Denver Public Schools is considering the sale of southeast Denver’s Rosedale Elementary School campus to a private entity. The Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) Education Committee is seeking community input about this important decision that will affect Harvard Gulch and many surrounding neighborhoods. From an email from the INC President: “Denver is experiencing unprecedented growth, and the INC feels a sale of Rosedale would not maintain public trust in DPS and its capacity to meet its pledge to educate Denver’s children.” The 2018 population of Denver was reported on metrodenver.org to be 717,796. By 2040, based on the City of Denver’s own demographic projections, Denver is forecast to grow 21% to 900,000 people.
Denver is growing and density is increasing rapidly – right now – proximate to the Rosedale campus: Along Broadway and parallel streets, from I-25 to Evans, there are 1300-1600 units either under construction or in the permit process. In the Baker neighborhood alone – just in 2018 – over 1,800 new residential units were built or are in process. A few other southeast Denver schools history with closures and reopenings (enrollment/wait list numbers from the DPS website): Slavens was closed from 1982 – 1996. Now, the building is benefiting 750 children with 106 on the wait list. Byers was closed for almost ten years. Now, it has 896 children with 181 on the wait list. Knight was almost closed, with DPS admin citing no foreseeable need for the property. Now, it has 330 children with 110 on the wait list. Community meetings are being planned by DPS in order to allow citizen’s input on the possible sale of the Rosedale campus.
Check in with The INC Education Committee to follow up on this message with firm dates and times for the meetings. In the meantime reach out with your thoughts to INC Education Committee [email protected].
