Helping BVSD students see all colors of the world

Students in the Boulder Valley School District deserve to know they belong, especially in school. One simple, yet powerful, way to achieve that is giving them art supplies that represent a range of skin tones. 

We are proud to partner with NAACP Boulder County to provide multicultural art supplies to BVSD classrooms so students can more accurately reflect themselves and others in their art and other work.

“All children deserve the ability to draw themselves in true form and that includes skin tone color. These art supplies make that vision become a reality which is priceless.”

Michelle Willingham
DEI Collab Group Leader, NAACP Boulder Chapter EDU Committee

Impact on Education funding will provide Crayola Colors of the World supply kits and workbooks to every elementary classroom in the next two weeks.

All of BVSD’s 31 elementary schools will receive Crayola Colors of the World art supplies and activity books for each of their classrooms. Each pack of crayons, markers and colored pencils contains 24 specifically-formulated colors representing people of the world. The subtle shades inside are formulated to better represent the growing diversity worldwide 

We’re also working to provide age-appropriate books to each classroom to promote healthy conversations around racial diversity and providing additional Crayola Colors of the World supplies to middle schools across the district in the fall.

BEFORE YOU GO

Impact on Education is an independent non-profit supporting the Boulder Valley School District. We depend on the generosity of our community to put our mission into action.

Will you help us provide opportunities and resources to local students?

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We support Boulder Valley public school students with community funding and resources in order to meet critical needs and eliminate opportunity gaps. Your support keeps us going strong and your donation will help us equalize opportunity, bolster academic success for local students.

How we’re funding opportunity for students across BVSD

One of the key ways we provide opportunity to high needs students in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) is through our Academic Opportunity Fund. Our fourth and final funding round for the 2021-22 school year recently closed and we’re proud to share that we’re investing another $44,000 to meet the needs of BVSD students. This brings our total Academic Opportunity Fund investment to over $150,000 for the 2021-22 school year.

In Round Four, community volunteers helped evaluate 17 anonymized application requests and provide feedback on funding decisions. That data was then reviewed by Impact on Education (IOE) staff and final decisions were made.

• The average amount of funded requests was under $3,300, though requests ranged from $320 to $7,500.
• 14 projects will be funded directly by IOE, and we are working to meet some of the other needs through existing BVSD services.
• The funding will support twelve of BVSD’s elementary, middle and high schools. 

A variety of needs

From competition fees to tutoring programs, our Academic Opportunity Fund supported a variety of student and school needs including funding to:

• purchase guided reading bundles for elementary students
• fund tutoring sessions at multiple schools
• purchase Neuromaker Brain Computer Interface Kits for STEM learning
• provide professional development for trauma recovery
• help DECA members in financial need attend an international competition
• fund instrument repair and competition fees
• purchase graphic novels to help students with their reading comprehension
• expand a school-based tutoring program

Other ways we’re investing in student success 

The success of BVSD students sometimes requires more than our schools and teachers are able to provide during the day, and this is where we step in. With the help of our community, we can support students and families by providing equitable access to critical academic opportunities.

This summer, we’ll be working to help students in our Career Readiness Academy line up summer employment, preparing for an expanded early learning program for rising kindergarteners this summer, and kick off our annual Crayons to Calculators school supply distribution. Learn more about how we support Student Success.

Local community donates over 200 musical instruments to BVSD students

Of the many things lost in the Marshall Fire, musical instruments can be difficult and expensive to replace. Since the fire broke out, we’ve been working closely with Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) to help replace these instruments. 

An outpouring of support

Over 100 instruments that were lost in the fire have been replaced, and there are an additional 100 now in the BVSD inventory for students who need assistance getting one in the future. Over 50 individuals kindly donated their personal instruments, while:

• Future Arts Foundation, Bringing Music to Life, and Spark Music Lessons each ran donation drives, providing 100 instruments to BVSD
• Colorado Music Educator Association and Spark Music Lessons raised money to help offset the repair costs of all of these donated instruments
• Southwest Strings and Buffet Crampon each donated brand new instruments to help fill in the gaps
• Music & Arts and Rocky Mountain Music Repair donated repair services and various accessories and supplies
• Music & Arts, Rocky Mountain Music Repair, Sol Vista Violins, and Scherer Violin Shop provided students who had rental instruments a new one at no charge

Funding repairs and cleaning

Thanks to the community’s generous donations to our Marshall Fire fund, we directed dollars to ensure these donated instruments could be put to use. Impact on Education paid for shipping costs, instrument repair and professional cleaning, which met an immediate need and helped BVSD quickly provide instruments to students impacted by the fire.

Because our community came together to help, we’ve been able to stretch our dollars further and fund other urgent needs.

A small, but meaningful way to support recovery

Having a community willing to contribute really helped to reduce stress for our students and families about how to replace their instruments.

“My best hope is that these efforts enabled our students to get back to making music,” says Aubrey Yeh, Coordinator of Language Arts & Humanities with BVSD. “It was one less thing for families to worry about.”

She says students found handwritten notes inside instrument cases, sharing thoughtful messages of hope with some of the recipients. A few of the instruments were family heirlooms, having been passed through generations, and are now being passed to a new family.

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BEFORE YOU GO

Impact on Education is an independent non-profit supporting the Boulder Valley School District. We depend on the generosity of our community to put our mission into action.

Will you help us provide opportunities and resources to local students?

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. The size and scope of rebuilding our community in the wake of a pandemic, a mass shooting and Colorado’s most devastating wildfire is overwhelming. Providing access to mental health resources is critically important as our community recovers. We need your help to provide mental health support today.

Helping students find their purpose and build confidence

Did someone teach you how to shake hands? When to make a phone call instead of sending an email? How to feel confident in a job interview? These are a few of things students in our Career Readiness Academy have learned over the past two months.

What is the Career Readiness Academy?

We launched the pilot of our Career Readiness Academy in January 2022. This program is designed to provide 20 low-income BVSD high school students with workforce readiness skills, training, and leadership development to help prepare them for success after graduation. 

The sessions are delivered in partnership with industry and community professionals who know firsthand how the application of these skills leads to success. So far, students:

• were guided through a self-knowledge journey and exercises to find their purpose with Ross Wehner of the World Leadership School,

• learned about professional communications and networking, including best practices for emails, phone calls, texting, and tips for expanding their networks, from Royce Hauw of Goodyear and Natasha Wright of Google,

• learned and practiced new skills through an evening of mock interviews with local HR professionals who shared their wisdom and experience.

How one student described the most valuable thing they learned:

“Communication, because I didn’t realize I could make a stronger impression from just shaking someone’s hand.”

Career Readiness Participant

What other skills will participants gain?

In the remaining four workshops, Career Readiness Academy students will learn about different skill sets and what jobs they may align with, the impact of social media, and participate in workplace simulations. We’ll also be working closely with our community partners to help students line up summer employment and put all of their new skills to use.

Is your company is interested in supporting our work?
Learn about corporate partnerships >>

Thank you to our Career Readiness Academy sponsors, Anchor Point Foundation, Seagate Technology, Premier Members Credit Union, Cielo Foundation Boulder, and Google. And thank you to IOE volunteer Cathleen Kendall for leading the preparation for our mock interview session last week and the 20 volunteer business leaders who participated.

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BEFORE YOU GO …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We support Boulder Valley public school students with community funding and resources in order to meet critical needs and eliminate opportunity gaps. Your support keeps us going strong and your donation will help us equalize opportunity, bolster academic success for local students.

We’re excited to introduce you to our new Program Manager, Matt Tebo. Matt will oversee programmatic initiatives, investments, and evaluation in close coordination with the Boulder Valley School District and other partners.

He brings five years of program management and capacity building experience from the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools, with a particular focus on early childhood education and career readiness. He holds a BA from the University of Colorado Boulder and an MBA from Nebraska Wesleyan University.

The importance of education

Matt believes human potential is unlimited but knows that opportunity is not. He wants to live in a world where public schools have everything they need to help students reach their potential. “Sometimes all they need is a little flexibility and we can help with that,” Matt says. “I believe strongly in the work of public schools and know how a foundation can support a District.”

On our educational journeys, each of us gets the rare chance to truly create from scratch and create new understanding for ourselves. “We rarely do it alone, so we also create a community,” Matt says. “I don’t know of a more worthy pursuit than learning with and from each other.”

More about Matt

Matt grew up in New Mexico and came to Colorado to run track and cross country at the University of Colorado Boulder. While here, he met his wife Jess – who is by far the best runner in their family. They chased their dreams in Seattle and Lincoln, Nebraska before moving their family back to Colorado. Matt loves Colorado for the outdoors and the opportunity to have their kids grow up near cousins, 2nd cousins, grandparents, great-grands, aunts, and uncles.

What makes him smile
Catching crawdads and wrestling with his kids (Abe and Frank). Going on a little run with Jess. 

Ask him about
Social entrepreneurship, distance running, or the beauty of the southwest (specifically New Mexico and Colorado)

Connect with Matt

• Send him an email
• Find him on LinkedIn

Increasing mental health support for students most affected by the Marshall Fire

Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a pediatric mental health state of emergency in May of 2021, citing skyrocketing demand for mental health services among Colorado’s youth. In addition to the well-documented impact of the pandemic on mental health, our community also experienced a mass shooting and Colorado’s most destructive wildfire in 2021. In the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), referrals of students to Mental Health Advocates have risen by 86% this school year compared to the same period during the 2020-21 school year. 

What are mental health advocates?

Within BVSD, Mental Health Advocates provide prevention and intervention services for students, supporting their social-emotional and behavioral development, student achievement, and crisis intervention.

Mental Health Advocates can also provide both group and individual counseling support and work directly with students, parents, and staff members. For more acute counseling needs, they help families access external resources for mental health. As a direct result of the Marshall Fire and the mental health impacts this is having on our community, we are working to immediately increase the mental health services available to BVSD students.

Raising funds to expand BVSD’s team of mental health advocates

Impact on Education is actively seeking funding to facilitate hiring four additional Mental Health Advocates to be deployed in BVSD’s most impacted schools. The additional staff would be assigned to the 7 schools most directly impacted by the Marshall Fire, serving 6,061 students, 687 of whom lost their homes or remain displaced. With more than one in every ten students losing their homes and nearly all students at these schools impacted by the evacuation orders and trauma of temporary displacement, these are the schools with our most pressing mental health needs right now.

“We are seeing a significant increase when it comes to the social-emotional support our students need at this critical moment, those impacted by the fire are working to process everything that happened. It was a deeply traumatic experience and it will take some time for these students to cope with the tremendous amount of loss and PTSD that everyone impacted by the fires are struggling through.”

Tammy Lawrence, Student Support Services Director

The additional support will ensure all of the impacted schools have the intensive layer of mental health support needed, and expand BVSDs capacity to respond to mental health referrals. The intensity of mental health concerns and the time required to provide support and intervention varies dramatically from case to case, but BVSD’s leadership is confident that adding these clinicians to the School District team is the most critical immediate step.

Nearly half of the necessary funding was secured from a donation from the Community Foundation’s Boulder County Wildfire Fund and we are actively working with other funding partners to secure the balance of the required funding.

The importance of mental health support right now

Increasing mental health support to the students most affected by the Marshall Fire will benefit approximately 6,061 students in 7 of the 32 schools home to students impacted by the fire. BVSD’s Mental Health Advocates collaborate and make appropriate referrals to partners including Mental Health Partners and Jewish Family Services.

Mental Health Advocates supplement what BVSD’s school counselors can provide since their focus is exclusively on mental and behavioral health. They work directly with the administration in each school building to determine the needs, and then collaborate on what curriculum to use to meet individual students’ needs. This includes working in collaboration with school counselors to ensure there is a direct impact for each student, and extends into providing services to the teachers and staff who always play a key role in supporting the social-emotional health of the students.

District seeking additional mental health grants

Beyond their funding request to Impact on Education, BVSD is requesting two emergency grants, one state and one federal, to provide additional mental health staffing and support to schools most impacted by the Marshall Fire.

“We are tremendously grateful for the support of Impact on Education and our entire community, as we work to provide support for those impacted. This is not a situation that will be resolved in days or weeks. We must be ready to help our fellow neighbors for the many months and years it will take to not only rebuild, to once again feel safe and to return to normalcy.”

Dr. Rob Anderson, BVSD Superintendent

Read more about BVSD’s plans to hire school counselors, nurses, and outreach positions in this story from the Daily Camera.

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YOU CAN HELP …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We are still actively raising funds to support the mental health needs of Boulder Valley students and staff. You can help by making a gift to support this work. On the donation form, where it says “My donation is for” please select “Critical Needs Fund – Marshall Fire.”

How BVSD Community Liaisons support families in need

In difficult times, sometimes it’s hard to know where to turn. For many families in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), their school’s community liaison is their first – and sometimes only – trusted resource.

What is a community liaison?

Most schools in BVSD have a community liaison who works to direct services to high needs students and families and acts as liaison for families with school and community agencies. Liaisons are key to providing opportunities for students to develop a desire and ability to complete their education. They also advocate for practices and policies that may help decrease student dropout rates, increase graduation rates, and increase student attendance and achievement.

We often refer to the team of community liaisons at BVSD as our front line workers. During remote learning periods they helped provide emergency resources for families, including delivering food and other essential supplies to students’ homes, assessing who needed home internet, and offering up emergency child care for students who didn’t have other options. They are also playing a crucial role in our Marshall Fire response and helping to recruit students for our Career Readiness Academy.

3 ways we partnered with community liaisons this month

Many BVSD students and families are in need of essential supplies to support their ability to learn and stay in school. Using $40,000 of the funds raised through our Critical Needs Fund, last week we distributed:

• 10,000 RTD youth bus passes
• 10 boxes of new mindfulness books 
• Over $32,000 worth of gift cards to stores like Walmart and King Soopers 

These resources were distributed to community liaisons at their February meeting. Thank you to our partners at Premier Members Credit Union who joined the meeting and provided breakfast AND a coffee gift card to each liaison as a thank you for their incredible dedication to students and families.

“Impact on Education is a reliable bridge to community resources. Our community liaisons know they can depend on Impact’s steadfast commitment to students and families and the generosity of their donors to meet the needs of those in our community facing the toughest challenges.”

Ari Gerzon-Kessler, Coordinator of Family Partnerships

In total, this month we placed over $50,000 of assistance into the hands of those who work most closely with BVSD students and families in financial need, continuing our long-standing partnership. 

We know how hard BVSD’s team of community liaisons works to provide resources to those who need them most and are so grateful for their commitment to our students.

Helpful resources for families

The team at BVSD has a fantastic resource page for families, with information about key BVSD supports, ways to get involved and stay informed, who to contact if you need help, and a list of community resources and services:
https://www.bvsd.org/parents-students/family-supports

Volunteer Spotlight: Cindy Arbuthnot

Cindy Arbuthnot has worked for Broomfield-based Premier Members Credit Union (PMCU) for over 32 years. She specializes in reporting and analytics that support their portfolio department and is often the first to raise her hand to support the strong partnership PMCU has with Impact on Education.

What motivates Cindy to volunteer

Helping other people and making a difference in her community brings Cindy joy. While we appreciate the time and energy she spends helping the students and staff of the Boulder Valley School District, she enjoys making them feel appreciated. PMCU regularly offers opportunities for their staff to volunteer with Impact on Education, most recently helping assemble and distribute over 900 comfort kits to students across the district who remain displaced by the Marshall Fire.

Cindy was lined up to help with the Comfort Kits, but a last-minute emergency kept her from participating. She has, however, volunteered her time helping with a number of wonderful projects, including assembling welcome back bags for every BVSD staff and educator in fall of 2020 and welcome baskets in the fall of 2021.

Welcoming staff and educators back to school

The fall of 2020 and the fall of 2021 looked very different, and Cindy supported two very important volunteer projects for back to school.

In 2020, the school year began with all students learning remotely from their homes. In order to boost the spirits of staff and educators we partnered with PMCU to put together over 5,200 welcome bags that included water bottles, pens, notepads, and some local chocolate from Lily’s Sweets! It was a huge undertaking and the bags were so appreciated throughout the district.

In 2021, the school year began with in-person learning. Everyone could feel the excitement, the anticipation, and the pure joy of being back at school. We partnered with PMCU again to deliver over 120 welcome baskets to each school and BVSD building break room, filled with snacks, stickers, dry erase markers, sticky notes and other fun items to help start the year off on a high note.

Meaningful volunteer opportunities

While Cindy’s analytical mind was key for putting together efficient assembly lines, she also enjoyed the creative element required to make the bags and baskets look special.

“I want teachers to know they’re appreciated. I could never do what they do, and it’s important for them to know other people are paying attention.” 

Cindy Arbuthnot, IOE Volunteer

Cindy says she has a lot of fun volunteering on these projects. She knows that they’re doing meaningful work and gets to broaden her network by connecting with people from other departments and branches of PMCU.

Find volunteer opportunities with us

Is your organization interested in partnering with Impact on Education to support the students and staff of Boulder Valley School District?

Your support of Impact on Education makes a difference and we’ll work closely with you to ensure the community knows you are committed to public education. Together with our corporate partners, we create opportunities to strengthen brands while building support for public education and meeting the needs of local students and teachers.

Learn more about IOE Corporate Partnerships >>

Five ways we are supporting Marshall Fire recovery for the BVSD community

Four weeks ago, the Marshall Fire devastated our community, and left many of our family, our friends, and our colleagues unexpectedly displaced. Our schools and neighborhoods are collectively grieving and working to help each other rebuild, both physically and emotionally.

We remain grateful to every individual, business and community partner who’s reached out to us looking for ways to help. Thanks to this generous outpouring of support, we’ve raised over $700,000 through our Critical Needs Fund to support BVSD students and staff. 

We’ve already distributed backpacks full of school supplies to students who lost their homes and here are five additional ways we’re supporting recovery for the BVSD community right now.

1. Providing 900 “Comfort Kits” to displaced students and staff

Thanks to a generous donation of backpacks from JanSport, we’ve been working with local volunteers to build “comfort kits” by filling these backpacks with gift cards, blankets, art supplies, journals, letters of support from students and community members and other age-appropriate items. 

This week, schools will receive enough “comfort kits” for every student that is still displaced by the Marshall Fire and included on the McKinney-Vento roster. Soon after, kits will also be delivered to each of BVSD’s over 70 displaced staff members.

We’d like to say thank you to JanSport, Boulder Book Store, Grandrabbit’s Toy Shoppe, and every individual and business that has made a donation of their time or resources.  

2. Supporting the mental health of students and staff

Families rebuilding their lives after the devastation of the Marshall Fire face a mountain of challenges, and that stress and uncertainty weighs heavily on them. In close coordination with BVSD Student Support Services, we are working to secure funding to increase the number of Mental Health Advocates available and programming that will support the emotional well-being of students and staff. The Marshall Fire’s impact on our community’s well-being is significant, and we feel strongly that we must immediately increase the mental health services available to BVSD students.

3. Transportation stipends

With students from Louisville and Superior now displaced and living all across the Front Range, getting students to and from school each day presents a new and immediate challenge for families. With the shortage of bus drivers, providing additional routes and changing current routes cannot reach all displaced families. BVSD is promoting the school pool program, in the hope that families will be able to help others who need help getting kids to school, but carpools and buses are not enough. 

The McKinney-Vento Act provides an optional reimbursement for personal transportation costs, but it’s modest and barely covers the cost of gas. Impact on Education is supplementing the transportation reimbursement so all families who now have to drive their students further can be fully reimbursed for those costs. We know it’s not the same as living in the neighborhood, but we hope it makes things a little easier for families who are struggling. 

4. Replacing instruments and athletic equipment

Working closely with our partners at BVSD, we are identifying students that are missing academic materials, including textbooks, library books, musical instruments, Chromebooks and athletic equipment. When these items can’t be replaced with a donation or insurance, Impact on Education is paying for replacements so each student can fully engage in school. From golf clubs and violins to textbooks and hockey pads, we’re making sure students can return to their learning, their music, athletic endeavors and other extracurriculars without delay. 

5. Crocs donating shoes to every BVSD student and staff member

You may have already seen that Crocs committed to providing over 30,000 pairs of Crocs to students and staff in the Boulder Valley School District. We’ve all been through a lot, and this generous donation is extra special because it will provide a little comfort to the entire BVSD community of students, educators, administrators and staff. We’re helping facilitate the distribution of Crocs in the coming months, starting with our schools impacted most by the wildfire.

What lies ahead

We’re only able to do all of this impactful work with the support of volunteers and community partners, and our work is not done. Your help allows our small staff team to continue focusing on tackling the ongoing needs of all students. 

We’re working on providing summer learning opportunities for 160 rising kindergarten students, facilitating a Career Readiness Academy for low-income BVSD high school students, and addressing economic and learning barriers that curtail student success

The importance of our mission does not change during a crisis. The students in our community rely on us to ensure they have the resources needed to fully engage in their learning. Our work to empower students and educators drives us in good times and in challenging times, too.

Crocs to donate 30,000 pairs of shoes to the BVSD community

In the wake of the recent wildfire, everyone in our community is looking for ways to support each other. We’re excited to share that Crocs, the Broomfield-based maker of innovative casual footwear, has committed to providing a new pair of Crocs shoes to every student, educator and staff member within the Boulder Valley School District. While we know it’s a long road to recovery, we hope this simple gesture provides a sense of comfort.

The impact of the Marshall Fire throughout the BVSD community

Many of us were evacuated or under pre-evacuation orders for the Marshall Fire, with 2,400 students and almost 200 staff members from the the Boulder Valley School District living within the burn area boundary. Over 500 students and 40 staff members lost their homes, and over 800 students and 50 staff members are currently displaced because of the fire. 

“As with every tragedy our community has endured, we immediately heard from people who wanted to help students, schools and staff,” said Allison Billings, Executive Director at Impact on Education. This outpouring of support is what makes the BVSD community so special. The needs of our displaced family, friends and colleagues are continuing to emerge and it’s difficult to imagine how a community recovers from devastation like this. It’s gestures like these that remind people they’re not going through it alone.”

Impact on Education has now raised over $600,000 through our Critical Needs Fund and we’re working closely with BVSD to support the immediate needs, long-term recovery, and mental health of all BVSD students and staff. 

Crocs is a local company making a huge impact

Crocs has called Colorado home since its founding in 2002 and more than 450 team members work out of their Broomfield headquarters.

“Like so many, we were heartbroken to witness the devastating wildfires that will forever impact the lives of our neighbors, friends and colleagues in Boulder County,” said Shannon Sisler, SVP & Chief People Officer at Crocs. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve received countless requests for Crocs shoes and are committed, through our partnership with Impact on Education, to provide a sense of comfort during this difficult time to the students, faculty and staff of the Boulder Valley School District. While the path to recovery is still unclear for many, we hope this donation will supply simple comforts as our community rebuilds.” 

The generous donation has the potential to impact over 30,000 people throughout the district. The gesture stems from Crocs Cares, the brand’s global philanthropic arm, which is dedicated to providing comfort when and where it’s needed most.

How the Crocs will be distributed

Impact on Education is working with school principals and their PTO/PTA organizations to create a roll-out plan for delivering shoes directly to students and staff. Crocs’ mobile truck will visit each school – beginning with those hardest hit by wildfire – potentially as early as next week, and will continue making stops at area schools over the coming weeks. Students and staff will get to choose from donated products from the brand’s Classic Collection.

The road to recovery

Our partnership with Crocs is one way we’re looking to support all students and staff during a difficult time. We’re also working to provide cash assistance to staff and gift cards to students most in need of support, and will soon be delivering “comfort kits” with letters of support from students and community members, art supplies, journals and other age-appropriate items for these students and educators. 

Looking ahead, we’re working closely with BVSD to fund additional mental health resources for the BVSD community to support the recovery of our students, staff, and their families. 

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