Equity In Our Park Hill Classrooms: Lookin Back And Looking Ahead
Originally published in the Greater Park Hill News – February 2026
Third graders from Park Hill, Stedman, Smith and Hallett elementary schools, at the Smiley Campus. Every year, participating students gathered together for One Park Hill Day. Sponsored by Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, OPHD was designed to provide students with in-group experiences with kids from other schools.
As PHNEE finds itself in a transition period, We wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, where we’ve missed, and ask the community, what comes next?
This is a story about community organizing as it actually happens: imperfect, volunteer-led, and shaped as much by relationships as by plans. It includes real momentum and real frustration, things that worked and things that didn’t, and a lot of people giving their time because they cared deeply about the Greater Park Hill neighborhood and its schools.
In August of 2017, a diverse group of 30 parents and community members gathered in the offices of Greater Park Hill Community to ask two deceptively simple questions:
Why were the public elementary schools in Greater Park Hill (Park Hill, Stedman, Smith and Hallett) providing such different opportunities for kids? And, was there the will in the community to do something about it?
At the time, differences in enrollment patterns, access to resources, and school ratings told very different stories from school to school. And yet, it was also clear that meaningful, inspiring work was happening in all four schools. Dedicated educators, engaged families, and resilient students were doing their best within systems that were far from equitable.
The stakes felt high. Denver Public Schools was signaling that at least one of the schools could be at risk of closure. Greater Park Hill had lived through such closures before, often with limited community input and real harm as a result. In the room that August day, there was a shared sense that if change was coming, it needed to be shaped with the community — not done to it.
This photo — a blend of students representing all four of Park Hill’s public elementary schools — was used in several of PHNEE’s program materials. The students are all now in high school. Photos courtesy of PHNEE
Four schools, One Park Hill
From that first gathering, a racially and socioeconomically diverse group of about 15 people volunteered to take on the work. We gave ourselves a name — Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education — and, unintentionally, an acronym that stuck: PHNEE (pronounced “Fnee”).
In those early months, we spent a lot of time learning together and getting clear about what we were actually trying to do. We knew from the start that this wasn’t about “fixing” a single school or chasing a quick win. It was about shared responsibility across the neighborhood.
We articulated a set of guiding principles that kept bringing us back to the same core ideas:
• Raise awareness about current segregation in our four neighborhood elementary schools
• Raise awareness of the benefits of socioeconomically integrated schools
• Raise awareness of Greater Park Hill’s long history of fighting for diversity, inclusion, and equity
• Lift up the positive aspects of all four schools
• Foster a sense of community ownership of all four schools together
• Increase community will to make choices that improve socioeconomic integration
Hard questions, shared hopes
Greater Park Hill has a long legacy of social justice activism — including its central role in Keyes v. School District No. 1, the 1973 Supreme Court case that established that segregation existed in Denver’s public schools and that segregation was a constitutional violation. Families from this neighborhood were instrumental in bringing that truth to light and we understood ourselves as standing on their shoulders.
From the beginning, awareness mattered. History mattered. Relationships mattered. And we believed that any durable change would require a shared understanding of how we got here, and why equity and integration are not just abstract ideals but lived experiences.
That grounding eventually led to a community-wide gathering in January 2018. More than 160 people came together for a shared meal and a morning of learning, listening, and conversation. Neighbors, educators, and community leaders gathered to grapple with hard questions and shared hopes.
Education writer Lynn Kalinauskas captured the energy of that afternoon in a column for the Greater Park Hill News, titled A Force to Be Reckoned With. Reflecting on the gathering, she wrote that it felt like a moment when the community was “ready to take responsibility for the inequities it sees — and willing to sit with the discomfort that comes with that work.”
Three big buckets
Following that gathering, we organized our work into three broad buckets that reflected our original commitments: communications, shared experiences, and policy.
Communications focused on awareness-building. We wrote regularly in the Greater Park Hill News. We hosted “We PHNEEd to Talk” conversations at our neighborhood libraries. We used social media to share stories and resources. We launched the PHNEE website — phnee.org — and yes, we celebrated that milestone. The goal wasn’t to tell people what to think, but to create shared language, shared history, and shared understanding.
Shared experiences were about building relationships. We hosted One Park Hill Day, an annual event that brought third-grade students from across the neighborhood together. We believe that true integration moves beyond desegregation and works to create real belonging and meaningful relationships.
The policy work was where things became most complex. Our orientation from the start was not to wait for the district to solve things for us, but to ask what we could do, here in Greater Park Hill, to improve equity.
Through conversations with families, educators, and school leaders across all four elementary schools, one challenge surfaced repeatedly: Hallett Academy’s lack of a defined attendance boundary. Without a boundary, Hallett, at 29th and Jasmine, struggled with stable enrollment, which in turn affected funding, staffing, and program offerings. It was a downward cycle that had little to do with the commitment or quality of the people inside the building.
‘So now what?’
As we explored possible paths forward, it became clear that meaningful community input was essential, and that the systems involved were deeply confusing. School choice, enrollment policies, funding formulas, and the School Performance Framework are not intuitive, even for highly engaged parents.
We wanted to ask the community, “So now what?” But first, we needed a shared baseline of understanding. That realization led to the creation of an animated explainer video called Imagine One Park Hill.
Designed as a clear, accessible introduction to the issues facing our neighborhood schools, the video explains enrollment patterns, boundaries, choice, and equity in a way that neighbors could see and talk about together. It wasn’t meant to prescribe a solution, but to create a common starting point for conversations.
We screened the video in many settings — at coffee with principals, PTA meetings, and on local media, including Jeff Fard’s brother jeff show. We gathered feedback as we went, adjusting our thinking along the way.
When the world changed
Recognizing that any shifts in enrollment patterns would primarily affect families not yet enrolled in schools, we developed an outreach plan focused on neighborhood preschools.
We were ready to launch that plan in March of 2020.
Then the world changed.
As COVID-19 reshaped daily life, questions about where kids were assigned to school understandably became less pressing. Policy work stepped back. Our communications and outreach continued, including a monthly Zoom conversation called EdEquity Corner. But shared experiences like One Park Hill Day had to be canceled.
Holding on to community was hard; growing new community felt nearly impossible. People got tired of Zoom. Attendance slowed. And for those of us most deeply involved, our kids kept growing older.
Over the past several years, we have done what we could to keep the thread intact. We brought back One Park Hill Day twice more. We continue to draw inspiration from Greater Park Hill’s history, reminding ourselves that change here has never been quick, or linear.
Anniversary of Keyes and more
In 2023, as the 50th anniversary of the Keyes decision approached, we convened a gathering of about 100 — including people directly involved in the original case, like Buddy Noel and Christy Keyes-Romero. High school students from across Denver reflected on the unfulfilled promise of the ruling, and what it still asks of us today. We created and shared a timeline of the Keyes case.
We shared a recording of the event, along with a podcast version.
We also continued lending PHNEE’s voice to issues that felt important, including: School funding, school choice and declining enrollment, the limitations of the School Performance Framework, and districtwide efforts to redraw boundaries.
Early last year, our most-focused policy work — redrawing school boundaries to enhance equity and socioeconomic integration — came to fruition. The DPS Board of Education passed EL19, which required the superintendent to implement a comprehensive review and modification of school boundaries.
These changes must address declining enrollment, equity, and socioeconomic integration. New boundaries should be in effect for the 27-28 school year.
The relationships we build
Now, PHNEE finds itself at a crossroads. The core group of volunteers who have driven this work has kids who have aged out of elementary school. We have infrastructure — a bank account, a website, an email list, a solid body of work. What we don’t have right now is the people power to carry this work forward.
At the same time, the goals that brought us together in 2017 — awareness, equity, integration, shared responsibility — are still relevant. The belief that Greater Park Hill is strongest when we see all four neighborhood elementary schools as our schools still feels deeply true.
So we are turning back to the community, once again, to ask:
Is there still the will to do something about working toward a more equitable Park Hill in our schools? And if so, could the foundation PHNEE has established be helpful in that work?
We would love to see PHNEE continue in whatever form the community shapes. And if it can’t, we will always be grateful for the experience — for what we learned, the relationships we built, and the opportunity to do this work together.
The work of a village
Finally, we want to express our deep gratitude to the many volunteers who devoted their time, talent and treasure to advancing this work.
This includes everyone who showed up to events, had tough conversations and pushed us. It includes those who donated money, sponsored our events and generously provided food and beverage for our events. It includes committed community partners like Sexy Pizza, James Roy II and Denver Metro Community Impact, and the Hope Center, which has hosting our meetings.
We didn’t get everything right. But our love for Greater Park Hill, and our belief in the ideals that helped shape this neighborhood — guided us along the way.
We will always believe that bringing the community together is worthwhile.
If you are interested in a conversation about continuing the work under the PHNEE banner, reach out at info@phnee.org.
