News Release

September 1, 2005

Superintendent Bennet Appoints Jaime Aquino Chief Academic Officer; Names Three Other Leadership Team Members

Superintendent Michael Bennet today announced the appointment of Jaime Aquino as Chief Academic Officer. Aquino currently is Local Instructional Superintendent for the New York City Department of Education.

"When I applied to be the Superintendent," Bennet said," I committed to the Board of Education that I would assemble a world-class team to help transform Denver Public Schools into one of the nation's best districts. Today, we take a giant step in that direction."

Aquino will assume responsibility for the academic mission of the district - specifically he will manage and coordinate the curriculum, instruction and assessment.

"I am tremendously proud to introduce Denver to Jaime Aquino and Jaime Aquino to Denver," said Superintendent Bennet. "In Jaime Aquino, we have found a person with an outstanding pattern of success and a genuine passion for improving student achievement. He is knowledgeable about the learning needs of English language learners and is a proven educational leader in mathematics, science and the practice of teaching and learning. In addition, his leadership style is defined by teamwork and collaboration - one that reminds us that this is a community-wide challenge and that we all play a role."

Aquino will assume the Chief Academic Officer duties on Monday, Oct. 3.

In addition to Aquino, Superintendent Bennet appointed:

More about the appointees:

Jaime Aquino
Chief Academic Officer

Bennet announced Jaime Aquino as Denver's Chief Academic Officer. A native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Aquino has extensive experience as a teacher and administrator in English Language Acquisition, math and science. Jaime is coming to Denver from New York City, where currently he serves as Local Instructional Superintendent for New York City Department of Education Region 9, an area that covers lower Manhattan, midtown, Harlem and the South Bronx.

This past school year, Aquino's region increased by 12 percent the percentage of students scoring at or above standard in reading and decreased by 6.7 percent the students scoring at the intervention level. In mathematics, the region increased by 8.3 percent the number of students scoring at or above standard and decreased by 7.1 percent the students scoring at the intervention level.

Prior to taking his current position in New York, Aquino served as Deputy Superintendent in Hartford, Connecticut, a school district of approximately 23,000 students. He also served in Hartford as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction from 1999 to 2001. During Aquino's tenure in Hartford, the number of students scoring at or above the proficiency level increased by 10 percent in reading, while the number of students at the intervention level decreased by 13 percent. In mathematics the number of students scoring at or above the proficiency level increased by 15 percent, and the number of students at the intervention level decreased by 17 percent.

Originally recruited in 1987 by the New York City Board of Education as a bilingual teacher, Aquino has since occupied a number of positions in New York City public schools. He has been Deputy Executive Director within the Division of Instructional support, supervising and coordinating programs and services in Early Childhood Education, literacy, mathematics, science, technology, arts, library services, multicultural education and social studies.

As the Director of Bilingual, ESL, Foreign Language and Multicultural Education for Community School District Six (Washington Heights and upper Manhattan) Aquino planned, coordinated and conducted professional development programs in bilingual education, ESL and foreign language acquisition. He conducted workshops for administrators, teachers and parents in the areas of first and second language acquisition.

As the Director of Mathematics for Community School District Six, Aquino coordinated all aspects of the K-8 mathematics program in the district. He planned, coordinated and conducted staff development programs in mathematics; evaluated mathematics textbooks and educational software for adoption for the district; and assisted in the development of district-wide annual assessments.

Aquino also has served New York City as a Bilingual and Science Teacher and was named New York State Bilingual Teacher of the Year in 1990. He also served as a Chapter Chairperson for the United Federation of Teachers, New York's teachers union.

Aquino has a Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Teaching with a specialty in Language, Learning and Literacy from Fordham University; a Master of Science in Bilingual Education, also from Fordham; and a B.S. in Psychology from the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Aquino plans to relocate to Denver in the coming weeks and will start with the district by Monday, Oct. 3.

Sarah Kendall Hughes
Chief of Staff

Hughes most recently worked as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor John Hickenlooper after working both as his Finance Director for his 2003 Mayoral Race and as the deputy director of the Hickenlooper transition process. Hughes also has managed a number of other municipal and federal races across the country.

Prior to working in politics, Hughes started her career pursuing a field in education. While taking graduate courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago in education and history, Hughes worked in School District 15 as an elementary school teacher's aide. She also directed and taught a summer school computer-based math program for bilingual students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Later, Hughes taught at St. Jerome School on Chicago's south side.

Upon arriving in Denver, Hughes also served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Denver-based New Schools Development Corp, where she worked with David Greenberg in the early planning and development stages of what is now Denver's School of Science and Technology.

Hughes will serve as the Superintendent's Chief of Staff. This new position will enable the Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer to spend the necessary time directly interacting with teachers, principals and students in their buildings while Hughes helps coordinate the day-to-day priorities of the Superintendent's office.

Brad Jupp
Senior Academic Policy Advisor to the Superintendent

For the past six years, Brad Jupp has served as a union appointee and a leader in the collaborative effort to create a teacher compensation system based, in part, on student learning. This collaborative effort of Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association produced ProComp (Professional Compensation System for Teachers), a nationally recognized breakthrough in teacher compensation.

Jupp currently serves as the teacher/coordinator of the ProComp Transition Team, the collaborative body of five teachers and five administrators overseeing the implementation of ProComp. From August 2000 to June 2004, Jupp was Team Leader of the DPS/DCTA Pay for Performance Design Team. In his most recent classroom assignment, Jupp was lead teacher at the alternative middle school of the DPS Contemporary Learning Academy. From 1989 to 2004, he volunteered as a member of the negotiations Team for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. He has been a teacher in Denver Public Schools since 1987.

Jupp will continue his work on ProComp and lead the initiative to prepare for its full implementation in the 2006-2007 school year. Jupp will work closely with the new Chief Academic Officer to support the development and implementation of the academic reform plan for the district. Specifically, he will help lead the school improvement plan process as the district develops a comprehensive and coherent program to attract more parents and students to the district and to increase student achievement.

"In his role as policy advisor to the Superintendent, Jupp brings to bear his broad knowledge of DPS developed through nearly 20 years of committed work in many sectors of the district," said Superintendent Bennet.

Allegra "Happy" Haynes
Assistant to the Superintendent for Community Partnerships

Haynes joined the staff of Mayor John Hickenlooper in July of 2003 as his City Council Liaison, a job for which she was uniquely prepared, having just completed 13 years as a member of the Denver City Council. Haynes was first elected to the Council in 1990 and served for three terms as well as being the President of the Council from 1998 to 2000. Haynes has been a leader in guiding city policies that support children and families. She has been actively involved in welfare to work, educational reform and workforce development issues.

Haynes previously worked as an Administrative Aide to the former Mayor of Denver, Federico Peņa, prior to being elected to the City Council. She also has worked as a professional facilitator, assisting communities with strategic planning and collaboration, leadership development and diversity training in Colorado and in cities throughout the United States.

Her civic involvement includes serving on the board of the Colorado Children's Campaign, as a founding board member of the Mile High Youth Corps, the board of the Foundation for Educational Excellence and as a Trustee of the Colorado chapter of The Nature Conservancy, as well as serving on several other non-profit boards.

An advocate of life-long learning, Haynes completed two years of law school and received a Masters Degree in Public Affairs from the University of Colorado at Denver in August 2002. She also is a graduate of Leadership Denver, the Denver Community Leadership Forum, the Rocky Mountain Program and the State and Local Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

A native Denverite, Haynes attended Denver Public Schools and went on to receive a B.A. degree with honors from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York City. Her nickname, Happy, is derived from the Spanish translation of her first name, Allegra.

Haynes will transition from the city and start with the district later this month leading the district's efforts to build and maintain meaningful community partnerships that advance student achievement and reduce the truancy and dropout rates.

For more information, contact the Communications Office at 720-423-3414.

 

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