Denver Public Schools exploring idea to lease shuttered school to third party

Christy Steadman
csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

The Washington Park Profile

Jo Peters points to herself, seventh on the right in the first row, in an early-1960s class photo of Jane Dobson’s students. Peters brought the picture to a February 2020 tour of Rosedale Elementary School offered by Denver Public Schools. Of the approximate 20 tour attendees, Peters was the only one who had attended Rosedale. Christy Steadman

When she was in elementary school in the early 1960s, Jo Peters learned to fold a flag properly.

She was one of eight in the color guard at Rosedale Elementary School, and remembers raising the flag every morning and taking it down every afternoon.

“Denver was a wonderful place to grow up,” said Peters, now an Englewood resident. “I would love to see the (Rosedale) school preserved, for its historical value.”

The fate of Rosedale Elementary, 2330 S. Sherman St., is still undetermined. But Denver Public Schools has decided to explore the possibility of leasing it to a third party.

DPS entertained a number of community meetings in the earlier part of the year, during which the school district asked the community to weigh in on a variety of options regarding the site’s future — reopening it as a public school, leasing the property, leaving the property in its current state or selling it.

The community was “loud about its desire” for DPS to retain ownership, said Scott Baldermann District 1 representative on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education.

Based on review of a report that included the community’s input, on April 20, the Board of Education decided that the “best initial course of action” is to retain ownership, and lease it to a third party for a non-DPS purpose, DPS spokeswoman Winna Maclaren said in an email.

DPS then created a task force of nine members who, in partnership with DPS, will help generate a request for proposals for any potential future tenants of the Rosedale school, Baldermann said. The task force consists of representatives from the Rosedale/Harvard Gulch Neighborhood Association, area residents and parents of children who attend nearby schools.

The task force will help decide what kind of uses would be allowed, and the method for which possible tenants will be decided upon in the chance that DPS gets multiple interested parties, Maclaren said. The task force will also be responsible for making a recommendation on its desired tenant to the Board of Education, Maclaren said.

Baldermann said he hopes the task force comes up with some creative ideas for a future tenant, adding that there could be possibilities for shared, community uses.

But most importantly, Baldermann said, is that he “wants the community to be proud and happy with the end result.”

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