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In another move away from the practices put in place during the peak of education reform in Denver Public Schools, the school district will end a unique arrangement in which two middle schools with extra autonomy were overseen by an executive principal.
Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon middle schools will join a network of other district-run middle schools next year and be overseen by an administrator who works for the district’s central office, according to a letter district officials sent to families Monday.
The two schools’ arrangement began in 2016 when former DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg tasked Grant Beacon Principal Alex Magaña with running a second school. Dubbed Kepner Beacon, it was a restart of a struggling southwest Denver middle school. Magaña served as executive principal over both schools, which each had a regular principal of its own.
Boasberg borrowed the idea of linking the two schools and giving them extra flexibility from the charter school world. He called it an “innovation management organization.” The hope was that the strategies that had helped Grant Beacon boost its test scores would do the same at Kepner Beacon without causing Grant to lose its leader.
But nearly a decade and two superintendents later, DPS is dissolving the arrangement, according to a copy of Monday’s letter obtained by Chalkbeat. Current DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero has pushed for a more centralized approach.
“This shift will help us provide consistent services, strengthen daily supports, and offer long term stability for students, staff, and families,” says the letter, which is signed by Executive Director of School Transformation Joe Amundsen and Operational Services Director Christine Sylvester.
Magaña’s executive principal role will be eliminated after this school year, the letter says. The move comes about a month after Magaña lost a bid to serve on the Denver school board. He ran for an at-large seat representing the entire city, but voters elected Amy Klein Molk instead.
Magaña declined to comment for this story.
In a statement, DPS said the Beacon schools “have a long history of innovation, and that will continue.” The Beacon model involves blended learning tailored to each student’s academic level, character development lessons, and in-school enrichment activities.
The district said the decision to dissolve the innovation management organization was not based on test scores. Kepner Beacon and Grant Beacon will remain innovation schools, which gives them extra autonomy over things like their calendar and curriculum.
But DPS confirmed that the elimination of the Beacon organization and the executive principal role are indicative of a shifting approach to school management and improvement.
“The district is moving toward consistent, sustainable support structures across all DPS middle schools,” the statement said, adding that the new model “provides principals with direct instructional and operational support, opportunities to collaborate with other middle school leaders, and clear pathways for professional learning.”
“This shift is about aligning support, not reducing autonomy or innovation for either of these schools,” the district said in the statement.
DPS embraced education reform under Boasberg and his predecessor Michael Bennet, now a U.S. senator who is running for governor of Colorado. From 2005 to 2018, the district closed struggling district-run schools and approved more high-performing charter schools. It gave all schools more autonomy and paid teachers based on performance.
Whether those strategies helped or hurt depends on whom you ask. While graduation rates and test scores went up, the reform policies were unpopular with teachers. The backlash helped spark a 2019 teachers strike and flipped the school board to union control.
Today, four out of the seven Denver school board members are backed by the teachers union. Magaña was not endorsed by the union when he ran for a board seat this fall.
For the past six years, Denver’s union-backed school board has undone many of the reforms put in place by Bennet and Boasberg, including limiting the autonomy of innovation schools.
The Beacon schools have undergone changes, too. Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon became an “innovation zone” under Boasberg in 2018, which granted the schools even more say over their curriculum, schedule, and the hiring and firing of teachers.
But in 2023, Marrero recommended the Beacon innovation zone be dissolved, in part because of low test scores at Kepner Beacon. The board agreed. Beacon sued the district, but a judge ruled in favor of DPS. The dispute was one of several in which Marrero and Magaña disagreed.
Monday’s letter thanks Magaña “for his leadership, vision, and steady commitment to both campuses.” Asked if Magaña would serve as principal at either Beacon school next school year, the district said it is looking for a new leader for Grant Beacon.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
