Last night, DPS released Round 1 school choice school assignments to families across the district, including families whose children currently attend schools that were subject to closure for the 2025-26 school year. They did this knowing that Mamás’ reply in support of its motion for preliminary injunction was due today, March 21, and knowing that the court would not give us a hearing until we filed the reply. Because DPS has now effectively closed schools, Mamás has made the difficult decision that continuing to pursue preliminary injunctive relief (an order that would keep schools open for the 2025-26 school year) will cause more harm than it will do good at this point. We will instead choose to focus our time, attention, and resources on a long-term strategy that will force DPS to take responsibility for its gross financial mismanagement, deeply rooted race- and class-based segregation, and other poor conditions for children in the district. You can read Mamás’ Notice of Withdrawal of its Motion for Preliminary Injunction here.

DPS has filed its response opposing Mamás’ request to halt the school closures planned for the 2025-26 school year, and its motion asking the Court to dismiss the entire lawsuit. We’ll prepare a more in-depth analysis over the weekend, as well as an update about next steps for Mamás in the lawsuit. Meanwhile, here are some immediate, important observations:

As we said in our last update, DPS requested a significant extension of time to respond to Mamás’ motion for preliminary injunction designed to stop the 2025-26 school closures. Unfortunately, the Court gave DPS this massive extension of time, over our objection that it would basically allow DPS to run out the clock on the school closures. As we get ready to read DPS’ response to both the preliminary injunction motion and Mamás’ complaint, both of which are now due today, Friday, March 14, 2025, Mamás reflects on how we got here, and where we should be headed.

After being served with Mamás’ motion for preliminary injunction, DPS filed a motion requesting to delay the proceedings so significantly that the court will not practically be able to issue an injunction that will create the certainty about school placements for next year that Mamás has requested on behalf of DPS students, families, and communities. Mamás opposes the motion, and continues to request that the court set the preliminary injunction hearing that we are entitled to. At the same time, DPS has asserted an entitlement to a preliminary injunction hearing in a federal lawsuit it filed just yesterday within a week. The court is currently considering DPS’ delay request. 

On January 21, 2025, Mamás filed its motion for preliminary injunction. The motion requests that the court order DPS to halt the school closures that it has planned for the 2025-26 school year. We will request that the court set a hearing to accept evidence about whether or not DPS violated its own policy when DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero requested the school closures and the Board of Education voted to approve them.

In November 2024, DPS decided to close ten public schools, in whole or in part. The reason: “declining enrollment.” The lawsuit we filed on December 19, 2024, alleged that DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero had not presented accurate enrollment numbers in connection with his school closure request. 

On January 9, 2025, the Denver Board of Education held a work session in which they discussed the district’s “financial health.” In the slide deck, DPS represents that “DPS K-12 enrollment is at its highest point in recent years,” and acknowledged that its prior enrollment “projections” were wrong. DPS has, nevertheless, showed no signs of voluntarily stopping the school closures it approved in November 2024, even though even the district now appears to acknowledge that the reason it gave for the closures lacks factual support. 

On December 19, 2024, Mamás de DPS, a grassroots parent organization, filed a 142-page complaint against School District No. 1, its Superintendent Alex Marrero, the Denver Board of Education and each of its members, and a consultant named Ben Kleban, whom the Board hired in 2024, alleging serious mismanagement of DPS funds and unconstitutional conditions in DPS schools. Mamás was spurred to action by Marrero’s November 7, 2024, recommendation and request that the Board vote to close 10 schools (7 totally, 3 partially) for the 2025-26 school year. The Board voted unanimously to approve Marrero’s closure request just two weeks later, on November 21, 2024.