Back to square one for Denver Public Schools caught in a budget crisis

It's back to square one for Denver Public Schools caught in a budget crisis. Not only did the school board vote against closing any schools on Thursday night, they also threw out the criteria they used to develop the plan to close the schools in the first place. 

"We did it. All of that hard work that we've done for the past three weeks has paid off," said parent Darcy Cornish Lovato, a mother of two children at Columbian Elementary. 

Here's what happened: Denver Public Schools recently narrowed its list of schools to be closed from 10 schools to five, and then DPS superintendent Alex Marrero seemingly threw another option on the table during the board meeting on Thursday night, narrowing the recommendation yet again to two schools. 

Going into the meeting on Thursday, those schools still slated for closure were Denver Discovery School, Schmitt, Fairview, International Academy of Denver at Harrington and Math and Science Leadership Academy. Then that list shrank to two, Math Science Leadership Academy and Denver Discovery School.

But opposition to closing even those two schools quickly spread on the board. 

"If we want this vote to reflect the values of this board, the only vote we can take is a no vote," said District 4 board member Michelle Quattlebaum. 

"I know going forward we may need to come back and address this again. But we cannot do it without the community," said Dr. Carrie Olson, a District 3 board member.

In a news conference, board vice president Auon'tai Anderson claimed, "This process through the small schools resolution told the superintendent to be community-led. That didn't happen." 

The board voted unanimously to terminate the Small Schools Resolution that was used for guidance in creating the list of schools for closure.

Earlier this week, DPS heard emotional and passionate testimony from parents on closing schools. Many said they needed more time to process the decision to close their neighborhood schools. 

Discussion on the other five schools on the original closure proposal: Colfax, Columbian, Eagleton, Palmer and Whittier, had seemingly stopped for the time being. 

A DPS spokesperson said closing the schools will save the district millions of dollars, or enough to hire a couple dozen more teachers.  But the district's declining enrollment means less per pupil funding coming in and the need to cut costs in the tens of millions of dollars. 

"I'm not going to paint a pretty picture that no school will ever close from now on," said board president Xochiti Gaytán. "We don't know that. The budget is showing us that there's a lot of constraints."

The school board is starting over and has scrapped all plans to close schools in the district- for now.