A Denver charter high school is trying everything to create a buzz and get people's votes for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge that would land President Barack Obama as the school's commencement speaker.
Denver School of Science & Technology is one of six U.S. schools vying for the honor.
Today, Gov. Bill Ritter will visit the school to make a supporting video. Colorado leaders, including House Speaker Terrance Carroll and Education Commissioner Dwight Jones, are working to get out the vote.
On May 4, Obama will choose from the top three vote-getting schools. The criteria: how the schools closed their achievement gaps, their college and career readiness and their college attendance rates.
At the Stapleton-based DSST, 100 percent of its seniors got accepted to four-year colleges. Only one other school in the challenge can make that claim — Maritime & Science Academy in Miami.
Two of the schools are magnet schools, two are charters and two are traditional high schools.
"We're the school of the six that perfectly sticks out," said Bill Kurtz, head of DSST. "That being said, the .