Based on my own experience and armed with research, I founded Students Cultivating Dignity (SCD) Enrichment Program in 2018 to support, recruit and retain BIPOC secondary students with gifted and advanced education.

Recent developments continue to demonstrate that the current Denver school board and leadership want to hide key matters from public scrutiny. Why?

More reversals are sure to come unless school leaders defend and perhaps even expand the policies that have given the city’s most vulnerable students an educational lifeline.

Despite our frustration, we accept the decision made and want to urge the board to use this opportunity to manage their sole employee with a more intentional focus on accountability, transparency, and community integration.

The key to comprehensive summer programs is that they offer a safe, consistent, and positive environment daily for approximately six hours and for six to eight weeks. While there are various options available for Denver youth in the summer, very few are comprehensive programs that meet the consistency needs of working families.

Denver Public Schools is facing declining enrollment across the district. Any serious school board candidate must have a vision to tackle this problem.

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.