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Education

  • Parents continue to voice concerns about ‘cloud’ storage of student data

    Parents continued to voice their opposition at last Thursday’s school board meeting to the district’s plan to implement the cloud-based data storage system called inBloom.

    “I’m doing my own research, and I’m looking for the list of data that Jeffco will be collecting, and I can’t find it,” said Jeffco parent Rachel Swalley. “I would like to know what (data) would be stored.”

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  • ‘13-14 budget restores days, dollars to Jeffco schools

    The Jeffco school board approved a 2013-14 budget totaling $952 million at its meeting May 30, a spending plan that adds $22 million to current-year expenditures.

    The increase comes thanks to a boost in funding from the state and to the tax hike approved by voters last November. The budget still is $45 million less than the 2009-10 spending plan.

    The district avoided $45 million in cuts this year when Jeffco voters approved 3A and 3B on last November’s ballot. The district’s mill-levy rate is 48.721, or $388 annually for a $100,000 home.

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  • School district’s ‘cloud’ storage plan criticized

    The Jeffco School District’s plan to test a “cloud” storage system for student data has some parents concerned that vital information about their kids would be vulnerable to hackers and security breaches.

    More than 35 concerned parents gathered at Normandy Elementary School on May 22 to voice their disapproval of the district’s plan to pilot “inBloom” — software developed by an Atlanta-based nonprofit that would centralize mountains of student data and store it off site.

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  • Sotomayor encourages students tp follow passions

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had a simple message for the 100 or so kids gathered in the new Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center in Denver on May 2.

    No matter what you choose to do when you grow up, do something that excites you.

    “What you do best are the things you’re passionate about. They don’t have to be important to anyone but you,” Sotomayor said. “What’s important is, as my mother always said, that you do what you’re doing well and that you like doing it.”

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  • Boggs blocks filming at school board meeting

    Jeffco schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson summoned security at last Thursday’s board meeting when school board member Laura Boggs tried to prevent a district employee from recording video of a speaker.

    Broomfield resident Kelly Scott was addressing the board about his desire for schools to get back to Judeo-Christian roots and teachings when Boggs stood and blocked the iPad camera of communications manager Marlene Desmond.

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  • Jeffco Library offers free book to 4-year-olds

    This week, the Jeffco Library is giving away a free book to any 4-year-old in the county who wants one. 

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  • Teacher-student relationships highlighted in feedback meetings

    A small group of Jeffco residents decided Saturday morning that quality educators and strong teacher-student relationships are critical when it comes to student achievement and success.

    Paula Noonan, the school board’s District 5 representative, led a discussion on student achievement in Chatfield Senior High’s library.

    “I think it’s great having access to board members like this,” said Rachel Swalley, a parent of three Jeffco students. “I hope (the district does) a lot more of these kinds of meetings.” 

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  • The kindest cut

    After only a few minutes of sheering, clumps of hair were blowing around like tumbleweeds Friday in the south parking lot at Columbine High School.

    And the number of tumbleweed hairballs grew with each of the 175 students who sat down and forked over cash to have her hair buzzed right before prom. 

    The students were forsaking their follicles on behalf of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity that raises funds for research into childhood cancer. Groups across the country raise money for the organization with head-shaving events. 

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  • Collaborative technology connects Jeffco teachers

    The Jeffco school district believes that collaboration is king, and new technology lets a geography teacher from Green Mountain High School compare notes, tests and lesson plans with a geography teacher at Conifer High — without sending an e-mail or picking up a phone. 

    The online system, known as the “collaborative curriculum alignment process,” or C-CAP, lets all Jeffco teachers access curriculum and lessons plans — meaning the wisdom of one and all can be shared district-wide with all colleagues.

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  • Honoring a monumental act

    In the summer of 1898, railroad engineer William "Billy" Westall saw that his train was hurtling at top speed toward a section of track that had been washed away in a flash flood.

    Westall had just enough time to leap from the locomotive and save himself — but he didn’t. Instead, he stayed on board and slowed the Denver, South Park and Pacific train enough to save the lives of 450 passengers and crew. 

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Columbine Courier is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in South Jefferson County, Colo., and the surrounding area.