Isis Peña waited patiently in a line of cars on a windy December afternoon to pick up her stepkids from Sunnyside’s Columbian Elementary School. The school is one of seven Denver public school closures slated for spring 2025.
“I’m upset,” she said. “It’s going to be more inconvenient for us since we live close.”
Peña expressed disappointment that her two-year-old daughter would not be able to attend the neighborhood school when it was her turn, and said her stepchildren were sad about missing friends and favorite teachers.
“This is so sad; the kids are all sad too,” commented Stephanie Ramirez Montiel on Facebook. It was a wonderful blessing to have my children there when they were elementary age.”
“Our daughter is in pre-K and we’re sad about her not continuing here,” Nick W. said. He has been looking into other schools for his daughter, including Edison Elementary.
Last month, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education reached a unanimous decision to permanently close seven schools and change three schools’ programs. One of those schools set for closure is Columbian Elementary at 41st and Federal.
This decision came after the school had previously been on the chopping block. With many voicing their concerns about not wanting the school to close, Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero shared some factors about why the decision was made.
The number of live births in Denver has been declining by the thousands since its peak in 2002. The low birth rates are affecting the DPS enrollment, which has been declining since 2019. DPS expects that there will be a 9% decline in enrollment rates from now until the 2028-29 school year leading to the Denver school closures.
Another factor specifically that went into the decision to close down Columbian Elementary is that the building has a low utilization rate of only 38%. On top of that, the school is not enrolling a full class of kindergarten students compared to other schools. There are only 143 students at Columbian Elementary, which is low because there is still a significant amount of room to fit an additional 234 students/staff inside the building.
Since the final decision was made to close Columbian, what is going to happen to the building? And, more importantly, what will happen to the students and staff? Bucket List spoke with Denver Public Schools Spokesperson, Scott Pribble, to answer these questions.
“With all of our schools that are closing, we will hold community engagement sessions in the spring to start to discuss what use they want to have with the building,” Pribble said. “We have no plans to close, demolish or any of that. We are going to keep all the buildings and then we will see if we can come to an agreement on what to use those buildings for.”
Pribble noted their main priority is to attend to the parents, students and staff. All staff members will begin the process of relocating in January for the upcoming school year. DPS has also been actively engaged at each school, reaching out to families to assist them with any questions or concerns about the school closure and transfer process.
“The first thing we better make sure is we get all the staff placed in good spots and make sure the students land where they need to land, then we will start to worry about the building,” Pribble said. “Also, in January, families who are impacted will go through a school choice process where they will get to select the school they will like to go [to]. Obviously, there are several in the area but they have the right to choose to go to any school in DPS.”
“I went here; I am going to miss the memories,” A. Chavez, a former student of Columbian, said about the school closure. The teenager came to pick up her sibling with her grandpa. When asked what’s next for them she said, “we will have to adjust.”
For more information about the school closures or the process for families and staff, visit the DPS website.
