Volume 54, Issue No. 9
A Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. Publication
September 2015
Architectural Diversity Takes Center Stage
DPS embraces Relay Training
2015 Home Tour & Street Fair Highlights Park Hill Designs; All-Day Street Fair Open To All By Nina Kuhl Home Tour Organizer
Denver’s Park Hill Neighborhood is noted for its architectural diversity. The Park Hill Home Tour provides a rare opportunity to see the architecture up close and explore seven fabulous homes on Sunday, Sept. 27. This year the Park Hill Home Tour is capitalizing on the variety of architecture that can be found in the historic neighborhood. The tour includes a renovated Craftsman, a church turned single-family home, and three mid-century homes designed by Edwin Hawkins, a nationally recognized designer and developer. Also that day, the Park Hill Street Fair will include more than 100 vendors offering great food, beer & wine garden, live music, crafts, classic cars and children’s activities. The Street Fair is on Forest Parkway between Montview Boulevard and 17th
Mid-Century Modern at 3001 Forest St.
Avenue and admission is free. Vendors will be composting, recycling and powering up via solar generators courtesy of SolaRover. Both the home tour and the street fair run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advance Home Tour ticket sales for the home tour begin Sept. 1 at several local businesses and online at www.parkhillhometour.org. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and children (7-12). Children under 7 are free. Tickets purchased the day of the event increase by $5. All proceeds benefit the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc, a nonprofit organization that supports neighborhood programs including a food pantry, the Greater Park Hill News, and neighborhood events. For the complete list of vendors and food trucks and for tickets and a closer look at the featured homes, visit www.parkhillhometour.org. Check out the full preview of homes on this year’s tour, pages 12 and 13.
Days of Parks & Reckoning Density, Politics, Present Challenges For Parks & Rec Board As new members of Denver’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board take their posts, the second-term chair encourages more public engagement. “The board is a little-known resource,” said Leslie Twarogowski, of Council District 8. “We must represent our district. The advisory board provides an opportunity to connect with Parks & Recreation. Not many people know they have a voice to get in front of the (city) administration.” Almost half of the 19 board members are new, following of the April city council elections. Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman originally appointed Twaragowski to represent District 5. With the district maps redrawn, Twaragowski’s Park Hill home is no longer in Susman’s district. In a slightly unusual move, Councilman Chris Herndon appointed Twaragowski to represent his new District 8, which includes all of Park Hill. (See sidebar on page 5 for a list of new and returning appointees.) “Our biggest challenge is working with the parks department to handle increased density,” said Twaragowski in an exclusive interview with Greater Park Hill News. “Rapidly increasing density puts tremendous demands on parks and the way people use them.” According to Twarogowski, “everybody wants to go to City Park, Cheesman Park, or
Parks officials say repairs and renovations at the Dustin Redd playground in City Park are on the agenda. The park remains popular, but is showing its age. Photo by Cara DeGette
Washington Park.” The challenge, she says, is getting people to use other city parks to reduce stress on the high-use destinations. “We understand that different people have different reasons for going to the parks,” said Twarogowski. “Some want the solitude that DAVE FELICE a park provides, while others want activities such as City Park Jazz. However, a big, raucous, and highly disruptive event such as one last year at City Park was just horrible. It was the wrong event at the wrong place.”
CITY MATTERS
Former longtime parks advisory board member Mary Ewing of District 10 says it’s extremely difficult to balance public interest with the political intentions of the appointing official. “The Hentzell Park Natural Area fiasco demonstrates why it is important for Council members to give advisory board members wide latitude in acting as a check on abuses of power and terrible policy decisions by the mayor and the city administration,” said Ewing.
While Denver kids were on break enjoying summer camps and vacation, 75 Denver Public Schools’ principals, assistant principals and staff were participating in a camp of their own. They followed a cohort of seven in 2013 and 40 in 2014 who took part in a two-week intensive program: the National Principals Academy Fellowship run by the Relay Graduate School of Education.
The Program
Founded in New York by the leaders of three charter school networks, KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools, Relay was first established to train teachers who would be funneled into charter schools. A few years ago, Relay expanded its offerings to include professional development for principals. Relay is not accredited by an institution of higher education.
SCHOOLS UPDATE
LYNN KALINAUSKAS
GPHC Education Chair
Participants in the Relay program first attend a two-week intensive program that is then followed by four three-day weekends during the school year. During the first two years of the program DPS staff attended all sessions in New York City. This summer, most participants did the intensive program in Denver while only some attended in New York. All follow-up weekend sessions, however, will be done in New York. According to Relay’s website, the focus of the program is “data-driven instruction; positive student culture of high expectations; observation and feedback; adult professional development; instructional planning; an aligned staff culture; and strategic leadership.” In an interview with Greater Park Hill News at Cake Crumbs on August 7, Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, Chief of Innovation and Reform for DPS, said that for its purposes, DPS was focused on data-driven instruction, school culture, and teacher observation and feedback.
Campuses in New York City, Houston and beyond
In addition to its initial location in New York City, Relay now has campuses in Chicago, Delaware, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, Newark, NJ, and Philadelphia and Camden. Whitehead-Bust said a Denver campus is planned in the coming year. DPS has contracted to send 75 more principals and staff next year. Other districts and the Colorado Department of Education are also using Relay to train principals.
continued on page 4 Babbs Nominations Invited To Honor Local Leader
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PAGE 7
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Foo Fighters Frontman Dave Grohl Spills The Beans
PAGE 2
September 2015
On the front line
Intensive Program Promotes Strict Routines, Teacher Oversight, Focus on Test Scores
Check Out What’s Brewing At The Library
continued on page 8
NEXT GPHC MEETING Thursday, Sep. 3 at 6:30 p.m. 2823 Fairfax St., Denver
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