Open Letter to the DPS Board of Education

Dave Felice, Board Chair, GPHC, Inc., Roger Kilgore, Board Member, GPHC, Inc. The Greater Park Hill Community Board

This letter is to appeal to Denver Public Schools for authentic engagement with the Greater Park Hill and Stapleton communities to resolve current issues in achieving the DPS goal of “Great Schools in Every Neighborhood.”

In early April, DPS invited parents and community representatives from Stapleton and Greater Park Hill to discuss significant concerns about school choice. Many Greater Park Hill students are unable to attend MacAuliffe because their choice of school was not honored by DPS. Instead, Park Hill children will be bused or driven elsewhere, in clear contradiction to the “Denver Plan.”

Presumably, having great schools in every neighborhood is so that families in the neighborhood may attend them.

DPS first placed McAuliffe within the Stapleton community. Simultaneously, DPS allowed Smiley Middle School in Park Hill to languish. In contrast to the intentionality with which McAuliffe was developed, DPS placed five different principals at Smiley over a six-year period. Smiley was closed; McAuliffe was outgrowing its space in Stapleton. So DPS moved McAuliffe to Park Hill where it was to serve both communities.

It’s evident the school is too small to serve both communities, resulting in current enrollment problems. In addition, Stapleton families have legitimate concerns that there are no middle schools in Stapleton that have the comprehensive offerings provided by McAuliffe.

At an April 8 meeting, Superintendent Tom Boasberg acknowledged capacity issues and promised that the community would be engaged in the solutions. However, there is no evidence that DPS contemplates an authentic community process for developing solutions for the Greater Park Hill/Stapleton middle school enrollment zone.

DPS has accepted applications for several new schools that will potentially serve middle school students in what DPS refers to as the Near Northeast (Stapleton, Greater Park Hill, Skyland, Cole, Clayton, Whittier, Elyria-Swansea-Globeville, Five Points, North Capitol Hill, and City Park West). These include:

• REVO Learning (serving birth to grade 8),

• Denver Dual Language Academy (K-8),

• Lycee International de Denver (6-12),

• McAuliffe International School (6-8),

• Denver School of History, Speech and Debate (6-8),

• Downtown Denver Expeditionary School (6-8), and

• Four new middle schools run by DSST.

The Superintendent noted at the April 8 meeting that DPS would be opening another school in Park Hill. As part of what DPS calls its “Great Schools Community Conversations” families and communities were invited to hear about these schools in late April. The School Board is scheduled to vote on these applications on June 18.

While the location of some of these schools is undetermined and some may not be approved by the Board, there appears to be precious little time for sincere and genuine conversation and community planning to resolve current problems. A genuine conversation is all we ask.