March 19, 2015
SouthPlatteIndependent.net
A R A P A H O E C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O A publication of
BREAKING NEWS
LPS picks new leader Staff report The Littleton Public Schools Board of Education has selected Brian Ewert to be the district’s new superintendent. Ewert, superintendent of Englewood Schools since 2010, was among four finalists for the post. He will replace Scott Murphy, who is retiring in June. The other finalists were Amy Oaks, Littleton High School principal; Clay Abla, LPS director of secondary education; and Jackie Kapushion, Mapleton Public Schools deputy superintendent. Ewert said March 16 that he was notified of the decision earlier in the afternoon. In an email to Englewood Schools’ staff on March 17, Ewert said he was contacted by Littleton’s school board and he was offered the position as superintendent, pending contract negotiations. Tentative plans are to hold the negotiations with Ewert on March 19.
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Dawn Maris celebrates the grand opening of the Arty’s Friday Food Bag Program’s new home at Centennial Lutheran Church. Maris had been running the program out of her basement for three years. Photo by Jennifer Smith
FULL BELLIES, FULL BRAINS
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bunch of full hearts have found a way to help fill tummies at Centennial Academy of Fine Arts Education. “Every day, educators see students who can’t succeed because of hunger,” said Dawn Maris, director of Arty’s Friday Food Bag program, named for the Littleton school’s horse mascot. “These students come to school unable to concentrate, tired, unmotivated or sick, so they can’t reach their full potential.” When Maris realized in 2012 that 43 percent of her son’s classmates at Centennial qualified for free or reduced-price meals, it made her worry about what happened to them on weekends and holidays, when no school lunches
Arty’s Friday Food Bag program gets new home By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com
are available. The thought literally makes her tear up. “This doesn’t just affect those kids, it affects us all,” she said. “Stu-
Jesse Parris: Sign-twirler and activist jsmith @coloradocommunitymedia.com
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Arty’s continues on Page 4
Working to show his life matters By Jennifer Smith
G E T SOCI AL WITH US
dents who are hungry can’t interact in a positive way with their teachers and classmates, so they lose out on the chance to become engaged, productive citizens. And we lose
out on the talents of hundreds of thousands of future scientists, artists and innovators.” So Maris and another parent, Bridget Schild, hooked up with Open Arms Food Bank, got some donations and, working out of Maris’ basement, packed bags full of food to send home on weekends with several students teachers identified as in need. The program almost languished the next year, but Littleton Rotary came to the rescue. The group also sponsors a reading program at the school, and Rotarian volunteer Dale Flowers heard about the food program’s plight. “I always say that Littleton Rotary helps our kids be both well-read
You can’t help but notice the young man standing for hours at a time on a busy corner in the heart of suburbia, twirling the Mexican food sign, head bobbing to the beat coming through his earbuds — hip hop, rap, soul, jazz, sometimes rock, he says. He became even more noticeable after a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot to death 18-year-old Michael Brown. That’s when he began wearing the Tshirts. “I Can’t Breathe.” “Black Lives Matter.” “I thought I might as well,” said Jesse Parris, 28. “It’s a platform. But this is what I really do. I’m really involved in the liberation of my people.” Parris knows to some he looks out of place on that corner, at the intersection of Broadway and County Line Road, where Littleton, Centennial and Highlands Ranch converge. “People yell stuff,” he said. “I heard `Ns’ every day when I first started. Colorado always likes to portray this image
that it’s progressive and liberal, but that’s not the case. I was never a stranger to racism, but there was just something about it I couldn’t comprehend. Why do they hate us?” Unlike some people he knows, he’s earning his keep on that corner, not begging for it. “I want people to know you can’t judge a book by its cover until you open it up and read the pages,” he said. “I don’t want them to see a hoodlum, a street thug. I want them to see a driven young man who is educated. I’m unboxable.” He’s not homeless, he says, just in transition. “Tonight I’m staying with my grandparents,” he said. “It’s just a temporary thing. If I’m not staying there, I’m staying in a motel.” His story is all too typical. His dad was never in the picture, and his mom was just 15 when he was born. She bounced from place to place, job to job. “I got into gangs,” he admits. “I didn’t have a father, so I looked to the streets for that father figure. I was a wayward child, and my mom was always working two or three jobs. … There was a gang that always had my back.” Despite the odds, he says he did well in school. He loved to read, loved science, Jesse continues on Page 4
Jesse Parris: Community activist, college graduate, sign-twirler. Photo by Jennifer Smith