Denver Public Schools kick off a new year with a new superintendent

New Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero stood extracurricular Garden Place Academy connected Monday greeting successful a achromatic suit and a smile.

He watched Principal Andrea Renteria reintroduce herself to students who scattered crossed the playground and welcomed them backmost archetypal successful English and past Spanish with a cheery “bienvenidos a todos” earlier starring them successful the schoolhouse cheer.

“Our dreams are big, our eyes are wide, ticker america amusement our tiger pride!” Renteria chanted with her students, teachers and parents.

The archetypal time of schoolhouse people brings nerves for himself, students and teachers, Marrero said, but spoke of turning those “bubbling” feelings into anticipation astatine the imaginable of a caller year, his archetypal successful Denver aft the Board of Education hired him from a suburban New York City territory successful June. And classes crossed the territory are being held in-person alternatively than online.

“What a triumph that is,” Marrero said. “That was not the lawsuit past year.”

Denver Public Schools’ astir 90,000 students and 13,900 employees — astir 4,900 of which are teachers — are among the past successful the metro to commencement the schoolhouse year.

Marrero scurried astir the academy’s playground, giving acquainted and caller faces a affable grin oregon adjacent tapped his feet to theirs successful spot of a handshake. This was the archetypal schoolhouse sojourn of 7 connected his Monday schedule.

All the introductions and fanfare struck genitor Kristin Morales arsenic bittersweet, she said portion she and Andres Cardenas dropped disconnected their 2 children — 2nd grader Anabelle, 7, and kindergartener Edwin, 5.

“I would spell for different period of summer,” Morales said, lone fractional joking.

Morales said she’ll miss her children and peculiarly enjoyed having them astir the house. Still, she added, it’s clip for them to beryllium backmost with their friends and successful school.

The territory is requiring students, staff, teachers and immoderate visitors that mightiness travel into schoolhouse buildings to wear masks indefinitely and careless of vaccination status. All schoolhouse unit indispensable beryllium vaccinated by Sept. 30, Mayor Michael Hancock announced earlier this month.

The social, affectional and structural aspects of in-person schoolhouse are important, Cardenas said, but helium and Morales expressed interest astir however look masks volition alteration that paradigm and whether it could stunt their affectional growth.

Forming a affable transportation volition beryllium much hard for children wearing masks, Morales believes, adding that she’s frustrated astatine a deficiency of connection from territory and nationalist wellness officials locally and crossed the state.

Amanda Carrera was little disquieted astir the logistics — masks are the “new normal,” she said. Instead, she’s much disquieted astir however the schoolhouse would grip her rambunctious 5-year-old girl Penelope, who started kindergarten.

As Carrera near the playground, Marrero headed northbound to Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High School, wherever Principal Cori Herbst-Loehr met him extracurricular earlier starting a abbreviated tour.

The 38-year-old superintendent ducked into a classroom, bumped fists with 1 pupil and past stood backmost arsenic the schoolroom considered 1 of life’s large mysteries: How they mightiness explicate the quality betwixt a hamburger and a sandwich to idiosyncratic from a antithetic culture.

Herbst-Loehr led Marrero into different room, past another. Some students were reacquainting themselves with their friends, portion others took notes connected impermanent speakers from Syria, who offered penetration into immoderate of their civilization and history.

Marrero offered an emphatic “wow” erstwhile Herbst-Loehr led him done the school’s garden, showed him wherever the apiary (for bees) volition spell and pointed to the coop wherever the school’s chickens had been until a canine broke in.

Montessori schedules are little rigid, and students from antithetic grades intermingle much freely wrong the curriculum, Herbst-Loehr told Marrero. But the students behaved similar immoderate other, speaking astir successful their ain language, laughing unneurotic and pausing to ticker the outsiders walk done successful beforehand of their blackboards.

The students appeared engaged with their teachers and each other, Marrero observed. And the engagement is what matters the most. Without it, they can’t learn.

He nodded to 2 Board of Education members who had joined him for the circuit and the radical jumped successful a metallic SUV and headed disconnected to Columbian Elementary, their adjacent stop.