At Buena Vista Schools we have developed a strong relationship with the BV Police Department to provide rotating school resource officers on our campuses. We’re fortunate to have such willing and able officers engaging with our students and looking out for their wellbeing. They provide much more than a measure of protection against outside violence, and our community values and appreciates their service.
Other than the weapons carried by those trained law enforcement officers, guns have no place in our schools. Where there are more guns, there is more gun violence.
District 1 candidate Casey Martin. Photo by Carly Winchell
Providing a safe learning environment means more than keeping would-be gunmen at bay. Our students must be supported when bullying, anxiety, special needs, problems at home or mental health issues threaten their ability to learn, succeed, and build relationships with their peers.
Recent surveys[1] of BV students demonstrate that bullying and a general lack of respect among students remain issues our district must address. Our administrators, guidance counselors, and faculty are diligently working to address these issues, but they would likely benefit from direct guidance from the School Board and additional resources.
Such additional resources might include staff to support principals and guidance counselors to intervene in bullying and behavior situations to help put students on the right track. We also need to make sure we’re furthering partnerships with parents, guardians, and local support organizations to provide communication and connections to outside resources. Public schools have an important role to play in public health and safety, including combatting mental health issues, abuse and neglect, but public schools can’t do it all. We must be able to effectively leverage outside relationships with other providers to identify problems and address them before they metastasize in one or more students.
A safe school also requires a safe and stable faculty and staff. They need to know that employment with BV Schools means a long-term career in our community. Faculty and staff also face anxiety, stress, and mental health issues that must be addressed with empathetic action and support. Working with faculty and staff to address class sizes, pay, and benefits and providing the resources and time to do their jobs effectively will result in a safer and more welcoming environment for our students.
When we create a learning environment where students, teachers and staff are free from violence, bullying, and harassment, and we provide support systems to address issues as they inevitably arise, all can focus on the task at hand – building and becoming confident and productive citizens.
By Casey Martin
Candidate for Buena Vista Board of Education – District 1
Source: [1] SCAP Student Survey results for BV R-31 show that only 47.6 percent of students agree or strongly agree that “the students in my school respect and help each other.”
Lisa, thanks for taking the time to respond and publicly share your thoughts in your official capacity as Superintendent regarding my positions in this ongoing election for the BV Board of Education. The intent of this opinion piece was to identify potential areas of improvement and convey my general positions on school safety to voters.
If anyone got the impression that I alleged “BV Schools has a culture of violence, bullying, or harassment,” that was not my intent, and I do not believe that is the case. Having said that, bullying, violence and harassment do occur among BV students. Young people (and many adults) are still figuring out how to handle disagreements, and interact with peers with different views, different style, different cultural experiences, etc. Our schools must be a place where all students feel safe, and if one student is experiencing regular bullying or harassment or violence, that’s one too many.
The survey information cited is helpful to identify issues and then take action to address them. Thank you for identifying some of the actions taken. Additional information compiled by the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey might also be helpful to identify health and safety trends within our district.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with the Board of Education and administration to review all available survey data to make informed decisions for our school district.
Go Demons!
Casey Martin
Candidate for District 1
Buena Vista Board of Education
As a Board candidate given this unique opportunity to discuss our district through the election season, thank you, Casey, for leading our stakeholders to district survey information. Our district is proud of the transparency of data we provide and our intentional actions to continuously improve. I encourage those interested in the success of our students to visit our Strategy Book here: https://www.bvschools.org/page/strategic-plan The book highlights a comprehensive set of academic, disposition, and post secondary data along with the priority actions the district has in place to continuously improve. The single survey question referenced in this opinion piece is from a comprehensive survey developed by the University of Colorado – Denver, administered annually in our district, and made available to the public on a district dashboard. https://scapbvschools.com/learning-disposition-survey-results/ This particular question was highlighted as part of a comprehensive report I presented to the current Board of Education at the last business meeting. Our comprehensive data does not give evidence to conclude BV Schools has a culture of violence, bullying, or harassment. I wanted to point stakeholders to the full set of information as well as the current actions in place to address needs of our students. Current actions related to the data from the opinion piece include but not limited to: a return to daily advisory/class meetings to foster sense of belonging and support, advancing several mentoring experiences between older and younger students, implementing the Strategy Team (staff wellbeing), expanding the community partnership position, and prioritized communication with families (where the dispositions of respect and kindness begin and are developed). BV Schools Proud! Lisa Yates, Superintendent, BV Schools.