Among proposals the Denver Public Schools board is considering this month are some changes intended to improve the quality of schools in southwest Denver.
This month, the DPS board will vote on recommendations to create a shared enrollment zone for the middle schools of the region — which will include a transportation option for middle-schoolers.
The board also will vote on the temporary placement of two charter schools at Kepner Middle School.
The board discussed the ideas Monday and will hear public comment Thursday before voting on the proposed changes Nov. 20.
The actions come as DPS is finalizing a strategic outline for a multiyear plan for its southwest schools.
Most of the recommendations up for a vote this month regard charter schools.
DPS is proposing to place a new charter school, Compass Academy, in the Kepner Middle School building
for two or possibly three years.
The district also is considering letting Rocky Mountain Prep open its second school at Kepner next year, but that placement would be for only one year.
Board members Monday emphasized that the decision on Compass would not affect the previous commitment to house two other schools at Kepner.
Kepner Middle School is slated to be shut down because of low performance and decreased enrollment, but the two charter schools DPS had approved to phase in at the building have delayed their openings for a year. So, in the meantime, Kepner will accept another class of sixth-graders.
The proposal to create an enrollment boundary for middle schools would divide the southwest into two zones split at Jewell Avenue or Evans Avenue on the east half of the district. Students living in the zones will get priority to attend the middle schools within their zone, including high-performing charter schools.
If the plan is approved, DPS will create a route to allow middle-schoolers to catch a bus at their nearest school and ride it to any middle school in the zone, the district’s chief of schools, Susana Cordova, said.
“These are all votes about school-specific actions, but we also want to know, ‘how do we undertake the kind of improvements and focus that are going to be critical for all of our schools?’ ” Cordova said.
Next month, recommendations will target low-performing district-run schools in the southwest.
