The Douglas County Faculty District will shut three elementary faculties subsequent 12 months, turning into the most recent Okay-12 system in metro Denver to shutter buildings due to declining enrollment.
The district’s seven-member Board of Schooling voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the closure of three faculties: Acres Inexperienced Elementary in Littleton and Heritage and Saddle Ranch elementaries in Highlands Ranch.
“We all know numerous households are very upset with the district, and we stand able to help our households and our college students with what ever they want shifting ahead,” Superintendent Erin Kane stated.
Sixth-graders who attend elementary faculties that feed into Highlands Ranch, Mountain Vista and ThunderRidge excessive faculties additionally will transfer to center faculties, a plan that Kane beforehand stated will assist center faculties combating low enrollment.
The college closures go into impact on July 1, 2026.
Greater than 900 Okay-12 college students attend the three faculties, which additionally make use of 217 educators, based on the district.
The district has assured that workers members affected by the closures will be capable of get one other place inside the district.
Earlier than their vote, board members expressed how tough the choice to shut faculties was for them and confirmed help for district staff in crafting their suggestion.
“That is onerous,” board President Christy Williams stated earlier than the vote. “Not one of the seven of us need to be on this place.”
Just a few mother and father pushed again on the college closures in the course of the assembly’s public remark session, together with over what they stated was a scarcity of transparency relating to the method utilized by district officers to determine which faculties to shut.
“We’ve got stated it over and over… the transparency of this suggestion course of is critically missing,” one dad or mum stated. “I perceive the advantages of this consolidation. I’m not arguing in opposition to that. I’m arguing in opposition to the method of the pairing faculties suggestion.
The Douglas County Faculty District is the state’s third-largest district, enrolling 61,851 college students as of October. That’s down 7% or 4,851 pupils from a decade in the past, based on knowledge from the Colorado Division of Schooling.
Statewide, Okay-12 public college enrollment has fallen for greater than a decade as fewer Coloradans have infants. In metro Denver, excessive housing prices are additionally shifting the place households stay, that means that districts, akin to Douglas County, are additionally constructing new faculties at the same time as they shut others.
Different districts even have closed faculties or plan to as a result of declining enrollment is placing monetary strain on their steadiness sheets, as faculties are funded primarily based on the variety of college students of their school rooms.
Denver Public Colleges will shut and restructure 10 faculties on the finish of the present tutorial 12 months. Jeffco Public Colleges has shuttered greater than a dozen faculties lately.
In Douglas County, declining enrollment has been most distinguished in Highlands Ranch.
Greater than 7,400 college students attend elementary college in Highlands Ranch, down from greater than 10,400 kids a decade in the past, based on the college district. Eleven of the elementary faculties that ship college students to the three excessive faculties — Mountain Vista, Thunderridge and Highlands Ranch — within the suburb are projected to have fewer than 400 college students, based on the decision handed by the college board Tuesday.
District officers checked out 16 Highlands Ranch faculties earlier than recommending which of them the college board ought to shut.
Underneath the district’s plan, Acres Inexperienced college students will transfer to Fox Creek Elementary Faculty, until they’re affected by college boundary adjustments additionally handed by the board Tuesday.
Heritage college students will go to Summit View Elementary Faculty, and Saddle Ranch pupils will go to Eldorado Elementary Faculty until they’re affected by the boundary adjustments.
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