Education a big job, BVSD Supt. Chris King tells Boulder Rotary

January 14, 2009



BOULDER – "Boulder Valley School District is big and diverse," Boulder Valley Superintendent of Schools Chris King told the Boulder Rotary Club on Friday (January 9).

"Your schools serve about 28,000 students in grades K through 12, in 55 schools ranging in size from 20 (at Gold Hill Elementary) to 1,900 (at Fairview High School – with Boulder High close behind at 1,800),” King said. “We have about 4,000 employees, half of whom are licensed – such as teachers, administrators, counselors, nurses. Counting our contingency planning and bond issue expenditures we have an annual budget of some $400 million."

While King has spent 18 months as superintendent, he has been in the Boulder Valley School District for a number of years. He was principal at Boulder High School and also served as an assistant superintendent.

"Our community values education,” he said. “For example, in 2006 voters approved a $300 million bond issue that will fund renovation of most of the school facilities.”

Scope of the projects ranges from $1 million improvements to total reconstruction of a building, as is happening with Casey Middle School at a cost of $31 million. Most of the facilities must still be used while they are being renovated.

King warned against looking at a single number or ranking to gauge the quality of schools.

"Determining educational quality requires multiple measures," he said. "By most measures BVSD is one of the highest-performing large districts (in Colorado)."

King noted that about 20 percent of BVSD students qualify for free or reduced lunch, an indicator of low family income. About 18 percent of BVSD students speak English as a second language.

"Our school board seeks to focus on defining measurable goals and using how well we accomplish them as an integral part of our planning and evaluation," King said.

The district wants to raise the academic achievement for all students, closing the achievement gap between students coming from highly different economic circumstances, he said.

“We also need to address a number of social climate issues, since students who are troubled do not learn well. Schools need to be safe and welcoming for every student, and students need helpful adult mentors both in and away from the classroom."

King identified substance abuse as the number one disciplinary issue in middle and high schools.

In addition, he noted. the need for adequate nutrition to support learning has led to making the schools primary providers of food for some students.

"We serve about 8,000 meals each day," noted Chris, "with about 5,000 of those to free and reduced price students who depend on our meals as a primary source of nutrition."

BVSD food service is working on a full-scale evaluation seeking to improve food quality and attractiveness.


-Reported by the Boulder Rotary Club

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BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
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Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580