Teachers and parents have questions for potential Pueblo school managers
Pueblo City Schools is looking for new management partners to run two of their suffering schools. They are required to do so after a state school board decision last month required District 60 staff to find External Management Partners (EMP) to oversee Risley International Academy of Innovation and Heroes Academy.
Both schools reached the end of the state-mandated turnaround clock.
The partner would have complete control over schools from finances to hiring and firing to curriculum climate and culture. However, a group of parents and teachers, not directly associated with the district, sent out a list of questions to potential candidates to help find the right one.
The Pueblo Education is that group and they feel the parents should have a say in the choice of the new EMP’s.
“Just want to make sure we are asking the right questions,” said Sil Arteaga of the Pueblo Education Coalition. “(The EMP) should be familiar with the community.”
The Coalition recently sent surveys to 14 potential candidates dealing with their own six pillars. These include bringing ‘Culturally Relevant Curriculum’, ‘High-Quality Teaching’, ‘Shared Leadership’, ‘Community Support Services’, ‘Restorative Discipline Practices, and ‘Community engagement’.
“Are you going to go out and talk to the folks out here. Who actually have a real investment in this community who walk their kids to school every day?” said Arteaga. “We just want to be a part of this process.”
Monday night, District 60 is hoping to do just that by holding a forum at Risley on the EMP search.
“It’s a great opportunity for the community to come forward and share their input about the strengths, the weaknesses, and challenges the school has,” said Dalton Sprouse, District 60 spokesman. “All so we as a district can take that into consideration.”
In a statement, District 60 school board President Barb Clementi says the survey questions are damaging to the district’s own EMP search.
“Only the Board of Education itself, Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso, and her executive team are authorized to act and communicate with potential External Management Organizations on behalf of the School District in the selection process.”
Arteaga says disrupting the search wasn’t what the Coalition set out to do.
“It was never intended to do that and I don’t know where this perception got out that we were going to be hostile or aggressive towards the district,” said Arteaga.
The deadline for candidates to reply to the coalition’s survey is January 4th at noon. The district has until February 25th to pick an EMP.
