DPS count passes 75,000

Enrollment hits highest mark since early busing years

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Luis Aguilar, 15, Ilse Chip, 15, and Yudi Romo, 15, work on a math problem outside Lincoln High School, 2285 S. Federal Blvd., on Tuesday. In the past two years, enrollment at Lincoln has increased from around 1,200 to 1,752 students.

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Enrollment in Denver Public Schools this fall tops 75,000 students, the highest count in the district since 1976 and the initial turbulent years of federally mandated busing for desegregation.

Tuesday, DPS released its fall enrollment count of 75,269 for students in preschool through grade 12, an increase of 1,396 over fall 2007. It's the largest annual growth reported in seven years.

"I think there is a renewed sense of confidence in where we're headed," said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet, who also cited last week's 2-to-1 ratio of voter approval for a $454 million school bond issue.

At least part of the growth is because of an expanded preschool program helped by a city sales tax increase, but not all. Remove preschool seats and the growth in grades kindergarten through 12 is still 916 students.

"I think our schools are getting stronger, and I think the work that's being done by our teachers and our principals is paying off," Bennet said. "And we're nowhere near where we want to be, but we've seen academic growth that is giving people a renewed confidence, not so much in the district, but in the schools themselves."

Among the highlights of the enrollment report:

* Grade level. Elementary and high school grades showed net gains districtwide, but middle school grades - 6, 7 and 8 - had a net loss of 139 students. DPS middle school grades historically have lost students as families worried about the transition to bigger, perhaps tougher, schools look to other options. But families also have shown a willingness to return to DPS for high school.

* Charter schools. Enrollment in the district's 20 charter schools increased slightly, by 121 students, a lesser growth rate than in years past. Two charter schools placed on probation by DPS suffered big losses - Amandla, formerly the Challenges, Choices and Images school, lost 210 students, while Denver Arts and Technology Academy lost 143. Two charters opened this fall, Denver Venture School with 79 students and the Denver School of Science and Technology Middle School with 140 pupils.

* Revamped schools. Three of five schools overhauled by DPS as part of a school-closure package announced a year ago showed enrollment numbers at or near expectations. That includes the Cole Arts and Sciences Academy with 550 students, Place Bridge Academy with 735 students and Trevista at Horace Mann with 663 students. The two other schools - Gilpin Montessori and Kuns miller Arts Academy - are gradually making changes and both reported losses.

Big gain at Lincoln

Several individual schools reported strong gains, including another 100-plus jump at Abraham Lincoln High School in southwest Denver. The school has grown by nearly 500 students in the past two years.

Principal Antonio Esquibel said the school hired six teachers this year to cope with classes that were bulging with more than 40 students. But there's good news, too, like the addition of a second music teacher and more elective classes.

Other high schools, including nearby John F. Kennedy High, reported a drop this year. Esquibel said he emphasizes the school's focus on safety and its college bent. Lincoln has four programs that allow students to earn college credit while in high school.

"Those are really the main things that are forcing our enrollment to go up," he said.

1969 was top year

Enrollment in DPS hit an all-time high of 97,849 in 1969, when eight families filed a lawsuit against DPS alleging intentional segregation. Protests and firebombings were followed by court- ordered citywide busing in 1974. Enrollment bottomed out at less than 60,000 in 1989 and slowly began to grow. Busing ended in 1996.

DPS has closed schools since that high count of 1969 but it's also had to build schools in rapidly growing far northeast Denver. The result, according to district estimates, is its middle and high schools are only 66 percent full.

Thursday, DPS will announce which existing schools will share space with new programs, an idea that has riled some parents. But Bennet said increasing enrollment and projected growth in the city's school- age population don't negate the need for space-sharing.

"We really think the money ought to be spent enriching kids' academic environments and not on empty space," he said. "I think, over time, the district will want to reactivate some of the empty buildings we have as well as build new ones."

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

Enrollment ups, downs in metro area

School districts this week reported their enrollment numbers to the Colorado Department of Education, which will issue a statewide report after auditing the data. Here are the preliminary preschool-through-grade 12 numbers reported by four of the largest districts in the Denver area:

District: Fall '07 enrollment ... Fall '08 enrollment ... Difference

Aurora Public: 33,573 ... 35,763 ... +2,190

Cherry Creek: 50,207 ... 50,650 ... +443

DPS: 73,873 ... 75,269 ... +1,396

Jeffco Public: 86,217 ... 85,931 ... -286

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