Stapleton’s developer has offered a welcome surprise to the school overcrowding debate in Denver. The company announced it would donate land and wanted to use $5.5 million earmarked for a park to instead go toward a new school in the neighborhood.
Forest City Stapleton deserves credit for stepping up with a partial solution to what is an obvious need for a new school in a neighborhood teeming with children.
It’s now time for the other parties involved — the city, Denver Public Schools, and the city’s urban renewal agency — to step up with ideas and support for a new school.
At issue is an unexpected surge in young children in the neighborhood built on the city’s old airport grounds, and a quirky financing mechanism that was envisioned to pay for schools in the new development.
Tax-increment financing is a tool that uses future tax gains to pay for current improvements. The lagging economy has slowed new home sales in Stapleton, which has also slowed tax collections.
At this point, there isn’t the money to pay for a new school, which would cost $10 million to $12 million, in the neighborhood.
Anxiety over the situation has been on display in public meetings during the last several months. We urged reasonable expectations and cooperation in finding a way to get children into classrooms near their homes until a permanent solution could be found, and we continue to support that course of action.
DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg called Stapleton’s move a “positive first step,” and we agree with that assessment.
Now it is left to the other entities involved to contribute to a solution so Stapleton children will have the schools they were promised.
