STANDARD BLADE B R I G H T O N
SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1903
75cI
VOLUME 119
Issue 14
WEEK OF APRIL 7, 2022
Training to save the planet
Student teachers are rarely paid Colorado lawmakers, school leaders want to ensure they’re compensated BY ERICA BREUNLIN THE COLORADO SUN
Petting the Llama on Ag Day, mom Chelsea Tedford with her boys who are in the Fort Lupton Tailtwisters 4-H club the names are not COURTESY OF TAYLOR BROWN in order Traeger, Taite, Teague, Trace, and Teller.
Aims Community College Celebrated Ag Day BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Ryan Kapperman has been working with West Greeley Conservation District since he was 14-years old, starting as a groundskeeper at the Housden Gardens location. Then he moved up to conservation technician and attended school at Fort Lupton Aims Community College studying soil, health, and agriculture. “I chose this degree because I grew up in the country and I like agriculture - it’s what I want to do,” said Kapperman. Conservation technicians are SEE PLANET, P5
Kandee Nourse, District Manager with the West Greeley Conservation District is educating the Weld Central High School students at the riparian zone trailer that replicates a PHOTO BY BELEN WARD good vegetation habitat.
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2 •Brighton High getting 3 new crosswalk 8 11 • Page 9 15 18
SPORTS • Riverdale Ridge to much for Northridge
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Near the end of last semester, Jorge Cabral’s budget was on the brink. He carefully watched how he spent each dollar, limiting his purchases to essentials like shampoo and toilet paper and cutting corners with meals by buying rice and beans to last through each week. On top of getting no pay for his full-time student teaching job at Brighton’s Vikan Middle School, Cabral had had to shell out $90 to take an exam that would secure his teacher license early last year. “That’s two weeks of groceries if you plan it out right,” he said. “And good groceries, too.” Cabral, who graduated in December from the University of Northern Colorado, found himself “budgeting to the max” to make ends meet as an unpaid student teacher — a financial challenge most Colorado educators grapple with on the path to becoming a licensed teacher. Now, as Colorado school districts struggle to fill classrooms with certified educators, lawmakers aim to relieve some of the financial burdens with a proposed stipend program to provide student teachers help with living expenses. House Bill 1220, introduced in February, would also help students pay for expensive licensure exams and direct state departments to establish another SEE PAID, P3
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