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Brayden, Sabrina, and Rachel scraped the charred skins off poblano peppers, squished out the seeds, and dropped the slippery pepper flesh into a stainless steel bowl.

“Guys! Why are we leaving so many seeds in there?” 16-year-old Sabrina said, half laughing, half exasperated.

“Oh my God, they just keep appearing,” said Brayden, also 16. “I clean it off and eight more show up.”

It was almost 9 a.m. on a Tuesday, and the three worked with classmates to make posole in their first class of the day at STEAD School, a charter school in Commerce City northeast of Denver. In just over two hours, the fragrant Mexican soup of hominy, chicken, peppers, and tomatillos would be the star of their high school’s lunch line. Grapes, orange wedges, and a salad bar were the supporting actors.

Kai, a junior at STEAD School, cuts peppers for posole on a recent day.

The morning meal prep session happens four days a week at STEAD, an agriculture and science-focused school where you might hear a rooster crow on your way to the main entrance. Students in two “food crew” classes help prepare scratch-cooked meals for more than 200 students and teachers every day but Wednesday, which is a half day. Under the direction of Dain Holland, the school’s farm and food manager, they make entrees like bison bolognese, sesame orange chicken, cheeseburgers, and Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches, all of which adhere to federal school nutrition guidelines.

STEAD, which enrolls more than 400 students, isn’t the only school in Colorado with a student-powered lunch program. Compass Montessori, a charter school in Jefferson County where some STEAD staff previously worked, has long had a similar set up.

At STEAD, the lunch initiative came about partly out of necessity. When the school opened in 2021, a neighboring district provided lunches — “kind of your standard reheat-and-serve” fare, Holland said. But after two years, the district decided to discontinue its contract with STEAD.

That’s when Holland, who previously worked as a chef at restaurants like Denver’s upscale Barolo Grill and led a food service program at a California university, decided to launch a student-run lunch operation.

“There’s a ton of kids here that show interest in culinary,” he said. “We have these beautiful, brand new kitchens, so it might as well be used.”

Holland said most students take an introductory culinary class before enrolling in the food crew class, though he makes exceptions if students have cooking experience at home or at a job. Food crew emphasizes food safety precautions, including keeping dishes at the proper temperature and avoiding cross-contamination.

The day of the posole lunch, about a dozen students worked at stations around the kitchen, chopping vegetables for the soup or the school’s salad bar. Hunter, a senior who’s a teaching assistant for the class, charred poblano peppers on a six-burner gas stove and helped prepare raw chicken to be baked. Holland, who wore a brown apron with markers and a pen clipped to the pocket, offered assistance and cooking tips as he circulated.

Hunter, a teaching assistant for the "food crew" class, roasts poblano peppers that will end up in posole.

“Anything you do in a normal commercial kitchen, they’re all doing here,” he said. “It is treated almost like a job, like a shift at a restaurant. I have a big prep list every day.”

Riley, a 17-year-old senior who carefully chopped a yellow onion, said he fell in love with cooking because someone is always in the kitchen at his house, usually his dad or grandma. He’s already been admitted to the culinary arts program at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction for next year.

“The dream is to be a personal chef,” he said.

Not every food crew student wants a career in cooking though. Some simply like the relaxed hands-on nature of the class or enjoy cooking as a pastime.

Admire, a junior who often makes soups and chicken dishes with his mother, said he’s considering a career in music or architecture. But he enjoys the food prep class because cooking for the whole school involves a different level of responsibility, he said.

Students at STEAD School in Commerce City pick up bowls of posole from Dain Holland, the school's farm and food manager, in the orange shirt.

Brayden, a junior who worked with Sabrina and Rachel de-seeding peppers, said cooking is his third-line career option, if professional pool-playing or real estate don’t work out.

Like several other students in the class, he said pizza is a favorite lunch to make. He joked about his class’s superiority on that front.

“In the other class, they make the crust really thin and like, there’s no sauce and stuff, and then us, we make it really thick, cheese, sauce, everything,” he said. “So, we are the preferred class for pizza days.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado voters seem poised to approve about half of the school district funding measures this year

2024-11-08T22:52:13+00:00

Disparities in local tax revenue for Colorado schools are growing, causing inequities and concern

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When it came to giving schools more local funding, Colorado voters were reluctant to raise taxes this year.

Typically presidential election years can be good years for districts to ask voters to raise taxes for schools. But this year, only about half of the requests, or 22 out of 41, were successful, according to unofficial results as of Friday morning. That’s fewer than in 2020 when about 90% of the measures were successful and also in 2016 when 68% of measures passed.

This year, of those 22 that voters approved, only 11 were actually tax increases.

Many of the successful ballot measures from school districts this year can at least in part attribute their success to the fact that they could say to voters that approving the measure wouldn’t mean a new or higher property tax.

In the Adams 12 school district north of Denver, the district’s two requests had split results, precisely on that basis.

The district was able to ask voters to incur new bond debt, but it would be able to pay for it with the existing tax collections. Voters widely supported that measure. It’s going to help rebuild the deteriorating Thornton High School, add a new central kitchen and warehouse, as well as pay for other maintenance of schools.

But in a bid for a new mill levy override that would provide ongoing dollars to raise teacher salaries, Adams 12 voters rejected the measure. If approved, homeowners would have had to pay about $2.04 per month per $100,000 in home value.

“We know the burden is higher,” said Adams 12 Superintendent Chris Gdowski. “Incomes are tight and squeezing in more. We know that was beyond what our families were able to do.”

Still, the district is going to continue to help the community understand school budgets, including possible revenue losses the district might face, and then do polling again later this school year to figure out “if things have changed with the property tax pinch.” Gdowski said the plan would likely be to ask voters again either in 2025 or 2026.

Denver and Aurora school districts had some of the largest funding requests on the ballot, and neither required those communities to pay a higher tax rate. Both measures were approved by large margins.

All of the measures that failed would have meant higher property taxes for homeowners. That includes measures for the Thompson school district, Pueblo County 70, several in Weld County including Weld Re-8 in Fort Lupton. In Adams 14, initial results seemed to indicate that both the district’s request for a bond and mill levy would be rejected, but by Friday, the margins had closed in and the mill levy measure was losing by only one vote. The Adams 14 measures would cost homeowners $6.52 per month per $100,000 of home value.

In Douglas County, where the district had struggled to pass a bond request for the last two years, voters approved a bond this year that — this time — did not require a higher tax rate. The money will go to building new schools in growing parts of the county.

The few districts that did pass a tax measure that required a higher tax rate include the Poudre school district in northern Colorado, Cherry Creek, Platte Valley in Weld County, Harrison in Colorado Springs, Durango, and Montezuma – which was successful in passing a mill levy override for the first time ever.

In Cherry Creek, voters were asked to approve a bond for $950 million and a mill levy override to net $9 million that together would cost homeowners $3 per month per $100,000.

The Harrison mill levy override to also get $9 million will cost those homeowners $5.31 per month per $100,000 of a home’s value, and that’s without a bond.

Harrison Superintendent Wendy Birhanzel said that she knows in her community, which has many low-income families, making the request was a challenge. She thinks it helped that the last time voters approved a tax increase for a bond the district used it to improve all buildings.

“It showed our community that when we have a plan we will follow it,” Birhanzel said.

The mill levy override would pay for increased teacher salaries. But voters in Harrison also might have been showing support for another program that would be paid for with the new funding: continuing a scholarship program for all district graduates.

The scholarship started three years ago. With the approved funding, it will go to students regardless of other funding they get for college, which means they can get the district scholarship to cover tuition and then still receive other scholarships or federal funding to help with other expenses. Families may have seen the program as a direct return on investment, she said.

“It really truly creates equity for our kids,” Birhanzel said. “Our families really have got behind that.”

Holyoke, in the northeast corner of the state, was able to pass a measure that required a new tax for bonds that would only kick in if the state gets a grant to help build a new elementary school. The district last year didn’t get the grant, but the district plans to try again this year. School districts that win the state’s BEST grants for help with capital projects must have some matching funds to pay for the cost – and the Holyoke voter approval will assure the district has that this time.

Superintendent Kyle Stumpf said it was an “extremely difficult ask” for his community. As of Thursday, the measure was winning with just 70 votes.

“Our farming and ranching community supports our district very well and have always supported us, but it’s been extremely tight this year,” Stumpf said.

What made the difference, he thinks, is that parents of elementary children who attend the school building, which was built in 1954, have seen that maintenance problems are getting worse.

There have been main-water line breaks, one of the original 1954-electrical outlets caught fire, and on Election Day this week, the elementary school had to be evacuated for a gas leak. Officials ended up finding not one but three gas leaks in the school’s boiler room.

Plus, he said, the school building doesn’t have a lot of capacity to work with the technology students use now, or to accommodate smaller learning environments where teachers can work with students who need different support, including English learners.

“The building has served its purpose, but it was not designed for today’s type of education,” Stumpf said.

He said the district is “just very fortunate,” that it seems a majority of voters approved the measure. He said he expects it will be an investment that will serve the community for a long time.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Teacher pay: Adams 12 may give raises for mentoring rather than graduate degrees

2024-02-29T01:22:05+00:00

Teachers in at least two Adams 12 schools could earn higher pay in a pilot program – through district-provided training and taking on new school responsibilities – instead of by completing graduate credits, the more traditional route.

Removing pay incentives for college credits is rare, but not unheard of. About 90% of districts pay teachers more for earning graduate degrees, according to one survey of large districts.

“You don’t have to go out and spend $10,000 on a graduate degree,” said Dave Lockley, president of the teachers union in Adams 12. “We believe in continuing development. We don’t know that graduate credits are the best way.”

The pilot, designed by a team of teachers, union leaders, and district leaders, would likely take place at Thornton Elementary School and Thornton Middle School, two schools that have struggled. One goal of the pilot would be to incentivize more teachers to work in and stay at the low-performing schools with high percentages of high-risk students. The pilot also incentivizes teachers to collaborate to see if it helps with raising student achievement.

The team that designed the salary pilot had considered it for years. They moved forward with plans this year after the district committed $4.5 million to try it out. If approved, it is expected to start this fall and last three to four years, but the final agreement could change those details.

As teachers have been informed, there has been some pushback.

Lockley and district leaders said teachers’ main concerns are about what new responsibilities the higher pay requires, whether that money could do more good for more schools in another way, and whether the changes devalue graduate degrees some teachers already earned.

Union and district leaders are discussing the feedback to possibly adjust the plan or decide whether to move forward with it. If they agree in negotiations to the pilot in the next couple of weeks, the school board and the full union membership will have to vote to approve it.

Myla Shepherd, chief human resources officer for Adams 12, said the team that designed the pilot recommended Thornton Elementary and Middle schools for the pilot after the district ranked all schools using five criteria the subcommittee chose, including a three-year teacher turnover average, mobility of students, and how many students qualify for subsidized lunches.

Thornton Elementary has a three-year teacher turnover rate of 38.8%. At Thornton Middle School, that rate is 33.2%. Both schools have more than 40% of their students identified as English learners, and more than 83% qualify for subsidized meals.

But, Shepherd said, the district is open to running the pilot with more schools if possible.

None of the teachers at the pilot schools would see a decrease in their salary. Most will see a raise.

The district estimates the program will cost about $500,000 to $600,000 per school, at the start, Shepherd said, because of those salary increases, and because raises might be more accessible tied to professional development instead of college credit.

“Over time that would decrease as people earn more and turn over less,” Shepherd said the district estimates.

Ultimately, part of the goal is for schools to build a staff that’s a mix of new teachers, intermediate career teachers, and some veterans collaborating and helping each other.

“That’s when a school is at its best,” Lockley said.

Salary raises will also be flattened, so that teachers can reach the maximum earlier in their careers, even though the maximum would be a lower salary than the current schedule.

But Lockley said that under Adams 12′s current salary plan, only one teacher in the district is currently at the maximum, and for most teachers, it’s unattainable. Allowing more teachers to reach a maximum salary earlier can increase their lifetime earnings, even if that maximum is smaller, he said.

Typically, Lockley said, it is white men who are more likely to climb the salary ladder in traditional schedules, because they’re more likely to have money and time to earn higher degrees.

“It just always seemed baffling to me that we force teachers to go into debt in order to see a decent pay raise,” Lockley said. “Some of our teachers can’t afford the time or the money to go get a master’s degree. My hope would be that the things we learned from this pilot, we could use to help fix these long-term inequities.”

Researchers say studies have shown that many master’s degrees earned by teachers don’t lead to better student outcomes. However, there are cases where they do, such as a math teacher in a middle or high school, who earns a master’s degree in math, or special education teachers with specialized degrees for their field.

Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute and a Stanford University professor, said that there are downfalls with district-provided training, too. They must be well-designed and closely tied to the work teachers do.

“And you can end up with the same inequities if they have to find their own time,” she said.

But the idea of incentivizing a system where veteran teachers would mentor and work with newer teachers can be promising, she said.

“There’s a lot to be said positively about the idea of having veteran teachers mentor younger educators,” Darling-Hammond said. “That does increase retention and effectiveness for the beginner teachers if you do it right.”

Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said that districts typically aren’t using money strategically when they pay more for graduate degrees that usually aren’t tied to better student outcomes.

“We need to pay teachers more for working where they’re most needed,” Peske said.

One measure that wasn’t considered by the group to choose the pilot schools, was a school’s state performance rating. Still, one of the two schools recommended, Thornton Middle School, is one of six in the district with a low rating that landed on the state’s watchlist for persistently low student test scores and other achievement deficits.

Ideally, Lockley said, he’d like to see a school improve performance in ways that show in better state ratings.

The subcommittee is still considering how to measure success, depending on the pilot’s length. Some version of student success, and teacher retention will be a part of it, Shepherd said.

“We’re trying something different to really honor and recognize the work of educators,” Shepherd said. “It will allow for attracting and retaining people in those challenging environments. And improved student achievement.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

‘Growing our readers’: How the Sheridan district has revived its once-closed high school library

2024-02-16T20:05:03+00:00

For years, the Sheridan district’s high school library was just empty space — a few shelves, no books, no staff.

Now, the library is thriving. Students hang out there during lunch or other free periods. They read, play games, and can even take a literature class.

The space has transformed from bare to buzzing.

“We just had old tables and chairs,” said Jenn Alevy, the digital teacher librarian. “Throughout the five years, our space has changed so much.”

Among the changes: new furniture, including a puzzle table hand-built by a student in the school’s former woodshop class.

While some schools are having to cut librarians or letting libraries languish as school budgets are strained and others are grappling with book bans, the Sheridan library continues to grow because of voter-approved funds passed in 2018.

Trenity Briscoe, 16, works on her book project during a class in the library at Sheridan High School.

Pat Sandos, the outgoing superintendent, had just been hired in 2018 when he decided to put the promise of school librarians into the proposed mill levy tax request. Before the tax measure, the district used about $40,000 from reserves to get the space ready.

“I just couldn’t believe we didn’t have a library at the high school,” Sandos said. “It’s the hub of the school. So much goes on there.”

When Sandos talked to people in the community, many didn’t know the 300-student high school had been left without a library after the county library pulled out of the school into its own building.

Having the county library in the district was complicated, leaders said, because it was difficult to control who was in the school building just for the public library. And, Sandos said, having the library nearby was not the same as having an in-house teacher librarian who could collaborate with teachers and build relationships with students.

That’s what Alevy has done.

“There’s so much opportunity, it’s critical,” Sandos said.

Leticia Salazar, a senior at Sheridan High School, said Alevy has helped her through many rough times, including a recent death in her family. Last semester, she was a library assistant. Now, she just hangs out at the library because she finds it a safe and peaceful place.

“She’s awesome,” Salazar said, of Alevy. “And she got me into reading.”

When Alevy was hired in 2019 after voters approved the tax request, she started reviving the library by ordering books and working on a three-year plan to create more integration between technology and learning.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, schools went to remote learning, the library shut down – and Alevy’s plan to incorporate more digital learning became a plan she had to integrate right away.

She was the go-to for teachers on any technology questions, and helped many navigate remote learning software.

Now that schools have gone back to in-person learning, she still tries to collaborate with teachers, recommending books for various lessons they plan and suggesting ways to incorporate reading or digital learning when appropriate.

Students hang out at the Sheridan High School library during lunch or other free periods, including to play games.

Maegan Daigler, the district’s executive director of assessment & technology, said the mill levy funds pay for the salaries of librarians at the district schools and funds each year are also used to help grow the library’s collection.

The goal is to grow the book collection about 10% each year as funds allow, she said.

“It’s a priority,” Daigler said.

During the time the library was closed due to remote learning, Alevy ordered digital books for students to check out, but has since found that students prefer physical copies of books to read.

The library now has more than 4,500 books, including a few hundred Spanish books, many Stephen King novels, the popular Colleen Hoover titles, and lots of manga.

For many of the Spanish books, Alevy likes to get the English and Spanish versions so students can read them side-by-side if they like. She also gets some audiobooks that can be a helpful addition when students are trying to learn English.

From left to right Students Aidan Cordova, 17, Rock Himebaugh, 17, and Isaac Rosales, 16, play the card game UNO in the library during their lunch break at Sheridan High School.

The students in newcomer classes check out lots of books, she said. About a third of the school’s 300 students are English learners.

“Students will challenge themselves when they’re picking up a book,” Alevy said. “If it gets them to read, I will buy them.”

This year Alevy started offering a new elective class, Introduction to Literature, where students read, write about what they read, and then will promote the books they read in the library.

“We’re growing our readers,” Alevy said. “It’s slowly working.”

Each of the 10 students in the class picked a theme and planned out which books they would read this semester to fit that theme.

One of the school’s most avid readers, Kaitlyn Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore, has already read six books for the class this semester. She’s focusing her project on two themes: mystical creatures, and how people feel when they lose someone they love.

As Miller described her project, she noted: “I probably need to get some more books.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the last names of Leticia Salazar and Rock Himebaugh, and to reflect that the Sheridan library has more than 4,500 books in its collection now.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Westminster school board election results: Union-backed slate wins three seats

2023-11-08T04:56:32+00:00

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A slate of three candidates backed by the teachers union was winning the Westminster school board election, according to results Tuesday evening. The slate includes incumbent Christine Martinez and newcomers Audrey Yanos and Mary Beth Murphy.

Three of five Westminster school board seats were up for grabs in this election. It was the first contested board election in the 8,000-student district north of Denver in six years.

The trailing candidates include three newcomers who also ran as a slate: Anthony Sisneros and husband-and-wife team Charles and Brenda Gallegos.

The winning candidates were gathered with supporters at Los 3 Garcias restaurant when the preliminary results came in around 7:20 p.m. Tuesday evening. There were “lots of woo-hoos,” said Martinez, who is vice president of a local property management company and the mother of a seventh-grader in the district.

She said Tuesday’s results show voters agreed with her slate’s belief that the district is moving in the right direction.

Murphy, a retired teacher who has four adult children, said she heard from many of the voters she texted in recent days that they appreciated how positive the slate’s campaign was.

“No matter what else came out, we never got down in the mud,” she said.

Yanos, an operations supervisor at a healthcare nonprofit and the mother of three children in the district, said, “We weren’t a doom and gloom slate,”

The school district will face a leadership transition in the coming year, with the district’s longtime superintendent, Pam Swanson, set to retire next summer. In October, the board named Deputy Superintendent Jeni Gotto as her successor.

The next school board will also likely grapple with continuing enrollment declines, which have forced several Denver area districts to consider school closures or consolidations in recent years. Between 2016 and 2021, the district lost more than 1,400 students — a 15% drop.

Martinez said she’s eager to see Westy Futures, a sports program for K-8 students, continue, and the planned conversion of a middle school to new career and technical education space move forward.

Yanos, an avid gardener, said she wants to help expand the district’s horticulture program with an eye toward incorporating lessons on climate change and sustainability.

Murphy, who is director of the Central Adams UniServ Unit, an organization that supports four local teachers unions, said she didn’t come to the race with any specific agenda.

“Every decision I make will be based on what’s best for our kids and community,” she said.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 12 school board candidate sent dozens of CRT-obsessed emails

2023-10-26T19:29:10+00:00

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As a candidate for school board, Ben Helgeson says he wants to serve as a bridge between parents and teachers, opening up dialogue and restoring trust.

As a parent, Helgeson sent dozens of emails to district administrators, teachers, and union leaders accusing a teacher of being a “priestess” of critical race theory, accusing the union of pushing a racist, religious ideology, and accusing Superintendent Chris Gdowski of being complicit in it all.

Helgeson is part of a slate of conservative candidates seeking to shift the balance of power in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, a diverse suburban district north of Denver. It’s one of dozens of Colorado districts seeing contested school board races this year shaped by religious and political divisions. Teachers unions and conservative groups are spending big in an effort to sway voters.

In Adams 12, the public rhetoric is more muted. Candidates on both sides talk about paying teachers more, improving academic outcomes, and keeping students safe. But Helgeson also is deeply concerned the teachers union is pushing critical race theory into Adams 12 classrooms.

Chalkbeat obtained many of Helgeson’s emails through a public records request. Some were redacted or withheld. Helgeson’s first complaints involved quarantines and masking rules, but soon he was writing almost entirely about critical race theory. Critical race theory is an academic field that analyzes how race is embedded in American laws and policies, but it has become a catch-all term for progressive approaches in education.

Helgeson wrote that teacher training courses offered by the Colorado Education Association on books like Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Antiracist” were themselves systematically racist and would pave the way to authoritarianism. An Adams 12 high school teacher led one of the courses.

In one email, which bore the subject line “Happy Memorial Day and Addressing Inconsistencies,” Helgeson linked to a proposal from Kendi that the United States should create a Department of Anti-racism to monitor policies and public officials’ statements and intervene to prevent racial disparities.

“That would mean, for example, that Ibram or one of his racial gestapo deputies could enter my home, slaughter my family, harvest our organs, take all of our material possessions and financial resources and re-allocate them as they determine, in accordance with their supreme power,” Helgeson wrote.

Helgeson said in an interview with Chalkbeat that he stands behind the substance of what he wrote, including his fears that anti-racism could lead to bloodshed, but he has some regrets about how he expressed himself.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “That was me feeling like they’re not going to listen to me anyway, so I’ll say whatever I want to say. I felt like I was told to basically shut up.”

Political divisions hard to discern in Adams 12

The 35,000-student Adams 12 district is the sixth largest in Colorado and serves a diverse student body that is 42% white, 44% Latino, and 6.5% Asian American. More than 45% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, a measure of poverty. Those students are concentrated in the southern part of the district, while the northern half is more affluent.

The district is also politically diverse, with a large share of unaffiliated voters, and saw bitter disagreements over remote learning, masks, and quarantines during the first year of the COVID pandemic.

Two years ago, while conservatives won board majorities in many Republican-dominated parts of Colorado, the blue and purple communities along the Front Range mostly saw union-backed candidates who favored progressive approaches prevail. Conservatives picked up seats here and there, including one on the Adams 12 board.

This year, conservative education group Ready Colorado is backing Helgeson, Rebecca Elmore, and Ken Murphy-Montoya, while the teachers union is backing incumbent board president Lori Goldstein and newcomers Paula Battistelli and Alexis Marsh-Holschen.

Libertarian Brian Klein is running independently.

In questionnaires posted on the Adams 12 district website, candidates describe their deep ties to the district and their commitment to improving education. Political divides are hard to discern. Mailers from independent expenditure committees, though, are making the divisions clearer. Helgeson and Murphy-Montoya also participated in a voter guide prepared by Transform Colorado, a group that seeks to “restore biblical values in the public square.” They answered questions about pronouns, parental rights and sex education.

Equity audit, anti-racist training prompted emails

Helgeson worked as a teacher in neighboring Westminster Public Schools for 19 years. He names Thomas Sowell, an economist, professor, and prominent Black conservative, as an inspiration. Helgeson was placed on unpaid leave in October 2021 because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID. He sued the district. Court records show he reached a settlement last year. In an interview, he described this as a time of grief and suffering, but said it also opened a door to a new opportunity as the manager of a fly fishing business.

If elected, Helgeson said he would work to recruit and retain experienced teachers with higher pay, signing bonuses, and incentives to work in high poverty schools. He would promote co-teaching and disciplinary practices that support safe schools, he said.

“The campaign that he’s running is not representative of the person that I experienced,” the teacher who was targeted in Helgeson’s emails told Chalkbeat. “At least stand in who you are as a person. If you are going to make threats to educators, at least be authentic and not this other person.”

Asked if his responses to candidate questionnaires would give voters enough information to understand where he stood on controversial issues, Helgeson said that was a good question, and he doesn’t know. If the district stays focused on academics, it shouldn’t come up, he added.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, the teacher asked to remain anonymous because she fears further harassment. She said Helgeson never directly called for her to be fired, but she was alarmed by how he described her in his emails and that he emailed her again after Gdowski told Helgeson not to. It was especially upsetting to be accused of supporting authoritarian beliefs because her family includes people killed and imprisoned by both the Nazis and the Soviets, she said. In one email, Helgeson told the teacher and Gdowski the “cautionary tale” of a California teacher who resigned under pressure after a viral video showed him making left-wing statements. A district investigation also found he violated policy.

District administrators had previously told Helgeson that CRT was not taught in Adams 12. A letter from Gdowski to parents describing a planned equity audit was evidence to the contrary, Helgeson wrote, describing equity as “the holy grail of Critical Race Theorists. It’s their god.”

Correspondence shows district leaders were concerned about the volume and tone of the emails and discussed how best to respond. Helgeson says now that he particularly regrets calling the superintendent “an enemy of the state” and a “complete failure.” The school board is responsible for hiring and supervising the superintendent. Helgeson said he was deeply frustrated at the time, didn’t appreciate the competing pressures Gdowski was under, and “was encouraged by other parents who were saying far worse.”

Helgeson still has concerns about training courses offered by the union.

“A parent might hear from a school that CRT is not part of a given curriculum, but a course like that is designed not necessarily to come up with curriculum but to embed some of these ideas that are highly politically charged, unproven, and even religious into the classroom,” he said in an interview.

The teacher targeted by Helgeson said her anti-racist philosophy is about being aware of her own biases and accounting for them so she can be a better teacher, not about any lessons she teaches to students. In the classroom, she said she’s very careful about keeping her political beliefs private so students can reach their own conclusions.

Asked what he would do about these courses, which teachers pay for and take on their own time, if elected, Helgeson hedged. He’s just one person, he said, and there would need to be a conversation. But he wants parents to know what kind of training teachers are seeking out, and said teachers should only move up the salary schedule when they take courses the district deems useful.

Teachers who engage in what he sees as political indoctrination from any direction, he said, may be well-intentioned and should be given an opportunity to change their ways. But if they don’t, “now you have a political mercenary and not a public educator.”

The election is Nov. 7.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 12’s first newcomer center offers students support and a path to graduation

2023-10-19T19:04:03+00:00

About 23 students from mixed grades were taking a math quiz on exponents at the newcomer center at Thornton High School one recent Friday afternoon.

The class was buzzing. Students were helping each other.

“If we’re not sure, it’s OK,” teacher Adria Padilla Chavez assured her students. “We go back and relearn.” Then she repeated her instructions in Spanish.

Padilla Chavez and other staffers at the newcomer center work to help students who are new to the country adjust to life in an American high school. As the program grows, students are gaining much more than English lessons. They’re making friends from around the world, engaging in their learning, and getting on a path to graduation. It’s helping them dream of futures they might not have imagined before.

“We like to welcome our students into a community where they feel like they belong,” said Frida Rodriguez, a youth and family advocate at the center. “It’s so important to have a place where you know you belong. They connect with staff that provide them a sense of help and support and love. Truly feeling loved is really important.”

Seventeen-year-old Joan Madrigal Delgado has been a student at the newcomer center for a month, his first experience in a U.S. school. He already feels his life changing.

He’s impressed by how teachers help him, and ask him to think and participate in discussions.

“I really didn’t have any possibilities in my country,” said Madrigal Delgado, who came from Cuba. “It feels good. Now I aspire to everything.”

He’s starting to think about college and considering a career as a veterinarian.

The newcomer center, the first in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, opened in August with 30 students. Now, a couple months into the school year, the center has more than 90 students, with new students enrolling every week and families spreading the word in the community.

The students come from many countries, but one of the main drivers for the development of the center was the influx of refugees arriving from Afghanistan around two years ago. Many live in the Thornton area around the high school.

Adams 12 was one of four school districts to receive a grant from the Rose Community Foundation this year to help support education for newcomers, particularly from Afghanistan.

The foundation worked with the Colorado Refugee Services Program — a unit within the Colorado Department of Human Services — to set up the Refugee Integration Fund, which gave away the grants.

The district used that money, along with some federal COVID relief money, and pulled $868,000 from the general fund to start up the center and pay for staff. The center has its own registrar, who calls families flagged to her by other schools and invites them to attend.

The district is offering transportation. About 45 of the newcomer center students get bused to the high school. And advocates like Rodriguez, who speaks Spanish, and Imran Khan, who speaks Pashai and Dari, also help families find resources in the community.

One unique feature of the center, says director Manissa Featherstone, is that it has its own counselor to help students map their way to graduation. She said many newcomer centers focus on teaching students English, and sometimes that means delaying classes that would earn them the credits required to get on track to graduate.

At the Thornton High program, students take all their core classes within the center, but are integrated into the mainstream high school for elective classes, or when they need a more advanced class. An instructional coach who works for the center helps customize the help for students.

“We’re able to provide those classes,” Featherstone said. “It just depends on the individual student’s needs and what schooling they’ve had.”

Newcomer Center teacher Aria Padilla Chavez, top center, works on a math quiz with her students.

Students also participate in extracurricular activities, clubs, and sports at the high school.

The program can accommodate up to 150 students, Featherstone said. It’s designed so that students spend a year there after they first arrive in the U.S., and then move on to regular high school programming.

Mohammad Ali Dost, 14, arrived from Afghanistan a couple of years ago, and was initially attending a middle school in the district without a dedicated newcomer program. Now at the center, he said he’s happy it’s helped him improve his English.

Dost said he tells other students: “If you want to improve your English quickly, come to the newcomer center.”

Dost also helps students who speak his home language of Pashai, the kind of peer-to-peer learning and interaction that staffers celebrate.

Featherstone said current students often volunteer to give new students tours and to help familiarize them with their new school.

“We see students jumping in and saying. ‘I’ll take them,’” Featherstone said. “They’re really excited when a student arrives.”

The advocates teach students the basics at first, like how to use a locker. Recently students also enjoyed learning about homecoming and spirit week.

“A lot of students had no idea what it was. What was the big deal about the football game?” Rodriguez said. “We showed them videos. They were just excited to have that experience. They kept saying, ‘I get to go to a dance.’”

Some students also say they’re impressed by the security of schools in the U.S., having come from other environments where they didn’t always feel safe.

“They’re very prepared,” Madrigal Delgado said.

Ismael Piscoya, 17, from Peru, said he’s amazed at the amount of technology available. All students in the district, not just the center, get a Chromebook.

It takes no time to look up information, Piscoya said.

Maria Fernanda Guillen, 18, from Mexico, said she feels empowered in her education.

“In Mexico, we didn’t have a voice in school,” Guillen said. Now thinking about a future in biotechnology, she’s excited about the start she’s getting at the center.

“It’s nice to have friends from other countries,” she said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Centro en el distrito Adams 12 atiende a estudiantes recién llegados al país

2023-10-19T19:03:55+00:00

Read in English.

Un reciente viernes por la tarde, alrededor de 23 estudiantes de diferentes grados estaban tomando un examen de matemáticas sobre exponentes en el centro para recién llegados de Thornton High School.

Se oía un zumbido en el salón de clases. Los estudiantes se estaban ayudando entre sí.

“Si no estamos seguros, está bien”, les aseguró la maestra Adria Padilla Chavez a sus estudiantes. “Retrocedemos y volvemos a aprender”. Luego repitió sus instrucciones en español.

Padilla Chavez y otros integrantes del personal escolar en el centro para recién llegados ayudan a los estudiantes que acaban de llegar al país a adaptarse a la vida en una high school estadounidense. Mientras el programa va creciendo, los estudiantes están recibiendo mucho más que lecciones de inglés. Están formando amistades con personas de todo el mundo, participando en su aprendizaje y abriéndose camino hacia la graduación. El programa está ayudándolos a soñar en un futuro que quizás nunca habían imaginado.

“Nos gusta darles la bienvenida a nuestros estudiantes a una comunidad en la que sientan que pertenecen”, dijo Frida Rodriguez, una promotora de jóvenes y familias en el centro. “Es muy importante tener un lugar donde sabes que perteneces. Conectan con el personal que les proporciona un sentimiento de ayuda y apoyo y cariño. Sentirse realmente queridos es muy importante”.

Joan Madrigal Delgado, de 17 años, ha sido estudiante en el centro para recién llegados por un mes, su primera experiencia en una escuela de Estados Unidos. Ya siente que su vida está cambiando.

Le impresiona ver cómo lo ayudan los maestros, y cómo le piden que piense y participe en las conversaciones.

“Realmente no tenía ninguna posibilidad en mi país”, dijo Madrigal Delgado, quien vino de Cuba. “Se siente bien. Ahora aspiro a todo”.

Está comenzando a pensar sobre la universidad y en dedicarse a una carrera en medicina veterinaria.

El centro para estudiantes recién llegados, el primero en las Escuelas Five Star de Adams 12, se inauguró en agosto con 30 estudiantes. Ahora, un par de meses después del inicio del año escolar, el centro cuenta con más de 90 estudiantes, con nuevos estudiantes inscritos cada semana y familias que corren la voz en la comunidad.

Los estudiantes vienen de muchos países, pero uno de los factores principales que resultaron en la creación del centro fue la llegada de refugiados de Afganistán hace casi dos años. Muchos viven en el área de Thornton alrededor de la high school.

Adams 12 fue uno de cuatro distritos que recibieron un subsidio de la Fundación Comunitaria Rose este año para ayudarlos a apoyar la educación de estudiantes recién llegados, especialmente aquellos de Afganistán.

La fundación trabajó con el Programa de Servicios para Refugiados de Colorado—una unidad que forma parte del Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Colorado—para establecer el Fondo de Integración de Refugiados, el cual distribuyó subsidios.

El distrito usó esos fondos, junto con algunos fondos federales de asistencia por COVID, y sacó $868,000 de su fondo general para establecer el centro y pagar por el personal. El centro tiene su propia secretaria de admisiones, quien llama a las familias que otras escuelas identifican y las invita para que vayan al centro.

El distrito está ofreciendo transporte. Cerca de 45 de los estudiantes que asisten al centro llegan en autobús a la high school. Y las promotoras como Rodriguez, quien habla español, y Imran Khan, quien habla pashai y darí, también ayudan a las familias para que encuentren recursos en la comunidad.

Una característica singular del centro, dice la directora Manissa Featherstone, es que tiene a su propio consejero que ayuda a los estudiantes para que establezcan su trayectoria hacia la graduación. Featherstone dijo que muchos centros para recién llegados se enfocan en enseñarles ingles a los estudiantes, y que a veces eso significa que se retrasan en las clases que los ayudan a acumular los créditos necesarios para graduarse.

En el programa de Thornton High School, los estudiantes toman todas las clases principales en el centro, pero toman sus clases electivas con el resto de los estudiantes, o cuando necesitan una clase más avanzada. Un asesor de enseñanza que trabaja para el centro ayuda a personalizar la ayuda de los estudiantes.

“Podemos proporcionar esas clases”, Featherstone dijo. “Solo depende de las necesidades individuales del estudiante y de qué tipo de estudios escolares ha cursado”.

Aria Padilla Chavez (arriba al centro), maestra en el centro para estudiantes recién llegados, trabaja en un examen de matemáticas con sus estudiantes.

Los estudiantes también participan en actividades extraescolares, clubes y deportes en la escuela.

El programa puede recibir hasta 150 estudiantes, Featherstone dijo. Está diseñado para que los estudiantes pasen un año ahí después de llegar a Estados Unidos y luego se cambien al programa regular de la escuela.

Mohammad Ali Dost, de 14 años, llegó de Afganistán hace un par de años, e inicialmente estudió en una escuela media del distrito que no tenía un programa específico para estudiantes recién llegados. Ahora en el centro de Thornton High School, dijo que está contento pues le está ayudando a mejorar su inglés.

Dost dijo que les dice a otros estudiantes: “Si quieres mejorar tu inglés rápidamente, ven al centro para recién llegados”.

Dost también ayuda a los estudiantes que hablan su misma lengua materna, pashai, con el tipo de aprendizaje e interacción entre pares que el personal del centro celebra.

Featherstone dijo que los estudiantes actuales con frecuencia se ofrecen como voluntarios para liderar visitas guiadas con estudiantes nuevos y ayudarlos a que se familiaricen con su nueva escuela.

“Observamos a estudiantes que se [ofrecen inmediatamente] y dicen: ‘Yo los llevo””, Featherstone dijo. “Están muy emocionados cuando un estudiante llega”.

Las promotoras primero les enseñan las cosas básicas a los estudiantes nuevos, por ejemplo cómo usar su casillero. Recientemente estudiantes también aprendieron sobre el homecoming y la semana del espíritu.

“Muchos estudiantes no tenían idea alguna de lo que era. ¿Por qué es gran cosa el partido de fútbol [americano]?” Rodriguez dijo. “Les mostramos videos. Estaban emocionados de tener esa experiencia. Seguían diciendo: ‘Voy a poder ir a un baile’”.

Algunos estudiantes también dicen que están impresionados con la seguridad de las escuelas en Estados Unidos, después de venir de otros lugares donde no siempre se sentían seguros.

“Están muy preparados”, Madrigal Delgado dijo.

Ismael Piscoya, de 17 años y proveniente de Perú, dijo que está impresionado con la cantidad de tecnología disponible. Todos los estudiantes en el distrito, no solo el centro, reciben un Chromebook.

No tardas nada en encontrar información, Piscoya dijo.

Maria Fernanda Guillen, de 18 años y originaria de México, dijo que se siente empoderada en su aprendizaje.

“En México, no teníamos una voz en la escuela”, Guillen dijo. Ahora está pensando en un futuro en biotecnología y emocionada por el comienzo que está obteniendo en el centro.

“Es lindo tener amigos de otros países”, dijo.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado, cubriendo distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

These Latina moms in Boulder are concerned about equity in advanced courses. The district says it’s listening and responding.

2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

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Leer en español

When Adriana Paola and her family arrived in Boulder in 2017, her son, who was starting high school, loved math.

Slowly, she saw her son’s passion for the subject fade and she realized his math class was too easy. So, she went with her son to the school counselor’s office and asked for him to be enrolled in a more advanced class.

She recalls the counselor questioning the request, saying that his class was “the class that Latinos go into.” It took going to the principal, before the request was approved. Once in the advanced math class, her son noticed he was one of just two Latino students.

Paola recalls the experience as a shock to her and her family.

“That was like our first red flag that there’s something wrong with the system,” she said. “We saw there was no equity.”

Efforts to enroll more Colorado students of color in advanced courses sometimes focus on encouraging students to see their own potential. The experiences of these Boulder moms show how prejudice from educators can shape the opportunities students have.

A recent report from a group of northeastern Colorado school districts that received a state grant to improve diversity in advanced courses similarly found that many teachers underestimated students’ abilities.

And getting access to advanced courses in high school can be important to getting into college, being prepared for it, and to letting students feel confident that they can succeed.

Parents point to systemic issues

In recent years, Paola has connected with other Hispanic moms whose children have gone through similar experiences at multiple high schools in the district.

Noemi Lastiri’s daughter walked into her advanced science class on the first day of school last year and the teacher asked her if she was in the wrong class. In another class, her daughter was assigned to sit next to the few Latino students, and she told her mom that when they raised their hands, they were never called on.

Things changed when another Latina classmate walked out of class, frustrated, and straight to the school office to complain.

Some moms say they’ve been told by teachers or school administrators that their children with autism or ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) who need support, can’t receive assistance in advanced classes. If parents believe their children need extra help, they have been told they could get private tutoring outside school or keep their children in general education classes.

Recently, they’ve been speaking out, and want the district to make changes.

“It’s not that some kids can and other students can’t,” Paola said. “Anybody could take these classes if someone truly motivated them and offered accommodations, if there was truly a structure of support, especially for those students who have had the least access to these classes.”

Boulder Valley School District officials say that, while they can’t respond to individual cases, they started hearing similar stories recently and are making changes.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. It’s absolutely unacceptable that students are having these experiences,” said Lora De La Cruz, deputy superintendent of academics for the Boulder district. “What we’re seeing here does not align with our values as a district, our values as a community.”

De La Cruz said that after hearing of the problems Latino students have had in accessing advanced classes, or support once they are enrolled, district leaders have rolled out new teacher training.

Boulder teachers usually have many training opportunities from which to choose, including classes on culturally responsive practices, but this fall was the first time all teachers were required to learn how to create inclusive classroom environments so all students feel they belong.

“As we get more focused in our work around what we are changing, where we’re evolving in our instruction in our building positive climate and culture within our classrooms and schools, we decided that we wanted to get even more focused on professional learning,” De La Cruz said.

Parents are glad the district is focusing on all teachers. Many worry that the problems their children have experienced start from a young age.

“Students are absorbing messages. Ever since they start kindergarten, they are receiving these messages about what they can and can’t do,” said parent Anna Segur. Her high school-age son is no longer interested in taking advanced classes, despite her encouragement, because of a previous bad experience. “It’s not a problem of intelligence.”

District’s strategic plan calls out a need for equity

De La Cruz points to the district’s existing strategic plan which calls for various efforts to close the large gaps in achievement among white students and students of color. Because of those goals, the district has a public website that tracks data on educational gaps. One of those is how many students are enrolled in advanced courses, combining figures for classes including honors, Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment, and others. Concurrent enrollment courses give students college credit while counting toward high school graduation requirements.

Currently, the dashboard shows 14.7% of students enrolled in advanced courses are Hispanic, while they make up 20% of the entire district’s student population. Black students are also underrepresented while white and Asian students are overrepresented.

Additional data provided by the district shows that from 2021-22 to the 2022-23 school year, the percentage of Hispanic students in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes has actually decreased. But at the same time, many more Hispanic students took concurrent enrollment or other advanced classes, making up for the decline in AP and IB.

The number of students taking concurrent enrollment classes was 1,143 in 2022-23, almost double 2021-22 numbers. The percentage of Hispanic students participating in those classes increased from 10.9% to 11.8% in the last school year.

The district touts those improvements as early results from a new project focused on getting all students to have something to go along with their high school diploma. That could be college credit, workplace experience, industry certifications, or a seal of biliteracy.

“We know all of our students are brilliant and very capable and have the potential of reaching all of their goals,” said Bianca Gallegos, executive director of strategic partnerships for the Boulder Valley district. “We’re very excited to be able to open up paths and opportunities for all students with a specific focus on us ensuring that we’re opening up pathways, opportunities for Latinx, Hispanic Latino students, and students who qualify for free and reduced [price] lunch.”

The district wants to have more students participate this year in the state’s fifth year of high school program, called ASCENT, which allows students to earn an associate degree along with their diploma. Another project goal is that 35% of high school students take a concurrent enrollment class this year and that the demographics of those classes more closely mirror the district’s.

Lastiri said that she was happy to hear the district is making changes and striving to make things better. Her daughter, now a sophomore who changed high schools within the district, is so far having a better experience this school year.

She’s taking two advanced classes this semester.

Regarding the changes, she said, “it’s never too late.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Sheridan needs a new superintendent. The process has divided the community — again.

2023-06-20T22:57:31+00:00

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The Sheridan school district has no superintendent this month — and no clear plan to open a search.

Some board members want to appoint the internal candidate recommended by the departing superintendent, Pat Sandos. That proposal has divided the board, with one member accusing the board president of trying to bribe her to go along.

Meanwhile, the board has agreed to pay Sandos his full salary for a transition year starting in July, even though he’s officially retired as of May 31. Community members have launched a petition to terminate Sandos’ extension. For too long, they say, the district has overlooked and ignored the needs of parents and students, and it’s time for new leadership.

The district on Denver’s southwest edge serves about 1,100 students, including a large percentage from low-income families or identified as homeless. Like many in the metro area, the district is struggling with declining enrollment, which means less revenue and tighter budgets. The teachers union is seeking raises similar to those neighboring districts have agreed to, but negotiations have stalled. Meanwhile, teachers and parents alike report high turnover and important positions sitting vacant.

Alejandra Balderrama, a Sheridan parent, got involved in the petition requesting the current superintendent leave sooner because she’s concerned about staff turnover, especially the sudden departure of the elementary school principal after the school was recognized for students’ exceptional academic growth.

“I really don’t find that to be fair,” Balderrama said.

She said she hopes a new leader will mean more stability among staff and better communication with parents.

“I would like constant communication between not only the teachers and principals or administration, but also with the parents,” Balderrama said. “It’s important for us to really be involved.”

Board split on how to search for a superintendent

Superintendent Pat Sandos was hired in 2018 amid pushback from community members who preferred one of the other finalists — a Hispanic educator from southwest Denver. Instead, Sandos, an internal candidate, was selected in a split vote.

At the time, board member Daniel Stange said the district needed someone from outside to listen to the community’s calls for change.

This time, Stange, now the board president, believes that there is no need to spend thousands of dollars on a superintendent search firm if there’s a good internal candidate.

“They turn out the same type of superintendent, filtering the way they do, and you get what you get,” Stange said. “If we want a different result, a new type of superintendent, then why would we be spending money to hire a search firm?”

“Our internal search is really focused on the culture of our schools,” Stange added. “We want a bilingual female. The majority of the board is supportive of an internal candidate that matches that.”

But veteran board member Sally Daigle, who voted for Sandos in 2018, feels strongly that the board needs to do a comprehensive search. The disagreement began at the same December meeting when Sandos announced his retirement.

Sandos recommended the board appoint his chief academic officer, Veronica Maes, to be his replacement. He would train her during his transition year.

Daigle advocated for the district to hire the Colorado Association of School Boards, of which she is an active member, to lead a search. The push to consider only one internal candidate concerns her.

“There’s something just not right about the whole thing,” Daigle said. “I would not argue for an hour and a half that we needed to do this if I didn’t think so.”

At a tense board meeting this spring that sometimes turned into shouting, Daigle read text messages from Stange that she later described as an effort to bribe her into agreeing with the plan using reimbursement payments as leverage. Sheridan is one of a few Colorado school districts that pays board members, allowing reimbursement for certain meetings and costs.

“I told you I would approve the costs for you to work with CASB if you didn’t give us a lot of pushback with this issue,” reads the text message from Stange, which Daigle shared with Chalkbeat. “It really feels like you are trying to push us into a costly and lengthy process? I hope you remember that we are a 5 member board. Majority rules but consensus will always provide a confident image to our constituents.”

“It was threatening, coercion, or whatever you want to call it. I was kind of pissed,” Daigle said.

Daigle serves on a CASB committee that requires monthly meetings and is a full-time caretaker for her mom. She wants to get compensated when she does work that requires her to make other care arrangements for her mom.

Stange said it wasn’t meant as a bribe or coercion, but said he knows that “to some people it might sound like that.”

Stange said he was upset that Daigle was “making a fuss” about the superintendent search and said there was disagreement over whether Daigle’s CASB conference work should count as school board work.

According to a records request, as of May 21, only two board members have received any payment since the policy took effect. Daigle received $1,725, and Maria Delgado-Garcia received $1,093.

Sheridan schools, including the alternative high school SOAR Academy, seen here in August 2020, offered in-person learning through most of the pandemic.

Internal candidate says her passion is in working to close equity gaps

Maes, who joined Sheridan as chief academic officer last year, said she wants to be superintendent to keep working on important projects.

“My entire life, my passion is closing equity gaps, working with multilingual learners — that is my why,” Maes said. “I was a Spanish-only speaking child, and I did not go through a great sink-or-swim experience. When I moved over to Sheridan last school year, it really was filling my bucket.”

“When Pat announced he was going to retire, it concerned me for the work,” she said. “We are getting a lot of traction.”

Stange said he’s happy to hire Maes into the top district role — lauding her approach to equity and the fact that she’s a Hispanic woman.

Maes has agreed not to request a higher salary during the transition year so that the small district will pay only one superintendent salary — to Sandos. Sandos, meanwhile, said he considers himself to still be the superintendent.

Daigle said a broader search would ensure the district finds the best candidate. And if that is Maes, she will still stand out even more, Daigle said.

The board could vote to appoint Maes as soon as this month. That’s when the board expects a report on community feedback on the district’s goals and direction, based on a survey and some meetings. If Maes agrees with the community priorities, it makes sense to appoint her, Stange said.

Daigle is frustrated because the district has paid a pair of consultants $12,000, twice what CASB would have charged to conduct a superintendent search that included community engagement. Stange said the consultant contracts include work on a strategic plan, and the community feedback also will support that work.

While parents agree with the board president that representation matters in a leader, some worry that any internal candidate, Hispanic or not, might continue to ignore their requests.

Alexis Marquez, a leader of the advocacy group Sheridan Rising, said that last year, Sheridan parents presented a list of requests to the district — including that the district provide Spanish interpreters for school board meetings so more parents could participate.

“It wasn’t a hard ask, but this letter went completely ignored. It was never even acknowledged,” Marquez said. “This is just a blatant disregard for the community. If you can’t speak the language, you can’t partake.”

Sandos said he would like to add interpreters to school board meetings but logistics and cost have been a challenge. Other school districts with large numbers of Spanish-speaking families, such as Adams 14, have offered interpretation for years.

Maes said she wasn’t aware of the letter or the request. She has ensured that schools offer interpreters for meetings with parents, she said. It wasn’t something she had considered for school board meetings.

Maes said better communication with the community would be a top priority if she’s chosen as superintendent, along with recruitment of new students and teachers.

“I just want to do the work,” she said. “This kind of stuff gets in the way of that.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Las escuelas de Cherry Creek quieren ayudar a los niños de primaria en proceso de duelo

2023-05-02T17:00:00+00:00

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Por años después de que Oliver Dean perdiera a su padre a los 5 años por cáncer, había cosas que le desencadenaban depresión.

Pero Oliver contaba con algunas ventajas: Tenía una madre que trabajaba en su escuela, un orientador escolar accesible y un psicólogo especializado en duelo infantil. Juntos, le ayudaron a sobrellevar recuerdos abrumadores y el dolor incapacitante.

Desde que comenzó la pandemia, más niños han sufrido la pérdida de un padre o cuidador, pero muy pocos de ellos tienen acceso a este tipo de apoyo.

El año pasado, el Distrito Escolar de Cherry Creek empezó un programa piloto con la organización sin fines de lucro Judi’s House en Aurora, dedicada a la atención al duelo, para ofrecerles terapia de grupo a los estudiantes de primaria. La Cherry Creek Schools Foundation está financiando el programa piloto.

Este año el programa atiende a 20 estudiantes en dos escuelas.

“Creo que hay mucha más necesidad, sin duda”, dijo Steve Nederveld, director de salud mental del Distrito Escolar de Cherry Creek. “Hubo escuelas que nos pidieron específicamente este tipo de programa”.

Dean conoce esa necesidad.

Un día en tercer grado, leer un libro sobre una niña que padecía alopecia (una enfermedad que provoca la caída del cabello) llenó la mente de Dean con dolorosos recuerdos sobre su padre calvo y sobre cómo no lo recordaba con pelo.

A menudo, los maestros sabían avisarle a Dean cuando un tema en clase podría recordarle su pérdida. Ese día, Dean no esperaba que le invadiera una oleada de dolor. Pero como había estado aprendiendo cómo manejar sus emociones, reconoció lo que sentía y decidió salir del salón de clases.

Ahora a los 19 años, Dean dice que tuvo suerte de contar con ese apoyo, en parte organizado de antemano por su papá, un trabajador social. Él sabe que la mayoría de los niños no son tan afortunados.

“Mucha más gente de lo que se espera pierde a un ser querido antes de cumplir los 18 años”, dijo Dean. “No conoces las circunstancias de todo el mundo. La gente que se siente identificada es mucha más de la que esperas”.

La necesidad de atención al duelo está creciendo

Si el ensayo de Cherry Creek demuestra que ayuda a los niños, los líderes dicen que les gustaría que pudiera convertirse en parte regular de los programas de Judi’s House para las escuelas. Para ello se necesitarían más datos que demuestren que el programa funciona, así como una forma de pagarlo, ya que el grupo no les cobra a las escuelas por el servicio.

Por años, la organización sin fines de lucro se ha enfocado en las escuelas intermedias, donde considera que sus limitados fondos pueden tener mayor impacto. Pero los líderes de otras escuelas conocían el programa y pidieron también servicios similares a su nivel, dijo Nederveld.

Es difícil obtener cifras firmes, pero las personas que trabajan en las escuelas dicen que cada vez hay más estudiantes que estudiantes que sufren pérdidas. Nederveld dijo que parte de ello está relacionado con el COVID, pero los estudiantes también están sufriendo las consecuencias de muertes por suicidio, sobredosis de drogas y violencia armada.

Un modelo desarrollado por Judi’s House calcula el número de niños que sufrirán la muerte de uno de sus padres o hermanos antes de los 18 años. En 2018, esa cifra fue de 1 de cada 18 niños en Colorado. En 2022, subió a 1 de cada 14 niños.

Eso representa más o menos un 7% de la población de niños.

Las escuelas consideran beneficioso ayudar a los estudiantes a superar el duelo

Judi’s House está operando sus grupos de terapia de duelo en la primaria Village East Community de Cherry Creek, donde casi un 70% de los estudiantes califican para comidas con subsidio (una medida de la pobreza) y en Rolling Hills, donde califica alrededor de un 15% de los estudiantes.

En otoño, el personal se comunicó con familias de estudiantes que sabían que habían perdido a un familiar cercano. Si la familia estaba de acuerdo, el personal clínico de Judi’s House entrevistaba al estudiante para ver cómo le estaba afectando el duelo y asegurar que el grupo podía beneficiarle. Los maestros también llenaron cuestionarios sobre el comportamiento de sus estudiantes en clase.

Luego los estudiantes se asignaron a uno de los dos grupos dependiendo de su edad.

Los lideres del distrito y de la escuela dicen que el hecho de que el grupo funcione en la escuela, durante el día escolar y de forma gratuita, ayuda a las familias que pudieran enfrentar barreras al tratar de conseguir esos servicios fuera de las escuelas.

Karen Arrowsmith, psicóloga de Rolling Hills, dijo que a mitad del programa de 10 semanas para estudiantes de tercero a quinto grado, los maestros informaron de que los estudiantes están entusiasmados.

“Ellos esperan con gusto participar en el grupo, están empezando a compartir más, y están checando para verificar que la reunión del grupo todavía va a ocurrir esa semana”, dijo Arrowsmith.

La meta es ayudar que poco a poco a los estudiantes entiendan mejor sus sentimientos y procesen sus emociones. Luego los estudiantes aprenden varias estrategias para sobrellevar el duelo.

“Cuando muere alguien cercano a un niño, su mundo se tambalea”, dijo Arrowsmith. “Yo diría que vemos una variedad de emociones: confusión, tristeza, coraje, preocupación. Los niños me dicen que es difícil dormir. Concentrarse en las tareas escolares puede ser difícil”

Para el grupo más joven, un curso de seis semanas les ayuda a definir y entender sus sentimientos y aprender estrategias para sobrellevarlos.

“La manera en que un niño entiende el mundo puede quedar destrozada o alterada”, dijo Emily Napier, la trabajadora social clínica licenciada y gerente de atención comunitaria de Judi’s House que dirige el programa piloto. “Es muy doloroso. Eso puede manifestarse en cambios de comportamiento. Es de ayuda que las escuelas puedan decir no queremos castigar a estos niños por este comportamiento, pero también necesitamos que ellos puedan funcionar y aprender.”

La mamá de Oliver Dean, Lisa Dean, dice que cuando Oliver estaba creciendo ella veía cómo su dolor se manifestaba de diferentes maneras. Los cambios, como el final del año escolar, eran difíciles. Los maestros notaron que estaba teniendo dificultades en su bar mitzvah, y ella se dio cuenta de que la razón era que echaba de menos a su papá.

“El duelo no es un acontecimiento, es un viaje que cambia con el tiempo dependiendo de la madurez del niño”, dijo Lisa.

Napier dijo que los grupos son una “poderosa oportunidad para que los niños se sientan vistos”.

“Especialmente con los niños pequeños, a veces como sociedad subestimamos el dolor que sienten, pero los niños pequeños sufren tanto como nosotros”, dijo Napier.

Oliver, que ahora está en la universidad, desea que más escuelas estuvieran preparadas para ayudar a los estudiantes que sufren la muerte de un familiar cercano.

“Vivimos en una sociedad que no quiere hablar de la muerte. Pero para las personas que están en duelo, es más difícil no ver que otra persona lo entiende”, dijo. “No es justo dejar a los estudiantes solos con la expectativa de que se desempeñen al máximo nivel, incluso cuando ya han pasado por tanto. A veces hay cosas en la vida que son más importantes”.

Yesenia Robles es reportera de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre temas sobre los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, escríbele a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

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For instance, the district has already had trouble providing transportation for students due to the national shortage of bus drivers. It is currently contracting with HopSkipDrive, a vehicle-for-hire program, to get students to schools. The district is planning to seek grant money in order to continue providing free rides to school.

“We have to make sure we get a hold of every grant available to be able to help with transportation,” Ema Lyman, a McKinney-Vento liaison at the Boulder Valley School District, told Boulder Reporting Lab.

Lyman said the district used federal stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan Act to hire a second McKinney-Vento specialist, which helps connect students and their families to services. The school district is deciding whether to keep that position, which was temporary.

Even so, housing assistance is becoming more scarce. Boulder County ran out of federal rental assistance money this month, and the city of Boulder has spent nearly all its rental assistance money for the entire year in a matter of months.

“In theory and on paper, we have a lot of resources. But they are maxed out,” Lyman said.

Boulder County to give out limited rent assistance

On any given week, Van Domelen of the Emergency Family Assistance Association said about 600 households come to the food bank. That’s nearly twice as many people as prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, the nonprofit is planning to spend $3.4 million in financial assistance, most of which is used for housing assistance, she said. That’s about three times as much money as in prior years.

“Safety nets like EFAA are supposed to be there for the vagaries of life — the shock to a household, a medical bill, a cut in hours,” she said. “None of our safety nets are really designed to substitute for full-time jobs that are not enough to pay for housing, food and basics. So I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Boulder County has $726,000 available for rental assistance through its Next Steps program, which is a collaboration between Boulder County Housing and Human Services, the St. Vrain Valley School District and the Boulder Valley School District. The money will be available to households earning up to 30% the area median income — about $26,000 for an individual living in Boulder County and more for families.

The county hopes to serve about 41 families with this money during the 2023-2025 grant cycle, providing them just enough support to help them move through a crisis, according to Jim Williams, a spokesman for Boulder County.

“For some families, that might look like assisting with arrears and three months of forward rental assistance to keep them in their current unit after they have experienced a financial setback due to illness,” Williams wrote in an email to Boulder Reporting Lab. “For other families, especially those that are already paying hotel expenses on their own, a deposit and housing navigation to overcome any lease up barriers they may be facing is what is needed.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the county gave tenants and property owners nearly $18 million in rental assistance. It stopped accepting applications in January 2023.

In recent months, the number of eviction case filings in Boulder County court has reached the highest levels in years. Many of the tenants showing up in housing court this month are already living in some of the city’s most affordable apartments, leaving them with few more affordable options if they want to stay in Boulder.

In the last decade, the median cost to rent a place in Boulder has increased faster than the median income of its residents, according to the U.S. Census. In 2021, the city’s rental vacancy rate was less than 2%, which is below the national average.

Lyman said she has worked as a McKinney-Vento specialist for 13 years. She said she has also lived in Boulder for more than 40 years.

“I’m fairly acquainted with how the demographics have changed, and how housing prices have gone up year after year,” she said. “A big percentage of students who are unable to get housing, for whatever reason, move away.”

John Herrick is senior reporter for Boulder Reporting Lab, covering housing, transportation, policing and local government. Reach John at john@boulderreportinglab.org.

More children are grieving after the loss of a parent. Cherry Creek schools are piloting a program just for them.

2023-03-09T19:43:53+00:00

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For years after Oliver Dean lost his dad to cancer at age 5, triggers could send him into a depressive spiral.

But young Oliver had some advantages: He had a mother who worked at his school, an accessible school counselor and a psychologist specializing in child grief. Together, they helped him cope with overwhelming memories and disabling pain.

Since the pandemic began, more children have experienced the loss of a parent or caregiver, but too few of them have access to such support.

Last year, the Cherry Creek School District began a pilot program with grief-care nonprofit Judi’s House in Aurora to host group therapy for elementary age students. The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation is funding the program.

This year the program serves 20 students at two schools.

“I think there is a lot more need, absolutely,” said Steve Nederveld, director of mental health for the Cherry Creek School District. “We had schools specifically ask us for this kind of program.”

Dean knows about that need.

One day in third grade, a book about a girl who had alopecia, a condition causing hair loss, flooded Dean’s mind with painful memories about his dad balding and how he didn’t remember him with hair.

Often, teachers knew to warn Dean when a subject in class might remind him of his loss. On this day, Dean wasn’t expecting to have a wave of grief wash over him. But because he had been learning skills to deal with his emotions, he recognized what he was feeling and decided to step out of his classroom.

Now 19, Dean says he was lucky to have the support, part of it arranged beforehand by his dad, who was a social worker. He knows most children aren’t as fortunate.

“There are far more people than you would expect who lose someone significant before they turn 18,” Dean said. “You don’t know everyone’s circumstance. There are a lot more people who can relate than you think.”

Need for grief care is growing

If Cherry Creek’s trial proves it helps children, leaders say they hope it could become a regular part of Judi’s House offerings to schools. That would require more data to show the program works, as well as a way to pay for it, since the group does not charge schools. For years, the nonprofit has focused on middle schools, where they’ve felt their limited funding can make the most impact.

But Nederveld heard from elementary school leaders who want similar services in their schools.

Firm numbers are hard to come by, but people who work in schools say more students are dealing with losses. Nederveld said some of that is COVID-related, but students also are enduring the fallout of deaths by suicide, drug overdoses, and gun violence.

A model Judi’s House developed estimates the number of children who will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. In 2018, that estimate was 1 in 18 children in Colorado. In 2022, the estimate went up to 1 in 14 children.

That would be about 7% of the child population.

“We weren’t really surprised by the data but we were also shocked, if that’s possible,” said Dr. Micki Burns, chief clinical officer at Judi’s House. In 2020, an estimated 4% of children who had lost a caregiver lost that parent to a gun-related homicide. “It’s a number that is growing and increasing.”

Burns said Judi’s House does serve everyone who comes to them but sometimes people have to wait for a spot in a group. The organization also offers quarterly family services. Sometimes people come to them but need other mental health services first, so they may get referred elsewhere.

”There is such a gap in mental health services in general,” Burns said. “As a society, we do need to do so much more.”

Schools see a benefit to helping students cope with grief

Last year, after the pilot started at Sagebrush elementary, Judi’s House found positive effects on students. Teachers reported students had improved attention and behavior, said Emily Napier, a licensed clinical social worker and community-based care manager for Judi’s House, who is running the pilot program.

Judi’s House is running its grief therapy groups this year at Cherry Creek’s Village East Community Elementary, where almost 70% of students qualify for subsidized meals, a measure of poverty, and Rolling Hills Elementary where about 15% of students do.

“I don’t think these two schools were outliers,” Nederveld said. “They were the first to reach out.”

Kids are placed into either kindergarten through second grade or third through fifth grade groups.

Rolling Hills has about 10 students in a weekly group, for third through fifth graders.

In the fall, staff reached out to families of students they knew had lost a close relative. If the family agreed, a Judi’s House clinician interviewed the student to see how grief was impacting them and to ensure the group setting could benefit them. Classroom teachers also filled out questionnaires about their student’s behavior in class.

This spring, the 10 students began meeting once a week, for an hour, in a group run by staff from Judi’s House.

District and school leaders say that the fact the group is run at school, during the school day, and for no charge helps families who may face barriers trying to access those services outside of schools.

Karen Arrowsmith, the school’s psychologist, said that halfway through the 10-week program, teachers are reporting that students are excited.

“They’re looking forward to the group, they’re opening up, and they’re checking in to make sure the group is still happening that week,” Arrowsmith said.

The goal is to slowly help students better understand their feelings, and to process their emotions. Then students learn about various coping strategies.

“When someone close to a child dies it kind of just rocks their world,” Arrowsmith said. “I would say we see a variety of emotions: confusion, sadness, anger, worry. Kids will tell me sleeping is hard. Concentrating on school work can be hard.”

For the younger group, a six-week course helps students label and understand their feelings and learn strategies to cope with them.

“A child’s understanding of the world can get shattered or disrupted,” Napier said. “It’s very painful. That can come out as behavioral changes. It helps schools to be able to say we don’t want to punish these kids for this behavior, but also we need them to be able to function and learn.”

Connecting with others helps children heal

Oliver Dean’s mom, Lisa Dean, remembers the first group session she and her son, then 7, joined at Judi’s House.

“We came home and Oliver said to me, ‘I want to go to school at Judi’s House,’” she said. “I was really confused. He loved school, but he said, ‘everyone there was like me. They all had someone in their life who died.’”

She and her son describe the “magic” of Judi’s House as their ability to create a safe space for families to talk about loss, despite being in a society that doesn’t like to talk about it.

Lisa says when Oliver was growing up she saw his grief show up in different ways. Changes, like the end of a school year, were difficult. Teachers noticed him struggling around the time of his bar mitzvah, because she realized he was missing his dad.

“Grief isn’t an event, it’s a journey that changes over time depending on the child’s maturity,” Lisa said. “As he matured he was able to see there’s lots of levels of loss and grief, and they’re not all as intense.”

Lisa now volunteers at Judi’s House, where she’s a “buddy” for children who need help completing activities during the group, or who need to be pulled away for a break during a difficult moment.

Napier said groups are a “powerful opportunity for kids to feel seen.”

“Sometimes, especially with little kids, as a society, we might underestimate how much grief they’re in, but little kids grieve just as much as we do,” Napier said.

Oliver, who is now in college, wishes more schools were prepared to help students who experience the death of a close family member.

“We live in a society that doesn’t want to talk about death. But for people who are grieving, it makes it harder to not see someone walking down the hall who gets it,” he said. “Leaving students in a lurch with an expectation they perform at the highest level, even when they’ve kind of been through it, it’s not fair. Sometimes there are things in life that are more important.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to more accurately describe the numbers of grieving children estimated in the model used by Judi’s House.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Almuerzo escolar gratuito: Entérate de qué distritos escolares de Colorado tienen planes para ofrecerlo

2023-03-02T22:03:34+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación.

La mayoría de los distritos escolares de Colorado, entre ellos los 10 más grandes del estado, planifican ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes el próximo año a través de un nuevo programa estatal aprobado por los votantes el pasado noviembre.

Tres distritos grandes que estaban indecisos a principios de diciembre — Denver, Douglas County y Academy 20 — le informaron a Chalkbeat que participarán en el programa, llamado Healthy School Meals For All.

El programa nuevo, financiado con un impuesto para las personas con ingresos altos, hará que Colorado sea uno de los pocos estados que les ofrecerán comidas escolares gratuitas a todos los estudiantes, una medida que, según sus defensores, alimentará a más niños hambrientos y eliminará el estigma actual asociado con recibir comidas escolares gratuitas. California y Maine pusieron en marcha programas universales de comida permanentes este año escolar, y algunos otros estados, como Nevada, Vermont y Massachusetts, están ofreciendo este tipo de programa al menos hasta el final del año escolar actual.

La creciente demanda de comidas gratuitas en las escuelas empezó después de dos años escolares en los que el gobierno federal eliminó temporalmente los requisitos de ingresos para recibir comidas a precio reducido, lo cual permitió que las escuelas de todo el país ofrecieran desayunos y almuerzos gratuitos a todos los estudiantes durante gran parte de la pandemia. Los requisitos volvieron a entrar en vigor el pasado verano.

Aunque el programa de comidas universales de Colorado es voluntario para los distritos escolares, la mayoría ha informado que optará por participar. Una encuesta realizada por Chalkbeat en dos docenas de distritos, en su mayoría grandes y medianos, reveló que 21 tienen planes de participar, y uno de ellos (Colorado Springs 11) tiene planes de ofrecer comidas escolares gratuitas el próximo año a través de un mecanismo de financiamiento diferente. Dos distritos, Mesa County Valley 51, basado en Grand Junction, y el Distrito 49, en Peyton, todavía no han decidido.

Otra encuesta reciente de los 178 distritos escolares del estado hecha por la Colorado School Nutrition Association reveló que unos 130 de los 140 distritos que contestaron la encuesta tienen planes de ofrecer comidas gratuitas el año que viene.

“De todos ellos, unos 10 han dicho que no están seguros”, dijo Erika Edwards, presidente de política pública y legislativa de la asociación. “Creo que nos estamos acercando bastante a que la gran mayoría diga que sí”.

En noviembre, los electores de Colorado aprobaron fácilmente la Propuesta FF, una nueva medida tributaria que recaudará más de $100 millones al año para pagar por comidas escolares gratuitas reduciendo las deducciones de impuestos disponibles para los hogares que ganan $300,000 dólares o más.

Para participar en el programa universal de comidas gratuitas, los distritos escolares de Colorado tendrán que maximizar la cantidad de dólares federales para comidas que reciben solicitando un programa llamado Community Eligibility Provision. Este programa nacional ayuda a cubrir el costo de las comidas gratuitas universales en las escuelas que tienen una gran proporción de estudiantes cuyas familias reciben ciertos beneficios del gobierno, como por ejemplo asistencia alimentaria o Asistencia Temporal a Familias Necesitadas (TANF). Las familias de esas escuelas no tienen que llenar solicitudes para obtener comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido.

Pero incluso las escuelas de Colorado que no califiquen para el programa Community Eligibility Provision podrán ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes aprovechando los fondos de la Propuesta FF. Las familias en esas escuelas seguirán teniendo que llenar solicitudes para recibir comidas con subsidio.

Edwards dijo que los distritos escolares que no han decidido si van a ofrecer comidas gratis el próximo año tienden a estar en una de dos categorías. Los distritos rurales más pequeños tienen preguntas sobre la logística del programa Community Eligibility, mientras que los distritos metropolitanos más grandes tienen preguntas sobre cómo Colorado planifica darles fondos adicionales a las escuelas con grandes poblaciones de estudiantes de hogares de pocos ingresos, dijo.

Conocido como financiamiento de riesgo (at-risk funding), el dinero se ha distribuido según el número de estudiantes que llenan formularios para recibir comidas con subsidio federal. Colorado está avanzando hacia otras medidas, pero hasta que se complete el cambio, a los distritos les preocupa perder dinero si menos familias llenan los formularios cuando el almuerzo sea gratuito para todos los estudiantes.

Edwards dijo que la asociación de nutrición apoya el programa nuevo y planifica ofrecer capacitación y otras opciones para ayudar a los distritos que quieran participar.

“Creo que es la culminación de todo lo que un profesional de alimentación escolar desea que ocurra”, dijo.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez y la alfabetización tempranas. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un mensaje a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Starting teacher salary set at nearly $61,000 by Westminster district in tentative contract

2023-02-28T21:24:52+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Subscribe to our free Colorado newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

The Westminster school district north of Denver will pay beginning teachers a starting salary of nearly $61,000, according to a new contract tentatively approved by the district and teachers union Monday.

The new pay floor in the 8,000-student suburban district appears to be the highest in Colorado. The Cherry Creek district announced this month new teachers will start at $57,000 next year. And new contracts negotiated last summer in Denver and Jeffco set starting salaries this year at about $50,000 for new teachers.

News of Westminster’s new starting salary comes as districts across Colorado face ongoing challenges when it comes to filling teaching jobs, especially in special education and secondary math and science classrooms. But the severity of teacher vacancies varies widely by location. Plus, some national experts say recent shortages may also be because schools have used COVID stimulus money to create new positions that they’ve had a hard time filling, not because of unusually high teacher turnover.

According to a recent survey by the Colorado Education Association, 85% of educators say the shortage of classroom teachers in their school is worse than in previous years.

“When the community approved our mill levy override in 2018, we promised taxpayers that we would focus on attracting and retaining high quality staff,” Westminster Superintendent Pam Swanson said in a press release Tuesday. “This agreement does just that.”

The two-year contract is expected to be ratified quickly, according to the release.

Colorado lawmakers have tried to ease teacher shortages with a variety of strategies in recent years.

Last year, they created a new loan forgiveness program and made it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom. This year, they’ve proposed bills that would a create teacher apprentice program, provide stipends and loan forgiveness for student teachers and make it easier for out of state teachers to work in Colorado

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Four-day school week hurt housing market, academics in the 27J district, study suggests

2023-02-07T17:48:11+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Subscribe to our free Colorado newsletter to keep up with education news from around the state: ckbe.at/subscribe-colorado

Homeowners in the 27J school district might have been better off paying a higher property tax rather than allowing the district to adopt a four-day school week, a new study suggests.

Preliminary results of the study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggest that home prices suffered and student achievement in the district may have dropped. Teacher retention, which the district cited as the main reason for moving to the four-day school week, may also have decreased, according to the study.

The 27J school district, which serves more than 22,600 students this year, is based north of Denver, covering Brighton and parts of Commerce City and Thornton. Leaders rolled out the four-day school week in the fall of 2018, after having failed a sixth time to pass a local tax increase to pay teachers more.

District Superintendent Chris Fiedler disputes the findings, citing higher-than-ever graduation rates and lower overall teacher turnover.

The authors of the study acknowledge there were limitations in the way they examined student achievement and teacher retention pieces. They didn’t want to look at years affected by COVID, so they only examined student achievement data through the 2019-20 school year. For teacher retention data they examined data through the 2020-21 school year. So it’s possible the findings were short-term impacts, said Frank James Perrone, one of the study’s authors.

When it comes to student achievement, research would ideally track individual students, said Perrone, assistant professor of educational leadership at Indiana University. Since the researchers couldn’t access that level of data, it’s unknown if some of the findings could have been a result of higher-performing students leaving the district.

The research is more comprehensive and based on more data when it comes to the housing findings. While housing prices in 27J haven’t dropped, home values stopped growing at the same rate relative to its most comparable neighboring district. Therefore, homeowners lost out on growth that they likely would have seen without the change, according to the study.

The researchers calculated those losses compared to the cost of paying for the mill levy override and found that, financially, conservative estimates suggest homeowners would have been better off approving the tax measure.

“These results suggest the decision to adopt a 4-day school week in a metropolitan setting should not be taken lightly,” the study states.

Voters should be aware of possible tradeoffs when voting against local tax measures that can drive a district to switch to a four-day school week, Perrone said.

Teacher retention was goal of shorter school week

In years past, 27J has made other drastic changes as a result of the failure to pass local tax measures to increase its revenue. For instance, when the district faced overcrowding and was unable to build new schools, it had to move the high schools to a split schedule from 2015 to 2018. Some students were on campus in the mornings and some attended school later in the day to reduce the amount of people in the school buildings at one time.

This past November, in the eighth attempt to pass a mill levy override, 27J finally succeeded. The measure will allow the district to raise teacher salaries starting this fall. That, together with more funding from the governor’s proposed budget, could get starting pay to $50,000, Fiedler said, but that’s still lower than in many metro area districts.

Fiedler believes that the four-day school week, while an effective incentive for some teachers, is not as effective when the pay gap with other districts grows too wide. He said he hopes next year’s raises will make his district attractive again.

“It is a total tradeoff,” Fiedler said. “That gap eventually becomes so large that it’s not worth the tradeoff.”

Kathey Ruybal, president of the teachers union in the district, said teachers and staff overwhelmingly support the four-day school week. Some staff members opposed to the change left in the first year, but staff who leave now leave because of low pay, she said

According to state data, turnover rates for teachers in 27J have dropped to 14.6% — a lower rate than many neighboring districts. And when compared to the nearly 17% rate in 2017, it’s a drop of 14%. But other nearby districts had steeper drops in turnover rates in the same time period.

For the study, the researchers went deeper, using staff-level data from the state to look at years of experience, salary, and whether teachers had advanced degrees. Teachers with between 5 and 15 years of experience were 5% less likely to return to the district after the four-day switch.

“We can only see experience level, but we don’t have effectiveness ratings,” Perrone said. “It’s possible they kept the best teachers.”

Perrone, who worked on the study with Adam D. Nowak of West Virginia University and Patrick S. Smith of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said he hopes other researchers will take another look in the future at how the four-day switch changes the workforce in the long term. How districts use the fifth off day for professional development or whether that gives teachers more planning time might change the culture of the workplace or encourage more effectiveness, he said.

In 27J, teachers have training on one free Monday each month. A second Monday each month is used for principal training and district meetings. That means principals and school leaders rarely have to leave schools for meetings when students are in class, Fiedler said.

Ruybal said she doesn’t think the four-day school week has had much impact on culture or planning time. However, additional planning time during the four-day school week that her union won in negotiations is helpful, she said.

Findings match other research on 4-day school weeks

Traditionally, most four-day school districts have served rural communities. Recently, more large, urban districts have made the switch, including the 14,000-student Independence School District neighboring Kansas City, Missouri. But research that isn’t focused on rural districts is limited — making this study significant as researchers look to better understand the impacts.

Paul Thompson, an associate professor of economics at Oregon State University who reviewed the study, said the academic findings echo what research has found elsewhere: Academic achievement generally declines when schools switch to a four-day week.

The finding, he says, seems related to how much time is actually lost. In districts that make up most of the instructional time, the decline is smaller or not there.

In 27J, Superintendent Fiedler said, the district continued to meet the state’s instructional time requirements by lengthening the school day and eliminating early release or other time off for planning.

Research on four-day school weeks has started looking at impacts beyond test scores, Thompson said.

“Most educational interventions are happening within the schools,” Thompson said. “But there’s many more outcomes that can be affected by this choice.”

Previous research, for example, found an increase in juvenile delinquency in Colorado communities with four-day school weeks, perhaps because teenagers spent more time unsupervised. Looking at the impact on housing makes sense, Thompson said.

Oded Gurantz, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said other research finds that educational policies can have a quick and observable impact on the local housing market.

In the case of 27J’s four-day school week, families may have to consider the cost of child care on the fifth day. Local realtors, including Alan Strange, said they haven’t noticed potential home buyers talking about the four-day week recently, but did notice it when the district rolled out a split schedule for the high school.

With more families working from home since the start of COVID, Strange said, the impact may have since dissipated.

Fiedler said that when the district first moved to four-day weeks, about 1,000 families signed up for the district’s child care option for about $30 per day. Now, only about 300 families use the child care option. In 2020, after the start of COVID, some government agencies including the Adams County government offices, moved to a matching four-day work schedule.

Fiedler agrees that moving to a four-day school week is not a decision to be made lightly.

It was the necessary and right thing to do for his district, he said to Chalkbeat. “We had to do something,” Fiedler said.

But when other school district leaders ask whether he would still make the switch if he had the money to just pay teachers more, his answer is no.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Boulder schools punish Black and Latino students at disproportionately higher rates. Parents want more accountability.

2022-07-21T17:02:00+00:00

Leer en español.

Black and Latino parents of Boulder Valley School District students have been raising alarms for years that their children are punished more often for the same behaviors as white students. The district’s own data has consistently shown this disparity.

In 2020, under mounting pressure, BVSD reformed its discipline policies to try to reduce inequities. It removed police from schools, streamlined punishment guidelines across classrooms, and trained educators to de-escalate and resolve conflicts without resorting to punishment.

Since the reforms, fewer students have been suspended or referred to police. But the disparities that prompted the new policies remain.

Latino students were about 3.5 times more likely to be suspended than were white students during the 2021-22 school year, according to data provided to Boulder Reporting Lab by the district. That figure reflects a disparity dating back more than a decade.

While Latino students made up nearly 20% of BVSD’s 29,000 students, they accounted for about 44% of the suspensions.

The data indicate Latino students are generally punished for the same behaviors as their white peers — threats of physical harm, disobedience, fighting, possessing tobacco and marijuana.

Suspensions and police referrals can have lasting impacts on young lives. Such punishment reduces the odds of graduating, makes it harder to excel academically, and increases the chances of entering the criminal legal system.

“There has not been progress,” said Noemi Lastiri, member of the Latino Parent Advisory Council, which the district set up to advise it on equity issues. “Kids in high school keep complaining that they are not treated equally by teachers or by staff.”

To contextualize the trends in Boulder, Boulder Reporting Lab analyzed data from the Colorado Department of Education for the state’s 12 largest districts for the 2010-11 to 2018-19 school years. (Discipline data is unreliable for much of 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19. The state has not finalized 2021-22 data.)

This story is part of Chasing Progress, a Colorado News Collaborative project on social, economic and health equity among Black and Latino Coloradans.

Notably, BVSD’s overall suspension rate is lower than most of the state’s largest districts, according to data from 2018-19. But that same year, it had the highest disparity in the suspension rates between Latino and white students among those districts.

When analyzing all the punitive measures reported to the state — removal from the classroom, in- and out-of-school suspensions, referrals to police — BVSD’s Black students were 2.5 times more likely to be punished than were their white peers. Latino students were two times more likely to be punished.

BVSD’s superintendent, Rob Anderson, joined the school district in 2018 after overseeing a much larger district in Atlanta, Georgia. He said the disparities in Boulder reflect the systemic racial and ethnic disparities across the nation.

“Before starting in the school district, I reviewed the data and realized that, you name the metric, we were disproportionate,” Anderson said in an interview.

Disproportionate discipline isn’t the only problem for Black and Latino BVSD students. They’re less likely to graduate, enroll in advanced courses, or join its gifted and talented program.

“When you think about our discipline disproportionality, it aligns with our achievement disproportionality,” Anderson said.

During his first year on the job, he created the Latino Parent Advisory Council to address these disparities. The council is one of the only platforms of its kind in Colorado to give parents a voice in district policies. At the request of the group, the district said it will begin publishing data on its website in August that breaks down disparities by each of its 57 schools.

The data will help the district identify how policies are playing out.

“We have a long way to go to get better. And the only way you can get better is if you really own and understand the issue,” Anderson said. “You start to look at data and use data as a mirror to see where those things are working or not working. It could be that the district’s disproportionality is really being heavily influenced by a handful of schools.”

Parents interviewed for this story support reforms made so far by the district. But they say the changes don’t go far enough. They would like to see leniency for students who defend themselves from bullying, along with more teacher accountability.

“For the first time [BVSD] acknowledges that they have not made progress, that we still have a huge problem. And I think that’s a start,” said Ana Fernandez Frank, co-coordinator of the Latino Parent Advisory Council. “But we want to see what they’re planning on actually doing.”

Bullying and self-defense

Jamillah Richmond is the co-founder of the Parents of Color Council, a separate group advising the district. Her 9-year-old daughter attends a BVSD school.

She said her daughter has been sent to the office for responding to bullying at her elementary school. In one instance, she said, her daughter was cornered by four white students. She pushed one of them away. In another instance, a boy kept touching her hair so she slapped his hand. In both situations, her daughter faced repercussions.

“Culturally, if you touch our hair, we’re slapping your hand, which is exactly what my daughter does. But she gets punished,” Richmond said.

Jamillah Richmond is the co-founder of the Parents of Color Council, a group advising the district on equity issues. She said her 9-year-old daughter has been punished for responding to bullying at her BVSD school.

Other parents of Black and Latino students told Boulder Reporting Lab about similar situations in which their kids were punished after defending themselves.

“We need to stop penalizing children of color for defending themselves when they’re being confronted with different varying degrees of violence,” Richmond said.

For this reason, she prefers not to use the phrase “disproportionate discipline.”

“Discipline implies a kid did something wrong to begin with,” she said. “You are not wrong for defending yourself.”

The district’s discipline matrix, which it created in 2020 to offer punishment guidance to schools, includes no mention of self-defense. Richmond thinks it should, to encourage educators to consider context around instances of violence.

“If it’s not on paper, and we don’t have a clear and definitive definition of what these things are and what consequences could or could not be applied to them, then we’re leaving too much room open for interpretation and trusting people who have blind spots and biases,” she said. “And I think that leaves open space for discrimination.”

Anderson, BVSD’s superintendent, agrees bullying is a concern. The district has made it easier to report bullying on its website. But he said it’s tricky to balance physical force with school safety.

“If you’re blocking punches so you don’t get hurt, that’s self-defense. If you engage in a physical altercation with someone else, we don’t view that as self-defense,” he said.

Parents can appeal disciplinary measures to the district’s board of education. But Jorge Chavez, chair of the district accountability committee, an oversight panel required under state law, said some parents face challenges in speaking out.

“I’m pretty fortunate. I’m an immigrant, but I’m bilingual. I know how the system works here,” Chavez said. “For a lot of parents who either don’t feel comfortable with the English language, who aren’t familiar with the educational system, who don’t have the resources and the time to get involved, it’s harder for them to have their voices elevated to where their concerns are being heard.”

‘We all have unconscious biases’

The district is open about discussing how structural inequities contribute to disparities in discipline. But some want it to do more to acknowledge racial bias among staff.

“The root cause is racism. We have to call it what it is so that we can address it. I’m not saying that teachers are bad people or anything. We all have unconscious biases,” said Fernandez Frank, of CAPL, the acronym for the Spanish name for the parent group, Consejo Asesor de Padres Latinos.

That’s why, first and foremost, parents want the district to hire more Black and Latino teachers and staff. Kids do better in school when their teachers look like them. BVSD’s teachers were 86% white last school year, about the same as the state average. Their students were 67% white.

In February, the district hosted a “Teachers of Color Hiring Event.” Boulder pays teachers more than any other district in the state. But Anderson said the region’s high cost of housing and low turnover rate make hiring difficult. “It becomes incredibly challenging to try to diversify your workforce very quickly, because you just don’t have the vacancies.”

The Boulder Valley School District’s administrative office in Boulder.

Parent groups have also been asking for data on teachers’ disciplinary referrals. And they want the district to include in staff evaluations any racial disproportionality in their punishment of students. They also want a public process for filing and tracking discrimination complaints.

“They keep kids accountable for their actions. And I think that it’s only fair that adults are held to a similar standard,” Fernandez Frank said.

Anderson opposes such measures.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think that creates a culture of fear. You need to have people open to get better,” Anderson said. “My goal here isn’t to place blame on folks. It’s to fix the systemic issues.”

The district already kicked off monthly meetings in each school to devise solutions. This may include cultural competency training. “That’s why you have these conversations locally,” he said. “Locally, it may be that there are teachers who do need additional training or grade levels who want the additional training.”

This difference will likely remain a sticking point.

“I don’t want to wait until they fix their unconscious bias. I want them not to be in contact with kids,” Fernandez Frank said. “Those kids are going to continue to suffer until this teacher learns. And I don’t think that’s fair for students.”

John Herrick reports on housing, climate, health, and local government for the Boulder Reporting Lab.

This story originally appeared on Boulder Reporting Lab and is republished with permission.

Las escuelas de Boulder castigan a los estudiantes negros y latinos en tasas más altas. Los padres piden que el distrito acepte la responsabilidad.

2022-07-21T17:01:00+00:00

Read in English.

Padres de estudiantes negros y latinos en el Distrito Escolar del Valle de Boulder (BVSD, por sus siglas en inglés) han estado diciendo por años que a sus hijos los castigan con más frecuencia por los mismos comportamientos que a los estudiantes blancos. Los datos del propio distrito han demostrado continuamente esa disparidad.

En 2020, bajo mayor presión, BVSD reformó sus políticas disciplinarias para tratar de reducir las desigualdades. Eliminó a los policías de sus escuelas, simplificó las pautas de castigos en todos los salones de clase y capacitó a los educadores para reducir la intensidad de los conflictos y resolverlos sin recurrir al castigo.

Desde que las reformas se implementaron, se ha suspendido o enviado a la policía a menos estudiantes.

Pero las disparidades que dieron lugar a las nuevas políticas siguen existiendo.

Durante el año escolar 2021-2022, fue 3.5 veces más probable que a los estudiantes latinos los suspendieran en comparación con los estudiantes blancos, según datos que el distrito proporcionó al Boulder Reporting Lab (BRL). Esa cantidad refleja una disparidad existente por más de una década.

Aunque casi el 20 por ciento de los 29,000 estudiantes en BVSD son latinos, representaron cerca del 44 por ciento de las suspensiones.

Los datos indican que a los estudiantes latinos generalmente los castigan por los mismos comportamientos que a sus compañeros blancos: amenazas por daño físico, desobediencia, peleas, posesión de tabaco y marihuana.

Las suspensiones y derivaciones a la policía pueden tener un impacto duradero en las vidas jóvenes. Esos tipos de castigos reducen las probabilidades de graduarse, causan dificultades para alcanzar el éxito académico y aumentan las posibilidades de ingresar al sistema legal criminal.

“No se ha progresado”, dijo Noemi Lastiri, integrante del Consejo Asesor de Padres Latinos (CAPL), un consejo establecido por el distrito para que lo asesorara en asuntos de equidad. “Los niños de high school siguen quejándose de que los maestros y el personal no los tratan igual”.

Para contextualizar las tendencias en Boulder, BRL analizó datos de los años escolares 2010-2011 y 2018-2019 del Departamento de Educación de Colorado en los 12 distritos más grandes en el estado. (Los datos disciplinarios de gran parte de 2020 y 2021 no son confiables debido a COVID-19. El estado no ha finalizado los datos de 2021-2022.)

Esta historia es parte de Buscando avances, un proyecto de Colorado News Collaborative sobre la equidad social, económica y de salud entre coloradenses negros y latinos.

Cabe destacar que la tasa de suspensiones en general de BVSD es más baja que la de la mayoría de los distritos más grandes en el estado, según los datos de 2018-2019. Pero ese mismo año, BVSD tuvo la disparidad más alta entre las tasas de suspensión de los estudiantes latinos y blancos de esos distritos.

Al analizar todas las medidas punitivas reportadas ante el estado (expulsiones del salón, suspensiones dentro y fuera de la escuela, derivaciones a la policía), fue 2.5 veces más probable que a los estudiantes negros de BVSD los castigaran en comparación con sus compañeros blancos. Entre los estudiantes latinos, la probabilidad de que los castigaran fue dos veces mayor.

El superintendente de BVSD, Rob Anderson, se unió al distrito escolar en 2018 después de supervisar a un distrito mucho más grande en Atlanta, Georgia. Dijo que las disparidades en Boulder reflejan las disparidades sistémicas raciales y étnicas en toda la nación.

“Antes de empezar [a trabajar] en el distrito escolar, examiné los datos y me di cuenta de que, nombra cualquier estándar, estábamos desproporcionados”, Anderson dijo en una entrevista.

La disciplina desproporcionada no es el único problema para los estudiantes negros y latinos en BVSD. Es menos probable que se gradúen, que se inscriban a cursos clases avanzados o que participen en el programa para estudiantes dotados y talentosos.

“Cuando piensas sobre nuestra desproporcionalidad en la disciplina, corresponde con nuestra desproporcionalidad en los logros”, Anderson dijo.

Durante su primer año en el trabajo, creó el Consejo Asesor de Padres Latinos para abordar estas disparidades. El consejo es uno de los únicos grupos de su tipo en Colorado para darles a los padres una voz en las políticas del distrito. A solicitud del grupo, el distrito dijo que en agosto de 2022 empezará a publicar datos que analizan las disparidades en cada una de sus 57 escuelas.

Los datos ayudarán al distrito a identificar cómo están funcionando las políticas.

“Nos queda mucho por hacer para mejorar. Y la única manera de mejorar es realmente haciéndote cargo y entendiendo el problema”, Anderson dijo. “Empiezas a examinar los datos y a usar los datos como un espejo para ver dónde las cosas están funcionando o no están funcionando. Quizás sea que la desproporcionalidad del distrito está siendo influenciada por un puñado de escuelas”.

Los padres entrevistados para esta historia apoyan las reformas que el distrito ha implementado hasta ahora. Pero dicen que los cambios no son suficientes. Les gustaría que hubiera lenidad para los estudiantes que se defienden del acoso escolar, junto con más responsabilidad entre los maestros.

“Por primera vez [BVSD] reconoce que no ha progresado, que todavía tenemos un enorme problema. Creo que eso es un comienzo”, dijo Ana Fernandez Frank, coordinadora adjunta del Consejo Asesor de Padres Latinos. “Pero queremos ver qué es lo que están planeando en hacer realmente”.

Acoso escolar y defensa personal

Jamillah Richmond es la fundadora del Consejo de Padres de Color, un grupo aparte que asesora al distrito. Su hija de nueve años asiste a una escuela de BVSD.

Dijo que a su hija la han mandado a la oficina por responder al acoso escolar en su escuela primaria. En una ocasión, dijo, cuando cuatro estudiantes blancos acorralaron a su hija en un rincón, empujó a uno de ellos. En otra ocasión, un niño siguió tocándole el cabello varias veces, así que su hija le pegó en la mano. En ambos casos, su hija enfrentó consecuencias.

“Culturalmente, si tocas nuestro cabello vamos a pegarte en la mano, lo cual es exactamente lo que mi hija hace. Pero la castigan”, Richmond dijo.

Otros padres de estudiantes negros y latinos compartieron con el Boulder Reporting Lab situaciones similares en las que a

Jamillah Richmond es la fundadora del Consejo de Padres de Color. Dice que a veces el distrito castiga a los estudiantes después de defenderse a sí mismos.

“Tenemos que dejar de castigar a los niños de color por defenderse a sí mismos cuando están enfrentando varios diferentes niveles de violencia”, Richmond dijo.

Por esta razón, prefiere no usar la frase “disciplina desproporcionada”.

“Disciplina supone que un niño hizo algo malo para empezar”, dijo. “No estás mal si te defiendes a ti mismo”.

La tabla disciplinaria del distrito, la cual se creó en 2020 para ofrecer orientación en los castigos para las escuelas, no menciona la defensa personal. Richmond piensa que debería mencionarla, para animar a los educadores a tomar en cuenta el contexto en casos de violencia.

“Si no está escrito, y no tenemos una definición clara y definitiva de lo que estas cosas son y qué consecuencias podrían o no corresponder con ellas, entonces estamos dejando demasiadas oportunidades para la interpretación y confiando en personas que tienen puntos ciegos y prejuicios”, dijo. “Y pienso que eso deja oportunidades para la discriminación”.

Anderson, el superintendente de BVSD, está de acuerdo con que el acoso escolar es motivo de preocupación. El distrito ha facilitado que se reporte el acoso escolar en su sitio web. Pero dijo que es complicado balancear la fuerza física con la seguridad escolar.

“Si estás bloqueando puñetazos para no lastimarte, eso es defensa personal. Si participas en un altercado físico con alguien más, no consideramos que eso sea defensa personal”, dijo.

Los padres pueden apelar las medidas disciplinarias ante el Consejo de Educación del distrito. Pero Jorge Chavez, presidente del Comité de Responsabilidad del Distrito, un panel supervisor que requiere la ley estatal, dijo que algunos padres enfrentan desafíos para expresarse.

“Soy bastante afortunado. Soy un inmigrante, pero soy bilingüe. Sé cómo funciona el sistema aquí”, Chavez dijo. “Para muchos de los padres que no se sienten cómodos con el idioma inglés, que no están familiarizados con el sistema educativo, que no tienen los recursos y el tiempo para participar, es más difícil para ellos que sus voces se levanten hasta que sus inquietudes se escuchen”.

‘Todos tenemos prejuicios subconscientes’

El distrito está abierto a platicar sobre cómo las desigualdades estructurales contribuyen a las disparidades disciplinarias. Pero algunos quieren que el distrito haga más para reconocer los prejuicios raciales entre su personal.

“La causa principal es el racismo. Tenemos que nombrarlo por lo que es para poder abordarlo. No estoy diciendo que los maestros sean malas personas o algo así. Todos tenemos prejuicios subconscientes”, dijo Fernandez Frank, de CAPL.

Por eso, primero que nada, los padres quieren que el distrito contrate a más maestros y empleados administrativos negros y latinos. Los niños alcanzan un mejor desempeño escolar cuando sus maestros se parecen a ellos. El año pasado, 86 por ciento de los maestros en BVSD eran blancos, casi el mismo porcentaje que el promedio estatal. El 67 por ciento de sus estudiantes eran blancos.

En febrero, el distrito organizó un “Evento de contratación de maestros de color”. Boulder paga a sus maestros más que cualquier otro distrito en el estado. Pero Anderson dijo que el alto costo de la vivienda en la región y el bajo porcentaje de maestros que dejan su puesto dificultan la contratación. “Es increíblemente desafiante tratar de diversificar tu fuerza laboral muy rápidamente, porque simplemente no tienes las vacantes”.

Los grupos de padres también han estado pidiendo datos sobre las derivaciones disciplinarias de los maestros. Y quieren que el distrito incluya en las evaluaciones del personal cualquier desproporcionalidad racial que haya en el castigo de sus estudiantes. También quieren un proceso público para presentar y dar seguimiento a las quejas por discriminación.

“Hacen que los niños acepten la responsabilidad de sus acciones. Y creo que solo es justo que a los adultos los evalúen con un estándar similar”, Fernandez Frank dijo.

Anderson se opone a esas medidas.

“No creo que sea una buena idea. Creo que eso crea una cultura de temor. Necesitas que la gente esté dispuesta a mejorar”, Anderson dijo. “Mi objetivo aquí no es asignar culpa a las personas. Es arreglar los problemas sistémicos”.

La sede del Distrito Escolar del Valle de Boulder (BVSD, por sus siglas en inglés).

El distrito ya inició unas reuniones mensuales en cada escuela para diseñar soluciones. Estas podrían incluir capacitación sobre aptitud cultural. “Por eso tienes estas conversaciones localmente”, Anderson dijo. “Localmente, quizás haya maestros que no necesitan más capacitación o niveles de grado que quieren capacitación adicional”.

Esta diferencia probablemente continúe siendo un punto de fricción.

“No quiero esperar hasta que arreglen su prejuicio subconsciente. Quiero que no estén en contacto con niños”, Fernandez Frank dijo. “Esos niños seguirán sufriendo hasta que su maestro aprenda. Y no creo que sea justo para los estudiantes”.

John Herrick cubre vivienda, clima, salud y gobierno local para Boulder Reporting Lab.

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en Boulder Reporting Lab y se vuelve a publicar con permiso.

Colorado schools bend but don’t break under omicron surge

2022-01-20T22:53:04+00:00

At Evelyn Gonzalez’s Denver high school, the Italian teacher, who luckily speaks Spanish, filled in last week for the Spanish teacher, who was out sick for two days.

So many students were absent from Haven Coleman’s history class at another high school that the teacher held off on teaching the day’s lesson rather than have to repeat it later for the missing kids. Coleman’s class had a study hall instead.

In Carbondale, an entire grade level at Crystal River Elementary switched to remote learning, not because teachers were sick, but because several of them were also parents of preschool-aged children quarantined at home.

If this past fall felt “mostly normal,” Assistant Principal Kendall Reiley said, then after winter break, “it felt like we were coming back into a different world.”

January’s massive COVID surge has tested pandemic-weary teachers, students, and families in new ways, with half-empty classrooms, missing teachers, and abrupt temporary switches to remote learning, often for just a number of days.

District leaders have mostly kept buildings open amid case rates that would have shuttered them a year ago. They cite the availability of vaccines, plus widespread concern about the toll virtual learning took on children’s mental health. Relaxed safety protocols are also giving schools new tools to stay open, like combining classes and shortening quarantine.

That doesn’t mean the past few weeks have been easy. Interviews with 20 Colorado students, parents, teachers, principals, and district administrators provide a window into disrupted learning and reveal deep divides over the best way forward. Some students say they’re worried about catching the virus but also dread a return to virtual schooling.

“Going remote learning is like going a step back to the past,” said Andrew Caballero, a sophomore at Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School. “Students should be able to go to school and interact with other students and not be home 24/7.”

Keeping schools open requires constant juggling

For Shane Knight, principal at Denver’s Knapp Elementary School, the text messages start at 5 a.m. and go until late. At first, he and his assistant principal were keeping track of sick or absent teachers on a whiteboard, marking those who were out with COVID with a red “C+.”

They later moved that accounting to a spreadsheet, but the logistics of who was absent and who was covering their classes became so unsustainable that Knapp temporarily switched to remote learning, one of more than 45 Denver schools to do so in the past three weeks.

“As soon as I informed my staff, the tension in the building dropped dramatically,” Knight said. “It was palpable. They were on edge like, ‘Who is leaving next?’”

It’s a feeling teachers from across Colorado said they know well.

Cara Godbe teaches a combined second and third grade class in Montrose. Vaccination means some students who would have had to quarantine in the fall can now stay in the classroom, but that presents its own challenges.

“I might have eight kids who are eligible to stay in the classroom, and 16 that are not,” she said. “And that puts teachers in a bind. How do you teach both groups of kids?”

When the third grade teacher at Kate Tynan-Ridgeway’s school, Palmer Elementary in Denver, was out with COVID right after winter break, she and the other second grade teacher split his class, adding 10 more kids to each of their rooms.

Instead of teaching the regular second grade curriculum, Tynan-Ridgeway said, “I was inventing my whole day. It was like, ‘Let me adapt this. Let me adapt that.’” Though the students were still getting academic instruction, it wasn’t what they’d normally learn.

The next week, Tynan-Ridgeway had to miss school because of her own COVID exposure.

Who’s in class

It’s hard to get a clear picture of full and partial school closures because Colorado doesn’t track them. Some districts told Chalkbeat that student and staff absences were similar to those in the fall, when Colorado endured a prolonged delta wave. Other districts reported a dramatic increase in COVID cases, lower attendance, and many teachers out sick.

The Adams 14 district in Commerce City went remote the second week of January, but opened most of its schools this week. Bayfield in southwestern Colorado canceled all classes and activities this week after a fifth of the entire teaching staff either tested positive or entered quarantine.

In the Greeley-Evans district, more than 300 staff members have tested positive so far this month, sending five schools, including one charter, into remote learning due to staffing shortages. In Aurora, student attendance hadn’t changed much, but staff absences were up 52% in January compared with the fall average.

“We meet every day around 3:45, 4 o’clock, to assess where we are for tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and the facts change on us and so we are trying to think very nimbly,” Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn told the school board.

Lack of substitute teachers is a major problem. In District 11 in Colorado Springs, almost half of teacher absences went unfilled last week. Many districts are dispatching central office workers, many of whom were never teachers, to help at schools. Denver sent out 500 of them a day, prioritizing coverage for schools at risk of closing.

Some teachers and students have said a short period of remote learning would provide more stability and question whether the disruption involved in keeping schools open is worth it. Amber Elias, Denver’s lead operational superintendent, believes it is.

“As much as our primary purpose is instruction, we provide so many more benefits,” Elias said. “I keep going back to the research that shows students are physically, mentally, and emotionally safer in school. We would rather keep kids in school when we can. We know we are not able to provide that quality of instruction that we would at full staffing, but there are a lot of other benefits to school.”

Some students find it hard to forget about COVID

Anoushka Jani spent all of last year online, worried about bringing COVID home to her family. She returned to Legacy High School in the Adams 12 Five Star school district in the fall as a vaccinated senior eager to make up for lost time. She attended football games and sought out unfamiliar students so she could get to know as many people as possible before she graduated.

Omicron has taken away that sense of ease. When she walks through crowded hallways or hears someone cough in class, she finds herself wondering if she was exposed.

“Coming back from winter break, I can hear in the hallways, kids are talking about their friends testing positive,” she said. “There are a lot fewer kids in classes. There are teachers out. There is a looming dread that we might go back online.”

Jason Hoang, a senior in Aurora, decided to quarantine last week after finding out that a friend he sat next to in multiple classes tested positive for COVID. The quarantine wasn’t required, but Hoang felt it was the right thing to do. Some teachers offered him a way to participate in classes remotely, but others just gave him assignments to do on his own at home.

“I’m surprised we’re actually still in person considering how COVID numbers have skyrocketed,” Hoang said. “I prioritize safety. I wish the school did that as well.”

Freshman Nayeli Lopez is one of several Denver Public Schools students who wrote an online petition demanding the district take additional safety measures, including providing students with the more protective KN95 masks, twice weekly COVID testing, and more flexibility to learn from home when school doesn’t feel safe. On Thursday, some students at North High School and Thomas Jefferson High School walked out of school in protest.

A small group of students walked out of Denver’s North High School to call for more COVID safety protocols.

Lopez, who goes to North, said she’s so worried about COVID and so frustrated with the district response that she can’t concentrate in class.

“I feel that they’re giving up on us,” Lopez said of district leaders.

Denver officials are distributing KN95 masks to schools, including smaller ones for young children, but believe that the safety measures they’ve employed all year continue to keep schools safe.

Teenagers have the highest COVID rates in the state right now, according to public health officials, and child hospitalizations are at record levels. State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy said some transmission is occurring in schools, but also at home and in social settings. The best protection, she said, continues to be vaccination.

Many school districts have shortened quarantine requirements under new federal guidance in an effort to keep students and staff in person, even as some teachers worry that the constant shuffle is contributing to more spread. Colorado school districts have a wide range of mask and quarantine policies, and officials everywhere say their schools are safe.

Denver leaders point to universal masking and the district’s 99% staff vaccination rate as limiting transmission. Mesa Valley District 51 requires masks when more than 2% of a school population tests positive. In Cañon City, students “on quarantine” after an exposure can come to school if they agree to wear a mask.

Isenia Fregoso, a junior at Central High School in Mesa County, also worries about COVID, especially after her mom got sick over the holidays despite being vaccinated. She feels safer now that her school has a mask requirement, and she would rather be in school.

“Adults need to realize that it’s really hard for students to stay engaged even in person, and it’s even harder to keep that momentum and motivation online,” she said. “You’re just alone and it feels different. The experience does matter and the setting and what students are used to when it comes to being in school.”

Parents are making their own decisions about school

Emily Stone got an email that her third grade son had been exposed to COVID on his first day back in school from winter break. Although he and his older brother are vaccinated, Stone decided to keep both home last week due to rising case counts.

The decision was based on something her third grader asked her after he was exposed. “My youngest said, ‘Mom, can you tell me I’m really safe at school?’” said Stone, who lives in Denver. “And I couldn’t say yes. I was like, ‘I don’t know, kiddo.’”

Other parents said they’re more resigned to the situation.

Michelle Squier’s 14-year-old son, who is vaccinated, got COVID in early January, a week after his mother and older sister contracted the virus. He missed several days at Bell Middle School in Golden, and when he returned, a teacher noticed his residual cough and he was sent home for another day and a half. This week, he’s back in class.

“That’s just life right now,” Squier said. “We’re all in that boat. We’re all together.”

Ana Jelly Melchor, a mother of two Aurora students, said she’s weary of teachers taking sick time and frustrated that her children have missed out on opportunities. Her older son told her that he was denied a schedule change to take college-level courses due to COVID concerns.

“He has all A’s,” she said. “When I had parent-teacher conferences, the teachers said that he needed to be in college-level courses, something more advanced, but they haven’t sent him.”

‘Teachers are doing a lot’

This week, Herlihy said it appears omicron has peaked in Colorado and new cases are heading down. Administrators in some metro area districts also said it seemed they had turned a corner, with fewer staff calling out sick and just a handful of classrooms on remote learning.

Coza Perry, who teaches sixth grade English at a middle school in Denver, said knowing the disruptions are temporary has made this month feel more hopeful than fall semester. In the fall, some teachers were gone for long stretches because they were unhappy and eventually quit. This semester, with a more stable staff and several months of in-person learning under their belts, “little moments of joy are starting to creep back up,” Perry said.

“Before, the tension was, ‘You’re out and I don’t know if you’re sick and I don’t know if you’re coming back,’” she said. “Now it’s like, ‘OK, I can handle covering a science class for three days and I know the science teacher is coming back.’”

Cañon City Schools made changes to their procedures in the fall that took some of the burden off principals, and it made a big difference in their ability to manage COVID.

“The pandemic has absolutely been a huge stress on education,” Superintendent Adam Hartman said. “It’s a huge pressure on staff. But it’s important that it not be all gloom and doom. We are dealing with omicron and the numbers are up, but we are persevering.”

Godbe, the Montrose teacher, said it’s almost scary how well her students and colleagues can “turn on a dime” two years into the pandemic, but she worries it will just become expected. She knows open schools keep society functioning and allow parents to work, but the new reality also raises questions about the role of teachers.

“Are we essential workers? Are we babysitters? Are we professionals and experts?” she asked. “Teachers are doing a lot for communities right now, and it would be great if that could be acknowledged.”

Yesenia Robles and Ann Schimke contributed reporting.

Some Colorado schools are doubling down on mask requirements, while masks remain optional in others.

Annual census shows Colorado schools are still missing students

2022-01-19T19:27:46+00:00

Slightly more children enrolled in Colorado public schools this school year than last year, but enrollment still remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

Colorado schools counted 886,517 students, an increase of 3,318 students or just 0.4% over last school year, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education.

Before the pandemic caused school closures and other disruptions, Colorado public school enrollment had been growing slowly and was at more than 913,000 in the fall of 2019. Current enrollment is about 2.9% below that level.

When schools shut down, many students stopped engaging and school districts struggled to find them. Districts are spending considerable time and effort on tracking down students who stopped coming to school.

Despite that work, fewer than 600 schools in the state increased enrollment this school year from their fall 2019 totals. More than twice as many schools remain below those levels.

Some of the decline is related to long-term demographic trends, and some is related to families making different educational choices.

“The big question is how sticky the pandemic changes will be,” Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Center, said.

Last school year, some of the largest enrollment decreases were in the lowest grades, but this year preschool and kindergarten grew the most over the previous year.

Also last school year, some students left local schools to home school. That trend reversed this school year, with the number of students home-schooling now at 10,502, down from 15,773 last year, but still much higher than 7,880 in 2019.

Together, online programs recorded a slight decrease in enrollment this year compared with last. A Chalkbeat analysis comparing this year’s enrollment with 2019-20 shows that many of the schools with the highest gains are online schools.

Racial and ethnic breakdowns show that the number of white and Black students dropped for a second year while the number of Hispanic students in public schools grew some. The number of white students had already been dropping before the pandemic, but the number of Black and Hispanic students in the state previously had been growing.

In raw numbers, enrollment grew the most among Hispanic students — a gain of 4,357 students — partially recovering from the second-highest drop in students last school year when there was a loss of 8,114 students.

This year’s gains, as a percentage of their total, were not the largest. Students who identify as two or more races, and native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students posted the largest percentage gains.

In numbers, the biggest decline came among white students, with 3,106 fewer than a year earlier. By percentage, Native American students had the biggest decreases in both this school year and the previous one.

Enrollment had been declining in most metro area school districts even before the pandemic. The Sheridan, Littleton and Jeffco school districts posted the largest percentage drops in the number of students among metro area districts. Other districts with large drops in enrollment included Cheyenne Mountain 12 in Colorado Springs and the Las Animas district in southern Colorado.

The districts with the largest increases in enrollment included the Harrison school district in El Paso County and the 27J district based in Brighton.

Look up enrollment changes at your school or district in the table below:

District name	School name	2021 enrollment	2019 enrollment	Percent change
School District 27J	27J Online Academy	390	-	-
Denver County 1	5280 High School	114	95	20.00%
Pueblo County 70	70 Online	214	218	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Abraham Lincoln High School	993	971	2.27%
Fountain 8	Abrams Elementary School	480	467	2.78%
Denver County 1	Academia Ana Marie Sandoval	380	423	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Academy 360	213	208	2.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Academy Charter School	739	745	-0.81%
Academy 20	Academy Endeavour Elementary School	321	415	-22.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning	285	293	-2.73%
Mapleton 1	Academy High School	470	467	0.64%
Academy 20	Academy International Elementary School	414	521	-20.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Academy of Advanced Learning	872	758	15.04%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Arts and Knowledge Elementary	152	212	-28.30%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Charter Schools	1,894	1886	0.42%
Las Animas RE-1	Academy of Las Animas Online School	351	1796	-80.46%
Mapleton 1	Achieve Academy	397	526	-24.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Achieve Online	332	271	22.51%
Douglas County Re 1	Acres Green Elementary School	380	493	-22.92%
Adams County 14	Adams City High School	1,770	1721	2.85%
Adams County 14	Adams City Middle School	657	773	-15.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Adams Elementary School	329	381	-13.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Adams Elementary School	350	452	-22.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Adams12 Five Star Preschool	45	207	-78.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Academy	184	396	-53.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Grammar School	635	449	41.43%
Mapleton 1	Adventure Elementary	376	428	-12.15%
Agate 300	Agate Elementary School	48	32	50.00%
Agate 300	Agate Junior Senior High School	36	12	200.00%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Elementary School	63	69	-8.70%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Junior-Senior High School	51	52	-1.92%
Academy 20	Air Academy High School	1,351	1403	-3.71%
Akron R-1	Akron Elementary School	314	284	10.56%
Akron R-1	Akron High School	97	87	11.49%
Jefferson County R-1	Alameda International Junior/Senior High School	1,080	1117	-3.31%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School 3-5	498	1142	-56.39%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School K-2	464	-	-
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa High School	597	600	-0.50%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Online	92	-	-
Sheridan 2	Alice Terry Elementary School	204	214	-4.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Alicia Sanchez International School	335	360	-6.94%
District 49	ALLIES	120	121	-0.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Alpine Elementary School	391	475	-17.68%
Adams County 14	Alsup Elementary School	463	415	11.57%
Lamar Re-2	Alta Vista Charter School	130	132	-1.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Altitude Elementary School	1,007	779	29.27%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Altona Middle School	795	830	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Altura Elementary School	466	521	-10.56%
Douglas County Re 1	American Academy	2,556	2535	0.83%
Denver County 1	American Indian Academy of Denver	146	-	-
Boulder Valley Re 2	Angevine Middle School	659	689	-4.35%
Charter School Institute	Animas High School	204	208	-1.92%
Durango 9-R	Animas Valley Elementary School	181	248	-27.02%
Cherry Creek 5	Antelope Ridge Elementary School	588	655	-10.23%
Academy 20	Antelope Trails Elementary School	321	337	-4.75%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito High School	38	46	-17.39%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito Middle School	26	20	30.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Apex Home School Enrichment Program	717	804	-10.82%
Mesa County Valley 51	Appleton Elementary School	444	456	-2.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	APS Early Beginnings - A Zoom Site	38	35	8.57%
Fountain 8	Aragon Elementary School	366	672	-45.54%
Littleton 6	Arapahoe High School	1,884	2157	-12.66%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Arapahoe Ridge Elementary School	500	575	-13.04%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Arapahoe Ridge High School	134	150	-10.67%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Elementary School	53	54	-1.85%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Undivided High School	48	60	-20.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Arkansas Elementary School	429	418	2.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Arrowhead Elementary School	500	539	-7.24%
Douglas County Re 1	Arrowwood Elementary School	367	383	-4.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada High School	759	768	-1.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada K-8	554	652	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada West High School	1,765	1801	-2.00%
Denver County 1	Asbury Elementary School	310	333	-6.91%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Ascend College Prep	39	-	-
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Douglas County	856	544	57.35%
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Northern Colorado	581	-	-
Denver County 1	Ashley Elementary School	272	351	-22.51%
Aspen 1	Aspen Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Aspen Creek K-8 School	733	859	-14.67%
Cherry Creek 5	Aspen Crossing Elementary School	607	612	-0.82%
Aspen 1	Aspen Elementary School	464	462	0.43%
Aspen 1	Aspen High School	569	554	2.71%
Aspen 1	Aspen Middle School	469	478	-1.88%
Aspen 1	Aspen Preschool	15	24	-37.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Aspen Ridge Preparatory School	503	439	14.58%
Academy 20	Aspen Valley Campus	117	159	-26.42%
Douglas County Re 1	Aspen View Academy	930	904	2.88%
Harrison 2	Aspire Online Academy	139	-	-
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Elementary School	679	114	495.61%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy High School	1,564	485	222.47%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Middle School	714	68	950.00%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Elementary School	206	-	-
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory High School	512	457	12.04%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Middle School	516	514	0.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Audubon Elementary School	286	346	-17.34%
Denver County 1	AUL Denver	157	135	16.30%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Academy Charter School	506	520	-2.69%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Central High School	1,830	2027	-9.72%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Frontier K-8	772	692	11.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Hills Middle School	842	777	8.37%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Quest K-8	586	595	-1.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Science & Tech Middle School	444	166	167.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora West College Preparatory Academy	1,106	1137	-2.73%
Buena Vista R-31	Avery/Parsons Elementary School	439	428	2.57%
Eagle County RE 50	Avon Elementary School	290	253	14.62%
Pueblo County 70	Avondale Elementary School	143	170	-15.88%
Charter School Institute	Axis International Academy	190	203	-6.40%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	AXL Academy	358	445	-19.55%
Valley RE-1	Ayres Elementary School	369	451	-18.18%
Thompson R2-J	B F Kitchen Elementary School	193	217	-11.06%
Delta County 50(J)	Backpack Early Learning Academy	198	214	-7.48%
Poudre R-1	Bacon Elementary School	443	595	-25.55%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Baker Elementary School	293	303	-3.30%
Poudre R-1	Bamford Elementary School	263	-	-
District 49	Banning Lewis Ranch Academy	1,676	1435	16.79%
Denver County 1	Barnum Elementary School	333	387	-13.95%
Meeker RE-1	Barone Middle School	158	188	-15.96%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Elementary School	508	564	-9.93%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt High School	451	501	-9.98%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Middle School	416	482	-13.69%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain Early College High School	5	13	-61.54%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain High School	945	955	-1.05%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Battle Rock Charter School	89	77	15.58%
Poudre R-1	Bauder Elementary School	531	587	-9.54%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield High School	398	372	6.99%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Intermediate School	302	321	-5.92%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Middle School	326	361	-9.70%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Primary School	285	309	-7.77%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Elementary School	355	367	-3.27%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Pre-School	54	-	-
Denver County 1	Beach Court Elementary School	262	255	2.75%
Douglas County Re 1	Bear Canyon Elementary School	411	492	-16.46%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Bear Creek Elementary School	892	963	-7.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Bear Creek Elementary School	346	400	-13.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek High School	1,495	1514	-1.25%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek K-8 School	956	1007	-5.06%
Denver County 1	Bear Valley International School	498	450	10.67%
Poudre R-1	Beattie Elementary School	320	363	-11.85%
Brush RE-2(J)	Beaver Valley Elementary School	324	331	-2.11%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Beech Street Preschool	80	116	-31.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Bell Middle School	778	927	-16.07%
Greeley 6	Bella Romero Academy of Applied Technology	1,019	1147	-11.16%
School District 27J	Belle Creek Charter School	600	689	-12.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Belleview Elementary School	481	586	-17.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Belmar School of Integrated Arts	211	232	-9.05%
Pueblo City 60	Belmont Elementary School	451	454	-0.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Ben Franklin Academy	905	930	-2.69%
Eaton RE-2	Benjamin Eaton Elementary School	400	388	3.09%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Elementary School	256	279	-8.24%
Poudre R-1	Bennett Elementary School	395	454	-13.00%
Bennett 29J	Bennett High School	403	361	11.63%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Intermediate School	239	256	-6.64%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Middle School	300	184	63.04%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Preschool	51	37	37.84%
District 49	Bennett Ranch Elementary School	383	357	7.28%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Meadow Primary School	281	330	-14.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Valley Intermediate School	226	280	-19.29%
Eagle County RE 50	Berry Creek Middle School	225	280	-19.64%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Early Childhood	29	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Elementary School	472	486	-2.88%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud High School	685	696	-1.58%
Pueblo City 60	Bessemer Elementary School	258	282	-8.51%
Poudre R-1	Bethke Elementary School	532	638	-16.61%
Bethune R-5	Bethune Public Schools	108	118	-8.47%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Elementary School	85	86	-1.16%
Pueblo City 60	Beulah Heights Elementary School	308	371	-16.98%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Middle School	45	66	-31.82%
Mapleton 1	Big Picture College and Career Academy	116	136	-14.71%
Thompson R2-J	Big Thompson Elementary School	195	222	-12.16%
Monte Vista C-8	Bill Metz Elementary School	270	357	-24.37%
Thompson R2-J	Bill Reed Middle School	542	673	-19.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Birch Elementary School	341	396	-13.89%
Cherry Creek 5	Black Forest Hills Elementary School	627	603	3.98%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Black Rock Elementary	577	579	-0.35%
Poudre R-1	Blevins Middle School	546	629	-13.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Blue Heron Elementary School	383	399	-4.01%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Blue Mountain Elementary	538	629	-14.47%
Poudre R-1	Boltz Middle School	623	627	-0.64%
Mesa County Valley 51	Bookcliff Middle School	545	590	-7.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Boston K-8 School	414	462	-10.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Community School/Integrated Studies	286	307	-6.84%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder High School	2,139	2153	-0.65%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Prep Charter High School	107	117	-8.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Universal	382	76	402.63%
Pueblo City 60	Bradford Elementary School	313	374	-16.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 North	315	352	-10.51%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 South	402	502	-19.92%
Denver County 1	Bradley International School	565	569	-0.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Brady Exploration School	212	395	-46.33%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School	83	67	23.88%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School Online	419	364	15.11%
School District 27J	Brantner Elementary School	698	693	0.72%
Summit RE-1	Breckenridge Elementary School	198	209	-5.26%
Greeley 6	Brentwood Middle School	604	687	-12.08%
Academy 20	Briargate Preschool	96	116	-17.24%
Harrison 2	Bricker Elementary School	267	346	-22.83%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Bridges	86	76	13.16%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Elementary School	94	85	10.59%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Undivided High School	92	99	-7.07%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Bright Horizons Preschool	27	-	-
School District 27J	Brighton High School	1,881	1816	3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Bristol Elementary School	251	234	7.26%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Broadmoor Elementary School	323	342	-5.56%
Mesa County Valley 51	Broadway Elementary School	281	271	3.69%
School District 27J	Bromley East Charter School	1,175	1181	-0.51%
Denver County 1	Bromwell Elementary School	321	332	-3.31%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield Heights Middle School	516	564	-8.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield High School	1,607	1564	2.75%
Denver County 1	Brown International Academy	576	636	-9.43%
Denver County 1	Bruce Randolph School	731	777	-5.92%
Eagle County RE 50	Brush Creek Elementary School	387	389	-0.51%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush High School	373	411	-9.25%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush Middle School	315	301	4.65%
Denver County 1	Bryant Webster Dual Language ECE-8 School	369	413	-10.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Buena Vista Elementary School	198	218	-9.17%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista High School	274	299	-8.36%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista Middle School	226	213	6.10%
Douglas County Re 1	Buffalo Ridge Elementary School	462	442	4.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Buffalo Trail Elementary School	570	661	-13.77%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Elementary School	325	353	-7.93%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Burlington Elementary School	342	427	-19.91%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington High School	201	203	-0.99%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Middle School	223	222	0.45%
Byers 32J	Byers Elementary School	265	317	-16.40%
Byers 32J	Byers Junior-Senior High School	249	240	3.75%
Monte Vista C-8	Byron Syring Delta Center	57	49	16.33%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Elementary School	301	357	-15.69%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Middle School	330	335	-1.49%
Garfield Re-2	Cactus Valley Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Elementary School	210	199	5.53%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Secondary School	236	153	54.25%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Elementary School	141	157	-10.19%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Junior-Senior High School	117	137	-14.60%
Valley RE-1	Campbell Elementary School	407	436	-6.65%
Jefferson County R-1	Campbell Elementary School	194	225	-13.78%
Campo RE-6	Campo Elementary School	31	21	47.62%
Campo RE-6	Campo Undivided High School	20	21	-4.76%
Cherry Creek 5	Campus Middle School	1,355	1516	-10.62%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City High School	964	1032	-6.59%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City Middle School	370	387	-4.39%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Canon Elementary School	117	139	-15.83%
Canon City RE-1	Canon Exploratory School	340	352	-3.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Cantril	15	25	-40.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Canyon Creek Elementary School	463	494	-6.28%
Charter School Institute	Caprock Academy	883	878	0.57%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Carbon Valley Academy	211	231	-8.66%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Middle School	348	369	-5.69%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Cardinal Community Academy Charter School	179	188	-4.79%
Mesa County Valley 51	Career Center Preschool	125	126	-0.79%
Denver County 1	Career Education Center Early College	490	491	-0.20%
Harrison 2	Career Readiness Academy	42	65	-35.38%
Clear Creek RE-1	Carlson Elementary School	138	169	-18.34%
Harrison 2	Carmel Community School	331	346	-4.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Carmody Middle School	640	784	-18.37%
Thompson R2-J	Carrie Martin Elementary School	268	273	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Carson Elementary School	391	465	-15.91%
Fountain 8	Carson Middle School	652	705	-7.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Carver Elementary School	213	272	-21.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Casey Middle School	499	639	-21.91%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Elementary School	400	424	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Middle School	741	842	-12.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle View High School	2,136	2183	-2.15%
Denver County 1	Castro Elementary School	288	357	-19.33%
Pueblo County 70	Cedar Ridge Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Elementary School	332	374	-11.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge High School	271	276	-1.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Middle School	192	214	-10.28%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri High School	325	301	7.97%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri Middle School	242	267	-9.36%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centaurus High School	1,594	1453	9.70%
Denver County 1	Centennial A School for Expeditionary Learning	455	451	0.89%
Littleton 6	Centennial Academy of Fine Arts Education	373	499	-25.25%
Centennial BOCES	Centennial BOCES High School	102	103	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Centennial Elementary	485	529	-8.32%
Greeley 6	Centennial Elementary School	440	458	-3.93%
Thompson R2-J	Centennial Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Centennial Elementary School	413	497	-16.90%
Harrison 2	Centennial Elementary School	343	439	-21.87%
Poudre R-1	Centennial High School	125	112	11.61%
Pueblo City 60	Centennial High School	870	994	-12.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centennial Middle School	596	637	-6.44%
Montrose County RE-1J	Centennial Middle School	578	643	-10.11%
Centennial R-1	Centennial School	203	219	-7.31%
Denver County 1	Center for Talent Development at Greenlee	268	299	-10.37%
Center 26 JT	Center High School	148	133	11.28%
Center 26 JT	Center Virtual Academy	15	16	-6.25%
Adams County 14	Central Elementary School	432	442	-2.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Central Elementary School	345	402	-14.18%
Pueblo City 60	Central High School	892	800	11.50%
Mesa County Valley 51	Central High School	1,630	1647	-1.03%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Century Middle School	866	918	-5.66%
Buena Vista R-31	Chaffee County High School	25	38	-34.21%
Cherry Creek 5	Challenge School	534	528	1.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Challenge to Excellence Charter School	536	521	2.88%
Academy 20	Challenger Middle School	607	720	-15.69%
Douglas County Re 1	Chaparral High School	2,076	2193	-5.34%
Greeley 6	Chappelow K-8 Magnet School	672	686	-2.04%
Englewood 1	Charles Hay World School	338	332	1.81%
Denver County 1	Charles M. Schenck (CMS) Community School	305	321	-4.98%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chatfield Elementary School	415	425	-2.35%
Jefferson County R-1	Chatfield High School	1,791	1842	-2.77%
Pueblo City 60	Chavez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy	1,025	1026	-0.10%
Denver County 1	Cheltenham Elementary School	273	333	-18.02%
Cheraw 31	Cheraw School	231	224	3.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherokee Trail Elementary School	579	564	2.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherokee Trail High School	2,833	2818	0.53%
Englewood 1	Cherrelyn Elementary School	228	233	-2.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Charter Academy	571	570	0.18%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Elevation	655	121	441.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek High School	3,809	3806	0.08%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cherry Drive Elementary School	359	375	-4.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Hills Village Elementary School	507	531	-4.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherry Valley Elementary School	40	35	14.29%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School	321	334	-3.89%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain High School	1,263	1286	-1.79%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School	557	597	-6.70%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Elementary School	116	127	-8.66%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Junior/High School	72	70	2.86%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Children's Kiva Montessori School	139	97	43.30%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Elementary School	622	634	-1.89%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Middle School	1,013	527	92.22%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chipeta Elementary School	395	435	-9.20%
Colorado Springs 11	Chipeta Elementary School	423	477	-11.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cimarron Elementary School	398	463	-14.04%
Douglas County Re 1	Cimarron Middle	1,172	1293	-9.36%
Colorado Springs 11	CIVA Charter Academy	186	179	3.91%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	CIVICA Colorado	131	-	-
Englewood 1	Clayton Elementary School	365	420	-13.10%
Mapleton 1	Clayton Partnership School	407	474	-14.14%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek High School	237	216	9.72%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek Middle School	92	107	-14.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Clear Sky Elementary	682	744	-8.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Clifton Elementary School	383	438	-12.56%
Lake County R-1	Cloud City High School	36	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Cloverleaf Home Education	201	307	-34.53%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Clyde Miller K-8	474	472	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Coal Creek Canyon K-8 Elementary School	118	149	-20.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Coal Creek Elementary School	371	389	-4.63%
Garfield Re-2	Coal Ridge High School	498	563	-11.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Coal Ridge Middle School	819	823	-0.49%
Denver County 1	Cole Arts and Science Academy	276	320	-13.75%
Denver County 1	Colfax Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Denver County 1	College View Elementary School	314	427	-26.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Collegiate Academy of Colorado	415	457	-9.19%
Denver County 1	Collegiate Preparatory Academy	287	364	-21.15%
Mapleton 1	Colorado Connections Academy	2,154	2274	-5.28%
Durango 9-R	Colorado Connections Academy @ Durango	1,157	810	42.84%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early College Fort Collins	1,249	1319	-5.31%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Aurora	451	343	31.49%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Douglas County	1,096	651	68.36%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins West	514	35	1368.57%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Windsor	1,303	185	604.32%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter	191	283	-32.51%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter - GES	146	170	-14.12%
Charter School Institute	Colorado International Language Academy	308	381	-19.16%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Military Academy	768	509	50.88%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online High School	513	191	168.59%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online Middle School	420	200	110.00%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Elementary School	1,294	714	81.23%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy High School	772	659	17.15%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Middle School	755	685	10.22%
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	162	189	-14.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Colorado Skies Academy	214	118	81.36%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado Sports Leadership Academy	384	410	-6.34%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Charter Academy	403	431	-6.50%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Early Colleges	644	579	11.23%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado STEM Academy	405	418	-3.11%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Summit Connections Academy	416	-	-
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy	454	237	91.56%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy High School	369	357	3.36%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy Middle School	125	135	-7.41%
Englewood 1	Colorado's Finest High School of Choice	234	299	-21.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Colorow Elementary School	189	206	-8.25%
Colorado Springs 11	Columbia Elementary School	285	308	-7.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Columbia Middle School	683	727	-6.05%
Denver County 1	Columbian Elementary School	217	241	-9.96%
Pueblo City 60	Columbian Elementary School	309	370	-16.49%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Columbine Elementary School	405	366	10.66%
Denver County 1	Columbine Elementary School	276	275	0.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Columbine Elementary School	248	288	-13.89%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Columbine Elementary School	412	494	-16.60%
Woodland Park Re-2	Columbine Elementary School	260	358	-27.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine High School	1,707	1745	-2.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine Hills Elementary School	309	321	-3.74%
Montrose County RE-1J	Columbine Middle School	504	517	-2.51%
Charter School Institute	Community Leadership Academy	322	456	-29.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Community Montessori School	260	309	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Community Prep Charter School	253	228	10.96%
Denver County 1	Compass Academy	284	300	-5.33%
Poudre R-1	Compass Community Collaborative School	173	174	-0.57%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Golden Charter School	420	423	-0.71%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Wheat Ridge Charter School	288	286	0.70%
Denver County 1	Compassion Road Academy	69	96	-28.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Conifer Senior High School	815	873	-6.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson Campus	18	44	-59.09%
Thompson R2-J	Conrad Ball Middle School	333	457	-27.13%
Fountain 8	Conrad Early Learning Center	240	-	-
Denver County 1	Contemporary Learning Academy	94	124	-24.19%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 2	213	197	8.12%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 3	413	226	82.74%
Douglas County Re 1	Copper Mesa Elementary School	353	428	-17.52%
Jefferson County R-1	Coronado Elementary School	419	498	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Coronado High School	1,325	1385	-4.33%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coronado Hills Elementary School	455	578	-21.28%
Pueblo City 60	Corwin International Magnet School	512	597	-14.24%
Denver County 1	Cory Elementary School	396	410	-3.41%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Junior-Senior High School	115	119	-3.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cotton Creek Elementary School	498	556	-10.43%
Cherry Creek 5	Cottonwood Creek Elementary School	577	653	-11.64%
Montrose County RE-1J	Cottonwood Elementary School	433	431	0.46%
Thompson R2-J	Cottonwood Plains Elementary School	394	419	-5.97%
Douglas County Re 1	Cougar Run Elementary School	364	441	-17.46%
Denver County 1	Cowell Elementary School	283	378	-25.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Coyote Creek Elementary School	403	408	-1.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Coyote Hills Elementary School	543	565	-3.89%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	404	428	-5.61%
Thompson R2-J	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	283	362	-21.82%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Craig Middle School	454	493	-7.91%
Pueblo County 70	Craver Middle School	196	213	-7.98%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Crawford Elementary School	405	489	-17.18%
Denver County 1	Creativity Challenge Community	304	306	-0.65%
Creede School District	Creede School	78	81	-3.70%
Cherry Creek 5	Creekside Elementary School	590	647	-8.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Creekside Elementary School at Martin Park	343	390	-12.05%
Jefferson County R-1	Creighton Middle School	780	874	-10.76%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cresson Elementary School	158	183	-13.66%
Salida R-32	Crest Academy	46	45	2.22%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Crest View Elementary School	448	537	-16.57%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Elementary School	334	342	-2.34%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Secondary School	421	431	-2.32%
Douglas County Re 1	Cresthill Middle School	738	776	-4.90%
Moffat 2	Crestone Charter School	83	88	-5.68%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cripple Creek-Victor Junior-Senior High School	194	184	5.43%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Elementary K-6	203	237	-14.35%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Junior and Senior High School	202	188	7.45%
Charter School Institute	Crown Pointe Charter Academy	462	469	-1.49%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Crystal River Elementary School	374	420	-10.95%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County Elementary School	171	200	-14.50%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County High School	102	105	-2.86%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer Middle School	88	90	-2.22%
Jefferson County R-1	D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School	1,119	1035	8.12%
Widefield 3	D3 My Way Virtual School	343	-	-
Pueblo City 60	D60 Online School	353	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Dakota Ridge Senior High School	1,344	1447	-7.12%
Cherry Creek 5	Dakota Valley Elementary School	522	545	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dalton Elementary School	417	437	-4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Daniel C Oakes High School--Castle Rock	137	158	-13.29%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dartmouth Elementary School	407	375	8.53%
Douglas County Re 1	DC Montessori Charter School	498	556	-10.43%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Ford	483	507	-4.73%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Montbello	946	925	2.27%
De Beque 49JT	De Beque PK-12 School District 49JT	172	164	4.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Deane Elementary School	305	414	-26.33%
Platte Canyon 1	Deer Creek Elementary School	417	451	-7.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Deer Creek Middle School	603	752	-19.81%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Elementary School	173	145	19.31%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School	122	108	12.96%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte Elementary School	225	229	-1.75%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte High Jr./Sr. High School	178	192	-7.29%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Academy of Applied Learning	23	27	-14.81%
Denver County 1	Delta High School	109	101	7.92%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta High School	622	605	2.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Middle School	511	494	3.44%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Online Learning Academy	40	-	-
Denver County 1	Denison Montessori School	363	396	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Dennison Elementary School	609	629	-3.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for 21st-Century Learning at Wyman	159	205	-22.44%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies	516	672	-23.21%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont	354	420	-15.71%
Denver County 1	Denver Discovery School	113	199	-43.22%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Northfield	530	138	284.06%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Southeast	494	573	-13.79%
Denver County 1	Denver Justice High School	131	109	20.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Language School	885	869	1.84%
Denver County 1	Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High School	225	240	-6.25%
Denver County 1	Denver Online	307	287	6.97%
Denver County 1	Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design	132	175	-24.57%
Denver County 1	Denver School of the Arts	1,090	1110	-1.80%
Pueblo County 70	Desert Sage Elementary School	375	405	-7.41%
Julesburg Re-1	Destinations Career Academy of Colorado	545	545	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Devinny Elementary School	466	475	-1.89%
Summit RE-1	Dillon Valley Elementary School	425	426	-0.23%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Elementary School	522	525	-0.57%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus High School	1,123	1158	-3.02%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Middle School	761	815	-6.63%
Widefield 3	Discovery High School	54	71	-23.94%
Greeley 6	District 6 Online Academy	628	-	-
Durango 9-R	District 9-R Shared School	156	147	6.12%
Colorado Springs 11	Doherty High School	1,916	1992	-3.82%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Elementary School	284	360	-21.11%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Middle School	209	-	-
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Secondary School	168	274	-38.69%
Denver County 1	Dora Moore ECE-8 School	360	352	2.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Doral Academy of Colorado	168	193	-12.95%
Greeley 6	Dos Rios Elementary School	462	495	-6.67%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dos Rios Elementary School	300	331	-9.37%
Douglas County Re 1	Douglas County High School	1,820	1808	0.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Douglass Elementary School	313	400	-21.75%
Academy 20	Douglass Valley Elementary School	310	316	-1.90%
Denver County 1	Doull Elementary School	323	416	-22.36%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove Creek High School	138	122	13.11%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove's Nest Early Care and Education Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Downtown Denver Expeditionary School	274	344	-20.35%
Denver County 1	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College	1,144	1279	-10.56%
Jefferson County R-1	Drake Junior High School	935	920	1.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Dry Creek Elementary School	341	406	-16.01%
Denver County 1	DSST Middle School @ Noel Campus	456	309	47.57%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers High School	557	529	5.29%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers Middle School	476	482	-1.24%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole High School	357	362	-1.38%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole Middle School	262	346	-24.28%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View High School	581	539	7.79%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View Middle School	484	471	2.76%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green High School	576	442	30.32%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green Middle School	447	472	-5.30%
Denver County 1	DSST: Elevate Northeast High School	160	-	-
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch High School	565	556	1.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch Middle School	479	482	-0.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview High School	570	577	-1.21%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview Middle School	475	474	0.21%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dual Immersion Academy School	283	309	-8.41%
Poudre R-1	Dunn Elementary School	383	409	-6.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Dunstan Middle School	830	941	-11.80%
Adams County 14	Dupont Elementary School	408	477	-14.47%
Durango 9-R	Durango Big Picture High School	84	76	10.53%
Durango 9-R	Durango High School	1,350	1227	10.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Dutch Creek Elementary School	276	284	-2.82%
Eads RE-1	Eads Elementary School	132	119	10.92%
Eads RE-1	Eads High School	44	49	-10.20%
Eads RE-1	Eads Middle School	43	35	22.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Academy	126	136	-7.35%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle County Charter Academy	360	346	4.05%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Eagle Crest Elementary School	426	583	-26.93%
School District 27J	Eagle Ridge Academy	526	522	0.77%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Ridge Elementary School	597	627	-4.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Early College High School	3	23	-86.96%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley High School	1,072	959	11.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Middle School	350	377	-7.16%
Cherry Creek 5	Eaglecrest High School	3,134	3063	2.32%
Fountain 8	Eagleside Elementary School	525	591	-11.17%
Denver County 1	Eagleton Elementary School	258	309	-16.50%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Eagleview Elementary School	518	561	-7.66%
Academy 20	Eagleview Middle School	954	1017	-6.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Early Childhood Center	95	93	2.15%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Early Childhood Center	153	176	-13.07%
Montrose County RE-1J	Early Childhood Center	192	310	-38.06%
Sheridan 2	Early Childhood Education Center	106	162	-34.57%
Greeley 6	Early College Academy	328	279	17.56%
Charter School Institute	Early College of Arvada	251	335	-25.07%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Francis M. Day	26	-	-
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Gregory Hill	219	248	-11.69%
Charter School Institute	Early Learning Center at New Legacy Charter School	3	8	-62.50%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Perl Mack	14	22	-36.36%
Littleton 6	East Elementary School	202	283	-28.62%
East Grand 2	East Grand Middle School	302	326	-7.36%
Denver County 1	East High School	2,589	2556	1.29%
Pueblo City 60	East High School	934	986	-5.27%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	East Middle School	861	913	-5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	East Middle School	406	455	-10.77%
Colorado Springs 11	Eastlake High School of Colorado Springs	96	163	-41.10%
Cherry Creek 5	Eastridge Community Elementary School	780	886	-11.96%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Elementary School	404	414	-2.42%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton High School	587	573	2.44%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Middle School	488	464	5.17%
Greeley 6	ECC Aims District 6 Preschool	150	140	7.14%
Douglas County Re 1	eDCSD	34	35	-2.86%
Jefferson County R-1	Edgewater Elementary School	285	376	-24.20%
Denver County 1	Edison Elementary School	522	559	-6.62%
Colorado Springs 11	Edison Elementary School	273	323	-15.48%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Elementary School	45	54	-16.67%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Junior-Senior High School	38	66	-42.42%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Prep	54	123	-56.10%
Park County RE-2	Edith Teter Elementary School	211	250	-15.60%
Academy 20	Edith Wolford Elementary School	335	378	-11.38%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Edna and John W. Mosley P-8	940	1038	-9.44%
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Early Learning Center	98	-	-
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Elementary School	299	279	7.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Eiber Elementary School	281	314	-10.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eisenhower Elementary School	353	402	-12.19%
School District 27J	Elaine S. Padilla	386	-	-
Elbert 200	Elbert Elementary School	127	110	15.45%
Elbert 200	Elbert Junior-Senior High School	154	144	6.94%
Douglas County Re 1	Eldorado Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eldorado K-8 School	663	841	-21.17%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth High School	663	657	0.91%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Middle School	428	404	5.94%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Running Creek Preschool	72	78	-7.69%
Garfield Re-2	Elk Creek Elementary	250	288	-13.19%
Jefferson County R-1	Elk Creek Elementary School	358	389	-7.97%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Elkhart Elementary School	489	569	-14.06%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Elementary School	524	586	-10.58%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Middle School	202	250	-19.20%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Senior High School	276	306	-9.80%
Denver County 1	Ellis Elementary School	375	388	-3.35%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Emerald Elementary School	383	429	-10.72%
Denver County 1	Emily Griffith High School	258	385	-32.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Emory Elementary School	386	441	-12.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Empower Community High School	171	120	42.50%
Academy 20	Encompass Heights Elementary School	399	-	-
Cherry Creek 5	Endeavor Academy	240	283	-15.19%
Englewood 1	Englewood Early Childhood Education Center at Maddox	217	230	-5.65%
Englewood 1	Englewood High School	548	554	-1.08%
Englewood 1	Englewood Leadership Academy	93	79	17.72%
Englewood 1	Englewood Middle School	214	282	-24.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Elementary School	357	355	0.56%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie High School	1,713	1467	16.77%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Middle School	782	826	-5.33%
Durango 9-R	Escalante Middle School	522	516	1.16%
Denver County 1	Escalante-Biggs Academy	322	322	0.00%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park High School	375	351	6.84%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park K-5 School	424	477	-11.11%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Middle School	227	267	-14.98%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Options School	32	56	-42.86%
Littleton 6	Euclid Middle School	764	774	-1.29%
Pueblo City 60	Eva R Baca Elementary School	232	279	-16.85%
District 49	Evans CPCD Head Start	1	-	-
District 49	Evans Elementary School	500	621	-19.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen High School	975	1096	-11.04%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen Middle School	588	689	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Everitt Middle School	521	601	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Excel Academy	257	275	-6.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Excel Academy Charter School	506	516	-1.94%
Mapleton 1	Explore Pk-8	578	425	36.00%
Academy 20	Explorer Elementary School	494	511	-3.33%
Poudre R-1	Eyestone Elementary School	609	646	-5.73%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Facilities with District Run Education	12	19	-36.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Fairmount Elementary School	592	621	-4.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Fairview Elementary School	299	326	-8.28%
Denver County 1	Fairview Elementary School	174	211	-17.54%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fairview High School	1,977	2131	-7.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Falcon Bluffs Middle School	620	663	-6.49%
Cherry Creek 5	Falcon Creek Middle School	736	880	-16.36%
District 49	Falcon Elementary School of Technology	259	283	-8.48%
District 49	Falcon High School	1,279	1240	3.15%
District 49	Falcon Homeschool Program	531	422	25.83%
District 49	Falcon Middle School	924	1021	-9.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Fall River Elementary School	482	526	-8.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Family Learning Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Farrell B. Howell ECE-8 School	588	710	-17.18%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Federal Heights Elementary School	427	502	-14.94%
Littleton 6	Field Elementary School	283	292	-3.08%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fireside Elementary School	463	484	-4.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Firestone Charter Academy	626	601	4.16%
Trinidad 1	Fisher's Peak Elementary School	374	292	28.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Fitzmorris Elementary School	155	211	-26.54%
Platte Canyon 1	Fitzsimmons Middle School	169	198	-14.65%
Arriba-Flagler C-20	Flagler Public School	139	152	-8.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Flagstaff Charter Academy	774	921	-15.96%
Douglas County Re 1	Flagstone Elementary School	432	489	-11.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Flatirons Elementary School	182	211	-13.74%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming Elementary School	135	133	1.50%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming High School	82	74	10.81%
Denver County 1	Florence Crittenton High School	92	105	-12.38%
Fremont RE-2	Florence Jr./Sr. High School	598	580	3.10%
Durango 9-R	Florida Mesa Elementary School	257	296	-13.18%
Denver County 1	Florida Pitt-Waller ECE-8 School	812	845	-3.91%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Foothill Elementary School	434	457	-5.03%
Academy 20	Foothills Elementary School	398	440	-9.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Foothills Elementary School	254	293	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Force Elementary School	325	392	-17.09%
Littleton 6	Ford Elementary	653	-	-
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins High School	1,991	1856	7.27%
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins Montessori School	219	141	55.32%
Durango 9-R	Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Sheridan 2	Fort Logan Northgate	457	541	-15.53%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton High School	726	692	4.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton Middle School	457	476	-3.99%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan High School	904	938	-3.62%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan Middle School	722	713	1.26%
Poudre R-1	Fossil Ridge High School	2,263	2118	6.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Foster Dual Language PK-8	358	453	-20.97%
School District 27J	Foundations Academy	753	751	0.27%
Pueblo City 60	Fountain International Magnet School	293	341	-14.08%
Fountain 8	Fountain Middle School	1,087	1084	0.28%
Fountain 8	Fountain-Fort Carson High School	1,969	1829	7.65%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Elementary School	200	194	3.09%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler High School	116	112	3.57%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Junior High School	50	53	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Fox Creek Elementary School	474	528	-10.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Hollow Elementary School	572	657	-12.94%
Harrison 2	Fox Meadow Middle School	499	583	-14.41%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Ridge Middle School	1,125	1085	3.69%
Greeley 6	Franklin Middle School	482	552	-12.68%
Pueblo City 60	Franklin School of Innovation	323	390	-17.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Franktown Elementary School	363	364	-0.27%
East Grand 2	Fraser Valley Elementary School	241	267	-9.74%
Greeley 6	Fred Tjardes School of Innovation	123	127	-3.15%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Frederick Senior High School	1,331	1181	12.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Free Horizon Montessori	440	457	-3.72%
Colorado Springs 11	Freedom Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Fremont Elementary School	234	197	18.78%
Fremont RE-2	Fremont Elementary School	502	509	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Fremont Elementary School	394	486	-18.93%
Denver County 1	French American School of Denver	97	-	-
Widefield 3	French Elementary School	549	605	-9.26%
Summit RE-1	Frisco Elementary School	248	265	-6.42%
Greeley 6	Frontier Charter Academy	1,621	1628	-0.43%
Academy 20	Frontier Elementary School	266	313	-15.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Frontier Valley Elementary School	414	488	-15.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita 8/9 School	740	803	-7.85%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Middle School	530	609	-12.97%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Monument High School	1,382	1334	3.60%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruitvale Elementary School	399	412	-3.16%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Fulton Academy of Excellence	369	432	-14.58%
Eaton RE-2	Galeton Elementary School	115	129	-10.85%
Colorado Springs 11	Galileo School of Math and Science	435	506	-14.03%
Denver County 1	Garden Place Academy	345	358	-3.63%
Huerfano Re-1	Gardner Valley School	82	81	1.23%
Thompson R2-J	Garfield Elementary School	211	255	-17.25%
Delta County 50(J)	Garnet Mesa Elementary School	490	556	-11.87%
Woodland Park Re-2	Gateway Elementary School	301	345	-12.75%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Gateway High School	1,433	1511	-5.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Gateway School	14	29	-51.72%
Genoa-Hugo C113	Genoa-Hugo School	213	220	-3.18%
Denver County 1	George Washington High School	1,262	1188	6.23%
Clear Creek RE-1	Georgetown Community School	105	107	-1.87%
Harrison 2	Giberson Elementary School	325	385	-15.58%
Weld County RE-1	Gilcrest Elementary School	200	189	5.82%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Elementary School	203	223	-8.97%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Undivided High School	234	275	-14.91%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School High School	110	133	-17.29%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School Middle School	227	297	-23.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Glacier Peak Elementary School	440	444	-0.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Glennon Heights Elementary School	156	195	-20.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Elementary School	457	509	-10.22%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs High School	1,015	961	5.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Middle School	422	484	-12.81%
Mapleton 1	Global Intermediate Academy	337	280	20.36%
Mapleton 1	Global Leadership Academy	311	266	16.92%
Mapleton 1	Global Primary Academy	289	289	0.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Global Village Academy - Douglas County	383	389	-1.54%
Charter School Institute	Global Village Academy - Northglenn	852	883	-3.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Global Village Academy Aurora	855	947	-9.71%
Colorado Springs 11	Globe Charter School	95	176	-46.02%
District 49	GOAL Academy	5,328	4965	7.31%
Littleton 6	Goddard Middle School	589	774	-23.90%
Denver County 1	Godsman Elementary School	320	362	-11.60%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Gold Camp Elementary School	479	472	1.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Gold Hill Elementary School	17	20	-15.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Gold Rush Elementary	663	715	-7.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Golden High School	1,363	1372	-0.66%
Charter School Institute	Golden View Classical Academy	726	678	7.08%
Denver County 1	Goldrick Elementary School	328	347	-5.48%
Pueblo City 60	Goodnight Elementary School	571	639	-10.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Governor's Ranch Elementary School	331	356	-7.02%
Garfield Re-2	Graham Mesa Elementary School	419	429	-2.33%
Granada RE-1	Granada Elementary School	111	113	-1.77%
Granada RE-1	Granada Undivided High School	85	84	1.19%
East Grand 2	Granby Elementary School	331	335	-1.19%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Junction High School	1,479	1452	1.86%
Delta County 50(J)	Grand Mesa Choice Academy	85	65	30.77%
Plateau Valley 50	Grand Mesa High School	13	102	-87.25%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Mesa Middle School	604	644	-6.21%
Widefield 3	Grand Mountain School	1,027	901	13.98%
District 49	Grand Peak Academy	618	760	-18.68%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand River Academy	513	328	56.40%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Center for Family Learning	223	341	-34.60%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley High School	326	351	-7.12%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Middle School	267	282	-5.32%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Grand View Elementary	438	387	13.18%
Windsor RE-4	Grandview Elementary School	763	614	24.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Grandview High School	2,851	2947	-3.26%
Denver County 1	Grant Beacon Middle School	429	459	-6.54%
Colorado Springs 11	Grant Elementary School	361	467	-22.70%
Denver County 1	Grant Ranch ECE-8 School	344	378	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Great Work Montessori	237	210	12.86%
Greeley 6	Greeley Central High School	1,566	1532	2.22%
Greeley 6	Greeley West High School	1,732	1666	3.96%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Green Acres Elementary School	294	304	-3.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Gables Elementary School	259	209	23.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain Elementary School	209	228	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain High School	1,081	1124	-3.83%
Denver County 1	Green Valley Elementary School	636	683	-6.88%
Cherry Creek 5	Greenwood Elementary School	372	406	-8.37%
South Conejos RE-10	Guadalupe Elementary School	85	84	1.19%
Park County RE-2	Guffey Charter School	25	38	-34.21%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Elementary School	533	528	0.95%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison High School	393	394	-0.25%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Middle School	285	282	1.06%
Denver County 1	Gust Elementary School	573	630	-9.05%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Creek Middle School	345	378	-8.73%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Elementary School	351	323	8.67%
Pueblo City 60	Haaff Elementary School	293	325	-9.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Hackberry Hill Elementary School	367	409	-10.27%
Valley RE-1	Hagen Early Education Center	108	171	-36.84%
Denver County 1	Hallett Academy	262	289	-9.34%
Denver County 1	Hamilton Middle School	701	765	-8.37%
Hanover 28	Hanover Junior-Senior High School	155	133	16.54%
Adams County 14	Hanson Elementary School	267	395	-32.41%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Harmony Ridge P-8	729	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Harold Ferguson High School	114	122	-6.56%
Poudre R-1	Harris Bilingual Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Westminster Public Schools	Harris Park Elementary School	244	266	-8.27%
Harrison 2	Harrison High School	1,129	1075	5.02%
Canon City RE-1	Harrison School	603	670	-10.00%
Center 26 JT	Haskin Elementary School	290	310	-6.45%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun Elementary School	245	265	-7.55%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun High School	96	80	20.00%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden High School	99	109	-9.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Middle School	94	92	2.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Valley Elementary School	243	219	10.96%
Greeley 6	Heath Middle School	696	751	-7.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Heatherwood Elementary School	263	294	-10.54%
Greeley 6	Heiman Elementary School	712	708	0.56%
Strasburg 31J	Hemphill Middle School	281	251	11.95%
School District 27J	Henderson Elementary School	357	362	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Henry Elementary School	367	353	3.97%
Pueblo City 60	Heritage Elementary School	303	327	-7.34%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Elementary School	297	341	-12.90%
Douglas County Re 1	Heritage Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Heights Academy	393	327	20.18%
Littleton 6	Heritage High School	1,724	1691	1.95%
Hi-Plains R-23	Hi-Plains School District R-23	153	130	17.69%
Westminster Public Schools	Hidden Lake High School	489	358	36.59%
Boulder Valley Re 2	High Peaks Elementary School	259	296	-12.50%
Cherry Creek 5	High Plains Elementary School	514	566	-9.19%
Academy 20	High Plains Elementary School	255	322	-20.81%
Thompson R2-J	High Plains School	450	568	-20.77%
Charter School Institute	High Point Academy	715	715	0.00%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Elementary School	450	419	7.40%
Littleton 6	Highland Elementary School	322	301	6.98%
Garfield Re-2	Highland Elementary School	463	492	-5.89%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland High School	305	285	7.02%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Middle School	258	239	7.95%
Pueblo City 60	Highland Park Elementary School	390	487	-19.92%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Highlands Elementary School	249	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Highlands Ranch High School	1,581	1680	-5.89%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Northeast	547	546	0.18%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Southeast	528	520	1.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Highline Community Elementary School	412	493	-16.43%
Denver County 1	Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences	717	844	-15.05%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hillcrest Elementary School	391	433	-9.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Hinkley High School	1,948	2091	-6.84%
Hoehne Reorganized 3	Hoehne Schools	314	365	-13.97%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hoff Elementary School	312	224	39.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Holly Hills Elementary School	490	542	-9.59%
Holly RE-3	Holly School	275	304	-9.54%
Denver County 1	Holm Elementary School	458	475	-3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Holmes Middle School	536	624	-14.10%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Alternative School	25	10	150.00%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Elementary School	292	313	-6.71%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Senior High School	261	264	-1.14%
Academy 20	Home School Academy	563	531	6.03%
Eagle County RE 50	Homestake Peak School	521	611	-14.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Homestead Elementary School	385	473	-18.60%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy High School	1,600	590	171.19%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy Middle School	414	489	-15.34%
Littleton 6	Hopkins Elementary School	339	346	-2.02%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Horizon High School	1,999	2059	-2.91%
District 49	Horizon Middle School	709	769	-7.80%
Cherry Creek 5	Horizon Middle School	859	983	-12.61%
Salida R-32	Horizons Exploratory Academy	29	32	-9.38%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Horizons K-8 School	348	348	0.00%
Delta County 50(J)	Hotchkiss Elementary School	300	340	-11.76%
Colorado Springs 11	Howbert Elementary School	251	286	-12.24%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hudson Elementary School	297	320	-7.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hulstrom Options K-8 School	638	678	-5.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hunters Glen Elementary School	408	471	-13.38%
Jefferson County R-1	Hutchinson Elementary School	277	260	6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Hygiene Elementary School	326	351	-7.12%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Elementary School	95	110	-13.64%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Junior-Senior High School	91	90	1.11%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Elementary School	265	320	-17.19%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio High School	215	221	-2.71%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Middle School	160	184	-13.04%
Mesa County Valley 51	Independence Academy	470	415	13.25%
Cherry Creek 5	Independence Elementary School	401	501	-19.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Indian Peaks Elementary School	252	311	-18.97%
Cherry Creek 5	Indian Ridge Elementary School	474	514	-7.78%
Cherry Creek 5	Infinity Middle School	787	770	2.21%
School District 27J	Innovations & Options	199	293	-32.08%
Centennial BOCES	Innovative Connections High School	27	36	-25.00%
District 49	Inspiration View Elementary School	537	379	41.69%
Denver County 1	Inspire Elementary	537	347	54.76%
Denver County 1	International Academy of Denver at Harrington	167	221	-24.43%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Iowa Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Poudre R-1	Irish Elementary School	379	390	-2.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Iron Horse Elementary School	457	460	-0.65%
Pueblo City 60	Irving Elementary School	332	353	-5.95%
Jefferson County R-1	Irwin Preschool	20	84	-76.19%
Denver County 1	Isabella Bird Community School	454	529	-14.18%
Westminster Public Schools	Iver C. Ranum Middle School	376	592	-36.49%
Thompson R2-J	Ivy Stockwell Elementary School	389	407	-4.42%
Colorado Springs 11	Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy	518	578	-10.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Jackson Elementary School	352	370	-4.86%
Greeley 6	Jackson Elementary School	390	421	-7.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jamaica Child Development Center	151	203	-25.62%
Charter School Institute	James Irwin Charter Academy	308	326	-5.52%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Elementary School	531	535	-0.75%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter High School	416	441	-5.67%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Middle School	459	471	-2.55%
Widefield 3	James Madison Charter Academy School	96	108	-11.11%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Jamestown Elementary School	20	20	0.00%
Widefield 3	Janitell Junior High School	626	740	-15.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Transition Services School	129	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Virtual Academy	1,446	304	375.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy	1,155	1051	9.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy Elementary	764	749	2.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy High School	427	414	3.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Elementary School	228	245	-6.94%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Secondary	315	318	-0.94%
Rocky Ford R-2	Jefferson Intermediate School	214	226	-5.31%
Greeley 6	Jefferson Junior/Senior High	577	634	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Junior/Senior High School	627	672	-6.70%
Colorado Springs 11	Jenkins Middle School	763	894	-14.65%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jewell Elementary School	523	412	26.94%
Denver County 1	Joe Shoemaker School	438	471	-7.01%
Westminster Public Schools	John E. Flynn A Marzano Academy	326	291	12.03%
Denver County 1	John F Kennedy High School	908	926	-1.94%
Denver County 1	John H. Amesse Elementary	389	442	-11.99%
Huerfano Re-1	John Mall High School	123	145	-15.17%
School District 27J	John W Thimmig Elementary School	553	641	-13.73%
Littleton 6	John Wesley Powell Middle School	611	824	-25.85%
Montrose County RE-1J	Johnson Elementary School	510	511	-0.20%
Denver County 1	Johnson Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Poudre R-1	Johnson Elementary School	374	449	-16.70%
Fountain 8	Jordahl Elementary School	554	601	-7.82%
Westminster Public Schools	Josephine Hodgkins Leadership Academy	636	651	-2.30%
Academy 20	Journey K8	303	137	121.17%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg Elementary School	122	156	-21.79%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg High School	108	128	-15.63%
Las Animas RE-1	Jump Start Learning Center	43	30	43.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Juniper Ridge Community School	414	359	15.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Justice High Charter School	82	98	-16.33%
Denver County 1	Kaiser Elementary School	227	329	-31.00%
Karval RE-23	Karval Elementary School	23	37	-37.84%
Karval RE-23	Karval Junior-Senior High School	20	18	11.11%
Garfield Re-2	Kathryn Senor Elementary School	288	309	-6.80%
Adams County 14	Kearney Middle School	728	794	-8.31%
Colorado Springs 11	Keller Elementary School	380	451	-15.74%
Adams County 14	Kemp Elementary School	452	501	-9.78%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Kemper Elementary School	333	379	-12.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Ken Caryl Middle School	785	878	-10.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendallvue Elementary School	314	348	-9.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendrick Lakes Elementary School	369	393	-6.11%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Kenneth Homyak PK-8	298	281	6.05%
Yuma 1	Kenneth P Morris Elementary School	304	320	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Kenton Elementary School	417	487	-14.37%
Denver County 1	Kepner Beacon Middle School	428	398	7.54%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Elementary School	11	22	-50.00%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Undivided High School	21	26	-19.23%
Poudre R-1	Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School	830	840	-1.19%
Colorado Springs 11	King Elementary School	306	344	-11.05%
Clear Creek RE-1	King-Murphy Elementary School	124	118	5.08%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Elementary School	147	145	1.38%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa High School	74	60	23.33%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Middle School	55	47	17.02%
Denver County 1	KIPP Denver Collegiate High School	488	489	-0.20%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy	565	543	4.05%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Middle School	459	492	-6.71%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Elementary	500	484	3.31%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy	385	430	-10.47%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary	155	115	34.78%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Elementary School	43	47	-8.51%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Junior-Senior High School	57	62	-8.06%
Denver County 1	Knapp Elementary School	394	471	-16.35%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Knowledge Quest Academy	407	402	1.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Kohl Elementary School	319	384	-16.93%
Poudre R-1	Kruse Elementary School	454	530	-14.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Kullerstrand Elementary School	189	202	-6.44%
Denver County 1	Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy	873	920	-5.11%
Charter School Institute	Kwiyagat Community Academy	27	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Kyffin Elementary School	472	464	1.72%
North Conejos RE-1J	La Jara Elementary School	209	229	-8.73%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Intermediate School	418	450	-7.11%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Jr/Sr High School	530	653	-18.84%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Primary School	296	319	-7.21%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Elementary School	88	94	-6.38%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Junior-Senior High School	119	118	0.85%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Lafayette Elementary School	477	503	-5.17%
Hinsdale County RE 1	Lake City Community School	77	87	-11.49%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Elementary School	297	217	36.87%
Lake County R-1	Lake County High School	419	467	-10.28%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Intermediate School	258	297	-13.13%
Park County RE-2	Lake George Charter School	137	153	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Lake Middle School	547	402	36.07%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Lake Preschool	73	86	-15.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Lakewood High School	1,991	2046	-2.69%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar High School	466	441	5.67%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar Middle School	343	329	4.26%
School District 27J	Landmark Academy at Reunion	761	749	1.60%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lansing Elementary Community School	342	383	-10.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Child Development Center	232	261	-11.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Elementary School	396	441	-10.20%
Cherry Creek 5	Laredo Middle School	974	1052	-7.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Larkspur Elementary School	216	237	-8.86%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Elementary School	245	241	1.66%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas High School	115	138	-16.67%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Junior High School	72	73	-1.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Lasley Elementary School	293	412	-28.88%
Poudre R-1	Laurel Elementary School	434	447	-2.91%
Thompson R2-J	Laurene Edmondson Elementary School	252	223	13.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Lawrence Elementary School	261	287	-9.06%
Thompson R2-J	LEAP School	112	176	-36.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Leawood Elementary School	337	363	-7.16%
Elizabeth School District	Legacy Academy	499	465	7.31%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Legacy Elementary School	446	528	-15.53%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Legacy High School	2,376	2445	-2.82%
Denver County 1	Legacy Options High School	132	95	38.95%
Academy 20	Legacy Peak Elementary School	621	558	11.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Legacy Point Elementary School	353	358	-1.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Legend High School	2,250	2215	1.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Leman Classical Academy	1,038	748	38.77%
Denver County 1	Lena Archuleta Elementary School	454	493	-7.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Leo William Butler Elementary School	410	404	1.49%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Leroy Drive Elementary School	387	393	-1.53%
Poudre R-1	Lesher Middle School	778	792	-1.77%
Adams County 14	Lester R Arnold High School	203	253	-19.76%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Letford Elementary School	424	484	-12.40%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Lewis-Arriola Elementary School	121	128	-5.47%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Elementary School	403	475	-15.16%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer High School	1,152	1132	1.77%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Middle School	797	906	-12.03%
Poudre R-1	Liberty Common Charter School	1,150	1148	0.17%
Academy 20	Liberty High School	1,665	1656	0.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Liberty Middle School	892	1056	-15.53%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point Elementary School	406	365	11.23%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point International School	527	552	-4.53%
Liberty J-4	Liberty School	64	68	-5.88%
District 49	Liberty Tree Academy	648	501	29.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Elementary School	199	182	9.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Junior-Senior High School	249	268	-7.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Lincoln Charter Academy	779	804	-3.11%
Thompson R2-J	Lincoln Elementary School	226	248	-8.87%
Delta County 50(J)	Lincoln Elementary School	475	534	-11.05%
Denver County 1	Lincoln Elementary School	293	344	-14.83%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Lincoln High School	43	44	-2.27%
Poudre R-1	Lincoln Middle School	539	607	-11.20%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School	365	351	3.99%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Park Preschool	21	29	-27.59%
Canon City RE-1	Lincoln School of Science and Technology	259	282	-8.16%
Poudre R-1	Linton Elementary School	375	414	-9.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Little Elementary School	246	304	-19.08%
Yuma 1	Little Indians Preschool	64	64	0.00%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Little Trappers Preschool	155	182	-14.84%
Littleton 6	Littleton Academy	455	463	-1.73%
Littleton 6	Littleton High School	1,293	1242	4.11%
Littleton 6	Littleton Prep Charter School	542	584	-7.19%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Lochbuie Elementary School	277	296	-6.42%
Littleton 6	Lois Lenski Elementary School	409	541	-24.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Loma Elementary School	237	304	-22.04%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Elementary School	46	55	-16.36%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Middle School	37	34	8.82%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Lone Tree Elementary	377	421	-10.45%
Salida R-32	Longfellow Elementary School	430	428	0.47%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont Estates Elementary School	309	358	-13.69%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont High School	1,275	1261	1.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longs Peak Middle School	391	458	-14.63%
Jefferson County R-1	Longview High School	16	49	-67.35%
Poudre R-1	Lopez Elementary School	362	427	-15.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lotus School for Excellence	956	916	4.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Elementary School	454	516	-12.02%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Middle School	590	653	-9.65%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland Classical School	949	917	3.49%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland High School	1,520	1595	-4.70%
Denver County 1	Lowry Elementary School	463	525	-11.81%
Thompson R2-J	Lucile Erwin Middle School	816	898	-9.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Lukas Elementary School	247	324	-23.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Lumberg Elementary School	316	400	-21.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Elementary School	285	312	-8.65%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Middle/Senior High School	366	397	-7.81%
Greeley 6	Madison Elementary School	394	433	-9.01%
Colorado Springs 11	Madison Elementary School	303	347	-12.68%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Malley Drive Elementary School	442	444	-0.45%
Douglas County Re 1	Mammoth Heights Elementary	677	668	1.35%
North Conejos RE-1J	Manassa Elementary School	203	228	-10.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Manaugh Elementary School	229	264	-13.26%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Early Learning Center	32	43	-25.58%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Elementary School	179	209	-14.35%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos High School	142	138	2.90%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Middle School	132	117	12.82%
Jefferson County R-1	Mandalay Middle School	486	575	-15.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Manhattan Middle School of the Arts and Academics	430	541	-20.52%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Elementary School	405	453	-10.60%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs High School	465	474	-1.90%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Middle School	282	355	-20.56%
Colorado Springs 11	Mann Middle School	397	434	-8.53%
Jefferson County R-1	Manning Options School	678	675	0.44%
Denver County 1	Manual High School	313	299	4.68%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Elementary School	50	68	-26.47%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Junior-Senior High School	101	101	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Maple Grove Elementary School	326	337	-3.26%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mapleton Early Childhood Center	92	109	-15.60%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Early College High School	279	266	4.89%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts	541	702	-22.93%
Greeley 6	Maplewood Elementary School	548	611	-10.31%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Marble Charter School	42	48	-12.50%
Denver County 1	Marie L. Greenwood Academy	527	555	-5.05%
Denver County 1	Marrama Elementary School	478	491	-2.65%
Monte Vista C-8	Marsh Elementary School	150	157	-4.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Marshdale Elementary School	307	314	-2.23%
Widefield 3	Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School	471	467	0.86%
Greeley 6	Martinez Elementary School	438	497	-11.87%
Colorado Springs 11	Martinez Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Thompson R2-J	Mary Blair Elementary School	188	261	-27.97%
School District 27J	Mary E Pennock Elementary School	642	643	-0.16%
Denver County 1	Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy	154	163	-5.52%
Denver County 1	Maxwell Elementary School	651	649	0.31%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Maybell School	19	13	46.15%
Colorado Springs 11	McAuliffe Elementary	485	555	-12.61%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe International School	1,558	1589	-1.95%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe Manual Middle School	260	310	-16.13%
McClave Re-2	McClave Elementary School	124	139	-10.79%
McClave Re-2	McClave Undivided High School	113	90	25.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	McElwain Elementary School	362	431	-16.01%
Denver County 1	McGlone Academy	885	913	-3.07%
Poudre R-1	McGraw Elementary School	400	435	-8.05%
Canon City RE-1	McKinley Elementary School	223	175	27.43%
Denver County 1	McKinley-Thatcher Elementary School	228	228	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	McLain Community High School	397	392	1.28%
Denver County 1	McMeen Elementary School	555	501	10.78%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Elementary School	717	640	12.03%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead High School	1,083	1147	-5.58%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Middle School	533	478	11.51%
Mapleton 1	Meadow Community School	411	503	-18.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Meadow Point Elementary School	422	498	-15.26%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Meadow Ridge Elementary School	378	424	-10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Meadow View Elementary School	514	488	5.33%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Meadowlark School	668	680	-1.76%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Meadowood Child Development Center	213	277	-23.10%
Greeley 6	Meeker Elementary School	479	504	-4.96%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker Elementary School	340	375	-9.33%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker High School	226	197	14.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Meiklejohn Elementary	469	520	-9.81%
Lamar Re-2	Melvin Hendrickson Development Center	113	123	-8.13%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Meridian Elementary School	549	609	-9.85%
District 49	Meridian Ranch Elementary School	663	677	-2.07%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Elementary School	159	166	-4.22%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Junior Senior High School	146	136	7.35%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Merit Academy	287	-	-
Denver County 1	Merrill Middle School	601	561	7.13%
Fountain 8	Mesa Elementary School	539	524	2.86%
Westminster Public Schools	Mesa Elementary School	297	305	-2.62%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mesa Elementary School	247	261	-5.36%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Mesa Elementary School	288	343	-16.03%
Douglas County Re 1	Mesa Middle School	998	865	15.38%
Widefield 3	Mesa Ridge High School	1,234	1325	-6.87%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa Valley Community School	400	396	1.01%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa View Elementary School	359	384	-6.51%
Westminster Public Schools	Metropolitan Arts Academy	344	332	3.61%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami-Yoder Middle/High School	166	151	9.93%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami/Yoder Elementary School	147	137	7.30%
East Grand 2	Middle Park High School	412	426	-3.29%
Colorado Springs 11	Midland Elementary School	128	189	-32.28%
Adams County 14	Mildred L Sanville Preschool	53	83	-36.14%
Durango 9-R	Miller Middle School	470	506	-7.11%
Jefferson County R-1	Miller Special Education	100	101	-0.99%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Elementary School	479	617	-22.37%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Middle School	661	814	-18.80%
Pueblo City 60	Minnequa Elementary School	299	447	-33.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Mission Viejo Elementary School	552	576	-4.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Mitchell Elementary School	531	570	-6.84%
Colorado Springs 11	Mitchell High School	1,040	1174	-11.41%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Moffat County High School	566	549	3.10%
Moffat 2	Moffat Prek-12 School	134	139	-3.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Molholm Elementary School	254	332	-23.49%
Adams County 14	Monaco Elementary School	249	287	-13.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch High School	1,515	1664	-8.95%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch K-8 School	697	765	-8.89%
Denver County 1	Monarch Montessori	220	205	7.32%
Greeley 6	Monfort Elementary School	456	478	-4.60%
Thompson R2-J	Monroe Elementary School	287	242	18.60%
Colorado Springs 11	Monroe Elementary School	364	433	-15.94%
Denver County 1	Montbello Career and Technical High School	95	72	31.94%
Denver County 1	Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment	352	400	-12.00%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Middle School	239	221	8.14%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista On-Line Academy	93	114	-18.42%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Senior High School	265	270	-1.85%
Mapleton 1	Monterey Community School	366	-	-
Harrison 2	Monterey Elementary School	248	323	-23.22%
Charter School Institute	Montessori del Mundo Charter School	315	359	-12.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Montessori Peaks Charter Academy	425	476	-10.71%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez High School	634	628	0.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez Middle School	539	594	-9.26%
Montrose County RE-1J	Montrose High School	1,396	1321	5.68%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Montview Math & Health Sciences Elementary School	304	352	-13.64%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy	693	-	-
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy Secondary School	475	966	-50.83%
Mesa County Valley 51	Monument Ridge Elementary School	328	-	-
Charter School Institute	Monument View Montessori Charter School	61	46	32.61%
Littleton 6	Moody Elementary School	291	356	-18.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Moore Middle School	492	583	-15.61%
Denver County 1	Morey Middle School	418	354	18.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Mortensen Elementary School	317	369	-14.09%
Pueblo City 60	Morton Elementary School	366	441	-17.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Mount Carbon Elementary School	398	443	-10.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mount Garfield Middle School	565	641	-11.86%
Canon City RE-1	Mount View Core Knowledge Charter School	252	252	0.00%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Middle School	275	245	12.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Mountain Phoenix Community School	620	664	-6.63%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain Range High School	1,808	1892	-4.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Ridge Middle School	925	1088	-14.98%
Academy 20	Mountain Ridge Middle School	766	989	-22.55%
Poudre R-1	Mountain Sage Community School	287	318	-9.75%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Song Community School	403	370	8.92%
Mountain Valley RE 1	Mountain Valley School	185	170	8.82%
District 49	Mountain View Academy	354	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain View Elementary School	330	314	5.10%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain View Elementary School	569	598	-4.85%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mountain View Elementary School	303	322	-5.90%
Windsor RE-4	Mountain View Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Academy 20	Mountain View Elementary School	558	604	-7.62%
Thompson R2-J	Mountain View High School	1,196	1172	2.05%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Community School	576	550	4.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Mountain Vista Elementary School	661	685	-3.50%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Vista High School	2,365	2381	-0.67%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Homeschool Academy	324	321	0.93%
Fountain 8	Mountainside Elementary School	426	473	-9.94%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Mrachek Middle School	904	974	-7.19%
Denver County 1	Munroe Elementary School	375	421	-10.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Murphy Creek K-8 School	671	724	-7.32%
Thompson R2-J	Namaqua Elementary School	243	314	-22.61%
West End RE-2	Naturita Elementary School	138	132	4.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Elementary School	202	253	-20.16%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Middle-Senior High School	253	247	2.43%
Durango 9-R	Needham Elementary School	410	427	-3.98%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nevin Platt Middle School	454	532	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	New America School	113	152	-25.66%
Charter School Institute	New America School - Aurora	169	285	-40.70%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	New America School - Thornton	244	337	-27.60%
Jefferson County R-1	New Classical Academy at Vivian	144	140	2.86%
Mesa County Valley 51	New Emerson School at Columbus	141	141	0.00%
Charter School Institute	New Legacy Charter School	84	98	-14.29%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	New Meridian High School	98	114	-14.04%
Academy 20	New Summit Charter Academy	601	554	8.48%
Thompson R2-J	New Vision Charter School	960	713	34.64%
Boulder Valley Re 2	New Vista High School	286	326	-12.27%
Denver County 1	Newlon Elementary School	301	375	-19.73%
Littleton 6	Newton Middle School	738	631	16.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center	263	249	5.62%
Mesa County Valley 51	Nisley Elementary School	345	416	-17.07%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot Elementary School	420	483	-13.04%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot High School	1,287	1177	9.35%
Denver County 1	Noel Community Arts School	390	425	-8.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Normandy Elementary School	305	363	-15.98%
Jefferson County R-1	North Arvada Middle School	479	602	-20.43%
North Conejos RE-1J	North Conejos Alternative Program	26	42	-38.10%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork High School	300	172	74.42%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork Montessori @ Crawford	130	145	-10.34%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork School of Integrated Studies	118	75	57.33%
Denver County 1	North High School	1,711	1350	26.74%
Denver County 1	North High School Engagement Center	96	104	-7.69%
Pueblo County 70	North Mesa Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Colorado Springs 11	North Middle School	550	667	-17.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	North Middle School Health Sciences and Technology Campus	633	651	-2.76%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Mor Elementary School	391	451	-13.30%
North Park R-1	North Park School	173	179	-3.35%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	North Routt Charter School	114	99	15.15%
Douglas County Re 1	North Star Academy	673	667	0.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Star Elementary School	360	418	-13.88%
Weld County RE-1	North Valley Middle School	235	245	-4.08%
Mapleton 1	North Valley School for Young Adults	90	64	40.63%
Denver County 1	Northeast Early College	576	463	24.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Northeast Elementary School	289	288	0.35%
School District 27J	Northeast Elementary School	524	584	-10.27%
Denver County 1	Northfield High School	1,570	990	58.59%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn High School	2,012	2064	-2.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn Middle School	773	856	-9.70%
Pueblo City 60	Northmoor Preschool	32	59	-45.76%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Northridge Elementary School	313	328	-4.57%
Douglas County Re 1	Northridge Elementary School	594	632	-6.01%
Greeley 6	Northridge High School	1,199	1157	3.63%
Montrose County RE-1J	Northside Elementary School	337	353	-4.53%
Norwood R-2J	Norwood Public Schools	199	199	0.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla High School	63	70	-10.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla Middle School	27	32	-15.63%
Poudre R-1	O'Dea Elementary School	442	469	-5.76%
Harrison 2	Oak Creek Elementary School	190	208	-8.65%
Montrose County RE-1J	Oak Grove Elementary School	390	399	-2.26%
Denver County 1	Oakland Elementary	277	279	-0.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Oberon Middle School	674	742	-9.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Odyssey Early College and Career Options	304	277	9.75%
District 49	Odyssey Elementary School	397	455	-12.75%
Denver County 1	Odyssey School of Denver	278	233	19.31%
Poudre R-1	Olander Elementary School	363	433	-16.17%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Elementary School	466	434	7.37%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe High School	272	283	-3.89%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Middle School	239	231	3.46%
Denver County 1	Omar D Blair Charter School	679	716	-5.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Options School	796	984	-19.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Options School	535	668	-19.91%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Avenue Elementary School	361	419	-13.84%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Mesa Middle School	467	488	-4.30%
Westminster Public Schools	Orchard Park Academy	529	353	49.86%
Alamosa RE-11J	Ortega Middle School	537	519	3.47%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Orton Academy	317	-	-
Harrison 2	Otero Elementary School	283	317	-10.73%
School District 27J	Otho E Stuart Middle School	741	791	-6.32%
Otis R-3	Otis Elementary School	96	105	-8.57%
Otis R-3	Otis Junior-Senior High School	115	111	3.60%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Elementary School	86	105	-18.10%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Middle School	62	13	376.92%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Senior High School	41	52	-21.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Outback Preschool	89	79	12.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Overland High School	2,159	2379	-9.25%
School District 27J	Overland Trail Middle School	546	619	-11.79%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Peak Open School	122	102	19.61%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Elementary School	541	598	-9.53%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs High School	470	490	-4.08%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Middle School	525	552	-4.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Palisade High School	1,108	1091	1.56%
Denver County 1	Palmer Elementary School	258	285	-9.47%
Colorado Springs 11	Palmer High School	1,553	1622	-4.25%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Lake Elementary School	303	361	-16.07%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Ridge High School	1,210	1218	-0.66%
Harrison 2	Panorama Middle School	469	619	-24.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Paonia Elementary School	253	213	18.78%
West End RE-2	Paradox Valley Charter School	44	38	15.79%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Learning Center	364	187	94.65%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Preschool	126	-	-
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Paris Elementary School	288	355	-18.87%
Durango 9-R	Park Elementary School	411	421	-2.38%
Denver County 1	Park Hill School	684	720	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Park Lane Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Pueblo City 60	Park View Elementary School	292	369	-20.87%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Core Knowledge Charter School	703	702	0.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Performing Arts	657	735	-10.61%
Lamar Re-2	Parkview Elementary School	259	292	-11.30%
Rangely RE-4	Parkview Elementary School	225	265	-15.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Parmalee Elementary School	261	313	-16.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Parr Elementary School	245	312	-21.47%
Denver County 1	Pascual Ledoux Academy	205	228	-10.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Pathways Future Center	386	304	26.97%
Fountain 8	Patriot Elementary School	576	644	-10.56%
District 49	Patriot High School	78	103	-24.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Patterson International School	357	453	-21.19%
Pawnee RE-12	Pawnee School PK-12	70	82	-14.63%
Littleton 6	Peabody Elementary School	156	379	-58.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Peak Expeditionary - Pennington	228	197	15.74%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Peak to Peak Charter School	1,448	1450	-0.14%
Montrose County RE-1J	Peak Virtual Academy	254	185	37.30%
Cherry Creek 5	Peakview Elementary School	542	572	-5.24%
Huerfano Re-1	Peakview School	307	315	-2.54%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pear Park Elementary School	453	450	0.67%
Jefferson County R-1	Peck Elementary School	166	241	-31.12%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Elementary School	109	105	3.81%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Junior-Senior High School	51	60	-15.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Peiffer Elementary School	234	262	-10.69%
Fremont RE-2	Penrose Elementary School	326	309	5.50%
Colorado Springs 11	Penrose Elementary School	349	404	-13.61%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Peoria Elementary School	365	456	-19.96%
Weld County RE-1	Pete Mirich Elementary School	378	394	-4.06%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton College Academy	28	-	-
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Elementary School	252	269	-6.32%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Junior High School	95	90	5.56%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Online Academy	29	31	-6.45%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Senior High School	210	236	-11.02%
District 49	Pikes Peak Early College	134	179	-25.14%
Harrison 2	Pikes Peak Elementary School	307	355	-13.52%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pikes Peak Online School	392	778	-49.61%
District 49	Pikes Peak School Expeditionary Learning	392	407	-3.69%
Academy 20	Pine Creek High School	1,808	1631	10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Grove Elementary School	510	587	-13.12%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Lane Elementary	774	756	2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Pine Ridge Elementary School	754	771	-2.20%
Widefield 3	Pinello Elementary School	286	322	-11.18%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Pinon Valley Elementary School	297	315	-5.71%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Pioneer Bilingual Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Pioneer Elementary School	438	483	-9.32%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Pioneer Elementary School	281	330	-14.85%
Academy 20	Pioneer Elementary School	334	407	-17.94%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Pioneer Ridge Elementary School	619	591	4.74%
District 49	Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy	220	-	-
Denver County 1	Place Bridge Academy	660	851	-22.44%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Elementary School	97	30	223.33%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Junior-Senior High School	40	27	48.15%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Elementary School	145	123	17.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley High School	112	101	10.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Junior High School	35	68	-48.53%
Platte Canyon 1	Platte Canyon High School	251	240	4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Platte River Charter Academy	543	565	-3.89%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Elementary School	521	507	2.76%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley High School	329	336	-2.08%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Middle School	228	250	-8.80%
Weld County RE-1	Platteville Elementary School	329	367	-10.35%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Pleasant View Elementary School	33	31	6.45%
Pueblo County 70	Pleasant View Middle School	443	448	-1.12%
Denver County 1	Polaris Elementary School	330	330	0.00%
Poudre R-1	Polaris Expeditionary Learning School	389	400	-2.75%
Cherry Creek 5	Polton Community Elementary School	463	544	-14.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pomona Elementary School	351	333	5.41%
Montrose County RE-1J	Pomona Elementary School	334	388	-13.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Pomona High School	1,185	1317	-10.02%
Thompson R2-J	Ponderosa Elementary	390	402	-2.99%
Cherry Creek 5	Ponderosa Elementary School	517	618	-16.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Ponderosa High School	1,464	1440	1.67%
Poudre R-1	Poudre Community Academy	274	256	7.03%
Poudre R-1	Poudre High School	1,961	1865	5.15%
Jefferson County R-1	Powderhorn Elementary School	448	541	-17.19%
District 49	Power Technical Early College	340	317	7.26%
Strasburg 31J	Prairie Creek High School	16	12	33.33%
Douglas County Re 1	Prairie Crossing Elementary School	699	701	-0.29%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Elementary School	89	110	-19.09%
Hanover 28	Prairie Heights Elementary School	128	120	6.67%
Greeley 6	Prairie Heights Middle School	587	653	-10.11%
Academy 20	Prairie Hills Elementary School	398	405	-1.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prairie Hills Elementary School	435	495	-12.12%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Junior-Senior High School	102	112	-8.93%
Cherry Creek 5	Prairie Middle School	1,479	1630	-9.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Prairie Ridge Elementary School	430	454	-5.29%
School District 27J	Prairie View High School	1,724	1771	-2.65%
School District 27J	Prairie View Middle School	654	611	7.04%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Prairie Winds Elementary School	335	352	-4.83%
Pueblo County 70	Prairie Winds Elementary School	433	482	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Prep Academy	43	72	-40.28%
Mapleton 1	Preschool on Poze	192	-	-
Poudre R-1	Preston Middle School	982	1132	-13.25%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Elementary School	116	106	9.43%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Junior-Senior High School	112	94	19.15%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Elementary School	35	28	25.00%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett High School	19	21	-9.52%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Middle School	12	11	9.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prospect Ridge Academy	1,463	1392	5.10%
Jefferson County R-1	Prospect Valley Elementary School	414	453	-8.61%
Poudre R-1	PSD Global Academy	496	266	86.47%
Poudre R-1	PSD Mountain Schools	109	120	-9.17%
Poudre R-1	PSD Options School	61	134	-54.48%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Academy of Arts	595	688	-13.52%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Charter School for the Arts & Sciences	539	454	18.72%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pueblo Classical Academy	123	-	-
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo County High School	1,187	1109	7.03%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo School for Arts & Sciences at Fulton Heights	247	227	8.81%
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo West High School	1,401	1394	0.50%
Poudre R-1	Putnam Elementary School	316	330	-4.24%
Colorado Springs 11	Queen Palmer Elementary School	172	233	-26.18%
Mesa County Valley 51	R-5 High School	274	273	0.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Elementary School	252	275	-8.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Valley Senior High School	1,813	1843	-1.63%
Academy 20	Rampart High School	1,455	1625	-10.46%
Academy 20	Ranch Creek Elementary	550	559	-1.61%
Douglas County Re 1	Ranch View Middle School	820	795	3.14%
Windsor RE-4	Range View Elementary	715	746	-4.16%
Rangely RE-4	Rangely Junior/Senior High School	269	253	6.32%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rangeview High School	2,107	2253	-6.48%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Ray E Kilmer Elementary School	377	383	-1.57%
Denver County 1	Reach Charter School	118	140	-15.71%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Canyon High School	160	189	-15.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Red Hawk Elementary	614	629	-2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Red Hawk Ridge Elementary School	540	618	-12.62%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Hill Elementary School	355	355	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Red Rocks Elementary School	265	288	-7.99%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Sandstone Elementary School	257	197	30.46%
Mesa County Valley 51	Redlands Middle School	535	600	-10.83%
Douglas County Re 1	Redstone Elementary School	417	488	-14.55%
District 49	Remington Elementary School	628	654	-3.98%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Expedition Learn Outward Bound School	389	395	-1.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Secondary School	330	327	0.92%
Denver County 1	Respect Academy	93	90	3.33%
School District 27J	Reunion Elementary School	790	724	9.12%
Revere School District	Revere Elementary	73	85	-14.12%
Revere School District	Revere Junior-Senior High School	60	54	11.11%
Charter School Institute	Ricardo Flores Magon Academy	251	261	-3.83%
Poudre R-1	Rice Elementary School	521	482	8.09%
Poudre R-1	Ridgeview Classical Charter Schools	706	690	2.32%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Ridgeview Elementary School	291	286	1.75%
District 49	Ridgeview Elementary School	572	684	-16.37%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway High School	107	107	0.00%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Middle School	73	74	-1.35%
Poudre R-1	Riffenburgh Elementary School	458	557	-17.77%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle High School	779	773	0.78%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle Middle School	633	635	-0.31%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rim Rock Elementary School	327	624	-47.60%
Denver County 1	RiseUp Community School	97	129	-24.81%
Pueblo City 60	Risley International Academy of Innovation	403	447	-9.84%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Riverdale Elementary School	403	460	-12.39%
School District 27J	Riverdale Ridge High School	1,332	889	49.83%
Garfield Re-2	Riverside School	474	463	2.38%
Durango 9-R	Riverview Elementary School	444	467	-4.93%
Thompson R2-J	Riverview PK-8	490	-	-
Roaring Fork RE-1	Riverview School	364	364	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Roaring Fork High School	385	385	0.00%
Denver County 1	Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy	78	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Canyon High School	2,376	2310	2.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Ridge Elementary School	469	534	-12.17%
Academy 20	Rockrimmon Elementary School	354	356	-0.56%
Rocky Ford R-2	Rocky Ford Junior/Senior High School	310	327	-5.20%
Douglas County Re 1	Rocky Heights Middle School	1,225	1346	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen	376	320	17.50%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy	1,096	1102	-0.54%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy Homeschool	479	515	-6.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Deaf School	72	62	16.13%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	443	474	-6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	353	400	-11.75%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	320	386	-17.10%
Poudre R-1	Rocky Mountain High School	2,087	2024	3.11%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Berkeley	323	304	6.25%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Creekside	581	608	-4.44%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rocky Mountain Prep: Fletcher	545	545	0.00%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Southwest	413	490	-15.71%
Expeditionary BOCES	Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning	393	368	6.79%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Top Middle School	1,029	1120	-8.13%
School District 27J	Rodger Quist Middle School	916	766	19.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Rogers Elementary School	294	353	-16.71%
Cherry Creek 5	Rolling Hills Elementary School	565	551	2.54%
Pueblo City 60	Roncalli Stem Academy	470	540	-12.96%
Jefferson County R-1	Rooney Ranch Elementary School	469	525	-10.67%
Colorado Springs 11	Roosevelt Charter Academy	444	582	-23.71%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Roosevelt High School	1,062	1061	0.09%
Adams County 14	Rose Hill Elementary School	348	379	-8.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Rose Stein International Elementary	273	286	-4.55%
Charter School Institute	Ross Montessori School	310	292	6.16%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Elementary School	371	375	-1.07%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Intermediate	406	392	3.57%
Colorado Springs 11	Rudy Elementary School	349	331	5.44%
Elizabeth School District	Running Creek Elementary School	305	298	2.35%
Littleton 6	Runyon Elementary School	450	461	-2.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Russell Middle School	563	617	-8.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Ryan Elementary School	349	378	-7.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Ryan Elementary School	485	551	-11.98%
Pueblo County 70	Rye Elementary School	299	346	-13.58%
Pueblo County 70	Rye High School	252	216	16.67%
Greeley 6	S. Christa McAuliffe STEM Academy	885	868	1.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Sabin Middle School	659	774	-14.86%
Denver County 1	Sabin World School	613	696	-11.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sable Elementary School	402	417	-3.60%
Douglas County Re 1	Saddle Ranch Elementary School	341	434	-21.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Sage Canyon Elementary	584	745	-21.61%
Cherry Creek 5	Sagebrush Elementary School	424	420	0.95%
Douglas County Re 1	Sagewood Middle School	805	884	-8.94%
Greeley 6	Salida del Sol Academy	593	665	-10.83%
Salida R-32	Salida Early Childhood Center	66	86	-23.26%
Salida R-32	Salida High School	391	368	6.25%
Salida R-32	Salida Middle School	351	372	-5.65%
Charter School Institute	Salida Montessori Charter School	117	86	36.05%
Denver County 1	Samuels Elementary School	456	491	-7.13%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	San Juan Mountain School	54	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sanborn Elementary School	265	372	-28.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Sand Creek Elementary School	382	454	-15.86%
District 49	Sand Creek High School	1,146	1133	1.15%
Harrison 2	Sand Creek International School	590	505	16.83%
Littleton 6	Sandburg Elementary School	468	441	6.12%
Denver County 1	Sandra Todd-Williams Academy	130	135	-3.70%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sandrock Elementary	313	309	1.29%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Elementary School	221	220	0.45%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Junior/Senior High School	148	133	11.28%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Elementary School	123	136	-9.56%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Undivided High School	123	149	-17.45%
Thompson R2-J	Sarah Milner Elementary School	280	258	8.53%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Elementary School	186	196	-5.10%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Junior High School	48	54	-11.11%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Senior High School	96	104	-7.69%
Mesa County Valley 51	Scenic Elementary School	246	245	0.41%
Denver County 1	Schmitt Elementary School	199	269	-26.02%
Greeley 6	Scott Elementary School	512	530	-3.40%
Colorado Springs 11	Scott Elementary School	490	617	-20.58%
School District 27J	SD 27J Preschool at the Brighton LRC	97	80	21.25%
School District 27J	Second Creek Elementary School	869	750	15.87%
Jefferson County R-1	Secrest Elementary School	261	306	-14.71%
Douglas County Re 1	Sedalia Elementary School	205	254	-19.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Semper Elementary School	303	325	-6.77%
Dolores County RE No.2	Seventh Street Elementary School	115	110	4.55%
Windsor RE-4	Severance High School	808	360	124.44%
Windsor RE-4	Severance Middle School	761	640	18.91%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Shadow Ridge Middle School	768	866	-11.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Shaffer Elementary School	514	518	-0.77%
Westminster Public Schools	Shaw Heights Middle School	442	568	-22.18%
Greeley 6	Shawsheen Elementary School	362	418	-13.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Shelledy Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Shelton Elementary School	405	476	-14.92%
Poudre R-1	Shepardson Elementary School	432	426	1.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Sheridan Green Elementary School	269	318	-15.41%
Sheridan 2	Sheridan High School	320	348	-8.05%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Sherman Early Childhood Center	439	475	-7.58%
Westminster Public Schools	Sherrelwood Elementary School	237	279	-15.05%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Side Creek Elementary School	488	496	-1.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Sierra Elementary School	445	476	-6.51%
Sierra Grande R-30	Sierra Grande K-12 School	259	269	-3.72%
Harrison 2	Sierra High School	945	848	11.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Sierra Middle School	761	875	-13.03%
Pueblo County 70	Sierra Vista Elementary School	459	520	-11.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Creek Elementary	574	605	-5.12%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Silver Creek High School	1,274	1349	-5.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Hills Middle School	1,021	1088	-6.16%
Summit RE-1	Silverthorne Elementary School	336	312	7.69%
Silverton 1	Silverton Elementary School	47	45	4.44%
Silverton 1	Silverton High School	24	19	26.32%
Silverton 1	Silverton Middle School	15	17	-11.76%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Elementary School	142	168	-15.48%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla High School	97	90	7.78%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Junior High School	86	77	11.69%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Elementary School	374	360	3.89%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Preschool	71	69	2.90%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sixth Avenue Elementary School	581	447	29.98%
Denver County 1	Skinner Middle School	644	634	1.58%
Center 26 JT	Skoglund Middle School	141	142	-0.70%
Pueblo County 70	Sky View Middle School	584	663	-11.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Sky Vista Middle School	920	929	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Skyline High School	1,487	1482	0.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Skyview Academy	1,257	1292	-2.71%
Windsor RE-4	Skyview Elementary School	602	455	32.31%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Skyview Elementary School	388	431	-9.98%
District 49	Skyview Middle School	1,005	1058	-5.01%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Skyway Park Elementary School	284	312	-8.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Slater Elementary School	230	268	-14.18%
Denver County 1	Slavens K-8 School	732	748	-2.14%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Sleeping Giant School	362	-	-
Denver County 1	Smith Elementary School	412	435	-5.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Smoky Hill High School	2,133	2160	-1.25%
Summit RE-1	Snowy Peaks Junior/Senior High School	97	80	21.25%
Sheridan 2	SOAR Academy	90	94	-4.26%
Denver County 1	SOAR at Green Valley Ranch	467	437	6.86%
Harrison 2	Soaring Eagles Elementary School	538	559	-3.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Soaring Hawk Elementary School	467	577	-19.06%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Soaring Heights PK-8	1,198	1187	0.93%
Jefferson County R-1	Sobesky Academy	124	123	0.81%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Soda Creek Elementary School	407	526	-22.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Sopris Elementary School	345	397	-13.10%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco High School	102	104	-1.92%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Middle School	72	70	2.86%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Preschool at Yampa	36	33	9.09%
School District 27J	South Elementary School	387	445	-13.03%
Denver County 1	South High School	1,771	1636	8.25%
Pueblo City 60	South High School	947	943	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	South Lakewood Elementary School	324	397	-18.39%
Pueblo County 70	South Mesa Elementary School	344	398	-13.57%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	South Middle School	357	760	-53.03%
Pueblo City 60	South Park Elementary School	336	358	-6.15%
Park County RE-2	South Park High School	124	126	-1.59%
Park County RE-2	South Park Middle School	99	120	-17.50%
Douglas County Re 1	South Ridge Elementary An IB World School	440	595	-26.05%
South Routt RE 3	South Routt Elementary School	129	118	9.32%
Weld County RE-1	South Valley Middle School	182	211	-13.74%
School District 27J	Southeast Elementary School	513	490	4.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Southern Hills Middle School	482	530	-9.06%
Denver County 1	Southmoor Elementary School	403	441	-8.62%
San Juan BOCES	Southwest Colorado eSchool	52	61	-14.75%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Southwest Open Charter School	133	122	9.02%
Colorado Springs 11	Spark Online Academy	295	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Spark! Discovery Preschool	250	304	-17.76%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Junior/Senior High School	123	136	-9.56%
District 49	Springs Ranch Elementary School	600	579	3.63%
District 49	Springs Studio for Academic Excellence	424	402	5.47%
Widefield 3	Sproul Junior High School	552	627	-11.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Community Montessori School	258	258	0.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain LaunchED Virtual Academy	585	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Virtual High School	61	128	-52.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Standley Lake High School	1,221	1318	-7.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stargate Charter School	1,494	1421	5.14%
Adams County 14	Stars Early Learning Center	84	90	-6.67%
Charter School Institute	Steamboat Montessori	160	161	-0.62%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs High School	847	839	0.95%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs Middle School	536	644	-16.77%
Denver County 1	Steck Elementary School	321	352	-8.81%
Denver County 1	Stedman Elementary School	426	337	26.41%
Denver County 1	Steele Elementary School	450	489	-7.98%
Colorado Springs 11	Steele Elementary School	245	282	-13.12%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stellar Elementary School	434	513	-15.40%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Lab	710	717	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Launch	770	791	-2.65%
Douglas County Re 1	STEM School Highlands Ranch	1,670	1750	-4.57%
Denver County 1	Stephen Knight Center for Early Education	283	316	-10.44%
Valley RE-1	Sterling High School	448	464	-3.45%
Valley RE-1	Sterling Middle School	406	442	-8.14%
District 49	Stetson Elementary School	471	521	-9.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Stevens Elementary School	328	343	-4.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Stober Elementary School	239	250	-4.40%
Charter School Institute	Stone Creek School	314	321	-2.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Stone Mountain Elementary	571	672	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Stony Creek Elementary School	372	404	-7.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Stott Elementary School	290	306	-5.23%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg Elementary School	536	508	5.51%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg High School	338	309	9.39%
Harrison 2	Stratmoor Hills Elementary School	213	188	13.30%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Elementary School	126	137	-8.03%
Colorado Springs 11	Stratton Elementary School	290	329	-11.85%
Harrison 2	Stratton Meadows Elementary School	355	356	-0.28%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Middle School	43	54	-20.37%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Senior High School	62	48	29.17%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Strawberry Park Elementary School	348	478	-27.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Federal	360	355	1.41%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Green Valley Ranch	367	359	2.23%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Kepner	209	249	-16.06%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Lake	208	284	-26.76%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Montbello	171	243	-29.63%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Rise	537	513	4.68%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Ruby Hill	439	484	-9.30%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Smart Academy	510	484	5.37%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Sunnyside	190	254	-25.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Westwood	311	333	-6.61%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stukey Elementary School	351	392	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Summit Academy	208	222	-6.31%
Summit RE-1	Summit Cove Elementary School	240	250	-4.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Summit Elementary School	348	400	-13.00%
Woodland Park Re-2	Summit Elementary School	264	353	-25.21%
Summit RE-1	Summit High School	1,038	952	9.03%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Summit Middle Charter School	356	359	-0.84%
Summit RE-1	Summit Middle School	814	826	-1.45%
Jefferson County R-1	Summit Ridge Middle School	1,006	1019	-1.28%
Douglas County Re 1	Summit View Elementary School	450	523	-13.96%
Durango 9-R	Sunnyside Elementary School	119	154	-22.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Sunrise Elementary School	487	512	-4.88%
Widefield 3	Sunrise Elementary School	512	586	-12.63%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sunset Elementary School	322	376	-14.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sunset Middle School	395	453	-12.80%
Pueblo City 60	Sunset Park Elementary School	401	467	-14.13%
Westminster Public Schools	Sunset Ridge Elementary School	289	314	-7.96%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Superior Elementary School	453	435	4.14%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy	603	550	9.64%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy High School	152	149	2.01%
Denver County 1	Swansea Elementary School	416	467	-10.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Swanson Elementary School	227	259	-12.36%
Denver County 1	Swigert International School	571	587	-2.73%
Swink 33	Swink Elementary School	177	168	5.36%
Swink 33	Swink Junior-Senior High School	135	153	-11.76%
Widefield 3	Talbott STEAM Innovation School	353	421	-16.15%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Tarver Elementary School	497	475	4.63%
Poudre R-1	Tavelli Elementary School	572	608	-5.92%
Mesa County Valley 51	Taylor Elementary School	346	361	-4.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Taylor Elementary School	176	229	-23.14%
Academy 20	TCA College Pathways	520	522	-0.38%
Dolores RE-4A	Teddy Bear Preschool	65	58	12.07%
Denver County 1	Teller Elementary School	503	529	-4.91%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Elementary School	163	171	-4.68%
Telluride R-1	Telluride High School	321	270	18.89%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Intermediate School	239	276	-13.41%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Middle School	153	168	-8.93%
Westminster Public Schools	Tennyson Knolls Preparatory School	378	318	18.87%
Center 26 JT	The Academic Recovery Center of San Luis Valley	23	5	360.00%
Colorado Springs 11	The Bijou School	128	152	-15.79%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Charter	2,144	2196	-2.37%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy High School	552	596	-7.38%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Middle School	392	433	-9.47%
Pueblo County 70	The Connect Charter School	258	279	-7.53%
Cherry Creek 5	The Cottage at Holly Ridge	113	146	-22.60%
Academy 20	The Da Vinci Academy School	437	462	-5.41%
Buena Vista R-31	The Grove, BVSD's Early Learning Program	88	99	-11.11%
Cherry Creek 5	The Journey Preschool	114	65	75.38%
Durango 9-R	The Juniper School	143	138	3.62%
Charter School Institute	The Pinnacle Charter School	2,112	2018	4.66%
School District 27J	The STEAD School	156	-	-
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	The Studio School	273	277	-1.44%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Elementary)	1,099	1011	8.70%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (High)	311	271	14.76%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Middle)	232	230	0.87%
Denver County 1	Thomas Jefferson High School	1,374	1235	11.26%
Charter School Institute	Thomas MacLaren State Charter School	908	867	4.73%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Integrated Early Childhood	68	563	-87.92%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Valley High School	1,060	1089	-2.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Thomson Elementary School	194	272	-28.68%
Brush RE-2(J)	Thomson Primary School	382	386	-1.04%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Elementary School	343	413	-16.95%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton High School	1,485	1608	-7.65%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Middle School	795	994	-20.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Three Creeks K-8	964	912	5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	Thunder Mountain Elementary School	447	516	-13.37%
Cherry Creek 5	Thunder Ridge Middle School	1,116	1254	-11.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Thunder Valley PK-8	825	851	-3.06%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thunder Vista P-8	795	747	6.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Thunderridge High School	1,880	2042	-7.93%
East Otero R-1	Tiger Trades Academy	114	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Timber Trail Elementary School	356	357	-0.28%
Cherry Creek 5	Timberline Elementary School	566	613	-7.67%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Timberline PK-8	831	898	-7.46%
Academy 20	Timberview Middle School	860	1062	-19.02%
Poudre R-1	Timnath Elementary School	417	456	-8.55%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Tollgate Elementary School of Expeditionary Learning	484	506	-4.35%
Mesa County Valley 51	Tope Elementary School	316	337	-6.23%
Windsor RE-4	Tozer Elementary School	512	558	-8.24%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Trail Ridge Middle School	549	680	-19.26%
Colorado Springs 11	Trailblazer Elementary School	249	312	-20.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Trailblazer Elementary School	310	413	-24.94%
Cherry Creek 5	Trails West Elementary School	446	460	-3.04%
Mapleton 1	Trailside Academy	514	478	7.53%
Poudre R-1	Traut Core Elementary School	490	510	-3.92%
Denver County 1	Traylor Academy	377	438	-13.93%
Denver County 1	Trevista at Horace Mann	386	379	1.85%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad High School	215	240	-10.42%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad Middle School	200	220	-9.09%
Thompson R2-J	Truscott Elementary School	224	231	-3.03%
Harrison 2	Turman Elementary School	196	254	-22.83%
School District 27J	Turnberry Elementary	732	711	2.95%
Thompson R2-J	Turner Middle School	476	466	2.15%
Colorado Springs 11	Twain Elementary School	360	406	-11.33%
Littleton 6	Twain Elementary School	226	287	-21.25%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Twin Peaks Charter Academy	830	729	13.85%
Charter School Institute	Two Rivers Community School	392	349	12.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Two Roads Charter School	605	635	-4.72%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Twombly Elementary School	436	417	4.56%
Greeley 6	Union Colony Elementary School	369	-	-
Greeley 6	Union Colony Preparatory School	362	864	-58.10%
Boulder Valley Re 2	University Hill Elementary School	431	464	-7.11%
Denver County 1	University Park Elementary School	388	436	-11.01%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Arapahoe St.	303	330	-8.18%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Steele St.	315	329	-4.26%
Greeley 6	University Schools	1,748	1774	-1.47%
Summit RE-1	Upper Blue Elementary School	224	262	-14.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Ute Meadows Elementary School	389	383	1.57%
Manitou Springs 14	Ute Pass Elementary School	177	159	11.32%
Eagle County RE 50	Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy (VSSA)	228	207	10.14%
Denver County 1	Valdez Elementary School	412	431	-4.41%
Weld County RE-1	Valley High School	568	547	3.84%
Denver County 1	Valverde Elementary School	274	272	0.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Van Arsdale Elementary School	414	451	-8.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Vanderhoof Elementary School	370	414	-10.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - East	773	702	10.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - West	341	422	-19.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Vantage Point	316	383	-17.49%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vassar Elementary School	457	520	-12.12%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vaughn Elementary School	345	360	-4.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vega Collegiate Academy	506	237	113.50%
Widefield 3	Venetucci Elementary School	287	351	-18.23%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy High State Charter School	112	123	-8.94%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy Middle State Charter School	176	204	-13.73%
School District 27J	Vikan Middle School	653	641	1.87%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Elementary School	151	58	160.34%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Undivided High School	71	45	57.78%
Pueblo County 70	Villa Bella Expeditionary School	300	192	56.25%
Littleton 6	Village at Highland	144	-	-
Littleton 6	Village at North	151	397	-61.96%
Cherry Creek 5	Village East Community Elementary School	689	774	-10.98%
Academy 20	Village High School	408	214	90.65%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Elementary School	308	300	2.67%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Middle School	332	359	-7.52%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Virginia Court Elementary School	381	423	-9.93%
Delta County 50(J)	Vision Charter Academy	398	476	-16.39%
Denver County 1	Vista Academy	211	297	-28.96%
Montrose County RE-1J	Vista Charter School	156	209	-25.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory	1,654	1407	17.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak P-8 Exploratory	961	1225	-21.55%
District 49	Vista Ridge High School	1,644	1615	1.80%
Pueblo City 60	W H Heaton Middle School	755	773	-2.33%
Cherry Creek 5	Walnut Hills Community Elementary School	358	404	-11.39%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh Elementary School	104	109	-4.59%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh High School	57	45	26.67%
Thompson R2-J	Walt Clark Middle School	362	472	-23.31%
Garfield Re-2	Wamsley Elementary School	378	371	1.89%
Jefferson County R-1	Warder Elementary School	372	378	-1.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech Central	28	42	-33.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech North	9	5	80.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech South	6	-	-
Canon City RE-1	Washington Elementary School	314	317	-0.95%
Lamar Re-2	Washington Elementary School	262	271	-3.32%
Rocky Ford R-2	Washington Primary School	152	190	-20.00%
Widefield 3	Watson Junior High School	539	560	-3.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Wayne Carle Middle School	528	584	-9.59%
Poudre R-1	Webber Middle School	739	806	-8.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Weber Elementary School	253	324	-21.91%
Widefield 3	Webster Elementary School	492	479	2.71%
Fountain 8	Weikel Elementary School	773	855	-9.59%
Mapleton 1	Welby Community School	323	387	-16.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Welchester Elementary School	262	323	-18.89%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Middle School	533	543	-1.84%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Senior High School	717	702	2.14%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Elementary School	138	133	3.76%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Jr/Sr High School	87	81	7.41%
Poudre R-1	Wellington Middle School	517	553	-6.51%
Fountain 8	Welte Education Center	115	84	36.90%
Poudre R-1	Werner Elementary School	393	484	-18.80%
Colorado Springs 11	West Elementary School	181	231	-21.65%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand Elementary and Middle School	276	296	-6.76%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand High School	117	138	-15.22%
Denver County 1	West High School	705	605	16.53%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Elementary School	261	275	-5.09%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Middle School	496	572	-13.29%
Mesa County Valley 51	West Middle School	341	379	-10.03%
Cherry Creek 5	West Middle School	1,077	1249	-13.77%
Colorado Springs 11	West Middle School	191	270	-29.26%
Denver County 1	West Middle School	314	642	-51.09%
Greeley 6	West Ridge Academy	424	434	-2.30%
School District 27J	West Ridge Elementary	783	747	4.82%
Jefferson County R-1	West Woods Elementary School	540	584	-7.53%
Denver County 1	Westerly Creek Elementary	715	721	-0.83%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westgate Community School	549	523	4.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Westgate Elementary School	365	465	-21.51%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westlake Middle School	967	1101	-12.17%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster Academy for International Studies	304	299	1.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster High School	2,082	2406	-13.47%
Jefferson County R-1	Westridge Elementary School	411	435	-5.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westview Elementary School	427	444	-3.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Westview Middle School	648	713	-9.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Wheat Ridge High School	1,084	1179	-8.06%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Wheeling Elementary School	453	497	-8.85%
Denver County 1	Whittier ECE-8 School	223	247	-9.72%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Whittier Elementary School	325	378	-14.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield District 3 Preschool	438	423	3.55%
Widefield 3	Widefield Elementary School of the Arts	351	423	-17.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield High School	1,160	1260	-7.94%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Elementary School	481	419	14.80%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins High School	218	191	14.14%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Middle School	120	105	14.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Wildcat Mountain Elementary School	462	525	-12.00%
Littleton 6	Wilder Elementary School	631	686	-8.02%
Harrison 2	Wildflower Elementary School	411	458	-10.26%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Elementary School	150	131	14.50%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Junior-Senior High School	112	107	4.67%
Denver County 1	William (Bill) Roberts ECE-8 School	850	932	-8.80%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	William Smith High School	375	372	0.81%
Cherry Creek 5	Willow Creek Elementary School	509	556	-8.45%
Denver County 1	Willow Elementary School	614	628	-2.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmore Davis Elementary School	243	259	-6.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmot Elementary School	289	352	-17.90%
Colorado Springs 11	Wilson Elementary School	346	385	-10.13%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Early College High School	359	302	18.87%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Elementary School	778	685	13.58%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Middle School	365	351	3.99%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor High School	1,172	1377	-14.89%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Middle School	812	733	10.78%
Mesa County Valley 51	Wingate Elementary School	405	452	-10.40%
Greeley 6	Winograd K-8 Elementary School	612	670	-8.66%
Thompson R2-J	Winona Elementary School	262	327	-19.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Witt Elementary School	257	297	-13.47%
Englewood 1	Wm E Bishop Elementary School	203	205	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Woodglen Elementary School	424	482	-12.03%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park High School	601	699	-14.02%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park Middle School	406	529	-23.25%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Elementary School	30	44	-31.82%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
District 49	Woodmen Hills Elementary School	611	615	-0.65%
Academy 20	Woodmen-Roberts Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Jefferson County R-1	Woodrow Wilson Charter Academy	771	931	-17.19%
Eagle County RE 50	World Academy	56	32	75.00%
Douglas County Re 1	World Compass Academy	679	619	9.69%
Wray RD-2	Wray Elementary School	425	335	26.87%
Wray RD-2	Wray Junior Senior High School	324	199	62.81%
Denver County 1	Wyatt Academy	179	178	0.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Yale Elementary School	482	469	2.77%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Yampa Valley High School	26	27	-3.70%
Colorado River BOCES	Yampah Mountain School	169	168	0.60%
Mapleton 1	York International	851	793	7.31%
Yuma 1	Yuma High School	252	251	0.40%
Yuma 1	Yuma Middle School	256	268	-4.48%
Poudre R-1	Zach Elementary School	493	562	-12.28%

Colorado’s pre-K to 12th grade enrollment

Cam Rodriguez

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer contributed to this report.

Schools, pediatricians look to make up lost ground on non-COVID vaccinations

2021-11-22T20:00:00+00:00

Melissa Blatzer was determined to get her three children caught up on their routine immunizations on a recent Saturday morning at a walk-in clinic in this Denver suburb. It had been about a year since the kids’ last shots, a delay Blatzer chalked up to the pandemic.

Two-year-old Lincoln Blatzer, in his fleece dinosaur pajamas, waited anxiously in line for his hepatitis A vaccine. His siblings, 14-year-old Nyla Kusumah and 11-year-old Nevan Kusumah, were there for their Tdap, HPV and meningococcal vaccines, plus a COVID-19 shot for Nyla.

“You don’t have to make an appointment and you can take all three at once,” said Blatzer, who lives several miles away in Commerce City. That convenience outweighed the difficulty of getting everyone up early on a weekend.

Child health experts hope community clinics like this, along with the return to in-person classes, more well-child visits, and the rollout of COVID shots for younger children, can help boost routine childhood immunizations, which dropped during the pandemic. Despite a rebound, immunization rates are still lower than in 2019, and disparities in rates between racial and economic groups, particularly for Black children, have been exacerbated.

“We’re still not back to where we need to be,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious-disease doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Routine immunizations protect children against 16 infectious diseases, including measles, diphtheria, and chickenpox, and inhibit transmission to the community.

The rollout of COVID shots for younger kids is an opportunity to catch up on routine vaccinations, said O’Leary, adding that children can receive these vaccines together. Primary care practices, where many children are likely to receive the COVID shots, usually have other childhood vaccines on hand.

“It’s really important that parents and health care providers work together so that all children are up to date on these recommended vaccines,” said Dr. Malini DeSilva, an internist and pediatrician at HealthPartners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. “Not only for the child’s health but for our community’s health.”

People were reluctant to come out for routine immunizations at the height of the pandemic, said Karen Miller, an immunization nurse manager for the Denver area’s Tri-County Health Department, which ran the Westminster clinic. National and global data confirm what Miller saw on the ground.

Global vaccine coverage in children fell from 2019 to 2020, according to a recent study by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF. Reasons included reduced access, lack of transportation, worries about COVID exposure and supply chain interruptions, the study said.

Third doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DTP) vaccine and of the polio vaccine decreased from 86% of all eligible children in 2019 to 83% in 2020, according to the study. Worldwide, 22.7 million children had not had their third dose of DTP in 2020, compared with 19 million in 2019. Three doses are far more effective than one or two at protecting children and communities.

In the United States, researchers who studied 2019 and 2020 data on routine vaccinations in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin found substantial disruptions in vaccination rates during the pandemic that continued into September 2020. For example, the percentage of 7-month-old babies who were up to date on vaccinations decreased from 81% in September 2019 to 74% a year later.

The proportion of Black children up to date on immunizations in almost all age groups was lower than that of children in other racial and ethnic groups. This was most pronounced in those turning 18 months old: Only 41% of Black children that age were caught up on vaccinations in September 2020, compared with 57% of all children at 18 months, said DeSilva, who led that study.

A CDC study of data from the National Immunization Surveys found that race and ethnicity, poverty, and lack of insurance created the greatest disparities in vaccination rates, and the authors noted that extra efforts are needed to counter the pandemic’s disruptions.

In addition to the problems caused by COVID, Miller said, competing life priorities like work and school impede families from keeping up with shots. Weekend vaccination clinics can help working parents get their children caught up on routine immunizations while they get a flu or COVID shot. Miller and O’Leary also said reminders via phone, text, or email can boost immunizations.

“Vaccines are so effective that I think it’s easy for families to put immunizations on the back burner because we don’t often hear about these diseases,” she said.

It’s a long and nasty list that includes hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, rotavirus, pneumococcus, tetanus, diphtheria, human papillomavirus and meningococcal disease, among others. Even small drops in vaccination coverage can lead to outbreaks. And measles is the perfect example that worries experts, particularly as international travel opens up.

“Measles is among the most contagious diseases known to humankind, meaning that we have to keep very high vaccination coverage to keep it from spreading,” said O’Leary.

In 2019, 22 measles outbreaks occurred in 17 states in mostly unvaccinated children and adults. O’Leary said outbreaks in New York City were contained because surrounding areas had high vaccination coverage. But an outbreak in an undervaccinated community still could spread beyond its borders, he said.

In some states a significant number of parents were opposed to routine childhood vaccines even before the pandemic for religious or personal reasons, posing another challenge for health professionals. For example, 87% of Colorado kindergartners were vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella during the 2018-19 school year, one of the nation’s lowest rates.

Those rates bumped up to 91% in 2019-20 but are still below the CDC’s target of 95%.

O’Leary said he does not see the same level of hesitancy for routine immunizations as for COVID. “There has always been vaccine hesitancy and vaccine refusers. But we’ve maintained vaccination rates north of 90% for all routine childhood vaccines for a long time now,” he said.

Malini said the “ripple effects” of missed vaccinations earlier in the pandemic continued into 2021. As children returned to in-person learning this fall, schools may have been the first place families heard about missed vaccinations. Individual states set vaccination requirements, and allowable exemptions, for entry at schools and child care facilities. Last year, Colorado passed a school entry immunization law that tightened allowable exemptions.

“Schools, where vaccination requirements are generally enforced, are stretched thin for a variety of reasons, including COVID,” said O’Leary, adding that managing vaccine requirements may be more difficult for some, but not all, schools.

Anayeli Dominguez, 13, was at the Westminster clinic for a Tdap vaccine because her middle school had noticed she was not up to date.

“School nurses play an important role in helping identify students in need of immunizations, and also by connecting families to resources both within the district and in the larger community,” said Denver Public Schools spokesperson Will Jones.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Aurora school board condemns ‘senseless acts of violence’ after shooting

2021-11-17T02:31:27+00:00

The Aurora school board started Tuesday’s meeting condemning the violence that shook Aurora Central High School the day before.

Six students were shot in Nome Park, right next to the high school and one of the district’s administration buildings.

“These senseless acts of violence are disgusting and they should not happen in our community nor any community,” said Kayla Armstrong-Romero, president of the Aurora school board.

The drive-by shooting happened about 12:45 p.m. Monday. Six students between the ages of 14 and 18 were shot. All students are expected to survive, but two have serious injuries. No suspects have been arrested.

Armstrong-Romero also said the board and the district are “proud” of the community, and thanked students and staff, including the school resource officers who responded first to the scene and used tourniquets on at least two of the victims, according to police.

Students and staff finished the school day Monday, and were back in the building Tuesday, Armstrong-Romero said.

The comments were read by the board president at the beginning of the meeting and there was no other discussion.

In brief public comment, Linnea Reed-Ellis, president of the teachers union, also acknowledged that other schools nearby were also impacted.

“The impact goes beyond Aurora Central,” Reed-Ellis said.

The district provided additional counselors at Aurora Central, as well as added security, but released no details about how many additional staff were in the building. The Aurora Police Department also said it would step up patrols around the school and park this week.

The Denver Post reports the shooting comes in the midst of a rise in youth crime. Seven teens have been shot — and three killed — in Aurora in the past three weeks. Seven teens have been killed in Aurora homicides this year.

The police chief and other city leaders called the violence a public health crisis.

The high school has about 1,800 students. The district has been working to improve academic performance at the school, which is on a state watch list for low-performing schools. The district has plans to convert the school, and nearby Peoria Elementary, into a magnet school for visual and performing arts.

The board on Tuesday approved a name, The Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus, for the K-12 magnet school that is expected to open in fall 2022. Burrell was the first African American to play in a major symphony orchestra. Burrell, now 101, was at the school board meeting to celebrate the magnet school.

Detectives are asking anyone who may have observed Monday’s incident, and have not yet spoken to police, to reach out to the Aurora Police Major Crimes Unit or the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720.913.STOP (7867), where they can remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward.

Large 27J district bond passes amid mixed success of school tax measures

2021-11-04T01:54:45+00:00

Colorado voters approved just over half of the 30 local school district tax and bond measures on the ballot Tuesday, with wins in districts ranging from 27J in the north Denver suburbs to a number of rural districts, including Roaring Fork in the mountains and Rocky Ford on the eastern plains.

Most districts seeking tax measures this year were medium or small districts — with none of the 10 largest districts in the mix on Election Day, according to a tally kept by the Colorado School Finance Project. As of Wednesday morning, the percentage of successful school district ballot measures seemed lower than in past years, said Tracie Rainey, executive director of the project.

Several were still too close to call Wednesday, including a mill levy override passing by fewer than 10 votes in the tiny West Grand School District.

“A lot of these districts are very small districts, so you’re looking at just a few votes one way or another,” Rainey said. Though the number of school district ballot measures this year was fairly consistent with previous years, Rainey said the number of students affected is lower.

Over the past three years, pass rates on school tax measures have ranged from more than 60% to more than 90%. District leaders and election watchers like Rainey attributed the defeat of some tax proposals this year to low voter turnout, continuing economic anxiety, and pandemic-related disruptions to public engagement.

“I just think you didn’t have the people voting that needed to get out and support their local communities,” Rainey said.

Plus, COVID-19 may also have made it more difficult for school districts to communicate their needs to voters. That’s especially unfortunate, she said, given that the pandemic has highlighted the aging infrastructure of Colorado’s schools when it comes to things like ventilation and technology.

While voters in the the 20,000-student 27J district passed a $515 million bond package Wednesday, they rejected a mill levy override that would have paid for higher staff salaries. District spokeswoman Janelle Asmus said the split decision was likely because the bond won’t raise property taxes in part because it replaces retiring bond debt, while the mill levy would have bumped taxes by 8 mills.

“We know we are exiting a pandemic, or on our way, and there’s still a certain amount of economic discomfort out there,” she said.

Asmus said district officials in the fast-growing district are thrilled about the passage of the bond, which will pay for a new high school in Commerce City and new STEM and career education additions at the district’s three high schools, among other building projects.

She said the 20,000-student district could grow to 50,000 students by 2050 if district projections hold up.

“When you drive through our district, you can see housing starts everywhere,” Asmus said. The bond issue will help solve school crowding not just in the near term but well into the future.

The 5,300-student Roaring Fork District was one of five Colorado districts to pass a mill levy override Tuesday, according to preliminary vote counts. Mill levy overrides are a type of property tax collected for a particular purpose, on top of property taxes that go toward regular school operations.

Superintendent Rob Stein estimates the funding — $7.7 million a year — will allow Roaring Fork to raise salaries by an average of 10%, though the district has not yet worked out the details. Like many districts around the country, Roaring Fork is experiencing serious staffing shortages this year.

“We knew we needed to pay more to pay a competitive wage and a living wage,” Stein said. “This will make a huge difference.”

The Roaring Fork Valley in western Colorado has one of the highest costs of living in the state, Stein said, and the district has already done a lot to recruit and retain educators, including building its own affordable housing units, all of which are full. But some expenses are fixed.

“You can’t save money on repairing brakes for school buses,” Stein said.

In the tiny Rocky Ford district in southeastern Colorado, voters approved a $6 million bond issue, after rejecting a slightly bigger one last year. The bond proceeds will provide much of the required local match for a state grant that will pay for a new pre-K-8 school and various other improvements.

Superintendent Kermit Snyder said after last year’s defeat, the district did two things to reduce the property tax burden it was asking voters to assume. First, the district agreed to put $1.6 million from its reserves toward the required match. Second, the local education foundation — funded with money from a past water rights deal with the City of Aurora — agreed to put $80,000 a year toward repayment of the bond.

Those changes reduced the tax ask by nearly half, prompting local farmers, who lined up squarely against last year’s bond measure, to join a diverse array of supporters this time around, said Snyder.

He saw signs that community attitudes were shifting in August during a meeting about the bond plan. The owner of a large local farm attended, asked questions, and ultimately pledged his support.

“That really seemed to start this wave of others giving it careful consideration,” Snyder said.

Aurora, Westminster schools report high compliance with vaccine mandates

2021-10-08T22:25:24+00:00

Nearly 89% of Aurora Public Schools employees — and 96% of licensed staff — have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in compliance with a district mandate, officials said.

Meanwhile, in Westminster Public Schools, 97% of employees are vaccinated with a week to go before an Oct. 15 deadline, according to a spokesperson. In Westminster, even employees with exemptions may find themselves on unpaid leave if they don’t get the shot, as the district is taking a hard line on unvaccinated staff having any contact with students.

On Friday, the small Sheridan district joined the short list of Colorado school districts requiring that staff get vaccinated. Employees have until Dec. 8 to get their shots.

So far, just a handful of Colorado districts have made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory, and Gov. Jared Polis has declined to issue a statewide requirement.

“We’re incredibly grateful to our staff for stepping up and responding to this need for our students to be protected and have protection in our classrooms,” Superintendent Rico Munn said at a press conference earlier this week where he appeared with Polis to promote the importance of vaccination.

The Aurora district was the first in Colorado to announce back in May it would require all staff to be vaccinated against COVID in order to continue working. The requirement went into effect when the FDA gave full approval to the Pfizer vaccine, and staff had 45 days to comply. The deadline was Thursday.

Aurora reported a high rate of compliance, especially among teachers and other licensed staff. The majority of those who have not provided proof of vaccination are temporary employees and volunteers, district spokesperson Corey Christiansen said.

Employees who have not yet complied have until Nov. 22 to either get vaccinated or obtain an exemption. Those who miss the extended deadline will be recommended for termination at the December school board meeting, Christiansen said. There may be some situations in which unvaccinated employees are placed on unpaid leave sooner than that, though he didn’t specify what those situations would be.

“The workload impact on the school, department, or division will be considered in determining whether the intent to terminate will be immediate or delayed until December 2021,” he wrote in an email.

Denver Public Schools staff were supposed to be vaccinated by Sept. 30 or risk losing their jobs under a public health order from the city, but the district extended the deadline to Jan. 1 to avoid sudden staffing shortages. Denver, the state’s largest school district, reported that 87% of district employees were vaccinated by the deadline.

Munn said the Aurora district issued the vaccination requirement to ensure in-person learning can be maintained and to keep it as safe as possible.

“In order to accomplish our job, in-person learning environments must be safe, secure, and very rigorous,” he said. “It became clear as we’ve gone through this COVID crisis that we have to do everything possible to protect that in-person learning environment.”

People who are vaccinated are much less likely to contract or transmit the virus. Significantly for school operations, staff who are vaccinated do not have to quarantine after routine classroom exposure.

Westminster Public Schools spokesperson Stephen Saunders said that’s a major reason the district won’t allow unvaccinated teachers to remain in the classroom — even if they have an exemption.

“If a teacher is in front of kids and she’s exposed, even if the exposure doesn’t happen at school, she’s out for 10 days,” Saunders said. “And that’s an undue burden.”

Westminster approved 34 exemption requests and denied three. Those three first requested a medical exemption, then switched to seek a religious exemption when they were asked to provide a doctor’s note.

In cases where an unvaccinated employee can be reassigned — such as a custodian moving to the night shift when they won’t cross paths with students — the Westminster district is accommodating employees with exemptions. But even teachers who work in Westminster’s remote school do so in a school building with co-workers and need to be vaccinated, Saunders said.

Some districts, such as Jeffco and Mapleton, require unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly testing, but Saunders said that still introduces too much risk.

“You can test negative one day and later that same day you’re positive, and you have a teacher who conceivably has the virus dealing with kids all week,” he said.

Aurora approved at least 178 exemptions, and denied at least one among licensed staff. Employees with an exemption are asked to continue wearing a mask, keep physical distance from others, and undergo periodic testing.

In the spring when the district announced the requirement, a handful of teachers spoke to the school board against the mandates, some citing concerns that have been dispelled. Most recently, a group of parents repeating inaccuracies about the vaccines spoke to the school board opposing the requirement, but none were district staff subject to the rule.

State Board demands answers in Adams 14 rift with outside manager

2021-08-28T01:09:09+00:00

A company brought in to manage the struggling Adams 14 school district under state order says its employees have been blocked from schools and prevented from doing their work for more than two weeks, prompting the Colorado State Board of Education to demand answers.

While the outside operator pointed to a track record of improvement, a consultant hired by the new superintendent of the suburban Denver school district called the partnership “totally ineffective” and recommended it end.

Members of the State Board of Education have demanded district officials explain why they stopped working with the company without coming to the State Board to raise concerns, as required under the order. On Friday, the State Board ordered Adams 14 officials to appear at a hearing Sept. 10 to explain whether the school board authorized a stop-work order, whether the school district had exercised authority it was required to delegate to the external manager, and how the district intends to come into compliance.

The conflict represents a test of local control and Colorado’s school accountability system, which doesn’t allow for state takeovers but does allow the State Board to strip school districts of accreditation, reorganize them, and convert schools to charters. If the State Board feels that Adams 14 is out of compliance with its improvement order, it could revive any of those options.

In 2018, Adams 14 became the first school district in Colorado to be ordered to turn most day-to-day operations over to an outside manager. Adams 14 serves a large population of English language learners and students living in poverty in the working class Denver suburb of Commerce City and has struggled for years with low test scores. A federal investigation concluded in 2014 found patterns of discrimination against Hispanic students.

Adams 14 selected Florida-based MGT to serve as its outside manager, and the company formed a local subsidiary, Adams 14 Schools Succeed, to run the district. This summer, halfway through an $8.3 million, four-year contract with the for-profit company, Adams 14 hired its own superintendent, Karla Loria, as part of a gradual transition back to district management.

On Tuesday, Lisa Medler, executive director of accountability and continuous improvement for the Colorado Department of Education, told the school board that Adams 14 is out of compliance with the state order because MGT has not had a consistent presence in the district. She also raised concerns about stagnant test scores and the district not doing enough to improve literacy.

On Thursday, the Adams 14 school board heard from Stuart Berger of Burns/Van Fleet Educational Consulting, a firm that Loria had recommended perform an independent evaluation of MGT’s work. A written report filed by Berger called out a number of concerns with MGT’s performance but recommended that the relationship continue as long as it would be productive, though he also recommended the contract be renegotiated.

The company “is intimately involved not only with the operations of [Adams 14], but also in the daily lives of various administrators. Ending this relationship now would result in chaos in a district that has already had its share,” he wrote.

But in his presentation to the board, Berger reached a different conclusion.

“My strong recommendation to the board of education is that you end this partnership,” he said, describing the arrangement as problematic from the beginning.

Berger could not be reached to discuss why he shifted his recommendation. In his presentation to the board, he said some staff members who had initially been afraid to be candid with him later changed their minds.

“It then became clear to me that [Adams 14 Schools Succeed] had not performed in any meaningful way,” he told the board. “I’m not questioning the integrity or experience of the people. The people had no experience in being a turnaround. There is nothing to believe that anyone, except some of the coaches who had been in the Denver public schools, knew anything about urban education nor turning around a school district.”

Berger said MGT added too many unnecessary staff positions and didn’t do enough to change a culture of low expectations for students and staff.

Berger also questioned additional funds that MGT had sought for providing extra services during the pandemic and recommended a forensic audit to determine if MGT had provided all the services it was contracted to provide. A spokesman for MGT said the company welcomes any outside investigation and believes its record will withstand scrutiny.

The recommendation seemed to catch Adams 14 school board members by surprise. They said they had always had a good working relationship with MGT.

“It was our hope that our superintendent and MGT or A14SS would work together to lead us into the next two years of this contract and that we are successful in following the state order and bring our district out of turnaround,” board president Ramona Lewis said.

“It is very disheartening. We’ve worked with them in good faith and we’ve accepted every recommendation that they’ve made. We need to do some further thinking on what this report has brought to light.”

The school board did not take any action Thursday and is scheduled to meet again Tuesday.

Reached by phone Friday, Lewis referred questions to a district spokesperson. The spokesperson said Loria was not available for an interview and referred questions back to the consultant’s written report. The spokesperson did not answer a question about how the consultant was selected.

In an 18-page letter to Lewis, Eric Parish, executive vice president of MGT Consulting, pointed to improvements in graduation and dropout rates, the expansion of career and technical education programs, the opening of a new elementary school, and improved staff culture, among other accomplishments. In particular, the letter noted the federal Office for Civil Rights had signed off on a plan for educating English language learners that resolves the old complaint, which had languished.

“Our partnership has yielded much progress,” Parish wrote. “Four years ago, Adams 14 was in the news for all of the wrong reasons. … Since we started our partnership in 2019, it’s been a different story, despite the enormous complications created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Adams 14, facing another year of declining enrollment, looks to attract students with billboards

2021-08-19T16:01:00+00:00

Just before the first day of school last week, Adams 14 administrators went out knocking on doors looking for students who had not yet registered for school.

New Superintendent Karla Loria was able to reach eight of the 12 students she was searching for, and by the end of the week, she had reached and enrolled all 12.

But despite the efforts, the district is starting the school year with about 5% fewer students than last year, another large decrease adding to a continual decline in enrollment made worse by the pandemic.

Loria has a plan. She is launching a marketing campaign that includes five billboards to advertise the district and help attract students back to Adams 14 schools.

“It’s asking, or inviting, our families outside of our district or inside of our district to enroll so we can start capturing students and attracting students from other districts as well,” Loria told the board.

The school board unanimously approved the $43,500 advertising project. The district will use $10,000 from a state grant that allows marketing of career and technical offerings at the high school and will also use money from the communications budget.

Last year, Adams 14’s official student count was 6,066 students. On the first day of school this year, the district had about 5,300 students enrolled, which went up to about 5,743 students by the end of the week. That’s down from more than 7,000 just a few years ago.

Most metro area districts have seen a declining trend in the number of students, in part because of declining birth rates and the increased cost of living in the metro area. Currently, Loria pointed out, more than 30% of Adams 14 students also choose to enroll in other districts.

The Adams 14 district, which is under a state order to improve its performance, has experienced significant teacher turnover and community mistrust stemming in part from an investigation completed in 2014 that found discrimination against Hispanic students, who make up the majority of the district. Neighboring districts are just a short drive away and at least one has specifically marketed to students in Adams 14 in previous years.

Colorado funds school districts based on the number of students enrolled, so fewer students also means fewer dollars.

“Part of the conversation I’ve been having with my cabinet is about how can we start advertising and sharing the great things that are happening in our district,” Loria said. “There are a lot of areas we feel very proud of.”

All the billboards will be in both English and Spanish and will be up for about eight weeks.

The first billboard, located at I-270 and I-76, features a student in a space suit with the words “Ready to visit Mars?” It’s meant to promote a new space STEM program that is offered at the newly built Alsup Elementary school. The school is working with the Aldrin Family Foundation on the curriculum.

The other billboards will highlight the district’s bilingual and dual language offerings — the district launched its first dual language program at one elementary school this fall — as well as various career and technical programs offered at Adams City High School.

The high school, which like the district is under state orders to improve, has focused on creating what officials call “pathways,” helping connect students with careers and giving them a leg up on experience or credentials toward jobs or degrees in those industries. The high school culinary arts team won a state competition in 2019, earning the students thousands of dollars in scholarships.

High school seniors were among the students targeted by district home visits last week, Loria said, and the reasons they hadn’t enrolled are complex. One of the seniors she connected with was a student who had just turned 18 but had not yet graduated. He thought he was no longer able to attend school because of his age.

Students in Colorado can attend free public schools until they’re 21 if they’re still working to complete high school.

“He was extremely excited that he was able to come back and very emotional,” Loria said.

Tri-County will require masks in schools for those under 12, not for all

2021-08-18T00:54:38+00:00

Public health officials for Tri-County, representing three suburban Denver counties, voted Tuesday to require students aged 2 to 11 to wear masks in schools. Staff who work with these students must also wear masks.

The motion, which the Tri-County Board of Health passed in a split vote following heated public comment, directs the agency to write the mask mandate to take effect by Aug. 23. Tri-County comprises Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties. Should any of those individual counties opt out of the requirement, it would be up to school districts to decide whether to follow the order.

Dr. Thomas Fawell, the Board of Health member who presented the motion that passed, said that while he understands that federal guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other groups recommend universal masking in schools, local data is less worrisome than in other areas of the country where COVID-19 vaccination rates remain low.

“While we do have an increase in cases, which puts us in what they have termed a high transmission area, our cases and our transmission don’t equal hospitalizations or deaths,” Fawell said.

Tri-County covers 15 school districts surrounding Denver, all with varying mask policies. In response to Tri-County considering a mandate, the Adams 12, Aurora, and Cherry Creek districts all strengthened their mask requirements related to younger children but did not require them for all students and staff.

Children over 12 have been eligible to vaccinate for months. Tuesday’s order was silent about them. Initially, the board voted on a proposed universal mask order, but it failed.

The local public health department in Jeffco, which is not covered by the Tri-County health board, issued a mask order for schools late Monday, and Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment issued one on Tuesday afternoon. Both orders require masks for staff and students over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status.

In Denver, the school district already required masks for students and staff, but the city order will also apply to private schools, day care centers, and charter schools that may have had different policies.

The Tri-County Board of Health had several options. They could have kept the health department’s guidance as a recommendation to school districts, mandate masks for children under 12 and staff who work with them, or require masks for everyone in school buildings.

The health board heard testimony Monday from about 30 speakers over 90 minutes, a tiny percentage of the 2,000 people who were signed up to speak. Another 10,000 people submitted written comments.

Parents who supported a mandate said they want their children to attend school in person and believe universal masking is the best way to keep classrooms safe and reduce disruptive quarantines.

Andrea Nelson told the Board of Health she struggled to help her two sons, who both receive special education services, with remote learning last school year. Her children are also immunocompromised, so when the Douglas County School District said it would not require masks, she decided to keep them home another year.

“We were looking forward to safely attending school this fall and healing some of the damage from last year,” she said. “Unfortunately, since the delta variant has entered the picture and Douglas County is not requiring masks, our doctors have said it is not safe for them to return to in-person learning this year. And so our isolation and lockdown continues. I am so disappointed in the lack of precautions our schools are taking this year.”

Jordana Hoppe, the mother of a child entering kindergarten in the Cherry Creek district and a pediatric pulmonologist, said schools should follow CDC recommendations and require everyone to wear a mask.

“Everyone here agrees that the best option is for kids to be in school, not only from an educational standpoint but also for the social and psychological benefits,” she said. “How can this be accomplished safely without COVID infections, quarantines, and school closures?”

The answer is universal masking, said Hoppe, who cited studies showing masks decrease the spread of COVID-19.

Parents who oppose a mandate said they believe the risk to their own children is small and connected the broader mental health impacts of the pandemic to mask-wearing. They said masks cause more fear and anxiety.

“For some children, masks mean not knowing the mood of the people they’re interacting with or the intent or tone of a conversation,” Bryan Johnston told the Board of Health.

Some who spoke before the health board cited incorrect information that masks are dangerous to children’s health — something medical experts say is not supported by any evidence.

“It is not our children’s job to suffocate themselves to make other people feel safe,” said Jackie Houlberg, a mother of four school-aged children. “If people are that concerned, you can keep your children home and keep your fears off of other people’s children.”

Most of the speakers were from Douglas County, a conservative community where the school district previously recommended but did not require masks, and the county commissioners have openly sparred with Tri-County over COVID regulations for most of the pandemic.

Douglas County Commissioners are scheduled to hold a special meeting Wednesday morning. The commissioners told the Douglas County News-Press they intend to opt out of the mask requirement, but Douglas County School District said it would follow the health order.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has indicated he does not intend to issue a statewide mask mandate for schools at this time. That has left the decision up to local officials.

Dr. Linda Fielding, one of the Tri-County Board of Health members who voted against issuing an order, said that politics has interfered with science, and she is not convinced that the need for masks outweighs taking away local control from elected school boards.

In addition to Jefferson and Denver’s local public health orders, Boulder also already adopted a public health order requiring masks in schools, while Broomfield and Eagle counties require masks for younger children.

Jeffco health officials order masks for all in schools

2021-08-17T03:21:54+00:00

Students starting classes in Jeffco schools Tuesday will have to wear masks after all, regardless of age or their vaccination status.

The Jefferson County Public Health Department issued an order Monday that requires masks for anyone age 2 or older when in childcare and K-12 schools. The order also requires all unvaccinated students and staff participating in extracurricular activities to undergo routine testing during the school year, starting Sept. 7.

“Over the past few weeks, we have seen schools that do not require masking in other parts of the country be required to send large numbers of students home to quarantine and even close schools,” said Dr. Dawn Comstock, executive director of Jefferson County Public Health. “While our department released very strong guidance to Jeffco schools and childcare settings recommending they require mask-wearing, unfortunately too few schools and childcares have adopted this safe and effective mitigation strategy.”

In a message to families, the Jeffco school district announced that despite having just set up a process to provide medical and religious exemptions, the public health order will not allow for religious exemptions, only medical ones.

The Jeffco order takes effect Tuesday and applies to all schools in the county, including charter schools and private schools.

The order also asks schools to space students out by six feet when they remove their masks indoors such as during lunch.

On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis said he has no plans to impose a statewide mandate in schools, but that might change if rising COVID cases push too many schools into remote learning.

On Friday afternoon, several school districts updated their mask policies to require them for younger children, including Aurora, Adams 12, and Cherry Creek, after Tri-County Health Director John Douglas said the department was considering an order and stated that schools were unsafe for unvaccinated children without masks.

Jeffco announced its decision as the Tri-County Board of Health heard passionate public testimony for and against a school mask mandate. Tri-County oversees 15 school districts in Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties. The Board of Health continued its discussion in a closed executive session, then put off a decision until Tuesday.

Denver Public Schools already requires masks for all students and staff.

Previously, the Jeffco Public School district had issued its own guidance requiring masks for children under 12, but only recommending them for older students. Staff were required to provide proof of vaccination and those who are not vaccinated would have been required to wear masks.

At the time, the district had cited the public health department’s guidance on quarantines as a key factor in the mask policy. The district’s choice was meant to reduce the need to send students home.

At the time, at the end of July, the district also noted transmission of the virus in the county was increasing and case rates were at 77 per 100,000 in the county. As of Aug. 8, case rates in Jefferson County were at 91.8 cases per 100,000 people.

Parents opposed to having their children wear masks protested after the district released its guidance. Many common arguments against masks contain incorrect information. Public health experts say there are no significant downsides to wearing masks.

As of last week, about 952 students in Jeffco had chosen to continue online learning for this school year.

Tri-County considers school mask mandate; suburban districts change policy

2021-08-13T23:42:39+00:00

Tri-County Health Department is considering a public health order requiring masks in schools, and already suburban school districts have changed their mask policies in response.

In a letter sent to area superintendents Friday, Tri-County Health Director John Douglas underscored his concerns about the more contagious delta variant and its impact on unvaccinated children.

“Conditions in schools are presently not safe for unvaccinated children, particularly those below 12 years of age who are not currently eligible for vaccination, without required universal masking,” he wrote.

Douglas also encouraged school leaders to adopt policies that maximize mask-wearing, regardless of whether his board adopts a mask mandate.

Boulder County has already adopted a mask requirement for schools and child care settings, and on Friday, Broomfield County and Eagle County moved to require masks for younger children.

On Friday afternoon, a number of suburban school districts updated their mask policies to require them for younger children, as did Eagle County Schools.

Cherry Creek School District announced it would change its policy from recommending masks to requiring them for students in preschool through sixth grade and staff who work with those students.

“Safety is our highest priority, and the goal is to maintain in-person learning,” Superintendent Christopher Smith wrote. “This mask requirement will help us keep schools open and students in classrooms.”

Smith cited the strong warning from Douglas in changing the district’s policy, even though the health department has recommended universal masking in school settings for weeks. The school district also received a letter this week from dozens of parents who are also physicians asking for stronger mask policies.

Aurora Public Schools also said it would require masks for all students in child care centers, elementary schools, and K-8 and P-8 schools and encourage staff to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. The district previously recommended masks for unvaccinated students and only required them for unvaccinated staff.

Superintendent Rico Munn said the policy change was motivated by a desire to avoid disruptive quarantines.

Tri-County has advised the district that “circumstances have changed over the past few weeks and that disruption to our in-person learning environment has become increasingly likely if APS does not add an additional mitigation layer to our layered approach,” he wrote. “The choices are to either add a stricter mask mandate focused on students who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated or to implement strict quarantines for close contacts.”

Adams 12 Five Star Schools also announced a mask requirement for children in preschool through sixth grade. The district previously required masks for staff regardless of vaccination status but left it up to parents whether students would wear masks. Adams 12 has schools in Adams County, under Tri-County jurisdiction, and in Broomfield County.

The Tri-County Board of Health, which is made up of appointed representatives from the three counties, will meet Monday to consider whether to impose a mask mandate in school settings. The board could do nothing, require masks for younger children and staff who work with them, or require masks for everyone in school settings. The meeting is open to public comment.

In his letter, Douglas said transmission of the delta variant is “highly likely” in school settings without mask wearing, which in turn poses a risk to the physical health of children and to vulnerable friends and family members in the community. It also could disrupt in-person learning, which is important to the emotional and mental health of children, he said. The board cited these factors as the rationale for considering a mask mandate.

Tri-County Health Department oversees 15 school districts in Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties, and those suburban Denver area districts have adopted a range of mask policies.

Westminster Public Schools, for example, requires that everyone wear a mask inside, regardless of vaccination status, while the Adams 14 district is basing its mask rules on community transmission rates and changing requirements on a weekly basis.

Douglas County School District recommends masking but does not require it. Even phrasing its policy as a recommendation upset some parents in the conservative community, where county commissioners considered withdrawing from Tri-County Health Department over disagreements about COVID policy before agreeing to stick with the agency at least through next year.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recommends that everyone wear a mask in school settings, in accordance with federal guidance. However, individual school districts and county health departments set mask policies.

Students in many Colorado districts start school in early to mid-August, and most of them are attending class in person.

On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis said he had no plans at this time to impose a statewide mandate in schools, but that might change if rising COVID cases push too many schools into remote learning. He also told parents to expect a disrupted school year with quarantines and abrupt switches to online learning.

There are currently seven Colorado children under the age of 10 in the hospital for COVID-19 and another 10 children ages 10 to 19, according to state officials.

Few Colorado families have chosen remote learning, though some are still deciding

2021-08-11T19:44:51+00:00

In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, many sizable Colorado school districts are offering online learning programs this fall. But data shows very few students are choosing that option.

In 10 districts surveyed by Chalkbeat, only between 1% and 2% of students chose the fully remote option for the 2021-22 school year. That’s a dramatic decrease from the past school year, when a significant portion of students opted to learn online.

In Denver, for example, about a third of the district’s approximately 90,000 students chose to stay online for the second semester last school year amid a spike in COVID cases statewide. But district data shows only 1% of Denver students had chosen the remote option for this coming school year as of late July, even as case rates in the city creep back up.

Several districts cautioned that the numbers are still in flux. Despite deadlines that passed months ago, officials are allowing families to change their minds before the first day of school.

Dina Puente is still undecided. One of her teenage daughters has chronic health conditions, including asthma and allergies, that could make her really sick if she got COVID. In-person learning is a bigger risk for Puente’s family but she said her kids miss the social interaction of school. Her daughters lost touch with friends because they stayed online last year, she said.

“At the beginning of summer ... my decision was to send my girls to in-person learning,” said Puente, who lives in Denver. But watching the spread of the more contagious delta variant, she said, “I’m thinking, ‘I want them to go in person, but now I want them remote.’”

Remote learning has been the educational hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools across the country switching to online classes to try to slow the spread of the virus.

But after two interrupted school years, many schools are eager to get students back into classrooms. Politicians are eager too, with governors in some states ordering schools to reopen five days a week. Colorado, in contrast, has left it up to school districts to decide whether to offer remote instruction and has agreed to financially support online learning for the next two years, as long as districts can show students are learning.

Not many families are taking advantage. Of the 10 districts surveyed by Chalkbeat, Greeley-Evans School District 6, which serves a largely working class community about an hour northeast of Denver, and Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves northwest suburban communities like Thornton, had the highest percentage of students choosing online learning at 2.4%. South suburban Douglas County School District, which serves a more affluent community, had the lowest percentage, with 0.9% of students choosing to remain online.

About 1% of students in Denver Public Schools, Jeffco Public Schools, Westminster Public Schools, and Pueblo District 60 have opted to stay online, while about 2% of students in Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, and District 51 in Grand Junction have, data shows.

In some diverse districts, including Denver and Cherry Creek, Black families were more likely to choose remote learning, while white families were less likely to choose it, data shows. In Jeffco and Adams 12, Hispanic families were more likely than white families to choose remote.

A similar trend was visible last October in Denver, when a higher percentage of Black and Hispanic students chose to remain online than white students. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted Black and Hispanic communities in Colorado, with both experiencing higher rates of infection and death than the state’s white population.

Community organizations that work with parents say the inconsistent quality of remote instruction over the past two school years may be deterring more families from signing up this year. While some teachers and students thrived online, many more struggled. A poll conducted in January by several Denver-area education advocacy groups found that 65% of parents felt their children were learning less online than they would be in person.

“What parent do you know that was like, ‘Ooh, that went well?’” said Ariel Smith, the co-founder and executive director of Transform Education Now.

Some parents are also concerned about losing a connection to their children’s school. Unlike last year, districts are centralizing online instruction this year as most students return to the classroom. That means students who remain online will be taught by online-only teachers, not teachers from their home school, and will likely learn alongside new classmates.

Mask mandates may also play a role in families’ decisions. Most Colorado districts didn’t announce until recently whether they’d require students to wear masks this fall. Parents worried that their district isn’t requiring masks may want to switch their children to remote learning, while parents opposed to masks in districts where they’re required may do the same.

Joanna Rosa-Saenz said she was disappointed to learn Denver Public Schools is requiring masks for all students, and that Denver’s mayor is mandating school staff get vaccinated. Rosa-Saenz is opposed to all vaccinations for religious reasons, and she said she worries that the district may mandate COVID vaccinations for students too. After keeping her children online all last school year, she registered them for in-person learning. But she has reservations.

“I’ve been praying about it,” said Rosa-Saenz, whose children will be in ninth grade, third grade, and kindergarten. “I want to give the school this opportunity but I don’t know how that looks.”

Bucking metro area trends, Mapleton schools grow by attracting out-of-district students

2021-08-05T23:34:59+00:00

When Jennifer Velez was unhappy with her kids’ schools, she didn’t know that in Colorado she could take them across district boundaries.

Then, a friend who was coaching her son’s youth football team said he was moving his son to Mapleton. If she sent her son, too, the kids would at least have each other in the new school. She was convinced.

“It was super easy,” Velez said. The Mapleton school was only four miles from her home in the Adams 12 district. “I thought, if it doesn’t work, I can always move him back to our district.”

But she liked the new Mapleton schools, and a year later, she moved her daughter there, too. Mapleton Public Schools, a district of almost 9,000 students north of Denver, every year attracts thousands of families like Velez’s who cross district boundaries to send their kids to schools there.

Their choices have helped keep up Mapleton’s enrollment during a time when most other metro area districts are losing students. Colorado’s open enrollment system allows parents to enroll their children in any district that has room for them. Mapleton has taken advantage of that system, sometimes referring to itself as a “destination district” with small, specialized schools tailored to students’ needs. The district provides transportation to all students once within the district boundaries, removing part of the barrier that limits parents’ ability to exercise school choice in other districts. Mapleton also builds schools near its boundaries with other districts and operates an online school that enrolls students from around the state.

Among 15 metro area districts, the only other district with an upward enrollment trend over the last five years is the Brighton-based School District 27J where development is booming. Maintaining or growing enrollment helps districts avoid budget cuts as Colorado’s school funding is tied to student counts.

Even in the last year, when most districts saw large pandemic-related declines, the district’s official student count only dropped by nine students while the number of students who chose to come into the district from outside saw a significant jump, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state data.

In the 2020-21 school year, about half of Mapleton’s students came from other districts. Excluding Colorado Connections Academy, Mapleton’s online academy which takes students from across the state, district data shows that more than a third of the district’s students are choice enrollments from outside the district. That’s a higher proportion than for any other metro area district.

Mapleton’s out-of-district enrollment numbers grew by 1,600 students in 2020 to 4,521; Colorado Connections Academy grew by 258 students.

“We maintained our normal trajectory,” said Superintendent Charlotte Ciancio. “We’ve had steady growth.”

Mapleton is a unique district because it is an all-choice district. It has several specialized small schools, but does not assign students to any of them based on where they live. Instead, families choose the school that suits them best. The district provides transportation through a shuttle system so students can walk to their closest school and take the bus to any school in the district. Some of this works because of the district’s size.

“When parents make a deliberate and intentional choice,” Ciancio said, “they are more committed to the success of our schools.”

District officials credit the district’s geographic location as one of the biggest reasons for enrollment from outside the district. Mapleton has uneven boundaries that don’t match city or county boundaries. Mapleton schools have Thornton and Denver addresses. For some families that live in the Westminster or Adams 12 district boundaries, Mapleton schools can be closer than their own district’s neighborhood school.

The majority of Mapleton’s out-of-district students come from the Adams 12, Adams 14, and Westminster districts that border it. Those communities are generally similar — working class suburbs, with a high percentage of Hispanic families — but the districts also have pockets of more affluent neighborhoods.

Other factors that may play a role include Mapleton’s 100% choice culture, the transportation shuttle system that allows out-of-district students to catch the bus from one of the district’s existing stops, and new school construction. In the past, the district has also marketed in certain areas.

One of Mapleton’s newest schools, Explore Prek-8, sits near the intersection of York and E. 104th streets, on the edge of Mapleton’s boundary with Adams 12.

Mapleton board member Cindy Croisant said that at the school’s opening, she met parents who were from just across the street and interested in the new Mapleton school.

But, she said, it wasn’t planned that way.

“What we thought about was the community we were serving,” Croisant said. Board members heard from community members who said they wanted a school in that area, she said.

Recruiting students from other districts is rare, but not prohibited by law.

Croisant emphasizes that the board’s goal, despite sometimes using the phrase “destination district” to describe Mapleton, is to be welcoming and to be a model for others.

“The ‘why’ behind the work was about our students, and keeping our students because we had students leaving the district back then,” Croisant said. “We want to stay a small-schools-by-design district.”

Ciancio said she still would like to improve academics to help make Mapleton a better, and more attractive district. “We have everything else in place,” she said.

Parker Baxter, the director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Colorado Denver, has studied choice more generally and believes that another factor is the legal ability to make the choice, along with a possible higher awareness of that ability in the Mapleton communities.

“Just the district’s attitude can be playing a role, but it’s hard to measure that, ” Baxter said. “The difference between a district that’s open to choice and one that literally does not advertise it at all, is really significant. That Mapleton outwardly promotes its schools outside of its community and purposefully talks about them as open enrollment schools, that likely plays a role.”

Relying on out-of-district enrollments can also be considered risky for district leaders, Baxter said. It can make tracking enrollment more challenging, as those families can suddenly pull out. If they are already making sacrifices to make the drive, schedule changes or other life changes might make the situation too difficult. In other districts, promoting choice can be a political risk as some people are opposed to choice and its effects on schools.

Ciancio said Mapleton has not spent money on advertising its schools lately, but said that when they do send mailers, they go to zip codes that are part of the district, except because boundaries don’t line up, some of the homes that receive Mapleton materials are actually outside the district’s boundaries.

In 2019, Mapleton did spend money to specifically let Adams 14 families know that they would get preferential enrollment that year. Ciancio said she believes most families that find Mapleton do so through word of mouth.

For Jennifer Trujillo who lives in the Adams 14 district and has two daughters in Mapleton schools, that was the case. And, distance wasn’t a factor. Her district school is just two blocks away, but she chose to drive the eight miles to a Mapleton school.

Her oldest daughter, Isabella, was in third grade, and despite having tested as gifted since preschool, had not been given any different accommodations, Trujillo said. She wasn’t being challenged.

“They asked me if I wanted to skip her from preschool to first grade, and I said that’s a little much,” Trujillo said. “They said OK, so they just kept her in regular classes. When I put her in Mapleton, it took her one time to test and they put her in the [gifted] program.”

Trujillo, who was a single mom, said she found a way to make the drive work, and Mapleton helped. Before the pandemic, she dropped her daughters at one of the district buildings where they participated in choir and band as part of an early morning “zero hour.” Mapleton then put the girls on buses to each of their schools.

Isabella just graduated and is heading to the School of Mines in a couple of weeks with a full scholarship.

“It was a conscious choice I made,” Trujillo said. “I just really wanted them to be in a quality school and to give them the best I can.”

Cherry Creek district recommends masks but won’t require them

2021-08-04T18:42:30+00:00

The Cherry Creek school district will not require students or staff to wear masks at school this fall, but district officials strongly encouraged face coverings in a letter sent Wednesday to families.

The district, Colorado’s fourth largest with 54,000 students, is the latest to release guidance on masks for the coming year, as coronavirus infections surge due to the Delta variant. The state’s two largest districts also released mask guidance in recent days, with Denver requiring masks for all students and staff, and Jeffco requiring masks for students under 12 and unvaccinated employees. The 37,000-student Adams 12 district north of Denver announced Friday that masks will be optional for students but required for staff regardless of vaccination status.

In Cherry Creek, the only place masks for students and staff are required is on buses, in keeping with a federal order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state’s back-to-school mask guidance recommends that districts either require masks for unvaccinated students and staff, or all students and staff.

Mask requirements at schools have drawn both praise and criticism from families since schools began adopting them last year. Some parents and educators say the practice provides one more layer of protection against the coronavirus — and some peace of mind. Others say masks can be stifling and hinder communication between teachers and students.

About 300 Jeffco parents protested the district’s mask policy outside the county’s public health offices Wednesday, the Denver Post reported. They carried signs that read “Unmask our children. Let kids be kids,” “No masks, no silly rules” and “Smiles are contagious.”

Five takeaways from Colorado’s choice enrollment numbers

2021-06-30T21:58:48+00:00

Students in Colorado crossed school district boundaries a little more than usual during the pandemic school year, according to enrollment data.

Colorado’s open enrollment laws enable students to enroll in any school or district, even if they don’t live within that school’s attendance boundaries — although that choice can be subject to space available.

In a school year with many students working remotely and wide variability in the amount and quality of classroom and remote learning, enrollment trends changed. Many students never enrolled in schools and some who did, did not show up for classes.

Were more of Colorado’s families willing to cross district lines this year? Chalkbeat analyzed state enrollment data to learn more.

Here are the main takeaways from our analysis:

Slightly more students enrolled across district lines this school year than previously, but they mostly followed previous trends of movement.

In the past five years statewide, about 10% of students enrolled in a district that wasn’t their own, although that proportion slowly had been increasing. In the 2020-21 school year, it jumped to 12%. That represented a 9% increase, which was a bigger increase than in previous years.

Where students went didn’t change much, though. The districts that already had high numbers of out-of-district students had even more this school year, and those districts that typically lost a lot of students to other districts continued to see that.

Check out the map below to see the percentage of students in a district that are coming in from out of bounds, and the percentage of those leaving. The map also allows you to toggle to see the change from the previous school year to identify the districts that saw bigger changes during the pandemic.

Multi-district online schools have been big magnets

After the pandemic began, most school districts created versions of online or virtual learning, but a handful of districts already hosted large online schools that drew students from across the state. Overall, 13 of the 18 districts with those schools, known as multi-district online schools, experienced growth in choice in students as a percentage of their total enrollment.

The average percentage of students exercising their choice to attend districts with multi-district online schools was 33.1% this school year, up from 29.5% the previous year. That’s a bigger jump than the average “choice in” to districts without multi-district online schools. Among districts with those online schools, some of the largest jumps were in the Durango, Mapleton, and Byers districts.

Colorado Department of Education staff also has told the State Board of Education that applications to open those types of schools have increased.

The top 10 districts with the biggest increase in out-of-district students

The 10 districts that had the biggest growth in students coming in from out of district are spread across the state, but only one district, Mapleton, is in the Denver metro area. Mapleton officials point out that a large number of their outside students are those enrolled in the district’s multi-district online school, Connections Academy. But even without those numbers, the district has a high percentage of students from other districts.

District	Percent increase
Mountain Valley	55.47%
Mapleton	17.67%
Durango	17.67%
Vilas	72%
Byers	12.39%
Julesburg	9.60%
Bethune	8.11%
Primero Reorganized	7.82%
Pritchett	6.67%
Dolores	5.30%

District, Annual increase in percent of students entering from outside:

The top 10 districts with biggest increase in students leaving for other districts

One of the districts whose percent of students leaving grew the most, Mountain Valley School District, also tallied one of the biggest jumps in the percent of students entering from outside. The district began the school year remotely, and pushed back its hybrid plan at least once, eventually returning to in-person learning by late fall.

District	Percent increase
Sangre de Cristo School District	18.93%
Moffat County School District	16.03%
Bethune School District	15.46%
Mountain Valley School District	12.20%
Hoehne Reorganized School District	10.39%
Primero Reorganized School District	8.01%
Weld County School District RE-1	7.91%
Garfield County School District	7.67%
Pritchett School District	7.55%
North Park School District	7.11%

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Among the metro area districts:

Among the 15 metro area school districts, only two saw significant changes to the percentage of students coming in from out of district. One was Mapleton, where enrollment from outside districts jumped, and Sheridan, where students enrolling from outside decreased. The percentage of students leaving to attend school elsewhere changed slightly more than those who “choiced” into the 15 districts.

District	Change in choice in	Change in choice out
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	0.53%	2.27%
Adams County School District 14	0.32%	0.39%
Aurora Public Schools	-0.31%	0.21%
Boulder Valley School District	0.42%	0.57%
Cherry Creek School District	-0.94%	0.49%
Denver County School District	0.34%	0.39%
Douglas County School District	-0.97%	1.94%
Englewood School District	-0.40%	0.42%
Jefferson County School District	-0.22%	1.04%
Littleton School District	-0.63%	1.96%
Mapleton School District	17.67%	4.31%
School District 27J	0.35%	1.61%
Sheridan School District	-3.60%	0.89%
St. Vrain Valley School District	-0.03%	1.30%
Westminster Public School District	0.35%	1.00%

One year changes in choice enrollment in metro area districts

‘Invisible for a long time:’ Asian American students and parents in Colorado call for more support, AAPI history

2021-05-28T00:22:42+00:00

After a year in which Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders experienced violent hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic, students and parents in two Denver metro area school districts are calling for schools to better support AAPI students.

Among their requests are more mental health services for AAPI students, more assistance for AAPI student alliances on campus, and the inclusion of more AAPI history in the curriculum. Colorado and the West have a rich Asian American history that too often isn’t told.

“The AAPI community has felt very invisible for a long time,” said Kai Vong, a graduating senior at Denver’s East High School who is Chinese American.

As part of a nationwide reckoning with racism sparked by high-profile cases of police brutality against Black men and women, schools have been grappling with how to teach about race. But it wasn’t until a mass shooting of Asian women in the Atlanta area in March that the rise in anti-Asian hate became part of the national conversation in a significant way.

In the wake of the shooting, two Colorado mothers began pushing for change in their respective school districts. In Denver Public Schools, former school board member Rachele Espiritu sent a letter to current board members advocating for the inclusion of more Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history in the curriculum.

Though the school board passed a resolution in October pledging to diversify the curriculum, AAPI history was left out, Espiritu said. Only Black, Indigenous, and Latino history were explicitly named in the district’s Know Justice, Know Peace resolution.

“We ask the board to right this wrong by amending the resolution to include the only other marginalized racial group not mentioned,” Espiritu told the board.

In the neighboring Cherry Creek School District, parent Colleen Chan formed an AAPI parent task force to advocate for changes to the curriculum there. The group testified before the school board, which led to a meeting with top district administrators.

“Asian American stories are left out in education, in society, and we can’t separate that from the violence happening right now across the country,” Chan said.

Both districts have promised to make curricular changes, and spokespeople said the work is already underway. Carrie Olson, president of the Denver school board, said that Denver’s resolution was meant to be inclusive of all communities and that the board will “amend the existing resolution to make clear our intention in honoring AAPI history.”

“I do look forward to working with them and learning more about, ‘Where are the holes and the pieces the board can fill in?’” Olson said.

Denver Public Schools already has an Asian Education Advisory Council that advocates for the needs of Asian American students. Chairperson Priscilla Shaw, a middle school music teacher, said she is supportive of this latest push for more recognition. She has helped lead two district training sessions in the past year on disrupting xenophobia and elevating Asian voices.

At a recent school board meeting, three Denver students who graduated this month testified along with Espiritu. They said they learned very little AAPI history in school.

Aidan Reidy, who attended North High School, said she learned about Denver’s historic Chinatown, located a century and a half ago in what is now lower downtown, from a Buzzfeed video. In 1880, a white mob attacked the community, killing one man, brutally beating others, and burning businesses.

Hannah Im, who attended DSST Montview High School, said Asian history was taught in her sophomore world history class through a white Eurocentric lens. “We did talk about Asian countries but in the way they were colonized by European countries,” Im said.

The students said they weren’t surprised AAPI history was left out of Denver’s resolution. Vong, from East High School, said he remembers “seeing we weren’t included and being like, ‘Of course.’ After 12 years in the school system, you adjust to being pushed aside.”

William Wei, a University of Colorado Boulder professor and author of “Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State,” wasn’t surprised either.

“Whenever they talk about people of color in the United States, we are often overlooked if not out-and-out excluded,” said Wei, who recently served a one-year term as Colorado’s state historian. “We bear the burden of being perpetual foreigners in our own country.”

Wei said Colorado lessons about the economic development of the country should include how Chinese immigrant workers built the western half of the transcontinental railroad, helping to unify the country economically, socially, and even politically.

Students should be taught about both the cultural contributions of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans, Wei said, and about what he called the country’s dark chapters. That includes the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, including at a concentration camp in southeast Colorado known as Amache.

An exhibit about Amache at the History Colorado Center was what graduating senior Reidy called “the first piece of representation” she saw.

“I’m not even Japanese, but it was Asian history,” said Reidy, who is biracial and Taiwanese.

But Reidy and others said support for AAPI students needs to go beyond a more inclusive curriculum. Reidy, Im, and Vong each founded an Asian American Pacific Islander student alliance at their respective high schools because none existed when they were freshmen. Im, who is Korean American, said she wants the district to help more schools start AAPI student alliances and help the alliances that already exist improve and grow.

AAPI students also need more mental health support, the students said. Reidy saw a stark difference in her school’s response to the Atlanta shootings and to a mass shooting that happened in the Colorado city of Boulder the following week.

“After the Atlanta shooting, AAPI students and staff were expected to carry on as if nothing had happened,” she told the school board. “After the shooting in Boulder that happened a week later, I was told that it was OK to take the day off and grieve in my classes.”

Reidy added, “We are not supported unless we are the ones reaching out and advocating for ourselves, which is exhausting in so many ways.”

Finding out how Colorado schools teach reading can be a wild goose chase. This bill could make it easier.

2021-05-07T22:04:56+00:00

A Colorado bill designed to make it easier for parents to find out how schools teach reading and spend funds earmarked for struggling readers has cleared another legislative hurdle and appears likely to become law.

The bill would require the state education department to publicly post certain pieces of reading-related information and, in turn, require schools to prominently display links to that information on their websites. On Thursday, a little over a month after the Senate approved the bill, the House Education Committee unanimously approved the legislation.

The transparency legislation comes out of an ongoing push by parents of students with dyslexia and other advocates to shine a light on the black box that is reading instruction at many Colorado schools. Currently, some districts make it hard for parents and the public to find out basic information about elementary reading curriculum, and to determine who’s using state-approved programs and who’s not.

Chalkbeat hit a variety of roadblocks over the last year when requesting lists of K-3 reading curriculums by school from several large districts. Leaders in Jeffco, Colorado’s second-largest district, at first said they didn’t know what reading programs their schools used because they had never collected that information before. It took months for the district to provide a list.

Other districts offered up lists full of holes. Officials in Douglas County, the state’s third-largest district, recently told Chalkbeat they had listed numerous schools as using “no published core program” because it was the only option under state education department rules.

A state education department leader subsequently told Chalkbeat the district was incorrect and could list any reading curriculum it wanted. District officials still haven’t responded to Chalkbeat’s follow-up request for a complete list of reading curriculum by school.

Parents have reported the same kind of obstacles in their efforts to find out which schools are using programs with solid track records of helping students with reading struggles. During the House Education Committee hearing on the bill Thursday, parents from the statewide dyslexia advocacy group COKID described spending countless hours wrangling with districts over reading curriculum requests, sometimes even being asked to pay for the information.

“In a local-control state we need parents to be well-informed because they play such a crucial part … in holding our districts accountable,” said Karin Johnson, a co-chair of the group.

Currently, districts submit copious amounts of information on reading curriculum, instruction and spending to the state. The problem is not much of that information is publicly available. The bill would change that by requiring the education department to post it in a “user-friendly format” and update it in a “timely manner.”

“Making this information easily discoverable is critical for use by parents of dyslexic and struggling readers,” said Laura Mitchell, a co-chair of COKID and a member of the Adams 12 school board, during the committee hearing. “Parents won’t have to rely on social media recommendations to find schools that serve their child.”

But big questions remain about whether the state’s public posting — which thousands of schools will be required to link to — will provide easy-to-understand information for the layperson.

Starting this spring, the state education department began posting school-level K-3 reading curriculum information on its website, but finding it is a tedious process, with wide variation in how the information is displayed and how different districts refer to the same curriculum. Also, information for many districts is missing.

In addition to these omissions and inconsistencies, there’s no indication of which curriculums are state approved or state-rejected. The transparency bill doesn’t require a curriculum’s approval status to be posted, so parents will continue to have to do that research on their own.

Over the last seven months, Chalkbeat has published searchable curriculum lists showing each program’s state approval status for Denver, Jeffco, Cherry Creek, and Aurora.

The transparency bill, in addition to making K-3 reading curriculum information more visible, will require the state to publicly post the number of K-3 students at each school who are on state-mandated plans for struggling readers and each district’s plan for spending funds dedicated to help those students. The state doesn’t currently post these items publicly and parents and taxpayers don’t have easy access unless they file public records requests.

Until last year, districts had wide latitude on how to spend those dollars — with some using the funding to buy discredited programs or items that don’t have anything to do with reading instruction, such as tote bags or lip balm.

This Colorado administrator embraces leadership lessons from Latino culture

2021-05-05T18:22:21+00:00

Michelle Chambers had an eighth grade teacher who pushed her to enroll in an advanced high school program. In ninth grade, after months of struggle, another teacher urged her to quit.

But Chambers didn’t quit. Instead, she became one of 35 students to complete the program, later becoming the first in her family to graduate from college.

“I understand … what it feels like to have one teacher believe in me and what it feels like to push myself beyond anything I imagined,” said Chambers, now an assistant principal of the online elementary program in the Cherry Creek district, southeast of Denver.

A portrait of Dr. Michelle Chambers.

Chambers, one of two administrators named 2021 Colorado Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year for elementary school, recently helped start a mentorship program for other aspiring Latina education leaders through the Colorado Association of Latino/a Administrators and Superintendents.

She talked to Chalkbeat about how the pandemic changed parent-teacher relationships, why online learning will endure, and what advice her mentor gave her that she took to heart.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What was your first education job, and what sparked your interest in the field?

As a young child, I regularly invited my cousins to “play” school, and I was always the teacher. My favorite elementary teacher was Mrs. Lane. She made second grade so magical that I remember crying when I had to leave her classroom to go to third grade. She was so influential that when I taught second grade, I did many of the same activities, including reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” watching the original movie as a celebration, and making individual chocolate bars with an authentic golden ticket for each student.

My first education job was as a second grade teacher in the Cherry Creek district. I went on to serve as a fourth grade teacher, a gifted and talented specialist, an elementary differentiation coach, and an assistant principal.

What led you to be the first college graduate in your family? What challenges did you face along the way?

Even though I loved learning, it did not come easy to me. I also experienced test anxiety. From kindergarten through middle school, I took basic courses, often needed extra support, and earned low scores on standardized tests. During eighth grade, my social studies teacher saw something in me and nominated me for the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program. To my surprise, I was accepted.

During my freshman year, I struggled in algebra. I went to my teacher’s office hours during lunch every day for months. I also spent four hours each Saturday at Sylvan Learning Center. After eight months, my mathematics teacher told me that even though I was putting in the extra effort, she didn’t think I had what it took to complete her course or the IB program. She said, “You can’t do it, and you should quit.”

Rather than quit, I persevered. I enrolled in an algebra course at a local community college the following summer and gained the skills needed to continue. My IB cohort was the first at my high school — starting with 75 students our freshman year. I was one of 35 who graduated from that first cohort. As a result of my experiences, I understand what it feels like to struggle, what it feels like to have one teacher believe in me, and what it feels like to push myself beyond anything I imagined.

Under your leadership, the district launched a new online elementary school. Given that young students sometimes have trouble learning remotely, how did you address that?

Thousands of families chose online school last summer. We quickly realized that all students, especially primary students, were more engaged during interactive lessons with real-world and personal connections. As a result, we began researching applications that teachers could use to ensure that students had the opportunity to share their thinking and voice. Overall, our primary students have shown incredible willingness to learn in an online setting.

Is there a remote lesson you’ve watched a teacher give online that sticks out to you as particularly creative or innovative?

To make a lesson on number bonds — simple addition facts — fun and engaging for kindergarten students, one teacher made a number bond “monster.” As a reward, students were invited to help the teacher choose different numbers to “feed the monster.” While the teacher fed the monster, the students and teacher made the sounds of the monster eating. Everyone, including myself, giggled while watching the monster eat the numbers.

In an online environment, parents or caregivers can listen in on their children’s lessons. What is the impact of this?

One of the many gifts that presented itself this school year was how much the relationship between educators and parents evolved into a true partnership. Rather than just meeting during regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences, many teachers and families found time, with the flexibility of the online schedule, to meet as needed throughout the school year. Parent-teacher conference time also looked different online since many parents were familiar with the daily instruction and helped their children complete assignments.

Do you think education will look different after the pandemic? If so, how?

I believe that online and blended learning will be a part of our world in some shape or form. Many educators and families have mentioned how much they love the flexibility that online learning provides. Teachers and parents have commented that they enjoy how their children can focus on learning with fewer opportunities for disruptive social behaviors during class.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective.

As a beginning educator, I focused on building meaningful relationships with students within the walls of my classroom. I soon discovered that my relationships with students’ families were integral. After meeting and spending time with the family of a fourth grade student during goal-setting meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and while attending his extracurricular activities, I found ways to support his entire family. I taught his little brother, invited his older sister to complete her volunteer hours in my classroom, and helped his mother explore career opportunities.

What are you reading for enjoyment?

As a Cherry Creek delegate for the Colorado Association of Latino/a Administrators and Superintendents, I participate in a Latina Leadership Networking group. Our group is reading the book “The Power of Latino Leadership” by Juana Bordas. The content includes learning more about culturally specific leadership principles, such as Conciencia — knowing oneself and personal awareness; De Colores — inclusiveness and diversity; Juntos — collective community stewardship; and Gozar la Vida — leadership that celebrates life.

What’s the best advice about educational leadership that you ever received?

When I was building confidence about sharing my voice as an educator, a beloved mentor shared simple but profound words of wisdom, “Michelle, just remember, if nobody else says it, who will?”

From that moment on, I vowed that I would use my voice to advocate for students, staff, and families. Soon after, I found myself in a team meeting discussing instructional rigor. I expressed my belief that we could provide more depth and complexity, and that our students could meet our expectations. Even though some of my colleagues said we were doing enough and had given students all they could handle, I continued to advocate for the best possible education for each student.

Giving families little notice, Jeffco lays out plan to close small elementary school

2021-04-15T00:42:54+00:00

The Jeffco school district is planning to close Allendale, a small elementary school in Arvada, at the end of this school year.

It’s a decision, district leaders acknowledged, that comes at a bad time and with short notice.

But leaders said they rushed to consider closing the school only in the last few months when it became clear that existing challenges sustaining the small school were compounding.

In February, the district realized that Allendale may have fewer than than 100 students next year after some families said in a survey that they intend to continue remote learning in the fall. Then, the school’s principal announced he would be leaving for a new job.

Parents of the school pleaded with the school board at a meeting Wednesday to reconsider, noting that they were only informed at the end of March, giving them little notice.

The district’s first round of placements for students choosing a new school has already ended. although district staff are now planning to work individually with each Allendale family to find placements for students.

“As a Native American family, I feel like we found a home here at Allendale,” said parent Elizabeth Molica. “I would just hate to see that taken away from our family.”

Other parents talked about the value of having every employee of the school know their children by name, and the fear that enrollment decline is a regional problem that could require other school closures next.

Only one school staff member spoke Wednesday, asking for Allendale to remain open at least one more year. She criticized the district for scheduling the discussion during a work day, making it impossible for other school staff to attend.

Four of the five board members supported the district’s decision, though it was not put to a board vote. Although Jeffco school board members have voted on past school closures, a district spokesperson said it was not required. Susan Miller was the one board member who raised objections.

Allendale serves about 117 students this year, of which approximately 60% come from low-income families, compared with a district average of 30%. About 10% of the students are English language learners.

Some speakers accused the district of taking such a rushed approach with the decision only because of the demographics of the parents and students served — suggesting that such a decision would not be tolerated at some of the other schools in the district.

“Frankly, it would not have happened in a school populated from affluent families,” said Lisa Elliott, one of the staff members for the Jeffco teachers union, who spoke on behalf of school staff that couldn’t attend.

“It does not speak well of valuing people and having integrity. I know sometimes schools have to be closed. I know it is a tough decision. It is never welcome, but that doesn’t excuse the disrespectful way this was handled, the poor timing, and the inability of people to have their voices heard.”

District leaders told the board they considered equity when making their decision. Because schools are funded based on how many students they have, small schools like Allendale can’t offer as much programming or help for struggling students as larger schools. And since programming would be further cut at Allendale next year, it would create an inequitable situation.

“Too often schools in poverty … are left to atrophy,” said Community Superintendent Lee Cooper. “The population declines. The support declines, and year after year we tell families that this is OK and that your child can receive equitable access and equitable support in this building when they can’t. Not when we have 100 kids. I couldn’t look a parent straight in the eye and say your child will get the same support and resources in this building as they could at any one of my other schools.”

District staff did not make clear when the decision to close the school would be finalized, but interim superintendent Kristopher Schuh, in one of his last actions leading the district before new superintendent Tracy Dorland takes over next week, said “this is where we plan on moving forward at this point in time.”

District leaders told the board that Allendale has had a 45% drop in enrollment over the past five years. Of the number of students who live within the school’s attendance boundaries, more than 60% choose to attend a different district school.

Cooper said that among the set of schools he monitors, no other “has more kids choosing out than we have attending the school.”

The small number of students enrolled also presents a challenge because they are not evenly divided among grade levels.

For first and second grade, the school has one teacher who physically switches between two sides of a classroom, balancing two sets of standards, curriculum, and data, district staff said.

There is one third grade teacher and one for a combined fourth and fifth grade classroom. That means teachers have fewer opportunities to collaborate because they don’t have peers who teach the same grade level. The staffing challenges also have meant that the principal fills in to teach math courses every day.

Brenda Von Kaenel, the school’s digital librarian, said that staff learned about the plans three weeks ago, just before the district went on spring break.

When the meeting for staff was called, just shortly after the principal announced that he was leaving, staff expected to hear about a plan to select a replacement leader, she said. Instead, staff were “shocked and devastated” to hear talks about closure.

“Staff didn’t see this coming,” Von Kaenel said. “I had just been working with designers and carpenters to remodel the library. New furniture was arriving the next day for all our classrooms.”

She added, “You steamrolled over us.”

One district policy outlines a six-month process for “any potential school closure,” requiring specific input from groups, and a report analyzing 10 different factors, including projected enrollment.

Asked about that policy by board member Miller and community members, Cooper said the district didn’t violate it because it only pertains to facility planning, not to educational programming within a school building.

“There’s still time to have that conversation,” Cooper said, referring to when the district later decides what should be done with the empty school building.

Not counting fifth graders who would be moving on to middle schools next year, the district will help place 78 students into other schools. Transportation to other schools will be offered to alleviate some parents’ concern about having children cross busy 64th Avenue to get to other nearby elementary schools.

Board President Susan Harmon said that even though staff members weren’t able to speak to the board Wednesday, she believed their voices were heard in other ways.

Speaking to the impacted staff and families, she closed the discussion by saying, “our hearts go out to you.”

Latino students in Boulder share their stories — in shadow boxes

2021-04-12T23:31:44+00:00

Inside one shadow box, a map Isa Brady drew shows the way to both her past and her future.

It marks the place she grew up, Boulder, and highlights Chihuahua, Mexico, where her mother’s family comes from and where many of her family members still live. Then there’s a loop, with an arrow representing Isa’s hope to one day travel and see more of the world. Across the map, she draped papel picado, a colorful cut-out flag banner common in Mexican celebrations.

The inside of high school student Isa Brady’s shadow box. Her box is part of “Viviendo Aquí - Perspectivas de los jóvenes,” a new exhibit at the Museum of Boulder.

Isa is one of more than a hundred students from various schools in Boulder who are participating in a project to showcase their Latino culture in Boulder. The exhibit, “Viviendo Aquí - Perspectivas de los jóvenes,” or “Living Here, the Youths’ Perspective,” which opened Friday, is all about student storytelling. Some 15 students have given their shadow boxes to the Museum of Boulder to display.

Isa would like her box to help people see her identity as a 14-year-old Latina living in Boulder.

“I wanted to give off the sense that I still identify as Latina, but it doesn’t confine me to stereotypes,” Isa said. “At the same time, I also embrace a lot of the culture that is sometimes stereotyped especially in the community that doesn’t have a lot of Latinos.”

In other boxes, students have displayed photos, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and chile-flavored candy.

The museum has been working on a longer project with the Boulder County History Project to highlight Latino culture in Boulder, including documenting family histories. That exhibit is expected to be ready early next year.

“It’s so important, in my mind, for the exhibit that is going to attempt to showcase the breadth of Latino experiences past and present, to really have a strong youth perspective,” said Emily Zinn, the director of education for the Museum of Boulder.

Census data shows about 10% of Boulder residents identity as Hispanic. In the Boulder Valley School District, about 19% of students are identified as Hispanic.

The students came up with the idea for the shadow boxes. The museum annually works with a group of teenagers in a Teen Corps program. This year, the group was asked to help co-design an exhibit that would help highlight Latino youth.

“I have been interested for such a long time in how one could design an exhibit that allows individuals, your everyday visitor, to bring artifacts and ideas and stories of their own that they added to their exhibit in a living manner, without a curator needing to filter their story or disrupt it or get it wrong,” Zinn said.

The teenagers surprised her by coming up with such a simple idea that allows for that: shadow boxes.

Earlier this year, while students across Boulder were learning remotely, the museum gathered the boxes and other materials such as string, wire, and pins.

At Peak to Peak Charter School, one of approximately six schools that participated, teacher Joseph Barbour then spent hours separating materials into individual kits and delivering them to each student’s home.

More than 100 students across Boulder worked on the boxes and then decided if they wanted to share their work. The museum was able to accept every entry that was submitted.

Shadow boxes from Latino students are on display at the Museum of Boulder. About 100 students created boxes, with 15 on display.

“This really quite simple concept has solved that problem in an interesting way,” Zinn said about being able to find a way to allow teens to participate without needing a curator. “This has no adult hand in it.”

Zinn said the museum is also planning to experiment, based on the students’ ideas, with leaving an empty shadow box in the museum to see if any visitors are interested in taking it home and bringing it back to contribute to this exhibition or the larger one next year.

Barbour said his students who worked on the project, those in the school’s Spanish for Heritage Speakers course, enjoyed it.

For some, he said, it was a stress-free project to work on while other classes were becoming more busy as the quarter came to a close, but for others, it was a fun exploration of their identity and how they would want that identity to be expressed to others.

“To see a little bit more of the actual community represented in the museum and see it’s not just one type of artist or material that should be included is powerful,” he said.

Zinn said it was important to students planning and designing the exhibit that it can represent Latino youth experiences as a whole while showing that all experiences vary and not asking one person to carry all of the responsibility of representing everything at once.

“That nuance that individuals bring, that breadth of perspectives, has been a real specific desire of the young people we’ve worked with,” Zinn said.

Isa also wants the project to let people know that while there is a unity among Latinos, no one is quite the same.

“I’m not going to have the same experience as my cousin or even my mom,” Isa said.

Jose Rogelio Manriquez-Hernandez, a senior at University of Colorado Boulder studying history and education, also helped lead the project with the museum.

He said that just talking to students about the project and brainstorming ideas was educational and meaningful for him and the teenagers.

“Having this project to connect with students has been so inspiring,” Manriquez-Hernandez said. “It made me so happy to have a community I can relate to.”

And connection is another main theme students have told adults involved in the project that they want people to take from the exhibit.

“Just the feeling that they’re not alone,” Manriquez-Hernandez said. “I don’t see much representation of Latinx culture for people here in Boulder. But they’re not alone out there. There are others like them.”

Isa said the way she designed her box also reflected on the pandemic and the past year’s racial justice movement and includes words of hope for people who are having a rough time.

“A better understanding of race is something people need, especially right now, I think,” Isa said. “A lot of people are feeling alone and need this.”

Nearly all Cherry Creek elementary schools use state-rejected reading curriculum. Change is coming.

2021-03-30T18:50:48+00:00

Most Cherry Creek elementary schools rely on reading curriculum that has been rejected by the state and criticized by experts because it relies on debunked methods.

Eighty percent of the district’s 45 elementary and K-8 schools use the program — called Units of Study For Teaching Reading, or more commonly Lucy Calkins. District officials acknowledge the program lacks a strong phonics component and encourages children to guess at words instead of sounding them out.

But the 54,000-student district will use that curriculum for at least one more year. Officials plan to adopt a new core elementary reading program starting in the 2022-23 school year, after first introducing a phonics-focused supplemental curriculum next school year.

Cherry Creek’s story is a familiar one, as districts around Colorado respond to a 2019 state law that put stricter limits on the reading curriculum schools can use in kindergarten through third grade. The law, a revision of Colorado’s landmark 2012 reading law, the READ Act, requires districts to use curriculum backed by science, and state officials have said districts that don’t make a good faith-effort to abandon state-rejected programs could face sanctions.

Buying new curriculum for all of a district’s schools can cost millions of dollars, but advocates hope that, in combination with new state-mandated teacher training requirements, such changes will bolster Colorado’s chronically low reading scores. Only 41% of Colorado third-graders scored proficient on 2019 state literacy tests, the most recent one given.

In Cherry Creek, the proficiency rate was somewhat better at 49%, but boys, Black and Hispanic students, and students from low-income families all scored lower than the districtwide average. In other words, even in the relatively affluent suburban district, lots of children are still falling through the cracks.

For years, Jennifer Abrams’s daughter Eden was one of them.

The 8-year old, who attends the district’s Cottonwood Creek Elementary, has always loved stories and listened for hours when her parents read the Harry Potter series aloud, but she struggled with basic reading skills as far back as preschool.

“She’s really good at guessing,” said Abrams. “When there’s no pictures in the book, she doesn’t want to read it because there’s no picture to give her clues.”

When Eden was in first grade, Abrams requested a special education evaluation, but the district determined her daughter didn’t qualify for services. Instead, the district found that Eden had anxiety and executive function issues and provided some accommodations for those challenges.

Last fall, in second grade, Eden continued to struggle. She knew other children were starting to read chapter books on their own, but she wasn’t. She felt dumb. Abrams finally took her daughter to a private evaluator and Eden was diagnosed with dyslexia.

Abrams said she feels problems with reading instruction are systemic, not the fault of teachers. But she wonders if Eden would have avoided skill gaps and low self-esteem if her school had used a different curriculum that directly teaches students about letter-sound relationships in a methodical way.

“She will always be dyslexic but would she be behind if we had started with a phonics-based program?” Abrams asked.

Why state-approved matters

While most Cherry Creek schools use the Lucy Calkins curriculum, about 20% use other programs. None use state-approved core reading programs — the comprehensive curriculum intended for all children in a classroom.

Colorado schools don’t technically have to choose a core K-3 reading curriculum endorsed by the state, but choosing from the state’s approved list can avoid a lot of headaches.

That’s because the dozen core curriculums on the recently revised list — 10 English-language and two Spanish-language programs — have all been vetted by state reviewers who determined they are evidence- or scientifically based. That phrase, evidence or scientifically based, is the operative term when it comes to acceptable reading curriculum in Colorado.

State-approved programs meet that criteria, while programs the state has reviewed and rejected — such as Lucy Calkins — do not. What’s still unclear is how the state will handle schools that use programs it hasn’t reviewed at all.

In Cherry Creek, that likely won’t be a major issue since leaders are already planning to switch. They’ll start by adding a phonics-focused supplemental curriculum — Fundations — next year. Next, they’ll adopt a new core curriculum off the state’s approved list, with use in kindergarten and first grade starting in 2022-23 and in second and third grade starting in 2023-24.

The timeline feels slow to some parents — given this year’s kindergarteners won’t receive instruction using a state-approved core curriculum until they’re in third grade.

“What are we waiting for? These kids need it now,” said Selena Roth, who has a seventh grader with dyslexia and is part of a Colorado dyslexia advocacy group. “I know it’s a big ship, but they can still turn around.”

Veteran third-grade teacher Diana Martin-Gruenler, who said she spoke on her own behalf not as a representative of the district, supports plans to adopt a new curriculum across all schools. However, she worries about the heavy training burden on teachers — both learning the new curriculum and taking the new state-mandated training on reading instruction

This year, she said, she’s just trying to keep her head above water.

Her school, Peakview Elementary, uses a curriculum called Reading Street in some grades, and what she called a potpourri of materials, including from the Teachers Pay Teachers website, in others.

When Martin-Gruenler began teaching 37 years ago, phonics was in vogue, but when she later went back to school for her master’s degree in reading, there was no mention of it, she said.

“Overall, I do not have a problem with an emphasis on phonics and bringing that back in because I think it’s an important part,” she said.

Literature at their fingertips

Like many districts, Cherry Creek historically let schools choose their reading curriculum. Many opted for Lucy Calkins, which despite its critics has been popular in Colorado and the nation for years.

Diana Roybal, Cherry Creek’s executive director of elementary education, oversaw the adoption of the Lucy Calkins curriculum at two district schools where she served as principal, including one that served many low-income students. About 30% of the district’s students come from low-income families.

Before the adoption of Lucy Calkins, there were no classroom libraries and children learned to read using an anthology, she said.

“There wasn’t lots of literature at kids’ fingertips where they could just immerse themselves in literature and all kinds of genres of literature,” Roybal said. “What I appreciated about Units of Study is it really helped kids develop an academic identity as readers and writers.”

A set of print-outs on a classroom bulletin board from the Units of Study For Teaching Reading curriculum.

Last year, in a review of the program, seven reading researchers lauded the program’s emphasis on “loving to read,” but also found serious flaws. They said the program dedicates too little time to phonics, includes almost no support for English learners, and encourages students to guess at words, a method that runs counter to a large body of research.

Last fall, Calkins herself, co-author of the curriculum, backtracked on her long-standing support for guessing.

A document circulated last fall by Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, which Calkins founded, called guessing based on pictures “an inefficient way for the reader to proceed.” It said teachers should instead tell children to “respond to tricky words by first reading through the word, sound-by-sound, (or part by part) and only then, after producing a possible pronunciation, check that what she’s produced makes sense given the context.”

Despite that shift, and several others detailed in the document, it’s unclear when Calkins will release revised curriculum materials that align with her evolving beliefs. In a Facebook Post last October, she said her team is writing a series of “decodable books” — books that highlight phonics patterns students are learning — and adding a phonemic awareness curriculum.

Roybal acknowledged the shortcomings in Calkins’ program, particularly when it comes to phonics and phonemic awareness — the ability to identify and manipulate the sounds in spoken language.

She said if she were still a principal, “I would definitely have invested in that component because there is still a definite need for some direct instruction in concrete foundational skills around phonemic awareness and phonics that probably wasn’t as direct in Units of Study.”

Who else is falling through the cracks?

Abrams recently read a book about Mars with Eden. The second-grader stopped when she came to words like planet, canyon, and crater.

“She could not get the multisyllable words,” Abrams said. “She stopped and paused and kind of looked at me.”

Abrams, who is also part of the dyslexia advocacy group, knows it will take awhile for Eden to catch up to her peers, but her daughter is making progress with the help of private tutoring sessions. More recently, Eden joined a special pull-out reading group at school.

Still, Abrams feels frustrated that for so long she didn’t know why her bright daughter couldn’t keep up or what exactly was missing.

“People started to make me feel like I was the crazy one,” she said.

While Abrams considers the district’s plan to adopt new reading curriculum a good step, she knows there are other flailing readers out there who aren’t getting the help Eden does.

“I’m a pushy parent with resources, that’s the reality,” she said. “It still took me three years to get there.”

Search for a Cherry Creek school below to find out what core reading curriculum it uses in kindergarten through third grade and whether that program has been approved by the state. A core program is a comprehensive instructional program designed to teach all children in a classroom.

Can’t see the table below? View the story here

School	Core reading curriculum	Approval Status
Eastridge Community Elementary School	CR Success	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Indian Ridge Elementary School	Heggerty Phonemic Awareness	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Mountain Vista Elementary School	Fundations	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Mountain Vista Elementary School	Heggerty Phonemic Awareness	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Rolling Hills Elementary School	Heggerty Phonemic Awareness	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Willow Creek Elementary School	Fundations	Approved as supplemental or intervention program
Indian Ridge Elementary School	Phonics Boost
Altitude Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Arrowhead Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Aspen Crossing Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Belleview Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Black Forest Hills Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Buffalo Trail Elementary School	Words Their Way	Not approved
Buffalo Trail Elementary School	ARC Core* (grade 2-3)	Not approved
Canyon Creek Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Challenge School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Cherry Creek Academy (C)	ARC Core*	Not approved
Cherry Hills Village Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Cimarron Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Cottonwood Creek Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Coyote Hills Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Creekside Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Dakota Valley Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Dry Creek Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Fox Hollow Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Greenwood Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Heritage Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
High Plains Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Highline Community Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Holly Hills Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Homestead Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Independence Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Indian Ridge Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Meadow Point Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Mission Viejo Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Mountain Vista Elementary School	Words Their Way	Not approved
Pine Ridge Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Polton Community Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Ponderosa Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Red Hawk Ridge Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Rolling Hills Elementary School	ARC Core* (grade 3)	Not approved
Sagebrush Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Summit Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Summit Elementary School	Lucy Calkins Phonics	Not approved
Sunrise Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Timberline Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Trails West Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Village East Community Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Walnut Hills Community Elementary School	Lucy Calkins	Not approved
Buffalo Trail Elementary School	Read Naturally	Not reviewed
Coyote Hills Elementary School	Fast Phonics (grades K-1)	Not reviewed
Heritage Heights Academy (C)	Access Literacy	Not reviewed
Peakview Elementary School	Reading Street	Not reviewed
Antelope Ridge Elementary School	See notes for a list of reading resources used at this school
Willow Creek Elementary School	See notes for an additional list of reading resources used at this school

Look up Cherry Creek K-3 reading curriculum by school

Notes: Charter schools are indicated by a (C) next to the school name. | Antelope Ridge: Storyworks, scholastic news, Jennifer Seravallo reading and writing strategies books, Jan Richardson word work- Word Smith. Willow Creek: Storyworks, novel units, scholastic readers, Jennifer Serravallo, Comprehension Toolkits. | * ARC Core was not reviewed by the Colorado Department of Education in 2020, but was reviewed and rejected in 2019.

Cherry Creek names internal candidate as superintendent finalist

2021-03-24T21:20:25+00:00

The Cherry Creek School board on Wednesday chose an internal candidate — Chief of Staff Chris Smith — as the sole finalist for the 54,000-student district’s superintendent job.

Cherry Creek is the first of four large Denver metro districts to announce a finalist in the search for a new superintendent. Denver, Jeffco, and Douglas County are also looking for new leaders.

Chris Smith

Cherry Creek’s current superintendent, Scott Siegfried, announced in January he would retire at the end of the school year. Jeffco’s former superintendent, Jason Glass, left his job last summer and Douglas County’s former superintendent, Thomas Tucker, left his job last fall, and both now work for the Kentucky Department of Education. Susana Cordova, Denver’s former superintendent, left Colorado’s largest district late last fall for a new job in Texas.

The Cherry Creek school board selected Smith unanimously from a pool of two internal candidates. The other candidate was Jennifer Perry, the district’s assistant superintendent, according to a letter from school board President Karen Fisher.

The letter described Smith as a “servant leader” and “relationship builder” who is committed to educating the whole child.

Smith started his career as a fourth grade teacher, and since coming to the Cherry Creek district in 2009 has served as a principal and executive director of elementary education, according to his staff bio on the Cherry Creek district website. He became chief of staff at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Cherry Creek is the state’s fourth-largest district with students of color making up half its enrollment. About 30% of students in the suburban district are eligible for subsidized meals, one indicator of poverty.

Mientras otros distritos reflexionan sobre la pérdida de aprendizaje, Westminster hace planes para extender el año

2021-03-15T20:52:35+00:00

En un intento del distrito escolar para recuperar algo de la enseñanza perdida, los estudiantes de Westminster podrán optar por extender el año escolar agregándole 12 días de verano a este semestre.

Westminster es uno de los primeros distritos en anunciar una opción para aprendizaje en el verano. Mientras los distritos escolares buscan cómo compensar la pérdida de lecciones y tiempo que ha hecho que los estudiantes se atrasen más de lo que se hubiesen atrasado sin las interrupciones por COVID, varios están planificando oportunidades de aprendizaje este próximo verano.

Los funcionarios escolares de Adams 14 han dicho que están buscando opciones. Cherry Creek no ha finalizado sus planes, pero una presentación de la junta escolar describió que las prioridades para el verano son incluir programas sobre destrezas sociales y emocionales y ofrecer clases académicas y de exploración para una carrera profesional.

En Westminster, las familias pueden considerar sus opciones este mes. A los maestros se les ha pedido que alienten a los padres a inscribir a sus hijos en el calendario extendido durante las conferencias entre padres y maestros. El distrito tendrá una reunión virtual el 15 de marzo para contestar las preguntas de los padres.

Una de las madres, Lorena Osorio, dijo que ella cree que su hija ha batallado más este año por haber permanecido en aprendizaje remoto. Osorio le preguntó a su hija si le gustaría participar en los días adicionales de verano y ella contestó que sí. A ella le pareció que es fácil seguir entrando a la computadora para hacer tareas a remoto porque ya está en la casa, dijo Osorio.

Westminster es uno de los distritos que les ha ofrecido una opción de enseñanza en persona a los estudiantes (incluidos los de escuela secundaria y preparatoria) por más parte del año escolar que muchos de los distritos más grandes en el área metro. Casi una cuarta parte de los 8,500 estudiantes de Westminster han optado por seguir completamente a remoto. Estos estudiantes también podrán aprovechar los días adicionales.

Oliver Grenham, jefe de educación de las Escuelas Públicas de Westminster, dijo que los funcionarios escolares no creen que los estudiantes hayan perdido progreso, pero sí creen que perder oportunidades para aprender significa que no han progresado tanto como debieron este año.

Por ejemplo, una escuela con enfoque en las artes canceló las presentaciones grandes este año, lo cual significa que hubo menos oportunidades para que los estudiantes demostraran sus destrezas.

Jeni Gotto, directora ejecutiva de enseñanza y aprendizaje, dijo que el distrito también ha observado a maestros que no pudieron cubrir todo el material que normalmente hubiesen cubierto durante el año escolar. Por ejemplo, los maestros de tercer grado pueden introducir multiplicación en el otoño, pero es posible que este año escolar algunos estudiantes todavía no hayan empezado esas unidades en el invierto.

En vez de avanzar de grado a todos los estudiantes juntos, las escuelas de Westminster usan un modelo en el que están agrupados según el contenido que demuestren haber aprendido. Los estudiantes que demuestren estar listos pueden subir de nivel en cualquier momento durante el año, pero muchos de ellos todavía lo hacen de un año escolar al próximo.

Los líderes del distrito dicen que su modelo basado en dominio de materias es un beneficio en estos tiempos, ya que los estudiantes no avanzarán al próximo nivel simplemente porque es un semestre nuevo.

“Esa es la belleza de nuestro sistema, que cada estudiante tiene su propio ritmo,” Grenham dijo. “Los estudiantes saben que cuando regresen en el otoño pueden continuar exactamente donde se quedaron.”

Los funcionarios del distrito dicen que al planificar el año escolar extendido, primero encuestaron a los padres y maestros.

Aproximadamente dos terceras partes de los que contestaron la encuesta indicaron que les gustaría que el año escolar se extendiera.

Entre los comentarios anónimos recibidos en la encuesta, los padres que se mostraron renuentes mencionaron la necesidad de transporte, un deseo por que las escuelas tuvieran aire acondicionado, o que los estudiantes deben tener vacaciones de verano.

“A mí me sorprende un poco que tengamos este tema sobre la mesa. Estos niño necesitan el verano para recuperarse del estrés del año anterior,” escribió uno de los padres.

Los comentarios de padres a favor de la opción mencionaron consistentemente el tema del aprendizaje.

“Pienso que él no aprendió mucho en línea y quisiera asegurar que mi hijo tenga éxito en el segundo grado,” dijo uno de los padres.

Antes de encuestar a los padres, el distrito también les preguntó a los maestros si sería mejor extender el año escolar a junio o empezar el próximo año más temprano. Los maestros que contestaron prefirieron continuar el año escolar hasta el 11 de junio, indicando que quieren aprovechar las relaciones que ya han establecido con sus estudiantes, Grenham dijo.

Dependiendo de cuántos estudiantes se inscriban, el distrito está planificando que todos los maestros trabajen esos días adicionales.

El distrito usará sus fondos de ayuda federal para pagarles a los maestros que trabajen ese tiempo adicional. El distrito también está ofreciendo opciones de tutoría en cada escuela, que incluye durante el día escolar y después de la escuela, y está planificando ofrecer tutorías los sábados para los estudiantes de preparatoria (también pagadas con fondos de ayuda federal).

Algunos estudios han mostrado evidencia de que los estudiantes pueden tener grandes mejoras académicas con tutorías regulares y en grupos pequeños. Los días adicionales este año no serán solo tutorías, y tampoco serán como escuela de verano, dijeron los líderes del distrito, sino que serán en realidad una extensión del semestre.

Después de inscribirse, los estudiantes trabajarán con los maestros para establecer metas individuales para el tiempo adicional.

El distrito planificó 12 días más basándose en la cantidad de días que puede pagar según los fondos disponibles, pero los funcionarios no indicaron un estimado de costos, ya que eso dependerá de la cantidad de estudiantes que participen.

“Que sean 12 días no tiene nada de mágico,” Grenham dijo.

Westminster llevará registros de la cantidad de estudiantes que están listos para subir de nivel en el otoño, y la comparar/a con los semestres de otoño anteriores.

Cuando se le preguntó si anticipaba que ese dato sea casi normal el próximo otoño, Grenham dijo, “siendo realista, no.”

A los líderes del distrito les preocupa que si tienen que administrar exámenes estandarizados esta primavera, podrían perder más de 12 días de aprendizaje y eso eliminaría el provecho de la extensión de verano.

“Ahora mismo, cada minuto que dediquemos a enseñarles a los estudiantes es un minuto valioso,” dijo Grenham.

Traducción por Milly Suazo.

Douglas County’s lack of diversity poses challenges for Black students

2021-03-03T22:06:00+00:00

This story originally appeared in Colorado Community Media. It is republished here with permission.

Max Malone and his family moved from Denver to Castle Rock after his family weathered financial struggles, hoping the town could provide a less stressful environment for his younger siblings.

Instead Malone — whose father is Black and mother white — said he encountered significantly more racism than he did when living in other Denver metro area communities.

During his sophomore and junior years at Castle View High School, Malone — a student of color in a school that was nearly 80% white — grew increasingly demoralized as he said he repeatedly found bathroom stalls vandalized with racist slurs. One of the messages, he said, read: “Kill (N-word)!”

After the first couple instances, Malone took photos and returned to class, disturbed and unable to concentrate. When the vandalism continued, he alerted office staff, he said. Eventually, Malone said several students of color went to the office and pleaded with Castle View staff to do something about it.

“They were all kind about it and stuff,” he said, “and they didn’t really do anything about it.”

The district, through its spokeswoman, did not directly address Malone’s allegations. The district did not make Castle View Principal Rex Corr available for interviews, nor did Corr respond to questions submitted for him via the spokeswoman regarding the alleged racist graffiti.

In several statements to Colorado Community Media, the district said it is “committed to providing a safe learning and work environment where all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect.”

A 2020 graduate, Malone, 18, still has the photos on his phone.

“Just one after another after another,” he said. “After a while, I just stopped taking pictures of them.”

‘Make noise’

Douglas County Schools is a predominantly white school district in a county where 89% of residents identify as white alone, according to the U.S. Census. A little more than two-thirds of the district’s roughly 63,000 students identified as white this school year, with Latinos making up the largest group of students of color. Only 1% identify as Black or African American, according to district data.

African Americans are equally underrepresented among staff: The district had one Black principal or assistant principal at the helm of its roughly 90 schools last semester, according to data provided by the district through a records request. The district employed more than 60 teachers who identify as Black or African American as of Dec. 1, according to the district’s data, about 1% of its teaching force.

Amid a national reckoning on racism in 2020, current and former Black students joined Black Lives Matter protests throughout Douglas County communities. Some took a knee as the national anthem played during in-person high school graduations.

In the aftermath of protests, four students, current and former, called on district leaders to foster more respect among peers, and in interviews with Colorado Community Media, the students said they want greater systemic support — from clubs for students of color to assemblies that address negative treatment of students of color when it arises.

The district should also revisit how Black history — which the students emphasize is American history — is taught in classrooms, they said. At least one piece of curriculum, from the literacy company Fountas and Pinnell, has been criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes about African Americans and people of color, former Chief Academic Officer Marlena Gross-Taylor told Colorado Community Media shortly after she left the district last year.

Ken Scales, whose daughter was among the students who spoke to us, said his two daughters each experienced inappropriate behavior from peers and school staff during teacher-led class discussions and through culturally insensitive assignments.

“I found myself a couple of times wanting to put on my suit of armor and charge into the school,” he said.

School district leaders declined repeated requests by Colorado Community Media to talk about the experiences of its Black students, but the district has included improving its culture as part of its strategic plan. In its statements to Colorado Community Media, the district further said it is evaluating how its curriculum addresses Black history and other multicultural histories.

The district’s Equity Advisory Council also has been drafting the district’s first-ever equity policy, which includes a commitment to root out systemic racism and racial inequities.

During their Feb. 16 meeting, school board directors took turns reading the policy aloud, but did not ask questions or discuss the document beyond thanking the equity team for drafting it. Director Susan Meek urged the community to review the policy and weigh in.

Former Superintendent Thomas Tucker told Colorado Community Media in February an equity policy “is an excellent start” for school districts, but said they should also be adopting stand-alone policies that exclusively focus on racial equity.

“Your district has to be bold enough to admit that you are going to have to focus on anti-racism and social justice and you have to recognize that African-American and other students of color face biases,” he said.

Tucker, who left the district in 2020, raised concerns about racism — overt and subtle — in the district as well. In addition to what he saw as his own experiences with discrimination as the district’s first Black superintendent, he recalled having to address high school students waving a Confederate flag during football games.

It’s not only students of color who benefit from a racially equitable system, he said.

“This impacts the lives of white students just as much, and one could also argue more so, because at some point in time they will leave the Douglas County School District, the Douglas County bubble,” he said. “When we don’t address this in school, we are robbing kids of a skill set.”

But Tucker said it is up to the entire community, not only the board or district administrators, to say “enough is enough” when it comes to racism in schools. And Gross-Taylor, who voiced her own concerns about the lack of diversity in the system, had a message for students:

Protest. Speak up at school board meetings. Don’t stop with the school principal. District administration can’t fix problems they do not know about, she said.

“What I would say to those kids is ‘make noise.’”

The four current and former students who spoke to Colorado Community Media do not claim to speak for the experiences of all the district’s Black or mixed-race students, but their stories share commonalities that point to the work the district has ahead — stories Tucker said that “as a parent, as an African American, it breaks my heart.”

Kennedi Scales, 17, Douglas County High School

Kennedi Scales can’t forget the time a Douglas County School District teacher put her on the spot during a class discussion of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“In front of the whole class, (my teacher) asked me how I would pronounce the word, ‘Ask,’” she said.

Kennedi recalled pausing for a moment, realizing her teacher associated African Americans with improper speech, she said.

Instantly, she felt “marginalized and underestimated.”

Repeating the word, Kennedi said she pronounced it as clearly as she could.

“To show I’m Black, and I’m educated,” she said.

Kennedi said embarrassment kept her from telling administrators about the situation, which was several years ago, but, she said, she also feared the school would not take action.

The 17-year-old, now a senior, said she experiences subtle or unintentional discrimination weekly.

She said she often feels expected to act as a spokesperson for all Black people, including by teachers, who have asked her to share her perspective because she was the only African American student in her class.

Kennedi’s father, Ken, said that expectation has created uncomfortable environments for both of his daughters, including Kennedi’s 15-year-old sister Trinity, who faced her own set of racially insensitive scenarios before leaving the district to pursue music education in Denver.

Trinity once came home with an assignment asking students to write about the American Dream and how it attracted their families to the U.S., he said. As a student of both African-American and American Indian heritage, Trinity did not know how to approach the task.

Ken Scales emailed the teacher. His daughter could write about the Trail of Tears, her ancestors arriving in the U.S. on slave ships, or people in her family who were lynched, he said, but asking her to reflect on the American Dream did not consider her perspective.

“I don’t think (the teacher) really thought that out,” he said.

Ken Scales said he and his wife have taught their daughters to self-advocate and speak up if they feel uncomfortable in the classroom. They know their mother and father will step in if they need.

Usually the girls do address their concerns. Though on occasion, Kennedi has preferred to avoid stirring the pot if she worried it might jeopardize her grades, Ken Scales said.

Kennedi is a student in the International Baccalaureate program and among the top in her class, he said.

She is also a violinist, chamber orchestra member, National Honor Society member, and Future Business Leaders of America member.

She stays busy. That doesn’t mean she is too busy for more activities, she said. Kennedi wants to see a club like the Black Student Alliance added at Douglas County High School. The national organization aims to provide Black students and allies with community in their school buildings.

Without more inclusivity built into schools, students of color turn to each other for community, she said.

“I guess we’re drawn to each other because of that, and there’s not really a support system in the schools,” she said.

Tommy Crawford, 2020 ThunderRidge High School graduate

Tommy Crawford, who is both African American and white, said he faced numerous stereotypes at ThunderRidge High School.

He watched people move phones off their desks when he walked in a room. Others hid their keys.

“They might be doing it on accident, but I do see it. And it’s the little things like that,” he said.

White peers’ use of the N-word in Douglas County schools also arises amid a lack of cultural awareness and education, said Crawford, 18.

“White kids, they think it’s normal to say the N-word in their normal vocabulary because they have no people to say it’s not OK,” Crawford said. “That’s a big problem.”

Black students have to adapt to living in a predominantly white area, he said, explaining “you start talking a little bit more white, if that makes sense, with a little less slang.”

One of Crawford’s Black friends who transferred to ThunderRidge stopped using the N-word after white peers began saying it, Crawford said.

Racism and subtle discriminatory acts wear students of color down mentally, he said, adding “it’s pretty much everywhere in schools.”

“It’s most definitely in school classrooms,” Crawford said. “That’s where most of the white-to-Black contact is.”

Crawford said he often felt like an outcast. A discussion on slavery during history class could prompt classmates to turn and look at him, “like, this is your topic,” he said.

“I am primarily the only Black kid in most classes. Pretty much all my classes, and it just makes me feel different from everyone else,” Crawford said the summer after his graduation.

An athlete, Crawford earned awards like “Most Improved Player” and “Hardest Worker” during his high school basketball career, he made honor roll and also enjoyed sewing. For a senior project, he made his own pair of boots.

Crawford said he wished his high school were more diverse. He longed for a larger Black and African-American population to feel more included, more comfortable, and so that new students of color could more easily transition to a different place.

Crawford left ThunderRidge as a varsity basketball player and now plays forward for Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Anya Jackson, 2020 Castle View High School graduate

Unlike Malone, Crawford and Scales, Anya Jackson, who is African American, said she never experienced overt racism during her time at Castle View. Clubs were welcoming, and teachers and staff were supportive, she said. She could not remember people “making me feel less safe because I am a person of color.”

What she did feel, she said, was a pressure to set realistic expectations of Black or African American people in an area with little diversity.

“Just because there’s not that many of us. I feel like people would get an idea of how we act, how we dress, our mannerisms,” she said, and then go on to associate those perceptions with all African Americans.

Jackson, 18, echoed the concerns about a lack of inclusive curricula. She recalled a small section on Black history in a humanities class she took her sophomore year but remembered little other focus on Black history in her education.

She does not remember her school celebrating Black History Month.

“I felt like there are also a lot of books and historical stories that could be incorporated into classes that just aren’t,” she said.

Jackson did not think her teachers intentionally overlooked Black history in classes, and instead suspects it’s more of a blind spot in the system.

“I feel like it’s just not one of those things that teachers and staff realize they don’t do,” she said. “Just because there is not much diversity.”

Max Malone, 2020 Castle View High School graduate

Malone described a tumultuous personal journey learning how to handle racism at school. He went through rough patches after moving to town, he said, including occasionally getting into trouble for behavioral issues.

His senior year, police officers came to Castle View with a warrant for his arrest on allegations of assault, he said.

“I did do a few stupid things.”

But, he said, some of his acting out was triggered by racist incidents. School staff sought to discipline Malone after he kicked a vandalized stall in the bathroom, breaking the door so that everyone who walked in could see the slur.

Malone said he did not deny breaking the stall but was disappointed when school staff appeared more concerned with his reaction than the racist language.

Malone suspects many of his teachers did not expect he would graduate amid struggling academics and behavioral incidents. He worked double time his senior year to bring up his grades, he said.

Principal Rex Corr, who Malone said once tapped him in gym class, gently telling him police had come to arrest him, eventually watched Malone walk across a graduation stage.

“When he handed me my diploma, he started tearing up and crying and said, ‘I’m proud of you,’” Malone said, adding that he had nothing but respect for Corr.

Malone now works in Castle Rock and has dedicated a corner of his home to music production.

Songs fill his computer, including one he wrote last year about racism called “No Folding Me.”

People are talking too openly

And racially

So I’m hoping that my poetry

Can bitter down that bigotry

And open up the imagery

So we can see the dignity

And symmetry in humanity

In 2020, Colorado’s graduation rates continued a steady climb, but drops might be coming

2021-01-12T19:42:55+00:00

Despite the pandemic shutting school buildings last spring and hampering graduation celebrations, Colorado did not see a dip in graduation rates in 2020.

Data published by the Colorado Department of Education on Tuesday showed that the state’s upward trend for graduation rates continued in 2020. Statewide, 81.9% of Colorado’s Class of 2020 graduated on-time in the spring — up from 81.1% in 2019.

Statewide, racial gaps in graduation rates also continued to close slightly as students of color made larger gains than white students last year. The same was true for students from low-income households.

“We know how tough the spring was for our seniors, with many not able to attend their proms or graduation ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes in a released statement. “But we are so proud of the students, their parents, and the teachers who helped them finish the year strong. History will look back at this generation of children and marvel at their perseverance and dedication. A rising graduation rate and a falling dropout rate are wonderful accomplishments, especially during these tough times.”

However, state officials say the pandemic likely will affect graduation rates next year, though to what extent is unknown.

Colorado students were supposed to meet new graduation requirements this year that include showing mastery in English and math through specific tests or advanced classes. But with state tests canceled last spring, some school and district officials worried that students would be behind on meeting those new requirements.

In response, Colorado has allowed districts flexibility in meeting those new requirements for another year.

Even with the delay, many educators are concerned that high school students are at greater risk than before of dropping out or not graduating on time. Many schools, especially high schools, have remained online or in hybrid models with students in school buildings just two or three days a week, and teachers have reported a lack of participation.

Andy Tucker, director of postsecondary workforce readiness for the Colorado Department of Education, said the state has held various meetings with educators to share ideas of how to keep students engaged. The state has also recently updated its dropout prevention framework, with new ideas to keep students involved.

“People have had to pivot,” Tucker said. “Many things have moved to a virtual space. We are hearing about a big push toward virtual internships and career fairs and an increase in industry-sponsored projects.”

In some ways, Tucker said, the move to a virtual environment has helped some schools and districts develop relationships with local businesses that have found it easier to participate in virtual job fairs and to offer some remote work opportunities. Tucker said giving students real-world learning experiences has always been a successful strategy to keep students involved in school.

Still, Tucker said that it’s reasonable to think that graduation rates will be affected long-term, particularly over the next four years as students who experienced a disrupted year of education make their way through high school.

“We always continue to encourage schools and districts to offer students more time even if that means that it takes them more than four years,” Tucker said.

Among the 30 largest districts in the state, 12 had decreases in their four-year rates including Jeffco Public Schools, Douglas County School District, and the Cherry Creek School District. Despite those drops however, most of those same districts saw improvements in rates for students who take five, six, or seven years to graduate.

The Mapleton, Durango, and Adams 14 school districts were among those with the largest improvements to their four-year rates. The improvement is significant for Adams 14, which the state ordered to be run by an outside manager as part of a four-year improvement plan. Without state test results, the district has had little data to show the improvements officials say they’ve made.

Look up your school and district four-year rates in our table below:

School and District	All Students 2019-20	All Students 2018-19	Econ. Disadvant. Graduation Rate 2019-20	Econ. Disadvant. Graduation Rate 2018-19
5280 High School / Denver County 1	38.9%	16.7%	0.0%	0.0%
70 Online / Pueblo County 70	66.7%	65.6%	64.5%	61.8%
Abraham Lincoln High School / Denver County 1	75.4%	73.5%	77.4%	76.4%
Academy 20 District Total	93.0%	93.3%	84.8%	79.9%
Academy High School / Mapleton 1	80.4%	77.6%	76.6%	75.9%
Academy Of Charter Schools / Charter School Institute	93.7%	94.9%	92.9%	89.5%
Academy Of Urban Learning / Denver County 1	20.8%	35.3%	14.6%	35.4%
Ace Community Challenge School / Denver County 1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Achieve Blended Learning Academy / Delta County 50(J)	0.0%	100.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Achieve Online / Colorado Springs 11	66.3%	68.4%	66.0%	55.3%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools District Total	84.0%	83.3%	75.1%	72.7%
Adams City High School / Adams County 14	78.9%	74.9%	78.9%	75.3%
Adams County 14 District Total	66.8%	63.3%	66.7%	63.8%
Addenbrooke Classical Academy / Jefferson County R-1	95.8%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Agate 300 District Total	0.0%	100.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Agate Junior Senior High School / Agate 300	0.0%	100.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Aguilar Junior-Senior High School / Aguilar Reorganized 6	100.0%	85.7%	100.0%	83.3%
Aguilar Reorganized 6 District Total	100.0%	85.7%	100.0%	83.3%
Aim Global / Las Animas RE-1	54.5%	66.7%	54.1%	66.4%
Air Academy High School / Academy 20	93.0%	93.9%	82.0%	78.6%
Akron High School / Akron R-1	65.0%	89.2%	62.5%	83.3%
Akron R-1 District Total	65.0%	89.2%	62.5%	83.3%
Alameda International Junior/Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	87.2%	91.0%	87.7%	92.9%
Alamosa High School / Alamosa RE-11J	94.7%	89.0%	94.5%	87.4%
Alamosa Ombudsman School Of Excellence / Alamosa RE-11J	30.8%	15.0%	33.3%	15.8%
Alamosa RE-11J District Total	89.0%	80.6%	87.4%	76.9%
Animas High School / Charter School Institute	87.7%	89.7%	73.7%	90.0%
Antonito High School / South Conejos RE-10	92.9%	100.0%	92.9%	100.0%
Apex Home School Enrichment Program / St Vrain Valley RE1J	0.0%		0.0%
Aps Online School / Aurora Public Schools	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Arapahoe High School / Littleton 6	92.3%	94.5%	69.6%	82.7%
Arapahoe Ridge High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	60.0%	47.5%	60.8%	42.9%
Archuleta County 50 Jt District Total	92.4%	83.7%	88.9%	76.2%
Arickaree R-2 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Arickaree Undivided High School / Arickaree R-2	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Arriba-Flagler C-20 District Total	66.7%	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%
Arvada High School / Jefferson County R-1	87.3%	78.5%	85.6%	76.4%
Arvada West High School / Jefferson County R-1	95.9%	94.9%	92.2%	89.1%
Aspen 1 District Total	96.5%	94.1%	93.8%	90.0%
Aspen High School / Aspen 1	96.5%	94.1%	93.8%	90.0%
Aspen Valley Campus / Academy 20	65.2%	76.0%	71.4%	60.0%
Astravo Academy High School / Byers 32J	0.0%	53.8%	0.0%	63.6%
Astravo Online Academy High School / Byers 32J	40.7%	58.3%	29.0%	50.0%
Atlas Preparatory High School / Harrison 2	91.7%	94.1%	91.4%	93.8%
Ault-Highland RE-9 District Total	87.3%	93.2%	78.9%	92.3%
Aurora Central High School / Aurora Public Schools	72.6%	69.4%	71.7%	69.2%
Aurora Public Schools District Total	79.0%	76.2%	77.9%	74.2%
Aurora West College Preparatory Academy / Aurora Public Schools	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Basalt High School / Roaring Fork RE-1	82.9%	79.8%	72.9%	65.4%
Battle Mountain High School / Eagle County RE 50	95.4%	95.3%	91.4%	91.4%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R District Total	86.8%	94.3%	78.9%	96.3%
Bayfield High School / Bayfield 10 Jt-R	86.8%	94.3%	78.9%	96.3%
Bear Creek High School / Jefferson County R-1	93.2%	94.1%	89.8%	91.4%
Bennett 29J District Total	93.3%	87.8%	82.9%	80.0%
Bennett High School / Bennett 29J	93.3%	87.8%	82.9%	80.0%
Berthoud High School / Thompson R2-J	93.9%	88.8%	82.1%	76.9%
Bethune Public Schools / Bethune R-5	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Bethune R-5 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Big Picture College And Career Academy / Mapleton 1	68.1%	63.0%	67.6%	65.0%
Big Sandy 100J District Total	86.4%	100.0%	90.0%	100.0%
Bolt Academy / School District 27J	100.0%	70.4%	100.0%	55.6%
Boulder High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	95.0%	94.3%	90.7%	87.8%
Boulder Prep Charter High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	34.9%	34.5%	13.0%	25.0%
Boulder Universal / Boulder Valley Re 2	83.3%	75.0%	100.0%	33.3%
Boulder Valley Re 2 District Total	91.1%	90.8%	79.1%	76.4%
Brady Exploration School / Jefferson County R-1	16.4%	41.7%	14.3%	40.5%
Branson Reorganized 82 District Total	85.7%	87.8%	81.8%	88.2%
Branson School / Branson Reorganized 82	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Branson School Online / Branson Reorganized 82	83.3%	87.5%	75.0%	87.5%
Bridges / Roaring Fork RE-1	55.6%	68.4%	57.6%	64.3%
Briggsdale RE-10 District Total	94.4%	100.0%	83.3%	100.0%
Briggsdale Undivided High School / Briggsdale RE-10	94.4%	100.0%	83.3%	100.0%
Brighton High School / School District 27J	88.9%	88.2%	83.0%	81.9%
Broomfield High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	95.3%	92.8%	89.0%	85.1%
Bruce Randolph School / Denver County 1	97.1%	73.5%	96.9%	74.1%
Brush High School / Brush RE-2(J)	83.8%	89.7%	79.1%	82.8%
Brush RE-2(J) District Total	83.8%	89.7%	79.1%	82.8%
Buena Vista High School / Buena Vista R-31	91.2%	93.4%	66.7%	83.3%
Buena Vista R-31 District Total	76.1%	82.4%	38.1%	69.8%
Buffalo RE-4J District Total	100.0%	84.2%	100.0%	80.0%
Burlington High School / Burlington RE-6J	97.6%	90.8%	96.2%	88.1%
Burlington RE-6J District Total	97.6%	90.8%	96.2%	88.1%
Byers 32J District Total	41.1%	59.2%	39.7%	57.1%
Byers Junior-Senior High School / Byers 32J	89.5%	91.2%	86.4%	87.5%
Byron Syring Delta Center / Monte Vista C-8	50.0%	59.1%	54.2%	60.0%
Calhan RJ-1 District Total	76.7%	100.0%	58.3%	100.0%
Calhan Secondary School / Calhan RJ-1	76.7%	100.0%	58.3%	100.0%
Caliche Junior-Senior High School / Valley RE-1	92.0%	100.0%	94.7%	100.0%
Campo RE-6 District Total	0.0%		0.0%
Campo Undivided High School / Campo RE-6	0.0%		0.0%
Canon City High School / Canon City RE-1	85.7%	83.7%	83.1%	76.9%
Canon City RE-1 District Total	85.7%	83.7%	83.1%	76.9%
Canon Online Academy / Canon City RE-1	0.0%		0.0%
Caprock Academy / Charter School Institute	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Career Building Academy / Peyton 23 Jt	0.0%	25.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Career Education Center Early College / Denver County 1	91.9%	84.8%	91.2%	85.4%
Career Readiness Academy / Harrison 2	60.4%	79.5%	60.0%	81.1%
Castle View High School / Douglas County Re 1	94.4%	94.4%	84.1%	82.3%
Cedaredge High School / Delta County 50(J)	89.3%	91.3%	79.2%	89.4%
Centauri High School / North Conejos RE-1J	96.9%	93.5%	95.8%	92.5%
Centaurus High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	92.1%	92.2%	87.9%	83.5%
Centennial BOCES District Total	34.7%	35.9%	32.6%	32.9%
Centennial Boces High School / Centennial BOCES	30.9%	34.6%	25.7%	33.3%
Centennial High School / Poudre R-1	25.5%	37.9%	13.3%	23.3%
Centennial High School / Pueblo City 60	85.7%	87.2%	82.9%	83.7%
Centennial R-1 District Total	78.9%	93.8%	77.8%	100.0%
Centennial School / Centennial R-1	78.9%	93.8%	77.8%	100.0%
Center 26 JT District Total	68.6%	70.7%	68.6%	73.0%
Center High School / Center 26 JT	80.0%	84.0%	80.0%	87.0%
Center Virtual Academy / Center 26 JT	25.0%	28.6%	25.0%	20.0%
Central High School / Mesa County Valley 51	84.5%	82.6%	81.6%	79.0%
Central High School / Pueblo City 60	94.2%	78.9%	93.3%	73.0%
Chaffee County High School / Buena Vista R-31	14.3%	54.2%	0.0%	52.6%
Chaparral High School / Douglas County Re 1	94.8%	94.8%	83.8%	88.6%
Charter School Institute District Total	65.4%	60.3%	59.5%	52.5%
Chatfield High School / Jefferson County R-1	97.5%	93.9%	92.2%	90.1%
Chavez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy / Pueblo City 60	89.8%	91.3%	90.0%	91.7%
Cheraw 31 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Cheraw School / Cheraw 31	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Cherokee Trail High School / Cherry Creek 5	92.5%	93.7%	84.3%	90.0%
Cherry Creek 5 District Total	88.6%	89.8%	81.3%	83.4%
Cherry Creek Elevation / Cherry Creek 5	86.7%		80.0%
Cherry Creek High School / Cherry Creek 5	91.8%	93.4%	78.0%	82.1%
Cheyenne County Re-5 District Total	75.0%	100.0%	57.1%	100.0%
Cheyenne Mountain 12 District Total	96.6%	96.1%	89.6%	91.9%
Cheyenne Mountain High School / Cheyenne Mountain 12	96.4%	95.9%	89.5%	93.3%
Cheyenne Wells Junior/High School / Cheyenne County Re-5	75.0%	100.0%	57.1%	100.0%
Civa Charter Academy / Colorado Springs 11	72.5%	80.9%	53.3%	90.0%
Clear Creek High School / Clear Creek RE-1	87.8%	82.5%	85.7%	66.7%
Clear Creek RE-1 District Total	87.8%	82.5%	85.7%	66.7%
Cloverleaf Home Education / Douglas County Re 1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Coal Ridge High School / Garfield Re-2	94.0%	90.9%	92.3%	86.0%
Collegiate Academy Of Colorado / Jefferson County R-1	87.0%	82.1%	50.0%	85.7%
Collegiate Preparatory Academy / Denver County 1	75.9%	75.5%	74.0%	73.9%
Colorado Connections Academy @ Durango / Durango 9-R	55.0%	36.1%	41.8%	23.4%
Colorado Connections Academy / Mapleton 1	73.0%	63.5%	50.0%	50.0%
Colorado Early College Fort Collins / Charter School Institute	60.0%	53.7%	57.4%	54.8%
Colorado Early Colleges Aurora / Charter School Institute	32.7%	25.0%	32.5%	20.0%
Colorado Early Colleges Douglas County / Charter School Institute	60.0%	51.9%	42.9%	25.0%
Colorado Early Colleges Windsor / Charter School Institute	33.3%		0.0%
Colorado High School Charter - Ges / Denver County 1	26.3%	13.2%	25.5%	13.5%
Colorado High School Charter / Denver County 1	47.1%	31.9%	45.0%	32.7%
Colorado Military Academy / Charter School Institute	0.0%		0.0%
Colorado Preparatory Academy High School / Education reEnvisioned BOCES	57.7%	58.1%	57.3%	53.3%
Colorado River BOCES District Total	76.2%	61.4%	69.2%	50.0%
Colorado School For The Deaf And Blind / Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	33.3%	57.1%	30.8%	57.9%
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind District Total	33.3%	57.1%	30.8%	57.9%
Colorado Springs 11 District Total	70.7%	71.3%	64.7%	64.3%
Colorado Springs Charter Academy / Charter School Institute	0.0%		0.0%
Colorado Springs Early Colleges / Charter School Institute	44.9%	49.2%	39.1%	42.6%
Colorado Virtual Academy High School / Byers 32J	50.0%	50.8%	35.1%	46.9%
Colorado'S Finest High School Of Choice / Englewood 1	41.5%	31.3%	41.6%	24.4%
Columbine High School / Jefferson County R-1	92.5%	94.8%	84.3%	92.3%
Community Prep Charter School / Colorado Springs 11	20.4%	31.5%	16.0%	27.8%
Compass Community Collaborative School / Poudre R-1	0.0%		0.0%
Compass Montessori - Golden Charter School / Jefferson County R-1	97.1%	93.9%	88.9%	100.0%
Compassion Road Academy / Denver County 1	33.3%	51.7%	33.3%	51.0%
Conifer Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	96.1%	98.0%	94.6%	96.6%
Connections Learning Center On The Earle Johnson Campus / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Contemporary Learning Academy / Denver County 1	33.9%	51.9%	34.0%	51.1%
Coronado High School / Colorado Springs 11	78.4%	81.2%	69.6%	74.5%
Cotopaxi Junior-Senior High School / Cotopaxi RE-3	90.0%	100.0%	88.9%	100.0%
Cotopaxi RE-3 District Total	90.0%	100.0%	88.9%	100.0%
Creede School / Creede School District	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Creede School District District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Crested Butte Secondary School / Gunnison Watershed RE1J	100.0%	98.3%	100.0%	100.0%
Crestone Charter School / Moffat 2	100.0%	80.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Cripple Creek-Victor Junior-Senior High School / Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	84.6%	72.4%	88.9%	68.4%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1 District Total	84.6%	72.4%	88.9%	68.4%
Crowley County Junior And Senior High School / Crowley County RE-1-J	88.5%	84.8%	83.3%	76.2%
Crowley County RE-1-J District Total	88.5%	84.8%	83.3%	76.2%
Crown Pointe Charter Academy / Charter School Institute	0.0%		0.0%
Custer County High School / Custer County School District C-1	95.7%	86.7%	91.7%	92.3%
Custer County School District C-1 District Total	95.7%	86.7%	91.7%	92.3%
D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	97.8%	98.5%	80.0%	100.0%
Dakota Ridge Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	94.1%	91.7%	84.8%	85.5%
Daniel C Oakes High School--Castle Rock / Douglas County Re 1	22.3%	31.2%	12.0%	16.7%
Dcis At Montbello / Denver County 1	76.7%	83.7%	76.8%	83.7%
De Beque 49JT District Total	88.9%	90.0%	100.0%	90.9%
De Beque Pk-12 School District 49jt / De Beque 49JT	88.9%	90.0%	100.0%	90.9%
Deer Trail 26J District Total	69.2%	100.0%	62.5%	100.0%
Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School / Deer Trail 26J	69.2%	100.0%	62.5%	100.0%
Del Norte High Jr./Sr. High School / Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	87.2%	95.0%	80.0%	95.2%
Delta County 50(J) District Total	83.0%	86.6%	77.2%	82.9%
Delta High School / Delta County 50(J)	90.2%	92.2%	88.9%	89.9%
Delta High School / Denver County 1	74.6%	61.5%	75.0%	65.9%
Denver Center For 21st-Century Learning At Wyman / Denver County 1	54.0%	51.7%	50.0%	49.1%
Denver Center For International Studies / Denver County 1	98.7%	96.2%	97.6%	96.2%
Denver County 1 District Total	74.6%	70.9%	70.5%	66.5%
Denver Justice High School / Denver County 1	48.9%	43.2%	48.8%	40.5%
Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High School / Denver County 1	85.2%	79.2%	92.9%	81.8%
Denver Online High School / Denver County 1	50.6%	51.4%	25.0%	38.6%
Denver School Of Innovation And Sustainable Design / Denver County 1	73.9%	65.8%	85.0%	54.5%
Denver School Of The Arts / Denver County 1	98.3%	98.7%	96.3%	100.0%
Destinations Career Academy Of Colorado / Julesburg Re-1	85.9%	79.6%	90.9%	75.9%
Discovery Canyon Campus High School / Academy 20	91.8%	93.1%	87.0%	83.8%
Discovery High School / Widefield 3	16.7%	17.9%	16.0%	12.9%
District 49 District Total	52.2%	48.8%	38.6%	33.8%
Doherty High School / Colorado Springs 11	87.8%	87.0%	84.9%	81.1%
Dolores County RE No.2 District Total	92.3%	86.7%	85.7%	81.8%
Dolores RE-4A District Total	96.6%	89.5%	100.0%	75.0%
Dolores Secondary School / Dolores RE-4A	96.6%	89.5%	100.0%	75.0%
Douglas County High School / Douglas County Re 1	90.6%	91.4%	81.8%	74.7%
Douglas County Re 1 District Total	91.2%	91.7%	73.7%	75.7%
Dove Creek High School / Dolores County RE No.2	92.3%	86.7%	85.7%	81.8%
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College / Denver County 1	74.8%	66.5%	75.4%	68.1%
Dsst: Byers High School / Denver County 1	94.3%	0.0%	89.8%	0.0%
Dsst: Cole High School / Denver County 1	86.5%	74.7%	83.9%	74.6%
Dsst: College View High School / Denver County 1	86.4%	82.7%	88.1%	83.0%
Dsst: Green Valley Ranch High School / Denver County 1	85.9%	88.0%	86.5%	88.5%
Dsst: Montview High School / Denver County 1	93.5%	91.6%	92.6%	87.1%
Durango 9-R District Total	79.4%	73.5%	61.5%	52.3%
Durango Big Picture High School / Durango 9-R	50.0%	45.8%	50.0%	40.0%
Durango High School / Durango 9-R	92.3%	90.2%	80.3%	74.3%
Eads High School / Eads RE-1	90.9%	90.0%	85.7%	66.7%
Eads RE-1 District Total	90.9%	90.0%	85.7%	66.7%
Eagle Academy / Douglas County Re 1	43.7%	43.9%	20.0%	33.3%
Eagle County RE 50 District Total	84.8%	84.7%	76.3%	78.1%
Eagle Ridge Academy / School District 27J	94.0%	96.3%	96.2%	94.6%
Eagle Valley High School / Eagle County RE 50	91.5%	91.1%	87.8%	88.2%
Eaglecrest High School / Cherry Creek 5	91.2%	92.1%	87.6%	89.4%
Early College Academy / Greeley 6	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Early College Of Arvada / Charter School Institute	91.4%	69.8%	90.9%	60.6%
Early College Of Denver / Denver County 1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
East Grand 2 District Total	88.0%	88.6%	83.3%	62.5%
East High School / Denver County 1	95.7%	93.9%	91.2%	87.4%
East High School / Pueblo City 60	83.5%	82.4%	80.0%	81.2%
East Otero R-1 District Total	89.0%	85.4%	85.1%	81.7%
Eastlake High School Of Colorado Springs / Colorado Springs 11	5.3%	10.5%	6.5%	8.4%
Eaton High School / Eaton RE-2	94.4%	96.6%	88.6%	96.9%
Eaton RE-2 District Total	94.4%	96.6%	88.6%	96.9%
Edcsd / Douglas County Re 1	93.8%	88.2%	100.0%	100.0%
Edison 54 JT District Total	69.8%	61.5%	81.8%	87.5%
Edison Junior-Senior High School / Edison 54 JT	83.3%	87.5%	77.8%	83.3%
Edison Prep / Edison 54 JT	65.9%	54.8%	100.0%	100.0%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES District Total	48.6%	36.4%	46.0%	30.2%
Elbert 200 District Total	83.3%	100.0%	50.0%	100.0%
Elbert Junior-Senior High School / Elbert 200	83.3%	100.0%	50.0%	100.0%
Elizabeth High School / Elizabeth School District	90.3%	88.2%	80.0%	75.0%
Elizabeth School District District Total	86.7%	82.4%	75.5%	63.6%
Ellicott 22 District Total	78.3%	88.7%	76.4%	89.6%
Ellicott Senior High School / Ellicott 22	78.3%	88.7%	76.4%	89.6%
Emily Griffith High School / Denver County 1	19.2%	9.2%	19.9%	8.9%
Endeavor Academy / Cherry Creek 5	51.2%	51.7%	41.6%	48.4%
Engage Online Academy / Greeley 6	0.0%		0.0%
Englewood 1 District Total	61.5%	50.4%	63.6%	46.2%
Englewood High School / Englewood 1	82.7%	74.3%	80.8%	70.3%
Erie High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	94.9%	94.0%	90.9%	86.1%
Escuela Tlatelolco School / Denver County 1	0.0%		0.0%
Estes Park High School / Estes Park R-3	90.3%	92.2%	84.8%	91.9%
Estes Park Options School / Estes Park R-3	0.0%		0.0%
Estes Park R-3 District Total	89.0%	92.2%	84.8%	91.9%
Evergreen High School / Jefferson County R-1	98.0%	94.7%	96.3%	88.5%
Excel Academy / Denver County 1	47.7%	49.5%	48.0%	51.0%
Expeditionary BOCES District Total	88.2%	81.8%	0.0%	75.0%
Fairview High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	97.5%	97.6%	94.8%	93.1%
Falcon High School / District 49	91.4%	90.0%	82.0%	87.9%
Falcon Homeschool Program / District 49	8.3%		0.0%
Flagler Public School / Arriba-Flagler C-20	66.7%	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%
Fleming High School / Frenchman RE-3	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Florence Crittenton High School / Denver County 1	19.0%	13.6%	19.3%	11.3%
Florence Jr./Sr. High School / Fremont RE-2	93.0%	86.0%	92.0%	79.7%
Fort Collins High School / Poudre R-1	85.4%	81.8%	69.3%	67.5%
Fort Lupton High School / Weld Re-8 Schools	89.4%	85.4%	89.7%	85.5%
Fort Morgan High School / Fort Morgan Re-3	80.9%	85.0%	74.5%	83.4%
Fort Morgan Re-3 District Total	78.0%	77.9%	70.4%	74.9%
Fossil Ridge High School / Poudre R-1	94.6%	93.0%	83.3%	67.2%
Fountain 8 District Total	86.2%	85.3%	79.2%	83.2%
Fountain-Fort Carson High School / Fountain 8	89.7%	90.0%	85.8%	90.4%
Fowler High School / Fowler R-4J	95.7%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Fowler R-4J District Total	95.7%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Frederick Senior High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	87.3%	82.5%	85.3%	71.6%
Fremont RE-2 District Total	93.0%	86.0%	92.0%	79.7%
Frenchman RE-3 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Frontier Charter Academy / Greeley 6	100.0%	97.6%	100.0%	83.3%
Frontier High School / Elizabeth School District	50.0%	27.8%	50.0%	33.3%
Fruita 8/9 School / Mesa County Valley 51	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Fruita Monument High School / Mesa County Valley 51	90.9%	89.0%	79.5%	76.8%
Garfield 16 District Total	89.1%	81.9%	83.9%	81.5%
Garfield Re-2 District Total	91.1%	84.5%	88.3%	77.5%
Gateway High School / Aurora Public Schools	73.1%	64.2%	72.1%	62.6%
Gateway School / Mesa County Valley 51	100.0%	100.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Genoa-Hugo C113 District Total	90.0%	84.6%	66.7%	75.0%
Genoa-Hugo School / Genoa-Hugo C113	90.0%	84.6%	66.7%	75.0%
George Washington High School / Denver County 1	89.6%	90.1%	86.2%	85.0%
Gilpin County RE-1 District Total	83.8%	79.2%	73.3%	66.7%
Gilpin County Undivided High School / Gilpin County RE-1	83.8%	79.2%	73.3%	66.7%
Girls Athletic Leadership School High School / Denver County 1	81.5%	75.0%	86.4%	68.4%
Glenwood Springs High School / Roaring Fork RE-1	92.1%	89.3%	91.6%	82.8%
Global Leadership Academy / Mapleton 1	79.2%	65.7%	80.0%	67.7%
Global Village Academy - Northglenn / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	0.0%		0.0%
Goal Academy / District 49	30.9%	19.2%	26.8%	16.4%
Golden High School / Jefferson County R-1	92.7%	92.6%	78.6%	85.7%
Golden View Classical Academy / Charter School Institute	88.9%	100.0%	66.7%
Golden View Classical Academy / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Granada RE-1 District Total	66.7%	93.8%	83.3%	92.3%
Granada Undivided High School / Granada RE-1	66.7%	93.8%	83.3%	92.3%
Grand Junction High School / Mesa County Valley 51	85.7%	84.1%	73.0%	73.9%
Grand Mesa Choice Academy / Delta County 50(J)	28.9%	48.6%	25.8%	45.7%
Grand Mesa High School / Plateau Valley 50	18.7%	34.3%	25.0%	32.1%
Grand River Academy / Mesa County Valley 51	58.8%	59.7%	52.6%	46.2%
Grand Valley High School / Garfield 16	89.1%	81.9%	83.9%	81.5%
Grandview High School / Cherry Creek 5	90.9%	94.7%	82.9%	90.6%
Greeley 6 District Total	82.0%	81.7%	78.0%	77.1%
Greeley Central High School / Greeley 6	87.2%	91.7%	85.3%	90.9%
Greeley West High School / Greeley 6	88.1%	82.2%	86.8%	79.0%
Green Mountain High School / Jefferson County R-1	96.7%	97.1%	93.9%	94.4%
Gunnison High School / Gunnison Watershed RE1J	91.6%	90.9%	82.1%	84.8%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J District Total	94.2%	93.9%	86.0%	88.4%
Halcyon School (Special Education) / Boulder Valley Re 2	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Hanover 28 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Hanover Junior-Senior High School / Hanover 28	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Hanover Online Academy / Hanover 28	100.0%		0.0%
Harold Ferguson High School / Thompson R2-J	37.8%	38.0%	42.4%	29.7%
Harrison 2 District Total	82.7%	83.3%	83.1%	82.6%
Harrison High School / Harrison 2	81.5%	81.3%	84.0%	81.0%
Haxtun High School / Haxtun RE-2J	86.7%	87.5%	60.0%	77.8%
Haxtun RE-2J District Total	86.7%	87.5%	60.0%	77.8%
Hayden High School / Hayden RE-1	86.4%	91.7%	75.0%	90.9%
Hayden RE-1 District Total	86.4%	91.7%	75.0%	90.9%
Heritage High School / Littleton 6	93.4%	93.5%	82.2%	83.6%
Hi-Plains R-23 District Total	0.0%	84.6%	0.0%	100.0%
Hi-Plains School District R-23 / Hi-Plains R-23	0.0%	84.6%	0.0%	100.0%
Hidden Lake High School / Westminster Public Schools	34.5%	34.6%	35.1%	33.7%
Highland High School / Ault-Highland RE-9	87.3%	93.2%	78.9%	92.3%
Highlands Ranch High School / Douglas County Re 1	94.5%	91.4%	88.6%	89.2%
Hinkley High School / Aurora Public Schools	73.3%	71.2%	73.7%	70.1%
Hinsdale County RE 1 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Hoehne Reorganized 3 District Total	100.0%	95.8%	100.0%	90.9%
Hoehne Schools / Hoehne Reorganized 3	100.0%	95.8%	100.0%	90.9%
Holly RE-3 District Total	94.1%	100.0%	92.9%	100.0%
Holly School / Holly RE-3	94.1%	100.0%	92.9%	100.0%
Holyoke Alternative School / Holyoke Re-1J	50.0%	42.9%	44.4%	40.0%
Holyoke Re-1J District Total	86.3%	86.7%	79.3%	82.6%
Holyoke Senior High School / Holyoke Re-1J	95.1%	94.7%	95.0%	94.4%
Home School Academy / Academy 20	0.0%		0.0%
Hope Online Learning Academy High School / Douglas County Re 1	48.7%	54.5%	51.2%	52.2%
Horizon High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	94.9%	95.1%	93.2%	86.1%
Horizons Exploratory Academy / Salida R-32	55.6%	31.2%	54.5%	38.5%
Hotchkiss High School / Delta County 50(J)	95.0%	98.0%	92.0%	96.8%
Huerfano Re-1 District Total	82.1%	74.4%	77.3%	71.4%
Idalia Junior-Senior High School / Idalia RJ-3	100.0%	92.3%	100.0%	91.7%
Idalia RJ-3 District Total	100.0%	92.3%	100.0%	91.7%
Ignacio 11 JT District Total	87.8%	70.6%	81.3%	61.1%
Ignacio High School / Ignacio 11 JT	87.8%	70.6%	81.3%	61.1%
Immersion Schools Science Technology Arts / Las Animas RE-1	87.5%	62.5%	75.0%	60.0%
Innovations & Options / School District 27J	57.8%	31.7%	55.0%	29.6%
Innovative Connections High School / Centennial BOCES	47.1%	40.9%	54.5%	30.8%
James Irwin Charter High School / Harrison 2	97.7%	95.1%	94.7%	93.8%
Jeffco Virtual Academy / Jefferson County R-1	40.5%	36.8%	31.8%	33.3%
Jefferson Academy / Jefferson County R-1	92.6%	84.6%	33.3%	100.0%
Jefferson Academy High School / Jefferson County R-1	100.0%	99.0%	100.0%	93.8%
Jefferson County Open Secondary / Jefferson County R-1	61.2%	59.0%	73.3%	50.0%
Jefferson County R-1 District Total	84.8%	85.3%	72.1%	74.2%
Jefferson Junior/Senior High / Greeley 6	49.3%	52.3%	48.6%	53.4%
Jefferson Junior/Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	88.9%	84.3%	89.6%	84.2%
John F Kennedy High School / Denver County 1	81.1%	82.4%	82.0%	83.1%
John Mall High School / Huerfano Re-1	82.1%	74.4%	77.3%	71.4%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J District Total	92.4%	90.5%	89.0%	85.6%
Julesburg High School / Julesburg Re-1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Julesburg Re-1 District Total	88.0%	83.1%	92.9%	80.6%
Juniper Ridge Community School / Mesa County Valley 51	0.0%		0.0%
Justice High Charter School / Boulder Valley Re 2	23.3%	26.3%	20.7%	22.9%
Karval Junior-Senior High School / Karval RE-23	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Karval RE-23 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kim Reorganized 88 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kim Undivided High School / Kim Reorganized 88	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kiowa C-2 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kiowa High School / Kiowa C-2	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kipp Denver Collegiate High School / Denver County 1	87.3%	89.4%	87.9%	90.1%
Kipp Northeast Denver Leadership Academy / Denver County 1	92.0%	91.5%	91.7%	90.7%
Kit Carson Junior-Senior High School / Kit Carson R-1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kit Carson R-1 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy / Denver County 1	100.0%	94.3%	100.0%	93.9%
La Junta Jr/Sr High School / East Otero R-1	89.0%	85.4%	85.1%	81.7%
La Veta Junior-Senior High School / La Veta Re-2	100.0%	61.5%	100.0%	60.0%
La Veta Re-2 District Total	100.0%	61.5%	100.0%	60.0%
Lake City Community School / Hinsdale County RE 1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Lake County Early College / Lake County R-1	100.0%		0.0%
Lake County High School / Lake County R-1	89.4%	67.9%	88.3%	69.0%
Lake County R-1 District Total	89.7%	67.9%	88.3%	69.0%
Lakewood High School / Jefferson County R-1	93.4%	94.8%	87.3%	91.1%
Lamar High School / Lamar Re-2	95.3%	90.0%	92.6%	85.9%
Lamar Re-2 District Total	95.3%	90.0%	92.6%	85.9%
Las Animas High School / Las Animas RE-1	80.0%	84.4%	75.9%	82.1%
Las Animas RE-1 District Total	56.9%	67.7%	55.6%	67.1%
Launch High School / Charter School Institute	78.6%	63.2%	75.0%	80.0%
Leap School / Thompson R2-J	0.0%		0.0%
Legacy High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	92.4%	91.2%	77.9%	74.1%
Legacy Options High School / Denver County 1	39.0%	49.1%	35.9%	47.2%
Legend High School / Douglas County Re 1	95.1%	94.2%	86.5%	80.8%
Lester R Arnold High School / Adams County 14	36.6%	35.0%	35.5%	36.4%
Lewis-Palmer 38 District Total	93.3%	96.5%	88.1%	96.2%
Lewis-Palmer High School / Lewis-Palmer 38	94.2%	96.4%	87.1%	92.6%
Liberty Common Charter School / Poudre R-1	100.0%	98.7%	100.0%	100.0%
Liberty High School / Academy 20	95.8%	91.1%	88.5%	76.6%
Liberty J-4 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Liberty School / Liberty J-4	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Limon Junior-Senior High School / Limon RE-4J	95.7%	89.7%	88.9%	82.4%
Limon RE-4J District Total	95.7%	89.7%	88.9%	82.4%
Lincoln High School / Fort Morgan Re-3	28.6%	18.5%	23.1%	20.8%
Littleton 6 District Total	90.0%	91.6%	69.7%	78.8%
Littleton High School / Littleton 6	80.6%	83.7%	60.4%	74.3%
Lone Star 101 District Total	80.0%	83.3%	0.0%	100.0%
Lone Star Undivided High School / Lone Star 101	80.0%	83.3%	0.0%	100.0%
Longmont High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	86.1%	86.8%	81.0%	82.2%
Longview High School / Jefferson County R-1	67.9%	62.5%	62.5%	42.9%
Lotus School For Excellence / Aurora Public Schools	91.7%	97.1%	91.3%	96.6%
Loveland Classical School / Thompson R2-J	92.9%	94.7%	100.0%	100.0%
Loveland High School / Thompson R2-J	80.3%	80.8%	64.9%	62.0%
Lyons Middle/Senior High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	97.6%	93.6%	100.0%	90.9%
Mancos High School / Mancos Re-6	94.3%	100.0%	90.0%	100.0%
Mancos Re-6 District Total	94.3%	100.0%	90.0%	100.0%
Manitou Springs 14 District Total	90.3%	90.4%	77.8%	88.6%
Manitou Springs High School / Manitou Springs 14	90.3%	90.4%	77.8%	88.6%
Manual High School / Denver County 1	69.2%	61.8%	70.9%	64.4%
Manzanola 3J District Total	100.0%	86.7%	100.0%	90.9%
Manzanola Junior-Senior High School / Manzanola 3J	100.0%	86.7%	100.0%	90.9%
Mapleton 1 District Total	78.3%	68.7%	76.7%	67.9%
Mapleton Early College High School / Mapleton 1	90.8%	82.8%	89.6%	85.7%
Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts / Mapleton 1	86.3%	77.7%	88.3%	79.2%
Marble Charter School / Gunnison Watershed RE1J	0.0%		0.0%
McClave Re-2 District Total	88.2%	100.0%	83.3%	100.0%
Mcclave Undivided High School / McClave Re-2	88.2%	100.0%	83.3%	100.0%
Mclain Community High School / Jefferson County R-1	25.0%	31.8%	21.4%	28.6%
Mead High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	92.5%	93.0%	81.3%	84.4%
Meeker High School / Meeker RE-1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Meeker RE-1 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Merino Junior Senior High School / Buffalo RE-4J	100.0%	84.2%	100.0%	80.0%
Mesa County Valley 51 District Total	80.2%	79.6%	69.1%	68.8%
Mesa Ridge High School / Widefield 3	86.1%	85.8%	83.2%	83.3%
Mesa Valley Community School / Mesa County Valley 51	100.0%	88.2%	100.0%	50.0%
Miami-Yoder Middle/High School / Miami/Yoder 60 JT	85.0%	87.5%	87.5%	82.4%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT District Total	85.0%	87.5%	87.5%	82.4%
Middle Park High School / East Grand 2	88.0%	88.6%	83.3%	62.5%
Miller Special Education / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Mitchell High School / Colorado Springs 11	66.9%	70.9%	67.5%	71.8%
Moffat 2 District Total	100.0%	81.2%	100.0%	85.7%
Moffat County High School / Moffat County RE: No 1	71.3%	77.6%	45.3%	66.2%
Moffat County RE: No 1 District Total	71.3%	77.6%	45.3%	66.2%
Moffat Prek-12 School / Moffat 2	100.0%	81.8%	100.0%	80.0%
Monarch High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	96.8%	96.6%	87.2%	97.3%
Montbello Career And Technical High School / Denver County 1	43.4%	30.5%	43.5%	32.1%
Monte Vista C-8 District Total	73.7%	80.2%	75.7%	80.5%
Monte Vista On-Line Academy / Monte Vista C-8	70.0%	66.7%	85.7%	81.8%
Monte Vista Senior High School / Monte Vista C-8	88.2%	91.2%	87.2%	89.1%
Montezuma-Cortez High School / Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	84.5%	84.1%	78.8%	82.1%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 District Total	80.4%	73.7%	73.3%	67.9%
Montrose County RE-1J District Total	77.3%	74.4%	67.3%	64.8%
Montrose High School / Montrose County RE-1J	90.3%	85.7%	82.3%	80.4%
Mountain BOCES District Total	0.0%	66.7%	0.0%	100.0%
Mountain Range High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	90.4%	91.3%	84.1%	83.6%
Mountain Valley RE 1 District Total	100.0%	87.5%	100.0%	83.3%
Mountain Valley School / Mountain Valley RE 1	100.0%	87.5%	100.0%	83.3%
Mountain View High School / Thompson R2-J	82.7%	84.4%	74.3%	75.2%
Mountain View Virtual / Education reEnvisioned BOCES	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Mountain Vista High School / Douglas County Re 1	96.7%	97.5%	91.9%	93.6%
Mountain Vista Homeschool Academy / Harrison 2	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Nederland Middle-Senior High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	85.7%	78.6%	76.9%	52.9%
New America School - Lowry / Charter School Institute	29.3%	22.9%	29.2%	24.8%
New America School - Thornton / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	27.0%	20.0%	24.8%	21.8%
New America School - Thornton / Charter School Institute	0.0%	6.2%	0.0%	7.1%
New America School / Jefferson County R-1	13.6%	10.5%	14.7%	11.4%
New Legacy Charter School / Charter School Institute	35.7%	21.1%	35.7%	22.2%
New Vista High School / Boulder Valley Re 2	87.0%	87.1%	76.9%	78.6%
Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center / Colorado Springs 11	44.7%	47.4%	43.7%	47.8%
Niwot High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	96.3%	91.7%	92.5%	86.2%
Noel Community Arts School / Denver County 1	71.1%	76.8%	71.4%	77.6%
North Conejos Alternative Program / North Conejos RE-1J	53.3%	50.0%	57.1%	50.0%
North Conejos RE-1J District Total	88.6%	86.8%	87.1%	83.6%
North High School / Denver County 1	85.4%	85.9%	84.9%	86.0%
North High School Engagement Center / Denver County 1	61.3%	50.0%	61.4%	46.8%
North Park R-1 District Total	88.9%	84.6%	80.0%	66.7%
North Park School / North Park R-1	88.9%	84.6%	80.0%	66.7%
North Valley School For Young Adults / Mapleton 1	68.4%	8.3%	69.8%	9.4%
Northeast Early College / Denver County 1	53.8%	60.9%	58.8%	61.5%
Northfield High School / Denver County 1	93.8%	88.2%	92.1%	85.2%
Northglenn High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	91.0%	88.2%	88.8%	86.1%
Northridge High School / Greeley 6	89.7%	84.6%	89.2%	82.0%
Norwood Public Schools / Norwood R-2J	93.3%	94.4%	87.5%	100.0%
Norwood R-2J District Total	93.3%	94.4%	87.5%	100.0%
Nucla High School / West End RE-2	93.8%	88.2%	90.0%	83.3%
Odyssey Early College And Career Options / Colorado Springs 11	53.1%	50.0%	70.6%	46.2%
Olathe High School / Montrose County RE-1J	93.4%	94.6%	94.9%	93.2%
Olde Columbine High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	48.5%	44.2%	52.9%	41.7%
Options School / Aurora Public Schools	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Options School / Cherry Creek 5	52.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Otis Junior-Senior High School / Otis R-3	93.3%	90.5%	85.7%	77.8%
Otis R-3 District Total	93.3%	90.5%	85.7%	77.8%
Ouray R-1 District Total	92.3%	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%
Ouray Senior High School / Ouray R-1	92.3%	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%
Overland High School / Cherry Creek 5	85.7%	87.0%	85.4%	86.3%
P-Tech Early College At Northglenn High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	0.0%		0.0%
Pagosa Springs High School / Archuleta County 50 Jt	92.4%	83.7%	88.9%	76.2%
Palisade High School / Mesa County Valley 51	86.3%	88.7%	78.1%	81.0%
Palmer High School / Colorado Springs 11	80.0%	79.8%	75.6%	73.5%
Palmer Ridge High School / Lewis-Palmer 38	92.5%	96.6%	88.9%	100.0%
Paonia High School / Delta County 50(J)	95.3%	96.6%	92.6%	95.7%
Paradox Valley Charter School / West End RE-2	0.0%	100.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Paragon Learning Center / Pueblo City 60	33.3%	26.5%	30.9%	25.5%
Park County RE-2 District Total	63.3%	90.5%	43.8%	87.0%
Pathways Future Center / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	64.3%	63.7%	66.7%	58.3%
Patriot High School / District 49	51.2%	59.5%	42.1%	72.2%
Pawnee RE-12 District Total	100.0%	90.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Pawnee School Pk-12 / Pawnee RE-12	100.0%	90.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Peak To Peak Charter School / Boulder Valley Re 2	99.3%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Peak Virtual Academy / Montrose County RE-1J	81.8%	96.6%	62.5%	100.0%
Peetz Junior-Senior High School / Plateau RE-5	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Peyton 23 Jt District Total	87.1%	83.6%	82.6%	82.4%
Peyton Online Academy / Peyton 23 Jt	54.5%	57.1%	0.0%	50.0%
Peyton Senior High School / Peyton 23 Jt	94.8%	90.3%	95.0%	85.7%
Pikes Peak Early College / District 49	35.0%	30.0%	83.3%	50.0%
Pikes Peak Online School / Education reEnvisioned BOCES	44.6%	27.5%	42.0%	22.3%
Pikes Peak Prep / Charter School Institute	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Pine Creek High School / Academy 20	95.1%	95.6%	88.0%	87.5%
Plainview Junior-Senior High School / Plainview RE-2	85.7%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Plainview RE-2 District Total	85.7%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Plateau RE-5 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Plateau Valley 50 District Total	32.0%	46.1%	33.3%	40.6%
Plateau Valley High School / Plateau Valley 50	100.0%	92.3%	100.0%	81.8%
Platte Canyon 1 District Total	81.4%	82.2%	68.4%	76.7%
Platte Canyon High School / Platte Canyon 1	81.4%	82.2%	68.4%	76.7%
Platte Valley High School / Platte Valley RE-7	95.3%	97.7%	95.1%	93.8%
Platte Valley RE-7 District Total	95.3%	97.7%	95.1%	93.8%
Polaris Expeditionary Learning School / Poudre R-1	93.2%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Pomona High School / Jefferson County R-1	92.5%	88.0%	90.3%	83.6%
Ponderosa High School / Douglas County Re 1	97.6%	96.4%	97.4%	87.5%
Poudre Community Academy / Poudre R-1	48.7%	44.9%	44.3%	38.5%
Poudre High School / Poudre R-1	78.0%	76.9%	64.4%	61.1%
Poudre R-1 District Total	84.4%	83.2%	67.0%	63.5%
Power Technical Early College / District 49	100.0%	81.8%	100.0%	60.0%
Prairie Creek High School / Strasburg 31J	55.6%	33.3%	50.0%	33.3%
Prairie Junior-Senior High School / Prairie RE-11	100.0%	87.5%	100.0%	50.0%
Prairie RE-11 District Total	100.0%	87.5%	100.0%	50.0%
Prairie View High School / School District 27J	89.9%	89.5%	85.5%	87.2%
Prep Academy / Denver County 1	45.5%	66.7%	47.6%	65.0%
Primero Junior-Senior High School / Primero Reorganized 2	90.0%	72.7%	88.9%	66.7%
Primero Reorganized 2 District Total	90.0%	72.7%	88.9%	66.7%
Pritchett High School / Pritchett RE-3	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%	66.7%
Pritchett RE-3 District Total	100.0%	66.7%	100.0%	66.7%
Prospect Ridge Academy / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Psd Global Academy / Poudre R-1	56.4%	54.2%	52.0%	41.2%
Pueblo City 60 District Total	82.6%	81.8%	79.5%	77.6%
Pueblo County 70 District Total	92.6%	92.2%	89.7%	89.5%
Pueblo County High School / Pueblo County 70	96.0%	97.1%	94.2%	94.7%
Pueblo West High School / Pueblo County 70	93.5%	94.0%	89.4%	92.4%
R-5 High School / Mesa County Valley 51	38.5%	39.9%	37.5%	38.9%
Ralston Valley Senior High School / Jefferson County R-1	96.6%	95.9%	91.8%	88.5%
Rampart High School / Academy 20	89.4%	92.8%	83.1%	77.7%
Rangely Junior/Senior High School / Rangely RE-4	84.6%	88.9%	75.0%	85.7%
Rangely RE-4 District Total	84.6%	88.9%	75.0%	85.7%
Rangeview High School / Aurora Public Schools	85.3%	85.8%	85.3%	83.0%
Red Canyon High School / Eagle County RE 50	38.5%	41.2%	37.3%	40.4%
Renaissance Secondary School / Douglas County Re 1	86.2%	25.0%	33.3%
Respect Academy / Denver County 1	66.1%	54.2%	67.8%	51.5%
Revere Junior-Senior High School / Revere School District	88.9%	100.0%	75.0%	100.0%
Revere School District District Total	88.9%	100.0%	75.0%	100.0%
Ridge View Academy Charter School / Denver County 1	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.8%
Ridgeview Classical Charter Schools / Poudre R-1	87.5%	93.3%	100.0%	50.0%
Ridgway High School / Ridgway R-2	100.0%	95.2%	100.0%	100.0%
Ridgway R-2 District Total	100.0%	95.2%	100.0%	100.0%
Rifle High School / Garfield Re-2	89.0%	79.7%	85.4%	72.7%
Riseup Community School / Denver County 1	25.0%	25.0%	25.0%	26.3%
Riverdale Ridge High School / School District 27J	0.0%		0.0%
Roaring Fork High School / Roaring Fork RE-1	85.7%	96.6%	79.5%	95.7%
Roaring Fork RE-1 District Total	84.5%	86.9%	79.0%	79.1%
Rock Canyon High School / Douglas County Re 1	97.8%	98.1%	90.9%	93.5%
Rocky Ford Junior/Senior High School / Rocky Ford R-2	84.8%	93.2%	81.1%	91.4%
Rocky Ford R-2 District Total	84.8%	93.2%	81.1%	91.4%
Rocky Mountain Classical Academy / District 49	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Rocky Mountain Classical Academy Homeschool / District 49	0.0%		0.0%
Rocky Mountain Deaf School / Jefferson County R-1	75.0%	50.0%	66.7%	100.0%
Rocky Mountain Digital Academy / Education reEnvisioned BOCES	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Rocky Mountain High School / Poudre R-1	89.3%	88.7%	78.2%	78.8%
Rocky Mountain School Of Expeditionary Learning / Expeditionary BOCES	88.2%	81.8%	0.0%	75.0%
Roosevelt High School / Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	92.4%	90.5%	89.0%	85.6%
Rye High School / Pueblo County 70	100.0%	88.3%	100.0%	87.1%
Salida High School / Salida R-32	96.1%	92.6%	93.8%	83.9%
Salida R-32 District Total	88.3%	83.8%	83.7%	70.5%
San Juan BOCES District Total	91.7%	64.3%	0.0%	50.0%
Sand Creek High School / District 49	88.3%	83.3%	85.7%	77.8%
Sanford 6J District Total	90.9%	93.9%	80.0%	95.2%
Sanford Junior/Senior High School / Sanford 6J	90.9%	93.9%	80.0%	95.2%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J District Total	100.0%	90.5%	100.0%	85.7%
Sangre De Cristo Undivided High School / Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	100.0%	90.5%	100.0%	85.7%
Sargent RE-33J District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Sargent Senior High School / Sargent RE-33J	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
School District 27J District Total	86.2%	84.1%	80.7%	78.2%
Sheridan 2 District Total	76.9%	71.2%	79.8%	73.2%
Sheridan High School / Sheridan 2	96.7%	97.1%	96.6%	97.1%
Sierra Grande K-12 School / Sierra Grande R-30	100.0%	95.5%	100.0%	94.7%
Sierra Grande R-30 District Total	100.0%	95.5%	100.0%	94.7%
Sierra High School / Harrison 2	82.6%	75.7%	82.2%	74.5%
Silver Creek High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	90.9%	93.1%	77.1%	87.5%
Silverton 1 District Total	75.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Silverton High School / Silverton 1	75.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Simla High School / Big Sandy 100J	86.4%	100.0%	90.0%	100.0%
Skyline High School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	84.2%	82.4%	79.7%	76.1%
Skyview Academy / Douglas County Re 1	95.1%	96.6%	100.0%	100.0%
Smoky Hill High School / Cherry Creek 5	87.7%	87.6%	83.3%	83.3%
Snowy Peaks Junior/Senior High School / Summit RE-1	93.3%	95.5%	85.7%	92.3%
Soar Academy / Sheridan 2	32.5%	17.6%	37.1%	17.2%
Sobesky Academy / Jefferson County R-1	41.7%	38.9%	36.4%	27.3%
Soroco High School / South Routt RE 3	92.6%	96.3%	100.0%	90.9%
South Conejos RE-10 District Total	92.9%	100.0%	92.9%	100.0%
South High School / Denver County 1	85.0%	84.4%	79.8%	79.8%
South High School / Pueblo City 60	83.7%	85.8%	79.4%	82.0%
South Park High School / Park County RE-2	63.3%	90.5%	43.8%	87.0%
South Routt RE 3 District Total	92.6%	96.3%	100.0%	90.9%
Southwest Colorado Eschool / San Juan BOCES	91.7%	64.3%	0.0%	50.0%
Southwest Open Charter School / Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	38.9%	35.6%	37.5%	33.3%
Springfield Junior/Senior High School / Springfield RE-4	100.0%	89.5%	100.0%	92.3%
Springfield RE-4 District Total	100.0%	89.5%	100.0%	92.3%
Springs Studio For Academic Excellence / District 49	88.7%	90.4%	85.7%	92.3%
St Vrain Valley RE1J District Total	87.8%	86.3%	79.9%	76.8%
St. Vrain Global Online Academy / St Vrain Valley RE1J	40.7%	30.6%	23.5%	20.0%
St. Vrain Valley P-Tech School / St Vrain Valley RE1J	0.0%		0.0%
Standley Lake High School / Jefferson County R-1	90.4%	88.4%	80.6%	79.0%
Stargate Charter School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
State Total	81.9%	81.10%	72.3%	70.90%
Steamboat Springs High School / Steamboat Springs RE-2	95.5%	96.3%	89.7%	90.0%
Steamboat Springs RE-2 District Total	93.8%	94.5%	86.0%	84.8%
Stem School Highlands Ranch / Douglas County Re 1	96.5%	96.8%	87.5%	100.0%
Sterling High School / Valley RE-1	78.4%	80.4%	64.3%	72.4%
Strasburg 31J District Total	88.6%	89.3%	77.3%	88.5%
Strasburg High School / Strasburg 31J	92.4%	93.6%	87.5%	95.7%
Stratton R-4 District Total	88.9%	87.5%	75.0%	90.0%
Stratton Senior High School / Stratton R-4	88.9%	87.5%	75.0%	90.0%
Strive Prep - Excel / Denver County 1	70.3%	75.0%	72.1%	77.6%
Strive Prep - Rise / Denver County 1	93.9%	0.0%	94.2%	0.0%
Strive Prep - Smart Academy / Denver County 1	85.9%	92.6%	86.2%	94.1%
Summer District Dropouts / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Summit Academy / Denver County 1	53.2%	52.2%	56.4%	55.3%
Summit High School / Summit RE-1	90.2%	95.1%	80.0%	90.0%
Summit RE-1 District Total	90.4%	95.1%	80.4%	90.3%
Swallows Charter Academy High School / Pueblo County 70	97.1%	97.7%	91.7%	92.9%
Swink 33 District Total	90.9%	85.7%	80.0%	77.8%
Swink Junior-Senior High School / Swink 33	90.9%	85.7%	80.0%	77.8%
Tca College Pathways / Academy 20	94.0%	89.0%	81.8%	70.0%
Telluride High School / Telluride R-1	94.2%	95.0%	86.4%	85.7%
Telluride R-1 District Total	94.2%	95.0%	86.4%	85.7%
The Academic Recovery Center Of San Luis Valley / Center 26 JT	62.5%	66.7%	62.5%	66.7%
The Bijou School / Colorado Springs 11	69.2%	62.5%	62.2%	59.1%
The Classical Academy High School / Academy 20	98.5%	100.0%	85.7%	100.0%
The Pinnacle Charter School / Charter School Institute	95.8%	94.4%	94.7%	93.4%
The Vanguard School (High) / Cheyenne Mountain 12	98.0%	97.1%	90.0%	88.2%
Thomas Jefferson High School / Denver County 1	88.6%	91.2%	86.1%	92.6%
Thomas Maclaren State Charter School / Charter School Institute	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Thompson R2-J District Total	82.5%	81.1%	70.8%	66.1%
Thompson Valley High School / Thompson R2-J	84.3%	80.1%	76.4%	67.6%
Thornton High School / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	80.1%	83.3%	79.0%	84.3%
Thunderridge High School / Douglas County Re 1	95.7%	95.9%	87.5%	91.4%
Trinidad 1 District Total	89.2%	71.8%	85.4%	71.2%
Trinidad High School / Trinidad 1	89.2%	71.8%	85.4%	71.2%
Twin Peaks Charter Academy / St Vrain Valley RE1J	90.0%	86.2%	92.3%	85.7%
Two Roads Charter School / Jefferson County R-1	85.7%	88.5%	88.9%	72.7%
Union Colony Schools / Greeley 6	90.0%	86.2%	69.2%	72.7%
University Schools / Greeley 6	99.3%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7 District Total	87.2%	95.0%	80.0%	95.2%
Vail Ski And Snowboard Academy (Vssa) / Eagle County RE 50	96.7%	92.9%	0.0%
Valley High School / Weld County RE-1	93.2%	93.7%	90.4%	92.9%
Valley RE-1 District Total	81.1%	82.8%	72.0%	74.7%
Vanguard Classical School - East / Aurora Public Schools	57.1%	73.9%	70.0%	84.2%
Vantage Point / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	53.0%	50.9%	50.0%	54.4%
Venture Prep High School / Denver County 1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Victory Preparatory Academy High State Charter School / Charter School Institute	94.4%	93.5%	93.8%	92.9%
Vilas RE-5 District Total	50.0%	100.0%	40.0%	100.0%
Vilas Undivided High School / Vilas RE-5	50.0%	100.0%	40.0%	100.0%
Village High School / Academy 20	89.8%	87.8%	90.9%	87.5%
Vision Charter Academy / Delta County 50(J)	74.1%	66.7%	66.7%	68.2%
Vista Academy / Denver County 1	68.5%	75.8%	66.7%	71.8%
Vista Charter School / Montrose County RE-1J	24.7%	15.4%	22.2%	13.3%
Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory / Aurora Public Schools	85.1%	85.2%	80.6%	80.8%
Vista Ridge High School / District 49	90.9%	88.6%	86.9%	82.2%
Walsh High School / Walsh RE-1	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Walsh RE-1 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Warren Tech Central / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Warren Tech North / Jefferson County R-1	0.0%		0.0%
Weld Central Senior High School / Weld County School District RE-3J	93.5%	80.7%	93.3%	76.5%
Weld County RE-1 District Total	93.2%	93.7%	90.4%	92.9%
Weld County School District RE-3J District Total	93.5%	80.7%	93.3%	76.5%
Weld Re-8 Schools District Total	89.4%	85.4%	89.7%	85.5%
Weldon Valley Jr/Sr High School / Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	81.8%	89.5%	66.7%	71.4%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J) District Total	81.8%	89.5%	66.7%	71.4%
Welte Education Center / Fountain 8	48.7%	27.3%	41.2%	31.0%
West Early College / Denver County 1	73.9%	64.6%	75.8%	65.4%
West End RE-2 District Total	93.8%	88.9%	90.0%	84.6%
West Grand 1-JT District Total	86.7%	90.3%	87.5%	78.6%
West Grand High School / West Grand 1-JT	86.7%	90.3%	87.5%	78.6%
West Leadership Academy / Denver County 1	83.0%	77.2%	84.6%	78.4%
Westgate Charter / Adams 12 Five Star Schools	93.3%	100.0%	100.0%
Westminster High School / Westminster Public Schools	86.0%	81.9%	86.4%	80.6%
Westminster Public Schools District Total	72.5%	69.3%	72.9%	67.5%
Wheat Ridge High School / Jefferson County R-1	86.0%	91.1%	78.9%	86.0%
Widefield 3 District Total	80.2%	80.9%	77.0%	74.6%
Widefield High School / Widefield 3	80.5%	83.9%	81.5%	78.3%
Wiggins High School / Wiggins RE-50(J)	96.9%	97.7%	92.9%	94.4%
Wiggins RE-50(J) District Total	96.9%	97.7%	92.9%	94.4%
Wiley Junior-Senior High School / Wiley RE-13 Jt	92.3%	87.0%	88.9%	90.0%
Wiley RE-13 Jt District Total	92.3%	87.0%	88.9%	90.0%
William Smith High School / Aurora Public Schools	95.6%	96.2%	95.8%	95.2%
Windsor Charter Academy Early College High School / Windsor RE-4	96.2%	97.1%	80.0%	100.0%
Windsor High School / Windsor RE-4	91.6%	93.4%	72.9%	84.8%
Windsor RE-4 District Total	92.1%	93.7%	73.3%	86.0%
Woodland Park High School / Woodland Park Re-2	81.7%	80.8%	68.9%	70.6%
Woodland Park Re-2 District Total	81.7%	80.8%	68.9%	70.6%
Woodlin R-104 District Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Woodlin Undivided High School / Woodlin R-104	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
World Academy / Eagle County RE 50	42.9%	66.7%	60.0%	100.0%
Wray High School / Wray RD-2	82.9%	87.8%	73.1%	77.3%
Wray RD-2 District Total	82.9%	87.8%	73.1%	77.3%
Yampa Valley High School / Steamboat Springs RE-2	63.6%	66.7%	50.0%	50.0%
Yampah Mountain School / Colorado River BOCES	76.2%	61.4%	69.2%	50.0%
Yampah Mountain School / Mountain BOCES	0.0%	66.7%	0.0%	100.0%
York International / Mapleton 1	90.1%	91.5%	90.9%	91.5%
Youth & Family Academy Charter / Charter School Institute	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Yuma 1 District Total	83.3%	90.2%	81.3%	84.6%
Yuma High School / Yuma 1	83.3%	90.2%	81.3%	84.6%

School and district four-year graduation rates

Source: Colorado Department of Education

Students in Denver and other metro area districts head back to class in person

2021-01-12T00:48:53+00:00

Denver elementary school students headed back to classrooms Monday amid a monthslong debate: While some teachers protest the return to in-person learning as too risky during the pandemic, some parents cheer the move as crucial for their children’s academic and social well-being. The school district insists that in-person learning is relatively safe.

“We understand that there are those concerns out there,” Interim Superintendent Dwight Jones said, “but we also clearly understand that we have to get our kids back in school. It makes a difference. They are safer in school. And they want to reconnect with their teachers.”

Given a choice between returning to classrooms or continuing to learn virtually, most students’ families chose in-person learning. The percentage varied by race and neighborhood. The latest Denver Public Schools data shows that 42% of families in far northeast Denver chose virtual learning, compared with 27% of families in less diverse southeast Denver. About 40% of Black and Hispanic students chose virtual learning, compared with 20% of white students.

For months, some parents have publicly pleaded with the Denver school board to reopen schools while teachers asked for the opposite, sometimes tearfully. Last week, educators held a drive-through vigil outside district headquarters to illustrate the “human stakes” of reopening.

“I want to be in the classroom with my 4-year-olds, but not at the expense of my life or theirs,” Kathryn Quinn, a preschool teacher at DCIS Fairmont, told the school board last month.

At the same meeting, parent Sumeet Garg, who identified himself as a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital Colorado, argued that teachers are essential workers, in-person learning is safe, and keeping students at home is stunting their academic and social growth.

“Not feeling safe at school does not equal not actually being safe at school,” he said.

Denver schools are joining others around the state in reopening classrooms this month after shuttering them in late November, when COVID cases were spiking across Colorado. Amid new restrictions, case numbers decreased statewide in December but have ticked back up again recently. Some districts are waiting to see if the holidays cause another spike.

Suburban Jeffco Public Schools is bringing elementary students back Jan. 19, after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. But the district is waiting to reopen secondary schools, which officials say they will only do if conditions remain favorable.

The Adams 14 school district in Commerce City also planned to bring students back starting on Jan. 19. But last Friday, the district delayed that until Jan. 25, citing “current case rates and patterns.” Incidence rates in the Adams 14 school boundaries remain higher than in surrounding districts. Based on TriCounty Health Department data Monday, the two-week incidence rate within Adams 14 neighborhoods was about 820 cases per 100,000 people.

Superintendents have said it is hard to maintain enough staffing to keep schools open when case rates are above between 500 and 700 cases per 100,000 people in a two-week period.

The two-week incidence rate in Denver was about 480 cases per 100,000 people on Monday, according to Denver Public Health. In suburban Westminster Public Schools, it was about 740 cases per 100,000, TriCounty Health Department data showed.

But Westminster is proceeding with in-person learning, and at a faster clip than most districts. Instead of phasing its reopening, Westminster Public Schools reopened school buildings to all students Monday. The majority of students — 71% — have chosen to learn in person.

Denver Public Schools won’t bring secondary students back until Jan. 19, and their return will be phased. The district’s plans call for all students to be back in classrooms by Feb. 1.

If all students return, it will be the first time in 10 and a half months that Denver middle and high school students attend in-person classes.

District officials have highlighted several new measures they say will help keep schools as safe as possible and open for as long as possible. They include:

Free COVID testing for Denver Public Schools students. The district partnered with an initiative called COVIDCheck Colorado that has provided free testing to teachers since August.
Free rapid at-home COVID testing for teachers and staff. The governor’s office recently pledged to provide as many as 1 million rapid BINAXNow tests per month to districts.
One free KN95 mask per educator per week, or, if educators prefer, free surgical masks. The governor’s office has been providing schools with KN95 masks since the fall and will continue. Teachers wearing KN95 masks may not need to quarantine after being exposed to COVID.
Shorter quarantine periods. In line with new federal guidance, officials said the district is working to finalize guidelines that will shorten the period of time a person has to quarantine after exposure from 14 days to 10 days or even seven days with a negative COVID test.

Interim Superintendent Jones said the district will continue to consult with local public health officials on whether it’s safe for students to return. For now, he said, the answer is yes.

“It is time for students to be in school and for us to get back to providing the very best education that we can with in-person learning,” Jones said.

Chalkbeat reporter Yesenia Robles contributed to this story.

Most of Colorado’s largest districts are now only offering remote instruction

2020-12-04T20:02:05+00:00

Most of Colorado’s students now must learn from home — a stark contrast to just weeks earlier.

In November many school districts switched to entirely virtual learning. A Chalkbeat analysis of the 30 largest districts in the state shows 22 are now fully remote. Of the remaining eight that still provide some in-person instruction, only three offer it to students of all grade levels.

The Roaring Fork school district is one of those three districts. Officials there are pleading with the community to help lower COVID rates so that schools can continue to offer in-person instruction, while also preparing families for disruptions.

“As much as we value in-person learning, the only way we will be able to maintain it is if our whole community can take responsibility for reducing social gatherings and taking all of the precautions that limit the spread of the disease,” Rob Stein, Roaring Fork’s superintendent, wrote in the district’s Thanksgiving bulletin.

He also described the district’s challenges and said some teachers are working “at an unsustainable pace.”

Some districts that are otherwise entirely remote, such as Jeffco and Poudre, are still opening some classroom spaces to students with disabilities or other vulnerable populations.

The 30 largest districts serve more than 83% of the students in Colorado’s public schools.

COVID rates have gone up around the state, prompting several counties to move up a level on the restrictions dial. However, at no point does the state require school districts to close school buildings to all students, instead leaving those decisions up to each district.

Most districts that have switched to all-remote learning are planning to do so through winter break, meaning the earliest they would return to in-person learning would be in January. Officials have cited a surge in COVID cases increasing the risk to their students and staff, or making it operationally difficult to continue running schools.

Gov. Jared Polis, in a press conference Tuesday with Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that Colorado wants to prioritize in-person instruction given that it presents a “relatively small risk.”

Fauci agreed.

“Close the bars, open the schools,” Fauci said.

But school district leaders have said that state policies have not made it easy for them to continue offering in-person instruction. In response, the state last week changed some guidelines for who needs to be sent to quarantine. The state also convened a task force to work on other barriers to getting students back in the classroom.

Most districts aren’t bringing students back just yet.

Instead, districts are looking at ways to reduce interruptions in schooling next semester, beginning in January.

District	Elementary	Middle	High
Academy 20	Remote	Remote	Remote
Adams 12	Remote	Remote	Remote
Adams 14	Remote	Remote	Remote
Aurora	Remote	Remote	Remote
Boulder Valley	Remote	Remote	Remote
Cherry Creek	Remote	Remote	Remote
Colorado Springs 11	Remote	Remote	Remote
Denver	Remote	Remote	Remote
District 49	Remote	Remote	Remote
Douglas County	Remote	Remote	Remote
Eagle County	In person	In person	Hybrid
Fountain 8	In person	Remote	Remote
Greeley 6	Remote	Remote	Remote
Harrison	Remote	Remote	Remote
Jeffco	Remote	Remote	Remote
Lewis-Palmer 38	In person	Remote	Remote
Littleton	Remote	Remote	Remote
Mapleton	Remote	Remote	Remote
Mesa County Valley 51	In person	In person	Remote
Montrose County	In person	Hybrid	Hybrid
Poudre	Remote	Remote	Remote
Pueblo City 60	Remote	Remote	Remote
Pueblo County 70	Remote	Remote	Remote
Roaring Fork	In person	In person	In person
School District 27J	Remote	Remote	Remote
St Vrain Valley	Remote	Remote	Remote
Thompson R2-J	Remote	Remote	Remote
Westminster	Remote	Remote	Remote
Widefield 3	PreK-2 in person, 3-5 remote	Remote	Remote
Windsor RE-4	In person	Remote	Remote

Instruction at Colorado’s largest districts

Source: Reporting from Melanie Asmar, Yesenia Robles for Chalkbeat

Adams County child care providers get $1 million in COVID relief

2020-11-24T19:10:00+00:00

With many Colorado child care providers struggling to keep their doors open amid the pandemic, leaders in one county have stepped up with an unusual offer of financial help.

The assistance comes as child care providers around the state and the country grapple with lost income due to declining enrollment and new costs to run their centers safely.

“I went to the county commissioner and said, ‘I’m really worried. We have get support to these child care businesses,” said Lisa Jansen Thompson, head of the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County. “I’ve had people say, ‘I’ve been doing this for 40 years, but I can’t afford to do this anymore, I’m spending my own money’ — tearful conversation after tearful conversation.”

In response, Adams County allocated up to $1 million of federal CARES Act funding to support area child care providers. This amount of funding is not typical, as only 28% of early care and education funding comes from public sources during a typical year.

About 10% of Colorado child care centers and child care homes were still closed at the end of July because of the pandemic, according to a survey by the nonprofit Early Milestones Colorado that drew responses from 1,207 providers, around a quarter of the state’s total.

Data from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Child Care Aware of America indicate higher closure rates nationally: 18% to 35% for centers and 9% to 21% for in-home care providers.

“I can’t believe they cared so much about us … just the recognition,” Thompson said. “I’ve heard of other councils getting money, but a million dollars? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Child care centers face extra costs to comply with COVID-era rules.

The money represents a recognition of the critical role child care centers play in allowing essential workers to do their jobs. Not all families are equipped to have one adult stay home with the children.

“The child care industry is an essential part of economic well-being, if we don’t have child care we can’t work,” Thompson said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve, working single parents in states with early stay-at-home orders and school closures were 68.8% more likely to take leave from their jobs than were working parents in states where closures happened later.

Adams County officials said they recognize the important role child care providers play — and that there weren’t enough of them even before COVID hit. The money is an effort to protect these small businesses so that they’ll still be there when the pandemic is over and as the economy recovers.

Of more than 35,000 children under the age of 5 in Adams County, nearly 29,000 have parents and caregivers in the workforce, said Adams County Commissioner Emma Pinter.

“Licensed child care operators can only accommodate about one-third of these children due to limited licensing capacity — an issue we hope to address in the future,” she said. “Unfortunately, COVID has added additional stress to our already strained child care system.”

The county has dealt with a child care crisis long before COVID-19, which has only exacerbated the problem, but this time help arrived.

“When COVID hit, we put together a child care response team as soon as it started,” Thompson said. “Parents who were essential workers needed child care to go to work. We thought we were going to have to tackle it, but the state did it for us.”

That wasn’t the only need.

Thompson said the council quickly realized that child care providers were struggling significantly, and that enrollment had dropped about 66% for preschool in the county, noting that that also meant providers were losing 66% of their income.

So the council requested funding for providers that remained open to care for children of essential workers and other families in need.

One provider, Nicole Fox, who runs Eastlake Montessori School in Thornton, realized that in order to meet COVID safety requirements she would need to add to her staff. She applied for funds for her center.

In addition to offering tuition assistance, she has hired a “snack queen” responsible just for properly sanitizing and for distributing snacks.

With that extra worker, children used to serving themselves snacks can still eat whenever they’re hungry, Fox said.

She has reserved $3,600 for tuition assistance, which is $450 for a half day and $880 per month for a full day. Her facility does not accept state child care subsidies, which provide financial assistance to eligible low-income families.

Bernice M. Martinez of Nurtured Journey Preschool Inc., on the other hand, serves mostly families that qualify for state subsidies. Only three of the eight children in her care receive no tuition assistance.

Several parents have withdrawn their children from care for reasons related to COVID. Some got laid off. Others were essential workers, like nurses, who do not want to expose others due to their occupations.

“We are just trying to keep our head above water,” she said.

Martinez wants to use her money for a new fence in her outdoor play area, a new curriculum, tuition assistance for families and to help fund operations of her recent expansion to infant care. She expects to receive about $6,000.

Thompson said the council received more than 120 applications from child care programs looking for financial assistance.

“And we didn’t even come close to what they asked for,” she said. “They have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Colorado school bus staff face COVID outbreaks

2020-11-07T01:15:15+00:00

Besides students and teachers, another group of school employees are getting sick with COVID: bus staff.

At least six Colorado school districts have reported outbreaks of COVID among transportation employees, and some of the outbreaks are larger than those reported in most schools. While the trend hasn’t prompted a change of safety guidelines, it complicates the challenge of providing busing for students learning in person.

One of the larger outbreaks affected employees at a bus terminal for Jeffco Public Schools. The coronavirus sickened 12 employees, according to state records, although local public health officials put the number at seven. Jeffco is the state’s second-largest school district and continues to offer in-person learning even as many neighboring districts have moved most students online. Denver Public Schools has also reported four affected bus staff.

Jeffco school district officials refused to answer questions about the cases, or service interruptions, other than to say that that bus service in some areas was cancelled this year “for a brief period.” The district also said in an emailed statement that there have been “a few instances where non-driver transportation staff, who have the qualified licenses and training, have had to pick up bus routes here and there, including the executive director of the department.”

Jeffco bus driver Wally Maistryk, president of the Jefferson County Transportation Association, said the lack of clarity on the cases still has bus staff on edge.

“We’re pretty nervous about this stuff,” Maistryk said.

In Montrose, school bus service was completely cancelled for three days after two transportation staff members tested positive, prompting the contract transportation company to require all bus staff to get tested before returning to work. The district put students who could not get to schools without the bus on remote learning during those days.

In the Brighton-based 27J school district, an outbreak with four confirmed cases and an additional four possible cases have not caused service interruptions as other drivers picked up the extra routes.

Earlier this school year, districts had cut transportation services because of the challenge of limiting the number of students riding on each bus.

Jeffco public health officials said that the investigation into the recent Jeffco cases among transportation staff revealed that many may have been exposed outside of work.

“The staff members involved sort of socialize outside of work, and through our investigation we realized there were multiple social gatherings,” said Christine Billings, Jeffco’s head of the Office of Pandemic Response.

In Brighton 27J, the Student Health and Wellness Coordinator Rhonda Plambec said that the district made similar findings in investigating its own outbreak.

“Our staff are so connected in the community,” Plambeck said. “It could be this person’s mom works at another school or they babysit for each other. It’s fascinating to see how close our community is.”

Officials have said that since the period between contracting the virus and showing symptoms is so long, it’s often hard to know where someone was exposed. State public health officials define an outbreak as a situation in which two or more people at a particular facility or event have confirmed or probable COVID diagnoses within two weeks of each other.

“It’s easy to get on the outbreak status,” Plambeck said.

Plambeck also said 27J leaders believe their safety guidelines are enough, but have sent reminders for staff to follow the rules and have held staff meetings to clarify any confusion about the rules.

Billings said that officials from local public health agencies meet regularly to share information on outbreaks in their communities. This week, agencies also started setting aside a time to talk exclusively about school-related outbreaks.

But, she said, the bus staff outbreaks haven’t raised an alarm.

“Our guidance hasn’t changed and since we didn’t see secondary spread, they did a good job,” Billings said, meaning the virus didn’t spread beyond the initially infected transportation staffers.

State guidance requires bus employees to wear masks, screen for symptoms each day, and maintain 6 feet of distance from others. Bus staff also have to follow cleaning protocols for their buses.

Jeffco bus driver Maistryk wants school districts to be more transparent with staff about cases.

“We all understand there’s privacy laws and stuff, but we just need to know more,” he said.

Maistryk and union officials have asked Jeffco to make information about staff outbreaks in non-school buildings available on the district’s dashboard.

According to the union, district staff refused, reportedly saying that “posting on a dashboard an administrative building outbreak or a bus terminal site outbreak, immediately focuses the outbreak to the public directly on our staff. This is inappropriate to their privacy rights.”

One example of poor communication that Maistryk fears puts drivers at risk is regarding quarantined students. He said in one case, a student who he knew was supposed to be on quarantine was allowed to return to school early, but Maistryk didn’t know it had been allowed until he saw the student at the bus stop.

“I have to trust the parents, now luckily it was OK, but I never got communication that it was OK,” Maistryk said. “It should be simple.”

“It stresses the heck out of all of us,” Maistryk said.

Aurora sends students online as Adams County schools grapple with rise in cases

2020-10-23T00:20:28+00:00

Less than two weeks after bringing elementary and middle school students back to the classroom, Aurora is moving nearly all students to remote learning.

The board voted unanimously to make the switch Thursday evening, saying that they were concerned about the rising cases and how it might increase the workload in schools where staff are missing because of quarantines or exposures.

Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn had recommended that the board vote to keep students in person for at least another two weeks while the district evaluated the county’s virus mitigation efforts. But Munn admitted that if the numbers of cases don’t start dropping, it may be difficult to keep students on campus for another two weeks.

“We have nothing but bad options in front of us,” Munn said.

As the 37,000-student Aurora district returns to online learning, a spokesman said the plan is to again offer small-group in-person learning for vulnerable students. Preschool and kindergarten students will also continue learning in person, according to additional details sent to parents.

Aurora is the latest district to reassess its plans as COVID-19 cases rise around the region. The different responses reflect Colorado’s emphasis on local control and leave a patchwork of educational options for students across the state.

Denver middle and high school students are learning from home at least through November Meanwhile, Adams 12 moved older students back online after just a few weeks in classrooms, and Adams 14 decided to stay remote through December. That leaves tens of thousands of Colorado students without access to in-person learning — for now.

The working class suburbs of Adams County have been particularly hard hit by new coronavirus cases, with some district leaders having been impacted personally. In Adams 14, board members have lost family members to COVID-19. In Aurora, Superintendent Munn is on quarantine after being exposed to a person with the virus, and the board president has said that she is experiencing symptoms and awaiting testing. The county is working on a mitigation plan to avoid returning to tighter restrictions.

Adams 12 Superintendent Chris Gdowski said he still believes schools are relatively safe, but frequent quarantines had become too disruptive.

The 37,000-student district started the school year remotely and brought students back to the classroom on Oct. 1. In the first 20 days of October, the district enacted 75 quarantines affecting 1,161 students and 170 staff members. Many secondary teachers were already struggling to maintain learning for in-school and at-home students under the district’s hybrid schedule, and the quarantines added another complication.

“The frequency and how they affect secondary and high school educators and the quality of instruction has been the deciding factor” in moving older students to remote learning, Gdowski said.

The reaction has been mixed, he said. Many parents said they were frustrated that their children have to make yet another hard transition, and some elementary school teachers expressed concern that the district was not prioritizing their safety.

For now, elementary schools are continuing with full-time in-person learning.

“This is not where we want to be,” Gdowski said. “It’s been a frustrating fall, a frustrating year.”

But other districts facing similar coronavirus case rates are continuing with in-person learning for all students. The 9,000-student Mapleton school district has held in-person classes since August and has no plans to change that.

“Our processes have been working,” said Karla Allenbach, a Mapleton assistant superintendent. “The outbreaks that are happening are community-based — that’s where the primary mode of transmission is occurring. Our actual numbers in schools are significantly lower than in the community.”

Since in-person learning began, there have been 28 students and six staff members that have tested positive. Currently, 245 students and 26 staffers are quarantining.

“We are small by design and that has helped us in this situation,” Allenbach said. “We’re not trying to deal with a 2,000-person school.”

In neighboring Westminster Public Schools, Superintendent Pam Swanson said the district is prepared to move to remote learning should it become necessary, but that for now “we are doing a good job controlling transmission in our school buildings.” Westminster, which serves about 8,400 students, is not using a hybrid schedule, so teachers aren’t juggling quite as many groups.

Samantha Decker, a member of Tri-County Health Department’s school support team, which provides data and assistance to school districts, said that reopening decisions may take into account such factors as whether children are struggling to connect to the internet or if they have access to healthy meals. “There are so many factors and so many other benefits, so the school is going to know their community best,” Decker said.

She noted that school districts have so far avoided “massive school outbreaks.” Officials attribute that to safety measures, such as wearing masks, physical distancing, and quickly sending exposed people home.

Still, she said it’s too early to know if school transmission is low.

“Even national data that’s out there is still a little young to really be able to say, yes, there is low transmission in schools,” Decker said.

For instance, schools and public health officials know if multiple people in one classroom test positive for COVID-19. But if a child was exposed to the virus, sent home to quarantine, and then the child’s parents or grandparents test positive, public health officials might not be able to track if that person got COVID-19 from the child.

“That’s data that’s not very robust at this point and can be difficult to collect,” Decker said.

Aurora officials had already decided Monday to keep high school students remote through at least Nov. 13, delaying their in-person start that was to happen this week.

Munn had told the school board that part of the high school decision was based on lower confidence that the district’s health plan could keep up as cases rise.

Thursday’s decision was similar.

“We are very concerned about the community spread overwhelming our environments,” Munn said. “That is different than, I think, saying that we’re concerned that our environments aren’t safe and healthy.”

David Rubin, a professor of pediatrics and director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said school districts that take safety plans seriously have been able to operate with little disease transmission even when there are high COVID-19 rates in the community. However, when rates get high enough, it becomes harder to keep the virus at bay.

“The real question is whether you have reached enough community transmission that it is permeating your school environment,” he said.

We don’t yet know the “outer threshold” for operating schools safely, Rubin said, but when coronavirus test positivity gets above 9% or 10%, as it has across Adams County, that’s cause for concern.

“I would argue that at that point, when you reach those outer bands, that is not a decision for individual school districts, but a decision that needs to be made at the governor’s office and the health department,” he said. “We don’t have the ability to be as nimble as we would like, and we need to take a break.”

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that preschool and kindergarten students will remain in person. All other elementary students will learn online.

More room on the school bus: COVID-era guidelines lead to service cuts, uncertainty

2020-08-31T16:01:00+00:00

As schools have started opening their doors to students this fall, and as others plan to do so soon, one more logistical problem districts have had to navigate is how to safely transport masses of students to their buildings.

Like many of the problems school districts have encountered in the pandemic, this is one that can most impact lower-income families, in this case, those who rely on school buses for transportation.

Guidelines to limit the spread of COVID cut the number of students permitted on buses by two-thirds. Often, districts can’t just deploy additional vehicles, even if they had them. Bus drivers have become even scarcer because many fearing for their safety have quit or transferred. And school schedules make it impractical to make too many runs with the same buses.

School leaders worry that if it’s too hard for students to get to school, they’ll enroll in school elsewhere.

In Westminster, the district eliminated busing for high school students.

“We would have to have 46 separate routes to transport the number of kids that we were transporting last year, and that’s just for high school,” said James Duffy, Westminster’s chief operating officer. Last year the district transported about 700 high school students.

Assigning its 20 buses to multiple routes would have meant some students wouldn’t arrive at schools until 10 a.m. The district is also doing half days for high school students, making the scheduling more difficult.

“That became a real equity issue,” Duffy said. “How could we say to the folks in the morning you get transportation but in the afternoon you don’t? So we had to bite the bullet and basically had to eliminate transportation for the high school students.”

Instead of the yellow bus, Westminster is offering to pay for RTD public bus passes, although those buses also limit passengers per bus. So far, about 160 students have downloaded the phone application to get the district-provided bus pass.

In Denver, the district is planning to cut some yellow-bus service starting with older students, and prioritizing high-poverty schools.

Virtual education has helped ease the transportation problem in some areas.

In Mapleton, officials said that because so many students signed up for the district’s online-only option, the changes to transportation service have been minimal.

The Aurora school district, which has started school online, plans to contract for 11 charter buses to add transportation capacity.

The tiny, rural Kim district in southern Colorado uses a fleet of Suburbans, not school buses, to offer transportation to its fewer than 50 students. The vehicles don’t leave much room for social distancing. The district was able to add one more route by asking a school employee to drive an extra Suburban, but it’s also paying parents to drive their own children to school. It’s a practice the district already used but has expanded.

The Jeffco district so far is cutting transportation only for students who choose to go to a school outside their neighborhood. Those families previously were only served because some buses had extra space. That cut affects families like that of Sharon Gusmus.

Gusmus, a mother of four Jeffco students, said that because of her work schedule she can’t easily drive her children to school in the morning. This year, because her oldest is now driving, only one child needed the district school bus.

Gusmus decided to put her, a sixth grader, into a remote-only program for the year.

“There would have been no consistency, it would have been too stressful,” Gusmus said. “We’re hoping it changes, but it was a bummer.”

When Jeffco students do return to in-person learning in a little more than a week, district officials don’t know how many students will be waiting for a ride at each bus stop because families are still deciding whether to send their children.

That means planning for what will happen if too many students are ready to hop on one bus and a driver has to stop students from getting on.

“We have some buses that will be staged around the district just in case,” said Greg Jackson, executive director of transportation and fleet services. “There’s still always going to be hiccups.”

Jeffco bus driver Monte Hollander isn’t so sure that is enough planning. He said, as of Thursday, his route shows 30 students.

“I’ve asked what will occur when I have 22 students and myself and an assistant,” Hollander said about hitting the allowable maximum mid-route. What is he to tell the excess students denied the chance to hop on for a ride?

“At 5:30 or 6 in the morning, I’m supposed to be saying I’m going to be coming back in 45 minutes?” he asked. “We have to think this out some more.”

Part of what makes Hollander nervous is a problem that many districts have cited: a shortage of bus drivers. With fewer drivers, districts usually combine routes, but that may not be possible this year.

Jackson said it is a problem. Districts had been talking about having trouble hiring enough bus drivers even before the pandemic, but COVID has made those vacancies rise.

Jackson said just this week, he lost six drivers and two bus assistants who decided the risk of exposure might not be worth it.

“Many said they would be happy to come back,” Jackson said.

Hollander, who’s about to turn 70, said he too has thought about the risk of COVID and leaving the job, but he enjoys driving kids to school and being a leader for his co-workers.

“I’m very committed to what I’m doing,” he said. “I love what I do.”

For him, as a member of the union bargaining team, the lack of pay raises is the bigger reason people are leaving the job.

“We are severely underpaid,” Hollander said. “We are the backbone of the school operation. We’re not sure how they’re going to do this.”

Hollander did say he respected Jeffco for trying to figure out the problem instead of pre-emptively announcing broad cuts to how many students are served.

Jackson said a lot will depend on the number of students who show up at bus stops the first days of school. If one area has few students, then buses might be able to shift over to serve areas where more students still need a ride. But increasing walking distances or other measures to cut transportation aren’t completely off the table yet.

“If we had a larger capacity we would be more than happy to transport more kids,” Jackson said. “This decision wasn’t easy. It was a difficult decision.”

Why hotspots and internet deals still leave thousands of Colorado students disconnected from school

2020-08-28T21:37:31+00:00

When COVID-19 hit, the internet became an essential school supply. Districts in the Denver metro area scrambled to meet the need, collectively spending more than $1 million in the past five months to buy mobile hotspots and pay families’ internet bills so children could learn. Philanthropies and foundations have spent even more.

But the effort hasn’t been enough. Tens of thousands of Colorado students still don’t have internet access at a time when half of students statewide are starting the school year virtually, and those taking classes in person may have to move online on short notice.

Even families who have gotten connected say the low-cost or temporary options often touted as a solution to bridge Colorado’s gaping digital divide can be slow and unreliable. And the cost of high-speed internet is just one barrier. Other problems include geography and infrastructure, and not just for rural Coloradans.

“Out here, internet can be shaky at best,” said Zuton Lucero-Mills, a mother of five who lives in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood in far northeast Denver.

Some lawmakers, superintendents, and education advocates are calling for a fundamental shift in the way Colorado thinks about internet access, arguing it should be treated less like a luxury and more like a public utility. But such a shift would take time and money. And until it happens, many families — often low-income families of color — face difficult choices.

Tamika Aumiller has been on a waiting list for a hotspot since March. A single mother who works nights stocking groceries, Aumiller said she can’t afford home internet. When Denver schools shifted to remote learning in the spring, Aumiller had to send her 6-year-old daughter Addy to live with her parents 45 minutes away in Park County. Aumiller’s only source of internet, her cell phone, wasn’t enough to support Addy’s online kindergarten.

But even that situation wasn’t ideal: Addy’s grandparents are not tech savvy and their internet service was spotty. Whenever it crashed, Aumiller had to relay the message to Addy’s teacher, who would mail her packets of worksheets. Aumiller would then take photos of Addy’s completed work and send them to the teacher. Addy’s grandmother would make voice recordings of the girl reading out loud and send those to the teacher, too.

“It was a disaster,” Aumiller said.

And Aumiller feared it would happen again. Three days before school was scheduled to start online in Denver this week, she was still waiting for a hotspot from the district. So she made a difficult decision, one that will temporarily separate her from her daughter: She filled out paperwork to register Addy for school in Park County, where classes are being held in person.

Addy got in. She starts first grade there on Monday.

“My biggest worry is that she’s going to get behind in school,” Aumiller said. “With the way remote learning went last year, they had to pass everybody. I don’t want her to just skate through because they have to pass people. I want her to learn the things she needs to learn.”

Stop-gap solutions

As schools across Colorado shifted to online learning in March and April, a survey conducted by the state education department and the Colorado Education Initiative found that about 53,000 Colorado students lacked a computer or tablet. Even more students — nearly 66,000 — didn’t have internet access at home, the statewide survey found. U.S. Census data suggests the number of households without reliable internet in Colorado could be much higher.

In the past five months, the number of students without a computer has shrunk, as school districts rushed to order devices in bulk and distribute them to kids in need.

But experts fear the number of students without internet access has actually grown. And the reasons why touch on societal problems that are not as easy for school districts to fix — and business decisions by private companies that school districts don’t control.

If a parent loses their job and can no longer pay their internet bill, or if an internet company’s free offer expires, the solution isn’t as simple as buying the family a single device like a computer. It’s a matter of finding a way to pay for a sustained service.

“In 2020, broadband internet is not an option; it’s an essential service for living,” said Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova. “This moment has revealed that reliable internet access at home is as vital as power and running water.”

In the absence of a long-term solution, school districts have deployed stopgap measures. Many have bought and distributed hundreds, or even thousands, of internet hotspots, which are pocket-sized devices that use cell phone service to establish a Wi-Fi connection.

But the districts quickly discovered that hotspots don’t always work. In southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Centennial School District Superintendent Toby Melster said the surrounding mountains often block the signal. Although his district received a donation of 50 hotspots, he estimates that about 30% of the district’s 200 students still aren’t connected.

For those who are, the connection can be tenuous. One family made an X with tape on their countertop to signify the one place in the house where the hotspot got a signal, he said.

Other families, both rural and urban, have run into a different problem. Hotspot signals are often not strong enough to support multiple siblings doing Zoom calls or uploading homework assignments at the same time. Sometimes the hotspots don’t work at all.

That’s what happened to Maria Rojas’ oldest daughter in the spring. When the hotspot provided by her Denver high school failed to connect, Rojas’ daughter began doing her schoolwork on her cell phone. But she wasn’t able to complete all of her assignments that way.

“She had kind of a nervous breakdown,” said Rojas, a parent leader with the community organization Together Colorado. “All she would do is cry and cry, and I had no idea how to help her. She had been one of the most high-achieving students in her class, always getting awards, and she went to being a student who couldn’t turn in assignments.”

Rojas eventually connected her daughter with a psychologist who is still helping the family.

‘It takes all of us’

Internet service providers — some of them multibillion-dollar corporations — have the power to provide more permanent solutions. With persistent prodding from parents, teachers, and community groups, a few have made strides in that direction.

Comcast is one of the primary internet providers in the Denver metro area. It has for years offered a discounted program called Internet Essentials. In March, as the pandemic unfolded, Comcast announced it would make that program, usually $9.95 per month, free for two months.

But some families still faced big barriers. Initially the company denied services to those with unpaid debt. Undocumented families shied away when the application prominently asked for a Social Security number. And families who did get service said the connection was slow.

Nallely Antúnez Gonzalez had Internet Essentials in the spring. Sometimes her 7-year-old daughter would do her schoolwork online, only to find it all erased when it failed to upload.

“It was like starting over from zero,” Antúnez Gonzalez said. “I would have to explain to her that she had to do it again, and it was really hard for her.”

Coloradans for the Common Good, a group of labor unions and faith communities, set out to change that. They met several times with Comcast executives, telling the stories of parents, teachers, and school social workers struggling to connect families with the internet — and inviting media to cover their extensive advocacy efforts.

The strategy worked. Comcast extended the timeline for its free internet offer and made it clearer that families could use alternative forms of ID.

“That’s an example of what organized people can do,” said Joyce Brooks of the Colorado NAACP and a member of Coloradans for the Common Good. “But now we have entered a new school year. We still have much work to do to close this digital divide.”

The group hasn’t let up. On Wednesday, Coloradans for the Common Good hosted a virtual summit on internet access in education. Panelists included school district officials and representatives from Comcast, as well as hotspot vendors Verizon and T-Mobile.

The organization was direct: Would the companies be willing to work with them to increase access to high-speed internet? All three said yes. But Brent Cooper, the senior manager for government with T-Mobile, said it would take every internet service provider working together, along with municipalities willing to host cell phone towers, to truly solve the digital divide.

“How do you create universal access?” Cooper said. “Well, guess what? It takes all of us.”

Another big internet service provider in Colorado, CenturyLink, didn’t attend the summit. Unlike Comcast, CenturyLink doesn’t offer any free internet. Instead, a company spokesperson pointed to CenturyLink’s participation in the federal Lifeline program, which trims up to $9.25 from a family’s monthly bill.

That could still leave the internet out of reach for many families.

Searching for a signal

Advocates envision municipal broadband as a long-term solution to Colorado’s internet problem. Instead of residents buying internet from private companies like CenturyLink and Comcast, they would get internet service from their city or town, just like they do trash or water.

A 2005 state law banned local governments from providing their residents with high-speed internet without voter approval. In the 15 years since, more than 100 municipalities have voted to opt out of the law. Denver voters will consider whether to do the same in November.

But opting out of the law is only the first step. Building a broadband network takes time and money. The city of Longmont, roughly 40 miles northwest of Denver, began exploring the idea in 1996. Eighteen years and a $45 million bond issue later, Longmont signed up its first customers for a city service called NextLight, which offers fast internet at competitive prices.

Now nearly 60% of households in Longmont get their internet service from NextLight, said Executive Director Valerie Dodd. So does the St. Vrain Valley School District. And for low-income families, Longmont has a program called Sharing the NextLight that provides free home internet service to those whose children qualify for subsidized school meals.

Families must reapply every school year, and Dodd said about 40 have signed up so far this fall. She expects that number to grow; there is funding for as many as 100 more families.

Longmont’s municipal broadband hasn’t completely solved the St. Vrain Valley School District’s digital divide, though. The district is bigger than just Longmont. According to a spokesperson, St. Vrain has spent several thousand dollars on 100 hotpots and got a grant for 250 more, which are earmarked for families experiencing homelessness. The district’s foundation is also spending up to $60 per family to cover the cost of six months of internet service.

But no matter how much money school districts have spent on short-term solutions, leaders say it isn’t enough. While Denver has reduced the percentage of families without internet access from 8% in the spring to 4% this fall, that still leaves about 3,600 families unconnected.

The percentage of students without internet in the wealthier suburban districts of Cherry Creek and Adams 12 is lower: about 2%, according to spokespeople for those districts.

In suburban districts with higher concentrations of poverty, more families are unconnected. As of a month ago in the small Adams 14 school district, 278 students — about 4% of enrollment — indicated they didn’t have reliable internet access at home, a spokesperson said.

Graciela Rocha heads one of those families. A single mom of an 8-year-old daughter, Rocha faced a tough choice: Bring her daughter to work at the Commerce City hair salon she owns, where her mobile hotspot isn’t strong enough to support remote classes, or rearrange her work schedule so she can be with her daughter at home, where the signal is stronger.

Rocha chose the latter. That means she works seven days a week: every weekday afternoon after her daughter’s classes are over and 13- or 14-hour days on the weekends.

“I have to take some pay cuts to be able to be fully present,” she said.

It’s a sacrifice Rocha is willing to make to ensure her daughter gets a good education. But now that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity of internet access for all, advocates hope it’s also one that Rocha and other parents won’t have to make again.

Yesenia Robles and Erica Meltzer contributed to this story.

Open or close? Proposed guide would help Denver metro school districts use data to decide.

2020-08-26T00:29:00+00:00

Update: A final version of the guide for schools was released Monday. It placed the threshold for test positivity that would tip a district into the red, higher-risk category at above 7%.

As Colorado school leaders have struggled to decide when it’s safe to open schools, and what data to track, a group of local public health agencies have stepped in to offer new guidance.

The draft framework, developed by public health agencies in the Denver metro area, lays out three metrics of available data that school districts should look at, and offers a color-coded rubric using three traffic light colors, where red suggests a higher risk.

Over the course of the summer, about half the school districts in the metro area decided to start the school year remotely while the other half decided to open their school buildings. The framework could provide a consistent way to think about risk, but it would not be binding.

John Douglas, director of Tri-County Public Health, presented the draft to the Aurora school board at a public meeting this week. A final version of the guidance is set to be released soon.

“We want to provide the schools as much guidance as we can,” Douglas said. “We want to do so without telling you what you have to do because we think you’re an elected board of education, you’re the ones that should decide that, but we want to give you whatever guidance can be helpful to you.”

The draft’s three suggested metrics to consider are:

The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people. Schools are in the green category if there have been fewer than 50 cases total per 100,000 people in the past 14 days
The case rate trend. School districts would be in the green category if the cases have increased 25% or less in the last two weeks, compared with the previous two-week period.
The test positivity rate. School districts would be in the green category if 5% or fewer of tests produce positive results.

The guidance also offers school districts three additional metrics they could use:

Trends in hospitalization rates.
Availability of personal protective equipment.
Trends of cases in school-age children. Douglas said that typically the trends are the same for all age groups, but said that as schools open it might be helpful to watch for increases and decreases in trends that are unique to children.

	Green (2 points)	Yellow (1 point)	Red (0 points)
Two-week cumulative incidence rate (per 100,000)	Less than 50	50-100	Above 100
Two-week trend in case numbers (per 100,000)	Less than 25% increase	25-50% increase	Over 50% increase
Percent positivity on PCR testing	Under 5%	5-7.9%	8% or above
Additional optional measures
Two-week cumulative COVID hospitalizations compared to previous two-week period	Less than 25% increase	25-50% increase	Greater than 50%
PPE supply	Greater than one month	2-4 weeks	Less than 2 weeks
Trend in case numbers per 100,000 in the past two weeks for school-age children (5-18)	Less than 25% increase	25-50% increase	Greater than 50%

Metro Denver Partnership for Health Reopening Framework

Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee

The framework was designed as a suggestion, and school districts can choose how to use it, if at all.

“Some of the districts would like to use this guidance to pre-make decisions,” Douglas said, citing the example of the Cherry Creek School District where officials have created a point system. The district would earn points for each area that rates green, and earn zero points for a category rated red. In Cherry Creek, a certain number of points would trigger a different learning model. Whether a similar points allocation is suggested as part of the final framework is still up for discussion.

Other districts, Douglas said, don’t want “absolutes,” and may instead use changes in the community measures to trigger a serious discussion about the status of schools.

An analysis of several metro area counties shows that Adams County, by these suggested measures, presents the highest risk for school reopenings, by case rate and positivity rates. The trend measure, however, has Adams County cases going down.

The county is home to at least two school districts, Mapleton and Westminster, which are opening to students in-person. Both districts have high numbers of people of color and families living in poverty, groups that have been highly impacted by COVID-19.

Steve Saunders, a spokesman for Westminster Public Schools, which opened Thursday, said all guidance is useful, but that Westminster has already crafted its own way of deciding if it’s safe to open schools. It’s based on the state’s current Safer at Home phase.

“There is not one guiding document that we’re following, we’re creating our own,” Saunders said. “It is ultimately our decision and we’ve been in consultation with Tri-County Health.”

Adams 12, Adams 14, and the Aurora school district are all starting the school year online.

The Aurora school district boundaries are within both Adams and Arapahoe counties. Douglas said his agency is considering compiling data for school district based on their unique boundaries, but so far does not have such data.

The Cherry Creek district, which covers portions of Aurora and other southeast Denver suburbs, developed its own set of health metrics over the summer, in cooperation with Tri-County, that Douglas said he considered as he and others drafted the new framework.

These were presented publicly at the end of July. Superintendent Scott Siegfried said he was getting tremendous pressure from every direction on school reopening, and he wanted firm numbers to guide his decision.

And to help the community trust those metrics, he waited a week after presenting it before deciding whether to open.

“What I wanted the community to see was: I didn’t bake this in,” he said Thursday. “I didn’t know what the data was going to do that week. I presented it, and then watched with everyone else. And fortunately the data did get better. So we were able to start in person, as we had planned. But if the data had gotten worse, we would have started remote.

“Watching the real data, the science, the evolving nature of it, that was important.”

Teacher training in Aurora guided first week’s focus on building relationships and positive culture

2020-08-24T23:11:06+00:00

In the first week of virtual learning, two Aurora co-teachers shared visual presentations about themselves with the high school students with special needs they teach.

Teacher Dawna Pickett used a PowerPoint that included photos and tidbits about her, her family, and her hobbies.

Then the teachers asked students to do the same. Students submitted videos, PowerPoints and presentations in multiple formats. Even one student who was out of town for the week still submitted a presentation from her phone.

“I got back fabulous presentations,” Pickett said. “I gave them the option, if they wanted to present it to the class or if they just wanted to share it with me. But because it’s virtual and they’re not having to stand in front of class, they didn’t mind presenting to everybody. That fear factor of standing up in front of everybody is not there.”

Aurora classes started last week, about a week later than first planned. All classes will be online through the first quarter.

Pushing back the start of school gave teachers about eight days of training and preparations. There were about two days of district led virtual trainings. Then there were specific school-level trainings for teams often more focused on specific content or technology. And then there was time for teachers to plan their lessons and play around with new online programs they might use for different lessons.

A big focus of district preparations, teachers said, was on creating relationships with students, and on learning the neuroscience explaining why high levels of stress impact a child’s ability to learn.

Many Aurora classrooms kicked off the school year by focusing on making time for one-on-one check-ins with students, which normally might happen naturally in a hallway, but now have to be scheduled virtually. Teachers also conducted traditional ice breakers, asking about a favorite food or restaurant, and what went on over the summer.

“It felt very good to me that leadership in the district was putting the emphasis first on relationship building and community building with our students,” said Linnea Reed-Ellis, a third-grade teacher in Aurora.

Teachers said that district leaders pointed out that they should be aware that the pandemic, and also the movement for racial justice surrounding the murder of Black Americans, including Elijah McClain locally, could be weighing on many students’ minds.

But for some teachers, the acknowledgement lacked concrete ideas for how to have those conversations with students of different ages.

“That would be the next step I would really look for,” said Reed-Ellis.

As in many districts, the majority of Aurora’s teachers are white, while the majority of students are students of color. Aurora is one of the most diverse districts in the state, with a high number of students coming from immigrant and refugee families.

Having a safe place to address traumatic experiences is top of mind for many parents, but getting more learning time and attention from teachers has also been a concern from families who weren’t so pleased with how the last year ended.

In the spring, when districts closed their buildings, Aurora did not require most teachers to provide instruction to students. In elementary and middle school district officials said they focused on “access.”

That means the district distributed technology, and created a website where students could find work to do. Teachers were checking in with students, and often pointed them to the website and suggested activities to do from there, but were told they did not have to create their own lessons.

The district directed most high school students to online credit-recovery courses, so they wouldn’t fall behind on graduation requirements.

As the district planned for a new school year starting with remote learning, leaders said things would change and touted a more robust program — even though until less than a month ago they were preparing for a return to in-person classes.

This time, teachers are creating virtual lessons, including for a lot of live interaction throughout the day Mondays through Thursdays. Some district training focused on helping teachers figure out when a lesson should be live or left for independent work, and figuring out which online tool might be helpful.

Teachers said they plan a slow pace in the first weeks as students still deal with internet connection issues and learn how to use new online programs.

Fifth grade teacher Peter Zola said this week he’ll try to gauge where students are academically, but in a deliberate way that informs each day’s lessons.

“We’re thinking of just trying to take the temperature of what they need on the day,” Zola said.

Anecdotally, teachers reported higher-than-expected attendance and participation. Family liaisons, paraprofessionals, and other school staff are tracking down students who did not log on to their classes last week.

“Kids and families are ready to have school again — that’s the perception that I’m getting,” teacher Reed-Ellis said.

She said her school sent out community navigators, including one who spoke Swahili, to a Swahili-speaking family’s home to help the student and parent log on and learn the technology in person as classes started online.

In other cases, teachers have had some frustrations with technology, especially as they try to focus on equity for all students.

“Aurora decided to use Google Meets instead of Zoom and it is not up to par at all,” said sixth grade teacher Nicole Kaiser. “That’s been frustrating.”

Many school districts have discouraged the use of Zoom due to privacy concerns and other factors, but the decision comes with trade-offs.

With Zoom, Kaiser said she could record classes for students who missed them, break students up into smaller groups, and automatically mute all students entering the Zoom class. She’s also worried about students without a good internet connection.

“How do we still give all students equity but really we still have spots in the city where you have no internet,” Kaiser said. “I’m in a classroom with a hotspot.”

Teachers said they have also been concerned about having less time to collaborate with each other.

Before the start of school, teachers said they participated in most training from home, watching prerecorded webinars by themselves. And as school started, there’s no opportunity to walk across the hallway to check in and talk with other teachers.

“If we were able to meet as groups, virtually, I think that would have been a lot better,” Pickett said. “I don’t even know all my coworkers yet.”

Part of Pickett’s job as a special education teacher is to help other general education teachers working with her students to understand their individual needs, plans, and how to make accommodations for them. This year, she’s emailed those details to teachers, but missed having sit-down conversations with each one about her students.

Kaiser, as a general education teacher, also said she was still waiting to get to talk to the special education teacher at her school, to learn more about her students and their individual needs.

“It does seem like we had a lot of training before school started and the start of school just came up on us too fast,” Pickett said

Overall, teachers and many parents still said the start of the year went better than expected.

Stepping into week two, teachers said they will largely focus on continuing to create connections with students. Those connections will have long-term impacts on learning, teachers said.

“I’m really more worried about two or three weeks from now,” Zola said. “I’m worried about students checking out and disengaging then. We need to build strong enough connections that kids want to be in class.”

Teacher COVID case in Westminster sends 109 students home

2020-08-21T23:42:17+00:00

Less than a week after students have returned to school buildings, some students are already switching to online learning because of exposure to people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19.

The Westminster Public School district got notice Friday morning that a teacher from Josephine Hodgkins Leadership Academy, a preschool through seventh grade school, tested positive for COVID-19.

The teacher had contact with students on Thursday, the first day of school. Now the district has sent home 109 sixth and seventh graders to learn remotely from home for a two-week quarantine. The school last year enrolled about 650 students.

Westminster is one of at least a half dozen school districts in Colorado that have already had to use quarantine procedures. Public health officials have said for months that they expect people with COVID to turn up at schools, given that the coronavirus is circulating widely in the community. Their goal is to limit exposure to anyone who becomes infected and to reduce the disruption to learning.

Health and state education officials have encouraged schools to use a cohort model to limit the number of students and staff that interact, but public health officials never dictated a strict limit on how many students should be part of a cohort.

In several Colorado schools, large numbers of people have been exposed, with an entire high school having to go home in one Weld County district. Earlier this week, Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes said many districts have struggled with how to create small cohorts, especially at the secondary level, where students take more classes and have more teachers.

“We understand the feasibility issues,” she said. At the same time, she said she hopes that schools that experience closures reevaluate their plans and try to make smaller groups.

Friday afternoon, Dana Smith, a department spokesperson, said that no changes are being considered for the state guidance, however, because classroom sizes and staffing resources differ, as do educational needs.

“We’ve said from the beginning that some cohorting is better than no cohorting,” she said.

In the Westminster case, three other teachers for the same students were also told late Friday that because of “some level of exposure” they would also be sent home, according to Steve Saunders, a spokesman for the district. He said they would be working from home to support the students who are now learning remotely.

Tri-County Public Health is investigating to make sure no one else was exposed.

Although students had just come into buildings on Thursday, staff had been in buildings for several days preparing to start the school year.

Saunders said that the cohorts are working to keep the rest of the school open. Shrinking cohorts would not be possible, he said.

“In an ideal world we’d have smaller cohorts,” Saunders said. “But it’s not doable.”

Around the state, there are several other examples of large numbers of students being disrupted by confirmed COVID cases.

A Fort Lupton high school closed entirely after two students tested positive.
All of the sixth grade class of students at one Lamar school was sent home after one student tested positive. The district also suspended bus service after the bus driver tested positive.
At a Windsor middle school, 37 students and 11 staff members were sent home to quarantine after a student tested positive.
An elementary school in the Harrison school district in Colorado Springs closed Friday through Monday and an exposed classroom will be quarantined for two weeks.
The Burlington middle school was closed after someone tested positive.

Colleges, too, are seeing disruption just as students arrive on campuses.

A student tested positive at Colorado College, prompting 155 students in a dorm to be placed on quarantine.
CU Boulder is using designated quarantine space to isolate students. So far, 13 students have tested positive.

Tri-County public health officials, speaking about two teacher cases that surfaced before students returned, recently said that they expect to see cases as schools reopen, and would attribute them to community spread of the coronavirus outside of schools.

Jitters and optimism as Westminster students head back to class

2020-08-20T22:59:09+00:00

Arriving with their parents at Skyline Vista Elementary in the Westminster district just after 8 a.m. Thursday, the King children expressed very different feelings about their first day of in-person school in more than five months.

Brayla, a first-grader wearing a fuchsia dress and carrying a pink cat backpack, gave two thumbs up when asked how she felt about starting the year. But her older brother Harizen, a fourth-grader, had a bad case of first-day jitters.

“I’m tired first of all. My stomach was hurting and also — Oh, I’m feeling better now,” he said. “Also, I’m just nervous.”

He was most worried about meeting his teacher.

“I don’t know which one it’s going to be,” he said.

The siblings were two of 164 first- through sixth-graders who started the year at Skyline Vista Thursday. Another 60 students, including their younger sister Reya, will join them Monday when preschool and kindergarten classes begin.

Westminster Public Schools, a 9,000-student district where about 80% of students qualify for federally subsidized meals, was one of the first in Colorado to commit to full-time in-person learning for families who wanted it, announcing the decision in early June. A few other metro Denver districts, including Cherry Creek, Douglas County, and Sheridan, began to bring students back this week, but many nearby districts will start remotely next week, with some keeping students home until at least mid-October.

Plenty was familiar about Thursday’s back-to-school experience at Skyline Vista: The sunny August morning, the new sneakers and backpacks, and the smiling-but-slightly-apprehensive parents.

But the pandemic-era differences were there, too. Blue-and-green signs reminded kids of the three W’s: “Wash your hands,” “Wear a mask,” and “Watch your distance.” Staff members with clipboards fanned out across the campus to help children find grade-level specific entrances and when the school bus arrived it held only a fraction of its usual load in accordance with health guidelines.

When drop-off ended about 8:15 a.m. school leaders were relieved. Things had gone smoothly. No major meltdowns, minimal confusion.

Of course, there are still some snarls to work out. Skyline Vista staff will need to track down about 50 students who signed up for in-person learning but didn’t turn up as expected. Some families likely changed their minds about in-person learning while others may not have realized the first day of school was Thursday.

District officials said they expect more than two-thirds of students districtwide to choose in-person learning, but won’t have hard numbers for a few weeks.

Janet Blanco, who lingered on the Skyline Vista lawn with her kindergartener Karla on Thursday morning, was happy her family has the option.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” she said with a laugh after her fourth- and sixth-grade daughters headed to their classrooms.

Blanco’s not nervous about her girls catching COVID-19 and appreciates the precautions the school is taking, including keeping parents outside the building.

Plus, last spring’s remote learning experience was rocky.

“I didn’t understand the program they had to be on … where they had to go and where they had to turn in their work and all that,” she said. ”So that was hard for me.”

Brittany Williams — Brayla, Harizen, and Reya’s mother — also described remote learning as rough.

And although she’s a little nervous about the health risks this year, she said, “I’m going to see how it goes and how things play out, and we’ll just take it day by day.”

Sheridan families on edge, but relieved after the first days of school

2020-08-19T00:35:07+00:00

Walking in her shiny blue shoes and holding mom’s hand, 5-year-old Leisha arrived at her first day of school in Sheridan on Monday.

Leisha was greeted with a temperature check at the door, part of the new normal of in-person schooling.

Students had to enter via various doors around the schools, depending on which class they were heading to. Parents lined up with elementary children outside the door, spaced 6 feet apart, then said goodbye as they handed off their children to teachers.

In the rush and excitement, Leisha walked up to her assigned door without a face mask, one of the requirements meant to keep students and staff safe in the midst of a pandemic.

The school had disposable masks available just for situations like this, but Leisha insisted that she and mom walk back to get the mask she had left in the car.

“She’s a little bit nervous, but she’s excited,” said mom, Tianna Lopez. “It’s a little bit atypical of a day.”

As some Sheridan schools started in-person learning on Monday, one of the first metro area districts to do so, teachers were still nervous, and some parents were too.

The rest of the Sheridan students started Tuesday. Around the state, almost half of all students are starting the school year online. Many of those districts that are starting in person are taking it slow, bringing students in one grade level at a time.

Elementary students in Sheridan are taking classes in person five days a week, and will be in classrooms with no more than 12 students. Middle and high school students will also go to school five days a week, but will only be in buildings for half days, as a way to reduce the number of people present at any given time. For students who choose remote instruction for the year, teachers who are teaching in person are broadcasting their classes live so students can get the same lessons at home.

On Friday, teachers asked to delay the start of school fearing that some of the details of the plan were inadequate. Earlier in the week as teachers were preparing to start the year, one teacher had tested positive for COVID. She tested negative later in the week, but for some, the case still underscored the unknown — the teacher had not had any symptoms — and the dangers that could be lurking as the school year begins.

Katie Biester, a high school social studies teacher, said that she felt safe in some ways. She liked that students stayed in one classroom while they were in the building, and only teachers moved from room to room.

But she was concerned that there hadn’t been enough time to figure out how teachers were to set up their classrooms to teach students tuning in from home at the same time as teaching those sitting in the room.

“We had a lot of tech issues,” Biester said. “A lot of us felt like either the kids online are missing part of the instruction or the kids in class are missing parts of the instruction. We sort of felt like we were being pulled in a lot of different directions.”

She said teachers are exploring different ways to try to make sure students are on equal footing regardless of where they are watching the lesson. For example, Wednesday, Biester is considering having students in the classroom also log in to the lesson through Zoom, “so they can all see each other.”

Monday morning, a couple of the parents walked up to Alice Terry Elementary to inform teachers that they had decided to keep their kids in remote learning after all.

Amelia Armendariz, a mother of three Sheridan students, said hearing of the teacher who tested positive made her change her mind about letting her children do in-person learning.

“I was going to send them to school,” Armendariz said. “But I’m very worried. There wasn’t a whole lot of information for me.”

Officials from Sheridan, a tiny urban district with a high number of families living in poverty and experiencing homelessness, have said previously that opening school buildings was important.

Tuesday they did not respond to requests for comment about how the year started.

Some of the families said they chose in-person learning because they aren’t concerned about COVID-19, especially its impact on kids. Several also said their children need special education services in person.

Students begin the 2020-21 school year in-person on Aug. 17.

Erin Riggs, the mom of a kindergartener with special needs, said her son’s therapies are the reason she chose in-person learning.

As she dropped him off Monday morning, she said she was trying not to worry. She had worked with her son on keeping his mask on, washing his hands properly, and was reassured that peeking into the classroom, she had only seen “maybe seven desks.”

“It’s not normal, but I guess this is what we’re dealing with now,” Riggs said.

After school, her son reported that his first day of school was a success. “He said he had a lot of fun,” Riggs said.

Leisha too, reported a good first day of school.

“She didn’t think she was going to make a lot of friends but she did, so she was happy,” Lopez said.

And wearing a face mask until the end of the school day didn’t cause problems that kids reported to their parents.

“It literally, it just slipped her mind,” Riggs said. “I don’t think they think about it when they get in their element.”

Adams 14 will use relief money to call on more help from its for-profit manager

2020-08-17T21:15:39+00:00

Adams 14, the first district in the state to contract its management to a private company, had planned to steadily regain control and shrink the role of consultants every year. But, citing the pandemic, the district will add to its contract with MGT Consulting to secure more help.

The school board for the Commerce City-based district unanimously approved a resolution earlier this month authorizing the district to use COVID relief money it has received from the federal and local governments, to expand the MGT Consulting contract.

The contract is not yet finalized, officials say, but as proposed, would increase staff and services at an added cost of $770,000 for the year. That would be about a 28% increase of the $2.7 million original cost of the contract in Year 2, excluding incentives.

MGT Consulting, a Florida-based for-profit company, just finished its first year of a four-year contract managing Adams 14 under state orders to improve the district’s student achievement. The contract in Year 1 was $3.46 million.

Under the original $8.3 million contract, MGT proposed to steadily decrease the scope of its help, to ultimately leave more and more responsibility in the hands of district staff. But board and MGT officials agreed the proposed increase this year was necessary because of the unexpected challenges of the pandemic.

Harry Bull, executive director of the Colorado MGT team, cited research he said was concerning. Studies suggest students across the country may be falling behind following the closures of school buildings, and in a district that already had a lot of work to do to get student achievement up to state standards, the losses could have higher impacts.

Adams 14 does not have standardized data on student achievement because the state cancelled testing in the spring. According to data Bull presented, district tests indicated that students were improving before classrooms closed last spring. Then remote learning decreased the amount of instruction, and some students may have had trouble accessing any instruction at all.

“So we’ve got work to do,” Bull said presenting the plan. “It’s a very aggressive approach to address what we know will be a very negative impact on learning.”

The add-ons to the contract would pay for three new turnaround specialists to oversee programming and COVID planning, redesigning some jobs to have additional work in the district, and more time for contractors that MGT is working with: SchoolsCubed, 2Partner Mathematics, and the University of Virginia, which will work with more Adams 14 schools this coming school year.

Board members lauded the proposal and noted that they’ve heard good things about how the district and MGT have been able to work together. Veteran board member Connie Quintana also applauded the detail and transparency provided in the presentation.

“I haven’t seen a presentation this thorough in many, many years, probably over 20 years, 25 maybe,” Quintana said. “Right now, MGT, and everybody is doing a fantastic job.”

To pay for the $770,000 part of the contract, the district will tap into its federal coronavirus relief dollars. Adams 14 received $6.7 million in CARES dollars the state allocated for schools, and $1.66 million in federal dollars paid directly to schools. The district has already spent some of that on student technology, thermometers and protective equipment as well as on staff overtime and hazard pay. The district has identified other potential uses for the money, but has not finalized that spending.

As board members approved adding to MGT’s contract, they pointed out that the relief money has restricted uses. They also said the district is lucky to be able to get additional people to help plan and work with students and teachers this school year.

“COVID has hit us hard,” said board member Reneé Lovato. “We need all the help we can get.”

See the full MGT presentation here:

Aurora school board struggling with who will decide when it’s safe to start in-person learning, and how

2020-08-13T00:01:56+00:00

Faced with difficult decisions about opening schools, Aurora school board members say they’re struggling with what evidence and whose advice to trust.

Aurora students will start the school year online at least until the beginning of October, but the school board is grappling with who will be in charge of deciding if it’s safe to bring students back to school buildings then and what factors should play a role.

Complicating the decision, Aurora board members said they worry that public health guidance is being influenced by political and economic pressures.

“We’re not feeling confident,” said board member Kevin Cox.

Superintendent Rico Munn had planned to tie the district’s restart plan to public health metrics, an approach other districts have used. High rates of COVID transmission in Adams and Arapahoe counties on a set date would have triggered a remote start. More moderate rates would have opened the door to various levels of in-person learning, with cohorts and grouping to limit interactions.

Munn wanted to wait until early this month to look at those metrics, but board members didn’t want to wait, and weren’t sure if the public health metrics Munn was considering were the right ones to measure if it was safe to open schools. So they took over the decision, ordering that Aurora start the school year remotely, regardless of those measures.

“One of the reasons I stepped back from that was just a growing nagging feeling that decisions were being made that weren’t just about health,” said board member Debbie Gerkin.

That board decision has raised questions about who has the final say on opening schools: the superintendent or the elected board. Munn wants the board to clarify who will make the next decision, and on what basis.

Board members say that their distrust starts at the federal level. They are wary of sudden changes in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and threats from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and congressional Republicans to pull money from schools that don’t reopen. They worry about pressure to restart the economy by pushing schools to open so parents can get back to work. And they want more guidance on what measures to pay attention to.

“Colorado right now is in the ‘Safer at Home’ level, which sounds like we would all be safer at home,” Gerkin said, referring to the second of three levels of Colorado’s pandemic restrictions. “It seems to me contradictory to then say the cohort model, with such large numbers of students, could be safe.”

State officials have provided guidance on the best ways to mitigate risk if schools decide to have students in their buildings, but no clear guidance on when it is safe to hold in-person learning.

Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes told the State Board of Education on Wednesday that many superintendents have asked for clear metrics, which have been adopted in other states. The state education and health departments are working on “guideposts,” she said, but she doesn’t expect them to be issued soon.

Some Colorado school districts have created their own frameworks to make those decisions, choosing certain metrics such as the percentage of people who test positive or the number of cases per 100,000 to trigger different school models. Other districts are struggling to figure out which metrics to look at.

In the metro area, public health and education officials are working together on unified guidelines that would determine when schools can open, or should close, depending on their community data.

John Douglas, executive director for Tri-County Public Health, said he is not influenced by politics in his decision-making, even though he does get a lot of “political input.”

His decisions are complicated, however, by not always trusting federal guidance he receives from the CDC.

“I am concerned about the national decision-making,” Douglas said. “I’m not at all confident in which of their guidance is science based.”

Most of it is just guidance, or recommendations, and he can choose to take it or leave it, though, he said. He also said he understands the challenges for schools choosing whether or not to open.

“We have actually not been directly involved in that very tough decision,” Douglas said. “We did not develop guidelines about when it is safe. But we think schools really need that. We think parents and teachers need that.”

Douglas said that he believes that when schools are open, they play “a vital role” in improving public health.

But, “This is all about can you do learning safely,” he said.

School boards across the country themselves have been accused of caving to political pressure from teachers unions that are organizing to keep students learning remotely.

Aurora board members, most of whom were voted in with support from the local teachers union, have said they did not make their decision based solely on that opinion.

“I tried to listen to everyone,” Gerkin said. “I sought out opinions too.”

Munn said he is not necessarily advocating to make the decision himself, but having clear roles and responsibilities is key in crisis management, he said.

“This situation is changing every day and every time there’s a change we have to adjust,” Munn said. “The reality of having to be flexible is the space we’re all going to be living in for some time.”

In Aurora, the board uses what is called a governance model, meaning board members are supposed to set policy to guide the district, and to leave operational decisions up to the superintendent. It’s built into Munn’s contract.

In recent years the board has expressed interest in changing the model to allow it more control, but has not yet agreed on a change.

At present, Munn told the board at a meeting last week, their decision to direct him on how school should open, created a “policy misalignment.”

He presented three possibilities for the next school reopening decision in October: allowing him to make the decision, having the board make the decision, or having it be a shared decision.

Board members acknowledge they put Munn and district leaders in a challenging position, but said it’s part of the nature of the current situation.

“I do feel like I’m putting him in an unfair position,” Cox said. “That comes with the position of navigating a global pandemic. These are virtually impossible decisions.

“I have confidence in Rico,” Cox added. “But I’d rather have a frustrated superintendent than grieving parents.”

Jeffco school board appoints interim superintendent

2020-08-11T21:15:56+00:00

The Jeffco school board Tuesday appointed its deputy superintendent, Kristopher Schuh, as interim leader of the district just as a difficult school year is about to begin.

Schuh has worked in the district for almost 20 years as a coach, teacher, principal and most recently as deputy superintendent and chief of schools for middle and high schools.

Jeffco Interim Superintendent Kristopher Schuh

Jason Glass, who has led Jeffco’s school district since 2017, accepted a job as Kentucky’s new education commissioner. His last day in Jeffco is scheduled to be Sept. 13, though some board members suggested transferring full responsibilities to Schuh sooner.

The Jeffco board approved Schuh’s appointment in a split vote with board member Susan Miller voting against it.

Miller objected to the process for Schuh’s appointment, which was largely done in private and, she said, not following the district’s succession plan. Other board members pushed back, saying that the succession plan is meant for emergencies or for when the superintendent is out of town.

For his part, board member Ron Mitchell said he did explore other candidates, including by calling two retired superintendents to gauge their interest, but said the timing makes it difficult.

“We actually should not even consider trying to do a search and or even consider stealing someone else’s superintendent two weeks before school starts,” Mitchell said. “That’s not an ethical move on our part.”

The district plans to hold a national search for a superintendent, but may not start the formal search until later this year.

Among the charges Schuh will have as the interim superintendent will be to oversee the district’s return to in-person learning in the middle of the pandemic. Schuh has led much of the district’s planning in that area.

Jeffco plans for students to start the school year online for two weeks beginning the week of Aug. 24, and to move to in-person learning after Labor Day.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Jeffco also allowed live public comment. Teachers and parents, most of them upset about the quick return to in-person learning, spent almost two hours asking the board to reconsider that plan and instead to follow other districts in extending remote learning longer.

Sheridan district sticks with in-person plans as teacher tests positive ahead of first day of school

2020-08-11T00:35:27+00:00

An elementary school teacher in the Sheridan district south of Denver tested positive for COVID-19 just a week before students and staff are set to return to school buildings.

A spokesperson for the Sheridan school district confirmed the case and said the teacher is at home on self-quarantine. She reportedly has no symptoms, but got tested to be safe before the start of school.

The teacher had been in the school last week “for one day in order to get ready for the school year,” said Mark Stevens, the district spokesperson. One other staff member who worked with the teacher is also now in a voluntary quarantine.

Stevens said there is no change to the district’s reopening plans.

Roughly half the school districts in the Denver metro area are planning a remote-only start to the school year this month. Sheridan is among those still planning for in-person learning. The district’s plan calls for elementary students to return to classrooms five full days a week with a cap of no more than 12 students per room. Middle and high school students will also have the option to attend school every day in person, but will only be in buildings for half the day to allow for social distancing.

Teachers who reported to work Monday are concerned, said union President Matt Blomquist.

“My phone has been blowing up,” Blomquist said.

District officials did not respond late Monday afternoon to further questions about the case or implications for how school might play out this fall. State quarantine guidance issued last month calls for students and staff that have contact with someone who tested positive to stay home for two weeks but does not require the closure of school buildings, unless there is evidence of additional spread.

Teachers say there’s still confusion about some details of the plan, including whether students will be spaced 6 feet apart or just 3 feet and whether the district might have students eat lunch in the more spacious school gym, as teachers have suggested, instead of in their classrooms.

The teachers union is still trying to negotiate aspects of the district’s plan, which many teachers feel is unsafe.

Rebecca Renz, a special education teacher at the district preschool, found out Thursday that her request to work remotely had been granted, but isn’t quite sure how her job will work remotely.

She went to her school building Friday to pick up some things and said even just being there briefly felt uncomfortable. She’s worried for her students and coworkers who will be back there next week.

“I’m feeling a lot of guilt,” Renz said. “Now that I’m safe and my family’s safe, I feel like my coworkers aren’t.”

Constant vigilance and keeping a horse-length apart: How two Colorado school summer camps avoided COVID outbreaks

2020-08-07T22:25:03+00:00

In Denver, it was a horse. In one suburban district, it was a cow.

But regardless of which farm animal summer camp staff invoked, the takeaway was the same: For the most part, elementary school-aged kids were able to keep 6 feet apart.

“We’d say, ‘Keep a horse between you!’” said Heather Intres, who directs before-and-after school programs and summer camps for Denver Public Schools.

Her counterpart in the Adams 12 Five Star district, Molly Brandt, said she was surprised by how well the children adapted to an environment of daily temperature checks, social distancing, required mask-wearing, and frequent hand-washing.

“I knew kids were resilient,” Brandt said, “but I had no idea that they would be this happy still, this engaged — laughing, playing, experimenting. They did all the things we typically do.”

The experiences of the two districts provide a preview of sorts for the next few weeks, when schools across Colorado plan to welcome students back to buildings, either for in-person learning or to provide a supervised space for students to do virtual learning.

The summer camps hosted children ages 5 to 12 at local elementary schools. While both camps had their scares, neither experienced a COVID outbreak among children or adults. Achieving that result took relentless effort and long hours — and a little bit of luck. Other summer camps in Colorado and around the country did experience outbreaks.

Brandt recalled getting phone calls at 5 a.m. that a staff member had woken up with a sore throat and runny nose: Should that staff member stay home? Who should cover for them?

“COVID management is 24/7,” Intres said. “There’s never a time when you can not be vigilant.”

The camps had fewer children than normal, but they still required a lot of adults to run, the directors said. That was partly due to a lower child-to-adult ratio — the camps limited the number of kids in a group to 10 or 12 — but also because staff absences were more frequent.

Group sizes were limited to 10 or 12 students per classroom at the Adams 12 summer camp.

Adams 12 ran the bigger of the two camps: Nearly 500 elementary school-aged kids attended its BASE summer program over eight weeks in June, July, and August. None of the children got sick with COVID-19, Brandt said. But two staff members did — one before camp officially started and one during the first week that kids were attending.

The second case caused two groups of kids who were exposed to the sick staff member — a total of fewer than 20 children — to stay home for 14 days, Brandt said. Adams 12 didn’t require the children to get COVID tests, but Brandt said some did. The tests were negative and no one developed symptoms, she said. All of the kids returned to camp once their 14-day quarantine was over, Brandt said. The staff member recovered and returned, too.

Although the quarantine was effective, Brandt said the process was intense. A memo from the superintendent says district staff spent nearly 30 hours over Father’s Day weekend contacting co-workers and parents at the sites where the two sick staff members worked to tell them the news, relay quarantine requirements and testing options, and answer questions.

Brandt said she told families: “COVID is living in our community. We knew there was risk when we opened. And we knew we could mitigate that risk to the best of our ability.”

Denver Public Schools had no positive COVID cases, Intres said. Its Discovery Link camp was smaller and shorter: About 180 kids attended for four weeks. Though no one got sick, 12 staff members who had symptoms or were exposed to COVID outside the camp stayed home for two to 14 days while they awaited test results. All of the tests were negative, Intres said.

“Were our protocols super tight? Yes,” she said. “Did we get lucky? Yes.”

Denver’s summer camp also observed social distancing in classrooms.

Other lessons learned, the directors said, included the importance of visual cues for young children, such as dots taped to the ground 6 feet apart in the bathroom line. Having masks that fit little faces is also key; Intres said they quickly learned that bandanas and buffs slip down.

But masks also make it harder for kids — especially kindergarteners — to build trust with adults whose faces they can’t fully see, Intres said. To overcome that, she said staff working with the youngest campers started every day with getting-to-know-you activities, asking the kids to tell stories about themselves, their families, their favorite thing they did yesterday.

“We did a lot of check-ins to make sure their day started off with them feeling heard,” she said.

Given that COVID cases were trending upward in July after a dip in May and June, both Denver Public Schools and Adams 12 made the decision to start the school year this month with virtual learning. But some school buildings in each district will be open.

Starting Aug. 17, Denver Public Schools is planning to offer child care at about 65 of its schools for the kids of teachers, principals, and others from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Instead of 10 kids to a classroom like during summer camp, the child care program will cap class sizes at 15.

And starting Aug. 27, Adams 12 will open some of its schools to host free “learning pods” for elementary and middle school students. The pods are meant to serve as supervised spaces for students to attend virtual classes.

The pods will be open during normal school hours and staffed by substitute teachers, teacher’s aides, or after-school program staff. Elementary school pods will be limited to 12 students each; middle school pods will consist of up to 15 students.

Both programs will serve as an ongoing test of the safety of reopening schools. And the effectiveness of telling kids to stay a horse- or cow’s-length apart.

Adams 14 to shift more mental health services online

2020-07-31T00:42:34+00:00

Students in Adams 14 will have fewer mental health professionals in schools this coming year — and many sessions will still remain virtual — even if they do make it back to the classroom.

At a time when the mental health needs of all children, and even adults, are rising, school districts across the country are struggling with how they will provide mental health services, while limiting in-person contacts.

The changes in Adams 14 are not primarily driven by the pandemic — instead, Community Reach Center, which contracts with the district to provide counseling services, didn’t obtain the liability insurance that the district sought for in-person sessions. That means the contractor’s providers will conduct all their sessions online.

The prospect of remote counseling, with all its drawbacks, is one that families in many districts could be facing.

In Adams 14 some parents are worried their children won’t get all the help they need.

“My kids, they’re apprehensive to go back to school,” said Brandi Valdez, a mother of three Adams 14 students. “This is a huge concern.”

Adams 14 previously contracted with Community Reach Center for nine therapists, providing a large portion of the district’s counseling services. Only eight contract therapists will work with the district this year.

Adams 14 also has its own mental health professionals. There are 22 full-time staff to help serve the approximately 6,500 students in the district. That number includes therapists, psychologists, and social workers. These district staff members will be allowed to offer services in person when school buildings eventually open.

District officials say that Adams 14 will be prepared to help all children. The district is rolling out a new social and emotional learning curriculum for all grade levels, including a toolkit for students returning to school after experiencing trauma. The curriculum is available in English and Spanish, and will function when the district is teaching remotely, as well as back in school buildings.

Officials also pointed out that in addition to the contracted counselors that will be offering services remotely, the district has several in-house mental health professionals who will be in school buildings when students return.

“We are trying to make sure families have what they need,” said Mindy Roden, executive director of student services for Adams 14. “It’s new for all of us.”

Counseling services first went remote in the spring when schools closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

As the district negotiated the new contract with Community Reach Center, “our world became more uncertain,” said Shelagh Burke, the district’s executive director of federal programs, intervention services, technology and schools.

This week, Adams 14 announced its plan to push back the start of the school year to Aug. 24, and to also start remotely for the first quarter of the semester. It’s possible the district could move to a hybrid or in-person model later in the year.

Valdez said her three foster children, whom she’s in the process of adopting, all have mental health needs. She praises Community Reach Center therapists who have helped her advocate for her children.

In the spring, the students did continue receiving services virtually, but she doesn’t feel they were as effective.

“It helps but it’s not somebody there that can pat you on the back,” Valdez said. “It’s a lot more difficult to practice breathing through a screen.”

Valdez, like many Adams 14 families, is an essential employee working outside of the home. When schools closed, Valdez’s father watched the children, but he struggled to help them engage with online school work.

“I try to be here as much as I can, but unfortunately that’s not always possible,” Valdez said.

Rick Doucet, the director for Community Reach Center, is concerned that the services aren’t ideal for some students — or financially sustainable for the center.

He said children tend to be more willing to open up in school.

“We were doing it in schools because it’s always easiest to get kids where they’re most vulnerable,” Doucet said. “It’s always worked better. If they’re at home it changes everything.”

Doucet said that working online, providers find it difficult to know if they’ve got a student’s full attention. Some students can be multitasking on their computer instead. Some students also have short attention spans or internet connectivity issues.

And based on their experience in the spring, telehealth services on average are shorter than in-person therapy sessions. That means less services for students, and also less billable time for the agency.

But holding students’ attention is also challenging with in-person sessions, Adams 14’s Roden said. For internet access, she said the district has handed out devices and internet modems to families that have requested them. The district also has considered setting up a place at schools where students can connect to the internet or a device for their telehealth appointment if they can’t do it from home.

If school buildings reopen, students would be scheduled to have telehealth sessions during the school day and would have a place in the building where students could connect to a virtual appointment. Mental health professionals employed by the district and based in schools also will be available.

But some districts, including Adams 14, haven’t mapped out how therapy sessions would work in person if the district had to group students and staff into cohorts.

If psychologists and social workers who meet in person with various students are then counted as part of the small groups created to limit personal exposure, that may throw off planning for those so-called cohorts. Official state guidance says schools don’t have to count those providers in a cohort. If they get sick, however, the model may not function as well as intended to prevent a schoolwide quarantine.

Other parents have voiced concerns that the district services in the spring weren’t well organized, and worry that continued telehealth won’t improve.

“The district’s communication was not there, and that’s what I know had parents very upset,” said Ruby Alvarez, who is considering pulling her children out of the district. “If services are like they were at the end of the last school year, it’s not acceptable for me.”

Doucet said that the Community Reach Center is working to improve its services, knowing that telehealth “is here to stay,” including for families who don’t feel safe returning to in-person settings yet. But he said that if anyone is concerned about connecting virtually and wants another option, the center will find a way.

“People can get help,” Doucet said. “It may not be in school, but they will get the help they need.”

Aurora students will learn virtually for their first quarter this fall

2020-07-25T01:29:52+00:00

Aurora’s school board on Friday asked to change its district’s fall reopening plan to start school online.

The new plan would have students learning remotely, not just for a minimum of two weeks as other districts have done, but for the entire first quarter.

“If we have this many questions left unanswered, I’m going to go out and say we’re not ready to start face-to-face learning,” board member Vicki Reinhard said. “I believe it’s risky.”

Rico Munn, Aurora’s superintendent, challenged the notion that the district wasn’t ready for school to restart and commended his staff for creating detailed plans. But this week he also has voiced concerns about the level of community transmission of the coronavirus.

Board member Nichelle Ortiz said board members have heard from principals who feel they aren’t ready, as well as from a number of other school staff.

“It’s not just union teachers and concerned parents, it’s every aspect of this district — nurses, admin,” and part-time staff, Ortiz said, who are “reaching out and letting us know their concerns.”

The board asked the district to survey principals about what help they need from the district to finalize their school’s plans to reopen.

Last month, Aurora’s school board approved a later school start date and a plan to bring students back into buildings. But the number of cases of COVID-19 have been rapidly rising again in Colorado and the state’s two largest districts recently stepped back from reopening plans, in favor instead of starting remotely for at least two weeks.

The school board asked administrators to outline conditions to help determine whether the district moves to a hybrid or in-person model for the second quarter, which starts Oct. 9. The measures they may consider could include the state’s rating of the county based on the COVID incidence rate. Board members said they’d like to see the number of new cases decrease.

State officials have not answered questions about which metrics would cause them to say it’s not safe to open schools, leaving many decisions up to districts.

At another board meeting Tuesday, Munn said the current situation did concern him, and proposed that the board commit to switch to a different reopening plan if Adams and Arapahoe counties continued to have high incidence rates on Aug. 3.

“We would be concerned if we stayed on that high trajectory,” Munn said, “if we continue to see cases rising at that level. We do, however, still have some time.”

But board members Tuesday were unfamiliar with the metrics and uncomfortable waiting until August to reverse course.

When students start school remotely, the board also wants the district to allow school buildings to host small groups of high-needs students — such as students with special needs or those who need extra help, including English language learners.

Around the state, districts are watching public health conditions as they make decisions about reopening. Denver and Jeffco school officials cited the rising number of cases in the community when they announced the school year would start remotely.

In the Roaring Fork district, officials created a “road map” similar to what Aurora is proposing that linked the school model — remote, hybrid, or in-person — to the risk level for the disease as determined by the state’s rating of the county situation.

Limiting class sizes and alternating older students in the buildings, Sheridan plans on a hybrid return to schools

2020-07-17T23:38:05+00:00

Going against the current, the Sheridan school district just south of Denver this week released a hybrid plan to return students to school this fall.

The plan will allow elementary school students to return to in-person classes five days a week, but will limit their class sizes to 12.

Older students will alternate learning from home and taking classes on campus. Students in grades nine and 10 would attend in the morning and students in grades 11 and 12 in the afternoon. All of those students would spend the other half of the day taking classes online. Middle schools would be structured similarly to only have 50% of students in school buildings at any given time.

“Even though some of the directives are that you can have 20 to 25 students, we’re not doing that,” Superintendent Pat Sandos said in a statement.

While a teacher may still have a class of 24 students, for example, the students would be split between two rooms. The teacher would spend alternating days in each room. When the teacher isn’t in one room, those students would be watching the teacher’s instruction live through Zoom, and would have an adult such as a paraprofessional, instructional support assistant, or substitute in their room to assist.

Shirley Miles, Sheridan’s chief academic officer, said district staff have been cleaning school buildings to clear closets and find space for those classes in libraries, gyms, flex rooms, and art and music rooms.

Sheridan will also have an option for any student to continue remote learning the whole year.

Those students would learn remotely from teachers, who would be in school buildings. Students would watch their teacher’s classroom live.

The district plans to put a tripod-mounted camera in each classroom, to provide video and audio. The district will also have headphones available for students who request them.

Teachers can still request to work remotely if they are at high risk, but could be teaching students who are in a school building, or at home.

Matt Blomquist, president of the Sheridan teachers union, said that teachers have concerns.

“I don’t think it helps teachers with their fears,” Blomquist said.

A survey sent out by the union to staff showed as of late Thursday that 30% of staff that responded would still prefer the district start the year with an online-only model. Additionally, 51% of respondents said the district’s plan helps them feel at least somewhat safe, but 21% said the plan doesn’t make them feel safe at all.

Blomquist said staff didn’t have a say in creating the plan and now want to bargain with the district about some of their concerns. One of them is that teachers may not have direct or equal access to all of their students at the same time.

“Only having access to half of their students at any given time — I appreciate the district doing what they can,” Blomquist said, “but I just don’t see that as a really viable solution.”

Miles said that the plan was created with safety as the primary driver.

“We stuck from the beginning to the idea that we would build our model around that 6 feet of social distancing,” Miles said.

Parents weren’t surveyed, but anecdotally, Shirley said many families wanted students to return to school in person.

Miles said that part of why elementary school students will be in classes in the school building all day is to take into account parents who may need to be back at work.

For older students, Miles said the district considered that many of those students could be working or watching younger siblings who choose to learn remotely, and so wanted to give them the option to be home at least some of the day.

Then there are the social and emotional components the district considered, she said.

“We want to make sure we see their faces everyday,” Miles said. “We want to make sure that we are in contact with them that we could see them if their families needed any support.”

One parent, Maria Elsa Rodriguez, who is also working as a teacher assistant, said that she supports the plan.

“As an employee, I know the district isn’t going to put me in danger,” Rodriguez said. “As a mom, I am a little afraid of sending my kids to school because I have to protect them.”

She said she will start educating her children now about how to stay safe when in school.

The school year will start Aug. 17 with a two-week “boot camp” to allow teachers and students to practice and get better at using online tools. Part of that is in case anyone has to switch to online learning because of an exposure or outbreak.

Classrooms will be risky. Virtual learning falls short. How are Colorado parents choosing?

2020-07-16T21:45:17+00:00

Across the metro area, parents of schoolchildren are stressing out as they weigh school district options to either send their students back to classrooms, or continue online learning.

Parents say that as school start dates approach, they wish they had more details about what school might look like during a pandemic. And for some metro-area districts school could be back in session in less than a month.

Some parents also worry that nothing the school districts do to mitigate the risks will guarantee safety, but that if online learning is anything like it was in the spring, their children won’t be getting a proper education from home.

Maria Enriquez, a Denver mother of three students, is thinking of keeping her children home next school year. But she recalls that online learning didn’t go well in the spring.

“Our internet was failing a lot and I don’t know why,” Enriquez said. “I was communicating with their teachers, but the kids didn’t have a lot of work.”

Enriquez’s husband has family in Houston who have COVID-19, including a brother-in-law who is on a ventilator. One of her children, a 9-year-old boy, has trouble keeping on his face mask, which Enriquez said would put him at risk at school.

“We don’t even know for sure who infects who,” Enriquez said. “So there’s still a worry.”

School districts have been releasing plans, but have asked for patience as they keep working out some details. Meanwhile, certain parts of the plans are contingent on public health guidance which could change as cases of COVID-19 trend upward again in Colorado.

Local public health officials have worked with school districts on these plans and have published guidance noting that children are less likely to be sick and less likely to transmit the coronavirus.

Bill Burman, director of Denver Public Health, who also chairs the Metro Denver Partnership for Health, a consortium of public health agencies, said he believes diligent mask-wearing and health screens can keep schools safe. Adequate testing will also be important.

But Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which works on public health issues, says parents are right to be worried. He’s not sending his own children back to school.

“What we know is indoor, poorly ventilated spaces are a breeding ground for the virus,” he said.

In Jeffco, Mellisa Umphenour, the mother of a 15-year-old with special needs, worries about a lack of information.

On the one hand, her son would benefit from in-person services.

“He’s only got three years of services left and I’ve got to get him ready for the real world,” she said. “Real-life scenarios don’t happen in remote learning.”

But his condition does put him at high risk if he were to get infected, so Umphenour would like to know how the district will work with him and how his day would be structured.

“It’s difficult to make an informed decision,” she said. “There’s a lot of unknowns.”

Despite those unknowns, school districts have sent out surveys asking parents to indicate whether their students will return to school buildings, or continue learning online from home. Partly, districts want to identify how many teachers and staff they will need working in each environment.

In Jeffco, a district FAQ responding to a question about how parents are supposed to make a decision without more information states that the responses are not binding.

“We are just trying to gauge how many students are choosing each learning style in order to make appropriate staffing and building use decisions,” the district states. “Families can change their selection up until the first day of school, and/or at the change of semester.”

In Westminster, one of the first districts to announce its intention to open to all students full-time this fall, the parent survey is still open, awaiting more responses. So far, in the district of about 9,000 students, parents of just 300 so far have indicated they will continue with online learning. District officials expect that number to go up.

Lucy Molina, a mother of two students in Adams 14, north of Denver, said she also wants her children to stay home this school year.

“We live next to Suncor and have all these underlying conditions anyway,” Molina said.

Her children suffer from migraines and nosebleeds, which Molina often thinks are related to living next to the Suncor oil refinery. Molina’s elderly mom, who is diabetic, is also living with her for now. Her dad, who’s had a heart attack, and her aunt, who had breast cancer, are nearby.

In her house, Molina said making stressful school decisions involves her extended family.

Molina’s sister can’t work from home, and so is planning to send her children back to school in person. But Molina said that decision caused a family argument, because she doesn’t want her mom to be around grandkids who return to schools.

“I know that hurt my sister’s feelings,” Molina said. “She’s scared too.”

Martha Baron, a mother of two students in Aurora, is also factoring in her need to go back to work.

One of her daughters attends a charter school, and her youngest will be enrolled at a district-run elementary school in Aurora. But that means the plans for each child might not match up. Baron works at a restaurant that hasn’t yet reopened.

“The truth is I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Baron said. “If I get called back to work, I need to go, but I can’t leave my younger daughter home alone, unless my older daughter is also learning from home.”

This spring, her daughters weren’t doing much work from home, Baron said, so she would prefer they both go back to school in person. But she hasn’t heard details of the safety plans. She wonders if class sizes will be limited, and if teachers and students will actually use hand sanitizer and wash their hands regularly.

“When we bought disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer for classrooms, even before this pandemic, I always wondered if they actually used them,” Baron said. “There’s just a lot of concerns I have.”

Parents also have lots of questions about online learning, and whether it will actually be better than it was in the spring.

In Aurora, officials have said that learning for students who choose to stay remote this fall will have to be significantly different than in the spring, when the district did not make online instruction required for elementary and middle school students.

Many parents say they had to be their children’s teachers this spring, and worry that that wasn’t enough.

Molina said she hopes districts are using their planning time to make improvements to online learning that will make it more “user friendly” and that will engage parents.

Enriquez hopes her children will focus on more than just reading this time, and that there’s more live instruction.

And Umphenour in Jeffco wants the district to understand that she can also change her mind about how school is going.

“We have not dealt with this scenario before. As flexible as we are being with you,” Umphenour said. “You’re going to have to be flexible with me.”

Aurora school staff will have access to regular free testing this fall

2020-07-15T00:04:04+00:00

The Aurora school district has signed a COVID-19 testing and tracing partnership that promises teachers who return to their classrooms this fall can be tested for the virus every two weeks.

Danette Lippman, the district’s director of health services, said Tuesday in a virtual webinar to Aurora staff that “the gold standard” to safely reopen would be “having the capacity to aggressively and regularly test staff.”

The Aurora district, like several others that have announced plans in Colorado, is expecting to allow students to return to school buildings this fall, five days a week. Teachers across the country have been raising concerns about the safety of returning.

Aurora’s school district is partnering with COVIDCheck Colorado, an organization just started by nonprofit Gary Community Investments, to offer testing and help with tracing and tracking outbreaks. The contract will cost Aurora Public Schools approximately $720,000 for six months.

District officials had announced they were working on such a plan, but just finalized it with school board approval Friday afternoon.

Mike Johnston, the CEO of Gary Community Investments, told the Aurora school board that this plan would make Aurora the “most aggressive district in the state in terms of looking out for the health of your employees.”

He also said other school districts and colleges are considering similar plans.

Board members had a handful of questions but all voted in favor of the contract.

The plan will be optional. To sign up, employees must sign waivers that, among other things, will give the district access to the results. The contract includes access to a dashboard that tracks aggregate data on testing and that has a symptom tracker, that could eventually also be rolled out for students.

School-based employees who sign up could get tested every two weeks for free. COVIDCheck Colorado promises to deliver test results within 24 to 48 hours. Other district staff who don’t interact with students could get tested monthly. Officials also said staff who develop symptoms might have opportunities to get tested immediately.

Staff who sign up for the regular testing will also have the option of turning on a bluetooth feature on their phone to allow officials to track contacts. Someone who tests positive would be flagged and the system would notify those who’ve recently been within 6 feet of that phone that they may have been exposed and should be tested themselves.

COVIDCheck Colorado plans to have a medical professional call each person who tests positive to deliver the results.

Protocols about who would be sent home to isolate will depend on guidance from Tri-County Health officials and a determination of who the person exposed in each case, Superintendent Rico Munn said.

In returning students to school buildings, the district will use a “cohort model” to group students and staff and try to limit their exposure to other groups, so that it may be easier to limit the number of students or staff who have to switch to remote learning after an exposure.

Jeffco will allow all students to return to school buildings this fall

2020-07-08T21:39:02+00:00

Jeffco will allow all students, including older students, to go back to in-person learning this fall.

The district had already announced that elementary schools would open for students to return to classes five days a week. Because that plan involves grouping students to interact with only a small number of students and staff each day, district leaders had said the logistics of planning that for middle and high school students would take more time.

The district will also have a remote option for any students who want to keep learning from home.

The 43-page plan released Wednesday goes into more details.

High school students will attend a maximum of four in-person classes per school day, and may need to take some classes online. Each school will have to create a specific plan for student pickup and drop-off, building entry, symptom screening, transitions, and lunch schedules.

“Individual schools will communicate their plans to their staff and school community for review prior to implementation,” the plan states.

The plan also states face coverings will be required during the day “when 6 feet of social distancing cannot be maintained.” Teachers, for instance, can use a face shield if they are giving a lesson more than 6 feet away from students, but otherwise must also wear a mask.

Family members and visitors will not be permitted in schools, to further limit the exposure of those in the buildings.

Officials said tasks such as arranging desks and tables so that all students face the same direction, will be a shared responsibility among school staff and custodial and facility teams.

The district follows several others in the metro area that are also planning to bring students back into the classrooms.

Jason Glass, superintendent of Jeffco schools, said that more details still need to be worked out, and that he expects that the plans may still shift.

“We had to make some decisions and put out some concepts about what the fall would look like,” Glass said. “We have to acknowledge there’s a heck of a lot that could still shift.”

One thing that the plan doesn’t yet address is the size of each student cohort, and will be determined by public health guidance closer to when school starts.

Jeffco, like Aurora, is also pushing back the first day of school to the week of Aug. 24 to allow staff time to receive training before students return to buildings.

School districts surveyed parents as they prepared these fall plans. In Jeffco, of more than 16,000 respondents, more than 90% said they are either certain or likely to attend in-person learning.

The district is now asking parents to take a survey and let schools know if their students will be returning to campuses, or if they prefer the online option. Teachers and staff will also have a chance this month to ask for remote assignments based on their own health risks.

Brooke Williams, the president of the Jeffco teachers union, did not respond to a request for comment about the fall plan.

But teachers across the country have been raising questions about how districts are considering their safety as they plan to return students to classes.

In Jeffco, when a teacher requests a remote assignment based on health risks, the district’s human resources team will review the provided documentation for that risk and designate staff as someone who should be considered for remote work. That designation will then be forwarded to the school principals to consider.

The district will help transfer teachers if a remote assignment isn’t available at their school, but officials said that there may be “many cases” when a staff member is designated as someone at risk who should do remote work, but who may still end up in an in-person assignment. It will depend on how many students and teachers choose each learning option.

Glass said that in the case those requests are disproportional, the district will start ranking different health risks to give priority to those at higher risk.

Jeffco superintendent a finalist for state job in Kentucky

2020-07-08T17:21:56+00:00

Jeffco’s superintendent, Jason Glass, has been named one of three finalists for a job as Kentucky’s education commissioner.

The Kentucky Board of Education is negotiating a contract with one of the finalists, without publicly naming that person. The sole finalist for the job is expected to be announced this month.

Glass, 48, has been leader of Jeffco, Colorado’s second largest school district, since 2017. His original contract was from 2017-2020, but was amended last year to run through June 2025.

In May, the Jeffco school board approved a request from Glass to add language to his contract, given the budget constraints caused by the pandemic, noting that if the board freezes or decreases “district employees’ average pay during the 2020-2021 budget year, the superintendent’s 2020-2021 annual salary will be frozen or decreased proportionately.”

His contract provides the ability for Glass to terminate the contract with 60 days notice to the school board.

Glass and the school district refused to comment for this story. Ron Mitchell, a Jeffco school board member, confirmed that the board was aware that Glass was interviewing for the position.

Before coming to Jeffco, Glass was superintendent of the school district in Eagle. He also previously held a role in Iowa as state education leader.

Glass began his education career in Kentucky after completing his college education there.

Management and district leaders say first year of Adams 14 turnaround was a success despite pandemic

2020-07-07T00:32:39+00:00

Despite not having hard data on achievement, Adams 14 officials and community members say signs point to a success for the district’s first year in private hands.

One indication is more parent satisfaction.

When the principal at her Adams 14 elementary school changed along with other district leaders, Beatrice De Luna immediately felt more welcome.

This year she said she was more involved in school than she had been in the last five years of her children’s education. And one of her five children, a girl entering sixth grade this fall, started showing “huge growth” after two years of struggling.

“As a parent, this past year has been a great year,” De Luna said.

Connie Bonnel, a district grandmother who has served on a district oversight committee, said this was the first year her group was able to review each school’s improvement plan to make recommendations.

“Everyone was surprised,” said Bonnel, who sits on the district’s accountability committee. “I am grateful for how collaborative they are with us.”

The 2019-20 school year was the first year MGT Consulting, a private, for-profit firm based in Florida, managed the Adams 14 school district north of Denver. The year was marked by curricular changes, leadership reorganization, and a new plan for the high school. Four of the five board members joined halfway through the year.

But turnaround work was delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down school buildings for the last 2½ months of the year and the focus shifted to teaching students remotely. Officials believe students did lose some learning, but it’s still unclear just how much.

It was the first time that a private group has taken the reins of an entire school district in Colorado. It was done under orders from the state as a last resort to try to improve the achievement of the nearly 7,000 students in the struggling district.

The order put MGT on a four-year timeline. Under the $8.3 million contract, each year the company would return more control to the district, slowly putting them back in charge. The state is closely monitoring the work, but with no state testing this year and thus no comparable achievement data, it’s hard to tell how effective the company’s improvements have been so far.

Don Rangel, MGT’s project director and acting superintendent for Adams 14, called the first year a success.

“It was critically important for the Adams 14 team and the external management team of MGT to develop a quality working relationship,” Rangel said. “Even though the year was interrupted we were able to do that.”

MGT officials provide quarterly reports to the State Board of Education. The next one is scheduled for this fall.

MGT and district leaders point to staff surveys conducted by the state. Overall, staff in Adams 14 feel more positive about the direction of the district than in previous years.

In a recent meeting of the local Adams 14 school board, Lisa Medler, the state’s executive director of accountability and continuous improvement, said the state has also seen positive work.

“On implementation, despite all of the disruption, certainly a lot of strides have been made,” Medler said.

Board members asked, given the pandemic, about giving MGT and Adams 14 more time to show improvement. “This was a huge disruption,” said Adams 14 board member Maria Zubia.

Officials said that’s being discussed. Medler suggested that if MGT or Adams 14 want to ask for more time, they must have specifics around what the time would be needed for.

Harry Bull, MGT’s Colorado project manager, said officials haven’t thought it through as the focus has been on adjusting to remote learning, and now planning for the multiple scenarios in the fall.

So far, like Rangel, Bull said that MGT has been able to make needed investments in the district, but is concerned about how the district will keep prioritizing improvements if more budget cuts are needed.

“It’s never a good time to be a turnaround district, but in a challenging economic time, it most certainly makes for a greater challenge,” Bull said.

In the first year of management, MGT focused on aligning varied curriculum materials at the district’s 11 schools. Adams 14 now has a new literacy and math curriculum across all grade levels and is planning to introduce a new social and emotional learning curriculum this fall.

Adams 14 has also expanded the career and technical education budget to create more opportunities for high school students.

District leaders also spent the year rewriting the district’s plan for educating English language learners, including creating a new bilingual education plan. The district is waiting for feedback on the plan from the federal Office for Civil Rights.

One other critical piece of the district’s improvement has been to retain more quality teachers. Adams 14 historically has a high turnover rate for teachers, and many teachers just starting their career.

Adams 14 did approve a stipend, on top of salary, for teachers for their work during remote learning, but the district may not be able to pay teachers more soon if state revenue for schools continues to drop.

MGT plans for the district to hire its own superintendent again soon. The plan is for the board to begin a search in December, and perhaps have someone in place by the 2021-22 school year. For now, MGT has covered the role.

Deborah Figueroa, co-president of the Adams 14 teachers union, said she understands that there were unpredictable delays this year, but is still frustrated that the pace of change can’t be faster.

“There’s a lot of work that has to be done, and in my opinion, MGT is outnumbered,” Figueroa said. “For the millions of dollars we pay them, it’s been a handful of people — they have been of quality, but it is not enough for the amount of work that the system needs.”

The beginning of the year included coaching for teachers, but Figueroa said it wasn’t enough.

Figueroa said she especially wants to see a strategic plan. That’s one thing that the state is also tracking. While it’s not done, officials expect it could be finished soon. Board members worked their first months together to agree on a unified district vision with goals that are still being finalized.

Adams 14 board President Ramona Lewis said she believes that the work MGT and the new board have done is making a difference. Lewis and several of the other new board members ran in part with the interest of keeping tabs on the new company that would be managing the district.

To track progress now, Lewis said she hopes schools will be able to administer district assessments in the fall, and also hopes to see more staff surveys. If it’s safe to do so, she’d also like to see the district and MGT resume the listening tour that began and ended just before the pandemic.

“I think the climate of the district has changed,” Lewis said. “But we want to continue to make sure people are being listened to.”

Aurora plans for fall in-person return to classes for elementary and middle grades

2020-07-01T03:48:02+00:00

Elementary and middle schools students in Aurora schools will have the opportunity to return to school five days per week this fall.

District officials presented the school board Tuesday night with the intended final plan for restarting school this August.

In elementary and middle schools students would be put into groups so that they interact with the same peers throughout the day and week. In high school, students would have a mix of in-person classes and online learning from home. Any student could also opt to do remote learning full time instead.

Masks would be required for students in grades six through 12, and required for elementary students only “when social distancing cannot be met.”

District officials also said they are working with a nonprofit organization to conduct regular COVID-19 testing for staff. And they highlighted how they would transition back to remote or hybrid models in the case of outbreaks, large numbers of staff absences, or changes in health guidelines.

“We don’t have a crystal ball,” said Christie Imholt, the district’s policy director.

Several school districts have announced in the last few weeks plans to get most students back to school five days a week, following a strong interest from parents. Districts have also cited comments from Gov. Jared Polis, who has expressed optimism about being able to relax regulations for schools in August.

Positive COVID-19 cases in Colorado have started rising in the last two weeks. On Tuesday, the governor ordered that bars that had opened must close again. Some projection models suggest that hospitals could be over capacity by late July or early August, depending on how much people limit their interactions.

Aurora officials Tuesday cited evolving information about COVID-19 and children, but pointed out that children appear to have lower rates of infection and are less likely to have serious complications.

Board members asked Aurora officials for details on providing masks — families will be responsible for their students’ masks — and details about what would happen if a student is at school when they start showing symptoms. The district will designate places to isolate such students until they can go home.

As part of the plan, the board also voted to delay the start of school for students by one week. Students in grades one through 12 will start Aug. 18. Students in kindergarten and preschool will start Aug. 24. Staff will still return to work as previously planned and will use the extra time to train in the new structures and health protocols.

Superintendent Rico Munn said other calendar changes may be necessary. The district also may change transportation policies and graduation requirements.

The district will now work with the teachers union and others in the district on details of how these plans will be rolled out.

Bruce Wilcox, the president of teachers union in Aurora, said that he and the union board will review the plan to figure out what waivers to the work contract may be necessary.

“Our teachers want to provide the best learning opportunities for our students and want to make sure they are the best and safest conditions to accomplish that,” Wilcox said.

Officials in one suburban Denver district say not teaching new material in the spring left them better prepared for fall

2020-06-23T12:00:00+00:00

When schools closed in March to fight the spread of the coronavirus, educators in the 27J district north of Denver made a decision. Knowing that not all students could access online lessons, educators decided not to teach new material.

Now, as they plan for an uncertain fall, educators aren’t overly worried about learning loss or how they’ll catch students up to grade level. They say the time spent going over basics while teachers worked out the kinks of remote learning helped students who were already behind.

“We didn’t want to leave kids behind, we wanted to focus on welfare checks and on helping students retain what they had already learned,” said Kathey Ruybal, the president of the teachers union in 27J. “By doing that pause we were able to really do a needs assessment. Now, we have a better idea of what our community needs.”

Teachers called families every week. Most still held live, if remote, classes. Some scheduled their students into small groups for lessons where they went over material students hadn’t mastered yet, and paper packets of work were available for students who needed it.

Third-grade teacher Barbara Haggerty said parents appreciated the district’s approach. “We were able to intervene,” Haggerty said. “We would say, ‘this family doesn’t have a Chromebook; let’s go drop one off.’”

More than 3,000 Chromebooks were distributed to students in the district during the shutdown.

Haggerty, who works at Pennock Elementary, saw her students master material during remote learning.

“They were all working on their level, it was so differentiated,” Haggerty said. “I feel very confident they’re all going to know all of these things that my grade-level kids certainly had already mastered.”

Each morning, Haggerty’s students sang their morning song, and then had a brief game to start the day. Then Haggerty would tell them what math, reading and writing assignments they should work on that day online, and would suggest some extra “learning opportunities” like virtual field trips they could take that day.

At 3 p.m. the class would reconvene on a video call for Haggerty to read a story, and so each student could see how many points they got for the day.

One thing she would change, if she had to do it again, would be to incorporate more hands-on activities. Some national experts have cautioned teachers not to ask students to do activities that required materials some may not have at home, but Haggerty said she would like to be able to prepare a take-home bag for students that could include a book, scissors, and dice for math activities.

While educators in 27J hope for more opportunities to teach students in their classrooms, these are the types of lessons they would apply to offer high-quality remote learning if that’s what’s necessary.

Some remote learning continues to be a possibility for the next school year across the state. The 27J district is working on addressing more equity concerns. The district is buying more devices for students and has set aside roughly $415,000 from federal coronavirus relief dollars to pay for home internet for about 2,000 students.

Teachers and district officials are confident that they will be ready to reach all students if they have to do remote learning again.

“We learned a ton of lessons and we created some solutions. We’re ready,” said Will Pierce, chief academic officer for the district. But, he added, “The best place for kids is school and we would open it up to all of them if we could.”

While the current situation and 27J’s approach are unprecedented, various studies of student absences, summer learning loss, and lengthy school closures show that losing time in school can set students back academically, and although some experts believe remote learning might soften those impacts, research doesn’t show online learning as promising.

The 27J school district made national headlines in 2018 as the first in the metro area to move all schools to a four-day school week. It serves more than 19,000 students of which 56% are students of color, and 35% qualify for subsidized lunches.

Pierce said a survey of parents showed that 83% of those who responded said they want to have their children back in school face-to-face with their teachers this fall.

While the district hasn’t yet committed to a final plan, officials are preparing to allow most students back to school, as state officials suggest they might allow.

That would relieve one concern Pierce still had about this fall: how teachers would administer assessments virtually.

“It would be a challenge,” Pierce said. “We would love to do that face to face.”

While the assessments are critical so the district can figure out if students fell far behind, and so that teachers can help target instruction to get students back on track, district educators don’t expect that results would show anything too abnormal from typical summer gaps.

Much of April is spent on testing and not learning new material, some said. And teachers’ curricular plans already build in time during the fall to review previous material students might forget over the summer.

Pierce said that the district is prepared to offer tutoring or additional instructional time for students who may be farther behind.

Teachers also want the district to be aware that students coming back to schools will have a lot of needs for mental health support to process these last few months.

Brittany Atkerson, another elementary teacher in 27J, said she learned this spring that students need more lessons on internet safety as they spend more time online. She spent much of the first weeks helping students learn how to access resources.

She also wants any fall plan to focus on creating opportunities for students, especially those in elementary grades, to interact socially with their peers. Much of elementary school is about learning coping and interaction skills, she said.

“We have to make sure we are providing those opportunities,” Atkerson said.

Some ideas she has, in case school had to start remotely, is to have students write to each other as pen pals, setting up time for parents to meet with her virtually, and playing games during virtual time together.

Pierce said that regardless of the final plan for fall, teachers are involved at each school in helping design what the fall should look like. And they’re all talking about equity issues.

“It’s a great thing for us to have a greater recognition of the inequities and the invisible barriers that exist for families,” Pierce said. “We should have known all along but that’s been very powerful to see.”

Pivoting, Jeffco now says elementary students will return to school full time in the fall

2020-06-19T23:43:40+00:00

Citing parent feedback and concerns about equity, the Jeffco school district announced plans to allow elementary students back in schools full time this fall.

The finalized plan, announced to staff Thursday, is based on the assumption that health guidelines will permit gatherings of more than 10 people by August. That would eliminate a challenge of finding staff and space to keep classrooms to nine students each.

“We believe based on consultations with our health department, as well as recent comments from the Governor, that that limitation will not be present in the fall,” said Jeffco Superintendent Jason Glass, who oversees Colorado’s second-largest district, serving 84,000 students.

The district will announce plans for middle and high school students by July 8.

When Jeffco students return, schools will be subject to some additional health measures, such as mandatory masks, symptom screening, and increased ventilation in buildings. School will also start later than planned, allowing staff to train on safety measures for the first eight days. Students can also choose to continue remote learning all year.

In recent weeks, as Gov. Jared Polis has suggested that public health guidance will likely allow for larger class sizes, more districts have announced that they intend to resume in-person classes — at least for some students. The Cherry Creek district on Friday said it will offer class five days a week for elementary students. Last week, Westminster and Mapleton announced plans to offer in-person classes five days a week for students at all grade levels.

Glass said for him, there were also equity concerns about remote learning that led to the in-person plan, a change from the district’s initial proposal to offer a hybrid of in-person and online school, with students on staggered schedules.

“On top of public requests for greater in-person learning, the economic needs, the academic and social-emotional needs, coupled with all of that is this overarching equity consideration,” Glass said. “We know we had lesser engagement from students in at-risk categories. That was a major concern.”

After being the first district to announce fall plans, Jeffco requested feedback in a survey and a month in, has received about 16,000 responses. The survey remains open, and so far an overwhelming majority of parents continue to say they would be likely to send their children to school if they had the option.

“We did want to be responsive to the community and our staff feedback all along,” Glass said.

He said the survey has averaged more than 90% of parents stating they would be likely to send their children back into school buildings. That’s higher than in other districts. In Westminster for instance, just 56% of parents and community members said students should return to in-person learning, though it was the option with most support.

Having students go back to in-person learning also helps districts that were trying to figure out child care options for parents. Officials in Jeffco, Aurora, and other districts have been looking for community partnerships that would give staff and maybe some other working parents a child care option for days when students are not in-school.

Glass said that would no longer be a challenge to solve for in Jeffco.

What remains to be seen is how the district will approach in-person learning for middle and high school students, although Glass said the district and board want an in-person option.

In elementary school, the district will be able to keep children in cohorts to limit their exposure to others in the buildings. But the challenge is that students in middle and high school grades move more throughout a school taking classes with different groups of students and different teachers.

“We’re working through some ways we can limit the contact students have with each other in a way that still allows them to earn credits and be able to take the courses that they want to take,” Glass said.

Officials in multiple districts have said they are creating teams that will act as tracers in the district to quickly identify and quarantine students or staff who are exposed to COVID-19. The ability to keep students and staff isolated from others will limit how many people might have to switch to remote learning if there is an outbreak.

While Aurora works on back-to-school plans, superintendent hints at needing emergency powers

2020-06-17T22:17:02+00:00

As Aurora school officials consider multiple scenarios for how students might return in the fall, board members Tuesday pushed back on the idea that the superintendent needs emergency powers to make policy changes.

Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn did not request additional authority, but told the board that rolling out the plan in the next few months might require changes in policy around transportation, the school calendar, staffing, and student enrollment.

He told the board that it could either hold various emergency meetings in June and July, or it could give him temporary emergency powers to make changes himself.

School board members told Munn they preferred to take part. Typically the school board takes the month of July off.

“We’ve got a platform through which we can meet virtually. With enough notice we should be able to have emergency meetings,” said board member Marques Ivey. “The board really needs to be involved.”

Munn raised the concern that under Aurora’s board policy, members cannot take action in just one meeting, but must have a first reading of the proposed item for a vote and then can cast a vote at another meeting. Board members said that because that’s a district policy, not a state law, they could consider changing it. The board will have a closed-door meeting to discuss the options with an attorney next week.

The question was part of a long district presentation Tuesday to the board with details about various fall scenarios. Like most other districts, Aurora is considering several options: Students could return to full-time in-person learning, or alternate being in school a few days a week and learning from home the rest of the days, or learn from home full-time.

Munn told the school board he expects to announce a final plan on June 30, though he cautioned that future changes to health guidelines could force the district to change plans again.

Aurora’s fall plans are all considerably different from what it rolled out in the spring as school buildings closed. In the spring, the district focused on providing students with access to online resources but did not require most teachers to provide instruction. High school students were required to complete online coursework, but students in lower grades weren’t.

Throughout the presentation, Aurora officials said that they’ve learned that teachers, families, and students craved more interaction and higher engagement.

At the beginning of the month, the district surveyed parents, staff, students, and community members on their preferences for fall learning. Of 8,307 responses the district received in 12 languages, more than 5,600 were from parents, 60% of whom said they are likely to send their children back to in-person learning if it becomes available.

“How do we keep students engaged with their peers?” said Andre Wright, chief academic officer for Aurora. “That’s been a big question.”

The district’s survey also asked families about their technology needs. Of the families who responded, about 32% indicated they have checked out devices for their children, 9% indicated that they currently have a device checked out but will need a new device next year, and 12% said they will need to check out technology devices next year.

The district expects to pay for additional devices and technology, as well as other fall needs, with federal relief dollars.

Board members also questioned the district’s plan to ask students to wear masks in school buildings without providing them.

Board president Kayla Armstrong-Romero said that in her family, like in many others, it can be tough getting her stepson to wear a coat, and said she “can’t even imagine” having to ensure children have masks and wear them without losing them.

The district is planning to incorporate health education for students that could include guidance on how to properly wear a face mask.

“I would expect we would have a certain stockpile available in schools,” Munn said. “But the idea that we would be able to buy masks for all students every single day, it’s not a road we’ve been down.”

Officials said they may provide masks for staff when schools reopen, depending on the health guidelines.

Adams 14 budget draft avoids worst cuts this year, but still considers them in future years

2020-06-12T22:24:08+00:00

The Adams 14 school district is planning more than $5 million in cuts to its general budget for the next school year.

That’s more than an 8% budget reduction.

The budget cuts are prompted both by a loss in state revenue and declining enrollment in the Commerce City-based school district. Even as the district is looking for ways to save money, it’s also trying to invest more in programs that officials hope will improve student performance and provide a better remote learning experience. The district is under state orders to improve after years of low test scores.

The draft budget avoids the most drastic measures districts had considered, like salary cuts and furlough days, but grimmer longer-term projections could force tough choices in the following year. And this 2020-21 budget draft may still change some before the board votes on it June 23.

The district reductions so far include $1.675 million from central office through cuts and consolidations, plus just over $1 million in school staff cuts to adjust for declining enrollment.

Adams 14 expects enrollment to drop below 6,500 students next school year, and to continue declining for several years.

The draft budget does not include any salary increases for teachers and staff for now, while negotiations between the district and the union continue.

Given federal relief funds the district has received, the budget does also include some investments, most notably in technology.

The district is hoping to use federal relief money to purchase approximately $2.7 million in technology. District officials have been waiting for more guidance on how to spend the relief funds, but want to purchase a new central phone and public announcement system, more devices for students and staff, plus webcams, document cameras, and internet for families that don’t have it.

Adams 14, like the majority of metro area school districts, is still considering starting the fall semester with a hybrid model of learning that would have students alternating learning from home and learning online throughout the week.

Even if that doesn’t happen, officials have cautioned that it’s also possible schools might need to switch to learning online temporarily in case of an outbreak, and if COVID-19 cases spike again, health officials could require all students to go back to learning from home.

“We absolutely have to have that option available,” said Shae Martinez, chief financial officer for Adams 14. “So these purchases are necessary for us to be ready for a hybrid or an online model.”

The draft budget does propose an increase in expenditures for Career and Technical Education, and for AVID, a support program for college-going high school students. Improving Adams City High School student outcomes remains an urgent need for the district.

The district, which is under outside management by MGT Consulting, has also been able to find grants to cover the meals the district had been providing families while school buildings were closed. A grant will also help cover a portion of the cost of MGT’s contract. Money to cover bonuses that MGT is eligible for under its contract with Adams 14 are included in reserves.

Other increases in spending are being considered as options, particularly if relief funds help cover other urgent needs like technology. For example, the district is interested in expanding preschool for $140,000, paying to continue providing adult education for $390,000, or expanding programming for the district’s English language learners with $272,000.

Looking farther out, Martinez told the Adams 14 school board that reserves will be important to help prevent major cuts if revenue for the district continues to drop.

Among the options that the district is looking into in case more drastic cuts are necessary the following years is selling the land where Alsup Elementary used to be located, consolidating small elementary schools such as Hanson and Monaco, or going to a four-day school week.

Back to school: Suburban Denver districts plan for 5 days a week in school

2020-06-10T00:54:10+00:00

The Westminster school district is proposing that students return to schools five days a week this fall.

The 9,000-student district north of Denver is among the first in the metro area to announce a final plan for fall, ahead of state guidance.

More than a dozen metro area school districts have been planning together with an interest in aligning plans. One Westminster neighbor, Mapleton Public Schools, has also announced its plan for a similar five day per week return to schools this fall, starting later in August than planned.

Both Mapleton and Westminster will provide an option for students who wish to stay remote all year instead of returning to campuses.

Most school districts have drafted multiple plans for fall but have said that a hybrid scenario where students alternate between being in school and learning from home each week is most likely if state health guidance doesn’t change.

Current guidance and rules from the state do not address what may happen in August, but so far limit classrooms to 10 people and suggest students need to stay 6 feet apart from each other while in school. Gov. Jared Polis has recently told several groups of leaders that he expects guidelines to change, and school to be able to proceed mostly as normal.

A Westminster spokesman said the district’s plan is in response to that guidance from the governor. Officials Tuesday night acknowledged, however, that state guidance can change and require the district to continue remote learning.

The Westminster school board voted unanimously to approve the five-day plan Tuesday night. The district will now also share the plan with Tri-County Health and with the Colorado Education Department.

“Our students, family, and community are under immense socio-emotional and economic pressures as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues,” Superintendent Pam Swanson wrote in a statement for health officials. “Schools are one of the most important safety valves in relieving this pressure, only if we are allowed to open our doors and welcome our students back into the classroom.”

The district, with 84% students of color and 78% qualifying for subsidized lunches, surveyed parents, staff, and community members ahead of finalizing this plan.

According to results of that survey, a full return to in-person learning was the most popular option for parents and staff.

In response to a question., “If safety plans are in place as dictated by Governor Polis and Adams County health officials, do you believe students should return to in-person learning in fall 2020?” 56% of parents and community members agreed. Support from staff was stronger, with 73% of respondents agreeing.

Fran Groff Gonzales, president of the Westminster teachers union, said that while some teachers are concerned about their health if they return to school, most also feel they need to start the school year in person to get to know their group of students.

“Our district has been a great partner,” Groff Gonzales said. “We’re trusting the school district to do what it can to ensure the safety of teachers and of students.”

A hybrid plan, like ones other districts have discussed, had the second-highest support among parents and community members with 52% in favor. When asked if students should go to school remotely this fall, 49% of parents and community members agreed.

In the spring, Westminster officials report that most of its schools had more than 90% of students engaged in remote learning. Districtwide the average was 95%. A student was counted as engaged if students logged on, submitted assignments, or posted in social networks.

The plan to reopen “as close to normal as possible” also includes safety measures such as a requirement for students and staff to wear masks, the school to conduct temperature checks, and the district prohibiting family members from entering schools.

Officials said the plan will also ask schools to stagger passing periods and create lanes in hallways so as to limit the number of students interacting there. Students will be required to eat lunch in their classroom, or outside if the weather permits, and large assemblies won’t be allowed.

The schools will also be asked to keep students in the same group as much as possible, with teachers being the ones who move from room to room. As an example, James Duffy, the district’s chief operating officer, said schools might have “art on a cart” that would go into classrooms.

Board members thanked the district for creating the five-day plan, and said that for some students, “this is the best place to be.”

Two Jeffco schools take different paths to remote learning

2020-05-20T00:01:07+00:00

Mortensen Elementary students in Littleton start their day from home at 8:30 a.m. listening to a phone message from their principal with the morning announcements — almost as if schools hadn’t closed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, they answer a daily question to log their attendance. They have two live instruction sessions per day, plus some online work in between.

At Deane Elementary in Lakewood, staff created a form where students who may not be able to answer a daily question can still check in daily. The school doesn’t require students to watch instruction in real time, where they could interact with teachers. Teachers record lessons and share the videos along with assignments online.

Students get new lessons on alternate days, with a day in between for practice and to allow students who might not be able to engage every day to catch up. More than a dozen students do work on paper packets they pick up every other week.

The two different models are examples of the various approaches to remote learning that schools in Jeffco have taken over the last two months.

Jeffco Public Schools was one of the first districts to jump into remote learning on March 17. The rigorous plan promised to reach every student, but was also designed to give schools choices including how to deliver instruction, or how to count a student as engaged.

“There was an intentionality about not scripting every move because we had not done this before,” said Superintendent Jason Glass. “Our strategy was to create infrastructure and support and allow our professionals flexibility to determine what worked best in their context. We needed that flexibility, especially in a community like Jeffco.”

Jeffco, the second-largest district in Colorado by enrollment, spans areas ranging from urban communities bordering Denver to wealthier suburban and mountain neighborhoods.

The efforts school leaders made to accommodate students may have helped increase engagement in some schools, but it often also meant less direct or live instruction, which might have an impact on achievement gaps.

Now, in the last week of the school year, Glass wants educators to reflect on their work so they can share what worked and what didn’t, especially as the likelihood increases that some remote learning will continue in the fall. District testing, which might occur this fall, might also help shed light on what worked.

“I don’t have any illusions that we’ve solved inequities,” Glass said. “Those gaps have widened.”

Mortensen and Deane serve different populations of students. About a third of students at Mortensen are eligible for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty, compared with 85% of Deane’s students. About 50 Deane families didn’t have access to the internet in March. About 15 to 20 families still don’t. Mortensen’s principal is not aware of any family that still lacks internet access.

At Deane, about 73% of students are Hispanic and many are learning English as a second language. At Mortensen, the school has about 8% of its students learning English as a second language, and that includes students who speak 13 different home languages.

Principals tailored remote learning based on the needs of their communities.

Megan Martinez, principal of Deane, said that teachers have changed their practices over the last two months to better accommodate students. That means them making flexible arrangements for supporting and tracking the work of students with paper packets, changing their availability based on when students are more likely to be online, and creating multiple ways for students to be counted as present.

“As our students are able to connect with their peers and their teachers, we’re seeing more engagement,” Martinez said.

Jessica Hernandez, a parent of two Deane students, said remote learning has gone well. The teachers have been available any time she or her kids have had a question.

But, she said, she’s lucky that she’s able to stay home.

“It’s not an easy situation,” Hernandez said. “It’s not like they’re going to naturally say they want to do their work on their own. It’s always a team effort between students, parents and teachers.”

Hernandez said her biggest challenge in helping her children is not being able to speak English. Her children, a kindergartener and a second grader, both have learned English, she said, and they continue receiving language support, but she worries that she doesn’t pronounce English properly to model it for them.

“They learned a lot more English in school,” Hernandez said.

At Mortensen, Principal Karla Hankins said that when remote learning started, “It was like let’s just give the kids some purposeful learning and we’ll catch them up later.”

But as it became clear that the school buildings would remain closed for an extended time, Hankins changed her thinking.

“We have to actually teach the content we were going to teach,” Hankins said. “We can’t not teach them and then have two months of significant learning gaps.”

Hankins said teachers have been learning new features of their online tools to help with video instruction, such as being able to mute all students while the teacher is giving a lesson, and then opening up the mics to allow discussions.

In April, Jeffco also released broad guidance about attendance. Schools were to track student engagement daily, but it would only get entered into the district’s system weekly. That gave schools time to reach out to students before having to mark someone absent. Schools had flexibility in what they counted as engaged.

At Mortensen, students answer a daily question by 9:30 a.m. If they don’t, teachers reach out to families and can then accept late submissions or other work to count a student as engaged.

“We’re trying to give the parents, we call it giving them some grace,” Hankins said. “Bless their hearts, they’re not teachers. They’re trying to figure it out.”

Approximately 80% of students are “rising to the occasion” Hankins said, engaged daily and turning in high-quality work. Another 15% are engaged on a less active basis, while about 5%, or fewer than 20 students, have been unengaged. She said that includes some families that moved out of the district.

At Deane, students fill out an online attendance form just to check in. If they don’t fill that out, a teacher can also count other forms of engagement like answering a daily question, turning in assignments, or participating in a community circle video call.

“We know there are so many different factors and things that our families are dealing with,” Martinez said.

Older students are trying to take care of younger students, families still have unreliable internet, and some students may only be able to do work when parents are home from work.

Deane has had its best engagement in the last couple of weeks, Martinez said, with just about 2% of the school’s approximate 415 students counted as not engaged. Typically, Glass said low-income schools have faced more challenges in getting high engagement and not all have been successful.

Glass said many Jeffco schools have taken an approach similar to Deane’s. Many started remote learning trying to recreate school, but then realized they had to balance being available for students while also giving them flexibility in how and when they could do the work.

One factor that was top of mind for both principals was continuing relationships with students and families.

That’s why Hankins started sending out a recorded phone message with the morning announcements. In late April, she also started doing virtual Friday assemblies. And the school has spirit week activities including some that had neighborhood participation, like when students were told to count teddy bears in windows during an outdoor walk.

Martinez is doing weekly announcements through video shared on Fridays, including one recorded in Spanish. She also hosted some virtual parent meet-ups and the school is putting together a virtual talent show.

Parents say they have appreciated all of the communication with their schools.

Hernandez said her two kids have sent voice messages to their teachers, and love when they get to participate in live video calls where they can interact with their teacher and classmates — once a week for the kindergartner, and twice a week for the second grader.

“They’re fascinated by that,” Hernandez said. “They miss their teachers.”

Hernandez said she understands why more live video time is a challenge for some families. She used to work up to three jobs when she raised her first son, also a graduate of Deane and now a student at Metro State University of Denver.

At Mortensen, parent Roni Schad has been so grateful for how her school managed remote learning that she planned multiple activities for teacher appreciation week. On the final day, she organized a parade. She asked teachers to stand outside the school so students could drive by and wave and thank them.

She expected a few cars and a few teachers, but turnout far exceeded expectations.

“It was really touching,” Schad said. “It was a really good way to not only bring the school together but also make sure the teachers knew how much we appreciated them.”

Schad said many younger students, including her daughter Ylena, have been confused by all of the disruption this year. But it helped to see the teachers at the school.

She said, “It helped to end the year on a high note.”

Aurora postpones facility decisions as pandemic creates uncertainty in enrollment trends

2020-05-14T23:53:30+00:00

The current pandemic has delayed Aurora’s plan for moving, merging, opening, and closing schools to accommodate shifting enrollment.

Officials who have been mapping out options with community groups had expected to present a plan to the school board this spring. But now they don’t know how the growing economic recession will change the population of Aurora and enrollment in district schools.

The plan known as Blueprint APS had been in the works for more than two years and was intended to help make decisions about schools that should merge, schools that might be put to a different use, and new schools that could locate in the part of the district that is expanding.

Aurora has been experiencing uneven shifts, with low-income families leaving the western part of the city bordering Denver, and growth in the east, where new homes have been built.

But the coronavirus has made planning difficult for all Colorado school districts.

Josh Hensley, Aurora’s planning coordinator, said it’s too early to know whether enrollment in Aurora Public Schools will continue to decline, or if development projects planned in the east will still move forward.

Evidence points in opposite directions, he told the school board this week.

Developers have told school leaders they remain optimistic. City officials said no projects have been suspended yet.

Some school leaders said they’ve heard anecdotally that families are leaving the district. Much of Aurora’s population is employed in some of the hardest-hit job sectors, Hensley said.

“Most of the growth that has occurred, to the extent that we’ve had new population and enrollment growth in the metro area, has been from families moving in to take advantage of the strong Colorado and Denver job market,” Hensley said. “If there’s no longer that draw in the future, that could potentially impact the number of students we will serve.”

But Hensley also pointed out that Aurora once attracted families seeking affordable alternatives to Denver and other communities. That could be the case again, he said.

Changes in either direction could affect the district’s building recommendations. Other factors that could play a role are budget considerations and health guidelines for reopening schools.

The district had already discussed how expensive it can be to run small schools as enrollment declines. Now school districts are facing huge, previously unexpected budget cuts, and some are already looking at selling unused buildings.

Health guidelines, specifically those limiting how many people may be in a room at the same time, are affecting how districts plan to reopen schools. As other district leaders have noted, districts may need all the building space they can get to be able to spread out students when they return to buildings. Aurora has not released details of its fall plans, but is working with the other metro area districts.

So far, Aurora leaders are proposing three plans depending on how many students enroll this fall.

Generally, the district would craft recommendations from August to December, but if enrollment is significantly lower than expected, the district would have to convert more schools or parts of schools than expected for non-classroom use.

In that scenario, the district may also speed up those changes, potentially closing and merging schools by fall of the 2021-22 school year. The district may also start the process to identify more school buildings, in areas not yet under consideration, that need to be repurposed.

The district also might speed up or slow down plans for building a new school and for identifying a location for it, depending on enrollment changes.

Jeffco school district mulls hybrid learning for this fall

2020-05-14T01:01:32+00:00

Next fall, Jeffco students could choose to go to school part time and spend other days learning at home. Or they could choose to learn entirely from home, as outlined in a draft released Wednesday.

School districts around the metro area are considering a hybrid approach to learning in the fall, as they deal with uncertainty about the ongoing threat from coronavirus. The Jeffco district is looking to get feedback that will inform its own plans and those of neighboring districts.

Officials also want to give the community time to process big changes.

“It’s a very different structure than the school we left,” Superintendent Jason Glass told the Jeffco school board Wednesday morning.

As they develop their plans, school districts have to keep class sizes below the 10-person limit currently recommended by public health authorities and must allow space for social distancing while using their same school buildings. At the same time, schools may have to cut staff as they deal with budget reductions, and face further limitations as some teachers and staff members with health conditions or vulnerable family members might be reluctant to return to work.

School leaders from 16 metro area school districts have been meeting at least weekly to share ideas and coordinate. Denver metro area school and public health leaders have coordinated other decisions during this pandemic, ahead of state guidance, such as the decision to keep school buildings closed for the rest of this school year.

“A lot of it comes out of a recognition that we have a lot of staff that have kids in different districts than where they live,” Glass said. “If we end up with systems that don’t work well together you can have an employee who has a kid that has to be at home the same day that they have to be at work and we’ve created a real hardship on them.”

“There will be an effort to try and align all of those efforts,” Glass said. “We’ll see if we can get that done.”

Other school district leaders have mentioned hybrid models but have been vague with details. The Denver school district said it was planning for a mix of online and in-person instruction and put out a survey for parents and the community.

Westminster Superintendent Pam Swanson talked about regional coordination at a recent meeting, noting, “We’re all trying to help each other out.” At the same time, she said, Westminster must figure out “what might best fit our community,” based in part on the information gathered from a survey.

Jeffco is the first to share more details about what those hybrid models might look like, although it still includes a lot of unknowns. Employee groups will provide feedback first. Next week, the updated draft plan will be sent out to the school community, along with a survey for feedback.

A final plan would be published in July. Jeffco’s first day of school is Aug. 18.

The draft plan envisions using school lunchrooms and large areas not for student gatherings, but possibly as extra classrooms. Students would get breakfast and lunch in their classrooms. For students who stay on remote learning, the district would continue its grab-and-go meal distribution.

The district is still deciding whether to require masks for students and staff, but is likely to make them mandatory at least when people are around others.

Temperature checks, stepped up cleaning procedures, and hand washing would also become a part of the school day.

Based on the details shared with the school board, the plan includes three possible schedules for what a hybrid model might be. All three assume that students would be divided into groups and take turns going to school one day a week. Students would be divided either into two groups, three groups, or four, to rotate going into school on one day of the week.

Jeffco board member Brad Rupert questioned how that would impact families who are returning to work.

“If we are talking about changing society from having most children occupied five days a week to having most children occupied out of the home one day a week — that is a big deal,” Rupert said.

Depending on how many students choose to come into school at all, those students might be able to come more often.

Jeffco leaders said they will survey families and teachers about what model they would choose, but have not decided on when that will happen. School board members pushed back on the 10-person cap and lamented its limitations.

District leaders said it’s possible that guidance of 10 could change in the next two months, but Glass also said it’s possible that throughout the school year, those rules could change more than once. For now, it’s how districts must plan.

“We want to create the opportunity for our students to be in our schools,” said Kristopher Schuh, Jeffco’s deputy superintendent, and chief of secondary schools. But, he added, “We simply cannot bring all of our students back to our schools at this time.”

Jeffco leaders also described some flexibilities for staff. For instance, if few students at a school want to do the hybrid model, there may be opportunities for staff to choose to work remotely, or for them to be in the school buildings.

But as school districts also grapple with the prospect of huge budget cuts, that may mean staffing cuts, and so the model also could mean more responsibilities for teachers.

“As teachers are teaching during the day they’re teaching the students in front of them, they also have to be aware of and engaging those students who are in the remote environment,” Schuh said.

For that reason, the three hybrid schedules allow for at least one day that is dedicated to remote learning for everyone. Two of the hybrid schedules also give teachers a day just for training and planning.

Glass told board members that in-person learning days would most likely be reserved for more targeted help.

“We will not be able to execute a model where students are coming in and receiving direct instruction on only the day that they have in school,” Glass said. “Otherwise we’d have to cut the curriculum that’s covered down to a fourth of what needs to be covered.”

Jeffco respondents approve of remote learning, survey shows

2020-05-08T23:50:24+00:00

Learning from home is more difficult for families than for students, teachers are connecting with students through assignments more than for social and emotional needs, and students said their biggest challenge is worrying about non-school problems.

Those were just some of the takeaways from a Jeffco Public Schools survey of students, parents, and educators in the first week of April after starting remote learning. Results of the survey, taken from April 3-10, were presented to the Jeffco school board Thursday night.

The results have been used to inform teacher training, school outreach, and now plans for the fall.

Superintendent Jason Glass did not offer details about fall plans Thursday but told the board the district is planning for some in-person instruction as well as remote learning He expects that students may have to move from one form of learning to the other.

Continuing surveys will help the district determine what is working and what is not.

“We should continue this sort of ongoing analysis to see how we’re doing and how we could improve,” Glass said.

On Thursday, officials reminded the board that the survey responses weren’t completely representative of the district. For example, the survey was only provided online, though it was mobile friendly, so could have excluded some families without that access.

Of the parents who responded, just 12% indicated their children qualified for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty, while the district has about 31% of such students.

In general, most of the respondents had positive things to say about remote learning, and a large majority of families, students and educators said remote learning should continue.

The district has used the survey to reach out immediately to students who indicated that they were struggling and wanted to talk to someone.

Of 11,259 students who responded — most of whom were high school students — 390 or about 4% were flagged after responding that they were struggling and wanted to talk to someone, in response to a question about how they were feeling that week.

District officials sent those names to their respective principals and asked them to reach out.

Dan Cohen, one of the district’s community superintendents, said many principals found that the data validated how they were already tracking students at the school level.

“They were already on track with trying to engage these students who were recorded as really struggling with the remote learning environment,” Cohen said. “They were already working to engage those students.”

In some cases, reaching out to those students required community partners such as law enforcement, Cohen said. The schools have now been in contact with nearly all students.

Schools are tracking contacts with students each week, Glass said, and districtwide engagement is improving.

“Sometimes it’s been a struggle,” Cohen said. “At least they’re able to get kids engaged. Students may not be 100% engaged but at least now we are in contact with that student.”

A second survey, with the same questions, closed Sunday and district officials are analyzing that data to see how it compares with the first wave of results. In the next batch of data, officials will also break down responses by demographic subgroups.

The district initially planned for a third distribution of the survey, but is considering whether or not it is necessary, or if it would need to change.

With virtual school, this Colorado school psychologist witnessed a student’s transformation

2020-04-27T19:42:02+00:00

After coronavirus sidelined in-person learning this spring, school psychologist Brittany Greiert discovered a new side to a normally reserved boy she’d worked with for years.

He was open and funny during their online chats, quick to share his ideas and fill her in on his academic accomplishments.

“I have learned a whole new way to connect with one of my students,” said Greiert, who works at Boston P-8 School in Aurora.

Now, she plans to use such tech-based strategies even when face-to-face learning resumes.

Greiert, who was recently named School Psychologist of the Year by the Colorado Society of School Psychologists, talked with Chalkbeat about her pivot to remote learning, her efforts to track down hard-to-reach students, and the advice she has for children and adults.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you become a school psychologist?

I always knew that I wanted to be a psychologist, but it wasn’t until I was volunteering at a suicide hotline that I knew that school psychology was the path for me. I spoke to a lot of youth callers, and I was always shocked to hear how many young people didn’t feel that they had anyone they could talk to during their dark moments.

Tell us how you’re doing your job remotely since schools closed because of the pandemic.

I am a member of the administrative team, the mental health team, and the special education team. I have approximately 30 students on my special education caseload whom I provide mental health services to during the school year. Remotely, I am doing video chats, phone calls, or messages on Google Hangouts with my students, and also reaching out to their families weekly to see how everyone is doing.

I have developed a specific home program for each of my students so that they can continue to work on their social emotional goals. I hold office hours daily so that anyone from our school community can reach out with mental health concerns. Additionally, I am on the district crisis team and have provided crisis counseling to students during the current school closure.

Is there any student on your special education caseload that you’ve had a hard time reaching or not been able to reach at all? How did you handle this?

Yes, there have been challenges with a few students, but we continue to problem solve with those families. We’ve tried various methods of contact such as texting through platforms such as TalkingPoints, which provides translation from English to other languages, making phone calls via Google Hangouts, and sending emails. We also collaborate with other staff members in the building who may have had contact with families. We’ve reached almost all of our families at this point.

Tell us about a recent interaction with a student or fellow staff member that gave you hope that we’ll get through this turmoil.

There is one student I have worked with for five years who receives special education services for an autism spectrum disorder. This student has always been rather reserved and it has been difficult to get him to open up and talk when I have worked with him individually or in small groups.

Since moving to remote learning, my check-ins with this student have been through the Google Hangouts chat function and I feel like I am talking with a whole new student. He is willing to share his thoughts, ideas, humor, and big personality through messaging. He messages me every day to tell me when he has finished his math or literacy lesson and tells me how proud he is of himself. I have had more in-depth conversations with this student remotely than I have ever had face-to-face.

When I recently did a video chat with this student he froze up and did not want to respond or speak on the video. Once I told him that he could use the chat function to type his responses to me, we have been able to talk through his worries, things he is looking forward to, and things he is proud of. I have seen him work incredibly hard to reach out and form social connections using technology. I am so excited to use some of the new technological resources once we are back to face-to-face learning to help my students feel confident and successful.

What advice would you give to students to help them cope during this period? What about parents?

For my students, I would tell them there is no right or wrong way to feel. There might be days you feel happy, bored, angry, sad, or overwhelmed and all of those feelings are OK to have. Think about things that have helped you feel better in the past — listening to music, drawing, writing in a journal, playing with a pet — and try using those coping skills when you’re having a hard time.

To parents I would say to give yourself grace, kindness, and love. There is a lot to navigate emotionally, physically, financially, educationally, and health-wise. Take everything one day at a time and know that we are all in this together.

What is the hardest part of your job since schools have closed this spring?

Special education has been incredibly difficult to navigate through remote learning. There are so many federal and state laws and district policies that were not written with a national or state shutdown in mind.

Questions are arising across Colorado and the nation about the validity of remote assessment when conducting special education evaluations, how timelines are impacted, how to provide equitable remote services to students with disabilities, how to provide compensatory services for missed services when school resumes. The list goes on and on.

You spend your days trying to help students and staff. How do you wind down after a stressful day — especially now?

I do not try to set lofty expectations of myself. I don’t expect to come out of this with a brand new workout routine, having learned a new language, or having read 20 new books. I try to take each day as it comes and cherish the little moments — whether that is taking a quiet walk with my dog or laughing with my family.

I have a 6-month-old daughter at home and I wasn’t expecting to get to spend so much time with her during her first year. I’ve been trying to pause and find ways to appreciate the rareness of a forced slowdown and to focus my energy and attention on parts of my life that I used to not notice, or let pass by in a whirlwind as I rushed to the next thing.

This Aurora school held a virtual pep rally to keep its school culture alive

2020-04-16T23:59:10+00:00

When students used to walk to Aurora’s Paris Elementary, the principal and other staff greeted them to music at the entrance. A weekly assembly like a pep rally, recognition of students and staff, and reminders of school values — all contributed to creating supportive enthusiasm at school.

“It’s that spirit of we love you, we see you,” said Susan Gershwin, community school coordinator. “That’s just our school culture, so it’s like, now how do we carry that on?”

Now that school buildings have been closed for the rest of the school year in Aurora, Paris leaders are trying to bring back some of that feeling.

Paris is wrestling with the same challenges that face many schools that serve students from low-income households. Educators are trying to create ways for families to continue to feel connected to the school, reaching out by calling and texting, and trying to recreate parent groups and after-school student activities in a virtual space. Invigorating students about school has been one of Paris’ strategies to boost achievement.

Last Friday, the school tried its first virtual assembly on Google Hangouts.

“We have had such a large number of requests,” Principal Antonio Vigil said. “Our scholars and families are really desiring an attempt to connect.”

The 30-minute video call had more than 130 students and staff members. There were some glitches. Teachers had to call out individual students to mute, but not all knew how. The principal accidentally muted himself at the start. Were the unfamiliar names trying to join the call strangers or maybe students using a parent’s Google account? And when everyone had their mics on, kids complained about the bad audio.

Still, students chanted together, reminding each other to “never give up,” “always do your best,” and to keep trying to “grow my brain.” Each grade level recognized a student participating in remote learning.

Usually, students recognized in the school assemblies get a gift like a school T-shirt. On Friday, the students who were recognized got a bigger surprise. The school ordered pizza for their whole family that night.

Paris Elementary serves about 340 students, where 98% qualify for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty. More than 75% of the students are learning English as a second language.

“Our families, particularly in northwest Aurora, they are incredibly resilient, they are problem solvers,” Vigil said. “And they are struggling mightily.”

Gershwin said many parents have lost work hours or been laid off. When she connects with families, the most common concerns she hears are keeping food on the table, or figuring out how to pay rent.

Gershwin and others at the school connect families to resources. Vigil is creating school guides and procedures for how, and when a teacher should flag Gershwin, a school mental health professional, or other staff providing support to a student who might need help. One staff member had to call 911 recently to help a parent who was “in a very dangerous situation” during a check-in call.

“Many of our families are under duress right now and that directly is really going to disrupt that trajectory for learning,” Vigil said.

Paris was one of the district’s lowest performing schools, but has recently been improving. Vigil was sure this was going to be the year that the school would move into “performance” — the state rating level that demonstrates a school is meeting expectations.

But state tests aren’t happening this year, and the state won’t issue ratings. Vigil now worries if that growth students have been demonstrating can continue despite the current crisis.

“We’re trying to calibrate already for next year,” Vigil said. Gaps between students will widen, he said.

Paris is one of five schools in Aurora’s “innovation zone,” which means it has unique flexibility to do things differently from the district. This year, each school in the zone, for instance, has a school coordinator, like Gershwin at Paris, working to engage families.

With its flexibility, Paris was already planning a slightly longer school day next year, which might help catch kids up, Vigil said. He’s also considering tutoring sessions on weekends.

The district is pointing its elementary students to online resources for literacy and math lessons. Paris is also using the website as a resource, but teachers at Paris are using their own platforms to assign work to students.

Every morning they do a virtual group call to check in.

Nanci Romano, a fifth grade math teacher at Paris, said approximately nine of her 22 students join that daily morning call. The number has slowly been growing.

Throughout the day she is available for student questions, including office hours when she’s available on a virtual Google call again. And twice a week she sends out videos of how to solve math problems.

As is happening across the district, Paris teachers aren’t entering grades for students during this remote learning time, but are providing feedback on work students turn in, and are keeping track of whether students are improving, or falling behind.

Romano said she is seeing some students improve from where they left off.

“I’m personally not worried about it because the growth I saw last year was really quite incredible,” Romano said.

In her 14 years of teaching, she had not seen students make the progress her students at Paris have been making. And she said the urgency to make sure students progress is the same online as it is in person.

“It’s always a No. 1 priority,” Romano said.

The first phase has been removing barriers for families to participate in online learning. In the first two weeks of school buildings being closed, staff reached out to all but 25 families to ask about their needs. “Through the grapevine,” Vigil said, staff have heard it’s possible those families had to leave the city.

Now, about 42% of students have been engaging in online learning.

Families have said they face other barriers, including access to technology and to the internet.

The district’s distribution of laptops and devices left just 25 Paris students without a device this week. Wednesday the school received permission to personally deliver devices, while practicing safe distancing, to those families.

Gershwin is also working this week to get the school’s Parents in Action group meeting as a virtual support group, and also to restart a student group run by Aurora Mental Health Center. She’s also trying to partner with other organizations offering student activities. The city’s poet laureate, for instance, will have a poetry reading for students and Gershwin will offer the opportunity to Paris students who want more activities to do at home.

“It’s about communicating that love and care,” Gershwin said.

At the end of the assembly last Friday, the Paris staff sang Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” reminding students that “you can still lean on one another” for help.

“We’re always optimistic,” Vigil said. “Our young people need to see us completely personifying that.”

Just before everyone said goodbye, Mr. V asked students if they wanted to have an assembly again in a week. “Oh, yeah,” students said.

In Aurora online learning, students and parents are missing the teacher connection and support

2020-04-14T19:20:00+00:00

When Esther Maynez started remote learning in Aurora, she saw some communication that her three children, in elementary and middle school, would not get graded.

But as she’s been helping her children do online assignments from home, the programs are measuring her childrens’ progress as each task is completed. Each day, a tracker for her middle school kids restarts and requires at least 20% of their daily points to avoid failing. That takes hours of work per subject, she said.

The one day her son said he would skip the literacy work because he was overwhelmed, Maynez got an email from his teacher saying that he was falling behind. When she responded to ask for clarification on whether it mattered for his grades, the teacher didn’t respond.

“They had good grades in school,” Maynez said. “Now I don’t know how this is going to affect them. Everyday they add more and more. They are falling behind.”

As school districts transition to remote learning while school buildings remain closed to slow the spread of COVID-19, officials say it can take weeks to get everyone on pace. Districts have been handing out technology devices and trying to help families access the internet — two large barriers to remote engagement. But another large barrier that community members in Aurora have cited is communication.

“Parents don’t even know yet what this e-learning is going to look like,” said Papa Dia, executive director of the African Leadership Group, which works with immigrant families in Denver and Aurora. “Many communications did not get to the parents. It’s sent out in email, and it’s in English.”

District officials have translated many of their communications into at least the top 10 languages, but the district serves a population that speaks more than 100 languages.

In describing the district’s remote learning plan to the school board and to Chalkbeat, officials have said the focus is on “access” for elementary and middle school students. The district created a website where parents can find lessons and work for their kids. In elementary, it’s primarily for reading and math. Middle schoolers have more courses.

Guidance for teachers in elementary and middle school is that they are not expected to deliver instruction. Instead, teachers are supposed to monitor that their students are engaging with the systems that the district has pointed students to, offer feedback, and be available to connect during the day.

It’s different for high school students. To keep earning credits to meet graduation requirements, students must take an online version of classes through Edgenuity. That’s an online platform the district already was using for credit recovery. Some high school students have “performance tasks” they must complete and turn in to their teachers for credit. District officials, not teachers, designed most of those tasks.

It’s a plan that accounts for the vast diversity of the Aurora Public Schools district. Approximately 74% of the 40,000 students in the district qualify for free and reduced price lunches, a measure of poverty.

Kevin Riebau, the district’s learning resources director, said one focus on the plan was on human connections.

“It was really important to us in developing our remote learning plan to make sure the human relationship was addressed,” Riebau said. “With such a disruptive thing happening here, it’s causing people to be isolated. We don’t want our families and our teachers to feel isolated through this.”

The district expects teachers to reach out to students. It’s described as a daily connection circle. Schools already had those when students were meeting in person. Now that learning is online, officials say they haven’t prescribed what those connections look like.

Maynez said her fourth grader gets on a Zoom call with her classmates and teacher every morning. The teacher asks how everyone’s doing, and then tells them what they should be working on from the district website that day.

“If they would have done some videos or classroom instruction, since they’re already on a video call, it would have been much easier than just saying you’ve got to go into that website,” Maynez said.

Shirnae Mackey, a parent of a seventh grader in Aurora, also said she wishes there were more instruction from teachers.

“I can’t help my daughter; we didn’t learn math the same way they’re learning now,” Mackey said. “There’s barely any interaction with the teachers. That can be overwhelming.”

At a board meeting last week, officials told the Aurora school board that after the first week of remote learning, fewer than 50% of elementary students, about 78% of middle school students, and 82% of high school students have been logging on.

Technology is part of the problem, though district officials have said the majority of the need has been met. The district has handed out more than 15,000 devices.

Dia said the African Leadership Group has been in touch with some families who didn’t know the district was handing out devices for students. Other families, culturally, he said, didn’t feel it was appropriate to be seen taking a handout from the district.

Dia’s group raised money to buy about 15 Chromebooks and delivered them to families. His team has also gone into homes to help parents set them up and learn how to use them.

“I am extremely overwhelmed with requests from families,” Dia said. “As an organization if we want something done, we find a way to get it done ourselves.”

Anne Keke, an Aurora parent and charter school teacher working with Dia, said the group has also started offering virtual tutoring sessions for students who need more support than their teachers or parents may be providing.

“Right now it’s, ‘here is the online link go and do X, Y, and Z. That’s your assignment,’” Keke said. “That’s great but where is the teacher contact? Students have been used to seeing their teacher every day and now nothing. All it is is an email and message.”

Keke and Dia suggest that teachers need to be more proactive in reaching families and students to better gauge their home situation and their comprehension of the expectations.

“As an educator, I know this work is hard,” Keke said. “We have so much on our plate right now but if we want to do remote learning, we can’t do it halfway.”

High school students say their work is boring and that asking their teachers questions by email isn’t ideal.

“It’s very obnoxious to do,” said Diego Angeles, a 10th grader in Aurora. “It’s just boring and bland. I don’t think I’m learning.”

Angeles said he had two teachers who had mentored him, but he hasn’t heard from them since remote learning started. When he does email a teacher with a question about his work, he said he may not get an answer for two hours, by which time he’s already working on something else.

Ashley Garcia, a junior at Aurora’s Gateway High School, said she’s worried about falling behind in her rigorous International Baccalaureate classes.

“It’s kind of disappointing, I don’t feel like I’m being prepared,” Garcia said.

Angeles, Garcia, and other students have also said they’re unclear about how their teachers will issue grades and what will end up going on their transcripts. District guidance notes high school students will receive grades, but they can not receive a grade lower than their third quarter grade before the shut down.

Aurora officials designed the district’s remote learning plan before knowing how long it would be necessary. Superintendent Rico Munn told the board last week that after he decided to keep buildings closed through the end of the school year, it gave officials an opportunity to “really dig into our remote learning to support our students in a strong and healthy way.”

Starla Pearson, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, said the plan is designed in a way that it can go through the end of the year, but said it can also be changed as the district teams are meeting virtually daily, to evaluate how it’s working.

So far, changes haven’t been made. What will success look like?

“We want students to continue to feel safe and cared for,” Pearson said. “This plan can continue to help students grow academically. The end goal is that our students don’t lose ground.”

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that most, but not all, performance tasks were created by district officials.

‘Not the only one’: Colorado teachers of color push for diversifying educator ranks

2020-04-09T23:45:23+00:00

At the start of one semester, Leilani Gomez, a high school senior in Aurora, was shocked when her white teacher introduced herself.

“She told us we had to respect her, because we were receiving an opportunity to learn from her, and said a lot of students ‘like us’ don’t have that opportunity,” Gomez recalled. “I think she made it obvious that she thought she was better than us.”

Students stopped listening to her. Many didn’t show up to class. Students complained to school leadership, and eventually the teacher was gone.

Instead, Gomez said, she wishes she would have had more opportunities to learn from teachers of color. In four years of high school, she recalls having just two teachers of color.

“It was cool,” Gomez said. “It kind of felt like we had a space to talk to each other about anything. She was willing to be like ‘oh I know what you mean.’ It was almost a sense of comfort.”

Experiences like that are one reason educators of color in some of Colorado’s largest districts have called on officials to do more to diversify school staff.

But Colorado’s teachers largely don’t look like the students they serve and the gap has mostly stayed the same for five years. District policies don’t easily translate to practice in part because hiring decisions are left up to principals, and educators of color have higher attrition rates.

Research has shown that students of color can benefit from having teachers of color.

Students of color describe white teachers who didn’t push them. Others had teachers who criticized their ideas, not their work. And students say they relate to their lessons differently when they have a teacher of color. Diversifying school staff also exposes all students to broader perspectives.

Educators say that increasing diversity will also help engage more students, which can ultimately help improve learning, achievement, and other outcomes.

Teachers say the culture of schools — including how staff are trained to be culturally responsive and how curriculum is chosen or delivered — has a lot to do with whether diverse educators stay in the long run.

In Denver, Jeffco, and Aurora, educators who felt isolated and unsupported by their district have found a place to connect through their unions.

A group of teachers in Denver, the largest district in the state, is pushing the district to do more to address systemic racism, including by hiring more teachers of color. The district is trying to respond.

Recently, union leaders in Jeffco, a geographically large district that encompasses both wealthy mountain suburbs as well as low-income neighborhoods bordering Denver, criticized the district, pointing out that the number of educators of color has stayed flat. District officials there say they have been stepping up efforts in the last year.

In Aurora, an urban district that serves one of the most diverse student populations in the state including several immigrant and refugee communities, the school board approved a resolution in February, but teachers want more action.

“Thank you to the board for even coming up with the resolution,” said Beverly Cosey, an Aurora educator. But, she added, “we have to have a better plan.”

Cielo Valdez Xolot, a freshman high school student in Aurora, said she only recently learned, from a teacher of color, a more complete account of the things Christopher Columbus did besides landing in North America, such as his treatment of natives.

“I feel that’s disappointing,” Valdez Xolot said. “I’ve been living my life thinking he was a very good person.”

🔗Similar approaches

Educator diversity is an issue state lawmakers also wanted to tackle this year. A bill making its way through the legislature would create a group to study the obstacles that teachers of color face to entering or staying in the profession.

Pamelagrace Okeke, a social worker in Jeffco, who said she’s always the only black educator in the schools where she works, said it’s difficult to be the only different voice.

“I feel very isolated here,” Okeke said. “The only reason I’m still here is for the kids.”

But it’s also the hope she said she has received from working with the union for change.

Some of the work districts do to recruit and retain teachers of color is similar across the five largest districts in Colorado. That includes going out of state to job fairs at universities with education programs, including those that are historically black colleges or universities or Hispanic serving institutions, and expanding student teaching opportunities or grow-your-own programs such as those that help paraprofessionals earn a teaching license.

David Bell, Jeffco’s chief human resources officer, said that his district office is stepping up its efforts, in part because principals have been requesting a more diverse candidate pool.

Jeffco took some of its educators of color to hiring fairs just last year, and is creating partnerships with university programs. While it’s a common practice, it’s new for Jeffco which previously had limited visits, and mostly phone calls, Bell said.

“It’s really kind of a long game,” Bell said.

One unique thing Jeffco cited is that Bell’s team is also helping principals better describe their schools on job listings so that candidates know more about the schools they apply to.

The Jeffco teachers union set a goal to increase diversity three years ago. Union President John Ford said the gap between the percentage of students and the percentage of educators of color is “glaring.” He said the association recognized that in order to improve educational outcomes for all students, teachers and other school staff needed to be more diverse.

The union brought together educators of color to identify the problems and possible solutions and started discussions with the district last year.

“Over the course of that year nothing really changed,” Ford said. “So this year we’ve pushed the district harder than we ever have to recognize the problem and start to address it.”

That doesn’t mean he blames the district, Ford said. That’s why the union is also working on figuring out how to help.

“We need to give people of color a space to be leaders and to promote public education,” Ford said. “Historically I don’t know if we’ve done that. That’s kind of the biggest thing we’re working toward right now. We’re creating a space for conversations to happen through our association.”

The union created a scholarship this year for a Jeffco student interested in teaching. The scholarship will be named after Shermita West, a former Jeffco teacher who became the first African American president of the Jeffco teachers union in the ’90s.

🔗Denver efforts

In Denver Public Schools, “one of the things that we all know is what gets measured gets done,” June Taylor, chief human resources officer, told the school board recently.

She said that she appreciates district leaders making internal recruitment and retention goals public this year. “It’s really important to the work that we’re doing.”

Denver’s efforts to retain educators of color include the creation of nine groups, including groups focused on black employees, Hispanic employees, and LGBTQ employees. The district also has a teacher-to-teacher mentoring program called “Reach One” that pairs veteran teachers of color with newer teachers of color.

“We know it’s not just enough to recruit educators of color, but we have to be intentional about giving them a place where they know that they belong,” said Danielle Harris, Denver’s senior manager of equity initiatives.

Claudia Oltalvaro is a fourth-grade teacher in the program. It’s her second year teaching in Denver.

“New beginnings are not easy,” Oltalvaro told the school board. “In my case, I have to adapt to a new city, to a new school system, to a new curriculum. … It was so nice to know that I wasn’t alone. I have a great mentor.”

Denver Principal David Adams has gone on out-of-state recruiting trips and recently hosted paraprofessionals and others considering teaching careers at his school during the district’s “Success by Design” event. He urged district leaders to move beyond the mindset that schools need teachers of color because they serve students of color.

“We need teachers of color for all of our kids,” he said.

He told a story about one of his first students, who was white and from an upper-middle-class family.

“This young man said to his mother, ‘Mr. Adams is not like the other black people we see on TV,'” Adams said. “I was able to debunk what he saw in media and how media portray African Americans. That’s why this is so powerful.”

🔗Resolution in Aurora

In Aurora, teacher Carlos Valdez has been speaking to the school board since December when he heard that it was planning a resolution to require the district to do more to hire and retain teachers like him.

Valdez, who grew up in Aurora, said that his first teaching job was at an Aurora middle school where he was the only teacher of color.

“It was very depressing at times,” he said. “My experience didn’t really resonate with a lot of teachers. I felt more and more like an “other.””

After two years he switched jobs. Now, as a high school history teacher, he said that what has kept him in the district is having the teaching freedom to weave multiple cultures and perspectives into his curriculum.

So when he heard that one of the district’s newest school board members suggested a resolution requiring the district to step up its efforts, he was nervously excited. The board debated the resolution for months and eventually approved a simplified draft that asks the district to prioritize the development of teachers of color with differentiated professional development.

Jessica Spizzandre, an elementary teacher in Aurora, said she’s glad the language was simplified, so that officials can listen to the educators of color in the district first, before prescribing a solution.

“There’s a lot to it,” Spizzandre said.

Valdez also told the school board that a “white supremacy culture” lurks in the district that needs to be called out and addressed. As an example, he said, a teacher in his school has used a derogatory term about a student and continues to work.

“I cannot imagine increasing test scores in my building when we have stuff like that happening,” Valdez said. “So we need a plan. And I would love to have teachers be a part of shaping that plan.”

Robert Maxson, Aurora’s coordinator of talent acquisition and retention, said that in an effort to improve hiring and retention, Aurora conducts focus groups with its educators of color and exit surveys with those who choose to leave.

🔗Attraction of diversity

In asking current educators what they like about working in the district, Maxson said a common answer is the diversity that exists in the community.

Another priority the Aurora district has had is to increase principal diversity in schools. Many surveys and studies show that school leadership is a big factor in retention of all teachers.

“We are committed to meeting the needs of our diverse workforce,” Maxson said.

Gomez, the Aurora high school student, said she is planning to go to college to study music education. One day, she wants to be able to return to a diverse community like Aurora’s to teach students of color.

But, she knows she faces challenges, and she worries that she’ll end up being the only teacher of color at a school.

“I’m very scared of that,” she said. “A lot of the times when we talk to a teacher of color they’re the only ones who know where we’re coming from.”

Gomez said she has seen how those teachers get treated when they try to elevate their students’ concerns.

“They kind of treat them as though they are a student too and don’t know what they’re talking about,” Gomez said. “I’m going to try to make it work, but I do worry they’re going to doubt me just because they are not used to seeing people like me doing the job.”

Chalkbeat reporter Melanie Asmar contributed to this report.

Here’s how you can stay informed about what your school board is doing as they meet virtually

2020-04-07T00:57:43+00:00

With Colorado under shut in orders, local elected bodies are changing how they conduct public business.

In most cases, local school boards are no longer hosting a time to hear public comment during their virtual meetings, instead suggesting that public feedback be submitted in writing, and because of the emergency situation, several districts are changing meeting schedules, making it potentially tricky for the public to keep up.

But Colorado’s open meetings laws still apply when boards are meeting virtually. Districts must still provide notice of their meetings, and have a way for the public to watch or listen in.

Last month, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition joined several other organizations in signing a national statement asking government bodies to defer making noncritical policy decisions “until full and meaningful public involvement can be guaranteed.”

If business can’t be postponed, the organizations suggest that the public bodies should notify the public and explain how to participate remotely, use technology to maximize “real-time public engagement,” and promptly post the recording of the meeting online.

Several school boards in Colorado already had a way to livestream and post recordings of their meetings online, but even those processes are being adjusted to allow for school board members and the public to participate remotely. At least one district is looking at ways to provide translation during the video meetings, and officials from several others said they are still looking at ways to incorporate public comment.

Aurora school board President Kayla Armstrong-Romero said that the work is “trial and error” just like everything else that has changed in schools these days.

Aurora’s school board was one of the first to have a virtual school board meeting, on March 24. Armstrong-Romero said that the livestream had about 25 people watching — up from three or four during previous livesteams of in-person meetings.

“It’s still not great. None of this has been ideal,” Armstrong-Romero said. “We really want to engage the community, especially now in these uncertain times. If the public has any ideas, please reach out.”

Below, we list some guidance on participating in local school board meetings, as well as the State Board of Education’s meetings and how to watch online.

🔗Denver

The Denver school board typically has three work sessions, one of which is focused on budget issues, and one regular meeting with public comment every month, though the schedule may change during this time. The first one, the finance and audit meeting, is scheduled for April 13. The monthly focus on achievement meeting is scheduled for April 16. The board’s regular work session and regular work meeting are scheduled for April 20 and April 30. District spokesperson Winna Maclaren said the meeting will still have time for public comment, but officials are still determining what that might look like.

For now, the district is encouraging the public to submit written comments, or to follow the board on Facebook, which has been doing live video updates at 10 a.m. daily for the past few weeks. “Anyone watching can submit questions and comments via the chat feature and the BOE and the superintendent are answering them in real time,” Maclaren said.

Public comment: Email board@dpsk12.org

🔗Jeffco

The board had a regular meeting April 2 that was “abbreviated to critical items only,” including a budget presentation and a closed-door executive session about security arrangements.

The next meeting is a study session scheduled for April 8 at 8:30 a.m. and will be livestreamed. The board will receive an update regarding the district’s remote learning work and plans for graduations.

The Jeffco district typically posts written communication to school board members online as part of the public agenda every month, and district officials said that will continue “with the variation that we will add any written comments received up until 3 p.m. … before the meeting.” The district is also looking at ways to post video comments if the board continues to meet remotely in May.

Public comment: Email the board at board@jeffco.k12.co.us. Or send mail to 1829 Denver West Dr., Golden CO 80401. The listing of public correspondence is not discussed as part of the regular business meeting. If addressed to individual board members and not provided to the board office, the correspondence will not be included in the public agenda.

🔗Aurora

The district already held a brief remote board meeting two weeks ago and is scheduled to have another meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. The agenda is full this time with a vote to name a new school, and first readings for several contracts including a proposal to modify a charter school’s contract. The meeting will also include an update on the budget and the district’s response to the health crisis, including the remote learning plan.

Aurora’s school board is encouraging the public to submit written public comments. Those comments will become public when they are posted with the minutes of each meeting, usually about a month after the meeting, but officials said the comments will be available to board members prior to their meeting.

Public comment: Email Claudia Paz-Blossick, assistant to the board of education, at cpaz@aurorak12.org.

🔗Westminster

The Westminster school board cancelled its last regular scheduled meeting and instead has held six special meetings including study sessions and closed-door executive sessions in the last two weeks. Typically the board has two meetings per month. District officials said there is no list people can join to be notified of the meetings, but agendas are posted on the district’s website.

One of the meetings was a question-and-answer virtual town hall meeting. Officials said that the meeting was recorded and will be posted online. The district will also upload a version with Spanish translation, and is looking into simultaneous translation options for future video meetings.

A district spokesman said the district is still figuring out how to incorporate public comment into its regular meetings. The board’s next regular meeting is April 14.

The recording of the Westminster school board’s last regular meeting was posted on the district’s YouTube page, here.

🔗Adams 14

The Adams 14 school board is now livestreaming its board meetings. Previously meetings were recorded and later posted online. Board President Ramona Lewis said the board is having a meeting Wednesday to discuss how to incorporate public comment into its meetings.

At a special meeting last week, a notice at the beginning of the meeting said the district is looking into ways to offer simultaneous Spanish translation, and said that it may at least be that the district would post a Spanish video version of the meetings 24 hours after.

The next regular meeting is April 14.

🔗State Board of Education

The State Board of Education will have a one-day meeting April 8, instead of the typical two-day monthly meeting. One of the first items on the agenda is a vote to suspend the board’s regular operating procedures. There will be no public comment time on the agenda, but the public may submit comments in writing.