In this file photo, (From left to right) David Gordon, Colorado Department of Transportation division of aeronautics director, Jeffery Forrest, MSU Denver Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science chair, Scott Siegfried, Cherry Creek associate superintendent, and Bill Kennedy, United Airlines manager of pilot recruiting and development administration, unveil a placard for a STEM partnership. Siegfied is the Cherry Creek School District superintendent. 
Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Dr. Scott Siegfried (left) and District Attorney George Brauchler (right) discuss policies and procedures for the school district Aug. 16 at the Office of the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District in Centennial. Photo by Geoff Ziegler/The Sentinel
AURORA | With half of his first year as Cherry Creek schools superintendent behind him, Scott Siegfried has settled into the job.
There’ve been adjustments, but as deputy superintendent and having done just about every education and administration-related job in the district for years, and years, Siegfried has known the drill for a long time.
Even so, leading the almost 55,000-student district that spans the southeast metro area, including parts of Aurora and Denver, has its toll, Siegfried said.
“There’s a toll – there really is – because you can’t please everybody,” he said.
Seemingly small decisions can be tough, he said, like closing the district for a snow day, or a recent decision to shutter an elementary school for the day because of widespread illness. He worries about kids that have to stay home alone or who won’t get lunch that day because schools are closed.
However, like many school districts in Colorado, Siegfried and Cherry Creek educators have to grapple with big challenges: a state funding education model that lags behind much of the country, achievement gaps between racial and economic groups, and competition with charter schools for innovative programs.
Siegfried says he takes comfort in the school district’s reputation for striving for the best, and because his immediate and districtwide staff shares that goal.
Students in the district have tested well above the state average in math and language arts in the last four years, according to data from the state Department of Education. Cherry Creek teachers are also relatively well-paid, pulling in an average of over $72,000 annually – well above the state average salary of about $53,000 last school year.
The Cherry Creek superintendent is also one of the highest-paid superintendents in the state, drawing over $258,000 last school year, according to state data.
But not all students boast great test scores. Siegfried said the district continues to focus on how to increase performance for minority and poorer students, a problem that has stymied this and just about every school in the state for decades.
Offering technical and career preparation programs is one way to engage students, Siegfried said. He’s excited to open the $60 million Innovation Campus in August. It will be a sleek space that offering a wide range of career and technical preparation and programs for 10th- through 12th-grade high school students on everything from manufacturing to cybersecurity, hospitality and even aviation.
Students will be able to take district-provided buses to and from their home high schools to the campus and get a certificate in the program of their choice.
It’s a self-guided approach to education that Siegfried said is constructive.
“Don’t tell them what they are going to do,” he said of the students. “Let them choose based on what they like, what interests them.”
Siegfried is also implementing hands-on learning across the district to cater to millennial students. With information so readily available via smartphones and computers, the district’s onus is to facilitate problem-solving and independent thinking, he said.
Cherry Creek schools is investing $100 million from its 2016 bond to build project-based learning spaces in schools, where students learn multiple subjects through a project rather than by taking multiple tests. Eventually, the district will train all of its teachers in hands-on instruction techniques.
“You walk into these spaces and you think you’re in Google or Microsoft,” Siegfried said of the innovation classrooms.
Siegfried said most parents in Cherry Creek still want their children to attend a school in their neighborhood, bucking metro-wide expansions of schools of choice and charter schools.
For instance, Siegfried will appear Wednesday at a state Board of Education meeting to defend a Cherry Creek board decision revoking conditional approval of an aerospace-focused charter school. That school, Colorado Skies Academy, appealed to the state board, which could eventually force the district to open the school. Siegfried said there were multiple concerns about the program, especially problems with ensuring students were committed to attend the school.
In Cherry Creek schools, common sense approaches could yield big results, Siegfried said. He values investing early in education and personal relationships in schools – between a teacher and a student or another adult, like a sports coach or counselor.
It’s a philosophy that is grounded in his years of experience in education. Siegfried is a native of the metro area and graduated from Jefferson County Schools, where his father was a district official, so he’s long been familiar with the education world.
“Hanging out with superintendents and principals is just what I do,” Siegfried said about growing up in a house with educators. “They were always coming over to the house.”
He’s worked in Cherry Creek schools for almost a quarter of a century, first as a student-teacher, then in a number of jobs including auxiliary roles and transportation, and most recently as deputy superintendent under his predecessor Harry Bull.
Siegfried seems optimistic about where he’s landed and said he is blessed to work in a community of dedicated teachers, parents and staffers.
“It’s been a great six months,” he said. “To start and end at Cherry Creek – that’s a pretty good place to be.”