This Month at the DPS Board Archives

This Month at the DPS Board

This Month at the DPS Board | 09/29/2022

Vallerie Bustamante Organizer

Welcome to the September edition of “This Month at the DPS Board”, a monthly newsletter sharing information about the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education.

Our goal is simple: to share what is happening at school board meetings so you can engage with the board and the district even if you cannot attend hours of meetings every month.

Work Session-September 1,2022

Strategic Roadmap Update

The Board work session began with an update on the Strategic Roadmap. Dr. Marrero shared an overview of the roadmap and talked about implementation. The goal is to accelerate growth for marginalized students. There are three ways in which this will be done: elevating student experience, adult experience, and system experience. By fall of 2022, they will build organizational functions, identify leaders for each strategy, work on how they will get from current state to future state, and create a timeline and change management.

Overview of Redistricting Process

District staff gave an update about the redistricting process. Colorado state statute requires Denver Public Schools (DPS) to redistrict after each federal census to ensure all districts are equal in population as much as possible. A division of districts will be presumed compliant with the equal protection clause if the maximum population deviation between the largest and smallest district is less than 10%. Currently there is a huge gap in population between District 2 and District 4. The guiding principles are to balance total population in schools, to maintain minimal impact on racial and ethnic concentrations, align with city precedents, to minimize the number of impacted families because of the process, and to incorporate natural boundaries. There is a timeline on to how this process will look and a final vote on February 25, 2023.

Superintendent Evaluation Timeline

The board gave a timeline for Superintendent Marrero’s evaluation. All board members will be part of this process. There will be opportunities for engagement leading up to the November 14 evaluation.

Board Topics Forecast & Agenda Review

Staff shared a forecast of topics for future meetings.

Public Comment and Progress Monitoring – September 19, 2022

Progress Monitoring Report

Staff reported an overview of state assessment data including CMAS, PSAT, SAT, and READ Act assessment results. Staff shared aggregated data of students meeting grade level expectations, also referred to as “proficient by staff, as set by the state in Math and Literacy and results disaggregated by student group. Results will be used as a baseline for setting 2026 targets.

Some key points from the presentation include:

59% of K-2 students are proficient in literacy
Across all student groups, the percentage of K-2 students scoring at grade-level and above decreased and the percentage of students scoring significantly below grade-level increased compared to pre-pandemic rates
Fewer than half of multi-lingual learners are reading at grade level and 1/3 are significantly below grade level
Less than 1/3 of students are proficient in math; in middle school more than half of students are not even approaching expectations indicating a substantial need for additional Math instructional support
Overall, there are tremendous gaps between white students and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students.

Several board members shared their concerns about persisting performance gaps, including the accuracy and relevancy of assessment data, asked for data to represent intersectional student identities and called for staff to not “speak about learning in a deficit mindset”, calling it “highly problematic”.

View the full data presentation here.

Why Ethnic Names Matter

Vice President Anderson shared a presentation on his decision to reclaim his given name, Auon’tai, sharing historical context and his personal story to ensure students in DPS do “not feel afraid or disappointed to use their given name if they so choose.” View his presentation here.

Public Comment

Community expressed their opinions on variety of topics through public testimony. You can sign up here for public comment and speak directly to the board about what matters to you.

Board Meeting – September 22, 2022

Hispanic Heritage Month

John F Kennedy High School students shared a presentation they developed to help educate their school and during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Minority Women Business Entrepreneurs (MWBE) Presentation

DPS has had a program to track and support women and minority owned businesses in Denver for over 20 years and is the only district in Colorado with such a program. They offer monthly workshops, networking settings, and other opportunities to support local minority and women owned businesses. The presentation offered a look into the supports and investments they make by ethnicity. Board members raised concerns over the disparity shown in Black owned businesses. Staff shared those concerns and said they have been working to prioritize increasing those numbers. The board asked for regular reports.

Consent Agenda

The board voted to approve a variety of items on the consent agenda including funding for various school construction projects and the personnel transaction report.

Teacher Dismissal Recommendation

The board considered a teacher dismissal recommendation from the Superintendent. All information was kept confidential and only presented to board members.

This Month at the DPS Board

This Month at the DPS Board | 08/31/2022

Stand for Children

Welcome to the August edition of “This Month at the DPS Board”, a monthly newsletter sharing information about the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education.

Our goal is simple: to share what is happening at school board meetings so you can engage with the board and the district even if you cannot attend hours of meetings every month. You will find a brief overview of the topics discussed during each meeting and then expanded articles on those items below.

Work Session – August 11, 2022

Meeting Summary: Students and leaders representing the Student Voice and Leadership program introduced their goals and plans for the 22-23 school year. The Denver Special Education Advisory Council (DSEAC) proposed a district-wide policy to facilitate targeted community education around the disability experience. The DPS Board engaged in a team building discussion.

Student Voice and Leadership

The first DPS Board Work Session began with Student Voice and Leadership (SVL) presentations. SVL programs are for DPS students that are interested in building youth leadership, civic engagement, dismantling systemic issues in DPS.

The Denver Special Education Advisory Council

The Denver Special Education Advisory Council (DSEAC) presented. The DSEAC is a district-level committee that provides recommendations to the Director of Special Education, the Superintendent and the Board of Education. They reported that students with disabilities express feeling misunderstood and undervalued as a part of their classrooms and school communities. The Council proposed a “district-wide policy to facilitate targeted community education and empowerment around the disability experience”.

Finance and Audit Committee – August 15, 2022

Meeting Summary: DPS staff reported on changes to local property taxes and in the state legislature and how changes will impact the Mill Levy finances. The committee discussed a possible opportunity to refinance obligation bonds. The Denver Scholarship Foundation requested approval for their annual contract along with a 3% cost of living increase. Schools and institutions presented proposals for projects for the Board to analyze and potentially approve under consent agenda items.

Denver Property Taxes and Denver Public Schools

The Finance and Audit Committee meeting began reporting on recent changes to local property taxes which will impact the mill levy certification by the Board of Education in December.

During the past 4 months, there were some actions that will lead DPS to change its process in Mill Levy revenue. There was an error found in the Net Assessed Value (AV) for all property in Denver. AV is used by the Board of Education to set taxes for property owners in Denver through the Mill Levy Certification. The AV was overstated by $500 million due to double counting of properties by the Assessor’s Office in the City and County of Denver, which will result in $29.5M less in revenue collection from the Denver Loval Property Taxpayers in schools year 2021-22. DPS plans to recover by requesting the state legislature to supply the state funding from the School Finance Act and generate revenue through the abatement process for Mill Levy Overrides and Bond program in the next year.

The taxes that make up the Mill Levy Certification are the School Finance Act, Mill Levy Overrides, Special Revenue Mill Levy Override, and Bond Redemption. DPS Staff discussed changes that occurred in the last 6 months on each of the different components.

DPS Staff also explained how the property taxes in Denver are calculated and how they impact the Mill Levy funding for DPS.

Bond Redemption Fund Update & Refinancing Opportunity

DPS has an opportunity to refinance the 2012B issuance of bonds that will save taxpayers because DPS’ General Obligation Bonds will cost less. The Bonds are the general obligations of the district and are secured by the district’s full faith and credit. All taxable property within the boundaries of the district is subject to proportionate property taxation without limitation as to rate.

Denver Scholarship Foundation Contract

The Denver Scholarship Foundation is requesting approval of the annual Denver Scholarship Foundation contract including a 3% cost of living increase. The Denver Scholarship Foundation is a partner with DPS that supports students to receive the opportunities to attend post-secondary education and career.

Other Proposals for the Consent Agenda

There were multiple other proposals presented to the committee such as Denison Montessori School to initiate their cooling project, Stedman Elementary School to initiate their cooling and elevator project, and more.

Public Comment and Progress Monitoring Session – August 22, 2022

Meeting Summary: DPS staff discussed the continued guidance for Covid-19, several celebrations for the 2022-23 school year kick-off, and how the new strategic roadmap – DPS Thrives, will guide the school year. This progress monitoring session focused on the data derived from on-track monitoring and graduation requirements in the class of 2022. Community expressed their opinions on variety of topics through public testimony. You can sign up here for public comment and speak directly to the board about what matters to you.

Return to School Presentation

DPS staff discussed the continued guidance for COVID-19, several celebrations for the 2022-2023 school year kick-off, and how the new strategic roadmap – DPS Thrives, will guide the school year.

DPS is aiming to sustain in-person learning by continuing regular meetings with local health officials and hosting two cost-free PCR testing sites. They also announced that they will no longer maintain a COVID-19 dashboard.

DPS staff briefly spoke about the new strategic roadmap and the main areas of focus for improvement included in the plan. The work is divided into three focus areas; adult, student, and system experience. The actions outlined in the plan are grounded in the following priorities: equity, accelerating learning, and transformative social emotional and academic learning. Overall, they are focused on two key factors which are student experience and student and adult experience. Under the student experience focus the roadmap prioritizes strong and consistent teaching and learning cycle and under the student and adult experience the plan prioritizes a safe and welcoming district that will provide an equitable and humanizing experience for all DPS community.

Focus on Class of 2022

DPS staff discussed the context of graduation requirements and competency opportunities such as standardized testing as well as course options such as concurrent enrollment. The following are some of the data highlights shared:

For the Class of 2022 at the end of last year, 67% of students, across all schools, were On Track to meet all graduation requirements
For students in the Class of 2023 at the end of their junior year, 45% had Met or were On Track to meet credits and competency requirements

Over 1,500 students earned the Seal of Biliteracy and DPS held a higher completion rate for FAFSA than the state overall.

Board Meeting – August 25, 2022

Meeting Summary: DPS staff presented an overview of what the consent decree entails and why DPS adopted it.

Modified Consent Decree Presentation

DPS staff presented an overview of what the Consent Decree entails. DPS serves the largest number of multilingual learners in Colorado. Spanish is the most spoken language with one out of three students speaking Spanish at home. The Consent Decree was established to fight oppressive systems that do not allow for linguistic equity.

They shared information about the events that led to the creation of the Consent Decree. It started with the West High School walkouts and led to the US District Court finding that DPS violated the 1974 Equal Educational Opportunities Act in 1984. DPS went back to court in 1999 for contempt for failure to implement the 1984 court order.

In summary, the Consent Decree ensures that

Multilingual Learners are correctly identified, placed with trained teachers, and are receiving MLE/ELA program services in alignment with requirements and parent choice.
The MLE/ELA program is designed to ensure that Multilingual Learners are acquiring both language and content, that their teachers, paraprofessionals, principals & their evaluators receive ongoing training.
All families of multilingual learners are engaged in a language they understand and have access to interpretation and translation services.

DPS staff further explained the 10 chapters the consent decree requires DPS to fulfill.

ENGAGE WITH THE BOARD

Do you want to let the board know your thoughts on any of these topics? You can sign up for public comment and speak directly to the board about what matters to you. You can sign up here.

Bienvenidos a la edición de agosto de “Este mes en la Junta de DPS”, un boletín mensual que comparte información sobre la Junta de Educación de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS).

Nuestro objetivo es simple: compartir lo que está sucediendo en las reuniones de la junta escolar para que pueda participar con la junta y el distrito, incluso si no puede asistir a horas de reuniones cada mes.

Sesión de trabajo – 11 de agosto de 2022

La voz y el liderazgo de los estudiantes

La primera sesión de trabajo de la Junta de DPS comenzó con presentaciones de Voz y Liderazgo Estudiantil (SVL). Los programas SVL son para los estudiantes de DPS que están interesados en construir el liderazgo de los jóvenes, el compromiso cívico, el desmantelamiento de los problemas sistémicos en DPS.

El Consejo Asesor de Educación Especial de Denver

El Consejo Asesor de Educación Especial de Denver (DSEAC) presentó. El DSEAC es un comité del distrito que proporciona recomendaciones al Director de Educación Especial, al Superintendente y a la Junta de Educación. Reportaron que los estudiantes con discapacidades expresan sentirse incomprendidos e infravalorados en sus aulas y comunidades escolares. El Consejo propuso una “política de todo el distrito para facilitar la educación de la comunidad dirigida y el empoderamiento sobre la experiencia de la discapacidad“.

Comité de Finanzas y Auditoría – 15 de agosto de 2022

Impuestos sobre la propiedad de Denver y escuelas públicas de Denver

La reunión del Comité de Finanzas y Auditoría comenzó informando sobre los recientes cambios en los impuestos locales sobre la propiedad que tendrán un impacto en la certificación de la recaudación de impuestos por parte del Consejo de Educación en diciembre.

Durante los últimos 4 meses, hubo algunas acciones que llevarán a DPS a cambiar su proceso en los ingresos de Mill Levy. Se encontró un error en el Valor Neto Evaluado (AV) para todas las propiedades en Denver. El AV es utilizado por la Junta de Educación para fijar los impuestos de los propietarios en Denver a través de la Certificación Mill Levy. El AV fue sobrestimado en $500 millones debido al doble conteo de las propiedades por parte de la Oficina del Asesor en la Ciudad y el Condado de Denver, lo que resultará en $29.5M menos en la recaudación de ingresos de los contribuyentes de propiedades de Denver Loval en el año escolar 2021-22. DPS planea recuperarse solicitando a la legislatura estatal que suministre los fondos estatales de la Ley de Financiamiento Escolar y genere ingresos a través del proceso de reducción de Mill Levy Overrides y el programa de Bonos en el próximo año.

Los impuestos que componen la certificación del Mill Levy son la Ley de Financiamiento Escolar, Mill Levy Overrides, Special Revenue Mill Levy Override y Bond Redemption. El personal de DPS discutio los cambios que ocurrieron en los ultimos 6 meses en cada uno de los diferentes componentes.

El personal de DPS tambien explico como se calculan los impuestos a la propiedad en Denver y como impactan el financiamiento del Mill Levy para DPS.

Actualización del Fondo de Redención de Bonos y Oportunidad de Refinanciamiento

DPS tiene una oportunidad de refinanciar la emisión de bonos 2012B que ahorrará a los contribuyentes porque los Bonos de Obligación General de DPS costarán menos. Los bonos son las obligaciones generales del distrito y están garantizados por la plena fe y crédito del distrito. Toda la propiedad imponible dentro de los límites del distrito está sujeta a la imposición proporcional de la propiedad sin limitación en cuanto a la tasa.

Contrato de la Denver Scholarship Foundation

La Fundación de Becas de Denver solicita la aprobación del contrato anual de la Fundación de Becas de Denver, que incluye un aumento del 3% por el coste de la vida. La Denver Scholarship Foundation es un socio de DPS que apoya a los estudiantes para que reciban las oportunidades de asistir a la educación post-secundaria y a la carrera.

Otras propuestas para la Agenda de Consentimiento

Hubo muchas otras propuestas presentadas al comité, como la de la escuela Denison Montessori para iniciar su proyecto de refrigeración, la de la escuela primaria Stedman para iniciar su proyecto de refrigeración y ascensor, y más.

Sesión de Comentarios Públicos y Seguimiento del Progreso – 22 de agosto de 2022

Presentación de Regreso a la Escuela

El personal de DPS discutió la orientación continua para COVID-19, varias celebraciones para el inicio del año escolar 2022-2023, y cómo la nueva hoja de ruta estratégica – DPS Prospera, guiará el año escolar.

DPS tiene como objetivo mantener el aprendizaje en persona mediante la continuación de las reuniones periódicas con los funcionarios de salud locales y la organización de dos sitios de pruebas de PCR gratuitas. También anunciaron que ya no mantendrán un tablero de COVID-19.

El personal del DPS habló brevemente de la nueva ruta estratégica y de las principales áreas de mejora incluidas en el plan. El trabajo se divide en tres áreas de enfoque: adultos, estudiantes y experiencia del sistema. Las acciones descritas en el plan se basan en las siguientes prioridades: la equidad, la aceleración del aprendizaje y el aprendizaje social, emocional y académico transformador. En general, se centran en dos factores clave que son la experiencia del estudiante y la experiencia del estudiante y del adulto. Bajo el enfoque de la experiencia del estudiante, la hoja de ruta prioriza un ciclo de enseñanza y aprendizaje fuerte y consistente y bajo la experiencia del estudiante y del adulto, el plan prioriza un distrito seguro y acogedor que proporcionará una experiencia equitativa y humanizadora para toda la comunidad de DPS.

Enfoque en la Clase de 2022

El personal de DPS discutió el contexto de los requisitos de graduación y las oportunidades de competencia, como las pruebas estandarizadas, así como las opciones de cursos como la inscripción concurrente. Los siguientes son algunos de los datos más destacados compartidos:

Para la clase de 2022 al final del año pasado, el 67% de los estudiantes, en todas las escuelas, estaban en camino de cumplir con todos los requisitos de graduación
Para los estudiantes de la Clase de 2023 al final de su tercer año, el 45% había cumplido o estaba en camino de cumplir con los requisitos de créditos y competencias

Más de 1,500 estudiantes obtuvieron el Sello de Bialfabetismo y DPS tuvo una tasa de finalización de FAFSA más alta que el estado en general.

Reunión de la Junta – 25 de agosto de 2022

Presentación del Decreto de Consentimiento Modificado

El personal de DPS presentó una visión general de lo que implica el Decreto de Consentimiento. DPS sirve el mayor número de estudiantes multilingües en Colorado. El español es el idioma más hablado con uno de cada tres estudiantes que hablan español en casa. El Decreto de Consentimiento se estableció para luchar contra los sistemas opresivos que no permiten la equidad lingüística.

Compartieron información sobre los eventos que llevaron a la creación del Decreto de Consentimiento. Comenzó con los paros de la preparatoria West y llevó a que la Corte de Distrito de los Estados Unidos encontrara que DPS violó la Ley de Igualdad de Oportunidades Educativas de 1974 en 1984. DPS volvió a los tribunales en 1999 por desacato al no aplicar la orden judicial de 1984.

En resumen, el Decreto de Consentimiento garantiza que

Los estudiantes multilingües son identificados correctamente, colocados con maestros capacitados, y están recibiendo los servicios del programa MLE/ELA de acuerdo con los requisitos y la elección de los padres.
El programa MLE/ELA está diseñado para garantizar que los alumnos multilingües adquieran tanto el idioma como el contenido, que sus maestros, paraprofesionales, directores y sus evaluadores reciban formación continua.
Todas las familias de los alumnos multilingües participan en un idioma que entienden y tienen acceso a servicios de interpretación y traducción.

El personal de DPS explicó además los 10 capítulos que el decreto de consentimiento requiere que DPS cumpla.

COMPROMETERSE CON LA JUNTA

¿Quiere hacer saber a la junta su opinión sobre cualquiera de estos temas? Puede inscribirse para hacer comentarios públicos y hablar directamente con la junta sobre lo que le importa. Puede inscribirse aquí.

This Month at the DPS Board

This Month at the DPS Board | 04/4/2022

Stand for Children

Welcome to the April edition of “This Month at the DPS Board”, a monthly newsletter sharing information about the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education.

Our goal is simple: to share what is happening at school board meetings so you can engage with the board and the district even if you cannot attend hours of meetings every month.

Work Session – April 7 2022

Sustainability Student Group

Denver Public Schools high school students from the Sustainability Student group presented their work on climate action, that consequently moved the DPS board to put forth an ENDS statement around environmental sustainability within the district. The goal is to allow DPS become a “national leader in establishing an organizational culture anchored in sustainability, climate action, and environmental justice in both the conservation of natural resources and in minimizing the carbon footprint of DPS’ practices.”

Declining Enrollment Updates

Superintendent Marrero shared an update on declining enrollment in the district. He shared that the Declining Enrollment Committee is in the halfway point of their timeline. Superintendent Marrero mentioned that the rationale behind creating this committee is to make sure community engagement is in the forefront during this process when discussing how fewer students enrolling in DPS schools and projections indicating that there will be a continual decline will impact schools financially and how students are being served equitably.

Superintendent Marrero addressed some concerns around about the process:

No schools have been identified, and there is no current list of schools that is being considered. The committee will create the criteria that will identify schools.
A significant reorganization is currently underway at the central office to address the reduction in funding available and continue to maximize the funding provided to schools.

He then mentioned that the committee meetings are not open to the public because they are considered “work sessions” intended to be for committee members only. Meeting recaps are posted in all consent decree languages on the webpage. Opportunities for public feedback will be shared after the committee drafts the guiding principles and criteria through surveys.

The following timeline for the process was shared:

By Spring 2022, the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee creates criteria.

By Fall-Winter 2022-2023, criteria will be applied to schools and schools will be identified for closure or consolidation.
In the school year of 2023-2024, schools identified will begin to plan to close or consolidate, plans will be created to support staff and families impacted.
By the end of the school year 23-24, closure and/or consolidations will move forward. For certain schools, there may be an accelerated timeline where closures and/or consolidations will move forward by the end of 2022-2023 school year.

Discussion of Board Community Engagement

The Board plans to distribute a survey to the community to gain input on what community engagement means so that the Board’s definition aligns with community under a policy.

Discussion of Proposed GP15

The Board discussed possible changes and/or reinforcements for public comment and board meetings. The draft with the policy they were revising can be found here. These changes will be discussed in the June School Board meeting.

Discussion of the Vacancy Process

The board then discussed the potential timeline to fill in the District 5 representative vacancy. To recap this topic, check out our newsletter on last month’s work session here. The board went through possible timelines according to the amount of applicants. “Board members and the Superintendent shall not have any discussions, meetings, or electronic communication with applicants, potential applicants, or supporters of an applicant to uphold the integrity of the process.” The Board of Education will choose the candidate by a majority vote in a public meeting, not by an informal consensus process. The board discussed the background check process the appointee will have to go through.

Finance and Audit Committee Meeting – April 11, 2022

2020 Bond Update

Staff provided an update on the 2020 bond passed by voters. Funds totaling $420 million were wired for the Capital Projects Fund to DPS fulfilling the 2020 Bond Authorization.

IntegraReport Hotline Update

A report was provided by auditors on the IntegraReport Hotline – an anonymous hotline for district employees and the public to report suspected fraud, waste or abuse of district assets, or fiscal misconduct. Reports are either investigated by internal audit or human resources. In fiscal year 2020-2021 there were 114 cases reported, 62 cases were valid and addressed, 25 were unsubstantiated, and 11 are still in process.

Information Items for Board Meeting Consent Agenda:

The following items were presented and approved to go on the consent agenda for the School Board meeting:

Grants Report

Staff shared information about grants that were received in February and March over $50,000.

Purchasing Report

Information related to contracts and projects that cost less than $1 million were shared with the committee.

Focus on Achievement – April 18, 2022

Executive Limitations

The board first reviewed some language changes in the executive limitations currently adopted from the “superintendent should” to the “superintendent will not fail to”. Some of the Executive imitations that were pointed out were (EL 2) which talks about succession planning for the superintendent and making sure the decision is still up to the board, (El 3) engage community in the development of policy when appropriate and at his discretion, (EL 4) the board is responsible for their own compliance, (EL 10) Discipline and safety procedure to be revisited at board retreat.

You can read all here.

Reasonable Interpretations – Transition Priorities

Superintendent Marrero shared his reasonable interpretations as linked to his transition priorities. There are five and discussed the first three. The first priority is around equity where they centered the conversation around BIPOC teacher retention. The second priority is around teaching and learning where they focused the conversation on learning disruptions because of COVID-19 and how to ensure the district takes steps to set students back on track. They also had a conversation about accountability and whether to use state assessments for this end. Superintendent Marrero closed saying it is needed to create some sort of baseline and understand where students are at now. The third transition priority is around students and staff well-being.

District Five Vacancy Interviews

The Board set the dates for interviews when it comes to the District Five vacancy to June 2nd between 1-4 pm. They should be open to the public and will be listening to special public comment later that day.

School Board Meeting – April 21, 2022

Recognition of DPS Athletic Accomplishments

Staff highlighted athletic achievements in DPS this school year. 7000 high school athletes participated in DPS athletics this year, which is more than have ever participated.

Northfield Men’s Soccer was recognized for winning a 4A State Championship and East Men’s Ice Hockey was recognized for winning the 5A State Championship. Staff also highlighted women’s basketball and wrestling.

Denver Scholarship Foundation Report

Staff from the Denver Scholarship Foundation (DSF) shared a presentation about their work. The Denver Scholarship Foundation “inspires and empowers Denver Public Schools’ students to enroll in and graduate from postsecondary institutions of higher education, by providing the tools, knowledge, and financial resources essential for success.”

Annually, DSF serves about 7,500 students. This year, DSF has awarded 1,869 scholarships and operates 14 Future Centers in high school campuses across the district where DSF staff supports high school students in creating post-graduation plans. Additionally, DSF partners with 30 higher education institutions to support scholarship recipients. Demographics of scholarship recipients include 66% female, 60% Hispanic/Latinx, and 16.5% Black students. 82% of scholarship recipients are persisting or have graduated higher education and since DSF’s inception, college enrollment has increased over 100%.

Welton Street Café Proclamation

Welton Street Café was recognized with a proclamation acknowledging the impact that Welton Street Cafe has had in the DPS community. Currently, Welton Street Café is raising funds to open a new location after closing its original location of 22 years. Anyone who is interested in supporting can find more information and donate here.

Superintendent’s Report

Superintendent Marrero gave a presentation related to District Central Office reorganization plans. Superintendent Marrero cited declining enrollment and feedback from staff and community as rationale for reorganizing the Central Office.

Intended outcomes of Central Office reorganization include strengthening and tightening central support to ensure resources align to highest priorities and central staff functions are more tightly linked to Board of Education goals and policies.

Superintendent Marrero previewed an approach to collaborative school structure by highlighting planned collaboration of four DPS schools, called “Collaborative Quads” to engage in shared learning and best practices around facilitating dual-language programs in DPS. The stated goal of the Collaborative Quads is “building communities of learning to drive improvement across our family of schools.”

Staff outlined 2022-2023 district priorities as follows:

Equity and Excellence
Student Experience & Achievement
Operational Effectiveness

Finally, staff outlined a plan for central office reorganization structure which will include shifts in senior leadership and departments.

You can view the presentation here.

Climate Action

Students presented a climate action statement, sharing their passion for expanding sustainability and climate-conscious policies and efforts in DPS. The board voted unanimously in support of the proposed revisions to their ENDS statements related to climate action. You can learn more here.

Consent Agenda

The board unanimously voted to approve the consent agenda.

Public Comment

Educators, parents, and other members of the DPS community delivered public comments about a variety of topics including feedback surrounding Executive Limitation 11 & 12, declining enrollment, and concerns around academic performance.

Board Retreat April 21, 2022

Completion of Reasonable Interpretations

Before embarking on reasonably interpreting several policies, Superintendent Marrero mentioned that he would like to include partnering with the City of Denver to dismantle and revise persistent and enduring systems of oppression outside of our school system to a transition priority which is a policy anchored in equity. He briefly mentioned that this partnership will include the creation of community hubs that will provide services like social-emotional support, GED, citizenship, early literacy, and computer classes, academic tutoring, and basic needs assistance. The Board revisited interpretations for policies transition priorities (TP): Student and Staff Well-Being, Health and Safety, and post-graduation and global citizenship. The Boad then shared the monitoring report cadence to vote on END statements for each monthly board meeting.

Community Engagement Planning

Some board directors shared they have been working on a community engagement governance policy that aims “to ensure the DPS Board of Directors has a sustainable connection to the community” they serve “in alignment with district board policies.” The desired outcome for this specific policy is to have it be community led, proactive, and ensure all seven board members work together to find the best path for community engagement. This board policy is meant to be more focused on the long-term vision of the end statements by leveraging the expertise of the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) team and still preserving the ability to gather information on the ENDS statements as a Board.

Their proposed timeline to get this policy established is:

May 2022- informal presentation
June 2022- formal presentation with public comment and first read
August 2022- second read and vote

12-Month Agenda Planning

The board talked through their upcoming meeting calendar, important dates that will fall within this year and about the timelines around the new executive limitations and their implementation (Els). As they think about community engagement as a part of the reviewal process of Els and TPs they are also thinking what those timelines look like in the calendar. They are hoping to vote on the reasonable interpretations presented by the superintendents during the May 5th work session.