Serving Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and beyond
WEEK OF MAY 22, 2025
VOLUME 41 | ISSUE 42
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Out for a hike on Green Mountain? Keep an eye out for wildflowers and explosives
LONGTIME BUTCHER’S SHOP TRYING TO STAY AFLOAT P2
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OPENS TIME CAPSULE P10
BY MERYL PHAIR SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
diploma program, shifting those students to an online-only curriculum at Brady High School for students aged 17 to 20 and removing asynchronous online options currently offered by Jeffco Virtual Academy. Educators say these changes would leave students over age 21 without a diploma pathway and force many working or parenting students into rigid schedules that don’t meet their needs. The district later characterized the plan as a draft that was still open to feedback, but educators say that contradicts how it was initially presented. They also accuse Deputy Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza of deflecting accountability by blaming principals for mischaracterizing the plan as final. “No AEC principal has been willing to corroborate this explanation,” one teacher, who asked not to be identified, wrote in a group email shared by organizers. “Their silence suggests they’ve been placed in an impossible position: expose that their boss is lying or lie themselves.” So far, no principal has publicly confirmed the deputy superintendent’s account.
It was a warm spring morning over a decade ago when Jim Bullecks headed out for a walk in William Fr. Hayden Park on Green Mountain. Bullecks had been involved with cleanup efforts on the sloping ridges of the open space behind his Lakewood home and had set out on a solo cleanup trek. As his eyes scanned the mountain park for bits of trash and scrap iron, he came across a surprising piece of history poking up from the rabbit brush. “I found two or three of these old projectiles, which looked like they might be old artillery shells,” Bullecks said. “They had exploded. They were just wrecked.” With a military background, he hedged a guess the objects were from before World War II and set them up on his porch as curio. After donating them to a collection, the projectiles were reported to the Colorado Department of Health and the Environment (CDPHE), and they gave Bullocks an unexpected call. “They informed me that these items were from the former artillery range Camp George West,” Bullecks said. “Prior to that call, I had no idea that these were from the Colorado Army National Guard.” Owned by the Hayden family, Green Mountain was periodically leased by the Colorado Army National Guard for pre-WWII military training between 1903 and 1939, which included everything from small arms to live-fire artillery training on the north and east sides of the mountain. The projectiles recovered by Bullecks are among several that have since been removed from the north slopes of the popular Lakewood recreational area. CDPHE confirmed that all recovered projectiles have been 75-millimeter shrapnel described as “explosive shells filled with small metal balls.”
SEE STRIKE, P8
SEE HYADEN PARK, P6
Educators at McLain Community High School protest district plans affecting alternative education programs during a May 1 walk-in. COURTESY OF EDUCATORS FOR ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS
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WESTMINSTER Teachers strike over alternative school changes
McLain Community High School staff say Jeffco misled them on adult education plan BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SUZIE@COTLN.ORG
THE STATE OF COMEDY IN P14 THE SUBURBS
MINSTER GOLDEN BASEBALL POLISHES UP 5TH STRAIGHT TITLE
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Twenty educators staged an unauthorized strike at McLain Community High School on May 12, escalating tensions over the future of Jefferson County Public Schools’ alternative education campuses (AECs). Coming less than two weeks after a May 1 “walk-in” protest, the strike represents a new level of escalation amid a breakdown in trust between district leaders and educators who say they’ve been excluded from key decisions and misled about proposed changes that could reshape how Jeffco serves students with nontraditional needs. District officials dispute that characterization, saying no decisions have been made and that the process has involved AEC staff since May 2023. “This wasn’t just about policy. It was about honesty and respect,” a McLain teacher said, referencing what many described as differing explanations from district leaders about the status of the proposed changes. That frustration centers on a plan first presented to alternative campus educators in February, which included eliminating McLain’s adult
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VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 14 | CALENDAR: 17 | SPORTS: 18
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