. 

Someone else asked whether any effort would be put towards establishing more diverse panels to reflect the diversity of the students and families. How would the district ensure black and brown families would be represented in the decision-making processes? Sargent explained that the board was handed policy to study and implement, but that she would make diversity a priority when selecting the panels. It was pointed out that the Equity Council was a closed panel and that it was not possible to find out who was on it, neither can the public be involved, thereby making it difficult to identify diversity. Again, it was emphasized that it was essential to include diversity in the population of the councils, that this was a critical component, and this was already agreed upon. 

It was pointed out that the different councils like DAC and the District Parent Council (DPC) were not representative of the general population, and that there needed to be an effort made to address the systemic imbalance. Rajpal said that there had been efforts made to include a wider diversity, by asking principals to make efforts to recruit more from the black and brown families at their schools. However, these are volunteer positions, and the schools can only send those who are willing. 

Next, Robbyn Fernandez, East Area Superintendent, discussed the UVa, University of Virginia report, and increasing achievement scores. Referring to an effort to partner with schools, specifically Alicia Sanchez Elementary and their SAC, School Accountability Committee, with the goal being to change the outcomes for students. Alicia Sanchez Elementary had been partnered with UVa, because the school was in turn-around, along with Columbine Elementary, which was close to turn-around. She explained that it had been necessary to put in “serious and intentional interventions for these schools in the form of support.”  Included this year was Kohl Elementary, because their growth scores were very low, especially in the area of Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) and were “dramatically lower than their achievement scores.” The causes were investigated, and it was obvious that the students on IEPs, students of color, and those that were on free and reduced lunches were not being served adequately, and something significant needed to be done. 

This is the first year of the partnership between UVa and BVSD, and Fernandez reported that the results from the last year for Alicia Sanchez and Columbine Elementary were “tremendous”, and she anticipated similar results from Kohl after this year. 

The same systematic change had been applied at Alicia Sanchez with similar success. Fernandez also reported that the behavioral issues that in the past would have led to the students being removed from the classroom to be disciplined was being replaced with a system that would send counselors to the classroom to support the student’s education process, rather than having the students exit the classroom for behavioral reasons. Fernandez listed “systems and structures, cultures and leadership” as the strategy that had been developed because of its overwhelming successes. Kohl Elementary is the next school that will have the UVa system installed. 

There was a question about using the system in schools that were not in critical need. Fernandez said that some schools in the district could be included and that there was a plan to give schools the option to take part in some of the practices, but there was a reticence to overcorrect, or to fix what is not broken. 

On the DAC website is a video in which Joel Rivera, Principal of Alicia Sanchez Elementary, speaks with Frid and Fernandez about the transformational event that took place during the last school year: https://www.bvsd.org/about/district-accountability-committee/school-accountability-committees. 

The Accountability and Membership subcommittee, chaired by John Clasby, selected two co-chairs for the committee.

The Budget subcommittee, chaired by Kelly Herbert, began initial planning for the budget development process for the year.

The policy subcommittee, chaired by Chris Haynes, met for the first time as a group, and went over timelines and different policies under review and revision. Haynes also informed the assembly that their first priority would be the policy on Family and Parent involvement.

UIP and Data, chaired by Jorge Chavez, touched on responsibilities, expectations for the year, and what the timelines might be. They talked about focusing on short term goals related to the Covid-19 reentry effort. Their long-term goal will be centered around the equity effort being undertaken in the district, and School Accountability Committee (SAC) training as those priorities.

The next District Accountability Committee meeting will be held Tuesday, December 1, 2020. This meeting will be virtual. Contact Laura Shafer for more information at laura.shafer@bvsd.org.

(Originally published in the November 26, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)