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School Performance Compact Recommendations and Role of Community Voice in New Schools Discussed

SPC Staff Recommendations — Board to Vote Thursday

This fall, the School Performance Compact is being used to make recommendations about schools based on three measures:

  • Step 1: School Performance Framework ratings over multiple years.
  • Step 2: Student academic growth in the most recent year.
  • Step 3: Results of a School Quality Review to check overall instructional quality and learning culture.

Based on this information, at the December 12 Board of Education work session, staff made the following recommendations:

  • Greenlee Elementary and John Amesse Elementary will be recommended for “restarts” or new schools in the existing buildings. Both will be included in the Call for New Quality Schools issued in January, and the community will have input in selecting the new schools to be placed in these facilities at the start of the 2018-19 school year, after a year of planning.
  • Gilpin Montessori will be recommended for closure at the end of the 2016-17 school year. District staff is recommending closure instead of a new school due to significantly declining enrollment at Gilpin and other nearby elementary schools — a trend that likely would have resulted in an elementary school closure in the area in the next year or two regardless of academic issues.

The full presentation, including school-specific details, is available here. Our message to DPS staff and our community from Friday’s Our DPS Weekly is available here. Specific school details and updates are being posted at face.dpsk12.org/school-improvement. To learn more about the School Performance Compact and how it helps DPS hold ourselves accountable to our Denver Plan 2020 goal of Great Schools in Every Neighborhood, visit greatschools.dpsk12.org/accountability.

Community Voice in New School Selection

DPS staff proposed a new, community-based process for the selection of new schools under the School Performance Compact and the Facility Allocation Policy. The goal of this process is to ensure that the community has a strong voice in selecting the school that will serve them.

The proposal would create a single Community Review Board for each school that has been designated. This review board would evaluate placement applications (along with information from applicant interviews and a broader community meeting) to rank the comparative strength of applicants in each of the three criteria listed in the Facility Allocation Policy. The review board’s ranking would be used to inform the superintendent’s recommendation for new school placement to the Board of Education.

“This does not change the criteria in the Facility Allocation Process, but gives greater strength and clarity to the community’s role in the process,” said Superintendent Tom Boasberg. “This is the attempt to make sure there is a structured process that ensures strong community voice.”

Board Member Barbara O’Brien thanked staff for their efforts to get “…meaningful feedback and still ensure the quality bar is met. I think you’ve found a very nice way to acknowledge the amount of time and energy the community will put into this and it will help bring high quality proposals forward.”

For more details, please review the full presentation here.