In late October, the Roaring Fork School District added a community organizer to its staff. Janeth Niebla’s job is to listen.
She’s been on the job about two weeks, and has mostly had one-on-one conversations with teachers, parents and different people in the community. The goal is to get to know them personally and to understand their thoughts, ideas and concerns about the school system.
The Roaring Fork School District was approached by the local nonprofit, the Manaus Fund, to see if they were interested in having Niebla join their ranks. Manaus is paying Niebla’s salary.
She is a product of the school system that now employs her: She graduated from Glenwood Springs High School in 2004. Niebla speaks Spanish, so she can reach out to the Spanish-speaking members of the Latino community. Her job with the schools will not focus specifically on minority students, but all students.
"I think we all want the best for our children, regardless of the different lifestyles that we have, languages that we speak," she said.
