Maps, numbers show DPS reform hurdles

Data could drive board's decisions on school closings

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, March 1, 2007

The data isn't getting any easier to digest for the board members of Denver Public Schools, and time is getting shorter for major reforms to begin taking shape.

On Wednesday, they got maps and numbers showing the projected uneven distribution of students throughout the school district - with substantial growth in the northeastern part of the city while the western edge continued to trend downward.

The district is in the midst of trying to bring back students who have left for private schools and neighboring school districts, such as Jefferson County, while retaining those currently enrolled in DPS.

Superintendent Michael Bennet has spearheaded an effort to reverse the trend, incorporating student-based budgeting, an idea that would allow schools to market themselves to parents and students and let the money follow the student to the campus chosen.

The district also commissioned the A+ Citizens Committee, a group of about 100 people from a wide range of backgrounds - including community leaders, business leaders and clergy - who will make recommendations to the school board about the possible closures of some schools.

Wednesday's presentation for the board outlined some of the problems facing the district.

For instance, if the population of students continues to balloon in neighborhoods such as Stapleton and schools must be built there, how can the district justify that construction when schools in the northwestern part of Denver continue to struggle to maintain enrollment numbers?

And, in Stapleton's case, the two schools currently there are almost three-quarters white. How can the district promote diversity in schools like that?

"We need to create programs and magnets that draw kids to certain schools," said board member Michelle Moss.

"If you only create neighborhood schools, then you do create pockets that appear to not be diverse. But if you build magnet programs, you can build diversity in the area."

Steve Gordon, development and planning supervisor for the City and County of Denver, cautioned that population projections to the year 2016 are just that - projections. "The further out we forecast, the less confident we are in the data," he said.

The data provided Wednesday is a continuation of information being digested by board members as they draw closer to getting a recommendation from the A+ Committee - possibly by the end of March, according to Moss.

Last week, several board members sat in on a presentation that illustrated how the school district in Pittsburgh closed schools using criteria that cut across racial and economic lines.

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236