Three affluent Denver elementary schools have joined a small pilot program that gives preference to students from low-income families who don’t live within the schools’ boundaries but want to attend.
Bromwell Elementary in central-east Denver, Lincoln Elementary in southeast Denver, and Park Hill Elementary in northeast Denver are the latest schools to opt into the pilot. Fewer than 20 percent of students at each of the three schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for poverty. Districtwide, about 67 percent of students qualify.
The pilot program is an effort to better integrate the city’s schools at a time when gentrification is deepening economic divides between neighborhoods – and neighborhood schools.
Under the pilot, students who live within the Bromwell, Lincoln, and Park Hill boundaries will be enrolled first whether they qualify for subsidized lunches or not. Non-boundary students from low-income families will get priority for any remaining open seats.
This year, Bromwell accepted 24 kindergarteners who “choiced in,” Lincoln accepted 23 choice kindergarteners, and Park Hill accepted 11 choice kindergarteners.
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