Letters to the Editor
Love Our Characters
Jack Farrar’s April article about J.R. Ewing, the community member who helps others, was phenomenal! I love this story of neighbors helping neighbors and being appreciated and kind to one another. The more we get to know one another and find our commonalities, the better our dialogue and understanding of one anyone will be as we create our community.
Tara Bannon Williamson, Park Hill
Stop The Vandals
I’d like to thank you for publishing the Greater Park Hill News. It’s always full of great information. I’d also like to bring your attention to the graffiti, which seems to plague our neighborhood. The Denver Auto Body Shop at 5601 E. Colfax had been tagged with graffiti on a continuous basis. The shop owner or manager has been very diligent about removing the graffiti fairly quickly, however, it has become a continuous problem.
The wall was recently tagged again, just after being repainted. The owners have repainted over graffiti dozens of times. The last incident went from one end of Holly nearly to Ivy Street. It’s ugly and destructive not only for the owner of the Denver Auto Body Shop, but also for the residents in the neighborhood.
It’s frustrating to witness over and over again. It brings down property values and I’m certain that parents with children feel frightened as well, as many children play nearby.
If there is anything you can do to bring attention to this issue in your newspaper it would be most appreciated. We have a beautiful neighborhood and these vandals are ruining our area. They need to be arrested and convicted.
Teri Johnston, Holly Street resident
Support Working Families
The two of us are lucky to have access to paid leave at our workplaces, allowing us to be both good employees and loving caregivers for our families. But 88 percent of Coloradans do not enjoy this right.
The fact is, everyone has to recover from a serious illness, care for a sick parent or bond with a new baby at some point. But the U.S. is the only developed nation that does not guarantee some form of paid leave. This is a real problem – for families, businesses and our economy.
At the capitol a few weeks ago, Colorado workers shared stories of being forced to make choices no one should have to — attend chemotherapy or lose their job; take care of a dying father or miss rent; stay at the hospital with a premature infant or keep the lights on. For many, missing even one paycheck can lead to a financial tailspin, which is why nearly one in four new mothers return to work two weeks after giving birth.
Small businesses, health professionals, and breastfeeding advocates also testified to the numerous benefits of paid leave, including employee retention, economic cost-savings, and health outcomes for mothers/babies.
Many young families in our neighborhoods depend on others to provide childcare. If these caregivers get sick, need to care for family or give birth to a child, we want them to take the time they need without the added stress of missing a paycheck. Currently, it’s very difficult for families or childcare centers to afford paid leave for their employees on top of hiring replacements.
House Bill 1307 provides a solution by creating the Family And Medical Leave Insurance program. It’s funded entirely by workers —without employer, government or taxpayer funds. Employees contribute a $2-5 premium each week to access up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year.
As this bill continues to move through the legislature, we are hoping that the paid leave benefits we both have access to will become a reality for all of our fellow workers. Please encourage your legislators to vote yes. If you don’t know who represents you in the state legislature, look them up and contact them today: http://leg.colorado.gov/find-my-legislator. You can learn more about the CO FAMLI Act at: www.cofamli.org.
Neha Mahajan, Mayfair resident and 9to5 Colorado Director
Rachel Ellis, Stapleton resident and Managing Partner of Ellis
Employment Law
After School Program Funding At Risk
The budget proposal recently released by the White House reveals that President Trump wants to eliminate all funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative — the primary federal funding stream for summer and afterschool learning programs that serve children and youth who are considered “at-risk.”
The White House budget chief said there’s “no demonstrable evidence” that out-of-school time programs are effective at increasing student achievement. He is flat wrong. There is ample evidence that afterschool programs help improve students’ grades and test scores, help improve regular school attendance, and help students build positive behaviors that are building blocks of future success.
Our local nonprofit agency – founded right here in Park Hill – has a proven track record of increasing student achievement via its high-quality out-of-school-time programs. Scholars Unlimited (founded as Summer Scholars) has been helping elementary students improve their literacy skills, knowledge, and social-emotional assets for nearly 25 years. With funding from 21st Century Community Learning Center grants and generous philanthropic support from our community, Scholars Unlimited provides comprehensive summer and after-school programs to disadvantaged young learners. Daily, our programs provide rigorous literacy instruction, hands-on enrichment, recreation, and positive youth development practices.
Annually, we serve about 1,200 elementary students who are considered at-risk because of low socio-economic status and poor academic performance. However, we consider our scholars “at promise” and we strive to help them achieve their unlimited potentials and to develop an unlimited belief in themselves.
Our programs work. Our results consistently demonstrate that we help our scholars make significant academic gains: Three out of four students achieve grade-level proficiency in fundamental literacy skills, and nearly half achieve grade-level proficiency in reading fluency and comprehension.
As your readers know, there is a strong correlation between reading proficiency and long-term academic success, and third-grade reading proficiency is a predictor for high school graduation.
Ongoing federal support for out-of-school time programs is crucial for disadvantaged children and youth, and our community as a whole. I hope the Greater Park Hill community will join me in calling on Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, and all our congressional representatives, to reject the President’s proposal to cut 21st Century funding.
Lisa Klapper O’Connor, Board Chair, Scholars Unlimited, Denver
Editor’s Note: We love your letters, and give preference to those that address an issue that has been covered in the newspaper, or a topic that is Park Hill or Denver-specific. Send letters to editor@greaterparkhill.org, and include your full name, and the neighborhood in which you live. Deadlines are the 15th of each month, for the following month’s issue. Past issues can be read at greaterparkhill.org.