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JUNE 12, 2014 VOLU M E 27 | I S S UE 30
HighlandsRanchHerald.net A publication of
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D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
Schools improve emergency outreach
A THIRSTY BUNCH
Arapahoe incident revealed need for changes in system By Jane Reuter
jreuter @coloradocommunitymedia.com
Despite selling out well in advance, there was plenty of beer to be had by all June 7 at Civic Green Park during the second annual Highlands Ranch Beer Festival. Among the 48 breweries on the park grounds was Highlands Ranch’s own 3 Freaks Brewery, which debuted its Odd Man Stout and Lucky Clover Irish Red in advance of its soft opening scheduled for this weekend, June 13-15. The brewery plans to be open weekends for the next few weeks before beginning to hold regular hours.
ABOVE: John Turk, who serves as the Colorado sales manager of Salt Lake City-based brewery Epic, served up plenty of the brewery’s IPA and pilsner June 7. Epic was one of 48 breweries present at the sold-out festival in Highlands Ranch. LEFT: Bill Goetsch of Aurora attends as many beer festivals as he can in Colorado and put the Highlands Ranch Beer Fest among his favorites. “Colorado, as far as beer goes, we own this country,” he said. “No one can compete against us.” BELOW: Work? Who’s working? From left, Bri Olinger, Val Lark and Katie WesterKamp of the Boulder brewery, Twisted Pine, were caught having about as much fun as you can while on the job at the June 7 Highlands Ranch Beer Fest.
The second annual Highlands Ranch Beer Festival welcomed a sell-out crowd of 1,400 thirsty patrons to Civic Green Park June 7. Beer lovers from across the Centennial State did their best to try as much as they could from 48 breweries from across the region and country. Highlands Ranch had a few of its own breweries on hand as Living the Dream, 3 Freaks and Grist all set up taps, along with neighboring breweries 38 State (Littleton), Rockyard (Castle Rock), Elk Mountain Brewing Company (Parker) and Lone Tree Brewing Company. The event, as it was last year, was sponsored by the Highlands Ranch Community Association.
Glitches revealed in the Douglas County School District’s emergency communications during the Arapahoe High School shooting prompted a dramatic reworking of the system. With the new SchoolMessenger system, the time it takes to send texts is 34 times faster than with the previous system. Emails are moving at 26 times the speed they did with the previous system, and voicemail is reaching its destination in half the time, DCSD’s internal communications officer Randy Barber told the board of education during its June 3 meeting. “We did test our website, Facebook and Twitter feeds and had good results with those as well,” Barber said. It’s a huge improvement from the time required to send emergency communications on Dec. 13, 2013 — the day of a shooting incident at Arapahoe High School in Centennial that left two students dead. That day, DCSD’s system was overwhelmed by heavy traffic. Emails about DCSD’s response that were supposed to reach parents shortly after the incident arrived three or more hours later, eliciting a flood of complaints. Douglas County’s schools were on lockout status after the shooting, which means staff was on heightened alert, perimeter doors were locked, and visitors were required to use the main entrances and show identification before entering the buildings. “We had delivery failure during the Arapahoe shooting,” said Barber, calling the situation unacceptable. “Obviously, this was a very poignant moment in which we had sent messaging to all of our schools. We had principal reports coming back (that) they were not getting messages. The wheel on our computer is spinning and nothing was going out, or very few messages were going out.” Barber said SchoolMessenger, already used by many other school districts, is time-tested and reliable. DCSD conducted tests of the system in late December, February and May. “Obviously, there is not a lot of time to waste here,” he said. “We wanted to be ready if there was an actual emergency in our schools.” The new system will cost about $15,000 more than the old one, but school officials DCSD continues on Page 7
INSIDE: For indepth coverage of June 24 primary candidates, see pages 13-17.
PHOTOS BY RYAN BOLDREY Printed on recycled newsprint. Please recycle this copy.