- Cortez School District Superintendent Alex Carter’s last day will be February 29th.
- For a fourth consecutive year, spruce beetles have caused widespread tree mortality in Colorado.
Cortez School District Superintendent Alex Carter’s last day will be February 29th. On Thursday, the school board voted to accept his previously announced resignation. Carter, who is taking a position with the nonprofit Colorado Education Initiative, told KSJD it is a “bittersweet” decision because he has done “some of the most meaningful work of my life” in Cortez. However, he said, “This opportunity is the kind that flashes before your eyes once or twice in your career.” Carter leaves as the district enjoys good news about its K-through-3 reading proficiency, up from 54 percent in 2014 to 62 percent in 2015.
For a fourth consecutive year, spruce beetles have caused widespread tree mortality in Colorado. That’s according to a recent aerial survey by the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado State Forest Service. In 2015, spruce-beetle infestations were seen on 409,000 acres statewide, including 182,000 previously unaffected acres. Blowdown events, long-term drought, warmer temperatures and aging, dense spruce forests are exacerbating the epidemic. In addition, the area affected by the western spruce budworm, Colorado’s most widespread forest defoliator, has increased to some 312,000 acres.
