Julie Hensley believes her SUV was targeted because of the cheery blue-and-yellow “Come Together” message spray-painted on her back window. The special education teacher at Legend High School in Parker was already at her desk at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday when the hallways began to buzz with word that teachers’ cars were slapped with flyers: […]
COVID in schools
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
“I can’t do this to myself anymore”: Pandemic stress has driven some Colorado teachers to leave the classroom
Diane Santorico was a year shy of completing her third decade as a teacher when the profession that once gave her so much joy nearly stole all of it. She was sick – physically sick – and tired. The first few weeks of school had demanded that she teach in a second-floor classroom baking at […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, Health, News
COVID closed Mesa County school kitchens. Students got them reopen.
As the recent Thanksgiving Day holiday approached, school district officials in Grand Junction were in a bind. COVID-19 outbreaks, other respiratory illnesses and staff shortages had all challenged the district since classes began in August. And now, the turkey was in jeopardy. Mesa County Valley School District 51 has had a long tradition of serving […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
COVID outbreaks have shut down some Colorado schools. Will holidays and cold weather make things worse?
When COVID-19 swept through an elementary, middle and high school in Pagosa Springs in November, many kids in Archuleta School District #50 JT once again had to abandon the classroom to learn at home. Along with shutting down the high school for five school days amid a string of staff absences, the rural southwest Colorado […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Nearly 2 years into COVID, the kids have gone feral and teachers are their prey
My friends who are teachers thought 2020 would be the nadir. Remote learning, hybrid classrooms, quarantines, working more than full time with no child care, angry parents, constantly changing instructional plans, pay cuts and fear for their own health left many questioning their career choice if not their sanity. This year is worse. A kind […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The air inside Colorado schools needs to be cleaned up
In the West, summers have become long and hot. What we used to call wildfire season has now become a year-round phenomenon. Even though the kids are back in school, we are still seeing wildfire affecting our Colorado communities. I’ve lived and worked in Colorado for many years. In my position as U.S. Environmental Protection […]
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 inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Colorado kids are floundering in math, a “crisis” that may add up to trouble for tomorrow’s workforce
Colorado students tumbled further behind in math as the pandemic closed schools and learning went largely virtual, according to a new analysis of this year’s state assessments results. A new report from the Keystone Policy Center, a nonprofit research group, found that math test scores plummeted for many students across the state, falling at an […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Littwin: The debate about vaccines and stem cells is the latest twist. By the way, the pope says it’s “suicidal” not to be vaccinated.
The news could have been worse, but it was bad enough. We got the message from my 6-year-old’s elementary school on Thursday night that he might have to be quarantined because of a possible COVID infection in his first-grade class. The next day, we hear that the quarantine would, in fact, be put in place, […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Colorado schools fought to retain teachers during COVID. The struggle isn’t over.
After the pandemic shuttered schools in spring 2020, teacher Margaret Chase lost a key element of her on-the-job training: the ability to “hop across the hallway” for advice from seasoned colleagues. But the 25-year-old history instructor wasn’t on her own long enough for isolation to set in. Her mentors simply went virtual, and the advice […]