2 Highlands Ranch Herald
November 22, 2012
Holidays are giving time for sheriff’s office By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com Helping make the holidays a happier time for 13 years and counting, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office’s Christmas for Kids program has extended its reach to more than 650 underprivileged families countywide since its inception. The department hopes to be able to help 50 families this year. Utilizing county employees, sheriff’s deputies and school resource officers to help identify families in need, the department is asking community members to pitch in by purchasing $25 or $50 gift cards from stores such as Target, Walmart or Kid `R’ Us. “We like for people to purchase the gift cards at stores like Target or Walmart, where families have a wide variety of choices for gifts,” said Tom Cornelius, community relations spokesman with the sheriff’s office. Cornelius said that in years past, the sheriff’s office would pair up donors with families on the receiving end and have them shop together, but it wound up taking too much time out of the schedules of department employees, so they changed it. “We just didn’t have the resources to be able to do that anymore,” he said. “This is the first year we are doing gift cards instead.” The sheriff’s office asks that cards be dropped off between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday at either the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, 4000 Justice Way in Castle Rock, or at the Highlands Ranch substation, 9250 Zotos Drive. “During the holiday season we find that there are all kinds of people who want to find needy families or people to help out,” Cornelius said. “Christmas for Kids is a way that we can work with those people to make someone in need’s holidays better.” Those who prefer to mail in a check or gift card can send them to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, c/o Christmas for Kids, 4000 Justice Way, Castle Rock, CO 80109. Checks should be made out to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, with “Christmas for Kids” written in the memo line. Cornelius said the biggest concern is that they don’t receive enough gift cards to help everyone recommended for the program. “There are typically more people recommended to be in the program than we can help, and we have to give the most deserving families the gift cards,” he said. “So if you’re looking for a way to help people in need, please consider this program.”
Appeals court hears voucher case Three-judge panel gives no deadline for issuing decision By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com Months of preparation boiled down to one hour of impassioned arguments Monday as attorneys presented their case on Douglas County’s school voucher program to the Colorado Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel will decide “in due course,” it said, but gave no indication when that might be. Spectators filled the downtown Denver chambers to hear one side argue that the program will deplete public education and the other that it will expand educational choices for all. “Through competition, all schools are made better,” said Eric Hall, an attorney who argued on behalf of the Douglas County School District. The program was designed, he said, “to provide additional educational choice so that individual families can find the right educational program for their students.”
But opponents maintain the voucher program takes away from funds that should be directed to public schools, and instead benefits religious institutions. The opponents prevailed in a lowercourt decision in August 2011, when a Denver District Court judge blocked the program. The Denver judge ruled that the use of taxpayer money for private and religious educations violated the Colorado Constitution and school finance act. The voucher, or choice scholarship, program launched by the Douglas County School Board in March 2011 allowed a limited number of students to use stateprovided per-pupil funding to attend private schools. While the idea of parental choice rings true, the method used by Douglas County violates the Colorado Constitution and is only the beginning, said attorneys for the opponents, who include parents Cindy Barnard and Jamie LaRue and the group Taxpayers for Public Education. “Douglas County, if allowed to proceed with this program, will grow it to limits that, unless stopped, will operate to materially deplete the financing available to public schools,” attorney Matt McCarthy said.
The choice program, he said, would “leave other children behind, children who don’t have the resources to make the choice to go to schools whose tuition is much greater, in almost every instance, than the $4,500 that would be provided through the choice scholarship program.” The program allowed up to 500 Douglas County students to receive up to $4,575 toward tuition at a private school. Parents footed the remainder of the bill. School officials said the program was not specific to religious schools, but most of the participating institutions were religiously themed. School board member Justin Williams, who attended Monday’s hearing, said he’s determined to see the program gain legal status. His five children, however, attend neighborhood public schools. “I feel passionate about it because where a child goes to school should be the family’s decision,” he said. “We feel our neighborhood schools are the best fit for our family. But as much as it’s right for the Williams family, it doesn’t mean it’s right for everybody in Douglas County.” Regardless of the appeals court’s ruling, both sides expect the case will move forward to the Colorado Supreme Court.
SO MUCH INSIDE THE HERALD THIS WEEK New approach. A pilot program at Englewood’s Swedish Medical Center provides alternative treatments to people suffering from several spinal cord injuries. Page 4
Winter-winter situation. The cold months are here, thank goodness, writes columnist Craig Marshall Smith. Page 9
Art awards. Painter Sandra Kaplan made her choices as the judge in the 47th Own an Original exhibition at the Littleton Museum. Page 11
Young chef. Stone Mountain Elementary student Nate Daniel created a pancake mix that’s been picked up by WilliamsSonoma. Page 15
Home again. Skyview Academy students will be returning to their Highlands Ranch campus after an expansion. Page 5
Secure area. Some homeless people prefer Douglas County for the same reason others do — the safe surroundings. Page 22
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