January 14, 2016 VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 23 | FREE
CastlePinesNewsPress.net A publication of
D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
Castle Rock expands events calendar Plans spur discussion over budget, sponsorship policy By Shanna Fortier sfortier@coloradocommunitymedia.com The Castle Rock events calendar will be fuller this year, with 20 new town-hosted events. They will be added to the calendar that already includes the annual Daddy Daughter Ball, Spring Up the Creek Day and Spooktacular. “Events have the ability to position the brand and identity of a town and drive millions into the local economy,” said Castle Rock Special Events Manager Casey Willis.
Willis was hired by the Town of Castle Rock about six months ago. With her hire came the town’s new special events division and Castle Rock’s first-ever Season of the Star, which was launched under her guidance. Season of the Star kicked off at Starlighting, the town’s oldest event, and added weekly community events every Saturday for a month. It ended with Winterfest, a celebration of the new year and winter season, which was held Jan. 2. “It was really, really cool this year to see all the events that were available for residents and families,” said Castle Rock Mayor Paul Donahue. “I thought it was absolutely fabulous. This is the first time we’ve tried this as a community, and the
Kelsey Fradin plays Frisbee with her dog, Alpine, at the 2015 Pooch Plunge. The plunge is one of the annual events put on by the Castle Rock Parks and Recreation Department. Photo by Shanna Fortier
Events continues on Page 9
PARCC test suffering from mass opt-outs Less than a fifth of juniors took test in Douglas County By Mike DiFerdinando mdiferdinando@coloradocommunitymedia.com
attention, the kind he hadn’t received in weeks. Canello was a shy and fearful dog when he was brought to The Buddy Center. His foster family was trying to “work on those fear issues” when he went missing, said Megan Rees, spokeswoman for the Denver Dumb Friends League, which runs The Buddy Center. Once he was brought in, Canello “looked to be in good shape overall with the exception, of course, for the porcupine quills,” Rees said.
In Douglas County, participation rates of students in the first PARCC tests given last March veered sharply between 18 percent among the school district’s juniors to nearly 95 percent for its thirdgraders. The widespread opt-outs by students and parents across the county and Colorado question the validity of the results and the test, school officials said. “We took it and we had pretty good participation in our younger grades, but in our upper grades we had very poor participation,” Douglas County School District Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen said. “If you want to look at a picture that shows the whole district, you’re not going to see it in those upper grades because of the participation.” PARCC, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, replaced the standardized Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP). The tests were administered by computer in English language arts and math to students in third through 11th grades in 11 states plus the District of Columbia. Participation rates in neighboring districts also reflected the state’s overall low student turnout for 11th-graders. In Jefferson County, 60 percent of 11th-
Dog continues on Page 8
PARCC continues on Page 4
Canello, a boxer mix who went missing for two weeks, arrives for an assessment of his wounds from a run-in with a porcupine. Canello was captured Jan. 6 in the Anthology neighborhood in Parker. He is up for adoption at The Buddy Center in Castle Rock. Courtesy photo
Dog comes back worse for wear Canello vanished, had run-in with porcupine By Chris Michlewicz cmichlewicz@coloradocommunitymedia.com After two weeks on the lam and a tussle with a porcupine, Canello curled up on a porch and turned himself in. “Evidently, he’d had enough,” said Josh Hans, public information officer for the Parker Police Department. Canello was relinquished by his owners
in early December and taken in by The Buddy Center in Castle Rock. He was staying with a foster family when he disappeared on Christmas Eve. For two weeks, residents and a Parker police animal control officer spotted the pup, but were unable to rein him in. The couple who found him in the Anthology subdivision the morning of Jan. 8 took in Canello and called police. But a series of accidents from a winter storm delayed their arrival, and the male boxer mix had to wait for medical attention. In the interim, he received a different kind of
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