A safe haven policy, years in the making, was codified into policy during the Roaring Fork School District (RFSD) Board of Education meeting on May 8.
The push for a formal policy intensified in March 2023 when the U.S. Border Patrol had a table at a career expo at Glenwood Springs High School. Their presence sparked outrage among community members who thought it violated the district’s Safe Haven Resolution, which had been in place since 2016.
Alan Muñoz, regional organizing manager for Voces Unidas de las Montañas, a Latino advocacy group based in Glenwood Springs, explained the incident catalyzed a concerted campaign to adopt the resolution into a more formal and binding policy.
“We learned that the resolution needed to be a policy and a regulation so that incidents like the one in Glenwood Springs High School don’t happen again. In actuality, it shouldn’t have taken the school district until 2024 to pass the safe haven policy,” Muñoz underscored.
The safe haven initiative’s roots can be traced back to 2011 when a Carbondale police officer serving as a Student Resource Officer (SRO) at Roaring Fork High School was found to be collaborating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to gather information on undocumented students and their families, Muñoz shared. This discovery highlighted the need for stronger protections for Latino students and their families and set the stage for the eventual policy.
Muñoz expressed confidence that the policy would be effectively implemented and respected by district staff “to ensure that all students feel safe and that their constitutional rights are being protected.”
RFSD Board President Kathryn Kuhlenberg acknowledged the long journey to finalizing the policy and recognized Board Vice President Jasmin Ramirez for her contributions, saying, “Jasmin has worked on this for years. Having the support of [superintendent] Dr. Anna Cole and the administration and ensuring that we got community feedback from appropriate stakeholder groups was invaluable,” she said.
An important policy aspect includes a clear agreement with local law enforcement. The district has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to contract with each local law enforcement agency to ensure consistent expectations and alignment across the district.
Earlier this year, the district engaged its Equity Advisory Council, which includes high school students, parents and community partners, to develop a policy. The collaborative effort included multiple revisions and consultations with local police chiefs to ensure the policy was comprehensive and aligned with community needs, she said.
Each school community has an SRO who travels between schools whenever needed. This school year, the Riverview K-8 school, located in unincorporated Garfield County, has had its own SRO.
However, with the passage of the March 4 resolution declaring Garfield County a non-sanctuary county, Cole said the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office said they would not comply with the safe haven policy at Riverview.
Cole contacted Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario and was told that his office was “not aligned” with the Safe Haven policy.
“I decided not to renew that contract because of financial components. It was the same cost to have one SRO at one K-8 school as it was to have one SRO covering all of Glenwood Springs. It just didn’t make sense. I had already decided that we wouldn’t continue to contract, but Garfield County’s unwillingness to align with our policy ended that contract early,” Cole said.
“He [Vallario] and I talked a lot about it, and he understands the political nature of these things. I said I have a board that’s standing behind this resolution and expects me to execute and implement, and I have a community that expects to execute and implement. He said, ‘Well, then I have the same thing on a different side.’” Cole continued, “We’re taking a pretty strong stance on how we stand on this.”
Riverview parents were notified immediately of the decision to end the SRO contract, with Cole communicating to families via online and in-person information sessions.
“What’s interesting is we had never had an SRO at that school. This was the first year we’d ever had one, and it was a little awkward to have none for eight years and then have a full-time person there. It was some mixed emotions, but I think generally people understood why we were ending that contract early,” she shared.
The district created a webpage where the information and resources for immigrant families, including the Safe Haven policy, can be found.