Accounts of other shutdown proposals are mixed bag

Pittsburgh turned out OK, but some mired in politics

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Denver Public Schools joins a number of large urban districts across the country in pitching a school closure plan aimed at saving money and boosting achievement.

The DPS plan - to close eight schools and change five others - is not as extensive as some. And officials hope it will not be as controversial as others.

"One of the things you've got to accept is there will be pain, and it's inescapable," Pittsburgh Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt counseled DPS school board members during a visit in April. "Pretty it ain't."

Roosevelt oversaw the closure of 22 schools in the Steel City in fall 2006, eliminating more than 10,000 empty seats and saving more than $10 million.

But the district also offered something in exchange - transforming eight low-performing schools into back-to-basics academies, expanding preschool seats and opening one school.

Roosevelt, who gave DPS board members a two-hour tutorial on his district's experience, said the key message was that the closure plan will, in the end, mean better schools for everyone.

It's the same message that DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet is trying to convey in Denver. As in Pittsburgh, Bennet has made more preschools and transformed schools part of the plan.

Other districts have had less success with their closure plans.

Detroit Public Schools leaders initially pitched the closure of 51 schools in January, planning to spread the process over two years. Their rationale - declining enrollment has left the Motor City with 54,000 vacant seats in 232 schools.

But the ensuing furor prompted school officials to lower the number and, finally, to reconsider the closures altogether.

In August, Superintendent Connie Calloway said the "anxiety, uneasiness and debate" over the plan had prompted a review likely to take "several months."

Van Schoales, who studies urban education for the Piton Foundation, said Detroit - and similarly stalled closure plans in San Francisco and Seattle - is an example of what DPS should strive to avoid.

"In many of these school districts, once they come up with a plan to shut schools down, all of a sudden the politics (goes) nuts," Schoales said. "Everybody sort of comes out swinging, protecting their neighborhood schools or saying these particular schools are unfairly placed on the list or calling into question the need to shut schools down at all."

Denver is in a good position for its plan, he said, because of its use of a community group - A+ Denver - to help set the criteria for closures. It also has a school board whose members appear to agree that closures are necessary.

On the other hand, three of seven school board seats are up for grabs in November, and the proposed closures are likely to be a hot issue.

Schoales also said it will be tough to tell if DPS' proposed closure plan is a good one - at least for a while.

"There are lots of important things that matter that will probably not be in the plan, in terms of follow-through," he said. "We can look at the plan and say it's a good plan . . . but I don't think anybody will know that for at least a year."

CENTRAL

Proposed closures

Del Pueblo Elementary 750 Galapago St.

• Enrollment: 154 in fall 2006, now zero. DPS board members in August voted to unofficially close the school - suspending its academic program indefinitely - after only 80 students enrolled. The school was built for 344.

• State rating: Unsatisfactory

• Reasons for closure: Lowest enrollment in district, low and inconsistent academic performance.

• Where students will go instead: Reassigned to Greenlee and Moore, schools serving preschool through grade eight.

NORTHWEST

663 students affected

Proposed closures

Remington Elementary 4735 Pecos St.

• Enrollment: 316; 73 percent of building in use

• Demographics: 98 percent poverty; 91 percent Hispanic, 4 percent black, 4 percent white

• State rating: Low

• Reasons for proposed closure: Percentage of students passing state reading and writing tests dropped in last three years; 54 percent of area students already go elsewhere.

• Where students would go instead: Reassigned to former Horace Mann Middle, which would become a school serving preschool through grade eight.

Smedley Elementary 4250 Shoshone St.

• Enrollment: 338; 65 percent of building in use

• Demographics: 90 percent poverty; 93 percent Hispanic, 3 percent black, 1 percent white

• State rating: Low

• Reasons for proposed closure: Declining percentage of students passing state reading, writing and math exams; 51 percent of students in area go elsewhere.

• Where students would go instead: Reassigned to former Horace Mann Middle, which would become a school serving preschool through grade eight.

Proposed remakes

Horace Mann ECE-8 4130 Navajo St.

• Enrollment: 292 in grades six through eight; capacity for 860 students

• Demographics: 93 percent poverty; 90 percent Hispanic, 4 percent black, 2 percent white

• State rating: Low

• Reasons for change: Just 20 percent of students passed state reading and writing exams and 10 percent passed math tests; enrollment dropped 371 students since 2000; 62 percent of area students chose another school.

• New plan: Horace Mann would become a school for students in preschool through grade eight and would use the core elements of the district reform plan, the Denver Plan. It would add features such as "looping," where students have the same teacher for two years.

• New principal: Veronica Benavidez, now principal of Remington Elementary

• Projected enrollment: 710 in preschool through grade eight

• Options for current students: Stay at Horace Mann or submit a choice application for another district school. New school would serve Remington and Smedley students.

SOUTHWEST

700 students affected

Proposed remakes

Kunsmiller Middle School to Kunsmiller Arts Academy 2250 S. Quitman Way

• Enrollment: 700 in grades six through eight; capacity for 1,413 students

• Demographics: 93 percent poverty; 88 percent Hispanic, 6 percent white, 4 percent Asian

• State rating: Low

• Reasons for change: Fewer than 26 percent of students passed state reading, writing and math tests for past four years; enrollment dropped by 340 students since 2000.

• New plan: Kunsmiller would become a magnet middle/high school for students interested in the arts. Admission would be based on student interviews to discern a commitment to the arts, rather than on auditions. In addition, DPS would seek to place another middle school or middle/high school program in the building through its new "request for proposal" process. The process seeks ideas for new programs from inside and outside the district.

• New principal: District plans to conduct a search.

• Projected enrollment: 800 in grades six through 12

• Options for current students: Kunsmiller's existing academic program would continue until 2009-10 for students now enrolled. Middle school students living near Kunsmiller would be assigned to Grant and Kepner middle schools.

Adding it up 3,000

students would be affected by the closure plan

342 teachers and other staff would be affected

$3.5 million in annual operating costs would be saved

60% of the savings would follow students to their new schools

40% of the savings would be directed to other underperforming schools and to the development of new high-performing schools

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245