WEEK OF APRIL 17, 2025
VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 42
FREE
’HANDS OFF’ PROTESTERS GATHER IN ARVADA P2
From left, Superintendent Tracy Dorland, Kira White, Adam Kirwin, Jack Alicia, CJ Walter, Clara Ohlsen, Samara Howlett, Enji Jensen, Polly Fagan, Adelyn Westfall, Basil Lai-Payne and school board member Mary Parker. PHOTO BY SUZIE GLASSMAN
Jeffco students carve their path with winning snowboard designs ARVADA WOMEN’S GROUP GATHERS SUPPLISE FOR THOSE IN NEED P4
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
When CJ Walter, a senior in Jeffco’s graphic design program at Warren Tech, stepped on stage and saw their design, “Beyond the Horizon,” printed on a full-size snowboard for the first time, they couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m so incredibly proud of everything I’ve accomplished with it,” Walter said. Walter’s board was among 10 selected in the annual snowboard design contest hosted by Warren Tech Central and Denver-based Never Summer Industries. Now
in its 12th year, the contest invites students to create original snowboard graphics for a semester-long design challenge. The winning designs are printed on snowboards produced by Never Summer and awarded to students during a spring ceremony. The contest began in 2013 after Pete Cunis, one of Warren Tech’s graphic design instructors, brought a group of students to tour Never Summer’s factory. During the visit, he reconnected with former colleague Vince Sanders, Never Summer’s chairman, and proposed an idea that quickly became
one of the school’s most celebrated collaborations. “We had this moment where we thought, what if we gave students the opportunity to design a real snowboard?” Cunis said. “And Never Summer was totally on board.” From sketches to snowboards
Since then, the partnership has grown into a comprehensive, year-long design project that begins each fall with a classroom visit from Never Summer staff. SEE CONTEST, P23
Excel Academy sixth-graders take a ‘Mission to Mars’ Arvada middle schoolers travel to Arizona for immersive science experience BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
SPRING CLEANING TIPS TO GET THINGS IN SHAPE P10
Middle schoolers from Excel Academy in Arvada got to take a trip to Arizona for an immersive science experience, dubbed a “Mission to Mars,” which included a visit to Biosphere 2, a research facility that features a simulation landscape of Mars’ surface.
VOICES: 8 | LIFE: 10 | CALENDAR: 13 | SPORTS: 16
Thirty-one sixth-graders, four parent chaperones and two faculty members were able to go on a four-day field study from Feb. 25 to 28. This was Excel’s second year sending students to the desert for science camp, a change that was ushered in because of changes to science standards in Colorado. The trip began at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, followed by a visit to
Biosphere 2 and a trip to Colossal cave Mountain Park, where students explored geological formations and learned about the cave’s history. A visit to the Flandrau Space Center and Planetarium followed, with festivities concluding at the Titan Missile Museum for a look at Cold War history. SEE MISSION, P6
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