Agate
Agate, CO · Education
Chalkbeat
In split vote, Denver school board approves closure of Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy
Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to our name. Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy will close at the end of the school year after the Denver school board voted 4-2 Thursday to shutter it. The high school, which was modeled on historically Black colleges and universities, has just 24 students this year . Board Vice President Monica Hunter and member John Youngquist voted no. Hunter, a former Denver teacher who works for the statewide teachers union, asked about pausing the vote until an agreement granting concessions to teachers at the school could be finalized. Superintendent Alex Marrero said the school district was done negotiating. He said the two sides verbally agreed on a $1,000 payment to the teachers, plus protections for international teachers with work visas. Marrero said the district rejected other requests. Hunter said those included giving non-tenured teachers two paid days off to interview for other jobs. “The rationale is this is precedent setting,” Marrero said, “and potentially we have some more (school) consolidations coming, and it would not behoove us
ftluptonpress.com
seconews.org
KJCT8
sentinelcolorado.com
Football: Grandview tops Regis Jesuit 19-13 to get back to 5A state quarterfinals
AURORA | On the same field where it suffered a close loss three weeks earlier against the same opponent, the Grandview football team turned the tables Thursday night. The fifth-seeded Wolves lost to 12th-seeded Regis Jesuit by three points at Legacy Stadium in Week 9 of the regular season and the two local programs found themselves head-to-head again with a trip to the Class 5A state quarterfinals on the line.
sentinelcolorado.com
Signing Day: Eaglecrest track star Zenobia Witt reveals commitment at ceremony
AURORA | Zenobia Witt wanted a little mystery about where she would continue her track & field career at the next level, but the choice was pretty clear. The Eaglecrest High School senior star — a six-time Class 5A state champion with big plans for her final prep chapter in the spring — used Wednesday morning’s Signing/Commitment Day celebration to reveal her future destination.
tomorrowstechnician.com
FOX31 Denver
lionsroarnow.com
Chalkbeat
In Denver, a 3-school effort to take advantage of the federal tax credit scholarship program
Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to our name. Most of the efforts for public schools to get in on a new federal tax credit have been macro: Public education boosters are creating organizations to grant scholarships for tutoring or SAT prep across an entire school district, state, or region of the country. But a new effort in Denver is micro. Here, parents are launching an organization to grant scholarships at just three public schools: East High, Morey Middle, and McAuliffe International. “The general concept is as a parent, if I’m going to give a donation, I’d like to see it impact my neighborhood school,” said East High parent Greg Graeber. This type of experimentation and parental choice is allowed under the federal tax credit program, a major school choice expansion that’s projected to raise billions of dollars for private school tuition and other educational expenses. The program works like this: Taxpayers will receive a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 if they donate to a scholarship-granting organization. Those organizations then give