Colorado: What did you learn this school year?

Every school year offers its own lessons, how to read or solve a differential equation, how to confront a longstanding conflict or speak up for what’s right. The 2018-19 school year was a particularly tumultuous one in Colorado, and we know our readers learned many lessons in and out of the classroom.

The man who led Denver Public Schools for a decade stepped down, leaving a complicated legacy, and after a contentious search process, the school board selected a homegrown candidate and the district’s first Latina superintendent to replace him.

Denver teachers walked off the job in their first strike in 25 years, and in doing so, secured major changes to a once-groundbreaking educator compensation system.

Adams 14 community members struggled to maintain control of their fate as the State Board of Education ordered intervention after years of poor performance.

The entire Denver metro area spent a day hostage to fear as authorities searched for a young woman who they said had made unspecified threats to schools, only to see real violence tear through a suburban high school just a few weeks later.

Lawmakers and advocates delivered major changes, funding full-day kindergarten, limiting the use of suspensions and expulsions for young students, and making new money available for mental health in schools.

Through it all, teachers made breakthroughs with students, parents struggled to advocate for their children, and students stood up for their future.

Please share with us an important lesson you learned this school year. We’ll publish a selection of responses as we bring the year to a close. We really appreciate your diverse perspectives as we seek to tell the story of education in Colorado.