Dr. Christian Thurstone, right, counsels a patient in Denver Health's STEP substance abuse program on Feb. 1. I-News photo

“I smoke marijuana every single day all day long,” the teen said during a lunch period spent hanging out in a park outside his downtown Colorado Springs high school.

“It develops brain cells. That is a complete and true fact,” he said. “It kills weak brain cells. It does affect your lungs … but it’s better than smoking cigarettes.”

Dozens of students interviewed across Colorado as part of an investigation by Education News Colorado, Solutions and the I-News Network made similar statements:

Marijuana is healthy. It helps me focus in class. And, hey, it’s better than alcohol or cigarettes.

The investigation found a 45 percent increase in drug violations reported by schools statewide in the past four years, even as violations in nearly every other category – including alcohol and tobacco use – declined.

It also found that student perceptions of marijuana as “healthy” or “healthier” are dubious at best – and dangerous at worst.

Doctors say marijuana is especially harmful to kids for two key reasons:

First, new research shows adolescence is a crucial time for brain development and marijuana use can permanently change the teen brain. Second, young people who start using marijuana before age 18 are much more likely than adults to become addicted to the drug.

“There is no debate in the scientific community,” said Dr. Christian Thurstone, who is conducting a medical marijuana study for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “It’s physically and mentally addictive.”

Our latest report on medical marijuana and K-12 schools focuses on health:

• Our main story, Research shows adverse effects of marijuana on teens as drug use among students appears to be rising
• In Teen: Without marijuana, I’d probably be dead, a 17-year-old with a rare disease relies on medical marijuana but can’t get treatment at school

Learn more about this entire series, including in-depth examinations of the spike in drug violations reported by K-12 schools and how different communities are regulating medical marijuana around their schools.

A Colorado Springs high school student, who declined to be identified, during a recent lunch break at downtown Acacia Park next to Palmer High School. Behind him is Indispensary, a medical marijuana dispensary. All photos by Joe Mahoney / I-News

“I smoke marijuana every single day all day long,” the teen said during a lunch period spent hanging out in a park outside his downtown Colorado Springs high school.

“It develops brain cells. That is a complete and true fact,” he said. “It kills weak brain cells. It does affect your lungs … but it’s better than smoking cigarettes.”

Dozens of students interviewed across Colorado as part of an investigation by Education News Colorado, Solutions and the I-News Network made similar statements:

Marijuana is healthy. It helps me focus in class. And, hey, it’s better than alcohol or cigarettes.

“It’s less damaging to smoke weed,” said a 15-year-old girl getting high over lunch near her Denver high school. “I’m not trying to mess with my body.”

The investigation found a 45 percent increase in drug violations reported by schools statewide in the past four years, even as violations in nearly every other category – including alcohol and tobacco use – declined.

School officials and health care workers repeatedly cited the location of medical marijuana dispensaries near schools and the saturation of marijuana in surrounding communities.

They say Colorado’s thriving cannabis industry and its advertising —online and on storefronts at more than 700 dispensaries — have emboldened young people to justify abuse and claim health benefits from marijuana.

But contrary to perceptions among students, doctors say marijuana is especially harmful to kids for two key reasons:

First, new research shows adolescence is a crucial time for brain development and marijuana use can permanently change the teen brain. Second, young people who start using marijuana before age 18 are much more likely than adults to become addicted to the drug.

“It’s an ironic play of events that use is going up at the same time that the science is coming out about its possible brain toxicity,” said Dr. Chris Thurstone, an adolescent psychiatrist who runs a substance abuse treatment program at Denver Health.

“We need to tell people that youth are the most likely to become addicted to marijuana and that when they become addicted, they are at higher risk for every bad outcome a teenager can face.”

Doctors interviewed across the spectrum, from vocal marijuana opponents to those who recommend it for patients, agreed that marijuana can be addictive. And the diagnostic bible for health providers, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, lists cannabis abuse and cannabis dependence as possible diagnoses.

“There is no debate in the scientific community,” Thurstone said. “It’s physically and mentally addictive.”

Research findings grim for young cannabis users

Few teens heed such warnings, however. While adolescents have always been impulsive thrill seekers, Thurstone and other researchers have found that all the most dangerous behaviors escalate when teens use marijuana.

It’s no different than when they use alcohol or other drugs.

The more often teens use and the greater the dose, the more reckless their behavior becomes. So regular marijuana use puts them at greater risk for dropping out of school, engaging in risky sex behaviors and getting in accidents, the leading cause of death for adolescents.

Research paints a grim picture for marijuana users who start at a young age:

• Teens using marijuana before age 18 are two to four times more likely to develop psychosis as young adults compared to those who do not.
• The teen brain is much more vulnerable to addiction. One in 6 kids who try marijuana before age 18 will either abuse it or become addicted to it compared with 1 in 25 adults.
• Studies show that heavy doses of THC, the key chemical in marijuana, during adolescence change the way the brain develops. In particular, marijuana’s harmful effects strike the hippocampus, which is critical for learning and memory.

“We know that adolescents who start using marijuana between the ages of 14 and 22 – and stop by 22 – have many more cognitive deficits at age 27 compared to non-using peers,” said Dr. Paula Riggs, director of the Division of Substance Dependence in the psychiatry department at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“It affects brain processing, decision-making, impulsivity and memory.”

Dr. Christian Thurstone, right, counsels a patient in Denver Health's STEP substance abuse program on Feb. 1. I-News photo

Riggs said there’s little question among doctors that marijuana can be beneficial for a small percentage of patients who have cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma or nausea from HIV treatment.

But that doesn’t mean it’s safe or healthy for kids.

“There’s no medical indication for medical marijuana in young people at all,” she said. “It’s not a medication. There are 400 other chemicals and many carcinogens in smoked marijuana.”

The revolution in brain science has only increased concerns about harm to the teen brain.

Experts used to think that the brain was fully formed by about age 6.

But new brain scan research has found that nerve cells don’t finish developing until young people reach their mid-20s. Teen brain cells don’t have as much of a fatty coating called myelin which helps messages travel from neuron to neuron efficiently. The brain also sheds unnecessary connections during adolescence.

It turns out that one of the last parts of the brain to fully mature is the prefrontal cortex, which governs complex decision-making and analysis.

“In other words, the adolescent brain craves pleasure, but it doesn’t know how to weigh risks, determine and plan for consequences or say ‘enough is enough,’” said Thurstone, who is conducting a five-year study on medical marijuana in Colorado for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Debating a rise in marijuana use among teens

Blaming marijuana for increasing risky teen behavior is a leap, said Dan Rees, an economics professor at the University of Colorado Denver.

“It turns out that kids who use marijuana also drink alcohol and get in car accidents and have sex without condoms. It’s impossible to distinguish the effect of the marijuana and the effect of personalities,” said Rees, who has been studying the impacts of marijuana legalization throughout the United States.

He’s not surprised if young people are now getting medical marijuana rather than street weed. But he’s not convinced that overall use is up among kids or that marijuana is any more dangerous than other drugs that kids abuse.

Several studies show that alcohol use declines when marijuana use increases. One of Rees’ studies found that traffic fatalities went down by nine percent in 13 states, including Colorado, that have legalized medical marijuana. The researchers don’t know why. It’s possible that people drive more when they’re drunk than stoned.

The study used data through 2009, just as dispensaries began spreading across Colorado. So it’s unclear how the boom in dispensaries has affected marijuana use or driving here.

Another study by Rees shows that, in states that have legalized medical marijuana, use increases dramatically among young adults. But that did not hold true for those under 18.

Rees described the finding as “puzzling.” The study, which is not yet published, also used data through 2009.

“My strong suspicion is that there’s diversion from the legal market to the illegal market. The fact that kids are ending up with marijuana that was originally intended for the legal market doesn’t surprise me,” he said.

“There’s just no evidence that medical marijuana affected the percent of youth who said they smoked marijuana in the last month.”

Surveys in Colorado and nationally, however, appear to indicate marijuana use is rising.

In Colorado, a survey of more than 27,000 students through the Adams County Youth Initiative found a jump in use. In 2008, 19 percent of students in various Adams County middle and high schools said they had used marijuana in the last month. That number increased to 22 percent in 2009 and 30 percent in 2010.

And the Monitoring the Future study, the largest national survey of students and drug use, found in 2011 that marijuana use has risen for the fourth straight year after consistent declines in the past decade. The study also found one in 15 high school seniors now uses marijuana daily. That marked a 30-year peak for daily use, a finding that sparked great concern for Riggs.

“People will say, ‘I smoked in the ‘60s and I didn’t become addicted,’” she said. But, “Adolescents who are daily users are at much higher risk for becoming dependent. And the marijuana, by and large, is more potent today.”

State-by-state data for marijuana use should be available for the first time in the next couple of years. Riggs said that information will be critical because, unlike Rees, she suspects access to marijuana in the 16 states that have legalized it may be driving the increased use found in national survey results.

Here in Colorado, teens that Riggs sees through her clinical trials often repeat claims such as marijuana helps them “focus.” When she probes further, she finds their grades are going down.

“What they mean is ‘I’m totally lost. I can tolerate sitting there lost (in class),’” Riggs said. “It’s zoning them out.”

“They often come in and say, ‘It’s not addictive. It’s natural. It’s an herb.’ But you wouldn’t go out and pick poisonous mushrooms, would you?”

Recreational pot for teens ‘absolutely’ not healthy

Dr. Alan Shackelford recommends marijuana to some of his patients and advises lawmakers around the country on medical marijuana legislation. He maintains a business and website, Amarimed of Colorado, devoted to medical marijuana.

In very rare cases, Shackelford said he has recommended marijuana for children, including a toddler who was dying of a brain tumor.

“Her oncologist at Children’s was in complete agreement. We know that cannabis makes opiates much more effective. Judicious cannabis use allowed the parents to decrease the amounts of morphine and also got rid of horrific pain,” Shackelford said.

Recommending marijuana to some patients, however, and endorsing recreational use among kids is not the same thing.

“Do I think kids ought to say that it’s healthy and use it recreationally? Absolutely, I do not,” Shackelford said.

But he believes a narrow focus on marijuana abuse among kids distracts from the more harmful effects of other drugs they’re using, including tobacco, alcohol and prescription medications.

“Cannabis is much safer than those things,” Shackelford said. “I’m not demonizing alcohol or opiate prescription medications. Used correctly, alcohol can be no more lethal than Percocet. But both have the potential to kill people.”

Shackelford says marijuana is a valuable tool for some patients. He has found it particularly helpful for patients with migraines and elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

He never recommends that patients smoke it and declines to say how many recommendations he gives per year for medical marijuana or what percentage of his patients seek it.

And he has a message for young people who claim marijuana is healthy.

“Don’t kid yourselves. Don’t use terms to rationalize something when we don’t know what the consequences are,” he said.

“It’s certainly not healthy like eating an apple and probably not healthy in teenagers, not in someone who is still developing.”

The same applies to abuse of Ritalin, Percocet, alcohol or methamphetamine, all of which Shackelford views as much more dangerous.

While debate is fierce over the relative harm of various drugs, Thurstone said the No. 1 drug his patients are abusing is marijuana. He has treated patients as young as 11 for its use.

Nationally, in substance abuse treatment programs, two-thirds of patients are dealing with marijuana abuse or dependence. At Thurstone’s Denver Health program, the figure is 95 percent.

“Many lives are being destroyed by this,” Thurstone said. “(Teens) are dropping out of life. They’re dropping out of school or if they’re not, they’re doing really badly.

“They’ve dropped away from their family, their friends and their sports to smoke marijuana every day, all day. We see that all the time.”

Contact Katie Kerwin McCrimmon at katherine.mccrimmon@ucdenver.edu.

He says it feels like a grown man is jumping on his chest as the muscles in his belly roll like waves.

Chaz Moore, 17, lights a pipe containing medical marijuana at his home in Colorado Springs on Feb. 14. All photos by Joe Mahoney / I-News

Chaz opens a jar labeled MMJ, pulls out some fresh green buds and crumbles the marijuana into a small pipe. He lights up the bowl and inhales as deeply as possible through the spasms, turning to blow smoke out his bedroom window.

A second puff, a deep cough and the attack passes.

Chaz is one of 41 children under 18 in Colorado who have a medical marijuana license, according to the most recent data available from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

And he’s convinced that marijuana is saving his life.

His doctors have told him he is one of about 50 people in the world diagnosed with myoclonus diaphragmatic flutter, an affliction causing muscle spasms that can recur dozens of times a day.

Until a couple years ago, Chaz was a healthy kid, except for some childhood asthma that he was outgrowing. He played in his school band and on a baseball team.

Then he started getting hives and the mysterious spasms. At first, the attacks came three to five times a week and his family rushed him to the hospital each time.

Doctors tried treating him for allergies and gave him inhalers, along with high doses of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs to relax his body.

“One week, we went nine times to the ER,” said his dad, Shan Moore. “We were going nuts, just totally freaking out. Nobody knew what was wrong.”

Doctors in Colorado Springs referred the family to National Jewish Health in Denver, where Chaz had an attack in an exam room. One of the doctors who observed the spasms had treated a patient with the same rare illness nearly 20 years ago.

Chaz finally had a diagnosis and began treatment at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where his pediatric neurologist tried a variety of medications. At one point, he was taking a cocktail of 16 pills three times a day.

The medications would work for a time, but not consistently.

So Shan Moore said he raised an “insane” idea with Chaz’s doctor – marijuana. He had seen reports online that it might help some patients with multiple sclerosis.

The father said he hesitated to consider marijuana in part because his own relationship with the drug goes “way back.”

Shan Moore first tried marijuana at age 10, became a self-described pothead and used everything else he could get his hands on. By his mid-30s, he said he was dealing drugs and wound up in prison for three years when Chaz was just 7.

Now 41, Moore says he’s been clean for several years. The last thing he wanted to consider was getting his son started on marijuana.

But the effects of the high doses of the prescription drugs were also alarming. The family decided to give marijuana a try.

Chaz said he had tried pot once before and didn’t like feeling high. Now he rarely experiences that feeling because the family shops for low-potency marijuana.

He has fine-tuned his medication over the last year. He starts each day with edibles like marijuana-infused peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or marijuana cheesecake.

The food has higher levels of chemicals that seem to fend off Chaz’s attacks and stay in his system longer, without the psychoactive effects that cause a high.

Chaz Moore displays marijuana-infused food used to treat his rare disease.

His friends have never hit him up for marijuana, Chaz says, and he believes kids who abuse the drug are harming patients.

“You’re taking away from my medicine,” he said. “Even though you’re out there enjoying it, you’re messing with my medicine.”

Chaz no longer uses any other medications, but the marijuana created a new problem.

His school district, Harrison District 2, refused to allow the school nurse to give him marijuana. The family switched Chaz to a closer high school, hoping he could walk home when he had an attack, use marijuana and then walk back.

But the family said district officials didn’t like that idea either, telling them they feared Chaz would be impaired and disruptive.

District spokeswoman Jennifer Sprague declined to discuss Chaz’s case and said both federal and state law bar the district from administering marijuana.

“I was doing fine,” Chaz said. “I wasn’t disrupting anybody. My eyes weren’t red. I wasn’t smelling of pot. I was doing all of my work and wasn’t hurting anyone.”

Last April, after he started having as many as 35 attacks a day, Chaz enrolled in an online school.

Now he said he feels like he’s on house arrest, stuck in his bedroom with a small Dell laptop.

He’s lonely and says he sometimes loses track of what day it is because of the monotony. He’s more than a year behind his peers, but determined to get an education and become a counselor for kids in hospitals.

His dad shakes his head over the battles they’ve fought.

“Medical marijuana saved his life, but ruined it all at the same time,” Shan Moore said.

The family spends about $1,000 a month on various marijuana products and shops at five different Colorado Springs dispensaries. The father and son have become regulars on the pro-marijuana circuit, speaking at conventions.

Being so vocal about the benefits of marijuana has been costly. The father said he lost one job because his bosses didn’t like having such an outspoken employee. He now splits wood and trims trees, picking up jobs where he can. His wife works at a Denny’s.

Chaz is on Medicaid. The father said, altogether, they visited emergency rooms 117 times prior to starting marijuana. Now Chaz hasn’t been to the ER for more than a year and only goes to the doctor for routine checkups.

He doesn’t like marijuana – the taste of the food or the smell of the smoke. He feels guilty using it in the home he shares with his grandmother. He knows the damage drugs can do to a family. Right now, he sees no other options.

“If I couldn’t access marijuana,” Chaz said, “I would probably be dead.”

Contact Katie Kerwin McCrimmon at katherine.mccrimmon@ucdenver.edu.

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia have made improving early childhood literacy one of their education policy priorities, and Garcia has announced Feb. 27-March 2 as Colorado Literacy Week.

Among the events is a Tuesday town hall meeting with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the Denver School of Science and Technology’s Green Valley Ranch campus. According to a news release, Garcia and Duncan will make an announcement about “One Book 4 Colorado.”

At noon on Wednesday the governor, Garcia and Christine Benero, president of Mile High United Way, will unveil what’s being called Colorado’s Early Literacy Initiative and announce local programs that will be receiving United Way grants.

Among things to be announced is the expansion of a Minnesota-based early literacy program into Denver – get details in this news release.

Last fall Garcia and Benero led a statewide listening tour to gather information about successful local early childhood programs and lay the groundwork for the literacy initiative.

The lieutenant governor and Benero will again be hopscotching around the state next week. On Friday, National Read Across America Day, Hickenlooper, Garcia and other officials will fan out to schools to read to kids.

Early literacy legislation, House Bill 12-1238, is pending at the Capitol. The bill is intended to improve third-grade reading levels and would create a mechanism for schools to hold back third graders with poor reading skills and then catch them up. The bill was developed in consultation with the administration. The measure is scheduled for its first hearing on Feb. 29 in the House Education Committee.

A legal dispute between Denver Public Schools and its teachers union goes before a judge today when attorneys argue whether a lawsuit over recent innovation school approvals should move forward.

A 2011 lawsuit by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association contends the Denver school board acted illegally in approving 10 schools in the city’s Far Northeast for innovation status without first securing the support of at least 60 percent of each school’s faculty, as required by the 2008 Innovation Schools Act.

The district contends such votes could not be taken when the applications were being made because the schools were still hiring. However, all teachers hired for those schools were told of the plans to seek innovation status during the hiring process.

Each of the contested innovation applications was subsequently approved by the State Board of Education, And on Jan. 23, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers issued an opinion supporting the actions of both the DPS and state boards.

DPS lawyers filed a motion in October asking the DCTA lawsuit be dismissed, and oral arguments on that motion are set for today before Denver District Judge Ann B. Frick.

What’s on tap:

The pace picks back up for education bills at the Capitol today, with the House Education Committee considering House Bill 12-1155, which would change the way the state subsidizes resident student tuition in an effort to get kids to graduate sooner. Senate Ed will take up Senate Bill 12-121, which would create a loan program that charter schools could use to match BEST grants.

The state Capitol Construction Assistance Board meets 1-3:30 p.m. at the Colorado Association of School Boards, 1200 Grant St. Agenda

Good reads from elsewhere:

Affirmative action back in play: The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to consider a case involving whether the University of Texas has the right to consider race and ethnicity in admissions. It’s been nearly a decade since the high court weighed in on the issue. USA Today has the details.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

Many parents and DPS community members vented in a survey that the district’s calendar features far too many weeks in which children are not in school for full days Monday through Friday.

Scores of people among the 1,975 who made comments on the survey conducted by the task force last November targeted that issue.

A sampling of those responses, which did not include identities of those who left them:

• “The ridiculous amount of DPS days off is annoying and could be reduced to allow for a later start date and not have to take school into June.”
• “There are far too many days off during the year. That’s also part of the solution.”
• “Is it possible to have less days off in the year so that the end date of the school year could be moved up? This year we had days off at the end of October and then two weeks later two days off and then three days off for Thanksgiving break. All these days off seem unnecessary.”

April is the only month on the DPS calendar this year with no interrupted week. It will be the only month without one next year as well.

DPS is by no means alone in having frequent interrupted weeks throughout the school year. Jeffco Public Schools has about a many as Denver, as do other urban districts around the country.

In Denver, though, thanks to the recent survey, people are paying attention to the issue. There were enough comments along these lines that the start-date task force suggested in its findings, “Irrespective of when school starts, reduce the number of non-student contact days during the school year.”

Claudia Alvarado, who has one son in the second grade at Cole Arts & Science Academy and a second student due to start school in the fall, works answering telephones in customer service.

“Right now I make $280 per week and I have to pay $100 a week for a babysitter just for one child,” she said. “When there’s no school, I have to pay an extra $15 for the second child.

“You might say it’s not much. But how much is going to be left of my check? I understand that our teachers need to be more prepared and everything, but there are a lot of families that this is pretty hard for.”

A recent history of tweaking the calendar

The DPS board last month voted to delay the start of the 2012-13 school year, moving the start date from Aug.16 to Aug. 27 and adjusted the end date by bumping it from May 28 to June 4.

But left unaddressed by the board is the subject of interrupted school weeks – whether the cause is federal holidays, seasonal vacation, student assessment or professional development days.

Board member Jeannie Kaplan is upset that the district has not responded to the concerns.

“We make these one-off decisions that complicate people’s lives and I think this is a perfect example of one,” she said.

Board president Mary Seawell describes calendar construction as a balancing act between providing teachers adequate planning time and avoiding difficulties for families.

“I don’t think this (revised ’12-13) calendar is at all perfect,” she said. “It’s a first step to addressing multiples issues, primarily the heat at the start of the school year. It doesn’t mean that we won’t address it again in the future.”

DPS has a recent history of tweaking its schedule to address issues such as fitting in teacher professional time in different ways – with mixed success.

In the 2008-09 school year, the district instituted a practice of scattering five late-morning days into the calendar, having students report three hours later on those days to give teachers 15 hours’ training time.

The innovation was unpopular. One DPS parent submitted a petition signed by more than 400 parents opposed to the practice and attendance at some high schools plummeted on those days.

The district axed that experiment and, the next year, went instead with five early-release days spread throughout the year. On those days, students got out of school three hours early.

This, too, met with complaints and was negotiated out of the collective bargaining agreement reached with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association in 2010.

DCTA and district leaders are currently negotiating a new contract and the scheduling of assessment days for students and training days for teachers is part of those discussions.

“A potential solution to that would be for the district to pay for additional days,” said DCTA president Henry Roman. But, he added, “Given the current budget constraints, that’s quite challenging.”

Other districts here, elsewhere face similar challenges

Denver is hardly alone in struggling to find a schedule that works for everyone. For evidence, look no further than next door to Jeffco Public Schools, the largest district in the state.

There, K-8 students are released early six Wednesdays through the year, affording teachers assessment time. In addition, due to budget cuts, students lost two school days this year. Jeffco also has two days off for students to allow for teacher training plus two teacher comp days to compensate for evening conferences with parents.

The only month of the current Jeffco calendar that does not have an interrupted week is March -– but in March, students will be out of school the entire final week, for spring break.

“It’s a very tricky balancing act, to try to meet the expectations of parents who want their children in school and educators also want them in school,” said Jeffco schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.

“But then, balancing that with the need of educators to have some time without students in the building, to meet and talk about things that will make sense for student achievement.”

At many urban districts around the country, it’s a similar story.

Public schools in Portland, Ore., for example are in their third year of a calendar that incorporates late-starts, or delaying school by two hours, once a month. It’s typically the third Wednesday of the month.

“We’ve eliminated two or three professional development days, where the students have the day off. We now have the same number of professional development hours and just spread it out over more days,” said school district spokesman Matt Shelby.

“There were parents who said, ‘I’d rather do that once a month than have to find a full-day day care.’ ”

Shelby conceded that some Portland parents initially said “What am I supposed to do with my child that one day a month until 10 o’clock?”

“There’s definitely an adjustment period that takes place,” he said. “But we don’t hear about it now.”

Scant data on impact of incomplete weeks

DPS is currently partnered with the National Center on Time & Learning in Massachusetts to consult on its scheduling issues – particularly as it relates to a longer school day.

As to whether unbroken school weeks affect student achievement, NCTL vice president Ben Lummis said, “I don’t think that’s something we’ve studied in any depth.

“We’ve seen it done very well in some schools, and poorly in others. It’s how you execute it that really matters.”

Charles Ballinger, the executive director emeritus of the National Association for Year-Round Education, also said he was unaware of empirical data or extensive studies on the impact of incomplete weeks on learning.

“I would think the bigger issue lies with the parents, that they want more of the continuous scheduling for their own purposes in this day and age when both parents are at work outside the home,” he said.

“But I would say to parents, the long summer vacations have a far more deadly effect on learning than a four-day week or occasionally shortened day.”

Susana Cordova, the chief academic officer for DPS – and a parent of two DPS students – is well aware of the calendar complaints.

When the current calendar was drafted, she said, “it was not intended to have instruction interrupted in the way that it played out. I don’t think the calendar committee … really played out all of the implications.”

Cordova said putting together full weeks is “definitely” a goal.

“We have really tried to be sensitive” in structuring the 2012-13 calendar, she said. “I am sure there are going to be things that we missed, and we’ll correct, to make improvements to the next iterations of calendars.”

Alvarado, the Cole parent, said she hopes so.

“I hope that DPS does think a little bit more about the working families,” she said. “I … understand that our teachers want to be more prepared for our children. But it’s hard for us parents to work around that.”

Beyond the big statistics about enrollment, the annual state student count released last month contains a wealth of information about student demographics and changes over time.

The Colorado School Finance Project has parsed the 2011-12 statistics and reports for details on special populations. Among the findings:

• Enrollment has grown by more than 100,000 students in a decade
• Students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches are now 41 percent of enrollment
• More than 123,000 students have a primary language other than English
• The number of special education students has remained fairly constant while the gifted population is growing

Get full details here. And check out the Department of Education’s enrollment reports here.

What’s on tap:

TODAY

The Aurora school board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. in the district offices at 1085 Peoria St. Agenda

The Douglas County school board has a 7 p.m. meeting scheduled at district headquarters, 620 Wilcox St. in Castle Rock. Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a vocal critic of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, is scheduled as a guest speaker on that subject. Agenda

WEDNESDAY

The state Capitol Construction Assistance Board meets 1-3:30 p.m. at the Colorado Association of School Boards, 1200 Grant St. Agenda

FRIDAY

The State Board of Education holds a special meeting 2-4 p.m. to be briefed on the proposed regulations for teacher appeals under SB 10-191 and to discussion pending legislation. The session will be in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave. Agenda

Good reads from elsewhere:

President in the classroom: Inside Higher Education has an interesting article on Colorado College President Jill Tiefenthaler and how her class on the economics of higher education provided some interesting insights to CC students.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

But House Bill 12-1043, which would create opportunities for students who are ahead of schedule in their high school studies, has had heavy going in the House, primarily because of fears about what it would cost school districts.

The bill would apply to high school students who start their senior years needing less than a full year’s worth of classes to graduate. Such students could choose to take college classes, and districts would be responsible for paying college tuition up to $3,176 a year. Districts would continue to count such students as enrolled and receive per pupil funding, which averages about $6,500 a year statewide.

A key issue is student choice; existing concurrent enrollment programs require district approval for students enrolling in college classes.

Rep. Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton and sole sponsor of the bill for now, had the bill amended in the House Education Committee to meet some district concerns.

But that apparently wasn’t enough for some House Democrats, who criticized the bill during floor debate.

“Here we are about to pass another unfunded mandate,” said Rep. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood. “The intent of the bill is good … the problem is the bill doesn’t come with any additional funding,” added Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Summit County.

A Hamner amendment to make the program optional for districts was defeated, but the House did give voice approval to a Kerr amendment that says school districts wouldn’t have to implement the program until per-pupil funding returns to levels of 2008-09, the last year before school budget cuts began.

Conti returned to the microphone to defend the bill, saying, “There has been a lot of confusion on this issue.”

Then, Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, stepped to the podium and exercised the majority leader’s prerogative, laying the bill over until Tuesday.

Estimated cost of tax holiday trimmed

Committee amendments made to the sales tax holiday bill would trim the amount of lost state revenue from about $5.8 million a year to about $4.5 million, according to a new legislative fiscal analysis released Monday.

House Bill 12-1069 would create a three-day sales tax holiday during the first weekend in August during which school supplies costing $50 or less, clothing not costing more than $75 and computer equipment costing $1,000 or less would be exempt from state sales taxes. (The House Finance Committee reduced those amounts from those proposed in the original bill.) The holiday would run annually through 2016. Counties and cities would be free to decide whether to exempt such items from their portion of the sales tax.

During a Feb. 8 meeting of the committee, Chris Howes of the Colorado Retail Council argued that a tax holiday actually would increase state revenue, based on the experience of other states.

But the legislative fiscal analysis sticks with its estimate of a tax loss. The latest analysis reads: “Sales tax holidays tend to attract more shoppers into stores, which often relates to increased sales on taxable items that would not have occurred otherwise during the holiday period. This increased spending may partially offset the loss of sales tax revenue to the state and local governments due to the sale of exempt items during the sales tax holiday. Increased sales, however, may only represent a shift of purchases as consumers wait for the anticipated tax holiday to purchase items that they were already going to purchase at some point.”

Contracts bill passes on party-line vote

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins

The bill would direct school boards to “consider” adopting contracting policies that would include the factor of “whether the contractor understands the culture of the affected school and will execute the contract in a manner that supports student success.”

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins and chair of the Senate Education Committee, is carrying the bill in the Senate. The House prime sponsor is Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs and chair of the House Education Committee.

No debate on digital learning study

Massey also is a prime sponsor of House Bill 12-1124, which passed the House 64-0 on Monday. The measure would require the state Department of Education to hire a Colorado-based consultant to conduct a comprehensive study of digital education and report back to the State Board of Education, the governor and the legislative education committees by Jan. 31, 2013. (Get more details in this story about committee consideration.)

Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, is carrying the bill in the Senate.

In other action

Concealed carry bill: In another piece of parliamentary maneuvering Monday on the House floor, House Bill 12-1092 was sent back to the House Judiciary Committee. The measure received preliminary floor approval on Feb. 14 – after addition of a Democratic amendment that broadened the definition of school property on which the bill wouldn’t apply.

The bill would give people who have a legal right to carry handguns the ability to carry them concealed without obtaining a separate concealed weapons permit. Several Democrats questioned the need to send the bill back to committee, but the motion carried on a 34-30 votes. Gun rights bills are a Republican priority in this election-year session.

Another ASSET delay: Senate Bill 12-015, the ASSET bill that would create a special category of college tuition for undocumented students, has again been laid over, this time to the Senate floor calendar for Feb. 27. The measure is awaiting final Senate approval, but supporters are trying to drum up additional support outside the Capitol before sending the bill to the Republican-controlled Senate.

Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock

Some Republican members wondered if the group’s work overlaps with other state committees and complained that government is getting too deeply involved in families.

“I have a big concern about how we’re inserting ourselves younger and younger into private citizens’ lives,” said Rep. Don Beezley, R-Broomfield and committee vice chair.

“I too have a great deal of concern at government getting too much into families’ lives,” said Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock. But she and Massey joined the panel’s six Democrats to send the bill to the House Appropriations Committee on an 8-5 vote.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.

How do you measure the effectiveness of an educator?

As a literacy coach I experience firsthand the multi-tasking, the magic, and the mishaps that occur in schools every day. I see teachers and kids on their best days, their worst days and all of the days in between.

I see teaching and learning in action. And I see the planning, thinking and “behind the curtain” decision-making that drives the day-to-day instruction in classrooms.

So it was with mixed feelings that I agreed to serve on the “alternative evaluation team” for three teachers this year. Would this blurring of instructional coaching and evaluation make teachers more or less responsive to collaboration and feedback? Would it foster trust and honesty or fear and fabrication?

Despite my initial reservations, being a part of each teacher’s team has strengthened our relationships and added layers of depth to our work.

The alternative evaluation process was piloted in 2006-07 in Aurora Public Schools and is currently an option available to non-probationary teachers (those with more than three years of experience in the district). Non-probationary teachers can pursue alternative evaluation or continue with traditional evaluations that consist of two to four formal classroom observations throughout the school year and a pre/post conference with an administrator.

The alternative evaluation elevates teacher voice and choice in the process. Teachers select multiple indicators for their evaluation. The measures come from a bank of indicators that are aligned to standards in four broad categories: Teaching and student learning, learning environment, professional development and professionalism. Teachers choose the indicators that align with their daily work and reflect areas where they want to grow as professionals and instructional leaders.

Teachers also organize an “alternative evaluation team” – a group comprised of at least one administrator (the “evaluator of record”) and one or more colleagues, instructional coaches, mentors, parents or other professionals selected by the teacher. The team works as a panel to inform and support the evaluation process alongside the teacher, who is responsible for gathering evidence of his or her progress toward the indicators for each standard.

Angelina Walker, a high school literacy/ELD (English Language Development) teacher and administrative teacher n special assignment (TOSA) at Vista PEAK in Aurora is currently engaged in the alternative evaluation process. “I truly feel like the one snapshot evaluation is not conducive, nor is it informative, to how I really teach and interact with students, parents and staff.”

She added: “I know that I can plan a great lesson and have it executed well in one shot.  However, as a professional, I also know that you will know a person’s true ability by having multiple interactions and conversations with a teacher. I felt that this process would challenge me to become a better teacher.”

Vanessa Valencia, a sixth grade literacy and humanities teacher at Vista Peak, entered the field of education with previous experience in the corporate world where concrete, tangible results drove her evaluation. She believes the alternative evaluation process should be open to probationary and non-probationary teachers alike, and that this process is in closer alignment with the rules for SB 10-191 and the upcoming implementation of the new teacher evaluation system in 2014.

“Student data shouldn’t be the only indicator of a teacher’s effectiveness,” states Valencia, “but it should be an important indicator that lives within a larger body of evidence.”

It is the collection of this body of evidence over time that made the alternative evaluation process an appealing option for Valencia, Walker and many of their colleagues. It is a process, that while intensive and time-consuming, is also proving to be professionally rewarding.  A process implemented with hopeful optimism as the state prepares to roll out an evaluation system comprised of results (data) and teacher-collected and created evidence.

In fact, alternative evaluation as implemented in this district may serve as a viable, holistic model worthy of examination and replication to inform the 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation that represent measures other than data, as outlined in the current rules for SB 191. Teachers who have experienced both traditional and alternative evaluations are valuable resources who can support policymakers and district leaders as they design implementation plans in preparation for 2014.

How do you measure the effectiveness of an educator?

You involve teachers in the process. You ask them to collect evidence over time, to reflect on their practice and identify their successes and struggles. You collect evidence alongside them.  You interact with them consistently, inside and outside the classroom. You listen. You increase the number of voices represented on the final document.

Finally, you acknowledge that evaluation is a subjective and imperfect practice. But you endeavor to capture the complexities that comprise the art and science of teaching and learning.

MONDAY

10 a.m. – House final consideration

• House Bill 12-1092 – Changes in concealed carry laws, including on college campuses
• House Bill 12-1124 – Digital learning study

House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1043 – Establishment of new concurrent enrollment program

10 a.m. – Senate final consideration

• Senate Bill-12-015 – Tuition rate for undocumented students
• Senate Bill 12-051 – Advisory measure on school district contracting procedures

Senate preliminary consideration

• Senate Bill 12-057 – Qualifications for teachers of Native American languages

1:30 p.m. – House Education Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1225 – Creation of model charter authorizer program
• House Bill 12-1218 – Continuation of Early Childhood and School Readiness Commission

TUESDAY

9 a.m. – House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1144 – University employment of non-tenure track instructors

WEDNESDAY

8 a.m. – Joint education committees, room 0112

• Presentation by Parent-Child Home program

Upon floor adjournment – House Education Committee, room 0112

• Senate Bill 12-043 – Technical measure regarding summer camps
• House Bill 12-1155 – Funding changes to incentivize college completion

Upon floor adjournment – Senate Education Committee, room 354

• House Bill 12-1212 – Reimbursement for BOCES multi-district online programs
• Senate Bill 12-121 – Charter school access to BEST matching funds

1:30 p.m. – House State Affairs Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1227 – Creation of new CTE certificate program at community colleges (third item)

THURSDAY

Upon floor adjournment – House Finance Committee, room LSB-A

• House Bill 12-1179 – Composition of PERA board
• House Bill 12-1150 – Calculation of PERA retirement benefits
• House Bill 12-1250 – Contributions for PERA health insurance
• House Bill 12-1142 – Expansion of PERA defined contribution plan

Upon floor adjournment – House State Affairs Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1091 – Reduction of state testing (second item)
• House Bill 12-1118 – Transparency of school district collective bargaining (fourth item)

1:30 p.m. – Senate Education Committee, room 354

• Senate Bill 12-148 – Metro State name change
• House Joint Resolution 12-1004 – Teen suicide prevention

1:30 p.m. – Senate Health and Human Services, room 354

• Senate Bill 12-130 – Consolidation of early childhood programs (third item)

FRIDAY

7:30 a.m. – House Appropriations Committee, room LSB-A

• House Bill 12-1146 – Funding for dropout recovery programs (third item)
• House Bill 12-1149 – Parent trigger bill (eighth item)

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.

Jeffco Superintendent Cindy Stevenson responded to reporters' questions at Friday's press conference at Lakewood High School.

LAKEWOOD – Hundreds of Jefferson County parents, students and teachers have filled school board meeting rooms in recent months to protest proposed cuts in elementary music teachers, librarians, instructional coaches and guidance counselors.

Friday, district leaders unveiled a budget plan for 2012-13 that maintains all of those jobs – but they warned it’s only a one-year reprieve to allow community members to consider a possible tax increase in November.

“Members of the board of education must hear from our community if our community doesn’t want to see the drastic cuts for the 2013-14 school year,” school board president Lesley Dahlkemper said during a morning press conference at Lakewood High School.

Next year’s proposed budget includes nearly $20 million in reductions, stemming largely from a continued 3 percent pay cut for district employees, pulling another $5 million from district reserves and trimming 31 administrative and support positions, including 10 custodians.

The 2013-14 plan, however, involves nearly $44 million in reductions, including cutting 574 jobs. Of those, 471 are teaching positions.

“Essentially what we’ve done is kicked the can down the road one year,” said Kerrie Dallman, president of the Jeffco teachers’ union. “We could have made cuts this year to classroom teachers. But we recognized that that was not serving our students.

“By pushing it off one more year, it gives us a chance to go to the community and ask them what kind of education they want to support and pay for.”

Jeffco leaders have been publicly wrestling for months with how they’ll trim up to $60 million over the next two years, as state funding continues to decline and the gap between district revenues and district expenses continues to widen.

Employee summit yields tentative agreement

Friday’s proposal follows a two-day summit held last week and attended by two school board members, two administrators and two representatives of each of the district’s teacher, clerical and administrative employee groups.

It’s the second year that the state’s largest school district has used a summit to come up with a budget plan that will go before the school board as a package to be voted up or down. Tinkering with components would send the plan back for more negotiations with employee groups.

Last year’s summit proposal, which was approved, included closing two schools, charging students to ride the school bus and cutting some 200 jobs as Jeffco sought to reduce the 2011-12 budget by nearly $40 million.

This year, those attending the summit were equipped with a series of proposed reductions from a citizens’ advisory group, survey results, input from standing-room-only school board meetings and feedback from five Saturday community forums.

“Our no. 1 goal was to keep those cuts as far away from the classroom as possible and to preserve jobs,” Dahlkemper said. “Jeffco is the largest employer in the county.”

Rod Pugnetti, principal of Drake Middle School in Arvada, who attended the summit as president of the Jeffco administrators association, said deciding that goal was key.

“When we came into the room and decided to keep it away from people, that was a huge weight off our shoulders,” he said. “Because now we could move forward with staffing and creating our master schedules and moving forward with what’s important for kids…

“That being said, what we have to do in the years to come is quite scary.”

Asking Jeffco voters for a tax increase

Residents of this sprawling suburban district west of Denver last approved a tax hike for school district operating dollars in 2004, when 60 percent of voters agreed to a $38.5 million annual increase.

Jeffco School Board President Lesley Dahlkemper announced the summit proposal on Friday.

They defeated a 2008 ballot measure to raise more operating dollars for schools.

“We have to do a lot of grassroots work” to win a 2012 measure, said Cindy Stevenson, who’s seen victory and defeat at the polls as she worked her way from classroom teacher to superintendent. “I’m hopeful. That doesn’t mean I’m certain.”

Even if a tax increase were successful this November, district leaders said they would still need to cut $20 million – rather than the $44 million now in the proposal – for 2013-14.

Dahlkemper said that “underscores the importance of identifying a funding fix statewide for K-12 education as soon as possible.”

While a Denver District Court judge has declared the state’s K-12 funding system “unconstitutional,” which could mean more money for public schools, both Gov. John Hickenlooper and the State Board of Education are appealing the ruling. A legal resolution may be months, if not years, away.

So the focus for some school districts, including Jeffco but also Denver, appears to be on local ballot measures.

“We’ve bought the community one more year to decide what kind of education system they want for their kids,” said Bob Brown, who represents Jeffco workers including secretaries and custodians. “These cuts could change the district for a long time. It’s hard to rebuild some of these programs once you reduce them.”

School board members are expected to begin discussions of the summit proposal at their March board meeting. They face an August deadline to decide whether to ask voters for a tax increase.

Board member Laura Boggs, who did not attend the summit, said she needs time to consider the proposal.

She said she did not like the continuation of a two-day cut in the school year for students, which is part of the 3 percent pay cut for all employees: “That’s not good for kids.”

And she was concerned that the plan did not include requiring district employees to pick up a mandated .9 percent increase in pension costs, which would have saved $4.5 million and was one of the top five recommendations of the citizens’ budget group.

“Why are we raising our ongoing expenses when we know the revenue is not going to be there?” Boggs asked.