Monarch Montessori enrolls enough students to open as a DPS charter school this fall

Monarch Montessori, the charter school that's the subject of this week's cover story, "Play Time is Over," has enrolled enough students to open this fall. Denver Public Schools, which approved the school due in part to pressure from the State Board of Education, gave Monarch until April 20 to enroll...

By Melanie Asmar

April 16, 2012

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Monarch Montessori, the charter school that's the subject of this week's cover story, "Play Time is Over," has enrolled enough students to open this fall. Denver Public Schools, which approved the school due in part to pressure from the State Board of Education, gave Monarch until April 20 to enroll 102 kids, 60 percent of the school's projected enrollment. On Friday, Monarch achieved that goal.

"Oh my gosh!" says Melanie Withers, Monarch's marketing director. "As of (last) Monday, we were at seventy (students enrolled) and a little leery that it was going to happen. But everything came together -- the phone calls, the signs -- and people started to realize what we have, and I think that made such a huge difference."

On Friday, Withers posted this on Monarch Montessori's Facebook page:

As of this morning, Monarch's enrollment is at 104 students. But the school isn't yet full and will continue to accept students until it is. This fall, it hopes to open with 170 students in kindergarten, first and second grades. Thus far, Withers says the school has enrolled 59 kindergarteners, 29 first-graders and sixteen second-graders. It can take up to sixty in kindergarten and 55 each in first and second grades.

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Melanie Asmar is a staff writer for Westword. She joined the paper in 2009 and has won awards for her stories about education, immigration and epic legal battles. Got a tip? She'd love to hear it.

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