For many years in Pueblo, the start of school usually followed the last day of the State Fair. Those days are over. The new school year begins for Pueblo School District 60, Tuesday, August 19th. It will also begin with a new superintendent and one unforeseen challenge.
Dr. Barbara Kimzey begins her tenure in southern Colorado’s largest school district. Kimzey comes to Pueblo from Norfolk, Virginia, where she was Chief Schools Officer for Norfolk schools.
In Pueblo, Kimzey will be responsible for more than 14,000 students and slightly more than 2,400 teachers, staff and administrators.
Kimzey was selected last May after a nationwide search and given a three-year contract. She succeeds Charlotte Macaluso who retired last June and who’d served as superintendent for the past eight years. Kimzey’s first official day as superintendent was July 1st.
As she settled into her new job, Kimzey told KOAA-TV News that one of her highest priorities is to stem the chronic issue of truancy. “We can’t teach them if they’re not at school,” she said. Students cannot learn “if they’re not in school.”
Solving or, at least, improving the truancy rate is just one challenge Pueblo and schools across the country are facing. Another is addressing the colossal blow caused by the pandemic. Despite school’s best efforts, including providing tablets and hotspots for connecting, many students simply failed to maintain a reliable connection. No district in the country escaped the calamity caused by COVID
One unanticipated challenge Kimzey and District 60 will be dealing with is the closure of Chavez Huerta Preparatory Academy. The school, which had operated as a charter for the past 25 years, was shuttered for, among other things, “failing to meet progress toward achievement and failing to meet accepted standards of fiscal management.”
An appeal by the school was rejected. The school which served an estimated 370 K-12 students had been under scrutiny for similar reasons for a number of years.
It is unclear where all of the CHPA students will begin in the fall, but in a statement released by District 60, it stated that it will assist families and students “throughout this process.”
Over the course of her more than three decades in education, Kimzey has been a classroom teacher and assistant principal and principal before moving into administration. As a classroom teacher, Kimzey taught both English and German. She has also worked in Texas, North Carolina and Virginia.
To prepare for the start of the new school year, District 60 is offering an array of activities for students. On August 7th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.at Dutch Clark Stadium, a district news release announced a free giveaway for student supplies, free haircuts, face painting, information booths for students and families in need of information on activities and resources. Students, the release said, will also have the chance “to show their commitment to success by signing the pledge to miss no more than three school days” this school year.
Pueblo School District 60 operates 29 district schools and departments.
