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Wednesday, 05 September 2007 |
A new large local group has formed around the controversy of the redevelopment of Washington School (in north Boulder, at the corner of Broadway and Cedar). They call themselves "The Washington School Neighborhood Association", and they are not happy with the way the City of Boulder and BVSD have been handling the redevelopment of the now closed Washington School. You can watch their presentation to the BVSD board August 14th, at the public participation portion of the meeting, in the "Board Meetings Video Archive" link above. (The supporters of the group in the audience are wearing red.)
BVSDWatch.org supports their efforts and we hope the City of Boulder and BVSD board can work with them to develop the Washington School property into something of value for the neighborhood.
Here are the opening paragraphs of their position statement on their website:
"The Washington School Neighborhood Association is a large group of neighbors and friends of the Washington Elementary School building and property. This group came together to enable its collective voice to be heard by the City of Boulder and Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) when we realized that our individual voices were falling on deaf ears.
"Despite clear indications that the MOU process was seriously flawed, in particular that the lone remaining applicant had received the least support from the city-appointed Citizens Review Panel, the City and BVSD failed to reconsider whether the process was working effectively. Over the two-year course of the process, members of our neighborhood and community repeatedly expressed their concerns to the City and School District in every appropriate venue, including Planning Board meetings, City Council meetings, Board of Education meetings, and public neighborhood meetings. Yet our government has, to date, 'stayed the course.'"
Click here to read more of their position statement regarding the Washington School redevelopment.
Click here to visit their website and read more about their upcoming activities.
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Tuesday, 28 August 2007 |
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 Here is a recent editorial by Clint Talbott in The Daily Camera regarding the City Council allocation of 1.8 million to BVSD for keeping Casey Middle School "green". Talbott raises some good questions. We hope he continues to keep one eye on BVSD, especially throughout the spending of the $300 million bond for BVSD school upgrades. The more critical eyes on BVSD the better. | | No comments for this item. Click on article title above to leave a comment. |
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Monday, 27 August 2007 |
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We have posted the video for the August 14th BVSD board meeting at this link. | | No comments for this item. Click on article title above to leave a comment. |
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Sunday, 19 August 2007 |
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 One topic we at BVSDWatch.org have not brought up yet has been the way BVSD deals with public participation at their board meetings (which are twice a month). In a nutshell (and we may expand on this issue in the near future) we feel part of the community's frustration when dealing with BVSD and its' board is the fact that the public participation portion of the meeting is one-way, no dialogue can occur between the public speaker and board members or administrators. The Boulder city council can allow such an interaction (though officially it's "discouraged"), and we hope to talk to the BVSD board about this situation in the future to see if we can find a way to have a reasonable community dialogue at future board meetings. Now, on that note, at the last BVSD board meeting August 14th, the BVSD board members elected to remove the public participation portion of the meeting for the August 28th and September 25th meetings (maybe more, we'll check the minutes when they become available) to allow for work sessions to "... discuss the topics of Organization and Achievement." In such an opinionated and vocal community as Boulder Valley, we doubt this will go over very well. When BVSD speaks about respecting and desiring of community input from one side of their mouth, and at the same time shutting down a large part of that capability with the other side, this will just turn into another case of BVSD being its own worst enemy. (Sigh) Update: From Briggs Gamblin, the communications director at BVSD: "At request of Board President Helayne Jones and Superintendent Chris, please let BVSDWatch.org site visitors know the following: 1) There will be a public participation period at the beginning of tomorrow night’s (8/28/2007) meeting under the same rules as any regular meeting, and
2) Please remind people that because of the time required for the work session, tomorrow night’s meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m."
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Sunday, 19 August 2007 |
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We have not had many items to place in our Commentaries section of our site lately, but we have just placed two new commentaries for the community to read and comment on. We hope you will check them out to hear what others in our community are talking about. On our site, commentaries are from other local people or groups who want a venue to talk about their thoughts on a BVSD related matter. This would of course include BVSD administrators, board members, and employees. The opinions of the commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BVSDWatch.org. If we decide to comment on the subject of a commentary we will post something on our front page stating our position. If you would like to be considered for a BVSDWatch.org commentary, please let us know by clicking the "Contact Us" link to the left. | | No comments for this item. Click on article title above to leave a comment. |
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Sunday, 19 August 2007 |
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From the Daily Camera's Local Briefs, Wednesday August 15th 2007: Neighbors of north Boulder's closed Washington Elementary School attended Tuesday's Boulder Valley school board meeting, asking for the board's help in opposing the site's development plan. Jim Leach, president of Washington Village, wants to build a co-housing community, with 34 condos, six single-family homes and 7,100 square feet of commercial space, which would be built around a central courtyard where residents could gather. Board members responded that, because of an agreement with the city, the school district is not involved in the development phase. But board President Helayne Jones did direct Superintendent Chris King to meet with the neighbors to hear their concerns. Board members also reassured neighbors that there's been no talk on Boulder Valley's side about demolishing the century-old school. BVSDWatch.org's Take:
The closing and disposition of BVSD schools has been a contentious issue with in the BVSD community for years, with many community members feeling ignored, discounted, or otherwise shut out of the process. Here is an excellent opportunity for BVSD to create an open dialog and work with the community to find solutions that will benefit all and address community concerns. Even though BVSD may not have direct authority over what will be done, BVSD is still a powerful voice in the community with City officials, and has both an opportunity and obligation to assist in reconciling the interests of the community, the City, and prospective developers regarding final disposition of BVSD properties. If you have an opinion on this matter, please leave a comment on our website and share it with other community members. | | This item includes 1 comment. Click on article title above to leave a comment. |
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Wednesday, 15 August 2007 |
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Starting this summer, BVSD board meetings (and other BVSD related content) will be available to Comcast subscribers on channel 22 from Nederland through east Boulder. | | This item includes 4 comments. Click on article title above to leave a comment. |
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