In home stretch, it’s GOTV time

Denver school board candidates and their campaign workers focus on Get-Out-The-Vote efforts in final push to Election Day

Monday Churn: Ballots and budget

State schools and colleges will learn this week how much they may have to tighten their belts in the 2012-13 school year.

Testing the conventional wisdom

Will hard-nosed political assumptions be upended on Tuesday when the votes are counted on Proposition 103?

Round two of candidate finance reports

Wide gaps in dollars raised between candidates in Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties appear little changed as Denver candidate Happy Haynes nears record

$325,000 for district tax elections

Updated – Contributions in district tax proposal campaigns have exceeded $325,000, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Dougco GOP active in Jeffco races

Douglas County’s Republican Party plans to help out GOP-backed school board candidates in Jefferson County as Election Day draws closer

Predicting higher ballot returns

Ballots returned to date signal higher voter interest than usual in “off-year” elections in Douglas and Jefferson counties

Friday Churn: Mayor fills ed job

Updated – Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has appointed Stand’s Lindsay Neil to head his Office of Education and Children

National focus on DPS race

Denver school board candidate Emily Sirota is shaking up the race in southeast Denver but it’s unclear whether it will help her win

A school that fosters creativity creatively

Editor’s note: This article was submitted by Traci Buckner, instructional leader (principal) at the National Inventors Hall of Fame School in Akron, Ohio. She spoke at this week’s “What Matters and What Works”  breakfast.

Being “creative” is no longer reserved only for art or English class.  Times have changed, and many states and school districts are now faced with fiscal challenges and high stakes testing mandates that require creative solutions. It is now imperative that creativity and education become one – beyond art class.

The “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching is a concept of the past.  Just as our own health and wellness thrive on specific prescriptions from the doctor, so too does the academic health of our children.  Such prescriptions require innovative thinking and collaboration.

The old saying “there is strength in numbers” rings true not only in war, but also in the fight for the education of our children.  Vast partnerships, ones in which the relationships benefit all entities involved, are the ones that make a difference. In many places around the nation, schools and businesses focus on their own agenda day-to-day.  In my position as Instructional Leader of a school in which the vision is to promote creative and inventive thinking, collaboration has been at the core of our creative approach to education. In other words, creativity thrives in our school because it is rooted in a rich collaborative community.