School:  MONTCLAIR ELEMENTARY (aka: MONTCLAIR SCHOOL OF ACADEMICS AND ENRICHMENT)

Website: http://montclair.dpsk12.org

Type: Public-DPS

Tours: Generally take place late fall (check website).

Main Phone: (303) 333-5497

Principal: Donna Neill (new principal 2011-2012)

Assistant Principal: Emily Zabroski

Location: 1151 Newport Street, Denver, CO 80020 / Montclair Neighborhood

Hours:  8:55 am-3:45 pm

Grades: ECE-5th Grade–3 Full Day Kindergarten classrooms

Average Class Size: It varies….K-2 classrooms try to maintain 25 or less students in each classroom with full-time paraprofessionals and grades 3-5 usually have less than 30 students per classroom.

Before/After Care: Programs are tuition-based and grant funded. After school extensions such as Brownies, Rocky Mountain Children’s Choir, Destination Imagination, and Girls on the Run are offered as well. *Update: Kaleidoscope Corner now runs the after school program.

Playground: There is one large playground with designated areas for children in the upper grades and lower grades. The lower grade’s equipment needs a significant upgrade. The upper grade’s area just had a few pieces of new playground equipment installed. There is a blacktop for basketball and another for tether ball. There is also a large grass area with two baseball fields and play area for organized activities. I was told that future plans are being carried out to update equipment and create a learning landscape. The plans are to take place in 2010 after other prioritized construction of the school is complete.  *Update: Learning Landscape completed 2010!

Special & Core Programs: Montclair uses Renzulli’s Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Some of the programs include Brown Bag Lunches where children eat lunch and learn about a topic of interest from a guest speaker, Enrichment Clusters where children from varying grade levels come together and choose a topic of interest and learn about it in depth over an 8 week period, monthly assemblies and monthly field trips including one unique field trip per grade level that ties into the curriculum (e.g. Kindergarten Bunked with the Beasts this year at the Denver Zoo), High Strides Classrooms which is an accelerated program offered for students at or above grade level in literacy and Progressive Classrooms which are an intervention-based program designed to develop a strong foundation of literacy skills to students. There is also a schoolwide event called International Night which is a celebration of the diverse community that attends Montclair and includes performances and food from around the world.

Impressions: I visited this school on several occasions. It’s a great little neighborhood school adjacent to a park where parents and children meet after school occasionally. The school was clean and the hallways were adorned with great artwork. The children seemed very engaged when I visited the classrooms. I met the Principal, several parents and a few staff members, all of whom were very enthusiastic about the school and the transformation it has been through. Shannon Hagerman, the principal, tells me there is a high level of teacher quality at the school. Twenty-two out of twenty-four staff members voted in favor of becoming Colorado State’s first “Innovation School” at the elementary level. This tells me the staff is confident in their ability to teach and put forth a great effort to increase student academic achievement, along with strengthening their own professional development through annual coursework.

I was so impressed in learning about their programs which really focus on the individual learner and how best to support or enrich the child. Also, children in some grade levels switch classrooms for certain subjects. Each grade level is divided up between classrooms for their “specials.” In this way, the students are ensured a differentiated learning experience. Shannon Hagerman greeted children in the hallways and seemed to know every child by name. I felt a very strong sense of community here at Montclair.

After talking to several parents, I learned that they have a “growing” PTA with two major fundraisers. The PTA  also strongly supports the enrichment programs at the school. I got the impression there are different levels of parental involvement from the highly involved to the less frequently involved. Also, some of the parents I spoke to choiced in to Montclair due to the variety of enrichment programs that are offered to students, smaller class sizes in K-2 classrooms, and a more diverse student body compared to their neighborhood schools.

Montclair has received a lot of local media attention over the past few years due to their school-wide revitalization plan. It’s a Beacon School and recently was designated a School of Innovation. This means Montclair was granted autonomy from district and state rules which allows them to control their own budget, curriculum, hiring, school calendar, etc. Because of these things, Montclair’s popularity has increased over the past few years with more children choicing in (over 25%), along with a growing number of children on wait lists. Their innovative school reform efforts are being recognized and in April, The U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Montclair to learn more about their programs.

We welcome your comments and impressions on your experience with Montclair Elementary.

School:  TELLER ELEMENTARY

Website: http://teller.dpsk12.org/

Type: Public-DPS

Tours: Every Thursday at 11:00 am beginning in November through April.  Call to schedule to make sure there will be a tour.

Main Phone: (303) 333-4285

Principal: Jennifer Barton

Location: 1150 Garfield Street, Denver, CO 80206 – Congress Park Neighborhood

Hours: 8:45 AM – 3:45 PM

Grades: ECE-5, Full Day Kindergarten

Average Class Size: Currently, the K classes are 29 and 30 students.

*UPDATE – Choiced In: For the 2009/2010 school year, there were zero (0) Kindergarten spots available for Choice students.  There were ten (10) accepted Choice 1st grade students.

Before/After Care: Kaleidoscope Corner (before and after school)

Playground: There is one large playground with two climbing structures and a separate set of swings.  The playground is dated and could use a significant upgrade. There is a small blacktop for basketball, tetherball, etc. There is also a large grass area for playing games and organized activities. *UPDATE: Teller has received a grant for a significant playground upgrade to be completed by 2012, however, parents at the school are working on getting the project to begin and completed much sooner. Learning Landscape completed in 2010.

Special & Core Programs: Challenge Program for Gifted and Highly Gifted & Talented students (includes Destination Imagination and Shakespeare Festival), reading and literacy emphasis (Lindamood-Bell), heavy emphasis on Physical Education. There is also a Lights on After School program and for a minimal charge ($5) students can enroll in enrichment classes such as music, art and Spanish.  The program choices for Lights on After School change every 6-9 weeks.

Impressions: I made two visits to Teller Elementary in the past two years.  Once was a private tour with a parent who is very active at the school and the second time was a meeting with the Principal, Jennifer Barton.  From the parent  who gave us the tour, I got the impression that the school was a typical mixture of parents who were involved and some who were not at all and the students were a diverse mix from both inside and outside the neighborhood.

The school was very clean and orderly and didn’t have some of the clutter and disarray I found at several other schools when visiting. The students were very friendly and teachers seem to interact very well with the students in the classrooms and hallway.  I envisioned children having true mentors and fond memories after moving on to middle school.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in students who have gone through the DPS Choice process (currently about 50% of the 350 students) to join Teller but those spots are declining due to the HGT program, the High ranking CSAP test score rating as well as its general rise in popularity.  Additionally, I learned that if a child excels in a particular subject such as math or reading, the student will be placed in the class that is equal to their ability – for that subject.  So, if a First Grader is reading at a Second grade pace, teachers will identify this and advance the child in that subject.  I found this to be quite promising for parents who have children that need to be challenged beyond their grade-level for specific subjects.  Teller is becoming an increasingly sought after school because of philosophies such as these. This year, there were waiting lists to get in for almost every single grade. The High Ranking and HGT program doesn’t hurt either but the true test, in my humble opinion, is how the children learn regardless of a state-wide standardized test.

Teller has a very active PTA with the typical fundraisers you see most everywhere, as well as some that are more unique, such as Tellerpalooza.  They have very dedicated and tenured staff with an average of 16 years teaching experience.  There is also a very cool mentorship and anti-bullying program called the Peer Mediators as well as the PE Aces (selected 3rd through 5th graders) who organize and run playground programs. The PE Aces program is run by their award winning PE Teacher, Chris Baumgartner. I found that the younger students (K-2) see these upper elementary students as valuable mentors and love having older “buddies” to look up to.  It was a very heartening sight to say the least.  If you’re looking for a school that “was just like when I was a kid”, this is a good option for you.

We welcome your comments and impressions on your experience with Teller Elementary.