Far Northeast Schools Undergo Radical Restructuring

montbello protestby Charles C. Bonniwell

In the last issue of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, the brewing war between the administrators of the Denver Public Schools (DPS) and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association was highlighted. This issue we discuss the reforms for the Far Northeast region and why they are considered ground zero in the battle. All sides agreed that Montbello High School and five of its feeder schools in the Far Northeast were some of the worst performing schools in all of Denver and needed reforming.

 

What it came down to was whether reforms should be driven by Denver administrators alone or would the process include the school teachers themselves. DPS decided that the teachers would be an impediment to reform and were not to be involved except in a highly superficial manner. The School Board election this past November assures that the “Reform” slate will retain a four to three majority for the immediate future and the Far Northeast reforms will be implemented in full.

 

Knowing that radical reforms were being considered, the teachers had attempted to begin instituting reforms themselves. For example at Green Valley Elementary School the teachers were able to get a grant from the Colorado Department of Education of approximately $250,000. Teachers participating in a reform program received $4,500 each and the school’s standardized CSAP scores were improved. Nonetheless the entire program was shut down by DPS when its top-down reforms were instituted.

 

DPS’s reform program for the Far Northeast is way more radical than a simple laundry list of the changes it might suggest. To understand the changes one first must understand that instead of simply one type of school there are now four different types of schools in Denver:

 

Traditional Neighborhood School — A public school that draws students from set geographical boundaries designated by the School Board.

 

Charter School — A school operated by a private entity with public monies.

 

Turnaround School — Initially a federal Department of Education designation of a chronically under-performing school that has developed a plan to improve achievement based on data-driven strategies for increasing student achievement and performance.

 

Innovation School — A school in DPS that applies for a waiver of district policies, state statutes and/or parts of the labor contract in order to attain autonomy and flexibility in serving their student population.

 

The Far Northeast Reforms

 

DPS took the area’s high school (Montbello) and middle school (Noel) and four of the 14 elementary schools and declared them chronically underperforming turnaround schools. DPS then replaced them with two charter schools and eight innovation schools in which all of the regular rules and, in particular, labor contracts were voided. Denver Classroom Teachers President Henry Roman summed it up by saying, “They eliminated all of the employees’ rights and called that reform.”

 

Montbello High School is being phased out over three years and in its place are:

•           Collegiate Prep Academy (“Collegiate”) for ninth through 12th grades.

•           High Tech Early College (“High Tech”) for ninth through 12th grades.

•           Denver Center for International Studies (“DCIS”) for sixth through 12th grades.

 

Montbello was known generally for its lack of academic rigor. Traditionally a large majority of Montbello High School graduates who actually made it to college had to take extensive remedial classes. Conversely, under the new program, students in the accelerated academic Collegiate and High Tech programs  finish all high school graduation requirements by their junior year as well as college credits. They then take college level classes in their senior year. Students have a fifth year opportunity to graduate with an Associate’s Degree which allows them to enter as juniors in Colorado universities with the cost for college effectively being cut in half.

 

Noel Middle School was scrapped and replaced by a national charter school KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) which has 100 schools in 20 states as well as a sixth through 12th grade arts program. Oakland Elementary will become a SOAR charter school while Ford Elementary will become a K-5th DCIS school. At McGlone Elementary and Green Valley, all existing teachers were let go although they could reapply to be hired. The recently hired principal at McGlone stayed while a new principal was brought in at Green Valley. In addition, the school day was extended by an hour for the students.

 

Unionized Teachers Ousted

The Far Northeast reform gutted the existence of unionized traditional teachers at the effected schools. While no exact number is publicly available it is believed that by the end of the reform process as many as 90 percent of the teachers will have lost their jobs and none of the teachers in the new schools will have the protection of the teachers’ union contract. Roman points out that on average the most harshly effected are the older teachers whose experience is not valued compared with the flexibility and attitude of younger teachers. Some will get jobs elsewhere in the DPS system while others will end up on unpaid leave pursuant to Senate Bill 191 which passed in 2010 in an unsuccessful effort to garner federal Race to the Top money.

 

Will the reforms work? In an article by former DPS school board candidate Christopher Scott titled “What’s Up in Denver’s Public School System?” he insisted that all of the reforms instituted have been tried in Denver before and failed. Conversely DPS asserts that prior to reforms being instituted only 65 percent of the children in the Far Northeast went to school in that region with the rest (including Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s son Jordan) fleeing to other DPS schools. In its first semester of reform DPS claims 92 percent of the eligible children now elect to go to school in the Far Northeast region.

 

Roman says that the new schools should attract students outside the region so the demographic of the students in Far Northeast schools will change, which by itself will change test scores. Moreover $10 million in additional funding has been provided which should also make a positive difference.

 

The Future

But if the Far Northeast reform program is to be a template for future reforms throughout Denver, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association members are in deep trouble. It is clear that DPS views the traditional teachers in the Denver school system as part of the problem and not part of the solution, notwithstanding any assertions to the contrary. That is more than a little distressing for those teachers who have dedicated most of their lives to educating Denver’s youth. The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has sued DPS claiming the teachers’ consent by secret ballot to many of the reforms was required by law. DPS asserts that the teachers, by applying or reapplying for their jobs at the schools, gave their implied consent.

 

It is anticipated that the Far Northeast program’s results will be scrutinized by educators not only throughout Colorado but across the country. Will the reforms make a difference or will it be the case of the more things change the more they stay the same. Would including the existing teachers’ input have helped the reforms or are teachers in fact the enemy of meaningful change? The accepted answers to those questions will dramatically effect the face of public education in Colorado for many years to come.