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. Comments are closed.
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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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