Friends and Neighbors

The Holiday Inn on Quebec Street is a bit of an unsung hero in the world of DSST. While our relationship got off to a slow start, we want to acknowledge the multi-dimensional friendship that has blossomed this past year between DSST and our next door neighbor, the Holiday Inn (HI).

To give a lay of the land, HI is adjacent to the office building where DSST Public Schools’ Home Office is located. Both buildings are beige, and both, I’d hazard a guess, were built somewhere circa 1970 when the old Stapleton Airport was right across the street.

The Holiday Inn has become a home away from home for DSST Home Office and school staffers in the nearly 2 years we have been neighbors. Meetings are held in the hotel lobby or restaurant, walks are taken to the candy store, a laptop or two can sometimes be spotted poolside in the springtime. The hotel is rarely crowded during daytime hours, but the staff is always friendly. Many of them even willingly supplied Holiday Inn schwag for a DSST scavenger hunt six months ago.

It is these many small encounters over time that led us to choose HI as the venue for DSST’s upcoming network-wide kick-off to the 2012-13 school year. The event will bring together over 200 DSST teachers, school leaders, office managers and administrators. We will get to know each other better, think creatively about the future, and get inspired for the coming school year. And it will all happen at the Holiday Inn.