While it’s not unusual for newly elected officials to want to make a mark, in this case doing so is essential to begin restoring confidence in a school district that has lost the trust of its community.
“Mental health” counselors intend to alleviate the “trauma” students encounter in their daily lives. While the intention is noble, the practice is varied, with most students quickly realizing the power of victimhood in our society.
Educators should come together to solve issues for students. Currently, DPS leans on investigation rather than collaboration. This is not good for our students.
While the new board may remain deeply divided with the new board members in the minority, the momentum towards having a new board majority and agenda is strong and growing. The magnitude and pace of the board’s new agenda will depend entirely on who leads the board.
It has been a rough two years for DPS, led by an inept and dysfunctional school board that could not get out of its own way. The three new members who will be joining the board later this month – Kimberlee Sia, Marlene De La Rosa, and John Youngquist – bring a wealth of relevant experience and steady hands to a thankless job.
These two evaluations are starkly different for an obvious reason: The majority of the 2020 board was eager to nudge Cordova out the door. The current board seems desperate to hang onto Marrero, twice bestowing raises and contract extensions upon him for no apparent reason.
I have a lot of hope for the future. I know that my role is more than teaching the academic skills needed for kindergarten. It is teaching them how to have a voice and communicate their needs in appropriate ways to other kids and adults.
Many undocumented students face this reality every day. At every step the walls of bureaucracy are higher and wider than anything we could have imagined.
A school board and administration that decides to limit public comment sessions to two hours, that withholds public records, that holds illegal secret meetings, that denies legitimate researchers data because they suspect bias, has become so insular and defensive that it has lost its grip on reality, not to mention the public’s trust.
I aspire to be a candidate for all of Denver, regardless of (my DCTA) endorsement, so I want to succinctly explain some of my key beliefs so that everyone knows where I stand.
