Alex Medler
BVSD School Board
Thank you to everyone for your support. It is an honor to serve on the board and to work with so many great people in our community!
Why I Ran
I care passionately about the promise of public education. I believe in partnering with schools, communities, and families. I will work to ensure the Boulder Valley School District has great schools that focus on the education, well-being, and opportunities of each and every student. I will bring this approach to all the issues before our community.
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Our schools are doing well, but we could still do better
I enjoy celebrating the successes of our schools while recognizing there’s room for improvement. We have many excellent schools and programs, and our students regularly accomplish amazing things. We also have areas where we can and should improve.
I have high standards for our schools and will be uncompromising in the pursuit of student equity.
Let’s work together to find sensible solutions to the issues we face.
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We can help more students succeed while in school and after they leave
I want to find ways to engage every student. All students, including those who are often overlooked, deserve the support and resources they need to succeed.
All students should be offered challenging content and opportunities that will lead to promising choices after high school. This means investing in options like career and technical education and a range of post-secondary options, so students can pursue their chosen path.
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Our young people need to thrive and feel they belong
The mental health and well-being of students should be a shared responsibility and a top concern across the district and our community.
We must address bullying and promote a sense of belonging. This takes buy-in and work at all levels. There is still work to do to protect students from sexual violence and harassment, and our LGBTQ students should feel safe, welcome, and celebrated. Teachers and families need help to find ways of addressing the unique needs of each student.
Priorities and Positions
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I want our community to be an even better place to be a kid.
BVSD should nurture the well-being of all its young people. Our kids deserve a fun, safe, and inclusive experience. In all our deliberations as a board, I will prioritize our discussion of how our decisions affect our kids.
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We can help more students succeed while in school and after they leave BVSD by expanding their opportunities and better engaging them in school. Our highest-performing students deserve challenging opportunities, and students that are uninterested in our most rigorous programs still deserve challenging and exciting options. Let’s ensure each student receives the support and resources they need to succeed, including those who may be overlooked.
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As the parent of a graduated LGBTQ student, I’m proud of our district’s and our community’s embrace of LGBTQ youth and their families, but there is still plenty of work to do. LGBTQ students in Boulder report much higher rates of mental health challenges than other students, including depression and suicidal ideation. Our young people are not immune to the hate in our national discourse, but we can make our district and our community a source of support for LGBTQ youth.
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BVSD has made progress recently by investing dollars to match its words on student equity, providing more early childhood care, and expanding post-secondary options. I will work to protect and expand these efforts. These initiatives require long-term strategies, not one-shot efforts.
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BVSD will likely have to deal with tricky issues, like declining enrollment, school closures, and budget cuts. These are complex issues that should be considered carefully by engaging the community and focusing on what’s best for students.
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I will reject any attempt to introduce extreme ideologies into our schools.
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I support high quality neighborhood schools, charter schools, and public school choice as part of a strong public school system. We have many innovative and unique public schools in the district, and about 40 percent of BVSD parents choose their public school. It is our responsibility to ensure all our options are good schools, and our approach to open-enrollment provides equal access to all students. We should continue to be a strong charter school authorizer and manage all our school options to advance our community’s values of inclusion and school quality.
I firmly oppose using public money to pay for private schools, and any public support to schools that discriminate against students.
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We must keep our focus on student learning. BVSD has a strong record in many areas of student achievement and excellent schools. But we still suffer from unacceptable opportunity and achievement gaps between student subgroups. The pandemic’s impact on student learning, well-being, and social-emotional growth was substantial. I support the use of a wide range of data to inform our improvements efforts, including state and local testing data, as well as many other measures.
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The primary responsibilty of any institution that serves our children is their safety. This includes issues related to school climate, student health, and external threats.
Our community is tragically aware that the threat of violence is real; and in our schools, students face issues the district must address. This is a complex and important issue. We should use research-based strategies. The district must do more to stop sexual assault and harassment and fight discrimination against any of our students. Students and families demand we work to build a culture free from all discrimination, including based on race and ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identify/expression, disability, and all other forms. We must intentionally build a district where all our youth are safe from threats, which means prioritizing it at the district, school, and classroom level.
Our approach to student health should be based on established approaches to public health. I support chidhood vaccination and defer to public health officials.