In the same week he won a key procedural victory over the Adams 14 School District, University Prep CEO David Singer was recognized with a 2023 "Changemaker Award" from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
With so much attention now focused on the Denver school board, Boardhawk is providing this nuts-and-bolts primer on the board for people who might be new to issues of Denver Public School governance.
“The board is making decisions without us,” Claudia Carrillo said in an interview after her daughter and son testified during a three-hour public comment session about how their education has been harmed. “It’s like they are setting us up to fail,” she said.
“I can promise you that I have done more to keep kids of color out of trouble, even when a school has wanted me to write them up with a citation. I know the potential impact this could have on their lives."
Auon'tai Anderson was in elementary school when Manual was closed, and Marrero was in his early 20s on the East Coast. They would be well advised to read some source documents about Manual’s closure before making ill-informed statements.
None of us are arguing for "throwing children away," as certain board members have claimed, yet the current discipline matrix treats everyone as expendable.
I know what it is like to teach in our classrooms, to lead in our schools, and to support principals as a supervisor, coach and mentor. Doing those things brings me great joy. I also know what it is like to stand outside of the school where my two children are trapped because a shooting has occurred.
This summer, we will mark a significant milestone for education here in Denver. Rocky Mountain Prep and STRIVE Prep will unite to become the first cradle-to-college network in Denver, offering students educational support from 12 weeks old through 12th grade.
Chalkbeat has an excellent update on the Know Justice Know Peace podcast dispute, after senior reporter Melanie Asmar viewed video of an August meeting...
A divided Denver Public Schools Board of Education Thursday restored some of the autonomy to 52 innovation schools it had stripped away in an overly-hasty move last March.
Mario Giardiello: As the principal, I needed to help the community transition from advocating for their school to stay open to being a leader that supported the many decisions families and staff had to make for themselves.
Some board members are backpedaling as fast as possible from the understandably unpopular recommendation to close schools. But if their concern is so great, they could and should have intervened sooner.
School closing is a classic problem of termination. Many of the possible benefits, such as reducing the district’s budget deficit, benefit everyone just a little bit and often in the long term. The harms, on the other hand, are felt intensely by a few and appear immediately. There is rarely a constituency to close a school, but always one to oppose it.
DPS must tell parents and community what is happening. They deserve the truth. And if the district can’t come up with a plan for how to better meet the needs of 58,000 Denver students, others in Denver need to step up.
Free speech can be hard to hear at times, particularly when blistering language is aimed at you. But if you’re in a public-facing position, sometimes you just have to take it.
This is exactly the kind of school Adams 14 needs. How is it possible the school board and the staff don’t understand this? Again, it raises the question in our minds: Are you wanting what is best for students? Or are you more interested in maintaining control?
The school board has sought no community input on Superintendent Alex Marrero's performance, and it will be another year before the board is supposed to take a serious, data-driven look at his performance. That is just weeks before the next school board election.
I have not had a single parent, student, or taxpayer tell me that trademarking this name and stealing it from these young ladies is the right decision.
In threatening to sue four of its former students and an ex-principal over an alleged trademark violation for a racial justice-themed podcast the students created, DPS is violating its own professed principles and making itself look like a big, bad bully.
Last Friday’s letter to the community from Denver Public Schools Superintendent Marrero was a remarkable exemplar of what has become the norm these days for politicians of all stripes. Undermine data, ignore reality, and create a new narrative.
Alan Gottlieb’s recent commentary in Boardhawk criticizes Denver for asking the DAC to stop summarizing reviews with a decision to accept or deny charter school applications. Denver’s action is reasonable, is part of a larger effort by the district to solicit community input regarding chartering decisions, and aligns with many strong authorizers in the state.
Denver Public Schools appears poised to marginalize the state-mandated District Accountability Committee. It is the latest example of using Policy Governance to drive agendas and limit public scrutiny and accountability. It’s just the latest example of the district and board’s move away from transparency and public accountability.
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