| Size matters to Boulder Valley parent group |
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| Written by Barry Bortnick | |
| Monday, June 23 2008 | |
 Does size really matter?It does to an active group of Boulder County parents and residents that wants to split the sizeable school district in two. Small is better, the parents say, adding that separating the 500-square-mile Boulder Valley School District into separate east and west boards and administrations will better serve the 28,000 students now under BVSD’s watch. BVSD is the eighth largest district in the state. Jefferson County is Colorado’s largest school district with more than 86,000 students. The BVSD proposed separation would divide the district fairly evenly in terms of student population, as well as along demographic lines. The two new districts would be close to the same size, and have roughly the same number of low-income and second-language-learner students. School district officials oppose the split. They compare the move to a divorce that will bleed money, create confusion and do nothing to enhance a large, but successful district that currently produces high achieving students.“This (split) would lead to instability for years,” said BVSD Superintendent Chris King. “This could inhibit the ability to hire the very best. It could pit neighbor against neighbor when we should come together.” At present, BVSD oversees more than 50 schools from Nederland to Broomfield. It manages a $400 million budget and nearly 5,000 employees. Members of a grass-roots parent and citizen group called CAPE (Citizens Advocating Public Education) liken the Boulder district to the Titanic. The parents claim the district’s massive bureaucracy is too large to listen to public concerns and too lumbering to enact beneficial changes. “The district is too large to be nimble,” said Jonathan Hondorf, a CAPE spokesman during a recent meeting before the BVSD board. “The best school districts in the country are small ones. The top 25 school districts in the country are smaller than BVSD.” CAPE members have outlined their concerns on their website. “Over the past several years, BVSD has failed to live up to its potential, and the BVSD Board has made a number of decisions that have adversely impacted some of the district's children and their educational opportunities,” the CAPE website claims. “The Board is constantly faced with difficult decisions and can never seem to catch up to, or get ahead of the challenges and issues it faces. It is increasingly apparent that the problem is that the district has become too large to effectively manage.”School district splits have occurred in Colorado. A separation took place in Yuma County in 2001, according to Mark Stevens of the Colorado Department of Education. But BVSD is several orders of magnitude larger than that Eastern Plain district. BVSD, meanwhile, raised the ire of many parents in 2003 when it closed three schools in Boulder because of lagging enrollment. The shuttering of Mapleton Elementary, Washington Elementary and Baseline Middle School helped spark the creation of CAPE, which has since focused on splitting up BVSD. CAPE members contend the school district has grown too big for its britches, ignored the concerns of parents and gone to a one-size-fits all educational approach. “We are a diverse cross section of people in the district,” said Hondorf. “We are not Boulder elitist. We have members in Louisville, Lafayette and the mountain communities.” He said CAPE had 100 active members, but a thousand more, including many teachers and public officials who have chosen to stay behind the scenes. “Many teachers support us, but they remain anonymous because they fear are afraid of losing their jobs,” Hondorf said. CAPE has many gripes. Members argue that the school district spends too much on administration, that administrators are out of touch with parents and teachers, and that the district’s geographic size makes it impossible to serve the diverse needs within it’s massive footprint. Another CAPE member, Elizabeth Payton said those opposed to the district split like to marginalize CAPE as a group of complainers with petty neighborhood issues. Payton joined CAPE last year after she analyzed the way BVSD treated the public. “We are people from Broomfield, Nederland, and people with small children getting into the educational system,” Payton said. I was in the Peace Corps and worked as an engineer. I don’t have a tail or horns; I’m just a regular person. “Those of us who fought the school closures became educated on the system and it has opened our eyes to how the district treats communities, families and teachers.” She said. “That is why we are pursuing this.” But the pursuit won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. For starters, those in favor of a split would need to obtain 22,000 petition signatures. Next up: the formation of a nine-person committee charged with developing a plan to carry out the separation. The plan itself could take 17 to 18 months to create, and require voter approval, said Allen Taggart, an attorney representing BVSD. “The devil would be in the details,” he explained of the split plan. “You are talking about reorganizing a multi-million dollar operation.” Taggart said any split would affect area charter schools, the distribution of assets and properties, and perhaps require mill levy votes and approvals. “This is not a simple task,” Taggart said. School board opposition to the action might make the challenge even harder for CAPE. “The cost (of a split) is very high and the payoff is very questionable,” said school board member Ken Roberge. Board President Helayne Jones echoed the call for calm. “When I hear simple solutions to complex issues, I ask what is the problem and does it need fixing,” she said. “Our focus is on what is best for kids and we are trying to fix a problem that does not require an overhaul. We’ll spend money, resources and time that should be spend in the classroom.” CAPE members have heard this type of talk before. They say BVSD is acting like the huge bureaucracy it is and doing what it can to fight a public call for action. “They are top heavy and removed from the communities,” Payton said of the school district “Their response is always to look at the whole school district from 10,000 feet up, because we can’t deal with your small issues. They say that over and over. … That’s why a smaller district is better.”
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