‘Shame on you’ | Community members sound off on DPS board, superintendent about proposed school closures

DENVER — Parents, students and people in Denver put Denver Public Schools on blast during a school board public comment hearing Monday night over the superintendent’s plan to close seven schools and restructure three others. 

It’s the community’s first chance to give the school board feedback on the superintendent’s proposal in this setting since the proposal was announced by Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero a week and a half ago.

For more than three hours, parents, teachers and community members yelled, shamed and tearfully told the school board that they believed these closures to be unfair and unjust, demanding their schools be saved. 

Dozens of speakers came forward, poking holes in Marrero’s plan to consolidate schools.  

Marrero has stressed these closures are needed to address declining enrollment in the district. DPS says the plan will save them around $30 million, with more than $23 million of that set to be reinvested right back into schools. 

Palmer Elementary mother Diana Kessel says that math just doesn’t track. 

“Out of the initial savings of $29.9 million, the presentation states that $23.3 [million] will be reinvested, which leaves a one time net investment of $6.6 million. But when your operating budget is $1.5 billion, that is not much money that your saving. So are the savings worth the damages you’re inflicting?” Kessel said. 

Kennah Phoenix Davis, a senior at the Denver Center For International Studies, said she’s fallen behind on assignments and work because she’s been so focused on trying to save her school and its accepting environment for diversity.

“You can’t place a price on our community. We shouldn’t have to justify our existence, but our community has showed up in droves to do it anyway and to support the amazing DCIS [Baker] community. The school board says it cares about student voice so prove it and listen to ours,” Davis said. 

Parents at Palmer Elementary say Marrero has tried to shut the school down before. Despite a drop in enrollment that followed, numerous parents came forward to stress to the board that Palmer is thriving, the school is continuing to win awards and unlike others not on the chopping block, it’s has air conditioning.

Karl Schuch has a five-year-old son named Julian who attends Palmer Elementary and he has already seen how the threat of closure is hurting him.

“Last Friday, Julian came home and he cried on the couch. He was in the fetal position all by himself and just sobbing about the school closing. And we weren’t even talking about it, he just came home like that. And that’s what I’m worried about. These poor kids are caught in the middle of us adults,” Schuch said. “They shouldn’t be discussing their school closing. They should be talking about normal kid stuff like pee and poop, the ninja turtles [is] what they should be talking about, not that they won’t be seeing each other again. These are five year olds! And I get it, it’s all they can think about.”

Third grade student Quinn Somers came forward to ask the board not to separate her from her classmates. 

“We have the best teacher and the best school. Our school is like a big family. Please don’t make me go to another school without my friends,” Somers said. 

Others say the plans to shut down schools in the southwest region will deeply impact Denver’s Latino communities, forcing kids to be bused far away from their neighborhoods.

Westwood resident and advocate Elizabeth Burciaga stressed the district’s enrollment data doesn’t show an issue for DPS. She said the way the superintendent announced the closures kept communities in the dark, making a tough situation worse. 

“Enrollment is up. So what is the real agenda that DPS has? Why are you trying to misplace our kids, especially our Spanish speaking kids? Shame on you all. We had to go to the schools in the morning and people were finding out. A lot of our Spanish speaking community members were crying,” Burciaga said. “Shame on you that we had to do that job.”  

Burciaga said the communities in southwest Denver are dealing with gentrification and threats to their immigration status. Now, they’ll have to worry about their children’s school communities being torn apart. 

Many speakers Monday night stressed how rushed the school closure process has been, the lack of transparency by the district and how closures are likely to place the biggest burden on DEI populations and low-income families within the district. 

Under the superintendent’s proposal, these schools would close: 

• Castro Elementary
• Columbian Elementary
• Palmer Elementary
• International Academy of Denver at Harrington
• Schmitt Elementary
• West Middle School
• Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design

Under the proposal, these schools would restructure:

• Kunsmiller, becoming 6-12 only (remove 1-5)
• Dora Moore, becoming ECE-5 only (remove 6-8)
• DCIS Baker 6-12 would become DCIS Baker MS (remove 9-12)

The DPS school board will vote on the proposed closure plan for schools Thursday night.