The Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education will vote soon to close schools for next year. Five elementary schools are on the chopping block with about 1,100 students total getting the boot out of their neighborhood buildings.

At a recent board meeting, the district stated its values and guidelines for closing schools. The values, of course, state “every learner will thrive.” The guidelines state DPS will “provide an educational program to meet the needs of all students without identifying a disproportionate number of schools with high percentages of students (who) qualify for free or reduced lunch, multilingual learners, or students with disabilities.”

Those values and guidelines turned topsy-turvy as DPS administration selected to close four schools with a disproportionate number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch (FRL) and with high percentages of minority children and English Language Learning (ELL) students. The schools on the block, mostly in low-income neighborhoods, are Columbian Elementary, Castro Elementary, Schmitt Elementary and IAD Harrington. Palmer Elementary in central east Denver is the outlier with below district averages of FRL and minority students.

Decisions by previous administrations made closing these predominantly low-income-serving schools inevitable. When now U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet was superintendent of DPS, he initiated the rapid expansion of charter schools. This policy accelerated under former Superintendent Tom Boasberg.

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Castro Elementary, the namesake school of Richard Castro, education and civil rights activist, is sandwiched between two charter schools, Kipp Sunshine Elementary and Rocky Mountain Prep Southwest. Kipp’s Denver chain of six schools received $6 million from billionaire MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. She gave $4 million to Rocky Mountain Prep schools. But DPS-managed Castro Elementary was not so fortunate. Its 237 students, 57 more than the population of Kipp Sunshine, got the short end of the philanthropy stick. Castro’s students will have to seek a new school for 2025.

Both Rocky Mountain Prep Southwest, Castro’s closest “neighbor,” and Kipp Sunshine will lick their chops to receive Castro’s students. Those children represent roughly $3.5 million in student dollars up for grabs.

Schmitt Elementary, also in southwest Denver, is just east of Federal Boulevard with Rocky Mountain Prep Southwest to its north and Rocky Mountain Prep Ruby Hill to its south. Schmitt’s 127 students represent about $2 million in revenue that will move around. Two alternative neighborhood schools for Schmitt’s students are not exactly in Schmitt’s neighborhood. They are on the other side of Santa Fe Highway and across Broadway. DPS will provide transportation.

The situation for International Academy Denver Harrington in central Denver is similar. IAD Harrington sits a couple of streets away from University Prep Steele. This is an example of how Denver’s chartering has eviscerated too many of Denver’s neighborhood schools and the building investments put into those schools. This section of the city already has lots of academic options for students. Two elementary schools within blocks of each other don’t make sense. U Prep has 95 open seats to welcome most of IAD Harrington’s 122 students along with about $2 million in revenue.

This school closing process is not yet complete. Before their final decision, the DPS board will attend the schools to receive feedback from parents. The two-minute rule is in play at the feedback sessions. Board members will receive in-person testimony only. The board will not interact with parents during their testimony. That is, parents will testify to a brick wall, with DPS board members as the bricks. The same rules will apply at formal board meeting hearings.

To be clear, charters are not omnipresent in DPS. They have moved into areas with high numbers of minority students, such as on the west side of town. Parts of the city with majority white children in schools do not experience the same charter impacts. These neighborhoods will not close schools.

DPS charters claim education and learning improve for minorities under their management. That claim, unfortunately, has not proven out. The challenges of providing adequate resources to children from low-income families are great. Language barriers add to the complexity. The achievement differences between charters serving these children and district-managed schools are not distinguishable. Some years some schools appear to do “better” than others only for the scores to flip the next year.

On Nov. 21, the board will conduct a final vote on the closings. They have received advice from their consultant, Ben Kleban, a charter school founder in New Orleans. His schools were recently closed for non-performance. He’s a consultant with School Board Partners, the firm that coached and trained current board President Carrie Olson for two years. “Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

The Nov. 21 board meeting will complete this year’s process. In the near future, it’s likely DPS will close more neighborhood schools in predominantly minority communities despite its values and guidelines. That’s what the administration’s numbers of expected students, empty seats and district “choice” imply.

After all is said and done with this round, DPS will save about $6.6 million. The DPS board should allocate that $6.6 million specifically to the care of dislocated students, set up a school closure oversight committee and pray Denver’s residents start having babies again.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.