Innovation schools put children first; don’t undo that

Re: “DPS is wrong to attack critical school innovations,” March 16 commentary

As a member of the parent and teacher team who worked on the application for innovation status for Grant Beacon Middle School over a decade ago, I applaud the Grant educators and members of the DCTA who authored Wednesday’s guest commentary.

They are concerned about the ongoing threats to innovation schools like Grant perpetrated by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and sympathetic members of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. Next week, the DPS Board will vote on the proposal for “standard teachers rights” or Executive Limitation policy, which would effectively gut the ability of schools with innovation status to achieve their mission.

More than 10 years ago, more and more families were sending their children to the shiny, new middle schools with the fancy-sounding acronyms like DSST and DCIS and our neighborhood schools suffered as a result. Our SE Denver community felt we had no choice but to request innovation status for Grant Beacon Middle School so that its teachers would have the freedom and flexibility to leverage their creativity to provide the middle school experience we wanted for our children.

The teachers overwhelmingly voted to approve the proposal and they have approved it every three years when we submit the innovation plan renewal application. Delegations from school districts around the country have come to observe Grant’s approach to education. DPS should be showcasing this success story, but instead they would rather torpedo it at the behest of the DCTA. Nick Bottinelli, Denver