All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
Sorted by date Results 1 - 50 of 101
St. Vrain Valley schools, especially in the Niwot High School feeder system, were very well represented on Saturday, April 20, during the annual St. Vrain Valley Education Foundation awards and recognition event. It was a special night to honor public school teachers and recognize their dedication to their students and careers. For Acadia Gurney, being one of the math teachers at Sunset Middle School barely scratches the surface of her dedication at Sunset. She was the volleyball coach this...
The Boulder Valley Regional Spelling Bee was held at Platt Middle School on March 16 with 51 contestants from Boulder and Broomfield Counties. Niwot Elementary School fifth-grader Cooper Edwards took top honors as the Spelling Bee's first place winner. Edwards is one of two students from Colorado who will be competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, in May. Tejas Raman, a seventh-grader at Boulder Country Day School in Gunbarrel, took second place. A former student at...
Four Sunset Middle School students, Keeva Walton, Heidi Kintzel, Sylvia Madry, and Avery Nixon, and Sunset Choir Director Anna Hansil participated in the prestigious Colorado Middle All State Choir 2024 on Feb. 8 and 9. Acceptance into the Colorado Middle All State Choir is an incredible accomplishment for these young musicians. Students from Sunset Middle School auditioned back in October, along with over 1,500 other students statewide. Colorado Middle All State Choir gives seventh and...
St. Vrain Valley Schools presented a concert at Longmont High School Feb. 7, which included a performance by the district's Middle School Honor Band, conducted by Mr. Phuong Nguyen. Nguyen, a graduate of Colorado State University, has 23 years of teaching experience and currently teaches at Boltz Middle School in Fort Collins. His experience includes performing in Colorado rock/jazz/ska/reggae bands. He has also performed with famous rock bands, Vietnamese pop stars, as well as starred in short...
Niwot High School senior Drew Moore has many talents, but he is particularly proud of the fact that he once built a guitar with Legos. "I took the fretboard from a real guitar. And all the hardware. And it worked for a moment, but the nut wouldn't stay on the plastic," he said. "Legos are so much fun. You build whatever you want." Moore developed a love for music when he was about three years old, playing piano and xylophone. At the age of seven his parents got him his first guitar. He remembers...
When Merrick Blondeau was in elementary school, his sister Ana's friends were percussionists. Blondeau thought they were cool, so in sixth grade he joined the band at Sunset Middle School. Since then, he has simply loved making music and getting lost in music. Blondeau enjoys listening to classical music, "But," he said, "not often enough to be able to pick a favorite." One piece he does appreciate listening to is "The Planets," a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav...
Niwot High School 2014 graduate Madison Bounds has many stories to tell, and he delivers them with the clarity and the detailed eye of an ardent historian. Ranging from topics as diverse as men's basketball at the University of Kentucky to German immigration, Bounds has documented the lives of teachers, painters, and sports figures on film. And even though LIfeStory Films, the company he founded in 2022, is based in New York, Bounds has strong ties to the Niwot community. In 2001, when Bounds...
Madison Kintzel, an eighth-grader at Sunset Middle School won the Niwot High School Art Show Rising Star Award for her sculpture of a willow tree erupting out of the middle of a book, with long spiraled paper branches and tiny paper leaves hanging over a lake, which was made by cutting several layers of paper deeper into the bottom half of the book. The artwork is entitled "Weeping Willow." The award was presented during the Niwot High School Art Showcase in early December. The Rising Star...
Hi! I'm Camryn Bell. I am a student at Niwot High School, and I have always had a love of writing. I've been a part of the Niwot community my entire life and I love everything about it. I have two brothers, two dogs, and one sister-in-law (my brother has a lovely girlfriend as well). My mom, Alyson Bell, is by far the most inspiring person I have ever met. I'm passionate about a lot of things, writing being one of them, of course. I also enjoy theater, music, sports (specifically horseback...
The Sunset Middle School Arts Student of the Week, seventh-grader Aliyah Olivares, was nominated for her incredible drive to create and learn about art. She improves her craft with every iteration and studies art in and outside of school whenever she has free time. Olivares creates art in many different mediums including clay sculpting, digital drawing and artwork, papercraft and paper maché. She particularly enjoys paper maché, however her favorite medium is drawing. She is planning on expandin...
Julianna Deems was nominated by her art teacher, Jennifer Tjornehoj, as the Sunset Middle School Arts Student of the Week. Deems is in the sixth grade and recently won the Blue Ribbon Award, a prestigious award based on handpicked artwork by the principal of the middle school. Deems loves painting, oil pastels, and creating sculptures in and outside of her classes at Sunset. She also participates in the school's orchestra program. Deems said that she has a strong connection with art. "When I do...
Niwot High School’s Second Annual Art Showcase was a big success Dec. 4-6. The show was hosted by the Niwot High School Booster Music Performance and Art which is affiliated with the Niwot High School Boosters, Inc., and sponsored by the Boulder School of Fine Art. The show displayed art from both students at Niwot High School as well as from younger art students at Burlington Elementary School and Sunset Middle School. The show was started a year ago to help display the achievements of local arts students which often has been overlooked due to...
Although jazz guitarist Alex Fick has a busy schedule, with classes and performances in Marching Band, Advanced Jazz Band, Tenor/Bass Choir, and Drama, he still finds time to pursue a wide variety of other interests that engage his attention to detail and his passion to create. At the moment, he is inventing a card game. In addition, he is a volunteer gargoyle for Niwot's Rock & Rails summer concert series, and he recently made his own guitar. Over the summer. Fick built the guitar from...
Winter is a time for cheer, time with loved ones, good food, and of course, festive music. The Niwot High School orchestras, choirs, and bands will be hosting their annual winter concerts from Dec. 4 through Dec. 7. Kicking off the performance schedule on Monday, Dec. 4 at 7:00 p.m. is the “Winter Jazz in the Rockies” concert featuring the two jazz band ensembles at Niwot High School. The ensembles will perform several pieces including Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” Lena Horne’s famous “Stormy Weather,” and more....
Niwot High School's art show, hosted by the NHS Booster Music Performance and Art under the umbrella of the parent-run Niwot High School Boosters, Inc., is returning for its sophomore year Dec. 4-6 from 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. each evening. The art show is sponsored, in part, by the Boulder School of Fine Art. "Niwot High School is not only academically and athletically driven, but artistically driven," said Lydia Moy, Chairman for NIwot High School Booster Music Performance and Art, who helped to organ...
When Niwot High School music students traveled to Europe for two weeks last summer, visiting Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, one of the highlights of the trip for violinist Ian Springsteen was the visit to the Sibelius Academy and the Jean Sibelius house in Finland. Sibelius, who is widely known for his symphonies and tone poems, especially "Finlandia," now ranks among Springsteen's favorite composers. It was an inspirational trip. Springsteen remembers that their group performed in...
The Sunset Middle School seventh and eighth-graders in Advanced Band joined the Niwot High School Marching Band in the Longmont Halloween Parade on Oct. 28. The event provides middle school students an almost immediate connection and sense of community with their high school colleagues. It also provides a unique opportunity for Sunset students to get a taste of what marching band will be like when they join the high school marching band - a very different experience than concert band. "My...
He may not have finished high school in Niwot, but that doesn't stop Zeb Baker from considering himself a Cougar. While enrolled at Niwot High School from his freshman through junior year in the early 90s, Baker made a mark on the NHS community: he served as freshman and sophomore class president, as well as student body president as a junior. He was the student representative on the newly-formed Niwot High School Education Foundations. On top of that, he managed the boys' basketball and footbal...
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 robotics program in sixth grade. They both shared a love of video games, but they also felt driven to create something of their own. In their sophomore year at Niwot High School, they started their first business, growing and selling tomatoes door-to-door. After only a two-week-long period of...
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 performance-reportedly more than 1,000 students auditioned and approximately 400 were accepted-this was a key opportunity for young singers, and one Sunset takes seriously. "It is a huge honor to come and have this experience," said choir teacher Anna Hansil. "They've worked really hard and they should...
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 dubbed Open Mic Night. Students from the various choirs, band, orchestra, drama and even visual arts classes came together Feb. 13 to perform and show their work to their friends and families. With approximately 120 student performances, many students were in more than one performance group, or...
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 the same access to books that many of us take for granted. Local prisons suffer from a "horrendous lack of books," explained Lily Sykes, a junior at Niwot High School. Sykes is spearheading the project, "Books Behind Bars," a book drive with the goal of providing much needed books to prisons. "I...
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 coach Bobby Matthews said after the Feb. 11 tournament. "It didn't live up to my expectations," Matthews said, "but I saw growth throughout the season, and it finished pretty well." Youth and inexperience as well as injuries haunted the Cougars this season, with only one senior on the squad. The lone...
"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 was selected by NHS' Orchestra Director Keynes Chen as Arts Student of the Week, developed an interest in mariachi while she was still a student at Sunset Middle School. When the school started a mariachi class, Valles immediately signed up. "I thought it would be cool to be in a mariachi class," she...
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 students filled the stage, performing eight songs for an auditorium filled with parents and friends. Students represented 13 schools, with choir teachers from each school taking the stage as the concert began to thank students, their parents and Niwot High School as a host. The evening consisted of three...
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 and Camryn Bell, eighth grade students at Sunset Middle School, will participate in the Colorado Middle School All State Choir, a two-day event held at the Denver Convention Center on Mar. 9 and 10. Stauch and Grayless are in the Triplo Choir, which is made up of soprano and alto voices. Henderson and...
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 band played on the Learning Stairs, the central staircase at NHS sweeping up from the ground level. "It was really cool," said alto saxophonist Sebastian Aguirre, this week's Arts Student of the Week. "because there were a lot of people. In the auditorium you can't see people because of all the...
Robert Glen Herchenroeder of Longmont died May 23, 2022, at age 81. Bob was Assistant Principal at Longmont Junior High School, now Sunset Middle School, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Memorial contributions can be made to the Longmont High School Education Foundation, 1040 Sunset St, Longmont, CO 80501 or to the Alzheimer’s Association....
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, 1997: - Niwot celebrated the recording of the town plat 122 years prior on March 30, 1875. - Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church added 5,000 square feet to its building. - Niwot High School was celebrating 25 years of educating local high school students. - Niwot Elementary School sent a team to Odyssey of...
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 behind them. It's the spelling bee. Since at least 2018, Sunset Middle School has hosted the event with varying levels of participation, this year, there was a record number of 18 participants and according to co-hosters Tanya Gaurmer (language) and Katie Silverberg (special education), it was "a huge...
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. Cranny did not disappoint her fans, finishing fourth in the second heat of the 5,000-meter prelims to qualify for the finals. The first five runners in each heat qualified for the finals, plus the five next-best times. Cranny's heat began at 4:26 a.m. Mountain Time, but the downtown vibe was what y...
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 in her career. "It is a tremendous honor to have been chosen for this award," Easley wrote in an email after being honored at the Tribute to Teachers celebration on Friday night. "I am very grateful. I have taught for 26 years, most of them in Niwot. I love my job and my students. I am excited to...
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. Their principals praised them for finding new and creative ways to engage and support students, while adapting to teaching virtually or in socially distanced and masked classrooms. Each St. Vrain Valley School District has three finalists and will eventually have a winner chosen from their school...
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 been spreading the love for 14 years in elementary, middle and now high school. She's a realtor who used to work with emerging markets in finance, which she said helped her think about the big picture, "I'm a long term person." That mentality influences the way she approaches volunteering. When she...
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 for a combined horseback ride and dog walk. Alma, a Sunset Middle School sixth-grader, was happily at home reading a book, when Mom insisted on going outside. Everyone seemed happy with the decision....
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 proven to be an easy or simple task. This month, SVVSD implemented a COVID-19 tracker to keep the public informed about new and existing cases that have been documented during the current school year. The tracker segregates cases between students and staff, and between cases that are currently active...
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 back into the classroom. Earlier this month, five parents from Erie launched the St. Vrain Educational Advocates in hopes of bringing attention to their struggles and working with school and public health officials to combat the "unseen negative consequences" of keeping students isolated at home. "We...
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 partnership between the Education Foundation for St. Vrain Valley and Boulder Valley's Impact on Education, each summer C2C musters a small army of community volunteers to fill more than 11,000 backpacks with donated pencils, notebooks, and other school essentials, which are then distributed to families...
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 incorporating school clubs at Sunset Middle and Niwot High to allow students to continue their involvement with the foundation. Recently, the foundation's four Ugandan partner schools have suffered severely under COVID-19 restrictions, including extended lockdown measures and school closures. Many...
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 ancient Greek, Homer-esque odyssey. But instead of finding danger with the one-eyed Cyclops giant, she found her trip imperiled by the microscopic Coronavirus. The original plan was to be gone for a week, returning to Colorado on March 23. The first sign that things might not go as planned was that...
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 excited. "I didn't know a lot about coding [or computer science], but thought that it was a great opportunity and that we [she and the students] could learn together," Chiaravalle said. She explained that her STEM classes are hands-on, focusing on the building and designing; but her computer classes largely...
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, who exemplify excellence in teaching. In what has been an unprecedented end of the academic year, these three award-winners have continued to play a critical role in the growth and development of the youngest members of our community. Jess Esinhart: Legacy Elementary School Jess Esinhart is no strang...
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 leisure; he was helping facilitate a training mission. His title--Search and Rescue Dog. "They're like family dogs," explained Zmijewski, "but when there's a mission, they know they have a job to do." Zmijewski retired from a long career teaching P.E. at Longmont Junior High School (nka Sunset Middle)....
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 for those whose livelihoods fluctuate with the seasons, winter can be an economically trying time. Casa de la Esperanza means House of Hope, and this local organization is dedicated to supporting agricultural workers and their families year-round. In 1993, the first migrant laborers moved into this...
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 salon chair, after his students met their goal for this year's annual Parent Advisory Committee fundraiser, held on Oct. 5. Last year, Barela received his first Mohawk, but didn't get any color to go with it. Through this year's Fall Crawl, the PAC raised more than $15,000 that will go towards...
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 trainees. In the process, they raised more than $15,000 for the Sunset Middle Parent Advisory Committee, which will go towards upgrades in the school's interior, and a new sound system for the cafeteria. The obstacle course was a new twist to Sunset's annual Fall Crawl fundraiser, and both parents and...
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 in a little friendly competition in a ninja-warrior style course that encourages the students to stay active. Last year's Spartan Fall Crawl raised $15,000 from pledges and local business sponsors. These funds went towards school improvements such as classroom designs and renovations in addition to...
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 for Kids, Lee’s initiative was inspired by Niwot Elementary School teacher Dale Peterson and the Mwebaza Foundation, an organization that has its roots at NES. “My dad travels a lot for work,” Lee said, “and on one of his travels he got some pictures of kids without cleats or with just one cleat,...
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 overcrowding. When students reach age 10, they usually drop out of school, because there isn’t a physical place to go anymore. The Mwebaza Infant Primary School tries to hold on to these students for as long as possible, even construction card-board partitions to increase individual classrooms, but thi...
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 setting in as soon as August rolls around. But there’s also something to be said for heading back to school. With each new year comes the chance to see old friends and start fresh with a new teacher, a new classroom and a new perspective. Teachers get excited to see coworkers again, catch-up on s...
