There will be more than community meetings, more than fliers tucked into mailboxes, even more than door-to-door visits.
Those working on the redesign of the new Manual High School vowed Thursday to a roomful of northeast Denver community members to have “authentic” conversations about what parents, alumni, students and neighbors want for the school when it reopens in 2007.
That means contractors will go to Catholic Masses, youth groups, community swimming pools. They’ll crash neighborhood breakfasts and class reunions.
“There are people who can’t come to these meetings,” said Patsy Roybal, who works for the Statewide Parents Coalition and runs the community-engagement process for the redesign of Manual High School. “That means we have to come to them.”
Denver Public Schools board members decided in February to close Manual for a year and redesign it because of diminishing enrollment and low student achievement. Its 600 or so displaced students will attend other Denver high schools this fall. Superintendent Michael Bennet has promised to open a “premier” school at the building at 26th Avenue and Williams Street next year.
This summer, the district launched a massive outreach effort in hopes of regaining the community trust lost after the school board’s unexpected vote to close the school. That decision sparked ire among parents, students and some prominent local African-American clergymen.
Clearly on Thursday, some of that anger remained.
“I don’t trust this process. … I am angry, and I’m still hurt,” said Jorge Merida, a northeast Denver neighborhood activist and a member of the Manual High Community Council. “I’m not here to endorse the superintendent. … I’m here to do whatever is necessary to open this school next year.”
DPS administrators hope to have 100 “community conversations” about what people want for Manual before Oct. 1. Roybal said they will create a database with that feedback and use it to shape the new school. The next community meeting is Aug. 19.
Camillia Wright, a 2005 Manual graduate, stood up to tell the adults that they needed to involve more students.
“I don’t think handing out fliers is enough. If I get a flier, I probably throw it away,” said Wright, who is now attending college. “You need to be aggressive with students. You need to be there in their faces telling them they have to come to this meeting, and this is why.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
