Full Show Notes
Sponsor
You can sponsor an episode of The Frequency! Reach our growing, hyper-local audience of highly engaged listeners. Email boulderfrequency@gmail.com
Support
You don’t have to have a business to support local, independent journalism. Visit Patreon.com/BoulderFrequencyPod to fund our work and access unedited interviews, sneak previews and more bonus content.
Headlines
SVVSD, BVSD lead Colorado in graduation
St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) has the highest graduation rate (of urban districts) in the state of Colorado. 96.8% of students finished in four years, CPR reports (using data just released by the state)
SVVSD has also added 5,600 new students since 2009, according to Chalkbeat
Longmont schools are losing kids, though: All 5 feeder elementaries for Longmont High are under capacity, and Sanborn will consolidate with Northridge before the 2027-2028 school year
Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) graduates 93.3% of its students in four years, the third-best in Colorado. Enrollment has declined by ~1.5K students since ’09.
How do local districts compare to Colorado? The state’s graduation rate is 85.6%, and it lost 10K students in the past year. Families moving out-of-state, a slowdown in immigration, declining birth rates and increasing home-schooling are all factors.
Bid to fund NCAR fails
Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennett attempted an amendment to keep NCAR’s budget. The amendment failed, and the funding package ultimately passed. There are other sources of funding for the climate monitoring and weather forecasting hub, but the Trump Administration has vowed to “dismantle” the institution. Denver Post
Lafayette challenges new FAA flight paths
The city is asking a federal judge to reverse recent changes, arguing they will increase air traffic over Lafayette, and that they were made without proper community engagement and environmental review. More from Colorado Hometown Weekly.
Boulder sets 6 priorities for 2026
- Bike theft prevention
- Wildfire mitigation support
- Potential changes to the minimum wage earned by tipped workers
- Updates to the city’s sister city policy
- Improving electric grid resilience
- Simplifying the city’s land-use code.
Boulder will have rare back-to-back elections as the city moves to even-year voting. Five seats are up for election in 2026. Read more from Boulder Reporting Lab.
Boulder Falls Trail to close permanently; city will build a viewing platform for public
Design work will begin this year, which will lay out a plan for how long it will take to build and how much it will cost. No visitors will be allowed into Boulder Falls until the platform is done, according to a recent city press release.
What does Eldora sound like?
The Mountain-Ear’s Tyler Hickman brings us the first-ever listener submission for our ongoing Sounds of the Town project.
Thanks to David Hallick for listening so closely in his backyard, and sending us the sound of a water-dwelling bird.
What does home sound like to you? We’re trying to cover every community in Boulder County, so send your ideas to boulderfrequency@gmail.com or tyler@themountainear.com.
One More Thing
MLK Day tribute:
YouTube short from @kempire
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qzx3k0hM9Os
Sound montage:
- song “Diving” from #mobygratis
- excerpt featuring Joe Pesci from With Honors (1994)
Produced by Boulder Valley Frequency — Original Local Journalism for Boulder County.
Our team
Journalist + producer: Shay Castle
Audio producer + music: Kelly Garry
Additional support provided by Jeff Rozic
