School district gets creative to keep teachers

A ordable housing considered

BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

While the Cherry Creek School District approved salary increases to recruit and retain teachers, the Douglas County School District is forced to be more creative in addressing the ongoing issue.

During the Feb. 7 meeting, school board members considered the option to partner with developers to create housing options for teachers who cannot currently a ord to live in Douglas County.

Despite being one of the state’s largest school districts, Douglas County has struggled to compete with other districts in teachers’ salaries, and the results of the November election did not help.

Voters rejected a mill levy measure, which was slated to go directly towards teacher salaries.

Superintendent Erin Kane has raised concerns with the salaries teachers are receiving, stressing the current starting salary for a teacher in the district is $43,680, which is out of touch with the cost of living in the county.

According to the U.S. Census, the median household income in Douglas County is $127,443. e average monthly cost of living is over $4,000. While school board members are considering returning to voters again next year to ask for more funds to pay teachers, they are currently looking at the a ordable housing options.

Shea Properties, a local housing developer that built out Highlands Ranch, has proposed building on 10 acres of land owned by the school district in Meridian Village near Parker. e land was originally set aside for a new school but is too small.

Shea would then develop the property with low-income apartments.

Board members seemed receptive to the proposal.

In neighboring Arapahoe County, Cherry Creek’s school board approved salary increases to start in the 2024-25 school year. According to the Feb. 8 news release, new Cherry Creek teachers will start at $57,000 per year, around $14,000 more than Douglas County. is new salary schedule was part of a compensation package approved Feb. 6 by members of the Cherry Creek Education Association, an organization that represents the teachers, education professionals, counselors, nurses and mental health professionals in the Cherry

Cherry Creek teachers “across the spectrum of classroom experience” will also get salary increases, and additional compensation will be available for teachers and certi ed sta who further their education, according to the release.

Creek School District.

“ is salary update is designed to provide competitive compensation for all of our teachers and certied sta , and is aligned to our core values as a district,” Superintendent Christopher Smith said in the release. “ is week’s announcement is part of our ongoing e orts to ensure that all of our sta earn fair and competitive wages for the work they do in service of students.”

Cherry Creek School District said it hopes the salary increase will attract new teachers to work for the district, which is hiring for many positions across schools and departments, according to the release.

Reporter Tayler Shaw contributed to this story.

BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Parker Police Department’s Ofcer Eric Graham and his K-9, Kato, are Mr. February’s in Vested Interest in K9s 2023 calendar.

Kato, one of the two police dogs at the Parker Police Department, received his ballistic vest from Vested Interest in K9s.

“ ey’re a nationwide nonpro t organization that donates ballistic armor, Narcan and life-saving kits speci cally to police dogs all over the country for no cost to the handler or the agency,” said Graham.

According to Vested Interest in K9s, the organization has donated more than 4,948 K-9 ballistic vests since 2009.

To receive a vest, the dog has to be a current certi ed working police dog, at least 20 months old and they can’t be one year away from retirement, said Graham.

Each year, the organization chooses 12 dogs that they’ve donated a vest to and their handlers to be in the calendar..

“If I can return the favor and help them out and kind of get their business name more out there to public knowledge, then I’m all for it,” said Graham.

Kato is a 7 year old German Shepherd Belgian Malinois mix and has been partners with Graham for

Over Ve

years.

Originally from Slovakia, Kato came to California at just over a year old to Gold Coast K9 where he started with drug work obedience training.

Graham got Kato when he was 18 months old.

“I spent a month out in California, training me on how to be a good partner with him,” said Graham.

After initially being certi ed in California, Graham and Kato came back to Colorado where they have continued drug training. According to Graham, they train all the time with at least two days of the month dedicated to training days.

“He, I’m sure, saved my life more times than I’ll ever know,” said Graham.

Kato is also certi ed in human tracking and article searches.

In addition to school and public demonstrations and teaching classes on what K-9 teams do, Kato has served Parker by aiding in drug arrests and nding weapons used in commission of crimes.

“He has helped me make arrests that I would have never been able to make without him,” said Graham. “Cases getting solved where he has recovered evidence during an article search that probably never would have been solved without him locating evidence.” commissioners, there will still be a majority and a minority vote unless it’s unanimous.”

Other counties already have five e proposal, state House Bill 23-1180, was introduced on Feb. 8. Another of its top supporters is state Sen. Kevin Priola, a Democrat who represents parts of Adams and Weld counties.

Some Colorado counties already operate with ve commissioners. Under current rules, once a county has more than 70,000 residents, a citizen’s group or the county commissioners can put a question on the ballot asking residents if they wish to add two more.

Of the 12 counties who are eligible through their population size, several have moved to ve commissioners, including Adams, El Paso and Arapahoe counties. Weld County and Pitkin County have moved to ve commissioners as part of their home-rule charters — essentially the counties’ own constitutions.

Denver and Broom eld have city council structures with about a dozen members each.

Boulder County has attempted to approve the expansion at least four times, according to Douglas County sta . e counties that would be a ected by the bill are Je erson, Larimer, Douglas, Boulder, Pueblo and Mesa, all of which have three commissioners.

“While counties with populations of less than seventy thousand may be adequately represented by three commissioners, counties with populations of seventy thousand or more require greater and more diverse representation,” the introductory part of the bill reads.

Douglas leaders have long clashed Douglas County Commissioner Lora omas, at the losing end of many 2-1 votes, has said she requested the information about possibly expanding the Douglas board after several residents asked her about the possibility.

“I’ve always been opposed to it because it would grow government,” she has said. “But I don’t know how to break this logjam with George (Teal) and Abe.” e relationship among Douglas County’s commissioners began to fray in April 2021 when Teal and Laydon voted to remove omas from her position as chair following a national media request gone awry. e two accused omas of using her role as chair of the board to lie to residents and “attempt to in uence the board” after she wasn’t selected to speak with the media outlet.

Also part of the con ict among the commissioners are multiple layers of legal wrangling that stem from an investigation Teal and Laydon initiated after accusing omas of circulating an anonymous letter that criticized speci c employees in the Douglas County Sheri ’s Ofce, allegedly creating a hostile work environment. ey also accused her of emailing county legal representation with a request not authorized by the full board. e $17,000 investigation into omas by outside legal counsel found that while omas had distributed the letter, doing so did not create a hostile work environment. It also found she did direct legal representation to provide her with information the board had determined to keep secret. omas appeared in a CBS Colorado news story in July discussing the con dential report that showed the results of the investigation, prompting the Douglas County government’s attorney to nd that omas could have broken the law by doing so.

A second investigation ordered by Laydon and Teal — this time conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce — did not nd probable cause to believe that omas committed the crime of rstdegree o cial misconduct. omas held a news conference in November and called the probe “yet another bogus investigation.”