Denver Public Schools faces more school closures and boundary changes

As school wraps up for the summer in Colorado, there are a lot of important conversations picking up about the future of Denver Public Schools in the face of declining enrollment.

It's a trend happening across the country. 

"We see their enrollments in K-12 systems dropping in most, not all, but in most school districts," said Van Schaoles, policy director at the Keystone Policy Center.

As the U.S. faces declining birth rates, school districts are forced to adjust to fewer students. Denver is no different.

"How does Denver sort of say what's the vision for what schooling looks like, and how can we have better schools, not just try and hold on to whatever we've got," Schaoles added.

Denver Public Schools' enrollment is also impacted by the cost of housing. This year, DPS had around 1,200 fewer students than the previous year, and that number is expected to increase next school year.

"Our projections are showing that we should expect an additional 1,500 student decline," said Andrew Huber, DPS's executive director of enrollment and campus planning.

These numbers come just a year after DPS closed or restructured 10 schools.

 "We recognize that had a substantial impact on our community," Huber said.

"They did do a good job in the last round of closures, I would say, in both providing opportunities for kids to go to the schools of their choice and getting them into those schools and successfully closing or phasing out schools or programs," said Schaoles.

Now, more closures are inevitable, and the district faces a $28 million structural deficit over the next 5 years.

"Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years, when exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now," said Huber.

In the meantime, the focus is on re-evaluating the district's overall structure.

"We are taking a fresh look at our enrollment boundary and enrollment zone infrastructure for a holistic look for the first time since the 1990s," said Huber. "The plan right now is that we bring forward a package of decisions that would impact the 2027-28 school year around what a revised boundary and zone infrastructure could look like."

DPS is planning to make decisions about possible rezoning and restructuring of school boundaries this fall. Thursday, they're hosting their first virtual community engagement meeting around that process.