It’s unlikely Denver Public Schools officials will carry out a wave of mass school closings this fall, board president Theresa Peña said Saturday.
By putting off widespread closures for a year, district administrators and board members can focus on shoring up community trust and improving all schools to increase the district’s academic offerings, she said.
“When you close neighborhood schools, you lose so much ground,” Peña said. “We need to go out and let the community know what DPS is about. … I think you spend the next 12 to 18 months on reform, and then you close schools. You have to give something to the community beforehand.”
Peña answered questions posed by the Northeast Community Congress for Education, which on Saturday was a couple dozen people still rankled by the district’s process in closing Manual High.
In April, Superintendent Michael Bennet warned school board and City Council members that school closures would be necessary to keep DPS financially afloat.
The district had faced years of budget shortfalls, and Bennet hoped to close under-enrolled and low-performing schools to save money and give families better options. Sixteen of Denver’s 151 schools are less than half full. “Mothballing” an elementary school saves about $350,000 a year.
During the summer, Bennet has met individually with board members about delaying school closures for a year, but no decisions have been made. Board members will likely discuss it in August.
The first – and only – school closure at Manual on Bennet’s watch brought months of wrath from some students, neighborhood activists and some prominent African-American church leaders, who said they should have been more involved in the decision.
Board members closed the historic school because of declining enrollment and low student achievement.
“We’ve certainly learned from the process,” Peña said. “It was the right outcome and the wrong process.”
Even Saturday, five months after the board’s vote, emotions were raw for some members of the northeast community group, which met for a brainstorming session at Manual.
The school will reopen in 2007 as a “premier” neighborhood high school.
District and city leaders are picking 45 to 50 people to serve on a community advisement committee.
But some on Saturday said so far, the district hasn’t been inclusive.
“The community needs an authentic voice,” said Beverly Lumumba, “not a cosmetic, political assignment.”
David DeHerrera just hopes he gets to come back.
The Manual sophomore will attend South next month. He came to the meeting for an hour Saturday to listen to the adults.
“They have good ideas, but they need to get students here to listen to their ideas,” he said.
DeHerrera said teachers at the next Manual need to be involved with students and that the school should stay small. He also wants new textbooks.
This next year will be a time for district leaders to sell their efforts to improve the schools to the city, where an estimated 30,000 students go to school elsewhere.
A soon-to-be-announced citizen committee led by former Denver mayors Federico Peña and Wellington Webb will educate people about “The Denver Plan,” Bennet’s ambitious district reform document.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
