Record $3 million gift for DPS

Rocky Mountain News

Published March 6, 2008 at 12:32 p.m.
Updated March 6, 2008 at 1:16 p.m.

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Denver Public Schools today announced its largest ever corporate gift, a $3 million donation to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

Janus Capital Group of Denver will provide the donation over three years to help the district better attract, train and keep teachers over time.

The plan is to streamline various teacher recruitment pipelines — such as Teach for America, the New Teacher Project — and better prepare new teachers for the classroom.

But the Janus Education Alliance also will invest in veteran teachers, providing a career path for those interested in mentoring their younger peers.

Blair Johnson, senior vice president for corporate communications, said the company wanted to do more than write a check, they wanted to invest in something distinctive and with lasting impact.

"It's very exciting to us," said Johnson, who received a stream of thrilled emails from employees after announcing the project Wednesday. "People are just rocking."

DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet said the gift will, among other things, allow the district to better recruit candidates for city classrooms.

"We need to think about it the way we think about recruiting for a university freshman class," he said, "the highest-quality, most diverse group we can find."

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