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Week of September 29, 2022
DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 95 | ISSUE 45
Preschool provides a base for learning Denver Preschool Program expanding as statewide universal preschool comes BY CHRISTY STEADMAN CSTEADMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Back-of-the-house jobs a tough fill
Five-year-old Kaia Vegas loves to swim. And thanks to the Denver Preschool Program, her mom was able to use the money that would have been used for preschool tuition to get Kaia involved with extracurricular activities, like swim lessons and dance classes. “Education gives your kid an advantage,” Kalelia Vegas said. “It opens them up to so many things.” Vegas is a single mom working fulltime as an engineer at a member’s club in Cherry Creek. She also has a son, AJ, who is junior at Denver South High School. Both AJ and Kaia were able to attend preschool because of the tuition assistance Vegas got from the Denver Preschool Program. The Denver Preschool Program has a mission to get children ready for kindergarten by providing resources and funding assistance so that all Denver families are able to send their children to preschool. It got its start in 2006 and is funded by a sales tax ballot initiative that Denver voters approved two years prior. Every 10 years, it goes back to voters for re-approval. How it works is parents apply for the support, and funding is provided on a need-based sliding scale. Statewide universal preschool will help expand the Denver Preschool Program Soon, Colorado will have SEE LEARNING, P2
Job app maker sees no restaurant labor shortage BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN
Kaia Vegas celebrates her preschool graduation day. Now heading into kindergarten, Vegas was able to attend preschool thanks to the tuition assistance her mother received COURTESY OF KALELIA VEGAS from the Denver Preschool Program.
INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 11 | VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14
The way Diego Montemayor talks about Chamba, his Denver startup, makes one wonder why it didn’t exist before. Chamba is another job app, but, as with most startups, there’s a twist. Chamba launched a bilingual app in April 2020 that connects Spanish-speaking workers with the employers who need them. In late July, Chamba narrowed its focus to the restaurant industry. That seems like good timing if you’ve been paying attention to the restaurant staffing woes and how hard it’s been to find people, especially for jobs busing tables, in the kitchen and other nontipped “back-of-thehouse” work. But Montemayor has a different perspective. “There’s not a labor shortage. There’s a connectivity problem,” said Montemayor, Chamba’s cofounder and CEO. “And that’s what we’re solving here. We’re connecting restaurants to the talent that wants these kinds of jobs.” Employers, he said, are “looking for talent in the same talent pool. They have not diversified where they search for talent and are looking in the same, common places.” A number of companies are already promoting Chamba’s service SEE SHORTAGE, P5
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