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.

Southwest Early College Art and Culture Show

(Originally published in the Dec. 10 Denver Herald-Dispatch)
(story and photos by by Joshua Cole)

It's difficult to get teenagers excited too often, especially at school, but at the Southwest Early College Art and Culture Night, hundreds of teenagers and their families hooted and hollered, clapped and cat-called, laughed and screamed for nearly two hours at the school's little auditorium, Dec. 4.

And they yelled and applauded for a variety of performers: poets, beat makers, ballroom dancers, hip-hop/break dancers and a rock band.

“It was phenomenal. It was energizing. It was unforgettable,” said sophomore Omar Reza, who read poetry, and danced ballroom, hip hop and break. “I expected fewer people because it's a small school. It was very supportive, and it was a great crowd. They had a lot of energy, and they never got bored.”

Having the little auditorium filled to capacity at Colorado Heights University, where Southwest Early College is based, energized and inspired performers, most of whom had either never performed in front of a crowd or never in front of a crowd so large.

With her estranged mom in the audience, junior Christina Langfield read her untitled poem about running away from home, living in the streets, not getting allowed back with her family, yet still dreaming and hoping for a happy reunion.

“Before I read it, I was really nervous,” Langfield said. “There was a lot of energy. My friends helped me, and I read it.”

The act of performing was also a catharsis and made her feel better.

“It got out a lot of emotion,” Langfield said. “This was about letting my mom know how I felt. Knowing she was listening, it made me feel relieved.”

Like Langfield, many poets spoke about their personal perspectives and struggles, including Jesus Reza, who dressed up in a poncho and a sombrero. Reza made jokes about being a Mexican, but then he ended more serious, about how he gets frustrated being looked down upon and stereotyped.

Emmanuel Delgado spoke from a political perspective.

“Everybody was calling my name, and I felt appreciated. That's what helped me speak,” Delgado said.

Southwest Early College is a charter high school – a public school of choice – with a student population of about 300 students. The school doesn't have sports teams (although students can join the teams of nearby high schools), so getting students to rally together has hardly happened since the school started in 2004 and needs to be something different and unique – which the Art and Culture Night provided. Also, unlike many larger schools, where different groups would have performances on different nights – such as dance programs one night and music another – one advantage for the small-sized Southwest Early College was to put everything together.

(Go to Southwest Early College's Web site)

More role models

College Literacy teacher Lisa Levad organized the event following an informal study she performed last spring. Although freshman enrollment had stayed consistent at the high school, many of the upper-class students had been leaving before graduating with a high school diploma – and an Associate's Degree, one of the draws and promises in an early college program. An Associate's Degree usually takes two or more years after high school.

One of the main problems Levad found: there weren't many good male role models for students, nor were there connections to the school.

“It was research for myself,” Levad said. “I wanted to help the school.”

In late September, Levad took a ballroom dance class for herself, and after talking with the instructor she got him to volunteer twice a week at the school for her students. About 40 students practiced regularly and then performed Dec. 4.

“What really impressed me was that there were more boys than girls when it started,” Levad said.

Soon, the Art and Culture Night came together as a way for the ballroom dance students to show off their newly learned skills. And all of the other clubs could show everybody else what they do as well.

Before the performances, artists displayed their canvasses, and a student-created documentary played. The robotics club ran a contest to raise money.

“They're all in their little enclaves. I wanted to bring them all together,” Levad said.

Levad is optimistic for the rest of not only the semester but also the lives of her teenagers. All of the volunteer instructors were male: band supervisor Stephan Hume, of Band Dynamics; hip-hop/break dance leader Ray-Ray Maestas, with Get With It; ballroom dance teacher Micah Spiers, or Fred Astaire Dance Studio; beat maker Maki Lucero, with Latenite Productions; and Micah Sturr, a teacher at the school, helped make the documentary.

“My male students could see there are other people to look up to,” Levad said. All of the students at the school “were so proud of each other. I loved that the kids recognized one another and celebrated each other. It fills my heart.”

Picture identifications (photos by Joshua Cole)

1. Jesus Reza dresses up to perform his poem about being a Mexican. He joked – “It's better to be 'wet' than to be red in the neck” – but also was serious – taking off his sombrero and describing the pain of being a chubby Latino, he said, “Just because I'm Mexican doesn't mean I'm stupid.”

2. Ray-Ray Maestas does a hand stand during the break dance performance, part of a thrilling acrobatic conclusion to the night.

3. Analisa Martinez and Omar Reza dance the tango during Southwest Early College's Art and Culture Night, Dec. 4. The little auditorium at Colorado Heights University was packed with screaming teenagers and their families to watch the night of ballroom dancing, break dancing, hip hop, rock music and poetry, all performed by the high school's students.

4. Students congratulate on stage Southwest Early College teacher Lisa Levad, who organized the Art and Culture Night as a way to increase pride and identify at the 300-student school.