🏄 Happy Aloha Friday, everybody!

• 🎵 Sounds like: "Dreams/Waimea Cowboy" by Ka'au Crater Boys

Today's weather: Sunny skies and highs creeping up to the 90s. The weekend looks swell with lower 80s highs and a chance of afternoon showers.

🎂 Happy early birthday to Axios Boulder member Joyce Pierpont!

Today's newsletter is 843 words — a 3-minute read.

Boulder Valley's kindergarten vaccination rates remained among the highest in the state, but dipped across the board while exemption rates continued their post-pandemic uptick.

Why it matters: Colorado's vaccination rates are among the nation's lowest, new CDC data shows, and public health officials worry about possible outbreaks at schools and beyond.

Zoom in: BVSD had slightly higher kindergarten vaccination numbers than the state average.

• District data showed 94% coverage for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio and Diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP).
• But its kindergarten exemption rate is at 4.6% for MMR, polio and DTaP — well above the district's overall K-12 rates for those vaccines, which are below 4%.

By the numbers: Last school year, Colorado kindergartners' MMR coverage was 87.7%.

• Polio was 87.3%
• DTaP was 86.9%.
• Only hepatitis B topped 90%.

The number of parents claiming exemptions rose to 4.7%, or roughly 2,800 children, CDC data shows.

• The vast majority were non-medical exemptions, which remain accessible despite efforts to limit them.

The intrigue: Herd immunity is 95% coverage for core vaccines, such as MMR, per public health officials.

Flashback: BVSD's Broomfield High was at the center of a measles outbreak earlier in this year.

What they're saying: Colorado officials are working to improve immunization rates by sending reminders via text and email and taking a mobile vaccine bus to dozens of school-focused events.

• "Vaccination helps protect children from serious illness while also helping protect their classmates, families and the broader community," Carol Helwig with Boulder County Public Health told us.

Read more

Boulder Valley middle schoolers made significant leaps in math this year, following the district's revamped curriculum and increased focus on the subject.

Why it matters: Boulder Valley School District's math push appears to be gaining traction, putting the district on track with a broader rebound across Colorado.

Driving the news: The state released scores this week from its annual language arts and math tests, known as the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, for students in third through eighth grade.

Zoom in: Boulder Valley followed the statewide math upswing, with middle school math proficiency rising 2.9 percentage points.

• The improvements were bigger for Hispanic students, up 4.5 percentage points, and multilingual learners, up 4.6 points.
• Elementary reading proficiency rose 1.2 points.
• Overall, 65.3% of BVSD students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, while 56.1% did so in math.

Hispanic and multilingual middle schoolers in BVSD posted some of the district’s biggest improvements.

But gaps remain.

• Hispanic, Black and multilingual students, as well as those from lower-income families, still lag their peers, per the district.
• That mirrors a statewide trend, with historically underserved students struggling particularly in math.

The bottom line: Boulder Valley’s math gains suggest progress is reaching students who have historically trailed their peers — but sizable achievement gaps remain.

• “We can celebrate the tremendous achievement happening across BVSD while also being clear-eyed about where we still have work to do,” superintendent Rob Anderson said in a statement.

Go deeper

🛢️ SM Energy backed out of its deal to purchase mineral rights from Erie for the Draco Dad project after months of community opposition and a successful resident-led petition to put the sale before voters. (Daily Camera 🔑)

🔍 U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet asked Senate leadership to launch committee investigations into the Trump administration's efforts to withhold funding and close Boulder's NCAR lab last year. (Denver Post 🔑)

🔥 City crews extinguished a wildfire near the mouth of Boulder Canyon yesterday morning after it briefly prompted an evacuation warning for nearby residents. (Boulder Reporting Lab)

🫏 Denver is a finalist to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention, along with Boston and Philadelphia. (Axios Denver)

A bear in Boulder was spotted browsing books Wednesday.

State of play: Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty posted a photo of the bear appearing to mull its next read.

Threat level: Unfortunately, other bear encounters across the state have been less cordial as record drought drives more bears to urban areas.

• A woman was recently struck in the face after a bear forced its way into her Steamboat Springs home, a man sleeping in Aspen's Rio Grande Park was bitten on the head and another man was scratched by a sow outside an Eagle-Vail apartment complex laundry room.
• Meanwhile, a sow and cub were relocated after wandering into Denver's Harvey Park, a cub got into an Aspen restaurant, and a bear broke into a Mount Crested Butte home and inadvertently sparked a kitchen fire.

The bottom line: Colorado bears appear to be branching out this summer.

📙 Mitchell realized he has been spelling Berenstain Bears wrong for his entire life.

Thanks to Gigi Sukin for editing.