BVSD school board hears bond issue construction update, approves employment contracts

The Boulder Valley school board heard an update Tuesday on its $350 million capital construction bond issue, which includes 16 projects under construction over the summer that add up to about $40 million of work.

The biggest project under construction is a new building for Boulder’s New Vista High School. Other projects in the bond, approved by voters in 2022, include a new $40.9 million school to relieve crowding at Erie’s Meadowlark School and about $36 million to expand career and technical education offerings. Another $123 million is earmarked for building needs, such as replacing roofs and boilers.

New Vista was the first school under construction, with a groundbreaking last summer, because most of the design work for the 68,000-square-foot building was already complete.

Infrastructure improvements to the school were included in a previous bond issue, but were put on hold while the district explored rebuilding it instead. An additional $11 million budgeted for New Vista from a previous bond issue was added to the current project budget, for a total of about $47.2 million.

The district is keeping New Vista students at the original building while the new one is under construction at its 700 20th St. campus.

As of this month, exterior wall panels and roofing installation are complete and interior drywall finishes are about 30% complete. The plan is to move students to the new building in December, then demolish the old building.

The rest of the district’s schools are divided into four phases for construction. Schools in the first phase — with construction happening mainly this summer — are Alicia Sanchez Elementary, Angevine Middle, Boulder Prep, Broomfield Heights Middle, Broomfield High, Centaurus High, Columbine Elementary, Fireside Elementary, Justice High, Lafayette Elementary and University Hill Elementary.

Those projects generally are expected to be complete in August. Columbine and Justice High are expected to finish sooner, by the end of the month. The Centaurus engineering wing is scheduled to be completed in November.

“Our phase one bond projects are up to a really strong start,” said Kris Stoppenhagen, Boulder Valley’s executive director of bond planning.

Also included in the first phase are tennis court replacements at Fairview High and Centennial Middle, a teaching kitchen addition to the district’s central kitchen and upgrades to improve playground accessibility at Eisenhower, Foothill, Kohl, Louisville and Nederland elementary schools. Altogether, the bond issue includes playground accessibility improvements at 16 schools.

In other business, the school board approved the superintendent’s evaluation and  contract agreements with its employee groups.

The board’s evaluation of Anderson after six years in the district was positive, praising him for addressing declining enrollment, auditing the district’s strategic plan, working to close gaps in opportunity and achievement for students, and helping acclimate four new school board members.

“We are really happy to have you at the helm,” Boulder Valley school board President Nicole Rajpal said.

For the contract agreements, the district is giving all employees a 4% cost-of-living salary increase next school year, but had to cut $5 million from its budget to afford it. The total additional cost for the district’s salary increases is $18.9 million.

For teachers, a 4% increase will bump the starting salary from $54,789 to $56,981.

Along with salary increases, the new teacher agreement includes a process for educators to deal with uncivil behavior. When parents guardians, advocates, students or colleagues express concerns using insults, profanity or other abusive behaviors, the agreement stipulates, educators are not required to continue the meeting or discussion and should report it.

The district and the teachers union also agreed to study several issues, including updating extra duty pay, evaluating classroom composition and class sizes in early childhood and elementary classrooms, enhancing compensation for dual language educators, and increasing elementary and middle school planning time.

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