School Closures in DPS
That’s right – DPS is again planning to close our neighborhood schools. We need YOU to show up for our Denver families, now more than ever. Read more about school closures below. This page is updated weekly.
What is going on?
A few months ago, the Board passed Executive Limitation 18 – a policy that codifies the school closure process in Denver. Executive Limitation 18 is based on the misguided belief that school closures are necessary. This is a notion that must be rejected.
A few weeks ago, the board unanimously voted to make changes to said policy amendments that further entrenched the lack of community engagement. These policies and policy changes have prioritized expediency and the easy politics of the moment over community safety and wellbeing.
There has been an inadequate attempt at community input and engagement, and Executive Limitation 18 would further entrench the lack of community involvement with the proposed school closure process
School closures should always be a last resort – they cause irreparable harm to students, their families, and communities
Our Main Points
1. DPS uses misleading data to support so-called “declining enrollment”
While DPS (and many other districts) did see some drops in enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment has actually increased the past two years.
If we widen our lens beyond the past 5 years, we can see that there are only 4 years in DPS’ history in which it had higher enrollment than it does right now.
To the extent that DPS has a problem, it isn’t because of “declining enrollment” or “low birth rates”; it’s with how it has mismanaged the number of schools in the district.
While the number of neighborhood public schools has remained relatively consistent since at least 2013, DPS has added more and more charter schools, siphoning off students and resources from the other schools.
DPS is repeating the same pattern of planning far too ahead in the future without any tangible evidence and proof. This is what happened when DPS added new schools in the past 25 years at a much faster rate than the student enrollment growth in the same time period.
Not only are you all making the community pay for your mistakes, we are seeing a repetition of past mistakes.
Community Voices
Elsa
“School closures are harmful to both students and their parents, often inflicting tremendous amounts of socio-emotional and financial distress on Denver families. Completely leaving them out of the school closure and decision-making process is unacceptable. Our communities and more importantly, our students, deserve better.”
