Stay Updated on Happenings in Denver Schools

These are your schools, and we're committed to doing more to keep you connected to all of the critically important work going on inside them. That's why we created the new "myDPS" newsletter-to bring you closer to the people, issues, and programs affecting your schools. In addition to receiving regular email newsletters, you can also stay on top of all of the current DPS news on the district's website.

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Nov. 23, 2011: Giving Thanks for a Giving Community

Dear DPS Community: I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend and to thank all DPS educators and staff members for all they do every day for our kids in our schools. This is also an ... read more

Nov. 21, 2011: SchoolChoice – One Form, One Timeline, All Schools

Dear DPS Community:At DPS it is our collective mission to provide the best possible educational opportunities for our kids and the families of Denver so that all of our students are prepared for success in college and in life. As part of our efforts ... read more

Nov. 11, 2011: Open-Door Equity: All Schools, All Kids, All Year-Long

Dear DPS Community:The first day at a new school can be a pretty nerve-racking day for a student. I can certainly remember from my childhood some butterflies and sweaty palms as I walked into a new school for the first time on the first day of ... read more

Nov. 4, 2011: Now Back to the Campaign for Kids

Dear DPS Community: Election Day is democracy at its high point-the community having its say on what it wants from its public servants. And on Tuesday night, it was wonderful to see such widespread and deep support among Denver's voters for our ... read more

Nov. 2, 2011: "Everything that I Imagine, I Can Do"

Dear DPS Community: I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a remarkable young DPS graduate last week at the Denver Scholarship Foundation's extraordinary fundraiser. Her name is Cristina Chacon. She's a graduate of Kepner Middle School, Lincoln ... read more

Oct. 19, 2011: Your ProComp Investment Paying Off in the Classroom

"I'm very pleased to be working at a district such as Denver that is taking a hard look at measuring effective teaching, and actively tying it to a considerable suite of compensation. When done correctly, professional compensation systems that are ... read more

Oct. 12, 2011: College, Here We Come

Dear DPS Community:As we celebrate October as College Readiness Month in Denver Public Schools, I want to acknowledge the community effort it takes to help students plan for life after high school. Ensuring that students graduate from our schools ... read more

Oct. 7, 2011: 1st Time in Nearly 40 Years: 'DPS + 80,000'

Dear DPS Community: Our preliminary enrollment numbers for this school year are now in, and I am thrilled to report that we jumped by more than 2,000 students and, for the first time since 1973, Denver Public Schools has an enrollment of more than ... read more

Oct. 3, 2011: The Art of a Well-Rounded Education

Dear DPS Community: My family and I have had a great time this month enjoying some of the terrific drama and musical performances that are staged by our schools. This is the time of the school year when many schools are staging their first ... read more

Sept. 29, 2011: A Presidential Spotlight on Lincoln High School and the Need to Invest in Our Schools

Dear DPS Community: When President Obama addressed the students of Lincoln High School in Southwest Denver on Tuesday, he highlighted both the extraordinary growth of the school and its extraordinary needs. It was a day of great pride for the ... read more

Sept. 27, 2011: Destination: "Blue"

Dear DPS Community: This morning I donned my bluest shirt to celebrate with the similarly clad-in-blue teachers, students, and parents at University Park Elementary. We all wore blue to celebrate the terrific newsthat for the first time since we ... read more

Sept. 21, 2011: DPS Middle School Athletes Sprinting Ahead

Dear DPS Community: As I struggled on my mountain bike to fulfill my role as pace bike for the nearly 900 middle school runners who competed in last week's Slavens Cross Country Invitational (a task made fiendishly harder this year by the inclusion ... read more

Sept. 13, 2011: Worst to First

Dear DPS Community: Back in 2005, our district was struggling. Enrollment had been flat for years. Academic-achievement rates were low. And, worst of all, the rate of our students' academic growth was lagging far beyond their peers' across the state. ... read more

Aug. 8, 2011: Denver Public Schools - Leading the Metro Area in Academic Growth

Dear DPS Community: Over the course of this week, I'm going to be sharing with you some encouraging news about the student-achievement trends across our district. I am deeply grateful for the work of our teachers, principals and school communities ... read more

Aug. 2, 2011: Hundreds More Graduate, Many with Head-Start on College

Dear DPS Community: As we all gear up for the start of school later this month, I wanted to take a moment to share some great news from last school year. Our preliminary numbers show that a total of 3,373 DPS students graduated from our high schools ... read more

July 28, 2011: Strengthening Teacher Support this Summer

Dear DPS Community: As August approaches, I can't help but be excited about the upcoming school year. My enthusiasm really ramped up a notch these past two weeks, talking with our principals and teachers who came back early for a week of intensive ... read more

July 12, 2011: Building New Schools Thanks to Bond Savings

Dear DPS Community: Though schools are closed for the summer, the DPS Bond project team has entered its busiest time of the year. They have been working diligently on major projects that are part of the 2008 voter-approved General Obligation Bond, ... read more

July 5, 2011: The Flexibility for Innovative Schools to Better Serve Their Students

Dear DPS Community: One size does not fit all. We know that is true for our schools, and that is the very point of Innovation Schools: to ensure that our schools have the flexibility to best meet the needs of our students.That is why I am so pleased ... read more

June 30, 2011: A Big Turnout for New Schools

Dear DPS Community: Hundreds of community members came out on Monday night to show their support for nine new district-run and charter school proposals that are up for a vote before the Denver Board of Education tonight. It is the culmination of ... read more

June 24, 2011: Staying Busy, Focused on Student Success

Dear DPS Community: With the traditional school year over and spring changing to summer, I wanted to take an opportunity to update you on how we'll be staying busy this summer to continue serving our students. I'm pleased to report thousands of ... read more

June 2, 2011: A Big LEAP Forward, for Teachers and Students

Dear DPS Community: Great teachers and great principals. Research is clear that these are by far the two most important factors in driving student achievement and closing the achievement gap. That is why our top priority as a district is to do a ... read more

May 27, 2011: Over $40 Million in College Scholarships and Counting

Dear DPS Community: Harvard, NYU, Tufts, Duke, Hawaii Pacific, DU, CU, CSU, US Naval Academy, UNC. These are just some of the many prestigious colleges and universities that our Class of 2011 will be attending in the fall. For many of our students, ... read more

May 17, 2011: Where All of DPS Becomes a Stage

"Downtown Denver streets were stormed Friday by students in Elizabethan garb chanting, ‘Shakespeare rocks!' "He's 400 years dead, looks nothing like the demographic of the Denver Public Schools, and yet ... Shakespeare is somehow still cool."--John Moore, Denver Post Theater ... read more

May 10, 2011: Hundreds More Kids on Crucial Early-Literacy Path to Success

Dear DPS Community: The Colorado Department of Education today released preliminary data that shows strong improvements in elementary literacy in our schools. The percentage of our third-graders reading at grade level climbed by 5 points this year, ... read more

May 5, 2011: In Appreciation of Our Teachers

Dear DPS Community: In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week and our more than 4,800 teachers, I want to express my appreciation to all of them for their dedication in educating the students of Denver Public Schools. Their time, commitment, passion and expertise truly have an ... read more

April 29, 2011: East HS Constitutional Law Team: Supreme Court Quality!

Dear DPS Community:This weekend, a group of 28 East High School students will be in our nation's capital to build on their incredible record of success in the National Constitutional Law Competition. East's team has won the national championship for ... read more

April 27, 2011: $10 Million Increase in our Schools’ Budgets

Dear DPS Community:I have some very good news to share. As a result of the deal in the legislature to reduce the cuts to state funding and the successful completion of our pension financing, we have just told all of our schools that we will be ... read more

March 22, 2011: Staying Strong through the Funding Crunch

Dear DPS Community: I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on our budget outlook for next year, in light of recent news on the state's budget outlook and its impact on area school districts. It is very true that public education throughout ... read more

March 9, 2011: A Dramatic Decline in our Dropout Rate

Dear DPS Community: Yesterday morning, I visited Summit Academy-our new Multiple Pathways Center in Southwest Denver-to talk with some terrific students who were taking advantage of our efforts to offer a broader array of alternative-education ... read more

Feb. 14, 2011: Two Wonderful Lives, Well-Lived

Dear DPS Community: Our education community suffered two tremendous losses in the past few weeks. Beth Biggs and Heather Regan both devoted their life's work to making a difference in the lives of Denver's children, and we will miss them tremendously. Beth (pictured right) came to DPS in 1972 as a French teacher and in her extraordinary 40-year career taught thousands of kids and led hundreds of educators as a principal and in a variety of district leadership roles. And perhaps her greatest contribution was the mentorship and support she provided in helping to ... read more

Feb. 10, 2011: Grad-Rate Growth Highest among State’s Major Districts; Long Climb Still Ahead

Dear DPS Community,It was very encouraging to see the numbers from the Colorado Department of Education this week. Denver's high schools graduated 352 more seniors last spring over the previous year, bringing our Class of 2010 total to 3,245 ... read more

Jan. 28, 2011: Stories Behind the President's Denver Shout-Out in the State of the Union

Dear DPS Community: "You see, we know what's possible for our children when reform isn't just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals, school boards and communities. "Take a school like Bruce Randolph in Denver. Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado; located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97% of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in ... read more

Jan. 19, 2011: Investing $10 Million More in Our Classrooms

Dear DPS Community: Dollars into classrooms. When all is said and done, that's the bottom line on school budgets. How can we, in the face of the third straight year of severe state budget cuts, maximize our dollars in our schools, where the critical ... read more

Jan. 6, 2011: Collaborating to Better Serve Kids, Support Teachers

Dear DPS Community: Happy New Year, and I hope the second half of the school year is off to a great start for all of you. We rang in 2011 with some very exciting news: The US Department of Education announced that it has chosen Denver to host a ... read more

Dec. 17, 2010: An Excellent End to 2010

Dear DPS Community: As we head into winter break and close out the first half of the school year, I want to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and thank you for your involvement in our schools. I'm in our schools on a daily basis, ... read more

Dec. 15, 2010: Sound Body Sound Mind

Dear DPS Community: This week, we're celebrating the launch of the DPS Health Agenda 2015 by hosting Open Houses at the four DPS Fitness Centers that are located within schools across the city and by announcing that we'll be building four additional Fitness Centers, thanks to a ... read more

Dec. 9, 2011: A Commitment to High-Quality Schools Serving ALL Kids

Dear DPS Community: This week, Denver Public Schools was recognized for national leadership for our focus on equity when we hosted a national conference of major urban school districts. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation selected Denver to ... read more

Dec. 2, 2010: Technology Built by Our Teachers, for Our Teachers, to Better Serve Kids

Dear DPS Community: I had the chance earlier the week to visit with teachers at Trevista at Horace Mann School to celebrate their district leadership in pioneering our Digital Door - a terrific new web-based technology that is freeing up dozens of ... read more

Nov. 23, 2010: Much to be Thankful for, Much to Talk about

Dear DPS Community: As we take a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope we all will remind ourselves of how much in DPS we have to be thankful for. We have 80,000 remarkable students whose talents and potential are the reasons we get up every ... read more

Nov. 18, 2010: Breaking Ground…and Setting the Foundation for a Great Education

Dear DPS Community: One of our critical priorities in the Denver Public Schools is increasing our kids' access to high quality preschool and full-day kindergarten. Research is clear that preschool and full-day kindergarten are critical for a ... read more

Nov. 8, 2010: Stronger Schools, Close to Home

Dear DPS Community: On Thursday, we presented the Board of Education with recommendations to strengthen Montbello High School and its feeder middle and elementary schools and to create an enrollment zone that would increase opportunities for all of ... read more

Oct. 28, 2010: AP Courses Today, College Tomorrow

Dear DPS Community: On Monday, I had the pleasure of getting reacquainted with Thomas Aquinas and with the joys (and personal anxieties) of teaching. As part of our College Spirit Day, I spent the morning at Thomas Jefferson High School as the guest teacher in Mr. Mark Smith's AP world history class, where I had a chance to discuss with his students the development of Western thought and the balance and conflicts between science and faith. (Thank you, Mark, for helping me get through it!) I try to get back in the classroom several times a year, to spend time with our students and walk a few steps in the shoes of our talented ... read more

Oct. 15, 2010: Nov. 2 Ballot Measures that Affect School Funding

Dear DPS Community: As ballots for the Nov. 2 election start to arrive in your mailboxes, I wanted to share with you some basic facts about how three measures-Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Proposition 101-would affect funding for our schools. We ... read more

Oct. 12, 2010: Severe Funding Cuts and Proposed Transportation Changes

Dear DPS Community: As we brace for the next round of severe school-funding cuts at the state and federal levels, we need to continue to find ways to be more efficient and reduce costs. For this school year, we faced a $35 million shortfall, due ... read more

Oct. 6, 2010: Our Kids’ Future Starts Now

Dear DPS Community: Yesterday at George Washington High School, we kicked off our first-ever College & Career Readiness Month in the Denver Public Schools. Our central goal as a school district is ... read more

Sept. 30, 2010: Second-Largest Enrollment Jump on Record

Dear DPS Community: This morning, we announced that the district's preliminary counts show that forthe third consecutive year, enrollment in Denver Public Schools has jumped significantly. Last year, we posted a nearly 3,000-student increase, to ... read more

Sept. 22, 2010: Fun for Kids...of All Ages

Dear DPS Community: One of my best moments of the school year so far wasn't in a classroom. It was a simple walk last week around the new playground at McGlone Elementary School-seeing the faces lit up with carefree and unbridled joy, hearing the unmistakable playground chorus of ... read more

Sept. 17, 2010: Schools Make Strides on SPF

Dear DPS Community: 2010 DPS School Performance Framework (SPF) ratings are out, and once again, we're seeing great success stories in schools across the district. Please click here for detailed school-by-school performance summaries. I'd like ... read more

Sept. 15, 2010: Excellence at the Head of Every Classroom

Dear DPS Community: One of our top priorities this school year is strengthening our educator-effectiveness programs. Teachers and principals are the lifeblood of any school system. Quality schools depend on excellence at the head of every classroom ... read more

Sept. 7, 2010: Big Savings Equal More Teachers

Dear DPS Community: I would like to share with you two pieces of very good news regarding the strength and health of the District's budget and what that means for our classrooms: significant savings from the 09-10 school year budget that we ... read more

Aug. 31, 2010: Building Healthy Schools

Dear DPS Community: We had a very exciting visit last week from US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who stopped by Centennial K-8 School to see for himself how our schools are promoting healthy eating and nutrition education. The USDA has heard many good things ... read more

Aug. 19, 2010: Welcome Back to School

Dear DPS Community: Welcome back for the new school year! It's a day of tremendous energy and enthusiasm at our schools, and I really hope you had a chance to take your child to school or stop by the school in your neighborhood. I am very excited about the new school year. DPS is on a roll, and I can't wait to get back in the classroom, celebrate the progress we are making, and continue talking with parents and community partners about how we can get better. (Image: Supt. Boasberg greets Hill sixth-graders on the first day of school) I am visiting ... read more

Aug. 17, 2010: State-of-the-Art and Under Budget

Dear DPS Community: As we celebrated the much-anticipated opening of the newly-built, state-of-the-art, Evie Garrett Dennis Campus last Friday, located in Green Valley Ranch, I was thrilled to see such a tremendous turnout of families and community members. The shared campus is designed to help meet the growing needs of the district and to better serve our families, especially in the rapidly growing Green Valley Ranch area in far northeast Denver. Click here to read a Denver Post article on the opening of the Evie Dennis campus. Named after retired DPS Superintendent Dr. Evie Garrett Dennis-Denver's first African-American ... read more

Aug. 16, 2010: A Summer Head Start

Dear DPS Community: While the first day of school for most students is Aug. 19, for hundreds of ninth-graders across the city, school started a little earlier. In 2007, Denver Public Schools began a 9th Grade Academy program that provides a unique ... read more

Aug. 11, 2010: 5 Years of Strong, Steady CSAP Growth

Dear DPS Community: I am pleased to announce that for the fifth consecutive year under the Denver Plan, DPS has outpaced the rest of the state in gains on the CSAP. Where five years ago at the start of the Denver Plan, DPS students and schools were ... read more

Aug. 6, 2010: The Facts About our Pension Fund

Dear DPS Community: In the midst of the current campaign season, there has been a great deal of misinformation circulated about the strength of our pension fund. We want to make sure that you have the facts. First and foremost, DPS is entirely ... read more

Aug. 6, 2010: $25M Grant Big Boost for DPS

Dear DPS Community: We are pleased to announce that Denver Public Schools was chosen to receive an Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education in the amount of up to $25 million. A total of 1,698 entries were ... read more

Aug. 4, 2010: Big Congrats to our Class of 2010!

Dear DPS Community: As we approach the start of a new school year, I want to share some exciting new numbers on our graduating Class of 2010. This year, we graduated hundreds more high school seniors than last year, continuing and accelerating the ... read more

June 29, 2010: Serving Families, All Year Long

Dear DPS Community: Although we're headed into the heart of the summer and the vacation season, I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know about all of the school work that is continuing throughout the "dog days" here in Denver. A few days ... read more

June 15, 2010: A Major Investment in Our High Schools

Dear DPS Community: One of the most rewarding and promising signs of progress we've seen over the past year has been the rising attendance, enrollment, and graduation rates among our high school students. There's still a long way to go to reach our overriding goal of getting all ... read more

June 2, 2010: Celebrating Successes

Dear DPS Community: I wanted to take a few minutes to thank all of you for your support during this school year and also update you on the progress we accomplished as a community. Throughout Denver and indeed throughout the country, there's a very strong feeling of momentum and ... read more

May 24, 2010: Encouraging Findings from ProComp Study

Dear Colleagues: Almost five years ago, the Denver Public Schools launched ProComp, a pioneering and now nationally recognized teacher performance compensation system created in partnership with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. ProComp is ... read more

May 5, 2010: Weathering the Economic Storm

Dear DPS Community: The recession of the past several years has been our country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and it's impacted virtually every part of our community. Our schools have certainly had to face hard choices in the ... read more

April 22, 2010: Compelling Feedback from Our Teachers

Dear DPS Community, In January, over 2,900 of our teachers completed a survey that gave them a chance to offer their feedback on their principal's leadership and their school's culture. This is the third year that DPS and the Denver Classroom ... read more

April 14, 2010: Big News From Washington

Dear DPS Community: Nothing is more important to accelerating our classroom gains than continuing to develop great teachers for our schools and our students. And last week, we received a major investment in our Great People strategy-a key component of the 2010 Denver Plan. DPS and the University of Denver's Morgridge ... read more

March 16, 2010: Parent Forums Off to Great Start

Dear DPS Community: Last week we held our first meetings of the Superintendent Parent Forums, which I wrote about in the Feb. 12 myDPS. The meetings were extraordinarily well-attended, with a total of more than 150 parents representing about 100 ... read more

March 8, 2010: A Compelling Story on Keeping Kids in School

Dear DPS Community:In the summer of 2008, the Denver Public Schools worked collaboratively with Padres Unidos, the Denver Police Department, and the Denver District Attorney's office to change its discipline policy to focus more on embracing restorative justice while ... read more

Feb. 26, 2010: Celebrating Black History Month

Dear DPS Community: As you know, February is Black History month. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate the many cultures and traditions of the people who make up the Denver Public Schools. I had the opportunity to do just that this week ... read more

Feb 23, 2010: A Call for Quality Schools

Dear DPS Community: Last Friday at the Math and Science Leadership Academy, we issued our Call for Quality Schools-the program that invites educators to submit proposals to start new, high-quality schools to serve the families of ... read more

Feb 12, 2010: Deepening the Dialogue with Our Parents

Dear DPS Community: This morning at Harrington Elementary School, we kicked off what I’m confident will be a big step forward in our efforts to bring dramatic improvements to the Denver Public Schools. Alongside Harrington educators and parents ... read more

Feb. 5, 2010: Some of Our Best News Yet

Dear DPS Community: This week we received some of the best and most encouraging news we've had in recent years. And it comes in the area of our strongest need: high schools. Thanks to the great work of our teachers, principals, and students, we now have hundreds more of our ... read more

Jan. 25, 2010

Dear DPS Community: This is a very exciting and important time for our schools. We’ve seen some strong signs of progress over the past four years. And as we work to build on and accelerate that progress, we need the participation and involvement of the entire Denver community. Strong schools and strong ... read more