Mary Seawell
Senior Vice President of Education, Gates Family Foundation Denver
After I'd been on the board less than a year, we did a major turnaround in a full feeder pattern for Northeast Denver. We basically turned around elementary schools all the way through high schools. It was incredibly contentious and also thoughtful, though — the process I think the district undertook. Our role as elected school board members was really important, not just to be in a cafeteria meeting with community members, but also really to vote and say this is the direction we thought the district should take.
There were many meetings in cafeterias where at that time city council member Michael Hancock, who is now the mayor, really stood up, and stood up for kids and said, "There are hard decisions but we have to make them and we can't accept the status quo anymore for our children." Probably one of the most — there were two pretty poignant moments for me, one was sitting down with a group of high school students in Montbello High School, which was a high school that we were essentially closing, being on a panel of just a few people with a room of really angry high school students that really want to understand: "Why are you closing our school? We are getting a great education here. We love our teachers. This is our community." Part of it was really listening, and not arguing. That was their experience.
Also, having a dialogue with them about the number of friends that they had that had made it to being a senior — how many of their friends, who had actually been in the place that they were, who were to college. They were very honest and vulnerable about saying most of them had dropped out. Being a part of that conversation, it wasn't about just being right; it was about being a part of the community making that decision together. That was really important to me as part of that. When we actually did the vote, these same students showed up with signs saying not to do it. It was probably one of the hardest votes I've ever taken, but also one that I still feel to this day was the right one.
