Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Politics and Government

Colorado school board contests, stoked by COVID, draw intense partisan fervor and big money

GRAND JUNCTION — For Paul Pitton, the turning point came the night a mob of irate parents disrupted a Mesa Valley School District 51 board meeting and sent Pitton and his colleagues fleeing through a back door, under police escort.   The 42-year veteran educator later resigned from the school board, rattled by the latest […]

Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government

Proposition 119: Colorado voters will decide whether to raise marijuana taxes to pay for out-of-school learning

Colorado voters will decide next month whether to raise taxes on recreational marijuana to help fund a new state program aimed at providing Colorado students with out-of-school learning opportunities. The program, called Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress, or LEAP, would pay service providers, like private tutoring companies or even public school teachers looking for extra […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Politics and Government

Anti-maskers are spreading a new tactic to challenge Colorado school boards: recalls

Kathy Gebhardt has been called a Nazi and a child abuser because of her unwavering support for requiring masks in schools. Now she and two of her colleagues on the Boulder Valley School District board are facing a new reprisal by parents outraged over mask mandates — a recall petition seeking their removal, an undertaking […]

Posted inCOVID, Education, News, Politics and Government

Colorado plan to scale back CMAS testing moves forward. Kids would test in literacy or math, but not both.

By Jason Gonzales, Chalkbeat Colorado A proposal to significantly scale back Colorado’s standardized school testing this year cleared its first hurdle Friday after proponents and opponents came together in an overwhelming show of support. The bill cleared the House Education Committee with a bipartisan 8-1 vote after sponsors decided not to pursue their original proposal […]

Posted inEducation, News

Teachers living in campers: How rural Colorado districts are coping with growing teacher shortage

Steve Wilson has spent 35 years in education in rural Colorado, the past 14 as superintendent of the Big Sandy School District that stretches across ranchland in Elbert and El Paso counties. In his second year as superintendent there, four teachers retired, wiping out more than 132 years of experience. Back then, the vacancies posed […]