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Issues about how future college closures would affect communities of coloration and questions on easy methods to repurpose empty college buildings prompted Denver college board members to counsel revisions to a proposed college closure coverage Monday.
The board is predicted to vote on the coverage later this month.
The proposal, identified formally as Government Limitation 18, is supposed to deal with declining enrollment in Denver Public Colleges. Enrollment in DPS has been falling since 2019, and regardless of a latest inflow of migrant college students, the district is predicting one other 8% drop by 2028. The proposed coverage says closures and consolidations are crucial “to take care of the monetary viability of the district and to maximise the sources, employees, and applications provided to college students.”
Denver colleges are funded per pupil. Colleges with fewer college students have much less cash to rent academics and psychological well being employees, they usually typically battle to supply music, artwork, and different elective lessons. The Denver college board voted to shut three small colleges final yr, and board members have stated they anticipate extra closures and consolidations are coming.
The proposed coverage says the superintendent shouldn’t use enrollment minimums — that means colleges with lower than a sure variety of college students — as “shiny line standards” for closing or consolidating colleges. It additionally bars the superintendent from utilizing standardized take a look at scores or college rankings as “a situation” for closure or consolidation.
The superintendent should suggest college consolidations or closures to the board by October annually, and the board should vote by January, the proposal says.
Forward of Monday’s dialogue, the board held three digital question-and-answer periods final week concerning the proposal. In a chat field on Zoom, contributors typed questions, together with whether or not the coverage would additionally apply to independently run constitution colleges, how shuttered college buildings can be repurposed, and why a faculty’s take a look at scores wouldn’t be thought of.
“What sort of safeguards could be added to the coverage to make sure fairness by stopping the loudest or most linked communities from influencing the suggestions?” one individual wrote.
In response to that query, board member Scott Esserman pledged sturdy neighborhood engagement. “We need to hear neighborhood voice,” he stated, including, “that doesn’t essentially imply neighborhood resolution making” however somewhat neighborhood enter into the choices being made.
However some neighborhood members are already calling the board’s engagement practices into query. Final week’s digital conferences have been introduced in a district electronic mail blast on Tuesday, in the future earlier than the final day of college and two days earlier than the Thursday conferences.
About 25 to 30 folks attended every of the primary two periods at 8 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., whereas simply 10 folks attended the third at 7 p.m., in accordance with a district spokesperson. Denver Public Colleges serves greater than 88,000 college students.
“It looks like neighborhood engagement is an afterthought,” stated Clarence Burton, CEO of advocacy group Denver Households for Public Colleges.
At Monday’s college board assembly, board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa apologized.
“It wasn’t the most effective timing,” she stated of final week’s digital conferences, “however it was crucial that we permit for some suggestions from the neighborhood.”
Board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán proposed a number of revisions Monday to the draft coverage that she stated have been based mostly on neighborhood suggestions. Gaytán steered including that the superintendent should collaborate with college communities to repurpose a closed college constructing in order that it “advantages the neighborhood.” Different board members agreed.
However one other of her proposed amendments spurred well mannered pushback. Gaytán steered including two clauses geared toward making certain sure scholar teams, together with multilingual learners, should not disproportionately impacted by college closure or consolidations, and that any consolidations don’t “exacerbate segregation based mostly on scholar race, financial class, and language.”
Whereas different board members stated they agreed with the spirit of the proposed amendments, some requested: If a faculty that serves largely college students of coloration merges with one other close by college that serves the identical inhabitants, would that exacerbate segregation?
“I’m not saying this will’t be in right here,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum stated of that proposed modification. “My query is, How can we talk that worth in another way in order that we’re not principally saying, ‘You can not consolidate.’”
In response to neighborhood questions on why the board needs to depart standardized take a look at scores out of college closure selections, board members held agency.
“What we’re centered on proper now could be right-sizing the district in order that college students obtain the suitable companies, and including this as a consideration solely muddies these potential outcomes,” Esserman stated in the course of the digital conferences.
Board members have been obscure about whether or not the coverage would apply to constitution colleges. It says the superintendent ought to suggest colleges for closure or consolidation in a means “that equitably distributes the consequences of adjusting demographics throughout governance fashions,” implying the coverage would apply to constitution colleges in addition to district-run colleges.
Whereas a number of Denver constitution colleges have closed on their very own attributable to low enrollment, state regulation doesn’t explicitly permit college districts to shut constitution colleges for that purpose. Within the digital conferences, board members stated they might observe state regulation.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
