The Denver Public Schools plan to close eight under-enrolled and poorly performing schools is a thoughtful, focused effort that puts the needs of children first.
Displaced students arguably will have better educational opportunities since the district is using this moment to open five new programs that are not business-as-usual attempts at schooling. For those reasons, Superintendent Michael Bennet and the cast of two dozen administrators who worked on the plan deserve credit.
However, the plan is going to go down hard in neighborhoods that are losing schools. And that’s understandable. We urge parents and community members to attend the meetings set up to explain the plan and address concerns.
The closures are not going to be the money-saver once envisioned. At the outset, there was talk about closing as many as 40 of DPS’s 150-plus schools, which would have saved much more, perhaps $15 million to $20 million, for the financially strapped district. But it would have been incredibly difficult to close that many schools and still ensure the affected students received a better education at their new schools.
The smaller-scale effort will mean $3.5 million in savings — most of which is to be plowed back into better serving the most needy children. That is a wise investment, even if it isn’t as great as once thought.
Furthermore, 20 percent of closure savings will go toward creating new programs in five existing schools. For instance, Cole Middle School will
become a preschool to eighth-grade program.
Cole is a feeder for Manual High, the focus of intense improvement efforts. Creating such a program at Cole is a thoughtful way of supporting the transition from elementary and middle school to high school. Horace Mann Middle also will become a preschool to eighth-grade program.
The three new programs that are attention-grabbers are a new Montessori at Gilpin, now an early childhood education through eighth-grade program; the change of Kunsmiller Middle School to an arts magnet school; and the reprogramming of Place Middle School to a “newcomers” school.
The changes at Place sound particularly promising. It would be the designated school for children who are recent immigrants and English language-learners. Currently, such programs are scattered among a dozen schools. While many are Spanish speakers, other languages spoken by new arrivals include Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.
There is one tenet of the plan that initially gave us pause — the transfer of some Hallett Elementary students to Smith Elementary. Smith has been rated an “unsatisfactory” school, and part of the larger reasoning to justify closures has been that students would go to a better educational environment. Bennet makes a compelling argument about Smith’s upward trend. About 40 percent of students tested in 2006 and 2007 showed improvement in reading and writing, and he has great confidence in the principal. The school likely will be upgraded to “low performing” this year.
Still, it underscores why it was better for DPS to close only a handful of schools and create new programs for the affected students, rather than trying to find high-performing schools for them.
Certainly, there will be some turmoil as the plan sinks in. But there’s a lot to like about an effort that exacts significant financial savings, disrupts as few students as possible and provides some intriguing new educational opportunities.