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Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy will close at the end of the school year after the Denver school board voted 4-2 Thursday to shutter it. The high school, which was modeled on historically Black colleges and universities, has just 24 students this year.
Board Vice President Monica Hunter and member John Youngquist voted no. Hunter, a former Denver teacher who works for the statewide teachers union, asked about pausing the vote until an agreement granting concessions to teachers at the school could be finalized.
Superintendent Alex Marrero said the school district was done negotiating. He said the two sides verbally agreed on a $1,000 payment to the teachers, plus protections for international teachers with work visas. Marrero said the district rejected other requests. Hunter said those included giving non-tenured teachers two paid days off to interview for other jobs.
“The rationale is this is precedent setting,” Marrero said, “and potentially we have some more (school) consolidations coming, and it would not behoove us to honor those indefinitely.”
Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, and Marrero has signaled that he will recommend more school closures. But Robert F. Smith, named for a DPS alumnus, also faced a unique set of challenges that likely led to its precipitous shrinkage.
Youngquist said what happened at Robert F. Smith was heartbreaking and the district should intervene earlier when schools are struggling “instead of what feels sometimes like allowing something to happen until there’s no other decision.”
Denver funds its schools per student, and district officials said Robert F. Smith had become financially unsustainable.
The brainchild of a group of Black parents and sports coaches in far northeast Denver, Robert F. Smith opened in 2021 with no boundary, meaning all students had to choose it. That first year, DPS incorrectly listed the school’s address, which its founders said put it at a disadvantage.
Enrollment grew in 2022 but took a big hit in 2023 when the school moved to a different part of the city. Students and school founders had advocated for a move, but DPS relocated the school outside of the far northeast, where it had the most support.
The school also faced some turnover and turmoil. The founding principal left, and one of the parents who helped start the school, Brandon Pryor, sued DPS and won after the district banned him from school grounds.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
