020 Ralph Frid and Meghan Carrier

For episode twenty, I spoke with Ralph Frid who is a systems engineer who volunteers his time with the BVSD District Accountability Committee as the chair of the Budget and Finance sub-committee and Meghan Carrier who is the deputy directory of Together Colorado which is a non-profit that brings faith communities together to work on issues such as immigration, health care, criminal justice, and affordable housing among others. Ralph came to my attention at a BVSD board meeting in January where he talked about how enrollment trends, the rising cost of housing, and staff shortages are converging to create difficult challenges for the district. Enrollment is going down, housing costs are going up, and teachers and other staff cannot afford to live here.  One bullet item in his presentation that stood out for me included the following: “Re-purposing of [BVSD] properties as affordable housing for BVSD employees, first responders, etc.”  Of course, I was eager to hear more about that!  Ralph admitted that he was not a housing expert and so he recruited Meghan to join our conversation. This was exciting for me because last year I attended Together Colorado’s series on housing in Boulder County and so I was already familiar with their great work. Ralph and Meghan proved to be great conversation partners as we explored ways that we can make Boulder a more welcoming and inclusive community.