City Year, an AmeriCorps program that focuses on mentoring at-risk students at high-needs schools across the country, has come to Denver. Fifty young adults ages 17 to 24 are now serving as tutors and mentors in five Denver public schools…
An anonymous donor has given $1 million to Metropolitan State College of Denver to launch a water education program with the best name ever: the OWOW Center, which is short for the One World, One Water Center for Urban Water Education and Stewardship. Starting in fall 2012, Metro will offer…
Last week, DPS launched the Great Lives in Colorado History series. Written by local educators, the thirteen biographies completed so far introduce Coloradans of the past to third-graders of the present. The results are both educational and complete: In the two we borrowed to channel our inner eight-year-olds, we’ve already…
It took almost losing her job for Sara Woodyard to realize she couldn’t have done enough with it anyway. Facing the end of the probation period that marked the first three years of her work life, Woodyard, a fifth-grade teacher, developed an acute awareness of what budget cuts can mean…
Cat DeRose has lived near Little Raven Street for years, but she has Denver Public Schools’ third graders to thank for all that she now knows about its namesake. And later this month, they’ll be able to thank her back. DeRose’s 23-page book, Little Raven, Chief of the Southern Arapaho,…
Ask yourself, right now, how often you down five drinks (or more) in a single sitting. Answer honestly. Depending on what you decided, you might be a binge drinker. The good news here is that you’re not alone. The bad news is that Denver’s youth population is joining you…
Tom Boasberg, Denver Public Schools superintendent, is a much-scrutinized man. In addition to often serving as the target of petitions and publicly aired grievances, he’s also evaluated each year by the school board. This year, the board will present its annual evaluation at a special meeting Thursday at noon. Crafting…
In the little more than a week since the University of Denver’s most recent sustainability effort began, it has surpassed the national average for early membership. WeCar, a program in which DU partners with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to provide shared rides to students and their neighbors in the area, began September…
Last year, we wrote about a new radio series sponsored by Denver Public Schools to teach English to Spanish-speakers. More than 3,000 tuned in and 220 completed the course. Now it’s returning for another year…
Tonight, Stacy Davidor Smith will take her crusade to delay the start of public school in Denver until September to the school board (which will also be taking feedback on its proposal to prevent board members’ overspending). Smith plans to present nearly 3,500 signatures gathered on two separate online petitions…
West High School has a new addition to its airplane hangar. (How many of you knew West even had an airplane hangar?) Yesterday, the U.S. Air Force Academy donated a jet engine to DPS’s Aircraft Maintenance Program, which is offered through the Emily Griffith Technical College but taught at West…
A third-grader at Foothill Elementary in Boulder brought a couple of unusual items to school yesterday: two live bullets. He’s still alive, too, even though he pounded one of the bullets with a rock. But is he looking at mandatory punishment under post-Columbine zero-tolerance policies a state panel wants to…
Inspired by the 1999 assault on Columbine High School and the horrific roster of school shootings since then, officials developed a “zero tolerance” approach to disciplining students whose actions touch on violence, no matter how tangentially. Now, a panel appointed by the state legislature has decided that the policy isn’t…
Denver Public Schools board members — and their credit cards — have been making headlines ever since Education News Colorado uncovered that more than one overspent their $5,000 annual budget, with Westword cover subject Andrea Merida leading the pack. This week, the board is poised to take the next steps…
Update below: Today — gloriously breezy today! — Denver Public Schools students will finally get a respite from the oppressive heat that has marked the end of August. And since most city schools don’t have air-conditioning, many parents and school district officials have been left wondering: Should school start in…
Andrea Merida, Denver Public Schools board member and Westword cover subject, has been making headlines once again. Education News Colorado was the first to report this week that Merida had overspent her $5,000 DPS-boardmember budget by more than $7,000. More than $4,000 of the $12,637 she spent from July 2010…
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…
