Watch as University Prep charter school works with their community to open in Adams 14, one of Colorado’s lowest-performing districts in the state.

Erica [U Prep Grandparent]: Commerce City, for me growing up, was mostly Hispanic families. Not very many had a lot of money, but they were united.

Susanna [U Prep Parent]: Adams 14 is a school district just north of Denver in a very industrial part of the state. It’s a great community that has faced a series of struggles over the past many years. I wanted to see my daughter have a really good education throughout her life and I want her to stay engaged in school. That way, when the time comes to go to college, she’s not having a hard time transitioning from academics into a college career. But I had enough, and I was like, it’s time to take Addie to a different school.

[On Screen: Susanna’s daughter is among 3,000 students that travel outside the Adams 14 School District each day for a better education]

Susanna: There’s many students who are traveling from super far areas, they’re driving 30+ minutes just to get to those schools.

Wendy [U Prep Commerce City Founding Principal]: Since it’s a lot of Hispanic parents, they don’t have that communication between the educators and the parents, so the parents don’t really know what’s going on in their school.

Susanna: Things haven’t changed from the past and they haven’t changed now, and we’ve been fighting hard because our students need a good quality education, and we want to see those students succeed.

[On Screen: Frustrated by more than a decade of underperforming schools, and wanting a high quality option in their own backyard, parent leaders began organizing with the community for something better.]

Susanna: So, we started out by having Zoom meetings quite frequently just to talk about what we needed as parents from our Commerce City schools. We went door to door, just collecting signatures and asking parents if they’re willing to stand behind us so we can open this school in our community. We knocked on doors, we went to pools, we went to parks, like super-hot days to super-windy days or even raining days. I started to get involved with U Prep just because I saw the education that my daughter was getting and it’s something that I would like to see in our backyard. It’s a school that’s engaging and it’s just important to bring something that’s really good into our community so our students can keep going through the system and get the quality education. Then it led to co-designing a school with U Prep.

[On Screen: Commerce City parents partnered with U Prep, a charter organization with two successful campuses in nearby districts, to bring a U Prep school to Adams 14]

Mamie: On a nationwide level, people aren’t doing this, like they’re not co-designing school families. They’re not prioritizing family knowledge, and families know a lot. They know a lot about their kids, and they definitely know a lot about what school should look like, feel like, sound like.

Nicholas [Community Organizer, Transform Education Now]: Commerce City students are predominantly multilingual learners. They have the highest rate of students who speak multiple languages in the state of Colorado. It’s an asset to that community to have that. It also means you have to do things differently in the classroom.

Susanna: We talked to them about – we want to see better academics, we want to see children look forward to a future.

[On Screen: In U Prep, the Adams 14 community found a partner with a proven track record of helping students become their best.]

[On Screen: U Prep Alumni Round Table]

Zaire [U Prep Alumni]: I think the best part of University Prep was Community Circles on Fridays. It was like a prep rally but for elementary kids and it was just really things that made the school environment feel very loving and like a community, like a family. I love the community circle, it’s awesome.

Kailee [U Prep Alumni]: I enjoyed being around people that kind of came from the same background.

Brooklyn [U Prep Alumni]: There was always somebody who was kind of like you in a way.

Sanaia [U Prep Alumni]: I feel like it was very welcoming. When you first walk in the building they shake your hand. I just felt loved, and I think a lot of kids need that when they start an elementary school because they might not be getting it at home, so if they come to school, they’re actually feeling loved.

Zaire: Their staff is also diverse, and they make sure that as a student you can find someone that looks like you, that you can find trust in as well. The motto is “college starts in kindergarten” so I’m seeing someone that looks like me or that reminds me of myself a little bit and it’s like, oh you went to college? That’s cool. I could see that as a path for my future potentially.

Gracie [U Prep Alumni]: I want to go to school for either International Relations with a minor in Spanish or go for Aerospace Engineering but I think that I’m allowed to have those goals now because if I wouldn’t have went to a school like this I think it wouldn’t have set me up as well. But I think that University Prep really showed us you can be literally anything you want but you have to put the work in, which I think was really important.

Mamie: I think everything we say at U Prep is, and will be, just hasn’t been seen before in Adams 14. Like our DNA is just different. We just function different. We think about children differently and everything we do is just so intentional.

Nicholas: When you live in a community that has been so underserved by its schools for so long, there’s a sense of mistrust. And I think that was something we had to overcome first and foremost, was convincing folks that we were here for the long haul.

Liz [U Prep Chief Academic Officer]: And so, charter schools really are public schools. They are funded by public dollars. The real fundamental difference comes down to more autonomy in return for more accountability.

Nicholas: As a family, you can send your kid to University Prep, and you know they’re going to walk away from our halls prepared for middle school. Prepared for high school. Prepared for a life full of opportunities.

Susanna: The hope is that the school comes into our community in 2023/2024. Super exciting, just because I know it’s going to be something that our community can benefit from.

[On Screen: On December 14th, 2021, the parents’ application for U Prep Commerce City went before the Adams 14 school board]

[On Screen: The board voted 3-2]

[On Screen: The U Prep School for Commerce City was approved]

Vanessa [U Prep Alumni Parent]: U Prep will be one of the best schools to be in that location, just the mindset, the curriculum, staff, and just that push even to show a child that education is important.

Nicholas: I think the impact that campus number three in Commerce City will have is immeasurable.

Erica: When parents are happy about where the kids go to school, they become more involved. And when they become more involved, then they start to give resources, and then there’s more resources going out to the families, and that spreads.

Nicholas: From day one the University Prep team made it very very clear that the goal here was to serve the kids in Commerce City, in core Commerce City.

Liz: And we recognize we are not THE solution. We are part of a broader solution.

Mamie: We want to partner with the district so that we can be collaborative because it’s not just about kids at U Prep, it has always been about all children and making sure all children have access to a high-quality education. But I am excited to start that change and demonstrate what kids can do.

[On Screen: With an approved application for the school they helped design, parents began to believe their hard work would finally bring progress to the community]

[On Screen: The Colorado Charter Schools Act requires that a school with an approved application receive a contract to proceed within 90 days]

[On Screen: More than 300 days after the board’s approval, the community was still waiting for the contract to be signed]

Susanna [At Adams 14 School Board Meeting]: Something that we are deeply passionate about, and we would like to see you guys helping us move forward with that process, because it’s not only meaningful to me but it’s meaningful to them. It’s a partnership that we really really want with you guys. Please come out to your community and be involved. Help us develop that partnership so we can open our doors this coming August.

[On Screen: After 10 months of delay – and in spite of Colorado law – on October 10th, 2022, the Adams 14 school board voted to reject a contract with U Prep with no explanation]

[On Screen: The community’s fight to bring U Prep to Commerce City will continue]