Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt is running for the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) Board of Directors in District D, which primarily includes eastern parts of the City of Boulder and extends into unincorporated portions of Boulder County, but see the map below for better detail. BVSD Directors are elected by all voters in the entire BVSD area, though they run as residents of a given geographic district. Terms are for four years, and Directors are limited to two terms.

Relevant Experience

  • Bachelor of Arts in English from University of California-Berkeley
  • Currently works in the field of cybersecurity with Sophos, combining research, journalistic writing, and publishing
  • Has worked as a daily news and investigative journalist

Q – What made you decide to run?

I decided to run because I am concerned about drastic changes that have been made to education policy by boards that have experienced majority turnovers in recent years, and became aware of the fact that four of the seven seats on the board are currently occupied by people who will reach their term limit or who decided not to run for reelection this year. We do not need or deserve a repeat of what has happened in some notable Colorado school boards this past two years.

I hope to convince voters that I am a worthy candidate who will continue the work that the current board has done, with a view to equity and inclusion, and can help guide the school district through its near-term challenges.

I work in a field where the team I lead is successful because it is made up of people who are analytical, deliberative, and collaborate with a diverse group of people to reach goals, and I believe those characteristics are essential to be a successful board director.

Q – Are there specific needs in your geographic district?

The needs in my district mostly mirror the needs in the other districts that make up BVSD. District D contains a diverse group of schools that attract students from a wide variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Their needs include support and paraeducators for kids with special needs, mental health assistance, and building and equipment upgrades.

Q – How would you characterize BVSD’s current level of academic performance and your performance priorities?

BVSD ranks among the highest overall for academic achievement in the state, and strong academics are a priority for the entire board and for every school. It’s also worth reminding people that all schools have the same academic standards they need to meet. Despite the fact that all schools teach the same curriculum, different schools take different approaches to teaching. Our modern understanding of neuroscience tells us that different people respond differently to different types of learning methods. Just as people are not one-size-fits-all, the model for education should not try to force a one-size-fits-all approach.

I share the concerns of many people who recognize that the stress the pandemic put on families affected learning at all grade levels, and I worry that it will take some time to catch students up on what they lost. Some students, including some high school seniors who graduated last year, will unfortunately carry on that struggle into college, if they go on to college. I also am concerned that standardized test scores indicate that there’s a gender gap in achievement, and we need to figure out why that is, and how to reverse it.

I would like the district to continue to support arts, music, athletics, and tech-dependent creative programs like 3D modeling and graphic design. These serve as a valuable pressure release valve for kids who already experience too much stress. We know from the professional world that burnout is a real problem, and I worry that putting so much pressure to “catch up” on an already stressed group of students will ultimately backfire.

Q – Do you believe BVSD has done a good job managing educational achievement gaps? If not, what can BVSD do to narrow the gaps?

Our schools have valiantly struggled to try to recover from the learning speed bump caused by the pandemic lockdown. To be clear, when our kids’ and our community’s health was at risk from a poorly understood viral illness for which there was no cure or vaccine, the lockdown was entirely necessary. But a lot of kids lost irreplaceable time, and our less privileged families – ones who didn’t have space for a learning environment, or the electronics or broadband necessary to do distanced learning – fared even worse.

I’d argue that our schools learned a great deal from the lockdown period about how to handle educational challenges when the vast majority of people cannot come into a classroom, but we developed those skills on the fly at the cost of our children’s precious learning time. The pandemic also exacerbated the existing problems with achievement disparities between the wealthy and working class, with our BIPOC and English as a second language students, and even, somehow, between boys and girls. We’ve learned what tools and websites work best for running distanced learning for most kids, and we all now understand how access to broadband is both an equity and a human rights issue.

I am also deeply concerned that the number of people who seek assistance from organizations like EFAA have doubled since 2019. We now have at least 800 students in the district who do not have permanent housing. Impact on Education is serving more kids than ever before. Poverty and food insecurity inhibit learning. So one thing the district could do is support the installation and stocking of food pantries in schools, so a kid who doesn’t know if they’ll get anything to eat on the weekend can bring home supplies, like the supplemental food that the district food services team supplied during the pandemic.

The differentiated funding model has made some impact on closing those achievement gaps, but with our one-time pandemic relief funds ending, we will need to work hard to find ways to keep pushing extra help to the schools and kids who need it the most. We don’t have a choice.

Q – What is your take on the use of or reliance on standardized testing in today’s educational environment, and would you favor changes?

I think there’s value in using some standardized testing as a datapoint to measure some kinds of educational achievement. But I don’t believe that standardized tests alone can give a complete picture of success.

What I’ve learned as a parent of high school age kids is that a lot of universities and colleges have already either completely done away with a requirement for one of the large standardized tests as part of the application process, or they accept your SAT scores but it plays a very limited role in determining admissions. From what I’ve seen in BVSD, the iReady tests and CMAS tests offer limited utility as a datapoint to measure progress, but these tests (as with all standardized tests) really only produce one measurement: How well a student can take the test. And there are plenty of neurodiverse kids who simply balk at these tests.

I’ve liked that schools are integrating some very innovative practices into their curriculum and their graduation requirements, in lieu of using standardized testing. Grad Plus is a great example, because students can learn a trade, or do volunteer work in the community, or intern with a company, and get credit towards graduation. When it comes to measuring student success, I think it takes a bit more work to come up with something creative, but the result is going to be far more useful than whether someone correctly filled in a bubble or checked a box on a screen.

Q – General thoughts on BVSD finance, including whether you could favor running a future ballot measure that would improve revenue for BVSD?

The habitually poor funding schools receive has become such an ingrained joke that even the cutesy bumper stickers about funding the military with bake sales are cliches, now.

BVSD is doing a great job at controlling expenses, and I’ve been quite open about this: I don’t have a problem going to voters to ask them to fund our schools. Schools support everyone in the community by producing an educated and productive workforce. I support local leaders who are fighting to reduce the high cost of housing, who support developing additional revenue sources, and who will work to end TABOR. I will ask our state representatives to allocate more resources to schools, as often as necessary.

I also think the district can be a lot more creative in seeking new ways to fund our priorities. I don’t think that BVSD has explored all the potential ways it could increase revenue without going to voters. We also need to explore funding sources outside of the usual places the district looks. There may be grants, for example, that aren’t issued through the US Department of Education. For example, CISA is making a big push for cyber workforce development. We should be asking the Department of Homeland Security if they’d be willing to fund cybersecurity education as a way to further goals in our mutual interest. We need a cyber-smart public, and we have to start teaching kids how to be cyber-smart as soon as we hand them devices.

Q – What are your thoughts on censorship in school districts, and what would your thought process include if there were calls to censor materials in BVSD?

I will state, right off the bat, that I oppose the kinds of reactionary book bans that have been enacted around the country. We’re seeing school districts elsewhere make decisions that limit the knowledge a student can access about the history of our world and the country, when it makes some people uncomfortable. School boards are not supposed to *restrict* what people can learn. That’s not a job.

Parents already have the right to opt their children out of any lesson, pretty much for any reason. So for parents who are concerned with a particular book or movie or educational experience, they can just ask for their kid(s) to work on something else during that lesson time.

What these parents who want to ban books don’t seem to understand is that they do not get to determine what *everyone else in the school* is allowed to read or to learn about. The school district employs educators and experts in child development, and those experienced, specialist professionals in their field should be the ones making decisions about what constitutes developmentally appropriate study materials. I will side with the professionals in child development every time, and let those parents know they can just opt their child out of the lesson, book, or study material they find objectionable, so long as it isn’t a fundamental requirement for state curriculum standards or for graduation. They don’t get to opt out of all of science, history, or (to my kids’ great dismay) quadratic equations.

Q – Has BVSD done a good job managing pandemic-related learning loss, or does work remain to be done?

BVSD is doing a fair job of this, but it has been very difficult. I think what we’re seeing now is that students who were already in school when the lockdown happened lost a significant amount of learning time. BVSD is doing its level best to catch up those kids, but it is hard, and it comes at the expense of being able to move on to more advanced subjects.

Learning is incremental, and it necessarily depends on students mastering fundamentals before they move on to more advanced subjects. Extra study sessions and peer tutoring can help, and we need to do more. We also have a student population that is experiencing a tremendous amount of anxiety about the world we all live in: Pandemics, floods, wildfires, climate catastrophe, food insecurity, housing insecurity, a widening income gap between the wealthy and the working class, hate and bigotry at levels unseen in decades – all these subjects weigh heavily on the generation currently in school.

That’s why I also think that the district must serve as a front-line provider of mental health services to the students in our care. We know kids can’t learn when they’re hungry, and voters just approved funding free meals for all kids. Now we need to figure out how to fund the services to help kids in crisis, because a panic attack can be just as debilitating to a kid’s ability to learn as hunger.

Q – What are your thoughts about education related to diversity in BVSD?

I am not an expert in what exactly BVSD uses to teach concepts of diversity, but my experience speaking with teachers and aides and paras is that they are dedicated to and passionate about the prospect of helping kids learn and succeed. They have to be, because they are certainly not in this job solely because of the pay.

It is not controversial that some books feature BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ characters or families. I don’t see an issue that children become aware of the fact that LGBTQ+ families and relationships exist at around the same time they become aware of the fact that hetero families and relationships exist. I see no problem that books that address these topics in age-appropriate ways exist, and that they take up space on classroom shelves or in school libraries.

Representation matters, whether you’re a kid or an adult, and our learning materials, and books, and music, and video, and games should reflect the diversity of our community. People are better prepared and able to navigate the world by being exposed to a wide variety of cultures and people. And from what I’ve seen, BVSD is not shy about finding quality books and other materials that reflect the beautiful, wonderful variety of people within and outside of our communities.

Q – Changing demographics within BVSD might mean there could be school closures or other changes. What factors would enter your thought process if closures are considered?

The question about declining enrollment really comes down to funding, an unfortunate downside to the city of Boulder’s reputation as one of the best places to live in the country. With fewer kids enrolled, we have fewer resources. BVSD schools are in high demand due to the quality of our education, yet too few families with young children can afford to live within the district boundaries. Every 1% of student population loss (about 300 students) costs the district $3 million in annual funding.

The work that has been done by the Long Range Advisory Committee planning for this possibility was done with a lot of community engagement. That plan lays out a series of indicator thresholds. If we cross one or more of those thresholds, the board can use contingency planning to address budgetary shortfalls in creative ways. For instance, schools that are geographically close to one another might be able to share some resources. There are a lot of things that would have to happen before we ever got to the drastic step of needing to close a school, and before we get there, we would need to further engage with the school community and other stakeholders.

And as I’ve said before, the coming board and the district needs to think outside the box and be on the hunt for other revenue streams, funding opportunities from nontraditional sources, and partnerships with businesses as a way to offer new or different experiences or services, or more of existing services, to students. And we need to be ringing the alarm bells for school funding all the way to the state capitol.

Q – How do you keep in touch with the thoughts of students and parents now, and/or how do you plan to keep in touch if elected?

I have a pretty simple plan to be connected with families: I plan to reach out to PTO groups from individual schools and hold open office hours in addition to town hall meetings. I’ll have an open-door policy on email from anyone, and I already spend too much time texting with parents and teachers, but I love it. I’ve spent most of the campaign listening to parents and parent groups, asking a lot of questions, and the information I’ve obtained from these meetings is invaluable.

I didn’t decide to run for office to hide from constituents and not deal with problems. I am a problem hunter and a solution seeker by nature.

It is not equitable or reasonable to expect all parents to be able to come to school board meetings, or to be prepared to speak in public about matters that concern them. Some parents work hourly jobs and have to take care of their families in the evening, or even work a second job, and can’t make time to attend board meetings. Others may feel intimidated by the prospect of using the public comment period of board meetings to speak out.

I have background as a journalist and know how to formulate questions and think on the fly. I plan to use those skills both during and between board meetings to draw information out of parents, and will make time to regularly meet with PTO groups and school staff and stay on top of concerns.

Digital Information

Website: https://brandtforbvsd.co
Mastodon: https://toot.bldrweb.org/deck/@andrewbrandt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandtforbvsd/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbrandtbvsd/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-brandt-9603682/
Professional work: https://news.sophos.com/en-us/author/andrew-brandt/