The 17^th Judicial District Sexual Assault Response Team and the Victim Services Unit of Brighton Police Department are currently seeking artists who either are, or work with, survivors of sexual abuse/assault and would be interested in having their artwork on display for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The art show is intended to bring awareness to the communities within Adams and Broomfield Counties regarding the issue of sexual assault/abuse.  Art selected will be displayed at The Armory located at 300 Strong St. Brighton CO from April 11 to April 30.

The themes for this show are focused on recovery and healing after an assault.  Artwork may include all 2D forms of painting, drawings and photography.  Images should be appropriate for all ages.

Entry submissions are accepted via email only, now through March 29, 2013. If a submission is accepted the artist will be notified by March 31, 2013.

Artists or art groups interested in displaying their work please email submissions in .jpeg format to both contact persons at the following addresses:

KDressel@brightonco.gov AND Wolffdenpress@gmail.com

For more information, please contact: 

Kim Dressel, Victim Services Coordinator, City of Brighton Police Department

303.655.2308  kdressel@brightonco.gov

Michelle Wolff 17^th Judicial District Sexual Assault Response Team Coordinator

303.835.5499   mwolff@da17.state.co.us **It is very important NOT to send images to Michelle Wolff at the District Attorney’s office email as they will bounce back and I will not know that you sent them. Please use the Wolffdenpress email listed above for images**

Someone still makes house calls these days. They are a “doctor for your home”, but don’t think the diagnostics, evaluations, and treatments are any less state-of-the-art than Mayo Clinic. “Wellhome” is a “general practitioner” for your home, a “mobile trauma center” capable of preven­tative- to emergency care for your home.

Wellhome is certainly the “consultant for the rest of us”, but make no mistake about it. Their $99 home diagnos­tic is also a sophisticated and quantitative assessment for the experts.

It’s a glimpse into what ails your home alongside an impartial expert to explain the situation in a consumer friendly way.

Wellhome’s “prescription” for safety, cost-savings, energy

In a world of door hangers and doorbells, we are all victims of our own lack of time and understand­ing.

efficiency, and comfort is based on a step-by-step assessment that results in a bite-sized, modular game plan to fix your house. Recommended changes will range from the 100% FREE things you can do to save cash to those that are a bit more sub­stantive. But under the Wellhome pro­gram, you’ll gain the option of making in­cremental improvements that all work together. Wellhome is a plan to avoid costly redundancies, and to safeguard your homeowner’s rights to make changes as you can afford them.

In a world of door hangers and doorbells, we are all victims of our own lack of time and understanding. We’re often con­vinced to throw money at system problems without a more thorough knowledge that all the systems in our home (heating, air conditioning, water heater, insulation, etc.) work together and that an assessment of one of these ought to be under a complete understanding of how that system is affect­ing the others.

“Fixing” one system without considering

“Fixing” one system without con­sidering the others could be costly.

the others could be costly. For example, heat disparities in a home may very well be due to an under-efficient air condition­ing system. But before you run out to replace the unit, consider that the system

might work just fine if your insulation and air leakage were addressed. Oftentimes, heating and air conditioning efficiencies are improved when they don’t have to accommodate an under-insulated garage ceiling, crawlspace, or attic. A “well home” addresses factors that can save you more energy, unnecessary expenses, and a lot of headaches later.

Other cases-in-point

Squinting into the sun. Yes, I’m person­ally looking at solar as an option for my own home, but the options can be blind­ing. Offsetting my electrical bills by 61% is exciting and it’s what I’d be looking at for my 2500sq.ft. home, were Ito place panels on my roof this afternoon.

A 12-to-13 year payback isn’t too bad, either, for today’s ultra sexy technology that’s seen so many efficiency improve­ments in the last ten years. But the whole concept seems a bit in reverse if I’m also facing a much larger problem of air flow and insulation in my home. In a crude sort of way, it’s like investing in a more plentiful supply of gasoline when you have a hole in your gas tank. Wellhome helps by first “fixing the hole” in your home’s energy siphon to boost its level of energy efficiency. By first scheduling a $99

Wellhome diagnostic, I found some methods of boosting solar efficiencies and cost-savings even higher. Now I can again look upward at solar energy but with a more accurate picture of what might be an adequate (and possibly less expensive) system for offsetting between 60-100% of electrical usage on my home!

Taking a bath. I looked at the tub that cost me about $10,000 back in 2003. Like most new home owners, I faced life’s most difficult questions – choosing op­tions the consequences of which could cost me well into my 30-year mortgage future. So I did what most (ok, “some”) people do – close my eyes and point my finger at the “must haves” (like tall kitchen cabinets, wooden floors, and a bathroom jetted tub) over the “not-so-

important” (like nickel door handles, not­so-flimsy showers, and solid wooden doors). I seldom take a bath these days in the jetted tub – at least not the way I did fmancially with the cost of builder-installed luxuries. And the main reason is that the tub gets cold in the winter. I have to keep adding more hot water and my lack of coordination with toes at the other end of the tub brings an uneven flow of burning pain.

Fortunately, a new jetted tub isn’t what the doctor ordered. In fact, Wellhome’s diag­nostic showed me not only why my tub perpetually loses heat but also a nearly painless way of fixing the problem. It turns out that my tub sits on the ceiling of my poorly insulated garage, the cold from which dramatically affects the ability of my tub to stay hot. A new tub (and another $10,000) wouldn’t have fixed the prob­lem. But through Wellhome, a perfectly installed bed of new insulation will. The ceiling insulation will lower our energy bill by at least 23%, keep the bathroom floors warmer, and decrease the noise of garage activities to a dull whisper (one property of cellulose insulation is a dramatic drop in noise).

Clear choice. Wellhome is truly the con­tractor “for the rest of us” and apparently so. The 2010 storm (I’m referring to the influx of contractors, not the hail) pro­duced a rash of residents wishing they hadn’t answered their doorbell and quite a bit of contracting requiring a rework. Wellhome is a bit of a “Holmes on Homes” for those familiar with the A&E series that features a Lone Ranger to the rescue of homeowners whose job just did­n’t get done right the first time. But Well-home is also a blend of Marcus Welby coupled with sophisticated home technol­ogy and an impartial diagnostician in your corner.

Ok – how it works.

The Sit-down. Wellhome would like to make it very clear to you that they are your advocate. Their primary goal is to provide you an assessment – an actual “patient file” of your home and a game plan that you can use to im­prove safety, energy efficiency, cost-savings, and quality of life. It’s some­thing that you can use to hire contrac­tors with or employ Wellhome and their network of synchronized service providers. While the choice is yours, do remember 2010 and how you dreamed of having a trusted ex­pert to coordinate your care. The Wellhome assessment is visual, quan­titative, and results in a literal blue­print that any contractor can use as a basis for your home repair on system-

by-system basis, from furnace to water heater, to insulation, roofmg, and drywall.

Wellhome would like to make it very clear to you that they are your advocate. Their primary goal is to provide you an assessment – an actual “patient file” of your home…

The diagnostic also breaks down the changes you can make to your home ranging from the truly FREE to those that can take advantage of Well-home’s “6-months same-as-cash” financing program (yes, they can also help you afford this!). You’ll find out

The Prognosis Meeting You might be tempted to ask them to fax or email you the result. But don’t. First of all, it’s an entire quantitative analysis – a packet at least as thick as your patient history. But second, you will value every minute of your discussion with Wellhome’s trained technician so take it for what it’s worth. It’s one of the very few times you can talk to an unbi­ased expert who will hand you a diag­nostic worth at least several thousands of dollars of contractor time but cov­ered under your original $99. Your assessment will impress you and as mentioned, you are free to provide it to any contractor with the assurance of avoiding surprises and unnecessary expenses. Your diagnostic will also help you avoid redundant repairs and provide you a “logical order” to con­sider. As mentioned, you’d be better to first achieve a level of improved weatherization and efficiency prior to investing in capital improvements that target the same goal. The reason is simply that the cost, size, and stand­ards for the new hardware which you purchase is based on your current energy usage. So increase your effi­ciencies first, then expect to lower the cost of the major new technology pur­chases. In many cases, you don’t need a larger, more expensive water heater, HVAC system, or as many solar pan­els. The reward of a Wellhome diag­nostic is in recognizing huge savings and efficiencies that might better uti­lize smaller systems – and fewer dol­lars out of your pocket.

Wellhome is a division of a much larger conglomerate, called, Masco, which represents a wide variation of home improvement companies (such as Behr paints, Merilat cabinets, etc.). If you do choose Wellhome for your post-assessment improvements, the good news is that you may also benefit from quality products at potentially lower prices than if you sourced them elsewhere. Wellhome can be con­tacted at: (303) 287-0744 or via their website at: www.wellhome.com. We would like to thank technical expert, Deacon Taylor for his broad knowledge and thorough explanation to our staff of their diagnostic proce­dures.

Adams-14′s new Principal, Brian Wright, ushers in a new era of respect, culture, and accomplishment at Adams City High School.

By Karl Emmerich

Principal Brian Wright meets the Freshman Class at Adams City H.S.

You could call it a ‘first order agenda’, or “0100 Hour”.  Either way, it’s going to be a wake-up call for the Adams-14 high school teachers and staff this coming Monday morning

“The first thing we are doing,” said Adams City High School’s new Principal Brian Wright in my ‘invocation interview’ with him, “is getting our entire staff on board.”   And with that I was slid an 8 ½ x 11 across the table, entitled, “A Vision of Multicultural Unity”.

“What this is,” explained Mr. Wright, “is our first order agenda for this Monday (School starts this coming Monday, August 13th) because it builds into pride and culture, the basis for achievement.  Self-respect, respect for others, and respect for our past and our culture is indispensable….  we need it to teach accomplishment and we [as a united staff] need to walk the talk first.”

Mr. Wright leaves nothing for chance.  He knows that to bring his students on board he needs to first recruit the patronage of his trusted teachers and staff:  “This is about giving back to the community and they need to be on board.”

My questions for Mr. Wright, however, were cut abruptly short with a sudden message from his assistant and a reflexive spring to his feet by my interviewee.   And as he bolted from his office, I wasn’t really sure if the echo of his words down the hallway were intended for my ears or those of a fire crew coming up from behind.”

But with “follow me”, I responded in militaristic fashion, grabbing books, camera, and managing not to trip over myself in an attempt to keep up with an obvious olympic champion.

Catching only one further gimpse of the large frame administrator as he rounded the second school corridor, up, I walked the balance of pursuit blindly, nearly giving up the chase before hearing a quiet hush turned roar as I approached the school gymnasium.  My steps inside were definitely an after-the-show-starts experience and one that was hardly noticed by anyone in the gym.

I am also sure that I was the last of the balance of 500 people crowded into neatly ordered rows of bleacher seats and that Mr Wright was definitely a ‘just-in-time’ #499, in a perfect a sync as is possible with his V.I.P. loudspeaker introduction as no less a Sony recording artist than Principal of Adams City High School.

And without further adieu, the mike was his as much as was the gymnasium ‘stage’.  And Mr. Wright certainly was no stranger.  His first order was the welcoming of the 2012 Freshman Class and second order was the assurance of the student body that theirs was the best and most qualified teachers anywhere.  He handled it all as a bit of a rockstar but with a few additional solemn yet supportive admonitions:

“I welcome you as the Freshman Class … but remember.. This is all about respect.  When I’m talking, I expect you to listen and when you talk, I will extend the same courtesy.    I will tell you right now, that 80% of you are going to college.   You’re going to stay out of trouble, you’re going to graduate and we’re going to get you scholarships.”

Short, sweet, and less static than a Sprint cell phone.  But with words as profound and as well-spoken, I almost expected an encore.  But instead, ACHS’s new principal finished his address and left the stage.  A thought flashed in my head of a toy I’d been kept busy with as a kid, sitting in the back seat during hot summer vacation trips.   It was this magnet and a bunch of metal shavings inside a plastic window.  When I brought the magnet near, all the filings lined up in a perfect row.   I easily imagined the Freshman class with as much magnetic polarization that moment.  It really was as profound.   I had always thought the acquisition of student respect as something that takes at least a semester or so, at least as long as the first homeroom bell.  I had never seen it done in a few minutes flat.  But there it was.

The prospect of change at Adams-14 is more than a mantra for Principal Brian Wright, who credits his staff and Superintendent Patrick Sanchez with their ‘extraordinary’ skill and support and for his opportunity to act as a “change agent”.

But if change can’t happen in an instant (and obviously it can) than it will be only refined, enhanced, and expanded community wide in an even more profound way by ACHS Principal, Brian Wright.

You might say Adams County School District 14 is in the turnaround of its life.   The ‘forced mandate’ by the State of Colorado is all about performance standards and the district’s need to measure up – within just two years.  And if it doesn’t?  The State of Colorado isn’t pulling any punches.  It would then assume management control over the district.

Patrick Sanchez is Adams-14′s new Superintendent, duly committed to initiate a complete academic turnaround.  Referred to by some as a ‘turnaround director’, Patrick is fully aware of some very tough decisions that need to be made to bring an entire district into state compliance.

“We are [re]opening the district to the community and letting them know that we are all about change and improvement,” said Mr. Sanchez, as he reaffirmed his points on a bulletin board display in his office.  “Academics, alignment, and sustainability are three goals that we are addressing in the process.”

Patrick Sanchez, whose turnaround efforts have had proven successes in other school districts, offers a few suggestions regarding ‘why’ the district fell behind in the first place, academically.  According to Patrick, standardized testing – a basis upon which the State of Colorado evaluates the district–has not been aligned with the day-to-day classroom curriculum.  In other words,  students have not learned in class, the skills they needed for standardized tests and that has been a large problem.

Mr. Sanchez, admits the controversial nature of his role in the district.  But his mantra is clear, even empathetic to a community that has supported the district in the past.  “We need to fix [the district] or its not worth investing in.  It’s morally wrong for kids to graduate with a diploma that doesn’t mean something…. and the urgency of this is why I’m here.”

But if “success” truly “breeds success,” as Patrick Sanchez espouses, we must hold the greatest hope and optimism for a district with as many new qualifications as its leadership under its  Superintendent, Patrick Sanchez.