Letters to the Editor
What City Park Could Do With $5 Million
On Friday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m., as the weather hovered around 2 degrees, about 80 residents from around City Park attended a meeting at the Ford Warren Branch Library. The city requested the meeting with neighbors after the opposition described at StopCityLoop.org came to their attention. Citizens from Whittier, Mayfair, Park Hill, South City Park and City Park West came to discuss the City Loop proposal with Denver Parks and Recreation’s Manager Lauri Dannemiller, Deputy Manager Scott Gilmore and Director of Planning Gordon Robertson.
I was very surprised that the majority of citizens who made the effort to attend the meeting were as opposed to the project as I was. We all seemed to be saying many of the same things: We love City Park for its green serenity and its feeling of actually being in the country for a little while in our busy, urban lives. We don’t want to lose green space, especially to three acres of neon plastic structures surrounding a meadow lined with stadium seats. We feel the pressure of the two institutions who coexist with us in City Park and we already struggle with traffic issues, which are not addressed in the Loop plan. We are familiar with the sight of children and families enjoying the Dustin Redd playground.
The playground was never maintained by the city, and there is no maintenance plan for the City Loop. With the $5 million proposed for City Loop, the Dustin Redd playground could be restored or even rebuilt with lush plantings and other beautiful and interesting features surrounding it. In addition, more plantings could be installed around the MLK statue, the gateways and other historic features could be restored, the goose poop cleaned up, and the weeds removed with money left over. Such a plan would truly give City Park the lift it needs.
Georgia Garnsey
Park Hill
A Letter From the Principal
Dear Park Hill Families:
Please know that I appreciate your concerns and your support of the children and our school. In response to the communication to the Superintendent, we have been working with central-level departments to outline a plan to provide the resources needed to address our concerns in preparing students to meet the Common Core State Standards, especially in the areas of social studies and science.
I want to let you know that the district has published a Request for Proposals to publishers for the adoption of a K-5 literacy curriculum to address the more rigorous Common Core State Standards. The materials will be purchased for all grades K-5 for the 2014-15 school year. Teacher and school leader training will be provided this summer to facilitate the roll out of the new curriculum in August.
Park Hill representatives have been invited to participate in the Literacy Curriculum and Instruction Advisory Committee to choose the new materials for next year. The meetings begin Jan. 25, and will go the Board of Education on Feb. 20. Materials for consideration will be on display for community comment Jan. 30 through Feb. 20.
The process to approve the use of non-adopted textbooks for core instruction and supplemental materials requires a submitted request the year before materials would be used (this means we would have needed to make a request in November of 2012 for this school year). Rather than spend school or PTSA funds on supplemental materials this year, the district will purchase new materials that allows us to use these funds in other ways. We are working with the curriculum department and the Chief Academic Officer to identify approved supplemental materials in the area of science and social studies for the new standards. We will purchase these materials instead of the McGraw-Hill literacy program and expect to have them in place early 2014.
I have every confidence in the expertise of our teachers to increase the instructional rigor and provide students with experiences with the Common Core State Standards. We are mapping our current materials to the new standards and working to make sure that students have high-level tasks as part of their instruction.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns at 720-424-4910 or email me at Tonda_Potts@dpsk12.org.
Tonda Potts, Ph D, Principal
Park Hill Elementary School