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Enrollment in Denver Public Colleges dropped by about 1,200 college students this 12 months because the arrival of latest immigrant college students slowed, district officers instructed the varsity board Thursday evening.
For the primary time in three years, extra immigrant college students left town’s faculties than entered this summer time and fall, district knowledge exhibits. That outmigration is a pointy reversal and compounds the longstanding issues of falling delivery charges and gentrification which have brought on DPS enrollment to say no from a excessive level in 2019.
The district is predicting its enrollment will proceed to lower by a further 8%, or greater than 6,000 college students, by 2029. The sample units the stage for some tough selections within the years forward.
“This pattern means extra faculty closures shall be wanted,” a board presentation bluntly states.
However Superintendent Alex Marrero instructed the board Thursday that he doesn’t plan to activate the coverage for closing underenrolled faculties, referred to as Government Limitation 18, this 12 months.
“Nonetheless, I imagine that we’d be negligent if we do nothing, contemplating the stark realities,” he stated, referring to the enrollment drops.
Marrero stated he could enact what he referred to as “operational shifts” if some faculties are going through tough enrollment conditions. That would appear to be slicing a grade degree from a faculty if, as an illustration, solely a single kindergartener or ninth grader is enrolled, he stated.
College closures are controversial and sometimes spark fierce pushback from the group. DPS has closed or partially closed 13 district-run faculties for low enrollment up to now few years. Fifteen constitution faculties have closed lately for a similar purpose.
Earlier this 12 months, the varsity board enacted a four-year moratorium on enrollment-based faculty closures. However the moratorium features a caveat that permits the board to contemplate closures “if there’s a substantial shift in scholar enrollment, funding ranges, or an surprising emergency.”
Board member Kimberlee Sia requested whether or not this 12 months’s enrollment loss meets that bar. DPS was anticipating to lose 500 college students however misplaced 1,200 as an alternative, a 700-student distinction, officers stated.
“To me, that’s a reasonably important quantity and notably if we proceed on that pattern,” Sia stated.
Board member DJ Torres requested that the superintendent outline the phrases within the caveat earlier than recommending closures or slicing grade ranges from faculties. Marrero stated he would “respectfully ask the board to contemplate defining [the terms] itself.”
“It’s very tough to outline that tipping level,” Marrero stated. “However I might welcome that as a result of then it takes the guessing sport out for us.”
With the moratorium in place, district officers stated they’re addressing declining enrollment by way of one other coverage the board handed earlier this 12 months. Known as Government Limitation 19, it requires the district to alter faculty boundaries each 5 years.
Any boundary modifications would seemingly go into impact within the 2027-28 faculty 12 months, Marrero stated, although the district hopes to begin inner planning and maintain group conferences earlier than then. What these boundary changes would appear to be is unclear.
However district officers stated any boundary modifications may additionally assist steadiness class sizes, a precedence of the Denver academics union that was incessantly talked about throughout this fall’s faculty board election. Whereas a lot of the push has centered on addressing overcrowded lecture rooms, Marrero stated the district extra typically sees lecture rooms on the opposite finish of the spectrum.
Andrew Huber, the district’s govt director of enrollment and campus planning, instructed the board that 109 elementary faculty lecture rooms, or 8%, have 30 or extra college students this 12 months. About 21% of elementary lecture rooms, or 303, have 19 college students or fewer. These numbers are for district-run faculties solely.
Marrero additionally lately enacted a coverage that permits faculties to be closed for persistently low scholar take a look at scores. That coverage, referred to as the College Transformation Course of, went into impact this 12 months, however the soonest faculties may very well be closed for low scores could be spring 2027.
Whereas that coverage is separate from the district’s efforts to deal with declining enrollment, Marrero stated “it’s interwoven in what may occur within the panorama of Denver Public Colleges.”
Correction, Dec. 18: This story has been up to date to replicate that 303 elementary lecture rooms in district-run faculties, not 345, have 19 or fewer college students this 12 months. The earlier quantity, which was offered on the board assembly, was inclusive of constitution faculties.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
