Shrinking Schools
News about small schools and school closures in Colorado related to declining student enrollment.
The fate of four other vacant Denver school buildings is still up in the air.
“My mental health, first of all, is 10 times better,” said a high school junior who joined her district’s online program this year.
Colorado lawyer accused a state-funded group that helps school districts offer online classes of causing “reputational harm” to multi-district online schools.
“I can’t say it will be next year,” Superintendent Alex Marrero said at a meeting last week. “I have good confidence that it could be the following year. Surely the year after that.”
How to repurpose empty buildings is a growing issue as declining enrollment forces more schools to close.
Ideas submitted so far include an indoor-outdoor sports complex, new locations for charter schools, and apartments for teachers.
State report shows drops across the biggest districts. Check your school district’s numbers in our searchable table.
The trend of declining enrollment could lead to more school closures, even as the school board has enacted a four-year moratorium with a major caveat.
El consejo escolar modificó su norma para agregar una pausa de 4 años en el cierre de escuelas con pocos estudiantes inscritos.
The policy is meant to help balance student enrollment among schools at a time when the district is predicting steep declines.
Barring emergencies, no more Denver schools will be closed for low enrollment until at least 2030.
The northwest, southwest, and central parts of the city are expected to be hit the hardest, according to the district’s new Strategic Regional Analysis.
Ten schools are set to close or partially close next month due to declining enrollment. The proposal would have halted any further school closures until 2029.
Half of the displaced students will go to higher-performing schools, and a significant number are moving from district-run schools to charter schools.
Ten Denver schools with low enrollment will close or partially close at the end of this school year.
One building will become a preschool center. Another will be the new home of an existing middle and high school.
This year, charter schools are serving about 15% of public school students in Colorado.
Mamás de DPS wrote that continuing with its motion, now that many students have been reassigned to new schools for next year, could create “an untenable psychological situation for Denver families.”
DPS argued that it has ‘done everything within its control to minimize uncertainty and disruption and to ensure that all impacted students can transition to new schools as smoothly as possible.’
“It is not my desire to have our students, staff, and families living in fear that this board and this superintendent are out there just closing schools,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said.