A few days ago, our Board of Directors gathered for the first time since May 21. In addition to the routine items on our agenda, we prioritized making space for a frank conversation about the role of equity and race within Impact on Education. We believe strongly that Black Lives Matter and are committed to making change through equity in public education.
The mission of our organization is to support students in Boulder Valley public schools with supplemental funding and resources in order to address critical needs and achievement gaps. But let us be clear: the fact that our mission aligns with goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion does not mean we believe that we’re already doing the best we can. In fact, because we’re committed to leveling the playing field of public education in our community, we hold ourselves to a higher standard and acknowledge that we have not yet done enough to provide equal opportunity for all students.
Boulder Valley School District has one of the largest and most persistent achievement gaps in the nation. To address this, in 2019 BVSD released their 5-year strategic plan, All Together for All Students, in which they make clear 3 goals:
Reduce disparities in achievement,
Ensure all students receive a relevant and challenging education, and
Prepare every student for success after graduation.
As the foundation for the district, we’re proud to play an active role in working towards these goals. We’re also here to hold them accountable.
Our staff and Board members committed to closely examine every aspect of our programs, strategies, and partnerships through the lens of equity and inclusion. We’ll ask ourselves the difficult questions, maintaining an ongoing inquiry as to how we can better support our students of color and educate our white students on the systems they may find invisible.
We’re committed to giving this work the time it deserves. We’ll provide updates on our progress, and we welcome questions or feedback on how we can do better. We truly value your input and your partnership.
Our longstanding Crayons to Calculators program, generously supported by Western Disposal, needs your help to ensure that 11,000 Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley students pre-K through 12th grade start school in August well-equipped for success! This year, maybe more than any other, students will need our assistance, and Crayons to Calculators is ready for the challenge:
In order to align with Boulder County Public Health guidelines, we are securing and pre-packaging all of the needed supplies recommended by BVSD and SVVSD, through a wholesale supplier and delivering them directly to the school districts for distribution to students in need. This program adaptation will serve as a safety measure while still fulfilling the need for every single student to return to learning in August feeling prepared and confident.
What does this mean for community participation? It means we need community members, who share our commitment to education for all students, to make a gift on behalf of this imperative program. Since we are unable to incorporate two typical elements of this program, volunteer assistance and donated supplies, in 2020, we need to raise more funds from individuals and businesses.
This year, we’re excited to share that our friends at Google have pledged to match all donations made by June 30th up to $10,000. Crayons to Calculators has never depended more on community, individual, and corporate donations. Will you help us raise $20,000 for school supplies by then?
So, as we head into the heat of summer, we know that with your help, Crayons to Calculators and its title sponsor Western Disposal along with partners Impact on Education and Education Foundation for the St. Vrain Valley will be able to meet students’ needs and help them start the school year ready to set new and higher goals!
Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Please reach out to darcy@impactoneducation.org if your business is interested in supporting this essential program or sharing information on our behalf.
300,000 meals for BVSD families! Yes, you read that right! Because of generous individuals and businesses in our community, Impact on Education’s Critical Needs Fund was able to support BVSD Food Services in providing over 300,000 meals since mid-March when school doors suddenly closed, cutting off access to the 6,500 students who rely on free or reduced cost breakfast and lunch each day. Food bags were distributed in a safe, drive-through manner at various school sites and reflected the consistently high standards of Chef Ann, Director of Food Services, which means high quality, local, organic when available, fresh produce, protein, and whole grains.
On Tuesday June 9th, our Executive Director Allison Billings presented this $100,000 check to BVSD Food Services Operations Manager & Registered Dietician, Stephen Menyhart, and we couldn’t be more grateful for such dedicated partners in keeping our BVSD students and families ready to learn and feeling connected to one another during this uncertain time. This investment was complemented by the $40,000 in grocery gift cards that Impact on Education provided to families in need between March and May to ensure that their basic needs were met.
Food distribution details
When: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays, through Aug. 6 (no distribution July 2)
Where: Sanchez Elementary, 655 Sir Galahad Drive, Lafayette; Crest View Elementary, 1897 Sumac Drive, Boulder; Columbine Elementary, 3130 Repplier Drive, Boulder; Emerald Elementary, 275 Emerald St., Broomfield; Louisville Middle, 1341 Main St., Louisville; Nederland Middle/Senior, 597 County Road 130, Nederland; and University Hill Elementary (site may change in mid-July due to construction), 956 16th St., Boulder.
Impact on Education is proud to announce changes to our Summer Shuffle Early Childhood Summer Learning Program. Following public health guidelines, we are evolving from gathering and teaching groups of preschool-aged children at the Boulder Housing Partners (BHP) Community Centers to delivering instructional materials to the doorstep of every 3, 4 and 5 year-old’s home at every BHP site. While we will miss having these young learners join teachers in person, the modified Summer Shuffle allows us to reach twice as many students and families than we typically do! We anticipate delivering over 500 instructional kits this summer!
How we’re adapting
We’re excited to implement such an individualized model during this challenging, instructional time! Each week from June 22-July 23, a bilingual BVSD paraeducator will hand deliver, following established health protocols, an assembled package of theme-driven materials that follow a curriculum developed by our lead teacher, an experienced, bilingual BVSD Early Childhood Education teacher. The bilingual materials will include several books, arts & crafts materials, and printed instructional lessons to guide parents in using those materials. In addition, each week, our Lead Teacher, Ms. Kathy, will offer virtual storytime–in both Spanish and in English–with the books included in the weekly packages. She is also planning on virtual playgroups for parents to check in and visit with her and one another. They’ll have opportunities to ask questions about the instruction or childhood development or education and network with other parents. The program will not only support our youngest BVSD learners but also their parents, guardians, and families.
In past years, the goals of Summer Shuffle have been both academic and social-emotional, and this year’s changes will align with those goals: With full-day kindergarten in Colorado now going into its second year, school readiness has never been more important. Executive functioning skills such as attentiveness during instruction or storytime and sharing of ideas verbally are vital for kindergarten growth, and understanding basic math and language concepts is similarly important to starting off on the right foot.
Experiences that make a difference
Enrolling in a formal preschool program plays a crucial role in introducing those skills early, when children can start associating learning with fun, so one of our goals each year is to offer a friendly summertime introduction to school that will result in preschool enrollment. As with all of our programs, we’ll measure the impact of our program by collecting surveys, observing progress and collecting input from parents and caregivers. Additionally, Impact on Education will gather data on preschool enrollment of BHP children at the conclusion of our program.
Even in these uncertain instructional times, all children need to learn and be prepared for school. And we have a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that the gap in in-person learning doesn’t add to the already wide gap in resources and opportunities that Impact on Education works so hard to address. We’re excited that Summer Shuffle will continue to mean fun in learning, and children in public housing will continue to grow and expand their horizons this summer!
Our long-running Crayons to Calculators program, sponsored by Western Disposal, is a heavy lift each summer. Before school starts each August, we provide school supplies to 11,000 students in need across the Boulder Valley School District and St. Vrain Valley School District with the help of hundreds of volunteers logging thousands of hours and dozens of supply drives across the county collecting donated materials on our behalf. This year, being mindful of public health guidelines and with the safety of our students top of mind, we are revamping the program while still ensuring that all students receive the supplies they need, but this is going to require a LOT of help from our community.
Our Crayons to Calculators program must adapt significantly because we are simply unable to gather hundreds of volunteers in a school building or to safely assemble and distribute backpacks filled with school supplies recommended for students Pre-K through high school.
Some needed changes
While we annually call on the community to donate supplies to be collected for backpack assembly, and while we are the beneficiary of over $250,000 in donated supplies each year, we simply can’t expect this summer to be business as usual.
In the interest of public health, using only community financial contributions, we plan to purchase school supply kits scaled to grade level from a wholesale provider. These kits will take into account the unique needs of each school district as well as a possible need for at-home learning during the 2020-21 school year. Kits will be distributed by BVSD and SVVSD in a safe and socially distant manner. Students and families will still be able to begin the school year ready for success whether they are attending school at-home, within the school building, or a combination of both. But, this approach requires far more funding than we’ve raised in the past.
That’s why we are particularly grateful for Western Disposal’s longstanding sponsorship of Crayons to Calculators: For over a decade, this local company, which values and strives to take care of its local communities, has supported our Crayons to Calculators program, knowing that if students start school feeling ready for success, equipped with the tools needed for success, the year begins positively, and achievement and growth can more effectively develop. We count on Western Disposal as a partner, and they continue to strengthen this collaboration.
We also rely on our partners at the Education Foundation for the St Vrain Valley to coordinate this program within SVVSD.
With these two key partners firmly committed, we are turning our attention to bringing on other partners – businesses, individuals, foundations and others who also recognize the importance of local students being equipped with the tools they need to learn effectively. We realize that, due to economic conditions, we are likely to see more students and families unable to shoulder the cost of purchasing school supplies this year, and we need to prepare accordingly.
How to help
Without volunteer opportunities or supply drives this year, there are two ways you can help:
Make a financial contribution that we will use to purchase supplies at wholesale prices
Host a monetary donation drive for your friends, colleagues, family, & community members
Click here for more information about how to get started in supporting this critical program for our community and join us in our mission to prepare every student to return to learning this fall.
Thanks to you, we are closing in on our Critical Needs Fund goal of $500,000. So far, Impact on Education and our entire community have raised nearly $470,000 from almost 750 donors. And both of those totals are growing because our impact continues to grow.
We’re continuing topartner with BVSD Food Services to distribute bags of fresh, local food to families at seven different school sites across the district twice a week, and that food distribution will continue into July.
We’re also providing grocery gift cards to families in need to supplement the meal bags from BVSD Food Services, and to date, school community liaisons have distributed over $40,000 in gift cards.
We’re so proud that BVSD has ensured internet access and devices to all BVSD families, and we’re now looking into how we can support the district in their professional development offered, so that all teachers are prepared and have the tools they need to support learning in the fall, whether that happens in person, remotely or in a blended format.
Finally, we know that our Critical Needs Fund will also address BVSD students’ significant academic gap as we move into the fall to ensure this temporary gap in in-person learning doesn’t translate to a longer-term overall knowledge and skill gap.
This “new normal”
More students will likely need interventions in some form and more continual food assistance; this situation is ever evolving and much is uncertain. Some needs can be foreseen and many cannot. Our Critical Needs Fund was established as support for both now and the future. And as the needs and our efforts grow, our community has stood with us, and we cannot thank you enough.
So, whether you’re someone in need of help or someone who can provide help, Impact on Education is here for you. We are committed to meeting the needs of the students and families in Boulder Valley’s public schools now and well after the COVID-19 crisis has ended.
Amidst the many challenges facing our community right now, we are excited to share good news about a virtual celebration we held on May 7 during Teacher Appreciation Week. We had the joy of honoring seven BVSD early career teachers and recognizing one first-year teacher as our inaugural Imogene Maxon Early Career Teacher award (IMA) winner! We originally intended to recognize and award these educators in person during our annual Impact Awards event in March, but we rescheduled the event for September, when we will honor them all in person with our Impact Award winners.
Earlier this year,we received a bequest from the family of Imogene Maxon, a lifelong educator who taught in BVSD, in the form of 5% of her estate. Imogene believed strongly in the impact of teachers who spend a lifetime honing instruction and learning practices and positively impacting countless students within the classroom.
Our seven nominees were chosen for their commitment to the teaching profession, and for embodying a passion and stamina that reflects one of a veteran educator. The nominees represent Boulder High, Emerald Elementary, University Hill Elementary, Eldorado K-8, Transitions Center, Manhattan Middle, and Nederland Middle/Senior.
Congratulations to Emily Trujillo
Our first-ever IMA winner, Emily Trujillo, is a kindergarten teacher at Emerald Elementary and a BVSD graduate. Announced by BVSD Board of Education President Tina Marquis, Emily stood out with her wise-beyond-her-years demeanor, natural leadership, and dedication to individual students. She is dedicated to showing students how they can be represented in their teachers.
The virtual celebration included all of the award nominees, their principals, BVSD Board of Education members, and BVSD administrative leaders, and was broadcast on BV22 simultaneously. We encourage the community to watch the video and celebrate our BVSD educators!
Thanks to the Maxon bequest, each nominee and the winner was given a monetary award.
Home-based learning will continue – your support is needed now more than ever
Boulder Valley School District announced on Monday that schools will remain closed for all in-school learning for the rest of this academic year and that Summer School will also be taught remotely. Education and teaching will still occur, but both teachers and students will be logging on from home. With this announcement that building doors will be closed for at least the next few months, we know that the needs in our community will continue to grow.
Our strong partnership with BVSD allowed us to mobilize immediately and ensure that all students have the necessary tools to continue their education from home. So far, we have:
Here’s a quick break down of the impact:
113,632 meals have been distributed to BVSD families since March 17th
2,000+ backpacks full of supplies and work packets distributed to students
$30,000 worth of grocery gift cards distributed to the most critically impacted BVSD families
1,000+ families did not have access to internet prior to Stay-at-Home orders, now EVERY student household in BVSD is connected to wifi
Several hundred masks have been collected from the community and distributed to BVSD essential workers
This work is only possible thanks to the hundreds of individual donors who contributed to our Critical Needs Fund.
In case you missed it, our Executive Director Allison Billings went live on Facebook to share an update on the swift and encompassing efforts by BVSD staff, supported by Impact on Education.
Please help us get the word out, please share on social – click here for easy facebook share.
While we are extremely proud that we’ve been able to provide so much support so quickly, we also know how much more work we have to do. The costs to continue providing food to support families in need this summer are significant, and the enrichment programs we know will be needed to help students catch up will be significant. We are so grateful for all who are joining us to make sure that these temporary school closures do not lead to permanent learning deficits.
Across our community and across the world, families and individuals are starting to settle into their new “routines.” Our new normal is staying at home and wearing masks and gloves during the essential times we need to leave the house. For some, we are working from make-shift offices in our homes, while others are trying to figure out how to pay rent as their employer has been forced to close, ending their job and source of income.
Students’ new normal is school at home. Assignments come from teacher emails, video chats or phone calls or arrive in a backpack either picked up by a family member or dropped off on a doorstep by a school community liaison. Some families are able to make this transition happen fairly well, while others struggle to juggle their own work-from-home schedule while now being a tutor/educator. And for some children, they do not even have the support of an adult in their home to ensure that their work is being completed and that they are connecting with their teachers.
Impact on Education is there for the students and teachers of Boulder Valley School District. We are driven to ensure that all students have the opportunities to receive a great education. We look for the barriers and work to break them down. Though we have been tackling obstacles and battling the achievement gap since our existence, we are in a crisis that exposes the barriers, but also sheds light on how amazing our partnership comes together to support ALL STUDENTS.
We continue to work with Boulder Valley School District as they adapt to educating children in these unprecedented times. We remain nimble to meet emerging needs and poised to take immediate action to ensure that the essential needs of students are met and that their education can proceed. We continue to listen to parents, families and our partners at BVSD.
In week two of home learning, we can already see the successes of our actions and the Critical Needs Fund:
We are proud to see that 96% of BVSD students connected with their teachers last week. The teachers and community liaisons have worked hard to make sure that students are not only accessing educational materials, but they are making connections again with their school and peers, they are being reminded that there are other adults in their lives that care about them.
To make this possible, we helped acquire and distribute:
Over 2,000 backpacks to students across the district filled with the basic tools – paper, pencils, crayons, calculators, work packets and notes from their school principals that they are loved. Watch the video of a distribution day here
Over $10,000 age appropriate books to families who do not have shelves of reading books to turn to during this time of confinement
Over 7,000 chromebooks with the help of district IT staff are working with families to properly set them up and get access to the internet.
And, so many of our children are still receiving nutritious meals from school – BVSD continues to be the one place that they can count on to have a full belly so that they could concentrate on their studies.
To make this possible, we have been able to utilize the Critical Needs Funds and leverage partnerships.
Just this week 20,224 meals have been distributed – bringing the total to 71,056 meals since March 17th
And, due to a partnership with BVSD Food Services and the nonprofit Conscious Alliance and their sponsor, Hormel, these families will all have a ham to prepare for Sunday’s Easter dinner.
And lastly, to make all the behind the scenes support happen, BVSD has hundreds of essential workers who we need to make sure are safe.
To make this possible we have:
Collected hundreds of hand-sewn and industrial masks from the community
These BVSD team members leave their homes every day to help make the emergency plans happen. They care for essential employees’ children, prepare and distribute food bags, they go to the homes of our most directly affected families to deliver food, gift cards for essentials and school supplies, they sit on the curbs of our school buildings to distribute laptops and backpacks, they clean all the school building to ensure they are ready for students to return, they receive donations and deliveries in the warehouse – they keep and promote the community of what is school!
We are grateful to be able to help the district tackle many of the challenges! A supportive community means the world to so many of our families:
We truly are #AllTogetherBVSD
UPDATE (4/20/2020): THANK YOU to a fantastic community – our mask needs have been fulfilled!) CURRENT NEED– FACE MASKS: BVSD is providing care to children of “Essential Employees.” We must help these teachers and children stay safe, so we’re asking for volunteers to donate face masks that we’ll distribute to students, teachers and other building personnel.
If you are a group or individual with a donation of 5 masks or more, please email us to schedule a pick up time.Bulk collections will continue through April 17th.
Addition Resources:
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Home Learning Kickoff Plan
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Materials and Food Distribution Plan
Please click here to learn more about Emergency Food Distribution
Please click here to learn about the Boulder Valley School District’s response
Please click here to learn more about resources in Boulder County
Please click here to learn about the State of Colorado public health and action plan
Read reporting on BVSD and IoE efforts to support students
The last few weeks have been unprecedented in many ways, and as a colleague recently shared, “This is not a sprint or even a 10k. We are preparing for a marathon.” While Impact on Education sprung into action as if this was a sprint, we are now realizing that this crisis will continue on not just for weeks, but likely for months. We know that students depend on their schools for much more than simply their education, and that’s why we immediately set up our Critical Needs Fund.
As of April 1st, we’ve raised over $250,000 for our Critical Needs Fund. This was made possible by our generous matching donors Dave and Suzanne Hoover, joined by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor, and by the 500 individual and corporate donors who contributed.
Please take a moment to watch this video from our Superintendent, School Board, Executive Director and Board members, as we share our gratitude to those who have helped us:
Over the past three weeks, we have:
Provided over 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to elementary school families in need
Distributed thousands of bags of food to families filled with groceries that should allow them to prepare over 40,000 family meals
Purchased and distributed $15,000 in gift cards to ensure our most highly impacted families have the essential supplies they need
Acquired over$10,000 worth of age-appropriate books to be distributed to our low-income families
Helped ensure that students have access to the internet and to Chromebooks they can use for remote learning.
We are working in very close partnership with BVSD and have been so impressed by the hard work of their entire team. You can read Impact on Education’s public statement of admiration in our Executive Director’s letter to the editor published in Thursday’s Daily Camera.
We are committed to supporting all students in the BVSD community. Will you continue to support our work?
We invite you to learn more about our Critical Needs Fund. We welcome your help spreading the word to family, friends and neighbors about the important needs we are meeting during these challenging times.
We are grateful for the support of this amazing community! We truly are #AllTogetherBVSD
CURRENT NEED– FACE MASKS: BVSD is providing care to children of “Essential Employees.” We must help these teachers and children stay safe, so we’re asking for volunteers to donate face masks that we’ll distribute to students, teachers and other building personnel.
Donations may be dropped off at:
BVSD Ed Center: 6500 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder -Look for blue barrel at front door
LAST DAY OF DROP OFF COLLECTION: Friday, April 10, 2020at 2 p.m.
If you are a group or individual with a donation of 20 masks or more, please email us to schedule a pick up time.Bulk collections will continue through April 17th.
Addition Resources:
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Home Learning Kickoff Plan
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Materials and Food Distribution Plan
Please click here to learn more about Emergency Food Distribution
Please click here to learn about the Boulder Valley School District’s response
Please click here to learn more about resources in Boulder County
Please click here to learn about the State of Colorado public health and action plan
Read reporting on BVSD and IoE efforts to support students
113,632 meals have been distributed to BVSD families since March 17th
