Denver Public Schools board members were highly critical last week as district administrators presented details of their proposal to close 10 schools at the end of this school year and how they might implement the plan if the board approved it.

Some board members said that the decision felt like a done deal to the public, and that the proposal reflected a top-down approach that failed to involve the community. Some suggested scrapping the plan in search of different solutions – at least three said they could not support the current recommendation.

DPS considers closing 10 schools; JeffCo considers closing 16

“Communities are still feeling acted upon, and not with,” Director Scott Esserman said.

Directors will vote on the proposal to close all 10 schools or none at their Nov. 17 meeting. District staff say the schools are so direly under enrolled they cannot adequately support their students and must merge with another district school.

School Board President Xóchitl Gaytán had blocked out at least two hours for the discussion at board members’ Nov. 3 study session, but board members deliberated for more than three hours, often grilling district administration.

Part of the issue has been spurred by a decline in birth rates. The district has felt  the declining enrollment trend going back to 2014, Superintendent Alex Marrero said.

But the superintendent also blamed much of the dilemma on gentrification, particularly in historically Latinx and African American neighborhoods. Affordable housing is lacking, and families are getting priced out of neighborhoods, he said.

“Gentrification is not slowing down,” he said.

The superintendent reiterated that his administration does not want to close schools, but that the district must act to address the issue.

District staff project DPS will lose another 3,000 students in the next several years and faces a loss of $97 million in funding. The superintendent has trimmed the central office as much as he can, he said, calling declining enrollment a crisis in the district.

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A total of 14 schools have reached critically low enrollment and more are nearing that threshold, he said. More than 40 schools have fewer than 300 students.

If approved, the 10 schools recommended for closure would shutter at the end of this school year and merge with another school or into an enrollment zone stipulated in staff’s proposal. Next school year, the school communities would begin designing a new school vision, model and programming for the consolidated schools. That programming would launch in the 2024-25 school year.

Board members asked staff whether they were looking at downsizing schools in the district that are overenrolled and whether they have analyzed the impacts of school choice. They complained many of the decisions in the proposal were not fully explained to the board.

Board member Charmaine Lindsay asked what the district’s plan was for early education centers that shut down, and district staffers said they did not have an answer for at this time.

The board asked staff to explain why charters were not included in the list of schools recommended for closure, a critique board members were receiving from the public, board president said. The superintendent said the only time those decisions could be weighed is during a charter renewal process, in which the board votes on each charter school’s renewal individually.

Board member Auon’tai Anderson expressed concern with that process because a charter school can appeal a board decision to the state board, but a district school cannot appeal the district board’s decision to close it. He also clarified he supports families being able to choose the charter model, saying his concerns were about equity in the district’s response to declining enrollment.

Some of the schools proposed for closure are steeped in history, he said, asking how those legacies would be preserved. Anderson expressed deep concern for the trauma school closures would cause and their impact on communities of color.

The plan was pitting communities of color against each other, he said.

“At this time, I will not be supporting any recommendations for closure whatsoever,” he said.

DPS considers closing 10 schools; JeffCo considers closing 16

The DPS schools recommended for closure are:

? Columbian Elementary would consolidate with Trevista at Trevista.

? Palmer Elementary would consolidate with Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment K-5 grades at Montclair and ECE at Palmer.

? Math Science Leadership Academy (MSLA) would consolidate with Valverde Elementary at Valverde.

? Schmitt Elementary would consolidate with Godsman Elementary at Godsman.

? Eagleton Elementary would consolidate with Cowell Elementary at Cowell.

? Fairview Elementary and Colfax Elementary would consolidate with K-5 grades at Cheltenham and ECE at Colfax.

? International Academy of Denver at Harrington would consolidate with Columbine Elementary and Swansea Elementary in a new enrollment zone with Columbine and Swansea.

? Denver Discovery School would merge with schools in the Greater Park Hill – Central Park Enrollment zone.

? Whittier K-8 would merge with schools in the Greater Five Points Elementary Enrollment Zone and the Near Northeast Middle School Enrollment Zone.