Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone Forming an Innovation Zone - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone

Forming an Innovation Zone will allow Beacon Network Schools to realize their full potential in serving their students, while remaining contributing members of the District’s educational and financial ecosystem

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Within the existing IMO structure, Beacon Network Schools has expended a significant amount of time to negotiate district processes in order to implement existing waivers. Some examples include cumbersome and lengthy processes to get staff positions and contractor agreements approved and posted, changes in payroll processes without advance notice or opportunities for input, and inconsistencies in communications from district departments.

Innovation Management Organization

• Support from IS & district partners is not

customized for IMO structures

• Changes in district leadership bring

potential changes in communications & support for innovation schools

• No formal structures for teacher

involvement in IMO-wide decisions

• No formal structures for community

involvement in IMO-wide decisions

Innovation Zone

• iZone-District Collaborative Council provides Zone

schools with a voice with district senior leadership and monthly meetings

• Allows Beacon Schools to maintain a steadfast focus
• n implementing the personalized learning model well
• Ensures strategic continuity through periods of change
• Zone Board fosters teacher and parent voice at the

Network-level through Teacher and Parent Council representatives on the Board

Key Elements of the Beacon Zone

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Purpose Theory of Action

The Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone will empower Beacon Schools with collective flexibilities and resources; support for teachers and leaders to learn together, grow, and excel; and community ownership and involvement, in order to to codify the Beacon Model and sustain it to improve outcomes for students. If we…

• integrate and share resources and personnel;
• increase financial resources and efficiencies;
• replicate and vertically align programming for personalized learning and

enrichments; and

• engage and empower community collaboration…

Then we…

• will increase effectiveness of instruction and retention of highly effective teachers;
• increase resources and support for students and teachers;
• increase student achievement gains and reduce opportunity gaps; and
• increase college and career readiness and prepare students to meet new

graduation requirements.

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Collaboration

There are many great services and supports DPS provides that we are privileged to benefit from. The Beacon Zone seeks to collaborate on continued improvement of these services, and for services that are not well-suited to our model, we seek the flexibility to create services to replace them when necessary.

Stakeholder Engagement

School leaders, teachers, parents, and students were engaged in building the Beacon Zone application. Stakeholders will continue to stay engaged in zone decision-making processes through representation on the Beacon Zone Board. Community leaders from the neighborhoods of Beacon Zone schools will hold founding board seats, and will ensure that the Zone is responsive to community feedback. Teacher, staff, and family voices will be formally represented on the Beacon Zone Board through the Teacher Council and Parent Council representatives who will serve as non-voting members. Based on feedback from teachers in Beacon Zone schools, we anticipate a strong show

• f support through the teacher voting process.

Common Interests

Beacon Network Schools implement an innovative educational program of Personalized Learning through Blended Learning, Critical Thinking, Extended Learning Opportunities, and Character Development. Through our blended learning model and extended day programming, we are able to personalize learning experiences for students with different achievement levels and learning needs, provide language development support to English language learners, intensify academic interventions for struggling students, and provide a multitude of high-quality enrichment opportunities for all of our students.

Beacon Zone Board’s experience will enable it to serve as an extension of the DPS Board in engaging communities and holding schools accountable

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Eliot Lewis

Accounting & Financial Consultant, Lewis Consulting Former Beacon parent

Janet Lopez

Senior Program Officer, Rose Community Foundation

David Hart

CFO/COO, Cherry Creek School District Former Beacon parent

Liz Drogin

Executive Director, Challenge Denver

Russell Bryant

Founder/President/ CEO, The Go Urban Companies Current Beacon parent

The Beacon Zone will empower schools and communities, and provide increased accountability for Beacon schools

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Denver Public Schools empowers school leaders and teachers and provides them with a great deal of flexibility. In order to build on this empowerment, the Beacon Zone will:

Empower Beacon Zone leaders, teachers, students, and families to make crucial decisions around strategic use of resources to best serve our students Provide additional accountability to ensure that we deliver for students and families Enable strategic continuity through periods of change, and support the continuation of programming successfully serving students

The Beacon Zone will prioritize elevating our communities’ voices

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• The Beacon Zone will engage each school’s broader

community with the goal of facilitating greater engagement for families of color and low-income families.

• Board members are representative of the school

communities that they serve.

• Board meetings will be public and there will be
• pportunity for public comment.
• Representatives from the Teacher Council and

Parent Council will serve as non-voting members of the Beacon Zone board.

Overview of the Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone

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The Beacon Zone will empower Beacon schools to deliver an excellent education to all students

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Flexibility Accountability Governance Innovation The Beacon Zone will be able to accelerate student gains by leveraging three key pillars of an Innovation Zone... ...to build a model-based network of schools that share:

Codifying and continuously improving a personalized learning model that provides excellent educational

• pportunities for all

students Systems and structures for school leadership and teachers to work together in service to the kids and communities they share Leveraging economies of scale to maximize budget efficiencies and reach financial sustainability

Strategic focus

Collaboration Budget Efficiencies

Formal representation of teacher, family, and community voices on the Beacon Zone board, to facilitate ongoing voice in important Zone-level decision-making

Teacher & Community Voice

Beacon Zone schools serve a diverse set of students in Denver

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Grant Beacon Middle School Kepner Beacon Middle School Beacon Zone

2018-19 Enrollment

420 405 825 92,984

% Students qualifying for FRL

84% 97% 90% 69%

% English Learners

50% 73% 61% 36.8%

% Students in Special Education

16% 22% 19% 11.0%

% Minority students

87% 96% 91% 76%

Denver Public Schools

The Beacon Zone is comprised of two schools with innovation status

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Leader Michelle Saab Dan Walsh Alex Magaña Years in Leadership 5 years 5 years 17 years SPF Rating Green Green Communities Served Southeast and Southwest Southwest Grant Beacon Middle School Kepner Beacon Middle School Beacon Zone

Beacon Zone board members all live in our communities and bring a range

• f experience and expertise to the board

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The Beacon Zone has a strong desire to ensure that the board reflects the diversity of our community and will focus any future board recruiting efforts accordingly. Eliot Lewis

• Accounting &

Financial Planning

• Parent Advocacy
• GBMS CSC Chair

1st Innovation Plan

• BNS Network

Advisory Board

• DPS Bond

Committee

Janet Lopez

• Education Policy
• Teacher Recruitment,

Retention & Growth

• National Hispanic

Institute Gen X Women

• f Distinction
• Undocumented

Students and the Policies of Wasted Potential (author)

David Hart

• District Operations &

Financial Services

• Public

Administration

• CCSD COO
• DPS & DCSD CFO
• Denver City

Treasurer & Manager

• f Revenue

Liz Drogin

• Education Partners
• DU Enrichments
• Community

Engagement

• Thesis: The Effect of

Public Transportation Use on Race-Based Occupational Segregation and Earnings Inequality

Russell Bryant

• Business

Development

• Marketing, Media &

Communications

• Fundraising &

Investment Strategy

• Real Estate
• Business

Negotiations

The Beacon Zone Board supports the mission of the Beacon Zone by providing oversight of and accountability for Zone schools

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The Beacon Zone Board will:

The Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone Board is ultimately accountable to the Denver Public Schools Board of Education.

Represent and give voice to the needs and desires of the diverse school communities Hold the Executive Director and member schools accountable for providing high-quality, continuously improving educational opportunities for all students Own and advocate for the mission, vision and strategy of the Innovation Zone

Why form the Beacon Network Schools Innovation Zone?

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The Beacon Zone will empower schools and communities, and provide increased accountability for Beacon schools

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Denver Public Schools empowers school leaders and teachers and provides them with a great deal of flexibility. In order to build on this empowerment, the Beacon Zone will:

Empower Beacon Zone leaders, teachers, students, and families to make crucial decisions around strategic use of resources to best serve our students Provide additional accountability to ensure that we deliver for students and families Enable strategic continuity through periods of change, and support the continuation of programming successfully serving students

The Beacon Zone will prioritize elevating our communities’ voices

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• The Beacon Zone will engage each school’s

broader community with the goal of facilitating greater engagement for families of color and low- income families.

• Board members are representative of the school

communities that they serve.

• Board meetings will be public and there will be
• pportunity for public comment.
• Representatives from the Teacher Council and

Parent Council will serve as non-voting members

• f the Beacon Zone board.

Beacon Zone schools will directly contribute to Denver Plan 2020 by providing great schools for neighborhoods Southwest and Southeast Denver

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• The Beacon Zone will address the ongoing need

to provide more Denver students with a high- performing school to attend.

• Implementing the Beacon Model, both GBMS

and KBMS have achieved high growth on state assessments and have met state and district expectations on School Performance Frameworks.

• Instructional priorities in the Beacon Zone focus
• n significantly increasing the quality and rigor
• f classroom instruction and implementing

intentional strategies to focus on culturally responsive education in every classroom.

Beacon Zone schools will pilot new and innovative approaches that can be shared with Denver Public Schools

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• By creating a new model-focused network structure for schools in DPS, the Beacon Zone can serve

as a pilot for organizational structure within the district.

• Opt-out selections made by Zone schools on the SBB+ menu can provide feedback to DPS

regarding what district services are seen as most effective and valuable to schools.

• The community-based governance structure may prove to be successful at increasing community

participation and worth replicating in other parts of the district.

Thank you!

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