Week of August 25, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
HighlandsRanchHerald.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 38
Douglas County students perform well in state CMAS test Statewide, scores still lag behind BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
report. It will be located near the RTD RidgeGate Parkway Station and two apartment complexes currently under construction: Talus Affordable Housing and RidgeGate Station Apartments. The developer of the project is Experience Senior Living, which builds and manages senior living communities and is a division of
Douglas County School District’s state standardized testing scores consistently ranked higher than the state’s and neighboring districts’ results, as well as scores higher than pre-pandemic levels. On Aug. 17, the Colorado Department of Education released the Colorado’s Measures of Academic Success or CMAS scores for the state and individual districts. Colorado’s state score for all grades on the English Language Arts, or ELA, portion had 43.2% of students meet or exceed expectations. In math, 31.5% of students met standards. Both scores are below 2019 scores, but grade level break-downs show improvement over last year’s scores in most grades. In Douglas County, scores were up across the board and surpassed 2019 scores in almost all areas, except math for grades 6, 7 and 8. The district’s score across all grades for English Language Arts is 59.7% of students met or exceeded expectations and math is 49%. “We’re really really proud of our teachers, our kids and all of the hard work our families have done over the past two years to make sure our kids stayed on track,” Superintendent Erin Kane said. “Truly, our
SEE SENIORS, P4
SEE TESTING, P9
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
Douglas County to add 2 more commissioners? Going from 3 to 5
begun on whether it’s time to add two more members to the board. Commissioners received information about possibly expanding in an Aug. 15 meeting where staff gave a presentation about how the change could occur. Commissioner Lora Thomas said she requested the information
BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As tensions continue to soar among the three Douglas County commissioners, discussions have
after several residents asked her about the possibility. “The last thing this county needs is more politicians,” Commissioner Abe Laydon said in response. The three commissioners have clashed several times in the past SEE COUNTY, P6
Lone Tree OKs plans for 9-story senior living facility Construction begins soon BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Construction for a 206-unit senior living residential building that reaches up to nine stories is slated to begin in October in Lone Tree. The development, called “The Reserve at Lone Tree,” will be located south of RidgeGate Parkway at the
southeast intersection of South Havana Street and High Note Avenue, according to a City of Lone Tree staff report. This project will be in the Lone Tree city center area of the RidgeGate East development, loacted on the east side of I-25 and RidgeGate Parkway. According to the sub-area plan, the city center is approximately 440 acres. The property for the senior living facility is about 4.5 acres, according to the staff
THOMAS INVESTIGATION DETAILS Were laws broken? Maybe
P10
FUNGI FORAGING
Mushroom hunting in Colorado sees major upswing
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