By: Ariahn Knoedler, Steering Committee Parent-Vice Chair
My name is Ariahn Knoedler and I am the newest parent member of the D’Evelyn Steering Committee. I am writing to ask you to consider serving on the Steering Committee as we will have two parent vacancies for the next term starting the 2023-2024 school year. I volunteered at Dennison for years, and since my kids started attending D’Evelyn in 2018, I started volunteering by helping out with various social activities. I then started participating in accountability meetings, helped with several textbook and curricular committees, and observed steering meetings for several years. There are many wonderful ways to help serve at our school and I determined that the Steering Committee is a big reason why our school has maintained such impressive standards of excellence throughout its existence. I completed the required reading several years ago but decided with all four of my girls at D’Evelyn, this year I would pitch and serve on Steering. So far, it has been great - it is a time commitment of four or five hours a month but I am enjoying meeting teachers, and learning about the behind-the-scenes at our great school. If you are thinking about running for one of the parent spots, the first step would be to read our founding document. Then, if you even have the smallest interest in serving on the Steering Committee next year, please plan to attend our Steering Committee training on Tuesday, November 8 at 6:30 pm (following the accountability meeting- this meeting satisfies one of the required pieces of the application process). In the meantime, you are also welcome to reach out to me personally and I am happy to answer any questions you may have! (303-641-6166 or [email protected]) By: Founders Carolyn De Raad and Kathi Pitzer
In 1991, groups throughout Colorado were working to develop schools they felt would better educate their children. But school boards always said “no.” Charter legislation, introduced in 1992, was an attempt to free parents and teachers from the power of a local school board to reject ideas other than their own and allowing an appeal to the State Board of Education. The bill was killed. But, great ideas don’t die. And people who truly believe in ideas don’t allow them to die. Dave D’Evelyn, the father of charter schools in Colorado, continued to work at drafting legislation that could be passed. He and the Colorado Children’s Campaign organized a Charter conference in December of 1992 for an expected 70 attendees. 140 attended. Governor Romer endorsed the concept of Charter Schools in his 1993 State of the State address, followed immediately with unanimous endorsement from the State Board of Education. We spent hours at the legislature testifying and observing. It was big, with 18 hours of hearings in the Senate Education Committee alone. Finally, in May 1993, the legislature passed the bipartisan Charter School Bill. Governor Romer signed the bill into law. Sadly, that May, we lost Dave D’Evelyn in a small-plane crash while returning from Durango where he helped charter proposers understand the law. All who worked with Dave knew him to be principled, visionary, and compassionate, He taught well, wrote well, and lived well. His depth of insight, willingness to confront the hard questions in education, defense of individual liberty, and clear adherence to academic excellence were outstanding. He trusted individual parents to make the best choices for their own children. Parents at Dennison K-8 had long wondered why there was no high school to continue the educational philosophy delivered by Dennison. They were always told, “for your grandchildren perhaps.” With Charter possible, a small group of us met in August 1993, to draft the Philosophy Statement for a high school. Philosophy Statement in hand, we began having public meetings to confirm that the school we envisioned had a clientele - demonstrated by letters of intent. Simultaneously, we researched financial, building, curriculum, transportation, contract, and other necessary issues. We also met with the Jeffco District officials and the media. In December we submitted the final Options proposal to the District, and in January the final Charter version. When the Jeffco Board heard the proposal we had 900 letters of intent and hundreds of parents attending Board meetings. In March the school was approved as an option and denied as a Charter. We were promised the Manning building and required to write an initial (April) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). We then reviewed the Document with a Jeffco administrator while considering appealing the Charter denial. The June 1993, MOU clarified our relationship with the district, guaranteeing significant operational autonomy. We also named the option school for Dave D’Evelyn. In May we began enrolling students, hiring teachers, choosing and ordering books, and doing all the necessary things to open D’Evelyn. In August 1994 we opened with our first 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade students. It was no small victory. It is now our collective mission to keep the program worthy of the name it bears. |
The Steering Committee is the governing board of the school and establishes policies designed to maintain and enhance its liberal arts philosophy. The Steering Committee appoints Directors to the Board of the D'Evelyn Education Foundation. Archives
March 2023
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