Implications of voucher ruling not clear
Douglas County school district officials on Monday were still sorting through the implications of a judge’s order Friday putting a halt to their voucher pilot – including whether the district is on the hook for $300,000 already sent out in voucher payments.
Douglas County School Board President John Carson made the rounds of radio and news shows Monday discussing the district's plans to appeal. / File photo
Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the parents and civil-liberties groups who filed a lawsuit to stop the
Middle schools rile DPS board
Middle schools, student discipline and teacher effectiveness were all on the table at a Denver Board of Education work session Monday night, a meeting that saw some old differences flare up.
The most contentious issues were middle school performance, enrollment and financial support. An administration report highlighted these developments:
- Proficiency scores for DPS 6th-8th graders have jumped 19 percent in math, 13 percent in reading and 11 percent in writing since 2005.
- DPS 6-8th-grade students reduced their reading gap compared to the state average by 10 percentage points since 2005.
Lobato 8/15: Budget cuts a tradeoff
David Hart, chief financial officer of the Denver Public Schools, knows his way around a school finance spreadsheet, and he demonstrated that knowledge Monday during testimony in the Lobato v. State school funding lawsuit.
Hart spend much of his nearly three hours of testimony manipulating spreadsheets on a laptop perched on the edge of the witness box. Everyone else in the courtroom watched in real time on a large screen.
He alternated that with low-tech interludes of drawing diagrams and formulas on a large pad of paper mounted on an easel.
Much of Hart’s rapidly delivered testimony would have taxed even school finance wonks and as 4 p.m. passed,