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Education

  • Students build bridges with textured art

    Wilmot Elementary fifth-graders learned a big lesson from a simple art project.

    The students, who were tasked with creating art projects that stimulated more senses than sight, decided to take the projects to other children who could really appreciate them. They traveled down the hill recently to Fletcher Miller School, a Jeffco school for special-needs students.

    Many of the students there can’t walk or talk, so they communicate in other ways, according to Fletcher Miller art teacher Jenni Halsted.

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  • A (school)day at the museum

    At first, it’s the costumes on the so-called wax figures at the Colorado Characters Wax Museum at Wilmot Elementary that draw people in.

    The wax figures — really fourth-graders portraying figures from Colorado history — are dressed in elaborate dresses and hats and old-fashioned suits to portray characters whose names are familiar to Coloradans: Emily Griffith, Baby Doe Tabor, Molly Brown, Thomas Cunningham Bergen and Dwight Potter Wilmot.

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  • EHS students get their teeth into improving fitness

    Evergreen High School’s health classes have gone high-tech now that each student wears a Jawbone UP, a wristband that collects data on an individual’s exercise, sleep patterns and food intake, and the information can be downloaded to the student’s smart phone or computer.

    Science teacher Ali Meyers received $7,000 in grants to buy 60 wristbands, and each student wears one for at least eight weeks to gauge overall fitness. CenturyLink provided $5,000, and ING U.S. Foundation donated $2,000.

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  • Community members describe ideal school superintendent

    Being a collaborator and understanding Jeffco’s diverse school district were just two qualities mentioned during community sessions held to gather input on the hiring of a school superintendent.

    Ray and Associates facilitated 35 meetings last week with parents, teachers, students, business leaders and faith organizations to understand the priorities of the district’s stakeholders.

    Last month, the Jeffco school board hired Ray and Associates to conduct the search for a new superintendent after former superintendent Cindy Stevenson departed Feb. 21.

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  • Evergreen brothers are the architects of their own learning

    Two Evergreen students tested their architectural mettle when they helped solve structural engineering problems during a remodel at the STEM School and Academy in Highlands Ranch.

    Evergreen resident Barry Himmelman, owner of Himmelman Construction Inc. in Lakewood, won the bid on the $3.3 million, 30,000-square-foot remodel project at the charter school. Since Himmelman likes to involve building users in his projects, he asked teachers at the school if students could help solve some design problems.

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  • King-Murphy second-graders urge peers to look in out-of-the-way places for change to donate to African kids

    Second-graders at King-Murphy Elementary School have been raising money to help provide children in Africa with the school supplies they need.

    In the process, they might have gotten their homes a bit cleaner.

    They call the fund-raiser Digging for Dozens of Dimes. Children went home and cleaned under furniture and in clothes pockets, and looked in other out-of-the-way places to find spare change to donate to the program.

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  • School board won’t extend teachers' contract

    The Jeffco school board will not extend the current agreement between the teachers union and Jeffco Public Schools.

    Members of the Jefferson County Education Association asked for the contract to be extended on March 10, when negotiations began. District employees gave an update to the school board during an executive session March 13 and informed board members of the JCEA’s desire for an extension.

    The current contract between the district and JCEA expires Aug. 31, 2015.

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  • A slice of academic life

    Pi Day was anything but half-baked for the fifth-graders at Wilmot Elementary School on Friday.

    That’s pi like the number, not pie like the food.

    However, the students in Kym Shaffner’s class ate pie to celebrate pi. In fact, they ate a lot of pie, plus they played pi games, wrote pi poetry and read pi books.

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  • Search process begins for new superintendent

    Ray and Associates has begun the process of searching for Jeffco Public Schools’ new superintendent.

    Bill Newman of the Iowa-based search firm said at the school board meeting March 6 that he had interviewed all the board members and was getting an idea of what they are looking for in a new leader for the 85,000-student district.

    The board finalized some details so that Ray and Associates can start recruiting candidates.

    $280,000 salary

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  • 250 demonstrate for 'fair' negotiations with teachers

    More than 250 people, mostly teachers, showed up at Golden High School last Thursday to urge the Jeffco school board to conduct fair and pleasant employee negotiations.

    “We wanted to give our members a chance to make a positive statement that we are standing together and holding our school board accountable,” said Ami Prichard, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, the teachers union.

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