Over the past month, we asked Denver Post readers and our staff to help us come up with a list of people in Colorado who should be recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments or ideas that either occurred or came to fruition in 2013.
Click for the complete list of this year’s winners.
Education
WINNER:
Chris Gibbons, the innovator who brought West Denver Prep, renamed , to Colorado’s charter school scene in 2006. Last year, the Colorado Department of Education’s performance rating for Denver Public Schools was upgraded to “accredited with improvement,” in substantial part due to the achievements of STRIVE schools in Montbello, Green Valley Ranch, Westwood, Sunnyside and on Federal Boulevard in Denver. According to its website, a STRIVE Prep school has led all DPS middle schools in academic growth for seven consecutive years.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Ron Castagna, the principal at Lakewood High School, whose enthusiastic support and leadership in 2013 put the school on the map for winning a national contest to Castagna, who is retiring this year, was also named Colorado High School Principal of the Year in 2012.
