A group of Denver Public Schools parents filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the school district to halt the closure of seven schools at the end of the academic year.

The lawsuit alleged that the district failed to follow its policies when the board of education voted unanimously last month to shutter seven schools and reconfigure three others.

“The board, in complement to the superintendent’s mandates, is prohibited from acting on a superintendent recommendation or request that was made in violation of those mandates,” the lawsuit filed in Denver District Court said.

The lawsuit made several claims, including that the district used bad enrollment data to justify the closures and maintained school boundaries that ensured the inequitable distribution of resources.

“DPS’ closure recommendation is necessarily arbitrary because it is founded upon inadequate causal research and conclusions,” the lawsuit said.

According to court documents, the suit was filed on behalf of Mamas de DPS LLC, which translates to “Moms of DPS” and is a member-based public interest company comprised of parents with students enrolled in the district.

Elisabeth Owen, an attorney representing Mammas de DPS, did not provide comment on Friday.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has argued the school closures are necessary because of declining enrollment. In Colorado, dollars follow students. Fewer students means less funding.

The schools closing at the end of the year are Columbian Elementary, Castro Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Palmer Elementary, West Middle School and Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design.

Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy, Dora Moore and Denver Center for International Studies were reconfigured. The closures are expected to produce a net savings of $6.6 million.

Half of the impacted schools are in southwest Denver, which has and will continue to experience the greatest student loss in the district.

While birth rates nationally have declined since 2008, the Denver metro region has been largely spared an enrollment hit until now because of domestic migration to the state.

The immigrant influx that saw more than 40,000 people come to Denver also buoyed — at least temporarily — enrollment. Skyrocketing home costs and gentrification in Denver also have been identified as forces driving enrollment declines.

Denver Public Schools has grappled with declining enrollment, particularly among elementary schools, since 2019. Scott Pribble, a district spokesperson, said Friday that the district had not yet been served.

He declined to comment, citing district policy on potential litigation.

The suit named Marrero, the board of education and Ben Kleban, an education consultant. It is unclear what role Kleban played in closures.

Pribble did not have a copy of Kleban’s contract Friday and suggested submitting a formal request for it under the Colorado Open Records Act.

The lawsuit took aim at Executive Limitation No. 18, also referred to at EL-18, which was implemented by the board in June to create guardrails for the superintendent when recommending school closures.

DPS has adopted a policy governance model — which represents a shift for the district — that establishes the responsibilities and relationship between the superintendent and board of education. In theory, the new model allows the board to focus on advancing its vision for the district.

Mamas de DPS also challenged Marrero’s enrollment numbers in the filing, saying, “The declining enrollment predicate lacks foundation, both in fact and causation.”

One of the issues cited was Marrero’s exclusion of early childhood education (ECE), offered to children as young as 3. This is significant because early childhood education students eventually enroll in school.

The data submitted to the court shows a 2% decline in ECE enrollment across the district from 2014 through 2023.

The lawsuit also claimed that the declining enrollment numbers Marrero publicly presented to support the need for school closures “does not match the enrollment counts contained within DPS’ annual financial statements” nor comports with Colorado Department of Education numbers.

“It is impossible to know exactly how many students DPS actually has or has had based on the inconsistencies in enrollment counts from various sources,” the lawsuit stated. “It is also impossible to evaluate the accuracy of DPS’ enrollment projections without knowing how many students actually are and have been enrolled.”