Week of October 6, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
CastlePinesNewsPress.net
VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 7
Community input sought in district equity policy
Loneliness may play role in Alzheimer’s, Colorado researcher says Local professor investigates BY ELLIS ARNOLD COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
In February, students, teachers, staff and the community held a peaceful demonstration to voice concerns about keeping the equity PHOTO BY THELMA GRIMES policy in Douglas County. Recently, the district board decided to continue discussions with more community input.
Policy dates back to 2019 BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
In a split vote, the Douglas County School Board directed the superintendent to compile recommendations to change the equity policy and present them in March. During the Sept. 27 meeting, the
board voted 5-2 to officially waive a Sept. 1 deadline for Superintendent Erin Kane to recommend changes to the equity policy as laid out in a January resolution, so that Kane can gather input from parents, students and teachers throughout this year. Board members Susan Meek and David Ray voted against the waiver, having voiced concerns about unclear language in the original
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 16 | CALENDAR: PAGE 19 | SPORTS: PAGE 24
resolution. Board members have disagreed on how to move forward with the resolution, which was passed by members Becky Myers, Mike Peterson, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar earlier this year. In recent discussions, members Elizabeth Hanson, Meek and Ray have advocated for a monitoring report on the SEE POLICY, P11
Dr. Rebecca Mullen had been seeing a patient for about four years, and she noticed he was becoming more and more lonely — he would come to see her more often just for a social connection. Then, he started to experience a rapid decline in his memory and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Mullen wondered whether the man’s loneliness was “one of his first telltale signs” that he was developing a memory problem before people ever noticed it. If she had seen the potential connection before, “could I have changed the trajectory of his memory decline?” Mullen wondered. It’s the kind of question that led her to focus on the role of loneliness in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, the topic of a study she is conducting and seeking participants for. There’s a growing body of research on the negative health impacts of loneliness, said Mullen, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine. But “what is loneliness doing that may be impacting brain SEE LONELINESS, P8
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