A bill for an ordinance revising Article III, Chapter 11 of the Revised Municipal Code. Amends the Denver Revised Municipal Code, Article III, Section 11-21 to strike the word “sole” from the Denver Revised Municipal Code to allow Denver Preschool Program (DPP) to pursue additional funding opportunities and programmatic services beyond administering programming under contract with the City. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 7-13-22.
I. Madam Secretary closed the voting and announced the results. 3939 Council Bill 20 20694 has passed. Councilmember Ortega, would you please put Council Bill 20 22040804 on the floor for publication. Madam President, I move that council bill 20 2004 be ordered published. It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for Council Bill 20 20804 is open. May we have the staff report? Good evening, city council members. My name is Melissa Chayefsky and the executive director for the Office of Children's Affairs. I am here today with our Partners from Denver Preschool Program to ask for a change to the Denver Revised Municipal Code that would allow DPI to pursue other opportunities, including universal pre-K. Beyond disseminating the city's sales tax revenue. Our agency fully supports this code amendment and has absolute confidence in DPS ability to continue its trusted partnership with the city while expanding its role in the overall early childhood landscape through contracts with the state and other entities. OCA and Denver Preschool Program have over a 15 year history of partnering together to bring affordable, high quality preschool to Denver children and families. Since deep inception, the city has modeled multiple special revenue funds around. Deep and deep has evolved to meet the needs of the city and its residents. DPP is well positioned to serve as the local lead for the state's universal pre-K program and OCA fully supports DPP stepping into this role. The implementation of universal pre-K in Denver will benefit from CBP's expertize and understanding of how to get funds to families and providers and DBP will even be better equipped to support the development of an early childhood ecosystem that can serve more families. Thank you. Thank you so much. We do not have any speakers signed up for comment to speak on this item this evening. Questions from members of Council on Council Bill 20 20804. Seeing none. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 20 20804. Councilwoman Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. As the appointed City Council member for the Downtown Denver Partnership or the Denver Preschool Program. It has been an honor to serve with them. And this two weeks ago we had a board retreat talking about the need and talking about our priorities and talking about how we can prioritize more children and get more of our at risk youth into this program. So I would just ask my colleagues to approve this and thank you to the downtown to the Denver preschool program. Sorry, I don't I have that in my head for all of the work you do as the mom who experienced it for my two children, you provided preschool to my daughter and to my son. And in your sense, you've been established. I don't think you've ever come before city council to change anything. You've just been good stewards of our tax dollars and making sure that our four year olds have access to early education. And just want to recognize and to Joe, thank you for being here and thank you for your leadership in this early childhood education. We are all standing on your shoulders and it's been a pleasure to serve on the board with you and get to hear from you and just get to learn your institutional knowledge. So I just wanted to acknowledge you being here. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. I also wanted to add my my support for this effort in Ajo. Used to run the mile high. Early childhood education that had locations across the city before it was taken over by. I can't even think of the new name. But anyway, my daughter attended one of those one of those programs in North Denver, and she's still at it. And my daughter's already in her forties and in Ajo is still working on this important issue. I also want to acknowledge the role that one of our predecessors, Councilwoman Sue Casey, played in this process. She's the one that had worked to move this issue forward to the ballot to encourage the voters to support this funding. She helped educate all of us about the importance of young our young children and especially our children of color, being able to start kindergarten at the same level as their peers. Because children who have the early childhood education. Compared to those who do not start out with about a 15,000 word vocabulary difference, then the children who do not. And so it really matters being able to give our children this opportunity to be in these environments where they're they're learning and they're getting ready to start public education or private education in some cases. But it has made a huge difference. And it means that as they continue on through the other grades, they can be at par with their peers. Obviously, having access to healthy food and some of those other things is is also equally as important. And we now have the of Denver healthy Healthy Food for Denver Kids program that is working with our Head Start programs as well to ensure that our kids are getting what they need. The families have access to food over the weekends and things like that in cases where we have, you know, food insecurity. So I just want to say thank you to and Joe and Elsa and your whole team for the work you all have done to bring this forward and for the ongoing work that you do in working with our families throughout the city of Denver. I know our neighboring jurisdictions are envious of this program and the fact that Denver taxpayers saw the the valuable benefit of all of our kids being given this opportunity. So thank you. Thank you. The public hearing is closed. That was comments. I'm sorry. I lost my place in the group. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 20 20804. Black. See Tobacco. Clark. I. Flint I. Gilmer I. Herndon. Hanes Hinds. Cashmere High. Kinney, i. Ortega. I. Sandoval. Hi. Sawyer. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announced the results. 13 Eyes. 13 Eyes. Constable 20 2-004 has been ordered published on Monday, August 15. Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 20 20803 designating 1090 Cherokee Street as a structure for preservation.