Angela Cobián

**A Proud Endorsement Alert!**

Senator Gonzales is a true community champion that always puts our comunidad first, and having her endorsement is truly humbling and exciting. Senator Gonzales has worked tirelessly to stand up for Denver families and ensure their voices are heard when decisions are being made. I couldn't be more proud of the broad and diverse coalition we are building to bring grassroots representation from Southwest Denver to Denver Public Schools. I look forward to continuing to meet with Southwest Denver families about how we build a Denver Public Schools that is accountable and responsive to the needs of the community.

** Not just a Tuesday- It is an ENDORSEMENT TUESDAY**

This is a true honor as Rep. Gonzales-Gutierrez is a tireless public servant that loves our Denver community. Rep. Gonzales-Gutierrez has dedicated her career to ensuring working families have the opportunity to thrive, and a good education is central to that opportunity. Rep. Gonzales-Gutierrez has a vested interest in ensuring that DPS is thriving and I am honored to have earned her endorsement. I look forward to finding creative ways to collaborate and find creative solutions to the issues that our Denver families face. I couldn't be more proud of the broad and diverse coalition we are building to bring grassroots representation from Southwest Denver to Denver Public Schools.

¡ESO! This is how I like to kick off a Monday!

** Endorsement Alert**

Denver City Councilwoman and third-generation Denverite Jamie Torres endorses Karolina Villagrana for Denver Public Schools District 2 today.

I am truly honored by this endorsement and future collaboration as Councilwoman Torres is a committed public servant who has the love of southwest Denver in her heart. Throughout and before her time in office, Councilwoman Torres has always found creative and impactful ways to be of service to our fellow Denverites. I look forward to working together to find creative solutions to the issues that our beautiful city faces. I couldn't be more proud of the broad and diverse coalition we are building to bring grassroots representation from Southwest Denver to Denver Public Schools.

Councilwoman Torres is a community advocate and community connector to her core. Prior to being elected, Councilwoman Torres spent 18 years in the Human Rights & Community Partnerships Agency in the City and County of Denver where she helped ensure Denver is focused on the civil rights, human rights, and social justice needs of its residents.

What a better way to spend a Saturday morning than canvassing for Karolina for Southwest Denver Kids with my mom and then filling out ballots together?!! Answer: There isn't one. Turn in your ballots and vote YES for Karolina Villagrana.

Que mejor manera de pasar un Sabado mañero que con mi mama tocando puertas y dandole respaldo a Karolina Villagrana, y luego votando con nuestras boletas? Asegurense de votar SI para Karolina Villagrana y entreguen sus boletas!

What a better way to spend a Saturday filling out ballots with my father?!! Answer: There isn't one. Turn in your ballots and vote YES for Karolina for Southwest Denver Kids.

Que mejor manera de pasar un Sabado mañero que con mi mama tocando puertas y dandole respaldo a Karolina Villagrana, y luego votando con nuestras boletas? Asegurense de votar SI para Karolina Villagrana y entreguen sus boletas!

What a better way to spend a Saturday morning than canvassing for Karolina for Southwest Denver Kidswith my mom and then filling out ballots together?!! Answer: There isn't one. Turn in your ballots and vote YES for Karolina Villagrana.

Que mejor manera de pasar un Sabado mañero que con mi mama tocando puertas y dandole respaldo a Karolina Villagrana, y luego votando con nuestras boletas? Asegurense de votar SI para Karolina Villagrana y entreguen sus boletas!

***Open Letter 6.28.21***

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,

Four years ago, my little cousin Ulises Cordova started his first year of college at Colorado State University-Fort Collins. He would be the fifth Cordova to go to a four year university (I was the first, my little sister Nicole the second, and my cousins Naomi and Clara the third and fourth respectively). This year, he graduated and became the fifth in our family to earn a Bachelor's Degree. I am so proud of Ulises and know that the ability to graduate from high school and persist through college is a tool to achieve dreams, and by extension, self-determination for an entire community.

Indeed, it is this belief that drove me to run to be the Director for District 2 on the Denver Board of Education four years ago. I was moved by the idea that I could help govern a system that would ensure my former students from my days as a teacher would graduate from high school and be ready for college and a career. This year, my former third grade students did just that: graduated from high school. I used to tell my students that they were “la luz de mi vida,” (the light of my life) when I was their teacher. My board service is a reflection of my love and dedication to their future.

Four years later, I have decided not to run for re-election. This is the hardest decision I have had to make in a long time. Together, my community and I have accomplished so much! From working with parents at Valverde and KIPP to secure traffic upgrades from the City and County of Denver to make the school safer, to revising the School Performance Compact (SPC) alongside Director Bacon to diversify school improvement strategies beyond closure, to issuing recommendations on reforming the curfew policy to Chief Pazan and the Denver Safety Department after co-hosting a forum with Young African American and Latinx Leaders (Y’ALL). Recognizing that budgets are value statements, I was so proud to be able to work with our Finance Team to increase the minimum wage within the school district for hourly employees and maintain the raise during the instability of the pandemic. I am honored to know that after my time on the Board, the changes we made will continue to positively impact the community. I worked to establish a representative and inclusive Budget Advisory Committee through a shift in board policy to solve our $65 million budget deficit with equity at the core, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I leveraged my work outside of the Board of Education to connect DPS to the Southern Poverty Law Center so that DPS could fight back against Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education when she tried to share pandemic relief funds with private schools during her tenure as Secretary of Education. I worked to ensure DPS was a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit alongside the NAACP and other national advocates.

Denver Public Schools is turning a new page in its history with an inspiring and accomplished superintendent, Dr. Alex Marrero. Dr. Marrero and the Board of Education will chart a path forward with a new strategic plan to ensure “every child succeeds.” As DPS moves forward, it is time to empower another Latina Leader in the same way that four years ago, the Honorable Rosemary Rodriguez enabled me to run and win with her mentorship and support. For the 2021 election, I endorse Karolina Villagrana to become the next Director on the Denver Board of Education to represent our home barrio of southwest Denver.

I have known Karolina for five years and am supporting her because she will put the needs of students and families in southwest Denver at the center of every decision. For both Karolina and me, our students and families are extensions of ourselves. We are both former DPS students who call southwest Denver home, were multilingual students, and are daughters of Mexican immigrants. Karolina is a former teacher and administrator who has worked in a variety of different school models in Denver, Kansas City, and San Jose. Her expertise is aligned to the needs of the nearly 50% of southwest Denver students who speak English as a second language, most recently serving as the Director of Elementary Literacy and K-8 Language Acquisition for the KIPP network. You can find Karolina at Huston Lake Park on Tuesday evenings facilitating bilingual read-alouds and art extension activities with students and families in an event she calls Libros en el Parque. She does this on her own time, knowing that in the times of quarantine isolation, our students need both literacy and community. Karolina has both the lived and professional experiences to ensure the continued advancement of southwest Denver students, as well as to collaborate with the Board of Education and Superintendent Marrero to govern as an effective team.

I hope the community will join me in supporting Karolina. More importantly, I hope we all recommit to working together to tackle the challenges that Denver Public Schools faces. At the end of every board meeting, we should ask ourselves: “Is our shared work reflective of the needs of students of color, and do the outcomes tangibly change the course of their lives?” If the answer is anything other than a resounding “yes,” then we are wasting time. Time my sister’s kindergarten students, and all students of color, cannot afford to lose.

Though my tenure on the board is ending, I will continue to advocate for the academic, economic, and political conditions that my former students and their families deserve. I will work to ensure students graduate on to college and career through my board service on Prosperity Denver Fund, have access to community food systems in southwest Denver through my board service at ReVision, ensure students’ families live in a state that enables economic mobility by design with my board work at the The Bell Policy Center, and advocate for students’ and families’ reproductive rights and health in federal policy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

It has been an honor to serve my family and neighbors in southwest Denver on the Board of Education. I am forever grateful for their love and support. And to my students, you continue to be la luz de mi vida.

Con compañerismo y mucho cariño,

Angela Cobián

Gracias a la escuela Bear Valley International School at the Henry Campus y North High School por compartir este volante acerca de nuestra clinica de vacunas. Recordatorio que empezando HOY usted puede llamar a 211 para establecer una cita para su estudiante de 12 años, o cualquiera persona en su hogar que tenga mas de 12 años.

Igual, lo fabuloso de esta clinica es que no necesitan cita, vengan cuando puedan entre las 10 de la mañana hasta las 7 de la tarde a la Abraham Lincoln High School para recibir su vacuna.

Si usted a recibido la primera vacuna, pero no a podido agendar su segunda dosis, igualmente esta bienvenido.

Gracias a las 100 personas que hicieron su cita!! Que mas esperan los demas? Los esperamos!

Vacunemonos Entre Familia Contra el COVID-19: Vierenes 25 y Sabado 26 de Junio en la escuela Abraham Lincoln High School. Registrese llamando al 211 empezando el Lunes. Igual pueden llegar sin cita-todos quedan bienvenidos! Edades 12 años en adelante! Regresemos a la escuela, trabajo, y encuentros con la familia sanos y salvos! Por favor compartan el mensaje

Muchas gracias a mis colegas Councilwoman Jamie Torres, Councilwoman Amanda P. Sandoval, Denver District 1, Representative Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, HD4, y Senator Julie Gonzales. Igualmente a nuestros compañeros en Denver Health, Denver Public Schools, Connect for Health Colorado, y Mile High United Way.