| Name | 6.A. Do you believe that preserving strong public neighborhood schools in each of our communities is very important to the future viability and strength of our neighborhoods? Yes/No | 6.B. Please explain. |
| Amanda Sandoval | Yes | Having strong public neighborhood schools create desirable neighborhoods. |
| Sarah Truckey | Yes | Absolutely. Everyone should have access to quality public schools in their neighborhoods that are easy to access for students and family, as well as the staff that works there. |
| Kevin Flynn | Yes | Neighborhood schools build neighborhood relationships and cohesion. |
| Jamie Torres | Yes | This is not the purview of City Council but during the pandemic, I worked closely with my local school board members to ensure their needs were relayed and reflected in my advocacy at the city level. This manifested in multi-lingual information strategy, communication coordination, and library support. |
| Tony Pigford | Yes | I’m a strong supporter of public education, and I’m proud that Denver teachers are the top profession of donors to my campaign. |
| Amanda Sawyer | Yes | Colorado’s Charter school system has been pulling resources and students away from local schools. Unfortunately the City can’t do anything about this; it is a DPS School Board and State issue. However, as a parent of three teenagers, I see the effects of this on my own kids and their education. I also see its effects on my residents. Palmer Elementary and Montclair Elementary were two of the schools proposed to be closed by DPS late last year. There was no outreach done and no conversation with community before the decision was made. One of the things DPS did not consider during this process was that it is virtually impossible for elementary school children (or for that matter, anyone) to cross Monaco safely. I wrote a letter to the School Board advocating that those two schools remain open until infrastructure can be built to support the need, and they were removed from the list of schools to be closed – for now… |
| Michael Hughes | Yes | Yes – neighborhood schools are central to the character and quality of a neighborhood and a bedrock of community connection and participation. |
| Paul Kashmann | Yes | Schools have long been one of the solidifying elements of communities, bringing families together for education and a raft of other community building occasions. As much as possible I believe the ideal is for kids to learn in their own neighborhood. |
| Nick Campion | Yes | Preserving strong neighborhood schools is important because it’s part of the community. It brings families and residents together. In addition, neighborhood schools allow students and educators to walk or bike to school which reduces our emissions to the planet. |
| Adam Estroff | Yes | Yes. My wife was a teacher at DCIS at Fairmont for the last seven years until we had our baby. We now live just down the block from the school in Baker and it has been endured as an anchor for the community for the last hundred years. |
| Guy Padgett | Yes | Any healthy neighborhood has a diversity of residents. This includes a diversity of age. The very fact that so many Denver Public Schools are being considered for closure is indicative to me that some of our neighborhoods are no longer in reach for young families. Schools have traditionally been not just places of learning, but also neighborhood meeting places and anchors. So many of my friends and neighbors in Baker describe themselves as living just a few blocks from Fairmont, including many who do not have children. Without these community stalwarts, we lose something so easy to take for granted when there, but so sorely missed when absent. |
| Arthur May | Yes | We need to revisit our academic standards and ensure we are measuring the outcomes of our students well after graduation. |
| Shontel Lewis | Yes | Having strong public neighborhood schools can be the backbone to a thriving community and strengthens the economic stability of all who live in the neighborhood. |
| Candi CdeBaca | Yes | I spent my career prior to Council pushing back against the privatization of public schools and market based solutions for public education such as school choice. |
| Margie Morris | Yes | Yes, even though we have open enrollment within Denver, we need to support community schools in neighborhoods to increase accessibility and provide safe, healthy environments for students to learn and grow, while strengthening local community engagement and connections. As a former PTO president and chair of multiple PTO committees over the years, my neighbors and I worked tirelessly to improve the physical plant, teacher pay and quality, and student resources and enrichment opportunities in our neighborhood school. The opportunity to meaningfully advance our neighborhood’s future by working collaboratively to provide its children with the best learning and health development opportunities was the most important work of my life. I fully support community schools and will advocate to retain the community school model in our city. |
| Noah Kaplan | Yes | I am a proud DPS graduate and a former DPS teacher. I went to strong, diverse DPS schools in Central Denver and am saddened to see how many have fallen victim to decreased enrollment and performance. Strong public schools are an essential metric for the health and well-being of our communities. We should aspire to provide robust education opportunities for all Denver residents. Schools support the social fabric of our community. When they suffer, it increases safety concerns and anti-social behavior in our young people. The vision for holistic neighborhoods must include one of the essential pieces of community infrastructure: our schools. |
| Shannon Hoffman | Yes | As an educator for more than a decade, I know firsthand how crucial strong public neighborhood schools are for communities. |
| Sarah Parady | Yes | I’m a strong supporter of public schools, and believe they are very important to our community. While the Council is not responsible for education policy, we should be doing more to support our educators and our students by addressing the housing crisis and giving working families the resources they need to thrive. My daughter is going to DPS for kindergarten this fall. |
| Marty Zimmerman | Yes | Since 2007, I have been a schoolteacher educating high school students about entrepreneurship, life skills and social studies. I understand the importance of education and also how teaching through COVID has affected our teachers and our children. I believe in supporting schools, and making it so it is safe and easy for families to walk to school if they should so choose. I also believe in holding schools accountable, whether public, charter or private. Schools are very important to the future vitality and strengths of neighborhoods if the schools are successful in educating our children so they can effectively work in our society. If a school is failing its students, it will not be helpful to a neighborhood. As a City Council member, education falls outside my purview, but I am open to being a liaison to the DPS School Board about shared initiatives that would support schools and neighborhoods as I believe that we need to do whatever is best for our children to succeed. |
| Penfield Tate III | Yes | Strong neighborhood schools bind neighborhoods together, support working families and reduce traffic. They also build the sense of community that has defined Denver for many years. People still identify themselves by the elementary, junior high and high schools they attended. A strong city partnership with DPS is vital to Denver’s success. |
| Jeff Walker | Yes | Neighborhood schools create a social network that benefits working families. This is especially important as the number of daycares has drastically fallen. However, the birth rate is also falling and families with school-aged children are not enrolling their children in Denver Public Schools. It is hard to maintain the operating and maintenance costs of schools with declining enrollment. |
