Home Care In Cherry Creek, CO

The school districts cited extreme cold as the reason for the closures.

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — The snow, treacherous driving conditions and bitterly cold temperatures are causing schools to be closed Tuesday in the Denver metro area.

Many metro school districts, including Denver Public Schools, Jeffco Public Schools, Douglas County School District, Cherry Creek Schools and Aurora Public Schools, have announced they will be closed Tuesday.

> See the full list of schools that will be closed or delayed

DPS said in their communication to families:

All DPS schools and administrative offices are closed Tuesday, January 16, due to severe weather. This includes the Emily Griffith Technical College. All school-related events and activities, including all Discovery Link and ELCS Enrichment programs, are also canceled.

Jeffco sent a notice to parents and guardians Monday afternoon. It reads in part:

Dear Jeffco Public Schools Staff and Families,

Due to the unprecedented length of sustained low temperatures that is forecasted to continue tomorrow, all Jeffco Public Schools buildings and facilities will be closed Tuesday, January 16. This will give us time to assess district facilities and prepare them to safely serve students.

All childcare programs, after-school activities and meetings scheduled to be in Jeffco Public Schools facilities are canceled. No Jeffco Public Schools transportation services will be provided for services within or outside the district.

With the exception of essential personnel, employees do not need to report to work. Access to any building for any reason needs to be approved by security dispatch prior to entering the building.

In an email to families, Cherry Creek Schools said several district buildings had burst pipes:

The Cherry Creek School District will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16th, due to freezing weather conditions. The District is concerned for student safety and several buildings have experienced burst pipes. Classes and school activities will be cancelled. Before and after school daycare programs will be closed.

Douglas County said the cold impacted its transportation fleet. They said two diesel pumps are down and starting buses in the morning would be an issue. Even though schools may be closed, the district said after-school activities are still scheduled to go on unless told otherwise by a coach or activity sponsor.

Some Colorado colleges and universities, including Colorado School of Mines and Colorado State University, also announced closures or delays for Tuesday.

Cherry Creek North is home to one less fitness studio.

Orangetheory Fitness, located at 2780 E. Second Ave. on the corner of East Second Avenue and Detroit Street, closed its doors on Nov. 22, according to a sign at the store.

A company spokesperson confirmed the closure in an emailed statement, saying that Orangetheory will "continue to guide members along their fitness journeys at our Glendale, Lowry, Washington Park, Baker, Central Park and Uptown locations, which remain open.”

Stuart Zall, Stacey Glenn and Kyle Framson with The Zall Company are now marketing the retail space as available for sublease. The approximately 3,100-square-foot studio comes with 14 reserved parking spaces, and the current lease term goes through 2029, according to a marketing brochure.

Orangetheory combines rowing, running and strength training in its classes, and attendees wear monitors that track different heart rate zones. The company’s headquarters are based in Boca Raton, Florida, and Orangetheory currently lists 30 Denver-area locations on its website. Physiologist Ellen Latham started Orangetheory in 2007, and the company now has more than 1,500 studios in 25 different countries, according to its website.

In 2019, franchisee Tim Johnson told the Denver Business Journal that rent at his new Cherry Creek North location was more than double any of his other locations.

Cherry Creek North has a few big-name fitness and wellness studios, including Barry's at 260 Josephine St. and SoulCycle at 265 Saint Paul St. Multiple office buildings are under construction right now in Cherry Creek North, with more development in the works in the popular neighborhood.

In addition to Orangetheory’s Cherry Creek North closure, three Colorado Athletic Clubs closed their doors earlier this year; one of them was its downtown location at 1601 Wewatta St. The CEO of Colorado Athletic Club’s parent company cited “the Covid pandemic, combined with rising costs and staff shortages” as reasons for the closures.

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Next month, the Cherry Creek School District will open a first-of-its-kind facility — part school, part therapeutic mental health facility — to meet the needs of students in crisis.

The number of facilities in Colorado that serve students with intense mental health or behavioral needs has drastically dwindled over the past 20 years, leaving many children without critical care. The new Traverse Academy is an effort to address that problem.

Once open, it will serve students ages 10 to 18 who have severe behavioral, social, or emotional challenges, or are experiencing serious depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress syndrome, or suicidal ideation, district officials said.

“This school will save lives,” said Cherry Creek Superintendent Chris Smith.

Officials in the suburban district southeast of Denver gave tours Tuesday of the new building, which was built with $19 million in voter-approved bond funding. It was carefully designed not to feel like a clinic or hospital, said Tony Poole, assistant superintendent of special populations.

But it doesn’t feel like a traditional school, either.

The walls are painted soft greens, blues, and purples, and the corners are rounded. There is a nook under the staircase where students can go if they’re feeling overwhelmed. The windows are oversized, letting in plenty of natural light, with benches underneath where students can sit.

Outside, there are two open-air amphitheater classrooms, a boulder for students to climb, and a painted labyrinth. The main foyer has couches and a coffee bar.

“When we talk about de-institutionalizing mental health, it starts right when you walk through the door and how you feel,” Poole said.

Traverse Academy has several outdoor features, including a boulder that students can climb on, surrounded by wood chips several feet deep.

A bean bag chair sits in a small “focus room” at Traverse Academy. The rooms can be used for individual therapy or for students to take breaks.

Traverse Academy is set to open Oct. 23. There are already 30 students on a waiting list.

Tony Poole, the assistant superintendent of special populations for Cherry Creek School District, shows off one of the transition classrooms at Traverse Academy.

A group therapy room at Traverse Academy.

One of two “innovation rooms” at Traverse Academy. This room — dubbed Messy Mesa — will be used for messy projects such as chemistry experiments, pottery, and painting.

Traverse Academy has a half-sized gymnasium with a climbing wall, basketball hoops, and other athletic equipment.

An outdoor seating area at Traverse Academy.

Traverse Academy has several outdoor features, including a boulder that students can climb on, surrounded by wood chips several feet deep.

One of two outdoor amphitheater classrooms at Traverse Academy.

The main foyer of Traverse Academy has couches and a coffee bar.

The walls at Traverse Academy are painted soft greens, blues, and purples, and the corners are rounded.

A bean bag chair sits in a small “focus room” at Traverse Academy. The rooms can be used for individual therapy or for students to take breaks.

Traverse Academy is set to open Oct. 23. There are already 30 students on a waiting list.

Tony Poole, the assistant superintendent of special populations for Cherry Creek School District, shows off one of the transition classrooms at Traverse Academy.

A group therapy room at Traverse Academy.

One of two “innovation rooms” at Traverse Academy. This room — dubbed Messy Mesa — will be used for messy projects such as chemistry experiments, pottery, and painting.

Traverse Academy has a half-sized gymnasium with a climbing wall, basketball hoops, and other athletic equipment.

An outdoor seating area at Traverse Academy.

Traverse Academy has several outdoor features, including a boulder that students can climb on, surrounded by wood chips several feet deep.

At full capacity, Traverse Academy will serve between 48 and 60 students in grades four through 12. Students will be referred by the social workers or psychologists at their schools, and parents must agree to the placement. Students won’t be at Traverse all year; Poole said a typical stay might be as short as eight weeks or as long as five months.

The facility is split into three pods that Traverse calls “home bases”: one for students with severe needs, another for students with moderate needs, and the third to help prepare students to transition back to their middle or high schools.

The severe and moderate pods have a main classroom with tables for schoolwork, as well as a group therapy room with comfy chairs and beanbags, and two smaller rooms for students to take breaks or receive individual therapy.

Each student will receive nine hours of individual, group, or family therapy per week, which Poole said is nearly the same amount children get in residential treatment facilities.

There are also hidden design features meant to keep students safe. The doors have special hinges that allow them to swing both ways, so students can’t barricade themselves in a room, Poole said, and other features help deter suicide attempts.

The transitional pods look different, with square classrooms, a wall of lockers, and fewer therapy rooms. The idea is that students will advance through the pods, their progress signified by different color schemes, as they reacclimate to a traditional school setting.

“Everything is really programmed, down to the bolts, down to the shapes of the walls, down to the way things are secured, so that we are student-centered,” said Traverse Academy Principal Kimberly Avalos, who started her career as a Cherry Creek teacher and rose to work on special education for the entire district, with a focus on students with emotional disabilities.

“We are investing in them and showing them they are important and matter,” she said.

School psychologist John Smrcka is one of the 30 mental health providers and teachers who will work on the Traverse Academy staff, which will be a mix of Cherry Creek employees and clinical staff from the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry. Smrcka said he was inspired to apply for the position after realizing how unique Traverse Academy would be.

“Here in a school setting, we’ll be able to provide treatment,” he said. “As a school psychologist in a typical public school, we’re not supposed to do clinical treatment. We’re just going to help the class manage the behavior — but we’re not going to try and address it at a root level.

“Traverse is going to be an opportunity to do some things differently,” Smrcka said.

Former Cherry Creek student Jacob Eggleston will be one of six paraprofessionals at Traverse. Eggleston said he himself struggled with suicide, depression, and anger as a student.

“I want to be a role model and be an example and point them in the right direction,” he said.

Traverse Academy is not set to open until Oct. 23, but Poole said there are already 30 students on a waiting list. Those 30 students haven’t been able to get into the dwindling number of privately run facility schools around the state, and so have been waiting in hospitals or at home.

“This can’t open soon enough,” Poole said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at [email protected].

Colorado’s winningest baseball coach is calling it a career.

Cherry Creek head coach Marc Johnson announced to his team Wednesday that 2024 will be his last season on the bench.

Johnson, 78, has been the Bruins’ head coach since 1973. In that span, he built Cherry Creek into Colorado’s preeminent big-school baseball power, with eight state titles, six runner-ups, 32 Centennial League championships and a record 846 wins.

“I didn’t want to leave the cupboard bare,” Johnson said of the timing of his decision. “I knew I had a really strong junior and senior class coming back, so I thought this was the right time, because we’re going to be a very talented team this year.

“I’m humbled at what we’ve accomplished, and it’s been an amazing run. There’s no guarantees for next spring, but I wanted to leave this program in great hands for whoever comes next.”

The Bruins first won their first title in 1983, a Class 3A crown, and added a Class 6A title in 1992, then five-peated as Class 5A champions from 1995 to ’99 before adding another title in 2012.

Johnson broke the all-time wins record in 2021 via a dramatic extra-innings win over Grandview, giving the coach victory No. 808 and surpassing Eaton’s Jim Danley.

Before Cherry Creek, Johnson’s first coaching job came as a 22-year-old in 1969, when he managed the 2nd Armored Division for two years on a base in Fort Hood, Texas. The Norfolk, Neb., native was also an accomplished soccer coach in his tenure in Greenwood Village, winning five state titles from 1971 to ’99.

In his 51 years as the Bruins’ head baseball coach, Cherry Creek’s had only two losing seasons — 4-14 in 1973 and 9-14 in 2022. Last spring, Cherry Creek was 18-7 and lost to Mountain Vista in the regional championship.

“Do I think I could still do it? Yes,” Johnson said. “But it’s time to turn the reins over, and I’ve got a couple of grandsons playing at Chandler High School in Arizona, and I’m going to go watch them play. If I can’t handle not coaching, I’ll volunteer to be a bench coach for somebody.”

Next spring, the Bruins will feature a roster loaded with talented upperclassmen, including a handful of juniors who are Division I prospects plus senior college commits in center fielder Eddie Esquivel (University of San Francisco), right-hander Cameron Larson (Wofford), right-hander Paul Hughes (Miami of Ohio) and catcher Brayden Yasuzawa (Villanova).

But Johnson said he doesn’t want the Bruins’ 2024 campaign to be focused on him, or the pursuit of a final title.

“Contrary to what people think, I’ve never coached for wins and championships,” Johnson said. “Those are byproducts of trying to develop teams that love each other, believe in each other, play for each other… The most rewarding part is seeing what the kids become. The type of fathers and people they are. I always use an old Pat Summitt line: ‘Winning isn’t everything. Wanting to win is.'”

In addition to team success, the Bruins have produced more than 420 college players and approximately 80 MLB draft picks under Johnson, including six first-rounders and nine big-leaguers. And Johnson’s staff has had remarkable continuity in Greenwood Village, too, with six assistants who have coached with him for over three decades.

Considering that legacy, Matt Darr was standing in Johnson’s driveway when Johnson got home on Wednesday evening, the Regis Jesuit coach’s way of paying homage to “the best high school baseball coach in Colorado history. Period.”

“Not only his coaching, but his influence on so many players and coaches has put Colorado high school baseball on the map,” Darr said. “Despite the fierce rivalry between Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit, he has always been a mentor to me and a major factor in where I am today. It was always about helping baseball become better, never about Cherry Creek.”

Now the big question that looms for the Bruins next summer is who will fill Johnson’s Connie Mack-sized shoes. Johnson, who remains in good health and has been “kept young by hanging out with 17- and 18-year-olds all the time,” said there is currently no successor in mind.

“That will be a decision made by the school and the school district,” Johnson said. “They’ll certainly take my input, but it will be a decision made by a committee.”

Cherry Creek’s 2024 opening day is March 11 against Chatfield, and the Bruins’ home opener is March 26 against Legend. Johnson’s final home game is set for April 30 against Cherokee Trail at Tom McCollum Field.

FORT COLLINS — Saturday’s Class 5A championship at Canvas Stadium is the next chapter in a friendly but fierce rivalry between two Colorado football icons that goes back three decades.

Dave Logan’s Cherry Creek Bruins take on Andy Lowry’s Columbine Rebels in the third title bout between the two head coaches with more than six decades of combined experience, and 16 combined championships.

It’s a rivalry rooted in mutual respect for the men who got their starts at humble Jeffco programs in the early 1990s, Logan at Arvada West and Lowry at Lakewood. And it’s a rivalry that’s given both men perspective — to the football-obsessed Logan that there’s more to life than the game, and to the Columbine mainstay Lowry a blueprint to emulate as he’s built the Rebels into a perennial contender.

“We’ve had some great battles over the years,” Logan noted. “When Columbine beat us in the 2006 state championship game (when I was coaching at Mullen), my mom had a heart attack the night before the game and had open heart surgery that morning. (Andy) was so great after the game, and checked in on her in the next few months.

“(We’ve both learned) he’s highly competitive and so am I. But it also gives you perspective when something like that happens (with my mom) that football is great, but football is not the end-all, be-all. We’ve had a great history of competition against each other for a long, long time.”

Logan won the first matchup against Lowry in 1994, when Arvada West beat Lowry’s first-year Rebels. Columbine was gashed for over 300 yards rushing that day, which had Lowry recalling the game as a “nightmare” during Tuesday’s media day in Fort Collins.

Fast-forward a few decades, and it’s Lowry who’s made smash-mouth football a staple of Columbine’s success over 30 years and 300-plus wins with the Rebels.

Logan, meanwhile, earned at least one title at each of his stops at Arvada West, Chatfield, Mullen and now Cherry Creek, which is the four-time defending Class 5A champions. The Bruins’ win over Valor Christian last December gave Logan his 11th ring as Colorado’s most successful coach, with now 16 title appearances in 31 years. Lowry has five rings with Columbine.

The Rebels beat Logan and Mullen that day in 2006, 13-10, but Logan paid Lowry back in Denver in 2019 in the start of the Bruins’ historic four-peat with a convincing 35-10 win.

Now, this year’s matchup is a Venn diagram of similarities and contrasts between the Colorado powerhouses.

Both teams are 13-0. Both have a culture within their program where winning, and deep playoff runs, are expected every fall. Both are as physical and disciplined of teams as you’ll find in Colorado. And both have had remarkable continuity within their coaching staffs that’s almost impossible to match by other top programs in Class 5A.

Across Logan’s four stops, he’s had the same assistants around him in guys like Jim Zajac (an original from his staff at A-West), while O-line coach Det Betti, running backs coach James Walker and tight ends coach Chris Vollmer have all been with him for over 20 years.

Meanwhile, in his time at Columbine, Lowry’s leaned on do-all assistant Ivory Moore and defensive coordinator Tom Tonelli, both of whom have been by his side since his first year on South Pierce Street in 1994.

“It’s important you supplement your staff with some younger coaches as well, but if you can keep the core group of your staff together and they’re willing to dedicate time and energy and get paid about 5 cents an hour to mentor kids, to work with and coach kids and to love them, it’s priceless,” Logan said. “This staff is one of the things I’m most proud about. You can’t put a price on that. Same thing (with Lowry) at Columbine.”

Then, there are the glaring differences between behemoth Cherry Creek and Columbine, which is as small-but-mighty as Class 5A programs come.

Cherry Creek, the state’s largest school, has more than 2,000 more kids walking its halls than Columbine (3,806 to 1,745, according to the latest CHSAA enrollment figures). With a varsity roster of over 100 players, the Bruins have about 35% more football bodies, too. Columbine’s small roster has presented challenges for Lowry this year.

“As far as depth-wise, this is the least amount of kids we’ve ever had as far as juniors and seniors,” Lowry said. “It kind of brings me back to my Lakewood days and coaching with 30 guys on the roster. This year, we had 40-something (upperclassmen), and they’re tough as nails. The challenge for us as coaches was, ‘How do you prepare?’ We’re a team that practices pretty physical, so the biggest challenge was how to keep our guys healthy and still be able to practice with that intensity level.

“We tell our kids that it doesn’t take an army. The amount of kids we have, they all jump in with both feet.”

Add in the obvious disparity in sheer physical size between the programs, plus the fact that favorite Cherry Creek has multiple college pledges while Columbine has no commits, and it’s obvious the Rebels’ “it’s about us” rallying cry will mean more than ever this Saturday.

“That adds another chip to our shoulders,” Columbine senior center Carlos Mendoza said. “We might not look the same in terms of structure or size like the Cherry Creek guys, but we have that heart and dawg built into us from the coaches. No matter what, we want to be the most physical team out there.”

Whoever wins the battle up front will likely be standing with the trophy following Saturday’s 3 p.m. kick at Canvas Stadium. Cherry Creek’s O-line features left tackle AJ Burton, left guard Hayden Treter, center Ned Zilinskas, a right guard combo of Evan Godin/Soren Shinofield, and right tackle Max Parrott.

Burton (Iowa State), Treter (Southern California) and Parrott (Purdue) are all headed to the next level. The Bruins missed Burton for numerous games this fall, including the semifinal win over Ralston Valley after he dislocated his shoulder in the season opener, and dislocated it again multiple times since. But Burton plans on playing through the pain Saturday.

“I’m really proud of AJ, because he could just hang it up and look to the future,” Det Betti said. “But he’s part of the unwritten aspect of football where he’s a kid who is going to show up and sacrifice for the good of the team. That just shows you, Burton, Treter and Parrott, they’re Power 5 guys, but they’re blue-collar. They’re captains for a reason.”

For the Rebels, who rarely pass, they’ll need to get consistent push in the run game from Mendoza, left tackle Andrew Ossola, right guard DJ Ironshell, right tackle Peyton Burcar and their left guard by-committee.

Logan knows that no matter his team’s advantage in size and numbers, the Bruins will have to earn their five-peat.

“When you face Columbine year-in and year-out, you know you’re in for a physical match,” Logan said. “You know you have to be sound in what you do because they have perfected what they do… They have a belief and confidence this year, and you can see it on tape. And I would say they have an edge to them as well that’s apparent.

“We have to know it’s going to be a 48-minute game and there’s going to be nothing that’s easy, and we have to be willing to stand and trade (blows) and hopefully get a couple of breaks.”

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