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Parents, teachers and candidates press D20 board on student safety, parental rights and transparency
Summary
Multiple public commenters asked the board to review threat assessment and harassment protocols after reported student threats, urged changes to district policy on student name changes without parental approval, and criticized the district’s transparency around public records and candidate forums.
During the meeting’s second public‑comment block, six community members addressed the board on three recurring themes: student safety, parental rights, and transparency.
Safety and threat assessment: Kimberly Crevier described repeated harassment incidents she says affected her children and asked the board to ‘‘conduct an immediate review of these specific cases and of the district's threat assessment and harassment protocols, and within 30 days’’ provide responsive action. Crevier said in multiple incidents her family felt district responses had been inadequate and that students remained in school after reports.
Parental‑rights policy: In a separate comment, Richard Brown criticized current district practice on the ACA student name‑change policy and said the district’s existing language permits the district to approve a student’s name change without parental approval. Brown urged voters to support candidates he said would require parental approval and said the absence of a policy change represented a failure by the incumbent trustee he addressed.
Transparency and records access: Teacher Leah McFann and community member Bernadette Guthrie raised staff morale and district transparency. McFann, speaking as a teacher, said teachers are ‘‘tired’’ and that political targeting of teachers harms recruitment and retention. Guthrie said parents have been charged for records requests in some cases, expressed concern that board meeting videos from the past five years were removed from the district YouTube channel, and asked why candidate forums were not broadly scheduled and advertised this election year.
Board response and next steps: President Shandy acknowledged the public comments and noted follow‑up requests on threat assessment protocols and transparency were added to meeting outcomes. Trustees asked staff to bring back procedural clarifications where appropriate and to make sure legally required steps for parental notification and records requests are followed; the board did not take immediate action on any of the public requests during the meeting.
