Prep cook Lupe Cardenas places bell pepper on salads at the Evie Garrett Dennis Campus for the veggie and fruit bars offered in Denver schools. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
There were some big announcements this week for education news in Denver and for the state. Plus updates on school food, the numbers of international students in the state and an attorney resigning from work with two school boards, and a new five member board takes over Jeffco schools. Catch up on anything you missed here.
School Food: Colorado school districts are across the board they serve to students. But some districts say the changes, meant to help kids become healthier, are making kids turn elsewhere to eat, meaning some schools lose money. Others say the rules are fine but the problem is a lack of support, like money, provided to schools to make the changes. Congress is likely to make updates soon as they reauthorize the federal laws.
Another , or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But in the meantime, the U.S. Department of Education that will, among other things, allow the state flexibility not to punish schools and districts with a high opt-out rate from state tests.
Denver superintendent Tom Boasberg, center, watches as a mother tells her son good-bye during the first day of school in 2012, at Whittier K-8 School. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
Superintendent time off: Tom Boasberg, superintendent for Denver Public Schools, announced that . Boasberg plans to spend time in Latin America with his family, to provide his three children the opportunity to live abroad. He has said, and the board has agreed, for him to take the time off. The DPS school board will select who to take the helm of the district in the mean time at a special meeting Dec. 1st.
School boards: Several school districts around the metro area held their swearing-in ceremonies for their new school board members this week. But . While most of the audience in attendance supported the new board, a few member in the public asked the board not to immediately reverse reforms the outgoing board has implemented.
Just before the board turnovers, attorney Brad Miller, whose hiring had become controversial, , and .
International: Colorado is , an overseas service organization. One theory about why, focuses on the state’s cultural, and global, diversity.
Speaking of that global diversity, the state’s Department of Higher Education just released schools. In the last year, the state numbers increased by more than 12 percent.
Money to schools: Kendra Black, a city council representative for southeast Denver, is . It worked out to a $350 check for each of nine Denver schools including Thomas Jefferson High School.
Laredo Elementary School fourth-graders, from left, Anthony Cordova Sanchez, Victor Mancinas Mares and Joshua Virvez take a look at the water from an area at Bluff Lake Nature Center known as the Boardwalk, where staff tested the pH levels. (Kira Horvath, Special to The Denver Post)
Field Trip: Did you know that the Bluff Lake Nature Center is not open, government land? The owners treat it as such, but depend on donations and grants to keep the space open to the public — and to , especially from low-income homes, can learn about science while exploring nature.
