BSVDWatch.org

We hope we don't come across as a one trick pony, not having additional stories or comments about the BVSD community beside the ongoing BHS & CWA issue. The end of the school year keeps all of us involved with BVSDWatch.org pretty distracted. However, we do have a few things in the works, and we'll have additional posts in the near future.

Here are a few notes on some of the things we have been thinking about. If you have any comments on these items, please drop us a line:

    • Once we have the technical bugs worked out, we hope to have video files of BVSD board meetings available on our website (from the link above) reliably a day or two after the meeting. The ones from May 22nd are up now, and we appologize for the delay. They are not always as exciting as what we have  experienced lately, but still worth checking out.

    •  We would like to see BVSD seriously consider hiring an Ombudsperson (Ombudsman). What is an Ombudsperson? From the Austin Independent School District website: "The District Ombudsman serves as an independent, confidential resource to assist AISD parents and community members in resolving problems, complaints, conflicts, and other school-related issues when normal procedures have failed." Sometimes the chain of command for filing a complaint through a school district does not meet everyone's needs. We believe an Ombudsperson could help. We'll go into more detail soon, but for now, here are a few other school district websites that have Ombudspersons on staff and explains how they help make their district a better place for their employees and community.

        - Austin Independent School District, Austin, Texas.

        - Kent School District, Kent, Washington.

        - Poway Unified School District, Poway, California.

    •  Stronger IT oversight. Other school districts have an IT oversight committee, not BVSD. We want to be sure we don't have the tail wagging the dog. 

    • Don't forget there are four school board seats open in the fall. If you are considering running let us know and we will post your info and statement on our website. We will also be interviewing all school board candidates and will have a questionaire for each to answer that we will post online for the community to read. Let us know the issues that are important to you and we will consider adding them to our questionaire.

    • Zero tolerance policies are a hot issue for many in the community. We'll be talking to community members on that issue and reporting back in more detail soon.

We hope everyone has a great summer vacation and check back frequently, tell your freinds about us and send us your BVSD stories (good, bad, or ugly).

(If you haven't, please check out our comments section below. Read what other BVSD community members are saying, and tell us your thoughts as well. Click on the "Read More..." link below to view the comments.)

Update #2: Tapes Again has generously offered online access to the audio of the STDs panel. The link to the audio files is below. Normally, CWA audio recordings are available from them at a modest fee. If you would like to order a CD of this session, please visit www.tapesagain.com, call, 303.447.8787, or visit their offices at 5741 Arapahoe, Suite 2D to order a copy of the CWA BHS panel session #2500.

At this time, BVSDWatch.org has very little to say on the matter, but we are happy to provide comments from BVSD or CWA, links to local articles, letters to the editor, and CWA session transcripts so the community can make a more informed decision. We do feel however that BVSD seemed to take too long in addressing the issue, and it took to much energy on the part of a concerned Boulder Valley citizen to have her concerns acknowledged.

Here are a few links to get people started, and we'll add more here as we receive them:

"CWA Debate Continues to Heat Up", Daily Camera Article, Vanessa Miller, June 3rd, 2007

"GOP Calls for Dismissals", Daily Camera article, Vanessa Miller, June 2nd, 2007

Letters to the Editor Blog, "CWA Cloud has Silver Lining", Kathleen Brewer

Letters to the Editor Blog, "Kudos to BHS", David Accomazzo

"Boulder students want apology from O'Reilly", Daily Camera article, Emily Tienken, June 1st, 2007

"Earth to O'Reilly", Daily Camera Editorial, Clint Talbott, June 1st

Letters to the Editor (x2), Daily Camera, June 1st, 2007

Rocky Mountain News - Opinion: Vincent Carroll, "Good Sense Recanted", May 25, 2007

O'Reilly Factor on CWA @ Boulder High, May 18th, 2007

Audio files of the CWA session at Boulder High School.

Daily Camera article, May 23rd, 2007

A complete transcript of the CWA session at B.H.S.

BVSD Official Statement, May 17th, 2007, re: CWA & B.H.S.

Statement by Priscilla White & Daphne White to BVSD Board, May 8th, 2007 (PDF Document)

Official statement from CWA about the panel at B.H.S., May 16th, 2007

Response from the White family to the CWA statement above. May 16th, 2007

Video of Priscilla White speaking to BVSD board, May 8th, 2007 (about 1/3 into the video, the tall woman dressed in a light blue suit)

  * This is a large file and make take a few minutes (with fast internet connections) to load.

Daily Camera Article, May 10th, 2007 

Daily Camera Guest Opinion, May 12, 2007

Letter to the Editor, May 14th, 2007 (free registration required)

If you have any comments about the issue or BVSDWatch.org's role, please let us know by clicking on the "Read more..." link below and leave us a comment.

Starting May 8th, 2007 BVSDWatch.org will be posting video clips from BVSD board meetings. With the blessing of BVSD, we will capture the live stream from the Channel 8 website the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and post clips here on our website one to two days after. We will also post links to the meeting agenda so you can see what was talked about and go to the clip that interests you. We will have a new link along the top where you will be able to find the videos.

We will break the meeting video clips into two sections. The first section will include the opening of the meeting, the Superintendent's report, public input, board communication, and student communication. This is where we think the most interesting things occur. Teacher and student awards are given out by the Superintendent during his report, so now you can have a place to show off your award or see your friend receive theirs. Public participation portion of the meeting is always interesting. Here you can see what other people in the BVSD community are thinking about. Those issues you thought only you noticed might be more prevelant than you thought. We always encourage anyone with a compliment or concern to come to a meeting and let the BVSD board members and administrators know what you think. More often than not people speaking at the meetings have a concern they would like heard, but we would also encourage people with compliments for BVSD to come as well. 

The second section video will include the informational items, action items, and study items portions of the meeting. Here you can see reports and presentations to the board, items the board has been requested to authorize or approve, and recommendations the board has been asked to review. Check the meeting agenda to see what's on tap that might interest you.

BVSDWatch.org hopes this will be a resource the community will enjoy. Please let us know your thoughts by clicking on the "Read More..." link below and leaving a comment in the Comments section.

BVSDwatch.org would like to congratulate Dr. Chris King as the new Superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District.  The board was faced with a difficult choice, but it is clear that Dr. King's experience with, and knowledge of BVSD was considered an overwhelming asset.  While BVSDwatch.org was impressed with Dr. Sandra Smyser's experience as a superintendent, and with her positive attitude toward working with parents and community members as partners in education, we are confident that Dr. King will also work to cultivate those relationships, and we look forward to working with him to enhance the education opportunities for all students in BVSD.