Boulder Valley School District school board elects new officers, swears in new members
Kathy Gebhardt is the new president of the Boulder Valley school board, while Lisa Sweeney-Miran is the new vice president.
They were elected to the positions by the school board by secret ballot at a special meeting Tuesday, and each was the only one nominated.
“I’m so excited to work with this board,” Gebhardt said. “I see nothing but hope for our future and hope for our students and hope for good things to come.”
Gebhardt referenced the failed recall attempt, which named her and two other board members, saying she’s open to hearing comments and criticisms. One reason petitioners gave for pursuing the recall was that the board ignored dissenting opinions about how to handle the pandemic.
“I really do feel like we were trying to listen to everybody,” Gebhardt said. “I’ll be open to hearing about how we can do things better.”
Two new board members, Beth Niznik and Nicole Rajpal, were sworn in at Tuesday’s meeting, as was incumbent Kitty Sargent. Rajpal also was appointed as board treasurer.
Niznik is a special education regional facilitator at the Colorado Department of Education and has a daughter in first grade at Eisenhower Elementary. Rajpal served for six years on Boulder Valley’s District Accountability Committee. She has a fifth grader at Foothill Elementary and a seventh grader at Southern Hills Middle.
Before the meeting, the district held an invitation-only reception for outgoing board president Tina Marquis, who was term-limited, and outgoing board member Donna Miers. Miers, who didn’t run for re-election after serving a four-year term, didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting.
Gebhardt, after being elected president, said, “I hope that I can be half as good as Tina as board president.”
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