Since announcing plans in January to become an innovation district, Falcon School District 49 has had six public meetings to answer questions about the changes. More open houses and town hall meetings are planned for the coming months.At the community meeting Feb. 23 at Falcon High School, Falcon innovation zone leader Mike Carara outlined the steps each innovation zone will take.”The board has asked us to look at school district and state policies and look for barriers to innovation,” Carara said.Once barriers are identified, Carara said the zone will seek waivers from state education laws. Before presenting the plan to the state, Carara said the plan must gain approval from teachers, administrators and the school accountability committee at each school in the innovation zone.The Falcon zone consists of Falcon, Woodmen Hills and Meridian Ranch elementary schools and Falcon Middle School and Falcon High School.”We will hold a vote, and it has to carry 50 percent plus 1 in each school, or it’s dead,” Carara said.He said the innovation initiative will give D 49 a competitive advantage when seeking grant money. “What’s coming out of Washington?” he said. “Innovation – we will be first in line for innovation and Race to the Top funding.”The move is groundbreaking, Carara said. Eight schools in Colorado have received innovation waivers, and D 49 is the first to seek the status for the district as a whole.”I think this is the wave of the future,” he said. “The board is setting precedence, and we will be the model for other school districts.”Following his presentations, Carara answered questions from community members. Many questions centered on how the schools will look and function once the innovation plan is in place.Carara did not provide many details and said he did not want to skew the process by setting forth his expectations. “I want this plan to come from the parents and teachers,” he said. “It’s your plan.”Some parents attending the meeting were disappointed about the lack of details.Parent Marsha West said she researched the district’s innovation plan online before attending the meeting. “I didn’t learn anything new tonight,” she said.”It’s hard to get behind the plan without all the information,” said Monica Sackuvich, D 49 teacher and parent of students at Woodmen Hills Elementary School. She said the community needs to get involved and do their homework on board initiatives.A parent of a Falcon Middle School student, who asked not to be identified, said the innovation information is too vague. “I’m a very detail oriented person. I need a lot more information,” she said. “I want to know how innovation efforts have worked in districts with similar demographics as ours.”Monty Lammers, Woodmen Hills Elementary School principal, said he first approached the innovation plan cautiously. After visiting Montclair Elementary School, an innovation school in Denver, Lammers said he is excited about the possibilities.”It will give us the freedom to make changes to help our building,” Lammers said.Karen Laurie, parent of students attending Woodmen Hills Elementary School, said she was skeptical about the innovation plan until she attended a PTA meeting and the community conversations. After hearing school board members and innovation leaders speak, she said she is hopeful these changes will work for the best interest of the students.”With the budget and no taxes, I think the board is doing the best they can,” Laurie said.She likes the streamlined approach to district administration. “These people were making a tremendous amount of money. You could pay for four new teachers with one of their salaries,” she said.D 49 board member Tammy Harold said the innovation changes are not driven by budget constraints alone.”This is about student achievement coming from the bottom up,” Harold said. “Our scores have been stagnant for 10 years. What we’ve been doing isn’t working. It’s time to try something new.”
