DENVER — After months of community meetings, Denver Public Schools — the largest school district in Colorado — released the list of schools it plans to close and merge.
Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero presented the list at a Board of Education work session Thursday. The list includes:
Elementary closures:
- Columbian Elementary
- Castro Elementary
- Schmitt Elementary
- International Academy of Denver at Harrington
- Palmer Elementary
Grade level restructures:
- Kunsmiller becomes 6-12 only (remove 1-5)
- Dora Moore becomes ECE-5 only (remove 6-8)
- DCIS Baker 6-12 becomes DCIS Baker MS (remove 9-12)
Secondary closures:
- West Middle School
- Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design
"This is also a difficult time for us. None of us want to close schools," said Dr. Carrie Olson, DPS School Board president.
After months of waiting, Marrero finally released the list of consolidations and closures. It's a source of frustration for many around Denver.
"Me, myself, I'm incredibly anxious to see what will happen with my sister's future," said Flor Canales.
Canales also works with Movimiento Poder, she said many of those families will be impacted by the list. Canales' sister attends school at DCIS Baker, one of the schools on Marrero's list.
“Originally, my sister was at East High School where they have an MIS program. We were not happy with the way my sister was being treated, the resources she was being provided," Canales said. "So we actually went to DCIS Baker and they provided her with the resources that she needed, with the education she deserves. And now to hear that school is going to be closed is extremely frustrating, it's extremely disappointing. And now my family is left in limbo, we don't know what's going to happen."
DPS said shuttering some buildings is needed due to declining enrollment. As people move out of the district area and birth rates continue to decline, it's a problem they predict will get worse.
"I just want to underscore how incredibly challenging and difficult this part of the process was. But I don't want to by any chance say that it's not going to get even more grueling from here," Marrero said.
Canales said the district is making a hard process worse by leaving them in the dark for so long and not giving them the chance to fight for these schools.
"It feels like there is a wall between the community members and the board and the superintendent – and that's just not okay," Canales said. "And so this is incredibly frustrating and again, we are calling on them to entirely halt this process that has left out the community and has left people behind."
A public meeting to hear from community members will be held on Nov. 18. Then, on Nov. 21, the board is set to vote on the plan. Marrero has said that once it's published, the list of school closures is final.
From September: Citing enrollment decline, Denver Public Schools weighs another round of consolidations, closures
In March 2023, the Denver Board of Education voted to close three schools due to "critically low enrollment." Later, in September of this year, DPS announced it was again considering closures and consolidations for the same reason: The school district reported that housing development trends and falling birthrates resulted in a decline of school-aged children in the city.
The number of students within DPS has increased over the past 20 years. Despite this, since 2019 — when 86,949 students were enrolled — the school district has seen a slight decline. DPS reported 85,238 students in 2020, 84,100 students in 2021, and 82,997 students in 2022.
The arrival of more than 4,000 migrant students in 2023 helped increase those numbers, but DPS said they are not seeing the same influx this year.
Enrollment patterns are not homogenous, however. While growth in some regions has allowed DPS to open new schools, other parts of the district are seeing population declines. According to regional data from DPS, enrollment in the northwest region is down 9% over the past five years. It's down 7% in the central region, and in the southwest region, it's down 19%.
Following its announcement in September, the district organized six public information meetings to discuss the changes. According to its school consolidation and closure plan, DPS considered factors like the number of students on free and reduced lunch, how much changes would impact families' distance to and from schools, and whether closures would segregate kids by race, language or economic class.
Rachael Krause and Janelle Finch contributed to this report.