The University of Colorado has been investing big to modernize and keep the Boulder campus competitive. The 66,000-square-foot Roser ATLAS Center includes research labs, a hacker lab, virtual-reality and audio labs and the two-story, 2,700-square-foot Black Box Experimental Studio, a flexible, technologically enhanced performance space that supports 360- degree HD projection. The $31 million building opened in 2006. About $20.7 million in construction costs was covered by student fees.(Doug Conarroe, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Colorado school districts and higher education institutions will share about $300 million from the economic stimulus package passed by federal lawmakers.

The Colorado Department of Education expects to have more information about the funds and how they might be distributed to school districts in the coming days.

In total, the federal economic stimulus bill includes $13.5 billion for schools. Federal guidelines call for the money to be distributed based on the number of students from low-income families in the district.

The department must distribute at least 90% of the money to school districts which will then be able to use the money for a wide variety of things including to help students with special needs, and those who are homeless or from low-income families, and to pay for other responses such as sanitation, staff training, and remote learning.

Read more at chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is Chalkbeat Colorado’s Suburban Reporter looking at changes happening in Denver’s suburban school districts. Yesenia grew up in Denver, graduated from CU Boulder and is fluent in Spanish. She previously covered suburbs, education...