Rocky Mountain Voice

Five days before the School District 49 board voted to dissolve Education ReEnvisioned BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services), the withdrawal that had pushed the co-op to the brink was deferred. Pikes Peak State College had signaled it would leave the co-op effective Aug. 15, a move that would have dropped ERBOCES to a single member and made it ineligible to operate. Then ERBOCES produced a 2013 memorandum of understanding requiring a year’s notice, and on Aug. 12 the college indicated it would stay through summer 2027 to honor that notice. D49 dissolved the co-op anyway, on Aug. 17.  The reversal settled little, because the state had already raised a deeper question about the MOU. The same agreement that brought Pikes Peak in was signed by the college’s president, not its governing board, and CDE said it could not recognize the college’s membership as valid without documentation that its board had approved joining.  In the state’s view, Pikes Peak may never have validly been a member at all. That sequence runs through two letters Education Commissioner Susana Córdova sent to ERBOCES and D49, on Aug. 7 and Aug. 13, and through the dissolution resolution the D49 board adopted Aug. 17.  The State Board approved the emergency transfer of the co-op’s online schools days later.  The documents behind the dissolution lay out three things that have drawn little attention: the withdrawal-and-reversal, the compliance demands, and a state challenge to whether D49 should keep the co-op’s reserves.

Students from more than 160 Colorado public schools will be participating in a “walkout” to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The action, scheduled for September 4, is being promoted as a statewide “Walkout for ICE Out” day. The walkout has been promoted by left-wing activist organization 50501, which was a key group that was behind the “No Kings” protests around the nation.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s favorability rating fell 7 percentage points over the past year, while the City Council’s favorability rating dropped 3 percentage points, a new poll has found. A little more than a year after taking office, Johnston had enjoyed a 48% favorability rating among likely voters. That declined to 46% in 2025, sliding to 39% in 2026, according to a new Colorado Polling Institute poll.

Douglas County School District is grappling with a change in law in one of its most populous communities. The Castle Rock Town Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night changing the way land and funds dedicated to schools are allocated. Historically, developers have dedicated land or funding for future public schools. The town holds these assets until the district is ready to build a school, but now the district will need to meet certain conditions and timelines, or the land may be used for other purposes.

Colorado on Wednesday filed yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration — this time to stop a new rule that prohibits Medicaid dollars from paying for transgender transition services for minors.