DENVER — School is almost out for summer, but leaders at Denver Public Schools are already looking ahead to next year.
After the district took in thousands of migrant students this school year, the district and schools are working to determine what resources and staffing might be needed when school starts again in the fall.
Bryant Webster teacher Alex Nelson's fourth-grade class is larger now than at the start of the school year. Many of his new students are new to this country, too.
"I'm super proud of these kids," Nelson said.
With new students arriving throughout the year, Nelson learned quickly that flexibility was the key to his and his students' success.
“It’s definitely made me sharpen up how I would welcome students into the classroom to make sure I always have a backup set of materials, to make sure that I'm always planning ahead, knowing that we'll get new students throughout the year, that we have those available so we're not having students share any materials. I've definitely improved at doing that," Nelson said.
"This school year has been very interesting. Very interesting to say the least," Bryant Webster Principal Brian Clark said.
The enrollment at their school shifted all year, as they added in more than 100 new students.
"I would say about 145 over the course of the year. Some have come and gone, but we're probably ending the year in the 135 range," Clark said.
Just this school year, DPS welcomed 4,741 new-to-country students. That's considerably more than the 1,804 migrant students they welcomed last year and far more than the 750 new-to-country students they usually see.
Many of those kids ended up at schools like Bryant Webster because kids learn in both English and Spanish.
"So that really forced us in a position to look at the student learning data and understand, OK, how are the students performing in Spanish? How are they performing in English? What do they need?" Clark said.
Clark said many of these kids come carrying the trauma of their journey here, but still arrive eager and excited to learn.
"In a year they couldn't have imagined, they've stepped up exceptionally well," Clark said.
"They are resilient students, so even when we’re in English, they try," Nelson said. "And when we go on field trips, we talk about the field trips. We talk about the opportunity where there isn’t somebody who’s going to understand if we switch to Spanish, so how can we try while we’re out here to use our English that we know? And they go for it. And they really do what they can. But they've improved a lot, I mean, they come in knowing some English, maybe none. And they learn and they utilize it. And they are improving and I think even next year, we'll see them grow a lot more in their second language."
Planning is underway for next school year as Bryant Webster and other schools determine how many desks and staff members they'll need. Much of that depends on how many of these students stay within DPS.
"Are we going to have a lot of these students return? We really hope so. Are they going to be able to if they've found housing that's much further away for a commute? That might be the case for some, but we really hope as many return as can," Nelson said.
With their last day of school on Wednesday, Nelson's not sure how many new kids will join the students here or how many will move on.
"We will make sure we reflect on the year. We'll make sure celebrate everything that we've accomplished together and say goodbye," Nelson said.
He hoped that after such a full year with these kids, these summer goodbyes won't be for good.
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