As a DPS graduate himself, a proud John F. Kennedy alumnus, John comes from a family of DPS educators with his mom, sister and wife all longtime DPS teachers as well. Over the course of his time with Denver Public Schools, John was a student, a teacher, a tennis and basketball coach and now the athletic director of Denver Public Schools. John says, “As a past student myself, I have seen firsthand the value of what athletics can do for a student. There is something about education outside of classroom on the field, on the court, or the mat that you can’t do in traditional classroom.” Athletics works. It closes the achievement gap, and encourages kids to not only attend class, but to excel in their studies.

During his time as a DPS educator, John has impacted the lives of hundreds of students—many of whom he is still in contact with today—always going above and beyond for many of them. When John coached basketball at Kennedy, one student had struggles at home. John and his family welcomed him into their home to live with them. Thanks to John and the many DPS educators at Kennedy, the student graduated high school on time, and went off to graduate from college. This student was able to make his dreams come true—and played basketball professionally abroad. To this day the student still visits John when he is back in Colorado.

Another student John taught during the course of his career was Tim Boyles, who is now a DPS educator at John F. Kennedy High School himself. In fact, this year Tim will be joining us at the Achieve Gala 2019 with his students from Unified Theatre, another Unified program that DPS and DPS Athletics continues to support.

Looking back over the course of his career, John says “I hope the change we as educators can make for students is generational, just like it was for me. I have followed in the footsteps of really great educators and coaches and hope to continue that for others after I am gone.”