Boasberg will stay on for three months

Tom Boasberg announced last month that he was stepping down as superintendent of Denver Public Schools. He was unanimously voted in by the Board of Education to take over the position in 2009. He replaced Michael Bennet, who departed after a successful run for U.S. Senator.

“Serving as DPS’ leader has been the honor of a lifetime for me,” he said in a letter to the DPS community. “Spending time in classrooms, meeting with students and collaborating with teachers, school leaders and district leaders have brought me great joy and given me great hope.”

Boasberg will remain in the position for three months while the Board of Education finds a replacement. Boasberg said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Leaders from across Colorado applauded Boasberg for the progress the district made under his tenure.

Summer Academy serves record number of students

DPS offers a free Summer Academy for students looking to maintain their academic progress. The program offers half days over the summer for individualized instruction and activities. This year, the program had its largest enrollment with 5,300 students.

The program is also a benefit for students in grades K-8 whose second language is English to develop literacy skills, a press release from DPS said.

DPS AmeriCorps program terminated

In late June, Serve Colorado terminated the AmeriCorps program with DPS after finding it did not operate within the grant requirements, according to a news release from the district.

Serve Colorado found the district was enrolling current employees, which violated the AmeriCorps grant requirement, the news release said. People recruited for the AmeriCorp position are supposed to work set hours for the district, plus additional hours for the program. The Serve Colorado investigation found that with current DPS employees some of those hours overlapped.

The investigation was announced in May, and DPS put the AmeriCorps program on hold.

DPS is paying back all of the costs associated with the program to the Corporation for National and Community Service, totaling $200,000. The district is also continuing to pay tuition assistance and living stipends to the 435 employees it brought in for the AmeriCorps program.

This will cost the district an additional $1 million to $1.8 million over the next seven years.