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Rift growing in Boulder schools

Group seeks split, cites 3 closures, board troubles

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 7, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Five years after three Boulder schools closed, simmering resentment is sparking a movement to restructure the school district.

Proponents of splitting the Boulder Valley School District say the seven board members are no longer responsive to residents of a district that serves more than 28,000 students from the Continental Divide to Broomfield.

"When they (residents) do go to the board and talk, they are either degraded, harassed or insulted, and that's why there are so many people who are disenfranchised," said Jonathan Hondorf, a leader of the movement.

Hondorf's group, Citizens Advocating Public Education, or CAPE, believes citizens would have twice the chance of being heard if the district were divided.

One district would include the city of Boulder and the mountains to the west. The other would cover the communities of Louisville, Lafayette, Broomfield, Superior and the unincorporated areas in between.

CAPE has drafted petitions for an election but is deciding when to begin circulating them.

The proposal is meeting resistance from parents who say the schools are doing a fine job of educating their children.

"I haven't seen a strongly articulated problem statement that shows direct correlation to the proposed solution," said Rodney Russ, a Lafayette parent with three children at two district schools. "There's this potential for pitting the communities against each other, which could potentially be for no reason whatsoever."

Much of the emotional anger behind the proposal stems from the 2003 decision to close three schools, including two historic buildings in the oldest part of Boulder.

School officials cited the need to save money by consolidating operations in fewer buildings.

Foes said the school board ignored the city's land-use goals.

"But there's a real conflict between the city and the school board when it comes to the land-use issue," said Boulder City Councilwoman Lisa Morzel.

Comments

  • July 7, 2008

    8:30 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    louisebenson writes:

    As a Broomfielder who supports the split, I would like to add:

    BVSD has long pitted community against community, especially east BVSD vs west BVSD, with east usually getting the short end of the stick. Splitting the district along natural geographic lines would greatly reduce the strife.

    Boulder school closures were based on "declining enrollment" which did not happen, and "cost savings," for which BVSD refuses to give an accounting.

    Louisville's historic middle school, built by the WPA, was demolished despite citizen outrage. BVSD's 2006 $300 million construction bond threw money at every single school; this is what large districts must do to pass bonds. In a smaller district, the Louisville school could have been saved by allocating the money from newer schools that didn't need any improvements.

    BVSD is moving against the national trend by closing small neighborhood schools and building larger schools that require expensive busing. Smaller schools are known to improve safety and achievement, as well as function as community centers.

  • July 7, 2008

    8:49 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    dabuffs writes:

    I'm surprised louisebenson didn't blame NEA and the unions. She usually does!
    Splitting the district is a huge mistake! CAPE is a bunch of disgruntled parents who didn't get their way on several issues. Just let is go CAPE and let the BVSD keep on running a super district.

  • July 7, 2008

    9:01 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Well if a NEA supportter is against it, it must be good. Go eastsiders, take back your schools.

    Parents taking respobnsibility is always a good thing.

  • July 7, 2008

    9:02 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jbl writes:

    I live in Nederland, and I too support the effort to split the district. I am a parent who spends a lot of time and energy volunteering in the schools, and I have spoken at more than one school board meeting. The description of me as a "disgruntled parent" is actually correct. You could even call me mad as hell.

    But not because of school closures, and not even because I "didn't get my way" on any particular issue.

    The BVSD school board DOES NOT LISTEN to parents or community members. Each time I have spoken, I have been, in return, chastised and humiliated by board members who disagree with ME. And I have seen this happen to MANY other parents and community members who take the time to go give "public comments" at board meetings on many other issues.

    Those of us who support this division simply want a better education for our children. I know, I know. BVSD is a good school district. But it could be a GREAT school district. If only our administrators would show some respect for anyone other than themselves.

  • July 7, 2008

    9:16 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    smartasheck writes:

    I love it when someone outside of their own community provides global comments for a community in which they don't even live--louisebenson--I am a long time resident of Louisville and have 2 children currently enrolled in 2 schools there. There was no widespread community outrage over the school improvement of LMS. There was half a dozen citizens speaking about the historical value of an ugly, outdated building that needed to be modernized. The Louisville community overwhelmingly supported the school's improvement plan. If you think that BVSD is broken they why don't you enroll your kids in St.Vrain school district and really see what broken and an unsupportive board is really like. You can always go to Adams 12 and see what they have to offer as well, or go to a HUGE district like Jeffco. Then there is alway's year round school like what they offer in Douglas county. BVSD is by far they best district in the state and graduation rates, test scores and college enrollment proves it. Quit your whining and appreciate what you have!

  • July 7, 2008

    11:30 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    wdr writes:

    It seems to me that the major claim of the proponents (of splitting the district) is that the school board is unresponsive (and/or insulting) to parents. They attribute this to the size of the district.

    Has anyone suggested to them that maybe it isn't the size of the district, but the nature of the people sitting on the board? Instead of backing a proposal that would eliminate economies of scale, take years to implement, and the results of which are unproven (while the currently constituted district turns out good students), why not try to seat board members with a belief in participatory decision-making?

    For the record, I am a product of the BVSD and have always considered the education received there to be exceptional.

  • July 7, 2008

    1:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Highcountry writes:

    Which schools were closed? The article doesn't say.

  • July 7, 2008

    1:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    KathyB writes:

    I have three children that have graduated from the Boulder Valley School system. I have wanted the split of the district since my first started Kindergarten in 1986. My dream would be that we could go back to the school board being made of parents and local business people. They have a true feeling of the heart beat of the local schools, more than the "professional" educators. Boulder District too large of an area, the needs of east Boulder county are WAY different than the City of Boulder. Broomfield is it's own county, let them be their own school district. Then divide the remaining district between east and west Boulder County. The economical difference between East County and the City of Boulder is the cause of the majority of the need differences. The educators in Boulder don't see most of the needs of the kids in East County, because they have the funds to provide their families with things that the families in East County can't provide.

  • July 7, 2008

    1:52 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    smartasheck writes:

    The BVSD sure does listen. In early spring the board was suggesting changing the boundaries for Louisville and Lafayette to diversify the enrollment for Angevine..It would have affected many Louisville neighborhoods and necessitated busing or private transportation to Angevine. The superintendent attend "town hall" style meetings and listened to the parents conserns. In the end, the idea was not implemented due to all of the legitimate concerns that the parents voiced. Not one poster has offered any specific examples of where BVSD is not meeting the needs of the children. Looks to me like the typical "the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many" argument.

  • July 7, 2008

    2:49 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jbl writes:

    In 2005 BVSD put on the ballot a proposal to raise our taxes to collect funds that would offset higher transportation costs. The money was to be used to put new computers in all of the schools. AFTER the measure passed, they released their REAL plan, which was a dramatic shift in the IT department. It dictated that only HP PC's would be purchased by the district. One model of desktop. One model of laptop. It also dictated that volunteers would no longer be ALLOWED to help with IT issues in schools. It soon came out that no other vendors were ever asked for bids on the computer contract. Not even other PC vendors like Dell or Gateway. Only HP was ever asked for a quote. Parent volunteers with extensive technical experience who had been asked, and generously agreed to volunteer to help with computers in the schools, were now completely shut out. A pilot program that had been set up specifically to train parent volunteers in IT issues was shut down without so much as a "Thanks, but no thanks."

    Parents and community members screamed from the rooftops that this was an absurd policy that will cost the district much more over the long term. Ample evidence was given--to the IT Department, to the Superintendent, and to the Board. We were told to stop complaining and "get behind" the new policy. It was disgusting. To this day, the policy hasn't changed. IT costs are astronomical. And nobody cares.

    A recent audit of the IT department found that "In general, stakeholders feel that there is not a cohesive vision for how technology should be used," "that a significant proportion (of teachers) have low skill levels and do not use technology as a teaching tool," and that "Instructional resources are not used to capacity because there is insufficient bandwidth, unreliable wireless, password issues, and disrupting due to frequent updates." (source: BVSD Information Technology Performance Audit, April 15, 2008, Executive Summary.)

    The board was briefed on this audit, but so far there has been no word of any corrective action being taken.

    You wanted an example. This is just one.

  • July 7, 2008

    9:33 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    eap writes:

    smartasheck suggests that we try attending St. Vrain, Adams 12, Jeffco or Douglas County school districts. Well, if you're Hispanic, that would be good advice. Compare these 2007 graduation rates for Hispanics:

    Colorado Total: 57.1
    BVSD: 56.4
    St. Vrain: 56.5
    Adams 12: 67.5
    Jeffco: 59.6
    Douglas 80.2

    Whenever BVSD boosters speak about what a wonderful district we have, they only mention the success that the upper class white children enjoy and they completely ignore BVSD's huge failure in meeting the needs of 8,000 of its students. Apparently, those 8,000 kids are invisible.

    With the most educated community in the state, one would expect a much better performance from BVSD than we're seeing. Check out the other major college towns in the country if you're still doubtful.

  • July 8, 2008

    2:28 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    louisebenson writes:

    here's a very specific example: Broomfield's elementary schools had 700+ and our middle school had 1000+. The only way we got a new K-8 was for Broomfield to threaten to form its own district with the city and county. Before the K-8 was built, our city/county had to sign an intergovernmental agreement with BVSD not to form its own district. How's that for hardball politics, when the needs of the students should be foremost?! BVSD should have built a normal sized elementary school on district owned-land in our aging subdivision, and a new middle school in Broomfield. But BVSD was on the big school track: fewer schools are easier to manage in a large district. Now our neighborhood school kids are bused to the K-8 5 miles away when they could have walked or biked.

    I am no fan of the NEA, but I don't think I have ever mentioned it in regard to the district split. I would think unions and teachers would prefer dealing with a less bureaucratic central admin and board!

  • July 11, 2008

    6:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    kirbysfriend22 writes:

    If everyone is unhappy with the school board and them not listening then why not vote for other represntation? That could be parents. School Board members are not "professional educators". They're usually quite the opposite, with no educational background. Don't be foolish.