The Denver school board will hold a special meeting June 16 to vote on restoring some freedoms that were stripped from 52 innovation schools by a hastily passed policy change earlier this spring.
In the end, supporters of innovation schools and zones did not get everything they wanted out of a new state law offering an added layer of dispute resolution when innovation zone plans are changed or status is revoked, but they’re framing it as a step forward nonetheless.
One by one, each school paraded its seniors to the stage to make their big announcement. Each announcement was followed by thunderous cheers and more than a few tears.
If Superintendent Alex Marrero and his team intended to calm the storm that has erupted during the past month over the attempt to limit innovation school freedoms, a letter intended to muzzle dissent appears to have backfired. In fact, district employees are becoming more outspoken in their displeasure over a multitude of issues they say are being mishandled by the current administration.
Denver Public Schools board Vice President Tay Anderson discusses board relations, the coup that wasn't, and other issues related to DPS board dysfunction
After last week’s 6-1/2-hour Denver school board meeting featured a couple of cringeworthy interpersonal clashes, I’m sure at least some board members are embarrassed by what the public witnessed. They should be. While the in-fighting rages, work of substance is being neglected.
DPS still has an opportunity to keep this process from devolving into a fiasco, but that will require the district to address the impacts on families who will be directly affected by any school closure.
It is evident there is a gap in arts-based learning models in the Far Northeast, and our no-audition, public charter school model will provide every student with an opportunity to explore and develop their talents, in an area where there’s an urgent need for arts-based learning.
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.
Notably missing from the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee criteria was any measure of school performance. Instead, the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee chose to focus on schools serving the fewest students.
"With the updated evaluation system in Senate Bill 70, signed last week, Colorado joins a growing list of states moving away from practices the Obama administration hoped would improve schools."
The structure and systems remain in place. Supremacy ideology continues to choke the potential of this district to be anything but talk when it comes to transforming the lived realities of black children, families, communities, teachers and leaders.
Two educator-moms are leading Denver Public Schools through the COVID-19 crisis. They help us remember something we too often forget: Parents deserve a major voice in their children's education.
I must stop obsessing about poor families being on a predictable path to economic exile, and remember that the white middle-class college-educated people working public school jobs with full benefits are the real victims of the system.
What is remarkable is that Jeannie Kaplan can pen a 2,000-word screed and offer not a single affirmative idea about how to improve Denver Public Schools.
Recent Comments