About 40 parents, teachers and others weighed in Monday on reform plans by Denver Public Schools — criticizing and applauding the district’s proposed changes.
The DPS administrators’ recommendations aim to improve schools, close failing programs and add charter schools throughout the district.
The school board votes on the recommendations Nov. 30.
Until then, the board begins a process of mulling over the recommendations and listening to feedback.
Monday’s public comment session was the first of two opportunities this week. The second comes Thursday night.
The focus during most of Monday’s meeting was on a proposal for northwest Denver schools, specifically plans involving Lake Middle School.
The district wants to create a shared campus at Lake — splitting the building between an International Baccalaureate (IB) middle school program and West Denver Preparatory charter school.
The charter school would be a boundary school, meaning all kids in the neighborhood would be assigned to go there.
Many parents at the meeting were from Brown Elementary, one of Lake’s feeder schools, which has an IB program. The parents said they were pleased the district was allowing IB to continue at Lake and supported bringing Brown’s IB coordinator, Amy Highsmith, there.
But some worried that two new charter middle schools in northwest Denver would saturate the region and draw students away from Skinner Middle School.
“Swift is good, but sweeping is not good,” Renee Martinez-Stone, a member of Northwest Neighborhood Middle Schools Now, said of the reforms. “This tool is being used too broadly. . . . Why not develop a strong and (fully-enrolled) West Denver Prep school in northwest Denver, not two (schools)?”
Lloyd Lewis, president of Arc Thrift Stores, cautioned the board about making changes to the special-education programs at Lake — which has three center-based programs for children with special needs and where 20 percent of students have identifiable special needs.
“Change is hard for any student, but for a student with special needs, change can very adversely impact what are already challenging tasks and goals,” Lewis said.
Superintendent Tom Boasberg said later that Lake’s special-ed programs would not be affected by the reforms.
Former Councilwoman Deborah Ortega said she was concerned Lake would have four programs: West Denver Prep, a new Lake IB school, the phase-out of the existing IB program and the special-ed programs.
“I am not sure it makes sense to have four programs,” she said. “Can they all coexist?”
Teachers, a student and a parent told the board about their experiences at West Denver Prep, one of the district’s highest performing schools.
Dan Venegas, an eighth-grader at West Denver Prep, told of learning to handle more homework than he expected.
“I have become a better person than I could have imagined,” he said.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, Amy Highsmith’s title was incorrect.
