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.When the federal education department announced in March that Jeffco Public Schools had in its view run afoul of anti-discrimination law, it cited one key piece of evidence: rosters indicating 61 boys were on girls’ sports teams. In a letter to the community this week, Colorado’s second largest school district said no boys were competing on those teams — and offered an explanation.“Some teams had male managers, trainers, or mascots — not athletes,” the letter…

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.Before a ban on cellphones, Jill Haffley said her classroom “was like Vegas.”“The cellphones were lighting up all the time,” said Haffley, who was a teacher for 30 years before being elected to the Colorado Springs School District 11 school board.Weary of the distractions, Haffley ran for office in 2023 on a platform of banning cellphones, and the 23,000-student District 11 did it starting in the fall of 2024. Haffley said that if you ask…

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.A growing number of Colorado colleges and universities are making pacts with school districts to offer their high school graduates automatic admission. At more selective colleges, eligibility is based on high schoolers’ grades. Less selective colleges may send all seniors a letter that says, “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted!”Direct admissions agreements, as they’re sometimes called, are meant to reduce the stress of applying to college, encourage students to stay in state, and help those who come…

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 school board member Amy Klein Molk said she visited two schools recently. At one, she saw students working in small groups on lessons that align with the science of reading, which calls for phonics instruction and sounding out words. At the other, she didn’t. The difference between the two schools? The first served more affluent students.Klein Molk told that anecdote at a board meeting Thursday night during a discussion of a new policy that…

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.Despite pushback from parents, students, and teachers at a district-run elementary school that’s more than 100 years old, the Denver school board voted Thursday to allow a charter elementary school to move in next door.KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary will relocate this fall from a cramped rented church building to a newer, more spacious building that already houses KIPP’s southwest Denver middle school. The middle school building is so close to district-run Valverde Elementary that 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.Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero has long been critical of semi-autonomous innovation zones, and he doubled down this week by recommending that an elementary school not be allowed to join the district’s last remaining zone, the Luminary Learning Network.The students at Willow Elementary School are whiter and wealthier than the district as a whole, as is the case at half of the schools in the zone. Marrero said Willow’s request to join the zone was “privilege…

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 could adopt a bell-to-bell cellphone ban if it follows the recommendation of a community committee.DPS formed the 17-member committee in response to a new state law that requires all Colorado school districts to adopt a policy on student cellphone use by July 1. The law doesn’t require a ban; rather, it allows each district to come up with its own rules. Cellphone bans are increasingly common nationwide as schools try to reduce…

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 federal education department has found that Jeffco Public Schools’ policies on sports participation, bathroom use, and overnight trip accommodations violate a federal law the Trump administration has used to challenge transgender students’ rights.The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it received Jeffco athletic rosters “indicating that male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams,” according to a Friday press release. Jeffco Public Schools is Colorado’s second-largest district, with about 74,000 students.It’s not…

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,…