In a sign that charter school growth in Denver could be slowing, the district’s largest network for the first time will not immediately open a high school to complement one of its middle schools.
Plateauing student enrollment, fewer empty buildings, and a growing hesitancy to replace struggling schools are changing the ecosystem for charters in Denver Public Schools, a district nationally known for collaborating with the independently run public schools.
Denver has incubated several high-performing homegrown charter networks, the largest of which is DSST. But DSST now faces a hiccup in its rapid growth. Despite intense lobbying from parents at DSST: Henry Middle School, the district did not make space available next school year for the network to open an accompanying high school, disrupting the network’s sixth-through-12th-grade model and leaving parents scrambling for other options.
