The four leaders have run the city of Denver, a Fortune 500 company and the board of one of the city’s most influential nonprofit groups.
They’ve solved corporate disasters and slashed budgets.
And now these four, along with as many as 100 other Denverites, must think about Denver Public Schools’ biggest problems: its multimillion-dollar budget deficits, its abysmal student achievement and its several half-empty buildings costing the district millions of dollars a year in overhead.
Former Denver Mayors Federico Peña and Wellington Webb, Qwest chief executive Dick Notebaert and Colorado Children’s Campaign chairwoman Anne Bye Rowe are heading the newly formed “A+ Denver” Citizens for Denver Public Schools.
Executive director Peggy Lamm says she is optimistic that the group can make it easier for Superintendent Michael Bennet to make tough decisions – such as on school closures – that lie ahead as he tries to fix the state’s biggest urban district.
At a recent meeting of about 60 committee members, Lamm beseeched them to act quickly.
“We’re late, we’re really late,” she said. “Sometimes it’s good to have these things … to push us.”
Lamm hopes the committee grows to 100 people who will break into smaller committees to take on various projects, such as boosting parental involvement, to improve DPS.
“I hope they (the committee members) find something that they’re really passionate about,” Bennet said, “something they want to be a part of, and help.”
But the committee will also delve into one of the district’s thornier issues – school closures. The topic is so politically charged that administrators and board members have not discussed the issue in board meetings this fall – even though they warned the community last year that closures were inevitable.
Since 2002, DPS enrollment has fallen by about 8,000 students. Sixteen of the district’s 151 schools are only half, or less than half, full.
One of these schools is Horace Mann Middle, where there are about 290 kids when there’s room for more than 600. Principal Jorge Loera said he has applied to be a DPS “beacon school,” which would give him money to expand language programs.
“Language is a big interest in the northwest community,” he said, noting he hopes to attract more neighborhood kids.
Denver’s growth has spread north and east, near the airport. The district has had to build new schools in Green Valley Ranch, Stapleton and Montbello, but administrators have not closed schools where the population has declined, such as in the northwest part of the city.
“The hardest thing for any district, not just Denver, to face is discussions around school closures,” said City Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez, who is on the committee. “I think what we signed up to do is make sure there is a lot of input.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
