Liz Graham works hard to give her son, Andy, as many educational opportunities as possible. But without extra money for extracurriculars, she faced some impossible choices.
If you are at or barely above poverty, a lot of times you have to decide am I going to pay this bill or [can] I pay for my child to go to Boy Scouts or whatever?
A Green Valley Ranch resident, Liz felt good about Andys middle school, KIPP Montbello College Prep. But as he approached high school, she worried about whether hed be able to access opportunities more affluent families might have ” especially in an area of the city where many schools were bursting at the seams.
Her fears subsided when Denver voters approved the 2012 bond and mill levy, which included funding to build a new campus for two high schools in her neighborhood. The new campus, named after the Conscience of the Colorado Senate Regis Groff, included space for KIPP Montbello to expand their offerings to include a high-school program.
The campus was planned to be built in two phases, with Phase I completed in 2015. When Phase II is complete in August 2017, the Regis Groff campus will have space for 1,000 students. The modern facility is brought to life by 2012 mill levy funding to support enhanced arts and PE programs.
I was amazed at the building. It was just so beautiful and so big, said Liz. It was everything that our kids needed.
Andys new school is a 21st-century gem, offering sunlit classrooms, a regulation gym, a cafeteria with a glass garage-door wall to the outside, massive science facilities and technology classes where students like Andy are already learning to code.
Having a building that allows the school to offer such a broad range of activities and academics, that parents dont have to figure out how to pay for, makes it so that all of the kids can access those opportunities and take part, said Liz.
Having a building that allows the school to offer such a broad range of activities and academics, that parents dont have to figure out how to pay for, makes it so that all of the kids can access those opportunities and take part, said Liz.