State | Local News

New Easley-Backed Charter School in Curtis

Park Holds Lottery to Admit Students
By Roger K. Clendening
Special to the Denver Weekly News
DENVER – There were winners and
losers last Saturday morning in Curtis
Park when a public lottery, was held to
determine which children would be
permitted to enroll in University Prep,
a new, taxpayer-financed charter ele-
mentary school with “high potential.”
Black and Brown parents, grandpar-
ents and guardians, and a handful of
Anglos, their toddlers and siblings in
tow, began filtering into the former
Crofton Elementary, 2409 Arapahoe
St., around 9:45 a.m. to witness what
was to be an exciting Saturday, Feb. 5th
for some and a bummer for others.
Dr. Nate Easley, president of the Den-
ver Public Schools (DPS) board of di-
rectors, pulled winning names in the
lottery held to admit 68 children in
kindergarten. Federal Judge Christine
Arguello pulled names for the 68 first
grade slots.
Easley, who was warmly embraced
by Head of School David Singer, was
introduced as a “volunteer.”
“I won’t stop until every school in
DPS is like this school,” Easley de-
Yolanda Honeycutt-Brown, a late-ar-
riving mother seated a few chairs away
from this reporter, exhibited some
edginess as names continued to be
called and her child’s was not among
them. When asked her child’s name,
she replied, “Ezekiel Brown, he’s
four.”
DWN, which had been recording the
names of those called up to that point,
told Ms. Honeycutt-Brown that
Ezekiel Brown’s name already had
been called at No. 10 for admission to
Kindergarten in August. Her face lit up
in a big smile and she said, “Thank
You, Jesus!”
In an interview, Ms. Honeycutt-
Brown, who says she now considers
herself a “winner” in the education lot-
tery sweepstakes, said she’s in a de-
gree-granting program at Ashford
University studying to become a
teacher. The Park Hill resident, who
home schools two other sons, 11 and
9, said she was excited because Ezekiel
would be in a “good school” and now
she could spend more time pursuing
her degree.
She said she chose University Prep
after reviewing the curriculum pro-
selection.”
As she stormed out of the school’s
gym, where the lottery was conducted,
she was overheard angrily swearing in
a cell phone conversation, complain-
ing that it appeared that mostly His-
panics were selected for admission,
and she saw “no Blacks” on Singer’s
staff.
There are at least 10 other “choice”
elementary school “options” in Near
Northeast Denver for the 2011-2012
school year from which parents might
select, according to a list handed out at
the lottery prepared by the Near North-
east Network of Schools, Metro Or-
ganizations for People, and DPS “to
support parents in choosing the best ed-
ucational option for their children.”
In an interview, Singer, who calls
himself Lead Founder and Head of
School rather than Principal, says he
has been selling neighborhood resi-
dents on enrolling their children into
University Prep for the past 18 months. DPS Board President Dr. Nate Easley, the target of a voter's recall,
picks Kindergarten and First Grade enrollment winners at the Uni-
By the January 31st deadline, Singer versity Prep Charter School lottery held in Five Points last Satur-
reports receiving 141 enrollment forms day. "I won't stop until every school in DPS is like this school,"
for Kindergarten and 83 for the first said Easley, adding that he was there as a "volunteer" and not in
grade. Education activists who met an "official" capacity.
with Singer four days before the lottery Photos: Pat Duncan

clared, then adding that he was not
there in any official capacity.
Shortly after Easley began pulling
names from the lottery bowl, protesters
began demonstrating outside, against
the lottery, Easley’s presence as an
elected official facing recall, and to call
attention to petitions voters were being
asked to sign to place a recall election
on the ballot.
Zendaya Robinson and her three children, one of whom was wait-listed
deep down on the list.
vided by Singer (one he acknowledges
is still being developed) and because
she was “impressed with his concerns
about neighborhood schools that are
failing.”
But Jendaya Robinson, whose
daughter Asharia Robinson, 5, was se-
lected “deep down” on the 68-member
kindergarten waitlist, was irate over
what she called her daughter’s “non-
Photo courtesy of Z. Robinson
heard him say he was “required” to
hold
the lottery if the number of applicants
exceeded his school’s capacity.
University Prep received $215,000 in
startup grant money from the Colorado
Department of Education through the
U.S. De-partment of Education’s
Charter School Program. The federal
program’s “non-regulatory guidance
U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello picked first graders names to be
admitted to University Prep's opening classes in August. "I will get my sister,
a Master Teacher, to volunteer" she offered.
requires the use of a lottery while the
charter school is receiving these grant
funds,” Megan McDermott, a CDE
spokesperson, told DWN.
CDE’s award letter to Singer says the
grant is a one-time award to be bud-
geted through June 30, 2011.
“There will not be a supplemental
award distributed later this school year
or in any subsequent years of this grant
award,” CDE advised.
The school will open to teach its first
classes on August 8. Singer says he’s
hired four of the dozen or so teachers
he hopes to employ. His student popu-
lation will largely be comprised of
Black and Brown kids. Yet, of about
200 applicants, he says he has not
hired a Black teacher and has hired one
Hispanic teacher of Colombian her-
itage.
Singer met last week with several ed-
ucation activists representing the
Northeast Community Congress for
Education (NCCE), Democrats for
Excellent Neighborhood School Edu-
cation (DeFENSE), and the Black Ed-
ucation Advisory Council (BEAC).
They contended that holding an en-
rollment lottery has been shown to
have damaging psychological, emo-
tional and social impacts on Black and
Brown families now being asked to
gamble in hopes of getting a taxpayer-
financed public education that hereto-
fore had been available to those
citizen-constituents who duly regis-
tered their children.
Lisa Calderon, an organizer with De-
FENSE and a member of NCCE, said
she and others who attended the lottery,
evaluated the fact that it was held, the
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Denver Weekly News Thursday, February 10, 2011 Page 4