Despite 'No' vote some Denver Public schools still facing closures next fall

The superintendent of Denver Public Schools says despite a "No" vote to school consolidations Thursday night, some schools will likely face closures next fall anyways.

Issues with low enrollment and the subsequent budget deficit, continue to grow.

Initially, the district says there were 14 schools that qualified for consolidation based on criteria developed by the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee.

"The DEAC met through the spring and presented in the summer. I believe the summer was the opportune time for members of the community and the board of education quite frankly to ask a little bit more in terms of probing questions or request some additions to the criteria which is the board of education's purview if they wish," said Dr. Alex Marrero, Superintendent for Denver Public Schools.

Board members have publicly been at odds over the decision to consolidate. Marrero says he believes these types of distractions have likely resulted in some missed opportunities for the board to weigh-in. Now, they must start over on a tight timeline.

"Out of the 14 that we mentioned, I think some of them may have to shutter their doors which will be much more catastrophic than doing it the way that we planned, because there's no guarantee for employment at that point, and if we're getting scrutinized in terms of our engagement and our process now," Marrero let out a long sigh, and continued, "when it's an emergency and it happens so abruptly? We're really gonna get a lot of hate from the community, and rightfully so."

The issue is emotional for many families, but the timeline is the frustrating part since they were only informed in October which schools were being considered for closure.

"The broader lesson is that the process needs to start sooner by engaging with families," Brian Eschbacher said.

Eschbacher was the former enrollment chief for DPS and now is a consultant for districts across the nation.

"Closing schools is always a challenge but the process becomes really important, and I think Jeffco had a really strong process, and I think what we're hearing is that people didn't feel the same way about Denver," he said.

But, he says, that doesn't change the bottom line. Low enrollment is hurting classrooms across the district. Closing schools may only help with a small fraction of the budget issues, but it's the logical next step.

"By closing these schools and shifting those funds to other schools, the thinking is that you're able to save on facility costs and support costs to then allocate to the other students in the remaining schools."

Dr. Marerro says for now there are two paths forward. One involves waiting to see what happens, which isn't ideal. The second path, he's much more enthused about.

"What the board is going to do, is define what they meant yesterday in terms of community engagement and also potentially developing policy which I heard yesterday. Uncharted, and exciting, okay? Don't know what that looks like. That's for the board and hopefully me to decide," Marrero said.

Eschbacher says as the district moves forward, the community engagement aspect should be a priority.

"They need to feel valued and brought along because I think we heard from people that they didn't feel valued and brought along, and I think the proposal needs to be a sticker. They can't keep changing it, especially toward the end and then people are questioning why there were these changes made at the end."