All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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Last year at this time, Dale Peterson’s bold vision for building and equipping a new classroom and then shipping it overseas seemed like an impossibly complex undertaking. But thanks to a willingly conscripted army of both local and districtwide students, a brightly painted two-story structure wired for electricity and solar power will be trucked out of Niwot on Dec. 8, bound for its new home at the Mwebaza School in Kyengera,Uganda. “I’m feeling overjoyed that we could have so many kids invol...
Mwebaza Foundation founder and president Dale Peterson was in good spirits after the closing ceremony for ‘Cougars/CDC Creating Classrooms,’ held at Niwot High on Nov. 29. “I’m feeling overjoyed that we could have so many kids involved,” he said about the months-long project to convert two shipping containers into a functioning classroom that will be used at the Mwebaza Infant Primary School in Kyengera, Uganda. “I am also feeling relief that I will get more time with my family, but mainly just...
Fresh off the heels of his school’s second team state championship of the 2018 fall sports season, Niwot assistant principal and athletic director Chase McBride announced that he will be taking his talents to the next level. Effective after the 2018-19 school year, McBride will replace the retiring Rob Berry as Executive Director of Athletics, Fine Arts, PE and Health for the St. Vrain Valley Schools. “It’s such a successful district and there are such good ADs within the district, that I could...
Nationwide, results of the highly anticipated 2018 midterm elections had a little something for everyone, but that was not the case in Boulder County. Locally, democratic candidates received large majorities, as did ballot measures supporting election reforms and oil and gas industry regulations. Here is a look at some (unofficial) results of particular local interest. On average, registered voters in Boulder County cast their ballots at a higher rate than their counterparts elsewhere in...
St. Vrain Valley Schools provide an exceptional variety of instructional programming including the International Baccalaureate® (IB). Niwot High School (NHS) has been IB authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) since 2001, allowing us to support our talented and diverse student body in their commitment to, and pursuit of, academic excellence. IB DP, established in 1968, is a two-year program designed for high school juniors and seniors seeking academic...
Communities within St. Vrain are thriving and leading the way as Colorado continues to build and attract the top workforce and companies who want to call our thriving state home. St. Vrain Valley Schools is the educational home to more than 32,000 of Colorado’s students, with every school and feeder system committed to providing exemplary programming. While all schools share a high standard of excellence, as a district of choice, St. Vrain Valley Schools readily embraces a systemic approach t...
Boulder County residents are fortunate to have so many excellent options to choose from when it comes to education. The St. Vrain Valley School District, the Boulder Valley School District and an ever-increasing choice of private schools in Boulder County consistently rate above all state statistics in achievement. While we weren’t able to feature every educational option in Boulder County, the public and private schools profiled in this special section present a variety of primary and secondary educational choices to explore. Whether y...
Now in its 14th year, Flagstaff Academy, home of the Dragons, provides excellence every day for the 900+ community of preschool through 8th grade students. Since the school’s founding in 2005, Flagstaff Academy has built an exceptional educational environment which values developing the whole child through an award-winning Pre-K to 8th Grade Core Knowledge academic program. The curriculum is rich with experiential arts, hands-on science exploration, character education, and innovative t...
September 2018 was a big month for Flagstaff Academy Preschool. The program reached its 10th anniversary, and it also achieved a level five quality rating from Colorado Shines. Colorado Shines, a Colorado Department of Human Services and Department of Education free resource, enables families to find licensed programs in their communities that are committed to offering quality services. Using a comprehensive approach to evaluate early learning programs, the organization looks at health and...
For the much of the past two decades, students in Finland have been ranked at or near the top of an international study that compares the academic achievement of 15-year olds in reading, math and scientific literacy in 73 countries worldwide. So when Niwot High principal Eric Rauschkolb was offered the chance to travel to Helsinki over the summer for an in-depth review of the Scandinavian country’s educational system, he jumped at the chance. “The educational company Education First, they off...
Almost from the first day of school, most kids start looking forward to summer vacation. The average school year is about 180 days, which is a long time to wait if you’re a kid. Fortunately, aside from winter and spring breaks, the academic year is peppered with a day off here and there, so a kid can get a break from the daily grind. Then add in a few late start days, or early release days, just to keep things interesting. For working parents, these seemingly random days off can present a challenge—what will I do with my kiddo while I’m at work...
It was Sept. 12, 2013, when rain from a stalled storm began to swell and overrun the banks of nearly every waterway in Boulder County, assaulting massive amounts of personal property, streets, bridges, rocks and vegetation, disrupting lives for what would be years to come. Left Hand Water District’s emergency response “I have to say one of my least favorite things is revisiting the flood,” Left Hand Water District (LHWD) Manager Christopher Smith said. “I like the fact that it’s behind us...
In a ceremony at the Longmont City Council chambers, the Longmont City Council designated Sept 11 as Mwebaza Day. The proclamation acknowledged the work of the Mwebaza Foundation, an organization founded by Niwot Elementary School teacher Dale Peterson to build and improve schools in Uganda. The proclamation reads: Whereas, the citizens of Longmont recognize that cross-cultural awareness and service learning enrich and strengthen a community; and whereas, the Mwebaza Foundation has been...
In a surprise announcement on Sept 10, St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad informed those attending the school year’s first community meeting at Niwot High School (NHS) that the district has decided not to store an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the school as proposed by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s proposal earlier this year was described as a way to allow school resource officers quicker access to a long range rifle to compensate for longer emergency response times to Niwot and L...
It’s the end of a special evening and you’ve been satiated by delicious food and drinks, and all night you knew you were amongst a group of caring people. To top it off you’re leaving with a favorite new piece of art, tickets to a Pink concert, a gift card for a massage or maybe a seven-day wine tour in the Burgundy region of France. That’s the afterglow of Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement’s (HOPE) biggest annual bash. The benefit event raises nearly a quarter of the non-profi...
Back to school season is a sensible time to be evaluating who influences and makes decisions for our area’s educational institutions. November 6 is election day for the Colorado State Board of Education member from the Second Congressional District (CD2). A Niwot resident since 1989, Johnny Barrett (R) is challenging incumbent Angelika Schroeder (D) for the position. Schroeder is the chairwoman for the predominantly democratic board and has held the CD2 position for nine years. She was a...
Sunset Middle School (SMS) is welcoming 10 new staff members to its team this school year, starting with the top two administrative positions in the school - principal and assistant principal. Additional new staff members coming onboard include language arts, science, art and special education teachers, a new band director, a new school psychologist, attendance clerk, and school registrar. Anthony Barela is SMS’s new Principal. He grew up in Durango, CO, earned his master’s degree in edu...
On July 27-28, students from Niwot High kicked off the fabrication phase of ‘Cougars Creating Classrooms,’ a building project spearheaded by the Mwebaza Foundation to transform used shipping containers into instructional space for the Mwebaza Infant Primary School in Kyengera, Uganda. Over the two days, representatives from the football, girls tennis, golf, cross country, and track teams, as well as the IB program, Robotics Club, and Boy Scout Troop 161, unpacked materials for the project and...
Officials from the Mountain View Fire Protection District are asking for public input on a proposed mill levy increase that they say will help offset the costs of serving a rapidly growing population in east Boulder and south Weld counties over the next ten years. At a July 17 public information meeting at the Niwot Fire Station, Assistant Chief Keith Long and Finance Director Tonya Olson made a case for the potential tax hike, which will fund what they described as urgently needed equipment...
A dedication to problem-solving on Niwot’s behalf is among the reasons Niwot Community Association board members chose former chair Dick Piland to serve as the 2018 Grand Marshal of the town’s July 4 parade. “I am honored to serve as Grand Marshal,” Piland said. “But frankly, I was very surprised to be nominated. I think there are several others more deserving than I am.” Piland’s willingness to pitch in is a strength others appreciate. “Dick jumps into projects without reserve,” said...
A community meeting called by St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) to discuss the Boulder County Sheriff’s office proposal to store an AR-15 rifle inside Niwot High School (NHS) was quick to turn emotionally charged. An audience of about 150 people at Sunset Middle School on Thursday, June 6, unreservedly asked questions and offered opinions throughout the nearly three-hour meeting. SVVSD Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad led the discussion and was joined by five school board members, i...
Niwot High campus supervisor La’Mar West suspected something might be up when Principal Eric Rauschkolb invited him to an after school meeting with St. Vrain Superintendent Don Haddad last month, but he was absolutely “shell-shocked” when he found out that Haddad was there to present him with a Superintendent's Excellence in Education Award. “I had no idea it was coming,” he said. “I’m not one of those people who is big on awards or titles or anything, so the fact that I got it was pretty cr...
A little more than three years after they were ordered to suspend their educational programs due to violations of the Land Use Code, owners of Longmont’s Sunflower Farms received conditional approval from Boulder County Commissioners to operate as a Demonstration Farm, a move that will allow them to relaunch their SproutHouse preschool and day camps later this summer. At a public hearing on May 24, Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Elise Jones, and Deb Gardner voted unanimously to approve S...
The Longmont Downtown Development Association (LDDA) cordially invites alumni from all graduating years at Longmont, Skyline, Silver Creek, Niwot, Erie, Mead, Frederick, Lyons, Olde Columbine and the St. Vrain Online Global Academy to come downtown and enjoy food, music and old friends at the fifth annual St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) High Schools Reunion on Friday, June 8. Festivities kick off at 4th and Kimbark at 6 p.m., when SVVSD student band Bad Choices hits the stage, followed...
Niwot IB valedictorian Kamran Elahi said he was thrilled when he learned early in the 2017-18 school year that he had earned the top rank amongst his talented cohorts. “I had an idea I was up there,” the senior said. “Obviously there’s a ton of really, really smart, really nice kids that I go to school with, so I was a little bit unsure. It was probably one of the happiest moments of my high school career to find that out.” Elahi was quick to dispel the notion that students in Niwot’s e...
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church has been a mainstay in the Gunbarrel neighborhood since 1974. Today, Pastor Janet Kettering is making sure that the church’s role in the community continues. A former court reporter in Minnesota, Kettering has been a Lutheran pastor for nine years and began her ministry at Shepherd of the Hills in November 2016. Kettering is carrying on the church’s long-held mission set by its first pastor, Glenn Lundahl, that the church belongs to the community. “We certai...
For a sure sign that the Niwot boys track team is having a special season, look no further than the Northern League championships, held May 4-5 at Everly Montgomery Stadium in Longmont. Behind surprisingly strong performances in the sprints and jumping events, the Cougars scored 151 team points to claim the 2018 conference title, a feat Niwot head track coach Maurice Henriques called “a great accomplishment for our program.” “Being here for eight years, we’ve never a Northern Conference meet,...
Last month, St. Vrain Valley School District superintendent Don Haddad was announced as one of four finalists for Clark County School District’s (CCSD) search for a new superintendent. CCSD serves over 75 percent of the students in the state of Nevada, including the Las Vegas area. CCSD’s school board’s selection was originally expected to be announced April 19. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, immediately following the announcement of the final candidates, the school board trustees balked at the absence of nominees from within the d...
Up-A-Creek Robotics Team 1619, comprised of primarily St. Vrain Valley School District students, came away from the 2018 FIRST Robotics World Championship competition in Houston with a third-place alliance finish, making this the most successful finish to a season for the team. Adding to the excitement of the finale, the team also earned the General Motors Industrial Design Award, which recognizes “form and function” for the robot that best performs each year’s assigned challenge. Prior to th...
Forty years of immersing himself in Rocky Mountain majesty and magnificence, countless miles of hiking and skiing to rugged, remote, and idyllic locations, and hours of patiently waiting for the perfect lighting, hues, and wildlife to be present has ensured that John Fielder’s epic images are now synonymous with the wondrous state of Colorado. Fielder spent the good part of last Tuesday at Longmont’s Flagstaff Academy. His initial meeting was with art teacher Natalie Reed’s photography 2 class...
The St. Vrain Valley School District has designated Friday, April 27 as a non-student contact day “in anticipation of high levels of teacher participation” at the Colorado Education Association’s Days of Action demonstration scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the Colorado state capitol in Denver. Citing concerns about “adequate supervision and instruction,” Superintendent Don Haddad called the cancellation “necessary” in an email sent to parents on April 18. “While this is a statewide initi...
Track and field coaches, student-athletes, parents, and other spectators from across Boulder paid their respects to long-time Courier photographer Edward Navarro at the 42nd annual Lonnie Nixon Boulder County Championships, held April 14 at Centaurus High School.. Navarro, a fixture at area high school and college sporting events for more than a decade, passed away on Dec. 31 from complications of pulmonary fibrosis. Navarro family members, including wife Trudy, son Edward (Lucky) and daughter...
February 21, 1947 – April 7, 2018 Dennis Jerome Hurianek, 71, passed away on April 7, 2018 at his home in Niwot. Dennis was born February 21, 1947 in Denver, CO to Jerome W. and Lois E. (Cushatt) Hurianek. Dennis grew up around the world with his family wherever his father was stationed as a US Army medic. He graduated from Kaiserslautern American High School in Kaiserslautern, Germany. As a young man, he was a Boy Scout, achieving the Order of the Arrow, and a camp counselor. Dennis earned a B...
Winds gusting up to 65 m.p.h. knocked down power lines and snapped tree limbs as a quick moving front descended on the front range Tuesday afternoon. Power outages and street closures caused busing disruptions for students in the St. Vrain Valley School district, and many area athletic events were rescheduled. The girls soccer match between Niwot and Longmont will be played tomorrow at Niwot at 4 p.m., as will the baseball game against Skyline. Winds are expected to diminish overnight, and the...
Don Haddad, Superintendent of Saint Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), is on the short list of candidates to be at the helm of Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada, the fifth largest school district in the country. Haddad was named as one of four finalists for the superintendent position from an initial pool of 77 applicants. Haddad, 56, has been an educator for 33 years and progressively moved up the ladder from being a teacher to entering the administration ranks, including a stint...
The Niwot boys track team is off to its best start in years, thanks in part to distance specialist Oskar Wells. At the season’s opening meet on March 10, Wells claimed his first-ever individual title with a victory in the 800M, finishing in 1:58.61, a new personal best. Since then, the soccer-player-turned-runner has won the 800M at two more local meets, the St. Vrain RE-1J meet on March 22 (1:58.69), and the Lyons Invitational (1:59.19) on March 31. He has also raced on several of the Niwot r...
Two of Flagstaff Academy’s fifth-grade teams will be competing in the VEX IQ World Championships, which will take place Sunday, April 29 through Wednesday, May 2, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. One team, the Saphiras, earned the coveted STEM Research Project Award. This award is only given to one team with the best research and application project. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Research Project Award is presented to the team that shares the most effective STEM R...
St. Vrain Valley School District Superintendent Don Haddad opened the bond update and school safety town hall meeting held at Silver Creek High School (the fourth such meeting this month in the district) by emphasizing that for SVVSD, and for himself, student safety was an area of concern long before the recent shootings. Haddad pointed to the “summer of violence” that occurred in Denver in 1993 as the initial cause for the heightened worry over school safety. At that time he was working at a h...
Doing Democracy Day has been a St. Vrain Valley School District annual event for the past nine years. It’s a day when school board members, teachers, city council and students gather at the Longmont Civic Center to discuss and present issues within the community. This year, for the first time, select students from St. Vrain Middle Schools were invited to join with high school students to share their opinions and thoughts. The event was started so students could be involved with topics that a...
Local robotics Team 1619, based in Longmont, earned a significant honor this month at the Hub City Regional Competition in Lubbock, Texas - the Regional Chairman’s Award. Along with their alliance teams, the team also took first place out of 41 teams at the same event. Since the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) team was formed in 2004, and dubbed Up-A-Creek Robotics, membership and facilities have dramatically improved. Its beginnings were humble, with the first meeting in a t...
Charges have been filed against two juveniles following a Feb. 16 “Safe 2 Tell” report at Niwot High School. Last month, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office responded to the report, but the school has been unable to report the incident to district patrons due to the investigation. Now that charges have been filed, the two students were arrested on Friday, March 16. Since they are both 16, names have not been released. “Safe 2 Tell” is an anonymous method for students to report suspicious behavior or knowledge of threats made by other students o...
Teens and adults can apply for summer jobs Boulder County residents ages 14-17 have until 4:30 p.m. on March 30 to apply for summer jobs with the Boulder County Youth Corps. Boulder County is also hiring adults to be team leaders. Boulder County is especially in need of female applicants. The Youth Corps will hire 160 teenagers to work 30 hours per week, Mon. through Thurs., from June 11 to Aug. 1, on a variety of community service projects such as trail construction and maintenance, historic preservation, forest thinning, construction and repa...
Arrest warrants issued for two 16-year-old students today Niwot, Colo. - On February 16, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office received a “Safe 2 Tell” report that a 16-year-old juvenile male student at Niwot High School, located at 8989 Niwot Road in unincorporated Boulder County, made statements and posted a video on social media which were generally related to the recent school shooting in Florida. These online comments caused other Niwot students alarm and resulted in several Safe2Tell reports being made. The school district and law enfor...
Attending a Niwot High School theater production is always a treat. But this March, the audience could walk away with an even bigger prize. During the March 10 matinee performance of The Foreigner, the theater department will be auctioning off four tickets to the Broadway hit musical Hamilton, currently playing a sold-out run at Denver’s Buell Theater. The Hamilton tickets, along with other items donated by local Niwot and Longmont businesses will be part of a silent auction held in the NHS a...
This month’s progress issue features several area groups, clubs and organizations that are all about volunteerism. Though they may range in variety — such as the Niwot Historical Society, the Niwot Community Association or the Longmont Foundation — they have one common goal, and that is to make the community a better place to live, work and play. The next six pages of this issue feature several of the organizations, what they’re about and ways to get involved. We hope you enjoy learning about the many groups that make this community tick. N...
In the fall of 2018, Twin Peaks Charter Academy in Longmont will launch a new program to attract the youngest students. In mid-February, the school’s board of directors approved the addition of a preschool program to the K-12 school. The program was the brainchild of K-5 Principal Amber Coniff and Executive Director Joe Mehsling, who both started at the school in 2016. They noticed many St. Vrain schools have preschool programs and wanted to give Twin Peaks families the opportunity to start their three to five-year-olds at the school instead o...
Back in his home state during Senate recess, Colorado senior senator Michael Bennet dropped in on the AP government and IB economics classes at Niwot High on Feb. 22 for an informal discussion with students. Accompanied by Principal Eric Rausckolb and St. Vrain Valley Schools Superintendent Don Haddad, Bennet first joined Mr. Burton’s AP class, where he fielded questions on military spending and gun control, before taking to the chalkboard to illustrate a point about deficit spending. He also s...
For recognition of her efforts in technology education and outreach, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has selected Niwot senior Michelle Tran to receive the 2018 Award for Aspirations in Computing. Every year, NCWIT recognizes high school women “for their demonstrated interest and achievements in computing, proven leadership ability, academic performance, and plans for post‑secondary education.” Tran was one of just 41 students selected out of 3,600 appli...
On Jan. 26, Niwot High freshman Emily Creek took first place in the CHSAA girls slalom race at Copper Mountain. With a time of 1 minute 35.66 seconds, Creek beat out more than 70 other competitors for her first high-school win and her third top-ten finish of the season. On Jan. 18, she was just 12 one-hundredths of a second out of first in the girls slalom at Winter Park, and on Jan. 12, she finished fifth in the giant slalom (GS) event at Eldora. With the wins, she is qualified to compete at...
It is with great sadness that we report the heartbreaking news that Ed Navarro, longtime sports photographer for the Courier, passed away Dec. 31 after a battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Though his death will be felt deeply by his wife Trudy, a retired teacher, and his two children, Ed “Lucky” Navarro and Emily Marcellus, his friends and the many lives he touched will also experience a great loss. I knew Ed as a lawyer in Longmont for many years before he took up photography. I recall seeing him...
