The Ricardo Flores Magon Academy charter school in Westminster gets spectacular academic results and has won accolades for its tennis and chess programs. But former teachers and parents say not everything there is working — especially the administration. How much will the personality clashes, high teacher turnover and multiple lawsuits…
If you missed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday, you didn’t see Broomfield’s Legacy High School Lightning Marching band. The more than two-mile parade for Legacy High marked the first time in ten years that a Colorado high school marched in the parade. Big photo below…
Update: Arrowwood Elementary parent Rachel Drummond had objections to a play scheduled for her daughter’s second-grade class today, due to references to Native Americans as “savages” and a speech that overtly referred to a higher power. However, Douglas County School District public information officer Randy Barber believes it’s important to…
This year may be the last for the Life Skills Center, a last-chance high school that Westword profiled in 2007. Last night, the Denver Public Schools board voted to shutter the struggling alternative charter school, which had been given a second chance in 2008 after facing the same fate…
Jefferson County Child Support Services has developed a new video intended to show that the department offers support for teen parents and children. However, most of the 21-minute long production called Think Beyond Friday Night is spent detailing all the horrors and tribulations of teen pregnancy…
East High School’s principal is leaving — though under less dubious circumstances than the principal at West High, who suddenly resigned earlier this year. In an e-mail to parents, East principal John Youngquist announced that he’s accepted a job to become Denver Public Schools’s Director of Principal Talent Development…
A new report by the American Association of University Professors’ Colorado Conference concludes that CU-Boulder’s dismissals of professor Ward Churchill and untenured history instructor Phil Mitchell were unjustified — but that’s not all. The document also concludes that its actions were so egregious that profs looking for a job should…
Update about the Jimenez-Draper Carson race below. By now, you’ve heard that Anne Rowe and Allegra “Happy” Haynes won seats on the Denver Public Schools board, and that incumbent Arturo Jimenez narrowly claimed victory over reformer Jennifer Draper Carson. As for Rowe opponent Emily Sirota, you won’t read her reaction…
West High School is not closing. At least not yet. That point was hammered home repeatedly today at a gathering of West High leaders, media and community members to talk about the future of the low-performing school, which will welcome two new academies to its building next year. “This is…
With the temperature dropping outside, it’s getting harder to remember when Denver’s children were sweltering in their classrooms two months back. But Denver Public Schools hasn’t forgotten. In fact, the district has launched a task force whose goal is to survey the community about whether to delay the first day…
Last night, MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell devoted a hefty five-minute segment (on view below) to the Denver school board race and candidate Emily Sirota. Why? O’Donnell followed an article from The Nation that called the contest the wackiest in the country. But it’s hard to imagine either…
After spending the morning with W., Mayor Michael Hancock (who the former president said was classy), launched his Denver Education Compact, a committee of big brains set to tackle the city’s school system, which graduated just 51.8 percent of students on time last year. Hancock, who spoke a lot about…
President George W. Bush was in Denver this morning, talking education with a group of political and business leaders at the brick headquarters of Get Smart Schools, an organization that trains principals for charter and innovation schools. Afterward, Bush made a brief (less than two minutes!) statement to the media,…
Tense exchanges between Denver Public Schools board candidate Jennifer Draper Carson and a stand-in for incumbent Arturo Jimenez marked a forum last night at the University of Denver, one of the last before the November 1 election. But while those two threw barbs, the debate between the other seven candidates…
The American Civil Liberties Union has jumped in on the debate simmering in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs over whether school resource officers should be allowed to collaborate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
School discipline, once considered too lax, has now swung too far in the opposite direction, say several state lawmakers and child advocates. As such, Colorado is one of a growing number of places rethinking harsh, “zero-tolerance” policies that lead to students being jailed for writing on bathroom stalls with marker…
As explained in the Westword story “Tough Subject,” the recent resignation of brand-new West High School principal Santiago Grado was sudden. To help parents make sense of the change, West High held a meeting on September 29 at 4 p.m. However, only one person showed up. Now, a West grandmother…
Santiago Grado resigned last month as principal of Denver’s West High School after only a month and a half on the job. School officials say he chose to do so after issues with his academic leadership were raised. But Grado tells Westword that it was a difference in leadership philosophies,…
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., supporters of Proposition 103, which would hike taxes to better fund schools, will rally at the State Capitol on behalf of the measure. And while most political observers doubt 103’s will win the day, one advocate thinks such so-called experts are selling voters short…
Was Dakota Ridge High School student Bryce Benson punished for wearing a T-shirt that read “Border Patrol” while others who staged a mock-demonstration featuring signs that read “Fuck America” weren’t — or at least not initially? Ex-Congressman and recent gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo’s not sure of all the particulars, but…
Recently, West High School’s brand-new principal, Santiago Grado, abruptly resigned. The reason, according to Denver Public Schools officials? He wasn’t a strong academic leader. But the man who replaced him, assistant principal Domonic Martinez, has had some leadership problems, too, as explained in the story “Tough Subject.”…
The media isn’t always interested in good news, says Tom Boasberg, Denver Public Schools’ superintendent. “Generally speaking, stories that are more sensational or, in some cases, more negative will tend to attract more media coverage,” he says. To offer a different view, Boasberg began a weekly e-mail newsletter called “myDPS”…
