May 14, 2015 VOLU M E 2 8 | I S S UE 25
HighlandsRanchHerald.net A publication of
OF HIGHLANDS RANCH CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY BY GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY May 21st to May 25th See our insert in today’s paper for more information.
D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
Event showcases Spanish culture SkyView students display language skills By Christy Steadman
csteadman@colorado communitymedia.com
Spanish is a different type of class, said SkyView Academy teacher Jessica Lui. Students generally look forward to Spanish class, she added, because they watch videos, do some role playing, sing and listen to music. Spanish language and culture is taught at SkyView, a tuition-free public charter school in Highlands Ranch, to all students from preschool through eighth grade, and high school students have the choice to continue the courses as a foreign language option. Spanish class is fun, Lui said, but the students are learning a lot — a few hundred vocabulary words each year plus sentence structure, she said, so they can have a basic conversation by at least the time they are in middle school. When a person begins to study a foreign language at a young age, Lui said, they can learn it fairly quickly. “They’re able to distinguish the sounds more easily.” But students are not only learning a language, Lui said, they also do research projects and learn about the different cultures in all the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. On May 2, the school hosted a three-hour Spanish celebration where at least 600 students, pre-K through 12th grade, got to boast their Spanish-language skills and cultural knowledge. “It’s a full-school Spanish celebration,” Lui said, “to showcase what they’ve learned.” Students from each grade level performed skits and had their art and schoolwork on display for attendees to view and learn about what the students studied. Cultural entertainment included Zumba dance lessons, a salsa-tasting contest, games, Argentine folklórico music and flamenco dance performed by Natalia Perez del Villar, accompanied by Mark Herzog on guitar. The students’ accomplishments are something to be proud of, said Spanish teacher Jennifer Garrett. The Spanish celebration was “their moment,” she said. “It gives me great pride my students get to learn about the different cultures.”
Argentine folklórico music was part of SkyView Academy’s Spanish celebration, which took place on May 2. Pictured is a child touching the bombo legüero, a traditional Argentine drum. Other instruments used in this type of music are the Spanish guitar, pictured to the right of the drummer, and voice. Photos by Christy Steadman
Siena Negrón points out her assigned country, Puerto Rico, on a map. Negrón, a third-grader, explained that each student was assigned a Spanish-speaking country to study, and students spent about three weeks researching information on their country. The research was then presented to attendees of SkyView Academy’s Spanish celebration on May 2.
SkyView Academy students Dylan Bonds, 16, and Mikaela Malouf, 18, perform a dance routine at the school’s Spanish celebration May 2. Elementary through high school students gave a performance on stage that showcased Spanishlanguage skills or cultural studies they learned during the school year.
Solutions to financial needs differ by district
Littleton Public Schools didn’t wait on state By Jane Reuter
jreuter@colorado communitymedia.com
The outgoing Littleton Public Schools superintendent said his community shares the Douglas County School Board’s concerns about Colorado’s school-funding formula, but decided it couldn’t wait for help from the state. “This is not my district, it’s not our staff’s district, it’s the community’s district,” said Scott Murphy, reflecting on its decision to put an ultimately successful bond issue on the 2013 ballot. “The community has to decide what it wants its schools to do and be. Murphy “We’d gotten to the point where we could wait all day for the state, but we decided not to.” Like Douglas County, Littleton needed money to repair and maintain aging buildings — its average structure is more than 50 years old. It’s using the funds to replace boilers and roofs, update electrical and plumbing systems, and improve technol-
ogy infrastructure. About 60 percent of voters approved the LPS measure, which Murphy said was not controversial. In part, he believes that’s because the school board was united in support of the issue. With passage of the 2013 measure, LPS extended its mill levy, and taxpayers’ school bills stayed the same. Had voters not approved the question, their tax bill would have decreased by $36 a year, or $3 a month. The situation is almost identical in Douglas County today. DCSD, which has a $275 million list of unfunded projects, could ask taxpayers in November to approve a new $200 million bond. Because it would replace a bond that is maturing, homeowners’ school tax bills would remain unchanged instead of dropping by about $36 a year. School board members say they haven’t yet decided if they will put the question to voters. In 2014, the Douglas County school board cited concerns about state funding as the reason to not put a local funding measure on the ballot. Board vice president Doug Benevento said at a February meeting he won’t support such a question until the state addresses its school finance formula. Littleton Public Schools is funded at almost the same dollar amount as DCSD. The
DCSD board president not sold on ballot measure By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com Douglas County School Board President Kevin Larsen strongly supported a schoolfunding measure in 2010, but now says the school district shouldn’t rush to meet the increasingly narrow window of opportunity to put a similar issue on the November 2015 ballot. He also doesn’t entirely disagree with Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Scott Murphy’s contention that a district shouldn’t rely on the state changing its formula to help solve capital needs. “I think there’s some truth to that, but you have to have a community that’s informed in order to be ready (to approve a ballot issue),” Larsen said. “I’m not going to stop trying to win at the state level, because I think the amount we’re shortchanged is significant.” The Douglas County and Littleton school districts are among the lowest funded on the Front Range.
FUNDING OUR SCHOOLS
LPS continues on Page 9
“At the same time, I think the discussions that are going on in the community (about capital needs) are helpful,” said Larsen, adding that more such talks are needed before the board can decide on a course of action. A November 2015 bond issue measure could generate about $200 million for DCSD, addressing most of the $275 million in capital needs identified by the district’s Long Range Planning Committee. The board voted in 2014 not to put the measure on the ballot, saying Douglas County residents — already overburdened and paying a disproportionate share of taxes — were unlikely to approve a local funding question. It has cited similar concerns this year, the last chance to propose a bond to maintain tax bills that would otherwise go down by about $36 a year per homeowner. Larsen said he’s learned a great deal since 2010 about the state funding formula and how it interacts with the district’s budget. He also gained significant insight when the measure he pleaded for in 2010 later Larsen was defeated by voters. “If we don’t supplement our anorexic funding with some financial nutrition very soon, we are going to see a starving system with drastic consequences,” Larsen told the Douglas County School Board during its Feb. 16, 2010, meeting. DCSD continues on Page 9