The Denver teachers union and Denver Public Schools reached a tentative agreement that raises wages an average of 8.7%, sets starting salary a little above $50,000, and promises teachers more planning time during the work day. The announcement of a deal Thursday comes after a marathon bargaining session between the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and district leaders […]
Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat
Erica Meltzer is Bureau Chief of Chalkbeat Colorado, where she also covers the legislature and statewide education issues. Erica was a founding editor of the local news site Denverite. Before that, she covered everything from housing and energy policy to crime and courts for newspapers in three states. She served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering schools and education. The news organization believes education is a local issue, and roots its coverage in local communities. Chalkbeat reports from and about eight locations: Colorado, Chicago, Detroit, Indiana, Newark, New York, Philadelphia and Tennessee.
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Posted inNews
Colorado schools’ hardest jobs to fill: Bus drivers and special education
For Lacey Nelson, the weeks leading up to the start of school are a blur of spreadsheets, meetings, and calls from principals about last-minute teacher resignations. With less than two weeks to go, Denver Public Schools’ director of talent acquisition is still looking to hire 150 teachers, 275 paraprofessionals, and up to 45 bus drivers. […]
Posted inNews
Colorado’s COVID guidance for K-12 schools: minimize disruption, stay alert
There are no mask mandates and no quarantine rules in Colorado’s COVID guidance for the 2022-23 school year, but public health officials say they’re still tracking the disease and want school administrators to be open and honest with families about cases and clusters. New guidance released Wednesday largely treats COVID like other communicable diseases, continuing a policy […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado school funding measure won’t be on November ballot after supporters fail to gather enough signatures
Colorado voters won’t get to decide this November whether to forego a portion of future state tax refunds to better fund K-12 schools. Supporters of a ballot measure that would have dedicated an estimated $984 million in future income tax revenue to help school districts recruit and retain educators announced Monday that they had fallen […]
Posted inNews
Tentative Jefferson County teacher pay deal sets starting salary at $50,000
New teachers in Jeffco Public Schools will earn starting salaries of $50,000 and the most experienced teachers will be able to earn more than $100,000 a year under a tentative agreement between the district and the teachers union. Jeffco Public Schools and the Jefferson County Education Association reached the agreement late Wednesday, two weeks before […]
Posted inEducation, News
Bus assistants, language interpreters and other support staff — in short supply at Colorado schools — are seeking unions and better pay
Carolina Galvan nears the outer edge of her dream each time she steps into her classroom at Valdez Elementary School in Denver. She wants to be a teacher with her own classroom of students, but since she was unable to finish the schooling required to earn a teacher’s license, her role as a paraprofessional sets […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Two new seats, high stakes in Colorado State Board of Education election
Colorado’s State Board of Education is growing from seven to nine seats, and political control of the body that sets education policy could be at stake in November’s election. The addition of two seats due to Colorado’s growing population — one representing a new 8th Congressional District that includes Adams and Weld counties and another […]
Posted inEducation, News
Colorado’s teacher evaluation system is set to change. Here’s how.
Teacher evaluation is getting an update in Colorado, more than a decade after the state last overhauled its system. Starting with the 2023-24 school year, students’ standardized test scores will play a smaller role in teachers’ ratings, rubrics will be more specialized to reflect different jobs, and teachers with consistently high scores will face less […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
New Colorado teachers eligible for loan forgiveness, student teaching stipends
Colorado student teachers will have access to up to $22,000 in stipends, and teachers who started their careers during the pandemic and have stuck with it can qualify for up to $5,000 in loan forgiveness, under a bill signed into law this week. Removing Barriers to Educator Preparation dedicates $52 million from federal relief money to […]
Posted inEducation, News
44% of Colorado voters think schools are on the wrong track, poll reveals
Two years into the pandemic and amid intense political polarization, more Colorado voters think schools are on the wrong track, according to a new survey from polling firm Magellan Strategies. In reviewing survey respondents’ conflicting reasons for pessimism, Magellan Strategies founder David Flaherty said intense rhetoric from conservatives seems to be driving those negative views among […]