Budget for 2018-2019 school year approved

Denver Public Schools has unanimously approved a $1 billion budget for the 2018-2019 year, which includes an average salary increase for teachers of 4.4 percent, according to a news release.

The budget incorporates $25 million in new funding, all of which is going into increasing compensation, the release stated.

The decision at the end of May came a month after the Educators Rally at the Capitol building in Denver. DPS closed schools on April 27 so teachers could attend the event. Several other school districts across the state announced closures as well.

The district also is working to raise other employee pay, the release said.

The $1 billion budget is being divided into creating resources that fit into the district’s goals for 2020. The plan has five goals including support for students as well as investing in college and career programming.

DPS will also be cutting spending to increase resource for special education, mental health and funding for high-poverty level schools.

Thrive Fellowship at DPS

A group of 20 teachers will be the first to participate in the DPS Thrive Fellowship, an extension of the Teacher Leadership and Collaboration program.

The Thrive teachers from 14 schools across DPS were announced on June 11.

Thrive will allow teachers to participate in a year-long leadership program, which will have monthly learning sessions, coaching and a capstone- action research project. The fellowship was funded through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

DPS first launched the Teacher Leadership and Collaboration program in the 2013-2014 school year. The program is built for teachers who did not want to move into an assistant principal, or principal position. The program has teachers working with students in the classroom half the time and coaching fellow teachers in the other half.

Debbie Hearty, the chief human resource officer at DPS, said the Teacher Leadership and Collaboration program has been beneficial to teachers in the program and to the ones they work with.

“We have seen higher levels of retention for teacher leaders, the teachers they support and the kinds in their classrooms,” she said in a release. “Through this work, Thrive fellows can impact not only their students, but the entire district.”

Schools participating in the program are:

Elementary schools: Stedman, Gust, Godsman, McMeen, Carson, Schmitt, High Tech, Valdez, Traylor, Joe Shoemaker and Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment

High schools: Manual, Abraham Lincoln, North, John F. Kennedy