GOLDEN — Jefferson County Public Schools has halted construction of a school for expelled students pending talks with neighbors who said they weren’t notified about the building and were concerned about the types of students who would attend.
“We had no notice until the equipment showed up,” said Linda Sasenick, who lives a football field away from the proposed Johnson Program.
District officials said there was a failure to let neighbors know what was planned.
“It wasn’t our intent to exclude neighbors. It was an oversight,” said schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.
A meeting between district officials and a small group of neighbors is planned today, with a community meeting scheduled Monday at McClain Community High School.
The district wants to move the Johnson Program, which provides a structured environment for middle- school students who have been expelled or are at risk for expulsion, from 1200 Johnson Road in Golden to near Red Rocks Community College.
The proposed site is close to McClain Community and Long View high schools, which have alternative programs, and Warren Tech.
The current school is too costly to renovate, Setzer said. The new 20,000-square-foot, one-story school would cost $4.9 million from the 2004 bond issue.
The district wasn’t required to stop construction when neighbors objected, Setzer said, but did so out of consideration for them.
“That’s one of the things that will change,” Setzer said. “It will be written into our guidelines that the design advisory group will include community members and parents.”
Setzer said parents of Johnson students were involved, but because the program draws throughout the district, residents of Sixth Avenue West Estates weren’t notified.
The neighbors discovered minutes of a meeting in which Johnson principal Debbie Staten said there would be a “high number of sex offenders” in the program.
Setzer said the students would not be sex offenders but “at risk for sexual offenses,” giving as an example a student who recently was expelled for sexual harassment.
However, she acknowledged the neighbors “have a lot of concerns about the kinds of kids who would go there.”
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
