BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
The Villager sat down with Cherry Creek High School (CCHS) Principal Ryan Silva, now in his 17th year in that job, to talk about what he sees at his school and across the Cherry Creek School District (District). Silva, who was named 2021 Colorado High School Principal of the Year by the Colorado Association of School Executives, was accompanied by two members of the District’s executive communications team.
We wanted to know some of the issues the District is facing as a 53,000-student district serving residents in eight municipalities, spread across 108 square miles. Ashley Verville, District Director of Strategic Communications and External Affairs, shared, as an example, that the District keeps close tabs on the number of students at each of its elementary schools, every year, and considers adjusting boundaries, if warranted by enrollment numbers, to avoid having to potentially close a neighborhood school, which would upset parents.
Asked how CCHS has changed through the years, since he took the reigns as principal from Kathy Smith in 2009, Silva told us, “The evolution of who we are and our ability to serve the kids who are with us right now, I’m really proud of that. When this school first opened, kids rode horses here. Now, we are an urban-suburban school, so we are reflective of that. Yet, we are performing at some of the highest levels we have ever performed. There is quantitative data, AP data, athletic data (CCHS was named the nation’s top athletic program for 2024-2025 by MaxPreps), that demonstrates that we have evolved to meet the needs of the kids who are with us right now. That’s the signature of who we’ve been since the beginning,” adding, “Creek (CCHS) will soon be 71 years old.”
The Villager spoke to a local area resident who attended CCSD throughout his public school education, starting at Holly Ridge/Holly Hills Elementary in 1969, graduating from Creek in 1981. He told us that, during his high school years, the area that is now Village Greens Park, was a farm where CCHS students learned and practiced agricultural skills.
The most important thing Principal Silva credits for the success of CCHS and the entire district in preparing the young people who come through their doors to take the next step toward adulthood is, “Our students come from homes where parents value education. Parent support is the secret sauce. And, we have great feeder schools. From the time they start in this district, whether it’s in kindergarten or third grade, they are going to schools where they are challenged and cared for, so they will be well prepared by the time they get to high school,” adding, “We also have the ability to hire really great teachers who are impressive people. It’s awesome to see that as a principal, but it’s even better to see that as a parent (Silva and his wife have three school-age children).”
Abbe Smith, District Chief Communications Officer, pointed out, “It’s not only the support of the parents. It’s also the support of the community.” This District passed its first bond issue in 1951 for $600,000 to build CCHS and Belleview Elementary School. Total enrollment, districtwide, was 1,057 students. Fast forward to 2024, when voters approved a bond issue for $950 million to begin to rebuild the entire CCHS campus, including Belleview Elementary and Campus Middle School, plus other schools built in the 1950s, as well as a swimming pool at Overland High School, along with funding for safety and security, student health, technology, high-quality teachers, and maintaining small class sizes. From the beginning, the District has almost never lost a bond issue, despite that, at any point in time, 70% of the residents of the district do not have a child in a Cherry Creek school. That is the definition of community support.”
We wanted to know how Principal Silva thought things will be different in the District, 20 years from now. He said, “The world around us and the communities around us will no doubt be different, but our job will still be to prepare our kids to go out into the world and be successful. It will just be to prepare them for a different world.”
Have students changed since he became a principal, we asked? “Yes,” Silva told us. “Students today are exposed to so much more from beyond their community than ever before. Social media has made the world smaller, so students have a more global experience, even though their firsthand experiences are still limited. It’s something teachers need to incorporate into how they teach.”
A hot topic in schools these days is how cell phones are handled. Principal Silva told us that, at CCHS, cell phones are not allowed in the classroom, but teachers can permit students to use them for specific purposes, if it fits into their lesson plan. Across the District, every school can set its own cell phone policy, but the one used at CCHS is the most common. Silva pointed out that the cell phone policy is even more restrictive at CCHS’ feeder middle schools, Campus and West, where students are younger. That, he noted, makes it easier to enforce the rule when students get to high school.
CCHS has long been recognized as being highly academic. Back in 2016, it was announced that 16 students across the District had received perfect scores on the ACT college entrance exam. Of the 16 students across the district, nine attended CCHS. That level of achievement has been linked to high levels of stress that have been known to accompany high levels of competitiveness.
We asked Principal Silva if that atmosphere was a known factor at his school. He said, “There is much that’s good about being in this community, where many parents and students are highly successful, but this (competitiveness) is a challenge. Despite the success our students’ experience, kids are aware of the level of competition out there, even if their parents don’t push them. We benefit from high expectations and standards for our students, but there can be pressure that goes with it that is not always healthy. We do things to try to develop some healthy skills to cope with that pressure. For example, we actually give less homework than we once did and we no longer rank our students heading to college.”
That doesn’t mean supporting students’ college goals is not considered extremely important. The Postgraduate and College Planning Guide is 58 pages long and District students earn an average of $50 million in college scholarships every year.