News

The Colorado State Board of Education Wednesday rejected the Denver Public Schools board’s June denial of a charter school application centered on the needs of Black students and sent the application back to the district for reconsideration.

The impending merger of Rocky Mountain Prep and STRIVE, two of Metro Denver’s most successful charter school networks, is the most consequential change in the city’s charter sector in many years, if not ever. Read what the two people leading the transition have to say about the opportunities and challenges it presents.

Much of the current animosity appears to stem from board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán’s June media interviews, during which she accused Anderson and board member Scott Esserman of a mix of sexism, misogyny and racism for disrespecting and undermining her role as president.

Academy 360, a Denver charter school, has banded together with eight other charters using a state grant to use summer school to help stem Covid learning loss.

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.

Four Denver school board members have requested from Superintendent Alex Marrero a school-by-school inventory of how recently approved changes to policy could negatively affect the school district’s 52 innovation schools.

Our Instagram account will be taken over by the Hernandez family Friday at 5 p.m.. Matthew is a fourth-grader at Rocky Mountain Prep Creekside, and his mother, Anabell, has some thoughts to share, along with compelling photos and videos.

A memo sent this week to Denver innovation school leaders from Denver Public Schools officials delineates in stark terms just how many flexibilities previously granted to the schools will be stripped away by a recent Board of Education policy change.

Since taking office last Nov. 30, the Denver school board has spent less than 2 percent of its time together discussing and asking questions about student learning and academics, a review of board agendas and meeting recordings shows.

The board debate before the vote revealed deep fissures among members, who, in the wake of last November’s election, appeared to represent a unified progressive coalition.

Stripping some autonomy from Denver's 52 innovation schools would be an illegal move by the Board of Education, a former state senator asserts in a letter sent to the board.

A proposal led by two Denver school board members to curtail some of the autonomies bestowed on the district’s 52 innovation schools by state law is likely to be modified and perhaps delayed after a tense debate during a day-long meeting Thursday.