As part of our Denver Plan goal to achieve Great Schools in Every Neighborhood, DPS works to ensure our facilities best serve students and that we match schools to our communities. Campus sharing is a placement solution that lets DPS serve more students with the facilities we already have available. In a campus-sharing arrangement, two or more schools are co-located within the same district facility.
Shared campuses can include both district-run and charter schools, in order to equitably use district facilities for the greatest benefit of our students.
In the 2018-19 school year, DPS will have 29 shared campuses housing 73 schools. All operate under a shared campus agreement that outlines how the schools work together in the shared facility. Tonight, the board heard an update about shared campuses, including district policies, types and locations, best practices and ongoing efforts to improve.
Superintendent Tom Boasberg noted that tonight's meeting was being held at a shared campus: the Emily Griffith campus includes both the Emily
Griffith
High School and technical College, as well as Downtown Denver Expeditionary
School
and central school support staff.
Voices from the Field
In addition, the board heard from a panel of 10 principals, teachers and students affiliated with a shared campus.
North campus STRIVE Prep Excel Principal Ben Lewis said, "School culture is about pride for your school and where you get your education, and that comes from the experiences of students, not what color your school colors are. That's why we root on each other's teams and celebrate each other's achievements -- because we are all North High School."
Conservatory Green campus
High Tech Elementary School Principal Amy Gile said it can be tough when you have older students saying inappropriate things in front of younger ones. But she said she talks with families about the benefits of the economies of scale achieved by a shared
campus. "We would not have our gymnasium or the fields available to us if we weren't able to share those costs with another school."
Montbello campus DCIS Montbello High School and Middle School Principal Julie Murgel agreed that there are some really valuable ways to benefit from shared resources like transportation, as was her experience at the Cole campus, where just two schools shared the facility. She said it is more challenging on a campus with five schools to accommodate all of their various needs and schedules. "We joke about who is going to take the 'brunch' -- the earliest of our five lunch hours," she said. It's all about collaboration and willingness to compromise for the greater good, she said.
West campus West Early College student
Jeffrey Carrillo said that it's nice for students to have the choice between different school models and class offerings so they can decide what works best for them. However, he said there is competition that has caused conflict between students. "To me, it's about building a sense of community within our schools, and focusing on how we are the same and not different, and how we can help each other and work toward a common goal."
You can learn more about shared campuses here, and read the full board report here.
