North's year of transformation
Group's unhappiness at school, DPS drove improvement push
Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
Published August 22, 2007 at midnight
Julieta Quiñonez was 16 when she began to realize her top ranking at Denver's North High School meant little, that good high schools don't dole out easy A's and shrug off missed days.
That crack in her teenage reality eventually led Quiñonez to the doors of North High early Tuesday, standing beneath a banner that proclaimed "North. College. The World," delivering a speech with civic leaders.
"Today is the first day of a year of transformation," Quiñonez, who's now 20 and a senior at the University of Denver, said just a bit nervously. "Welcome to the new North High."
Some speakers - Denver Public Schools Superintendent Mi-chael Bennet, City Council members - may have been more polished, but none was as heartfelt.
Quiñonez and other members of Jovenes Unidos, or Youth United, have spent the past five years pushing and prodding DPS to reform North so that it, in turn, pushes and challenges students.
"It shouldn't be this hard," Bennet told those gathered outside North at 29th Avenue and Speer Boulevard to kick off the new school year, and Quiñonez agrees.
"It shouldn't be this hard," she repeated later, "but we're finally here."
"Here" is a college-preparatory curriculum at North, which is combining campuses with nearby Valdez Elementary. Eventually the two schools will serve preschool through 12th grade in The Academy of World Leadership, focusing on world arts and world languages.
But five years ago, when Quiñonez was a junior at North and breezing through "accelerated" classes, there was little college prep about the school.
At lunch one day, a parent with Padres Unidos, the parent group of Jovenes Unidos, gave her a survey: Do you want to go to college? Do you feel prepared?
"The questions made me think," she said. "I had thought about going to college, but I didn't know what I needed to do." She joined Jovenes Unidos and helped to tally more than 700 surveys of North students.
In March 2004, members of Jovenes Unidos presented their North report, highlighting a graduation rate of 38 percent and calling on DPS to improve the school.
News coverage helped launch a reform committee and brought the student leaders to the attention of the University of Denver, which offered college help.
Quiñonez was among a group of ten Jovenes Unidos members who met every Saturday for two months to help each other with college applications.
Three members - Quiñonez, Eva Bonilla and Monica Acosta - are now DU seniors. Quiñonez expected the transition from North to college would be hard.
"I knew that going in, but it was still very shocking," she said.
She found solace in the shared struggle with students from Jovenes Unidos and from West and Manual high schools. Her frustration turned to anger at DPS.
Meanwhile, the reform at North had stalled - according to some - and last summer, Padres y Jovenes Unidos led the call for a complete staff shakeup.
Bennet, in a decision protested by the teachers' union, agreed to the change. North has a new principal and only half of North's 68 teachers are returning.
Tuesday, after school, some Jovenes Unidos members danced as they passed out ice cream to students. "DPS needs to know they can't leave North behind anymore," said Quiñonez, now a student organizer for the group.
Her grade point average at DU has never dropped below a 3.5 out of 4.0. She plans a career in community organizing. "Education reform, I think, is one way of changing people's lives."
College prep at North
• North High School is offering a new focus on world arts and world languages, including Chinese and Arabic.
• North is one of four Denver high schools this fall to use the EXCELerator schools program from the nonprofit College Board. The program provides additional college-prep and college-level classes at urban high schools as well as college preparation and planning through the board's CollegeEd initiative.
mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245
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