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9 Denver schools on list to absorb new ones

Plan for charters to move in upsets some parents

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 14, 2008 at 9:41 p.m.

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Nine Denver Public Schools with unused space may be sharing facilities with new schools next fall.

DPS leaders have been talking about locating new schools in existing buildings for more than a year to relieve the financial burden of operating a district with more than 20,000 empty seats.

But it is only in recent weeks, as new school applicants have begun to tour buildings for possible sites, that space-sharing has sparked outrage. The schools with available space include four of the city's neighborhood high schools and five of its traditional middle schools.

"It's not likely all of the schools will see co-location in the coming year," said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet.

Bennet confirmed the accuracy of the list obtained by the Rocky. DPS had not previously released the names of the candidates.

At the top of the list is West High School, now half-empty, with as many as 1,100 available seats and 44 vacant classrooms.

"Why West? Why do they keep taking from West?" asked Norma Salas, a West alumna who has children at West and Rishel Middle School, which is also on the list.

"They're saying we've got to fill up the space, but we had kids at West and they left," said Salas, referring to DPS' earlier decision to move the popular Center for International Studies program from West into its own building.

Parents at West, Rishel, Smiley Middle School and Lake Middle School say they were caught off guard by the tours. DPS gave them no notice their schools were being considered for space-sharing, they said.

"We haven't been told anything from anybody, we've just heard through the grapevine," said Salas, a member of West's parent advisory council. "We questioned the principal and he said he wasn't at liberty to say anything because he didn't know what was going on."

Some DPS board members on Monday also called for more community input. Bennet said Tuesday that the district will hold community meetings around the schools on the list but said a schedule has not been confirmed.

"It is clear that we need to have a conversation in the potentially affected school communities," he said. "The fear of the unknown . . . creates a lot of nervousness."

Bennet said he would prefer a more specific conversation about which new schools might go into which existing schools but added, "We simply don't have that yet."

That is not expected to be released until Nov. 13, with a school board vote expected Nov. 20.

District staff members are still working out issues such as, is the new school program compatible with the existing school? Will the new program serve an unmet need in the neighborhood?

DPS board members already have approved two new schools for fall 2009 and will hear from 10 more applicants on Thursday. Most are charter schools.

Some new school applicants received the list of possible space- sharing sites weeks ago. Since then, Bennet said, one school, Doull Elementary, has been removed from the list.

But one new school applicant, Beverly Lumumba, said she did not receive a list and was told to "scout" out a location. She was disappointed Tuesday to hear that her top preference, Manual High School, was not on the list.

She and others in the Manual community want to create East Denver College Prep as a top-performing K-8 school feeding into the historic high school.

Comments

  • October 15, 2008

    2:53 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BetterEducated writes:

    I think it would be challenging to find a more telling example of why DPS has traditionally failed.
    It puts the cart before the proverbial horse.
    Having made decisions, it imposes them upon the community. Apparently it fails to appreciate that the community itself should be the initiation for what the Board makes possible through the direction of funds, supplies and personnel resources.
    WHEN will DPS understand that it is not to TELL CITIZENS what it has decided will happen (by, for instance, taking public comment on acts that have already been taken) but rather implement what MUST happen in order to meet community educational needs?
    If this is too abstract or unwieldy a concept overall, then I would say that the one presented in the article would be a good way to start: TELL the Principals of these schools that their space is not being properly utilized (they should be aware of that, right?) and ASK THEM what they envision by way of a co-partner according to their personal experience of the students and parents in the area. Absolutely, DON'T leave them in the dark about your plans or have them tell the public that your plans are secret.
    SINCE WHEN are local public entities' plans secret from the taxpaying public?! Since DPS, that's when. And it doesn't seem to work out very well, from the sounds of it.
    Start over! "A is for Apple." "B" is for Bringing Reform to DPS. And "C" is for the Community that deserves to be at the head of the list instead of lagging behind as it always has in this case.
    Just my two cents :-)

  • October 16, 2008

    6:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    mcgraw08 writes:

    What is interesting to me is that they have closed schools that are just sitting there empty. Gove Middle School would be a perfect place to put the charter schools. What Bennett in his infinite wisdom doesn't understand is that schools don't really have unused space, there are computer labs, special education rooms, etc. West is surprising since they took out the magnet CIS out and made it its own school, therefore freeing up the space. They should have left it there. JFK and G.W have the IB program and I don't think that a lot of parents want their middle school kids in school with high schoolers, I know that I wouldn't. Use the schools that are empty!!!!! They can create more charters in them, apparently that is what Bennett and the board want a district of charter and alternative schools. They aren't serving the needs of the students, they are killing schools that are trying to succeed. I am a Denver resident and have kids in the schools, but I will vote against the bond, due to the fact that the superintendent and his fellows don't know how to manage. How can they justify building new buildings and not putting the money into the ones that exist. PUT THE MONEY INTO THE SCHOOLS AND OUR CHILDREN. FUND THE PROGRAMS THAT THESE SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES WANT. I don't think that the schools need more artificial turf.

  • October 17, 2008

    9:51 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    WeloveDenverkids writes:

    I agree with Mcgraw08. No on the bond. At LEAST 20,000,000 is ear-marked to be spent on reconfiguring space in these buildings for charter schools - and that does not include the money being spent to re-model North which is a lot more than 20 million.
    Every consitituency group in the city has been left out of this process except for the "we know what is best for you" crowd currently in power at 900 Grant and the right-wing foundations pushing their pro-charter agendas every day.
    Remember, for every KIPP there is a CCI, for every Denver West Prep, there is a PS1, AND there is NO accountability for these charters once they are in they are in. No penalty for bad performance under NCLB, no redress at all. Continually failing charters will just perpetually continue to be allowed to fail - just as PS1 and CCI have and continue to do. Oh, but wait, CCI did change their name so that we will forget they were the school that failed chidren repeatedly, we will think it is a new charter failing children repeatedly. What a neat trick. Too bad the public schools can't do the same. GWB's law made sure there was a double standard built in to promote his mantra, public bad, charter(private) good. It didn't work in the banking and mortgage industries and it won't work in education. Do we need a complete collapse before people come to their senses?
    Seems to me we lost sight of the beginning of this movement - it was GWB and his buddies who wanted to bring the business model to public education and end government run schools. I suggest we look at the complete mess he and his crowd have made of our once healthy economy and ask, is this really what we want our education system to become? A de-regulated free market grab of the greedy at the expense of the folks who can't afford private school?
    If we continue down this path of the stupid we will get what we deserve.............VOTE NO ON 3A.

  • October 19, 2008

    2:20 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BetterEducated writes:

    "....it was GWB and his buddies who wanted to bring the business model to public education and end government run schools. I suggest we look at the complete mess he and his crowd have made of our once healthy economy and ask, is this really what we want our education system to become? A de-regulated free market grab of the greedy at the expense of the folks who can't afford private school?"

    So true, wish I had said it myself :-) Veteran DPS classified worker Hubby ended up with "customers" and "clients" instead of public taxpayer recipients, and felt in that process as though his DPS warehouse service had become more like working for Office Depot -- only without the benefits of private enterprise.

    School districts do not have customers. School districts do not have clients. School districts are a PUBLIC SERVICE and all of the employees, including administrators all the way down (and I do mean "down" because the gap between what the former and latter earn is both astonishing and disgusting) are PUBLIC SERVANTS. Call them managers, call them directors, call them Cabinet members, they are still PUBLIC SERVANTS -- and this essential distinction has most definitely faded away these past several years. Never before have I attributed it to any particular political influence, but hey -- the shoe seems to fit, doesn't it?