DPS board OKs closure plan

Savings to help low performers, spur innovation

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 04:19 a.m., November 20, 2007
Updated 08:57 a.m., November 20, 2007

Denver Public Schools board members unanimously approved a plan Monday to close eight schools and change five others, launching the district's largest closure plan in its history.

One by one, board members explained their vote on a proposal that will displace more than 3,000 students next fall.

"It is not the closure of the children, it is not the slamming of the door in the parents' faces . . . it is really the opening of the door for these families and their children," said the Rev. Lucia Guzman, who was attending the final board meeting of her eight-year tenure.

"It is for them," she said. "For too many years, the children of the district have not been able to receive the quality of educational opportunity that they need and deserve."

The plan, outlined Oct. 1 by Superintendent Michael Bennet, will funnel the $3.5 million annually in savings from the closures into schools with the displaced students and into the district's 10 lowest-performing schools as ranked by the state.

It also will help seed a schools development office intended to foster innovative programs, with an initial emphasis on middle and high schools.

Bennet acknowledged the plan may be "imperfect" but said it will move the district forward in its goal of becoming the best urban school district in the nation.

'Odds are stacked'

In every city in America, he said, "the odds are stacked against you if you are poor, the odds are stacked against you if you speak a different language, the odds are stacked against you if your parents aren't educated.

"We are going . . . to do everything we can to make sure our children's destinies are secure, that there is equality, that they will be able to pursue their dreams."

About a dozen students and parents from Smedley Elementary in northwest Denver staged a small protest, all wearing blue "Smedley Stars" T-shirts and unfurling a sign.

They entered the board room during the vote, turning to stand in the middle of the room to face board members.

But there was no time set aside for public comment, and the Smedley families and others from the closed schools quietly left the building after the vote.

"I'm tired of seeing the kids being used for their experiments," said Jennifer Gonzalez, who has five children in northeast Denver schools, the area perhaps most affected. "They're the ones who suffer in the end. What are they going to do for these kids if this plan fails?"

Several board members thanked Smedley parents and those, like Gonzalez, who belong to Metro Organizations for People, another group that protested.

School Board President Theresa Pena agreed leaders "have not delivered on that promise" of a better education for all Denver students.

But she and other board members said the closure proposal begins to do so.

"I want to thank you for holding us accountable," Pena told parents. "Please don't lose that - we need your help. We need more of the community to engage."

Other pieces of the reform plan approved Thursday include expanding full-day preschool seats for Denver families and pursuing the stabilization of the district's budget through refinancing its pension plan.