Judy Montero

Within the last week and a half, the local dailies have taken favorable note of both DPS high schools in District 9. On September 5, the Denver Post detailed West High School principal Pat Sanchez’s door-to-door search for absentees enrollees. A followup editorial the next day praised Sanchez for “his efforts and his tenacity. If he can lure his students back, we’re hopeful his commitment to them will benefit them and the school.”

Then this past Monday (September 10), Rocky Mountain News columnist Tina Griego told the story of two new North High School teachers who came to the school as graduates of the Teach for America program. While her piece inspires admiration for these two idealists who’ve come to teach in the inner city, it also captures how difficult, even desperate, conditions are in many urban classrooms. 

Judy took note of both articles because she’s been meeting, one by one, with every DPS principal in District 9 — North High’s Joann Trujillo-Hays, West High’s Pat Sanchez, and the dozen or so others at the middle-school and elementary-school levels. She’s been asking what she, as Council representative, can do to support them and make their jobs easier. While expressing pride in their students and the diversity they represent — there are kids from Somalia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Bosnia, and many other places in the District 9 schools — the principals are concerned about various issues, including dwindling enrollment; shortages of basic supplies; heavy reliance on subsidized lunches and other services; speeding / parking issues on the surrounding streets; and overall school safety.

All those issues are now on Judy’s radar, and her agenda.