The three low-enrollment campuses closing at the end of this academic year are expected to save Denver Public Schools roughly $2.4 million in budget subsidies.
But Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero — who held a lightning round of media interviews Friday after the Board of Education decision — told The Denver Gazette the closures were not about money.
The board Thursday voted to close Denver Discovery, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy and Fairview Elementary schools in a special meeting on Thursday. This marked the first closure to address a decade of declining enrollment in the state's largest school district.
“It’s always been about the student experience,” Marrero said.
Enrollment is the basis for determining school funding. All three of the closing schools have fewer than 120 students.
“It’s less about savings," Marrero said. "It’s about having a plan.”
District officials points to lower birth rates, skyrocketing home costs and gentrification as the biggest factors driving the decline in enrollment, which has dropped by more than 8,000 since 2014.
Last fall, Marrero presented a plan to shutter 10 schools, which the board rejected. All three of the schools to be closed were on that short list.
Another dozen schools will be considered for closure next school year. If all 12 are approved, that could save the district another $4.3 million in budget subsidies.
The district provides funds to each school based on the number of students. Those schools with low enrollment have requested extra funding in the form of subsidies. Those would not have to be paid if the schools were closed.
The district has a roughly $9 million budget shortfall this school year.
Were the board to close all 15 campuses with an enrollment of less than 215 students each, the savings in supplement school funding would amount to roughly $6.7 million, according to district data.
Any savings will "go right back into the system," Marrero said. Some of the saved funds, he said, could be used to expand afterschool and other programs.
Students at the campuses closing will receive school-choice preference and teachers and staff will be transferred elsewhere in the district, officials have said.
Marrero said he anticipated no layoffs as a result of any school closure.
Typically, employee salaries are the greatest expense for any company. Given that there will be no staff layoffs, Marrero said he expected operational savings to drive down district costs.
"We will have less lights on," Marrero said.
It is unclear what the district will do with the empty buildings. The ten minutes The Denver Gazette was allotted for the interview was insufficient to discuss this.
