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| DPS Accepts Mannequin Challenge, Thanks Denver Voters |
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Thank You for Not Standing Still |
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Dear DPS Community,
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Supt. Tom Boasberg
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The Montbello Campus in Far Northeast Denver is the thriving center of a growing community. And it's a campus that needs investment and improvement to continue to serve our community well. Thanks to the voters of our city, it will be getting just that.
The overhaul of Montbello's heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems is our first major project under the 2016 bond, and we are determined to move quickly to utilize the voter-approved dollars to improve our students' learning environments. Improvements to and renovations of our schools' classrooms -- especially in those buildings built in the 1950s, '60s and '70s -- are at the heart of the 2016 bond. We know how important these classroom and school building improvements are to our neighborhoods across Denver.
As one student humorously stated during our Mannequin Challenge, "thank you for
not
standing still" and moving these improvements forward for our students.
The Montbello campus project is an important kick-off to the 2016 bond work. Improving the physical building at Montbello will also give further momentum to the academic improvements we have seen there over the past six years since the closure of the Montebello High School program. During that time, we have seen a doubling of high school graduates in the area and a dramatic increase in enrollment as well, as parents see the academic improvements.
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Community gathered to learn about DPS' commitment to minority- and women-owned businesses.
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An important part of our entire bond-approved construction is ensuring we're hiring contractors and businesses that are reflective of our community. That means making it a priority to include a significant number of minority- and women-owned firms in the work of improving our schools. On Wednesday, the new head of our Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses Outreach program, Murugan Palani, held a community meeting to give an update on the progress of this effort.
"DPS is working diligently to provide greater opportunities to diverse construction vendors, and our community event this week was an opportunity for us to give an update on our progress and strengthen those relationships," said Palani.
We want our schools in every part of the city to be community centers -- with world-class learning environments for our students and inviting, first-rate facilities for our families. Thank you again for investing that work.
Best,
Tom
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DPS Board to Vote on School Closure, Restart Recommendations
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At DPS, our number one Denver Plan 2020 goal is to create Great Schools in Every Neighborhood so that Every Child Succeeds. In support of that vision, the Board of Education developed last year a transparent policy to determine whether a school should be restarted (or in rare cases closed) as a result of persistent low performance. A restart means that the current school program ends, and that
working with
the
community, we select a high-quality
leadership team or
new
school
program
to serve our students in its place.
We know that these decisions can be painful ones for school communities, yet our experience has shown us clearly that student achievement can improve dramatically as a result of such school restarts, and that students are better off in the long-term in their new or restarted schools.
This fall, the School Performance Compact is being used to make these decisions for the first time. Following this policy, staff recommendations for restart or closure were announced to staff and community earlier this week.
The following recommendations will be formally presented to the Board of Education at its meeting Monday night. The board will then make its decisions on Thursday, Dec. 15, following public comment.
- Greenlee Elementary School and John Amesse Elementary School will be recommended for restart. Both schools will be included in the Call for New Quality Schools issued in January, and the community will have input in selecting the new school program to be placed in these facilities at the start of the 2018-19 school year, after a year of planning.
- Gilpin Montessori will be recommended for closure at the end of the 2016-17 school year. District staff is recommending closure instead of restart in this case due to significantly declining enrollment trends at Gilpin and other elementary schools nearby as a result of gentrification and housing changes -- an enrollment decline that makes it not viable for all the elementary schools in the area to continue operating.
Accountability is one of the district's shared core values, which means it lives at the heart of our work.
W
e very much appreciate the efforts of the school
s'
teachers and leaders to improve their schools, and we know how hard the school teams have worked. At the same time, the improvements and the level of student growth did not meet the levels the board established under the School Performance Compact.
When schools do not meet expectations for academic growth and achievement on the School Performance Framework, DPS provides intensive support, including significant additional financial and support resources, to help them get back on track. If s
tudents
are still not able to
make stronger growth
after support efforts over time, we believe that the students served by these schools deserve a major change in their learning environment. In this situation, a restart may be needed to give students their best opportunity for success.
According to the School Performance Compact policy, DPS staff makes recommendations about restarting or closing schools based on three measures:
- Step 1: School Performance Framework ratings over three years
- Step 2: Student academic growth in the most recent year
- Step 3: Results of a School Quality Review to check overall instructional quality and learning culture.
This policy helps DPS balance the urgent need to do right by our students with the understanding that change takes time.
To learn more about the School Performance Compact and how it helps DPS hold ourselves accountable to our Denver Plan 2020 goal of Great Schools in Every Neighborhood, visit greatschools.dpsk12.org/accountability. Watch for specific school recommendation information and updates at face.dpsk12.org.
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State Seeks Feedback on Federal Education Policy
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The re-authorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will enter full implementation on July 1, 2017. This
will impact education in Colorado and DPS: standards, assessments, accountability, instruction, school improvement and federal funding.
As part of the process for finalizing the federal guidance and the state's plan, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has created a provision for public comment, feedback and review. Multiple due dates, decision points and draft sections are open and more will be introduced for comment as the work progresses. We encourage everyone to take part in this opportunity by visiting the CDE website and follow the ESSA links for participation. Information on accountability standards and ESSA input windows are currently available for review.
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Dec. 22 through Jan. 9: Winter Break
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