At a public meeting on Wednesday, April 14, 120 Cole parents, youth and residents gathered to address student achievement at Cole Middle School. Principal Nicole Veltzé agreed to work with Cole’s Parent Organizing Committee, a member of Metro Organizations for People, to strengthen several aspects of the Cole Reform Plan, implemented in the 2002-03 school year to address the need to raise academic achievement at Cole.

Parent involvement in AVID (a college prep program that keeps students on track) and in the provision of Supplemental Services (after-school tutoring for under-performing youth) will be expanded. Supplemental Services will be better utilized in the coming school year as well.

Teacher Home Visits is another key reform strategy. Teachers go out into the community to meet with parents and students in their homes to improve communication and collaboration. The goal for Cole’s Teacher Home Visit program will be to increase the number of families visited from 20% in the current school year to 85% in 2004-05. The parent leaders raised funds to pay the teachers a stipend for each visit that is made.

The youth's College for the Future Campaign grew out of a promise made by Mayor Hickenlooper to make sure that any student from Cole who graduates from high school would be able to go to college for free. The Cole Youth Future Committee has organized a pledge campaign where students will indicate their commitment to finish high school and go on to college. Principal Veltzé will support the students in reaching their goal of implementing the pledge campaign with the students. The youth leaders have a meeting scheduled with the Mayor’s representative, Dr. Maria Guajardo-Lucero, on Monday, April 19 to pursue the details of the Mayor’s support for a college education for Cole MS students.

Parent leaders conducted extensive research on various aspects of the reform plan and the state takeover of the school in preparation for this public meeting. They are pursuing a meeting with Governor Owens before the end of May to further clarify the next steps if Cole’s CSAP scores do not increase sufficiently when the results come out in the end of July.

Cole’s Parent Organizing Committee and the Youth Future Committee are members of Metro Organizations for People which is comprised of 28 member churches, schools, youth organizations and neighborhood associations throughout metro Denver. For more information, call 303-399-2425.