01 17 DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS CLOSES GILPIN 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 passionate commentary from the schools' teachers, parents and students, but commentary by the Gilpin community was especially emotional as their recent School Quality Review (SQR) recommended closure. 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 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 open based on community advocacy, and in another neighborhood we might make a choice to restart or potentially close a school,” she said.
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Virginia Delgado addresses the audience at the Dec. 15 Denver Public Schools School Board hearing. Delgado spoke on behalf of Gilpin, which the Board voted to close. Photo by Haines Eason. “[The board] wanted to make sure that, if we’re going to take this action, which we believe is a critical action, but we understand is a disruptive action to a community, that we wanted to do it with as much lack of bias as possible.” It was with this intention in mind the Board in December 2015 passed the School Performance Com-
pact. The Compact took effect with the 2016 school year. More on the Compact follows below. A dialogue regarding restart and closure between DPS and the Gilpin community had been underway for roughly a week by the time the board met to consider continued on page 7
LATIN AMERICAN FOOD BUSINESS INCUBATOR COMAL TEACHES, INSPIRES AND FEEDS LOCALS WITH FLAIR By J.L. Schultheis Price For some, the New Year brings resolutions to exercise more or eat less. For six would-be entrepreneurs working at Comal, a new Latin American lunch spot in the TAXI development, it could mean a new career as a small business owner, plus a chance to rub elbows with highly successful celebrities. Comal takes its name from the smooth, flat griddle used to cook tortillas or sear meats. At TAXI, it’s a heritage food incubator, now operating at the former Fuel Café space at 3455
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Ringsby Ct. in Globeville. “Our goal is to target what the Work Force Center doesn’t offer,” said program coordinator, Slavica Park. “Historically, the clay comal was handed down from mother to daughter, symbolizing the strong influence of food culture across generations of Latin American women. The name is also representative of the restaurant’s mission to return to these traditional methods of cooking.” Focus Points Family Resource Center, the concept’s coordinator, has embraced Comal as an ideal way to help low-income families with new job training
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and work education. Comal’s “learning while earning” model teaches participants how to cook on a larger scale, manage the front side of the house and navigate Denver’s health and building regulations. English speaking skills and other financial and technology training is offered. Trainees come from the surrounding Globeville, Elyria and Swansea areas. The incubator is a private/public partnership. “With the boom in development, many longcontinued on page 7
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