The cellphone call from Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet came from a yellow bus before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“Hi, is this Brandi?” he asked. “This is Michael Bennet, the superintendent. You’re supposed to be at school.”
DPS administrators have been making an aggressive push to get former Manual students to class – and out of bed in Brandi Perez’s case – since Manual was closed in February.
They have gone door to door each weekend to Manual homes and paired some students with adult mentors.
But preliminary attendance numbers from Denver high schools on Tuesday, DPS’ first day back for most students, were less than what officials had hoped for. Of the 558 Manual students displaced, only 389 – 70 percent – showed up for school, raising concerns that some students may never return to class.
“Anything less than 100 percent is disappointing,” said board member Kevin Patterson, who represents the neighborhood. “We need to get an accurate idea of where they are and get them into school. We want to find out what happened to all of them.”
Manual will be closed for a year because of declining enrollment and low student achievement. Bennet has promised Manual will reopen as a neighborhood “premier” high school in 2007 with freshmen only, and grow from there.
On the bus ride to South High on Tuesday, Rosario Contreras and her five friends chatted comfortably in Spanish and English about their summers and their expectations. But when the bus neared their new high school, they fell silent. Their saucer eyes glued to the windows as they scanned the crowd.
Marisol Veana began fanning herself.
“I’m scared we won’t be welcome,” Carolina Rubio said. “It’s so big.”
Junior Ricky Escobedo, who sat next to Bennet on the bus, agreed. “I have dragonflies flapping in my stomach.”
South High has about 1,000 more students than were at Manual last year. The vice principal was scooting people out of the counseling office and into a hazy auditorium full of kids who either didn’t register or didn’t have a first period.
Contreras’ first class was in a room whose number was missing. She tried to open her locker, but there was a box in front of it.
“I’m nervous, too – always am on the first day,” said South principal Bill Kohut. “There is so much going on. … It’s going to be a big shock for them (the Manual students).”
Kohut received the bulk of the students – 140 – mostly because of the English-language acquisition program. North received 73 Manual kids. Thomas Jefferson High had 34, and East had 54.
The Manual attendance numbers were not confirmed from CEC Middle College or the Center for International Studies.
At Thomas Jefferson, junior Jonathon Hill sat in the front row of an Algebra 1 class.
“It’s different,” Hill said. “They give you homework each day. … At Manual, we had homework, but not every day. And the school is big.”
When Escobedo got off the bus at South, he pushed to change his first-period class to Advanced Placement Biology. He’s now trying to find the $100 needed to pay for those textbooks.
“I’m already behind,” he said after school. “We already have a test on Monday.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
