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Welcome to the home page for re-creating Denver West High School as a model "21st Century Sustainable High School" (  escuela sostenible). This site is evolving--but not much more. As of 4-12-11, this proposal will not be forwarded for final consideration to the district. We will pursue the goal of a sustainable school elsewhere in Denver over the coming months and years. If you would like to be part of this effort, my email is below. Thanks for dropping by.

Summary: Letter of Intent to Denver Public Schools will propose the application of West High School for innovation status to create a "21st Century Sus tainability School" in place of the existing structure. Basic elements of the comprehensive high school will remain but the essential mission of the school is one of service to community, project-based learning, shared governance, with an integrated curriculum based on the existing state standards but infused with the skills and dispositions required for the personal and career success of the people of this new century.

You can sample the various pages randomly at left or work through them in the order presented. The first page, "21st Century Sustainability School" presents my view of the essential attributes of a sustainable school. Woven into these attributes is the potentially powerful idea of placing a school within the framework of its community, empowering students to engage in community activities, planning, and celebrations. At the same time, a sustainable school has externalities of control and opportunity to manage. DPS and the wider Denver community supply resources to West or any school but also create constraints on action and potentially even on the achievement of students and the efficacy of teachers and administrators. A 21st Century Sustainable School takes advantage of local resources to leverage external linkages to develop economic, political, and curricular options and innovations. The West community is already in partnership with the [|Denver Housing Authority] which will be investing significant financial resources into the neighborhood in coming months and years ahead. [|Earth Force] is a non-profit organization present in many DPS schools dedicated to empowering youth to take on the challenges of their communities in service learning and through partnering w ith teachers to merge existing curricula with project-based opportunities. Both DHA and EF support the New West proposal. The [|Colorado Renewable Energy Society] (CRES) is another non-profit partner and sponsor of this proposal and dedicated to the mission of increasing public awareness and application of new energy technologies to sustain the economic growth and viability of Colorado's communities from the rural towns and farms to the suburbs and urbanized cities. Very soon, the DHA will announce a partnership with CRES for the creation of a "Sustainability Park" to be built on DHA land within Denver to showcase the possibilities of a new, renewable and sustainable energy future. CRES will develop educational opportunities for the children of the immediate community and, it is hoped, offer New West High School students a venue in which to learn and perhaps display their own solutions for our nation's energy needs.

The "blueprint" page at left presents a rough draft of a detailed blueprint for the actual restructuring of West along the lines of sustainable practices as advocated by [|The Cloud Institute], [|Sustainable Oregon Schools], and service learning. The blueprint is inspired by the experience of the magnet and charter schools in DPS--such schools are meant to be models of innovation for the district and it is time to move what works in those schools to other schools in the district with necessary modifications. For West, my draft proposal suggests supplementing the standard curriculum with real-world opportunities to place content within the context of the life world of the students and place community resources at the disposal of teachers and students. Students at "New West" would also be asked to select a subject area or activity in which they already feel some degree of success with such as foreign language, civics, science, math, arts, and so on. At DCIS, there is a successful practice of placing students in "Advisement Houses" where one teacher supervises the growth of several students, mentoring them, and coaching them to meet shared goals such as the annual presentation of a portfolio. At New West, this advisement would take place in a "house", once per week, where affinity groups of students meet with a teacher and demonstrate their building knowledge and skills as well as manage difficulties and challenges.

This proposal also suggests students declare a "major" area of competence such as exists at DSA--in this way, the student has a specific goal to shoot for, organizes their studies to attain that goal, changes the major if necessary but overall, the student has the opportunity to succeed in some definitive, practical, defined skill or activity. High school graduation or the entrance into college are fine goals but ones teens can find nebulous, lacking in any specific meaning for them in the life they have to live day to day. Advisement within a house of like minded majors can provide the support many students in the West commu nity deserve when family or other supports are insufficient. Mutual systems of support, challenge, and reinforcement characterize sustainable ecosystems and human systems of community.

This proposal, while sponsored by CRES, has its origins in my membership in the DPS Teacher Leadership Academy which has encouraged me to think beyond my own school and to make a difference for the larger district. My tenure in the Educational Leadership and Innovation program at UCD with Mark Clarke and Mike Marlow has provided much inspiration. As of March 10, 2011, this proposal has the full support of the Denver Housing Authority (Ismael Guerrero), CRES (Tony Frank), and Earth Force (Liz Henry). Speaking for myself and partners, we present this proposal in the spirit of creating new opp ortunities for our children and their families through sustained effort in building and maintaining relationships of mutual trust and support. The work will be very involved, require much of stakeholders, particularly teachers (especially if we get innovation status and including myself), but ultimately I trust will prove exciting and affirming for all.

The pages at left represent documents I have either created or have used as inspiration for the plan for the New West. The essential argument I make is that for West to be viable school, its students and teachers must be provided with the tools, authority, and creativity to design their own way. As that conversation happens and students and teachers put forth their needs, the community (West Denver and beyond) stakeholders will offer support: show up at meetings, create job internships, finance building infrastructure projects, celebrate milestones, attend sporting and artistic activities, and remind the political establishment to represent the needs of those who cannot yet vote. In turn, the school will return to the community a safer, more secure neighborhood environment for families and businesses, young adults trained to assume positions in the workforce or college and able to accept the responsibilities that come with emancipation as a voting citizen. Over time, these obligations create reciprocal feedback loops of empowerment and the ability to sustain the entire community grows.

Thank you for visiting!

Jeffrey Miller jmiller2063@gmail.com