A new school planned for burgeoning Stapleton could solve a number of issues in the northeast Denver neighborhood that is home to a growing number of young children — one of whom was sucking on a lip-gloss tube at a news conference Monday.
Nine-month-old Samantha Herndon, relaxing in her mother’s arms, is among the hundreds of babies in Stapleton who were expected to overfill the neighborhood’s two schools in the near future.
On Monday, Denver Public Schools announced it would break ground in June on a school that will serve 900 preschool to eighth-grade students.
Adding the school, planned to open in August 2011 at East 35th Avenue and Syracuse Street, also leaves room for students from outside the neighborhood in an effort to ethnically and economically diversify the school’s population.
Samantha’s mother, Jo-Nell Herndon — along with hundreds of other Stapleton families who last year packed a gym and demanded a new school — has been waiting for this announcement.
“They heard us,” Herndon said. “They responded. It’s not just words. It was action.”
Forty percent of 1,273 Stapleton households that responded to a recent survey said they had children 2 or younger.
“With this school, we are able to meet that population explosion,” Superintendent Tom Boasberg said.
DPS had been trying to work a deal to bring a new school to Stapleton, where public improvements such as schools are supposed to be funded by a tax-increment-financing mechanism that counts on future tax gains to pay for current improvements.
The dragging economy halted the growth of tax collection at Stapleton, meaning issuing bonds for new projects was out of the question.
The solution came from a windfall from the $454 million 2008 bond program. Bond projects are ahead of schedule and under budget because of lower-than-expected bids and low interest rates, which has produced up to $40 million of savings that the district is funneling to high-priority construction projects.
The project is financed in collaboration with the city and county of Denver and the developer, Forest City. DPS will front the $19 million for the school and will be paid back as tax collections increase.
“This new school is a result of the savings,” Boasberg said.
The overall savings on the 2008 bond program — originally tagged at $990 million — is estimated at about $150 million, Boasberg said.
Online. Previous coverage of the Stapleton school issue.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
