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For years, folks have combined up McAuliffe Handbook Center Faculty and McAuliffe Worldwide Faculty. Substitute academics have reported to the mistaken constructing, job candidates have utilized on the mistaken college, and opposing sports activities groups have proven up on the mistaken discipline.
Even mother and father have confused the 2 Denver center colleges, stated Doug Clinkscales, principal on the Handbook campus, registering their little one for one college after they meant to register for the opposite.
Officers hope a reputation change will assist clear up the confusion as McAuliffe Handbook, which shares a constructing with storied Handbook Excessive Faculty, proposes altering its identify to Handbook Center Faculty. The Denver college board is ready to vote on the identify change Might 16.
Dropping the “McAuliffe” would sever ties between the 235-student center college on the Handbook campus and the 1,370-student McAuliffe Worldwide, which has skilled vital controversy this previous 12 months. The colleges are about two and a half miles aside in northeast Denver.
The identify change would additionally strengthen the connection between the center college at Handbook and Handbook Excessive Faculty as extra college students matriculate from one to the opposite, leaders stated.
“As we get an increasing number of college students selecting this campus, it made sense to be aligned as a campus and never aligned as an thought with somebody down the road,” stated Clinkscales, who turned principal of the center college final 12 months after a decade as assistant principal of the highschool.
The latest controversy skilled by McAuliffe Worldwide was not the primary motivation for the identify change, Clinkscales stated. The previous principal of McAuliffe Worldwide was fired final summer season after talking out about security issues, and college employees was the topic of a district investigation into the improper use of seclusion.
Denver Public Colleges opened McAuliffe Handbook in 2016 as a replication of the favored McAuliffe Worldwide. The thought was to deliver a profitable center college mannequin to the Handbook campus and create a wholesome feeder sample for Handbook Excessive Faculty, which has a storied previous as one of many first Denver colleges to serve Black college students and ladies. Handbook Excessive has many notable alumni however has struggled over time with check scores and enrollment.
At first, the 2 McAuliffe center colleges used the same curriculum and have been overseen by the identical principal. However that modified over time. Right this moment, the Handbook center college makes use of a unique curriculum from McAuliffe Worldwide, Clinkscales stated. It has its personal leaders, too.
A letter from the McAuliffe Handbook scholar council to the Denver college board says the 2 center colleges “have virtually no connections.”
“We should always be capable of change our identify in order that it gained’t get combined up with McAuliffe Worldwide, and we will likely be extra acknowledged with our highschool and their legacy,” the letter says. “We need to be the college that represents our stunning, thriving neighborhood. And per your approval, we might be our personal college, as soon as and for all.”
Handbook Center Faculty would maintain its college colours – blue and yellow – and its mascot – the Thunder, Clinkscales stated. The mascot is a reference to the mascot of Handbook Excessive, residence of the Thunderbolts, and speaks to the connection that already exists between the center and highschool.
Based on Clinkscales: “We are saying, ‘You must earn your bolt.’”
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
