Principal Hiring Update

Posted May 18, 2022

May 18, 2022

Dear Denver South High School Community,

Thank you for your continued partnership in the principal selection process so far. We are pleased to share that we have two candidates that will participate in the next steps of the process.

• Mehran Ahmed
• Rachel Goss

Community engagement is a vital part of the principal selection in DPS so we have adopted a virtual community presentation process to allow the community to hear from our top candidates. This process will consist of the following:

• Candidates will submit a pre-recorded presentation sharing a short summary of their vision for Denver South and respond to questions generated through the previous community input survey. Candidates were asked to speak to:
  • How do you plan to make sure that all staff are leading and embedding equity into all work at South? How are you going to define “We are Denver South”?
  • Give an example of a time you have managed a large organization through a significant change. What was your approach and what key principles did you rely on to manage through that change?
  • What is a mistake you have made as a leader? How did you grow and improve from that experience?

• Candidate presentations and question responses will be posted along with their biography on the Denver South website. The recorded presentations and bios will be posted to the school’s website along with a survey where we invite community members to submit their feedback on the candidates’ strengths and considerations to help inform the final hiring decision made by the superintendent.
• A live, in-person community forum held on May 23 to learn more about the candidates and submit questions for all candidates to respond.

We highly value the voices of all our stakeholders. To honor this, we would like to invite staff, students, parents, and community members to view the candidates’ presentations and bios at https://bit.ly/DenverSouthPrincipal2022.  Please share your feedback on the strengths and considerations of each candidate based on their presentations and the needs of Denver

South. Feedback can be submitted in the survey or by calling the Office of Family & Community Engagement at 720-423-3054. You may also email your feedback responses to brittany_barela@dpsk12.org. Please complete all feedback by Tuesday, May

24th at 10 a.m. 

Community Feedback Survey (English/Spanish): https://bit.ly/DenverSouthFeedback22

After the community input window closes, feedback will be compiled to share with the superintendent to help inform the final principal selection for Denver South. Final candidates will participate in an interview with Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero, Deputy Superintendent of Schools Michael Ramirez, and Associate Chief of Schools Cesar Cedillo as the final step in the

selection process.

We thank you again for your engagement and look for ways to ensure the voices of the community are represented.

Sincerely,

Drew Coleman

Regional Assistant Instructional Superintendent

Yolanda Ortega

Operational Superintendent