School District 27J in Brighton is holding a public meeting to gauge parental support for a year-round calendar for elementary and middle school students and an extended-day schedule for high school students to widen options of addressing the district’s mounting capacity crisis.
The meeting is 6:30 p.m. June 4 at Prairie View High School at 12909 E. 120th Ave. An independent research company will host the meeting and poll 40 parents with iClicker voting devices about using alternate schedules.
Because of the limited number of iClickers, parents interested in voting must RSVP to the meeting.
“We’re capping the number of participants at 40, but we’re certainly not going to turn anyone away if more than 40 people show up,” said Kevin Denke, spokesperson for District 27J.”There’s just a limited number of voting tools.”
Denke said the purpose of the meeting is to explore ways to alleviate crowded classrooms and caps on enrollment in case a ballot measure for a potential $150 million bond and a $7.5 million mill levy override request to build a new high school fail this fall.
“Ideally, we’re going to pass a bond and mill levy in November and we won’t have to worry about this,” Denke said. “If we wait until to November to start having these discussions, and we’re not successful at passing the measures, we’ll be that much more behind.”
He said the development and implementation of a year-round calendar takes two to three years, which is about the same as building a new high school. Because of the delay on all possible solutions, there likely will be extended enrollment caps at Brighton’s two high schools and more of its elementary and middle schools for the next couple of years, he said.
Officials in the district estimate that it will be 3,000 seats short by 2018 without building another school. Denke said the bond and mill levy override would build a new high school, two additional elementary schools and finish construction of Brantner Elementary School, which opened in Thornton two years ago.
The public input process on the backup plan for alternate schedules began about a month ago. Teachers in the district suggested extended schedules, like having Prairie View and Brighton high schools open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., and year-round calendars that would put younger students on different tracks throughout the full calendar year.
Megan Mitchell: 202-954-2605, or mmitchell@denverpost.com
To attend
Parents of 27J students interested in attending the meeting and voting with the iClicker should RSVP to Kerrie Monti at kmonti@sd27j.org. Monti said so far, about 20 parents have registered for the meeting.
