Mesa County foreclosure filings off state trend

While statewide foreclosure filings dipped nearly 10 percent in May compared to April, Mesa County’s foreclosure filings increased 25.9 percent, from 58 in April to 73 in May. Finalized foreclosures dropped 6.4 percent in Colorado in May compared to April, while Mesa County’s finished foreclosures cropped up 12.7 percent month-to-moth. Year-over-year, foreclosure filings and sales dropped in May at both the state and local level. Read Thursday’s Daily Sentinel for more ...

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Applications being accepted for vacant school board seat

School District 51 will accept candidates for a vacant school board seat through July 23. The board plans to interview candidates and select one to appoint to the seat at a public meeting July 30 at the Basil T. Knight Center. The time of the meeting is tentatively set for 4 p.m. but the time may change based on how many applicants show interest in the District C seat, which the board officially declared vacant Tuesday after the sudden passing of 69-year-old board member Harry Butler on ...

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School Board adopts budget sans new cuts

District 51 School Board members adopted a budget without millions of dollars in cuts for the first time in five years Tuesday. After cutting $35.3 million over the course of the last four budget cycles, the board was able to approve a 2013-14 budget with $3.9 million more in general fund revenue compared to 2012-13’s general fund. A mandated increase in the amount of money the district has to devote to the PERA educator retirement fund and an anticipated decrease in student ...

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County clinic awarded grant of $1.1 million

A freshly remodeled Mesa County Health Department clinic at 510 29 1/2 Road is anticipated to serve 15,000 people per year by 2016, thanks to a recently awarded grant. Local Health Department clinics currently serve about 9,000 patients each year, according to Jeff Kuhr, executive director of the Mesa County Health Department. A newly awarded $1.1 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation will help the department expand that patient base by helping the clinic branch out from family ...

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Mesa County sending road concerns to BLM

Monday is the deadline for submitting comments to the Bureau of Land Management about its Grand Junction Field Office Draft Resource Management Plan. The plan outlines four possible plans for managing BLM land in Mesa County. The plans focus on keeping operations the way they are, altering operations to err on the side of conservation, changing operations to provide more access to recreation, or striking a balance between preservation and recreation. After receiving numerous comments ...

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Mesa County Libraries picks new director

Joseph Sanchez has been selected to replace Eve Tallman as director of Mesa County Libraries. Tallman will retire in August after six years with Mesa County Libraries. Sanchez served as library and learning resources director at Red Rocks Community College from 2006 to 2011, then spent two years leading a multimedia content production team at Auraria Library in Denver.  ...

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Mesa County residents frown over BLM plan

This Friday, Mesa County commissioners are expected to submit to the Bureau of Land Management a summary of citizen feedback on a draft BLM plan that aims to guide public land upkeep and use for at least the next two decades. The BLM has been accepting public comment on its Draft Resource Management Plan for the Grand Junction Field Office since Jan. 14 and will take more comments through June 24. The county has received a decent chunk of comments itself from local citizens, most of whom ...

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School-funding overhaul under way

A private coalition of school funding reform supporters will likely decide by the end of the month how to word a ballot question asking for a $1.1 billion income tax increase for education, according to Sen. Mike Johnston. Johnston, a Denver Democrat, co-sponsored Senate Bill 213 this year in the state legislature. The bill calls for changes in how the state funds K-12 education to give more money or the same amount of money to all Colorado school districts. Johnston traveled to Rifle and ...

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Permit for gas plant near De Beque approved

Mesa County Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to approve a conditional use permit for a natural gas processing plant west of De Beque. The plant proposed by site owner Red Rock Gathering Company, LLC, of Brighton, would compress raw natural gas and extract impurities, hydrocarbon liquids and natural gas liquids from the raw material on a 40-acre site at 4325 V 2/10 Road. Ten of those acres would be devoted to construction of at least one 65-foot demethanizer tower, a 56-foot flare tower, ...

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District 51 board told it has until July 31 to fill Butler vacancy

A new member of the District 51 School Board likely will be appointed by the end of July. David Dodero, an attorney with Hoskin Farina & Kampf, advised the four remaining school board members at a work session Tuesday night that state statute requires they appoint a replacement for Harry Butler by July 31. Butler died June 2, marking the start of a vacancy on the board, according to Dodero. Statute requires the board to fill the vacancy within 60 days. If the board cannot decide whom ...

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21 civil unions approved in Mesa County

Mesa County has issued 26 civil union license applications since they became legally available in Colorado May 1. As of Monday, the county had collected 21 of those completed applications and recorded them, making the unions binding, according to the recording office. Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner said during a county commissioners meeting Monday morning she expected to see more interest in civil unions in the county, especially given its location. “We expected people to come in ...

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Loan-rate changes may baffle students

With less than three weeks to go before federally subsidized student loan interest rates are set to double, Colorado Mesa University is prepared to tweak its loan counseling and information. Colorado Mesa University Financial Aid Director Curt Martin said changes in loan interest rates are common. What’s uncommon is the current uncertainty about rates this close to the deadline for Stafford loan interest rates increasing from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. That change will occur July 1 ...

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Boomers, closed 3 years, for sale or rent

Chet Allen isn’t going to reopen Boomers Nightclub & Restaurant at 436 Main St. But he hopes someone else will. Allen said Sunday he decided to rent or sell the building and has posted a listing with Bray Real Estate and Bray Property Management. Allen owned and operated Boomers until 2008, when he sold it to Mary and Carson Cross. The Crosses returned the business to Allen three years ago. It hasn’t been open since. Allen planned to reopen the bar in the summer of 2010 ...

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Maintenance crews take over District 51 schools

When classes end, summer maintenance projects begin. School District 51 maintenance and grounds operations crews will spend this summer focused on roofing, flooring, and window replacement work. Roofing projects will take place at Central High School, Tope Elementary and above the cafeteria and library at Gateway School. New carpet will be installed in the libraries at Palisade High School and Redlands Middle School, classrooms and counseling offices at Grand Junction High School and ...

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CMU body farm accepting donations

Donation forms are now available for people who wish to donate their bodies to the Forensic Investigation Research Station, or body farm, at Colorado Mesa University. Melissa Connor, director of the research station, said 44 people have requested donation forms since she came to Colorado Mesa last August. After setting a list of donation requirements and procedures and gaining approval for the donation process from Colorado’s attorney general, Connor e-mailed the first donation ...

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Grand Junction man, 23, drowned in Redlands canal

The body found in a Redlands canal Saturday has been identified as a 23-year-old Grand Junction man who drowned accidentally, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said. The victim was Troy Dixon, the Coroner’s Office said. Dixon’s body was reported to be in a canal at 1950 South Broadway by a person who called 911 at 9:50 p.m., according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department. The caller did not seem to know the victim and likely pulled the man from the canal, ...

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Grand Junction man, 23, drowned
 in Redlands canal

The body found in a Redlands canal Saturday has been identified as a 23-year-old Grand Junction man who drowned accidentally, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said. The victim was Troy Dixon, the Coroner’s Office said. Dixon’s body was reported to be in a canal at 1950 South Broadway by a person who called 911 at 9:50 p.m., according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department. The caller did not seem to know the victim and likely pulled the man from the canal, ...

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D51 keeps sports fees stable

District 51’s annual list of student fees contains few changes for 2013-14, which is good news for parents. High school athletic fees increased from $70 per sport in 2010-11 to $110 in 2011-12 before settling at $140 last year. Sports fees will remain at that level for high school athletes in 2013-14. Middle school athletic fees, which increased by $20 each year from 2010-11 through 2012-13, will also stay put for the coming school year at $70 per sport. Sports fees are capped at ...

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Boards will appoint Butler’s replacement

Grand Junction City Council and District 51 School Board members say they are not ready to discuss what will happen to the council and board seats vacated by the sudden passing of Harry Butler Sunday evening. But when the time comes, state statute will help determine how those two vacancies will be filled. Colorado Revised Statutes state that a board of education must declare a vacancy at the board’s next meeting after a board member dies. The remaining board members have 60 days ...

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Program helping disabled students find work locally

Twenty-four-year-old Patricia Clymer has enjoyed every day of her first year as a home health aide for Comfort Keepers in Grand Junction. That joy would not have been possible without the help of the local School to Work Alliance Program, Clymer said. The statewide program’s Grand Junction branch combines support from District 51 with support and funding from the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to teach 16- to 25-year-olds ...

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County ends mental health agency lease

The asset-holding company for Colorado West Regional Mental Health Center ended a lease Monday with Mesa County that provided the county with assurances and collateral from the company so the county could help Colorado West secure grant funding. Colorado West entered a ground lease and sublease agreement with Mesa County in March 2011 on its Building D at 515 28 3/4 Road with the understanding that the agreement could end as soon as Colorado West had at least 45 days worth of operating ...

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Summer meals will be served at three schools

School District 51 will re-open three of its school cafeterias today to begin serving summer breakfasts and lunches. The meals are free to all children under the age of 18. Meals cost $3.25 for adults. Through July 12, meals will be served Monday through Thursday at Chipeta Elementary, 950 Chipeta Ave., and Rocky Mountain Elementary, 3260 D 1/2 Road, and Monday through Friday at Clifton Elementary, 3276 F Road. Breakfast will be served from 8 to 8:30 a.m. at Rocky Mountain and Chipeta ...

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Colorado Mesa nursing students head to Nicaragua to help in hospitals, clinics

Ten Colorado Mesa University students and three of their professors leave today for a 10-day trip to provide medical care in Nicaragua. This is the university’s second-annual trip to Nicaragua to volunteer in hospitals and rural areas where poverty and access block many from receiving sufficient health care. Students went to Ecuador to provide the same services in 2011. Students will spend at least one day at a hospital in the city of Esteli and at least two days providing care at ...

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First Caprock graduation a charter school milestone

More than 700 kindergarten through 11th-grade students gathered Friday morning on a practice field outside their school, Caprock Academy, and watched the school’s first class of seniors graduate. Caprock opened five years ago with 288 kindergarten through seventh-grade students. The school added a grade level each year, finally expanding to a full K-12 institution this year. All 13 grades spent the blustery morning of the last day of classes for 2012-13 at the charter school’s ...

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Health students respond to crash

When an emergency arrived outside the front door, they were prepared. Five members of the local chapter of HOSA-Future Health Professionals were gathered Tuesday morning at their adviser’s home on the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Grand Avenue when a truck slammed into a tree across the street. The group of high school and college students are all training for nursing, veterinary or emergency responder certifications and act out emergency medical scenarios to demonstrate ...

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Reimer appointed to higher ed board

Gov. John Hickenlooper has appointed Grand Junction hotelier Kevin Reimer to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. The appointment, if confirmed by the Colorado Senate, will place Reimer on the commission through July 1, 2015. The 11-member board sets policies, approves degree programs, and reviews data for state-funded Colorado institutions of higher education. The board generally meets once a month at locations throughout the state. Reimer will replace Grand Junction attorney ...

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Schools get grant help for math programs

A two-year, $721,291 grant will fund four math coaches for teachers in Mesa County Valley School District 51 and Plateau Valley School District 50. The Colorado Department of Education grant is expected to begin providing money to the districts July 1, pending state approval of some grant application revisions requested by the state. District 51 Priority Schools Director Lesley Rose said she’s “99 percent sure” the grant will come through, but she is not ready to make ...

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Tears for teachers, cheers for seniors in first class

  Caprock Academy seniors may experience two “firsts” Friday morning.   One is guaranteed: The five 12th-graders who will graduate on Caprock’s last day of school at the end of the week will become the school’s first graduating class. The school opened in 2007 with kindergarten through seventh grades and added a grade level each year, finally expanding into a K-12 school last fall.   The other “first” is just about as likely to happen on ...

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Tears for teachers, cheers for seniors in first class to graduate Caprock Academy

Caprock Academy seniors may experience two “firsts” Friday morning. One is guaranteed: The five 12th-graders who will graduate on Caprock’s last day of school at the end of the week will become the school’s first graduating class. The school opened in 2007 with kindergarten through seventh grades and added a grade level each year, finally expanding into a K-12 school last fall. The other “first” is just about as likely to happen on graduation day ...

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Family Health West working on needs survey

Family Health West is finding out if it’s meeting the needs of the Lower Valley. The Fruita hospital is in the midst of a Community Health Needs Assessment that involves three meetings with stakeholders and a community-wide survey. The first meeting took place April 29 and the other two will take place June 24 and Aug. 12. Meeting participants have already been selected and include local health care and public service representatives who will spent the first meeting discussing ...

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Pet-selling permit ordinance in effect

Mesa County Animal Services personnel are counting on the public to help enforce a new ordinance requiring people who sell cats or dogs in public places to carry a permit. The Public Pet Rehoming Permit ordinance went into effect Saturday. The ordinance requires people to obtain a permit from Mesa County Animal Services before selling cats or dogs in public places within Grand Junction city limits or unincorporated Mesa County. The ordinance does not apply to people who sell pets on ...

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Last day of school, for good, on Glade Park

For the first time in four years, Steve Miller won’t hear the smile-inducing sound of children laughing this August outside Glade Park Community School. That’s because the 19 children who attended the school until its last day Wednesday will make the long trek down Colorado National Monument to go to schools in the Grand Valley next year. The school’s board and backers decided this spring to close the school after enrollment projections showed they likely wouldn’t ...

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School board OKs deal on teacher compensation

School board members voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a three-year agreement between School District 51 and teacher representation group Mesa Valley Education Association. The “nay” votes for the agreement, which lays out compensation, benefits, and employment stipulations for District 51 teachers, came from board members Jeff Leany and Ann Tisue. Both said they were concerned that the agreement is for three years instead of one. Mesa Valley Education Association President Jim ...

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Pet-sellers will need a permit in county, city

Pet-peddlers will need a permit to sell cats or dogs in public places in Mesa County starting May 31, according to a resolution passed unanimously Monday by the Mesa County Commission. Grand Junction City Council members adopted a similar resolution last month. Both resolutions adjust current city and county policy to require people to obtain a Public Pet Rehoming Permit if they plan to sell or give away dogs or cats in any public place in the county or city. A permit is not required for ...

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County reverses stance on TABOR

Mesa County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to immediately resume inclusion of county sales tax dollars in a tally subject to provisions of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. TABOR limits the amount of tax revenue a government body in Colorado can collect before tax dollars are refunded to taxpayers. In 2007, the county began excluding sales tax from the formula used to calculate whether taxpayers were due a refund under TABOR. It is the only county in Colorado that has held onto ...

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CMU adding classroom building

Construction of Colorado Mesa University’s newest building begins this week. The 72,000-square-foot, three-story building at 1020 Elm Ave. is due to open next fall and will house literature, language and mass communication classes, as well as Rocky Mountain PBS. The building’s current name is simply Academic Classroom Building II. The CMU Academic Classroom Building built in 2008 is across Elm Avenue, south of the new building’s future site. The project received a pledge ...

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Dorm will be named Garfield Hall

Colorado Mesa University’s 11th residence hall will open this summer as Garfield Hall. Garfield Hall will be the first of four residence halls that will be built around Cannell Avenue as needed to match enrollment. The four halls together were originally called Renaissance Village, but that name was booted for at least the first dormitory at the request of students. Members of the Residence Hall Association, who are students elected to represent the residence halls in which they ...

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Graduate made the grade with baby in tow

While Rebecca Gatt was learning systems dynamics and design in her final year of the Colorado Mesa University-University of Colorado mechanical engineering partnership program, her daughter, Emma, was just feet away learning to crawl. Emma was born July 30, exactly three weeks before Rebecca began her senior year in the engineering program, which allows students to earn a CU diploma in Grand Junction. Saturday morning, the nine-and-a-half-month-old watched her mom graduate at CMU’s ...

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More brewers 
help beer fest, scholarship fund

Hundreds of beer enthusiasts gathered Saturday afternoon at the Colorado Mesa University Center to partake in beers, ciders and a little wine at the third-annual Grand Valley Beer Festival. The festival grew from 20 breweries and distributors last year to 54 this year. Brewers from the Western Slope, the West Coast and other parts of the country gathered at tented booths inside the University Center’s ballroom and amidst the rain on the center’s second-story terrace to pour at ...

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CMU graduates 967 in rain and shine

If it’s good luck on your wedding day, rain is probably a sign of good things to come on graduation day, too. At least that was Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster’s reasoning near the close of a two-and-a-half hour commencement ceremony Saturday morning at Stocker Stadium. The outdoor ceremony was alternately visited by sunshine, a couple rain showers (one complete with a minute or two of hail) and occasional thunder and lightning in the distance. The university ...

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Mesa County has best employment 
month in 4 years

Mesa County’s unemployment rate hit its lowest point in more than four years last month, reaching 8.2 percent, according to data released Friday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado’s unemployment rate also fell, landing at 6.8 percent in April. That’s the lowest unemployment rate Colorado has recorded since the state unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in December 2008, according to the CDLE. Mesa County Workforce Center Director Sue Tuffin said a ...

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Plateau Valley teacher accused of test trickery resigns job

A Plateau Valley Elementary School teacher accused of improper behavior during standardized testing at the school resigned Wednesday night. The teacher, identified by school leaders as Tammy Clark, presented a letter of resignation to Plateau Valley School Board members at a board meeting Wednesday. Clark spoke to the board in a private session, then the board voted publicly to accept her resignation, according to board member Judy Skrbina. Skrbina said she could not relay what was ...

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Virtual education

By the end of the summer, sisters Alexandra Matz and Samantha Welch will be new moms. On Thursday, they celebrated being new graduates. Welch, 19, is due to give birth to a girl in July and 18-year-old sister Matz is due to have a boy in August. The two graduated together this week from Grande River Virtual Academy despite living in different states — Welch lives with her husband, Kyle, in Fallbrook, Calif., while Matz lives with her parents here in Grand Junction. Welch never ...

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General Surgeons start building larger office

General Surgeons of Western Colorado, 1001 Wellington Ave., broke ground Thursday on a new site down the street at 2440 N. 11th St. The 10,000-square-foot building will offer the practice’s 10 surgeons twice the space they have in their current location. General Surgeons Practice Administrator Carla Blue said the current office was built to accommodate three surgeons when it opened in 1977. Today, staff are doubling or tripling up in offices and branching into the attic to find ...

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Home-school program looking for new director

Mesa Valley Vision Home and Community Program is looking for a new program director. Former director Susan Scofield resigned from the position this spring. Her last day was April 26, according to Vision Board of Stewards President Alan Espinoza. Scofield said as one of the few remaining founders of the homeschool program, she was ready to pass the reins to new leadership. Six local families first started working on opening the Vision program in 2006 and it opened two years later. The ...

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Vision School graduates 15

Best friends Kyra Dowd and Kylie Haas had already earned 12 college credits together before graduating Wednesday from Mesa Valley Vision Home and Community Program. They’re also both certified nurse aides who work at area nursing homes. This fall, they plan to live together and take all of the same pre-nursing classes at Colorado Mesa University. “We motivate each other,” Dowd said. “It’s kind of a competition,” Haas added. The two are both ...

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Spa accepting nominations for Body and Soul makeover

Le MedSpa is taking nominations through June 14 for the next round of the Body and Soul Makeover. Paule Stiefler, owner and marketing director of Le MedSpa at 2530 N. Eighth St., Unit 205, launched the first Body and Soul Makeover last summer. The spa accepted nominations from friends and family members of people deserving of a makeover, interviewed the nominees and selected a male winner, a female winner and a runner-up to receive services from a “dream team” of local ...

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Report shows plan for healthier Colorado

The state of Colorado hopes to become the healthiest state in the nation by investing in health care, engaging the public in healthy activities and forming public-private partnerships aimed at strengthening health care and insurance coverage and capacity. The office of Gov. John Hickenlooper outlined these goals in a new report released last week, “The State of Health: Colorado’s Commitment to Become the Healthiest State.” In a forward in the report, Hickenlooper wrote ...

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In a class by herself

The blue and gray halls of DeBeque High School are lined with photos of each graduating class. Some frames squish together dozens of head shots. Others show just a small huddle of students. One, from 1916, shows a single graduate. The hallway will include one more solo senior photo after this Saturday, when 18-year-old Jillana Alderman will become the school’s only spring graduate in the Class of 2013. Alderman began ninth-grade at the school in fall 2009 with 13 other students. ...

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For some graduates, less (school) is more (pay)

After four or more years of work, hundreds of Colorado Mesa University bachelor’s graduates will walk across the stage during commencement Saturday at Stocker Stadium and into jobs with a median first-year salary of $37,003 if they remain in-state, according to a new study from the Colorado Department of Higher Education and College Measures. A smaller group of students at the same ceremony who spent on average two years earning associate of applied science degrees from Western ...

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