Another School Year Before Us
SMILEY/McAULIFFE TRANSITION
The beginning of September finds most Park Hill neighborhood students already back in school. Many 6th graders are heading for McAuliffe, located in Stapleton for one more year until it moves into the Smiley building. Smiley Middle School has begun its phase-out with no new incoming 6th graders. This will be the last year as Smiley for the 85 year-old neighborhood school. Current 8th graders will be the last class to graduate from Smiley Middle School. When McAuliffe moves into the building in 2014-15, current Smiley 7th graders will be incorporated into the McAuliffe program.
Hoping for a smooth transition for all involved, Karen Robertson, parent of a 7th grader at Smiley is organizing a joint transition committee to be comprised of Smiley and McAuliffe parents, teachers and students to facilitate joint learning, athletic and extracurricular activities throughout the year. “It is important that the Smiley and McAuliffe communities work together to ensure a successful transition to the Smiley campus next fall,” said Karen. “Current 6th and 7th graders at both schools will be particularly impacted, and it is my hope that these activities throughout this year so these students begin the 2014-15 school year as familiar and eager classmates, rather than strangers.” For more information, contact karen.robertson64@gmail.com.
NEW PRINCIPAL FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GOING INTO SMIS BUILDING
Tom Boasberg, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, has chosen a new principal, Kristen Atwood, to head the middle school that will be going into the Swigert-McAuliffe International School space for the 2014-15 year, once McAuliffe moves to the Smiley building. Kristen Atwood was the Director of Academic Achievement at McAuliffe during the 2012-13 year. She has 17 years of experience working for DPS as an administrator, special educator and district specialist.
The new middle school program will remain small in terms of seat numbers since it will be co-located with the current Swigert elementary school. It will be one of the schools included in the new “boundary zone” shared by Park Hill and Stapleton for middle schools that was approved by the DPS Board of Education this past June. The absence of Park Hill parents at the August 7th DPS Near Northeast Middle School Principal Community Forum raises an important question: Have Park Hill residents bought into the larger boundary zone beyond McAuliffe’s move to Smiley?
ASHLEY ELEMENTARY
The school was deemed “failing” by DPS’s administration that pushed for the hiring of a new principal late in the spring. Parents, community members and staff are still working on a proposal to move the school forward.
Nonetheless, newly released TCAP scores reveal that the school was already turning itself around and students were making significant gains. 3rd grade percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in math increased from 30 to 49%; 3rd grade reading from 46 to 52%. 5th graders at Ashley improved dramatically: math from 17 to 53%; reading from 17 to 42%. Given Ashley’s challenge of teaching a population that is 94% minority and 95% Free and Reduced Lunch (an index of poverty), these results beg the question: did DPS jump the gun by firing Ashley’s principal knowing the strides he was making at the school?
SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER
Park Hill voters will soon be asked to vote for a school board member to represent its district, currently served by Landri Taylor, as well as an at-large member to replace Mary Seawell, who is not seeking re-election. The GPHC and the Northeast Park Hill Coalition are co-hosting a School Board Candidate Forum where we hope to see many of you. The forum will take place on Thursday, October 10 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the District 2 Police Station at 3921 Holly. As of early September, four candidates are scheduled to attend including:
Landri Taylor, District 4 (incumbent)
Roger Kilgore, District 4
Barbara O’Brien, At-Large
Michael Kiley, At-Large
12-year Park Hill resident Lynn Kalinauskas’ has three children in Denver Public Schools. She works for an educational nonprofit and teaches at UC Denver. She can be reached at lkalinauskas@hotmail.com.