Teachers turn up heat on funding Day of Action is project of Colorado Education Association

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

As students piled out of their parents’ cars and walked into Goddard Middle School on a recent Friday morning, they were met by a sea of red shirts. Dozens of their teachers stood in front of the school, holding signs that said “PROTECT,” “RESPECT” and “#DayOfAction.” is gathering was part of the Colorado Education Association’s Day of Action on March 3, during which educators in Littleton Public Schools joined statewide e orts to raise awareness about education funding and put pressure on the legislature to put more dollars towards public schools. e Colorado Education Association is the largest union of educators in the state and works with local education union groups including the Littleton Education Association.

Amanda Crosby, president of the Littleton Education Association, said educators at 13 schools participated in the day of action. ey

When Littleton High School ninth grader Osso Siddall heard lockdown alarms begin during his lunch period, he did the safest thing he could think of — he ran.

“ e lockdown alert sounded, and then everybody was just screaming and confused,” he said. “And then I heard someone, I think it was like a sta member, said something about somebody was in the building… So I got out of there as fast as I could.” ree blocks and a couple hundred rapid heartbeats later, he arrived at his home. His mother, Mary Siddall, knew something was wrong right away when her son opened the door, out of breath.

SEE LOCKDOWN, P6 among other desires. Respondents also expressed concern about afterdark loitering, reworks, privacy concerns of neighboring houses and lack of accessibility to the space.

In an e ort to immediately address some of these issues, ocials changed the park hours. New signage labeled the park open to the public from sunrise until sunset, as opposed to having it open for a few hours after dark.

Reester said neighbors expressed that this change limited some afterhours activity.

Concept site plan elements e new design plan implements several other factors to formalize the park even more, in hopes to dissuade inappropriate behavior.

“Really what we’re trying to do here is activate the site,” Taylor said. “And we want to do that in a way that is consistent with the way people want to see the site used…. e more we can have people using the site in an appropriate way, the less comfortable it is for people to use the site in an inappropriate way.” e concept site plan includes two paved loop paths around the two sections of the park with soft-surface paths traversing across the loops. e concrete path will be maintainable throughout the year and is intended to be more accessible than the current habit trails.

“We did hear from a few residents who have loved ones using mobility devices who have not been able to use the site,” Taylor said. “We really do want to provide equity and universal access to this site.”

District 4 Councilmember Kelly Milliman said she was concerned about the paths not all being ADA accessible.

“What I still am struggling with is this soft-surface trail through the middle,” she said. “If somebody is on a scooter or a wheelchair or whatever, they’re not going to be able to use that to cut across… If its going to be accessible to everybody, I personally would like to see it all natural concrete.”

“I like the di erentiation between the two,” Mayor Kyle Schlachter responded, adding that the Mary Carter Greenway Trail has di erent areas that are paved and unpaved. e plan also proposes an area called a vista terrace where park visitors could see the mountains, as preserving views was a repeated desire of community members. is area would be shifted back from current informal park viewpoint areas in an e ort to reduce privacy concerns for nearby homes.

For families, the site plan includes a “nature play” area for kids. It would include “discovery paths” with boulders and logs for families to explore as well as a natural structure for kids to play on.

“Part of the goal of nature play is to get children back outside,” Reester said in an interview with Colorado Community Media. “But at the same time, do it in an environment which provides them the opportunity to be interactive in nature, but also have that play be more imaginationbased.”

Milliman said some community members were concerned about the placement of the nature play area, nothing that it’s close to Prince Street. Councilmember At-Large Pam Grove agreed.

“We don’t want children getting hurt, because that’s a busy street,” Grove said.

Taylor said the area is 50 to 60 feet from the road and the plan has it there because trees screen the view of that area from the neighborhood. But he said there is exibility in where it could be placed.

Community feedback was divided in desires for parking, with some community members expressing they desired a parking lot and others opposing the idea. e draft plan includes some designated parallel parking spaces along Sunset Drive as well as an Americans with Disabilities Act parking space on Dry Creek Court.

Other site amenities would include seating, native plant areas, signage and other potential artistic interpretive elements.

“I think this plan really represents really listening to the comments that we’ve received since that rst meeting and trying to balance an asset that the taxpayers paid for and listening to the concerns of those that could be most a ected by (it),” said SSPR executive director Rob Hanna at the meeting.

Costs and next steps

So far, the city has contributed $22,669 to the design project, with SSPR contributing the same, according to city documents. e city anticipates total project costs through construction to reach $1,000,000 to be shared between SSPR, Littleton open space funds and Arapahoe County open space grant funding.

Littleton’s anticipated share would be $125,000 in 2023 and $200,000 in 2024, according to the city.

City council will speak about the site plan at an upcoming regular meeting and will consider a resolution to support the plan, Reester said. Community members will be welcome to make public comment at this meeting.

Citizens can also review the site design plan and provide feedback at https://gameplan.ssprd.org/jackasshill-park-site-plan?tool=news_ feed#tool_tab. After the city council takes action on the plan, South Suburban Parks and Recreation will host another meeting with an opportunity for public comment.