The State Board of Education approved innovation status on Wednesday for three more Denver public schools — two of them future schools that are part of turnaround plans in the city’s far northeast
Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said the union expects to move forward by the end of the month with legal action attempting to reverse or suspend the approvals.
The Innovation Schools Act of 2008 allows schools to apply for special status that lets them opt out of union rules and regulations, along with other waivers to provide more autonomy.
The DCTA argues that giving innovation status to future public schools is illegal because the schools are not yet fully staffed and cannot meet the law’s requirement for a majority staff vote approving innovation.
Innovation status in the far northeast is intended to allow schools in the turnaround plan to have school days an hour longer than usual and include eight additional instruction days per year.
The schools approved on Wednesday include High Tech Early College, a far-northeast high school that will be located in the former Samsonite building, and Collegiate Prep Academy, a high school that will be co-located inside Montbello High School.
The third school, Denver Center for 21st Century Learning, will be a multiple-pathways school for students struggling to graduate at a traditional school. The school is to open this fall in northeast Denver in the former Wyman Elementary.
The three schools joined 10 other innovation schools in Denver Public Schools, including three future far-northeast schools approved last month by the state board: Noel Arts School, Denver Center for International Studies at Ford and Denver Center for International Studies at Montbello. By this fall, DPS expects to have 18 schools with innovation status.
Last month, state board members said the law may need some clarification but the intent was not to exclude new schools.
On Wednesday, state board member Elaine Gantz Berman, who represents the board district that includes Denver, commended DPS and Superintendent Tom Boasberg for taking advantage of innovation.
“It’s not been easy to get the community on board,” Gantz Berman said. “To be able determine when schools are not meeting standards — something (that) has to be done — is commendable.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1638 or yrobles@denverpost.com
