DPS To Build Charter High School Next To Northfield High
Board Extends Support To Northfield After Contentious Hearing
By Lynn Kalinauskas
On Dec. 15, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education passed a resolution to co-locate DSST Conservatory Green High School next to Northfield High School on the Paul Sandoval Campus, in Stapleton. The section of Park Hill between Monaco and Quebec is in the Northfield High School boundary, and thus directly affected.
The passage of the resolution was expected after it was announced by DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, during a heated community meeting on Dec. 5 – less than a month after Denver voters approved a $572 million bond that included $22.4 million to expand the number of seats on the Sandoval campus by 500 seats.
Unexpected was the approval of another resolution in support of Northfield High School that stipulates a point-by-point description of how DPS will support the traditional high school. The resolution was written with the active participation of DPS Board member Rachele Espiritu who represents District 4, which includes northeast and far northeast Denver.
A rocky start
The creation of Northfield High School has had its share of bumps in the road. The school’s construction was funded with the 2012 Bond. It opened in fall, 2015 after DPS announced in 2014 it would not have enough funds to complete the proposed project. Thus the school lacks some fundamentals: a library, a functioning cafeteria, and enough seats should it grow beyond 900 students.
Just two months after the school opened in 2015, the new principal, hired from New York, resigned following issues involving school discipline. An acting principal was hired and finally, Amy Bringedahl, a former principal of Merrill Middle School, was tapped for the position. If leadership breathes stability, one can only qualify Northfield’s start as rocky.
For some families who faced the first round of choice a year ago, there was too much uncertainty. Fully 70 percent of high school students whose neighborhood school is Northfield instead chose to attend other schools, including East (100 students), DSST Stapleton (96 students), George Washington High School (68 students), and Denver School of the Arts (48 students).
The co-location of DSST on the same campus now feels like a slap in the face to the parents who have been advocating for the school for years. It is not the co-location per say or the fact that it is DSST that is at issue. It is the fact that Northfield remains unfinished.
A contested meeting
“The most important aspect in the success of a school is its community,” said Boasberg as he opened the Dec. 5 meeting, where more than 300 people crowded into Northfield Commons.
Of particular note is that Boasberg’s office had neglected to invite two important communities: Park Hill which shares part of the Northfield boundary, and the far northeast community which has priority enrollment in the 35 percent of the seats that are set aside for choice at Northfield.
The following three points were repeated over and over by parents and students when the floor was opened to questions:
• The Stapleton community has, from the beginning, repeatedly requested a traditional, comprehensive high school and been ignored;
• DPS had promised that with the passage of the 2016 Bond, Northfield would be finished;
• DPS is not supporting the high school.
Boasberg responded to the comments by stating that, “We can have a successful comprehensive Northfield High School with a top flight International Baccalaureate program and a successful DSST.”
The superintendent continued by stating that the district was supporting the IB program, a fact contested by a parent who noted that the school and community had to raise the funds to ensure Northfield would obtain IB accreditation.
Boasberg noted demand as the reason for setting up another DSST in the neighborhood – yet the demand for a comprehensive high school in both Stapleton and the Far Northeast does not meet a similar response.
Held hostage by the bond
At the meeting, many parents stated they had voted for the 2016 bond to ensure Northfield would be completed. To this, Boasberg replied, “Voters in the 2012 Bond voted for a multiple-school campus.” And referring to the 2016 Bond that will add 500 seats to the campus, Boasberg said, “It doesn’t say Northfield High School. It never said Northfield High School.” Boasberg then pointed to a future 2020 Bond to expand the existing Northfield.
In a subsequent 9News interview on Dec. 16, Amy Passas, a parent from Stapleton, stated, “As a community, many of us feel we are being held hostage to these bond issues.”
Why is there such a gap between the superintendent’s words and what so many in the community perceive as broken promises?
Many documents clearly refer to the space where the high school resides as a “campus” that would hold several “small learning centers.” Whether or not these would be for one or multiple schools is not always clear. Here are reasons why some might be confused:
– In an April 30, 2014 letter to Northeast Denver families about “the new high school opening in Northfield,” Boasberg re-affirmed previous commitments regarding “the school,” and specifies, “Phase 2 of campus construction will be completed in the 2018 timeframe in order to support the growth of the school and to meet the increasing need for secondary seats within the community.”
– In its Spring 2015 Regional Analysis, DPS writes, “Northfield HS opens in 2015 to serve demand and will require additional seats in 2018.”
– In a February 1, 2016 article in Chalkbeat, Brian Eschbacher, DPS Director of Planning and Analysis, was quoted: “At the high school level, an additional 500 seats will be needed in Stapleton by 2018, DPS planning staff predict. The plan, Eschbacher said, is to add capacity to Northfield High, a new comprehensive high school that opened on the Paul Sandoval Campus in Stapleton this fall.”
– Screenshots of the DPS 2016 interactive map showing bond projects taken before and after the bond passed in November show the target for the bond project being “Northfield High School at Paul Sandoval Campus” before the election and then “Paul Sandoval Campus” after the election. So clearly, at one point, it did say ‘Northfield High School.’
Commenting at the Dec. 15 Board meeting, Stapleton parent Dipte Nevrekar stated, “If we can’t trust DPS to provide reliable, truthful and honest information about your intentions with our tax dollars, and keep your promises, how can we trust you with our children?”
Supporting Northfield
Responding to the contentious Dec. 5 meeting, Espiritu spearheaded meetings with Northfield High School’s leadership team and Collaborative School Committee. Working with other board members and the school’s community a resolution was put forth to support the school.
Among many points, the resolution stipulates that,
• DPS will provide the funding required for Northfield’s application to be certified as an International Baccalaureate school;
• DPS will work with Northfield to create a library;
• DPS will fund and construct additional classroom or office space;
• DPS will fund and construct a full service cafeteria;
• DPS will add at least 100 parking spaces;
• DPS will provide marketing support.
The last items points to the reality that Northfield will have to compete with other schools for enrollment, including the new DSST on the Sandoval campus. And even though the resolution also states that any and all students within the boundary who want to attend the school are guaranteed a seat, many families are already choosing other high schools.
Choose it and we will build it
To date, Stapleton has overwhelmingly supported its boundary schools and there is clearly a demand for a neighborhood high school. But the “choose it and we will build it” approach might prove difficult for some families who are asking for a fully constructed site.
Both Espiritu and Board member Mike Johnson noted the fact that such resolutions are rare.
“I feel we really failed in this process, that the district failed in working with the community,” Espiritu says. “That’s why I worked towards this resolution. […] I wanted to send a clear message to DPS, that this was wrong, this is not how I would have wanted to experience this.”
Lynn Kalinauskas is Chair of the Education Committee for the Greater Park Hill Community.