Your Daily Guide

✏️ DPS, Strapped for Cash, Considers More School Closures

Despite the 2025 rule implemented to prevent school closures for a period of four years, Denver Public Schools is facing declining enrollment and a massive budget deficit that has the superintendent talking about closing more schools — and soon. The high price of utilities are straining the budget, as is the increasing need for paraprofessionals trained to support students with disabilities.

• Enrollment in DPS schools is shrinking for a few reasons. For one, lower birthrates mean fewer students. High costs of living are also forcing families to move farther out of the city where housing is more affordable. Since schools get funded on a per-student basis, fewer students directly correlates to less funding. [Chalkbeat]

🍕 Fire Forces Italian Eatery to Close

At Tennyson’s beloved Italian restaurant Parisi, an electrical fire broke out in a roof crawlspace earlier this week. The building that caught on fire is home not only to Parisi, known for serving pizza and pasta in a relaxed environment, but also Parisi Sotto, a second, slightly elevated restaurant downstairs serving fine wines and slow food downstairs. Both restaurants are closed until further notice. [Denver Post 🔒]

🤝 City Officials Clash with Mutual Aid Organizers

Mutual Aid Monday, a weekly volunteer-run event providing food and essential services to those in need, is rejecting the city’s demands that it obtain a permit to continue operating in Civic Center Park. City officials say their permit request is “reasonable,” aligns with how other events in the city are run, and will help them keep growing crowds of attendees (and their trash) under control. Organizers say high attendance is proof that Denver isn’t doing well at managing homelessness and that the event itself is meant as a protest. [Denverite]

💉 Beer Garden Boots “Unjected” Singles Event

After an online uproar, Recess Beer Garden posted on Wednesday to Instagram that a singles mixer for people “who share like-minded values and the convictions to remain unvaccinated” would no longer be held at their business on May 29. The post cited “increasingly hostile rhetoric surrounding the situation, including … threats toward our business and harassment directed at our staff.” [Denver Gazette]

• Where will the unvaxxed look for love? The event’s host, a dating app called Unjected, responded to the cancellation on Instagram with a callout for alternate venues in Denver. Hours later, Unjected announced that the “freedom loving” Grizzly Rose, aka the country music bar you’ve seen from I-25, would be hosting the event.

🎧 Was DIA Negligent in Plane Collision?

It’s been one week since a man now identified as Michael Mott jumped over the 8-foot security fence around Denver International Airport and died in a collision with a Frontier Airlines plane, and every day since has brought new headlines and twists to the situation. We break down the latest on today’s podcast, including the legal action being pursued by several passengers of the plane. [City Cast Denver 🎧]