A gunman driving on U.S. 36 fired on a parked Colorado State Patrol trooper on Saturday afternoon before he pulled over, got out of his vehicle and was killed by the wounded law enforcement officer in a shootout along the turnpike’s center median, authorities said.

The injured officer, identified by the state patrol as Cpl. Tye Simcox, was taken to Denver Health and released later in the afternoon after being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

“I will tell you very directly that our member was targeted today by a man that intended to kill him, and that is shocking and unacceptable,” Col. Matthew Packard, the chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said during a news conference Saturday evening.

“But our Colorado state trooper responded appropriately and swiftly and courageously, and he won today,” he said. “And by winning, not only did he save his own life, but he saved the rest of his community from someone who was clearly intending to do evil.”

Simcox was parked in his marked Ford 150 pickup truck between two concrete barriers in the center median of U.S. 36, just west of Federal Boulevard in Westminster, doing paperwork around 1:18 p.m., Packard said. An adult male driving a black Chevrolet pickup truck eastbound on U.S. 36 slowed, he said.

“As he passed our trooper (he) started to fire multiple shots from a handgun into our patrol car, aimed at a Colorado state trooper,” Packard said.

The gunman pulled over, exited his vehicle “and began to engage our trooper again,” he said. The man fired his semiautomatic pistol into the patrol vehicle’s windshield as the wounded trooper got out with his rifle and returned fire, officials said.

“He was able to strike and ultimately kill the suspect who was attacking him,” Packard said.

Simcox was shot once in the arm and was able to apply a tourniquet to the limb as he waited for responding Colorado State Patrol troopers and Westminster police officers.

Packard said investigators hadn’t yet identified the dead gunman and didn’t know what led him to fire on the parked trooper.

Investigators closed U.S. 36 in both directions from Federal to Sheridan boulevards for hours following the early-afternoon shooting; westbound lanes reopened at 8:15 p.m. and eastbound lanes reopened around 10 p.m., according to Westminster police.

“I want it to be known that we came out on top today, and that’s really, really important, because that’s what good does,” Packard told reporters. “Good and courageous people win over evil cowardice — and that’s what happened today on Highway 36.”

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Jerrelle Aireine Smith, 44, was convicted of first-degree murder in August for the death of Ryan Dillard, a new supervisor at the facility. He was also sentenced to 96 years for racketeering.

Smith was accused of being the mastermind behind a scheme by to steal from the distribution center, 1861 Tower Road, by creating “ghost employees” to trick the payroll system. He and his friends stole thousands of dollars, according to the district attorney’s office.

Dillard learned of the theft after he was hired on Oct. 4, 2021. Smith hired Michael Poydras, a former employee of Capstone Logistics, which operated the center, to kill Dillard. Poydras no longer worked for the company, but was still on the payroll system and benefitted from the scheme, according to the district attorney’s office.

On Oct. 21, 2021, Poydras opened fire on Dillard’s vehicle as the latter left the facility to pick up breakfast for his employees. Dillard was killed in the shooting. Poydras was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in July 2023.

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The project will close the off-ramp Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Sept. 20. The ramp will be open Saturdays and Sundays, according to the news release.

To access Colfax Avenue during the closures, drivers can continue west on I-70 and exit to Tower Road, the release said.

The ramp is closing so crews can perform direct work in the I-70 median to build the project’s diverging diamond interchange, which will have advanced signaling systems and better lighting for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, according to the release.

Construction on the new interchange began last year and is expected to continue until late 2025.

The I-70 Picadilly Interchange Project is funded by the city, the Aerotropolis Regional Transportation Authority and a $25 million federal grant from the Federal Highway Administration, according to the city’s website.

There is also a chance of thunderstorms occurring in the northeast plains this evening. But overall the weather is expected to stay dry and warm from Sunday through Tuesday, according to the forecast.

In the Denver metro, it’s expected to be sunny with a high temperature around 88 degrees before dropping to the mid-50s Saturday evening. Similar temperatures are expected Sunday, according to the weather service.

The 2% bonuses, awarded to more than 700 educators on Aug. 22, came as DPS and the union have been locked in a contract dispute for the past four months after district leaders said they wouldn’t fully fund an 8.34% raise for teachers for the 2024-25 academic year.

DCTA President Rob Gould in an interview accused district leaders of trying to “sow discontent” with the bonuses, noting that bargaining for a new contract is expected to start next semester. The bonuses were not negotiated between DPS and the union, which was also not informed about the payments before they arrived with members’ paychecks, he said.

“This is a typical union-busting technique that management uses,” Gould said. “They are trying to undermine us.”

DPS spokesman Scott Pribble confirmed that the district did not inform employees about the bonuses, which he said were a common practice with the district’s other union groups.

“There was no malicious intent and DPS is disappointed with the claim that this was done to cause strife within the DCTA membership,” he said in the statement.

The bonuses were awarded to 715 educators at the highest “step” on the district’s pay scale. Teachers receive “steps and lanes” compensation, which is based on their experience and education levels, respectively. Those employees are at the top “step” and are not eligible for a pay raise based on their experience, so DPS gave them a one-time bonus worth 2.1% of their annual salary, according to both the district and union.

DPS did not provide the total cost of the employee bonuses. They came as the union and DPS have yet to resolve a contract dispute that began in May, when more than 100 educators and union members protested in front of district headquarters downtown.

The two sides are in disagreement over how big of a raise employees were supposed to receive this year. The union has argued employees were slated to get an 8.34% raise, but the district has said it will only give teachers a 5.2% pay increase.

DPS leaders have said they didn’t receive enough money from the state’s elimination of what is known as the budget stabilization factor — which withheld funds from schools for years — to trigger the full raise detailed in the union’s 2022 contract. The 8.34% raise would have included a 5.2% cost-of-living increase.

District officials said in May that teachers would get an overall 5.2% raise, which includes a rise in “steps and lane” pay but a smaller 2.06% cost-of-living raise. The district also said teachers would receive a $1,000 bonus as required in the union’s contract.

“There’s a point of contention and a little bit of confusion,” Superintendent Alex Marrero said during a school board meeting last month about what would have been required for teachers to get the full raise.

The district needed to receive $16.9 million from the reduction of the budget stabilization factor to trigger the maximum raise, but only received $11.4 million, he said.

“We knew coming into this year that it would be virtually impossible considering what is left in the pot,” Marrero said, adding, “This was considered in negotiation.”

Gould said he and Marrero typically meet in August as the new school year gets underway but that didn’t happen this year — a sign of the discord between district and union leaders. (The union said Thursday that Gould is in talks with the superintendent about meeting soon.)

The union filed a grievance over the pay dispute, which was denied, so now the case is going through arbitration, Gould said.

Teachers are upset they didn’t get the full 8.34% raise, Gould said, and he thinks that’s why the district gave out additional bonuses last month.

“There’s a lot of people that are frustrated with them right now and they’re trying to make it so they’re not frustrated,” he said. “But they’re doing it outside of the bargaining process.”

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Marrero will present a closure plan to Denver’s school board on Nov. 7 and directors will vote on the proposal two weeks later, on Nov. 21, according to a timeline the superintendent presented at the board’s meeting this week.

While school closures are back on the table in Denver, Marrero didn’t provide any insight into what his proposal could look like, including which schools — or even which type of schools — might be affected. If closures are approved by the school board, they will go into effect after the end of the current school year, according to the timeline.

Schools in northwest and southwest Denver have felt the brunt of low enrollment in the past, but board member Michelle Quattlebaum cautioned that it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be the only ones targeted for closure.

“We don’t know what this analysis is going to uncover,” she said, adding, “We don’t know where these recommendations — what regions the recommendations — are going to happen.”

DPS is holding community engagement sessions starting next month to talk to families and others about the potential closures. The sessions are being held at schools that aren’t going to close because the district didn’t want to give anyone an idea that their school will be shut down before a recommendation is made, Marrero said.

The following sessions on school closures have been scheduled:

• 6 p.m. Sept 24 at South High School, 1700 E. Louisiana Ave.
• 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th Ave.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 3 at Lincoln High School, 2285 S. Federal Blvd.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 7 at CEC Early College, 2650 Eliot St.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 14 virtually via Zoom
• 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at Montbello High School, 5000 Crown Blvd. Denver

Marrero last proposed school closures due to falling enrollment in October 2022, when he recommended shuttering 10 schools. The school board was reluctant to close schools at that time, but eventually voted in March 2023 to close three schools: Denver Discovery, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy, and Fairview Elementary.

Three new members — John Youngquist, Kimberlee Sia and Marlene De La Rosa — have been elected to the board since the last time school closures were considered. Still, directors acknowledged that the upcoming months won’t be easy.

“This entire process is going to be difficult,” Quattlebaum said.

The school board opened the door for another school closure proposal earlier this summer when members passed a policy that set guidelines for the superintendent to use should he propose another plan. The board tweaked its policy two weeks ago, including pushing back the deadline for a proposal to November.

Marrero is considering school closures because enrollment is declining in DPS schools as fewer Denverites are having babies and gentrification has pushed some families from the city. The district projected earlier this year that 6,338 fewer children will attend Denver’s K-12 schools within the next five years.

The district is not alone in seeing fewer students enroll in its schools; K-12 public schools across the state and the U.S. are experiencing similar declines, including Jeffco Public Schools, which has gone through its own round of closures in recent years.

Schools with low enrollment often have to make difficult decisions, such as whether to cut extracurricular activities in school or mental health support, said Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

When schools have fewer students, they get less funding, which means they have fewer resources to provide to children. Declining enrollment also hits the districtwide budget, which for DPS is $1 billion.

“We do have a lot of schools that don’t have the ability to provide all of the support for kids,” Gould said.

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As it did last year, the school, part of Denver Public Schools, recorded the highest overall scores in both the math and English language arts categories.

The education department released statewide CMAS results last week, which showed that test scores are rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.

At the district level, Liberty School District J-4 in eastern Colorado had the highest percentage of students (75.8%) who “met or exceeded expectation” in English language arts, while the Cheyenne Mountain School District in Colorado Springs saw the highest percentage of students (59.9%) meet or exceed expectations in math.

The Boulder Valley School District had the highest percentage of students meet or exceed expectations in metro Denver on both the math (53.5%) and English language arts (63.2%) tests.

Across DPS, 40.7% of students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, up less than the percentage point from 2023. The state’s largest school district has yet to see literacy scores recover to pre-pandemic levels, as 42.8% of students met or exceeded expectations in 2019.

Only 31.2% of DPS students met or exceeded expectations in math, which is up almost a percentage point from last year but still below 2019 levels. Overall, the district had fewer students take CMAS exams in both math and literacy this year compared to 2019 and 2023.

At DPS’s district-run schools, 34.2% of students met or exceeded expectations in math, which not only surpassed pre-pandemic levels but is the highest percentage the district has ever achieved, said Simone Wright, chief of academics.

“We’ve seen some tremendous bright spots that show us the work we are doing is the right work,” Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith said.

CMAS tests are offered to students in third to eighth grade. Children who score at least 750 on the exams are considered to have “met or exceeded expectations,” which means they are on the path to being college- or career-ready.

Statewide, about 500,000 children took CMAS tests this year, a figure that was similar to 2023 but down from before the pandemic.

Here are the schools that ranked the highest in both the literacy and math categories based on their mean scale score, which is the average performance of the students who took the exam:

Top 5 performing schools in English language arts

1. Polaris Elementary, Denver; Denver Public Schools; 795
2. Dennison Elementary School, Lakewood; Jeffco Public Schools; 792
3. Zach Elementary, Fort Collins; Poudre School District; 789
4. Challenge School, Denver; Cherry Creek School District; 784
5. Hulstrom K-8 School, Northglenn; Adams 12 Five Star Schools; 783

Top 5 performing schools in math

1. Polaris Elementary School, Denver; Denver Public Schools: 790.
2. Bear Creek Elementary School, Boulder; Boulder Valley School District; 786
3. Dennison Elementary School, Lakewood; Jeffco Public Schools; 783
4. Aurora Quest K-8, Aurora; Aurora Public Schools; 781
5. High Peaks Elementary School, Boulder; Boulder Valley School District; 781

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The new Colorado Measures of Academic Success test scores offer the clearest sign yet that students are recovering academically after the pandemic upended in-person learning, but the education department cautioned that gains need to be sustained for a longer time to truly show that academic achievement has rebounded.

Despite the good news, the data shows that significant achievement gaps continue statewide among students of color, children with disabilities and multilingual learners. The gap between English language learners and non-multilingual students was especially large, which is notable given the influx of immigrant students who enrolled in Colorado schools in the past year.

In literacy, only 6.3% of English learners in fifth grade met or exceeded expectations, compared to 52.6% of students who are not multilingual. The gap between the two groups, which was 46.3 percentage points, increased from last year’s 45.7-point gap.

“We are encouraged by the continued improvement in our students since the pandemic disrupted learning,” Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement. “We continue, however, to see troubling and persistent achievement gaps across student groups. It is not enough for some Colorado students, we need to ensure that every child is getting the support they need to be successful.”

The education department only released statewide test scores Tuesday. The agency will make public the results for individual districts and schools on Aug. 29.

CMAS tests, which cover English Language Arts and math, are offered to students in third to eighth grade. Children who score at least 750 on the exams are considered to have “met or exceeds expectations,” which means they are on track to being college- or career-ready.

The tests are the only way to measure student academic performance across the state, Cordova said during a media call.

Schools also give tests in science, but fewer children take those exams. High schoolers also take the PSAT and the SAT, which for the first time were offered fully online. Other changes were also made to the PSAT and SAT, such as with content, so the education department said it wasn’t able to analyze academic recovery for high schoolers after the pandemic.

Student performance in the PSAT and SAT math tests dropped 7% among ninth-graders, 4% by 10th-graders, and 4% by 11th-graders compared to a year ago, according to a news release.

The public health crisis upended education, leading to widespread staffing shortages in schools and chronic absenteeism among children. The federal government has given Colorado schools nearly $2 billion in aid since the pandemic began to help them combat learning losses caused by remote learning. Schools have used the funding to expand tutoring and start summer school programs, but that money will be gone by the end of September.

“There’s been a great deal of attention, appropriately, put on catching kids up, particularly in younger grades,” said Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Centers. “We’ve seen recovery to pre-pandemic levels in lots of states and we’ve had up until Oct. 1 all of this extra federal money, which means extra people and programming so I would expect with kids back in school that we would get back to where we were.”

The education department canceled CMAS testing in 2020 when schools moved to remote-learning. While CMAS tests were given the following year, many families opted out, leading some school districts, including Denver Public Schools, to disregard the results altogether.

That means this is the third year of data that shows how children are doing in English Language Arts and math compared to before the pandemic. (About 500,000 children took the CMAS tests this year, similar to 2023, but still down compared to the number of students who took the tests in 2019.)

The data released Tuesday showed that more third-graders (42.1%) and sixth-graders (44%) met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts compared to those who took the test in 2019. Five years ago, 41.3% of third-graders and 43.6% of sixth-graders met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts.

The English Language Arts results for fifth-graders and seventh-graders were comparable to 2019 levels, but the percentage of fourth-graders (42%) who met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts dropped 6 percentage points from five years ago and almost 2 percentage points from 2023, according to the data.

Fourth-graders, who were kindergarteners when the pandemic began, were at a critical point in their literacy development when schools moved to remote learning. The age group performed “OK” in literacy as third-graders, but they are now at an age where there’s more focus on writing and a shift in how they use reading to learn, said Joyce Zurkowski, chief assessment officer for the state education department.

This change has historically led to a drop in performance between the third and fourth grades, she said.

“We still have a lot of work to do to ensure that all students are progressing in a way that we know is going to be important for their long-term growth,” Córdova said.

In math, fourth- and fifth-graders also outperformed the 2019 cohort. This year, 34.1% of fourth-graders and 37.3% of fifth-graders met or exceeded expectations in math compared to the 33.6% of fourth-graders and 35.7% of fifth-graders who did so in 2019, according to the data.

The math results for third-graders, sixth-graders, seventh-graders, and eighth-graders were either at or just slightly below the 2019 levels.

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If approved by voters, more than half of the money will be used for maintenance projects, including about $240 million toward air conditioning in the remaining 29 schools that still don’t have cooling.

The seven-member board passed the bond proposal without any debate.

The bond issue will also fund the following:

• $301 million for critical maintenance at 154 buildings, including mechanical, electrical, code and plumbing enhancements and renovation
• $124 million for new facilities, including building a new school — Gateway E-5 in far northeast Denver
• $127 million to upgrade 12 middle and high school performing arts hubs as well as three innovation centers and 14 athletic facilities
• $100 million to improve learning environments at 136 schools
• $83 million for safety and technology, including adding 17 secure vestibules

DPS has asked voters to approve a new bond measure every four years since at least 2012. The most recent ask came in 2020, when Denver voters passed a $32 million mill levy override to increase educator pay and a $795 million bond issue, which was used for air conditioning and other infrastructure projects.

The $466 million bond issue passed in 2012 went to improve school buildings and technology and the $572 million bond measure in 2016 went to a new elementary and middle school in northeast Denver and air conditioning in schools.

The school board also discussed its policy on school consolidation an closures, which members passed in June, during the meeting. The policy opened the door for Superintendent Alex Marrero to once again recommend school closures because of declining enrollment.

Under the policy, Marrero must propose a timeline for any school closures to the board in August and then announce which schools are recommended for closure in October, with the members voting on the proposal by November.

Marrero sent a memo to the school board earlier this month and asked for changes to the policy, which he said was challenging to implement because of how it is currently written.

The superintendent has asked the school board to pushback the timeline for a school closure proposal so that he can present a list of schools to the board in November. The reason for his request is that school enrollment data won’t be available until September and October, according to the memo.

The board voted unanimously to approve Marrero’s request to push the timeline to November.

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The governor’s announcement comes as a new school year kicks off this month. Individual educators can receive up to $600 in supplies — everything from calculators to projectors — for their classroom, Polis said.

“We want to make sure (teachers) shouldn’t have to reach in their own pocket,” Polis said during a news conference held at Adams 14’s Dupont Elementary in Commerce City.

Polis said “thousands” of Colorado teachers will benefit from the $2.7 million, which is coming from the Governor Emergency Education Relief fund. The state is partnering with DonorsChoose, a website for teachers to post requests for classroom supplies, to distribute the money.

Teachers can go to donorschoose.org to receive money for supplies. Once on the website, they can enter the code COLORADO during the project creation process to receive a part of the $2.7 million.

Daniel Stone, a fourth-grade dual-language teacher at Dupont, said he plans to use the money to buy science-based activities for his classroom. Last year, he bought about 16 e-readers for his students via DonorsChoose. 

The governor urged educators to sign up for the money as soon as possible, saying he expects to be gone within the “next day or two.”

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