THE FACES OF GOAL HIGH SCHOOL IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

The largest high school in Colorado, GOAL High School, recently kicked off their 202223 school year with their annual “GOAL Forum”. GOAL is a charter high school with seven Denver region sites: Thornton, Lakewood, Town Center at Aurora and Aurora South, Montebello, Brighton, and Commerce City. GOAL serves the needs of over 5,000 students yearly with their free, public, and fully accredited model. Additionally, they have stayed in great standing with the Colorado Department of Education as a “performance” rated school. GOAL’s efforts are spearheaded by two wonderful Assistant Principals in the Denver region, Mr. David Shirley, and Mrs. Deanna Jamison Ramer.

Both Mr. Shirley and Ms. Jamison Ramer had alternative routes to becoming educators. Mr. Shirley started off his career in education as a juvenile probation counselor in Ohio. He was running the “wrap-around program” where he would go into schools and alternate schools; whereas, Ms. Jamison Ramer started off by homeschooling her child. In both of their respective roles they were able to find the importance of making a connection.

Mr. Shirley often found himself working with students who had felony charges, but he never shied away from making a connection with them. “My generation; we came up where people sat on the porch and watched all the kids in the neighborhood play… You have to create a connection and you have to build a union of people in services and activities. Where people can meet, make connections, and become a community.”

This is a far cry from Ms. Jamison Ramer teaching her child. But she found hardship when she joined a full classroom. She found that it was harder to make a connection, and therefore harder to teach the students when they weren’t her child. This eventually led her to leave the profession, but she quickly jumped back in. “… I wanted to be on the same schedule as my kids… that might have been the reason I started, but it is certainly not the reason I stayed. My kids are all grown; they’ve been grown for a long time and I’m still in education.” Deanna has students to this day that contact her to tell her that they graduated college and to keep in touch.

These types of relationships and building them is of the upmost importance to these two Assistant Principals. Mr. Shirley said, “If you don’t build community, there is no connection,” and Ms. Jamison Ramer said, “… it’s those ‘ah-ha’ moments and it’s that making a difference in students’ lives.” Regardless of background or approach, both hold these studentteacher bonds in highest regard.

No matter the differences, they mean nothing when both are doing everything they can to strive towards GOAL’s mission of “Developing productive members of society” and their vision of “Helping all students achieve their full potential in a caring, supportive, and personalized environment.” Mr. Shirley and Mrs. Jamison Ramer have fully bought into this ideology by building a deep and meaningful connection with their students.