DENVER — On school days, usually quiet neighborhood streets around Northfield High School are now packed with cars, though a potential solution is being discussed.
The school— ranked as the top high school in Colorado this school year by U.S. News and World Report — is getting a dedicated auditorium for shows and musicals, as well as an on-campus health center run by Denver Health.
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However, that construction has taken out dozens of on-campus parking spots. That has forced students to park and parents to drop off and pick up on neighborhood streets surrounding the Paul Sandoval Campus, which is home to Northfield High School and DSST: Conservatory Green High School.
In communications with parents and on Northfield’s website, the school directs parents and students to park and drop off on nearby neighborhood streets.
“It's really busy,” Northfield sophomore Addyson Frontczak told Denver7. “People are trying to get here so early just to get a close spot, so they don't have to walk so far.”
Neighbors who spoke with Denver7 complained about both students and parents’ driving habits in their neighborhood near East 54th Avenue.
“They'll park in front of, you know, alleys and fire hydrants and all that stuff,” homeowner Bryan Rosino said. “Going 40, 50 miles an hour down a street where you should be doing, you know, 25, 30 is extremely dangerous.”
“What are they going to do to not only keep their students safe but the neighborhood safe as well?” neighbor and Northfield parent Brian Sucher asked of the school. “Many parents are very fearful that what it's going to take to get some action is a major accident that is just really bound to happen.”
Sucher adds that he’s seen students unsafely crossing Central Park Boulevard during morning drop-off.
“I’ve seen a couple of car accidents,” he said. “People just stopping in the middle of the street, letting their kids out to cross just wherever… Kids are playing basically Frogger out there on the street.”
Neighbors also say trash is being left behind more often in the neighborhood.
“Some high school students are going to be good neighbors to us, and some aren’t,” Rosino said. “That's just the nature of the beast.”
The controversy comes as the school continues to grow. Denver Public Schools says the student population has nearly doubled in recent years, from 1,238 students during the 2020-21 school year to 2,131 during the 2024-25 school year.
“You have to be proactive instead of reactive,” said neighbor and parent Susanna Kantor, who is also a neighborhood delegate and board member of the Central Park Master Community Association that promotes parks and other public spaces.
“Why you would build a school of that size and not think about parking and do land negotiations at the beginning is baffling to me.”
More parking on the way?
Scott Pribble, a spokesperson for DPS, says the design for the construction project began last September, and construction got underway in June. He says “substantial completion” is expected be done in September 2027.
“We have been working since before the summer started to try to find a solution for this,” he said of the parking issue. “We looked into student parking way off campus and then shuttling kids in and out, and that wasn't feasible.”
An different answer could be coming soon. While no deal is done yet, the city and school district told Denver7 that land owned by Denver Parks and Recreation, just to the southeast of the campus, is now being discussed as a temporary parking solution that could become permanent.
“We're going to have another 130 (parking spaces) if that deal gets finalized, and we're confident that it will be,” Pribble said. “We know that it's a problem in the neighborhood, and we're trying to relieve that pressure that's happening there as quickly as we can.”
Pribble adds that 100 parking spaces on campus, previously set aside for construction crews, just opened up, with 80 designated for Northfield High School and 20 for Conservatory Green.
The parking lot impacted by ongoing construction used to have 130 parking spaces, Pribble said. He says the project has eliminated 61 of those spaces, but when construction is done, the lot will expand to 175 spaces, a net gain of 45 spaces.
