Addressing antisemitism in BVSD update: BVSD reaches settlement, OCR complaint withdrawn

Here is a brief update regarding our efforts to address antisemitism in the Boulder Valley School District.

Settlement in Title VI complaint
This week BVSD, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Hills family named in the Title VI complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, reached a negotiated settlement. 

As part of the agreement, ADL and the family are withdrawing the complaint.

As I shared in August, the details of the abuse inflicted on the middle schooler here in BVSD were incredibly hard to hear. I have not only offered my sincerest apologies for what this student endured, but vowed to take immediate action, not only to resolve the complaint, but to take substantial, systemic steps to address harassment, bullying and antisemitism in BVSD. 

Progress on antisemitism plan

We are already making progress on the six-part plan to address antisemitism in BVSD.

We have already met with all of our school leaders, training them on our new standard operating procedure, which aims to better address incidents of discrimination, under Title VI, by bringing those cases to the attention of leadership faster and providing a clear set of actions that must be taken, including:

• Ensuring that all reports are reviewed
• Activating a response team, when warranted, to investigate the incident and determine what actions, supports and communication are warranted.
• Following up to ensure that appropriate actions have been taken and necessary communication has occurred.

Additionally, the Board of Education has begun the process of reviewing and updating  Board Policy AC - Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity and  Board Policy JDHB - Bullying.

Finally, we have created a new website where we are beginning to centralize harassment and antisemitism resources for staff, students, and families.

Next Steps
Now that we have reached resolution of the OCR complaint, I plan to reconnect with our local Jewish community and our team to begin work on the following actions:

• Implementing training for all staff and administrators on recognizing and combating antisemitism
• Providing age-appropriate educational programming for students on discrimination and harassment
• Establishing a Superintendent Advisory Group Addressing Antisemitism, composed of community representatives to ensure the School District’s efforts are responsive and effective
• Enhancing its annual community reporting and internal audits of incident handling, providing the community with clarity on the incidents of student misconduct involving discrimination, harassment, and bullying, and the school district's actions

BVSD remains dedicated to fostering safe, welcoming learning environments for all students. The School District will continue investing in training and educational programming, investigating allegations of misconduct, and taking prompt, effective action to address and prevent discrimination, bullying, and harassment.

You can count on us to continue to provide updates on our progress on all of these efforts.