Education

Overall positive feedback from parents and students was offset by some employee concerns about workload and pay in a recent survey taken by Jeffco Public Schools.

The district’s Make Your Voice Heard survey, which polled students in second through 12th grades and was completed by about 77 percent of the district’s students, found that most students felt cared about and respected by teachers and school staff; furthermore, about 90 percent of all students said they had friends or people they felt connected to at school.

Community reaction to Jeffco Public Schools’ proposed facilities master plan is mixed, based on questionnaire responses from more than 800 community members since the plan was presented at a school board meeting last month.

If Jeffco Public Schools’ proposed facilities master plan isn’t approved next month, the district will have to consider other solutions to the issue of its aging buildings and the capital needs associated with repairing and replacing those facilities.

According to Superintendent Dan McMinimee, year-round school, a split-shift schedule and a bond issue focused on deferred maintenance all are possibilities.

Students at Peiffer Elementary School have logged thousands of hours in reading time while participating in Race to Read, a program sponsored by Bandimere Speedway in Morrison.

“The kids are so excited about it,” said Peiffer first-grade teacher Tanya Rodgers. “They can read anything they want.”

The six-week program that Tami Bandimere-Shrader, granddaughter of the speedway founder, began 20 years ago has been around the track many times while expanding among area schools.