DPS set to recruit principals

Denver Public Schools will soon begin recruiting principals for a planned high school and middle school at the district’s Montbello campus.

Recruitment of principals will begin this winter, planning for the school’s designs and overall vision will launch in the spring and continue into the spring of 2022, according to a DPS news release. Both a feeder middle school and comprehensive high school are expected to open in the 2022- 23 school year.

In 2017, DPS received a recommendation from the Far Northeast Education Commission to bring a “comprehensive high school to the campus” as part of the Reimagine Montbello Campus project, the release said. Montbello High School closed in 2014.

More than 85% of the community and 89% of school staff on the campus support the return of a comprehensive high school in Montbello, DPS officials said.

The district continues to seek feedback and engagement from the community on the new school plans.

“We’ve heard from many voices in the Montbello community,” said Susana Cordova, DPS superintendent, in the release. “We want to bring back a comprehensive high school to the Far Northeast area, filling a gap that has been missing for almost a decade.”

In November, Denver voters will decide on a $ 795 million bond proposal to build and maintain schools, which includes a $ 130 million investment for updates to the Montbello campus.

“Depending on the outcome of the vote, DPS will either build a new facility or renovate the existing building,” according to the release.

Strive Prep charter school, the Denver Center for International Studies at Montbello and the Noel Community Art School currently operate on the campus.