Local Press

 

Bragging about Bessemer
By Peter Strescino

December 7, 1999


Gov. Bill Owens said he felt like he was coming home, even though it was his first trip to Bessemer Elementary.

Owens often uses Bessemer, where reading scores have soared in recent years, as an example of what a public school can achieve if the proper steps are taken. Monday he visited Bessemer to tell the students and faculty that not only are they doing a great job, but he will use some of their methods as he formulates new policy for public schools.

Owens toured the District 60-Lindamood-Bell Reading Clinic before addressing the Bessemer student body. The kids gave the governor their rapt attention as he praised them.

The first-term Republican was animated and relaxed with the kids. The father of three public-school students, Owens good-naturedly covered his face when Principal Gary Trujillo asked the students if they wanted to hear from the governor, and they responded with childish enthusiasm.

"I've been bragging about you all over Colorado, for two full years," Owens told the students. "I am so proud of the job you have done. You're just about the best readers in the entire state. Can you believe it?"

"Yes!!" they replied. They believed it.

Two years ago, Bessemer scored at the bottom of the state in reading and writing scores in the first Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. Last year, they improved twenty-four fold in writing and more than five-fold in reading, the biggest gains in the state.

Owens asked the students how they did it. "I want the kids from all over Colorado to learn from you," he said.

Kids being kids, they sort of ignored that gubernatorial inquiry, but Owens got his message across. The students afforded him warmer applause than a group of rock-ribbed Republicans at a Lincoln Day dinner.

Before he left the gym, Owens told the kids that he wanted to use the tobacco settlement to help raise reading scores across the state. It may be the first and last time the students will hear tobacco mentioned in a positive manner.

The kids then swarmed the governor, who kneeled to be enveloped by them. It was hard to tell who had the bigger smile, the students or Owens.

Owens gave a brief press conference after the kids began to clear the gym to go home.

He said he will reveal the full extent of his proposed $19 million education plan Wednesday, but said Monday that he will propose $4 million of the money go to professional development for teachers.

"Maybe we can find the secrets of Bessemer," Owens said. "Maybe we can duplicate it." Owens then visited with the Bessemer staff and others from the district, including school board members.

"Unlike so many issues, we all agree on this one," he said. "We all want to improve education, no matter where we stand on other issues."

He lauded the Bessemer staff, saying they had met the challenges, even though they knew that every kid does not come to school ready to learn and many don't crack a book when they get home. He also praised them for working for at least two weeks this past summer without pay to learn new teaching methods.

"But you use that six hours a day that you have them here to help shape those kids to improve the way they live," Owens said.

He told the group that in addition to the $19 million plan, he wants to use $25 million annually from the tobacco settlement to help fund state education.

Owens said he was looking at ways to change the CSAP and make it more of a diagnostic test. He also said many teachers have said there is too much testing, and he hoped that the state can develop testing for the schools from third grade through 10th in reading and math and fifth grade through 10th in math and replace some other testing.

"The state will fully fund these tests," Owens said. "But you will be accountable for improving performance."

District 60 school board member Judy Weaver asked if some of the tobacco money might be used to fund ventures like the reading clinic and the implementation of Lindamood-Bell in several district schools. District 60 is spending more than $1 million this year on those projects.

Owens said he'd like to see money used by the districts on what they need, but with measures to insure accountability.

He also told the group of teachers that there needs to be ways to weed out the "small percentage" of bad teachers within their ranks.

The Bessemer teachers told him that they banded together to work as one, and if merit pay were introduced, they might not be so keen on teamwork.

He also listened to ideas about exit exams for eighth-graders from Corwin Middle School Principal Kathy DeNiro, and a plea for more teachers from Goodnight Elementary Principal Kathy West.

He asked if the group thought that sixth- through eighth-grade middle school was a better idea than seventh- through ninth-grade junior high.

The assembled opted for the old junior-high concept.

"I'm a reformer," Owens told the group, who he said may not agree with all his ideas. "I carried (as a state senator) the charter-school bill and school-of-choice, which were controversial in their time.

"But I'm in favor of improving public education, and I know that we all want that."