Dr. Kenneth Hulslander

Even though I was born in Colorado Springs, I have lived in Europe and Canada.  I have a B.A. in Modern Languages & Literature from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the Université du Québec à Montréal.  In addition, I completed an Education Specialist degree (Ed. S.) at the University of Colorado, Denver.  Professionally, I spent five years as a counselor/teacher at a detention facility for young offenders, 10 years as a secondary, English as a Second Language teacher in the French school system in Montreal, Quebec, and two years as the editor of an ESL program for McGraw-Hill, Montreal.  After twenty-two years in Montreal, I moved to Wyoming where I worked as a school improvement consultant for the Wyoming Department of Education.  At the WDE, I was also in charge of all the institutional and alternative schools in Wyoming as well as the Office for Civil Rights. After leaving the Department of Education, I became the principal of a rural K-12 school in Chugwater, Wyoming. 

Seven years ago, I moved to Denver.  My goal was to find an elementary school where the population was predominately second-language learners.  That is why I chose Ashley Elementary.  Being a second language learner myself, I feel a special connection to students who are becoming bilingual and feel that I understand the challenges that they face.  In addition to English, I speak French and German.  I am also working very hard to learn Spanish. I spent the last five summers in Argentina taking Spanish classes.  I am very happy to be at Ashley and feel that it is a privilege to work for Denver Public Schools.