For more than a year, the Jefferson County School Board — and specifically a voting bloc consisting of members Julie Williams, Ken Witt and John Newkirk — have been a lightning rod for controversy The trio’s alleged efforts to turn Jeffco’s history curriculum in a more “patriotic” direction, coupled with…
It’s not personal. It’s just business. Last week’s post about Danny Ledonne, the former Adams State University film instructor who was abruptly banned from the Alamosa campus with little explanation shortly after he launched a website critical of the school’s administration and pay policies, has generated some interesting e-mails and…
Filmmaker Danny Ledonne says he had no reason to expect the chief of campus police at Adams State University to show up at his Alamosa home last week. He was even more surprised when the chief told him he was there to deliver by hand a letter from ASU president…
Some Lincoln High School students are pushing back against a plan by Denver Public Schools to open a middle school charter school at Lincoln, located in southwest Denver. A protest organized by the community group Padres y Jovenes Unidos is scheduled for 5 p.m. tonight in advance of a 6…
On Tuesday, Aurora Public Schools released “APS 2020: Shaping the Future,” a report that puts a positive spin on educational reform efforts in the district — and the timing certainly doesn’t seem to have been coincidental. The next day, the If Not Now Coalition, a group of seventeen organizations that…
Grinding — a dance floor move that calls for one person’s ass to be ground into another person’s crotch — is hardly a new phenomenon. Videos of the move have been popping up on YouTube for years; see examples below. Now, however, Arapahoe High School has banned grinding at dances…
Last month, we posted about Forbes list of the top Colorado colleges — and noted that their performance left plenty to be desired. Note that only twelve institutions from Colorado were included in the 650 institutions of higher learning nationwide that made the magazine’s cut, as opposed to thirteen the previous year…
Our post earlier today highlighting sexist comments made about reporter Chase Olivarius-McAllister by sheriff’s office employees who didn’t realize their conversation was being recorded demonstrates the continuing challenges women face in the workplace. So, too, do cases involving Stephanie Barnett, a Montrose city employee who claims she was fired due to her…
Today starts a new era at the Emily Griffith Technical College, which will welcome students to a new campus at 1205 Osage Street. The facility has cutting-edge training spaces for Emily Griffith’s College of Trades and Industry and ever-expanding Continuing Education Division — a stark contrast to the three continuing…
Late last month, our Melanie Asmar reported that the parents behind a recall effort aimed at three controversial Jefferson County school board members — Ken Witt, John Newkirk and Julie Williams — had turned in well over double the number of signatures required for the matter to reach the November ballot…
Around this time last year, we shared a list of Forbes’ top thirteen Colorado colleges and noted that their national rankings were mostly unimpressive. That’s even truer in the 2015 edition. The headline of this post offers one piece of evidence for the downturn: Only twelve colleges were included in the 650…
This summer, Earth Knack— a school highlighted in this week’s feature article, DOUG HILL IS DEFENDING THE (MODERN) CAVEMAN WITH PRIMITIVE SKILLS CLASSES — teamed up with Arvada-based Sarqit Outdoor Learning School for a weekend-long gathering at Happy Dog Ranch south of Chatfield State Park, where primitive-skills instructors came together…
Administrators at the University of Colorado Boulder have long hated the school’s frequent appearances on lists identifying the best party schools in the country, and their concerted efforts to change the school’s reputation seem to be paying off. Note that in 2013, CU Boulder failed to make the Princeton Review’s party-schools…
Doug Hill would not be opposed to living completely off the grid. He could sport his homemade buckskin shorts every day, drink untreated water from streams, pluck his lunch from blueberry patches. He wouldn’t need to worry about a 401(k) or his ten-year goals; his only concerns would be surviving…
The parents behind a move to recall three controversial Jefferson County school board members turned in twice as many signatures today as are required to get the recall questions on the ballot. Election rules require 15,000 voter signatures, and the parents collected just under 37,000 signatures each on petitions to…
A few months back, we told you about the decision by the administration of Twin Peaks Charter Academy to block valedictorian Evan Young from delivering a speech during graduation. The reason: Young planned to come out as gay during the address. From the beginning, the school denied wrongdoing, even though…
Justin Marceau doesn’t eat animals. He represents them. And starting this fall, he will teach University of Denver law students to do the same, thanks to the school’s new Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) Professorship. Marceau is the first recipient of the professorship, which DU says is the only position…
Working on her sociology dissertation landed Maren Scull in some strange situations — like the time she ended up alone in a motel room with a newly released ex-con. Then again, most dissertations don’t involve male strippers. But Maren Scull’s did. She spent 18 months studying a strip club, Dandelion’s,…
The battle over public education policy in Jeffco is getting uglier. An effort is underway to recall three school board members: Ken Witt, John Newkirk and Julie Williams, otherwise known as “WNW.” As explained in our recent cover story, “Class Warfare,” Witt, Newkirk and Williams ran for the board as a…
A century ago, there were no free schools for would-be students over the age of eighteen. Emily Griffith changed that. The longtime Denver Public Schools teacher and two-time deputy state superintendent of schools had a dream of starting a school that was open to everyone, regardless of age, income or previous…
Elijah Huff calls himself a “’hood-walker.” “It’s amazing when I walk around…. When you walk past, you never know where your next house will be,” explains the recent Manual High School graduate. The location of Huff’s next home weighs heavily on his mind as he prepares to head to Fort Lewis…
In March 2014, we noted that the Colorado Supreme Court had agreed to hear a challenge to Douglas County School District’s controversial voucher system. More than a year later, the court has ruled — and its decision marks a victory for the plaintiffs and a setback for DougCo school board…
