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Boulder Valley Board Votes 5-2 to Close Schools Despite Pushback
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Boulder Valley Board Votes 5-2 to Close Schools Despite Pushback

By Sarah Horbacewicz | CBS Colorado The Boulder Valley School District's Board of Education on Tuesday approved a plan to close some schools and consolidate others. The plan that adopts the following changes passed with a 5-2 vote: - Douglass Elementary School (Boulder) will close.- The Community Montessori building in Boulder will close and the program will be moved to the current High Peaks location.- High Peaks (Boulder) will be moved to the Douglass building.- Mesa Elementary School (Boulder) will be closed and it will merge with Bear Creek Elementary School.- Flatirons Elementary School (Boulder) will close and its attendance will be divided between Whittier and Foothills schools.- In Louisville and Superior, Monarch K-8 will transition to a middle school and E...
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Frizell Makes the Case for Education Reform Without Shortchanging Taxpayers
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Frizell Makes the Case for Education Reform Without Shortchanging Taxpayers

By Lisa Frizell | Commentary, Colorado Politics If we truly want to fix Colorado, we must respect taxpayers, demand accountability and prioritize classroom results.  Proposition NN fails the test.  The far left put forth this measure, presenting it as the only way to fund public schools. Colorado voters should look past the title and see what Prop NN really does.  The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights says money collected above the state’s spending cap goes back to the taxpayers. Proposition NN asks voters to increase the spending limitation and lets the state keep all the money above the spending cap, money that would otherwise go back to Colorado families.  The legislature’s nonpartisan staff estimated Proposition NN...
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Jeffco Schools Chief Counsel to Retire During High-Stakes Title IX Fight With Feds
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Jeffco Schools Chief Counsel to Retire During High-Stakes Title IX Fight With Feds

By Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette As Jeffco Public Schools continues to fight a legal battle with the federal government, it will soon be without its top attorney. Julie Tolleson, chief legal counsel for the district, will retire at the end of the current school year, according to a letter sent to district staff Tuesday by interim Superintendent Rob Stein. Tolleson has been known among Jeffco staff as a “common sense” attorney who used her legal expertise to uphold student rights, Stein wrote in the letter. He also praised Tolleson for avoiding “unnecessary controversy” during her tenure. “Julie’s legal acumen will be hard to replace,” Stein wrote. “Her wisdom and perspective will be missed.” Tolleson has been with Jeffco since 2022. Her tenure ha...
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Left-Wing Anti-ICE Activists Mobilize Colorado Students for Statewide School Walkout Sept. 4th
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The Post Millennial, Approved, State

Left-Wing Anti-ICE Activists Mobilize Colorado Students for Statewide School Walkout Sept. 4th

By Katie Daviscourt | The Post Millennial The Youth Coalition, a Denver-based left-wing student activist organization, appears to be the lead organizer of the walkout. Students from more than 160 Colorado public schools will be participating in a "walkout" to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The action, scheduled for September 4, is being promoted as a statewide "Walkout for ICE Out" day. The walkout has been promoted by left-wing activist organization 50501, which was a key group that was behind the "No Kings" protests around the nation.  Participating students will leave class at 12 pm, according to organizers. A central rally is planned at La Alma Park in Denver, where students from area schools will gather to demand an end to immigration enfo...
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Castle Rock Council Approves New School Land Rules Despite District Concerns
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Castle Rock Council Approves New School Land Rules Despite District Concerns

By Olivia Young | CBS Colorado Douglas County School District is grappling with a change in law in one of its most populous communities. The Castle Rock Town Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night changing the way land and funds dedicated to schools are allocated. Historically, developers have dedicated land or funding for future public schools. The town holds these assets until the district is ready to build a school, but now the district will need to meet certain conditions and timelines, or the land may be used for other purposes. There are currently 13 sites in Castle Rock planned for schools. The ordinance cites "changing demographic trends, school enrollment patterns, and long-range capital planning" as reasons many of them may not be developed into schools fo...
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Colorado Schools Face New Reality as Student Enrollment Keeps Falling
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Schools Face New Reality as Student Enrollment Keeps Falling

By Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette Colorado public schools went from adding roughly 3,500 students a year before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to losing nearly 4,000 students a year afterward. As more than 870,000 Colorado students return to the classroom for another school year, they are part of a shrinking population since enrollment peaked in 2019. Colorado has 40,000 fewer students today than it did at its apex. The Denver Gazette compared districts’ average annual enrollment gains or losses in the five years before and after the pandemic to identify where enrollment trends changed the most. The forces that long fueled Colorado’s enrollment boom — births and migration — have lost momentum. Nationally, enrollment peaked in 2019 with 50.7 millio...
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A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State, Uncategorized

A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The incentive structure hiding in Colorado’s UPK I recently shared a video that went into (among other important things to know about school finance) how Colorado’s public school enrollment is dropping. That video is linked below if you missed it before; it’s great and cheap education on school enrollment and funding. Not too long after I put up the newsletter with that video, I had a reader send me something I thought interesting enough to share. There is a marked disparity between how much money someone gets from our Universal Pre K program for a child vs. how much they get for educating a child in K - 12. The second link below is to the state’s UPK rate sheet. It lists the 2026-27 rate the UPK progra...
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Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wrote earlier in the week about Impact Development and taxpayer-subsidized mortgages. That newsletter is linked first below if you’re interested.I have an update of sorts to share. It’s not so much the program I outlined earlier, more a related program run out of Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).The program is called the Schools to Home Program. The CHFA website for this program is linked second below. I’ll run through the details and a quick example here, but as I do, I do not want you to lose track of something.Hidden in all of the graphics and words are the following: public money is given out on loan to the people who are in the program, and they get generous terms on their loans that others woul...
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Missed Insurance Deadline Could Leave Jeffco Taxpayers Paying $15 Million Sex Abuse Settlement
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Missed Insurance Deadline Could Leave Jeffco Taxpayers Paying $15 Million Sex Abuse Settlement

By Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette Taxpayers may end up on the hook for a child sexual assault settlement, possibly worth up to $15 million, after Jeffco Public Schools failed to notify its insurance company in a timely manner about the case. The incident stems from the Imagine Kay Ewer case. Ewer, a former paraprofessional in the district, groomed and sexually abused a special needs student for several months in 2023. Ewer pleaded guilty in 2024 to criminal charges for providing drugs and alcohol, and engaging in several sexual acts with the then-16-year-old disabled student.  Ewer received a four-year prison sentence followed by 10-years-to-life probation last year. According to documents obtained by The Denver Gazette, Jeffco and its legal couns...
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Colorado Schools Receive $24 Million to Expand Free Meals Program
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Schools Receive $24 Million to Expand Free Meals Program

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The Colorado Department of Education is providing Colorado schools with nearly $24 million in grant funding to implement a free lunch program. Approved by voters in 2022, the Healthy School Meals for All provides free breakfast and lunch to all public school students in the state, as well as wage increases for cafeteria staff. The program is funded through a tax increase on households making more than $300,000 a year. Because initial estimates fell short of the actual costs, the program ran into fiscal challenges right from the start and had never been deployed in its entirety. A pair of ballot measures approved by voters last year allows the state to keep additional revenue and interest from income tax deductions to help pay f...
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