Denver Public Schools eyes new round of school closures as enrollment continues to decline

Denver Public Schools is considering closing schools for the second time in two years as declining enrollment’s budget impact on classrooms is “becoming untenable,” Superintendent Alex Marrero told the district’s Board of Education on Thursday evening.

Marrero will present a closure plan to Denver’s school board on Nov. 7 and directors will vote on the proposal two weeks later, on Nov. 21, according to a timeline the superintendent presented at the board’s meeting this week.

While school closures are back on the table in Denver, Marrero didn’t provide any insight into what his proposal could look like, including which schools — or even which type of schools — might be affected. If closures are approved by the school board, they will go into effect after the end of the current school year, according to the timeline.

Schools in northwest and southwest Denver have felt the brunt of low enrollment in the past, but board member Michelle Quattlebaum cautioned that it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be the only ones targeted for closure.

“We don’t know what this analysis is going to uncover,” she said, adding, “We don’t know where these recommendations — what regions the recommendations — are going to happen.”

DPS is holding community engagement sessions starting next month to talk to families and others about the potential closures. The sessions are being held at schools that aren’t going to close because the district didn’t want to give anyone an idea that their school will be shut down before a recommendation is made, Marrero said.

The following sessions on school closures have been scheduled:

• 6 p.m. Sept 24 at South High School, 1700 E. Louisiana Ave.
• 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th Ave.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 3 at Lincoln High School, 2285 S. Federal Blvd.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 7 at CEC Early College, 2650 Eliot St.
• 6 p.m. Oct. 14 virtually via Zoom
• 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at Montbello High School, 5000 Crown Blvd. Denver

Marrero last proposed school closures due to falling enrollment in October 2022, when he recommended shuttering 10 schools. The school board was reluctant to close schools at that time, but eventually voted in March 2023 to close three schools: Denver Discovery, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy, and Fairview Elementary.

Three new members — John Youngquist, Kimberlee Sia and Marlene De La Rosa — have been elected to the board since the last time school closures were considered. Still, directors acknowledged that the upcoming months won’t be easy.

“This entire process is going to be difficult,” Quattlebaum said.

The school board opened the door for another school closure proposal earlier this summer when members passed a policy that set guidelines for the superintendent to use should he propose another plan. The board tweaked its policy two weeks ago, including pushing back the deadline for a proposal to November.

Marrero is considering school closures because enrollment is declining in DPS schools as fewer Denverites are having babies and gentrification has pushed some families from the city. The district projected earlier this year that 6,338 fewer children will attend Denver’s K-12 schools within the next five years.

The district is not alone in seeing fewer students enroll in its schools; K-12 public schools across the state and the U.S. are experiencing similar declines, including Jeffco Public Schools, which has gone through its own round of closures in recent years.

Schools with low enrollment often have to make difficult decisions, such as whether to cut extracurricular activities in school or mental health support, said Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

When schools have fewer students, they get less funding, which means they have fewer resources to provide to children. Declining enrollment also hits the districtwide budget, which for DPS is $1 billion.

“We do have a lot of schools that don’t have the ability to provide all of the support for kids,” Gould said.

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