DNC chief Howard Dean donates time to Manual High

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Howard Dean went to school on Thursday, but the subject was paint, not politics.

The Democratic National Committee chairman showed up in a T-shirt, faded jeans with worn- out knees and a pair of beat-up New Balance running shoes for a DNC service project at Manual High School.

And he made it clear up front: There would be no talk about candidates, campaigns or conventions until after the DNC executive committee meeting today.

Dean was more than happy, however, to heap praise on Manual, shuttered for a year and reopened last fall with academic and social reforms designed to turn its mostly minority student body into a tightknit community of successful learners.

“This is a very gutsy, risky thing to do, and I think it’s a great way to save a school,” Dean said. “That’s what makes education work — when a community cares enough to do this. This could actually be a model for the rest of the nation — if it works.”

Speaking of working: There’s no question that the former Vermont governor knows his way around a paint can.

“I’m so cheap, I painted the interior of my own house — one room a year,” Dean said, pulling on plastic gloves and climbing a ladder in a faculty meeting room, which was filled with fumes from the oil-based paint that Denver Public Schools insists on using.

“I’m learning from the Republicans how to whitewash everything,” Dean said as he brushed cream-colored paint on a window frame.

The project, organized by Volunteers of America, was one of a series of community service projects DNC members have been doing, including serving a holiday breakfast to homeless kids at Urban Peak; sorting canned goods at a Denver Rescue Mission facility, The Crossing; spreading mulch around trees in City Park; and doing playground cleanup at a Montessori school in Five Points.

“We don’t want to just be people who have a good time and blow into town for a week,” Dean said. “We want to know this community, and we want to contribute to this community.”