Denver Public Schools has asked a district court judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the parent group Mamas de DPS, which is seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the closures of seven schools at the end of the academic year.

The district’s attorneys have argued the parent group lacks standing.

Mamas de DPS filed the lawsuit in Denver District Court in December.

If the group prevails on its temporary restraining order, it would bar the district from shuttering any campuses while the lawsuit makes its way through the legal system.

The district argument rests on whether, as taxpayers, the parents were directly and clearly harmed – thus having a standing to bring the case.

“Such standing ‘does not flow from every allegedly unlawful government action that has a cost,’” the district’s attorneys argued.

“If it did, ‘taxpayers would have standing to challenge virtually every government action with which they disagreed, and our state courts would be transformed into forums in which to air generalized grievances about the conduct of state government.’”

Mamas de DPS LLC — which translates as “Moms of DPS” — is a member-based public interest group comprised of parents with students enrolled in the district.

The lawsuit makes several alleges, including that the district used bad enrollment data to justify the closures and maintains school boundaries that ensure the inequitable distribution of resources.

Elisabeth Owen, an attorney representing Mammas de DPS, pushed back on the district’s argument that the group lacked standing to sue, saying there is a rich history in the civil rights movement of organizations bringing lawsuits on the behalf of individuals.

Think the ACLU or the NAACP.

“It’s an argument that does not have a lot of legs, legally,” Owen told The Denver Gazette.

Owen said the group’s members are “terrified” of retaliation and that at least one includes a parent involved in the original closure of Montbello High School in 2010. Under former Superintendent Tom Boasberg the district’s philosophy was to replace larger, comprehensive high schools like Montbello with smaller, specialized schools.

Under new leadership, the district reopened Montbello — located in a diverse neighborhood in northeast Denver — in 2022.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has argued the school closures were necessary to address declining enrollment.

Dollars follow students in Colorado. Fewer students means less funding.

The schools closing at the end of the year are: Columbian Elementary, Castro Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Palmer Elementary, West Middle School and Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design.

The closures are expected to produce a net savings of $6.6 million.

Half of the impacted schools are in southwest Denver, which has and is expected to continue experiencing the greatest student loss in the district.

While birth rates nationally have declined since 2008, the metro Denver region has been largely spared an enrollment hit until now because of the immigrant influx that saw more than 40,000 immigrants — many with children — come to Denver over the past three years.

Skyrocketing home costs and gentrification in Denver also have been identified as forces driving enrollment declines.

Denver Public Schools has grappled with declining enrollment, particularly among elementary schools, since 2019.

The suit names Marrero, the Board of Education and Ben Kleban, an education consultant.

The lawsuit also takes aim at Executive Limitation No. 18, also referred to at EL-18, which was implemented by the board in June to create guardrails for the superintendent when recommending school closures.

DPS has adopted a policy governance model, which represents a shift for the district, that establishes the responsibilities and relationship between the superintendent and board of education. In theory, the new model allows the board to focus on advancing its vision for the district.

Mamas de DPS also challenged Marrero’s enrollment numbers in the filing, saying: “The declining enrollment predicate lacks foundation, both in fact and causation.”

One of the issues cited was Marrero’s exclusion of early childhood education (ECE), offered to children as young as three. This is significant because early childhood education students eventually enroll in school.

The data submitted to the court shows a 2% decline in ECE enrollment across the district from 2014 through 2023.

The lawsuit also claims the declining enrollment numbers Marrero has publicly presented to support the need for school closures “does not match the enrollment counts contained within DPS’ annual financial statements” nor does it comport with Colorado Department of Education numbers.

“It is impossible to know exactly how many students DPS actually has or has had based on the inconsistencies in enrollment counts from various sources,” the lawsuit said.

“It is also impossible to evaluate the accuracy of DPS’ enrollment projections without knowing how many students actually are and have been enrolled.”