Category Archives: School Board

Earlier this week Ed News Colorado reported that five Jefferson County residents have stepped forward to fill the school board vacancy left by departing Scott Benefield: Here are the candidates: * Harvey Burns of Westminster retired from the district is 2004 after 30 years as an English teacher and librarian. He works as a substitute teacher. He was an officer of the Jefferson County Education Association and served on the board of the Colorado Education Association in the middle 1990s. * Edward Duran of Arvada is vice president of an information technology company. * Tomas Griego of Westminster is a retired middle school teacher and middle and high school administrator. After retirement he worked as a hearing officer in the Westminster schools. Most of his career was as assistant principal of Hodgkins Middle School in the Westminster district. * Robin Johnson of Arvada is the mother of three children in the Jeffco schools and has been a school volunteer and active in the Jeffco PTA. She works as an administrative assistant in an accounting firm. * Cody McNutt of Arvada is a graduate of the International Baccalaureate program at Lakewood High School, currently is a senior at the University of […]

My mom and dad have been drilling the importance of sharing into me for years. I’ve finally got it down now (okay, for the most part). But as far as I recall, sharing my Legos or Matchbox cars with other kids has never been encouraged as a way to save money. I guess it’s a little different when it comes to school districts and “sharing” services. A recent article in the Pueblo Chieftain offers an account of a new development in the region’s two largest school districts: Talk of consolidating Pueblo City Schools and Pueblo County School District 70 may be too early right now, but the concept of sharing services is not.

Not long ago my friends in the Education Policy Center went to visit the Denver School of Science and Technology, an innovative and successful public charter school in the city’s Stapleton neighborhood. Ninth and tenth graders at the Denver School of Science and Technology meet for their morning assembly to share announcements, accountability for tardiness and other infractions, and a special performance by school faculty and staff You can’t leave DSST and a meeting with head of school Bill Kurtz without a clearly unique understanding of how brain science research is applied to design the school’s program and classroom instruction. As an example, teachers are drilled in understanding the human mind’s 10-minute attention span and formulating lessons and activities accordingly to get the most out of every minute from each student.

After a close vote Monday from the Denver Public Schools board, Manual High and Montclair Elementary found smooth sailing from the State Board of Education in their pursuit to become Colorado’s first “innovation schools”. As Ed News Colorado explains, the vote in favor of the waiver request was unanimous — winning plaudits from both sides of the political aisle: “I really think this is groundbreaking for Denver and groundbreaking for the state of Colorado,” said Elaine Gantz Berman, D-1st District, herself a former DPS board member. “I’m hoping that this growing, positive trend finally gives the state the motivation it needs to realize that our schools are being crushed by rules, regulations and bureaucracy,” said board Chair Bob Schaffer, R-4th District. My Education Policy Center friends at GoBash point out that this is no small request: Manual and Montview “received waivers from 40 state statutes, 32 district policies, and 18 collective bargaining agreement provisions”. Also, another good point from Colorado Charters: State Board Vice-Chair Randy DeHoff commended DPS for learning from their charter schools. Charter schools operate via waiver from state laws and district policies. The only substantive difference between charter schools and “innovation schools” is that the latter still […]

Update: State Board member Peggy Littleton also weighed in (see below) When I asked my teacher, she told me that judges are supposed to interpret the law — not just make up stuff. (Which is something I tend to do after eating the last two chocolate chip cookies from the jar.) So I was a little confused and disappointed when I saw what went down a couple days ago at the Colorado Supreme Court. Independence Institute president Jon Caldara and the Denver Post‘s Vincent Carroll are among many who have highlighted flaws in the court’s judgment. They’re right — the ruling seems to say taxpayer protections in the state constitution don’t mean much when the issue at stake supposedly is “for the children”. I know it’s really not my fault, but being a kid, whenever I’m used for unsavory political purposes — well, I feel a little guilty about it. That guilt led me to get my Education Policy Center friends to ask the opinions of some other important people about this supreme court decision: namely, members of the Colorado State Board of Education. Interestingly, the State Board was the original defendant in this lawsuit led by the Independence Institute […]

When I say “Top o’ the mornin” to you today, I really mean it. Good news! What is it, you say? Yesterday I hoped out loud that the Denver Public Schools board would make the right decision about the state’s first two “innovation school” proposals. Well, sometimes your hopes and dreams do come true. At least, so reports Rebecca Jones for Ed News Colorado: By a 4-3 vote, the board agreed to forward the proposals from Manual High School and Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment on to the state Board of Education, which will consider the requests on Thursday. If approved – and state officials have already indicated they feel the schools’ proposals are in order – Manual and Montclair will be given broad leeway to waive district policies and union contract provisions on everything from staffing to scheduling to teacher compensation. They will have many of the same freedoms as charter schools, but unlike charter schools, will still be directly accountable to the DPS board. On the fast track for the world of education, the waiver requests from Manual and Montclair are scheduled to go before the State Board of Education later this week. After (hopefully) receiving approval […]

Today’s big education story in the Denver Post suggests we may be on the verge of some major innovative developments that promote consumer choices and academic excellence: This morning, the Denver School of Science and Technology charter school will announce that it plans to open four new schools over the next five years. And this evening, Denver’s school board will vote on whether to allow Manual High and Montclair Elementary to become the state’s first “innovation schools.” The designation would give them charterlike freedoms to hire and fire and set their own calendars…. High-performing West Denver Preparatory Charter School hopes to add two middle schools in northwest Denver; the Cesar Chavez Academy organization based in Pueblo will try to open its first Denver school; and Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, wants a middle school on the west side that will feed its high school opening this August. Organizations also are forming to help support the creation of new schools in DPS. The Walton Family Foundation — a K-12 education-reform charity established by Wal-Mart magnate Sam Walton — is focusing on Denver. The National Association of Charter School Authorizers chose Denver as the first district it will help with more […]

President Obama made some remarks about education yesterday, and my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow got a chance to respond in this piece from Face The State: Ben DeGrow, education policy analyst for the Independence Institute, said he is glad to finally see Obama taking a strong position on education. “Obama the candidate and Obama the President has been all over the place on education reform, and it’s been hard to pin him down,” said DeGrow. “The comments in [Tuesday’s] speech are mostly promising, and we need to hold him to those comments.” [link added] In the Face the State piece, State Board of Education chairman Bob Schaffer also raised the point that Obama has given no indication of wanting to help stop an effort by Democrats in Congress to take away private tuition scholarships from poor kids in the nation’s capital. Still, the President’s message yesterday was largely on the right track. Among the less traditionally Democratic education reform ideas Barack Obama embraced are charter schools, accountability, and teacher performance pay. In the latter case, Obama seems to grasp the importance of the current problem with teacher quality: In his speech, the president issued a call for a […]

The Boulder Valley school board doesn’t seem to be learning too quickly. As the Boulder Daily Camera reports, at least they have put off their decision to waste more taxpayer money by continuing their lawsuit against educational opportunity through the state’s charter school authority. But they’re not making many winning arguments to justify their past actions, either. My Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno was quoted in the story: Pam Benigno, director of the Independence Institute’s Education Policy Center, said Boulder Valley leaders should be held accountable for their “waste of taxpayer money.” “I’m a strong supporter of school choice,” Benigno said. “Families should have as many options as possible, and the state charter institute is a good idea for Colorado.”

It’s going to be a tough fiscal year for education officials used to managing ever-expanding tax-funded budgets. 2009 just might be a year in which policy makers and administrators find ways to cut out the fat and focus the lean spending on classroom success. One way to help is to empower everyday citizens – like my mom and dad, and thousands of other Colorado taxpayers – with detailed financial information online so they can help find cost savings. What am I talking about? It’s called online financial transparency. Can you imagine if school districts and other local education agencies all had searchable databases on their websites that allowed you to see exactly how money is being spent? What once was a distant dream is fast approaching reality. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow explains it all in his new backgrounder Shining the Light on Colorado School Spending. Transparency promote greater public accountability and confidence that local schools are being run efficiently and effectively. In many cases it also pays for itself. Today’s technology means it requires little time and cost to put up these databases. Hopefully, some Colorado school district will take the lead and do this on its […]