27J school board meets with city councils

    BRIGHTON — The Jan. 31 Brighton 27J School District’s board of education linkage meeting brought together fellow community links – Commerce City and Brighton city councils.

Photo by Emily Dougherty

At a gathering of local governing bodies Jan. 31, the Brighton 27J board of education and Brighton and Commerce City councils discussed ways to work toward the future – together. Superintendent Rod Blunck said, “We may not always agree with the decision each group makes in this room, but we need to honor the decision maker. We need to know that the decision makers are making a decision that will outweigh a term or the decision makers. That’s what will help us make a quality school district a quality community.”

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    Speakers from the evening included Commerce City Mayor Sean Ford, Commerce City City Manager Brian McBroom, Brighton Mayor Dick McLean, Brighton City Manager Manuel Esquibel and 27J Superintendent Rod Blunck.
    Over dinner, the discussions revolved around the school district’s role in the neighboring municipalities, as well as the partnerships that could be established to make the visions of each of the represented establishments a reality.
    “This is what elected folks are supposed to do,” Blunck said. “This is what people who represent the community are supposed to do. We’re supposed to get together and be an advocate for the folks that don’t have a voice or don’t have advocacy within our communities. Our job is to build a future for kids that aren’t here yet.”
    Both Brighton and Commerce City representatives acknowledged the important role that the school district plays in each of their communities.
    “27J covers most of our northern range,” McBroom said. “We know that the district is facing some funding challenges. The state is not making your job easy these days to help provide top level educational services to these students. I know our position as a staff is, ‘how can we help school district 27J?’ We’re eager to hear from you folks what we might be able to do to help advance your vision and your goals for this area. It seems to us, if you’re succeeding, we’re doing well, especially in our northern range.”
    Mayor Ford agreed, noting that Brighton and Commerce City have to work together in order to succeed.
    “I consider Brighton as a brother or sister city. I’m a leader that takes a hard stride to look at regionalism and how we can work as a sub-region. We have to tear down the walls and work to help each other.”
    Ford specifically noted the neighbors’ revenue sharing agreement where each city’s development on their borders would result in a 50/50 split.
    “One hundred percent of zero will always be zero,” Ford said. “We’re all going to do a whole lot better if we help each other. Those partnerships are extremely important because we can’t have a good community without an educated community.”
    His future-from-now philosophy is to encourage Brighton to develop on their northern borders, restart a program they started in Ford’s last term called Youth in Government, and work with school districts 27J and Adams 14 to form better communication and partnerships.
    Mayor McLean said the city began getting together with other councils a couple of years ago.
    “We need to work together, and why wouldn’t we want to when we could accomplish a whole lot more,” he said. “It’s about teamwork. That’s what it’s all about. Unfortunately the team didn’t get the bond issue passed this year, or the last time, but we’ll keep working on it. It’s been done in the past. It will be done in the future.”
    Esquibel presented the city of Brighton’s approach to moving forward together and sustainability using the analogy of a tree and its roots.
    “In order for a community to be sustainable, you have to be able to say that you can provide the nutrients and all the activities necessary to encourage that tree to blossom,” Esquibel said. “The youth component of this sustainability effort was something we realized was important, and it was done through many aspects, but primarily through that school system.”
    The goal is to “live, work, learn and shop in Brighton,” Esquibel said. The emphasis is on learning.
    Esquibel noted the expansion of Front Range Community College and presence of Colorado State University into Brighton. Now, they’re looking to develop and grow a STEM program with the school district.
    Blunck addressed the issue of local control with the other governing bodies in the room.
    “We are quickly losing the ability to have local control within our school districts. Besides banking and medicine, education is the most regulated vocation there is out there,” Blunck said.
    “When the state legislature is telling us what graduation requirements kids have to have, what kinds of discipline kids have to have, how we evaluate our teachers and how we fund our schools. It leaves very little for the folks that have been elected in their neighborhoods and in their communities to have input and control in establishing the future of our schools. That’s something we can collectively work together on to get back,” he said.
    Specifically, Blunck said the different councils need to work on a safe walk path on 120th Avenue for Prairie View High School and middle school students who are crossing streets as if they were playing the game of “Frogger.”
    Secondly, Blunck said, “Our community starves for communication. You’ll hear me say I don’t like Facebook and I will never Twitter, but there are people who need information via those mediums.”
    Besides those two requests to work together, Blunk hit the group with a plea to plan cleverly.
    “Planning is critical. If we can place a school in an area of density of population it benefits everyone,” he said. “We believe in neighborhood schools. It gives a sense of belonging and security.”
    According to him, if school district 27J keeps up its many year growth spurt, it will need one elementary school every year for the next 15-20 years, one middle school every three years and one comprehensive high school every five years.
    “Schools, when it comes to development, should not be an afterthought,” he said. “It should not be an extra 10 acres you can spare.”
    With some ideas out on the table, the school board and the city councils will continue to meet every fifth Tuesday of the month when they occur.
    Overall, he said, “There’s nothing that three groups can’t come together and fix. If we truly believe it’s in the best interest of kids.”

Contact Emily Dougherty at 303-659-2522 ext. 223 or edougherty@metrowestnewspapers.com.