MONDAY, DEC. 5 AT 6PM, DPS MEETING: Commons Building on the Paul Sandoval campus to discuss upcoming changes to schools in our area.
DPS will present its plans for building a new elementary school, the temporary placement of the elementary school at Sandoval, the use of newly approved bond funds to add a DSST high school at Sandoval, and the completion of Northfield High School.
For detailed information about this meeting, please go to the web page set up by DPS: http://face.dpsk12.org/school-improvement/stapleton/.
The Front Porch will be covering this meeting. Please contact Melinda@box2438.temp.domains if you have any questions or comments.
First, the meeting was quite negative. Many DSST parents felt that they were being attacked. They were not directly being attacked. It was DPS that was being attacked and questions were raised that adding DSST to the mix was basically poor/bad planning at this stage by DPS. Unfortunately, DSST is an innocent bystander in this meeting since DSST was mentioned as the other school to be added to this campus.
Second, what was not clearly addressed was how accommodations would be address by the sharing concept for this campus. Since separate buildings are to be available for the two schools but shared cafeteria, gym, and field space (sports and other outdoor activities) are the goal, no mention was made of how this sharing will accommodate such a large student body and potential competitive environment will be addressed. Not to mention that the buildings are physically separated from each other and the logistics of geting from point A to point B in a timly fashion and still be able to accomplish the task of such travel (like having time to eat lunch while having to wait in line to get lunch and find a space to eat said lunch).
Lastly, a comparison of being the best schools in Colorado during the meeting is a bit short sighted. How about being the best schools in the nation or world? Wouldn’t that be a more impressive goal? Isn’t past reports of Bill Roberts and DSST in Stapleton being great schools at a national level worth discussing and why they are so? Or how we are going to replicate such reported success?
How about showing data and facts about how all this would work and how it works well? How about when it does not work well and why? How do we avoid the negative parts?
None of this was discussed during the meeting. Basically the meeting turned out to be a bitch session and how DPS has not kept its promises and distrust of DPS and the superintendent. Not that they are not without merit, but I dont think the meeting really communicated anything new or began the process of reconciliation or resolution to outstanding issues.
I walked away more disappointed than when I entered. I think I walked away with more questions than answers, more distrust of DPS and the local parents in their facts and communication abilities. Basically, the meeting was a joke and waste of time. I did learn that maybe Stapleton is not all that it is cracked up to be (in other words it is all talk and hype).