KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy

Building safety and maximising learning

07/18/22, 4:48 PM

Dear All,

I am writing to request support from families as we work towards keeping our campus as safe as possible and to maximize learning.

Whilst we have all of our bathrooms open and disruption and damage has been kept to a minimum, we are beginning to observe a large number of students avoiding class and, in some cases, disrupting the classrooms of others. This is clearly not very good for learning. I want to communicate that one of the reasons students are leaving class for lengthy periods is to spend time on their smartphone in hallways or in the bathroom. In a small number of incidences, we are finding that students who are absent from classrooms for a lengthy period of time are vaping.

For the final weeks of December, and with renewed energy in January, we will be trying a different approach with students who are repeatedly absent from class without permission and/or skipping their lessons. We want to get students in classrooms, learning, and acting safely and with respect for others. In the event that our conversations, requests and nudges have not been successful families should be prepared for more phone calls home and more school based interventions per the DPS School Discipline Framework. It is not acceptable to continually have a small number of students disrupt the learning of others and I feel a moral imperative to value teacher's time to help students improve to the best of their ability.

The best way to support us as we help your students to remind your learner of the importance of teacher contact time. It is truly irreplaceable.

With gratitude for all of your support at home,

Richard Royal