Denver Public Schools board members address community on school closures
For the first time, the community heard from Denver Public School board members Thursday about the district's recommendation to close ten of its schools.
In late October, DPS announced its plan to close nearly a dozen schools across the district, most of them elementary schools. During a special meeting, several board members pushed back on the plan, some saying the community's input was largely left out.
"This feels like to our facility, to our students, to our parents, to our community members, as if we've made these decisions," said Scott Esserman, a board member.
Esserman along with board members Auon'tai Anderson and Michelle Quattlebaum said they would not support the current proposal as it stands.
On Thursday, several DPS parents also held a press conference at Colfax Elementary school, criticizing the district's decisions.
"The last time it was because of test scores, this time it's because of declining enrollment. Either way our communities of color have been the victims of this continued violence," said Julie Banuelos, a former DPS teacher.
One of the schools on the list to close is Colfax Elementary. Parents told CBS Colorado, the data the district is using to determine low enrollment, isn't reflective of the students the school serves.
"While we had a certain number on October 1, it's not representative of the kids that are coming in and out of our school, all year long with high trauma and high needs, and that population is not being accounted for," said Shantelle Mulliniks, a mom at Colfax Elementary.
Colfax Elementary is known to serve students experiencing homelessness. Just a few blocks away from the school is a short-term shelter, Volunteers of America Family Motel, and the children staying there often enroll at Colfax Elementary for two to four weeks. Many of the students go back and fourth between Colfax and other schools.
"So that is my number one primary concern… is what's going to happen to those kids and how are their needs going to be met, it's a really unique population," Mulliniks said.
With more affordable housing being built in the area, like the redevelopment of the Westridge Homes, Denver Housing Authority anticipates a population increase. DHA said with 619 units being built, they expect between 600-1100 residents under 18 years old to move-in, and of those resident about 250-450 will be elementary aged kids.
"They're always talking about equity. They're always talking about kids first but this feels opposite," Mulliniks said. "The schools that are closing are filled with our Latino and Black populations, our low income students, homeless students, and they are not putting kids first and this is not equitable in anyway."
Scott Pribble, a DPS spokesperson, sent CBS Colorado a statement in regard to the concerns at Colfax Elementary saying, "Denver Public Schools recognizes that student enrollment fluctuates daily at many of our schools. This decision was not based solely on a school's enrollment. DPS leadership had additional criteria to apply. Included in current and projected enrollment was whether a welcoming school was within two miles of that school and had the room to welcome the new students. We also had to be able to unify the boundary with the new school and ensure that the unification would provide stronger dual-language programming. DPS has worked closely with our community partners to understand the city's scope and timing of area redevelopment. We are not planning to sell any empty buildings but use them for district and community needs. Therefore, if at a later time, a neighborhood ends up producing more students than our current data forecasts, we can reevaluate and engage the community in a process to determine the best use of the building."
The next step in this reconsolidation plan is for the Board of Education to vote on the recommendation on Nov. 17th.