Schooling researcher Ulcca Joshi Hansen is operating for Denver faculty board
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An schooling researcher and creator who works in schooling philanthropy and has two kids in Denver Public Faculties is operating for an at-large seat on the Denver faculty board.
Ulcca Joshi Hansen will face a number of opponents for the seat, which represents the whole metropolis. The seat is at present held by board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who’s not operating for re-election.
Hansen, 47, mentioned she was partly impressed to run by one in all DPS’ most troublesome issues: declining enrollment and the potential of closing extra faculties. As Hansen sees it, the difficulty just isn’t that small faculties are unhealthy however that they’re too costly for the district to run.
She’d prefer to assume creatively about methods to resolve that drawback and others. For instance, she mentioned, what if as an alternative of closing small faculties, the district introduced them collectively to save cash by sharing curriculum, coaching classes, and artwork and music academics?
“At this second, there are challenges and alternatives, and there’s a second for the board to guide in conversations with the group about what our 10-year imaginative and prescient is for Denver Public Faculties,” Hansen mentioned. “How will we enable all college students to have entry to the sort of schooling that oldsters who’ve selections could make for his or her kids?”
Three of the seven seats on the Denver faculty board are up for grabs Nov. 7. Along with declining enrollment, the board might want to reply to security issues, which grew to become extra outstanding after a high-profile capturing inside East Excessive Faculty this previous spring.
The election additionally has the potential to vary the dynamic of the board, which has been marked by infighting and energy struggles between some members.
Hansen is the chief program officer for Grantmakers for Schooling, a member group for schooling philanthropists. She’s additionally a longtime schooling researcher, conducting analysis in Denver and elsewhere, and creator of a e book known as “The Way forward for Good: How Our Schooling System Must Change to Assist All Younger Individuals Thrive.” She started her schooling profession as a public faculty trainer in Newark, New Jersey.
Hansen serves on the board of administrators of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone, a gaggle of semi-autonomous DPS faculties that has gone by way of some tumult not too long ago. She additionally beforehand served on the board of Denver constitution faculty community Rocky Mountain Prep.
She is married to state Sen. Chris Hansen, who ran unsuccessfully for Denver mayor this previous spring. The household lives within the Montclair neighborhood, and he or she mentioned their two teenage sons will attend George Washington Excessive Faculty this fall.
Hansen mentioned she’s not totally opposed to high school closures however she’d like DPS to pause and assume in a different way about fixing the monetary hit brought on by declining enrollment: May the district co-locate small faculties with native nonprofit organizations? Would electrifying DPS faculty buses and buildings save sufficient cash to maintain some small faculties open?
On faculty security, Hansen mentioned she agrees with the board’s current determination to overturn a 2020 ban on police in faculties and reinstate faculty useful resource officers in some giant excessive faculties. However she mentioned every faculty ought to be capable to resolve whether or not they need an SRO.
“It needs to be a call that leaders, educators, and oldsters in a group make collectively,” Hansen mentioned. “The flat banning of it, whereas I perceive why we needed to do this, I feel that was a pendulum too far in a single course.”
Hansen worries concerning the impact of the pandemic on college students’ psychological well being and mentioned she’d like DPS to take extra steps to deal with it. She’d additionally prefer to deliver again households who’ve left DPS for personal faculties by boosting the standard of the general public faculties, and he or she’d prefer to deepen DPS’ partnerships with town on every thing from parks and recreation to little one welfare.
In Denver, faculty board candidates usually get sorted into two camps: these supported by the academics union and people supported by schooling reform organizations. A dividing line is usually whether or not a candidate helps constitution faculties and faculty alternative.
Hansen helps each, although she takes difficulty with the truth that DPS doesn’t present transportation to most households who select a faculty exterior their neighborhood.
“If we’re going to do alternative, we’ve acquired to determine transportation,” Hansen mentioned. “It’s not significant alternative if I can not get my little one to high school and again.”
As for constitution faculties, Hansen mentioned DPS has invested an excessive amount of in constitution faculty networks and never sufficient in single-site constitution faculties, which usually tend to be based by individuals of coloration to serve particular communities. A constitution known as the American Indian Academy of Denver closed on the finish of this previous faculty yr attributable to low enrollment and a scarcity of funding.
However on the whole, Hansen mentioned the political debate in Denver too usually focuses on the kind of faculty — constitution, innovation, or district-run — and never sufficient on what a faculty affords.
“We now have spent lots of time having debates about governance fashions once I truly don’t assume that’s what ensures a robust portfolio of selections for households,” Hansen mentioned.
She cited Montessori for example. Montessori is a curriculum that encourages college students to work independently on hands-on duties in multi-age school rooms.
“You possibly can have actually sturdy Montessori applications which can be constitution public, which can be district public, which can be innovation,” Hansen mentioned.
If elected, Hansen mentioned she’d give attention to constructing relationships along with her fellow board members as a approach to change the board dynamics, which have been fraught.
“I imagine first in having individuals over to have a BBQ and a few drinks and discuss your children and discuss what introduced you to this and what do you worth,” Hansen mentioned.
After working in schooling as a trainer, researcher, creator, and nonprofit chief for 20 years, Hansen mentioned, “If I can’t step in and produce no matter I do know and have realized to work with colleagues and the group in Denver, what’s the purpose? That is my dwelling.”
Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, protecting Denver Public Faculties. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
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