All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1961 Volume 55, Issue No. 1
A Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. Publication
January 2016
Parents Seek Answers To Smiley Campus Uncertainties
It’s Today Show-time!
In December, the Today Show posted a Facebook update, seeking the nation’s best cookie bakers. Before you could say oatmeal cranberry, Cake Crumbs co-owner Denon Moore was packing a bag and an insulated box full of cookie dough, and flying to New York City for a cookie swap with other bakers from across the country live on the Today Show with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. It all happened pretty much that fast. “I have a couple of good talking points, but generally I’m flying blind,” said Moore in a brief interview at her packed Park Hill restaurant on Kearney just before the trip. “I’m just going with the flow.” Photo by Sean Moore
Lack of Outreach Cited In Efforts To Address Middle School Needs
Session Will Include Sniping, Grandstanding, Maybe Results Trying To Be An Optimist, In Challenging Times By Penfield W. Tate III
to an already dangerous mix.
Where will everyone live?
Special to the GPHN
The holiday season is behind us, with its community celebrations, office parties, holiday gatherings, and time with the family. Now comes the prelude to the legislative session, which kicks off on Jan. 13. This is where the challenges in our community will be debated and hopefully, to some extent, improved. This promises to be an interesting legislative year, full of hyperbole, sniping, and grandstanding. My fondest hope is that it will also result in serious policy debate and resolution of important issues. Although I am typically an optimist, I am pessimistic about this season. It is after all, a presidential election year with all the partisan fervor that generates. It is also an election year for the entire state House of Representatives, and nearly one third of the State Senate. Some lawmakers will be term limited, some will be looking to move from the House to the Senate, and the question of who will end up in control of both chambers – Democrats, or Repub-
Additional legislative previews on pages 6 and 7 licans – will be in play. The session will be long on speech and debate on the issues and potentially short on results. It is not uncommon that the second regular session of a General Assembly is more difficult due to reelection pressures. Presidential election pressures simply add
Development continues to be a topic of major discussion and concern in the community. Many talk about the explosive population growth in our state, which shows no signs of abating in the near future. With all of the people moving to Colorado, the obvious question becomes, where do they live? Two measures from the last legislative session spoke of these issues in seemingly conflicting ways. Efforts to amend Colorado’s construction defects laws were ultimately unsuccessful. However, since a number of local communities are beginning to adopt their own construction defects ordinances, many believe the General Assembly will take this question up again in an effort to preempt local ordinances and establish a statewide playing field for the handling of these matters. Developers and homebuilders will argue that current laws restrict and impede their ability to build affordable housing, which the state, and many local communities so
City Matters
GPHC Education Chair
Specifically, to address an increased need for middle school seats, DPS is proposing one of two scenarios to begin in Fall 2017: 1) Expand McAuliffe, which is housed at the Smiley Campus, to 400 students per grade or; 2) Have McAuliffe serve 250 students per grade and share the campus with a new middle school, with a population of 150 students per grade. Both options bring the total number of students to 1,200. With Venture Prep moving out of the building at the end of this school year, the Smiley Campus is already set to see a fair amount of flux. Regardless of which scenario goes forth for 2017, DPS is stating that to meet immediate capacity needs, McAuliffe will increase its 6th grade this year from 270 to 350, increasing the current number of students from 832 to more than 900. In addition, the new McAuliffe at Manual program will be incubated in the Smiley building for its first year, 2016-17, before moving to Manual.
Poorly communicated meetings
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continued on page 10
Warming Up For MLK Day, Jan. 18
Page 11
Therefore, in 2016, Be It Resolved
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Inside This Issue
Page 2
January 2016
Lynn Kalinauskas
interests blames international trade agreements for stifling economic growth. “When we look at the employment rate, we have to ask what the jobs are that people are doing, and if those jobs are really paying a living wage,” says Gilchrist, in exclusive comments for Greater Park Hill News. “Anyone who has been unemployed is rightfully happy to be back at work,” says Gilchrist. “But jobs may pay less than people
Unemployment Is Low, But So Are Wages
One report, by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, points out the unemployment rate of 4.3 percent masks chronic under-employment and income inequality. Another report, from the Pew Dave Felice Research Center, finds the nation’s middle class is no longer a majority of the population. At the same time, a national organization representing both consumer and business
schools Update
Park Hill Elementary families were given two days notice for the meeting on Dec. 7. Scheduled at 4 p.m., working parents could not attend. The meeting targeted 3rd and 4th grade parents, which angered 5th grade parents who will need to submit their middle school Choice forms in the coming weeks. There was no outreach whatsoever to 3rd and 4th grade families who have children attending schools not in the Park Hill or Stapleton neighborhoods. DPS should not on the one hand tout Choice, but then exclude those families from community meetings. The Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. neighborhood association has repeatedly asked DPS, both in person and via official communications, to keep residents informed of meetings that affect the neigh-
continued on page 8
The Incredibly Shrinking Middle Class Reports of Colorado’s low unemployment rate has been heralded over the past month. But the economy still doesn’t work for working families, says the head of the state AFL-CIO. Recent economic status reports and personal observation lead Sam Gilchrist to conclude that many Coloradans are still struggling and suffering.
Denver Public Schools’ office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) has been holding meetings at Park Hill and Stapleton schools about how the Smiley building at 26th and Holly Street could be used to address capacity issues in the middle school enrollment zone.
Why The Streets Skip In Park Hill
Next GPHC Meeting Thursday, Jan. 7 at 6:30 p.m. 2823 Fairfax St., Denver
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