Boulder Valley School District among 40 Colorado jurisdictions putting broadband on the ballot

If ballot question 3A passes, Boulder (CO) Valley School District (BVSD) would attempt to earn revenue and expand Internet access. Thanks to a state law passed in 2005 (SB-152), which restricts local governments from competing with broadband providers, BVSD must get permission from voters before leveraging its own fiber optic network’s excess capacity. Voters face a question with a fairly obvious answer: Should schools keep innovating?

“We are working hard to try to get the equivalent of a printing press into everyone’s backpack,” says Andrew Moore, chief information officer at BVSD. “If you’ve got a digital device -- a Chromebook, a laptop, an iPad -- in your backpack, it is the gateway.” A member of the superintendent’s cabinet, Moore supports professional development for teachers using educational technology in classrooms and leads a dozen technicians who manage networks, phone systems and traditional IT services across the district’s 55 schools. He says BVSD has over 100 miles of fiber capacity in the ground, including unused “dark” fiber. But the district can’t offer new broadband services unless voters override SB-152. “We’re restricted from leasing fiber to private entities, and we’re restricted from providing Internet services,” Moore says. “So we really followed the City of Boulder’s lead.”