Overheated parents of children who attend Denver Public Schools can now cool their calls for air-conditioning. Instead of demanding that the city raise property taxes to fund a $400-million bond issue to install air-conditioning in older schools, panicky parents can now just include a few freezer packs when shopping for…
Nine candidates are vying for three seats on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. That’s two more than the last time we wrote about the race, in early July. Of those nine candidates, eight have turned in petitions with fifty valid voter signatures…
A few of this year’s back-to-school supplies are hot collectibles… No-Poop-Fairies #2 Pencil and Sharpener: Jefferson County’s thicker-diameter pencils keep tiny hands from cramping, so student’s can continue to pick up pest waste during after-school dog walks. The dog-shaped sharpener, illustrated above, also promotes proper pick up and disposal of…
Today, most Denver kids head back to school. And since this is 2011, they’ll probably all rush home, vlog about it and upload said vlogs to YouTube. So to celebrate the first day of school, we bring you five of the best back-to-school YouTube videos. Volume Two. (Click here to…
Summer is over, and school is back in session. While the bell rang a few days ago for some kids and won’t ring until tomorrow for others, today is the big day for Denver Public Schools — the day when the mayor shakes the hands of grubby first graders, the…
“School Vouchers on Hold” read a weekend headline in the print Denver Post. But while plaintiffs, including the Colorado branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, technically requested a preliminary injunction to stop the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program, Judge Michael Martinez’s ruling (read it below) will be permanent if…
Why would any student throwing a college party give the very people who might bust it a heads-up in advance? Seems counter-intuitive, right? But the folks behind a University of Colorado at Boulder party-registration program argue that the approach can stop beefs before they start — and they’ve got statistics…
Representative Doug Lamborn capitalizes on a remarkable skill for creating sticky situations by introducing his new Tar Baby race paste. Developed by crafty congressmen for budget-burdened back-to-school students, Lamborn’s Tar Baby race paste sticks faster, and longer, than the leading white power adhesives…..
Update: Greenway University, which specializes in marijuana-related instruction, was closed by the state in part because owner Gus Escamilla didn’t disclose a 2000 conviction on a license application. We’ve now obtained documents showing another conviction, this one in 2003 — and a Department of Higher Education spokesman says GU has…
North High School is old school — 100 years old, to be exact. And to celebrate its century-ness, the northwest Denver community is throwing a birthday party tomorrow that will double as a celebration of the school’s $24.7 million makeover — which includes a complete renovation of the castle-ish 1911…
Last week, we told you about a fake webpage masquerading as the home base for One Chance Colorado, a coalition of school reform-minded organizations that actually launches today. Here’s former Lieutenant Governor and coalition member Barbara O’Brien’s take on what it’s after and how it plans to get there…
Manual High School, home to super-debaters and Westword cover siblings Teague and Theron Harrison, could expand to include grades 6, 7 and 8. According to Education News Colorado, Denver Public Schools staffers are crafting a plan to grow the once-shuttered, now-reborn school — and the school board could vote on…
A super-coalition of reform-minded education organizations, including Stand for Children Colorado, Democrats for Education Reform and A+ Denver, is about to launch. Called “One Chance Colorado,” its message will be this: “Every child has only one chance at a great K-12 education. That’s why we need to improve Colorado’s schools…
American schoolchildren don’t know Alaska from their elbow. That’s the news today from the NAEP, dubbed “The Nation’s Report Card:” Fewer than one-third of students tested proficient in geography in 2010. Education gurus blame a shrinking curriculum — but that could change in Colorado…
Ed Salem, who recently resigned as principal of North High School, has been hired as a teacher at a new school in central Denver aimed at helping struggling students graduate. Salem’s decision to leave North came just before the district asked state officials to investigate the school’s credit recovery program,…
One of the odd quirks of the social media explosion has been the proliferation of folks pretending to be someone else — a phenomenon that no doubt annoys the typically notable person being identity-jacked but can be entertaining for the rest of us. As an example, let us juxtapose the…
Three seats are up for grabs on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education this November — and the list of candidates vying for them is growing. As of today, seven candidates have announced that they’re running, including incumbent Arturo Jimenez, who represents northwest Denver. The election is an important…
Should a school notify parents when a teacher is arrested — a teacher such as Courtney Bowles, who was busted for getting naked with a student; Alex Tinsley, who police say asked a student if she wanted to join the Mile High Club; or Travis Masse, who police say had…
Two students from Denver’s George Washington High School are the best policy debaters in the National Forensic League, a super-competitive league whose champs usually hail from wealthy private prep schools. Sam Clark and Miles Owens, who graduated from GW this spring, are the first debaters from Colorado to win a…
Update below: A lawsuit filed this morning in Denver District Court challenges the legality of a Douglas County voucher program set to go into effect this fall partly on the grounds that it diverts public money to religious institutions. Yet plaintiffs include the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado and reps of…
Denver Public Schools has asked the Colorado Department of Education to investigate the credit recovery program at North High School, in light of concerns raised in the Westword cover story “Passing on Education,” DPS spokesman Mike Vaughn confirms. That move pleased Jennifer Draper Carson, chairwoman of North’s Collaborative School Committee,…
“Passing on Education,” a recent Westword cover story, questions whether North High students were allowed to cheat in online credit recovery courses designed to help them make up courses they’d failed and ultimately, graduate. Denver Public Schools has now responded with a long editorial posted on Education News Colorado that…
