Steve Scheer - Denver Real Estate - Highlands Ranch Real Estate

As announced in various sources this morning, Vestas American Wind Technology, Inc. will be building 2 factories in Brighton and bringing many new jobs to Colorado - 1350 of them.

Vestas already has a plain Windsor and has chosen Brighton partly because of its proximity to the existing plant. The announcement furthers the renawable energy business in Colorado that continues to grow here.

Now Brighton certainly isn't in my regular area that I help homeowners in the Denver area, I typically service the South Metro Denver real estate market. But I wanted to post about this anyway - this is a very note worth announcement, as more new jobs in Denver is just good news all around. Here is a video of Governor Ritter's Press Conference from this morning, from the Denver Post.

Here are few news links for you regarding the announcement:

Denver Post

Denver Business Journal

9news

Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs

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Living in Highlands Ranch, CO - Dog Daze of Summer

This Saturday, 8/16 the Dog Daze of Summer will be held at on the east side of Redstone Park - just across from Rover's Run.

Personally I am a bit excited about the event - for years I have driven by this annual doggy party as I live very close to Rover's Run - but now this year we have a dog - so we will be there as well to see what its all about. I can tell you this, I know my dog is going to love it.

It looks like there will be various vendors with treats for your dog as well as some competitions for tricks. I don't think we are ready for that, but I know we will enjoy watching the Douglas County Sheriff's K9 demonstrations. I have seen them before, and it is really quite amazing.

Here's the details:

Saturday, August 16th 9 am - 1pm

Redstone Park - East side across from Rover's Run - At Foothills Canyon Blvd and Town Center Drive

Bring Your Dog!

Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs

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As I recently wrote when summing up many of the Denver area water parks, we were making our annual visit to Water World. We try to go once a year and the kids always have such a blast.

I try to take a day off during the week to go, it seems the crowds are a bit more manageable and I do work many weekends selling Denver Real Estate, so my kids enjoy having a week day with dad.

We actually had great weather although it did cloud up just a bit as we were getting ready to leave and there were a few sprinkles on the way home. But all in all a great day. I had the camera in the locker until the end those these few shots are all a bit cloudy.

As always, my kids were a bit more adventurous than the year before, which I fully appreciate being able to share that with them and be a bit of a kid again myself. They definitely have still left room for still trying some new rides next year.

The big hit this year was the giant wave pool - although they were having some mechanical issues with the waves, it finally got working and my kids loved it - talk about catching a case of the giggles.

I know with my oldest this may be the last year that he totally will hang with me at a place like this - by next year I am guessing he will beg to bring a friend and they will take off and we will see them when its time to go. But for now, even on the verge of his teens, he was just happy hanging with dad. And my daughter is a daddy's girl through and through.

If you are planning a trip to Water World I suggest looking into the 4 pack tickets at King Soopers - they include pizza lunches. Also, get their early to set up camp in the shade. You will be glad at lunch time.

Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs

Search all Denver & Denver Suburb Homes Here

Colorado Scottish Festival in Highlands Ranch This Weekend

A much anticipated annual event by my own daughter - the annual Colorado Scottish Festival and Rocky Mountain Highlands Games will take place in Highlands Ranch, CO next weekend. On August 9th and 10th, Heritage Park will become a Scottish lover's delight as some of the best area Scottish and Irish dancer descend on Highlands Ranch along with the Highlands Games, music, ancestary tracing, food, vendors & much more. The festival is open both days from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. A schedule of all of the events can be found here and a list of all the types of things you will see is found here.

We have been attending the Scottish Festival for years - many of my daughter's friends are accomplished Scottish and Irish dancers and she loves to be able to see them all perform at the same time and so close to home. My children also really enjoy seeing the Scottish dogs agility & frisbee competitions.

The Colorado Scottish Festival and Rocky Mountain Highlands Games takes place on August 9th and 10th at Highlands Heritage Park just south of Lincoln/University at Quebec. There will be signs all over and even shuttle transportation nearby. Directions can be found here.

Make sure you bring your sunscreen - shade is somewhat limited.

Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs

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I recently worked with a very nice couple that is going to be moving to the Denver suburbs from out of state. They had three children and although they are very young right now, they plan on staying here for quite some time so they had a lot of questions about the schools in the Denver area.

The communities that they were considering were all in the south Denver suburbs - all in Douglas County - they were Highlands Ranch, Castle

Pines and Lone Tree. They had heard and read a little about the Douglas County Schools - they already knew that it was rated in many different facets as an excellent school district, but they were still a bit confused about the Track System.

I directed them to several blog posts I have written in the past about the Track School System schedule for Douglas County Schools. They said that they did help them understand it better and so I link to them for you as well. You can find them here and here.

In a nutshell, as Douglas County experienced tremendous growth a decision was made to implement a year round school schedule at the elementary grades and split into 4 sections. 3/4 of the students would be in - and 1/4th out - off-track. This allowed the schools to house 25% more students in a building than they would normally. Now why? Well the big reason is - once enrollment levels off - they certainly didn't want unused space in buildings that were too big built during high growth patterns. Trailers have been used to offset even more growth that the tracks can handle but all in all it seems that things are starting to change.

Last year for the 2007 - 2008 school year - 23 elementary schools are on the track system, 2 are a modified year round schedule and 16 are on the traditional/conventional schedule - so more on track than not. Now there have been a few more new schools that have opened this year than last, so the total number is not the same however you will see the change.

For the 2008 - 2009 school year - 16 elementary schools in Douglas County are on a track schedule, 19 are on a modified calendar, and 13 are on a conventional schedule. From last year to this year - 10 elementary schools in Douglas County switched from the track schedule to the modified schedule. And only 2 switched to a track schedule. So all in all, for this school year that has just begun - there are 16 on the track schedule and 32 on a modified or conventional schedule.

So what does this mean if you are relocating to Douglas County? You may have heard about the track system - but that doesn't mean you are going to be on it. This year more schools are not on it than are.

Another important thing to note - things change from year to year for a variety of reasons including enrollment numbers. Schedules can change. You can see that by noting that 2 schools did switch TO a track system. Just because your home school is or isn't on it now - you need to talk to you individual school or the Douglas County School District to get a feel for the future plans for your school.

Ad lastly, yes, it is true that if your school is on tracks the year has already started. In fact this week C track will wrap up their first round and go off track and B will go back next week! Schools on the modified and conventional schedules, as well as the middle schools and high schools have a little pool time left.

Want to find out what schedule your home school is on? Check here. In fact, that link has all kinds of great info - such as how tracks are assigned, boundary maps, kindergarten enrollment information, policies, athletic and activities information, school day times and much more.

And what areas are the Douglas County Schools anyway - that would be Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Parker, Larkspur, Sedalia, Franktown and parts of Littleton (such as Roxborough, Province Center, WildCat Ridge).

Hope that helps clear up some of those school schedule questions when you are relocating to Douglas County. If you have specific questions about any school issues or enrollment it is always best to contact the school or the school district.

Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs

Search all Denver & Denver Suburb Homes Here