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Infusion 2022: Highlights from this year's school kick-off event

Last week DSST hosted the annual Infusion event at the Denver Botanic Gardens as a way to kick off the 2022-23 school year with some celebrations, laughs and lots of inspiration. From an awesome keynote speech by Michael Bonner to an intense game of rock, paper, scissors, here are some highlights from the day.

A huge thanks to Michael Bonner for really bringing the energy. If you missed the event or want to look back at his presentation, click here. 

You can also rewatch all of our Flower Person videos here.

Thank you all for coming to the event. We hope you had a wonderful time and that the energy, inspiration and relationships that started at Infusion, carry on throughout the year!

Click here to see all the photos from the event! 

Everything you need to know before Infusion 2022

We are extremely excited to kick off the new school year with you at our all-staff Infusion event at the Denver Botanic Gardens this Friday, August 12, at 9 a.m.

Welcome new staff and teachers! Here are a few highlights from our new staff events

Last week DSST hosted our annual New Staff Training (NST) and New Teacher Training (NTT) at DSST: Conservatory Green high school and DSST: Byers respectively.

We were so excited to welcome the nearly 200 new teachers and staff to the DSST team. 

Take a look at some highlights from the events:

A huge thanks to everyone who helped put this together for our new teachers and staff.

We hope you all have a wonderful 2022-23 school year! 

Meet Michael Bonner, this year's Infusion keynote speaker.

We are so excited to announce that the keynote speaker at Infusion 2022 will be Michael Bonner.

Meet the newest members of DSST's Senior Leadership Team

As we near the end of the 2021-22 school year, I am excited to share some updates about DSST’s leadership team. As many of you know, DSST has grown rapidly since we started DSST MTV HS in 2004. We have since opened 15 new schools, all of which have been consistently ranked among the best schools in Denver and Aurora, thanks to your hard work. Over the last five years, we have deeply recognized the journey we need to walk to become a more diverse and equitable organization and have increasingly understood the importance of using every resource we have wisely. In consultation with our Board of Directors, we have decided to add two positions to our Senior Leadership Team - a Chief Equity Officer and a Chief Financial Officer – to meet these important focal points of the organization. Adding these two roles to our senior leadership team is important in guiding DSST and our schools to future success. 

2 DSST staff launch community-led mental health ventures in partnership with Moonshot Edventures

Did you know that two of DSST’s mental health providers have started community-led ventures that are gaining attention in the larger Denver community?

In partnership with Moonshot Edventures, Ashlee Morris from CG MS started Girl Talk, a mental health-focused program supporting middle and high school girls of color across the Denver Metro Area, empowering girls to know themselves deeply, lead the world boldly and envision a world where girls are celebrated, uplifted, and supported to awaken their power.

Megan Casimir, from the Cole campus, is the founder of Words Beyond Walls, which connects formerly incarcerated young adults from the Cole neighborhood as mentors and community care facilitators for young people with justice system experience and their loved ones. Words Beyond Walls runs a weekly open-to-the-community healing circle and a communications workshop in the Cole HS AN Center. And, next fall they will be launching a peer mental health support drop-in space.

On June 16, both ventures will be featured in an online event called Shoot For the Moon. It will be a great opportunity to meet amazing folks doing interesting work in the Denver education scene, to hear from some of the young people involved with these ventures, and to support two programs that are directly impacting DSST students every day! If you’re interested in joining, RSVP at this link. If you can’t join, but would like to donate to support either of these ventures, the link to donate is here, and all donations will be matched due to the generosity of an anonymous donor!

Celebrating DSST's Class of 2022

Last week DSST celebrated six graduations: DSST: Byers, DSST: Green Valley Ranch, DSST: Montview, DSST: Conservatory Green, DSST: College View and DSST: Cole. Check out some of the highlights below.

What to know about the D5 school board interviews

On June 3, the DPS Board of Education will select a new representative for District 5 (Northwest Denver) in Denver Public Schools. The DPS Board of Education is interviewing applicants and accepting public comments. Read more about each of the applicants here, including our own Managing Director Adeel Khan. 

Because the current District 5 representative, Brad Laurvick resigned due to a job relocation, his replacement will be selected directly by the school board, instead of through an election process. On May 26, the school board interviewed all five candidates. This meeting was closed to the public but was available to view via live stream.

The school board is a group of seven members from the community who are elected into office by Denver voters. Their duties include:

• Establishing a vision and strategic plan for the district
• Hiring and overseeing the superintendent
• Setting the yearly budget
• Approving contracts for teachers and outside vendors
• Expanding the district and/or closing schools

Submit your EOY survey before it closes on Friday, May 20

Dear DSST Team,

As we close out the year, we want to invite you to share your reflections on this year as well as your hopes for the future of DSST through our End of Year Survey and our Strategic Planning Open Forum.

For DSST seniors, exciting futures come into focus

DSST admits students through a weighted lottery to guarantee a diverse student body. Enrollment is as high as 80 percent students of color at some campuses, with an equal balance of young men and women.

It’s a rigorous academic program, but that doesn’t change the fact that the students are still just kids. Between classes or heading to lunch, they linger to talk with friends, they laugh and joke, they sneak away to use their phones, they study.

You see Afros, long hair, short hair, multi-colored hair. Some wear hijabs, others ballcaps. They’re kids. College-bound kids who, for the time being, have found their happy place.