Manual High School: DPS has plan to expand once-shuttered school to grades 6 through 12

By Melanie Asmar Mon., Jul. 25 2011 at 1:59 PM

Categories: Education

Manual High School, home to super-debaters and Westword cover siblings Teague and Theron Harrison, could expand to include grades 6, 7 and 8. According to Education News Colorado, Denver Public Schools staffers are crafting a plan to grow the once-shuttered, now-reborn school -- and the school board could vote on it as early as this fall.

The plan aims to boost enrollment at Manual, with the first step coming this fall with a new principal -- the school's third in four years since it reopened in 2007. DPS staff hope that reconfiguring Manual's boundaries and "feeder pattern" -- the elementary and middle schools that "feed" into Manual -- will attract more students to the school. The expectation, as outlined in a report by the Near Northeast Network of Schools advisory group, is that students who attend middle school at Manual will stay for high school.

For more details on DPS's plans for all of the city's neighborhoods, check out the staff's Regional Recommendations report presented to school board members last month.

At a meeting to vet principal candidates earlier this year, one participant summed up the thoughts of almost everyone with this simple statement: "We can't mess up again with Manual," she said. Here's hoping that the expansion plan ensures the school a healthy future.