73-year-old Kenneth Huff was walking his dog early on the morn- ing of September 14, on his way to Sloan\u2019s Lake. Crossing 26th Ave at Raleigh Street, he was struck by two cars, fatally injured.

According to the Denver Police Department, Mr. Huff was with his off-leash dog when the dog ran into traffic on West 26th Avenue in the vicinity of Raleigh Street. Mr. Huff darted into oncoming traffic, pre- sumably to save his dog and was hit.The community has rallied in

walks, sidewalks or traffic signals and stop signs for a sixteen block stretch of 26th Avenue. A number of postings on the Highland Mommies internet community have called for changes.

Denver Public Works has identi- fied several options for traffic calm- ing. These include changing the cen- ter striping on West 26th Avenue from a dotted yellow line to a solid double yellow line; adding white parking stripes to each side of the street, narrowing the travel lane; and doubling fines for speeding in the safety zone.

When voters approved the 2007 Denver bond initiative, they paved the way for the construction of a new library to serve West and North Denver.

Siting for that new library is under way, and public meetings are in the off- ing to solicit public input.

North Denver City Councilman Rick Garcia attempted to get St. Anthony\u2019s Hospital to make a public-minded donation of vacant land to site the new library. But the hospital, which seems to be putting its community in the rearview mirror, rebuffed his efforts. St. Anthony\u2019s will leave its century-old North Denver campus for a spacious and tax-incented home in the suburbs in just months.

\u201cAfter the St. Anthony Hospital\u2019s disappointing decision to backpedal on their early indications to support a site for the west Denver library, the city conducted a request-for-interest solicitation in the early summer, which

produced over a dozen responses,\u201d says Garcia. \u201cThe three sites now under consideration all only interest- ing possibilities and challenges for a new branch library. The exciting thing about the three remaining sites is that each offers a unique opportunity to enhance and leverage a $12 million public investment for the benefit of the West Colfax community.\u201d

Two community input meetings have been scheduled to aid the Library Commission as they work to identify the location for this new facility.

The city is inviting the public to the Westside Branch Library Community Forums to share your ideas and rec- ommendations with Denver Public Library officials. Denver City Council Representatives Paul Lopez and Rick Garcia will also participate.

The information gathered dur- ing the Westside Branch Library Community Forums will be used to help identify and determine the best

Big money and outside political agen- das are driving much of what passes for political debate about reform in Denver Public Schools today.

A handful of groups are pushing what some term a radical charter school agenda, with a premium placed upon creating new schools, autonomous from public control, and without a unionized teaching workforce, but using tax dol- lars, instead of putting resources and reforms into traditional schools. The push is to virtually \u201cprivatize\u201d public schools, built upon the argument that DPS and its traditional schools, teachers and parents can\u2019t or won\u2019t change fast enough to meet reform goals.

The fight has bled into the school board races this year. A group called Stand for Children (STAND), which oper- ates in a number of states, and is directed by a national board of directors, includ- ing the sister of DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, has come to Denver with the goal of putting dollars and peo- ple into the school board race. STAND acknowledges that Boasberg and Jonah Edelman, STAND\u2019s national chief, have longtime ties. Grassroots groups like the Metropolitan Organization for People, Padres Unidos, and even the Colorado Children\u2019s Campaign, have accepted donations from the Donnell-Kay foun- dation and Piton foundation, to lobby the district of behalf of charter schools, and to produce weakly researched stud- ies as predicate for sweeping change. Elite opinion leader groups, notably A+ Denver, create an air of respectability for the changes.

The pattern that has emerged over the past few years is clear. A few funders decide on a policy direction. They then fund researchers and lobbyists to pro- vide both a factual veneer and potemp-

kin public support for the policy. Finally, a network of groups works to push the agenda through school board elections, increasingly financed by money from outside of Denver. That includes forums with slanted questions, and 527 groups (controversial groups that spend money in political campaigns with few dis- closure requirements), spending money that influences the outcome of what were previously highly local school board races (STAND, according to its State Director, is supporting candidates through its political committee, which is based in Oregon. It effectively allows the group to channel out-of-state money into school board campaigns with minimum attention). The groups are tied togeth- er by more than just money. STAND\u2019s Colorado Director was previously a lobbyist for the Colorado Children\u2019s Campaign. A+ Denver has more than a dozen committee members with roles or jobs within the foundations, or other ties.

Increasingly, the movement con- trols news coverage. EdNewsColorado. org employs full-time reporters cov- ering education, and news organiza- tions, including our sister newspaper, have used their reporting on issues. Yet EdNews editor Alan Gottlieb is advocat- ing that voters vote against school board candidate Christopher Scott, an appar- ent violation of the tax-exempt status of EdNews\u2019 parent organization, the Public Education and Business Coalition. And on the affiliated Schools for Tomorrow blog, Alexander Ooms went after Jeanne Kaplan, an incumbent school board member running unopposed for re- election for refusing to respond to a questionnaire. \u201cI find it deeply troubling when a sitting board member \u2014 running unopposed no less \u2014 chooses not to

Traditionally, school district superin- tendents have removed themselves from the politics of school board elections \u2014 the reason is clear, of course, because school boards hire and fire superintendents, and the line of public accountability becomes corrupted if school district resources are redirected into political activities. It\u2019s such a clear cut issue that there are legal prohibi- tions against it, and many superintendent associations and school districts around the nation have clear ethics prohibitions against it as well.

Unfortunately, beginning a couple of years ago, DPS officials tossed aside these ethical safeguards. Indirect involvement in political fundraising became the norm, and this year, DPS began using school resources and even parent contact infor- mation to fuel an organization, Stand for Children, that came to town to impact Denver\u2019s school board elections.

Stand for Children is intimately connect- ed to DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, going back decades, and Boasberg\u2019s sister served on the national Stand board of directors when the organization chose to come to Denver. Stand has endorsed can- didates in the election, is making in-kind contributions and using a political action committee based in Oregon to fund politi- cal operations. The ties and the paper trail are clear. So are the ethical ramifications of using a school district as a political adjunct.

To date, DPS has sought to cover up its political transgressions, engaging in outright deception about its communica- tions with organizations external to the District, blaming principals for administra- tion actions. It has stonewalled requests for information about potentially illegal use of school resources.

Mary Seawell is a great school board candidate, and if she wins, she\u2019ll be a clear upgrade on the Denver School Board. But because of the tactics and ethics of her sup- porters, it is clear that voters must choose

Christopher Scott over Seawell to return ethical accountability to the Denver Public Schools. Seawell is endorsed by Stand, and a host of connected organizations, ties that unfairly, but accurately, taint her candidacy.

It\u2019s painful to dismiss Seawell\u2019s qualifi- cations on the basis of associations \u2014 but it is clear that DPS\u2019 direction is moving away from the students and parents it serves and the taxpayers who pay the bill. That pattern is never clearer than in North Denver, where the community and parents have demanded that the district first work to improve our existing schools \u2014 but the district has responded with a privatized charter school program, against the com- munities expressed concerns, and over the no votes of our school board member, Arturo Jimenez.

Scott will ask tough questions, and demand rigorous answers. He will sup- port neighborhood schools against an ever-increasing onslaught of schools not accountable to the public \u2014 you only have to look at the scandals and legal troubles besetting North Denver\u2019s newest charter, Cesar Chavez Academy, to understand what is at stake.

Beyond that, the whole notion of public education in Denver is at risk. This risk runs the gamut from public accountability, to public access, to serving every child\u2019s education needs. If public education is of value to you, take a moment and tell your friends and neighbors about Christopher Scott, and why this election is of value. Convince them to vote, and talk to others. Scott has the support of sitting members of the board Jeanne Kaplin and Jimenez, and has broad support among North Denver\u2019s progressive community, City Council members, and Latino leaders. It\u2019s a group of voices that ought to be listened to.

Get in-depth information about where Christopher Scott and Mary Seawell stand on issues at www.northdenvernews.com/ school board.

feature of the city\u2019s New Zoning Code is to allow Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to a primary residential use in all Residential and Mixed Use Zone Districts. This idea was gener- ated in the early community forums organized by the Community Planning and Development Department (CPD) to gauge and ultimately steer what resi- dents wanted in the new code which was just getting started.

The original notion of the ADU concept was really rooted in the fact that the so-called \u201ccarriage house\u201d lots existed in many Denver neighborhoods, but property owners could not legally construct new dwellings such as small carriage-type structure on residential lots. Others saw the ADU options as opportunities for our aging population to reside closer to family and some envisioned space for home-based busi- nesses and art studios. The New Code process continued to advance the idea and the current proposed language will essentially make ADUs a use by right in some residential zone districts with certain requirements. For example, either an attached or detached accesso- ry dwelling unit is allowed as accessory only to a primary single-unit dwelling use in accordance with the following:

The ADU shall be operated and maintained under the same ownership as the primary single unit dwelling use.

The owner of the primary dwelling unit and ADU shall occupy either one or the other as the owner\u2019s permanent address,

ADUs must contain a minimum of 200 square feet of gross floor area per occupant.

These are the latest requirements in the New Code proposal and have been updated after several earlier draft

versions which govern ADUs inadver- tently left an impression that an ADU could actually replicate one\u2019s primary residence in size and height. To settle the ADU size concerns, the draft code now establishes a maximum of 650 square feet of habitable gross floor area for these accessory structures. There are other requirements such as prohi- bitions of altering your primary resi- dence to appear that it\u2019s a multi-unit, separate driveways can not serve the ADU, restricting stairways from the front building wall and requiring roof and other building materials to be com- parable to that of the primary single unit stricture.

The New Code draft mapping process currently underway in north- west Denver is considering ADUs for neighborhoods where single-unit lot sizes are large enough for accessory units and the existing conditions like a prevalence of carriage house-type structures already exist. The new map- ping process has attempted to bal- ance the dominant single-unit structure existence of many northwest Denver neighborhoods with the opportunity to attract new investment towards areas where older structures on single unit zone lots could be renovated with the ADU as an innovative feature.

Although all residential areas may not be newly mapped to support ADUs in the current round, the New Code will establish ADUs as a use right. Once the original intentions of why these accessory dwellings are seen and experienced in neighborhoods, it is pos- sible that more residential areas could be zoned for ADUs in the future. Fore more information on if your neighbor- hood is currently being proposed for ADUs in the New Code and to review the section supporting language go to: www.NewCodeDenver.org

Plumbing \u2022Electrical \u2022 Framing
Drywall Taping And Texture
Cabinets And Counter Top\u2019s -Installation
Tile and Linoleum
Hardwood Floors And Molding -Installation

Chrome Molding
Odors-Installation and Finishing
Windows - Installation
Stone Work
Cement - Forms and Finishing

designating a stretch of 26th Avenue as a \u201csafety zone\u201d and adding flash- ing lights to the existing pedestrian warning signs. A marked crosswalk at Tennyson is also under consider- ation. Since 2006 a radar \u201cdriver feed- back sign\u201d has been installed.

Extending curbing or other traffic calming measures seem to be out of budgetary reach.

Public Works representatives will be attending the upcoming Sloan\u2019s Lake neighborhood meeting on October 14, where improvements will be discussed.

In February of 2009 Public Works conducted a study evaluating the potential for adding a traffic signal at West 26th Avenue and Tennyson Street. \u201cIn order to install a signal, we must meet national standards justify- ing its need, and this intersection does not carry the volume of traffic man- dated to meet the criteria for a signal. We had also conducted a study on this intersection in 2006, and repeated the study in 2009 because we are acute- ly aware of the residential concern regarding this roadway,\u201d Public Works Communication\u2019s office wrote regard- ing the issue.

When it comes to schools, Colorado has a public school \u201cchoice\u201d system. And for parents who want to carefully weigh the options for their children next fall, now\u2019s the time to get on the school search process.

The really good news is that there are a lot of good choices in our neigh- borhood, in my opinion. My take-away from last Fall, when I started this process for my daughter, is that we have some interesting choices, and many of the schools are on an upward trajectory.

I also found that Denver Public Schools (DPS) is a very interesting school system. While it is large, it is large. Schools are not cookie cutter, and each has its own character. If your child has some special needs (and I use this term broadly), it is quite possible DPS has resources to address it somewhere, though you may have to hunt and make a bunch of calls to find out how and where.

Your timeline: It is NOT too early to start the search process for August 2010 school start dates. Here is the way it breaks down:

open houses and school tours. You may be able to squeeze some into early December, but schools start to get pretty busy (as do most families).

list of school choices, and develop a list of any questions you need answered in January that will help you make a deci- sion.

days into January. You MIGHT be able to squeeze in a couple of tours, but book early, like before the winter break.

are due at most schools. Charter schools might have slightly different deadlines. In fact, each school might have its own particular method of implementing the choice system, so go with whatever sys- tem the actual school staff indicates.

There are also December deadlines for getting into Advanced Kindergarten \u2013 be sure to check with individual schools offering this program for their particular deadlines.

DPS has a school fair sometime in the fall. Check the DPS web site (www. dpsk12.org) or the School of Choice office (soco.dpsk12.org) for details over the coming weeks.

At about this time last year, I knuck- led down just so I could figure out my opinions on all of these considerations. The strategy I chose:

1. I just started attending open hous- es and scheduling tours. My list includ- ed obvious neighborhood schools, plus additional schools that were less likely but that offered a different approach than anything in the neighborhood. Honestly, it took two to three tours to start realiz- ing nuances and differences.

2. I tried to research schools online and create the perfect short list before attending tours. It was too overwhelm- ing. I just started contacting them to schedule tours, adding and dropping schools as I went along.

4. I collected opinions and informa- tion I heard from others, especially those already at the schools I was interested in. While no one outside opinion will be a defining reason to attend a school, it is useful to hear the word on the street and ask questions of school staff about \u201cwhat you\u2019ve heard\u201d.

5. I looked beyond the CSAPs. Everyone looks at the CSAPs as I did. They\u2019re controversial if you actually ask anyone in education about them. However, they do provide a first take on schools, so everyone does look at them. Do not exclude a school from the list only because of the CSAP score. I found some surprising things going on when I looked under the hood of the some schools last fall, sometimes quite con- trary to what a first glance at summary CSAPs would have indicated.

The bottom line is that there are choices for our children in Denver, and finding the school that best matches your child\u2019s and family\u2019s needs requires legwork. But do start now if you want to make the most of the choices avail- able.***