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Poudre Schools Cut 182 Positions as Enrollment Declines
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DENVER7, Approved, Local

Poudre Schools Cut 182 Positions as Enrollment Declines

By: Adria Iraheta | Denver7 District officials say some cuts reflect unfilled vacancies — but parents say fewer educators mean kids pay the price. FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Poudre School District is eliminating 182 educator positions heading into the next school year, citing budget issues as the driving force behind the cuts. The move comes after months of conversations about declining enrollment, forcing Poudre School District to consider how its budget could reshape schools across the district. PSD is projected to have 654 fewer students in its schools next year, citing fewer school-aged children in the area due to declining birth rates and fewer younger families moving into the area due to housing costs. Denver7 was there as parents brought their co...
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One Colorado built the GSA network. Now it’s backing the campaign against Initiatives 109 and 110.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

One Colorado built the GSA network. Now it’s backing the campaign against Initiatives 109 and 110.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A political committee called Families Not Politics registered with the state of Colorado on February 10, 2026. It said it existed to protect families. Within three months it had raised nearly $320,000. None of it came from Colorado parents' organizations while calling itself a “grassroots group”.  What it did raise came largely from an abortion rights group, a Planned Parenthood affiliate, a Portland-based PAC that had just abandoned its own ballot campaign in Oregon and the organization behind the Colorado Gender and Sexuality Alliance Network. Together those four sources account for nearly 90% of everything Families Not Politics has taken in. The committee exists to defeat ballot initiatives heading to Colorado ...
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The Poudre records: How a school “safe space” became a five-year parental-rights battle
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The Poudre records: How a school “safe space” became a five-year parental-rights battle

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice It has been just over five years. No one has been held accountable. That is how Erin Lee describes what happened on May 4, 2021 and everything since. Federal litigation, Supreme Court petitions and public records battles have produced thousands of pages of emails, court filings and internal policies. "It's been an insane five years," she told RMV in May. “She came home and excitedly proclaimed she was transgender” The Lees moved from Florida to Wellington, Colorado in 2020. Erin says she and her husband were "faithless, left-leaning parents" with a close relationship with their daughter. In spring 2021 that daughter had just turned twelve and was enrolled at Wellington Middle School. Her homeroom and art teacher was Jenn...
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What records show about Poudre School District’s role in student ICE walkouts
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

What records show about Poudre School District’s role in student ICE walkouts

By RMV Staff Nearly half of Lesher Middle School’s 766 students walked out of class on Feb. 2 to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a wave of student demonstrations that Poudre School District says it neither encouraged nor discouraged. PSD is among the 10 largest school systems in Colorado. Emails and internal records reviewed by RMV suggest the situation may not have been as hands-off as described. What happened during the walkouts Over the following week, other district schools followed Lesher Middle School’s (LMS) lead, as nearly 900 6th–8th graders from over half of the district’s neighborhood middle schools and approximately 1,000 high school students walked out of class to protest ICE.  Students left school property, marched along Fort Colli...
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Fort Collins Charter School Secures $1.8M Federal Grant for Expansion
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The Coloradoan, Approved, Local

Fort Collins Charter School Secures $1.8M Federal Grant for Expansion

By: Kelly Lyell | The Coloradoan Liberty Common School has been awarded a federal grant of nearly $1.8 million in support of the continued construction of its new junior high school campus, a school spokesperson said in a news release. Liberty Common opened the new junior high school for seventh and eighth graders this fall in one of two adjacent commercial buildings at 1825 Sharp Point Drive in east Fort Collins. The junior high school will expand into the second building and new facilities connecting the two for the 2026-27 school year, co-founder and Headmaster Bob Schaffer said in August while leading a Coloradoan reporter in a tour of the first of two phases of planned renovations. The second phase is underway and will include a gymnasium, locker rooms...
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Parental Rights Take Center Stage in Poudre School Board Election
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The Coloradoan, Approved, Local

Parental Rights Take Center Stage in Poudre School Board Election

By: Kelly Lyell and Sarah Kyle | The Coloradoan As you weigh which Poudre School District Board of Education candidates will get your vote this election, you might be wondering where each candidate stands on parental rights — and how they would define that term. The Coloradoan sent identical questionnaires to all candidates running for seats on local school district boards of education in the Nov. 4, 2025, election.More: Are you ready for the 2025 election? Your guide to Larimer County-area candidates, issues Below are their answers to this question: How do you define parental rights as it pertains to public education? What level of input should parents/guardians have in curriculum selection and content? Note: Candidate responses were reviewed and, in some cases, lightly e...
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Parental Rights Debate Deepens After Supreme Court Rejects Colorado Case
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CBS News, Approved, State

Parental Rights Debate Deepens After Supreme Court Rejects Colorado Case

By Melissa Quinn | CBS News Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid to revive a lawsuit brought by two Colorado families who alleged their parental rights were violated when their children attended school-sponsored club meetings that included discussions of gender identity and sexuality and were allegedly discouraged from telling their parents about it. Though the high court turned away the case, Justices Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, wrote separately to express concern with what Alito said was an unwillingness by courts to confront whether a school district violates parents' rights when it encourages a student's gender transition without the parents' knowledge or consent. "Petitioners tell us that nearly 6,000 public schoo...
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Colorado parents shaken as former school counselor faces assault charges
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Fox31, Approved, Local

Colorado parents shaken as former school counselor faces assault charges

By Parker Gordon | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — A former Poudre School District counselor has been arrested after allegedly having an “inappropriate relationship with a student for several years”, said the city of Fort Collins. On Tuesday, the city of Fort Collins said in a press release that Cassandra Poncelow, 40, has been arrested on multiple charges, including sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, following an investigation into Poncelow’s employment at the school district. The city of Fort Collins said that a report was made to Fort Collins Police Services in July that a former counselor at the school district had an inappropriate relationship with a student while employed. Detectives, following the report, initiated an investigation into Poncelo...
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Colorado school faces SCOTUS test over hiding gender transition from parents
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The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Colorado school faces SCOTUS test over hiding gender transition from parents

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell | Daily Signal FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The America First Policy Institute asked the Supreme Court to hear the case of two families whose daughters were exposed to transgender ideology behind their backs. In 2021, Erin Lee’s 12-year-old daughter was invited by her art teacher to come to art club after school in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Colorado. Little did Lee know, it was a Gay Straight Awareness club where a guest speaker told her daughter if she’s “not 100% comfortable in her female body, she’s transgender.” The 12-year-old girl, who was new to the middle school, then adopted a transgender identity and was affirmed by the art club. The guest speaker, Kimberly Chambers, director of SPLASH Youth, an LGBTQ group ope...
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DEI at a cost: Colorado schools caught in $70M federal freeze
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

DEI at a cost: Colorado schools caught in $70M federal freeze

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado public schools are facing a $70 million funding freeze—part of a broader $6.8 billion nationwide hold triggered by the U.S. Department of Education. At the heart of the conflict are federal objections to DEI and LGBTQIA+ initiatives in schools, which have already led to lawsuits and pushed districts to search for new funding before fall. The freeze and federal justification The funding suspension follows executive orders issued by the Trump administration in early 2025. According to a July 2 notice sent to state education departments, the Department of Education is reviewing already-approved funds to ensure they align with new presidential priorities. Governor Jared Polis responded the same day, calling the act...
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