Elementary school recommended for closure as housing authority projects hundreds of new families coming to neighborhood

By Karen Morfitt

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — The Sun Valley community is waging an all-out fight to save Fairview Elementary School and they say the facts are in their favor.

“For them to say oh we are going to close it now, but we are going to bring in 1500 more youth?” Genevieve Rubio said

Rubio’s children are Fairview students, she was among the families who attended a community meeting Tuesday night.

Her question was about future enrollment and pointed to the development that has overrun the neighborhood.

“It really doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

She’s referring to numbers shared by the Denver Housing Authority at that meeting. A representative says they are anticipating an influx of families starting as early as next year.

Information sent to CBS News Colorado shows there are 11 DHA projects in development or planned for the area, totaling 970 units.

The Housing Authority anticipates there will be roughly 900 to 1,500 residents under the age of 18 living in those units, and of those 300 to almost 600 of those will be elementary-age students of 5 to 11 years old.

“These units that will be leased out to families, it’s family housing. Subsidized family housing,” the representative told the community.

CBS News Colorado asked for an opportunity to speak with DPS about the potential growth instead a spokesperson sent us the following statement:

Denver Public Schools has worked closely with the Denver Housing Authority to understand the scope and timing of the Sun Valley redevelopment. We have been tracking the project since its inception and meet frequently with DHA to understand the impact of the project on enrollment projections. Our five-year forecast formula for the area has been taken into consideration in the School Unification Plan and we believe we can accommodate all students from Fairview at Cheltenham for the foreseeable future.

DPS is not planning to sell any of our empty buildings, but rather use them for district and community needs. Therefore, if at a later time, the redevelopment project ends up producing more students than our current data forecasts, we can reevaluate and engage the community in a process to determine the best use of the Fairview facility.

Parents say if that’s the plan going forward, they question the DPS motto of “students first.”

“Are there programs going to be running just as well when they add 50 more children to their roster?” Rubio asked.

There will be a community meeting at the school with DPS on Wednesday at 7:45 a.m.

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