This closed Denver school building is the new home of a French immersion charter school

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat Colorado.

A French immersion charter school and two community arts organizations will move into an elementary school building that Denver Public Schools shuttered last year.

This fall, the French American School of Denver will occupy the northeast Denver building that once housed the International Academy of Denver at Harrington, which was one of 10 schools that closed or partially closed in spring 2025 due to low enrollment.

“We feel a great sense of pride and a great sense of being humbled by this opportunity to have a building where we can truly thrive,” said Principal Kathy Durán.

The Art Students League of Denver and New Cottage Arts, two local organizations that offer art classes and more, will also move into the Harrington building in 2027.

How to repurpose vacant school buildings is a hot topic that’s expected to heat up as Denver grapples with continued declining enrollment and the likelihood of more school closures. The Denver school board has been debating a new facility usage policy for more than a year.

The French American School of Denver applied to move into Harrington through a process specifically for charter schools. Opened in 2021, the charter elementary school had outgrown the space it was renting in a former Catholic school, Durán said. As the only public French immersion school in Denver, it wanted to grow its enrollment, she said.

“The school has really sparked a connection with other Francophone African families, which has been beautiful to foster that part of my daughter’s bicultural identity,” mother Kelda Polomik-Tene told the Denver school board in March. “We would love to have a bigger facility so that more kids could be a part of our community.”

Like other charters that rent district-owned buildings, the French American School will pay a per-student fee to DPS. Next year, that’s expected to total $289,926 for 234 students, according to a district memo. Eventually, the school could pay $371,700 for up to 300 students.

Separately, DPS issued a request for proposals this past winter to turn part of Harrington into a community center for the surrounding neighborhoods. The Art Students League of Denver and New Cottage Arts won the bid. Both run existing programs in Denver.

The Art Students League offers classes in painting, drawing, photography, and more to adults and children for a fee, though the organization also provides scholarships and some free programming, according to its application.

New Cottage Arts offers music and art classes, a drumline program, mural projects, and leadership development opportunities to youth for free, according to its application.

DPS is currently negotiating leases with each organization, said Andrew Huber, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning. The timeline calls for them to move into the Harrington building next summer at the earliest.

In addition to Harrington, the district has four empty elementary school buildings: Columbian, Fairview, Schmitt, and Remington. The plans for those buildings are still up in the air, Huber said. But district leaders have provided some details.

The district also issued an RFP for the Columbian building in northwest Denver this past winter. It was looking for an organization to run a childcare center for infants and toddlers that would be willing to share space with an early education workforce training program.

But Huber said in a statement that DPS received few applications. The district still sees value in turning Columbian into a childcare center, he said, so it is working with several organizations to conduct a feasibility study in the hopes of re-releasing the RFP.

The district is considering multiple possible uses for the Fairview building in west Denver, Huber said. Since it closed in 2023, the building has housed a special education program.

Among the proposals DPS is considering is one to relocate its Florence Crittenton High School for teen mothers to Fairview and partner with affordable housing nonprofit Mercy Housing so students can live and learn in the same neighborhood.

DPS is also considering a proposal to turn Fairview into a childcare center, Huber said. The district is vetting the ideas alongside the city and the Denver Housing Authority, which runs several affordable housing projects around Fairview.

Last year, the district put out a preliminary “request for information” for ideas to repurpose several schools, including Remington, which closed in 2008 and most recently housed a charter school. Albion SC Denver, a soccer club founded in north Denver, proposed turning Remington into an indoor-outdoor sports complex with turf fields, a gym, and a cafeteria.

Huber said DPS is “actively exploring the financial and operational feasibility of this concept.”

The district received fewer ideas for Schmitt in southwest Denver. Huber said there are no updates on how that building will be repurposed.

DPS has already repurposed two of the elementary schools that it closed last year. Palmer is now a district preschool center. Castro is the new home of Summit Academy, a district-run middle and high school that serves students at risk of dropping out.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.