Now Hiring: Special Education Paraeducators

Careers at DGS 

What is DGS Northfield?

Denver Green School Northfield is a middle school option in the Greater Park Hill and Central Park enrollment zone that opened in 2019-20 with our inaugural group of 142 6th graders. Our school’s deep commitment to our mission, vision and values, and the bold ideas they represent manifests itself across our entire school community. Our commitment to shared leadership is seen by including students in our CSC and having teachers make critical school decisions on our Partnership. Our value of relevant and engaging learning is seen in the dozen excursions we take each year. Our prioritization of teacher empowerment is seen in the support teachers receive in coaching and from our Student Support Team, but most importantly, in the autonomy to build dynamic units that inspired us to be educators in the first place. Our students and families consistently remark that school is a joyous place, where all students, regardless of race or socio-economic status feel safe and loved for.

We are located in Northfield, at 56th and Galena. Our student schedule runs Monday-Thursday from 9:00-4:40, and on Friday from 9:00-1:00 in order to give teachers a significant block of time to attend to their professional obligations from 1:00-3:30. We follow the DPS calendar with the exception of teachers returning to work in the beginning of August for our paid curriculum development workshop. We are an innovation zone school, and as a result, we have more autonomy than a traditional school, allowing us to put teachers on the leadership team and opt-out of having a district appointed instructional superintendent.

Positions Available for the 2024-2025 School Year:

Job descriptions and postings will be available on the DPS Job Board any day now. However, please feel free to follow up with Erin Miller (erin_miller@denvergreenschool.org) about open position inquiries, or pass along your resume to the same email and we will follow up with you. In your email to Erin, you can also include a cover letter that explains your interest in the school and why you would make a great fit. We are currently hiring for the following positions:

• Multi-Intensive Autism Teacher (6-8)

• Gifted and Talented Teacher (.75 FTE)

Why Work at DGS Northfield?

Joyful Community:

At DGS we care about making our school a place where people want to be. We want to enjoy the time we’re at school, and we work hard to make DGS a joyful place that celebrates learning. We bring our school community together every Friday for Friday Celebrations-purely to have fun together! We host many events (Student Celebrations, school dances, etc.) to celebrate our students as a wider community. And, Mr. Jaquette is infamous for pulling out his grill or smoker to cook delicious food for staff and students alike. There is no school culture like DGS school culture and we want you to be a part of it.

Teacher empowerment- engaging Learning is in your hands:

At DGS, we trust teachers as professionals, and honor that they know their students. With guidance from their teammates and instructional coaches, teachers are encouraged to build their own curriculum and assessments based on student interest and student need. As a teacher at DGS Northfield, not only will you be given our trust to develop your own relevant learning units, but we will also give you adequate release time to perfect your craft. On top of it all, you’ll never be a teacher in a silo. You will have weekly opportunities to meet with a coach to better your teaching practice and to meet in Grade Level Teams and Professional Growth Teams with your peers to consider student progress.

Shared leadership:

At DGS, leadership is less defined by the talent of the individuals in administrative roles and more defined by a unique organization called “The Partnership,” which consists of a blend of teachers and administrators that engages in both distributed leadership and shared decision-making. The Partnership consists of teachers and administrators working in concert to make critical school decisions in issues ranging from budget and professional development to instruction and organizational strategy. Each partner shepherds their own leadership tasks and contributes to our shared leadership decisions using a consensus decision-making model. For example, the staff newsletter, teacher hiring, and community events are led by staff members/teachers within the Partnership. The greatest asset of DGS is the powerful sense of teacher empowerment, and this is the by-product of a school that is run by a Partnership that specifically includes teacher voice.

relevant Learning:

At DGS, middle school students are highly engaged in real-world learning opportunities. At our campus, our sixth graders engage in a Sustainable Communities unit are able to commute on RTD and/or bikes all over the city to compare the difference between Denver neighborhoods (ie. access to fresh food, cultural experiences, libraries, etc.). Our 8th graders toured local High Schools, and the CU Boulder campus to start aligning their individual paths to success with the institution they wish to attend.. These examples, along with a robust excursion program,  an indoor and outdoor garden, and incoming chickens and goats, allow students to understand how their actions impact the wider community.

Closing the Opportunity gap:

At DGS, we have been making concrete strides in the actual closing of the opportunity gap. We prioritize maintaining a students-first school culture by promoting relationship building with students and families alike. We are committed to holding all students to high expectations, having clear and communicated rationales for the rules we enforce, and authentically celebrating student success. The commitment to this endeavor has lead to our students of color performing within the top five percent of the district. At DGS we’ve found that when every student is seen and appreciated for who they are, they grow.

Hiring Process and Timeline

Being a teacher-led school, we are looking for candidates who share a desire to live out Denver Green School’s Mission, Vision and Values and maintain a students-first approach to education. We are interested in teachers and staff members who have a vested interest in contributing to our school community. Our hiring process has four steps, candidates are asked to continue to the next step as our hiring committee deems appropriate. Our hiring process is as follows:

Hiring Process:

• Step 1: Resumes Accepted and Reviewed for All Positions

• Step 2: Phone Interviews Conducted

• Step 3: Candidates Teach a Group of DGS Northfield Students

• Step 4: Formal Interview with Hiring Committee