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3d clock chalkboard8/18/2023 ![]() ![]() They argued that the district could support the two schools better than the zone could. Even taking the pandemic into account, they said that the student test scores at Kepner Beacon, one of two schools in the zone, were exceptionally low. “We have a district taking a drastic step that invalidates the votes of teachers and silences the voices of a community,” said Andy Ball, an attorney who represents Beacon, “and taking that step based on one pandemic-affected snapshot of student data.”īut DPS officials disagreed. They also argued that DPS’s decision was based on flawed data from pandemic-era state tests. The final version of the bill watered down that provision to a review only.Īt the State Board hearing Thursday, Beacon school leaders argued that revoking the zone silenced the voices of teachers and community members who support it. ![]() The first draft of the bill would have allowed a neutral third party to review and override innovation zone revocation decisions. That’s because the state law passed last year was a compromise. Even if the State Board members were united, their recommendation wouldn’t be binding. Instead, the State Board voted Thursday to draft a recommendation based on individual board members’ opinions, which varied widely. Unlike in a charter school appeal, the State Board doesn’t take an up or down vote on the local board’s decision. ![]() The Beacon appeal was the first test of a state law passed last year that allows the State Board to review innovation zone revocations by local school boards. “The only thing that’s clear is that this is not in our purview.” “The law is so clearly unclear here,” said board member Karla Esser, a Lakewood Democrat. The State Board can review and discuss local board decisions on innovation zones, but it can’t overturn them. “These just are not ordinary times,” said board member Angelika Schroeder, a Boulder Democrat, “and we need to be careful to make a pretty significant decision given the kind of support and success that Beacon has had.”īut other board members deferred to DPS’s decision to revoke the zone, arguing that the power to do so rests solely with the local school board. Some State Board members said Thursday that ambiguous academic data, strong support from parents and teachers, and inopportune timing - with DPS revoking the zone just as schools are recovering from the pandemic - mean that the Beacon innovation zone should be reinstated and allowed a few more years to show academic improvement. The zone has filed a lawsuit and appealed to the State Board of Education using a new state law - but DPS doesn’t have to follow the State Board’s recommendations. Leaders of Beacon Network Schools, as the zone is called, are fighting on multiple fronts to preserve their zone as the Denver school board and superintendent place innovation zones under more scrutiny. At a first-of-its-kind hearing Thursday, State Board of Education members expressed mixed opinions about whether Denver Public Schools rightly dissolved one of its innovation zones. ![]()
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