My Story

Hi - My name is Allie and I’m obsessed with improving public education and I’m exhausted by working within systems that were not actually designed to support student learning and experiences. If you need more information about my experiences or accomplishments, read below. If not, skip to what we’re here to do.

My "Brag Sheet":

I’ve worked in public education for 13 years as a math teacher, teacher leader, college counselor, Manager of Counseling Services, Director of College Success, AP, and Principal.

Some of my shiniest accomplishments are:

Increasing student ACT scores by two points average
Developing systems to ensure that 100% of students in our community were accepted to college
Supporting students in earning full ride scholarships, acceptances to Ivy League schools, and all of the other fancy programs
Decreasing suspension rates to a 10th of previous numbers
Increasing positive responses in Student Experience by ___
Transforming student experiences around sexual harassment and assault in schools
Leading a High School to earning a National Blue Ribbon
Leading the best high school in Colorado

Our Purpose

Schools aren't working for all students because they are not designed to work for all students.

If you’ve spent any time learning about the government funding of education, you will quickly realize that it is fully within the power of our society to fund public education to improve student experiences and outcomes immediately. If our government simply funded education such that we could hire enough staff members to perform all necessary roles in schools, all staff members were payed comparably to someone with their education, in their role, and having their impact in a private corporation. Unfortunately, the people who sit in the seats to make these decisions almost never have their own students or even know students who are educated through public school systems and certainly not those that are most underfunded in our country.

As a teacher, one of my earliest frustrations was the amount of time I was spending as a first year teacher writing a curriculum for a content that had been being taught in schools for decades but somehow, my best option for curriculum was whatever I could write myself as a first year teacher. As a school leader, I find myself feeling similar frustrations. I now understand that this is intentional because school systems are not supposed to work for all students so they are underfunded and under-resourced. Our school leaders don't have capacity to build systems from the ground up, connect with every stakeholder in the way they deserve, or reflect on and codify our practices.

As a public school principal, it is not within my power to make the necessary governmental funding decisions that would allow us to have the capacity to do the work our students need. While I’ve considered doing the work to sit in one of those seats, I am unwilling to navigate another bureaucracy to earn a seat at the table where I am not always able to quickly ensure the alignment of my values and my actions. Instead, I will continue to do everything in my power to run the best school that I can, codify my research and best practices, and share everything I can with educators who are solving similar challenges.

I work in an intentionally inclusive middle and high school in Colorado that is quantifiably the best school in the state of Colorado that has a student population where the student population is aligned with the population of our city. The systems, resources, tools, that we have developed are in service of all students. So please help yourself to these resources, share them widely, and help me make them better so that we can continue to ensure an excellent educational experience and outcomes for all students in spite of the support and resources we have been provided.

Reach out if you have questions, ideas, or anything you want to share!

- Allie