Dennison Elementary School

We love this school! Our child had the best experience attending this school. Teachers and all the staff are amazing.

Front office staff and school principal are very difficult to deal with. Refused to release my child to me and I almost had to call law enforcement for them to release her. I have joint custody and they have all the documentation. There was also an undertone racism when interacting with the staff and principal.

my child just left this school. kids were jerks but nothing was done about it. way too much homework for my competitive sport kids. some teachers chose favorites and were not supportive and rude. others were great. sure, dennison gives a "good" education, but you can totally get that at a different school that is more fit for kids and not expecting every child to be a valedictorian. this is the nerdiest bunch of band kids i've seen and it was not a good environment for my athletic kids. my daughter came home and told me she got dress coded for wearing a three finger strap, screamed at for talking AT LUNCH, half the people in her grade were reading at RECESS, and she got a bad grade because she put a smiley face in her paper. #nerdybrats

My child is now in 6th grade at Dennison in 2022. Throughout his school career, he has had LESS THAN an hour of homework per school night. I would actually estimate that through all years (k-6) he averaged less than 30 minutes per school night. In 5th and 6th grade, the homework load is more like 45 minutes per school night. My son is not a genius, and he probably has undiagnosed ADHD. I would say that he is a fairly normal kid. We (as parents) rarely "tutor" him nor do we assist him with his homework. In kindergarten we did go over his flash cards with him for 5 or so minutes a day. I say all this to counter the "hours of homework" and "parents must tutor" reviews. Throughout his schooling at Dennison his grades have averaged about a B-. He has had D's, he has had C's. He usually gets B's or A's if he does his school/homework. When he has had issues, the school and the teachers have been happy to talk to us about what is going on and how to address it. Dennison certainly stresses academics. It is a school! That being said, I do not believe that they do this at the cost of citizenship, art or inclusivity. These are part of the experience - but the focus is academic education. The secondary purpose of how and what they teach is to prepare the students for D'Evelyn High School, one of, if not the top rated college preparatory High schools in Colorado. To that end, skills that Dennison tries to instill in their students are organization, time management and critical thinking. I believe that these skills are a benefit whether attending college or not. If a parent does not think that preparing for college is important, that is thier perogative and this school may not work for your family. I agree that some kids may not find success at Dennison, but I truly believe that the opportunity for success for most kids does exist at Dennison.I have read reviews and comments from students that have either graduated or left the Dennison/D'Evelyn schools. Generally these comments are that if they leave prior to graduating that the school that they attended next was comparitively "easy". If they have graduated from D'Evelyn and gone on to college, the transition to college was also "easy". This, in my opinion, has everything to do with the skills and the expectations that Dennison and D'Evelyn have taught them.I wish, for the betterment of our kids and education system, that there were more schools that followed these methodologies.

Our family has had a great experience at this excellent school. Dennison students are successful learners because they work hard, their teachers are effective, and parents are invested. Yes, there is homework, even in kindergarten. The homework is purposeful and manageable; it helps as a parent to know what your child is learning and whether it is clicking for them or not. The principal, Mrs. Crispin, is professional and friendly. She is committed to the school’s mission and is great with students. We have found that families work to build community, fostering a positive and enjoyable environment for the kids. The parking lot is smaller than it should be for a school of this size, but it sounds as though Jeffco may resume bussing to option schools this year which would improve the situation.