At a May 7 community meeting, Cornelius Foxworth, left, who lives in Green Valley Ranch, offers his views on boundaries for the new Stapleton High School. Ronda Belen and Karen Conklin-Johnson listen intently. School board member Landri Taylor is seated behind them.
About 25 parents from Stapleton, Park Hill and Far Northeast Denver attended a May 7 meeting at DSST to give community input on boundaries for the new high school. The guiding principles in the decision making process are equity and inclusion for an integrated high-performing high school.
A decision needs to be made on what geographic area will be guaranteed a seat, how to ensure socioeconomic diversity, and what, if any, students will have priority for choice seats?
DPS representatives pointed out that setting aside a percentage of seats for free and reduced lunch (FRL—up to 40%) will ensure that the school will always be diverse.
Some of the parents felt that Park Hill students who want to continue to high school with their middle school peers should be considered for priority.
Stapleton resident Michelle Camacho Liu asks school board member Landri Taylor a question at a Stapleton high school boundary meeting. Recent community meetings have also been taking place about proposed changes at George Washington (see article below), Manual and East.
Parents from far Northeast felt setting aside 40% of seats for FRL was unfair to non-FRL families in far northeast because they would end up at the bottom of the list. They pointed out that even without an FRL set aside, giving priority to far northeast families would bring diversity since that population had 82% FRL families in 2013.
The Monaco corridor (from Quebec to Monaco, with 46 9th graders in 2013 and now in the George Washington boundary) is currently being proposed, along with Stapleton, to be the boundary area that will have guaranteed seats.
Stapleton parents continue to voice a concern that there may not be enough seats for all Stapleton students who want to attend the high school AND at the same time ensure a diverse population. DPS continues to say they believe there will be enough seats to do both.
There was another community meeting on May 28 (after this paper went to press) about boundary recommendations.
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