BSVDWatch.org

Here is a good letter to the Broomfield Enterprise paper about BVSD's decision to have high schools decide for themselves in ..."recognizing valedictorians or salutatorians based solely on cumulative GPA rankings."

For those interested, here are the BVSD student enrollment numbers as of October 2007.

The October Count reports can be found on the web in three parts:
 
Current Year Head Count Summary (PDF)
- Funded Student Count by school and grade
 
Current Year FTE Summary (Web Link)
- Full Time Enrollment count by school and grade
 
Current Year Special Programs Summary (PDF)
- Breakdown of school programs by school and grade
 
The above links, as well as other BVSD budget related items, can be found here:

http://www.bvsd.org/Budget/default.aspx

BVSDWatch.org steering member Karyn Robinson has a reply to the Daily Camera editor regarding Mr. McCaffrey's guest opinion from this last Sunday:

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to Mr. McCaffrey's Guest Opinion from December 2nd.  His idea to use Mapleton as  a "living laboratory" sounds like a thinly veiled guise for him to have a prime apartment on the third floor of our historic neighborhood school.

Mr McCaffrey asks what use of the site would best honor its history and character?  The community has told BVSD over and over, the answer to this question: A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL.  That is what this building was built for and used for nearly 120 years.  With the overcrowding problems at the nearby elementary schools of Flatirons, Foothills and Whittier it is obvious there is a need for this school to be used as a school once again.

With the exception of Ms. Paxton, all of the school board members that voted to close this school nearly five years ago are no longer on the board.  Clearly these closures were ill fated decisions, that left a bad taste and a lot of mistrust.   It is high time to reverse these decisions.

Neighborhoods are cyclical in nature.  Does anyone remember Newlands neighborhood 20 years ago?  Mainly elderly and empty nesters.  Now, nothing but kids, kids, kids.  Mapleton is no different, take a drive around and see how many strollers, play structures, kids you see.

As for superintendent King's statement that the district needs the money from the sale of this building, didn't we, the voters, just give BVSD nearly $300 million?  After the Washington debacle do they really want to go down that road of selling this property?

Mr McCaffrey's plan is to "foster lifeways that are less impactful on the planet and less stressful on our lives".  I have a perfect plan that will do that too, reopen our schools and allow our children to once again walk to their neighborhood school.

Karyn Robinson

Boulder, Colorado

In the Dec. 2nd Daily Camera we saw two well written guest opinions; one from the Washington School petition drive sponsors, and the other about alternative solutions for the use of the closed Mapleton School. BVSDWatch.org applaude their energies toward finding a solution that reflects the wishes of the whole Boulder community. This growing movement encompasses a wider group of community members than we have seen in the past, and we feel these issues are not going to dissipate anytime soon. We hope Chris King and the new BVSD school board is listening and participates with the community to help find an equitible solution.

"Washington School petition shows Boulder is being heard"

Daily Camera, December 2nd, 2007

BVSDWatch.org asked BVSD administration specific questions to evaluate BVSD’s decision to participate in this fall’s Liberty Bell cross country meet which was scheduled by a school in another district on the Jewish religious day of observance Rosh Hashanah.
 
BVSD found that a total of 355 BVSD student athletes from five high schools participated in the event.  Three students, or 0.85% of the total, opted out of the event for religious reasons.  Another two families complained about the reversal decision but chose for their children to participate in the meet nonetheless.  Five student athletes, representing 1.4% of the total, were adversely impacted which allowed the remaining 98.6% to participate in the event.  Interestingly, all five who were adversely impacted were from Boulder High which had 99 runners at the event.
 
We’ll let the reader decide how to interpret this data with respect to how the district should deal with religious days of observance, but wish to make the following observations:
 

It has been about five months since Chris King assumed the responsibilities of BVSD Superintendent. During that time, members of BVSDWatch have had the opportunity to meet with Dr. King a number of times to discuss current issues. Dr. King has shown that he is willing to listen. Several situations arose in the past few months that involved decisions or proposed policies that proved controversial within the community. For example, there was the Liberty Bell cross country tournament falling on Rosh Hashanah, and the recent concern over the proposed dual enrollment area between Monarch and Centaurus. In both cases, after significant concerns were raised by the community, Dr. King reconsidered earlier decisions. In addition, thanks and appreciation go to BVSD for cooperating with Broomfield to finally have School Board meetings re-televised on Channel 8. We believe these are very positive steps toward improving the relationship between BVSD and the community, and we hope this is a continuing trend.

That said, BVSDWatch members believe that BVSD faces many issues, which translates into opportunities for collaborative and cooperative efforts between BVSD and its multiple constituencies.