Thanks to Aspen Thrift Shop for supporting YouthZone

On behalf of YouthZone’s clients, staff and community partners, we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Aspen Thrift Shop, which recently awarded us a general operations grant in support of our work.

As we grapple with widespread federal, state, county and municipal budget cuts — and more than $200,000 in lost revenue — every bit of additional support matters. We’re proud to work alongside our local partners in fostering hopeful youth, strong families and safe communities, as we have since 1976.

Consider shopping at the Aspen Thrift Shop and learning more about YouthZone’s work at http://www.YouthZone.com.

Ali Naaseh-Shahry, Glenwood Springs

Teachers don’t need guns — they need support

Elizabeth Cockrell-Taylor and Jodi Barr’s desire to put guns in our schools is nothing more than a copy and paste from Project 2025 and Agenda 47. These MAGA extremists want to weaken federal gun laws and override Colorado laws that specifically prohibit bringing deadly weapons into schools.

If Taylor and Barr had spent any significant amount of time in our public schools, they would know teachers are already doing everything we can to make children’s time with us inviting, focused, purposeful and safe. Asking teachers to maintain a learning environment while knowing guns are in attendance alongside children shows ignorance of everything teachers constantly do — mentally, physically and emotionally — to keep ourselves and our students thriving.

Teachers are facilitators of learning, counselors, snack providers, referees, cheerleaders, school-supply donors, tear-wipers, role models, nurses and de facto parents. Do not charge us with being police officers as well. The National Association of School Resource Officers agrees — check them out at http://www.nasro.org/faq/.

The transparency Taylor and Barr call for is already here. Anyone wanting to see the RFSD literacy, math, science or social studies curriculum can do so at curriculum.rfschools.com. The health curriculum and its record of community involvement is at http://www.rfschools.com/en-US/health-curriculum-adoption-41df21e9.

Vote for Kuhlenberg and Nimmo. They’re in our schools, they know our schools and they do their homework.

Lisa Dameron, Carbondale

Megan Heil understands education from every angle

As someone who has taught at the college level and trained law enforcement officers, Megan understands education from every angle. She knows how important it is to equip teachers with the resources they need and to hold systems accountable for results. Her experience bridges the classroom and the real world, giving her a perspective few others bring to the board.

Vote for Megan Heil for the Re-2 School Board.

Rusty Wooten, New Castle