Denver Public Schools leaders on Monday offered a glimpse into their thoughts on possible school closures, but kept most details vague to avoid identifying schools that might be on the chopping block before the district’s plan is made public next week.

District staff reviewed a range of data, including building utilization rates, student demographics, enrollment trends and academic performance, as part of their decisions about which schools to close, according to a presentation Superintendent Alex Marrero gave to the Board of Education Monday evening.

On Nov. 7, Marrero will release a list of schools the Board of Education will consider for possible closure due to declining enrollment in the district. Neither he nor district staff would say how many schools would be on that list or where in Denver they might be located.

“It was incredibly thoughtful,” Marrero said of the process, adding that the district would avoid a “full-blown crisis” by closing schools.

Unlike previous years, DPS only registration threshold A school closure plan will be created, officials said.

To narrow down the list of schools, district staff looked at a building’s utilization rate, meaning how much of the space is being used, and whether the school was located in an area where enrollment has fallen since 2019 and is expected to continue declining through 2028. According to the presentation, schools that met the criteria were grouped into clusters based on their proximity to each other before deciding whether to include them on the list of potential closures.

In doing so, the district looks not only at whether a school is using less space in its building, but also whether there are multiple schools close together that are underutilized, Andrew Huber, DPS’s executive director of enrollment, said in an interview.

DPS said it is also looking at places where registration zones could be expanded or created. (Registration districts often consist of multiple schools, and students are guaranteed a seat if they live within the boundary rather than at a single neighborhood school.)

Huber declined to say what DPS considers to be low school utilization and whether the plan would include a change in enrollment areas. A “healthy” building utilization rate is between 85% and 100%, he said.

“There’s nothing on record,” Huber said.

Marrero is expected to do Present closure plan to school board on Nov. 7 and the school board will vote on the recommendation Nov. 21. The district just finished hosting community meetings about closures.

DPS is preparing to close schools as fewer babies are being born and enrollment is falling as gentrification drives families out of the city. The district projects that although K-12 enrollment increased 2% this year to 85,313, overall enrollment is expected to decline through 2028. preliminary data It was introduced earlier this month.

The district has the capacity to serve 57,390 elementary students, but only an estimated 39,787 students are enrolled; This means that primary schools have an overall usage rate of only 69%. According to preliminary data presented on October 7, the regions with the lowest usage rates are in the southwest, northwest and central regions.

Reduced enrollment not only means fewer students in Denver classrooms, it also means less funding per student from the state. DPS officials made an estimate in June. $2.6 million budget deficit For the financial year 2024-25. (The district’s $1.4 billion budget may vary depending on student enrollment.)

“None of us take school closures lightly,” said Board President Carrie Olson. “This situation places a heavy burden on us as a board.”