June 30, 2016 VO LUM E 29 | IS S U E 32 | FREE
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The two sides of teacher pay, evaluations District says its system puts best people in place, while some educators say it creates turmoil
By Mike DiFerdinando mdiferdinando@colorado communitymedia.com
S
teve Cook, a Douglas County School District assistant superintendent, remembers being a young teacher who gave a lot and got little in return. He spent the first seven of his 25 years in education at a small school where he taught six grades of science classes. “Which meant six different preps
— and in science that means labs and things like that, and at the time I was making $20,000,” Cook said of his time in Kansas during the 1990s. “I was busting my hump to do good by the kids.” The teacher two doors down never got up from his chair. “He was like the guy you saw on ‘Ferris Bueller’ who would read the paper and everyone would drop their packets in the in-box and the next week they would be in the outbox,” said Cook, who will be interim
superintendent when Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen leaves July 4 for her new position in Texas. “He was making twice what I was making and it was just so disheartening. What do you do with that as a new teacher?” Thanks to the district’s marketbased, pay-for-performance system, Cook said, that inequity of effortversus-reward no longer exists in Douglas County. That same system, however, has been a lightning rod of Teachers continues on Page 6
COMMISSIONER RACE
Former coroner wins GOP primary Lora Thomas will face Democrat Erica Bullock-Jones in November general election By Alex DeWind adewind@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Kristin Hopkins works out at Tour de Fit at F.I.T. Park Meadows on June 18. The event helped raise money for Hopkins to buy a set of prosthetic legs that will allow her to be more active. Photos by Kyle Harding
Survivor moves past the pain Gym hosts fundraising event for Highlands Ranch woman By Kyle Harding kharding@coloradocommunitymedia.com On May 4, 2014, Kristin Hopkins had planned to be challenging herself at a Spartan Sprint obstacle course race. Instead, she was taking a helicopter ride to St. Anthony Hospital after spending six days trapped in her Chevy Malibu, 80 feet off the side of Highway 285 near Fairplay. Just over two years later, the 46-year-old Highlands Ranch mother of four completed her goal. It took her nearly five hours to run, climb and crawl her way through the steep, rocky course that wound its way through five miles of the range area at Fort Carson that made up the course for the Spartan Military Sprint on May 15. But she made it. And she made it running on two prosthetic legs. Hopkins had both lower legs amputated following her crash in April 2014. The crash and loss of her legs was a bump in the road for Hopkins as she worked to get in shape. She had registered for the race as way to kick-start her efforts. “I was out of shape, I was fat, I just kind of needed motivation,” she said. Survivor continues on Page 11
In 2014, Kristin Hopkins lost both lower legs after spending days trapped in her car following a crash. Now she does Crossfit workouts and has competed in a Spartan obstacle course race with the help of her prosthetic legs.
Lora Thomas, the former county coroner, won the Republican primary election for Douglas County commissioner, District 3, by a wide margin. She will now face Erica Bullock-Jones, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, in the November general election for a seat on the three-member board in the heavily Republican county. The winner will replace term-limited Jill Repella. District 3 is largely made up of Highlands Ranch. Thomas won the June 28 GOP primary with 57 percent of the vote in her race against businesswoman Monica Wasden, who had received the endorsement Thomas of many of the county’s leaders. “I am just elated,” Thomas said on Election Night. “We built the most incredible team of volunteers to support us because this is about the future of Douglas County.” Wasden was not immediately available for comment on Election Night. Thomas, 60, is a third-generation Coloradan who grew up in Denver. She has lived in Highlands Ranch for 17 years and in Douglas County for 25 years. Thomas was the Douglas County coroner from 2011-15, often finding herself at odds with then-Sheriff David Weaver, who is now a member of the board of county commissioners. Before that, she attained the rank of major in the Colorado State Patrol, where she served for 26 years. Thomas is the president of A Night With the Coroner, a nonprofit organization for suicide-prevention awareness. In the weeks before the primary election, Thomas said she is not “the party insider.” Election continues on Page 4