ENGLEWOOD —After recently renovating a number of its buildings and launching several for students, this school year opened a facility dedicated to a group you might not expect: adults.
In November, the district, in cooperation with Denver-based nonprofit the , opened the Englewood Community Education Center.
Housed in an 1,832-square-foot building on the district’s Maddox campus at 700 W. Mansfield Avenue, the center is a dedicated home for high school equivalency and English-as-a-second-language classes for area adults.
“We’re really focused on creating multiple pathways to that high school diploma, and this is one of the ways we do that,” said Diana Zakhem, the district’s director of post-secondary and workforce readiness. “We feel very positive about it.”
The center is staffed four days a week by three instructors from Spring Institute, a nonprofit with programs focused on intercultural learning and adult education. The organization has had a partnership with Englewood Schools for the past few years, providing ESL classes for adults at .
Jessie Hawthorn, the institute’s adult education program manager and former contractor, said the Community Education Center is a unique arrangement and provides an opportunity to grow, possibly serving more people and providing additional opportunities for its clients in the future.
“As far as I know, we are the only program in the metro area that has its own building provided by a district,” Hawthorn said. “We eventually want to make this space available for people to write résumés and cover letters and conduct job searches.”
Around 15 people are regularly attending either English language or high school equivalency classes at the center this spring session, Hawthorn said. Englewood Schools provided 10 computers and access to GED preparation software that allows students to take free practice tests. Hawthorn said that is very important now that the state’s GED testing is done almost exclusively online.
Students pay $25 per month to attend but will be reimbursed if they pass their four subject area equivalency tests, Hawthorn said.
As part of the partnership, Englewood Schools offers free child care to participants, provided in the main school building on the Maddox campus, home to the district’s . The service is a critical piece of making the center a success, Hawthorn said.
The building now housing the Community Education Center was home to an online-based credit recovery program for district high school students in the 2014-15 school year. That program was moved to Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice campus, following renovations at that building paid for in part by a 2012 voter-approved , opening the space for a new use, district officials said.
Zakhem said that it needed only a few small renovations to make it ready for adult education classes. Englewood Schools had spare furniture and computers available for the facility. Thanks to an estimated $6,500 in federal grant funding, plus and additional $1,200 in federal money dedicated to the child care portion of the program, the district has had to supply only $4,000 so far from its general fund to pool with Spring Institute’s funding for the program, district officials said.
“It’s a great opportunity for these students to be able to learn in a safe, productive and motivating environment that is for them,” high school equivalency instructor Heidi McBride said last week while she led students through an interactive science lesson. “It gives them consistency.”
Joe Rubino: 303-954-2953 or jrubino@denverpost.com
Englewood community education center
Next enrollment opportunity: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. April 11 at 700 W. Mansfield Ave.
Info: 303-863- 0185
