Are there any playground-style merry-go-rounds in Fort Collins?

Getting a bit more time on the playground before school starts back up? Good call. The problem is that merry-go-rounds seem to be going out of style like parachute pants. Once a playground staple, they've become pretty difficult to track down.

But two things are true of great trends.

1) They never completely go away.

2) Eventually, someone's going to miss it and bring it back.

Retro or reborn, there are still merry-go-rounds to be had in Fort Collins. Here's where to look.

The consensus around town is that the old style metal one at the Fossil Creek Meadows HOA Park on Fossil Creek Parkway is pretty cool. You may want to check to see if it's open to the public. I'll update this when I find out.

There's another one at the new city-owned Registry Park at Shields and Trilby as well as Lee Martinez Park just north of Old Town.

Sounds like a great time to be had, and like it should probably be followed by a stop for ice cream. Here are a few spots locals seem to enjoy.

Can you compare academic performance of Fossil Ridge High to PSD Global Academy's high school students?

Picking sides for the academic Royal Rumble, are we? Let's turn to the tale of the tape.

A good resource for questions like this is www.schoolview.org. It shows us that for last year, Global’s reading, writing and science scores on standardized testing came in below both the PSD and state averages. Meanwhile, Fossil Ridge students over the past three years have scored better than the state and district averages.

By the numbers, Fossil Ridge students achieve at a higher rate than those enrolled in Global. But unless you're recruiting for Teen Jeopardy, there may be other questions to consider when choosing the right school for a student.

Fossil Ridge will provide a “traditional” high school experience, complete with 2,000 peers, athletics, extracurricular activities and more. PSD Global Academy had enrollment of 154 last year and offers a more on-demand virtual classroom experience without the brick-and-mortar setting. This can be a big benefit for students with non-traditional schedules, behavioral problems, social anxiety or other issues that make a traditional classroom setting difficult for them.

That being said, students traditionally score lower on self-led and online classes than in traditional class settings for a variety of reasons ranging from motivation, structure, etc. An independent, motivated student can excel, but the right support structure for success is key.

The schools are very different and designed to meet the needs of. You can learn more about each at www.psdschools.org, and can talk to school administrators about the benefits of each.