Ritter breaks ground for Cherry Creek STEM

Bond-approved science, technology, engineering and math school scheduled to open in 2011

Story and photo by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan 28., 2010, Villager)

Colorado's future, according to the governor, is in space. But before we can go up into the sky, the governor looked down.

On Jan. 25, Gov. Bill Ritter and school representatives broke ground on Cherry Creek Schools' science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school that is planned to be built between Overland High School and Prairie Middle School, near South Peoria Street and East Iliff Avenue.

“The thing that makes our country different is that we are the innovators and we are the creators. It has to begin with an emphasis much earlier than college campuses or college laboratories,” said Ritter, also noting that Colorado has the most aerospace engineers. “This school demonstrates an ability to think about those kids as our future scientists, as our future innovators, our future creators and the people that will help America remain competitive globally and will help us enjoy the quality of life we've gotten used to.”

The 58,000-square foot school for students in grades 6-12 is scheduled to open in 2011. The school will also be a resource for elementary students from different schools to use.

Enrolled students can join specific tracks, including health, energy and computer sciences, and art and technical communications, said school leader Richard Charles.

“We have a crisis in this country when nearly 70 percent of the civilian scientific and technical workforce at the department of defense is eligible for retirement in seven years,” Charles said. “For our state, our challenge is clear. We must provide authentic experiences to students that will motivate them to pursue STEM careers. With this school, students will have opportunities to dream, invent and create solutions to solve today's cutting edge sciences.”

Charles, who has 15 years of professional experience in systems management and atmospheric sciences before he entered the education system, is working with colleges so that engineers and scientists will come to the school and work with students, to be real-world models on real projects.

“Through these efforts, students will have an opportunity to conduct research in STEM fields, to fly NASA simulated missions or be certified as a space technician,” Charles said.

The two-story school will have a lecture hall; 15 “studio” classrooms and an elementary classroom; labs for robotics, aviation and digital production; and two labs each for physics, chemistry and biology. Funding to build the school was part of the $200-million bond that voters passed in 2008.

After the groundbreaking, Ritter talked with Overland seniors Alex Sevit and Kara Minke, telling the pair about how he had witnessed a Mars lander hit the surface of the red planet because his nephew had worked on the project. Sevit and Minke broke ground next to Ritter at the ceremony. They were also interns at Lockheed Martin last summer. Sevit and Minke plan on studying mechanical engineering in college, Sevit hopes at the University of Denver and Minke at the Colorado School of Mines.

“I see aerospace engineering as a frontier. It's a relatively new science,” Sevit said. “When we worked at Lockheed, it provided the technical background, and we were able to see the concepts that we learned about in class applied to industry. I would have liked to have gone through the STEM school. But we were on the fast track for math and science and have gotten good science preparation. The STEM center is going to provide some of the applications of the science that we learned (at Lockheed).”

Photo caption: Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Mary Chesley and Overland High School Principal Jana Frieler break ground for construction of Creek's science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school, which is scheduled to open in 2011.

DPS to cut services, try to keep teachers

Boasberg: School budgets expected to be down 3 percent, central services down 7 percent

Story by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan 28., 2010, Denver Herald-Dispatch)

As other districts are cutting teachers and slashing budgets in response to the economy, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg assured the Board of Education that the district likely won't cut teachers, classrooms or preschool.

At study sessions and regular meetings in January, Boarsberg and other members of the central district staff presented proposals for school budgets for the 2010-11 school year. Although the district's Board plans to approve the budget in June, principals received their enrollment projections and probable budget totals in January and plan to get district approval in February.

“Our priorities are very simple. The first priority is to protect the classroom to the maximum extent possible. Number two is to give schools the flexibility to meet the needs of their students,” Boasberg said. “We feel that schools are in the best positions to meet the needs of their kids.”

Schools will see about the same number of dollars per student for 2010 than they had in 2009, but increasing costs of teachers mean that schools will have 3 percent less to buy things. Central administration budgets are expected to need a 7-9 percent cut, Boasberg said.

“We are not expecting any district-wide teacher layoffs at this point,” Boasberg said.

The district gets more money for more students and for more poor students. Districts get federal Title 1 funds for students and schools that are extremely poor. Most of the money had stayed in the central administration budget, but DPS recently increased the amount siphoned directly to schools, Boasberg said.

Schools directly control about 65 percent of the district's budget, and about 30 percent is in centrally run programs, including transportation and athletics and certain special education programs.

All principals review budgets with central administration, and schools that perform poorly on district measurements work closely with Chief Academic Officer Ana Tilton, Boasberg said.

While some support staffing is required based on a ratio of students – such as psychologists and nurses – schools are given autonomy to determine what to spend and where.

So if a school needs more teachers for English Language Learners, the school can put more of its resources into getting those teachers. Or if a school wants to reduce class size, the school can focus on regular classroom teachers more than specialists or interventionists. And if a school gets an unexpected rise in enrollment following projections or the Oct. 1 count date, a reserve fund can move money to schools, district representatives and principals explained Jan. 19.

By giving each school freedom in their budgets, accountability supposedly increases because a school can't blame the central administration for requiring things, and principals and teachers must deliberate and discuss their priorities, said Cowell Elementary Principal Thomas Elliot.

“It also makes everything clearer and cleaner in that it's all relevant to our school improvement plan, and we don't have to get to a point where we have to explain things where you have to explain things with the budget,” Elliott said.

Cowell, at Sheridan Boulevard and West 10th Avenue, has 56 percent of English Language Learners and a transient population, Elliott said, which is similar to many schools in southwest Denver. Cowell had the greatest improvement on DPS measurements in the 2008-09 school year.

DPS increased the amount of money that goes to directly to schools for poor students in 2009 from $408 to $608. But next year the amount for poor students will decrease by $60 per student to about $550. Plus, some of the newer Title 1 funds are part of the federal stimulus package, which will expire in 2012 or before

Many of the plans for the student-based budgeting, as this greater autonomy in budgeting for schools is called, came about partly due to advocacy of the Metro Organizations of People, which was formed about a decade ago and started working with the district about five years ago for more transparent, simple, school-controlled budgets. Members of the Metro Organizations for People presented their history and observations at the Jan. 19 Board study session.

“Because of your advocacy, we're in a much better place than we were two years ago, three years ago. This is an effort we need to continue,” Boasberg said.

Preschool to stay the same
More affluent families will make up the cost of preschool for other families, Boaseberg said.
The district plans to increase the cost of Early Childhood Education for higher-income families, which will make up some of the state's reduction in funding.

“We do care about our preschool programs. We decided we're not going to cut preschool programs,” Boasberg said. “We are not going to decrease preschool services for kids in poverty. The kids who have more means and have the ability to pay are going to pay the market rate. It will allow us to cover our costs.”

The district also plans to keep the same quality.

“In other districts, preschool or the second half-day of kindergarten aren't taught by teachers. Ours are taught by teachers,” Boasberg said.

Other issues

• Reserves: The district plans to take $5 million from its reserves, although by doing so the district will still keep more than 4.2 percent of its budget for its reserves.
• PERA, the teachers retirement fund: Contributions will have to increase over the next few years, but Boasberg said he has to wait to see how much of that increase will be paid for by the district or directly by teachers.
• Textbooks and curriculum are still being aligned to the new state standards and to textbook budgets, which will take three to four months to complete, Tilton said.
• Principal are being evaluated not only on school performance but also on district-led principal evaluation and staff input, which were being done in January, Boasberg said.

Fundreds teach art as social justice, environmental awareness

Story by Joshua Cole; photos courtesy Peakview Elementary
(originally published in Jan. 21, 2010, Villager)


For many elementary school children, “art is just a picture on the refrigerator,” said Peakview Elementary School art teacher Darci Liley.

But at Peakview, students are learning the power of art in its historical significance and its appeal to create social awareness.

Since November, Peakview students, staff and parents have been creating “Fundreds.” An armored truck touring the nation is scheduled to pick up stacks of the cash, Jan. 29.

“Fundreds” are replacement bills – instead of Ben Franklin's picture on the front or the Capitol on the back, students are encouraged to draw their own faces and homes. When 3 million “Fundreds” are collected, artist Mel Chin, who created the program, plans to pull the armored truck to Congress and ask for $300 million to fix the lead-infested soil in New Orleans.

At the Jan. 29 Peakview assembly and “Fundreds” pickup, third-grade students plan on demonstrating to the rest of the school a process that cleans soil of lead, and the fifth-grade choir plans on singing a song about making a difference, Liley said.

“It's a very rich experience for these guys because it's teaching them about community, about social awareness, about the environment, and they get to be creative while they're doing it,” said Liley, who teamed with the school's other specials teachers on the project starting in November. “It teaches science, currency and history. It has a lot of layers.”

Peakview is at 19451 E. Progress Circle, in Centennial, near East Smoky Hill Road and South Tower Road. Overland High School is also a planned pickup location. The “Fundred” project is at fundred.org.

Cherry Creek Schools Hosts Community Forum

Story by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan. 21, 2010, Villager)

With parents, politicians, school districts and many media outlets focused on potentially dangerous cuts to education budgets, leaders of the Cherry Creek School District said they would take a night off to listen to parents' priorities, visions and concerns about education in the next decade.

Cherry Creek Schools had its second community forum Jan. 13 at Smoky Hill High School. The first was in December at Overland High School. A third forum is scheduled for Cherry Creek High School on Jan. 26.

“Deliberately, we are not talking about the budget,” said Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Mary Chesley to about 200 community members and district staff, Jan. 13. “We are talking about values.”

The forums are part of creating the District Performance Plan, which is required by the state as a way to set goals and priorities that align with the district's mission and values. A planning committee plans to review comments and create the five-year plan, which is scheduled to be reviewed and voted on at the May district Board of Education meeting.

The district's designed values and the mission – “To inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care” – are what the district has used in creating policies, but they're general. The performance plan is intended to provide more substance and specifics for the mission and values.

Education is in an era of high-stakes testing and accountability on state and national requirements. Curriculum is aligned realigned what seems annually. Technology shifts constantly. Children are identified with various behavioral differences. In Cherry Creek Schools, new neighborhoods are booming on the east side of the district and neighborhoods are aging on the west side. With all of the changes and all of the attention, school leaders, teachers and parents need to know what they're doing and what they want.

The forums were a chance for parents to talk about some of the things they want for their children in school.

“Our youngest boy is in fifth grade, so we still have seven more years in the district. We want to make sure we're getting the best for our sons,” said Dennis Jenkins, who attended the forum with his wife.

Jenkins said that he and other parents in his group were most concerned with students being labeled and limited by learning disorders or special education needs.

“The biggest thing we talked about was making sure our kids aren't stamped and would move through the system in a box,” Jenkins said.

A difficulty of neighborhood schools is that their size make them difficult to appeal to different types of students. So certain types of students, parents said, are treated differently. Students with special needs are set apart in various ways, while gifted students are pulled out at different times. Plus, the district's only magnet school for gifted students, the Challenge School, is at a northwest corner of the district, more than 30 minutes away for most students.

“Ideally, they should be doing that (things done at the Challenge School) in the neighborhood school, closer to home,” said Jenny McConnell, who has two middle school children at the Challenge School. “They don't walk home with other children if they go to the Challenge School. Driving to and from school, they're losing an hour every day. The neighborhood schools don't do what the Challenge School does for gifted students, aside from pull-outs, when the kids are expected to know what to do when they're not there.”

Parents, community members and district staff in one group set as their priority safe and secure schools, with warm and friendly staff – a comfortable environment to learn, to talk, to share and to be creative.

“Safety is a huge factor,” said Eddie Quinn, who has two girls, an eighth grader and a high school sophomore. “My experience with my kids, the elementary school was nice and comforting, but it became a little more threatening as kids grow up. Kids are more rambunctious as they get older. It concerns me. One of my girls is very confident, but the other is more shy.”

Parents and other community members can comment by e-mailing forums.feedback@cherrycreekschools.org

Heritage High honored at MLK breakfast

Story and photo by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan. 21, 2010, Villager)

For building a secondary school in a war-torn village of Africa, Heritage High School was honored with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award at the City of Littleton's 12th Annual MLK breakfast, Jan. 18.

Students at the school started raising money for community service projects in 2005. The first group of students raised $300 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation during a week or activities in April. The next year, students donated nearly $10,000 to send a girl with Leukemia to Disneyland. In 2007, students generated $14,000 for a variety of services in an African village – bikes and a concrete floor for a bakery, microloans for entrepreneurs, medical supplies for amputees, scholarships to school, food, clothes and sports equipment.

The last two years during Make a Difference (MAD) Week, students poured in nearly $45,000 to help build a secondary school in Kabala, Sierra Leone.

“Dr. King inspired all of us to try to go out and make a difference,” said Heritage Principal Ken Moritz. “This is a story of 1,600 Littleton teenagers, how they collectively over three years of committed work and effort built a school in a village where there was no school. Education is probably the most powerful tool we can give anyone in any society in any part of the world.”

Heritage Kabala was completed in August 2009 and opened in November. This April, Heritage students are raising money to build a similar school in India for the Dalit, members of the “untouchables” caste. For information or to donate, contact Tony Winger, twinger@lps.k12.co.us or 303-347-7600.

A history of Heritage in Sierra Leone and its MAD Week and a blog from Sierra Leone is also on Heritage's Web site.

Michelle Moss fought for southwest

Story and photo by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan. 7, 2010, Denver Herald-Disptach)

In February of 2006, Michelle Moss was conflicted. As she drew names of students would would attend the new West Denver Preparatory Charter School, she was going through the saddest day of her life.

Moss was serving as the southwest representative for the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. Southwest parents and community members voted her into the position in 2001 to help steer policy that would help make schools better. And she thought that schools – her schools – were failing what she wanted them to do.

“I watched primarily poor, Hispanic parents praying. They wanted out of schools so badly,” Moss said.

Those tears of pain would become tears of joy and of pride. West Denver Prep is a model for schools across the district, its students – mainly Hispanic, mainly economically poor, mostly academically weak when they enter – have scored with the most growth on standardized skills tests of any school across the district and with the highest total scores as eighth graders.

“Now I look at these wonderful kids and what Chris (Gibbons, head of West Denver Prep) has done, and I'm so proud of what has been done,” Moss said.

Moss helped bring West Denver Prep to southwest Denver families, one of the many schools and school reforms she fought for and argued for in her eight years on the Board. After two terms, the limit, Moss stepped down from the Board Nov. 30.

“I really believe DPS is a better place than when I got here 8 years ago,” Moss said. “It does my heart good to know the kids are better.”

Moss represented an area that many residents often claim is forgotten in other city agencies. At school board meetings and with district administrators, she made everyone pay attention to her area.

In one of her final acts, she convinced district staff to place a proposed charter school in southwest Denver. Multiple Pathways and Choice Academy was originally slated to go in northeast Denver, but when new charter schools applied for approval and none asked to be in her neighborhood, she changed that. Southwest Denver was the sector of the city with the highest dropout rate. The dropout rate was determined by the number of students who drop out of the district, including those who don't re-register.

“I made an impassioned plea to reevaluate where they would put the first center,” Moss said. “It made no sense to put it in northeast Denver instead of in the southwest. They were convinced.”

Moss's proudest achievement came near the end of her term – on something she worked to get done as soon as she started. The Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy opened in August 2009.
The school's grand opening – with singing, dancing, music and district dignitaries – to celebrate the completion of the playground was almost called off due to weather, but Moss joined the school's students, staff, a district coordinator and another Board member to chime in the opening of the district's first arts-based school. Although the Denver School of the Arts trains young painters, poets and designers, Kunsmiller doesn't require high-skilled artists; instead, the school increases art appreciation and uses art to enhance general subjects.

“I fought through three superintendents,” Moss said. “I knew that if we built it, they would come. It was a passion, it was a dream, and it's come true.”

Another battle nearly took Moss away from helping southwest students: her own bout with a rare form of muscle cancer. After seven months of chemotherapy, the cancer is all removed. With only a year left on the Board, many thought she would have left early. But she didn't. In fact, rather than drain her energy, the opposite was true: her work on the Board helped her to survive and gave her more reason to keep going.

“It was the Board work that got me through cancer,” Moss said. “I focused on the kids of Denver rather than the cancer.

Her return was an inspiration to others in the district.

“The last time I cried was when you came back,” said superintendent Tom Boasberg. “It was amazing to see you back. You're someone of such passion and brilliance, it's scary sometimes.”

More things change, the more they stay the same
Moss was elected to the Board after teaching language arts and debate for 13 years at Bear Creek High School, in Jefferson County Schools. When she came to the DPS Board, she “was the most liberal Democrat,” she said. “I didn't like charter schools. I didn't like vouchers. I supported the teachers union on everything.”

She saw the success of KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy, a middle school charter school that preceded West Denver Prep that has served a similar population and has regularly outpaced the district average in performance.

And Moss's beliefs on issues changed.

She took a tour early in her tenure, and she talked with students, staff and the leadership of the school.

“She's been incredibly supportive in who we are as a school as an organization and for the families of southwest Denver,” said Rich Barrett, KIPP founder.

She regularly stayed in touch with KIPP, talking with Barrett, when he was the school leader, at least once a year, and she visited at different times, including during a few Colorado state testing periods, Barrett said.

“We'll miss her, but she's still in the community, and we'll be in touch,” Barrett said. “She always cared about her kids. They were all of her kids in southwest Denver, and they weren't just the charters. It was something I loved about her. She just wanted the best education for everybody in the community.”

Moss's support for programs and policy changed, but her reasons didn't.

“The adults, in the long run, do not matter,” Moss said. “We have to serve the children. We can't serve ourselves.”

She finally can take some time to serve herself – well, her 14-year-old son as she said, Nov. 30, she was looking forward to being a full-time hockey mom.

Arapahoe technology students top at national conference

Kailyn Witonsky

(originally printed in the Jan. 7, 2010, issue of the Villager)
(story by Joshua Cole, photos courtesy of Colorado Technology Student Association)

Last summer, about 4,000 scientists converged in Denver to talk about environmental policy, breakthroughs in microbiology and efficiency and speed in creating racing boats and cars.

And, while smacking gum between their teeth, they also talked about pimples, movie explosions and the latest Jonas Brothers tour.

The scientists were middle school and high school students at the Technology Student Association (TSA) national conference and competition. Students competed in nearly 100 categories. Two Arapahoe High School students won first place in individual competition: Kailyn Witonsky was first place in “Career Comparison” and fifth in “Future Technology Teacher,” and Emily Haskins was first place in “Essays on Technology.” Witonsky is a sophomore this year and Haskins a junior.

Unlike robotics or computer clubs that stress building, creating and programming, TSAs stress community involvement and service, fund raising, research and writing. But they also have builds, competition and programming.

“It's more broad,” said David McMullen, Arapahoe High School's TSA sponsor. “Robotics club would just be a specific event. The TSA clubs have a lot more choice for their events. It's more than just computers. We use computers just as a tool. When we talk about technology, we talk about it as a tool like a hammer.”

Arapahoe was second-place for its animatronic chef. But its top place-winners were in essays and speeches. Haskins said that she's “more of a writing person” than a scientist.

“I think it just pushes you a lot to reach your potential,” Haskins said. “You have to meet all of these different requirements for the projects. I like meeting people at the conferences, and they're interesting people. It's appealing to a lot of different people because there are so many different topics. Fashion design, video, music production. It pertains to tons of different people, but it's not just building robots. It's not super-geeky, per se.”

Yet both students still said the club and learning about technology is important.

“Technology is advancing at such a speed, we as students don't need to learn content so much as the skills to find that content,” Witonsky said. “Anyone can Google certain facts, but we need to know how to utilize it. Because technology is vital, I need to stay up to date with it and use it to my advantages.”

Why would anyone voluntarily sign up and do a research project?

Competition, for one, some say. For most, though, they find something that they wouldn't have found out about in a regular science class and want to learn more.

“I really enjoy science. I know I wanted to do something in medical technology. I thought that was interesting,” Witonsky said. “I think that TSA has really made opportunities for me that I might not have taken advantage of that I wouldn't have done, like setting up an interview with a microbiolgist,” which was one of the requirements for her research.

Through the research, competition preparation and club discussions, students in the club learn what's out there in the technological and business world.

“Technology involves them in every aspect of their life,” McMullen said. “I like the hands-on and the applications that it does. It prepares them to be a little bit more well-rounded. It enables them to survive and be successful.”

Some topics that students learn include computer-aided design and drafting for architecture, video game design, and soldering on a circuit board.

Their work extends beyond the club and the classroom. Haskins was one of the main organizers for Arapahoe's Green Week in spring 2009.

Being in TSA, “it enhances my understanding of what's going on with our environment,” Haskins said. “I try to promote awareness to everyone I can.”

When students who participate in the club go to college, they're already ahead in looking for a job or understanding a career. Witonsky had a mock job interview in one competition, and she taught a classroom lesson during the other final.

“I think that science and technology, we need supplements because it's not being taught in the regular classroom,” Witonsky said. “I don't think I would be as aware of what the medical field would offer. I would be interested in it, but I don't think it would be aware of what it would entitle. I do think I would enjoy it.”

Emily Haskins

Local winners from the Technology Student Association (TSA) 2009 National Conference, in Denver
Middle school

• Newton Middle School, 7th in “Technology Transfer” (they shared this award with competition partner middle schools from Florida and Alabama).
• Euclid Middle School’s Dominic Martinez, 7th in the “Digital Photography Challenge.”
• Goddard Middle School, 4th in the “Leadership Challenge” and 5th in the “Technology Transfer Challenge” (an honor they shared with their competition partner Elizabeth Middle School).
  

High School

• Cherokee Train High School, 10th in “Radio Controlled Transportation.”
• Grandview High School’s Brenda Burns, 3rd in “CAD Engineering with Animation”.
• Arapahoe High School: Kailyn Witonsky, 1st in “Career Comparison,” 5th in “Future Technology Teacher;” Emily Haskins, 1st in “Essays on Technology;” Laine Greaves-Smith, 8th in “Technology Bowl-Written”. Teams: 2nd in “Technology Bowl,” 9th in “Debating Technological Issues,” and 9th in “Formula 1 Racing Car Technology Challenge.”
• Heritage High School, 3rd in the “Animatronics,” 5th in “Electronic Game Design,” 5th in “Electronic Research and Experimentation,” 9th in “Formula 1 Racing Car Technology Challenge,” 10th in “Technology Dare” (concerning the application and control of mechanical fluid and electrical power), and 10th in “Agriculture and Biotechnology Design.”
• Littleton High School: Micah Corah, 4th in “Transportation Modeling;” Chip Bollendonk, 5th in “Essays on Technology” and 6th in “Career Comparisons”. Teams: 6th in “Technology Problem Solving.”

Gust students perform holiday songs

(Originally printed in the Dec. 24, 2009, Denver Herald-Dispatch)
(photos by Joshua Cole)

Grisell Rios, 4, sits with Santa Claus in the hallway of Gust Elementary School, Dec. 18. The school's eight classrooms of early childhood education had two singing performances and a chance to meet Santa Claus on the last day of school before winter break.

Qalil Freeman, Audrey Gammon and Madeline Dowdle sing and clap during the performance. Chidlren sang and danced to “We wish you a Merry Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reeindeer,” “Jingle Bells” and “Feliz Navidad.”

In the post-concert reception back in class, Genesis Loya-Tadeo and Karen Hernandez say good-bye for the winter break to their teacher (center), Rachel Bernard.

David Grajada-Gonzalez and Luis Fibueroa-Chacon raise their hands to wish their parents a Merry Christmas in the song “Feliz Navidad.”

Isabella Trillo, Andreas Casales and Jeanette Blea are decked out in red tops with fancy hats. Children dressed up for the concert with either a santa cap, an elf hat or antlers.

Madison Tafoya projects her voice through the auditorium.

Brysen Jaramillo.

And the Band Played On: Goldrick Elementary music concert

(originally printed Dec. 24, 2009, in the Denver Herald-Dispatch)
(story and photos by Joshua Cole)

The halls of Goldrick Elementary School were silenced this school year, but not for long.

When Goldrick Elementary School's (1050 South Zuni Street, on West Mississippi Avenue) size diminished so much that the number of students could no longer justify getting a half-day band teacher to come and instruct students in grades 3, 4 and 5, the school's music coordinator Kathy Miller was worried that instrumental music wouldn't return to the school. But in late September, it did.



Miller started teaching music lessons after school for anybody at the school who wanted to take a lesson. Students weren't required to join, but they had to commit to coming once a week after school for an hour and to practicing at home, at an aunt's house, at school or somewhere else every day.

Even though the music teacher had left, the music – and the instruments to make it – didn't. There were still guitars at the school, on South Zuni Street and West Mississippi Avenue. Each Wednesday afternoon, 25 students stayed after school for lessons, and they checked out the guitars every other day to practice at home. Ten students signed up for piano lessons, coming in for formal lessons on Thursday afternoons. Tuesdays were for the choir.

Principal Maria Uribe and Assistant Principal Martha Torres de Dominguez were so impressed, they signed up for piano lessons, too, playing next to the kids.

“It's so important to keep the music and arts in our program because of our children that don't do well academically will do well in the arts area,” Miller said. “It helps their self-esteem. It helps them in their mental and physical development and in their coordination.”

On Dec. 15, the students' initial lessons culminated in a musical performance at the school, with performances by the guitarists, singers and pianists.

“It makes a lot of beautiful sounds; it gets people's attention by all of the beautiful notes,” said fifth-grader piano player Melissa Garcia.

Miller plans to have another concert in May and a third-grade play about the life cycle, called “Nuts,” in late February or March.



Picture captions:
1. (top) Some of the Goldrick guitarists, from left, Cassie Ortiz, Ashley Jaquez, Christina Phelps, Aliya Ellid and Lesley Terrazas. Goldrick Elementary's instrumental music program was taken away this year, but students still volunteered for after-school lessons and performed at a school concert Dec. 15.
2. Goldrick Assistant Principal Martha Torres de Dominguez and student Joshua Truong play the piano during the school's winter music concert. Torres de Dominguez and Goldrick's principal, Maria Uribe, took piano lessons with students.
3. Ariana Corral and Joshua Truong lug bags for their choir song, “Joy to the world, my shopping's done.”
4. Kathy Miller, who has taught at Goldrick for 10 years, ran after-school lessons three days a week, one day each for guitarists, singers and pianists.