DPP Summer 2010 Newsletter (English)

DPP Board of Directors
John Plotkin, Board President
Gregory & Plotkin, LLC
Councilwoman Carol Boigon
Denver City Council At-Large
Susan Burks
BurksComm
Diana Romero Campbell
Mile High United Way
Carmen Carrillo
Denver Human Services
Tandy Dilworth
Xcel Energy, Inc.
Gloria Higgins
GenSpring Family Offices
DPP Board of Advisors
Linda Adams
CO Association for the Education of
Young Children
Alicia Biggs
Community College of Denver
Charlotte Brantley
Clayton Foundation
Cheryl Caldwell
Denver Public Schools
Tom Downey
Children’s Museum
Gerie Grimes
Hope Center
Angelita Guerrero
Escuela Tlatelolco
Judy Ham
CP of Colorado
Gerri Gomez Howard
The Gomez Howard Group, LLC
Abby Humphrey
Montview Community Preschool and
Kindergarten
Lara Jakubowski
Community Member
Kiesha King-Johnson
Beyond Daycare
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent
Civic Center Conservancy
Monica Lobato-Fox
Denver Public Schools
Evi Bachrach Makovsky
Community Member
Gilberto Marin
Denver Public Schools
Lonnie McCabe
McCabe Nonprofit Consulting Services
Carla Mestas
Mestas Consulting
Yvette Plummer
Denver Metro CPRC
Lee Reichert
Kamlet Reichert, LLP
A J Stapleton
American Family Insurance
Lynn Taussig
University of Denver
Stephen Vogler
Denver Health
Gerrit Westervelt
The Build Initiative
Carey Wirtzfelt
Qwest
Mike Yankovich
Children’s Museum of Denver
Childhood Council, and is
also a fellow in the University
of Denver’s Early Childhood
Education Leadership
Program.
What led you to open
Family Flex?
Provider Spotlight
– Family Flex
L
ike many professionals,
Marie Hueston and her
husband found it challenging
to balance the demands of a
young family with successful
careers. Exacerbating the
situation was a dearth of
high quality early care
and education centers in
downtown Denver and
the virtual absence of high
quality care options during
evening or weekend hours.
Well-versed in the challenges
facing working parents,
Marie, a former executive
at US West and a handful of
startup companies, decided
to take matters into her own
hands and open Family Flex,
LLC, in spring 2005.
Part of her commitment
in this effort is to remain
active in the community.
She is a member of the local
Early Childhood Education
Association, sits on the
board of the Denver Early
We were looking to create
a school that reached out
to families to meet their
scheduling needs while
providing quality early
education to children.
Why did you get involved
with DPP?
We wanted to reach out
to our community and
provide services to a wider
population of people, and we
knew DPP could help guide
our efforts.
How has DPP affected your
preschool program?
We’ve always had high
quality standards and have
used the ECE ratings scale
even before it was required.
But by partnering with DPP,
we became even more
motivated to keep and even
update our philosophies, and
continue with professional
development. It was a
vigorous three-year process
but it has helped Family Flex
to continue with high-quality
practices and reach higher
standards.
What would you tell
other providers who are
considering participating in
DPP?
I would tell them that DPP is
a great resource for reaching
out to the community,
improving quality
programming at their sites,
and for getting additional
professional development
and coaching for the staff.
What is the most important
thing you offer children/
parents at Family Flex?
Our top priority is to offer
quality programming,
scheduling flexibility, a
high-quality environment for
learning and top-of-the-line
teacher interaction.
What has been the most
memorable success at
Family Flex since opening?
Probably our different
community events. For
example, we’ve had the
children set up lemonade
stands and donate the
money they earn to a local
homeless shelter. It’s so much
fun and it’s great to watch
the children learn about hard
work and giving back to their
communities. They love it and
so do we!
Mark your calendar!
Save the dates of April 15 and 16, 2011 for the 2011 Early
Childhood Conference, a joint conference sponsored
by CAEYC, ECEA, Head Start and the Denver Preschool
Program at the Colorado Convention Center. More details
to come!
Follow us online!
Become a fan of the Denver Preschool Program on
Facebook or follow us on Twitter @dpp_org. Both are
great ways to receive updates on our activities and follow
trends in early childhood education.
DPP News
You Choose, We Pay, They Win!
Letter from the CEO
W
e at the
Denver
Preschool
Program
continue to
work toward providing
access to quality
preschools for Denver’s
children. This is our top
priority, and, in that effort,
we enrolled nearly 6,000
children in the program
during the 2009-2010
school year. With more
than 150 providers
representing more than
550 classrooms, DPP
provides a variety of
quality early learning
options for families in
Denver.
DPP: Facilitating Access to Quality
Early Education in Denver
with the reduction in sales
tax revenue. We cannot
reach a stable budget
model without impacting
tuition credit and quality
improvement dollars.
With this in mind, DPP
has made the extremely
difficult decision to
As you know, DPP is
discontinue tuition credit
funded by the City of
funding for the summer
Denver sales tax revenues,
months of June, July and
which unfortunately
August 2010.
decreased more than 15%
As a result of this sacrifice,
from original estimates
our valued provider
projected the previous
partners and community
year. This decrease directly
supporters can have
impacts our capacity
renewed confidence that
to fund the program,
DPP will be sustainable
which comes at a time
over the long term. DPP
when we’ve also seen
is also maintaining the
an increase of 15% in
funding for provider
the number of children
coaching in order to
enrolled. We’ve had to
continue investing in
make difficult budget
quality preschool options
decisions in order to
for Denver families. We
realign DPP’s expenditures
know that the children
participating in DPP are
benefiting greatly, and this
is a testament to the great
work of DPP’s network of
providers.
We have been out in the
community sharing the
story of DPP in recent
months. We were invited
to present at the national
conference for the
Council of Foundations
held in Denver this past
April. This was a unique
opportunity to focus on
the importance of early
childhood education
with funders from across
the country. In April, we
honored our preschool
providers at the annual
Provider Recognition
Breakfast and launched
our second successful
Preschool One Book, One
Denver citywide book tour
www.dpp.org
June 2010
in collaboration with the
Denver Office of Cultural
Affairs.
Last but certainly not least,
we would like to recognize
the contributions of
former staff members
Pamela Harris and Sarah
Pacetti who recently left
the organization to pursue
other opportunities in
the area of education.
At the same time, we
welcome to the DPP family
Eileen Piper, Director
of Policy and Program
Administration, as well as
Dan Schaller, DPP Program
Manager.
As always, we appreciate
your ongoing
commitment to DPP’s
mission to provide quality
early childhood education
for Denver’s four-yearolds. Thank you for your
tremendous support.
Sincerely,
James Mejia, CEO
Denver Preschool Program
F
or the second year, DPP
partnered with the
Denver Office of Cultural
Affairs (DOCA) to present
a preschool version of One
Book, One Denver.
dramatic interpretation.
readings offered at sites with
large numbers of Spanishspeaking children.
In addition to the launch
event’s star reader – Mayor
John Hickenlooper – this
year’s readers were pooled
from Denver’s local media,
the sports industry and
dignitaries from Denver’s
Latino community. They
included:
• Anne Trujillo, 7News
• Gloria Neal, CBS4
• Luis Canela, Univision
• Bazi Kanani, 9News
•Eduardo Arnal, Mexican
Consulate of Denver
• Jennifer Zeppelin, CBS4
• Theresa Marchetta, 7News
• Fernando Sergio Ferrufino,
KBNO Radio
• TaRhonda Thomas, 9News
• Jayson Luber, 7News
• Reggie Rivers, Author and
Former Denver Bronco
For the closing event, DPP
provided an added treat by
inviting the Rocky Mountain
Conservatory Theater to
bring the book to life during
readings by performing a
By the end of the two-week
book tour, “The Very Hungry
Caterpillar,” was read at
eight locations throughout
the city to more than 200
children.
Modeled after the adult
version of the citywide
program, Preschool One Book
One Denver raises awareness
about the importance of
literacy and early childhood
education and encourages
parents to read to their
children.
With the input of its
preschool providers, DPP
selected this year’s book
to be The Very Hungry
Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
2010 Provider Recognition Breakfast Honors DPP’s Top Educators
W
hile the DPP’s
mission and focus
is on preparing every
Denver four-year-old for
kindergarten and building
a strong foundation for
their educational success,
the program’s success
is intrinsically tied to
the tireless efforts of its
preschool providers.
The strength of DPP’s
preschool providers is their
dedication to providing
each child the opportunity
to begin a lifetime of
learning with quality
programs that include
high literacy standards,
accountability, innovative
teaching methods and
qualified instructors.
These high standards and
the 157 providers behind
them were honored at
DPP’s third annual Provider
Recognition Breakfast on
Wednesday, April 14th at
the Denver Athletic Club.
More than 100 educators,
stakeholders and other
early childhood education
advocates attended
to acknowledge DPP’s
providers and the impact
they make on this program
and the lives of children
and families throughout
Denver.
DPP recognized five
providers for earning a “4
Star Achievement on the
First-Ever Denver Preschool
Program Quality Rating.”
They included:
• Goldrick, which
provides developmentally
appropriate full-day and
half-day preschool classes
for 4-year-old children in
Denver.
• Mount Saint Vincent
Early Learning Center,
which houses both
a therapeutic and a
traditional preschool as well
as wrap-around services to
children ages three to six.
• Paddington Station,
a preschool community
where children experience
the world through
exploration and discovery,
serving children from the
age of 16 months to five
years old.
• Steele Cooperative
Preschool, which was
founded in 1982 by a group
of parents interested in
developing a cooperative
preschool program for
children ages two and a half
through five. And,
• Montessori Children’s
Village (MCV), a
Montessori preschool
for two and a half to sixyear-olds. MCV offers
Spanish and sign language
instruction during
Montessori work time,
employs field trips to local
parks on a nearly daily basis
and places an emphasis
on learning about and
practicing environmentally
green activities.
DPP Board President
Gloria Higgins was
recognized with the City
of Denver’s “Heavy Lifting”
Award, which recognizes
outstanding individuals
in the Denver community
for their efforts to advance
the well-being of Denver’s
children and youth and for
“doing the heavy lifting” as
champions for children and
youth.
This two-week event, made
possible by the generous
support of sponsors Kaplan
Early Learning Company
and the Piton Foundation,
included book readings
throughout the city with
stops at Denver Museum of
Nature and Science, Denver
Botanic Gardens, the Tattered
2010 Preschool One Book, One Denver
Program “One for the Books!”
Cover bookstore, Hadley
Library and the Children’s
Museum of Denver. The
children’s classic was also
read at three preschool
provider locations (Early
Success Academy, Denver
Child Care Center and Bright
Horizons Montessori at
the Marina) with bilingual
Meet Two New Members of the DPP Team!
Eileen Piper, Director of Policy and Program Administration
Eileen Piper is Director of Policy and Program Administration at the Denver Preschool Program. With
a bachelor’s and master’s degree in early childhood education, Eileen spent several years teaching in
preschool classrooms before transitioning into the childcare resource and referral arena. There, she
provided support to parents and corporations in her roles at a nonprofit agency and Work/Family
Directions, a national consulting firm. After receiving her MBA from Harvard University, Eileen worked
in partnership with senior management at McDonald’s Corporation, as a part of their Strategic Development group. Eileen
also opened and managed the Denver office of Parson Consulting. In three years, she successfully grew that office to more
than sixty employees and $6 million in revenue. Prior to joining DPP, Eileen was Executive Director of Marta Associates, a
nonprofit organization that consults with other nonprofits in the arena of organization formation and development.
Eileen is married to Matt Piper and has two sons, Xavier and Liam. She is thrilled to integrate her skills, education, and passion
for early childhood in her new position at the Denver Preschool Program
Dan Schaller, DPP Program Manager
A native of St. Louis, MO, Dan Schaller moved to Denver in 2003 as part of a volunteer teaching
program at Arrupe Jesuit High School where he taught social studies for five years. In 2008, he decided
to move into the realm of education policy by enrolling in the University of Denver’s Masters of Public
Policy program. While in this program, he held a number of positions with various education policy
organizations, including an internship with the Denver Preschool Program.
Working with DPP helped open his eyes to the critical importance of quality early childhood education, a cause he continues
to advance in his role as DPP’s Program Manager.