Dear Crest View Families:

Two thousand six hundred and seventy three new residents are what the City of Boulder Planning Department has projected for North Boulder.

The original North Boulder Sub Community included 1,200 units. According to the City of Boulder Planning Department approximately 300 of these units were within Foothills school boundaries and the majority of these 300 units have been built out. The remaining 900 units are within Crest View’s school boundaries. Approximately 300 building permits have already been issued for these 900 units. More building permits will be issued before the end of 2005. Hundreds of building permits are anticipated in 2006. These 900 units do not include the 300 units which have been approved at 47th and Jay Road. These units are also within Crest View’s boundaries.

During the one and only meeting of the “Task Force” that was supposed to look at the long term issues facing Crest View, Don Orr stated BVSD does not expect to get hundreds of students at Crest View from these 1,200 new units. Does BVSD see the possibility of Crest View increasing by 50 students?

Eight additional students entering Kindergarten next fall would bring Kindergarten up to 5 rounds.

Eight additional students entering First Grade next fall would bring First Grade up to 5 rounds.

Eleven additional students entering Fourth Grade next fall would bring an additional round to Crest View.

Ten additional students entering 3rd and 5th grades next fall would result in these classes being more crowded – AGAIN.

The addition of fifty students could have a significant impact on Crest View. A few more students indicate a need for three to five additional classrooms at Crest View. These are classrooms that administrators say do not exist. One administrator stated that Eldorado K-8 had to “suck-up” for a year before getting a portable to ease over crowding. Well, Crest View has been “sucking up” for years now.

Contingency plans that can quickly and effectively be put into place need to be developed by BVSD and put into the 2006-2007 budget. If Crest View parents do not speak up now there may be no money in the budget to deal with the very realistic increase in students Crest View could see next fall.

The City of Boulder Planning Department stated BVSD said they could manage the expected increased enrollment in North Boulder schools through existing schools, redistricting and open enrollment. The city was told BVSD had enough space at current schools and there was no need to build an additional school. BVSD relinquished the property at 47th and Jay that had once been available for a new school site.

Since this time BVSD closed Washington Bilingual which had been a viable option for North Boulder students.

BVSD states it has plans to redistrict school boundaries in a few more years. BVSD has stated that historically it takes 6 years after redistricting to see these changes. This is due to grandfathering in the new boundaries.

Today Crest View’s enrollment is 501 students. Crest View is currently 16 students over what BVSD has listed as Crest View’s maximum capacity of 485 students. No caps have been put on Crest View’s open enrollment in past years to allow for the increase in students that are anticipated at Crest View in the near future.

To sum this up BVSD closed a North Boulder elementary school. Redistricting could have been done 10 years ago in anticipation of these new housing developments. Caps could have been placed on Crest View’s open enrollment to create space for these new students. BVSD has chosen not to do any preparation. If our community does not speak up there may be no money in the budget to solve Crest View’s possible overcrowding in the fall.

What can you do? Call or send an email to BVSD Administrators and School Board members and voice your concern or go to the School Board meeting on Tuesday, October 11th at 6:30 PM at the Education Center and tell these people directly.

George Garcia – Superintendent of Schools

Chris King – Deputy Superintendent

Robert Hammond – BVSD COO

Joe Sleeper – BVSD Operational Services

Bill Sutter – BVSD Budget Services

Sharon Meyer – BVSD Procurement and Materials

Leslie Stafford – BVSD Finance and Accounting

Don Orr – BVSD Director of Planning & Construction

Sheri Williams – BVSD Director of School Leadership

Julie Phillips – School Board President

Teresa Steele – School Board V.P.

Angelika Schroeder – School Board Member

Helayne Jones – School Board Member helayne.jones@bvsd.org

Jean Paxton – School Board Member ,

Ken Roberge – School Board Member

Stan Garnett – School Board Member

BVSD Administrators can be reached at the Education Center 303 447 1010.

Education Center — 6500 Arapahoe, Boulder, CO 80303

Regards,
Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent
303 245 8008

Email by Crest View second grade parent Kristi Anderson, sent Sept. 15, 2005:

I sent off this thank you note to all the the BVSD people. I have a feeling these people get complained to a lot and thanked very little. So, if you are so inclined, it would be great to send them a THANKS!!

-Kristi
——– Original Message ——– Subject: Thank You
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:07:04 -0600
From: Kristi Anderson
Reply-To: kristi@abstract.com
To: Angelika Schroeder – School Board Member , Chris King – BVSD Educational Programs , Cindy Monet , Darci Mohr – Legal Counsel BVSD , Dawn Shulz – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Don Orr – BVSD Director of Planning & Construction , Donna Casey , George Garcia – Superintendent of Schools , Helayne Jones – School Board Member , Jean Paxton – School Board Member , Joe Sleeper , Julie Phillips – School Board President , Ken Roberge – School Board Member , Mark Bauer , Mary Cox – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Ned Levine – Crest View Principal , Roger Hammond – BVSD COO , Sheri Williams – BVSD Director of School Leadership , Sofie Trujillo-Shrock – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Stan Garnett – School Board Member , “Teresa Steele – School Board V.P.” , Virginia Pool , Wendy Rochman

Dear BVSD Administrators and School Board Members,

Thank you for giving Crest View’s students a greater opportunity to learn this year.

Thank you for giving our teachers the opportunity to teach and not just manage their classrooms.

Thank you for recognizing and supporting our fabulously diverse school.

We are grateful for the additional 4th full time 2nd grade teacher that has been promised to Crest View this year.

We are hopeful that the committee you have put together to address Crest View’s long term issues will find solid solutions before the start of the 2006 school year.

A thousand thank you’s to all of you.

Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent
303 245 8008

Posted by Tom Gale, Sept. 17, 2005

Crest View Second Grade Parents:

Great news! A full-time teacher for Crest View second grade was approved late this past week. My daughter was sick Friday, so I’m not sure if Principal Ned Levine sent home official notice in backpacks or not. A classroom space is being prepared this week, and there may be a need for some volunteer parent help later this week to help with getting the room ready. Stay tuned.

The interview process is progressing, and I know the school is working to make this happen as quickly as it practically can.

Second grade teachers were also approved for Flatirons and Whittier second grade classes based on updated enrollment numbers presented at the school board meeting last Tuesday. The strong presence at the parent meeting last week and parent involvement at many levels helped make this a reality. If you see Kristi Anderson, please thank her for her excellent research and large amounts of time, questions and well-aimed concern over the past years and recently as she has sought to address class size issues and resource allocation to help Crest View remain a great school. Her information helped many of us the past few weeks get up to speed quickly with some broader and complex issues that are a part of any school district’s management and decision-making process. Please see her thank you at the www.crestviewkids.com site to BVSD officials.

This decision really helps strengthen our school and our kids’ futures. Thank you and congratulations to all of us! We are all winners in this!

Tom Gale

A group of Crest View parents addressed the BVSD school board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005.

Here is a good article (requires registration) that summarizes their presentation to the board and addresses the key issues. The article appeared in the Daily Camera the next day.

Email sent by Kristi Anderson on Sept. 14, 2005:

——– Original Message ——– Subject: School Board Meeting
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 07:44:15 -0600
From: Kristi Anderson
Reply-To: kristi@abstract.com
To: Angelika Schroeder – School Board Member , Chris King – BVSD Educational Programs , Cindy Monet , Darci Mohr – Legal Counsel BVSD , Dawn Shulz – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Don Orr – BVSD Director of Planning & Construction , Donna Casey , George Garcia – Superintendent of Schools , Helayne Jones – School Board Member , Jean Paxton – School Board Member , Joe Sleeper , Julie Phillips – School Board President , Ken Roberge – School Board Member , Mark Bauer , Mary Cox – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Ned Levine – Crest View Principal , Roger Hammond – BVSD COO , Sheri Williams – BVSD Director of School Leadership , Sofie Trujillo-Shrock – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Stan Garnett – School Board Member , “Teresa Steele – School Board V.P.” , Virginia Pool , boundsa@dailycamera.com

Dear BVSD Administrators and School Board Members,

Today I spoke with Melissa Zahn, Principal at Foothills Elementary School. Ms. Zahn indicated she is a new principal at Foothills Elementary. She stated all of the staffing decisions for Foothills current 2nd grade were completed in the spring of 2005. Staffing included four teachers for their second grade class. They were allotted 3.5 FTE’s from the district. This was based on Foothills projecting 87 2nd grade students. During fall staff planning that occurred in the spring of 2005, Foothills chose to allot another .5 FTE at their discretion. All hiring was completed before Ms. Zahn came to the school. I asked her directly if she appealed for additional assistance for their current second grade class and she stated that she had not.

This information is in direct conflict to the information we received Wednesday, September 7th at Crest View’s parent meeting. Sheri Williams showed to approximately 50 parents and teachers, a form titled “Student FTE/Teacher FTE Formula and Adjusted”. This spreadsheet showed both Crest View and Foothills were allotted 3 FTE’s last spring. This was based on their projected enrollment numbers. Sheri Williams stated that Foothills decided to use a .5 FTE from their schools allotted resources and put it toward lowering their second grade class size. She then stated Foothills appealed for a .5 FTE to bring their staffing up to 4 FTE in second grade. She stated Foothills appealed for this .5 FTE shortly before Crest View appealed for theirs this fall and that both .5 FTE’s were granted to both schools.

It is very clear that Foothills was given 3.5 teachers based on 87 students. Foothills .5 FTE was approved and in place long before the current principal or students showed up for school this fall. At this same time Crest View was told they would not even be considered for an additional 5 FTE from the district until our numbers reached 93 students. See attached letter from Principal Ned Levine dated September 1st, 2005. This is plain wrong. This is discrimination. This is preferential treatment for Foothills no matter how you look at it.

There are two main issues here:

Crest View parents had to fight for 2 weeks to be given the .5 teacher that was just handed out to Foothills Elementary School last spring. The parents who attended the meeting at Crest View on September 7th were told of this additional .5 FTE for second grade that night. A formal letter was just sent out to parents yesterday announcing this .5 FTE, see attached letter. You have to read the letter closely because the letter indicates our class sizes have been reduced to 22. The “for half the day part” is pretty obscure. Ned Levine stated he will begin his search for a teacher this week. A week has passed since he was told of this half time teacher . Beginning his search this week does show where his priorities are for this second grade class. (I was told of the additional .5 FTE when I met with Sheri Williams on 9/6/05 – Mr. Levine knew of this .5 addition at least by this date.) When this teacher is actually in a classroom has yet to be seen. We are already 3 weeks into school and our second graders are just now being given some consideration. Given Foothills free and reduced lunch statistic of 4.3% and Crest Views free and reduced lunch statistic of 23.6%, this just does not make sense. Foothills has been able to accommodate their 2nd grade students since the day school started. They have had no disruption in their classes.

BVSD’s Target Schools which include: Columbine, Creekside, Emerald, Lafayette, Pioneer, Ryan, Sanchez and University Hill all benefit from reduced class sizes. They also benefit from additional funding. Whittier, who also has a high free and reduced lunch statistic, receives additional funding and program benefits for their IB program. Crest View surpassed Ryan Elementary lunch statistics back in 2002. That was three years ago. According to Sheri Williams, Crest Views free and reduced lunch numbers are expected to rise sharply this year. Crest View is projected to pass Lafayette Elementary lunch statistics this year. Yet Crest View receives no benefits of reduced class sizes or additional funding. Nederlands free and reduced lunch statistic is 16.3%. Nederlands poverty rate is the next highest elementary or K-8 to Crest Views. Nederlands student to teacher ration is 22 to 1. Besides the schools listed above there are no other Elementary schools or K-8 in the district who’s free and reduced lunch statistics are even close Crest Views.

We are asking that you remedy this situation now so that all of our students can receive a quality education. All we are asking for are 4 full time teachers to teach Crest Views second grade class of 90 students. Considering Crest View has over 23.6 percent impoverished students, over 18 % English Language Learners and over 11% Special Education Students, this should be an easily granted. We are asking that you preserve this schools wonderful diversity and give Crest View the assistance that it need this year. How much longer do we have to fight for Crest View to receive just a tidbit of what every other school with our demographics receives?

Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent
303 245 8008

Email sent by Tom Gale to Sheri Williams, director of elementary, on Thursday, Sept. 8:

Sheri:

Thank you for applying a half-time resource to this situation. I did not hear anyone last night thank you for that decision. Like every other parent in that room last night, I want more than that but I truly thank you for taking action to address the problem. I also recognize and respect that a percentage of your responsibilities involve making decisions based on relative levels of pain, suffering and dysfunction in the classrooms across BVSD elementary schools.

I did leave the meeting feeling that the second grade kids at Crest View are victims of a system that can adjust to certain anomalies, but not to multiple or multi-layered anomalies. There appears to be several “perfect storm” elements – formulas, 4th grade size, space, budget, planning cycle – that make real-time, commonsense decisions based on the reality of ESL and special education needs combined with class size impossible. So at one level it is in fact “Catch-22” insanity, especially in light of comparison with Foothill. I think that is the core of the frustration expressed last night.

I think it is worthwhile for the Crest View second grade parents to continue to explore creative options for how the district may provide additional support, and thank you for continuing to keep an open mind regarding this situation. I believe it was extremely helpful for parents last night to gain a better understanding of some complex issues. There is a strong commitment by parents to support the teachers, which I will continue to help facilitate. I think it’s important to keep discussing and stay aware of the district-wide issues that are creating the constraints our kids face, and work quickly to see if we all can forge a better solution, both for this semester and looking out through fifth grade for these kids.

Thanks,

Tom

Email from Kristi Anderson, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005:

I met with Sheri Williams yesterday. She stated that she is requesting a 1/2 time teacher for Crest View based on yesterday’s 2nd grade student count of 89 students. I see this as some progress, though ultimately I would prefer this to be a full time position. We spent a lot of time discussing the following:

There are currently 90 children in Kindergarten. In the past 5 years class sizes have increase by 6-13 students when they reach first grade. Do we have the space at Crest View to accommodate these prospective new students? Can this happen while still providing reasonable class sizes for the rest of our students?

The increase of 6-13 students per year was taken directly from the 2004 School Profiles publication. Sheri and I went through these numbers year by year. She confirmed that these are correct. We discussed the impact 5 rounds of first grade would have on Crest View. First grade will have priority over small class sizes and class space. Kindergarten will also have priority and we will not have even a glimpse of how many kindergarteners will be coming Crest View’s way until spring. Small K-1 classes are the school districts policy and it is very appropriate. This will put enormous pressure on our ability to find classroom space for our currently crowded 2nd and 4th grades. Not to mention that 3rd grade with 85 students is not that far behind. We discussed that double wide portables are used at other schools in the district. From what I hear these portables are actually larger than some of the classrooms at Crest View. We need to keep the whole school in mind as we address the needs of our 2nd graders. Sheri was very positive about the type of planning that could occur this year in case Crest View receives the worst case scenario as far as next years enrollment numbers. I am excited about the prospect of advance planning so that we do not end up in the same boat next year of scrounging for space. If this planning does not occur this year we could wind up with exceptionally large class sizes in the upper grades with only para pro time for help. While I appreciate para pro time it does not make up for small class sizes.
Kristi

Email sent by Kristi Anderson Sept. 3, 2005 to BVSD officials —

Dear BVSD Administrators and School Board Members,

Thank you for hanging in there with me while I gained clarity on the subject of Crest View’s overcrowding issue.

Every BVSD elementary school and K-8 with free/reduced lunch totals exceeding 16.4% of their student body population are currently receiving extra assistance, in the form of Target Schools which have small class sizes and/or the IB program. Except for Crest View which has a free/reduced lunch total of 23.6%.

There are 6 elementary schools with free reduced/totals of 11.7% to 16.3% of their student body population. I will call these six schools on Tuesday to find out what their class sizes are this year. If any of you have this information and could forward it to me it would save me time. These schools are: Birch, Eisenhower, Fireside, Gold Hill, Heatherwood and Nederland. These have never been schools that I hear of having large class sizes.

There are 18 elementary schools and k-8’s with free/reduced lunch totals of 0% to 9.2% of their student body population.

This is really the heart of the issue for me and many other parents. When you look at these statistics, why is Crest View being singled out?

We are merely asking for reasonable class sizes based on our demographics. This shouldn’t have to be something we have to fight for every year, it should just be provided to our school.

This is not just a second and fourth grade issue. It is an issue that continuously plagues our school.

The attached documents list the above statistics school by school. The information was obtained from the BVSD School Profiles 2004 publication. They were confirmed on the BVSD website.

Again, thank you for your time.

Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent

Dear 2nd Grade Parents:

A reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday at 6 p.m., there will be a meeting in the Crest View cafeteria to learn more about the issues regarding fall enrollment of 89-90 2nd graders at Crest View. I have attached an agenda and will hand out copies at the meeting. Bring your questions and ideas! Let me know if I missed something. I have also attached this email as an attachment in case it gets mangled enroute.

To me there are three core issues to address tomorrow based on class sizes of 29-30: What impact is there on individualized instruction? And based on the levels of ESL and special education needs, is Crest View receiving enough resources to give teachers enough tools to effectively teach? What can we do to get more resources to teachers?

A few corrections to note in my previous email that included a lot of background information from Kristi Anderson. I identified her as Kristi Williams by mistake and apologize. In Kristi’s first point, she gave some enrollment numbers for Flatirons that actually belong to Foothill Elementary. Flatirons has 65 second graders and 2.5 teachers assigned. Foothill has 89 second graders and four teachers assigned. We will get the most up-to-date counts at the meeting, I’m sure.

For a comparison of class sizes at all BVSD elementary schools (all schools actually) as of 09-02-05, by grade, open this link: BVSD Enrollment Count 09-02-05

With the help of Margot and Bill Brown, there is a blog/information site in early development that is dedicated to information, comments and feedback gathered and contributed about this topic. Please feel free to comment and contribute. The site is at www.crestviewkids.com. I will mention it at the meeting and plan to provide a summary there of what takes place at the meeting.

Is there someone willing to take fairly detailed notes at the meeting tomorrow so we can provide a summary to parents who can’t attend? I’ll try but would like to focus on the discussion and a back-up would help create an accurate summary. Let me know if you can assist. Thanks.

Finally, here are some additional comments and questions received over the weekend. They may be helpful as background for the meeting:

********

“Second grade classes that are 50% larger than they were last year when our children were in first grade will also mean that the students will be getting sick more frequently, coming down with worse ailments, and missing more school as a result.”

“Mr. Levine’s letter that came home in the Friday Folders mentioned that 29 students per teacher is the “target” for second grade. I think the word “target” is being misused here. If 29 were really the “target,” we would be rejoicing at having reached our target. But it clearly is not anyone’s goal. If it really was the target, Foothill would have three second grade classes too. (They have about the same total number of second graders that we do, divided among four classes for about 22 per class which is what we would have if we had four classes too.) So we need to call it something else- I think “maximum” is more like it.”

“Mr. Levine also mentioned that they look at the number of “students per teacher.” I think looking at it this way penalizes large schools like ours. For example, instead of waiting for two more students to come before requesting more help, we are asked to wait for six more. Instead, we should look at the total number of students per grade level. 88 second graders should automatically get 4 teachers for 22 per class.”

********

Here is an email sent by Kristi Anderson to school board and BVSD administrators on 9/3/05:

——– Original Message ——–

Subject:
Over Crowding Issue – Crest View

Date:
Sat, 03 Sep 2005 16:17:27 -0600

From:
Kristi Anderson

Reply-To:
kristi@abstract.com

To:
Ned Levine – Crest View Principal , Sheri Williams – BVSD Director of School Leadership , Julie Phillips – School Board President , George Garcia – Superintendent of Schools , Darci Mohr – Legal Counsel BVSD

CC:
Dawn Shulz – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Mary Cox – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Sofie Trujillo-Shrock – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher

Dear BVSD Administrators and School Board Members,

Thank you for hanging in there with me while I gained clarity on the subject of Crest View’s overcrowding issue.

Every BVSD elementary school and K-8 with free/reduced lunch totals exceeding 16.4% of their student body population are currently receiving extra assistance, in the form of Target Schools which have small class sizes and/or the IB program. Except for Crest View which has a free/reduced lunch total of 23.6%.

There are 6 elementary schools with free reduced/totals of 11.7% to 16.3% of their student body population. I will call these six schools on Tuesday to find out what their class sizes are this year. If any of you have this information and could forward it to me it would save me time. These schools are: Birch, Eisenhower, Fireside, Gold Hill, Heatherwood and Nederland. These have never been schools that I hear of having large class sizes.

There are 18 elementary schools and k-8’s with free/reduced lunch totals of 0% to 9.2% of their student body population.

This is really the heart of the issue for me and many other parents. When you look at these statistics, why is Crest View being singled out?

We are merely asking for reasonable class sizes based on our demographics. This shouldn’t have to be something we have to fight for every year, it should just be provided to our school.

This is not just a second and fourth grade issue. It is an issue that continuously plagues our school.

The attached document list the above statistics school by school. The information was obtained from the BVSD School Profiles 2004 publication. They were confirmed on the BVSD website.

Again, thank you for your time.

Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent

BVSD Elementary Schools

Free Reduced

Lunch Lunch Totals

Aspen Creek K-8 5.2 2.1 7.3

Bear Creek 3.3 0.3 3.6

Birch 9.9 4.7 14.6

BCSIS 7.3 0.8 8.1

Coal Creek 4.1 1.0 5.1

Community Montessori 4.1 1.4 5.5

Crest View 20.4 3.2 23.6

Douglass 2.3 0.4 2.7

Eisenhower 10.8 3.2 14.0

Eldorado K-8 1.9 0 1.9

Fireside 8.4 3.3 11.7

Flatirons 4.7 0 4.7

Foothill 3.0 1.3 4.3

Gold Hill 8.8 5.9 14.7

Heatherwood 9.3 3.0 12.3

High Peaks 0.7 0.7 1.4

Horizons K-8 2.6 2.3 4.9

Jamestown 0 0 0

Kohl 8.6 4.3 12.9

Louisville 4.9 2.5 7.4

Mesa 3.5 1.4 4.9

Monarch K-8 1.8 1.7 3.5

Nederland 12.1 4.2 16.3

Peak to Peak Charter 3.2 1.6 4.8

Superior 0 0 0

Target Schools

Columbine 83.2 3.8 87.0

Creekside 39.6 5.3 44.9

Emerald 38.0 8.6 46.6

Lafayette 19.5 8.1 27.6

Pioneer 41.7 12.4 54.1

Ryan 15.7 3.9 19.6

Sanchez 56.9 7.6 64.5

University Hill 54.5 6.9 61.4

*Target Schools have reduced class sizes – They are chosen based on these statistics.

International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program

Whittier IB PYP 26.5 5.5 32.0

Every BVSD elementary school and K-8 with free/reduced lunch totals exceeding 16.4% of their student body population is receiving additional assistance, except for Crest View.

**********

Thomas P. Gale

tom@mdm.com

Parents of Mrs. Shrock’s class:

Thanks for the feedback and replies so far to my email of last night concerning the large class size in Mrs. Shrock’s second grade class. There was enough positive response that I have scheduled and confirmed a meeting for Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria. A notice of this meeting is scheduled to be sent home in all second grade students’ Friday folder. I received several suggestions that it would be fruitful to include all second grade parents. Both Principal Ned Levine and Director of BVSD Elementary Schools Sheri Williams have confirmed their attendance.

This will be a valuable opportunity and first step. Please send any questions or information that you’d like to share with this email list. I will compile and send back out by Monday evening. Your input, concerns and questions may be helpful to others and to help focus the meeting so it is productive. So expect to see some good homework (no test) before the meeting. I am very committed for this meeting to not be a gripe session but to stay focused on the constructive ways we can help the second grade teachers do their best.

If you know other second grade parents who would like to join this independent information email list with no official connection to the school, please have them email or call me.

Thanks. Have a great and safe weekend, and I look forward to the meeting Wednesday.

Tom