The largest school reform plan in Denver’s history will come down to a contentious vote tonight at a school board meeting that is expected to be preceded by emotional pleas from supporters and foes.
The teachers union, which has printed up 200 signs, will cheer on teachers from the targeted schools as they present alternate plans and is encouraging a throng to chide the board to reject the district’s plan.
Supporters of the proposal to reconfigure Montbello High School and its five feeder schools say they will gather “hundreds of community members, parents and students” to “show their support for better schools.”
The board is expected to approve the $5 million turnaround plan on a 4-3 vote.
The proposal would replace programs with charter and district- run programs, removing teachers and co-locating schools.
“The teachers are stressed,” said Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. “No matter how hard they work right now, their jobs are in question.”
Some of the 400 teachers at the targeted schools have created their own reform plans and will present them tonight during the public comment portion. The meeting at the district’s administration building, 900 Grant St., begins at 5 p.m.; public comment is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Union officials will suggest a different, teacher-led timeline, under which schools would form oversight committees with community members and teachers and present their reform plans to the board by January. A new assessment tool and evaluation system would be in place by April with a review next November.
“This isn’t about a delay,” said Carolyn Crowder, who serves as executive director of DCTA. “This is about putting a process in place that is stakeholder driven and relies on data and research before making these critical decisions.”
Superintendent Tom Boasberg said the seven-month process has been inclusive. “The community is not asking for slow and incremental change. They want better opportunities for their kids now.”
Montbello has had nine principals in 10 years, and 67 percent of sophomores scored “unsatisfactory” in math on the 2010 Colorado Student Assessment Program. Only 23 out of 342 10th-graders were proficient or advanced.
Students are voting with their feet, Boasberg said, with 1,000 high schoolers traveling outside the neighborhood for school.
Turnaround moves are being aided by $3.5 billion from the 2009 federal stimulus package for schools that are among the bottom 5 percent in their states.
Colorado is receiving about $43 million in federal turnaround grants over three years for 19 schools in six districts.
Schools eligible for the money must take on one of four turnaround strategies approved by the U.S. Education Department. Those four options are closure, removing the leaders and at least half the staff, replacing the program with a charter school or giving teachers extra support and training.
That last strategy is called “transformation,” and is what the union is pushing for the targeted schools.
“They have never had a chance to put in their reforms,” said Crowder, who said some schools started this summer to implement transformation only to now face new reforms.
Montbello High School is receiving more money from the program than any school in the state, a total of nearly $2 million a year to implement its changes.
The initial grant said that Montbello would undergo “transformation,” but Boasberg said the Denver district is allowed to change its plan.
“When we applied for the dollars, we were very clear that given the timeline, we could only do transformation for the 2010-11 school year,” he said. “And that we would, working with the community committee, come back this fall to decide whether to continue.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
