Former East Excessive principal John Youngquist working for Denver faculty board
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John Youngquist, a longtime Denver educator who spent a couple of decade as principal of East Excessive College, introduced Wednesday that he’s working for a seat on the Denver faculty board.
Youngquist mentioned he’ll run for an at-large seat representing the complete metropolis. Though he lives in southeast Denver, the place a college board seat can be up for election, Youngquist mentioned the work of the at-large seat higher displays his decades-long expertise in Denver Public Faculties — as a pupil, a instructor, a principal, a district administrator, and a mother or father.
“My expertise has been throughout the town over time,” he mentioned, including that he’s working at massive “as a result of it’s each pupil and each faculty that actually does matter to me in my coronary heart.”
Youngquist, 57, can have not less than two opponents: Kwame Spearman, a former mayoral candidate and part-owner and former CEO of the Tattered Cowl bookstore, and Paul Ballenger, a DPS father, former army officer, and present safety guide.
The seat is presently held by Auon’tai Anderson, who’s working for a state Home of Representatives seat as a substitute of searching for re-election to the board.
Three of the seven Denver faculty board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7. The election has the potential to alter the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting. Additionally at stake is how the board will cope with declining enrollment and reply to security issues, particularly after a high-profile capturing inside East Excessive in March.
Youngquist’s two teenage daughters are college students at East, the place he served two stints as principal, from 2007 to 2012 and 2017 to 2022. He returned to East in 2017 after the earlier principal mishandled complaints towards the cheerleading coach.
Youngquist mentioned pupil security has at all times been his high concern. When he was principal of Newlon Elementary in southwest Denver within the Nineties, he recalled having to develop his personal protocol to cope with the drive-by shootings that have been prevalent on the time: sounding an air horn so college students on the playground knew to get down.
East had a college useful resource officer throughout Youngquist’s tenure — and he mentioned he was among the many principals in 2020 who signed a letter asking the varsity board to not take away law enforcement officials from faculties. He mentioned he agrees with the board’s current determination to reinstate them.
However SROs are just one facet of faculty security, Youngquist mentioned.
“My perception is that security is grounded within the every day operation of the varsity, within the tradition of the varsity,” he mentioned. “And then you definitely create buildings to make sure your responses to behavioral challenges on the faculty website are responsive and supportive of younger individuals.”
Youngquist was himself a DPS pupil, graduating from Thomas Jefferson Excessive. He began his profession there as a social research instructor. He’s been principal of three DPS faculties: East, Newlon, and the now-closed Smedley Elementary in northwest Denver.
He’s additionally labored as a principal supervisor and as a central workplace administrator creating applications to recruit extra principals of coloration and assist all principals keep of their jobs longer.
Youngquist additionally labored within the Cherry Creek College District and in Aurora Public Faculties, the place he was chief educational officer. He mentioned he’s spent the previous 12 months as a guide for districts together with Denver and Aurora, as a principal coach, and as part-time chief working officer for the Denver Youth Program, a nonprofit that goals to cut back youth violence.
If elected, Youngquist mentioned he’d concentrate on pulling the board collectively to craft a transparent imaginative and prescient for the district, recruiting and retaining numerous academics and principals, and making certain college students are academically profitable. To do this, Youngquist mentioned he wouldn’t attempt to write coverage as a board member, however quite would set targets and limitations so the specialists — the superintendent and his workers — might suggest coverage for the varsity board to contemplate.
“Each ingredient of labor we put into play in a district and in a college has to have the intention of making profitable instructing and studying experiences,” he mentioned.
The board additionally has to make robust choices. One current instance was the choice to shut three faculties with low enrollment, which the board voted on sooner or later after the superintendent publicly really useful it.
As an alternative of reacting when a college’s enrollment is already too low, Youngquist mentioned the district ought to develop a plan “for the way and after we would possibly interact at school closure conversations” so that oldsters higher perceive the method.
“That’s an 18-month dialog that strikes towards a call,” Youngquist mentioned. “That’s not an 18-day or week-(lengthy) dialog that strikes towards closure.”
Though Denver faculty board candidates traditionally fall into one in every of two political teams — these backed by the academics union and people backed by training reform organizations — Youngquist mentioned he doesn’t see himself as an unique member of both camp.
Youngquist mentioned he’s working as a result of DPS is “in a lull.”
“I do know the actual work that it takes to totally interact a neighborhood within the success of a college … and the success of a district,” he mentioned. “I’m absolutely optimistic that we are able to pull in that course once more and acquire momentum in order that over the course of the following a number of years, we’re seeing the expertise flip into a totally optimistic one and seeing outcomes that matter for teenagers of their faculty lives.”
Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver Public Faculties. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
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