BackboneAmerica

IEP meetings continue, and I may soon turn into a pumpkin. Meanwhile, Denver Public Schools are holding a school board election and I have an endorsement for the at-large seat: Mary Seawell.

The reason I am endorsing Mary is simple. She supports doing whatever it takes to ensure student academic success. This includes programs and process in regular district schools, charter schools, magnets and innovation schools. That is the fair-minded philosophy that the Denver School Board needs. This is the attitude that is needed for someone who will be making the decision of our charter schools’ renewals and the charters of new charter schools.

Her opposition is clearly anti-charter school without results-based plans to improve student achievement. He regurgitates trite, worn-out arguments.

I like Mary for another reason. She was part of the team that built the Denver University’s new MBA in educational leadership. The program is a much needed resource and is a combination of traditional school leadership training coupled with marketing and entrepreneurship. Other states’ universities have “charter school principal programs,” and I am thrilled that Colorado now does too!

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator at Colorado High School Charter, a Denver alternative high school, and a former candidate for the State Board of Education.