DENVER -
Denver's Stapleton neighborhood was marketed to parents with young children as a community where you could get to work easily and have your children go to school down the block.
But as fate would have it, so many parents with young children moved there that the Denver School District and developer Forest City now face a shortage of classroom seats.
63% of original new buyers in Stapleton had children. 60% of them were reportedly under the age of five.
The developers gave land for schools to the District and were supposed to use Tax Increment Financing to pay for the schools.
"Because of the downturn in the economy, much of the TIF capital funding has not generated the dollars we thought it would," said Forest City Vice President Tom Gleason.
"We plan to meet with the community in August and, in July, we expect the DPS board to have some action on a pair of charter schools scheduled to go online in the neighborhood."
For now, parents have choices to make: whether to send their children to area private schools or to seek out DPS schools in surrounding neighborhoods.
But as fate would have it, so many parents with young children moved there that the Denver School District and developer Forest City now face a shortage of classroom seats.
63% of original new buyers in Stapleton had children. 60% of them were reportedly under the age of five.
The developers gave land for schools to the District and were supposed to use Tax Increment Financing to pay for the schools.
"Because of the downturn in the economy, much of the TIF capital funding has not generated the dollars we thought it would," said Forest City Vice President Tom Gleason.
"We plan to meet with the community in August and, in July, we expect the DPS board to have some action on a pair of charter schools scheduled to go online in the neighborhood."
For now, parents have choices to make: whether to send their children to area private schools or to seek out DPS schools in surrounding neighborhoods.
