It was a tough night Thursday for some Denver Public School families, who watched as seven schools in the district were listed for possible closure.

“I’m shocked, I’m sad, I’m angry. I have a lot of emotions,” Sara Nakon said.

Nakon is the mother of two girls who attend school at Palmer Elementary. Families at this school are no strangers to fighting back against school closures, but this time Nakon hoped their building would be spared.

“I told everyone we will be safe because I really believed that,” Nakon said.

On Thursday, Chief Inspector Dr. Alex Marrero announced the list of seven schools recommended for closure to school board members and families, including five primary schools and two secondary schools:

Colombian primary school
Castro Primary School
Schmitt Elementary School
Denver International Academy in Harrington
Palmer Elementary School
Western High School
Denver School for Innovation and Sustainable Design

The following program changes or school restructurings – which do not require a board vote – are also recommended (ECE stands for Early Childhood Education):
Kunsmiller only goes 6-12 (remove 1-5)
Dora Moore only becomes ECE-5 (remove 6-8)
DCIS Baker 6-12 becomes DCIS Baker MS (remove 9-12)

“This is to address our current status, to ensure that we have a healthy system for the foreseeable future,” Marrero said.

Nakon and her friend Diana Kessel, who also has two girls who attend Palmer Elementary, both cried together after hearing the news and having to tell their children what could happen to their school.

“It just breaks my heart to see my children so devastated,” Kessel said.

The district announced this list due to ongoing concerns about declining enrollment in the district. The seven schools were chosen after DPS schools were divided into 31 clusters. Within these clusters, district leaders compared data between schools in a number of areas, including how much each school used their space and whether or not they had sustainable enrollments.

Not only do some parents question the data used to determine which schools would be on the chopping block, they also say that simply moving them to schools with higher enrollments won’t help improve their students’ education.

“We have smaller classes. I made a conscious decision for that. I don’t want my children to be in a class of 36 people,” says Nakon.

Although families will be given priority to send their children to area schools if these recommendations are implemented, Kessel said this is not enough to address families’ concerns.

“The proposal is ridiculous. You’re asking the community to completely disintegrate, choose schools and fend for themselves,” Kessel said. “I can’t even guarantee that my two girls will stay together because the other schools on the list are over capacity.”

Marrero says these recommendations would eliminate about 4,000 vacant seats in the school system and save the district about $30 million, $24 million of which will go back to other DPS schools.

“None of us want to close schools and we realize how difficult this is as we move forward and consider how we will vote,” said DPS Board Chairman Dr. Carrie Olson.
Next week, board members will visit the affected schools to meet with families and staff.
On November 18, DPS will receive feedback from the community during the board’s public comment session.

Then on Nov. 21, the school board will vote on which schools they want to close and consolidate.