8566 E Lehigh Avenue
Denver, CO 80237

I heard rumors from other parents before enrolling my child; about how bad the school has become. For 6th grade; I decided to take a tour and personally meet with the principle. I fell in love with the principle and her vision for the school. Sadly it was all a farce; First day of school; our child had to write their pronouns down on a name card and carry it to every class. That I didn't have an issue with; but when a teacher had each student in class, stand and tell everyone their sexuality is NOT OK. This is a place of education; someone being straight, gay, bi etc. shouldn't be disgusted in class. DONT put students in the spotlight when it comes to this. First week of school we were told students would be let out by the Holm elementary exit and parents pick up there (map given).. well the kids were getting let out on the total opposite side of the school. Called multiple times to get clarification on pick up location; I was given multiple responses and multiple locations. This was brought up to the principle by numerous parents at the first back to school night meeting and principle PROMISED it would be addressed and teachers would be informed of the correct locations for each grade level. NOPE; still a complete mess at pick up. On back to school night; the social studies teacher emphasized she will not be teaching WHITE history. Shocked by this, I asked her to clarify. She said it was American history she wasn't going to teach. WHY NOT SAY AMERICAN HISTORY; NOT WHITE HISTORY. Completely inappropriate. Disgusting! My child is in IEP and needs special learning requirements that is UNDER CONTRACT with the state. Part of the requirements were made; but unbeknownst to me, their IEP teacher had left. For over 1/2 the year there was NO HELP. Now starting 7th grade; we were hoping for a better year, new teachers etc. NOPE; still completely disappointing. Disappointing to the point where we had to change schools. Students are rarely allowed to use the bathroom. HORRIBLE considering this is when girls start their mensural cycle. Shouldn't have to get a doctors note to be allowed to use the bathroom. Denver Public schools really needs to get police back in the building. School fights happen multiple times a week; and the security guard cant and don't do anything. KEEP LOOKING FOR NEW SCHOOL, KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE.

Mi hijo fue intimidado mucho en esta escuela

I wouldn’t recommend this school, if you don’t want your children coming scratched and bruised up daily; don’t enroll. School teachers, school principal, school staff does nothing about this behavior! Had a bad experience at this school with my child coming to school everyday to defend themselves instead of learning! I would never get contacted by the school when my child would be attacked by another student!(one day my child had blood on clothing, due to an altercation with two other students, my child had to change and I wasn’t contacted by Teacher, nurse or principal) Not acceptable; school teachers/ staff isn’t watching children thoroughly, along with not contacting parents when it comes to physical altercations/ children being harmed! Staff could have done better addressing situations like this in the school! Please pay close attention to your child and always ask them questions about their teachers and peers when sending them off to learn.

A great school; overall it’s really good

I am a founding teacher of Joe Shoemaker School, starting here in 2015- and as long as I am a teacher, I will work here because I love this school. Our staff, teachers and admin are some of the smartest and most amazing humans I have ever worked with. They work tirelessly to do what's best for our students and this community. Being an Expeditionary Learning School, also adds a unique layer to what makes this such a special place, as work is designed to matter and have a "so what" effect on our community. Students learn to appreciate the world by exploring it and becoming advocates to take care of it. They do this through service learning and interdisciplinary curriculum that ties social justice, science and literacy together to make work meaningful and engaging. In addition, Joe Shoemaker places a heavy focus on SEL learning, working to be responsive to students needs and support the wide range of behavioral needs in order to develop coping strategies, academic mindsets and restorative practices- which at Shoe we call "Crew", supporting the belief that we are all in this together. In addition to working here, my daughter has attended this school since 2017, as a 3 year old in our ECE program. To hear her come home and talk about our Habits of Excellence, naming Craftsmanship, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness (just to name a few) as concepts she is using each day to create high quality work, self reflection practices and the ability to do hard things, has made me an incredibly proud parent AND she's a great reader and mathematician, as well! She is learning about a wide variety of cultures, beliefs and personalities, due to our incredibly diverse population, and will go onto middle school with a much more realistic depiction of the world. I could not recommend this school any higher. It's truly the best.