All North High School teachers will have to reapply for their jobs this spring, a bold move that administrators hope will boost graduation rates and student achievement, district officials said Wednesday.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet sent an e-mail to the school’s roughly 37 teachers telling them of his decision, which he said Wednesday came after hearing from neighborhood parents.
Most teachers heard the news from home. Bennet’s two previously scheduled meetings with teachers and parents Wednesday were canceled because of the snowstorm.
“We decided in view of all the rumors going around we had to do it today, even if we weren’t able to meet,” Bennet said. Administrators felt strongly about telling teachers before the two-week winter break, he said.
Melissa Underwood-Verdeal, an 18-year veteran teacher at the school, said that teachers were livid at the method of communication. “It’s a joke among us today,” she said, “that we were fired from North via e-mail.”
Teachers were asked to reapply for their jobs in recent years at a handful of other schools, including Bruce Randolph Middle, Martin Luther King Middle and Brown Elementary. At those schools, only a few, if any, teachers were rehired.
“I think once again this puts the blame on the teachers,” said Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
Bennet said he arrived at his decision after listening to more than 600 community members this fall. DPS administrators hired a new principal when school started and launched a series of 19 meetings to see what people wanted at North.
The school has lost about 600 students since 2001 and has low Colorado Student Assessment Program scores. Last year’s 10th-grade class had only 69 students who were proficient in reading and 14 proficient in math.
In the meetings, community members, some of whom carried babies and don’t yet have kids in DPS, said they wanted to see a premier high school there with an emphasis on languages and college-preparatory classes.
Bennet said a school redesign is a signal to those people that he believed in change too.
“I think there’s a very consistent theme … that unless there’s a radical shift or a very significant change that the community in northwest Denver would be unsatisfied,” Bennet said.
The powerful northwest Denver parent advocacy group Padres Unidos also has asked for new teachers at North to make the school a place of “college readiness,” said Pam Martinez, co-director of the group.
“It’s now or never,” she said.
The school’s principal, JoAnn Trujillo-Hays, will hold more community meetings in January. Though a design hasn’t been announced, she hopes the school can be a K-12 campus. Valdez Elementary is next door to North.
Trujillo-Hays said a transition will be easier when her staff agrees on the mission. “Working together means problem-solving and genuine listening,” she said.
But some people feel strongly that North teachers are working that way now. The school had invested in a $300,000 reform effort, paid for by public and private funds, which resulted in a small bump in scores in some CSAP areas last school year.
Underwood-Verdeal, whose husband also is a veteran North teacher, said that the reform effort was motivated and implemented by the teachers at North.
“Throughout the various administrations that we’ve had, the teachers have remained true to the North goals,” she said. “Those have been sabotaged by the Padres, and it hasn’t been supported by people at 900 Grant Street (the DPS administration building).”
Cindy Daisely, who has twin sophomores at North, said Wednesday that she felt “betrayed” by the district. Daisely supports the teachers and the current programs at the school.
“A lot of parents are upset that they’ve had no voice,” she said.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
