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.