Palmer is one of 10 Denver schools that will close or partially close at the end of the school year due to declining enrollment, mostly driven by lower birth rates and gentrification.
But Denver Public Schools took a different approach to finding new schools for displaced students in this latest round of closures. Instead of matching each closing school with a receiving school, the district gave students multiple options and top preference at the school of their choice, leapfrogging even siblings and the children of teachers.
“It felt like an important offering we could make to families because we were disrupting their experience,” said Andrew Huber, executive director of enrollment and campus planning for DPS.
