A much ballyhooed reform effort in Denver Public Schools last fall that closed schools and reworked programs in several others got a minor tweak Saturday by the school board.
Place Middle School in south Denver will change next year to serve students in preschool through eighth grade who were affected by the closure of Whiteman and Fallis elementary schools.
Place also will be a newcomer school for refugees through the fifth grade rather than through the eighth grade. Previously, the plan was to serve refugees through the eighth grade. Those middle schoolers now will attend Merrill Middle School.
School officials changed the plan because they said Place Middle had space and staffing problems.
“The community and the principal at Place think the best program is to have it at these two schools (Place and Merrill),” said Alex Sanchez, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools. “It eliminates more transitions for these students. It makes more program sense.”
Changing the plan needed school board approval because the board already had approved the first configuration of Place as part of the larger reform package that was voted on Nov. 19. School board members voted 4-1 to change the plan and promised to monitor whether it is working.
The board was going to vote on the change at its Thursday meeting, but board member Jeannie Kaplan wanted to meet with school officials for clarification.
Kaplan, who voted against the change, said she was concerned that the switch would add another level of confusion to a vulnerable population.
“I’m worried about the kids in the families we are trying to serve,” she said. “The goal was to give them a seamless entry into our public school system. It was presented to them one way, and now we’re changing that. It’s not what we said we were going to do to people who have no voice.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
