Denver Public Schools to close seven schools, cut grades at three others despite heavy resistance

Seven Denver public schools will shutter at the end of the school year and three others will narrow the grades they serve after board members unanimously approved a controversial round of school closures Thursday evening. Their vote was met with audience members erupting into chants, yelling “shame on you.”

The board, which convened for a board meeting at the district’s central offices, greenlit the closures to help the district make adjustments as its student count continues to dwindle.

“This is an incredibly difficult decision,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said ahead of the vote, fighting back tears. “I have been moved by the passion, the dedication, the advocacy for our children, for our schools, for our community. I am truly grateful for everyone’s honesty and engagement. Please know that I see you, I heard you. I will continue to see you. I will continue to hear you, and I do recognize the humanity. I recognize your humanity.”

The schools that will close are: Columbian Elementary School, Castro Elementary School, Schmitt Elementary School, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Palmer Elementary, West Middle School and Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design. 

Additionally, Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy, a K-12 school, will drop grades 1-5; Dora Moore ECE-8 School will only serve preschool through 5th grade, cutting grades 6-8; and Denver Center for International Studies will shift to cover 6th-8th grades, eliminating grades 9-12.

The same schools listed for closure were on a proposal Superintendent Alex Marrero presented to the board two weeks ago. His plan will eliminate 4,000 vacant seats from the district, which currently educates about 85,000 students — down from more than 92,100 kids during the 2019-20 school year. It will also save DPS an estimated $30 million at a time district officials project DPS will accrue $70 million less in annual revenue by 2028 than it did during the 2019-20 school year, its peak year of enrollment.

“It’s been difficult,” DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero said before the board vote. “It’s been difficult. I want to thank the community for connecting with us.”

Marrero said the district has been intent on listening to input from impacted students, families and staff. He acknowledged that the process behind school closures has been “imperfect,” as it “will always be.” 

But he said he is happy with the consolidation plan, “even as harsh as some of the feedback has been.”

Board members also commented on the plight of closing schools before they took a vote, recognizing the tension between families’ attachment to their schools and the need to preserve the district’s budget with smaller schools costing more to operate. They pledged to hold Marrero and his cabinet accountable in making sure all students’ needs are met as many migrate to different schools.

“I know there are still questions that need to be answered and details that need to be worked out,” Board President Carrie Olson said before the board vote.

Board member Scott Esserman called the need to close schools “an impossibly hard decision.”

“We’re looking at a situation that there isn’t a right or best answer,” Esserman said. “I want to acknowledge the pain, the anger, the fear, the uncertainty. I want to acknowledge that people feel that this has been rough. I want to acknowledge that this is in the midst of national upheaval that is terrifying for many of us.”

Fighting for schools until the last minute

DPS board members and district leaders, including Marrero, spent time over the past two weeks visiting each school at risk of closing to hold conversations with students, parents and staff ahead of the board vote. Their days engaging with school communities stretched as long as 14 hours. Those hours were fraught with emotion as parents, students and staff fought for their beloved schools to continue operating, Chalkbeat Colorado reported. 

Some parents and community organizers defended their schools up until just about the last minute.

Hours before Denver Public Schools board members were scheduled to vote, more than 20 parents and community organizers banded together to urge the district to rethink shuttering schools.

Their message to district leaders: If they plow forward with closing schools, they should be ready for legal action.

The parents and activists — along with State Rep. Tim Hernández, a Denver Democrat — assembled Thursday morning outside DPS’ central office building, where board members will vote on the fate of 10 schools later in the day. They were front and center during a press conference organized by the national organization Alliance for Educational Justice and Movimiento Poder, which describes itself as a grassroots advocacy organization composed of parents, young people and community members from Southwest Denver. One by one, parents from schools on the chopping block spoke out against Superintendent Alex Marrero’s proposal to shut down schools in response to declining enrollment.

“School closures hurt children, parents, staff and our communities,” Holly Lucas, a parent of a student at Kunsmiller Creative Art Academy, said during the press conference. “School closure is just another way for power to suppress marginalized communities, and we will not stand for it.”

Parents and organizers raised a variety of concerns. They questioned the district’s financial struggles in light of funds spent to benefit Marrero, including a more than $17,000 bonus and a $100,000 office renovation on top of his salary exceeding $300,000. They criticized the district for not giving communities affected by the closures enough opportunities to provide feedback. And they were left wanting more information about how DPS will reconfigure transportation for students forced to attend different schools after the district has had two years to iron out a plan to make adjustments in the district and find solutions other than closing schools.

“Dr. Marrero seems to only have one tool in his toolbox, a wrecking ball,” said Abraham Drucker, a parent of two kids at Palmer Elementary School. “He has returned to us two years later with a seemingly hastily constructed plan which only consists of closing schools and destroying neighborhoods.”

With school closures on the table, leaders of Movimiento Poder said they plan to file complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Leaders alleged Marrero has provided inaccurate information about the district’s enrollment declines and that his proposal “would inflict severe, and like catastrophic, harm on students, families, and communities.”