Why we’re here

Central Park Education News (CPEN) was created to ensure families in our northeast Denver neighborhood have the information they need to make informed education decisions for their families and stay engaged with our local schools. Operated as a nonprofit initiative of the Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities, CPEN aims to serve as a trusted resource for news and information about our neighborhood’s diverse school community by:

• Bringing relevant news to you. Through our free weekly e-newsletter, we provide journalistic coverage of Central Park schools, with a particular emphasis on topics that our community cares most about (i.e.  safety, funding, school choice, district leadership).
• Helping you make great choices for your family. In an ecosystem that’s saturated with opinions, complicated data and an overwhelming amount of information, we’re here to share unbiased information  and resources that help you make great education choices for your kids. (As a start, check out our Central Park School Guide.)
• Fostering productive dialogue. Public schools only work when the community stays engaged. We aim to catalyze conversation among educators, leaders, parents and students by amplifying local voices and opinions - all in service of building a thriving school network for our community.

About Central Park

The Central Park community is situated on 4,700 acres that was once Denver's Stapleton airport. When the airport closed in 1995 to make way for Denver International Airport, the land was slated for redevelopment in order to provide more housing opportunities for families in the rapidly-growing city.

Central Park is served by 14 schools in the Denver Public Schools (DPS) district (four are charters), including six that are part of the Central Park Elementary School Enrollment Zone and five in the Greater Park Hill/Central Park Middle School Zone. Nearly 10,000 students attend school in the neighborhood - equivalent to 12% of total enrollment in DPS. The majority of the neighborhood is served by DPS, but there is also a small section in the southeast part of Central Park that is in the Aurora city limits and is served by the Aurora Public Schools (APS) district. Several charter schools also are located in and near the community, including the award-winning Rocky Mountain Prep-Fletcher (RMP) and four in the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) network.

We’re fortunate that schools in Central Park are generally strong. Several of our schools have won recognition at the district and state (and even national) levels, and our community generally enjoys strong parental involvement and support.

About the Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities

The Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities (originally the Stapleton Redevelopment Foundation) was founded in 1990 by oilman/philanthropist Sam Gary. The Foundation’s primary charge was to design and help guide the area’s redevelopment plan, known as the “Green Book.” Recognizing that great schools were a critical component of the success of this redevelopment plan, the Green Book identified “Lifelong Learning” as a foundational pillar of the community’s plan. Today, the Foundation continues to invest heavily in helping our community’s schools thrive through grantmaking, volunteerism, news and information and other resources.

Brian Weber, the Foundation’s vice president for education and communications initiatives, is the site’s editor. Prior to joining the foundation, Weber was a newspaper reporter for 20 years in Colorado, the last 10 at the now-closed Rocky Mountain News where he covered Denver City Hall and Denver Public Schools for five years each. He is also the developer, lead founder and founding executive director of the Denver Language School, a charter that is the only Mandarin/Spanish immersion school in DPS.