Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments A new Denver school needs your HELP!

I need your help, PLEASE. Anything you can do to further the cause below would be greatly appreciated.

A couple of Denver public school highly gifted and talented program teachers and some parents in Denver have submitted a new PUBLIC school proposal to the Board of Education recently. This new school is an inclusive stand alone grade 1 through 8 school which is designed to serve the highly, exceptionally, and profoundly gifted children (99 percentile and above) and also 2E children in the same range. The school emphasizes an openly fluid movement of students based on ability and progress. Across the street from the new school is an existing public High School that offers AP classes. The High School has agreed to work with this new school so that students from this new school can work on high school level work. This new school, coupled with the nearby high school, can offer a solution to the 1-12 education for the 99 percentile population of the students in the Denver metropolitan area. We are currently waiting for the vote of approval or disapproval by the Board on June 18th.

We need to convince the board members one more time before their votes next week. If you like the idea of this sort of school or wish this type of school existed in your state, please send your email to the Board on our behalf.

If you feel like possibly wanting to move to Denver for a school to meet your child(ren)'s academic and social needs, please express that in your mail. We are trying to let the Board know that this type of school is sought after by many parents from all over the country, and perhaps this school could be a very notable public school in this nation to offer such a program. Added bonus for the city is that this may bring new population (highly intelligent parents) of labor force to the city and county of Denver from other states.

The name of the proposed school is: Denver Standards and Challenge Center

The email address of the Denver Public School's Board of Education is:

board@dpsk12.org

Thank you so much in advance. I will keep you posted of the result (both good or bad).

Good Luck! In Spokane we have a public magnet school (5-8) for the gifted (not profoundly) and with the budget crisis they have finally gained permission to open up new classrooms next year so that after the waiting list of kids from the district is accommodated, they can accept kids from out of district and get more state money!! I don't know if this would help your argument or not, but thought I'd pass it on.

Just a thought - have you contacted CITY, based at the University of Denver? They cater to gifted kids.

The name CITY is changing to something else and they will most likely stop their affiliation with the University of Denver, but it is still going to continue as an extension of the Johns Hopkins program.

What is CITY - a school or some sort of gifted program? I thought the school at DU was the Ricks Center for the Gifted.

Aprilcar - any more info or links on the location of this school? I assume it's a charter school? If it works out it could be something we'd consider for middle school, depending on where it is. I'll try to keep an eye out for info but would love it if you'd update this post after the decision.

Thank you, benny and Ania for your comments. Your input is greatly appreciated.

The Denver Public School system currently offers Highly Gifted and Talented Program for the 1st through 8th. Four schools have full time HGT dedicated classrooms, two schools have integrated classrooms, and one entire elementary school is dedicated to HGT kids. We are trying to open another stand alone school (1st through 8th) for the HGT kids for the south side of Denver.

If the proposal was submitted a year or two ago when the economy was better, we may had had an easier time. Every city is cutting the budget back big time. Denver is no exception.

Benny, We are with you on the argument of getting state money for the out of district kids. The wait list for the HGT program for the district kids is long. Less than a handful from out of district gets into the program. Another school, such as our proposed school, with more capacity can accommodate out of district kids.

Ania, Thank you. I looked into CITY a while ago for my DS. At that time, it appeared that the after school, weekend, and summer programs that they offered for younger kids were not for my DS's likings. (DS has out of level interests. For older kids, it sounded very interesting.) Anyhow, it sounds like worth pursuing again when the tie to the University of Denver is cut off. I will definitely investigate it further. Thanks for the info.

Snowgirl, I assume you live in Denver or near? Great!

The school is considering a currently empty elementary school building near Monaco and E. Virginia Ave.

Would you please do me a big favor? If you are interested in a school like this for your child's middle school, please send email to the Board of Education. AND please spread the words with your current school community to send email to the Board saying you want school like this. The Board needs to hear our needs. Thanks.

Email address of Denver Public School Board of Education is:
board@dpsk12.org

will do, Aprilcar.

That location would be a drive for us but doable if all the stars aligned correctly.

What doesn't help is the recent spate of articles in the Denver Post - hit jobs if you ask me - against charter schools. (sorry for the rant...)

Thank you, snowgirl. You rock! keep fingers crossed for our kids.....