Coffee Talk 9/19/25 Boulder High School - These notes are attributed to Eddie Gilmartin.
Topic – Supporting the Whole Student
All slide decks and resource links discussed in coffee talks will be available on website.
Attendees
- Heather – 10th grader & 7th grader at Casey
- Allison Schwartz – 1 freshman boy, a middle schooler and 2 elementary schoolers
- Jessic Xavier – 9th grader here, 10th grader at Fairview
- Eddie Gilmartin – 9th & 11th
- One late arrival (at 8:15)
- Dr. Morales
Next Coffee Talk: Bond Work – tour
Supporting The Whole Student:
- Mental Health
- Academics
- Extracurricular
Mental Health:
- 2 Full Time Mental Health Advocate (phone number & emails are not posted on the website because they were getting weekend / out-of-hours urgent messages to which they were unable to respond).
- Therapeutic intervention: someone checks in w/ students in crisis / panic attacks. Not therapy but fail-safe/capture mechanism to take steps for students who appear not to be acting themselves
- Tracy Black – is the interventionist
- Chelsea Guyer – staffs wellness center
- Counseling Team
- Wellness Center
- Not a lot of extra space here at boulder high yet made room for it
- Wellness center designed w/ soothing colors, patio, no overhead lights. “plant wall”. Essential oils. A calming thing on the TV.
- Teachers, counselors, admin – can all refer students to Tracy
- Discipline & restorative Practices: What’s going on? How can we help you?
- E.g. student vaping @ school in bathroom. Principal led with “what’s going on? Often times students vaping at school have something going on”. And it quickly became clear that the student was in crisis. Tracy came in and they got him support ( and he faced some consequences for breaking those rules).
- Appears to be gender parity in which students are accessing the services.
- Special Ed team has access
Academic Supports:
- 3 Tiers of supports. Tier 1 is available to all; Tier 2 is accessible to some; Tier 3 is available to the smallest number who really need the most. (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support MTSS)
- Study Skills Course: Focuses on executive functioning
- Dr. Morales’ is very familiar with students who are lacking in executive functioning skills.
- Semester or full year. 4 or 5 classes available over the course of the day; get elective credit.
- Tutors:
- Student Tutors: National Honor Society (NHS) students (a volunteer club to which students apply) offer tutoring. Juniors and Seniors.
- OPEN QUESTIONS: When does tutoring happen? Can students needing tutoring just drop-in?
- 4A’s Rally: A candy contest & student club recruiting
- There is a counseling-dedicated team
- Severe Special Needs Students: ILC or ?
- There is “unified” – special needs and non-special needs students in the same class in gym and PE
- Another option is Peer Classroom attendees (e.g. Choir)
- Transitions Program: students getting support as they transition into community
- Counselors-offered tutoring: One can apply online through the counseling website.
- Jane Moody oversees a “Peer Tutoring” program – students commit to being an in-class tutor for a particular subject, and attend the class daily. They get course credit for the “Peer Tutoring” Class but do not attend a “peer tutoring” class – it is the class subject they are tutoring where they report to daily. (e.g. 5th period Algebra 1)
- MTSS: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
- The tiers : 1, 2 and 3 – everyone, some, few (Tier 2 would be 504Plans; someone w/ arm injury who needs help in the class; exec functioning supports. Tier 3 – intensive interventions.)
- Boulder High has its own version: 3 levels of support across
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL) / Wellness
- Attendance
- Academics
- (See the table that maps out all intervention programs for the categories and levels – “maybe we’ll do a parent-facing MTSS document”)
- Every late-start during the school year for teachers has a distinct focus
- This one coming up is team conversations focused on students who are struggling academically and / or with attendance
- “SST” Student Support/Study Team
- Parent, Student, Teachers, Admin have a joint meeting.
Dr. Morales: “I don’t think freshman and sophomores should have off periods. You can add a class into your off period if you want.” “We have a lot of temptations around the school.”
“PantherPost” – does go to the students. Dr. Morales “Maybe we need a panther post light for students”
Ton of board games in library & chess boards - got a chess-timer for kids really into it; video games available at lunch in the cafeteria.
Communications Question: Is there a list of what clubs are available and where they meet? My student is clueless and they don’t pay attention – and I want them to go.
There are announcements over the PA, there is PantherTV, there is a bulletin board w/ student fliers, but we don’t have “one list of clubs”.
There is a list on the website – but not a full list anywhere in the hallways.
Last year there were 60 or 65 clubs.
Each club should have a teacher sponsor.
Each club can post stuff on the bulletin board in the main hallway from entry to gym/Cafeteria
Q: Finals Schedule – when does it come out?
A: Principals meets with Governance Team (teachers from each departments) every-other-week.
Monday after school all the “Comprehensive Schools” principals have a standing meeting. BVSD is working to put all schools on the same schedule for final exams – hoping to get that figured out this coming week.
Website is being overhauled / constantly tweaked and becoming more and more user friendly. Using the Search function is a great way to navigate.
