Week of December 22, 2022
FREE
DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
ParkerChronicle.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 20
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 4
School board heads to trial over meetings-law allegations Battle is costly BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Douglas County School District is still on track to go to trial next month over alleged violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law regarding the firing of former superintendent Corey Wise.
The lawsuit brought by Representative-elect Bob Marshall against the school district’s Board of Education and members Becky Myers, Board President Mike Peterson, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar is scheduled for a pretrial conference on Jan. 20, with a three-day trial starting on Jan. 30. Marshall sued the board members in February, alleging they held a series of one-on-one meetings about
firing Wise to evade the Colorado Open Meetings Law, which requires any meeting of a board quorum, or three members of a board, where public business is discussed or formal action taken to be open to the public. School district financial reports show the district has paid around $27,000 this year to Gessler Blue, but school board member David Ray indicated at the Nov. 15 board meeting
that the cost of the lawsuit was closer to $90,000. Myers, Peterson, Williams and Winegar maintain that they did not break the open meetings law. In a preliminary order issued in March, Douglas County District Court Judge Jeffrey Holmes agreed that the board members’ serial meetings had violated the law and SEE SCHOOLS, P3
Group A strep causing concerns in Denver metro area Complicates trifecta of viruses BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Server Eddie Aparicio, left, enters a lunch order into the point-of-sales system while bartender Justin Padilla looks on at Las PHOTO BY RACHEL LORENZ Potrancas Mexican Restaurant in Parker on Dec. 15.
Las Potrancas location opens in Parker Family has several Mexican restaurants around Denver metro area BY RACHEL LORENZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
The food and the customer service — that’s what’s going to make newly-opened Las Potrancas Mexican Restaurant stand out, according to owner Gelacio Ramirez.
“Everything’s amazing,” Ramirez said of the restaurant’s food. “It’s hard to say ‘This is my favorite plate.’” Las Potrancas joined over a dozen other eateries in Parker that serve Mexican cuisine when it opened its doors Dec. 4. Ramirez became interested in bringing his traditional Mexican food to Douglas County when he learned from his brother-in-law that the location of Blu Note Bar and Grill, which closed in July, was available.
“It’s a good opportunity for me and my family. We’re a family business,” Ramirez told Colorado Community Media. The Ramirez family has several Las Potrancas locations in the Denver metro area. The first, “a little tiny restaurant,” opened in 2002 in Arvada, Ramirez said. Since then they’ve expanded with a food trailer in Denver, a second restaurant in Arvada, another in Littleton and now one in Parker. SEE RESTAURANT, P6
With a trifecta of illnesses already hitting the Front Range hard with spikes in COVID, RSV and the flu, state health officials are now concerned with the increasing number of group A strep cases in children. Brian Spencer, with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, said the state health department is closely monitoring the increase in pediatric hospitalizations caused by group A strep. Group A strep is a bacteria that can cause many different infections. Group A strep infections most commonly cause sore throat, a mild and common condition that doctors say can be easily treated. While rare, group A strep infections may be severe and cause diseases like pneumonia, sepsis, toxic shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis. “We are working with hospital partners in a coordinating role to ensure resources are available for those who need them,” Spencer said in the Dec. 15 news release. According to the state health department, two school-age children with group A strep died in the Denver metro since Nov. 1. The total number of invasive group A strep cases reported in Colorado among pediatric patients SEE STREP, P10