A group of concerned parents, lawmakers and education advocates gathered outside the Denver Public Schools office on Monday to object to the school closures Superintendent Alex Marrero is expected to propose to the board next month.

“DPS board members stand to cause harm to students, their families, and communities. We ask the Board of Education to commit to listening and engaging in actual conversations with DPS families,” said Elsa Banuelos-Lindsay, Movimiento Poder executive director.

“We do not believe in giving up on students or our communities. Our communities and, more importantly, our students deserve better.”

Led by working-class Latino immigrants, Movimiento Poder is a grassroots organization that works to build collective power for their communities, according to the group’s website.

The expected proposed closures come as the state’s largest school district grapples with declining enrollment.

“We don’t have enough students to fill our buildings and that is the harsh reality,” Marrero has said.

The rally drew about two dozen people, according to organizers.

Last year, the board was criticized for its decision to shutter three campuses after the school choice process had already begun. All three schools had fewer than 120 students, significantly below what officials have identified as “critically low-enrollment,” defined as having fewer than 215 students.

School choice starts in January. Colorado law allows parents to register students outside their assigned neighborhood schools.

“These decisions are being made without the community really knowing what’s happening,” Elizabeth Burciago, a community organizer with Movimiento Poder, has said.

Officials have been holding a series of town hall meetings across the district to address community concerns over school closures. Educators and parents at these town halls have expressed concerns about the factors that will be used to determine the closure list.

“As the former vice president of the Denver School Board, I’ve been on both sides of school closures, but I cannot support the deceptive approach DPS is taking now,” Auon’tai Anderson said. “These so-called community meetings are performative, with decisions already made and the heavy security presence alienates the very families most affected.”

Anderson added: “School closures disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and low-income communities, destabilizing neighborhoods and uprooting students. Our children deserve leadership that fights for their schools, not abandons them.”

A new board policy created in June requires the superintendent to present the closure list to the board in October. But Marrero successfully complained about the timeline and secured a one-time extension until after the Nov. 5 election, when voters will decide on a nearly $1 billion bond.

Parents could learn in as little as three weeks whether their child’s school is on the closure list.

The guardrails the board created in June prohibit district officials from using enrollment numbers to justify school closures. The policy was created a year after the board shuttered three schools using low enrollment to justify the campus closures.

Two years ago, district officials identified 15 elementary and middle school campuses for closure. Seven of the campuses required instruction in English and Spanish, an indicator students have greater needs that require additional resources.

At the time, the district had 38 schools with fewer than 215 students.

Nearly 10% of district schools this past school year — or 20 campuses — had fewer than 215 students, nine with less than 120, district data shows.

Enrollment in Colorado is tied to funding.

Schools are allotted each school year a certain amount of funding per student.

Education advocates have pointed to lower birth rates, skyrocketing home costs and gentrification in some areas as having been the biggest factors driving enrollment declines as Denver’s demographics shift.

Elementary school enrollment — which can be an indicator of future trends — has been dropping for at least the past decade.

The district’s enrollment has fallen since the student population hit a peak of 93,815 in 2019. Last fall, the district saw 88,235 students enrolled — a 6% decline over the past five academic years.