From the archives: CMS Comunity School

Story and photos by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan. 15, 2009, Denver Herald-Dispatch. Story related to one published in the Feb. 4, 2010, Denver Herald-Dispatch)

CMS Community School brings everyone together



Photo caption: English teacher Ann Larson helps second grader Alejandra Montes, a native Spanish speaker, during literacy. CMS Community School's dual-language program encourages bilingual learners.

On its 50th anniversary, Charles M. Schenck Elementary School changed its name, and it's more than just to ensure that people don't mispronounce it.

CMS Community School's new moniker reflects the growing collaboration and cooperation among and between parents, families, children, teachers and staff.

CMS applied for and got distinction from Denver Public Schools as a Beacon Learning School, earning distinctions and grants to fund various programs that promote its unique situation, including after-school activities, parent classes and seminars, and teacher training.

Teaching children means teaching parents
Although a teacher can only control what goes on in his or her classroom, support in the hours a child is at home only helps a teacher further education goals. All parents want their children to succeed, but often times, either resources may be limited or parents may not know what to do, especially parents that don't know English. In the southwest community, many parents also grew up in a different country and culture, so their expectations of school are different.

“People are eager to help their family and their kids, and it's our job to put it out there,” said CMS Community Liaison Morgain Sanchez.

At CMS, the staff and faculty have reached out to the community on a schoolwide level—not just at parent-teacher conferences, or phone calls or letters home.

All of the parent programs are headed by Sanchez, hired in 2007-08 as the liaison.

In CMS's three-tiered approach, the school provides education for parents, with English classes at different times of the day, and seminars on children's expectations and ways that parents can help with homework. In the second tier, the building is also a place for parents to learn with other families, including seminars on legal issues, exercise, health, CPR and a 12-week class focused on women issues and mental health. Between 15 and 60 parents come to each presentation.

“I like it because it's an open door for the parents,” said Armida Solis, a parent who is learning English and volunteers twice a week. “

After reaching out to help the community, the school then gives parents a chance to give back to CMS. Some parents help in a classroom multiple times per week, and most parents do something at the school at least once per week. Parents run the weekly nacho sale, a fund raiser each Friday after school, currently gaining money for a SMART board in the music classroom. About once a month, parents spend a day organizing classrooms, paper or other materials so that teachers can spend more time on planning or other activities. Annually, the parent leadership organized the carnival.

“You have to get people in the door first,” said Principal Kristin Nelson-Steinhoff. “You have to get them comfortable. You have to create that sense of community. You have to do all of those things before you can talk about schools and kids and academics.”

Photo caption: Maricrus Coria and Brenda Lopez figure out and trace geometric shapes in their first grade literacy squared classroom (Spanish speakers that learn mostly in Spanish through second grade).

Respecting language, respecting culture, respecting each other
When students first learn English in school, they get three years of sheltered learning before they're expected to be fluent enough in English to be in full English classes. Oftentimes, students become proficient readers and writers in their first language only through the third grade, while their English remains low.

“They may speak Spanish when they come out of schools, but their literacy is at a third-grade level in Spanish,” Sanchez said.

CMS is trying to build bilingual readers and writers, not only their skills but also their confidence.

“I don't want my kids to lose their culture,” said Solis, who has three children at CMS.

In CMS's dual-language program, students learn for half of the day in English and half of the day in Spanish. Students are split between two classrooms. One group is strong in Spanish, while the other is strong in English. In the morning, they learn reading, writing and math in their at-home language, and in the afternoon they switch for reading, writing and math in the other language.

For two periods of the day, half of the English-speaking students work with half of the Spanish-speaking students on either Spanish or English (the language for the shared class switches each week).

Spanish-speaking students not only learn from the teacher, but also learn and teach each other.
Sanchez's son Agustin is a native English speaker in second grade of the dual-language program.

“It's the only program where Spanish is honored,” Sanchez said. “Their Spanish is very valuable. My son is fascinated by learning Spanish, and he thinks that the Spanish speakers are geniuses, the kids that are already bilingual are unbelievable.”

Further, students learn a second language at the same rate they're learning a first language. The average English reading level for English-speaking first graders in 2008 in the dual language program at CMS was about the same for first graders at CMS in the normal English class.

In Ann Larson's second-grade afternoon literacy class, about half of the class had a hand raised, eager to share a sentence or story. Larson was teaching English for the native Spanish speakers. Saul, who had been looking at the ground, confused, anxiously raised his hand to share his breakfast. “I eat, uh, eggs (pause) for breakfast,” he got out. Ms. Larson congratulated him for sharing, and a big smile spread across his face.

“Especially the native Spanish speakers, they're talking more,” said first grade dual-language teacher Gina Torres.

Two out of four classes in kindergarten, first and second grade are dual-language classes. One other is a literacy squared class (mostly taught in Spanish for grades K-2), and the fourth classroom is taught in English. The dual-language program started only three years ago at CMS, and it is rolling through each grade until the whole school has it.

“Our vision is, our hope is to create high-level bilinguals, kids that can read and write and speak and understand both English and Spanish at high levels,” Nelson-Steinhoff said. “Those will be our future professionals.”

After the normal school hours, CMS provides dance, gym, sports as well as academic tutoring, all free.

Teachers learning and working together
CMS has also ensured that the teachers are more involved with each other and the students.

Because teachers in the dual-language program switch students in the middle of each day, they talk in the middle to make sure that they're at the same place in the curriculum and that they're not repeating anything.

In December 2007, the Colorado Department of Education audited the school, finding all strengths and weaknesses in the school. All staff members, including the custodians, helped form the action plan on the school's top goals.

Half of the teachers (20 out of 40) started last winter earning a Master's degree in bilingual education together. Instead of traveling to Boulder or to downtown Denver, each Tuesday a professor from the University of Colorado visits the school.

After declining in student population, the school has increased enrollment the last three years. Parents who move out of the neighborhood keep their children at CMS. Teachers have a high retention rate, Nelson-Steinhoff said. And parents are always roaming the school, helping teachers and children excited and happy to be in a positive, caring community.

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 approved and art show

Early College, a charter high school on South Federal Boulevard near West Darmouth Avenue, was approved to get a 3-year renewal of its charter license at the DPS Board pf Education meeting Nov. 30.

On Dec. 4, the school will be host to its first annual Art and Culture night, from 5:30-9 p.m., with art and performances (dance, music, poetry). See next week's blog and next week's Denver Herald-Dispatch (publication Dec. 10) for pictures and a story.

Info on the school (also in the Dec. 3 DHD):

Link to Southwest Early College

Southwest Early College, which started in 2004 and has about 330 students in grades 9-12, focuses on giving students a chance to take college courses and earn an associate's degree while enrolled in high school.

Faced with problems, the school's board of directors hired Scott Rubin as its new principal in 2008. The school's academic performance showed a better median growth percentile compared with similar schools in 2009, bumping the school from “accredited on watch” in 2008 to “meets expectations” for the 2009 district School Performance Framework.

Survivor: DPS School Board

Michelle Moss, right, gets congratulated and hugged by Board President Theresa Pena as Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg waits behind them. Moss, who was term-limited, was praised at a congratulatory send-off, Nov. 30. She wasn't so happy earlier in the night, though, when her elected replacement unexpectedly took office seven hours earlier than she was scheduled to and denied Moss her final votes.
Photo by Joshua Cole




(Note: This complete article will be printed in the Dec. 3 Denver Herald-Dispatch. A feature on Michelle Moss's history on the board is scheduled to be printed in the Dec. 10 DHD.)

The Nov. 30 DPS Board meeting started out like an episode of Survivor rather than the celebratory send-off for leaving members.

Just as the meeting was starting, new Denver Public Schools Board Member Andrea Merida blindsided Michelle Moss, the member she was scheduled to replace later in the night.

As Michelle Moss stepped up to the dais for her final meeting as representative for southwest Denver on Denver Public Schools Board of Education, Merida told Moss to take a seat – somewhere else.

Holding the certification, Merida said, “I was sworn in this afternoon and you can't vote,” Moss recalled.

Merida, who won the fall election to replace the term-limited Moss, was sworn in at noon on Nov. 30, the Board announced. She had been scheduled to be sworn in after a special meeting. By getting sworn in early, Merida denied Moss her final votes, including a proposed new high school in southwest Denver and the fate of a middle school on northwest Denver.

New at-large representative Mary Seawell and northeast representative Nate Easley were sworn in at the originally scheduled time.

“That was probably one of my low points of service,” Moss said. “It's a classic example of putting yourself over the needs of the kids. I have served on this board for eight years and have never been accused of not putting our students first.”

In the end, after three hours of deliberation, Merida's votes didn't swing the rest of the Board. The main issue concerned co-locating a charter school and restructuring the leadership of the current program at Lake Middle School, next to Sloan's Lake about West 20th Avenue and Perry Street. The Board approved the motion 4-3, with Merida, Jeannie Kaplan and Arturo Jimenez voting against the change.

“I'm a (military) veteran, and I swore to uphold the Constitution. I had to make a stand,” Merida said.

Merida also joined Jimenez in voting against bringing an alternative high school to southwest Denver next school year – a school that had been proposed to first be put in northeast Denver. But Moss argued with the superintendent to place it in the southwest, and she won. Multiple Pathways and Choice Academy was passed by a 5-2 vote. The school would be an alternative school: a small-school, “family-friendly” environment geared toward students who may have acted like misfits in a regular school or who may be leaving jail. It doesn't have a plan for students with severe needs or students who need a self-contained environment.

Andrea Merida takes her place on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. Merida was scheduled to be sworn in after a special meeting, Nov. 30, but she was sworn in the earlier, shocking the rest of the Board and Michelle Moss, the term-limited Board member she was replacing.
Photo by Joshua Cole

“I made an impassioned plea to reevaluate where they would put the first charter,” Moss said. “We have a huge number of dropouts in southwest Denver.”

Merida said her decisions on the Board weren't to deny change, but to delay in order to hear more voices from the community and get more detailed data. Members who voted in opposition to Merida didn't want to delay indefinitely.

“One of the cornerstones of my platform was community engagement,” said Merida, who won the fall's election by 116 votes, or about 1.1 percent. “Even though there are good-faith reasons, we missed the essential component of community engagement. We haven't taken those opinions and hard work and the sweat from the brows of the people that send their children to school every day.”

With Pathways, Jimenez said that the school didn't have “enough meat,” meaning that the proposal lacked some specifics.

Other members of the Board noted that the the Multiple Pathways proposal wasn't complete, but they disagreed that it should be denied an opportunity to open.

“For four years on the Board, I've been waiting for more meat on the bones,” said at-large member Jill Conrad. “It is something I have waited for for a long time. There are some remaining questions, but I am happy to vote in support of it.”

She added, “This one's for Michelle.”

Former supporter

When Merida told Moss she couldn't sit down, Theresa Pena, the Board's president who had sat adjacent to Moss, hissed into the microphone, “Arturo, you have to win by any means necessary.”

Moss teared up and spoke out against her replacement.

Then, leaning on her cane, Moss, who fought cancer this year, limped out of the Board room, her head sunk, her eyes scrunched in anger.

Moss had endorsed Merida in Merida's election bid. Moss recorded a robo call, gave her advice and encouraged others to endorse her.

“I wish her success because the children of southwest Denver deserve it,” Moss said.

Moss said she won't talk to Merida.

During a break in the Board meeting, Merida told reporters, “I regret the emotional impact on Michelle Moss; I do not regret that the voters' voices were heard. If I had the opportunity to talk to her again, I would continue to apologize.”

Following the meeting, as Moss was talking to the Denver Herald-Dispatch in an office next to the Board room, Merida, silent, snuck in past Moss and just as quickly went out, her face half-hidden behind a certificate. Other Board members, community members and school leaders filed into the room for a quick hug, congratulations and good-bye, and Moss welcomed them with a warm smile, eye contact and open arms. When Kaplan entered, Moss, her tone of voice cold, kept her eyes on the table she was sitting at and refused Kaplan's request to talk.

Change coming

Merida has said that she is not against charters or changes to schools, but she is a proponent for looking at alternative choices. Jimenez echoed that sentiment.

“There's nobody against turnaround strategies,” Jimenez said. “No one is anti-charter. The community process is something we have not perfected yet. It is always important to begin with the data but not end with the data.”

However, even if the way that Merida, Jimenez and, at times, Kaplan voted weren't meant as knocks on charters, they did represent a shift from the quick and substantial change that the superintendent and the Board had been moving toward to improve student achievement in the district.

“The proposal isn't just about where to locate a charter school; it is about getting serious about matching real, timely effective solutions,” Conrad said. “These kids need a 'game-changer' at this point of their life.”

Schools in Denver are in desperate need of change, the superintendent and other Board members said.

“It is shameful we are a school district in 2009 where students of color and Hispanic students are 35 points behind our Caucasian students,” superintendent Tom Boasberg said. “In past years, it seemed there was an unwillingness to take on challenges. We’re seeing progress in our system, but it’s not fast enough. We still have too many students who aren’t on track to graduate from high school ready for success in college and careers. We owe it to our kids – to all of our kids – to make the very difficult but necessary decisions to give them far better opportunities than they have today.”

The actions at the Nov. 30 meeting gave concern to many, including the superintendent.

“This game of political destruction is so sad because it can serve to destroy only one thing: the hopes and opportunities of Denver students,” Boasberg told reporters after the meeting.