Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg has a problem that, a decade ago, would have been hard to imagine: northwest Denver parents in an uproar, fighting what they perceive as a threat to the neighborhood schools they champion.
The issue is that West Denver Prep charter schools wants to open what would be its second high school on the North High School campus. The charter’s first is scheduled to open this fall in southwest Denver; the Denver school board is expected to vote in June on the application for a second West Denver Prep high school.
West Denver Prep already operates one of its four middle schools in a wing of historic North High on Speer Boulevard, and that’s fine, the Choose North Now parents say. But a high school would be too much, they argue, and they say 600 people have signed an online petition agreeing with them.
That argument, Boasberg said, doesn’t hold up.
“There is and will be plenty of room at North for every single northwest Denver resident who wants to go there,” he said.
In the meantime, the charter’s payments to the district for using North help offset the cost of maintaining the building.
Nevertheless, he said one of the best options, offered at a recent community meeting, would be to eventually relocate the middle school that is now on the North campus.
Enrollment at North High, which has a capacity of about 2,000, has fallen from 1,224 in 2006 to 743 last year.
Chris Gibbons, chief executive of West Denver Prep, estimates the charter high school would have 500 students.
Combining all students from current and proposed campuses would bring the campus total to about 1,500.
But Choose North Now has looked at the changing demographics in that now-desirable part of town and projects that by 2016, 1,575 students will attend North.
“We’ve got a wave coming toward North,” said Michael Kiley, a Choose North Now parent whose two children are now in elementary school.
Kiley said squeezing a charter high school onto the North campus “sends the wrong message in the community.”
That message, he said, is: “I guess the turnaround didn’t work.”
Boasberg called that “absolute rubbish” and said the district pours $1 million in resources beyond typical funding into North.
Parents, many of whom pushed a few years ago for improvements to Skinner Middle School, say they have learned from the success of that effort that troubled schools can get better and can attract good students.
The district, those parents say, is behind the curve in recognizing demographic changes that are bringing more affluent families to northwest Denver.
Boasberg disagrees.
“I think the demographic changes are very clear, and we’re working very closely with the community on them. The success is that we’re capturing these new families that are coming into that area.”
That success, some of those new families say, is exactly why they are championing neighborhood schools.
Karen Augé: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
