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On November, 2003, voters of Colorado approved a $213 million bond to build 10 schools for the rapidly growing system. Just before thanksgiving, district leaders said they had found a nearly $14 million hole in the system's $122 million budget. Regardless of the specific cause of mistakes, the district's current leaders fault themselves for failing to exercise adequate oversight. Although parents and businesses have overwhelmed St. Vrain's schools with donations, faith in the district's top officials has plummeted. Vody Herrmann, the director of school finance at the Colorado Department of Education, says the discrepancy should have raised the question of where the money suddenly came from.

Reports on voters' rejection of proposed amendments to the Colorado Constitution. Scope of Amendment 17; Includes addition of the parents' rights to direct and control the upbringing, education, values and discipline of their children; Percentage of Colorado voters' which rejected the proposal. INSET: State ballot questions..

A former superintendent of a Colorado school district and one of his deputies have each been sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly using a simple scheme to pad their salaries. Bruce Bartlett, who led the 2,900-student Elizabeth public schools from 1996 to 2002, was convicted last year in a state court of multiple counts of theft and embezzlement. Prosecutors argued that the superintendent had tricked his school board into signing contracts that paid him more than had been agreed to. The judge also chastised the Elizabeth school board for lax oversight.

A seven-month investigation has concluded that a Colorado district's financial crisis involved poor planning and lax oversight, but no criminal wrongdoing, as of August 6, 2003. The probe followed revelations last fall that the 22,000-student St. Vrain Valley school district of Colorado faced a $14 million deficit in its $122 million budget. Correcting the problem has required a series of state loans, as well as deep cuts in salaries and programs. News of the shortfall came days after local voters approved a $213 million school construction bond. That timing prompted questions about whether the problem had been kept under wraps until after the election. The investigation, however, found no evidence that district officials had misled the public, or that money was stolen. Instead, its investigation backed the contention by district leaders that mismanagement was the main culprit.

After suspending its superintendent, Stuart Yager, for an arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol, a Colorado school board has found that its interim leader was convicted of similar charges. Debbie Rose, the president of the school board in Pueblo School District 70, said her panel suspended Yager on May 19, 2003, after learning he had been arrested on alcohol-related charges. Less than a week after Yager's suspension, the local news media reported that Mike Mauro, whom the board put in charge of during Yager's absence, had been convicted of driving while impaired by alcohol as recently as 2000. Rose said district rules did not require that Mauro inform the board of his past misdemeanor when he was made interim superintendent, but the panel is considering such a policy.

Focuses on the performance-based pay plan program for teachers introduced in the school system of Denver, Colorado. Basis of payment under traditional teacher-compensation systems; Problems in the implementation of the pay plan; Impact on students' performance of schools' participation in the plan.

Reports on the failure of Denver, Colorado's pay-for-performance program to meet the implementation schedule that district and teachers' union officials devised. Total number of elementary school teachers who volunteered for the program that links teacher compensation to student performance; Technical challenges facing the program; Terms under the pay-for-performance plan.

Presents education-related news items in the United States as of March 31, 1999. Includes criticisms against the use of corporate logos in mathematics textbooks; Status of the teachers' back-pay controversy in Arkansas; Settlement of a sex-abuse case in Boulder, Colorado. INSET: Death (Elizabeth Paisley Huckaby), by Marnie Roberts..