What's Happening at Eastridge Community Elementary School

Students from across the district put their spelling skills to the test at the CCSD Annual Spelling Bee! With fierce competition, quick thinking, and a love for words, these talented elementary and middle school spellers gave it their all.

The Cherry Creek School District achieved its highest-ever graduation rate with an on-time (or four-year) graduation rate for the class of 2024 of 91.2%.  The new graduation rate is up from 90.3% for the class of 2023 and comes as the district continues to implement the CCSD Strategic Plan, which outlines three key priorities: 1) Literacy; 2) Health and Wellbeing; and 3) Disproportionality.

Another example of the power of collaboration is the recent launch of the Aspiring Educator Pathway, developed by the Cherry Creek School District (CCSD) in partnership with the Community College of Aurora. According to the Colorado Department of Education’s most recently published workforce survey results, for the 2023-2024 school year, over 8,000 teaching and support staff positions needed to be filled. This represents approximately 12% of all teaching positions and 15% of all support staff positions in Colorado.

Governor Jared Polis is proposing changes to how students in Colorado are counted, in an effort to slash the education budget by $147 million for the next fiscal year. On Thursday, several district leaders and others testified at a legislative hearing hoping to convince leaders not to cut funding.

Colorado funds its school districts per student, and Gov. Jared Polis has proposed using a single-year student count rather than a multi-year average to help balance a $1 billion shortfall. Because Colorado’s enrollment is declining, using a single-year count would cost less. But school district officials pushed back during a legislative hearing Thursday, saying the maneuver would amount to Colorado once again balancing its budget on the backs of students.

Review and ranking website Niche recently released its list of the top school districts in each state for 2025, including Colorado. There are 179 school districts in the Centennial State, though Niche only graded and ranked 164.

STEAM-a-Palooza is a day filled with hands-on learning, exploration, and fun. Some of the highlights include a near space weather balloon launch, robotics, Lego derby car races, aerospace creations, and exploring exciting, in-demand career pathways offered by the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus (CCIC).

Aspiring Educator Pathway, a new program creates a unique path to a teaching degree by giving future teachers real world experience. The district hopes by making a teaching degree more affordable and accessible for people in the community, it will bring in more people to the profession.

“Schools got fully funded this last year back to 1989 levels of funding when you adjusted for inflation,” Cherry Creek Schools Chief Financial Officer Scott Smith said. “Colorado schools continue to rank at the bottom of the 50 states in the terms of how much we invest per pupil.”

Demand in school cafeterias has gone up since the state started the “Healthy School Meals for All” program last year. Now, school lunchroom staff are serving more meals than ever. The cafeteria staff at Cherry Creek Schools said the lunchrooms and kitchens weren’t built to serve this many meals, so after the first year of the program, they are making some adjustments.