Principal Announcement for CEC Early College

Posted May 11, 2020

 Dear CEC Early College Staff, Students and Families, 

Our principal, Jamie Lofaro, announced that at the end of this school year, she will be retiring from CEC Early College and Denver Public Schools. She has been a valuable member of the CEC family and has dedicated her whole self to the students and families in Denver Public Schools. Thank you, Ms. Lofaro, for your valuable contributions, dedication and leadership at CEC Early College! 

I also want to thank the entire CEC Early College school community for your feedback and participation in the virtual principal hiring process. Despite the challenges of these uncertain times, we had over seventy responses from staff, students and families. This included questions you wanted the principal candidates to address, major areas of emphasis for the new school leader to focus on during their video presentations and letters, and survey feedback after you viewed the principal candidate videos and letters. All your feedback was carefully reviewed by Superintendent Cordova as part of the body of evidence in making her selection. 

We also want to thank all three finalists, who invested time and effort during this process and demonstrated they are all strong leaders. However, based on all the feedback, we believe one leader stood out as the best match for CEC Early College. We are excited to announce that Roland Shaw will be the new principal of CEC Early College beginning the 2020-2021 school year. He will work closely with Ms. Lofaro and myself, to ensure a smooth transition to carry on the CEC mission, vision, values and instructional priorities. 

Mr. Shaw came to CEC with ten years of experience working as an assistant principal and special education teacher. This past year, he has served as the Principal Resident at CEC Early College. His leadership and teaching roots come from Denver Public Schools’ Manual High School and Bruce Randolph School. He brings strong instructional leadership, a positive and collaborative team spirit and his background as a special educator will add value to taking on the leadership helm at CEC. In addition, he has deep respect and admiration for the students, families, and teachers that make up the CEC school community. His experiences and focus on ensuring the success of each child will support the learning for our CEC students, staff and entire school community. 

As Mr. Shaw shared, “I am ecstatic, humbled, and filled with gratitude to have been chosen to serve CEC Early College as your next principal. I commit to ensuring each student has access to a supportive and safe environment where they can identify, pursue, and begin to actualize their dreams. I look forward to working with the CEC community to continue to collectively strengthen our vision for career and college success for each of our students.” 

Please join me in welcoming Mr. Shaw! We will soon share information about opportunities to connect with him. He is very excited to work with students, families, staff and the entire CEC Early College school community. 

Sincerely, 

Nicole Veltzé 

Northwest Regional Instructional Superintendent