Six months after school started on a 98-degree day, the Denver school district is exploring having an alternative school calendar for its 55 schools without air conditioning. Schools in Denver are set to begin for the 2020-21 year on Aug. 17 and end May 28. Superintendent Susana Cordova said the alternative calendar would start later and end later. […]
Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat
Melanie Asmar has covered Denver Public Schools for Chalkbeat Colorado since 2015. Asmar previously worked at Westword newspaper in Denver and for a daily newspaper in New Hampshire, where she covered education.
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Posted inEducation, News
When it comes to seclusion and restraint, Colorado schools “are investigating themselves”
Nearly every day, Brenna Wann saw staff members take young students, sometimes kicking and screaming, to the “quiet room” of her Colorado elementary school. “They get in there, and then they’re mad they’re in there,” said Wann, who left her job as a classroom aide for students with emotional disabilities in early February. “You watch […]
Posted inEducation, News
“Lives are at stake”: Students, teachers plead for Denver schools to do more in face of rising gun violence
Five Denver students have died from youth violence, and it’s only halfway through the school year. The increase in violence, felt acutely in the far northeast, has students, teachers, and principals fearing how the conflict is showing up in schools and worried about it escalating. They’re calling on district leaders to do more to keep […]
Posted inEducation, News
Denver school board to parents: It’s important to store guns safely at home
Parents and guardians of Denver public schoolchildren will soon get a message from the school district: If you have firearms in your home, it’s important to store them safely. The Denver school board on Thursday passed a resolution in support of safe gun storage. It directs the superintendent to “create a communication,” in both English and Spanish, […]
Posted inEducation, News
With a 15.7% average pay increase post-strike, more Denver teachers returned to work
Far more Denver teachers returned to the classroom this fall than in previous years, a retention boost that district officials attribute to pay increases won after a teacher strike last year. But because veteran teachers tend to make more money than new hires, the higher retention means the district is paying more in teacher salaries than it […]
Posted inEducation, News
School choice: What is it and how does it work in Colorado?
Colorado students have had school choice for more than two decades, and hundreds of thousands of families use it every year. But what exactly is it, and how does it work? We’ve answered some of the most common questions below. What is school choice? At its most basic, school choice means students can request to […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Denver to change curriculum that educators said “eliminates the Native American perspective”
Until very recently, Denver’s eighth-grade social studies curriculum asked students to identify the challenges faced by settlers as they moved West in the 1800s — but not those faced by the Native Americans whose land they took. Denver Public Schools officials are now revising that curriculum. Tamara Acevedo, deputy superintendent of academics, said in a […]
Posted inEducation, News
Charter school network STRIVE Prep to close northwest Denver high school in possible sign of what’s to come
Denver’s second-largest charter school network has decided to merge two of its high schools, effectively closing one of them. The reason? Declining student enrollment, which is a districtwide issue affecting not only charter schools but district-run schools, too. The STRIVE Prep board of directors voted unanimously Monday night to close STRIVE Prep — Excel, a […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Why the Denver school board “flipped” toward reform and what might happen next
Carried by momentum from February’s teachers strike and a broader backlash against the status quo, candidates opposed to the policies that made Denver Public Schools a national exemplar for education reform now control the school board for the first time. Instead of five members backed by pro-reform organizations and two backed by the teachers union, […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
An end to Denver’s school reform era? Teachers union-backed school board candidates win big
The Denver school board is on the verge of a historic shift, with two candidates backed by the teachers union scoring decisive wins and a third holding a narrow lead. This marks the first time in a decade that candidates supported by proponents of education reform won’t have the majority on the Denver school board. […]