01 17 WARREN VILLAGE TUTORS BRING STABILITY TO LIVES IN FLUX By Jack Etkin Rema was steaming through the math problems arrayed around the border of his homework page. In rapid succession, the eight-year-old, third grader correctly multiplied two single-digit numbers under the watchful eye of tutor, Tien Nguyen. “Forty boxes within a minute,” Nguyen said when Rema was done, motioning toward the center of the page and a host of multiplication problems in individual boxes. “That's so hard,” Rema said. “You did it last time. You can do it,” Nguyen said. “You don't have to get to 40. What's important is you try.” Rema and Nguyen are members of The Brainwave, a weekly tutoring program started in September at Warren Village. Fifteen students, ages 6-18, have been matched up with volunteer tutors. Warren Village, located at 1323 Gilpin St., consists of 96 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for low-income, single-parent families. The intent is to make the families self sufficient. Adults receive educational assistance, career guidance, financial literacy training and help in securing long-term housing within two years of arrival at Warren Village. Lilian Lara joined Warren Village in August 2015 as the coordinator of Kids’ Club, an enrichment program for children that includes a variety of activities, while their parents attend evening classes. Family advocates, who are assigned to each family, alerted Lara that many of the children
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Warren Village Brainwave tutor Sarah Azibo helps Rema and Amen with their math homework. The tutors help keep these vulnerable youth at the appropriate school grade level. Photo by Sara Hertwig. were falling behind in school and needed assistance with their homework, particularly reading and math. Lara said a drop-in program with a few volunteers to help with homework was poorly attended, leaving a basic educational need unmet. “A lot of our children have moved around a lot, as is the nature of transitional housing,” Lara said. “They have either behavioral issues or social issues or trauma-related issues that make it really hard for them to either stay in the same school, stay with the same teacher or just kind of be able to focus on their school work.”
In July, Sarah Azibo was hired to assist Lara with Kids’ Club. Azibo designed and implemented a tutoring program at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning, where she worked for seven years and has extensive private tutoring experience. She developed The Brainwave program, assessing each child’s needs, communicating with their parents and determining the best fit between child and tutor. “My hope was that the kids, in addition to getting some academic support, would start to feel confident in continued on page 13
DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS CLOSES GILPIN MONTESSORI DESPITE QUESTIONABLE DATA AND NEIGHBORHOOD OUTCRY By Haines Eason Dec. 15 was a sad night for three area Denver Public Schools (DPS) schools: that night, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted to close west Denver’s Greenlee Elementary, northeast Denver’s Amesse Elementary and near northeast Gilpin Montessori, also an elementary school. All three will close at the end of the academic year, though Greenlee and Amesse will be restarted in 2018 once DPS determines what school format works best for those schools. The board heard impassioned commentary
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from each school’s teachers, staff, parents and students, but commentary from the Gilpin community was especially emotional as their most recent School Quality Review (SQR) recommended closure over restart. A handful of parents in the Gilpin community, however, feel the data used in the report was flawed, even altered. Gilpin community member Virginia Delgado begged the board at the Dec. 15 hearing to “not make a decision, as there are discrepancies with the evidence.” She and others used their full appointed comment periods, cited evidence and at times found it hard to speak
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without visible sadness and anger. In a conversation the morning of Dec. 15, DPS Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova spoke to the evolution of DPS’ approach to school closures and restarts. “In the past, DPS has tried to be as data based as possible, but the board had some concerns, frankly, that the way we looked at the data was not always the same, and that depending on the community, we might make a choice to keep a school continued on page 16
DPD to drop Facebook, Nextdoor, move live updates to PocketGov.
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