The three staff members — identified by the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office as Principal Brett Michel, Assistant Principal Jeff Sparrow and school counselor Shannon Paxton — had been on administrative leave for nearly a month while law enforcement and the Elizabeth School District investigated the allegations, the district said in a news release Thursday.

The school district also announced it was ending the three staff members’ employment, pending approval by the Board of Education at its Monday meeting.

“While we recognize these individuals’ many positive, past contributions to the school community, we have high expectations that our staff will follow legal expectations and board policies in keeping our students safe and investigating any and all reports of concerning behavior,” district Superintendent Dan Snowberger said in a statement.

The teacher involved in the suspected child abuse, who has not been publicly identified or charged, remains on administrative leave during the 18th Judicial District’s criminal investigation of the allegations, the district said.

The specific allegations against the teacher have not been made public.

On Sept. 26, Snowberger received calls from both Elizabeth police Chief Jeff Engel and the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office about a complaint filed with law enforcement regarding a middle school teacher stemming from concerns the previous school year, according to the district.

Snowberger placed the teacher on leave the next morning, the district said.

Elizabeth School District officials say they had not been made aware of the concerns reported to administrators at the middle school — located about 40 miles southeast of Denver — before the law enforcement investigation.

Once law enforcement officials had finished their interviews, Snowberger began a district investigation and interviewed staff, students and parents.

Based on those interviews, the district said in a statement, Snowberger “found a number of concerns involving staff adherence to district policies and law regarding the mandatory reporting requirement when receiving allegations that involved a child.”

Colorado is a mandatory reporting state, and the punishment for not reporting could be a fine of $750 and/or imprisonment of up to six months. Michel, Sparrow and Paxton each are facing one count of failure to report suspected child abuse.

Superintendents are required to notify the Colorado Department of Education when local authorities “reasonably believe” that an incident of child abuse or neglect has occurred and a district employee is suspected, according to the agency’s website.

It’s unclear whether the case at Elizabeth Middle School has been reported to the department. Jeremy Meyer, a spokesman for the education department, declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

School districts are also required to file a report with the Department of Education if an employee is fired or has resigned because they have been accused of unlawful behavior involving a child and the allegations are “supported by a preponderance of evidence.” Districts have to make the report within 10 business days of the employee’s dismissal, according to the state agency.

Michel, Sparrow and Paxton were placed on leave Nov. 8, and, following the announcement of the charges against them, will no longer be employed by the school district pending school board approval, according to the district’s Thursday news release.

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But one small stream of federal COVID funding — $23 million — was used for innovation in the sector rather than its survival. That money was distributed through the CIRCLE Grant program and helped fund more than 200 projects around the state. The projects included weekly bilingual preschool classes for Armenian-American children, a training program for Head Start parents working as classroom aides, and a loan program to help child care employees cover emergency expenses.

While the grant funding represents a fraction of the $678 million in federal COVID relief sent to Colorado’s early childhood sector, program leaders are proud of the grassroots efforts it sparked.

“Once again, we are seeing that folks that are closest to the problems have the best solutions,” said Jennifer Stedron, executive director of Early Milestones Colorado, which distributed the CIRCLE grants.

Read the full story from our partners at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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District officials said they were reviewing a letter sent to the Board of Education and Superintendent Tracy Dorland on Monday by an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom. The letter detailed the concerns Joe and Serena Wailes had about the treatment of their 11-year-old daughter, identified as D.W., on a school trip in June to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Alliance Defending Freedom is a nonprofit legal organization “committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights and the sanctity of life,” according to the group’s website. It’s also been a key player in the political right’s campaign against transgender rights.

According to the letter, parents were told before the trip that boys and girls would be on different floors of the hotel. D.W. learned the student she was assigned to share a bed with was a transgender girl when the student told her on the first night of the trip, the letter says.

D.W. called her mom, Serena Wailes, who was also on the trip, and said she did not feel comfortable sharing a bed with the other student, according to the letter.

D.W. and Serena Wailes spoke with a trip chaperone and the school principal, who asked D.W. if they could move her to another bed in the same room, which she agreed to despite still feeling uncomfortable, the letter says. But school staff told D.W. to lie, according to the letter, and say that she needed to sleep closer to the air conditioner; when she was back in the room, another student asked the transgender girl about also changing beds.

Serena Wailes and her daughter again asked that she be moved. The letter says the transgender girl and another girl were moved to a different room. The letter alleges that school officials disregarded D.W.’s privacy and the Wailses’ parental rights, and that they silenced D.W. when a teacher told her and two other students in the room that they were not allowed to share with others that the girl was trans.

In a statement, Jeffco Public Schools officials said they were taking the parents’ complaint seriously. They said student safety was paramount and their partnership with families was a priority in the district.

“Because the district was only recently informed, and the trip occurred outside of the school year and through a private travel organization, we are still determining facts,” district officials wrote in a statement. “However, it appears that the student’s transgender status was not known when room assignments were made and our understanding is that as soon as their transgender identity was known, room assignments were adjusted.”

The letter sent on the parents’ behalf suggested Jeffco Public Schools policy regarding students’ gender identity was unequally applied because the district did not offer the same privacy protections to all students.

“Because JCPS’s policy prioritizes the ‘safety and comfort’ of only transgender students to the exclusion of all other students, there was no way for D.W.’s parents to request an accommodation prior to the trip so they could protect D.W.’s privacy and ‘minimiz[e] stigmatization’ of D.W.,” the letter states. “Therefore, an 11-year-old child was placed in a position where she feared social backlash if she requested a different room in front of other students.”

The Wailses have two children registered to attend the same trip next year. The letter requested clarification of whether parents would be “informed of the sex of their children’s roommates” on school-sponsored trips beforehand and on whether parents could opt their children out of any policy that groups children in rooms by gender identity rather than by birth sex.

The district says officials are working with the travel organization to learn more and expects to respond by the Dec. 18 deadline requested by Alliance Defending Freedom.

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That’s the opinion of more than 60% of respondents in a recent poll of education attitudes among Colorado voters. Magellan Strategies surveyed a representative group of 1,550 Colorado registered voters in September. The survey has a margin of error of 2.5%.

Magellan Strategies has done regular polling about education attitudes for several years. This is the first time the firm has included questions about CTE and higher education attitudes.

Respondents cited the high cost of college and questioned how useful college is to helping graduates get jobs, even though the majority of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree or higher themselves. Registered voters as a group have higher education and higher income levels than the general population.

Read the full story from our partners at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Her election, by secret ballot, puts an experienced leader at the helm of a school board that had a reputation for dysfunction and infighting.

New board members Marlene De La Rosa, John Youngquist and Kimberlee Sia were sworn in Friday morning and elected shortly thereafter to the other three officer roles of vice president, secretary and treasurer, respectively.

While the board president and vice president are chosen by secret ballot, the secretary and treasurer are elected publicly by a voice vote. Youngquist was elected secretary unanimously. Sia was elected treasurer on a 4-3 vote. Former treasurer Scott Esserman got the other three votes.

De La Rosa, Youngquist and Sia were elected to the board Nov. 7 in a sweep for candidates backed by groups supportive of education reform and charter schools — and a rebuke of the two incumbents running for reelection.

Read more from our partners at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Mike Peterson, during a special meeting of the board Thursday evening, said he planned to resign at the end of the meeting, effective Friday. He previously told the Douglas County News Press that he was stepping down because his family was moving out of state.

Peterson’s term would have expired in November 2025.

Christy Williams — like Peterson, a member of the board’s conservative majority — was elected by a 4-to-3 vote to become the next board president. Peterson declined to recuse himself, voting for Williams over director Susan Meek.

The directors, in nominating Meek and Williams for the chairperson role, said it was crucial the board avoid the bitter infighting that marked the previous two years under Peterson.

Williams cited 25 years of leadership experience as proof that she would make a good board president.

“I don’t stir up drama,” she said.

Three board members were officially sworn in Thursday evening: Meek, an incumbent, Brad Geiger and Valerie Thompson. All three won in November’s election and opposed conservative policies promoted by the board’s majority, which, in addition to Peterson and Williams, includes Becky Myers and Kaylee Winegar.

When a member resigns, Douglas County’s school board has 60 days to appoint a replacement. The president holds the tie-breaking vote in the event of an even split.

Peterson’s time helming Colorado’s third-largest school district has been marked by controversy.

The four-member conservative majority secretly decided in February 2022 to fire the district’s superintendent, Corey Wise, without informing the rest of the board. A judge later ruled that the majority violated Colorado open meeting laws. The district ended up paying more than $100,000 as part of a lawsuit.

Wise in April of last year filed a state and federal discrimination complaint against the school district and the four conservative board members members, saying he was unlawfully fired because he advocated for students with disabilities and students of color.

The district settled that lawsuit earlier this year and agreed to pay Wise more than $830,000.

The superintendent fiasco led to widespread protests from Douglas County teachers, students and parents.

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Nathan Feldman, whose children attend Slavens School in southeast Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood, on Nov. 10 filed the federal suit in the U.S. District of Colorado that states DPS’ policy supporting LGBTQ+ students is “not inclusive of all students” or of his children, who are “heterosexual, Caucasian, and/or binary/’cisgender.'” The lawsuit comes after his unsuccessful attempts to have what he described as a “straight pride” flag displayed in his children’s classrooms.

The lawsuit alleges Feldman and his children have “suffered irreparable harm directly” because of the district’s policy, and it seeks an injunction stopping the district from enforcing the policy that prohibits the straight flag display and a declaratory judgment on the unconstitutionality of the policy.

The lawsuit also seeks $3 million in punitive damages from Slavens School Principal Kurt Siebold, DPS Director of Operations Christina Sylvester, and DPS family constituency specialist Katherine Diaz, who are named individually in the lawsuit as well as the district, the DPS school board, Superintendent Alex Marrero and two of Feldman’s children’s teachers.

According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a flag he described in an email as a “straight pride” flag, a black and white striped flag with a linked male and female gender sign on it, in front of his children’s classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to his request.

“Each day at school, (Feldman’s children) are exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘Progress Pride Flags’ that DPS officials have strung throughout the Slavens School classrooms and halls as a means of expressing and promoting DPS’ favored viewpoint on the topic,” the lawsuit states. “Due to the fact that (Feldman and his children’s) views differ, (Feldman and his children) simply requested to have their views expressed, as well. But DPS has refused, and continues to refuse, to permit (Feldman and his children’s) speech or expression to even exist in its schools.”

Feldman first raised his concerns about pride flags to the district Oct. 6, 2022, according to the lawsuit, after he attended a school event and saw Progress Pride Flags displayed in front of classrooms.

He asked his children’s teachers about the flag displays because “Pride Flags are not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represent one viewpoint on the topic of sex,” and if he could have the straight pride flag displayed as well.

Neither teacher responded, so he sent a follow-up email that Siebold answered, explaining district policy that supports teachers’ right to display a rainbow flag or any other sign of support for LGBTQ+ students.

The lawsuit alleges Siebold’s response and DPS policy “confirms” the district “does not allow students or staff to speak or express support for students or staff who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Siebold later allegedly sent an email that stated, in part, “DPS doesn’t allow for other flags,” according to the lawsuit.

Feldman went back and forth with DPS officials and school administrators and faculty, saying the use of the pride flags and alleged non-allowance for other flags violates the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

He also sent an email to Sylvester, stating he’d like to “follow [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies] to display a straight pride flag with 2 gender symbols” in front of his children’s classrooms.

He met with Siebold and Diaz in January, where Diaz allegedly said, “‘sexual orientation, gender identity and race protections only apply to homosexuals, people of color, and trans people.”

Feldman claims, according to the lawsuit, straight, white, cisgender people should “be members of protected classes or protected against discrimination” because those are parts of sexual orientation, race and gender identity.

Feldman and his children are being represented by Michael Yoder and Chad LaVeglia, two Washington D.C.-based attorneys.

DPS Director of External Communications Scott Pribble said as of Monday the district had not been served the lawsuit, but even if they had could not comment on pending litigation.

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“Very good,” she said.

Next, the 13 children, most wearing maroon or blue polo shirts and dark skirts or pants, learned that everybody sins — even teachers, moms and dads, and the church pastor — and that although God hates sin, he doesn’t hate people who sin.

“He still loves us very much even when we sin,” Haynes said.

A minute later, Haynes led the 4-year-olds in a song about manners: “Always say thank you, always say please. When we’re ungrateful, God is not pleased.”

Such religious content has long been woven through the lessons at Landmark Preschool, which is nestled inside Landmark Baptist Church in the western Colorado city of Grand Junction. What’s different this year is that state taxpayers are covering the bill — more than $100,000 — for 20 preschoolers to attend classes there.

Colorado explicitly invited faith-based preschools to participate in its new $322 million universal preschool program, which despite a rocky rollout has proven popular with families. But state officials have sent mixed messages about whether preschools can offer religious instruction during state-funded class time. Prior to the launch, they said it was forbidden. Now, they say it’s not, but that next year it could be.

Debates about public funding for religious education come amid an ongoing conservative push to break down long-held ideas about the separation of church and state, including in a lawsuit underway now over a religious charter school in Oklahoma. Colorado’s Constitution, like those in many other states, prohibits using public money for religious purposes. But a series of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions has hollowed out such provisions.

In order to participate in Colorado’s universal preschool program, preschools, including Landmark, had to sign a contract agreeing to a variety of conditions, including that they would not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That requirement is now the subject of two lawsuits — one by a Christian preschool in Chaffee County and the other by two Catholic parishes that run preschools near Denver. The contract that providers signed did not mention religious instruction.

Read the full story from our partners at Chalkbeat Colorado.

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During 2017 and 2018, about 1.3% of U.S. parents reported that their children used melatonin, according to the study. CU Boulder researchers surveyed parents in 2023 and found about 18.5% of children ages 5 to 9 had been given melatonin in the 30 days prior to the survey.

About 19.4% of kids ages 10 to 13 and nearly 6% of preschoolers ages 1 to 4 had used melatonin in the same time period.

Additionally, the researchers said there are unknown risks with melatonin for children. Because it’s considered a supplement, melatonin is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

“We hope this paper raises awareness for parents and clinicians, and sounds the alarm for the scientific community,” CU Boulder lead author Lauren Hartstein said in a release. “We are not saying that melatonin is necessarily harmful to children. But much more research needs to be done before we can state with confidence that it is safe for kids to be taking long-term.”

According to the release, nearly one in five school-aged children and preteens now take melatonin for sleep. Hartstein said the reason for the increase in melatonin use is difficult to identify.

“A number of research studies have reported increased sleep disturbances in children as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hartstein said. “We also know that kids are increasingly using screen media devices before bedtime, which could be contributing to sleep difficulties. But we also can’t say for certain whether the increase in pediatric melatonin use reflects a corresponding increase in sleep problems.”

Hartstein said the findings do signal that parents are searching for solutions.

“Melatonin is increasingly being marketed to parents as an easy and ‘natural’ option to help children sleep and is being sold in preparations that are tasty and appealing to children, which may be contributing to increased use,” Hartstein said.

Melatonin is a hormone the brain produces when it’s dark, signaling it’s time to sleep. In the United States, chemically synthesized or animal-derived melatonin is available over the counter as a dietary supplement, the study said, and in many other countries, it’s classified as a drug and available by prescription only.

Melatonin is also increasingly available in child-friendly gummies. Reports of melatonin ingestion to poison control centers increased 530% from 2012 to 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, largely occurring among children under 5.

In a study published in April, researchers analyzed 25 melatonin gummy products. One had more than three times the amount of melatonin reported on the label. One had no detectable amount of melatonin, but did contain 31.3 mg of CBD, an active ingredient in cannabis.

The study found the majority of melatonin gummy products were inaccurately labeled, with most products exceeding the amount of melatonin and CBD on the label.

“Parents may not actually know what they are giving to their children when administering these supplements,” Hartstein said in the release.

Some scientists, according to the release, have raised concerns that giving melatonin to young people whose brains and bodies are still developing could influence the timing of puberty onset.

Co-author Julie Boergers, a psychologist and pediatric sleep specialist at Rhode Island Hospital and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said that when used under the supervision of a health care provider, melatonin can be a useful short-term aid.

“But it is almost never a first-line treatment,” Boergers said in the release. “Although it’s typically well-tolerated, whenever we’re using any kind of medication or supplement in a young, developing body, we want to exercise caution.”

Introducing melatonin early in life could also have another unintended consequence by sending the message that a pill is the answer for trouble sleeping, Hartstein said.

“If this many kids are taking melatonin, that suggests there are a lot of underlying sleep issues out there that need to be addressed,” Hartstein said. “Addressing the symptom doesn’t necessarily address the cause.”

The complaint, filed by the Equal Protection Project, said the McNair Scholars Program at CU Boulder excludes certain students based on race.

To qualify for the McNair Scholars Program at CU Boulder, a student must be low income, first generation or ethnically underrepresented. The McNair Scholars Program is a federally funded program by the Department of Education at 151 institutions to help chosen students obtain a doctoral degree.

The scholarship program defines underrepresented as Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, American Indian or Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders. The complaint said the scholarship is discriminatory because it excludes students of any other race not listed, including white and Asian people.

“The University of Colorado Boulder just became aware of the complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project against the university to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” a CU Boulder Spokesperson said. “Our campus strives to comply with all federal requirements related to the awarding of financial aid, is evaluating this complaint and will respond to any inquiry we might receive from OCR.”

The complaint said offering “scholarship opportunities to students based on their race and skin color violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

The complaint also references when the Supreme Court overruled affirmative action in June, ending race-conscious admissions practices in universities.

William Jacobson, president and founder of the EPP, said the Supreme Court case affirms the scholarship program’s unlawfulness when it ruled that student body diversity is not an interest that justifies racial discrimination.

“I’m assuming Boulder and other schools do this because they want a more diverse environment, whether you think that’s good or bad doesn’t matter, we don’t need to reach that judgment,” Jacobson said. “Assuming it’s a good thing, you still can’t discriminate on the basis of race in order to achieve that diversity. You need to find a different way.”

The EPP challenges the legality of programs in higher education — including scholarships, grants and tuition reductions — that have a goal of increasing racial diversity and exclude certain races. The EPP is part of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, an organization that has a conservative law and politics blog and a critical race theory website.

The McNair Scholars Program funds are used to provide the awarded students with research opportunities, faculty mentoring and seminars, summer research internships, graduate school visits, fee waivers for graduate school application fees and funding for travel to academic conferences.

The EPP also submitted a complaint about the same scholarship program at CU Denver. Jacobson said he hopes CU Boulder will take initiative to change the scholarship rules.

The complaint process within the Department of Education begins with the filing of a complaint, and CU Boulder will have a chance to respond. The Department of Education will then decide whether to open an investigation in the next several months.