Principal is scholarly salesman

New Valdez chief peddles attractions of resurgent school

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 9, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Education

Peter Sherman carries his own Scotch tape when he heads out from Valdez Elementary on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, along with an armload of fliers and an ability to sell in English and Spanish.

The new principal of an about- to-be-reborn school in northwest Denver has 60 more seats to fill when Denver Public Schools classes start on Aug. 20 - and he is leaving no doggie day care or hair salon untouched by literature in his quest to reach families.

"I'm just hoping to put up some notices about the school," Sherman pitches at the Daily Wag, the Uptown Barbershop and the Tacqueria El Valle. "Can I put it in your door? Your window?"

Sherman didn't need to market his old school, Park Hill K-8 in northeast Denver, which was typically full to overflowing in his four years there. But northwest Denver is a different story, with many schools such as Valdez and its neighbor, North High, only 60 percent full.

To attract families, DPS this fall is launching a reform plan that will eventually combine the schools in a single campus serving preschool through grade 12.

The hope is that the North Academy Campus for World Leadership, with its focus on world languages and world arts, will appeal to surrounding neighborhoods rich in Anglo and Hispanic diversity.

It's a plan scheduled to build piece by piece, year by year. Sherman's part this fall is starting a -dual-language Montessori program for children ages 3, 4 and 5.

The only similar program in DPS is the nearby Academia Ana Maria Sandoval School, which has a lengthy waiting list. JoAnn Trujillo Hays, who ran Sandoval, is principal of the high school portion of the new North Academy.

Already, Sherman has filled about 100 of the 160 seats in the new program. He's calling names on the Sandoval wait list, hitting neighborhood stores and hosting a variety of school talks.

"This is an opportunity to learn Spanish and to be literate in Spanish," he said Wednesday night at one talk, responding to an Anglo dad.

"Another goal is the cultural piece, we want to create an environment where kids are bicultural."

Valdez still is serving students in grades 1 through 5 with a traditional DPS program. Each year, the dual-language piece will add a grade until it encompasses the entire elementary school. The Montessori part will be confined to preschool and kindergarten.

Middle school grades will begin next fall. The full preschool-12 campus, including the college prep high school, is expected to be in place by fall 2009.

Curiosity about the reform effort drew a diverse mix of seven families to Wednesday's school talk.

Raquel Cecil is anxious to preserve her son's bilingual fluency. Kad'n, 3, has begun to express a preference in English, which worries her.

"It's my most important goal, to maintain his bilingual ability," she said. "If he can keep it until he's 6, he'll never lose it."

Allison Fries wants to expose her daughter, 2, to Spanish. The family lives about three blocks from Valdez, she said, and had planned to send the little girl to a private school.

But the dual-language opportunity at Valdez is prompting them to take another look at public school.

"We are seriously considering this," she said.

More information

• To learn more about Valdez Elementary, call 303-433-2581 or stop by the school at 2525 W. 29th Ave., between Bryant and Zuni streets, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Or attend an informational session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the school.

• To learn more about the Valdez/North High Campus, formally called the North Campus Academy for World Leadership, which will serve students in preschool through grade 12, log on to http://sig.dpsk12.org/ and click on "2007-08 School Innovation Grant Awards."

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News