DPS Middle School Process: Boundaries and Bussing
By Lynn Kalinauskas
GPHC Education Chair
Denver Public Schools (DPS) has orchestrated several meetings regarding the future of the Smiley campus at 26th and Holly since the last issue of this paper went to press. On February 26, it hosted a second meeting in Smiley’s cafeteria centered on the McAuliffe program coming into the building, with a series of DPS speakers including Kurt Dennis (McAuliffe), Will Lee-Ashley (Data), Bill De La Cruz (Equity and Inclusion), Liz Mendez (Operations Support Services) and Brenna Copeland (Office of School Reform).
Assuaging the stress felt by many parents in regards to the School Choice process, Kurt Dennis announced that all students who had selected McAuliffe as their first choice for the 2013-14 school year had been accepted into the program. Choice data indicated that McAuliffe would potentially enroll 231 sixth graders in 2013-14, 115 of them from within Park Hill, including 31 students from Hallett and Smith elementary schools where Principal Dennis actively recruited.
There was a brief question and answer period after each presentation but comments or discussion were stopped by Civic Canopy facilitator, Ana Soler. DPS requested that attendees fill out an exercise sheet about expectations for the new schools. Very few participated, choosing instead to leave the meeting or discuss the evening with fellow friends and neighbors.
In an effort to discuss the issues of “equity and inclusion,” DPS held a meeting on March 14 at Prodigal Son Initiative. Led by DPS’ Bill de la Cruz, the event attracted six DPS parents from Park Hill and two community members. The low turnout allowed for some frank discussion of difficult issues including a desire to ensure minority students and parents will be welcome at McAuliffe. DPS hopes to continue these discussions with a larger group of attendees on April 10.
At the latest meeting, held on March 19 at Hiawatha Recreation Center, DPS again presented a series of speakers addressing choice and enrollment, boundary, transportation and its “best thinking” for the future.
Specifically, Will Lee-Ashley stated that with the creation of a new middle school boundary zone that encompasses the two neighborhoods, Park Hill and Stapleton children would have equal access to the following middle schools: McAuliffe, DSST Stapleton, Bill Roberts, and the two new programs to be located in Stapleton, one at the old McAuliffe campus and the other in the Conservatory Green development north of I-70.
DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who attended this meeting, later qualified the statement by noting that discussions were still taking place with DSST, which has up-to-now earmarked a number of seats for Free and Reduced Lunch students and prioritized Stapleton residents. In addition, elementary students already attending Bill Roberts would be given top priority to transition into its 6th grade.
Transportation to these schools would be provided but details about routes are still in the planning phase. A parent wondered about the time children would spend on busses given that her child already spends 40 minutes on the bus even though they live only two miles away from their school.
Superintendent Boasberg stated that DPS’ goal for a boundary zone is to ensure that every school is high quality, diverse and represents the diversity of the community. No other proposal for boundaries was presented to the group and the push for diversity seems to be limited to middle schools.
A group of Latina mothers presented a letter to DPS that summarized their hopes for the future of the community’s schools. They expressed their desire to be involved in the schools and feel welcome. They requested bilingual and multicultural school personnel, as well as specialists in community development. They wanted to see school programs that included art, music and sports, advanced and honors programs and individual education plans. They stated that they wanted to feel they were part of a team working on their children’s education. The meeting’s attendees applauded their statement.
A parent asked if DPS had considered leaving McAuliffe in its current building – instead of displacing that population and putting in a new middle school program there for 2014-15. Superintendent Boasberg said that was part of the discussion but would mean a significant cut in the student numbers. McAuliffe principal, Kurt Dennis, said it was in the best interest of the students to have the program grow into a bigger facility.
Enrollment numbers for the 2013-14 year already indicate that the program will be moving. Given that McAuliffe seems to be the only viable option for the Smiley building, it seems a foregone conclusion that Park Hill will be welcoming the program into its historic building. Indeed, most of the attendees showed their support for the school by a show of hands indicating, “McAuliffe at Smiley would address student and broader community needs for a high quality middle school option.”
Lynn Kalinauskas has lived in Park Hill for 12 years. Her children attend Park Hill Elementary and Smiley Middle School. She works for an educational nonprofit and teaches at UC Denver. She can be reached at lkalinauskas@hotmail.com. For materials from the DPS Greater Park Hill/Stapleton community engagement process, visit communityrelations.dpsk12.org.
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The letter from Latina mothers
• We are not at the meetings not because we do not care. Rather we are focused on doing homework with our kids, feeding them and getting them to bed early so they can rest and be ready to go to school the next day.
• They (DPS) should try to have meetings on weekends or a Friday night.
• We all want the same thing for our children – that the schools get better and that we (parents) are able to be involved in their education.
• We want transportation to school.
• We want bilingual staff, especially in the office.
• We want the school to have multicultural staff.
• We want the school to have a communication specialist and a parent and community engagement specialist – with this staff one feels welcome and one can find information about where and how access resources that our families need.
• We want tutoring – if parents do not have the education to support their children academically we want to know that there is someone who can do that for us.
• We want art and music programs as well as sports for children.
• We want a diverse and multicultural environment so that children can participate and understand the real world. When they graduate and go out to work they are going to meet people from all cultures and need to be prepared.
• We want safety inside and outside the building.
• We want discipline and bullying prevention.
• We want advanced classes for students who are advanced (honors) and individualized education for each child.
• We want everyone working as one team with the welfare and wellbeing of children always in mind. We want children to always be put first.