Our Work: Projects
Get Smart Schools
Get Smart Schools is a group of educators, leaders, entrepreneurs, business professionals and school officials who are working collaboratively for the good of Colorado kids. Collaborative thinking means fewer barriers and more success. The goal is to dramatically increase the number of new, public high quality autonomous schools serving low-income students in the front range.
Colorado kids deserve more. More schools to meet their needs. More teachers who won't let them slip through the cracks. More proven school models that will keep kids engaged and in school through graduation. More resources and opportunities in neighborhoods where they are lacking. More support for parents and families so they can help keep their kids on track.
To qualify as a Get Smart School, a new or existing school must:
- Offer a rigorous educational model with proven academic results and organizational infrastructure to ensure that all students can and will achieve at high levels.
- Have an expectation and organizational infrastructure to ensure that all students can and will achieve at high levels.
- Maintain a commitment to providing all students with skills and experience to prepare them for college and the 21st Century economy.
- Possess exceptional leadership.
- Be committed to serving underserved students.
Leadership
In addition to providing a robust recruitment and marketing effort to attract aspiring and current high quality leaders to the GSS network, GSS will offer a variety of customized pathways to foster the development of high performing school leaders, including:
- Developing a new Executive MBA program (with a principal licensure wrap-around credential) and a year long residency component in a high performing school.
- Fostering partnerships with existing school leadership training networks, such as New Leaders for New Schools, Teach for America, and Building Excellent Schools, to attract and develop a national pool of leadership candidates.
- Providing current high-performing principals who are part of the GSS network opportunities for continued professional growth and additional, personalized support through the Get Smart Fellows program.
Visit www.GetSmartSchools.com
Nutrition
Public schools in Colorado that participate in the school lunch program must meet minimal nutrition and health standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But is this enough? A growing coalition that includes Colorado-based foundations, advocacy organizations, educators, parents, policymakers, and health experts believe that it these minimal standards are insufficient--students in public schools deserve school lunches and breakfasts that are of higher quality than what the minimal standards require. As such, the Donnell-Kay Foundation and its partners are supporting efforts to give Colorado schools greater flexibility and access to district-based and private food service providers and programs that choose to adhere to higher food standards for school-based meals. These standards include:
- Organic and locally produced ingredients whenever possible
- Every meal is served with fresh fruit and/or vegetables
- rbST- and hormone-free milk
- Hormone and antibiotic-free meats
- Food that is prepared fresh daily
- No fried, overly processed, or microwaved food
- No high fructose corn syrup or trans fats
- All foods are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, and sweeteners.
Schools can opt out of district food services in order to provide healthier foods, but the costs to do so often poses a barrier, especially for charter schools who might have limited, or even no kitchen facilities. In addition, under current state rules, a school will lose federal free and reduced lunch reimbursements if it does not use a district-approved food vendor.
GSS is exploring ways to change how children are fed in public schools, including encouraging and enabling districts to serve healthier food and providing access to allow individual schools to choose and serve food from federally approved vendors instead of using their districts' food, if so desired.
Facilities Research
GSS has been researching and assessing the current availability of existing school facilities in the Denver Metro Area that could be used to support new school development. This research will provide a lay of the land on the facilities landscape and help answer such questions as:
- Which districts have excess capacity that could house new schools? And if there is excess capacity, how many students could fit in the building, what types of buildings are they (e.g., grade level), how many kids live near those facilities (what is the demand), what other schools are located nearby, etc.?
- In which districts is there no capacity (and therefore places where a private facility strategy will need to be pursued)?
- Where are there opportunities to locate a school on the border of a couple of districts as a strategy for recruiting students from multiple school districts?
In addition to the mapping work, Get Smart is involved in working with districts to help them develop facility policies for new school that are modeled after those being used in other cities (e.g., shared use policies modeled after Chicago's). And finally, Get Smart is exploring avenues for acquiring private facilities that could be leased back to or purchased by new schools, especially in places where there is a shortage of district-owned facilities.
The vision is to create 100 Get Smart Schools. Want to find out more?
Visit www.GetSmartSchools.com