Denver Public Schools Closing 8 Schools: DENVER – Monday, Superintendent Michael Bennet of the Denver Public School District unveiled his list of eight schools the district plans to close.
-Remington Elementary School, 4735 Pecos St., Denver
-Smedley Elementary School, 4250 Shoshone St., Denver
-Del Pueblo Elementary School, 750 Galapago St., Denver
-Whitman Elementary School, 451 Newport St., Denver
-Fallis Elementary School, 6700 E Virginia Ave., Denver
-Mitchell Elementary School, 1350 E 33rd Ave., Denver -Wyman Elementary School, 1690 Williams St., Denver -Hallett Elementary School, 2950 Jasmine St., Denver
Bennet also listed five schools that will be reformed under his plan:
-Horace Mann Middle School, 4130 Navajo St., Denver
-Place Middle School, 7125 Cherry Creek North Dr., Denver
-Gilpin K-8, 2949 California St., Denver -Kunsmiller Middle School, 2250 S. Quitman Way, Denver
-Cole Middle School, 3240 Humboldt St., DenverNow, Mitchell Elementary is our home school, although we choiced in to Bromwell Elementary and were lucky enough to get the children slots. Seriously,
that was a crapshoot -- it's one of the top performing schools. Interestingly, the academic requirements are not as rigorous as the charter school in Jefferson County where Ariel and Hunter transferred from. Anyhow, the neighborhood we live in here in Denver is eclectic, culturally rich, mostly Latino and has a high immigrant population. It's unfortunate that Mitchell will not be available to serve our neighborhood children anymore -- every morning as I drive to work, I see a lot of families walking together to drop their children off at Mitchell. There is a lot of poverty in our neighborhood; conversely, it's become a "trendy" neighborhood, as people are priced out of neighborhoods like Washington Park, Cherry Creek and Congress Park. I.E. it's gentrifying.
I used to have a very
caveat emptor attitude about gentrification and felt it was progressive and positive to see neighborhood revitalization. Of course revitalization can be a positive thing, but when it disparately displaces the working class, and families and individuals of color, then, yeah, I have a problem with that. For the first time
in the history of our city council district a caucasian won the seat for District 8 Denver City Council. It has always traditionally been seen as an African-American seat and, indeed, the run-off election between Carla Madison (winner) and Sharon Bailey was very close.
I think the closing of all the schools listed above will negatively impact Latinos in particular (judging from demographics). This is such a hard situation -- I am not the one who will be affected negatively by gentrification. I am part of gentrification, even though my motive wasn't particularly malicious: I just wanted an old Victorian house. This neighborhood is where I could afford to buy one. I wish there was a clear path of inclusion in this situation, so that those constrained by poverty and historical white entitlement wouldn't be so negatively impacted.