New BVSD superintendent outlines his approach to ensuring all necessary procedures and practices are in place to support BVSD students’ physical and emotional well being

BOULDER, CO – Dr. Bruce Messinger, superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) since July 1, 2011, today issued his first statement addressing his approach to making sure that BVSD is doing everything possible to maintain a physically and emotionally safe and positive learning environment for each of the district’s more than 29,000 students.

“In more than 30 years in public education as a classroom teacher, a principal, an administrator and, for the past 14 years, a district superintendent, I have seen changes in curriculum and in operations. What has never changed for me is my constant awareness that regardless of my job title, I always had as my primary responsibility doing everything possible to guarantee the physical and emotional safety of my students. This is not simply a legal or administrative responsibility. It is, at its core, a moral public responsibility for me and for every BVSD employee and parent in our community. As the administrative, instructional and operational leader of our district, I am announcing the following initial new steps that I am directing BVSD staff to take:

• A complete review of who BVSD allows to have access to our students, including staff, substitute teachers, student teachers, and volunteers and their supervision;
• Continued implementation of the requirement of a background check for all volunteers during the school day and during activities;
• A complete review of existing procedures used for supervision of students by staff and volunteers on or off campus to assure their safety;
• A complete review of building security and building access; and
• A complete review of staff and parent volunteer supervision with BVSD athletic directors and coaching staffs.

“The challenges to student well being constantly evolve for reasons of technology, social culture, and economics to name just a few factors. For this reason, school districts can never become complacent about security. Also for this reason, the best security is based in a partnership of administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students.

“Based in part upon a recent report to the school board by representatives of the Boulder Valley Safe Schools Coalition, I believe that BVSD must explore fully innovative training programs that engage students and parents as well as staff in what types of at-risk behaviors to be aware of and how to safely report them to an adult in the school. An example of a local program mentioned by the safe schools coalition for adaptation by BVSD is a current program for University of Colorado freshmen known as ‘Upstander’ that helps students know how to be an engaged bystander when they observe unsafe behaviors.

“It is also important to note that, while we can always improve safety and security, BVSD is currently a leader in student safety and school security among Colorado’s 178 school districts. A few examples of that leadership include:

• Internet Safety: Working in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver, BVSD’s Information Technology Division brought together district officials, law enforcement representatives, teachers and students in 2007 to jointly host a statewide conference on Internet Safety for students – specifically focused upon online predatory behavior. This program, which has been presented throughout BVSD to parent organizations, was the first of its kind in Colorado.
  
• Bullying Prevention: BVSD has, since 2005, participated in the Colorado Trust’s $8.6 million Bullying Prevention & Intervention (BPI) initiative. According to the Trust’s 2007 evaluation team, ‘Bullying can be prevented by changing the climate and culture of the school.’

In November 2007, the Boulder Valley Board of Education set three five-year goals – one of which was aimed at improving school climate by focusing upon students’ perception of their ability to trust that the adults that they came in contact with at school respected them, cared about them and protected them. BVSD has seen great strides in school climate through the internal training and leadership of teachers and principals as well as successful participation in valued community partnerships such as the Anti-Defamation League’s ‘No Place for Hate’ training already conducted in numerous BVSD schools.

• Child Abuse Awareness and Reporting Training: Working in cooperation with local public health and social services officials, non-profit agencies concerned with child welfare, local law enforcement and BVSD administration, the district is, in the fall of 2011, launching a BVSD child abuse awareness and reporting training video that every BVSD employee will be required to confirm that he or she has viewed. After viewing this video, each BVSD employee must attest that she or he is aware of her or his legal requirement to report immediately an observation of or suspicion of a possible case of child abuse. Every employee is legally required to report any suspicion to either a local child protection agency or local law enforcement. This training video makes it very clear that employees’ legal reporting responsibility is the same whether the person suspected of the abuse is outside the school or a fellow staff member. This video will also be made available to BVSD volunteers to view although the legal reporting requirement does not apply to volunteers.
  
• Emergency Readiness and Management Planning and Training: In July 2009, BVSD received the federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant. Key BVSD goals in the execution of this two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools included the development of crisis management plans for each BVSD school within the federal National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework, requirement of multiple online training courses for school-based and central office administrators as delivered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and training for a representative BVSD administrative team at a federal training center.
  
• Colorado Safe2Tell Participation: BVSD has, for several years, participated in the Colorado Safe2Tell® anonymous hotline, established in Colorado law with funding from the Colorado Trust that guarantees anonymity to anyone (young people are targeted by Safe2Tell® outreach efforts) who wants to report what she or he suspects or knows to be a crime by either emailing a tip to http://safe2tell.org/what-can-you-do/submit-a-tip-online/ or calling 1-877-542-7233.
  
• Community Partnerships: Through partnerships with the BVSD Parent Engagement Network (PEN), the Thrive Coalition, The HOPE Coalition, the Boulder County Gang Intervention Task Force, Impact on Education, the YMCA, the Boulder County Healthy Youth Alliance, the University of Colorado, local law enforcement, public health agencies, the YWCA, the Community Foundation of Boulder County, the Multi-Ethnic Action Community Committee (MEACC), municipal recreation centers, public libraries, PTAs, PTOs, and many other organizations, agencies and individuals, BVSD works in numerous ways to engage, inform and keep our students safe.

“In summary, I will do my best to make sure that the entire BVSD community is aware that nothing matters more to me than the physical and emotional well being of each of our students.”