December 14, 2012

McAuliffe Location Meeting Summary

McAuliffe hosted a meeting for the Stapleton community on Thursday, December 13,
2012, to discuss the space and capacity issues that face the Swigert-McAuliffe
building and impact the greater Stapleton and Park Hill neighborhoods.

We shared projected enrollment data for both Swigert and Stapleton 4, the new
elementary building scheduled to open in fall of 2014 in Eastbridge, with feeder
classrooms opening in 2013. Swigert Elementary, which originally planned to
enroll three classrooms per grade, has responded to the demand for elementary
seats in Stapleton by increasing their enrollment an additional five classrooms
this school year. In 2014/15, enrollment at Swigert and McAuliffe is projected
to exceed the capacity of the building by eleven classrooms.

Due to the extra classrooms needed by Swigert to meet this demand, McAuliffe
will be unable to sustain both its 6th grade enrollment size and our
International Baccalaureate programming beyond the 2013/14 school year if we are
to stay in our current building. While McAuliffe plans to remain in the SMIS
building for 2013/14, we're working now to determine if there is a more
sustainable option for McAuliffe that will serve our middle school kids better
in the 2014/15 school year and beyond.

DPS recently recommended the phasing out of Smiley Middle School in Park Hill,
which the school board will officially vote on later this month. The proximity,
size and features of the Smiley campus present an opportunity for McAuliffe to
serve both Stapleton and Park Hill as a shared neighborhood middle school. To
explore the viability of this option, McAuliffe created an advisory committee
made up of current McAuliffe parents from both Stapleton and Park Hill. Those
parents quickly reached consensus that a move to the Smiley location represents
a unique opportunity that would address our space challenges and allow us to
serve both communities and fulfill our IB programming.

We are now speaking with the larger Stapleton and Park Hill communities to
gather further input and work through details of what such a move would require
to be successful and a win-win for both neighborhoods.

Our next steps are to continue to gather input from these community meetings and
further refine details of a plan that would appeal to both Stapleton and Park
Hill. We're also in regular communication with our neighborhood elementary
principals, the Stapleton United Neighbors Education Committee, and others
during this process.

Please watch for more information and opportunities to ask questions and offer
input in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Kurt Dennis
McAuliffe International School, Principal
720.424.4790