Left Hand Valley Courier - All Local, All The Time

Sunburst Window Washing, LLC, is a Niwot business founded by two high school students, Jamison Weise and Joshua Longenecker. Their friendship began at Sunset Middle School, where they met through the...

Last week, four middle students from Sunset Middle School participated in the 2023 Colorado Middle All State Choir concert, along with students from across the state. In this highly competitive...

This year is the start of a new type of performance for Sunset Middle School students. Instead of a typical music concert or art show, the fine arts departments coordinated and organized a showcase...

Books provide the reader with an incredible number of benefits, including a sense of connectedness with community and an escape from a potentially difficult everyday life. However, not everyone has...

Niwot High School wrestlers came up short of qualifying for the state tournament, but three wrestlers placed at the regional tournament. "We had two sixth-place finishes and one fifth-place," head...

"Ever since I was in elementary school," Najla Onofre Valles admits, "I've been wanting to use a guitar and learn how to play it. I just thought it would be something really fun to do." Valles, who...

Some of the best middle school choir students in the area came to Niwot High School last week for a district-wide honor choir concert. Despite the start of a mid-winter snowstorm, more than 100...

Four Sunset Middle School students and nine Niwot High School students have been selected to perform in the Spring 2023 Colorado All State choirs. Charlotte Stauch, Bryce Grayless, Athil Henderson...

During the first week of December, the Niwot High School Jazz Band played in an unusual venue. Instead of performing in the school auditorium, where such performances have been held in the past, the...

In celebration of 25 years, the Courier staff thought it would be fun to give a brief summary of articles from Volume 1, Issue Number 1 of the Left Hand Valley Courier, published April 1,...

A group of school children sits or stands at the front of the class, one apart from the rest. One, or perhaps a few adults sit at a table facing the children with a crowd of parents and students...

Niwot's downtown was packed on Friday, July 30 – at 4:00 a.m. Over 200 fans of Niwot High grad Elise Cranny packed Niwot Wheel Works to witness Cranny's Olympic debut as part of the USA track team....

Niwot Elementary's Jessica Easley says she has an amazing job. Her passion for teaching and dedication to her students earned her Teacher of the Year for her school, an award she's won multiple times...

It's always a great honor to be named a finalist for Teacher of the Year, but this year's group earned recognition in a pandemic year that brought unforeseen challenges to them, students and schools....

School volunteer Lydia Moy looks at every opportunity and raises it up a notch. "Your job is not to do 10,000 cutout Valentines for second grade, your job is to spread the love," Moy said. Moy has...

You never know who or what you're going to find on a walk around Niwot. On a lovely day, in-between a bitter cold day, and a foot of snow the next, Karin Antoni and her daughter Alma Boyd were out...

With the return of in-person learning on Oct. 5, Niwot schools and the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) are working to manage the impact of COVID-19 on their school communities. It has not...

A growing number of local families are deeply frustrated with full-time remote learning in the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), and now they've banded together in an effort to get students...

Since 2005, the nonprofit Crayons to Calculators (C2C) program has had a simple mission: to provide local students with the supplies they need to start the school year successfully. Created by a...

Since 2008, the Mwebaza Foundation has been an integral part of our Niwot community. The nonprofit has expanded its partner schools to include Coyote Ridge, Coronado Hills, and Eagle Crest while also...

When longtime Gunbarrel resident Lori Highfill left Colorado on Saturday, March 14, for a week's vacation in her home state of New Jersey, she never thought that it would turn into a two-month...

When Krista Chiaravalle was first asked to leave her biology teacher position at Niwot High to join Sunset Middle School's staff as the STEM & Learning Coach, she was a little nervous but...

The Education Foundation of the Saint Vrain Valley School District recently announced the winners of their 2020 Tribute to Teachers, which honors individual teachers at the Pre-K through 12th grade, w...

If you were walking the Niwot Loop Trail last Tuesday afternoon, you likely bumped into Kodi and his owner Jayne Zmijewski. Kodi may have looked like any other yellow lab, but he wasn't out for...

Colorado state minimum wage is $11.10 an hour. But by various exemptions provided by law, many agricultural workers make only $7.25 per hour. That might be enough during the long days of summer, but...

Sunset Middle School principal Anthony Barela showed off his new pink hair-do to a crowd of fawning admirers after the Fall Crawl wrap-up assembly on Oct. 31. Barela was once again subject to the...

On Friday Oct. 5, a cadre of tweenage ninjas-in-training jumped, swung, and climbed their way through a colorful obstacle course that tested the strength and agility of even the most seasoned...

Autumn brings crisp mornings, spiced treats, shorter days, and, for many excited Sunset Middle Schoolers, the annual Spartan Fall Crawl. On Oct. 4th, middle schoolers will get the chance to partake...

Knowing children in Uganda were playing soccer barefoot, and in some instances with only one cleat, was not acceptable to Preston Lee, so he launched a project to remedy the situation. Called Kleats...

Last year, Mwebaza Foundation set the goal of outfitting Niwot Elementary’s sister school, Mwebaza Infant Primary School in Kyengera, Uganda, with two shipping container classrooms to help with...

Heading back to school is often a mix of emotions for students and teachers alike. For many students, the end of summer is bittersweet, nostalgia for mid-week sleepovers and late night pool parties...

Debbie Lammers is this month’s Left Hand Laurel recipient because of her dedication to St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) and schools throughout Colorado. Lammers spent her formative years in... Full story

Next fall, students and staff will notice huge changes when they return to Niwot High School. Renovations will occur both inside and outside the building. There will be new signage outside the school...

A teacher’s job description doesn’t fit a set list of responsibilities, chronologically checked off and completed at the end of each day. In fact, the job description is ever-changing and unique...

 Full story

The Niwot Community Association did one of the things it does best at its April 17 annual meeting for members – connect NCA members with the broader Niwot area community. The group invited the...

Niwot Community Association board members are gearing up for the group’s busy seasons. Kicking off the spring is the annual membership drive, already underway. Emails have gone out to members... Full story

More than 50 women and girls are taken from Nepal to India every day to begin a horrific existence as a sex slave. Learning about this statistic and an unfathomable number of young girls around the...

Students, coaches, judges, volunteers, families, and technology fans overflowed Niwot Elementary School’s (NES) gymnasium on Saturday, Jan. 26 as NES hosted its first VEX IQ Robotic Challenge... Full story

September 10, 1999- January 8, 2019 Olivia Ann Kunik, 19, made her final curtain call on Tuesday January 8, 2019. She leaves behind her heartbroken parents, Honey Beuf, Chuck Barnett, Maitland Kunik,...

Contributing to Niwot’s festive holiday decorations around town was on the minds of Niwot Community Association board members at their Dec. 5 meeting. The NCA put up holiday decorations this year... Full story

Last year at this time, Dale Peterson’s bold vision for building and equipping a new classroom and then shipping it overseas seemed like an impossibly complex undertaking. But thanks to a willingly...

Mwebaza Foundation founder and president Dale Peterson was in good spirits after the closing ceremony for ‘Cougars/CDC Creating Classrooms,’ held at Niwot High on Nov. 29. “I’m feeling...

Communities within St. Vrain are thriving and leading the way as Colorado continues to build and attract the top workforce and companies who want to call our thriving state home. St. Vrain Valley... Full story

International Baccalaureate programs, offered to kindergarten through high school students, aim to go beyond basic curricula by developing inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people. In the...

For 25 minutes on Oct. 5, students at Sunset Middle School walked, jogged or did something in between to raise money for some exciting events coming up during the school year, as well as some much...

There’s a school in Kyengera, Uganda named Mwebaza. Two hundred students and six teachers spend their days learning and teaching there. More than 8,000 miles away, at Niwot Elementary School (NES),... Full story

The annual Fall Crawl fundraiser hasn’t been a Sunset Middle School tradition for very long, but it has quickly become a favorite among parents and students alike. Last year’s event raised nearly...