Closing Denver’s Manual High School after this spring’s graduation will be painful for students, their parents and the community.
Ultimately, it’s a decision that will serve the Manual community, though we appreciate the frustration some students have expressed this past week.
We supported DPS’s original plan to close the school after the 2006-2007 school year, then re-open it in the fall of 2007 with only freshman and a new curriculum. But why wait to get our children into better performing schools?
Manual students walked out of school Friday in protest, gathering in front of DPS headquarters to decry the decision made Thursday night by the board.
The irony couldn’t be lost on anyone. Students have been walking away from Manual for years. Half the neighborhood students already have chosen other schools to attend.
Manual has struggled since the end of busing in the mid-1990s, and the 2001 decision to divide the school into three smaller “academies” has failed. Two of the schools are the worst-performing in the city, and not one student has scored “advanced” in reading, writing or math in the past three years.
Manual students deserve better, and a brighter future. Closing Manual for a year is the difficult first step.
