KIPP Fall07 Newsletter

Newsletter for Friends of KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy

Welcome to KSPA

The 2007-08 school year is off to an exciting start. This year KSPA welcomes 344 students to its classrooms and includes several pleasant developments. Our new Library and Alumni Resource center will open in October, we have a new string music teacher, our science faculty is the strongest we've ever had, and our most recent class of exiting 8th graders are beginning high school at some of the top schools around the state and country. We are proud to be in our sixth year and continue to be the home of the hardest working students in Denver. We welcome you to visit the school to experience a day in the life of a KIPPster and their climb to college.

Peak Exposure

May 5, 2007 The North Highland Company sponsored KSPA's first annual fundraising event, Peak Exposure, at the Space Gallery on Saturday, May 5, 2007. Over 200 guests enjoyed a mexican-themed fiesta on Cinco de Mayo. The Space Gallery was transformed into a photography exhibit featuring framed works of photo art by students at KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy. The event was the brainchild of KSPA board member and North Highland Principal William Browning. Last spring, he purchased digital cameras for KIPPsters to use in a photography class during Saturday school. What started out as a small art project grew into a successful fundraiser and community event, raising over $7,000 for KSPA. KIPP co-founder, Mike Feinberg, was the keynote speaker and the auctioneer for the 50 framed photos that were auctioned off that evening. Thank you to the entire team at North Highland Company for making this event possible!

Manual High School Volunteer Day

Teachers from KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy volunteered at Manual High School on Friday, August 10. After being closed last school year, Manual reached out to the community to help make the school ready for its new class of freshman. KSPA's involvement with Manual goes back to an earlier time this year. Manual's new principal, Rob Stein, KSPA School Leader, Rich Barrett, and the principals from West Denver Prep and Denver School of Science and Technology meet monthly for informal breakfasts to discuss best practices, leading a school with similar demographics, and idea-sharing. Thank you to KSPA's faculty and staff for taking time to support public high schools in Denver and for making a difference at Manual.

Teach for America at KSPA

KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy is proud to welcome Teach for America to Denver. Teach for America is a program that selects outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools in our nation's lowest-income communities. KSPA has two first-year TFA teachers this year, irst year TFA teachers, Kristie Schweighofer and Katie Tobin (pictured above). KIPP has had a long-standing relationship with Teach for America - KIPP's two founders, Mike Feinberg and David Levin were Teach for America corp members when the founded the first KIPP program in Houston in 1994.
"Teach For America is here to help realize a goal of student achievement, alongside DPS and KPSA, by creating an immediate pool of effective teachers with specific content expertise as well as a pipeline of school and district leaders to meet the growing demands of the district as a result of the reforms being implemented", says to TFA Denver's Executive Director Sean Vanberschot. "Teach For America corps members are effective teachers who will do whatever it takes to see children in the Denver area succeed academically. With 66 percent (of alumni) remaining in the field of education, Teach For America alumni are starting schools, becoming principals and district administrators, and winning accolades as teachers. This leadership and second half of our mission could not be more exemplified as it is with KPSA, where we have 9 alumni including Rich Barret, '96 Houston, as a founding school leader.

Thank you for being a part of the KIPP family, a group of organizations and individuals connected by the shared belief that all children deserve a good education and that all children can attain their goals through desire, discipline, and dedication.
Sincerely,

Nina Lopez, President Board of Directors
KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy