Overland High School is a bellwether for the Cherry Creek Schools District. Once once a shining star among Colorado high schools, the school now is an illustration of the myriad challenges high schools face in getting students ready for the rest of their lives.
Unlike so many other school districts, Cherry Creek was practicing the “no child left behind” mentality long before Congress muddled into an attempt to force the nation to practice it. It’s an honorable and meaningful notion: Every student can and should be prepared for college by the time they leave high school.
It’s also an unrealistic and impractical mandate that actually does more harm than good to schools like Overland.
It’s a distracting and unattainable goal that prevents schools from ensuring that all students be able to read and perform in other areas to some degree, but not to the level they currently must now to get a diploma. Instead of drawing every student up and forward, pushing kids toward a single set of higher skills and college only helps to push many of them out the door before they graduate. Every Colorado school district must re-evaluate the one-size-fits-all dogma that grinds down in public high schools.
The race for Cherry Creek School District B seat encompasses Overland High School and the area that serves it, and more than anywhere else in the school district, the one-size-fits-all dilemma is exposed. It will be a real issue across the rest of the school district in the future.
The school board needs a representative from the area that can advise them of the challenges that families face. While all three contenders bring enthusiasm and dedication to the board, Janice McDonald offers a real-world perspective of what life is like for so many families in this part of the district. She brings a grounded sense of pragmatism and an understanding of how Aurora’s diversity cannot be separated from a plan for success. She understands that success can be many different things that don’t always lead to applying for college.
Candidates in the other two district races are unopposed.
Isnt she also related to the present CCSD board member? You sure that’s not colouring your feelings?