Union plans to pitch own school to DPS board

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Denver's teachers union plans to submit a proposal this spring to create its own school, hoping to launch a teacher-led demonstration site for how to improve student achievement.

"Teachers are supportive of reform," Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said Tuesday. "We have ideas how to improve student achievement and we want an opportunity to put our ideas forward."

Ursetta, a bilingual elementary teacher, said the union is still working out details. But she said the plan would be submitted as part of Denver Public Schools' "request for proposal" process.

In that process, also known as an RFP, DPS leaders are inviting educators inside and outside the district to submit proposals for new schools. A deadline for the proposals has not been released.

News of the DCTA plan came on a day that 20 other DPS schools presented plans for varying levels of autonomy in hopes of speeding reform at their sites.

Manual High School Principal Rob Stein asked school board members to approve his school's autonomy proposal, already approved by the DCTA, at Thursday's board meeting.

The union's governing board and the school board must approve the autonomy plan because it includes waivers of district policy and the union contract.

Grant Middle School Principal Greta Martinez also sought board approval to allow the school to skip the district's drawn-out hiring schedule. Instead, the school could post jobs at will and hire, from inside and outside the district, as they see fit.

The union has approved Grant's waiver. DPS board members are expected Thursday to approve the requests from Manual and Grant.

But board members want more time to consider a more comprehensive request from 18 schools in the far northeast Denver neighborhoods of Montbello and Green Valley Ranch.

Montbello High School Principal Antwan Wilson outlined the request from those schools, including asking DPS to create a satellite human resources office devoted to staffing the 18 schools. Ursetta said the union has yet to approve any waiver requests from those schools.