Annotated Bibliography

Amy Bounds

Oct. 05--The Boulder Valley School District has agreed to continue leadership conferences for minority students this school year after Boulder County Public Health stepped forward to help cover costs.

"We feel really good about this renewed partnership," Boulder Valley Superintendent Bruce Messinger said.

The one-day leadership conferences, organized by volunteers, are hosted annually in the spring at the University of Colorado for five student groups -- American Indian, African American, Asian, Latino and LGBTQ students.

Funding comes from the district, CU and private donors. The conferences have been held for about a dozen years, with goals that include creating cultural connections, networking and celebrating and supporting student voices.

Boulder Valley in the last few years has provided $20,000 annually for the conferences, which mainly covers busing the students to CU.

But this fall, the district decided to impose a one-year moratorium on funding and instead use the $20,000 to provide training to principals, support staff and teachers on how to support transgender students.

In response, several organizers of the student conferences expressed frustration, noting the district seems to change the rules each year. But they also said they were committed to working with the district to keep them going.

That sentiment was echoed by CU's Unity and Engagement Center, which provides space and some funding for the conferences.

For Boulder County Public Health, program specialist Heather Crate said, keeping the conferences going fits with the health department's priorities.

"One of our main priorities is equity," she said. "When minority youth are fully supported, their health outcomes are much better. We view the leadership institutes as a way to really empower minority youth to stand up and make changes to their schools."

She said the health department plans to contribute $20,500, which was available thanks to a surplus in another youth program.

The money will cover the cost to bus the high school students to CU, stipends for those leading the conferences and substitute teacher pay so teachers can attend, she said.

District officials estimated about 700 students altogether attend each year, with attendance varying by group.

Boulder Valley's Messinger said the district decided not to fund the conferences this year both because the money was needed for transgender training and to give the district time to evaluate the conferences' effectiveness.

District concerns included that there wasn't much follow-up after the events and there wasn't always enough collaboration among the schools, community groups and organizations involved.

"There's been quite a bit of conversation about how we evaluate this and how we make the most of this," Messinger said.

For this year's "transitional" conferences, he said, the plan is to ask students to go back to their home high schools and complete a community serivce learning project. Projects then will be showcased at a spring event, where students can share experiences and insights.

"We want to make sure it goes beyond the youth that come to our events," he said. "We're asking, 'Is there something we could be doing to help that permeate back into the school?'"

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, [email protected] or twitter.com/boundsa

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