Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy closure rests on a process DPS says is not codified

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice

More than three and a half hours into a Denver Public Schools board work session on Oct. 8, Director Kimberlee Sia asked whether families would walk into school choice this year and find the same schools they expected. She put the question to the superintendent and to her fellow board members, “because obviously we make this decision.”

The answer came back with three exceptions. Charter renewals, new applications and one more.

“Maybe one school that is close to an operational closure,” Superintendent Alex Marrero said on the district’s own recording of the meeting. He did not say which school.

The next day, staff at Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy received a letter saying Marrero had formally recommended to the Board of Education that their school operationally close at the end of this school year.

Families were told six days after that.

Robert F. Smith is a small Denver high school, opened in 2021 and modeled after historically Black colleges and universities. The idea came from Black parents and sports coaches in far northeast Denver. In 2019, the board took the rare step of ordering the district to help the parent group strengthen its application. It approved the school a few months later.

Enrollment fell to 44 in 2023 after the school moved to a building 10 miles away. This year it enrolled 24.

Not codified

Asked which board policy, regulation or administrative procedure defines an operational closure, and for a copy of it, DPS Director of External Communications Scott Pribble said there isn’t one.

“An operational closure process is not codified, but is used when the district closes a school for a short time or even permanently because it lacks the staff, resources, or safe conditions required to keep the building open,” Pribble wrote in an email. “This is most frequently used when there are mechanical issues such as plumbing or heating that make the building unsafe to occupy.”

DPS has used the term that way before. Oakland Elementary went under an operational closure in 2021 when COVID quarantines left it short-staffed. District officials said it would last two weeks.

Board policy EL-3 governs the development of administration policies, regulations and operational procedures. It says the superintendent “shall not operate without written administration policies, regulations, or operational procedures that are consistent with law, all Board policies …”

The board monitors EL-3 annually in October.

The district changes its answer

On Oct. 16, DPS told Chalkbeat Colorado that operational closures do not require approval from the elected school board.

Four days later it said that was wrong.

Chalkbeat corrected its story on Oct. 20 to reflect that the board must vote on the superintendent’s recommendation. “Due to incorrect information provided by Denver Public Schools,” the note says, “an earlier version of this story said the superintendent could close the school without board approval.”

Pribble gave RMV the same revised answer. “An operational closure is recommended by the superintendent, but it is up to the Board to approve or deny that recommendation,” he wrote.

The letters sent to Robert F. Smith had already put the recommendation in front of the board, seven days before the district told Chalkbeat no vote was needed. The staff letter and the family letter, both signed by two district directors and the principal, say the superintendent “formally recommended to the Board of Education” that the school operationally close. Neither says the board will vote.

The Oct. 15 letter to Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy families. Staff received theirs six days earlier.

The family letter says sophomores and juniors will be contacted by the Choice and Enrollment team to offer support in finding a school for 2027-28.

What EL-18 says

The board has a policy for closing schools. EL-18, adopted in June 2024 and last revised in June 2025, defines school closure as “the act or process of closing a school.” It defines no other kind of closure.

It also sets a deadline. The superintendent presents schools recommended for closure to the board in a public meeting no later than November, and the board “shall take action” no later than November.

The policy assumes the vote elsewhere too, in a section describing what happens “in the event that the Board votes to approve the Superintendent’s recommendation to close a building.”

And it includes a pause. After the board endorses a closure plan, the superintendent “will refrain from suggesting any further closures or consolidations based on enrollment for at least four years.” The board added that language in June 2025, following the November 2024 vote to close seven schools.

The paragraph allows an exception. A new proposal “may be brought forward in a public board meeting” if there is a substantial shift in enrollment or funding, or an unexpected emergency, “as determined by either the Board or the Superintendent.”

Pribble said the superintendent “is allowed to present operational closures during that time if one of the items that is listed has been met.”

The board adopts the superintendent’s written interpretation of each policy, which sets out how he intends to show compliance. His interpretation for this year, still unadopted, says he will follow EL-18 “in instances where declining enrollment warrants potential consolidation or closure.” Low enrollment is the district’s stated reason for closing Robert F. Smith.

EL-18 also requires the district to publish building-by-building per-pupil expenses as part of ongoing community-facing communication.

Twenty-four students, $61,105 each

The enrollment update delivered to the board’s Finance and Audit Committee on Oct. 5 listed Robert F. Smith at 100 projected students and 24 actual, a gap of 76 percent. The count was taken Sept. 17.

Pribble said the projection likely included an incoming ninth grade. The district cut that grade in August, after fewer than 20 freshmen applied. He told RMV that 18 freshmen had completed enrollment and the district decided to send them elsewhere.

The district told the Denver Gazette that 14 were enrolled.

That left a school with no ninth grade going into the count.

DPS funds schools at a base of $6,821 per pupil, with a minimum threshold of 215 students. Robert F. Smith is funded as though it enrolled 215. Spread across 24 students, Pribble said, that comes to $61,105 each.

Pribble said the school has 23 staff for its 24 students, and that seven of those students are seniors.

Robert F. Smith has no attendance boundary. Every student has to choose it.

Not on the agenda

At the board’s Oct. 26 regular meeting, members present voted 5-0 to accept the October monitoring reports. Those include the superintendent’s attestation certifying compliance with all executive limitations, EL-18 and EL-3 among them. He signed it Sept. 30. It is watermarked as a draft.

The board then tabled his written interpretations of those same policies, including EL-18, on a motion from Sia. She said she was not ready to have that conversation.

In the same sitting, the board accepted his certification of compliance with EL-18 and tabled his interpretation of it.

The school’s name was not mentioned during that meeting. 

The closure was not on the Oct. 26 agenda, and it was not on the agendas for the board’s Oct. 13 or Oct. 21 sessions.

Board members did not respond to emailed questions about the closure and about EL-18.

The next regular meeting is Nov. 12. EL-18 gives the board until the end of November.