Frequently Asked Questions

Does a successful petition split the district?

A successful petition means that a committee of stakeholders (including BVSD) will be formed to study all of the issues and develop a plan for creating two school districts.  The plan is then put before the voters.  The composition of the committee, the charge of the committee and the ballot process are all governed by Colorado State statute.  A more detailed outline of the process can be found at our Process web page.

The plan will have to address funding, debt, taxation, and administrative cost issues.  Signing the petition says, "Yes, let's study this." Not signing means, "No, I don't want to know the answers."

BVSD is one of the top-ranked districts in the state, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

BVSD is one of the top-ranked districts in the state because the primary predictors of student success are socioeconomic ones  like household income and parents’ educational level.  Given these driving factors, it is no wonder most BVSD students do well.  The administration would like to take credit for BVSD’s ranking, but most of the highly ranked districts in the nation are located in communities not unlike Boulder in terms of socioeconomic status.  The top school districts in the nation in 2006, according to a firm that helps corporations select expansion locations, were in State College, PA; Ithaca, NY; Lawrence, KS; Iowa City, IA; Sheboygan, WI; Charlottesville, VA; Eau Claire, WI; Madison, WI; etc.  These are all college communities like ours, but BVSD does not even land in the top 25 of this list.

There is a growing population of students in BVSD who are not born into favorable economic circumstances.  BVSD has made little to no headway in closing the achievement gap between those students, who account for about a third of the BVSD enrollment, and the rest of the students in the district.

What BVSD really excels at is spending on administration.  This chart shows that BVSD spends more, per student, on administration than the other major Front Range school districts.  Perhaps this is why.

How, specifically, have we not been "closing the gap"? How does creating two districts solve this problem?

“Statewide test scores show wide gaps for Hispanic students, second-language students, low-income students and special-education students. Graduation rates also are lower. For example, the graduation rate in 2006 was 63 percent for Hispanic students compared with 90 percent for white students.” [Boulder Daily Camera (10/19/07)]   BVSD does not have an effective plan for fixing this problem and resorts to blaming the communities. Community support is vital for the schools and students to succeed no matter the size of the district, but it will be easier to get parents, local governments and businesses to support a plan if they feel they are truly being heard, respected and included.

How does going from one administration to two result in cost savings?

Currently, because the district is too big for the Superintendent to manage, he must rely on a Deputy Superintendent. Together, they manage 6 Assistant Superintendents who, in turn, rely on 34 Executive Directors, Directors, Assistant Directors and “Chiefs.” Two smaller districts would be more efficient, perhaps even eliminating entire levels from the organization chart. Economies of scale have not worked for this district, in fact, we spend more per student on our administrators than other major Front Range districts. 

There is nothing to prevent sharing some facilities and resources between the two new districts, if it saves both districts money.   The planning committee will determine which sharing arrangements make sense and which ones don't.

How does creating two districts have any impact on class size or teacher:student ratios?

Any cost savings will be directed to the schools where the real education takes place. Localization will make the districts more accountable to the taxpayers and more responsive to each community’s values, including smaller class sizes and better teacher:student ratios if those are priorities for the respective communities.  See more details on our class size page.

How does current funding per student work and how would this change with the creation of two districts?

In Colorado, education funding follows the child. The biggest change would be in the central administration.  More details are available on our funding page.

How will the creation of two districts impact traffic and community services?

The closures and consolidations in Boulder have had adverse impacts on traffic and land use planning there. Walkable schools are now drive-across-town-schools. By localizing the district, collaboration and cooperation between municipal governments and their respective school districts will be significantly enhanced.

If having smaller schools is so important, what is the plan for decreasing school size?

Our district is still reluctant to admit what other districts across the country are finally realizing: big districts create more problems than they solve and education becomes second to managing them. BVSD does not see the value of small schools (the Superintendent and Board President have referred to the desire for small, neighborhood schools as “nostalgia”) and has moved to close small schools, even ones with excellent track records. BVSD closed and consolidated schools under the mistaken belief that they would save large sums of money. The savings have not materialized.

Under local school districts, each community will be able to promote its own values more effectively, whether it is for smaller schools or larger schools.

If the main problem has been the lack of responsiveness of the BVSD board, how does creating two boards help the problem?

The past ten years have proven that changing the board does not change the culture or the results. Localizing would create two governing boards with more representation from each community and less “big picture” averaging of decisions. No longer would the east county’s needs be balanced against the west. Under the current structure, decisions must be watered down and applied equally to all areas, with the net result being little improvement at all. This district represents 11 communities, three counties and 500 square miles of geographical area that is over 60 miles from one end to the other. With the populations increasing in each community, the problems will only get worse.

Will we end up with one rich district and one poor one?

The demographics between the two school districts is remarkably similar and is presented on our diversity page.   Both school districts will be serving similar numbers of low income families, and tackling the same achievement gap and stratification issues.  And, as long as the communities support it, the students in both districts will continue to receive the maximum allowable per student, as governed by the State of Colorado.  See our funding page for more detail.