Kirk C. Watkins, Peak to Peak. The Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) District Accountability Committee (DAC) had its monthly meeting on September 1, 2020. This meeting, as well as all of the meetings since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic in March, have met virtually on Zoom. 

Ralf Frid, the DAC chairperson, called the meeting to order and gave a brief overview of the agenda. Tina Marquis, the president of the Board of Education, was introduced as the first speaker, as Kitty Sargent was not available to attend the meeting. Following Marquis was Dr. Rob Anderson, the superintendent of BVSD. He was to be followed by John Clasby, the DAC executive membership officer, Nicole Rajpal, the DAC vice chairperson, and Jorge Chavez, who is the chair of the SRO subcommittee, in that order.

Tina Marquis gave an update on the Board of Education (BOE). The board had recently met with DAC to develope priorities for the upcoming year. She highlighted the work that had been done regrading updating and defining roles and responsibilities for the schools and parents involved in the committees. The board will be voting on September 22, 2020, on stage 2.5 of its reopening strategies, which is part of the BVSD Strategic Plan. Stage 2.5 is the tentative designation of the modified Reintroduction Plan. She also touched on the Equity Council being formed in early September, which will deal with the inequity experienced across different communities within the BVSD.

She talked about how the board would be working on budget and enrollment issues, developing resolutions and their legislative platform, to include funding stability, in order to serve the students as best they can. A question was raised concerning communication between the school district and the Governor during these times of uncertainty, and who would be making decisions regarding public health. It was pointed out that there would be difficulty in developing policies for one community which would be applicable for all communities, and whether it would be better on a local level. Also discussed was the reality of families who were not comfortable sending their children back to in-person education, and the different support systems needed. This was concluded with a discussion regarding “para’s,” or paraprofessionals, and accessing their services for home-based education.

Next was an update from Dr. Anderson. He announced the start of the school year and summed up the first week. He acknowledged there were issues with online access and internet speeds. He also announced the reopening of the administrative building but revealed that three days after opening there was a confirmed case of Covid 19. 

“It was a very good reminder for me, how complicated this could be. The second you let your guard down you realize very quickly that you’re still in the midst of a pandemic” he said. He explained further that the recently built new wing of the administration building would be open in mid-October. 

Another update referenced the Equity Council, which is being created, and has over three hundred applications. Dr. Anderson took this as validation that the community cares about equity and stated that one of the first item to be addressed would be SRO’s, or school resource officers. He pointed out the new webpages on the BVSD website centered around “Excellence Through Equity,” which explains the goal of the collective boards and committees regarding equity. He also clarified the date of September 22 for recommendations to be delivered to the BOE regarding BVSD reintroduction plan strategies developed for meeting the needs of the most impacted students. This would include “Our Back Together” BVSD priorities of equity, significantly impacted learners, working families, and the youngest students.

After this he addressed the difficulties that the district was running into while developing strategies to counter the quickly changing crisis. He stated that the initial approach was shaped by medical data and medical experts. However, when the teachers that had medical exemptions started to remove themselves from the teaching ranks, the district realized that they were short staffed. Combining the lack of staff with the specialized education strategies created an unforeseen hurdle that affected the reintroduction program for the district. This combined with district parents’ apprehension and uncertainty regarding their children’s education, has led to a decreasing student population as families have sought other means of educating their children while keeping them safe.

Another complexity has been the actual preparations necessary to adhere to state and district regulations being placed on the schools. These include student cohorts, quarantining and isolation guidelines, and contact tracing. Boulder County Public Health, who is responsible for managing the response for BVSD and the St. Vrain School District, is investing many additional resources towards this effort. The return of students to the University of Colorado also affects the cities response capability and has been an additional challenge to add to an already unpredictable situation. 

Even the supply chain for necessary materials has been affected, as some of the supplies that were ordered for the teachers and students have been delayed, some for weeks and months. This includes computers, food, classroom supplies, etc., which is causing the schools to have to predict far ahead of time what they need as well as competing with other school districts for already scarce essentials. The budget takes a big hit when students disenroll, as the cost of education for one hundred students is equivalent to approximately one million dollars. Currently over one thousand students have disenrolled from the BVSD for the 2020-2021 school year. He concluded by saying that the morale of the district was a concern as the school year plays out.

DAC members were given time to ask questions about Dr. Anderson’s presentation. Questions included staffing needs for the plan and applying different strategies for different age students in an online environment. Anderson again reinforced the critical nature of having students physically in a classroom, and its impact on student development. He added that the bulk of the students that had withdrawn were elementary aged children. He touched on some other logistical numbers as well. He was asked about the “digital divide” and how the district was addressing that, and then was questioned whether the current plan that assumed “quickly back to school” was the best way. Dr. Anderson stated that the Reintroduction Plan was the best way forward based on current knowledge, but if the current circumstances were to degrade then they would have to shift their approach.

Another question was raised concerning the budgeting and how it was affected by the operational offsets caused by the shift from onsite to home-based learning. Anderson acknowledged that it was a concern and provided current examples of issues that had arisen. He then touched on teacher buyouts, retirement and the award that was presented by Forbes magazine naming BVSD the best employer in the state. He also talked about Covid 19 testing possibilities for staff and students.

Nicole Rajpal presented next by answering questions from DAC members that were a continuation of Dr. Anderson’s topics and expanded on the district’s reintroduction plans. She framed the plan as a way to put the children with the highest needs at the forefront, implementing positive change in a way that protects the public health, adhering to the guidance of public health partners, and does what is best for kids and the community including staff. She also emphasized the importance of these meetings and their impact on public education. Rajpal invited the DAC committee to get involved in the effort that she and Ralf Frid, the DAC chairperson, were involved with as DAC executive committee members.

She went on to break down different variables that would be considered when returning children to classrooms, and possible timelines for that process, i.e. “scaled solutions” which would involve multistage reintroductions with community input. Rajpal mentioned more than one time how many disparate groups across the district had been brought into the process. The overall theme of her presentation centered on the process that was necessary for all of the schools in the district, and all of the students to be accounted for and served with equity, based on need, and not necessarily a “one size fits all” scenario.

Next on the agenda was John Clasby, membership officer for the DAC, who spoke about accountability during Covid 19. He focused on the DAC information structure, and how the information is coming into DAC and distributed to schools and parents. He acknowledged that theoretically this could be a functional method of communication, by giving voices in the community a structured platform. He also laid out a timeline and list of priorities for the year. Again, he gave a call to action for the DAC members and provided reasons for the parents to get involved with the DAC membership, emphasizing communication and accountability. He also touched on the mentor/mentee program starting this year for DAC, which will help to onboard new members into DAC ensuring a smoother transition. Members of DAC spent time over the summer building a link on its website that will help to answer questions and provide an orientation for new members. The conversation finished with Rajpal talking about the huge amount of emails being received by BVSD staff, and its efforts to resolve the conflicts and complaints from BVSD families. 

A question was raised concerning whether CAPL could be a co-author with DAC on the SRO initiatives. CAPL is the Parent Latino Community that informs the district on issues of cultural significance and bias. Questions were raised concerning ensuring equal representation for CAPL. According to the DAC bylaws, voting is limited to DAC representatives, and outside groups cannot vote.

The final speaker was Jorge Chavez, the chair of the SRO, or school resource officer’s subcommittee who helped to explain the cooperative relationship between the SRO subcommittee and CAPL. A vote was held to collaborate between the two groups, which was passed. 

Mr. Frid announced the next DAC meeting, which will be held virtually October 6, 2020, from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m. There will be a vote on SRO initiatives and a presentation by Robbyn Fernandez, the BVSD east support network area superintendent. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:16 p.m.

Digital media resources were shared at this meeting, and most meetings come with sets of reports and pertinent information which is available to the public. The DAC committee also renovated their website to make information easier to access and available to those interested in their activities. The information can be accessed on the DAC website: https://www.bvsd.org/about/district-accountability-committee

Board of Education Report (Kitty Sargent, Board Liaison) 
Superintendent’s Report (Dr. Rob Anderson) 
The Complexities and Challenges (Dr. Anderson, Superintendent) 
Accountability Committee Engagement (John Clasby, Membership) 

Updates: 
A brief word on Self-Paced Training (Ralph Frid, Chair) 
Phase 2+ Reintroduction (Nicole Rajpal, Vice Chair) 
SRO Committee Update (Jorge Chavez, Secretary) 

(Originally published in the September 10, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)