About DSST: College View Middle School

Jay Lusa is the School Director at DSST: College View Middle School, where he’s been a proud member of the community since 2018. Over the past seven years, he’s served as a PE/Health teacher, House Leader, Dean of Students, and Associate School Director. Jay holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Denver and brings tenacity, grit, and a never-give-up attitude to his role. Originally from The Bahamas by way of Connecticut, he adds a global perspective, a love of travel, and plenty of school spirit to the work. Now in his first year as School Director, Jay is honored to lead the school that’s become his home—cheering on his students with the same energy he brings to a Celtics win, a Patriots comeback, or a Manchester United match.

DSST: College View graduates will have...

Ultimately, we seek to develop graduates to become the best versions of themselves, lead fulfilling lives, and make a contribution to the human story aligned to their chosen purpose.

• 100% of graduates are accepted
  to college and post-secondary
  programs
• Over 6 college acceptances per
  student, on average
• Green Rating (highest possible)
  on Colorado School Performance
  Framework

Extracurriculars:
Student Council
Floor Hockey
Cheer
Art
Jewelry
Drumline
Videogame
Theatre
Guitar
Dance
Programming
Crochet
Make Up
VOCO (choir)
Tutoring

Sports:
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Cross Country
Coed Flag Football
Boys Soccer
Girls Soccer
Boys Volleyball
Girls Volleyball

6TH GRADE: 
Math 6
Reading 6
Social Studies 6
Science 6
Writing 6
English Language
Development 1, 2, and 3
Spanish Language Arts
STEM: Creative
Engineering
Spanish Heritage
Physical Education
Visual Arts

7TH GRADE:
Math 7
Reading 7
Social Studies 7
Science 7
Writing 7
English Language
Development 1, 2, and 3
Spanish
Language Arts
STEM: Creative
 Engineering
Physical Education
Visual Arts

8TH GRADE:
Math 8
Math 1 Honors
Reading 8
Social Studies 8
Science 8
Writing 8
English Language
Development 1, 2, and 3
Spanish
Language Arts (EPH1)
Physical Education
STEM: Creative
 Engineering
Visual Arts

In order to fulfill DSST’s mission to eliminate educational inequity and serve all students, we must serve students with disabilities with excellence, to ensure they are welcomed, known and challenged through rigorous academic instruction to achieve their most ambitious post-secondary path. This requires embracing DSST’s view of the human condition and executing on a common set of guiding principles, foundational practices, and key levers that will translate into transformational outcomes for our students with disabilities.

STUDENT OUTCOMES

We aim to ensure that all students with disabilities are known, welcomed, and challenged to succeed within our schools and to achieve their most ambitious post-secondary path. In pursuit of equity and inclusion for all students, we measure our success through the following metrics:

• Student and family sense of belonging
• Re-enrollment
• Academic growth
• HS graduation rate
• Success in college or post-secondary programming

GUIDING BELIEFS

The following guiding beliefs are central to our goals for our students and our approach to ensuring the individual needs of all students are met at DSST. These principles guide our thinking and our decisions at the student, school and network level.

• All Means All - We believe all students, regardless of background, needs, or disability status, can thrive at DSST. In pursuit of our mission, we strive to serve all students’ diverse learning needs so that they may achieve rigorous outcomes while in our schools and succeed on their ideal post-secondary path.
• Culture of Inclusion - We believe students learn best when they are included in their community and classrooms to the fullest extent possible. Meeting this ambitious goal requires the full engagement and collaboration of all community members. A truly inclusive environment requires that parents have input and staff members share ownership of all students.
• Responsibility for Success - We believe that, ultimately, the success of all students is our responsibility. While we hold our students to high expectations and intentionally teach self-advocacy skills, we believe it is our job to provide the supports and instruction necessary to ensure students meet those expectations. We celebrate students’ successes and provide additional learning opportunities when students face obstacles.
• Learning Organization - Serving the diverse needs of all students requires curiosity, openness to new ideas and a drive to be on the forefront of best practices. We must be open to examining what is and is not working for students, trying new things, and adjusting course when necessary.

We provide services to student in Special Education in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

• Push-in Special Education teachers serve within the general education classroom
• Pull-out services: Special Education teachers pull small groups from the general education classroom to provide Specially Designed Instruction
• Co-teaching- Some of our classes are co-taught with a gen-ed teacher and a special education teacher.
• Special Services, Students who have an identified need on their IEP may gain access to a variety of service providers including, Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Vision and Motor therapists, and Mental health service providers, School Psychologists and/or Social Workers.
• Intervention courses: Full courses to provide remedial support in reading or math
• In-class accommodations and modifications as determined by the IEP
• Testing accommodations and modifications as determined by the IEP