A tentative plan to move about 300 Denver Public Schools administrators to space in Manual High School has been put on hold to gather community input.
School board member Kevin Patterson, who represents the Manual neighborhood in northeastern Denver, said plans to sell the administration building and plans to move to the historic high school should be separate conversations.
“There’s the issue of selling 900 Grant St., and the issue of what happens with Manual,” said Patterson, who has been talking to neighborhood residents about what they think of the idea. “I think there’s a conversation about what happens with two of those things, but it may not happen together.”
After being closed for a year, Manual High School will reopen this fall as a small school with only ninth-graders. It will add a grade each year. Principal Rob Stein said he prefers a cozier environment and wants fewer than 1,000 students in the building – even with all four grades.
“I think a good urban school that serves its students will have close relationships,” Stein said.
That still leaves room at Manual. Senior district officials have had construction plans drawn up that would retrofit part of the school to accommodate administrators.
DPS hasn’t officially announced plans to sell the administration building, valued by city officials at more than $8 million.
But Superintendent Michael Bennet expressed interest this year, saying he believes administrators should be doing their work closer to kids.
He wasn’t available for comment Friday.
Some community and board members are pushing the administration to seek more community input. When officials announced in February 2006 that they would shutter Manual, it sparked an uproar among many community advocates, including members of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance.
That still resonates with Patterson, who had to answer to his constituents for months about Manual’s abrupt closure.
Since then, DPS leaders have tried to get extensive community input on big decisions.
“I think we have to be careful that people have enough time to digest what’s happening at Manual as a school,” Patterson said.
Cheryl King-Simmons, who lives across the street from the school and whose son will attend Manual this fall, is against the idea.
“I just don’t think it’s an appropriate environment,” said King-Simmons, whose family has attended Manual for four generations. “I think kids need to be in a high school with their peer group.”
Manual advocate Jorge Merida said that 300 year-round administrators working in the building, at East 26th Avenue and Williams Street, could be good for business.
“But that building could be used for so many alternative uses that directly benefit the community. … Cooking classes, music classes, English classes, all of that could generate students in a better way,” he said.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
