Author: Melanie Asmar

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Denver teachers would be prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration agents without a warrant, and school police officers would be barred from ticketing or arresting students if it would put the students at risk of deportation under a policy the Denver school board could discuss later this month.A draft of the proposed policy was posted online Thursday before the school board’s late afternoon meeting. But the board didn’t discuss it, and the proposal wasn’t formally…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.As hundreds of Denver students and teachers marched around the Colorado Capitol Friday in a crowd the length of several city blocks, two words dominated the protest. They were written in marker on signs, printed on T-shirts and flags, and shouted through bullhorns.“F— ICE!” A construction worker in a neon vest stood in the back of a flatbed truck on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, filming on his phone. When the chant died down, he hollered,…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Two Denver metro area school districts that serve large immigrant populations are canceling school Friday after a high number of teachers called out of work on a day of planned nationwide protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.Aurora Public Schools will be closed Friday due to staff absences, the 38,000-student school district announced Thursday night. The diverse suburb was the target of intense immigration raids last year after President Donald Trump claimed the city…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.The Denver school board approved an expansion of a charter school Thursday after Superintendent Alex Marrero changed his mind about opposing it. The board vote was unanimous. Board members didn’t discuss the approval before voting.Marrero had initially recommended that the board reject Monarch Montessori’s request to add sixth, seventh, and eighth grades to its elementary school in far northeast Denver. He said the school’s plans to build and pay for a new middle school weren’t…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Denver Public Schools is taking a new approach to finding substitute teachers for some of its highest-needs schools. The district is contracting with an outside company called TeachStart that places teachers-in-training at schools to help cover classes.TeachStart bills itself as an earn-while-you-learn opportunity for people who want to become teachers. TeachStart fellows, as they’re called, are paired with a school where they’re paid as an in-house substitute for a year while studying for their teacher…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.The Denver teachers union is alleging that Denver Public Schools is violating a new provision of the teachers contract that requires schools to publicly report class sizes.The contract, which went into effect in September, requires each principal to report class size data to their school’s collaborative school committee, or CSC. The CSC is a group of parents, teachers, and community members who advise the principal on budget priorities and other decisions. State law requires every…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Monarch Montessori has a plot of land picked out for the middle school it hopes to build: a field of tall native grasses, located just past the yurt where it holds music classes and a short walk from its outdoor solar oven and chicken pen.But Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is recommending that the school board reject Monarch’s application to add sixth, seventh, and eighth grades when it votes this week. Marrero said the…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.To help feed students and their families during the federal government shutdown, the foundation for Denver Public Schools has restarted a fundraising effort it began during the pandemic. Back in 2020, the Food Security Fund paid for grab-and-go meal bags prepared by district staff and handed out to families at locations across the city while schools were shuttered because of the COVID-19 outbreak.Now, the Denver Public Schools Foundation is using the fund to buy grocery…

Read in English.Los votantes elegirán a cuatro integrantes del consejo escolar de Denver el 4 de noviembre. Once candidatos se han postulado para cuatro puestos. Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés) forman el distrito escolar más grande en el estado, y las elecciones se realizarán en un momento clave. DPS está enfrentando disminuciones en la cantidad de estudiantes inscritos, amenazas del gobierno de Trump y presión para aumentar los logros de sus estudiantes. El control político del consejo de siete integrantes está en juego. Integrantes del consejo respaldados por el sindicato de maestros de Denver…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said Friday that the Trump administration is pushing “an anti-trans agenda through the weaponization of Title IX,” a federal law the administration says DPS violated when it converted a girls’ restroom to an all-gender one.“They have claimed Title IX prohibits the conversion of a girls’ restroom to an all-gender restroom,” Marrero said in a statement. “They now claim Title IX prohibits the use of any multi-stall, all-gender restroom. This…