About two weeks before the deadline to pick a school for the next school year, Denver Public Schools officials have told Trevista school parents they are proposing to close the middle school.
The northwest Denver community of Trevista received a letter Friday saying there is concern about being able “to fund the middle school and maintain our current teachers and support staff.”
The district and school leaders are proposing to close the middle school by August, but Trevista’s elementary school would remain open. The 159 middle school students would be guaranteed a seat at one of three nearby schools.
The DPS school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal Jan. 29.
Trevista principal La Dawn Baity said the recommendation was drafted just weeks ago when officials decided it was necessary to move Trevista’s Transitional Native Language Instruction program — — to Bryant-Webster K-8.
Trevista already was under a waiver, having been unable so far to . Moving the program will drop the middle school’s enrollment by about 30 students — decreasing the budget by about the salary of two teachers.
“We have two options, restaffing the middle school with high quality bilingual teachers or moving, but the best option is to move the TNLI program to a school where that was already in place,” Baity said. “We didn’t realize the implications of what that would mean for the budget right away.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
