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The Denver school board approved an expansion of a charter school Thursday after Superintendent Alex Marrero changed his mind about opposing it.
The board vote was unanimous. Board members didn’t discuss the approval before voting.
Marrero had initially recommended that the board reject Monarch Montessori’s request to add sixth, seventh, and eighth grades to its elementary school in far northeast Denver. He said the school’s plans to build and pay for a new middle school weren’t sound enough.
But Marrero reversed course and recommended Thursday that the board approve the expansion as long as Monarch meets certain deadlines.
For instance, the school must have its construction documents finalized and its financing secured by November, according to a resolution the board approved Thursday. Monarch must also show that its student test scores are improving. The expansion will be delayed by a year if any one of those things doesn’t happen, the resolution says.
Charter schools face increasingly inhospitable conditions in Denver. Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, and many schools of all types are shrinking. The political climate isn’t as friendly to charter schools as it once was. A majority of the school board members were backed by the Denver teachers union, which has been critical of charter schools. And Marrero has supported closing charter schools with low test scores.
Monarch earned a middle-tier state rating this year, signified by the color yellow. The school offers a dual language Montessori education unlike anything else in far northeast Denver.
School leaders said parents have been asking Monarch to expand to give its 280 elementary students the same opportunity to continue with Montessori that students have on the opposite side of Denver, where there is a Montessori middle and high school.
Far northeast Denver is the one area of the city where the student population is expected to grow as developers build houses on some of the last vacant land in Denver. The district’s enrollment analysis says it will need more middle school seats there by 2029. Monarch’s proposal would add sixth grade in 2027, seventh grade in 2028, and eighth grade in 2029.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
