Faced with dozens of half-empty buildings and low-performing schools, DPS officials are bracing for what could be the largest school closure in the city’s history.
If schools are closed, officials’ daunting task will include finding new schools for hundreds of displaced students and planning, neighborhood by neighborhood, for the impact shuttering buildings could have. People close to the process say that at least 10 schools could be closed by next year but that the tally may reach as high as 40 – about one-fourth of the city’s total of 150.
That will require redesigning much of Denver Public Schools’ educational infrastructure: revamping poor- performing schools, shifting thousands of students, and moving staff and resources to areas of growing demand.
But the biggest challenge is likely to be political. In Seattle, an attempt to close a dozen schools has prompted a court battle, parent-led protests and attempts to recall school board members.
In Oakland, Calif., district officials released criteria for several school closures – but ended up closing only four buildings this spring after a series of angry community meetings.
“There has been a lot of resistance,” said Alex Katz, a spokesman for Oakland Unified School District. “I think people do understand the reasons for school closures, but people are attached to their schools.”
All that helps explain Denver’s cautious, step-by-step approach.
Six months into a public effort, with meetings and data presentations, district officials and school board members have only a draft list of criteria to help determine which schools to close.
A final list is not expected before fall.
And members of A+ Denver, an independent citizens panel working on the criteria for school closures, are insisting that a list of schools be accompanied by transition plans for kids who would be displaced.
“It will be insufficient to simply announce the closure of schools,” said former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, a co- chairman of the committee.
Wrenching task ahead
Without a plan, he said, parents will immediately take their kids out of DPS.
“If you don’t … convince kids they’re going to get a much better environment, then why do it?”
District officials say they’ll start on those plans as soon as they have a final list of criteria, which includes things such as chronic under-performance on state tests and whether the building is in high demand.
“We need to be able to demonstrate that the consolidated schools to which the kids will be going will provide an environment that is much more likely to lead to achievement,” said Superintendent Michael Bennet.
Applying the criteria is likely to be a wrenching task.
In the north Park Hill neighborhood, for example, Hallett, Smith, Phillips and Stedman elementary schools are enrolled at less than 65 percent of capacity, even lower than the districtwide average. All are ranked either “low” or “unsatisfactory.”
District officials would face difficult questions in deciding which, if any, of the four struggling schools to close:
What, if any, are just starting individual reform efforts? Will teachers be able to follow their students?
Will the district transport kids to different parts of the city to higher-performing schools, or will there be new schools?
“I’m really concerned,” said Nola Miguel, a parent advocate at Bruce Randolph School, whose kids come from Whittier and Five Points elementary schools, among others. “Will they be talking to parent leaders? Will parents and students know what the plans are? Are they going to have relationships with anyone in the school?”
Financial woes
Bennet and school board members say the top priority is that kids currently in unsuccessful schools go to places that could better serve them.
“When it’s a new and improved school, what does it have? How is the district supporting it? And where is it located?” said board member Kevin Patterson, who represents Park Hill. “We want to transition kids to a better place.”
DPS board members and those serving on the independent panel say closures are necessary for financial reasons.
The district has lost thousands of students since 2001, and with those students go dollars. Its costly pension system requires DPS to pay $85 million a year to support, prompting an annual budget crisis.
And the district’s 68,000 students fill its buildings to an average of only 70 percent capacity, leading to waste on utilities, maintenance and other items.
Still, at Phillips Elementary in Park Hill, principal Charles Babb said he hasn’t heard parents ask about school closures.
“I sort of expected questions from my community, but they’re not asking,” Babb said. “I’m sensing it’s not on their radar yet.”
Factors being considered by DPS
Some of the draft criteria for deciding which schools to close:
Academic:
Low longitudinal growth (over several years) in student performance.
Low and declining ratios of children choicing in to a school to those choicing out.
“Unsatisfactory” results on School Accountability Reports.
Low and declining percentage of students proficient on Colorado Student Assessment Program tests for more than two years.
Low rates of retaining students and/or low attendance rates.
Facilities:
Less than 70 percent of space being used.
Consider maintaining stronger-performing schools in areas where schools have excess space and steady or declining enrollment.
Consider consolidating programs when a small, high-performing, well-enrolled school is near a larger, lower-performing, under-enrolled school.
Also to be considered: complex calculations involving facility condition, ability to expand, and “educational space,” plus operating costs per student and program capacity.
Underutilized schools in areas where the school-age population is declining.
Source: Draft report of the A+ Denver finances and facilities subcommittee
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
