Northwest Denver – Creating Excellence for All Kids in All Schools

Originally published in the North Denver Tribune
August 12, 2007

"We believe that over the next decade Denver can lead the nation's cities in student achievement, high school graduation, college and career preparation, and college matriculation." (Excerpt from Denver Public Schools’ The Denver Plan.)

The Denver Plan is bold and ambitious, yet grounded in the reality that "we have a lot of work to do." We all know why DPS has a lot of work to do: decreasing enrollment, lackluster CSAP scores, and budget crises. But we can simultaneously identify our weaknesses and claim our victories.

In the years I’ve lived in North Denver, I have:

• Watched voters pass a mil levy to fund school revitalization, arts and music;
• Participated in the revitalization of Brown Elementary into an International Baccalaureate program;
• Supported the collaboration of teachers, students and administrators to select IB for Lake Middle School;
• Watched construction of Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, and witnessed the dual language Montessori model flourish;
• Supported Bryant Webster and Fairmont Elementary as they adopted a dual language program; and
• Watched the revitalization at Skinner Middle School and Remington Elementary.

Just one year ago we as a community came together to challenge DPS to make North High School a beacon in the community. Since that point, DPS has redesigned North and put an exemplary leader at the helm. By empowering teachers to raise expectations for students, students will rise to higher expectations. Every place I go, people are talking about North with expectations of success.

I believe that we are at the tipping point in Northwest Denver. We are constructing the building blocks for substantive reform in Northwest Denver. We have a strong board of education; we have a reform minded superintendent. The community is expecting change. So where do we go from here? Superintendent Michael Bennet has given us the Denver Plan which provides a clear path to teaching our kids, not just K through 12, but into technical schools and college.

But let’s not be naïve; we have been failing our kids. To make it worse, we will probably make more mistakes before this is over. But if we have the courage to commit to our schools, North Denver can be a model of success for DPS, and potentially, for other urban school districts nationwide. This is more than a rally; this is more than a slogan; this takes hard work and dedication from students, teachers, administrators, and parents. This is a whole community effort. This November will be your chance to elect a school board member who will work for you to create excellence for all kids in all schools. For more about my platform and how to get involved, visit www.tonycurcio.com, or stop by Haney’s Coffee shop on Saturday’s in August from 8:00 am to 9:30 am.